More gleanings from a 1939 report of a Sheboygan Public Library survey.
Needed at the charging desk.
No more 'to and fro' carrying.
Librarian and Staff [from pages 21-22]
For a number of years the librarian has kept a weekly schedule of six evenings on duty. She checks and classifies the books and gives occasional limited service at the loan desk. She attends board meetings and presents bills for approval, but submits no written reports of work accomplished. She is directly responsible for book selection.
In the surveyors' opinion, the time and energies of staff members are not always used to the best advantage. For example, the one telephone in the Main library is in the librarian's office some distance from the charging desk. Assistants go to and fro constantly to answer routine inquiries. All shelving is done by staff members without the aid of books trucks. In the case of children's books, any returned to the Main desk are carried upstairs by the children's librarian. New books are also carried by hand from the office across the library to the cataloger's desk, and back to the pasting table which is near the entrance to the office. According to 1938 records, 3,955 books were accessioned and were carried to and fro in this manner*.
The above passage is actually indicative of how thorough the authors were in studying the Sheboygan Public Library and its community. Their report includes 14 pages of well-considered findings and recommendations, most of the latter considerably more substantial than the two examples I share here.
All in all, most interesting reading for those of us who like this kind of stuff.
*Not to mention a 1938 circulation tally of 259,254 -- all items, apparently, returned to the shelves without the benefit of a book cart. (Isn't that in the neighborhood of walking 5 miles to school, uphill, in both directions?)
Source:
Related posts:
Gleanings, part 2.
Gleanings, part 1.
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