Library Essays

Part 1

Produced by Chuck Greif, MWS, Adrian Mastronardi and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)

LIBRARY ESSAYS

PAPERS RELATED TO THE WORK OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES

LIBRARY ESSAYS

PAPERS RELATED TO THE WORK OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES

ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, PH. D.

THE H. W. WILSON COMPANY NEW YORK 1920

PREFACE

The author of these papers began his service in librarianship in April, 1895. He celebrates his silver jubilee by gathering them into a single volume. Before becoming a librarian he had worked for many years as teacher, editor and journalist, and the use of the pen having become second nature, he took it up in behalf of libraries and librarians, somewhat sooner, perhaps, than experience would warrant. However, the papers reflect to a certain extent the progress of library work during the past quarter century.

A. E. B.

CONTENTS

PAINS AND PENALTIES IN LIBRARY WORK 3

Read at the Magnolia Conference of the American Library Association, June, 1902. (A. L. A. Proceedings, 1902, p. 29-34)

HOW LIBRARIANS CHOOSE BOOKS 17

(Public Libraries, April, 1903, p. 137-41)

THE WORK OF THE SMALL PUBLIC LIBRARY 29

(Library Journal, August, 1903, p. 596-600)

LAY CONTROL IN LIBRARIES AND ELSEWHERE 39

Read before the Trustees’ Section of the American Library Association, at the Niagara Conference. (A. L. A. Proceedings, 1903, p. 199-202)

THE WHOLE DUTY OF A LIBRARY TRUSTEE: FROM A LIBRARIAN’S STANDPOINT 49

An address before the Trustees’ Section of the American Library Association (A. L. A. Proceedings, 1906, p. 40-4)

THE DAY’S WORK: SOME CONDITIONS AND SOME IDEALS 59

Presidential address before the New York Library Association, Lake Placid, September 21, 1903. (Library Journal, October, 1903, p. 704-7)

LIBRARY STATISTICS 69

(Library Journal, January, 1904, p. 5-8)

OLD PROBABILITIES IN THE LIBRARY--HIS MODEST VATICINATIONS 79

Read before the Pennsylvania Library Club, Philadelphia, May 9, 1904. (Library Journal, October, 1904, p. 517-23)

THE LOVE OF BOOKS AS A BASIS FOR LIBRARIANSHIP 97

Part 2

Read before the New York Library Association, Twilight Park, September, 1906. (Library Journal, February, 1907, p. 51-5)

THE LIBRARY AS THE EDUCATIONAL CENTER OF A TOWN 111

(Public Libraries, May, 1907, p. 171-4)

THE LIBRARIAN AS A CENSOR 121

Presidential address before the American Library Association, Lake Minnetonka Conference, June, 1908. (Library Journal, July, 1908, p. 257-64)

HOW TO RAISE THE STANDARD OF BOOK SELECTION 141

Read at the meeting of the Library commissions of the New England States, Hartford, Conn., February 11, 1909. (Public Libraries, May, 1909, p. 163-7)

LIBRARY CIRCULATION AT LONG RANGE 221

(Library Journal, July, 1913, p. 391-4)

CONFLICTS OF JURISDICTION IN LIBRARY SYSTEMS 231

Read before the round table of branch librarians at the Washington conference, May 28, 1914. (Library Journal, August, 1914, p. 588-91)

THREE KINDS OF LIBRARIANS 241

Read before the Missouri Library Association, Sedalia, November 18, 1914. (Public Libraries, January, 1915, p. 1-4; February, 1915, p. 47-50)

SCHOOL LIBRARIES AND MENTAL TRAINING 255

(School Review, June, 1915, p. 395-405)

THE LIBRARY AND THE BUSINESS MAN 269

A luncheon address to the Advertising Club of St. Louis. (Library Journal, April, 1917, p. 259-64)

SYSTEM IN THE LIBRARY 153

Read before the Missouri State Library Association, Columbia, Mo., October 28, 1909. (Library Journal, November, 1909, p. 476-82)

THE EXPLOITATION OF THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 171

Address before the American Library Association at the Pasadena Conference, May 19, 1911. (A. L. A. Proceedings, 1911, p. 60-5)

SERVICE SYSTEMS IN LIBRARIES 183

(Library Journal, June, 1912, p. 299-304)

EFFICIENCY RECORDS IN LIBRARIES 199

(Library Journal, March, 1913, p. 131-3)

MAL-EMPLOYMENT IN THE LIBRARY 205

Read before the Iowa Library Association. (Iowa Library Quarterly, October, 1912, p. 247-52)

COST OF ADMINISTRATION 217

Part 3

Report to the American Library Institute. (Public Libraries, December, 1912, p. 416-18)

POETS, LIBRARIES AND REALITIES 283

An address at the opening of the new building of the Indianapolis Public Library. (Library Journal, December, 1917, p. 944-50)

THE CHURCH AND THE PUBLIC LIBRARY 299

(Homiletic Review, June, 1918, p. 435-9)

THE FUTURE OF LIBRARY WORK 309

(A. L. A. Bulletin, September, 1919, p. 50-7)

POPULARIZING MUSIC THROUGH THE LIBRARY 325

Read before the National Association of Music Teachers and reprinted from the published Proceedings for 1918.

