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PAPERS  AND  PROCEEDINGS 


OF  THE 


THIRTY-FOURTH  ANNUAL 
MEETING 


OF  THE 


'O. 


AMERICAN  LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION 


HELD  AT 


OTTAWA,  CANADA 


JUNE  26- JULY  2,  1912 


AMERICAN   LIBRARY  ASSOCIATION 

78  E.  WASHINGTON  STREET 
CHICAGO,  ILL.     ^ 
1912 


CONTENTS 


General  sessions:  PAGE 

Addresses  of  welcome  and  response 57 

Address Herbert  Putnam 69 

President's     address:      The     public     library:      a 

leaven'd  and  prepared  choice Mrs.  H.  L.  Elmendorf 67 

Publicity  for  the  sake  of  Information:  The  public's 

point  of  view W.  H.  Hatton 72 

Secretary's  report George  B.  Utley 76 

Treasurer's  report Carl  B.  Roden ■     81 

Reports  of  boards  and  committees: 

Finance  committee C.  W.  Andrews 81 

A.  L.  A.  Publishing  Board Henry  E.  Legler 83 

Trustees  of  endowment  funds W.  C.  Kimball 91 

Bookbinding A.  L.  Bailey 93 

Bookbuylng W.  L.  Brown. 96 

Co-ordination C.  H.  Gould 96 

Co-operation  with  the  N.  E.  A M.  E.  Ahem 101 

Federal  and  state  relations B.C.  Steiner 102 

Library  administration A.  E.  Bostwick 102 

Ldbrary  training A.  S.  Root 113 

Library  work  with  the  blind Emma  N.  Delflno 114 

Public  documents George  S.  Godard 116 

Preservation  of  newspapers Frank  P.  Hill 116 

Publicity  for  the  sake  of  support. Carl  H.  Milam 120 

Breadth  and  limitations  of  bookbuylng W.  L.  Brown 124 

Open  door  through  the  book  and  the  library C.  E.  McLenegan 127 

What  do  the  people  want? Jessie  Welles 132 

Assistant  and  the  book Mary  E.  Hazeltine 134 

Type  of  assistants Edith  Tobitt 138 

EflQclency  of  the  library  staff  and  scientific  manage- 
ment   Adam  Strohm 143 

What  library  schools  can  do  for  the  profession Chalmers  Hadley 147 

Address Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier 169 

Conservation  of  character J.  W.  Robertson 161 

Address George  E.  Vincent 170 

Book  advertising:     information  as  to  subject  and 

scope  of  books Carl  B.  Roden 181 

Book  advertising:  illumination  as  to  the  attractions 

of  real  books Grace  Miller 187 

Report  of  Executive  Board 192 

Report  of  Council 195 

Report  of  resolutions  committee 201 

Memorial  to  Frederick  Morgan  Crimden 203 

Report  of  tellers  of  election 204 

Social  side  of  the  conference R.  G.  Thwaites 205 

Day  in  Toronto M.  E.  Ahem *  208 

Day  in  Montreal Carl  B.  Roden ,*  *  209 

Post-conference  trip Julia  Ideson 211 


Sections:  PAGE 

Agriciiltural  libraries 213 

Catalog 227 

Children's  librarians' 247 

College  and  reference 268 

Professional  training 296 

Trustees' 302 

Public  documents  roimd  table 307 


Affiliated  organizations:  PAGE 

American  association  of  law  libraries. . . .  312 

League  of  library  commissions 316 

Special  libraries  association 329 

Attendance  summaries 354 

Attendance  register 355 

Index 367 


Note:  The  minutes  of  the  National  association  of  state  libraries  have  not  been  received  In  time  to  be 
BCluded  in  this  volume.     They  will  be  separately  printed  by  that  association. 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 

JUNE  26-JULY  2,  J9J2 


PRELIMINARY  SESSION 

(Wednesday   evening,   June  26,   1912, 
Russell  Theatre) 

The  association  convened  In  a  prelim- 
inary session  on  Wednesday  evening, 
June  26,  with  Dr.  James  W.  Robertson, 
C.  M.  G.,  chairman  of  the  Canadian  royal 
commission  on  industrial  training  and 
technical  education,  presiding  as  acting 
chairman  of  the  Ottawa  local  committee. 

Hon.  George  H.  Perley,  acting  prime 
minister  of  Canada,  was  introduced  and 
welcomed  the  association  to  Canada  on 
behalf  of  the  Dominion  government.  The 
speaker  called  attention  to  the  hundred 
years  of  peace  between  the  two  countries 
and  the  plans  being  formulated  for  cele- 
brating it,  and  said  that  international 
conferences  such  as  this  were  the  best 
guarantees  of  peace;  that  the  more  we 
know  of  each  other  the  less  liable  we 
were  to  get  into  trouble. 

In  Canada  schools  and  libraries  are 
growing  apace,  particularly  in  the  new 
regions  of  the  far  west,  very  much  the 
same  as  in  the  United  States.  Exchange 
of  ideas  as  in  this  convention  is  the  very 
best  kind  of  reciprocity  and  will  help 
both  nations  in  their  aims  and  aspirations 
for  the  good  of  civilization. 

Comptroller  E.  H.  Hinchey,  the  acting 
mayor  of  Ottawa,  spoke  the  city's  wel- 
come, calling  attention  to  Ottawa  as  a  con- 
vention city  and  its  growing  claims  for 
being  considered  the  Washington  of  the 
North. 

The  association  was  graciously  wel- 
comed in  behalf  of  the  Women's  Canadian 
Club  of  Ottawa  by  the  president,  Mrs. 
Adam  Shortt,  who  also  voiced  the  wel- 
come from  the  Women's  National  Council 
of  Canada.  She  said  the  preachers,  the 
teachers,  the  writers  and  the  librarians 
are  four  great  standing  armies,  standing 


/. 


to  protect  us  and  to  dispel  the  hydra- 
headed  enemy  Ignorance,  but  that  she 
thought  of  librarians  as  captains  of  indi- 
vidual garrisons  scattered  here  and  there 
through  towns  and  cities,  who  are  send- 
ing out  emissaries  among  the  people  and 
moulding  and  forming  the  mental  and/ 
moral  fibre  of  each  community.      ^  ^ 

The  CHAIRMAN:     The  Women's  Gzxa/     ' ) 
dian  historical  society  was  most  kind  in     / 
pressing  forward  Its  desire  to  have  this       ^/ 
convention    held    here.      The    president,  *^ 

however,   desires  not  to  speak  to-night. 

I  have  now  the  pleasure  of  asking  Hon. 
John  G.  Foster,  United  States  Consul- 
General,  to  speak,  as  one  of  ourselves. 
He  is  a  good  citizen,  and  though  of  you, 
with  us — we  count  him  almost  one  of 
ourselves. 

Mr.  Foster  said  he  could  have  assured 
that  portion  of  the  delegates  who  were 
his  fellow  countrymen  and  country- 
women that  they  would  feel  very  much 
at  home  in  this  country,  whose  people.  In- 
stitutions and  traditions  are  so  similar  to 
those  of  the  United  States. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  Many  other  repre- 
sentative bodies  joined  in  the  effort  to 
secure  this  meeting  for  Ottawa  and  are 
represented  on  the  platform  to-night,  but 
the  only  other  speaker  who  I  shall  ask  to 
voice  for  them  or  for  himself  welcoming 
sentiments  is  the  Hon.  Martin  Burrell, 
Minister  of  agriculture,  and,  if  I  may  say 
In  parenthesis,  also  Minister  of  copy- 
rights, since  that  comes  within  his  de- 
partment. 

Minister  Burrell  spoke  enthusiastically 
of  the  value  of  books  and  the  habit  of 
good  reading  and  the  greater  ease  with 
which  books  could  now  be  secured  than 
formerly.     Continuing  he  said: 

"I  have  heard  It  said  by  some  skeptical 
gentlemen  that  It  Is' true  that  a  librarian 
never  reads  a  book;  in  fact,  that  he  can- 


57 


58 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


not  be  a  perfect  librarian  and  read,  be- 
cause he  is  immediately  lost.  I  do  not 
like  to  hold  that  view.  I  rather  hold  to 
the  view  that  the  ordinary  librarian,  per- 
haps I  should  say  the  model  librarian, 
should  be  a  guide,  philosopher  and  friend, 
and  I  do  not  doubt  that  many  of  you  are 
very  real  guides,  philosophers  and  friends 
to  those  who  are  seeking  for  perhaps  they 
know  not  what  and  whom  you  can  direct 
in  right  channels  with  incalculable  good 
to  their  after  life.  It  is  absolutely  true 
that  in  our  modern  life  we  need  that 
guidance.  I  do  not  know  that  I  could  put 
it  better  than  in  the  words  of  another 
great  book  lover,  and  good  library  lover 
too,  our  friend  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  of 
imperishable  memory,  who  said  once 
there  was  a  sort  of  dead-alive,  hackneyed 
people  in  the  world  who  if  they  were  not 
engaged  in  a  conventional  occupation 
were  in  a  state  of  coma;  that  the  few 
hours  they  did  not  dedicate  to  a  furious 
toiling  in  the  gold  mill  were  an  absolute 
blank.  It  is  your  high  privilege  to  sup- 
ply that  blank;  it  is  your  priceless  priv- 
ilege to  fill  the  hours  of  life  which  have 
to  be  a  blank  because  we  cannot  train 
ourselves  for  them  in  this  more  material 
age, — to  fill  them  up  with  a  companion- 
ship and  with  an  influence  of  the  great 
thoughts  of  the  great  writers  of  all  ages." 

Concluding,  he  expressed  his  pleasure 
at  the  prospect  of  entertaining  the  dele- 
gates at  the  Experimental  Farm  on  the 
following  Saturday. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  The  real  president 
of  the  Canadian  Club  found  it  impossible 
to  be  in  Ottawa  to-night,  and  I  am  the 
poor  substitute  for  Dr.  Otto  J.  Klotz,  who 
has  been  a  great  pillar  of  strength  in 
Ottawa  to  those  who  love  books  and  use 
books.  He  deputed  me  to  say  that  he 
was  exceedingly  sorry  he  could  not  meet 
so  many  old  friends  of  his  as  would  surely 
be  in  attendance,  and  still  more  sorry  be- 
cause he  was  deprived  of  the  joy  of  thus 
paying  a  little  more  back  to  those  who 
love  books  and  use  books  for  all  that 
books  and  learning  have  done  for  him. 
He  Is  one  of  our  good  men.  I  am  sorry 
he  is  not  here. 


We  are  delighted  to  have  a  woman  as 
your  president;  and  in  calling  on  Mrs. 
Elmendorf  to  respond  may  I  say — this 
comes  to  me  after  meeting  her  yesterday 
and  to-day — that  she  is  altogether  a 
woman  of  whom  it  may  be  said  in  rela- 
tion to  her  oflBce  as  president  of  the 
American  Library  Association,  "thy  gen- 
tleness has  helped  to  make  it  great." 

The  PRESIDENT:  Mr.  Chairman, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  Members  of  the 
American  Library  Association, — I  am 
sure  that  I  but  express  what  you  are 
all  feeling  in  saying  that  this  royal  wel- 
come to  the  Dominion  of  Canada  makes 
us  not  only  happy  but  very  much  hon- 
ored. Some  members  of  the  associa- 
tion are  already  at  home  in  their  own 
capital,  being  keepers  of  "kings'  treas- 
uries" of  Canada  itself.  Others  of  us  are 
librarians  from  hither  and  yon  in  the 
country  beyond  the  border,  but  we  have 
all  come  with  "joy  and  goodly  gree"  to 
sit  in  council  in  the  very  capital  of  the 
lovely  land  which  is  so  loyally  and  af- 
fectionately 

"Daughter  in  her  Mother's  house." 

A  small  party  of  us  came  across  the 
border,  as  William  Morris's  heroes  are 
wont  to  move,  "by  night  and  cloud,"  and 
when  we  reached  the  boundary  line  a 
sudden  inspiration  took  us  and  we 
stooped  down  and  silently,  gently  gath- 
ered that  boundary  line  in  our  hands 
and  brought  its  firm  lengths  with  us. 
I  hold  what  might  represent  its  shining 
links  here  in  my  hands.  Therefore, 
while  we  visit  here  with  you,  in  the 
very  capital  of  the  Dominion,  while  we 
hold  that  boundary  line  thus  in  our  pos- 
session, from  Boston  Harbor  down  the 
coast  through  New  York  and  Charleston 
to  Key  West,  along  the  Gulf  to  New 
Orleans,  across  the  great  West  to  Pasa- 
dena, up  the  Pacific  coast  line  to  Seat- 
tle, from  East  to  West,  from  North  to 
South,  there  is  no  let  or  hindrance  to  the 
lines  of  influence  which  go  forth.  Those 
lines  of  influence  run  free  without  chance 
for  knot  or  tangle  or  any  such  thing. 

I  hope  you  will  not  need  to  try  whether 


PUTNAM 


5e 


"the  King's  writ  runs"  but  I  am  sure  that 
you  will  And  that  Shakespeare  reigns  in 
our  realm,  that  Tennyson  and  Bobby 
Burns  touch  our  hearts  in  song,  and  he 
who  writes  the  songs  of  a  people  need  not 
care  who  writes  their  laws. 

Just  one  small  story  and  then  I  shall 
have  finished,  for  thanks  must  needs  be 
brief  if  they  come  from  the  heart,  and 
there  is  one  to  come  after  who  will  say 
to  you  with  grace  and  directness  and 
clear  precision  much  that  I  might  envy 
but  never  approach. 

My  tall  brother  happened  by  good  for- 
tune to  be  in  London  Town  the  night  that 
the  great  city  went  nearly  wild  in  her 
glad  rejoicing  at  the  relief  of  Ladysmith. 
It  was  a  sight  to  see  and  join  in,  and  he 
and  his  wife  went  on  such  progress 
through  the  streets  as  a  cab  could  make 
for  them.  In  his  hand,  at  the  full  length 
of  his  long  arm,  he  waved  from  the  front 
of  the  cab  a  Union  Jack  and  a  Stars  and 
Stripes  to  indicate  his  sympathy  and  good 
feeling.  All  went  well  until  in  one  of  the 
many  enforced  pauses  a  rough  chap 
jumped  for  his  hand  crying,  "Aw,  sir! 
One  flag'U  do!" 

We  are  very  happy  to  be  here  and  are 
just  a  little  happier  to  see  by  these  beauti- 
ful draped  banners  that  you  have  not  felt 
that  One  flag  need  to  do! 

The  CHAIRMAN:  Those  of  us  who 
have  gone  to  Washington  have  some- 
times thought  we  should  revise  our  boy- 
hood's interpretation  of  the  New  Jerusa- 
lem of  the  Book  of  Revelation.  Nothing 
I  had  ever  imagined  from  St.  John's  de- 
scription was  quite  a  match  for  the  glory 
and  magnificence  of  the  beautiful  Library 
of  Congress.  I  have  found  it  delightful  to 
think  of  a  nation  of  great  wealth  provid- 
ing such  a  fitting  home  for  its  literary 
treasures.  Books  are  the  friends  and 
ministers  of  the  mind  and  the  soul  of 
the  people.  The  Washington  building  is 
the  expression  in  materials  of  their  aspi- 
rations for  what  is  best  and  most  beauti- 
ful. It  is  a  wonderful  building,  leaving 
impressions  of  wonder  on  the  casual  vis- 
itor, and  still  more  on  those  who  linger 


in  its  chaste  corridors  and  see  something 
of  the  working  of  the  library  itself.  I 
think  of  the  sweet  and  stately  beauty  of 
the  place,  I  think  of  the  institution  and 
its  services,  and  I  think  also  of  the 
man  who  is  more  than  a  match  for  the 
magnificence  of  the  home  of  those  books. 
We  will  now  hear  from  the  man,  Dr. 
HERBERT  PUTNAM. 

ADDRESS   BY   DR.   PUTNAM 

Our  acknowledgments  as  visitors  having 
now  been  made  by  the  highest  authority 
among  us,  it  is  not  for  the  purpose  of 
merely  enlarging  them  that  I  am  assigned 
a  place  upon  the  program.  It  is  rather, 
I  understand,  with  the  view  to  an  ex- 
pression in  behalf  of  the  community  of 
interest  represented  by  this  gathering  as 
a  whole;  and  some  definition  as  to  what 
we  are,  what  we  aim  at,  and  wherein, 
if  at  all,  we  differ  from  our  predecessors. 

Our  aim  is  in  terms  a  simple  one.  It  is 
to  bring  a  book  to  a  reader,  to  lead  a 
reader  to  a  book.  The  task  may  indeed 
vary  in  proportion  as  the  book  is  obvious 
or  obscure,  the  reader  expert  or  a  novice, 
so  that  our  service  may  be  as  the  short- 
est distance  between  two  simple  points; 
or  as  the  readiest  point  between  two  dis- 
tances. But  its  main  and  ultimate  end  is 
the  same. 

And  it  remains  so  in  spite  of  organiza- 
tion grown  elaborate,  apparatus  and  mech- 
anism grown  complex.  For  the  organiza- 
tion is  merely  to  respond  to  a  larger  and 
more  varied  demand,  and  with  a  view  to 
a  more  ample  and  diversified  response. 

What  then  is  the  difference  between  the 
library  of  today  and  the  library  of  a 
few  centuries — a  single  century — ago? — Is 
it  merely  in  the  development  of  this 
organization,  the  introduction  of  this  ap- 
paratus and  mechanism? — Is  it  to  such 
matters  that  our  efforts  are  directed? — ^Is 
it  they  which  require  incessant  gatherings 
such  as  this  for  explanation,  exploitation 
and  discussion,  and  the  innumerable  reams 
of  written  contribution  in  our  professional 
journals?  They  are  indeed  accountable 
for  a  large  percentage  of  it:  but  back  of 


60 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


them,  beneath  them,  is  a  change  which  is 
fundamental,  a  change  in  attitude  which 
is  essential  as  no  mere  form  or  method 
can  be.  It  consists  in  the  birth  and  de- 
velopment— not  indeed  of  a  new  character- 
istic in  either  book  or  reader,  or  the  dis- 
covery of  new  potencies  in  the  one  or 
new  sensibilities  in  the  other — but  of  a 
new  sense  of  responsibility  on  the  part 
of  the  library  in  the  utilization  of  the  one 
for  the  benefit  of  the  other.  It  is  an  in- 
cident of  democracy. 

Now,  so  far  as  democracy  means  the 
participation  of  the  community  as  a  whole 
in  the  conduct  of  its  affairs  the  form  of 
it  has  existed  with  us  in  the  United  States 
for  generations;  and  the  substance  of  it 
has  existed  throughout  the  Anglo-Saxon 
world.  But  democracy  ought  to  mean 
something  more:  it  ought  to  mean  the 
participation  of  every  individual  in  its 
opportunities.  And  a  constitution  of  so- 
ciety which  still  left  the  resources  for 
power  and  intellectual  direction  in  the 
hands  of  the  few  was  in  effect  an  aristoc- 
racy, and  no  complete  democracy.  Among 
these  resources  a  chief  is  education.  And 
the  practical  monopoly  of  education — ^and 
of  books  as  an  element  in  it — meant  a  mo- 
nopoly of  influence  also, — a  monopoly 
which  survived  after  limitations  of  caste 
were  removed  and  the  opportunities  for 
wealth  became  widely  diffused.  Against 
It  the  free  public  school,  the  easily  avail- 
able college,  the  cheaply  procurable  news- 
paper and  magazine,  and  the  free  public 
library  fought  and  are  fighting  their  fight 
in  the  interest  of  the  prerogative  of  the 
Individual,  In  the  endeavor  to  equip  him 
as  an  independent  and  co-equal  unit,  so 
that  the  actual  constitution  of  society  shall 
accord  with  Its  political  form,  and  Indeed 
assure  the  efficiency  and  the  permanence 
of  the  form. 

So,  having  provided  for  the  mass  the  in- 
terest has  of  late  centred  upon  the  in- 
dividual. 

Meantime,  with  the  evolution  from  homo- 
geneity to  heterogeneity  the  Individual 
himself  has  become  more  and  more  diversi- 
fied in  trait,  aptitude  and  need;   so  that 


the  treatment  of  him  by  the  agencies  act- 
ing for  the  community  as  a  whole  has 
also  had  to  become  varied.  Not  merely 
that,  but  pursuing  its  responsibilities,  to 
become  affirmative,  where  before,  so  far 
as  it  existed,  it  was  merely  responsive. 

Now  the  service  of  school  and  college 
furnishing  definite  instruction  and  per- 
haps training,  to  an  organized  body  of 
youth,  within  a  limited  age,  and  under 
control,  can  be  reasonably  systematized 
and  standardized.  But  the  library  is  to 
furnish  not  merely  education  but  enlighten- 
ment, and  even  culture,  to  the  community 
at  large — without  respect  to  age,  and  with- 
out subordination  to  control.  It  cannot 
impose,  it  does  not  control.  It  may  rec- 
ommend, but  it  cannot  direct.  It  must 
still  respond  to  a  need  voluntarily  ex- 
pressed; but  its  duty  is  held  to  go  further: 
it  must  remind  that  the  need  exists, — it 
must  even  inspire  the  need, — that  is  to  say, 
the  consciousness  of  it.  In  this  way  it 
is  engaged  in  creating  the  very  demand 
which  later  it  seeks  to  satisfy. 

Now  this  duty  upon  it  accounts  for  the 
prodigious  energy  in  the  effort  itself,  and 
the  activity  and  range  of  the  discussion, 
which  are  the  characteristics  of  the  mod- 
ern library  movement,  particularly  in  Eng- 
lish speaking  America.  It  accounts  for 
the  incessant  repetition  of  explanation, 
of  exhortation,  of  recited  experience,  which 
give  to  a  present-day  library  conference 
something  of  the  aspect  of  a  revival  meet- 
ing. 

To  librarians  of  the  older  school  these 
are  somewhat  distasteful;  to  librarians  of 
the  more  modern  school  already  convinced 
and  experienced,  they  may  be  tedious; 
but  they  seem  necessary  still  for  the  en- 
lightenment and  encouragement  of  others 
newly  entering  upon  the  problem,  of  a 
public  not  yet  fully  familiar  with  the  re- 
lations of  it  to  their  own  welfare,  and  to 
the  helpful  solution  of  local  problems 
where  the  idea  meets  conditions  still  im- 
peding: for  the  field  is  vast  and  condi- 
tions are  still  very  unequal. 

The  efforts,  still  inchoate,  include  also 
many    devices    which    are    crude    and    of 


PUTNAM 


61 


doubtful  expediency:  especially  many  de- 
signed chiefly  to  attract — in  whicli  the  li- 
brary seems  to  compete  with  other  en- 
terprises courting  popularity  in  a  way 
scarcely  dignified  for  a  public  institution 
maintained  by  government.  They  shock 
the  conservative  in  somewhat  the  same 
way  as  an  advertisement  by  a  lawyer  or 
physician  shocks  the  traditions  of  those 
reticent  professions:  and  they  include  not 
merely  schemes  of  advertising — which 
might  seem  to  impair  the  dignity  of  the 
book,  but  auxiliaries  for  attracting  atten- 
tion such  as  savor  of  the  devices  of  a  busi- 
ness house  In  exploiting  its  goods.  The 
ultimate  aim  is,  of  course,  the  commenda- 
tion of  the  book  itself, — and  the  justifica- 
tion lies — or  is  sought — in  this.  But  the 
means, — ^well,  the  means  often  afflict  the 
conservatives  in  the  profession,  and  even 
cause  uneasiness  to  certain  of  us  among 
the  progressives. 

The  compensating  assurance  is  that  they 
are  the  promptings  of  an  enthusiasm  in  It- 
self meritorious;  that  they  are  experi- 
ments; that  they  may  prove  to  be  expe- 
dients merely  temporary,  and  that  later 
they  may  be  dispensed  with  after  they 
have  served  their  purpose.  They  are  to 
rouse  the  dormant,  stir  the  stagnant:  but 
there  are  also  other  agencies  at  work  to 
rouse  and  to  stir;  and  the  time  may  well 
come  when  the  operation  of  these  in  com- 
bination will  have  achieved  the  creation  of 
a  spirit  in  the  community  safe  to  act  upon 
its  own  initiative. 

Apart  from  the  portions  of  our  programs 
devoted  to  the  discussion  of  such  methods 
and  devices — which  concern  the  direct  ac- 
tion of  a  particular  library  upon  its  own 
constituents,  is  the  portion — a  large  one 
— devoted  to  schemes  of  cooperation  among 
our  institutions  as  such  in  the  interest  of 
economy  and  therefore  of  efficiency — in 
their  administration.  These  are  necessa- 
rily technical,  and  their  immediate  interest 
Is  to  the  librarian  rather  than  to  the 
reader.  But  their  ultimate  benefit  is  to 
reach  the  reader, — particularly  in  freeing 
to  his  use  a  larger  measure  of  the  direct 
personal  service  of  the  administration,  fn 


interpreting  the  collections  to  his  need. 
In  proportion  as  they  succeed  in  this  they 
will  achieve  a  reversion  to  that  service 
held  precious  in  the  library  of  the  older 
type, — which,  lacking  the  modern  appara- 
tus, and  with  an  imperfect  collection,  at 
least  put  the  reader  into  direct  contact 
with  what  it  had,  and  gave  him  also  the 
inspiring  personal  touch  with  an  enthusiast 
already  saturated  with  Its  contents:  and 
which  accordingly  sent  him  forth  with  a 
grateful  glow,  too  little,  alas!  evident  In 
one  relegated  to  the  mere  mechanism  of 
modern  library  practice. 

The  mechanism  became  Inevitable:  the 
increase  of  the  collections,  the  Increase 
of  the  constituency,  the  greater  diversity 
of  the  need,  and  the  demand  that  this 
should  be  met  promptly,  have  required  It. 
This  isn't  so  apparent  to  the  public,  who 
think  of  the  problem— of  getting  the  right 
book  to  the  Individual  reader— In  only  Its 
simplest  terms.  But  to  us  librarians  It  Is 
not  merely  apparent  but  urgent.  And 
accordingly  we  expend  upon  it  a  length 
and  a  zest  of  discussion  that  quite  mystify 
the  portions  of  our  audiences  outside  of 
the  craft 

What  impels  us  Is  that  the  mechanism 
is  not  merely  elaborate:  It  Is  expensive. 
It  Is  the  more  so  In  proportion  as  It  Is 
variant  In  form  and  Involves  a  multiplica- 
tion of  expense  by  each  library  acting  In- 
dependently in  its  own  behalf.  Our  ef- 
fort, and  the  purpose  of  our  discussions, 
Is  therefore  to  promote  a  standardization 
of  the  form  and  a  co-operative  centraliza- 
tion of  the  work  Itself,  In  which  our  li- 
braries as  a  whole  may  secure  a  partici- 
pating benefit. 

Now  the  mechanism  consists  of  certain 
apparatus  necessarily  Independent  with 
each  library— administrative  records, 
charging  systems,  etc.;  but  also  of  classi- 
fication, catalog  and  bibliography.  All 
of  these  may  be  standardized,— but  the 
opportunity  for  a  co-operation  which  may 
save  expense  occurs  chiefiy  In  the  three 
last  named.  The  extravagance,  the  need- 
less extravagance,  of  an  absence  of  It  rep- 
resented by  the  old  conditions  was  little 


62 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


apparent  to  the  general  public  or  to  boards 
of  control.  It  becomes  obvious  when  one 
considers  that  thousands  of  libraries  re- 
ceiving hundreds  of  Identical  books, — and 
hundreds  of  libraries  receiving  thousands 
of  identical  books — were  each  undertaking 
independently  the  expense  of  cataloging 
and  classifying  these:  thus  multiplying  by 
exactly  their  number  the  total  cost  of  the 
community.  As  against  this,  the  economy 
of  a  system  under  which  a  particular  book 
shall  be  cataloged — and  perhaps  classl- 
Ifled — at  some  central  point  once  for  all, 
and  the  result  made  available  in  multiple 
form  to  all  libraries  receiving  copies  of  it 
— needs  only  to  be  stated  to  be  convincing. 
A  condition  of  it  is,  in  the  case  of  classi- 
fication, identity  in  the  basic  scheme  ano 
notation,  in  the  case  of  catalog  identity 
in  the  form,  and  uniformity  in  the  prac- 
tice. The  general  availability  of  biblio- 
graphic lists  does  not  depend  upon  either, 
though  convenienced  by  both. 

Identity  in  classification  seems  still  re- 
mote, nor  does  the  undoubted  vogue  of 
the  Decimal  scheme  assure  it:  for  this 
IS  chiefly  among  the  smaller  libraries.  In 
the  larger,  the  Decimal  scheme,  where 
adopted,  is  apt  to  be  accompanied  by  vari- 
ations of  detail,  which  mean  a  variation 
in  the  place  and  symbol  assigned  to  a  par- 
ticular book,  and  thus  bar  the  general 
adoption  of  a  decision  in  the  classification 
of  it  made  at  any  central  bureau.  So  far 
as  this  variance  affects  the  direct  admin- 
istration of  a  particular  library  It  may  be 
unimportant:  for  the  arrangement  of  its 
own  Dooks  upon  its  own  shelves — provided 
this  is  based  on  a  subject  scheme,  consist- 
ently carried  out — may  be  sufficiently  effec- 
tive for  Its  own  purposes,  even  though 
purely  Individual  with  Itself.  What  it  Im- 
plies, however,  in  multiplication  of  an 
expense  that  might  be  avoided  by  the  adop- 
tion of  an  identical  scheme,  is  of  an  Import 
very  serious.  The  construction  of  a  scheme 
which  should  suit  equally  all  libraries  and 
all  librarians  Is  not  to  be  expected.  The 
best  that  can  be  hoped  for  Is  a  scheme 
■ound  In  Its  fundaments  and  upon  which 
the  concessions  of  individual  preference 


necessary  will  be  only  as  to  detail.  The 
reluctance — of  librarians — to  make  such 
concessions  is  due,  I  think,  to  an  exag- 
gerated estimate  of  the  importance  of 
classification  as  such — that  is  to  say,  of  the 
precise  location  of  a  particular  book  in  a 
given  collection;  a  failure  to  realize — what 
experience  should  have  taught — that  in 
many  groups  no  location  can  be  absolutely 
permanent,  owing  to  changes  in  the  literary 
output  and  in  the  subject  relation  of  that 
group  to  the  rest.  This  reluctance  is,  I 
fear,  one  of  the  conservatisms  least  credit- 
able to  the  profession.  It  induces  tenacity 
in  adhesion  to  systems  adopted,  and  it 
leads  to  the  adoption  of  new  systems  de- 
vised to  accord  with  supposed  idiosyncra- 
sies of  a  particular  collection — or  pursuant 
to  the  ingenious  investiveness  of  a  par- 
ticular librarian.  I  can  express  myself 
the  more  frankly  because  in  this  latter 
respect  the  Library  of  Congress  has  itself 
been  a  sinner; — and  one  not  yet  come  to 
repentance.  For  at  the  outset  of  its  prob- 
lem it  found  the  Decimal  classification  in 
considerable  vogue,  the  Expansive  In  con- 
siderable favor.  And  it  adopted  neither, 
but  proceeded  to  devise  a  scheme  of  its 
own.  It  did  this  out  of  declared  necessity, 
with  regard  to  its  supposed  interests;  and 
considering  those  interests  alone  the  re- 
sults have  seemed  a  justification.  They 
are  even  being  utilized  In  certain  other 
institutions,  and  though  not  proffered  as  a 
model  for  general  adoption,  they  render 
even  now  a  general  service  in  proving  the 
economy  of  centralizing  the  process  of 
classification,  as  well  as  that  of  catalog- 
ing, at  some  central  point  or  points  from 
which  the  decisions  may  radiate. 

The  general  availability  of  a  catalog 
entry  depends  of  course  upon  uniformity 
In  cataloging  practice  as  well  as  identity 
in  size  and  form  of  the  card  itself, — if  the 
result  takes  the  form  of  a  card.  Agree- 
ment in  this  has  fortunately  been  rapid, 
and  we  have  now  in  English  speaking 
American  a  set  of  decisions,  embodied  in 
a  code  of  rules — substantially  accepted 
among  our  own  libraries  and  even  sub- 
stantially acceptable   to   the   libraries   of 


PUTNAM 


63 


Great  Britian.  Between  continental  prac- 
tice and  our  own  variances  still  exist, 
and  bar  the  complete  interchange  of  re- 
sults. One  cannot  doubt,  however,  that 
time  will  eradicate,  or  adjust  these  also. 

Between  bibliography  as  distinguished 
from  classification  and  cataloging,  there 
exist,  however,  no  such  impediments;  and 
the  centralization  of  bibliographic  work — 
cooperation  in  it — is  progressing  apace. 

The  prospect  is,  therefore,  fairly  cheer- 
ful that  librarians  will  be  able  in  the  near 
future  to  free  themselves  and  their  funds 
from  undue  attention  to  the  mere  mechan- 
ism of  their  craft,  and  more  completely  to 
devote  their  resources  and  personal  serv- 
ice to  the  book  as  literature,  and  the 
reader  as  a  human  being. 

The  spirit  for  this  is  ardent.  It  is  mani- 
fest in  our  two  countries  as  nowhere  else 
in  like  degree.  As  regards  the  reader  it 
calls  itself  proudly  "the  missionary  spirit"; 
it  seeks  him,  appraises  him,  sympathizes 
with  him,  counsels  him.  It  does  not  doubt 
its  duty  in  this  to  be  an  affirmative  one. 
But  as  regards  the  book  itself  it  is  not  yet 
so  decisive.  For  in  the  selection  of  what 
it  is  to  offer  it  still  concedes  much  to  what 
is  called  the  "popular  taste" — which  means 
the  popular  fancy  of  the  moment,  ignoring 
in  doing  so  its  prerogative  as  an  "educa- 
tional" institution  to  assert  standards,  and 
to  abide  by  them.  Its  hope  is  to  improve 
the  taste  itself;  and  the  need  of  this — its 
appropriateness  as  a  function  of  the  li- 
brary, and  the  means  of  effecting  it — are 
to  be  a  main  feature  of  the  program  of 
this  conference.  They  are  justly  so, — even 
though  they  are  matters  of  concern  chiefly 
for  that  type  of  library  which  is  engaged 
In  serving  the  public  at  large.  It  is,  how- 
ever, precisely  that  type  of  library  with 
which  also  the  duty  should  lie  of  repre- 
senting the  standards  established  by  time, 
and  the  taste  represented  by  the  more  re- 
fined rather  than  by  the  average  instincts 
of  the  community.  And  as  the  temptation 
— to  make  concessions  is  also  peculiarly 
theirs — the  responsibility  is  particularly 
upon  them,  their  librarians,  their  trustees, 
and  the  conservative  in  public  opinion — 


to  assert  this  duty  and  to  conform  to  it. 
The  assertion  of  it  may  cause  resentment; 
but  this  will  prove  merely  individual;  it  is 
not  likely  to  organize  into  formidable  re- 
sistance. And  in  time  it  will  become 
merely  sporadic.  It  will  tend  to  diminish 
in  proportion  as  associations  such  as  this, 
in  conferences  such  as  this,  declare  solidly 
for  the  authority  of  the  library  in  such  de- 
cisions— while  clearly  distinguishing  it 
from  any  censorship  of  literature  as  such. 

The  temptation  to  court  "popularity" — 
natural  in  institutions  maintained  at  the 
public  expense  and  therefore  dependent 
upon  the  favor  of  city  councils — has  an- 
other phase  which  I  hope  may  prove  but 
transitory.  It  is  in  the  exploitation  of  the 
service  done  by  the  books  which  are  the 
"tools  of  trade"  as  against  those  making 
for  general  information,  or  general  culture. 
The  supposition  is  that  the  service  of  the 
first  named  is  one  which  will  convince  cer- 
tain important  opinion  as  a  "practical"  ser- 
vice, and  particularly  that  it  will  appeal  to 
those  who  are  just  now  insistent  upon  vo- 
cational studies  as  the  studies  to  be  given 
right  of  way  in  the  education  of  youth.  The 
temptation  is  the  greater  because  the  serv- 
ice of  a  book  of  this  sort  is  a  service  whose 
results  are  readily  demonstrable,  it  is  con- 
crete and  objective; — while  that  of  gen- 
eral literature  is  but  subjective. 

Its  importance  cannot  be  questioned,  nor 
the  duty  of  the  library  to  perform  it,  nor 
the  success  of  our  public  libraries  in  the 
actual  performance  of  it.  The  only  criti- 
cism might  be  lest  in  the  emphasis  upon 
it,  our  libraries  may  seem  to  underesti- 
mate, if  not  to  disparage,  that  other  serv- 
ice which  in  its  ulterior  benefit  to  the  com- 
munity may  prove  of  even  greater  impor- 
tance; that  service  which  reminds  the 
public  that  livelihood  is  not  the  main  pur- 
pose of  life,  nor  the  present,  the  local  and 
the  particular,  the  only  era,  the  only  place, 
the  only  thing  worthy  of  consideration  and 
regard.  The  books  which  achieve  this 
may  have  their  greatest  value  in  offsetting 
the  tendencies  of  mere  industry.  This  is 
not  to  say,  however,  that  they  may  not 
advance  industry  itself;   for  though  they 


64 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


may  not  improve  the  mere  dexterity  of  a 
particular  individual  in  a  profession,  art 
or  trade,  they  may  aid  to  that  sense  of 
proportion,  that  larger  view  of  a  world- 
wide relation  which  will  advance  the  art 
itself;  and  they  cultivate  the  imagination 
which  is  the  essential  of  modern  industry 
in  its  larger  relations. 

As,  therefore,  our  colleges  still  stand  for 
the  utility  of  the  general  studies  even  in 
a  career  looking  to  vocation,  so  our  libra- 
ries may  well  stand  for  the  utility  of  the 
general  literature.  Particularly  is  this 
duty  upon  them  since  the  opportunity — in 
Its  relation  to  the  community  at  large — is 
uniquely  theirs:  for  no  other  agency — not 
even  the  museum,  or  the  art  gallery,  or  the 
theatre,  the  opera  house,  or  the  concert 
hall — potent  as  may  be  the  influence  of 
these — matches  the  book  in  power  and 
availability  in  this  service  of  quickening 
the  sensibilities,  refining  the  taste,  en- 
larging the  understanding,  diversifying  the 
experience,  warming  the  heart  and  clarify- 
ing the  soul. 

And  this  service — understood  every- 
where— is  nowhere — save  perhaps  in  Eng- 
land— quite  so  completely  followed  into  its 
consequences  as  in  Canada  and  the  United 
States.  The  conviction  of  it  grounds  our 
libraries  upon  a  public  opinion  assuring 
permanent  support;  and  inspires  among 
individuals  enthusiasm  for  gift  and  en- 
dowment. The  greater,  therefore,  the 
responsibility  of  librarians  and  trustees  to 
see  to  it  that  this  conviction,  this  enthu- 
siasm and  the  resources  which  they  pro- 
vide shall  be  so  utilized  as  to  effect  not 
merely  the  most  showy  but  the  most  sub- 
stantial results. 

And  the  responsibility  should  Include 
not  merely  a  zeal  for  the  general  reader, 
but  a  regard  for  the  scholar:  since  a  ben- 
efit to  the  general  reader  may  end  with 
himself,  but  a  benefit  to  the  scholar  be- 
comes amplified  and  diffused  through  him. 
He  is  not,  be  it  understood,  a  class  by  him- 
self. He  includes  the  specialist  whose  vo- 
cation Is  research  in  a  particular  field; 
but  he  Includes  also  the  reader  for  whom 
research  Is  but  an  avocation.     He  Is  the 


unusual  man,  but  he  is  also  the  usual  man 
In  his  unusual  moments.  What  is  the  con- 
scious aim  of  the  one  may  be  the  inci- 
dental achievement  of  the  other — to  ad- 
vance knowledge.  And  the  aid  rendered 
by  the  library  to  either  may  be  of  a  con- 
sequence to  the  community  more  far 
reaching  than  the  mere  diffusion  of  ascer- 
tained knowledge  among  a  multitude  of 
individuals. 

If  the  effort  of  our  libraries  in  this  direc- 
tion has  not  kept  pace  with  their  efforts  In 
the  others,  the  explanation  is  obvious  In 
the  emphasis  necessary  upon  the  others 
during  the  past  fifty  years.  But  the  time 
has  come  when  the  obligation  to  the 
scholar  should  resume  its  due  place — In 
our  programs,  as  well  as  in  our  practice. 

And  with  the  resumption  of  that  Inter- 
est may  we  not  hope  for  a  recognition — ^a 
re-cognition — in  our  organizations  also  of 
that  type  which  gave  personality  to  the 
libraries  of  old? — I  mean  the  type  repre- 
sented by  the  Panizzis,  the  Gametts,  the 
Winsors,  Pooles,  Cutters  and  Spoffords. 
For  however  indifferent  such  men  may 
have  been,  or  might  be  today,  to  the  mere 
mechanism  which  of  late  we  have  been 
exalting,  and  which  we  must  hold  to  be 
necessary  under  modern  conditions,  they 
succeeded  In  producing  an  atmosphere 
which  had  a  potency  of  its  own,  which  no 
mere  mechanism  can  reproduce,  and  for 
which  the  zeal  of  routine  personal  service, 
however  "missionary"  In  spirit,  cannot  be 
a  substitute.  For  the  mechanism  gives  the 
impression  of  Intervening  between  the 
reader  and  the  book;  and  the  routine  per- 
sonal service  fails  from  the  very  nature 
of  its  effort.  The  reader  reached  out  to 
may  be  pleased  and  aided:  but  he  loses 
the  lesson  and  the  penetrating  suggestion 
afforded  by  the  mere  absorption  of  the 
oldtime  librarian  in  the  book  itself.  It  was 
that  which  once  took  the  visitor  out  of 
himself,  away  from  affairs,  and  gave  him 
touch  with  a  different  world,  a  sense  of 
different  values.  Does  he  not  miss  it  now? 
I  think  he  does;  and  that,  however  he  may 
respect  the  mere  efficiency  of  the  modem 
librarian,  as  administrator,  his  really  af- 


PUTNAM 


66 


fectionate  admiration  turns  back  to  the  li- 
brarian of  the  old  school  whose  soul  was 
lifted  above  mere  administration,  or  the 
method  of  the  moment,  or  the  manner  of 
insistent  service,  and  whose  passionate  re- 
gard was  rather  for  the  inside  of  a  book 
than  for  the  outside  of  a  reader. — even  the 
librarian  to  whom  a  reader  seemed  indeed 
but  an  interruption  to  an  abstraction  that 
was  privileged. 

I  for  one,  should  be  sorry  to  think  that 
this  type  has  passed  finally.  There  is 
need  for  it;  there  should  be  a  place.  I 
trust  that  it  will  be  restored  to  us;  and  I 
deplore  the  influence  upon  the  younger 
generation  in  our  profession  of  referring 
to  it  with  condescension  if  not  with  con- 
tempt. 

"Our  profession."  I  use  the  term  be- 
cause it  is  current.  We  have  assumed  it, 
and  no  one  has  challenged  it.  There  are 
grounds  on  which  it  might,  I  suppose,  be 
challenged.  "The  word  implies,"  accord- 
ing to  the  Century  Dictionary,  "professed 
attainments  in  special  knowledge,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  mere  skill;  a  practical 
dealing  with  affairs,  as  distinguished  from 
mere  study  or  investigation;  and  an  ap- 
plication of  such  knowledge  to  uses  for 
others  as  a  vocation,  as  distinguished  from 
its  pursuit  for  one's  own  purposes."  The 
latter  two  requirements  are  certainly  met: 
we  are  engaged  in  practical  affairs,  and  to 
the  use  of  others.  But  the  "professed  at- 
tainments in  special  knowledge,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  mere  skill,"  while  cer- 
tainly represented  In  individuals  among  us, 
are  not  with  us  conditions  of  librarianship 
as  a  vocation  or  as  an  office,  nor  have  we 
in  America,  as  they  have  in  Germany,  the 
conventional  preparation,  the  preliminary 
examination  as  to  qualifications,  and  the 
license  which  by  law  or  usage  are  re- 
quirements in  the  professions  strictly  so- 
called.  A  profession  should  imply  uniform 
standards  in  such  qualifications:  but  the 
qualifications  of  persons  accepted  among 
us  for  library  posts  of  importance, — even 
among  persons  who  have  made  notable 
successes  in  such  posts,  vary  extraordin- 
arily In  both  kind  and  degree.     A  profes- 


sion should  imply  a  certain  homogeneity 
in. ideals,  methods  and  relations;  while 
among  us  there  is  still  a  notable  diversity. 
The  modern  library  with  its  large  estab- 
lishment and  organization,  and  the  respon- 
sibility of  large  funds,  has,  like  the  mod- 
ern university,  created  a  demand  in  its 
administrators  for  the  traits  necessary  in 
business  rather  than  characteristic  of  the 
professions  or  expected  of  them.  (This 
demand,  and  the  vogue  of  woman  In  our 
work — a  vogue  which  finds  its  completest 
recognition  at  this  meeting — are  indeed 
the  most  notable  of  recent  phenomena  af- 
fecting our  personnel.)  As  yet  the  con- 
ventional training  has  not  attracted  a 
sufficiency  of  men  and  women  with  such 
traits  to  meet  the  need;  nor  has  it,  on  the 
other  hand,  attracted  a  sufficient  number 
of  men  and  women  grounded  in  special 
branches  of  the  sciences  and  the  arts  to 
fill  the  positions  in  our  research  I'ibraries 
which  administer,  and  should  interpret,  the 
literature  of  these.  The  actual  personnel 
of  our  association  includes  therefore  the 
utmost  diversity  in  trait,  education  and 
experience. 

A  considerable  such  diversity  exists 
among  teachers,  and  does  not  disentitle 
them  to  the  claim  of  constituting  a  pro- 
fession; and  we  are  sometimes  called  edu- 
cators. But  we  cannot  claim  to  be,  for 
we  lack  the  didactic  authority,  purpose 
and  method. 

The  final  characteristic  of  a  profession 
Is  Its  influence  upon  the  community  as 
such.  Now,  our  lack  of  such  an  Influence 
as  a  body  is  in  part  due  to  the  lack  of  that 
homogeneity  in  ideal  method  and  per- 
sonnel— but  in  part  also  to  the  necessary 
limitations  of  our  office.  We  are  nec- 
essarily non-partisan.  We  are  to  fur- 
nish impartially  the  ammunition  for  both 
sides  of  every  issue.  The  moment  we  be- 
come identified  with  a  single  side  merely, 
we  loSe  our  influence  and  our  authority. 
And  It  matters  not  whether  the  issue  be 
political,  or  theological  or  economic  or 
social.  If  It  be  scientific,  or  merely  liter- 
ary, we  have  more  freedom,  since  the  sub- 
ject matter  Is  more  nearly  academic  and 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


less  emotional.  But  even  here  we  must 
avoid  the  charge  of  faddism.  In  a  contest 
of  morality  we  may  indeed  take  side 
against  the  baser,  because  with  this  we 
have  no  influence  and  no  need  to  court 
one.  But  there  are  today  few  moral  is- 
sues clearly  distinguishable  as  such  In 
which  there  is  need  or  temptation  for  us 
to  engage. 

The  result  of  this  neutrality  is  an  atti- 
tude which  to  the  world  at  large  must 
seem  somewhat  colourless;  but  also  a 
habit  of  mind  which  insensibly  in  itself 
becomes  neutral.  We  are  content  to  be 
observers.  We  avoid  becoming  contest- 
ants. Such  characteristics  do  not  go  to 
the  solidification  of  opinion  in  a  profes- 
sion, nor  to  the  assertion  of  It  in  an  ag- 
gressive way. 

The  sum  total  of  all  of  which  (observa- 
tions upon  us)  is  that  in  spite  of  our  num- 
bers, in  spite  of  the  momentous  aggregate 
that  our  "establishment"  represents,  in 
spite  of  the  assured  place  which  it  oc- 
cupies in  the  community  and  the  social 
system,  we  are  at  present,  and  in  many 
ways  must  continue  to  be,  an  aggregate  of 
individuals  rather  than  a  body  politic.  But 
even  as  the  Devil's  advocate  I  would  not 
so  conclude  in  a  deprecatory  sense,  for  we 
may  find  and  show  many  reasons  for  com- 
placency— and  special  opportunities'  for 
service — in  the  relations  which  this  situa- 
tion implies. 


My  original  invitation  was  a  large  one: 
no  less  than  to  estimate  the  place  of  the 
library  in  English-speaking  America.  I 
have  not  attempted  to  comply  with  it:  for 
it  seemed  too  large  for  my  fraction  of  this 
program.  But  as  a  theme  it  was  enticing. 
And  so  would  have  been  the  reverse  of  it, 
— that  Is,  the  place  of  English-speaking 
America  In  the  development  of  the  library. 
That  also  will  perhaps  be  worthy  of  treat- 
ment at  some  large  opportunity.  One 
particular  aspect  of  it  is  suggested  by  a 
letter  of  Francis  Lieber  to  General  Hal- 
leck,  fifty-seven  years  ago.     It  runs — 

.  .  .  "Have  you  laid  the  foundation 
of  a  great   public   library   in   California? 


Your  state,  above  all  others,  ought  largely 
to  provide  public  funds  for  a  library, — say 
$20,000  a  year  for  the  first  five  years,  and 
then,  permanently  so  much  a  year.  We 
cannot  do  in  our  days  without  large  public 
libraries,  and  libraries  are  quite  as  neces- 
sary as  hospitals  or  armies.  Libraries  are 
the  bridges  over  which  Civilization  travels 
from  generation  to  generation  and  from 
country  to  country,  bridges  that  span  over 
the  widest  oceans;  and  California  will  yet 
be  the  buttress  of  the  bridge  over  which 
encircling  civilization  will  pass  to  Asia, 
whence  it  first  came."     ...     * 

If  California  may  be  such  a  buttress, 
what  may  we  not  propound  of  English- 
speaking  America  as  a  whole — from  which 
through  its  universities  and  colleges  occi- 
dental ideals  and  methods  are  already  be- 
ing transmitted  to  the  Orient  through  the 
effective  medium  of  students  sent  here  for 
their  education? 


Such  are  some  of  the  thoughts  with 
which  some  of  us  at  least  approach  this 
conference.  They  are  thoughts,  even  if, 
as  yet,  only  in  part  satisfactions.  There 
is  a  satisfaction,  however,  which  is  dom- 
inant with  those  of  us  who  come  from  over 
the  border.  It  Is  that  this  conference  is  to 
be  held  on  Canadian  soil;  and  that  here, 
with  the  broad  welcome  extended  to  us, 
with  a  common  subject  matter,  and  with 
purposes  in  connection  with  it  that  can 
awaken  neither  cavil  nor  suspicion,  we  are 
free  to  indulge  in  reciprocities  that  will 
be  complete,  mutual,  and  enduring. 

Mr.  Lawrence  J.  Burpee  read  the  fol- 
lowing telegram  from  the  private  secre- 
tary of  the  Duke  of  Connaught,  which  was 
received  with  hearty  applause: 

The  Governor-General  wishes  meeting 
of  American  Library  Association  every 
success  and  His  Royal  Highness  regrets 
exceedingly  that  it  is  impossible  for  him 
to  be  present  at  your  annual  meeting  to- 
morrow. 

Mr.  BURPEE:  Similar  letters  of  regret 
have  been  received  from  the  Right  Honor- 

[*From  "Life  and  letters  of  Francis  Lieber." 
Edited  by  Thomas  Sergeant   Perry.     Boston.     1882.] 


ELMENDORF 


67 


able  Prime  Minister  and  several  mem- 
bers of  the  cabinet  and  from  Sir  Wilfrid 
Laurier,  and  we  are  yet  in  hopes  that  Sir 
Wilfrid  will  be  able  to  be  with  us  on  Do- 
minion Day. 

I  have  been  asked  by  the  Dominion 
Archivist  and  by  the  Director  of  the  Vic- 
toria museum  and  the  Custodian  of  the 
National  gallery  to  extend  to  you  a  most 
hearty  welcome  to  visit  those  institutions, 
and  I  have  also  been  asked  by  the  presi- 
dent of  the  Ottawa  Electric  Railway  to 
say  that  the  railway  would  like  you  to 
consider  yourselves  guests  of  the  com- 
pany while  here,  and  that  the  A.  L.  A. 
button  will  identify  us  sufficiently. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  The  work  of  the  lo- 
cal committee  has  been  done  largely  by 
two  men, — Dr.  Otto  Klotz  and  Mr.  Law- 
rence J.  Burpee, — and  perhaps  at  a  later 
session  we  will  have  occasion  to  give 
thanks  to  Mr.  Burpee,  who  behind  the 
scenes  has  made  our  official  tasks  come 
so  lightly  and  so  easily. 

The  secretary  read  a  cablegram  bear- 
ing greetings  from  the  New  Zealand  Li- 
braries Association,  through  the  secre- 
tary, Mr.  Herbert  Baillie,  librarian  of  the 
Wellington  (N.  Z.)  public  library. 

Adjourned. 

FIRST  GENERAL  SESSION 

(Russell    Theatre,    Thursday,    June   27, 
9:30  a.  m.) 

The  PRESIDENT:  I  have  the  honor 
to  announce  that  the  Thirty-fourth  An- 
nual Conference  of  the  American  Library 
Association  is  now  open.  It  seems  to  me, 
with  the  welcome  given  us  this  morning, 
in  the  beautiful  sunshiny  weather,  nearly 
as  bright  and  genial  as  the  welcome  that 
we  were  given  last  night,  we  open  un- 
der very  happy  auspices  indeed,  and  I 
hope  that  when  you  hear  the  speakers  as 
they  shall  take  up  the  matters  on  the  pro- 
gram, you  will  feel  that  the  auspices 
have  been  very  well  carried  out. 

I  shall  have  the  pleasure  to  talk  to  you 
for  a  very  few  moments  on  the  subject 
as  printed  on  the  program. 


PRESIDENT'S    ADDRESS 

The  Public  Library:     "A  Leaven'd  and 

Prepared  Choice  " 

Last  evening's  jesting  pretense  that  the 
party  from  the  States  had  stopped  on  the 
border  and  removed  the  boundary  line  to 
bring  it  with  them  here,  into  the  very 
Canadian  capital,  was  not  quite  all  a  jest. 
The  American  Library  Association  is  it- 
self a  witness  that  though  the  boundary 
line  firmly  and  clearly  defines  the  limits 
of  rule  of  the  two  countries  in  some  great 
and  essential  things,  some 

"Glories  of  our  blood  and  state," 
it  need  not,  it  does  not,  even  divide,  still 
less  alienate,  the  two  peoples. 

It  is  one  of  the  worthiest,  most  au- 
spicious foundations  of  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  that  it  is,  and  has  ever 
been,  continental  not  national  in  its  sym- 
pathy and  membership.  Within  its  cir- 
cle "all  who  profess  and  call  themselves" 
English-speaking  may  unite  their  best 
thought  and  their  best  endeavor  for  this 
important  public  service. 

There  are  many  fundamental  library 
principles  that  are  common  to  both  coun- 
tries and  your  Program  Committee  has 
intended  to  arrange  the  program  and  dis- 
cussions to  take  account  of  these,  leav- 
ing to  other  and  minor  meetings  such 
things  as  are  national  or  local  in  their 
bearing.  The  committee  has  wished  to 
transcend  all  division  by  boundary  lines. 
By  so  much  the  jest  was  fact. 

The  attempt  has  been  made  to  stand 
away  from  detail  of  all  sorts  so  far  that 
it  may  be  possible  to  see  the  library 
world  as  "a  world"  indeed,  "a  whole  of 
parts,"  as  a  system  of  members,  each 
member  distinct  yet,  by  virtue  of  the  very 
peculiarities  which  constitute  its  distinct- 
ness, contributing  to  the  unity  of  the 
whole. 

We  shall  fail  to  see  the  library  world 
thus,  as  a  world,  as  a  whole  unless,  amid 
the  mass  of  facts,  of  experiences,  of  needs, 
of  adaptations  involved,  we  can  finally  dis- 
cern and  seize  upon  the  true  center,  the 
truly  dominant  thing. 


OTTAWAiCONFERENCE 


If  we  could  once  see  the  true  center  as 
the  center,  and  the  mass  of  detail  taking 
ordered  place  about  it;  if  we  could  once 
perceive  the  dominant  that  should  surely 
rule,  and  lesser  matters  in  due  subjection 
to  that  rule,  then  from  the  obvious  things 
ever  before  our  eyes,  and  only  too  fam- 
iliar, by  that  very  familiarity  made  diffi- 
cult to  apprehend,  the  library  might  all 
at  once  appeal  as  an  entity,  as  a  clear 
conception.  So  the  forest  becomes  visible 
to  the  artist's  eyes,  the  forest,  formed  of 
trees,  but  never  really  seen  until  all  at 
once  in  the  vision  of  the  forest  the  trees 
are  lost  to  sight. 

Some  modes  of  thought,  some  phrases  of 
expression  which  have  been  used  are  those 
which  the  philosopher  has  weighed  and 
clarified  for  his  own  carefully  measured 
statements.  Do  not  smile  at  my  temerity, 
and  on  the  other  hand  do  not  be  in  the 
least  alarmed.  I  ventured  but  a  little  way 
and  you  will  not  be  called  to  go  far  into 
the  philosopher's  country  under  my  lead. 
Even  if  one  be  no  swimmer  it  is  an  ex- 
perience to  venture  out,  with  careful  bal- 
ance, feeling  for  secure  foothold  upon  the 
solid  bed,  even  a  little  way  into  a  mighty 
stream  whose  full  mid-current  would  sweep 
over  one's  head.  One  gets,  out  of  even 
so  limited  an  adventure,  a  sense  of  the 
sweep  of  the  river,  feels  the  embrace  and 
pull  of  the  current,  stoops  to  drink  a  lit- 
tle of  the  clear,  bright,  deep  waters,  ever 
thereafter  to  thirst  for  deeper  draughts 
and  to  long  for  strength  and  mastery  to 
plunge  into  and  breast  the  full  stream. 

In  trying  to  find  warrant  for  my  own 
thoughts  and  ordered  and  lucid  statement 
for  them,  I  have  sought  and  consulted  cer- 
tain books  and  some  of  them  were  too 
hard  for  my  full  reading.  I  shall  not  fur- 
ther acknowledge  my  debt  now  but,  once 
more  departing  from  precedent,  I  shall 
list  them  for  print  at  the  end  of  the  ad- 
dress. 

In  the  wish  to  find  the  center  or  domi- 
nant of  the  library  world  it  would  be 
presumptuous  for  me  to  dogmatize  and 
say  "Lo  here!  this  is  the  point,"  or  "Be- 
hold t  this  is  the  principle."    In  the  very 


name  of  the  institution  which  we  are  talk- 
ing about  there  are  two  elements  joined — 
Public,  and  Library — and  it  seems  quite 
obviously  proper  to  try  the  first  as  the 
center. 

Perhaps  the  application  which  follows 
might  repel  some  as  narrow,  as  exclusive 
of  any  but  a  single  type  of  libraries.  The 
principle  itself  may,  however,  be  made 
to  apply  to  the  entire  library  world  by 
recognizing  as  "public"  all  libraries  which 
are  not  private,  and  by  defining  public 
anew  as  applied  to  each  group  or  type  of 
libraries,  always  letting  it  include  all  those 
individuals  for  whose  use  and  pleasure 
the  library  is  maintained. 

What  does  "public"  signify  in  Canada 
and  the  United  States?  What  but  all  the 
people  of  these  two  great  experiments  in 
democratic  society?  Pray  note  that  I  say 
society  not  government.  An  excursion  into 
discussion  of  the  latter  might  involve  dab- 
bling in  the  stream  of  politics  which  would 
threaten  dangers  far  more  imminent,  for 
me,  than  philosophy  promised.  To  con- 
sider democratic  society  for  a  few  mo- 
ments very  simply  is  a  less  hazardous 
matter. 

What  is  any  society  but  "a  world"  again, 
a  whole,  in  which  the  great  thing  that 
matters  is  the  level  and  fullness  of  mind 
that  is  reached  through  the  diversities  of 
complete  development  and  perfection  of 
the  individual  members  which  compose  it? 

The  level  of  value  and  happiness  for  the 
whole  can  only  be  raised  by  raising  the 
condition  of  the  individuals  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  that  individuality  is  the  most 
complete,  of  most  real,  felt  value  to  it- 
self, which  contributes  to  the  perfection 
of  the  whole,  because  it  is  only  thus  that 
the  individual  is  conscious  of  having  done 
his  utmost. 

Why  try  to  say  it  again  when  the  philos- 
opher has  said  It  so  exactly? 

"What  a  man  really  cares  about — so  it 
seems  to  me — may  be  described  as  mak- 
ing the  most  of  the  trust  he  has  received. 
He  does  not  value  himself  as  a  detached 
and  purely  self-identical  subject.  He  values 
himself  as  the  inheritor  of  the  gifts  and 
surroundings  which  are  focussed  in  him 


ELMENDORF 


and  which  it  is  his  business  to  raise  to 
their  highest  power.  The  attitude  of  the 
true  noble,  one  in  whom  noblesse  oblige 
is  a  simple  example  of  what,  mutatis 
mutandis,  all  men  feel.  The  man  is  a  rep- 
resentative, a  trustee  for  the  world,  of 
certain  powers  and  circumstances.  And 
this  cannot  fail  to  be  so.  For  suffering  and 
privation  are  also  opportunities.  The  ques- 
tion for  him  is  how  much  he  can  make  of 
them.  This  is  the  simple  and  primary 
point  of  view,  and  also,  in  the  main,  the 
true  and  fundamental  one.  It  is  not  the 
bare  personality  or  the  separate  destiny 
that  occupies  a  healthy  mind.  It  is  the 
thing  to  be  done,  known  and  felt;  in  a 
word,  the  completeness  of  experience,  his 
contribution  to  it,  and  his  participation  in 
it. 

"At  every  point  the  web  of  experience  is 
continuous;  he  cannot  distinguish  his  part 
from  that  of  others,  and  the  more  he 
realizes  the  continuity  the  less  he  cares 
about  the  separateness  of  the  contribution 
to  it.  .  .  .  It  is  impossible  to  overrate 
the  co-operative  element  in  experience." 

Does  it  not  appear  then  that  the  highest 
possible  service  to  the  public  is  service  to 
the  individual,  in  giving  to  the  individual 
stimulus  and  opportunity  for  the  fullest, 
most  diverse,  most  perfect  development, 
creating  thus  a  world  the  more  enriched, 
the  more  unified,  in  that  each  of  its  mem- 
bers has  rich  powers,  functions  and  ex- 
perience of  his  own? 

But  the  crux  is  to  come.  A  people,  a  so- 
ciety, is  made  up  of  individuals  of  diverse 
tastes  and  powers,  but  it  includes  very 
many  who  are  far  short  of  being  fully  alive 
to  the  powers  which  they  may  possess. 
If  the  span  of  such  lives  passes  thus,  if 
no  stimulus,  no  illumination  reaches  them, 
life  will  be  uninspired,  unfruitful  of  much 
service,  or  much  joy.  It  will  not  be  life 
at  its  full,  nor  "the  soul  at  its  highest 
stretch." 

It  is  not  always  afar  from  our  own  doors 
that  such  things  happen.  President  Eliot 
says,  "Do  we  not  all  know  many  people 
who  seem  to  live  in  a  mental  vacuum — 
to  whom,  indeed,  we  have  great  difllculty 
in  attributing  immortality,  because  they 
have  so  little  life  except  that  of  the 
body?" 

From  such  conditions  not  only  individ- 
uals but  all  society  suffers.     As  a  spot 


of  unnourished,  inactive  tissue  in  a  hu- 
man body  is  a  host  ready  to  receive  any 
one  of  many  forms  of  disease,  so,  in  the 
body  politic,  individuals  not  fulfilling  their 
utmost  best  are  soil  made  ready  for  all 
manner  of  social  and  political  ills. 

The  time  may  come  when  society  will 
recognize  that  many  social  and  political 
ills  are  partly  caused  by  its  own  neglect, 
and  call  not  for  more  restrictions,  for 
more  stringent  laws  and  severer  sentences, 
but  rather  for  more  carefully  and  univers- 
ally given  opportunity. 

Listen  once  more  to  the  philosopher. 

"The  more  highly  differentiated  the  in- 
dividuals composing  a  society,  the  more 
complete  becomes  the  social  bond  between 
them.  A  man  who  feels  that  he  is  render- 
ing to  the  community  a  service  at  once 
indispensable  and  only  to  be  performed  by 
himself,  will  have  come  near  to  fulfilling 
his  part  in  the  highest  attainable  scheme 
of  social  harmony." 

If  this  be  true,  then  there  seems  clear 
warrant  for  saying  that  the  community, 
for  its  own  sake,  has  a  vital  interest  in 
trying  to  secure  for  each  individual  the 
most  effective  opportunity  hot  only  for  dis- 
covering what  his  distinct  contribution 
may  be  made,  but  also  for  developing  his 
power  to  render  that  contribution  most 
completely. 

Does  the  community  anywhere  concern 
itself  to  give  such  opportunities?  Demo- 
cratic society  has  recognized  its  necessity 
to  give  a  certain  amount  of  knowledge  and 
training  by  means  of  its  schools.  It  is  be- 
ginning to  make  the  experiment  of  giv- 
ing a  certain  amount  of  skill  to  earn  a 
livelihood.  This  teaching  is  done  in  classes 
and  a  class  Is  made  up  of  individuals  of 
similar  knowledge  and  attainments,  and 
to  them  is  given  general  and  identical 
information  which  tends  to  produce  like 
results.  The  community  has  need  for  un- 
likeness,  for  individuals  who  can  render 
unique  service. 

The  community  can  never  decide  what 
the  special  individual  aptitude  may  be. 
No  living  soul  can  discover  for  another. 
The  "power  to  become"  is  innate  and  must 


70 


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make   its   own    response   to   the   stimulus 
which  is  capable  of  affecting  it. 

It  is  true  that  the  universe  is  a  great 
battery  incessantly  sending  an  infinity  of 
calls  of  infinitely  varied  messages.  But 
the  receiving  operator  may  be  asleep,  he 
may  never  come  within  range.  The  uni- 
verse is  very  wide.  The  range  of  experi- 
ence of  all  is  narrow,  of  some  pitifully 
narrow. 

Because  of  lack  of  opportunity  to  see, 
to  do,  to  know,  to  feel,  it  is  not  exaggera- 
tion to  say  that  multitudes  live  a  half- 
alive  existence,  never  useful  to  their  pos- 
sible limit,  never  happy  to  their  full,  for 
happiness  is  "felt  perfection." 

From  the  beginning  of  time,  some  men 
have  received  their  messages,  found  their 
work,  given  their  service,  lived  life  to 
the  full  and  laid  it  down  with  a  will.  The 
record  of  these  men  and  their  accomplish- 
ment, of  man's  great  adventure  to  find 
himself,  has  been  written  by  many  hands, 
and  that  record  is  literature. 

Arnold  says,  "To  know  ourselves  and 
the  world  we  have,  as  a  means  to  this 
end,  to  know  the  best  that  has  been 
thought  or  said  in  the  world,"  and  "Litera- 
ture may  mean  everything  written  or 
printed  in  a  book." 

The  library  is  the  reservoir  of  litera- 
ture, a  collection  of  books,  but  it  is  some- 
thing more,  it  comes  to  have  identity,  a 
self  of  its  own  beyond  the  sum  of  all  its 
books,  when,  by  the  fusing  of  the  whole 
under  the  vital  power  of  the  minds  that 
gather  and  order  it,  it  becomes,  in  the 
Shakespearian  phrase  embodied  in  my 
title,  "A  leaven'd  and  prepared  choice." 

The  library  is  the  one  place  where  time 
and  space  are  set  at  naught.  It  is  the 
microcosm  of  the  universe. 

Here  all  the  wonders  of  nature  are 
flashed  back  from  the  mirrors  of  eyes  that 
have  beheld  them. 

Here  India,  and  the  Arctic  and  the  isles 
of  the  sea  are  as  close  at  hand  as  Niag- 
ara. 

Here  Archimedes'  lever,  Giotto's  circle, 
Newton's  apple,  Palissy's  furnace,  Jac- 
quard's    loom,    Jamie    Watt's    tea-kettle. 


Franklin's   kite   are   cheek  by   jowl  with 
the  last  Marconigram. 

Here  the  fate  of  Aristides,  of  Columbus, 
of  Gordon  is  as  clear  to  read  as  the  doings 
of  yesterday  in  Chicago. 

The  record  of  what  happened  at  Ther- 
mopylae, at  Lucknow,  at  the  Alamo  re- 
ceives beside  it  the  tale  of  the  courage 
that  rose  as  the  Titanic  sank. 

What  Buddha  and  Socrates  and  Jesus 
taught  answers  the  cry  and  strengthens 
the  heart  of  doubt  and  pain  to-day. 

The  library  is  the  great  whispering  gal- 
lery of  noble  deeds  and,  catching  a  whis- 
per, 

"The  youth  replies,  I  can" 

and  goes  forth. 

The  library  is  haunted  with  visions  of 
beauty  that  Plato,  that  Michael  Angelo, 
that  Shelley  saw — the  youth  exclaims  "I 
see!"  and  follows  his  lure. 

Here  Clotho  sits  twirling  her  "thread- 
running  spindle"  and  the  youth,  catching 
the  clue,  fares  forth  whither  the  fateful 
thread  leads. 

The  library  is  almost  never  the  goal  but 
to  many  it  may  be  the  starting  point 
whence  they  go  forth  "to  strength  and 
endeavor,  love  and  sacrifice,  the  making 
and  achievement  of  souls." 

The  public  for  whom  the  library  exists 
has  little  conception  or  comprehension 
of  its  power.  How  shall  such  publicity 
as  will  give  this  knowledge  of  it  be  given? 

Such  publicity  should  make  clear  the 
larger  aspects  of  the  library's  service, 
showing  that  the  life  of  any  society  is  "an 
indivisible  inheritance"  and  the  welfare 
of  all  made  or  marred  by  the  condition 
and  service  of  each  one,  therefore  the  li- 
brary should  be  equipped  to  be  universal 
in  its  appeal  and  service,  a  public  neces- 
sity for  individual  use. 

The  public  for  whom  the  library  exists 
gives  it  support  insuflicient  for  the  task 
it  should  perform.  If  the  library  com- 
manded respect  would  it  not  receive  funds? 

Books  are  the  treasure  to  be  gathered 
for  its  work.    What  shall  be  the  principles 


ELMENDORF 


71 


of  buying?    How  create  the  "leaven'd  and 
prepared  choice?" 

Books  are  the  medium  of  appeal,  the 
stuff  of  human  knowledge,  experience  and 
wisdom  stored  by  means  of  the  printed 
leaf.  The  extent  to  which  each  individ- 
ual shares  in  the  stored  treasure  of  the 
race-mind,  is,  in  its  sum,  the  measure 
of  public  safety  and  happiness  and  the 
starting-point  for  service.  How  show,  how 
make  known  the  attraction  and  stored 
power  of  books? 

Every  individual  must  choose  his  own 
path.  How  leave  him  free  to  choose  in  a 
wide  field? 

Service,  but  not  authority,  must  be  at 
hand.  What  shall  the  tests  of  fitness  for 
such  service  be? 

The  staff  fit  for  such  service  must  be 
of  rare  material  and  quality. 

The  members  of  the  staff  are  instru- 
ments of  the  highest  elaboration  and  most 
delicate  adjustment.  The  requisite  quality 
of  service  can  only  be  rendered  under  fit 
conditions.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  knowl- 
edge, conscience  and  will  solely,  it  is  a 
matter  of  these  things  plus  insight,  sym- 
pathy and  response.  Exhaustion,  or  an  ap- 
roach  to  it,  discouragement  from  lack  of 
appreciation,  are  like  a  ground  wire  for 
loss  of  power.  Body,  mind  and  spirit  are 
all  involved  in  this  service.  How  con- 
serve their  strength,  well-being  and  joy? 

Unskilled  people  cannot  render  fit  serv- 
ice. What  are  the  things  that  matter  in 
training?  How  far  can  training  be  effec- 
tive. 

These  are  the  subjects  that  your  Pro- 
gram Committee  has  thought  it  might  in- 
terest all  to  consider.  Certain  leaders  will 
discuss  them,  each  according  to  his  own 
will  and  way.  In  their  wisdom  and  in  that 
of  the  discussions  with  which  you  will 
follow  them  will  lie  all  the  value  of  this 
conference. 

Books  Consulted:   A  Short  List 

Bosanquet,  Bernard.  The  principle  of 
individuality  and  value.    Macmillan.    1912. 

Bpyce,  James.  The  American  Common- 
wealth. Vol.  2,  p.  828,  and  chapter  CII. 
Macmillan.    1910. 


Chesterton,  G.  K.  Manalive.  Lane. 
1912. 

Douglas,  Robert.  The  choice.  Macmil- 
lan.    1911. 

Eliot,  C.  W.  The  function  of  education 
in  democratic  society.  In  his  Educational 
reform.     Century.    1908. 

Goldmari<,  Josephine.  Fatigue  and  effi- 
ciency.   Charities  Pub.  Co.    1912. 

Hobhouse,  L.  T.  The  individual  and  the 
state.  In  his  Social  evolution  and  polit- 
ical theory.    Columbia  Univ.  Press.    1911. 

—Liberalism.     Holt.    1911. 

Jones,  Henry.  Idealism  as  a  personal 
creed.     Macmillan.    1909. 

— ^Working  faith  of  the  social  reformer. 
Macmillan.    1910. 

IVIacdonald,  Greville.  The  child's  inheri- 
tance: its  scientific  and  imaginative  mean- 
ing.   Smith,  Elder.    1910. 

Mark,  Thiselton.  The  unfolding  of  per- 
sonality as  the  chief  aim  of  education. 
Univ.  of  Chicago  Press.    1911. 

Sidis,  Boris.  Philistine  and  genius. 
Moffatt.     1911. 

Wood  berry,  G.  E.  The  torch:  eight  lec- 
tures on  race  power  in  literature.  Mc- 
Clure.     1905. 

The  PRESIDENT:  I  have  very  great 
pleasure  in  presenting  one  who  in  truth 
needs  no  introduction  to  you;  one  who 
has  not  for  some  time  appeared  on  our 
platform  but  whom  I  know  you  will  all 
welcome  with  pleasure.  Miss  TESSA  L. 
KELSO. 

Miss  Kelso,  of  the  Baker  and  Taylor 
Co.,  New  York  City,  spoke  informally 
from  notes  only  on  the  topic,  "Publicity 
for  the  sake  of  information:  the  librari- 
an's point  of  view,"  and  has  been  unable 
to  furnish  a  copy  of  her  remarks  for  pub- 
lication. 

The  PRESIDENT:  I  think  you  may 
have  seen  it  mentioned  once  or  twice  in 
the  course  of  your  reading,  that  there 
was  such  a  thing  as  the  "Wisconsin  idea." 
Now,  I  would  not  for  a  moment,  having 
been  born  in  that  lovely  state,  have  you 
get  any  notion  that  that  "Wisconsin 
idea"  is  singular.  We  have  therefore 
asked  to  come  and  talk  to  us  this  morn- 


72 


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ing  a  gentleman  who,  those  closest  to 
him  say,  is  a  repository  of  "Wisconsin 
ideas,"  and  I  have  great  pleasure  in  intro- 
ducing to  you  Mr.  WILLIAM  H.  HATTON, 
— "Mr."  Hatton  by  request,  though  he  is 
ordinarily  known  in  his  own  country  as 
Senator  Hatton. 

PUBLICITY  FOR  THE  SAKE  OF  INFOR- 
MATION:   THE    PUBLIC'S 
POINT  OF  VIEW 

When  man  first  discovered  that  his 
hands  would  respond  to  the  command  of 
his  brain  and  that  he  could  use  a  club  to 
defend  himself  from  his  enemy,  and  that 
he  could  through  combined  mental  and 
physical  effort,  react  upon  his  environment, 
the  gateway  on  the  road  to  continuous 
progress  was  opened  to  mankind. 

The  potential  power  of  man  cannot  be 
measured.  The  Creator,  in  so  far  as  we 
are  able  to  judge,  has  fixed  no  limits  to 
man's  progress.  The  only  limitations  are 
his  lack  of  knowledge  and  his  lack  of 
power  to  discern  the  true  relations  of  the 
forces  which  surround  him. 

Mankind  is  a  social  organism,  not  a 
collection  of  separate  and  independent 
parts.  Where  any  part  is  neglected  and 
fails  to  develop  so  as  to  discharge  eflSc- 
lently  its  function,  the  whole  organization 
suffers.  Therefore  society  is  not  only  deeply 
interested  in  education  during  childhood 
and  adolescence,  but  it  is  concerned  in  the 
education  of  man  throughout  his  whole  life. 
The  public  is  as  much  concerned  in  the 
education  of  the  man  of  forty  years  of 
age  as  it  is  in  the  education  of  the  boy 
of  five  years.  One  of  the  chief  functions 
of  the  state  is  to  secure  justice,  equity 
and  equality  of  opportunity.  Dr.  Lester 
F.  Ward  says,  "There  can  be  no  equality, 
no  justice,  not  to  speak  of  equity,  so  long 
as  society  is  composed  of  members,  equally 
endowed  by  nature,  a  few  of  whom  only 
possess  the  social  heritage  of  truth  and 
ideas  resulting  from  laborious  investiga- 
tion and  profound  meditations  of  all  past 
ages,  while  the  mass  are  shut  out  from 
all  the  light  that  human  achievement  has 
shed  upon  the  world." 


What  shall  be  done  that  this  "light  of 
human  achievement"  shall  penetrate  the 
cloud  of  ignorance  and  cause  the  lamp 
of  wisdom  to  burn  in  every  home?  Your 
reply  doubtless  will  be,  "The  formal  train- 
ing of  the  schools."  Yes;  that  is  a  step 
in  the  right  direction,  but  all  will  agree 
that  the  training  of  the  schools  is  only 
and  can  be  only  a  beginning,  a  learning 
how  to  acquire  and  assimilate  knowledge 
and  develop  power.  There  must  be  other 
institutions  and  agencies  which  shall  carry 
forward  the  work  of  education,  if  we  are 
to  have  that  continuous  and  universal 
development  which  is  possible  and  de- 
sirable. 

The  library  is  peculiarly  suited  for  this 
work  and  its  power  and  future  infiuence 
are  not  fully  appreciated  even  by  those 
engaged  in  library  work.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  say  to  this  audience  that  the  pub- 
lic library  is  an  essential  part  of  a  com- 
plete educational  system  and  that  there 
should  be  harmony  within  the  system. 

The  training  in  the  schools  should  be 
such  as  shall  make  a  beginning  at  least 
in  the  preparation  for  social  life  and  social 
service,  in  the  broad  sense.  The  students 
should  be  shown  that  the  library  is  a 
social  mirror,  a  record  of  the  social  activi- 
ties of  mankind.  If  for  any  cause  stu- 
dents leave  school,  they  should  be  in  such 
close  relation  to  the  library  and  be  so  fa- 
miliar with  library  methods  that  they  will 
be  encouraged  to  continue  studying;  thus 
we  shall  find  the  book  in  the  hand  of  the 
worker,  the  ideal  condition,  assisting  him 
in  solving  his  problems  and  opening  to 
him  visions  of  life  of  which  he  had  never 
dreamed. 

The  school  authorities  should  never  over- 
look the  fact  that  the  average  time  which 
the  individual  student  attends  school  is 
short;  but  be  it  short  or  long,  pupils  should 
be  trained  in  the  use  of  the  library,  and 
taught  how  to  find  in  books  answers  to 
their  questions.  Questions  which  shall  re- 
quire students  to  go  to  the  library  should 
be  regularly  given  them.  In  the  higher 
grades  and  in  the  high  schools  emphasis 
should  be  placed  on  library  work.     Stu- 


HATTON 


73 


dents  should  not  only  be  required  to  read 
certain  specified  books,  as  supplementary 
reading,  but  there  should  be  regular  as- 
signments of  topics  for  investigation, 
which  will  require  them  to  use  the  li- 
brary and  other  sources  of  information, 
thus  training  them  in  research  methods 
and  developing  their  power  of  original  in- 
vestigation. By  this  method  their  school 
work  will  become  a  living  motive-force  in 
their  lives. 

The  colleges  and  universities  offer  a 
great  number  of  courses.  So  many  sub- 
jects are  open  for  study  that  the  most 
that  can  be  done  during  the  college  years 
Is  to  select  a  few  and  concentrate  effort 
upon  those  selected  and  leave  the  great 
field  of  knowledge  for  future  exploration 
and  conquest.  Therefore,  if  a  student 
leaves  college  with  high  ideals  and  an 
ambition  to  explore  still  further  the  field 
of  knowledge  and  develop  his  individuality, 
his  immediate  need  is  a  good  library. 
Therein  is  the  crystallized  wisdom  of  ages 
held  in  "magic  preservation."  Here  he 
may  find  freedom  for  the  development  of 
his  individuality  and  be  able  to  increase 
his  power  to  react  on  his  environment,  en- 
abling him  to  find  profit,  pleasure  and  cul- 
ture in  the  various  activities  of  life. 

But  has  he  learned  how  to  use  the  li- 
brary? Let  us  take  the  testimony  of  Dr. 
Harper,  former  president  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago.  "It  is  pitiable,"  he  said, 
"to  find  that  many  graduates  of  our  very 
best  colleges  are  unable,  after  taking  up 
the  more  advanced  work  of  the  divinity 
school  or  other  graduate  courses,  to  make 
use  of  books.  They  find  nothing;  they  do 
not  know  how  to  proceed  in  order  to  find 
anything.  No  more  important,  no  more 
useful  training  can  be  given  men  in  college 
than  that  which  relates  to  the  use  of  books. 
Why  do  so  many  men  give  up  reading 
when  they  leave  college?  Because  in  col- 
lege they  have  never  learned  the  use  of 
books." 

This  is  the  testimony  of  a  man  of  wide 
experience.  A  college  librarian  should  be 
a  person  of  strong  personality  and  broad 
culture,  and  the  example  of  some  of  the 


universities  and  colleges  of  making  the 
librarian  a  member  of  the  faculty  should 
be  followed  by  all  colleges.  The  most  im- 
portant work  for  schools  and  colleges  is  to 
arouse  in  the  students  the  spirit  of  re- 
search, train  them  in  research  methods, 
and  develop  their  powers  of  independent 
investigation.  Impress  upon  them  the  fact 
that  education  cannot  be  received  but 
must  be  acquired,  and  that  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge  is  a  process  co-extensive 
with  life. 

President  Hibben  of  Princeton  says,  "It 
is  the  nature  of  education  that  It  does 
not  result  In  a  complete  and  finished  prod- 
uct, but  rather  a  progressive  process. 
There  Is  nothing  final  about  It.  Its 
achievements  always  mark  new  beginnings. 
Education  must  always  be  defined  In  terms 
of  life,  of  growth,  of  progress." 

It  will  be  readily  seen  that  those  who 
complete  the  regular  courses  of  the 
schools,  colleges  and  universities  need  the 
library.  It  is  well  known  that  the  major- 
ity do  not  take  advantage  fully  of  the 
opportunities  offered  by  the  schools,  but 
for  various  reasons  they  drop  out  all  along 
the  line.  For  these  we  need  the  library. 
We  have  a  large  immigration  of  adults 
from  foreign  lands.  These  people  come 
here  to  make  homes  and  to  take  part  in 
our  government.  Self-government  requires 
knowledge  and  understanding.  Great  ques- 
tions are  constantly  arising  which  demand 
Intelligent  action.  Ignorance,  whether  it 
be  the  ignorance  of  the  rich  or  of  the 
poor,  is  a  menace.  One  of  our  grave  social 
problems  is  the  Ignorance  and  Indifference 
of  the  ostentatious  rich.  Rich  in  material 
things,  but  poor  in  the  things  which  make 
life  rich.  They  have  not  learned  that 
every  man  owes  a  debt  to  society  that 
can  be  paid  only  in  service.  Complex  our 
social  organization  Is  and  It  is  becoming 
more  complex  each  year.  Grave  questions 
are  before  us  for  solution.  The  people  In 
general  have  no  adequate  conception  of 
the  possibilities  of  the  library,  when  prop- 
erly organized,  as  an  effective  force  for 
dealing  with  these  conditions;  and  It  Is 
doubtful  If  the  most  optimistic  librarians 


74 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


appreciate  what  may  be,  and  will  be  done 
in  the  future  with  this  great  instrument 
of  education.  A  community  without  a 
public  library  lacks  an  essential  of  a  well 
organized  community. 

Let  us  have  in  the  library  men  and  wo- 
men of  broad  culture  who  have  had  spe- 
cial training  in  psychology  and  sociologjy, 
M'ho  are  sincerely  and  sympathetically  de- 
voted to  humanity.  Let  this  great  educa- 
tional institution  be  directed  by  people  of 
commanding  power,  trained  for  public 
service,  who  have  entered  the  profession 
as  a  life  work,  salaries  to  correspond,  with 
qualifications  required  and  services  ren- 
dered. We  say  services  rendered  because 
all  service  must  be  rendered  before  it  can 
be  measured.  The  library  will  thus  be- 
come the  center  of  intellectual  activities 
of  the  community,  a  continuation  school,  a 
local  university. 

Society  is  under  obligation  to  furnish 
every  means  possible  for  the  development 
of  human  capacity.  There  is  in  the  world 
latent  talent  and  capacity  beyond  meas- 
ure. For  the  development  of  this  latent 
talent,  society  is  in  a  measure  responsible. 
If  opportunity  is  offered,  capacity  will 
develop. 

Great  forces  surround  us  pressing  for 
admission  to  our  lives,  telephones,  electric 
light,  printing,  anaesthesia,  antiseptics, 
synthetic  chemistry,  wireless  telegraphy, 
etc.  These  things  have  always  been  pos- 
sible but  the  cloud  of  ignorance  obscured 
man's  vision,  and  kept  him  from  realizing 
his  power. 

The  degree  to  which  a  community  dis- 
charges its  obligation  can  be  measured  by 
the  opportunities  it  offers  for  the  develop- 
ment of  the  members  of  that  community. 
To  offer  better  opportunities  for  those  who 
wish  to  continue  their  studies  and  to 
bring  together  those  of  like  tastes  and 
desires,  let  there  be  opened  seminar 
rooms  in  the  library  building,  or  in  other 
buildings  which  shall  be  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  library  authorities.  To  these 
seminar  rooms  bring  students,  from  every 
walk  of  life,  to  study  under  competent  di- 
rection   and    to    investigate    subjects    in 


which  they  are  interested  either  from  a 
material  or  cultural  point  of  view.  Only 
a  small  percentage  of  those  who  complete 
the  high  school  course  go  to  college.  There 
should  be  provided  graduate  courses  for 
the  high  school  graduates,  and  other  stu- 
dents of  like  qualifications  in  these  semi- 
nar rooms,  directed  by  the  library  staff. 
The  school  teachers  and  library  staff  can 
meet  in  these  seminar  rooms  and  discuss 
questions  of  common  interest;  and  also 
pursue  advanced  studies.  These  rooms 
should  be  the  centers  for  university  exten- 
sion work. 

People  can  be  brought  together  here  for 
study  and  discussion  of  questions  of  citi- 
zenship, government,  civic  betterment,  and 
all  questions  pertaining  to  social  adjust- 
ment. Study  groups  can  be  formed  for 
regular  and  systematic  study  under  the 
direction  of  competent  teachers.  People 
of  all  ages  can  be  brought  together  for 
study,  which  is  impossible  under  our  pres- 
ent system  of  education.  In  these  groups 
the  mature  man  and  woman  of  high  ideals 
will  exert  a  powerful  influence  upon  the 
young.  Through  this  system  regular  and 
systematic  reading  under  competent  direc- 
tion can  be  encouraged.  Teachers  and 
parents  can  meet  in  these  seminar  rooms 
and  discuss  school  questions. 

Continuation  schools  should  be  main- 
tained. Bring  the  people  from  their  vo- 
cations to  these  continuation  schools;  out 
of  these  schools  organize  classes  for  spe- 
cial work  in  the  library  seminar  rooms; 
thus  may  be  secured  the  union  of  in- 
struction and  practical  application  which 
make  for  increased  eflBciency,  cultivates 
the  whole  man,  and  brightens  his  life. 

John  Stuart  Mill  said,  "The  business  of 
life  is  an  essential  part  of  the  practical 
education  of  a  people  without  which  book 
and  school  and  instruction,  though  most 
necessary  and  salutary,  does  not  suffice  to 
qualify  them  for  conduct  and  for  adapta- 
tion of  means  to  ends.  Instruction  is  only 
one  of  the  desiderata  of  mental  improve- 
ment. Another  indispensable,  is  vigorous 
exercise  of  active  energies." 

It  matters  not  how  highly  we  value  the 


HATTON 


76 


formal  training  of  the  colleges  we  must 
never  overlook  the  fact  that  a  very  large 
majority  do  not  have  the  full  benefit  of 
such  training.  We  must  therefore  deal 
with  conditions  as  they  exist.  When  we 
call  to  mind  the  names  and  careers  of  such 
men  as  Shakespeare,  Benjamin  Franklin, 
Hugh  Miller,  Herbert  Spencer,  Richard 
Baxter,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Michael  Farra- 
day.  Sir  Humphrey  Davey,  Horace  Greeley, 
Sir  William  Herschel,  we  come  to  realize 
that  many  of  the  brightest  stars  in  the 
world's,  constellation  have  been  cut  and 
polished  by  forces  other  than  the  formal 
training  of  the  schools.  Wide  is  the  field 
and  great  is  the  opportunity. 

The  question  may  be  raised,  "How  shall 
we  secure  the  money  for  this  great  work?" 
We  are  expending  in  the  United  States 
more  than  two-thirds  of  our  national  in- 
come for  wars  past  and  for  military  pur- 
poses, educating  men  to  destroy.  Let  this 
fact  come  to  the  knowledge  of  our  peo- 
ple and  a  demand  will  be  made  to  cut 
down  the  appropriations  for  educating 
men  to  destroy  and  increase  the  appro- 
priations for  educating  men  to  construct. 

A  hundred  years  of  peaceful  intercourse 
between  two  great  nations,  Canada  and 
the  United  States,  with  over  three  thou- 
sand miles  of  boundary  without  a  gun- 
boat or  a  soldier,  is  the  best  answer  to 
the  militarist  who  would  spent  the  money 
for  Instruments  of  destruction  that  should 
be  used  for  instruments  of  construction. 

How  shall  we  bring  to  the  knowledge 
of  the  people  information  relating  to  this 
great  work?  There  are  more  than  twenty 
millions  of  students  in  the  schools  of  Can- 
ada and  the  United  States.  These  stu- 
dents touch  directly  or  indirectly  every 
home.  With  libraries  at  various  local  cen- 
ters correlated  with  the  schools,  we  have 
what  may  be  called  the  nervous  system 
of  education  of  these  great  nations. 
Through  this  system  the  people  may  be 
reached  more  uniformly  and  regularly  than 
in  any  other  way.  Here  is  a  great  body 
of  people  seeking  information  coming  into 
direct  contact  with  the  homes. 

Therefore  we  put   the   schools   In   the 


first  place  as  a  means  of  publicity  for  the 
sake  of  information.  Let  us  bring  the 
library  and  the  schools  into  closer  rela- 
tion. Render  service  to  mankind  wher- 
ever mankind  is.  The  best  publicity  is 
secured  through  services  rendered.  The 
patronage  of  the  lawyer  and  physician  de- 
pends largely  on  the  quality  of  service 
rendered.  The  business  man  secures  cus- 
tom when  he  establishes  a  reputation 
for  fair  dealing.  May  not  the  library  ex- 
pect good  measure  of  publicity  from  the 
reputation  it  has  for  real  accomplishment? 
Study  the  problem,  do  things  that  are 
worth  while.  Bring  the  whole  power  of 
the  organization  to  bear  on  the  subject 
of  social  adjustment.  This  will  lead  to 
various  fields  of  activity.  Produce  results 
which  shall  compel  attention.  Do  things 
that  will  be  considered  news.  Having 
done,  having  produced,  do  not  hesitate  to 
make  known.  Give  your  reports  what 
the  newspaper  man  calls  the  "news  turn." 

Every  librarian  should  have  training  in 
psychology  and  sociology  and  should  con- 
tinue to  study.  Study  man  individually, 
in  groups,  In  communities  and  mankind  as 
a  whole. 

The  PRESIDENT:  The  next  in  order 
will  be  the  secretary's  report. 

SECRETARY'S   REPORT 

The  close  of  another  conference  year 
finds  the  executive  office  still  enjoying  the 
hospitality  of  the  Chicago  public  library 
in  the  commodious,  convenient  and  well 
equipped  rooms  in  the  Chicago  public  li- 
brary building.  Heat,  light  and  janitor 
service  have  also  been  supplied  gratuit- 
ously as  in  previous  years.  The  associa- 
tion has  now  held  headquarters  offices  in 
Chicago  for  nearly  three  years  and  it  is 
a  pleasure  for  the  secretary  to  report  that 
the  prospects  for  continuance  and  perma- 
nence of  headquarters  were  never  brighter 
than  they  are  now.  The  income  from 
membership  fees  is  steadily  increasing.  In 
1909  the  amount  raised  from  this  source 
was  $4,557.50;  in  1910,  $4,888.48;  In  1911, 
$5,325.46;  and  the  receipts  thus  far  for 
1912  warrant  us  in  hoping  that  the  total 


76 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


amount  from  membership  fees  will  be  at 
least  $6,200.  While  the  finances  of  the 
association  even  yet  do  not  permit  us  to 
do  many  things  that  are  very  much  worth 
doing  and  which  are  in  the  legitimate 
field  of  activities,  we  seem  gradually  to 
be  approaching  the  time  when  excursions 
can  be  made  into  new  avenues. 

Although  the  work  of  the  headquarters 
office  varies  from  day  to  day  so  that 
no  two  days  are  alike  the  year's  work  in 
the  aggregate  so  closely  resemble  that  for 
last  year  that  much  repetition  of  last 
year's  report  would  be  made  if  a  detailed 
statement  were  presented.  The  routine 
work  has  of  course  been  performed,  such 
as  editing  the  bulletin,  attending  to  the 
correspondence,  advertising  for  the  pub- 
lishing board  and  sale  of  its  publications 
which  in  the  last  year  has  been  the  heav- 
iest in  its  history,  the  payment  of  bills,  the 
keeping  of  books,  the  printing  of  publica- 
tions for  the  publishing  board,  with  the  at- 
tendant work  of  making  contracts  for 
printing  and  the  reading  of  proof,  the  ar- 
rangements for  the  mid-winter  meetings 
and  the  annual  conference.  The  volume 
of  this  routine  work  has  been  very  great 
and  is  still  increasing  so  that  often  for 
days  at  a  time  there  is  little  chance  for 
doing  anything  else. 

Since  November  1,  1911,  a  record  has 
been  kept  of  mail  sent  out  from  the  office. 
From  November  1,  to  May  31,  1912,  11,818 
pieces  of  first-class  mail  have  been  dis- 
patched, or  an  average  of  about  67  pieces 
a  day.  In  addition  to  this  15,794  pieces 
of  circular  matter  were  mailed  either  In 
the  interest  of  the  A.  L.  A.  or  its  publish- 
ing board  during  the  same  period.  No  rec- 
ord of  mail  received  has  been  kept  but  it 
runs  from  50  to  70  letter  a  day,  and  fre- 
quently reaches  150  a  day  at  certain 
seasons  and  on  certain  days  of  the  week. 
Of  course  not  all  of  this  requires  the  per- 
sonal attention  of  the  secretary,  a  large 
share  being  orders  for  publications,  or 
remittances  for  the  same,  payment  of  mem- 
bership dues,  and  various  inquiries,  which 
are  entirely  handled  by  the  office  assist- 
ants.    The    headuarters    office,    however, 


continues  to  be,  we  are  pleased  to  say,  a 
clearing  house  for  general  library  informa- 
tion. The  Chicago  public  and  John  Crerar 
libraries  are  frequently  consulted  by  the 
secretary,  and  occasionally  the  Newberry 
and  other  libraries,  and  I  desire  to  ex- 
press at  this  time  my  hearty  appreciation 
of  the  cordial  assistance  given  me  by  the 
reference  librarians  of  these  various  in- 
stitutions. Thanks  to  their  kind  offices 
we  have  been  able  in  most  instances  either 
to  give  the  desired  information  or  tell 
where  it  may  be  found.  To  those  seek- 
ing advice  regarding  establishment  of  li- 
braries, selection  or  purchase  of  books  or 
policy  of  administration  we  have  gladly 
helped  so  far  as  we  were  able  but  al- 
ways make  it  a  point  to  try  to  put  the 
inquirer  in  touch  with  the  library  com- 
mission of  his  state  or  the  state  library. 
We  have  taken  particular  pleasure  in  cor- 
responding with  certain  towns  in  New 
Mexico,  Florida,  Mississippi  and  Montana 
where  a  public  library  is  either  being  or- 
ganized or  where  a  campaign  to  secure 
one  is  being  conducted.  Notwithstanding 
the  systematic  efforts  of  the  various  com- 
missions to  cover  thoroughly  the  library 
work  of  their  respective  states  many  small 
libraries  and  library  boards  seem  bliss- 
fully Ignorant  of  the  existence  of  such  an 
institution  as  a  state  library  commission, 
and  we  consider  it  no  small  service  to  be 
able  to  enlighten  them  on  this  point.  The 
commissions,  on  the  other  hand,  are  con- 
stantly putting  the  small  libraries  in 
touch  with  the  A.  L.  A.  The  state  li- 
brary commissions  can  always  be  counted 
on  to  co-operate  with  the  A.  L.  A.  to 
publish  our  news  notes  and  notices  re- 
garding publications  in  their  bulletins,  to 
recommend  membership  and  A.  L.  A.  pub- 
lications and  to  respond  quickly  and  effi- 
ciently to  any  special  call.  This  is  thor- 
oughly appreciated  by  the  secretary  and 
the  executive  office.  During  the  past  year 
the  secretary  has  made  several  demands 
on  the  time  of  the  secretaries  of  the  va- 
rious state  library  associations  and  has 
found  response  in  most  cases  prompt,  in- 
telligent and  willing. 


UTLEY 


77 


The  library  interests  of  the  country  are 
making  progress  towards  a  harmony  of 
effort  that  is  good  to  see  and  that  will 
bring  its  sure  result  in  better  and  more 
intelligent  service  to  the  people. 

We  have  endeavored  to  keep  the  value 
and  importance  of  publicity  steadily  be- 
fore us  and  have  accomplished  as  much 
in  this  direction  as  time  and  funds  per- 
mitted. Multigraphed  articles  have  been 
sent  out  to  about  175  of  the  leading  papers 
of  the  country  several  times  during  the 
year  and  from  marked  copies  sent  to  the 
office  and  from  reports  from  librarians 
who  have  seen  the  articles  in  their  local 
papers  we  know  that  these  contributions 
have  been  pretty  generally  used.  Sev- 
eral special  articles  on  either  the  work 
of  the  A.  L.  A.  or  the  Publishing  Board 
have  been  written  for  particular  papers. 
A  publicity  committee  has,  at  the  request 
of  the  secretary,  recently  been  appointed 
in  the  hope  of  securing  still  greater  public- 
ity. The  work  of  the  executive  office,  how- 
ever, does  not  lend  Itself  to  the  making 
of  "stories"  interesting  to  those  outside 
the  profession.  Nearly  every  live  and 
up-to-date  library,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
every  week  living  out  experiences  which, 
if  written  up  in  a  breezy  and  popular  style 
of  which  many  of  our  library  folk  are 
masters,  would  make  capital  articles  ac- 
ceptable not  only  to  the  daily  press  but 
to  the  more  exclusive  magazines  as  well. 
It  appears,  therefore,  that  the  executive 
office  can  perhaps  best  promote  publicity 
for  the  profession,  by  urging  the  prepara- 
tion of  these  contributions  from  the  refer- 
ence librarians,  the  children's  librarians, 
the  loan  desk  people,  the  municipal  refer- 
ence workers,  these  people  who,  as  Kipling 
puts  it,  have 

"lived  more  stories 
Than  Zogbaum  or  I  can  invent." 
The  secretary  has  written  four  or  five 
articles  on  the  A.  L.  A.  for  various  en- 
cyclopedias and  year  books,  and  has  en- 
deavored to  get  the  association  listed  In 
all  the  leading  reference  almanacs  and 
annuals.  Lectures  before  library  schools 
by  the  secretary  regarding  the  A.  L.  A. 


and  its  work,  and  official  representation 
at  the  state  meetings  have  also  given 
publicity  to  the  association. 

During  the  past  year  twelve  persons  have 
received  library  appointments  through  rec- 
ommendations of  the  secretary.  This  is 
a  somewhat  smaller  number  than  the  year 
before  when  about  fifteen  were  helped  to 
positions  through  the  executive  office. 
With  two  or  three  exceptions  the  secretary 
has  made  recommendations  only  when  re- 
quested to  do  so. 

The  work  of  the  publishing  board  occu- 
pies practically  three-quarters  of  the  time 
of  the  assistant  secretary,  at  least  half 
of  the  time  of  the  stenographer  and  order 
assistant  and  probably  a  quarter  of  the 
time  of  the  secretary.  In  consideration  of 
this  the  publishing  board  appropriates 
$2,000  a  year  to  the  operating  expenses  of 
the  office.  The  work  of  the  publishing 
board  is  heavier  than  ever  before  in  its  his- 
tory; the  receipts  from  sales  for  the  calen- 
dar year  1911  being  $8,502.88,  and  for  the 
first  five  months  of  1912  $6,090.16.  Fur- 
ther notice  of  this  feature  of  the  work  of 
the  office  can  be  found  in  the  report  of 
the  A.  L.  A.  publishing  board  presented 
in  print  at  this  conference. 

The  secretary  wishes  here  to  commend 
most  heartily  the  faithful  services  of  his 
fellow-workers  at  the  executive  office.  Miss 
Clara  A.  Simms  and  Miss  Gwendolyn  I. 
Brigham.  Their  capable  and  willing  serv- 
ice has  been  a  large  factor  in  the  work  of 
the  association  and  its  publishing  board 
and  without  such  intelligence  and  loyal 
help  the  results  of  the  year  could  not  have 
been  attained.  For  the  active  co-opera- 
tion and  good  will  of  the  officers  and 
other  members  of  the  executive  board  the 
secretary  is  deeply  grateful.  It  has  been 
a  pleasure  to  work  under  such  congenial 
conditions. 

Membership — There  are  more  members 
in  the  A.  L.  A.  at  the  present  time  than 
ever  before  in  the  history  of  the  associa- 
tion. The  secretary  has  conducted  as 
vigorously  as  possible  a  steady  campaign 
for  new  members,  this  work  not  only  be- 
ing the  duty  of  the  office  but  directly  In 


78 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


line  with  the  conviction  of  the  secretary 
who  has  recommended  membership  in  the 
national  association  to  all  library  work- 
ers in  the  earnest  belief  that  this  action 
is  fully  as  beneficial  to  the  individual  as 
tc  the  association. 

When  the  January  membership  bills 
were  mailed  we  enclosed  In  each  envelope 
an  appeal  for  the  member  addressed  to 
secure  at  least  one  new  member  for  the 
association.  This  resulted  directly  in  the 
addition  of  over  one  hundred  new  mem- 
bers and  the  secretary  wishes  to  take 
this  opportunity  to  thank  most  sincerely 
and  heartily  those  members  who  aided 
in  this  work.  Besides  the  pleasure  of  se- 
curing these  new  members  it  was  gratify- 
ing to  feel  that  so  many  old  members  took 
such  practical  interest  in  aiding  the  asso- 
ciation. In  April  membership  appeals  were 
sent  to  1854  members  of  state  library  asso- 
ciations who  were  not  members  of  the 
A.  L.  A.  This  has  resulted  in  a  fair  in- 
crease of  membership.  In  December  the 
secretary  sent  letters  requesting  member- 
ship to  232  library  people  who  had,  ac- 
cording to  the  news  columns  of  library 
periodicals,  recently  changed  their  posi- 
tions assumably  for  the  better.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  more  or  less  impersonal  ap- 
peals the  secretary  has  written  a  large 
number  of  personal  letters  to  those  with 
whom  he  is  either  personally  acquainted 
or  else  with  whom  he  has  conducted  an 
office  correspondence.  As  in  all  other 
lines  of  business  it  is  this  personal  ap- 
peal that  has  been  the  most  effective  and 
has  brought  the  largest  percentage  of  re- 
turns. 

When  the  1911  Handbook  went  to  press 
last  August  there  were  2046  members  in 
the  A.  L.  A.  Of  this  number  13  have  since 
died  and  26  have  resigned.  Since  last 
August  351  new  members  have  been  re- 
ceived making  the  present  total  net  mem- 
bership 2,358.  Assuming  that  the  usual 
number,  or  about  150  persons,  will  dis- 
continue their  membership  this  summer 
the  net  membership  in  the  1912  Hand- 
book will  be  approximately  2,208.  Of  the 
present  total  membership  332  are  library 


or  institutional  members,  24  of  whom  have 
joined  since  last  August. 

A.  L.  A.  Representatives  at  Other  Con- 
ferences— The  practice  of  having  an  offi- 
cer or  officially  appointed  delegate  repre- 
sent the  association  at  the  state  library 
association  meetings  has  been  followed 
the  past  year  with  success  fully  equal 
to  that  in  previous  years.  Since  the  Pas- 
adena conference  there  have  been  39  state 
or  provincial  library  meetings,  and  a 
speaker  representing  the  A.  L.  A.  has 
been  present  at  16  of  these.  The  A.  L.  A. 
at  present  has  too  small  a  budget  to  meet 
the  traveling  expenses  of  these  speakers, 
which  have  been  met  either  by  the  state 
association  or  by  the  delegates  personally. 

The  joint  conference  of  Michigan  and 
Ohio  at  Cedar  Point,  Ohio,  Sept.  2-8,  was 
attended  by  Mrs.  H.  L.  Elmendorf,  presi- 
dent of  the  American  library  association, 
who  delivered  an  address  on  "Joy  Read- 
ing," and  by  the  secretary,  who  spoke  in- 
formally on  the  work  of  the  A.  L.  A.  The 
New  York  state  meeting  in  New  York 
City,  Sept  25-30,  was  also  attended  by 
both  the  president  and  secretary,  Mrs. 
Elmendorf  giving  her  address  on  "Joy 
Reading,"  and  the  secretary  speaking  on 
"What  the  American  Library  Association 
Stands  For." 

Mrs.  Elmendorf  was  the  official  delegate 
to  the  Keystone  State  library  association 
meeting  at  Saegertown,  Pa.,  Oct.  19-21, 
giving  an  address  on  "Joy  Reading;"  at 
the  District  of  Columbia  library  association 
conference,  at  Washington,  November  8, 
where  she  gave  a  talk  on  some  of  the 
recent  books;  and  at  the  New  York  state 
teachers'  association  meeting  at  Albany, 
Nov.  27-29,  speaking  on  the  subject,  "School 
and  library  co-operation;  a  concrete  ex- 
ample and  a  little  theory." 

Mr.  J.  I.  Wyer,  Jr.,  represented  the  A. 
L.  A.  at  the  state  meetings  of  Iowa,  at 
Mason  City,  Oct.  10-12;  of  Illinois,  at  Jollet, 
Oct.  11-13;  and  of  Missouri  at  Hannibal, 
Oct.  18-19;  delivering  at  each  meeting  an 
'1  dress  on  the  snbjeet,  "What  Americans 
Read." 

Mr.  Chalmers  Hadley,  librarian  of  the 


UTLEY 


79 


Denver  public  library,  and  ex-secretary 
of  the  A.  L.  A.,  was  the  representative 
of  the  American  library  association  at 
the  meeting  of  the  Pacific  northv?est  li- 
brary association,  at  Victoria,  B.  C,  Sept. 
4-6,  giving  an  address  on  "The  Library  and 
the  Community." 

The  secretary  attended  the  Minnesota 
meeting,  at  Lake  Minnetonka,  Sept.  20-22, 
the  Nebraska  meeting  at  Omaha,  Oct.  18- 
19,  and  the  North  Dakota  state  meeting 
at  Jamestown,  Oct.  20-21,  giving  at  each 
conference  an  address  on  "Reaching  the 
People."  He  also  gave  an  address  at 
the  joint  session  of  the  Indiana  library 
association  and  the  Indiana  library  trus- 
tees' association,  at  Indianapolis,  Nov.  8th, 
on  "The  Legal  and  Moral  Requirements 
of  a  Library  Trustee." 

Dr.  Arthur  E.  Bostwick,  librarian  of 
the  St.  Louis  public  library,  and  ex-presl- 
dent  of  the  A.  L.  A.,  was  the  principal 
out-of-state  speaker  at  the  Alabama  library 
association  conference,  at  Tuscaloosa,  and 
at  the  State  University,  November  21,  22 
and  23.  Dr.  Bostwick  gave  two  addresses; 
the  first  on  "The  Companionship  of 
Books;"  and  the  second  on  "The  Message 
of  the  Library." 

Miss  Clara  F.  Baldwin,  secretary  of  the 
Minnesota  public  library  commission,  at- 
tended, as  A.  L.  A.  delegate,  the  joint  meet- 
ing of  the  Montana  state  teachers'  asso- 
ciation and  Montana  library  association, 
at  Great  Falls,  December  27-29,  1911,  and 
spoke  on  "The  work  of  a  library  com- 
mission." 

Dr.  Reuben  G.  Thwaites,  secretary  of 
the  Wisconsin  State  Historical  Society, 
and  an  ex-president  of  the  A.  L.  A.,  officially 
represented  the  association  at  the  inaugu- 
ration of  Dr.  George  E.  Vincent,  as  presi- 
dent of  the  University  of  Minnesota,  Octo- 
ber 18. 

Mr.  Carl  B.  Roden,  of  the  Chicago  pub- 
lic library,  and  treasurer  of  the  A.  L.  A., 
represented  the  association  and  gave  an 
address  on  "The  library  as  a  paying  In- 
vestment," at  the  Wisconsin  library  asso- 


ciation   meeting    at    Janesville,    February 
21-23. 

The  secretary  has  lectured  during  the 
year  before  the  Iowa  summer  library 
school,  the  New  York  public  library  school, 
and  the  University  of  Illinois  library 
school.  He  also  addressed  the  summer  li- 
brary conference  at  Madison,  Wisconsin, 
on  the  work  of  the  A.  L.  A. 

Changes  in  Officers  and  Committees — 
Following  his  election  as  first  vice-presi- 
dent, Mr.  Henry  E.  Legler  resigned  as  non- 
offlcial  member  of  the  executive  board  and 
Miss  Alice  S.  Tyler  was  elected  by  the 
board  to  fill  the  unexpired  term  ending  In 
1912. 

Mr.  Harrison  W.  Craver  was  unable  to 
accept  re-appointment  as  chairman  of 
committee  on  library  administration  and 
Dr.  Arthur  E.  Bostwick  was  appointed  in 
his  place. 

Miss  Margaret  W.  Brown  resigned  from 
the  committee  on  bookbinding  and  Miss 
Rose  G.  Murray  was  appointed  to  succeed 
her. 

Necrology — The  association  has  lost 
heavily  by  death  during  the  past  year. 
Our  losses  include  the  senior  ex-presldent 
of  the  association,  who  was  a  life  mem- 
ber, two  other  life  members,  and  several 
who  were,  by  their  regular  attendance 
through  many  years,  familiar  figures  at 
our  annual  conferences.  In  all  13  members 
and  4  former  members  have  passed  away 
since  we  last  met  In  conference.  The  roll 
Is  as  follows: 

Emma  Helen  Blair,  for  several  years  a 
member  of  the  staff  of  the  Wisconsin 
State  Historical  Library,  died  September 
26,  1911.  Miss  Blair  had  performed  valu- 
able and  important  work  as  an  editor  and 
professional  indexer,  assisting  among  other 
things  in  editing  "Jesuit  Relations"  and 
the  long  series  of  historical  documents  in 
Spanish  entitled  "The  Philippine  Islands." 
She  had  been  a  member  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
continuously  since  1896  (No.  1524),  and 
attended  the  conferences  of  1896,  1900  and 
1904.     See  Library  Journal,  36:603. 

Isaac  S.  Bradley,  for  many  years  libra- 
rian and  assistant  superintendent  of  the 


80 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Wisconsin  State  Historical  Society,  died 
April  22,  1912.  He  joined  the  A.  L.  A.  in 
1890,  (No.  790)  and  had  taken  great  in- 
terest in  the  work  of  the  association.  Few 
faces  were  more  familiar  at  the  confer- 
ences than  his,  as  he  attended  sixteen  of 
the  annual  meetings,  those  of  1890,  '92,  '93, 
'95,  '96,  '97,  '98,  '99,  1900,  '01,  '02,  '03,  '04, 
'06,  '07  and  '08. 

Frederick  Morgan  Crunden,  senior  ex- 
president  of  the  A.  L.  A.,  life  member,  and 
librarian  of  the  St.  Louis  public  library, 
from  1877  to  1909,  died  October  28,  1911. 
He  was  president  of  the  A.  L.  A.  1889-90, 
presiding  over  the  Fabyans  conference  of 
the  latter  year,  anH  vice-president  of  the 
International  Library  Conference  at  Lon- 
don in  1897.  He  joined  the  A.  L.  A.  in 
1878  (No.  129)  and  became  a  life  member 
about  1889.  To  record  Mr.  Crunden's  serv- 
ices to  the  American  library  world  and  to 
the  A.  L.  A.  would  be  practically  to  give 
a  history  of  the  association  for  the  past 
30  years.  He  participated  in  many  pro- 
grams and  conference  discussions  and  was 
one  of  the  best  known  and  beloved  of 
American  librarians.  Mr.  Crunden  at- 
tended the  conferences  of  1883  and  1886 
to  1905  inclusive,  twenty  in  all,  without  an 
absence,  except  at  the  San  Francisco  con- 
ference of  1891.  He  also  attended  the 
London  international  conference  In  1897. 
See  A.  L.  A.  Bulletin  6:3;  Library  journal, 
33:569-70;    Public   libraries,   16:436-38. 

Irene  Gibson,  chief  assistant  In  the  pub- 
lication section  of  the  Library  of  Congress, 
died  July  9,  1911.  She  joined  the  asso- 
ciation in  1893  (No.  1114),  and  became  a 
life  member  in  1910.  She  attended  the 
conferences  of  1893,  '97,  1903,  '08,  '10.  See 
Library  journal,  36:439. 

Jessie  Sherburne  Gile,  assistant  In 
charge  of  the  work  with  schools  in  the 
public  library  of  Haverhill,  Mass.,  died 
October  22,  1911.  She  joined  the  A.  L.  A. 
in  1902,  (No.  2555),  and  attended  the  con- 
ferences of  1902  and  '06. 

David  L.  Kingsbury,  assistant  librarian 
of  the  Minnesota  Historical  Society  of  St. 
Paul,  died  January  24,  1912.  He  joined 
the  A.  L.  A.  In  1904   (No.  3079),  and  at- 


tended the  conferences  of  1904,  '08  and  '11. 

Mrs.  Evelyn  N.  Lane,  head  of  the  cir- 
culating department  of  the  Springfield 
(Mass.)  City  Library,  died  August  30,  1911. 
She  had  been  a  member  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
since  1902  (No.  2454),  but  so  far  as  re- 
corded attended  only  the  conference  of 
that  year. 

Robbins  Little,  for  twenty  years  super- 
intendent of  the  Astor  Library,  New  York 
City,  died  April  13,  1912.  He  joined  the 
A.  L.  A.  in  1880  (No.  389),  and  later  be- 
came a  life  member.  So  far  as  recorded 
he  attended  none  of  the  conferences. 

Stella  Lucas,  librarian  of  the  Tainter 
Memorial  Library  of  Menominee,  Wis.,  died 
July  30,  1911.  She  joined  the  A.  L.  A.  in 
1901  (No.  2252),  and  attended  the  con- 
ferences In  1901,  '05  and  '08. 

Adolph  L.  Peck,  librarian  of  the  Glovers- 
ville  (N.  Y.)  Free  Library  since  its  founda- 
tion in  1880,  died  October  9,  1911.  He 
joined  the  A.  L.  A.  in  1883  (No.  466),  and 
was  a  familiar  figure  at  the  annual  confer- 
ences, having  attended  those  of  1883,  '85, 
'86,  '87,  '90,  '92,  '93,  '94,  '96,  '98,  1900  and 
1906. 

Mrs.  Minerva  A.  Sanders,  for  many  years 
librarian  of  the  Deborah  Cook  Sayles  Me- 
morial Library,  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  died 
March  20,  1912.  Although  Mrs.  Sanders 
was  an  enthusiastic  attendant  on  A.  L.  A. 
conferences  she  never  personally  joined 
the  association,  but  was  ofladally  entitled 
to  a  seat  In  the  conferences  by  virtue  of 
the  Institutional  membership  of  her  li- 
brary. She  had  attended  fifteen  confer- 
ences and  was  well  known  to  the  veterans 
of  the  association,  who  well  remember  her 
early  advocacy  of  open  shelves  and  work 
for  children. 

L.  W.  SIcotte,  president  of  the  Numis- 
matic and  Antiquarian  Society,  of  Mon- 
treal, died  September  5,  1911.  He  joined 
the  A.  L.  A.  in  1900  (No.  1947).  So  far 
as  recorded  he  attended  only  the  con- 
ference of  1900  held  in  his  home  city. 

