THE
BUSINESS LIBRARY
WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES
_By_
LOUISE B. KRAUSE
_Librarian_
_H. M. Byllesby & Company_
_Chicago_
_SECOND EDITION REVISED_
Journal of Electricity
San Francisco
1921
Copyright
Journal of Electricity
1921
_To
H. M. BYLLESBY AND COMPANY
whose generous cooperation has made
possible the successful application
of Library Science to the
business of their
organization_
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
As the publishers desire to issue a second edition of "The Business
Library" the following additions and revisions have been made.
Articles of value on the subject of business libraries which have
been published since the first edition was written have been added to
"References for Additional Reading"; minor additions have been made to
the text, and the prices and editions of all reference books mentioned
have been brought up to date, and some additional titles have been
added.
Three drawings of floor plans which have been used for business
libraries have been added to Chapter Seven as of possible value to
business firms making small library layouts.
L. B. K.
Chicago, Illinois.
November 1, 1920.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
This handbook has been written with the purpose of giving brief
comprehensive information to the business man on the subject of the
business library as an indispensable earning factor in the conduct of
business enterprises. It aims to tell how to organize and maintain a
business library, what to do in order to get the best results from it,
and to show by concrete illustrations, gathered from the experience of
firms maintaining library service, what the business library is worth
as a financial asset.
The subject matter is not designed to set forth the work of any one
class of business libraries, but is a composite study of many. It
records business library facts as observed by the author during ten
years of service as a business librarian, and as such, may be also of
value to librarians contemplating the undertaking of business library
work.
The references given at the conclusion of each chapter have been
selected from a large mass of printed material on the subject, on the
basis of practical supplemental reading only and are not designed to be
exhaustive reference lists.
The author makes grateful acknowledgment to her Library School
class-mate, Renee B. Stern, now Editor of "The Woman's Weekly," for
most helpful advice, and to her friend, Virginia Fairfax, Librarian,
Carnation Milk Products Company, Chicago, for generous criticism and
correction of the manuscript.
L. B. K.
October 1, 1919.
Chicago, Illinois.
CONTENTS
PAGE
I THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BUSINESS
LIBRARY 7
II THE SERVICE RENDERED BY THE BUSINESS
LIBRARY 23
III PERIODICALS--HOW TO USE AND HOW
TO FILE THEM 30
IV GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS AND THE
BUSINESS LIBRARY 50
V TRADE CATALOGS, PHOTOGRAPHS AND
LANTERN SLIDES 59
VI CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGING IN
THE BUSINESS LIBRARY 70
VII MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT FOR THE BUSINESS
LIBRARY 81
VIII REFERENCE BOOKS FOR THE BUSINESS
LIBRARY 95
IX THE ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS OF THE
BUSINESS LIBRARIAN 110
INDEX 123
THE BUSINESS LIBRARY
WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT DOES
CHAPTER I
THE ORGANIZATION OF THE BUSINESS LIBRARY
What is meant by the word library? Twenty-five years ago it could be
accurately defined as a collection of books on a series of shelves,
and although this old definition still partially describes its present
form, the true interpretation of what a business library really is,
can be stated best by saying that it is a genuine service department,
whose chief business is to give information to the members of a firm on
subjects of vital importance in the conduct of their business.
The business library is not limited to a collection of books, but
contains information in any form, namely, periodicals, pamphlets,
trade catalogs, photographs, lantern slides, and also manuscript notes
which are accumulated in connection with the specific work of an
organization. The business library even goes so far in its service as
to supply information which is obtained by "word of mouth" in advance
of its appearance on the printed page.
The Evolution of the Business Library
Before the business library came into being as a special department
of business organizations, and before public libraries were making a
specialty of collecting information on business subjects, the business
man picked up his supply of information in haphazard fashion. He was
told by a business acquaintance, often a salesman of a special line who
was doing business with him, of some trade literature or government
documents in which he would find useful information, or he discovered
references to valuable books, pamphlets or documents in his casual
reading of newspapers and periodicals. As a last resort, in cases of
emergency he telephoned to various business organizations whom he
thought could tell, out of their experience, what he wished to know.
Business has, however, grown too large in its multiplicity of interests
for the business man to get his information in so desultory and
unorganized a fashion, for the business man must be a good forecaster
and interpreter of conditions, not by means of guesswork but by the
aid of obtainable facts, and he must study and analyze a large number
of related subjects. The success of many of our richest industries is
due in large measure to this particular element, the wise forecasting
of conditions to come, for, as a recent periodical article stated,
"business is a procession of problems; big or little, any business must
keep moving ahead, finding its way past one pitfall and obstacle after
another. In another sense business is a matter of vision; the foresight
that looks long ahead to new opportunity and to the ways and means of
realizing it, is an essential in the growth and progress that brings
success."
