Trustees
[Condensed from paper by C.C. Soule]
1) _Size of the board_.--The library board should be small, in
small towns not over three members. In cities a larger board has
two advantages: it can include men exceptionally learned in library
science, and it can represent more thoroughly different sections of
the town and different elements in the population.
2) _Term of office_.--The board should be divided into several groups,
one group going out of office each year. It would be wise if no
library trustee could hold office for more than three successive terms
of three years each. A library can, under this plan, keep in close
touch with popular needs and new ideas.
3) _Qualifications_.--The ideal qualifications for a trustee of a
public library--a fair education and love of books being taken for
granted--are: sound character, good judgment, common sense, public
spirit, capacity for work, literary taste, representative fitness.
Don't assume that because a man has been prominent in political
business or social circles he will make a good trustee. Capacity
and willingness to work are more useful than a taste for literature
without practical qualities. General culture and wide reading are
generally more serviceable to the public library than the knowledge of
the specialist or scholar. See that different sections of the town's
interests are represented. Let neither politics nor religion enter
into the choice of trustees.
4) _Duties_.--The trustee of the public library is elected to preserve
and extend the benefits of the library as the people's university. He
can learn library science only by intelligent observation and study.
He should not hold his position unless he takes a lively interest in
the library, attends trustees' meetings, reads the library journals,
visits other libraries than his own, and keeps close watch of the
tastes and requirements of his constituency. His duties include the
care of funds, supervision of expenditures, determination of the
library's policy, general direction of choice and purchase of books,
selection of librarian and assistants, close watch of work done, and
comparison of the same with results reached in other libraries.
A large board ordinarily transacts business through its chairman,
secretary, treasurer, and one or more committees. It is doubtful if
the librarian should act as secretary of the board. The treasurer, if
he holds the funds in his hands, should always be put under bonds.
It is well to have as many committees as can be actively employed in
order to enlist the coöperation of all the trustees.
The executive committee should take charge of the daily work of the
library, of purchases, and of the care of the building; they should
carry their duties as far as possible without assuming too much of the
responsibility which properly belongs to the full board. It will be
best to entrust the choice of books to a book committee appointed
for that purpose purely. The finance committee should make and watch
investments and see that purchases are made on most favorable terms.
5) _Relations with the librarian_.--The trustees are the responsible
managers of the library; the librarian is their agent, appointed
to carry out their wishes. If they have, however, a first-class
librarian, the trustees ought to leave the management of the library
practically to him, simply supplementing his ability without impeding
it. They should leave to a librarian of good executive ability the
selection, management, and dismissal of all assistants, the methods
and details of library work, and the initiative in the choice of
books. A wise librarian the trustees may very properly take into their
confidence, and invite his presence at all meetings, where his advice
would be of service.
6) _Other employés_.--Efficiency of employés can best be obtained
through application of the cardinal principles of an enlightened
civil service, viz., absolute exclusion of all political and personal
influence, appointment for definitely ascertained fitness, promotion
for merit, and retention during good behavior.