T.  Guilford  Smith,  of  Buffalo,  regent  of 
the  University  of  the  State  of  New  York, 
died  Feb.  20,  1912.  He  had  been  a  mem- 
ber of  the  A.  L.  A.  continuously  since  1893 


RODEN 


81 


(No.  1193),  and  attended  the  conferences 
of  1897  and  1903. 

The  following  persons  at  various  times 
were  members  of  the  association  but  were 
not  at  the  time  of  their  death: 

Zu  Adams,  for  many  years  connected 
with  the  Kansas  State  Historical  Society, 
died  April,  1911.  She  was  a  member  of 
the  A.  L.  A.  for  the  year  1904  (No.  3203), 
and  attended  the  St.  Louis  conference. 

Caroline  A.  Farley,  formerly  librarian 
of  Radcliffe  College,  Cambridge,  Mass., 
died  March  14,  1912.  She  joined  the  asso- 
ciation in  1896  (No.  1394),  and  was  a  mem- 
ber continuously  until  1909.  So  far  as 
recorded  she  attended  none  of  the  con- 
ferences. 

Stephen  B.  Griswold,  for  many  years  law 


librarian  of  the  New  York  state  library, 
died  May  4,  1912.  He  joined  the  A.  L.  A. 
in  1892  (No.  943),  and  remained  a  mem- 
ber until  1904.  So  far  as  recorded  he  at- 
tended no  conferences. 

William  B.  Parker,  treasurer  of  Library 
Bureau,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  died  November 
2,  1911.  He  was  a  member  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
continuously  from  1889  (No.  757),  to  1909, 
and  was  secretary  of  the  association  in 
1890.  He  attended  the  conferences  of  1889, 
'90  and  '96. 

The  secretary's  report  was  accepted  on 
motion  of  Mr.  J.  I.  Wyer,  Jr.,  seconded 
by  Dr.  C.  W.  Andrews. 

The  treasurer's  report  which  had  been 
previously  printed,  was  read  by  title,  and 
accepted. 


AMERICAN   LIBRARY   ASSOCIATION 

Report  of  the  Treasurer,  Jan.  1st  to  May  3l8t,  1912. 
Receipts 

Balance,  Union  Trust  Company,  Chicago,  January  1,  1912 $2,005.66 

Trustees  Endowment  Fund  Interest  175.00 

Trustees  Carnegie  Fund  Interest    1,524.33 

George  B.  TJtley,  Headquarters  collections   4,815.50 

A.  L.  A.  Publishing  Board,  Installment  on  Hdqrs.  expense  ....  1,000.00 
Interest  on  bank  balance  Jan.  to  May   17.34 

Expenditures 
Checks  No.  28-32  (Vouchers  No.  437-505) 
Distributed  as  follows: 

Bulletin    $  187.90 

Conference    15.50 

Committees    54.17 

Headquarters: 

Salaries 2,103.10 

Miscellaneous 308.33 

Trustees  Endowment  Fund  (Life  mem.)   150.00 

A.  L.  A.  Pub.  Bd.  Carnegie  Fund  interest 1,524.33 

Balance  Union  Trust  Company,  June  1,  1912 

George  B.  Utley,  National  Bank  of  Republic   

Total   balance    

Respectfully  submitted, 

C.   B.   RODEN,   Treasurer. 
Chicago,  June  1,  1912. 


$9,537.83 


15,194.50 
250.00 

$5,444.50 


The    following    report    of    the    finance      constitution    the    finance    committee    sub- 


committee  was    read    by   Dr.    C. 
drews,  chairman,  and  accepted. 


W.    An- 


REPORT  OF  FINANCE  COMIVIITTEE. 
To  the  American  Library  Association: 


mit  the  following  report: 

They  have  duly  considered  the  probable 
Income  of  the  association  for  the  current 
year  and  have  estimated  it  at  $19,450,  and 
have  approved  appropriations  made  by  the 


In  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the      Executive  Board  to  that  amount.    The  de- 


82 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


tails  of  the  estimated  income  and  of  the 
appropriations  are  given  in  the  January 
number  of  the  Bulletin.  The  committee 
have  also  approved  the  appropriation  to 
the  use  of  the  Publishing  Board  to  any 
excess  of  sales  over  the  amount  estimated. 
The  receipts  and  expenditures  of  the  Pub- 
lishing Board  have  been  included  in  the 
figures  given,  so  that  they  now  exhibit 
the  total  financial  resources  and  expendi- 
tures of  the  association. 

On  behalf  of  the  committee  the  chair- 
man has  audited  the  accounts  of  the  treas- 
urer and  of  the  secretary  as  assistant  treas- 
urer. He  has  found  -that  the  receipts  as 
stated  by  the  treasurer  agree  with  the 
transfer  checks  from  the  assistant  treas- 
urer, and  with  the  cash  accounts  of  the 
latter.  The  expenditures  as  stated  are  ac- 
counted for  by  properly  approved  vouch- 
ers. The  bank  balance  and  petty  cash, 
as  stated,  agree  with  the  bank  books  and 
petty  cash  balances.  The  accounts  of  the 
assistant  treasurer  have  been  found  cor- 
rect as  cash  accounts. 


On  behalf  of  the  committee  Mr.  B.  H. 
Anderson  has  examined  the  accounts  of 
the  trustees  for  1911,  has  checked  the  se- 
curities now  in  their  custody,  and  certi- 
fies to  the  correctness  of  the  figures,  to 
the  bonds  on  hand,  and  the  balance  in 
bank.  He  finds  that  at  par  value  the 
bonds  and  securities  amount  to  $102,500 
for  the  Carnegie  fund,  and  $7,000  for  the 
Principal  account. 

He  has  examined  the  vouchers  for  the 
amounts  transmitted  to  the  treasurer  and 
has  compared  the  reports  of  the  treasurer 
and  trustees  in  regard  to  the  number  of 
new  life  memberships.  He  certifies  that 
to  the  best  of  his  knowledge  and  belief 
all  of  the  accounts  as  submitted  to  him 
are  correct. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted 
for  the  committee. 

CLEMENT  W.  ANDREWS,  Chairman. 

The  following  reports  which  had  been 
previously  printed,  were  read  by  title  and 
accepted. 


A.  L.  A.  PUBLISHING   BOARD 


With  the  issuance  of  the  A.  L.  A.  Cata- 
log, 1904-11,  which  is  now  in  press,  the 
Publishing  Board  practically  completes  an 
important  group  of  bibliographical  aids 
which  has  been  in  process  of  compilation 
or  publication  during  the  past  five  years. 
The  chief  publications  embrace  the  fol- 
lowing: 

A.  L.  A.  Catalog,  1904-11,  to  be  issued 

in  1912. 
List  of  subject  headings   for  use   in 

dictionary  catalogs,   3d   edition   revised 

by  Mary  Josephine  Briggs.    1911. 
Small  library  buildings;    a  collection 

of  plans  with  introduction  and  notes  by 

Cornelia  Marvin.    1908. 

Guide  to  the  study  and  use  of  refer- 
ence books,  by  Alice  B.  Kroeger.    1908. 
Supplement  to  the  above,  compiled  by 

Isadore  G.  Mudge.     1911. 
Foreign  book  lists,  embracing  to  date 

German,  French,  Hungarian,  Norwegian 

and  Danish,  and  Swedish. 
550  Children's  books;   a  purchase  list 

for  public  libraries,  by  Harriet  H.  Stan- 
ley.   1910. 
Selected  list  of  music  and  books  about 

music  for  public  libraries,  by  Louisa  M. 

Hooper.     1909. 
Hints  to  small  libraries,  by  Mary  W. 

Plummer,  4th  edition.    1911. 

This  list  does  not  include  a  number  of 
new  tracts  and  handbooks,  nor  the  tenta- 
tive chapters  of  an  A.  L.  A.  Manual  of 
library  economy  which  it  is  proposed  upon 
completion  to  assemble  in  book  form.  An 
index  to  annual  library  reports,  which  is 
well  under  way,  will  probably  be  put  into 
type  before  the  expiration  of  the  calendar 
year.  In  addition,  during  the  quintennial 
period  now  closing,  the  Board  has  been 
Instrumental  in  securing  the  publication  of 
the  following  important  bibliographical 
aids  bearing  the  imprints  of  other  organi- 
zations: Index  of  economic  material  in 
documents  of  the  states  of  the  United 
States,  prepared  by  Adelaide  R.  Hasse; 
A.  L.  A.  Portrait  index,  edited  by  W.  C. 
Lane  and  Nina  E.  Browne. 


New  chapters  of  the  Manual  of  library 
economy  are  noted  in  another  paragraph. 

Directions  for  the  librarian  of  a  small 
library  (3000  copies),  by  Zaidee  Brown 
was  reprinted  for  the  League  of  library 
commissions  from  the  type  used  by  the 
Free  public  library  commission  of  Massa- 
chusetts. 

The  library  and  social  movements;  a 
list  of  material  obtainable  free  or  at  small 
expense  (1250  copies),  compiled  by  Ono 
Mary  Imhoff,  of  the  Wisconsin  free  library 
commission,  was  reprinted  for  the  League 
from  the  type  used  for  the  edition  of  the 
Wisconsin  free  library  commission. 

Subject  index  to  vol.  7  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
Booklist  (2500  copies)  was  printed  in  June, 
1911.  Although  proportionately  valuable 
to  vols.  1-6  the  sale  has  been  very  unsat- 
isfactory and  is  not  an  encouragement  to 
prepare  future  yearly  indexes. 

During  the  past  year  the  following  pub- 
lications have  been  reprinted:  A.  L.  A. 
Index  to  general  literature,  edited  by  W.  I. 
Fletcher,  1905  edition  (500  copies);  Cata- 
loging for  small  libraries,  by  Theresa 
Hitchler  (Handbook  No.  2)  (1000  copies); 
Binding  for  small  libraries,  compiled  by 
the  A.  L.  A.  Committee  on  Bookbinding 
(Handbook  No.  5)  (1500  copies);  Guide 
to  reference  books,  by  Alice  B.  Kroeger 
(1000  copies);  and  Cutter's  Notes  from 
the  art  section  of  a  library  (Tract  No.  5) 
(1000  copies).  A  new  edition  of  Miss 
Stearns'  Essential  in  library  administra- 
tion (2000  copies)  is  now  in  press.  It  has 
been  brought  up  to  date  by  the  author. 

Publications  out  of  Print — Several  pub- 
lications for  which  plates  were  not  made 
have  recently  become  out  of  print.  Maga- 
zines for  the  small  library,  by  Katharine 
MacDonald  Jones,  and  Graded  list  of 
stories  for  reading  aloud,  by  Harriot  E. 
Hassler  were  both  League  publications 
which  had  been  turned  over  to  the  Board. 
There  is  a  steady  demand  for  them  and 
they  should  be  either  brought  up  to  date 
and  reprinted  or  something  else  issued  on 
the  same  subject. 


83 


84 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Questions  of  Policy — The  work  now 
nearing  an  end  has  engaged  the  attention 
and  absorbed  the  resources  of  the  Pub- 
lishing Board  to  an  extent  that  precluded 
entry  into  new  fields  calling  for  large 
expenditures.  The  editorial  work  involved 
in  the  compilation  of  the  third  edition  of 
Subject  headings,  extending  over  a  period 
of  several  years,  and  the  editorial  expenses 
incident  to  the  publication  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
Booklist  have  practically  exhausted  the 
current  funds  available  for  such  service. 
Beginning  with  the  new  fiscal  year,  the 
funds  derived  from  sales  will  doubtless 
care  for  all  outstanding  obligations,  and 
the  income  from  the  Carnegie  endowment 
can  be  devoted  to  maintain  and  to  further 
strengthen  the  Booklist,  and  to  undertake 
new  enterprises. 

Out  of  the  great  labor  involved,  and  time 
required  in  the  preparation  of  Subject 
headings,  and  of  the  A.  L.  A.  Catalog,  has 
developed  the  suggestion  that  work  for 
new  editions  of  the  former  compilation 
should  be  continuous,  and  that  the  Book- 
list bears  a  logical  relationship  to  the  A. 
L.  A.  Catalog.  While  the  members  of  the 
Publishing  Board  are  not  fully  prepared  at 
this  time  to  urge  a  definite  permanent 
policy  in  this  connection,  an  interesting 
suggestion  comes  from  Mrs.  Elmendorf, 
which  well  merits  consideration  in  having 
an  important  bearing  on  future  develop- 
ment. Her  suggestion,  in  her  own  words, 
is  this: 

"Would  it  not  be  well  to  consider  the 
publication  of  the  A.  L.  A.  Catalog  in 
loose-leaf  form  on  something  the  same 
principle  as  Nelson's  Cyclopedia?  Differ- 
ent parts  of  it  might  then  be  revised  from 
time  to  time  and  the  parts  or  pages  might 
be  for  sale  separately. 

"It  could  be  so  printed  that  the  pages 
might  be  mounted  and  arranged  in  a  verti- 
cal file,  headings  being  suggested  at  the 
bottom  for  arrangement  as  any  library 
preferred,  in  regular  classed  order  or  in 
alphabetico-classed.  A  card  index  to  the 
vertical  file  might  be  made  to  minimize 
the  difficulties  of  the  classed  arrangement. 
The  notes  should  be  attractive  notes,  let- 


ting the  presence  of  the  book  in  this 
"Choice  Catalog"  vouch  for  its  worth  and 
in  a  general  way  for  the  treatment,  for  the 
choice  should  be  guided  by  the  best  popu- 
lar, readable  treatment.  I  am  more  and 
more  thinking  that  effective  helps  to 
awakened  personal  interest  are  needed  and 
are  lacking.  The  A.  L.  A.  Catalog  has 
always  been  too  bulky,  too  costly,  too 
much  directed  to  the  buyer  for  effective 
personal  service.  I  have  long  been  con- 
vinced that  the  greatest  popular  service 
can  be  performed  even  in  the  large  libra- 
ries with  quite  a  limited  number  of  books, 
I  think  not  more  than  20,000,  perhaps  not 
more  than  10,000.  I  should  like  to  adver- 
tise that  many  adequately  and  attractively 
and  watch  the  results. 

"I  know  that  there  are  many  objections 
and  difficulties  to  be  met,  and  yet  I  believe 
that  there  is  the  germ  of  a  workable 
scheme  present." 

List  of  Subject  Headings — The  chief 
publication  of  the  year  has  been  the  new 
List  of  subject  headings,  revised  and  edited 
by  Mary  Josephine  Briggs,  cataloger  of  the 
Buffalo  public  library.  After  nearly  five 
years  of  labor  this  third  edition  appeared 
October  1st,  1911  and  has  met  with  a  most 
appreciative  reception.  3000  copies  ^ere 
printed  as  a  first  edition.  1312  copies  have 
already  been  sold  (to  June  1),  and  a  steady 
demand  continues.  The  reviews  have 
been  almost  uniformly  favorable. 

A.  L.  A.  Catalog,  1904-11 — The  new  A.  L. 
A.  Catalog,  1904-11,  although  not  yet  off 
the  press  as  this  report  is  written,  will  be 
distributed  we  hope  about  the  date  of  the 
Ottawa  meeting.  It  contains  a  selection 
of  about  3000  of  the  best  books  published 
since  the  A.  L.  A.  Catalog  of  1904,  with  a 
list  of  books  now  out  of  print  which  ap- 
peared in  that  Catalog,  and  also  of  new 
editions.  Children's  books  are  listed  sep- 
arately. Five  thousand  copies  are  being 
printed  as  a  first  edition,  of  which  nearly 
3000  have  been  subscribed  for  in  advance 
of  publication.  From  the  preface  written 
by  the  editor.  Miss  Elva  L.  Bascom,  the 
following  extracts  are  selected: 

"The  general  plan  of  the  Catalog  and  the 


A.   L.   A.   PUBLISHING  BOARD 


85 


routine  of  co-operation  in  the  selection  of 
titles  practically  coincide  with  those  of  the 
original  work  except  that  the  whole  rou- 
tine, from  the  preliminary  selection  to  the 
final  preparation  for  printing,  has  re- 
mained in  the  hands  of  one  person. 

"All  titles  have  been  submitted  to  the 
publishers  for  latest  information,  so  that 
the  list  should  be  dependable  for  prices. 

"The  sixth  edition  (1899)  of  the  Decimal 
Classification  has  been  followed.  This  de- 
cision was  made  on  the  information  that 
the  smaller  libraries  had  not  to  any  extent 
adopted  the  seventh  edition.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  when  the  time  comes  to  revise 
the  1904  Catalog  there  may  be  at  hand  a 
complete  revised  edition  of  the  "D.  C." 
simplified  for  the  requirements  of  the 
smaller  libraries. 

"The  addition  of  subject  headings  (not 
given  with  the  titles  in  the  1904  Catalog 
was  determined  on  before  the  decision  to 
print  only  a  class  list  was  made.  It  has 
been  a  frequent  request  from  the  libra- 
rians of  smaller  libraries,  who  need  help 
in  this  matter  and  who  found  it  difficult 
to  find  the  headings  chosen  for  the  Dic- 
tionary list  in  the  1904  Catalog.  The  new 
edition  of  the  List  of  subject  headings 
had  been  followed  with  some  additions. 
Where  the  subjects  of  analytics  are  easily 
ascertainable,  they  are  only  recommended. 

"While  in  the  beginning  the  attempt  was 
made  to  adhere  fairly  closely  to  the  pro- 
portion of  titles  to  each  subject  given  in 
the  1904  Catalog,  it  was  found  impossible 
to  do  so  without  impairing  the  usefulness 
oC  the  list.  The  output  of  books  in  the 
subjects  grouped  under  Sociology  has  been 
so  great,  and  the  demand  for  them  so 
heavy,  that  it  seemed  better  to  include  a 
larger  number  than  was  originally  planned 
rather  than  risk  weakening  the  usefulness 
of  the  section.  The  greatest  increase  has 
been  in  Useful  Arts,  and  this  was  inten- 
tional, since  there  is  no  division  where 
the  average  librarian  is  more  in  need  of 
help,  nor  where  it  is  more  difficult  to  find 
the  "best  book"  on  short  notice. 

"Two  special  lists  are  incorporated  in 
the   Catalog,   both   in   answer  to  definite 


requests.  One  is  a  selection  of  about  50 
titles  of  religious  books  specially  chosen 
for  Catholic  readers.  Two  preliminary 
selections  were  made,  one  by  an  assistant 
in  the  St.  Louis  public  library  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  librarian,  Dr.  A.  E.  Bostwick, 
and  a  second  by  the  Rev.  W.  J.  McMuUen 
of  Pittsburgh,  at  the  request  of  the  libra- 
rian of  the  Carnegie  library  of  Pittsburgh, 
Mr.  H.  W.  Graver.  Both  lists  were  then  in- 
corporated into  a  much  more  extensive 
one,  covering  all  subjects,  compiled  by  Mr. 
William  Stetson  Merrill,  of  the  Newberry 
library.  The  final  selection,  limited  to 
religious  books,  was  submitted  to  Arch- 
bishop Ireland,  and  at  his  request  was 
examined  by  the  Rev.  J.  A,  Ryan,  of  the 
St.  Paul  Seminary,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

The  second  list  consists  of  50  titles  of 
modern  drama  and  books  about  it.  It  was 
impossible  to  get  any  unanimity  of  opinion 
on  such  a  brief  selection  and  fhe  editor  is 
aware  that  it  will  satisfy  a  very  small 
proportion  of  libraries.  It  is  allowed  to 
stand,  however,  for  the  suggestion  it  may 
give  to  the  perplexed  librarian  of  the 
smaller  library. 

"It  is  hardly  to  be  imagined  that  any 
one  ever  prepared  a  list  of  this  character 
and  extent  without  wishing  to  ask  the 
indulgence  of  possible  critics  and  to  ex- 
plain why  it  is  so  much  farther  from 
perfect  than  it  was  expected  to  be.  It 
seems  a  fairly  simple  task  to  select  3000 
titles  from  the  books  published  in  eight 
years,  but  a  list  based  on  the  co-operation 
of  about  75  librarians  and  100  experts,  all 
fully  engaged  with  their  own  work,  and 
selected,  edited  and  prepared  for  printing 
in  the  intervals  between  work  having  a 
prior  claim,  is  bound  to  progress  but 
slowly  and  to  suffer  many  changes  of  for- 
tune. One  needs  to  be  this  sort  of  clear- 
ing house  of  opinion  but  once  to  realize 
how  far  apart  our  libraries  are  in  the  mat- 
ter of  book  selection.  In  many  cases  what 
is  one  library's  meat  seems  to  be  another's 
poison,  and  one  soon  reaches  the  convic- 
tion that  there  are  no  "best  books"  on  any 
subject  for  a  library  of  any  size — if  li- 
brarians alone  are  to  be  consulted.    Hap- 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


pily,  professors,  special  students  and  ex- 
perts in  general  are  less  at  variance.  It 
is  only  fair  to  say  that  the  Fiction  and 
Children's  lists  represent  librarians'  votes 
only.  It  is  to  be  doubted  if  the  Fiction, 
at  least,  would  have  retained  the  proper 
amount  of  "light  reading"  if  it  had  passed 
through  the  hands  of  literature  professors. 
If  it  does  not  prove  a  good  "working"  selec- 
tion the  editor  will  be  greatly  disappointed, 
for  it  was  on  that  ground  alone  that  many 
titles  escaped  the  deleting  pencil." 

A.  L.  A.  Booklist — ^With  the  current 
number  of  the  A.  L.  A.  Booklist,  volume  8 
is  completed.  Since  the  initial  number 
appeared  in  January,  1905,  the  Booklist 
has  come  to  be  regarded  as  an  indispen- 
sable tool  in  every  library.  There  has  been 
no  deviation  from  the  original  policy  of 
furnishing  to  the  libraries,  and  the  numer- 
ous small  libraries  particularly,  an  un- 
biased guide  in  selection  of  books  cur- 
rently published.  The  number  of  titles 
listed  from  the  2500  annually  examined, 
has  been  expanded  from  time  to  time,  but 
the  general  character  of  the  publication 
has  been  retained.  Suggestions  have  come 
to  the  Board  for  change  of  name,  for 
change  of  form  and  size,  and  for  other 
changes  that  might  lead  to  a  larger  use  of 
the  list  by  the  general  public.  While  the 
members  of  the  Board  have  given  careful 
consideration  to  the  arguments  presented, 
they  have  deferred  reaching  a  final  con- 
clusion until  practical  unanimity  can  be 
arrived  at  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  changes 
sought.  A  total  of  7729  titles  has  been 
included  in  the  2456  pages  which  comprise 
the  eight  volumes  of  the  Booklist: 

A.    L.  A.   BOOKLIST 

Volume  No.  of  Titles    No.  of  Pages  Nos.  in  Vol. 

1  500  144  8 

2  690  256  8 

3  681  238  8 

4  643  317  9 

5  739  197  6 

6  1,417  424  10 

7  1,583  456  10 

8  1,476  424  10 


Total 7,729 


2,456 


Manual  of  Library  Economy — Six  chap- 
ters of  the  Manual  were  printed  and  ready 
for  distribution  previous  to  the  Pasadena 
conference,  namely: 

1.  American  library  history,  by  C.  K. 
Bolton, 

2.  Library  of  Congress,  by  W.  W. 
Bishop. 

4.  The  college  and  university  library, 
by  J.  I.  Wyer,  Jr. 

17.  Order  and  accession  department,  by 
F.  F.  Hopper. 

22.  Reference  department,  by  E.  C. 
Richardson. 
26.  Bookbinding,  by  A.  L.  Bailey. 
During  the  latter  half  of  1911  the  four 
following  chapters  were  printed,  also  each 
in  a  separate  pamphlet,  appearing  in  the 
order  here  named: 

20.  Shelf  department,  by  Josephine  A. 
Rathbone. 

15.    Branch  libraries  and  other  distribu- 
ting agencies,  by  Linda  A.  Eastman. 
9.     Library  legislation,  by  W.  F.  Yust. 
12.     Library    administration,    by    A.    E. 
Bostwick. 

Since  their  publication  the  following 
number  of  copies  of  each  chapter  have 
been  sold  (to  March  31) : 

Chapter   1 528  copies 

2 473 

4 589 

9 251 

12  267 

15 475 

17 591 

20 474 

22  617 

26 671 

Total    4,936 

Manuscripts  for  two  more  chapters.  The 
library  building,  by  W.  R.  Eastman,  and 
Proprietary  and  subscription  libraries, 
by  C.  K.  Bolton,  are  ready  and  In  the  sec- 
retary's possession,  but  funds  for  printing 
are  not  in  hand  at  present,  owing  to  the 
heavy  obligation  incurred  by  the  printing 
of  Subject  headings  and  the  A.  L.  A. 
Catalog,  1904-11  within  so  short  a  time  of 
each  other.    It  is  hoped,  however,  to  print 


A.  L.   A.   PUBLISHING  BOARD 


87 


these  and  perhaps  some  others  before  the 
end  of  the  year. 

Periodical  Cards — The  shipments  of 
periodical  cards  sent  out  since  the  close 
of  the  last  report  of  the  Board  (May  1, 
1911)  have  comprised  3,009  titles  and 
180,241  cards,  not  including  reprints  of 
cards  in  which  errors  have  been  discov- 
ered after  the  cards  have  been  distributed. 

Copy  is  received  regularly  by  the  editor, 
Mr.  William  Stetson  Merrill,  every  two 
weeks,  on  the  fifth  and  twentieth  of  the 
month  from  the  following  libraries: — Col- 
umbia, Harvard,  John  Crerar,  New  York 
and  Yale.  This  copy  is  edited  promptly 
and  prepared  for  the  printer. 

Advertising — The  Board's  publications 
have  been  regularly  advertised  in  Library 
Journal  and  Public  Libraries  and  in  one 
special  number  of  The  Dial.  For  the  rest 
circularization  and  correspondence  from 
the  headquarters  office  has  been  relied 
upon.  During  the  year  over  15,000  pieces 
of  circular  matter  have  been  mailed  from 
headquarters  office  in  the  interest  of  our 
publications. 

Particular  effort  has  been  made  to  ad- 
vertise widely  the  new  List  of  subject 
headings  and  the  A.  L.  A.  Catalog.  For 
the  latter  in  addition  to  circularizing  the 
libraries  descriptive  postal  cards  were  ad- 
dressed to  7,000  high  school  and  normal 
school  principals.  From  these  circulars 
only  about  100  orders  for  the  Catalog  can 
be  directly  traced.  It  seems  plain  that  It 
does  not  pay  to  advertise  our  publications 
among  the  high  schools.  Slips  advertising 
the  Catalog  were  sent  to  the  librarians  of 
all  the  leading  colleges,  requesting  that 
these  slips  be  distributed  to  members  of 
the  faculty  interested  in  book  selection. 
This  resulted  in  getting  orders  from  many 
college  libraries  addressed,  but  very  few 


from  the  teaching  staff.  Experience  would 
indicate  that  libraries  and  librarians  are 
the  only  classes  to  which  advertising  can 
profitably  be  addressed.  We  have  en- 
deavored to  keep  the  state  library  com- 
missions regularly  informed  on  all  our 
publications  and  all  of  them  which  issue 
monthly  or  quarterly  bulletins  list  our 
new  publications  therein,  generally  with 
appreciative  annotations  and  descriptions. 
Exhibits  of  publications  have  been  made 
at  several  state  library  meetings  visited  by 
the  secretary. 

During  the  past  year  the  principal  li- 
braries of  England,  Scotland  and  Ireland 
have  been  circularized  with  lists  of  our 
publications,  and  a  very  gratifying  num- 
ber of  orders  have  been  received  as  a  re- 
sult. When  the  revised  edition  of  Subject 
headings  appeared  copies  were  sent  to 
nearly  all  the  library  periodicals  of  the 
various  countries  of  Europe  with  the  re- 
sult that  they  reviewed  the  book  and  quite 
a  number  of  continental  orders  have  been 
directly  traceable  to  these  reviews.  Copies 
of  Subject  headings  and  the  new  A.  L.  A. 
Catalog  have  been  ordered  from  almost 
every  important  country  in  the  world. 

This  report  would  be  incomplete  without 
hearty  acknowledgment  of  the  excellent 
work  of  the  Secretary,  Mr.  George  B.  Ut- 
ley.  To  his  good  business  judgment  and 
careful  and  judicious  management  is  due 
in  great  measure  the  splendid  financial 
showing  recorded  in  the  accompanying 
fiscal  statement.  The  affairs  of  the  Board 
have  never  been  in  better  shape  than  now. 
The  sales  are  increasing  encouragingly, 
the  inventory  shows  a  salable  stock  with 
less  "dead"  material  than  at  any  time  for 
years  back,  and  the  office  organization  is 
now  well  systematized  and  effective. 

HENRY  E.  LEGLER,  Chairman. 


88  OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 

FINANCIAL   REPORT 

Cash  Receipts  June  1,  1911,  to   May  31,  1912. 

Balance,  June  1,   1911    $2,337.70 

Interest  on  Carnegie  Fund    4,524.33 

Receipts  from  publications: 

Cash   sales    $3,781.47 

Payments  on   account    7,690.89  11,472.36 

Interest  on  bank  deposits    4.53 

Sundries  1.98     $18,340.90 


Payments,  June  1,  1911  to  May  31,  1912. 
Cost  of  publications: 

A.  L.  A.  Booklist $1,940.35 

Library  and  social  movements    (1250   copies)    25.50 

Supplement  to  Guide  to  reference  books,  1909-10   (3000 

copies) 220.12 

Subject  headings,  second  edition  reprint  (200  copies) . . .      132.30 

Subject  index  to  Booklist  Vol.  7  (2500  copies)   223.00 

Copyright  on  Hints  to  small  libraries 1.03 

Copyright  on  Supplement  to  Guide 1.03 

Directions  to  librarian  of  a  small  library  (3000  copies)        76.49 
Government  documents  in  small  libraries,  reprint  (1000 

copies)  25.50 

Manual  of  library  economy.  Chap.  1,  2,  4,  17,  22,  26 376.55 

Manual  of  library  economy.  Chap.  20 48.80 

Manual  of  library  economy.  Chap.  15 62.80 

Manual  of  library  economy,  Chap.  9 43.40 

Manual  of  library  economy.  Chap.  12 37.55 

Binding  for  small  libraries,  reprint  (1500  copies)   29.00 

Reprints  from  Bulletin  40.91 

Cataloging  for  small  libraries,  reprint  (1000  copies) 64.00 

Library  statistics  tables  2.25 

A.  L.  A.  Index  to  general  literature  (part  of  reprint) 108.00 

Notes  on  the  art  section  of  a  library,  reprint    (1000 

copies) , 20.00 

Guide   to   the   use  of   reference   books,    reprint    (1000 

copies) 259.08 

Subject  headings,  third  edition  (3000  copies)    3,518.96 

Periodical  cards   1,516.38     $8,773.00 

Addressograph  machine  supplies 21.84 

Furniture  and  fixtures   103.00 

Advertising   282.15 

Postage  and  express 631.49 

Rent  at  Madison  office 300.00 

Travel  281.35 

Salaries  3,670.00 

Expense  at  headquarters  2,000.00 

Supplies  and  incidentals   1,066.36 

Printing  (stationery,  etc.)   43.25 

Balance  on  hand.  May  31,  1912 1,168.46     $18,340.90 


A.   L.  A.   PUBLISHING  BOARD  89 

SALES  OF  A.  L.  A.  PUBLISHING  BOARD  PUBLICATIONS 

April  1,  1911,  to  March  31,  1912. 

A.  L.  A.  Booklist,  regular  subscriptions 1115     $1,115.00 

Additional  subs,  at  reduced  rate  of  50c   141  70.50 

Bulk  subscriptions  paid   1,083.65 

Extra  copies   1659  242.78     $2,511.93 

Handbook  1,  Essentials  in  library  administration   492  71.63 

Handbook  2,  Cataloging  for  small  libraries  677  89.15 

Handbook  3,  Management  of  traveling  libraries 88  12.73 

Handbook  4,  Aids  in  book  selection    42  6.23 

Handbook  5,  Binding  for  small  libraries  139  21.35 

Handbook  6,  Mending  and  repair  of  books 602  78.21 

Handbook  7,  vU.  S.  Government  documents 652  84.87         364.17 

Tract  2,  How  to  start  a  library 80  4.00 

Tract  3,  Traveling  libraries   26  1.30 

Tract  8,  A  village  library   219  7.65 

Tract  9,  Library  school  training 196  9.55 

Tract  10,  Why  do  we  need  a  public  library? 390  13.50          36.00 

Foreign  Lists,  German   100  42.25 

Foreign  Lists,  French  150  26.09 

Foreign  Lists,  French  fiction   130  4.25 

Foreign  Lists,  Hungarian    95  9.70 

Foreign  Lists,  Norwegian  and  Danish 98  16.71 

Foreign  Lists,  Swedish    105  18.56         117.56 

Reprints,  Arbor  day  list   30  1.50 

Reprints,  Bird  books  33  3.30 

Reprints,  Christmas    Bulletin    65  3.25 

Reprints,  Library  buildings    139  13.78 

Reprints,  National  library  problem  today   26  1.30 

Reprints,  Rational  library  work  with  children   64  3.20           26.33 

Periodical  cards,  subscriptions 1,197.45 

Periodical  cards.  Old  South  Leaflets  15.75 

Periodical  cards,  Reed's    Modern    Eloquence sets  9  22.50 

Periodical  cards,  Smithsonian  reports set    1  15.00      1,250.70 

A.  L.  A.  Manual  of  library  economy: 

Chap.          I.  American  library  history   528  46.73 

Chap.        II.  Library  of  Congress 473  34.60 

Chap.        IV.  College  and  university  library 589  52.67 

Chap.       IX.  Library  legislation 251  18.96 

Chap.     XII.  Administration  of  a  public  library 267  20.44 

Chap.     XV.  Branch  libraries  475  32.71 

Chap.  XVII.  Order   and   accession    department    591  46.25 

Chap.     XX.  Shelf  department  474  34.65 

Chap.  XXII.  Reference    department    617  55.54 

Chap.  XXVL  Bookbinding    671  53.78         396.33 

A.  L.  A.  Index  to  general  literature  31  177.00 

Catalog  rules  486  271.06 

Children's  reading  (now  out  of  print)   6  1.48 

Girls  and  women  and  their  clubs 57  13.55 

Guide  to  reference  books   686  888.25 

Guide  to  reference  books.  Supplement   761  181.50 

Hints  to  small  libraries  203  136.69 

Lamed,  Literature  of  American  history 29  160.47 

Lamed,  Literature  of  American  history.  Supplement 79  64.21 

List  of  music  and  books  about  music 82  20.12 


90  OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 

List  of  editions  selected  for  economy  in  bookbuying 126  30.99 

List  of  550  children's  books 346  55.85 

List  of  subject  headings,  2nd  edition 218  397.45 

List  of  subject  headings,  3rd  edition  1125  2,717.00 

Plans  of  small  library  buildings  98  120.52 

Reading  for  the  young 9  6.61 

Reading  for  the  young.  Supplement  16  3.94 

Subject  index  to  A.  L.  A.  Booklist,  v.  1-6 260  66.23 

Subject  index  to  A.  L.  A.  Booklist,  V.  7 961  84.49      5,397.40 

League  publications: 

Anniversaries  and  holidays   13  3.25 

Directions  for  librarian  of  a  small  library 1186  54.53 

Graded  list  of  stories  for  reading  aloud  335  32.71 

Library  and  social  movement 1000  31.63 

Magazines  for  the  small  library  313  29.38         151.50 

A.  L.  A.  Bulletin  and  Proceedings 258  87.96 

A.  L.  A.  Bulletin,  Hopper  reprint 462  11.85           99.81 

Total  sale  of  publications  110,351.73 


REPORT  OF  THE  CARNEGIE  AND  ENDOWMENT  FUNDS 


To  the  President  and  Members  of  the 
American  Library  Association: 

The  Trustees  of  the  Endowment  Funds 
in  presenting  their  annual  report  for  the 
year  ending  January  15,  1912,  desire  to 
say  that  there  has  been  no  change  in  the 
securities  held  by  the  Board.  The  market 
price  of  most  of  them  remaining  about 
the  same,  changes  could  not  be  made  to 
the  advantage  and  desired  betterment  of 
the  fund. 

The  Trustees  are  pleased  to  state  that 
all  interest  has  been  promptly  paid. 

Mr.  E.  H.  Anderson  of  the  New  York 
public  library  was  again  deputed  to  audit 
the  accounts  of  the  Board  and  inspect  the 
securities,  and  he  gives  to  the  Trustees, 
as  the  result  of  that  examination,  the  fol- 
lowing letter: 

Dear  Mr.  Appleton: 

Enclosed  herewith  are  the  vouchers  from 
Mr.  Roden,  Treasurer  of  the  American 
Library  Association,  and  the  receipt  for 
the  rent  of  the  safety  deposit  box  in  the 


vaults  of  the  Union  Trust  Company.  I 
have  written  the  chairman  of  the  Finance 
Committee  that  I  have  examined  these 
vouchers  and  found  them  in  accordance 
with  your  type  written  statement. 

The  four  type  written  sheets  which  you 
gave  me  yesterday  I  have  checked  as  cor- 
rect as  to  the  bonds  in  your  custody,  as 
to  the  vouchers  referred  to  above,  and  as 
to  the  cash  balance  on  hand.  I  have  certi- 
fied to  Mr.  Andrews,  the  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  Finance,  that  to  the  best  of 
my  knowledge  and  belief  the  reports  con- 
tained on  these  sheets  are  correct. 


Very  sincerely, 
(Signed)  E.  H. 


ANDERSON. 


The  General  Endowment  Fund  has  been 
increased  during  the  year  by  the  taking 
of  seven  life  memberships  by  the  persons 
named,  adding  to  the  Fund,  $175.00. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

W.   C.  KIMBALL, 
WM.    W.    APPLETON, 
W.  T.  PORTER. 
Trustees  of  A.  L.  A.  Endowment  Fund. 


CARNEGIE  FUND,   PRINCIPAL  ACCOUNT 

Cash  donated  by  Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie   $100,000.00 

Invested  as  follows: 

June  1,  1908    5,000  4%  Am.  Tel.  &  Tel.  Bonds 96%  $  4,825.00 

June  1,  1908  10,000  4%  Am.  Tel.  &  Tel.  Bonds 94%  9,437.50 

June  1,  1908  15,000  4%  Cleveland  Terminal    100  15,000.00 

June  1,  1908  10,000  4%  Seaboard  Air  Line   95%  9,550.00 

June  1,  1908  15,000  6%  Western  Un.  Tel 108%  15,000.00 

June  1,  1908  15,000  3%%  N.  Y.  Cen.  (Lake  Shore  Col)  90  13,500.00 

June  1,  1908  15,000  5%  Mo.  Pacific  104%  15,000.00 

May  3,  1909  15,000  5%  U.  S.  Steel 104  15,000.00 

Aug.  6,  1909     1,500  U.  S.  Steel 106%  1,500.00 

July  27,  1910  1,000  U.  S.  Steel .102%  1,000.00 

102,500                                                                                                              99,812.60 
Jan.  16,  1912  Union  Trust  Co.  on  deposit  187.60 


$100,000.00 


In  addition  to  the  above  we  have  on  hand  at  the  Union  Trust  Company  $150  profit 
on  the  sale  of  the  Missouri  Pacific  Bonds,  which  we  have  carried  to  a  special  surplus 
account. 

91 


92  OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 

CARNEGIE  FUND,  INCOME  ACCOUNT 

1911 

January  15,  Balance $2,487.76 

February  15,  Int.  N.  Y.  Central 262.50 

March  1,  Int.  Missouri  Pacific 375.00 

March  1,  Int.  Seaboard  Line  200.00 

May  2,  Int.  U.  S.  Steel 437.50 

May  2,  Int.  Cleveland  Terminal 300.00 

July  5,  Int.  Amer.  Tel  &  Tel.  Co 300.00 

July  5,  Int.  Western  Union  Tel.  Co 375.00 

August  9,  Int.  N.  Y.  Central  262.50 

September  1,  Int.  Seaboard  Line   200.00 

September  1,  Int.  Missouri  Pacific  375.00 

November  1,  Int.  U.  S.  Steel  437.50 

November  1,  Int.  Cleveland  Terminal  300.00 

December  31,  Int.  Union  Trust  Co 54.33 

1912 

January  2,  Int.  Western  Union  Tel.  Co 375.00 

January  2,  Int.  Am.  Tel.  &  Tel.  Co 300.00            $7,042.09 

Disbursements: 
1911 

March  2,  Carl  B.  Roden,  Treas |2,487.76 

August  15,  Carl  B.  Roden,  Treas 2,000.00 

October  6,  Carl  B.  Roden,  Treas 1,000.00 

December  27,  Rent  Safe  Deposit  Co  30.00 

January  15,  1912  Cash  on  hand  • 1,524.33            $7,042.09 


ENDOWMENT  FUND,  PRINCIPAL  ACCOUNT 
1911 

January  15,  On  hand.  Bonds  and  Cash $7,111.84 

April  1,  Life  membership  Mary  E.  Hawley  25.00 

April  1,  Life  membership  Mary  F.  Isom   25.00 

May  1,  Life  membership  H.  W.  Craver  25.00 

August  9,  Life  membership  M.  S.  Dudgeon   25.00 

August  28,  Life  membership  F.  K.  Walter   25.00 

October  4,  Life  membership  R.  G.  Thwaites   25.00 

November  1,  Life  membership  R.  B.  Stem  • 25.00  $7,286.84 

Invested  as  follows: 

1908 

June  1,  2  U.  S.   Steel  Bonds    98*4        $1,970.00 

October  19,    2  U.  S.  Steel  Bonds  102%  2,000.00 

November  5,  1%  U.  S.  Steel  Bonds  101  1,500.00 

1910 

July  27,  1%  U.  S.  Steel  Bonds  102%  1,500.00 

January  15,  1912    Cash  on  hand.  Union  Trust  Co 316.84  $7,286.84 


ENDOWMENT  FUND,  INCOME  ACCOUNT 
1911 

January  15,   Cash   on   hand    $448.41 

May  2,  Int.  U.  S.  Steel   175.00 

November  1,  Int.  U.  S.  Steel   175.00  $798.41 

Disbursements: 
1911 

February  15,  C.  B.  Roden,  Treas $448.41 

July  5,  C.  B.  Roden,  Treas 175.00 

January  15,  1912    Cash  on  hand   175.00  $798.41 


BAILEY 


93 


COMMITTEE  ON   BOOKBrNDING 

During  the  year  the  special  library  edi- 
tion of  the  Encyclopaedia  Britannica,  men- 
tioned in  last  year's  report,  and  at  various 
times  in  the  library  periodicals,  was  placed 
on  the  market  under  considerable  diffi- 
culty. As  planned  at  first,  three  special 
library  editions  were  all  to  be  bound  in 
England  and  imported  for  libraries  by  the 
publishers.  Unfortunately,  it  was  discov- 
ered after  orders  had  been  taken  that  the 
publishers  could  not,  under  the  copyright 
law,  import  any  copies,  and  notices  to  that 
effect  were  sent  to  libraries  that  had  or- 
dered these  editions.  The  publishers  then 
found  that  the  cloth  bound  set,  according 
to  the  A.  L.  A.  specifications,  could  be 
manufactured  in  this  country  and  again 
librarians  received  communications  from 
the  publishers.  Owing  to  these  various 
communications  from  the  publishers,  to- 
gether with  notices  from  this  committee, 
many  librarians  remained  without  knowl- 
edge as  to  the  real  state  of  affairs. 

At  the  present  time  the  committee  un- 
derstands that  the  cloth  bound  set,  with 
special  reinforcements,  can  be  obtained 
directly  from  the  publishers  in  this  coun- 
try, and  that  sets  bound  by  Mr.  Chivers 
can  be  obtained  directly  from  him.  Sev- 
eral complaints  of  the  new  bindings  have 
come  to  the  committee,  but  upon  investi- 
gation, it  was  found  in  every  case  that 
the  complaints  were  due  to  imperfect  or 
torn  pages  and  not  to  defective  binding. 
Undoubtedly  many  imperfect  sheets  were 
passed  in  the  first  copies  that  were  sold. 
We  have  reason  to  believe,  however,  that 
later  sets  have  been  more  carefully  col- 
lated. Complaints  about  the  cloth  binding 
have  also  been  received  from  large  libra- 
ries. As  a  matter  of  fact  this  edition  was 
not  intended  for  large  libraries.  From  the 
beginning  it  has  been  stated  that  the  cloth 
edition  was  for  the  use  of  small  libraries. 
Large  libraries  were  expected  to  get  one 
of  the  leather  editions. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  publishers  are 
beginning  to  realize  that  good  binding,  es- 
pecially of  reference  books,  is  an  asset 
of  considerable  value  when  dealing  with 


libraries.  During  the  year  the  committee 
has  several  times  been  called  upon  for  spe- 
cifications and  suggestions  for  the  binding 
of  large  reference  books.  Perhaps  the 
most  noteworthy  instance  was  that  of  the 
Century  Company,  which  submitted  sam- 
ples of  binding  for  the  new  edition  of  the 
Century  Dictionary.  The  Century  Com- 
pany and  the  J.  F.  Tapley  Company,  of 
New  York,  which  did  the  binding,  adopted 
various  methods  of  strengthening  the  vol- 
umes, and  the  samples  submitted  included 
not  only  all  of  the  committee's  specifica- 
tions, but  several  others.  The  samples 
were  so  good  and  the  honesty  of,  purpose 
of  the  Century  Company  and  the  J.  F.  Tap- 
ley  Company  so  evident  that  the  commit- 
tee felt  no  hesitation  in  stating  that  the 
result  was  the  best  piece  of  commercial 
(machine  bound)  binding  ever  brought  to 
its  attention.  Visits  of  two  members  of 
the  committee  to  the  bindery  showed  that 
the  specifications  in  every  case  were  being 
lived  up  to.  The  committee,  furthermore, 
obtained  full  description  and  specifications 
of  this  binding,  which,  with  certain  modi- 
fications, can  be  used  as  a  standard  for  this 
kind  of  work. 

Specifications  for  strong  binding  were 
also  submitted  to  H.  W.  Wilson  Company 
for  the  binding  of  the  new  volume  of  U.  S. 
Catalog;  to  Robert  Glasgow,  of  Toronto, 
for  a  set  entitled  "Makers  of  Canada";  and 
to  the  Review  of  Reviews  Company  for  the 
"Photographic  history  of  the  Civil  war." 
The  specifications,  as  submitted,  were 
adopted  by  the  Robert  Glasgow  Co.,  and 
the  Review  of  Reviews  Co.  The  H.  W. 
Wilson  Co.  adopted  them  with  some  slight 
modifications  which  met  with  the  approval 
of  the  committee. 

So  far  as  the  reinforcing  of  fiction  and 
juvenile  books  by  publishers  is  concerned, 
matters  stand  about  the  same  as  they  have 
been  for  the  past  two  years.  The  plan 
has  practically  been  dropped  by  all  pub- 
lishers. In  a  few  cases,  books  which  the 
publishers  have  discovered  are  in  constant 
demand  by  libraries,  are  kept  in  stock  in 
special  binding.  Examples  of  these  are  the 
Little  Cousin   Series,  published  by  Page, 


94 


OTTAWA   CONFERENCE 


and  the  Peter  Rabbit  Series,  by  Wame. 
The  number  of  titles  of  such  books  is 
very  few. 

It  must  not  be  supposed,  however,  that 
because  the  publishers  have  stopped  do- 
ing this,  such  books  are  unobtainable.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  easier  to  get  reinforced 
publishers'  covers  than  ever  before,  and 
with  the  surety  that  the  work  is  well 
done,  which  was  not  always  the  case 
when  they  were  bound  by  the  publishers. 
Those  who  wish  to  use  the  attractive  pub- 
lishers' covers,  and  at  the  same  time  have 
a  book  which  will  outlast  the  period  of  ex- 
treme popularity,  can  do  so  by  ordering 
from  one  of  the  several  firms  which  do 
work  of  this  kind.  In  most  cases  the 
increased  cost  is  greater  than  was  the  case 
when  the  books  were  done  by  the  pub- 
lishers, but  the  work  is  far  better  done  and 
in  the  opinion  of  the  committee  the  in- 
creased value  more  than  compensates  for 
the  increased  cost.  Furthermore,  the 
books  are  not  injured  for  rebinding.  In 
fact,  in  some  cases  the  sewing  of  the  book 
is  designed  to  last  during  its  lifetime. 
When  the  first  cover  wears  out,  all  that 
is  necessary  is  to  recase  it. 

While  discussing  the  question  of  rein- 
forced bindings  it  may  not  be  amiss  again 
to  call  attention  to  the  special  binding  of 
the  Everyman's  Library.  Experience  in 
the  use  of  these  volumes  only  emphasizes 
their  serviceability,  attractiveness  and 
cheapness.  Whenever  possible  all  replace- 
ments should  be  made  from  this  collection. 

During  the  year  the  publishers  of  two 
periodicals,  Everybody's  and  World's 
Work,  adopted  a  scheme  of  binding  which 
necessitated  cutting  off  the  backs  of  sig- 
natures. It  was  apparent  at  once  that 
this  scheme  made  it  necessary  for  libra- 
ries which  bound  these  periodicals  to  have 
them  overcast  in  sewing.  Since  few  bind- 
ers understand  the  proper  method  of  over- 
sewing and  moreover  generally  charge  ex- 
tra for  it,  many  libraries  were  put  to  much 
inconvenience  and  added  expense.  Pro- 
tests from  this  committee  to  the  publish- 
ers were  promptly  heeded,  and  as  a  result 
all  libraries  now  receive  the  regular  edi- 
tion with  folded  sheets. 


The  correspondence  of  the  committee 
has  largely  increased.  Inquiries  are  fre- 
quently received  from  publishers,  from 
binders  and  from  librarians.  Inquiries  from 
librarians  cover  all  phases  of  binding,  and 
not  infrequently  the  committee  is  asked 
for  opinions  as  to  the  work  of  certain 
binders.  In  answering  these  questions 
about  individual  binding  the  committee 
has  been  at  a  disadvantage,  because,  ex- 
cept in  the  case  of  a  very  few  binders,  it 
has  no  definite  knowledge  of  their  work. 
To  remedy  this  difficulty  the  committee 
has,  with  some  hesitation,  planned  to  es- 
tablish a  collection  which  shall  include 
samples  of  the  work  of  all  binders  which 
make  a  specialty  of  library  binding.  These 
samples  are  to  be  four  in  number  and  will 
show  methods  of  binding  fiction,  juvenile 
books  and  periodicals.  In  addition  to  these 
samples  binders  are  asked  to  answer  24 
questions  which  cover  methods,  materials, 
and  prices.  It  is  hoped  that,  with  these 
samples  and  answers  to  these  questions, 
the  committee  will  be  in  a  position  to 
form  more  definite  opinions  about  the 
work  of  any  binder,  and  librarians  who 
ask  for  opinions  will  receive  answers  based 
on  actual  knowledge. 

The  scheme  is  yet  in  its  infancy  but  al- 
ready samples  have  been  received  from 
several  binders,  and  letters  from  some  of 
them  express  approval.  The  committee 
realizes  that  good  binding  may  be  done 
in  several  ways,  and  while  members  of 
the  committee  may  have  individual  pref- 
erences, every  effort  will  be  made  to  give 
impartial  opinions.  Certainly  no  binder 
who  does  good  work  need  fear  unjust  crit- 
icism. Librarians  can  help  in  this  work 
by. 

1.  Sending  names  of  library  binders. 

2.  Urging  binders  to  comply  with  the 
requests  of  the  committee. 

3.  Asking  for  opinions  when  the  collec- 
tion is  complete. 

In  view  of  the  facts  outlined  above,  it 
seems  reasonable  to  suppose  that  one  of 
the  committee's  most  valuable  functions  is 
to  act  in  an  advisory  capacity,  not  only  to 
librarians,  but  to  publishers  and  binders. 
For  this  reason  all  librarians  are  urged  to 


BAILEY 


85 


submit  their  binding  problems  to  the  com- 
mittee. 

Magazine  Binders 

During  the  year  a  number  of  varieties  of 
magazine  binders  have  been  examined. 
Several  firms  failed  to  respond  to  a  request 
for  a  sample  or  did  so  too  late.  Others 
doubtless  exist  of  which  the  committee  has 
not  heard.  The  result  of  study  of  this 
subject  during  the  past  three  years,  aided 
by  the  chapter  dealing  with  it  in  Dana's 
"Book  binding  for  libraries,"  Edition  2,  is 
here  set  forth. 

Of  course  no  one  binder  is  best  for  all 
libraries  or  for  all  requirements  of  one 
library.  Each  must  decide  for  itself  by 
noting  the  condition  of  its  magazines  when 
they  are  ready  for  the  bindery  whether  any 
binder  at  all  is  needed.  A  library  which 
has  no  money  to  spend  on  the  more  dur- 
able covers  or  dislikes  them  for  any  reason 
may  use  one  of  the  methods  described  ih 
the  chapter  in  Dana  referred  to  above.  A 
method,  used  to  some  extent  by  the 
Brooklyn  public  library,  consists,  in  brief, 
of  putting  on  a  brown  paper  cover  and  se- 
curing it  by  paste  or  brass  staples  to  a 
bunch  of  advertising  pages  at  front  and 
back. 

The  best  inexpensive  binder  Is  that 
known  as  the  "Springfield."  It  can  be  made 
in  any  bindery,  consisting  simply  of  a 
cover  with  a  stiff  strip  at  the  back  in 
which  are  three  eyelet  holes,  one  at  each 
end  and  one  in  the  middle.  The  magazine 
is  laced  in  with  tape  or  shoe  string.  Thia 
method  damages  the  magazine  much  less 
than  others  similar,  some  of  which  require 
drilling  holes  through  from  side  to  side. 
In  principle  the  binder  made  by  Cedric 
Chivers,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  is  a  more  durable 
form  of  the  Springfield  and  is  heartily  rec- 
ommended. 

Some  libraries  desire  a  binder  from 
which  a  magazine  cannot  readily  be  stolen. 
This  is  a  matter  of  local  opinion.  The 
best  for  this  purpose  appear  to  be  the  new 
"Bull  dog"  binder  just  put  on  the  market 
by  Gaylord  Brothers,  Syracuse,  N.  Y.,  and 
the  "Buchan"  binder  mentioned  by  Mr. 
Dana.    All  such  binders  are  heavy,  clumsy. 


and  slow  in  operation.  For  those  maga- 
zines deceitfully  put  together  without  sew- 
ing or  staples  the  "Bull  dog"  and  the 
"Buchan"  binder  will  both  give  satisfac- 
tion. 

Among  a  multitude  of  other  binders  the 
best  type  is  that  whose  mechanism  con- 
sists of  a  stout  rod  firmly  fastened  though 
playing  free  at  one  end,  and  fastened  at  the 
other  by  a  simple  catch.  Many  built  on 
this  principle  are  too  clumsy.  A  few  are 
needlessly  flimsy.  Of  those  examined  the 
best  are  the  following: — 

"Universal"  made  by  J.  J.  Raiek,  New 
York  City. 

"A,  L.  B."  made  by  American  Library 
Bindery,   Philadelphia. 

"Torsion"  made  by  Barrett  Bindery  Co., 
Chicago. 

For  covering  binders  various  materials 
have  been  used.    For  long  service  and  good 
appearance  we  recommend  pig  skin  back 
and  keratol  sides.   Cow  hide  and  buckram 
are  cheaper  and  will  not  last  as  long.  Can- 
vas is  ill  suited  for  this  purpose. 
Respectfully  submitted, 
A.  L.  BAILEY,  Chairman. 
ROSE  G.  MURRAY, 
N.  L.  GOODRICH, 

Committee. 

COIVIIVIITTEE  ON   BOOK  BUYING 

During  the  past  year  the  A.  L.  A.  Com- 
mittee on  Book  buying  has  been  negotiat- 
ing with  a  Committee  of  the  American 
Booksellers'  Association  with  a  view  to 
bringing  about  a  better  understanding  be- 
tween the  booksellers  and  the  libraries. 

Upon  the  request  of  the  Committee  of 
the  Booksellers'  Association,  your  commit- 
tee made  a  statement  of  the  situation, 
which  was  delivered  to  them  in  October, 
1911.  The  booksellers'  committee  pre- 
pared a  reply  to  this  statement,  which  was 
delivered  to  your  committee  in  April,  1912. 

A  meeting  of  the  two  committees  was 
held  on  Thursday,  May  6th,  1912,  in  Cleve- 
land, but  it  was  without  any  definite  result. 
It  was  agreed  that  the  two  committees  re- 
port progress  to  their  respective  associa- 
tions and   that  they  submit  to  their  ex- 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


ecutive  committee  the  statement  and  reply 
referred  to,  with  a  report  upon  the  pres- 
ent situation  and  to  ask  to  be  allowed  to 
continue  the  negotiations  if  the  executive 
committee  thought  it  wise  to  do  so. 

WALTER  L.  BROWN,  Chairman, 

C.  B.  RODBN, 

C.  H.  BROWN. 

COMMITTEE  ON   CO-ORDINATION 

The  following  report  is  the  result,  in 
part,  of  a  question  referred  to  the  Com- 
mittee on  Co-ordination  by  a  meeting  at 
the  Pasadena  conference. 

The  question  was.  Whether  libraries  are 
justified  in  making  a  moderate  charge  in 
connection  with  every  volume  lent,  suf- 
ficient in  the  long  run,  to  cover  the  admin- 
istrative expense  involved  in  looking  up 
and  sending  the  volume  asked  for:  not  as 
payment  for  the  use  of  the  book,  but  to 
relieve  the  lender  of  an  undue  burden  of 
expense,  unavoidably  attendant  upon  the 
system  of  lending  with  some  freedom  to 
other  libraries. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  committee  this 
question  could  be  most  profitably  discussed 
only  in  connection  with  the  whole  subject 
of  inter-library  loans.  It  is  clear,  both 
from  past  and  present  developments,  and 
from  the  direction  these  developments  are 
taking  that  inter-library  loans  are,  as  yet, 
merely  in  their  infancy.  It  is  clear,  too, 
that  such  loans  increase  the  efficiency  of 
libraries  which  participate  in  them.  Fi- 
nally, it  is  evident  that  there  is  a  marked 
tendency  not  simply  to  multiply  library 
loans,  but  to  enlarge  the  field  within  which 
it  is  considered  appropriate  to  effect 
them — taking  "field"  both  in  a  geographical 
sense,  and  as  relating  to  different  classes 
of  borrowers.  Accordingly,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  additional  machinery  and  new 
methods  should  be  required,  and  that  some 
at  least,  should  already  have  been  devised. 
Also,  it  is  safe  to  predict  that  this  growth 
in  machinery  and  in  methods  will  continue. 

Therefore,  the  Committee  on  Co-ordina- 
tion has  thought  that  it  might  be  helpful, 
at  the  present  time,  to  attempt  a  discus- 
sion (which  will  partake  of  the  character 
of  a  symposium)  in  regard  to  the  purpose 


and  scope  of  inter-library  loans.  It  is 
hoped  that,  as  a  result  of  this  and  subse- 
quent discussion,  it  may  become  practic- 
able to  formulate  some  general  rules  for 
the  conduct  of  inter-library  loans.  If  a 
code  of  such  rules  could  be  framed,  even 
granting  that  the  provisions  would,  of 
course,  bind  no  library  against  its  will,  one 
more  step  would  yet  have  been  taken  in 
the  direction  of  systematizing  and  extend- 
ing a  process  which  has  already  produced 
excellent  results,  and  bids  fair  in  the  near 
future,  to  modify  library  practice  in  im- 
portant particulars. 

While  the  purpose  of  inter-library  loans 
is  uniform  in  the  main,  it  varies  to  some 
extent,  with  the  nature  and  duties  of  the 
participating  libraries. 

Neglecting  minor  differences,  such  li- 
braries fall  into  two  groups:  Reference  li- 
braries, including  libraries  of  colleges  and 
universities;  and  libraries  whose  work  is 
of  a  more  popular  character;  or,  to  state 
the  matter  in  terms  of  readers:  Libraries, 
most  of  whose  readers  are  "serious,"  and 
libraries,  some,  at  least,  of  whose  readers 
are  not  so  very  serious. 

This  distinction  is  not  a  sharp  one,  yet  it 
produces  wide  divergence  in  the  point  of 
view,  and  in  the  practice  of  these  two 
classes  of  libraries.  A  comparison  of  the 
third  contribution  to  this  symposium  with 
the  first  and  second  will  make  this  matter 
evident.  Both  points  of  view  are  accurate, 
and  varieties  of  practice,  provided  only 
that  they  exist  among  the  members  of  a 
comprehensive  system,  are  the  best  guar- 
antees of  the  ultimate  achievement  of 
great  results. 

C.  H.  GOULD, 

Chairman. 
I. 

The  purpose  of  inter-library  loans  Is  to 
make  available  the  unusual  material  in  one 
library  to  an  enquirer  who  cannot  visit  it 
in  person  and  does  not  find  available  the 
identical  material  in  some  institution 
nearer  at  hand  or  which  has  a  nearer  con- 
stitutional duty  to  serve  him.  The  service 
to  him  must  be  subject  to  the  convenience 
of  the  constituency  of  the  lending  library 


PUTNAM 


97 


and  can  be  expected  only  if  the  risk  and 
expense  of  it  shall  be  met  by  the  borrowing 
library  in  his  behalf. 

1.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  therefore  that 
a  library  will  lend  either  (1)  books  which 
if  not  in  the  applicant  library,  are  within 
the  ordinary  duty  of  the  latter  to  supply; 
or  (2)  books  in  constant  use  among  its  own 
readers;  or  (3)  books  for  the  general 
reader  as  against  the  investigator. 

2.  It  is  not  to  be  expected  that  material 
will  be  sought  the  transportation  of  which, 
even  with  the  best  precautions,  involves  a 
necessary  injury, — as  for  instance,  by 
strain, — or  a  contingent  injury  in  its  use 
outside  of  the  walls  of  the  institution  own- 
ing it  by  persons  over  whose  use  it  has  no 
supervision.  A  stipulation  for  its  use 
within  the  walls  of  the  borrowing  library, 
while  entirely  reasonable,  may  not  cover 
the  case  completely,  as  the  responsibility 
for  the  care  of  the  material  cannot,  by  a 
mere  stipulation  for  care,  be  transferred 
from  the  owning  to  the  borrowing  library. 

3.  Subject  to  2,  the  important  service 
in  inter-library  loans  being  to  make  gen- 
erally available  the  unusual  book  for  the 
unusual  need  of  the  serious  investigator, 
the  fact  that  the  book  needed  is  either 
rare,  or  part  of  a  set  which  may  be  marred 
by  the  loss  of  a  single  volume,  or  that  it 
is  even  unique,  as  for  instance  a  manu- 
script, ought  not  to  be  conclusive  against 
the  loan,  for  it  is  just  through  such  ma- 
terial that  the  inter-library  loans  may  ren- 
der their  most  important  service. 

4.  The  applicant  library  should  refrain 
from  applying  (a)  for  ordinary  books 
which  are  within  its  constitutional  duty  to 
supply  to  its  immediate  readers,  or  (b)  for 
unusual  books  requested  for  a  purpose 
which  it  knows  to  be  trivial,  or  by  a  per- 
son of  whose  discretion  and  seriousness  it 
is  not  assured,  or  (c)  for  books  which, 
within  the  legitimate  provisions  of  a  loan 
are  to  be  had  from  some  institution  neare^r 
at  hand,  or  having  a  nearer  constitutional 
duty  to  it  and  to  the  constituency  which  it 
serves,  or  (d)  for  books  which  upon  their 
face  must  be  in  constant  use  in  any  library 
possessing  them. 


5.  The  lending  library  may  reasonably 
stipulate:  (a)  That  the  entire  cost  of  the 
service  shall  be  met  by  the  borrowing  li- 
brary, and  may  look  to  this  library  alone 
as  responsible  both  for  the  safety  and 
prompt  return  of  the  material  and  for  the 
replacement  of  the  material  if  lost  or  dam- 
aged, and  (b)  it  may  reasonably  include 
as  part  of  the  expense:  (1)  packing;  (2) 
carriage;  (3)  insurance;  (4)  the  fraction, 
if  estimable,  which  the  particular  loan 
should  bear  of  the  expense  of  administer- 
ing the  service,  (c.)  As  to  the  duration  of 
the  loan:  that  it  shall  not  exceed  the  pe- 
riod of  its  local  loans,  with  an  allowance 
added  for  the  transit  both  ways;  and  the 
lender  may  reasonably  couple  with  this  a 
right  of  summary  recall.  It  may  also  im- 
pose penalties  for  delays  in  returning  ma- 
terial, or  for  carelessness  in  its  use  or  in 
repacking.  It  may  of  course  reserve  the 
right  to  decline  further  loans  to  a  library 
which  has  shown  indifference  in  these  re- 
gards, or  whose  applications  have  been  in- 
cessantly frivolous,  (d)  It  may  of  course 
limit  the  number  of  volumes  lent  to  any 
one  library  or  for  the  use  of  any  one  in- 
vestigator at  any  one  time,  (e)  It  may, 
without  prejudicing  applications  from  other 
institutions,  deny  the  application  of  any 
particular  library,  because  of  lack  of  as- 
surance as  to  the  safety  or  intelligent  use 
of  the  material  if  lent.  Its  decisions  in  this 
regard  resting  often  upon  the  impressions 
of  a  general  experience,  ought  to  be  un- 
embarassed.  It  should  not  therefore  be 
called  upon  to  explain  them. 

HERBERT  PUTNAM. 

II 

A  statement  of  general  policy  in  regard  to 
inter-library  loans 
The  primary  purpose  of  inter-library 
loans  is  the  promotion  of  scholarship  by 
placing  books  not  commonly  accessible  and 
not  in  use  in  one  library,  temporarily  at 
the  service  of  a  scholar  who  has  access  to 
some  other  library.  It  should  not  be  al- 
lowed to  interfere  with  the  reasonable  and 
customary  use  of  books  by  home  readers, 
and  the  extent  to  which  sending  can  be 
carried   depends   on   the   local   conditions 


98 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


of  the  lending  library,  the  importance  of 
the  service  to  be  rendered,  the  character 
of  the  books  desired,  the  distance  to  which 
they  are  to  be  sent,  and  a  number  of  other 
circumstances. 

The  larger  university  libraries,  having 
large  numbers  of  professors,  advanced  stu- 
dents and  other  professional  scholars  im- 
mediately dependent  on  them,  may  find  it 
necessary  to  restrict  the  scope  of  their 
loans  in  justice  to  their  local  constituency, 
while  others  may  rightly  extend  the  sys- 
tem beyond  the  limits  indicated,  so  as  to 
meet  the  wants  of  readers  in  public  libra- 
ries, teachers  in  high  schools,  and  others. 

Libraries  should  not  be  expected  to  lend 
text-books  for  general  class  use,  popular 
manuals  or  books  for  the  general  reader, 
inexpensive  books  and  those  which  can 
easily  be  procured  through  the  book-trade, 
books  to  assist  in  school  or  college  debates, 
or  books  for  ordinary  purposes  of  school 
or  undergraduate  study.  Neither  should 
they  lend  books  which  are  likely  to  be  in 
frequent  demand  by  their  own  readers,  or 
books  which  they  do  not  lend  at  home  on 
the  ground  that  they  ought  always  to  be 
accessible  on  the  shelves.  In  this  respect 
practice  will  naturally  differ  widely,  one 
library  being  ready  to  lend  books  ^hich 
another  would  consider  it  necessary  to 
keep  always  at  hand. 

Caution  should  be  exercised  in  lending 
volumes  of  newspapers,  periodicals  or  so- 
ciety transactions  and  parts  of  expensive 
sets,  since  such  volumes,  if  lost,  are  dis- 
proportionately expensive  and  sometimes 
practically  impossible  to  replace.  More- 
over, periodicals  and  society  publications 
are  often  unexpectedly  wanted  for  the  pur- 
pose of  verifying  references,  etc.,  and  sti> 
dents  may  justly  expect  that  they  will 
always  be  accessible  with  a  minimum  oJ 
delay. 

The  borrowing  library  should  bear  the 
expense  of  transportation  both  ways,  and 
additional  charges,  if  required,  for  the  in- 
surance of  specially  valuable  books.  It 
should  be  financially  responsible  for  the 
replacement  of  books  lost  or  injured  In 
transit. 


Borrowing  libraries  should  take  pains  to 
borrow  from  sources  nearest  at  hand  or 
most  naturally  under  obligation  to  lend. 

Titles  of  books  wanted  should  be  given 
with  all  practicable  precision,  both  to  in- 
sure getting  the  very  thing  asked  for  and 
to  make  the  labor  of  finding  the  book  as 
light  as  possible  for  the  lending  library. 

Applications  for  loans  should  always  be 
made  through  the  librarian  of  the  borrow- 
ing library  and  not  directly  by  the  profes- 
sor or  student  for  whose  advantage  the 
loan  is  desired.  If  books  are  lent  on  di- 
rect request  of  the  individual,  not  trans- 
mitted through  the  library  with  which  he 
is  associated,  this  library  cannot  be  held 
responsible  for  the  prompt  and  safe  re- 
turn of  the  books  or  for  replacing  them  if 
lost  in  transit.  Librarians  are  therefore 
justified  in  declining  to  lend  on  direct  re- 
quest and  in  insisting  that  application 
must  be  made  through  the  librarian. 

A  library  is  justified  in  placing  a  limit 
on  the  number  of  volumes  which  it  may  be 
expected  to  lend  at  one  time  to  a  single 
institution — say  five  or  ten  volumes. 

Loans  should  be  made  for  a  definite  pe- 
riod, but  the  length  of  this  period  naturally 
varies  with  the  occasion.  The  period  be- 
gins with  the  despatch  of  the  book  froin 
the  lending  library  and  ends  with  the  day 
on  or  before  which  the  book  should  be 
sent  off  by  the  borrowing  library.  If  an 
extension  of  time  is  desired,  it  should  be 
asked  for  long  enough  in  advance  of  the 
book's  being  due  to  enable  an  answer  to 
be  received.  Books  may  always  be  re- 
called by  the  lending  library  in  advance  of 
the  late  originally  named  if  needed  for  the 
reasonable  service  of  its  home  readers. 

In  lending  rare  books,  large  volumes, 
portfolios  of  plates,  etc.,  a  library  may 
be  expected  to  Insist  that  they  must  be 
used  only  within  the  building  of  the  bor- 
rowing library.  In  some  cases,  it  may  be 
advisable  to  put  the  same  restriction  on 
all  books  lent. 

Fines  may  properly  be  charged  and  col- 
lected for  books  detained  beyond  the  al- 
lotted time  without  request  for  extension. 
Repeated  failure  to  return  books  promptly. 


GILLIS 


99 


or  negligence  in  packing  tliem  safely  is 
sufficient  ground  for  declining  to  make 
further  loans.  When  books  are  sent  out 
or  returned,  separate  notice  of  the  fact 
should  be  sent  by  mail,  stating  date  of 
shipment,  mode  of  conveyance,  etc.  It  is 
recommended  that  blank  forms  prepared 
for  this  purpose  be  used.  Applications  for 
loans  may  also  most  conveniently  be  made 
on  suitable  blanks. 

Libraries  that  are  called  upon  for  fre- 
quent loans  are  justified  in  making  a  mod- 
erate charge  in  connection  with  every  vol- 
ume lent,  sufficient  in  the  long  run  to  cover 
the  administrative  expense  involved  in 
looking  up  and  sending  off  volumes  asked 
for.  This  charge  is  not  to  be  considered 
as  a  payment  for  the  use  of  the  book,  but 
is  intended  simply  to  relieve  the  lending 
library  of  an  undue  burden  of  expense  un- 
avoidably attendant  upon  the  system  of 
lending  with  some  freedom  to  other  li- 
braries. 

It  is  recommended  that  libraries  arrange 
80  that  the  services  of  some  competent  per- 
son may  be  regularly  available  at  a  mod- 
erate charge  for  looking  up  information, 
verifying  references,  etc.,  when  the  time 
and  labor  involved  in  such  inquiries  seem 
to  exceed  what  may  reasonably  be  de- 
manded of  the  library  staff.  The  employ- 
ment of  such  a  person  to  obtain  specific  in- 
formation will  also  occasionally  serve  in 
place  of  making  a  loan. 

It  is  also  suggested  that  the  possession 
of  a  cameragraph,  for  making  rotary 
bromide  prints,  or  other  similar  device  by 
which  facsimile  copies  can  be  made  ifi- 
expensively,  would  often  enable  a  library 
to  send  a  satisfactory  copy  of  portions  of 
a  rare  book  or  manuscript  in  place  of  lend- 
ing the  original. 

WILLIAM  COOLIDGE  LANE. 

Ill 
InteMibrary   loans 

I.    Purpose. 

(1)  Prompt  service,  (a)  The  book,  if 
purchased,  might  have  to  come  from  a 
greater  distance  and  so  cause  delay,  (b) 
The  book,  if  out  of  print,  would  take  time 


to  find  or  might  not  be  possible  for  an 
agent  to  locate  for  a  very  long  time,  if  at 
all. 

(2)  Economical  service,  (a)  The  library 
that  loans  the  book.  Rather  than  have  a 
book,  that  has  cost  time  and  money,  stand 
idle  on  the  shelves,  the  library  owning  it 
would  be  better  repaid  for  the  expenditure 
if  the  book  were  used  by  more  people,  (b) 
The  library  that  borrows  the  book.  Rather 
than  purchase  a  book  which  would  seldom 
be  requested,  it  would  be  better  to  borrow 
it,  and  use  one's  funds  and  time  and  shelf 
room  for  books  that  would  be  in  constant 
demand.  For  example:  take  two  special 
lines  of  library  service  here  in  California 
at  the  present  time. 

(1)  Books  for  the  blind.  Aside  from  a 
small  collection  in  the  San  Francisco  read- 
ing room  and  library  for  the  blind  for  the 
local  blind,  and  the  small  collection  for 
the  students  in  the  Berkeley  California  In- 
stitute for  the  education  of  the  blind  and 
the  deaf,  the  state  library  has  almost  all 
the  books  and  magazines  used  by  the  blind 
of  the  state.  It  would  not  be  economical 
for  other  libraries  or  individuals  to  under- 
take to  carry  on  this  work,  so  the  state 
library  discourages  anyone  else  buying 
such  books  and  undertakes  to  furnish  them 
to  anyone  needing  them.  If  many  want 
to  read  certain  periodicals  they  are  dupli- 
cated several  times  and  sent  in  order  to 
the  various  blind  borrowers. 

(2)  Medical  books  and  periodicals.  The 
Lane  medical  library  in  San  Francisco  and 
the  Barlow  medical  library  in  Los  Angeles 
have  perhaps  the  best  medical  collections 
in  the  state.  The  state  library  of  course 
has  and  is  building  up  a  collection  in  this 
line  for  the  use  of  the  whole  state,  but  it 
often  borrows  from  the  first  two  mentioned. 
II.  Scope. 

There  will  be  no  limit,  apparently,  to  the 
scope  of  inter-library  loans  in  California. 
Each  library  at  present  makes  an  effort  to 
loan  anything  asked  of  it  by  any  other 
library.  For  example,  the  state  library 
buys  no  fiction,  but  from  the  union  cata- 
logs of  the  county  free  libraries  which  is 
located  at  the  state  library,  it  is  possible 


100 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


to  tell  where  a  certain  book  is  located  and 
to  direct  one  to  the  other  for  a  rush  re- 
quest of  fiction. 

Rare  books  are  loaned  by  library  to  li- 
brary and  used  by  the  borrower  at  the 
library. 

Newspapers  it  is  not  necessary  now  to 
loan  as  by  cameragraphing  the  needed  ex- 
tract from  them,  the  expense,  wear  and 
tear,  and  risk  of  such  loans  are  avoided. 
The  same  applies  to  articles  in  unbound 
or  bound  periodicals.  Cameragraphing  an 
article  in  a  periodical  also  makes  unneces- 
sary the  duplicating  of  certain  periodicals 
because  of  some  especially  needed  article. 
Cameragraphing  is  also  economical  in  that 
it  keeps  the  files  in  the  library  and  so  more 
material  is  always  available  for  reference 
use. 

Even  reference  books,  however,  are 
loaned  or  borrowed  frequently  to  meet  cer- 
tain needs.  So  the  scope  is  of  necessity 
a  matter  of  judgment  of  the  particular 
case  in  question. 

III.  Extent  of  borrower's  financial  respon- 
sibility. 

When  a  library  borrows,  it  takes  the  fi- 
nancial responsibility,  in  case  of  loss  or 
injury,  and  if  the  borrower  is  an  individual, 
he  takes  it.  The  State  library  pays  trans- 
portation on  all  loans  to  and  from  the 
county  free  libraries,  and  the  county  free 
library  on  all  loans  within  the  county. 
Loans  to  other  libraries  are  usually  paid — 
sending  charge  by  the  library  sending  the 
book  and  returning  charge  by  the  library 
returning  the  book. 

The  expense  of  administering  the  serv- 
ice of  inter-library  loans  is  not  being  con- 
sidered here  in  California,  and  we  believe 
that  question  will  never  arise  here,  no 
matter  how  great  the  demands  on  each 
other  grow  to  be. 

The  spirit  of  co-operation  is  growing  so 
rapidly  here  that  the  rivalry  seems  to  be 
more  who  has  and  can  give  more  rather 
than  who  can  take  more. 

IV.  Order   in   which   libraries   should   be 
applied  to  for  a  loan. 

There  is  no  order  here  in  California  ex- 
cept that  almost  all  libraries  apply  first 


to  the  State  library  and  the  State  library 
being  naturally  the  best  informed  on  the 
special  lines  of  strength  in  the  various  li- 
braries in  California,  can  request  the  li- 
brary that  is  either  known  to  have  it  or  is 
likely  to  have  it,  to  forward  it  to  the  library 
needing  it.  This  is  already  possible  for 
periodical  files  as  there  is  at  the  State 
library  a  union  list  of  periodical  files  in 
California  libraries.  Periodicals  which  are 
not  in  any  California  library,  are  borrowed 
with  least  loss  of  time,  from  the  Library 
of  Congress  or  Surgeon  General's  library. 

V.  Average  duration  of  loans. 

It  would  not  be  economical  to  plan  a 
time  limit  on  loans,  as  usually  the  library 
requesting  it  states  the  time  the  book  will 
be  needed  and  it  is,  if  possible,  loaned  for 
that  period.  As  soon  as  the  library  bor- 
rowing it  is  through  with  it,  even  if  sooner 
than  the  time  it  expected  to  need  it,  the 
book  is  returned.  Any  book  must  of  ne- 
cessity be  subject  to  recall  by  the  library 
loaning  it.  There  cannot  well  be  a  limit  to 
the  number  of  volumes  loaned  at  any  one 
time.  That  would  naturally  depend  upon 
the  need.  No  fines  or  other  penalties  for 
negligence  in  returning  loans  are  neces- 
sary where  there  is  a  spirit  of  perfect  co- 
operation, as  librarians  all  understand  the 
necessity  of  system,  and  in  California  at 
least,  show  great  consideration  for  each 
other. 

VI.  Forms  of  application  for  loans;  notice 
of  shipment,  etc. 

The  forms  used  by  the  State  library  and 
county  free  libraries  in  California  have 
been  found  to  be  perfectly  satisfactory. 
Requests  are  sent  in  to  the  State  library 
in  duplicate.  One  is  returned  with  the  dis- 
position made  of  it  written  on  it  and  the 
duplicate  is  kept  on  file  as  a  record  at  the 
State  library.  If  not  in  the  State  library  a 
similar  duplicated  request  is  sent  to  some 
other  library. 

VII.  Inter-library  loans  in  California. 

We  in  California  find  that  a  request  is 
never  refused  and  that  requesting  such 
loans  in  itself  makes  a  library  proud  of 
its  strength  and  of  its  place  in  the  sys- 


AHERN 


101 


tern  and  builds  up  in  this  way  a  strong 
feeling  for  co-operation. 

The  rules  to  be  adopted  for  inter-library 
loans  in  California  will  be  those  that  ex- 
perience shows  are  necessary,  and  are 
likely  to  give  the  best  results  for  Cali- 
fornia conditions. 

J.  L.  GILLIS. 

COMMITTEE   ON   CO-OPERATION  WITH 

THE   NATIONAL    EDUCATION 

ASSOCIATION 

The  Committee  on  Co-operation  with 
National  Education  Association  is  in  a 
position  to  report  that  an  appointment 
has  been  made  by  the  executive  board  of 
the  National  Education  Association  of  a 
representative  of  the  American  Library 
Association  to  speak  at  the  third  general 
session  of  its  meeting  in  Chicago  on  the 
place  of  the  library  in  educational  move- 
ments. The  committee  feels  that  this 
recognition  of  the  work  of  the  library  on 
the  part  of  the  National  Education  Asso- 
ciation is  a  decided  victory,  as  for  many 
years  the  authorities  of  the  National  Edu- 
cation Association  have  courteously  but 
constantly  turned  away  from  the  request 
made  by  the  American  Library  Asso- 
ciation committee  for  a  representative  on 
their  program. 

A  selection  was  made  of  Dr.  Arthur  E. 
Bostwick,  librarian  of  the  St.  Louis  public 
library,  to  present  the  library  cause  be- 
fore the  National  Education  Association. 
It  is  needless  to  add  with  full  assurance, 
that  the  matter  is  safe  in  his  hands. 

At  the  invitation  of  the  president  of  the 
library  department  of  the  National  Educa- 
tion Association,  Mr.  E.  W.  Gaillard  of 
New  York,  the  committee  has  endeavored 
as  best  it  could  in  the  short  time  allowed, 
owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  invitation,  to 
make  an  exhibit  of  American  Library 
Association  material,  booklists  and  mate- 
rial illustrative  of  the  relations  between 
libraries  and  schools,  to  be  in  place  at 
the  National  Education  Association  meet- 
ing to  be  held  in  Chicago. 

It  seems,  therefore,  that  the  work  of  the 
past  year  is  one  that  should  afford  satis- 


faction in  the  recognition  that  the  Amer- 
ican Library  Association  has  received 
from  the  National  Education  Associa- 
tion. 

President  George  E.  Vincent,  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota,  who  will  deliver 
an  address  at  the  Ottawa  conference,  at 
the  invitation  of  the  American  Library 
Association  program  committee,  has  been 
invited  to  present  the  official  greetings 
of  the  National  Education  Association  to 
the  American  Library  Association. 

The  committee  through  its  chairman 
has  advised  with  several  groups  of  school 
librarians,  but  it  has  been  the  policy  to 
confine  action  to  affairs  in  which  the  na- 
tional organizations  as  individual  units 
were  concerned. 

MARY  EILEEN  AHERN,  Chairman, 
GENEVIEVE  M.  WALTON, 
IRENE  WARREN, 
GEORGE  H.  LOCKE, 
J.  C.  DANA. 

The  PRESIDENT:  The  next  report  is 
that  the  committee  on  catalog  rules  for 
small  libraries. 

The  SECRETARY:  The  chairman  of 
this  committee.  Miss  Theresa  Hitchler, 
wrote  me  that  she  hoped  to  make  a  re- 
port through  some  other  member  of  the 
committee,  and  that  it  was  the  hope  of 
the  committee  to  have  that  work  finished 
by  fall. 

The  PRESIDENT:  Then  the  chair  will 
accept  that  as  a  report  of  information. 

Adjourned. 

SECOND  GENERAL  SESSION 

(Russell  Theatre,  Friday,  June  28, 
9:30  a.  m.) 

First  Vice-President  Henry  E.  Legler 
presided. 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  It  has 
always  been  a  moot  question  as  to  what 
vice-presidents  were  for.  Mrs.  Elmendorf 
has  undertaken  the  very  doubtful  experi- 
ment of  endeavoring  to  find  out,  and  so 
she  has  designated  the  respective  vice- 
presidents  in  their  order  to  preside  over 
the  meetings  of  the  conference. 

We  shall  reverse  the  order  of  the  pro- 


102 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


gram  and  call  for  the  committee  reports 
first. 

The  following  reports  were  presented 
and  received,  all  having  been  previously 
printed,  with  the  exception  of  the  supple- 
ment to  the  report  of  the  committee  on 
library  administration  and  that  on  work 
with  the  blind.  The  committee  on  inter- 
national relations  stated  that  they  had 
no  report  to  make. 

COMMITTEE   ON    FEDERAL   AND 
STATE    RELATIONS 

Your  committee's  chief  activity  has  been 
along  the  line  of  a  parcels  post,  as  we  have 
felt  that  was  the  most  feasible  measure  for 
obtaining  lower  postal  rates.  The  chair- 
man of  the  committee  had  personal  inter- 
views with  the  chairmen  of  the  House  and 
Senate  committees  on  Post  Office,  and  filed 
with  the  latter  a  formal  endorsement  of 
the  parcels  post,  as  well  as  the  resolution 
looking  in  that  direction,  passed  by  the 
Council  at  its  meeting  in  January  last. 
The  committee  recommends  that  the  con- 
tinuance of  this  advocacy  be  authorized  by 
the  association. 

We  also  recommend  that  the  association 
endorse  a  movement  for  the  better  safe- 
guarding of  the  national  archives  and  ren- 
dering them  accessible  to  students,  feeling 
that  the  preservation  of  these  govern- 
mental records  is  one  of  considerable  im- 
portance, and  one  in  which  librarians  have 
an  especial  interest,  inasmuch  as  they  have 
under  their  care  manuscripts  as  well  as 
printed  books. 

The  attention  of  depository  libraries  is 
called  to  the  report  of  Senator  Smoot,  on 
the  revision  of  printing  laws  (62nd  Con- 
gress, second  session.  Report  414,  p.  33 
and  following)  which  discusses  the  pro- 
posed amendments  to  the  laws  with  ref- 
erence to  depository  libraries. 

BERNARD  C.  STEINER. 

COMMITTEE     ON     LIBRARY    ADMINIS- 
TRATION 

Your  committee  has  not  been  active  dur- 
ing the  whole  year,  the  present  chairman 
having  been  appointed  to  fill  a  vacancy. 
What  it  has  done  has  been  in  the  way  of 


a  small  beginning  toward  a  general  sur- 
vey of  methods  in  public  libraries,  which 
it  is  hoped  may  be  carried  forward  to  com- 
pletion in  future  years. 

The  scientific  position  that  the  first 
thing  to  do,  in  making  an  investigation,  is 
to  find  out  the  facts,  has  only  recently  been 
taken  in  work  of  this  kind.  It  has  gen- 
erally been  assumed  by  those  who  have 
desired  to  better  conditions  of  any  sort 
that  the  existing  conditions  were  well 
known  to  all.  The  fact  is  that  no  one 
person  or  group  of  persons  is  in  a  posi- 
tion to  know  all  the  conditions  thoroughly 
and  that  the  elementary  task  of  ascertain- 
ing them  and  stating  them  is  usually  by 
no  means  easy.  It  is  now  generally  recog- 
nized that  we  must  have  a  Survey — an 
ascertainment  and  plain  statement  of  the 
facts  as  they  are — as  a  preliminary  to 
action  or  even  to  discussion. 

It  has  seemed  to  your  committee  that 
the  general  feeling,  shared  by  the  educa- 
tional and  industrial  worlds,  that  methods 
are  not  always  efficiently  adjusted  to  aims 
should  find  some  place  also  in  the  library. 
We  are  spending  large  sums  of  public 
money,  and  investigations  by  "economy 
committees,"  "efficiency  bureaus"  and  the 
like  are  taking  place  all  around  us.  It 
will  be  well  for  us  to  take  a  step  in  ad- 
vance of  these  and  get  for  ourselves  some 
sort  of  a  birds-eye  view  of  our  work,  from 
the  standpoint  of  its  possible  lack  of  com- 
plete efllciency — ^adaptation  of  end  to  aim. 
In  order  to  do  this  we  must  first  have  a 
survey,  which  we  conceive  to  involve  in 
this  case  a  statement  of  just  what  libra- 
ries are  trying  to  do  and  just  how,  in  some 
minuteness  of  detail,  they  are  trying  to  do 
it.  Comparison  and  discussion  of  methods 
will  naturally  follow  later. 

The  method  of  taking  up  this  matter  was 
suggested  by  some  very  preliminary  work 
done  in  the  St.  Louis  public  library.  The 
head  of  each  of  the  various  branches  and 
departments  was  asked  to  make  a  detailed 
written  list  of  the  various  operations  per- 
formed by  the  assistants  in  that  particular 
department,  dividing  them  into  purely  me- 
chanical  acts  and   those   involving   some 


BOSTWICK 


103 


thought  or  judgment.  This  in  itself  proved 
to  be  an  interesting  task  and  both  in- 
formation and  stimulation  resulted  from 
it.  Certain  operations,  common  to  the 
largest  number  of  kinds  of  work,  were  then 
selected  and  tests  were  made,  involving 
both  speed  of  performance  and  efficiency 
of  result.  From  a  large  number  of  such 
tests  it  is  expected  that  some  standardiza- 
tion of  operations  may  result,  or  at  any 
rate  the  cutting  out  of  useless  details  and 
the  saving  of  time  for  needed  extensions 
of  work.  The  object  of  an  investigation  of 
this  kind  is  of  course  not  to  discover  ways 
of  making  assistants  work  harder  and 
faster  but  to  find  out  whether  the  same 
amount  of  work,  or  more  of  it,  may  not  be 
done  with  less  effort. 

To  extend  this  bit  of  experimental  work, 
which  has  not  progressed  beyond  its  first 
steps,  to  all  the  libraries  of  the  United 
States  is  of  course  impossible  without  mod- 
ification. Your  committee  has  not  the  ma- 
chinery to  handle  detailed  lists  of  opera- 
tions from  thousands  of  different  libraries. 
Fortunately  it  is  easy  to  select  operations 
that  are  common  to  very  large  numbers 
of  libraries  of  divers  sizes  and  kinds  and 
in  all  parts  of  the  country.  As  examples 
of  such  operations,  and  as  a  small  begin- 
ning, we  selected  those  of  accessioning, 
charging  and  discharging,  and  counting  is- 
sue. Even  with  a  narrowing  of  the  field 
to  two  operations,  however,  it  was  impos- 
sible to  investigate  these  in  all  our  libra- 
ries, or  even  in  a  large  number.  After 
a  discussion  by  correspondence,  revealing 
some  difference  of  opinion,  we  decided  to 
select  about  twenty-five  libraries,  as  rep- 
resentative as  possible  of  different  sizes, 
different  institutions  and  different  local- 
ities. The  list  as  finally  made  up  was  as 
follows: — 


Public    Libraries 

New  York 
St.  Louis 
Pratt  Institute 
East  Orange,  N.  J. 
Atlanta,  Ga. 


State  Libraries 

New  York 

Iowa 

California 

Connecticut 

Virginia 


University   Libraries  Subscription     Libra- 
Harvard  ries 
Syracuse  Mercantile,  N.  Y. 
Oberlin  Athenaeum,     Boa- 
Kansas  University  ton. 
Shurtleff   College  Mercantile,       St. 

Alton,    111.  Louis. 

Trinity  college  gpeclal  Libraries 

Hartford    Conn.  ^^^      Association. 

Tulane  University  t,^   y 

New   Orleans,  Academy  of  Med- 
^-  icine,  N.  Y. 
Reference    Libraries  Engineering  socie- 
Grosvenor,  Buffalo  ties,  N.  Y. 
Newberry,        Chi-  John   Crerar,  Chi- 
cago, cago. 
To  the  librarians  of  each  of  these  li- 
braries was  then  sent  the  following  let- 
ter:— 

To  the  Librarian: — 

The  Committee  on  Library  Administra- 
tion of  the  A.  L.  A.  is  beginning  a  survey 
of  simple  operations  common  to  all  sorts 
of  libraries,  especially  with  a  view  to  find- 
ing out  whether  there  is  much  diversity 
of  detail  in  them,  and  ultimately  of  noting 
particular  methods  that  seem  likely  to 
result  in  time-saving  or  in  better  results. 
For  the  moment,  however,  a  mere  survey, 
involving  a  detailed  description  of  the 
method  of  performing  certain  kinds  of 
work  is  all  that  is  aimed  at.  The  Com- 
mittee has  selected  26  libraries  of  very 
different  sizes  and  types,  and  yours  is  one 
of  these.  If  you  are  willing  to  cooperate, 
will  you  kindly  send  at  once  to  the  chair- 
man a  description,  in  as  minute  detail  as 
possible,  of  the  following  operations: 
Accessioning 
The  counting  of  issue 
The  charging  of  books 
The  discharging  of  books 
Please  describe  each  step  of  these  opera- 
tions seriatim  and  in  detail,  not  omitting 
such  as  are  purely  mechanical,  and  noting 
points  where  different  assistants  would  be 
apt  to  act  in  different  ways.  A  description 
of  the  operation  of  accessioning  in  the 
New  York  public  library  (Reference  de- 
partment) is  enclosed  as  a  sample. 

If  you  can  not  do  this,  please  notify  us 
immediately,  that  another  library  may  be 
put  on  the  list  in  your  place. 
Yours  truly, 
ARTHUR  E.  BOSTWICK,     Chairman, 
HARRY  M.  LYDENBERG, 
ETHEL  F.  McCOLLOUGH, 

A.  L.  A.  Com.  on  Administration. 


104 


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Sooner  or  later  we  obtained  the  desired 
data  from  20  of  the  26  libraries  to  which 
this  letter  was  sent.  Only  one,  the  Groa- 
venor  Library  of  Buffalo,  returned  no  an- 
swer. Five  declined  on  various  grounds. 
The  California  State  library  wrote  to  us: 
"We  do  not  feel  satisfied  with  our  present 
arrangements  and  do  not  believe  we  are 
in  a  position  to  offer  any  suggestions  that 
would  be  of  service  in  connection  with 
this  investigation."  The  Mercantile  li- 
brary of  New  York  wrote:  "We  regret  that 
we  find  ourselves  unable  to  co-operate 
with  your  committee  in  this  undertaking." 
The  librarian  of  Trinity  college,  Hartford, 
writes  that  "with  the  exception  of  student 
assistants  the  librarian  is  the  entire  staff." 
The  senior  regent  of  ShurtlefE  college,  Al- 
ton, 111.,  writes:  "Our  building  is  not  yet 
complete  and  in  the  management  of  the 
old,  we  are  so  nearly  without  a  system 
that  I  hardly  feel  it  worth  while  to  try  to 
reply  to  these  questions."  The  librarian 
of  the  New  York  Engineering  Societies 
writes:  "This  library  *  *  *  has  no 
charging  system.  Its  system  of  accession- 
ing will  be  abandoned  as  soon  as  possible. 
I  suggest  that  you  enter  another  library 
on  your  list." 

Replies  such  as  these  seem  to  imply  a 
misconception  of  the  nature  and  purposes 
of  a  survey.  Our  object  is  to  ascertain 
facts,  not  to  gather  a  selected  number  of 
ideal  cases. 

For  these  five  libraries  the  following 
were  substituted: 

Westminster  College,  Fulton,  Mo. 

Wesleyan  University,  Middletown,  Conn. 

Washington    State    Library. 

New  York  Society  Library. 

Forbes    Library,   Northampton,   Mass. 

These  furnished  that  data  for  which  we 
asked,  with  the  exception  of  the  Wash- 
ington State  library,  which  declined.  We 
have  material,  therefore,  from  24  libraries 
altogether. 

The  last  of  this  body  of  data  comes  to 
hand  just  as  this  preliminary  report  goes 
to  press,  but  it  is  being  digested  and  tab- 
ulated and  some  of  the  results,  at  least, 
will  be  ready  for  the  Ottawa  meeting,  al- 


though there  will  not  be  time  for  any 
study  of  these  results  or  for  recommenda- 
tions based  thereon. 

The  reports  from  the  various  libraries 
will  be  on  file  at  headquarters  at  Ot- 
tawa and  will  be  accessible  to  all  mem- 
bers of  the  association  who  desire  to  con- 
sult them. 

Regarding  the  question  of  the  counting 
of  circulation  through  traveling  libraries, 
deposits  and  the  like,  which  has  been  re- 
ferred to  your  committee,  we  beg  to  re- 
port as   follows: — 

The  sending  of  books  from  a  library 
to  a  school,  a  club,  or  some  other  place 
where  they  are  to  be  used  or  circulated 
may  be  regarded  in  two  ways  by  libra- 
rians. It  may  be  held  that  the  sending  of 
the  books  from  the  library  is  itself  an 
act  of  circulation  or  that  the  place  to 
which  they  are  sent  for  use  or  distribu- 
tion is  a  temporary  station  of  the  library, 
and  that  sending  books  thereto  is  no  more 
circulation  than  if  they  were  sent  to  a 
library  branch  or  delivery  station.  Ob- 
viously, if  the  former  view  is  accepted, 
no  use  that  is  made  of  the  book  after  it 
reaches  the  station  can  be  recorded  by  the 
library.  When  we  have  lent  a  book  to  a 
reader  we  do  not  inquire  how  many  per- 
sons in  the  family  use  it  or  whether  a 
neighbor  borrows  it.  The  library  bor- 
rower is  responsible  for  it  and  it  simply 
counts  as  one  in  the  issue.  But  if  the 
place  to  which  it  goes  is  to  be  treated  as 
a  station,  then  the  use  of  the  book  at  or 
from  that  station  is  part  of  the  library 
record.  If  it  is  used  in  the  school,  club,  or 
other  place  where  it  is  deposited,  such  use 
is  not  circulation,  however,  but  hall  or 
library  use,  as  if  it  had  been  used  in  a 
branch  library.  If  it  is  issued  from  the 
station  for  home  use,  such  issues,  and 
every  such  issue,  is  properly  counted  with 
the  circulation. 

It  seems  to  your  committee  that  the 
second  of  these  alternatives  is  the  one  that 
should  be  recognized,  both  from  theoret- 
ical and  practical  reasons.  The  sending 
of  a  collection  of  books  to  a  place  where 
it   is   to   be  used   resembles   much   more 


BOSTWICK 


106 


closely  the  temporary  transfer  of  such  col- 
lection to  a  branch  than  it  does  ordinary 
circulation.  Practically  also,  it  is  desir- 
able to  take  account  of  whatever  use  is 
made  of  the  books  in  such  places  and  log- 
ically this  can  be  done  only  on  the  second 
theory. 

On  neither  of  the  theories  is  it  allowable 
to  count  the  original  sending  as  one  issue 
and  then  to  count  or  estimate  issues  from 
the  station;  or  to  count  uses  in  the  station 
as  home  issues. 

Some  libraries  report  that  they  are  un- 
able to  secure  proper  statistics  of  use  at 
the  station  and  that  they  must  therefore 
either  count  the  original  issue  or  guess 
at  the  use  in  some  way,  or  fail  to  report  it 
at  all.  In  cases  of  this  kind,  whatever  is 
done  should  be  made  plain  by  a  note  in 
connection  with  the  published  statistics. 

To  recapitulate,  we  recommend: 

(1)  That  the  act  of  sending  books  from 
the  library  to  a  station  of  any  kind,  no 
matter  how  temporary,  be  not  regarded  as 
an  issue  to  be  counted  in  the  circulation, 
although  separate  account  of  books  thus 
sent  should  be  kept  and  may  be  published 
if  desired. 

(2)  That  books  used  in  the  station  be 
counted  as  hall  or  library  use  and  that 
books  issued  from  the  station  be  counted 
as  home  use. 

(3)  That  where  it  is  found  necessary  to 
depart  from  this  method  in  any  way,  such 
departure  be  plainly  stated  in  a  foot  note 
to  the  published  report. 

All  of  which  is  respectfully  submitted. 
ARTHUR  E.  BOSTWICK,  Chairman. 
ETHEL  F.  McCOLLOUGH, 
HARRY  M.  LYDENBERG. 

(Supplementary  Report) 
As  a  supplement  to  that  portion  of  its 
report  which  has  already  been  presented, 
your  committe  now  submits  the  following 
preliminary  tabulation  and  discussion  of  re- 
sults. As  is  usual,  in  such  investigations, 
our  questions  have  not  been  interpreted  in 
the  same  way  by  all  to  whom  they  have 
been  addressed.  Supplementary  questions 
must  therefore  be  sent  out  in  many  cases 
and  these  must  be  framed  separately  for 


each  case.  This  will  be  the  next  work  of 
this  committee,  should  you  see  fit  to  con- 
tinue it  as  at  present  constituted. 

Your  committee  trusts  that  it  is  clearly 
understood  that  it  does  not  desire  to  infer 
from  the  extremely  small  proportion  of 
cases  discussed  anything  that  should  be 
properly  inferred  only  from  a  large  num- 
ber of  cases.  Facts  are  stated  numerically, 
but  no  numerical  conclusions  are  or  can 
be  drawn.  At  this  stage  of  the  investi- 
gation no  recommendations  at  all  can  be 
made. 

Accessioning 

The  material  received  varies  so  much 
in  respect  to  the  items  reported  upon,  and 
the  fullness  with  which  each  step  Is 
treated,  that  a  second  questionnaire  must 
be  sent  out  before  there  can  be  any  uni- 
formity  of    tabulation.      For    example: — 

One  librarian  writes  us,  "We  keep  no 
accession  book  for  ordinary  circulating 
books,  only  for  expensive  art  books"  and 
fails  to  state  what  items  are  entered. 

Another  reports  that  "the  books  are  ac- 
cessioned, each  separate  volume  being 
given  a  separate  accession  number"  but 
does  not  say  whether  an  accession  book  is 
used  or  not. 

Two  librarians  write  that  "the  Standard 
A.  L.  A.  Accession  book  is  used"  and  leave 
us  to  infer  that  every  column  is  filled  in. 

And  two  assure  us  that  the  promised 
material  will  be  sent  in  soon. 

It  is  interesting  to  note,  however,  that 
only  two  libraries,  the  Boston  Athenaeum 
and  the  Forbes  library,  use  the  Bill 
Method  of  accessioning.  The  other  li- 
braries all  use  an  accession  book,  but 
differ  widely  in  the  number  of  items  en- 
tered; for  example,  one  library  enters  only 
author,  title,  source  and  price,  and  an- 
other has  an  accession  book  printed  for 
its  own  use,  including  columns  for  the  fol- 
lowing: Date  of  entry,  accession  number, 
place  of  publication,  publisher,  date  of 
book,  size,  class,  additions  classified  (in- 
cluding a  column  for  each  of  the  main 
classes  in  the  D.  C.  system,  one  for  fiction, 
and  one  for  juvenile  books),  volumes 
bought,  volumes   received   as    gifts,    perl- 


106 


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odicals  bound,  pamphlets  bound,  the 
language  of  the  book  (4  separate  columns 
marked  Eng.  Ger.  Fr.  and  Other),  source, 
publisher's  price,  discount,  net  price,  bind- 
ing, remarks. 

The  majority  of  libraries  reporting,  use 
the  A.  L.  A.  standard  accession  book  or 
the  condensed  form  of  the  same. 

Libraries  Using  Book  Method 
Atlanta. 

Bar  Association  of  N.  Y. 
East  Orange. 
Iowa  State  Library. 
John  Crerar  Library. 
Kansas  State  University. 
Kings  County  Medical. 
N.  Y.  City  Circulating  Department. 
N.  Y.  City  Reference  Department. 
N.  Y.  State  Library. 

N.  Y.  Society  Library  (accessions  only 
expensive  art  books). 
Newberry  Library. 
Oberlin  College. 
Pratt  Institute  Free  Library. 
St  Louis  Mercantile  Library. 
St.  Louis  Public  Library. 
Syracuse  University. 
Tulane  University. 
Virginia  State  University. 
Wesleyan  University. 
Westminster  College. 

Libraries  Using  Bill  Method 
Boston  Athenaeum. 
Forbes  Library. 

Charging  and  Discharging 

The  data  contributed  on  this  subject  are 
so  uneven  and  varying  that  any  accurate 
and  minute  comparison  is  impossible  at 
present.  The  functions  that  constitute  a 
charge  or  discharge  are  variously  regarded 
by  different  libraries.  The  eighteen  li- 
braries forming  the  basis  of  this  study, 
with  a  note  of  their  charging  systems, 
may  be  roughly  arranged  in  the  following 
groups: 

College  or  University  Libraries 
Oberlin.     Double   file.     Borrowers'    file 
and  book  file  under  date. 


Syracuse.  Double  file.  Borrowers'  file 
and  book  file  under  call-number. 

University  of  Kansas.  Double  file.  Bor- 
rowers' file  and  book  file  under  date. 

Tulane.  Single  file.  Book  file  under 
class. 

Wesleyan.  Double  file.  Borrowers'  file 
under  date  and  book  file. 

Westminster.  Single  file.  Book  file  un- 
der date. 

Public  or  Circulating   Libraries 

Boston  Athenaeum  (Subscription). 
Double  record.  Borrowers'  file  and  book 
record  under  date. 

Carnegie  Library  of  Atlanta.  Newark 
System  (no  details). 

East  Orange  Public  Library.  Newark 
System  (many  variations). 

Forbes  Library.    Browne  System. 

New  York  Public  Library.  Newark  Sys- 
tem. 

Pratt  Institute  Free  Library.  Newark 
System. 

St.  Louis  Mercantile  Library  (subscrip- 
tion).   Browne  System. 

St.  Louis  Public  Library.  Newark 
System. 

State  Libraries 

Iowa  State.  Reference.  (Uses  tempor- 
ary slip  when  a  book  is  issued  for  home 
use  filed  under  date.) 

Virginia  State.  Double  file.  Borrowers' 
file  and  book  file  by  titles. 

Reference   Libraries 

Newberry  Library. 

No  attempt  has  been  made  to  study  the 
charge  or  discharge  of  books  for  librarj'^ 
use. 

Society  Library 

Medical  Society  of  King's  County.  Bor- 
rowers' record. 

Reversing  this  arrangement  and  group- 
ing under  charging  systems,  we  have: 
Newark  System — 6. 

Carnegie  Library  of  Atlanta. 

East  Orange  Public  Library. 

New  York  Public  Library. 

Pratt  Institute  Free  Library. 

St.  Louis  Public  Library. 

Syracuse  University  (modified). 


BOSTWICK 


107 


Browne  System — 2. 

Forbes  Library. 

St.  Louis  Mercantile  Library. 
Double    File — Borrower  and    Book — 6. 

Boston  Athenaeum. 

Oberlin  College. 

Syracuse. 

University  of  Kansas. 

Virginia  State  Library. 

Wesleyan  University. 

Single  File — Book  File  under  Date  or  Class 
—3. 

Iowa  State  Library. 

Tulane  University. 

Westminster  College. 
Borrowers'  Record — 1. 

Medical  Society  of  County  of  Kings. 

It  is  evident  from  this  tabulation  that 
libraries  of  the  same  character  use  the 
same  systems — identical  in  their  essen- 
tials but  different  in  detail.  College  li- 
braries and  those  whose  use  corresponds 
to  that  of  a  college  library  find  with  but 
two  exceptions  a  double  file  useful — one  of 
borrower  and  one  of  books — the  latter 
varying  greatly  in  arrangement,  owing  to 
the  distinctions  between  students  and 
faculty. 

A  r68um6  of  the  college  and  state  sys- 
tems studied  follows: 

Iowa  State.  When  book  Is  issued,  as- 
sistant copies  the  call  number  from  the 
book  plate  upon  a  manila  charge  slip,  then 
adds  the  name  of  borrower  and  her  date 
of  loan.  Charge  slips  are  deposited  tem- 
porarily in  a  drawer,  and  next  morning 
are  arranged  by  call-number  and  filed  in 
the  charging  tray.  There  are  no  fines; 
books  are  issued  subject  to  call.  The  first 
of  each  month  the  tray  is  examined;  all 
slips  bearing  a  date  a  month  old  are  taken 
out,  compared  with  the  shelves  to  ascer- 
tain If  the  books  have  been  returned,  and 
shelved  without  being  discharged,  and 
with  the  shelf  list,  to  verify  the  call  num- 
ber; at  which  time  the  author  and  title 
are  copied  on  the  reverse  side  of  slip. 
Notices  requesting  the  return  of  books  are 
filled  In  with  the  author,  title  and  date  of 
loan,  and  sent  to  borrowers.  Date  of  notice 
Is  placed   on   charge   slips   with   colored 


pencil,  and  the  slips  reflled  In  tray.  In 
discharging  books,  the  slips  bearing  cor- 
responding call  numbers  are  taken  from 
tray  and  destroyed. 

Oberlin  College.  Charge.  Book  pocket 
contains  two  cards,  one  white,  one  pink 
with  author's  name,  title  of  book  and  call 
number  and  accession  number.  Borrower 
signs  name  on  both  and  leaves  on  desk. 
Dating  slip  with  date  of  issue  Is  put  in 
book  pocket.  Assistant  stamps  both  cards 
with  date  of  issue — filing  white  cards  by 
call  number  under  date  and  pink  card 
alphabetically  with  borrower's  card  under 
borrower's  name.  These  are  ultimately 
divided  Into  two  files,  the  "day  file"  and 
the  "long  file,"  the  latter  Including  books 
drawn  by  professors  and  others  privileged 
to  retain  them  more  than  two  weeks. 
When  boot  is  returned  dating  slip  is  taken 
out  and  saved  for  future  use.  Book  Is 
checked  off  by  finding  book  card  in  file 
and  borrower's  name  Is  checked  from  that. 
Pink  card  Is  then  withdrawn  from  bor- 
rower's file. 

Syracuse  University.  Borrower's  cards 
are  kept  on  file  by  serial  number.  When 
a  book  Is  issued  its  call  number  is  written 
on  borrower's  card  and  date  of  Issue 
stamped  on  it  and  on  dating  slip.  Book 
card  Is  stamped  with  borrower's  number 
and  date  of  issue.  Borrower's  card  is 
filed  under  number  and  book  card  filed  by 
call  number.  When  book  is  returned  book 
Is  checked  off,  date  on  borrower's  card 
stamped  with  date  of  return  and  the  card 
put  In  regular  file  of  borrower's  cards. 
(The  book  card  system  Itself  seems  to  be 
the  Newark). 

Tulane  University.  Borrower  makes  out 
a  temporary  book  card  which  Is  filled  out 
with  the  book  data,  his  name  and  address 
and  date  and  Is  filed  by  class.  When  book 
is  returned  temporary  book  card  is  de- 
stroyed. 

University  of  Kansas.  Corresponds  to 
Oberlin  except  that  book  card  filed  with 
borrower's  card  Is  not  signed  or  dated  and 
that  the  single  file  is  by  class.  Has  two 
files — one  for  students  under  date  and 
one  for  faculty  under  name.     Books  are 


108 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


discharged  at  students'  leisure  by  check- 
ing off. 

Virginia  State.  Borrowers'  file  and  book 
file  of  temporary  book  cards  alphabetically 
under  title. 

Wesleyan.  When  book  is  issued  a  ma- 
nilla  slip  is  written  giving  name  of  bor- 
rower, call  number,  author  and  title.  The 
date  due  is  stamped  on  dating  slip  in 
book.  Slip  is  placed  in  box  and  next  morn- 
ing a  second  slip  is  made  from  it  giving 
call  number  first,  then  author,  title  and 
name  of  borrower.  Date  due  is  then 
stamped  on  both  cards.  First  card  (bor- 
rower's slips)  are  filed  (by  date  if  stu- 
dent, by  name,  if  professor).  The  other 
slips  (book  cards)  are  filed  alphabetically 
under  author.  Book  is  discharged  by 
checking  off — both  slips  being  withdrawn 
from  issue  and  presumably  destroyed. 

Westminster.  No  students'  cards.  Per- 
manent book  card — stamped  with  date  and 
borrower's  name.  Date  stamped  on  book 
pocket.  Cards  filed  under  date.  Assistant 
discharges  at  leisure  by  checking  off. 

Public  or  circulating  libraries  prefer  the 
Newark  or  Browne  system — the  majority 
the  Newark: 

Boston  Athenaeum.  Corresponds  to 
Oberlin  save  that  day  of  year  instead  of 
day  of  month  is  used  for  dating.  That  one 
slip  is  filed  in  borrowers'  case  with  Infor- 
mation relating  to  borrower's  assessments, 
etc.,  instead  of  with  borrower's  card,  and 
that  the  single  file  Is  by  author.  When 
book  Is  returned  date  of  return  is  stamped 
on  book  slips  when  book  is  checked  off. 

Carnegie  Library  of  Atlanta.  Newark 
system,  using  slots  in  desk  to  sort  cards. 
No  details  of  checking  off. 

East  Orange.  Newark  system,  using 
colored  book-cards  to  distinguish  classes. 
Magazines  and  four  weeks'  books  not 
stamped  on  reader's  cards.  In  children's 
room  non-fiction  not  stamped  on  reader's 
card.  Books  checked  off  near  charging 
desk. 

Forbes  Library.  Browne  system.  Bor- 
rower's pockets  filed  numerically  under 
each  letter  of  alphabet  in  order  of  regis- 
tration.    Fiction  and   non-fiction   pockets 


kept  in  separate  file.  When  book  is  is- 
sued borrower  gives  his  number  by  which 
his  pocket  is  found.  Book  card  is  taken 
from  book  pocket  and  put  in  borrower's 
pocket  and  date  of  return  is  stamped  on 
book  pocket.  Book  record  is  kept  by  ar- 
ranging under  date,  book  cards  in  pockets 
alphabetically  under  author  and  title.  (De- 
tails of  information  on  book  card  not 
given).  Book  is  discharged  by  withdraw- 
ing book  card  from  borrower's  pocket  and 
transferring  to  book  pocket.  Recent  books 
(last  two  years)  are  evidently  discharged 
and  shelved  at  once.  Others  three  times 
a  day.  Empty  borrower's  pockets  are  filed 
throughout  the  day. 

New  York  Public.  Newark  system. 
Book  card  has  author's  surname,  title  of 
book,  class  number  and  accession  number. 
Variously  colored  book  cards  are  used  to 
indicate  various  classes.  Assistant  makes 
hurried  examination  of  book  to  be  issued 
and  copies  borrower's  card  number  on 
book  card  and  stamps  date  with  dating 
pencil  on  reader's  card,  book  pocket  and 
book  card — the  latter  to  be  done  at  leisure 
if  there  is  a  rush.  Puts  borrower's  card 
in  pocket  and  gives  books  to  reader.  Book 
card  is  dropped  in  proper  slot  in  desk  (ten 
slots  indicating  the  ten  classes).  Book 
cards  filed  under  date  of  issue  by  class 
author  and  accession  number.  Book 
cards  for  foreign  books  are  arranged 
alphabetically  after  book  cards  in  Bng- 
gish.  When  book  is  discharged,  assist- 
ant checks  off  book  comparing  date  of  card 
with  that  of  book,  examines  book  for  dam- 
age and  then  cancels  date  on  reader's 
card,  restoring  card  to  reader.  (Note.  It 
hardly  seems  that  this  checking  off  before 
cancelling  date  on  reader's  card  can  be 
done  except  In  a  very  slack  hour,  and 
must  cause  annoying  delay  to  reader). 
Books  are  then  placed  on  truck  to  right  of 
assistant,  later  revised  and  shelved. 

System  has  many  exceptions,  one  of 
which  is  to  write  reader's  card  number  on 
dating  slip  as  well  as  book  card.  Others 
are  the  writing  of  Special  or  Sp.  on  book 
card,  opposite  card  number  to  Indicate  the 
privilege  of  extended  time  to  special  card- 


BOSTWICK 


109 


holder,  as  well  as  on  dating  slip.  In  this 
case,  call  number  or  accession  number  is 
written  on  card  (presumably  reader's 
card)  and  the  use  of  branch  initial  on 
reader's  card  to  show  card  Issued  from  a 
branch  other  than  that  from  which  book 
is  borrowed. 

This  library  uses  a  reader's  receipt  file 
for  books  returned  without  card — a  slip 
giving  name,  address,  card  number,  class 
number,  date  of  issue  and  return.  This 
system  with  variations  is  also  in  use  in 
the  St.  Louis  public  library  (called  the 
"write-ups")  and  also  in  the  Pratt  Insti- 
tute free  library  and  supposedly  many 
others. 

Pratt  Institute  Free  Library.  Newark 
System.  Uses  different  ink  pads  for  fic- 
tion and  non-fiction,  and  dating  pencils. 
Puts  book  cards  into  slots  in  desk;  fiction, 
non-fiction  and  teachers.  Stamps  dates 
first  and  then  writes  card  number.  Uses 
different  ink  pad  for  discharging.  Charg- 
ing and  discharging  (including  checking 
off  done  at  same  desk)  done  by  same  as- 
sistant except  in  a  rush  hour.  Checking  off 
however  is  done  at  assistant's  leisure — 
that  is,  the  reader's  card  is  stamped  off 
before  book  card  is  found.  Book  cards 
are  filed  by  class  under  date.  Keeps  a 
separate  renewal  file. 

St.  Louis  Mercantile  Library.  Browne 
system,  with  separate  reader's  identifica- 
tion card,  seldom  used.  Uses  blue  reader's 
pocket  for  fiction,  salmon  color  for  non- 
fiction,  and  manilla  pockets  for  pay  dupli- 
cates. Book  card  corresponds  in  color, 
except  in  case  of  regular  books  issued  as 
extras.  Book  card  has  Cutter  class  num- 
ber, author  and  title.  Assistant  stamps 
date  due  on  dating  slip  and  book  card 
which  is  placed  in  reader's  pocket.  Pock- 
ets are  put  temporarily  in  tray  near  issue 
desk  and  later  filed  by  class,  under  date 
due.  Books  are  discharged  by  charging 
assistant  at  charging  desk,  by  taking  book 
card  from  pocket  and  slipping  it  into  book. 
Empty  reader's  pockets  are  constantly  be- 
ing filed  in  regular  reader's  file. 

