The Committee on Library Administration of the A. L. A. is
beginning a survey of simple operations common to all sorts of
libraries, especially with a view to finding out whether there
is much diversity of detail in them, and ultimately of noting
particular methods that seem likely to result in time-saving or in
better results. For the moment, however, a mere survey, involving
a detailed description of the method of performing certain kinds
of work is all that is aimed at. The Committee has selected 26
libraries of very different sizes and types, and yours is one of
these. If you are willing to co-operate, will you kindly send
at once to the chairman a description, in as minute detail as
possible, of the following operations:
Accessioning
The counting of issue
The charging of books
The discharging of books
Please describe each step of these operations seriatim and in
detail, not omitting such as are purely mechanical, and noting
points where different assistants would be apt to act in different
ways. A description of the operation of accessioning in the New
York public library (Reference department) is enclosed as a sample.
If you can not do this, please notify us immediately, that another
library may be put on the list in your place.
Yours truly,
ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Chairman,
HARRY M. LYDENBERG,
ETHEL F. McCOLLOUGH,
A. L. A. Com. on Administration.
Sooner or later we obtained the desired data from 20 of the 26
libraries to which this letter was sent. Only one, the Grosvenor
Library of Buffalo, returned no answer. Five declined on various
grounds. The California State library wrote to us: "We do not feel
satisfied with our present arrangements and do not believe we are
in a position to offer any suggestions that would be of service in
connection with this investigation." The Mercantile library of New York
wrote: "We regret that we find ourselves unable to co-operate with
your committee in this undertaking." The librarian of Trinity college,
Hartford, writes that "with the exception of student assistants the
librarian is the entire staff." The senior regent of Shurtleff college,
Alton, Ill., writes: "Our building is not yet complete and in the
management of the old, we are so nearly without a system that I hardly
feel it worth while to try to reply to these questions." The librarian
of the New York Engineering Societies writes: "This library * * * has
no charging system. Its system of accessioning will be abandoned as
soon as possible. I suggest that you enter another library on your
list."
Replies such as these seem to imply a misconception of the nature and
purposes of a survey. Our object is to ascertain facts, not to gather a
selected number of ideal cases.
For these five libraries the following were substituted:
Westminster College, Fulton, Mo.
Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
Washington State Library.
New York Society Library.
Forbes Library, Northampton, Mass.
These furnished that data for which we asked, with the exception of the
Washington State library, which declined. We have material, therefore,
from 24 libraries altogether.
The last of this body of data comes to hand just as this preliminary
report goes to press, but it is being digested and tabulated and
some of the results, at least, will be ready for the Ottawa meeting,
although there will not be time for any study of these results or for
recommendations based thereon.
The reports from the various libraries will be on file at headquarters
at Ottawa and will be accessible to all members of the association who
desire to consult them.
Regarding the question of the counting of circulation through traveling
libraries, deposits and the like, which has been referred to your
committee, we beg to report as follows:--
The sending of books from a library to a school, a club, or some other
place where they are to be used or circulated may be regarded in two
ways by librarians. It may be held that the sending of the books from
the library is itself an act of circulation or that the place to which
they are sent for use or distribution is a temporary station of the
library, and that sending books thereto is no more circulation than
if they were sent to a library branch or delivery station. Obviously,
if the former view is accepted, no use that is made of the book after
it reaches the station can be recorded by the library. When we have
lent a book to a reader we do not inquire how many persons in the
family use it or whether a neighbor borrows it. The library borrower
is responsible for it and it simply counts as one in the issue. But if
the place to which it goes is to be treated as a station, then the use
of the book at or from that station is part of the library record. If
it is used in the school, club, or other place where it is deposited,
such use is not circulation, however, but hall or library use, as if it
had been used in a branch library. If it is issued from the station for
home use, such issues, and every such issue, is properly counted with
the circulation.
It seems to your committee that the second of these alternatives is
the one that should be recognized, both from theoretical and practical
reasons. The sending of a collection of books to a place where it is
to be used resembles much more closely the temporary transfer of such
collection to a branch than it does ordinary circulation. Practically
also, it is desirable to take account of whatever use is made of the
books in such places and logically this can be done only on the second
theory.
On neither of the theories is it allowable to count the original
sending as one issue and then to count or estimate issues from the
station; or to count uses in the station as home issues.
Some libraries report that they are unable to secure proper statistics
of use at the station and that they must therefore either count the
original issue or guess at the use in some way, or fail to report it at
all. In cases of this kind, whatever is done should be made plain by a
note in connection with the published statistics.
