Manual of Library Economy
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Title: Manual of Library Economy
Author: James Duff Brown
W. C. Berwick Sayers
Release date: September 6, 2015 [eBook #49895]
Most recently updated: October 24, 2024
Language: English
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Transcriber’s Notes
Text printed in italics, in bold face type and underlined have been
transcribed as _text_, =text= and ~text~, respectively. Small capitals
have been transcribed as all capitals. [T] represents a T-shaped
symbol rather than the letter T.
More Transcriber’s Notes and a list of changes made may be found at
the end of this text.
MANUAL OF LIBRARY ECONOMY
[Illustration: JAMES DUFF BROWN]
=MANUAL OF
LIBRARY ECONOMY=
BY THE LATE
JAMES DUFF BROWN
CHIEF LIBRARIAN, ISLINGTON PUBLIC LIBRARIES
AUTHOR OF
‘SUBJECT CLASSIFICATION,’ ‘LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGUING,’
‘A BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF MUSICIANS,’ ETC.
=THIRD AND MEMORIAL EDITION=
=REVISED AND REWRITTEN BY=
=W. C. BERWICK SAYERS=
CHIEF LIBRARIAN, CROYDON PUBLIC LIBRARIES
LECTURER IN THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON SCHOOL OF LIBRARIANSHIP
AUTHOR OF
‘CANONS OF CLASSIFICATION,’ ‘AN INTRODUCTION TO CLASSIFICATION,’
‘THE CHILDREN’S LIBRARY,’ ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS, FORMS, AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES
GRAFTON & CO.
COPTIC HOUSE, LONDON, W.C.1
1920
DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY
OF
JAMES DUFF BROWN
1862-1914
He lived and died, content to view
His labours making knowledge free;
He opened every book he knew
For other men to see.
PREFACE
This work was published by the late author in 1903, and a second, and
largely remodelled, edition appeared in 1907. For some years past it has
been out of print, to the loss of more recent students. The delay,
however, has not been without its compensations, as librarianship has
made several advances which have been generally accepted, and has made
many experiments, the issue of which is not yet decided, in the twelve
years since the publication of the second edition. The work has been
regarded with much justice as the most comprehensive complete treatise
on library economy, and is the standard to which most British libraries
conform in general; indeed, it is not too much to say that the whole
modern school of librarians here has been moulded by the work. When,
therefore, I was asked to prepare a new edition I was faced with the
question of how best to preserve its comprehensive character. I might
have revised it conservatively, merely touching up the statistics,
adding to the bibliographies, and correcting statements which have been
modified by later experience; but that would have left the book partial
and incomplete. Rightly or wrongly, I have rewritten almost every
chapter, have added sections on questions touched upon only lightly or
not at all in previous editions, and have omitted several statements in
which strong personal views were expressed; in fact, I have tried to
preserve everything that seemed to be of permanent value, to excise
everything merely controversial, and to avoid obtruding any
idiosyncrasies of my own. I cannot hope to have succeeded completely,
and any suggestions for the improvement of future editions will be
welcomed.
Both of the earlier editions retain their value for students, but the
criticism which may fairly be levelled at them is that Brown rarely
contemplated the needs of a library of more than 40,000 volumes, and,
therefore, omitted much that is necessary in the administration of such
libraries. I have tried to balance this. It is perhaps desirable to set
out the particulars in which the third edition differs from the second.
The following chapters have been rewritten in their entirety: IV., V.,
VI., XV., XVIII., XX. and XXVII. The following are new: all Divisions
I., XIII. and XIV.; and Chapters VII., XXVII., XXVIII., XXIX. and XXX.
Everything else has been retouched, except the chapter on museums and
art galleries; that I have left, because although the librarian ought to
have a knowledge of curatorship, that knowledge is not library economy;
and, within its limits, the chapter is good common sense. I have dealt
drastically with the bibliographies, which consisted in the main of
lists of articles in library periodicals. Every library student knows
that textbooks and treatises are supplemented by periodical literature,
and a reference to the indexes of library journals should be an obvious
thing for him to make on any subject; and seeing that we have Cannons’s
_Bibliography of Library Economy_, 1876-1909, for the years covered by
the title, and that the best articles are now indexed in the Library
Association Index, it seemed sufficient to make a general reference to
Cannons and otherwise restrict the lists with few exceptions to separate
publications. Appendix II, “The Librarian’s Library,” has been revised
by Mr Richard Wright, M.C., to whom my thanks are due. An important
omission is the Appendix of “Factors and Percentages,” which gave
figures for calculating the size, cost, output, etc., of libraries. This
has been deliberate; the conditions created by the War are so fluid that
factors which are likely to have a permanent value are impossible to
compile. Brown’s _Guide to Librarianship_ gives the pre-war factors, and
it is unnecessary to reprint them here.
The Memoir is based upon the obituary notices and appreciations which
were collected and edited by Mr L. Stanley Jast for _The Library
Association Record_, the biographical facts in particular being drawn
from the memoir by Brown’s nephew, Mr James Douglas Stewart, which is
included in those notices. Others will share my regret that his
preoccupation with his new work at Manchester prevented Mr Jast from
revising this _Manual_. I cannot but perceive, now that my work is
finished, how much better it would have been had he filled my place. A
few notes, prepared by Mr Jast for Chapters I.-II., have been included.
Usually, when one has written a book, one has to acknowledge much help
from other librarians, but, owing to the extraordinary circumstances in
which this revision has been made, I felt that I ought not to call for
help from others already overburdened. My own task has been completed
under great pressure, most of the work being done between 6.30 and 8.30
a.m. My wife has saved me from many blunders, and her experience as a
former member of Mr Brown’s staff has been most valuable to me.
W. C. BERWICK SAYERS
POSTSCRIPT.--As the final proofs are leaving my hands I learn that the
long-expected Government Bill to remove the penny rate limitation was
introduced into the House of Commons by Mr Herbert Lewis and read a
first time on the 28th of November. The second reading occurred on the
2nd of December, and the Bill became law on the 23rd of December 1919.
It is now practically certain that the powers in regard to Public
Libraries which were held by the Local Government Board now accrue to
the Ministry of Education, and, consequently, wherever the Local
Government Board is mentioned in the _Manual_, the Ministry of
Education should be understood.--W. C. B. S.
CROYDON, 1919
The Publishers desire to thank those who have kindly allowed them the
use of illustrations and have lent blocks, or have offered other
facilities for reproduction; especially the following:
The Librarians of Bristol, Bromley, Cardiff, Chelsea, Coventry,
Croydon, Fulham, Glasgow, Lambeth, Liverpool, Montrose, St Pancras,
and Southend; The Library Association; Messrs Cedric Chivers Ltd.,
Messrs Fordham & Co., Messrs Kenrick & Jefferson, Mr Arthur W. Lambert
of Croydon, Messrs Libraco Ltd., and Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons.
CONTENTS
PAGE
PREFACE v
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, FORMS, ETC. xii
DIVISION I.--INTRODUCTORY
MEMOIR 1
INTRODUCTION 11
DIVISION II.--FOUNDATION, COMMITTEES AND FINANCE
CHAP.
I. LEGISLATION 19
II. ADOPTION OF ACTS, FOUNDATION AND COMMITTEES 34
III. FINANCE, LOANS AND ACCOUNTS 43
IV. STATISTICS AND REPORTS 60
DIVISION III.--STAFF
V. THE LIBRARIAN 71
VI. ASSISTANTS 83
VII. LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS 99
DIVISION IV.--BUILDINGS
VIII. THEORY AND GENERAL REMARKS 106
IX. SITES AND PLANS 110
DIVISION V.--FITTINGS AND FURNITURE
X. MISCELLANEOUS FIXTURES AND FITTINGS 132
XI. SHELVING AND ACCESSORIES 141
XII. FURNITURE 154
DIVISION VI.--BOOK SELECTION AND ACCESSION
XIII. BOOK SELECTION 167
XIV. ACCESSION METHODS 189
DIVISION VII.--CLASSIFICATION AND SHELF ARRANGEMENT
XV. GENERAL PRINCIPLES. 206
XVI. SYSTEMATIC CLASSIFICATION SCHEMES 209
XVII. PRACTICAL APPLICATION 226
DIVISION VIII.--CATALOGUING, FILING AND INDEXING
XVIII. CATALOGUING METHODS, RULES AND CODES 241
XIX. MECHANICAL METHODS OF DISPLAYING CATALOGUES 259
XX. FILING AND INDEXING 281
DIVISION IX.--MAINTENANCE AND ROUTINE WORK
XXI. STATIONERY AND RECORDS 296
XXII. BOOKBINDING AND REPAIRING 303
DIVISION X.--RULES AND REGULATIONS
XXIII. RULES AND REGULATIONS 322
DIVISION XI.--THE LENDING, OR HOME READING, DEPARTMENT
XXIV. REGISTRATION OF BORROWERS 341
XXV. ISSUE METHODS 350
XXVI. BOOK DISTRIBUTION 366
DIVISION XII.--THE REFERENCE DEPARTMENT
XXVII. GENERAL REFERENCE LIBRARY METHOD 375
XXVIII. LOCAL COLLECTIONS 399
XXIX. LIBRARIES OF MUNICIPAL REFERENCE 415
XXX. THE COMMERCIAL LIBRARY; THE TECHNICAL LIBRARY 418
XXXI. READING ROOM METHODS 424
DIVISION XIII.--LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN
XXXII. THE CHILDREN’S DEPARTMENT 439
XXXIII. THE LIBRARY AND THE SCHOOL 457
DIVISION XIV.--LIBRARY DEVELOPMENT
XXXIV. LECTURES, READINGS AND EXHIBITIONS 467
XXXV. RURAL LIBRARIES 477
DIVISION XV.--MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES
XXXVI. MUSEUMS AND ART GALLERIES 486
APPENDICES
I. THE NOMENCLATURE OF LIBRARY POSITIONS 495
II. THE LIBRARIAN’S LIBRARY 498
INDEX 511
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, FORMS, ETC.
FIG. PAGE
James Duff Brown _Frontispiece_
1. Form for Annual Estimates 46
2. Returns of Library Expenditure 47
3. Suggestion Slip 56
4. Rulings for Issue Record Books 62
5. Table of Librarians’ Salaries 77
6. Staff Time Sheet 89
7. Staff Work Book 92
8. Salaries paid in 1911 93
9. Sketch Plan for Small Town Library 116
10. North Islington Library--Reading Room 117
11. North Islington Library--Lending Department 118
12. Lambeth (Herne Hill) Open Access Lending Department 119
13. Montrose Lending Library 120
14. Bromley Lending Library 121
15. Islington Central Library--Ground Floor 122
16. Islington Central Library--First Floor 123
17. North Fulham Library 124
18. St Pancras Central Library 125
19. Glasgow (Woodside) Library 126
20. Glasgow (Townhead) Library 127
21. Wolverhampton Library 128
22. Southend-on-Sea Library 129
23. Back of Library Counter 133
24. West Islington Library 133
25. North Islington Barrier 134
26. Lambeth (Herne Hill) Barrier 135
27. Croydon Central Library 136
28. Triple Open Access Barrier 137
29. Treadle Latch for Wicket 138
30. Barrier for Dividing Rooms 138
31. Double Bay Standard Metal Book-Case 143
32. Wood Wall-Case 144
33. Tonks’ Fittings 145
34. Details of Adjustable Metal Shelving 146
35. Metal Shelving (Patent Office) 147
36. Rack for Bound Newspapers 148
37. Case for Large Folio Books 149
38. Lattice-work Steps 150
39. Short Steps 150
40. Continuous Wooden Step and Handles 151
41. Spring Step 152
42. Swinging Step, with Improved Handle 153
43. Desk-Topped Table 154
44. British Museum Reading Table 155
45. Reference Room Table 156
46. Table with Elevated Periodical Rack 157
47. Periodical Rack on Table 158
48. Reading Table with Partition for Titles 159
49. Periodical Rack 160
50. Rack for Odd Periodicals 161
51. Railway Time-Table Rack 162
52. Metal Reading Easel 163
53. Wooden Reading Easel 163
54. Chair with Anchorage 164
55. Arm Chair with Hat Rail 165
56. Chair with Folding Tray 165
57. Donation Acknowledgment 190
58. Donation Book Ruling 191
59. Proposition Book Ruling 191
60. Book-Order Sheet 193
61. Book-Order Tray 194
62. Accessions Number Book 195
62A. Accessions Routine Book 196
63. Manila Book Card 197
64. Board Label 198
65. Date Label 199
66. Warning Label 200
67. Map and Plate Label 200
68. Process Stamp 201
69. Stock Book--Left folio 202
70. Stock Book--Right folio 202
71. Abstract Sheet for Stock 203
72. Withdrawals Book 204
73. Lettering of Class Numbers 226
74. Colour Marking of Books 228
75. Tier Marking of Books 229
76. Shelf Front, with labels 230
77. Tier Guide 230
78. Tier Guide Lettering 231
79. Class Guide 232
80. Bookcase with Classification Guides 233
81. Shelf-Check Register 234
82. Shelf Dummy 235
83. Millboard Dummy 236
84. Xylonite Label-holder 237
85. Tongued Metal Book-rest 237
86. Flanged Metal Book-rest 237
87. Combined Book-rest and Shelf Guide 238
88. Yale Book-rest 238
89. Book-carrier in front of Book-case 239
90. Book-truck 239
91. Hand-printing Models 256
92. Catalogue Shelves, British Museum 260
93. Adjustable Screw Binder 261
94. Rudolph Indexer Book 262
95. Card Catalogue Cabinet, with extension runners 263
96. Cabinet of Card Trays 264
97. Sideless Card Catalogue Tray 265
98. Cards for Bonnange Catalogue Trays 267
99. Bonnange Card Catalogue Trays 268
100. Staderini Card Trays and Cards 269
101. Duplex Card Catalogue 270
102. Leyden Slip Holder 271
103. Volume of Staderini Sheaf Catalogue 271
104. Staderini Sheaf Catalogue 272
105. Sacconi Sheaf Catalogue 273
106. Adjustable Sheaf Catalogue 273
107. Adjustable Sheaf Catalogue 274
108. Adjustable Sheaf Catalogue, with Cradle and Key 274
109. Front of Sheaf Catalogue Author Slip 275
110. Reverse of Sheaf Author Slip 276
111. Sheaf Title Slip 276
112. Sheaf Subject Slip 277
113. Adjustable Placard Catalogue 278
114. Folder for Vertical File 282
115. A Drawer of a Correspondence Filing Cabinet 283
115A. Specimen of Jast Classification of Library Economy 284
116. Address, and Correspondence, Index Card 286
117. Pamphlet Box 287
118. Prints Box 289
119. Lantern-slide Index Card 290
120. Supplies Location Card 292
121. Withdrawals Card 293
122. Missing Books Index Card--front 294
123. Missing Books Index Card--back 294
124. Inventory Book 299
125. Inventory Slip--front 300
126. Inventory Slip--back 300
127. Class Lettering and Numbering 310-313
128. Class Lettering and Numbering 314
129. Binding Sheet 317
130. Binding Order Book 318
131. Binding Slip 319
132. Renewal Slip 337
133. Ratepayer’s Voucher 343
134. Non-Ratepayer’s Voucher--front 344
135. Non-Ratepayer’s Voucher--back 345
136. Non-Resident’s Voucher 345
137. Borrower’s Card 347
138. Borrowers’ Number Register 348
139. Book Issue Card 351
140. Book and Borrower’s Cards in Pocket 353
141. Book Pocket and Card 354
142. Borrower’s Card with Pocket 355
143. Borrower’s Card and Book Card conjoined 355
144. Elevation Plan of Card Charging Tray 356
145. Card-charging Trays in Position 357
146. Diagram of Elliot Indicator 359
147. A Library Indicator 360
148. Diagram of Periodicals Indicator 363
149. Quick Reference Collection, Glasgow 367
150. Branch Library Return 369
151. Mitchell Library, Glasgow 376
152. Plan of Islington Reference Library 377
153. Islington Reference Library 379
154. Reference Library Application Form 381
155. Picton Reading Room, Liverpool 384
156. Reading Room, Royal Society of Medicine 387
157. Reading Room, Reading Table, Chair, etc. 389
158. Clippings Index Slip 391
159. Application for Loan of Reference Book 393
160. Application for Loan of Reference Book--back 393
161. Application for Loan of Reference Book--Refusal
Form 394
162. Application for Loan of Reference Book--Refusal
Form, with reasons 394
163. Label of Photographic Survey 411
164. Print Index Slips 412
165. Double Newspaper Stand, Chelsea 427
166. Double Newspaper Stand 428
167. Wall Newspaper Stand 428
168. Simplex Newspaper Holder 430
169. Revolving Newspaper Holder, with Clips 430
170. Adjustable Periodicals List 433
171. Periodicals Check Card, Monthlies 435
172. Periodicals Check Card, Weeklies 435
173. Periodicals Check Card, Dailies 436
174. Periodicals File 437
175. Cathays Children’s Hall, Cardiff 442
176. Voucher for Children 444
177A. School Libraries Return Card--front 462
177B. School Libraries Return Card--back 463
178. Lecturer’s Memorandum 470
179. Privilege Issue Notice 471
180. Privilege Issue Notice, Information Slip 472
181. Rural Library Board Label 480
182. Rural Library Board Label, Charging Card 482
183. Rural Library Board Label, Charging Card--back 482
DIVISION I
INTRODUCTORY
MEMOIR
On Christmas Day 1878 a Scottish lad of seventeen, having realized a
cherished desire and obtained an appointment as junior library assistant
at the Mitchell Library, Glasgow, presented himself before the then
unimposing portals of that institution at the north corner of Ingram
Street, and found them closed. He concluded characteristically that this
was because the librarian was an Englishman. The lad who endeavoured to
begin what was his real life-work on this unusual day was James Duff
Brown, who was to become in many ways the greatest practical influence
of his time in the British public library movement, who lived through
its most expansive period, codified and published its methods and
results, experimented boldly, faced and overcame a remarkable force of
opposition, and left behind him a memory which present librarians
revere, and works which will not easily be forgotten.
