College and Research Libraries


By R A L P H R . S H A W 

Organisation of the U.S.D.A. 
Library as Indicated by 
Its Organization Charts 

Mr. Shaw, librarian, U.S. Department of 

Agricultur-e, read this paper at the Agri-

cultural Libraries Section of A.C.R.L., 

June 22, IQ4.2. 

A N ORGANIZATION CHART r e p r e s e n t s 

the family skeleton of an institution. 

L i k e statistics it can be presented in many 

forms and is subject to widely v a r y i n g 

interpretation. I t is the reductio ad ab-

surdum of a great mass of strictly human 

interrelationships (and, therefore, must 

show hierarchy) ; it is the blueprint for a 

quasi-engineering job of production in the 

field of public administration (and, there-

fore, must show flow of w o r k ) ; it is a 

graphic form for presenting the relative 

w e i g h t or importance of segments of the 

institution's fields of w o r k (and, therefore, 

must show types of responsibility as dis-

tinguished from hierarchy or levels of re-

sponsibility) ; it must show where each 

type of w o r k is actually performed and 

levels of administrative and functional re-

sponsibility; it should mirror the govern-

ment of the institution, as w e l l as its 

administration, its objectives, the nature 

or at least the composition of its clientele, 

and its relationship to other institutions, 

among other things. 

Still further, it reflects the philosophy 

of administration under which the insti-

tution labors at the moment (i.e., line or 

military organization vs. functional organ-

ization or some combination of the t w o ) . 

A l l this is true, of course, only so long 

as the organization chart truly reflects the 

organization under which the institution is 

o p e r a t i n g — w h i c h , I fear, is not always 

the case. 

Furthermore, since it is usually the 

latest edition of the family skeleton and 

is exposed to the general v i e w in one 

dimension only, there is a tendency (again 

as in the case of statistics) to exhibit the 

most favorable v i e w of the skeleton and 

to polish the bones where exposed. L i k e 

the preface of a book, the organization 

chart should tell us w h a t the author is 

trying to do, how, to w h o m , w h y , and 

so on. 

A s indicated by the M c D i a r m i d s ' " A n 

Approach to the Problems of L i b r a r y 

O r g a n i z a t i o n " 1 and by H o w a r d , " T h e 

Functions of L i b r a r y M a n a g e m e n t , " 2 w e 

librarians generally know so little about 

either organization or management that 

our organization charts are probably really 

good charts of confused organizational 

and managerial pictures ( w h i c h point is 

probably w e l l illustrated by our o w n 

c h a r t ) . 

A true organization chart of an insti-

tution at any moment offers a key to goals 

1 Library Quarterly 9:133-44, April 1939. 
2 Library Quarterly 10:313-49, July 1940. 

D EC EMBER, 1942 29 



to w h i c h it aspires, the methods of oper-

ation, the personalities w h i c h enter into 

the formulation of its policies and meth-

ods, the present functions and those en-

visioned, the staff and line relationships; 

in fact, if properly made and properly in-

terpreted, the organization chart should 

expose the stuff and dreams of which the 

institution is composed; its people and its 

things and its doings; its past, present, and 

its immediate f u t u r e . 

T h u s , it is w i t h considerable diffidence 

that I lay before you the organization of 

the 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 , 

as exposed in its current organization 

chart. 

"From Plural to Singular" 

T h e most fundamental organizational 

change w h i c h has taken place in the de-

partment library system d u r i n g the last 

year may be summarized in four words, 

" f r o m plural to s i n g u l a r . " A year ago 

it w a s " D e p a r t m e n t of A g r i c u l t u r e li-

braries" in the f u l l sense of that term. O f 

course, w e had coordination through the 

department librarian to a certain extent, 

and the books w e r e all the property of the 

department library (meaning, at that time, 

the main library but not the bureau librar-

ies). Essentially w e had more or less a 

system of libraries consisting of the main 

library and a number of bureau libraries, 

variously calculated, including a large 

number of more or less autonomous field 

branches, w h i c h w e r e more or less under 

the bureau libraries. 

