BOOK DISTRIBUTION
=397. Branch Libraries.=--Branch libraries are included in this
division, because as a general rule they are principally lending
libraries with a reading-room attached, and rarely possess reference
departments. Every large town extending over a wide area must sooner or
later face the question of establishing branch libraries, not only as a
convenience to the public, but as a relief to the central library. No
rule can be laid down as to the distance which any reader should be from
the nearest branch or other library. It is one thing to make a
symmetrical plan on paper, showing a central library with a ring of
branches situated at regular distances, and so placed as to bring every
reader within one, half or quarter of a mile of the nearest library, but
it is quite a different matter realizing this ideal. Topographical
difficulties arise; the matter of density of population must be
considered; and, to crown all, sites or suitable premises cannot always
be obtained at, or near, the places selected, as the ideal spots. For
these reasons regular spacing can rarely be achieved in the provision of
branch libraries.
[Illustration: FIG. 149.--Quick-reference Collection, Glasgow.]
=398.= A branch library differs from a delivery station in being, to
some extent, a miniature central library, carrying its own stock of
books, and having its own reading-room accommodation and magazines. A
delivery station need not necessarily have a stock of books, beyond
those sent in response to applications, and it would have no
reading-room whatsoever. Branches and deliveries are often confused, no
doubt because both provide for book distribution, but beyond this common
feature all resemblance ceases. The question of the amount and kind of
accommodation which it is desirable to provide depends entirely upon
funds, conditions and requirements. For most situations in which
branches are necessary, such as the suburbs of large towns, the minimum
provision should include a lending department, and general reading-room
for periodicals. Very occasionally a reference department is provided,
but few systems will bear the cost of providing more than one such
department, and that at the central library; but every branch should
have a collection of quick-reference books which answer everyday
questions and afford such information as is needed in every library.
Such a collection does not necessarily require a separate room, because
that requires special oversight, but it is better to place it in a
convenient recess of the reading-room or vestibule, where it is under
the observation of the staff, and where it is not necessary for the
reader to pass through the wickets or other barriers of the lending
department in order to make use of it. All kinds of extra features can
be added to these provisions, if necessary, but these will depend upon
funds; but a lecture room is especially valuable in a branch, as it is
usually in an area ill-provided with such accommodation and one in which
lectures, exhibitions, etc., can be given most profitably. Modern
experience also advocates children’s departments at branches, as the
suburbs are the nursery districts of most towns, and therefore the most
fruitful opportunities for work with children are afforded in them. Some
of the branches at Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Croydon,
Coventry, Edinburgh, Bristol, Islington, Lambeth, Sunderland and Fulham
are models of what such establishments should be.
=399.= It is impossible to lay down any rules for guidance as regards
the financing of branches, beyond the general recommendation that they
should never be developed at the expense of the central library. It is
better to have one efficient library in a town than several inefficient
ones, as is the case in some towns where this wholesome principle has
been forgotten or ignored. Librarians are justified in taking a strong
stand upon this point against the unreasonable demands of ward committee
representatives, who are sometimes bent upon getting everything they can
for their own particular district irrespective of the claims of the
system as a whole. Separate account should be kept of all moneys
expended upon each branch. Receipts should also be separately accounted
for, and the central library should receive a daily or weekly statement
of all cash intromissions, issues, occurrences, etc. Such statements can
either be rendered upon specially ruled sheets or post-cards, or kept in
books according to some such form as shown in Fig. 150. All forms,
books, etc., at the branch should correspond with those of the central
library, and everything affecting administration stated throughout this
book applies, though in a modified degree, to branch work.
=400.= In the selection of books for branches the same principles should
be applied as previously advocated, namely, the endeavour to get a high
average of quality and utility in the literature added and the
determination to discard useless books when the time comes. But an
effort should be made to vary the contents of branch libraries so as to
obtain as catholic and representative a stock as possible. With Fiction,
of course, this is not so easy, especially in the case of popular novels
by well-known writers, but in other classes this can be done frequently.
For instance, if the north branch has So-and-So’s _Chemistry_, there is
no reason at all why, all things being equal, the south branch should
not have Someotherbody’s _Chemistry_ and the east branch Someone-else’s.
Of course it is assumed that these are all text-books of fairly equal
merit. As every library should possess a union catalogue showing the
whereabouts of every book in the library system, and as borrowers’
tickets should be interchangeable all over the town and not limited to
one particular library, this arrangement of different books on similar
subjects widely enlarges the borrower’s field of choice. If the central
and branch libraries are all interconnected by means of the telephone,
as they ought to be, a borrower at the north branch can ascertain if
Someotherbody’s _Chemistry_ is available without going himself, and can
easily arrange by waiting a day or shorter time to have the book
delivered at the nearest branch. At Croydon a system of interchange
effected by means of the municipal tramways, which carry parcels of
books free, reduces the waiting for a book at another library to about
thirty minutes. Such systems of interchange are a great convenience in
many cases, and place the entire resources of the library at the command
of readers, no matter where they may live.
