The University of Chicago Press The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy

The Cultural Function of the Library
Author(s): Pierce Butler

Source: The Library Quarterly: Information, Community, Policy, Vol. 22, No. 2 (Apr.,
1952), pp. 79-91
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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TH E LIBRARY QUARTERKLY
Volume XXII APRIL 1952 Number 2
THE CULTURAL FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY

PIERCE BUTLER
D IFFERENCES are always more con- them. Thus in the present scientistic
spicuous than resemblances. age culture is commonly regarded as the
This is true of human activities behavior of man as a zoological species.
as well as of physical objects. For ex- But this definition is only pseudoscien-
ample, it is easier to see the peculiari- tific: its terms misrepresent the things
ties of librarianship than those charac- they refer to, and in combination they
teristics that it shares with every other propound a falsehood. With respect to
learned profession. In the same way an his mode of living, man is not zoblogical,
attempt to define the cultural function for most of his activities are biologically
of the library will turn out to be chiefly irrelevant. Again, when men are classi-
the problem of identifying traits that are fied by their cultures, they form not
common to many cultural functions. Ac- one species but many. And, correspond-
cordingly, the present inquiry must start ingly, because man's activities so fre-
at a point which may at first seem un- quently involve repression of condi-
necessarily remote from its issue. tioned reflexes, the term "behavior"
with its modern connotations cannot be
I applied to them; "conduct" is 'a more
What is culture in general, and what accurate description. Moreover, the
does it do? Factual answers to these total proposition stated in these erro-
questions are easy. Historically, a cul- neous terms is itself an error; culture,
ture is the mode of life that a particu- instead of being merely the servant of
lar people has developed and standard- man, is in many ways his master.
ized. Structurally, it is a complex of Under any naturalistic hypothesis
physical, social, and intellectual com- the most distinctive characteristics of
ponents. Practically, it is the means culture remain inexplicable. It is true
whereby man copes with nature. But all that man fabricates his living routines
such statements merely enumerate data out of the materials and forces of na-
pertinent to the problem. They explain ture, but he does so voluntarily, not
nothing. Instead, they are so indeter- under any natural compulsion. Even in
inuate that all sorts of fallacious cul- civilization individuals or whole nations
tural theories have been based upon may, if they choose, slough off their
79
80 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY
culture and revert to bestiality-as re- departed so far that even an adult
cent history and current news abun- among them could not long survive
dantly testify. Yet culture, this purely without the aid of cultural ideas, arti-
optional human artificiality, comes to facts, and co-operations. His instincts
life under the hands of the men who have become so vestigial that, uncon-
make it, escapes their control, and as- trolled, they produce only disastrous
sumes dominion over them. In many reactions. From lowest savagery to
ways it resembles a biological organism. highest civilization man lives in, by,
It persists through time, while the gen-and for culture.
erations in which it incorporates itself In culture man moves through realms
appear and vanish. Its development is of experience that no animal can enter
distinctly embryological: the simple be- -rational consciousness of himself, of
comes complex, uniformity turns into nature, and of values. Thus he ceases
diversity, not at haphazard but in di- to be merely a denizen of the world and
rectional movement toward an order as becomes an agent in it. Although he
yet nonexistent. The end product differscannot make anything out of nothing,
completely from the origin, and both he can rearrange the content of his
from all intermediate phases. Men do environment to produce things that
things for personal and empirical rea- without him could have no existence.
sons, but culture turns their deeds to In this sense he is truly creative-he re-
ends that the doers of them neither makes the world to his liking. But he is
foresaw nor intended. For instance, out a judge as well as a creator. He ap-
of the pooled book funds of a neighbor-praises and evaluates every thing and
hood, civilization has elaborated its event by cultural standards. Hence,
present library system. Similarly, all being at once a creator and a judge,
cultural activities have a strong physio- man must needs be an artist; he makes
logical cast; the farm, the bank, and and does things whereby he can attain
the factory co-operate organically with value experiences ranging all the way
railroads for arteries, electric wires forfrom homely utility to the subtlest
nerves, and money for enzymes. aesthetic, moral, and intellectual refine-
Culture is in the world yet not of it.ments.
Although culture cannot transcend the In culture, likewise, man finds his
limits of nature, it alters nature in highest aspirations and his deepest
every particular, including mankind it-loyalties. By "a good life" or "happi-
self. Every human being is a creature ness" he means a mode of living in
of culture: while the animal lives by which material, social, and intellectual
the instinctive behaviors of its species, values can be experienced together in
man lives by acquired racial1 routines. their greatest purity, variety, and in-
The phrase "man in a state of nature" tensity. And in the last analysis man's