B y vast oversimplification of a complex 

and nonuniform relationship under our 

organizational pattern of several years ago, 

w e might say that the main library w a s the 

builder of potential for service and the 

bureau libraries w e r e the internal serv-

ice agencies, w h i l e the main library w a s 

the primary service agency to all outside 

the department. H o w e v e r , the complexity 

of the pattern of relationships and gaps in 

relationship, together w i t h their frequent 

and basic changes, defied compilation into 

a single graphic presentation, and generali-

zations about that structure w o u l d be 

quite unsound. T h e department library 

served w h e n called upon, loaned books, 

did much of the cataloging, bought some 

of the books, did a little of the basic biblio-

graphical w o r k , and offered reference 

services. T h e bureaus did their o w n book 

selection and purchasing in those cases in 

w h i c h bureau funds w e r e available for 

the purchase of books, did their o w n cata-

loging, all did their o w n periodical rout-

ing, most compiled some bibliographical 

tools, and all assumed v a r y i n g degrees of 

responsibility for extension of service to 

the field. T h e y all operated primarily on 

bureau lines rather than on subject mat-

ter lines. 

Former Organizational Chart 

Since the functions of the department 

library w e r e designed primarily for the 

building of potential for service, its organi-

zation chart of ten or fifteen years ago 

quite properly showed the f o l l o w i n g four 

divisions: first, an administrative office, 

w h i c h included the procurement of publi-

cations; second, c a t a l o g i n g ; third, periodi-

cals, w h i c h w e r e all concerned w i t h the 

collection and organization of material 

for use; and fourth, the smallest of all, 

the reference division. 

A t that stage of the library's ontogeny 

there w a s no formal organization for co-

ordination of the library and bibliographi-

cal w o r k of the department and no organi-

zation for general field service. 

M o r e recently, emphasis w a s placed on 

unification of all the libraries into a system. 

30 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



U n d e r this change, w h i l e there w a s some-

w h a t more tendency t o w a r d coordination, 

the bureau libraries w e r e still rather more 

independent libraries than they w e r e part 

of a system. T h e y still operated on bureau 

lines rather than on subject lines, and 

there was still a considerable amount of 

duplication of collections, technical proc-

esses, and services. A b o u t a year and a 

half ago a definite program for coordina-

tion of bureau libraries on subject lines 

w a s agreed upon, and that w a s reflected 

in the organization chart by addition of 

a coordinator of bureau libraries. 

Still, such service as w a s rendered to 

the very large portion of the department 

staff w h i c h w a s not in W a s h i n g t o n w a s 

limited to occasional loans f r o m W a s h -

ington and, to a limited extent, low-grade 

routine services from a number of scat-

tered, very small bureau field libraries 

w i t h o u t professional staff except in one 

or t w o cases and w i t h v a r y i n g but very 

limited supervision from the bureau li-

braries in W a s h i n g t o n . 

A further stage in the development of 

field service, which w a s shown by the or-

ganization chart for the first time last 

year, was a division of field library serv-

ices, which w a s intended to render to all 

the staff in the field service comparable to 

that provided to the staff members in 

W a s h i n g t o n . E v e n in this picture, though, 

w e still had the semi-independent bureau 

libraries and the quite independent field 

bureau libraries, as w e l l as some division 

libraries and others that w o u l d defy classi-

fication. 

Consolidation 

A g a i n conditions changed and pressing 

problems involved in decentralization and 

deconcentration of the department's w o r k , 

together w i t h the continuing difficulties 

caused by the transfer of t w o bureaus from 

the department to other agencies and the 

load of w a r w o r k which tripled our 

reference load, resulted in consolidation 

of all library and bibliographical w o r k 

of the department. 

T h a t again w a s reflected in the organi-

zation chart which now shows the office 

of the librarian, w i t h its administrative 

unit to handle all staff services; a division 

of technical processes, w h i c h handles all 

of the acquisition, cataloging, periodical 

and serials w o r k , and other technical rou-

tines; and three service divisions, viz., the 

division of reading and reference services, 

manned by personnel w i t h considerable 

experience both in library w o r k and in the 

subject literature in which they specialize; 

a division of field library services, w i t h its 

system of branches that has been described 

by M r s . B u h l e r ; and a division of bibli-

ography, which has as its task the conver-

sion of all of the literature into a more 

readily useful form for specific purposes 

chiefly by means o f : I. Liaison s t a f f ; 2. 

