In addition to cards under the proprietors' names, cards are now made: forbooks,under the names of their authors; foranonymous books,periodicalsanddramatic compositions,under the first words of the titles (not a, an, or the), and formaps,under the leading subject words of the titles,i.e.,the names of the localities mapped. It is doubtful if an absolutely complete index of all copyright entries by thetitleof the book and other article—in addition to the cards at present made—could be justified by even a possibly legitimate use of such an index. When it is remembered that the copyright entries last year numbered 97,967, the magnitude of the task of making several cards for each entry is easily conceived, and it is a question whether it could be rightfully imposed upon the Copyright Office under the present provisions of the law and so long as the registration of a title does not secure the use of that title to some one person to the exclusion of all others.
8.Amendment of the copyright law.
The possible amendment of the copyright laws is a subject which my time does not permit me to consider in detail, even were that deemed desirable. The law now in force consists of the Act of July 8, 1870, as edited to become title 60, chapter 3 of the Revised Statutes, and ten amendatory acts passed subsequently. Naturally there is lacking the consistency and homogeneousness of a single well-considered copyright statute. It is possible that Congress will presently be willing to take under consideration, if not the re-codification of the copyright laws, then, at least, some amendment of them. An increase in the period of protection has frequently been urged, with some advocacy of perpetual copyright. As the Federal constitution, however, distinctly provides that the protection granted the writings of an author is to be for alimited time,an amendment of the constitution would be necessary before Congress could enact perpetual copyright, and such alteration of the fundamental law of the land is not probable.
Much might be said for an increase in the period of protection. It is for a shorter term of years than that provided by most modern copyright legislation, and the trend of such lawmaking has been in the direction of an increase in the length of time during which the author or his heirs could control the reproduction of his work. It should be borne in mind that for books of little value the length of the term of protection is of no great consequence. "Dead" books are not affected by the length of the term of copyright. In the case also of popular new books, the great salesand consequent disproportionate remuneration comes within a short period of time after publication, and are not likely to continue during a long term of copyright. On the other hand, many books of great and permanent value not unfrequently make their way slowly into popular favor, and are not fully appreciated until many years after publication. For such books—the results, perhaps, of long years of study and labor—an equitable return cannot be secured except by a long term of protection.
Perhaps the most urgently desirable forward step in respect to copyright is the adhesion of the United States to the Berne convention, thus securing the inclusion in the International Copyright Union of our country, the leading one of the three great states not yet members of this admirable association of nations. Were the United States a member of the Berne Union a compliance with the statutory provisions of our own laws alone would secure copyright protection not only within the limits of the United States, but practically throughout the whole book-reading world—Great Britain, all Europe (except temporarily Russia, Austria, and Scandinavia), Canada and Australia, India, Japan and South Africa—thus increasing the possible reading public of American authors many fold. It would seem that considerations of justice to our large and constantly increasing national contingent of literary and artistic producers requires this advance of such great practical importance. It is the easier of accomplishment because it involves the adoption of no new principle, but only the extension of the principle embodied in the Act of March 3, 1891, namely, reciprocal international exchange of copyright privileges, and in return for the advantages which would accrue to our own citizens, only obligates the extension of copyright in the United States to the subjects of such countries as are members of the Union. Of the members of the International Copyright Union, all the great nations already enjoy copyright in the United States, and it would only remain to extend this privilege to the citizen authors of the six minor states that are members of the Union, namely, Hayti, Japan, Luxembourg, Monaco, Norway and Tunis.
By W. Millard Palmer,Grand Rapids, Mich.
In accepting the president's suggestion to give "expression of thebusinessside of the subject rather than the theoretical or sentimental," I wish at the outset to recall certain functions performed by publishers, booksellers and librarians, and to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. J. W. Nichols, secretary of the American Booksellers' Association, for material along this line.
Casual observers have come to regard publishers as bookmakers or manufacturers, who merely put the product of authors into merchantable form, and distribute it to dealers, for sale to the reading public. If this were the only function of the publisher, his task would be an easy one; indeed we might soon expect to see all publishers supplanted by one great co-operative factory, to which authors might take their manuscripts, and have them transformed into books and distributed through the ordinary channels of commerce, like any other commodities. Some superficial observers have recently made bold to conjecture that this will be the final outcome of the present troubled state of the general trade of publishing and selling books. But, alas! the actual making of the book—giving to it an appropriate, artistic and really attractive form—is perhaps the least of the publishers' trials, though this, in itself, is a difficult task, requiring an artistic taste, well trained and skilful judgment, and much technical knowledge.
To one who has had an insight into the publishing business, the enormous mass of manuscript that is annually submitted to each of the great publishers is simply appalling. They are compelled to employ a corps of"readers" to cull out that which is worthy of consideration by an intelligent and skilled publisher. Much that come to hand has been hastily prepared by persons who lacked the time, experience or special training necessary to enable an author to prepare an acceptable manuscript, while the great majority of young authors have really no message to tell that is worth recording. Here comes the most difficult and trying task of the successful publisher—the selection of proper material for publication. It often happens that a rejected manuscript contains some good work—a promise of something better to come. Then the publisher points out the best features and encourages the incipient author to try again.
Thus books are made, not after a given pattern, like certain fabrics, but each is a creation in itself. The responsibility of the publisher, for the character of the creation, is by no means unimportant. He acts as arbiter of the standard of excellence that must be attained by an author before he is introduced to the public. The publishers' criterion is simply a question of cash. "Will the public buy the book and pay for it?" Nor can any other standard be adopted with safety. The whole question of supply must always depend upon public demand.
But the publisher is not infallible. He often makes mistakes. Between him and the readers is the dealer. The retail bookseller stands closest to the reading public. He acquaints himself with the essential character of the new book, points out to his customer enough of interest to cause him to glance through it, and finally sells it to him; for the intelligent bookseller knows the taste and reading habits of his customers. He has his leading customers in mind from the time he orders a new book till he has shown it and sold it to them. If they are pleased with it, and recommend it to their friends, who call at the store for it, the bookseller re-orders it, and, if he is so fortunate as not to be restrained by unfair local competition, he advertises the book and pushes its sale with energy, so long as interest in it can be kept alive.
Thus the retail booksellers in every city and hamlet throughout the country, standing close to the reading public, knowing what their customers will buy, are the real monitors of the publishers.