TWO CARDINAL SINS 341

A MESSAGE TO BEGINNERS 357

LUCK IN THE LIBRARY 373

THE LIBRARY AS A MUSEUM 393

THE LIBRARY AND THE LOCALITY 409

INDEX 429

LIBRARY ESSAYS

PAPERS RELATED TO THE WORK OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES

PAINS AND PENALTIES IN LIBRARY WORK

In somewhat the same way as Irving makes Diedrich Knickerbocker begin his history of New York with the creation of the world, so we may open a discussion of this subject with a word on the theory of punishment. We all know that neither moral philosophers nor penologists are agreed in this matter. Do we inflict punishment to satisfy our eternal sense of justice, to prevent further wrong-doing on the part of the person punished, as an example to others, or to reform the delinquent? So far as the justicial theory goes, it is unnecessary here to discuss whether it is founded merely on the old savage feeling of revenge, which having done its part in ensuring punishment to the wrong-doer in the uncivilized past, should now be put aside. As a matter of fact the rule, “Let no guilty man escape,” is a very good one for practical purposes, whatever its theoretical implications. Why should it be necessary to proceed according to any one theory in administering punishment? Practically in the home, at school, and in the courtroom the simple administration of justice does very well for us, and when we go a little farther into the matter we see that each of the other elements enters into consideration. Certainly it is so in the library.

Penalties for the infraction of our rules should be so inflicted that future wrong-doing both on the part of the culprit and on that of the remainder of the public becomes less likely than before. Whether we always do this in the most satisfactory way may be queried.

Punishable acts committed in a library may be divided, according to the old ecclesiastical classification, into mala prohibita and mala in se; in other words, into acts that are simply contrary to library regulations and those that are absolutely wrong. To steal a book is wrong anywhere and does not become so merely because the act is committed in a library; but the retention of a borrowed book for fifteen instead of fourteen days is not absolutely wrong, but simply contrary to library regulations.

The keeping of books overtime is a purely library offence, committed against the library and to be punished by the library; and with it may be classed such infractions of the rules as failure to charge or discharge a book, loud talking or misbehavior below the rank of really disorderly conduct, such injury to books as does not constitute wilful mutilation, the giving of a fictitious name at the application desk, etc.

For all these strictly library offences the favorite penalties seem to be two in number--the exaction of a fine and exclusion from library privileges--temporary or permanent. The former is more used than the latter, and I venture to think unjustly so. From the sole standpoint of punishment the great advantage of a fine is that it touches people in their most sensitive point--the pocket. But this is a ganglion whose sensitiveness is in inverse proportion to its size; in one case the exaction of a cent means the confiscation of the possessor’s entire fortune; in another the delinquent could part with a hundred dollars without depriving himself of a necessity or a pleasure. Of course this lack of adaptability to the conditions of the person to be punished is not confined to this one method. Imprisonment, for instance, may be the ruin of a life to the hitherto respectable person, while to the tramp it may simply mean a month’s shelter and food. But in the case of a money penalty the lack of adaptability is particularly noticeable, and hence wherever it is exacted a large portion of the public comes to forget that it is a penalty at all. Instead of a punishment exacted in return for the commission of a misdemeanor and intended to discourage the repetition thereof, it is looked upon as payment for the privilege of committing the misdemeanor, and it in fact becomes this very thing. Thus, in states where there is a prohibitory law, and periodical raids are made on saloons with the resulting fines, these fines often become in effect license fees, and are so regarded by both delinquents and authorities. Where a municipality provides that automobiles shall not be speeded in its streets under penalty of a heavy fine, the wealthy owners of motor-carriages too often regard this as permission to speed on payment of a stated amount, and act accordingly. So in the library, the fine for keeping books overtime is widely regarded as a charge for the privilege of keeping the books longer than the formal rules allow. Being so regarded, the fine loses a great part of its punitive effect, and largely becomes in fact what it is popularly thought to be. Thus we have a free public library granting extra privileges to those who can afford to pay for them and withholding the same from those who cannot afford to pay--an extremely objectional state of things.

Continue reading Library Essays free in the Wunder reader →