is self-contradictory. Man becomes hu- inmost compulsions are cultural: what
man only as he departs from nature. he calls his self-respect, altruism, and
The most primitive people actually patriotism are not really directed to
known to anthropology have already himself, his fellows, and posterity as
1 The tern "race" is used here in its historical,persons but to the kind of life they shall
not in its genealogical, sense-a distinction that for
lead and the values they shall cherish.
the weal and woe of mankind is too seldom ob-
served. Thus, from every point of view,
THE CULTURAL FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 8I
man's humanity and culture are ultra- "democracy" when we mean "civiliza-
natural. Both are artificial in the sense tion," and, by the same prejudice, we
that man's will and not the cosmos think we can trace back to social ori-
produces them. The one cannot exist gins not only houses and tools but even
without the other. Each is at once the morality and consciousness.2 Such va-
original and the derivative. Man evokes garies are plausible because every cul-
culture out of the latent possibilities of tural activity involves the social, but
nature, and culture evokes humanity false because it involves at the same
out of the latent possibilities of man. time and in equal measure the physical
Paradoxically, however, man can pro- and the intellectual.
duce culture only to the extent that he
has already become human, and he can III
become human only to the extent that The basic processes of culture are
he is already culturalized. Yet humani- plainly the production, distribution,
ty and culture are not identical or even and use of human artificialities. These
different aspects of the same thing: processes, however, are secular: prop-
they are as distinct as a bird and its erly speaking, no single generation per-
nest. forms them in its own lifetime, but
a race of men operating through cen-
II
turies. And, though the performance
Every culture, high or low, is a com- may be spontaneous and at times auto-
plex or physical, social, and intellectual matic, it is not inevitable. Even when it
components, which, without straining is unconscious, culture remains volun-
the terms, may here be called equip- tary and hence variable. But freedom
ment, organization, and scholarship. to do a thing necessarily carries free-
These coexist not in mere aggregate but dom not to do it, or to do something
in organic integration, so that each different. Consequently, despite historic
component at once supports, and is sup- pressures, people are always at liberty
ported by, the others. Without suitable to stand still, advance, or retreat cul-
artifacts men cannot carry their co- turally and even, by misuse of culture,
operations or thought very far; equip- to win negative instead of positive val-
ment and scholarship must remain rudi- ues-distress, failure, and nisery in-
mentary in the absence of civil order; stead of ease, success, and happiness.
and even the best goods and customs are Every cultural process becomes more
useless if men do not understand their complex as culture advances. But in
structure, operation, and purpose. our own civilization these complexities
The modern mind seems unable to 'But this is only a particular manifestation of a
recognize the pluralistic character of general monistic trend in modern thought that is,
no doubt, historically inevitable. Western aviliza-
culture and habitually confuses the tion has lately accomplished so much by analysis,
whole with one or another of its com- induction, and geneticism that, almost instinctively,
ponents. Thus modern Eastern Euro- it seeks by the same methods the unity that ration-
ality requires. Accordingly, it endeavors to reduce
peans consistently identify civilization all experience to one kind only. But this is unneces-
with material equipment, while we sary. Unity appears as often in union as in uni-
Westerners commonly equate it with formity. The many can become one by synthesis.
All the varied routines of a people coalesce in cul-
social organization. We constantly say ture, just as all the diversities of culture and nature
"society" when we mean "culture," and unite in the theistic universe.
are generally understood in only two of handled only by men who understand
the three components of culture. Econ- it. But in the case of scholarship this
omists have long since explored and should not be too difficult. The basic
explained the ramifications of our pro- processes are by no means recondite.
duction, distribution, and utilization of Anyone can easily discover from his
material goods. Somewhat less thor- own intellectual experience their major
oughly sociologists have done the same forms and ruling principles. And this,
for our social organizations. But this as a matter of fact, is all that will be
cannot be said of our scholarship. Here attempted in the following analysis.
our ideas are usually less discriminating
than our vocabulary. The production of IV
ideas, for instance, we call "research"
Man gets his ideas from two sources
in science, "invention" in technology,
-his own experience and the experi-
and "study" in humanity, without rec-
ence of others. Of these, the first may
ognizing the implications of the verbal
be primary, but practically the second
distinctions we are making. But this
is the more important. Without com-
semantic anomaly is only typical of our
municated experience man can hardly
general indifference to all the processes
become rational. Whether a real Tar-
of scholarship. So long as we can keep
zan, deprived of all human contacts
busy in practice, we are content to re-
from infancy, could attain even a rudi-
nmain unsophisticated in theory. In fact,
mentary intelligence may be debatable.
it might almost be said that only the
But certainly, under normal circum-
scientistic and pseudoscientific among
