College and Research Libraries B y F R A N C I S R . S T . J O H N Management Improvements in Libraries Mr. St. John is librarian, Brooklyn Pub- lic Library. TH E R E A R E relatively f e w libraries of any type in the United States that are satisfied with the budgets on which they must operate. T h i s w i l l probably always be true. Consequently more and more li- brarians are realizing the need f o r careful management procedures within the library. Since librarianship is basically a develop- ment of the organization of materials, the basic elements of good administration have always been present. Its application in a practical sense, however, has been sadly lacking. M o s t of us realize the serious need f o r more time to be devoted to the particular purpose of our individual library, whether it be service to the public, or time to con- sider the purchase of rare books and manu- scripts to add to research collections, or to the production of bibliographies which make these collections available for use by schol- ars. One sound method of gaining this time within our current budget is by careful management analysis and the application of sound management improvements. Since the basic elements of management improvement are the same in a public li- brary as they are in the college or research library some of the experiences of the Brooklyn Public L i b r a r y may be of value. W e have recently been asked by the M a y o r ' s Committee on M a n a g e m e n t f o r the C i t y of N e w Y o r k to submit a list of our management improvements during the years 1 9 4 7 - 4 8 through 1 9 5 1 - 5 2 and this analysis of our w o r k provides a startling example of new services which have been made possible because of savings made pos- sible by changes in the standard elements of our w o r k . A n over-all cost of circulation nn 1947-48 was 34 cents per volume. B y 1 9 5 1 - 5 2 this cost had gone up to 38 cents per volume, or an increase of approximately 1 1 per cent. D u r i n g the same period our average salary had increased $ 7 3 9 per position or 3 1 per cent and in addition w e had been able to start a system-wide young people's depart- ment, to begin an audio-visual service, to extend considerably our community service, by sponsoring discussion groups, parent-pre- school child programs and a senior citizens service. W e were able to increase the num- ber of pieces of publicity which were dis- tributed and to absorb the additional volume of books purchased and cataloged. T h e development of management im- provements in the Brooklyn Public L i - brary is a joint affair and much of the basic discussion takes place in an A d v i s o r y Board meeting. T h e Advisory B o a r d is made up of the superintendents of all phases of our w o r k performed by thf professional, clerical and maintenance staffs. Since they meet weekly there is a regular opportunity of bringing to bear upon any problem, the ex- perience and knowledge of all. T h e second step is one of control and our use of control panels is described v e r y ' w e l l by M r . G e r a r d Cozzarin in an article in t h e Library Journal f o r F e b r u a r y 1 , 1 9 5 3 . 174 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES T h e material f o r these control panels, is assembled by our statistician, and in order to make sure that we have the kind of sta- tistics which are needed to give a clear view of the w o r k that w e are doing, w e have recently completed a study of the statistics now kept. W e found, as many other li- braries have found, that unless such a sur- vey is made there is danger of spending time accumulating costly statistics which are unusable. In some cases, w e have found that the statistics kept are on such a broad base that they are meaningless as a control of the particular operation. In others they are so detailed that w e cannot afford to keep them regularly. Conse- quently, w e now spot check as this infor- mation is needed. Perhaps the greatest benefits have come through the installation of labor saving equipment. W e can use as typical the example of our centralized regis- tration files. These files contain normally between 750,000 and 1,000,000 entries. F o r many years a f a i r l y large staff tried to maintain these records in the regular library card catalog cases. T h e assistants had to stand to use the records and stretch f o r heavy drawers in the top rows of the catalog cases. Fatigue was a serious matter since the use of the files w a s constant and heavy. T h e annual weeding process was an almost superhuman task. A committee of super- visors was assigned the job of finding new filing equipment which would reduce fatigue and lost motion in the filing and which would permit more than one operator to w o r k at the same files. In the spring of 1 9 5 1 the members of this committee made many inspection trips to the sales rooms of commercial firms. T h e y held conferences with salesmen at the library trying to ex- plain our registration operation and require- ments. T h e y corresponded with the A L A and the National Office Management A s - sociation