The Minneapolis journal., 1903-01-13
LIBRARY EXPENSES
Proposed Reduction Of Salary Ao-
count at the Central
Building.

The Reasons for Greater Economy
and the Suggested Effect Upon
the institution.
Resolved, That throughout the year
1908, the monthly pay roll, as, submitted
to the board for it's action, shall show the
amount due to the, librarian and to each
OF the other employees at the Central Lii
brary excepting only the janitor-in- chief
and his three assistants, and the aggre-]
gate Of said sums, footed separately; that
the total compensation of such librarian
and other employees be, and the same here
by is, limited to $751; 900 for the year; and
that no such pay roll shall be approved,
nor shall any warrant be drawn for the
payment of such compensation, If the total
thereof shall exceed $3.50 for the month. |
Resolved, further, that the general
committee report to the board at the next
regular meeting, a schedule of salaries in
conformity with the foregoing resolution,
with the recommendations Of the commit |
tee thereon -
The above resolutions were adopted in
executive session of the library board Fri
day evening. The salary list OF the CEN
trail library during the past year amounted
in round numbers to $17,500 and this reso-
luIlOIl pIOVlucS lOT d. IcuUCLlOIl 1OI l1lc CuI~
rent year Of $4,000. The library board be-
lieves that the work of carrying on the
public library in the central building is
costing too much money and more than Is
necessary. They expect to econon1ize by
reducing salaries or by reducing the staff,
or both. The general committee, to whom
the matter. has been referred. has as yet
taken no action, so that just how this re-
ductiOn Is to be brought about cannot be
told at this time. It Is evidently the opin-
ion Of some members Of the board, how
ever, that the salaries are higher than the
board should be required to pay and along
with this is apparently coupled the idea
or capacity Of particular kind to do IL
brary work.
Reducing the Force.
There is a belief also among members
Of the board that the force might be re-
| duced 20 per cent in number without i'm
pairing the quality of the service rem
dered to the public. There is also criti
cism of the management for expenses in
CURED in the work of cataloguing the
| library. It Is claimed that the finding
| lists which punched together make the
catalogue, so far as 1t has been published,
| haye been prepared at too great ex-
pense, while the scheme to recoup the
library by sale Of these finding lists
has not produced important returns.
| Expense Of catalosuing.
| 1t is claimed, too, that the work of
card cataloguing has not been prosecuted
as diligently as it ought, and that not as
much has been accomplished as should
have been achieved considering the force
| supposed to be employed and the length
of time consumed since the work was
undertaken In short, the board is gen.
orally impressed with the lack of efficient
business management, and attribute to
that a heavier bill Of expense than they
believe to be necessary. For that rea-
son the executive committee under the
second resolution will be expected to
practically reorganize the library on a
more economical basis, If they find it
practical to do so. -.
New Fixtures and Furniture.
The board is also confronted by the
necessity Of ~incurring, considerable extra
lexpense in the way Of equipping the CEN
tral building. :, New fixtures must be pro-
Yided for the proper care Of, the, large
and very valuable collection Of art works
belonging to the ,Athenaeum, at cost,
probably, of several thousand dollars. The
new Pillsbury library building will soon
be ready for occupancy, and If it shall
devolve upon the board to furnish that
building it will be necessary to incur con.
siderable extra expense there.
Effects Of Reduction.
But, of course, there are other consid
erations than those Of the strict economy
which would save $4,000 a year. In the
first place, the library people suggest ,tha
the proposed. reduction is undertaken a
a time when the library is not only at thu
c height of it's usefulness but at a. time
when it's surplus, amounting to abou
> $4,000 for the last year, Is larger thar
I ever before In the. history of the institu
ton: It is contended that, while, %
= course, reductions may be made, it, can b.
! hardly be expected that these reductions
can be brought about without reducins
. the efficiency Of the service. Some part
= = of the work must necessarily be discon
= t1n1ed. It is intimated by the board re
! ! ductionists that the work of cataloguin,
- - might be discontinued in view of the abil
:, ity of the board to procure a card cata
logue from the national library at Wash
,. ington. ,..
:, The difficulty about this, however, it i
y said, is that the card system at Washing
:, =, ton is yet unable to furnish more tina
. about one tenth Of the cards desired an
>. asked for. At Washington they are nov
# cataloguing only American copyrighte
books This does not touch foreign pub
lications and does not yet extend to
large protion of the works purchased b
If the Athenaeum end of our library. Bu
lie more than this, the cards from Washing
t: ton are not analytical In any sense; the
u are simply lists of authors with a synoI
a sis under the title.
ID Value Of Analytical Catalogue.
Such a catalogue is Of no use to tn
-, public which does not know the name {
it's author but is looking for informatio
, by. subjects 8 ~-
: The fact that the work of cataloguin
has not approached nearer to compile
J. ton is explained, also, upon the groun
\ that the cataloguing force are constant
] drafted from their nominally regular Wo1
I to; aid in various departments of the /
l brary. Furthermore, the cataloguin
4 force carries on much other work. bt
i Sides It takes care, for example, Of tt
/ binding of the 100000 volumes Of whic
10 per cent were rebound last year. Th
practically required the time of one pc
son to keep the records and reft tt
books for the shelves. Foreign publlcs
lltions require that the cataloguers be mo-
or less familiar with these foreign lal
guages and sometimes unusual deman'
are made The, catalogue under way
analytical; it not only includes the nan
of the author, the title of the book, b
more or less numerous entries of diffe
ent subjects are treated in the book. Th
of course is the only proper way to cat
H., f1,e rfo