St.   Louis  Public  Library.     Newark  sys- 


tem. Different  colored  ink-pads  for  seven 
day  and  fourteen  day  books  and  for  dis- 
charging. Reader's  number  first  written 
on  bookcard,  then  book  card,  dating  slip 
and  reader's  card  stamped.  Reading-room 
books  charged  on  slips  filled  out  by  reader. 
Two  books  generally  are  issued  on  one 
card  but  "Additional  Books"  stamped  on 
reader's  card  entitles  cardholder  to  a 
greater  number  of  volumes,  of  non-fiction, 
usually  six.  This  privilege  is  granted  to 
educators,  social  workers  and  others  en- 
gaged in  serious  study,  at  the  discretion 
of  the  head  of  the  circulation  department. 
Discharging  is  done  at  a  separate  desk 
in  the  usual  way,  receipts  being  filed  for 
books  returned  without  reader's  card. 
Books  are  placed  on  a  truck  and  checked 
off  by  a  special  assistant. 

Society  Library 

The  IVIedical  Society  of  the  County  of 
Kings — Uses  a  borrower's  receipt,  giving 
author,  title,  accession  number  and  bor- 
rower's signature.  These  receipts  are  filed 
by  borrower's  name.  When  book  is  re- 
turned>  it  is  discharged  by  stamping  date 
of  return  in  receipt  and  placing  in  file  of 
cancelled  loans. 

The  libraries  using  colored  book  cards 
to  denote  the  classes  are: 

East  Orange  Public  Library. 
New  York  Public  Library. 
St.   Louis   Mercantile   Library — colors 
simply    indicating    fiction    or    non- 
fiction. 
Those  using  colored  book  cards  for  their 
double  file  (borrower's  and  book)  are: 
Boston  Athenaeum. 
Oberlin  College. 
At  the  time  of  book's  issue  bookcards 
are  dropped  into  a  drawer  through  slots 
designating  classes  of  the  books  issued  by 
the  following  libraries: 

Carnegie  Library  of  Atlanta. 
New  York  Public  Library. 
Pratt     Institute     Free     Library — des- 
ignates     fiction,      non-fiction      and 
teachers. 
Libraries    using    temporary    bookcards, 


110 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


filled  out  at  time  of  book's  issue  by  bor- 
rower or  assistant: 

Iowa  State. 

Tulane  University. 

Virginia  State. 

Wesleyan  University. 
Libraries  using  a  borrower's  record  for 
privileged  classes  (professors,  etc.)  and  a 
time  record  for  students: 

Kansas  University. 

Oberlin  University. 

Syracuse  University. 

Wesleyan  University. 
Cards  identifying  the  readers  appear  to 
be  required  by  all  the  libraries  save  West- 
minster. These  vary — those  of  the  Boston 
Athenaeum,  Medical  Society  of  County  of 
Kings,  apparently  taking  the  form  of  a 
subscription  entry  while  the  St.  Louis 
Mercantile  Library  issues  one  as  an  iden> 
tification  card,  which  is  seldom  called  into 
use. 

Libraries  using  borrowers'  cards  in  a 
file  at  the  library  to  indicate  what  the 
reader  has  out,  are: 

Oberlin. 

Syracuse — call  numbers  of  books  are 
written  on  students'  cards. 

University  of  Kansas. 

Virginia. 

Wesleyan. 

Tulane. 
Those  using  a  borrower's  card  which  re- 
mains in  the  possession  of  the  borrower, 
while  he  has  books  from  the  library,  to  in- 
dicate number  of  books  out,  date  either  of 
issue  or  when  due,  and  a  date  of  return 
are  those  employing  the  Newark  system: 

Carnegie  Library  of  Atlanta. 

East  Orange  Library. 

New  York  Public  Library. 

Pratt  Institute  Free  Library. 

St.  Louis  Public  Library. 
Syracuse  uses  the  Newark  system  but 
retains  cards  in  borrower's  file  (under  bor- 
rower's number)  at  library. 

As  regards  the  discharge  of  books,  the 
use  of  the  Browne  system  presupposes  a 
complete  discharge  of  the  book,  in  case  of 
a  borrower  taking  another  at  the  time  of 
its  return. 


Libraries  retaining  borrowers'  cards  at 
the  library  discharge  at  their  leisure. 

Where  the  Newark  system  is  used  (with 
the  exception  of  the  New  York  public  li- 
brary) an  incomplete  discharge  is  made  at 
the  time  of  the  book's  return — consisting 
of  the  stamping  of  the  date  of  return  on 
reader's  card.  It  is  obviously  impossible 
to  delay  a  reader  while  book  is  checked  off. 
Checking  off  is  then  done  at  leisure  either 
at  charging  desk  by  desk  assistant  or  spe- 
cial assistant  appointed  for  that  work. 

Counting  of  Issue 
The  eighteen  libraries  reporting  on  this 
subject  may  be  grouped  under  the  follow- 
ing heads: 

Public  or  Circulating 

Boston  Athenaeum  (subscription). 
Carnegie  Library  of  Atlanta. 
East  Orange  Library. 
Forbes  Library. 
New  York  Public  Library. 
Pratt  Institute  Free  Library. 
St.    Louis    Mercantile    Library    (sub- 
scription). 
St.  Louis  Public  Library. 

College  or  University 
Oberlin  College. 
Syracuse  University. 
Tulane  University. 
University  of  Kansas. 
Wesleyan  University. 
Westminster  College. 

State  Libraries 
Iowa  State. 
Virginia  State. 

Reference  Library 
Newberry  Library. 

Society  Library 
Library  of  the  Medical  Society  of  the 
County  of  Kings. 

Eight  of  these  libraries  record  statistics 
of  reference  use: 
Newberry. 
New  York. 
St.  Louis  Public. 
Syracuse. 


BOSTWICK 


111 


Tulane. 

Virginia  State. 

Wesleyan. 

Westminster. 
The  following  do  not  include  reference 
use  on  their  statistics  sheets,  although  in 
some  cases  it  is  probably  kept  separately: 

Boston  Athenaeum. 

Carnegie  Library  of  Atlanta. 

East  Orange. 

Forbes. 

Pratt  Institute. 

St.  Louis  Mercantile. 

The   Medical  Society  of  the  County  of 

Kings  and  Oberlin  College  library  make 

no  record  of  reference  use,  but  the  latter 

records  daily  and  monthly  attendance. 

Four  libraries  keep  no  record  by  class: 

Boston  Athenaeum. 

Medical  Society  of  Kings. 

Wesleyan. 

Westminster. 
The  following  count  the  circulation  on 
the  day  of  issue: 

Boston  Athenaeum. 

Newberry. 

Pratt  Institute. 

St.  Louis  Public. 

Virginia  State. 

Westminster. 
In  all  the  other  libraries  it  is  counted 
next  morning,  save  in  Kings  County  Med- 
ical, where  only  an  annual  count  is  made. 
East  Orange  and  New  York  use  colored 
bookcards  to  indicate  the  various  classes; 
St.  Louis  Mercantile  uses  different  colors 
for  fiction,  non-fiction  and  pay-duplicates, 
and  Tulane  uses  a  colored  slip  for  refer- 
ence requests. 

Two  libraries,  Iowa  State  and  Univer- 
sity of  Kansas,  report  that  no  record  of 
issue  is  made. 

Public  or  Circulating  Libraries 
Boston  Athenaeum.    The  manilla  cards 

forming  the  author  record  are  counted  at 

night  and  the  number  is  entered  in  a  book. 

There  Is  no  entry  by  class  and  reference 

use  is  not  reported. 
Carnegie   Library   of   Atlanta.    Issue   is 

kept  In  three  groups  for  fiction,  rent  or 


pay  collection  and  classed  books.  The 
latter  are  arranged  under  class  numer- 
ically or  alphabetically.  Fiction  and  rent 
collection  are  alphabeted  and  all  are 
counted  on  the  following  morning  and 
entered  on  a  daily  sheet,  juvenile  issue 
being  counted  separately.  No  report  on 
reference  issue. 

East  Orange.  Colored  bookcards  are 
used  here  to  indicate  different  classes. 
The  Issue  Is  counted  on  the  following 
morning  and  arranged  according  to  the 
Dewey  Classification  and  entered  in  a 
statistics  book.  No  report  on  reference 
issue. 

Forbes.    Counted  by  groups  of  classes. 

New  York  Public.  Colored  bookcards 
are  used  here.  Adult  and  juvenile  issue 
are  counted  separately  on  the  following 
morning: 

1.  By  Dewey  classes,  issues  In  each 
class  being  added  together  to  obtain  the 
total  issue  in  each  group  and  the  two 
groups  then  added  for  the  grand  total  of 
the  day. 

2.  By  language. 

3.  Poetry,  periodicals  and  music  are 
counted  separately  as  well  as  with  their 
respective  classes. 

Reference  books  are  charged  on  slips, 
signed  by  the  reader,  the  number  of 
volumes  issued  being  noted  on  the  upper 
right  hand  comer.  At  the  close  of  the 
day  these  slips  are  counted  twice,  first 
by  readers  and  second  by  volumes. 

Pratt  Institute  Free  Library.  The  daily 
issue  is  counted  on  the  day  of  Issue  and 
arranged  In  four  groups — fiction,  non-fic- 
tion, teachers  and  renewals,  and  entered 
on  manilla  slips  which  are  divided  into 
spaces  for  the  ten  Dewey  classes  and  also 
for  languages,  duplicate  pay  collection, 
summer  issue,  delta  and  double  star,  the 
last  two  being  special  collections.  These 
totals  are  all  transferred  to  a  daily  statis- 
tics sheet.  A  reference  record  is  not  re- 
ported on,  but  is  undoubtedly  kept  in 
some  form. 

St.  Louis  Mercantile.  The  issue  is  kept 
in  seven  and  fourteen  day  trays  and  ar- 
ranged by  class,  salmon  colored  cards  be- 


112 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


ing  used  for  non-fiction  and  blue  for  fic- 
tion. Before  the  library  opens  in  the 
morning  the  issue  is  counted  and  entered 
in  a  book  under  classes  (Cutter).  Refer- 
ence record  is  not  reported. 

St.  Louis  Public.  Issue  is  kept  in  trays, 
separated  into  groups  for  seven  and  four- 
teen-day fiction,  the  ten  Dewey  classes  and 
(in  summer)  vacation  issue.  At  night  it  is 
counted  and  entered  on  a  statistic  sheet, 
under  the  same  heads.  Reading-room  is- 
sue is  entered  on  the  same  sheet,  also  by 
class.  The  home  issue  is  then  separated 
by  date,  seven-days  in  one  alphabet  and 
fourteen-days  in  another,  and  arranged  by 
author  and  accession  number  not  class. 
This  arrangement,  by  affording  but  one 
alphabet  in  which  to  search  for  a  book 
due  on  a  given  date,  reduces,  the  oppor- 
tunity for  mistakes  to  a  minimum.  Three- 
day  magazines  are  inserted  with  seven-day 
cards  under  the  correct  date.  In  the  morn- 
ing the  circulation  is  revised  for  errors  in 
alphabeting  and  also  for  illegible  charges 
which  are  traced  by  means  of  a  number, 
assigned  to  each  assistant. 

Reference  use  is  entered  on  a  form  di- 
vided into  four  columns  for  main  reference 
room,  art  room,  technical  department  and 
totals.  The  entries  are  by  class  and  the 
number  of  volumes  given  to  each  reader 
noted.  All  records  are  transferred  the 
following  morning  to  a  permanent  sta- 
tistics book. 

College  or  University  Libraries 

Oberlln.  The  author  cards  are  arranged 
at  night  under  date  of  issue  by  classes, 
fastened  together  with  a  rubber  band  and 
placed  in  the  issue  tray  ahead  of  all  pre- 
vious circulation.  In  the  morning  they  are 
counted  and  entered  on  a  statistics  sheet 
under  class,  then  filed  in  the  issue  tray. 
Statistics  of  reference  use  are  not  kept. 

Syracuse  University.  Statistics  are  re- 
corded for  home  issue,  reading  room  issue 
and  attendance.  When  the  books  are 
charged  they  are  divided  into  over-night 
and  two  week  circulation;  in  the  morning 
these  are  subdivided  into  twelve  classes 
and  again  recorded  as  charged  to  students. 


faculty  or  departments.  Methods  of  re- 
porting reference  use  are  not  outlined  but 
a  record  of  some  sort  is  made,  probably  at 
the  discretion  of  the  various  reading-room 
attendants.  One  of  the  colleges  (Applied 
Science)  reports  to  the  general  library 
only  once  a  year  and  others  monthly. 
Other  departments  report  only  attendance. 

Tulane  University.  Every  morning 
charging  slips  are  grouped  into  classes 
and  counted.  Yellow  slips,  indicating  li- 
brary use  are  counted  in  the  same  manner 
and  then  destroyed.  Entry  is  made  in  a 
record  book  under  class,  library  use  being 
recorded  in  pencil  and  home  issue  in  red 
ink  directly  beneath  it. 

University  of  Kansas.  No  record  of 
issue  is  kept. 

Wesieyan  University.  The  issue  is 
counted  each  morning  in  four  groups; 
bound  and  unbound  (issued  to  individ- 
uals), reserve,  or  books  placed  on  reserve 
shelves  and  seminar,  or  volumes  sent  to 
seminars  for  temporary  use.  The  last  two 
groups  are  counted  only  at  the  time  of 
issue,  their  reference  use  not  being  noted. 
Entry  is  made  in  a  day  book  under  these 
heads;  no  count  is  taken  by  classes. 

Book  cards  are  counted  each  evening  for 
home  circulation,  reference  books  as  they 
are  given  out  during  the  day.  There  is 
apparently  no  record  by  class  and  the 
method  of  entry  is  not  stated. 

Westminster.  Counted  by  class  each 
evening.  Reference  books  counted  as 
issued. 

State  Libraries 

Iowa  State.    No  record  of  issue  is  kept. 

Virginia  State.  A  blank  form  spaced 
for  fourteen  classes  is  used  for  keeping 
the  daily  record  of  books  given  out  both 
for  reference  and  home  use,  the  distinc- 
tion being  presumably  indicated  by  the  use 
of  pen  and  pencil,  although  this  point  is 
somewhat  obscure.  At  night  these  totals 
are  added. 

Reference  Library 

Newberry  Library.  There  are  six  refer- 
ence departments,  each  keeping  statistics 
for  men  and  women,  morning  and  even- 


ROOT 


113 


ing  visitors  and  books  used,  the  latter  be- 
ing entered  by  classes.  These  reports  are 
drawn  up  at  night  and  taken  next  morn- 
ing to  the  accessions  clerk  who  enters  the 
figures  in  a  permanent  statistical  record. 

Society  Library 

IVIedical  Society  of  the  County  of  Kings. 
No  record  is  here  maintained  of  reference 
use.  Home  use  slips  are  filed  and  counted 
annually  to  determine  the  circulation  for 
the  year  but  there  is  no  record  by  class. 

It  is  evident  from  the  preceding  tabu- 
lations that  the  reports  of  the  various  li- 
braries are  too  uneven  to  admit  of  accurate 
comparison.  Many  points  of  interest,  as 
the  record  of  reference  use,  are  omitted, 
although  in  many  cases  this  record  is 
doubtless  preserved. 

In  closing  your  committee  desires  to  ac- 
knowledge valuable  assistance  in  the  tabu- 
lation and  discussion  of  the  above  results, 
rendered  by  three  members  of  the  St. 
Louis  public  library  staff,  Mrs.  H.  P. 
Sawyer,  chief  of  the  department  of  in- 
struction, Miss  Mary  Crocker,  chief  of  the 
open  shelf  department.  Miss  Jessie  Sar- 
gent, first  assistant  in  the  issue  depart- 
ment, and  Miss  Amelia  Feary,  of  the  cat- 
alog department. 

ARTHUR  E.  BOSTWICK,  Chairman, 
ETHEL  F.  McCOLLOUGH, 
HARRY  M.  LYDENBERG, 

Committee  on  Administration. 

REPORT  OF  THE   COiVIIVIITTEE   ON 
LIBRARY    TRAINING 

After  correspondence,  it  was  decided  at 
the  beginning  of  the  year  to  make  another 
effort  to  obtain  from  the  Executive  Board 
an  appropriation  which  would  make  pos- 
sible the  repeatedly  suggested  inspection 
of  library  schools.  Accordingly,  such  a 
request  was  made  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Executive  Board  at  Chicago  last  Janu- 
ary, and  an  appropriation  of  |200  was 
obtained. 

About  the  same  time,  a  request  was  pre- 
sented to  the  chairman  of  the  Committee 


on  library  training,  signed  by  representa- 
tives of  nearly  all  the  library  schools,  re- 
questing that  the  committee  recommend 
a  minimum  standard  admission,  length 
of  course,  and  curriculum  for  library 
schools. 

To  this  the  chairman  replied,  calling 
attention  to  the  reports  of  1905  and  1906, 
in  which  an  endeavor  had  been  made  to 
meet  a  part  of  the  request,  and  request- 
ing that  the  schools  indicate  in  what  re- 
spects these  reports  should  be  modified 
or  supplemented.  The  replies  to  this  re- 
quest are  most  interesting  and  will  be 
of  great  service  to  the  committee.  When 
all  the  schools  have  answered  this  in- 
quiry, the  replies  will  be  manifolded  and 
the  committee  will  give  the  request  care- 
ful consideration.  A  thoroughly  satisfac- 
tory recommendation,  however,  will  natur- 
ally follow,  rather  than  precede,  the  con- 
templated inspection  of  schools. 

A  tentative  scheme  of  points  to  be  ob- 
served in  the  proposed  inspection  has 
been  prepared,  and  is  being  considered 
by  persons  interested.  When  their  crit- 
icisms and  suggestions  have  been  re- 
ceived, the  committee  will  consider  the 
scheme.  When  approved  by  the  mem- 
bers of  the  committee,  and  when  the  com- 
mittee has  found  a  suitable  person  to 
make  the  inspection,  the  library  schools 
will  be  given  the  opportunity  to  ask  for 
such  inspection,  and  to  the  extent  of  the 
funds  available  for  the  purpose,  the  in- 
spection will  be  made. 

In  the  light  of  the  facts  obtained  in 
such  a  careful  study  of  the  library  schools, 
it  is  hoped  to  make  some  recommenda- 
tions which  will  be  of  service  to  the 
schools,  and  to  the  profession. 

On  account  of  the  absence  of  the  chair- 
man of  the  committee  from  the  country 
since  the  first  of  February,  the  work  has 
progressed  slowly.  For  the  same  reason, 
this  report  is  submitted  without  being 
first  considered  and  approved  by  the  other 
members  of  the  committee. 

AZARIAH  S.  ROOT, 
Chairman. 


114 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


REPORT     OF     THE     COMMITTEE     ON 
WORK    WITH    THE    BLIND 

The  committee  on  library  work  with  the 
blind  notes  with  satisfaction  the  progress 
which  has  been  made  in  the  past  year  to- 
wards increasing  the  production  of  new 
embossed  literature.  The  installation  of 
stereotype-makers  operated  by  electricity 
and  of  power  presses  in  some  of  the  print- 
ing offices  means  a  constantly  increasing 
stock  of  books  for  circulation.  Most  im- 
portant of  all  there  seem  to  be  Indications 
that  a  new  era  is  dawning  when  all  Amer- 
ica can  unite  on  one  point  type. 

The  eleventh  convention  of  the  Amer- 
ican association  of  workers  for  the  blind, 
held  at  Overbrook,  Pa.,  June,  1911,  was 
marked  by  one  session  unparalleled  in  the 
history  of  type  discussions,  when,  during 
the  report  of  the  uniform  type  committee, 
the  blind  themselves  contributed  $1800.00 
towards  the  creation  of  a  fund  to  be  used 
In  making  scientific  tests  and  experiments 
to  determine  upon  a  uniform  system  of 
embossed  point  print.  With  the  completion 
of  the  fund  of  |3,000  and  the  co-operation 
of  certain  printing  offices,  members  of  the 
committee  have  been  hard  at  work  pre- 
paring tests  and  making  experiments.  An 
outline  of  the  work  of  this  committee  ap- 
pears in  the  "Outlook  for  the  blind"  for 
April,  1912,  (v.  6,  no.  1). 

Lists  of  new  publications  in  embossed 
type  as  well  as  lists  of  magazine  articles 
referring  to  the  blind  are  published  from 
time  to  time  in  the  "Outlook  for  the  blind," 
which  is  the  only  magazine  in  this  coun- 
try especially  helpful  to  workers  for  the 
blind.  Librarians  are  urged  to  place  the 
"Outlook  for  the  blind"  on  reading  tables 
and  among  the  current  magazines  and  to 
encourage  its  reading  by  the  general  pub- 
lic, who  need  educating  concerning  the 
best  methods  of  helping  the  blind. 

Helen  Keller  has  said,  "I  follow  with 
keen  interest  your  efforts  to  make  the  'Out- 
look for  the  blind'  a  success.  Nothing  is 
more  usefull  to  the  sightless  than  an  In- 
telligent magazine  in  their  interest,  set- 
ting forth  their  needs,  making  known  what 
they  can  do  to  earn  a  living,  and  advocat- 


ing movements  of  the  right  sort  in  their 
behalf.  The  'Outlook  for  the  blind'  is  just 
such  a  publication.  The  fact  that  influen- 
tial and  wise  persons  who  have  the  wel- 
fare of  the  blind  at  heart  favor  the 
magazine  makes  it  all  the  more  valuable. 
It  deserves  liberal  support  from  philanthro- 
pists and  practical  workers  for  humanity." 

The  Samuel  Gridley  Howe  Society  has 
been  organized  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  with 
headquarters  at  612  St.  Clair  Avenue,  N. 
E.  "The  plan  of  this  society  is  to  raise 
funds  from  local  sources  to  defray  the 
cost  of  the  presswork,  the  paper  and  the 
very  simple  binding  used,"  in  the  work 
of  adding  to  the  list  of  books  in  tactile 
print. 

The  list  of  publications  already  issued, 
in  American  Braille  without  contractions, 
includes  titles  by  Deland,  Davis,  John  Fox, 
Jr.,  Van  Dyke  and  others. 

The  Michigan  school  for  the  blind,  at 
Lansing,  now  publishes  a  magazine  in 
American  Braille,  with  contractions,  en- 
titled the  "Michigan  herald  for  the  blind," 
issued  monthly  except  July  and  August. 
The  subscription  price  is  25  cents  per 
year. 

The  Xavier  Braille  publication  society 
for  the  blind,  824  Oak  Avenue,  Chicago, 
which  was  organized  in  1911,  has  since 
Issued  the  "Catholic  review,"  a  monthly 
magazine  in  American  Braille,  with  con- 
tractions, subscription  fl.OO  per  year. 

The  Society  for  the  promotion  of  church 
work  among  the  blind  announces  that 
volumes  1  and  2  of  the  music  of  the  Hym- 
nal of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church 
have  been  finished  and  are  ready  for  dis- 
tribution. Copies  may  be  obtained  from 
Mr.  John  Thomson,  treasurer,  13th  and 
Locust  Streets,  Philadelphia. 

Since  the  fire  in  March,  1911,  when  the 
New  York  state  library  for  the  blind  was 
almost  totally  destroyed,  the  new  collec- 
tion has  grown  with  rapidity  and  is  now 
nearly  as  large  as  at  the  time  of  the  fire. 
Miss  Mary  C.  Chamberlain,  the  librarian, 
writes,  "We  hope  soon  to  make  the  col- 
lection larger  than  it  has  ever  been." 

The  circulation  of  embossed  books  from 


GODARD 


115 


the  public  library  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  "in- 
creased during  the  past  year  from  1,400 
during  1910  to  3,900  during  1911,  which 
was  attributed  to  the  fact  that  the  library 
society  for  the  blind  has  provided  a  cat- 
alog in  point  print,  which  is  sent  out." 

The  reading  room  for  the  blind  in  Wash- 
ington, D.  C,  which  was  discontinued  in 
1911,  has  been  reopened  in  the  Library  of 
Congress. 

During  the  past  year  the  Perkins  in- 
stitution for  the  blind  has  given  away 
about  2,000  volumes  in  line  type  to  li- 
braries and  schools,  retaining  a  sufficient 
stock  of  duplicates  for  use  in  the  cir- 
culating library  of  the  school.  The  new 
library  of  the  institution,  now  in  course 
of  construction  at  Watertown,  Massachu- 
setts, will  be  very  large  and  commodious; 
it  will  be  capable  of  holding  20,000  volumes, 
with  provision  for  an  extra  gallery  for 
10,000  additional  volumes  if  necessary. 

In  commemoration  of  the  Dickens  cen- 
tenary, "Great  expectations"  has  been  em- 
bossed in  American  Braille. 

The  committee  plans  a  full  report  of  li- 
braries which  are  doing  work  for  the  blind 
and  will  endeavor  to  secure  from  them  an 
outline  of  the  work  they  are  doing  at  pres- 
ent. In  addition  the  special  needs  of  read- 
ers will  be  sought  with  a  view  to  having 
the  books  desired  brought  to  the  notice 
of  one  or  more  of  the  publishing  houses. 
Efforts  will  be  made  to  secure  the  estab- 
lishment of  additional  libraries  of  em- 
bossed books  in  states  where  no  such 
libraries  are  now  maintained. 

Respectfully  submitted, 
EMMA  R.  NEISSER  DELFINO, 
Chairman. 

COMMITTEE   ON    PUBLIC    DOCUMENTS 

Your  Committee  on  Public  Documents 
respectfully  reports  that  two  important 
reports  relating  to  the  printing,  binding 
and  distribution  of  government  publica- 
tions have  been  made  and  are  now  before 
Congress. 

The  first  Is  the  report  of  the  Special 
Commission  on  Economy  and  Efficiency, 
appointed    by    President    Roosevelt,    and 


transmitted  February  5,  1912,  in  a  special 
message  approving  the  same  by  President 
Taft,  which  "recommends  that  the  work 
of  distributing  documents  be  centralized  in 
the  office  of  Superintendent  of  public  docu- 
ments in  the  Government  Printing  Office 
as  a  substitute  for  the  present  method  of 
distribution  by  each  of  the  departments, 
offices,  and  bureaus  issuing  such  docu- 
ments. The  plan  does  not  contemplate 
any  change  in  the  authority  which  deter- 
mines the  persons  to  whom  documents 
shall  be  sent,  but  only  that  the  physical 
work  of  wrapping,  addressing,  and  mail- 
ing the  documents  shall  be  done  at  one 
place,  and  that  the  place  of  manufacture." 

The  second  report  is  that  made  by  the 
Congressional  Committee  on  Printing  of 
which  Senator  Smoot  is  chairman.  This 
committee  was  appointed  under  an  act  of 
Congress  approved  March  3,  1905,  and  was 
directed  to  revise  and  codify  the  laws  re- 
lating to  public  printing,  binding  and  dis- 
tribution of  government  publications. 
After  seven  years  of  investigations  and 
hearings  this  committee  has  formulated 
and  presented  to  Congress  a  new  bill  (Sen- 
ate Bill  4239)  covering  this  entire  subject. 
This  bill  which  makes  radical  changes  in 
the  general  printing  act  approved  January 
12,  1895,  has  passed  the  Senate  and  is 
now  before  the  House. 

While  both  reports  embody  many  recom- 
mendations and  suggestions  made  by  our 
association  and  by  the  librarians  of  our 
larger  libraries,  your  Committee  on  public 
documents  has  thought  best  to  delay  its 
formal  report  until  after  the  discussion  at 
the  sessions  of  the  government  documents 
round  table,  at  which  time  a  paper  by 
Superintendent  of  Documents,  August 
Donath,  will  be  read,  and  possibly  also 
one  from  Senator  Smoot,  who  has  written 
that  other  engagements  will  prevent  him 
from  being  present  and  speaking. 

As  copies  of  the  proposed  bill  and  the 
special  reports  relating  to  the  same  have 
been  sent  to  several  librarians,  it  is  hoped 
there  will  be  a  full  and  free  discussion  in 
order  that  any  desirable  changes  or  omis- 
sions in  the  proposed  bill  may  be  called  to 


116 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


the  attention  of  the   Congressional   Com- 
mittee while  there  is  an  opportunity. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

GEO.  S.  GODARD,  Chairman. 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  No 
doubt  all  of  you  have  very  carefully  and 
thoroughly  read  the  printed  report  of  the 
Publishing  Board,  which  was  distributed 
at  the  first  session  of  this  conference.  It 
will  therefore  be  unnecessary  for  me 
to  point  out  to  you  some  of  the  very 
important  recommendations,  or  sugges- 
tions, which  appear  therein,  and  I  men- 
tion it  at  this  time  merely  for  the  pur- 
pose of  adding  that  since  the  former  ses- 
sion, through  the  generosity  of  Mr.  Wal- 
ter L.  Brown  of  the  Buffalo  library,  the 
Publishing  Board  is  enabled  to  distribute 
In  connection  therewith  a  list  which  illus- 
trates one  of  the  very  strong  suggestions, 
as  we  think,  which  appears  in  that  report. 
You  will  find  this  list  for  distribution  at 
the  entrance,  and  those  of  you  who  may 
care  for  it,  may  help  yourselves  as  you 
pass  out.* 

We  will  now  hear  from  the  committee 
on  deterioration  of  newspaper  paper.  We 
have  had  for  the  last  two  years  some  ex- 
ceptionally interesting  and  important  re- 
ports on  that  very  important  subject,  and 
we  are  glad  to  know  that  Dr.  Hill  will  at 
this  time  present  a  supplemental  report 
covering  the  investigations  which  he  has 
made  during  the  last  year,  additional  to 
the  facts  which  he  has  reported  hereto- 
fore. Dr.  Hill  will  please  report  for  this 
committee. 

PRESERVATION  OF  NEWSPAPERS 

Two  years  ago  a  report  on  the  "Deterior- 
ation of  newspapers"  was  presented  to  the 
American  Library  Association  at  the 
Mackinac  conference,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence the  executive  board  appointed 
Messrs.  Frank  P.  Hill,  Brooklyn  public 
library,  Horace  G.  Wadlin,  Boston  public 

*The  list  referred  to  was  a  reading  list  of  selected 
books  on  Greece,  prepared  with  annotated  notes  in  the 
form  advocated  by  Mrs.  Elmendorf  in  the  report  of  the 
Publishing  Board. 


library,  and  Cedric  Chivers,  bookbinder,  a 
committee  to  consider  the  subject  further 
and  report  back  to  the  association.  As 
stated  at  the  Pasadena  conference  last 
year  the  committee  was  appointed  too 
late  to  make  any  satisfactory  report  at 
that  time.  This  year  the  report  can  be 
only  one  of  progress. 

In  order  to  bring  the  matter  more 
clearly  to  your  minds  liberal  quotations 
are  made  from  the  1910  report. 

"An  examination  of  old  Brooklyn  and 
Manhattan  papers  showed  that  in  many  in 
stances  papers  published  within  the  last 
forty  years  had  begun  to  discolor  and 
crumble  to  such  an  extent  that  it  would 
hardly  pay  to  bind  those  which  had  been 
folded  for  any  length  of  time.  Upon 
further  investigation  it  was  found  that 
practically  all  of  these  newspapers  were 
printed  on  cheap  wood  pulp  paper,  which 
carries  with  it  the  seeds  of  early  decay, 
and  that  the  life  of  a  periodical  printed  on 
this  inferior  stock  is  not  likely  to  be  more 
than  fifty  years. 

"This  is  a  serious  matter  and  demands 
the  attention  of  publishers  and  librarians 
throughout  the  country.  It  means  that  the 
material  for  history  contained  in  the  news- 
papers will  not  be  available  after  the 
period  mentioned,  and  that  all  such  his- 
torical record  will  eventually  disappear  un- 
less  provision  is  made  for  reprinting  or 
preserving  the  volumes  as  they  exist  at 
present.  The  historian  depends  to  such  an 
extent  upon  the  newspapers  for  his  data 
that  it  will  mean  a  serious  loss  if  some 
preservative  cannot  be  found. 

"As  soon  as  the  condition  of  the  files 
of  the  Brooklyn  public  library  was  dis- 
covered a  circular  was  sent  to  some  of  the 
prominent  newspaper  publishers  asking 
(1)  the  result  of  their  experience;  (2) 
whether  a  better  grade  of  paper  was  be- 
ing used  for  running  off  extra  copies  for 
their  own  files;  (3)  what,  if  any,  means 
were  being  taken  to  preserve  the  files  in 
their  own  oflices.  It  was  hoped  as  a  re- 
sult of  this  circular  that  definite  measures 
of  improvement  would  be  suggested.  From 
responses  received  it  is  evident  that  there 


HILL 


117 


is  a  desire  on  the  part  of  the  publishers  to 
meet  the  requirements  of  librarians  and 
others  on  this  subject;  and  it  is  likely  that 
a  conference  of  publishers  and  librarians 
will  be  held  in  the  near  future  to  consider 
the  feasibility  of  printing  some  copies  on 
better  paper,  but  the  answers  showed  that 
no  special  paper  was  used  and  that  no 
means  were  taken  to  preserve  (by  re- 
printing or  by  chemical  process)  those  In 
the  worst  condition. 

"Inquiries  were  also  sent  to  various 
manufacturers  of  paper  with  no  better  re- 
sult. No  encouragement  was  received 
from  this  source  except  that  one  man- 
ufacturer thought  that  some  newspapers 
were  using  a  better  grade,  and  another, 
that  he  had  just  the  paper  which  ought  to 
be  used.  It  was  stated  that  two  New  York 
publishers  used  a  better  grade  of  paper 
for  a  few  additional  copies,  but  returns 
from  these  papers  indicate  that  no  differ- 
ence is  made  at  the  present  time." 

During  the  past  six  months  the  mem- 
bers of  the  committee  have  been  in  cor- 
respondence with  publishers  regarding  the 
possibility  of  striking  off  a  few  extra 
copies  on  a  better  quality  of  paper,  and 
Mr.  Chivers  has  taken  upon  himself  the 
duty  and  responsibility  of  experimenting 
with  a  "cellit"  solution  prepared  especially 
for  the  preservation  of  newsprint  paper. 

Early  in  June  of  this  year  the  committee 
invited  representatives  of  the  leading  New 
York  and  Brooklyn  papers  to  meet  in  con- 
ference on  the  subject.  The  following 
papers  were  represented:  The  Brooklyn 
Daily  Eagle  by  H.  F.  Gunnison,  the  New 
York  American  by  Jerome  Buck,  the  New 
York  World  by  E.  D.  Carruthers,  and  the 
Publishers'  Weekly  by  John  A.  Holden. 
The  object  of  the  conference  was  stated  to 
be:  1st.  The  consideration  of  method  of 
preserving  bound  volumes  of  newspapers; 
and  2nd.  The  possibility  of  publishers 
printing  extra  copies  of  the  current  issue 
on  a  better  grade  of  paper  for  binding 
purposes. 

Mr.  Chivers  stated  that  he  had  not  used 
"celestron"  the  German  product,  but  had 
made  successful  experiments  with  "cellit," 


an  American  solution.  His  investigation 
proved  that  the  deterioration  was  due  in 
a  large  measure  to  the  exposure  of  the 
paper  to  light  and  air  and  that  by  cover- 
ing the  paper  with  a  coating  of  "cellit"  or 
"celestron"  the  pores  were  filled  and  oxi- 
dation prevented.  He  was  afraid,  how- 
ever, that  the  question  of  expense  would 
deter  most  librarians  and  publishers  from 
dipping  the  volume  page  by  page  in  the 
solution,  as  suggested  in  the  earlier  re- 
port of  this  committee,  but  expressed  the 
hope  that  some  method  would  be  devised 
by  which  it  could  be  used  less  expensively. 
Mr.  Chivers  was  of  the  opinion  that  since 
oxidation  begins  at  the  edges  the  life  of 
the  paper  may  be  extended  from  50  to  75 
years  if  the  edges  of  the  bound  volume  are 
painted  with  the  solution,  and  that  this 
treatment  could  be  repeated  with  the  same 
result.  He  called  special  attention  to  the 
necessity  of  binding  newspapers  as  soon 
as  possible  after  publication  so  that  they 
need  not  be  long  exposed  to  the  air.  The 
desirability  of  this  practice  was  empha- 
sized by  some  of  the  publishers  and  by 
Mr.  Arthur  D.  Little,  the  Boston  chemist. 

Considerable  discussion  arose  over  the 
question  of  printing  extra  copies  of  cur- 
rent issues  on  a  better  grade  of  paper, 
and  the  conclusion  arrived  at  was  that 
there  was  no  practical  objection  to  it,  and 
that  it  could  be  done  without  very  much 
extra  cost  of  time,  labor  or  paper. 

The  conference  developed  the  fact  that 
there  was  another  drawback  to  the  preser- 
vation of  newspapers,  namely,  the  poor 
quality  of  ink,  and  that  nothing  would  be 
gained  by  using  the  better  quality  of 
paper  unless  a  better  quality  of  ink  was 
used. 

Mr.  Carruthers,  of  the  New  York  World, 
drew  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  colored 
sections  of  the  Metropolitan  Sunday 
papers  were  destroyed  by  worms  within  a 
short  time  after  publication. 

So  far  as  the  committee  was  advised  the 
first  and  only  newspaper  in  the  country  to 
print  extra  copies  on  better  paper  was  and 
is  The  Red  Wing  (Minn.)  Republican, 
which  furnishes  copies  of  its  publication 


118 


OTTAWAiCONFERENCE 


to  the  State  historical  society  for  filing 
purposes. 

Considerable  publicity  has  been  given 
the  subject  since  the  meeting  through  the 
American  Newspaper  Publishers'  Associa- 
tion, and  several  valuable  suggestions 
have  been  received. 

Mr.  Gunnison  of  the  Brooklyn  Daily 
Eagle  writes: 

"I  have  given  considerable  thought  to 
the  matter  of  the  better  grade  of  paper 
and  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  the 
only  feasible  way  is  to  have  rolls  of  good 
paper  and  use  that  after  the  regular  edi- 
tion of  the  paper  is  run  off.  As  Mr. 
Carruthers  of  the  World  said,  this  would 
be  almost  impossible  for  some  of  the 
larger  papers  to  carry  out.  The  Eagle 
could  do  it  very  nicely  because  we  have  a 
different  system  of  handling  the  paper  and 
we  shall  try  to  put  this  into  operation  be- 
ginning with  the  first  of  the  year." 

As  is  well  known  the  Eagle  is  one  of  the 
best  newspapers  in  the  United  States,  so 
that  if  anyone  is  particularly  interested  in 
securing  for  filing  purposes  a  paper  which 
will  last  for  100  years  or  more  he  should 
subscribe  to  the  Eagle. 

Miss  Jane  Roberts,  of  Newark,  N.  J., 
states  that  she  uses  a  preparation  put  up 
by  a  Newark  chemist  and  has  met  with 
success  in  its  application. 

Mr.  Conde  Hamlin  of  the  New  York 
Tribune  sent  in  the  following: 

"I  did  think  of  one  method  which 
seemed  to  me  would  be  less  expensive 
than  the  use  of  a  special  grade  of  paper 
for  the  printing  of  a  few  copies.  That 
would  be  to  take  a  fine  grade  of  French 
tissue  paper  and  after  separating  the 
sheets  which  composed  the  paper  to  be 
preserved,  covering  both  sides  of  the 
printed  matter  with  this  tissue  and  a  fine 
grade  of  paste.  This,  of  course,  would 
make  the  bound  volume  much  thicker  but 
would  preserve  the  paper  itself. 

"I  doubt  whether  this  suggestion  is  of 
any  value  but  take  the  liberty  of  making 
it." 

It  was  decided  that  the  subject  was  of 
sufficient  interest  and  importance  to  war- 


rant further  investigation  and  the  confer- 
ence adjourned  to  meet  in  September.  We 
therefore  recommend  that  the  Committee 
be  continued. 

PRANK  P.  HILL,  Chairman, 
HORACE   G.  WADLIN, 
CEDRIC  CHIVERS. 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  Inas- 
much as  the  report  of  the  committee  con- 
tains a  recommendation,  that  recommen- 
dation is  now  before  you  for  action.  Un- 
less there  are  objections,  the  report  will 
be  referred  to  the  executive  board  for  con- 
sideration of  the  recommendations  con- 
tained therein. 

Dr.  HILL:  Mr.  President,  I  hope  we 
may  hear  from  Mr.  Chivers  for  a  moment 
if  he  is  here. 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  With 
characteristic  thoroughness  Mr.  Chivers 
has  proceeded  with  his  experiments  as 
outlined  by  Dr.  Hill,  and  we  shall  be  very 
glad  to  hear  from  him  at  this  time  as  to 
what  he  has  found  out. 

Mr.  CHIVERS:  The  report  you  have 
heard  deals  pretty  fully  with  the  subject, 
and  I  think  the  association  may  be  con- 
gratulated upon  the  fact  that  the  publishers 
of  the  more  or  less  national  newspapers, 
who  would  be  required  to  print  quite  a  num- 
ber of  copies,  are  willing  to  do  it,  but  that 
is  not  the  whole  of  the  problem.  The  diffi- 
culty of  bad  paper  and  newspaper  files  will 
be  felt  in  the  future  rather  with  local  news- 
papers, because  only  a  few  copies  would  be 
required  for  filing  purposes,  and  the  printer 
would  find  special  printing  too  troublesome 
and  expensive. 

As  you  have  heard,  there  is  a  substance 
called  cellit,  a  solution  of  cellulose  and 
spirit,  into  which  the  paper  may  be  dipped, 
and  thoroughly  saturated.  The  spirit 
quickly  evaporating  leaves  the  paper  quite 
tough.  The  result  is  a  very  satisfactory 
paper.  It  is,  however,  practically  impos- 
sible to  dip  so  large  a  surface  as  a  news- 
paper into  this  solution.  The  fibre  when 
wet  Is  too  weak  to  handle ;  also  the  spirit  in 
the  solution  quickly  evaporates,  leaving  a 
glutinous  mass,  impracticable  to  deal  with. 
We  understand  that  oxidation  of  the  paper 


CHIVERS 


119 


resulted  from  the  action  of  light,  air  and 
deleterloua  atmosphere.  If  the  newspaper 
for  filing  were  not  allowed  to  be  used  In  the 
reading  room  but  were  set  aside  on  the 
morning  of  publication,  kept  from  the  light 
and  air,  and  a  board  or  weight  placed  upon 
it,  and  If  the  volume  were  bound  directly 
it  was  complete,  very  little  mischief  would 
happen.  Again,  if  the  edges  of  the  volume 
were  frayed  out  and  this  solution  of  cellit, 
which  is  comparatively  cheap  and  quite 
practical  to  use  in  this  way,  should  be 
painted  upon  the  edges,  you  would  have  a 
newspaper  file  which  would  last  for  a  great 
number  of  years.  How  many,  I  do  not 
know,  but  the  chemist  who  accompanied  me 
to  the  British  Museum,  in  conducting  the 
examination  of  newspapers  under  the  in- 
structions of  your  committee,  could  see  no 
reason  why  the  paper  should  not  last  in- 
definitely. We  discovered  there — because 
In  the  British  Museum  there  are  more  news- 
papers brought  together  than  in  any  other 
place  in  the  world — that  newspapers  which 
were  left  lying  about  before  binding  were 
in  a  very  bad  condition  in  the  course  of 
four  or  five  years,  while  newspapers  which 
had  been  bound  some  fifteen  or  twenty 
years,  of  the  same  kind  of  paper,  were  In 
thoroughly  good  condition,  proving  that  if 
you  could  take  care  of  the  paper  and  not  al- 
low it  to  be  exposed  to  the  air  there  is  no 
reason  why  even  bad  paper  should  not  last 
a  very  long  time.  The  rule  should  be  made 
as  I  have  suggested  it.  In  the  British  Muse- 
um there  had  been  no  rule,  but  the  exigen- 
cies of  the  binding  shop  had  been  consulted, 
and  here  and  there  a  newspaper  had' been 
bound  quickly,  and  it  was  all  right;  and  If 
it  had  been  left  about,  as  some  of  them 
were,  it  was  all  wrong.  That  is  my  prac- 
tical contribution  to  the  discussion. 

Dr.  BOSTWICK:  I  would  like  to  ask 
Dr.  Hill  If  his  committee  investigated  the 
newspaper  report  that  it  is  now  possible, 
or  will  be  shortly  possible,  to  obtain  a 
thin,  tough  metallic  sheet  which  can  be 
printed  upon.  It  was  reported  that  that 
had  been  done. 

Dr.  HILL:  Nothing  of  that  nature  came 
before  the  committee,  Mr.  Chairman,  but 
I   am   sure   that  at  the   next  conference 


some  publisher  or  some  commercial  house 
will  give  us  that  desired  information.  I 
would  say  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  are 
Interested  in  this  subject,  and  a  great 
many  of  us  ought  to  be,  that  there  are 
extra  copies  of  the  first  report  of  the  com- 
mittee on  the  table  for  distribution. 

Dr.  BOSTWICK:  I  would  like  to  ask 
Mr.  Chivers  if  he  proposes,  in  applying 
the  cellit  to  the  edges  of  the  sheets,  to 
apply  it  to  the  bound  volume  as  a  whole, 
and  whether  In  that  case  the  edges  of  the 
sheets  would  not  stick  together? 

Mr.  CHIVERS:  No.  The  spirit  very 
quickly  evaporates  and  leaves  a  coating 
upon  the  edge  of  the  paper.  Last  year  at 
Pasadena  I  was  able  to  show  the  edge  of 
a  piece  of  paper  before  and  after  treat- 
ment, and  dealt  with  quickly  it  is  not  glutin- 
ous In  any  way,  and  the  application  Is  per- 
fectly successful. 

Mr.  BOWKER:  I  would  like  to  ask  Mr. 
Chivers  if  it  would  not  be  practical  to  dip 
the  newspapers  by  some  such  process  as  is 
used  in  the  development  of  moving  pic- 
ture films  or  kodak  films.  They  have  roll- 
ers which  carry  the  paper  quickly  through 
the   solution. 

Mr.  CHIVERS:  That  occurred  to  me,  but, 
if  you  will  remember,  I  said  the  substance 
is  a  solution  in  spirit,  which  very  quickly 
evaporates.  The  rollers  might  get  clogged 
up  in  the  course  of  a  minute  or  two. 

Dr.  ANDREWS:  Has  the  committee  ever 
investigated  the  process  used  by  the  New 
York  State  library  for  the  restoration  of  Its 
manuscripts  which  came  so  near  total  de- 
struction. The  result  there  seemed  to  be 
admirable,  but  the  process  might  be  too 
expensive. 

Mr.  HILL:  I  would  say,  Mr.  Chairman, 
that  the  committee  had  two  or  three  letters 
from  Mr.  Wyer,  the  director  of  the  library, 
but  I  do  not  think  he  mentioned  that.  He 
may  be  able  to  answer  the  question  him- 
self. 

Mr.  RANCK:  I  would  like  to  ask  If  the 
committee  gave  any  consideration  to  the 
temperature  and  humidity  of  the  rooms  In 
which  the  newspapers  were  kept,  as  having 
some  bearing  on  the  life  of  the  paper. 

Mr.  CHIVERS:  Some  attention  was  given 


120 


OTTAWA*  CONFERENCE 


to  that  in  the  British  Museum.  The  papers 
are  carefully  kept.  The  temperature  there 
does  not  vary  as  it  does  in  America.  Some- 
times it  is  humid  more  or  less,  but  it  does 
not  vary  so  much.  It  is  the  action,  not  of 
the  humidity,  but  of  light  and  air  itself  upon 
the  paper  which  produces  early  decomposi- 
tion. 

May  I  say  in  reply  to  Dr.  Andrews  that 
we  certainly  took  into  consideration  the 
covering  of  the  newspaper  with  other  paper 
or  some  other  material,  and  it  is  altogether 
too  expensive.  The  report  that  I  was  able 
to  give  of  the  action  of  cellit  meets  the 
difficulty  in  a  better  way,  and  for  a  frac- 
tion of  the  cost  and  trouble. 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  On 
behalf  of  the  executive  board  the  chair  is 
requested  to  announce  the  appointment 
of  the  following  committee  on  resolu- 
tions: Dr.  Reuben  G.  Thwaites,  chairman; 
Miss  Mary  W.  Plummer,  Mr.  Judson  T. 
Jennings. 

The  dainty  bit  of  literature  which  ap- 
peared in  connection  with  the  first  issue  of 
the  program  and  bulletin,  bearing  the  sig- 
nature of  the  president  of  this  association, 
strong  and  persuasive  as  it  was  dainty, 
renders  unnecessary  any  introduction  by 
the  present  chairman  to  the  program  of 
this  morning.  The  topics,  as  you  will  note, 
are  attractive,  they  are  in  the  hands  of 
those  competent  to  speak  upon  them, 
they  grow  out  of  the  forceful  keynote  ad- 
dress at  the  initial  meeting  of  this  asso- 
ciation; like  the  branches  from  a  tree, 
they  are  consistent  parts  of  the  whole. 
We  will  begin  by  listening  to  MR.  CARL 
H.  MILAM,  secretary  of  the  Indiana  pub- 
lic library  commission,  who  will  speak  on 

PUBLICITY  FOR  THE  SAKE  OF 

SUPPORT 

In  every  community  there  are  scores 
of  intelligent  men — men  who  are  well- 
informed  on  most  subjects — who  do  not 
know  what  the  modern  public  library  does, 
whose  conception  of  it  is  what  might  have 
been  expected  a  generation  or  two  ago. 
The  word  'library"  to  them  means  such  a 


collection  of  books  as  they  have  in  their 
homes,  or  the  library  they  used  while  in 
college.  There  is  no  thought  in  their  minds 
of  the  aggressive,  civic  and  educational 
force  that  we  believe  the  American  pub- 
lic library  to  be. 

These  men  are  not  found  in  any  one 
particular  class.  Business  men  and  public 
officials  may  seem  to  head  the  list,  but 
there  are  college  professors  and  presidents, 
and  well  educated  professional  men  who 
are  quite  as  uninformed  and  indifferent 
as  any  others.  I  could  point  to  dozens  of 
men  and  women  in  my  own  state,  high 
up  in  educational  affairs,  and  some  of 
whom  are  officially  in  close  touch  with 
libraries,  who  do  not  realize  at  all  what 
place  a  public  library  can  hold  in  com- 
munity life. 

Perhaps  the  best  evidence  on  this  propo- 
sition, if  evidence  is  needed,  is  found  in 
the  recent  books  dealing  with  civic  and 
educational  affairs.  In  many  of  them  the 
authors  speak  forcibly  and  unmistakably 
in  favor  of  the  public  library,  and  exhibit 
a  knowledge  of  current  library  practice 
that  is  gratifying  to  the  library  profession, 
but  there  are  other  books — not  few  in  num- 
ber— in  which  the  writers  show  an  en- 
tire lack  of  appreciation  of  the  public  li- 
brary movement. 

It  is  very  easy  for  us  to  say,  when  such 
a  condition  is  brought  to  mind,  that  it  is 
the  other  fellow's  fault,  that  there  is  no 
excuse  in  these  days  for  anybody's  being 
ignorant  of  the  public  library  movement. 
Perhaps  that  is  true;  but,  for  my  part,  I 
am  inclined  to  wonder  if  the  fault  is  not 
with  the  librarians  themselves.  They  have 
been  so  busy  working  out  their  own  ad- 
ministrative problems  that  they  have  not 
taken  the  trouble  to  keep  the  public  in- 
formed on  the  progress  made.  They  have 
pushed  the  establishment  of  libraries — 
that  has  been  comparatively  easy — but 
they  have  not  yet,  to  any  very  great  ex- 
tent, created  a  public  sentiment  that  in- 
sists enthusiastically  on  generous  appro- 
priations. 

There  is  need  for  some  advertising  that 
will  take  care  of  this  situation.    It  might 


MILAM 


121 


emanate  from  different  sources:  from  tlie 
state  and  national  library  associations  and 
departments  working  on  the  public  gen- 
erally; and  from  the  libraries  themselves, 
individually  working  on  their  own  com- 
munities. Most  of  the  library  association 
publications  are  professional  literature; 
most  of  the  speeches  made  under  the  au- 
spices of  the  associations  are  made  to  li- 
brarians and  others  already  interested. 

What  is  needed  now,  if  my  reasoning 
is  correct,  is  a  publicity  campaign  that 
will  cover  a  wider  range.  Let  its  pur- 
pose be  to  give  concrete,  up-to-date  infor- 
mation about  the  public  library  to  every 
man  and  woman  who  reads,  to  every  in- 
dividual who  is  interested  in  any  way 
in  civic  improvement  or  educational  af- 
fairs. Surely  no  better  way  can  be  found 
of  laying  a  foundation  for  liberal  library 
appropriations. 

One  great  need  is  for  popular  books  and 
pamphlets  on  public  library  work.  Dr. 
Bostwick's  "The  American  public  library," 
is  the  one  available  volume  of  this  char- 
acter; there  is  room  yet  for  several  other 
publications,  shorter,  for  the  most  part, 
and  dealing  with  special  phases  of  library 
work  rather  than  with  all  phases.  Many 
people  will  have  to  read  a  short  article 
or  pamphlet  before  they  will  acquire  suf- 
ficient interest  to  undertake  a  whole  book. 

The  different  lines  of  library  work  that 
offer  subjects  for  popular  treatment  are 
many.  Most  of  them  have  been  written 
about  for  librarians;  why  can't  we  have 
them  written  about  now  for  the  general 
public?  Properly  printed  and  attractively 
illustrated,  a  series  of  books  and  pamph- 
lets of  the  sort  I  have  in  mind  could  be 
used  to  a  good  advantage  all  over  the 
country.  Of  course,  a  good  deal  of  the 
material  distributed  would  never  be  read, 
but  the  fact  that  little  advertising  book- 
lets are  widely  used  by  business  men  would 
indicate  that  in  the  long  run  they  do  have 
a  go6d  effect. 

Perhaps  the  most  promising  field  is  that 
of  the  magazines,  for  practically  all  in- 
telligent Americans  read  some  monthly  or 
weekly  periodical.  Some  would  be  reached 


by  the  good  literary  magazines,  some  by 
the  so-called  family  magazines;  others 
read  only  the  trade  journals,  and  a  few 
only  religious.  All  together  they  offer  a 
medium  of  publicity  that  would  reach 
nearly  everybody.  If  we  could  successfully 
emulate  the  people  who  have  pushed  some 
of  the  great  movements  like  conservation 
or  industrial  education  we  should  soon 
have  everybody  believing  that  the  public 
library  is  a  live  issue.  No  other  movement 
offers  better  opportunities  for  such  public- 
ity, for  there  is  no  other  institution  quite 
so  broad  in  its  interests  as  the  public  li- 
brary. 

Why  cannot  the  library  associations  have 
a  publicity  man  whose  business  it  would 
be  to  get  such  articles  into  the  magazines, 
to  prepare  little  booklets  such  as  I  have 
described  for  the  information  of  the  gen- 
eral public,  and  to  do  whatever  else  he 
can  to  interest  influential  men  and  the 
world  at  large  in  public  libraries?  This 
man  might  also  be  made  responsible  for 
getting  library  news  articles  and  feature 
stories  into  the  newspapers.  Such  articles 
would  undoubtedly  do  a  great  deal  to  edu« 
cate  newspaper  readers  to  a  knowledge 
of  library  work  as  it  now  is,  but  if  they 
did  nothing  more  than  to  keep  the  sub- 
ject before  the  people  they  would  be  worth 
while. 

There  is  also  a  large  field  open  for 
public  speakers.  A  publicity  man,  repre 
senting  a  national  or  state  organization, 
could  make  himself  very  useful  as  a 
speaker  at  public  gatherings.  He  could 
easily  secure  a  place  on  the  programs  of 
many  civic,  scientific  and  educational  or- 
ganizations, and  by  a  popular  presenta- 
tion of  the  public  library's"  service  along 
the  line  that  particularly  interested  the 
members,  could  undoubtedly  make  scores 
of  new  friends  for  public  libraries. 

Such  a  person  would  be  welcome  also 
as  a  lecturer  on  librarianship  at  college, 
academy  and  high  school  gatherings,  at 
chapel  and  convocation  exercises,  etc. 
These  talks  would  have  a  double  value 
in  that  they  would  help  to  bring  good 
people  into  the  library  profession  and  at 


122 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


the  same  time  give  information  about  li- 
brary affairs  to  students  and  instructors. 

So  far  as  I  know,  tlie  library  profession 
has  never  Indulged  in  paid  newspaper  or 
magazine  advertising.  This  may  be  due 
to  the  fact  that  we  can  usually  get  all  the 
space  we  want  in  the  regular  news  col- 
umns free  of  charge;  but  I  suspect  it  is 
due  partly  to  our  conservatism,  to  our  fear 
that  paid  advertising  would  be  considered 
undignified.  Certainly  if  the  newspapers 
and  magazines  are  willing  to  print  with- 
out pay  all  that  we  wish,  we  need  not 
consider  the  paid  "ad."  But  if  it  is  im- 
possible to  secure  the  desired  space  in 
any  periodical  free  of  charge,  it  might 
be  worth  while  to  buy  it. 

The  paid  library  advertisement  need  not 
be  similar  to  the  ordinary  commercial  ad- 
vertisement. It  could  be  modeled  after 
the  "talks"  sometimes  used  by  large  cor- 
porations and  promoters  which  are  meant 
to  create  a  sentiment  favorable  toward 
the  company.  They  should  be  done  in 
newspaper  English  and  should,  of  course, 
be  short  and  to  the  point.  Charles  Stelzle, 
in  his  "Principles  of  successful  church  ad- 
vertising," says  that  "One  denomination 
in  the  U.  S.  has  made  a  selection  of  a 
group  of  newspapers  throughout  the  coun- 
try which  print  regularly  an  editorial  on 
some  doctrinal  or  ethical  theme  and  which 
is  paid  for  by  the  national  body."  If  it 
is  not  undignified  for  a  church  to  do  these 
things,  surely  it  would  not  be  out  of  place, 
for  the  public  library. 

So  much  for  the  advertising  methods 
that  might  be  followed  by  the  A.  L.  A., 
the  League  of  Library  Commissions,  or 
the  various  state  associations  and  com- 
missions. By  such  means  the  attitude  of 
friendliness  toward  libraries  in  general 
would  undoubtedly  be  fostered  and  an  in- 
terest in  their  establishment  and  mainte- 
nance greatly  increased.  But  the  libra- 
rian of  a  public  library  could  not  rest 
on  this.  The  proper  "taste"  for  library 
expenditures — if  we  may  so  express  it — 
in  his  particular  town  will  depend  largely 
on  his  particular  library  and  his  own  meth- 
ods of  advertising. 


Of  course  we  shall  all  agree  that  the 
best  advertisement  is  satisfied  patrons  and 
lots  of  them,  and  that  without  the  back- 
ing of  such  patrons,  the  advertising  will 
do  little  good;  also  that  special  work  for 
the  special  classes  who  have  most  to  do 
with  tax  levies  and  appropriations  will 
bring  good  results. 

Almost  as  important  as  satisfactory  serv- 
ice is  a  business-like  administration.  The 
library  management  ought  to  be  such  that 
it  will  command  the  respect  of  business 
men.  No  amount  of  mere  talk  about  the 
need  for  more  money  or  of  the  wonderful 
advantages  that  will  accrue  to  the  city 
in  case  an  extra  thousand  dollars  be  ap- 
propriated, will  count  for  anything  unless 
the  librarian  knows  how  to  talk  business. 
In  fact  it  does  not  seem  surprising  that 
some  libraries  are  poorly  supported  when 
one  realizes  that  there  are  hundreds  of 
librarians  who  know  nothing  about  their 
library  finances,  who  leave  the  money  mat- 
ters entirely  to  the  library  board. 

Unfortunately,  the  librarians  who  are 
ignorant  of  the  financial  condition  of  their 
libraries,  except  their  own  salaries  and 
the  fines,  are  not  all  found  in  the  country 
towns  and  are  not  all  without  library 
school  training. 

I  know  of  one  librarian  in  a  city  of  nearly 
one  hundred  thousand  population  who 
never  knows  the  amount  of  the  library  in« 
come,  for  either  the  current  or  the  past 
year. 

I  know  of  another  library,  this  one  in  a 
small  town,  that  has  been  running  for  sev- 
eral years  on  a  very  limited  income  al- 
though the  board  has  absolute  power  to 
more  than  double  the  library  levy.  Re- 
cently the  librarian,  a  library  school  grad- 
uate, resigned,  because,  she  said,  there  was 
no  future.  A  few  weeks  later  a  candidate 
for  the  position  me't  with  the  board  to  talk 
things  over.  She  went  armed  with  a 
p-slip  full  of  figures.  She  knew  the  as- 
sessed valuation  of  the  town,  and  the  pres- 
ent and  possible  library  income.  She 
knew  something  about  the  city  finances 
and  whether  the  town  could  afford  an  in- 


MILAM 


123 


crease '  for  the  library.  She  had  similar 
figures  for  the  adjoining  townships  and 
was  prepared  to  tell  how  township  sup- 
port might  be  secured.  In  fact,  she  went 
to  the  board  meeting  prepared  to  discuss 
the  financial  possibilities  of  the  library  in 
a  business-like  way,  to  tell  what  ought  to 
be  done,  how  much  it  would  cost  to  do  it 
and  finally,  what  she  would  take  to  shoul- 
der the  proposition. 

Of  course,  she  was  employed.  She  was 
employed  at  her  own  salary  and  on  her 
own  conditions,  and  the  board  agreed  to 
follow  out  her  recommendations. 

Such  a  librarian  is  a  perpetual  adver- 
tisement for  the  library  of  the  very  best 
sort.  His  reputation  for  a  good  business 
administration  will  win  the  business  men, 
and  his  knowledge  of  city  finances  will 
win  the  respect  of  public  officials  and 
others  interested  in  city  government. 

The  library  and  the  librarian  also  need 
a  reputation  for  being  interested  in  all 
civic  improvement  societies  and  other  or- 
ganizations that  have  for  their  business 
the  public  welfare.  Agreeable  professional 
relations  with  the  men  and  women  who 
are  members  of  these  societies  will  make 
friends  for  the  library  of  the  best  and 
most  active  people  of  the  city.  The  li- 
brarian can  without  difficulty,  secure  an 
invitation  to  address  such  organizations 
on  matters  pertaining  to  the  library  and 
if  he  is  the  right  sort,  he  will  be  allowed 
to  present  his  cause  when  he  is  asking 
for  more  money. 

The  librarian  who  does  all  these  things 
ought  not  to  have  any  great  difficulty  in  se- 
curing the  money  necessary  to  run  his 
library  properly.  It  will  be  an  added  ad- 
vantage, however,  to  keep  the  name  of  the 
library  before  the  people.  We  ought  not 
to  be  satisfied  until  everybody  knows  that 
there  is  such  a  thing  as  the  public  library 
and  that  it  is  situated  at  a  certain  place. 
The  mere  fact  that  a  man  knows  a  thing 
exists  will  make  him  approachable  when 
the  time  comes  to  ask  his  support. 

In  order  that  people  who  do  not  use  the 
library  may  nevertheles  know  something 
about  It  and  be  prepared  to  play  the  part 


of  intelligent  citizens  when  appropriations 
are  discussed,  there  is  need  for  a  continu- 
ous series  of  newspaper  articles  that  will 
tell,  frankly  and  fully,  what  the  library  is 
doing.  These  articles  should  appear  as 
news  items  whenever  possible  and  should 
be  readable.  The  librarian  who  does  the 
largest  part  of  the  reporter's  and  editor's 
work  is  likely  to  get  the  best  results.  It 
the  papers  are  accustomed  to  getting  some- 
thing from  the  library  regularly,  they  will 
be  willing  to  print  financial  reports  and 
budgets  with  explanations  when  the  time 
comes.  If  for  any  reason  the  library  can- 
not get  its  items  printed  as  news,  then  the 
same  material  can  be  used  in  paid  "talks" 
to  the  public. 

Just  before  time  for  making  the  appro- 
priation, comparative  statistics  can  be  used 
tc  a  good  advantage,  especially  if  graphi- 
cally shown  with  cuts.  They  can  show  the 
smallness  of  the  library  income  as  com- 
pared with  incomes  of  other  city  depart- 
ments, the  lack  of  growth  in  library  income 
as  compared  with  the  growth  of  the  city, 
and  the  appropriation  for  the  library  in 
question  as  compared  with  other  libraries 
in  cities  of  equal  size. 

The  newspaper  is  the  recognized  me- 
dium for  all  sorts  of  local  advertising.  It 
reaches  more  people  than  any  other  me- 
dium and  many  people  who  could  not  be 
reached  in  any  other  way.  In  advertising 
the  needs  of  the  library,  however,  where 
only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  peo- 
ple must  be  reached,  it  seems  reasonable 
to  assume  that  the  circular  letter  might 
accomplish  good  results.  It  should  be 
carefully  written  to  catch  the  attention, 
beginning  with  some  statement  in  which 
the  reader  is  interested,  proceeding  rap- 
idly to  the  business  in  hand,  and,  above 
all  things,  stating  clearly  at  the  end,  the 
exact  action  desired. 

It  is  possible  now  to  get  up  perfect  Imi- 
tations of  individual  type-written  letters. 
Such  letters  with  the  name  and  salutation 
inserted  on  a  machine,  and  with  personal 
signature,  ought  to  bring  results.  Those 
or  actual  personal  letters  are  the  last 
word. 


124 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Any  man  who  has  in  the  background  of 
his  mind  a  knowledge  of  what  the  library 
stands  for,  a  good  opinion  of  the  library 
based  on  good  service  and  continued  publi- 
city, ought  to  be  influenced  to  definite 
action  by  a  good  personal  letter. 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  It  is 
not  given  to  many  of  us  to  approach  a 
subject  from  so  many  directions  as  Mr. 
WALTER  L.  BROWN,  librarian  of  the 
Buffalo  public  library,  in  grappling  with 
the  subject  of  "The  breadth  and  limita- 
tions of  bookbuying."  His  all-around  ex- 
perience will  make  this  next  paper  one  of 
exceptional  value  to  us. 

Dr.  Thwaites  has  kindly  consented  to 
read  the  paper  for  Mr.  Brown. 

BREADTH    AND    LIMITATIONS    OF 
BOOK  BUYING 

One  of  the  first  principles  of  public  li- 
brary management  is  that  of  adjusting  it 
to  the  needs  of  its  public,  by  whom  and 
for  whose  benefit  and  pleasure  it  is  sup- 
ported by  the  municipality.  Upon  this 
proposition  there  has  been  no  disagree- 
ment, as  it  is  self-evident. 

Questions  of  general  policy  arise  when 
we  attempt  to  decide  what  is  beneficial 
and  what  is  detrimental,  just  how  far  we 
may  go  to  supply  books  for  special  and 
limited  use,  and  just  how  far  we  may  re- 
spond to  the  popular  taste  in  the  demand 
for  the  expenditure  of  public  funds  for 
pleasure. 

The  breadth  and  limitation  of  book  buy- 
ing should  be  determined  by  the  needs  of 
the  public  rather  than  from  the  ratings  of 
the  books  which  are  being  published.  We 
should  find  the  books  that  are  best  fitted 
for  the  people  who  are  to  use  them,  rather 
than  to  try  to  fit  the  people  to  the  books 
which  we  may  consider  as  the  most  de- 
sirable. The  questions  so  often  raised  as 
to  the  admittance  to  the  library  shelves  of 
some  books  of  fiction  of  doubtful  morals  or 
the  latest  piece  of  erotic  literature  seem 
very  trivial  when  we  consider  the  problems 
that  face  us  in  the  broad  field  of  library 
work.  The  library  is  a  public  enterprise 
for  public  good,  and  not  merely  a  coopera- 


tive scheme  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
cheap  reading,  nor  a  bibliographical  store- 
house. The  important  question  is  whether 
the  books  we  are  asked  to  buy  will  serve 
any  legitimate  end  of  library  service. 

Most  of  our  American  cities  resemble 
each  other  in  the  exceedingly  complex 
character  of  their  population,  each  of 
whose  varied  elements  has  more  or  less 
claim  on  the  services  of  the  public  library. 
While  it  is  not  possible  to  classify  de- 
finitely the  residents  of  a  city  for  library 
purposes,  there  are  certain  large  groups 
which  we  may  recognize. 

In  the  first  place,  the  public  library  has 
to  serve,  as  libraries  of  all  times  have 
served,  those  who  have  had  all  the  advan- 
tages of  systematic  education — those  in 
the  learned  professions  and  in  other  walks 
of  life  who  have  had  given  to  them, 
through  college  and  university  training,  a 
wider  vision  than  that  of  the  average  citi- 
zen; those  who  have  had  given  to  them  at 
least  the  knowledge  of  the  existence  of  the 
store  of  accumulated  thought  and  of  the 
records  of  the  past.  Upon  these  more  for- 
tunate ones  rests  the  responsibility,  in  a 
large  measure,  of  carrying  the  torch  of 
knowledge  and  civilization  a  little  farther 
with  each  generation.  The  public  library 
does  not  pretend  to  act  as  a  guide  to  this 
part  of  the  community,  but  it  must  serve 
as  its  laboratory  and  as  its  source  of 
supply. 

A  second  group  which  includes  a  large 
part  of  our  population  is  made  up  of  those 
who  have  had  the  advantage  of  the  full 
course  of  the  grammar  school,  with  the 
smaller  number  who  have  had  that  of  the 
high  school.  From  this  group  come  not 
only  the  clerks  in  our  stores  and  offices, 
but  men  in  the  more  skilled  occupations, 
and  also  many  business  men  and  employ- 
ers of  labor.  Some  of  these  are  existing 
through  gray,  narrow,  uneventful,  toilsome 
lives,  while  others  take  a  large  and  lead- 
ing part  in  all  that  concerns  the  life  of  the 
community  and  in  the  moulding  of  public 
opinion.  It  includes  men  of  many  creeds 
and  civilizations,  prejudices,  desires  and 
ambitions;  of  many  degrees  of  culture  and 


BROWN 


125 


taste,  high  and  low;  influenced  by  very 
different  inheritance,  associations  and  op- 
portunities. 

Some  gain  through  application  most  of 
the  advantages  of  the  best  training,  while 
others  not  only  fail  to  make  use  of,  but 
often  practically  lose  the  education  the 
city  has  given  them.  For  the  larger  num- 
ber of  this  group  there  are  great  possibil- 
ities for  good  in  the  means  of  education 
and  cultivation  which  are  now  being  pro- 
vided by  the  municipality. 

How  may  the  public  library  best  meet 
the  needs  of  these  people,  so  many  and  so 
diverse?  How  may  it  give  to  those  who 
lack  it  that  which  will  enliven.  Improve, 
stimulate  and  cultivate,  creating  not  only 
the  desire  for  what  is  best  in  life,  but  sup- 
plying the  essence  so  far  as  It  may  be 
gained  from  the  stimulus  and  inspiration 
of  books?  How  may  we  give  others  the 
practical  knowledge  that  is  needed  by 
them  in  their  varied  occupations  and 
activities? 

Probably  the  most  potential  group  in 
our  cities  is  that  large  one  made  up  of  the 
children  of  the  immigrants.  If  they  can 
be  lifted  by  education,  if  their  taste  can  be 
guided  and  directed  toward  better  desires, 
the  help  which  the  library  is  able  to  give 
will  act  as  a  tremendous  force  for  good. 
If  these  children  are  left  alone  to  indulge 
in  what  Is  vicious  and  demoralizing  in  the 
life  of  the  crowded  sections  of  the  cities, 
they  will  become  a  menace  to  the  muni- 
cipal life.  Their  parents  have  little  to  give 
them.  The  schools  have  on  an  average 
a  brief  five  years  In  which  to  in- 
fluence these  children,  but  they  do  send 
them  out  with  the  power  to  read  English. 
The  public  library  may  exert  its  influence 
not  only  during  their  school  life,  but  if  It 
acquires  a  hold  upon  them  at  that  time, 
it  will  continue  to  be  an  influence  for  good 
upon  these  future  rulers  of  the  city. 

Is  it  not  possible,  in  a  small  way  at  least, 
to  cultivate  their  taste  and  give  them 
some  desire  to  read  what  is  worth  while? 

The  broad  base  upon  which  city  life 
rests  Is  still  another  group  made  up 
usually    of    the    newcomers    from    many 


lands.  A  very  large  number  have  little  or 
no  education  excepting  such  as  their  toil 
has  brought  them.  Many  are  able  to  read 
their  native  tongue,  but  all  their  traditions 
and  all  their  lore  Is  that  of  other  lands 
and  literatures.  We  find  that  many  of 
the  more  Intelligent  among  them  have 
brought,  in  addition  to  their  muscular 
strength,  much  that  might  enrich  their 
adopted  country  If  it  could  find  means  of 
expression.  They  constitute  a  danger  In 
our  life  only  when  lacking  the  knowledge 
ot  our  tongue,  our  ways  and  our  Ideals, 
and  when  in  ignorance  of  the  adjustment 
of  our  government  by  the  popular  will, 
they  become  the  prey  of  the  demagogue. 
He  easily  gains  a  blind  following  among 
the  ignorant  by  preaching  class  hatred 
and  a  kind  of  discontent  which  Is  un* 
righteous. 

Library  work  among  these  people  should 
not  only  act  as  a  safeguard,  but  may  prove 
an  opportunity  for  some  at  least  to  attain 
a  broader  life  by  awakening  the  desire  for 
knowledge  and  the  ability  to  grow  which 
comes  with  the  reading  habit  and  the 
knowing  how  to  use  books. 

The  public  library  has  not  only  to  carry 
out  its  mission  to  the  Individuals  of  these 
groups  as  its  part  In  social  advancement, 
but  It  has  to  cooperate  In  the  work  of 
betterment  with  the  schools,  and  with 
clubs  and  "movements"  and  with  all  man- 
ner of  philanthropic  and  social  endeavor. 

There  Is  no  lack  of  appreciation  of  this 
function  of  the  public  library  and  we  need 
not  emphasize  It  any  more  than  the  ser- 
vice which  it  renders  promptly  and  liber- 
ally to  the  scholars  and  other  leaders  of 
the  mental  life  of  the  community.  If  we 
should  fail  to  recognize  our  duty  In  either 
respect,  objection  would  be  promptly  ex- 
pressed. 

The  real  value  of  a  public  library  as  a 
municipal  Institution  can  be  best  measured 
by  its  service  toward  building  up  a  more 
intelligent,  hopeful  and  happier  citizen- 
ship. 

It  is  possible  to  help  the  Immigrant 
through  the  writers  of  his  native  tongue 
which   bring   him   pleasure   and   pastime. 


126 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


We  may  even  now  help  him  in  his  material 
progress  in  his  new  home  by  giving  him 
elementary  books  in  English,  from  which 
he  may  acquire  some  knowledge  of  Amer- 
ican institutions  and  American  life,  and 
the  time  may  come  when  we  will  be  able 
to  do  far  more  with  great  effect  by  having 
American  books  translated  into  other 
tongues  for  this  purpose. 

We  need  to  help  by  far  the  greater  pro- 
portion of  foreigners  to  acquire  English, 
because  it  is  a  tool  which  all  must  have  in 
this  country  for  intelligent  bread-winning 
purposes.  We  need  to  study  the  race  his- 
tory of  those  represented  in  the  popula- 
tion, and  we  should  know  something  of 
their  conditions  before  coming  to  Amer- 
ica; something  of  their  education  and 
their  mental  development.  Many  sections 
of  our  large  cities  have  different  problems 
in  the  amalgamation  of  the  population  and 
the  library  should  do  what  it  can  to  help 
solve  them. 

A  library  agency  in  the  neighborhood  of 
these  newcomers  is  a  center  of  real  ser- 
vice and  helpfulness.  No  work  shows 
more  definite  results,  or  is  appreciated 
more  than  that  which  we  do  among  the 
immigrants  and  their  children,  who  are 
often  used  as  go-betweens  by  the  parents 
and  the  library. 

While  there  are  many  agencies  at  work 
upon  the  children  of  the  immigrant,  the 
library  has  a  very  important  place  and 
much  responsibility.  No  matter  what  the 
other  demands  may  be,  we  cannot  afford 
to  neglect  these  children,  and  we  must 
make  generous  provision  to  get  them  in- 
terested In  good  books  through  the  schools 
and  the  library. 

Between  the  immigrants  and  their  chil- 
dren at  one  extreme,  and  the  educational 
institutions  and  the  scholar  at  the  other, 
there  is  that  very  large  group  of  the  com- 
munity made  up  of  the  more  or  less  edu- 
cated people,  concerning  whose  needs  and 
desires  most  of  the  questions  on  book- 
buying  are  raised.  This  Is  a  reading 
group.  A  certain  part  of  It  consumes  tons 
and  tons  of  newspapers  and  cheap  mag- 
azines,   the    very    names    of    which    are 


strange  in  libraries.  This  is  the  reading — 
perhaps  the  only  reading — of  many  of 
them,  and  we  find  that  they  go  to  the 
newspapers  for  the  stirring  and  morbid 
records  of  crime,  for  scandal,  for  gambling 
news  and  other  sensational  matter,  and 
they  are  reading  the  magazines  for  stories 
of  much  the  same  character. 

Such  readers  crave  excitement;  they 
seldom  read  a  book  for  pleasure,  and  they 
have  never  used  the  printed  page  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  information  since 
their  school  days.  It  seems  vital  that  the 
public  library  should  find  some  meeting 
place  with  this  section  of  the  community. 
The  plane  of  the  cultivated  reader  has  no 
temptation  whatever.  One  must  get  down 
to  earth  to  start  growth,  and  the  danger 
of  bending  down  Is  far  less  than  that  of 
keeping  aloof  by  reason  of  too  high  a  stan- 
dard. It  Is  possible  to  do  this  without 
wholly  giving  up  our  demand  for  good 
quality,  and  we  may  find  popular  books 
free  from  vulgarity  and  from  any  perni- 
cious Influence,  which,  if  properly  used, 
may  create  a  zest  for  better  books  when 
they  are  offered. 

In  selecting  books  of  different  grades  for 
the  purpose  of  leading  readers  from  the 
poorer  books  to  the  better,  we  do,  of 
course,  put  before  the  readers  of  the  better 
books  a  selection  of  descending  quality. 
Fortunately,  however,  there  is  little  danger 
in  this,  for  there  is  a  safeguard  In  the  fact 
that  a  taste  for  the  better  books  carries 
with  It  a  dislike  to  those  of  Inferior 
quality. 

It  is  well  to  remember  also  that  even  the 
lightest  fiction  selected  by  the  library  Is 
free  from  most  of  the  objectionable  qual- 
ities of  the  reading  Indulged  In  by  many 
readers  whom  we  hope  to  reach. 

As  we  advance  In  the  scale  of  our  read- 
ers, the  demands  upon  the  library  in- 
crease. More  and  more  the  library  Is  be- 
coming of  commercial  use.  Not  only  men 
of  the  various  Industries  are  finding  use 
for  the  recorded  experiences  and  the  ad- 
vice of  experts  In  their  own  lines,  but  busi- 
ness men  are  beginning  to  find  great  pos- 
sibilities   in    the   use   of   books   as   time- 


McLENEGAN 


127 


savers  and  as  a  help  to  efficiency.  The 
use  of  the  book  as  a  tool  is  becoming  con- 
stantly greater,  and  the  public  library,  as 
a  matter  of  course,  is  to  supply  all  books 
which  may  be  so  used.  It  is  the  plain  duty 
of  the  public  library  to  make  known  its 
ability  to  help  its  community  in  these 
practical  ways. 

It  would  seem  that  wise  book  buying 
would  result  more  often  through  a  study 
of  the  city  rather  than  from  the  searching 
of  book  catalogs.  The  public  library 
perhaps  more  than  any  other  educational 
institution  may  receive  help  from  social 
surveys,  social  engineering,  and  the  rec- 
ords of  commercial  organizations. 

If  a  social  survey  has  not  been  made  of 
our  city,  we  should  at  least  ascertain  the 
elements  which  go  to  make  up  its  popula- 
tion. Let  us  know  the  types  of  people  to 
be  reached  and  their  numbers.  How 
many  Americans  of  native  stock?  How 
many  residents  of  foreign  birth?  How 
many  children  of  foreign  born  parents? 
What  are  the  races  represented — English 
speaking,  Germanic,  Slavic,  Latin,  etc.? 
What  are  the  social  and  economic  condi- 
tions? What  are  their  occupations?  What 
of  their  education  and  aesthetic  develop- 
ment? These  are  pertinent  questions  for 
the  library. 

Then  let  a  search  be  made  for  the  most 
attractive  books  for  each  group,  always  re- 
membering that  there  is  a  place  for  sound, 
clear,  elementary  books  on  all  subjects, 
and  that  these  should  be  duplicated  freely. 
Let  the  business  of  the  community  be 
analyzed.  Are  there  textile,  steel  or  wood 
industries?  What  manufacturing  is  done, 
and  what  raw  materials  are  used?  What 
of  its  markets?  What  of  its  transporta- 
tion? What  authoritative  material  may  we 
find  on  all  these  subjects,  and  how  may 
we  make  it  of  valuable  use?  What  is  be- 
ing done  In  our  city  for  the  fine  arts;  for 
natural  science;  for  the  study  of  litera- 
ture; for  religious  and  ethical  teaching? 
How  may  we  cooperate  in  all  this  work  by 
supplying  the  necessary  books?  Let  there 
be  a  thorough  understanding  of  how  and 
where  good  books  may  be  used,  and  then 


let  us  consider  the  breadth  and  limitation 
of  our  book  buying. 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  One 
is  tempted  to  linger  over  the  flavor  which 
has  been  given  to  the  wording  of  the  next 
topic,  "The  open  door,  through  the  book 
and  the  library;  opportunity  for  compari- 
son and  choice;  unhampered  freedom  of 
choice,"  and  if  we  do  not  linger  longer  on 
this  it  is  because  we  know  that  that  fla- 
vor will  be  made  permanent  after  listen- 
ing to  the  address  itself  of  the  speaker, 
Mr.  CHARLES  E.  McLENEGAN,  libra- 
rian of  the  Milwaukee  public  library. 

THE     OPEN      DOOR,     THROUGH      THE 
BOOK     AND     THE     LIBRARY;     OP- 
PORTUNITY    FOR     COMPARISON 
AND  CHOICE;   UNHAMPERED 
FREEDOM  OF  CHOICE 
A  professor  in  one  of  our  large  univer- 
sities   recently    complained    that    college 
students  of  the  present  day  are  so  woe- 
fully ignorant  of  many  things   that  they 
could    reasonably   be    expected   to    know. 
The  exciting  cause  of  the  professor's  out- 
burst was  an  attempt  to  get  from  his  class 
some  Information  about  Chanticleer.     He 
was   met   by   conservative    and   judicious 
silence  until  one  youth,  who  was  not  quite 
sure,  ventured  the  opinion  that  it  was  a 
popular  song  sung  by  Jane  Addams.     Of 
course  such  an  answer  would  irritate   a 
Chicago   man,   and   justly   too,    when   we 
consider  that  Miss  Addams  Is  what  made 
Chicago  famous. 

But  the  wail  of  the  professor  provokes 
the  question:  Where  do  all  the  scholars 
and  thinkers  of  the  world  come  from? 
What  keeps  up  the  breed?  .  What  is  It 
that  fills  in  the  ramshackle,  ill-jointed,  un- 
promising frame  of  much  of  our  school 
product,  and  returns  us  so  much  of  fine 
manhood  and  womanhood,  and  so  much 
of  the  sound  learning  and  ability  of  the 
working  world?  We  must,  I  think,  admit 
that  the  world  is  fairly  furnished  with 
men  and  women,  intelligent  and  useful, 
whom  no  college  can  claim.  And  every 
college  has  its  quota  of  dunces  who  may 
never   be    anything    else.      My    professor 


128 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


made  no  discovery  of  an  alarming  decad- 
ence, for  what  he  complains  of  has  always 
been  true.  We  should  not  be  pessimistic 
about  youth,  and  we  must  be  fair  to  our 
schools.  They  make  better  what  we  send 
them,  but  they  have  no  science  of  alchemy. 
Many  men  and  women  find  their  inspira- 
tion in  schools.  But  after  the  largest 
measure  of  allowance,  it  will  be  conceded 
that  the  amount  of  scholarship  and  effi- 
ciency in  the  world  far  exceeds  the  out- 
put of  our  scholastic  plants.  There  are 
more  of  such  people  than  schools  produce, 
and  the  surplus  must  be  accounted  for  in 
some  other  way.  This  surplus  comes, 
somehow,  from  that  vast  throng  who  are, 
in  a  sense,  the  forgotten  children  of  modem 
education — those  hundreds  of  thousands 
who  fall  out  of  the  ranks  in  school  days, 
and  yet  who  persist  and  find  themselves 
without  the  help  of  the  schools.  It  is  very 
fortunate  that  this  is  so,  for  otherwise  we 
might  have  to  abandon  some  of  our  weight- 
iest political  maxims.  The  world  is  gov- 
erned by  proverbs,  but  as  a  rule  of  action, 
a  proverb  is  as  dangerous  as  dynamite.  It 
is  as  useful  as  a  club  in  a  political  cam- 
paign. But  Dr.  Holmes  was  right:  prov- 
erbs should  be  sold  in  pairs  so  that  one 
may  correct  the  other  as  a  counter  irri- 
tant. 

One  of  the  most  venerable  and  mossy 
of  these  narcotic  saws  is  that  our  school 
systems  are  the  bulwark  of  democracy. 
Undoubtedly  presidents  could  be  elected 
on  this  platform  alone,  if  you  could  find 
an  opposing  party  foolish  enough  to  deny 
it.  Yet  schools  can  be  the  bulwark  of 
democracy  only  by  a  confusion  of  terms, 
by  which  we  mean  that  education  and  in- 
telligence are  the  bulwarks  of  democracy. 
This  we  may  grant;  but  we  are  now 
speaking  of  something  besides  the  three 
R's  and  things  that  children  learn  in 
school.  By  education  and  intelligence, 
we  mean  the  resultant  of  many  forces  act- 
ing on  one  point.  We  may  readily  admit 
that  democracies  like  ours  have  only  In- 
telligence with  which  to  oppose  the  pow- 
ers that  tend  to  gather  at  the  center  or  to 
fly  oft  the  circumference. 


It  seems  to  me  that  what  we  call  the 
education  of  our  schools  is  a  very  im- 
perfect instrument  for  the  work  it  is  sup- 
posed to  do.  What  do  we  say  first  to 
that  fifty  per  cent  of  the  population  who 
drop  out  of  grammar  schools  with  only 
the  most  elementary  and  inadequate  knowl- 
edge of  the  three  R's?  What  has  the 
school  given  them  with  which  to  fight 
the  battles  of  democracy?  It  is  not  only 
the  spur  of  necessity  which  drives  youth 
to  labor  so  early.  That  is  undoubtedly 
one  cause.  There  are  also  the  profound 
weariness  and  distaste  which  come  of  for- 
ever seeking  from  the  textbook  page,  from 
the  teacher's  voice,  and  from  the  gradgrind 
drill  for  something  to  awaken  the  mind 
where  the  mind  has  no  interest.  Ger- 
many has  been  the  first  to  see  this  fail- 
ure of  the  common  school  to  equip  the 
majority;  the  killing  effect  of  one  sort  of 
training  for  every  type  of  mind.  Witness 
the  system  of  continuation  schools  for 
those  who  find  themselves  after  beginning 
the  bread  and  butter  work  of  life.  Wit- 
ness the  compulsion  of  the  employer  to 
devote  part  of  the  apprentice  time  to  spe- 
cial instruction  in  the  chosen  craft.  Even 
the  unused  moments  of  garrison  life  in 
the  army  are  not  wasted.  Everywhere 
the  progress  of  Germany  is  prolonging  the 
school  day  in  the  discovery  of  aptitude, 
and  in  the  cultivation  of  it  after  it  has 
been  discovered.  In  our  English-speak- 
ing world  we  are  trying  to  find  the  same 
thing  in  our  trade  schools,  in  our  manual 
training,  in  our  vocational  education,  in 
the  many  things  which  we  perhaps  hastily 
call  fads  in  education.  They  all  indicate 
a  reaching  after  something  which  is  not 
now  attained;  a  search  for  an  awakening 
influence  on  minds  that  are  now  dormant; 
for  something  to  light  the  inward  eye. 
In  all  there  is  the  implication  of  a  need 
which  has  not  been  met.  These  things 
are  the  evidence  that  the  diet  of  public 
education  is  not  varied  enough  to  nourish 
all  the  children  of  the  commonwealth,  to 
awaken  the  dormant  power  for  SOME 
THING  that  lies  somewhere  in  most  of 
humanity. 


McLENEGAN 


129 


"The  hungry  sheep  look  up  and  are  not 
fed." 

Public  education  has  given  long  and 
careful  thought  to  those  who  remain  in 
school.  It  is  just  becoming  conscious  of 
the  great  majority  who  do  not  remain — 
the  great  majority  whom  necessity,  choice, 
or  lack  of  adaptation  of  the  school  to  the 
child  drive  yearly  into  the  rough  school 
of  life.  At  present  the  best  that  schools 
do  for  these  Is  to  provide  each  child  with 
the  means  of  self  education — the  ability 
to  read.  But  we  are  to  remember  that 
this  is  only  one  of  the  instruments  of 
education;  it  is  not  education  itself.  It 
is  no  discovery,  and  it  needs  little  obser- 
vation to  point  out,  that  with  this  instru- 
ment of  reading,  the  newspaper,  the  mag- 
azine and  the  book  are  the  potent  educa- 
tors of  our  day.  They  are,  or  should  be, 
the  bulwark  of  democracy.  I  am  not  con- 
cerned to  discuss  this  further  than  to 
show  that  what  we  have  vaguely  depended 
solely  upon  our  schools  to  do,  is  not  done 
by  them,  and  never  has  been  done  by 
them.  For  the  great  mass,  our  schools 
give  each  child  the  one  open  sesame — 
reading.  There  they  leave  him  to  open 
what  doors  he  can  and  will. 

Before  I  suffer  as  a  heretic,  let  me  quote 
a  really  thoughtful  man,  Thomas  Carlyle, 
called  by  a  breezy  miss  in  our  last  civil 
service  examination  "the  great  English 
apostle  of  hope."  You  remember  that,  in 
speaking  of  the  origin  of  universities,  Carl- 
yle in  his  Heroes  said,  "If  we  think  of 
it,  all  that  a  university  or  final  highest 
school  can  do  for  us  is  still  but  what 
the  first  school  began  doing — teach  us  to 
read.  The  place  where  we  are  to  get 
knowledge  is  the  books  themselves.  It 
depends  on  what  we  read  after  all  man- 
ner of  professors  have  done  their  best  for 
us.  The  true  university  of  these  days 
Is  a  collection  of  books."  Possibly  there 
is  a  little  something  "proverbial"  about 
this,  and  perhaps  it  should  be  mixed  with 
a  trifle  of  Mark  Hopkins  on  the  end  of  a 
log.  But  a  collection  of  books,  be  It  large 
or  small,  is  a  library.  That  definition  still 
holds,   though   we   may  have   to   Include 


"skittles  and  beer"  after  awhile.  It  Is 
quite  clear  that  this  aspect  of  a  library 
as  a  distinct  and  active  factor  in  educa- 
tion has  only  of  late  impressed  itself  upon 
the  public  mind.  It  marks  the  library  as 
a  vitalized  public  utility,  from  which  we 
are  to  expect  more  than  has  yet  been  re- 
ceived. Even  the  best  of  schools  has  its 
limitations  because  of  the  inflexibility  of 
Its  courses  of  study,  and  it  may  fail,  often 
does  fail,  to  touch  with  any  spark  of  liv- 
ing fire.  But  the  library  may  provide 
something  for  every  type  of  mind.  The 
library  cannot  create  mind  or  the  will  and 
disposition  to  use  it,  any  more  than  the 
school  can.  But  where  the  desire  to  feed 
any  mental  craving  exists,  it  would  be  a 
very  poor  library  indeed  that  cannot  sat- 
isfy it  in  some  degree.  This  power  of  the 
right  book  to  supplement  the  school,  or 
even  to  take  the  place  of  it,  is  not  yet 
comprehended  In  any  fulness  in  our  pub- 
lic education.  But  It  is  just  in  this  power 
of  the  book  that  a  library  has  one  of  Its 
best  reasons  for  being,  and  It  Is  for  this 
reason  that,  when  the  library  comes  Into 
its  own,  It  will  be  a  most  Important  fac- 
tor in  education.  Let  us  see  to  It  that 
one  door  Is  kept  open  for  those  who  dis- 
cover themselves  after  school  days  are 
gone.  There  are  thousands  who  fail  to 
grasp  their  opportunities  In  the  way  and 
at  the  time  that  schools  prescribe  that  they 
should.  Some  of  these  find  themselves 
by  living,  by  working,  by  accident  it  may 
be,  or  by  any  of  the  infinite  ways  in 
which  humanity  adjusts  Itself  to  its  sur- 
roundings. For  them  the  library  is  a 
path  Into  fields  of  learning.  Into  avenues 
of  power  that  make  all  things  possible. 
Here  Is  the  college  of  our  self-educated 
man.  There  is  no  mystery  about  It.  It 
Is  the  natural  result  of  following  the  In- 
ward light.  We  know  that  the  better  part 
of  education  is  what  we  give  ourselves. 

One  should  not  use  a  single  instance 
to  prove  a  principle.  It  is  not  merely 
bad  logic ;  it  is  not  logic.  Yet  the  fact  that 
everyone  who  deals  either  with  people  or 
with  books  knows  many  such  cases  shows 
that  the  experience  Is  universal.    One  day 


130 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


not  long  ago,  as  I  sat  alone  in  the  office, 
a  lad  came  in.  "Mister,  do  you  buy  the 
books  here?"  I  admitted  complicity. 
"Will  you  buy  one  that  I  want?"  I  asked 
what  it  was.  "Chickens."  To  cut  the 
story  short,  I  asked  him  to  sit  down  and 
we  talked  about  chickens,  for  I  am  some- 
thing of  a  farmer.  I  found  that  he  had 
read  everything  in  the  library  on  poultry 
and  was  hungry  for  more.  He  knew  the 
hen  intimately.  He  had  mastered  the 
genealogy,  the  sociology,  the  psychology, 
and  the  "Why"  of  hens.  Furthermore, 
while  he  was  doing  time  in  school,  he  was 
also  carrying  on  a  successful  chicken  busi- 
ness on  a  city  lot,  from  which  business 
he  had  wrung  two  thousand  hard  dollars, 
which  he  had  safely  in  the  bank.  He  had 
already  marked  down  a  little  farm  near 
the  city  which  would  be  his  as  soon  as  he 
had  "completed  his  education"  in  the  gram- 
mar school,  and  then  he  would  make  the 
feathers  fly.  I  am  glad  to  say  he  got 
his  book,  and  I  added  another  lesson  to 
the  many  my  boys  have  taught  me. 

What  is  our  concern  with  this  lad?  He 
is  a  type  of  what  I  have  in  mind.  I  do 
not  value  him  for  his  ability  to  make 
money.  Men  make  money  who  aren't 
worth  a  cent.  I  measure  him  by  his  value 
as  a  producer,  by  his  value  to  humanity 
as  an  example,  and  by  his  value  to  a  li- 
brary as  a  walking  delegate  for  free  and 
unrestricted  choice  in  books.  He  is  an 
educated  man,  joyfully  occupied  in  some- 
thing which  engages  every  faculty  of  his 
mind,  which  he  loves,  understands,  and 
has  mastered  for  himself.  Your  country 
and  mine  will  be  the  better  the  more  they 
can  grow  of  that  sort  of  man.  He  has 
made  good;  he  has  arrived.  And  to  ar- 
rive somewhere,  under  your  own  steam, 
is  a  great  thing  in  life.  You  might  not 
get  the  answer  you  were  looking  for,  but 
you  could  not  get  a  foolish  answer,  if  you 
asked  him  of  Chanticleer. 

Lest  I  be  misunderstood,  I  repeat  for  a 
moment.  Schools  must  be  systematized. 
They  must  follow  a  course  of  study.  Un- 
happily, what  is  called  economy  dictates 
that  the  young  must  be  herded  together 


in  droves,  graded  by  their  ability  to  do 
one  or  two  things  into  groups  of  presump- 
tively equal  power,  equal  ability  to  compre- 
hend and  to  labor,  and  of  similar  tastes. 
It  is  the  best  that  modern  education  has 
been  able  to  do  in  the  schools.  Yet  every 
one  of  these  presumptions  of  equality  is 
false.  In  spite  of  the  Declaration  of  In- 
dependence, no  two  people  on  earth  are 
equal  except  in  their  right  to  live,  move 
and  have  their  being.  But  on  this  educa- 
tional bed  of  Procrustes  each  soul  of  our 
Anglo-Saxon  race  lays  him  down  to  pleas- 
ant dreams.  Alas  for  him  whose  mental 
legs  are  too  long,  or  too  short,  to  fit 
the  couch!  Dreams?  For  some  they  are 
nightmares!  Just  because  of  this  nar- 
rowness of  public  education,  because  of  its 
inability  to  touch  all  types  of  mind,  we 
have  that  endless  procession,  out  and 
ever  out,  from  our  schools. 

It  is  not  my  wish  to  take  a  hopeless 
view  of  education.  There  is  no  reason 
for  taking  such  a  view.  I  wish  merely  to 
emphasize  a  fact  which  has  always  been 
true,  but  a  fact  of  which  we  are  just  be- 
coming conscious.  The  problem  of  edu- 
cation in  the  days  that  are  coming  is  to 
adjust  our  machinery  so  that  these  lost 
products  shall  be  lessened.  In  this  read- 
justment the  library  will  have  its  place 
as  a  recognized  and  systematic  factor  in 
"the  greatest  business  of  the  state." 

The  open  door  through  the  library  and 
the  book  has  a  pleasant  sound.  Yet  prob- 
ably the  most  surprising  fact  in  actual 
experience  is  the  helplessness  of  even  in- 
telligent people  in  using  books.  The  ad- 
dress of  Prof.  Chamberlain,  delivered  be- 
fore this  association  a  year  ago,  did  not 
overstate  the  case  of  the  schools.  But 
schools  are  beginning  to  meet  the  issue, 
and  in  time  they  will  remedy  the  condi- 
tions for  those  who  are  fortunate  enough 
to  remain  in  schools.  But  always  for  us 
will  remain  that  contingent  who  drop  out 
of  school,  in  days  before  the  school  can 
reach  them  with  this  gospel  of  the  book. 
The  school  has  lost  them,  and,  if  ever 
they  find  the  open  door  through  the  book, 
it  will  be   by  chance,   or  because  the  11- 


McLENEGAN 


131 


brary  itself  opens  the  door.  It  rests  with 
us  to  proclaim  our  mission  to  them.  Of 
course  every  good  library  has  always 
taught  those  insistent  ones  who  knocked 
at  its  doors.  But  the  library  has  been  a 
passive  agent  of  this  education,  not  an 
active  one.  A  public  library,  in  my  judg- 
ment, should  be  equipped  with  the  neces- 
sary apparatus  to  conduct  this  work  sys- 
tematically, to  propagate  its  own  use,  to 
spread  the  gospel  of  the  open  door  among 
the  people  whom  it  serves.  If  this  seems 
a  violent  innovation,  I  beg  you  to  con- 
sider it  from  the  schoolmaster's  point  of 
view,  as  well  as  from  the  librarian's.  Here 
is  a  great  body  of  people  in  every  com- 
munity whom  other  agencies  have  taught 
to  read,  who  depend  upon  reading  to  re- 
turn service  to  the  state  and  to  promote 
their  own  welfare.  On  the  other  side,  the 
library,  with  the  admitted  duty  of  further- 
ing education  through  the  book.  Does  it 
not  rest  with  the  library  to  teach  per- 
sistently, systematically,  and  by  every 
practicable  means,  how  and  where  to  find 
what  to  read?  The  means  of  doing  this 
is  another  matter,  but  for  the  expediency 
of  it,  and  the  need  of  it,  examine  in  any 
considerable  community,  the  roster  of  the 
great  correspondence  schools,  and  reflect 
how  many  people  are  groping  their  way 
out  of  darkness  toward  the  light.  What 
people  pay  for,  as  they  do  for  this  in- 
struction, they  want;  and  what  these  learn- 
ers get  for  their  money,  they  should  have 
for  nothing  In  any  public  library.  When 
we  teach  how  and  where  to  find  what  to 
read,  the  open  door  through  the  library 
and  the  book  will  have  some  meaning  for 
every  man,  woman  and  child  who  can 
simply  read.  All  the  artificial  barriers  that 
stand  between  the  reader  and  his  book 
will  go;  the  barrier  in  the  book  itself 
will  largely  be  removed,  and  the  library 
will  reach  through  intelligent  choice  many 
of  those  who  are  counted  down  and  out 
by  the  schools:  the  thoughtful  man  who 
has  come  to  realize  the  possibilities  of 
his  work:  the  one  who  has  waited  long 
to  find  his  aptitude;  the  timid;  the  hesi- 
tant; the  shy  and  distrustful;   the  misun- 


derstood; those  who  see  the  "dawn  of  a 
tomorrow."  The  procession  is  endless, 
and  each  has  his  human  need,  which  runs 
the  gamut  from  utility  to  the  highest  joys 
of  life.  We  talk  so  much  about  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  that  we  forget  that  the 
best  thing  in  life  is  just  to  live.  Not  all 
reading  is  for  material  profit;  some  of  it 
is  for  happiness,  and  that  happiness  is 
purest  and  most  complete  which  we  find 
for  ourselves.  It  is  the  discovery  of  one's 
own  light  that  brings  the  abiding  joy. 
What  man  or  woman  cannot  look  back  to 
the  inspiration  of  some  finding  of  his  own 
for  which  he  owes  no  one  but  his  Creator? 
These  are  the  finest  moments  of  life. 

"Then  felt  I  like  some  watcher  of  the 

skies, 
"When  a  new  planet  swims  into  his  ken." 

So  said  Keats  upon  first  looking  into  Chap- 
man's Homer.  To  express  the  rapture  of 
the  poet  is  given  only  to  the  poet.  But 
the  pure  joy  of  finding  for  ourselves  some 
of  the  true  and  beautiful  with  which  we 
are  in  harmony,  is  reward  enough. 
Whether  we  look  upon  our  library  as  a 
source  of  recreation,  of  happiness  or  profit 
(and  it  is  all  of  these)  this  army,  who 
have  fallen  out  of  the  ranks  in  the  on- 
ward march  of  education  in  the  school, 
seem  to  be  our  especial  wards.  To  open 
the  door  through  the  book  for  them  is  a 
work  worth  doing,  not  as  a  means  of  sal- 
vation, but  as  a  means  of  sowing  more 
efficiency  and  more  happiness  among  men. 
Ours  is  not  the  schoolmaster's  task  of 
teaching  things:  it  is  the  nobler  task  of 
showing  humanity  how  to  teach  itself. 

And,  while  we  speak  of  missions,  the 
library  need  not  take  itself  too  seriously. 
The  world  is  not  looking  to  us  for  the 
salvation  of  mankind.  When  all  is  done 
that  can  be  done,  there  will  still  be  those 
who  will  not  read,  and  who  will  follow 
the  primrose  path  after  their  natures. 
There  are  many  agencies  in  life  that  work 
for  good  and  the  library  is  one,  not  the 
only  one.  Our  field  is  clear-cut  and  well- 
defined — to  extend  the  use  of  books.  There 
seems  to  be  a  sort  of  nervous  notion 
abroad  that  one  of  the  chief  ends  of  li- 


132 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


braries  is  to  draw  a  crowd  and  put  a 
nice  book  into  every  hand.  I  do  not 
know  about  all  these  enrichments  of  our 
libraries  as  I  read  of  them.  Have  books 
any  compelling  power  over  those  who 
merely  come  into  their  presence,  unless 
such  people  love  the  books  or  at  least 
wish  to  read  them?  Of  this  I  have  no 
doubt:  There  are  enough  who  care  to 
use  our  libraries,  if  we  can  take  away 
that  helpless  bewilderment  which  over- 
comes those  who  are  cast  adrift,  without 
rudder  or  compass,  upon  a  sea  of  books. 
Teach  them  the  ways  in  which  books  may 
be  made  to  yield  their  treasures.  Open 
that  door  in  youth  if  possible,  and  it  will 
be  the  best  possession  which  youth  car- 
ries into  manhood.  But  open  it  sometime, 
for  the  real  harvest  time  is  when  he  who 
wishes  to  read,  reads  what  he  wants.  It 
might  be  more  soul-satisfying  to  me  to 
hand  out  to  my  chicken  boy  books  that 
minister  to  more  attenuated  needs — but 
what  about  the  boy?  Is  he  not  better  that 
he  finds  for  himself  in  the  book  what  feeds 
his  mind?  The  glory  and  power  of  the 
library  is  that  he  who  can  merely  read, 
may  there  find  what  the  In-dwelling  spirit 
asks  for.  It  is  good  that  there  should  be 
one  place  in  education  where  there  is  no 
brimstone  and  treacle,  no  Mr.  Squeers,  and 
no  Smikes.  "For  books  are  not  absolutely 
dead  things,  but  do  contain  a  potency  of 
life  in  them  to  be  as  active  as  the  soul 
whose  progeny  they  are." 

The  FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT:  A  cu- 
riosity which  has  existed  since  libra- 
ries were  first  started  is  about  to  be  grati- 
fied. We  are  to  get  the  answer  to  the 
question,  "What  do  the  people  want?" 
from  MISS  JESSIE  WELLES,  of  the  Car- 
negie library  of  Pittsburgh. 

WHAT  DO  THE  PEOPLE  WANT?* 

If  we  are  to  believe  the  voices  in  the 
air  the  people  want  some  big  things,  for 
it  is  a  notable  fact  that  the  things  most 
loudly  demanded  are  wanted  by  a  few 
people  for  all  the  people.  The  socialistic 
group  wants  a  cooperative  industrial  sys- 

'Abstraot. 


tern  for  everybody,  another  familiar 
group  in  no  uncertain  voice  demands 
votes  for  all,  whether  we  want  them  or 
not,  and  there  is  a  third  group  to  which 
our  president  has  referred,  the  members 
of  which  think  that  they  see  in  universal 
education  a  panacea  for  the  ills  of  state 
and  society.  Of  this  group  all  librarians 
must  be  at  least  ex-officio  members  while 
librarians  in  public  libraries  must  work 
definitely  toward  the  end  which  it  avows. 

How  are  we  doing  this?  It  will  not 
serve  to  take  refuge  back  of  the  state- 
ment that  our  only  hope  for  universal 
education  is  with  the  child.  We  have  a 
duty  toward  the  adult  as  well  as  toward 
the  child,  and  our  aim  must  be  not  to 
get  people  to  read  books  but  to  get  all 
the  people  to  read  the  right  books,  the 
books  best  adapted  for  their  individual 
development. 

Are  we  supplying  the  right  books?  For 
book  selection,  a  well  nigh  perfect  tech- 
nique has  been  established,  but  is  tech- 
nique enough?  Knowledge  of  books  and 
of  technique  are  imperative  but  the  li- 
brarian who  supplies  the  right  books  to 
all  the  people  must  know  and  understand 
his  fellowmen. 

Who  are  the  people  whom  we  are  to 
serve?  Do  we  perchance  throw  them  into 
one  great  group  and  call  them  the  public 
as  distinguished  from  librarians?  Who 
are  we  but  "the  public"  to  the  actor,  the 
artist,  the  man  in  the  railway  office?  No, 
a  wise  providence  has  endowed  men  with 
a  great  variety  of  characters  and  tem- 
peraments, and  when  environment  has 
further  complicated  matters,  we  must  try 
to  understand  them  all.  For  our  present 
purpose  let  us  group  the  people  on  the 
basis  of  a  taste  for  knowledge. 

Some  people  are  born  with  a  thirst 
for  knowledge,  some  acquire  a  taste  for 
it  through  early  training  and  environment 
and  some  must  have  knowledge  thrust 
upon  them  if  they  are  to  have  it  at  all. 
Of  book  selection  for  the  educated  in 
any  of  these  groups  this  paper  does  not 
deal.  The  subject  has  been  discussed 
often  and  well,  and  while  we  have  by 
no  means  reached  the  point  where  we  no 


WELLES 


133 


longer  need  to  study  how  to  serve  them, 
the  question  is  not  a  gravely  puzzling  one. 
The  elimination  of  the  educated  brings 
us  down  to  a  study  of  book  selection  for 
the  under-educated  and  the  indifferent  in 
the  interest  of  universal  education  for 
the  benefit  of  state  and  society. 

Some  of  these  uneducated  ones  may  be 
found  in  each  of  the  three  groups.  Many 
from  the  first  two  groups  come  to  our 
libraries  and  should  be  served  thought- 
fully and  wisely.  In  many  cases  the  only 
indication  of  a  thirst  for  knowledge  is  an 
omniverous  appetite  for  exceedingly  poor 
novels.  If  they  have  already  devoured 
many,  their  taste  is  probably  hopelessly 
perverted  and  about  all  we  can  hope  to 
do  is  to  hold  their  interest  and  eliminate 
the  yellow  horror  with  its  debilitating  in- 
fluence by  supplying  free,  easily  acces- 
sible books  of  even  the  lightest  grade 
found  upon  our  library  shelves.  This  is 
a  very  slight  advance,  but  it  is  a  step 
forward.  Others  of  this  class  if  "caught 
young"  can  be  interested  in  better  litera- 
ture, and  are  worthy  of  our  careful 
thought  and  the  wisest  service. 

There  come  also  to  libraries  many  in 
whom  the  real  desire  to  know  is  awake 
but  still  rubbing  its  eyes.  They  must 
not  be  confused  with  that  class  of  people, 
diflicult  to  deal  with  in  every  sphere,  who 
seek  to  appear  wiser  than  they  are,  and 
some  personal  knowledge  of  the  individ- 
ual is  imperative  in  order  to  avoid  this 
mistake.  They  usually  ask  for  assistance 
in  book  selection  and  great  care  should 
be  taken  in  giving  it,  as  it  serves  well  the 
future  of  our  race  to  help  one  of  these 
"derive  education,"  as  one  such  borrower 
has  expressed   it. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  most  difficult 
group  of  all,  those  who  must  have  knowl- 
edge thrust  upon  them  if  they  are  to  have 
it  at  all.  These  do  not  come  to  our  li- 
braries, but  we  go  out  to  them  by  means 
of  various  forms  of  extension  work.  We 
are  inclined  to  take  this  branch  of  work 
lightly,  but  it  is  full  of  potential  good  for 
the  commonwealth.  Here  we  have  the 
citizen  at  our  mercy,  why  not  see  what 


we  can  do  with  him  to  help  the  cause  of 
universal   education? 

Extension  work  can  be  carried  on  with 
a  small  staff,  but  every  worker  should  be 
of  the  best,  strong  in  knowledge  of  books 
and  of  human  nature.  The  book  selec- 
tion for  these  smaller,  centers  can  be 
based  upon  some  personal  knowledge  of 
the  individual,  and  the  collection  may  be 
made  a  powerful  educational  tool.  The 
individual  can  best  be  reached  through 
his  personal  tastes,  for  the  developing  of 
which  he  does  not  dream  that  books  exist. 

This  personal  work  must  be  devoid  of 
sentimentality.  The  worker's  motive 
must  be  a  desire  for  fair  play,  and  he 
must  not  approach  the  people  in  a  mis- 
sionary spirit.  They  do  not  want  to  be 
uplifted  by  a  missionary  nor  surveyed  by 
a  social  worker.  The  only  spirit  in  which 
we  can  study  their  needs  is  the  spirit  of 
good  fellowship,  with  the  honest  desire  to 
share  with  others  what  we  ourselves  en- 
joy. We  can  reach  only  a  few  of  the 
people  who  need  help  most  and  books 
can  give  then  only  a  small  part  of  the 
awakening  and  training  and  broadening 
that  the  state  desires  for  them,  but  our 
effort  should  not  be  gauged  by  what  we 
can  accomplish.  We  have  to  thank  pre- 
vious generations  for  many  benefits  which 
result  from  their  aiming  high  above  their 
power  of  achievement,  and  if  by  personal 
study  of  the  under-educated  we  can  raise 
the  standard  of  their  reading  in  the 
slightest  degree,  the  general  standard  of 
intelligence  of  the  next  generation  will  ad- 
vance in  the  same  ratio,  and  this  the 
state  finds  worth  while. 

After  this  paper  the  session  adjourned. 

THIRD  GENERAL  SESSION 
(Russell    Theatre,    Saturday,    June    29, 

9:30  a.  m.) 
Joint  session  with  the  Professional 
training  section.  Mr.  James  I.  Wyer,  Jr., 
director  of  the  New  York  state  library, 
and  ex-president  of  the  A.  L.  A.,  occupied 
the  chair. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  Your  temporary 
chairman   for   the   morning  has   but   one 


134 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


compunction  in  accepting  this  pleasant 
privilege,  and  that  is  that  it  inevitably  de- 
prives you  of  the  gracious  presence  of 
your  rightful  presiding  oflacer,  even 
though  it  be  only  for  a  few. minutes. 

Miss  MARY  E.  HAZELTINE,  preceptor 
of  the  University  of  Wisconsin  library 
school,  will  speak  to  us  on 

THE    ASSISTANT   AND    THE    BOOK 

The  library  movement  is  no  longer  a 
crusade,  it  is  a  movement  of  peaceful  edu- 
cation. In  truth,  the  library  movement,is 
not  a  movement  at  all,  it  is  an  achieve- 
ment. The  library  has  come  to  be  a  cen- 
ter of  personal  interest.  People,  one  by 
one,  are  the  object  of  our  labors.  They 
are  to  be  brought,  through  the  personal- 
ities of  those  who  preside  over  books,  into 
touch  with  the  personalities  that  dwell 
within  books. 

There  are  many  militant  movements  to- 
day, those  for  universal  peace  (strange 
paradox),  equal  suifrage,  labor  reform,  and 
for  human  betterment  in  crowded  cities — 
great  social  movements  that  are  being  pro- 
moted through  the  vigorous  propaganda 
and  the  emphatic  zeal  of  their  leaders. 
Over  against  these  dynamic  social  move- 
ments, the  library  operates  as  a  quiet 
force,  at  once  personal,  intellectual,  edu- 
cational, persuasive  but  powerful,  study- 
ing community  interests,  serving  commun- 
ity needs  it  is  true,  but  accomplishing  the 
work  through  the  individual.  These  other 
movements  will,  after  their  first  victories 
are  won,  likewise  take  on  an  educational 
aspect,  but  they  will  become  strong  and 
far-reaching  only  as  people  are  touched 
and  served  by  them. 

No  cause  can  be  greater  than  the  per- 
sonality which  interprets  it.  It  matters 
little  how  proud  the  ideals  of  the  leaders, 
or  how  great  the  possibilities  of  the  work 
itself,  nothing  can  really  be  accomplished 
except  through  the  vision,  ability,  and 
knowledge  of  those  who  have  actual  con- 
tact with  the  public.  Technique  and 
method  in  library  work  are  of  less  im- 
portance than  the  personality  of  the 
assistant,  his  preparation  for  the  work,  his 


continued  renewing  of  himself  in  inter«st 
and  knowledge,  his  immediate  contact 
with  affairs  of  the  day,  and  his  ability  to 
share  his  interest  and  information  with 
others. 

If  this  be  true,  behind  the  library  must 
lie  a  personal  force.  This  must  be  se- 
cured, first,  through  the  personality  of 
those  who  labor  within  its  walls;  then, 
through  the  personalities  of  the  books 
themselves  that  are  ready  if  permitted,  to 
answer  every  human  need.  The  vital  con- 
nection between  these  depends  upon  the 
person  that  can  stimulate  a  love  of  books, 
or  arouse  a  feeling  for  their  need.  Are  our 
libraries  today  manned  by  such  assistants? 

The  plain  matter  of  fact  is  that  we  are 
still  over-technical.  For  petty  details  in 
devotion  to  routine  and  technique,  we 
crucify  personality;  we  kill  the  love  of 
books  among  our  library  workers,  for  there 
is  no  time  to  read,  no  opportunity  to  make 
or  keep  a  real  acquaintance  with  books. 
Schemes  to  induce  others  to  read  are  con- 
stantly being  devised,  red  tape  is  ever  be- 
ing wound  around  our  system  of  details, 
professional  duties  are  allowed  almost 
brutally  to  shut  us  out  from  contact  with 
the  best  in  literature.  There  are  too  many 
meetings  to  attend;  too  many  papers  to 
write;  have  you  ever  been  obliged  to 
forego  an  open-air  performance  of  Electra 
at  your  very  door  that  would  have  brought 
interpretation  and  understanding,  because 
you  had  to  rival  Euripides  and  prepare  a 
paper  for  the  American  Library  Associa- 
tion? Librarians,  alas,  take  their  work 
too  seriously,  and  too  painfully  do  their 
duty. 

"For  each  man  kills  the  thing  he  loves. 

By  each  let  this  be  heard. 
Some  do  it  with  a  bitter  look, 
Some  with  a  flattering  word." 