We have no record of his earliest years, other than that he was born at
Edinburgh on 6th November 1862, and during boyhood showed tenacity and
mental acquisitiveness. At thirteen he became an apprentice in the
publishing house of Edmonstone & Douglas in his native city, and in the
same year, when Mr Douglas left that firm at the establishment of that
of Douglas & Foulis, he remained with Mr Douglas. A year later found him
at Glasgow with the firm of W. R. McPhun & Sons. The work done for these
firms gave him an initiation of a kind into literature, but the earlier
Glasgow period was never a happy memory of his, and his true career
began at the Mitchell Library. Here he spent ten years, enlarging his
knowledge, specializing thoroughly in librarianship, devoting much of
his leisure to musical lore, and by ability and purposefulness working
his way to responsible positions on the library staff. When he was
twenty-one he began to collect material for his _Biographical Dictionary
of Musicians_, which appeared four years later in 1886; at twenty-three
was Glasgow correspondent to _The Musical Standard_; and he was the
editor and reviser of the six large quarto volumes of Chalmers’s
_Caledonia_ which appeared 1887-90. The industry thus shown was inherent
in his character. He told Mr T. A. Aldred that he acquired the
early-rising habit in youth, and that most of his work was done in the
mornings before he began his official day’s work at 9 a.m.; and the
Mitchell was at some distance from his home. This habit, which few of us
ever acquire, he retained through life. It is interesting to know that
he served from 1886 to about 1888 in the Third Lanark Volunteers; a
little booklet from his pen, _A Volunteer Reconnaissance_, records his
experiences.
A large library, however liberally administered, does not often offer
opportunities for a man’s larger initiative unless he occupies one of
the chief positions; and the exercise of his gifts did not come fully
until his appointment in 1888 to the newly-established Clerkenwell
Public Library in London. The building is a comparatively small edifice
occupying a triangular site, and hardly one in which experiments little
short of epoch-making might be expected; but Brown was a man of ideas
and courage who could make the most of such a building. Moreover, London
offered him openings which he did not hesitate to take. Retiring in
person as a rule, nervous in speech, and in appearance of no special
significance, he yet threw himself with quiet energy into the work of
the Library Association. It must be remembered that from about 1888 to
1898 the public library movement in England received its greatest
impetus, probably because in those years the full effects of the
Education Act of 1870 came into play. Few of the libraries founded in
that period are entirely without marks of his influence. In 1891 he
conceived the idea--very old in itself, but quite new in its application
to municipal libraries in this country--of throwing open the shelves to
the choice of readers; and he formulated a scheme, which he called by
the somewhat tautological name of “safe-guarded open access,” and
published it anonymously in _The Library_ in a paper entitled “A Plea
for Liberty to Readers to Help Themselves.” A visit to America in 1893,
where he attended the Chicago Conference of the American Library
Association as a delegate of the Library Association, confirmed him in
his opinion of the practical desirability of the system, although he
says, “There was no such thing as proper safe-guarded open access as now
understood anywhere in America when I was there”; but free access there
was, without the locking wickets and other safeguards which he
introduced at Clerkenwell. In brief, his method was to admit readers to
the shelves, but by way of a wicket at which their credentials were
checked unobtrusively, and to allow them to pass out at another wicket
at which the books chosen were charged. Thus the reader was locked in
the library while making his choice. The results of his experiment were
presented to the Belfast Conference in a paper he wrote in collaboration
with one of his Committee, Mr Henry W. Fincham, entitled “The
Clerkenwell Open Lending Library,” which was modest and restrained in
tone; but although the discussion that ensued was generous and
appreciative to an extent, it was the fiercest yet known amongst
librarians, and the question became the most contested one in our work.
So sharp were the divisions the simple suggestion created that the
municipal library profession went into two armed camps, and friendships
and good-feeling were frequently destroyed by it. It is difficult for
younger librarians to realize the courage and confidence that were
needed to champion open access twenty-five years ago against the active
antagonism of 90 per cent. of the profession. There were not wanting
men, however, who were drawn to the champion, amongst them Mr L. Stanley
Jast, then librarian of Peterborough, Mr T. Johnston, librarian of
Croydon, and Mr Brown’s own assistants, Mr Charles Riddle in particular,
who opened the first library outside London on this system at
Bournemouth in 1895. In 1896 Croydon adopted it, Hornsey followed in
1898, and although progress was slow at first, to-day it has so far won
the battle that the opening of a new library on any other system is a
matter for surprise, and many of the more conservative libraries, even
in the largest cities, have adopted it at least in some part of their
system; moreover, the question itself has become impersonal, and no
librarian to-day would criticize another for any views he might hold in
connexion with it. It was, as Sir J. Y. W. MacAlister declared in 1894,
“the dawn of a new epoch; a hundred years hence the authorities of the
greater municipal London, which will then be carrying on the work now
only attempted by the present congeries of village communities, will
pass a resolution ordering a tablet to be fixed to the wall of a quaint
three-cornered building in Clerkenwell, to commemorate the fact that
here, in 1894, the revolution had begun which in a few years had changed
the entire system of public libraries throughout the land.”
Although safe-guarded open access was the principal practical
contribution of Brown to library practice, he introduced other things of
great importance. His _Quarterly Guide_ was the first annotated library
bulletin published in England. He invented an indicator, more compact
and perhaps as effective as most others, as a challenge to another
similar inventor. He improved the sheaf catalogue, and indeed many of
the commonest appliances now in use were of his contriving. A
description of these, and others, he gave in his _Handbook of Library
Appliances_, 1892, published by the Library Association. As open access
abolished the need for alphabetical indicator-keys, he was at liberty to
consider the question of catalogues radically; and he advocated the
classified catalogue and class-lists as fulfilling the needs of students
and readers better than other forms. In this advocacy he secured the
vigorous co-operation of Mr Jast; and in this matter also a great
controversy ran for some years, dignified amongst librarians as “the
battle of the catalogues.” The issue is still in doubt as to the entire
desirability of the classified catalogue for all purposes and places,
but to-day the classified catalogue is certainly as common as any other
form.
His brain and pen were active throughout life. In 1897 he published, in
conjunction with Stephen Stratton, a _British Musical Biography_,
another valuable biographical dictionary. In 1898 he founded, and for
many years was to edit, _The Library World_, an independent and radical
journal of library methodology and politics, which has held its own to
this day. Opinions of all kinds were expressed in its pages; Brown wrote
innumerable articles for it; and many librarians of present distinction
first saw themselves in print in its pages. Especially did Brown
encourage through its pages the struggles of young and unknown men at a
time when encouragement was of priceless value to them. A list of his
works is given at the end of this chapter, and will be sufficient to
show his energy; but the appearance of his _Manual of Library
Classification and Shelf Arrangement_, 1898, which contained his
Adjustable Classification, was a real event, because it was the first
comprehensive treatment of a till then little understood and much abused
subject; as was that of his greatest work, the _Manual of Library
Economy_, which first appeared in 1903, and has influenced all library
methodology.
Quiet as he was in many ways, he was of a social disposition, a trait
which found an outlet to some extent at the Library Association, of
which he was a councillor from 1890 to 1911; but for closer purposes of
_camaraderie_ he founded, with Mr Jast, the well-known Pseudonyms, a
dining-club of librarians and their friends, which had its origin in the
‘nineties, and flourished for many years. The meetings were held in
various Bohemian restaurants in Soho, professional and literary topics
were debated, and Brown reported them in _The Library World_. The
reports had little relation to the actual proceedings, and few people
were more entertained, and, incidentally, astonished at their own
wittiness (as reported) than the Pseudonyms themselves. This is but one
instance of his humorous way of regarding all things. In conversation,
and in writing of even the most dryasdust subjects, it seemed impossible
for him to talk or write without humour.
Brown’s sixteen years at Clerkenwell made the library perhaps the most
reputed in the country. Mr Jast may be quoted upon this: “Mr Brown’s
influence and reputation extended far beyond his own country. Foreign
librarians visiting London almost invariably made for two places; one
was the large and handsome room overlooking a stately west-end square,
which Mr J. Y. W. MacAlister occupied for so many years; and the other
was a small room, high up in a rather dingy-looking triangular building,
overlooking a dingier street in Clerkenwell, which was so hidden away
that one rather stumbled upon it than found it, where Mr J. D. Brown
worked in his official capacity as Librarian, before he was called to a
sphere more worthy of his labours, in Islington. How many librarians,
how many members of library committees, how many workers in the Library
movement have been charmed, interested, and instructed in these two
rooms?” Not only was he required to give advice in his own country; at
different times he was called upon to lecture on “free public libraries”
in the United States, in Holland and in Belgium. “A Bruxelles,” writes
M. Paul Otlet, “il parla devant l’auditore du Musée du Livre et son
succès fut très grand.” I cannot help thinking that his success depended
more upon his subject and his clear writing than upon his speaking; he
was on the whole an indifferent speaker, his nervousness was painful to
himself and others, and his ineradicable Glasgow accent was a real
obstacle. He told my wife that the only place in which he enjoyed
speaking was the meetings of the Islington Staff Club; he confessed to a
horror and nervousness in public speech.
In 1904 he was appointed the first Borough Librarian of Islington. Here
the public libraries scheme had its very beginnings under his care, and
he was responsible for the interior design of the fine central library
and the north and west branches; probably also for the south-east
branch, but of that I am not sure. These libraries, I dare affirm,
represented the highest achievement in library-planning in this country,
with their handsome, adequate and practical rooms, economy in working,
and general suitableness for their purpose. Here he brought into
practice two of his principal innovations. The first was the Subject
Classification, a huge, minute scheme, which we describe in more detail
in the later pages of this book, which challenged comparison with the
great and more popular American schemes in its completeness, logical
arrangement, and admirable notation. Its focus upon British requirements
made it specially attractive to British librarians, and although it may
never supersede the more universal Decimal System of Melvil Dewey, it is
nevertheless a work of the greatest value to all librarians. The second
and more revolutionary innovation was the exclusion of the newsroom as
usually understood from the libraries. In his account of his visit to
America, he mentioned with something approaching disapproval the absence
of this department from American libraries and the sense of desertion
which resulted there; but at Islington he adopted the American plan. I
am told that the Islington public did not approve the omission quite as
much as did its author, but the arguments he used for it were
common-sense ones, although he has had few, if any, British imitators.
To give in detail all his work for Islington would be to occupy a
disproportionate space in a memoir of this compass. Suffice it to say
that he provided this not entirely grateful Borough with a system which
is the admiration of our profession. He gathered round him an
accomplished staff, published a model select catalogue, encouraged the
formation of an excellent staff guild for his assistants, and did many
other invaluable things. He had long been a teacher of young librarians.
When the Library Association courses were inaugurated at the London
School of Economics he became the lecturer in library organization and
routine, and served in that capacity for many years. As one of his
students, I can vouch for his conscientious, painstaking teaching, his
care in clearing up difficulties, the encouraging and friendly way in
which he answered our questions, marked our exercises, and generally
made our work of interest and value. No librarian who turned to him for
advice ever went unhelped, whatever his age or school of thought. He
wrote hundreds of letters to such purpose in his beautiful minute
handwriting, and a collection of these would form, I believe, an
excellent journal of contemporary librarianship. He seemed, in
particular, to have a minute knowledge of all librarians and library
assistants, their capacities and work accomplished. His obvious sympathy
with young assistants first drew many of us to him. From the day I met
him in 1896 at Bournemouth to his death he showed me by constant signs
his regard for younger men and women who had a real interest in the work
that he himself loved. He treated us with equal consideration in his
correspondence, and the youngest correspondent received the same
courtesy as his elders. He drafted the constitution of the Library
Assistants’ Association, which with slight modifications has proved most
wise and successful; and he frequently, especially in his last years,
attended the meetings of this Association, taking part in the
discussions when invited to do so, but seldom intruding his opinions
unasked upon his young listeners, who, be it remarked, were always eager
to hear him.
It is a difficult task to sketch “the man in his habit as he lived,” but
a few words may be written. The portrait which forms our frontispiece
is almost life-like, with its thoughtful, quiet, and, if one looks
carefully enough, intent and humorous face. In person he was small, but
not too obviously so; fragile-looking, but yet compact and vital in
appearance and movement; he had brown hair and beard, delicate features,
deft and supple hands; he thought calmly, was a rapid, consistent, and
persevering worker; what he began he finished. His writings have been
pronounced by Dr E. A. Baker to possess unmistakable quality, although
“he scoffed at the word ‘style’ as denoting some futile kind of verbal
legerdemain” (I think he must have done so jokingly, as his own personal
library showed that he was by no means blind to the qualities of
literary expression). “Shrewd, practical common sense, rough on cranks
and sentimentalists, unmerciful to muddlers, impervious to a good many
ideas, but a steady assertor of those he had tried and approved--this
was the stuff of Brown’s writing,” is Dr Baker’s estimate, and in the
main it coincides with my own. His personal tastes may be inferred from
his work. “He once told me,” writes Mr Aldred, “he knew three subjects
only, viz., library economy, music, and Scotland. I forget the order in
which he placed them. Being a Scotsman, probably Scotland came first. In
many respects, however, J. D. B.’s knowledge was of the encyclopædic
order--he appeared to know a little of any subject named.”
In early life he was pronounced to be consumptive, but he told me, “I
have lived to see the doctors who condemned me in their graves,” by
careful living, and probably by sheer will power. But in his later years
he had to meet many difficulties at Islington, where the libraries
became the sport of a political party and he had a committee which was
unable to assess his powers. It is useless to revive this now, but it
probably helped to bring about his early death. He first became
seriously ill in 1911, and with a few intervals, when we believed him to
be practically himself again, he gradually weakened. In the last few
months of his life a stay at Bournemouth was tried as a final resource,
and here he read musical biography assiduously and maintained the
keenest outlook upon all things; but no improvement ensued in his
health, and he returned to London a dying man. The end came at his
house, 15, Canonbury Park South, Islington, on 26th February 1914; and
he was buried, amid every sign of regret and affection, at New
Southgate Cemetery. His only memorial to the present are his works; I
believe they will be an enduring one.
To sum up: Brown entered upon his library career at a time when the
library movement received its greatest impetus, and brought the whole
force of a fertile and inventive mind and a ready pen into its service.
He wrote the first text-books actually intended for English public
librarians, collected and systematized all available methodology, and,
thoroughly believing in his mission, this man more than any other in his
generation fashioned in this country a living, interesting profession
out of the despised materials of the popular library. An impression
written by Alderman H. Keatley Moore, B.A., B.Mus., J.P., a veteran
worker for public libraries, who made his acquaintance early, may serve
to conclude this necessarily brief account of our author:
“What was it especially that made one feel so clearly that one was in
the presence of a true man, of an absolute master of his subject, of
one, in fact, whom it was an honour to know?
“I think it was that curious quietness, the repose of a man who has
thought out everything fully for himself, and is content to leave the
facts as he has arranged them to tell their own story. He was still,
because he was so strong; he was undisturbed by clamour because he had
been through it all, and now stood in the open with the conquered
fortress behind him, its strength his strength made visible; one
gradually grew rather timid of this shy talker because he always had the
facts on his side. . . . He was the most unaffected and modest man of real
mark that I have ever met in my long public life. I shall always be glad
to have known him. I shall always remember the great services he
rendered to me, to my town, to our country. Across my sincere regret at
his loss flickers the whimsical thought of how he would wonder at the
fuss we are making over him.”
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following is a list of Brown’s separate publications. His
articles were legion, and will be found by reference to the indexes
of all library periodicals and transactions. Nearly all the
anonymously-written articles and editorials in _The Library World_ from
1898 to about 1906 are his:
1886. Biographical Dictionary of Musicians: with a bibliography of
English writings on Music. Paisley: A. Gardner.
1888. A Volunteer Reconnaissance.
1892. Handbook of Library Appliances: fittings, furniture, charging
systems, etc. L.A. Series, 1.
1893. Guide to the Formation of a Music Library. L.A. Series, 4.
1897. Greenwood’s Library Year-Book. Scott, Greenwood.
(The second edition, 1900-01, was entitled British Library Year-Book.)
1898. Manual of Library Classification and Shelf Arrangement. Libraco
Series. Library Supply Co.
(Chapter vi., which contains “The Adjustable Classification,” was
published separately under that title.)
1903. Manual of Library Economy. Scott, Greenwood. Second edition,
1907. Library Supply Co.
1904. Annotated Syllabus for the Systematic Study of Librarianship.
Libraco.
Classified List of Current Periodicals: a guide to the selection of
magazine literature. L.A. Series, 8.
1906. Manual of Practical Bibliography. Routledge.
Subject Classification. 1906, Libraco. Second edition, 1914, Grafton.
1907. The Small Library: a guide to the collection and care of books.
Routledge.
1909. Guide to Librarianship: reading lists, methods of study, etc.
Grafton.
(Supersedes the “Annotated Syllabus.”)
1912. Library Classification and Cataloguing. Grafton.
(Incorporates much of the matter in the “Manual of Library
Classification” in revised form.)
1913. A British Library Itinerary. Grafton.
WORKS WRITTEN IN COLLABORATION
1897. _With_ Stratton, S. S. British Musical Biography: a dictionary
of musical artists, authors and composers born in Britain and its
Colonies. Birmingham: Stratton.
1901. _With_ Moffat, Alfred. Characteristic Songs and Dances of all
Nations.
1915. Stewart, J. D., _and Others_. Open Access Libraries: their
planning, equipment and organization. With Introduction by J. D.
Brown. Grafton.
(This work was planned by Brown.)
INTRODUCTION
LIBRARIANSHIP IN GREAT BRITAIN. THE PRESENT SCOPE OF THE LIBRARY
PROFESSION. METHODS OF THIS BOOK
I. Library economy is a term covering every branch of work concerned
with libraries; and libraries may be defined in a phrase as institutions
devoted to the collecting, conserving and exploiting of literature.
Originally the prevalent character of libraries was that of conserving
rather than exploiting institutions, and much of the technical equipment
of the modern librarian has come into being as a result of their
progress from their original “museum” to their present “workshop”
character. Our subject, then, covers the founding, organizing,
administration and routine of libraries. It is one of much wider compass
than is commonly supposed. Whatever may have been the original
intention, for example, of the pioneers of the municipal public library
movement, and there are still many who seem to regard that movement as a
counter-attraction to the seductions of the saloon bar and similar
places of recreation, the present public library is a many-sided, active
civic institution, making its appeal to all classes of the community as
a centre of education, culture and recreation, with a trained service to
direct it. Nearly every other type of library also is most concerned
with the best means of attracting people to make use of literature, and
is an active force in the community rather than a passive one.
II. Libraries have been recognized as important in all ages, and a brief
study of the early civilizations of the East and of the Mediterranean
countries, as well as all later periods, shows the existence of state,
public, ecclesiastical and monastic libraries for which there was some
sort of librarianship, with even such seemingly modern appliances as
classification and cataloguing of a kind. But the library as we know it
to-day, and librarianship in particular, may almost be said to be the
creation of the last half of the nineteenth century. Earlier town
libraries indeed existed, the first, it is believed, being that at
Norwich, which was opened to the public in 1608; but although there were
individual instances, the municipal public library (commonly but
erroneously called the “free library,” because no charge is made for its
use) was a result of the Libraries Act of 1850 promoted by William
Ewart, M.P., who had at his back the real pioneer of public libraries,
Edward Edwards, whose _Memoir of Libraries_ is the most monumental of
treatises on library history and administration. The Act of 1850 had in
view the needs of the poor, sanctioned the levying of a halfpenny rate,
and, with curious want of vision, left the provision of books to the
generosity of private donors. The debates upon the bill before it became
law are curious and entertaining reading; and it appears that the
special purpose of libraries was the prevention of crime! Progress was
slow at first, but in 1853 it was stated that thirteen towns had adopted
the Act. In 1855 its provisions were extended to Ireland, and in this
amending bill the amount that might be levied for libraries throughout
the kingdom was increased to a limit of one penny in the pound.
