The Library Assistant’s Manual
By THEODORE W. KOCH
Librarian, University of Michigan
Provisional Edition
LANSING, MICHIGAN
STATE BOARD OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONERS
1913
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_Issued on the occasion of the 61st annual meeting of the Michigan
State Teachers’ Association, Ann Arbor, October 30-November 1, 1913._
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CONTENTS.
Page
I. The library movement in the United States 7-15
II. Organization of a library 16-19
III. Book selection and buying 20-24
IV. Classification 25-32
V. Cataloging 33-38
VI. Reference work and circulation 39-50
VII. The binding and care of library books 51-53
VIII. Work with children 54-58
IX. The high school library 59-66
X. Suggested readings in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 67-78
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CHAPTER I.
=THE LIBRARY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.=
The forerunner of the American public library of today is found in the
subscription or stock company libraries of Philadelphia, Boston and
other cities. The oldest of these is the Philadelphia Library Company,
founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin who later referred to it as “the
mother of all subscription libraries in America.” The Rev. Jacob
Duché, a director of the Library Company, wrote in 1774: “Literary
accomplishments here meet with deserved applause. But such is the taste
for books that almost every man is a reader.” The Library Company’s
authority on book selection was James Logan (the friend of William
Penn) who was esteemed “to be a gentleman of universal learning and the
best judge of books in these parts.” In 1783 the Library Committee
instructed its London agent that “though not averse to mingling the
dulce with the utile, they did not care to have him buy any more
novels.”
In 1869 the Library Company was made the beneficiary under the will of
Dr. James Rush, who left $1,500,000 to establish the Ridgeway Branch.
On account of the conditions attached to the bequest, the gift was
accepted by a bare majority of the stockholders. Among other
restrictions, the will contained the following clause: “Let the library
not keep cushioned seats for time-wasting and lounging readers, nor
places for every-day novels, mind-tainting reviews, controversial
politics, scribblings of poetry and prose, biographies of unknown
names, nor for those teachers of disjointed thinking, the daily
newspapers.” The provisions of the will were strictly carried out and
today the Ridgeway Library stands as a storehouse of the literature of
the past, a monument to the donor and an evidence of the change that
has come over the world in its conception of the function of the
library.
=Boston Athenæum.=—Like the Philadelphia Library Company, the Boston
Athenæum was the outgrowth of a group of men who had in common an
interest in books. In May 1806, the Anthology Society, which had been
editing the “Monthly Anthology and Boston review,” established a
reading room, the object of which was to afford subscribers a meeting
place furnished with the principal American and European periodicals.
The annual subscription was placed at ten dollars, which was not more
than the cost of a single daily paper. The organization prospered and
by 1827 the treasurer’s books showed property valued at more than
$100,000. Two years later the library administration faced a new
problem: a woman applied for admission to the library. Having no
precedent to guide him, the librarian allowed the applicant free access
to the shelves. She was Hannah Adams, who wrote “A view of religious
opinions,” a “History of New England,” and “The history of the Jews.”
The next woman to ask for admission to the treasures of the Athenæum
was Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, (1802-1880), author of “The rebels,” “The
freedman’s books,” “Hobomok,” etc., but her ticket of admission was
shortly revoked “lest the privilege cause future embarrassment.” As
late as 1855 Charles Folsom entered a protest against women having
access to “the corrupter portions of polite literature.”
=Boston Public Library.=—In 1825 a plan was proposed whereby all the
libraries in Boston should be united under one roof. Later, a Frenchman
by name of Vattemare, caused to be introduced into Congress a measure
which was to build up great libraries through international exchanges.
A public meeting was held in Boston but a committee of the Boston
Athenæum opposed the scheme and it was dropped. However, in return for
some books forwarded through Vattemare to the Municipal Council of
Paris, the Mayor of Boston received in 1843 about fifty volumes, which
in reality formed the nucleus of the Boston Public Library.