C u r r e n t literature lists, such as Agricul-

tural Economics Literature, Entomology 

Current Literature, Plant Science Litera-

ture, e t c . ; 3. Special bibliographies pre-

pared as exhaustive surveys of subject fields 

of interest to the w o r k of the men in the 

department; and 4. M o r e limited " L i b r a r y 

L i s t s " of which numbers one and t w o 

have been issued; 5. A copying section; 

and 6. A translation section, as w e l l as 

other units for making the content of 

literature readily available. 

I t is very interesting to note that ten 

or fifteen years ago our w o r k w a s divided 

one quarter into service and three quarters 

into technical processes, whereas under our 

latest organization of w o r k this is re-

versed, w i t h approximately 35 per cent 

of our staff time going into technical proc-

D EC EMBER, 1942 31 



esses and approximately 65 per cent going 

into the three service divisions. Likewise, 

w h e r e w e had one service division and 

three technical divisions, w e now have one 

technical and three service divisions. 

Changing Pattern 

T h u s , the w o r k of the department li-

brary has been reflected in a more or less 

regularly changing pattern on its organi-

zation chart, and its present state reflects 

current operations designed to meet cur-

rent needs insofar as they can be deter-

mined and insofar as funds to pay for 

them can be secured. 

It seems unquestionable that further 

change in this organization w i l l be made 

necessary by the shifting emphasis of our 

work o w i n g to the w a r effort. T h e range 

of the w o r k of the department library, 

even now, calls for different subdivisions 

w i t h i n these divisions than were necessary 

six months or a year ago. In any live 

organization, if the organization charts 

were kept up to the minute, they w o u l d 

probably show a cycle of change begin-

ning in the subsections, some of which 

w o u l d increase in importance until they 

became sections and might go on g r o w i n g 

in importance until they became m a j o r 

divisions of the organization, w h i l e others 

either just hold their o w n or fade off from 

divisions to sections, subsections, and, 

finally, out of the picture entirely. A 

number of projects within the divisions 

have already been displaced by the great 

pressure of demand of the w a r agencies, 

and more w i l l be. C e r t a i n others are now 

taking their places. 

A s an indication of the range of ref-

erence and bibliographical w o r k now cov-

ered by the library, it may be of interest 

to note the content of a single batch of 

mail received recently. In addition to 

the usual run of book business, interlibrary 

loan requests, and other routine matters, 

there was a letter which read as f o l l o w s : 

Dear Uncle Sam: 
I am a city slicker who does not know 

from nothing about farming but I am willing 
to learn. 

A n d then he goes on to present as neat a 

reader's advisory question as ever graced 

a reader's advisory desk in a public library, 

giving his background, the types of farm-

ing he w a s interested in, the location, etc., 

so a sound job could be done for him. 

In the same sheaf of letters was one 

from the director of extension of one of 

our Southern states, which says: 

W e are very much interested in the work 
being done in the various states of the 
country in servicing rural people with li-
brary service. W e are wondering if you 
have or can obtain for us a brief statement 
on the service being rendered in each state 
of the country. 

Requests from Government Agencies 

T h e r e w a s also one from the W a r Re-

location A u t h o r i t y w a n t i n g a complete 

review of the literature on the Japanese 

in American agriculture, together w i t h a 

number of other requests from the A r m y , 

N a v y , O . E . M . , O . P . A . , and other w a r 

agencies. 

A l s o , a request for a survey of the 

literature on cinchona trees in a specified 

area, followed by requests from depart-

ment sources for material ranging from 

an extensive research on lousicides for 

camp louse control to recommendation of 

methods for reproducing specimens photo-

graphically, a f t e r which w a s a request for 

a survey of the literature on rationing, 

contrasted w i t h a request from a high 

school child in G e o r g i a w h o asked for a 

complete bibliography on wooden ships 

32 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



and a request for a packet for agricultural 

w a r boards to give them the background 

of the " F o o d for Freedom p r o g r a m . " 

A m o n g the emerging tasks of the li-

brary appears to be the one of acting as a 

clearing house for bibliographical studies 

in our fields for the department as w e l l as 

for other Federal and state agencies and, 

possibly, eventually for scholars in our 

fields in general. 

