Part 1 — Library Magazines, Book Lists, etc.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Section 264, pp. 251-254.

Rae—Public library administration. pp. 117-120.

Sayers and Stewart—Library magazines. L.W. Vols. 7 and 8, 1904-6.

Ward—Publicity for public libraries. Chap. 9, pp. 91-110.

Wheeler—The library and the community. Chaps. 22 and 23, pp. 243-267.

Publicity.

A.L.A.—Manual of library economy. Chapter 31.

Briscoe—Library advertising. Coptic Series. Grafton, 1921. 7s. 6d.

Piper—Library advertising methods. L.A.R. Vol. 15, 1913, pp. 71-79.

Ward—Publicity for public libraries. Wilson, New York: 1924. Also Grafton.

Wheeler—The library and the community. A.L.A., 1924. Also Grafton. 15s.

Questions.

1. What steps would you take to ensure that the library obtained full publicity and benefit from co-operation in a course of University Extension lectures?

2. Give a brief account of the National Home Reading Union, and state how you would conduct a reading circle.

3. In what way can the Central Library for Students assist the public library?

4. What is an information bureau?

5. By what principal means would you advertise a library?

6. What steps would you take to keep readers fully acquainted with new additions?

Lesson 4.

Bookbinding. Stationery. Printing.

Note.—Bookbinding is dealt with in Course I, Lesson 7 on pp. 16-18, which should be treated as part of the present lesson.

All assistants should be thoroughly familiar, not merely with the various forms used in their own library, but with the several variations which are used in others. Study methods of storing stationery, recording supplies, and note the means of checking supplies in stock in order to avoid the irritating experience of finding some particular item out of stock when most urgently required.

The necessary procedure, agreements, and arrangements in dealing with the printer, and the checking of proof, should be noted.

Reading List.

Printing.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Sections 265-266, pp. 254-257.

Proof reading marks and signs. L.W. Vol. 13, 1910-11, pp. 308-09.

Walter—Library printing. Chap. 32, A.L.A. Manual of library economy.

Ward—Publicity for public libraries. Chap. 16, pp. 271-298. Library printing and printing economies.

Wheeler—The library and the community. Chap. 21, pp. 223-242. Layout and typography of printed matter.

Stationery.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Sections 322-327, pp. 296-301.

Jast—Classification of office papers. (Originally published in Brown’s Subject Classification).

Madeley—Classification of office papers. L.A.R. Vol. 6, 1904, pp. 367-387.

Questions.

1. Outline in full the method you would adopt in dealing with stationery supplies, giving ruling of any record you would use.

2. Give as many proof correction marks, with explanations, as you can.

Lesson 5.

Routine and Correspondence Details.

Assistants are reminded that no matter how wisely the general policy and administration of a library may be directed, no small measure of its ultimate success is dependent on a scrupulous regard for accuracy in the discharge of the many and varied details which make up the daily routine. The various library duties are so co-ordinated that it is almost impossible to make mistakes singly, and the slightest inaccuracy or inattention to minor details will reduce the efficiency of a library’s service.

Everything appertaining to staff routine, accession methods, replacements, revision of stock, discarding, registration of borrowers, checks on work and readers, charging and filing methods, accounting, statistics, etc., can be done in different ways, but only work based on a careful study and comparison of the various methods can achieve real success.

Reading List.

Accession Methods.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Chap. 14, pp. 189-205.

Collier—A rational accession method. L. & B.W. Vol. 9, 1908, pp. 1-8.

Hopper—Order and accession department. Chap. 17, A.L.A. Manual of library economy.

Jast—Accessions: the checking processes. L. Vol. 1, 1899, pp. 152-163.

Library Economics. pp. 8-10.

Roebuck and Thorne—Primer of library practice. pp. 46-50.

Checks on Work. Time Sheets.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Sections 89-90, pp. 90-92.

Library Economics. pp. 80-83.

McGill—A form of work-sheet. L.W. Vol. 13, 1910-11, pp. 204-206.

Registration of Borrowers.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Chap. 24, pp. 341-349.

Library Economics. pp. 87-89.

Neesham—Registration of borrowers. L.W. Vol. 12, 1909-10, pp. 341-343.

Rae—Public library administration. pp. 78-88.

Roebuck and Thorne—Primer of library practice. pp. 50-53.