stances, the individual, as boy and man,
*us concern themselves greatly over
depends more on communicated than
what they call "methodology." But
on direct experience for his intellectual
this, as these people develop it, is
development. He listens more often to
markedly unrealistic, tendentious, and
the voices of his fellows than to the
stultifying.3
sounds of nature. He sees farther and
This state of affairs, however, is as
more clearly through other people's
perilous as it is unnecessary. Scholar-
eyes than through his own. And his
ship, like every other concentration of
thoughts, for the most part and for the
power, is potentially dangerous. Un-
best part, are rarely original.
controlled, it resembles its social or
But no experience by itself induces a
physical analogue-a mob or a run-
corresponding idea in the human mind.
away engine. Ideas mishandled may be
An awareness becomes conscious only
lethal. The Devil can quote Scripture
as it is identified by reference to prior
to his purpose. No lie is so false as a
awarenesses. Scholarship is a cumula-
tissue of carefully selected truths. By
tion of ideas that are not merely added
every count, then, the intellectual com-
together but linked with each other by
ponent of civilization, like its equip-
recognitions of likeness and difference.
ment and organization, may be safely
This fact appears clearly in language,
"Historical methodology," for example, com-
monly deals only with the formation of historical which is a mode of thought as well as a
ideas and neglects or ignores their diffusion and medium of communication. Every verb
application. Furthermore, it is pseudoscientific and and common noun generalizes into a
consists largely of big names for little things and
doctrinary criteria that would condemn the work species all identical experiences that,
of every great historian. taken singly, could be known only by
THE CULTURAL FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 83
proper names. Similarly, every adjec- particular, human thought is quite dif-
tive and adverb is an abstraction of a ferent from what most modern treatises
common quality from dissimilar ex- on psychology, logic, and epistemology
periences. And, in exactly the same make it. These doubly oversimplify:
way, the compacted ideas thus induced first they isolate each intellectual activi-
by sets of primary experiences become ty, and then they reject its content and
themselves secondary experiences that context, so as to leave only the empty
consolidate into still higher generaliza- process for consideration. This proce-
tions and abstractions. dure, however, is wholly unrealistic.
But, for either of these processes to Man cannot think without thinking of
occur, both experience and thought something and to some purpose. But
must accumulate, and for this the past current academic opinion explicitly or
must virtually project itself into a con- implicitly denies this. It regards each
tinuous present. Now the only place on idea as a simple unitary reaction,
earth where that can happen is a hu- thought as a linear sequence of such
man consciousiness.4 But even there the reactions, and scholarship as a network
possibilities of nature must be cultur- of channels through which these chain
ally exploited. Man's memory will pro- reactions flow. In reality, every idea is
duce mere reverie instead of recollec- a whole constellation of simultaneous
tion unless cultural discipline compels awarenesses6 that form the galaxy of
it to be selective in both its formation scholarship by their overlapping.
and its operation. In the most serious Roughly speaking, then, three phases
connection a child or a subnormal adult may be distinguished in the production
will retain and recall irrelevant details of scholarship; experience induces cor-
that a mature person would not remem- responding ideas in the human mind;
ber at all, or would not notice if he did. there they are selectively correlated
For ideas to crystallize into scholarship, and preserved; and out of the whole
there must be selective rejection as well emerges an over-all meaning or synop-
as preservation. tic significance.
Scholarship, however, is more than a
permanent body of selected ideas that For a culture to exist, its scholarship
have been integrated with each other. must be diffused in living minds, and,
From these ideas in their totality there for the culture to endure, that scholar-
emanates a common sense or synoptic ship must be transmitted from gener-
meaning.5 But in this as in every other ation to generation. Actually, however,
both results are produced by the same
In an animal it is not a conscious recognition
operation. Every normal community
of past experience that persists but only the physio-
logical effect of past experience. But neural reflexes consists of young, middle-aged, and old
conditioned by past experience are no more con-
6 Even under the artificial conditions of a psycho-
scious recognitions of memory than are those con-
logical laboratory, the content of a human con-
ditioned by heredity-the instincts.
sciousness cannot be reduced to a single awareness
' Our certainty that the sun will rise tomorrow -as, for example, of a particular color. Although
morning is a good example of such a synopsis. This all the accompanying elements of normal experi-
is not, as is often asserted, a statistical inference ence (e.g., form, size, texture) may be eliminated,
from the uniformity of all past occurrences. On the subject will be marginally aware of their ab-
the contrary, it is the common sense of all we sence and of many other things, such as the pre-
know concerning mathematics, physics, and as- liminaries of the experiment and its apparent pur-
tronomy in this connection. pose.
people living together. Consequently, and superior method is proved by its