When the publisher considers the advisability of bringing out a new book, he cannot undertake to look beyond a few hundred booksellers. It is through them, and only through them, that he has learned to gauge the taste of the reading public. The paramount question for him to decide is, "How many copies of this particular book can I sell to dealer A, dealer B and dealer C; how many copies of this book can I hope with certainty to sell to all of my customers in the trade?" The publisher well knows that the dealer is governed by the same criterion as himself: "Will it pay; will this book be a ready seller, or will it cost me all of the profit I make on it to sell it?"
Thus the product of the author is subject to the immutable laws of supply and demand from the time he submits his first immature manuscript until he makes two, three, four or more trials, and finally has a manuscript accepted. But even then the publishers prepares only a small edition for a new author, and the dealers are very conservative in ordering a new book—especially by an unknown author. The conscientious bookseller awaits the verdict of certain patrons, knowing that, if the book is commended by one whose judgment is respected by local readers, he can safely re-order a goodly number.
Thus the author is dependent upon the publisher for the standard of excellence he must attain in order to achieve success; the publisher is dependent upon the dealer, not only in forming his judgment of the character of books that will sell, but also for the number that he may safely print; while the dealer is dependent upon his best and most critical patrons. Hence the relation of author, publisher and dealer is so close—indeed they are so mutually interdependent—that one factor could not be removed without vitally crippling the other.
A distinguished librarian, who has been a pioneer of progress in the library movement, has recently suggested the propriety of abolishing book stores (see Publishers' Weekly,May 11, '01, p. 1149) and allowing public librarians to receive orders and forward them to the publishers. If the distinguished gentleman did not have in view visions of personalgain for public librarians, he should have carried his philanthropic suggestion farther, and proposed to abolish both booksellers and librarians, and to allow the public to procure their books directly from the publishers, thus saving that moiety of gain that would be made by either in return for the service rendered. It cannot be supposed that so able and conscientious an administrative officer ever contemplated maintaining an extra corps of assistants, at an extra expense to the municipality or to those liberal benefactors who have endowed public libraries, in order that opulent citizens may still further indulge their tastes by purchasing larger private libraries, without paying the small commission or profit that is usually allowed to retail booksellers. On the other hand, if this proposal was made for the purpose of allowing libraries maintained by taxing the municipality, to engage in gainful occupation, this is carrying the socialistic idea farther than even our populistic friends have ever yet proposed.
However, inasmuch as this question has been raised, we are bound to treat it from an economic point of view. The question is, "Shall the bookseller be abolished and his office merged into that of the librarian, and can the librarian perform the offices of the bookseller?"
No one has ever questioned the value of the public library from the burning of the Alexandrian Library to the present day. The value of a library, as alibrarium,or storehouse for the permanent preservation of books, has always been manifest.
Again, the public library gives a larger opportunity and a wider range than is possible in the private collection; and scholars, historians and students of all classes are daily made grateful to the trained, professional librarian, who has so classified the contents of the library as to make the whole available at a moment's notice.
Still another inestimable feature of the public library is that it maintains a public reading room for children as well as adults.
Finally, the library furnishes reading at home to those who are not yet in a position to become owners of books. The benefit derived from reading of this character is often of questionable value. Thehabituéof the circulating library makes his selections from misleading or sensational titles. Little care and less intelligence is exercised in choosing either title or author. As a result librarians are constantly complaining that only the trashiest and most worthless books are read.
The circulating department of the public library is now supplemented by others that are conducted for cash profit. These have sprung up in many cities. And now we have the "Book-Lovers' Library," a corporation with capital stock, engaging in business for profit. It has the advantage of certain trust features. It proposes to organize branches in all of the principal cities and towns in the country. For five dollars a year it proposes to supply fifty dollars' worth of reading to each subscriber. An automobile is employed, with an attendant to deliver the books to subscribers each week and take up those that have been read. Having paid five, ten or more dollars, at the beginning of the year, the subscriber can read from morning till night, while the new books come and go with the lightning speed of the automobile.
As in many other circulating libraries, new copyrighted fiction is the chief staple supplied by the "Book-Lovers' Library"—the sweetest pabulum automatically administered.
After a season of such dissipation call in a neurologist to diagnose your patient, and he will advise you that by continuing the treatment the mind will be reduced to a sieve, if not ultimately to absolute imbecility. Having abandoned the more serious literature that calls into use all the faculties of the mind, the reader of nothing but fiction converts what would otherwise be a healthful recreation into dissipation, that is enervating and permanently debilitating to all the faculties of the mind, when carried to an extreme. Had the reader been denied the use of this automatic machine, and been compelled, as formerly, to browse through the book store in search of something to read, more serious books would have been selected—history, travel, descriptive writing or popular science, with an occasional novel by way of recreation.
But to continue the argument, suppose we abolish the bookseller, as has been proposed. This would not be a difficult matter. Most of them would gladly be "abolished" if theycould sell out their stock for anything near what it cost them. Their profits have been so reduced by unfair competition that they are not sufficient to pay the cost of doing business. They have been compelled to carry side lines, as stationery, newspapers, periodicals, sporting goods,bric-a-brac,wall paper, etc., in order to make a living. By this means they have learned that other lines of merchandise yield a better profit than books. As a result most of them have greatly reduced their book stock, or entirely abandoned the sale of books, and put in more profitable lines of merchandise.
The causes that have led up to this result are manifold: 1st. They were strenuously urged, and they finally consented to allow discounts:
(a) To ministers of the gospel, since they are public benefactors.(b) To school teachers, since they are public educators and benefactors.(c) To public libraries, since they are for the most part eleemosynary institutions, and hence entitled to charity.
(a) To ministers of the gospel, since they are public benefactors.
(b) To school teachers, since they are public educators and benefactors.
(c) To public libraries, since they are for the most part eleemosynary institutions, and hence entitled to charity.
Indeed, when I recount the charitable benefactions that have been exacted and received at the hands of the retail bookseller, he seems to me to have been the most saintly character that has lived in my day and generation. And right here it is of interest to note that these ministers, these teachers, these physicians, these public librarians were actually receiving out of the hands of the public stated salaries that exceeded by far the annual net profit of the average bookseller.
2d. Having secured from the local dealer a discount equal to the best part of his profit, many librarians have gone behind him and appealed directly to the publishers for a larger discount. This has been granted in most cases, so that most librarians have recently been receiving as large a discount as local dealers.