III. We need not follow the history of the movement, as an excellent
monograph by J. J. Ogle, _The Free Library_, is available on the
question; nor need we go into the parallel and in some respects more
wonderful development of the movement in America. So far as this country
is concerned libraries have grown up in every considerable town, with
very few exceptions; but the whole movement has been retarded, even
crippled, by the retention of the limit of one penny in the pound as the
amount a local authority may spend on library provision. The advance in
general education--it must be remembered that in 1850 not more than
one-seventeenth of the children of the people were receiving an
education which could be called satisfactory even when judged by the low
standards of that time--has created a new reading public more vast than
was contemplated by the promoters of the Act; but the only legal help
towards meeting its demands has come from the increased product of rate
assessments; the limit remains sixty-five years after its imposition.
But the increase we have mentioned has not been negligible, even if it
is entirely insufficient, and it has been assisted in a remarkable way
by private generosity. Amongst many who have provided towns with public
library buildings, Passmore Edwards, Lord Brassey, Henry Tate, Colonel
Gamble and Professor Sandeman may be mentioned; but the greatest impetus
to the movement was given by the systematic and almost universal
munificence of Andrew Carnegie, which began in 1886 and has been
continued by him and by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust, which he has
endowed, to the present. His system has been to provide a suitable
building on the condition that the authority accepting it adopted the
Libraries Act and provided a site from other charges than the library
rate. By this means scores of towns which were without or had only
inferior library buildings now possess one in some way worthy of the
name.
IV. The expansion of libraries gave rise to the modern profession of
librarianship. The older libraries were usually in the charge of
scholars, whose main work was that of “keeper” of the books, a title
which the librarian in charge of the British Museum still bears,
although it does not now comprehend his work. The municipal library
required a man who was not primarily a scholar, although scholarship was
an invaluable basis for his work; he was rather required to be an
administrator, a purveyor of books, and, because of the very limited
moneys at his disposal, something of a business man. For some years,
however, there was no definite science or art of librarianship in this
sense. Edward Edwards, in the second volume of his _Memoirs of
Libraries_, laid firmly the foundations of present library economy in a
résumé and exposition of the multifarious methods of cataloguing,
classification, library planning and administration used in the various
libraries of the world. Little followed in England until the growing
needs of the work caused a few far-seeing librarians to find some means
of bringing librarians together. This they succeeded in doing in the
successive conferences of librarians, British and international, the
first of which was held in London in 1877. Out of these sprang the
Library Association in 1878, with Mr Henry R. Tedder and the late E. B.
Nicholson as its first honorary secretaries, and the late Robert
Harrison as honorary treasurer. In the first year the late E. C. Thomas
succeeded Nicholson, and somewhat later he was associated in his office
with Mr (now Sir) J. Y. W. MacAlister, one of the most significant and
creative personalities in our work; while Mr Tedder assumed the office
of treasurer, which he holds to this day, an office in which his wisdom
and counsel as well as his unsparing industry have done much to create
the present stability of the Association. By means of frequent
gatherings, especially by its annual meetings, the Library Association
gradually brought together the whole body of librarians in this country,
who read and discussed professional papers, published proceedings,
initiated scheme after scheme for the promotion and improvement of
libraries, and generally became the controlling factor in library
polity. It was incorporated by Royal Charter in 1898. For many years it
was recognized that training in technical methods was necessary for
librarians, and the Association has devoted much attention to this work.
At first it held summer schools and, from 1898, other brief courses for
library students, and examined the students upon them. Later it
established, in connexion with the Governors of the London School of
Economics, regular courses of lectures at that institution. A
carefully-designed and remarkably helpful syllabus of instruction was
drawn up, and on this examinations were held and certificates leading up
to a diploma in librarianship were issued. The latest phase of the
educational work of the Association has been the securing of a grant
from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust for the establishment of a School
of Librarianship at University College, London, which it is expected
will commence on 1st October 1919. This will primarily be a day school
with courses of study founded on the syllabus of the Association, which
has been carefully revised and extended to meet the new circumstances.
It is ridiculous to prophesy, but if this School is a success it is
probable that it will revolutionize the whole character of library
service in this country.
V. There have been various definitions of the purpose of libraries and
librarians, few of them entirely adequate. We shall not attempt another
dogmatically, but we may suggest that that purpose is to provide a
representative and systematically arranged collection of literature from
the daily newspaper to the elaborate treatise and encyclopædic work of
reference. The methods of doing this, and of exploiting in the public
interest the collection when made, are the subject-matter of this
manual. Until this primary purpose of a library is fulfilled any
attempts at those added activities which are advocated by some
librarians to-day are likely to be mistaken, or at least ill-advised.
The Library Association has not issued a comprehensive manifesto
covering this matter, and might very well do so, if care were taken, as
no doubt it would be, to give considerable elasticity to the
definitions. At the Annual Meeting in 1917, however, it did adopt a
series of resolutions of great importance, which, as the almost
unanimous pronouncement of the profession, must find a place here. In
the light of the rough definition given, their inadequacy as a
comprehensive statement of library work is obvious enough, but they have
great value as showing the trend of that work in the effort to meet the
remarkable intellectual, industrial and other conditions created by the
European War; and this seems to us a justification for treating each of
the resolutions at greater length in the following pages:
1. “That the aim of the library as an educational institution is best
expressed in the formula ‘Self-development in an atmosphere of freedom,’
as contrasted with the aim of the school, which is ‘Training in an
atmosphere of restraint or discipline’; in the school the teacher is
dominant, because it is possible to pass on a form, to teach an art; but
in the library the pupil strikes out his own line, and becomes his own
teacher; the library supplies the material upon which the powers
awakened and trained in the school can be exercised; the library and the
school depend upon different ideas, deal with different material in
different ways, and there is no administrative relation between the two;
furthermore, the contacts of the library with organized education
necessarily cease at the point where the educational machinery itself
terminates, but the library continues as an educational force of
national importance in its contacts with the whole social, political and
intellectual life of the community; that the recognition of the true
place of the library in education must carry with it the provision of
adequate financial resources, which is impossible under the present
limitation on the library rate; such limitation therefore should be
removed at the earliest possible moment.”
2. “That the creation in the child of intellectual interests, which is
furthered by a love of books, is an urgent national need; that while it
is the business of the school to foster the desire to know, it is the
business of the library to give adequate opportunity for the
satisfaction of this desire; that library work with children ought to be
the basis of all other library work; that reading-rooms should be
provided in all public libraries, where children may read books in
attractive surroundings, under the sympathetic and tactful guidance of
trained children’s librarians; but that such provision will be largely
futile except under the conditions which experience, especially in
America where the importance of this work has long been recognized and
where it is highly developed, has shown to be essential to success.”
3. “That in view of meeting trade conditions after the war, commercial
libraries should be established in all the great trade centres of the
kingdom, as a part of the municipal library system, where business men
may obtain reliable commercial information, by means of the collection
and arrangement for rapid consultation of all Government and other
publications relating to commerce; that such libraries should act as
outliers or branches of the Commercial Intelligence Department of the
Board of Trade; and that such Department should further the work of
these libraries in every possible way; that in the smaller towns
commercial collections should be formed.”
4. “That technical libraries are as essential, both to technical
education and to manufacture, as the laboratory or the workshop; that
discovery and invention are stimulated by books; that the technical
library, therefore, should be established as a special department of the
public library in all important manufacturing towns, with a special
organization, including a librarian trained not only in library method
and in the bibliography of technology, but possessing also a sufficient
technical knowledge to enable him to act as a source of information to
inquirers.”
5. “That collections of books and other printed and manuscript matter
bearing upon questions of local government should be established in
connexion with municipalities; that such collections to be effective
must be in charge of a trained librarian; that the management of such
collections should be placed under the library committee; that the cost
of such libraries will be small in proportion to the valuable part they
will play in serving the needs, not only of officials entrusted with the
carrying out of public work, but also of members of the municipality
responsible for local government finance and policy.”
VI. Since the succeeding chapters of this manual were revised the
Ministry of Reconstruction has issued a report on libraries and museums
which has been made by its Adult Education Committee. This traverses in
a general way the ground covered by the Library Association resolutions
and makes recommendations of much moment and gravity. The aim of the
report is to explain the extent of libraries and to secure their
co-ordination. It criticizes Resolution 1 on the ground that it
represents the aims of education inadequately, and it deduces from
several very cogent arguments the policy of placing libraries under the
local education committees in order that they may be merged into and
worked as an extension of the national education system. For London this
would mean taking libraries from the boroughs and placing them in the
care of the county. The matter is too unsettled to admit of argument
here, but such a policy, if carried out, might alter radically the whole
character of library provision and administration. The linking up of
libraries is recommended by means of a central lending library in
London, the municipal libraries, special libraries, and rural libraries;
the central lending library would supply the more expensive, little-used
books to students direct or through the municipal or rural libraries,
and special libraries should be drawn upon in their specialities for
books to be used throughout the country. To the end that the service
should be developed to the greatest extent, the present income of
libraries should be increased, either by an increase in the separate
library rate or by abolishing that rate altogether and allowing the
estimates of the library to be included in general education estimates.
It seems quite probable that the near future will see a removal of the
main financial difficulties.
VII. This manual is based upon the syllabus of the Library Association,
but excludes sections 1 and, in part, 2 (Literary History and
Bibliography), and includes the subject-matter of the resolutions of
1917. Primarily it is a manual of municipal library practice, but is by
no means exclusively so. Special libraries have their individual
methods, and a general conspectus of librarianship cannot include them;
and state, university, institutional, club and private libraries are
equally matters for specific treatment such as would be impossible here.
But all libraries are faced with very similar problems of selection,
accession, classification, cataloguing, etc., or at any rate they differ
in these matters in degree rather than in kind; and it is hoped that for
them much that follows will be at least interesting and suggestive. To
this end the method aimed at is expository rather than argumentative;
and when two or more methods are in vogue they have been placed side by
side in order that the student may review them and form his own judgment
of their relative merits. Where we are dogmatic we are so unconsciously,
and we hope that aberrations of this kind will be passed over with
forbearance.
DIVISION II
FOUNDATION, COMMITTEES AND FINANCE
CHAPTER I
LEGISLATION
=1. Municipal Libraries: Acts of Parliament.=--The principal Acts of
Parliament under which British public municipal libraries are now
constituted consist of the following:--
IRELAND
1855. “18 & 19 Vict., c. 40. An Act for further promoting the
establishment of Free Public Libraries and Museums in Ireland.” (The
principal Act.)
1877. “40 & 41 Vict., c. 15. An Act to amend the Public Libraries Act
(Ireland), 1855.”
1894. “57 & 58 Vict., c. 38. An Act to amend the Public Libraries
(Ireland) Acts.”
1902. “The Public Libraries (Ireland) Amendment Act.” Gives power to
District Councils to adopt the Acts, and empowers County Councils to
make grants in aid of libraries.
SCOTLAND
1887. “50 & 51 Vict., c. 42. An Act to amend and consolidate the
Public Libraries (Scotland) Acts.” (The principal Act.)
1894. “57 & 58 Vict., c. 20. An Act to amend the Public Libraries
Consolidation (Scotland) Act, 1887.”
1899. “62 & 63 Vict., c. 5. An Act to amend the Public Libraries
(Scotland) Acts.”
ENGLAND AND WALES
1892. “55 & 66 Vict., c. 53. An Act to consolidate and amend the law
relating to Public Libraries.” (The principal Act.)
1893. “56 Vict., c. 11. An Act to amend the Public Libraries Act,
1892.”
1898. “61 & 62 Vict., c. 53. An Act to provide for the Punishment of
Offences in Libraries.”
1901. “1 Edw. 7. An Act to amend the Acts relating to Public
Libraries, Museums and Gymnasiums, and to regulate the liability of
managers of libraries to proceedings for libel.”
[NOTE.--This Act does _not_ deal with actions for libel. It was
originally intended to do so, but the clauses were struck out of the
bill, and the title escaped emendation.]
=2.= The whole of these are in force, and they repeal all the former
Acts dating from 1850, while incorporating some of their provisions. In
addition to these general Acts, a considerable number of local Acts have
been passed on behalf of various towns, which include provisions for the
modification of the general Acts, chiefly in regard to removing the
limitation of the rate, and for other purposes. Such powers are usually
contained in improvement or tramway Acts, and the principal towns which
have obtained them include Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Halifax, Darwen, Sheffield, Cardiff, etc. Several towns, like Brighton,
Huddersfield, Kingston-on-Thames, have also special Acts which confer
the power of establishing libraries, independently of the general Acts,
so that the public libraries of Britain are not constituted under one
general law.
=3.= The Public Library Law is further modified or extended by various
other statutes which were passed for different purposes, and the
principal Acts of this kind are as follows:
“24 & 25 Vict., c. 97. An Act to consolidate and amend the Statute Law
of England and Ireland relating to malicious injuries to property,”
1861.
This gives power to prosecute for misdemeanour any person who
unlawfully and maliciously destroys or damages any book, manuscript,
etc., in any public museum, gallery, cabinet or library.
“56 & 57 Vict., c. 73. An Act to make further provision for local
government in England and Wales,” 1894.
Enables rural parishes to adopt the Public Libraries Act, 1892, by
means of a parish meeting or poll of the voters in the parish.
“62 & 63 Vict., c. 14. An Act to make better provision for local
government in London,” 1899.
Confers the power of adopting the Public Libraries Act, 1892, on the
Metropolitan Borough Councils, by extending to them the provisions of
the Public Libraries Act, 1893.
The remaining statutes which in any way deal with public or private
libraries will be noticed in connexion with the departments of library
administration, to which they specially refer, such as loans, rating,
etc.
The only other Acts of Parliament which may in the future influence
public libraries are the Education Acts passed since 1902. Under these
Acts local Education Boards are empowered to “promote the general
co-ordination of all forms of education,” and in many districts the
education and library authorities are amalgamated for common purposes.
It remains to be seen what further extensions will take place.
=4. Main Provisions of the Municipal Libraries Acts.=--A brief summary
of the leading practical points of the various Acts will serve to give
an idea of the powers which are conferred upon municipal authorities in
regard to libraries:
(_a_) ADOPTION OF ACTS IN TOWNS.--The Acts may be adopted in any city,
county borough, burgh or urban district by a resolution passed by the
council, at a special meeting of which a month’s notice shall have
been given, and the resolution must be advertised publicly in the
usual way, and a copy sent to the Local Government Board, if the
adoption is in England or Ireland; while a notice of the fact of
adoption must also be sent.
(_b_) ADOPTION OF ACTS IN PARISHES.--In parishes in England and
Scotland the Acts can only be adopted by a majority vote of the
householders or voters.
(_c_) LIBRARY RATE.--A rate of one penny in the £ on the rateable
value of an administrative area is the limit fixed by the Act, but
power is given parishes to fix a smaller sum by a popular vote, and
urban districts of all kinds to remove or fix any rate within the
limit of one penny by resolution of the council.
(_d_) POWERS.--The Library Authority may provide public libraries,
museums, schools for science, art galleries and schools for art, and
for that purpose may purchase and hire land, and erect, take down,
rebuild, alter, repair and extend buildings, and fit up, furnish and
supply the same with all requisite furniture, fittings and
conveniences. The Library Authority shall exercise the general
management, regulation and control of every department established
under the provisions of the Acts, and may provide books, newspapers,
maps and specimens of art and science, and cause the same to be bound
and repaired when necessary. Also appoint salaried officers and
servants, and dismiss them, and make regulations for the safety and
use of every library, museum, gallery and school under its control,
and for admission of the public thereto. Power is also given to make
agreements with other library authorities for the joint use of library
or other buildings; and to borrow money, with the sanction of the
central authorities, for the purpose of buying sites, erecting
buildings and furnishing them. The Irish Act of 1877 also gives power
to establish schools of music as part of a library scheme.
=5. Non-Municipal Libraries: Acts of Parliament.=--The legislation
affecting the large number of British libraries which are not supported
out of the rates is neither extensive nor satisfactory. The chief
feature of most of the Acts of Parliament which have been passed seems
to be the benevolent one of granting certain facilities to various kinds
of landowners to divest themselves of their property in order to provide
sites for literary and scientific institutions. There are similar
clauses in the Public Libraries Acts, and, of course, most of the Acts
named apply to municipal libraries; but in reality this kind of
legislation is not particularly valuable. To make the transfer of land
for public purposes more easy is quite laudable, but it has not yet had
the effect of inducing landowners to part with free plots of land as
building sites, either to public library authorities or literary
institutions.
=6.= The principal Act bearing on literary and scientific institutions
is entitled “An Act to afford greater facilities for the establishment
of Institutions for the promotion of Literature and Science and the Fine
Arts, and to provide for their better regulation,” 17 & 18 Vict., c.
112, 1854. This is nearly all taken up with provisions for transfers of
lands and other property, and with a few regulations concerning members,
rules, altering, extending or dissolving the institution, etc. This Act
was afterwards to some extent modified by “An Act to facilitate the
transfer of Schools for Science and Art to Local Authorities,” 54 & 55
Vict., c. 61, 1891. These, and the other Acts referred to, which deal
with transfers of property, have had very little to do with the
development of voluntary literary and scientific institutions or
libraries; the principal statute under which most of them are now
governed being an Act passed primarily for quite a different purpose.
This is the “Act to amend the ‘Companies Act, 1862,’” 30 & 31 Vict., c.
131, 1867, under Section 23 of which power is given the Board of Trade
to grant licences to literary and similar associations, providing for
registration with limited liability, and conferring all the privileges
attaching to limited companies. In connexion with this Act, and those of
1862 and 1877, the Board of Trade have issued a series of circulars and
forms, which include draft rules, articles of association, etc. Under
these licences a considerable number of British literary institutions
have been established and organized.
=7. British Colonial Library Legislation= has proceeded very much on the
lines adopted in the mother country, and in every case the permissive
character of the Acts has been preserved, and, in most cases, the rate
limitation. On the other hand, some effort has been made to keep in
touch with schools and universities.
In =South Africa= a Government proclamation established the South
African Public Library at Cape Town in 1818. This was further regulated
by an ordinance passed in 1836, which gave the library the right to
receive a free copy of every publication issued in CAPE COLONY. Other
libraries in the large towns now receive grants from the Government, and
a large number of smaller libraries also receive grants equal to the
annual average amount raised by subscriptions and donations during the
three preceding years; but in no case shall the amount of the
Parliamentary grant exceed £150 for any one library in one year. No
grants are made if less than £25 is raised by subscription. In return
for the grant, reading-rooms and reference libraries are to be open free
to the public, and an annual report has to be presented to the
Government. In NATAL the same arrangement is made, though on a much
smaller scale. In both colonies books are only lent for home reading to
subscribers. In 1874 an Act was passed by the Legislature of Natal for
regulating literary and other societies not legally incorporated.
