College and Research Libraries Mutual Responsibility For Mutual Service FO U R O R F I V E years ago a peak daily at-tendance for our Newark Public Li- brary main library might be between two thousand and twenty-five hundred persons. O n the Monday after last Easter (1961) it was 3,983. On not one day of Easter week did attendance fall below two thousand, and our total for that week was 17,500. T h i s followed a Christmas period of high use which we studied by questionnaire method. T h e findings from about five thousand re- sponses, which proved to be a 25 per cent sample, indicated why people came to our library, where they came from, and what they came for. Slightly over 70 per cent came to the library for either school-connected, work- connected, or professional reading. Of those who came 64.1 per cent were stu- dents, of whom 30 per cent were high- school students and 70 per cent were col- lege students. T h e high-school-level stu- dents represented 85 secondary schools in eight counties. T h e college students represented 175 colleges and universities in 30 states. O f those responding to the questionnaire, 50.8 per cent were not residents of Newark, but came from 187 different communities in New Jersey and 38 other towns and cities in 14 states. A good percentage of those in the sampling used both books and periodicals, or mi- crofilms. During this stuciy period the library circulated a few less than twenty- five thousand volumes during the two- week period, of which 89 per cent was nonfiction and only 11 per cent fiction. T h e r e were many times when there were not enough seats in the reference room to accommodate readers. I t was necessary to open our meeting-room space to meet BY J A M E S E. B R Y A N Mr. Bryan is Director of the Newark Piiblic Library and President of AI.A. the needs of our users and give them a place to sit down. On a similarly busy day a year before, we had two thousand requests for indi- vidual back numbers of periodicals (which, incidentally, took eight full-time clerical assistants to handle). W e were able to retain about six hundred from high-school students. T h e s e showed that 267 were for 66 separate titles for 1955- 1960, 94 were for 44 separate titles for 1950-1954, 173 were for 63 separate titles for 1900-1949, and 14 were for 10 sep- arate titles prior to 1900. If anyone ever doubted the direct connection of the public library to the educational process, this use should set him straight. Our library is not complaining about this work load, we are pleased that we could handle it. W e know that many other libraries in the state were also de- luged, but if a high-school student travels as much as sixty miles to find a library to meet his needs, and if this situation is duplicated many times, it serves to em- phasize that there are not enough good libraries and book collections to meet the need. It may come as a surprise that this in- creased pattern of use is taking place in the library of a community which has de- creased in population from 438,000 to 405,000 in the last decade and in a county whose population increased only from 905,000 to 923,000 in the last ten years. Essex County is also one of the so-called "better library counties" in the United States. T h e school and public libraries J U L Y 1 9 6 2 291 are well above average, and our approx- imate $4.70 per capita appropriation is exceeded by five other public libraries in Essex County. T h e materials, collections, and services that high-school and college students are coming to us for are chiefly those which are not found in libraries of high schools, smaller colleges, or the smaller city li- braries. T h i s leads to the following con- clusions: 1) T h e r e is a general inadequacy of library materials for high-school and for college and university students in the Northern New Jersey area; 2) T h e r e is poor distribution of the materials of learn- ing that are available, both geographically in terms of political boundaries and in terms of the needs of individual institu- tions; 3) T h e r e is a lack of understanding among some of those responsible for the improvement of educational facilities as to whose problem this is; 4) T h e r e is a lack of communication among various in- stitutions—public and private, academic and library—on this and related prob- lems. As an instance of lack of understanding and lack of communication, I would like to cite one case. T h e r e is an informal group of chief librarians of public li- braries in Essex County which meets regularly. W e have been discussing ways and means to improve library service. W e are working well with public-school superintendents, high-school principals, and high-school librarians through a joint committee of these parallel groups to im- prove library service to high-school stu- dents. It has been our hope also to work out some form of communication so that a better understanding of the needs of college and university students might re- sult. Our group, representing twenty- three public libraries, invited the colleges and university librarians of eighteen col- leges or university divisions in the area, with students in our respective commun- ities or using our libraries extensively, to attend one of our meetings. Five or six came. On the Friday after Thanksgiving of 1961, despite bad weather, we had a busy day at our main library. Attendance was 3,541, and the number of periodical re- quests was about twelve hundred in our lending and reference department alone. From previous studies we could estimate that about sixteen to seven- teen hundred persons were college and university students, and that eight hun- dred periodical requests were from col- lege and university students. I do not know how many college and university libraries in our area were open on that day, but we called twenty-five in our Northern New Jersey area and got either no answer or a report that the li- brary was not open from twenty-two. Public libraries are closed on a number of holidays during the year, more perhaps than college and university libraries, but I have no reports that their borrowers overrun the college libraries at such times. Our library does not object to serving students; we are happy and pleased to have them. T h e y are fine young people with inquiring minds. In most cases they are well behaved, and many of them know what they want and where they are going. In general, they do not waste our time. T h i s is a good time to talk about mu- tual responsibilities. T h e Newark Public Library lends books for home use to those who live, work, attend school, or pay taxes in the city and to those who pay a nonresident fee of $5. per year. W e are open for reading-room or reference use to all persons who come to us. With our resident colleges we have an arrangement that nonresident students will first clear with their own college librarians to make sure that we are not serving a function that the college library can serve, but once a student has a borrower's card there is no review of his status for one year. Our constituency may be divided into two large but overlapping groups: 1) those who use our public library for reference 292 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S and in-building services; 2) those who use our library to borrow for home read- ing purposes. At the main library the first of these groups is increasing faster than the sec- ond, and more and more of our staff time, book, periodical, and microfilm money are going to meet their needs. For ex- ample, we are beginning to think in terms of duplicating the most-used