Special Libraries, May 1914
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Special Libraries, 1914 Special Libraries, 1910s 5-1-1914 Special Libraries, May 1914 Special Libraries Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1914 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, May 1914" (1914). Special Libraries, 1914. 5. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1914/5 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Special Libraries, 1910s at SJSU ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Special Libraries, 1914 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Special Libraries and Shoes The late 0. Henry tells a story of a discouraged shop-keeper who lived somewhere "up in the states" and who was persuaded to embark in the mercantile business in Central America. A shoe store seemed the right stepping stone to international iame and fortune because of inviting representations of the special opportunities in this business. Friends that lived in Central America wrote the shop- keeper that their town, although it had a large population, had not a single shoe store. The shop-keeper lost no time in preparing for shift- ing his residence and seat of commercial activity. He sold out his business in the "states", invested the proceeds in a new stock of shoes and loaded them on the steamer for Central America. When he arrived in the town he found the representations previously made with regard to the population were true, also, there were no shoe stores in the town. A few days later, however, he discovered a very important bit of information which he should have obtained be- fore embarking in the shoe business in Central America. He learned that ninety percent of the people of Central America went bare- footed twelve months in the year. If this disappointed shop-keeper had had access to a special library on the shoe business and had known how to use it, he would have been spared the humiliation of trying to sell shoes in a land where people have no need for them and also he would have avoided a considerable loss of money, which is more important. CARL MOTE. SPECIAL LIBRARIES The Evolution of the Special Library By John Cotton Dana, Librarian, the Newark Free L~brary(Abriclgecl from THE NEWARKER). The character of librarics, their scope Iwcn~~sethcy were tl10Wht to tell things so and the methods of managing them depcnd slrillfully as to nlalre tllelll of intrrcst nnd ultimately on the character and quantity of value to all tncn tor all time. Among these things intended tn be read. When things were included all the older Greclr and Latin to be read were written upon stone, whether writings, which wcre loolred upon in a cer- in l~ieroglypl~icsor in sculptures or In orna- tain awe, largely 1)ccause tl~t!y were in ments of buildings, libraries were unknown. Greelr and Jatin. Second, boolts on these When things to be read were impressed classic boolrs, studies, expositions, crit- upon bits of clay which were dried or baked, icisms. Third, boolcs on religious subjects and preserved as records, collections of and specially 011 tlleology in all its phases, those records were made and kept, and and including pl~ilosopll~.Thesc books con- librarics began Wl'hcn things to be read tinued to form the greater part of libraries were written upon paper or any of the until within a few years. many kinds of material which were used hefore paper was invented, it was clearly Library Proprieties in 1876, wise to collect them, store them safely and When thc public l~brnrymovement took arrange them conveniently for use. Things form and celerity in our country, about to be read tl111s gnthercd and housed formed for~yyears ago, the accepted field of library the first ltbrsries properly so called. bonk collection had widcned to cover nll kinds of writings. Novels were st111 loolred The Anc~ent,and Surviving, Reverence for on with a l~ttledisfavor, unless thry were Books. hy wrilers time had tried and the ministry approved; science was closely loolrcd at to After the invention of printing, things in- see that it clid not inclinc to infidelity; and tended to be read becrime more common; discussions of sex and society and govern- but, as they were still quite rare and expen- ment wcre feared as tending to promote im- sive, the old methods of collecting and pre- morality and in~mrection. On the wholc, serving then1 were kept up and tlie hahit however, almost anything lhat had the form of giving them a certain reverence was con- of a book could flnd a place in tlie public tinued. library of forty years ago, even tliough it The reverence was due in part to the mighl not be thought Propor to admit it to fact that few could e~therwrite or read, the presence of a Inare reader. in part to the rarity of books, in part to the As a collection of all printed book^ the mystery attached by the ignorant to the art library had arrived; as a something estab- of reading; 1)nt chiefly to llie fact that wit- lished to gather all ltnowledge and all ing and reading and the practice of preserv- thought that the same might be freely used lng books were largely conhned to expo- by all classes of thc conlnlunity, it had not. nents of accepted religious cults. As time went on and books increased in The failure of the public library of forty numbcr and reading became more common, years ago to address itself to all t,he com- this reverence for the book decreased, but munity wilhout distinction of wealth, social ~t decreased very slowly. standing or education, and its failure, so Books were for the pronlotion of culture far as it did so address itself, to flnd its Culture was something wllich the upper advances welcomed and its advantages classes only had a right to get. Science made use of, were due to two factors chief- was pursued by few, and those few were ly: The tcndcncy of tlic librarian to tliinlr scarcely admitted to the aristocracy of boolr- of his collections as rather for the learned than for the learncr, and the tendency of users. It is only within very recent years a that in Englancl, for cxample, the study of the community at largo to think of col- medicine and its allied subjacts, even if car- lection of books as rathcr exclusively de- ried on to most helpful results, gave him signed for those who 11ad been reared to who followed it a good position in the social use them. hierarchy. How the Library Idea Was Broadened. What Our Fathers Called "Real Books." This long-continued, sclf-imposed opinion as to thc proper limitations of tl~clibrary- The real books in the opinion of the edu- using group was broadened in due course cated among the upper classcs, and, indeed, for fieveral reasons. among all of the members of the upper The output of print increased with great classes who were competent to form opin- rapidity; and the newspapers, to speak of ions, were held to be, first, the literary mas- one form only of printed things, caused a terpieces, the books which time had spared rap~dgrowth in the reading habit and led SPECIAL LIBRARIES millions to gain a superficial knowledge of odical literature; perhaps still more in the many aspects of life and thought. publications of public institutions and pri. Public and private schools and colleges vate associations; still more again in the taught more subjects and taught them bet- fleld of advertising by poster, circular, pic- ter, until flnally the sciences were, a few ture and pamphlet; and perhaps most of years ago, admittcd as proper flelds of all in the mere conlmercial wrapper. knowledge and tools of discipline even to the most conservative of English univer- Print Grows by Being Consumed! sitie~. IWom acquaintance with a wide Every added piece of print helps to add range of required school reading it was but new or more facile and more eager readers a step to the demand that a still wider to the grand total of print consumers As range be furnished hy the public library. commerce and industry have grown, print The habit of reading increased very rap- has incrensed also, and naturally and in- idly among women. More of them becamc evitably more rapidly than either. tenchers, more of them entered industrial Considered merely as an industry and life, more of them joined study clubs, and measured by money invested and value of these changes in their forms of activity all output, print fieems to be growing now fast- led to an increase of reading, to a wider er than any other of the great industries, range of reading and to a notable and insist- among which it is one of the flrst; and in ent demand upon libraries that they furnish view of the facL that s like expenditure the books and journals on whatsoever sub- each year produces, t.hanlw to invention and jects woman's broadening inlerests included. discovery, a greater output of things to be Indeed, a certain almost apostolic devo- read, It must be admitted that in its prod- tion to thc reading done by children and ucts, properly measured, print today stands an enthusiastic welcoming of women as in the front rank of all our manufactures.