Putting knowledge to work;

              PUTTING
KNOWLEDGE
TO WORK
James O. Smith,
Librarian-
Executive Office
The businessman faces an ever-rising
tide of printed material. On the one
hand, new philosophical and scientific
approaches with which he must be fa­miliar
are being applied to solving busi­ness
problems, and on the other, great
quantities of new information and regu­lations
with which he must comply are
being issued daily by the government.
How does the executive with limited
time for reading keep from drowning
in this flood of books, periodicals, pam­phlets,
and regulations? More impor­tant,
how can a conscientious adminis­trator
locate easily and quickly the
information he needs to make a deci­sion?
One method used increasingly is
to establish a library within a firm and
so to bring this mass of printed paper
under control.
In our Firm, the need for a library
was recognized by the founding part­ners,
who were enthusiastic readers as
well as authors. When Messrs. Haskins
& Sells opened their office at Two Nas­sau
Street in 1895, they brought books
on accounting, finance, and allied sub­jects
from their private libraries. The
following year, when the office moved
to 30 Broad Street, these books were
shelved in a small conference room,
and thus our library began. As the Firm
grew and expanded, so did its library.
In the early 1920s, under the leader­ship
of John R. Wildman, the library
was formally organized as a service
function, and a professional librarian
was employed. Under the successive di­rection
of Anna Burns, Elizabeth Bax­ter,
and the writer, the library has
grown in the number of its books, peri­odicals,
and information services.
The Collection
Today our book collection totals more
than 5,000 volumes, representing all
principal contemporary works on ac­countancy
and related subjects, as well
as the more important older texts. Books
on auditing, accounting theory, and
cost accounting constitute the founda­tion
on which the other resources of our
library have been built. Writings on
various accounting systems, such as
those for banks, insurance companies,
stock and commodity brokers, electrical
manufacturers, hotels, hospitals, schools
—to mention a few—are represented in
this part of the book collection. Essen-
Some Recent Requests
for References
LGive us references on how closely-held
companies considering merger are
valued.
2. We need price/earnings ratios apply­ing
to small country banks in Pennsyl­vania.
3. What published case examples do we
have on using mathematical models to
establish inventory decision rules?
4. A new client is starting a business to
repair fork-lift trucks. What statistics
are there that we could use in working
with him to find the minimum investment
he needs in repair parts?
5. What are the policies of various com­panies
on deferring expenses when de­veloping
new markets?
6. Please provide us with any statistics
on the rate of mortgage foreclosures in
Miami from 1935 to 1940.
7. I am appearing before a state public
utility commission to give testimony
concerning the depreciation practices
for canals, levees, and dams that are a
part of a municipally-owned drainage
district. Please advise me about any
earlier cases on this subject.
8. We have been asked for information
on how to establish and operate a gold­fish
farm. Send us the references you
have on this subject.
tial to an accounting library are the
publications of the American Institute
of Certified Public Accountants and
the American Accounting Association,
which are represented in our library
in complete sets. In addition, the more
important publications of other ac­counting
societies are collected. Secur­ities
and Exchange Commission pub­lications
and those of other government
agencies regulating accounting matters
form a much-used part of our book
collection. They are supplemented by
an extensive collection of books on re­lated
topics, such as economics, cor­porate
finance, budgeting, executive
compensation, statistics, and business
and industrial management.
Another major part of our collection
comprises periodicals—our best source
of information on current events and
new techniques.To keep informed about
new developments, we receive over 250
periodicals. They include every major
American accounting magazine and all
state CPA society bulletins as well as
the leading business and management
magazines. We subscribe to the official
journals of the accounting societies of
Canada, England, Scotland, South Af­rica,
Australia, New Zealand, India,
and the Philippines. In addition, we re­ceive
a substantial number of periodi­cals
in related fields — economics,
finance, electronic data processing, and
various trade magazines.
The Wall Street Journal, Journal of
Commerce, The New York Times, and
New York Herald Tribune are reviewed
daily for items of business and financial
news. News clippings about our clients
are circulated and filed under their
names and kept for an indefinite period;
other clippings are filed by subject.
What is the latest revision to Regu­lation
S-X?—what dividends were de­clared
this year by a particular com­pany?—
or, in what public utility case
5