any idea disseminated today will per- early appearance in cultural evolution.
sist through the lifetime of the young- Every primitive people has an oral lit-
est person now receiving it. But in the erature of an extent and variety that
meantime he will have communicated it always surprises the beginner in an-
to other persons, as yet unborn, who thropology. This is composed of tradi-
will carry it in the same way into a tional texts, in each of which a group
more distant future. of interrelated ideas have been crystal-
Of the various means by which ideas lized. As these texts are recited over
pass from mind to mind, demonstrativeand over again, every one in the com-
action is the simplest. Because every munity will come to know them and
cultural act corresponds to ideas in the can refer to them in his memory when
mind of the person who does it, the occasion requires a particular idea thus
performance itself may induce the same recorded.8 Furthermore, all these primi-
ideas in the mind of an attentive on- tive oral literatures already use both
looker. That a child obtains much of its the fundamental literary forms-factu-
first scholarship by watching the activi- al description and fictional representa-
ties of its elders is generally recognized, tion. The first deals chiefly with the
but the extent to which adults depend kind of ideas that are here called scien-
on example for the same purpose is less tific and technological, and it commu-
often noticed. Yet many humanistic nicates them directly. It describes lit-
ideas must be thus transmitted, and erally the recognitions induced in a
much of our technological lore can be human mind by things and events. The
taught only, as we say, "on the job." parallel fictional literature, however,
But in all such cases the demonstrative has a totally different character. For
acts are usually accompanied by oral the most part it incorporates human-
comments and explanations. istic ideas, and it communicates them
These involve language, which is the by implication. A fable, for example,
commonest method for the communi- talks about animals, but it tells of men
cation of ideas. But speech also is dem- and women. It describes characters that
onstrative action, though of a symbolic never lived and events that never hap-
instead of an operative character. As pened, not to deceive but to impart
such, it is more comprehensive and ef-
'The transition from language to literature cor-
fective than example. By it a person responds exactly to similar transitions in cultural
not only can explain what he is doingequipment and organization. An artifact becomes
at the moment but can also expoundbeautiful when its form induces a secondary ex-
perience of value beyond the primary one of utility.
his memories of the past and his designs
A deed likewise becomes noble when benevolence
on the future, including in every case as well as justice is recognizable in it. And just
both his primary ideas and their intel-so a text becomes literary when it evokes a double
awareness-not only of the ideas incorporated in it
lectual and emotional derivatives. but of the precision, force, and grace of its lan-
But just as speech goes beyond ex- guage.
ample in the diffusion of ideas, so liter- ' Even in our own, highly graphic culture there
ature improves upon language. The ex- is at least one example of such oral literature.
Everyone knows and uses the jingle "Thirty days
act point where a linguistic communi- hath September...." Yet practically all of us
cation becomes literary7 may be inde- learned it not from a book but by hearing other
finable, but that the latter is a distinctpeople recite it.
common sense and worldly wisdom. A scholarship is relative not only to

And, finally, all cultures have a current the level of cultural development at
as well as a traditional literature. Ora- which it occurs but also to the material
tory and debate are well developed on which it operates and the people
even among barbarians. By means of who use it. It may be applied only to a
them the community not only thinks, as specific field and by particular persons.
it were, corporately, but it likewise dif- Indeed, scholarship may become a lia-
fuses the content of the group mind bility instead of an asset when it is
among all its members to produce what separated from corresponding activi-
we know as public opinion. ties. Certainly, this happens whenever a
Thus in the distribution of scholar- professional man is compelled by ad-
ship there are likewise three major verse circumstances to engage in un-
methods. Some ideas are diffused by skilled manual labor. Because his scho-
operative action, others by language, larship is irrelevant to his work, it will
and still others by literature. hinder instead of help him. But even
more humanly disastrous will be his
Scholarship serves many masters and cultural frustration: the professional
for many purposes. Along with equip- ideas that occupy his mind press vainly
ment and organization, culture uses it for realization in experience. And, al-
to maintain itself, the race to exploit its though the loss to the community may
environment, and the individual to at- be infinitesimal in any individual case,
tain personal satisfactions. Hence from it is real, for if such maladjustments
every point of view the sole norm of become common all its routines of liv-
scholarship is its utility, since, in the ing must deteriorate.
last analysis, it is but one of the means In use scholarship is also indivisible.
whereby men achieve experience of Since every cultural activity involves a
value. Therefore, any scholarship must material, a method, and a motive, the
be relative to the whole culture of scholarship necessary for its perform-
which it is one component. But on this ance must also be triple and include
point modern thought is confused by a science, a technology, and a humanity
its failure to distinguish between truth of corresponding sorts. This principle
and scholarship. A scholarship is mere- does not preclude intensive specializa-
ly the intellectual content of a particu- tion by various individuals in each of
lar culture at a particular time. Truth these branches, or even in tiny seg-
is the limit which all scholarship ap- ments of them, so long as all the
proaches as culture advances. Thus, branches are adequately utilized and
though truth is absolute, scholarship the community integrates the results of
varies. In the lower stages of cultural
' But the relativity and historicity of scholarship
evolution the system of ideas whereby have no significance whatever for the character or
men conduct themselves rationally may function of truth: they cannot impugn its finality
consist largely of falsehoods. And even or make it utilitarian. Indeed, the usefulness of an
idea depends less on its verity than on its con-
in a high civilization, where intellectual formity to the ideas by which it is surrounded.
progress is rapid (as among ourselves Each period has its intellectual no less than its lin-
in the fields of science and technology), guistic idiom and can use no other. A premature
idea, like Mendel's theory formerly, or a belated
the scholarly certainties of today may one, like astrology today, is practically nonexistent
be rejected as delusions tomorrow.9 for current scholarship.
these diverse activities. But, as civili- In sum, then, the utilization of schol-
zation rises, the maintenance of such an arship iMvolves these basic principles:
equilibrium becomes ever more diffi- a scholarship must be relevant to its
cult. History teems with examples of field and agents; it must include scien-
cultural disasters wrought by monistic tific, technological, and humanistic
scholarships, in which science, tech- components; and it must have a ma-
nology, or humanity was used alone terial as well as a method. The utili-
instead of in combination with the tarian norms of scholarship are, there-
others.10 To be useful, a scholarship fore, relativity, integrity, and substan-
must observe concurrently factual reali- tiality.
ties, operative possibilities, and human- V
istic imperatives.
From the standpoint of scholarship,
A third requirement of scholarship in
cultural evolution falls into three major
operation is that it must have a sub-
phases, each of which is inaugurated by
stance as well as a form. Theoretically,
a particular invention. Language ad-
the opposite may seem possible. Indeed,
vances man from bestiality to savagery,
there have been periods when it was
literature raises him to barbarism, and
generally believed that all man needs to
writing11 elevates him to civilization.
live rationally is a valid intellectual
But each of these inventions is only a
method: with this he should be able to
variant of the same basic process-that
meet every occasion as it arises, identi-
of projecting ideas from the human
fy the significant facts, and devise the
consciousness into external forms, so
necessary procedure to accomplish
that they can be manipulated more
what he desires. But this theory has
freely. In speech, ideas are only mo-
never worked out in practice. The verb-
mentarily incorporated in vocal sounds;
alisms of Greek sophists, the dialectics
in literature, as tradition, they endure
of medieval Schoolmen, the rational-
as long as the culture; and in books
isms of the Enlightenment, the ideolo-
they attain all but immortality. But, as
gies of modern totalitarians, and the
the fixation becomes more permanent,
objectivities of current scientism have
every process of scholarship is also ex-
all proved culturally defective. To at-
tended and refined.
taim and maintain cultural values, man
With speech man enlarges greatly the
must use a scholarship that has a con-
horizon of his indirect experiences in
tent as well as a form. Sheer intellec-
space, time, and scope. Through the
tualism without sound learning to back
spoken words of his fellows he can see
it is futile.
places that he has never visited, partic-
10 Our prohibition experiment illustrates the fal-
ipate in events that happened before his
lacy of exclusive factual realism; it failed because
it ignored the possibilities of enforcement and the birth, and detect behind the stolidity of
inevitable human reactions. Our former attempt his companions their personal feelings.
at world govemment and, apparently, the pres-
And language likewise plays an impor-
ent one exemplify the corresponding technological
error: cultural advance cannot be achieved by tant part in both the diffusion of schol-
merely devising a process, without regard for the arship and its co-operative application.
material which it must use and the ends to which
When literarv form is added to lan-
it may be diverted. And, finaly, totalitarianism
in all its forms demonstrates the folly of replacing "For convenience the term "writing" will here
both science and technique with counterfeits crude- be used to include every graphic process, and
ly wrought in desire. "book" for every kind of graphic record.
an idea can lie dormant almost inter-

guage, each of these facilities is carried
minably without dying. Inscribed clay
still further. But it is only with writimg
that they reach their highest powers. tablets have lately communicated to
Civilized man makes constant use of living minds the ideas of the ancient
graphic methods and by them achieves Mesopotamians, after millenniums in
results otherwise impossible. With pen-which no man knew them or even the
cil and paper the scientist works out language and script in which they are
abstruse relationships beyond the ken written.
of his mental calculations. With draw- With writing, literature, the third
ing instruments the engineer devises method of communication, also in-
mechanical complications and preci- creases its earlier powers and develops
sions that by shop methods alone would new ones. Conditions that formerly
be impracticable. And by writings the occurred only occasionally are now con-
humanist disentangles evaluations and tinuous. The listener need no longer
arguments from the confusions of mere wait upon the bard in person to hear
meditation. But it is probably as an ex- his lay; the community now sits, as it
tension of the capacity, precision, and were, in permanent assembly and lis-
permanence of the human memory that tens without confusion to the argu-
writing contributes most to the forma- ments of a thousand orators speaking
tion of scholarship. For example, no simultaneously. In formal graphic texts
mathematician, or world of mathemati- a culture is always and everywhere vir-
cians, could possibly memorize a table tually aware of the whole content of its
of logarithms. But a book can remem- mind. It likewise develops in the silent
ber the whole thing, without the error discourse of the book rhetorical refine-
of a single digit, and do it practically ments and literary devices beyond the
forever. Furthermore, every book has a scope of the spoken word. Indeed, the
total significance that differs in kind differentiation is now carried so far that
from the sum of its elements. Even a every literate person requires three con-
merchant's bill establishes the monetary centric vocabularies for use, respective-
indebtedness of his customer by enu- ly, when he speaks, writes, and reads.
merating the transactions through But perhaps the most astonishing ad-
which he incurred it. And, at the other vance produced by writing occurs in
extreme, every treatise or work of fic- factual literature, which now includes
tion induces over-all synoptic ideas in nonlinguistic records as well as verbal
the mind of its reader. texts-maps, pictures, tables, and dia-
In the communication of ideas, also, grams, on which ideas are immediately
writing increases and multiplies the projected instead of passing through an
powers of language. A speaker can be intermediate translation into language.
heard only as far as his voice will carry In the use of scholarship, no less than
and while he is speaking. A writer's in its production and diffusion, graphic
reach through time and space is unlim-symbols excel oral discourse in every
ited. In oral form an idea can pass from way. More especially, they liberalize
generation to generation only if the the laws that make the cultural use of
chain of transmission remains continu-scholarship depend upon its relativity,
ous; with the failure of a single link itintegrity, and substantiality. Books
is lost irrevocably. But in graphic form allow a man to engage more freely in
intellectual activities irrelevant to his ature, and all subject literatures to form
vocation, without diminishing his cul- a literary universe, which contains,
tural efficiency or his personal happi- roughly speaking, the totality of schol-
ness. They likewise reduce the penalties arship reduced to potential form. But
imposed on the citizen and the com- the universe of ideas is by no means
munity for breaking the unity of schol- identical with the universe of books in
arship: books abet the individual in which it is thus stored. The two differ
specializing intellectually to the very at many points in both their formation
verge of monomania; but, at the same and their structure. In scholarship the
time, they aid the community in com- elements and pattern of each constella-
bining the activities of many such spe- tion are fixed by the experience that
cialists into a normal unity. And, final-produces it. In a book ideas may be de-
ly, books permit a man to possess schol- tached from unrelated experiences and
arship vicariously. He can attain much arbitrarily recombined to serve the pur-
of its substance by acquiring books in- pose of the author. Hence, the same
stead of by study. From them he can idea may reappear in many different
often take the products of an intellec- books but each time in a different set-
tual discipline that he himself has neverting. Again, scholarship is truly pro-
mastered. Indeed, in some fields today gressive, literature merely cumulative.
the scholar's bibliographical skill seemsWhen an idea is refuted, it becomes
only slightly less important than his in-nonexistent in scholarship except as a
telligence. historical fact, but in literature it lives
VI on alongside the new idea that contra-
dicts it, so long as the books containing
The book as a typical human artifact
it endure. And, finally, the interrela-
exists in two realms of being. In the
tionships of ideas are self-revealing,
realm of nature it is merely so much
those of literature obscure. To organize
matter. Despite its artificial form, it
scholarship is comparatively easy; to
differs by no whit from any other inani-
classify books, extremely difficult."2
mate object. All its properties are ex-
For all these reasons the universe of
plicable in terms of chemistry and
physics. But in the realm of culture a 1 The distinctions made here between truth,
book is something entirely different. scholarship, and literature will perhaps appear
more clearly in a specific example. The Battle of
Here it is a system of ideas that has Gettysburg was a real event, and the truth con-
been projected from one human concerning it is absolute and unalterable. But the
sciousness into a permanent external corresponding scholarship varies at any moment
with the data available and the point to which
form capable of reinducing the same historical investigation has been carried. The sub-
ideas in any other human consciousness ject literature, however, reflects that scholarship
that makes actual contact with it. only confusedly, imperfectly, and inaccurately. It
includes not only monographs dealing specifically
Moreover, this power is of a wholly with the subject but every history in which the
nondynamic character: a book produces battle is mentioned and every essay, novel, and
just as strong an effect on its ten thou- poem in which ideas induced by the event are uti-
lized, irrespective of whether the opinions presented
sandth reader as it did on the first. are mistaken and obsolete or valid and still ac-
In the realm of nature, books do not cepted. Furthermore, no single book in that liter-
coalesce with each other; in the realm ature incorporates all its author's thoughts on the
subject. And, finally, since study must precede
of culture they do. Volumes whose ideas
publication, the subject literature must always be
overlap combine to form a subject liter-
slightly belated.
books is a chaos, and one of the persist- chiefly on mass demand and supply
ent problems of civilization is how to and, in either case, ignore the unusual
cope with its superhuman magnitude and the special. In part these limita-
and disorder. Millions of texts are al- tions are overcome by the development
ready in existence, and hundreds of new of an international mail-order market.
ones are produced every day. All of With the world instead of the local com-
them are repetitive, most of them are munity as his public, a dealer can con-
obsolete, and many of those that are centrate on a particular subject litera-
still valid are incompatible with each ture, however recondite, and still make
other. For any person to find in the a living. But even at the best, although
welter those particular volumes that he he thus raises demand to profitable di-
needs is obviously all but impossible. mensions, and although he draws upon
Accordingly, civilization has developed other dealers to replenish his stock, his
various devices to facilitate the process. problem of supply is already critical
The most systematic of these is bibli- and every year becomes progressively
ography, which might be defined as more so. The world's increase in popu-
the geography of the book world. This lation and in literacy has long since out-
includes, to continue the metaphor, not run its book stock. Books are becoming
only maps but also guidebooks and even rarer and more expensive. Thus
travel narratives-not only those tabu- the status of the individual in the book
lar lists of subjects, authors, and titles world is constantly deteriorating. If he
(to which the term is usually limited) has the bibliographical knowledge and
but all histories of literature, reviews, apparatus to determine what books
advertisements, comments, allusions, meet his needs, he will probably have
and references. But in all these varied difficulty in finding copies of them in
forms bibliography has serious empir- the market. If he can find them, they
ical limitations. In general, it is so tech- will probably cost more than he can
nical that only professional bookmen afford. And, if he can afford them, un-
can use it. Yet even for them it is far der modern living conditions he will
from satisfactory: if it is exhaustive, it probably be unable to give them house
tells too much for most purposes, if room.
selective, too little; and, worst of all, it Now the library is a device by which
becomes obsolescent on the day that it civilization attempts to resolve most of
goes to the printer. these difficulties. It may be defined as a
Of a totally different character but to collection of books that have been se-
the same cultural purpose is the book lected and organized with respect to
trade. This, theoretically, might be ex- their content and the intellectual needs
pected to keep every community sup- of its public."3 Thus it is essentially a
plied with the books that its citizens microcosm of the book universe, of
need. But practically, of course, it falls such a nature that the chief character-
far short of doing so. Booksellers as a istics of scholarship and of the litera-
class are not bibliographical experts. ture containing it are reproduced on a
Furthermore, to perform their culturalscale commensurate with local condi-
office, they must pay themselves wages,tions. The library, therefore, serves
on behalf of the community, in the formI In the cae of a private library this public
of profits. But to do this they must rely
may consist of a single person.
three major purposes, which, for con- them. The first of these is how to dis-
venience, may here be distinguished as cover in the literary chaos what texts
its scholarly, bibliographical, and eco- will best present each segment of schol-
nomic functions. arship required by a particular intellec-
A library is obviously a reservoir of tual program. The other problem is how
scholarship. In its book stock are to organize these texts after they have
stored, in potential form, innumerable been selected, so as to make the schol-
ideas that mankind has garnered by arship they carry accessible as a whole
experience and intelligence through the and in all its parts-and for every pur-
ages. Because these ideas exist as sepa- pose. But, generally speaking, the li-
rate units, any of them may be used brary resolves both of these difficulties.
singly, in related groups, or in arbitrary It consists of a book stock and a cata-
selections, to induce corresponding ki- log corresponding to the intellectual
netic recognitions in a mind that re-
needs of its public. Separately these
quires them. Yet the library is more components would be comparatively
than a mere array of such unitary po-
weak, but together they possess a
tentials. Since the cosmos and the ra-
unique cultural potency. And the norms
tionality that produce them are inter-
of the library with respect to these
related, these ideas combine to form a
artifacts are, clearly, the efficiency,
continuous fabric. But only the library
economy, and convenience of their op-
displays clearly this synthetic character
eration.
of scholarship, for everywhere else it is
The economic function of the library
concealed by the complexities of civili-
is likewise double, because books are
zation. Thus the library is intellectually
relatively both rare and expensive. On
normative for its community and acts
as a corrective to the distortions of the neither point are any quantitative meas-
educational curriculum, the vagaries of ures available, yet the basic facts are
the press, and the excesses of vocation- unmistakable. Even to guess how large
an edition of a book would have to be
al specialization. Here alone science,
technology, and humanity truly come printed to supply every one who ought
together and coalesce into a synoptic to read it with a copy would be fool-
significance. Accordingly, the norms ofhardy, but obviously the number would
the library, whatever its scale or char- surpass the limits of practicability. And
acter, are, on this dimension, the rela- in the same way, although we cannot
tivity, the integrity, and the substan- compute even roughly the cost of pro-
tiality of the potential scholarship viding every citizen individually with
stored up in it. all the books he should use in his life-
Now, as has been previously re- time, we can be quite certain that the
marked, books, the actual packages of sum would awe even a federal bureau-
ideas which the library must use, are crat. But here again civilization, by
means of the library, has circumvented
so arbitrary in their content, so infinite
in their variety, and so intractable in impossibilities. In it literature is com-
their forms that only librarianship, munalized, so that each book can be
amateur or professional, can find even used by a multitude of readers and its
crude working solutions for the two cost met by infinitesimal contributions
great bibliographical problems set by from all who are benefited by having it
THE CULTURAL FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY 9I
accessible-which, as a matter of fact, tural value of the institution. All the