In =Canada=, under a General Libraries Act of 1854, County Councils were
authorized to establish four classes of libraries: (1) Ordinary common
school libraries in each school-house for the use of children and
ratepayers; (2) a general public library available to all ratepayers in
the municipality; (3) professional libraries of books on teaching, etc.,
for teachers only; and (4) a library in any public institution under the
control of a municipality. Arrangements were made whereby the Education
Office sold books at low rates to the school libraries; and afterwards
the Education Department of the Legislature gave annual grants, equal to
the amounts contributed by members for book purchase, to mechanics’
institutes, etc., and subsequently increased such grants for books to
$400 (£80) annually. The province of Ontario, in 1882, passed “An Act to
provide for the Establishment of Free Libraries,” on lines very similar
to the English Acts. Power is given any city, town or incorporated
village to provide libraries, newsrooms, museums and branches, on the
petition and with the consent of the qualified electors. The management
is vested in a board chosen from the Town Council, citizens other than
councillors, and the Public School Boards. The library rate is limited
to an “annual rate not exceeding one half of a mill in the dollar upon
the assessed value of all rateable, real and personal property.” This
form of limitation is borrowed from the practice of the United States.
About ninety places have adopted this Free Libraries Act in Ontario. In
1895 an Act was passed in Ontario to enable mechanics’ institutes to
change their names and transfer their property to municipalities on
condition that the libraries were made free to the public.
The =Australian= colonies have all passed separate laws, somewhat
similar to those in force in other parts of the Empire, in regard to
their adoption being left to local option, and rates being more or less
limited. In 1870 VICTORIA passed an Act establishing the Library, Museum
and National Art Gallery at Melbourne, and in 1885 “The Free Libraries
Act” was passed. But, in 1890, these Acts were repealed by “An Act to
consolidate the Laws relating to Libraries.” The Melbourne Public
Library, which was established in 1853, is now wholly supported by
Government, and it lends books to any municipality in the colony. In
addition, the Government make grants from public funds to most of the
mechanics’ institutions, athenæums and other literary societies in
Victoria.
SOUTH AUSTRALIA has quite a body of library laws, dating from 1863, when
the South Australian Institution was incorporated, but most of them have
been repealed or incorporated in the two principal Acts regulating
institutes and free libraries. By the various Acts passed in connexion
with institutes or literary societies, grants in aid are made by
Parliament on lines similar to those in force in the other colonies,
while rules and regulations are made and power given to transfer such
institutes to the municipalities. Public libraries are regulated by “An
Act to establish Free Libraries in Corporate Towns and District
Councils,” 1898, subsequently amended by an Act of 1902. This Act gives
local authorities power, on the request and with the consent of the
ratepayers, to adopt the Act, subject to the rate not exceeding 3d. in
the £. Municipal libraries are also entitled to receive the same grants
as are made to institutes.
In NEW SOUTH WALES public libraries may be established under the
“Municipalities Act,” 1867. The Government makes grants for the purchase
of books on a scale according to population, and other funds must be
provided by the subscriptions of members. Schools of art are entitled to
receive a Government grant in proportion to the amount of monetary
support accorded by the public. In addition, the Sydney Public Library
(established in 1869) is entirely supported by the Government, and it
sends out carefully selected boxes of books to 128 institutes throughout
New South Wales, the entire cost being defrayed by Parliament.
In WESTERN AUSTRALIA grants are made to institutes as in the other
colonies, but there is no general Library Act in existence yet. In 1887
the Government established a Public Library at Perth, and contributes
£3000 per annum for its maintenance. The only legislative enactment
concerning libraries in Western Australia is an Act for establishing a
Law and Parliamentary Library for the Legislature, which was passed in
1873 and amended in 1889.
QUEENSLAND passed an “Act to consolidate and amend the Laws relating to
Municipal Institutions, and to provide more effectually for local
government,” 1878. This was extended by the “Divisional Boards Act” of
1887, and now Municipal Councils or Divisional Boards may make bye-laws
for the establishment, maintenance and management of public libraries.
Brisbane Free Public Library, the only library of importance opened
under this Act, has an annual grant from the municipal funds varying
from £800 to £1000. One hundred and forty schools of art throughout the
colony also receive Government grants for library and other purposes to
the extent of about 8s. 2d. for every pound subscribed by members.
TASMANIA has a model library law, which is worthy of adoption in every
civilized country. It is contained in “An Act to amend the Law relating
to Public Libraries,” passed in 1867. It is so short, and so much to the
point, that the whole of it may be quoted. After a two-line preamble it
declares that: “The Municipal Council of every municipality may, from
time to time, apply such sum as it sees fit, out of the rates of such
municipality, in and towards the formation and maintenance of Public
Libraries within such municipality.” That is the whole Act, and it gives
no indication of the grudging limitations which other countries inflict.
The only blemish on this admirable statute is the fact that it is not
compulsory. Most of the Tasmanian towns being small, only Hobart has put
the library law into force, by appropriating a penny rate to the support
of the Tasmanian Public Library (1849), which is also maintained by
Government grants. The small libraries throughout Tasmania receive
grants, on the usual conditions, from the Government.
The library law of NEW ZEALAND is based on a series of Acts, similar to
those passed in this country for the regulation of municipal libraries
and literary institutions. The principal Acts are: (1) “An Act to
promote the establishment of Public Libraries,” 1869, giving power for
the governing body of a city, village or district to adopt the Act with
the consent of the ratepayers, and to levy a rate not exceeding 1d. in
the £; (2) “An Act to confer powers on Public Libraries and Mechanics’
Institutes,” 1875--a series of rules for incorporation and management;
(3) “An Act to promote the establishment and support of Public
Libraries,” 1877. In this Act it is laid down that the grant for public
libraries is to be apportioned among provincial districts, in proportion
to the population of such districts, and that a subsidy equal to the
amount of the library rate is to be paid to municipal libraries
established under the Act of 1869. Free admission to reading-rooms is
permitted, but no person to be allowed to borrow unless he contributes
not less than 5s. per annum.
None of the =West Indian= dependencies have legislation relating to
libraries, although grants are paid from Government funds towards the
maintenance of libraries in different British possessions.
In =India= the Government subsidizes only libraries connected with the
leading departments of State, such as law and parliamentary libraries
for the use of legislators and the Councils forming the Indian
Government. It cannot be said to redound to the credit of the Government
that the only public library systems in India have been established in
native States. The Gaekwar of Baroda has instituted such a system, which
extends from the capital city to the smallest village, and his example
has been followed by the native State of Indore.
The British colonial libraries are thus established and regulated on
lines very similar to the municipal libraries of this country, and
literary institutions of all kinds are incorporated and recognized in
the same way as in the United Kingdom. There are numerous differences,
however, in points of detail, because, although the permissive clauses
are retained for municipal libraries in every case, in some cases, such
as Tasmania and South Australia, the rate limit is either non-existent
or greatly increased. Again, it is a universal provision in colonial
administration for the Governments to assist all kinds of libraries, to
the extent of contributing, within limits, as much money as is raised by
the subscriptions of members or produced by a municipal library rate.
Also, more attempt is made, especially in Canada, to embody the
libraries as part of the national system of education, and in this
respect our colonies are ahead of the mother country.
=8.= The Library Legislation of the =United States= is of very great
importance, because of its variety, liberality and consistent aim to
make libraries an essential part of the system of national education.
As Dr Thomas Bray was the first to procure library legislation in
England, so was he the first to obtain a law of this kind in North
America. He founded a library in South Carolina, which in 1700 formed
the subject of an Act passed by the Legislative Assembly of South
Carolina for its regulation and protection. In 1715 a similar law for
the same purpose was passed by the Legislative Assembly of North
Carolina. In subsequent years many laws were passed by different States
for the incorporation and regulation of all kinds of social,
subscription, mercantile and other libraries, much on the same lines as
were found necessary in other countries, in order to give such
associations legal standing and recognition. In some of the States laws
have been enacted providing for the payment of an annual grant to
proprietary libraries, on condition that they are made free to the
general public for reference purposes. This plan of utilizing existing
library facilities for the public benefit is common to both the United
States and our own colonies, and there are many less effective ways of
securing reading privileges at a comparatively cheap rate. It would add
enormously to the educational resources of London, for example, if, in
return for an annual Government grant, the general public could have
access to the reading-rooms of some of the more important literary,
scientific and artistic libraries, especially those which are rich in
the current periodical literature of other countries.
In the “Report of the Commissioner of Education” for the United States,
1895-96, vol. i., there is a very elaborate account of the “Library
Legislation in the United States,” to which reference must be made by
those who want minute details of the laws of the different States of the
Union. Here it is only possible to deal with the laws affecting school
and municipal libraries, and to give typical examples of the legislation
in each class.
In 1835 the New York State Legislature passed a law establishing
libraries for the school districts of the State. These libraries were
much extended and improved by later laws, and till 1853 they practically
supplied the place of the public libraries. Other States established
these school district libraries, open to scholars and all citizens,
Massachusetts and Michigan following in 1837, Connecticut in 1839, Iowa
and Rhode Island in 1840, and others at various dates down to 1876, when
Colorado passed a similar law. The failure of this system in many places
led to the first Town Library Law being passed by the Legislature of
Massachusetts in 1848, under which the City of Boston was authorized to
establish a free public library and levy a tax of $5000, or £1000, for
its support. This was the first State law passed in America, and in 1849
New Hampshire passed a general law for the whole State. Massachusetts
next extended its library law from the City of Boston to the whole State
in 1851, and Maine followed in 1854. The other northern States followed
slowly, till now nearly all the States, save a few in the South and
West, have laws enabling municipal libraries to be established. Previous
to this, most of the States, as they became incorporated in the Union,
established libraries for the use of the legislative councils in the
capital towns of each State, and these State Libraries, as they are
called, constitute a very important class of public library in the
United States. The first actual municipal library opened in the United
States was that of the town of Peterboro’, in New Hampshire, which in
1833 established and supported out of the local taxes a public library,
which still exists. From this it appears that there was nothing either
in the Federal or State law of the United States to prevent any town
from supporting a library at the public expense if it saw fit. The
principle of interference in local affairs by central authorities is,
however, a thoroughly Anglo-Saxon convention or principle, and though
the Federal Legislature in America does not impose local laws on the
State authorities, these State legislatures impose the same restrictions
upon local municipal authorities which are common throughout the British
Empire.
The main provisions of the State Library Laws of America are:
(1) The adoption of the library laws of the State by any city or
municipal council, with or without the petition or consent of the
ratepayers. The practice differs in the various States, but it is
permissive and not compulsory in every State.
(2) Power to levy a rate for the establishment and support of
municipal libraries, varying from the fraction of a mill per dollar on
the taxable value of the town to any sum the council may see fit to
levy.
(3) Power to appoint trustees and do everything necessary for the
equipment and efficient administration of the libraries.
It is important to note that in the United States the basis of taxation
is entirely different from what it is in this country. Here rental,
minus a certain deduction, is adopted as the unit from which to make up
the rateable value of a town. In the United States the value of all
property is taken, instead of mere rental, as the unit from which the
rateable value is built up. If a house in England is worth £420, and
rents at £36, it would be assessed at about £30, and the library rate
would be levied upon the £30, producing 2s. 6d. In the United States the
same house, plus contents, would pay rates on the £420, being the value
of the property, but on a smaller poundage. One mill on the dollar is
the thousandth part of 4s. 2d., or about one-twentieth of 1d. If,
therefore, the library rate in an American town is 1 mill, or the
twentieth of 1d., on the dollar, property valued at £420, or $2100,
would pay a total library rate of about 8s. 6d. Other classes of
property, such as live stock, crops, etc., are also taxed, so that in
America the produce of even a comparatively small library rate is much
greater than in a town the same size in England, and this fact should
always be kept in mind when comparisons are being made between the
library systems of the two countries.
There is one other point which should be mentioned as illustrative of
the difference of the methods of the United Kingdom and the United
States in regard to the adoption of the library laws by municipalities.
In those States of America where a poll of the citizens is required
before the libraries can be established, no special vote is taken, but
instead, at the annual election of councillors, the voting papers bear
the question: Are you in favour of a library being established at a tax
of ---- mills on the dollar? Thus at one election the municipal council
is returned to office, and their library policy dictated to them by the
ratepayers. The liberal library laws of the United States have produced
a great number of very large and magnificently equipped public
libraries, which are administered by well-educated officers, who are
paid adequate salaries for the work they accomplish. No other country in
the world can show such a scheme of libraries closely in touch with all
the other educational bodies and recognized by the State as part of the
national system of education.
In one respect the library authorities in the United States have shown
more wisdom than those of other countries, by establishing Boards of
Library Commissioners charged with the responsibility of supervising the
library work of the whole of a State. These Library Commissions are
established in some of the States, but not in all, and are generally
composed of five or six educational experts. They have power to advise
in the establishment of local libraries in every respect as regards
selection of books, cataloguing, etc., and may expend public money in
the purchase of books for libraries in towns which do not possess
municipal libraries. They are also authorized to pay for all clerical
work required in connexion with the Board, to issue reports and collect
statistics, and in some cases to organize travelling libraries. All
these State Library Commissions issue handbooks, and those of New Jersey
and Wisconsin will give some idea of the important work in co-ordinating
the library forces of America now being accomplished by these
Commissions.
=9.= No country in =Europe= has a library law like that in force in
Britain and the United States, but a certain amount of recognition is
accorded to public libraries by the State in most countries. Municipal
libraries exist in France under State direction, but very few towns in
other countries have done much to foster public libraries in their
midst; but in recent years movements for the establishment of municipal
libraries on British or American lines have been initiated in several
European countries, and such libraries are now to be found in Norway,
Holland and Germany. In some cases endowed or university or royal
libraries are recognized or partly supported by the State or the
municipal authorities, but so far no European nation has passed a
general library law which gives communities direct control of the
establishment, organization and support of public libraries by means of
a tax or rate.
=10.= It is fitting to close this chapter with a brief reference to
=future library legislation in Great Britain=. The most urgent and
insistent need, without which further development is impossible, is to
remove or raise the limitation of one penny in the pound on the library
rate, which was fixed by the Act of 1855. Over forty places, including
nearly all the large towns, have acquired extended rating powers by
means of special local Acts, but such a course is practically
prohibitive in the small towns, where relief is generally needed most.
In view of the growth of the demand for branch libraries, technical and
commercial departments, children’s reading-rooms, and for educational
work in many directions--extensions certainly never contemplated by the
original Acts--the penny limitation is an anachronism, which it was the
business of Parliament to have removed long ago. Another anomaly which
presses for remedy is that the County Councils, alone of all the related
local government bodies, such as Borough and Urban District Councils,
have no expressed power of adopting the Libraries Acts. The consequence
has been detrimental to the establishment of village libraries. A Parish
Council may adopt the Acts, and a few parishes have done so, but the
yield of a penny rate in a parish is so small that in most cases it is
impossible to meet even necessary administrative expenses, with nothing
whatever left over for books and papers. It is not surprising in these
circumstances that the rural population of the country is still deprived
of the social and educational advantages of the public library. What is
obviously indicated is a larger administrative authority, such as the
County Council, which could group the parishes, pool the income from the
rate, and administer from one centre a system of travelling libraries,
combined with local stationary collections of books and the provision of
suitable reading-rooms in the various districts. Such schemes have been
initiated in about a dozen counties by the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust
in conjunction with the County Councils, but while the Scottish
Education Act of 1918 gives County Education Authorities power to
provide and maintain libraries, there is no mention of libraries in the
English Education Act of 1918. These and other needed reforms in the
library law are made in a Bill, now being promoted by the Library
Association, which every well-wisher of the movement must hope will
receive the sanction of the Legislature without further delay.
=11.= The solution of the problem may, indeed, come from another
direction, as the present President of the Board of Education (Mr H. A.
L. Fisher) indicated in an interview with a library deputation (April
1919) that the powers relating to public libraries then held by the
Local Government Board were to be transferred to another department. The
Board of Education was thus indicated, and it may be that new sources of
support, means of co-ordination, and possibly periodical Government
inspection of libraries, may flow from the transfer; but it is too early
to speculate upon the matter.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
=12. English Legislation:=
Chambers, G. F., and Fovargue, H. W. The Law Relating to Public
Libraries and Museums, etc. 4th edition. 1899.
This is the principal work on the subject.
Fovargue, H. W. Summary of Library Law. N.D.
=13. Foreign and Colonial Legislation:=
_Canada._ Hardy, E. A. The Public Library. 1912.
_Colonies._ Society of Comparative Legislation. Legislation of the
Empire, 1898-1907. 4 vols. 1909.
_France._ Pellisson, M. Les Bibliothèques à l’étranger et en France.
1906.
Richou, G. Traité de l’administration des bibliothèques publiques.
1885.
Robert, U. Recueil de lois, decrets, etc., concernant les
bibliothèques publiques, etc. 1883.
_Germany._ Franke, J. Der Leihbetrieb der Öffentlichen Bibliotheken.
1905.
_United States._ Bureau of Education. Report of the Commissioner,
1895-6. Vol. i., chapter ix., Library Legislation in the U.S., pp.
523-599.
The fullest account.
Yust, W. F. Library Legislation. Preprint of American Library
Association, Manual of Library Economy, chapter ix. 1911.
Annual reviews of the library legislation in the U.S. appear in the
Library Jl.
For articles, see Cannons, pp. 90-96: LWK, Legislation, Library
Commissions, pp. 241-245.
CHAPTER II
ADOPTION OF ACTS, FOUNDATION AND COMMITTEES
=14. Methods of Adopting the Public Libraries Acts.=--There are only two
methods prescribed by the Libraries Acts under which public libraries
can be established. In rural parishes a parish meeting, called upon a
requisition signed by ten or more voters and held at the time and place
appointed, may adopt the Acts by a bare majority of those present and
voting. At least seven days’ notice of the meeting must be given, but it
is better to allow a month. Should a poll be demanded, it must be
conducted by ballot according to the rules laid down by the Local
Government Board. Full particulars, including forms of requisition, will
be found in Chambers and Fovargue’s _Law Relating to Public Libraries_,
1899.
=15.= As already stated in Section 4, any county borough, urban
district, burgh or other similar authority may adopt the Libraries Acts
by a resolution of the council, without reference to the voters. A
month’s notice of motion must be given in the customary form, and a bare
majority of the council can pass the resolution. A copy of the
resolution adopting the Acts must be sent to the Local Government Board,
and it must also be advertised in the local papers and posted on the
doors of all the churches and chapels--where such notices are usually
posted. It is best to make the resolution state a particular date when
the Acts are to come into operation, as is required by the Scotch Act.
