College and Research Libraries


By N O R M A N N . G I L L 

A Municipal Reference 
Library in Action 

Mr. Gill, librarian, Municipal Reference 

Libraryj Milwaukee Public Library, gave 

this address to the Milwaukee Chapter of 

the Special Libraries Association on Nov. 

17, 1942. 

THIS YEAR marks the thirty-fifth anni-versary of the establishment of the 
local M u n i c i p a l Reference L i b r a r y . M i l -

waukee was the second city in the country 

to set up this type of institution. T h r o u g h 

the years the library, a department of the 

public library system but located in the 

city hall, has g r o w n to a reference and 

research division rendering service to the 

mayor and common council, city officials 

and employees, civic organizations, and the 

general public. T h i s year's budget is 

thirteen thousand dollars, w i t h a staff in-

cluding the librarian, a cataloger, a 

reference assistant, and t w o juniors. T h e 

ordinance reorganizing the municipal 

reference department in 1 9 1 1 provided 

that the librarian "shall be an expert in 

political science, political economy, and 

statistics." A l l employees are under civil 

service. T h e legal requirement for special 

training by the librarian makes it clear 

that the city fathers of 1 9 1 1 , and, I may 

add, of today, expected a good deal more 

of the reference agency than merely the 

custodianship of a static storehouse of 

books. 

T h e ordinance establishing the library 

makes it mandatory for the institution " t o 

collect and compare the laws of other 

states and cities; to report upon the l a w s 

and ordinances regarding any subject, up-

on request of the mayor, any committee 

or member of the common council, or any 

department h e a d ; to collect all available 

information relative to any matter which 

may be the subject of proposed legislation 

by the common c o u n c i l ; to preserve and 

collate information obtained, indexed, and 

arranged for the convenience and use of 

city officials and the general public." T h i s 

quotation from the l a w is itself a good 

picture of the type of collection and the 

nature of the activities of the library. 

In addition, the library is required to 

compile and edit each year the annual con-

solidated report of the activities of the 

various departments, bureaus, boards, and 

commissions which are under the control 

of the common c o u n c i l ; to keep up to date 

and properly arranged and indexed the 

city code of ordinances; to prepare and 

keep on file the master census tract map 

of the c i t y ; to be in charge of the distribu-

tion of census tract data to interested or-

ganizations and individuals; to publish, at 

the direction of the common council, the 

official rules and regulations of the various 

departments and bureaus. T h e librarian 

is required to attend all meetings of the 

common council and all meetings of its 

standing committees. 

MARCH', 1943 149 



T h e library contains about forty-eight 

thousand books and pamphlets, including 

standard reference w o r k s on local govern-

ment and thousands of clippings f r o m 

thirteen newspapers and three hundred 

periodicals. A l l new materials, including 

monthly periodicals, reports, and special 

studies, and city, state, and federal govern-

ment documents, are routed to individuals 

upon request or in accordance w i t h the 

special interests of the person concerned. 

A monthly bulletin is prepared and dis-

tributed to five hundred city and county 

officials, containing annotated lists of re-

cent accessions, guest book reviews w r i t t e n 

by city employees, special articles and news 

notes on current items of city government. 

T h e routing service last year included the 

circulation of over 4500 pamphlets and 

books. 

Reference Collection 

T h e reference collection includes an ex-

tensive body of archival materials, such 

as the published and unpublished reports 

of the city, school board, county, and the 

state, as w e l l as the minutes of various 

boards and commissions, departmental au-

dits, proceedings of the common council, 

and a complete file of state and session 

laws. D u r i n g the legislative session all 

bills introduced in both houses of the 

state legislature are kept on file for the 

use of the departments w h e n such bills are 

called to their attention by the city's legis-

lative counsel or by the librarian. N u m e r -

ous queries and questionnaires about the 

city's methods and procedure are referred 

by the mayor and department heads to the 

library for reply. T h e library acts as the 

agency for the exchange of city documents 

and departmental reports. 

