CHAPTER XXXIII

Meeting the public


If the public is not admitted to the shelves, it will be necessary
to supply catalogs for public use as well as slips on which lists of
books wanted can be made out; but the fullest possible catalogs and
the finest appointments in the delivery room cannot take the place
of direct contact between librarian or assistants and the public.
Wherever possible, the person to whom the borrower applies for a book
should go himself to the shelves for it.

The stranger in the library should be made welcome. Encourage the
timid, volunteer to them directions and suggestions, and instruct them
in the library's methods. Conversation at the counter having to do
with wants of borrowers should be encouraged rather than discouraged.
No mechanical devices can take the place of face to face question and
answer.

The public like to handle and examine their books, and it is good for
them to do it. They like the arrangements in the library to be
simple; they object to red tape and rules. They like to have their
institutions seem to assume--through, for example, the absence of
signs--that they know how to conduct themselves courteously without
being told. They don't like delays. They like to be encouraged to