Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
Science
Papers and Proceedings of the Thirty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the American Library Association: Held at Ottawa, Canada, June 26-July 2, 1912
American Library Association; Library science -- Congresses
There is much to be said in favor of the third type of agricultural
library,--namely, where the agricultural collections are incorporated
with the college or university collections. When the topography of
the campus and the location of the buildings are such as to make it
feasible for the station workers and the agricultural professors to
use the college or university library, the balance of the arguments
seems to be in favor of this arrangement, both as regards economy of
funds and efficiency of service, if the special needs of the station
workers can be and are given proper consideration by providing the
really necessary duplicates and an assistant especially qualified to
aid in the bibliographical research connected with the investigations
of the experiment station. There is a decided tendency toward unity
in modern science. This is especially true in the sciences relating
to agriculture. The entomologist needs to use botanical books, the
botanist must use chemical books, etc., etc. This has an important
bearing on library problems and as far as agricultural libraries are
concerned, is an argument for centralized collections.
As it is probable that it will be a long time in the future, if ever,
before the experiment stations will have sufficient funds to build
up complete collections for their special use, independent of the
colleges, and since it is a question whether, if funds were actually
available, it would be wise to expend them in duplicating to such an
extent the college library collections, it seems evident that some
compromise arrangement is inevitable. In attempting to work out a
satisfactory library plan, every institution should make a careful
survey of local conditions, such as the size of the collections, the
size of the library staff, funds available, location and architecture
of the college and experiment station buildings, and then attempt
to work out the best possible policy under its peculiar conditions.
In working out such a policy, there are three important points to
consider,--the question of administration, the question of convenience
and the economy of funds.
As regards administration, attention has already been called to the
fact that the station is by law a department of the college and under
its control. If fully lived up to, this fact would seem to decide many
vexed questions of administration. Sooner or later, it is believed, the
colleges and experiment stations will find that there is less to be
gained by standing alone than they had supposed and they will realize
the advantages of a unified library administration for the institution
as a whole.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account