Excerpt from Bulletin of the American Library Association, Vol. 6: January-November, 1912
It is probably true in this group of educational schemes, as it is probably true of a like group in any city, that each individual institution is active and progressive, finding that its work is growing and its field extending year after year and in constant need of larger appropriations. Such an institution left by itself becomes a working center, and when it finds new work, which needs to be done that is more or less akin to its own, it opens a new department without knowing or inquiring as to whether that field is not already cared for. The board of control of each of these activities is a law unto itself so far as its field of work is concerned, and for the most part each does its work with little definite knowledge of what other boards are doing or planning.
To continue to use Buffalo as an illustration, three of its institutions have lecture courses without any affiliation or cooperation; the circulating library is called upon to collect material for doing a large share of reference work, with the reference library but a short distance away; the natural science museum collects, among other things, the implements and pottery of the Indian tribes which occupied the Niagara frontier, while another collection of the same material is being made by the historical society, and there are probably many more such duplications of work. We, of course, do not mean to say that any two of the institutions duplicate any great amount of effort, but the lines of their work do often cross, and each probably at times ignores the work of the other.
In these days of organization and cooperation for the purpose of increasing efficiency, it would seem that this lack of the spirit of getting together among educational institutions was behind the times, and that we who are interested in them were culpable in allowing this condition to exist. I think that we all know that it does exist to a greater or less extent in most cities. So far as our own work is concerned, we could all cite public libraries, even if it be not true of our own, which devote a part of their appropriation for most worthy educational effort that is rather far from their designated work of collecting books and placing them in the hands of readers. It is probably true that much of this work that lies outside of the definite purposes of the public library would be put upon other existing institutions in the city if such institutions happened to exist as departments of the library, or if all were definite parts of a single institution.
It is difficult to bring about a closer cooperation with the present lack of any central authority to exercise control. We believe that the time has come to ask at least if some means to this end cannot be found, so far as it concerns the various institutions which receive support from the municipalities. It might, perhaps, be brought about through the forming of an educational commission, which should at least advise the scope and direction of the efforts of such institutions. Such a commission might be made up of representatives from the governing boards of the different institutions, or the executive officers, or of both, and in addition to formulating the lines of work, it might be a clearing house of suggestions for cooperation and extension.
We believe that such a body might, perhaps, formulate plans for some systematic work by correlating the advantages offered by the different institutions in such a way that the whole might be very effective. You can readily see, for example, that definitely educational courses might be devised by using them in this way; the libraries might supply the books, the science and art museums their lectures and collections for study; the music, botanical gardens and other institutions might also be utilized in this way, making the whole something like a peoples university in a broader sense .