The  librarian  of  the  older  days  was  a 
crabbed  and  positively  forbidding  guardian 
of  books.  Then  for  a  period  of  years — 
and  there  are  traces  of  this  time  still  with 
us, — the  library  worker  had  the  attitude 
of  the  clerk,  so  important  seemed  the  de- 
tails of  library  service.  Now  we  are  ap- 
proaching   the    time    when    the   librarian 


HAZELTINE 


135 


shares  in  the  spirit  of  the  social  worker. 
The  one  big  blessed  thing  that  we  all  want 
to  do  (and  we  are  all  assistants  to  the 
public)  is  to  get  people  to  love  the  human 
messages  in  books,  for  "Books  are  not  dead 
things  and  do  contain  a  potency  of  life  in 
them  to  be  as  active  as  that  soul  whose 
progeny  they  were."  The  only  way  to  do 
this  is  to  make  sure  that  the  person  who 
deals  with  the  public  knows  books — is 
fairly  radiant  with  book  lore.  He  should 
not  be  a  rapt  scholar  absorbed  in  his  own 
research,  nor  on  the  other  hand  a  spirit- 
less, lifeless,  or  flippant  clerk. 

Within  a  decade  there  has  come  a 
change  in  the  tenor  of  most  library  re- 
ports, most  noticeable  within  the  last  five 
years.  The  emphasis  is  now  largely  on 
the  myriad  things  that  are  done  for  the 
public  which  require  a  knowledge  of  books 
and  the  ability  to  use  them  for  people. 
This  new  library  service  can  only  be  car- 
ried forward  by  assistants  who  know  both 
books  and  people.  The  library  assistant 
is  now  rapidly  becoming  a  constructive 
social  worker  and  has  the  most  potent 
spiritual  forces  of  all^he  ages  at  his 
command. 

But  in  addition  to  personality  there 
must  be  education.  This  is  a  primary  re- 
quisite for  an  assistant.  Nothing  can  sup- 
ply the  lack  of  knowledge.  Where  noth- 
ing is,  nothing  results.  It  is  evident  that 
our  libraries  are  recognizing  educated 
assistants. 

Mr.  Anderson  H.  Hopkins  in  his  report 
to  the  Board  of  trustees  of  the  Carnegie 
library  of  Pittsburgh,  said  in  1908: 

"Near  the  beginning  of  the  report 
appears  a  statement  of  the  names  of  mem- 
bers of  the  staff,  in  an  arrangement  show- 
ing the  positions  that  they  occupy.  I  have 
long  felt  that  this  is  not  adequate,  al- 
though it  is  in  accord  with  the  custom  of 
large  public  libraries  in  this  country.  A 
number  of  the  members  of  our  staff  have 
not  only  academic  degrees,  but  also  de- 
grees or  certificates  from  professional 
schools,  and  I  believe  it  would  be  a  good 
plan  for  us  to  set  these  forth  in  our  state- 
ment, as  is  commonly  done  in  the  calen- 
dars of  colleges.  There  can  be  no  question 
that  the  work  done  by  the  staff  compares 
favorably  with  that  done  by  any  similar 


professional  body  and  I  believe  that  it 
would  be  well  to  take  this  step  in  recogni- 
tion of  the  fact." 

In  the  report  of  the  Cleveland  public 
library  for  1909  this  statement  is  made: 

"An  analysis  of  the  preparation  of  the 
various  members  of  the  staff  for  their 
work  gives  this  interesting  showing:  col- 
lege graduates,  47;  partial  college  courses, 
24;  library  school  graduates,  46." 

From  the  report  of  the  Boston  public  li- 
brary for  1909  the  following  is  quoted: 

"Three  grades  of  educational  qualifica- 
tions are  required.  The  lowest  grade, 
which  includes  a  comparatively  small  num- 
ber of  pages,  sub-assistants,  etc.,  requires 
a  training  equivalent  to  a  grammar  school 
course.  The  middle  grade  requires  qual- 
ifications equivalent  to  a  high  school 
training  and  familiarity  with  one  foreign 
language.  The  third  grade,  including 
seventy-seven  of  these  persons,  requires 
qualifications  equivalent  to  those  obtained 
by  a  college  course,  and  familiarity  with 
two  foreign  languages.  The  proper  cat- 
aloging and  classifying  of  books  and  the 
reference  work  necessary  to  aid  those  us- 
ing the  library  also  requires  in  many  posi- 
tions much  higher  qualifications  than  those 
which  could  be  obtained  by  the  ordinary 
college  course." 

Libraries  should  secure  more  assistants 
with  academic  training,  whose  minds  have 
come  in  contact  with  the  many  subjects 
that  reveal  the  past  and  interpret  the  pres- 
ent. We  must  rely  on  the  colleges  for  the 
production  of  such  assistants,  that  they 
shall  come  to  us  already  knowing  the 
sweep  of  literature  on  the  library  shelves, 
already  loving  books  and  knowledge,  and 
filled  with  their  power.  Such  workers  can 
not  help  radiating  a  passion  for  books. 
They  will  make  the  library  a  living  insti- 
tution, a  center  of  glowing  personality.  Of 
some  it  can  be  said: 

"Who  reads  and  reads  and  does  not  what 

he  knows. 
Is  one  that  plows  and  plows  and  never 
sows." 

It  can  never  be  said  of  the  college  bred 
assistant  who  has  been  fired  with  the  mes- 
sage of  books  that  he  is  such  an  one,  but 
rather,  he  will  sow  day  in  and  out  that 
priceless  seed  of  the  love  of  books  in  the 


196 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


living  soil  of  human  hearts.  Because  such 
workers  have  seen  the  vision,  have  walked 
in  its  light,  they  will  continue  to  make 
books  a  part  of  their  daily  living,  never 
losing  the  habit  of  systematic  reading,  de- 
spite the  routine  and  immediate  demands 
of  the  library. 

We  have  said  that  the  responsibility  for 
supplying  this  knowledge  and  love  of 
books  a  part  of  their  daily  living,  never 
answer,  however,  that  they  cannot  bring 
to  their  students  in  four  years  this  literary 
culture  if  they  do  not  come  to  c'oUege 
with  some  previous  acquaintance  with 
books;  and  that,  if  the  student  must  study 
all  the  practical,  social,  utilitarian,  and 
commercially  valuable  things  demanded 
today,  the  reading  of  books  is  crowded  out. 
Is  not  then,  the  responsibility  for  awaken- 
ing the  love  of  books  for  their  own  sake 
thrown  back  upon  libraries,  and  upon  the. 
book  knowledge  of  those  that  serve  within 
their  walls?  Our  book  service,  of  which 
we  have  been  boasting  for  many  years, 
ought  surely  by  this  time  to  show  results 
amone  those  whom  we  have  been  serving. 
If  the  colleges  claim  that  there  are  few 
among  their  students  who  have  any  real 
knowledge  of  books,  should  not  we  count 
the  failure  partly  ours? 

And  what  is  the  reason?  The  assistant 
who  has  given  the  book  to  the  growing 
boy  or  girl  has  done  it  mechanically,  has 
done  it  as  a  clerk  has  done  it  without 
knowledge  of  its  message,  and  as  a  result 
has  failed  to  arouse  a  love  of  books,  a  love 
of  reading.  The  failure  is  in  the  library 
assistant.  We  have  substituted  for  train- 
ing in  book  values,  for  appreciation  of 
their  literary  content,  for  knowledge  of 
their  true  worth  among  assistants  a  me- 
chanical skill  in  the  handling  of  books. 

The  trained  assistant  must  ever  keep 
alert  in  himself  the  spirit  of  knowledge 
that  is  in  him.  In  this  same  spirit  and  by 
this  same  habit,  the  reading  of  trained 
members  of  the  staff  must  become  a  con- 
tagion and  quicken  the  love  of  books  in 
the  untrained.  The  library  looks  then  to 
the  trained  assistant  to  come  with  a  knowl- 
edge and  love  of  books  that  shall  be  re- 


tained as  his  birthright,  and  used  as  a 
talent  not  hid  in  a  napkin. 

Library  assistants  cannot  all  be  college 
bred.  Many  library  workers  are  recruited 
locally,  ainong  those  for  whom  the  library 
itself  has  been  a  university.  These  make 
up  a  large  body  of  the  assistants  who  fill 
important  positions  in  all  types  of  libra- 
ries. For  their  book  knowledge  and  love 
of  learning  the  colleges  cannot  be  held 
responsible.  The  end  desired  must  be  se- 
cured by  the  library  Itself.  First,  by 
choosing  for  an  assistant  today  one  who 
has  appreciated  the  environment  of  books; 
second,  by  encouraging  and  aiding  him  to 
a  fuller  knowledge  of  books  through  syste- 
matic reading;  third,  by  creating  an  atmos- 
phere of  books  in  which  future  assistants 
may  grow  up. 

To  the  average  assistant  who  feels  her 
importance  because  she  is  working  in  a 
library,  librarianship  means  an  ability  to 
do  things  with  the  hand,  rather  than  with 
head  and  heart.  Many  seek  a  library  posi- 
tion because  they  think  it  involves  only 
neat  and  easy  work,  having  in  mind  the 
purely  mechanical  and  technical  side, 
without  a  thought  of  its  meaning  and 
strength.  The  line  should  be  drawn  very 
sharply  between  those  who  know  books, 
can  think  about  them,  and  who  can  ex- 
press the  reason  that  is  within  them  about 
their  values,  and  those  who  only  know 
their  outside,  their  mechanical  care,  and 
the  keeping  of  their  records.  So  we  find 
the  responsibility  for  the  book  short- 
comings of  even  our  best  educated  assist- 
ants at  our  own  door. 

It  is  said  that  librarians  do  not  know  the 
great  life  interests,  the  pervading  charm 
of  music,  the  thraldom  of  art,  the  abiding 
realities  of  religion,  the  solace  of  the  out- 
of-doors;  have  never  sensed  the  author's 
heart-throbs  which  have  gone  into  the 
books  they  lightly  handle,  or  gloried  in 
the  transcendent  mysteries  which  lie  in 
poetry.  How  many  library  assistants 
really  do  read  books  for  the  joy  of  it?  In 
how  many  has  this  joy  been  killed;  In 
how  many  has  it  never  been  created?  For 
these  Is  not  the  library  responsible? 


HAZELTINE 


137 


Some  libraries  are  already  seriously  car- 
ing for  the  training  of  their  assistants. 
In  the  large  city  libraries  positions  are 
filled  chiefly  from  the  training  class  con- 
ducted by  the  library  itself  where  a  graded 
service  has  been  established  and  promo- 
tion depends  upon  examination.  But  much 
of  this  training,  like  all  library  training, 
is  of  necessity  technical  and  professional, 
rather  than  cultural.  Many  libraries  fur- 
ther report  staff  meetings  for  general  dis- 
cussion of  library  matters,  while  a  few 
report  such  meetings  for  the  general  book 
knowledge  of  the  staff. 

From  the  Dayton,  Ohio,  public  library 
the  report  comes  that  monthly  staff  meet- 
ing have  been  held  since  January,  1908, 
for  various  stated  library  purposes,  and 
that  the  members  contribute  anything  of 
interest  from  personal  reading  which 
would  be  suggestive  to  other  members  for 
their  own  reading,  or  helpful  to  them  in 
dealing  with  the  public.  Library  time 
is  allowed  for  these  meetings. 

In  1906,  Mr.  Dana  reported  that  mem- 
bers of  the  staff  met  once  a  week  to 
discuss  library  matters  in  general  and  to 
have  a  report  by  one  of  the  class  on  the 
literature  of  some  assigned  subject. 
Among  the  subjects  reported  on  were, 
photography,  history  of  literature,  French 
revolution,  French  history,  travel  in  Japan, 
opera,  etc. 

In  1907,  Mr.  Brown,  of  the  Buffalo  pub- 
lic library  reports: 

"We  have  done  more  staff  training  this 
year  than  was  possible  before.  Round 
tables  are  now  held  in  nearly  every  de- 
partment, at  which  methods  and  books 
are  discussed.  To  this  we  can  trace  habits 
of  greater  carefulness  and  accuracy,  a 
more  comprehensive  view  of  the  work  as 
a  whole,  and  happier,  better  service." 

In  1908,  the  report  says: 

"The  staff  round  tables — 'the  part  of  our 
work  which  keeps  us  keen  and  alive  as  one 
member  expresses  it — have  been  held  as 
usual.  At  these  meetings  methods  of  work 
and  books  are  discussed  and  frank  talks 
upon  the  best  means  of  helping  borrowers 
are  given;  but  the  spirit  of  sympathy  and 
comradeship  which  results  from  meeting 
together  as  library  workers  and  talking 
over  the  work,  Its  purpose  and  ideals,  is 
really  the  most  valuable  and  Important 
result  of  these  meetings." 


From  Cedar  Rapids,  1905,  comes  the  re- 
port: 

"A  meeting  of  the  staff  has  been  held 
on  Thursday  mornings  for  the  discus- 
sion of  current  events  and  library  prob- 
lems." In  1908:  "The  Thursday  morning 
hour  has  been  given  to  the  reading  aloud 
of  poems  suggested  in  Dawson's  'Makers 
of  English  poetry.'  Some  time  was  de- 
voted to  Browning  and  Milton.  New  books 
were  discussed  and  current  events  were 
considered."  In  1909:  "The  staff  has  taken 
up  the  study  of  Brander  Matthews'  'Devel- 
opment of  the  drama,'  and  has  read  sev- 
eral of  the  Greek  tragedies.  Current 
events  and  new  books  were  also  discussed. 
In  1910:  "The  weekly  staff  meetings  have 
been  continued  and  are  most  helpful." 

The    Cleveland    report    for    1910   says: 

"The  staff  round  table  continues  to  meet; 
this  year,  more  than  ever,  emphasis  has 
been  laid  upon  a  broader  and  less  super- 
ficial knowledge  of  books  on  the  part  of 
the  staff,  and  it  is  believed  that  some 
progress  has  been  made  In  this  direction. 
♦  *  *  All  this  shows  a  flexibility  of 
mind  on  the  part  of  our  staff  which  has 
made  them  grow  with  their  work.  There 
has  also  been  the  ability  of  the  older  mem- 
bers to  train  and  inspire  younger  and 
newer  assistants." 

Constant  study  is  required  among  those 
who  have  attained  academic  distinction, 
evidenced  in  advanced  degrees,  in  record 
of  profound  research,  in  contributions  to 
learned  societies  and  journals,  and  in  pub- 
lished monographs  and  books.  Even 
teachers  in  the  grades  must  pass  exami- 
nations to  hold  their  positions,  and  ex- 
cel in  order  to  secure  promotion.  No  one 
employs  a  physician  who  does  not  keep 
abreast  of  scientiflc  and  medical  discover- 
ies by  graduate  courses  or  private  study; 
few  listen  long  to  a  preacher  who  does 
not  keep  in  touch  with  the  spirit  of  the 
times.  Can  it  be  that  the  library  profes- 
sion is  the  only  one  in  which  a  systematic 
progression  is  not  generally  demanded? 

A  deflnite  amount  of  reading  should  be 
required  of  all  library  assistants.  They 
must  not  be  allowed  to  stagnate,  nor  to 
think  that  because  they  live  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  books  they  are  exempt  from 
reading.  There  should  be  on  the  part  of 
the  librarian  a  keener  feeling  of  responsi- 
bility for  his  assistants  and  for  their 
growth    in    the    knowledge    and    love   of 


138 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


books.  Whether  this  shall  be  brought  about 
through  organized  classes,  whether  it  shall 
be  through  weekly  reading  with  required 
reports,  or  whether  it  shall  be  through  the 
subtle  influence  of  the  librarian's  person- 
ality and  love  of  books  which  inspires  and 
him;  or  whether  it  shall  be  a  combination 
of  all  these,  remains  to  be  worked  out  by 
each  local  institution, — but  worked  out  it 
must  be,  unless  with  our  boasted  free 
books,  we  are  to  become  the  by-word  and 
the  laughing  stock  of  future  generations. 

We  all  acknowledge  that  the  assistant  is  a 
most  important  individual.  Have  we  looked 
well  to  his  necessary  book  qualifications 
and  to  his  continued  opportunities  for  im- 
provement while  serving  the  library?  And 
have  we  analyzed  what  these  opportuni- 
ties should  be?  We  say  frankly:  First, 
the  librarian  is  brother's  keeper  of  all  the 
assistants.  Second,  the  educated  library 
assistant  in  creating  a  love  for  books,  owes 
as  much  to  his  fellow  assistants,  who  have 
been  less  fortunate  in  the  matter  of  edu- 
cation, as  he  does  to  the  public.  Third, 
that  the  library  itself  should  become  a 
progressive  training  school  for  love  of 
books  and  reading. 

It  is  the  assistant  who  has  caught  the 
message  of  books,  who  has  heard  the 
gods  calling  him  to  celestial  heights,  who 
realizes  what  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  ex- 
pressed when  he  said  that  he  felt  like 
thanking  God  that  he  had  a  chance  to  earn 
his  bread  upon  such  joyful  terms — it  is 
such  an  assistant  who  makes  the  library  a 
place  where  people  want  to  read.  And 
that  is  the  true  library  whose  books  are 
read. 

No  one  has  a  richer  opportunity  to  be  a 
public  servant  in  all  the  fine  significance 
of  that  word,  than  the  assistant  to  the 
public  in  the  public  library.  He  may  un- 
lock the  treasures  of  the  past,  for  those 
treasures  are  committed  unto  him  not 
for  keeping  but  for  sharing  freely.  This 
public  servant  may  extend  the  knowledge 
of  the  discoveries  and  innovations  of  the 
present,  and  thus  become  an  interpreter 
of  the  scholar's  message.  This  public  ser- 
vant may  match  the  answering  book  with 


the  inquiring  mind,  the  responsive  page 
with  the  hungry  soul.  This  public  ser- 
vant may  lead  out  the  spirit  of  youth, 
lift  the  burdens  of  middle  life,  may  speak 
solace  to  old  age  through  the  thoughts 
and  songs  of  poet  and  prophet,  dramatist 
and  seer.  This  public  servant  must  be  a 
great  personality,  either  an  achieved  per- 
sonality, or  a  personality  in  the  making; 
this  public  servant  must  be  a  lover  of  peo- 
ple, a  lover  of  life,  and  therefore  a  lover  of 
books. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  The  next  paper  on 
the  program  is  by  Miss  EDITH  TOBITT, 
librarian  of  the  Omaha  public  library. 
Miss  Tobitt  herself,  I  regret  to  say,  is  de- 
tained, but  she  has  sent  her  paper  and  it 
will  be  read  by  Mr.  Frank  K.  Walter,  of 
the  New  York  state  library  school. 

TYPE  OF  ASSISTANTS: 
ABILITY    TO    DISCERN    QUALITY    AND 
ESSENTIALS     OF     BOOKS     AND 
POWER  TO  GIVE  INFORMA- 
TION   RATHER   THAN 
ADVICE 

When  gathering  the  material  for  my 
part  of  this  discussion  of  "Type  of  as- 
sistants," my  inclination  turned  constantly 
to  another  wording  of  the  title,  that  is,  "the 
value  of  the  book  to  the  public  dependent 
upon  the  intelligent  discrimination  of  the 
assistant,"  so  while  I  shall  try  to  adhere 
more  closely  to  the  original  subject  than 
this  would  indicate,  I  hope  that  you  will 
pardon  me  if  I  now  and  then  talk  on  the 
second  title. 

"Efficiency  in  business"  has  received  so 
much  discussion  of  late  that  it  is  a  brave 
person  who  dares  assume  the  privilege  of 
continuing  the  subject,  but  having  seen  the 
statement  that  "the  more  books  of  the 
right  kind  are  read,  the  more  efficient  a 
nation  becomes,"  a  librarian  naturally  be- 
lieves that  the  discussion  has  no  end  but 
may  be  continued  indefinitely,  for  this 
means  not  only  a  supply  of  the  right  kind 
of  books  but  also  an  efficient  distribution 
of  these  books. 

When  speaking  of  the  efficiency  of  the 
employees  in  a  library,  it  would  seem  that 


TOBITT 


139 


the  same  general  rule  would  hold  as  in 
other  occupations,  but  this  is  scarcely  true. 
The  people  who  are  served  by  an  institu- 
tion maintained  at  public  expense  expect  a 
higher  grade  of  service  than  when  served 
by  the  employees  of  some  private  institu- 
tion or  business.  No  doubt,  this  is  be- 
cause a  higher  grade  of  honor  or  integrity 
is  expected  in  the  occupant  of  the  office 
which  is  maintained  for  the  public  good, 
at  the  public  expense,  than  one  which  is 
maintained  for  private  gain.  Naturally  the 
same  general  rules  regarding  adaptability, 
politeness,  industry,  and  various  other  at- 
tributes should  be  applied  to  the  occupant 
of  any  position  but  in  the  case  of  the  pub- 
lic servant  only  the  very  highest  standards 
should  be  tolerated. 

Aside  from  the  public  the  librarian's 
first  interest  should  be  in  the  employees  of 
the  library.  Again  and  again  the  state- 
ment has  been  made  to  the  effect  that  the 
"work  of  getting  the  right  book  to  the 
right  person  falls  upon  the  desk  assistant 
chiefly,"  but  as  almost  all  of  the  employees 
of  a  library  are  desk  assistants  at  some 
time  during  each  day,  it  follows  that  all 
of  the  employees  bear  almost  equal 
responsibility. 

It  would  seem  that  the  selection  of 
books  for  the  library  should  have  first  at- 
tention, but  books  are  easy  of  selection 
compared  to  employees,  and  easily  dis- 
posed of  if  not  found  to  be  useful,  while 
the  assistant  must  be  carefully  placed  in 
the  department  for  which  she  is  the  best 
fitted.  For  taking  all  of  the  valuable 
characteristics  of  all  of  the  assistants  into 
consideration,  there  are  to  be  found  as 
many  grades  of  value  as  there  are  books 
in  the  library.  To  be  able  to  do  the  sub- 
ject of  "the  library  assistant"  justice,  the 
writer  should  have  a  very  thorough  knowl- 
edge of  human  nature,  a  knowledge  gen- 
erally possessed  by  successful  teachers 
and  sociological  workers,  but  not  often  by 
the  librarian.  Such  knowledge  comes 
from  a  kind  of  experience  not  easily  ob- 
tained by  a  librarian.  It  is  more  to  a  li- 
brarian's credit  to  know  thoroughly  the 
members  of  the  staff  and  consequently  be 


just  to  all  than  it  is  to  have  succeeded  with 
any  other  one  piece  of  work,  because  per- 
fect justice  toward  employees  will  produce 
the  best  work  for  the  library. 

While  the  actual  work  of  getting  the 
right  book  to  the  right  person  may  fall 
chiefly  upon  the  desk  assistant,  the  man- 
ner in  which  this  is  done  emanates  from 
those  who  decide  the  policy  of  the  library. 
If  those  who  are  at  the  head  of  affairs  have 
forgotten  or  have  never  realized  that  the 
library  exists  for  the  people,  and  that  it  Is 
maintained  at  public  expense  for  that  pur- 
pose, and  because  of  this  lack  of  knowl- 
edge maintain  an  attitude  of  arrogance  to- 
ward the  people,  the  assistants  will  do  the 
same.  It  is  true  that  an  indifferent  and 
unsympathetic  librarian  cannot  always 
prevent  a  capable  and  efficient  assistant 
from  doing  her  work  well,  yet  the  lack  of 
efficiency  at  the  head  will  often  dis- 
courage capable  assistants  and  will  never 
better  the  work  of  poor  ones. 

In  a  library  of  medium  size  having  thirty 
employees  or  less  it  is  a  comparatively 
easy  matter  for  the  librarian  to  keep  in 
close  touch  with  the  work  of  the  members 
of  the  staff  and  by  personal  effort  main- 
tain a  definite  standard,  while  in  a  large 
library  this  duty  must  of  necessity  be  de- 
tailed to  others.  But  whatever  the  means 
adopted,  every  library  must  have  a  definite 
standard  of  efficiency  which  bears  directly 
upon  the  service  to  the  public  and  al- 
though a  full  knowledge  of  the  technical 
details  of  the  work  of  the  library  are  with- 
out question  necessary,  a  proper  knowl- 
edge of  the  right  attitude  toward  the  pub- 
lic is  a  greater  necessity  and  should  re- 
ceive from  the  librarian  much  greater  em- 
phasis than  the  technical  side. 

The  characteristic  most  to  be  desired  in 
a  library  employee,  in  no  matter  what 
position,  is  that  of  the  self-disciplined  and 
well  trained  servant  who  understands  the 
rights  of  others  and  what  they  should  ex- 
pect of  him  in  his  position,  and  who  at- 
tempts to  respond  to  this  demand.  These 
characteristics,  if  they  exist,  are  inherent 
but  may  be  more  fully  developed  by  ex- 
perience. 


liO 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


It  may  be  well  to  try  to  outline  in  a  gen- 
eral way  what  should  be  expected  of  the 
occupants  of  some  of  the  important  posi- 
tions in  a  library,  for  the  final  outcome  of 
the  work  will  depend  upon  the  librarian's 
ability  to  discriminate  in  the  selection  of 
the  right  persons  to  fill  these  positions. 
For  the  children's  librarian,  the  first  re- 
quirement is  a  knowledge  of  children  and 
the  ability  to  feel  and  show  sympathy  and 
affection  without  being  sentimental.    Many 
attractions   may   be    introduced    into   the 
children's  department  but  the  vital  things 
are  to  know  the  children 'and  the  books. 
A  mistake  in  the  appointment  to  this  posi- 
tion might  be  more  nearly  fatal  than  a 
mistake  in  any  one  of  the  other  depart- 
ments, for  the  ability  of  the  children's  li- 
brarian to  discern  intelligently  those  qual- 
ities in  a  book  which  are  right  for  the  child 
may  permanently  settle  that  child's  taste 
In  literature.    The  future  well  being  of  the 
library    often    depends    upon    the    wise 
choice  of  the  children's  librarian. 

A  knowledge  and  love  of  people  may 
also  be  put  as  the  first  requisite  for  the 
head   of   the   circulation   department,    ex- 
tending not  only  to  the  people  who  are 
generally  called  "the  public"  but  also  to 
the  employees  of  the  library.    This  posi- 
tion may  well  be  considered  the  most  im- 
portant In  the  library,  next  to  the  librarian 
and   assistant,   for  from  this   source   the 
other  employees  will  Instinctively  acquire 
the  standard   for  their  treatment  of  the 
public  and  obtain  their  Ideas  of  what  Is 
the  amount  of  knowledge  of  books  which 
should  be  expected  of  a  desk  assistant. 
The  personality  of  the  head  of  the  circu- 
lation department  and  her  ability  to  be 
helpful  and  to  teach  those  In  her  depart- 
ment to  be  helpful,  can  do  more  toward 
Increasing  the  usefulness  of  a  library  than 
any   other   one   characteristic.     The    em- 
ployee given  to  much  detail  is  not  gen- 
erally a  success  here.     Rather  that  em- 
ployee  who,   by   strength   of  personality, 
leads  others  to  do  good  work,  is  the  best. 
The  head  of  the  circulation  department 
has  the  best  opportunity  of  any  one  In  the 


library  for  making  a  direct  path  from  the 
borrower  to  the  book. 

Scholarship,  without  question,  must  be 
considered  the  first  requirement  for  the  re- 
ference librarian,  and  if  the  public  is  to 
learn  to  have  confidence  In  the  library  as 
an  educational  institution,  no  mistake 
must  be  made  here.  But  the  scholarship 
must  always  be  allied  with  the  desire  to 
do  service. 

Frequently  the  cataloger  appears  to  the 
other  members  of  the  staff  to  be  so  far 
removed  from  direct  contact  with  people 
that  It  Is  assumed  she  cannot  Intelligently 
know  what  the  public  wants.  Except  in 
very  rare  instances  this  is  a  mistake,  as 
has  been  proved  by  some  of  our  great 
catalogs,  the  makers  of  which  probably 
rarely  waited  upon  the  public.  It  is  the 
ability  to  put  oneself  in  the  place  of  the 
questioner,  to  have  a  sympathetic  interest 
In  the  people,  that  counts,  and  also  to  re- 
alize seriously  that  only  by  means  of  the 
catalog  can  the  public  have  a  true  knowl- 
edge of  what  Is  In  the  library. 

The  same  general  rules  may  be  followed 
all  through  the  library.  Different  positions 
require  different  qualifications  and  it  rests 
with  the  librarian  to  see  that  the  employee 
fits  the  position.  If  this  Is  not  done  It  will 
make  little  difference  how  good  the  collec- 
tion of  books  may  be,  the  contents  of  the 
library  will  not  reach  the  public  In  a  direct 
way.  The  library  is  what  the  librarian  and 
assistants  make  it  by  their  intelligent  use 
of  the  material  supplied. 

This  may  all  seem  very  commonplace. 
If  It  Is,  then  why  have  we  not  profited 
more  by  what  we  already  know?  It  must 
be  granted  that  many  libraries  inherit  em- 
ployees who  are  not  particularly  well  fitted 
for  the  place  they  are  expected  to  fill.  The 
only  thing  to  do  In  this  case  is  to  put  them 
where  they  will  do  the  least  harm.  We 
cannot  expect  to  maintain  an  all  star  cast, 
but  by  studying  carefully  the  people  in  the 
employ  of  the  library  the  librarian  can 
generally  so  manipulate  things  that  event- 
ually the  right  person  will  be  in  the  right 
place. 
The  program  makers  asked  to  have  dis- 


TOBITT 


141 


cussed  "the  ability  to  discern  quality  and 
essentials  in  books."  For  this  we  must 
have  first  the  student  and  careful  reader 
who,  through  the  study  of  various  subjects 
is  able  to  judge  the  literature  of  those  sub- 
jects. It  cannot  reasonably  be  expected 
that  library  employees  will  be  able  to  have 
a  first  hand  knowledge  of  all  classes  of 
literature,  but  all  employees  may  become 
reasonably  familiar  with  the  names  of  the 
best  writers  on  many  subjects  and  the 
character  of  their  work.  It  is  by  means  of 
the  various  literary  tools  provided  and  the 
ability  to  acquire  a  more  general  knowl- 
edge of  many  subjects  by  much  reading 
that  the  library  employee  increases  in 
value.  In  this  particular  part  of  the  work 
the  library  assistant  gains  more  by  much 
reading  than  she  does  by  experience. 

It  is  not  my  duty  to  discuss  the  kind  or 
the  extent  of  the  education  possessed  by 
those  who  become  library  employees.  We 
all  agree  that  this  should  be  the  broadest 
and  the  most  general  possible  with  em- 
phasis placed  on  literature  and  history. 
Most  of  our  assistants  enter  the  library 
training  classes  at  the  close  of  a  high 
school  course,  and,  generally  speaking, 
librarians  do  not  expect  more  than  this  be- 
cause the  salaries  which  are  offered  will 
not  attract  people  of  higher  education. 
Therefore,  if  an  assistant  is  to  learn  to  dis- 
cern quality  and  essentials  in  books  some 
provision  should  b6  made  by  which  this 
knowledge  may  be  acquired  in  the  library 
after  entering  as  an  employee.  Just  as 
the  librarian  is  responsible  for  the  attitude 
of  the  assistants  toward  the  public  so  are 
the  librarian  and  heads  of  departments  re- 
sponsible for  the  growth  of  the  efficiency 
of  the  employees  in  this  particular  phase 
of  library  work. 

A  standard  of  efficiency  must  be  main- 
tained along  this  line  of  education  as  well 
as  personal  treatment  of  the  public,  there- 
fore it  is  impossible  to  emphasize  too 
strongly  the  necessity  of  continuing  the 
education  of  the  library  employees  after 
finishing  the  work  of  the  training  class 
and  after  having  become  an  employee  of 
the  library.    It  can  scarcely  be  considered 


advisable  to  attempt  to  give  much  practice 
work  in  all  departments  to  all  employees 
but  it  should  be  one  of  the  requirements  of 
the  library  that  provision  be  made 
whereby  all  of  the  employees  in  a  depart- 
ment shall  learn  to  know  the  general 
character  and  the  value  of  most  of  the 
books  in  that  department. 

From  the  library  periodicals  of  England 
one  may  gather  that  there  is  some  rather 
severe  criticism  of  the  assistants  in  li- 
braries, the  general  feeling  being  that  a 
latk  of  efficiency  deprives  the  public  of 
their  proper  share  of  service.  I  should 
like  to  quote  from  a  paper  by  Mr.  John 
Bar,  which  appeared  in  the  Library  world 
(vol.  13). 

"If  the  library  would  only  adopt  a  policy 
whereby  a  guarantee  could  be  had  that  the 
assistants  in  the  library  would  be  taught 
their  profession  in  a  thorough  manner,  I 
am  positive  that  the  now  prevalent  lament 
regarding  the  apathy  and  carelessness  of 
assistants  would  be  reduced  to  a  vanishing 
point,  because  from  observation,  I  believe 
that  the  assistant  is  the  product  of  his  en- 
vironment; he  is  what  the  conditions  in 
the  library  make  him.  The  policy  of  the 
library  should  be  to  provide  the  staff  with 
every  opportunity  for  improvement  in  gen- 
eral, literary,  and  technical  knowledge.  In 
order  to  meet  the  first  part  of  the  proposal, 
the  time  of  the  staff  should  be  so  arranged 
as  to  allow  a  reasonable  portion  for  private 
study  as  well  as  recreation.  And  in  order 
to  fulfil  the  latter  part — that  relating  to 
technical  knowledge — the  work  of  the  li- 
brary should  be  so  organized  as  to  ensure 
that  every  assistant  shall,  in  a  series  of 
progressive  steps,  obtain  an  adequate  and 
thorough  knowledge  of  all  the  practical  de- 
tails of  librarianship." 

The  people  of  America  cannot  offer  quite 
as  severe  criticism  of  their  library  em- 
ployees as  this  would  imply  has  been  of- 
fered in  England,  but  the  suggestions  re- 
garding further  education  after  entering 
the  library,  are  such  as  we  might  well 
follow. 

The  second  item  suggested  by  the  pro- 
gram makers  reads  "the  power  to  give  in- 


1^ 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


formation  rather  than  advice."  This  nat- 
urally would  come  through  the  ability  of 
the  employee  to  eliminate  his  own  opinion 
and  to  put  forward  instead  the  opinions  of 
those  who  are  qualified  to  know.  Here 
again  the  employee  may,  by  much  reading, 
become  more  efficient.  There  is  nothing 
so  offensive  to  patrons  of  a  free  institution 
as  to  have  unsolicited  opinions  and  advice 
offered  by  employees.  And  yet  this  is  a 
characteristic  of  the  new  employee  and  is 
prompted  not  by  conceit  but  by  a  desire  to 
be  helpful  and  to  please.  The  best  way  to 
be  helpful  in  a  library,  as  elsewhere,  is  to 
help  people  to  help  themselves.  In  this  as 
in  all  of  the  work  of  the  library  the  stand- 
ard must  be  that  established  by  those 
highest  in  authority,  and  ways  and 
methods  must  be  put  forward  whereby  the 
assistant  may  know  what  plan  she  is  to 
follow. 

The  ability  to  be  helpful  comes  by  much 
experience,  both  personal  experience  and 
the  experience  of  others.  To  quote,  "ex- 
perience is  the  force  which  makes  life  pos- 
sible .  .  .  and  books  alone  give  per- 
manence to  the  facts  of  experience." 
Therefore  to  busy  people  in  need  of  the 
experiences  of  others,  the  greatest  help 
comes  by  much  reading. 

We  may  attempt  in  every  way  possible 
to  make  general  rules  governing  the  ef- 
ficiency of  the  library  staff,  and  attempt 
to  maintain  certain  definite  standards, 
both  for  the  sake  of  the  public  and  in 
order  to  keep  down  the  expense  of  main- 
tenance, but  with  all  this  we  shall  never 
be  able  to  reach  a  perfect  system,  partly 
because  many  employees  give  promise  of 
much,  but  soon  reach  the  limit  of  their 
capacity  and  cease  to  grow,  and  also  be- 
cause of  the  frequent  unavoidable  changes. 

There  is  some  variance  in  the  minds  of 
librarians  regarding  the  place  of  the  li- 
brary in  a  city,  but  without  discussion  we 
must  all  agree  that  first  of  all  the  free 
public  library  is  a  collection  of  books 
maintained  for  the  use  of  the  public.  In 
order  that  these  books  may  be  available 
the  employees  must  not  only  give  efficient 


service,  but  they  must  also  have  a  clear 
understanding  of  the  public. 

It  has  been  said  many  times  that  a  few 
books  in  the  hands  of  an  intelligent  and 
discriminating  employee  are  of  greater 
value  than  a  large  collection  poorly  han- 
dled. The  employees  constitute  the  medium 
by  which  the  books  reach  the  public  and 
it  rests  with  the  buyer,  the  cataloger,  the 
desk  assistant,  the  reference  librarian,  and 
the  children's  librarian  to  see  that  these 
get  into  the  hands  of  the  right  people  at 
the  right  time.  It  is  here  that  the  careful 
discrimination  of  the  librarian  and  assist- 
ants is  necessary. 

The  average  library  is  much  too  large  to 
be  well  used  by  the  public  and  the  em- 
ployees of  the  library.  In  most  libraries  of 
100,000  volumes  there  are  possibly  not 
more  than  10,000  which  are  of  real  value. 
If  the  employees  could  know  the  authors, 
titles,  and  something  of  the  contents  of 
most  of  these  it  is  quite  as  much  as  may 
be  expected.  If  the  assistant  comes  to  the 
library  with  a  reasonably  good  education 
and  something  of  a  desire  to  add  to  what 
she  has,  and  will  read  regularly  of  books 
which  are  of  general  interest  there  is  no 
reason  why  she  should  not  learn  to  dis- 
criminate quite  as  carefully  in  the  selec- 
tion of  books  for  the  individual  borrower 
as  the  assistant  who  has  made  a  special 
study  of  the  criticism  of  literature. 

No  mention  has  been  made  of  require- 
ments for  special  positions  in  a  library. 
This  can  only  be  settled  after  the  em- 
ployee has  shown  some  fitness  for  spe- 
cial work.  As  the  library  is  what  the  li- 
brarian and  assistants  make  it,  it  rests 
with  the  librarian  and  those  in  the  highest 
positions  in  the  library  to  decide  definitely 
on  a  policy,  the  result  of  which  shall  be 
prompt  and  efficient  service  from  the  time 
of  the  purchase  of  the  books  to  their  final 
distribution  into  the  hands  of  the  people. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  Next  upon  the  pro- 
gram occurs  the  paper,  "The  efficiency 
of  the  library  staff  and  scientific  manage- 
ment," by  ADAM  STROHM,  assistant  li- 
brarian Detroit  public  library. 


STROHM 


143 


THE    EFFICIENCY  OF  THE   LIBRARY 

STAFF    AND    SCIENTIFIC 

MANAGEMENT 

In  conversing  one  day  with  the  super- 
intendent of  one  of  our  local  industries 
where  the  library  is  maintaining  a  station, 
I  learned  something  of  the  many  provi- 
sions devised  by  the  welfare  department 
of  the  organization  as  conducted  by  the 
social  secretaries  of  the  company.  From 
my  tour  of  inspection  I  have  a  vivid  recol- 
lection of  attractive  dining  rooms,  an  in- 
door gymnasium  with  an  up-to-date  swim- 
ming pool,  ofllce  or  laboratory  for  a  med- 
ical attendant  to  administer  first  aid  and 
attend  to  accidents  of  more  or  less  seri- 
ous nature,  architectural  plans,  free  of 
charge,  for  prospective  home  builders,  a 
well  selected  book  collection  of  popular 
and  technical  character,  presided  over  by 
a  representative  of  the  public  library, 
which  institution  also  arranges  for  bi- 
weekly noon  lectures  on  popular  and  in- 
structive topics.  On  my  commending  the 
humanitarian  spirit  animating  the  man- 
agement of  the  company  the  prompt  re- 
sponse came:  "That  element  enters  only 
as  incidental  in  our  policy.  It  is  all  a 
matter  of  business.  We  must  hold  our 
organization  intact.  It  is  important  to . 
retain  our  skilled  workmen  and  we  must 
make  it  worth  their  while  to  remain  with 
us." 

If  it  has  been  found  to  be  good  policy 
to  provide  for  the  contentment  and  wel- 
fare of  the  human  units  in  an  organiza- 
tion where,  after  all,  a  large  part  of  the 
day's  work  is  rather  mechanical  and  of 
fixed  standards,  how  vastly  more  impor- 
tant it  must  be  to  give  a  close,  generous 
consideration  to  the  happiness  and  com- 
fort of  the  personnel  in  a  library  system 
where  the  personal  service  is  of  par- 
amount importance,  where  the  physical 
and  mental  vitality  is  under  constant  pres- 
sure, where  improvement  in  the  day's 
work  is  always  exacted  and  where  the  re- 
sult yielded  to  the  individual  effort  is  un- 
certain and  often  undemonstrable. 

In  the  case  of  library  service,  humani- 
tarian  regard   should   weigh   equally  with 


considerations  of  statistics  and  output,  in- 
asmuch as  library  work  is  a  service  for 
humanity  and  its  welfare.  Those  entrusted 
with  the  management  of  libraries  may 
well  remember  the  maxim  that  "as  we  do 
we  teach,"  which,  applied  to  library  condi- 
tions, may  lead  us  to  conclude  that  what- 
soever is  done  to  promote  the  happiness 
and  best  instincts  of  the  rank  and  file 
in  a  library  organization,  will  result  di- 
rectly in  instilling  in  the  public  service, 
rendered  by  them,  a  spirit  of  sympathy, 
ready  regard  of  the  rights  and  needs  of 
the  public  and  an  eagerness  to  serve  loy- 
ally. Any  library  management  conceived 
and  executed  in  this  spirit  may  be  de- 
pended upon  for  achievements  in  what 
is  really  library  economy. 

I'll  endeavor  to  formulate  some  sug- 
gestions toward  effecting  such  results  and 
I  can  harbor  but  feelings  of  satisfaction, 
should  I  be  advised  later  that  they  have 
already  been  practically  realized  in  some 
institutions. 

The  question  of  how  to  maintain  and 
increase  the  efficiency  of  the  staff  might 
well  be  approached  from  two  angles,  the 
physical  and  the  mental  conservation  of 
forces. 

Dr.  Luther  H.  Gulick  makes  the  state- 
ment, that  "there  are  conditions  for  each 
individual  under  which  he  can  do  the 
most  and  the  best  work.  It  is  the  busi- 
ness of  those  in  charge  of  others  to  ascer- 
tain these  conditions  and  to  comply  with 
them." 

We  hear  so  much  in  our  day  about  scien- 
tific management  that  we  may  be  led  to 
begin  inquiring  skeptically  if  its  value  is 
not  exaggerated  in  the  interests  of  pro- 
fessional organizers,  systematizers,  etc. 

No  working  chart  for  computing  the 
energy  of  a  mental  effort  or  for  the  in- 
crease of  its  productiveness  has  as  yet 
been  devised  but  none  of  us  will  deny 
the  need  of  a  working  plan  for  the  day's 
work.    Else  we  drift. 

According  to  the  new  doctrine  as  laid 
down  by  Mr.  H.  N.  Casson,  "there  is  no 
such  thing  as  unskilled  labor,  there  is  an 
intelligent   method   for   every  accomplish- 


Ui 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


ment.  Scientific  management  does  not 
mean  frenzied  production.  On  the  con- 
trary, it  individualizes  the  workman,  it 
means  the  better  ordering  of  the  work 
for  the  best  interests  of  both  individual 
and  the  service.  Consequently,  it  provides 
for  recreation  as  well  as  for  work.  It  in- 
sists that  the  individual  shall  not  sag  so 
far  down  at  the  end  of  the  day's  work 
that  he  will  not  recuperate."  This  con- 
cerns not  only  expended  energy  but  mis- 
directed energy. 

The  day's  schedule  should  be  so  arranged 
that  work  requiring  the  highest  mental 
effort  be  assigned  to  the  most  fruitful 
hours  of  the  individual,  the  work  so  dis- 
tributed that  each  individual  performs  the 
task  he  can  best  do  and  is  most  worthy 
of  his  highest  skill. 

Pride  in  the  work  under  your  hand,  the 
sense  of  doing  something  worth  while,  gen- 
erates the  spirit  of  loyalty  and  happiness 
which  reckons,  not  so  much  with  the  writ- 
ten library  regulations,  as  with  the  un- 
written law  of  the  service  to  stand  by 
cheerfully  as  long  as  needed. 

During  the  recent  years  I  spent  In  the 
East,  It  was  my  privilege  to  become  in- 
timately acquainted  with  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  engineers  our  country  pro- 
duced during  the  last  half-century.  One 
day  when  I  had  occasion  to  call  upon  this 
gentleman,  I  was  directed  to  proceed 
from  his  office  to  one  of  the  noisiest  de- 
partments of  his  extensive  mills.  There 
I  finally  located  him  seated  on  an  anvil, 
watching  taciturnly  the  moving  throng  of 
busy  mechanics.  I  learned  afterwards  that 
the  lifelong  habit  of  this  philosophic  en- 
gineer was  to  emerge  from  his  secluded 
office  and  enter  the  quarters  where  the 
"wheels  turn  around."  There  he  would 
In  his  quiet  manner  ask  shrewd  questions 
and  enter  Into  conversation  with  any  one 
whose  task  or  skill  attracted  him.  It  Is 
on  behalf  of  the  rank  and  file  In  the  li- 
brary world  that  I  draw  upon  this  recol- 
lection of  an  industrial  organization  noted 
for  its  resources  and  efficiency.  Invite 
the  confidence  of  every  member  of  the 
staff,  welcome  suggestions,  allow  your  as- 


sistants to  voice  the  conclusions  their  ex- 
perience and  service  bring  home  to  them, 
listen  with  sympathy  to  suggestions 
prompted  by  loyalty  and  daily  pondering. 
There  are  times  when  we  may  well  forget 
our  official  gradings,  when  it  will  prove 
profitable  to  learn  from  the  members  of 
the  crew  how  our  theories  stand  the  test. 

The  question  of  hours,  salaries  and  va- 
cations can  be  answered  only  in  a  general 
way.  The  gauge  by  which  we  examine  the 
running  of  the  human  machinery  entrusted 
to  us  should  be  read  with  sympathy,  and 
we  should  set  a  pace  that  we  can  hold 
the  entire  day  or  the  working  period  of 
a  normal  life.  Speaking  for  our  own  in- 
stitution, we  adhere  to  the  42-hour  weekly 
schedule  with  provision  for  a  weekly  half- 
holiday.  Evening  work  should  certainly 
never  exceed  the  number  three  in  any  one 
week  and  personally  I'm  leaning  toward 
the  more  desirable  two  evenings  a  week. 
Where  a  special  evening  force  is  employed 
the  recommendation  of  course,  does  not 
apply. 

The  restroom  and  the  kitchenette  are 
now  so  generally  established  as  to  be 
past  the  stage  of  argument.  These  rest- 
rooms  should  be  well  equipped  and  no 
niggardly  considerations  should  stand  In 
the  way  of  making  them  neat,  airy  and 
inviting  in  order  to  afford  comfort  and 
relaxation.  The  appearance  and  atmos- 
phere of  the  restroom  should  banish  the 
dull  sense  of  drudgery  and  evoke  the  gent- 
ler side  of  life. 

The  half-holiday  and  vacation  should  be 
provided,  not  so  much  because  a  faithful 
servant  has  earned  a  rest,  but  because 
without  it  life  means  living  at  a  low  level, 
with  the  certain  result  of  deadening  one's 
faculties,  ambition  and  alertness,  whereas 
these  should  all  grow  with  one's  experi- 
ence and  work.  Certainly  a  month's  vaca- 
tion in  the  course  of  a  year  is  a  minimum 
respite  In  any  professional  activity  of  con- 
fined nature  and  mental  concentration. 
We  must  consider  the  weight  of  the  state- 
ment made  by  Luther  H.  Gulick  that, 
"growth  Is  predominantly  a  function  of 
rest  and  that  the  best  work  that  most  of 


STROHM 


145 


us  do  is  not  in  our  offices  or  at  our  desks, 
but  when  we  are  wandering  in  the 
woods,  or  sitting  quietly  with  undirected 
thoughts."  Those  who  are  entrusted  with 
the  responsibility  of  supervising  the  daily 
toil  of  others  should  so  govern  that  each 
individual  remains  "master  of  his  own 
work  and  not  its  slave." 

Just  a  few  words  as  to  the  rate  of  com- 
pensation prevailing  in  the  library  profes- 
sion today.  In  so  far  as  the  city  of  De- 
troit is  concerned,  the  scale  of  wages  now 
in  operation  and  adopted  some  three  years 
ago,  was  based  on  the  salaries  paid  in 
the  public  schools  which  seems  a  fitting 
arrangement  inasmuch  as  our  public  li- 
brary is  an  outgrowth  of,  and,  as  to  ap- 
pointment of  trustees,  still  under  the  con- 
trol of  the  Municipal  Board  of  Education. 
The  professional  training  and  executive 
skill  required  in  a  librarian  of  today  make 
It  seem  reasonable  that  his  or  her  com- 
pensation should  be  fairly  at  par  with  the 
salaries  paid  in  other  city  departments 
where  professional  training  is  among  the 
requisites,  such  as  Department  of  City 
Engineer,  City  Attorney,  Municipal  Mus- 
eum, Superintendent  of  Public  Instruction, 
Principal  of  a  High  School,  etc.  Our  sal- 
ary schedule  based  upon  the  schedule  ap- 
plying to  principals  and  teachers  in  our 
local  public  schools  operates  in  parts  as 
follows: 

Heads  of  departments  to  receive  the 
same    pay    as    principals    of    eight 
room  schools. 
Branch  librarians  to  receive  the  same 
pay    as    principals    of    seven    room 
schools. 
First  assistants   to   heads   of   depart- 
ments   to   receive    a    salary    corre- 
sponding with  that  of  assistants  to 
principals  of  schools.     In  the  same 
manner  the  schedule  applies  to  the 
rank    and    file,    promotions    being 
given  semi-annually,  based   on  sen- 
iority and  service  record. 
That  this  regulation  would  apply  satis- 
factorily in  other  municipalities  is  ques- 
tionable, as  may  be  deduced  from  a  state- 
ment made  by  one  congressman,  who.  In 


discussing  the  salaries  paid  the  school 
teachers  In  the  city  of  Washington  re- 
marked with  blunt  sympathy  that  "the 
policemen  were  paid  more  to  crash  the 
skulls  of  the  children  in  Washington  than 
the  teachers  were  paid  for  putting  some- 
thing into  them." 

To  maintain  the  efficiency  of  the  library 
staff  it  is  necessary  not  only  to  consider 
the  welfare  of  the  individual  during  his 
working  hours  but  to  provide  such  material 
regard  for  his  day's  toil  that  his  vitality 
and  enjoyment  of  life  may  be  conserved 
by  having  the  means  to  afford  the  neces- 
sary comfort  and  social  status  consistent 
with  our  profession. 

To  consider  the  importance  of  personal 
appearance,  neatness  in  dress  in  our  serv- 
ice with  the  public  Is  simply  to  recognize 
the  point  of  view  of  the  library  patron 
whose  opinion  is  worth  while,  and  how 
are  we  to  exact  this  showing  of  "fine  front" 
if  we  do  not  defray  the  cost  thereof? 

It  Is  difficult,  if  not  physiologically  un- 
sound, to  speak  about  the  mental  con- 
servation of  the  library  staff  apart  from 
its  physical  maintenance,  but  In  consider- 
ing the  former  I  would  invite'  your  atten- 
tion to  what  Mr.  P.  W.  Goldsbury  so  aptly 
calls  "the  recreation  through  the  senses." 
Mr.  Goldsbury  remarks,  "the  Importance 
of  our  understanding,  the  wide  range  of 
the  functions  of  our  senses,  the  influence 
of  our  surroundings  and  the  manner  In 
which  they  re-act  on  our  minds."  He  Il- 
lustrates his  point  by  quoting  the  saying 
that  "for  horses  the  hardest  road  out  of 
London  is  the  most  level  one.  There  are 
no  hills  to  climb  and  descend,  and  the 
tired  horse  has  no  chance  to  rest  one  set 
of  muscles  while  another  works.  Monot- 
ony produces  fatigue;  and  because  this 
particular  road  is  one  dead,  monotonous 
level,  more  horses  give  out  on  it  than  on 
any  other  road  leading  out  of  London." 
Irresistibly  the  moral  of  the  canvas  be- 
fore us  breaks  in  upon  our  Individual 
sense  of  self-preservation  and  our  respon- 
sibility for  the  welfare  of  others.  For 
economic  as  well  as  for  humanitarian 
reasons  it  behooves  us  to  so  apportion  the 


146 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


day's  work  that  one's  senses  are  exercised 
one  after  another  and  through  Interchange 
of  duties  and  tasks,  not  only  one's  body 
but  one's  mind  is  given  a  variety  of  exer- 
cise and  impressions.  The  rotation  of 
duties  every  two  hours  in  departments 
where  direct  service  with  the  public  Is 
given,  will,  I  believe,  be  found  to  afford 
some  relaxation  and  wholesome  change 
to  attendants  on  duty,  especially  so,  if  the 
change  afford  the  alternative  of  station- 
ary position  and  moving  about. 

We  all  know  how  one's  mind,  spirit,  aye, 
even  nerves  are  affected  by  objects  within 
our  vision,  the  feeling  of  depression  that 
benumbs  us  when  our  eyes  rest  on  dingy 
colors  and  ugly  outlines;  when  we  dwell  in 
gloomy  quarters  or  poorly  ventilated 
rooms.  Architects  and  librarians  will  find 
that  the  efficiency  of  the  human  machinery 
housed  within  the  library  walls  will  be 
maintained  at  its  best  if  beautiful  effects 
in  color  and  design  of  interior  decorations 
are  features  of  the  library  equipment,  if 
daylight  is  abundant,  furnishings  tasteful, 
atmospheric  conditions  invigorating — ^let 
us  sometimes  have  even  the  fragrance 
and  color-play  of  flowers.  The  capacity 
of  our  senses  for  higher  development  is 
nourished  by  the  stimulus  from  the  out- 
side world  which  brings  to  us,  often  un- 
consciously, mental  and  physical  refresh- 
ment and  recreation.  The  occasional  re- 
laxation in  the  day's  work  contributes  to  a 
reasonable  mental  and  physical  balance, 
even  the  occasional  conversation  during 
working  hours  may  well  be  tolerated,  cer- 
tainly any  undue  restriction  thereof  will 
do  more  harm  than  good. 

I  trust  that  in  siding  with  the  authority 
just  quoted  and  submitting  to  you  these 
considerations  I  will  not  be  charged  with 
implying  that  "work  is  to  take  secondary 
place."  To  the  contrary: — it  is  by  con- 
sideration of  the  little  things,  by  modu- 
lating adverse  factors,  by  dealing  in  a 
common  sense  manner  with  the  conditions 
surrounding  our  physical  and  mental  field 
of  daily  toll,  that  we  may  be  able  to  re- 
store the  energy  that  we  expend  and  not 
only  maintain,  but  increase,  our  efficiency. 


Our  stock  in  trade,  our  best  assets  in 
library  work  are  the  joy  of  the  work  and 
the  happiness  of  the  individual.  The  re- 
sponse from  each  one  of  us  to  the  call  for 
ever  more  faithful  and  efficient  service 
will  come  with  a  hearty  good  will  if  our 
strength  be  protected — our  altruistic  vis- 
ions given  time  and  leisure  to  go  wool- 
gathering. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  It  is  well  known  to 
all  of  us  that  the  Province  of  Ontario 
has  done  notable  library  work  in  recent 
years.  Under  the  guidance  of  a  corps  of 
educational  and  library  officials  this  work 
has  been  stimulated  and  intensified.  A 
great  aid  too  in  the  work  has  been  the 
Ontario  library  association,  with  a  mem- 
bership, organization,  meetings  and  com- 
mittee work  that  correspond  favorably 
with  any  other  library  organization  any- 
where. The  conference  has  not  up  to 
this  moment  had  an  opportunity  to  hear 
in  an  official  way  from  the  Ontario  library 
association,  which  must  of  course  be 
numbered  among  the  hosts  of  this  meet- 
ing. Dr.  C.  R.  Charteris,  its  president,  is 
in  the  room,  and  the  chair  is  very  cer- 
tain that  the  conference  will  not  be  con- 
tent without  a  few  words  of  greeting  from 
the  president  of  the  Ontario  library  asso- 
ciation. 

Dr.  Charteris  expressed  pleasure  at 
bringing  greetings  from  the  Ontario  li- 
brary association,  saying  they  were 
backed  by  about  one  hundred  representa- 
tives from  the  province.  He  was  sure 
that  all,  whether  trustees  or  librarians 
would  return  home  with  renewed  energy 
and  endeavor  to  increase  interest  in  li- 
brary work. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  As  this  point,  la- 
dies and  gentlemen,  the  program  natur- 
ally divides,  and  we  are  brought  to  that 
portion  of  it  prepared  by  the  Professional 
training  section  of  the  association.  The 
gavel  will  be  turned  over  to  the  chairman 
of  that  section,  Mr.  Matthew  S.  Dudgeon, 
secretary  of  the  Wisconsin  free  library 
commission. 

(Mr.  Dudgeon  takes  the  chair.) 

The    CHAIRMAN:     Those    of    us    who 


HADLEY 


147 


are  interested  directly  in  library  schools, 
as  well  as  those  of  you  who  are  more  in- 
directly, but  none  the  less  vitally,  inter- 
ested in  library  schools,  feel  that  we  are 
fortunate  that  the  next  subject,  "What 
library  schools  can  do  for  the  profession," 
should  be  presented  by  a  man  who  has 
not  only  seen  the  inside  of  library  schools 
as  a  student,  but  also,  as  secretary  of  a 
state  commission,  as  secretary  of  the 
American  Library  Association,  and  as  li- 
brarian of  a  public  library,  has  seen  the 
needs  of  the  library  and  has  seen  what 
the  capacities  of  the  library  school  grad- 
uate are  to  meet  those  needs.  I  will 
call  upon,  but  not  introduce,  Mr.  CHAL- 
MERS HADLEY,  librarian  of  the  Denver 
public  library. 

WHAT     LIBRARY     SCHOOLS     CAN     DO 
FOR   THE  PROFESSION 

For  nearly  thirty  years  an  invigorating 
influence  has  come  to  library  work  through 
the  library  schools.  During  that  time  hun- 
dreds of  young  men  and  women,  selected 
for  personal  and  educational  qualifications, 
have  been  given  training  in  the  mechanics 
of  library  work  and  have  been  placed  in 
touch  with  the  best  library  thought.  As 
a  result,  fewer  libraries  have  been  con- 
verted Intc  laboratories  for  experimental 
work  in  technique. 

The  library  schools  have  been  commended 
repeatedly  by  this  association  and  their 
services  are  too  obvious  for  comment.  In 
considering,  however,  what  they  can  do 
for  the  profession  today,  we  shall  assume 
the  role  of  the  devil's  advocate  and  en- 
deavor to  point  out  how  they  may  serve 
more  fully  in  what  they  are  doing  and 
what  they  should  do  that  perhaps  is  not 
being  done.  In  the  time  available  we 
can  do  little  more  than  summarize. 

The  first  library  school  was  founded  and 
conducted  in  connection  with  a  university 
library  and  for  several  years  at  least,  its 
curriculum  showed  the  strong  influence  of 
university  demands.  The  curricula  of  the 
later  schools  have  been  modified  some- 
what, but  changes  have  been  unimportant 
as   compared    to   the   traditions   retained. 


These  were  carried  from  the  pioneer  school 
to  those  established  later  with  certain  gen- 
eral basic  principles  which  doubtless  al- 
ways will  be  kept. 

For  several  years  a  feeling  has  been 
sensed,  although  vaguely  expressed  that 
changes  and  modifications  in  library  school 
courses  were  needed.  There  have  been 
convictions  that  the  schools  were  not  as 
closely  in  touch  with  certain  growing  activ- 
ities in  library  work  as  libraries  themselves 
were  with  growing  demands  and  new  fields 
open  to  them.  These  convictions  have 
been  most  pronounced  in  the  schools 
themselves.  As  stated  by  one  library 
school  director, — "In  some  way,  the  li- 
brary school  should  train  its  students  to 
meet  the  vital  demands  that  humanity 
makes  upon  all  who  come  regularly  in 
communication  with  people."  The  aim  of 
the  school  seems  more  clearly  realized 
than  the  means  of  attaining  it,  but  ef- 
forts are  seen  in  the  shifts  and  changes 
in  curricula.  In  preparing  its  students 
to  meet  the  vital  demands  that  humanity 
will  make,  it  is  evident  the  schools  have 
concluded  this  can  best  be  done  by  ad- 
ditions rather  than  eliminations  from 
courses  of  study.  The  training  conducted 
by  the  oldest  school  began  with  a  three 
months'  course  which  in  the  second  year 
was  increased  to  seven  months  and  then 
to  two  years.  Another  school,  typical  of 
several,  has  never  increased  the  time  pe- 
riod over  one  year,  but  has  so  increased 
the  work  required  that  in  eight  and  one- 
half  months,  including  vacations  and  holi- 
days, instruction  and  examinations  are 
given  in  forty-three  subjects,  a  minimum 
of  three  hundred  and  seventy-seven  hours 
of  practice  work  is  required,  and  a  trip  of 
six  hundred  miles  in  ten  days  is  taken 
when  some  fifteen  to  twenty  libraries  are 
inspected  and  reported  on. 

In  these  crowded  courses  of  study,  the 
schools  should  be  expected  by  the  pro- 
fession to  prevent  its  ideals  from  being 
smothered  in  the  stress  of  technical  work. 
The  usual  incentive  to  enter  library  work 
comes  from  a  love  of  books  but  this  love 
will  avail  little  if  it  be  unaccompanied  by 


148 


OTTAWA^CONFERENCE 


a  consuming  desire  that  the  community 
also  share  it.  Generalities  and  pseudo- 
sentiment  concerning  ideals  have  invited 
ridicule,  but  no  librarian,  however  reticent 
or  how  unrecognized  his  actuating  prin- 
ciples may  be,  can  carry  on  his  work  suc- 
cessfully without  following  the  vision 
which  vitalizes  his  professional  life.  From 
1S76  to  the  present  day,  this  association 
has  cherished  its  aims  and  our  schools  can 
do  no  greater  service  than  imparting  those 
guiding  principles  that  the  means  of  work 
may  not  become  the  end. 

No  institution  can  create  qualities  lack- 
ing in  a  student  and  library  schools  will 
concern  themselves  mainly  with  the  me- 
chanics of  library  work,  which  is  most 
diflacult  to  obtain  elsewhere.  But  this 
instruction  may  either  strengthen  or 
weaken  indispensable  qualities  for  libra- 
rianship  and  the  profession  reasonably  can 
expect  the  schools  to  foster  such.  Three 
related  qualities  which  should  be  devel- 
oped in  prospective  librarians  are:  a  sense 
of  proportion  in  library  work,  initiative 
and  judgment. 

When  we  consider  the  importance  of  a 
proper  sense  of  proportion,  should  we  not 
congratulate  ourselves  that  the  schools 
are  devoting  less  attention  to  a  particular 
handwriting  and  other  incidentals,  the  in- 
sistence on  which  always  seemed  to  be- 
little the  dignity  of  a  great  work.  Legi- 
bility in  a  medical  prescription  is  more 
important  than  on  a  catalog  card,  but 
medical  colleges  and  library  schools  alike 
can  concentrate  their  strength  on  more 
vital  needs. 

In  expecting  the  schools  to  develop 
initiative  and  good  judgment  in  a  student, 
it  is  not  suggested  that  students  be  en- 
couraged to  attempt  changes  in  systems 
of  classification,  cataloging  and  other  tech- 
nical processes  which  have  been  perfected 
by  the  best  library  thought  of  two  genera- 
tions. In  such  a  course  as  book  selec- 
tion, however,  after  general  principles  are 
presented,  cannot  students  be  thrown  more 
fully  on  their  own  judgment  and  their  prac- 
tice work  be  confined  to  evaluating  current 
publications?  Their  conclusions  could  then 


be  verified  by  comparison  with  selections 
in  the  order  department.  A  year's  work 
confined  to  sitting  in  judgment  on  books 
from  five  to  fifty  years  old,  when  these 
books  are  known  to  be  desirable  through 
their  presence  on  the  shelves,  deadens  in- 
itiative and  judgment  and  makes  routine 
of  what  should  be  one  of  the  refreshing 
pleasures  of  the  work. 

One  of  the  profession's  needs  today  is 
more  men — men  whose  abilities  would 
qualify  them  for  the  highest  positions  in 
any  work,  and  these  the  library  schools 
should  attract.  While  many  of  the  most 
useful  and  talented  library  workers  are 
women,  the  fact  remains  that  the  demand 
for  good  men  far  exceeds  the  supply,  yet 
we  find  an  astonishing  shortage  in  the 
schools.  Even  the  school  most  largely  at- 
tended by  men,  reports  a  decrease  since 
the  year  1903.  More  than  one  school  has 
attracted  so  few  that  the  presence  of  a 
man  is  noteworthy  and  there  seem  to  be 
schools  connected  with  universities  where 
hundreds  of  young  men  are  preparing  for 
professional  life,  that  have  yet  to  enroll 
one  man  student. 

Should  we  not  expect  the  schools  to 
supply  more  men?  Can  they  not  co-operate 
with  the  American  library  association  in 
presenting  the  claims  and  rewards  of  li- 
brarianship  to  young  men  in  the  universi- 
ties? Not  only  would  such  presentations 
interest  both  men  and  women,  but  they 
would  help  to  dispel  many  existing  me- 
diaeval conceptions  of  library  work  which 
still  survive.  Our  shortage  in  men  can- 
not be  due  entirely  to  the  financial  re- 
turns in  library  work.  The  average  sal- 
ary of  men  in  that  work  exceeds  the  aver- 
age in  several  crowded  professions,  and 
yet  our  greatest  rewards  are  not  in  money 
returns.  Men  may  regard  the  school 
courses  simply  as  means  to  an  end,  and 
if  so,  perhaps  the  means  could  be  made 
to  appeal  more  strongly  to  men.  It  is  rash 
in  these  days  to  compare  attributes  of 
the  masculine  and  feminine  mind,  but 
may  we  venture  to  say  women,  as  a  rule, 
have  more  patience  and  enjoyment  than 
men   in    work   requiring    sustained    atten- 


HADLEY 


149 


tion  to  details.  Do  not  library  school 
courses,  as  now  arranged,  appeal  largely 
to  the  house-wifely  instincts  and  cannot 
courses  be  devised  for  men  who  never  in- 
tend to  fill  library  positions  where  the 
exercise  of  these  instincts  will  ever  play 
so  important  a  part  in  their  work  as  will 
problems  of  administration  and  questions 
of  library  policy.  We  shall  admit  that 
all  students  should  have  sufficient  training 
in  cataloging  for  instance,  to  know  good 
or  poor  cataloging  when  met  with.  But 
personally  I  fail  to  see  why  a  man  des- 
tined for  administrative  work  should  neces- 
sarily have  to  do  expert  cataloging  In 
order  to  appreciate  it,  any  more  than  he 
would  first  have  to  write  a  book  before  his 
judgment  in  book  selection  for  his  library 
could  be  relied  on. 

During  the  last  ten  years  the  library  has 
undergone  phenomenal  development  in  its 
relations  with  other  educational  and  so- 
cial forces.  Today  we  must  co-operate 
not  only  with  the  public  school,  but  with 
the  social  settlement,  the  juvenile  court, 
and  various  other  special  municipal  activi- 
ties. The  profession  should  expect  the 
schools  to  provide  their  students  with  a 
working  knowledge  of  what  the  relations 
of  a  library  to  these  activities  should  be, 
what  methods  employed  bring  best  results 
and  what  some  of  the  problems  and  possi- 
bilities are  from  such  relations.  And  most 
important  of  all,  the  schools  should  be 
expected  to  provide  candidates  for  library 
work  with  a  proper  appreciation  at  least 
of  the  importance  of  the  library's  public 
relations  in  general.  No  mastery  of  tech- 
nique or  high  endeavor  greatly  avails  if 
the  library's  public  relations  be  not  han- 
dled intelligently  and  skillfully.  Rules 
and  regulations  are  but  the  written  creeds 
of  institutions  in  the  details  of  loaning 
books,  but  back  of  all  of  them  are  the 
great  unwritten  laws  and  principles  of 
procedure,  more  important  than  all  the 
printed  regulations  in  existence.  Great 
policies  in  public  relations  are  being  tried 
and  tested  today  and  light  on  them  should 
be  focused  through  the  schools  so  pros- 
pective  librarians    can    see    ahead    more 


clearly.  Questions  of  relations  with  the 
public  are  confronting  all  who,  in  the 
words  quoted  before,  have  to  meet  the 
vital  demands  that  come  through  constant 
communication  with  people.  In  the  Public 
service  magazine  of  April,  1912,  under  the 
heading  "Public  relations — the  vital  prob- 
lem," the  following  is  taken  from  the  presi- 
dent's address  before  the  Illinois  Associa- 
tion of  Gas  Manufacturers: 

"Slowly  probably,  but  surely,  the  ma- 
jority of  owners  and  operators  of  public 
utilities  are  coming  to  the  realization  that 
the  most  important, — ^the  most  vital  sub- 
ject with  which  they  have  to  deal  in  the 
management  of  their  properties  today,  is 
that  of  public  relations.  It  used  to  be 
that  the  man  who  could  put  the  most  gas 
in  the  holders  at  the  lowest  cost,  or  could 
generate  the  most  power  at  the  electric 
or  street  car  plant,  was  the  most  impor- 
tant in  the  whole  organization. 

"It  is  different  now.  The  basis  of  organi- 
zation has  changed  and  the  man  who  has 
made  a  study  of  public  relations — the  man 
who  can  create  and  conserve  the  public 
good  will  is  given  the  reins  of  control." 

But  should  a  man  wish  to  make  a  par- 
ticular study  of  the  library's  public  rela- 
tions before  he  is  compelled  to  assume 
the  responsibilities  accompanying  them, 
he  may  have  difficulty.  One  school  makes 
provision  for  special  students,  but  on  ac- 
count of  the  extra  work  each  additional 
student  makes  on  the  faculty,  it  is  often 
impossible  to  enter.  Admission  depends 
on  available  desk  room  and  on  condition 
that  the  regular  classes  are  not  so  large 
as  to  occupy  the  entire  time  of  the  faculty. 

The  theory  at  present  seems  to  be, — 
give  every  student  a  little  of  everything 
he  may  need,  as  the  process  of  forgetting 
what  he  will  not  use  is  easier  than  the 
work  of  acquiring  it  should  he  need  It. 
We  therefore  see  men  destined  for  con- 
trol of  large  libraries,  women  planning  for 
positions  as  catalogers  in  university  libra- 
ries, candidates  for  small  public  institu- 
tions, those  who  will  specialize  in  biblio- 
graphical work — all  of  them  differing  in 
natural    inclinations,    special    preliminary 


150 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


training  and  professional  aims  in  library 
life,  being  introduced  to  forty-three  phases 
of  library  work,  with  instruction  in  all 
of  them  varying  from  2  to  101  hours,  ac- 
cording to  the  subject,  with  at  least  377 
hours  of  practice  work  and  a  library  trip 
— through  all  of  which  the  student  emerges 
in  eight  and  one-half  months,  possibly 
somewhat  bewildered  by  the  process  but 
groping  for  the  ladder  up  which  he  is 
determined  to  climb. 

Cannot  the  schools  do  the  greatest  serv- 
ice to  the  student  and  to  the  profession 
by  abandoning  the  plan  of  putting  all  stu- 
dents through  the  same  square  hole?  In- 
stead of  giving  a  little  of  everything,  can- 
not the  school  give  much  of  what  the  stu- 
dent will  use  and  nothing  of  what  he  can 
dispense  with  or  what  can  be  got  easily 
outside  of  the  school?  Cannot  the  courses 
be  simplified  somewhat  to  permit  this? 
Entrance  examinations  are  conducted  early 
in  June  for  admission  to  the  school  in  Sep- 
tember, Cannot  a  study  of  the  history  of 
libraries,  the  history  of  books  and  print- 
ing, the  reading  of  library  literature  on 
publishing  houses  and  other  non-technical 
work  be  required  of  the  student  during  the 
intervening  three  months?  The  literature 
would  gladly  be  provided  by  libraries  over 
the  country  and  the  three  months'  reading 
and  intelligent  observation  in  the  library 
by  the  student  before  beginning  his  tech- 
nical training  would  be  advantageous. 
Three  months'  acquaintance  and  observa- 
tion of  the  student  by  the  librarian  would 
make  his  recommendations  valuable  to 
the  school. 

But  school  courses  as  at  present  out- 
lined cannot  be  made  sufficiently  flexible 
to  provide  specific  training  for  specific 
work.  Therefore,  cannot  the  schools  di- 
vide the  instructional  field  between  them 
and  concentrate  their  individual  efforts  on 
special  lines.  This  division  of  work  is 
done  most  successfully  by  libraries  in  large 
cities. 

Such  a  division  would  have  several  ad- 
vantages. A  man  loving  responsibility  and 
the  management  of  affairs  could  secure  a 
maximum  of  definite  training  for  admin- 


istrative work  and  a  minimum  of  work 
less  important  in  his  professional  career. 
A  woman  under  appointment  as  head  of  a 
small  public  library,  would  receive  a  max- 
imum of  training  for  this  work  and  a  min- 
imum in  the  methods  and  features  of  work 
in  a  college  library.  One  of  promise  as 
a  cataloger  would  receive  a  maximum  of 
technical  training  made  possible  through 
a  minimum  of  time  and  effort  required  in 
studying  the  problems  of  a  children's  li- 
brarian. 

The  objection  can  be  raised  that  neither 
the  school  nor  the  student  can  determine 
his  future  work  and  therefore  a  minimum 
number  of  hours  in  as  many  as  forty- 
three  subjects  is  preferable  as  a  founda- 
tion. But  in  these  general  courses  as  out- 
lined today,  there  is  a  great  preponderance 
of  work  in  certain  lines.  In  speaking  of 
the  time  devoted  to  cataloging,  one  school 
director  said,  "There  is,  however,  much 
reason  for  this,  as  a  large  number  of  the 
graduates  become  catalogers  and  many 
others  enter  positions  where  a  knowledge 
of  cataloging  is  essential." 

We  shall  agree  that  an  expert  knowl- 
edge of  cataloging  is  essential  in  many 
positions,  but  has  not  the  large  number 
of  graduates  from  this  school  who  have 
become  catalogers,  been  due  partly  at  least 
to  the  fact  that  twice  the  time  in  school 
was  devoted  to  this  work  than  to  any 
other,  the  aggregate  equaling  the  com- 
bined hours  of  seventeen  other  branches. 

The  fact  that  one's  special  training 
largely  determines  one's  field  of  work,  is 
seen  in  another  library  school  where  a 
maximum  of  children's  work  is  made  pos- 
sible by  a  minimum  in  some  other  depart- 
ments. The  result  is  that  of  the  148  grad- 
uates of  this  school,  107  were,  last  year, 
engaged  in  children's  work,  principally  as 
heads  of  departments.  The  remaining  41 
graduates  were  represented  in  other  fields 
of  library  work. 

The  division  of  the  field  between  the 
various  schools  would  have  another  ad- 
vantage of  the  student.  At  present,  a 
school's  geographical  location,  or  its  en- 
trance requirements  largely  decides  a  stu- 


BRETT 


151 


dent  in  selecting  a  school.  But  would  it 
not  be  better  if  the  student's  selection 
were  based  on  what  the  school  could  offer 
in  special  lines  of  work. 

It  may  be  thought  that  a  prospective  stu- 
dent lacks  the  self-knowledge  to  determine 
his  qualifications  for  special  work.  Many 
students  have  and  more  should  have  li- 
brary experience  before  schools  are  en- 
tered and  these  will  know  their  intentions 
and  qualifications.  Even  if  an  occasional 
mistake  were  made,  the  student  still  would 
have  instruction  in  the  various  lines  of 
library  work. 

In  the  school  referred  to  before,  the  41 
graduates  who  are  not  filling  positions  for 
which  special  training  was  given,  are  suc- 
cessfully occupying  positions  of  honor  and 
responsibility  in  other  library  fields. 

Again,  the  law  of  supply  and  demand 
makes  no  exception  to  library  work,  and 
with  a  division  of  the  field,  a  student  could 
receive  the  fullest  training  in  the  work 
for  which  there  was  the  greatest  demand. 

In  conclusion,  the  profession  should  not 
expect  the  schools  to  turn  out  finished 
products.  Librarianship  is  not  merely  a 
process.  It  is  also  a  habit  of  mind — an 
attitude  towards  public  affairs  which  seeks 
activity  through  the  medium  of  books. 
But  in  inculcating  the  principles  toward 
this  attitude,  the  profession  must  rely  and 
can  rely  with  confidence  on  the  schools. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  The  paper  just  present- 
ed, and  other  phases  of  the  subject,  will  be 
discussed  by  Mr.  William  H.  Brett  of  the 
Cleveland  public  library. 

Mr.  BRETT:  My  good  friend  Mr.  Hadley 
has  stated  so  clearly  the  problems,  the  pur- 
poses and  the  difllculties  of  the  library 
school,  and  I  am  so  heartily  in  accord  with 
so  much  that  he  has  said,  that  I  regret  that 
I  must  differ  from  some  of  his  conclusions. 
In  considering  these  questions  we  must  bear 
in  mind  that  a  majority  of  the  students  are 
In  schools  giving  only  a  one  year's  course, 
and  only  a  minority  are  so  fortunate  as  to 
be  able  to  attend  the  schools  giving  courses 
of  two  or  more  years.  Now,  the  problem 
and  the  difficulty  in  a  one  year  school  is  to 
arrange  a  course  of  study  which  shall  be 


best  for  students  entering  school  with 
widely  differing  preparation,  some  with, 
others  without,  library  experience,  and  with 
differing  aptitudes,  abilities,  ambitions  and 
plans  for  the  future.  To  arrange  a  course 
which  will  best  meet  the  needs  of  such  an 
aggregation  of  students  is  a  serious  prob- 
lem. 

The  criticisms  on  the  work  of  the  schools 
in  the  paper,  seem  to  be  mainly,  first,  that 
too  much  of  the  routine  work,  the  technical 
work,  is  unnecessary  for  those  who  may  be 
so  fortunate  in  the  future  as  to  fill  ad- 
ministrative or  other  important  positions, 
in  which  they  will  not  need  to  do  such  work, 
and  that  routine  work  of  that  sort  tends  to 
deaden  those  more  important  things,  sense 
of  proportion,  initiative,  judgment,  ability 
to  deal  with  the  larger  problems  of  life. 
While  I  fully  agree  as  to  the  importance  of 
these  things,  I  believe  there  is  little  occa- 
sion to  fear  that  a  solid  technical  course 
will  lessen  these  qualities  in  any  one  who 
is  so  fortunate  as  to  have  them  in  any 
eminent  degree.  It  seems  to  me  that  those 
qualities  are  rather  the  gift  of  God  to  their 
fortunate  possessors  than  the  work  of  the 
library  schools.  My  own  conviction  is  that 
whether  it  be  had  in  the  first  year  of  one  of 
the  larger  schools,  or  in  a  school  giving  a 
one  year  course,  a  definite,  solid  basis  of 
technical  training  is  an  absolutely  essential 
foundation  for  good  library  work.  I  believe 
that  any  specialization  in  library  work 
should  be  built  on  such  a  foundation,  just 
as  specialization  in  law,  in  medicine  and 
in  the  technical  professions,  is  based  on  a 
general  professional  training. 

We  should  have,  I  think,  in  our  library 
training,  the  opportunity  for  specializing 
when  the  students  are  ready  for  it,  but  I 
believe  that  whatever  position  one  is  to  oc- 
cupy, whatever  work  in  the  library  one  may 
be  fortunate  enough  to  do,  the  solid,  gen- 
eral training  of  one  year  in  a  library  school 
is  none  too  much  as  an  introduction  and 
basis.  So  that  I  believe  that  specialization 
in  a  one  year  course  is  not  desirable,  even 
if  it  were  practicable,  which  it  is  not  for  at 
least  two  reasons:  The  time  is  too  short 
and  the  expense  too  great.  Such  a  sugges- 
tion  reminds   me   of   something   which   I 


152 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


heard  President  Eliot  of  Harvard  say  one* 
upon  a  time  at  a  meeting  of  ichool  superin- 
tendents, on  the  subject  of  enriching  and 
broadening  the  course  in  grammar  schools. 
He  argued  in  a  very  strong  and  interesting 
way  for  greater  freedom  for  the  brighter 
child  to  pass  along  more  rapidly  by  means 
of  special  instruction.  It  was  answered  in 
various  ways  by  the  school  men,  but  to  me 
the  answer  was  very  clear,  namely,  that 
what  Harvard  university,  with  one  instruc- 
tor for  eight  or  nine  students,  could  do  is 
not  practicable  in  grade  schools  with  one 
instructor  for  fifty  students. 

So  any  attempt  to  specialize  in  a  one  year 
course  would  require  an  increase  of  cost 
for  instruction  greater  than  the  result  would 
be  likely  to  justify.  An  important  co-opera- 
tion has  been  at  various  times  suggested 
and  discussed  as  follows:  If  the  courses  of 
the  one  year  schools  could  be  so  closely  ap- 
proximated to  the  first  year's  work  in  the 
larger  schools  that  students  having  com- 
pleted the  one  year's  course  might  after- 
wards, if  able  to  meet  the  requirements, 
complete  their  work,  specializing,  if  they 
chose,  in  the  second  and  third  years'  work 
of  the  larger  schools,  this  would  seem  a 
perfectly  feasible  and  desirable  thing. 

Another  co-operation  which  I  think  would 
be  of  great  value  might  be  arranged  with 
the  colleges  if  they  would  give  credit  for 
work  in  the  library  school.  A  large  part  of 
the  work  in  the  library  school,  such  as  book 
selection,  the  subject  headings,  classifica- 
tions, the  use  of  reference  books,  and  some 
other  subjects,  have  a  definite  and  high  ed- 
ucational value,  equal  I  believe,  we  may 
fairly  say,  to  that  of  the  average  value  of  the 
college  curriculum.  If  the  college  would  be 
willing  to  give  credit  for  a  fair  share  of 
this  work,  the  student  might  by  some  over- 
time work,  graduate  from  college  and  from 
a  library  school  giving  one  year  courses, 
in  four  years,  or  by  adding  another  year, 
from  college  and  a  two  year  library  school. 
This  would,  of  course,  require  co-operation 
through  the  course.  In  one  instance  such  a 
co-operation  has  been  planned  and  will  be 
put  into  operation,  the  college  proposing 
to  give  a  credit  of  six-tenths  of  one  year  for 
one  year's  work  in  the  library  school.  The 


initiative  in  that  case  oamo  from  the  col- 
lege. It  Is  true  ai  we  all  know  that  we  are 
trying  to  secure  for  the  service  a  prepara- 
tion in  college  and  in  library  school  which 
is  out  of  proportion  to  the  salaries  paid. 
This  is  the  inevitable  condition  of  a  new 
profession.  Adequate  recognition  will  not 
be  given  to  a  profession  until  it  has  by  long 
service  demonstrated  its  importance,  nor 
will  individual  members  receive  adequate 
salaries  until  they  prove  their  efficiency. 
This  is  as  true  in  the  library  as  it  Is  In 
business.  In  business  salaries  are  usually 
based  on  the  proven  value  of  services  al- 
ready rendered.  No  young  man  in  a  mer- 
cantile house  is  likely  to  receive  a  salary 
in  1913  larger  than  he  has  shown  his  ability 
to  earn  in  1912.  In  other  words,  the  man 
or  the  woman  who  grows  in  business  rela- 
tions must  keep  the  work  ahead  of  the  sal- 
ary. Keep  the  work  away  beyond  the  com- 
pensation and  the  compensation  will  fol- 
low It  along  even  though  it  may  not  over- 
take it. 

To  bring  about  the  best  results  the  library 
schools  should  co-operate  with  each  other 
and  with  the  colleges  to  bring  up  and  main- 
tain high  standards  and  to  insist  on  a  good, 
solid,  general  and  technical  foundation,  up- 
on which  specialization  may  be  built. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  I  am  not  sure  but 
that  there  should  have  been  a  second  pa- 
per, upon  the  subject  of  "What  the  li- 
brary schools  can  not  do  for  the  profes- 
sion." I  wonder  if  it  has  ever  occurred 
to  you  that  a  medical  school  confines  a 
student  for  four  years  before  he  is  per- 
mitted to  go  at  large.  I  wonder  if  you 
have  ever  put  to  yourselves  the  question, 
how  many  medical  students,  in  their  first, 
or  second,  or  third,  or  fourth  year  after 
graduation,  you  have  been  ready  to  em- 
ploy in  vital  matters  in  your  own  fam- 
ily. I  am  quite  sure  that  were  any  of  the 
young  ladies  here  seeking  to  employ  a 
lawyer  in  a  breech  of  promise  suit  against 
any  of  the  young  men,  they  would  not  go 
to  the  law  graduate  in  the  first  year  of 
his  experience.  It  seems  to  me,  there- 
fore, that  it  Is  not  surprising  at  all  that 
we  do  not  find  in  the  library  school  grad- 
uate, during  the  early  years  of  his  actual 


ANDERSON 


153 


work,  all  the  busineBs  ability,  the  diplo- 
matic qualities  and  the  personality,  book 
knowledge  and  tact  that  we  might  expect. 
We  cannot  do  everything  in  one  year,  I 
think  we  all  agree.  What  we  do  wish  to 
know,  and  what  we  welcome  very  defi- 
nitely, I  am  sure,  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  schools,  is  that  you  let  us  know, 
in  any  way  possible,  what  we  can  do  that 
has  not  been  done. 

The  discussion  will  be  carried  on  fur- 
ther by  Mr.  Edwin  H.  Anderson,  of  the 
New  York  public  library. 

Mr.  E.  H.  ANDERSON:  I  find  myself 
in  such  general  agreement  with  Mr.  Had- 
ley's  excellent  paper  that  I  fear  I  can  do 
little  to  stir  up  interest  by  discussion. 

His  point  that  in  the  first  library  school 
the  infiuence  of  the  university  library  was 
too  marked  and  that  university  demands 
have  had  too  much  influence  on  the  curri- 
cula of  all  schools,  seems  to  me  well  taken. 
It  is  only  natural  that  it  should  be  so;  but 
since  most  of  the  schools  are  now  directly 
connected  with,  or  closely  related  to,  pub- 
lic libraries,  I  think  their  courses  of  in- 
struction are  more  and  more  losing  the 
marks  of  university  influence.  This  in- 
fluence should  still  hold  with  the  schools 
connected  with  universities.  But  these 
schools,  it  seems  to  me,  should  frankly 
specialize  and  prepare  students  for  uni- 
versity library  work. 

Mr.  Hadley  very  properly  emphasizes 
the  need  for  more  men  students  in  the 
schools.  I  am  sure  all  the  existing  schools 
are  glad  to  have  as  many  good  men  as 
they  can  get.  The  difficulty  seems  to  be 
to  find  enough  men  of  the  right  sort  who 
are  sufficiently  interested  in  library  work 
to  take  a  course  of  formal  training  for  it. 
If  the  schools  could,  as  Mr.  Hadley  sug- 
gests, cooperate  with  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  in  presenting  the  claims 
and  rewards  of  librarianship  to  young  men 
In  the  universities,  I  think  the  results 
would  justify  the  effort.  I  would  suggest 
therefore  that  the  A.  L.  A.  Committee  on 
professional  training  consider  this  sugges- 
tion and  arrange  to  act  upon  it  as  soon  as 
possible.     There  Is  a  crying  demand  for 


mor«  men  from  the  schools.  The  only 
remedy  for  the  present  condition  is  to  in- 
duce more  men  of  the  right  sort  to  enter 
the  schools.  Mr.  Hadley  has  suggested 
one  method  of  accomplishing  this.  An- 
other and  more  direct  method  is  for  li- 
brarians themselves  to  call  to  the  atten- 
tion of  young  men  of  the  right  sort  the 
opportunities  which  the  schools  open  to 
them  for  professional  library  work.  I 
think  the  heads  of  the  schools  will  agree 
with  me  when  I  say  that  in  general  their 
best  students  are  those  who  are  sent  to 
them  by  librarians.  Now  if  these  same  li- 
brarians would  make  a  special  point  of 
urging  upon  educated  young  men  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  school  training,  both  the 
schools  and  the  profession  would  profit  by 
it.  Nothing  is  so  effective  as  personal  sug- 
gestion and  explanation;  and  a  librarian 
who  likes  his  work  should  have  little  dif- 
ficulty in  arousing  the  interest  of  univer- 
sity men  of  his  acquaintance  who  are  not 
attracted  by  the  older  professions. 

Mr.  Hadley  seems  to  think  that  much 
of  the  instruction  in  the  schools  at  present 
is  wasted  upon  one  "destined"  for  admin- 
istrative work.  The  difficulty  is  to  tell 
when  a  man  or  a  woman  is  destined  for 
work  of  this  sort.  The  inclination  for  it 
is  not  always  accompanied  by  the  neces- 
sary qualifications.  How  are  we  to  de- 
termine who  is  destined  for  administrative 
work  and  who  for  work  of  another  sort? 
A  student  might  enter  a  library  school  ex- 
pecting to  prepare  for  administrative 
duties  and  find  after  a  term's  study  that 
he  preferred,  or  was  better  fitted  for,  some 
other  kind  of  work.  Personally  I  can  say 
that  few  of  the  things  I  studied  at  the  li- 
brary school  have  proved  useless  to  me  in 
administrative  work. 

Mr.  Hadley  makes  one  suggestion  which 
has  often  been  under  discussion  in  library 
school  alumni  associations,  and  which  I 
happen  to  know  was  very  seriously  con- 
sidered  by  the  faculty  of  one  library 
school  some  five  years  ago.  This  sugges- 
tion Is  that  the  schools  provide  courses  of 
Instruction  In  general  library  administra- 
tion for  those  who  look  forward  to  admin- 


164 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


istrative  positions.  Most  of  the  schools 
have  lectures  each  year  from  librarians  of 
various  sorts  of  libraries — large,  small, 
public,  university,  etc., — in  which  they  are 
asked  to  tell  in  general  terms  how  their 
libraries  are  administered.  The  question 
is,  can  the  schools  go  further  than  this? 
Is  there  a  science  of  administration  which 
can  be  taught?  The  qualities  needed  for 
administrative  work,  library  or  other,  are 
the  gift  of  the  gods,  not  of  the  schools. 
The  schools  can  give  the  students  a  first- 
hand knowledge  of  the  various  phases  of 
library  work,  and  this  is  important.  But 
they  cannot  give  breadth  of  view  to  a 
mind  naturally  narrow;  nor  can  they  en- 
dow the  student  with  personal  force  and 
poise,  tact,  savoir  faire,  sympathy,  a  sense 
of  justice, — in  a  word  with  gumption.  Now 
a  course  of  formal  instruction  in  admin- 
istrative gumption  is  one  that  no  librarian 
with  any  gumption  would  attempt  to  give. 
The  whole  school  of  life  is  devoted  to  this 
course,  and  few  degrees  are  conferred.  He 
would  be  a  god-like  instructor  indeed  who 
could  impart  to  his  students  the  gifts  of 
the  gods  as  developed  and  perfected  by  the 
great  school  of  experience.  Anything  less 
than  the  thunders  of  Sinai  would  be  an  in- 
adequate introduction  to  such  a  course. 
What  I  am  trying  to  emphasize  is  that  the 
essential  qualities  for  administrative  work 
are  too  general  and  intangible  to  be  taught 
formally  in  any  kind  of  school.  The 
schools  cannot  give  their  students  a 
knowledge  and  love  of  books;  these,  for 
the  most  part,  they  must  bring  with  them. 
Neither  can  they  give  them  a  knowledge  of 
life.  Are  they  not,  therefore,  by  the  very 
nature  of  the  case,  restricted  to  teaching 
chiefly  the  technique,  I  had  almost  said 
the  mechanics,  of  library  work?  A  knowl- 
edge of  the  technique  is  necessary  to  the 
administrator;  but  the  ability  to  make  the 
best  use  of  this  technique  is  a  natural  en- 
dowment developed  by  experience  and  en- 
vironment through  the  course  of  years. 
Have  we  any  right  to  expect  a  library 
school  to  provide  more  than  a  small  part 
of  that  experience  and  environment?  Are 
we  not  asking  of  the  library  schools  what 


no  other  profession  expects  from  its  spec- 
ial schools?  Do  we  get  our  bankers  from 
business  colleges,  or  the  managers  and 
presidents  of  our  railroads  from  schools  of 
engineering? 

Some  one  has  said  that  knowledge  is  the 
material  with  which  wisdom  builds.  The 
library  schools  can  impart  a  knowledge  of 
library  methods.  They  can  hardly  teach 
the  wise  use  of  those  methods.  They  can 
suggest  and  illustrate  it;  but  courses  of 
instruction  in  administrative  wisdom  are,  I 
fear,  an  iridescent  dream. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  This  subject  is  open 
to  discussion  if  there  is  any  one  who  feels 
moved  to  contribute  to  our  wisdom. 

Mrs.  ELMENDORF:  Mr.  Chairman,  may 
I  put  in  one  straw  from  the  outside  world 
to  show  that  other  technical  concerns  are 
taking  up  this  point  of  view  also.  One 
of  the  great  universities  is  about  to  es- 
tablish a  technical  school.  They  have 
called  to  the  aid  of  the  faculty  three  men 
very  high  in  the  technical  world,  all  of 
them  having  attained  great  practical  suc- 
cess. Those  three  men  have  agreed  in 
recommending  to  the  faculty  that  they  re- 
duce the  technical  hours  in  the  schools, 
as  compared  to  other  technical  schools, 
and  devote  more  time  to  the  humanities. 

Dr.  BOSTWICK:  May  I  say  just  a 
word  from  the  standpoint  of  one  who  is 
interested  in  the  product  of  the  library 
school,  as  making  use  of  that  product? 
I  do  not  think  this  point  has  been  al- 
luded to  at  all  this  morning,  which  is  my 
excuse  for  Intruding  it  upon  you  for  a  mo- 
ment. 

I  want  to  emphasize  the  value  of  li- 
brary schools  as  selectors,  which  it  seems 
to  me  is  very  great,  transcending  even, 
perhaps,  their  great  value  as  trainers.  I 
know  a  great  many  persons  who  use  li- 
brary school  students,  who,  if  they  were 
asked  why  they  preferred  one  library 
school  to  another,  would  say  It  was  not 
because  the  training  in  that  school  was 
so  much  better,  or  because  the  instruc- 
tors in  that  school  were  so  much  better, 
but  simply  because  they  always  got  bet- 
ter people  from  that  library  school.  Why? 
Because  those  persons,  who  exist  In  great 


RATHBONE 


155 


numbers,  who  are  congenitally  unfit  to 
become  librarians,  are  not  allowed  to  get 
into  such  schools,  and,  if  they  do,  they 
are  not  allowed  to  graduate.  Conse- 
quently, if  you  choose  graduates  of  those 
particular  schools  you  are  always  sure  of 
getting  good  persons.  Therefore,  I  re- 
gard the  selective  function  of  a  library 
school  as  extremely  valuable.  No  matter 
how  good  the  training  you  give,  no  mat- 
ter how  good  the  instructors  you  have, 
if  you  allow  people  in  your  schools  who 
are  unfitted  for  library  work,  your  prod- 
uct will  be  worth  little. 

Miss  RATHBONE:  The  cap  that  Mr. 
Hadley  has  constructed,  fits  so  well  that  I 
could  not  forbear  putting  it  on.  I  want  to 
assure  you  all,  however,  that  its  conical 
shape  is  not  the  result  of  inheritance  but 
of  evolution.  The  curriculum  of  the  par- 
ticular school  I  have  the  honor  to  be  asso- 
ciated with  has  been  a  growth,  and  a 
growth  very  largely  made  up  from  sug- 
gestions, the  solicited  suggestions,  of  its 
own  graduates  who  have  worked  in  the 
library  field.  Subjects  have  been  added, 
others  have  been  omitted,  others  have 
been  reduced  in  time  given  to  them,  ac- 
cording as  our  students  have  found  in 
their  practical  work  that  they  needed 
things  they  did  not  get,  or  that  certain 
things  that  we  gave  them  were  not  of  the 
greatest  practical  value.  Again  and  again 
we  have  sent  out  circular  letters,  and  have 
requested  in  personal  interviews,  the 
frankest  possible  criticism  from  our  grad- 
uates of  the  preparation  that  they  re- 
ceived in  the  school.  I  have  seen  a  great 
many  such  letters,  and  have  talked  with 
a  great  many  people.  I  must  confess, 
however,  that  I  have  never  yet  had  the 
criticism  from  any  of  the  graduates  that 
too  much  time  was  devoted  in  the  school 
curriculum  to  cataloging.  That  criticism 
may  come,  and  when  it  does  we  shall  be 
glad  to  meet  it,  but  I  have  not  yet  hap- 
pened to  receive  it. 

One  other  point  I  want  to  make,  and  that 
is  that  I  think  the  libraries  depend  upon 
library  schools  for  general  assistants. 
That  is  one  reason  why  a  one  year  school. 


I  think,  should  give  all  of  its  students  ex- 
perience in  all  of  the  different  departments 
of  library  work,  because,  though  after  they 
go  out  into  the  field,  some  become  cat- 
alogers,  some  children's  librarians,  some 
reference  librarians,  and  a  few,  adminis- 
trators of  large  libraries,  the  average  grad- 
uate that  goes  out,  three-fourths  of  our  prod- 
uct certainly  goes  at  first  into  a  public  li- 
brary as  a  general  assistant.  The  heads  of 
such  libraries  want  assistants  who  can  go 
one  week  into  the  children's  room;  who,  if  a 
shortage  occurs  in  the  reference  room, 
can  be  put  there;  and  if  in  the  meantime 
the  work  has  piled  up  in  the  cataloging 
department,  can  be  transferred  from  the 
children's  room,  or  the  reference  depart- 
ment, to  that  department.  I  think  that 
kind  of  all-round  Instruction,  and  the  flex- 
ibility that  results  from  it.  Is  one  of  the 
most  valuable  assets  that  the  trained  li- 
brarian can  take  with  him  into  general 
library  work. 

Dr.  HILL:  Mr.  Chairman,  in  the  first 
place,  I  would  like  to  ask  Mr.  Brett  if  he 
will  give  us  the  name  of  the  college 
which  is  allowing  the  library  course  to 
be  taken  as  part  of  the  rating. 

Mr.  BRETT:  It  is  the  College  for 
Women  of  the  Western  Reserve  univer- 
sity of  Cleveland,  and  the  school  that  co- 
operates with  it  is  the  Western  Reserve 
library  school. 

Dr.  HILL:  In  the  second  place,  Mr. 
Chairman,  the  note  in  Mr.  Hadley's  pa- 
per which  attracted  and  arrested  my  at- 
tention, related  to  men,  naturally.  Now, 
I  want  to  say  that  as  mere  men  we  are 
not  afraid  of  anything,  we  are  not  afraid 
that  we  are  going  to  be  crowded  out  of 
the  library  profession  by  our  women 
friends,  but  we  are  looking  around  to  see 
that  we  do  not  get  crowded  too  much; 
and  this  subject  of  bringing  into  the  pro- 
fession more  men  and  better  men — al- 
though I  would  say  to  the  ladies  that  there 
are  a  good  many  good  men  among  us 
still  available, — was  taken  up  by  the 
American  Library  Institute  last  fall,  and 
presented  very  clearly  by  Dr.  Dewey.  He 
said  in  a  paper  which  was  submitted  to 
the  Institute  that,  it  was  the  duty  of  the 


156 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


American  Library  Association  to  inter- 
est th«  universities  so  that  th»  work  of 
our  association  might  b«  brought  to  th« 
attention  of  th«  students,  and  that  we 
ought  to  arrange  to  have  lectures  given 
by  librarians  at  the  various  universities. 
I  became  interested  in  this  subject  and 
last  winter,  talking  with  a  president  of 
one  of  the  Eastern  universities,  asked  if 
such  lectures  would  be  acceptable.  He 
said  that  he  would  be  very  glad  as  presi- 
dent of  that  university  to  extend  an  invi- 
tation to  the  library  association  to  send 
representatives  there  to  place  before  stu- 
dents the  advantages  of  the  library  pro- 
fession, and  to  carry  on  a  course  which 
would  enable  interested  students  to  di- 
rect their  work  along  library  lines.  He 
said,  further,  that  he  had  no  doubt  but 
what  every  college  and  university  in  the 
land  would  welcome  such  co-operation. 
Such  being  the  feeling  of  the  president 
of  one  university,  it  seems  to  me  that  it 
is  time  for  the  committee  named  by  Mr. 
Anderson  to  take  some  active  measure 
to  have  the  country  divided  in  such  way 
that  librarians  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
various  universities  will  arrange  to  lec- 
ture before  the  students.  I  think  the  mat- 
ter should  be  given  immediate  attention. 
Miss  KELSO:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have 
made  a  study  also  this  last  winter,  not 
with  college  presidents,  but  with  certain 
members  of  the  graduating  class  of  Co- 
lumbia university  and  Harvard  university. 
In  the  dogma  expressed  here  it  seems  to 
me  you  treat  the  university  graduate,  who 
has  had  four  years'  earnest  study,  as  if 
he  were  in  kilts,  and  the  girl  in  short 
skirts.  Those  men  and  women  have 
wrested  from  the  college  tradition  the 
right  to  say  what  they  are  going  to  do,  in 
their  junior,  if  not  their  sophomore  year, 
and  to  come  out  after  their  graduation 
from  economical  and  sociological  courses 
and  to  be  presented  to  the  curriculum  you 
have,  is  little  short  of  absurd.  Go  to  the 
professors  at  the  head  of  the  economics 
departments  of  our  universities,  men  or 
women,  and  they  will  tell  you  that  their 
students  have  known  for  two  years  what 
they  were  going  to  be.     I  know  several 


undergraduates  that,  before  their  aradu- 
atlon,  had  opportunities  of  national  Im- 
portance, as  executive  secretaries,  to  go 
in  and  organize  a  national  office.  To  ask 
those  fellows,  who  have  been  taking  vol- 
unteer practice  work,  as  numbers  of  them 
do,  in  health  department  work,  in  tubercu- 
losis and  a  thousand  and  one  things,  to 
go  and  take  up  this  library  school  cur- 
riculum,— they  will  not.  Bring  an  under- 
graduate who  is  in  his  senior  year  to 
talk  to  you;  go  to  the  professor  at  the 
head  of  one  of  these  departments  and  ask 
him  to  send  you  a  young  woman  or  a 
young  man  to  talk  to  you  about  what  the 
aims  of  their  classes  and  fraternities 
have  been. 

I  do  believe  there  is  a  way  out,  and 
that  is  to  admit  frankly  that  the  library 
schools  can  select,  as  Dr.  Hill  has  well 
said,  and  send  students  to  the  libraries 
for  the  trying-out  process,  and  above  all 
to  have  the  library  association  show  very 
much  more  interest  and  attention  to 
what  the  library  schools  are  doing.  And 
I  can  say  to  you,  as  an  old  librarian,  that 
you  are  reaping  what  it  seemed  to  me 
was  a  whirlwind  sowed  some  years  ago. 
Tor  a  long  time  past,  and  when  we  first 
had  the  schools,  we  shut  the  door  on  the 
possible  entrance  of  politics  into  libra- 
ries,— a  very  serious  menace,  as  we  all 
know.  We  all  rushed  forward  and  talked 
about  the  library  school,  and  if  a  com- 
munity had  a  man  or  woman  who  could 
fill  the  place,  who  had  special  literary 
ability,  had  been  well  educated  and  was 
proved  to  have  some  executive  ability,  we 
all  roared,  "You're  lost  if  you  don't  take 
some  one  who  has  gone  through  a  library 
school  training."  You  know  we  did.  And 
the  poor  old  committee  succumbed  and 
got  a  library  school  candidate.  We  can- 
not prepare  librarians  unless  we  relate 
them  to  the  great  field  of  human  en- 
deavor and  social  affairs  to  which  the 
library  belongs,  if  it  is  used  in  a  proper 
way,  and  we  must  find  other  means  in 
the  library  association  to  evolve  some  sys- 
tem to  afford  the  trying-out  process. 

Mr.  WALTER:  Although  we  get  at 
the  matter  from  different  points  of  view, 


WALTER 


157 


[  am  quit*  certain  that  Miss  Rathbone, 
Miss  Kelso  and  I  arc  in  exact  accord  on 
some  points.  One  is  in  tlie  recognition 
of  the  real  responsibility  for  the  curricula 
of  library  schools.  The  library  school 
courses  are  what  they  are  because  the 
libraries  want  them  so.  Miss  Kelso  may 
probably  not  be  quite  so  familiar  with  the 
special  demands  of  libraries  as  those  who 
are  on  library  school  faculties  are.  A 
great  demand  exists  at  present  along  two 
lines.  The  most  frequent  demand,  I 
think.  Is  for  college  or  university  gradu- 
ates, who  are  masters  of  every  branch  of 
library  technic,  and  who  possess  as  well 
a  wide  and  extensive  knowledge  of  all 
subjects,  which  will  make  them  valuable 
in  varied  lines  of  work  and  in  different 
departments;  in  other  words,  universal 
specialists.  This  demand  comes  repeat- 
edly from  the  smaller  libraries  and  not  in- 
frequently from  the  larger  ones.  The  li- 
brary school  is  forced  in  many  ways  to 
make  a  concession  to  that  demand  and  to 
teach  many  things  rather  than  a  few  spe- 
cialties. I  am  not  sure  that  the  conces- 
sion is  always  as  great  or  as  harmful  as 
has  been  asserted,  and  one  reason  why  I 
am  not  so  sure  of  this  is  because  I  have 
been  studying  the  curricula  of  several 
schools  of  philanthropy  (whose  practical 
character  has  just  been  commended)  in 
order  to  make  some  improvements  in  a 
proposed  course  in  the  institution  with 
which  I  am  connected,  and  the  differ- 
ences in  the  general  plans  of  the  two 
kinds  of  schools  are  so  far  from  being 
radical  that  we  have  been  able  to  take 
over  many  of  their  specialized  ideas  and 
put  them  in  our  curriculum,  with  so  little 
change  that  I  defy  you  to  find  where  the 
joints  are. 

Another  demand  is  for  real  specialists 
to  put  in  charge  of  special  departments 
of  large  libraries.  I  believe  that  demand 
is  growing.  But  you  must  remember,  if 
you  are  going  to  have  them,  that  two 
things  are  necessary.  If  you  want  special- 
ists trained  in  different  subjects,  you  must 
give  them  time  to  get  their  training  and 
you  must  pay  them  enough  to  attract  them 
and  to  keep  them  when  you  get  them. 


In  an  •ngintering  school  you  have 
lengthy  courses  full  of  engineering  tech- 
nic, because  you  demand  engineers. 
No  good  school  would  cut  out  that  tech- 
nic simply  because  you  needed  an  engi- 
neering student  in  your  technology  de- 
partment and  couldn't  afford  to  wait  or 
to  pay  for  a  graduate.  Why  should  we 
have  to  stop  doing  what  experience,  and 
the  experience  of  years,  has  proved  nec- 
essary, what  most  of  the  people  who  go 
out  of  the  library  schools  say  is  neces- 
sary— why  should  we  cut  out  general  sub- 
jects simply  because  of  a  temporary 
or  limited  demand  for  short-cut  semi- 
specialists?  You  do  not  give  time  to 
prepare  specialists.  You  are  prone  to 
send  in  a  letter  on  Saturday  saying  you 
must  have  a  man  in  charge  of  a  special 
department  next  Tuesday,  that  he  must 
be  a  graduate  of  one  of  the  best  techni- 
cal schools  of  the  country  and  that  he 
must  also  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
library  technic.  At  present  I  do  not 
believe  there  is  enough  demand  for  those 
people  to  attract  many  of  them,  because, 
these  specialists,  in  most  cases,  are 
obliged  to  come  into  general  library  work 
and  to  keep  in  general  work  until  the  spe- 
cial positions  for  which  they  are  particu- 
larly fitted  become  vacant  or  are  created. 

I  believe  thoroughly  in  the  missionary 
spirit.  I  believe  every  librarian  ought  to 
have  in  him  the  spirit  of  St.  Francis,  to 
enable  him,  if  need  be,  to  go  barefoot  and 
get  along  with  almost  no  food  at  all,  but 
I  do  not  believe  in  the  right  of  the  pub- 
lic to  demand  that  he  work  for  a  salary 
so  small  that  he  must  wear  the  habit  and 
eat  the  food  of  St.  Francis.  If  you  ex- 
pect to  find  these  exceptional  men  you 
must  pay  for  them  and  have  places  ready 
for  them.  You  cannot  expect  the  impos- 
sible. The  question  of  technic  is  a  seri- 
ous one  but  it  is  not  going  to  be  solved 
entirely  by  omissions  and  short  cuts. 

I  might  also  say  that  the  institution 
with  which  I  happen  to  be  connected  de- 
pends very  largely,  so  far  as  the  changes 
in  its  curriculum  are  concerned,  on  the 
suggestions  of  the  people  who  have  gone 
out  from  the  school  and  who  are  working 


158 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


in  libraries,  and  it  often  plans  its  courses 
in  accordance  with  what  they  suggest,  as 
the  result  of  their  own  experiences.  What 
is  more, — and  I  am  not  speaking  for  our- 
selves only,  for  similar  conditions  exist 
iu  other  schools — in  this  way  we  have 
(among  others)  the  experience  of  more 
than  thirty  men  and  women  who  are  at 
the  head  of  libraries  in  cities  of  the 
United  States  in  either  the  first  or  the 
second   class. 

Mr.  JOSEPHSON:  It  may  well  be  that 
the  present  library  schools  cannot  train 
both  librarians  and  assistants;  and  per- 
haps, in  consequence,  we  must  have  two 
kinds  of  school,  one  school  for  assistants 
and  one  for  librarians.  However  that 
may  be,  either  school  must  teach  bibliog- 
raphy, and  by  that  I  mean  the  knowledge 
of  the  records  of  books  and  the  art  of  de- 
scribing books,  so  that  the  one  who  reads 
the  description  may  know  what  the  book 
is.  Description  includes,  of  course,  not 
only  cataloging  but  classification  and  an- 
notation as  well. 

I  would  like  to  supplement  Mr.  Strohm's 
paper  in  one  particular.  I  think  it  would 
be  well  if  chief  librarians  would  do  some- 
thing to  encourage  the  continuation  of 
professional  studies  among  the  members 
of  their  staffs,  particularly  among  the 
younger  members,  both  those  who  come 
from  library  schools  and  those  who  do 
not.  We  cannot  expect  them  to  study  too 
hard  after  a  full  day's  work,  but  I  think 
in  most  cases  we  would  find  that  such  en- 
couragement would  be  appreciated.  The 
assistants  who  are  ambitious  to  go  for- 
ward would  be  willing  to  spend  a  couple 
of  hours  a  week  on  further  studies,  and 
it  might  not  be  entirely  out  of  the  way  for 
the  library  to  allow  some  time  for  such 
work. 

Mr.  GEORGE:  It  seems  to  me  that  in 
our  discussion  to-day  a  means  of  practical 
relief  has  been  missed  by  each  of  the 
speakers,  and  that  is  that  the  ordinary, 
customary  method  of  universities  be 
adopted  by  these  library  schools,  and  in- 
stead of  attempting  in  a  year's  time  to  is- 
sue a  diploma  of  doubtful  value  at  best, 
as    representing    anything    in    particular. 


they  should  adopt  the  certificate  plan, 
and  allow  their  course  to  extend  over  a 
sufficient  time  to  guarantee  something; 
have  their  courses  divided  up  in  such  a 
way  that  a  certificate  will  represent 
something  definite  to  those  of  us  who  want 
to  use  library  school  students.  It  seems 
to  me  in  that  way  we  can  get  some  prac- 
tical value  from  the  schools  and  get  ef- 
ficient aids  and  assistants  in  the  library 
service.  The  great  difiiculty  about  the 
whole  thing  is  that  most  library  school 
graduates  lack  a  sufficient  background  and 
there  is  not  time  in  one  year's  course, 
naturally,  for  them  to  acquire  anything  of 
that  kind,  or  an  experience  that  can  be  of 
practical  value  to  us.  I  merely  throw 
this  out  as  a  practical  hint,  because  I  have 
been  waiting  for  it  to  come  from  some  of 
the  speakers.  By  having  a  certificate 
covering  part  of  the  ground,  either  cata- 
loging or  some  other  branch  of  library 
service  undoubtedly  we  would  be  per- 
fectly willing  to  recognize  that  as  an 
authoritative  guarantee  from  the  schools, 
rather  than  a  diploma  that,  as  I  say,  is 
doubtful  at  best  as  representing  anything, 
because  of  the  varying  courses  and  re- 
quirements of  the  different  schools. 

At  the  conclusion  of  this  discussion  the 
session   adjourned. 

FOURTH  GENERAL  SESSION 
(Monday,   July   1,    9:30   a.   m.) 

Dominion  Day  Program 
Dr.  James  W.  Robertson,  C.M.G.,  took 
the  chair,  on  behalf  of  the  Ottawa  local 
committee,  and  called  the  meeting  to  or- 
der. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  Your  president  has 
in  her  genial  and  successful  way  insisted 
that  the  acting  chairman  of  the  local  com- 
mittee should  preside  on  this  occasion. 

Of  most  men  one  might  say  when  they 
are  forty-five  they  are  middle-aged  and 
mature.  This  Is  the  forty-fifth  anniver- 
sary of  the  birth  of  this  Dominion;  and 
Canada  is  still  but  a  youth,  a  sturdy,  grow- 
ing, promising  youth  among  the  nations. 
She  Is  a  people  of  great  heritages,  of 
lofty  aspirations  and  of  fine  Ideals,  and 


LAURIER 


159 


she  has  in  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  a  son 
worthy  of  herself.  He  will  speak  to  us 
this  morning. 

SIR  WILFRID  LAURIER:*  Though  I 
have  no  claim  whatever  to  be  here  on 
this  present  occasion,  still  if  my  presence 
on  this  platform  can  further  convince  our 
American  visitors  how  welcome  they  are 
amongst  us,  I  can  assure  them  that  I 
would  have  traveled  many  and  many  a 
long  mile  to  swell  the  greeting  with  the 
seal  and  hand  of  the  Canadian  govern- 
ment and  the  Canadian  people.  Welcome 
you  are,  not  only  for  the  good  work  in 
which  you  are  engaged,  not  only  for  the 
intellectual  labors  which  are  your  daily 
vocation,  but  also  because  whenever  you 
cross  our  borders,  and  whenever  the  Can- 
adian members  of  this  association  cross 
your  borders,  you  and  they  are  real  mis- 
sionaries of  peace,  apostles  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  those  visits  tend  further  to  im- 
prove our  relations,  to  dispel  old  preju- 
dices and  to  make  us  appreciate  the  bless- 
ings of  the  peace  which  hath  prevailed 
between  your  country  and  my  country  for 
nearly  a  hundred  years. 

May  I  take  advantage  of  the  present 
opportunity  to  remind  you  of  the  fact, 
which  has  been  twice  already  brought  to 
your  attention,  that  to-day  is  the  national 
holiday  of  Canada.  We  celebrate  our  na- 
tional holiday  on  the  first  of  July,  you 
celebrate  yours  on  the  fourth  of  July, — 
but  the  resemblance  goes  no  further. 
The  day  you  celebrate  on  the  fourth  of 
July  recalls  the  fact  that  your  forefathers 
wrenched  and  violently  tore  asunder  the 
tie  which  had  bound  them  to  the  mother- 
land. I  think  I  can  call  upon  your  mem- 
ory to  confirm  that  history  attests  that 
this  step  was  not  taken  lightly,  that  it 
tore  the  heart  strings  of  many  and  many 
of  those  who  signed  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  but  that  it  was  forced  upon 
them  by  the  vicious  policy  that  was  fol- 
lowed toward  the  colonists  by  the  British 
government. 

Our  history  is  a  very  different  one.  The 
day  that  we  celebrate  in  Canada  recalls 
no   violence.     On   the  contrary  we   cele- 

*  Printed  only  in  part. 


brate  the  day  when  the  authorities  of 
England,  King,  Lords  and  Commons,  de- 
livered unto  us  a  charter  of  union,  of  lib- 
erty and  of  local  independence.  Thus  at 
the  very  start  our  courses  were  cast  in 
different  directions.  You  are  a  republic, 
we  are  a  monarchy.  We  have  kept  the 
old  monarchy  of  England.  As  to  the  mer- 
its of  respective  forms  of  government,  re- 
publican institutions  or  monarchical  insti- 
tutions, I  would  not  say  a  word  on  this  or 
any  other  occasion,  because  this  has  al- 
ways seemed  to  be  an  idle  speculation. 
We  know  that  the  form  of  government  is 
after  all  a  matter  of  indifference;  we 
know  that  there  must  be  a  virtue  in  re- 
publicanism, and  we  Canadians  are  here 
to  testify  that  in  the  monarchy  of  Eng- 
land there  is  as  ample  liberty  as  there  is 
in  any  part  of  the  world,  not  excepting 
even  the  American  republic. 

Proud  as  I  am  to  say  that  you  have  your 
democratic  institutions,  we  are  blessed 
with  institutions  more  democratic,  and  we 
have  what  Abraham  Lincoln  called  the 
government  of  the  people,  by  the  people 
and  for  the  people.  I  do  not  mean  to  say 
by  this,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  that  the 
people  never  make  mistakes.  I  speak  for 
my  country,  not  for  yours.  But  speak- 
ing for  my  country,  I  would  say  that  at 
that  we  must  not  be  surprised  nor  angry, 
because  it  is  an  attribute  of  mankind, 
after  all,  to  err. 