A s the storehouse of official documents, 

the depository of information to the pub-

lic, and in the role of a neutral coordinat-

ing agency, the library has been entrusted 

for the past twenty-one years w i t h the 

task of preparing the consolidated annual 

report of city government activities. T h e s e 

reports are used extensively as teaching 

material in the civics and social science 

classes of our local schools. 

Card File 

A n o t h e r informational service is the de-

velopment of a card file of both the city 

code and charter in an elaborate index, 

which is kept up to date. B y ordinance 

the library is required to assign code num-

bers to n e w sections, to note all repeals 

of sections, and to perform related tech-

nical duties. T h e ordinance file and in-

dex and the subject file of ordinances of 

other cities are among the most frequently 

used library services. 

W h i l e the library's primary role is that 

of an information agency for city officials, 

a recent check showed that four out of 

every ten reference questions come from 

individual citizens, civic bodies, taxpayer 

groups, improvement associations, news-

papers, teachers, and students. Requests 

f r o m these sources range from simple yes 

and no questions to technical surveys re-

quiring considerable time and thought. 

T h e s e requests serve, as excellent media 

f o r spreading the library's storehouse of 

information about the best practices in 

local government in strategic " t h o u g h t 

centers" around the community. 

W h a t may be regarded as the most im-

portant w o r k of the library, to w h i c h the 

municipal reference librarian devotes most 

of his time, may be described as "research 

— s e c r e t a r i a l — c o n s u l t i n g services." T h e 

research may take the form of a bibliog-

raphy on air raid shelters or the prepa-

ration of the background data for an 

150 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



important message to the common council. 

T h e secretarial w o r k may range from the 

translation of a letter w r i t t e n in a foreign 

language to acting as executive secretary 

of an important committee of city officials 

over a period of several years. T h e con-

sulting service may take the form of a 

confidential discussion w i t h an elective 

official regarding the advisability of a cer-

tain course of action. 

Research Work 

Illustrations of m a j o r research w o r k are 

the surveys of the procedures followed by 

other cities in preparing long-range per-

manent improvement programs; the or-

ganization and financial support of art 

institutes in various cities; and recent 

trends in salary and w a g e scales of public 

employees in a number of large cities. 

Each study w a s prepared in response to 

an official request, f o l l o w i n g the develop-

ment of an important city problem, the 

awareness that a body of impartial facts 

d r a w n from the best experience of other 

cities w o u l d be of value in arriving at a 

decision in the best interests of the entire 

community, and the recognition that the 

library w a s an agency technically quali-

fied to prepare a thorough and unbiased 

report. A l l three reports w e r e put to 

practical use; they did not accumulate 

dust on library shelves. A b o u t 650 re-

quests w e r e received for copies of these 

three reports f r o m individuals and agen-

cies in over 150 cities, and the reports 

w e r e abstracted and appeared in several 

national periodicals in the respective fields 

w i t h w h i c h they were concerned. 

It has been a long-standing tradition for 

the library to render secretarial services, 

including the d r a f t i n g of communications, 

proclamations, reports, and special docu-

m e n t s ; the appointment by the mayor or 

the common council of the librarian as 

secretary to various committees, involving 

considerable time in attendance at meet-

ings, reference, research, and reporting 

w o r k , the preparation of memoranda and 

agenda, and the d r a f t i n g of resolutions 

and ordinances. F o l l o w i n g the submis-

sion of the report on long-term improve-

ment programs in other cities, the librarian 

w a s appointed secretary to the committee 

of city officials, created by the common 

council, to develop such a program for 

M i l w a u k e e . A n o t h e r illustration is the 

w o r k of the librarian as secretary to both 

the policy-formulation and technical bod-

ies representing the five local governments 

of the M i l w a u k e e city area, which pre-

pared a report on the possibilities of uni-

form classification and compensation scales 

for the employees of the city, county, 

school board, vocational school, and sewage 

commission. T h e librarian serves as sec-

retary to the M a y o r ' s Council of D e p a r t -

mental Administration, which includes all 

m a j o r city department and bureau heads 

and w h i c h meets periodically to discuss 

interdepartmental matters of city admin-

istration. T h e librarian is secretary of 

the special committees on budget pro-

cedures and on licensing methods. T h e 

librarian also serves in a confidential sec-

retarial capacity to the mayor's office and 

to various members of the common council. 