3d. Commission agents have purchased complete editions of popular-selling books from the publishers, and re-sold them at a slight advance:
(a) To dry-goods stores, where they have been put on "bargain counters" and sold at less than cost, to attract customers to their stores.(b) To publishers of local newspapers, who give the books away as premiums or sell them at cost prices, to increase the local circulation of their papers.(c) To mail-order agencies, who advertise the books at less than they are usually sold for by dealers.
(a) To dry-goods stores, where they have been put on "bargain counters" and sold at less than cost, to attract customers to their stores.
(b) To publishers of local newspapers, who give the books away as premiums or sell them at cost prices, to increase the local circulation of their papers.
(c) To mail-order agencies, who advertise the books at less than they are usually sold for by dealers.
4th. Many publishers have been advertising and mailing their books directly to retail customers at reduced prices, or at the same price they recommended local dealers to ask for them, and they have prepaid the postage, thuscompeting directly with their distributing agents, the booksellers, in their own field.
5th. Finally, some local librarians, who a few years ago were appealing to local booksellers for a discount, having been granted the discount, have recently been supplying books "at cost prices" to other patrons of the local booksellers. Thus our friends, the librarians, having inverted the good old practice of returning good for evil, having helped to rob the local bookseller of his livelihood, now propose to abolish his office.
To carry the proposition to its conclusions, suppose we abolish the bookseller. Can the librarian take his place and send the orders in to the publishers? If so, if this is all there is to the bookselling business, why should the publisher pay a commission to the librarian for doing what the people could as readily do for themselves? But a general business cannot be carried on in this way. Publishers have tried it for years, yet only comparatively few people are willing to order books that they have not had an opportunity to examine, and of this class librarians are the most conservative. They, too, want to know what they are buying before they place their orders. Hence, this postulate: If the librarian is to succeed the bookseller, he must become a merchant; he must order stocks of books and take the speculative chance of selling them. But the librarian has had no experience or training in merchandising. Can he afford to hazard his own capital in an untried field; can he induce his friends to supply him with capital to invest in a business of which he confessedly has no knowledge? It would manifestly be a perversion of the funds of the institution in charge of the librarian, to invest them in a gainful occupation.
From what I have said, it must be apparent that booksellers, as well as librarians, have aprovince of their own, and perform a service that cannot be delegated to another. And hence it is desirable that we live and dwell together in peace and amity.
But in these days of combinations, reorganizations and revolutions in the conduct of business, the publishers have looked farther, in their quest for more economical purveying agents. For the past ten years they have been trying to induce the dry-goods merchants to carry books. But, after all this time, not more than half a dozen department stores carry fairly representative stocks of books. They confine themselves, for the most part, to new copyrighted fiction, and of this they handle only that which is widely advertised.
Of late, department stores and dry-goods stores have met severe competition in clothing stores, that make no pretext of carrying a book stock. They simply buy an edition of a popular-selling book and advertise it for less money than it actually cost. They do this simply as an advertising dodge, to attract customers to their stores. Then, too, the mail-order agencies have cut the price of the most popular books so low that it is no longer profitable to handle them. The result of this has been that many of the most promising new novels have been killed before they were fairly put on the market; foras soon as they ceased to be profitable no one could afford to re-order them.
The effect of this recent drift of the trade has been to stimulate the frothy side of literature to an extreme degree. The more serious literature is being neglected. The latest novel is the fad. Its average life is reduced to little more than one year, though the copyright lasts for twenty-eight years, and with a renewal it may be extended to forty-two years.
This shortening of the life of books has had a baneful effect:
(a) Baneful to the bookseller, since it frequently leaves him with a dead stock of books on hand that cannot be turned without loss.(b) Baneful to the publisher, since the book stops selling and the plates become valueless before he has had time fairly to recoup himself for the expense of bringing it out, advertising it, and putting it on the market.(c) Baneful to the author, since by shortening the life of his books the value of his property in them is reduced.
(a) Baneful to the bookseller, since it frequently leaves him with a dead stock of books on hand that cannot be turned without loss.
(b) Baneful to the publisher, since the book stops selling and the plates become valueless before he has had time fairly to recoup himself for the expense of bringing it out, advertising it, and putting it on the market.
(c) Baneful to the author, since by shortening the life of his books the value of his property in them is reduced.
But perhaps the most baneful effect of this craze for ephemeral literature is upon the people themselves. As the standard or degree of civilization for a given age is marked by the character of the literature the people produce and read, we cannot hope for a golden age in American letters, unless the present system is reversed. Work of real merit is never done by accident, nor is it the product of mediocre talents. If we are to develop a national literature that shall fitly characterize the sterling qualities of the American people in this, the full strength of the early manhood of the nation; at the time when the nation has taken its place in the vanguard of civilization; at the time when the consumptive power of the nation is equal to one-third of that of the entire civilized world; at the time when men of talents and genius are annually earning and expending, for their comfort and pleasure, more munificent sums than were ever lavished on the most opulent princes; I say, if we are to produce a literature that shall fitly characterize this age of our nation, we must hold forth such rewards for the pursuits of literature as will attract men of genius, men of the most lustrous talents, men who are the peers of their co-workers in other walks of life. But this will not be possible so long as the present strife to furnish cheap literature to the people continues.
It should be observed that the bookseller has not suffered alone in this cheapening process. The publisher has suffered. Within the past few months two names that for half a century were household words, synonyms of all that is excellent in the publishing world, have met with disaster, and others were approaching a crisis.
Fortunately one firm stood out so prominently, as a bulwark of financial strength and security, that its president, Mr. Charles Scribner, of Charles Scribner's Sons, could afford to take the initiative in calling for reform. He invited the co-operation of other publishers, and a year ago this month they met in New York and organized the American Publishers' Association. Their organization now includes practically all of the general publishers who contribute anything of real value to current literature.
The publishers canvassed thoroughly the causes that had led to the decline of the trade, and they appointed a committee to draft reform measures.
In reviewing the decline of the trade, two facts stood out so prominently that it was impossible to disassociate them as cause and effect. The three thousand booksellers, upon whom, as purveying agents, the publishers had depended a generation ago, had shrunk in number until only about five hundred could be counted who were worthy to be called booksellers. The other fact, which doubtless made quite as deep an impression upon the minds of the publishers, was that the long line of books, on each of their published catalogs, was practically dead. Those books of high standard character, by eminent authors, books that for years had had a good annual sale, no longer moved. These standard books have been a large source of revenue to publishers and their authors for many years. But now so few of them are sold that it hardly pays the publishers to send their travellers over the road.
