Administration of Small Libraries

A SMALL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY often seems large to a high school or special librarian, and the difference in size between very large and small public libraries is tremendous. The sophisticated librarian would cross off of his list many small libraries, of which there are tens of thousands, as not deserving the name "library." For this article, a search was made for a yardstick large enough to include the good small libraries without being big enough to get into many of the organizational problems plaguing large libraries. The one most suitable seemed to be that used by the McDiarmid study: 1 " ••• those with staffs of less than ten people." Uppermost in mind, however, will be the small library that struggles along with only a few on the staff. It seems reasonable to consider administration in terms of size rather than function, because many problems of administration are directly affected by the factor of size. As to the reason for small libraries, it is simply that they are ample for many needs. A small college, with a very limited undergraduate enrollment, certainly does not require the library plant essential in a large university. The village of five hundred population would find a big city library something of a white elephant if it were set down on Main Street. In special libraries, a small library is very important to a company involved in a lesser research program, and a library big enough to serve a large industrial complex would in no way be suited to it. Small libraries have their place, and a very important one in the total picture. This article is concerned with administration in all kinds of small libraries. It will discuss the elements and principles of the administration of small libraries, using the outline employed by L. R. Wilson and M. F. Tauber.2 The elements of administration vary in importance with the size of a library, and this will be taken into account. Planning, staffing, budgeting, organizing, directing, coordinating, and reporting will be considered. Although the principles of administration are the