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
Among the financial results that have already attracted the attention of
the public and hence engaged the interest of boards of trustees is the
attainment of a proper ratio of expenditure for books to the expense of
administration. This ratio is generally regarded by the lay critic as
abnormally small, but trustees have generally acquiesced in the
librarian’s explanation of the causes that seem to him to make it
necessarily so. It is undoubtedly the trustee’s duty to call his expert
administrator’s attention to this and all other seeming discrepancies in
expenditure, and to make sure that they are not carrying the library too
far toward technical perfection at the expense of practical efficiency.
_Educational results._--It is only right to require that a library
should be able to show that it is increasing the educational content of
the community, or raising its educational standard, or at least that it
is exerting itself to do so, both directly and by co-operation with
other agencies, especially with the public schools. A board of trustees
is certainly justified in ascertaining by any means in its power whether
this is being done, and if not, in asking an explanation of its
librarian. Does everyone in the community know where the library is? Is
everyone who would be benefited by it making use of it? Is it a help to
the schools, and do the teachers recognize this fact? Does the community
in general regard it as a place where material for the acquisition of
knowledge is stored and discriminatingly given out? These are questions
that can be settled not so much by the examination of statistics as by
ascertaining the general feeling of the community. It is much easier for
a trustee to find this out than it is for a librarian; and trustees,
both individually and as a body, should continually bear in mind the
value to them of information along this line. Librarians are apt to talk
a good deal about the educational function of the library as an adjunct
and supplement to the school. It is to their credit that they have made
it an educational force not under pressure but voluntarily, as a
recognition of the necessities of the situation. But where such
necessities have not yet been recognized or where their full import has
been slow of realization, the educational side of library work remains
undeveloped. Let the board of trustees notify its executive officer that
it expects him to look to this feature of his work as thoroughly as to
the condition of his building or the economical expenditure of his
lighting appropriation, and all such institutions will experience a
change of heart.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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