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| LIBERTON PUBLIC LIBRARIES. |
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| NORTH BRANCH.--REPORT. |
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| Date........................ |
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| |A|B|C|D|E|F|G|H|J|K|L|| Total. |
| Lending Issues . | | | | | | | | | | | || |
| Reference Issues . | | | | | | | | | | | || |
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| Receipts from Fines |
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| „ „ Catalogues, etc. |
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| Books asked for |
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| Books wanted from Central |
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| Supplies wanted |
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| Callers and occurrences |
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| Signed.................... |
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FIG. 150.--Branch Library Return (Section 399).
=401. Delivery Stations.=--A delivery station is a place which may or
may not have a small deposit collection of books--generally not--and is
meant to supply readers in thinly populated districts and to be the
forerunner of an orthodox branch to be established when the district
develops. Such stations are usually a post-office, school, police
station, or shop, which may be induced to carry out the necessary
charging, etc., sometimes at a small remuneration. At the very best a
delivery station in a town is but a makeshift substitute for a branch,
and, from the borrowers’ point of view, does not afford a very
satisfactory or expeditious service. If books which are wanted are not
_in_ at the central library, considerable delay and trouble are caused.
Borrowers are compelled to make out long lists of the books they desire
to read, and as often as not these are all out at the central store. As
delivery stations seldom carry a stock of books from which an
alternative choice can be made, borrowers are driven to the task of
making out new lists or taking anything the delivery attendant can get
by telephone, if there is this kind of communication, which is not
generally the case; and as delivery stations are frequently managed by
any untrained person obtainable, the reader gets very little help in
solving real difficulties. Apart from all this, a day must elapse, as a
rule, before any book wanted can be obtained, even if it is available,
and for these reasons the establishment of book-delivery stations is not
advisable save in remote and inaccessible parts of a large town, when
every other method of giving a local service has been found
impracticable. A highly organized system of delivery stations with
frequent motor deliveries might, however, be made effective in scattered
suburbs, but although such a system has been suggested, we have no
record of a successful British example.
=402. Travelling Libraries.=--Of much greater importance are travelling
libraries, which can be made to serve every purpose of delivery
stations, with the great additional advantage of furnishing, in part,
the same alternative selection of books as a branch library affords.
These libraries are much used in the United States, and take the form of
boxes of books numbering from fifty upwards, which can be deposited at
fixed points in towns and rural districts, where borrowers can attend
and make a choice of reading matter. Boxes of books by this plan can be
sent to the care of responsible persons in all parts of a town, and
these persons can undertake the local delivery and collection of the
books, either for a small fee or as voluntary sub-librarians. Various
kinds of records are necessary to keep track of the boxes and their
contents and where and to whom they travel. Until lately very little of
this kind of work had been done either in the United Kingdom or America,
although the Americans are gradually developing systems of rural
travelling libraries and town “home” libraries. The travelling libraries
of the States of New York and Wisconsin form a most interesting study,
as also do the “home” libraries of the city of Boston. Lately this
matter has been given a considerable impetus through the Carnegie United
Kingdom Trust, which has established experimental rural library schemes
in various parts of the kingdom in connexion with County Councils and,
more infrequently, suitable municipal centres. Scotland, Ireland, and
Wales, the counties of Dorset, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Wiltshire,
Cumberland and Westmorland have all such schemes in operation or have
undertaken them. These have a central deposit library and circulate
boxes of books at frequent intervals to the villages and towns in the
area, in which the clergy, teachers and others act as honorary
sub-librarians. In this way the people who are not at present touched by
the public libraries are being brought into the fold. The matter is in
the experimental stage, and is jeopardized by the fact that, in England
at least, the County Councils have no express powers to provide
libraries; but results of the most promising kind have already been
obtained, and the day is no doubt at hand when the traditional idea of
the function of a public library as a store from which literature is
doled out to the people, _if they know what they want_, will be
superseded by a very pronounced missionary spirit, and an endeavour to
make known in every possible way the value of all kinds of books to all
kinds of people.