Few dry-goods merchants, druggists, newsdealers and stationers, that have recently been induced to carry a small number of books, feel sufficiently well acquainted with salable literature to warrant their carrying anything more than the most popular-selling new copyrighted novels and cheap reprints of non-copyrighted books that sell for twenty-five cents or less. As stated above, there are a few large department stores that carry a more general stock, but they are so few that the support received from them is not sufficient to compensate, in any measure, the loss sustained through the sacrifice of the regular booksellers. Moreover, the regular booksellers that still remain in the business have not been buying many standard books of late. Seeing their profit in fiction sacrificed by unfair competition, many of them have ordered only enough of the new copyrighted novels to keep alive their accumulated stocks of standard books, until they can sell them out or reduce them to a point where they can afford to abandon the book business.
From the character of the reform measures adopted by the American Publishers' Association, which went into effect on the first of May, it is evident that the publishers have determined to restore the old-time bookseller. This can be done only by the publishers enforcing the maintenance of retail prices, the same as is done by the proprietors of the Earl & Wilson collar, the Waterman fountain pen, the Eastman kodak, and many other special lines of which the retail price is listed.
When dry-goods stores and clothing stores bought these special lines and retailed them at or below the cost price, incontrast to the list priceasked in the special furnishing stores, in order to attract customers to their stores because of their wonderful "bargain counters," the manufacturers realized that the dry-goods stores were simply using up these wares to advertise their other business. They cut off the supply of their goods to these price-cutting dry-goods stores, and refused to supply any more goods, except under a substantial undertaking on the part of the dry-goods stores to maintain the full list price.
This, in a word, is the substance of the publishers' plan. They have agreed to cut off absolutely the supply of all of their books, net, copyrighted and otherwise, to any dealer who cuts the retail price of a book published under the net-price system.
On the other hand, the nearly eight hundred members of the American Booksellers' Association have entered into a mutual agreement to push with energy the sale of the books of all publishers who co-operate with them for the maintenance of retail prices, and not to buy, nor put in stock, nor offer for sale, the books of any publisher who fails to co-operate with them. This is substantially the same system that was adopted in Germany in 1887, in France a few years later, and in England in 1900.
The effect of this system in Germany has been to lift up the trade from a condition even more deplorable, if possible, than that into which it has fallen in this country, and to make it a prosperous and profitable business. It has proved beneficent and satisfactory, not only to dealers and publishers, but also to authors and to the reading public, for every city, town and village in Germany now sustains a book shop that carries a fairly representative stock of books, so that the people are able to examine promptly every book as soon as it comes from the press, and the authors are sure of having their bookspromptly submitted to the examination of every possible purchaser.
The results in France and England are equally encouraging, and it is believed that as soon as the American system is fully understood, and as soon as enough books are included under the net-price system, so that a bookseller can once more make a living on the sale of books, many of the old-time booksellers will again put in a stock of books and help to re-establish the book trade in America.
Having tried to define the present relation of publishers and booksellers, I beg leave to say frankly that I know of no reason why publishers and booksellers should maintain any different relations with librarians than they maintain with any other retail customers.
For example, let us take the new "Book-Lovers' Library," so called. Their plan is to sell memberships, and to deliver to each member one book a week for five dollars a year, or three books a week for ten dollars a year. They take up the books at the end of each week and supply new ones.
If this plan could be carried out successfully, it would result in making one book do the service now performed by ten or fifteen books. In other words, this circulating library proposes to furnish its members with ten or fifteen books for the same amount of money they now pay for one book by simply passing the book around from one to another.
The effect of this scheme, if carried into all cities and towns as proposed, would be to reduce the number of books manufactured and sold to aboutone-tenthof its present magnitude. From a business point of view, publishers and dealers cannot be called upon to make special discounts to encourage such an enterprise.
The encouragement and support given to authors, by patrons of literature, would be reduced by this scheme to about one-tenth of the present amount. The effect of this withdrawal of support to American authors can easily be imagined.
But I do not believe that real book-lovers, intelligent and conservative readers, will be carried away by this passing craze. On the contrary, they have studiously avoided forming that careless, slip-shod habit of reading that characterizes patrons of circulating libraries. The real book-lover selects his books like his friends, with caution, and with discriminating and painstaking care.
From a bookseller's point of view, the "Book-Lovers' Library" is not founded on practical lines. However, as the plan also includes the selling of capital stocks to its patrons, it is probable that the money received from subscriptions, together with the annual membership fees, will be sufficient to keep the enterprise going for some time. But since this is a corporation organized for the purpose of making money, a failure to earn money and to pay dividends will discourage its patrons, cause them to feel that they have been deceived, and finally to withdraw from membership. When the members realize that they are paying five or ten dollars a year for privileges that can be had free at the local library, in most cases they will withdraw their support.
Thus, while in some respects I regard this enterprise as an evil factor, it contains, I think, inherent weaknesses that will finally compass its own end.
But what is said of the relation of publishers and dealers to the Book-Lovers' Library is true in a measure of all circulating and other public libraries. They do not increase, but they positively contract the number of sales that are made in the interest of authors, publishers and dealers.
Under the German system, of which I have spoken, public libraries were at first allowed ten per cent. discount; but recently this has been reduced to five per cent.
Under the English system, profiting by the experience of German publishers, no discount is allowed to public libraries, schools or institutions.
The American system, however, is modelled largely after the German, and it permits the dealers to allow a discount of ten per cent. to local libraries. In doing this local dealers are protected from competition by the publishers, in that the publishers have agreed to add to the net price the cost of transportation on all books sold at retail outside of the cities in which they are doing business. Thus public libraries can buy net books cheaper of the local booksellers than they can buy them of the publishers by just the cost of transportation.
By W. R. Eastman,New York State Library, Albany, N. Y.
A building is not the first requisite of a public library. A good collection of books with a capable librarian will be of great service in a hired room or in one corner of a store. First the librarian, then the books and after that the building.
But when the building is occupied the value of the library is doubled. The item of rent is dropped. The library is no longer dependent on the favor of some other institution and is not cramped by the effort to include two or three departments in a single room. It will not only give far better service to the community, but will command their respect, interest and support to a greater degree than before.
