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                     The Library Assistant's Manual




                          By THEODORE W. KOCH
                   Librarian, University of Michigan




                          Provisional Edition




                           LANSING, MICHIGAN
                  STATE BOARD OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONERS
                                  1913

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_Issued on the occasion of the 61st annual meeting of the Michigan
State Teachers' Association, Ann Arbor, October 30-November 1, 1913._

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                               CONTENTS.

                                                                  Page
    I.     The library movement in the United States              7-15
    II.    Organization of a library                             16-19
    III.   Book selection and buying                             20-24
    IV.    Classification                                        25-32
    V.     Cataloging                                            33-38
    VI.    Reference work and circulation                        39-50
    VII.   The binding and care of library books                 51-53
    VIII.  Work with children                                    54-58
    IX.    The high school library                               59-66
    X.     Suggested readings in the Encyclopaedia Britannica    67-78

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                               CHAPTER I.

              =THE LIBRARY MOVEMENT IN THE UNITED STATES.=


The forerunner of the American public library of today is found in the
subscription or stock company libraries of Philadelphia, Boston and
other cities. The oldest of these is the Philadelphia Library Company,
founded in 1731 by Benjamin Franklin who later referred to it as "the
mother of all subscription libraries in America." The Rev. Jacob
Duche, a director of the Library Company, wrote in 1774: "Literary
accomplishments here meet with deserved applause. But such is the taste
for books that almost every man is a reader." The Library Company's
authority on book selection was James Logan (the friend of William
Penn) who was esteemed "to be a gentleman of universal learning and the
best judge of books in these parts." In 1783 the Library Committee
instructed its London agent that "though not averse to mingling the
dulce with the utile, they did not care to have him buy any more
novels."

In 1869 the Library Company was made the beneficiary under the will of
Dr. James Rush, who left $1,500,000 to establish the Ridgeway Branch.
On account of the conditions attached to the bequest, the gift was
accepted by a bare majority of the stockholders. Among other
restrictions, the will contained the following clause: "Let the library
not keep cushioned seats for time-wasting and lounging readers, nor
places for every-day novels, mind-tainting reviews, controversial
politics, scribblings of poetry and prose, biographies of unknown
names, nor for those teachers of disjointed thinking, the daily
newspapers." The provisions of the will were strictly carried out and
today the Ridgeway Library stands as a storehouse of the literature of
the past, a monument to the donor and an evidence of the change that
has come over the world in its conception of the function of the
library.

=Boston Athenaeum.=--Like the Philadelphia Library Company, the Boston
Athenaeum was the outgrowth of a group of men who had in common an
interest in books. In May 1806, the Anthology Society, which had been
editing the "Monthly Anthology and Boston review," established a
reading room, the object of which was to afford subscribers a meeting
place furnished with the principal American and European periodicals.
The annual subscription was placed at ten dollars, which was not more
than the cost of a single daily paper. The organization prospered and
by 1827 the treasurer's books showed property valued at more than
$100,000. Two years later the library administration faced a new
problem: a woman applied for admission to the library. Having no
precedent to guide him, the librarian allowed the applicant free access
to the shelves. She was Hannah Adams, who wrote "A view of religious
opinions," a "History of New England," and "The history of the Jews."
The next woman to ask for admission to the treasures of the Athenaeum
was Mrs. Lydia Maria Child, (1802-1880), author of "The rebels," "The
freedman's books," "Hobomok," etc., but her ticket of admission was
shortly revoked "lest the privilege cause future embarrassment." As
late as 1855 Charles Folsom entered a protest against women having
access to "the corrupter portions of polite literature."

=Boston Public Library.=--In 1825 a plan was proposed whereby all the
libraries in Boston should be united under one roof. Later, a Frenchman
by name of Vattemare, caused to be introduced into Congress a measure
which was to build up great libraries through international exchanges.
A public meeting was held in Boston but a committee of the Boston
Athenaeum opposed the scheme and it was dropped. However, in return for
some books forwarded through Vattemare to the Municipal Council of
Paris, the Mayor of Boston received in 1843 about fifty volumes, which
in reality formed the nucleus of the Boston Public Library.

In 1847 the Boston City Council appointed a joint committee on a
library. The next year a special act was passed by the Massachusetts
State Legislature authorizing the city of Boston to found and maintain
a library. Efforts were made to effect a union of interests with the
Boston Athenaeum, but they failed. In 1849 the first books were
presented by the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, and in the following year J.
P. Bigelow, then Mayor of the city, turned over to a library fund the
sum of $1,000 which had been presented to him as a personal testimony.
Edward Everett presented 1,000 United States documents, and Edward
Capen was appointed librarian by the Mayor. George Ticknor, a member of
the Board, helped to draw up a preliminary report outlining the ideals
for the new civic institution. The library was not to be a "mere resort
of professed scholars."

The key note of the whole public library movement in America was struck
by Ticknor when in 1851 he wrote of his hopes for the new library
proposed for Boston: "I would establish a library which differs from
all free libraries yet attempted; I mean one in which any popular
books, tending to moral and intellectual improvement, shall be
furnished in such numbers of copies that many persons can be reading
the same book at the same time; in short, that not only the best books
of all sorts, but the pleasant literature of the day, shall be made
accessible to the whole people when they most care for it, that is,
when it is fresh and new."

A timely friend was found in Joshua Bates, who gave more than $50,000
for the purchase of books, saying that he thought it was desirable to
render the public library at once as useful as possible by providing it
with a large collection of books in many departments of knowledge.

Thus the aim of the founders was quickly realized, it having been their
professed intention to make the library what no other library in the
world had either attempted or desired to become, "a powerful and direct
means for the intellectual and moral advancement of a whole people
without distinction of class or condition." The Boston Public Library
was the pioneer of the large public libraries in America and as such
has long enjoyed a prominence which in a way has resulted in its
differentiation from other large municipal institutions.

=Astor Library.=--John Jacob Astor, who came to this country in 1783,
as a young man of 20, independent of capital, family connections or
influence, became the richest man of his day in the United States, and
wished to show his feelings of gratitude towards the city of New York,
in which he had lived so long and prospered. When he consulted with his
friends, Fitz Green Halleck and Washington Irving among others, as to
the object to which his liberality should be applied, the plan of
building a public library was the most approved and a decision was
promptly made in favor of it. Four hundred thousand dollars was left
for this purpose. The site chosen for the new Astor Library was in
Lafayette Place, in which street lived Mr. William B. Astor, a son of
the donor. Washington Irving was the first president of the Board of
Trustees, and Joseph G. Cogswell was the first librarian. According to
John Hill Burton in the "Book hunter," Mr. Cogswell "spent some years
in Europe with Mr. Astor's princely endowment in his pocket, and
showed himself a judicious, active and formidable sportsman in the
book-hunting world. Whenever from private collections or the breaking
up of public institutions, rarities got abroad in the open market, the
collectors of the old world found that they had a resolute competitor
to deal with, almost, it might be said, a desperate one, since he was,
in a manner, the representative of a nation using powerful efforts to
get a share of the library treasures of the old world. I know that in
the instance of the Astor Library the selections of the books have been
made with great judgment and that after the boundaries of the common
crowded markets were passed and individual rarities had to be stalked
in distant hunting grounds, innate literary value was still held as an
object more important than