College and Research Libraries By ARTHUR M. McANALLY Reorganizing a South American University Library Mr. McAnally is associate librarian in charge of public services, University of Illi- nozs. T HIS REPORT describes seven months' work as supervisor of libraries of the oldest university in the Americas, the Uni- versidad N acional Mayor de San Marcos, in Lima, Peru. The University of San Marcos was founded in 1551 by royal order of the King of Spain and is now the chief national university of Peru. It is a typical South American university, better than many and perhaps not so good as others: It differs in many ways from U.S . institutions, and so do its libraries; these differences and the special problems that arise from them are described at length . The work per- formed was a reorganization of the library system, undertaken at the request of the university and with the cooperation of uni- versity authorities, the Library of Congress, and the Department of State. 1 The view- point is that . of an average university li- brarian from a small state university in the u.s. Preliminary reading had shown the uni- versity to be different in several respects from those of the U .S., and it was obvious that no action should be taken on general library matters until the real nature of the institution was understood. Consequently the first steps after arrival and formal intro- duction were to read additional publications 1 A more detailed account of the work is given in the author's "La Reorganizacion de Ia Biblioteca Cen- t r al d~ Ia Yt:iversidad · acional 'Mayor de San Marcos." Boletm Btbhografico of the University I8:I-I2 'June I948. ' , about the universit y, including its reports and laws, 2 to talk with deans, professors and students, and to visit the various li- braries. Later a survey questionnaire was prepared and circulated to all faculty mem- bers and administrative officers. Although there was considerable formal protocol that could not be slighted, everyone was quite courteous and helpful , particularly the per- manent director of the central library. After this brief period of orientation the director of the central library was se~t to the U.S. to study, and the writer was made supervisor of libraries, with hi s actions sub- ject to the approval of the faculty library inspector and the rector or president. The position included complete authority over the main library and advisor y responsibility for the others. ' Th e University The university is relatively ' independent of the national government, for although state supported, it does not need to seek annual appropriations and has no state- appointed board of regents. Income is de- rived from certain earma~ked taxes and from land grants. This independence, in- cidentally, is one result of the famous uni- versity reform movement that swept all South America after 1919. One result of this freedom is that the university is usually a stronghold of liberalism and is sometimes rather critical of the national government. 2 The University publishes the annual reports of the r~ctor, '!-S M.emo_nas. Laws are in the University's Bolettn Umversltano, vol. I, no. I, June ,I946. 344 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES The university is governed by a rector, elected for a five year term by certain full professors, and the U ni versi ty Council. This council is composed of the rector and vice rector, the IO academic deans, IO pro- fessors elected by the IO faculties or col- leges, and I I students, IO elected · by the students of the respective colleges and one elected at large. This council approves all policies and budgets and is the final author- ity in all university matters. Such a system of government, so strange to North Ameri- can universities, has both advantages and disadvantages, but they cannot be elaborated upon here. Instruction is offered in IO faculties or college.s plus a, new university college which ' every student has to attend for two ·years of general education before entering the vari- ous professional schools. Each is governed by a dean and a council similar to the uni- versity administration and all are, relatively independent in internal matters. Some colleges have affiliated institutes and mu- eums, such as of history, which were de- veloped for research, public lectures and similar functions that are not a part of the general instructional program. Each col- lege maintains some form of library. Faculty members are elected and are al- most all part-time professors; the institu- tion suffers for this last. Salaries are quite low and apparently based upon the theory of independent income being available or upon other employment . Also, by going on a strike students can compel the resignation of an unsatisfactory faculty member or even a dean, but this is not common. The~e condi- tions are obvious handicaps, but nevertheless the university does secure a surprisingly good facult y, for it is an honor to be a professor in the university and the honor is taken seri- ously. Instruction used to be preponder- an y by lectures, but many newer methods of teaching have been introduced from OCTOBER~ 1949 . French and more recently from North American universities. About 7000 students were enrolled, about 8o per cent of them men. Admission is by examination. Compulsory health examina- tions are given and excellent medical service provided free, even including visits. to the student's home. The university is located in a large city and provides no dormitories -which certainly affects library decisions. Fees are very low-less than $2-and many students from families with small income attend, often at considerable personal sacri- fice. Many students depend upon the li- brary for their textbooks. Although the study of English has become more popular, most of them know Castellana or Spanish best and, like U .S. students, definitely pre- fer books in their native .language. Less than I per cent of the circulation of the main library is in foreign languages. Students generally are more mature though perhaps more emotionar" than those in the U .S . ·and evince far greater interest in national po- litical matters. 