To recapitulate, we recommend:
(1) That the act of sending books from the library to a station of
any kind, no matter how temporary, be not regarded as an issue to be
counted in the circulation, although separate account of books thus
sent should be kept and may be published if desired.
(2) That books used in the station be counted as hall or library use
and that books issued from the station be counted as home use.
(3) That where it is found necessary to depart from this method in any
way, such departure be plainly stated in a foot note to the published
report.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Chairman.
ETHEL F. McCOLLOUGH,
HARRY M. LYDENBERG.
=(Supplementary Report)=
As a supplement to that portion of its report which has already been
presented, your committee now submits the following preliminary
tabulation and discussion of results. As is usual, in such
investigations, our questions have not been interpreted in the same way
by all to whom they have been addressed. Supplementary questions must
therefore be sent out in many cases and these must be framed separately
for each case. This will be the next work of this committee, should you
see fit to continue it as at present constituted.
Your committee trusts that it is clearly understood that it does not
desire to infer from the extremely small proportion of cases discussed
anything that should be properly inferred only from a large number of
cases. Facts are stated numerically, but no numerical conclusions are
or can be drawn. At this stage of the investigation no recommendations
at all can be made.
=Accessioning=
The material received varies so much in respect to the items reported
upon, and the fullness with which each step is treated, that a second
questionnaire must be sent out before there can be any uniformity of
tabulation. For example:--
One librarian writes us, "We keep no accession book for ordinary
circulating books, only for expensive art books" and fails to state
what items are entered.
Another reports that "the books are accessioned, each separate volume
being given a separate accession number" but does not say whether an
accession book is used or not.
Two librarians write that "the Standard A. L. A. Accession book is
used" and leave us to infer that every column is filled in.
And two assure us that the promised material will be sent in soon.
It is interesting to note, however, that only two libraries, the Boston
Athenaeum and the Forbes library, use the Bill Method of accessioning.
The other libraries all use an accession book, but differ widely in the
number of items entered; for example, one library enters only author,
title, source and price, and another has an accession book printed
for its own use, including columns for the following: Date of entry,
accession number, place of publication, publisher, date of book, size,
class, additions classified (including a column for each of the main
classes in the D. C. system, one for fiction, and one for juvenile
books), volumes bought, volumes received as gifts, periodicals bound,
pamphlets bound, the language of the book (4 separate columns marked
Eng. Ger. Fr. and Other), source, publisher's price, discount, net
price, binding, remarks.
The majority of libraries reporting, use the A. L. A. standard
accession book or the condensed form of the same.
=Libraries Using Book Method=
Atlanta.
Bar Association of N. Y.
East Orange.
Iowa State Library.
John Crerar Library.
Kansas State University.
Kings County Medical.
N. Y. City Circulating Department.
N. Y. City Reference Department.
N. Y. State Library.
N. Y. Society Library (accessions only expensive art books).
Newberry Library.
Oberlin College.
Pratt Institute Free Library.
St. Louis Mercantile Library.
St. Louis Public Library.
Syracuse University.
Tulane University.
Virginia State University.
Wesleyan University.
Westminster College.
=Libraries Using Bill Method=
Boston Athenaeum.
Forbes Library.
=Charging and Discharging=
The data contributed on this subject are so uneven and varying that any
accurate and minute comparison is impossible at present. The functions
that constitute a charge or discharge are variously regarded by
different libraries. The eighteen libraries forming the basis of this
study, with a note of their charging systems, may be roughly arranged
in the following groups:
=College or University Libraries=
Oberlin. Double file. Borrowers' file and book file under date.
Syracuse. Double file. Borrowers' file and book file under call-number.
University of Kansas. Double file. Borrowers' file and book file under
date.
Tulane. Single file. Book file under class.
Wesleyan. Double file. Borrowers' file under date and book file.
Westminster. Single file. Book file under date.
=Public or Circulating Libraries=
Boston Athenaeum (Subscription). Double record. Borrowers' file and
book record under date.
Carnegie Library of Atlanta. Newark System (no details).
East Orange Public Library. Newark System (many variations).
Forbes Library. Browne System.
New York Public Library. Newark System.
Pratt Institute Free Library. Newark System.
St. Louis Mercantile Library (subscription). Browne System.
St. Louis Public Library. Newark System.
=State Libraries=
Iowa State. Reference. (Uses temporary slip when a book is issued for
home use filed under date.)
Virginia State. Double file. Borrowers' file and book file by titles.
=Reference Libraries=
Newberry Library.
No attempt has been made to study the charge or discharge of books for
library use.
=Society Library=
Medical Society of King's County. Borrowers' record.
