(Thursday, June 27, 2:30 p. m.)
In the absence of the president, the vice-president, Herbert O.
Brigham, state librarian of Rhode Island, called the meeting to order
in, the ball room of the Chateau Laurier.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Ladies and Gentlemen, we will open the session this
afternoon with the consideration of a general topic, which will be
taken part in by Mr. Dudgeon and by other speakers who will discuss Mr.
Dudgeon's paper. It so happens that this year we have been so fortunate
as to have the article reprinted beforehand in the publication of
the Special Libraries Association, so that doubtless many of you are
already familiar with the paper.
I am going to appoint on the nominating committee Messrs. George W. Lee
of Boston, John A. Lapp of Indianapolis, and Miss E. V. Dobbins of New
York City.
We are very fortunate in having with us to take the main paper for this
opening session a man who has been actively engaged in special library
work for some time in the west, one who is very familiar with the
development of the "Wisconsin idea" of legislative reference work, and
closely associated with Dr. McCarthy in developing that idea.
I take great pleasure in introducing to you Mr. M. S. Dudgeon,
secretary of the Wisconsin library commission, who will talk upon the
subject of "The plan, scope and results of special libraries."
Mr. DUDGEON: Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen--There are those who
maintain that there is no such thing as a special library in a class of
its own, but that what we call a special library is simply a general
reference library which by the needs of its patrons has become somewhat
specialized in its methods and in its equipment. On the other hand,
there are those who maintain that a special library has so distinctly
a different function and purpose, that its scope is so different,
that its equipment is so different, and that the equipment, the
qualities and the characteristics of those who man the library are so
different, as to entitle such an institution to an entirely different
classification; that it is not a general reference library, but a
special library, something entirely different. It seems to me to be
more or less a distinction without a difference, more or less a play
upon words. I have, at the request of the Program Committee, written
down what seemed to me the perfectly obvious things that might be said
about the scope and purposes of the special library. You have the paper
before you as printed in "Special Libraries," and will probably be
fortunate enough to escape some detail, as I will try to shorten this
somewhat in the reading.[13]
[13] Mr. Dudgeon's paper appeared in full in "Special Libraries," June,
1912, pp. 129-133.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I think we all have a clear understanding of
just what a special library means, and I think we should all notice
especially the allusion that Mr. Dudgeon made to the reference library
as compared to the public library, in the definition of the use of the
book.
I think one of the finest examples of a special librarian one can find
is in our absent president. Dr. Whitten is doubtless one of the best
authorities today on public utilities, and he has this month gone to
London, where he is spending the summer investigating public utilities
for the National Civic Federation. That, I think, accounts for his
absence, and we regret very much that he is not here.
I am going to ask Mr. Josephson of the John Crerar Library, Chicago, to
lead the discussion.
A. G. S. JOSEPHSON: I am afraid that you will not find my paper what
you expected it to be, a discussion of Mr. Dudgeon's paper. When Mr.
Lapp wrote me some time ago to ask if I would not discuss the question,
I began to try to make up my own mind as to what a special library was.
I had made my mental notes on that subject, and when Mr. Dudgeon's
paper came and I read it and undertook to discuss it, it happened that
my own ideas came first.[14]
[14] Mr. Josephson's discussion will appear in a later issue of
"Special Libraries."
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I am going to ask Mr. W. P. Cutter, librarian of
the Engineering Societies of New York City, to contribute either by a
paper or an oral discussion of Mr. Dudgeon's address.
Mr. CUTTER: I do not know that I have anything to offer as a
contribution to the discussion of Mr. Dudgeon's very interesting
paper and Mr. Josephson's very interesting discussion of it. I might,
perhaps, with my usual liking to express things briefly, say that I
consider a special library as one that serves people who are doing
things, and a reference library one which serves people who are
thinking things. The former are not thinking about doing things, they
are already doing them. I think that applies also to people who are
serving as legislators, who are making laws; to sociologists, who are
making attempts to handle crime and other sociological questions. I
believe that the development now in the public library world is in the
direction of service to the public. For twenty-five or twenty-six years
now we have been talking about, first, books, and then about places for
storing books, buildings to put them in, methods of cataloging them,
charging them, of making picture bulletins for children and all that,
and we have finally arrived at a discussion of the methods of serving
the people who are really doing things. It has taken about twenty-five
years to arrive at that point, and I think we are reaching that goal. I
noticed, although I was not present at the meeting this morning, that
in two reports of committees of the American Library Association, an
instrument was mentioned which has been used in one library, at least,
to my knowledge, for the reproduction of material for people who are
doing things, a reproduction of printed material, manuscripts, maps,
drawings, etc. This is the first time that has come up, I think, in a
report in the American Library Association on the reference side.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: I hoped that Dr. McCarthy, the head of the
legislative reference department of the Wisconsin library, and Mr.
Galbreath, former state librarian of Ohio, who is now secretary of the
Constitutional Convention of Ohio, would be present today. In their
absence the discussion is now open to the members, and I hope there
will be a very general and free discussion.
JOHN A. LAPP: I have not very much to say except to emphasize one or
two points which Mr. Dudgeon brought out in his paper. One of those
points is the fact that the material which we deal with in special
libraries is not found in books. In a short experience of only four
years, I think, outside of those references to legal works, to law
periodicals and law books, I have not been able to do one-tenth of
my work from books or from published material. Most of the work, the
real work, which has been done by the legislative reference department
of Indiana has been done through work which we have prepared, which
we have drawn up from the general material scattered here and there
in obscure sources and from letters which we had written to experts
outside. I say scarcely one-tenth, and I do not know but perhaps
that is too liberal. One-tenth of the questions we have been able to
answer from published material. That would seem to me to be the most
distinguishing point about the special library. I believe that the
heads of the industrial libraries, the manufacturing libraries, the
commercial libraries, will agree with me on that point.
The subject of the training of special librarians is the one subject
here upon which there seems to be, thus far, a division of opinion.
I have always believed that the person who has a general knowledge
of the subject, with a library training, is the person who is best
qualified to do the work of a special library. I think that is true
particularly in legislative and municipal reference work; but, on the
other hand, it should be emphasized that if that person did not have a
pretty good knowledge of library work, or if he did not have a pretty
efficient librarian with him, he would make a sorry failure, as Mr.
Dudgeon has suggested. At the same time, I do not believe that the
librarian who is trained as a librarian merely, who loves books and
so on, can get hold of the real vital part of the work in a way that
the person who is using the special library demands. On the whole I am
inclined to believe that the best working arrangement is to have a man
in the library who has a knowledge of the subject matter and a person
who knows something about library work and library training, and then
to have him supplemented by some one who knows the library side of it,
with a bare knowledge of the other subjects, and, working together,
they can bring about a very efficient special library service. That
is the ideal of a special library combination. I think it has worked
out in most cases. But, again, speaking from personal knowledge, I
do not think that I could ever do very much in legislative reference
work if I were a librarian without the other training. Whatever I had
of librarian training, through the school, when I went into the work,
might be placed in very small compass--I haven't told this before
but I will confess now that when I began I knew very little about
librarianship. If my assistants knew that at the time, at any rate,
I have never told It before, but I have learned something about it
since that time. But I think I could have made a better success of
librarianship if I had had more library training. On the other hand,
I do not believe I could have gotten along if I had not had the other
side of the subject more largely. So I agree with Mr. Dudgeon on most
points as to that question; but I would suggest that the person who is
in charge, if he is not fairly well grounded in librarian skill and
librarian art, should have some one with him who would keep him off the
rocks, because he will go on the rocks if he does not have some one to
guide him.
The special library meets a very special need. That has been pointed
out many times. We deal with material that is not in print. We
manufacture it. Many times we must color it with our own opinions.
Some people say that in public affairs, in municipal and legislative
reference work, we should not allow our own personality or our judgment
to enter into the work. I should like to find a librarian who is able
to keep from doing that. If I have knowledge which to me seems certain,
if I know a certain fact and have the information right at hand, I
cannot refrain from telling the person who ought to know that fact; I
cannot refrain from telling him that a certain thing is right, or a
certain thing is wrong. While we must all do it diplomatically, it is
out of the question, I believe, for a man to be efficient as a special
librarian, even in dealing with the public affairs in libraries, to
avoid giving his own opinions on subjects. What is the use of his
getting a knowledge of the subject if he cannot really use it? But he
should use it very discreetly.
The special library was very well described by Mr. Cutter when he said
it was a library for those who do things, while the reference library
is for those people who think of things. This is the age of efficiency.
I believe that the librarian is the efficiency engineer, or ought to be
the efficiency engineer, of the educational world. I think the general
reference librarian ought to be that, and I think the librarian of
the special library, particularly of the manufacturing and industrial
library, can be to a large degree the efficiency expert of such a
concern.
GUY E. MARION: I think the people who are present here would take
a good deal of satisfaction in knowing who the people are that are
actually and most vitally interested in special library work, and
I have analyzed an up-to-date membership list which I hold here in
my hand, of which I should be glad to show copies to any who may
be interested. We have now grown to a group of 224 people who are
interested. That is a growth, roughly, of twenty-five per cent since
our last meeting in New York City. There are four insurance libraries
in the country. There are nineteen people who are interested in public
utilities. There are five financial libraries. There are among the
commercial, technical and scientific libraries (many of which are
in manufacturing concerns), forty-eight. Among the public affairs
libraries, which cover the legislative reference departments of
state libraries as well, there are something like thirty-six. It is
interesting to note that the public libraries have themselves been
sufficiently interested to know what we are doing, so that forty-five
of them have become members of this association, to be in touch, I
presume, with what we are aiming for. There are twenty-nine colleges
and universities interested; and of miscellaneous people whom we can
hardly classify, not knowing where they belong, there are thirty-eight.
In this connection I think it is worth while to say to you, many
of you who frequently change about the country, or are looking for
advancement, that it would not be amiss for you to fill out one of the
little blanks showing your qualifications, the things in which you are
interested. At the present moment I know of the largest automobile
concern in this country, the automobile trust, which is looking for
an active, wide-awake librarian, probably a man. Those opportunities
are coming to the attention of your secretary quite frequently, and we
shall always be glad to have you keep in touch with us by filling out
one of these little blanks. We may be able to readjust you.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The Secretary has an announcement to make in regard
to city planning.
Mr. MARION: I think it would not be amiss for me to speak of three or
four of our bibliographies. There has been one list published under the
direction of Mr. Meyer of the Library of Congress, called "Selected
list of references on the short ballot," which is easily obtainable at
our headquarters; also a list of references on street railway service
by Robert H. Whitten, our president. There was prepared by Mr. Dana,
"The social questions of today," which is a very useful compilation of
subjects, and institutions and people interested in social questions.
Then, in addition, our May number of "Special Libraries" has published
probably the most remarkable collection of city planning items that
has ever been gathered together. It was done co-operatively between
the Library of Congress and the Department of landscape architecture
of Harvard university. (Here the Secretary read a notice of a later
complete bibliography of City planning which will be published by the
Library of Congress in which a new complete classification scheme for
the arrangement of all the articles will be used.)
I think that the classification alone will be exceedingly useful to
you who ultimately, with the growth of American cities and their rapid
development, are going to be forced to take an interest in the subject
of their re-arrangement. This is going to become more and more a vital
problem, it seems to me, in the future here in America than it ever has
been in the past; and when the final list is published it will consider
not only American experience, but also European, appertaining to that
subject.
GEORGE W. LEE: I should think this might be a good chance for people
to express themselves as to the need of bibliographical matter to go
into "Special libraries," as members who receive "Special Libraries,"
whether they think the trend of articles is about right and to make
suggestions. Possibly it might be some guide to the editorial committee
to know whether the material they are putting in is about right, or
whether there are certain things that might with advantage be inserted.
Then the question comes, are you helping, yourself, to make up these
bibliographies?
The VICE-PRESIDENT: Perhaps Mr. Lapp can speak of the various ways in
which we made the bibliographies, working with the Library of Congress
methods and various others.
Mr. LAPP: That question might properly come up later, but I just
mention at this time that we should be thinking about it, and report
at a later session of this organization, this week. The matter is very
important to us, because we have some difficulty in selecting. We have
some difficulty in knowing just what the members of the association
desire most, and at the present time we have a working arrangement
with a number of people who are supplying things regularly. We should
be glad to enter into arrangements with others if the demand seems to
be great. Just now we have an arrangement with the Public Utilities
Committee, which supplies every two or three months a summary of the
best public utility references of the period before. We also have an
arrangement with the Library of Congress, through Mr. Meyer, by which
we receive a bibliography for every issue, a short bibliography on some
obscure subject, some subject that is not covered in any systematic
bibliography, or not covered adequately; and the desire is to get
questions which would be of the widest interest and at the same time
not conflict with something that has already been published, because
the whole purpose of the Special Libraries Association is to do those
things which nobody else does. If we find that we are doing something
now which somebody else can do better, we should be very glad to
transfer it to them, and merely undertake those things which nobody
else does. We have an arrangement also by which we are going to receive
some of the best references to material on city documents, beginning
with the next issue. That I think will add very materially to the value
of the publication, because city documents, as you know, are now almost
inaccessible for the reason that no one knows that they are published
until they are perhaps out of print, and they cannot be obtained.
I would like to take this opportunity of asking all our friends to
contribute whenever they know of anything that is done or that has
happened regarding a bibliography or in the way of a special locality
that you think should be mentioned, that you send a note to the
editors, or send us a copy of the publication itself. This is purely
a co-operative enterprise, and it is by co-operation that we get the
real value of the work. The hope is to cover the whole country, so that
if a man is working on a subject in Boston some one in San Francisco
can learn about it, and, if he is thinking of doing the same thing,
have him co-operate and perhaps get that thing done better; and any
information which can be given which will facilitate that plan will be
of very great value to the association and be a very great help to the
editors.
Mr. CUTTER: The first statement Mr. Marion made, about obtaining
assistants for the people who need them, is, I think, the most
searching question in connection with special libraries. It seems to me
it would be wise for this association to communicate with graduating
classes of some of our universities and suggest to the members of
those classes well enough in advance that the library profession is
a desirable thing for young men to enter. I think it would be a very
wise thing for this association to take that up, and tell them the
reasons why, and the demand for assistants. At the present time I have
knowledge of several positions, but the specification is made that men
are desired, as most of our business men are so ignorant that they do
not know how efficient women are.
I would say in regard to what Mr. Lapp mentioned, that I have some 250
bibliographies on engineering subjects, some of them too special, but
some of them would, I think, be of general interest, and I will take
the opportunity of sending him a list of these.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: It might be of interest to note what has already
been printed in connection with the Library of Congress, to show the
character of the publications received from that source. You will
recall, for instance, a bibliography on the drinking habit, the short
ballot, on anti-cigarette ordinances and laws, the open shop, public
utility rates, the pardoning power, compulsory voting, preferential
voting, and, finally, city planning, and, also, I might say, one on the
administration of charities and correction boards, a rather technical
subject, which appeared in the April number, 1911.
(There here followed a discussion led by Mr. C. A. George, of
Elizabeth, N. J., in which he asked for information as to the real
purpose of the Special Libraries movement. Mr. Josephson, the
vice-president, and Mr. G. W. Lee, of Stone & Webster, Boston, offered
replies to the questions asked.)
Mr. DUDGEON: My connection with this association was due to this
conception, that in my business, which was legislative work, etc., I
conceived that there was a great deal in books that ought to be brought
to the attention of the people who were doing the work, and I was glad
to join an association whose special function seemed to be to help
one another devise ways and means of getting book knowledge into the
hands of the actual workers. Now, that seems to me to be somewhat of
a distinct proposition. I think Mr. Cutter's definition justifies our
existence. We are specialized in getting knowledge out of books and out
of the experience of others into the hands of workers rather than into
the hands of people who are just thinking about working. It seems to me
that it is quite distinct although hard to distinguish.
Miss LINDHOLM: I believe in the effort to make the business public more
appreciative of the work we are doing, we should write more articles
about our work and our libraries. I think if there were articles
written for the different electrical, engineering, automobile and
manufacturing periodicals it would help a great deal.
Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest, Mr. President, that you can combine all
those periodicals the lady mentions by writing articles for the Wall
Street Journal. That is the place where the people read things.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The editor of the Wall Street Journal was with us
at our September meeting and gave us a very interesting description
of his own part of the work in connection with the business, and the
information bureau established by the Wall Street Journal. I sometimes
think we fail to note the speed with which that information must be
obtained, either in the reference department or the newspaper. They
will sometimes employ a mere mechanical device to save two minutes in
connection with the information given.
I think Miss Lindholm's suggestion is a very good one and possibly
can be worked out by getting more and more in touch with the trade
periodicals. Many of those trade periodicals are not taken by the
public libraries, are not listed in any indexes of periodicals, and
much of the material afforded there is of unusual value.
Mr. CUTTER: I would suggest that we have a committee on publicity for
the association.
The VICE-PRESIDENT: The committee have a plan to advance for that which
I think they will bring out at the next meeting.