. . .mple, a business firm had a law suit in a distant city and sent one of its employes to give expert testimony in the case. This employe found as the hearings in the case progressed, that he could strengthen his testimony if he had at hand figures showing the market price of lead for the past ten years. There was no time to spare in obtaining these data. He sent a telegram to the home office, which was received at 11:30 A. M. saying that he would call them by long distance telephone at noon and to have the figures ready. The head of the department to whom the message was addressed, with some perturbation, appealed at once to the librarian of the company, who was able in ten minutes to produce a table giving a summary of the prices desired, which had been printed in a technical journal. The company won the law suit and in comparison with the large amount of money saved, the salary of the trained librarian who knew how to meet the emergency, was a very small item.

. . . Read More