Reversing this arrangement and grouping under charging systems, we have:
=Newark System--6.=
Carnegie Library of Atlanta.
East Orange Public Library.
New York Public Library.
Pratt Institute Free Library.
St. Louis Public Library.
Syracuse University (modified).
=Browne System--2.=
Forbes Library.
St. Louis Mercantile Library.
=Double File--Borrower and Book--6.=
Boston Athenaeum.
Oberlin College.
Syracuse.
University of Kansas.
Virginia State Library.
Wesleyan University.
=Single File--Book File under Date or Class--3.=
Iowa State Library.
Tulane University.
Westminster College.
=Borrowers' Record--1.=
Medical Society of County of Kings.
It is evident from this tabulation that libraries of the same character
use the same systems--identical in their essentials but different in
detail. College libraries and those whose use corresponds to that
of a college library find with but two exceptions a double file
useful--one of borrower and one of books--the latter varying greatly in
arrangement, owing to the distinctions between students and faculty.
A résumé of the college and state systems studied follows:
=Iowa State.= When book is issued, assistant copies the call number
from the book plate upon a manila charge slip, then adds the name of
borrower and her date of loan. Charge slips are deposited temporarily
in a drawer, and next morning are arranged by call-number and filed
in the charging tray. There are no fines; books are issued subject to
call. The first of each month the tray is examined; all slips bearing a
date a month old are taken out, compared with the shelves to ascertain
if the books have been returned, and shelved without being discharged,
and with the shelf list, to verify the call number; at which time
the author and title are copied on the reverse side of slip. Notices
requesting the return of books are filled in with the author, title
and date of loan, and sent to borrowers. Date of notice is placed on
charge slips with colored pencil, and the slips refiled in tray. In
discharging books, the slips bearing corresponding call numbers are
taken from tray and destroyed.
=Oberlin College.= Charge. Book pocket contains two cards, one white,
one pink with author's name, title of book and call number and
accession number. Borrower signs name on both and leaves on desk.
Dating slip with date of issue is put in book pocket. Assistant stamps
both cards with date of issue--filing white cards by call number under
date and pink card alphabetically with borrower's card under borrower's
name. These are ultimately divided into two files, the "day file" and
the "long file," the latter including books drawn by professors and
others privileged to retain them more than two weeks. When book is
returned dating slip is taken out and saved for future use. Book is
checked off by finding book card in file and borrower's name is checked
from that. Pink card is then withdrawn from borrower's file.
=Syracuse University.= Borrower's cards are kept on file by serial
number. When a book is issued its call number is written on borrower's
card and date of issue stamped on it and on dating slip. Book card is
stamped with borrower's number and date of issue. Borrower's card is
filed under number and book card filed by call number. When book is
returned book is checked off, date on borrower's card stamped with date
of return and the card put in regular file of borrower's cards. (The
book card system itself seems to be the Newark).
=Tulane University.= Borrower makes out a temporary book card which is
filled out with the book data, his name and address and date and is
filed by class. When book is returned temporary book card is destroyed.
=University of Kansas.= Corresponds to Oberlin except that book card
filed with borrower's card is not signed or dated and that the single
file is by class. Has two files--one for students under date and one
for faculty under name. Books are discharged at students' leisure by
checking off.
=Virginia State.= Borrowers' file and book file of temporary book cards
alphabetically under title.
=Wesleyan.= When book is issued a manilla slip is written giving name
of borrower, call number, author and title. The date due is stamped on
dating slip in book. Slip is placed in box and next morning a second
slip is made from it giving call number first, then author, title
and name of borrower. Date due is then stamped on both cards. First
card (borrower's slips) are filed (by date if student, by name, if
professor). The other slips (book cards) are filed alphabetically under
author. Book is discharged by checking off--both slips being withdrawn
from issue and presumably destroyed.
=Westminster.= No students' cards. Permanent book card--stamped with
date and borrower's name. Date stamped on book pocket. Cards filed
under date. Assistant discharges at leisure by checking off.
Public or circulating libraries prefer the Newark or Browne system--the
majority the Newark:
=Boston Athenaeum.= Corresponds to Oberlin save that day of year
instead of day of month is used for dating. That one slip is filed in
borrowers' case with information relating to borrower's assessments,
etc., instead of with borrower's card, and that the single file is by
author. When book is returned date of return is stamped on book slips
when book is checked off.
=Carnegie Library of Atlanta.= Newark system, using slots in desk to
sort cards. No details of checking off.
=East Orange.= Newark system, using colored bookcards to distinguish
classes. Magazines and four weeks' books not stamped on reader's cards.
In children's room non-fiction not stamped on reader's card. Books
checked off near charging desk.
