THE SERVICE RENDERED BY THE BUSINESS LIBRARY
The service rendered by the business library is intensive rather than
extensive. The business man is not interested in making a good library
showing in regard to the quantity of material on the shelves or in
the files of his library, but he is vitally interested in the quality
of the material; he has just two objects in view, he wants specific
information and he wants quick, accurate, comprehensive service. The
organized business library steps in to render this service by knowing
what information to get, how to get it, how to keep it up to date, how
to file it and how to apply it effectively to business problems.
If the subject which the business man is investigating has a scientific
basis, the library puts him in touch with the best authorities on that
science and the standard practices which it maintains. If the business
man is investigating a new enterprise, or a banker is considering a
loan, he must make a careful survey of all the factors which enter
into it, in order to make a decision as to its stability and probable
financial success. Such problems demand a large amount of information
which can be furnished by the business library, as it is prepared to
furnish data giving sources of different kinds of raw materials,
manufactured products on the market and cost of manufacturing, the
possible extent of the market for a competing product, cost of labor,
coal and data on certain sections of the country as good business
centers, based on a study of population, post office receipts, bank
clearings and transportation facilities.
If shipping to foreign countries is contemplated the business library
will furnish information on modes of packing, effects of climate on
goods, transportation, customs duties, foreign credits, and similar
items. Thus the business library is prepared to select, arrange and
put into form for ready use, information ranging from methods of rock
tunneling, to the consideration of the advisability of putting a new
commercial fertilizer on the market.
"The Americas," published by the National City Bank, New York City,
contains in its December 1917 issue, an article entitled, "One Feature
of German Organization in Engineering and Foreign Business," the
contents of which bear directly upon the importance of information as
an indispensable asset in the prosecution of successful business.
The article states that industrial corporations in Germany before
the war employed an officer called an Economic Director, who, "in
the plan of organization of his company, is attached to the office
of the President, or is an appendage of the Board of Directors. He
has to organize complete information from various sources, and his
authority is sufficient to organize this well. He obtains statistical
information, foreign and domestic newspapers and periodicals, and the
output of various bureaus of news is regularly received by him.
"His business is to keep his Executive informed on the instant of
every development in many parts of the world that will mean a change
of cost of production or a change in demand for the company's
products. He must know what is going on in the regions where the
company's manufacturing materials originate. He must keep his eye
upon conditions affecting production, price and transportation. He
must not miss any new source of supply, or any coming diminution of
old sources. On the other hand, he must follow every development,
political, social or economic that means an increase or a falling-off
in the demand for particular kinds of machinery. If there is anything
doing anywhere that is significant of a call for more sugar machinery,
or a drop in the demand for textile machinery, in this particular
man's business, he must judge its full value and advise his board of
it.
"It is said of a man who was economic adviser to a German corporation
that manufactured materials for railway construction and equipment
that he had not only organized his supplies of information of what was
going on over the world so that he reported to his board every tender
for supplies from every part of the world, but he was expected to
analyze general developments everywhere so thoroughly, as to predict
in advance the regions where new railways would soon be built, or
extensions made. His work, it is said, frequently resulted in his
company's bringing about, in direct or indirect ways, the promotion of
the new transportation enterprises he predicted. It is now believed
that this idea of definite organization of economic information and
intelligence has been carried out in order to apply to the after-war
business situation by Germany."
The American Business Library is a step in the direction of helping to
do for American business what this "German Economic Director" was doing
for business in Germany and it is more than time that American business
interests use the business library to its utmost capacity.
The Library and the Publicity Department
One of the important departments in modern business organizations
served by the business library, is the publicity department which is
the outcome of the recognition of the dependence of any business upon
the public's understanding and appreciation of what it has to offer, in
order to successfully carry on its work, whether that be a manufactured
product or the service of a public utility. In this day of economic
investigation and criticism, it is vital to success that industries
exploit their work and products clearly and logically, not only as a
means of advertising but also to win and hold that all-important asset
known as public good-will.
The publicity department strives to make the public understand
the organization and its work and has charge of preparing direct
advertising, for daily papers and periodicals, and in many utility
corporations prepares copy for the financing and marketing of
securities.