Though,  Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  as  I 
have  told  you,  our  lots  have  been  c&st 
apart,  though  you  are  one  country  and 
we  are  another,  still,  after  all,  we  can  say 
with  some  pride  that  we  have  been 
friends,  and  better  friends  we  ought  to 
be.  Men  there  are  in  this  country,  I 
am  sorry  to  say,  who  are  rather  afraid 
of  you  American  people.  They  believe 
that  you  have  some  hostile  design  upon 
us;  and  some  of  your  men  have  perhaps 
harbored  that  thought  themselves.  But 
if  these  views  are  scattered  amongst  some 
of  my  countrymen,  they  have  not  at  all 
scared  me;  I  have  no  fear  at  all  of  the 
American  people.  I  am  not  afraid  of 
contact  with  you.  I  would  not  be  afraid 
to  trade  with  you,  to  sell  to  you  and  buy 


160 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


from  you,  because  I  believe  that  after  all, 
proud  as  you  hav*  reason  to  b«  of  your 
own  nation,  w«  Canadians  are  just  as  good 
as  you  are. 

But,  if  we  cannot  trade,  if  we  cannot 
sell  and  buy, — and  I  would  not  enlarge  on 
this,  because  I  would  perhaps  trespass  on 
politics, — if  we  cannot  trade  and  buy  from 
one  another,  at  least  we  can  exchange 
ideas,  sentiments,  principles,  and  this  is 
the  very  thing  which  you  have  been  do- 
ing in  Canada  during  this  last  week.  To 
this  nobody  can  object.  Ideas  and  princi- 
ples can  travel  freely  across  the  line,  and 
I  believe  that  everybody  would  be  all  the 
better  for  this  interchange.  So  I  have  no 
fear  whatever  that  there  should  be  an  ab- 
sorption of  this  country  by  your  country. 
And  may  I  say  what  is  my  own  ideal? 

It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  a  greater 
future  for  Canada,  and  for  the  United 
States.  You  have  your  problems  and  we 
have  enough  of  our  own  problems.  We 
can  afford  to  share  the  continent  and  we 
can  be,  you  Americans  and  we  Canadi- 
ans, the  pioneers  of  a  new  civilization,  a 
civilization  representative  of  the  twen- 
tieth century.  We  can  give  to  the  world 
this  example  of  friendship  without  hesita- 
tion and  with  perfect  confidence  in  one 
another.  The  bane  of  Europe  to-day  is 
militarism.  All  the  nations  of  Europe  are 
distrustful  of  one  another;  they  spend 
one-half  their  income  for  war,  in  mili- 
tary preparation  one  against  the  other. 
Thank  heaven,  on  this  continent,  we  never 
think  of  war  with  one  another.  We  have 
the  longest  frontier  that  separates  two 
nations,  and  I  thank  God  there  is  not  a 
fortress  to  be  found  upon  it,  nor  a  gun 
nor  a  cannon  to  frown  across  it.  This 
is  the  example  which  we  give  to  the  rest 
of  the  world.  It  is  certainly  an  achieve- 
ment of  which  we  have  every  reason  to  be 
proud;  and  when  you.  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men, come  over  to  our  country,  as  you 
have,  you  are  further  instilling  the  truth 
of  that  sentiment,  and  my  last  word  to 
you  will  be,  as  the  first.  Come  again, 
come  often,  and  the  more  often  you  come 
the  more  cordial  and  warm  will  be  the 
welcome. 


President  ELMENDORF:  I  am  quit« 
certain  that  this  audience  would  be  un- 
willing that  some  reply  should  not  come 
from  itself.  May  I  ask  Mr.  R.  R.  Bowker, 
whom  I  see  in  the  box,  to  reply  for  the  au- 
dience? 

Mr.  BOWKER  said,  that  as  he  rose  to 
propose  on  the  part  of  the  United  States 
members  of  the  American  Library  Asso- 
ciation a  vote  of  thanks,  he  wished  to 
express  the  equal  gratification  of  our 
fellow  members  that  we  have  received 
the  hospitality,  so  unbounded,  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  Canada,  and  especially 
that  we  had  been  thus  welcomed  by  the 
man  whose  presence  personifies  and 
whose  name  is  a  synonym  not  only  for  his 
own  party  but  for  United  Canada.  He 
said  the  United  States  members  took  only 
one  exception  to  what  he  had  said,  and 
that  was  that  they  used  the  word  "Amer- 
ican" in  a  broader  sense  than  he.  The 
American  Library  Association  means,  not 
the  United  States,  not  Canada,  but  both. 
We  have  no  United  States  library  asso- 
ciation. We  may  almost  hope  that  there 
shall  be  no  Canada  library  association, 
but  we  hope  that  Ontario,  with  its  library 
association,  will  be  the  pioneer  to  lead  its 
sister  provinces  into  the  fellowship  and 
affiliation  in  which  our  other  associations 
stand  in  the  American  library  associa- 
tion. 

The  speaker  said  it  was  not  only  in 
the  brilliant  and  eloquent  pages  of  Park- 
man  that  the  history  of  the  two  sister 
nations  was  interwoven;  that  a  man  from 
Woburn,  Massachusetts,  was  the  first  to 
see  what  the  site  of  Ottawa  meant;  that 
our  own  Thwaites  had  brought  anew  to 
life  the  deeds  of  the  Jesuit  fathers  and 
early  explorers,  and  that  Miss  Plummer 
had  personally  conducted  many  thousands 
of  boys  and  girls  of  the  children's  rooms 
through  Canada  with  her  "Roy  and  Ray." 

Mr.  Bowker  said  he  supposed  we  did 
not  rightly  recognize  Canadian  writers  in 
the  United  States  libraries  because  they 
were  so  thoroughly  a  part  of  English  lit- 
erature, and  that  it  would  be  very  grate- 
ful if  some  one  so  good  as  Mr.  Hardy,  the 
secretary  of  the  Ontario  library  associa- 


ROBERTSON 


161 


tioB,  could  before  the  close  of  the  meet- 
ings give  a  bird's-eye  view  of  Canadian 
writers. 

"It  is  a  significant  coincidence  that  on 
this  very  day  there  goes  into  operation 
throughout  the  British  Empire  a  law 
which,  if  not  for  the  first  time,  as  least 
most  explicitly,  recognizes  the  relation- 
ship of  the  several  English  nations  to  the 
motherland,  for  the  new  copyright  code 
which  to-day  goes  into  operation  states 
in  so  many  words  that  the  self-governing 
dominions  of  Canada,  Newfoundland,  Aus- 
tralia, New  Zealand  and  South  Africa 
may  adopt  the  imperial  act,  or  modify  it 
to  meet  their  own  judicial  process,  or  leg- 
islate independently.  It  is  interesting  to 
some  of  us  that  this  recognition  should 
be  so  explicitly  made  in  the  field  of  let- 
ters." 

In  closing,  the  speaker  proposed  that 
we  express  our  thanks  to  our  Canadian 
brethren,  our  hosts  who  have  been  so  hos- 
pitable, by  a  rising  vote. 

Amid  hearty  applause  the  entire  audi- 
ence arose. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  Before  it  became 
necessary  for  Dr.  Otto  Klotz,  who  was 
and  is  chairman  of  the  local  committee, 
to  be  absent  from  the  city,  I  had  agreed 
to  deliver  an  address  to  the  convention 
on  Conservation  in  Canada.  The  time 
having  come,  on  the  program,  for  that 
event,  I  propose  now  to  tell  you  a  little 
of  what  we  in  Canada  are  doing  to  con- 
serve the  best  we  have. 

CONSERVATION  OF  CHARACTER 

We  are  all  concerned  for  the  good  name 
of  our  community,  for  its  reputation  and 
its  character.  Most  of  us  are  concerned 
for  the  welfare  of  our  nation,  for"  its 
place  of  honor  and  influence  and  power 
among  the  nations  of  the  earth.  Canada 
is  one  of  the  youngest  among  the  self 
governing  peoples.  It  is  only  forty-five 
years  since  we  became  a  Dominion,  and 
we  begin  only  now  to  find  ourselves  as  a 
nation.  A  people  who  gain  self-govern- 
ment become  in  reality  a  nation  only 
when  they  are  animated  by  some  domi- 
nant purpose  to  preserve  their  ideals  by 


further  achievement.  The  preservation 
of  whatever  we  have  found  to  be  worthy 
in  the  past, — the  good,  the  true,  and  the 
beautiful, — by  using  them  in  everyday 
life  for  further  accomplishment  and  at- 
tainment,— that  is  conservation.  There 
have  been  rotations  of  nations  and 
of  civilizations  on  the  face  of  the  earth, 
as  there  have  been  rotations  of  crops  on 
the  fields  of  the  farm.  This  year's  crop 
is  for  its  own  harvest  and  also  to  prepare 
the  land  for  the  crop  to  follow  it.  The 
far  foresight  which  peers  thoughtfully 
into  eternity  while  planning  for  to- 
morrow Is  also  a  part  of  conservation. 

In  common  use  the  word  "conservation" 
becomes  a  bland  and  comprehensive  ex- 
pression into  which  we  put  all  our  scat- 
tered convictions  and  aspirations  and 
gropings  after  what  is  best  for  the  largest 
number  of  people  for  the  longest  stretch 
of  time.  It  took  on  a  new  meaning  when 
Theodore  Roosevelt  used  his  megaphone 
on  it.  And  because  it  is  an  omnibus  with 
room  always  for  one  more, — for  one  more 
idea,  one  more  suggestion,  one  more  pol- 
icy, it  becomes  mightily  popular. 

The  first  concern  of  conservation  is 
necessarily  with  natural  resources,  but  it 
does  give  a  significant  purpose  to  all  the 
activities  of  a  nation  and  of  an  individual. 
The  large,  inclusive  aim  of  Canada  in 
conservation  is  that  Canada  shall  be 
great  in  the  character  of  her  people,  great 
enough  to  match  the  matchless  heritage 
that  has  come  to  her  in  blood  and  ideals, 
in  possessions  and  institutions,  in  oppor- 
tunities and  obligations.  Canada's  con- 
tribution to  humanity  in  a  large,  uplifting 
way  will  be  in  the  perfection  by  a  com- 
posite people,  diverse  in  origin  of  race, 
language  and  religion, — the  perfection  by 
such  a  people  of  the  finest  of  all  fine  arts, 
the  fine  art  of  living  happily  and  pros- 
perously together,  while  working  with  in- 
telligent skill  and  unfaltering  will  for 
ends  believed  to  be  for  the  common  good. 
These  large  ends  include  the  improvement 
of  the  material  and  social  setting  of  every 
home,  the  refinement  of  the  inherited 
quality  of  life  of  every  child  and  the  ref- 
ormation  from   generation   to   generation 


162 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


of  the  habits,  standards  and  ideals  of  the 
people.  All  to  the  end  that  we  may  find 
satisfactions,  large,  broad  and  lasting, 
through  invigorating  labor,  social  service 
and  abiding  good  will  amongst  ourselves 
and  also  extended  to  all  our  neighbors. 

Let  me  give  you  a  very  brief  glimpse, 
merely  an  indication,  a  suggestion,  here 
and  there,  of  what  we  are  trying  to  do. 
First  of  all,  a  word  on  what  we  have  in 
possessions  to  conserve;  then  a  glimpse 
or  two  of  what  we  are  doing  with  our  es- 
tate; afterwards  a  glance  at  what  we  are 
seeking  for  ourselves;  and  finally  a  look 
in  on  what  we  stand  for  as  a  young 
people  among  other  kindly  and  compet- 
ing nations. 

On  What  We  Have 

We  have  a  great  deal.  Never  before  in 
the  history  of  the  race  did  seven  millions 
of  people  have  such  a  heritage  come  into 
their  free  possession.  Half  a  continent 
wide  and  a  whole  continent  long, — that  is 
our  estate.  We  are  happy  in  the  setting 
of  our  national  life.  A  very  brief  survey 
of  what  it  means  to  us  and  what  it  is  in 
itself  must  suffice  this  morning.  Who 
knows  it?  I  hear  people  speak  of  Canada 
as  a  red  patch  on  the  map,  as  a  stretch 
of  prairies  where  wheat  grows,  as  the 
northern  fringe  of  the  glorious  free  re- 
public of  the  United  States.  These  hardly 
shed  a  candle  power  of  light  on  our  es- 
tate. Half  a  continent  wide  and  one-sixth 
of  the  way  around  the  globe!  If  Europe 
were  eleven  in  area,  we  are  twelve,  and 
much  of  it  habitable,  destined  to  be  the 
setting  of  fine  homes  of  a  robust  people. 

Let  us  take  Canada  in  four  areas,  in 
thousand-mile  stretches.  We  can  afford 
to  speak  of  ourselves  In  those  dimensions. 
A  thousand  miles  In  from  the  Atlantic, — 
where  else  do  you  find  a  better  place  for 
homes  for  a  dominant  people  whose  pur- 
pose it  Is  to  pull  up  by  strength  and  in- 
telligence and  justice  and  good  will,  and 
not  to  crush  down  and  hold  back?  Dom- 
inant because  the  human  race  can  be  at 
its  best  In  physique,  in  endurance,  in 
tenacity,  In  capacity,  in  aspiration,  where 
apple  trees   grow   in   beauty  and  bounty 


and  the  summer  air  Is  full  of  the  fra- 
grance of  clover  blossoms.  Think  back 
through  your  books,  and  over  the  globe, 
and  into  the  lives  of  the  people.  Recall 
the  old  stories,  the  apple  trees  of  Eden 
and  the  land  fiowing  with  milk  and  honey. 
After  all,  physical  setting  means  much 
for  the  glory  of  human  life.  This  is  a 
fine  stretch  of  a  thousand  miles  for 
homes,  of  apple  trees  and  clover  blos- 
soms with  plenty  of  running  water,  with 
skies  decked  in  beauty  by  clouds,  with 
showers  and  sunshine  in  alternate  abun- 
dance, and  farm  houses  with  yards  full 
of  children  rolling  on  the  grass  picking 
flowers  and  climbing  the  apple  trees. 
That  is  worth  while, — to  have  a  thousand 
miles  filling  up  with  homes,  willing  for 
more  to  come  and  share  their  joy. 

Then  we  have  a  thousand  miles  of  wil- 
derness, a  great  reservoir  north  of  the 
Great  Lakes.  It  tempts  the  adventurous 
to  seek  gold  and  silver;  great  areas  for 
trees,  and  lakes  to  refresh  the  thirsty 
land  on  both  sides  by  the  genial  drop- 
pings from  the  rains  gathered  from  the 
wastes.  , 

Then  come  a  thousand  miles  of  prairies, 
stretching  out  to  the  foothills  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  It  took  a  thousand 
times  a  thousand  years  to  make  that 
place  fit  for  our  possession  and  habitation 
now.  The  frugality  of  prodigal  nature 
was  storing  in  the  soil  plant  food  for 
crops  for  thousands  of  years,  not  that 
men  might  ship  wheat,  but  that  boys  and 
girls  should  have  the  finest  chance  that 
the  race  had  known  hitherto  to  be  a 
strong,  dominant,  lovely  and  loving  peo- 
ple. A  thousand  miles  of  prairies!  Why 
do  your  people  flock  over  to  those  prair- 
ies? Not  for  greed  of  money.  I  have 
been  enough  in  the  States  to  know  that 
you  libel  yourselves  in  one  unkind  way. 
You  say  the  American  worships  the  al- 
mighty dollar.  Chase  the  charge  down 
and  he  wants  the  dollar  for  the  sake  of  a 
home,  for  the  pleasure  of  conquest,  for 
the  worship  of  some  boy  or  girl,  to  give 
him  and  her  a  better  footing  and  a  better 
start.  The  call  of  Canada  is  not  merely 
from   property   and   a   chance  to   get   It. 


ROBERTSON 


163 


The  call  of  Canada  is  the  call  of  a  wide 
chance  for  possessions,  for  a  piece  of 
good  land  to  own  for  oneself.  It  is  also 
the  call  of  the  land  where  law  is  re- 
spected, as  well  as  obeyed.  It  is  most 
loudly  and  convincingly  the  call  of  a  land 
with  chances  for  children.  That  is  what 
pulls  them  here,  the  chances  for  children; 
and  these  newcomers  are  amongst  the 
foremost  of  those  who  see  that  the  big- 
gest and  best  and  best-sustained  building 
in  the  place  is  the  public  school. 

Then  we  have  five  hundred  miles,  half 
a  thousand,  going  over  the  mountains  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean.  It  is  a  piece  of  the 
great  Creator's  fine  art  in  the  rough,  with 
the  impressiveness  of  nature's  majesty 
and  the  instability  which  endures.  Tucked 
in  between  the  mountains  are  fertile  val- 
leys with  peaches  and  plums  and  wheat 
and  all  good  things  to  sustain  the  homes. 
A  great  asset  is  that  five-hundred  mile 
strip,  the  mountains  pregnant  with  coal 
and  gold  and  silver,  and  the  streams 
teeming  with  fish  from  the  inexhaustible 
feeding  places  of  the  north. 

That  is  a  glimpse,  merely  the  head- 
lines, of  our  national  home,  our  real  es- 
tate; and  we  believe  the  people  will  be 
quite  a  match  for  it.  We  come  to  feel 
the  responsibility  for  that  now. 

Only  a  word  or  two  of  detail.  We  have 
forests  in  vast  areas,  some  of  them  as 
yet  unsurveyed,  and  a  climate  and  soil 
which  lets  nature  far  more  than  restore 
the  lumberman's  cut.  Our  forests  are  in- 
exhaustible in  the  abundance  of  their 
serving  power  for  coming  generations; 
now  that  we  have  begun  to  conserve 
them  by  preventing  fires,  by  providing 
patrols,  and  also  by  diffusing  knowledge, 
training  and  conviction  throughout  the 
common  schools.  Then  we  have  fisheries. 
Many  of  you  come  up  here  and  regale 
your  friends  for  evenings  afterwards  by 
fish  stories.  I  speak  of  the  great  value 
to  Canada  of  fish  and  fishing.  When  I  go 
to  the  coasts,  how  I  glory  in  the  conser- 
vation of  life  by  fishing!  I  fish  a  little. 
One  of  my  pawky  friends  once  gave  me  a 
book  called  "Flshln'  Jimmy."  It  had  one 
sentence    with    which    I    comfort    myself 


when  I  feel  disposed  to  fish  when  I  should 
be  otherwise  diligently  employed.  It  was 
this,  "Young  man,  the  good  Lord,  when 
He  needed  fellows  to  help  Him  for  the 
biggest  job  ever  taken  up,  picked  out 
chaps  who  caught  fish."  Think  of  Nova 
Scotia,  the  fishing  smacks,  the  men  who 
are  not  afraid,  those  who  go  down  to  the 
deep  in  ships,  they  see  the  wonders  of 
the  Lord  while  they  do  their  duty  for 
their  families.  There  is  conservation  of 
the  quality  of  life  by  the  unboasting  and 
the  uncomplaining,  heroic  commonplaces 
of  daily  toil.  With  quiet  tenacity,  against 
conditions  of  discomfort  which  cannot  be 
escaped,  and  carelessness  of  personal 
ease  such  men  teach  us  how  to  live. 
Then  we  have  waterways,  and  water 
powers,  not  merely  to  illuminate  houses 
and  run  cars,  but  to  enlarge  leisure  by 
having  our  heaviest  tasks  done  by  man's 
further  alliance  with  the  electric  current. 
Then  we  have  minerals  and  lands.  Each 
of  these  merits  more  than  a  discourse  for 
itself.  I  feel  the  incompleteness,  the  in- 
sufficiency, of  my  statements  of  our  re- 
sources and  our  efforts  towards  conser- 
vation. However,  just  a  word  about 
lands,  good  land  and  fertile  land. 

Take  an  example,  one  only.  Seager 
Wheeler  lives  north  of  Regina.  How  our 
hearts  go  out  in  sympathy  to  those  peo- 
ple who  suffer  from  nature's  inhuman 
manifestation  of  her  strength.  (A  refer- 
ence to  the  Regina  cyclone  of  the  day  be- 
fore.) I  have  not  learned  to  look  up 
through  nature's  devastations  to  nature's 
God,  but  I  have  learned  to  look  through 
human  life  to  man's  God, — Whose  tender 
mercies  are  over  all  His  other  works. 
Seager  Wheeler  lives  north  of  Regina. 
Out  at  the  Experimental  Farm,  where  we 
were  on  Saturday,  Dr.  Saunders,  pa- 
tiently, quietly,  modestly,  brought  to- 
gether a  strain  of  wheat  from  Calcutta 
and  a  strain  of  wheat  from  the  North- 
west. A  new  child  is  born  unto  us  in 
Wheatland.  Seager  Wheeler  gets  some  of 
that  wheat  and  begins  the  process  of  se- 
lection on  his  own  farm,  "the  best  out  of 
the  best  for  the  best."  Last  autumn  I  was 
in  New  York  at  the  back-to-the-land  ex- 


164 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


position.  A  thousand  dollar  prize  in  gold 
was  there  for  the  man  who  would  bring 
the  best  bushel  of  wheat  from  anywhere 
on  the  continent.  The  judges  were  ex- 
pert men  from  the  United  States,  and 
Seager  Wheeler  from  the  middle  of  our 
North-West  plains  won  the  thousand  dol- 
lar prize  for  his  bushel  of  wheat  from 
that  part  of  our  land.  More  than  that,  I 
have  a  photograph  of  the  plot  from  which 
this  bushel  of  wheat  was  taken,  and  it 
measured  up  80  2-3  bushels  to  the  acre. 
No  wonder  we  think  well  of  our  land,  and 
you  folks  want  to  get  some  of  it. 

One  other  sentence  only,  otherwise  I 
should  be  beguiled  into  talking  far  too 
long  about  our  lands.  In  these  days, 
dangerous  in  their  clamors  for  bigness 
and  swiftness  and  luxury,  one  needs  to 
remind  himself  that  satisfactions  do  not 
come  from  these  things,  but  from  honest 
labor  whereby  one  conserves  the  strength 
and  beauty  of  some  part  of  nature  and 
man,  and  develops  power  and  joy  in  an- 
other unit  of  nature  and  man,  making 
the  earth  and  man  rejoice  together. 
Truly  a  nation's  life  consisteth  not  In 
the  abundance  of  the  things  it  possesseth. 

On  What  We  Are  Doing 

We  in  Canada  are  happy  in  the  occupa- 
tions of  the  people,  as  well  as  in  the  set- 
ting of  our  lives.  What  has  occupation  to 
do  with  conservation?  Occupation  con- 
serves the  best  that  humanity  has 
achieved  in  human  beings  themselves. 
Not  books?  It  would  be  a  loss  if  all  the 
books  were  taken  from  us, — it  would  be 
a  loss  somewhat  modified  by  the  advan- 
tages. But  whosoever  will  offend  one  of 
these  little  ones  in  whom  is  conserved 
all  the  achievements  and  attainments  of 
the  race  to  this  day,  it  were  better  for 
him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about 
his  neck.  The  menace  of  books  is  that 
they  sometimes  crush  down  and  crush 
out  the  aspiration  of  young  life  for  joy 
in  constructive,  creative,  co-operative 
labor,  through  merely  selfish,  silent  read- 
ing for  gratification.  We  are  happy  in 
the  occupations  of  our  people  that  minis- 
ter  to    greatness    in    character.     A   new 


country  like  ours  needs  the  constructing 
and  conquering  qualities,  more  than  the 
sedentary,  absorbing,  remembering  capac- 
ities. The  farmer  follows  one  of  the  con- 
quering, constructive  occupations,  gath- 
ering wealth  out  of  the  otherwise  chaos. 
His  labor  creates  wealth  and  conserves 
the  health  and  virility  of  the  people. 
What  a  grudge  I  have  against  the  modern 
factory  that,  in  making  things,  debases 
men.  I  do  my  thinking  aloud  in  a  meet- 
ing like  this.  Therefore  I  do  not  flatter. 
I  will  warrant  we  should  not  have  women, 
as  I  have  seen  them,  working  in  facto- 
ries, with  poor  air  and  little  sunshine  amid 
the  infernal  rattle  of  machinery,  if  we 
believed  in  our  heart  of  hearts  that 
things  were  for  homes  and  that  good 
homes  for  all  the  people  was  the  dom- 
inant object  of  a  strong  nation.  Why 
should  I  have  cloth  in  my  house  because 
it  is  cheap — when  it  is  transfused  by  the 
blood  of  women  in  Leeds?  Why  should 
I  want  a  coat  on  my  back  that  carries 
with  it  the  stain  of  tears  from  children 
who  have  had  no  chance?  Why  should  I 
walk  easily  in  boots,  factory-made  in 
order  that  they  may  be  a  dollar  a  pair 
cheaper,  when  I  have  seen  women 
atrophied  by  the  monotonous  poverty  of 
their  job  who  should  have  been  mother- 
ing a  family  and  nursing  the  aspirations 
of  young  people?  We  do  not  want  to 
have  things,  things,  things  as  our  idols 
and  our  end  in  life. 

The  fundamental  occupations  which 
engage  the  large  majority  of  our  people 
are  farming,  making  homes  and  teaching 
and  training  the  young.  The  farm,  the 
rural  home  and  the  rural  school  together 
provide  the  opportunities  and  means  of 
culture  in  forms  which  children  and 
grown  people  can  turn  into  power — power 
of  knowledge,  of  action  and  of  character. 
Farming  is  much  more  than  moving  soil, 
sowing  grain,  destroying  weeds  and  har- 
vesting crops.  It  is  taking  care  of  part  of 
the  face  of  Mother  Earth  as  a  home  for 
her  children.  Making  homes  Is  much 
more  than  building  houses  and  providing 
furniture,  food,  clothing  and  things.  It  Is 
creating  a  temple,  not  made  with  hands. 


ROBERTSON 


165 


as  a  place  of  culture  for  the  Divine  in  us. 
Those  who  live  by  agriculture  are  not  all 
of  the  earth  earthy,  and  the  rural  home 
is  a  fine  school  for  the  soul.  Teaching 
and  training  the  young  is  much  more  than 
instructing  children  in  the  arts  of  read- 
ing, writing  and  reckoning — those  flexible, 
useful  tools  of  the  intellect.  Much  of  the 
time  of  the  school  has  been  consumed  in 
these  tasks;  but  now  we  come  to  a  hap- 
pier day  when  those  arts  can  be  acquired 
joyfully  in  less  than  a  year  and  a  half, 
instead  of  painfully,  reluctantly  and  with 
difficulty  as  spread  over  six  years.  The 
main  portion  of  the  school  time  will  soon 
be  devoted  to  caring  for  the  health,  the 
habits  and  the  standards  of  the  pupils 
while  watching  and  directing  the  develop- 
ment of  their  powers  of  body,  mind  and 
spirit. 

These  three  fundamental  mothering  oc- 
cupations in  Canada  nourish  and  sustain 
all  the  others,  such  as  commerce,  manu- 
facturing, transportation  and  the  profes- 
sions. By  means  of  them,  followed  as 
well  as  they  can  be  by  an  educated  and 
cultured  people,  the  country  will  be  kept 
prosperous  and  fertile.  It  can  be  made 
beautiful  only  by  radiant  homes,  whence 
youth  will  go  forth  from  generation  to 
generation  to  refine  life  by  their  charac- 
ters, to  exalt  it  by  their  Ideals  and  to 
improve  its  conditions  by  intelligent 
labor. 

I  must  say  a  word  or  two  as  to  whence 
we  got  the  impetus,  the  stimulus,  towards 
conservation.  Intelligent,  conscious, 
planned  and  organized  effort  for  conser- 
vation came  to  us  from  Washington.  We 
are  the  Washington  of  the  North  in  more 
ways  than  one,  and  I  think  I  express,  if 
I  may  venture  to  do  so,  the  hope  and  con- 
viction of  my  friend  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier 
when  I  say  that,  a  hundred  years  hence 
and  less,  the  Washington  of  the  North 
will  be  more  than  abreast  of  the  Wash- 
ington of  the  South  because  of  the  influ- 
ence, the  moulding  influence,  of  climate 
and  homes  and  schools  such  as  we  in  this 
country  will  have.  But  the  Washington 
of  the  South  had  a  great  gathering  In 
1908,  when  the  Governors  of  all  the  States 


and  others  were  assembled  to  consider 
conservation.  I  read  the  report  of  the 
proceedings  with  some  care.  Then  I 
turned  more  than  once  to  read,  right 
after  it,  an  old  classic  about  a  gathering 
in  the  time  of  King  Ahasuerus,  the  gath- 
ering of  the  governors  of  127  provinces. 
And  I  laid  down  the  Bible  with  the  con- 
viction that  that  Ahasuerus  assembly  was 
no  higher  in  its  essence  and  in  its  fruits 
than  a  pow-wow  debauch  of  Indian  chiefs 
on  the  plains.  Take  the  setting  and  the 
spirit  of  the  Ahasuerus  crowd — self-seek- 
ing, careless  of  human  rights,  neglectful 
of  children's  claims.  That  story  was 
worth  recording  as  a  great  exhibition  of 
monstrous  selflshness,  the  thing  Itself — 
worth  avoiding,  worth  opposing,  worth 
smiting  to  the  death  every  time  it  rears 
its  ugly  greedy  head.  On  the  other  hand, 
consider  Washington.  The  governors  of 
sovereign  states  come  together,  for  what? 
Not  to  consider  how  they  might  enrich 
themselves  at  the  expense  of  the  weak 
and  those  in  their  care,  but  how  they 
might  conserve  for  all  the  people,  the 
property  of  all  the  people,  for  the  benefit 
of  all  the  people,  for  the  longest  stretch 
of  time.  That  was  a  great  gathering.  It 
will  go  down  In  history  as  marking  a  new 
epoch  in  human  activity  and  endeavor. 
And  whatever  may  be  said  amid  the  tran- 
sient controversies  of  party  politics,  the 
name  of  Theodore  Roosevelt  will  stand 
out  Illustrious  for  leadership  In  a  new 
effort  for  conservation  that  saves,  not 
merely  forests  and  material  resources, 
but  that  saves  moral  earnestness  among 
the  people.  I  have  no  sympathy,  myself, 
with  your  own  harsh  criticism  of  these 
political  conventions  you  are  holding  now 
in  the  States.  Not  being  a  politician,  I 
can  speak  of  politics  without  fear.  May 
I  tell  you  what  my  thinking  has  been? 
Perhaps  only  twice  before  did  the  United 
States  ever  get  such  service,  such  an 
awakening — when  you  had  the  struggle 
for  liberty,  and,  afterwards,  the  war  for 
freedom.  What  means  the  present  com- 
motion which  bursts  through  conventional 
conventions  of  polite  speech?  Is  It  not 
that  you   shall   be   saved   from   a   supine 


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sense  of  satisfaction  with  having  only 
things — from  the  loss  of  great  concepts 
of  justice  and  right  aflame  in  moral  ear- 
nestness? I  rejoice  with  you  that  we  are 
indebted  to  Washington  for  impetus  and 
stimulus  in  moral  earnestness  regarding 
forests  and  other  resources.  That  is 
Gifford  Pinchot's  contribution — not  to 
make  lumber  cheap,  but  to  make  the  land 
fertile  and  prosperous,  that  boys  and 
girls  may  be  beautiful  and  strong  and 
glad.  Worth  while  is  the  moral  earnest- 
ness that  uses  materials  only  as  the 
mechanism  of  its  efforts  for  the  improve- 
ment of  life. 

Then  Canadians  attended  officially  an- 
other meeting  in  Washington  in  1909, 
came  back  and  Parliament  instituted  a 
Commission  of  Conservation.  That  Com- 
mission has  been  at  work  for  three  years 
seeking  to  serve  our  peaple  by  showing 
how  they  could  improve  themselves  as 
well  as  their  circumstances  through  ef- 
fort to  conserve  their  resources. 

On  the  Provincial  experimental  farm  in 
Wellington  County,  Ont.,  Professor  Zavitz 
works.  He  took  thin,  light  grains  from  a 
variety  of  oats,  and  sowed  those  by  them- 
selves; and,  from  the  same  variety,  he 
took  plump,  heavy,  dark  grains,  and  sowed 
these  by  themselves.  For  twelve  years 
he  followed  that  plan  on  the  same  soil, 
under  the  same  climate,  with  the  same 
management.  At  the  end  of  twelve  years 
the  crop  from  this  plump  seed  rose  by 
twenty-six  bushels  more  to  the  acre  and 
ten  and  a  half  pounds  more  to  the  bushel 
than  the  crop  from  the  poor  seed.  That 
was  conservation  secured  by  intelligent 
application  and  good  management.  You 
can  do  that  with  life  as  well  as  with  seed 
and  with  land.  The  long  distance  aim  as 
well  as  the  local  object  of  conservation 
is  to  make  Canada  a  better  country  to 
live  in  and  a  more  beautiful  country  to 
love;  and  to  make  Canadians  a  people  of 
greater  vigor,  finer  texture  and  nobler 
character. 

On  What  We  Are  Seeking 

We  in  Canada  are  a  composite  sample 
of  life.    We  have  come  to  us  Anglo-Saxon, 


Celtic,  Gallic,  Teutonic,  Slavonic  and 
others.  All  these  streams  of  blood  flow 
over  Canada  and  mingle  in  us.  It  is  not 
any  longer  with  us  merely  a  toleration  of 
an  individual  or  of  an  idea  from  Russia — 
or  the  States — but  an  appreciation  of  the 
person  and  the  idea,  to  make  them  serve 
our  people  better.  There  is  conservation 
in  that.  The  best  we  have  inherited  is 
the  quality  of  life.  Our  more  immediate 
ancestors  loved  liberty,  prized  intelli- 
gence and  cherished  justice.  These  they 
had  won  by  courage,  by  struggle,  by  pa- 
tience and  by  privation.  They  left  them 
to  us  to  be  improved  by  education.  Con- 
cepts such  as  these  are  what  count  in  the 
great  issues  of  life. 

Let  me  without  any  offense  or  bad  taste 
be  personal  and  speak  of  one  of  my  an- 
cestors. He  has  been  dead  a  long  time. 
I  didn't  know  him.  But  not  infrequently 
I  can  feel  the  thrill  and  the  efforts  at 
domination  of  his  convictions  and  his 
habits.  I  remember  a  dog  biting  me.  I 
could  have  strangled  the  creature  with 
my  hands.  I  did  not  learn  that  in  school, 
but  I  had  the  instinct  in  me  from  that 
old  ancestor.  I  can  think  of  him  in  a 
cave,  living  a  bare  coarse  life.  But  he 
conserved  the  chance  for  the  babies;  and 
the  lion  and  the  wolf  and  the  bear  could 
not  stand  against  the  club  and  the  fire 
which  he  used  for  the  protection  of  his 
wife  and  children.  Coarse!  Of  course  he 
was.  A  thing  of  paws  and  claws  and 
jaws!  But  he  conserved  his  concepts  of 
duty,  his  ideals  of  protection  for  the 
young  and  the  weak.  His  concepts  and 
the  labors  and  struggles  they  involved  by 
and  by  refined  his  body.  Then,  ages 
afterwards,  20,000  or  30,000  years  after- 
wards, we  had  Lord  Lister.  Two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  women  saved  an- 
nually through  the  service  of  his  refined 
brain  and  his  trained  hands,  and  his  large 
concepts  of  duty.  And  we  had  Florence 
Nightingale;  and  you  had  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. And  we  all  have  everybody  and 
anybody  that  conserves  concepts  of  joy 
and  glory  through  duty  discharged  by 
constructive,  contributing  labor,  social 
service  and  abiding  good  will.     In  these 


ROBERTSON 


167 


and  others  innumerable  we  have  a  her- 
itage, not  made  with  hands. 

Time  fails  me  even  to  name  all  our 
other  heritages  which  are  not  in  material 
resources.  There  are  customs,  institu- 
tions, laws,  manners,  ideas,  traditions, 
standards,  ideals,  art,  songs,  language 
and  books.  Books  are  more  than  mate- 
rial things.  They  are  material  humanized 
into  food  for  the  mind  and  spirit  as  soil 
and  air  may  be  glorified  into  apples  and 
flowers  for  the  senses.  Sometimes  pro- 
duced with  immense  pains,  they  bring  in- 
finite joys.  The  Kingdom  hath  come  to 
us  for  such  a  time  as  this  when  a  new 
day  dawns  for  happiness  and  well-being 
on  earth. 

Some  of  the  means  under  modern  con- 
ditions through  which  further  advances 
in  the  formation  and  conservation  of  char- 
acter are  to  be  looked  for  are, — first  those 
which  lead  young  people  to  the  achieve- 
ment of  joy  through  the  processes  of 
labor  as  distinguished  from  its  wages  or 
other  rewards.  Every  child  who  is  given 
a  fair  chance  can  manage  that.  In  this  a 
little  child  may  lead  us.  Secondly,  those 
which  produce  the  pleasure  of  working 
together  for  some  end  believed  to  be  good 
for  all.  Will  not  school  pupils  and  older 
students  work  themselves  into  social 
efficiency,  by  co-operating  in  productive 
labor,  as  well  as  play  themselves  into 
ability  by  means  of  team  games?  Both 
together  are  better  than  twice  as  much 
of  either  alone.  Thirdly,  those  which 
yield  gladness  through  creative  work 
whereby  each  individual  strives  to  give 
expression  to  his  own  concepts  of  utility 
and  beauty  in  concrete  things  as  well  as 
in  words  and  other  symbols.  The  insist- 
ence, by  school  and  college,  upon  passive 
receptiveness  for  prolonged  periods  may 
have  disciplined  the  mind  for  the  percep- 
tion of  symbols,  and  the  understanding 
of  theories  and  rules.  But  has  not  the 
heaping  of  instruction  upon  enforced  pas- 
sivity led  to  an  atrophy  of  the  love  of 
constructive  creative  labor?  Immobility 
in  classes  all  day  long  is  not  goodness. 
That  sort  of  thing  is  the  one  persisting 
attribute  of  the  dead  or  the  nearly  mori- 


bund. Every  man  who  actively  conserves 
these  constructive,  co-operative,  creative 
powers,  and  achieves  joy  and  satisfaction 
through  their  exercise,  saves  himself  and 
becomes  a  saving  factor  in  his  commu- 
nity. In  doing  these  things  he  transfuses 
the  routine  of  life  by  a  spirit  of  trained 
intelligence,  cultured  ability  and  habitual 
good  will.  The  use  of  books  and  book- 
information  are  a  helpful  aid  to  the  growth 
of  mental  power,  the  development  of 
moral  ideas  and  the  progress  of  educa- 
tion. Books  furnish  some  of  the  food  and 
stimulus  to  thought.  But  when  these  are 
not  turned  into  service  through  action, 
they  become  so  much  cloying  debris  upon 
vitality. 

I  have  happily  seen  enough  in  the  last 
few  years  to  bring  me  to  the  conclusion, 
that,  in  less  than  ten  years  on  this  conti- 
nent, all  children  from  rural  homes  will 
come  to  the  schools  at  6  or  7  years  of  age 
able  to  speak  better  than  they  speak  now, 
and  able  to  write  and  read  and  to  figure 
up  to  division.  They  will  come  to  school 
able  to  do  all  that,  having  played  them- 
selves into  ability.  We  have  been  on 
wrong  lines  in  making  a  child  take  up  a 
book  at  six,  and  so  far  as  schooling  is 
concerned,  stay  under  the  domination  of  a 
book  until  he  is  sixteen.  Then  he  has 
been  liberated  into  a  laboratory,  or  into 
life,  and  says,  "Thank  the  Lord  that  book 
business  is  done!"  That  is  not  wise, 
that  is  not  safe.  How  the  book  has  men- 
aced humanity  in  recent  years,  on  all 
sides,  by  its  insistence  that  reading  is 
the  end  of  education,  the  main  means  and 
object  of  culture,  instead  of  being  merely 
a  contributing  means  toward  the  larger 
end  of  living.  You  people  concerned  with 
books  must  take  the  bread  of  life  in  your 
hands  and  minister  to  life,  not  under  the 
guise  of  book-learning,  but  for  the  forma- 
tion of  habits  and  standards  and  fine 
ideals. 

Put  into  the  language  of  everyday  life 
the  main  steps  in  every  complete  educa- 
tional experience  are:  observing,  think- 
ing, feeling  and  managing  towards  and 
into  some  form  of  expression.  It  appears 
to  me  that  the  closer  in  point  of  time 


168 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


the  steps  are  taken  together,  the  greater 
the  growth  of  power  and  the  surer  the 
formation  of  habits.  Frequency  of  expe- 
rience is  what  forms  habits  and  not  repe- 
titions of  instructions  or  information.  In 
so  far  as  these  experiences  can  have  close 
relation  to  the  threefold  activities  de- 
manded by  life,  so  much  the  better  for 
the  culture  of  the  student,  even  if  not  so 
complimentary  to  a  subject  or  its  profes- 
sor. I  mean  the  activities  which  we  ex- 
plain as  those  of  body,  mind  and  spirit  in 
the  individual's  capacity  as  an  earner,  a 
member  of  society  and  a  trustee  in  the 
scheme  of  life.  No  doubt  this  runs  coun- 
ter to  the  common  notion  that  culture — 
even  real  culture  as  a  process  and  as  a 
result — develops  and  implies  a  certain 
aloofness  from  the  practical  work  done 
by  men  and  women  to  earn  their  living, 
and  a  sweet,  or  sour,  sense  of  superiority 
to  utilitarian  questions  of  bread  and  but- 
ter. But  we  must  not  forget  that  invig- 
orating toil — invigorating  bodily  toil — is 
the  only  known  road  to  health,  strength 
and  happiness.  Nowadays  culture  is  be- 
coming a  term  almost  as  elusive  as  educa- 
tion itself.  Agriculture  was  doubtless  the 
root,  the  root  word  as  well  as  the  funda- 
mental process,  of  human  culture.  The 
man  on  the  farm  gets  some  light  on  its 
intrinsic  nature  from  his  occupation.  To 
him  culture  stands  for  crops,  the  best  in 
quality  and  the  largest  in  quantity  that 
can  be  obtained,  for  the  suppression  of 
weeds,  insects  and  disease,  and  for  the 
increase  of  beauty  and  fertility.  Culture 
has  no  origin  in  idleness,  indolence  or 
sloth.  These  make  for  the  corrosion  of  all 
the  vigors  of  the  physical  and  mental  and 
moral  nature.  Culture  means  plowing 
and  harrowing  and  sowing  and  hoeing. 
It  means  labor  and  sorrow  as  well  as  play 
and  flowers.  It  means  the  ripping  of  the 
iron  share  as  well  as  the  genial  affection 
of  the  sun.  Culture  is  far  deeper  than 
the  polite  polish  on  the  skin  of  manners 
and  speech.  It  is  not  gained  by  the  mere 
learning  of  languages,  living  or  dead,  or 
the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  scientific  or 
superstitious,  in  the  poetic  meaning  of 
that  word.     It  is  the  residuum,  the  left- 


over, such  as  it  is,  in  character — in  body, 
in  mind  and  in  spirit — after  every  com- 
pleted educational  experience.  From 
actual  practice  comes  skill  in  the  finest 
of  all  fine  arts,  the  fine  art  of  living  hap- 
pily together  while  working  for  some 
good  end.  Alike  in  school  and  college,  on 
farm  and  in  factory.  In  shop  and  oflSce, 
in  home  duties  and  public  affairs,  that 
kind  of  life  develops  a  quick  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility, it  establishes  good  standards 
close  by  which  are  understood,  it  nour- 
ishes conscience  and  strengthens  the  will- 
energy  towards  further  culture,  better 
work  and  happier  living.  These  things 
we  seek  to  conserve,  using  our  material 
resources  for  the  enrichment  of  the  qual- 
ity of  life  we  have  inherited,  in  order  to 
pass  it  on  undiminished  and  unimpaired. 

On  What  We  Stand   For 

This  end  of  an  educated  people,  cul- 
tured in  character,  which  itself  is  only  a 
means  towards  the  largest  end,  is  worth 
striving  for  and  worth  living  for.  All  life 
is  an  unceasing  struggle.  The  point  is  to 
choose  the  right  objects  and  means.  In 
the  past,  humanity  has  been  winning  all 
along  the  line  with  an  occasional  setback 
such  as  threatens  the  present.  Its  war- 
fare is  ever  against  ignorance,  helpless- 
ness, poverty,  disease,  vice  and  illwills. 
Education  is  to  train  individuals  for  that 
warfare.  Its  endeavors  are  most  success- 
ful when  the  experiences  which  it  pro- 
vides for  each  individual  are  in  themselves 
a  vital  part  of  the  hard  campaign.  It 
must  ever  vary  its  strategy  and  tactics 
and  weapons,  as  the  field  of  operations  is 
moved  forward.  Times  change  and  we 
change  with  them.  The  need  of  the  times 
is  education  to  qualify  us  all  to  achieve 
satisfaction  through  labor  and  service 
and  good  will. 

Finally,  I  present  to  you  the  more  ex- 
cellent graces  of  conservation  as  earnest- 
ness, cheerfulness  and  the  habit  of  cher- 
ishing and  following  high  ideals.  At  first 
these  are  rather  traits  of  character  in 
embryo  than  fixed  attitudes  or  habits  of 
mind.     The  particular  and   specific  disci- 


ROBERTSON 


169 


plines  of  life  and  of  good  books  are  to 
correct  softness,  to  promote  gentleness 
and  to  develop  a  capacity  for  enduring 
and  enjoying  hardness  as  a  good  soldier 
of  truth,  beauty  and  goodness  in  everyday 
life.  In  reality,  each  individual  disciplines 
himself  in  liberty,  by  self-government,  by 
diligence,  by  rational  obedience  to  au- 
thority and  by  co-operation.  The  disci- 
pline which  develops  character  and  power 
is  administered  from  within;  external 
regulations  are  like  the  finger  posts  to 
Indicate  the  open  path  and  also  the  place 
where  trespassing  is  forbidden.  In  the 
choice  and  in  the  action  is  discipline. 
"Choose  ye  this  day  whom  ye  will  serve" 
is  at  the  parting  of  the  ways  every 
morning,  and  is  seldom  displayed  in 
prominence  at  the  dramatic  crises  of  life. 
Habits  are  grown  in  quiet  ways,  like  the 
shapes  of  trees  and  the  budding  and 
ripening  of  fruit..  They  become  the  des- 
tiny "which  shapes  our  ends,  rough-hew 
them  how  we  will."  The  librarian  and 
every  other  citizen  who  lives  and  moves 
and  has  his  being  in  an  atmosphere  of 
earnestness,  cheerfulness  and  high  ideals, 
is  ready  for  his  best  work.  Such  men  and 
women  go  through  life  with  open  minds, 
with  broad  sympathies,  and  appreciative 
respect  for  all  the  worthy  achievements 
and  attainments  of  men  and  women,  of 
boys  and  girls.  Their  patriotism,  their 
humanity,  in  brief,  their  conservation  of 
character,  finds  its  best  accomplishment 
in  making  and  leaving  a  better  place,  with 
a  better  path,  for  better  children,  to 
carry  the  torch  of  life  onward  and  up- 
ward, clearer  and  stronger,  because  of 
what  they  have  been  and  done. 

From  one  of  youi  selves  (Ella  Wheeler 
Wilcox)  we  have  beautifully  expressed 
one  of  the  great  dominating  purposes 
which  I  think  animates  all  Canada  to-day: 

"Build  on  resolve  and  not  upon  regret 
The    structure    of    thy    future:     do    not 
grope 
Among  the  shadows  of  old  sins,  but  let 
The  light  of  truth  shine  on  the  path  of 
hope 
And    dissipate    the    darkness:     waste    no 
tears 
Upon  the  blotted  record  of  lost  years; 


But  turn  the  leaf,  and  smile,  oh  smile,  to 
see 
The   fair  white  pages  that  remain  for 
thee." 

At  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Robertson's 
address  a  brief  paper  was  read  by  Sir 
James  Grant  on  some  of  the  literary 
products  of  Canada.  Following  this  paper 
Professor  John  Macnaughton,  of  McGill 
university,  delivered  an  address  on  "The 
value  of  literature."  He  protested  vigor- 
ously against  the  present  day  tendency 
toward  pure  utilitarianism  in  education 
and  pleaded  for  a  large  place  for  the  great 
and  enobling  literature  of  the  past  in  our 
educational  systems. 

The  CHAIRMAN:  I  have  the  pleasure 
of  asking  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  to  serve  the 
Canadian  libraries  and  librarians  in  pre- 
senting a  little  gift  to  the  president. 

SIR  WILFRID  LAURIER:  Mr.  Chair- 
man, Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  I  am  en- 
trusted with  a  very  pleasant  duty.  The 
Canadian  members  of  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  are  desirous  of  pre- 
senting to  its  president  some  expression 
of  their  respect  and  esteem,  and  they  have 
chosen  to  convey  it  in  the  shape  of  a  gavel 
which  they  want  to  present  to  you.  Madam 
President.  It  is  of  Canadian  wood  and 
Canadian  silver,  and  I  hope  you  will 
carry  it  with  you  as  a  token  adding  pleas- 
ure to  your  sojourn  here,  pleasant  at  all 
events  for  all  of  us,  and,  I  hope,  for  you 
also. 

President  ELMENDORF:  Sir  Wilfrid. 
Mr.  Chairman  and  Canadian  friends:  This 
beautiful  gift  to  the  association  is  made, 
I  am  told,  of  Canadian  wood  inlaid  with 
Canadian  silver.  Of  course  Canadian 
wood  means  the  wood  of  the  maple  and 
how  does  that  wonderful  close  fiber  come 
into  being?  The  maple  leaf  reaches  up- 
ward into  the  free  air  and  there  it  gathers 
sunshine  and  the  gases  of  the  atmosphere 
and  combining,  converting  and  solidify- 
ing these  impalpable  things  into  fiber 
stores  them  away  as  this  beautiful  wood. 

What  is  literature  and  how  does  it  come 
into  being?  By  means  of  the  printed  leaf, 
out  of  human  life,  are  gathered  individual 
knowledge,   experience   and   emotion   and 


170 


OTTAWAICONFERENCE 


combined  and  converted  these  individual 

contributions    pass    as    wisdom    into    the 

race  mind  there  to  be  stored  forever  to 

"Help  such  men  as  need." 

You  have  thus  given  us  fit  symbol  in- 
deed of  our  profession. 

Just  one  thought  more.  I  come  from 
the  border  line  where  there  is  much  hope 
that  some  permanent  memorial  of  the 
hundred  beautiful  years  of  peace  may  be 
built.  In  the  same  spirit,  I  hope  that  this 
gavel  may  be  the  only  weapon  ever  raised 
to  enforce  order  between  Canadians  and 
Americans. 

Mr.  BOWKER:  Let  us  remember 
"kindness  in  another's  trouble"  and  that 
even  a  closer  bond  than  the  common 
work  in  our  profession,  is  the  bond  of 
sympathy  in  time  of  loss. 

I  move,  in  view  of  the  partial  destruc- 
tion of  the  public  library  at  Regina  and 
the  great  catastrophe  that  has  come  to 
her  people,  that  the  president  of  the 
American  Library  Association  be  author- 
ized and  requested  to  send  the  sympathy 
of  this  conference  to  the  public  library 
and  the  people  of  Regina. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to  unanimously, 
and  the  message  ordered  sent. 

Adjourned. 

FIFTH  GENERAL  SESSION 

(Russell  Theatre,  Monday,  July  1, 

8:30  p.  m.) 

President  Elmendorf  occupied  the 
chair. 

The  SECRETARY:  It  was  our  hope 
that  Dr.  Claxton,  U.  S.  Commissioner  of 
juducation,  would  be  with  us  at  this  con- 
ference, but  he  was  unable  to  come  and 
so  sends  us  this  greeting: 

Mrs.  H.  L.  Elmendorf,  President,  Amer- 
ican Library  Association,  Ottawa. 

"Convey    to    association    my    greetings 
and  best  wishes  for  successful  meeting. 
P.  P.  CLAXTON." 

The  PRESIDENT:  Ladies  and  Gentle- 
men, my  introduction  to-night  is  to  be 
very  short  indeed,  that  you  may  the 
sooner  reach  the  treat  in  store.  Our  hon- 
ored speaker  of  the  evening  has  his  own 
message  for  us.  He  also  bears  a  message 
from    the    National    Education    Associa- 


tion. He  is  the  honored  son  of  his  great 
and  beloved  father  Bishop  Vincent,  he 
has  been  dean  of  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago, he  is  still  president  of  the  Chautau- 
qua Institution,  he  is  the  president  of  the 
University  of  Minnesota,  more  than  all, 
he  is  himself.  Dr.  GEORGE  EDGAR 
VINCENT. 

ADDRESS  BY  DR.  VINCENT 

Dr.  VINCENT  said,  in  opening  his  ad- 
dress, that  he  brought  the  greetings  of 
the  National  Education  Association,  being 
an  "uninstructed  delegate,"  and  he  firmly 
believed  "that  with  your  tact,  with  your 
boundless  energy,  with  your  irresistible 
enthusiasm,  you  will  ultimately  sweep 
away  into  the  vortex  of  your  aggressive 
enterprise  even  the  school  teachers  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada." 

Continuing  Dr.  Vincent  said: 

I  find  some  difficulty  in  deciding  just 
what  analogy  I  shall  use  this  evening. 
This  is  a  subject  which  has  exhausted 
almost  all  the  forms  of  metaphor,  simile 
and  analogy.  Librarians  have  been 
likened  to  almost  everything  under  the 
sun.  There  are  three  metaphors  which 
have  survived  from  the  old  days.  You  are 
all  familiar  with  these.  You  use  them 
ironically,  to  describe  that  condition  of 
affairs  which  prevailed  in  libraries  before 
you  supplanted  those  archaic  people  who 
used  so  thoroughly  to  misinterpret  the 
functions  of  the  librarian. 

One  is  the  analogy  of  the  museum,  the 
library  as  a  museum  of  books,  a  museum 
carefully  guarded,  a  museum  to  which  the 
public  is  not  to  be  admitted  except  under 
conditions  which  make  resort  to  the  place 
so  irksome  that  only  a  few  persist.  You 
remember  the  old  story  of  the  man  in 
Philadelphia  who  had  committed  a  crime. 
To  escape  detection  and  go  where  nobody 
would  look  for  him,  he  resorted  to  the 
reading  room  of  the  Philadelphia  library. 

Then  there  is  the  other  analogy — I  do 
not  know  that  this  has  been,  so  far,  in- 
sisted upon,  but  it  is  a  very  good  one,  it 
seems  to  me — the  analogy  of  the  peniten- 
tiary  of  books,   with   the   librarian   as   a 


VINCENT 


171 


jailer.  Just  why  these  people  should  have 
been  put  in  prison  as  they  were  in  the  old 
days,  just  why  their  friends  should  not 
be  permitted  to  visit  them,  it  is  hard  to 
say.  This  is  akin  to  another  analogy,  the 
library  as  a  mausoleum  of  books,  a  place 
where  books  are  buried,  and  the  librarian 
is  a  bibliotaph. 

These  old  analogies,  these  figures  of  an- 
other day,  serve  pleasantly  to  flatter  a  little 
your  complacency  over  things  as  they  are. 
But  we  have  no  time  to  devote  to  the  dead 
past.  Let  us  consider  some  of  the  analo- 
gies which  are  still  living.  I  have  been 
a  little  bewildered  by  that  analogy  this 
morning,  the  maple  leaf  and  the  gavel.  I 
have  not  been  quite  able  to  work  it  out.  It 
seems  to  me,  with  all  deference  to  the 
delightfully  poetic  figure,  which  took  every- 
body by  storm,  including  myself,  it  is  a 
mistake  to  try  to  analyze  these  sentiments. 
There  was  something  about  preserving 
the  light  in  the  maple  leaves  and  the 
leaves  of  the  book.  Now,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  leaves  are  put  away  in  a  library  very 
much  as  they  are  in  an  herbarium.  There 
is  no  botanical  relation  to  the  trunk  of  a 
tree  after  they  have  been  folded  and  put 
away.  So  I  don't  see  how  that  works  out — 
but  that  doesn't  make  any  difference.  An 
analogy  never  goes  on  four  legs.  This 
one  just  happened  to  have  about  two  and 
a  half  feet  upon  the  ground.  But  that  is 
Mrs.  Elmendorf's  analogy;  I  propose  to 
leave  it  alone.  There  may  be  an  explosive 
possibility  about  it  which  she  will  explain 
some  time  when  she  has  a  chance  to  work 
it  out.  She  had  very  short  notice  and  she 
did  it  beautifully,  and  I  know  so  little 
about  botany  that  it  gave  me  practically 
no  intellectual  difficulty. 

Then  there  is  the  analogy  that  we  are  all 
very  fond  of,  the  analogy  of  the  library  as 
a  department  store.  There  you  have  your 
efficient  business  manager.  The  library  is 
a  place  where  it  is  no  trouble  to  show 
goods,  where  you  have  your  various  depart- 
ments and  the  goods  are  up  to  date ;  where 
yon  have  all  sorts  of  advertising  methods, 
where  you  advertise  In  the  dally  papers, 
send  out  bulletins,  get  up   circulars  and 


posters  and  attract  attention  by  illustra- 
tions, where  you  have  an  elevator  and  all 
that  sort  of  thing.  Just  think  of  the  sacri- 
fice that  librarians  are  making,  the  mere 
pittances  they  are  receiving,  when  they 
might  be  running  these  great  emporia  in 
our  large  cities.  The  department  store 
offers  a  good  analogy  if  you  do  not  press  It 
too  far.  There  is  not  very  much  money 
in  the  business.  It  doesn't  pay  very  well 
In  dollars  and  cents,  but  thiuk  of  the 
Intellectual  advantages  ft  offers^  the 
psychic  dividends  that  a  business  of  that 
sort  pays! 

Then  there  is  a  figure  I  worked  out 
myself  a  while  ago,  the  library  as  a  social 
memory.  That  seems  to  me  capital.  I 
think,  so  far  as  I  know,  I  have  a  copy- 
right on  that  figure.  It  was  a  good  address, 
by  the  way.  In  which  I  used  this  trope. 
I  wish  I  had  remembered  It;  I  should  have 
brought  It  along  and  read  it  to-night 
instead  of  making  this  carefully  set 
address.  Yes,  the  social  memory  Idea  is 
a  good  analogy.  It  reduces  the  librarian 
to  a  medulla  oblongata,  so  far  as  I  am  able 
to  understand  the  psychology  of  the  situa- 
tion. Yet  that  is  an  honorable  function, 
although  largely  automatic.  It  Is  a  good 
thing  to  control  the  resources  of  the  social 
memory,  to  be  able  to  put  these  at  the 
service  of  the  public  mind — decidedly  a 
fruitful  analogy,  but  I  do  not  care  to  elabo- 
rate it  this  evening. 

Another  figure  is  an  hydraulic  image — 
the  library  as  a  reservoir — a  reservoir  of 
the  world's  refreshing,  stimulating,  ener- 
gizing, fructifying  influences.  The  li- 
brarian becomes  a  gate  keeper  and  an  Irri- 
gator. It  Is  a  beautiful  thought,  that  you 
are  letting  out  these  fertilizing  floods  over 
the  plains  of  human  Ignorance  and  stupid- 
ity. No  wonder  you  think  well  of  your- 
selves. 

Then  there  is  another  that  appealed  to 
me  this  morning — you  are  a  center  of 
radioactivity,  of  Intellectual  and  moral 
radioactivity,  you  are  social  and  psycho- 
logical physicists.  The  library  as  a  center 
of  psychic  radioactivity  strikes  me  as  some- 
thing satisfying,  fascinating,  delightful. 


172 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Another  figure  has  appealed  to  my  imagi- 
ation.  It  is  the  library  as  an  inn  of  books. 
Had  you  thought  about  that?  Of  course, 
you  had — and  that  makes  you  hotel 
keepers.  You  see,  being  hotel  keepers  you 
would  naturally  be  interested  in  all  kinds 
of  equipment;  you  would  have  the  rooms 
prepared  for  your  guests  in  the  very  best 
way,  you  would  have  a  fireproof  hotel,  the 
rooms  rather  narrow,  if  you  please,  but 
plenty  large  enough  and  fairly  well  lighted 
and  ventilated.  The  trouble  is  when  you 
are  running  a  big  hotel  to  have  the 
register  carefully  kept.  You  know,  almost 
none  of  our  best  hotels  can  ever  tell  you 
whether  a  man  is  in  or  out.  They  are 
always  uncertain  about  it,  and  in  the  old 
days  before  libraries  and  hotels  became  so 
efficient  you  could  never  be  sure  the  clerk 
knew  his  business.  You  have  changed 
all  that,  you-  are  the  most  competent  of 
hotel  keepers  and  know  how  to  build 
hotels  and  equip  them.  You  furnish  lob- 
bies and  parlors  in  which  to  meet  guests, 
or  if  one  likes  he  may  take  them  home 
with  him.  I  wish  I  had  time  to  elaborate 
this  idea  of  the  Inn  of  Books.  I  am  get- 
ting fond  of  it  as  the  imagination  plays 
with  it.  You  can  fancy  Socrates  coming 
in,  looking  about  cautiously,  with  a  cer- 
tain apprehension,  a  little  nervous  for 
fear  that  she  might  be  there.  You  can 
imagine  him  hanging  about  the  corridors, 
listening  to  the  gentlemen  as  they  talk, 
coming  up  behind  them,  listening  a  little 
while,  then  saying  in  that  calm  way  of  his, 
that  dangerously  calm  way,  "I  beg  your 
pardon,  but  just  what  do  you  mean  by 
'progressive?'  Precisely  what  significance 
do  you  give  to  'life,  liberty  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness?' "  Oh,  it  would  be 
dreadful  if  Socrates  were  to  come  around 
and  ask  what  we  meant  by  the  things  we 
say.  No  wonder  they  gave  him  the  hem- 
lock cup.  You  couldn't  permit  him  in 
your  hotel.  People  would  not  understand 
him  and  would  not  associate  with  him  in 
these  days  when  we  so  much  resent  being 
asked  to  analyze  and  explain  our  auto- 
matic phrases. 

You    can    see    Horace    coming    in.     He 


wouldn't  be  at  all  anxious  to  avoid  the 
ladies.  He  would  soon  catch  sight  of 
the  pretty  stenographer.  What  pleasure 
he  would  take  in  dictating  to  her  a  clever 
ode.  Yes,  Horace  would  like  the  modern 
hotel.  Then  picture  Pepys  coming  in,  reg- 
istering and  then  buying  a  yellow  jour- 
nal. How  dismayed  he  would  be!  Pepys 
would  have  no  chance  whatever  with  Mr. 
Hearst,  Then  you  can  see  the  entrance 
of  Lord  Bacon.  He  would  reveal  his  dual 
character,  insist  upon  having  the  state 
suite  all  to  himself,  then  hasten  to  dis- 
cover how  the  electric  lights  and  the  elev 
ator  worked.  You  can  image  this  sort  of 
thing  and  can  draw  from  it  any  analogy 
you  please,  but  I  have  not  time  to  do  more 
than  merely  suggest  it.  It  would  make  an 
admirable  address  for  somebody  who  will 
be  invited  to  address  you  next  year. 

I  am  not  going  to  talk  about  these  anal- 
ogies, I  am  going  to  talk  on  the  psychology 
of  pictures.  You  know  these  are  psycho- 
logical days.  We  have  now  the  psychology 
of  almost  everything.  We  have  the 
psychology  of  infancy,  the  psychology  of 
childhood,  the  psychology  of  adolescence 
and  the  psychology  of  senility;  we  have 
the  psychology  of  advertising,  we  have  the 
psychology  of  salesmanship — and  we  have 
Henry  James.  Therefore  one  need  make 
no  apology — in  fact,  one  would  apologise 
for  not  talking  upon  a  psychological  theme. 
I  am  going  to  try  to  see  whether  psychol- 
ogy has  anything  to  say  to  librarians.  Of 
course,  it  must  have  something  to  say. 
You  are  all  psychologists.  Anybody  that 
knows  how  to  give  some  one  a  book  he 
does  not  want  and  make  him  think  he  likes 
it,  is  a  psychologist.  It  is  perfectly  ob- 
vious that  a  psychological  theme  will  be 
appropriate  for  a  company  like  this. 

When  we  try  to  describe  what  is  going 
on  in  our  minds  we  are  immediately 
forced  to  use  some  sort  of  imagery,  ideas 
made  familiar  in  some  other  field.  So 
when  anybody  reads  psychological  litera- 
ture nowadays  he  is  sure  to  come  across 
the  phrase  "the  threshold  of  conscious- 
ness." Here  is  a  simple  picture — a  two- 
room  house.     One  is  the  conscious  room, 


VINCENT 


173 


the  other  is  the  unconscious  room.  There 
is  a  door  between,  and  when  an  idea  goes 
from  the  conscious  to  the  unconscious 
room  it  goes  over  that  threshold,  and  when 
it  goes  back  it  necessarily  has  to  go  over 
that  threshold  again.  Then  James  has 
given  us  that  fine  figure,  "the  stream  of 
consciousness."  How  good  it  is!  Your 
thoughts  and  feelings  flow  on  day  after 
day  and  year  after  year  like  a  stream. 
Practical  questions  arise  at  once.  What 
sort  of  a  stream  of  consciousness  have  I? 
Is  the  stream  going  steadily  on,  or  is  it 
rather  like  a  babbling  brook,  making  a 
pleasant  murmur  but  with  little  power? 
Or  like  the  River  Platte,  spreading  out 
and  disappearing  in  the  sands  of  stupidity, 
or  like  a  turgid  stream,  so  muddy  that  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  see  anything  beneath 
the  surface?  Or  is  it  a  strong,  clear, 
on-sweeping  current  to  which  new  ideals 
and  feelings  are  contributed  day  by  day, 
so  that  as  the  years  go  on  it  becomes  a 
mighty  energy  to  turn  the  wheels  of  the 
world?  A  very  good  figure,  and  we  may 
very  well  put  such  questions  to  ourselves. 
Professor  Cooley,  of  Michigan,  has 
suggested  another  figure  which  I  think 
would  sufficiently  antagonize  Professor 
Macnaughton  if  he  were  here.  Let  us 
imagine  a  room,  the  walls  and  ceiling  of 
which  are  incrusted  thickly  with  incan- 
descent lights.  Near  the  door  let  us 
imagine  a  box  containing  a  lot  of  switches. 
You  turn  on  a  switch  and  that  immediately 
lights  up  a  line  across  that  wall,  over  the 
ceiling  and  down  the  other  wall.  You  can 
stand  there  and  turn  on  and  off  these 
switches  and  light  up  those  circuits  of 
electric  lights  at  will.  In  similar  fashion 
you  have  brain  cells  and  these  brain  cells 
are  like  incandescent  electric  lights,  the 
filaments  of  which  connect  with  one 
another  into  circuits  of  association. 
When  some  one  turns  on  a  switch,  by  a 
visual  image,  or  by  an  odor,  or  by  a  sound, 
there  suddenly  lights  up  in  your  mind  one 
of  these  circuits  of  memory.  When  you 
look  at  the  turrets  of  that  beautiful 
Chateau  Laurier,  what  do  you  see?  Are 
you  not  in  the  valley  of  the  Loire?    Can't 


you  see  the  frowning  front  of  Chinon,  the 
gracious  facade  of  Asay-le-Rideau,  the  lace- 
like stairway  of  Blois,  the  massive  turrets 
of  Amboise?  It  is  a  fine  thing  to  have 
one's  mind  well-wired,  to  have  the  circuits 
in  good  condition.  A  personal  question 
you  can  put  to  yourself  is  "What  sort  of 
mental  lights  have  I?  Are  they  four 
candle  power  or  thirty-two  Tungsten? 
Are  my  switches  in  perfect  working 
order,  or  are  my  circuits  crossed,  and 
fuses  melted  so  that  my  mind  is  in  semi  or 
complete  darkness?"  This  is  a  very 
practical  way  of  applying  these  figures; 
and  this  address  would  be  of  no  value  if 
it  did  not  now  and  then  sound  the  hom- 
iletic  note. 

There  is  another  figure  to  which  I  call 
your  attention.  It  is  the  figure  of  the  stere- 
opticon  lecture.  We  all  go  to  stereopticon 
lectures.  Many  of  us  are  fond  of  moving 
pictures.  We  may  say  we  are  not,  we  may 
take  high  ground,  but  we  sneak  in  to  see 
them.  We  all  like  pictures,  we  are  like 
children  in  this  regard;  and  when  we  go 
to  a  stereopticon  lecture  we  know  that  no 
matter  how  stupid  the  lecturer  may  be, 
once  in  two  minutes  we  are  going  to  get 
a  slide.  The  laws  of  physics  work  in  our 
interests,  for  if  the  lecturer  keeps  a  slide 
in  the  lantern  longer  than  two  minutes  the 
heat  is  likely  to  break  it.  Therefore 
cupidity  thwarts  the  passion  for  speech. 
We  are  all  the  while  attending  stereop- 
ticon lectures.  We  all  have  screens  in  our 
minds,  and  on  these  screens  pictures  are 
passing  constantly.  Our  mental  life  can 
be  described  accurately  and  vividly  in 
terms  of  these  pictures,  these  slides  of 
memory  and  imagination.  Then,  too, 
there  is  a  spectator  within  us  looking  at 
the  pictures,  commenting  upon  them  and 
having  feelings  about  them.  The  charac- 
ter of  the  individual  is  revealed  by  the  pic- 
tures he  fondly  holds  on  the  screen  of  his 
mind.  How  curiously  mental  pictures  are 
related  to  one  another,  and  what  strange 
slides  some  of  them  are!  Let  us  examine 
them  for  a  little. 

In  the  first  place,  it  is  important  to 
notice  that  some  pictures  are  very  vague. 


174 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


That  means  they  are  not  well  focused. 
You  have  been  to  a  stereopticon  lecture 
when  the  man  could  not  work  the  lantern 
and  when  there  were  most  unseemly  alter- 
cations between  the  gentleman  on  the  plat- 
form and  the  unfortunate  person  who  was 
trying  to  run  the  lantern.  It  is  bad 
enough  to  have  the  slides  put  in  upside 
down;  it  is  bad  enough  to  have  them  start 
at  the  end  of  the  lecture  instead  of  the 
beginning;  it  is  bad  enough  to  have  one 
of  your  favorite  colored  slides  drop  on  the 
floor,  but  the  worst  thing  is  to  have  a  slide 
so  badly  focused  that  you  cannot  tell 
what  it  is.  Do  you  realize  that  in  these 
mental  panoramas,  in  these  stereopticon 
exhibitions  that  we  are  attending,  there  are 
some  pictures  that  are  not  well  focused? 
Think  of  the  ideas  we  have  that  are  vague 
and  hazy.  Attention  is  the  power  which 
focuses  pictures  on  the  screen  of  the 
mind.  You  haven't  possession  of  a  pict- 
ure until  you  can  see  it  in  its  clear  out- 
lines. What  a  deal  of  vagueness  there  is 
in  the  world!  How  many  ideas  that,  as  a 
friend  of  mine  says,  "are  fuzzy  around  the 
edges."  The  only  mental  picture  that  is  to 
be  trusted  is  the  slide  which  is  precise  and 
clear  and  definite  and  accurately  focused. 
Then  another  thing  to  note  about  these 
pictures  is  the  way  in  which  they  are 
related  to  one  another.  We  may  have  a 
passive  or  an  active  attitude  toward  the 
show  that  is  going  on.  When  you  are  in 
a  passive  condition,  you  know  how  oddly 
these  pictures  come  on,  what  an  absurd 
relation  sometimes  they  have  to  one 
another.  They  seem  to  have  no  logical 
connection  whatever.  Some  pictures 
always  appear  together,  although  they  may 
have  no  connection  except  that  they  were 
originally  associated  in  that  way,  and  you 
can  never  get  one  of  them  without  the 
other  turning  up.  It  is  amusing,  some- 
times grotesque,  sometimes  absurd,  the 
way  these  pictures  are  grouped.  Some 
come  in  what  we  call  a  logical  series; 
that  is,  they  have  some  connection  with 
one  another,  one  brings  up  another,  and 
you  go  through  the  series  from  one  point 
to  another.    Oh,  how  promiscuously  these 


pictures  come  on  the  screen  of  the  mind, 
some  without  the  slightest  premonition  of 
their  coming.  It  is  fascinating  to  recall 
the  process  by  which  one  picture  sug- 
gested another,  and  that  one  a  third.  At 
times  the  spectator  within  us  takes  con- 
trol and  says,  "I  won't  have  that  picture 
any  longer,  I  will  have  another."  He  has 
the  power  to  summon  pictures.  There  lies 
the  control.  If  there  be  in  this  world  any- 
thing like  self-control,  that  self-control  is 
in  the  control  of  mental  imagery.  That 
control  is  the  secret  of  personality.  In 
terms  of  mental  imagery  can  we  define 
the  individual  and  his  power  over  him- 
self, for  mental  pictures  control  our  lives. 
Habit  is  merely  a  mental  picture  which 
has  become  automatic.  Just  because  you 
can  do  the  thing  although  you  are  con- 
scious of  the  picture  no  longer,  it  does 
not  mean  that  that  image  was  not  there 
once.  When  I  want  you  to  do  something, 
I  tell  you  to  do  it.  If  I  have  authority 
over  you  I  put  the  picture  of  that  act  in 
your  mind  and  I  hold  it  there  until  it  has 
worked  itself  out  In  conduct.  Of  course, 
I  should  not  go  about  It  In  that  way,  with 
you,  as  an  association  of  librarians.  Not 
at  all.  I  should  attempt  It  In  quite 
another  way.  I  should  sneak  the  picture 
into  your  mind  by  what  we  call  indirect 
suggestion.  If  you  were  somebody  I 
could  browbeat  Into  doing  what  I  told 
you  to  do,  I  could  order  you  to  do  it.  In 
other  words,  I  could  jam  the  picture 
right  Into  your  mind,  hold  it  there  and 
say,  "Now,  you  do  that  thing."  But,  with 
you,  I  couldn't  do  It  that  way.  But  I 
think  I  could  manage  some  of  you  at  any 
rate.  When  you  were  not  watching,  I 
should  slip  the  picture  Into  your  mind. 
You  wouldn't  know  where  it  came  from. 
It  would  come  on  naturally.  You  would 
think  you  thought  of  It  yourself.  That  Is 
the  gentle  art  of  suggestion,  to  slip  a  pict- 
ure on  the  screen  of  a  person's  mind 
without  letting  him  know  how  it  got  there. 
He  naturally,  then,  supposes  It  is  the  result 
of  those  deceptive  processes  which  he 
identifies  with  personal  thinking.  You 
cannot  cram  Ideas  down  the  throat  of  a 


VINCENT 


175 


free-born  American  citizen.  Of  course,  you 
can't.  Moreover,  what  is  the  use  of  cram- 
ming them  down  his  throat  when  you  can 
squirt  them  into  him  with  a  psychological 
hypodermic?  That  is  the  charming  thing 
about  suggestion.  All  control,  then,  is  con- 
trol through  mental  imagery.  You  have 
had  this  experience,  for  example.  As  you 
stood  in  a  railroad  station  and  a  locomo- 
tive came  thundering  in,  you  have  had,  for 
a  moment,  an  impulse — not  only  an  im- 
pulse,— you  have  had  the  picture  in  your 
mind  of  throwing  yourself  under  the  loco- 
motive. From  a  casual  inspection  of  the 
company  I  should  suppose  that  none  had 
tried  that  experiment  as  yet.  Why?  Be- 
cause you  were  able  to  remove  that  pict- 
ure from  your  mind  and  substitute  for  it 
another — a  picture  of  the  presumable  ap- 
pearance of  things  in  a  very  short  time  after 
you  had  made  the  experiment,  or  the  vista 
of  a  long  and  happy  life  stretching  out  be- 
fore you,  or  of  obligations  to  family  and 
friends.  Any  one  of  these  pictures  will 
serve  the  purpose.  But  if  the  time  ever 
comes  when  that  picture  of  going  under 
that  locomotive  gets  firmly  fixed  in  your 
mind,  nothing  except  physical  force  from 
without  can  prevent  your  going  under  the 
wheels.  Every  motor  idea  that  comes  into 
our  minds  tends  to  work  Itself  out  into 
action.  That  is  the  secret  of  the  hypnotic 
sleep,  in  which  the  person  who  is  under 
your  control,  through  pictures  produced  in 
his  mind,  automatically  carries  these 
things  out  into  action.  Mental  imagery  is 
the  secret  of  life,  and  control  of  mental 
imagery  means  the  control  of  mankind. 
Self-control  is  the  control  of  one's  own 
imagery. 

The  personality,  the  self,  is  revealed  in 
this  imagery  and  in  the  attitude  of  the 
spectator  within  us.  You  know  those  dif- 
ferent attitudes.  There  are  some  pictures 
that  come  upon  the  screen  of  your  mind, 
and  the  spectator  within  you  is  immedi- 
ately interested.  For  example,  here  comes 
a  picture  on  the  screen  of  your  mind  of  the 
day  when  that  board  that  you  had  been 
working  with  so  long,  that  unintelligent 
board,  that  board  made  up  of  reactionary 


people  that  you  had  so  long  been  nursing, 
came  to  the  point  where  you  were  able  to 
tell  them  of  that  scheme  of  yours  which 
must  Inevitably,  logically  and  remorse- 
lessly lead  to  putting  the  library  in  your 
community  on  a  modern  basis.  When  the 
picture  of  your  triumph  on  that  occasion 
comes  upon  the  screen  of  your  mind,  the 
spectator  within  you  claps  her  hands  and 
says:  "You  were  very  clever  about  that; 
you  waited  a  long  time,  you  worked  It 
skillfully,  you  certainly  are  a  capable  per- 
son." You  all  get  pictures  of  that  kind. 
You  can't  help  looking  at  them.  Here  is 
another  slide — a  reception.  Of  course, 
when  they  said  that  yours  was  an  ex- 
tremely becoming  gown,  you  were  quite 
delighted;  and  you  talked  well;  you  did  say 
a  lot  of  brilliant  things.  To  be  sure  they 
were  not  original — nobody  expects  that — 
but  you  were  very  fortunate  in  your  an- 
thology that  afternoon.  I  can  see  by  the 
broad  and  amiable  smiles  all  of  you  are 
wearing,  that  pictures  of  a  similarly  agree- 
able kind  are  by  suggestion  appearing  on 
the  screens  of  your  minds. 

But  you  have  pictures  of  a  very  different 
sort.  How  could  you? — of  course,  you 
were  just  from  the  library  school,  it  was 
only  your  first  position,  but,  at  the  same 
time,  how  cottld  you? — you  cannot  imagine 
how  you  could  have  mistaken  Sir  Thomas 
More,  In  the  sixteenth,  for  Thomas  Moore 
in  the  nineteenth  century.  How  could  you 
have  done  It?  Yet  you  did.  When  that  pict- 
ure comes  on  the  screen  of  your  mind  the 
spectator  within  you  shrinks  and  says: 
"Why  must  we  look  at  that?  Take  It  off 
at  once."  It  would  be  very  piquant  if  I 
could  take  other  Illustrations  from  your 
own  experience,  but  I  cannot  do  that.  I 
shall  have  to  take  one  out  of  mine.  I  have 
a  number  which  my  spectator  dislikes. 
Here  Is  a  recent  one: 

At  our  experimental  farm  we  have  a  very 
beautiful  new  saddle  horse.  As  I  pretend 
to  be  something  of  a  rider  I  went  to  ride 
this  horse.  There  was  a  sort  of  celebra- 
tion that  afternoon,  and  I  thought  it  would 
be  pleasant  for  the  president  of  the  Uni- 
versity to  ride  one  of  these  blooded  horses 


176 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


to  give  eclat  to  the  affair.  I  went  out  and 
rode  this  mare  about.  Everything  went 
well  until  I  encountered  several  traction 
engines  in  active  operation  and  a  number 
of  automobiles.  I  was  in  a  very  narrow 
place.  There  being  almost  no  other  direc- 
tion for  the  mare  to  go,  she  began  to  take 
a  vertical  course.  She  was  in  good  con- 
dition and  rather  rotund,  and  the  laws  of 
physics  worked  out  their  inevitable  result. 
At  forty-five  degrees  I  held  on  admirably. 
At  sixty-five  degrees,  I  began  to  feel  some 
little  distress.  At  eighty  degrees  I  looked 
behind  me,  and  at  89  1-2  degrees  I  slid  off. 
Now,  such  is  the  admirable  press  organi- 
zation in  the  great  state  of  Minnesota  that 
every  newspaper,  I  think,  in  the  common- 
wealth— I  haven't  found  one  yet  that 
skipped  the  item — called  attention  to  the 
fact  that  the  president  of  the  University 
had  come  a  cropper — or,  if  not  strictly  a 
cropper,  the  effect  of  it  was  the  same.  One 
of  the  papers  was  kind  enough  to  say  that, 
being  an  expert  rider,  I  landed  on  my  feet. 
If  I  did,  my  fundamental  ideas  of  anatomy 
have  been  entirely  erroneous.  As  I  have 
been  traveling  about  the  state  in  the  last 
few  weeks,  I  haven't  met  a  man,  woman 
or  child  who  has  not  sooner  or  later 
worked  that  back-sliding  into  the  conver- 
sation. This  is  a  picture  of  which,  when 
it  comes  on  the  screen  of  my  mind,  the 
spectator  within  me  says,  "I  suppose  we 
have  got  to  stand  this,  but  it  is  certainly 
getting  to  be  slightly  tiresome."  We  all  get 
slides  of  that  sort  in  our  collection. 

Then  there  are  pictures  of  another  sort, 
beautiful  pictures,  inspiring  pictures,  yet 
for  some  reason  the  spectator  within  us 
is  left  cold  and  unaffected  by  these  images. 
It  is  the  very  tragedy  of  human  nature 
that  we  may  intellectually  know  beau- 
tiful, noble,  inspiring  things,  may  have 
uplifting  visions,  and  yet  the  spectator 
within  us  may  look  at  these  things  and 
never  so  much  as  feel  a  flutter  of  the 
pulse.  We  do  not  incorporate  ideas  imtil 
these  things  have  become  not  only  a  part 
of  our  intellectual  apprehension,  but  un- 
til they  have  become  a  part  of  our  emo- 
tional  nature,   until    we   make   them    into 


the  very  fabric  of  ourselves.  We  define 
the  self,  therefore,  in  terms  of  mental 
pictures,  and  the  control  of  self  is  the 
control  of  mental  pictures.  Let  me  know 
the  pictures  to  which  you  constantly  re- 
vert, let  me  know  the  pictures  that  come 
steadily  to  the  screen  of  your  mind,  let  me 
know  the  pictures  that  the  spectator  with- 
in you  gloats  over  and  feels  a  loyalty  to, 
and  I  will  reveal  to  you  your  character. 
Whatsoever  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart, 
whatsoever  pictures  he  makes  his  own, 
whatsoever  pictures  he  gloats  over  with 
joy  and  satisfaction,  these  things  reveal 
the  true  personality. 

Consider  another  thing:  the  content  of 
these  pictures,  the  kind  of  pictures.  How 
are  they  determined?  They  are  deter- 
mined by  our  social  relationships.  Do  you 
think  the  same  sort  of  pictures  are  in  the 
mind  of  the  Englishman  as  are  in  the 
mind  of  the  American?  Do  you  think  the 
same  kind  of  pictures  come  into  the  mind 
of  the  Frenchman  as  come  into  the  mind 
of  the  German?  There  are  certain  uni- 
versal pictures,  the  same  for  all  educated 
people,  but  most  pictures  take  on  a  group 
character.  What  are  the  pictures  that 
come  into  your  minds  as  librarians?  Pict- 
ures of  your  active  calling.  These  pictures 
are  very  definite.  You  have  your  own 
phrases,  your  own  language.  These 
phrases  and  these  forms  of  speech  are 
themselves  the  labels  of  mental  imagery. 
Every  social  group  is  held  together  by  its 
phrases.  Oh,  how  we  love  these  phrases 
and  how  glibly  we  repeat  them!  So  too, 
college  professors  have  their  own  phrases. 
What  a  sesquipedalian  terminology  it  is 
with  which  they  bewilder  the  lay  mind  and 
overpower  the  student!  How  would  law- 
yers get  on  but  for  their  monopoly  of 
archaic  forms  of  speech?  Think  of  the 
doctors'  terminations,  so  many  of  them 
fatal,  in  itis,  which  they  have  invented  In 
the  last  few  years.  So  every  social  group 
determines  very  largely  the  conduct  of  its 
members  by  cleverly  putting  into  their 
minds  the  imagery  that  it  wishes  to  have 
carried  out.  Why  do  you  dress  as  you  do? 
Do  your  clothes  represent  your  Individual 


VINCENT 


1T7 


taste?  In  some  measure,  but  for  the  most 
part  you  dress  as  you  do  because  society 
puts  fashion  pictures  into  your  heads. 
You  ladies  dress  as  you  do  because  these 
fashion  plates  and  the  women  you  see  up- 
on the  street  leave  a  deposit  in  your  mind, 
a  composite  picture,  and  that  composite 
picture  works  itself  out  in  your  own  charm- 
ing and  becoming  wardrobe.  To  be  sure, 
as  librarians,  you  have  individuality;  as 
librarians,  you  have  a  certain  personal  dis- 
tinction, but  it  is,  after  all,  only  a  varia- 
tion upon  the  common  modes  which  you 
share  with  all  your  sisters  everywhere. 
These  standards,  these  ideals,  these  types, 
that  we  talk  about  are  put  into  our  minds 
by  the  social  groups  of  which  we  are  mem- 
bers, and  we  are  to  a  very  large  extent 
dominated  by  these  pictures.  Do  you 
doubt  it?  Just  examine  your  mental  im- 
agery. How  much  of  that  mental  imagery 
have  you  secured  as  a  result  of  your  own 
first  hand  experience?  How  much  of  that 
mental  imagery  represents  original  think- 
ing? How  much  of  that  psychic  pano- 
rama have  you  received  ready-made  from 
the  society  to  which  you  belong? 

The  pictures  come  qu^jkly  upon  the 
screen  of  the  mind.  How  readily  they  are 
summoned  by  suggestion!  If  I  had  time 
I  could  bore  you  almost  to  extinction 
by  calling  up  in  your  minds  images  that 
are  common  to  all  of  us.  We  all  have 
large  collections  of  slides.  The  depressing 
fact  is  that  for  the  most  part  they  are 
identical.  Ho\y  refreshing  it  is  to  meet  an 
original  person.  Who  is  the  original  per- 
son? Just  the  person  that  has  some 
slides  that  were  made  at  home.  Most  of 
us  have  the  same  old,  tiresome  slides. 
When  we  have  to  make  conversation,  what 
do  we  do?  Go  to  the  pigeon-hole,  take  out 
a  slide,  put  it  into  our  minds  and  then 
reflect  it  to  our  friends.  We  have  to  be 
able  to  talk  on  a  great  variety  of  subjects. 
In  the  nature  of  things  we  could  not  think 
out  these  things  for  ourselves.  Society 
has  provided  the  slides.  There  they  are, 
like  a  well-organized  collection,  a  card  cat- 
alog, with  a  topical  index.  To  suppose 
that  we   make  the  slides   ourselves   is   a 


grateful  illusion.  There  may  be  a  few  who 
do,  but  most  of  us  get  ours  from  the  stock 
houses  in  New  York  and  Chicago. 

Was  there  ever  a  time  when  pictorial 
imagery  was  presented  to  the  public  as  in 
these  days?  These  are  the  days  when 
people's  minds  are  filled  with  visual  Im- 
agery as  never  before  in  the  history  of 
mankind.  And  never  before  was  the  same 
imagery  spread  over  so  wide  an  area. 
Think,  for  example,  of  what  cartoons  do. 
Cartoons  are  a  substitute  for  thinking. 
Cartoons  are  ready-made  slides.  Cartoons 
are  arguments  ready  to  serve.  Cartoons 
demand  no  Intellectual  effort.  They  would 
not  be  successful  as  cartoons  if  they  did. 
A  cartoon  which  you  have  to  analyze  is  in 
the  nature  of  things  a  mistake  and  a  dis- 
appointment. A  cartoon  tells  the  story  In- 
stantly. It  is  a  slide  put  into  the  minds 
of  millions  of  people  in  a  single  week. 
Then  consider  the  imagery  sent  out  by  the 
illustrated  magazines.  There  Is  only  one 
magazine,  I  think,  now,  that  does  not  have 
illustrations.  Some  of  us  take  it  just  for 
that  reason.  It  has  a  kind  of  distinction 
on  that  account.  The  Atlantic  Monthly 
has  no  illustrations  except  In  the  advertis- 
ing pages — some  of  those  are  very  good — 
but  it  has  that  sense  of  uniqueness,  that 
kind  of  snobbishness,  which  is  appreciated 
even  in  a  democracy  like  our  glorious  de- 
mocracy, where  we  are  all  free  and  equal,  as 
contrasted  with  the  social  distinctions  of 
this  monarchy  under  which  we  are  so  hos- 
pitably received  this  evening.  It  is  a  mis- 
take to  suppose  that  the  visual  is  sug- 
gested merely  by  drawings  and  photo- 
graphs. When  we  go  to  a  lecture  on 
"Mother,  Home  and  Heaven"  we  expect 
the  speaker  In  lieu  of  lantern  slides  to 
supply  "word  pictures."  The  Sunday  sup- 
plement Is  the  absolute  symbol  of  our  state 
of  mind. 

As  we  haven't  time  to  think — i.  e.,  to 
make  our  own  slides — naturally  we  haven't 
time  to  bring  our  collection  together  to  see 
whether  It  is  consistent.  We  are  going 
about  with  a  most  extraordinary  selection 
of  slides.  The  only  reason  we  get  along 
with  peace  of  mind  is  that  we  do  not  take 


178 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


our  slides  out  of  the  different  boxes  at  the 
same  time.  You  keep  your  religious  slides 
in  one  box,  your  moral  slides  in  another, 
your  business  slides  in  another,  your  pro- 
fessional slides  in  another — and  never  take 
anything  out  of  two  pigeon-holes  at  once. 
For  that  reason  you  go  through  life  with- 
out knowing  what  an  extraordinary  col- 
lection of  hopelessly  contradictory  and  mu- 
tually destructive  ideas  you  are  carrying 
about  under  that  hat  of  yours.  It  is  only 
by  keeping  these  things  in  their  boxes  that 
we  have  anything  like  peace  of  mind.  A 
few  people,  of  course,  are  constantly  going 
through  their  boxes,  sifting,  reorganizing 
and  unifying  their  collections.  These  are 
the  men  and  women  who  think,  who  have 
courage,  and  for  the  most  part  they  rep- 
resent genuine  leadership.  But  most  of 
us  are  satisfied  to  get  our  slides  ready 
made,  to  get  them  in  quantities  and  to 
have  them  remain  a  most  heterogeneous 
accumulation. 

There  is  a  vast  popular  demand  for 
ready-made  slides.  In  every  possible  way 
these  substitutes  for  thought  are  being 
sent  out.  Political  slides  are  industriously 
distributed.  You  notice  the  difficulty  that 
you  have  just  now  in  talking  about  the 
political  situation  in  our  glorious  country. 
We  do  not  yet  know  what  to  say.  You  see, 
the  slides  haven't  yet  been  sent  out  for 
this  week.  We  have  to  wait  until  the  slide 
makers  put  them  on  the  market.  We  are 
all  waiting  to  know  what,  to  say;  we  are 
all  waiting  for  a  new  set  of  slides  which 
shall  be  adjusted  to  the  new  conditions. 
If  you  bring  out  that  old  slide  about  the 
Republican  party  that  saved  the  country — 
No!  You  don't  want  to  say  anything  about 
that.  You  see  at  once,  even  though  it  has 
saved  the  country  for  years — you  can  see 
that  that  slide  won't  do.    It  is  cracked. 

Pardon  a  digression  which  enforces  the 
point  that  in  these  days  everything  has  to 
be  pictorial.  You  see,  when  I  am  address- 
ing a  group  of  librarians  in  a  jaded  condi- 
tion, I  have  to  use  pictorial  illustrations. 
It  is  true,  I  should  like  to  be  didactic  and 
pedagogic  on  an  occasion  like  this,  but  you 
are  in  a  psychological  condition  which 
makes  it  absolutely  Impossible.    Even  the 


thought  of  listening  to  these  songs  that 
are  coming  afterward,  would  not  keep  you 
if  I  were  not  constantly  pictorial  and  keep- 
ing your  minds  filled  with  this  beguiling 
imagery. 

Imagery,  then,  is  absolutely  essential; 
self-control  and  social  control  are  depend- 
ent upon  the  distribution  of  appropriate 
mental  slides.  The  very  life  of  the  nation 
depends  upon  this.  Here  we  are,  nearly  a 
hundred  million  people — we  always  in- 
clude children — whose  slides  must  be  sup- 
plied and  in  some  fashion  unified.  The  im- 
agination breaks  down  at  the  thought  of 
this  vast  task.  This  national  like-minded- 
ness  is  a  glorious  achievement.  It  has 
never  been  equaled  anywhere  on  the  face 
of  the  earth.  To  keep  these  millions  of 
people,  who  are  scattered  over  three  mil- 
lion square  miles,  with  the  same  funda- 
mental pictures  in  their  heads  is  a  mar- 
velous triumph. 

That  we  are  the  most  progressive,  the 
most  mighty,  the  most  highly  civilized 
country  on  the  face  of  the  world — that  is  a 
gorgeous  colored  slide,  which  we  keep  on 
hand  all  the  time.  There  are  a  lot  of 
slides  like  that,  that  are  common  to  every- 
body. True,  we  have  slides  specialized  for 
the  use  of  various  social  groups,  but  the 
fundamental  slides  that  preserve  our  na- 
tionality, are  common  to  millions. 

We  have  to  have  institutions  that  keep 
these  slides  vivid  in  the  minds  of  our  peo- 
ple. It  Is  the  greatest  attempt  at  social 
control  that  has  ever  been  conceived. 

But  the  national  slide  industry  is  by  no 
means  perfected.  On  the  whole,  there  is 
an  appalling  number  of  these  pictures  that 
are  vulgar  slides,  cheap  slides,  common- 
place slides,  uninteresting  slides.  It  Is 
your  business — for  now  I  come  to  my  an- 
alogy— it  is  your  business,  as  the  people 
who  are  running  the  moving-picture  con- 
cerns of  the  United  States,  to  see  to  it 
that  better  pictures  are  put  into  the  minds 
of  your  fellow  citizens.  You  have  the 
responsibility  of  superseding  In  the  mental 
collections  of  millions  of  our  citizens  slides 
that  are  cheap  and  unworthy  and  inac- 
curate and  misleading,  with  mental  pic- 
tures that  are  clean-cut,  trustworthy,  in- 


VINCENT 


179 


forming  and  inspiring.  That  is  your  busi- 
ness. You  are  in  competition  witli  the 
moving-picture  houses.  There  are  nine 
thousand  of  these  moving-picture  concerns 
working  night  and  day  in  the  United 
States,  filling  the  minds  of  people  with 
mental  imagery.  But  every  library  is  full 
of  potential  mental  pictures  which  can  be 
made  interesting,  ennobling  and  uplifting 
to  millions  of  people.  It  is  your  privilege 
to  get  these  slides  out  into  circulation,  a 
mighty  appealing  thing  to  do,  a  splendidly 
stirring  thing  to  do.  I  hope  you  are  thor- 
oughly alert  as  members  of  this  mental 
picture  syndicate.  You  know  what  you 
have  to  do.  You  must  advertise  and  you 
must  capture  the  public  in  every  possible 
way;  you  must  not  be  ashamed  to  put  out 
posters  describing  the  wonderful  pictures. 

And  what  rare  pictures  you  have !  What 
is  a  novel?  It  is  a  film  of  moving  pictures. 
What  is  a  great  novel?  It  is  a  series  of 
great  pictures — and  what  lovely  pictures 
they  may  be;  what  interesting,  what  in- 
spiring pictures  they  may  be!  What  a 
great  collection  of  such  mental  pictures 
you  have  in  your  libraries!  And  when 
people  read  George  Barr  McCutcheon,  try 
to  get  that  film  away  from  them  and  give 
them  George  Meredith.  You  laugh  at  that, 
but  how  about  "Harry  Richmond?"  Isn't  it 
as  good  a  story  as  ever  Anthony  Hope  or 
as  ever  George  Barr  McCutcheon  wrote? 
It  is  a  good  slide,  a  good  film.  When  peo- 
ple come  and  want  to  read  Laura  Jean 
Libbey — of  course  you  wouldn't  have  her  on 
the  premises — but  if  that  is  their  standard 
try  to  work  off  Robert  Louis  on  them.  You 
know,  there  are  some  of  Robert  Louis'  that 
are  fairly  sensational.  You  can  get  people 
started  on  the  right  road  with  Robert 
Louis  if  you  go  about  it  in  a  clever  way  to 
pull  the  cheap  slides  out  of  people's  minds. 

But,  you  say,  there  are  a  lot  of  people 
whose  mental  apparatus,  if  I  may  modify 
the  figure  a  little  bit, — no,  it  is  not  a  mod- 
ification, it  is  an  amplification,  it  is  a  per- 
fectly logical  development  of  the  figure, — 
you  say  that  for  a  good  many  people  you 
want  a  magic  lantern  in  their  mind  that 
will  focus  properly.  That  is  the  business 
of  education.    That  is  what  Dr.  Robertson 


and  I  are  trying  to  do,  to  make  the  minds 
of  the  young  focus  properly,  on  the  right 
sort  of  things.  You  must  get  a  great  deal 
of  inaccurate  information  made  accurate 
and  definite.  You  know,  one  of  the  great 
troubles  with  our  educational  system  is 
that  our  ideas  are  so  haphazard,  so  un- 
trustworthy. 

The  scientific  slides  need  looking  after 
carefully.  They  are  changed  every  few 
minutes,  but  we  have  to  do  the  best  we 
can  to  run  the  latest  and  most  trustworthy 
slides  into  the  minds  of  the  people.  Then 
think  of  the  literary  slides.  I  was  very 
much  interested  in  the  discussion  this 
morning.  I  fear  it  will  go  on  indefinitely 
as  long  as  the  gentlemen  do  not  define  their 
terms.  But  I  think  if  they  were  to  do  this 
they  would  discover  that  they  both  believe 
about  the  same  thing. 

But  here  at  hand  is  the  real  application 
of  this  figure.  What  is  it  that  makes  life 
interesting?  It  is  to  be  able  to  associate 
with  the  ordinary,  commonplace  experi- 
ences of  life  an  illuminating,  inspiring,  fas- 
cinating imagery.  Do  you  realize  that  the 
books  in  your  library  give  no  pleasure 
whatever  except  as  they  interpret  life  to 
people  who  bring  the  experience  of  life  to 
the  books?  A  book  is  a  mere  dead  symbol 
until  it  becomes  vital  in  the  life  of  a  living 
man  or  woman.  You  have  books  in  your 
library  in  foreign  languages.  These  books 
are  sealed  to  people  who  do  not  know 
those  foreign  languages.  You  would  not 
think  of  offering  a  French  or  German  book, 
say,  to  an  average  college  graduate.  You 
must  have  people  who  understand  the 
language  in  which  books  are  written.  So 
when  you  give  a  book  of  history  or  a  book 
of  science  or  a  book  of  poetry  to  a  man  or 
woman,  that  man  or  woman  must  bring  a 
little  bit  of  life,  a  little  gleam  of  life  ex- 
perience, in  order  to  get  into  any  kind  of 
relationship  with  that  book.  Then  the 
book  reacts  and  becomes  a  guide  for  the 
further  investigation  and  interpretation  of 
life.  And  so  the  book  and  life  together  go 
on  enriching  human  experience. 

I  wish  we  had  more  accurate  slides 
about  history,  especially  about  the  French 
Revolution.    We  mostly  get  our  slides  on 


180 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


the  French  Revolution  from  the  Sunday 
evening  sermons  of  eminent  divines  who 
are  proving  that  the  French  Revolution 
was  completely  parallel  with  our  times. 
and  that  France  went  to  the  bad  largely 
because  the  Church  was  temporarily  dis- 
established. Now,  if  we  get  our  slides  of 
the  French  Revolution  from  popular  pul- 
pits and  from  stump  speakers  we  shall  get 
some  curious  pictures.  We  want  to  put 
Into  the  minds  of  the  people  the  slides 
from  men  like  Morse  Stephens  and  von 
Hoist  before  we  introduce  those  lurid  and 
beautifully  colored  slides  from  Carlyle  and 
those  rather  melodramatic  slides  from  "A 
tale  of  two  cities."  Then  there  is  the  fall 
of  Rome,  for  example.  Anybody  can  ex- 
plain the  fall  of  Rome,  and  we  are  always 
upon  the  brink  of  a  French  revolution. 
What  we  need  is  an  accurate  picture  of 
what  caused  Rome  to  fall.  Then  as  for 
Greece — Greece,  that  magic  word!  We 
need  a  lot  of  pictures  about  Greece.  I 
have  a  good  deal  of  interest  in  classic  cul- 
ture if  it  can  be,  for  a  large  number  of 
people,  divorced  from  the  classic  lan- 
guages. To  suppose  that  there  is  an  iden- 
tity between  Greek  grammar  and  Greek 
life,  its  social  institutions  and  its  aspira- 
tions and  their  lessons  for  us,  is  to  make 
a  very  serious  blunder.  You  have  noticed 
that  an  eminent  Greek  scholar  from  Eng- 
land has  been  lecturing  at  Amherst.  Did 
he  talk  about  grammar?  No,  He  talked 
about  the  philosophy  of  Greece,  the  poli- 
tics of  Greece,  the  social  history  of  Greece. 
These  are  things  we  need;  for,  my  friends, 
you  know,  and  you  need  to  preach  this 
doctrine,  that  modernity  defeats  itself.  To 
suppose  that  reading  the  daily  newspaper 
and  having  the  mind  filled  with  contem- 
porary events  gives  any  one  a  right  to 
judge  of  those  events,  is  absurdity  Itself. 
We  can  understand  the  present  only  as 
we  can  connect  that  present  with  the  past. 
Therefore,  if  we  are  to  have  an  intelligent 
population  many  men  must  have  a  vivid 
and  accurate  panorama  of  human  history; 
they  must  be  able  to  see  the  present  in 
the  light  of  the  past,  and  then  to  predict 
with     some     little     degree     of     certainty 


what  we  are  to  have  In  the  future.  Look, 
for  example,  at  our  present  crisis.  I  am 
not  going  to  Interpret  it,  I  do  not  under- 
stand it;  but  we  cannot  possibly  see  be- 
neath the  surface  of  it  unless  we  try  to 
Interpret  it  in  the  light  of  the  experience 
of  other  nations.  What  have  all  the  great 
nations  of  Western  Europe  done?  When 
we  ask  that  question,  and  when  we  see 
how  parties  are  aligned  in  this  Dominion 
where  we  meet  to-night,  we  cannot  fail  to 
get  a  little  light  upon  what  is  going  on  at 
home.  There  the  same  social  forces  are  at 
work,  under  different  conditions,  to  be 
sure,  but  working  themselves  out  In- 
evitably. 

So  it  is  our  business  to  fill  the  minds  of 
our  fellow  citizens  with  accurate  pictures, 
with  definite  pictures,  with  pictures  of 
reality,  with  pictures  which  shall  illumine 
every  department  of  life.  If  there  is  any 
aim  in  education,  it  seems  to  me  it  is  to 
make  man  a  citizen  of  the  world,  to  make 
him  at  home  in  nature,  at  home  with  man- 
kind, at  home  with  all  the  great  forces 
which  play  a  part  In  his  personal  develop- 
ment, which  sweep  through  him  into  the 
lives  of  generations  yet  unborn.  When  his 
mind  is  filled  with  such  pictures,  when  the 
spectator  within  him  goes  out  to  the  best 
and  finest  and  truest  of  these  pictures  with 
genuine  appreciation,  then  you  have  the 
development  of  personality  and  the  devel- 
opment of  a  great  civilization. 

You,  my  friends,  are  the  keepers  of 
these  films  and  slides.  It  is  your  business 
to  see  that  they  are  well  chosen,  to  see 
that  they  are  made  available,  to  see  that 
the  people  are  stimulated,  that  the  people 
are  made  to  realize  vividly  what  it  means 
to  have  their  minds  filled  with  these  true, 
these  beautiful,  these  inspiring  pictures 
which  will  enable  them  to  interpret  life, 
to  enter  into  it  more  richly,  to  get  out  of 
it  more  joy,  the  joy  of  intelligent  appre- 
ciation, the  joy  of  work  well  done,  scien- 
tifically done,  the  joy  of  comradeship,  the 
joy  of  association  in  great  enterprises. 
When  these  pictures  fill  the  mind,  when 
the  spectator  within  is  loyal  to  them,  then 
there    is    richness    of   personal    life,    then 


VINCENT 


181 


there  is  genuine  advancement  of  civili- 
zation. 

Imagery  is  the  clue  to  conduct.  With- 
out mental  imagery  there  can  be  no  de- 
velopment of  character.  Without  mental 
imagery  there  can  be  no  social  progress. 
This  mental  imagery  comes  from  the  ex- 
perience of  life.  You  are  not  the  sole  pur- 
veyors of  it.  Books,  as  I  have  said,  are 
dead  and  inert  things  until  men  with  some 
experience  of  life  come  to  them  for  further 
insight  and  for  guidance  as  they  go  their 
way  trying  to  understand  life  and  to  inter- 
pret it  more  truly  and  to  get  out  of  it 
greater  richness. 

There  is  a  delight  in  mental  pictures. 
May  our  pictures  be  interesting  and  true 
and  ennobling,  may  they  increase  in  num- 
ber as  the  years  go  on,  may  they  open  up 
to  us  vistas  of  personal  satisfaction,  give 
us  keener  insight  into  the  meaning  of  life 
and  stir  us  to  larger  loyalties  and  to  truer 
service.  May  we  pledge  ourselves  to  this 
great  work  and  to  the  furthering  and  fos- 
tering of  those  things  which  Watson  has 
so  finely  called  "the  things  that  are  more 
excellent." 

"The  grace  of  friendship,  mind  and  heart 

Linked  with  their  fellow  heart  and  mind, 
The  gains  of  science,  gifts  of  art. 

The  sense  of  oneness  with  our  kind, 
The  thirst  to  know  and  understand, 

A  large  and  liberal  discontent, 
These  are  the  goods  in  life's  rich  hand. 

The  things  that  are  more  excellent." 

At  the  conclusion  of  President  Vincent's 
address,  Mr.  Lawrence  J.  Burpee  an- 
nounced that  M.  Amedee  Tremblay,  or- 
ganist of  the  Basilica,  would  accompany 
a  number  of  Canadian  folk  songs  which 
M.  Normandin,  of  Montreal,  would  sing. 
They  were  given  in  three  groups  of  three, 
and  between  each  group  was  given  one  of 
Dr.  Drummond's  poems  in  character,  by 
Mr.  Heney,  of  Ottawa,  a  most  excellent  in- 
terpreter of  these  sketches  of  the  French- 
Canadian  habitant. 

These  unique,  interesting  and  well  ren- 
dered contributions  to  the  exercises  of 
the  evening  were  much  appreciated  by 
all  present,   and  at  their  conclusion  the 


session  closed  with  a  brief  but  hearty  ex- 
pression of  acknowledgment  from  Presi- 
dent Elmendorf. 

SIXTH  GENERAL  SESSION 

(Russell  Theatre,  Tuesday,  July  2, 
3  p.  m.) 

President  Elmendorf  occupied  the  chair. 

Mr.  CARR:  Many  of  us  appreciate  the 
work  done  in  days  past  by  Frederick 
W.  Faxon,  in  personally  conducting  our 
post-conference  tours.  Business  obliged 
him  to  take  another  course  this  year  and 
cross  the  water.  It  has  been  suggested 
that  we  send  him  a  wireless  despatch  of 
appreciation  and  felicitation  in  the  name 
of  the  association.  Madam  President,  I 
move  the  authorization  of  such  a  tele- 
gram. 

The  motion  was  carried  unanimously, 
and  the  cablegram  ordered  sent. 

The  PRESIDENT:  Now,  we  will  pro- 
ceed with  the  regular  program,  which 
brings  us  to  the  last  of  our  series  grow- 
ing out  of  the  idea  of  service  to  the  indi- 
vidual, and  we  shall  take  pleasure  in 
hearing  Mr.  CARL  B.  RODEN,  assistant 
librarian,  Chicago  public  library,  on 

BOOK     ADVERTISING:      INFORMATION 

AS  TO  SUBJECT  AND  SCOPE 

OF  BOOKS 

At  my  first  A.  L.  A.  conference,  that  of 
Waukesha,  now  eleven  years  ago,  I  heard 
discussed  that  topic  ever  fruitful  of  dis- 
cussion: the  librarian's  attitude  toward 
those  books  which  are  technically  known 
as  'off-color.'  The  indignant  resentment 
of  that  part  of  the  public  which  failed  to 
appreciate  the  censorious  solicitude  of  the 
librarian  was  vividly  set  forth,  and  there 
were  those  who  felt  that  the  only  per- 
manent way  out  was,  in  the  words  of 
George  Ade,  to  "give  the  public  what  it 
thinks  it  wants."  But  the  Librarian  of 
Congress,  in  defending  the  library's  point 
of  view,  uttered  a  remark  which,  as  his 
remarks  have  a  habit  of  doing,  clarified 
the  atmosphere  as  a  Chicago  lake  breeze 
lifts   a   fog,    and    we   settled    back   again 


182 


OTTAWA'  CONFERENCE 


serene  in  the  knowledge  that  our  ortho- 
doxy had  once  more  been  vindicated  and 
set  upon  its  firm  foundations. 

He  said,  in  effect,  that  the  duty  of  the 
librarian  was  not  exclusion  but  selection 
and  that  in  the  full  consciousness  of  his 
responsibility  to  the  entire  community  he, 
the  librarian,  must  exercise  fully  and 
freely  his  prerogative  of  selecting,  out  of 
the  multitude  of  books,  those  which  best 
suited  his  purpose  and  served  his  ends. 

The  phrase  "not  exclusion  but  selection" 
struck  at  least  one  in  that  audience  as  so 
clear  and  telling  a  characterization  of  the 
librarian's  business  that  he  has  kept  it  in 
mind,  and  well  within  reach  for  instant 
use,  ever  since.  Many  times  it  has  served 
to  confound  the  irate  patron  who  com- 
batively insisted  that  he  was  old  enough 
to  judge  for  himself  what  was  good  for 
him.  Not  a  few  times  has  it  been  the 
stone  offered  the  facetious  newspaper  man 
who  came  seeking  for  bread  in  the  form 
of  a  "story"  on  the  "barring  out"  of  the 
latest  shady  novel.  Today  It  recurs  again 
as  a  fitting  text  upon  which  to  base  a  plea 
for  the  more  effective  advertising  of  books 
as  to  subject  and  scope,  and  I  trust  that 
my  exegesis  may  not  prove  too  violent  to 
establish  the  relation  between  my  text  and 
my  topic,  which  to  my  mind  is  close  and 
intimate. 

A  library,  of  the  kind  with  which  we  are 
now  concerned,  is  first  of  all — and  after 
all — a  collection  of  books,  selected  and  as- 
sembled by  the  librarian.  It  may  be  so 
administered  as  to  become  a  great  civic 
force,  a  social  instrument,  an  educational 
agency,  but  first  of  all  it  is  a  collection  of 
units,  brought  together  upon  certain  prin- 
ciples as  they  operate  in  the  mind  of  the 
library's  administrator.  Now,  the  word 
"administer"  is  a  transitive  verb,  one  de- 
finition of  which  is:  "to  manage,  to  con- 
duct, as  in  public  affairs,"  and  another, 
"to  serve,  to  dispense,  as  in  medicine." 
We  may  so  administer — manage,  conduct 
— the  library  as  to  render  it  a  power  for 
the  advancement  of  humanity,  and  when 
we  do  that  we  are  responding  to  the  im- 
pulse which  is  generated  in  the  very  air 


which    we   in    this    age    of    advancement 
breathe. 

Or  we  may  administer — serve,  dis- 
pense— the  books,  as  in  medicine;  know- 
ing the  powers  and  the  virtues  of  each; 
perceiving  the  stimulating  effects  of  one, 
the  acceleration  of  heart  action  induced 
by  another;  this  one  as  an  emollient  and 
an  anodyne,  that  one  as  a  vesicatory  or 
an  excitant;  here  a  bromide,  there  a  sul- 
phite, yonder  a  tincture  blandly  dissolved 
in  a  vehicle  of  simple  syrup,  next  a  pill, 
sugar-coated,  but  none  the  less  a  stem  and 
bitter  dose.  And  when  we  do  that  we  are 
returning  to  the  habits  and  practices  of 
that  "old  librarian"  so  useful  to  use  now 
as  a  horrible  example  and  a  subject  for 
humorous  divagation,  but  we  are  also  re- 
turning to  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the 
saints,  for  after  all.  the  Fathers  believed 
with  Lord  Bacon  that  "some  books  are  to 
be  tasted,  others  to  be  swallowed  and 
some  few  to  be  chewed  and  digested"  and 
they  did  love  to  administer  them  "as  in 
medicine." 

It  is  far  from  my  intention  to  imply  that 
the  new  librarian  does  not  know  his  books. 
Certainly  he  has  not  surrendered  one 
ounce  of  his  faith  in  their  potency.  Rather 
does  he  impute  to  them,  collectively, 
greater  powers  than  ever  before,  regard- 
ing his  library  as  a  moral  unit  of  large  in- 
fluence and  seeking  to  extend  its  operation 
to  the  uttermost  limits  of  his  jurisdiction. 
But  is  it  not  thus  collectively  that  he  pre- 
fers to  regard  and  administer  it;  as  a 
great,  powerful  moral  force  which  shall 
permeate  the  community  and  envelop  it 
so  that,  by  a  sort  of  intellectual  pantheism, 
we  may  all  be  in  tune  with  the  Infinite  If 
we  but  open  the  windows  of  the  soul?  Is 
he  not  being  borne  along  in  the  modem 
tiend  in  therapeutics  which  is  replacing 
doses  and  cordials,  tinctures  and  bitter 
pills  with  a  state  of  mind? 

Creating  the  library  habit  by  such 
methods:  by  putting  the  library  in  the  way 
of  the  public  and  making  it  a  familiar  and 
consuetudinal  part  of  the  environment; 
pervading  the  civic  fabric  and  injecting  it- 
self into  the  daily  life  of  the  citizen,  is  one 


RODEN 


183 


thing.  It  is  a  very  great  and  glorious 
thing.  To  the  multitude  it  has  opened  new 
channels  of  relaxation,  of  stimulation,  of 
mental  growth  and  moral  adjustment.  Its 
possibilities  have  not  been  overstated 
even  by  the  librarian  himself.  And  on  the 
day  when  librarians  discovered  the  means 
and  perfected  the  methods  which  set  the 
library  in  that  commanding  and  strategic 
position,  on  that  day  they  set  themselves 
in  their  rightful  place  as  public  educators 
and  added  a  powerful  impulse  to  that  di- 
vine momentum  by  which  humanity  is  be- 
ing driven  forward  toward  the  goal  of  per- 
fection which  must  be  its  destiny.  But 
creating  the  reading  habit — well,  is  that 
quite  the  same  thing?  And  if  it  be  not 
quite  the  same  thing,  are  librarians  still 
concerned  as  much  as  formerly  with  pro- 
moting the  generation  of  the  reading  habit 
as  a  part — say  the  lesser  half — of  their 
task?  And  if  librarians  are  so  concerned, 
are  they — are  we — using  the  most  effec- 
tive methods  to  advance  that  part  of  our 
task?  And  is  advertising  the  library  just 
the  same  thing  as  advertising  the  books? 
It  is  by  the  consideration  of  these  ques- 
tions that  I  hope  to  expound  my  text  and 
deal  with  the  topic  assigned  to  me,. 

The  library  habit  is  akin  to  the  museum 
habit,  the  public  conservatory  habit  and 
the  menagerie  habit,  and  differs  from  the 
reading  habit  as  visits  to  these  institu- 
tions differ  from  cultivating  your  own 
garden  patch  or  rearing  your  own  pets. 
Perhaps  the  logical  conclusion  of  these 
comparisons  would  seem  to  be  that  one 
must  own  one's  books,  but  happily  one 
does  not  have  to  own  a  book's  body  in 
order  to  possess  its  soul.  Our  present  li- 
brary machinery  is  admirably  adapted  to 
the  nurture  of  the  library  habit.  Open 
shelves,  book  display  racks,  branches  in 
which  all  visible  barriers  and  restrictions 
have  become  as  obsolete  as  the  "keep  off 
the  grass"  signs  in  the  parks,  all  these  in- 
vite the  promiscuous  and  profuse  handling 
of  books,  the  sipping  and  skipping,  the 
skimming  and  returning  for  more.  Our 
card  catalogs  with  their  stern  non- 
committalness  and  deadly  monotony  make 


it  necessary  for  the  reference  patron  to 
call  for  whole  armfuls  of  books  which  he 
fumbles  hastily,  scouring  the  index  and 
tables  of  contents,  and  laying  them  aside 
for  the  next  dip  into  the  grab  bag.  Our 
monthly  bulletins,  presenting  in  serried 
ranks  the  accessions  of  the  month, 
severely  marshalled  by  the  rules  of  the 
decimal  classification,  and  with  one  title 
closely  followed  by  the  next,  so  that  the 
roaming  eye  is  constantly  caught  by  new 
and  ever  more  attractive  possibilities  for 
skipping  and  skimming — what  could  be 
devised  more  effectively  to  promote  that 
species  of  gluttony  which  is  indicated  by 
long  lists  of  call  numbers  of  books  which 
we  simply  must  see  before  next  month's 
bulletin  appears  with  another  long  list? 
All  these  things  conduce  to  high  circula- 
tion statistics  and  are  therefore  grateful  to 
our  senses.  But  how  many  of  them  are 
calculated  to  impart  the  reading  habit,  are 
effective  in  instilling  "much  love  and  some 
knowledge  of  books"  as  a  distinguished  li- 
brarian has  paraphrased  it  in  a  recent 
lecture?  How  far  does  any  of  this  ma- 
chinery go  in  advertising  books  as  to  their 
subject  and  scope,  as  the  program  has  it? 
The  science  of  advertising  claims  a 
psychological  basis  all  its  own.  Perhaps 
it  is  no  psychology  at  all  but  only  a  func- 
tioning of  instinct  that  causes  us  to  re- 
spond, and  often  capitulate  in  the  end,  to 
the  ceaseless  reiteration  and  ever-present 
insistence  upon  a  given  assertion.  But 
whatever  it  is,  it  reacts  upon  the  volition 
in  so  compelling  a  manner  as  to  justify, 
even  in  the  final  acid  test  of  the  cash  book, 
the  enormous  outlay  of  money  poured 
forth  in  arousing  it.  And  the  keynote  of 
it  all  is,  not  the  fact  of  the  reiteration, 
though  that  is  important,  but  the  over- 
powering irresistible  confidence  with 
which  the  assertion  is  put  forth.  The  ad- 
vertiser who  would  go  before  his  public 
with  the  guarded  statement  that  "our  soap 
seems  to  be  a  very  good  soap  and  barring 
certain  blemishes,  a  very  desirable  ar- 
ticle," or  would  quote  somebody's  else 
testimonials  (a  practice  now  employed 
only  by  those  Ishmaelites  of  commerce. 


