CHAPTER VII
The trained librarian in a small library
Julia A. Hopkins, of the Rochester (N. Y.) Public library, in Public Libraries, December, 1897
The value of training for the man or woman who shall take charge of a large city library is now so firmly established that no one thinks of discussing the question. If it is true that technical training is essential for the headship of a large library, why is it not equally necessary for that of a small library? Trained service is always of greater value than untrained service, be the sphere great or small. If a woman argued from the standpoint that, because the house she was to take charge of had only seven rooms instead of twenty she needed to know nothing of cooking, sweeping, and the other details of household work, I am afraid that her house and her family would suffer for her ignorance. So in many departments of library work the accident of size makes little or no difference; the work is precisely the same. The difference lies in the fact that the head of a large library oversees and directs the work done by others, where the village librarian must, in many cases, do all of the work himself. In the distinctly professional duties, such as the ordering, classifying, and cataloging of books, there is a difference only in amount between the greater and the less. And it is precisely these professional duties of which the person untrained in library work is in most cases wofully ignorant.
It is inevitable that in starting a library there should be some mistakes made; but with a trained librarian in charge, these mistakes will be fewer in number. For example, what does the novice know of classification? He realizes that the books, for convenience in use, must be grouped in classes. If he has had the use of a good library (as a college student would) he has some idea as to how the class divisions are made, and knows also that there must be some sort of notation for the classes. Necessity being the mother of invention, he contrives some plan for bringing together books on the same subject. But with the addition of books to the library and the demand which growth makes, he finds that constant changes have to be made in order to get books into their right places; and then some day he awakens to the fact that there is some perfectly well-known and adopted system of classification which will answer all his purposes, and be a great deal more satisfactory in its adaptability to the needs of his library than the one he has been struggling to evolve. Then he exclaims in despair: If I had only known of that at the beginning! He feels that the hours which he has spent in rearranging his books, taking them out of one class and putting them into another, although hours of such hard work, are in reality so many hours of wasted time. And he is right; for every minute spent in unnecessary work is so much lost time. Not only that, but it is unnecessary expense, and one of the most important things which a small library has to consider is economy.
Is it not of value to the library that its librarian should know how best to expend the money given him to use? that he should not have to regret hours of time lost over useless experiments? Surely if training teaches a librarian a wise expenditure of money and an economy of time, then training must be valuable.
CHAPTER VIII
Rooms, building, fixtures, furniture
The trustees will be wise if they appoint their librarian before they erect a building, or even select rooms, and leave these matters largely to him. They should not be in haste to build. As a rule it is better to start in temporary quarters, and let the building fund accumulate while trustees and librarian gain experience, and the needs of the library become more definite. Plans should be made with the future enlargement of the building in view; libraries increase more rapidly than is generally supposed.
Rooms of peculiar architecture are not required for the original occupation and organization of a library. The essential requirements are a central location, easy access, ample space, and sufficient light. The library and the reading room should be, if possible, on the same floor. Make the exterior attractive, and the entrance inviting. In arranging the rooms, or building, plan from the first, as already suggested, to permit visitors to go to the books themselves.
A collection of the printed matter on library architecture should be carefully studied by both trustees and librarian before any plans are made. While no specific plan can be recommended that would suit all cases, there are a few general rules that meet with the approval of the library profession as a whole. They maybe thus summed up, following in the main a paper on the subject by C. C. Soule:
"A library building should be planned for library work.
Every library building should be planned especially for the kind of work to be done, and the community to be served.
The interior arrangement ought to be planned before the exterior is considered.
No convenience of arrangement should be sacrificed for mere architectural effect.
The plan should be adapted to probabilities and possibilities of growth and development.
Simplicity of decoration is essential in the working rooms and reading rooms.
The building should be planned with a view to economical administration.
The rooms for public use should be so arranged as to allow complete supervision with the fewest possible attendants.
There should be throughout as much natural light as possible.
Windows should extend up to the ceiling, to light thoroughly the upper part of every room.
Windows in a book room should be placed opposite the intervals between bookcases.
In a circulating library the books most in use should be shelved in floor cases close to the delivery desk.
A space of at least five feet should be left between floor cases. (If the public is excluded, three feet is ample.)
No shelf, in any form of bookcase, should be higher than a person of moderate height can reach without a stepladder.
Shelving for folios and quartos should be provided in every book room.
Straight flights are preferable to circular stairs.
The form of shelving which is growing in favor is the arrangement of floor cases in large rooms with space between the tops of the bookcases and the ceiling for circulation of air and the diffusion of light.
Modern library plans provide accommodations for readers near the books they want to use whatever system of shelving is adopted.
Single shelves should not be more than three feet long, on account of the tendency to sag. Ten inches between shelves, and a depth of eight inches, are good dimensions for ordinary cases. Shelves should be made movable and easily adjustable. Many devices are now in the market for this purpose, several of which are good."
Don't cut up your library with partitions unless you are sure they are absolutely necessary. Leave everything as open as possible. A light rail will keep intruders out of a private corner, and yet will not shut out light, or prevent circulation of air, or take away from the feeling of openness and breadth the library room ought to have.
For interior finish use few horizontal moldings; they make traps for dust. Use such shades at the windows as will permit adjustment for letting in light at top or bottom, or both. The less ornamentation in the furniture the better. A simple pine or white-wood table is more dignified and easier kept clean than a cheaply carved one of oak. But get solid, honestly-made, simple furniture of oak or similar wood, if funds permit. Arm-chairs are not often desirable. They take up much room, are heavy to move, and are not easy to get in and out of at a table. In many cases simple stools on a single iron standard, without a revolving top, fastened to the floor, are more desirable than chairs. The loafer doesn't like them; very few serious students object to them.
A stack room for small libraries is not advisable. Don't crowd your cases close together unless it is absolutely necessary.
An excellent form of wooden case is one seven feet high, with shelves three feet long and seven and a half inches wide, supported on iron pegs. The pegs fit into a series of holes bored one inch apart in the sides of the case, thus making the shelves adjustable. These pegs can be bought in