In some places the Acts after being adopted have been allowed to become
a dead-letter owing to neglect of this necessary precaution. As the
urban districts and burghs are given power to fix the amount of rate
within the limitation of one penny, it is not necessary to include in
the resolution adopting the Acts any stipulation as to the amount of
rate. A useful form of resolution is as follows:
That the Public Libraries Act [_state date of principal Act_] and all
subsequent Acts amending the same be, and are hereby adopted, for the
county borough of -------- [_state place_], and shall be in force
throughout the borough [_or other area_] on and after the . . . . . .
day of . . . . . . . . [_state year_].
=16.= As the power of adopting the Acts in populous areas is now vested
in the local authorities, there is no longer, as formerly, any need to
educate opinion among ratepayers as to the necessity for establishing
public libraries. The Library Association has issued a useful pamphlet,
_The Establishment of Public Libraries_, 1909, and most of the other
propagandist literature of a useful kind appears in the various books of
Mr Thomas Greenwood (_Public Libraries_, _British Library Year Book_,
etc.), and these should be consulted by anyone in a rural parish who
desires to raise the question in a practical form. As regards urban
districts the initiative may safely be left in the hands of the
intelligent members of council, who will sooner or later move in the
direction of placing their districts in line with all the other large
towns in the country.
=17.= At present about 534 towns and districts in the United Kingdom
have adopted the Public Libraries Acts, or local Acts, and this number
includes every large town in the country. The principal areas still
unprovided with public libraries are the Metropolitan Borough of
Marylebone and the towns and districts of Bacup, Crewe, Scarborough,
Swindon, Govan, Leith, Pollokshaws and Wishaw; together with Dover,
Jarrow, Llandudno and Weymouth, which, though they have adopted the
Acts, have taken no steps to put them into force.
=18. Endowments.=--Little need be said about the foundation of public
libraries by endowment or bequest. The wills of Stephen Mitchell and
George Baillie, of Glasgow, are models of what a liberal bequest should
be, both as regards the amounts bequeathed and the conditions laid down
for the formation of the library itself. The practical condition
attached to all the gifts made by Mr Andrew Carnegie and Mr J. Passmore
Edwards for public library purposes should be adopted by every
benefactor who proposes to found a library. This is the very sensible
one that, if the gift of money is accepted by the community, the local
authority must adopt the Public Libraries Acts, in order to maintain the
library in a state of efficiency for all time. The only alteration
suggested in the form of future bequests is that, when money is offered
to a small town on the condition that it adopts the Libraries Acts, the
whole of the gift should not necessarily take the form of a building
fund. Small towns usually have very inadequate incomes from the library
rate, and for this reason it might be wise if a fair proportion of the
gift were directed to be invested as a book fund. A large library
building without books is by no means as useful to the people as a much
less ambitious building provided with a fund which permits of the annual
purchase of £50 to £100 worth of books, independently of the library
rate. At the same time, the endowment of libraries in the manner
suggested would not always act as an encouragement to town councils to
provide proper funds for libraries; indeed, it might act as an excuse
for withholding them.
=19. Appointment of Committees.=--The first step after the Libraries
Acts have been adopted by a local authority will be the appointment of a
committee, and it is desirable that only capable men should be elected.
The best interests of the library will be served by a committee
consisting of good business men and literary or professional men or
women, in about equal proportions. It is quite evident that the
legislature did not contemplate the formation of public libraries by
committees consisting exclusively of the rank and file of local
authorities, who are chiefly concerned with paving, drainage and other
equally material matters. By Section 15, Sub-section 3, of the “Public
Libraries Act, 1892,” it is ordained that “an urban authority may if it
think fit appoint a committee and delegate to it all or any of its
powers and duties under this section, and the said committee shall to
the extent of such delegation be deemed to be the library authority.
Persons appointed to be members of the committee need not be a member of
the urban authority.” The “Public Libraries (Ireland) Amendment Act,
1877,” gives similar power to elect members outside the local authority.
Section 4 ordains that “the committee in which the general management,
regulation and control of such libraries, museums or schools may be
vested under the provisions of the 12th Section of the principal Act may
consist in part of persons not members of the council or board or
commissioners.” By the “Public Libraries Consolidation (Scotland) Act,
1887,” Section 18 ordains that the local authority shall “appoint a
committee, consisting of not less than ten nor more than twenty members,
half of whom shall be chosen from amongst the magistrates and council,
or board, as the case may be, and the remaining half from amongst the
householders of the burgh or parish other than the magistrates and
council, or board, and three members of such committee shall form a
quorum.” It is further ordained, Section 21, that this committee “shall
manage, regulate and control all libraries and museums established under
this Act, or to which this Act applies; and shall have power to do all
things necessary for such management.” It is thus clear that local
authorities are fully empowered to select the best expert advice it is
possible to obtain in the district, and that the administration of the
library should not rest entirely in the hands of the local authority. It
is therefore advisable that library committees, while consisting of a
majority of members of the local authority, should be strengthened by a
good proportion of members selected from among the best qualified
citizens. The principle of co-option is compulsory in the case of
Education Committees, and so far as this principle is concerned the
arguments for its adoption on Library Committees are equally cogent.
=20. Constitution of Committees.=--The portions of the Acts already
quoted make it plain that in Scotland the library committees shall be
independent bodies, with power to provide everything necessary, without
requiring the sanction of the local authorities, or doing more than from
time to time reporting their proceedings. In Ireland, under Section 12
of the principal Act, “the general management, regulation and control of
such libraries and museums, etc., shall be, as to any borough, vested in
and exercised by the council or board, and as to any town, in and by the
town commissioners, _or such committee as they respectively may from
time to time appoint, who may from time to time purchase and provide the
necessary fuel, books, appoint and dismiss officers, make rules_,” etc.
This approximates closely to the English law, which differs from that of
the Scottish in leaving the power of appointing an independent or
semi-independent library committee in the discretion of the local
authority. The English Act has already been quoted in the previous
section, and it now remains to give reasons why every Public Library
Committee should be independent of the control of the local authority,
save for certain purposes. The fact that, in Scotland, the hybrid
composition of the committee is regarded as a reason for making it
practically independent of the local authority offers a strong argument
in favour of a similar course being pursued in England and Ireland. A
mixed committee is entitled to act without the special sanction of the
local authority, if only for the reason that all its members cannot take
part in the ratifying proceedings of the council or board. It seems
illogical to invite capable citizens who are not members of the council
to pass certain resolutions and then submit them for confirmation to a
council on which they have no vote or voice. Furthermore, a committee of
any kind appointed to administer an Act, like the Public Libraries Act,
which lays down clearly what may be done and how much may be expended,
does not require the same kind of oversight and control as an ordinary
committee appointed for some municipal purpose with comparatively
unlimited powers of expenditure. No committee appointed for an
educational purpose should be subject to the delays and difficulties
caused by having to submit all its proceedings for confirmation by a
superior authority. All these arguments furnish reasons why local
authorities in England and Ireland should follow Scotland in giving
Public Library Committees a complete or partial delegation of powers
under the Public Libraries Acts.
=21. Delegation of Powers.=--A delegation of powers under the various
sections of the Acts quoted should provide for a fair measure of
independence for the committee, with a fair share of general control on
the part of the local authority. As a matter of policy, as well as in
the public interest, it is very desirable to maintain harmonious
relations between a central board and its acting committees, and for
these reasons information as to the proceedings of a committee should
always be available, if required. But, for the reasons already set
forth, a Public Library Committee should be a _reporting_ and not merely
a _recommending_ body. With the exception of public libraries in the
Metropolitan Boroughs, which are compelled by Section 8 (3) of the
“London Government Act, 1899,” to receive the sanction of the Borough
Council and its Finance Committee for expenditures over £50, every
Public Library Committee in England and Ireland should be constituted
under a special delegation of powers, such as was contemplated and
authorized by the Acts already quoted. A fair and workable form of
delegation of powers, which has been adopted with good results, is as
follows:
That the [_name of authority_] hereby delegates to the Public Library
Committee all the powers and duties vested in it as the Library
Authority under the Public Libraries Acts, 1892, and all subsequent
amendments, with the following reservations:--
1. The sanction and raising of loans for new buildings or other
purposes.
2. The making and collection of the annual library rate.
3. The confirmation of agreements with adjoining library authorities
for the joint use of libraries.
4. The confirmation of the appointment or dismissal of the librarian.
5. The sanction of any scheme for the formation of branch libraries.
6. The proceedings of the Public Library Committee to be reported
monthly to the [_name of authority_], but only for confirmation and
sanction as regards Clauses 1 to 5 of this constitution.
7. The librarian to act as clerk to the Public Library Committee.
As regards Metropolitan Borough Councils, it may be desirable to add a
clause to the effect that no expenditure exceeding £50 be incurred
without an estimate being first obtained by the Finance Committee of the
Borough Council. But it is doubtful, if even this restriction is
necessary, if, when the rate is made, the Borough Finance Committee
passes an estimate for the whole amount of the public library rate, to
be expended on general library purposes according to a budget or scheme
prepared by the Public Library Committee. This will get over the
difficulty of having to obtain fresh estimates every time £50 worth of
books is ordered. The “Public Libraries Act (Amendments) Act, 1901,”
contains a clause making it quite clear that for library purposes a
Metropolitan Borough is an urban district.
=22. Standing Orders.=--The standing orders or bye-laws regulating
Public Library Committees need not be very elaborate. Generally, they
should be the same as those governing other committees of the local
authority, with the exceptions as to powers. The committee should be
elected annually by the local authority, and the number of members
should be small rather than large. The needs of districts differ, but a
Public Library Committee of over twelve may be an encumbrance rather
than a help to the institution. At the same time a larger committee
means a larger representation on the Council, and help from more people
who are actually or nominally interested in the library service.
Probably the largest committee in England is that at Wallasey, which has
thirty members, of whom thirteen are Council members. Where such large
committees exist it is usually found that the actual executive work
devolves upon a sub-committee, such as the Book Sub-Committee. Meetings
are generally held once a month; certainly there is ordinarily no
occasion for the committee to be called more often, and in some towns a
quarterly meeting is found to be sufficient. A chairman should be
elected annually by the committee; he should invariably be a Council
member, as he is the natural representative of the committee on the
Council; but the vice-chairman may fittingly be a co-opted member. The
principle of a constant change of chairmen, adopted in some Councils, is
a bad one on a Library Committee, as the work is quite different, in
many respects, from other departments of the public service, and
knowledge and experience are required if a sound and consistent library
policy is to be pursued. This is impossible under a system in which
chairmen come and go annually. The same remarks apply to the committee
as a whole; its personnel should remain reasonably stable. Three members
should form a quorum. The committee should control its own clerk, who
ought to be the librarian, although, as we have implied, this is by no
means generally the case, and, indeed, is sometimes impossible under the
standing orders of the Council. The Public Libraries Acts require that a
separate account be kept of receipts and expenditure from the library
rate, and library committees should see that this is done in all cases
where the accounts are kept and payments made by the Council officials.
=23. Duties of Committees.=--To a considerable extent these are fixed by
the delegation of powers granted and the standing orders adopted. But
there are certain broad principles which should be observed by library
committees in the ultimate interest of their work. The chief of these is
that the committee is concerned rather with library policy than with
library administration; with what shall be done rather than with how it
shall be done. The administration, planning, arrangement, methods,
etc., of a library are technical matters purely appertaining to the
librarian; and many libraries are stultified by well-meant and
conscientious interference in details of this character by library
committees. The committee has the right, and it is its duty, to expect
the results of its policy to be visibly effective in the library
service, but it should confide the means of obtaining those results to
its librarian; only in this way can the special training which
librarians now bring to their work be made of maximum use to the
community. With the modifications implied in these principles the duties
of the committee cover:
1. General oversight of buildings, staff and the work of the various
departments of the library.
2. Careful supervision of the selection of books.
3. Compilation and revision of public rules and regulations.
4. Regular checking of accounts and expenditures, including those of
all officers.
5. Regular meetings on fixed dates.
6. Every member of committee should become acquainted with the
elements of public library administration, and for this purpose should
possess copies of all the live Acts of Parliament.
=24.= To cover the work effectively, various sub-committees are
necessary, which should be small, but large enough to give each member
of the committee an actual interest in some definite department of
library work. Usually the sub-committees appointed include a _Book_
Sub-Committee, which undertakes the examining of all lists of books
suggested for purchase; an _Accounts_ Sub-Committee, to which all
financial matters are committed; and a _Staff_ Sub-Committee, which is
concerned with the appointment, dismissal, remuneration, and training of
the employees. Some of the large libraries have a _Buildings_
Sub-Committee to regulate the proper maintenance of library properties;
_Lectures and Extension_ Sub-Committee; _Branches_ Sub-Committee; and
such other groupings as the local circumstances warrant. In most cases,
however, the needs of the authority are met by the three sub-committees
first-named; and the multiplying of sub-committees is not desirable
where there is not enough business to keep them interested and
occupied.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
=25. Adoption of Acts:=
Fovargue, H. W. Adoption of the Public Libraries Acts in England and
Wales. 1896. (L.A. Series, No. 7.)
Greenwood, T. Public Libraries, 1891, p. 76.
Library Association. The Establishment of Public Libraries, 1909.
Lord, J. E. The Free Public Library. Preprint of A.L.A., Man. of Lib.
Econ., chapter vi., 1914.
Wire, G. E. How to Start a Public Library. 1902. (A.L.A. Tracts, No.
2.)
=26. Committees and Trustees:=
Bostwick, A. E. Administration of a Public Library. Preprint of
A.L.A., Man. of Lib. Econ., chapter xii., 1911.
Greenwood, T. Public Library Committees. _In his_ Public Libraries,
1894, p. 352.
Notes for Library Committees. _In_ Greenwood’s Year Book, 1900, p. 1.
Hardy, E. A. The Public Library, chapter v., p. 103.
Sayers, W. C. Berwick. The Library Committee: its Character and Work.
1914. (Library Assistants’ Association Series, No. 6.)
Wynkoop, Asa. Commissions, State Aid, and State Agencies. Preprint of
A.L.A., Man. of Lib. Econ., chapter xxvii., 1913.
For articles, see Cannons, E 1-3, Library Organization and
Administration; E 8-12, Personnel, etc.
CHAPTER III
FINANCE, LOANS AND ACCOUNTS
=27. The Library Rate.=--The general library Acts passed for Ireland,
Scotland and England all limit the amount to be raised by rate for
library purposes to one penny in the pound on the annual rateable rental
of all properties within the areas, with certain exceptions or
modifications as to gardens and agricultural lands. Great doubt exists
as to what is meant by a penny rate and on what value it is to be
levied. Some authorities maintain that the income from a penny rate can
only represent the net sum realized by a penny on the rateable value,
after all deductions have been made on account of empty houses and other
irrecoverable items. Against this may be set the actual practice in
several places, of paying over the full sum which a penny rate on the
nominal rateable value would produce, without any deductions whatsoever.
As the Public Libraries Acts have placed a limitation on the amount of
the library rate, it may be assumed that the libraries were intended to
benefit to the full extent of the rateable value. At any rate the Acts
are silent on the point, and practice differs so much that it is fair to
say that a public library, because of the present limitation, and
because some places now give the full product, is entitled to the full
amount which a penny rate would yield when calculated on the full
rateable value of the town or district, without deduction of any kind,
either for unproductive properties or cost of collection. It has been
decided that no deduction can be made from the income produced by the
library rate on account of the cost of collection, and as this rate is
now collected as part of a general or other unlimited rate, it seems
unfair to saddle it with any part of the cost of collection. If it were
collected as a separate rate, or with rates similarly limited by Act of
Parliament, the position would be different. The difference between the
amount paid over to public libraries and the actual sums which would be
produced were the rate charged on the full rateable value is sometimes
considerable. The losses range from over 20 to 5 per cent., and thus a
considerable limit is placed upon the book-purchasing power of a large
number of libraries.
=28. Unexpended Balances.=--In some places the local authority has
appropriated unexpended balances of the public library rate and applied
them to other local purposes. This action is clearly illegal, and could
only have been taken by those who are ignorant of the decisions of the
Local Government Board on the point. It is true the Acts do not specify
how unexpended balances of the library rate are to be dealt with, but it
is equally true that as the money was raised under a special Act for a
strictly defined purpose, it cannot be diverted to any other purpose,
nor can it be carried forward as a portion of the library rate for a
succeeding year. No doubt the wording of the Act is responsible for the
interpretation which has been put upon the section entitled “Limitations
on expenditure for purpose of Act.” It reads: “A rate or addition to a
rate shall not be levied for the purposes of this Act for any one
financial year in any library district to an amount exceeding one penny
in the pound.” The Local Government Board have decided that any
unexpended balances of the library income must be carried forward to
next year’s library account, without prejudice to the next year’s
library income. This decision has been upheld by all the district
auditors of the Local Government Board, and it is difficult to
understand the reason why a few places still cling to the belief that
the library rate can be further limited by this illegal procedure of
appropriating unexpended balances. Committees who are threatened with
this action can always protect themselves against the injustice by
taking care that there are no balances to appropriate; but it will
prevent them from saving a little money for necessary book purchases,
cleaning or other purposes. It should be pointed out, furthermore, that
the section of the Act above quoted does not really refer to the total
_amount_ to be raised by rate in a given year, but only to the
_poundage_ or rate which may be charged for library purposes, namely,
not more than a penny in the pound. The question of the _product_ of
this rate of a penny is not mentioned anywhere in the Acts, and it is
this lack of clear definition--the failure to distinguish the amount of
a rate from the total amount which it will produce annually--which is
responsible for many of the difficulties hitherto met with in
administering the Libraries Acts.
=29. Annual Estimates.=--The Scotch principal Act is the only one which
requires an annual estimate or budget to be prepared by the library
authority for the information of the local authority. Section 30 of the
Act of 1887 provides that “The Committee shall in the month of April in
every year make up, or cause to be made up, an estimate of the sums
required in order to defray the interest of any money borrowed, the
payment of the sinking fund, and the expense of maintaining and managing
all libraries and museums under its control for the year after
Whitsunday then next to come, and for the purpose of purchasing the
books, articles and things authorized by this Act,” etc. This estimate
has to be submitted to the local authority, who “shall provide the
amount required out of the library rate to be levied by it, and shall
pay over to the committee the sum necessary for the annual expenditure
by it in terms of its estimate.” By the standing orders of most local
authorities yearly or half-yearly estimates have to be prepared and
submitted by the various committees, and as practice varies everywhere,
it will be well for the library authority to follow the local practice.
=30.= Local circumstances alter the conditions materially in every
place, and hitherto there has been a lack of uniformity in presenting
financial statements which makes any attempt to produce a model budget
to be suspect. The form of the statement is often governed by the
practice of the Borough Accountant, who arranges the order of items in
accordance with his own views; but wherever it is possible to do so, it
would be well if the form of annual estimate conformed with the order
adopted in the report made by Professor W. G. S. Adams to the Carnegie
United Kingdom Trust in 1915, _On Library Provision and Policy_, which
would arrange in some such order as in the table on page 46.
Each of these items will probably need analysis, and the order given
here may be inverted; indeed, the form shown is merely meant to be
suggestive and to show the nature of the information which the Council
usually requires when it is considering the annual estimates.
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMITTEE ESTIMATE, 1919. |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+
|_Expenditure._ |
+--------+--------------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| Actual | |Estimate| Actual |Estimate|
| 1917. | | 1918. | 1918. | 1919. |
+--------+--------------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| 1. £897|Books and Binding | £900 | £910 | £920 |
| 2. £300|Newspapers and Periodicals| £350 | £380 | £380 |
| 3. etc.|Salaries and Wages | .. | .. | .. |
| 4. |Rent and Loans | .. | .. | .. |
| 5. |Rates and Taxes | .. | .. | .. |
| 6. |Maintenance: | .. | .. | .. |
| 7. | Lighting | .. | .. | .. |
| 8. | Heating | .. | .. | .. |
| 9. | Cleaning | .. | .. | .. |
|10. |Balance | .. | .. | .. |
+--------+--------------------------+--------+--------+--------+
|_Income_ | | | |
+--------+--------------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| 1. |From 0d. rate | .. | .. | .. |
| 2. |From other sources | .. | .. | .. |
+--------+--------------------------+--------+--------+--------+
FIG. 1.--Form for Annual Estimates.
=31.= The distribution of the income over the various items is again
subject to local circumstances; but, thanks to the inquiry of Professor
Adams, a table of comparative distribution of income drawn from the
figures of about 500 library systems throughout the kingdom has been
published, which gives the best information at present available. It is
qualified by the facts we have emphasized in the last paragraph, and
still more by the changed conditions which result from the European War,
which have increased such items as salaries, and reduced the
book-purchasing (and indeed every other purchasing) power of libraries
considerably. We give the table of percentages of expenditure for
libraries with, and without, loans, merely remarking that it may serve
as a rough guide by which library committees may work. Again, the
librarian, in submitting his budget for the use of his committee, will
analyse the items into general administrative, central, reference and
branch libraries’ expenditure, and under each will show salaries as
distinct from wages paid for unskilled service; and books will be
divided into “new,” “replacements,” etc.; periodicals into those filed
permanently and others; maintenance charges into building expenses,
furniture and fittings, stationery, repairs to fabric and furniture, and
so on. The Council as a rule does not require so detailed a statement.
CLASSIFIED PERCENTAGES OF LIBRARY EXPENDITURE
LIBRARIES WITH LOAN CHARGES.
+---------+--------+-------+-------+------+------+------------+-----+
| | | Peri- | | | |Other Items,| |
| | Books |odicals| |Rents |Rates | including | |
| Income. | and | and | Sala- | and | and |Maintenance |Total|
| |Binding.| News- | ries. |Loans.|Taxes.|of Premises,| |
| | |papers.| | | |Light, Heat,| |
| | | | | | | &c. | |
+---------+--------+-------+-------+------+------+------------+-----+
| £ | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
|8000 | | | | | | | |
| & over| 19·06 | 4·96 | 37·5 | 15·46| 2·41 | 20·58 |99·97|
|4000-8000| 18·81 | 5·31 | 39·96 | 12·54| 1·81 | 21·55 |99·98|
|3000-4000| 17·97 | 6·07 | 41·74 | 17·42| 1·09 | 15·68 |99·97|
|2000-3000| 19·53 | 6·44 | 39·33 | 13·5 | 2·38 | 18·78 |99·96|
|1500-2000| 21·09 | 6·24 | 37·87 | 13·13| 2·3 | 19·01 |99·64|
|1000-1500| 19·07 | 7·43 | 37·18 | 16·47| 2·21 | 17·62 |99·98|
| 750-1000| 17·58 | 7·81 | 38·97 | 10·8 | 2·22 | 22·6 |99·86|
| 500- 750| 17·55 | 10·88 | 36·32 | 11·81| 3·10 | 20·22 |99·88|
| 250- 500| 13·12 | 10·25 | 38·9 | 15·09| 4·00 | 18·61 |99·97|
| 100- 250| 16·31 | 13·13 | 33·63 | 21·31| 3·14 | 12·45 |99·97|
|Under 100| 14·32 | 16·15 | 25·84 | 24·48| 2·66 | 19·52 |99·97|
+---------+--------+-------+-------+------+------+------------+-----+
LIBRARIES WITHOUT LOAN CHARGES.
+---------+--------+-------+-------+------+------+------------+-----+
| | | Peri- | | | |Other Items,| |
| | Books |odicals| |Rents |Rates | including | |
| Income. | and | and | Sala- | and | and |Maintenance |Total|
| |Binding.| News- | ries. |Loans.|Taxes.|of Premises,| |
| | |papers.| | | |Light, Heat,| |
| | | | | | | &c. | |
+---------+--------+-------+-------+------+------+------------+-----+
| £ | % | % | % | % | % | % | % |
|1000 | | | | | | | |
| & over| 19·93 | 6·37 | 39·22 | .. | 2·03 | 32·43 |99·98|
| 750-1000| 25·4 | 7·95 | 44·17 | .. | 3·16 | 19·29 |99·97|
| 500- 750| 20·31 | 9·98 | 45·49 | .. | 3·86 | 20·23 |99·97|
| 400- 500| 18·48 | 10·07 | 40·90 | .. | 5·81 | 24·6 |99·86|
| 300- 400| 15·9 | 12·31 | 46·91 | .. | 2·9 | 21·9 |99·92|
| 200- 300| 17·13 | 13·25 | 42·98 | .. | 4·00 | 22·61 |99·97|
| 100- 200| 16·2 | 15·66 | 45·1 | .. | 2·54 | 20·47 |99·97|
| 50- 100| 20·16 | 15·82 | 34·29 | .. | 5·68 | 24·02 |99·97|
|Under 50 | 28·65 | 21·85 | 36·46 | .. | 2·26 | 10·75 |99·97|
+---------+--------+-------+-------+------+------+------------+-----+
FIG. 2.--Returns compiled from Professor Adams’ Report on Library
Provision and Policy [Carnegie United Kingdom Trust], Sec. 31.
=32.= We must consider in some detail the principal expenditures to
which library committees are subject.
=33. Loans.=--The Libraries Acts give fairly full instructions as to
loans for public library purposes. In England under the principal Act
“every library authority, with the sanction of the Local Government
Board . . . may borrow money for the purposes of this Act on the
security of any fund or rate applicable for those purposes.” In parishes
the regulations for borrowing prescribed by the “Local Government Act,
1894,” are to apply. As a preliminary to borrowing, an inquiry is held
locally by a Local Government Board inspector, who receives evidence as
to proposed buildings, sites, amount required, etc., and also hears
objections to the proposal. The Local Government Board print bills
announcing the inquiry, and these must be posted and paid for by the
library authority. At such inquiries full particulars should be prepared
as to income, date of adopting Acts, etc., as well as particulars of the
proposed scheme. After the inquiry is held it is generally about three
months later before the sanction of the Board is received. This states
the amount sanctioned and for what period the money can be borrowed for
sites, buildings, furniture or books, as the case may be.
The security for loans is declared by the “Public Health Act, 1875,”
Section 233, to be the “credit of any fund or all or any rates or rate
out of which they are authorized to defray expenses incurred by them in
the execution of this Act.” And it is further laid down that “they may
mortgage to the persons by or on behalf of whom such sums are advanced
any such fund or rates or rate.” It thus appears that neither library
buildings nor the library rate can be mortgaged for the purposes of
library loans, but only the rate or rates out of which the expenses of
the Public Health Act are paid. This practically means the general rate
of a district.
=34.= The Local Government Board will fix the period for which sums of
money for particular purposes may be borrowed. Generally the periods are
as follows:
For sites or lands 60 or 50 years.
„ buildings (including fixtures like counters,
screens, wall and standard bookcases, wall
newspaper slopes, barriers, etc.) 30 years.[1]
„ books 10 „
„ furniture (tables, chairs, desks, and movable
furniture only) 10 „
[1] A loan for purchasing an existing building will not be sanctioned
by the Local Government Board for a period exceeding twenty or
twenty-five years.
The money may be borrowed from the Public Works Loan Commissioners,
County Councils, Banks, Friendly Societies or private individuals. The
rate of interest varies, according to the state of the money market.
Four per cent. may be regarded as an average interest at present, but
library authorities have borrowed for as low as 3 per cent.
=35.= The methods of repayment vary, and this must be entirely a matter
for local arrangement, and should follow the practice in vogue with
other municipal loans. An equalized repayment of principal and interest
on the annuity system has the advantage of distributing the payments
uniformly over the whole period, and of placing part of the burden on
succeeding ratepayers as well as upon those who establish the library.
This is much fairer than making the pioneer ratepayers practically bear
the whole foundation cost of establishing an institution which increases
in its value to the community as it progresses. On the other hand,
buildings are sure to depreciate in value, and the question of repairs
is a constant one, so that some authorities maintain that loans on
structures should be paid off by annually diminishing instalments of
principal and interest. In Scotland repayments of principal must be made
from a sinking fund which is to be formed from a certain proportion of
the rate put aside annually.
The arrangements for negotiating a loan and drawing up the necessary
deeds should be placed in the hands of a solicitor, but in many cases
the accountant or town clerk of the district is responsible for all
arrangements, and will see that the deed is duly sealed as prescribed by
the Act.
In connexion with this it should be noted that by Section 237 of the
“Public Health Act, 1875,” a register of the mortgages on each rate must
be kept, and that “within fourteen days after the date of any mortgage
an entry shall be made in the register of the number and date thereof,
and of the names and description of the parties thereto, as stated in
the deed.” Furthermore, “every such register shall be open to public
inspection during office hours at the said office [local authority’s
office] without fee or reward.” As the auditor will call for this
register, the clerk to the library authority should see that it is
provided, if the local authority has not already done so.
=36.= The arrangements for loans in Ireland and Scotland are somewhat
similar to those just described. In Ireland no power to borrow was given
under the principal Act, but the Amendment Act of 1877 gives the power,
provided the commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury approve. The
Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland may lend, and power is given to
mortgage, as security, either the borough fund, town fund, or the
library rate itself. In Scotland the local authority may borrow, without
any other consent, on mortgage or bond on the security of the library
rate, a sum or sums not exceeding the capital sum represented by
one-fourth part of the library rate, capitalized at the rate of twenty
years’ purchase of such sum. A sinking fund must be formed, consisting
of an annual sum equal to one-fiftieth part of the money borrowed, which
is to be invested and applied to the purpose of extinguishing the debt.
Before leaving the question of loans, it may be well to offer a word of
warning against the danger of overborrowing, which has very seriously
crippled the work of various libraries. In some places as much as
one-half the library income has to be devoted to the repayment of
principal and interest of loans; in others, one-third is similarly
spent. One-fourth is the maximum which in any case should be set apart
for the purpose.
=37. Assessment to Rates and Taxes.=--The assessment of public library
buildings to rates and taxes has been for long a burning question, and
is still far from final settlement. The limitation of the library rate
to a penny in the pound has always been considered by library
authorities a strong reason why all additional burdens on the meagre
income raised thereby should be resisted. But all local authorities and
assessment committees did not think likewise, and a good deal of
friction resulted.
In 1843 was passed “An Act to exempt from County, Borough, Parochial,
and other Local Rates, Land and Buildings occupied by Scientific or
Literary Societies,” 6 & 7 Vict., c. 36, under which a few public
libraries obtained certificates of exemption from the payment of local
rates, from the Registrar of Friendly Societies, as allowed by this Act.
Some of these certificates were recognized by the rating authorities,
others were ignored, and it was frequently maintained that a public
library was not a scientific or literary society within the meaning of
the Act. In 1896, however, a complete change took place as regards this
point, by a decision of the House of Lords, which ruled that public
libraries were literary societies or institutions for the purposes of
the “Income Tax Act of 1842,” under which such institutions were granted
exemption from the payment of income tax. Although the case, brought by
the Corporation of Manchester against the Surveyor of Income Tax for
Manchester, did not directly refer to the Act of 1843, the decision that
public libraries were literary institutions effected all that was
necessary for the purpose of claiming exemption from local rates under
the “Literary Societies Act of 1843.” A full report of this case and
decision is printed in the _Library_ for 1896, in the _Times_ law
reports and elsewhere. The effect of this decision was to remove any
doubt from the mind of the Registrar of Friendly Societies, who has
power under the Act to grant certificates exempting public libraries
from the payment of local rates, and as a result many libraries obtained
certificates, and now enjoy complete or partial exemption. It is not
necessary to quote the Act of 1843, which can be obtained for one penny
from the King’s printers, but the procedure requisite for obtaining a
certificate of exemption may be noted.
=38.= An application claiming exemption under the 1843 Act must be
addressed to the Registrar of Friendly Societies at London, Edinburgh or
Dublin, as the case may require. With this must be enclosed a copy of
the rules and regulations of the library, signed by the chairman and
three members of committee, and countersigned by the clerk or
librarian. These rules must include the following, or others in similar
terms:--
1. “The ---- Public Library is a society established for purposes of
literature and science exclusively.”
2. “The library is supported in part by a rate levied in accordance with
the Public Libraries Acts, and in part by annual voluntary contributions
of money and gifts of books and periodicals. The Library Committee shall
not make any dividend, gift, division or bonus in money unto or between
any of the members.”
These two rules are absolutely necessary to a successful application,
and, if not already incorporated, should be included by special
resolution of the library authority before application is made. It is
best to send printed copies of the rules, and it should be noted that
three identical copies, all signed, must be sent. On these the registrar
endorses his certificate, and sends one to the Clerk of the Peace for
the district, one to the library authority, and retains one. The form of
certificate usually attached is as follows:
It is hereby certified that this society is entitled to the benefit of
the Act 6 & 7 Vict., c. 36, intituled “An Act to exempt from County,
Borough, Parochial and other Local Rates, Lands and Buildings occupied
by Scientific or Literary Societies.”
Date.
_________
/ \
/ Seal of \
| Registry of |
\ Friendly /
\Societies./
\________/
The application should show that annual voluntary contributions of
money, books and periodicals are received, but there is no direction
laid down as to the amount of voluntary contributions which will pass
muster. The point is somewhat vague, but it may be assumed that the
amount received from gifts, subscriptions, sales, books, periodicals,
etc., need not form a substantial proportion of the income. As the
English Registrar accepts donations in kind as annual voluntary
contributions, it is only necessary to value these to make up a
respectable sum.
=39.= Certificates are not granted as a rule in cases where a charge for
admission is made. Furthermore, it is doubtful if the exemption from
local rates would be allowed by hostile local authorities for any
occupied portions of library buildings. A caretaker’s or librarian’s
residence would in all probability be separately assessed, if the
certificate were otherwise recognized. By a decision of a Court of
Quarter Sessions at Liverpool in 1905, it has been decided that the
Corporation of Liverpool is liable for local rates on a library
building; but it is not possible to say how far this may affect
libraries holding these certificates. Legislation is pending, and till
something is definitely settled, the question must remain open.
=40.= The House of Lords’ decision already noticed also freed public
library buildings from income tax, but it should be distinctly
understood that inhabited house duty can be charged for the whole of a
building, even if only partly occupied as a residence, when included
under one roof, unless it can be shown that the library and residence do
not communicate directly with each other.
=41. Insurance.=--Library buildings and their contents should be fully
insured against fire. To ascertain insurable value take the cost of
buildings at the contract price, including all charges which would have
to be incurred again for rebuilding; furniture at the contract price;
lending library books at 3s. 4d. per volume all over; and reference
library books at 5s. per volume all over, and thus obtain a total. An
allowance is sometimes made for depreciation, but a full covering value
is always safe. The policy will state these various items separately for
the purposes of insurance, but will likely charge a uniform percentage
on all. 1s. 6d. per cent. is a fair charge in a good office, but
insurances can be effected for as low as 1s. 3d. per cent. Library
buildings form a safe risk, and unless in a case of temporary premises
with bad surroundings, 1s. 6d. per cent. should be regarded as a maximum
charge. Some offices return the premium once in five years or so by way
of bonus. Insurance policies should be revised every few years to keep
pace with the growth of the library. Paintings, valuable MSS. and rare
books must be made the subject of special insurances. The same may be
said of temporary exhibitions, especially of loan articles, which ought
to be covered by a policy for the period of the show. Plenty of
fire-buckets should be provided in public library buildings to cope with
the first outbreak of fire. Hydrants, save in large buildings, are not
necessary, on account of their cost and practical inutility. If a fire
cannot be checked at its onset by means of buckets, it is time to ring
up the fire-brigade.
=42.= Another insurance that should be provided is against claims for
damage or injury to children who use juvenile departments which may be
caused through any defect in the building or its fittings; and in
connexion therewith it should be remembered that children cannot legally
be held contributory by their carelessness or misbehaviour to such
accidents as would cause injury.
=43.= Health insurance must be paid by the library committees for all
employees of sixteen years of age and more who earn less than £250 a
year.
=44. Contracts, Agreements, Requisitions.=--Contracts for regular
supplies should be renewed annually. The principal items of this kind
are:
Books, bookbinding, periodicals and newspapers, printing, stationery,
cleaning materials.
Local sentiment is generally in favour of procuring all supplies
locally, where possible, and when this can be done without absolute
disadvantage to the library it is the most convenient course. Tenders
can be invited either by public advertisement or on the nomination of
members of committee and the librarian. To begin with, public
advertisement is, perhaps, the fairest way; afterwards, quality of
service and other considerations will decide. Specifications should be
prepared and sent out according to requirements.
=45.= All specifications and contracts should be carefully preserved.
The former should be entered up in a specification book, which need be
but an ordinary foolscap folio blank book, ruled faint. Accepted
contracts should either be filed in boxes or guard books, or copied into
a contracts book similar to the specification book. Accepted estimates
for occasional work should be fastened to the accounts. It is important
to be able to lay hands on any given document or its terms without the
slightest delay. All tenders for regular supplies and estimates for
occasional work should be opened in committee, in meeting duly convened,
unless by special resolution the librarian or a sub-committee is
authorized to deal with them. Envelopes, printed with the address of the
library and having the words “Tender for ----” printed boldly in one
corner, should be enclosed with all invitations for estimates to prevent
the risk of accidental opening.