to find out if any new equipment had been used successfully f o r a similar operation. T h e doubledeck T r a n s d e x R o l l - dex unit with rolling chair assembly, w a s finally selected because it was the only one of all of the available modern filing equip- ment which permitted more than one operator to work on a unit simultaneously. T h e T r a n s d e x doubledeck files have two parallel magazines, in each 'of which are cross files on two levels. T h e lower level is stationary. T h e operator, on a rolling chair assembly, rolls to the record. T h e upper level is equipped with t w o rolling trays, carriages operating the length of the magazine. T h e records on both levels are filed in removable trays placed side by side. T h e operator sits in the unit facing the records and the desk, in a special rolling posture chair, which enables her to be oc- cupied f u l l time without moving from her station. B y reducing fatigue and lost mo- tion in filing, increased production was gained to the extent that it now takes less people to handle these files. T h i s year our annual weeding process caused no noticeable change in the normal tempo of the division. W e have been able to eliminate lifting, walking, stooping, opening and closing of the drawers. T h e centralization itself, which eliminated our branch files of regis- tration, has saved an estimated 1 6 man years throughout the system. In 1 9 5 0 with a reorganization of our Book Order Department, the installation of standard business order forms and more efficient processing of orders resulted in a reduction of the average cost per volume of 2 3 . 4 per cent in a five-month period between February and J u n e . In our library this saving amounted in dollars to $ 3 4 , 1 4 2 . 9 0 , and enabled us to purchase 1 7 , 6 0 0 more volumes in that year. In addition, the recognition of the problems of the supplier, and the resultant action taken to make it as simple as possible f o r him to carry our account, made more prompt delivery pos- sible. N o w timely books appear on the APRIL, 1953 175 shelves in the agencies on publication date or soon thereafter. In another effort to reduce the amount of clerical and recording w o r k in our serv- ice agencies so that they might have more opportunity to give professional service, w e centralized completely our processing of books with the f o l l o w i n g results: an as- sembly line was established using the techniques of industrial production to process all books centrally. W e had found that the time consumed f o r processing, when this w o r k was done in the branches, aver- aged ten minutes per book. In our central unit we were able to add several beneficial items to our processing, such as putting Plasti-kleer covers on each volume, and still reduce the time by 5.6 minutes per book. A t the end of the first year of centralization, the average time f o r processing a book was 4.4 minutes. T h i s w a s accomplished with relatively little capital expenditure, since the only equip- ment purchased were two electrical gluing machines. In the beginning, w e arranged large tables in various ways, so as to allow experimentation with the flow of materials, until w e learned the best arrangement to facilitate the flow f o r the various activities involved. W i t h the centralization of our processes and files, as described above, w e were able to increase our activities and services. A s a consequence, our circulation increased two and a half millions during the years covered by the M a y o r ' s Report. T h i s necessitated the employment of a great many part-time clerical assistants to handle the shelving of books and other routines. T h e correspond- ing increase in the numbers of checks to be processed f o r the payroll each month, pre- sented our finance department with a very real problem. Its solution w a s accom- plished in the same manner as described above, in relation to the selection and pur- chase of the T r a n s d e x equipment for cen- tral registration. Upon completion of the study, it was decided that a new type of accounting machine supplied by the N a - tional Cash Register Company would be the answer. T h e first payroll was put on this in J a n u a r y 1 9 5 1 and w e soon found that the time saved by mechanization of our payroll operation, plus the combining of several operations into one, made pos- sibe the absorption of the added volume of finance personnel. A t the present time we are beginning to use this machine f o r our accounts payable and expect even more sub- stantial savings. T h e cost of the machine has already been made up by the salary savings involved and w e have reaped an additional benefit of better and clearer ac- counts since the recording is done in one operation. Athough the two major units mentioned above—the accounting machine and the R o l d e x T r a n s d e x units were more expen- sive than a small library could normally afford (the T r a n s d e x unit cost $ 1 2 , 8 3 2 . 9 0 and the accounting machine cost $ 4 , 6 2 5 . 