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Research Libraries in the Information Age

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Research Libraries in the Information Age MIDCONTINENT PERSPECTIVES Midwest Research Institute Kansas City, Missouri November 10, 1987 Louis E. Martin Director, Linda Hall Library Kansas City, Missouri Research Libraries In The Information Age I’m delighted to be here because it is always a pleasure to talk about research libraries in general and Linda Hall Library in particular. Although most of us have some familiarity with libraries, few people deal with them extensively. Their impact in our daily lives simply isn’t very great, and when we talk about “research libraries,” there is a minimum of general knowledge abroad. Today I’d like to comment on the research library in the information age, using Linda Hall Library as an example of the reference and research library, and allow my comments to illustrate the main points I wish to make about the present and the future of research libraries in general. A brief introduction to the Linda Hall Library, therefore, would appear in order. In all probability, Charles Kimball could provide a lengthier and more accurate summary of the institution than I can, since I’ve been here just a little over two years. I might add, parenthetically, that my average tenure at my former places of employment has been six to seven years. It seems to take about that length of time for an employer to find out what you’re really doing. Then it’s time to pack off to another organization. Given my present age, I just might live to retirement at Linda Hall. Dr. Kimball is entirely accurate in characterizing Linda Hall as an independent, privately supported reference and research library. It had its beginnings in the trusts established in 1941 by Herbert F. Hall, who wished that a library be established for the people of Kansas City and the region. He did not specify, however, what kind of library should be established. He simply put into place a board of trustees and left that decision up to them. It proved a very wise move on Mr. Hall’s part. Led by Paul Bartlett, Sr., the board of trustees worked for over three years to determine what type of library would serve Kansas City most effectively. They employed consultants from around the country who made studies and tested the neighborhood to see what would be the most useful type of library. From their studies, their recommendations, and the deliberations of the board came the decision to establish a library freely open to the public in the fields of science and technology. I agree with Dr. Kimball that the then recent formation of Midwest Research Institute was a factor in that decision. One can’t run a research institute without having a good deal of scientific and technical information at hand. © MRI, 2000 Louis E. Martin, November 10, 1987 Page 1 © MRI, 2000 Louis E. Martin, November 10, 1987 Page 2 Linda Hall was not seen, however, as a facility to serve only Kansas City or its near environs. It was to be the repository of scientific and technical information for the entire “Southwest,” as this area of the country was then called. The library got under way with the appointment of Joseph Shipman as the first librarian in 1945. One year later, the board of trustees approved the purchase of the library of the American Academy of Arts and Science in Boston. That purchase immediately established the bona fides of Linda Hall as a scientific and technical library of the very first rank, because it brought to this city very long and complete runs of the transactions of the early scientific societies. But what do we mean when we refer to Linda Hall as a reference and research library? What, pray tell, do the terms mean? A “reference library” is generally defined as a library which does not lend books to individuals. It isn’t a “circulating library” such as your friendly, neighborhood public library is. We ask the reader either to come and use our materials on site or to arrange a loan of the materials or purchase photocopies of journal articles through the good offices of another library. The advantage of being a reference library, my friends, is that one usually has the materials patrons need when the patrons need them. After one looks in the card catalog – and we still have a card catalog and will for a while yet – and determines that a particular title is listed there, one will find it to be available more than 80 percent of the time. Libraries that loan materials to individuals are at the mercy of the borrowers, and the loss rate, unfortunately, is rather high. If you want to be a research library, you should be a reference library. But what is a “research library”? The term “research” is used often and loosely. After all, most of us have been researchers at one time or another, in that we’ve tried to find information about things. But the term used in conjunction with a library is to denote an institution like Linda Hall that buys material for the long term. It is not for nothing that research libraries have been called the collective memory of mankind. We hope that most of what we purchase will be useful currently and in the future. Current popularity is not our sole criterion for a given purchase. Consequently, when Linda Hall makes a commitment to purchase a book or journal, it is making a commitment for a very long time indeed. And that has serious consequences for the resources it will need in the future. A good example of the utility of a research library came to mind this morning when I heard from a colleague that our very own Kansas Citian, Richard Rhodes – you may have read his recent article in Harpers – had won the National Book Award for his book The Making of the Atomic Bomb, a remarkable tome for those who have had the tenacity to get through its 800-plus pages. Richard Rhodes is fond of saying, “I could not have written The Making of the Atomic Bomb without the materials in the Linda Hall Library.” That statement basically defines a research library. A scholar and investigator can find a great deal about a given subject, perhaps not everything needed – even Mr. Rhodes used many libraries – but a great deal of what is needed to further a given research project. By its very nature, Linda Hall Library and research libraries in general will not be utilized by hordes of people, simply because we’re not in the business of providing only what is needed at the moment or what is most popular. On the other hand, we must be useful to our community if we are to continue living at all. We must be able to help the Midwest Research Institute and other organizations here and afar in their efforts to advance pure and applied science. One may © MRI, 2000 Louis E. Martin, November 10, 1987 Page 3 find in Linda Hall, therefore, a full treatment of the topics dealing with subatomic physics. You also will find, however, books of diagrams on how to repair a television set. We are indeed an institution with many functions. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, the number of people who have lived in and around Kansas City for a good long time who have heard the name, Linda Hall Library, and who might even have a vague idea of where it’s located, but who have no idea what it is. It is always a pleasure to enlighten those individuals by explaining that we are an independent reference and research library and one of the finest of its kind in the world. Certainly, we are the only library of our kind in this country now that the John Crerar Library in Chicago has become part and parcel of the University of Chicago. We remain totally unaffiliated, and we are happy in that state because it allows our board of trustees, working with the staff, to determine the information needs that we can supply which will best serve the needs of our neighbors near and far. Like other research libraries, Linda Hall is the repository of many books and journals not found in many other places. One of the reasons for this is the early purchase of the collection of the American Academy, which I mentioned before. Further, we emphasize journal literature because it is vitally important to science and technology, more so than in other disciplines. Our large collection of domestic and international journals accounts for the fact that in 1986 our interlibrary loan staff handled 70,000 requests for information, largely from journals, from other libraries around this country and around the world. That one statistic is good evidence of the mission of a research library: to serve serious scholars wherever they may be. There are a few other statistics about the research library community that might be a bit of a surprise to people who don’t pay much attention to library matters. I had to worry about such things between 1968 and 1972 when I was a staff member of the Association of Research Libraries. This association is comprised of 118 libraries in the United States and Canada who are pretentious enough to call themselves research institutions. The vast majority are libraries serving major universities. The University of Missouri-Columbia is a member of the association, as is the University of Kansas. During the last fiscal year for which statistics are available, 1986, those 118 libraries possessed an aggregate of almost 322 million volumes.
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