=46.= In connexion with contracts it is important to note that Public
Library Committees and officers are subject to the penal provisions of
the “Public Bodies Corrupt Practices Act, 1889,” 52 & 53 Vict., c. 69,
in the event of bribes or commissions being given or received in
connexion with pending contracts or supplies. As this does not seem to
be generally known, the essential words of the Act are quoted:
“Every person who corruptly solicits or receives, or agrees to
receive, for himself, or for any other person, any gift, loan, fee,
reward, or advantage, as an inducement to any member, officer, or
servant of a public body, doing or forbearing to do anything in
respect of any matter or transaction in which such public body is
concerned; and every person who shall, with the like object, corruptly
give, promise, or offer any gift, loan, fee, reward, or advantage to
any person, whether for the benefit of that person or of another,
shall be guilty of a misdemeanour. Any one convicted of such an
offence shall be liable to imprisonment for two years, or to a fine of
£500, or to both imprisonment and fine; and, in addition, be liable to
pay to such public body the amount or value of any gift, loan, fee, or
reward so received by him; and be adjudged incapable of holding any
public office for seven years, and to forfeit any such office held by
him,” etc.
=47.= AGREEMENTS for leases, loans, joint use of libraries with
adjoining authorities, or between committee and librarian or other
persons, should be drawn up by a solicitor. Minor agreements may be
drawn up by the library authority, but they should all be stamped with a
sixpenny stamp if in connexion with a consideration of £5 and over. The
legal limits within which agreements between various kinds of library
authorities can be made are duly set forth in the various Public
Libraries Acts, and, as these matters seldom arise in the course of
ordinary library routine, there is no need further to consider the
subject.
=48. Suggestions on Management.=--It is well to keep a book or to
provide forms to enable readers to make suggestions on the management of
the library. Frequently such suggestions take the form of complaints,
but it is a useful thing to allow free opportunity for the expression of
public opinion. In some libraries separate books are kept for
propositions of new books not in the library and suggestions on
management. A simple form, on which the reader can make suggestions on
management or of books, is preferable. When these forms are made readily
available, and are kept in public view, together with a locked box in
which the slips can be lodged through a slit in the lid, they are much
more effective as a means of drawing suggestions than special MS. books
which have to be asked for. A useful form of slip is the following:--
+----------------------------------------------------------+
| |
| LIBERTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. |
| |
| I beg to make the following suggestion (.if a book or |
| periodical, please give publisher and price.):-- |
| |
| ........................................................ |
| |
| ........................................................ |
| |
| ........................................................ |
| |
| ........................................................ |
| |
| Name.............................................. |
| |
| Address........................................... |
| |
| Date.............................................. |
| |
| ~Please fold across and leave in “Suggestions” Box.~ |
| |
+----------------------------------------------------------+
FIG. 3.--Suggestion Slip.
A small locked box to contain these, and lettered on side “Suggestions,”
should be provided. If one of these boxes is placed in each important
department of the library, readers will be encouraged to air their
views. Even if nothing more valuable should be received than a complaint
about a draught or the manner of the librarian, it is better than the
dull indifference and apathy which are met with in libraries where
readers are discouraged from taking any part in the administration.
Occasionally some brilliant, if impossible, suggestions on management
are received by means of these slips and boxes, and suggestions of
desirable books can always be depended upon. Every means of interesting
readers in the work of the library should be adopted, and this will be
found a very effective method.
=49. Accounts.=--By the principal English Act, Section 20 (1), it is
ordained that “separate accounts shall be kept of the receipts and
expenditure under this Act of every library authority and its officers,
and those accounts shall be audited in like manner and with the like
incidents and consequences, in the case of a library authority being an
urban authority, and of its officers, as the accounts of the receipts
and expenditure of that authority and its officers under the Public
Health Acts.” In Ireland the same provisions apply, that is, library
accounts are to be kept and audited like those of the local authority,
and copies of the accounts are to be sent within one month after
auditing to the Lord Lieutenant. In Scotland the accounts are to be kept
separately in special books, and are to be audited by “one or more
competent auditors.” In all cases the books are to be open to public
inspection, and in Scotland abstracts of the accounts are to be inserted
in one or more newspapers published or circulated in the district.
No special system of library book-keeping has been laid down, the
nearest approach to a form being that prescribed by an order of the
Local Government Board, dated 26th November 1892, for parishes whose
library accounts are audited in like manner to those of Poor Law
Guardians. In Greenwood’s _Public Libraries_, fourth edition, 1894,
pages 343-345, some details are given of this system, and the first
edition of this _Manual_ also gives specimens of forms, etc.
=50. Financial Statement.=--The form of financial statement for public
libraries in parishes, prescribed by the Local Government Board, alluded
to in Section 49, is the best for all purposes. As shown in the section
on Annual Estimates, it provides for every kind of receipt and
expenditure. Printed blanks giving the whole of the items copied from
the L.G.B. Order of 1892 have been published. In addition to a blank
tabular form for showing particulars of loans, etc., the statement
includes spaces for the undernoted items, all duly set out to form a
balance sheet:
FINANCIAL STATEMENT.
RECEIPTS.
Rates.
Fines and penalties.
Donations and subscriptions.
From parliamentary grants.
From other local authorities.
From sale of securities in which sinking fund is invested.
From all other sources, specifying them.
Sale of catalogues, etc.
etc.
EXPENDITURE.
Buildings, repairs, maintenance.
Books, periodicals, etc.
Salaries and remuneration of officers and assistants.
Establishment charges not before included.
Loans: Principal repaid {Out of invested Sinking Fund.
{Otherwise.
„ Interest.
Payments to other local authorities.
Other expenditure.
=51. Audit.=--In cases where library accounts are audited under the
“District Auditors’ Act, 1879,” it is imperative that all the forms and
consequences should be borne in mind. District auditors have power to
surcharge expenditures for items which in their opinion cannot be
legally incurred under the provisions of the Public Libraries Acts, and
it should also be remembered that the committee-men who sign the
disputed cheque are held liable. The powers vested in library
authorities are so wide that it is very doubtful if some district
auditors are not exceeding their authority by objecting, as they have
done in some places, to payments for publications, subscriptions to
societies, expenses of lectures, and other items. In cases of surcharge
appeal for relief should be made to the Local Government Board, when it
is a first offence, or when there is good grounds for challenging the
decision of the auditor. The cost of auditing accounts is laid down in
the “District Auditors’ Act, 1879,” according to the following scale.
The library authority is required to purchase the necessary stamps to
cover the amount:
Under £20 = £0 5
£20 and under £50 = 0 10
50 „ 100 = 1 0
100 „ 500 = 2 0
500 „ 1,000 = 3 0
1,000 „ 2,500 = 4 0
2,500 „ 5,000 = 5 0
5,000 „ 10,000 = 10 0
10,000 „ 20,000 = 15 0
20,000 „ 50,000 = 20 0
50,000 „ 100,000 = 30 0
100,000 and upwards = 50 0
Needless to say, very few libraries will have to pay more than £10. The
charges for auditing by a firm of chartered accountants are generally
according to an agreed scale.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
=52. Rating:=
Greenwood, Thomas. Public Libraries, 1891, p. 376.
Adams, W. G. S. Report to the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust of Library
Provision and Policy, 1915.
Chambers and Fovargue. Law relating to Public Libraries, 1899.
Credland, W. R. Rating and Taxation of Public Libraries. In
Greenwood’s Year-Book, 1897, p. 45.
For articles, see Cannons, B 38-44, Taxation, etc.
=53. Insurance:=
Davis, C. T. Fire Prevention and Insurance. In Greenwood’s Year-Book,
1900, p. 53.
Poole, R. B. Fires, Protection, Insurance. U.S. Education Report,
1892-93, vol. i. p. 724. For articles, see Cannons, D 46, Fire
Prevention, Insurance.
=54. Accounts:=
Brown, J. D. Manual of Library Economy, Ed. 1, 1903, p. 30.
Hopper, F. F. Order and Accession Department. _In_ A.L.A., Man. of
Lib. Econ. Preprint of chapter xvii., 1911.
For articles, see Cannons, E 6-7, Accounts.
CHAPTER IV
THE MATERIAL OF THE ANNUAL REPORT. STATISTICS, WORKING RECORDS. FORM OF
THE ANNUAL REPORT
=55. Statistical Methods.=--It seems desirable to describe here, as
being concerned with committee work, the various statistical and other
methods adopted to show the operations of the library. Every business
concern of any consequence has what approximates to a statistical
department, in which records are kept and analysed of every transaction
of the business, and from these useful deductions are made. Such
statistics, with the necessary proviso that the keeping of them should
not impede more obvious work, are desirable for libraries, and although
they are necessarily of a quantitative rather than qualitative
character, they are nevertheless of value as showing the use made of the
several departments and of the various classes of the stock. Statistics
usually kept include: the stock; accessions; the issue of books and
material in each department according to their classes; the number of
readers’ tickets in force; and the attendances at the reading rooms.
Sometimes records are kept of the occupations and ages of readers, and
the wards from which they are drawn.
Hitherto all these statistics have been of doubtful comparative value,
owing to the great divergence in the methods of computation adopted, and
the methods of administering the library have a definite effect upon the
resultant figures. For example, in the few libraries where so brief a
time as a week is allowed for the reading of a volume, the issue figures
will be higher than in those where a fortnight or more is allowed. Then,
the amounts charged as fines for undue detention of books, ranging from
1d. a week or part of a week to 1d. a day beyond the time allowed, make
a difference of some moment. Again, in some libraries it is usual to
record the number of borrowers continuously, only counting off the
lapsed tickets, while in others only those borrowers who are actually
using the libraries within the year are counted. It would be well if an
effort were made to standardize all these methods. A scheme for
standardizing the form in which they are to be presented has been
reached, and is described below (Section 62).
=56.= A satisfactory record of the relative circulation of books can be
made only of a classified stock. Certainly comparisons cannot be fairly
made while one librarian classes his periodicals as science, useful
arts, etc., and another groups his together as miscellaneous. Then, some
librarians, rightly we think, separate Juvenile Fiction issues from
Adult Fiction issues; and, indeed, divergences and anomalies are
frequent and are confusing.
Suggested rulings for Issue Record books, for lending and reference
libraries respectively, are given on page 62.
The record book should have about thirty-five lines to the page,
exclusive of the headings, to allow one line for each day and leave room
for adding up the columns. The dates, 1 to 31, may be printed down each
column, but this will mean leaving gaps for Sundays. It is better to
write the dates in for each month, omitting Sundays, which may be
entered on a separate page or pages. The issues of each year should be
kept together in a series; and a page or more, as required, should be
left for the necessary summaries, which can be entered up to show the
total issues month by month in cumulative form. If this is done
regularly the figures for the annual or other reports are quite easily
obtained. The accessions book, if kept entered, added and classified up
to date, will give similar information about books.
=57.= It is usual to count volumes separately. Thus a work in five
volumes is counted as 5 in the record. Illustrations, pamphlets,
broadsides and other material in separate form are usually counted in
the same way, but are sometimes indicated as being of this separate
character in separate columns. There are minor problems in counting
which interest librarians, and upon which opinion is divided. Thus, when
a series of prints are formed into a public exhibition, it is sometimes
the practice to count each print as having been issued once. They may,
however, have been examined by hundreds of people during the exhibition,
and sometimes an allowance is made for that fact. Again, the
consultation of a magazine in the reading rooms is usually not counted;
but the same magazine when bound is counted if issued from the shelves
in the reference library. Directories, time-tables, and similar
quick-reference works are often omitted from the statistics. There seems
no reason why all these uses of material should not be recorded, so long
as the character of the use is made clear in the reports of the
librarian. Otherwise the frequent complaint of librarians that their
figures represent only part of their work seems to be justified; and it
is well to remember that public criticism of libraries is in the main
based upon their statistics. At the same time if the recording of
statistics means the placing of barriers between books and readers, it
is a safe principle to prefer fewer statistics and more accessibility.
1
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Month: September 1918. Lending Library Issues. |
+-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+
| || | | | | | | | | | | Il- | Lan- |Blank |Blank ||To- | D. | Re- |
| || | | | | | | | | | | lus- | tern | I. | II. ||tal.|Aver-|marks.|
|Date.||0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9| tra- |Slides.|(Other|(Other|| |age. | |
| || | | | | | | | | | |tions.| |Mate- |Mate- || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | |rial).|rial).|| | | |
+-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+
| 1 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 2 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 3 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 4 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 5 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| etc.|| | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
+-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+
2
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Month: Reference Library Issues. |
+-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+
| || | | | | | | | | | | Il- | Lan- |Blank |Blank ||To- | D. | Re- |
| || | | | | | | | | | | lus- | tern | I. | II. ||tal.|Aver-|marks.|
|Date.||0|1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9| tra- |Slides.|(Other|(Other|| |age. | |
| || | | | | | | | | | |tions.| |Mate- |Mate- || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | |rial).|rial).|| | | |
+-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+
| 1 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 2 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 3 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 4 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| 5 || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| || | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
| etc.|| | | | | | | | | | | | | | || | | |
+-----++-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+------+-------+------+------++----+-----+------+
FIG. 4.--Suggested Rulings for Issue Record Books.
The record of the number of readers should be confined to those whose
tickets are “live” ones. This does not mean necessarily that tickets not
in active use at the time statistics are compiled should be regarded as
“dead.” A borrower may leave his ticket in abeyance for several months
with the intention of using it later. It does mean that only those
tickets should be counted which are valid at the time. As we have seen,
validity ranges from one to three or more years in different libraries,
and the figures as a rule will be only approximately sound. If, however,
all valid tickets are included, and if the number of tickets issued
within the year covered by the annual report is also indicated, the
record will be a serviceable account of the use made in relation to the
population of the district served. It is usual to show the number of
actual borrowers divided into burgesses and non-burgesses; of
non-resident borrowers (employees, scholars, etc.); and of supplementary
tickets (non-fiction, teachers’, illustration, music, etc.) held by
them.
=58.= Where it is thought necessary to keep records of the occupations
of readers, a blank line for the name of the occupation is included on
the application voucher (see Section 368) from which the records are
made.
=59.= It is not usual to keep formal statistics of the number of
visitors to newspaper and periodical rooms; the attendances are either
not recorded or are estimated. In some cases, however, a daily count is
made at monthly or other intervals and the yearly attendance is gauged
from this. It is obvious that such figures have no great value. A series
of visits to the rooms will assure any librarian or member of committee
of the amount of use that is made of them equally well.
=60.= Brief paragraphs, presenting the record of work weekly or monthly,
and the number of borrowers, are sometimes sent to the local newspapers.
This is a good plan, and the matter is more acceptable if presented in
literary rather than in merely tabular form. At each meeting of the
library committee a fairly complete statistical record of the work since
the last meeting is presented, in which the factors we have discussed,
together with the percentage of fiction issued, and comparisons with the
corresponding weeks or months of the previous year, are made. The
committee is thus kept closely acquainted with the results of its work.
=61. The Annual Report.=--The annual report of the library committee is
the summary and crown of its labours, and is often the most direct means
of contact between the committee and the community. Such reports deserve
more attention than is commonly given to them by librarians, and in this
matter the American librarian--who is essentially a business man and
does not often produce useless documents--may give hints to his British
brethren. A report should be a complete history of the operations of the
library in all its departments; and if improvement is necessary it is in
the direction of reducing the mere statistical and in increasing the
literary matter to be included. Elaborate tables of issue, stock, etc.,
of central and branch libraries have a use for the librarian and may be
kept at the libraries, but their publication is of interest to few other
people, and they are better given in summary. Plain and clear reports,
in which comparisons with other libraries by name should be avoided, and
which present the salient statistics without the use of confusingly
elaborate tables, give the best results. Illustrations and an occasional
diagram rendering in graphic form the statistical results of work are
not necessarily superfluous, and may brighten the report considerably.
The report will not be a less authoritative document if it is
attractive. The information which a library report ought to convey may
be indicated briefly as follows:
Title-page.
List of members of committee and library staff.
Narrative report.
[This is the most interesting feature from the public point of view.
It is usually a review of the year founded upon the statistics, etc.,
in the appendix, and is properly presented as if written by the
committee and signed by the chairman. Frequently, however, it takes
the form of a report written by the librarian to the committee, to be
adopted as the committee’s report. Each method has advantages. The
committee can appeal to the council upon any part of its policy with
greater authority than the librarian. On the other hand, the librarian
can express views of the work and needs of the library from his own
standpoint. The character of the document, however, would seem to
require that a report should be the committee’s. Sometimes, as usually
in America, the question is solved by having a brief report from the
committee, followed by a longer one from the librarian.]
Appendix of documents:--The following forms may be used conveniently
to present the statistical record:--
STOCK
Central. Branches. Total. Grand Total.
Class. Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Report Last
ence. ing. ence. ing. ence. ing. Year. Year.
0 000 000 000 000 000 000 0000 0000
1
2
3
etc.
Total
Number of volumes added during the year, with proportions purchased
and donated. Grand total purchased . . . . . . Do. donated
. . . . . . . . Number of volumes worn-out and withdrawn. Other
particulars in brief paragraph form.
ISSUES
Central. Branches. Total. Grand Total.
Class. Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Refer- Lend- Report Last
ence. ing. ence. ing. ence. ing. Year. Year.
0 000 000 000 000 000 000 0000 0000
0
1
2
3
etc.
Total
Averages
Columns for juvenile and other departments, if they exist, must, of
course, be included.
BORROWERS
Total number report year and last year. Number holding extra or
students’ tickets.
READING ROOMS
Attendances at newsrooms, magazine rooms, etc.
List of donations.
Lists of periodicals and annuals (only if no other means of revising
printed list is available).
Financial statement. (_See_ Section 50.)
Memoranda relating to district, showing population, area, valuation,
date when Acts adopted, date of opening building, other leading facts.
=62. Library Association Summary.=--The appendix outlined above may be
reduced considerably by substituting for most of the items a summary in
the form recommended by the Library Association. The financial
statement, however, should always be given in full, even by libraries
the accounts of which are kept by the municipal treasurer or accountant.
It is clearly impossible to gauge the character of any library’s work if
the distribution of expenditure in performing it is not shown. The
summary recommended by the Library Association resembles a summary used
in American library reports, and is the outcome of a suggestion made to
a meeting of the North Central Library Association in 1916 by Mr E. L.
Hetherington, then Secretary of the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust. Its
purpose is not only to present the statistics of libraries in a succinct
and simple manner, but by its general adoption to secure a uniform
record from all libraries by which satisfactory comparisons may be made.
No library report should appear without this summary, even if the
librarian chooses to retain his more elaborate tables; and, in view of
its utility and the proposed generalness of its use, we append it in
full with the Library Association’s explanatory notes.
GENERAL STATISTICS:
(i) Population as at last Census.
(ii) Amount of rate in the pound.
(iii) Cost of Library Service per inhabitant.
(iv) Total Cost of Library per inhabitant.
(v) Number of Separate Establishments.
(vi) Number of Staff--Librarians and Assistants.
(_a_) Whole Time--Male.
(_b_) Whole Time--Female.
(_c_) Part Time--Male.
(_d_) Part Time--Female.
(_e_) Total--Male--Female.