In 1847 the Boston City Council appointed a joint committee on a
library. The next year a special act was passed by the Massachusetts
State Legislature authorizing the city of Boston to found and maintain
a library. Efforts were made to effect a union of interests with the
Boston Athenæum, but they failed. In 1849 the first books were
presented by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, and in the following year J.
P. Bigelow, then Mayor of the city, turned over to a library fund the
sum of $1,000 which had been presented to him as a personal testimony.
Edward Everett presented 1,000 United States documents, and Edward
Capen was appointed librarian by the Mayor. George Ticknor, a member of
the Board, helped to draw up a preliminary report outlining the ideals
for the new civic institution. The library was not to be a “mere resort
of professed scholars.”
The key note of the whole public library movement in America was struck
by Ticknor when in 1851 he wrote of his hopes for the new library
proposed for Boston: “I would establish a library which differs from
all free libraries yet attempted; I mean one in which any popular
books, tending to moral and intellectual improvement, shall be
furnished in such numbers of copies that many persons can be reading
the same book at the same time; in short, that not only the best books
of all sorts, but the pleasant literature of the day, shall be made
accessible to the whole people when they most care for it, that is,
when it is fresh and new.”
A timely friend was found in Joshua Bates, who gave more than $50,000
for the purchase of books, saying that he thought it was desirable to
render the public library at once as useful as possible by providing it
with a large collection of books in many departments of knowledge.
Thus the aim of the founders was quickly realized, it having been their
professed intention to make the library what no other library in the
world had either attempted or desired to become, “a powerful and direct
means for the intellectual and moral advancement of a whole people
without distinction of class or condition.” The Boston Public Library
was the pioneer of the large public libraries in America and as such
has long enjoyed a prominence which in a way has resulted in its
differentiation from other large municipal institutions.
=Astor Library.=—John Jacob Astor, who came to this country in 1783,
as a young man of 20, independent of capital, family connections or
influence, became the richest man of his day in the United States, and
wished to show his feelings of gratitude towards the city of New York,
in which he had lived so long and prospered. When he consulted with his
friends, Fitz Green Halleck and Washington Irving among others, as to
the object to which his liberality should be applied, the plan of
building a public library was the most approved and a decision was
promptly made in favor of it. Four hundred thousand dollars was left
for this purpose. The site chosen for the new Astor Library was in
Lafayette Place, in which street lived Mr. William B. Astor, a son of
the donor. Washington Irving was the first president of the Board of
Trustees, and Joseph G. Cogswell was the first librarian. According to
John Hill Burton in the “Book hunter,” Mr. Cogswell “spent some years
in Europe with Mr. Astor’s princely endowment in his pocket, and
showed himself a judicious, active and formidable sportsman in the
book-hunting world. Whenever from private collections or the breaking
up of public institutions, rarities got abroad in the open market, the
collectors of the old world found that they had a resolute competitor
to deal with, almost, it might be said, a desperate one, since he was,
in a manner, the representative of a nation using powerful efforts to
get a share of the library treasures of the old world. I know that in
the instance of the Astor Library the selections of the books have been
made with great judgment and that after the boundaries of the common
crowded markets were passed and individual rarities had to be stalked
in distant hunting grounds, innate literary value was still held as an
object more important than mere abstract rarity, and, as the more
worthy quality of the two, that on which the buying power available to
the emissary was brought to bear.” Cogswell was essentially a
bibliophile. He loved books “with an eager and grasping love,” said
Donald G. Mitchell. To his fruitful labor was due the splendid growth
of the Astor collections. Cogswell presented to the Library his own
collection of bibliographical literature, and gave the institution a
reputation for wealth in this field. “So well has the impress thus
imparted been maintained,” said Dr. Richard Garnett, “that the Astor
Library is said to contain hardly any light and frivolous books.” Both
the son and grandson of the founder, as well as other members of the
Astor family, added generously to the wealth of the institution so that
today the total endowment is estimated at over two million dollars.