T h e r e is a considerable amount of time 

spent in doing over again bibliographical 

studies that have been done before. O n e 

very good case in point is that of guayule, 

on which surveys of the literature were 

started by a number of bureaus simul-

taneously. W h e n these w e r e all merged 

into a single good bibliography, w e found 

that some field agencies were also making 

surveys of the literature on guayule. 

W h e n they were told of the existence of 

a comprehensive bibliography and stopped 

doing it over again, w e found that one of 

the land-grant colleges had a special con-

sultant spending a considerable amount of 

time on a very inadequate bibliography 

on guayule, chiefly because the college's 

potential for doing that survey w a s not 

very great. Probably others were also en-

gaged in this unnecessary duplication of 

effort. A clearing house for such efforts 

may w e l l develop into an important part 

of the library's w o r k in normal times. 

Bibliographical Searching 

A n o t h e r type of service that has been 

on the increase is provision of fundamen-

tal bibliographical searching, which re-

quires the potential available in W a s h i n g -

ton that is not duplicated elsewhere. T o 

this end w e have attempted to develop a 

staff of bibliographers w i t h some subject 

competence, and progress has been made 

in that respect. 

It w o u l d seem logical also that dupli-

cation among bibliographical publications 

issued within the department library be 

eliminated and that the effort saved thereby 

be applied on preparing a comprehensive 

bibliography of the literature of agricul-

ture. W e hope very shortly to present 

a "Bibliography of A g r i c u l t u r e " in the 

place of the numerous bibliographical serv-

ices that w e are now issuing. F o r the 

time being, it w i l l have to be limited in 

scope approximately to that of the biblio-

graphical services it replaces. A s dupli-

cation is eliminated, more coverage w i l l 

be added, and it is hoped eventually to 

cover the whole literature of agriculture. 

If w e could effect a cooperative arrange-

ment under which each of our land-grant 

colleges and universities w o u l d undertake 

to index a certain number of periodicals, 

w e could very quickly get coverage of the 

whole field of agriculture, even though 

w e may not be able to do it by ourselves 

in the near future. 

A g a i n s t these needed services w e must 

balance the fact that our w o r k load has 

more than tripled in the last year because 

of the fundamental need for information 

that w i l l help in fighting the w a r . I t may 

very w e l l be that for the next f e w years 

w e may have to backtrack on our general 

services in order to provide to the military 

and other w a r agencies services that they 

must have in order to do their jobs. 

Reduction of paper allotments has 

forced us to boil down all bibliographical 

services and w i l l probably eliminate sev-

eral of them. Agricultural Library Notes 
is definitely slated to go but much of its 

content w i l l be covered from subject points 

of view in subject bibliographies. O t h e r s 

w i l l probably be changed from bureau 

lines to subject divisions: thus, Cotton 
Literature, for example, w i l l probably be 

DECEMBER, 1942 33 



divided among the " A g r i c u l t u r a l Econom-

ics," " P l a n t Science," and " A g r i c u l t u r a l 

E n g i n e e r i n g " sections of the Bibliography 

of Agriculture, thus eliminating duplica-

tion and making it possible to continue 

coverage at least on its present level for 

the immediate f u t u r e . 

O u r general services are being scru-

tinized thoroughly. W e have simplified 

our cataloging and other technical proc-

esses to a considerable extent and w i l l 

probably have to go even further in that 

respect. 

Reduce Interlibrary Loans? 

A n o t h e r field in which the current 

services may possibly have to be reduced 

is that of interlibrary loans. Interlibrary 

loans have increased greatly in the last 

year w i t h the increased activity in the 

other government agencies and the new 

government agencies, as w e l l as land-grant 

colleges and universities and other colleges 

and universities. Since much of our w a r 

service is of the type in which the answer 

is really needed t w o days before the ques-

tion is asked, it is possible that w e may 

have to restrict interlibrary loans, possibly 

even going so far as to use the method 

that C o l u m b i a U n i v e r s i t y and other schol-

arly libraries have adopted r e c e n t l y : say-

ing that w e w i l l not lend anything of 

which a microfilm or photostatic copy can 

be supplied for a dollar or less. T h a t is 

in the future, and I hope that w e can 

avoid it, but it is impossible to determine 

at the present time just h o w far w e shall 

have to go in reduction of these basic 

services in order to concentrate on im-

mediate and pressing w a r problems. 

