Special Libraries, September 1912
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Special Libraries, 1912 Special Libraries, 1910s 9-1-1912 Special Libraries, September 1912 Special Libraries Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1912 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, September 1912" (1912). Special Libraries, 1912. 7. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1912/7 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, 1912 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Special- Libraries Vol. 3 SEPTEMBER 1 @ 12 No. 7 PUBLISHED BY THE instltuti~nto an entirely different clas- SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATIOW sification; that it is not a general refer- Jlonthly except July nod Augnst. ence library, but a special library, some- Editorlnl nnd, l'ublicatlon Otflce, Stute 1,lhrnry. thing entirely different. I have at the re- Indiannpolis, Ind. cluest of the Program Committee written Subscriptions, OR Brond strcel, Boslon. Utlss down what seemed to me the perfectly ob- Entered nt the Po\tofflce nt Indlnnnpollr;. lnd., vious thi~lgsthat might be said about the ns second-clu~smatter. scope and Purposes of the special library. You have the paper before you as printed Subscription. .. .$2.00 a year (10 numbeiss) in "Sl)ecial Libmraries." Single copies .25 cents .................... (1) Mr. Dudgeon's gaper was published In President ..................L). N. IIandy the June, 1912 issue of Special Libraries, Inswnnct! 1,lblary ds+ocintlon, Donton, hlnss. Pp. 129-133. Vicc~I're4tlent ........... 11. I1 .lohnston I31u.eau of JWIWII) Kconomits, \'i't~uhlngton, IJ. C. Ma. A. G. S. Jos~r~~rsos:--Ageneral libm- Secretary-'l'icasurer ........... Goy U. >Isrlon ry is most often established without any Llbrury, .\rlhur I). Little, Inc., 03 Brond St. very definite demand for it, however nse- ICSlC('C'I'IV16 BOARJ) ful and really needed it will be found to Preplent, YIce-1'rc~iclent, Sccretnry-Trensuret . be when once opened for public use. Pew, L. E. Kulpnm. I'eople's (:as Light nnd Coke Co., C'lilcngo; nnd Jliss IPlorence Spencer, NR- if any s1)ecinl libraries, are founded except tionnl City Bunk, Sew York City. for a very definite purpose, to fill a real Mnnnglng Editor of Spec-lnl 1,lbrnrles .-John A. need, and often, gerhnps, not until long Lnpg, Stnte Librnl*.~,Incll~lnnpolis. Ind. Asrlhtnnt EAltor. Ethel Clelnnd, Stnte Lilrrnry, after the need for it has been demonstrated. [udinnapolls, Tnd. Here is the mission of the Special Libraries l'ONTRIBlY"l!SG I<I)ITORS Associalion, to agitate for the establishment F. N. Morton, TJnltetl Gns Imgroverncnt ('o., or special libraries to fill special, only I'hilndelphin. vaguely felt needs. I would like to see the 11. 11. B. Al@yer, Llbrar~of Congre~~. N. Association take up a real campalgn for U. IIILIIA~.Insurnnce Libinry Association, the further development of libraries in What is a Special Library?. ..........I46 places where there nov are none, especially Cataloging in Legislative Reference in comn~ercial and industrial l~lants. It Work. ..........................149 seems to me that this would be a much Select List of References on Motion more friutfnl field and a much more sig- Piotures. .......................,154 niflcant work, than the discussion of mat- Laws and Legislation. ................I58 ters of routine and method. Research and Intercommunication. .....I58 A special library is, to my mind, a li- Bibliographies. .......................,160 brary that covers a single definite subject, -- - or a definite group of related subjects, such WHAT IS A SPECIAL LIBRARY? as 'Cily planning, or Sociology. Such a li- brary will exclude from its shelves every- Disaussion S. L. A,, Ottawa, Canada, June 27, tliii~gthat is not definitely related to its 1912. subject, or, if occasionally for specla1 rea- SOllS, a book not directly germane to this MR. M. S. DUDCEOX:-There are those subject is admitted, that book is given its who maintain that there is no such thing place in the system of the library as deter- as a special library in a class 01 its own, mined by the reason for its being Iregt. If but that what we call a special library is it ia intended to make a distinction be- simply a general reference library which tnreen special and general libraries, the by the needs of its patrons has become distinction should be clear and distinct. A somewhat specialized in its methods and in library is not a special library because it its equipment. On the other hand, there excludes from its fleld certain more or less are those who maintain that a, special