With its increase in resources came an increase in its use. “I range
daily in the alcoves of the Astor, more charming than the gardens of
Boccaccio, and each hour a Decameron,” wrote Charles Sumner to Theodore
Parker. Among the constant users was Horace Greeley, who had a special
table reserved for himself.
=Lenox Library.=—James Lenox, a shy recluse, a bachelor, born to a
wealthy inheritance, found his chief joy in the collecting of books,
manuscripts, and objets d’art. He first collected early editions of the
Bible in all languages; then Americana, including the original editions
of the works of the great travelers and discoverers. John Bunyan and
Milton received much attention from Mr. Lenox, and he succeeded in
garnering a vast array of editions of those two authors. “This mode of
collecting has certainly its advantages,” said Henry Stevens, “but it
can hardly be denied that it is attended with serious disadvantages.
The result of all Mr. Lenox’s enormous study and labor, to say nothing
of his vast expenditures, it must be confessed, is a patchy library as
he left it. His favorite subjects and authors he rendered astonishingly
rich, but the subjects and authors he neglected at the same time are
also astonishingly numerous.” In 1870 Mr. Lenox presented the
collection to the city of New York, together with a block on Fifth
Avenue and a sufficient fund to erect a library building.
=Tilden Bequest.=—Samuel J. Tilden was not, according to his
biographer, John Bigelow, a book collector in the ordinary sense of the
term. “Mr. Tilden had a very fastidious taste for books, which he
indulged without much regard to expense. He bought books for his
immediate use and enjoyment, and apparently with no thought of
collecting a library that should be complete in any department.” For
the purpose of establishing and maintaining a free library and reading
room in the city of New York he established the “Tilden Trust,” to
which he bequeathed the sum of nearly four million dollars. By long
litigation it was reduced about one-half. The trustees were anxious to
apply this fund in a way that should prove most advantageous to the
people of New York City and at the same time strictly conform to the
wishes of the testator. The endowment was accordingly offered to the
Municipal Building Committee of the city in 1893, to be devoted to the
construction of a public library in a new City Hall, at that time
planned for Bryant Park. This plan had to be given up the next year
when the act authorizing the removal of the old City Hall was repealed,
but the expectations of the testator were carried out later by merging
the Tilden Trust with the Astor and Lenox bequests into one grand “New
York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.” This
consolidation was effected on May 23, 1895, when the Board of Trustees,
composed of seven members from each of the three foundations, proceeded
to plan the organization of a comprehensive library system. An appeal
to the municipal authorities was made in 1896 stating that if the city
would furnish a proper site and provide the money to locate thereon a
building suitable for the purposes of the New York Public Library, then
the library through the sale of its present sites, could obtain such an
addition to its funds as would justify it in providing for the
circulation of the books from this main building. The result was that
the library was granted the old reservoir ground on Fifth Avenue,
between 40th and 42nd Streets, and the trustees were enabled to begin
planning for the erection of the splendid fireproof structure,
eventually opened to the public in 1911.
=New York Public Library.=—The union of these three corporations to
form a single library worthy of the great American metropolis was very
justly characterized by Lawrence Hutton as “one of the most important
events in the whole history of the Island of Manhattan.” New York had
long labored under the disadvantage of having no public library from
which books could be freely borrowed by her citizens. Dr. Cogswell once
remarked that a free circulating library in New York was impossible and
that in five years any collection of books made for that purpose would
be scattered forever beyond hope of recovery. He here showed the
distrust of the book-collector and the attitude of the old style
librarian towards the books entrusted to his care.
The Astor and the Lenox Libraries were for reference use only, and were
never open in the evenings or on holidays. Through the great generosity
of Andrew Carnegie the New York Public Library is able to operate an
extensive series of branches, primarily intended for the purposes of
circulating books in the surrounding neighborhoods. “The main purpose
of the library is educational,” said the late Dr. J. S. Billings. “It
is also to furnish the means of recreation and amusement to large
numbers of readers. A great library like this must be omniverous. It
must have rare and costly books, indispensable to scholars, and also
the ephemeral pamphlets of the day which have no commercial value when
they appear but eventually become historical documents. The library
should be an encyclopedia always kept up to date.”
