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
_Social results._--Under this head we may group a very large number of
results that are apt to be overlooked or taken for granted. They may
perhaps be summarized in the statement that the library should take its
proper place in the institutional life of the community. What this is
will depend largely on the community’s size and its social content. In
many small towns the library naturally assumes great social importance;
in a city it may be relatively of less weight, though perhaps its
influence in the aggregate may be even greater. Whether it is doing this
part of its work properly may probably be best ascertained by comparison
with the work of other institutions that go to build up the social
fabric--the church, the home, the club, the social assembly. Does the
dweller in the community turn as naturally to the library for
intellectual help as he does to the church for religious consolation?
Does he seek intellectual recreation there as he seeks physical
recreation at his athletic club or social entertainment at a dance? And
so seeking, does he find? Does he come to regard the library as his
intellectual home and the librarian and his assistants as friends? What,
on the other hand, is the attitude of the library staff toward the
public? Is it inviting or repellent, friendly or coldly hostile, helpful
or indifferent? Here is a whole body of results that are, in a way, the
most important that a library can produce, and yet it is impossible to
set them down in figures; they can scarcely even be expressed in words.
The social status of a library is like a man’s reputation or his credit;
it is built up by thousands of separate acts and by an attitude
maintained consistently for years; yet a breath may blast it Of this
position a board of trustees should be particularly proud and its
members should do their best to uphold it. If they realize by those many
delicate indications that we all recognize but cannot formulate, that
the library is failing to maintain it, the librarian should hear from
them. They should let him know that something is wrong and that they
expect him to right it. If he does not know how, that is an indication
that his personality and ability are parts of the failure.
This, then from the writer’s standpoint, is the whole duty of a
trustee--or rather of a board of trustees--to see clearly what it wants,
to give the librarian his orders, and to require an accounting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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