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At AL 
 
 Telegraph Company Library ° 
 
 This special library series, asi or- 
 iginally conceived, was to consist of 
 not more than twenty articles and 
 possibly not so many. It has been 
 found advisable, however, to carry the 
 series through the year and the twen- 
 ty-second and last article covers a 
 collection of unusual prominence— 
 one small in numbers but large in 
 service. 
 
 The New England Telephone and 
 Telegraph Company is among the 
 public service corporations which 
 maintain strong working collections 
 of books and other sources of infor- 
 mation. Their selection of material 
 is unusually thorough and comprehen- 
 sive, embracing as it does questions 
 relating to labor in its various phases. 
 
 The book collection outside of the 
 main depository may be broadly 
 classed as law, including state re- 
 ports of the five states in which the 
 company operates, Maine, New 
 Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts 
 and Rhode Island; United States Su- 
 preme Court decisions; state legisla- 
 tion of the five states; all text books 
 on corporation law; public service 
 commission reports of all the states 
 and Canada. 
 
 Electricity is a subject in which 
 
 printed material is unusually short- 
 lived and the collection of about one 
 hundred volumes contains practically 
 all of the most up-to-date authorita- 
 tive text books on electricity, with 
 special reference in its relation to 
 the telephone. The accounting books 
 ‘include the principal texts. Thirty 
 or more war books have recently been 
 purchased to answer various service 
 questions. 
 
 The collection proper includes a 
 great deal of material on all labor 
 questions, hygiene, conditions, wages, 
 etc., reports of the New England 
 states, New York and Pennsylvania, 
 publications of the United States gov- 
 ernment, chiefly those of the Census 
 Bureau and the Department of La- 
 bor. The principal aim is to get new 
 material in regard to labor—especial- 
 ly the employment of women, of 
 whom over seven thousand are em- 
 ployed in the company. Larger ques- 
 tions of socialism and collectivism 
 are studied and more narrow ques- 
 tions of lunches,. housing, clubs and 
 societies of employees, libraries, sav- 
 ings, morality, profit sharing, and the 
 like. One feature is the information 
 of corporate relations along the lines 
 of government ownership and regu- 
 lation; for example, theoretical works 
 on the basis of rate making. This 
 is a new field except the rate making 
 in railroad literature. 
 
 Library Has 2500 Books 
 
 The book collection of 2,500 vol- 
 umes, including all bound works in 
 the several scattered locations, in- 
 cludes standard works in economics, 
 efficiency, pensions, insurance, mini- 
 mum wage and socialism—all of these 
 broader than mere statistical mate- 
 rial. Every possible printed article 
 which might enlighten the officers re- 
 garding the employing of women is 
 studied. For instance, one book in 
 the collection is a novel stating the 
 exact experiences of a working girl 
 —how she lives, how she apportions 
 her wages. 
 
 There are several hundred pamph- 
 lets which are weeded out twice a 
 year for material which has become 
 valueless. The book collection being 
 seattered and small needs no card 
 catalogue, but the vertical file mate- 
 rial is indexed according to folders. 
 The decimal system is used and each 
 folder contains several minute sub- 
 
 
 
 
 
 divisions of the subject. The index 
 of the file contains about 300 cards— 
 each card containing ten or more sub- 
 division entries. Economics, labor, 
 electricity, and the other subjects are 
 all included. Although as a rule it 
 is not necessary to use the index it 
 is a necessity for those not familiar 
 with the arrangement of the vertical 
 file. In another department — The 
 Archives —the complete correspond- 
 ence of the company is filed by sub- 
 jects making a comprehensive rec- 
 ord of transactions and operations of 
 the concern by topics. 
 
 The magazine collection is small. 
 It embraces’ economics, labor, voca- 
 tional training and industrial educa- 
 tion, both American, English and 
 Canadian. These magazines are only 
 of use for present-day information— 
 for the practical use of the corpora- 
 tion— and. are not preserved. The 
 company also has a strong collection 
 of general reference books, govern- 
 ment reports, and recent sheet re- 
 ports of English war investigations. 
 The guiding genius in this work has 
 found that invariably questions aris- 
 ing in Europe, especially in England 
 and Germany, regarding phases of 
 labor problems generally arrive in 
 the United States, some five years or 
 so later. It is this world-wide policy 
 of the company to watch develop- 
 
 ‘ments and their relation to our peo- 
 
 ple that makes their services valu- 
 able. 
 
