LIBRARY REPORTS AND ADVERTISING.
We now come to consider the annual reports of librarians. These should be
made to the trustees or board of library control, by whatever name it may
be known, and should be addressed to the chairman, as the organ of the
board. In the preparation of such reports, two conditions are equally
essential--conciseness and comprehensiveness. Every item in the
administration, frequentation, and increase of the library should be
separately treated, but each should be condensed into the smallest
compass consistent with clear statement. Very long reports are costly to
publish, and moreover, have small chance of being read. In fact, the wide
perusal of any report is in direct proportion to its brevity.
This being premised, let us see what topics the librarian's report should
deal with.
1. The progress of the library during the year must be viewed as most
important. A statistical statement of accessions, giving volumes of
books, and number of pamphlets separately, added during the year, should
be followed by a statement of the aggregate of volumes and pamphlets in
the collection. This is ascertained by actual count of the books upon the
shelves, adding the number of volumes charged out, or in the bindery, or
in readers' hands at the time of the enumeration. This count is far from
a difficult or time-consuming affair, as there is a short-hand method of
counting by which one person can easily arrive at the aggregate of a
library of 100,000 volumes, in a single day of eight to ten hours. This
is done by counting by twos or threes the rows of books as they stand on
the shelves, passing the finger rapidly along the backs, from left to
right and from top to bottom of the shelves. As fast as one hundred
volumes are counted, simply write down a figure one; then, at the end of
the second hundred, a figure two, and so on, always jotting down one
figure the more for each hundred books counted. The last figure in the
counter's memorandum will represent the number of hundreds of volumes the
library contains. Thus, if the last figure is 92, the library has just
9,200 volumes. This rapid, and at the same time accurate method, by which
any one of average quickness can easily count two hundred volumes a
minute, saves all counting up by tallies of five or ten, and also all
slow additions of figures, since one figure at the end multiplied by one
hundred, expresses the whole.
2. Any specially noteworthy additions to the library should be briefly
specified.
3. A list of donors of books during the year, with number of volumes
given by each, should form part of the report. This may properly come at
the end as an appendix.
4. A brief of the money income of the year, with sources whence derived,
and of all expenditures, for books, salaries, contingent expenses, etc.,
should form a part of the report, unless reported separately by a
treasurer of the library funds.
5. The statistics of a librarian's report, if of a lending library,
should give the aggregate number of volumes circulated during the year,
also the number of borrowers recorded who have used and who have not used
the privilege of borrowing. The number of volumes used by readers in the
reference or reading-room department should be given, as well as the
aggregate of readers. It is usual in some library reports to classify the
books used by readers, as, so many in history, poetry, travels, natural
science, etc., but this involves labor and time quite out of proportion
to its utility. Still, a comparative statement of the aggregate volumes
of fiction read or drawn out, as against all other books, may be highly
useful as an object lesson, if embodied in the library report.
6. A statement of the actual condition of the library, as to books,
shelving accommodations, furniture, etc., with any needful suggestions
for improvement, should be included in the annual report.
7. A well-considered suggestion of the value of contributions to the
library in books or funds to enrich the collection, should not be
overlooked.
8. The librarian should not forget a word of praise for his assistants,
in the great and useful work of carrying on the library. This will tend
to excite added zeal to excel, when the subordinates feel that their
services are appreciated by their head, as well as by the public.
The preparation of an annual report affords some test of the librarian's
skill and judgment. It should aim at plain and careful statement, and all
rhetoric should be dispensed with. Divided into proper heads, a condensed
statement of facts or suggestions under each should be made, and all
repetition avoided.
Such a library report should never fail to set forth the great benefit to
the community which a free use of its treasures implies, while urging the
importance of building up the collection, through liberal gifts of books,
periodicals, or money, thus enabling it to answer the wants of readers
more fully, year by year. It will sometimes be a wise suggestion to be
made in a librarian's report, that the library still lacks some specially
important work, such as Larned's "History for Ready Reference," or the
extensive "Dictionary of National Biography," or Brunet's _Manuel du
Libraire_, or a set of Congressional Debates from the beginning; and such
a suggestion may often bear fruit in leading some public-spirited citizen
to supply the want by a timely contribution.
Of course, the annual report of every public library should be printed,
and as pamphlets are seldom read, and tend rapidly to disappear, its
publication in the newspapers is vastly more important than in any other
form. While a pamphlet report may reach a few people, the newspaper
reaches nearly all; and as a means of diffusing information in any
community, it stands absolutely without rival. Whether the library
reports shall be printed in pamphlet form or not is a matter of
expediency, to be determined by the managing board. Funds are rarely
ample enough, in the smaller town libraries, to justify the expense, in
view of the small circulation which such reports receive, and it is much
better to put the money into printing library catalogues, which every
body needs and will use, than into library reports, which comparatively
few will make any use of. A judicious compromise may be usefully made, by
inducing some newspaper, which would print a liberal share of the report
free of charge, as news, for public information, to put the whole in type
and strike off a few hundred copies in sheet form or pages, at a moderate
charge.