The following hints are intended as a reply to many library boards who are asking for building plans.
The vital point in successful building is to group all the parts of a modern library in their true relations. To understand a particular case it will be necessary to ask some preliminary questions.
1.Books.Number of volumes in library?Average yearly increase?Number of volumes in 20 years?Number of volumes to go in reference room?Number of volumes to go in children's room?Number of volumes to go in other departments?Number of volumes to go in main book room?If the library is large will there be an open shelf room separate from the main book room?Is a stack needed?Will public access to the shelves be allowed?
1.Books.
Number of volumes in library?
Average yearly increase?
Number of volumes in 20 years?
Number of volumes to go in reference room?
Number of volumes to go in children's room?
Number of volumes to go in other departments?
Number of volumes to go in main book room?
If the library is large will there be an open shelf room separate from the main book room?
Is a stack needed?
Will public access to the shelves be allowed?
By answers to such questions a fair idea of the character and size of the book room may be obtained.
Rules for calculation.In a popular library, outside the reference room, for each foot of wall space available 80 books can be placed on eight shelves. Floor cases having two sides will hold 160 books for each running foot, and in a close stack 25 books, approximately, can be shelved for each square foot of floor space. But the latter rule will be materially modified by ledges, varying width of passages, stairs, etc.
The above figures give full capacity. In practical work, to provide for convenient classification, expansion, oversized books and working facilities, the shelves of a library should be sufficient for twice the actual number of books and the lines of future enlargement should be fully determined.
2.Departments.Is the library for free circulation?Is the library for free reference?Are special rooms needed forhigh school students?children?ladies?magazine readers?newspaper readers?How many square feet for each of the above rooms?Are class rooms needed as in a college library?Club rooms?Lecture rooms?Museum?Art gallery?Other departments?3.Community.In city or country?Population?By what class will library be chiefly used?School children?Students?Mechanics?Reading circles?Ladies?4.Resources and conditions.Money available?Money annually for maintenance?Size of building lot?Location and surroundings?How many stories?Elevators?Heat?Light?Ventilation?5.Administration.Is library to be in charge of one person?How many assistants?Is a work room needed?unpacking room?bindery?librarian's office?trustees' room?
2.Departments.
Is the library for free circulation?
Is the library for free reference?
Are special rooms needed forhigh school students?children?ladies?magazine readers?newspaper readers?
How many square feet for each of the above rooms?
Are class rooms needed as in a college library?Club rooms?Lecture rooms?Museum?Art gallery?Other departments?
3.Community.
In city or country?
Population?
By what class will library be chiefly used?School children?Students?Mechanics?Reading circles?Ladies?
4.Resources and conditions.
Money available?
Money annually for maintenance?
Size of building lot?
Location and surroundings?
How many stories?
Elevators?
Heat?
Light?
Ventilation?
5.Administration.
Is library to be in charge of one person?
How many assistants?
Is a work room needed?unpacking room?bindery?librarian's office?trustees' room?
By careful study of these points a clear conception of the problem is gained and the building committee is prepared to draw an outline sketch indicating in a general way their needs and views. They are not likely to secure what they want by copying or even by competition. The best architects have not the time nor the disposition to compete with each other. A better way is to choose an architect, one who has succeeded in library work if possible, who will faithfully study the special problems, consult freely with the library board, propose plans and change them freely till they are right. And if such plans are also submitted for revision to some librarian of experience or to the library commission of the state, whose business and pleasure it is to give disinterested advice, so much the better.
The following outlines taken from actual library buildings are offered by way of suggestion.
Square plan.
An inexpensive building for a small country neighborhood may have one square room with book shelves on the side and rear walls. A convenient entrance is from a square porch on one side of the front corner and a librarian's alcove is at the opposite corner leaving the entire front like a store window which may be filled with plants or picture bulletins. With a stone foundation the wooden frame may be finished with stained shingles.
Oblong plan.
A somewhat larger building may have a wider front with entrance at the center.
Book shelves under high windows may cover the side and rear walls and tables may stand in the open space.
It will be convenient to bring together the books most in demand for circulation on one side of the room and those needed most for study on the opposite side. One corner may contain juvenile books. In this way confusion between readers, borrowers and children will be avoided. Each class of patrons will go by a direct line to its own quarter. This is the beginning of the plan of departments which will be of great importance in the larger building.
The number of books for circulation will increase rapidly and it may soon be necessary to provide double faced floor cases. These will be placed with passages running from the center of the room towards the end and that end will become the book or delivery room and the opposite side will be the study or reference room.
T-shape plan.
The next step is to add space to the rear giving a third department to the still open room. If the book room is at the back the student readers may be at tables in the right hand space and the children in the space on the left. The librarian at a desk in the center is equally near to all departments and may exercise full supervision.
The presence of a considerable number of other busy persons has a sobering and quieting effect on all and the impression of such a library having all its departments in one is dignified and wholesome. It may be well to separate the departments by light open hand rails, screens, cords or low book cases. It is a mistake to divide a small building into three or four small rooms.
Separate rooms.
For a larger library these rails must be made into partitions, giving to each department a separate room. Partitions of glass set in wooden frames and possibly only eight feet high may answer an excellent purpose, adding to the impression of extent, admitting light to the interior of the building and allowing some supervision from the center. With partitions on each side, the entrance becomes a central hallway with a department at eachside and the book room at the end. This is the best position for the book room for two special reasons. Overlapping the departments in both wings it is equally accessible from either, and at the back of the house a plainer and cheaper wall can be built admitting of easy removal when the growth of the library requires enlargement.
Sometimes the angles between the book room and the main building may be filled to advantage by work room and office. These working rooms though not large and not conspicuous are of vital consequence and should be carefully planned.
We have now reached a type of building which, for lack of a better word, I may call the "butterfly plan," having two spread wings and a body extending to the back. Others call it the "trefoil." This general type is being substantially followed in most new libraries of moderate size. From one entrance hall direct access is given to three distinct departments, or perhaps to five, by placing two rooms in each wing.
Modifications required by limited space.
If we have an open park to build in we shall be tempted to expand the hallway to a great central court or rotunda. Perhaps the importance of the library may justify it, but we should be on our guard against separating departments by spaces so great as to make supervision difficult or passing from one to another inconvenient. We should aim to concentrate rather than scatter.