 Material for Scientific Study 
 
 The library facilities of the New 
 England Telephone and Telegraph 
 Company are not along the line of 
 welfare work for their employees. 
 The material is rather for scientific 
 study and investigation, to enable the 
 concern to more efficiently handle the 
 human element connected with their 
 work and to be able intelligently and 
 efficiently to serve the general pub- 
 lic. The company has always main- 
 tained a reputation for exceptional 
 service, unique methods and general 
 efficiency. This work has_ perhaps 
 been present before the public more 
 recently through the house organ, 
 Telephone Topics, which has a circu- 
 lation of about 15,000. This publi- 
 cation is full of interesting data, both 
 for telephone employees and the gen- 
 eral public. 
 
 The reference facilities of the New 
 England Telephone Company, which 
 are used principally by executive afd 
 administrative officers and experts, 
 began about ten years ago. The “li- 
 brary” is not open to the general 
 public. The majority of materia: 
 housed there may be found in other 
 libraries, but not so easily accessible 
 nor with the expert guidance, without 
 which the value of a collection is not 
 on a par with what it should be. 
 
 Edward A. Wilkie, a graduate of 
 Boston University Law School in 
 1880, has direct supervision over the 
 details connected with this work. He 
 was for many years a _ prominent 
 practising attorney who made the 
 study of labor questions his avoca- 
 tion. 
 
 
 
 *This is the twenty-second and last 
 article describing the special libraries 
 of Boston which have appeared serial- 
 ly in the Boston University News, 
 1916-1917. Owing to lack of space it 
 was not included in the Commence- 
 ment number of the NEWS, June 6, 
 1917, 
 
 These twenty-two articles with in- 
 troduction have been written by Ralph 
 L. _Power, Librarian of the College 
 and Curator of the Museum, College 
 of Business Administration. 
 

 
OAS 
 rer v\ 
 
 aN 
 
 ~ 
 New 
 
 England Telephone and 
 
 Telegraph Company Library * 
 
 This special library series, as or- 
 iginally conceived, was to consist of 
 not more than twenty articles and 
 possibly not so many. It has been 
 found advisable, however, to carry the 
 series through the year and the twen- 
 ty-second and last article covers a 
 collection of unusual prominence— 
 one small in numbers but large in 
 service. 
 
 The New England Telephone and 
 Telegraph Company is among the 
 public service corporations which 
 maintain strong working collections 
 of books and other sources of infor- 
 mation. Their selection of material 
 is unusually thorough and comprehen- 
 sive, embracing as it does questions 
 relating to labor in its various phases. 
 
 The book collection outside of the 
 main depository may be _ broadly 
 classed as law, including state re- 
 ports of the five states in which the 
 company operates, Maine, New 
 Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts 
 and Rhode Island; United States Su- 
 preme Court decisions; state legisla- 
 tion of the five states; all text books 
 on corporation law; public service 
 commission reports of all the states 
 and Canada. 
 
 Electricity is a subject in which 
 printed material is unusually short- 
 lived and the collection of about one 
 hundred volumes contains practically 
 all of the most up-to-date authorita- 
 tive text books on electricity, with 
 special reference in its relation to 
 the telephone. The accounting books 
 include the principal texts. Thirty 
 or more war books have recently been 
 purchased to answer various. service 
 questions. 
 
 The collection proper includes a 
 great deal of material on all labor 
 questions, hygiene, conditions, wages, 
 etc., reports of the New England 
 states, New York and Pennsylvania, 
 publications of the United States gov- 
 ernment, chiefly those of the Census 
 Bureau and the Department of La- 
 -bor. The principal aim is to get new 
 material in regard to labor—especial- 
 ly the employment of women, of 
 whom over seven thousand are em- 
 ployed in the company. Larger ques- 
 tions' of socialism and collectivism 
 are studied and more narrow ques- 
 tions of lunches, housing, clubs and 
 societies of employees, libraries, sav- 
 ings, morality, profit sharing, and the 
 like. One feature is the information 
 of corporate relations along the lines 
 of government ownership and regu- 
 lation; for example, theoretical works 
 on the basis of rate making. This 
 is a new field except the rate making 
 in railroad literature. 
 