=Forbes Library.= Browne system. Borrower's pockets filed numerically
under each letter of alphabet in order of registration. Fiction and
non-fiction pockets kept in separate file. When book is issued borrower
gives his number by which his pocket is found. Book card is taken from
book pocket and put in borrower's pocket and date of return is stamped
on book pocket. Book record is kept by arranging under date, book
cards in pockets alphabetically under author and title. (Details of
information on book card not given). Book is discharged by withdrawing
book card from borrower's pocket and transferring to book pocket.
Recent books (last two years) are evidently discharged and shelved at
once. Others three times a day. Empty borrower's pockets are filed
throughout the day.
=New York Public.= Newark system. Book card has author's surname, title
of book, class number and accession number. Variously colored book
cards are used to indicate various classes. Assistant makes hurried
examination of book to be issued and copies borrower's card number
on book card and stamps date with dating pencil on reader's card,
book pocket and book card--the latter to be done at leisure if there
is a rush. Puts borrower's card in pocket and gives books to reader.
Book card is dropped in proper slot in desk (ten slots indicating the
ten classes). Book cards filed under date of issue by class author
and accession number. Book cards for foreign books are arranged
alphabetically after book cards in English. When book is discharged,
assistant checks off book comparing date of card with that of book,
examines book for damage and then cancels date on reader's card,
restoring card to reader. (Note. It hardly seems that this checking off
before cancelling date on reader's card can be done except in a very
slack hour, and must cause annoying delay to reader). Books are then
placed on truck to right of assistant, later revised and shelved.
System has many exceptions, one of which is to write reader's card
number on dating slip as well as book card. Others are the writing
of Special or Sp. on book card, opposite card number to indicate the
privilege of extended time to special cardholder, as well as on dating
slip. In this case, call number or accession number is written on card
(presumably reader's card) and the use of branch initial on reader's
card to show card issued from a branch other than that from which book
is borrowed.
This library uses a reader's receipt file for books returned without
card--a slip giving name, address, card number, class number, date of
issue and return. This system with variations is also in use in the St.
Louis public library (called the "write-ups") and also in the Pratt
Institute free library and supposedly many others.
=Pratt Institute Free Library.= Newark System. Uses different ink pads
for fiction and non-fiction, and dating pencils. Puts book cards into
slots in desk; fiction, non-fiction and teachers. Stamps dates first
and then writes card number. Uses different ink pad for discharging.
Charging and discharging (including checking off done at same desk)
done by same assistant except in a rush hour. Checking off however is
done at assistant's leisure--that is, the reader's card is stamped off
before book card is found. Book cards are filed by class under date.
Keeps a separate renewal file.
=St. Louis Mercantile Library.= Browne system, with separate reader's
identification card, seldom used. Uses blue reader's pocket for
fiction, salmon color for non-fiction, and manilla pockets for pay
duplicates. Book card corresponds in color, except in case of regular
books issued as extras. Book card has Cutter class number, author and
title. Assistant stamps date due on dating slip and book card which
is placed in reader's pocket. Pockets are put temporarily in tray
near issue desk and later filed by class, under date due. Books are
discharged by charging assistant at charging desk, by taking book card
from pocket and slipping it into book. Empty reader's pockets are
constantly being filed in regular reader's file.
=St. Louis Public Library.= Newark system. Different colored ink-pads
for seven day and fourteen day books and for discharging. Reader's
number first written on bookcard, then book card, dating slip and
reader's card stamped. Reading-room books charged on slips filled out
by reader. Two books generally are issued on one card but "Additional
Books" stamped on reader's card entitles cardholder to a greater number
of volumes, of non-fiction, usually six. This privilege is granted to
educators, social workers and others engaged in serious study, at the
discretion of the head of the circulation department.
Discharging is done at a separate desk in the usual way, receipts being
filed for books returned without reader's card. Books are placed on a
truck and checked off by a special assistant.
=Society Library=
=The Medical Society of the County of Kings=--Uses a borrower's
receipt, giving author, title, accession number and borrower's
signature. These receipts are filed by borrower's name. When book is
returned, it is discharged by stamping date of return on receipt and
placing in file of cancelled loans.
The libraries using colored book cards to denote the classes are:
East Orange Public Library.
New York Public Library.
St. Louis Mercantile Library--colors simply indicating fiction or
non-fiction.
Those using colored book cards for their double file (borrower's and
book) are:
Boston Athenaeum.
Oberlin College.
At the time of book's issue bookcards are dropped into a drawer
through slots designating classes of the books issued by the following
libraries:
Carnegie Library of Atlanta.
