Special Libraries, February 1923
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Special Libraries, 1923 Special Libraries, 1920s 2-1-1923 Special Libraries, February 1923 Special Libraries Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1923 Part of the Cataloging and Metadata Commons, Collection Development and Management Commons, Information Literacy Commons, and the Scholarly Communication Commons Recommended Citation Special Libraries Association, "Special Libraries, February 1923" (1923). Special Libraries, 1923. 2. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1923/2 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Libraries, 1920s at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Libraries, 1923 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Special Libraries Vol. 143 Felebrunrv, 1923 No. 2 Putting Knowledge to Work Business Libraries in the United States Have Developed to Meet the Growing Need of Business Men for Information that is Precise, Accurate, Complete and Available. By W. A. HAMLIN * Associnte Editos,, DUN'S INTERNATIONAL REVIEW The four words which serve as title of business activity. Manufacturing concerns this article form the motto of the Special need as much lcnowledge as can be collected Libraries Association in the United States. about their particular products, new Of the more than 1,300 special librarias in sources for their raw i~~aiterials,improve- this country, fully 700 can be included in ments in production methods, means of bet- the classification "business library," and tering their organization; they need also the motto represents a growing tendency infornlation about present and possible which is excellently illustratecl in the bus]- markets and about: all the details of proper ness library and which is characteristic of shipping. Where export trade is sought, bokh business land libraries. the differenccs between countries multiply me developlnent of international trade the data that are essential for the develop- on the one hand, and the growing deinand ment of business ebroad. Then, outside for speed in transmibting conlmercial in- the mlanufacturing field, banks and bond formnti,on on the other, indicate the in- houses need to know the latest possible news creasing breadth land intensity of modern as to any economic or industrial conditions This is a view of the library of the Nutio~rulSafety Coztncil, ilz Chicago, U. S. A., zohich is clainred to be the most co71~pletesafety lib~us~~in the world, co?~taininyan ina- nmwe amou7tt of i?zfomnation ubout accident prevsntio?~ D~i~i~llgone yea?, 3,100 in- qzhies roeye answe~ed;special reports ctnd bibliograpl~ies are also compiled * Reprirltetl by Courtesy or It. G. DIIII h: CO. 17 SPECIAL LIBRARIES February, 1923 that may affect the valuc of investinents library which is maintained as a branch of in which they are interested. Insurance the public ltbrary to specialize in materal companies must have not only works on relating to municipal governmcnt, as in actuarial science and insurance laws but Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and St. also up-to date data on health conditions, in- Louis. In a few cities the public library dustrial safety, police protection, fireproof has a Business Branch that is a true busi- construction and all the other factors in ness library serving the interests of the their particular field of insurance. Any city as a whole rather than la single com- attempt to outline in detail the informa- pany; Newark, N J., and Rochester, N. tion required in a single department of Y., are notable insbances. Nor is this de- conmerce or lndustry would itself make velopment confined to the United States. an article. Business organization has been In 1919 the Commercial Library was opened carried so far that competition soon weeds in Birmingham, England, as part of the out those concerns that rely on luck or Birmingham Public Libraries, and similar guessing ability. Information that is pre- institutions have at dffcrent times been cise, accurate, complete and available when eseablished in Manchcster, Liverpool and wanted is indeed the life-blood of business Leeds, England, and Glasgow, Scotland. An today, and increasing attention is being appreciation of the need which the business given to !the vital problem of supply and library fills has also been shown in Conti- circulation. nental Europe and in South Americla. Libraries, too, have been developing. The name suggests, and too often accurate- Business L~brarlesfor Private Entarprlses ly, a collection of books or the place where When one turns to the private organiza- the collection is kept. But gradually, tions that have instituted business librar- under the leadership of such men as John ies, great variety is found. Banks, bond Cotton Dana, the Iibrarg is becoming less houses, insurance companies and manufac- a collection and more an organization, less turing concerns have already been men- limited to books and more hospitable to tioned. The