More frequently the lot will be too narrow. We must draw in the wings and make the narrower rooms longer from front to back. With a corner lot we can enter on the side street, leaving a grand reading room on the main front and turning at right angles as we enter the house pass between other rooms to the book room at the extreme end of the lot. Or again, we shall be obliged to dispense entirely with one wing of our plan, and have but two department rooms instead of three on the floor. Every location must be studied by itself.
Other stories.
Basement rooms are of great service for work rooms and storage. A basement directly under the main book room is specially valuable to receive the overflow of books not in great demand.
A second and even a third story will be useful for special collections, class and lecture rooms or a large audience hall. In a library of moderate size it will often be found convenient to build a book room about 16 feet high to cover two stories of bookcases and wholly independent of the level of the second floor of the main building.
Extension.
To meet the needs of a rapidly growing library it is important at the beginning to fix the lines of extension.
A building with a front of two rooms and a passage between may add a third room at the rear, and at a later stage, add a second building as large as the first and parallel to it, the two being connected by the room first added.
This is the architect's plan for the Omaha Public Library.
Open court.
When a library is so large that one book room is not enough, two such rooms may be built to the rear, one from each end of the building with open space between, and these two wings may be carried back equally and joined at the back by another building, thus completing the square around an open court.
This gives wide interior space for light and air, or grass and flowers. Such is the plan of the Boston Public and Princeton University libraries. It will be the same in Minneapolis when that library is complete. In the plan of the new library at Newark, N. J., the central court is roofed over with glass becoming a stairway court with surrounding galleries opening on all rooms. In Columbia University, New York, as in the British Museum, the center is a great reading room capped by a dome high above the surrounding roofs and lighted by great clerestory windows.
If the street front is very long there may be three extensions to the rear, one opposite the center and one from each end, leaving two open courts as in the plan for the New York Public or the Utica Public; and this general scheme may be repeated and carried still farther back leaving four open courts as in theLibrary of Congress. This plan can be extended as far as space can be provided.
When the general plan of the large building is fixed, passages will be introduced, parallel to the front and sides, and departments will be located as may be judged most convenient, always having regard to the convenience of the patrons of each department in finding ready access to the books they need and providing for supervision and attendance at least cost of time, effort and money. Extravagance in library building is not so often found in lavish ornament as in that unfortunate arrangement of departments which requires three attendants to do the work of one or two.
Light.
Natural light should be secured if possible for every room. Windows should be frequent and extend well up toward the ceiling terminating in a straight line so as to afford large supply of light from the top. Windows like those in an ordinary house or office building, coming within two or three feet of the floor are more satisfactory both for inside and outside appearance than those which leave a high blank wall beneath them. From the street a blank wall has a prison-like effect; on the inside it cuts off communication with the rest of the world and the impression is unpleasant. The proper object of library windows six or eight feet above the floor is to allow unbroken wall space for book shelves beneath them. There is no serious objection to this at the back of the room or sometimes at the sides of the house where the windows are not conspicuous from the street, but every room of any size, if it is next to the outer wall, should have windows to look out of on at least one side.
A book room at the back of a building may secure excellent light from side windows eight feet above the floor with lower windows at the back.
The lighting of large interior rooms is often a difficult problem. Light will not penetrate to advantage more than 30 feet. Skylights, domes and clerestory windows are used. In the case of the dome or clerestory the room to be lighted must be higher than those immediately surrounding it. The clerestory plan with upright windows is most satisfactory when available, being cheaper and giving better security against the weather than the skylight. In a large building with interior courts, the lower story of the court is sometimes covered with a skylight and used as a room.
This appears in the plans for the New York Public and the Utica Public libraries. Skylights must be constructed with special care to protect rooms against the weather.
The problem of light is peculiarly difficult in the crowded blocks of cities. A library front may sometimes touch the walls of adjoining buildings so that light can enter only from the front and rear. If extending more than 40 feet back from the street, it will be necessary to narrow the rest of the building so as to leave open spaces on each side, or to introduce a little light by the device of light wells. Occasionally a large city library is found on the upper floors of an office building, where light and air are better than below, and the cost of accommodation is less. The use of elevators makes this feasible.
Shelving.
The general scheme of book shelves should be fixed before the plan of the building is drawn. Otherwise the space for books can not be determined and serious mistakes may be made. Between the two extremes of open wall shelves and the close stack a compromise is necessary. The large library will put the bulk of its books in a stack and bring a considerable selection of the best books into an open room. The small library will begin with books along the walls and provide cases for additions from time to time as needed. Its patrons will enjoy at first the generous spaces of the open room without an array of empty cases to offend the eye and cumber the floor. When walls are covered with books a floor case will be introduced and others when needed will be placed according to plan, till at last the floor is as full as it was meant to be, and the basement beneath having served for a time to hold the overflow, a second story of cases is put on the top of the first. This process should be planned in advance for a term of 20 years.
For public access passages between cases should be five feet wide. Cases have sometimes been set on radial lines so as to bring all parts under supervision from the center. This arrangement, specially if bounded by a semi-circular wall, is expensive, wasteful of space and of doubtful value, except in peculiar conditions. It is not adapted to further extension of the building.
Size of shelf.
For ordinary books in a popular library the shelf should not be more than eight inches wide with an upright space of ten inches. Eight shelves of this height with a base of four inches and crown finish of five inches will fill eight feet from the floor and the upper shelf may be reached at a height of 81 inches or six feet nine inches. Ordinary shelves should not exceed three feet in length. A length of two and a half feet is preferred by many. A shelf more than three feet long is apt to bend under the weight of books. For books of larger size a limited number of shelves with 12 inches upright space and a few still larger should be provided. The proportion of oversize books will vary greatly according to the kind of library, a college or scientific collection having many more than the circulating library. Any reference room will contain a large number of such books and its shelves should correspond.
Movable shelves.