This would enable the library officers to distribute a goodly number, and
to keep copies of each annual report for reference, without the expense
of a pamphlet edition.
In some of the larger and more enterprising of city libraries, reports
are made quarterly or monthly by the librarian. These of course are much
more nearly up to date, and if they publish lists of books added to the
library, they are correspondingly useful. Frequently they contain special
bibliographies of books on certain subjects. Among these, the monthly
bulletins of the Boston Public Library, Harvard University Library, New
York Public Library, Salem, Mass., Public Library, and the Providence
Public Library are specially numerous and important.
The relations of a public library to the local press of the city or town
where it is situated will now be noticed. It is the interest of the
librarian to extend the usefulness of the library by every means; and the
most effective means is to make it widely known. In every place are found
many who are quite ignorant of the stores of knowledge which lie at their
doors in the free library. And among those who do know it and resort to
it, are many who need to have their interest and attention aroused by
frequent notices as to its progress, recent additions to its stores, etc.
The more often the library is brought before the public by the press, the
more interest will be taken in it by the community for whose information
it exists.
It is of the utmost importance that the library conductors should have
the active good will of all the newspaper editors in its vicinity. This
will be acquired both by aiding them in all researches which the daily or
frequent wants of their profession render necessary; and also, by giving
them freely and often items of intelligence about the library for
publication. Enterprising journals are perpetually on the hunt for new
and varied matter to fill their columns. They send their reporters to the
library to make "a story," as it is called, out of something in it or
about it. These reporters are very seldom persons versed in books, or
able to write understandingly or attractively about them. Left to
themselves to construct "a story" out of a half hour's conversation with
the librarian, the chances are that an article will be produced which
contains nearly as many errors as matters of fact, with the names of
authors or the titles of their books mis-spelled or altered, and with
matters manufactured out of the reporter's fancy which formed no part of
the interview, while what did form important features in it are perhaps
omitted. The remedy, or rather the preventive of such inadequate reports
of what the librarian would say to the public is to become his own
reporter. The papers will willingly take for publication short "library
notes," as they may be called, containing information about the library
or its books, carefully type-written. This course at once secures
accurate and authentic statements, and saves the time of the press
reporters for other work.
Bear in mind always that the main object of such library notices is to
attract attention, and encourage people to use the library. Thus there
should be sought frequent opportunities of advertising the library by
this best of all possible means, because it is the one which reaches the
largest number. To do it well requires some skill and practice, and to do
it often is quite as essential as to do it well. Keep the library
continually before the public. What are the business houses which are
most thronged with customers? They are those that advertise most
persistently and attractively. So with the library; it will be more and
more resorted to, in proportion as it keeps its name and its riches
before the public eye.
A certain timeliness in these library notices should be cultivated. The
papers are eager to get anything that illustrates what is uppermost in
the public mind. If a local fair is in progress or preparing, give them a
list of the best books the library has in that field; the history of the
Philadelphia Exposition, the Chicago World's Fair, the Paris Expositions,
&c. On another day, set forth the books on manufactures, horses, cattle,
domestic animals, decorative art, &c. If there is a poultry exhibition,
or a dog show, call public attention to the books on poultry or dogs. If
an art exhibition, bring forward the titles of books on painting,
sculpture, drawing, and the history of art, ancient and modern.
If some great man has died, as Bismarck or Gladstone, give the titles of
any biographies or books about him, adding even references to notable
magazine articles that have appeared. When the summer vacation is coming
around, advertise your best books of travel, of summer resorts, of ocean
voyages, of yachting, camping, fishing and shooting, golf and other
out-door games, etc. If there is a Presidential campaign raging, make
known the library's riches in political science, the history of
administrations, and of nominating conventions, lives of the Presidents,
books on elections, etc. If an international dispute or complication is
on foot, publish the titles of your books on international law, and those
on the history or resources of the country or countries involved; and
when a war is in progress, books on military science, campaigns, battles,
sieges, and the history of the contending nations will be timely and
interesting.
Whatever you do in this direction, make it short and attractive. Organize
your material, describe a specially interesting work by a reference to
its style, or its illustrations, or its reputation, etc. Distribute your
library notes impartially; that is, if several papers are published, be
careful not to slight any of them. Find out the proper days to suit their
want of matter, and never send in your notes when the paper is
overcrowded. Always read a proof-slip of each article; time spent in
going to a newspaper office to correct proof is well spent, for misprints
always await the unwary who trusts to the accuracy of types.
If the library acquires any extensive or notable book, whether old or
new, do not fail to make it known through the press. If any citizen gives
a number of volumes to the library, let his good deeds have an
appreciative notice, that others may go and do likewise.
Another feature of library advertising is the publication in the press of
the titles of new books added to the library. As this is merely catalogue
printing, however abbreviated in form the titles may be, it will usually
(and very properly) be charged for by the newspapers. But it will pay, in
the direction of inducing a much larger use of the library, and as the
sole object of the institution is to contribute to public intelligence,
it becomes library managers not to spare any expense so conducive to that
result.