Suggestions 

A municipal reference librarian in action 

can be w o r t h his salary many times over 

if he does nothing more than make effec-

tive suggestions at the right time and 

place, to the proper persons, regarding 

vital city problems. O f course, this must 

be done t a c t f u l l y and diplomatically, w i t h -

out thought of personal credit or publicity. 

Avoidance of politics and partisanship is 

MARCH', 1943 151 



part of the operating policy of the library. 

W h a t e v e r publicity does get into the press 

is a l w a y s in the form of a summary of a 

factual report and never a statement of 

opinions of the librarian. 

M y o w n background, training, and in-

terests are largely in the research-secre-

tarial-consulting activities; and I have 

shaped the library's w o r k accordingly. 

T h e term municipal reference " l i b r a r y " 

is a misnomer, as it gives to many people 

the idea of simply a storehouse of books. 

" D e p a r t m e n t of M u n i c i p a l R e s e a r c h " or 

the " M u n i c i p a l Reference B u r e a u " 

might be more accurate titles. Likewise, 

the term "municipal reference librarian" 

is misleading. M o r e appropriate titles 

might be " c h i e f " or " d i r e c t o r " of the 

" d e p a r t m e n t " or " b u r e a u " of "municipal 

reference" or "municipal research." 

A number of the entries in the C o m -

munity Betterment Contest conducted re-

cently by the Milwaukee Journal and the 

M i l w a u k e e C i t y C l u b suggested the estab-

lishment of a research bureau as an in-

tegral part of the city government. T h e 

municipal reference library might w e l l 

serve as the nucleus around w h i c h such a 

bureau could be created. I t has a com-

plete collection of city research materials, 

a reputation for impartiality and objectiv-

ity, a trained staff, an atmosphere of study 

and investigation, and a tradition of har-

monious relations and good cooperation 

w i t h the executive, legislative, and admin-

istrative branches of the city government. 

JVar Information Activities 

F i n a l l y , I should like to comment 

briefly about the library's w a r information 

activities. T h e s e have been developed as 

supplementary to the regular activities and 

not by neglecting the latter. " G o o d gov-

ernment is good defense," and it is like-

wise true that informational service for 

good government is also good defense. In 

recent months special emphasis has been 

given to the development of a compre-

hensive collection of materials relating to 

national and civilian defense, on such 

topics as organization of local defense 

councils, air raid shelters, blackout or-

dinances, staggered hours, camouflage tech-

niques, priorities and rationing orders, fair 

rent regulations, salvage campaigns, and 

civilian defense training materials. In the 

early stages of the local civilian defense 

w o r k , the library rendered secretarial serv-

ices to the mayor's civic coordinating coun-

cil on defense problems, and the librarian 

is at present on the research committee of 

the county defense council and statistician 

to several of the council's committees. 

T h e common council, by resolution, re-

cently instructed the library to prepare a 

special w a r code of all official actions 

taken by the city government relating to 

the w a r effort for the duration. N e w s 

items on civilian defense are prepared for 

the monthly bulletin of the county defense 

council. Information as to state and fed-

eral developments is supplied regularly to 

the aldermen in their capacity as chief 

air raid wardens in their wards, and bib-

liographies are prepared upon request. 

T h e most recent activity has been the 

preparation, at the request of the executive 

director of the county defense council, of 

a set of reading materials to be used for 

teaching purposes in the air raid w a r d e n 

training evening classes held in the public 

schools throughout the city. T h e mate-

rials are abstracted f r o m books, periodicals, 

and pamphlet materials in the library, w i t h 

the cooperation of the public library's w a r 

information center. 

152 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES