College and Research Libraries By L O U I S E O . B E R C A W Library Service to Technical Agriculturists' Miss Bercaw is assistant librarian, U.S. Department of A griculture Library. IN A paper before the A g r i c u l t u r a l L i -braries Section in M a y 1929, Claribel R . Barnett paraphrased D r . G e o r g e W a t - son Cole's definition of the "ideally perfect l i b r a r y , " as f o l l o w s : . . the ideally per- fect agricultural library w o u l d contain all the books ever printed on agriculture and the related sciences f r o m the first book on agriculture by Crescentius published in 1471 d o w n to the latest books and bulletins of the present d a y . " U n f o r t u n a t e l y , o r per- haps fortunately—since there is a space problem i n v o l v e d — s u c h a library exists only in the imagination today, as M i s s Barnett pointed out that it did in 1929. G o o d library service to technical agricul- tural workers is not dependent on a library's containing all the books ever printed on agriculture and the related sciences, but on its containing the publications most likely to be needed by its clientele, on its access to all other publications wherever they may be f o u n d , and on the skill and promptness w i t h which its personnel make the contents of the books available to the w o r k e r . T o give such service, a library should have a discriminating acquisition policy, a competent, well-trained staff, a suitable and c o m f o r t a b l e plant to house and care f o r its books and workers, and adequate funds f o r its operation. 1 P a p e r presented at meeting of A g r i c u l t u r a l L i b r a r i e s Section, A . C . R . L . , J u n e 18, 1948, A t l a n t i c C i t y , N . J . A library's acquisition policy is governed, of course, by its needs and by the size of its book f u n d , and by the number of publica- tions it can obtain as gifts or through exchange. It seems unnecessary f o r all agricultural libraries to atempt to acquire and maintain, even if they could, complete collections in the field of agriculture. C o l - lections sufficient f o r ordinary needs may be supplemented by interlibrary loans f r o m the U . S . D . A . Library, the L i b r a r y of C o n - gress, and other large or more specialized libraries. M u c h has been written on the qualifica- tions of a technical library staff and on whether the librarian and his professional assistants should be professional librarians or subject specialists, or both. N o attempt w i l l be made here to add further to the discussion, except to say that the m o r e knowledge o u r professional staffs have of agriculture, the underlying sciences, and foreign languages the better equipped they will be to give efficient service. A l t h o u g h the library that I represent does not re- quire, except in certain of our higher grade positions, that our employees have some k n o w l e d g e of one or more of the underlying sciences in the field of agriculture, w e are always on the alert f o r persons w i t h special subject or language qualifications, w h a t - ever their grade. T h e first requisite, of course, is that they have a g o o d education and library training, or library experience, in the w o r k w h i c h they are to p e r f o r m , whether it be cataloging, acquisition, refer- OCTOBER, 1948 35 7 ence, or bibliography. In-service training in subject specialties may be acquired on the j o b or f r o m courses given by the depart- ment's graduate school or by universities in W a s h i n g t o n . It is, perhaps, unnecessary to elaborate on the statement that a library should have adequate funds f o r its operation. O n the adequacy of such funds depends, to a great extent, the success of the library in giving efficient, prompt service. Increasing de- mands f o r service without a corresponding increase in funds to employ additional staff to meet such demands, is a problem w h i c h many libraries have to face. R a l p h R . Shaw, in an article in the Wil- son Library Bulletin f o r January 1947. stated: " T h e r e are only t w o ways to meet increasing service demands. O n e is to get more money. T h e other is to do all the w o r k that can be done by applying the prin- ciples of scientific management to effect most efficient utilization of the money and m a n p o w e r already at your disposal." T h e first suggestion may be impossible; nothing should stand in the w a y of the second. G r a n t e d that the library has reasonably adequate funds, an adequate book collec- tion, and a well-trained and competent staff, w h a t services should the technical agricul- tural w o r k e r expect the library to provide f o r him and h o w should they be g i v e n ? First, the service should be prompt, courteous, and efficient. T h e last t w o may be taken f o r granted. Promptness of serv- ice should be emphasized. Users have a right to expect a m i n i m u m of delay in filling a request f o r a book or in answering a refer- ence question. T o o frequent, or too l o n g delays should be investigated at once. W e may find that the fault lies not in a lack of sufficient personnel to d o the j o b , but in a lack of supervision o r inefficient methods of handling requests. Perhaps w e are con- centrating so hard on d o i n g the j o b that w e neglect to question h o w w e are doing it. T i m e studies and quality checks pay dividends in even the smallest library. Second, service should be given w i t h im- agination, sympathy, and interest. T h e s e qualities are implied, of course, in efficient service, but seem to need special emphasis. T h i r d , the service should be f o r all the workers, actual and potential, of the univer- sity, college, institution, or government agency w h i c h the library is set up to serve. T h i s means telephone and messenger service f o r those whose offices are not close to the l i b r a r y ; and mail service and branch li- braries or station collections f o r those at even greater distances. N o matter where he is assigned by his agency, the research w o r k e r is entitled to, and should expect, library service. Indeed, the library should provide the individual re- search w o r k e r , or g r o u p of workers, w h o may be located a thousand miles or so f r o m their agency's headquarters, with such g o o d mail service that the absence of a library w o u l d scarcely be felt. F o u r t h , since the library should serve all the workers, the service should include some means of acquainting them with what the library has to offer. T h e library, in turn, should become acquainted with its agency's research programs and w i t h the w o r k e r s ' needs in order to anticipate and meet their needs as w e l l as their demands. T h e fifth is a service w h i c h every user expects to find, and does find in his l i b r a r y — a service w h i c h most of us criticize occa- sionally, but w h i c h provides the main key to the library's resources and probably is used more frequently than any other library tool. T h i s is the card catalog. C a t a l o g i n g is expensive, especially the full cataloging w h i c h most of us w e r e taught in library school and w h i c h most reference librarians think they need. Simplified cataloging, which is being practiced increasingly by li- 324 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH. LIBRARIES braries, even the Library of Congress, may be the answer to the cost problem. If w e are careful to retain the essentials in brief cataloging, the users of our catalogs may not miss the details w h i c h they f o r m e r l y considered necessary. It is even conceivable that some technical agricultural workers may find the cards easier to understand. C u t t i n g d o w n on the number of analytics is another w a y to reduce cataloging costs. W h y should w e attempt the impossible and try to include many analytics in our card catalogs, when published indexes and bibli- ographies make so many more of them avail- able to us. Sixth, the library should provide a liberal loan service, with renewal privileges. A s has been indicated, this service should be prompt. Periodical routing should be pro- vided f o r those w h o need to keep up w i t h current articles in their fields of interest. If this service is to be effective, multiple copies w i l l be needed to supply the demand. A browsing collection of the most sought- after periodicals, maintained concurrently w i t h the routing service, w i l l help prevent too great an expansion of that service. Seventh, the technical agricultural w o r k e r should be given as much efficient and prompt reference and bibliographical service as he needs and as the library can give him. H o w to do this with a small library staff and inadequate funds w i l l be one of the library's m a j o r problems. It is not suggested that each library organize its reference services as does the U . S . D . A . L i - brary w h i c h divides them into three cate- gories : ( i ) T e l e p h o n e Reference, which handles such questions as may be answered f r o m the card catalog, the U. S. Catalog, the Union List of Serials, and similar aids, ( 2 ) Reference, w h i c h handles questions that take up to thirty minutes to a n s w e r ; and ( 3 ) Bibliography, which does extensive searching. Both Reference and Bibliog- raphy frequently answer very " q u i c k " refer- ence questions which, in many instances are so classified only because the person answer- ing them quickly has had l o n g experience on the j o b or because of special k n o w l e d g e of the literature. Occasionally, w h e n it is expedient to do so, Reference does extended searching, but in general the plan is as described. T h e prompt and intelligent han- dling of all requests, both simple and c o m - plex, should be the aim of the reference department. Literature searching and c o m - piling subject bibliographies, indexes and card catalogs are not luxuries but the back- bone of library service, and should be provided. In addition to literature searching and compiling bibliographies—or perhaps even before that—the w o r k e r needs to be in- f o r m e d of what is being published currently in his subject field. T h i s may be a c c o m - plished through the routing of periodicals, mentioned earlier, and through news letters and accession lists prepared by the library. A n o t h e r answer to the problem is the generous provision of published index and abstract journals such as Biological Ab- stracts, Chemical Abstracts, Index Veteri- narius, Horticultural Abstracts, Review of Applied Entomology, A gricultural Index, Nutrition Abstracts, Index-Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon General's Office, Current List of Medical Literature, and the Bibliography of A griculture. T h e monthly Bibliography of Agriculture, first published in its present f o r m in J u l y 1943, is designed to list all the current publications in the field of agriculture as they are received in the U n i t e d States Department of A g r i c u l - ture Library. T h e classified arrangement which is f o l l o w e d enables the reader to learn w h a t has been published in his field— be it virus diseases of plants, soil chemistry, veterinary medicine, Lepidoptera, prices of agricultural products, or land tenure. OCTOBER, 1948 35 7 A u t h o r and subject indexes aid both the librarian and the reader in finding w h a t a specific author has written, or all that has been published on a specific subject. C h e c k - lists of the publications of the U n i t e d States D e p a r t m e n t of A g r i c u l t u r e , state agricul- tural experiment stations, and the state agricultural extension services—which f o l - l o w the classified sections—are the most complete checklists of the current publica- tions f o r those agencies. A service most appreciated by technical workers is the photographic reproduction of library materials, in lieu of the loan of the original publication. It is interesting to note in the 1910 report of the U n i t e d States D e p a r t m e n t of A g r i c u l t u r e L i b r a r y the f o l - l o w i n g p r e d i c t i o n : W h e n s o m e c h e a p a n d s i m p l e m e t h o d o f e x a c t r e p r o d u c t i o n is p e r f e c t e d , t h e p r o b l e m s c o n n e c t e d w i t h the i n t e r l i b r a r y l o a n s w i l l be g r e a t l y