3 The Libraries The library system of the univet:sity con- sists of a central library containing about 70,000 volumes and independent college or special libraries holding another 45,000. These various libraries were not coordinated at all, having no clear division of responsibil- ities, no unified budget, and no centralized purchasing, nor did they have the same clas- sification system, if any, or a union catalog of holdings. The central library is a depend- ency of the rectorado or presidency, and the other libraries are subordinate to their own • respective colleges . . The central library was crowded into several rooms, with almost no office space, 3 The Pan American Union series, Higher Education in Latin America, provides by far the best available information on South and Central American universi- ties. Unfortunately, the volume . on Peru has not yet been published. 345 and with seating for only about 6o students. The staff of 33, including only one profes- sionally trained person, were very seriously underpaid and their morale was low. The library was organized loosely into six de- partments without any very clear division of authority or responsibility. No associate or assistant director was provided, nor are such positions at all popular, partly because the libraries are not huge, partly as an ad- ministrative principle. A secretary really served as assistant director, but without the title or authority. The library had an au- thor catalog of L.C. cards secured through Rockefeller Foundation aid and a rather crude list of general subjects in loose-leaf binders. Books were not classified by sub- ject, but merely arranged on the shelves by accession numbor. Books were circulated overnight after 4 :oo P.M., for the library collections were not adequate for both text and library purposes. International Problems No statement of library problems is com- plete without mentioning certain national and international aspects of library work that cannot be understood fully here in this country or that are not so important here. Peru is an importing nation, as is almost all of South America, and the librarian must secure from abroad all machines and equip- ment as well as . most standard supplies. Now these imports must be paid for in U.S . dollars, the ·standard medium of exchange, but demand for dollars is always greater than the supply, and therefore the nation- al government restricts purchases abroad. Since import permits are quite hard to get, especially for libraries, the result is that the • li~rarian pays two or three times the normal price for his equipment, tries to get it made locally, or finally gives up and does without. Another major problem is the lack of ade- quate trade or nalional bibliographies either for an individual country or for South America as a whole-no Publisher/ Week- ly, no Cumulative Book Index, no Publish- erS' Trade List Annual, no L .C. Catalog, no magazine indexes, and no general review- ing journals. The few national bibliogra- phies issued annually are often one to three years late and not entirely practicable.4 Book selection and purchase therefore is a very difficult operation in Latin America, and further complicated by the fact that the great majority of publishing in Spanish is done in Argentina, Mexico· and Spain, all of which demand payment in dollars. Finally, publications in other languages are not satisfactory for general use, yet transla- tions of standard handbooks and texts cost two or three times the price of the original · work. A third problem arises from the recent origin of professional librarianship as such in South America. The first library school began only in 1925 and many of them are still irregular as to sessions, so that there is a lack both of sufficient trained personnel and of fundamental library tools. There is not available in Spanish for university li- braries a satisfactory classification system, a good list of subject headings, a code of rules for cataloging, or satisfactory textbooks in book selection, cataloging, r.eference, or ad- ministration. 5 North American tools have been and are used, but they should be adapted to Latin American needs, trans- lated and printed for maximum effective usefulness. As to trained personnel, the nonprofess ional period in U.S. libraries is long past and its implications more or less forgotten, but South America is still de- veloping its ·professional attitudes and per- sonnel, with all the accompanying difficulties 4 otewo rthy is the quarterly Boletin Bibliografico Ar_qentino. fi The best tools in S panish pr obably a re those issued by Espa na 'Cuerpo Facultiv<> de Archiveros, Billlio- tecarios y Archiveros. 'Some texts of varying quality for small public libra ri es have been publi shed in Mexico, Cuba, Argentina and Brazi l. 346 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES and problems. Much progress Is being made at present. 