peri- odicals i n d e x e d in the Readers Guide, duplicating the most-used encyclopedias, etc. Most of these users are the constitu- ents of other libraries, too, school li- braries, other public libraries, college and university libraries, and in some cases, special libraries of corporations. T h e public library, historically, has opened its doors to everyone for in-build- ing use, and now the metropolitan-area public libraries are being pressed to meet the work load placed on them. Even if most college and university li- braries in our area were open in a holi- day period we would probably have a busy time for several reasons: 1) because we have certain reference and periodical holdings that many college libraries do not have; 2) because for many persons our library is more convenient than the college library and library attendance can be combined with shopping and other city errands; 3) because the student is more likely to get more of what he needs in one place. (It is surprising how well students scout out the availability of library materials and know where they are most likely to get what they need in one form or another.); 4) because of lim- itations which some institutions place on their services, for example: a) Some col- lege libraries will not borrow on inter- library loan for undergraduates. T h e y , therefore, go to the public library where they have borrowers' cards and which will borrow books from the other librar- ies for them. Our library, in rare but worthwhile instances, has even borrowed on interlibrary loan for high-school stu- dents; b) Some college libraries will not make photocopies for students, and most public libraries will do this. T h e r e appears to be a tendency among some college and university libraries to give special services to certain groups, such as faculty, graduate students, honors students, etc., which are not extended to undergraduates. T h e undergraduate of- ten goes to the public library, which gives all adult borrowers equal treatment. T h e public library feels that it should be a responsive agency: responsive to ed- ucational, cultural and business trends. It should also be an anticipatory agency that looks ahead, foresees needs, and pre- pares to meet them. Educational needs and requirements are based largely on the programs of our institutions of for- mal education. T h e s e not only place a great burden on the library facilities of colleges and universities but on public libraries as well. T h e r e have been times in our history when individuals, communities, states, or nations have undertaken extraordinary means to meet extraordinary problems: war, famine, flood, drought, snow, power failure are some of these. T h e r e also comes a time when our educational sys- tem, or parts thereof, reach an emergency status and something extraordinary needs to be done. Much is being done; but with more colleges, more students being ad- mitted to college, an upgrading of cur- ricula, etc., library facilities adequate to need tend to lag behind. T h i s places a greater and greater burden on the collections of the larger public libraries. W h a t is true for Newark is true for New York, Boston, Hartford, Detroit, Cincin- nati, and Los Angeles. It has often been said that when school libraries meet standards, when public libraries meet standards, and when college and univer- sity libraries meet standards, this prob- lem and this need will disappear. T h e achievement of standards of qual- ity and quantity will help some but will not fully answer the kind of basic prob- lem which the metropolitan area public J U L Y 1 9 6 2 293 library faces. T h e educational demands on libraries are growing more rapidly than the standards are being met. T h e standards say little about how an area or a region can secure the greatest amount of library service for the money ex- pended for library service, or about which type of library is to serve which function and how. T h e standards say relatively little about cooperation among libraries to see that the greatest number of persons get the greatest range of books and ser- vices for the money spent. T h e greatest obligation of all libraries is the obligation to see the whole prob- lem of library need for all types of li- braries and for all types of users and to cooperate to see that several constructive steps take place. T h e r e must be a review of the regulations of each library to see how these might be liberalized to give greater service to one's immediate com- munity or clientele; a willingness not to undertake new programs or new cur- ricula without adequate preparation; a willingness to share in areas of subject specialization so that funds can be used to benefit the greatest area and the great- est number. Where, for reasons of policy, an indi- vidual library must withdraw services which it has rendered to an outside con- stituency, it is essential that there be plenty of warning, because the repercus- sions are widespread. A college or uni- versity that thinks it is helping the local public library by terminating services to townspeople may be serving this end, but it is also placing greater demands on public and college libraries twenty-five to fifty miles away. T h e problem is not the termination of services but how and when the step is taken. T h i s applies equally to public libraries which have taken steps to restrict use. T h e develop- ment of a grid of library resources in any given area, with a modus operandi, a method of referral from one library agency to another, is required. Most needed of all is a sense of mutual helpfulness and cooperation, a willing- ness to talk over problems of which li- brary is to supply what, who is to develop this special collection or that. T h e r e needs to be mutual helpfulness in budget improvement for all types of libraries. T h e r e is no reason why public librarians should not speak for college and univer- sity budget improvement and vice versa. W e are still too afraid that some other institution will get more and we will get less. Mutual help can achieve more for all. Public libraries in metropolitan areas need, and must have, a broader basis of support than the local real-property tax or parts of an across-the-board type of state aid. T h e r e must be some recogni- tion of the value and the cost of the re- gional library center and its maintenance of reference and research collections. Finally, there is the need to under- stand that this country at this time can- not afford to let one worthy student be denied appropriate educational materials. Our problems vis-a-vis the outside world are such that we cannot let one person fail to make the best use of his abilities. W e must cooperate to see that needs are met. T h e least that we can do, if we can- not meet the needs in our own institu- tions, is jointly and cooperatively to work to find ways and means for satisfying them. T o date public libraries generally (and the Newark Public Library specifically) have not reduced services to any person or group beyond the normal constituency. In most respects collections and services are better than they were last year, but they are still not good enough in quality and quantity to meet the needs placed on them. W e are actively encouraging forms of cooperation with all types of libraries to the end that the whole Northern New Jersey area gets the greatest library serv- ice possible for the tax money expended and that no individual with a need for educational materials is refused the op- portunity to use them. 294 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S