Business men have long since recognized that rule of thumb methods
have passed away, and that they not only can not learn by experience
exclusively, but that the utilization of the knowledge of other men
recorded in reliable business data is of the highest value.
Present day competition makes it imperative also that every business
man knows as much as his competitor, and he must have therefore not
something on a subject but everything of value on a subject, and
it must be exact and authoritative information which he can trust.
Business data must also be kept strictly up to date, which under
present-day conditions is no easy task, as information is out of date
almost before it is off the press.
The business man not only needs to collect accurate, exhaustive, up to
date information, but he needs to have it so well organized that, at a
moment's notice, he can put his fingers upon the exact information he
desires. The systematic organization of information into quick working
files means an enormous saving of time and money, and in large business
organizations the employment of a trained librarian to do this work is
a most valuable asset.
Check up if you can, the amount of time wasted annually by the average
business man through lack of having the information he desires
immediately at his service. Waste of time means waste of money. It is
not worth while having an expert, whose time may be worth anywhere from
twenty-five to one hundred dollars a day, waste any of it in trying to
find information in government documents, which he is not particularly
adept in locating, because he lacks a working knowledge of the enormous
range of government publications.
The writer is acquainted with an engineering firm of national
reputation, which has made a collection of library material, which
has been cared for, or rather much neglected by a stenographer of
the company, who has no time nor library experience to give to its
adequate administration. This firm when urged to introduce organized
library service, and thus make their collection effective, stated that
their library was not used enough by their organization to warrant
the expense. Investigation proved, however, that one of their expert
chemists, whose time was valued more per week than that of a trained
librarian would be per month, was making a systematic business of
hunting his own library material, and had listed his references in many
closely written notes, in order to be able to locate the material again
if he should need it. The value of the time the chemist spent on his
research would have covered a librarian's salary and made it possible
for him to give more time to his firm on the problems which his expert
knowledge was able to solve.
General Principles of Organization
The essential principles in organizing a successful business library
can be briefly stated as follows:
1. Centralization of material within the business organization.
2. Coordination of the business library with the facilities of the
public and special libraries of the city in which the business library
is located.
1. Centralization of Library Material
The first step in establishing a library in a business organization
is the centralization of all the printed material available in its
different offices or departments. This is exactly what is not done
in a large number of business houses. Books, pamphlets and other
valuable information are scattered among the various members of the
organization, who treat them as personal property and preserve them
in their private desks as carefully as a squirrel hides his store of
good nuts. In many business organizations the policy of the employes in
regard to information seems to be, to hold on to everything of value
for one's personal use, regardless of how much value the information
might be to another member of the organization, and also regardless of
the fact that the material has been paid for out of the company's funds.
It should be said, however, in defense of the practice of not putting
information into a central library, that it is not always based upon
thoughtless or selfish habits, but upon lack of confidence; there is
a fear that if information passes out of the hands of the man into a
central library, that when he wishes to use it again, in a hurry, that
he may not be able to locate it promptly. This feeling is not without
reasonable foundation, as it is based on the irritating experience
which some business men have had in using central correspondence files
which, in many offices, are poorly administered and cannot produce
desired information promptly. The business library, when administered
by a qualified librarian, not only can produce all filed material
promptly, but in one large corporation, known to the writer, has so
successfully handled material that the officers and employes send their
information to the library, as a safer and more reliable place to keep
it for quick reference, than the drawers of their own desks.
Centralization of library material gives all the departments the
benefit of everything the company has collected on a special subject,
and often makes it unnecessary to duplicate information for the use
of several departments. Centralization makes it possible also to
have in one place a complete record of all library material owned by
the company which can be loaned as small working collections to any
department.
The fact that a central library department has on record what material
is temporarily or permanently kept in all the departments, makes it
possible also for it to act as a clearing house between all departments
in locating desired information. This principle does not apply of
course to corporations of such magnitude that their activities comprise
several distinct lines of business; in such a case each department
would require a specialized collection of information, which would
become the library of that particular branch of the industry.
It should be kept clearly in mind that the business library has a
distinct province from correspondence files, which primarily take care
of the letters accumulated in the transaction of business. The business
library is in no wise concerned with such records. Its function is not
to take care of the records which are created by the activities of
the company, but to collect and bring into the company all possible
knowledge and information of value from a large variety of outside
sources.
The business library also has a distinct province of activity apart
from the statistical department of an organization. The function
of the latter is to correlate and interpret data which are created
either by the activities of the organization or obtained from outside
sources, because of value in relation to the various projects of
the organization. The function of the library in relation to the
statistical department is to supply the printed information which that
department needs in its work of correlating and interpreting data.
Many statistical departments have made the mistake of endeavoring
to collect and preserve material for their work, which particularly
belongs in the business library, with the result that they have
cumbersome files of heterogeneous information, badly classified and
cataloged, and which do not yield, either quickly or accurately,
information when desired. The files of the statistical department
should cover only the data which are the result of the particular
activities of the company, together with valuable original records
which are neither correspondence nor library material.
