Although conscious of those facts, and of the inevitable changes and successions that must occur from year to year, do we recognize our duty to our successor? I have asked the question, but its consideration must be left to some future time and opportunity.
Impartiality in enforcing rules, and in dispensing the privileges of the library to all comers, should be deemed an important feature of librarianship, quite as essential to the welfare of the institution as to the professional success of the librarian. And this suggests a query, which has before now been raised, as to how far librarians should go in aiding persons who expect to use information obtained at the library, solely for the furtherance of personal interests or for purposes of pecuniary profit. Impartial and confidential treatment of all readers and seekers, who come to the library after information, would appear to be the only safe practice and criterion, regardless of their particular motives. Care should be taken, of course, to assist them in gaining the desired information by means of their own study, and in their own way, rather than through the efforts of library employees applied to searching out the exact and final facts for them.
In conclusion, I would direct your attention very briefly to yet another side of librarianship which ought to have an occasional bearing so far as ethical principles may apply.
Since we regard librarianship as a profession it would seem that there must needs be some recognized principles of an ethical nature relating to it. Like many of our working methods, however, they must probably exist chiefly as "unwritten laws." It is always a difficult matter to put our ideals into words. They may be quite real to the sensibilities and yet hardly admit of being formulated. And, too, the evident contrast between the ideals aimed at, and the results attained, is often so great that one hesitates to say in so many words just what is his ideal.
Still there have been developed in the other leading professions, those that are regarded as the most reputable and noteworthy, certain recognized principles which serve to guide their members in many ways. The full comprehension of such principles as an authoritative guide tends to a correct measurement of the real value of one's professional work. Likewise, while supplying certain ideals at the outset, they may aid in determining the lines of effort and action which will tend to elevate the profession itself and to the attainment of individual success in its pursuits.
Perhaps it is too soon in the history of so young a profession to expect very much in the nature of such formulations. To properly enumerate and determine the essential principles must call for the attention of many minds, working each in their own channel but aimed in the same general direction, until the final outcome shall be a fully developed and rounded code of library ethics which will thus be entitled to and gain well deserved recognition and observance.
If, in the views and various thoughts, which I have presumed to set forth at this time, such ideas as have a bearing on this last named topic shall serve as hints to spur on some abler and more philosophically versed person or persons to undertake the task, or serve as a ground upon which to build a foundation code, I shall be greatly pleased.
[WHAT MAY BE DONE FOR LIBRARIES BY THE CITY.]
By Thomas L. Montgomery, Trustee Free Library of Philadelphia.
When, in the course of human events, it became necessary for our people to dissolve the political bonds which connected them with another, pretty much everything was declared a free and an inalienable right with the exception of the public library. Whether it would have escaped the attention of that founder of circulating libraries and everything else that is useful, had it not been a time of extraordinary pressure of business, or whether he purposely neglected it in the belief that a people that had expressed such lofty sentiments as to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness might well be trusted to consider such matters in due time it is not our purpose to discuss. He does not hesitate to give credit to the libraries in his autobiography for making the common tradesmen and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen in other countries, and for contributing in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defense of their privileges. It was not until about 1850 that the desirability of a city library was suggested to the City Council of Boston by Josiah Quincy, then mayor. The council cautiously Resolved, "That it would accept any donation from citizens or others for the purpose of commencing a public city library and that whenever the library shall be of the value of $30,000 it will be expedient for the city to provide a suitable place and arrangements to enable it to be used by the citizens with as great a degree of freedom as the security of the property will permit." In July, 1852, the trustees made a report "that in their opinion the finances of the city will not permit of the erecting of a building and the purchase of an ample library." They suggest "a moderate expenditure on the part of the city for the purchase of books and the compensation of a librarian." It was soon after this that Mr. Bates made his famous gift of $50,000 worth of books "on condition that the city provide an adequate building which shall be an ornament to the city." A complete history of this institution would seem to be the best possible answer which could be made to the question before us. What can the city do for the free library. With a magnificent collection of 700,000 books, selected under the administration of some of the best men who have dignified our profession, and housed in the most expensive building ever erected by a city for such a purpose, it would appear that the citizen of Boston might rightly exclaim "Si monumentum quaeris, circumspice."