Much attention has been given to devices for adjustment of shelves. Some of these are quite ingenious and a few are satisfactory. No device should be introduced that will seriously break the smooth surface at the side. Notches, cross bars, iron horns or hooks or ornamental brackets expose the last book to damage. If pins are used they should be so held to their places that they cannot fall out. Heads of pins or bars should be sunk in the wood and the place for books left, as near as possible, absolutely smooth on all sides. It is at least a question whether the importance of making shelves adjustable and absolutely adjustable has not been greatly overrated. As a fact the shelves of the circulating library are very seldom adjusted. They may have all the usual appliances gained at large expense but there is no occasion to adjust them outside the reference room. They remain as they were put up. It is probably well to have the second and third shelf movable so that one can be dropped to the bottom and two spaces left where there were three at first. But all other shelves might as well be fixed at intervals of 10 inches without the least real inconvenience and the cases be stronger for it and far cheaper. A perfectly adjustable shelf is interesting as a study in mechanics, but is practically disappointing. Its very perfection is a snare because it is so impossible to set it true without a spirit level and a machinist. All shelves in a reference room should be adjustable. Bound magazines might have special cases.
Wood or iron shelves.
Iron shelf construction has the advantage of lightness and strength, filling the least space and admitting light and air. Where three or more stories of cases are stacked one upon another iron is a necessity. It also offers the best facilities for adjustment of shelves and is most durable.
On the other hand it is more difficult to get, can be had only of the manufacturers in fixed patterns, and costs at least twice as much as any wood, even oak, unless carved for ornament, and four or five times as much as some very good wooden shelves. This great cost raises the question whether the advantages named are really important. Few village libraries need more than two stories of shelves in a stack. If iron is more durable we can buy two sets of wooden shelves for the cost of one of iron—and when we buy the second set will know better what we want. The importance of shelf adjustment has been exaggerated.
A more important consideration, to my mind, is that iron is not so well adapted to the changing conditions of a growing library. It is made at a factory and to be ordered complete. It is bolted to the floor and wall at fixed intervals. But we have seen that a gradual accumulation of bookcases is better than to put all shelving in position at first.
Wooden cases are movable. You begin with those you need and add others as you have more books, you can change and alter them at any time with only the aid of the village carpenter, and enjoy the wide open spaces till the time for filling them comes.
Iron with all its ornaments belongs in the shop. It is not the furniture you prefer in your home. The item of cost will usually decide the question. For libraries of less than 30,000 volumes, where close storage is not imperative, wood has the advantage.
Miscellaneous notes.
A floor of hard wood is good enough for most libraries. Wood covered with corticene or linoleum tends to insure the needed quiet. Floors of tile, marble or concrete are very noisy and should have strips of carpet laid in the passages.
On the walls of reading rooms it is neither necessary nor desirable to have an ornamental wainscot, nor indeed any wainscot at all, not even a base board. Book cases will cover the lower walls and books are the best ornament.
Small tables for four are preferred in a reading room to long common tables. They give the reader an agreeable feeling of privacy.
Do not make tables too high. 30 inches are enough.
Light bent wood chairs are easy to handle.
Steam or hot water give the best heat and incandescent electric lamps give the best light.
Be sure that you have sufficient ventilation.
Windows should be made to slide up and down, not to swing on hinges or pivots.
Without dwelling further on details let us be sure 1, That we have room within the walls for all the books we now have or are likely to have in 20 years; provide the first outfit of shelves for twice the number of books expected at the end of one year and add bookcases as we need them, leaving always a liberal margin of empty space on every shelf. We must plan for the location of additional cases for 20 years with due consideration of the question of public access.
2, That all needed departments are provided in harmonious relation with each other and so located as to serve the public to the best advantage and at least cost of time, strength and money.
3, That the best use of the location is made and the building suited to the constituency and local conditions.
4, That the estimated cost is well within the limit named, for new objects ofexpenseare certain to appear during the process of building and debt must not be thought of.
5, That the building is convenient for work and supervision, a point at which many an elegant and costly building has conspicuously failed.
Make it also neat and beautiful, for it is to be the abiding place of all that is best in human thought and experience and is to be a home in which all inquiring souls are to be welcomed. Since the people are to be our guests let us make the place of their reception worthy of its purpose.
By John Lawrence Mauran,Architect, St. Louis, Mo.
The public library, as we understand the name to-day, has had but a brief existence compared with the mere housing of collections of books which has gone on through countless ages.
With the change from the old ideas of safeguarding the precious books themselves to the advanced theory of placing their priceless contents within the easy reach of all, has come an equally important change in the character of the custodian of the books. The duties of the modern librarian are such that he must be not only something of a scholar, in the best sense of the word, but he must be capable also of properly directing others in the pursuit of learning, and, withal, combine executive ability with a highly specialized professional facility. The result of carefully conceived courses of training is apparent in the wonderful results achieved through the devoted and untiring efforts of the members of this Association towards a constant betterment of their charges, and a closer bonding, through affection, between the masses of the people and that portion of the books which lies between the covers.
My purpose in recalling to your memory the wonderful advance made by training in your profession in a comparatively short time, is to give point to an analogy I wish to draw, showing a corresponding advance in the profession of architecture. Not so very many years ago there were ample grounds for the recalling by Mr. David P. Todd of Lord Bacon's warning against the sacrifice of utility to mere artistic composition in the following words: "Houses are built to Live in, and not to Looke on: Therefore let Use bee preferred before Uniformitie; Except where both may be had Leave the Goodly Fabrickes of Houses, for Beautie only, to the Enchanted Pallaces of the Poets; Who build them with small Cost": but to-day, thanks to the munificence of the French government and the untiring energy of some of those who have profited by it, in fostering the growth of our own architectural schools, there are few sections of this broad land which have not one or more worthy followers of Palladio and Michael Angelo. Hunt, Richardson and Post were among the first to receive the training of the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and they, moreover, had the rare judgment to take the training only, adapting their designs to the climatic and other local conditions rather than attempting the importation of French forms as well as method of design. Their example and the impetus they were able to impart to the technical schools have been potent factors in the development of the talent of American architects. While it is true, and more the pity, that some students return from Paris with the idea that because Paris is a beautiful city architecturally, the simple injection of some of their own masterpieces into our diverse city street fronts, is going to reincarnate our municipalities, the major portion are sufficiently discriminating to realize that Paris owes much of its charm to a symmetry under governmental control which we, free born Americans, can never hope to attain, and leave behind them the mere forms and symbols of their alma mater to use that which is best and most profitable in their training; that is, a breadth of conception of the problem and a logical method of sequential study of it which ensures a creditable if not an ideal solution. The modern architect, to be successful, must be conversant with a vast amount of information which is apparently outside his chosen profession—such as the minutiae of hospitals, churches, libraries, railroad stations and the like. As a case in point I recall the address of a certain railroad president at the dedication of a large terminal depot, in which he said: "while we have had the co-operation of engineers and specialists in every branch of the work, I must give great credit to our architect who is responsible for the conception of the entire system of the handling of passengers, although he was employed solely to enclose the space designated by our engineers." It is not my purpose to laud the profession of architecture, but rather to show its preparedness toco-operatewith you in achieving the best in library construction and design.
