Special Libraries, June 1919
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San Jose State University SJSU ScholarWorks Special Libraries, 1919 Special Libraries, 1910s 6-1-1919 Special Libraries, June 1919 Special Libraries Association Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1919 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, June 1919" (1919). Special Libraries, 1919. 5. https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1919/5 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, 1919 by an authorized administrator of SJSU ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Special Libraries - - Vol. ro JUNE, 1919 No, 5 The Value of a Library in a Financial House BY FRANCIS H. SISSON Vice-president, Guaranty Trust Company of New York The flnancial library as we know it today bases, of international business, that is no has been built up in response to the demand longer possible. Today the assembling of on the part of bank customers for service. the facts is a task for emerts, and the fleld It is an evolution that has kept pace with of these experts is the financial library. that remarkable change through which an This library is something more than a me- ancient calling, very definite in its processes dium through which the offlcer~l and em- and its object, has become an institution ployees of the bank can obtain immediate access to the information whiqh they re- which touches at a thousand and one points quire. It is also a source of inionnation to the complex life of civilized nations. It is which the customers and friends of the the repository of that institution's history bank have been taught to feel that they may and at the same time one of the instruments come when in difficulty. Therefore, we And through which its sarvices are being con- flnancial libraries wide in the scope of the tinuously broadened and enhanced in value. subjects covered and so organized as to The flnancial library is pre-eminently a make easy the flnding of what they contain. working library. Into it are gathered the In the lilbrary of the Guaranty Trust Com- materials, in whatever form, which the pany of New York there are four main di- banker needs in the course of his business, visions, Statistical Files, Cataloguing and and that business is today concerned with Indexing, Clipping and, Order. The Statisti- a multiplicity of activities simply astonish- cal Biles Division collects material on the ing to the layman. It is no longer a matter various bond issues, reports of railway, pub- of keeping gold or silver or securities or lic utility, and industrial companies, and has valuables safe or of changing money. It is access to mortnaaes, de~ositanreemouts, and similar doc~m&t-s. ~mporta&flnanciai a matter of conducting numberless transac- journals are carefully studied for informa- tions which are the very bone and sinew tion regarding business concerns and mate- of those infinitely co'mglicated processes by rial of value suggested by such study 1s sent which the mental and manual efforts of for and flled. This division also Ales syndi- human beings throughout the world are cate documents and the memoranda which transformed into satisfactions of the needs the bank's statisticians write during the of man. course of their investigations of various aco- To the proper conduct of such a business, nomic and flnancial problems. facts are essential. Generalizations are of New books and periodicals are recorded no avail, it will not do to have a "fair idea." and flled by the Cataloguing and Analzing when you are charged with the investment Division. In this work a comprehensive or the expenditure of money that does not system, designed to meet the special needs belong to you. The customers of our flnan- of a financial library, has been devised. Do- cia1 houses want no haphazard advice. They mestic and foreign publications of a seleot- expect and have a right to demand that ed list are analyzed for important items whatever is done by their banker shall be which are of interest from the viewpoint of based Rrst of all upon an exact and detailed the Company's Ibusiness. Numerous foreign knowledge of all the factors that enter into publications are regularly clipped and in- any particular transaction. There was a dexed by the Clipping Division, and item time when it was possible for the banker to on flnance and foreign trade are clipped absorb that necessary knowledge through each day from newspapers. These items daily handling of various problems and are mounted on cardboard and are carefully through association with the men of affairs indexed for ready reference. The Order Di- with whom his business brought him into vision sends for books and magazines. When contact. In these days of rapidly moving these are received they are read carefully events, of changing flnancial and economic and indexed upon carcls for reference. SPECIAL LIBRARIES The Guaranty Trust CoInpany's library ticular force at the present moment of his. sontains about 20,000 books and pamphlets. tory. During the war American bankers In addition to these volumes there are about were brought into closer contact than ever 40,000 reports in the Statistical Files, in- before with the bankers of other countries. cluding railway and industrial reports, state- Their whole field of activity was immensely ments, mortgages, and deposit agreements. broadened and at the same time ti, vijion About 300 newspapers and magazines are was obtained of what might be done in the received regularly, including financial pe- future. The hope of our country's industrial riodicals in Zngland France, future is in the expansion of our foreign Spain, Canada, India, China, Japan, Brazil, trade and the increase of American invest- Argentina, and other countries, and the ments abroad. Fortunately, that hope runs, sheets of the London, French, and Amster- to a great extent, concurrent with the neces- dam Exchanges. Books from foreign coun- sities of the situation, but nevertheless 3ur tries, as well as those published in this bankers and businesB men will require a country, flnd their way into the library constantly increasing and broadening knowl- Special efforts are made to get works on edge of conditions and affairs in foreign business and finance by authorities on these coutries. That means close study and the subjects from all parts of the world. Amcmg more carefully organized and selected our other material a number of documents is- flnancial libraries are the easier and more sued by the Chinese Government have been valuable will that study be. obtained. Of particular value to the work There is another side to the financial libra- which the library is caIled upon to perform ry and that is its usefulness to the omcer is a complete Ale of the Commercial and or enlployee of a banli who desires to broad- Financial Chronicle. With this set are in- en his knowledge of the banking business. cluded many numbers of Hunt's Merchants' True, you will find today very succes~ful Magazine, the predecessor of the Chronicle. bankers who have never read any books These publications date back prior to the upon the theory and practice of banking. but Civil War and contain valuable information I know of no successful banker who does about the financial conditions of that period. not recommend such a reading to hls em- The Commerce Reports of the United States ployees, especially those who are young, also are carefully indexed and filed, and are those who have not gotten into a mt, and available for reference when information whose minds are still open to the sugges- concerning foreign countries, tarifrs, and tions growing out of the experience or 011. export o~portunitiesis desired. servation of others. Such a reading will glve From this brief outline of a financial libra- ry an idea may perhaps be obtained of the the student a proper perspective of the busi- important part which it plays in the life ot ness. He will see it more cleaily as a busi- a banking house. There can be no ques- ness which is an integral part 01 modern tion of the advisability of a flnancial library. life and which in its almost uuivcrsal appli- To a bank of any slze at all it is a necessity. cability offers a generous fleld to Ihc liighesl This is being brought home to us with par- intellectual and moral attainments. The Financial Library and the Student BY CHARLES W. GERSTENBERG Head of the Finance Department, New York University There is no place where the need for 11 With possibly one or two exceptions library as a flowing stream instead of a stag- American universities have very ,poor finan- nant pool is felt more keenly than in the cial libraries. The fact is that the effort flnancial departments of our universities I of keeping up a financia1 library and the believe Princeton University was given a amount of space required are probably out very fine library that beIonged to one of of proportion to the amount of use that the downtown New York investment houses could be made of such a library. But there must be in most of the universities that and was collected largely through the efforts have strong econonlic departments a num- of Miss Beatrice E. Carr. If that library ber of students who care to prepare deflnite- has been kept up, as it probably has in ly for financial work.