Issue Methods.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Chap. 25, pp. 350-365.

Brown and others—Open access libraries. Chap. 7, pp. 155-178.

Library Economics. pp. 1-5; 57-63; 10-12.

Pollitt—Principles of book charging. L.W. Vol. 15, 1912-13, pp. 340-343.

Rae—Public library administration. pp. 63-77.

Roebuck and Thorne—Primer of library practice. pp. 54-58; 65-66.

Storing. Maps. Prints. Pamphlets. Photographic Surveys, Etc.

A.L.A.—Manual of library economy. Chap. 25.

Brown—Manual of library economy. 1919 edition. Sects. 300-313., pp. 414-5; 429-442.

Goss—Methods of ... preserving prints. L.A.R. Vol. 17, 1915, pp. 349-362.

Jast—The treatment of pamphlets. L.W. Vol. 4, 1901-2, pp. 60-63.

Sparke—Newspaper rack for bound volumes. L.W. Vol. 3, 1900-01, pp. 127-128.

Spofford—Book for all readers. Chap. 7, pp. 145-156.

Warner—Photographic surveys in connection with public libraries. L.A. Vol. 6, 1909, pp. 240-245.

Woodbine—Modern methods of book storage. L.A.R. Vol. 12, 1910, pp. 446-454.

Statistics. Annual Report.

Bostwick—The American Public Library. Chap. 20, pp. 266-281.

Brown—Manual of library economy. Chap. 4, pp. 60-70.

Hetherington—Library statistics. L.A.R. Vol. 19, 1917, pp. 1-16.

Minto—Public library statistics. L. New Series. Vol. 2, 1900, p. 164.

Willcock—What should an annual report contain? L.A.R. Vol. 8, 1906, pp. 363-371; 392-397.

Miscellaneous Administrative Details.

Coutts—Overdue books and the treatment of defaulters. L.W. Vol. 14, 1911-12, pp. 241-246.

Dixon—the bespoken file. L.W. Vol. 15, 1912-13, pp. 316-7.

Fry—Fines and other penalties. L.W. Vol. 17, 1914-15, pp. 1-8.

Hatcher—Stocktaking methods. L.A. Vol. 5, 1904, pp. 43-46.

Library Economics. Reserved Books, p. 92.

QUESTIONS.

1. Draw up a weekly time and work sheet for a library containing lending, reference, and juvenile departments, open 9-30 a.m. to 8-0 p.m. each week day. The staff consists of five senior and ten junior assistants, working forty-two hours per week.

2. State what information you would include in an annual report.

3. Give the ruling of (a) accession book (b) overdue book (c) cash receipt book (d) donation book.

4. Mention the various methods of indicating ownership of books, stating which you prefer for reference and lending library books, newspapers, and periodicals.

5. Give in their correct order the various processes through which a book has passed from entering the library to the time it is issued to a reader.

6. By what means would you ascertain the number of books consulted in (a) an open access and (b) a closed reference department?

TEST EXAMINATION.

1. Describe what you consider to be the best means of advertising a library.

2. Assume that legal proceedings are about to be taken for the recovery of a book. By what steps has the case reached this stage? Give wording of the necessary correspondence in connection with the case.

3. Show, by a rough plan, how you would arrange the bookcases, barriers, and necessary furniture and fittings for an open-access library 50 feet by 40 feet, not top-lighted.

4. Discuss the policy of providing special reading rooms for ladies.

5. State how the public library can most usefully collaborate with the Education Committee in relation to continuation schools.

6. Describe what aids you would provide in a closely classified lending library to indicate the exact location of a book, and give what you consider to be the best method of dealing with “oversize” books.

7. Give the approximate initial cost of establishing a home bindery, stating what requisites you would provide. What advantages would be gained by having such a department?

8. Discuss the policy of allowing children free access to the whole of the stock in their department.

9. Name twenty works which you consider essential to the success of a quick-reference section.

10. Outline the duties of an assistant in a (a) children’s library (b) lending library (c) information desk.

11. Give a list of ten newspapers and six general, six trade, six political, and six ladies’ periodicals you would recommend for a general reading room. State what you consider to be the best means of displaying them, and outline fully the instructions you would give with regard to filing the periodicals you select.

12. Discuss the value of statistics in estimating the work done by a public library.