6 R eorganization In atteD).pting to improve the libraries of the University of San Marcos, the work fell naturally into several broad categories: organization, personnel, techniques, library quarters and equipmeht, book collections and selection, coor-dination of university li- brary resources, cooperative planning among the several national universities, and co- operation with other libraries on national problems. The main library was dealt with first, as it presented the most problems and was the key to the whole system. Since the central library was not organ- ized into well-defined functional divisions and since lines of authority were vague, the first step was to reorganize it into four main divi sions, of public services, acquisitions, cataloging and classification, and reference. Reference was intended to be in public serv- ices but finally was created a separate divi- sion because of personnel problems. Each division was headed by a chief who had the title and definite powers and responsibilities assigned to him in writing. In order to carry the division of work still further and to help reduce personnel problems, each di- vision was subdivided · into logical sections with a chief for each section. In acqui- sitions, for example, there were sections for purchasing, gifts and exchanges, serials, and receiving. ·The receiving section also did the searching for items not handled by purchas- ing, and did immediate accessioning to re- duce the possibility of theft. Binding was assigned to purchasing in order to consolidate expenditures and because most books came in paper covers and decisions regarding bind- in g had to be made at once. The other di- G For good information on the state of library development in Latin America, s<>e Assembly of Li- brarians of the Americas. 1st, Washington, D.C., 1947. Proceedings. Washington, Libra ry of Congress, 1948. OCTOBER, 1949 visions were similarly subdivided. After the first two months, and when processes had become stabilized, each section began a staff manual of operations to standardize routines and for the training of new staff members. These were written by the supervisor him- self in some cases. Personnel The success of the whole reorganization depended to a large extent upon how well problems of personnel could be overcome a11d the whole-hearted cooperation of the staff secured. Morale was very low, the fundamentals of library science were not well known, and additional people were needed. Contributing heavily to the prob- lem of morale were salaries below the sub- sistence level and no salary schedule-almost the first official act had been to discharge three employees who had sold books from the library, been tried earlier by a faculty committee and proved guilty. Therefore, in conjunction with the reorganization plans and re-assignment of duties and titles, all salaries were raised by action of the U ni- versi ty Council between 50 and I oo per cent. This quite naturally had a very bene- ficial effect. The assigning of definite titles, duties and privileges also helped, as did strict adherence to lines of authority, staff meetings, ·occasional staff parties, regular . meetings of division chiefs, the beginning of instruction in library science, the purchase of much new equipment and supplies, and strong support from the rector and the University Council. Fifteen new persons were added, chiefly in technical processes where major effort was to be concentrated- the division of cataloging and classification grew from two to I 5 persons. All new peo- ple were chosen carefully for ability, intel- ligence, and youthfulness, disregarding as far as possible the matter of political affilia- tion. It may be said that it is very difficult 347 to eliminate politics completely under local control. It also should be said that the so- cial customs and psychology· of the people, as well as their principles and practices of administration, vary in some respects from the North American and that these differ- ences must be understood and accounted for in successful personnel administration. In order to overcome the lack of profes- ~ional knowledge, training in fundamentals had to be secured. First efforts were to ob- tain personnel and training from the local library school of the National Library, -a good school founded a few years earlier with the aid of U.S. teachers. However, it proved impossible to make any arrange- ments for training university staff members there, because political and personal differ- ences existed between the administrations of the university and the National Library. Since training was fundamental to any de- gree of success, it was determined to offer four short courses of about one month each, in bibliography and book selection, circula- tion, cataloging and classification. The N a- tiona! Library did loan some texts and one professor. Two professionally trained per- sons were secured to teach two of the courses, ·and the supervisor taught the others with aid from three staff members; the courses were very practical and filled the immediate need, but of course were no per- manent substitute for regular library school work. Each course was available only to the staff of the department concerned, though some lectures, as on bibliography, were thrown open to others. A brief series of lectures on reference also was given, plus a final short course on the fundamentals of administration for the heads of divisions. At the request of the university administra- tion, the supe rvisor also drew up plans and outlined courses for a regular library school. Subsequent political events may have elimi- nated the conflict with the National Library and rendered a second library school un- necessary. Technical Matters Following the internal reorganization and at least partial solution of problems of per- sonnel, the next step was to investigate the routine operations and technical aspects of the library and then 'to bring them into line with commonly accepted practices when necessary. This proved to be one of the longest and most difficult tasks of the entire program, but since the processes that were adopted are commonly used in the U.S., only a brief review will be given . In cata- loging and classification, for example, a card catalog of authors and subjects and titles (divided) was begun, a shelf-list and subject headings list started, the Library of Con- gress classification adapted to Peruvian needs and then adopted, and A.L.A. rules for cataloging used. The department also began classification of the entire collection, to be completed in three years, and carried out whatever recataloging was necessary at the same time. Mimeographing of catalog cards was begun, even though typing would have been