Library Essays; Papers Related to the Work of Public LibrariesBostwick, Arthur E. (Arthur Elmore)
Science
Library Essays; Papers Related to the Work of Public Libraries
Bostwick, Arthur E. (Arthur Elmore)
Library science; Public libraries
May it not be, in some cases, that we really are offering the reader an
alternative between delivery station and library and that through
indolence he takes the former? Doubtless this is often the case, and it
should not be so. The location of every delivery station should be
studied from this standpoint, and its continuance should be made a
matter of serious question. When all is said and done, there will remain
some stations where a minority of users would go to the library if the
station were discontinued, and would be benefited thereby at the expense
of a little more exertion. The fact that there are some real advantages
in long-range circulation should enable the librarian, in such a case,
to strike some kind of a balance, satisfy himself that this particular
station is or is not of resultant benefit to the community, and act
accordingly. It is also possible, in some cases, to combine the deposit
feature with the delivery station, and it goes without saying that this
should be done just as the delivery feature should be added to every
deposit and every branch, where it is feasible.
Finally, the long range circulation may be adapted to the use of the
busy by enabling them to kill two birds with one stone. Libraries are
always trying, with doubtful success, to get hold of persons who are
busy about something else--factory workers, shoppers, and so on. A
residential district is a better place for a branch library than a
shopping district, although the number of different persons who pass the
door daily is larger in the latter, because there is more leisure in the
residence street--less preoccupation and bustle. But if it is made
possible for the shopper to use the library with practically no delay,
while he is shopping, will he not take advantage of the opportunity? A
recent experiment in the St. Louis Public Library convinces me that he
will. We are now operating a downtown branch in the book department of a
large department store, and we have an hourly messenger service between
the library and this station. I believe this is the first time that such
frequent delivery service has been tried. This makes it possible to
leave an order at the beginning of a shopping trip and to find the book
ready at the close of the trip. The interval would never be much over an
hour, and might be as little as fifteen or twenty minutes.
There are two favorable factors here which it might be difficult to
secure elsewhere: The shopping district here is near enough to the
central library to make frequent delivery possible, and the management
of the store where our station is located is broad enough to see that
the possibility of borrowing a book free, from the library, even when
presented as an immediate alternative to the purchase of the same book
from the counters of the store, does not, in the long run, injure sales.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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