May I add to Mr. Todd's advice to library boards about to build, "first appoint your librarian," the suggestion that second, in consultation with him,appointyour architect. It is not disbelief in competition which has led the American Institute of Architects to advise against competitions, for the former is a constant condition, while the latter they believe to result in more evil than good. It is a popular notion among laymen that a competition will bring outideasand mayhap develop some hidden genius, but in answer to the first I can say, I know of but one building erected from successful competitive plans without modification, and for the second, the major portion of American originality in building designs is unworthy the name of architecture. Aside from the needless expense and loss of time entailed on library board, as well as architect, by the holding of competitions a greater evil lies in the well proven fact, that in their desire to win approval for their design, most architects endeavor to find out the librarian's predilections and follow them in their plans rather than to submit a scholarly solution of the problem studied from an unprejudiced standpoint. It is not often the good fortune of competitors to have their submitted work judged with such unbiased intelligence as that which permitted the best conceived plan to win in the competition for the new library in New York City. Few men would have dared in competition to remove that imposing architectural feature, the reading room, from their main façade and put it frankly where it belongs, in direct touch with the stacks which serve it, as Carrere & Hastings did.
Not long ago a member of a certain library board of trustees wrote to us that we were being considered, among others, as architects for their new building, and he suggested that we send to them as many water colors as we could collect andas large as possible,to impress the board; for, as he added, "some of us appreciate your plans, but most laymen are caught by the colored pictures, the larger the better."
As a rule librarians have very decided ideas as to the plan desired in so far as it relates to the correlation of rooms and departments, and it, therefore, seems manifestly proper that having selected a librarian on account of merit, the next step should be the selection of an architect on the same basis, to the end that in consultation the theory of the one may either be studied into shape or proved inferior to the theory of the other. Under the discussion of two broad minds, the wheat is easily separated from the chaff with the much to be desired result of the assemblying of a well ordered plan to present to the board, which has had such study that few criticisms cannot be answered from the store of experience gathered in the making. This ideal crystallization of ideas, this development of the problem working hand in hand precludes the need of such advice as is found in the following quotation from a paper on library buildings:
"Taking into account the practical uses of the modern library it is readily seen that it needs a building planned from inside, not from without, dictated by convenience and not by taste no matter how good. The order should be to require the architect to put a presentable exterior on an interior having only use in view and not as is so often done to require the librarian to make the best he can of an interior imposed by the exigencies of the architect's taste or the demand of the building committee for a monumental structure."
Such an anomalous relationship between interior and exterior is absolutely opposed to the fundamental training of the architect of to-day. Often have I heard my professor of design, a Frenchman of rare judgment, fly out at a student caught working on his exterior before the interior was complete: "Work on your plan, finish your plan, and when that is perfect, the rest willcome."
Architects of experience, who have been students of library development in its every branch, who have followed the changes in the relations of the library to the people, have reached the same conclusions along broad lines, as have the librarians, with respect to lighting, access, oversight and administration, as well as the general correlation of universally important departments, and it is therefore my purpose to state our relationship rather than attempt the raising of issues on details of library arrangement, and to show if possible, that the skilled architect's method of procedure tends to settle mooted points by weighing values and considering relations of parts in a logical and broad minded study of the particular set of conditions pertaining to his problem.
Either owing to the size, shape or contour of the site, its particular exposure, local climatic conditions, the particular character of the library itself or the people whom it serves, the problem presented to an architect by a library board isalwaysessentially anewone. Certain fundamental rules may obtain through their universal applicability, but every step in the working out of a successful plan must be influenced by the particular conditions referred to, and here the co-operation of the librarian is of inestimable value to the architect, no matter how wide his experience may be.
Desired correlation, like most results, can be achieved in divers ways, and in most cases nothing of utility need be sacrificed to secure a dignified plan, which is as much to be desired as a dignified exterior. Realizing the importance of accomplishing successful results, a scholarly architect will strive to mould his plan with an eye to symmetry, without losing sight for an instant of the conditions of use, and never sacrificing practical relationship to gain anabsolutelysymmetrical arrangement of plan.
The French architect will, if necessary, waste space or inject needless rooms into hisplan to secure perfect balance, while his American student will gain all the value of theeffectwithout diminishing the practical value of his building one iota.
Along with symmetry, the logical development of the plan in study keeps in mind something of the rough form of the exterior design, with particular reference to the grouping of its masses to secure the maximum of air and the best light for the various departments. With the best designers, it is an unwritten law, that the next step after completing a satisfactory plan, is to sketch a section through the building, not only to ensure a proper proportion in the enclosed rooms, but most important of all to secure a system of fenestration, allowing wall space where needed and introducing the light as near the top of the rooms as the finish will permit. Having settled then all the details of plans and section, wherein are comprised all of the matter of greatest moment to the practical librarian, it only remains for the architect to prepare a suitable exterior and I certainly agree with my old preceptor that "it will come." The American people believe that education is the corner stone of manhood and good citizenship, and next to our public schools, if not before them, the most potent educational factor is our public library. The librarians are responsible in a great measure for the good work which is being accomplished in the dissemination of knowledge and culture among the people, but let me ask, are we not as responsible for our share, as co-workers with them, to perpetuate in lasting masonry the best which in us lies for the same great cause of the education of the people?
What renaissance has failed to find literature and architecture quickened alike? The awakening of a love of the beautiful brings a thirst for knowledge concerning the beautiful; as the records will show, the interest excited by that marvellous assemblage of architectural masterpieces at the Chicago Fair, created a demand on the libraries almost beyond belief for books on architecture and the allied arts.
Every conscientious architect must feel his responsibility to his clients as well as to the people and strive he must, to combine the ideal in convenience with simple beauty in design; my one plea is that such a combination is not onlypossible,but in intelligent hands, should be universal, and if my beliefs, hopes and expectations find sympathy with you, I shall feel repaid in the security of a harmonious co-operation between architect and librarian in the great work which stretches ahead of us into the future.