slightly cheaper because of low labor costs, so fhat cards could be sent to or exchanged with the other national uni- versities' libraries. In acquisitions, a standard accession book was designed, order slips installed to pass on information to cataloging, a simple ac- counting system installed to provide up-to- date information, arrangements made to se- cure discounts on purchases, official order forms developed and printed, and book plates prepared and bought. · Procedures for handling gifts, exchanges, pamphlets, and serials were set up in considerable detail. In services, few changes were made other than to create a reference department, sim- plify the call slip, add another circulation window, and recommend the loan for one 348 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH 'LIBRARIES week of little-used books. The new refer- ence division was placed in one end of the main reading room and provided with a col- lection, locked bookcases, and desks. Ref- erence service was offered in three subject sections corresponding to the academic spe- cialties of the staff. Library Quarters and Equipment Plans were afoot to move the entire uni- versity to a new campus, and the supervisor drew plans for a modern two story libr·ary building, but for the time being and for a few years to come the present quarters would have to serve. They consisted of seven rooms that were very poorly arranged, poorly lighted, and quite inadequate. In order to provide some additional space, a new reading room to seat 17 5 persons was built in an adjacent patio and another room added for cataloging and classification. The former reading room was turned over to ac- quisitions and space also was cleared for an office for the director of the library. The various patios were used some as study places, although library books could not be taken there; the only other reading space was the general assembly hall of the univer- sity adjacent to the library and seating about 250 people. These were all temporary ex- pedients that were hardly satisfactory for library needs, but were the best that could be provided under the circumstances. Very satisfactory facilities will be provided on the new campus. The university ·administration was gener- ous in its financial support for these build- ing changes and especially for new equip- ment. Only three desks, three old type- writers, no booktrucks, and other inadequate equipment were available. Added were a dozen desks, a dozen tables, eight type- writers, a mimeograph machine, visible fj.les, filing cabinets, catalog cabinets, fluorescent lights, and other suc;h items. Incidentally, OCTOBER, 1949 the booktrucks were popular for r-iding until one culprit was caught. Supplies were bought in quantity rather than small lots. It should be mentioned that whenever pos- sible all equipment and supplies were made locally according to detailed plans and speci- fications, and that generally they were quite sa tis factory. Perhaps library tools hardly are equip- ment, but they were even more essential and far harder to obtain. The very serious shortage of these had not been foreseen, but the Library of Congress came to the rescue very generously and supplied quickly on ex- change account the necessary classification schemes, lists of subject headings, catalog rules, some bibliographical tools, and many basic texts in library science. These were in English, of course, but were the only satisfactory ones available anywhere quickly and certainly were most welcome. At- tempts to secure import permits for the pur- chase of such essential tools were not suc- cessful, due to the dollar shortage, but the library ·did manage to secure examples of most Spanish tools or texts. Most of them were for small public libraries and not suit- able for university library use. Book Collections and Book Selection The South American university librarian 'has far greater difficulty in book selection and acquisition than his North American contemporary, for he has no trade bibliogra- phies, few or no national bibliographies, no general reviewing magazines, and he is severely handicapped by import and currency restnctwns. He is generally opposed to the allocation of funds and exte!lsive selection by faculty members, selection being a duty and right of the librarian, and he usually has a limited book and magazine budget any- way. Exchanges are looked upon as an im- portant source of materials, ·far more so than in the U .S., probably in view of the 349 universal currency and import restnctwns. At San Marcos, the decision was made to allocate responsibilities for recommendations among the staff members according to their academic specializations, but this move was not popular within the library because any decentralization of authority was looked on with concern. Some policies that were adopted were to buy current material first until book funds were increased, to stop all buying in fields such as law and medicine having good separate collections already, to make tentative allocations of book funds to various academic subjects, to expand the subscription list, and to cease buying private collections. Although exchanges could be very valuable if they were organized prop- erly, in actual practice they are not; a com- plete overhauling is needed if the system really is to work effectively. Exchanges would be one means of overcoming currency problems, but most of the difficulties of the present system could be overcome only through a successful international confer- ence. .As to the existing book collection, no attempt was made to evaluate it systemati- cally because the task would have been quite difficult under the circumstances and be- cause the administration was not particu- larly interested in this aspect of the work. The whole problem of bibliography and book selection is a knotty one that cannot be solved by a nationalistic approach, but. instead will require international coopera- tion