0 0 ) , w e have aready made them pay f o r them- selves because of the size of our operation. H o w e v e r , in the case of the centralization of processing the cost w a s practically noth- ing and the savings great and continuing. O u r gluing machines cost $ 3 1 8 . 5 0 apiece and w e estimate savings of 1 8 - 2 0 man years in the system as a result. T h e r e are many such inexpensive me- chanical devices which can be used by smaller libraries with little expense so that more time of personnel may be devoted to professional activities. One outstanding ex- ample of this has been the purchase by this library of a Sho-card machine. I think every library has the problem of handmade signs and posters. T h e y are not only time- consuming f o r the average assistant but unless there is a person on the staff with special artistic ability most of the signs cry out that they are handmade. O u r inex- 176 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES pensive equipment (it cost $ 6 3 1 . 9 3 ) pro- duced d u r i n g the fiscal year 1 9 5 1 - 5 2 over 3 0 0 0 signs easily duplicating the same sign f o r each of our 5 0 units. I t requires prac- tically no experience to operate. W e have found that the average intelligent part-time clerk can be taught to produce clean, good looking signs a f t e r a f e w hours of training. A n o t h e r area w h e r e practically any li- b r a r y can save time and overhead cost is the c a r e f u l study of f o r m s . O u r printing committee meets r e g u l a r l y to consider ap- proval of requests f o r f o r m s . W h e n the f o r m is approved they determine whether or not the f o r m should be printed or should be reproduced by multilith w i t h i n the li- brary. T h i s committee tries to determine 1 ) whether or not the contents of the f o r m are needed by management or are required by l a w or by good financial s t a n d a r d s ; 2 ) whether the design of the f o r m facilitates the use of best methods of operation and 3 ) whether the w o r k i n g methods repre- sented by the content are the most efficient procedure. M a j o r attention at the present time is being given to systems and pro- cedures since w e have f o u n d f r o m experi- ence that a request f o r a f o r m presents a good opportunity to study the use of the f o r m and the general area of activity within which the f o r m is used. A s a result, in addition to the net annual savings, of almost $ 4 0 0 0 , which has resulted f r o m the elimi- nation or combination of f o r m s , and the use of multilith instead of printing, w e have been able to make considerable savings in clerical costs by changes in procedure. T h e examples given above are a f e w f r o m a specific library. T h e y are meant to il- lustrate the f a c t that it is possible w i t h i n the limited budgets available to libraries to increase the amount of service which can be given. Businessmen are a l w a y s amazed when they see the complexity of a l i b r a r y operation. T h e y are inclined to question the ability of the supposedly theoretical librarian to effect a sound management pro- g r a m . T h e librarian must believe firmly that the mission of his institution is to produce quickly and accurately information at w h a t e v e r level it is needed by the com- munity which he serves. I t is then a short step to the point w h e r e he realizes that he must obtain the greatest benefit f r o m the f u n d s available to him in attaining this mission. W h e n he begins to analyse the procedures which have developed in his library over a period of many years, he realizes that many can be eliminated en- tirely since they do not contribute directly to the attainment of the mission. „ L i b r a r i a n s have a l w a y s been noted f o r their cooperation. B y sharing our experi- ence in the field of management improve- ments w e may all obtain more benefit f r o m our budget dollar. Scholarships at the University of Illinois Library School A number of library and research assistantships are available to candidates f o r the M a s t e r ' s degree at the University of Illinois L i b r a r y School. Students who have to their credit eighteen hours of library science or its equivalent may qualify f o r appointment to the staff of the University L i b r a r y or the Library School, with stipends varying from $650 to $ 1 5 0 0 accord- ing to the time given to work, and with waiving of tuition. Some of these involve assignment to the Demonstration Laboratory, and to activity with audio-visual materials. Also, there are offered through the Graduate College at the University a number of fellow- ships open to candidates f o r the degree of M a s t e r of Science who are not over thirty years of age when the appointment is to be made. These grants carry stipends of $900 f o r a year, and waiving of tuition. Candidates f o r the doctorate are eligible f o r second year grants, in amount of $1000, and f o r third year awards of $ 1 1 0 0 , with exemption from tuition in both cases. Students undertaking study at the L i b r a r y School may apply for these benefits. Inquiries should be addressed to the associate director. APRIL, 1953 177