last group is itself a large pamphlets, clippmgs, photogmphs and siin- one; allied to it are public utilities, rail- ilar material, less "lcept" in one place and roads and engineering companies. In the more distributed among those who need the commercial field business libraries are information. This sowing tendency to maintained by trade organizations and put knowledge to work is some~vhatevident chambers of commerce, advertising mmpan- among public libraries, those mlaintained ies, retail stores, business research firms and by municipal governments, but na,turally those compiling and publishing businesa it is more difficult for them to experiment statistics, and, 02 course, firms interested and develop new kinds of activity than for in foreign trade. In some cases tihese li- the libraries of private organiaations. braries include material of a general, non- Sometimes the puhlic library has a depart- commercial nature, particularly manufac- ment which brings together books of busi- turing companies which provide the books ness interest, such as the Economics Divi- as part of their welfare work for their sion of the New York Public Library. employees, but generally, because of limi- Several cities have a municipal reference tations of space, if for no other reason, the February, 1923 SPECIAL LIBRARIES specialized nature of the library is con- Of periodicals and pamphlets there is no sistently recognized. end, and one of the clecisive tests of both Whilc much of the value of a business library and librarian is the extent to li,brary depends on the way in which it is which the usable information is weeded used, the nature of the material on hand is, out 'and retained ,and the rest thrown away of course, of great importance. This ma- First there are newspapers, bolh those of terial may be classified into boolcs, periodi- a general nature and those devoted to fi- cals and pamphlets (including clippings), nance ancl commerce; whatever papers mnps and charts, and photographs. The have been selected for subscription must boolts are of two kinds-for reading and for be gone through and clipped. The librar- reference. Not everything changes-evcn in ian of the New York Federal Reserve Bank business-all 'the time. Each lib~aryhas distributes a daily Newspapel. Review" usually a comparatively small collection of giving the officers and dcpart~nent heads boolts on econon~ics,finance, merchandising a digest of the chief financial and business methods, commercial geography, statistics, news. There are certain weelclies and applied science and similar topics. These monthlies which have a gene14 business are seldom read straight through, but interest and which practically all libraries rather in sections determined by the im- are likely to take. About 3,000 trade and mediate need, ancl they are to that extent technical periodicals are published in the rcference as well as reading books. But United States, and the librarian nlust the volu~nescommonly considered reference choose from these ancl from the publca- boolts are dictionaries (English, other- tions of other countries the compa~atively languages-and-English, and technical), en- small number, ranging general!^ from 50 cyclopedias (both general and special), to 300, which meet the special needs of and a large number and variety of year- that particular organization. If the coin- books, gazetteers and directories. Several pany itself publishes one or more business carefully coinpiled lists of business and magazines, an exchange is frequently ar- technical boolcs have been published and ranged with other publishers. Among these are supplemented by quarterly or an- the periodicals that bring information are nual lists. those published by banks, manufacturers, ha the Bz~si?~essB~I~CI~ZCIL of the Newark P~tblicLibva~ll, ?nost of the boob aye kept on the first floo~,while on the second floor we the periodicals, slcozun in the fo~e- grozi7zd, nzd the maps and certuin ~eferencebooks, ix the backgro~rml. The smaller wlaps are moz~ntedOIL stiff backil~gand kept in vov5cal files, while tile latyev maps aye 1~mg011 ~ollers SPECIAL LIBRARIES February, 1923 trade organizations and chambers of conl- ernment sources of information is a trade merce, both at home and abroad. in itself." Assistance in this task is given by various guides and catalogues published Care of Periodicals by the Government. The periodical docu- When each periodical comes in, it is at ments are compiled primarily, not by the once checked OW by the librarian on a rec- main departments of the Government, but ortl card. Then she-it sgenls that lnost by the subsidiary bureaus and divisions librarians are women-goes through it which give their name to the publications either for indexing or for marking and later that they issue. Thus, within the Depart- clipping. Periodicals thlat are important ment of Commerce, there are the Bureau enough to be indexed and bound become of the Census, the Bureau of Foreign and virtually reference books.