for any satisfactory solution. This is a situation in which this country really could aid both libraries and scholars by providing some of the specialized techniques and some of the leadership that are necessary. Our own scholarship and libraries would benefit too. The annual Handbook of Latin American Studies helps but it only points the way. Coordination As was pointed out earlier, the university also maintained several college libraries totally independent of the main library, al- though closer cooperation would benefit everybody by eliminating duplication of ef- fort, reducing costs of operation, and achiev- ing a greater usefulness of the total library resources of the university. In order to ex- plore some of these possibilities, the super- visor talked with the various librarians in- dividually and then held a conference of all directors of libraries. They agreed unani- mously to limit the departmental or college libraries to the college field and for the central library to stop buying books in law and medical fields and to transfer its useful holdings in these fields to the college li- braries. All agreed to the beginning of a union catalog, to adopt the main library cataloging principles, and to delegate all cataloging and classification to the central library as soon as its own classification and recataloging job was finished. Upon the recommendation of the supervisor, the uni- versity administration decided to limit the size of college libraries on the new campus and to provide only working collections out- side of the central library, as well as to es- tablish a library council. On a national level, a conference was held of directors of the national university libraries, and agreements were secured on an interlibrary loan code, exchanges of pub- lications, establishment of a central author catalog at the University of San Marcos, exchange of cards, and other matters. However, some of the plans must await further developments, locally, for the other national university libraries had pressing in- ternal problems of their own similar to those at San Marcos. Incidentally, it might be mentioned that the federal government for- bade interlibrary loans out of the country, stating the uncertainties of postal service as the .reason. On the general professional level, it was recommended at the above conference that ~50 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES the National Library collect and publish statistics on libraries, that archival materials be collecteq systematically and cataloged, and that national subject bibliographies be made and published. Actually, much effec- tive work remains to be done within indi- vidual libraries themselves before the broader problems can be attacked effec- tively, and other improvements require in- ternational rather than national action. The recent Assembly of Librarians of the Americas was a most auspicious step toward international cooperation. Conclusion Several broad conclusions regarding uni- versity libraries in South America may be drawn from this experience. In general, the libraries are just entering upon the stage of professional development and much prog- ress is now being made with much more still to come. Many of their problems arise from this condition, but there are other and perhaps more serious difficulties that can be solved only by international cooperation in which U .S. librarians should take a part. All relations with these libraries must take into consideration their own special prob- lems; it must not be assumed that they are exact counterparts of North American uni- versity libraries, and they never will be. Finally, the keystone to successful relations is sympathetic understanding-this is far more important than merely being able to speak their languag~-and can hardly be stressed sufficiently. Around the World with U. S. Libraries (Continued from page 325) ment, as well as in the scientific and tech- nological fields. Schools and universities in some of the communist controlled countries avail them- selves of the opportuni-ty to obtain Ameri- can books and magazines for the use of students and teachers. A collection of U .S. textbooks and readers recently made avail- able to schools in one satellite country is re- ported to be serving dozens of classes in English language study. The themes of these carefully ~elected books are life in the U.S. and how democracy works. Ameri- can librarians have been active in helping these overseas U.S . libraries to become the exciting places that they are-librarians from public libraries, special libraries, uni- versity libraries and the Library of Con- gress have all been in the field. Flora Belle Ludington, Wallace Van Jackson, Wini- fred Lindeman and many others have aided in the establishment of libraries which are worthy of praise. For openings in these libraries, the personality and professional re- OCTOBER~ 1949 quirements are high and the language qualifi- cations stringent. The .need is for men and women with professional training and broad experience, who have the ability to cut red tape and to operate efficiently with a skele- ton staff of alien employees. The recruit- ment of such librarians is obviously difficult. To work as a part of a team, with the mis- sion, _ with specialists in information, news, radio, and cultural activities; to know America thoroughly, but to be aware of the sensibilities of the people of the country in which one works; to know all levels of people; to have the ability to defend Amer- ica through speeches and through quiet actions when occasion demands; to be never ~ passive citizen, but always actively to represent America-these responsibilities are not easy, in a strange land, with strange customs, with tools and equipment missing when most needed. But those librarians · who have been with the U .S.I.E. program somehow believe in it and come back to work for it whether abroad or in the U .S. 351