A live publicity department cannot do its work without ample library
resources as its needs are encyclopaedic, for it is constantly
preparing copy which calls for the most accurate and comprehensive data
and it must keep up to date on what is currently issued in the lines of
business in which it is particularly interested. Library service is so
indispensable in publicity work that in a number of cases the library
has been organized in the business house as a part of the work of the
publicity department.
Assisting the Executive
The business library is also a great service to executives because the
heads of business organizations today are concerned not only with the
particular business of their own office, but with many economic and
public affairs for the betterment of the community and the nation. The
work of the modern business man, as expressed by a recent technical
periodical, "because of the constant multiplication of problems to
be settled and the great number of regulating agencies, is steadily
growing more important. The successful business man must be a thinker
and a man of affairs; he appears before Congressional Committees and
before state and federal commissions; he must know whereof he speaks,
and he must know principles as well as facts, history as well as
present conditions." In the midst of varied and large responsibilities,
he knows he can not depend upon his own personal reading and study to
keep all the important facts and figures which he needs at his finger
tips, for the successful executive must not burden himself with too
much detail.
He therefore turns to his librarian, who knows his personal point of
view and his needs, and who is as necessary to him as his secretary.
Sometimes the head of a business organization appeals to an assistant
officer to give him the data he requires, and the assistant officer
turns to another one, and he in turn goes to the library; the fact
remains that sooner or later the request comes down the line to the
librarian.
Making the Best Use of the Library
There are several types of men with whom the business librarian has to
deal in doing research on business problems. One type of man who uses
the business library is the one who comes in occasionally and browses
among the books without communicating to the librarian in charge what
subject matter he is looking for. This type of man does not purposely
mean to be secretive, but he does not know how to use the service of
the library and the librarian which are at his disposal. Often he turns
away from his perusal of an encyclopedia with a disappointed look, and
in one case when the librarian asked what he was looking for, replied
that he was trying to find the address of Mills College but that it
did not seem to be in the Encyclopedia Britannica. Had he told the
librarian at the start what he wanted the address could have been given
him from another reference book in about one minute's time.
Another type of man with whom the business librarian has to deal, is
the one who conceals his specific object when he asks for information,
and does not therefore make it possible for the librarian to procure
the information desired in its most simple and direct form. For
example, an engineer once asked for descriptive periodical articles
dealing with the construction and equipment of some large hotels. The
librarian, of course, thought that what he had in mind was to make
a study of the equipment, whereas all he wanted to get out of these
articles was the names of firms who had installed certain mechanical
devices. This information could have been collected much more quickly
than in the time it took for the librarian to make a complete list of
satisfactory descriptions of the kinds of buildings for which he asked.
The type of man who uses the business library most effectively is the
one who takes his librarian into full confidence as to what he is
doing, and what he wants to do, and gives the librarian not only the
opportunity to produce what he has asked for, but also to make helpful
suggestions as to material which he possibly has not thought of in
connection with his problem. The business man who thus directs and uses
his trained librarian and his specialized collection gets the service
which counts and has annexed an indispensable asset to the earning
power of his organization.
REFERENCES FOR ADDITIONAL READING
=Cameron, W. H.=
What does library service do for you in your business? Public
libraries June 1918, p. 256-57.
=Gourvitch, P. P.=
An organized commercial laboratory. Youroveta review (165 Broadway,
New York City) March 1919, p. 82.
=Hosmer, H. R.=
Some axioms of service in the use and abuse of special libraries.
Journal of industrial & engineering chemistry June 1919, p. 582-83.
=Hungerford, Edward=
Are you "too busy to read"? System March 1920, p. 486.
=Lewis, St. Elmo=
Value of the specialized library for the business man. Special
libraries May 1913, p. 69-71.
=Loomis, M. M.=
Libraries that pay. Independent June 26, 1913, p. 1436-38.
=Nystrom, P. H.=
The business library as an investment. Library journal Nov. 1917, p.
857-62.
Same article National efficiency quarterly May 1918, p. 29-38.