definite branches of knowledge. On the library has so distinctly a aiffei-ent fnnc- other hancl, it is quite possible so to ad- tion and purpose that its scope is so dl£- minister a general library that it, or raLh- ferent, that its equipment is so different, er each of its departments, may be regard- and that the equipment, the qualities and ed as n special library. In order that such the characteristics of those who man the a library which covers more than one sub- library are so different, as to entitle such ject or group of subjects, shall become nn- der the technical definition of "special", It has been said lhat the librarian of n each of its departments must be organized special library must be a specialist first as if it were a library by itself, with little of all, and only secondarily a librarian. TO more than an outward connectioll with the this I cannot agree. A librarian must first other departments, it should have its Owl1 of all be a librarian. Some persons seem quarters, differentiated from the other da- to thlnli that all there is to a librarian is partn~ents,it should have its own libiarian technique, lrnowledge of the rules and prac- who in all matters relating ollly to it tices that have grown LI~Iamong libraries shoulcl have indel~endent authority. and are taughl in library scl~ools. This is a~lothercharactel~istic of a special libra- the very smallest part of a librarian's equip- ry is, that in its aclministration specla1 ment. No librarian was yet made in the n~ethocls are used. The special library library school alone. must, tor instance, nlalie much nlore use Take an engineer, or a minister, or a 111'0- of what has come to be lrnowll as docunlen- fessor of history, let him take a sgecial tation than the general library, -4 sllecial course in lil~raryL's~ien~e", and he will nev- lihrary must subscribe to many periodicals er become anything but an engineer, or a of a general characler, but there is no rea- minister, or a professor, any more than a son why it shoulcl keep then1 forever in- course in a business college would malie tact and bind them. A special library of him an exllert acco~mtantunless he possess- engineering, for instance, will have to sub- es the inborn feeling for boolrs, the real scribe to magazines like The World's Work, scent of the bibliographer. or even Scribners', but when the current The funrlamental lrnowledge of a llbra- volun~es or nunlbers are no longer needed rian is the linowledge of boolcs, not of for constant reference, there is no need ot boolis on city planning, or railroading, or retaining them, the articles that bear on hislory, or engineering, or theology, but of the subject covered by the special library, b001is per se as sources of knowledge, as are the only ones that are needed for gres- tools for study, as means for research. A ervation; tlie remainder of the numbers are libranan mlth this special knowledge, who betler on the scrag heal], or in the hands lrnows from long experience what boolcs are, of some othei' Iibrary for special uses bow they are to be used to yield the fullest there. fruit fo~.the labor bestowed on them by the The methods of cataloguing and classify- reader, is certainly competent to lalie hold ing a sl~eriallibrary will also be someml~at of a library of no matter what specialty cliHerent from those in use in general II- ancl manage it so that it serves its constitu- blmaries. The classification must be much ency to the fullest closer ancl in cataloguing less attention On being placer1 in charge of a special need be givcn to the bibliographical descrip- library he mill natartdly, almost without tion rhan to the contents. I11 many cases any outward effolqt, apply his Iinowledge of the cataloguing of boobs in a special libra- books and of library methods to the case ry will alnount to abstracting. And inuch In hand and make himscli, not a specialist, inore analytical ~orlrmust be clone in or- but a special lil~rarian Hc will apply his der to malie all the 1-esources of the libra- knowledge of boolts as tools lo the effort ry yield their fullest. of malilng himself sufficiently proficient in Sot only in inethods does the special li- the field covered by the library so as to brary differ from the general. Its mater- be able to aid thosc who come to use the ial is to a very large extent different. It library. NO librarian need be a specialist mnst have boolis, it is true, and pamph- in anv particular ficld ol literature, b11t he lets, and periodicals, thougll right here must be a sl~ecitllist in the field of b001is does the difference beg~n,as we have seen, about boolis.