2. Coordination of the Business Library with Public Libraries
After the resources for information which exist within the business
organization have been adequately centralized the next important step
is to coordinate these resources with all other existing library
facilities of the city in which the business firm is located. There
should be a thorough survey of these libraries in order to ascertain
as far as possible the content and availability of their resources.
This is an important factor in the creation of a business library,
when one considers the problem of shelving much material, within the
more or less limited space occupied by a business organization. Floor
space in skyscrapers is too valuable to be used as a mere storehouse
for printed material used only on rare occasions, and there is also the
added expense of a staff of workers to care for a large collection. The
business library must, therefore, be considered solely as a working
laboratory, and care taken not to include in it material which will
be seldom used, particularly in cities where business organizations
congregate and where are located large public libraries having
excellent resources which can be used to supplement the "working
laboratory" collection of the business organization.
This principle will not apply, however, to those business libraries
which are maintained at the headquarters of national associations. Such
libraries must collect everything on their subjects, and be prepared
to be a central bureau of information on their specialties, for their
membership throughout the United States. For example, the libraries
of the National Safety Council and the Portland Cement Association,
located in Chicago.
This policy of coordination was expressed in the following words, by
a large corporation several years ago when it organized its library:
"We will keep our library down as far as possible to a small working
collection, and our librarian shall be a go-between us and the other
libraries of the city when we want information not available in our own
collection." Thus the busy man of affairs is able to keep in touch,
through his librarian, as proxy, with many avenues of helpfulness,
which would be closed to him were it not for the fact that he had
been far-sighted enough to employ a librarian to act for him in these
matters of detail.
Public library facilities, while they supplement can never be a
substitute for a library within a business organization, for different
groups of business people who are vitally interested in one particular
subject, or more often in only one phase of a subject, will naturally
collect and know more about that subject than a general library serving
a thousand and one interests can be expected to do.
The business librarian who is given the confidence of the officers of
his organization, gets saturated with a knowledge of the business of
the organization and is able to sense in advance what information will
be needed, and will be prepared as far as possible for the emergency
when it comes.
All librarians of public libraries will undoubtedly agree to the
statement that they are not in a position to act as confidential
library adviser to rival business corporations. The Public Library must
deal impartially with all inquirers and cannot give precedence to any
inquirer simply because he is in a hurry. Every man must wait his turn
because the needs of other inquirers are equally important with his.
If the Utopian state should ever arrive when our public libraries
have all the money necessary to meet the every information need of
the community, the argument that the public library should serve the
interests of business men, who are tax payers, in such a manner that it
would not be necessary for them to have libraries within their business
organizations, can be answered by a parallel suggesting that the public
library should so serve all the interests of the public that no one
need have a library in his own home. A business organization desires
to make its own selection of material, on the basis of its needs and
tastes; it wishes to have this material close at hand without any
borrowing restrictions, so that it can be used quickly, without loss
of time, and without the limitations which would be imposed if it were
the property of some one else, and required particular care to keep it
intact, for the business man often wishes to clip or give away the
printed information in his possession.
The business library is, however, not antagonistic to the public
library at any point. On the contrary, the business library must
coordinate its resources with those of the public library and work in
harmony with it.
The large business organization which can afford to employ a librarian,
and the small business firm which cannot, will find a wealth of helpful
material in the public libraries of their vicinity.
Many of the smaller public libraries which are not large enough to
maintain special business departments are giving most excellent service
to business men. A number of the large public libraries of the country
are making a specialty of serving business needs through departments
organized particularly to serve business men. Some of these are the
Division of Economics and Documents of the New York Public Library,
the Business Men's Branch of the Free Public Library of Newark, New
Jersey, the Technology Department of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh,
and the Industrial Department of the Los Angeles Public Library. The
John Crerar Library of Chicago is a free reference library covering
sociology and natural and applied science, which cannot be excelled by
any other library collection in the United States in the facilities
which it offers to business men. Every business organization should get
acquainted with the public library of its city and ascertain what that
library is able to do for it.
The Cost and Value of the Business Library
The cost of maintaining a business library is in no sense comparable
with its value; for the help which a business library may give in a
single instance is often of sufficient value to offset its cost of
maintenance for a whole year. For example, a business firm had a law
suit in a distant city and sent one of its employes to give expert
testimony in the case. This employe found as the hearings in the case
progressed, that he could strengthen his testimony if he had at hand
figures showing the market price of lead for the past ten years. There
was no time to spare in obtaining these data. He sent a telegram to
the home office, which was received at 11:30 A. M. saying that he
would call them by long distance telephone at noon and to have the
figures ready. The head of the department to whom the message was
addressed, with some perturbation, appealed at once to the librarian
of the company, who was able in ten minutes to produce a table giving
a summary of the prices desired, which had been printed in a technical
journal. The company won the law suit and in comparison with the large
amount of money saved, the salary of the trained librarian who knew how
to meet the emergency, was a very small item.
