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let in a blast of cold, mountain air. There trained nor prepared to carry on these ac­ were no records to keep, no students to tivities are suddenly finding themselves in serve, the library opened late and closed the midst of this boiling cauldron, having to early, and all was serene along the banks spread themselves thin to meet demands for of the Old Buffalo. I suspect that stories their time, efforts, and abilities. Much trou­ of this kind could be told world without end ble comes from the fact that we do not have about every little college library across this enough time to do all the things which are land of ours. demanded of us. There are not enough staff Then something happened. Libraries have hours. By trying to do all the things which come alive, and the whole idea of libraries are asked of us, we find, unfortunately, that and librarianship has undergone a tremen­ much of our effort is in vain because we are dous change. The library, once the store­ trying to do too much, carry on too many house, has turned into the laboratory of activities, and operate in areas for which the whole college. The librarian now be­ we are not properly prepared. comes ex-officio a member of the faculty of each department, and he must of necessity Most assuredly something needs to be teach, instruct, and lead in the arts and sci­ done. After thirty years in active library ences. Every phase of library activity has in­ work (most of it spent in a small liberal creased a hundredfold. And herein we find arts college atmosphere) and in three library our dilemma. Librarians who are neither schools, I do not know the answer. Do you? By KEYES D. METCALF Staff Participation in Library Management in a Large Research Library H E THINGS THAT I SHALL HAVE TO SAY responsibility that he ought to accept as his. T will not be very profound; they may all In order to explain why I believe in staff seem obvious and routine, and the cliches participation, I am going to consider four will be plentiful, I fear. They will not, at major topics: (1) tl~e .effect of staff participa­ least, be quoted from other authors. For tion on staff members, (2) its effect on the better or worse, I have carefully avoided chief librarian, (3) its effect on the library, trying to bone up on the literature of the and, (4) its effect on the library profession. subject. Instead, I shall speak only from The first of these topics-the effect of staff first-hand knowledge accumulated during participation on staff members-particularly more than fifty years of experience in library appeals to me because I have always been work. interested in training young people for li­ Let me start by saying that I believe un­ brary work. I have always wished that I had hesitatingly and heartily in staff participa­ the ability to teach and that I could have tion in library management in large research done more to train the young men and libraries-in all libraries, for that matter. women who are to become leaders in the Staff participation, like other good things, next generation. It is pleasant now, in my can be misused; my belief in it does not latter days, to have an opportunity at Rut­ mean that I approve when it is made an gers to try my hand at it. excuse for laziness of the chief librarian, or My interest in the subject goes back to the when he tries, by means of it, to escape the time, fifty-one years ago last summer, when I made up my mind to become a librarian. Dr. Metcalf) retired director of the Har­ I was then spending a summer vacation from vard University Library) is at present) profes­ high school working as a hired man on an sor) Graduate School of Library Service) Rut­ Ohio farm. I knew that I had a lot to learn gers University. about libraries, and wondered how to go N OVEMBER 1957 473 about learning. The next month-Septem­ that interest, though it was not until twenty ber, 1905-I was fortunate enough to get ' years later that I had another opportunity a job in a library, and I have stayed with to work on a plan. library work ever since. I was very fortunate When the Oberlin library moved into its indeed in 1905 because that first job of mine new building, I had a good deal to do with was under Azariah Smith Root, who, I still planning the move and carrying it out. The believe, was the greatest of American col­ excitement I experienced at that time in lege-as distinct from university-librarians. making the wheels go around in a library Azariah Root had a deep interest in li­ is responsible, I suppose, for the fact that brary training. Not long after I began work I headed toward the hard life of the library for him, he became chairman of the Amer­ administrator instead of down one of the ican Library Association committee that was paths that permit a librarian to spend his the forerunner of the Board of Education time in closer contact with the books that for Librarianship, and he later served as attracted him to the profession. The admin­ director of the Library School at the New istrator, unfortunately, finds himself dealing York Public Library. I do not know whether less with books themselves than with admin­ or not he had given any thought, at the istrative machinery for handling books. time I started work in the Oberlin College One more word about Oberlin may be Library, to the subject of staff participation added. In 1912, when Professor Root was in library management, but I do know that, preparing to take a sabbatical leave, he within four months, he permitted and, in­ found no one on his staff who was ready to deed, encouraged a high-school junior to accept responsibility for administering the participate in the administration of the library during his absence. Though I was library. He was not lazy, and he was cer­ then only in the midst of my training at tainly not trying to dodge responsibility; but library school, he decided that my six years he arranged for me, under close supervision, of ~xperience under him as a page had of course, to gather a group of boys of my given me administrative experience enough own age and to direct them in the task of to manage the library for eight months, and sewing, with shoestrings, great quantities of I took over the task. periodicals and newspapers into manila rope These are only personal reminiscences of bundles. · forty-five to fifty years ago, but I think they This was during the Christmas holidays of are relevant. Indeed, if it were not for these 1905. I was sure already that I wanted to experiences and the good I think they did make a career of library work, but I suppose me, I should not have been ready to accept I might have had at least occasional doubts this assignment and hope that I should have about the wisdom of my choice if it had not something to contribute. been for this early opportunity to take the \ It is my opinion, based on experience lead in accomplishing something in a library rather than theory, that staff participation, that seemed to be interesting and worth particularly if it involves taking responsi­ while. At the time, I should add, I had no bility, ought to begin very early in a library desire to become a library administrator. career. It is the best training for administra­ This is not an autobiography, and I shall tion that has yet been developed. Library not tell in detail of the opportunities that schools have been trying to teach adminis­ Azariah Root gave me to participate in li­ tration for many years, but I fear they have brary administration during the years that been unsuccessful on the whole because the followed at Oberlin. It may be worth point­ instruction has been too theoretical in na­ ing out, however, that my first exposure to ture. I believe that some of the graduate the problems of library architecture came schools in other fields, such as the Harvard while I was still in high school in 1906. Graduate School of Business Administration, Azariah Root was then at work on plans for are learning how to teach administration, the building that, v,rhen it opened in 1908, and, thanks in part to their example, our was the best college library building in the library schools are now moving in the right , country. He saw to it that I became inter­ direction. · ested in building planning, and I never lost It seems preferable to give administrative 474 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES training to students who have had some For further evidence based on my own practical library experience-administrative experience, I should like to turn back, this experience in libraries, if possible. The ad­ time, to the year 1914. I had then completed vanced seminar in library administration library school, served for eight months as that I had the good fortune to conduct at the responsible administrator of the Oberlin Rutgers last spring could not possibly have College Library, and had the benefit of par­ worked out as well as it did unless the par­ ticipation in administration for several years. ticipants had all come to it with a back­ I was in charge of the main book stack in ground of experience il).

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