=The Spread of Public Libraries.=—From the above sketches some idea
can be gained as to how recent is the development of the library into
the tax-supported institution we know to-day. The last generation has
witnessed the spread of the public library movement westward at such a
rate that many of the most striking illustrations of the usefulness of
the modern library are to be gathered from the newer libraries of the
western states. Within the last two decades the public library has
gained strong allies in such new organizations as state library
commissions, inter-state library associations, and library training
schools. The library schools have inculcated into their students the
body of America’s library doctrine which has grown up with the movement
in this country. The association meetings have been helpful in
providing for the discussion of mooted topics and giving librarianship
a unity which it could not otherwise have gained.
=American Library Association.=—Organized in 1876 to promote the
welfare of libraries; it had the _Library Journal_ as its official
organ for many years, but now publishes its own Bulletin containing
announcements and proceedings of the annual meeting. The Association
aims to effect needed legislation and reforms which could not be
brought about by individual effort; to improve library administration
and lessen the labor and expense of it; to utilize the combined
experience of the profession, to promote esprit de corps among library
workers and to advance the common interests of trustees, librarians and
assistants. Various sections have been organized: the college and
reference section, catalog section, trustees’ section, library work
with children and state library commissions. It has a publishing board
of five members, appointed by the executive board, the aim of which is
to secure and prepare publications, catalogs, indexes and other
bibliographic and library aids. The publications are a great help to
libraries and references are made to a number of them throughout this
manual. The headquarters of the Association are located on the upper
floor of the Chicago Public Library. Address: 78 E. Washington St.
=State Library Commissions.=—Commissions have been established in
thirty-three states with the view of advancing the library interests of
the state. They aim not only to promote the efficiency of the libraries
already existing but also to help in the establishing of new ones. They
collect statistics of libraries throughout the state and so are able to
help the backward ones by showing what is being done in the more active
communities. Some commissions conduct summer library schools where the
untrained assistants from the smaller libraries can get valuable
instruction. Others have institutes and district meetings at which
topics of interest to the smaller libraries are discussed. Organizers
are sent to such libraries as are in need of reorganization,
recataloging or professional help along one line or another. In some
states the commission takes charge of the traveling libraries, which
are sent to clubs, granges and the smaller libraries. The sending of
books to the blind falls within the province of the library commissions
in certain states. Some are authorized to give direct financial aid to
the smaller struggling libraries. Nearly all the commissions publish
bulletins, circulars of information, library laws, selected lists of
helpful books, and occasional leaflets.
=Traveling Libraries.=—In order to carry the advantages of the public
library system to the residents of rural districts and villages, a
system of traveling libraries has been introduced into most of the
states. New York was the first to adopt this system, which it did in
1892 at the instance of Melvil Dewey, then State Librarian. The plan
was to send a number of small libraries, each containing one hundred
carefully selected volumes, which were lent for six months at a time to
“stations” from which requests had been received. In 1895 Michigan and
Iowa introduced the system as a part of the work of their state
libraries and in the following year a traveling library system for one
county was established through private generosity. The Wisconsin Free
Library Commission soon took it up and developed it for the whole
state. In some states where the traveling libraries have not been
fostered by state aid, the work has been carried on by the women’s
clubs, as for example in Colorado.
In Michigan application for traveling libraries can be made by study
clubs, Epworth leagues, Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A., Sunday schools,
farmers’ clubs, granges, reading circles, etc. The titles are selected
from printed finding lists, and the books go by freight at the expense
of the borrower. If books on a special topic are desired, the request
should be filed by May 1st with the State Librarian in order to receive
them in the fall. The State Library has also a loan collection of
pictures, reproductions of the best examples of ancient and modern art.
The unframed pictures are loaned to art clubs, while the framed ones
are loaned to schools to be kept on their walls from three to six
months.