r e - d u c e d . I t w i l l t h e n be f e a s i b l e , w h e n o n l y p a r t s o f v o l u m e s a r e n e e d e d , to m a k e c o p i e s o f t h e a r t i c l e s to s e n d o u t o f the c i t y i n s t e a d of s e n d i n g t h e v o l u m e s . H . J . W e b b e r , in a paper before the A g r i - cultural Libraries Section in 1930, w e n t even farther w h e n he recommended " i n t e r - national cooperation of library photostats," and suggested that " A f e w large libraries, one or t w o in a country, should establish photostat bureaus to furnish copies of any paper desired, and such bureaus should be self-sustaining through a charge made suf- ficient f o r maintenance of service." T o d a y photoprints and microfilm are supplied on a large scale by the L i b r a r y of Congress, A r m y M e d i c a l L i b r a r y , U n i t e d States D e p a r t m e n t of A g r i c u l t u r e L i b r a r y , and by other special, academic, and public libraries. U s e of the continuous roll method has made it possible f o r the U n i t e d States D e p a r t m e n t of A g r i c u l t u r e L i b r a r y to furnish photoprints and microfilm at very l o w cost to workers in universities, research institutions, and private industry. P h o t o - copies of items listed in the Bibliography of Agriculture may be obtained f r o m our copy- ing service, if not available in local libraries or f r o m the publishers. T h e scientist, there- fore, need not be hampered in his research because his library is not the so-called " i d e a l l y perfect l i b r a r y " and does not have the article he needs. T h e photoprint, or microfilm, is the answer and at a rate of 3 5 , 0 0 0 to 4 5 , 0 0 0 times a year in the United States D e p a r t m e n t of A g r i c u l t u r e Library. A service w h i c h should be available to technical agricultural workers, and w h i c h is not generally available, is a translation service. T o o many research workers are not acquainted w i t h much of the w o r l d ' s literature because they do not read the lan- guage in w h i c h it is written or do not have time to read it in its original f o r m . It is recommended that a central translation service be set up in a library which has a fairly complete collection. If this is not feasible, a decentralized service, w i t h cer- tain libraries responsible f o r translations of certain languages or subject matter, is sug- gested. A union catalog of translations available and in progress w o u l d then be necessary. In either case, a centralized col- lection of completed translations, a means of i n f o r m i n g the agricultural w o r l d that the translations are available, and facilities f o r b o r r o w i n g and copying translations w o u l d be needed. It is the responsibility of the agricultural librarian, therefore, to make books and their contents available to the technical agricul- turist by means of loans, reference service, card catalogs, photographic reproductions, translations, bibliographies, and indexes. H i s success in providing such services de- pends to a great extent on the availability to his library, and consequently to his clientele, of any book, article, patent, o r pamphlet in the field of agriculture and the (Continued on page 331) 326 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH. LIBRARIES tions there has been an increase of $6.28 per student expenditure for library pur- poses in the eighteen year period, and the average ratio of library to total university expenditures has increased from 2.52 to 2.77 per cent. If however, the decreased purchasing power of the dollar is considered, it seems doubtful that there has been any significant improvement. W h e n these averages are compared with the commonly used standards of $25.00, now increased to $37.50, per student and 4 to 5 per cent of the total institutional expenditures, one can have his choice of conclusions: either the library situation in most land-grant colleges is very bad; or, the standards are higher than they should be. It may be argued that setting the mini- mum at 4 per cent creates an objective at which institutions should continue to aim even though, if past experience is a guide, they can never expect to achieve it. O n the other hand, it may be argued that land- grant colleges, which do not offer a full university program, may not require the 4 per cent ratio. It is not inconceivable that a lower expenditure per student and a lower ratio than the one that has been com- monly used may serve to provide adequate library services and facilities in institutions confined to technical programs of instruc- tion and research. In any case, it seems clear that the two standards: per student expenditure, and ratio of library expenditures to total ex- penditures, should be worked out so that there is a significant relationship between them. A s things now stand, if we say the per student expenditure should be $37.50 we are in effect saying that for an institu- tion such as Cornell a library budget of approximately $400,000.00 will meet the minimum standards. T h i s would mean a ratio of approximately 2.75 per cent. H o w - ever, if we say, as we have been saying, that the ratio should be 4 per cent, the recom- mended library budget would be approxi- mately $600,000.00 or $57.00 per student. Library Service to Technical Agriculturists (Continued from page 326) underlying sciences whether from his own library shelves, or those of the U . S. D e - partment of Agriculture Library, the Li- brary of Congress, the University of Cali- fornia, or any other library. T h e technical agriculturist serves the world's oldest and most basic industry—an industry as old as the Garden of Eden. His responsibility is great. In supplying the tools with which the technical agriculturist works, the agri- cultural librarian also has a great responsi- bility. H e provides the best and most up- to-date material that his funds or his bor- rowing power can obtain; he searches the literature of the past to aid in solving the problems of the present and the future; and he does both with efficiency and dispatch, keen intelligence, and sympathetic interest. OCTOBER, 1948 35 7