New York Public Library.
Pratt Institute Free Library--designates fiction, non-fiction and
teachers.
Libraries using temporary bookcards, filled out at time of book's
issue by borrower or assistant:
Iowa State.
Tulane University.
Virginia State.
Wesleyan University.
Libraries using a borrower's record for privileged classes (professors,
etc.) and a time record for students:
Kansas University.
Oberlin University.
Syracuse University.
Wesleyan University.
Cards identifying the readers appear to be required by all the
libraries save Westminster. These vary--those of the Boston Athenaeum,
Medical Society of County of Kings, apparently taking the form of a
subscription entry while the St. Louis Mercantile Library issues one as
an identification card, which is seldom called into use.
Libraries using borrowers' cards in a file at the library to indicate
what the reader has out, are:
Oberlin.
Syracuse--call numbers of books are written on students' cards.
University of Kansas.
Virginia.
Wesleyan.
Tulane.
Those using a borrower's card which remains in the possession of the
borrower, while he has books from the library, to indicate number of
books out, date either of issue or when due, and a date of return are
those employing the Newark system:
Carnegie Library of Atlanta.
East Orange Library.
New York Public Library.
Pratt Institute Free Library.
St. Louis Public Library.
Syracuse uses the Newark system but retains cards in borrower's file
(under borrower's number) at library.
As regards the discharge of books, the use of the Browne system
presupposes a complete discharge of the book, in case of a borrower
taking another at the time of its return.
Libraries retaining borrowers' cards at the library discharge at their
leisure.
Where the Newark system is used (with the exception of the New York
public library) an incomplete discharge is made at the time of the
book's return--consisting of the stamping of the date of return on
reader's card. It is obviously impossible to delay a reader while book
is checked off. Checking off is then done at leisure either at charging
desk by desk assistant or special assistant appointed for that work.
=Counting of Issue=
The eighteen libraries reporting on this subject may be grouped under
the following heads:
=Public or Circulating=
Boston Athenaeum (subscription).
Carnegie Library of Atlanta.
East Orange Library.
Forbes Library.
New York Public Library.
Pratt Institute Free Library.
St. Louis Mercantile Library (subscription).
St. Louis Public Library.
=College or University=
Oberlin College.
Syracuse University.
Tulane University.
University of Kansas.
Wesleyan University.
Westminster College.
=State Libraries=
Iowa State.
Virginia State.
=Reference Library=
Newberry Library.
=Society Library=
Library of the Medical Society of the County of Kings.
Eight of these libraries record statistics of reference use:
Newberry.
New York.
St. Louis Public.
Syracuse.
Tulane.
Virginia State.
Wesleyan.
Westminster.
The following do not include reference use on their statistics sheets,
although in some cases it is probably kept separately:
Boston Athenaeum.
Carnegie Library of Atlanta.
East Orange.
Forbes.
Pratt Institute.
St. Louis Mercantile.
The Medical Society of the County of Kings and Oberlin College library
make no record of reference use, but the latter records daily and
monthly attendance.
Four libraries keep no record by class:
Boston Athenaeum.
Medical Society of Kings.
Wesleyan.
Westminster.
The following count the circulation on the day of issue:
Boston Athenaeum.
Newberry.
Pratt Institute.
St. Louis Public.
Virginia State.
Westminster.
In all the other libraries it is counted next morning, save in Kings
County Medical, where only an annual count is made.
East Orange and New York use colored bookcards to indicate the various
classes; St. Louis Mercantile uses different colors for fiction,
non-fiction and pay-duplicates, and Tulane uses a colored slip for
reference requests.
Two libraries, Iowa State and University of Kansas, report that no
record of issue is made.
=Public or Circulating Libraries=
=Boston Athenaeum.= The manilla cards forming the author record are
counted at night and the number is entered in a book. There is no entry
by class and reference use is not reported.
=Carnegie Library of Atlanta.= Issue is kept in three groups for
fiction, rent or pay collection and classed books. The latter are
arranged under class numerically or alphabetically. Fiction and rent
collection are alphabeted and all are counted on the following morning
and entered on a daily sheet, juvenile issue being counted separately.
No report on reference issue.
=East Orange.= Colored bookcards are used here to indicate different
classes. The issue is counted on the following morning and arranged
according to the Dewey Classification and entered in a statistics book.
No report on reference issue.
=Forbes.= Counted by groups of classes.
=New York Public.= Colored bookcards are used here. Adult and juvenile
issue are counted separately on the following morning:
1. By Dewey classes, issues in each class being added together to
obtain the total issue in each group and the two groups then added for
the grand total of the day.