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE:
_Income._ +-----------+----------+
|£ _s._ _d._|% of Total|
| | Income. |
+-----------+----------+
(i) From rate | | |
(ii) From other sources | | |
(iii) Total income | | |
+-----------+----------+
|£ _s._ _d._|% of Total|
| | Expendi- |
| | ture. |
+-----------+----------+
{ (i) Books | | |
{ (ii) Binding and Repairing | | |
{ (iii) Printing of Catalogues | | |
{ (iv) Newspapers and Periodicals | | |
_Library_ { not permanently retained | | |
_Service_ { (v) Library Fittings and | | |
_Expendi-_{ Furniture | | |
_ture_ { (vi) Printing, Stationery, Office| | |
{ Requisites | | |
{ (vii) Salaries of Librarians and | | |
{ Assistants | | |
{(viii) Total | | |
+-----------+----------+
|£ _s._ _d._|% of Total|
| | Income. |
+-----------+----------+
{ (ix) Rents and Loans | | |
{ (x) Rates and Taxes | | |
{ (xi) Upkeep of Buildings | | |
_Fabric_ { (xii) Heating, Lighting and | | |
_Charges_ { Cleaning, including wages | | |
{(xiii) Total | | |
{ (xiv) Total Expenditure | | |
_Stocks._
1 2
_Lending._ | _Reference._
-----------+-----------
(i) Number of volumes at beginning of |
year |
(ii) Volumes withdrawn during year |
(iii) Additions during year |
(iv) Total volumes at end of year |
(v) Number of replacements during year |
(vi) Volumes per head of population |
according to last Census |
_Issues._
_Total._ | _Daily_
| _Average._
-----------+-----------
(i) Lending Library Issues |
(ii) Children’s Reading Room Issues |
(iii) Reference Library Recorded Issues |
(iv) Reference Library Open Shelves |
(estimated) |
(v) Issues from Lending Library (see (i) |
above) per head of population |
according to last census |
_Borrowers._
(i) Percentage of Borrowers to population.
(ii) Number of Supplementary Readers’ Tickets held.
(iii) Total Borrowers’ Tickets in use.
INSTRUCTIONS TO BE STUDIED IN PREPARATION OF THE FIGURES DETAILED ABOVE
_General._
1. Asterisks with relative foot-notes should be placed against any
figure which includes abnormalities; for example, if any item of the
expenditure includes certain special or non-recurring charges, the
amount of that expenditure should be detailed in a foot-note with an
explanation of the item.
_General Statistics._
2. Head (iii) should express in pence the cost of the total library
service--per inhabitant according to last census.
3. Similarly head (iv) should express the cost of the total library
expenditure per inhabitant.
4. Head (v) asks for the number of separate establishments. The
figure should include the central library, but if delivery stations
are also included the number of such subsidiary establishments should
be stated in a footnote.
_Income._
5. Head (i) should be confined solely to the income from the library
rate.
6. Head (ii) should include income from all other sources, whether
from interest on investments, rents, sales of catalogues, fines or
special subscriptions or donations.
_Expenditure._
7. Under head (iv) should be included only the cost of periodicals not
permanently retained. In cases of periodicals which are subsequently
bound and added to the permanent library stocks, their cost should be
included under head (i) books and head (ii) binding.
8. Care should be taken that head (vii) should be confined to the
salary payments made to the library staff proper. All wages paid to
caretakers, cleaners, messengers and the like, should be included
under head (xii).
9. It will be observed that there is no separate heading for
“miscellaneous” or “other items.” It is desired that all items of
expenditure should be allocated to the headings detailed above.
_Stocks._
10. It is recognized that the word book or volume has no definite
technical meaning, and is usually an indeterminate expression useful
for popular purposes.
It may therefore be useful to make the following definitions for the
guidance of the Libraries:--
_Volumes_ mean books as they stand on the shelves.
_Pieces_ mean separate works or parts (each usually having a separate
title-page to itself, as with pamphlets, parts of periodicals, and the
like).
_Papers_ mean lesser items, usually with less than 5 pages, as
broadsides, cards, fly-sheets.
_Items_ mean volumes, pieces and papers.
_Works_ mean whole literary productions whether in several volumes or
only one piece.
Thus: Ten pamphlets bound together, with five broadsides at end, are
one volume, ten works or pieces, fifteen items. A dictionary in twenty
volumes would count as twenty volumes, pieces and items, but one work,
and in a sense one book.
Having regard to these definitions care should be taken, in recording
the number of volumes in a library, to reckon ten pamphlets or parts
as the equivalent of a single volume.
_Issues._
11. Head (iii) should give the issues from the reference library
actually recorded.
12. Head (iv) should give the estimated use made of the books from the
open shelves of the reference library.
13. Sunday use of libraries should be separately recorded.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
=63. Statistics:=
Hetherington, A. L. Library Statistics. _In_ L.A. Record, v. 19, p. 3,
1917. [Also separately.]
For articles, see Cannons, E 135, Library Statistics.
=64. Annual Report:=
Bostwick, A. E. Administration of a Public Library. _In_ A.L.A., Man.
of Lib. Econ. Preprint of chapter xii., 1911.
For articles, see Cannons, E 136, Annual Report.
DIVISION III
STAFF
CHAPTER V
THE LIBRARIAN
=65. General.=--The success or failure of a library depends almost
entirely upon the ability and energy of the staff. Opinion upon this
question has been almost revolutionized in the past twenty years, and
only very occasionally now do we find some misguided library authority
placing so special an institution in the keeping of stickit ministers,
unlucky schoolmasters, retired soldiers, minor journalists, unsuccessful
booksellers, and similar remnants of the failures or superannuated in
other walks of life. No untrained person is likely to attain more than
the poorest or most commonplace results and will undoubtedly prevent the
library from serving the community to anything like its potential
capacity. Indeed, the work of the librarian is a professional occupation
demanding for its successful accomplishment a training as complete and
special at least as that required of the teacher. A committee fails
signally in its public duty if it does not recognize this fact in the
choice of its librarian; and the public has a right to demand that the
man appointed to occupy any technical public office shall have had both
training and experience.
=66.= The appointment of a chief librarian should be the first step
taken by a committee. Numberless blunders, often resulting in great
subsequent expense, have been made in the past through the mistaken
economy of proceeding with buildings, methods and book-selection before
such appointment. These matters are essentially the work of the
librarian and _not_ of the committee; and any little amount that may be
saved from the salary of the librarian is invariably lost because of the
adoption of faulty apparatus or plans; amateur experiments are usually
expensive. If, at the beginning of its career, a library committee is
unable to engage a qualified librarian, application should be made to
the Library Association for the nomination of a professional adviser,
who for a reasonable fee would give invaluable assistance at the time
when such assistance is really vital.
=67. Qualifications.=--As is the case with the prominent members of
every other profession, good librarians are born, not made. Training and
experience cannot create such natural endowments as enthusiasm,
originality, initiative--in short, positive genius for the work; but
training and experience in sound methods will provide a passable
substitute. Experience, however, depends for its value upon its
character, and long years in inefficiently-managed libraries will not
suffice for modern needs. Owing to the wide difference between the
methods of, say, thirty years ago, and the more scientific methods of
to-day, it is necessary to judge the experience of any librarian by the
school in which he has been trained. This does not mean that a library
which has been in existence thirty years or more is operated by obsolete
methods; most of the larger libraries, indeed, have kept pace with, and
have helped to originate, the modern methods which are to be preferred.
At the same time the practice of appointing librarians from larger
libraries in preference to those from smaller ones is often mistaken. A
small library may afford its staff opportunities for a more
comprehensive training than a large one, but it may not be so extensive
in detail. In short, the _size_ of the library in which a man is trained
is no index to the character of its service, and this character is the
main factor in considering experience.
The physical qualifications of a librarian should include good health,
freedom from deformity, defect or incurable disease, and his or her age
should not usually be less than twenty-five. Age is not so important in
cases of promotion, as the committee has first-hand and accurate
knowledge of capabilities to guide it. As regards the physical condition
of librarians, it may be said generally that the same principles which
guide selection in business appointments should be the rule in library
appointments.
=68.= The professional attainments of a librarian should be judged
mainly by their suitability for the duties to be performed. The degree
of attainment differs in individuals, and it would be unfair to expect
so many useful qualifications in a librarian who is to receive £200 per
annum as in one who is to receive a much larger salary. But there are
certain broad principles to be considered, the cardinal one being that
_only trained librarians should ever be appointed to chief positions_. A
committee is safe in selecting candidates from amongst diplomates,
fellows and members of the Library Association, as these _ipso facto_
have received the training indicated. We give in Sections 99-101 some
account of the compass and activities of the Library Association, and
commend what is there written to the consideration of library
committees. Here it may be said that a diplomate is a librarian who has
received at least three years’ training in a library recognized by the
Association, has gained the six provisional certificates of that body in
literary history, bibliography, classification, cataloguing, library
organization and library routine, and has in addition shown a knowledge
of Latin and one modern foreign language, and has presented an
acceptable written thesis showing independent research upon some
department of librarianship. The diploma is a very considerable
attainment, and is at present held by few librarians, but the number
increases, and no doubt its possession will influence future
appointments considerably. It was initiated in 1901, and therefore too
recently to have made it possible for all eligible candidates for
appointments to have acquired it. To meet this situation, and to set up
a standard of qualification, the Library Association adopted in 1911 a
scheme for the classification of librarians into fellows, members, and
student-members. A fellow is a librarian of approved experience who held
office prior to the end of 1914, a librarian who holds the diploma, or a
university degree plus approved library experience, or an assistant
librarian of proved reputation and capacity who held office prior to the
date named. All other librarians at the initiation of this scheme were
classified as members (except very young men and women who became
student-members and whose degree of training may be judged from that
name). After 1914 admission to fellowship has generally been restricted
to diplomates, or graduates with library experience, save in exceptional
cases where great and proved capacity has been shown; and admission to
membership has been restricted to chief librarians, or to assistants who
hold four of the six diploma certificates. Other factors may apply in
individual cases, but there are very few librarians or assistants of
character and ability who are either members or certificate-holders of
the Association.
With due allowance for the size and means of the library, and the salary
to be offered to the librarian, the following list of qualifications may
serve as a guide to a committee as to what they may expect.
LIBRARIAN’S QUALIFICATIONS
1. Training for at least three years in a library which is classified
according to some recognized bibliographical scheme [Decimal,
Expansive, Library of Congress, Subject or other].
2. A wide knowledge of English and Foreign Bibliography and
Literature, and an intimate and exact knowledge of the contents of
modern, and especially technical, scientific, and historical, books.
3. Sufficient acquaintance with languages to enable the translating of
title-pages with the aid of dictionaries.
4. A knowledge of business routine, including elementary book-keeping
and accounts.
5. Practical acquaintance with the leading systems of book
classification.
6. Full knowledge of the various methods of cataloguing, with a
thorough grasp of the modern literature of the subject.
7. Experience in staff management.
8. Practical knowledge of all modern systems of library working,
including book-binding, book-buying, charging and maintenance.
9. Knowledge of modern periodical literature, and the management of
news-rooms.
10. General culture, the ability to make a useful public speech, tact,
courtesy, and, in fact, good “personality.”
=69. Advertisements and Application Forms for
Appointments.=--Advertisements for librarians are usually inserted in
one or all of the following:--_The Times_, _The Athenæum_, _The
Spectator_ and _The Municipal Journal_. A useful form of announcement
may be subjoined:
LIBERTON PUBLIC LIBRARY
APPOINTMENT OF CHIEF LIBRARIAN
A Chief Librarian is required for the Liberton Public Library.
Candidates must be Diplomates, or Fellows, or Members of the Library
Association (or be certificated by that body), and have had at least
three years’ training in a library employing scientific
classification. Salary to commence, £. . . . ., rising by annual
increments of £. . . . . to a maximum of £. . . . . . The application,
which should be accompanied by three recent testimonials, is to be
made on a special form which may be obtained from the undersigned. All
applications should reach the undersigned not later than [_allow three
weeks_]. Second class railway fares and reasonable expenses of
selected candidates will be allowed. All canvassing will disqualify.
A. B. C.,
_Town Clerk, or Clerk to the Committee_.
The practice of requiring candidates to apply on a special form is
fairly general, and has the advantage of securing uniformity in the
information supplied, and in emphasizing the particulars considered to
be the most important. For very important positions the method may be
not so advantageous, as valuable conclusions may be drawn from the
_manner_ in which candidates present their applications. The following
draft form may be suggestive to committees:--
LIBERTON PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMITTEE
[Address.]
APPLICATION FOR LIBRARIANSHIP
_The candidate is particularly requested to answer every question in
full, and return to A. B. C. [address], by 12 o’clock on [date to be
named], marked on outside of envelope, “Librarianship.”_
1. Full name.
2. Address.
3. Age next birthday.
4. Married or single.
5. Number of family if married.
6. Is your health good?
7. Have you any physical defect (deafness, lameness, etc.)?
8. Present occupation.
9. Length of service in present occupation.
10. Former occupations, if any.
11. Are you a Fellow or Member of the Library Association?
12. Do you hold the Diploma or any of the Provisional Certificates of
the Library Association?
13. Do you possess any of the following qualifications?--
Practical knowledge of modern literature.
Practical knowledge of scientific classification.
Practical knowledge of library planning.
Knowledge of accounts and book-keeping.
Experience in management of staff.
Practical knowledge of modern library management.
14. State system used in your library for the following departments,
and which you would adopt if appointed here:--
Classification.
Printed catalogue.
Manuscript catalogue.
Book issue method.
Reference library method.
15. Have you originated any library device, or published books or
articles on practical phases of library work?
16. Do you possess any degrees or certificates of an educational kind?
17. Have you made a special study of any particular subject?
18. When could you enter upon duty if appointed?
19. Add here any further relevant particulars [_leave large space_].
Selected candidates, when interviewed, should be examined on the
questions scheduled above and on the qualifications specified in Section
68. A few questions by the chairman, based upon these, in addition to
the independent suggestions of members of committee, will generally
result in obtaining a very fair estimate of the qualifications of each
candidate.
=70. Salaries.=--Owing to the limitation of the library rate and a
general underestimate of the librarian’s utility, salaries in municipal
libraries are not very liberal, and may be described as inadequate. In
the state, university and some of the endowed and proprietary libraries
the salaries range much higher, taken all round. These appointments,
however, especially such as the British Museum, India Office, the Houses
of Parliament, the universities and similar institutions, are seldom
offered for competition. In public municipal libraries the salaries of
chief librarians range downward from about £800. Some of the large
London proprietary libraries, and many of the provincial libraries of a
similar kind, give salaries to about the same maximum.
A careful analysis of the income, population and work of the principal
English and American libraries has enabled the following table to be
produced, showing the amount which a library can reasonably pay for a
good officer. This scale is considerably below the American one, but
slightly higher than the English.
FIG. 5.--TABLE OF LIBRARIANS’ SALARIES WHICH SHOULD BE PAID BY LIBRARIES
POSSESSING THE INCOMES UNDERNOTED
+-----------+----------------+
| Library | |
| Annual | Librarian’s |
|Income from| Salary. |
| Rate. | |
+-----------+----------------+
| £ | £ |
| 20,000 |1000 |
| 15,000 | 800 |
| 10,000 | 750 |
| 8,000 | 700 |
| 6,000 | 600 |
| 5,500 | 550 |
| 5,000 | 500 |
| 4,500 | 450 |
| 4,000 | 425 |
| 3,500 | 400 |
| 3,000 | 350 |
| 2,500 | 325 |
| 2,000 | 300 |
| 1,900 | 290 |
| 1,800 | 280 |
| 1,700 | 270 |
| 1,600 | 260 |
| 1,500 | 250 |
| 1,400 | 240 |
| 1,300 | 230 |
| 1,200 | 220 |
| 1,100 | 210 |
| 1,000 | 200 |
| 900 | 190 |
| 800 | 180 |
| 700 | 170 |
| 600 | 160 |
| 500 | 150 |
| 400 | 120 |
| 300 | 90 |
| 200 | 60}For part of|
| 100 | 30}time only. |
+-----------+----------------+
[The above table is rather higher than that given in the last edition,
as regards the libraries with incomes exceeding £3000, and is based
upon my own inquiries and conclusions as they have been affected by
the European War. Few librarians receive normally £1000, and it is
quite clear that the present salaries for the greater libraries are
most inadequate, having regard to the responsibilities
involved.--EDITOR.]
=71.= The only other point of importance arising out of the question of
librarians’ salaries is that of providing a residence on the library
premises. This policy has been adopted in London more than anywhere
else. It affects the question of salary to some extent, though not quite
so much as has been claimed. A committee of a £4000 library might argue
that, by providing a good house in a valuable position, they are only
entitled to give a salary of £325, the balance of £100 being represented
by the house. The practical reply to this is, that a house under these
conditions, although it could rent at £100 or even more, is just worth
to the librarian exactly what he would be prepared to pay for house rent
if he lived away from the library. Any allowance or deduction should
accordingly be based upon this consideration. In small libraries it is
not advisable to incur additional cost in the erection of buildings by
providing a residence for the librarian in order to save on his salary.
Beyond the advantage of having a librarian living on the premises as a
kind of superior perpetual caretaker, there is little to be gained by
complicating a library building with such an excrescence as a residence.
If houses are provided at all, they should be mainly used by caretakers
who have to get up early, and there is a decided convenience in having
an officer of this description always at hand. If possible, residences
should be erected as far away from public reading-rooms as they can be,
the occupation of rooms over news-rooms, etc., having been proved to be
unhealthy in many cases. The accommodation provided for a caretaker
usually consists of a sitting-room or large kitchen, parlour, two
bedrooms, and the usual offices. In some London libraries very liberal
provision has been made for librarians living on the premises, the
accommodation consisting of three large living rooms, four or five
bedrooms, kitchen, scullery, bathroom and other offices. The whole
question of residence or non-residence is one for library authorities to
decide for themselves, but the matter is another proof of the necessity
which exists for appointing librarians before buildings are erected.
=72. Superannuation.=--There is no general law at present under which
public librarians can retire on a pension after a certain age has been
reached. Some towns have made separate arrangements for the
superannuation of all their officers, but even this is far from common.
The National Association of Local Government Officers, which deserves
the support of librarians and committees, has a Bill before Parliament,
the object of which is to procure for municipal officers the same
regulations as to superannuation as are in force for poor-law officers,
but this has not yet passed into law.
=73. Conditions of Librarian’s Appointment.=--There are several points
requiring notice in connexion with the conditions upon which librarians
are appointed. It is not usual to draw up a formal agreement, but if
this is done it should be executed by a solicitor, and specify the
principal obligations, terms and duration of the appointment.
1. In large libraries it is usual to stipulate that the librarian must
devote the whole of his or her TIME to the duties of the office. This
simply means that no other office can be held concurrently, but
particularly a paid office. A li
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