 Library Has 2500 Books 
 
 The book collection of 2,500 vol- 
 umes, including all bound works in 
 the several scattered locations, in- 
 cludes standard works in economics, 
 efficiency, pensions, insurance, mini- 
 mum wage and socialism—all of these 
 broader than mere statistical mate- 
 rial. Every possible printed article 
 which might enlighten the officers re- 
 garding the employing of women is 
 studied. For instance, one book in 
 the collection is a novel stating the 
 exact experiences of a working girl 
 —how she lives, how she apportions 
 her wages. 
 
 There are several hundred pamph- 
 lets which are weeded out twice a 
 year for material which has become 
 valueless. The book collection being 
 scattered and small needs no card 
 catalogue, but the vertical file mate- 
 rial is indexed according to folders. 
 The decimal system is used and each 
 folder contains several minute sub- 
 
 
 
 
 
 divisions of the subject. The index 
 of the file contains about 300 cards— 
 each card containing ten or more sub- 
 division entries. Economics, labor, 
 electricity, and the other subjects are 
 all included. Although as a rule it 
 is not necessary to use the index it 
 is a necessity for those not familiar 
 with the arrangement of the vertical 
 file. In another department — The 
 Archives— the complete correspond- 
 ence of the company ‘is filed by sub- 
 jects making a comprehensive rec- 
 ord of transactions and operations of 
 the concern by topics. 
 
 The magazine collection is small. 
 It embraces economics, labor, voca- 
 tional training and industrial educa- 
 tion, both American, English and 
 Canadian. These magazines are only 
 of use for present-day information— 
 for the practical use of the corpora- 
 tion— and are not preserved. The 
 company also has a strong collection 
 of general reference books, govern- 
 ment reports, and recent sheet re- 
 ports of English war investigations. 
 The guiding genius in this work has 
 found that invariably questions: aris- 
 ing in Europe, especially in England 
 and Germany, regarding phases of 
 labor problems generally arrive in 
 the United States, some five years or 
 so later. It is this world-wide policy 
 of the company to watch develop- 
 ments and their relation to our peo- 
 ple that makes their services valu- 
 able. 
 
 Material for Scientific Study 
 
 The library facilities of the New 
 England Telephone and Telegraph 
 Company are not along the line of 
 welfare work for their employees. 
 The material is rather for scientific 
 study and investigation, to enable the 
 concern to more efficiently handle the 
 human element connected with their 
 work and to. be able intelligently and 
 efficiently to serve the general pub- 
 lic. The company has always main- 
 tained a reputation for exceptional 
 service, unique methods and general 
 efficiency. This work has perhaps 
 been present before the public more 
 recently. through the house organ, 
 Telephone Topics, which has a circu- 
 lation of about 15,000. This publi- 
 cation is full of interesting data, both 
 for telephone employees and the gen- 
 eral public. 
 
 —The reference facilities of the New 
 
 England Telephone Company, which 
 are used principally by executive afd 
 administrative officers and experts, 
 began about ten years ago. The “li- 
 brary” is’ not open to the general 
 public. The majority of materia: 
 housed there may be found in other 
 libraries, but not so easily accessible 
 nor with the expert guidance, without 
 which -the value of a collection is not 
 on a par with what it should be. 
 
 Edward A. Wilkie, a graduate of 
 Boston University Law School in 
 1880, has direct supervision over the 
 details connected with this work. He 
 was for many years a _ prominent 
 practising attorney who made the 
 study of labor questions his avoca- 
 tion. 
 
 *This is the twenty-second and last 
 article describing the special libraries 
 of Boston which have appeared serial- 
 ly in the Boston University News, 
 1916+1917. Owing to lack of space it 
 was not included in the Commence- 
 ment number of the NEWS, June 6, 
 TOD. 
 
 These twenty-two articles with in- 
 troduction have been written by Ralph 
 L. Power, Librarian of the College 
 and Curator of the Museum, College 
 of Business. Administration. 
 
, 
 i 
 ‘ 
 y 
 si 
 i 
 
 
 
Gaylord Bros. 
 
 Makers 
 
 
 
 
 
 N.Y. 
 
 21, 1908 
 
 Syraouse. 
 
 PAT. JAN.