A n o t h e r field to which w e have given 

some thought but which has not been 

thought all the w a y through yet, is the 

possibility that if w e should succeed in 

developing our bibliography of agriculture 

to such an extent that it indexes every-

thing received in the library and if w e 

prepare an annual subject index to the 

bibliography of agriculture, w i t h cumu-

lative indexes every five or ten years, it 

might be possible to do a w a y w i t h the 

catalog entirely. If that w e r e done, w e 

w o u l d no longer need a catalog section 

as now constituted in our division of tech-

nical processes. T h a t again is something 

that only the future can decide but it is 

an attractive thought because it w o u l d 

make the whole literature of agriculture, 

both of the type that goes into our catalog 

and of the type that goes into the bibli-

ographies, available to everyone w h o 

w a n t e d it throughout the country, and it 

w o u l d convert still more of our funda-

mental housekeeping w o r k into a tool of 

value to the country as a w h o l e . 

Structural Changes 

T h e w a r changes noted above have al-

ready resulted in structural changes shown 

in our organization chart and w i l l prob-

ably cause still more changes. T h e other 

possibilities listed above may or may not 

come into the picture. If they should 

come to pass, they w i l l necessitate changes 

in the organization, and if they do not, 

others should so long as our library con-

tinues to be a living force in the agri-

cultural administration and research of 

our country. 

W e have presented the various skeletons 

of the library of the Department of A g r i -

culture. T h e r e has been a constant series 

of changes throughout the years acceler-

ated in recent years because of the ac-

celerated rate of change of the department 

itself and the drastic changes in nature, 

scope, and problems of the w o r k of the 

(Continued on page 59) 

34 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



Katharine L. Sharp Scholarship 

TH E K A T H A R I N E L . S H A R P S C H O L A R -SHIP, which carries a stipend of three 
hundred dollars and exemption from tui-

tion, w i l l be awarded by the faculty of the 

University of Illinois L i b r a r y School in 

M a r c h 1943. T h e award is made for the 

second year of study in library science. 

Application should be filed w i t h the di-

rector of the school, C a r l M . W h i t e , U r -

bana, 111., before M a r c h I. Application 

blanks may be secured upon request. 

T h i s scholarship w a s endowed in 1933 

by the University of Illinois L i b r a r y 

School Association as a memorial to the 

founder of the library school. T h e present 

Katharine L . Sharp scholar is A g n e s 

Reagan, w h o completed her first year of 

library school .training at E m o r y U n i v e r -

sity L i b r a r y School, E m o r y , G a . Since 

1939 she has been on the library staff at 

A g n e s Scott College, D e c a t u r , G a . O t h -

ers w h o have held this scholarship a r e : 

Lucy B. Foote, head cataloger, Hill M e -
morial Library, Louisiana State University, 
University. 

Donald W . Kohlstedt, librarian, Public Li-
brary, Grand Rapids, Mich. 

M a r y E. Silverthorn, assistant professor, 
Library School, Ontario College of Educa-
tion, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont., 
Canada. 

Katherine A . Brose, head, Loan Depart-
ment, Mills College Library, Mills College, 
Calif. 

Ruth M . Heiss, Technology Division, Pub-
lic Library, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Felix Snider, librarian, East Carolina 
Teachers College, Greenville, N . C . 

M r . Marion A . Milczewski, executive as-
sistant, Books for Latin America Project, 
American Library Association, Washington, 
D . C . 

Katharine Kinder, readers' adviser, Willis-
ton Memorial Library, Mount Holyoke 
College, South Hadley, Mass. 

Organization of the U.S.D.A. Library as 
Indicated by Its Organization Charts 
(Continued from page 34) 

library. T h e s e changes are not presented 

as improvements; they prove nothing out 

of their context of the organizational and 

operational needs and conditions of their 

time and place; they indicate that through 

the years there has been an effort to keep 

our library's organization geared closely 

to the sum total of operating factors and 

that that process is still going on. 

T h e process of g r o w t h and fission and 

sloughing off of dead branches is one 

interesting tale told by our organization 

charts over the years. T h i s and much 

more can be found in these charts, but w e 

must remember that the charts offer 

merely one-dimensional skeletons to which 

our staff adds life and purpose and per-

spective. 

DECEMBER, 1942 59