184 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


the  patent  medicines)    might  spread   his 
placards  in  a  solid  wall  across  the  country, 
with  no  other  result  than  that  of  obliter- 
ating the  landscape  which  now  he  only 
makes   hideous.     Yet  I  ask  whether  the 
foregoing   does   not   fairly   represent   the 
general   style   of  book  annotations   in   li- 
brary   publications,    when   we    treat    our- 
selves to  the  luxury  of  annotations  at  all? 
Yet  the  business  man  and  the  librarian 
both  need  publicity,  and  that  which  each 
should  secure  varies  from  the  other  only 
in  degree,  not  in  kind  nor  in  the  object 
primarily  to  be  attained  by  it,  namely,  the 
patronage  of  the   public.     The   merchant 
seeks  this  patronage  for  his  own  ends  of 
private  gain;  the  librarian,  for  ends  which 
he  knows  to  be  of  higher  value  and  of 
greater  consequence  to  the  life  of  the  com- 
munity.    The  former  offers  for  sale  an 
article  which  he  has  manufactured  or  pur- 
chased, and  to  the  use  of  which  he  sets 
out   to    convert    the    public    by    methods 
which  have  been  found  effective,  though 
they  are  expensive.     The  latter  buys  his 
goods,   not,   let   us   hope,  with   quite   the 
same  purpose  of  securing  only  such  as  are 
likely  to  appeal  to  the  passing  fancy  of  his 
constituency.    His  aim  being  higher  than 
the  mere  gratification  of   tastes  and   de- 
sires, he  applies  higher  standards  to  his 
purchases.      His    business    is    selection. 
Every  book  that  he  adds  to  the  library  he 
first  selects  out  of  all  that  are  offered,  and 
each  selection  is  fortified  and  backed  by 
his   deliberate  judgment  that   that  parti- 
cular  book   will  be  a   good   one   for  his 
public.    He  knows  why  it  is  so,  and  now 
it  becomes  his  business  to  convince  his 
patrons  that  it  is  so,  and  to  induce  them 
to  profit  by  the  selection  which  he  has 
made.    How  does  he  go  about  it? 

His  task  is  both  easier  and  more  dif- 
ficult than  that  of  the  merchant.  Easier, 
because  he  asks  nothing  more  intrinsi- 
cally valuable  than  time  and  thought; 
more  difficult,  because  to  most  people  the 
use  of  a  book  is  not  yet  so  proximate  a 
need  as  a  safety  razor  or  even  a  cake  of 
soap.  In  common  with  the  merchant  he 
1b  striving  to  secure  that  Indispensable  ele- 


ment upon  which  every  human  transaction 
between  two  parties  must  rest,  namely, 
the  confidence  of  those  with  whom  he 
seeks  to  deal:  confidence  in  his  motives, 
in  his  judgment,  and  in  the  value  of  the 
service  which  he  offers  to  perform.  And 
v/hile  the  merchant  constantly  faces  the 
danger  of  losing  the  faith  of  the  public 
through  the  easily  aroused  distrust  of  the 
value  of  that  which  he  offers,  the  librarian 
finds  even  greater  difficulty  in  overcoming 
the  fear  that  his  design  is  the  philan- 
thropic one  of  uplifting  and  improving 
their  mental  condition  instead  of  merely 
amusing  them.  While  the  one  must  com- 
bat the  lurking  suspicion  of  his  customers 
that  he  may  be  "doing"  them,  the  other 
must  dissimulate  lest  he  be  discovered  in 
the  act  of  "doing  them  good." 

Each,  then,  is  under  the  same  necessity 
of  securing  the  attention  of  the  public,  and 
ultimately  for  the  same  end:   that  of  en- 
suring    the     prosperity     and     consistent 
growth  of  his  enterprise.    We  know  how 
the  merchant  advertises.    Now,  how  does 
the    librarian    advertise?      By    means    of 
catalogs,     bulletins,     reading     lists,     oc- 
casionally  by   space    in   the   newspapers, 
when  that  can  be  had  free.     Very  good 
means,  these, — for  advertising  the  library; 
for  implanting  the  library  habit.    But  very 
poor  and  weak  means,  indeed,  for  adver- 
tising the  books  or  instilling  the  reading 
habit.    Books  are  not  advertised  in  library 
publications,  except  incidentally,  for  you 
cannot  advertise  a  book  merely  by  men- 
tioning its  name,  or  copying  its  title  page. 
In  his  spacious  and  optimistic  way  the 
librarian,  when  speaking  ex  cathedra,  in 
library  publications,   vests  himself,  with- 
out intending  to,  in  a  sort  of  cloak  of  In- 
fallibility as  unbecoming  as  it  is  unnatural, 
saying:  "Behold,  I  bring  you  the  books  of 
the  month;  they  are  good  books  or  they 
would  not  be  here.    That  is  enough  for  you 
to  know.     I  have  spoken!"     And  yet  he 
has  at  his  command  twice  over  the  chief 
essential  ingredient  of  all  good  advertis- 
ing, namely,  confidence.    Confidence  in  the 
righteousness   of   his    mission    and    confi- 
dence in  the  merit  and  integrity  of  his  book 


RODEN 


185 


selection,  and  in  the  conscientious  meth- 
ods employed  in  making  it.  Why  does  he 
not  try  to  do  a  little  of  that  which  the 
merchant  spends  millions  in  trying  to  do 
— transmit  that  confidence  to  his  patron? 
Why,  when  his  business  is  book  selection, 
and  he  knows  he  prosecutes  it  faithfully, 
is  he  so  afraid  of  being  caught  at  it? 

The  monthly  bulletins  of  our  public  li- 
braries, with  a  few  shining  exceptions, 
are  bare  and  bald  author  and  title  lists  em- 
ploying that  deadliest  of  all  monotonous 
forms,  the  catalog  entry.  Now,  I  have 
been  too  long  apprenticed  to  the  trade  of 
the  cataloger  to  find  it  in  my  heart  to  cavil 
at  his  art  and  the  carefully  evolved,  scien- 
tifically derived  principles  upon  which  it 
rests.  But  when  the  cataloger  is  "a- 
cataloging"  he  is  not  writing  advertising 
copy.  He  is  making  a  permanent  record, 
and  he  is  following  certain  rules  which 
long  experience  has  established  and  vindi- 
cated as  good  and  necessary  for  that  pur- 
pose. He  finds  it  necessary  to  establish, 
beyond  the  possibility  of  confusion,  the 
absolute  identity  of  an  author,  and  he  does 
this  by  giving  that  author  his  full  and  cor- 
rect name,  stripping  him  of  all  disguises 
and  never  heeding  the  fact  that  the  author 
himself  may  have  been  trying  through  all 
his  years  of  discretion  to  live  down  the  in- 
discretions of  his  baptismal  record.  This 
practice  of  employing  full  names  In  a  card 
catalog  can  still  be  defended,  though  with 
much  labor.  But  when  an  author  is  made 
to  appear  thus  full-panoplied  in  a  monthly 
bulletin,  which  should  have  the  freshness 
and  attractiveness  of  a  news-sheet — which 
is  all  it  is — he  is  more  often  disguised  and 
concealed  from,  than  revealed  to,  the  view 
of  him  who  is  expected  to  read  as  he  runs. 
Again,  the  cataloger  rightly  confines  him- 
self to  rendering  an  accurate  transcript  of 
the  title  page,  neither  adding  thereto,  nor, 
if  he  be  wise,  subtracting  one  jot  or  tittle 
therefrom.  But  title  pages,  like  human 
faces,  are  often  but  a  poor  index  to  char- 
acter, and  many  a  book  which  might  upon 
closer  acquaintance  prove  a  very  good 
friend  indeed,  if  only  some  one  had  been 
near  to  speak  the  few  formal  words  of  In- 


troduction required  in  good  society,  is 
passed  by  because  of  a  forbidding  and  aus- 
tere, or  otherwise  misleading,  counte- 
nance. And  so  the  monthly  record  becomes 
a  stern  and  monotonous  affair,  requiring 
to  be  furbished  up  and  trimmed  with  all 
sorts  of  side  issues  by  way  of  supplying 
what  the  city  editor  calls  human  interest, 
all  of  them  well  contrived  to  advertise  the 
library,  but  using  up  the  space  which 
should  be  given  over  to  advertising  the 
books — of  which,  first  of  all,  and  after  all 
the  library  is  composed. 

Mr.  Dana,  in  his  pamphlet  on  booklists, 
makes  a  statement,  from  the  experience  of 
his  own  library,  but  which  must  have 
found  an  echo  in  many  a  heart,  to  the  ef- 
fect that  the  monthly  list  did  not  supply 
any  definite  demand  and  was  very  little 
used.  Exactly!  So  might  a  monthly  list 
of  additions  to  the  city  directory  be  very 
little  used;  so  does  the  periodical  revision 
of  the  telephone  directory  supply  a  de- 
finite demand  only  to  those  who  are  look- 
ing for  something — and  the  average  citi- 
zen is  spending  very  little  of  his  time 
looking  for  books.  They  must  be  shown  to 
him,  and  then  he  must  be  shown  why  it 
will  be  to  his  advantage,  pleasurable  or 
profitable,  to  make  their  closer  acquaint- 
ance. 

Open  shelf  rooms,  or,  wanting  these,  dis- 
play racks  and  tables  are  in  themselves  a 
mighty  stride  forward  in  shortening  the 
distance  between  the  reader  and  the 
books.  But  do  they  always  go  the  whole 
distance?  Is  it  enough  to  turn  a  man 
loose  in  a  roomful  of  books,  all  beckoning 
to  him  and  standing  in  rows  expectant  to 
be  chosen,  like  children  in  a  game?  They 
cannot  speak,  the  attendants,  gracious  and 
hospitable  and  expert  though  they  be,  can- 
not speak  to  everyone.  They  often  have 
enough  to  do  to  give  attention  to  those 
that  have  the  courage  to  speak  to  them. 
But  placards  could  speak.  Small  groups 
of  books,  taken  out  of  their  tactical  forma- 
tion on  the  shelves  and  brought  together 
because  of  some  bond  of  common  interest 
not  always  convertible  in  terms  of  the 
decimal  classification,   could   become   elo- 


186 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


quent.  And  eloquent,  indeed,  and  welcome 
to  the  dazed  explorer  of  unfamiliar  pre- 
cincts, would  be  a  bulletin,  many  of  them, 
plenty  of  them — for  a  belief  in  signs  of 
the  right  sort  is  a  mark  of  wisdom — which 
would  tell  him  in  an  authoritative,  con- 
fident, and  confidential  way  what  he 
wishes  to  know,  namely,  something  about 
the  books,  or  only  about  a  few  of  them, 
that  surround  him.  We  do  these  things, 
sometimes,  on  rare  occasions,  on  special 
days,  by  means  of  special  bulletins.  But 
it  is  mostly  in  the  children's  room.  In  fact 
we  take  great  pains  that  the  children 
should  receive  the  benefit  of  our  expert 
judgment  and  ministrations.  But  to  their 
elders,  to  most  of  whom  we  might  well 
apply  a  reverent  adaptation  of  the  words 
of  the  precept,  beginning:  "Except  ye  be- 
come as  a  little  child  .  .  .  ,"  to  their 
elders  we  pay  the  subtle  and  misdirected 
compliment  of  assuming  that  they  know 
as  much  as  we  do  about  what  is,  after  all, 
our  chief  business,  the  selection  and 
proper  employment  and  enjoyment  of 
books. 

It  begins  to  appear,  then,  I  hope,  that 
what  I  am  driving  at  is  that  the  way  to 
convey  information  as  to  subject  and  scope 
of  books  is  to  talk  about  them,  and  to  talk 
about  them  in  such  a  way  as  to  transmit 
not  only  the  information,  but  our  own  in- 
terest in  them,  our  confidence  in  them, 
and  our  point  of  view — which  is  not  dif- 
ferent from  that  of  the  people  we  seek  to 
serve,  though  it  may  be  more  clearly  de- 
fined when  it  comes  to  books.  We  are  all 
human  beings  together  and  our  chief  com- 
mon interest  is  human  interest.  When  we 
can  establish  that  bond  between  ourselves 
and  those  whom  we  desire  to  reach  the 
task  is  done. 

Why  is  it  that  the  Chicago  Evening  Post, 
three  weeks  ago  today,  devoted  500  words 
in  its  editorial  columns  to  comment  upon 
the  shelf  of  classics  and  the  illuminating 
explanatory  legend  accompanying  it,  in 
the  Springfield,  Mass.,  library?  Why  is 
it  that  when  we  receive  the  St.  Louis  bul- 
letin, we  turn  first  to  the  page  of  "Books 
I  like  and  why  I  like  them?"    Why  do  the 


pleasant  little  informal  chats  in  the  Chi- 
cago book  bulletin  about  the  troubles  of 
the  reference  department  meet  with  so 
wide  a  response?  Why  is  Mr.  Wellman's 
charming  booklet  about  "Some  modern 
verse"  still  kept  in  every  librarian's  little 
private  file  of  things  really  worth  keep- 
ing? Because  in  all  of  these,  in  one  form 
or  another,  there  appears  the  common 
bond  of  sympathy,  the  common  note  of 
human  nature,  which  finds  its  complement 
wherever  nature  is  human;  the  common 
ground  of  interest  in  the  self-revelation  of 
human  beings  which  these  little  isolated 
and  intrinsically  unimportant  enterprises 
bring  to  light.  The  book  bulletin  that 
would  report  upon  the  books  of  the  month 
iu  the  same  pleasant,  informal  fashion, 
that  would  embody  a  page  or  two  of  book- 
chat  in  the  same  style  of  sprightly,  inti- 
mate, personal  causerie,  think  you  that 
such  a  book  bulletin  would  stand  in  great 
danger  of  being  suspended  because  "it  was 
very  little  used?" 

Let  us,  then,  talk  more  about  our  books: 
by  word  of  mouth,  in  print,  by  placards, 
by  whatever  means  ideas  may  be  con- 
veyed, so  that  the  means  be  effective  and 
the  ideas — our  own!  When  we  annotate, 
and  so  breathe  the  breath  of  life  into  the 
dry  bones  of  a  catalog  entry,  let  us  hon- 
estly assume  responsibility  for  the  pres- 
ence of  the  books  in  the  list,  by  giving  our 
own  appraisal,  and  not  always  by  quoting 
from  some  organ  of  orthodoxy  whose  very 
name  connotes  oppressive  solemnity  to 
the  man  in  the  street.  We  have  our  own 
collective  opinion  ready  made  for  us  every 
month  in  the  A.  L.  A.  Booklist,  concisely 
put,  simply  worded,  and  the  result  of  the 
combined  judgment  of  a  body  of  collabor- 
ators of  the  highest  respectability.  But 
this  we  mostly  keep  to  ourselves,  as  a  sort 
of  trade  secret,  instead  of  giving  the  pub- 
lic at  large  the  benefit  of  this  most  ad- 
mirable product  of  co-operative  skill. 

And  let  us  do  these  things  not  by  way 
of  pretending  to  oracular  gifts  or  the  pos- 
session of  omniscience,  but  as  a  means  of 
revealing  ourselves  and  so  of  establishing 
a  channel  of  communication  between  our- 


MILLER 


187 


selves  and  our  people  through  which  the 
clear  stream  of  human  nature,  which  is 
common  to  us  all,  may  flow  unobstructed. 
And  upon  that  stream  we  may  confidently 
launch  our  several  ships,  freighted  with 
wisdom  and  joy,  profit  and  pleasure,  in- 
spiration and  growth  and  life  itself,  safe 
in  the  knowledge  that  they  will  be  wafted 
straight  down  the  stream  to  their  destina- 
tions, the  hearts  and  minds  of  our  patrons. 

Perhaps  this  is  one  of  the  things  in  the 
mind  of  the  president  when  she  laid  down 
the  following  query  as  the  point  of  de- 
parture for  this  week's  program:  "Should 
not  the  library,  neglecting  no  other  known 
service,  make  very  certain  that  it  fulfills 
its  own  unique  task,  that  is,  to  provide 
and  to  make  known  the  sources  'of  joy?" 

The  PRESIDENT:  I  think  it  is  quite 
evident  from  several  references  in  Mr. 
Roden's  very  delightful  paper  why  the 
president  went  to  Springfield  for  a  paper 
on  making  known  the  charm  of  books. 
The  librarian  at  Springfield  was  by  "royal 
command"  compelled  either  to  write  a 
paper  himself  or  produce  some  one  who 
could  write  it,  and  Mr.  Wellman  has  pro- 
duced Miss  Grace  Miller's  manuscript, 
which  he  will  read  to  us. 

Mr.  WELLMAN:  Madam  President, 
Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  I  am  very  sorry 
that  Miss  Miller  could  not  be  here  to  pre- 
sent her  paper  in  person.  She  is  known 
to  some  of  you  through  the  notes  which 
she  writes  for  the  Springfield  Bulletin. 

Mr.  Wellman  read  the  following  paper, 
prepared  by  Miss  GRACE  MILLER,  of 
the  Springfield  city  library. 

BOOK  ADVERTISING:      ILLUMINATION 

AS  TO   ATTRACTIONS  OF 

REAL  BOOKS 

The  reputation  of  the  American  people 
as  a  nation  of  readers  evokes  a  pleasur- 
able sensation  of  pride  in  the  patriotic 
heart.  But  when  we  pause  to  ask,  "What 
do  they  read?"  that  pride  is  destined  to 
fall.  Newspapers,  periodicals,  novels,  the 
popular  books  of  the  hour — yes,  but  how 
many  of  the  books  of  all  time?  It  may 
be  doubted  if  the  present  generation,  with 


all  its  opportunities,  reads  as  many  of 
these  as  did  its  fathers. 

Two  traits  seem  forcibly  to  impress  the 
cultivated  foreigner  as  characteristic  of 
our  men  and,  to  a  lesser  degree,  of  our 
women — a  hard  materialism  and  a  lack 
of  interest  in  the  finer  things  of  life.  Is 
there  any  relation  between  this  dearth 
of  idealism  and  the  reading  habits  of  the 
nation?  Ideals  are  the  greatest  force  in 
life,  and  what  a  man's  ideals  are  is  largely 
determined  by  what  he  reads.  The  power 
of  great  literature  to  awaken  noble  am- 
bitions, to  cultivate  the  imagination,  to 
impart  the  ability  "to  see  life  steadily  and 
see  it  whole"  is  undisputed.  In  face  of 
all  this,  where  does  the  library  of  to-day 
stand? 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  modern 
library  movement  is  of  recent  growth.  We 
look  with  amazement  at  all  that  has  been 
accomplished  in  the  last  quarter-century. 
There  seems  little  to  connect  the  library 
of  the  present  with  the  library  of  the  past. 
But  one  link  remains — the  book.  Some- 
times it  seems  as  if  that  was  the  one  thing 
we  were  leaving  out  of  our  thought — the 
book,  not  as  a  material  object,  paper,  print- 
ing, binding,  to  all  of  which  we  pay  much 
attention,  but  the  book  as  literature.  Is 
the  library,  too,  becoming  materialized? 
As  the  authorized  custodians  of  the  wis- 
dom of  the  past,  we  stand  in  an  im- 
portant and  dignified  relation  to  the  pres- 
ent. How  can  we  share  our  treasures  with 
a  public  that  too  often  fails  to  appreciate 
its  need  for  them? 

First  of  all — above  all  mere  schemes  and 
devices  however  good — must  come  a  real 
love  and  enthusiasm  for  books,  and  a 
knowledge  of  them  among  library  work- 
ers. It  is  impossible  to  awaken  an  in- 
terest in  other  people  in  a  subject  in  which 
you  are  not  interested  yourself.  There 
has  been  more  or  less  good-natured  rail- 
lery among  librarians  over  that  time-hon- 
ored recommendation  for  one  who  wishes 
to  enter  library  work,  that  he  is  "fond 
of  reading."  In  the  long  list  of  qualifica- 
tions which,  we  are  told,  the  library  as- 
sistant should  possess — a  list  so  compre- 


188 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


hensive  that  one  is  reminded  of  the  old 
Jest  about  expecting  all  the  virtues  for 
four  dollars  a  week — love  of  books  seems 
to  be  ranked  very  low.  It  may  be  ques- 
tioned if  this  is  not  a  mistaken  policy.  Af- 
ter all,  books  are  the  basis  of  all  library 
work  and  the  attitude  of  the  workers  to- 
ward the  books,  cannot  be  unimportant. 
One  of  the  most  scathing  indictments  ever 
brought  against  library  assistants  was 
made  when  Gerald  Stanley  Lee  accused 
them  of  being  "book  chambermaids."  We 
like  to  judge  our  profession — if  I  may  be 
allowed  that  disputed  term — by  its  leaders; 
but  the  public  judges  us  by  the  people 
who  answer  their  questions  in  our  delivery 
rooms  and  at  our  Information  desks  and 
in  our  reference  departments.  And  it  Is 
no  use  trying  to  evade  the  issue,  as  some 
libraries  do,  by  requesting  people  not  to 
ask  questions  at  the  delivery  desk.  Two- 
thirds  of  our  public  never  get  any  farther 
and,  even  when  referred  to  some  other  de- 
partment, show  an  inexplicable  unwilling- 
ness to  go  there. 

A  few  years  ago  the  following  communi- 
cation appeared  in  a  well-known  paper: 
"Will  you  kindly  inform  me  through  the 
columns  of  the  Saturday  Review  of  Books 
where  I  can  find  the  story  of  'Gil  Bias'?  I 
inquired  at  one  of  the  public  libraries  and 
the  attendant  said  she  had  never  heard 
of  it."  Incidents  like  this,  and  we  must 
in  all  honesty  admit  that  they  are  liable 
to  occur  in  any  library,  may  be  one  reason 
for  the  too  prevalent  impression  that  the 
library  is  merely  a  place  where  one  can 
get  a  new  novel.  If  we  wish  to  promote 
the  reading  of  the  best  books  in  our  com- 
munities, we  must  have  literary  taste  and 
a  familiarity  with  books  in  the  members 
of  our  library  staffs. 

The  power  of  the  viva  voce,  personal 
opinion  is  apt  to  be  underestimated.  "It's 
great,"  says  the  little  cash-girl  in  the  de- 
partment store,  and  her  word  settles  the 
matter  for  the  hesitating  purchaser.  With 
the  public  at  large,  your  recommendation 
of  a  book  goes  farther  than  a  learned  re- 
view by  a  real  authority.  Here  is  where 
our  opportunity  lies,  not  only  inside  the 


library,  but  outside.  A  librarian  who  re- 
cently read  "Eothen"  and  found  it  thor- 
oughly delightful,  casually  spoke  of  it 
among  his  friends  and,  as  a  result,  knows 
of  no  less  than  seventeen  people  who  read 
the  book  and  twelve  who  bought  it.  This 
incident  is  typical.  Why  did  you  choose 
the  last  book  you  read?  Even  if  you  are 
a  librarian  and  in  the  habit  of  looking 
over  endless  numbers  of  book  reviews,  it 
is  more  than  likely  it  was  because  some- 
one spoke  of  it  in  a  way  to  arouse  your 
interest. 

In  our  professional  capacity  we  all  ex- 
pect to  be  called  upon  for  advice  in  select- 
ing books,  but  even  outside  the  library 
we  are  probably  alike  in  finding  that  peo- 
ple assume  we  can  help  them  to  discover 
the  "something  interesting"  for  which  they 
are  looking.  Accordingly,  the  advantage 
of  a  broad  range  of  literary  likings  is  ob- 
vious. The  world  of  literature  is  wide  and 
there  is  something  in  it  for  every  taste. 
If  your  personal  preference  happens  to  be 
for  the  moderns,  if  you  enjoy  Ibsen  and 
Shaw  and  Maeterlinck — don't  look  askance 
on  that  other  type  of  mind  that  finds  hap- 
piness in  Scott  and  Browning  and  Tenny- 
son. The  mental  breadth  that  can  sym- 
pathize with  a  point  of  view  that  it  does 
not  share,  is  nowhere  more  desirable  than 
in  library  work. 

Much  effort  is  being  expended  by  librar- 
ies at  the  present  time  in  promoting  the 
reading  of  their  books.  It  is  being  more 
and  more  recognized  that  a  smaller  num- 
ber of  books  more  widely  read  fulfills  the 
real  purpose  for  which  the  library  exists 
better  than  a  larger  number  standing  on 
the  shelves.  This  is  now  so  much  of  a 
commonplace  that  we  are  liable  to  forget 
how  new  the  idea  is.  It  was  not  so  long 
ago  that  the  annual  report  pointed  with 
pride  to  the  large  proportion  of  income 
spent  on  books  and  the  small  amount  on 
administration.  The  whole  movement  ex- 
pressed by  the  term,  "publicity,"  is  the 
growth  of  a  few  years.  So  far  most  of 
our  work  along  this  line  has  been  devoted 
to  promoting  the  reading  of  new  books 
and  technical  works.     Gratifying  success 


MILLER 


189 


has  crowned  our  various  schemes.  But 
every  library  worlcer  knows  that  the  easi- 
est class  of  books  for  which  to  find  read- 
ears  is  new  books.  The  reasons  for  this 
are  so  apparent  that  we  need  not  dwell 
upon  them.  To  circulate  the  great  books, 
the  classics,  the  books  which  constitute 
literature  in  the  restricted  sense  is  an- 
other and  a  far  more  difficult  undertaking, 
and  on  this  we  have  hardly  made  a  be- 
ginning. Yet  if  the  library  is  to  stand — 
and  we  all  believe  it  should — for  the  high- 
est, for  true  culture  and  refinement,  if  it 
is  to  be  a  source  of  ideals,  as  well  as 
ideas,  here  is  a  side  of  our  work  which 
must  not  be  neglected. 

We  may  be  inclined  at  times  to  under- 
rate the  library's  ability  to  secure  the  read- 
ing of  specific  books.  An  experiment  tried 
some  years  ago  may  serve  as  an  object 
lesson.  Van  Vorst's  "The  woman  who 
toils"  and  "The  souls  of  black  folk,"  by 
Du  Bois,  were  selected  for  this  experiment. 
Under  ordinary  conditions  the  first  of 
these  books  would  have  enjoyed  a  fair  de- 
gree of  popularity,  while  the  second  would 
have  had  a  rather  small  circulation.  The 
library  bought  a  number  of  copies  of  each, 
sent  notices  to  all  the  papers,  had  book- 
notes  in  its  bulletin,  put  up  publishers' 
advertisements  on  its  bulletin-boards,  and 
(note  this  last)  discussed  the  books  in 
staff-meeting  so  that  every  assistant  was 
able  to  talk  about  them  intelligently. 
The  results  surpassed  expectations.  For 
months  it  was  impossible  to  meet  the 
calls  for  them,  and  reserves  came  in  stead- 
ily; most  remarkable  of  all,  after  eight 
years  the  circulation  of  one  is  eight  and 
the  other  three  times  above  the  average. 
So  much  for  what  a  library  can  do  in 
determining  what  its  constituency  shall 
read. 

One  reason  why  the  best  books  are  not 
read  is  that  many  people  do  not  know  how 
readable  they  are.  In  the  vocabulary  of 
the  great  public  the  word  classic  is  synon- 
omous  with  dry.  It  frightens  people.  How 
much  the  schools  are  responsible  for  this 
through  their  use  of  great  literary  master- 
pieces as  text-books  is  a  disputed  ques- 


tion. If  we  can  only  succeed  in  making 
people  understand  that  the  reason  these 
works  are  classics  is  because  their  inher- 
ent interest  is  so  great  that  it  has  kept 
them  living  and  vital  through  the  years 
that  have  brought  oblivion  to  hordes  of 
weaker  writings,  we  shall  have  accom- 
plished something  truly  worth  while.  But 
if  to  many  of  our  patrons  the  classic  is 
something  to  be  feared  and  avoided,  there 
are  others  who  really  wish  the  best,  but 
either  do  not  know  it  or  are  so  busy  that 
they  neglect  it,  taking  the  book  that  comes 
first  to  hand.  Like  those  daughters  of 
time — the  hypocritic  days,  books  too  bring 
diadems  and  fagots. 

"To  each  they  offer  gifts  after  his  will, 
Bread,  kingdoms,  stars  and  sky  that 
holds  thera  all." 

How  often  have  we,  wearied  and  hurried, 
hastily  taken  a  few  herbs  and  apples,  only 
to  feel  later  the  solemn  scorn  of  a  wasted 
opportunity. 

There  are  probably  few  librariea  to-day, 
outside  the  very  small  ones,  that  do  not 
employ  book  lists,  more  or  less  elaborate 
in  form,  to  call  attention  to  their  resources. 
These  can  be  used  to  good  advantage  to 
recommend  the  purely  literary  attractions 
of  the  library's  collection.  But  there  are 
book  lists  and  book  lists.  To  some  libra- 
rians a  book  list  is  a  list  of  books,  and 
nothing  more.  The  newest  member  of  the 
staff  can  take  his  subject,  a  pencU  and  a 
pad,  and  look  in  the  card  catalog  under 
the  proper  heading,  and  lo!  the  list  is 
made!  And  it  is  worth  just  about  the 
amount  of  work  put  into  it.  A  successful 
list  requires  far  more  than  this.  The  books 
must  be  carefully  selected  by  some  one 
who  knows  them.  If  there  are  annotations, 
they  must  really  annotate.  If  your  brief 
note  adds  nothing  that  the  public  wishes 
to  know,  it  is  wasted.  The  number  of  en- 
tries, the  title,  the  arrangement,  the  paper, 
and  the  print,  all  are  important  in  decid- 
ing the  popularity  of  a  list.  A  distinction 
needs  to  be  drawn  between  the  list  for 
students  and  the  list  for  popular  reading. 
The  former  may  be  very  full,  but  experi- 
ence tends  to  show  that  the  latter  should 


190 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


be  brief — twenty-five  entries  at  the  long- 
est; and  many  times,  ten  would  be  bet- 
ter. Ten  great  autobiographies,  ten  world- 
famous  dramas,  ten  literary  masterpieces 
— the  very  titles  hint  at  that  multum  in 
parvo  which  gives  popularity  to  collections 
like  Dr.  Eliot's  five-foot  library.  To  read 
five  feet  of  books  and  find  oneself  simply 
but  sufficiently  armed  and  equipped  to  hold 
one's  own  with  any  university  giant,  how 
enticing  it  sounds!  and  how  simple.  The 
public  dearly  loves  superlatives — "the 
best,"  "the  most  famous,"  "the  greatest." 
If  any  librarian  doubts  the  drawing  power 
of  these  phrases,  let  him  make  a  trial  of 
them.  A  knowledge  of  psychology  may 
be  a  great  aid  in  library  work. 

To  be  successful,  the  compiler  of  a  book 
list  should  thoughtfully  consider  whom  he 
hopes  to  reach  by  it  and  then  take  meas- 
ures to  see  that  it  reaches  them.  Advertise 
your  list,  and  do  not  for  a  moment  think 
that  great  literature,  because  it  is  great, 
needs  no  advertising.  If  your  local  paper 
will  say  that  the  library  is  distributing  a 
fine  list  on  the  immortal  Greek  tragedies, 
far  more  people  will  be  interested  in  that 
list  than  if  you  merely  hand  it  out  at 
your  delivery  desk. 

The  most  encouraging  thought  in  regard 
to  the  promoting  of  the  reading  of  the 
best  books  by  means  of  lists  is  the  broad 
field  from  which  the  books  can  be  se- 
lected. The  true  book-lover  in  library 
work  often  feels  like  Tantalus — seeing  all 
the  time  so  much  he  would  like  to  read 
and  cannot.  And  so  he  turns  with  avidity 
to  preparing  for  more  fortunate  mortals 
lists,  not  only  of  the  things  he  has  read 
and  loved,  but  of  the  things  he  would  love 
to  read.  Poetry,  drama,  essays,  biography, 
letters,  travel — ^here  is  a  world  from  which 
to  choose. 

Supplementing  the  lists  and  adding  to 
their  attractiveness  are  collections  of  the 
books  themselves.  In  large  libraries  most 
people  are  more  or  less  at  sea.  Who  has 
not  seen  them  wandering  aimless  and  be- 
wildered from  shelf  to  shelf,  and  who  has 
not  noted  the  relief  with  which  they  turn 
to  almost  any  small   selection  of  books. 


Many  libraries  have  kept  statistics  show- 
ing the  circulation  of  books  placed  on 
special  shelves,  and  it  is  invariably  found 
that  it  is  much  higher  than  that  of  the 
books  kept  in  their  regular  places.  This 
has  passed  the  experimental  stage.  To- 
day we  know  that  we  can  in  this  way 
increase  the  use  of  any  books  we  se- 
lect. There  are  just  as  good  books  in  the 
stack,  but  they  will  not  be  read  to  any- 
thing like  the  same  extent.  A  library  has 
in  its  delivery  room  certain  shelves  on 
which  appear  all  the  new  books  that  are 
bought,  regardless  of  class.  The  circula- 
tion from  these  shelves  is  notably  large. 
After  a  varying  length  of  time  these  books 
are  sent  to  the  regular  shelves.  Imme- 
diately the  use  of  them  decreases.  Books 
that  were  read  almost  continuously  while 
they  were  on  the  special  shelves  only  go 
out  occasionally.  But  take  them  back 
to  one  of  the  small  miscellaneous  collec- 
tions in  the  delivery  room  and  they  im- 
mediately begin  to  circulate  again.  The 
merchants  learned  long  ago  that  people 
buy  what  they  see,  and  so  in  all  the  stores 
a  large  amount  of  stock  is  on  the  counters 
for  inspection.  Librarians  have  learned 
that  people  also  read  what  they  see.  In 
both  cases,  however,  the  methods  adopted 
to  secure  patrons  are  infiuenced  by  the 
natural  limitation  as  to  the  amount  that 
can  profitably  be  seen.  The  experienced 
clerk  does  not  show  the  prospective  buyer 
too  many  different  kinds  of  cloth,  lest  he 
should  become  confused,  be  unable  to  de- 
cide, and  refrain  from  buying.  So  with 
the  reader.  He  can  select  something  sat- 
isfactory from  a  single  case  of  books,  when 
row  after  row  of  them  gives  him  mental 
vertigo.  So  do  not  say  to  him,  "Here  is 
all  Greek  literature — choose."  But  bring 
together  on  a  table  or  a  shelf  a  few  books 
and  say,  "Here  are  a  dozen  of  the  great- 
est tragedies  in  the  Greek  language.  All 
of  them  are  worth  reading.    Take  one." 

But  when  you  have  brought  together  this 
little  collection  and  called  attention  to  it, 
never  think  your  work  is  done.  After  a 
little  while  change  it  for  something  else. 
The  wonted  soon  becomes  out-worn.    When 


MILLER 


191 


the  collection  is  new,  it  is  regarded  with 
interest.  Leave  it  too  long,  and  people 
cease  to  see  it.  They  walk  past  the  shelf 
with  a  subconscious  feeling  that  they  know 
what  is  there.  The  thing  to  cultivate  in 
them  is  a  delightful  uncertainty  as  to 
what  they  will  find,  coupled  with  the  ex- 
pectation that  it  will  be  something  dif- 
ferent from  what  they  saw  last  time. 
Change  we  must  have.  Here  again  we 
may  take  a  lesson  from  the  merchant. 
Time,  thought,  and  money  are  spent  on 
preparing  a  beautiful  window  display. 
Does  the  proprietor  settle  back  and  say, 
"This  is  the  high-water  mark.  We  cannot 
arrange  a  better  window  than  this;  there- 
fore we  will  make  it  permanent."  Not  at 
all.  He  realizes  that  while  at  first  it  will 
draw  crowds,  after  a  bit  it  will  become  an 
old  story.  He  must  offer  something  fresh. 
So  get  together  a  collection  of  the  best 
books;  call  attention  to  them;  get  your 
public  in  the  habit  of  looking  for  them; 
but  change  them  frequently.  The  infinite 
variety  of  literature  is  such  that  its  pre- 
sentation need  never  become  stale. 

One  method  of  introducing  people  to  the 
best  literature  seems  comparatively  little 
used  in  this  country,  though  common  in 
England,  and  that  is  the  lecture  course. 
It  is  generally  afiirmed  that  the  American 
people  no  longer  care  for  lectures.  Forms 
of  popular  entertainment  wax  and  wane. 
The  New  Englander  of  the  middle  nine- 
teenth century  was  an  enthusiastic  attend- 
ant of  lectures  and  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  he  owed  much  in  an  intellectual  way 
to  the  habit.  Almost  all  of  the  best-known 
literary  and  public  men  of  that  period 
either  went  on  lecturing  tours  or  gave  read- 
ings from  their  works.  Their  influence  was 
thus  greatly  extended  and  an  interest 
awakened  in  things  worth  while  to  an  ex- 
tent otherwise  impossible.  The  old-fash- 
ioned lecture  certainly  compares  favorably 
in  its  results  with  many  methods  of  en- 
tertainment in  vogue  to-day.  It  is  to  be 
feared  that  the  latter,  far  from  stimulating 
mental  life,  are  conducive  to  inertia  of 
thought.  It  would  be  an  interesting  ex- 
periment for  the   libraries   to   attempt  a 


series  of  lectures  on  literary  lines  and  see 
if  their  old  popularity  could  be  revived. 

Another  way  of  calling  attention  to  the 
best  in  literature  seems  wholly  neglected 
by  libraries;  and,  surprising  as  it  seems, 
this  is  through  their  bulletins.  Nearly  all 
large,  and  many  small,  libraries  publish  a 
bulletin,  but  little  has  been  done  to  develop 
this  important  library  agency.  Here  is  a 
field  that  may  well  be  cultivated.  Most 
publications  have  to  put  much  money  and 
work  into  the  task  of  securing  readers. 
Our  clientele  is  already  provided  by  the 
patrons  of  our  institutions.  Because  the 
bulletin  gives  a  list  of  new  books,  and  be- 
cause many  of  the  reading  public  are  In- 
terested in  new  books,  they  read  our  bulle- 
tins. Why  do  we  not  give  them  some- 
thing more  than  a  bare  list  of  accessions? 
If  we  wish  to  make  our  influence  felt  in 
the  character  of  the  reading  in  our  com- 
munities, this  is  our  opportunity.  The 
work  may  be  difficult,  but  it  is  certainly 
worth  attempting. 

All  librarians  have  viewed  with  min- 
gled feelings  of  wonder  and  amusement 
those  ingenious  literary  ladders,  by  which 
the  unsuspecting  reader  is  triumphantly 
led  from  Mary  J.  Holmes  to  Thackeray. 
During  the  library  experience  extending 
over  a  number  of  years,  the  present  writer 
has  hopefully  watched  for  an  instance 
of  some  individual  reader  climbing  this 
amazing  structure,  but  she  has  watched  in 
vain.  It  is  not  my  aim  to  show  how  the 
reader  of  Ella  Wheeler  Wilcox's  poems 
may  be  induced  to  change  to  Milton;  or 
how  a  devoted  lover  of  Gaboriau  may  fol- 
low a  blazed  trail  that  shall  lead  via  Miin- 
sterburg's  study  of  criminal  psychology  to 
William  James;  or  by  what  methods  Jack 
London's  "Call  of  the  wild"  might  event- 
ually end  in  Darwin's  "Origin  of  species." 
This  puzzling  task  must  be  left  to  some 
more  ambitious  soul.  But  in  every  com- 
munity there  Is  a  class  of  people,  be  it 
smaller  or  larger,  to  whom  an  attractive 
presentation  of  the  stimulating  qualities 
of  real  literature  would  appeal;  and  if 
such  a  presentation  was  rightly  made, 
they    would    respond.    Will    not   some    li- 


192 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


brary  make  trial  of  this  method?  Let 
it  publish  In  its  bulletin  a  series  of  brief 
articles  about  the  great  books,  telling  what 
they  have  meant  in  the  past,  what  they 
mean  to-day;  showing  them  as  sources 
of  Inspiration  and  of  consolation;  making 
it  clear  that  any  one  who  has  made  him- 
self master  of  their  treasures  can  never  be 
mentally  poor.  Then  let  that  library  re- 
port the  outcome  and  tell  us  whether,  in 
its  opinion,  it  paid.  The  trouble  with  too 
many  library  experiments  is  that  the  ex- 
perimenters never  seem  to  follow  them  up 
and  tabulate  their  results.  The  schemes 
sound  fine,  but  as  to  their  actual  working 
there  is  much  haziness.  Librarians  are 
notably  ready  and  anxious  to  learn  from 
one  another,  and  a  plan  reported  as  being 
tried  in  one  place  is  likely  to  be  imme- 
diately started  in  many  others.  If  libraries 
would  carefully  investigate  the  actual  re- 
sults achieved  by  their  various  devices, 
and  report  their  failures  as  well  as  their 
successes,  much  wasted  effort  might  be 
avoided. 

Another  untried  scheme  that  might  be 
suggested  is  a  series  of  readings.  The 
wealth  of  English  poetry  commends  that 
form  of  literature  as  well  suited  to  this 
purpose,  though  of  course  there  is  no 
dearth  of  material  along  many  lines  from 
which  to  choose.  The  theory  of  this 
method  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  story- 
hour  for  children,  and  the  same  question 
would  present  itself — whether  the  auditor 
would  merely  enjoy  the  entertainment  or 
whether  sufficient  interest  would  be 
awakened  to  induce  him  to  pursue  the  sub- 
ject farther.  Most  libraries  have  small 
lecture  rooms,  and  this  plan  has  the  rec- 
ommendation that  it  can  be  tried  at  slight 
expense. 

But  after  everything  possible  has  been 
said  for  schemes  of  one  kind  and  another, 
we  shall  come  back  in  the  end  to  the 
supreme  importance  of  personality.  No 
amount  of  advertising,  no  number  of  lists 
and  special  collections  can  ever  take  the 
place  of  the  cultivated  and  enthusiastic 
book-lover  In  promoting  the  reading  of 
the  best  books. 


The  PRESIDENT:  It  all  pretty  nearly 
amounts  to  saying  that  our  public  are 
our  friends,  our  books  are  our  friends, 
and  we  wish  to  help  the  friends  of  the 
first  part  to  the  pleasure  of  knowing  the 
friends  of  the  second  part. 

The  next  order  of  business  is  the  report 
of  the  Executive  board  and  the  report  of 
the  Council,  which  the  secretary  will 
read. 

The  SECRETARY:  There  have  been 
two  meetings  of  the  Executive  board,  and 
two  meetings  of  the  Council,  during  this 
conference. 

EXECUTIVE  BOARD 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Executive 
board  ordinary  routine  business  was  first 
transacted,  and,  later,  Mr.  Henry  E.  Leg- 
ler,  as  chairman  of  the  committee  ap- 
pointed to  draft  a  by-law  stating  definitely 
what  person  or  persons  are  entitled  to 
cast  votes  for  institutional  members,  re- 
ported that  the  committee  recommended 
that  the  by-laws  be  amended  by  adding 
the  following  section: 

Sec.  11.  The  vote  of  Institutional  mem- 
bers shall  be  cast  by  the  duly  designated 
representative  whose  credentials  are  filed 
with  the  secretary.  In  the  absence  of 
such  designation  or  of  such  delegate  the 
vote  may  be  cast  by  the  chief  librarian 
or  ranking  executive  officer  in  attend- 
ance at  the  meeting. 

Consideration  was  given  to  the  recom- 
mendations adopted  by  the  Council  from 
the  Committee  on  relation  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
and  State  library  associations  and  on 
motion  of  Dr.  Andrews,  it  was  voted  to 
recommend  to  the  association  that  Sec- 
tion 14  of  the  Constitution  be  amended  by 
inserting  the  following  clause,  after  the 
words  "and  twenty-five  by  the  Council 
itself;" 

"and  one  member  from  each  state,  pro- 
vincial and  territorial  library  association 
(or  any  association  covering  two  or  more 
such  geographical  divisions)  which  com- 
plies with  the  conditions  for  such  repre- 
sentation set  forth  in  the  by-laws." 

Also  that  Sec.  3a  be  added  to  the  By- 
laws as  follows: 

"Each  state,  territorial  and  provincial 
library    association    (or    any    association 


EXECUTIVE  BOARD 


]93 


covering  two  or  more  sucli  geographical 
divisions)  having  a  membership  of  not 
less  than  fifteen  members,  may  be  repre- 
sented in  the  Council  by  the  president 
of  such  association,  or  by  an  alternate 
elected  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the 
association.  The  annual  dues  shall  be 
$5.00  for  each  association  having  a  mem- 
bership of  fifty  or  less,  and  ten  cents  per 
additional  capita  where  membership  is 
above  that  number.  The  privileges  and 
advantages  of  the  A.  L.  A.  Conferences 
shall  be  available  only  to  those  holding 
personal  membership  or  representing 
institutional  membership  in  the  Associa- 
tion." * 

Adjouri^ed,   subject  to   the   call  of  the 
chair. 

The  second  meeting  was  held  after  the 
election  of  officers.  Mr.  Legler  presided. 
Mr.  George  T.  Settle,  acting  assistant 
librarian  of  the  Louisville  free  public 
library,  appeared  before  the  board  and  in 
behalf  of  the  library  board  and  various 
officials  and  organizations  of  Louisville 
and  Kentucky  Invited  the  association  to 
meet  in  Louisville  In  1913. 

A  letter  was  read  from  Mr.  George  F. 
Bowerman,  librarian  of  the  District  of 
Columbia  public  library.  In  which  was  ex- 
pressed a  desire  that  the  association  meet 
In  Washington  in  1913  and,  if  found  prac- 
ticable and  desirable,  to  adopt  the  policy 
of  holding  recurrent  meetings  in  that  city. 
Invitations  for  the  conference  of  1913 
were  also  received  and  read  from  the  con- 
vention bureaus  of  Chicago,  Buffalo  and 
San  Francisco.  All  of  these  invitations 
were  tabled  for  due  consideration. 

After  general  discussion  it  was  voted 
as  the  opinion  of  the  Executive  board  that 
the  next  conference  should  be  held  at 
some  summer  resort  In  the  eastern  sec- 
tion of  the  country  and  the  secretary  was 
instructed  to  investigate  places  of  this 
nature,  and  report  to  the  board. 

A  report  of  considerable  length  was  re- 
ceived from  the  Bookbuying  Committee 
relative  to  negotiations  between  the  re- 
spective committees  appointed  by  the  A. 
L.  A.  and  the  American  Booksellers'  As- 
sociation, upon   which   it  was   voted   that 

•As  this  by-law  would  be  meaningless  until  the 
above  recommended  amendment  to  the  Constitution  is 
in  force,  action  on  the  by-law  was  postponed  by  the 
Association  until  the  next  annual  conference. 


this  report  be  sent  to  the  respective  mem- 
bers of  the  Executive  board  and  their 
opinions  and  suggestions  thereon  be  filed 
with  the  secretary  to  be  later  considered 
by  the  board. 

A  communication  from  the  secretary  of 
the  Catalog  section  was  received  stat- 
ing that  the  following  resolution  had  been 
unanimously  adopted  by  that  section: 

RESOLVED,  that  the  A.  L.  A.  Execu- 
tive board  be  asked  to  appoint  a  commit- 
tee to  investigate  the  cost  and  method  of 
cataloging  in  accordance  with  the  sugges- 
tions in  Mr.  Josephson's  paper,  "What  is 
cataloging?"  *  Mr.  Josephson's  paper  ac- 
companied the  communication.  It  was 
voted  that  the  president  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  three  for  this  purpose  and  that 
an  appropriation  of  $15  be  made  for  the 
necessary  expenses  of  the  committee. 
The  president  appointed  as  this  commit- 
tee Mr.  A.  G.  S.  Josephson,  Miss  Agnes 
Van  Valkenburgh  and  Miss  Emma  V. 
Baldwin. 

A  communication  was  considered  from 
Mr.  Asa  Don  Dickinson,  addressed  to  the 
secretary,  relative  to  a  campaign  for  a 
library  clearing  house  for  periodicals.  It 
was  taken  by  consent  that  such  a  cam- 
paign would  not  be  practical  for  the  A. 
L.  A.  to  undertake  under  present  condi- 
tions. 

Mr.  Wellman,  as  special  committee  of 
one  from  the  Publishing  board,  to  inves- 
tigate the  advisability  of  the  appointment 
of  a  committee  to  work  upon  the  compila- 
tion of  a  code  for  classifiers,  reported 
favorably  on  the  plan  and  recommended 
that  the  Executive  board  take  the  matter 
in  hand  and  appoint  a  committee  as  re- 
quested. On  motion  it  was  voted  that  the 
following  committee  be  named:  W.  S. 
Merrill,  J.  C.  Bay,  W.  S.  Biscoe,  W.  P. 
Cutter,  J.  C.  M.  Hanson,  Charles  Martel 
and  P.  L.  Windsor. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Andrews  it  was 
voted  that  the  secretary  secure  data  re- 
lating to  the  library  careers  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  association,  this  information 
either  to  be  incorporated   in  the  annual 

•For  Mr.  Josephson's  paper,  see  page  245. 


194 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Handbook  or  filed  at  the  headquarters 
office  for  use  of  the  membership. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Andrews  it  was  voted 
that  the  president  suggest  to  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Executive  board  any  changes 
he  deems  desirable  in  the  membership  of 
the  standing  committees  and  to  ask  for 
such  suggestions  and  that  the  secretary- 
inform  the  members  of  any  changes  sug- 
gested by  the  committees  themselves. 

On  motion  of  Miss  Eastman  it  was 
voted  that  C.  W.  Andrews  and  A.  E. 
Bostwick  be  re-elected  members  of  the 
Publishing  board  for  terms  of  three  years 
each. 

Voted,  that  at  its  January  meeting  the 
Council  be  requested  to  define  the  policy 
of  the  association  as  to  the  number  of 
general  sessions  advisable  at  the  annual 
conference. 

On  motion  of  Dr.  Andrews  it  was  voted 
that  the  program  committee  be  asked  to 
consult  the  wishes  of  the  affiliated  or- 
ganizations regarding  the  closer  grouping 
of  their  respective  sessions  at  the  annual 
conference. 

Voted,  that  at  future  conferences  of  the 
association  the  ensign  of  the  United 
States  and  the  British  union  jack  be 
placed  side  by  side  to  signify  the  inter- 
national nature  of  the  association. 

Adjourned. 

Note:  The  standing  committees  for  the  year  1912- 
13  were  later  appointed  as  follows  and  although  these 
appointments  were  not  a  part  of  the  Ottawa  conference 
business,  the  list  is  here  given  for  convenience  of  ref- 
erence. 

A.   L.  A.   STANDING   COMMITTEES, 
1912-13 
Finance 
C.    W.    Andrews,    The    John    Crerar    li- 
brary, Chicago. 

F.  F.  Dawley,  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa. 
Edwin  H.  Anderson,  Public  library.  New 

York. 

Public   Documents 

G.  S.  Godard,  State  library,  Hartford, 
Conn. 

A.  J,  Small,  State  library,  Des  Moines, 
la. 

Ernest  Bruncken,  Library  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C. 


John  A.  Lapp,  State  library,  Indianap- 
olis, Ind. 

M.  S.  Dudgeon,  Wisconsin  free  library 
commission,  Madison,  Wis. 

T.  M.  Owen,  Department  of  archives 
and  history,  Montgomery,  Ala. 

S.  H.  Ranck,  Public  library,  Grand 
Rapids,  Mich. 

Adelaide  R.  Hasse,  Public  library,  New 
York. 

C.  B.  Lester,  State  library,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Co-operation  with  the  National  Education 
Association 

Mary  Eileen  Ahem,  "Public  Libraries," 
Chicago. 

Marie  A.  Newberry,  Public  school  li- 
brary, Ypsilanti,  Mich. 

Irene  Warren,  School  of  Education, 
Chicago. 

George  H.  Locke,  Public  library,  To- 
ronto, Out. 

Harriet  A.  Wood,  Library  association, 
Portland,  Ore. 

Library  Administration 
A.    E.    Bostwick,     Public    library,     St. 

Louis,  Mo. 
Geo.     F.     Bowerman,     Public     library, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
John     S.     Cleavinger,     Public     library, 

Jackson,  Mich. 

Library  Training 

A.  S.  Root,  Oberlin  college  library, 
Oberlin,  O. 

Faith  E.  Smith,  Public  library,  Chicago. 

Mary  W.  Plummer,  Library  school,  Pub- 
lic library,  New  York. 

Adam  Strohm,  Public  library,  Detroit, 
Mich. 

Caroline  M.  Underhill,  Public  library, 
Utica,  N.  Y. 

Chalmers  Hadley,  Public  library,  Den- 
ver, Colo. 

Cornelia  Marvin,  Oregon  library  com- 
mission, Salem. 

Geo.  O.  Carpenter,  trustee,  Public  li- 
brary, St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Internationa!  Relations 
Herbert  Putnam,  Library  of  Congress, 
Washington. 


COUNCIL 


196 


B.  C.  Richardson,  Princeton  university 
library,  Princeton,  N.  J. 

J.  S.  Billings,  Public  library.  New  York. 

W.  C.  Lane,  Harvard  university  library, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

R.  R.  Bowker,  "Library  Journal,"  New 
York. 

Bookbuying 

Walter  L.  Brown,  Public  library,  Buf- 
falo, N.  Y. 

C.  B.    Roden,    Public    library,    Chicago. 
C.  H.  Brown,  Public  library,  Brooklyn. 

Bookbinding 

A.  L.  Bailey,  Wilmington  Institute  free 
library,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Rose  G.  Murray,  Public  library,  New 
York. 

J.  R.  Patterson,  Public  library,  Chi- 
cago. 

Federal   and   State   Relations 

B.  C.  Steiner,  Enoch  Pratt  free  library, 
Baltimore,  Md. 

T.  L.  Montgomery,  State  library,  Har- 
risburg.  Pa. 

Demarchus  C.  Brown,  State  library, 
Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Paul  Blackwelder,  Public  library,  St. 
Louis,  Mo. 

C.  F.  D.  Belden,  State  library,  Boston, 
Mass. 

Catalog    Rules  for  Small    Libraries 
Theresa  Hitchler,  Public  library,  Brook- 
lyn. 

Margaret  Mann,  Carnegie  library,  Pitts- 
burgh. 

Mary  L.  SutlifC,  Library  school.  Public 
library,  New  York. 

Travel 
F.  W.  Faxon,  Boston  Book  Co.,  Boston, 
Mass. 

C.  H.  Brown,  Public  library,  Brooklyn. 
J.  F.  Phelan,  Public  library,  Chicago. 

Co-ordination 

C.  H.  Gould,  McGill  university  library, 
Montreal. 

J.  L.  Gillis,  State  library,  Sacramento, 
Cal. 

N.  D.  C.  Hodges,  Public  library,  Cin- 
cinnati, O. 


W.  C.  Lane,  Harvard  university  library, 
Cambridge,  Mass. 

Herbert  Putnam,  Library  of  Congress, 
Washington. 

T.  W.  Koch,  University  of  Michigan 
library,  Ann  Arbor. 

J.  C.  Schwab,  Yale  university  library, 
New  Haven,  Conn. 

Work  with  the  Blind 

Mrs.  Emma  Neisser  Delfino,  Free  li- 
brary, Philadelphia. 

Laura  M.  Sawyer,  Perkins  Institution, 
Watertown,  Mass. 

Laura  Smith,  Public  library,  Cincinnati, 
O. 

Miriam  E.  Carey,  Public  library  com- 
mission, St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Charles  S.  Greene,  Free  library,  Oak- 
land, Cal. 

Program 

Henry  E.  Legler,  Public  library,  Chi- 
cago. 

E.  H.  Anderson,  Public  library.  New 
York. 

George  B.  Utley,  A.  L.  A.  Executive 
office,  Chicago. 

COUNCIL 
First  Meeting 

The  first  meeting,  held  June  27th,  was 
called  to  order  by  President  Elmendorf, 
with  37  members  present.  First  Vice- 
President  Legler,  at  request  of  the  presi- 
dent, took  the  chair. 

Voted  that  a  committee  of  three  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  chair  to  nominate  five 
members  for  Council  to  be  elected  by 
council  for  a  term  of  five  years  each. 
The  chair  appointed  George  H.  Locke,  R. 
G.  Thwaites  and  Mary  L.  Titcomb. 

Mrs.  Elmendorf,  as  chairman  of  com- 
mittee on  relations  of  the  A.  L.  A.  and 
certain  other  national  associations,  made 
a  report  of  progress,  stating  that  the 
committee  had  formulated  a  letter  set- 
ting forth  the  desire  for  closer  co-opera- 
tion, which  letter  had  been  transmitted 
by  the  secretary  to  35  associations.  Re- 
plies had  been  received  from  23,  all  of 
which  expressed  a  desire  for  closer  co- 
operation  between   their  association   and 


196 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


the  A.  L.  A.  Voted  that  the  report  be 
received  as  report  of  progress  and  the 
committee  continued. 

In  the  absence  of  Mr.  W.  C.  Lane, 
chairman  of  the  special  committee  to 
promote  and  co-operate  in  the  develop- 
ment of  printed  cards  in  relation  with  in- 
ternational arrangements,  Dr.  C.  W. 
Andrews  made  an  informal  report  on  his 
own  work  as  a  member  of  the  committee, 
stating  that  the  John  Crerar  library  was 
testing  the  time  required  to  order  printed 
cards  from  the  Royal  Library  of  Berlin 
to  see  whether  such  orders  would  reach 
their  destination  in  time  to  be  filled.  He 
expressed  the  hope  that  a  majority  of 
such  orders  would  be  received  in  time. 
Mr.  Bowker  spoke  of  the  work  as  seen 
by  him  on  a  recent  trip  abroad.  Dr.  Put- 
nam spoke  informally  of  the  Leipzig  ex- 
hibit of  book  arts  planned  for  two  years 
hence. 

The  committee  on  ventilation  and  light- 
ing reported  Informally  through  the  chair- 
man, Mr.  Samuel  H.  Ranck,  who  stated 
that  a  formal  report  had  been  prepared 
and  would  be  presented  at  a  later  session. 

Miss  Alice  S.  Tyler,  chairman  of  the 
Committee  on  relation  of  the  A.  L.  A.  and 
State  library  associations,  presented  the 
following  report: 

The  Committee  on  relation  of  the  A.  L. 
A.  and  State  library  associations  reports 
to  the  Council  the  further  consideration 
of  the  report  which  was  referred  back  to 
the  Committee  at  the  January  meeting 
of  the  Council  and  makes  the  following 
recommendation : 

That  Council  recommends  that  the 
Executive  board  consider  the  advisability 
of  amending  Section  14  of  the  Constitu- 
tion and  Section  3  of  the  By-laws  to  in- 
clude representation  of  state,  territorial 
and  provincial  library  associations  in  the 
Council  and  the  conditions  of  such  mem- 
bership. 

The  Committee  further  suggests  that 
the  By-laws  be  amended  to  provide  that 
the  privileges  and  advantages  of  the 
A.  L.  A.  conferences  shall  be  available 
only  to  those  holding  personal,  or  repre- 
senting institutional,  membership  in  the 
association. 

Voted  that  this  report  be  adopted. 

The  Committee  appointed  to  consider 
the    government    of    American    libraries 


and  their  relation  to  the  municipal  au- 
thorities, presented  a  report  through  the 
chairman.  Dr.  A.  E.  Bostwick,  upon  which 
it  was  voted  that  the  report  be  recommit- 
ted to  Committee  for  consideration  as  to 
minor  changes  and  further  report. 

On  motion  it  was  voted  that  the  Com- 
mittee be  continued  and  that  member- 
ship be  increased  to  five.  The  president 
named  M.  S.  Dudgeon  and  Adam  Strohm 
as  additional  members. 

Adjourned,  subject  to  call  of  the  chair. 

Second  Meeting 
At  the  second  meeting,  held  June  29th, 
24  members  were  present.  Vice-President 
Legler  presided  at  the  request  of  Presi- 
dent Elmendorf,  who  was  present. 

Dr.  Andrews,  as  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  conditions  governing  affiliation 
of  other  than  local,  state  and  provincial 
associations,  reported  orally,  recommend- 
ing that  a  by-law  be  framed  to  include  as 
one  feature  that  a  membership  fee  of 
$25.00  a  year  be  assessed  on  such  affiliated 
organizations,  stating  that  three  at  least 
of  the  already  affiliated  organizations  had 
expressed  their  willingness  to  such  fee, 
and  that  the  remaining  association  has 
been  received  on  condition  that  it  accept 
such  terms  of  affiliation  as  might  be  de- 
termined by  the  A.  L.  A. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Bowker  it  was  voted 
that  the  report  be  received  and  that  the 
Committee  be  continued  but  that  at  the 
request  of  Dr.  Putnam  he  be  relieved  and 
Mr.  J.  I.  Wyer,  Jr.,  be  appointed  as  a 
member  of  the  Committee. 

At  this  meeting  Council  elected  the  fol- 
lowing persons  as  members  of  the  council 
for  a  term  of  five  years  each:  Josephine 
A.  Rathbone,  Mrs.  Percival  Sneed,  Mrs. 
Harriet  P.  Sawyer,  M.  S.  Dudgeon  and 
W.  O.  Carson. 

The  report  of  the  Committee  on  gov- 
ernment of  American  libraries.  Dr.  Bost- 
wick, chairman,  which  was  presented  at 
a  previous  meeting  and  recommitted  to 
the  Committee  for  certain  minor  changes, 
was  again  presented  and  it  was  voted 
that  the  report  as  amended  be  received 
and  the  resolution  adopted.     The  report, 


COUNCIL 


197 


including  the  resolution  referred  to,  is  as 
follows: 

Report  of  Committee  on   Relation  of  the 

Library  to  the  ISAunicipality 
To  the  American  Library  Association: 

Your  special  committee  to  whom  was  re- 
ferred the  matter  of  drafting  a  report  on 
what  the  association  regards  as  funda- 
mental in  the  relation  of  the  public  library 
to  the  municipality,  submits  herewith  its 
report.  This  whole  subject  is  of  such 
great  importance  that  your  committee 
believes  it  should  receive  further  consid- 
eration, especially  if  it  is  desired  that 
there  should  be  submitted  the  draft  of 
what  may  be  termed  a  model  library  ar- 
ticle, chapter,  or  title  in  a  city  charter, 
particularly  a  charter  in  a  state  operating 
under  a  so-called  home  rule  law,  whereby 
each  city  may  make  its  own  charter 
within  the  limitations  fixed  by  the  state 
constitution  and  a  general  state  law. 

Your  committee  believes  that  the  asso- 
ciation is  practically  unanimous  in  its  con- 
viction that  the  public  library  should  be 
regarded  as  a  part  of  the  educational  ma- 
chinery of  the  community,  and  that  the 
functions  of  the  educational  organization 
are  generally  separate  and  distinct  from 
those  of  the  local  government  organiza- 
tion. In  the  very  nature  of  things  it  is 
therefore  impossible  for  the  public  library 
to  get  the  kind  of  administration  it  de- 
serves when  it  is  administrated  as  a  part 
of  the  city's  system  of  parks,  or  under  the 
supervision  of  its  board  of  public  works. 
It  may  be  stated  that  in  some  of  our  states 
the  state  constitution  recognizes  this  dis- 
tinction by  providing  for  two  corporations 
with  the  same  geographical  boundaries, 
the  one  dealing  with  the  questions  of  local 
government  and  the  other  with  education, 
— the  public  schools.  This  constitutional 
distinction  is  based  on  the  principle  that 
education  is  a  matter  of  state  concern, 
that  the  interests  of  the  state  in  education 
are  paramount,  and  therefore  that  the 
state  should  exercise  greater  control  in 
educational  affairs  than  in  local  govern- 


ment affairs.  In  line  with  this  thought, 
your  committee  submits  the  following  re- 
solution, which  it  recommends  to  the  asso- 
ciation for  adoption  at  this  time: 

RESOLVED:  That  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  calls  the  attention  of 
municipal  governments,  and  of  public 
bodies  engaged  in  the  preparation  of  new 
or  amended  charters  for  such  govern- 
ments, to  the  necessity  for  securing  inde- 
pendence of  action  of  the  public  library  as 
an  educational  agency  co-ordinate  with  the 
schools.  Radical  changes  in  forms  of 
municipal  government  have  sometimes  left 
the  library's  position  insecure  or  doubtful, 
and  charters  providing  the  so-called  "com- 
mission form"  of  government  have  in  par- 
ticular often  failed  to  define  adequately  the 
position  of  public  libraries  and  their 
governing  boards.  Where  there  is  classi- 
fication of  municipal  functions,  this  asso- 
ciation feels  very  strongly  that  the  public 
library  should  be  grouped  with  educative 
agencies  such  as  the  public  schools  rather 
than  with  departments  that  have  little  or 
nothing  to  do  with  its  work.  While  it  is 
desirable  to  keep  the  control  of  the  library 
in  independent  hands  and  not  to  place  it 
and  the  schools  under  the  same  direct 
management,  we  believe  that  a  city 
charter  should  contain  no  provision  group- 
ing the  library  otherwise  than  with  edu- 
cative agencies. 

If  the  foregoing  resolution  is  adopted, 
we  recommend  that  a  committee  be  ap- 
pointed to  study  this  subject  further  and 
to  submit  the  draft  of  what  might  be 
termed  a  library  chapter  for  a  city  charter. 

For  the  purpose  of  discussion  and  to 
clarify  the  thought  of  the  association  on 
this  subject  your  committee  submits  the 
following  tentative  points  which  it  be- 
lieves should  be  considered  for  such  pro- 
posed model  library  chapter. 

First,  the  charter  should  provide  for  a 
library  board  which  should  have  power  to 
administer  and  control  the  public  library 
of  the  city,  and  at  the  same  time  admin- 
ister all  libraries  municipally  owned  in  the 
city.  This  would  include  the  municipal 
legislative  reference  library  in  the  city 
hall,  libraries  in  public  schools,  high 
schools,  and  possibly  such  others  as  li- 
baries  in  municipal  art  galleries,  mu- 
seums, etc.  This  board  should  consist  of 
not  less  than  five  or  more  than  nine  mem- 


198 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


bers,  excluding  ex-officio  members,  the 
number  of  which  should  not  exceed  one 
half  of  the  appointive  or  elected  members. 
A  sufficiently  small  proportion  of  the 
board  should  be  elected  or  appointed  each 
year  to  make  its  membership  fairly  con- 
tinuous so  that  it  may  develop  a  construc- 
tive policy,  something  that  is  impossible 
where  the  membership  is  likely  to  change 
materially  at  brief  intervals.  In  no  case 
should  the  terms  of  more  than  half  of  the 
members  expire  at  one  time. 

In  our  smaller  cities  or  towns  it  would 
seem  advisable  to  consider  whether  the 
municipal  art  gallery  and  museum  should 
be  administered  by  the  same  board  which 
administers  the  library.  It  has  been  sug- 
gested that  in  such  places  it  would  be  pos- 
sible to  carry  on  this  work  with  very  much 
less  expense  under  one  management  than 
under  several  managements,  and  expe- 
rience apparently  demonstrates  that  hav- 
ing the  library,  art  gallery,  and  museum 
interests  in  the  city  in  the  same  building, 
or  in  a  group  of  related  buildings,  adds 
immensely  to  the  public  service  of  each 
at  a  minimum  expenditure  of  money.  In 
other  words,  having  all  these  interests  un- 
der one  roof  or  in  buildings  closely  adjoin- 
ing each  other  makes  it  possible  for  each 
institution  to  strengthen  the  other,  and  at 
the  same  time  makes  it  possible  for  the 
best  cooperation  and  coordination;  and 
furthermore  many  more  people  will  use 
each  of  these  institutions  when  they  are 
together  than  when  they  are  widely  sep- 
arated. In  larger  cities  where  it  may  seem 
desirable  to  have  the  art  and  museum  in- 
terests under  separate  boards  the  charter 
should  provide  for  official  (ex-officio)  rep- 
resentatives of  each  of  these  institutions 
on  the  boards  of  the  others  as  well  as  with 
the  board  of  education  of  the  city,  so  as 
to  insure  the  greatest  amount  of  coopera- 
tion and  coordination.  It  is  the  convic- 
tion of  this  committee  that  the  educational 
interests  of  the  community  in  many  of  our 
cieties  today  should  be  coordination  to  a 
greater  extent  than  they  are  now,  not  only 
for  the  purpose  of  eliminating  duplication 
of  work  and  effort  but  also  for  the  mutual 


strengthening   of  the   work  and  effort  of 
each. 

In  many  small  cities  and  some  larger 
ones  it  has  been  the  practice  for  the  public 
library  to  be  managed  by  the  board  of  edu- 
cation. The  disadvantage  of  this,  how- 
ever, is  that  the  library  interests  are  usu- 
ally turned  over  to  a  committee  and  that 
the  membership  of  this  committee  is 
likely  to  change  from  year  to  year,  so  that 
there  is  no  constructive  policy;  and  where 
there  is  no  constructive  policy  the  inter- 
ests in  the  library  on  the  part  of  other 
members  of  the  board  is  likely  to  be  small. 
However,  many  of  the  difficulties  with  the 
management  of  a  public  library  by  a  board 
of  education  have  frequently  grown  out  of 
the  method  of  appointment  or  election  of 
the  school  board.  If  the  school  board  is  in 
politics  and  therefore  more  or  less  par- 
tisan, the  library  is  apt  to  suffer  by  this 
arrangement  even  more  than  the  schools 
themselves.  Possibly,  where  public  opin- 
ion is  sufficiently  alive  to  the  value  and 
importance  of  education  a  single  board 
might  manage  all  the  educational  interests 
of  a  city,  just  as  the  board  of  regents  of 
one  of  our  large  state  universities  admin- 
isters its  varied  activities. 

Another  point  to  be  considered  is 
whether  the  library  board  should  be 
elected  by  the  citizens  at  large,  or  ap- 
pointed by  the  mayor  or  selected  by  the 
board  of  education.  Election  by  the  citi- 
zens of  members  to  such  a  board  should 
be  absolutely  non-partisan.  Women  should 
have  the  right  to  vote  and  should  be  eli- 
gible to  the  board.  The  board  should  have 
power  to  fill  vacancies  which  may  occur 
by  death  or  resignation,  until  the  next 
general  election,  in  case  the  board  is 
elected  by  the  citizens  at  large.  Of  course, 
if  the  members  are  elected  by  the  board 
of  education,  vacancies  dould  be  filled  at 
any  time  by  that  board,  and  if  they  are  ap- 
pointed by  the  mayor  he  could  fill  a 
vacancy. 

Your  committee  believes  that  it  is  un- 
wise for  a  public  library  to  be  governed 
by  a  board  which  elects  its  own  members, 
or   a   majority  of  its   own   members:    in 


COUNCIL 


199 


other  words,  a  "close  corporation"  is  not 
the  form  of  governing  board  that  is  best 
for  a  library  belonging  to  all  the  people  of 
the  community.  This  would  not  apply 
where  cities  make  a  terminable  contract 
with  an  existing  institution.  It  is  gener- 
ally unwise  for  the  corporate  name  of  a 
municipal  public  library  to  bear  the  name 
of  an  individual.  It  should  bear  the  name 
of  the  city,  and  the  charter  should  fix  its 
name. 

The  charter  should  provide  for  the  or- 
ganization of  the  library  board  by  the 
election  of  a  president  and  vice-president, 
with  the  city  treasurer  as  the  ex-officio 
treasurer  of  the  board  and  the  city  comp- 
troller as  the  auditor  of  the  board's  ac- 
counts. It  should  also  provide  for  a 
secretary  or  clerk,  who  should  be  an 
employee  of  the  board  rather  than  a  mem- 
ber of  the  board,  and  it  is  highly  desirable 
that  this  officer  should  be  the  librarian. 
In  any  case  his  powers  should  not  conflict 
with  those  of  the  librarian. 

The  charter  should  give  the  library 
board  full  power  to  hold  trust  funds  which 
may  be  placed  in  its  hands,  to  administer 
the  same,  and  to  accept  and  to  hold  gifts 
of  real  and  personal  property  for  the  gen- 
eral purposes  for  which  the  board  was 
created.  The  charter  should  provide,  if 
the  state  law  does  not  do  so,  that  the  li- 
brary should  not  receive  less  than  a  min- 
imum fund  for  its  maintenance,  based  on 
the  assessed  valuation  of  the  city.  It 
ought  never  to  be  possible  for  a  council  so 
to  cut  a  library's  budget  that  it  is  neces- 
sary to  close  branch  libraries  or  abandon 
established  work  for  a  year  or  more, 
thereby  cutting  off  for  the  time  being  all 
normal  growth  and  sometimes  crippling 
the  library  so  that  it  takes  years  to  re- 
cover. This  has  happened  in  more  than 
one  American  city.  The  whole  idea  of  a 
minimum  tax  for  the  maintenance  of  a  li- 
brary is  in  line  with  the  thought  ex- 
pressed in  many  of  our  state  constitu- 
tions: namely,  that  the  educational  inter- 
ests of  the  community  are  paramount. 

The  library  board  should  have  full  legal 
rights  for  defense  in  the  courts,  etc.    The 


charter  should  provide  that  the  chief  law 
officer  of  the  city  should  be  its  legal 
representative. 

The  library  board  should  be  given  the 
power  to  render  library  service  by  con- 
tract to  communities  outside  of  the  city 
limits,  such  as  towns,  townships,  or 
counties.  In  short,  it  should  be  given  lib- 
eral powers  for  extending  its  usefulness 
into  similar  or  related  unoccupied  fields. 

The  library  board  should  be  given  abso- 
lute power  and  responsibility  over  its  em- 
ployees, their  appointment,  promotion, 
salaries,  removal,  etc.,  within  the  general 
limitations  of  the  charter.  It  should  pro- 
vide that  all  employment  should  be  given 
on  the  basis  of  merit  alone,  but  that  a 
civil  service  system  should  not  be  im- 
posed upon  it  from  the  outside  any  more 
than  a  municipal  civil  service  should  be 
imposed  upon  a  board  of  education  in  the 
employment  of  teachers  in  the  public 
schools.  Your  committee  has  yet  to  learn 
of  a  single  American  city  where  a  mu- 
nicipal civil  service  commission,  which 
deals  mainly  with  the  employment  of 
clerks  in  offices,  policemen,  firemen,  etc., 
has  been  able  satisfactorily  to  select  or 
promote  employees  for  educational  work. 

The  library  board  should  also  have 
power  to  draft  and  enforce  regulations 
governing  the  reasonable  use  of  the  li- 
brary under  the  general  limitations  of  the 
city  charter  or  state  law. 

And,  finally,  the  charter  sho\ild  provide 
that  the  library  board  should  submit  an- 
nually to  the  mayor  or  the  legislative  or 
tax  levying  body  of  the  city  a  report  of  its 
receipts  and  expenditures  together  with  a 
general  account  of  its  work  and  trusts. 

As  stated  above,  your  committee  offers 
all  of  this  to  serve  as  a  basis  for  discus- 
sion if  it  is  desired  that  a  model  library 
section  for  a  charter  should  be  drafted. 

All  of  which  is, 

Respectfully  submitted, 
ARTHUR  E.  BOSTWICK,  Chairman, 
JUDSON  T.  JENNINGS, 
SAMUEL  H.  RANCK. 

The  Committee  on  ventilation  and  light- 
ing of  library  buildings,  Samuel  H.  Ranck, 


200 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


chairman,  made  a  verbal  report  of  prog- 
ress, stating  that  a  lengthy  written  report 
covering  the  investigations  and  results  of 
correspondence  had  been  prepared.  The 
Committee  stated  that  certain  commer- 
cial companies  proposed  to  make  experi- 
ments along  the  lines  of  the  Committee's 
investigation  and  it  was  taken  by  consent 
that  the  Council  express  its  gratification 
that  these  experiments  are  to  be  under- 
taken by  the  respective  companies  and 
that  the  results  will  be  watched  with  in- 
terest. On  motion  of  Dr.  Steiner  it  was 
voted  that  the  report  be  accepted  as  a 
report  of  progress  and  Committee  con- 
tinued. 

Mr.  Charles  S.  Greene  informed  Council 
that  the  California  library  association 
had  unanimously  passed  a  resolution  to 
invite  the  A.  L.  A.  to  meet  in  California 
in  1915.  The  statement  was  received  as 
information  and  ordered  transmitted  to 
the  Executive  board. 

Adjourned,  subject  to  call  of  the  chair. 

The  PRESIDENT:  You  have  heard  the 
reports.  If  there  is  no  objection  they  will 
be  received,  but  there  are  certain  recom- 
mendations incorporated  in  them  that  need 
action.  Will  the  secretary  please  read 
once  more  the  recommendations  from  the 
report  of  the  Executive  board? 

The  secretary  read  again  the  proposed 
amendment  to  Section  14  of  the  Constitu- 
tion. 

The  PRESIDENT:  What  is  your  pleas- 
ure? It  should  be  remembered  that  this 
amendment  to  the  Constitution  will  re- 
quire an  affirmative  vote  for  two  succes- 
sive sessions  of  the  association. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Samuel  H.  Ranck, 
duly  seconded,  the  amendment  received  an 
affirmative  vote. 

The  secretary  read  again  the  proposed 
Section  11  of  the  By-laws,  recommended 
by  the  Council,  and  on  motion  of  Dr. 
Bostwick,  seconded  by  Dr.  Andrews,  this 
amendment  to  the  By-laws  was  adopted. 

The  secretary  here  read  again  the  reso- 
lution incorporated  in  the  report  of  the 
Committee  on  government  of  American 
libraries  and  their  relation  to  the  munici- 
pal authorities. 


Dr.  BOSTWICK:  Madam  President,  in 
moving  the  adoption  of  this  resolution,  I 
would  suggest  that  opportunity  be  given 
for  its  discussion  by  the  association. 

Mr.  RANCK:  I  second  the  motion  for 
the  adoption  of  that  resolution.  Madam 
President. 

The  resolution  was  adopted. 

The  PRESIDENT:  Here  is  a  matter  of 
news  from  the  outside  world.  The  bulle- 
tins have  announced  that  Governor  Wood- 
row  Wilson  has  been  nominated  on  the 
forty-sixth  ballot  by  acclamation.  I  think 
this  is  the  first  time  that  a  woman  ever 
made  that  kind  of  an  announcement. 

There  is  a  matter  of  business  from  the 
Public  documents  committee,  on  which 
we  should  like  to  hear  from  Mr.  Godard. 

Mr.  GODARD:  This  resolution  which 
comes  from  the  Committee  on  public  doc- 
uments, comes  before  you  in  a  little 
irregular  manner,  because  the  govern- 
ment documents  round  table  was  not  held 
until  yesterday  afternoon,  and  there  has 
been  no  meeting  of  the  Council  since,  and 
will  not  be  to  the  end  of  the  conference; 
but  the  purpose  of  the  resolution  is  simply 
to  convey  to  the  Congressional  committee 
on  printing,  at  Washington,  the  thanks  of 
this  association  for  the  efforts  that  com- 
mittee has  made  to  embody  in  the  bill 
which  has  been  passed  by  the  Senate  the 
several  recommendations  made  from  time 
to  time  during  the  seven  years'  existence 
of  the  committee,  relating  to  the  print- 
ing, binding  and  distribution  of  docu- 
ments. The  bill  as  a  whole  has  met  with 
the  approval  of  the  various  librarians,  as 
manifested  at  the  government  documents 
round  table  yesterday  afternoon.  While 
some  minor  suggestions  were  made,  it 
was  thought  best  that  these  suggestions 
should  go  to  the  committee  in  the  form 
of  suggestions  rather  than  be  embodied  in 
the  resolutions. 

If  in  order,  I  should  be  pleased  to  read 

the  resolutions. 

WHEREAS  the  Congressional  Commit- 
tee on  printing,  appointed  under  an  Act 
passed  March  3,  1905,  has  after  seven 
years  of  investigations  and  hearings,  for- 
mulated and  presented  to  Congress  a  new 
bill   relating   to   public   printing,    binding 


THWAITES 


201 


and  distribution  of  government  publica- 
tions, which  embodies  so  many  of  the 
suggestions  and  recommendations  upon 
these  subjects,  made  from  time  to  time 
by  this  association  and  its  several  com- 
mittees, 

RESOLVED,  that  we,  the  members  of 
the  American  Library  Association,  as- 
sembled at  our  Thirty-fourth  Annual  Con- 
ference at  Ottawa,  Canada,  June  26th  to 
July  2nd,  1912,  express  our  appreciation 
to  the  Senate  and  House  Committees  on 
Printing,  and  to  the  Superintendent  of 
Documents,  for  the  uniform  courtesy  and 
careful  consideration  extended,  and  the 
hope  that  the  Bill  (S  4339)  may  be  en- 
acted into  law  substantially  as  passed  by 
the  Senate. 

The  PRESIDENT:  You  have  heard  the 
resolution  as  presented  from  the  public 
documents  committee.  What  is  your 
pleasure? 

Dr.  ANDREWS:  I  hope  the  association 
will  by  three-fourths  vote  approve  this 
resolution.  I  can  testify  that  Mr.  Godard 
did  not  understate  the  approval  which  the 
draft  of  the  bill  met  with  at  the  govern- 
ment documents  round  table. 

The  resolution  was  adopted  unani- 
mously. 

The  PRESIDENT:  The  next  business 
in  order  is  the  report  of  the  Resolutions 
committee,  of  which  Dr.  Thwaites  is 
chairman.  I  want  to  say  just  one  word 
before  those  formal  resolutions  are  read, 
to  express  my  own  personal  appreciation 
of  the  efforts  of  our  Canadian  hosts.  It 
seems  to  me  that  in  their  welcome  to  us, 
in  their  kindly  courtesy,  in  every  attitude 
which  they  have  taken  toward  us,  they 
have  made  an  atmosphere  of  good  cheer 
and  hospitality  in  which  all  our  business 
has  been  done;  it  has  been  an  atmos- 
phere of  the  greatest  acceptance  and  de- 
light, and  has  been  like  the  sunshine  out 
of  doors.  We  will  hear  the  report  of  the 
Resolutions  committee. 

Dr.  Thwaites,  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee, read  the  following  report: 

REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON 
RESOLUTIONS 

Your  committee  beg  leave  to  recommend 
the  adoption  of  the  following  minute,  to 
be  spread  upon  the  records  of  the  con- 


ference, and  that  copies  thereof  be  for- 
warded by  the  secretary  to  the  several 
bodies  and  persons  mentioned  therein. 

In  its  membership  and  its  sympathies, 
the  American  Library  Association  is 
broadly  American.  It  aims  to  secure 
among  the  librarians  of  the  continent  that 
practical  reciprocity  in  ideals  and  inter- 
ests that  should  everywhere  prevail  among 
those  engaged  in  undertakings  for  the 
moral  and  intellectual  betterment  of  hu- 
manity. 

The  association  is  deeply  gratified  in 
being  able  to  hold  its  34th  annual  confer- 
ence within  the  Dominion  of  Canada,  whose 
representatives  have  for  many  years  prom- 
inently participated  in  the  management  and 
deliberations  of  the  association.  Since  Its 
meeting  in  Montreal,  twelve  years  ago, 
the  membership  of  the  association  has 
increased  from  nine  hundred  to  twenty- 
three  hundred.  Toward  this  expansion  (it- 
self a  visible  sign  of  that  quickening  of 
popular  concern  in  educational  affairs 
which  has  been  so  marked  a  feature  of 
the  past  decade),  Canada  has  contributed 
a  goodly  share.  It  is  hoped  and  believed 
by  the  association  that  this  conference 
will  still  further  inspire  and  strengthen 
those  public-spirited  men  and  women,  who, 
in  various  capacities,  are  conducting  the 
public  and  institutional  libraries  of  the 
Dominion. 

Of  the  fine  temper  and  professional  zeal 
of  its  Canadian  membership,  the  associa- 
tion has  had  frequent  evidence;  but  the 
experiences  of  the  past  eight  days  have 
brought  to  the  members  from  the  United 
States  a  new,  although  by  no  means  un- 
expected, sense  of  the  abundant  hospitality 
of  their  Canadian  colleagues.  Any  vote  of 
thanks  that  may  be  adopted  by  this  asso- 
ciation, can  seem  to  the  visitors  south  of 
the  international  boundary,  but  cold  recog- 
nition of  the  warm  sincerity  of  their  greet- 
ing in  the  capital  of  the  great  Dominion. 
It  is  hoped,  however,  that  between  the 
lines  of  this  fraternal  salutation  from  the 
men  and  women  of  the  south,  their  con- 
freres of  the  north  may  read  such  sym- 
pathy and  love  as  words  cannot  convey. 


202 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


The  association  begs  to  place  on  record 
its  heartfelt  thanks  to  all  of  those  many 
Canadians  who,  in  whatever  measure,  have 
contributed  towards  the  success  of  this 
delightful  meeting  and  to  the  entertain- 
ment of  its  participants.  But  to  the  fol- 
lowing men  and  women  who,  either  offic- 
ially or  personally,  have  been  intimately 
concerned  in  preparations  for  and  in  the 
management  of  the  many  charming  hos- 
pitalities that  have  made  this  conference 
so  notable  in  the  history  of  American  li- 
brarianship,  the  association  unanimously 
expresses  its  especial  appreciation. 

At  Toronto,  entertaining  the  western 
delegation:  The  Government  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Ontario,  represented  by  Sir  James 
Whitney,  premier,  the  Hon.  R.  A.  Pyne, 
minister  of  education,  and  Mr.  Walter  R. 
Nursey,  inspector  of  public  libraries;  Pro- 
fessor Needier,  librarian  of  the  University 
of  Toronto,  and  Professor  Lang,  librarian 
of  Victoria  college;  the  Ontario  Library 
Association  and  its  officers:  the  members 
of  the  Toronto  public  library  board,  and 
their  chief  librarian.  Dr.  George  H.  Locke. 

At  Ottawa,  the  Government  of  the  Do- 
minion, represented  by  the  Hon.  George 
H.  Perley,  acting  premier,  and  the  Hon. 
Martin  Burrell,  minister  of  agriculture; 
His  Worship  the  Mayor  of  the  Corporation 
of  the  City  of  Ottawa;  the  local  Com- 
mittee of  Ottawa,  the  chairman  of  which. 
Dr.  Otto  Klotz,  was  represented  by  Dr. 
James  W.  Robertson,  C.  M.  G.;  particularly 
Mr.  Lawrence  J.  Burpee  and  Mr.  D.  P. 
Cruikshank,  together  with  the  lady  mem- 
bers of  the  committee;  the  Ottawa  public 
library  board  represented  by  Alderman 
Ainslie  W,  Greene,  chairman;  the  Cana- 
dian Club  of  Ottawa;  the  Women's  Cana- 
dian Club  of  Ottawa;  the  Ottawa  Electric 
Railway  represented  by  its  president,  Mr. 
Thomas  Ahearn;  Mr.  John  F.  Watson  of 
the  Dominion  Central  Experimental  Farm; 
United  States  Consul-General  and  Mrs.  J. 
G.  Foster;  Manager  F.  W.  Bergman  of  the 
Chateau  Laurier;  and  Manager  Mulligan 
of  the  New  Russell. 

In  addition  to  its  acknowledgment  of 
the    foregoing   the   association    wishes  to 


express  most  sincere  appreciation  of  the 
cordial  message  which  it  received  from 
the  Governor-General,  H.  R.  H.  the  Duke 
of  Connaught,  who  unfortunately  was  de- 
tained at  Montreal  because  of  the  illness 
of  H.  R.  H.  the  Duchess,  whose  subse- 
quent recovery  is  a  source  of  international 
gratification;  of  the  great  kindness  of  Sir 
Wilfrid  Laurier,  in  consenting  to  address 
the  conference  upon  Dominion  day;  of 
the  excellent  addresses  by  Dr.  George  E. 
Vincent,  president  of  the  University  of 
Minnesota  and  by  Professor  John  Mac- 
naughton,  of  McGill  university;  and  of  the 
admirable  arrangements  for  the  post-con- 
ference tour  made  by  one  of  the  ex-presi- 
dents of  the  association.  Professor  Charles 
H.  Gould,  librarian  of  McGill  university, 
Montreal. 

R.  G.  THWAITES, 
MARY  W.  PLUMMER, 
J.  T.  JENNINGS, 
Committee  on  Resolutions. 

The  PRESIDENT:  You  have  heard  the 
report  of  the  Resolutions  committee.  Let 
us  pass  it  by  a  rising  vote. 

The  resolutions  were  adopted  unan- 
imously, by  a  rising  vote. 

Dr.  THWAITES:  I  have  another  reso- 
lution, Madam  President,  to  offer  from  the 
committee, — a  resolution,  not  a  minute: 

RESOLVED,  that  the  American  Library 
Association,  as  an  international  organiza- 
tion, has  viewed  with  profound  satisfac- 
tion the  project  for  the  establishment  of 
a  National  Library  in  and  for  the  Domin- 
ion of  Canada,  and  takes  pleasure  in 
joining  the  Royal  society,  the  Ontario 
library  association,  and  other  learned 
societies  in  Canada,  in  respectfully  urg- 
ing upon  the  government  of  the  Domin- 
ion the  vital  importance  of  such  an  insti- 
tution in  the  fostering  and  conservation 
of  the  intellectual  resources  and  national 
spirit  of  Canada;  and  further,  in  urging 
upon  the  government  the  desirability  of 
effecting  such  establishment  at  the  earliest 
possible  moment. 

The  resolution  was  adopted  unan- 
imously. 

The  PRESIDENT:  We  have  one  more 
resolution,  which  is  a  tribute  of  love  and 
respect  that  we  shall  pay  with  all  our 
hearts.     Dr.  Andrews  will  report  for  the 


ANDREWS 


203 


special  committee  appointed  to  draft  a 
suitable  memorial  concerning  our  late 
friend  Frederick  M.  Crunden, 

Dr.  ANDREWS:  First  let  me  express 
my  regret  that  Mr,  Henry  M.  Utley,  chair- 
man of  the  committee  appointed  by  the 
board  to  draw  up  this  memorial,  is  not 
present  in  person;  secondly,  to  state  for 
the  committee  that  we  have  departed 
from  the  usual  custom  of  offering  a  reso- 
lution, and  have  placed  before  you  a  brief 
statement  of  Mr.  Crunden's  life  and  char- 
acter, which  we  hope  will  convey  to  those 
who  have  come  into  the  association 
since  the  time  when  he  had  to  give  up 
active  connection  with  it,  a  record  of  his 
services. 

FREDERICK  MORGAN  CRUNDEN 

Frederick  Morgan  Crunden  was  born  at 
Gravesend,  England,  September  1,  1847, 
the  son  of  Benjamin  Robert  and  Mary 
(Morgan)  Crunden.  Coming  to  St.  Louis 
while  a  child,  he  was  educated  in  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  that  city  and  graduated 
fiom  its  high  school  in  1865,  with  a  scholar- 
ship in  Washington  university.  In  the 
latter  institution  he  took  a  course  in  the 
arts  and  sciences,  graduating  in  1868  with 
the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts.  Teaching 
in  the  public  schools  of  St.  Louis  before 
graduation,  and  later  in  the  college  faculty 
of  the  same  university,  he  received  the 
degree  of  master  of  arts  in  1872. 

His  marriage  to  Miss  Kate  Edmondson 
was  in  1889.  During  his  college  course  Mr. 
Crunden  took  a  vital  interest  in  library 
work,  and  in  January,  1877,  he  became 
secretary  and  librarian  of  the  St.  Louis 
public  (then  public  school)  library,  con- 
tinuing as  such  until  1909. 

Equally  Identified  with  many  other  so- 
cieties, local  and  national,  he  had  been  a 
contributor  to  leading  magazines  upon 
educational  and  sociological  subjects,  and 
had  attained  international  fame  before  he 
was  stricken  in  1906  with  the  malady 
which  resulted  in  his  death  October  28, 
1911. 

Mr.  Crunden's  public  services  were  by 
no  means  confined  to  the  distinctively  li- 


brary interests  of  his  community  and  the 
country.  He  was  particularly  interested 
in  the  mutual  relations  of  schools  and  li- 
braries, developing  them  in  St.  Louis  in 
a  manner  which  served  as  a  model  for 
others,  and  contributing  largely  to  the 
evolution  of  the  present  official  relations 
of  the  National  Education  Association  and 
the  American  Library  Association. 

In  his  public  writing  he  has  expressed 
most  clearly  and  happily  the  fundamental 
principles  of  these  relations,  and  it  is  a 
great  pleasure  to  his  friends,  as  it  was  to 
him  in  the  last  days  of  his  life,  to  know 
that  his  statement  of  the  value  of  recorded 
thought  has  been  carved  in  granite  on  the 
walls  of  his  cherished  institution.  Never- 
theless it  was  to  library  work  that  the 
greater  part  of  his  time  and  thought  was 
given,  and  it  is  the  success  of  his  work 
as  a  constructive  librarian  that  naturally 
we  most  fully  recognize.  He  combined 
high  executive  ability  with  a  comprehen- 
sive knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  col- 
lections under  his  charge.  He  had  that 
sense  of  the  real  librarian,  which  has  been 
said  to  be  "an  intensive  perception  of 
the  needs  of  the  present,  and  a  prophetic 
insight  into  the  needs  of  the  future." 

He  worked  zealously  and  unceasingly, 
first  for  the  broadening  of  the  work  of 
the  St.  Louis  public  schools  library,  then 
for  its  conversion  into  a  free  public  li- 
brary, and  finally  for  its  development  into 
a  strong  institution  ranking  among  the 
great  libraries  of  the  land.  It  is  pleasant 
to  know  that  even  in  the  last  years  he 
was  able  at  times  to  follow  its  course  along 
the  lines  forecast  by  him,  and  that  he  could 
realize  the  high  appreciation  of  his  serv- 
ices so  generally  felt  by  his  fellow  citizens. 
Almost  in  the  beginning  of  his  library 
career,  he  began  also  his  services  to  the 
American  Library  Association,  which  were 
secondary  only  to  the  work  he  did  for  St. 
Louis. 

He  attended  first  the  Boston  conference 
of  1879,  and  rarely  after  that  did  he  miss 
a  meeting.  Elected  councillor  in  1882,  he 
served  the  association  almost  continuously 
until  his  illness.     He  was  vice-president 


204 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


in  1887-88,  and  under  his  presidency  tlie 
Fabyans  conference  of  1890  took  rank  as 
the  largest  and  one  of  the  most  success- 
ful meetings  held  up  to  that  time.  When 
the  association  met  at  St.  Louis,  in  1889, 
and  again  in  1904,  he  was  a  most  thought- 
ful host,  whose  care  for  our  welfare  con- 
tributed largely  to  the  success  of  those 
meetings.  He  served  also  as  one  of  the 
vice-presidents  of  the  Chicago  conference 
in  1893,  and  as  vice-president  of  the  inter- 
national library  conference  at  London  in 
1S97,  and  was  one  of  the  chief  spokesmen 
of  the  association  party.  This  list  of  offi- 
cers by  no  means  measures  the  debt  of  the 
association  to  him.  The  much  longer  list 
of  committees  on  which  he  served  would 
indicate  better  the  character  and  breadth 
of  his  work,  but  even  this  would  leave  un- 
expressed the  professional  knowledge  and 
the  personal  pleasure  gained  from  his  com- 
panionship by  the  individual  members. 

This  sense  of  personal  loss  must  be  felt 
by  all  who  met  him  in  the  other  library 
circles  in  which  he  was  interested,  espe- 
cially the  Missouri  state  library  associa- 
tion, of  which  he  was  the  first  president, 
and  the  New  York  state  library  associa- 
tion, whose  annual  meetings  he  so  often 
attended. 

No  member  of  the  A.  L.  A.  of  his  day 
had  a  wider  and  closer  personal  acquain- 
tance among  the  membership  than  Mr. 
Crunden.  He  had  a  spirit  of  friendliness 
and  human  sympathy  which  prompted  him 
to  take  hold  upon  the  hearts  of  those  with 
whom  he  was  brought  into  contact  in  his 
profession.  He  had  no  ambition  which 
inclined  him  to  self-seeking,  but  was  al- 
ways quick  to  recognize  the  merits  of 
others  and  to  give  acknowledgment  freely 
and  heartily.  He  was  naturally  of  a  mod- 
est and  retiring  disposition,  but  wholly 
without  self-consciousness  or  reserve.  He 
looked  upon  every  question  with  frankness, 
unbiased  by  any  consideration  outside  of 
its  true  merits  as  approved  by  his  mature 
judgment.  He  held  his  views  firmly,  but 
he  never  undertook  to  force  them  upon 
others.  His  many  fine  qualities  of  mind 
and  heart  are  a  source  of  joy  to  all  who 


recall  the  memory  of  him  as  he  was  in 
the  midst  of  his  long  and  brilliant  career. 
His  more  intimate  friends  recall  with  won- 
der the  patience  with  which  he  bore  the 
strain  of  the  years  of  ill  health  which 
preceded  the  final  breakdown,  and  remem- 
ber with  gratitude  his  gracious  hospitality. 

The  PRESIDENT:  What  is  your  pleas- 
ure. Ladies  and  Gentlemen? 

Dr.  BOSTWICK:  I  move  that  this 
memorial  be  spread  upon  the  minutes  of 
the  association,  that  it  be  printed  in  the 
proceedings  of  this  conference,  and  that 
copies  of  it  be  sent  to  Mrs.  Crunden  and 
to  Mr.  Frederick  M.  Crunden's  brother, 
Mr.  F.  P.  Crunden  of  St.  Louis. 

The  motion  was  unanimously  adopted. 

The  PRESIDENT:  The  chair  would 
like  the  support  of  the  first  vice-president 
on  the  platform,  and  in  the  meantime, 
while  he  comes  forward,  after  the  report 
of  the  tellers  of  the  association,  we  have 
one  additional  treat  which  when  the  time 
comes  I  shall  ask  Mr.  Burpee  to  announce. 
The  report  of  the  tellers  of  election  is  in 
order,  which  will  be  read  by  the  secre- 
tary. 

The  SECRETARY:  The  report  of  the 
tellers  states  that  you  have  elected  the 
following  officers: 

REPORT  OF  THE  TELLERS  OF 
ELECTION.        ^^ 

For  President  of  Votes 

Henry  E.   Legler,   Librarian,   Chicago 

Public  Library 151 

For  First  Vice-President 

E.  H.  Anderson,  Assistant  Librarian, 
New  York  Public  Library 143 

For  Second  Vice-President 
Mary    F.    Isom,    Librarian,    Portland 

(Ore.)  Library  Association 145 

For  Members  of  Executive  Board 
(for  three  years) 
H.  C.  Wellman,  Librarian,  Springfield 

City  Library  Association 145 

T.  W.  Koch,  Librarian,  University  of 

Michigan    148 

For  Members  of  the  Council 
(for  five  years) 

F.  K.  Walter,  Vice-Director,  New  York 
State  Library  145 


LEGLER 


205 


Margaret  Mann,  Chief  Cataloger,  Car> 
negle  Library  of  Pittsburgh 144 

W.  W.  Bishop,  Supt.  of  Reading  Room, 
Library  of  Congress 147 

E,  R.  Perry,  Librarian,  Los  Angeles 
Public  Library  141 

Caroline  Burnite,  Director  of  Child- 
ren's Work,  Cleveland  Public  Li- 
brary     146 

For  Trustee  of  Endowment  Fund 
(for  three  years) 
W.  C.  Kimball,  Chairman,  New  Jersey 
Public  Library  Commission,  Trenton, 

N.  J 146 

JOHN  F.  PHELAN 
LLOYD  W.  JOSSELYN 

Tellers  of  Mection. 

The  PRESIDENT:  I  have  had  this 
beautiful  gavel  but  a  very  little  while, 
but  it  nevertheless  gives  me  great  pleasure 
to  transfer  it.  Do  you  remember  that 
Miss  Kelso  said  that  we  should  be  able 
to  produce  evidence  in  the  way  of  results 
for  the  value  of  our  work?  I  am  going 
to  make  a  very  distinguished,  a  very  large 
claim:  I  think  you  owe  the  presence  of 
the  president-elect  not  here  only  but  in 
the  profession  to  the  interest  which  waa 
originally  aroused  in  his  mind  in  the  Mil- 
waukee public  library, 

Mr.  Legler,  I  have  great  pleasure  in  pre- 
senting the  gavel  for  the  meeting  of 
1913  to  you  as  president-elect  and  in  ask- 
ing you  to  take  charge  for  the  remainder 
of  this  meeting. 

The  PRESIDENT-ELECT :  Madam 
President,  Members  of  the  American  Li- 
brary Association, — For  the  personal  good- 
will which  you  have  expressed,  I  give  to 
you  my  thanks.  In  so  far  as  your  action 
attests  confidence,  it  must  be  received  as 
a  call  to  service,  and — if  I  may  be  so  pre- 
sumptuous as  to  represent  in  what  I  say 
those  who  have  been  grouped  by  you  for 
the  ensuing  year  into  one  official  family — 
in  that  spirit  we  receive  this  gavel,  not 
as  a  symbol  of  authority  but  of  service. 
Without  venturing  upon  the  uncharted 
sea  of  prophecy,  we  shall  endeavor  to  in- 
terpret in  terms  of  action  those  mental 


images  which  have  been  crystallized  for 
us  by  the  strong,  virile  papers,  fortified 
by  the  abounding  interest  and  the  con- 
tagious enthusiasm  of  all  participants  in 
this  conference.  The  modern  library 
movement,  recent  as  has  been  its  incep- 
tion, has  progressed  through  two  strongly 
marked  stages,  and  is  entering  upon  a 
third.  The  first  era  was  that  of  pioneer- 
ing, the  sowing  of  seed.  The  second  may 
perhaps  be  termed  the  era  of  experimen- 
tation, out  of  which  grew  a  few  mistakes 
and  some  splendid  results.  But  we  have 
entered  upon  a  third  era,  the  period  of 
constructive  work,  of  careful  patient  plan- 
ning, of  building  enduringly.  If  a  year 
hence,  when  we  yield  into  other  hands  the 
high  commission  which  you  have  en- 
trusted to  us,  we  shall  be  able  to  say 
that  some  advancement  has  been  made,  we 
shall  be  proud  and  happy;  and  we  hope 
that  your  work,  which,  of  course,  must 
be  our  work,  will  yield  some  realization  of 
our  high  hopes  and  aims  and  aspirations. 

What  is  the  pleasure  of  this  confer- 
ence? 

I  am  advised  that  Mr.  Burpee  has  an- 
other pleasure  in  store  for  us,  and  we 
shall  be  glad  to  hear  from  him. 

Mr.  BURPEE:  Mr.  President  and 
friends  of  the  American  Library  Associa* 
tion:  On  behalf  of  the  local  committee  I 
have  asked  our  friend  Mrs.  Herbert  Ault, 
of  Ottawa,  to  try  to  express  to  you  our 
feelings  in  bidding  you  farewell.  Mrs. 
Ault  will  sing  the  old  Scotch  song,  that 
you  all  know  so  well,  "Will  ye  no  come 
back  again." 

After  the  singing  of  this  fine  old  song, 
Mrs.  Ault  led  the  audience  in  the  singing 
of  "Auld  Lang  Syne,"  whereupon  the 
president-elect  declared  the  Thirty-fourth 
Annual  Conference  of  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  adjourned. 

THE    SOCIAL   SIDE   OF  THE 
CONFERENCE 

Throughout  the  eight  days  which  we 
officially  spent  within  the  confines  of  the 
Dominion,  cordial  appreciation  of  our 
presence    was    constantly    in     evidence. 


206 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Twelve  years  had  passed  since  a  gather- 
ing of  the  association  had  been  held 
among  our  hospitable  co-laborers  north 
of  the  international  boundary;  I  think  we 
all  were  convinced  that  in  so  long  delay- 
ing our  second  visit,  we  of  "the  states" 
had  been  the  losers.  No  doubt  there  will 
hereafter  be  a  greater  frequency  of 
Canadian  meetings. 

The  western  delegation  was  the  first  to 
experience  the  sincere  and  unaffected 
warmth  of  Canada's  greeting.  Ontario's 
capital  and  metropolis  was  reached  by  the 
Chicago  special  at  noon  of  Tuesday, 
June  25.  The  Toronto  committee  of  ar- 
rangements was  composed  not  only  of 
librarians,  but  representatives  of  the  pro- 
vincial government,  prominent  educators, 
and  professional  and  business  men  and 
women.  Their  program  of  entertain- 
ment had  included  a  morning  automobile 
ride  through  the  many  parks  and  charm- 
ing residence  quarters  of  the  city;  but 
the  ride  was  abandoned,  for  the  hour  at 
which  the  guests  were  tardily  delivered 
to  them  by  the  railway  managers  spelled 
luncheon,  a  British  institution  that 
brooks  no  delay. 

The  scene  of  the  spread  was  the  attrac- 
tive refectory  of  Victoria  College,  one  of 
the  considerable  group  of  educational  in- 
stitutions comprising  Toronto  University. 
The  customary  welcome  was  voiced  by 
Sir  James  Whitney,  premier  of  the  prov- 
ince, the  Hon.  R.  A.  Pyne,  provincial 
minister  of  education,  and  Dr.  George  H. 
Locke,  chief  librarian  of  the  Toronto 
public  library.  Each  of  these  local  speak- 
ers expressed  the  hope  that  the  Associa- 
tion might  at  some  early  date  honor 
Toronto  with  one  of  its  annual  confer- 
ences. Dr.  Andrews  of  John  Crerar 
gracefully  responded  for  the  visitors. 

Luncheon  over,  the  spacious  and  well- 
equipped  buildings  of  the  university  were 
visited  and  admired,  and  in  due  time 
afternoon  tea  was  charmingly  served  on 
the  smooth-shaven  lawn  of  one  of  the  de- 
lightful quads.  Dinner  followed  not  long 
after,  in  the  beautiful  new  public  library 
building,  so  admirably  administered  by 
Dr.  Locke,   to  whose  kindly  activity  we 


owed  a  large  share  of  the  day's  greet- 
ings; and  here  the  guests  tarried  and 
rested  amid  familiar  surroundings  until 
the  departure  of  their  train  for  Ottawa, 
close  upon  ten  o'clock. 

Arriving  at  Ottawa  towards  noon  of 
Wednesday,  the  westerners  soon  were 
commingling  with  their  fellows  from  other 
parts  of  the  Union  and  Canada,  forgetful 
of  geographical  sections  and  national 
boundary  lines.  Before  nightfall,  all  of 
us  realized  that  we  simply  were  members 
of  a  household  of  co-workers  gathered 
under  the  family  roof-tree  of  the  citizens 
of  Ottawa  and  the  members  of  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  great  Dominion.  A  pecu- 
liarity of  Canada's  hospitality,  as  we  ex- 
perienced it,  was  that  the  government 
itself,  both  in  Toronto  and  in  Ottawa, 
was  quite  as  active  and  as  informally  cor- 
dial in  arranging  for  our  entertainment, 
as  were  individual  or  associated  bodies 
of  its  citizens. 

Fortunately  our  week  included  both 
Sunday  and  Dominion  Day.  The  morning 
of  the  former  was  largely  devoted  to  visits 
to  the  many  large  and  sumptuous 
churches.  Especially  favored  were  those 
who  witnessed  the  fine  ante-pilgrimage 
parade  of  those  French  Catholic  societies 
that  have  for  their  name-giver  St.  Jean 
Baptiste,  the  patron  saint  of  all  French 
Canadians.  The  afternoon  was  spent  in 
driving  or  troUeying  to  the  numerous 
parks  and  several  interesting  suburbs, 
and  in  taking  the  many  walks  wherein 
the  stately  panoramic  view  of  three  com- 
mingling rivers  (Ottawa,  Rideau,  and 
Chaudi&re)  caused  us  all  to  envy  the  lot 
of  those  who  dwell  with  this  array  of 
mountains  and  waterfalls  at  their  very 
doors. 

The  patriotic  exercises  of  Dominion 
Day  (July  1)  reminded  us  strongly  of  the 
historical  origin  of  modern  Canada, 
which  owes  a  large  share  of  her  prosper- 
ity to  the  grit  and  enterprise  of  the  Loy- 
alist pioneers.  Driven  forth  from  the 
American  colonies  because  they  failed  to 
sympathize  with  the  movement  whose 
culmination  we  observe  with  such  en- 
thusiasm, three  days  later  each  July,  they 


THWAITES 


207 


carried  to  the  wilds  of  the  north  those 
same  sturdy  Anglo-Saxon  qualities  of 
mind  and  heart  and  brawn  that  have 
erected  and  maintained  the  American 
Union.  That  Canada  had  at  last  become 
a  powerful,  self-conscious,  and  justly- 
proud  nation,  only  sentimentally  linked 
with  the  parent  isle  and  her  sister  domin- 
ions over  seas,  was  a  fact  borne  home  to 
the  visitors,  with  a  forcefulness  novel  to 
many  of  them.  It  is  not  likely  that  any 
American  librarian  present  at  the  Russell 
Theatre  during  Dominion  Day,  will  again 
flippantly  discuss  the  possibility  of  our 
annexation  of  Canada — the  day  for  that 
sort  of  talk  has  passed,  and  happily  f6r 
both  sides  of  the  border. 

Of  course  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier,  no  longer 
premier,  but  now  "leader  of  His  Majesty's 
Opposition"  in  Canada,  wa;:.  the  chief 
attraction  in  the  day's  program.  Fore- 
most of  French  Canadians,  one  of  the 
most  accomplished  of  orators,  and  in 
every  way  a  world  character.  Sir  Wil- 
frid's appearance  attracted  a  crowded 
house;  and  his  graceful  speech  and 
charming  manner,  so  characteristic  of  his 
race,  deserved  such  recognition.  But 
some  other  features  of  the  program  were 
no  less  entertaining  in  their  way — the 
vigorous,  thoughtful,  but  strictly  practical 
views  of  Dr.  Robertson,  as  he  graphically 
described  Canada's  almost  boundless  re- 
sources, and  with  large  vision  outlined  h?8 
plans  for  their  conservation;  and  the 
equally  clear  and  insistent,  yet  delicately 
humorous,  protest  of  Professor  Mac- 
naughton,  against  such  materialistic  tend- 
encies of  modem  education  as  had  been 
expressed  by  his  friend  and  predecessor. 
The  day  was  admirably  closed  by  Presi- 
dent Vincent  of  Minnesota,  whose  mar- 
shalling of  the  possibilities  of  librarian- 
ship  in  the  furnishing  of  mental  pictures 
for  the  entertainment  and  instruction  of 
humanity,  resembled  the  falls  of  Chau- 
difire  in  sparkle  and  velocity. 

Not  content  with  representation  on  the 
program  and  in  honorary  seats  on  the 
platform,  the  government  of  the  Dominion 
took  a  considerable  hand  in  the  social 
activities  of  the  week.    Among  the  attrac- 


tions of  Ottawa  is  the  central  experi- 
mental farm  of  Canada,  with  its  broad, 
well-kept  acres,  in  which  the  astronom- 
ical observatory  is  in  close  touch  with  the 
silos,  and  pastures  and  barns  are  attrac- 
tive features  of  the  landscape  gardening, 
and  up-to-date  poultry-runs  are  charm- 
ingly mingled  with  evidences  of  floral  and 
horticultural  experimentation.  In  this  in- 
teresting environment,  a  garden  party 
was  given  under  the  auspices  ot  the  min- 
ister of  agriculture,  the  Hon.  Martin 
Burrell,  ably  seconded  by  Mr.  John  F. 
Watson  of  the  farm  staff.  There  were 
tents  and  lawn  chairs,  a  very  Critish- 
looking  band,  military-like  policemen  as 
ushers,  brilliantly-green  foliage,  and  the 
socially  611te  of  Ottawa  acted  as  cicerones 
to  the  varied  activities  of  farm  and  ob- 
servatory. Thus  the  librarians  (who  had 
autoed  to  the  scene,  through  miles  of 
drives  along  the  park-like  banks  of  the 
Rideau  Canal)  were  made  paradoxically 
to  feel  not  only  at  home,  but  quite  as 
though  the  scene  of  their  entertainment 
were  four  thousand  miles  eastward,  in 
the  motherland  itself.  Another  govern- 
mental activity,  especially  attractive  to 
the  young  folk  of  the  conference  (there 
are,  however,  no  old  librarians),  was  an 
informal  ball  in  the  parliament  building 
itself.  Because  of  these  things,  the  bib- 
liographical fraternity  from  the  states 
almost  unanimously  came  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  thenceforth  they  would,  in  all 
courtesy,  forget  all  about  the  recent  un- 
pleasantness over  reciprocity,  and  be 
stout  supporters  of  the  present  Dominion 
government.  A  division  on  the  question, 
at  the  close  of  the  conference  would,  I 
fancy,  have  revealed  few  members  of  the 
A.  L.  A.  in  the  opposition  lobby. 

The  representatives  of  our  own  govern- 
ment were  not  to  be  outdone  in  these 
matters.  Consul-General  and  Mrs.  J.  G. 
Foster  were  informally  "at  home"  on 
Sunday  aT'ernoon.  Scores  of  American 
librarians,  especially  those  concerned 
officially  in  the  association's  affairs,  were 
much  pleased  for  a  short  hour  to  be  enter- 
tained as  guests  on  what  constructively 
is  American  soil. 


208 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


But  while  official  "functions"  necessa- 
rily stood  out  with  prominence,  there  was 
ever  on  the  tapis  a  succession  of  un- 
official attentions  to  the  visiting  throng. 
Dr.  Robertson  was  the  life  of  the  enter- 
prising local  committee.  Around  this 
body  clustered  several  effective  agencies 
of  welcome  and  entertainment — his  wor- 
ship the  mayor  (every  Canadian  mayor  is 
"his  worship,"  but  this  title  of  genuine 
respect  would  be  a  serious  misfit  in  some 
of  our  cities  south  of  the  boundary),  the 
public  library  board,  the  local  Canadian 
Club,  and  the  Woman's  Canadian  Club,  all 
were  actively  and  omnipresently  enlisted 
in  our  behalf.  And  wonder  of  wonders! 
our  little  identification  button  meant  free 
trolley  rides  within  the  corporation  lim- 
its— a  much-appreciated  premium  for 
wearing  the  badge.  In  short,  every  door 
was  open  to  us;  at  every  turn,  right  glad 
we  were  made  to  feel  that  we  had  come 
to  Ottawa. 

Curiously  enough  to  those  of  us  who 
think  of  the  A.  L.  A.  in  the  oft-quoted 
classification  of  the  hotel  agency,  as  an 
institution  "mostly  women,"  the  Ottawa 
newspapers  appeared  never  to  recover 
from  their  astonishment  in  this  regard. 
The  preponderating  numbers  of  "lady 
librarians"  was  the  cause  for  daily  edi- 
torial comment.  But  it  was  noticeable 
that  the  head-lines  persistently  referred 
to  the  event  as  "Library  men  in  council" 
— painful  evidence  of  the  fact  that  the 
prevalent  American  evil  of  head-line  in- 
accuracy has  at  last  spread  to  the  north- 
land. 

The  practice  of  holding  state,  library 
school,  and  library  staff  dinners  in  the 
course  of  the  conference,  is  increasing. 
These  gatherings  form  an  interesting  and 
welcome  feature  of  our  social  activities 
during  conference  week.  At  Ottawa  they 
were  more  numerous  and  noticeable  than 
heretofore,  and  gave  rise  to  much  good- 
natured  rivalry  as  to  enthusiasm,  num- 
bers, and  table  decorations.  It  is  evident 
that  the  library  schools  are  gathering 
traditions  with  age;  and  their  alumni  as- 
sociations are  growing  in  pardonable  self- 
consciousness.     A   new   feature   was  the 


exchange  of  rival  "yells."  One  director 
was  heard  to  express  her  intention  of 
offering  prizes  in  the  next  school  year,  for 
appropriate  class  songs  and  collegiate 
battle-cries,  that  her  school  might  not  be 
outdone  in  this  respect  by  the  vociferous 
young  women  of  Pratt  and  Wisconsin. 
One  heard  more  or  less  at  Ottawa,  of 
"the  girls  of  our  class,"  "dear  old  Pratt," 
"the  way  we  do  it  at  Albany,"  the  "tradi- 
tions of  Wisconsin"  (five  years  old!),  and 
the  like.  It  is  thus  that  the  profession  is 
looking  up. 

Socially,  the  Canadian  conference  was 
eminently  successful,  both  at  Toronto  and 
Ottawa.  This  feature  was,  in  its  way, 
quite  as  good  as  the  literary  program  it- 
self, and  that  is  saying  much.  As  for 
Madame  President,  she  sweetly  and  dig- 
nifiedly  looked  and  acted  her  part,  socially 
as  well  as  behind  the  gavel,  and  the 
Dominion  folk  fairly  worshipped  her.  I 
fancy,  when  all  is  said,  that  that  perhaps 
is  a  good  share  of  the  secret  of  our  un- 
doubted success  in  Canada. 

REUBEN  G.  THWAITES. 

A  DAY  IN  TORONTO 
A  most  cordial  invitation  from  the  To- 
ronto public  library,  through  the  libra- 
rian. Dr.  Locke,  had  been  received  for  a 
day's  visit  in  that  city  en  route  to  the 
A.  L.  A.  meeting  at  Ottawa,  and  the  party 
which  assembled  at  Chicago  to  take  the 
special  train  looked  forward  with  great 
expectation.  Needless  to  say  these  ex- 
pectations were  fully  met.  As  this  was 
the  first  hospitality  offered,  the  zest  for 
enjoyment  was  at  full  height  when  the 
party  from  the  middle-west  reached  To- 
ronto, Tuesday  morning,  June  25.  Most 
of  the  company  had  left  their  various 
posts  of  duty  only  the  day  before  and 
were  ready  to  enter  a  new  land  with  a 
joyful  spirit. 

The  special  train  was  nearly  two  hours 
late  in  arriving  at  Toronto  and  thereby 
lost  to  the  visitors  the  pleasure  of  an 
automobile  ride  which  had  been  arranged 
by  the  City  Council.  Still,  as  no  one  had 
anticipated  it,  the  pleasant  street  car  ride, 
which    took    its    place,    was    a    welcome 


AHERN 


209 


change  from  the  confines  of  the  sleeping 
car.  The  ride  around  the  business  part 
of  the  city  on  the  special  cars  ended  at 
Victoria  college.  A  local  committee  con- 
sisting of  Dr.  A.  H.  U.  Colquhoun,  Deputy 
Minister  of  Education,  Prof.  A.  E.  Lang, 
librarian  of  Victoria  college,  Prof.  G.  H. 
Needier,  librarian  of  University  of  To- 
ronto, with  Dr.  G.  H.  Locke  as  chairman, 
received  the  party  at  Victoria  college, 
where  a  luncheon  was  served  to  175  per- 
sons, the  hosts  of  the  occasion  being  the 
Education  Department  of  the  Province  of 
Ontario  and  the  Senate  and  Board  of 
Governors  of  the  Victoria  college.  The 
Hon.  Dr.  Pyne,  minister  of  education,  pre- 
sided over  the  occasion  and  speeches 
were  made  on  behalf  of  Victoria  college 
by  Hon.  Justice  MacLaren,  on  behalf  of 
the  Government  by  Chairman  Dr.  Locke 
and  on  behalf  of  the  University  by  Prof. 
Alfred  Baker.  Each  in  turn  expressed  the 
appreciation  of  the  ideas  cherished  by  the 
A.  L.  A.  and  were  most  cordial  in  invita- 
tion to  the  association  to  hold  a  future 
meeting  in  Toronto.  Response  for  the 
visitors  was  made  by  Dr.  C.  W.  Andrews 
of  the  John  Crerar  library,  Chicago,  who 
complimented  Ontario  on  the  progress 
which  had  been  made  in  library  develop- 
ment and  particularly  the  city  of  Toronto 
in  its  new  work  under  the  new  librarian, 
Dr.  Locke,  whom  Dr.  Andrews  claimed  as 
a  Chicagoan  in  view  of  the  fact  that  he 
had  been  so  valued  a  part  of  the  faculty 
of  the  University  of  Chicago,  at  one  time, 
for  six  years. 

After  the  luncheon  the  new  library  at 
Victoria  college  was  thrown  open  for  in- 
spection. Prof.  Lang  and  his  assistants 
were  most  courteous  in  showing  the  visit- 
ors through  and  displayed  for  their  in- 
spection some  of  the  rare  volumes  and 
manuscripts,  especially  specimens  of 
ancient  papyri  which  are  unique. 

Later  the  Premier  of  the  Province  of 
Ontario,  Sir  James  P.  Whitney,  received 
the  librarians  in  the  legislative  chambers. 
Parliament  Buildings,  and  made  an  ad- 
dress of  welcome.  From  the  Parliament 
Buildings  the  librarians  visited,  the  li- 
brary of  the  University  of  Toronto,  which 


they  found  exceedingly  interesting,  and 
well  up  to  date.  Regret  was  felt  by  many 
at  the  absence  of  Mr.  Langton  of  the 
library,  who  was  in  Europe  in  search  of 
health.  A  most  delightful  occasion  was 
the  garden  party  in  the  university  quad- 
rangle tendered  by  the  Board  of  Govern- 
ors of  the  university.  The  ivy  covered 
walls,  the  greensward,  the  perfect  day, 
delightful  company  and  the  most  cordial 
hospitality  accompanying  the  refresh- 
ments left  an  impression  of  the  greatest 
pleasure  on  all  who  were  present.  The 
large  number  of  Toronto  citizens  who 
were  present,  the  faculty  with  the  mem- 
bers of  their  families,  were  most  courte- 
ous in  making  the  occasion  one  of  great 
delight. 

At  six  o'clock  dinner  was  served  by  the 
public  library  Board  in  the  art  room  of 
the  reference  library  building.^  There 
were  229  at  the  dinner  which  deserved 
far  greater  consumption  than  the  hospi- 
tality of  the  day  had  left  room  for,  but 
"the  feast  of  reason  and  the  flow  of  soul" 
were  much  in  evidence.  The  chairman 
of  the  occasion  was  the  President  of  the 
public  library  Board,  Mr.  TurnbuU.  A 
most  hearty  address  of  welcome  was 
made  by  Chief  Librarian  Locke  and  was 
responded  to  in  kind  by  Mr.  Legler  of 
the  Chicago  public  library.  After  dinner 
the  building  was  thrown  open  for  inspec- 
tion and  the  visitors  enjoyed  greatly  see- 
ing the  magnificent  reading  room  as  well 
as  the  other  departments  of  the  library. 
Of  special  interest  was  the  J.  Ross  Rob- 
ertson historical  collection  of  1,000 
Canadian  pictures,  representing  various 
phases  of  Canadian  life  from  the  earliest 
period. 

It  was  a  happy,  if  tired  party  that  left 
on  the  special  train  at  10  p.  m.  for  Ottawa 
with  most  grateful  memories  of  cordial 
hospitality  and  pleasant  company  in  the 
day  spent  in  Toronto. 

M.  E.  AHERN. 

THE    DAY    AT    MONTREAL 
One's  capacity  for  receiving  bounteous 
acts  of  hospitality  may  be  never  so  un- 
conflned;    one's     pleasure     in     accepting 


210 


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them  may  be  never  so  untrammelled  by 
thoughts  of  unworthlness  or  of  the  hope- 
lessness of  ever  making  an  adequate  re- 
turn for  all  this  charming  thoughtfulness 
and  lavish  entertainment;  yet  there  comes 
a  time  when  one's  vocabulary  of  appreci- 
ative acknowledgments  merely  and  ab- 
jectly fails  from  overwork,  and  collapses 
with  nothing  more  articulate  than  a  gasp 
left  to  signify  an  impotent  desire  to  do 
justice  to  the  occasion.  With  many  of 
the  librarians  this  unhappy  condition  be- 
came acute  in  the  course  of  the  day  at 
Montreal.  Leaving  Ottawa  on  Wednesday 
morning,  July  3d,  by  special  train,  a 
goodly  company — comprising  the  Post- 
Conference  party,  reenforced  by  numer- 
ous "trippers"  whose  return  passage 
made  Montreal  the  point  of  departure — 
was  received,  on  arriving  at  the  latter 
city,  by  a  local  committee,  headed  by  the 
librarian  of  McGill  University,  and  was 
promptly  transferred  to  a  long  line  of 
comfortable  vehicles  which  were  soon 
moving  up  town  through  the  broad  streets 
and  past  the  stately  buildings  of  Canada's 
largest  city.  To  the  traveller  from  the  west- 
ern plains  the  upward  direction  of  the 
journey  was  especially  noticeable  and 
much  sympathy  and  some  solicitude  was 
expressed  for  the  stocky  horses  in  their 
long  pull  through  the  warmth  of  the  mid- 
day sun.  But  they  plodded  sturdily  on, 
conscious  of  the  pitiless  grade  of  those 
rock-ribbed  streets  only  as  part  of  the 
day's  work.  And  soon  they  came  to  the 
shady  drives  and  beautiful  banks  of 
Mount  Royal  Park  and  so  onward  and 
upward  to  the  summit,  whence  the  un- 
paralleled outlook  over  the  city,  the  ma- 
jestic St.  Lawrence  and  the  country 
beyond  unrolled  before  the  admiring  eyes 
of  the  visitors.  After  an  all  too  brief  en- 
joyment of  this  superb  spectacle,  the 
party  re-entered  the  waiting  carriages 
and  was  quickly  conveyed  down  hill  and 
deposited  on  the  beautiful  campus  of 
McGill  University,  where,  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  noonday  whistles  and  bells, 
luncheon  was  served  under  the  trees. 
These  Canadian  garden  affairs,  how  they 
impress  the  visitors  from  over  the  line! 


The  dignified  beauty  of  the  setting  ren- 
dered complete  by  the  invariably  benevo- 
lent co-operation  of  the  weather;  the 
profusion  and  variety  of  appetizing  and 
daintily  served  viands,  and  the  unobtru- 
sive yet  efficient  service — truly  the  stout- 
est jingo  was  led  to  exclaim  with 
unfeigned  heartiness:  "They  do  these 
things  so  much  better  in  Canada!"  After 
luncheon  a  brief  inspection  was  made  of 
several  of  the  college  buildings,  notably 
of  the  charming  library,  with  its  delight- 
ful reading  room,  which  was  visited  by 
some  in  order  to  study  its  architecture  or 
its  administration,  but  by  many  more  for 
the  purpose  of  paying  their  respects  to 
the  official  home  of  the  librarian  of  the 
University,  their  cordial  host  and  the 
ubiquitous  chairman  of  the  committee  to 
whom  the  entertainment  at  Montreal  was 
due.  Mr.  Gould  won  the  hearts  of  his 
guests  completely  and  earned  their  last- 
ing gratitude  and  perpetual  wonderment, 
the  former  through  the  generous  hospi- 
tality he  provided  for  them;  the  latter 
through  the  calm,  simple,  self-effacing  yet 
all  pervading  way  in  which  he  dominated 
the  situation  and  acquitted  himself  of  his 
arduous  task.  And  still  there  was  more 
to  come,  for  on  reassembling  on  the  lawn 
the  visitors  found  a  long  and  inviting  line 
of  motor  cars  in  waiting,  and  in  these  a 
tour  of  the  city  was  made,  ending  at  the 
pretty  new  public  library  in  the  suburb 
of  Westmount,  where  they  met  with  a 
pleasant  welcome  by  Miss  Saxe,  the  libra- 
rian, and  —  with  more  refreshments! 
From  here  the  guests  dispersed  and  made 
their  way  back  to  town  in  small  groups 
at  their  own  convenience.  An  invitation 
from  the  White  Star  Line  to  join  in  the 
festivities  on  the  new  steamship  Megantic 
to  mark  its  impending  maiden  voyage, 
attracted  some  of  the  librarians  during 
the  evening.  The  Post-Conference  party 
reassembled  on  board  the  steamer  Sague- 
nay  and  left  for  its  pleasure  trip  at  nine 
o'clock,  while  the  others  went  each  his 
own  way,  some  homeward,  some  by  cir- 
cuitous routes  prolonging  their  holiday, 
but  all  with  regret  that  the  delightful 
Canadian  days  had  come  to  an  end,  and 


IDESON 


211 


with  deep  gratitude  and  appreciation  of 
the  cordial  hospitality  and  gracious  good- 
fellowship  of  their  Canadian  brethren  and 
indefatigable  hosts. 

C.  B.  RODEN. 

POST  CONFERENCE  TRIP 

"Done  with   indoor   complaints,   libraries,    querulous 

criticism, 
Strong  and  content,  I  travel  the  open  road." 

So  the  librarians  assembled  aboard  the 
"Saguenay."  The  day  in  Montreal  had  been 
a  full  and  pleasant  one  and  its  evening  found 
the  post-conference  party  tired  but  tran- 
quilly expectant  of  the  joys  the  boat's  de- 
parture was  to  bring.  To  this  some  excite- 
ment was  lent  by  the  dash  on  board,  just 
as  the  gangplank  was  going  in,  of  the  New 
Jersey  Library  Commission  contingent  who 
had  lingered  too  long  at  the  reception  ten- 
dered the  A.  L.  A.  on  the  White  Star  liner 
"Megantlc."  Many  friendly  farewells  were 
waved  by  the  A.  L.  A.  members  whose  of- 
ficial travels  ended  at  Montreal.  As  the 
boat  started  for  Quebec,  deck  chairs  were 
soon  filled  by  those  who  wished  to  watch 
the  noble  sweep  of  the  river  and  the  grace- 
ful skyline  of  the  city  with  its  myriads  of 
lights. 

During  the  short  stop  at  Quebec  the  next 
morning  only  a  few  strenuous  ones  ven- 
tured ashore.  The  majority  were  content 
with  the  splendid  view  of  the  city  with  its 
frowning  precipice  crowned  by  the  Citadel 
and  the  graceful  pile  of  the  Chateau  Fron- 
tenac,  below  which  were  spread  the  pic- 
turesque roofs  of  the  Lower  Town.  It  was 
the  Fourth  of  July  and  after  the  fiags 
flourished  by  the  patriotic  members  of  the 
party  had  been  duly  saluted,  everyone  set- 
tled down  to  the  calm  enjoyment  of  a  safe 
and  sane  fourth.  The  boat  glided  past  the 
falls  of  Montmorency,  the  lovely  Isle  of  Or- 
leans, the  wooded  shores  of  the  river  where 
in  one  place  forest  fires  raged,  showing  a 
thin  tongue  of  flame  under  a  hovering  cloud 
of  smoke,  and  on  from  the  stately  grandeur 
of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  wild  beauty  of 
the  Saguenay.  It  was  here  that  the  real 
business  of  travel  began.  Baedekers  made 
their  unblushing  appearance,  most  of  them 


bearing  on  their  backs  the  mystic  symbols 
917.1.  The  maps  and  guidebooks  provided 
by  the  company  were  studied  while  the 
really  "litry"  weTe  turning  the  pages  of 
"A  chance  aquaintance"  or  "The  golden 
dog." 

At  half  past  six,  a  landing  was  made  at 
L'Anse  St.  Jean  but  word  was  given  that 
the  real  village  was  some  distance  beyond, 
a  nice  walk — from  British  standards!  A  gay 
start  was  made  but  the  muddiness  of  the 
road  and  the  "recedingness"  of  the  village 
combined  with  the  ravages  of  the  black  fly, 
which  Van  Dyke  has  truly  said  is  "at  the 
bottom  of  the  moral  scale  of  insects,"  caused 
even  the  most  valiant  to  turn  back.  There 
were  a  few  who  with  true  Yankee  enter- 
prise chartered  the  only  vehicles  in  sight 
and  came  back  with  glowing  tales  of  the 
quaintness  and  charm  of  the  village,  but 
for  the  majority,  it  must  remain  the  fair 
Carcassonne  of  dreams. 

The  great  Capes  of  Trinity  and  Eternity, 
towering  up  through  the  gloom,  were 
passed  after  nightfall.  A  searchlight 
thrown  on  them  from  the  boat  brought  out 
their  craggy  inaccessibility  and  made 
weirdly  impressive  the  statue  of  the  Virgin 
on  one  of  the  terraces  of  Trinity.  At  Ha  Ha 
Bay  few  were  up  in  time  for  exploring  but 
the  view  of  the  charming  Bay  was  to  be  had 
from  the  deck  or  eveB  from  conveniently 
located  staterooms.  It  had  been  suggested 
that  here  opportunity  would  be  given  an- 
glers to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  "un- 
sophisticated fish"  of  the  region,  but  if  any 
wonderful  catches  were  made,  no  stories 
of  them  floated  to  the  ears  of  the  feminine 
contingent.  Turning  back  from  here  the 
boat  passed  through  the  most  striking  part 
of  the  journey,  stopping  for  some  time 
around  the  capes  of  Trinity  and  Eternity. 
To  attempt  to  describe  the  scenic  beauties 
of  the  trip  would  he  to  attempt  what  was 
admirably  done  by  the  chronicler  of  the 
post  conference  of  1900  (see  Proceedings 
A.  L.  A.  1900,  pp.  174-182.)  The  pleasing 
pastime  of  trying  to  hit  the  sides  of  the 
capes  with  rocks  thrown  from  the  boat  was 
indulged  in  by  a  few  of  the  passengers. 
Howells  tells  us  that  his  uninspired  hero  ac- 
tually did  it.    And  that  was  forty  years  ago! 


212 


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The  origin  of  this  custom  might  be  an  in- 
teresting question  for  a  class  in  library 
economy  to  Investigate. 

The  hours  spent  at  Tadousac  will  be 
pleasantly  enshrined  in  the  book  of  mem- 
ory. The  air  was  fresh  and  cool  and  many 
came  and  went  visiting  the  salmon  hatch- 
eries, and  the  ancient  chapel,  strolling 
through  the  picturesque  streets  where  they 
were  met  with  kindly  hospitality  by  the 
habitants,  or  driving  through  the  balsam 
scented  woods. 

Leaving  these  pleasant  shores,  a  few 
hours  brought  the  boat  to  Murray  Bay, 
where  the  night  was  spent.  Every  one 
started  out  for  a  walk  in  the  morning,  but 
the  road  led  past  the  shops  dealing  in 
homespun,  and  there  was  a  general  halt. 
These  characteristic  raids  sometimes  cause 
one  to  pause  and  wonder  whether  the  great- 
er pleasure  of  traveling  comes  from  adding 
new  and  beautiful  slides  to  our  mental  col- 
lection or  new  articles  of  vertu  to  our  do- 
mestic equipment.  Those  who  did  gert 
beyond  the  shops  were  rewarded  by  a  walk 
through  a  straggling  French  village  with 
quaint  views  and  picturesque  glimpses  most 
enticing  to  the  amateur  photographer.  A 
number  also  with  true  tourist  thoroughness 
visited  the  former  summer  home  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States  and  even 
took  snap-shots  on  his  front  steps. 

All  met  for  luncheon  at  the  Manoir 
Richelieu,  a  meal  well  served  and  good.  A 
round  of  applause  was  given  Captain  Koe- 
nig  as  he  joined  the  party  and  another  was 
given  Mr.  Gould,  the  perfect  host,  whose 
kindness  and  thoughtfulness  will  long  be 
remembered  by  those  whom  he  personally 
conducted. 

After  luncheon  vehicles  of  all  kinds,  in- 
cluding that  most  fascinating  of  all,  the 
caliche,  waited  to  take  the  party  to  the 
Falls.  The  drive  through  a  beautiful  coun- 
try with  fields  of  clover  and  daisies  and 
hedges  of  wild  pink  roses  ended  at  a  pulp 
mill,  where  the  interesting  process  of  con- 
verting the  virgin  forest  into  wood  pulp 
was  viewed.  Beginning  at  the  front  door 
where  the  bales  of  pulp  were  taking  their 
departure,  the  party  went  back  step  by 
step.     To  achieve  the  last  a  steep  chute 


had  to  be  ascended  and  the  perils  of  descent 
seemed  so  great  that  nearly  all  preferred 
to  go  around  and  cross  back  by  some  step- 
ping stones.  The  water  was  not  deep  but 
the  stepping  stones  were  small.  There  may 
have  been  other  falls  but  if  there  were,  no 
one  seems  to  have  seen  them. 

That  night  was  a  gay  one  on  board  the 
"Saguenay."  It  was  the  culmination  of  the 
delightful  evenings  spent  around  the  piano 
with  music,  songs  and  story  telling.  At  the 
command  of  Mr.  Bowker  who,  with  his 
charming  wife,  made  admirable  masters  of 
ceremonies  on  these  occasions,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  precedent  set  twelve  years 
before  by  the  A.  L.  A.  post  conference,  all 
purchases  of  homespun,  coverlets,  rugs,  and 
dress  patterns  were  brought  out  and  hung 
over  the  gallery  rail  for  a  loan  exhibit. 
After  they  had  been  duly  inspected  a  war 
dance  was  led  by  Miss  Askew,  the  partici- 
pants being  each  clad  in  his  respective  pur- 
chases. Stories,  songs  and  charades  fol- 
lowed and  the  evening  ended  in  singing  the 
following  choice  composition  to  the  tune 
of  the  "Little  Brown  Jug." 

The  A.  L.  A.'s  started  one  day. 
To  explore  the  Saguenay, 
Young  and  old,  gay  and  grim 
Twenty-five  hers  to  every  him. 

Ha  Ha  Bay,  A.  L.  A., 
Sailing  up  the  Saguenay, 
Ha  Ha  Bay,  A.  L.  A.,  ' 

Each  from  his  own  library! 

Oh,  Mr.  Gould  from  Montreal, 
Our  genial  host,  beloved  of  all,  n 

We'll  rue  the  day  when  we  must  say 
Farewell  to  you  and  Saguenay. 

During  the  next  two  days  in  Quebec,  li- 
brarians circulated  themselves  freely,  the 
torrid  heat  seeming  to  cause  no  appreciable 
falling  off.  On  Sunday  morning  various 
church  services  were  attended,  many  going 
to  the  Basilica.  Nearly  every  one  found 
opportunity  to  visit  the  principal  sights, — 
Dufferin  Terrace,  the  Plains  of  Abraham 
(where  early  impressions  gathered  from 
school  histories  of  the  hazard  of  Wolfe's 
climb  were  somewhat  modified),  and  the 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARIES  SECTION 


213 


lower  town,  and  many,  like  true  "debtors 
of  their  profession"  visited  the  library  of 
Laval  University.  Luncheon  was  enjoyed 
on  both  days  at  the  Chateau  Frontenac. 

On  Sunday  afternoon,  a  much  appreciated 
hospitality  was  extended  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Henry 
Porteous,  seigneurs  of  the  Isle  of  Orleans, 
who  entertained  with  a  delightful  garden 
party  in  their  beautiful  grounds  and  gar- 
dens. In  the  evening  many  found  their  way 
to  Dufferin  Terrace  to  listen  to  the  music 
and  watch  Quebec  promenade  by. 

Monday  morning  the  party  was  received 
by  Alderman  Collier,  in  the  absence  of  the 
Mayor,  who  extended  a  courteous  welcome 
and  after  that  a  street  car  ride  around  the 


city  was  enjoyed  by  the  party  as  guests  of 
the  City  of  Quebec. 

In  the  afternoon  a  special  train  was  char- 
tered to  take  the  party  to  the  church  of  St. 
Anne  de  Beaupr6.  A  courteous  priest  acted 
as  guide  and  carefully  explained  all  the 
wonders  of  this  miraculous  shrine.  On  the 
return  trip  the  falls  of  Montmorency  and 
Kent  House  were  visited. 

It  was  with  great  regret  in  spite  of  the 
heat,  that  farewell  was  said  to  this  most 
picturesque  of  cities.  Good-byes  were  said 
the  next  morning  in  Montreal  and  each 
went  on  his  separate  way  with  the  feeling 
that  the  past  week  had  been  one  of  pleasure 
and  rich  experience  long  to  be  remembered. 
JULIA  IDESON. 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARffiS  SECTION 


The  first  meeting  since  organization  was 
held  on  the  evening  of  June  27.  Mr.  James 
I.  Wyer,  Jr.,  presided.  In  his  opening  re- 
marks Mr.  Wyer  gave  a  brief  account  of 
the  events  leading  up  to  the  formation  of 
the  section.  He  also  spoke  of  the  various 
kinds  of  agricultural  libraries  and  of  their 
growth  and  influence. 

An  address  of  welcome  was  delivered  by 
the  Hon.  Martin  Burrell,  Canadian  min- 
ister of  agriculture. 

WM.  M.  HEPBURN,  librarian  of  Purdue 
university  presented  a  paper  on 

LIBRARY  EXTENSION  WORK  OF  AGRI- 
CULTURAL COLLEGES 

Extension  work  is  now  a  name  to  con- 
jure with.  Its  most  popular  aspects,  the 
corn  train,  the  wheat  special,  the  farmers' 
short  course,  where  a  thousand  or  more 
men  and  women  from  the  farms  gather  for 
a  week's  instruction,  have  all  been  ex- 
ploited in  the  newspapers  to  such  an  ex- 
tent that  they  are  well  known  everywhere. 
The  new  methods  of  extension  work  were 
developed  in  the  agricultural  colleges  or 
agricultural  departments  of  universities. 
It  seems  now  as  though  many  of  these 
methods  were  to  be  applied  in  other  fields. 


The  moving  cause  for  all  this  activity  is 
the  desire  to  bring  opportunities  for  edu- 
cation to  every  man,  woman  and  child  in 
the  state  who  has  sufllcient  energy  and 
ambition  to  desire  them.  Along  purely 
agricultural  lines  the  extension  work  car- 
ried on  by  the  State  college  of  agriculture 
at  Cornell,  is  typical.  The  December  num- 
ber of  the  "Announcer"  outlining  this 
work  contained  eight  quarto  pages  giving 
information  under  twenty-five  separate 
heads.  The  work  carried  on  by  a  uni- 
versity as  a  whole  is  best  illustrated  by 
Wisconsin,  whose  university  extension  di- 
vision has  carried  this  work  further 
than  any  other  similar  department.  The 
phrase,  "The  university  that  goes  to  the 
people,"  applied  to  Wisconsin,  and  the 
slogan,  "If  you  can't  come  to  the  college, 
the  college  will  come  to  you,"  used  by 
North  Dakota  agricultural  college,  illus- 
trate the  aims  of  the  workers  in  this 
field. 

Of  course  much  of  this  extension  work 
is  altogether  outside  of  the  sphere  of  the 
library,  but  there  are  signs  that  the  li- 
braries of  agricultural  colleges,  and  of  the 
land  grant  colleges  especially  are  waking 
up  to  the  fact  that  there  are  public  needs 


214 


OTTAWAiCONFERENCE 


which  they  are  best  fitted  to  supply.  The 
extension  departments  of  the  various  col- 
leges have  found  a  number  of  problems 
confronting  them  in  which  they  need  the 
help  of  the  college  library,  such  for  in- 
stance as  matters  relating  to  the  use  of 
books  for  special  study,  and  the  general 
problem  of  awakening  in  the  farm  com- 
munity an  interest  in  books  and  reading. 
I  shall  attempt  briefly  to  characterize  the 
various  phases  which  this  library  exten- 
sion work  has  taken,  or  may  take,  with- 
out more  than  passing  reference  to  the 
work  of  specific  institutions. 

The  first  letter  of  enquiry  sent  by  a 
farmer  to  his  state  college  or  experiment 
station,  might  be  said  to  have  originated 
the  entire  extension  work,  and  the  growth 
of  correspondence  between  farmers  and 
the  college,  with  its  professors  and  ex- 
perts, indicates  the  nature  of  the  demand 
on  the  part  of  the  public,  and  the  success 
of  the  work  of  the  stations  and  colleges  in 
arousing  this  interest.  This  correspond- 
ence forms  and  always  will  form  a  very 
important  phase  of  university  extension 
work.  To  get  in  touch  with  individuals,  to 
have  them  take  the  trouble  to  write  you 
concerning  their  needs  is  a  sure  indica- 
tion of  their  interest.  Just  as  the  corres- 
pondence of  the  commercial  house  Is 
systematized,  and  form  letters  used  where 
possible,  so  the  growth  of  this  extension 
work  has  led  to  the  publication  of  brief 
bulletins,  or  circulars  in  place  of  the  elab- 
orate and  lengthy  bulletins  so  often  is- 
sued by  the  experiment  stations  on  the 
same  subjects. 

One  of  the  needs  which  was  soon  felt  in 
correspondence  was  that  for  a  brief  list  of 
books  on  agriculture,  which  could  be  sent 
In  response  to  inquiries  from  individuals 
and  libraries.  This  list  is  sometimes  a 
simple  mimeographed  list,  or  a  short 
printed  list,  or  even  a  more  elaborate 
bulletin,  such  as  the  Cornell  publication, 
"What  shall  the  farmer  read"  or  the  more 
recent  one,  "Reading  in  the  farm  home." 
There  is  real  need  for  these  lists,  and 
every  college  library  or  extension  depart- 
ment should  have  such  a  list  available  for 


distribution.  There  is  room  perhaps  for 
some  co-operation  here  in  order  to  secure 
greater  uniformity  and  the  opinions  of 
many  who  are  in  close  touch  with  the 
needs  of  the  farming  community. 

One  of  the  outcomes  of  the  extension 
work  in  agricultural  colleges,  was  the 
forming  of  reading  and  study  clubs  and 
clubs  for  social  and  civic  purposes,  and 
the  publishing  of  study  outlines  for  read- 
ing courses,  which  might  be  taken  up  in- 
dividually or  by  groups.  In  some  cases  all 
the  reading  necessary  was  included  in  the 
bulletins  published,  such  as  the  Cornell 
reading  courses.  In  others  special  books 
were  assigned  which  could  be  purchased 
from  the  extension  department,  or  bor- 
rowed from  It.  Thus  began  the  lending 
of  material  from  the  college  library  or 
some  department  of  the  college,  a  practice 
which  I  believe  is  destined  to  grow  to 
large  proportions,  especially  when  we  se- 
cure parcels  or  book  post.  In  several 
states  this  work  Is  now  well  organized. 
The  University  of  Wisconsin,  the  North 
Dakota  agricultural  college  and  perhaps 
others  are  prepared  to  send  out  what  they 
call  package  libraries  to  individuals,  clubs, 
societies  or  schools  for  a  certain  fixed  per- 
iod of  time.  These  package  libraries  con- 
sist of  pamphlets,  speeches,  newspaper 
clippings,  articles  clipped  from  magazines, 
bulletins  issued  by  the  university  and 
other  miscellaneous  matter. 

North  Dakota  gives  a  list  of  subjects  on 
which  they  are  prepared  with  package  li- 
braries In  agriculture,  biography,  educa- 
tion, science,  municipal  affairs,  etc.  They 
will  even  lend  typewritten  copies  of  decla- 
mations, dialogues,  orations  and  printed 
copies  of  amateur  plays. 

Wisconsin  In  addition  to  its  package  li- 
braries issues  bibliographical  bulletins  on 
subjects  of  general  Interest,  as  does  the 
University  of  Texas.  If  these  package  li- 
braries are  made  more  elaborate  including 
larger  pamphlets  and  books,  they  can  be 
dignified  by  the  name  of  traveling  libra- 
ries. So  far  as  is  known  by  the  writer,  this 
work  Is  not  carried  on  by  the  college  li- 
brary except  In  one  instance,  the  library  of 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARIES  SECTION 


215 


Massachusetts  agricultural  college,  where 
Prof.  Charles  R.  Green  has  this  work  in 
charge.  In  other  colleges  it  is  managed 
by  the  extension  division  or  department 
with,  however,  the  co-operation  of  the 
college  library  and  other  library  interests, 
as  in  Wisconsin.  It  will  readily  be  seen 
that  this  work  duplicates  to  some  extent, 
the  work  of  the  public  library,  or  at  least 
the  work  that  the  public  library  should  be 
doing.  It  is  evident  too,  that  this  work 
would  have  its  best  field  in  states  where 
there  were  few  public  libraries  in  the 
smaller  towns  and  villages. 

The  looking  up  of  references  on  domes- 
tic science,  the  boy  scouts,  or  the  fireless 
cooker  and  other  similar  subjects  is  sup- 
posed to  be  the  work  of  the  public  library. 
It  may  be  that  notwithstanding  the  em- 
phasis placed  by  the  public  library  on  its 
reference  work,  and  work  with  schools, 
the  college  by  its  extension  service  is  go- 
ing to  enter  this  field  and  do  at  long 
range  what  the  public  library  Is  not  doing 
for  its  own  local  community.  If  there  is 
sufficient  demand  from  the  rural  districts 
for  the  service  given  by  the  public  discus- 
sion and  information  divisions  of  the  ex- 
tension work  (as  it  is  often  called)  it  is 
certainly  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of 
the  extension  of  the  public  library  service 
over  the  counties  or  townships  as  is  now 
being  done  in  several  states.  There  is  a 
good  field  here  for  co-operation  between 
the  local  library,  the  organized  library  in- 
terests of  the  state,  the  college  library 
and  the  extension  service  of  the  college  or 
university. 

An  interesting  feature  of  the  work  of 
the  extension  department  at  Purdue  uni- 
versity is  the  combination  of  the  printed 
list  of  books,  the  sample  library,  and  the 
actual  sale  of  books  to  the  farmers.  Some 
months  ago  by  consultation  with  members 
of  the  station  staff  and  actual  examination 
of  many  volumes,  a  list  of  about  75  titles 
relating  to  agriculture,  was  compiled  and 
printed.  Several  sets  of  these  volumes 
were  then  obtained  from  the  publishers, 
and  arrangements  made  with  them  for 
mail  orders  of  these  books  at  certain  dis- 


counts. The  printed  lists  and  sample 
volumes  were  taken  to  county  fairs,  insti- 
tutes, farmers  short  courses,  and  on  spe- 
cial trains.  The  lists  were  distributed,  the 
books  shown  to  the  farmer,  and  his  order 
taken  on  the  spot  at  list  price.  Many 
orders  come  in  later  by  mail.  There  is 
good  psychology  in  this  method  of  getting 
the  book  to  the  farmer.  He  can  examine 
the  book  for  himself,  give  the  necessary 
weight  to  the  recommendation  of  the  man 
in  charge,  and  having  confidence  in  the 
university  as  represented  by  the  exten-^/ 
sion  department,  he  trusts  it  with  hia,  ^ 
money. 

During  the  year  and  a  half  that  this  plan 
has  been  in  operation  1,350  volumes  have  ^ 

been  placed  in  the  hands  of  farmers  in  ^i 

the  state  and  the  sales  have  been  as  high 
as  $475  in  a  month.  Some  may  see  ob- 
jections to  this  method  of  book  distribution 
and  there  are  dangers  that  must  be 
guarded  against,  but  in  Indiana  it  is  re- 
garded as  firmly  established. 

There  are  problems  that  can  only  be 
briefiy  referred  to  here  connected  with  the 
distribution  of  agricultural  literature,  that 
are  partly  extension  and  partly  library 
problems.  Many  tons  of  printed  matter 
are  being  distributed  every  year  by  the 
various  colleges  and  experiment  stations. 
To  insure  the  best  use  of  this  material 
some  "follow-up"  system  and  some  instruc- 
tion to  the  farmer  in  its  care  and  preserva- 
tion would  seem  to  be  essentiaL  The 
small  circular  or  bulletin  is  taking  the 
place  of  the  more  elaborate  publications 
formerly  issued  on  the  same  subject  and 
these  are  being  sent  only  to  those  who  re- 
quest them  and  have  a  real  need  for  them. 

The  college  should  be  willing  and  able 
to  lend  books  to  institute  workers,  lectur- 
ers, clubs,  and  to  other  libraries  unless 
this  service  is  already  well  done  by  some 
other  agency. 

It  should  also  be  a  clearing  house  for  in- 
formation relating  to  agricultural  litera- 
ture and  should  co-operate  wherever  possi- 
ble with  the  other  departments  of  the 
institution  whose  work  looks  toward  the 
betterment   of   rural   life.     The   value   of 


216 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


books  to  both  young  and  old  in  the  farm 
home,  may  be  overlooked  by  the  other  de- 
partments organized  for  more  practical 
and  perhaps  more  well  defined  ends,  and 
in  this  matter  the  librarian  has  both  an 
opportunity  and  a  duty. 

Dr.  James  W.  Robertson,  chairman  of 
the  Canadian  royal  commission  on  indus- 
trall  training  and  technical  education,  de- 
livered an  address  on  economic  and  agri- 
cultural conditions  in  Canada. 

Mr.  Wyer  read  a  paper  prepared  by  Dr. 
A.  C.  TRUE,  director,  U.  S.  office  of  experi- 
ment stations,  U.  S.  Department  of  Agri- 
culture on  the  subject 

SUGGESTIONS    AS    TO    A    POLICY   OF 
ADMINISTRATION  OF  AGRICULT- 
URAL  COLLEGE   AND    EXPERI- 
MENT STATION  LIBRARIES 
Dr.  True  said  in  part: 

Fifty  years  ago  next  Tuesday,  the  2nd 
of  July,  the  act  was  passed  which  auth- 
orized the  establishment  in  each  state  of 
a  college  "to  teach  such  branches  of  learn- 
ing as  are  related  to  agriculture  and  the 
mechanic  arts,"  and  it  was  just  twenty-five 
years  ago  this  year  that  the  act  was 
passed  which  created  the  agricultural  ex- 
periment station  as  a  department  of  the 
agricultural  college. 

It  seems,  therefore,  peculiarly  fitting 
that  on  this  jubilee  anniversary  we  should 
be  discussing  the  relation  to  each  other  of 
these  two  institutions  which  have  done  so 
much  for  the  agricultural  interests  of  our 
country,  and  we  believe  are  destined  to  do 
much  more. 

The  agricultural  or  land-grant  colleges 
authorized  by  the  Morrill  act  of  1862  were 
the  direct  outcome  of  a  persistent  demand 
for  an  education  better  suited  to  the  needs 
of  an  age  of  progress  than  the  classical 
form  then  in  exclusive  use.  Interest  in 
experimental  work  grew  rapidly  and  cul- 
minated in  the  passage  by  Congress  and 
signing  by  President  Cleveland  in  1887  of 
the  bill  Introduced  by  Wm.  H.  Hatch,  of 
Missouri,  which  provided  for  the  estab- 
lishment of  an  agricultural  experiment  sta- 
tion at  each  of  the  agricultural  colleges. 


as  a  department  of  the  college.  This  act 
provided  the  sum  of  $15,000  annually  for 
the  establishment  and  maintenance  of  the 
experiment  station.  It  was  later  supple- 
mented by  the  Adams  act  passed  in  1906, 
which  provided  for  an  increased  annual 
appropriation,  bringing  the  sum  total  of 
federal  appropriation  for  each  station  up 
to  $30,000. 

In  the  Hatch  act  establishing  the  exper- 
iment stations  the  wording  of  the  law 
clearly  sets  forth  the  fact  that  the  station 
is  a  department  of  the  college. 

It  would  seem  obvious,  therefore,  that, 
since  the  station  is  a  department  of  the 
college,  the  station  library  should  be  con- 
sidered a  part  of  the  college  library  and 
thus  come  under  the  general  direction  and 
control  of  the  college  librarian.  This  in- 
volves the  presumption  that  the  college 
authorities  appreciate  the  importance  of  a 
well  managed  library  and  therefore  em- 
ploy a  well-trained  and  efficient  librarian, 
and  have  a  good  library  organization. 

The  work  of  the  experiment  station  may 
be  broadly  grouped  under  the  two  heads 
research  and  the  dissemination  of  the  re- 
sults of  that  research.  A  necessary  pre- 
liminary to  all  successful  research  work  is 
the  examination  of  the  records  of  similar 
or  allied  work.  These  records  are  con- 
tained in  books  and  periodicals,  and  a 
moment's  thought  reveals  the  fact  that 
the  station  library  lies  at  the  very  heart 
of  the  station's  work  and'  is  second  to 
nothing  in  importance.  Even  the  records 
of  hypotheses  tested  and  found  untenable 
are  valuable,  as  they  may  save  much  use- 
less effort  and  consequent  loss  of  time. 
The  equipment  of  the  station  library 
should,  therefore,  be  one  of  the  first  con- 
siderations in  the  organization  of  the  sta- 
tion, and  not  merely  a  desirable  adjunct  if 
better  advocated  activities  permit. 

The  function  of  the  agricultural  college 
library  is  primarily  to  serve  the  interests 
of  the  professors  and  students  who  com- 
pose the  college,  whereas  the  mission  of 
the  experiment  station  library  is  to  serve 
the  investigators  and  scientific  workers 
who    constitute    the    station    staff.     For 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARIES  SECTION 


217 


the  college  library  to  accomplish  the  best 
results  there  should  be  direct  and  con- 
stant intercourse  between  the  professors 
and  the  librarian.  The  latter  should  be 
cognizant  of  the  broad  outlines  of  the 
courses  being  given  and  should  be  spe- 
cifically informed  of  theme  work  about  to 
be  assigned  and  theses  subjects  when 
chosen.  If  the  librarian  does  not  know 
these  things  before  the  call  for  material 
comes,  it  may  be  very  difficult  to  supply 
just  what  is  wanted.  Even  with  every  care 
there  will  sometimes  be  a  conflict  of  in- 
terests, but  a  system  of  co-operation  be- 
tween the  teaching  force  and  the  librarian 
should  reduce  these  conflicts  to  a  min- 
imum, should  work  for  the  benefit  of  all 
concerned,  and  make  the  library  a  con- 
stantly increasing  aid  in  the  process  of 
education. 

The  experiment  station  library,  being 
designed  for  the  use  of  scientific  investi- 
gators, is  really  a  reference  collection.  It 
should  consist  of  the  records  of  agricul- 
tural investigations  the  world  over  and 
such  books  of  reference  in  each  branch  of 
the  station's  work  as  the  investigator  in 
charge  of  that  work  thinks  necessary. 

The  co-ordination  of  the  interests  of  the 
two  constituencies, — the  investigator  on 
the  one  hand  and  the  teaching  force  and 
student  body  on  the  other,  is  one  of  the 
most  important  problems  of  the  librarian 
of  the  agricultural  library.  It  is  a  task 
which  will  require  his  best  ability  as  an 
administrator,  and  will  be  accomplished 
only  by  the  exercise  of  boundless  patience 
and  unlimited  tact,  combined  with  an  im- 
partial sense  of  justice  to  everybody. 
Only  when  the  investigator,  professor  and 
student  each  realizes  fully  that  the  li- 
brarian's chief  concern  is  to  be  of  service 
to  him,  will  the  ideals  of  the  library  be 
realized. 

The  vital  concern  of  experiment  station 
workers  and  the  officers  of  the  agricul- 
tural colleges  in  the  library  and  its  activi- 
ties was  evinced  by  the  fact  that  a  session 
of  the  Association  of  American  agricul- 
tural colleges  and  experiment  stations 
which  met  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  November, 


1911,  was  devoted  to  this  subject.  Nobody 
knows  better  than  the  workers  themselves 
how  useful  the  library  may  be  to  them, 
and  their  discussion  of  different  phases  of 
its  problems  was  full  of  suggestions  for 
the  improvement  of  the  service. 

In  the  development  of  the  libraries  of 
the  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment 
stations  in  the  various  states  there  have 
grown  up  three  distinct  types  of  libraries. 

The  first  type  is  the  experiment  station 
library  which  is  kept  separate  from  the 
college  library  but  under  its  control  and 
which  is  devoted  somewhat  exclusively  to 
the  use  of  the  station  workers.  An  ex- 
ample of  this  type  of  library  is  found  at 
the  State  college  of  Washington. 

The  second  type  is  the  agricultural  col- 
lege and  experiment  station  libraries  com- 
bined into  a  single  agricultural  library  and 
kept  separate  from  the  university  library. 
as  at  Wisconsin.  This  type  may  be  con- 
sidered as  belonging  to  the  departmental 
type  of  library.  Other  states  which  have 
adopted  this  plan  are  California,  Iowa, 
Minnesota,  Missouri,  Nebraska  and  Vir- 
ginia. 

In  the  third  type  the  collections  of 
agricultural  literature  including  the  ex- 
periment station  collections,  are  consoli- 
dated with  the  college  or  university 
collections  and  administered  as  one  unit. 
Examples  of  this  type  are  the  libraries  of 
the  University  of  Illinois,  the  Oregon  agri- 
cultural college  and  the  Kansas  agricul- 
tural college. 

Under  certain  conditions  the  advantages 
of  one  type  may  far  outweigh  the  disad- 
vantages and  leave  little  doubt  that  this 
is  the  best  for  the  particular  institution 
concerned. 

In  the  library  of  the  first  type, — namely, 
the  experiment  station  library  kept  sepa- 
rate from  the  college  library  but  under  its 
control,  the  collections  are  composed 
principally  of  the  following  classes  of 
literature : 

1.  As  complete  a  collection  as  can  be 
had  of  publications  (a)  of  the  U.  S.  De- 
partment of  agriculture;  (b)  of  state  ex- 
periment  stations   in  the  United   States; 


218 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


(c)  of  agricultural,  horticultural,  dairy  and 
live  stock  and  kindred  societies;  (d)  the 
publications  of  departments  of  agriculture, 
of  agricultural  schools  and  societies  in 
foreign  countries,  all  of  which  literature 
may  be  designated  as  the  "official  agricul- 
tural literature." 

(2)  Files,  at  least  current  ones,  of  the 
leading  agricultural  periodicals  of  the 
United  States,  together  with  the  best  of 
those  published  in  the  interest  of  each  of 
the  special  branches  of  agriculture, — live 
stock,  dairying,  horticulture,  etc. 

(3)  A  collection  of  reference  works 
both  general  and  agricultural,  as  well  as 
standard  works  on  agriculture  and  its 
various  branches  and  allied  sciences. 

Few  if  any  of  the  separate  experiment 
station  libraries  can  be  said  to  have  not- 
ably complete  collections,  aside  from  the 
"official  agricultural  literature."  Scientific 
books  and  periodicals  are  expensive  and 
most  of  the  agricultural  colleges  have  not 
felt  able  to  duplicate  expensive  sets  of 
periodicals  and  scientific  reference  works. 
Therefore,  since  the  college  needs  such 
works  as  well  as  the  stations,  the  result 
has  been  in  most  cases  that  they  have 
been  filed  in  the  college  or  university  li- 
brary and  the  station  collections  have 
been  limited  principally  to  the  "official 
agricultural  literature"  described  above. 

That  the  experiment  station  workers 
should  have  readily  available  as  complete 
a  collection  as  possible  of  the  "official  agri- 
cultural literature,"  both  American  and 
foreign,  seems  most  desirable  if  not  im- 
perative. Whether  this  material  should  be 
filed  in  the  station  library  or  in  the  college 
library  and  to  what  extent  it  should  be 
duplicated  is  a  matter  for  each  institution 
to  decide,  according  to  its  needs  and  local 
conditions.  In  the  case  of  an  experiment 
station  located  on  the  college  campus  and 
near  enough  to  the  college  or  university 
for  the  station  workers  to  use  the  general 
library,  there  is  still  much  to  be  said  in 
favor  of  a  separate  reference  and  reading 
room  for  the  experiment  station  staff  with 
an  assistant  in  charge,  the  collection  con- 
sisting principally  of  the  "official  agricul- 


tural literature,"  a  selected  list  of  current 
periodicals  and  a  good  selection  of  ref- 
erence books  of  special  interest  in  experi- 
ment station  work.  The  ideal  plan  would 
be  for  this  room  to  adjoin  the  university 
library  like  a  seminar  room.  If  it  is  not 
feasible  on  account  of  distance  for  the  ex- 
periment station  workers  to  have  the  col- 
lection next  to  the  general  library,  then 
it  should  of  course  be  in  the  experiment 
station  building  or  agricultural  hall. 

Libraries  of  the  second  or  departmental 
type, — namely,  where  the  college  of  agri- 
culture and  the  experiment  station  collec- 
tions are  combined,  contain  in  general  all 
the    library   resources   of   the    institution 
along  purely  agricultural  lines,  including 
the   "official   agricultural   literature,"   and 
in  addition  a  fairly  complete  collection  in 
the  sciences  relating  to  agriculture.    Such 
libraries  have  a  two-fold  purpose.     They 
must  supply  the  needs  of  the  professors 
and  scientists  in  connection  with  their  in- 
vestigations and  in  addition  must  serve  the 
students   of   the   agricultural   college.     If 
the  college  of  agriculture  and  the  experi- 
ment station  are  some  distance  from  the 
university, — so   far  as  to   make   frequent 
consultation  of  the  university  library  im- 
practicable,   there    is    no    question    but 
that  the  college  of  agriculture  and  the  ex- 
periment station  ought  to  have  a  separate 
library  for  their  especial  needs.    If  on  the 
other  hand  they  are  near  enough  to  the 
university  library  to  make  it  feasible  for 
the  professors  and  scientists  to  use  it  fre- 
quently, it  is  an  open  question  whether  It 
is  wise  to  separate  the  agricultural  collec- 
tions.    It  is  then  a  question  of  a  central 
library  versus  a  departmental  or  special 
library.     The  nearer  the  college  of  agri- 
culture library  is  to  the  university  library, 
the  more  intensive  should  its  collections 
become. 

There  is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the 
third  type  of  agricultural  library, — namely, 
where  the  agricultural  collections  are  in- 
corporated with  the  college  or  university 
collections.  When  the  topography  of  the 
campus  and  the  location  of  the  buildings 
are  such  as  to  make  it  feasible  for  the  sta- 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARIES  SECTION 


219 


tion  workers  and  the  agricultural  profes- 
sors to  use  the  college  or  university 
library,  the  balance  of  the  arguments 
seems  to  be  In  favor  of  this  arrangement, 
both  as  regards  economy  of  funds  and  ef- 
ficiency of  service,  if  the  special  needs  of 
the  station  workers  can  be  and  are  given 
proper  consideration  by  providing  the 
really  necessary  duplicates  and  an  assist- 
ant especially  qualified  to  aid  in  the  biblio- 
graphical research  connected  with  the  in- 
vestigations of  the  experiment  station. 
There  is  a  decided  tendency  toward  unity 
in  modern  science.  This  is  especially  true 
In  the  sciences  relating  to  agriculture. 
The  entomologist  needs  to  use  botanical 
books,  the  botanist  must  use  chemical 
books,  etc.,  etc.  This  has  an  important 
bearing  on  library  problems  and  as  far  as 
agricultural  libraries  are  concerned,  is  an 
argument  for  centralized  collections. 

As  it  is  probable  that  it  will  be  a  long 
time  In  the  future,  If  ever,  before  the  ex- 
periment stations  will  have  sufficient  funds 
to  build  up  complete  collections  for  their 
special  use,  independent  of  the  colleges, 
and  since  It  is  a  question  whether,  if  funds 
were  actually  available,  It  would  be  wise 
to  expend  them  in  duplicating  to  such  an 
extent  the  college  library  collections,  It 
seems  evident  that  some  compromise  ar- 
rangement is  Inevitable.  In  attempting  to 
work  out  a  satisfactory  library  plan,  every 
institution  should  make  a  careful  survey 
of  local  conditions,  such  as  the  size  of  the 
collections,  the  size  of  the  library  staff, 
funds  available,  location  and  architecture 
of  the  college  and  experiment  station 
buildings,  and  then  attempt  to  work  out 
the  best  possible  policy  under  Its  peculiar 
conditions.  In  working  out  such  a  policy, 
there  are  three  important  points  to  con- 
sider,— the  question  of  administration,  the 
question  of  convenience  and  the  economy 
of  funds. 

As  regards  administration,  attention  has 
already  been  called  to  the  fact  that  the 
station  is  by  law  a  department  of  the  col- 
lege and  under  Its  control.  If  fully  lived 
up  to,  this  fact  would  seem  to  decide  many 
vexed  questions  of  administration.    Sooner 


or  later,  it  Is  believed,  the  colleges  and  ex- 
periment stations  will  find  that  there  is 
less  to  be  gained  by  standing  alone  than 
they  had  supposed  and  they  will  realize 
the  advantages  of  a  unified  library  admin- 
istration for  the  institution  as  a  whole. 

In  considering  the  question  of  conveni- 
ence, distance  is  the  most  important  fac- 
tor. This  difficulty  can,  however,  to  a 
great  extent  be  minimized  by  an  adequate 
telephone  and  messenger  service  between 
the  library  and  the  various  departments  of 
the  college.  Even  for  the  sake  of  con- 
venience, it  is  a  question  whether  any  In- 
stitution is  justified  in  separating  its  agri- 
cultural collections  from  the  college  or 
university  library,  unless  It  Is  prepared  to 
provide  an  efficient  assistant  to  look  after 
the  collection.  Because  books  are  near  at 
hand  does  not  mean  that  they  are  more 
accessible. 

If  an  Institution  is  limited  in  funds  and 
If  Its  total  resources  in  books  do  not  ex- 
ceed 30,000  volumes,  there  seems  little 
doubt  but  that  the  Interests  of  the  station 
and  college  can  best  be  served  by  combin- 
ing forces  and  resources  in  one  strong  li- 
brary with  adequate  service,  unless  the 
topographical  conditions  make  this  plan 
impossible.  Such  a  combination  certainly 
husbands  the  finances,  since  separate  li- 
braries Involving  a  duplication  of  catalogs 
and  reference  books  necessitates  a  con- 
siderable outlay  of  funds. 

But  whatever  the  details  of  the  library 
arrangement  for  the  institution  may  be, 
the  station  should  by  all  means  have  if 
possible  the  services  of  some  person,  call 
him  what  you  will, — librarian,  biblio- 
grapher, or  reference  assistant,  who  may 
give  his  time  and  energy  quite  fully  to  the 
special  requirements  of  the  station, — for 
example,  In  keeping  the  official  literature 
complete  and  up  to  date.  In  looking  up  re- 
ferences, making  excerpts,  making  and 
taking  care  of  indexes,  preparing  biblio- 
graphical lists,  and  in  doing  bibliographi- 
cal work  of  a  miscellaneous  character. 
There  Is  unquestionably  need  for  libra- 
rians trained  along  agricultural  lines.  It 
would  seem  as  though  the  library  training 


290 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


schools  of  the  universities  of  Wisconsin 
and  Illinois  were  peculiarly  well  situated 
to  make  a  specialty  of  training  librarians 
for  agricultural  work. 

One  of  the  important  duties  of  such  an 
assistant,  regardless  of  whether  the  agri- 
cultural collections  are  maintained  as  a 
separate  library  or  incorporated  with  the 
general  library,  should  be  the  care  and 
collection  of  agricultural  publications  ob- 
tainable by  gift  or  exchange.  There  is 
now  a  great  accumulation  of  public  and 
miscellaneous  documents,  American  and 
foreign,  which  may  be  obtained  at  little 
or  no  expense  as  regards  purchase,  but  the 
collection,  safeguarding  and  general  care 
of  this  material  is  a  very  considerable 
task.  Too  many  of  the  agricultural  col- 
leges and  experiment  stations  have  not 
sufficiently  regarded  the  importance  of 
collecting  this  material  and  of  keeping 
their  files  complete  and  in  a  readily  avail- 
able form.  A  large  portion  of  this  ma- 
terial is  never  noted  In  the  bibliographies 
of  the  book  trade.  It  must  be  sought  for 
in  catalogs  and  book  lists,  In  reviews, 
second-hand  catalogs,  and  In  many  less 
obvious  places.  Much  of  the  material  Is 
hot  for  sale  and  is  only  obtainable  by  gift 
or  exchange.  It  is  therefore  an  important 
matter  that  there  should  be  close  co- 
operation between  the  experiment  station 
and  the  library  in  arranging  such  ex- 
changes. The  station  bulletins  and  re- 
ports, published  by  each  state,  should  be 
the  means  of  obtaining  for  the  station  or 
college  library  many  valuable  exchanges 
from  this  country  and  abroad. 

In  regard  to  the  accessions  to  the  li- 
brary, whether  obtained  by  purchase  or 
gift,  there  are  certain  definite  principles 
which  should  be  followed:  first.  It  Is 
most  desirable  that  all  the  purchases  of 
books  and  periodicals  for  all  the  collec- 
tions included  In  the  university  and  experi- 
ment station  should  be  made  by  the  cen- 
tral general  library,  even  the  books  pur- 
chased from  the  Adams  fund.  In  connec- 
tion with  some  definite  project;  second 
that  all  the  records  In  regard  to  the  re- 
sources of  the  library  be  kept  In  the  gen- 


eral library.  Furthermore,  all  the  collec- 
tions, whether  obtained  by  gift  or  pur- 
chase, should  be  regarded  as  the  unques- 
tioned property  of  the  Institution  at  large, 
and  under  the  custody  of  the  librarian. 

In  regard  to  the  purchase  of  books  from 
the  Adams  fund,  the  fact  that  the  experi- 
ment station  worker  needs  in  connection 
with  an  investigation  certain  books  not 
already  in  the  library,  which  books  he  Is 
allowed  to  purchase  from  the  Adams  fund, 
is  not.  In  the  opinion  of  the  office  of  ex- 
periment stations,  reason  for  assuming  that 
the  books  should  not  be  purchased  through 
the  library  or  that  they  shall  not  be  re- 
garded as  the  property  of  the  library. 
Therefore,  In  a  library  efficiently  admin- 
istered, there  would  be  no  Inflexible  rules 
which  would  make  it  Impossible  for  any 
experiment  station  worker  to  retain  in  his 
laboratory  for  an  indefinite  period  while 
he  is  carrying  on  his  investigations,  the 
books  which  he  especially  needs  to  have 
at  hand,  regardless  of  the  fact  that  they 
were  purchased  through  the  library.  As 
far  as  the  office  of  experiment  stations  is 
concerned  in  the  supervision  of  the  ac- 
counts of  the  purchases  made  by  the  state 
experiment  stations  from  the  Adams  fund, 
it  has  Interpreted  the  law  to  mean  that 
the  funds  can  be  used  In  part  for  the  pur- 
chase of  books  needed  to  carry  on  a  spe- 
cial experiment  in  progress  but  It  does  not 
hold  that  books  so  purchased  must  be  held 
as  the  property  of  the  department.  On 
the  contrary,  it  is  inclined  to  believe  that 
the  funds  will  be  safeguarded  fully  as  well 
if  not  better,  by  the  purchase  of  books 
through  the  library. 

As  regards  the  assignment  of  funds  for 
the  library,  there  Is  lacking  in  many  of 
the  agricultural  colleges  and  experiment 
stations  any  well  matured  policy.  A  hard 
and  fast  allotment  of  funds  to  departments 
is  of  doubtful  wisdom.  It  would  be  bet- 
ter to  be  guided  more  by  the  use  likely  to 
be  made  of  the  books  by  the  various  de- 
partments than  to  attempt  any  impartial 
division  among  them.  In  all  but  a  few  of 
the  state  agricultural  colleges  and  experi- 
ment   stations    the    funds    available    for 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARIES  SECTION 


221 


books  are  pitiably  small.  They  need  to  be 
greatly  increased.  In  some  instances  the 
purchase  of  scientific  books  seems  unduly 
restricted  as  compared  with  expensive  ap- 
paratus. As  long  as  the  funds  are  meagre, 
there  is  the  more  need  for  a  well  equipped, 
progressive  librarian,  with  a  knowledge  of 
the  resources  of  other  libraries,  who  will 
co-operate  with  other  libraries,  and  by  ex- 
changes and  interlibrary  loans  be  able  to 
supplement  the  resources  of  his  own  li- 
brary. The  library  of  the  U.  S.  Depart- 
ment of  Agriculture  has  been  glad  to  lend 
its  books  to  state  agricultural  colleges  and 
experiment  stations  as  freely  as  possible 
without  interfering  with  the  work  of  the 
department.  The  borrowing  of  a  book 
needed  for  the  special  use  of  an  investi- 
gator will  often  avoid  the  necessity  of  pur- 
chasing it  and  leave  the  funds  available 
for  the  purchase  of  books  of  more  general 
use. 

The  answers  to  the  questionnaire  sent 
out  by  the  Agricultural  libraries  section 
disclosed  the  fact  that  a  large  number  of 
the  ag^ricultural  colleges,  but  none  of  the 
experiment  stations,  have  library  com- 
mittees, and  that  the  college  library  com- 
mittee's activities  do  not,  except  in  a  few 
instances,  extend  to  the  stations.  It  is  not 
the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  discuss  gen- 
eral library  problems  except  so  far  as  they 
touch  upon  the  problems  of  the  agricult- 
ural library.  No  arguments  pro  or  con 
will  therefore  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
desirability  of  library  committees.  If, 
however,  it  is  thought  best  by  an  institu- 
tion to  have  a  library  committee,  it  should 
by  all  means  be  a  committee  for  the  whole 
institution.  As  already  emphasized,  the 
station  is  a  department  of  the  college  and 
there  would  seem  to  be  no  reason  for  ex- 
cluding it  in  the  consideration  of  the  li- 
brary problems  of  the  college,  for  there  is 
no  department  of  the  college  whose  inter- 
est In  the  library  is  more  vital.  It  was 
Interesting  to  note  that  in  one  of  the  state 
agricultural  college  libraries,  whose  growth 
in  the  last  few  years  has  been  remarkable, 
there  is  no  library  committee.  In  another 
college  with  a  growing  and  progressive  li- 


brary, the  library  committee  was  referred 
to  as  not  much  help  and  no  hindrance.  In 
some  colleges  the  powers  of  the  library 
committee  are  described  as  merely  advis- 
ory as  to  library  policies;  in  others,  it  evi- 
dently has  considerable  power,  the  decis- 
ion In  regard  to  the  purchase  of  books  be- 
ing left  largely  to  the  library  committee. 
It  is  a  question  whether  this  latter  ar- 
rangement is  altogether  wise.  There  are 
certain  dangers  connected  with  It.  If  the 
librarian  cannot  be  trusted  to  make  a  wise 
selection  of  books  for  the  college,  with  the 
help  of  recommendations  of  the  members 
of  the  faculty  and  station  staff,  then  the 
disadvantages  connected  with  a  library 
committee  empowered  to  decide  on  the 
purchase  of  books  should  be  minimized  as 
far  as  possible  by  having  the  library  com- 
mittee rotate  in  office.  In  order  to  Insure  a 
fair  representation  of  the  needs  of  all  de- 
partments of  the  Institution. 

In  the  case  of  the  experiment  stations, 
the  decision  in  regard  to  the  purchase  of 
books  In  most  Instances  rests  entirely  with 
the  director  or  the  heads  of  the  depart- 
ments. This  plan,  too,  has  its  disadvant- 
ages. The  ambitious  specialist  allowed  to 
have  his  own  way  without  regard  to  the 
needs  of  his  fellow  workers  is  apt  to  pur- 
chase books  of  service  only  to  himself.  If 
there  is  a  library  committee  for  the  Insti- 
tution, it  would  be  far  better  to  have  the 
book  purchases  for  the  station  considered 
by  the  committee  on  the  basis  of  a  gen- 
eral policy  taking  into  account  the  special 
requirements  of  the  station's  work  and 
funds.  If  there  is  no  library  committee, 
then  the  librarian  of  the  college  should  by 
all  means  be  consulted  in  regard  to  the 
purchase  of  all  books  for  the  station  as 
well  as  the  college.  It  should,  of  course, 
be  understood  by  the  librarian,  as  well  as 
by  other  officers  of  the  institution,  that 
purchases  of  books  and  periodicals  for  the 
experiment  station  under  the  Hatch  Act 
should  be  strictly  confined  to  those  re- 
quired in  connection  with  the  work  of  the 
station  and  under  the  Adams  act  to  those 
directly  relating  to  the  approved  project 
of  research.     It  will,  therefore,  be  neces- 


222 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


sary  for  the  station  director  to  pass  on 
the  extent  of  the  library  purchases  from 
station  funds  and  the  character  of  the 
books  and  periodicals  to  be  thus  pur- 
chased. 

Among  the  functions,  problems  and  op- 
portunities of  the  librarians  of  our  agri- 
cultural colleges,  extension  work  remains 
to  be  considered.  The  extension  work  of 
the  agricultural  college  is  now  one  of  its 
vital  activities  and  is  every  year  enlarging 
its  scope.  Leaders  are  needed  for  every 
phase  of  this  work, — for  correspondence 
schools,  for  farmers'  institutes,  for  mov- 
able schools  of  agriculture,  for  work  on 
practice  farms,  and  in  many  other  of  the 
activities  which  are  being  used  in  carrying 
the  improved  methods  of  modern  agri- 
culture to  the  farmer  himself.  The  experi- 
ment station  is  an  organized  effort  of 
science  to  improve  agriculture,  and  the  ex- 
tension work  of  the  agricultural  college  is 
the  practical  means  of  reaching  the  farmer 
with  useful  information.  The  rural  prob- 
lem is  one  of  the  burning  public  questions 
of  the  day  and  upon  its  proper  solution 
depends  much  of  the  progress  which  we 
confidently  expect.  The  farmer  must  him- 
self co-operate  in  the  solution  of  this 
problem  and  the  leadership  is  of  a  very 
high  order  that  recognizes  as  an  absolute 
essential  to  success,  and  succeeds  in  en- 
listing, an  active  participation  on  the  part 
of  the  farmer  in  the  work  of  bringing 
about  an  improved  practice  of  agriculture. 
If  then  the  library  is  as  important  in  all 
the  phases  of  the  work  of  the  agricultural 
college  as  we  deem  it  to  be,  the  work  of 
the  library  should  by  all  means  be  repre- 
sented in  all  the  extension  work  activities. 

In  conclusion,  the  above  suggestions  re- 
garding the  administration  of  the  agricul- 
tural college  and  experiment  station  li- 
braries and  their  opportunities  for  service 
to  the  investigator,  the  student  and  the 
farmer,  may  be  briefly  summarized  «s 
follows: 

First:  The  libraries  of  the  agricultural 
colleges  and  experiment  stations  should 
always  be  in  charge  of  well-trained  and 
efficient  librarians. 


Second:  The  books  and  periodicals 
should  be  selected  with  reference  to  the 
well-considered  needs  of  the  various 
branches  of  the  institution,  having  regard 
for  the  vast  amount  of  literature  which 
may  be  secured  by  gift  and  exchange. 

Third:  The  experiment  station  collec- 
tion, even  when  separately  housed,  should 
be  considered  and  administered  as  an  in- 
tegral part  of  the  college  or  university  li- 
brary, under  the  direction  of  the  college 
or  university  librarian. 

Fourth:  The  needs  of  the  experiment 
station  staff  should  be  met  by  the  employ- 
ment of  a  librarian,  bibliographer  or  refer- 
ence assistant  especially  qualified  to  serve 
the  station  In  all  its  interests. 

Fifth:  In  the  extension  work  activities 
of  the  college  for  the  more  direct  benefit 
of  the  farmer,  the  library  should  have  Its 
share. 

It  Is  realized  that  there  may  be  a  wide 
difference  of  opinion  as  to  the  methods  to 
be  employed,  but  the  object  of  this  paper 
will  be  in  part  accomplished  if  It  directs 
attention  to  the  principles  upon  which  a 
policy  of  administration  should  be  built. 
The  problems  of  the  library  need  the  com- 
bined thought  and  efforts  of  librarians, 
faculties  and  experiment  station  staffs  In 
order  that  It  may  by  its  efficiency  promote 
to  the  fullest  extent  the  work  of  the  agri- 
cultural colleges  and  experiment  stations. 

Several     papers     were     presented     on 

SOME  TYPES  OF  AGRICULTURAL  COL- 
LEGE AND  EXPERIMENT  STATION 
LIBRARIES 

The  first  was  by  CLARENCE  S.  HEAN, 
librarian  of  the  college  of  agriculture  of 
the  University  of  Wisconsin,  on  the  type 

(a)       Agricultural    College    and    Experi- 
ment    Station     Libraries     Combined     and 
Separate  from  the  University  Library  but 
under  its  Control. 
Mr.  Hean  said  in  part: 

The  administrative  officers  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin  believe  thoroughly  In 
the  theory  that  teaching  and  research 
should  go  hand  in  hand.  That  theory 
practically  applied  In  our  college  of  agrl- 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARIES  SECTION 


223 


culture  and  agricultural  experiment  sta- 
tion virtually  combines  the  two  organiza- 
tions into  one. 

This  agricultural  department  of  the 
university  is  housed  in  a  group  of  build- 
ings at  the  extreme  western  end  of  the 
campus.  The  general  university  library  is 
situated  at  the  extreme  eastern  end,  a  full 
half  mile  away.  It  therefore  seemed  ad- 
visable to  establish  a  departmental  library 
for  the  convenience  of  our  agricultural 
workers. 

In  our  college  the  funds  received  from 
the  United  States  are  not  nearly  sufficient 
to  finance  all  of  the  station  work,  or  re- 
search work  as  we  call  it.  The  budget  is 
made  up  by  adding  together  the  income 
from  all  sources  and  apportioning  this 
whole  amount  among  the  departments  ac- 
cording to  their  needs  and  talents.  Orders 
may  then  be  Issued  by  each  department, 
subject  to  the  dean's  approval,  to  the  ex- 
tent of  its  allotment.  When  bills  are  re- 
ceived the  head  of  the  department  marks 
with  an  "R"  all  items  ordered  for  research 
(i.  e.  station)  work.  The  bookkeeper  en- 
ters items  so  marked  against  United 
States  funds  until  they  are  exhausted. 
The  library  being  a  department  of  the  col- 
lege its  funds  are  treated  in  this  same 
manner.  This  marking  of  research  items 
in  the  bills  with  an  "R"  is  the  only  dis- 
tinction ever  made  between  books  pur- 
chased for  station  or  for  college  purposes. 

All  of  the  books  purchased  are  classified, 
cataloged  and  filed  as  one  collection.  It 
is  understood  throughout  the  college  that 
books  for  the  Adams  or  Hatch  investiga- 
tions are  to  be  purchased  by  the  library. 
Such  books  when  received  are  given  the 
right  of  way  in  all  library  processes  and 
forwarded  immediately  to  the  investigator 
who  requested  them. 

The  selection  of  books  rests  with  the  li- 
brary committee.  This  committee  consists 
of  five  members  of  the  faculty  appointed 
by  the  dean  for  a  term  of  one  year,  and 
the  librarian,  an  ex  officio  member.  The 
chairman  of  the  committee  has  been  re- 
appointed for  many  consecutive  terms. 
The  other  members  are  rotated  among  the 


different  departments.  Lists  of  books  for 
consideration  at  their  monthly  meetings 
are  made  up  by  the  librarian.  Any  mem- 
ber of  the  faculty,  or  student  either  for 
that  matter,  may  recommend  books  to  go 
on  the  list. 

The  selections  having  been  made,  the 
list  is  forwarded  to  the  university  libra- 
rian. It  is  then  checked  with  the  univer- 
sity catalog.  Items  already  available  any- 
where on  the  campus  are  reported  back 
for  further  consideration.  If  it  is  the  judg- 
ment of  the  committee  that  an  additional 
copy  is  needed  in  our  library  it  is  so 
ordered,  but  all  needless  duplication  is 
avoided.  The  actual  order  is  made  out  by 
the  university  librarian  who  has  at  hand 
the  bibliographical  data  for  such  work. 

The  books  are  received,  accessioned  and 
plated  at  the  general  library.  They  are 
then  forwarded  to  our  college  library  to  be 
classified  and  cataloged.  All  our  books 
are  permitted  to  circulate  not  only  among 
the  students  and  professors  of  our  own 
college  but  among  those  of  any  college  of 
the  university.  In  return  the  same  priv- 
ilege Is  granted  to  us  by  the  other  col- 
leges. Having  a  well  developed  delivery 
system  and  a  liberal  loaning  policy,  we  en- 
courage the  policy  of  a  strong  central 
library. 

The  next  paper,  prepared  by  ASA  DON 
DICKINSON,  librarian  State  college  of 
"Washington,  treated  type 

(b)     The  experiment  station  library  sep- 
arate from  the  college   library  but  under 
its  control. 
Mr.  Dickinson  said  in  part: 

In  the  state  college  of  Washington,  the 
experiment  station  library  is  said  to  be 
separate  from  the  college,  but  under  its 
control.  Our  college  library  building  oc- 
cupies a  central  position  on  the  campus, 
not  over  two  hundred  yards  from  the 
offices  of  most  of  the  members  of  the  sta- 
tion staff.  Part  of  the  lowest  tier  of  the 
college  library  book  stack  is  set  aside  for 
the  accommodation  of  the  station  library, 
the  point  of  division  being  marked  by  a 
gate.  A  specially  designated  member  of 
the  college  library  staff  acts  as  station  li- 


224 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


brarian,  under  the  direction  of  the  college 
librarian.  Her  salary  is  paid  largely  but 
not  wholly  out  of  the  station  funds.  Her 
duties  as  station  librarian  occupy  about 
one-third  of  her  time,  but  these  duties  have 
precedence  over  her  college  library  work. 
In  the  absence  of  the  station  librarian, 
members  of  the  station  staff  are  served 
by  the  college  library  staff. 

Our  station  library  is  made  up  almost 
entirely  (1)  of  publications  of  the  U.  S. 
Department  of  agriculture;  (2)  of  publi- 
cations of  the  state  experiment  stations, 
and  departments  of  agriculture  and  horti- 
culture; (3)  of  the  agricultural,  horticul- 
tural and  kindred  periodicals.  The  college 
library  contains  duplicate  collections  of  the 
first  two  classes  of  material.  The  third 
class  in  our  experience  is  relatively  of 
less  importance,  as  it  consists  chiefly  of 
the  popular  "farm-papers."  The  station 
library,  like  the  college  library,  has  its 
own  card-catalog  of  U.  S.  Department  of 
agriculture  publications,  and  its  own  card- 
index  of  experiment  station  literature. 

Students  and  practitioners  of  the  science 
of  agriculture  seem  to  be  specially  fortu- 
nate in  that  so  much  of  the  valuable  ma- 
atrial  on  their  subject  is  published  and 
freely  distributed  by  the  federal  and  state 
governments.  There  is  perhaps  no  other 
science  in  which  the  unofficial  literature 
is  so  relatively  unimportant.  It  is  true, 
the  technical  journals  of  the  allied  sciences 
contain  much  that  is  of  value  to  the  ex- 
periment station  worker.  But  so  far  as 
my  experience  goes,  the  use  of  this  is  not 
constant  and  continuous,  as  is  the  case 
with  governmental  material.  Let  us  have 
separate  and  distinct  sets  of  state  and  fed- 
eral "Bulletins,"  for  our  college  workers 
and  for  our  station  workers,  as  both  classes 
need  to  refer  to  them  so  frequently.  But 
Is  not  this  going  far  enough?  Is  it  not 
the  wisest  policy  to  confine  our  station  li- 
brary collection  principally  to  these  well- 
thumbed  publications,  and  to  place  the  less 
constantly  used  and  more  expensive  unoffi- 
cial material  in  the  college  library,  where 
it  can  be  of  service  to  a  larger  public? 

MISS  MARGARET  HUTCHINS,  of  the 


reference  department  of  the  University  of 
Illinois  library  described  type 

(c)  Experiment  station  library  consoli- 
dated with  the  university  library. 

Until  1897  the  library  of  the  Illinois  ex- 
periment station  and  the  university  library 
were  separately  housed,  cared  for  and  sup- 
ported. In  that  year  the  state  erected  a 
library  building  for  the  university  and  in 
it  the  experiment  station  deposited  its  col- 
lection of  nearly  five  thousand  titles.  From 
that  time  the  station  ceased  buying  books 
from  the  Hatch  fund,  with  the  possible  ex- 
ception of  a  very  few  books  for  laboratory 
equipment,  and  it  has  never  bought  any 
from  the  Adams  fund.  The  books  depos- 
ited by  the  experiment  station  in  the  uni- 
versity library  were  classified  and  cata- 
loged and  became  a  part  of  the  library. 
The  only  difference  in  treatment  from 
books  otherwise  acquired  was  that  the  ex- 
periment station  books  were  accessioned 
separately  so  that  it  would  be  possible  to 
take  them  out  of  the  library  again  if  de- 
sired. All  books  and  periodicals  bought 
or  exchanged  for  the  experiment  station 
since  1897  have  been  dealt  with  like  those 
bought  or  exchanged  for  the  university. 
The  questions  of  administration  come 
therefore  for  the  most  part  under  the  gen- 
eral library  policy. 

Books  are  purchased  for  the  university 
either  out  of  the  legislative  appropriation 
for  the  library  or  the  appropriations  for 
the  university  and  its  different  colleges 
and  departments  of  investigation. 
1.     Library  funds. 

The  library  funds  are  assigned  to  the  va- 
rious departments  in  the  colleges  of  the 
university  by  a  committee  on  the  appor- 
tionment of  library  funds,  consisting  of 
the  president,  the  librarian  and  the  deans 
of  the  colleges,  who  act  on  the  recom- 
mendations of  a  senate  library  committee. 
This  is  composed  of  the  president  and  the 
librarian  and  seven  members  representing 
the  following  Interests;  Agriculture,  En- 
gineering, Science,  Graduate  school,  Li- 
brary, The  languages,  literature  and  arts, 
and  The  philosophical  and  social  sciences. 
Besides  preparing  for  the  first  mentioned 


AGRICULTURAL  LIBRARIES  SECTION 


225 


committee  on  apportionment,  detailed  es- 
timates of  the  library  needs  of  the  various 
colleges,  schools  and  departments,  the  li- 
brary committee  acts  as  an  advisory  board 
to  the  librarian  in  matters  of  library  ad- 
ministration and  policy.  The  college  of 
agriculture,  which  in  Illinois  is  of  course 
intimately  connected  with  the  agricultural 
experiment  station,  receives  its  share  of 
the  library  funds  for  the  purchase  of  books 
selected  by  its  professors  and  investigators. 
2.  Maintenance  Funds,  called  Equipment 
funds  in  tlie  Library  to  distinguisii  from 
Library  funds. 

Books  are  also  purchased  out  of  the 
legislative  appropriations  for  the  support 
of  certain  colleges  and  out  of  allotments 
made  by  the  trustees  from  the  general  uni- 
versity funds  for  colleges  not  specifically 
provided  for  by  the  legislature.  In  the 
case  of  agricultural  books  these  funds  have 
the  two  purposes:  the  maintenance  fund 
for  the  college  of  agriculture  and  the  ex- 
periment station  and,  second,  the  appro- 
priations for  special  departments  of  in- 
vestigation in  the  experiment  station. 

The  general  policy  of  the  faculty  of  the 
college  of  agriculture  (or  the  staff  of  the 
experiment  station)  as  to  purchase  of 
books  out  of  these  two  different  funds  for 
college  and  experiment  station  is  to  buy 
books  for  special  investigations  out  of 
station  funds  unless  they  clearly  would  be 
of  use  also  to  the  students  and  instructors 
of  the  college  at  large.  Books  needed  by 
the  special  investigator  and  the  college 
in  general  at  the  same  time  are  duplicated. 
When  books  are  no  longer  needed  in  the 
laboratory  or  office  for  the  special  work 
for  which  they  were  bought,  they  are  re- 
turned for  general  circulation  to  the  main 
library  by  whose  staff  they  were  ordered 
and  cataloged.  Books  already  in  the 
library,  whether  bought  out  of  library 
funds  or  equipment  funds  for  any  college 
may  be  sent  to  a  laboratory,  office,  or  read- 
ing room  from  the  main  library  unless  they 
are  needed  for  reference  or  class  use  in  the 
main  library  or  any  branch  of  it. 
Exchange. 

The  library  and  experiment  station  also 


work  together  in  the  matter  of  exchanges. 
The  library  exchange  assistant  arranges 
for  the  exchange  of  experiment  station 
publications  the  same  as  for  other  publica- 
tions of  the  university,  while  the  station 
attends  to  the  actual  mailing  of  its  pub- 
lications, as  it  has  better  facilities  for 
this  than  the  library.  In  this  way  the 
library  receives  from  the  exchange  of  the 
agricultural  experiment  station  publica- 
tions alone  between  four  and  five  hundred 
publications,  of  which  more  than  one-half 
are  from  foreign  countries,  seventy  agri- 
cultural periodicals  and  the  publications 
of  ninety  learned  societies  being  obtained 
in  addition  to  the  publications  of  state 
universities  and  stations  and  universities 
and  libraries  all  over  the  world.  Besides 
these,  the  library  receives  by  the  exchange 
of  other  University  of  Illinois  publications 
many  hundred  more  publications,  some  of 
which  are  of  interest  to  agricultural  scien- 
tists and  economists. 

Advantages  of  the  Consolidation  of  Station 
and. University  Libraries 

1.  Economy  of  administration. 

No  staff  of  agriculturists  or  any  other 
specialists  trained  for  scientific  or  literary 
research  can  be  expected  to  order,  catalog 
and  care  for  books  as  quickly  and  effi- 
ciently as  can  the  well  organized  library 
staff  of  forty,  with  its  order  department, 
gifts,  exchange  and  periodical  assistants, 
and  cataloging,  binding,  loan,  and  refer- 
ence departments,  whose  whole  time  and 
attention  is  devoted  to  these  special  lines 
of  library  work.  The  library,  too,  which 
handles  some  thirty  thousand  new  books 
a  year  can  afford  to  have  more  elaborate 
equipment  in  the  way  of  trade  bibliogra- 
phies of  various  countries,  catalogs  of  other 
libraries,  mechanical  means  for  duplicating 
catalog  cards,  shelving  books,  etc.,  than 
can  such  an  institution  as  an  experiment 
station  whose  money  should  be  spent 
mostly  on  salaries  of  specialists  and  lab- 
oratory and  field  equipment. 

2.  Security  In  preservation  of  valuable 
books. 

While  the  majority  of  agricultural   de- 


226 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


partments  at  Illinois  favor  departmental  li- 
braries, they  all  make  it  conditional — "If 
we  had  a  proper  and  secure  place  for 
them."  All  with  whom  I  have  talked  have 
also  emphasized  the  advisability,  almost 
the  necessity,  of  keeping  all  books  on  the 
campus,  whether  in  departmental  .libra- 
ries, laboratories  or  main  library,  under 
the  central  administration  and  the  super- 
vision of  the  librarian  of  the  university. 

3.  Opportunity  to  use  books  and  period- 
icals purchased  by  other  colleges  of  the 
university. 

It  can  readily  be  seen  that  books  and 
periodicals  purchased  especially  by  the 
College  of  Science  may  also  be  of  use  to 
the  Agricultural  experiment  station.  The 
agricultural  faculty  also  benefit  by  the  pe- 
riodicals, university  publications,  etc.,  re- 
ceived In  exchange  for  publications  of 
other  colleges  in  the  university. 

4.  Greater  educational  opportunities. 
The     agricultural     experiment     station, 

while  receiving  the  benefits  thus  enumer- 
ated from  its  close  connection  with  the 
university  library,  is  able  also  to  extend 
its  circle  of  influence  through  the  library, 
which  naturally  reaches  more  people  than 
the  station  could  by  itself.  Not  only  do 
the  students  and  faculty  of  the  other  col- 
leges of  the  university  have  an  oppor- 
tunity to  use  the  agricultural  books,  but 
people  throughout  the  state  can  and  do 
borrow  them  from  the  library. 

Discussion  on  the  same  type  of  library 
administration  was  continued  in  a  paper 
prepared  by  Mrs.  IDA  A.  KIDDER,  libra- 
rian of  the  Oregon  Agricultural  College 
library. 

She  said  In  part: 

Our  policy  of  one  central  library  was 
rather  thrust  upon  us  by  the  exigency  of 
our  situation  than  deliberately  chosen,  for 
we  began  with  a  single  librarian  and  one 
part  time  student  assistant,  but  after  four 
years'  experience  I  should  pursue  the  same 
general  course.  It  is  evident,  however, 
that  in  libraries  growing  at  the  almost 
incredible  rate  of  many  of  our  western 
libraries,  one  must  have  principles  of  or- 


ganization    and     administration,     rather 
than  a  fixed  policy,  or  inflexible  plans. 

At  the  Oregon  agricultural  college  we 
have  the  advantage  of  having  all  our 
class  room  and  laboratory  buildings  lo- 
cated near  each  other. 

We  have  had  no  difficulty  or  complica- 
tion as  to  funds,  since  nearly  all  our 
station  funds  have  been  used  for  experi- 
ments and  laboratory  equipment  At  flrst 
we  had  almost  no  college  funds  for  the 
purchase  of  books  and  periodicals,  hav- 
ing only  such  portion  of  the  general  equip- 
ment fund  as  could  be  spared  after  equip- 
ing  our  rapidly  growing  laboratories,  but 
at  the  last  session  of  our  legislature  the 
library  was  granted  a  fund  of  $15,000  for 
the  biennium  for  books,  periodicals  and 
binding,  and  of  the  Crop  Pest  fund  of 
$15,000  a  year,  granted  for  investigation, 
ten  per  cent  could  be  spent  for  books  and 
periodicals.  This  has  been  used  and  the 
library  has  therefore  had  this  biennium, 
$9,000  a  year.  Most  of  the  Crop  Pest  fund 
has  been  spent  for  books  directly  useful 
to  the  station  investigator.  Of  the  regu- 
lar college  library  fund,  the  station  depart- 
ments have  received  their  share  along 
with  the  strictly  instructional  departments. 
The  library  fund  is  apportioned  by  the 
president  of  the  college,  after  consultation 
with  the  librarian,  the  basis  of  judgment 
being  the  need  of  the  department  together 
with  its  present  equipment.  The  books 
purchased  from  station  funds  are  usually 
for  some  specific  investigation  and  are 
kept  in  the  laboratory  collection  of  the 
department  purchasing.  A  record  is  kept 
of  the  books  purchased  under  each  differ- 
ent fund. 

The  head  of  each  department  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  books  in  his  laboratory 
collection,  and  once  a  year  an  inventory  Is 
taken.  In  our  general  catalog  we  have 
the  cards  of  every  book  kept  in  a  depart- 
ment stamped,  under  the  call  number,  with 
the  name  of  that  department;  thus  it  is 
possible  to  locate  from  the  catalog  all 
books  except  those  out  on  loan.  All  our 
freshmen  have  one  semester's  instruction 
in  the  use  of  the  library,  that  is,  one  lec- 
ture and  one  practical  problem  a  week, 


CATALOG  SECTION 


227 


with  one  college  credit  allowed.  During 
this  period  we  urge  the  students  to  feel 
at  liberty  to  go  to  any  laboratory  to  con- 
sult any  book  needed  for  their  work,  but 
with  all  the  encouragement  we  can  give 
them,  I  feel  convinced  that  the  books 
kept  in  the  laboratory  collections  do  not 
have  the  general  use  from  the  students 
which  they  would  have  if  they  were  lo- 
cated in  the  general  library. 

We  expect  soon  to  place  in  our  agricul- 
tural building  duplicate  catalogs  of  the 
publications  of  the  United  States  Depart- 
ment of  agriculture  and  of  the  state  ex- 
periment stations.  This  will  be  a  great 
accommodation  to  the  men  working  in 
the  station. 

We  keep  our  duplicate  reports  and  bul- 
letins arranged  so  that  at  a  moment's  no- 
tice any  duplicates  may  be  found.  We 
have  one  department  whose  work  it  is  to 
secure  and  care  for  the  continuations  of 
value  to  an  agricultural  college.  This  is 
one  of  the  most  valuable  features  of  our 
organization,  and  though  it  was  difficult 
to  give  the  service  for  such  a  definite  de- 
partment, from  our  small  library  force, 
it  seemed  imperative  and  has  proved  a 
wise  step.  The  reference  librarian  of  the 
college  does  the  reference  work  for  the 
station  as  far  as  called  upon.     She  bor- 


rows for  the   use  of  the  station  from  a 
number  of  other  libraries. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  problem  of 
administering  the  college  and  the  experi- 
ment station  library,  whether  separately 
or  combined  must  always  present  a  num- 
ber of  almost  insurmountable  difficulties; 
men  engaged  in  research  demand  all  ma- 
terial for  their  work  closely  and  imme- 
diately at  hand,  instructional  work  re- 
quires that  all  the  material  on  the  campus 
shall  be  easily  accessible  to  its  use.  To 
meet  these  so  often  conflicting  demands 
without  extravagant  duplication  requires 
of  the  librarian  a  broad-minded  impartial- 
ity of  judgement. 

The  next  topic  was  a  symposium  of 
recent  reference  books  and  new  periodicals 
of  special  interest  to  agricultural  libraries, 
which  was  treated  under  the  following 
heads:  (a)  New  periodicals,  by  E.  Lucy 
Ogden,  Library  of  Congress;  (b)  Agricul- 
tural reference  books,  by  Elizabeth  S.  In- 
gersoU,  of  Cornell  university  library,  and 
(c)  Reference  books  in  sciences  relating 
to  agriculture,  by  Emma  B.  Hawks,  of  the 
U.  S.  Department  of  agriculture  library. 

Miss  Claribel  R.  Barnett,  librarian  of 
the  U.  S.  Department  of  agriculture  library 
was  re-elected  chairman  for  the  coming 
year. 


CATALOG  SECTION 


FIRST  SESSION 
(Thursday,   June   27,  8:15   p.   m.) 

The  first  session  of  the  Catalog  section 
was  held  Thursday  evening,  June  27,  the 
chairman.  Miss  Laura  A.  Thompson,  of 
the  Library  of  Congress,  presiding.  The 
reading  of  the  minutes  of  the  last  meeting 
was  dispensed  with  and  they  stand  ap- 
proved as  printed. 

The  topic  of  the  evening,  "Subject  head- 
ings," was  introduced  in  a  paper  by  Miss 
MARY  JOSEPHINE  BRIGGS,  cataloger  of 
the  Buffalo  public  library,  and  editor  of 
the  "A.  L.  A.  list  of  subject  headings."    In 


the  absence  of  Miss  Briggs,  this  paper  was 
read  by  Miss  Sula  Wagner,  of  the  St.  Louis 
public  library. 

THE  A.  L.  A.  LIST  OF  SUBJECT 
HEADINGS 

Every  cataloger,  at  least  at  the  begin- 
ning of  her  career,  has  an  ideal  of  the 
catalog  which  she  would  like  to  make: 
a  catalog  conforming  to  the  most  ap- 
proved rules,  accurate  in  bibliographical 
detail;  consistent  in  form,  in  method  of 
entry  and  in  arrangement. 

She  realizes  from  the  first  that  the  task 


228 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


of  achieving  this  ideal  will  be  difficult; 
she  soon  begins  to  fear  that  it  will  be  im- 
possible. After  perhaps  years  of  endeavor, 
she  questions  if  it  is  even  desirable. 

Absolute  consistency  in  the  matter  of 
author  entry  may  be  attained  by  strict 
adherence  to  the  A.  L.  A.  rules,  and  the 
divergences  from  these  rules  necessary 
to  adapt  them  to  the  varying  conditions 
of  public  circulating,  reference  and  uni- 
versity libraries  are  slight  and  unimpor- 
tant. But  who  can  frame  a  code  of  rules 
or  formulate  principles  through  which 
consistency  in  subject  headings  may  be 
attained?  And  is  consistency  so  absolutely 
necessary  or  desirable?  Is  not  the  ideal 
catalog  the  one  which  is  best  adapted  to 
the  needs  of  the  majority  of  its  users; 
which  is  so  arranged  that  the  reader  can 
find  what  he  wants  in  the  shortest  possi- 
ble time,  even  at  the  sacrifice  of  absolute 
consistency? 

When  the  work  of  revising  the  Subject 
headings  was  begun,  an  effort  was  made 
to  learn  the  wishes  of  all  interested  in  re- 
gard to  the  principles  upon  which  the  new 
edition  should  be  based. 

Many  of  you  remember  the  list  of  ques- 
tions that  was  published  in  the  Library 
journal  and  in  Public  libraries.  Some 
of  you  sent  answers  to  those  questions. 
They  were  questions  of  scope,  of  princi- 
ple of  selection,  and  of  arrangement.  The 
answers  received  from  librarians,  catalog- 
ers  and  reference  workers,  the  opinions  of 
members  of  the  advisory  committee  upon 
these  and  other  problems,  the  ideas  ex- 
pressed by  library  workers  consulted  by 
Miss  Crawford  in  the  various  libraries 
which  she  visited,  the  suggestions  gleaned 
from  correspondence  with  other  library 
workers  and  with  experts  upon  various 
subjects,  were  all  carefully  noted  by  Miss 
Crawford,  and  in  some  instances  tabulated 
so  that  the  varying  opinions  could  be  seen 
at  a  glance.  These  notes,  together  with 
lists  of  headings  from  many  libraries,  large 
and  small,  made  up  the  material  from 
which  the  third  edition  of  the  Subject  head- 
ings was  compiled. 

The  most  casual  examination  ot  this  ma- 


terial revealed  the  fact  that  while  on  some 
points  there  was  practical  unanimity  of 
opinion,  upon  others  there  was  the  great- 
est diversity. 

The  following  are  not  exact  quotations, 
as  I  no  longer  have  the  correspondence 
at  hand;  but  they  fairly  indicate  the  op- 
posing views  of  some  of  the  writers: 

"Expand  the  list  by  the  addition  of  neces- 
sary new  headings,  but  make  few  if  any 
changes.  The  A.  L.  "^A.  headings  are  in 
very  general  use,  and  the  possible  ad- 
vantage of  changes  would  not  compensate 
for  the  inconvenience  and  expense  of 
wholesale  alterations  in  existing  catalogs." 

"The  old  headings  are  antiquated.  Do 
not  hamper  libraries  yet  to  be  by  perpet- 
uating phraseology  that  no  longer  conforms 
to  modern  usage." 

"For  the  sake  of  uniformity,  adopt  the 
Library  of  Congress  headings,  even  if  not 
always  entirely  satisfactory  for  a  public 
library." 

"The  Library  of  Congress  headings  are 
not  at  all  adapted  for  use  in  popular  libra- 
ries.   Disregard  them." 

"The  public  library  is  for  the  plain  peo- 
ple,— use  headings  they  will  understand." 

"If  the  public  does  not  understand  scien- 
tifically accurate  headings  it  should  be 
taught.  Do  not  lower  the  standard  of 
scientific  cataloging." 

To  choose  headings  that  should  offend 
as  little  as  possible  these  widely  differing 
advisers,  to  steer  a  course  between  ultra- 
conservatism  and  iconoclastic  radicalism, 
was  the  difficult  task  that  confronted  me 
in  undertaking  the  compilation  of  the  new 
list  of  Subject  headings. 

A  special  effort  was  made  to  formulate 
a  principle  that  should  govern  the  choice 
of  adjective  phrase;  inversion;  or  noun, 
subdivided.  Is  it  better  to  enter  under 
Chemistry,  Physiological,  or  Physiological 
chemistry?  Under  Psychology,  Educa- 
tional, or  Educational  psychology?  Under 
Negro  suffrage  or  Negroes — Suffrage? 

A  strict  rule  for  this  sort  of  heading 
would  be  a  boon  to  catalogers,  but  surely 
not  to  the  users  of  the  catalog.  The  aver- 
age reader  does  not  reason  concerning  the 


CATALOG  SECTION 


229 


principles  upon  which  the  catalog  is  con- 
structed. The  fact  that  he  today  finds 
what  he  seeks  entered  under  Chemistry, 
Organic,  will  not  prevent  his  turning  to 
Electric  engineering  rather  than  Engineer- 
ing, Electric,  tomorrow.  The  adoption  of 
either  form  of  entry  to  the  exclusion  of 
the  others  would  lead  to  absurdities.  Be- 
cause it  is  satisfactory  to  subdivide  Rail- 
roads, would  it  be  desirable  to  abandon 
headings  beginning  Electric  and  substitute 
subdivisions  of  Electricity  for  Electric  con- 
ductors. Electric  lighting  and  Electric 
power?  Or  because  Botany,  Structural,  is 
preferable  to  Structural  botany,  should  we 
use  Physics,  Agricultural,  instead  of  Agri- 
cultural physics? 

In  the  end,  all  efforts  to  frame  the  de- 
sired rule  resolved  themselves  into  some- 
thing like  this:  It  is  necessary  to  use 
all  three  forms  of  heading;  noun  with  sub- 
division, adjective  phrase,  and  inversion. 
Each  case  must  be  decided  upon  its  own 
merits,  and  that  form  Used  under  which 
It  is  believed  that  the  majority  of  read- 
ers will  look, — the  majority  of  readers  in 
each  particular  library,  be  it  understood. 
A  university  library  will  use  many  sub- 
divisions because  it  is  convenient  for  pro- 
fessors and  students  to  have  much  of  the 
material  brought  together  under  large  sub- 
jects. A  medical  library  will  use  few,  if 
any,  headings  beginning  Medical,  because 
Medical  is  understood. 

As  was  stated  in  the  introduction,  no 
radical  changes  from  the  second  edition 
were  made  except  in  response  to  what 
seemed  to  be  a  very  general  demand. 
There  were  few  dissenting  votes  to  the 
proposition  to  abandon  the  headings  Arts, 
Fine,  and  Arts,  Useful.  The  majority  in 
favor  of  Government  instead  of  Political 
science  was  less  decisive,  but  still  a  ma- 
jority, and  the  confession  heard  more  than 
once,  "I  never  can  remember  the  difference 
between  political  science  and  political  econ- 
omy," was  a  straw  that  helped  to  turn  the 
scale.  Trade  union  is  no  longer  a  com- 
prehensive term  when  organizations  of 
teachers  and  of  others  outside  the  trades 
must  be  included.     The  phrase  Domestic 


economy  is  being  superseded  in  recent 
books  by  Home  economics  or  by  Domestic 
science.  It  is  impossible  to  mention  the 
changes  in  detail  or  to  give  the  reasons 
for  each,  but  no  changes  were  made  with- 
out careful  consideration. 

Just  how  far  it  is  advisable  to  alter  ex- 
isting catalogs  in  order  to  conform  to  the 
new  headings  is  a  problem  that  each  cat- 
aloger  must  decide  for  herself.  If  in  your 
opinion  the  heading  already  in  use  is  better 
than  the  new  one  suggested,  by  all  means 
retain  it.  If,  while  admitting  a  slight  ad- 
vantage in  the  new  heading,  you  think 
that  the  gain  is  not  sufficient  to  justify  the 
labor  of  changing.  It  is  much  easier  to  al- 
ter your  copy  of  the  Subject  headings  than 
to  erase  or  re-write  catalog  cards.  But  if 
you  are  convinced  that  the  new  heading 
is  one  that  will  be  more  readily  found  by 
the  users  of  your  library,  and  by  the  desk 
attendants  who  have  not  catalog  training, 
then  make  the  change,  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  considerable  time  and  labor.  And 
by  all  means  consult  the  attendants  in  the 
circulating  and  reference  departments  if 
in  doubt  as  to  the  advisability  of  making 
a  change.  They  know  how  books  are 
called  for.  They  know  how  they  them- 
selves look  for  them;  and  "see"  references 
are  irritating  when  there  is  a  line  of  im- 
patient borrowers  reaching  from  the  re- 
quest window  to  the  door. 

Such  changes  as  have  already  been  made 
in  the  catalog  of  the  Buffalo  public  library 
have  met  with  general  approval  from  the 
loan  desk.  Recitations  and  readings; 
Grammar,  English;  Spelling,  English;  Com 
instead  of  Maize;  Humor  instead  of  Wit 
and  humor;  the  transfer  of  the  subhead- 
ing Best  books  from  Bibliography  to  Books 
and  reading;  and  the  removal  of  Immigra- 
tion from  under  country,  have  received 
especial  approbation.  The  necessity  for 
the  latter  change  was  made  apparent  when 
it  was  discovered  that  the  half  dozen  cards 
under  Immigration  were  so  soiled  as  to 
be  almost  illegible,  while  those  under  U.  S. 
Immigration  bore  no  evidence  of  use; 
either  because  the  "See  also"  reference 
had  been  overlooked,  or  because  readers 


230 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


were  daunted  or  confused  by  the  complex 
arrangement  of  the  cards  under  United 
States. 

In  all  these  cases  the  new  heading  dif- 
fers from  both  the  old  A.  L.  A.  heading 
and  from  the  Library  of  Congress  head- 
ing. 

Starting  with  the  intention  of  retaining 
all  headings  upon  which  the  A.  L.  A.  list 
and  the  Library  of  Congress  were  agreed, 
I  soon  found  that  some  of  these  very 
headings  had  occasioned  the  greatest  dis- 
satisfaction. If  the  new  list  was  to  be 
acceptable  to  any  considerable  number  of 
those  who  had  taken  sufficient  interest  in 
the  subject  to  answer  Miss  Crawford's 
questions,  I  must  endeavor  to  get  closer  to 
the  point  of  view  of  the  users  of  the  cat- 
alog, rather  than  be  governed  by  theory 
or  established  precedent. 

The  Library  of  Congress  headings  are 
admittedly  devised  to  meet  conditions  in 
the  Library  of  Congress, — certainly  very 
different  conditions  from  those  of  a  public 
library.  Moreover,  the  Library  of  Congress 
headings  have  been,  and  still  are,  in  a 
state  of  development.  Many  changes  have 
been  made  in  the  last  dozen  years,  and  as 
it  is  plainly  impracticable  to  reprint  imme- 
diately all  cards  bearing  a  discarded  head- 
ing, libraries  purchasing  cards  printed  sev- 
eral years  ago  will  often  find  headings  sug- 
gested that  are  no  longer  in  use  by  the 
Library  of  Congress.  Sometimes  cards  for 
two  editions  of  the  same  book  bear  alto- 
gether different  headings. 

The  varying  headings  adopted  by  the 
departmental  libraries,  whose  cards  are 
printed  and  issued  by  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress, cause  still  further  apparent  incon- 
sistency. We  cannot  be  sure  that  any 
particular  heading  was  ever  approved  by 
the  Library  of  Congress  unless  the  card 
bears  the  Library  of  Congress  serial 
number.  The  Department  of  Education, 
for  example,  uses  Secondary  education  and 
Art  education,  while  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress uses  Education,  Secondary,  and  Art 
— Study  and  teaching.  The  Department 
of  Agriculture  has  adopted  Botany,  Agri- 
cultural; Fruit  and  fruit  trees;  and  U.  S. 


— Forestry;  while  the  Library  of  Congress 
enters  the  same  material  under  Botany, 
Economic;  Fruit  culture;  and  Forests  and 
forestry — U.  S.  Such  variations  make 
it  impossible  for  any  cataloger  using  the 
printed  cards  to  follow  blindly  the  head- 
ings suggested  thereon,  and  emphasize 
the  fact  that  no  list  of  headings  can  be 
satisfactory  to  all  kinds  of  libraries. 

Most  of  the  headings  for  the  new  A.  L. 
A.  list  were  decided  upon  before  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress  began  to  issue  its  printed 
lists.  On  comparing  the  lists  first  received, 
I  found  cases  where  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress had  changed  its  practice,  and  as 
each  instalment  was  issued  I  made  changes 
in  the  manuscript  already  prepared,  in 
order  to  bring  the  two  lists  into  closer 
agreement.  Doubtless  in  the  Library  of 
Congress  lists  yet  to  be  issued  there  will 
be  many  headings  different  from  those  in 
use  five  years  ago,  at  the  time  the  list 
which  was  my  guide  was  copied  from  the 
Library  of  Congress  catalog. 

Conformity  in  general  to  the  Library 
of  Congress  headings  was  my  aim,  and  in 
most  cases  of  doubt  the  usage  of  the 
Library  of  Congress,  if  known,  was  the 
determining  factor  in  the  decision.  But 
when,  fortified  by  the  approval  of  such 
advisers  as  were  available,  including  in 
important  cases  the  member  of  the  Pub- 
lishing Board  who  is  now  president  of  the 
American  Library  Association,  I  was  con- 
vinced that  some  other  form  of  entry 
would  be  more  helpful  to  the  users  of  a 
public  library,  I  adopted  that  form,  even 
though  inconsistent — as  in  the  treatment 
of  English  language, — or  not  altogether 
accurate — as  in  the  substitution  of  Corn 
and  Rubber  for  Maize  and  India-rubber.  I 
may  add  that  in  no  case  did  I  decide  in 
opposition  to  the  majority  of.  the  members 
of  the  advisory  committee,  though  only  a 
few  specific  headings  were  submitted  to  ' 
them. 

The  list,  being  prepared  for  moderately 
large  libraries,  contains  many  headings 
that  may  well  be  ignored  by  the  smaller 
libraries.  Not  only  are  most  of  the  sub- 
divisions   unnecessary,    but    so    also    are 


CATALOG  SECTION 


231 


many  distinctions  which  would  result  in 
separation  of  material  that  might  better 
be  kept  together  if  the  entries  are  few, 
such  as  Charity  organization,  Infants 
(Children  being  a  sufficient  entry),  Soil 
absorption.  Soil  moisture. 

The  list  is  not  intended  as  a  guide  to 
be  followed  blindly,  but  to  be  adapted  to 
individual  needs,  by  the  exercise  of  com- 
mon sense — perhaps  the  most  necessary 
part  of  a  cataloger's  equipment. 

Consideration  of  cost  and  weight  of  the 
book  necessitated  limitation  of  the  scope. 
There  was  a  strong  plea  for  the  inclusion 
of  geographical  terms,  at  least  in  cases 
of  disputed  spelling.  A  list  of  such  names 
was  prepared  by  Miss  Crawford,  with  full 
references  and  definitions.  It  was  esti- 
mated that  this  list  would  add  perhaps  one 
hundred  pages  to  the  book,  and  the  Pub- 
lishing Board  did  not  feel  that  it  was  ad- 
visable to  include  them.  Very  many  head- 
ings that  might  be  considered  as  falling 
within  the  scope  of  the  book  were  omitted 
because  their  use  would  be  infrequent, 
and  it  was  thought  better  that  the  occa- 
sional cataloger  should  write  these  head- 
ings on  the  blank  pages,  rather  than  that 
all  should  be  required  to  pay  for  an  un- 
necessarily long  and  correspondingly 
heavy  list. 

Just  a  word  in  regard  to  the  actual 
amount  of  material  in  the  book.  The  state- 
ment of  the  Publishing  Board  that  the  third 
edition  contains  about  three  times  the  ma- 
terial in  the  second  edition  has  been  ques- 
tioned on  the  score  that  the  new  edition 
is  printed  on  one  side  of  the  leaf  only. 
It  should  be  remembered,  however,  that 
only  the  printed  pages  are  numbered,  so 
that  the  list  of  headings  in  the  third  edi- 
tion occupies  397  pages,  double  column, 
while  the  second  edition  contained  but 
193  half  pages  and  12  full  pages.  That 
is,  the  printed  matter  in  the  third  edition 
occupies  nearly  four  times  the  space  filled 
in  the  second  edition.  Moreover,  the  type 
is  smaller,  so  that  the  new  page  contains 
twelve  lines  more  than  the  old  one.  There- 
fore, allowing  for  the  blank  space  occa- 
sioned by  the  disparity  of  the  lists  of  "See 


also"  and  "Refer  from"  references,  it  is 
believed  that  the  estimate  of  three  times 
the  material  of  the  second  edition  is  con- 
servative. 

The  subject  was  continued  in  a  paper 
by  Miss  MARY  W.  MACNAIR,  of  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress  on 

THE  LIBRARY  OF  CONGRESS  LIST  OF 
SUBJECT    HEADINGS 

The  list  of  subject  headings  issued  by 
the  Library  of  Congress  is  used  also,  for 
reference  and  comparison,  by  many  other 
libraries  throughout  the  country.  It  has 
been  suggested  that  a  statement  in  regard 
to  the  purpose,  scope,  and  manner  of  print- 
ing of  the  list,  might  be  useful  to  the  li- 
brarians receiving  it,  and  possibly  valuable 
as  well  to  others  who  are  interested  in  the 
undertaking,  and  who  may  be,  to  some  ex- 
tent, unfamiliar  with  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress catalog. 

The  printing  of  the  list  of  subject  head- 
ings was  begun  in  the  summer  of  1909. 
Up  to  that  time,  the  second  edition  of  the 
A.  L.  A.  subject  headings  had  been  used 
as  a  basis  for  the  subjects  assigned  in  the 
Library  of  Congress  catalog.  But  so  many 
additions  and  alterations  had  been  made 
in  our  interleaved  copies  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
list,  that  the  need  of  an  entirely  new  list 
of  headings  began  to  be  urgently  felt,  al- 
though the  difficulty  had  been  partially 
obviated  by  the  printing  of  lists  of  addi- 
tions to  the  old  A.  L.  A.  list,  for  distribu- 
tion to  the  catalogers  at  the  Library  of 
Congress.  At  this  date  the  third  edition 
of  the  A.  L.  A.  list  was  already  in  prepara- 
tion, yet  it  was  considered  wiser  to  print 
a  list  of  the  Library  of  Congress  headings, 
rather  than  to  cooperate  in  the  A.  L.  A. 
undertaking,  as  the  headings  needed  in 
our  catalog  differed  to  such  an  extent 
from  those  required  for  the  average  public 
library. 

The  distribution  of  the  list  to  other  li- 
braries was  not,  at  first,  contemplated. 
The  printing  of  the  subject  headings  was 
undertaken  to  facilitate  the  work  of  the 
catalogers  in  the  Library  of  Congress,  and 
it  was  believed  that,  if  supplied  to  other 
libraries  in  its  preliminary  form,  the  list 


232 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


would  give  rise  to  many  queries  in  regard 
to  unavoidable  omissions  and  inconsisten- 
cies. It  had  not  progressed  far,  however, 
before  many  libraries  intimated  that  it 
would  be  useful  to  them  to  receive  the 
letters  as  they  were  issued,  and  when 
requests  became  too  urgent  for  refusal, 
it  was  decided  to  supply  copies  at  a  price 
insuring  that  only  those  libraries  should 
order  them  which  had  serious  use  for  them. 
It  was  considered  that  50  copies  for  dis- 
tribution outside  the  Library  of  Congress 
would  surely  be  sufficient,  but  it  turned 
out  that  the  estimate  was  too  small,  and, 
in  consequence,  there  has  had  to  be  much 
reprinting  of  the  early  letters  of  the  alpha- 
bet. The  edition  of  the  letter  P,  just 
issued,  was  500  copies. 

The  scope  of  the  list  of  headings  is 
largely  inclusive  in  its  character,  covering 
subjects  in  all  branches  of  knowledge  as 
far  as  they  have  been  adopted  in  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress  catalog.  The  names  of 
persons  and  places  are,  however,  omitted, 
also  names  of  societies,  institutions,  and 
bodies  of  various  kinds,  names  of  treaties 
and  conventions,  and  systematic  names  of 
genera  and  species  in  botany  and  zoology. 

The  classes  theology,  and  military  and 
naval  science  are  only  partially  represented 
in  the  list,  as  these  sections  are  not  yet 
recataloged.  The  classes  language,  litera- 
ture, and  philology,  which  are  now  in  the 
process  of  recataloging,  are  more  fully, 
but  not  yet  wholly,  represented.  In  the 
earlier  letters  of  the  alphabet,  few  head- 
ings in  law  were  introduced  (as  it  has 
only  been  during  the  past  few  months  that 
the  law  headings  have  been  systemat- 
ically considered),  but  they  are  now  in- 
cluded in  the  list,  and  many  of  those 
omitted  in  the  earlier  letters  are  being 
entered  in  the  lists  of  additions  to  the  sub- 
ject headings  issued  in  connection  with  the 
main  list. 

We  include  in  the  list  the  more  impor- 
tant subdivisions  under  a  subject.  These 
subdivisions  are  printed  in  italics,  and 
separated  from  the  main  subject  by  a  dash. 
One  point  to  which  I  would  especially  call 
the  attention  of  librarians  using  the  list 


is  that  ordinarily  only  those  subdivisions 
are  printed  under  a  subject  which  are  dis- 
tinctive, or  peculiar  to  that  subject.  Gen- 
eral form  subdivisions,  such  as  Directories, 
Periodicals,  Societies,  etc.,  which  may 
properly  be  used  under  any  subject  re- 
quiring them,  are,  as  a  rule,  omitted  from 
the  list.  (A  list  of  these  form  subdi- 
visions can  be  found  on  p.  19  of  the 
"Preliminary  list  of  subject  subdivisions," 
issued  by  the  library  in  1910.)  Under 
names  of  countries  only  the  history  sub- 
divisions are  included. 

Turning  now  from  the  consideration  of 
the  subdivisions,  a  few  words  may  be 
useful  in  regard  to  the  cross-references 
from  subject  headings  to  related  subjects. 
In  general,  it  may  be  said  that  references 
are  made  from  the  more  inclusive  to  the 
smaller  subjects,  and  not  ordinarily  back 
from  smaller  to  larger.  We  should  refer 
from  Grain  to  Maize  and  Rye,  but  not  from 
Maize  and  Rye  back  again  to  Grain.  Where 
practicable,  references  are  made  from  the 
most  inclusive  to  somewhat  more  limited 
subjects,  and  from  these  latter  to  sub- 
jects still  more  specific,  rather  than  from 
the  inclusive  to  the  specific  subjects.  We 
refer  from  Art  to  Engraving,  from  Engrav- 
ing to  Stipple-engraving,  not  directly  from 
Art  to  Stipple-engraving.  These  general 
principles  have  been  departed  from  where 
it  has  seemed  expedient,  the  desire  being 
to  render  the  list  useful  and  practical, 
rather  than  to  make  it  adhere  too  strictly 
to  rigid  rules  of  procedure. 

The  seeming  incompleteness  of  refer- 
ences from  many  subjects,  references 
which  obviously  are  needed  to  round 
out  the  various  aspects  of  subjects  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  certain  headings  are 
not  as  yet  introduced  in  the  Library  of 
Congress  catalog.  We  have  been  very 
conservative  about  introducing  new  head- 
ings until  called  for  by  the  books  in  hand, 
judging  that  the  headings  should  be  made 
to  conform  to  the  literature,  rather  than 
the  literature  to  the  headings. 

The  printing  of  a  subject  in  antique  type 
indicates  that,  in  the  library  catalog,  the 
subject  has  country  subdivision,  as  in  Edu- 


CATALOG  SECTION 


233 


cation,  Labor  and  laboring  classes.  Insur- 
ance, etc.  It  may  be  helpful  to  add  here 
that  the  country  is  subordinated  to  the 
subject  in  our  catalog,  when  it  seems  de- 
sirable to  keep  the  material  on  a  topic 
together,  rather  than  to  distribute  it  un- 
der the  country  headings.  This  includes 
many  subjects  in  technology,  science,  art, 
and  the  social  sciences. 

The  numbers  which  follow  the  subject 
headings  indicate  where  the  material  deal- 
ing with  those  subjects  is  classified  in 
the  Library  of  Congress.  The  explanatory 
words  following  these  numbers  serve 
merely  to  guide  those  interested  in  the 
classification  scheme.  They  are  in  dif- 
ferent form  from  the  subject  headings, 
and  should  not  be  confused  with  them. 
In  the  matter  of  hyphens,  the  Century 
dictionary  has  been  used  as  an  authority. 

At  the  present  time  the  list  of  headings 
has  been  completed  through  the  letter  P. 
Q  and  R  are  now  ready  for  the  press,  and 
will  probably  be  issued  in  the  course  of 
a  few  weeks.  The  editor  of  the  list  some- 
times feels  it  to  be  a  cause  for  gratitude 
that  the  English  alphabet  is  composed  of 
only  26  letters.  Should  it  contain  as  many 
letters  as  some  other  alphabets,  the  San- 
skrit for  example,  the  day  of  completion 
of  the  list  might  indeed  be  far  away. 

A  few  words  in  regard  to  the  printing 
of  the  lists  known  as  "Additions  and  cor- 
rections" will,  I  think,  be  needed  for  a 
full  understanding  of  the  subject  headings. 
I  have  already  spoken  of  the  lists  of  ad- 
ditions issued  in  connection  with  the  old 
A.  L.  A.  list,  before  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress list  of  headings  began  to  be  printed. 
When  letter  A  of  our  new  list  was  ready 
for  press,  there  had  been  four  of  these 
lists  issued,  the  additions  being  cumulated 
in  each  successive  number.  The  correc- 
tions in  the  lists  appeared  but  once,  and 
were  carried  over  by  the  catalogers  to 
copies  of  the  A.  L.  A.  list.  The  headings 
In  these  early  supplementary  lists  have, 
of  course,  been  incorporated  in  the  Library 
of  Congress  list,  as  far  as  the  letters  have 
been  printed. 
Even    after   the    new    list    was    begun. 


it  was  found  impossible  to  dispense  with 
the  "Additions  and  corrections"  lists,  as 
the  library  catalog  grew  and  expanded. 
We  have  continued  to  issue  them  from 
time  to  time,  as  occasion  has  demanded, 
and  have  included  in  them  new  headings 
in  the  section  of  the  alphabet  not  yet 
printed,  as  well  as  additions  to  the  letters 
which  have  already  appeared  in  print. 

Each  "Additions  and  corrections"  list  is 
cumulative,  as  far  as  the  additions  are 
concerned,  so  that  a  library  possessing  the 
main  list  and  the  latest  supplementary  list 
has  a  complete  record  of  all  the  Library 
of  Congress  headings  which  have  been 
printed.  As  was  the  case  in  the  lists  sup- 
plementary to  the  A.  L.  A.  headings,  the 
corrections  noted  appear  but  once,  and 
should  be  carried  over  by  catalogers  to 
the  main  list  of  subject  headings. 

The  classification  numbers,  and  cross 
references  to  related  subjects,  known  as 
the  "See  also"  references,  are  not  in- 
cluded in  the  supplementary  lists.  Direct 
"See"  references  from  one  subject  to  an- 
other, or  from  one  form  of  name  to  an- 
other, are,  however,  usually  included,  that 
the  cataloger  may  avoid  the  pitfalls  lurk- 
ing for  the  unwary. 