includes every member of the commu- functions performed by the library are
nity. But, because this is an intangible, of a synthetic character: they are ef-
long-term, and mass benefit, the norms fected by a steady stream of services,
of the library, in this particular, must each of which is but a microscopic eddy
be statistical: they consist of such in the tidal flow of human life. There-
things as the per capita cost, circula- fore, to realize the true significance of
tion, and failures to supply the litera- the library, one should not merely ob-
ture needed. serve the effects of its presence but con-
template, in his imagination, the results
Any particular library may therefore that would follow from its absence. Ob-
be appraised by the quality of its schol- viously, if by some catastrophe all pub-
arship, the utility of its service, and the lic and private libraries were obliterated
magnitude of its operations-provided, (as has almost happened in Germany),
of course, that in each case the index is every cultural routine would slacken
read in terms appropriate to the com- and many of them would cease. The li-
munity. But such an empirical appraisal brary contributes not merely to the well-
will obscure rather than reveal the cul- being of civilization but to its existence.

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The Cultural Function of the Library

Author(s): Pierce Butler

THE CULTURAL FUNCTION OF THE LIBRARY

people living together. Consequently, and superior method is proved by its

common sense and worldly wisdom. A scholarship is relative not only to

an idea can lie dormant almost inter-

accessible-which, as a matter of fact, tural value of the institution. All the

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