=403. Subscription Departments or Book Clubs.=--In some of the older
municipal libraries subscription departments or book clubs have been
established, as a means of increasing the stock of a library, without
much expense. Such departments exist at Bolton, Burton, Dewsbury,
Dundee, Elgin, Leek, Tynemouth, Wednesbury and Workington. They are
operated as follows: For a certain annual subscription any library
reader or townsman may join this select library. From the subscriptions
so received, supplemented in some places by occasional grants from the
rate, new books are bought, generally in accordance with the wishes of a
majority of members, but on this point practice varies. For one year
these books are at the service of subscribers only, who borrow them in
the usual way, for a fortnight or other periods according to
circumstances. At the end of the year each book is transferred to the
public library, and becomes the property of the library authority for
the use of all borrowers. Where the selection is made with discretion,
this may seem an economical way of obtaining books for a public library,
and there is much to be said in its favour in present circumstances; but
objections have been raised. Public libraries, it is argued, have no
right to set up a privileged class in this way, especially as it is
probable that the subscriptions cannot pay all the cost of service,
lighting, housing, etc.; thus a proportion of the cost of maintenance
falls on the library funds, and it is doubtful if in the end there is
much gain in receiving as a _quid pro quo_ a number of stale and,
perhaps, not very judiciously selected books; and, further, public
libraries have no right to compete with private and commercial
subscription libraries for the sake of ministering to the few people who
can afford the luxury of a select public library to themselves.
=404.= Another form of subscription is occasionally indulged in by
public libraries. By paying a certain subscription to large commercial
libraries, like Mudie’s, they are entitled to borrow so many volumes at
a time, and these are re-issued to the borrowers in the ordinary way,
the library being responsible for losses. In small libraries this is
often an economical way of obtaining the temporary loan of copies of
expensive books for which there is a large transient demand, and in this
way the people have immediate access to books which might otherwise
never be bought, or only obtained in second-hand form long after their
interest had faded. The only trouble about this arrangement is that it
depends upon the mood of the said commercial libraries for its
continuance. To what extent these would endure a constant drain from a
hundred or so municipal libraries remains to be seen, as also does the
problem of how they would meet the demand when it attained large
dimensions. At one time certain of the London commercial libraries
absolutely refused to lend books to public libraries on any terms. Now
they are more complaisant.
=405. Inter-Library Exchanges.=--This is a method of book distribution
which has not been tried to any extent among British municipal
libraries, and some organization would be required to place it on a
working basis. Briefly, the idea is to enable a public library which has
not got a particular book, to borrow it from some library which has,
assuming all the responsibility for its safety and due return; and
making its own arrangement with its borrower for the cost of carriage.
This kind of exchanging could be managed better in London than
elsewhere, but it could be applied to any group of libraries, such as
those of Lancashire, Wales, Yorkshire, Staffordshire, etc. Each
exchanging library would require to possess a complete set of class
lists and bulletins, or other catalogues, of all the other libraries,
and when a demand was made for a book which was not in its possession,
the assistant could look through the catalogues of the other libraries
till he found a copy, and it could then be written for, the borrower
paying all resulting expenses. Of course, this arrangement would only
apply to non-fictional works. There would be an undoubted advantage,
too, if such a privilege could be obtained for public library borrowers
from some of the older proprietary libraries with huge stocks of
practically unused books which municipal libraries would not buy in the
ordinary course. Arrangements whereby books from special scientific or
other libraries could be borrowed for the use of local borrowers would
also be an arrangement, could it be managed, which would benefit a
greater number of students and other persons than at present. But, of
course, there would be very serious difficulties in the way of inducing
the owners of valuable special libraries to lend books for the use of
strangers introduced by municipal library authorities. Meanwhile,
because of these difficulties thousands upon thousands of valuable and
useful books are lying idle and neglected in every part of the country,
a waste of power which it is sad to contemplate.
A modification of this idea is the arrangement now made between a few
towns whereby readers from the one who are visiting the other, who have
been vouched for as being in good standing by their own library, are
permitted to borrow books from the library in the town visited. Such an
arrangement exists between Brighton and Croydon, Waterloo has a similar
scheme, and possibly other places, and these have given much
satisfaction. The main difficulty is that few inland libraries can give
a full return to libraries in pleasure or health resorts, but perhaps
too much emphasis should not be laid upon the necessity for an absolute
return of service.
REFERENCE LIST OF AUTHORITIES
=406. Branch Libraries:=
Cole, G. W. Branches and Deliveries. U.S. Educ. Rept., 1892-1893, vol.
i., p. 709.
Eastman, L. A. Branch Libraries and Other Distributing Agencies.
A.L.A. Man. of Lib. Econ., Preprint of chapter xv., 1911.
Hutchins, F. A. Travelling Libraries, 1902. (A.L.A. Tract, No. 3.)
For articles see Cannons, D 13, Branch Planning; F 1, Methods; L 67,
Books; F 2, Delivery Stations; F 4, etc., Travelling Libraries.
DIVISION XII
THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT