It appears to be certain, however, that large numbers of librarians, especially in small institutions or those of moderate size, look upon their statistics in the light of a necessary evil. They must be collected, because something of the kind is expected in the annual report, but they should be minimized, and, once in print, they should be dismissed from the mind. This attitude reminds one of the rural workman who used a dull saw because the amount of work before him gave him no time to stop and sharpen it; the labor of collecting and tabulating statistics wearies the average librarian to such an extent that he is unwilling to use his results in a way that might lighten his entire labor or direct it into channels of greater usefulness.
Arthur E. Bostwick on “Statistics, Reports, Etc” in The American Public Library. (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1910), p. 299 of 4th edition.