No two business libraries are comparable as to cost of maintenance.
Each must allow for financing on the basis of its individual needs and
the money it can afford to spend.
If a business firm owns the building which it occupies it does not have
to consider the rental of floor space for the library. If it has a
liberal policy of advertising in the best technical or trade journals,
it will need to spend very little on periodical subscriptions, as it
will receive copies free on account of advertising. If it is a liberal
user of the publications of the United States Government, it will
find they cost little or nothing, and in any case the amount spent by
business libraries for information special to a particular industry is
never very large, because often the most valuable data cost practically
nothing to secure.
Mechanical equipment, which will be discussed in chapter seven, is
largely the initial expense, and the amount of money to be spent each
year for additions to the original equipment will be quite small.
The principal annual expenses in maintaining a business library are
the salaries of the librarian, and assistants if required, and the
additional expense of stenographic and office boy service.
The great mistake made by some business firms in maintaining library
service has been the employment of inadequately trained librarians
who do not produce high grade results. It is this lack of library
education and experience, on the part of a number of so-called business
librarians, which has been a hindrance to the recognition of what the
business library really is and what it can do. The writer saw, some
time ago, the sorry spectacle of one of the largest corporations in the
country trying to inaugurate library service under the direction of a
fourteen-dollar-a-week file clerk, who had not a single educational
requirement necessary for the success of the undertaking. Such
firms generally proclaim business library work a failure, instead
of admitting they have made a wrong start and that they should have
employed a high grade trained librarian.
Many firms having well organized correspondence files, which are giving
satisfactory service, have conceived the idea of adding to their
established filing department, and to the duties of their head file
clerk, the library service which they judge their organization demands.
They fail to appreciate the fact that a filing department, while it
has some mechanical technique in common with an organized library, has
an entirely different purpose, and does not require on the part of
those in charge, educational qualifications at all comparable to those
required of a librarian who must have not merely a large knowledge of
library technique, but also must know books, and have a knowledge of a
broad range of sources, from which adequate information can be drawn
when any problem arises; for the business librarian must be a thinker
as well as a worker and not a mere clerical machine. On the other
hand, the trained librarian is competent to supervise correspondence
and any other kind of files if the situation demands it. The essential
qualifications for successful business librarianship are stated in the
last chapter.
In conclusion, it should be said, that in establishing library
service, a business organization must be willing to give such service
a reasonable length of time to grow into the work of the organization.
A wisely selected collection of material, adapted to the needs of the
business, and thoroughly organized to give quick and accurate results,
should be tested just as a piece of machinery is tested, namely, set up
the apparatus, put it in full operation under competent supervision,
and in the case of the business library, the verdict cannot but
conclusively be--"it works."
REFERENCES FOR ADDITIONAL READING
=List of special libraries= in United States and Canada (in American
library annual 1916-17 p. 378-408).
=Carr, B. E.=
Formation of a financial library. Special libraries June 1919, p.
125-27.
=Day, M. B.=
Portland cement association library. Library journal Jan. 1919, p.
27-28.
=Glenn, M. R.=
Library of American bankers association. Library journal April 1917,
p. 283-84.
=Johnston, R. H.=
Bureau of railway economics library. Special libraries June 1918, p.
129-31.
=Krause, L. B.=
The public utility library. Journal of electricity Dec. 15, 1918, p.
556-57.
=Greenman, E. D.=
The functions of the industrial library. Journal of industrial and
engineering chemistry June 1919, p. 584.
=Macfarlane, J. J.=
Philadelphia commercial museum. Library journal April 1917, p. 278-79.
=Nystrom, P. H.=
The relation of the public library to the private business libraries.
Special libraries Feb. 1918, p. 35-37.
Same article Library journal March 1918, p. 154-57.
=Parmelee, J. H.=
The utilization of statistics in business. American statistical
association quarterly publication June 1917, p. 565-76.
=Purinton, E. E.=
Building an office library. Independent Dec. 16, 1918, p. 214.
=Rife, R. S.=
Functions of the library of a banking institution; pamphlet printed by
Guaranty trust co., New York city, 1919.
=Rose, A. L.=
The service of a business library; pamphlet printed by National city
bank, New York city, 1920.
=Secrist, Horace=
Statistics in business New York, McGraw-Hill 137 p. $1.75.
=Spencer, Florence=
Financial library of the National city bank of New York. Library
journal April 1917, p. 282-83.
=Spencer, Florence=
What a public library cannot do for the business man. Special
libraries Oct. 1917, p. 177-18.