Library Bureau

Library Bureau office and factory, Ilion, New York, 1911

The Library Bureau was established by Melvil Dewey in 1876 to sell catalog cards, drawers and card cabinets to American libraries. By 1893 the firm had expanded into other types of office equipment to support the emerging technologies of typewriters and stenography machines.In 1927, the Library Bureau was absorbed into the Remington Rand company.

Library supplier

The inaugural meeting of the American Library Association took place in Philadelphia in 1876, coinciding with the Centennial Exposition. A group called the "Cooperation Committee on Library Supplies" that met at the meeting agreed on the need of libraries to achieve economies of scale in purchasing. The ALA set up a department, run by Dewey, to sell supplies to libraries at reduced cost. Supplies included card stock (in a standard size agreed at the first ALA meeting), catalog cabinets with drawers, bookends, furniture and shelving. In 1879 this function was taken over by Dewey to be incorporated into his existing businesses. Dewey later separated the library supply business from his other enterprises in 1888 and called this new entity "The Library Bureau.": 70 

During the 1880s and 1890s, the Library Bureau prospered by supplying to many of the new Carnegie Libraries being built. It opened a number of large factories to provide furniture and supplies. It sold merchandise and services through a network of sales offices and distributors in the United States (46 in 1922), England (4), France (1), and Belgium.

In Boston, its headquarters operated from offices located successively at Hawley Street, Franklin Street, and Atlantic Avenue.

Supplier to businesses

In the 1890s, the Library Bureau introduced vertical filing. It soon became a large supplier of filing equipment, supplies, and expertise to business and government. Library Bureau schools in major cities taught filing to clerical workers. Dewey remained a significant investor but was no longer involved in running the business, retaining the honorary title of President.

It opened a large factory in 1909 in a brick building at 224 Albany Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts; in 1918, the adjacent building, 230 Albany Street, became its headquarters. By 1925, the Albany Street factory employed 450 workers. By 1922, the Library Bureau had factories in Cambridge, Chicago, New York City, London, and Ilion, New York.

Between 1896 and 1899 Library Bureau collaborated with Herman Hollerith's Tabulating Machine Company (TMC) to distribute its punched cards processing machines, with the Library Bureau providing the cards. The market included the government census of 1890, railroads and insurance companies. TMC eventually became International Business Machines, IBM.

Successors

In 1927, the Library Bureau was absorbed along with a number of suppliers of office supplies and equipment by the newly formed Remington Rand holding company. Remington Rand continued to use the brand name "Library Bureau" into the 1950s.

After Remington Rand and its successor companies had stopped using the Library Bureau brand name, they sold the name to a furniture company in Maryland.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Wright, Alex (2014). Cataloging the world: Paul Otlet and the birth of the information age. Oxford ; New York: Oxford University Press. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-19-993141-5.
  2. ↑ "Remington Rand". Los Angeles Times (advertisement). June 21, 1927. p. 23.
  3. ↑ Flanzraich, Gerri (1993). "The Library Bureau and Office Technology". Libraries & Culture. 28 (4). University of Texas Press: 403–429.
  4. ↑ Wiegand, Wayne A. (1996). Irrepressible reformer : a biography of Melvil Dewey. American Library Association. ISBN 9780838906804.
  5. ↑ Matthew, H. C. G.; Harrison, B., eds. (2004-09-23). "Minnie James". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/59735. Retrieved 2023-06-24. (Subscription, Wikipedia Library access or UK public library membership required.)
  6. ↑ Steel Card and Filing Cabinets. Library Bureau. 1921.
  7. ↑ JoAnne Yates, Control through Communication, p. 56-63
  8. ↑ Alan Richardson, "History of 224 Albany Street"
  9. ↑ Library Bureau, "Steel card and filing cabinets" cover page
  10. ↑ O'Regan, Gerard (2018). "Hollerith's Tabulating Machines and the Birth of IBM". The Innovation in Computing Companion: A Compendium of Select, Pivotal Inventions. Springer International Publishing. pp. 151–153. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-02619-6_31. ISBN 978-3-030-02619-6.