A Plan of Organization for Small Libraries Methods of Work By Mrs. Minnie Clarke Budlong Secretary and Director of the The Boston Book Company PREFACE This plan for the organization of small libraries is an attempt to enable untrained librarians to do systematic work. Only the simplest methods are advocated and few technical terms used. In charge of a library of 500 to 5000 volumes is usually found a librarian without an assistant and also without technical training and often without experience in the work. This treatise suggests methods making not too great demands upon time nor technical skill and still sufficiently scientific to expand as the library grows so that the work accomplished will not have to be done over when the library reaches 5000 volumes. It is recommended that all orders for books be made out on order cards which will be kept and used as the shelf list and accession record. For the smallest libraries all cards. may be filed alphabetically by author and the books may be shelved in the same order. Or fiction cards and books may be alphabeted by author and non-fiction be arranged by subjects and alphabeted under class numbers. Methods of work from the selection of the book until it is ready for circulation and eventually withdrawn are described in detail and lists of supplies needed are given. There are suggestions and lists of aids for equipment, for care of books, for library economics, for publicity and allied activities. A brief history of the library movement in America leads to the relations between the librarian and the board, the schools, the teachers and the community; and to suggestions given for making the library an attractive center in community life. There is no claim for originality in this work. Many lists, articles, pamphlets and books have been consulted and libraries visited with the purpose of learning the shortest business-like methods in library work and the simplest way to present library science to the worker who has not yet had a course at library school. To have complete and accurate records and still leave the librarian time and vitality for the V 359957 |