Including  the  early  supplementary  lists, 
there  have  been,  up  to  the  present  time, 
eight  lists  of  "Additions  and  corrections" 
issued,  and  number  9  is  ready  for  the  press. 
Having  now  touched  upon  some  general 
features  in  regard  to  the  issuing  of  the  list 
of  subject  headings,  with  its  supplement- 
ary lists,  I  will  conclude  with  a  word  as  to 
a  later  and  fuller  edition.  The  list  now 
being  issued  is  a  preliminary  list,  printed 
as  manuscript,  and,  to  some  extent,  ex- 
perimental in  its  nature.  While  it  is  be- 
ing made  as  complete  and  inclusive  as 
present  conditions  seem  to  warrant,  the 
intention  has  been  to  reissue  it  later  in 
book  form,  wider  in  its  scope  and  more 
inclusive  in  its  references.  Concerning 
the  date  of  issue  of  the  fuller  edition, 
should  this  desired  consummation  be 
brought  about,  it  is  impossible  at  this  time 
to  make  a  statement.  Probably  it  will 
be  best  to  wait  until  the  remaining  classes 


234 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


of  books  in  the  library  are  reclassified  and 
recataloged,  before  any  definite  decision 
as  to  date  is  reached. 

It  has  been  suggested  that  the  next  edi- 
tion of  the  list  might  be  put  into  loose-leaf 
form,  with  a  view  to  keeping  it  to  date 
by  inserting  new  leaves,  when  necessary, 
in  place  of  old  ones.  Experiments  may  be 
tried  along  this  line,  and  the  relative  mer- 
its of  the  various  loose-leaf  binders  in- 
vestigated. The  advocate  of  this  plan  sug- 
gests that  the  linotype  slugs  be  kept  stand- 
ing, and  that  once  a  month  the  sheets  on 
which  changes  have  been  made  be  re- 
printed, and  distributed  to  the  catalogers 
at  the  Library  of  Congress,  and  to  sub- 
scribers to  the  list. 

The  subject  matter  of  a  later  list  would 
doubtless  agree  with  the  present  list  in 
general  features,  but  some  minor  changes 
might  be  found  to  be  desirable.  One  point 
to  which  our  attention  has  been  called  Is 
the  possible  advantage  of  entering  sub- 
jects in  zoology  and  botany  in  the  plural 
form  rather  than  in  the  singular,  as  most 
of  them  have  been  entered  in  the  present 
list.  Another  matter  which  merits  con- 
sideration is  the  substitution  of  subdi- 
vided headings  for  the  inverted  forms  now 
in  use  in  certain  classes  of  subjects,  as 
in  the  headings  Oxygen,  Physiological  ef- 
fect of,  and  Man,  Origin  of.  Some  other 
questions  to  be  considered  are  as  to 
whether  it  would  be  advisable  to  distin- 
guish in  the  list  those  subjects  which  are 
divided  by  country  and  then  by  city,  from 
the  subjects  which  have  direct  local  sub- 
division; whether  certain  classes  of  head- 
ings now  included  could  be  advantageously 
dispensed  with;  and  whether  the  main  sub- 
divisions of  the  animal  and  vegetable  king- 
doms are  a  valuable  feature  of  the  list. 

Doubtless  other  matters  will  suggest 
themselves  for  consideration  as  time  goes 
on,  and  we  shall  hope  eventually  to  pub- 
lish a  list  which  may  commend  itself  as  a 
valuable  tool  to  library  workers.  Borrow- 
ing the  words  of  Mr.  Charles  A.  Cutter 
in  the  preface  to  his  "Rules  for  a  diction- 
ary catalogue"  we  may  say  with  him: 
"It  is  to  be  expected  that  a  first  attempt 


will  be  incomplete,  and  we  shall  be  obliged 
to  librarians  for  criticisms,  objections,  or 
new  problems,  with  or  without  solutions." 
It  had  been  hoped  that  Mr.  J.  C.  M.  Han- 
son would  personally  supplement  this  pa- 
per by  an  informal  account  of  the  early 
practice  and  experimentation  of  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress.  In  his  unavoidable 
absence,  brief  extracts  from  a  personal 
letter  were  read  by  Miss  Thompson,  who 
then  called  upon  DR.  E.  C.  RICHARDSON, 
librarian  of  Princeton  university,  to  open 
the  discussion  with  some  previously  pre- 
pared notes  on 

FUNDAMENTAL  PRINCIPLES  OF 
CATALOGING 

This  discussion  by  the  direction  of 
proper  authority  is  a  discussion  of  the 
alphabetic  subject  catalog  as  suggested 
by  the  A.  L.  A.  and  Library  of  Congress 
subject  heads.  It  is  confined  to  general 
principles  and  general  principles,  of  course, 
always  have  exceptions.  This  discussion 
is,  however,  free  in  considering  these  so 
far  as  it  pleases. 

Some  of  the  fundamental  principles  may 
seem  more  like  rules  than  principles  at 
first  sight  but  it  is  believed  that  they  are 
all  well  principled.  However,  it  is  not 
pretended  that  they  are  all  the  principles 
In  sight;  quite  the  contrary,  there  is  quite 
a  pocket-full  of  these  left  each  with  the 
memorandum  of  some  principle,  big  or 
little,  and  there  are  but  twenty-one  here 
enumerated.  This  being  a  discussion 
rather  than  a  systematic  paper  properly 
refers  to  matters  of  recent  personal  ex- 
perience. Since  the  first  page  of  the  new 
subject  index  contains  subjects  down  to 
the  name  "Absolute,"  there  has  been  drawn 
a  synopsis  of  all  the  subject  headings 
used  by  the  A.  L.  A.,  Library  of  Congress, 
Harvard,  Sydney,  Princeton  and  the  In- 
dexes of  the  Expansive  Classification  and 
Decimal  Classification. 

This  will  illustrate  the  variety  of  usages 
which  have  to  be  dealt  with  in  attempt- 
ing to  systematize  this  matter  so  as  to 
get  uniformity  and  may  be  regarded  as 
illustrations  of  the  principles  enumerated. 


CATALOG  SECTION 


235 


1.  A  catalog  is  a  name  list  of  concrete 
or  specific  objects  as  distinguished  from 
classes  of  objects;  a  list  of  plants  in  a 
botanical  garden,  of  mineral  specimens  in 
a  museum  or  books  in  a  library,  but  a 
list  of  kinds  of  plants,  minerals  or  books 
apart  from  concrete  specimens  is  not.  In 
the  case  of  books  such  a  list  is  a  biblio- 
graphy. The  book  catalog  is  a  directory 
or  guide  book  to  certain  concrete  books, 
the  bibliography  is  a  list  of  books  in  the 
abstract,  applying  equally  whether  its 
books  exist  in  one  place  or  another,  or 
even  if  they  no  longer  exist  at  all. 

2.  A  library  catalog  is  a  directory  or 
guide  book  to  books  for  use.  The  imme- 
diate object  to  publishers,  new  book  deal- 
ers, book  auctioneers  or  antiquarians  is 
sale,  the  object  to  the  librarian  is  use. 
This  difference  affects  both  the  form  of 
the  catalog  and  the  description  of  the 
books.  ■ 

3.  Library  catalogs  in  turn  may  be  dis- 
tinguished into  catalogs  for  the  adminis- 
tration (which  include  chiefly  accession 
catalog  and  the  shelf  list)  and  those  for 
direct  use  of  readers  (which  include  au- 
thor, subject,  title,  imprint,  etc.,  catalogs) 
— the  special  use  in  every  case  modify- 
ing the  form  of  the  catalog. 

4.  Catalogs  for  readers  differ  accord- 
ing to  the  two  needs  of  readers  which  the 
catalogs  try  to  meet.  These  needs  are 
(1)  To  find  a  given  book;  (2)  to  find  a 
book  or  group  of  books  of  a  given  char- 
acter. It  is  not  quite  exact  to  say  under 
this  second  head,  that  the  object  is  to 
find  information  on  a  given  subject  or 
topic,  for  it  may  be  that  the  object  is  to 
find  special  forms  such  as  incunabula  or 
Venetian  imprints,  association  books,  fic- 
tion, poetry,  drama,  essays,  orations,  bal- 
lads, encyclopedias,  dictionaries,  period- 
icals, classes  of  rarities,  books  on  vellum, 
etc. 

5.  The  prime  object  of  a  library  cata- 
log or  directory  to  books  for  use  resolves 
itself  into  a  matter  of  the  economy  of 
time  and  of  attention.  Where  there  are 
only  two  or  three  books  in  a  man's  library 
there  is  obviously  little  need  of  catalog. 


As  soon  as  there  are  many  the  guide  book 
is  needed.  Whether,  therefore,  the  cata- 
log is  author  or  subject,  the  controlling 
thought  in  its  making  is  the  economy  of 
attention  of  the  user. 

6.  The  alphabetic  order  is  on  the  whole 
the  quickest  reference  order.  The  eco- 
nomic solution  for  these  two  needs  proves, 
therefore,  to  be,  the  two  alphabetical  cat- 
alogs (1)  the  author  and  title  catalog,  (2) 
the  alphabetical  subject  catalog.  Title  cat- 
alogs and  the  like  are  simply  supplement- 
ary practical  devices  to  aid  inexperienced 
or  forgetful  readers. 

The  author  and  title  catalog  is  distin- 
guished from  the  author  and  catch-word 
catalog  by  the  entry  of  anonymous  titles 
under  the  first  word  rather  than  under  the 
most  significant  word. 

6b.  Following  a  natural  evolution,  the 
systematic  library  catalog  and  the  alpha- 
betical classed  catalog  are  practically  ex- 
tinct species,  overwhelmed  in  the  strug- 
gle for  existence  by  the  alphabetical  sub- 
ject catalog's  quick  and  ready  reference. 
This  economy  is,  to  be  sure,  effected  for 
the  average  use,  at  a  very  great  expense 
to  the  use  of  a  good  many  readers  who 
wish  to  consider  all  related  aspects  of  a 
topic,  but  with  the  growing  habit  of  clas- 
sification of  libraries,  there  is  in  fact  a 
handy  substitute,  for  these  readers,  in  the 
classification,  its  index,  and  the  shelf  list. 
The  alphabet  subject  catalog  has  thus  be- 
come the  recognized  sole  form  of  subject 
catalog  for  users  in  general. 

7.  The  nature  and  origin  of  the  alpha- 
betical subject  catalog  is  the  same  as  that 
of  the  alphabetical  encyclopedia,  the  al- 
phabetical index  to  books  and  alphabetical 
index  to  a  system  of  classification.  Its 
rules  and  applications  may,  therefore,  be 
guided  by  experience  and  practice  in  these 
three  fields  as  well  as  direct  experience 
in  the  alphabetical  subject  catalog. 

8.  Habit  being  a  chief  factor  in  quick 
reference,  it  is  important  that  the  name  of 
the  subject  should  be  that  of  common 
usage.  By  this  is  not  meant  necessarily  the 
use  of  the  common  people,  but  the  form 

generally  used  in  book  indexes,  encyclope- 


236 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


dies,  and  library  classifications.  It  is 
greatly  to  be  desired  that  all  encyclopedias, 
classifications,  indexes  and  alphabetical 
subject  catalogs  should  use  just  the  same 
terms — the  same  form  among  synonyms, 
the  same  practice  as  to  singular  or  plural, 
adjectives  or  substantive  entry. 

9.  At  least  the  names  of  the  subjects 
in  the  alphabetical  subject  catalog  should 
be  identical  with  those  of  the  alphabetical 
index  to  the  systematic  catalog  if  there  is 
any  or  the  classification  of  its  own  library. 

10.  Whatever  names  are  used  must  be 
clearly  defined.  This  is  the  first  princi- 
ple of  subject  cataloging,  whether  the  ar- 
rangement is  alphabetical  or  systematic, 
that  the  subject  word  shall  be  so  clearly 
defined  that  there  Is  no  mistaking  what 
is  to  go  under  It.  It  is  hard  to  lay  too 
much  stress  on  this  matter.  It  is  the 
Alpha  and  Omega  of  subject  cataloging  of 
every  sort,  besides  which  even  uniform 
names  and  the  question  of  arrangement 
are  quite  secondary. 

11.  In  choosing  the  names  for  classes, 
the  most  specific  should  be  used.  This  is 
a  very  important  aid  indeed  to  clear  defi- 
nition. The  only  objection  is  the  split- 
ting of  kindred  subjects — the  same  idea 
which  leads  to  the  alphabetical  classed  or 
systematic  catalog. 

Many  cautions  are  issued  warning 
against  being  too  specific — some  well 
founded,  but  the  danger  lies  almost  wholly 
in  the  other  direction.  There  may  be  a 
limit  but  the  principle  is  one  of  the  clear- 
est and  most  important  in  the  whole  mat- 
ter and  even  the  encyclopedias — even  the 
Britannica  itself — are  getting  further  and 
further  away  from  the  old  Britannica  type. 

12.  The  names  of  subjects  so  far  as 
they  are  identical  with  author  catalog  en- 
tries should  be  determined  by  the  same 
rules  as  in  the  author  catalog.  This  is 
another  important  aid  to  uniform  names 
which  should  be  strictly  insisted  on. 

13.  The  alphabetical  subject  catalog 
should  have  a  classed  index,  as  the  classed 
catalog  or  the  shelf  list  must  have  an  al- 
phabetical index.  Note  that  the  index 
to  the  new  Britannica  by  its  alphabetical 


index  recognizes  itself  as  an  alphabetical 
classed  encyclopedia  rather  than  an  alpha- 
betical subject  encyclopedia.  Note  also 
that  it  has  the  systematic  index — the  idea 
which  in  the  end  must  be  applied  to  every 
alphabetical  subject  catalog  and  which 
will  be  fully  served  automatically  if  the 
names  of  the  classification  index  are  iden- 
tical with  the  subject  headings  and  the 
class  number  attached  to  each  of  the  sub- 
ject catalog  headings. 

14.  Sub-headings  and  sub-sub-headings 
should  be  alphabetically  arranged.  They 
should  not  be  systematic  or  chronological. 

15.  Sub-headings  should  be  chosen  by 
the  same  rules  and  principles  as  main 
headings  and  thus  make  a  duplicate  list. 
There  may  be  practical  limits  to  this  but 
principle  is  clear. 

16.  The  arrangements  of  titles  under 
main  subject  or  sub-headings  need  not 
be  alphabetical.  Much  is  to  be  said  for 
the  chronological  order  of  authorship  or 
publication,  but  almost  the  only  use  for 
alphabetical  arrangement  by  authors  un- 
der heading  is  a  poor  duplication  of  author 
catalog  use.  It  might  be  a  real  advantage 
to  break  the  bad  habit  of  using  subject 
catalog  for  author  purposes  and  on  the 
other  hand,  the  chronological  arrangement 
of  titles  in  the  vast  number  of  cases  would 
save  turning  all  the  cards  as  required  in 
the  alphabetical  order.  Nevertheless  the 
alphabetical  is  now  the  common  method. 

17.  Complex  books  may  be  analyzed  for 
the  subject  catalog.  This  is  the  distinc- 
tive advantage  of  the  subject  catalog  over 
the  shelf  list  that  it  can  put  different  arti- 
cles in  the  same  volume  or  various  sub- 
jects involved  in  one  title  under  all  their 
effective  headings.  It  is  obvious,  however, 
that  this  principle  must  be  limited — to  ap- 
ply in  a  wooden  way  would  involve  all 
periodicals  and  essays,  a  rock  on  which 
more  than  one  attempt  at  subject  catalog- 
ing has  been  wrecked. 

18.  The  subject  catalog  should  not  be 
overloaded  with  references.  The  princi- 
ple of  economy  of  attention  requires  this. 
Few  things  are  more  aggravating  in  work- 
ing under  subjects  than  to  have  to  finger 


CATALOG  SECTION 


237 


over  a  large  number  of  irrelevant  cards. 
Some  of  the  remedies  for  this  are  sub- 
division, the  arrangement  in  chronological 
order  of  publication  as  above  suggested, 
limiting  analysis  by  excluding  all  works 
analyzed  in  accessible  indexes  and,  where 
there  is  more  than  one  edition  of  the  same 
work,  indicating  one  only  and  referring 
to  the  author  catalog  for  the  others. 

19.  The  card  should  not  be  overloaded 
with  details.  The  principle  of  economy  of 
attention  involves  reducing  the  amount  of 
material  in  a  title  to  its  lowest  terms 
(whether  on  card  or  printed  book)  a  mat- 
ter greatly  helped  by  typographical  dis- 
tinctions or  corresponding  distinction  in 
the  breaking  of  written  lines,  the  location 
of  certain  details  on  certain  lines  or  cer- 
tain fixed  places  on  the  card,  the  use  of 
red  ink,  underscoring,  and  similar  details 
enabling  the  user  to  get  the  essential  facts 
as  to  the  identity  of  the  work  and  its 
location  in  the  building  in  the  shortest 
possible  time. 

20.  The  indications  on  the  cards  of 
either  catalog  should  be  as  brief  as  may 
consist  with  clearness  and  so  displayed 
on  the  card  as  to  catch  the  eye-  quickly. 

21.  Subject  cataloging  is  a  practical  art, 
not  a  science.  Names  will  be  changed 
from  time  to  time  and  a  part  of  the  art 
is  therefore  to  develop  a  method  of  record 
on  cards  which  shall  cost  the  least  possible 
effort  for  making  changes. 

Dr.  G.  E.  Wire,  of  Worcester,  continued 
the  discussion  of  subject  headings,  with 
special  reference  to  medical  headings  in 
the  third  edition  of  the  A.  L.  A.  List  of 
subject  headings. 

Dr.  Wire  said  a  lack  of  knowledge  of 
medical  and  surgical  terms  had  led  the 
compilers  of  nearly  all  the  library  cata- 
logs into  using  erroneous  headings, 
"Sees"  and  "See  alsos"  and  that  these  er- 
rors had  been  continued  in  the  third  edi- 
tion of  A.  L.  A.  subject  headings. 

A  cataloger  of  good  preliminary  educa- 
tion, with  experience  gained  in  a  large  li- 
brary, and  with  the  opportunities  to  be 
found  in  a  large  library,  college,  reference 
or  circulating,  of  consulting  books,  or  peo- 


ple or  both,  can  in  time  produce  a  fairly 
logical  system  of  "Sees  alsos"  and  "Sees," 
and  subject  headings  in  almost  any  sub- 
ject except  medicine. 

Among  the  changes  suggested  by  Dr. 
Wire  are  the  following: 

Abdomen.  The  rational  references  and 
cross  references  are: 

See  also.  Intestines,  Viscera. 

Cross  reference  should  be  simply  Vis- 
cera. 

Anatomy.  Why  refer  to  Glands  and  not 
to  Liver,  the  biggest  gland  in  the  body? 
Why  to  Chest  and  not  to  Lungs?  Autopsy 
should  not  be  referred  to;  that  reference 
should  come  from  Pathology. 

Appendicitis.  This  is  a  surgical  disease 
and  should  be  put  under  Surgery,  Prac- 
tice of,  instead  of  Medicine,  Practice  of. 

Contagion  and  contagious  diseases. 
Contagion  and  Infection  seem  to  be  con- 
fused. We  are  referred  from  Infection  to 
Contagion  as  if  they  were  synonomous 
terms. 

Homeopatliy.  "See  also  Medicine" 
should  be  used  for  polemical  treatises 
only.  These  headings  show  a  bias  against 
Homeopathy  which  is  common  in  some 
classifications. 

Hygieefe.  Has  54  "See  alsos,"  most  of 
which  are  fair  but  one-half  of  them  could 
be  omitted  to  the  bettering  and  clearing 
of  the  list. 

Hygiene,  Public.  This  is  better  on  the 
whole  than  Hygiene  (plain),  more  con- 
sistent and  logical  in  their  references  and 
cross  references,  thus  confirming  our  con- 
tention that  it  is  from  lack  of  medical  and 
surgical  knowledge  that  these  lapses  oc- 
cur. 

Medicine.  I  should  omit  the  following 
special  headings,  leaving  only  the  general: 
Allopathy;  Anatomy;  Anaesthetics;  An- 
tiseptics; Autopsy;  Bacteriology;  Den- 
tistry; Diagnosis;  Histology;  Homeop- 
athy; Hospitals;  Inoculation;  Narcotics; 
Pathology;  Pharmacy;  Physiology;  Stim- 
ulants; Surgery;  Therapeutics;  Vaccina- 
tion. 

From  Medicine,  Practice  of,  I  should 
omit  all  the  surgical  headings  as  follows: 


238 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Appendicitis;  Bones,  Diseases;  Cancer; 
Erysipelas;  Eye,  Diseases  and  Defects; 
Obstetrics;    Surgery;    Tumors. 

Dr.  Wire  recommended  that  a  medical 
mind  with  suitable  library  training  should 
have  been  consulted  about  these  headings 
before  a  final  printing. 

Miss  Anna  M.  Monrad,  of  Yale  univer- 
sity library,  outlined  the  principles  and 
scheme  of  subject  headings  for  philology 
and  literature  applied  in  the  catalog  of 
Yale  university  library. 

SECOND  SESSION 
(Friday,  June  28,  8:15  p.  m.) 

The  second  session  of  the  Catalog 
section  was  held  in  the  ballroom  of  the 
Chateau  Laurier  on  the  evening  of  Fri- 
day, June  28,  Miss  Thompson  presiding. 

Mr.  Keogh,  Miss  Van  Valkenburgh  and 
Miss  Mann  were  appointed  by  the  chair- 
man as  nominating  committee. 

The  first  paper  was  by  Miss  ONO 
MARY  IMHOFF  of  the  Wisconsin  legisla- 
tive reference  library,  on 

CATALOGING     IN     LEGISLATIVE 
REFERENCE    WORK 

The  state  which  studies  the  laws  and 
experience  of  other  states  and  countries 
in  order  to  bring  to  its  own  statute  books 
the  best  features  of  each,  combined  with 
the  results  of  original  work,  confronts  a 
problem  of  no  small  dimensions.  The 
mass  of  laws  put  forth  by  the  forty-eight 
states  of  this  country  is  so  overwhelming 
that  it  is  practically  impossible  for  one 
man  thoroughly  to  comprehend  their  mer- 
its and  disadvantages.  The  legislative 
reference  library,  therefore,  must  be  of 
service  in  helping  to  select  that  which  Is 
worthy  of  imitation,  at  the  same  time  dis- 
carding the  impractical  features. 

The  reasons  for  .the  success  or  failure 
of  such  laws,  and  the  differences  in 
economic  or  local  conditions  in  two  com- 
munities must  always  receive  serious  con- 
sideration by  those  who  are  endeavoring 
to  meet  the  advancing  economic  demands 
for  properly  constructed  and  better  laws. 


The  comparative  element  of  this  vast  ac- 
cumulation of  material  must  always  be 
remembered,  not  only  in  the  care,  but  also 
in  the  gathering  of  material,  if  the  library 
is  to  serve  its  highest  purpose. 

Because  of  this  and  other  well  known 
characteristics  of  a  library  of  this  type, 
the  demands  are  of  a  peculiar  nature  and 
cannot  be  met  by  the  ordinary  library 
material  treated  in  the  usual  library 
method.  It  is  more  or  less  of  a  quasi- 
library,  requiring  an  adaptation  of  library 
processes  to  a  combination  of  office  and 
library  work.  As  a  result  of  this  differ- 
ence, the  general  library  rules  for  catalog- 
ing must  be  decidedly  modified.  One  is 
justified  in  making  the  catalog  of  such 
a  library  a  law  unto  itself,  for  each  and 
every  one  of  its  class  has  its  own  partic- 
ular problems,  environment  and  limita- 
tions, which  will  probably  be  met  in  its 
own  particular  way. 

Since  the  problem  becomes  so  largely 
one  of  individuality  and  circumstances,  it 
might  be  well  to  consider  for  a  moment 
some  of  the  essential  differences  in  pur- 
pose and  treatment  of  material,  and  to 
realize  the  desirable  points  to  be  attained 
as  well  as  the  non-essentials,  or  things 
actually  to  be  avoided. 

The  processes  and  methods  of  this  kind 
of  a  library  must  in  their  nature  be  con- 
ducive to  rapidity  and  conciseness  of  serv- 
ice. Time  saving  devices  are  unusually 
important,  not  only  in  the  acquisition  of 
material  and  the  actual  technical  work, 
but  in  the  delivery  of  material.  The 
speedy  availability  of  the  most  serious 
treatises  on  the  most  profound  subjects 
is  absolutely  necessary.  Between  ses- 
sions many,  many  hours  of  the  most  ear- 
nest and  serious  efforts  must  be  spent  in 
investigation,  study  and  research  in 
order  to  relieve  the  pressure  of  heavy  re- 
search work  as  much  as  possible  during 
the  session. 

The  library  deals  with  business  men 
who  are  seeking  an  answer  to  some  spe- 
cial need.  They  have  a  definite  reason 
for  seeking  the  information  and  a  definite 
point  of  view  and  they  expect  the  library 


CATALOG  SECTION 


to  answer  their  questions  in  a  business- 
like manner.  Too  much  emphasis  cannot 
be  placed  upon  efficiency  of  service  as 
shown  through  rapidity  of  service.  The 
legislator  is  a  busy  man  and  any  time 
saved  through  devices  which  quicken  de- 
livery of  material,  or  shorten  the  time 
devoted  by  the  patron  himself,  is  well 
worth  while.  If  two  hours  is  necessary 
on  the  part  of  the  library  worker  between 
sessions  to  put  material  into  such  shape 
that  it  may  be  delivered  ten  minutes 
sooner  during  the  legislative  session,  it 
should  be  given  cheerfully. 

Condensations,  digests,  and  briefs  may 
be  prepared  during  the  interval  between 
sessions  which  will  save  hours  of  time 
during  the  actual  high  pressure  season 
of  the  session  itself.  Any  sort  of  short- 
cut brought  about  by  analyticals,  or  any 
other  devices  known  to  the  cataloger, 
should  be  used.  Shrewdness  of  judgment 
and  a  general  discrimination  as  to  what 
is  really  valuable  is  not  only  highly  de- 
sirable but  absolutely  essential. 

Since  time  is  such  an  important  ele- 
ment. It  might  be  well  to  call  attention  to 
the  fact,  that  the  legislative  reference 
library  may  be  adequately  maintained 
without  many  of  the  records  which  are 
favored  in  libraries  in  general.  Do  away 
with  as  much  "red  tape"  as  possible. 
Simplicity  of  material,  simplicity  in  serv- 
ice, simplicity  in  the  whole  department 
is  to  be  commended  above  almost  any 
other  one  characteristic.  Among  those 
records  which  can  be  abandoned  with 
perfect  propriety  in  such  a  department, 
are  the  accession  book,  gift  book  and 
withdrawal  book.  So  much  of  the  mate- 
rial is  ephemeral  in  its  value  that  the  cost 
of  maintenance  outweighs  the  value  re- 
ceived in  actual  results.  The  serial  list 
may  be  exceedingly  simple.  Records  of 
the  number  of  books  cataloged,  or  circu- 
lation statistics  are  of  very  doubtful  value 
in  this  work. 

Since  the  loss  of  material  is  inevitably 
rather  large,  an  inventory  is  almost  essen- 
tial. However,  material  is  easily  re- 
placed, much  of  it  is  free  and  because  of 


this  fact,  a  biennial  inventory  will  prove 
satisfactory  in  most  cases.  There  is  no 
need  of  a  complicated  charging  system. 
In  truth,  establish  no  records  of  any  kind 
within  the  library  until  convinced  that 
its  efficiency  will  be  hampered  without 
them.  Emphasis  is  put  upon  this  point, 
because  of  the  fact  that  all  legislative 
reference  departments  have  small  appro- 
priations in  the  beginning,  and  it  is  dur- 
ing this  early  period  that  the  library  must 
justify  its  existence  by  showing  results 
in  active  service  rather  than  in  catalogs 
and  records.  At  first  there  are  never 
enough  assistants  to  do  both  efficiently. 
Therefore,  let  the  tendencies  be  toward 
those  things  which  will  bring  into  evi- 
dence vital  things  rather  than  mere  good 
housekeeping. 

It  might  be  well  to  state  that  the  term 
"catalog"  will  be  used  in  the  broadest 
possible  sense.  The  definition  of  the  term 
as  it  will  be  used  in  this  paper,  might  be 
given  as  "a  record  of  sources  and  of  ma- 
terial," and  not  merely  a  record  of  mate- 
rial to  be  found  upon  the  shelves  of  any 
one  library  or  institution. 

The  catalog  should  be  kept  as  simple 
as  possible  in  its  essentials.  Conciseness 
of  title,  brevity  of  treatment,  and  above 
all  clearness,  must  always  be  borne  in 
mind.  Sacrifice  library  school  rules  if 
necessary.  Let  there  be  no  hesitation  in 
enlarging  or  changing  the  title  if  by  so 
doing  greater  clearness  is  gained.  It 
must  be  remembered  always  that  the 
catalog  is  made  not  for  librarians  with 
technical  knowledge,  but  for  men  whose 
use  of  it  will  be  that  of  an  untrained  stu- 
dent. Let  it  be  such  that  your  constitu- 
ency may  use  it  without  help.  Be  exceed- 
ingly generous  with  notes,  never  failing 
in  the  case  of  bills  to  show  whether  such 
bills  became  laws  or  failed  in  passage.  If 
a  bill  became  a  law,  give  the  citation.  If 
reports  or  cases  are  known  by  special 
names,  be  sure  to  note  that  fact.  Let 
there  be  no  ambiguity  either  in  title,  sub- 
ject or  note.  Annotations  as  to  the  sub- 
stance of  material  are  also  highly  desir- 
able, particularly  when  they  show  whether 


240 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


a  given  article  is  favorable  or  antagonis- 
tic, or  state  the  reliability  of  the  author 
concerned. 

The  material  itself  falls  into  three  dis- 
tinct classes  which  influence  the  catalog- 
ing treatment;  books,  pamphlets,  and 
clippings.  The  books  and  pamphlets 
show  comparatively  little  variation  from 
regular  cataloging  methods.  Clippings 
in  the  Wisconsin  legislative  reference 
department  are  mounted  upon  manila 
sheets,  eight  by  ten,  arranged  chronolog- 
ically under  classification  number,  marked 
with  a  book  number  Z  and  treated  as  a 
single  pamphlet.  They  have  no  author 
card,  being  entered  merely  under  the 
subject-heading  necessary,  with  the  au- 
thor line  left  blank.  This  procedure  is 
convenient  in  some  other  cases,  such  as 
certain  extracts  from  the  Congressional 
record,  containing  discussions  in  which 
various  members  take  part  and  where  it 
is  difficult  to  enter  under  any  individual 
or  even  joint  authors. 

Since  the  author  phase  of  the  catalog 
is  of  less  interest  than  the  subject  phase 
which  acquires  unusual  importance,  sec- 
ondary cards  may  be  very  .largely  omit- 
ted. Joint  author  cards  are  really  of  very 
little  service.  Series  and  title  cards  are 
the  exception  rather  than  the  rule. 
Whenever  possible  it  is  advisable  to  make 
continuation  cards  instead  of  entering 
new  compilations  or  new  editions  on  sep- 
arate cards.  In  the  case  of  continuation 
cards,  it  is  advisable  to  choose  a  brief 
title  and  pay  no  attention  to  such  varia- 
tions as  may  be  given  in  different  edi- 
tions. For  instance,  a  1907  compilation 
of  state  tax  laws  might  be  entitled, 
"Laws  relating  to  assessment  and  taxa- 
tion," and  the  1909  one  simply  "Taxation 
laws,"  and  the  1911  one  "Revenue  and 
taxation  laws."  These  may  all  be  entered 
upon  one  card  under  the  simple  title, 
"Tax  laws,"  and  the  three  volumes  added 
as  continuations.  In  short,  do  not  at- 
tempt to  show  the  exact  detail  by  means 
of  cataloging,  such  as  is  advisable  in  pub- 
lic libraries.  What  your  patron  wishes 
to    know    is    whether   you   have    the    tax 


laws  of  that  state  and  what  is  the  date 
of  their  compilation.  These  are  the  facts 
which  interest  him  and  the  number  of 
pages  or  the  particular  form  of  the  title, 
is  of  absolutely  no  value  to  him.  This  is 
a  good  example  of  that  freedom  in  con- 
densation and  changing  of  titles  which  is 
somewhat  heretical  in  its  nature,  but 
which  after  all  leads  to  that  saving  of 
time  and  patience  which  is  so  necessary. 
Use  only  such  imprint  as  is  absolutely 
essential;  omitting  on  the  whole,  illustra- 
tions, maps,  portraits,  and  plates.  In 
cases  of  excerpts  from  periodicals  the 
name  of  the  magazine  with  the  date  of 
that  particular  issue  is  usually  deemed 
sufficient. 

Because  the  ordinary  patron  of  the  leg- 
islative reference  library  is  unfamiliar 
with  library  methods,  it  has  been  found 
convenient  to  file  "see  also"  cards  at  the 
beginning  of  the  subjects  rather  than  at 
the  end.  For  this  same  reason,  the  guide 
cards  should  be  much  more  numerous  than 
in  other  libraries,  and  it  is  of  great  ad- 
vantage to  have  the  main  headings 
brought  out  upon  thirds  with  the  sub- 
divisions of  these  main  headings  on  fifths 
of  a  different  color.  Blue  and  manila 
form  a  good  color  contrast  for  such  a 
scheme. 

As  has  been  said  before,  the  compara- 
tive feature  of  this  work  is  one  which  is 
worthy  of  special  consideration.  Its  value 
can  scarcely  be  over-estimated.  The  effi- 
ciency of  the  library  can  be  greatly  in- 
creased by  a  constant  lookout  for  such 
material.  Every  book,  pamphlet  or  clip- 
ping, passing  through  the  hands  of  the 
cataloger  must  be  most  carefully  re- 
viewed, not  only  for  its  general  material, 
but  for  any  comparative  statement  which 
shows  either  conditions,  laws,  or  tenden- 
cies in  two  or  more  communities,  states, 
or  countries.  It  may  take  form  as  a  tab- 
ulated statement,  a  chapter,  a  paragraph, 
or  even  a  mere  foot-note,  but  at  some 
future  time  it  may  serve  as  a  starting 
point  for  an  investigation,  or  give  instan- 
taneous help  in  the  question  as  to  "what 
states  or  countries  have  laws  similar  to 


CATALOG  SECTION 


241 


this."  The  advisability  of  listing  such 
comparative  material  in  a  separate  cat- 
alog must  be  determined  by  each  library. 
When  it  is  buried  in  the  regular  catalog 
it  requires  much  longer  to  answer  such 
questions  than  when  kept  in  a  separate 
file.  If  made  into  a  catalog  by  itself, 
there  should  always  be  a  note  showing 
exactly  what  states  or  countries  are  in- 
cluded in  the  comparison  and  the  dates 
covered  by  such  material.  In  other  words 
the  comparative  entry  must  be  justified 
either  by  the  title  or  a  note  showing  that 
it  really  is  a  comparison.  Probably  two- 
thirds  of  such  material  is  analytical  in 
character. 

The  question  of  analyticals  will  be 
greatly  influenced  by  the  subject  matter 
under  consideration.  Upon  certain  sub- 
jects there  are  practically  no  book  treat- 
ises, and  most  of  the  material  will  be 
found  in  the  form  of  analyticals.  The 
amount  to  be  analyzed,  the  choice  of  form 
and  the  relative  value  of  the  material 
concerned  must  be  determined  by  shrewd 
judgment  on  the  part  of  the  cataloger. 
The  entire  library  will  be  greatly  en- 
hanced by  a  careful  selection  of  analyti- 
cals, but  the  bulk  of  the  catalog  must  not 
be  increased  unless  with  good  reason. 

The  percentage  of  analyticals  will  be  in 
most  cases  much  higher  than  in  the  or- 
dinary library,  because  so  often  a  few 
pages  are  worthy  of  special  notice  on  ac- 
count of  their  comparative  nature,  the 
particular  view  point  of  the  author,  or 
sometimes  merely  because  of  the  scarcity 
of  material  on  that  subject.  As  to  the 
cataloging  form  for  analyticals,  there  is 
no  reason  why  it  should  not  follow  the 
general  rules  of  the  library  as  a  whole. 
My  own  preference  is  for  the  long  form, 
because  oftentimes  the  short  form  is  not 
perfectly  clear  to  the  legislator.  Al- 
though advocating  simplicity,  as  a  gen- 
eral thing,  it  should  not  require  clearness 
to  be  sacrificed  at  any  time.  There  is 
room  for  discussion  on  this  point  and 
there  is  difference  of  opinion,  but  my 
conclusion  in  the  matter  has  been  reached 
after  some  experimentation.    A  little  more 


work  on  the  part  of  the  librarian  is  pref- 
erable to  the  slightest  bit  of  doubt  on  the 
part  of  the  legislator. 

Since  legislators  are  investigating  spe- 
cific problems,  looking  at  them  from  a 
single  point  of  view,  and  not  always  con- 
sidering a  subject  in  its  broadest  sense 
or  in  its  relationship  to  knowledge  in 
general,  the  question  of  subject  headings, 
outside  of  classification,  becomes  prac- 
tically the  most  important  single  proposi- 
tion the  cataloger  has  to  consider.  In 
practically  every  case  the  popular  rather 
than  the  technical  form  of  heading  is  de- 
sirable. The  simple  ordinary  term  should 
be  chosen,  for  it  is  under  this  type  of 
heading  that  your  reader  will  be  most 
certain  to  look.  In  his  haste  and  absorp- 
tion he  fails  to  realize  that  there  Is  any 
possible  viewpoint,  other  than  his  own. 
Having  but  one  thought  in  his  mind,  he 
naturally  expects  to  find  his  material  un- 
der this  subject.  Most  certainly  he  should 
find  at  least  a  cross  reference.  There- 
fore, one  recommendation  is  to  be  exceed- 
ingly generous  in  the  matter  of  cross 
references.  Under  such  conditions  it  is 
always  wiser  not  to  trust  one's  own  judg- 
ment, but  to  call  upon  various  people 
asking  under  what  heading  they  would 
look  for  material  of  a  certain  type.  In 
this  way  the  cataloger  may  secure  sug- 
gestions which  are  unusually  helpful  and 
which  put  into  the  catalog  the  ideas  of 
many  persons  rather  than  of  one. 

For  instance,  a  book  or  pamphlet  relat- 
ing to  the  extortion  practiced  by  usurers 
would  be  found  under  a  heading  such  as 
"Interest"  or  "Usury."  However,  there 
are  various  other  headings  under  which 
individuals  might  expect  to  find  material 
of  this  kind,  depending  upon  the  particu- 
lar phase  of  the  question  which  he  had 
in  mind  at  the  time.  A  busy  man,  wish- 
ing to  draft  a  bill  putting  the  loan  shark 
under  control,  would  be  thinking  of  a  loan 
shark  and  not  of  the  underlying  principle 
of  interest.  Another  man  approaching 
the  question  through  interest  in  the  in- 
stallment plan  would  expect  to  find  mate- 
rial   of   use    to    him   under    that    subject. 


242 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Another  man  taking  a  broader  view  of  the 
subject  might  look  under  "Interest."  Each 
of  these  men  would  be  justified  in  look- 
ing under  the  particular  subject  he  had 
in  mind,  expecting  to  find  either  the  ma- 
terial or  a  reference  sending  him  to  the 
chosen  heading.  Every  possible  heading 
which  suggests  itself  is  worthy  of  con- 
sideration, for  such  an  investment  of  time 
will  more  than  pay  for  itself  in  the  satis- 
faction it  brings  to  those  who  use  the 
catalog.  The  necessity  for  painstaking 
effort  and  careful  thought  in  this  connec- 
tion is  verified  by  experience. 

Special  and  local  names  may  well  be 
noted  on  all  main  cards  and  cross  refer- 
ences made  in  every  case  from  such 
forms.  For  instance,  the  law  governing 
the  sale  of  stocks  recently  passed  in 
Kansas,  which  is  popularly  known  as  the 
"Blue  sky  law"  should  be  noted  as  such 
in  the  catalog.  The  "Mary  Ann"  bill  may 
be  called  for  by  that  name  and  if  there 
is  no  cross  reference  in  the  catalog  the 
untrained  assistant  in  the  library,  or  the 
stenographer,  will  never  find  it.  The  me- 
chanical part  of  the  catalog  should  be  so 
complete  that  it  does  not  require  ac- 
quaintance with  all  phases  of  the  subject 
in  order  that  a  person  may  use  it  intelli- 
gently. Therefore,  special  and  local 
names  inevitably  need  attention. 

The  contents  of  a  legislative  reference 
library  are  largely  of  either  an  economic 
or  a  legal  nature,  and  its  patrons  some- 
times approach  the  material  from  the 
legal  side  and  sometimes  from  the  eco- 
nomic side.  In  assigning  subject  headings 
this  fact  must  never  be  forgotten.  Con- 
sequently, the  headings  will  sometimes 
take  a  legal  turn  and  sometimes  an 
economic  turn.  At  times  it  is  necessary 
to  compromise  and  choose  one  halfway 
between  the  two. 

Let  us  consider  for  a  moment  the  rela- 
tionship of  the  economic  and  the  legal 
material.  Justice  Holmes,  in  his  book  on 
the  "Common  law,"  expresses  this  rela- 
tionship unusually  well.  He  says  in  sub- 
stance that  the  growth  of  the  law  is 
legislative;  it  is  legislative  in  its  grounds; 


that  the  secret  root  from  which  law  draws 
all  the  juices  of  life  is  consideration  of 
what  is  expedient  for  the  community. 

The  economic  necessity  for  law  pre- 
cedes the  legal  expression.  The  need  for 
a  statute  is  felt  long  before  it  is  formu- 
lated. This  is  readily  recognized  by  polit- 
ical economists  and  lawyers.  Judge 
Dicey,  in  his  book  entitled,  "Law  and 
opinion  in  England,"  (Lond.  1905,  p.  367) 
says:  "A  statute  *  *  *  is  apt  to  re- 
produce the  public  opinion,  not  so  much 
of  to-day  as  of  yesterday."  Since  a  legis- 
lative reference  library  is  busied  with  the 
process  of  law-making,  rather  than  with 
the  administration  or  interpretation  of 
law,  the  trend  will  be  toward  the  eco- 
nomic headings  rather  than  the  legal. 
The  tendency  of  law  is  to  crystallize,  and 
subjects  legal  in  aspect  are  likely  to  be 
complete  in  themselves,  and  therefore  less 
amenable  to  library  purposes.  As  an  ex- 
ample, a  subject  heading  such  as  "Emi- 
nent domain"  is  legal  in  its  nature.  This 
will  be  used  in  the  main  body  of  the  cat- 
alog without  a  doubt.  It  may  have  cross 
references  of  both  a  legal  and  an  eco- 
nomic nature.  At  the  same  time  "Emi- 
nent domain"  may  be  used  as  a  sub- 
division of  economic  headings,  such  as 
"Railroads,"  "Street  railways,"  "Tele- 
graphs," and  "Telephones."  This  shows 
how  the  legal  aspect  of  an  economic 
question  may  be  brought  directly  in  touch 
with  the  economic  phase  of  the  question. 
Another  example  is  "Liquor  problem;"  as 
it  is  used  in  the  subject  headings,  it  is 
an  economic  question,  yet  we  use  the 
subdivision  "Illegal  traffic"  which  in- 
cludes purely  a  legal  phase.  "Discrim- 
ination," a  legal  term,  will  cross  refer  to 
some  specific  form  under  an  economic 
heading  such  as  "Railroads — Rebates." 
It  is  often  necessary  to  refer  from  some 
rather  popular  headings  to  legal  forms, 
such  as  "Funeral  expenses,  see  Estates 
of  deceased  persons."  Again  it  may  be 
necessary  to  mix  the  two  with  a  heading 
such  as  "Ethics — Business  and  profes- 
sional," with  cross  references  from  legal 
headings,   such   as   "Professional   ethics," 


CATALOG  SECTION 


243 


"Legal  ethics,"  "Medical  ethics,"  etc. 
The  general  conclusion  reached  is  that 
there  is  likely  to  be  either  subdivisions 
or  cross  references  back  and  forth  from 
any  type  of  heading  to  any  other  typ6, 
with  one  exception,  namely,  an  economic 
subdivision  of  a  legal  heading.  In  our 
experience  in  Wisconsin,  we  have  not 
found  this  combination  of  headings 
either  necessary  or  advantageous.  This 
fact  but  emphasizes  what  has  already 
been  said,  that  law  once  established,  be- 
comes permanent  and  fixed  in  character. 

Geographical  divisions  as  main  head- 
ings should  be  used  sparingly,  but  geo- 
graphical subdivisions  of  subjects  are 
very  helpful.  Primary  election  laws,  road 
laws,  tax  laws,  will  all  be  more  available 
if  divided  by  states,  not  only  in  the  classi- 
fication, but  in  the  subject  heading.  If 
clearness  or  rapidity  of  service  demand 
subdivisions,  they  should  be  made,  even 
though  there  be  few  cards  under  each 
subdivision. 

Many  helpful  suggestions  for  subject 
headings  and  cross  references  may  be  ob- 
tained from  law  indexes,  law  encyclope- 
dias, and  the  New  York  index  of  legisla- 
tion. 

Not  only  is  it  necessary  for  the  cata- 
loger  to  know  the  material  which  is  in 
the  library  itself,  but  if  efficient  work  is 
to  be  accomplished  it  is  decidedly  neces- 
sary that  material  not  within  the  four 
walls  should  be  made  available.  Let  all 
kinds  of  knowledge  be  at  the  cataloger's 
command,  and  make  the  mechanical  de- 
vices carry  as  much  of  this  burden  as 
possible.  First  of  all,  material  which  is 
in  town  but  which  is  not  contained  within 
your  own  library,  should  be  noted.  Stat- 
utes and  session  laws  of  all  the  states 
should  be  obtainable  though  not  necessar- 
ily a  part  of  the  library  itself.  If  a  state 
or  law  library  is  near  at  hand,  it  is  far 
better  to  rely  upon  them  as  a  source  of 
reference  than  to  duplicate  such  a  collec- 
tion on  your  own  shelves.  Articles  in 
law  magazines,  reports  large  in  bulk,  but 
issued  only  occasionally,  may  be  noted, 
when   not   placed  upon   the   shelves.     In 


Wisconsin  we  make  a  distinction  between 
material  in  existence  within  the  city  and 
that  which  is  in  existence  elsewhere,  such 
as  in  the  Library  of  Congress,  the  John 
Crerar  library,  or  near-by  institutions.  A 
manila  catalog  card  tells  us  that  the  ma- 
terial may  be  found  outside  of  the  city, 
whereas  by  stamping  the  name  of  the  li- 
brary in  the  place  of  the  call  number  on 
a  white  card,  we  indicate  that  the  mate- 
rial is  in  town.  Subject  entries  only  are 
made  for  material  of  this  sort. 

There  are  many  indexes  already  in  ex- 
istence which  will  supplement  the  catalog 
and  call  to  the  attention  of  the  worker 
available  material.  One  of  the  most  val- 
uable sources  of  all  is  found  in  the  ex- 
perts of  the  neighborhood.  The  librarian 
is  too  prone  to  think  that  all  the  most 
useful  knowledge  is  in  books  or  printed 
form.  Some  of  the  best  help  imaginable 
can  be  obtained  from  men.  Every  com- 
munity has  within  its  borders  specialists 
of  various  types;  men  who  have  given 
their  lifetime  to  the  study  of  some  par- 
ticular question.  Make  such  individuals 
a  portion  of  the  catalog;  use  them  as 
sources.  The  telephone  is  at  your  com- 
mand and  oftentimes  more  valuable  in- 
formation can  be  obtained  from  some  per- 
son within  telephone  call  than  can  be 
gotten  from  hours  of  work  with  shelf 
material. 

Furthermore,  do  not  limit  yourself  to 
the  talented  man  within  the  community, 
but  use  the  expert  wherever  he  may  be 
found.  Correspondence  will  often  bring 
information  to  your  door;  mount  the  let- 
ters; put  them  with  the  clippings  or  cat- 
alog them  separately;  in  case  of  urgency, 
telegraph.  In  fact,  have  some  of  the  ap- 
propriation deliberately  set  aside  for  sup- 
plementing the  catalog  by  telegrams. 

A  record  of  sources,  arranged  both  by 
places  and  subjects  is  of  service.  Under 
your  subject  list  enter  the  names  and  ad- 
dresses of  those  who  are  specialists. 
Experts  throughout  the  country  will  thus 
be  at  your  command.  In  the  geographi- 
cal list,  put  the  names  of  parties  to  whom 
you  may  apply  for  material  relating  to  a 


244 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


given  community.  Suppose  for  instance, 
that  your  state  is  contemplating  a  Work- 
men's compensation  law  and  some  state 
where  there  is  no  legislative  reference 
department  is  also  considering  the  mat- 
ter. This  state  passes  a  law  on  Tuesday, 
and  on  Saturday  the  bill  of  your  own 
state  is  coming  up  for  consideration.  You 
need  exact  information  as  to  which  bill  is 
passed,  whether  it  passed  with  or  without 
amendments;  in  fact,  you  must  have  im- 
mediate and  full  knowledge  concerning 
that  law.  You  may  have  within  your 
mind  some  possible  source,  but  during  the 
stress  and  pressure  of  the  legislative  ses- 
sion such  a  list  relieves  one  of  the  neces- 
sity of  remembrance. 

The  catalog,  through  its  mechanical 
devices,  can  carry  this  burden.  The  cat- 
alog is  not  merely  a  record  of  sources 
within  the  four  walls,  but  must  endure  as 
a  record  of  all  possible  available  sources, 
so  that  time  and  energy  given  to  "the 
living  part"  of  the  catalog,  is  well 
expended. 

In  addition  to  the  sources  already  men- 
tioned, there  are  numerous  other  possible 
indexes  of  value.  When  the  bills  are 
available  in  printed  form,  a  subject  index 
indicating  the  final  disposition  of  a  bill — 
whether  killed,  passed  or  vetoed — is  of 
inestimable  use.  Such  indexes  for  the 
general  laws  and  the  local  and  temporary 
laws  are  advantageous.  A  comparative 
index,  apart  from  the  regular  catalog,  al- 
ready noticed,  may  be  mentioned  again  in 
this  connection.  An  index  of  the  docu- 
ments of  the  state  is  also  a  valuable  asset, 
since  the  publications  of  most  states  are 
rather  poorly  indexed  and  have  practi- 
cally no  centralized  list  of  subjects.  The 
decisions  of  the  attorney-generals  quite 
often  are  of  as  much  importance  in  law 
conclusions  as  are  the  decisions  of  the 
courts.  They  have  virtually  either  vital- 
ized or  invalidated  laws  upon  the  statute 
books.  In  states  where  statute  revisions 
are  rather  infrequent,  statute  indexes  may 
be  necessary.  These  indexes  should  be 
made  supplementary  to  the  regular  cata- 
log.   Some  of  them  may  be  carried  along 


as  side  issues  at  the  same  time  as  the 
regular  work,  and  others  may  be  taken 
up  in  their  entirety  to  be  accomplished 
as  time  permits. 

Since  the  importance  and  value  of  such 
a  library  depends,  not  upon  the  quantity, 
but  upon  the  quality  and  efficiency  of  the 
collection,  the  disposition  of  material 
which  has  become  historical  in  its  nature 
comes  prominently  into  the  foreground. 
Unless  there  is  constant  supervision  and 
reduction,  there  is  an  unnecessary  and 
useless  accumulation.  The  working  li- 
brary will  never  be  a  large  one.  After  a 
state  policy  relating  to  a  given  question 
is  established,  the  library  should,  within 
a  reasonable  time,  dispose  of  the  larger 
portion  of  the  collection  on  that  subject. 
Its  present  usefulness  from  the  legislat- 
or's standpoint  is  over.  Its  future  value 
is  as  a  historical  contribution.  As  a  re- 
sult, there  will  be  continual  withdrawals 
as  well  as  continual  acquisitions. 

After  all,  that  which  makes  library 
work  so  stimulating  and  so  interesting  is 
the  human  element.  The  progress  which 
one  may  make  in  its  mechanical  side,  the 
service  of  all  its  books  and  pamphlets, 
the  importance  and  the  value  of  the  ma- 
terial, depend  primarily  upon  the  human 
side  of  it.  The  mere  fact  that  the  scholar, 
as  well  as  the  man  with  a  hobby,  the 
student  along  with  the  crank,  the  conser- 
vative together  with  the  radical,  the  theo- 
retical and  the  practical  man,  are  all 
brought  together  in  a  common  place, 
shows  that  the  mechanical  is  truly  the 
lesser  value  in  this  field  of  work.  How- 
ever, it  is  in  the  making  of  a  more  per- 
fect apparatus,  in  the  saving  of  time  and 
energy,  in  the  additions  to  its  eflBciency, 
that  the  cataloger  receives  his  reward. 
The  possibilities  of  this  work  are  so  far 
reaching,  that  every  reasonable  device  or 
idea  is  at  least  worthy  of  trial  so  that 
there  may  be  every  possible  advancement 
in  every  practical  direction.  It  is  a  new 
work  and  there  are  few  guide  posts.  We 
cannot  accept  other  experiences  unques- 
tionably. What  are  virtues  in  another 
library    may   be    vices   in    the    legislative 


CATALOG  SECTION 


245 


reference  work.  What  we  most  need  is  a 
safe  and  sane  balance  of  judgment,  quick- 
ness of  perception,  a  sense  of  foresight, 
combined  with  all  the  special  knowledge 
possible,  great  discrimination,  initiative 
and  the  ability  to  meet  any  situation,  and 
above  all,  the  disposition  to  test  every 
new  conception  or  suggestion  which  may 
lead  to  development;  in  fact,  the  more  of 
these  virtues  which  the  cataloger  may 
possess,  the  more  efficient  will  be  the  re- 
sult, not  only  in  the  catalog  itself,  but  in 
the  net  results  shown  by  the  work  in  its 
entirety. 

In  the  discussion  following  the  paper, 
Mr.  W.  H.  Hatton,  chairman  of  the  Wis- 
consin free  library  commission,  spoke  of 
the  importance  of  knowing  not  merely 
books  but  men  and  making  a  wise  use  of 
correspondence. 

Next  on  the  program  was  Mr.  A.  G.  S. 
JOSEPHSON'S  query 

WHAT    IS   CATALOGING? 

In  raising  this  question  I  am  not  con- 
cerned with  the  principles  of  cataloging, 
with  the  difference  between  cataloging 
and  bibliography,  or  any  problem  of  that 
kind.  My  problem  is  the  much  more 
practical:  What  part  of  the  work  of  a 
library  staff  is  meant  when  cataloging  is 
spoken  of  in  an  annual  report?  What 
does  it  mean  when  a  librarian  states  that 
a  certain  number  of  assistants  have  dur- 
ing a  certain  period  cataloged  a  certain 
number  of  books?  And,  bringing  the  mat- 
ter down  to  a  particularly  practical  point, 
what  does  he  mean  when  he  says  that  it 
costs  a  certain  sum  of  money  to  catalog 
a  book?  I  am  not  going  to  answer  the 
question,  I  want  it  answered.  I  don't 
want  it  answered  right  off.  I  would  like 
to  see  this  section  go  after  the  problem 
and  bring  in  the  answer.  _In  a  word,  I 
suggest  that  this  section  appoint  a  com- 
mittee for  the  purpose  of  investigating 
the  method  and  cost  of  cataloging  in  a 
number  of  representative  libraries.  I 
would  not  be  much  concerned  for  the 
present  with  the  methods  of  the  small 
public  and  college  libraries,  but  only  with 
such  libraries  as  may  be  said  to  have  a 


special  cataloging  force;  and  I  would  not 
extend  the  inquiry  to  more  than  a  score 
of  libraries  at  the  most. 

The  following  draft  of  a  questionnaire 
will  show  succinctly  enough  what  I  have 
in  mind: 

1.  How  many  persons  between  the 
grades  of  head  of  department  and  cler- 
ical attendants  are  connected  with  your 
cataloging  force?  In  how  many  grades 
are  these  divided? 

2.  How  many  of  these  are  occupied 
with  the  actual  writing  of  the  titles? 

3.  How  many  persons  of  the  grades  of 
clerical  attendants  and  pages  are  occu- 
pied with  copying  of  cards,  typewriting 
headings,  filing  and  other  such  more  me- 
chanical work? 

4.  Are  any  persons  of  a  higher  grade 
than  clerical  attendant  doing  any  of  the 
above  kinds  of  work,  and  why? 

5.  Are  those  of  your  assistants  who 
write  the  titles  occupied  with  this  all  day, 
or  do  they  change  regularly  to  some  other 
kind  of  work?  If  the  latter,  is  such  other 
work  treated  merely  as  relief  from  the 
drudgery  of  title  writing,  or  does  it  occupy 
a  considerable  part  of  the  assistants' 
time?  Or,  are  a  certain  number  of  days 
a  week  devoted  to  cataloging  (i.e.  title 
writing)  all  the  time,  and  other  days 
given  up  to  other  kinds  of  work? 

6.  Are  the  following  items,  or  any  of 
them,  determined  by  the  assistants  who 
write  the  titles,  or  by  superior  members 
of  the  staff: 

(a)  general  form  and  completeness  of 
entry; 

(b)  author  heading  and  added  author 
headings  and  cross  references; 

(c)  collation; 

(d)  subject  headings; 

(e)  classification. 

7.  What  is  the  average  salary  of  the 
members  of  your  cataloging  force? 

There  may  likely  be  other  questions  to 
be  included;  some  of  the  above  questions 
may  be  made  more  detailed  or  given  a 
different  formulation  or  bearing.  I  be- 
lieve that  an  inquiry  of  this  kind,  if  car- 
ried out  as  it  should  be  done,  would  do 


246 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


much  to  show  us  where  changes  in  our 
methods  might  be  introduced,  to  the  in- 
creased efficiency  of  the  cataloging  force 
and  to  the  benefit  of  its  members. 

The  ensuing  discussion,  participated  in 
by  C.  B.  Roden,  W.  S.  Merrill,  C.  W.  An- 
drews and  others  resulted  in  the  adop- 
tion, on  motion  of  Mr.  Roden,  of  the  fol- 
lowing resolution: 

RESOLVED,  that  the  executive  board 
be  asked  to  appoint  a  committee  to  in- 
vestigate the  cost  and  methods  of  catalog- 
ing in  accordance '  with  the  suggestions 
in  Mr.  Josephson's  paper. 

A  report  on  uniformity  in  cataloging 
rules,  made  by  Miss  Helen  Turvill,  in- 
structor in  cataloging  in  the  Wisconsin 
library  school,  as  chairman  of  a  commit- 
tee appointed  at  the  January,  1912,  meet- 
ing of  the  library  schools  instructors,  was 
presented  by  Miss  Mary  E7.  Hazeltine. 

In  connection  with  this  report.  Miss 
Hazeltine  submitted  for  inspection  a 
double  file  of  printed  rules  on  cards  em- 
bodying the  present  usage  of  the  Wiscon- 
sin library  school,  which  it  was  hoped 
might  serve  as  a  basis  for  the  further 
work  of  the  committee.  One  file  was  ar- 
ranged numerically  as  given  to  the  stu- 
dents for  class  work;  the  other,  alphabet- 
ically under  topical  guides,  as  the  students 
would  have  them  filed  with  illustrative 
sample  cards,  at  the  end  of  the  course.* 

The  report  itself,  which  was  merely  one 
of  progress,  to  be  completed  at  the  mid- 
winter meeting,  was  accompanied  by  a 
request  for  discussion  at  Ottawa  and  a 
list  of  points  on  which  an  expression  of 
the  preference  of  librarians  was  desired. 

Points  for  Discussion 

Call   number — Position. 
Heading — Second  line  indention. 
Date. 

Figures — When  to  be  written  out- 
Edition — Spacing. 
Omissions  to  be  indicated. 
Supplied  information  to  be  bracketed? 
Collation 

To  include  paging? 
Author  abbreviation — 

Women's  names. 

•These  card  rules  may  be  obtained  of  the  Democrat 
Printing  Company,  Madison,  Wis.,  $2.50  per  set. 


Title  card. 
Imprint? 

Initial  article  in  curves. 

Author's  name. 

Spacing  after  initials. 

Spacing  between  name  and  titles. 

Added  entry  cards. 
Form  of  date. 

Contents. 
Form. 
Punctuation.  ; 

Cross  reference. 
Form. 

Joint  author. 

Analytic. 
Form. 
Position  of  paging. 

Added  edition. 

Miss  Gooch  and  Miss  Van  Valkenburgh, 
members  of  the  committee,  spoke  in  ex- 
planation of  its  purpose  and  scope. 

Mr.  Merrill  said  that  as  editor  of  the 
A.  L.  A.  periodical  cards  he  was  glad  to 
learn  that  a  committee  was  working  to 
secure  greater  uniformity  in  catalog  en- 
tries. 

Among  the  libraries  contributing  the 
copy  for  the  periodical  card  work  of  the 
Publishing  board,  there  is  still  variation  in 
the  mode  of  entering  authors'  names: 
sometimes  date  of  birth  is  given  and 
sometimes  it  is  omitted;  names  unused 
by  a  writer  are  looked  up  and  entered 
upon  the  card  by  one  library  and  disre- 
garded by  another  library;  periods  after 
initials  are  used  or  omitted;  names  of 
joint  authors  are  both  given  in  the  head- 
ing by  one  library  and  only  first  name  is 
given  by  another,  while  there  is  even  di- 
versity about  filling  out  initials  of  the 
second  author's  name. 

These  divergencies  are  not  only  theoret- 
ically inconsistent  but  practically  incon- 
venient, because  the  printed  cards  do  not 
conform  entirely  to  the  practice  of  any 
library.  Mr.  Merrill  said  he  hoped  that 
agreement  upon  these  points  might  soon 
be  reached. 

The  question  of  methods  of  bringing 
the  matter  to  the  attention  of  librarians 
was  informally  discussed  by  Miss  Mar- 
garet Mann,  Miss  Bessie  Goldberg,  Miss 
Bessie  Sargeant  Smith,  and  others,  but  as 
the  chairman.  Miss  Thompson,  pointed 
out,  the  report  was  but  a  partial  one  and 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'   SECTION 


247 


not  from  a  committee  of  the  Catalog  sec- 
tion. Therefore  no  action  was  required. 
Owing  to  the  lateness  of  the  hour, 
further  consideration  of  this  subject  and 
also  problems  of  arrangement  in  a  dic- 
tionary catalog,  which  was  scheduled  in 
the  program,  were  referred  to  the  incom- 
ing section  officers. 


The  nominating  committee  submitted 
this  ticket:  Chairman,  Miss  Harriet  B. 
Gooch,  instructor  in  cataloging,  Pratt  In- 
stitute school  of  library  science;  secre- 
tary. Miss  Margaret  Sutherland  Mackay, 
head  cataloger,  McGill  university. 

They  were  unanimously  elected  and  the 
meeting  adjourned. 


CHILDREN'S    LIBRARIANS'    SECTION 


FIRST  SESSION 

(Friday  afternoon,  June  28th) 
The  first  session  was  held  at  the  Cha- 
teau Laurier  Friday  afternoon,  June  28th. 
The  chairman,  Miss  Mary  de  Bure  Mc- 
Curdy,  presided.  The  general  topic  was 
"Work  of  special  libraries  with  children," 
MISS  MARY  S.  SAXB,  of  the  Westmount 
public  library  of  Montreal,  read  a  paper 
on  the  subject 

WITH   THE  CHILDREN    IN  CANADA 

Miss  Saxe  said  they  had  in  Westmount 
the  only  properly  equipped  children's  room 
in  any  library  in  the  province  of  Quebec, 
and  that  the  only  library  work  for  chil- 
dren in  Montreal  was  done  by  the  Mc- 
Gill university  settlement  workers  in  the 
slums  of  that  city.  The  best  children's 
work  in  the  province  of  Ontario  is  now 
done  by  the  public  libraries  of  Toronto, 
Ottawa,  London,  Collingwood,  Berlin,  Sar- 
nia  and  Fort  William.  Among  the  smaller 
libraries  the  work  done  at  Gait  is  par- 
ticularly worthy  of  mention,  the  quality  be- 
ing due,  as  is  generally  the  case,  to  the 
unselfish  and  enthusiastic  work  of  the  li- 
brarian. At  Winnipeg,  although  they  have 
a  handsome  library  building  and  a  room 
set  apart  for  the  children,  activities  seemed 
at  a  low  ebb  when  the  speaker  visited  the 
library  two  years  ago. 

"The  Church  of  England  in  Canada  has 
done  a  good  work  up  there  within  the  Arc- 
tic circle  with  its  Sunday  school  libra- 
ries. The  Indian  children  and  the  half- 
breed  children,  of  whom  there  are  many, 
get  all  their  reading  from  this  source. 


"Away  out  on  the  Pacific  coast,  a  mis- 
sionary of  this  same  church  became  in- 
terested in  the  logging  camps  that  he 
found  among  the  islands  of  the  gulf  of 
Georgia.  He  returned  to  the  Bishops  of 
Columbia,  and  of  New  Westminster,  stat- 
ing that  he  must  have  a  boat  built,  which 
would  be  a  church,  and  also  an  ambulatory 
library.  It  was  a  beautiful  scheme — it 
was  also  an  expensive  one.  But  those  of 
you  who  care  to  read  of  its  development 
in  a  little  book  entitled  "Western  Canada" 
can  do  so,  and  you  will  learn  with  delight 
how  well  the  idea  has  worked  out. 

"In  the  past  two  years  the  library  move- 
ment in  Canada,  especially  in  the  North- 
west, has  expanded  rapidly.  Regina  has 
opened  a  new  public  library  within  the 
past  six  weeks,  and  the  work  for  children 
is  to  be  well  looked  after.  Calgary,  New 
Westminster,  Vancouver,  Victoria,  all  tell 
the  same  tale  of  a  long  struggle  in  crowded 
quarters — and  now  new  buildings  and 
splendid  promise  of  good  work.  It  is 
most  unfortunate  for  us  in  Canada,  that 
our  distances  are  so  great,  our  ties  have 
to  be  mostly  railway  ties. 

"In  Westmount  we  opened  the  Chil- 
dren's room  in  January,  1911.  We  began 
agitating  the  dire  need  of  such  a  depart- 
ment fully  seven  years  before  the  reality 
came." 

The  paper  on  County  work  with  chil- 
dren prepared  by  Miss  ALICE  GODDARD, 
head  of  children's  department,  Washing- 
ton County  free  library,  Hagerstown,  Mary- 
land, was  read  by  Miss  Gertrude  Andrua 
in  Miss  Goddard's  absence. 


248 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


COUNTY  WORK  WITH  CHILDREN 

My  subject,  as  announced  on  the  pro- 
gram is  "County  work  with  children."  In 
the  first  place  let  me  say  that  there  is 
little  or  nothing  to  be  said  about  county 
work  with  children  that  does  not  apply 
equally  to  work  with  adults  in  the  same 
community.  The  experience  of  the  Wash- 
ington County  free  library  of  Hagerstown, 
Maryland,  during  eleven  years  of  rural 
work,  has  been  that  the  books  that  go 
into  the  country  homes  are  read  by  old 
and  young  alike.  The  reason  for  this  is 
not  far  to  seek;  the  children  are  going 
to  school,  for  a  few  months  of  the  year, 
at  least,  and  are  receiving  an  education 
that  was,  in  many  cases,  denied  the  par- 
ents. Before  the  installation  of  our  li- 
brary, books,  other  than  an  occasional 
religious  periodical,  perhaps,  were  an  un- 
known quantity  in  the  average  farm  house, 
so  that,  even  if  the  farmer  or  his  wife 
had  acquired  the  reading  habit  as  a  child, 
it  had  lapsed,  through  disuse.  Conse- 
quently, when  our  books  were  first  brought 
to  the  door  the  same  books  appealed  to 
both  parents  and  children.  One  mother 
told  us,  with  tears  in  her  eyes,  that  we 
could  never  know  how  she  enjoyed  hear- 
ing the  children  read  the  books  aloud, 
for  neither  she  nor  her  husband  could 
read  or  write. 

At  a  farmers'  institute  in  Ohio,  an  en- 
lightened farmer  once  remarked  that  the 
three  things  that  had  done  most  for  the 
amelioration  of  the  lot  of  the  farmer's 
wife  were,  rural  free  delivery,  rural  tele- 
phones and  Butterick  patterns,  and  to  that 
trilogy  we  add  rural  free  delivery  of 
books.  How  to  reach  the  country  children, 
is,  of  course,  the  problem  that  confronts 
a  county  library.  The  methods  of  the 
Washington  County  free  library  of  Hagers- 
town, Md.,  are: 

First — The  children's  room  of  the  cen- 
tral library.  This  is  a  large,  pleasant  room, 
on  the  second  floor,  where  the  usual  activ- 
ities of  any  children's  room  are  carried  on. 
Two  story  hours  a  week  are  held,  Friday 
nights  for  the  older  children,  and  Satur- 
day mornings  for  the  younger  ones;  many 


of  our  regular  Saturday  morning  visitors 
are  from  the  outlying  districts;  there  are 
three  little  boys  who  come  "Tour  mile,"  as 
they  express  it,  nearly  every  week  to  hear 
the  stories,  they  have  been  known  to  be 
led  into  the  extravagance  of  spending 
even  their  return  fare  on  the  train — such 
are  the  temptations  of  city  life! — and  hav- 
ing to  walk  home.  One  very  small  boy 
who  is  with  us  almost  every  Saturday 
is  the  son  of  a  stage  driver,  his  father 
brings  him  in,  and  leaves  him  with  us  for 
the  morning,  he  is  known  among  us  as 
"sonny,"  because  of  characteristics  sim- 
ilar to  those  of  Ruth  McEnery  Stuart's 
hero. 

Any  child  in  the  county,  so  soon  as  he 
can  write  his  name,  may  "join  liberry," 
regardless  of  "race,  or  previous  condition 
of  servitude,"  a  phrase  not  without  mean- 
ing still,  in  Maryland.  The  same  priv- 
ileges are  extended  to  all,  town  and  coun- 
try children  alike,  two  books  at  a  time, 
with  privilege  of  renewal.  Country  books 
may,  of  course,  be  renewed  by  telephone 
or  mail,  and  frequent  cards  come  to  "Dear 
teacher,"  or  even  "Dear  friend." 

The  teachers  draw  to  a  practically  un- 
limited extent  upon  the  circulating  collec- 
tion, as  well  as  from  the  school  duplicates, 
of  which  more  a  little  later.  So  much  for 
the  work  of  the  main  library. 

Second — Branches  throughout  the  county. 
These  are  deposit  stations,  placed  in  the 
country  store,  the  postofllce,  the  toll  gates 
or,  in  some  cases,  in  private  houses,  the 
boxes  contain  about  fifty  books,  and  are 
returned  every  two  or  three  months  for 
a  fresh  supply.  A  custodian  is  appointed 
who  keeps  track  of  the  books  by  means  of 
an  alphabetized  blank  book,  the  book  slips 
being  kept  at  the  library,  filed  by  the 
Browne  system,  under  the  name  of  the 
station.  Shady  Bower,  Black  Rock,  etc. 

Third — The  Boonesboro  Reading  Room. 
This  village  began  with  a  deposit  station, 
and  became  so  interested  that  a  permanent 
reading  room  was  established,  maintained 
entirely  by  the  village,  except  for  the 
books,  which  are  supplied  by  the  library; 
a  permanent  collection  was  given,  which 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'  SECTION 


249 


is  supplemented  by  an  exchange  every  ten 
days.  A  fortnightly  story  hour  is  carried 
on  here;  during  the  past  two  years  it  has 
become  necessary  to  divide  the  children 
into  two  groups,  to  the  older  ones  the 
same  series  of  stories  is  told  as  to  the 
older  group  at  the  library,  Norse  myths, 
Iliad  and  Odyssey,  and,  this  winter,  Chau- 
cer, Spencer  and  Shakespeare.  The  latter 
author,  by  the  way,  meets  with  special 
approbation  among  our  country  friends. 

Fourth — Schools.  The  country  schools, 
as  well  as  those  in  town,  are  visited,  and 
collections  are  sent;  with  the  books  are 
sent  pictures,  prints  of  the  masterpieces, 
mounted,  and  annotated  with  sufficient 
fullness  to  serve  as  a  lesson  outline,  if  the 
teachers  wish  to  use  them  so. 

Fifth — The  book  wagon,  or  to  be  strictly 
accurate,  one  must  now  say  book  automo- 
bile. About  six  years  ago  it  was  discov- 
ered that  thirty  of  the  stations  were  off 
the  line  of  railroad,  trolley  or  stage,  and 
the  question  of  transportation  arose;  for  a 
year  a  horse  and  wagon  filled  the  need,  go- 
ing out  simply  for  the  purpose  .of  carrying 
cases  back  and  forth.  Then  the  book 
wagon  was  built,  so  constructed  as  to 
carry  several  cases  for  deposit  sta- 
tions, and  at  the  same  time,  some 
two  hundred  books  on  its  shelves;  thus 
began  our  rural  free  delivery  of  books,  and 
the  wagon,  with  its  driver,  Mr.  Joshua 
Thomas,  became  one  of  the  features  of  the 
county,  until  about  two  years  ago,  when  a 
most  unfortunate  accident  deprived  us  of 
both.  A  stray  engine,  coming  round  a 
curve,  struck  and  completely  demolished 
the  wagon;  happily,  Mr.  Thomas  and  the 
horses  were  across  the  track,  the  horses 
escaped  uninjured,  and  Mr.  Thomas, 
though  thrown  out  and  stunned,  sustained 
no  injuries  other  than  the  shock,  which, 
at  his  age,  was  naturally  very  great.  Mr. 
Thomas  has  now  retired  from  active  la- 
bors, and  the  wagon  has  been  succeeded 
by  an  automobile. 

Perhaps  I  can  best  give  you  an  idea  of 
the  work  of  the  wagon  if  you  will  come 
with  me,  in  spirit,  for  a  typical  day  in 
the  country.    The  new  car  is  constructed 


very  much  as  the  old  wagon  was,  with 
room  for  two  passengers,  besides  the 
chauffeur,  one  member  of  the  staff  goes 
on  the  trips  now,  for  our  chauffeur  is  a 
chauffeur  only,  nor  is  he  the  picturesque 
figure  Mr.  Thomas  was. 

Let  us  choose  a  morning  in  spring, 
when  red  bud  and  dogwood  are  in  bloom, 
and  the  fruit  trees  are  fluffy  masses  of 
pink  and  white  clouds,  and  the  tender 
green  of  new  life  is  showing  on  hill  side 
and  forest,  and  the  "hills  of  Maryland" 
stand  out  like  lapis  lazuli  against  a  tur- 
quoise sky.  It  is  a  fair  country,  and  one 
can  understand  why  the  early  settlers 
tarried  in  this  valley  in  their  march  west- 
ward, over  the  very  National  Road  that  we 
shall  drive  over  today;  a  road  full  of  his- 
toric meaning,  a  road  that  has  seen  the 
covered  wagons  of  the  emigrant  tide,  that 
has  resounded  to  the  tread  of  advancing 
and  retreating  armies,  and  that  is  now  a 
thoroughfare  for  motor  cars.  We  see 
little,  or  no  actual  poverty,  occasionally 
the  down-at-the-heels  farm  of  a  "poor 
white,"  but  thrift  and  comfort  are  the 
rule. 

We  spin  gaily  along  in  our  motor  wagon, 
stopping  at  the  farm  houses  along  the 
way;  occasionally  horses  shy  at  us,  and 
children  stick  their  fingers  in  their 
mouths  and  stare,  for  automobiles  are  still 
somewhat  of  a  novelty  on  cross  roads  and 
lanes,  and  country  horses  and  children  are 
not  so  sophisticated  as  their  city  brethren. 
Sometimes  we  go  a  mile  or  more  off  the 
main  road,  to  reach  one  house;  we  are  re- 
warded in  one  such  case,  for  we  find  a 
girl  of  sixteen,  who  has  never  read  Miss 
Alcott,  and  we  leave  her  with  Little 
Women  in  her  arms.  A  swarm  of  "sun- 
bonnet  babies"  greets  us  here,  too,  and  we 
find  a  picture  book  for  the  older  sister  to 
read  to  them. 

At  one  house  we  have  some  difficulty  in 
enticing  the  farmer's  wife  out  to  look  at 
our  wares.  "He"  is  out  on  the  farm,  and 
there  is  not  much  time  for  reading.  We 
discover  a  boy  of  twelve  or  thirteen,  how- 
ever, lurking  in  the  background,  with  a 
dog  at  his  heels,  the  dog  is  a  convenient 


250 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


topic  of  conversation,  and  Beautiful  Joe 
happens  to  be  in  the  wagon.  An  inquiry 
as  to  the  family  elicits  the  information 
that  this  boy  is  all,  except  an  "orphant 
boy  we  took."  After  some  difficulty  the 
"orphant  boy"  is  brought  forth  from  the 
recesses  of  the  barn,  where,  we  strongly 
suspect,  he  has  had  an  eye  at  a  crack  all 
the  time,  and  proves  to  be  the  regulation 
"bound  boy"  of  Mary  E.  Wilkins,  tattered 
straw  hat,  patched  overalls  and  all;  he, 
too,  has  a  fondness  for  animals,  and  so  we 
drive  away,  leaving  boys  and  dog  looking 
after  us,  with  Seton-Thompson  as  a  com- 
panion. 

One  wide  detour,  up  a  hilly  lane,  brings 
us  to  a  house,  commanding  a  wonderful 
view  of  hills  and  valleys,  and  the  Potomac, 
a  winding  silver  thread  in  the  distance. 
Here  we  find  the  mistress  of  the  house,  and 
a  girl  of  sixteen  or  eighteen,  who  "lives 
there;"  they  used  to  get  books  from  the 
old  wagon,  they  tell  us,  and  it  has  seemed 
a  long  time  since  they  had  any.  Accord- 
ingly, we  bid  them  help  themselves,  and 
as  we  are  preparing  to  drive  away,  one  of 
them,  hugging  a  huge  pile  of  heteroge- 
neous literature,  says  to  the  other,  "Law, 
Bess,  we'll  fergit  to  listen  on  the  'phone!" 
an  unconscious  tribute  both  to  us  and  the 
rural  telephone  system. 

And  now  we  find  that  the  dinner  hour 
has  arrived;  sometimes  there  is  a  country 
hotel  at  hand,  but  more  often  we  have 
dinner  at  some  hospitable  farm  house, 
which  gives  us  a  golden  opportunity  to 
make  friends  with  our  people.  It  is  notice- 
able that  the  conversation  is  confined  al- 
most entirely  to  us  women,  the  men  at- 
tending strictly  to  the  business  in  hand; 
the  women,  however,  make  the  most  of  an 
unusual  event,  and  between  serving  and 
conversation,  it  often  seems  to  us  as 
though  their  own  wants  must  be  entirely 
forgotten. 

There  is  a  country  school  on  our  way, 
and  we  stop  there  to  get  the  key  to  a 
church  a  little  farther  on,  where  we  are 
to  pick  up  a  case  of  books;  the  tempta- 
tion to  a  story  teller  is  too  great  to  be 
resisted,  the  wagon  goes  on,  to  come  back 


a  little  later,  the  two  rooms  are  put  to- 
gether, and  I  have  the  pleasure  of  telling 
"Johnny  Cake"  and  "Seven  little  kids"  to 
children  who  have  never  heard  them  be- 
fore. When  the  wagon  appears  we  sug- 
gest a  picture,  and  a  grand  stampede  fol- 
lows, all  the  school  commissioners  and 
truant  officers  on  earth  could  not  have 
kept  a  child  in  that  building — the  charm 
of  the  Pied  Piper  was  no  greater! 

"And  what  do  your  country  children 
read?"  We  are  often  asked,  and  we  like 
to  reply,  with  considerable  pride,  that  they 
read  good  books.  When  the  wagon  is  be- 
ing loaded  for  a  trip  a  large  proportion  of 
the  books  is  from  the  shelves  of  the  chil- 
dren's rooin,  and  of  the  fiction  fully  75% 
bears  the  mystic  symbol  "J,"  showing,  as 
I  have  said,  that  the  same  books  are  read 
by  parents  and  children;  war  stories  are 
always  in  demand,  particularly  of  the 
Civil  War;  Henty  is  a  prime  favorite,  and 
of  the  better  Hentys,  With  Clive  in  India, 
Beric  the  Briton,  for  instance,  we  dupli- 
cate quite  freely.  Novels  of  a  religious 
character,  such  as  Ben  Hur  are  popular, 
and  Pilgrim's  progress  is  always  in  de- 
mand. 

And  so  our  day  slips  by,  and  before  we 
know  it  evening  is  upon  us;  by  four 
o'clock  we  see  preparations  for  the  night 
going  on  in  the  barn  yard.  We  go  home, 
tired,  but  with  depleted  shelves,  and  the 
consciousness  of  a  good  day's  work.  May 
there  be  many  more  to  come,  and  may 
each  one  of  you  fare  forth  with  us 
one  day,  on  some  such  happy  library 
adventure. 

Mr.  Henry  E.  Legler  read  a  paper  pre- 
pared by  Miss  JEAN  McLEOD,  house  li- 
brarian, Sears,  Roebuck  &  Co.,  Chicago,  on 

AN  EMPLOYEES'    LIBRARY— ITS  SCOPE 
AND    ITS    POSSIBILITIES 

I  have  been  advised  that  there  is  only 
one  thing  more  ruinous  to  one's  reputation 
than  an  absent  debut  to  the  American  Li- 
brary Association  conference,  and  that  Is 
to  inflict  a  maiden  paper  upon  someone 
else  to  read.    But  after  absorbing  some  of 


CHILDREN'S   LIBRARIANS'   SECTION 


251 


Mr.  Legler's  courage  and  optimism,  I  can- 
not refrain  from  treading  upon  this  dan- 
gerous ground  and  setting  forth  a  few  pet 
theories.  I  do  not  know  that  Sears,  Roe- 
buck &  Company  needs  an  introduction  or 
an  explanation,  but  as  the  character,  com- 
bined with  the  magnitude  of  the  house,  is 
quite  unique,  and  is  such  a  vital  part  of 
the  library  work,  the  foundation  of  this 
paper,  as  well  as  of  the  work  itself,  must 
of  necessity  be  predicated  upon  some 
knowledge  of  the  house  machinery. 

We  are  dealing  with  a  mail  order  retail 
house,  and  this  paper  will  be  based  upon 
the  central  plant  only.  The  existence  of 
the  outlying  factories,  not  only  in  Chicago 
but  throughout  the  country,  all  under  the 
control  of  one  corporation,  opens  up  a  new 
field  in  commercial  library  work,  which  to 
my  knowledge  has  never  been  touched. 

The  house  handles  everything — that 
does  not  mean  the  usual  stock  of  a  de- 
partment store,  but  everything  that  can 
be  bought  and  sold.  New  opportunities 
arise  as  your  eye  wanders  down  the  list 
of  the  various  departments.  Our  house 
directory  lists  over  200  departments,  in- 
cluding jewelry,  baby  clothes,  and  farm 
implements.  In  fact,  a  home  can  be  fur- 
nished complete  from  parlor  to  stables. 

Besides  the  merchandise,  we  have  the 
various  administration  and  utility  depart- 
ments, which  include  press  rooms,  bind- 
ery, machine  shops,  shipping  rooms,  em- 
ployment department,  restaurant,  green 
house,  hospital,  barber  shop,  chemical  lab- 
oratory, etc.  With  this  cosmopolitan  cen- 
ter, condensed  under  one  management, 
there  is  no  limit  to  library  possibilities. 
My  experience  so  far  has  been  that  every- 
thing in  print  can  find  a  congenial  resting 
place  somewhere  in  the  house. 

The  central  plant  occupies  three  square 
blocks,  including  five  buildings  and  a  sixth 
in  the  process  of  construction.  The  lar- 
gest of  these,  the  merchandise  building,  is 
nine  stories  high  and  two  blocks  long,  and 
is  a  condensed  village  in  population  and 
activity.  The  library  is  located  next  to 
one  of  the  most  popular  sections  in  this 
building,  the  employees'  and  house  sales 


department.  In  this  section  employees 
are  obliged  to  call  for  their  personal  pur- 
chases. This  is  an  added  convenience  and 
a  time  saving  arrangement.  The  printing 
building,  administration  building,  power 
house  and  paint  factory  complete  the 
group  of  this  seething  little  city,  and 
make  one  wish  that  a  branch  library  might 
be  established  in  every  corner. 

Our  library  is  primarily  a  deposit  branch 
of  the  Chicago  public  library.  We  have 
about  1600  books  on  deposit,  which  give 
us  a  circulation  of  about  4000  a  month. 
In  addition  to  that,  our  daily  express  serv- 
ice gives  us  the  resources  of  the  main 
library  stock,  and  makes  it  possible  to 
send  individual  cards  with  specific  re- 
quests through  the  station  department. 
This  is  a  great  help  in  making  out  lists  on 
special  topics,  as  25  or  30  books  on  a  sub- 
ject may  be  listed  and  drawn  one  after  the 
other  without  further  reference.  Our  cir- 
culation for  these  books  runs  from  be- 
tween 75  to  100  a  day. 

In  addition  to  our  public  library  books, 
we  have  about  a  thousand  of  our  own. 
About  75  per  cent,  of  this  collection  is 
light  fiction  and  juvenile  books;  that  is, 
stories  for  both  boys  and  girls  of  the  in- 
termediate age.  Books  of  this  character 
are,  of  course,  in  the  greatest  demand,  and 
it  is  for  the  right  kind  of  this  material 
that  we  are  constantly  searching.  This 
supplementary  collection  of  our  own  does 
not  in  any  way  detract  from  our  public 
library  books,  but  rather  serves  as  added 
bait  and  leads  to  the  better  books  of  the 
public  library,  upon  whose  resources  we 
depend  for  our  existence. 

We  subscribe  for  about  40  monthly  and 
weekly  periodicals,  both  technical  and 
popular.  In  addition  to  these,  we  have 
several  shelves  of  miscellaneous  mag- 
azines, composed  of  month-old  copies  sent 
out  from  the  main  library,  as  well  as  our 
own  old  copies,  and  donations  from  the 
employees.  All  of  these  magazines  we  cir- 
culate. In  fact,  we  are  in  no  sense  a  read- 
ing room,  as  the  very  nature  of  a  busy 
8-hour  day  and  45-minute  lunch  period  will 
prove.  Our  charging  tray  and  a  few  pieces 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


of  furniture  are  the  only  things  we  refuse 
to  let  go  to  the  homes  or  departments. 

In  taking  charge  of  the  library  last  fall, 
I  realized  that  there  were  two  distinct 
phases  of  the  work:  the  commercial  or 
economic,  and  the  social — the  first  to  be 
established,  the  second  to  be  developed — 
both  sides  equally  interesting  and  offering 
equal  possibilities. 

The  commercial  value  must  be  estab- 
lished not  only  by  becoming  familiar  with 
the  policy  of  the  house,  but  by  cooperating 
with  the  heads  of  departments  and  making 
the  library  felt  as  a  live  agent  throughout 
the  house. 

Cooperation  is  best  established  by  the 
reference  work  which  can  to  a  large  ex- 
tent be  created.  For  instance:  One  of  the 
buyers  in  the  supply  department  is  deal- 
ing with  two  agents  for  rubber  bands. 
The  contract  is  a  big  one.  There  is  much 
discussion  as  to  which  make  of  rubber 
band  will  live  the  longer.  In  self-defence, 
the  buyer  telephones  the  library  for  any 
information  on  rubber.  Right  here  is  the 
librarian's  chance  to  make  or  mar.  Per- 
haps this  buyer  has  no  library  card,  but 
at  the  eleventh  hour  has  thought  of  the  li- 
brary as  a  last  resource.  There  is  one 
sure  way  to  cure  him  of  ever  using  the  li- 
brary again,  and  to  persuade  this  time- 
pressed  business  man  that  the  library  is 
a  plaything  done  up  in  red  tape,  and  that 
is  to  send  word  to  him  that  he  must  come 
personally  to  the  library,  sign  an  applica- 
tion, and  wait  for  the  book  according  to 
our  library  law.  He  will  probably  decide 
to  take  a  chance  on  the  merits  of  the  rub- 
ber bands,  and  condemn  the  library  as  an 
agent  of  too  slow  blood  for  his  purposes. 

The  point  is  to  get  the  information  and 
to  get  it  at  once  to  the  right  man.  If  we 
can  find  something  on  our  own  shelves,  a 
boy  is  sent  with  the  book  at  once,  even 
if  he  carries  an  encyclopaedia  with  him. 
If,  as  often  happens,  we  are  not  so  fort- 
unate, a  signal  of  distress  is  sent  over  the 
'phone  to  the  reference  librarian  at  the 
main  library,  and  she  sends  out  material 
on  the  next  delivery.  Not  only  does  this 
apply  to  the  buyer  of  rubber  bands,  but 


to  the  chemist  who  wants  material  on 
fabrics,  textiles,  and  lubricating  oils;  to 
the  manager  of  the  grocery  department, 
on  the  blending  of  coffee;  to  the  furniture 
buyer,  on  cabinet  making  and  period  furni- 
ture; to  the  head  of  the  agricultural  de- 
partment on  the  silo  and  the  traction  en- 
gine; to  the  clerk  in  the  shipping  depart- 
ment, on  parcels  post;  to  the  girl  in  the 
correspondence  department,  on  punctua- 
tion; to  the  boy  in  the  automobile  repair 
shop,  on  the  gas  engine;  and  so  on  in- 
definitely. A  memorandum  of  these  re- 
quests makes  a  busy  day  for  the  weekly 
visit  to  the  reference  room  at  the  main 
library.  Books  of  interest  on  each  par- 
ticular subject  are  listed,  even  to  govern- 
ment bulletins.  We  have  even  had  in- 
trusted to  our  care  material  from  the  pub- 
lic document  department,  and  Mr.  Leg- 
ler's  liberality  has  given  us  an  economic 
value  that  will  be  the  stepping  stone  to  a 
new  work,  and  make  the  library  a  factor 
to  be  reckoned  with  by  the  progressive 
commercial  house. 

In  our  library,  as  well  as  in  any  other, 
the  reference  work  is  not  confined  to  the 
books  alone.  The  value  of  magazine  ma- 
terial is  an  old  story,  but  its  worth  is  self- 
evident  in  a  progressive  business  house 
whose  aim  is  to  anticipate  future  con- 
tingencies as  well  as  to  meet  present 
needs.  Before  discarding  magazines,  all 
the  usable  material  is  appropriated  and 
sent  to  the  man  or  woman  interested. 
Not  only  does  this  apply  to  the  man's  busi- 
ness, but  to  his  hobbies — a  little  article 
for  instance,  on  poultry  raising  or  photo- 
graphic chemistry  will  often  create  public 
opinion  very  favorable  to  the  library.  So 
far  we  have  not  kept  a  clipping  file  of 
these  articles,  but  that  is  one  of  the  next 
steps  that  could  be  made  quite  an  impor- 
tant feature. 

To  keep  in  touch  with  the  buyers  and 
department  heads,  the  newest  books  on 
subjects  of  special  interest  stimulate  not 
only  the  men  in  charge,  who  are  always 
ready  to  respond  to  new  ideas,  but  arouse 
new  interest  among  all  employees  and  in- 
directly lead  to  promotion  through  more 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'  SECTION 


253 


efficient  work.  These  books  are  sent  right 
to  the  department,  either  to  be  examined 
with  a  view  to  buying,  or,  if  already  pur- 
chased, to  be  circulated  in  the  depart- 
ment. We  find  that  in  this  way  we  lose 
few  if  any  books  and  our  time-honored 
statistics  do  not  suffer. 

And  so  in  many  little  ways  it  is  possible 
to  creep  into  the  commercial  life  of  an 
immense  concern;  to  develop  gradually 
from  a  convenience  to  a  necessity. 

The  social  side  of  our  work  is  perhaps 
a  misomer.  At  least,  it  is  an  intangible 
sort  of  thing  that  has  no  name.  Our  rea- 
son for  existence  is  the  same  as  for  any 
other  public  library — that  is,  for  the  com- 
mon good.  To  do  any  grade  of  work  other 
than  simply  handing  the  books  over  the 
counter,  it  is  necessary  first  of  all  to  be- 
come familiar  with  the  personnel  of  our 
employees.  We  have  about  8500  em- 
ployees, and  to  become  personally  ac- 
quainted with  each  is,  of  course,  impossi- 
ble. However,  a  surprisingly  large  num- 
ber can  be  reached  on  this  footing,  and 
the  rest  is  a  question  of  time  combined 
with  a  sane  democratic  attitude.  We  do 
not  want  our  people  to  feel  that  reform 
through  the  library  is  one  of  the  rules  on 
the  application  blank,  or  that  the  libra- 
rian's stamp  of  approval  must  go  out  with 
every  book.  Advice,  so  labeled,  is  never 
given. 

Of  our  8500  employees,  one-half  are  girls 
varying  in  education  from  grammar  school 
to  college  graduates.  One-fifth  of  this 
number  are  under  18  years  of  age.  The 
work  with  this  last  group  is  intensely  in- 
teresting, and  can  be  developed  in  many 
ways.  We  have,  of  course,  the  usual 
problem,  in  trying  to  direct  from  Mary  J. 
Holmes  and  Southworth  to  a  better  grade 
of  reading.  However,  we  are  not  working 
in  the  dark  to  the  same  extent  as  is  the 
usual  public  library.  Our  girls  are  all 
banded  together  with  a  common  interest, 
and  we  are  at  once  on  the  same  big  plane. 
We  have  access  to  them  at  any  time  of 
the  day.  We  are  a  part  of  the  thing  most 
vital  to  them — their  daily  work  and  means 
of  support.    They  come  to  the  library  dur- 


ing the  noon  hour  for  a  change  of  scene 
and  to  see  the  other  girls,  as  well  as  to 
exchange  their  books.  We  give  them 
books  for  their  parties  and  books  for  their 
night  school  classes.  A  girl  is  told  by  her 
employer  that  she  will  lose  her  position 
unless  she  learns  to  use  good  English.  In 
desperation,  she  comes  to  the  library,  and 
we  give  her  a  book,  yes,  even  three  books, 
if  she  needs  them,  to  help  her  keep  her 
position.  Another  girl  must  be  transferred 
to  a  less  desirable  position  unless  she  can 
increase  her  vocabulary  in  order  to  take 
dictation  more  intelligently.  She  is  ad- 
vised to  come  to  the  library,  and  we  are 
there  to  see  that  she  gets  the  right  books. 
The  next  time  she  may  come  without  being 
sent.  The  girls  come  to  us  to  find  out 
when  the  lake  boats  begin  their  trips,  as 
well  as  to  find  desirable  places  in  which 
to  spend  vacations.  And  so  we  welcome 
them  each  time  they  come,  regardless  of 
what  their  errand  may  be,  for  we  want 
them  to  feel  that  the  library  is  theirs,  and 
is  a  convenience  as  well  as  a  pleasure. 

The  work  with  the  girls  is  so  varied, 
and  is  such  a  study  in  itself,  that  I  have 
only  touched  upon  its  possibilities.  How- 
ever, a  book  on  the  subject  would  not 
cover  the  field,  but  lack  of  time  and  con- 
sideration for  your  feeings  will  prevent 
further  comment,  and  I  will  simply  out- 
line just  a  few  of  the  ways  in  which  we 
try  to  reach  the  boys,  one-third  of  whom 
are  under  21  years  of  age.  Aside  from  the 
eternal  vigilance  to  blot  out  all  Alger 
traces,  we  have  many  really  interesting 
phases  of  the  work  with  the  boys.  We 
first  of  all  can  and  do  have  confidence  in 
the  boys.  We  can  get  necessary  informa- 
tion as  to  their  home  conditions,  If 
we  wish  it.  We  have,  in  common  with 
them,  as  with  the  girls,  their  vital  inter- 
est, the  beginning  of  their  career.  The 
influence  that  can  be  exerted  over  these 
young  boys,  many  of  whom  are  leaving 
home  for  the  first  time,  and  are,  so  to 
speak,  "men  among  men,"  is  tremendous. 
Often  a  wavering  ambition  can  be  rein- 
forced and  a  chance  for  "making  good" 
saved  by  showing  a  little  unasked  interest. 


254 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


We  try  to  give  the  boys  material  for  both 
work  and  play.  We  post  lists  of  books  on 
the  bulletin  boards  in  various  depart- 
ments, and  so  call  attention  to  books 
on  "choosing  a  career,"  or  "business  ef- 
ficiency." Then  we  make  up  lists  on  ath- 
letic sports,  interest  in  which  is  stimu- 
lated by  our  athletic  association,  whose 
membership  includes  both  boys  and  girls. 

Many  times  a  department  is  discovered 
where  little  or  no  interest  is  taken  in  the 
library.  We  find  that  the  boys  and  girls 
from  there  never  come  to  the  library,  and 
so  we  take  the  library  to  them.  In  every 
case  the  managers  are  very  anxious  to  co- 
operate and  are  willing  to  have  us  send 
a  small  collection  of  light  fiction  to  the 
time  clerk's  desk.  She  circulates  these  as 
she  wishes.  So  far,  we  have  lost  no  books 
in  this  way,  and  in  every  instance  new 
borrowers  have  been  the  direct  result. 

Many  of  the  boys  have  been  obliged  to 
leave  school  before  entering  high  school 
or  even  the  upper  grades,  and  in  many 
ways  we  can  supplement  their  lack  of 
school  training — especially  if  we  can  dis- 
cover a  gleam  of  interest  in  any  one  sub- 
ject, such  as  mechanics,  electricity  or 
history. 

All  our  work,  our  aims,  and  our  possi- 
bilities are  crystalized  in  our  Library 
Bulletin,  a  home  product  in  every  sense 
of  the  word.  The  direct  object  of  this 
little  publication  is  to  attract  all  ages  and 
all  classes  of  our  employees.  It  is  sent 
to  every  department,  and  from  there  dis- 
tributed personally.  We  try  to  have  in 
each  issue  a  section  to  appeal  to  popular 
demand,  as  well  as  to  promote  some  spe- 
cial feature.  We  hope  to  make  this  bulle- 
tin a  strong  factor  in  our  work,  a  lever 
that  will  gauge  not  only  the  circulation 
of  our  books,  but  will  be  the  connecting 
link  between  the  library  and  the  em- 
ployees, and  make  it  the  medium  of  a  new 
energy  and  a  new  enthusiasm  radiating 
from  our  small  quarters  to  every  activity 
of  the  plant. 

And  so,  in  these  few  pages,  I  have  tried 
to  show  that  the  commercial  house  li- 
brary, although  in  its  infancy,  has  come  to 


stay.  And  as  the  pioneering  becomes 
more  and  more  an  established  fact  in  li- 
brary work,  more  commercial  houses  will 
recognize  the  need.  They  will  be  more 
than  ready  to  respond  to  the  progressive 
public  libraries,  whose  efforts  to  expand 
and  to  bring  their  resources  to  the  very 
centers  of  civic  activity  will  thus  estab- 
lish a  more  intelligent  relationship  and 
efficient  cooperation  with  their  very  means 
of  support. 

Miss  Grace  A.  Whare,  of  the  Houghton, 
Mich.,  public  library,  was  present  at  the 
meeting  and  asked  the  privilege  of  pre- 
senting a  very  attractive  exhibit  of  colored 
slides  and  illustrations  which  she  used  in 
telling  Miss  Lagerlof's  Story  of  Nils.  Each 
of  twenty-six  illustrations  depicted  an  ad- 
venture of  Nils. 

Business  Meeting 

The  regular  business  meeting  of  the  sec- 
tion was  held  at  Chateau  Laurier,  June 
29th  at  9:30  a.  m.    Miss  McCurdy  presided. 

The  minutes  of  the  last  meeting  were 
read  and  adopted.  The  chairman  an- 
nounced that  the  terms  of  two  of  the  five 
members  on  the  advisory  board  had  ex- 
pired and  that  only  one  member  was  ap- 
pointed at  the  last  meeting,  instead  of 
two.  This  raised  the  question  as  to  the 
advisability  of  having  an  advisory  board 
since  none  of  the  other  sections  had  such 
boards.  It  was  urged  that  an  executive 
committee  be  formed  consisting  of  the 
three  officers  of  the  section  and  two  other 
members  to  be  appointed  by  the  chairman, 
and  that  all  the  members  of  this  executive 
committee  be  actually  engaged  in  some 
phase  of  library  work  with  children.  It 
was  finally  decided,  however,  to  continue 
the  advisory  board  as  heretofore  and  the 
chairman  was  requested  to  appoint  mem- 
bers to  fill  the  vacancies.  Mr.  Hill  and 
Miss  Titcomb  were  appointed  to  serve  for 
three  years  each.  The  chairman  appointed 
the  following  committee  on  nomination  for 
officers:  Annie  S.  Cutter,  Gertrude  An- 
drus  and  Adah  Whitcomb.  The  meeting 
then  adjourned. 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'  SECTION 


255 


SECOND  SESSION 

(Monday  afternoon,  July  Ist) 
The  second  session  of  the  section  was 
held  July  1,  at  2  o'clock.  The  general  sub- 
ject was  "Work  with  high  schools."  Mr. 
FRANK  K.  WALTER,  vice  director  of  the 
N.  Y.  State  library  school,  read  a  paper  on 

TEACHING  LIBRARY  USE  IN  NORMAL 
AND    HIGH    SCHOOLS 

Within  the  past  few  years  the  literature 
of  this  subject  has  become  so  copious  that 
any  original  discussion  of  basic  principle 
has  become  nearly  out  of  the  question. 
The  excuse  for  papers  like  this  one,  which 
is  mostly  mere  reiteration,  lies  in  the  fact 
that  outside  of  library  circles  the  matter 
has  not  been  very  seriously  considered  in 
spite  of  the  constant  repetition,  and  rela- 
tively few  teachers  have  as  yet  attempted 
to  give  definite  instruction  in  the  use  of 
books. 

It  is  one  of  the  characteristics  of  the 
present  that  we  are  learning  the  necessity 
of  saving  time  and  effort  by  doing  better 
the  things  we  can  already  do  passably 
well.  To  this  end  vocational  schools  and 
vocational  courses  are  being  established 
everywhere.  If  the  use  of  the  tools  of  the 
trades  must  be  taught  in  the  interests  of 
greater  individual  development  and  greater 
efficiency,  there  certainly  is  need  of  teach- 
ing the  efficient  use  of  books  which  are  the 
already  recognized  tools  of  the  professions 
and  which  are  more  and  more  coming  to 
be  recognized  as  necessary  supplements  to 
the  tools  of  the  handicrafts. 

So  far,  it  must  be  admitted,  the  re- 
sponse on  the  part  of  teachers  has  not 
been  very  general  or  very  enthusiastic 
when  courses  of  instruction  in  the  use  of 
books  are  advocated.  At  first  sight  this 
may  seem  strange.  The  primary  purpose 
of  both  school  and  library  is  educational 
and  many  of  the  principles  on  which  each 
line  of  work  is  based  are  equally  familiar 
to  teachers  and  to  librarians.  Let  me  in- 
stance but  a  few. 

1.  Education  is  a  continuous  process, 
started  but  not  concluded  in  school.    This 


is  generally  accepted  and  correspondence 
schools,  study  clubs,  and  similar  activities 
are  recognitions  of  its  truth. 

2.  The  complexity  of  modern  life  Is 
lengthening  the  period  of  formal  school  in- 
struction and  the  rapid  rise  of  new  in- 
dustrial processes  and  the  social  problems 
arising  in  consequence,  make  after-school 
reliance  on  either  past  instruction  or  in- 
dividual personal  experience  unsafe. 

3.  Education  Is  not  confined  to  books 
but  books  of  the  right  kind  are  the  best 
single  aid  to  education. 

4.  Modern  methods  of  teaching  demand 
the  comparative  use  of  books,  not  reliance 
on  a  single  text-book.  Modern  courses  of 
study  emphasize  this  by  their  lists  of  ref- 
erences to  material  for  the  use  of  teacher 
and  pupil.  In  a  pamphlet  of  40  pages  on 
"The  high  school  course  in  agriculture," 
issued  by  the  University  of  Wisconsin, 
nVz  pages  are  devoted  to  references  to 
suggested  reading.  Children  now  study  a 
subject,  not  a  single  text-book  or  series  of 
text-books. 

5.  The  library  is  the  only  continuation 
school  really  practicable  for  all  the  people 
at  all  times  and  for  all  subjects,  and  like 
any  other  institution,  its  value  increases 
in  proportion  to  the  Intelligence  shown  In 
its  use. 

Contrary  to  a  rather  hazy  though  some- 
what general  impression,  there  are  only  a 
few  choice  spirits  to  whom  it  Is  given  to 
love  books  Instinctively  and  to  know  them 
Intimately  without  Instruction.  The  mul- 
titude, whatever  their  rank  or  fortune, 
handle  them  more  or  less  all  the  time 
without  knowing  much  about  them  or 
caring  much  about  them.  It  is  true  that 
a  knowledge  of  books  comes  more  readily 
to  some  than  to  others,  but  training  will 
do  much  for  even  unpromising  people 
who,  without  training,  would  be  practically 
helpless.  The  need  of  this  training  was 
shown  very  clearly  a  decade  or  two  ago 
when  the  method  of  teaching  changed 
rather  generally  from  text-book  mastery 
to  the  so-called  laboratory  method.  There 
were  few  more  pathetic  sights  than  many 
of  the  older  teachers,  almost  totally  un- 


256 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


trained  in  the  comparative  use  of  books 
which  the  new  method  involved,  and  yet 
forced  to  give  up  their  reliance  on  the 
catechetical  method  and  memorized  text- 
book which  could  be  kept  open  by  the 
teacher  while  the  pupil  recited. 

If  the  library  and  the  school  have  so 
much  common  doctrine  and  if  both  recog- 
nize in  their  precept  and  their  practice 
the  importance  of  books,  it  seems  obvious 
that  some  instruction  along  this  line 
should  be  given  in  the  high  school  and, 
indeed,  much  earlier.  Again,  if  pupils  are 
to  be  taught  to  use  books,  it  seems  equally 
obvious  that  the  intelligent  use  of  books 
must  first  be  learned  by  the  teacher.  That 
is,  there  should  be  a  "library  course"  in 
the  .normal  school. 

If  library  and  school  agree  so  far  as  to 
recognize  the  need  of  such  a  course  there 
still  remain  several  general  methods  of  at- 
tempting to  get  the  desired  results. 

(1)  By  experiment.  This  is  the  cus- 
tomary way;  the  empirical  method  or, 
under  certain  conditions,  the  inductive 
method.  "We  learn  to  do  by  doing"  was 
a  pedagogical  maxim  to  conjure  with  some 
years  ago  and  it  has  not  yet  lost  its  siren's 
charm.  Teachers  are  still  assuming  that 
pupils  will  learn  to  use  books  well  by 
using  them  without  direction,  even  though 
an  excess  of  the  experimental  method  has 
confessedly  failed  in  other  directions.  We 
do  not  often  learn  to  do  things  in  the  best 
way  without  some  direction  nor  does  mere 
handling  of  an  object  teach  us  much  about 
it.  Infinitely  more  biology  can  be  learned 
from  two  or  three  angle  worms  studied  in 
a  laboratory  than  from  quarts  of  them 
used  for  fish  bait.  The  laissez-faire 
method  and  the  experimental  method 
without  a  competent  teacher  to  make  it 
really  inductive  are  both  uncertain  in  re- 
sult and  costly  of  time  and  effort. 

(2)  By  sending  pupils  to  the  nearest 
library  for  all  aid  outside  the  text-book 
and  by  handing  over  to  the  nearest  libra- 
rian all  responsibility  for  teaching  the  use 
of  books.  Librarians  often  advocate  this 
method.  It  is  only  an  application  of  the 
specialization  which  is  so  common  in  high 


schools  and  by  which  each  subject  has  its 
own  teacher  who  may  or  may  not  try  to 
correlate  his  own  work  with  that  of  his 
colleagues.  The  librarian,  who  at  least 
ought  to  know  about  books,  is  the  logical 
person  to  plan  courses  and  to  give  formal 
instruction  and  in  any  school  which  can 
possibly  have  a  librarian  who  devotes  her 
entire  time  to  the  library  this  is  the  proper 
course  to  follow.  It  happens,  however, 
that  many  schools  which  greatly  need  such 
a  course  have  no  one  but  the  regular 
teachers  to  administer  the  library  and  to 
teach  its  use.  In  such  an  emergency  no 
school  faculty  is  complete  without  at  least 
one  teacher  who  can  show  the  pupils — 
and  her  fellow-teachers,  if  need  be — some- 
thing of  the  best  methods  of  using  books. 
Moreover,  teachers  need  to  know  how  to 
use  the  books  connected  with  their  own 
courses  even  if  they  need  do  little  or 
nothing  in  the  way  of  general  library 
work. 

(3)  A  third  general  method  remains: 
systematic  training  in  regularly  scheduled 
classes  in  the  high  school  and  a  systematic 
course  in  the  normal  school  for  the  future 
teachers  of  elementary  and  of  high 
schools.  This  is  the  plan  generally 
adopted  for  other  subjects  and  the  failure 
of  the  schools  to  provide  in  their  curricula 
a  place  for  library  training  can  reasonably 
be  attributed  only  to  the  fact  that  libra- 
rians have  failed  to  impress  on  teachers 
the  necessity  for  such  instruction.  There 
are  several  reasons  for  the  failure.  One 
of  the  fundamental  principles  of  success- 
ful advertising  is  that  the  prospective  cus- 
tomer must  be  convinced  that  the  value 
of  the  advertised  article  exceeds  its  cost. 
Perhaps  we  librarians  have  not  always 
recognized  the  value  of  this  principle  in 
our  own  campaigns.  We  use  our  library 
jargon  and  speak  learnedly  of  "library 
methods,"  and  "the  library  world"  as 
though  our  work  were  based  on  some  oc- 
cult secret  (which  it  is  not)  and  as 
though  we  who  carry  it  on  were  a  peculiar 
people  (which  we  sometimes  are),  and  we 
plan  elaborate  courses  in  "library  econ- 
omy"   which    would    strike   terror  to    the 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'   SECTION 


257 


heart  of  any  teacher,  were  any  teacher  in- 
terested enough  to  look  at  them. 

It  is  well  to  remember  that,  as  far  as 
its  place  in  the  school  is  concerned,  the 
library  must  always  be  an  auxiliary,  not 
an  independent  affair — an  auxiliary  of  the 
greatest  importance  which  aids  all  courses 
but  interferes  with  none.     This  is  what  it 
is  in  the  increasing  number  of  schools  in 
which  the  use  of  the  library  is  being  suc- 
cessfully   taught   and    whenever    teachers 
are  shown  that  librarians  are  urging  some- 
thing  that   is    a   time-saver,    not   a   time- 
consumer,  and  that  the  course  they  sug- 
gest   is    not    an    independent    affair    but 
something  which,  even  in  its  own  lessons 
and  problems  can  be  made  to  bear  directly 
on  the  daily  work  of  the  school,  there  will 
not  be  much  trouble  in  getting  periods  in 
which  to  teach  the  use  of  the  library.    As 
we  too  often  present  the   matter,   in  the 
form  of  courses  planned  with  little  refer- 
ence to  actual  conditions  in  the  school  and 
with  problems  compiled  from  our  library- 
school    note-books  ,  or    our    training-class 
notes  and  not  from  material  selected  for 
its  direct  relation  to  the  subject  matter  of 
any  course  in  the  school,  we  are  seemingly 
asking  the  teacher  to  become  interested  in 
our  work,  not  in  a  subject  that  is  of  im- 
portance to  teacher  as  well  as  to  librarian. 
No  general  can  plan  a  successful  cam- 
paign of  invasion  without  a  knowledge  of 
the  topography  and  people  of  the  country 
to  be  invaded  and  no  course  of  study  can 
be    successful    unless    based    on    sound 
pedagogy  and  visibly  related  to  the  cult- 
ural or  vocational  need  of  the  persons  for 
whom  it  is  intended.     It  is  also  well  to 
remember    that     in     strategy    an     officer 
counts  for  more  than  a  private  and  that 
if  official  recognition  is  to  be  secured  for 
any  subject,  the  interest  of  principals  and 
superintendents,  who  plan  the  curricula,  is 
absolutely    necessary.      Work    with    sub- 
ordinate  teachers   alone   will   make   slow 
progress. 

Another  point  which  we  are  just  begin- 
ning to  emphasize  is  the  necessity  of 
getting  articles  in  which  we  desire  teach- 
ers to   be  interested,   into   periodicals   in- 


tended for  teachers  instead  of  confining 
them  to  the  columns  of  library  periodicals. 
The  advertiser  who  wants  to  reach  en- 
gineers will  not  send  his  advertisements 
exclusively  to  the  "American  journal  of 
theology." 

Although  the  high  school  and  the  normal 
school  are  usually  mentioned  together  in 
discussions  on  the  general  subject  of  li- 
brary instruction  in  schools,  there  should 
be  decided  differences  both  in  content  and 
in  general  purpose  between  the  courses  in 
the  two  kinds  of  schools.  In  the  high 
school,  the  purpose  should  be  to  teach  the 
pupils  to  use  books  efficiently  in  solving 
problems  arising  in  their  individual  ex- 
periences. The  care  and  managepient  of 
libraries  can  legitimately  be  taught  only 
in  so  far  as  such  knowledge  helps  the 
pupil  to  use  libraries  of  all  kinds  more 
intelligently.  There  is  no  need  of  detailed 
instruction  in  technique,  though  some  ele- 
ments of  method  are  necessary.  The  use 
of  the  catalog  must  be  taught  in  order  to 
overcome  the  prejudices  of  most  readers 
against  card  catalogs  by  teaching  the 
youth  before  he  arrives  at  obstinate  and 
benighted  manhood,  that  red  headings,  in- 
dentions and  other  conventions  of  the 
catalog  are  as  sensible  and  necessary  as 
black  ruling,  red  ruling  and  other  conven- 
tions of  day-book  and  ledger.  A  little  at- 
tention also  to  the  theory  of  the  charging 
system  will  help  later  in  preventing  hon- 
est but  inaccurate  thrusts  at  "red  tape  in 
libraries." 

The  general  characteristics  of  reference 
books  should  be  discussed  with  the  mean- 
ing and  significance  of  those  universal  but 
little  known  elements  of  all  modern  books, 
the  title  page,  table  of  contents  and  index. 
The  growing  popularity  of  bibliographies 
of  all  kinds  suggests  instruction  in  their 
make-up  and  use  while  the  growing  im- 
portance of  periodicals  of  all  kinds  shows 
the  need  of  knowing  how  to  use  the  gen- 
eral periodical  indexes.  In  all  this  work 
there  can  be  and  should  be  the  closest  re- 
lation to  the  other  work  of  the  school 
course  and  the  various  teachers  can 
easily  suggest  material  of  direct  use  to 


258 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


them  which  will  be  quite  as  interesting 
and  valuable  for  illustrating  the  use  of  the 
library  as  set  problems  compiled  exclu- 
sively by  the  librarians.  Moreover,  such 
procedure  will  demonstrate  conclusively 
both  to  teacher  and  to  pupil  the  direct 
value  of  the  library  in  helping  school  work 
to  be  done  better  and  quicker.  Though 
any  teacher  can  be  of  help  in  this  way, 
English,  geography,  civics  and  history  are 
particularly  good  subjects  with  which  to 
begin  this  cooperation. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  the  librarian 
should  attempt  much  formal  instruction  In 
book  selection  in  the  high  school  unless  it 
is  done  with  the  full  knowledge  and  with 
the  assistance  of  the  other  teachers. 
Otherwise,  such  instruction  will  almost 
Inevitably  lead  to  duplication  and  to  con- 
flict with  the  work  regularly  given  in  other 
courses.  Tactful  suggestions  to  teachers 
on  the  value  of  material  which  they  over- 
look or  know  nothing  about  and  pergonal 
attention  to  the  voluntary  reading  done  by 
pupils  outside  the  school-room  and  not 
connected  with  the  regular  work  of  the 
school  will  furnish  any  school  librarian 
plenty  of  opportunity  for  missionary  work. 

Some  description  of  the  anatomy  of  a 
book  will  probably  help  cultivate  a  greater 
respect  for  books  as  books  and  may  lessen 
the  tendency  to  use  books  badly  which  is 
now  so  prevalent  among  school  children 
furnished  with  books  paid  for  by  the 
school  board  and  not  directly  bought  by 
their  parents. 

All  of  this  teaching  should  be  very 
simple.  What  is  perhaps  the  most  suc- 
cessful manual  of  the  present  on  the  sub- 
ject of  teaching  the  use  of  books  in 
schools  (Ward's  Practical  use  of  books 
and  libraries),  owes  its  success  largely  to 
its  attention  to  the  small  details  which 
everybody,  large  and  small,  is  supposed  to 
know  but  of  which  nearly  everybody  is 
quite  ignorant. 

No  high  school  course  of  this  kind  is 
complete  unless  it  cultivates  friendly  rela- 
tions with  the  public  library  and  promotes 
the  use  of  the  library  after  the  pupils  have 
left  school,  by  calling  on  it  for  aid  while 


they  are  still  in  school.  The  best  school 
librarians  make  every  possible  use  of  the 
public  library  while  they  are  at  the  same 
time  using  to  the  utmost  the  resources  of 
their  own  school  libraries. 

The  amount  of  time  required  for  such  a 
course  as  that  outlined  here  and  which  is 
substantially  the  same  as  dozens  of  other 
courses  outlined  elsewhere,  depends  con- 
siderably on  whether  any  preliminary 
work  of  the  kind  has  been  given  in  the 
lower  grades,  and,  to  some  extent,  on  the 
size  and  general  character  of  the  school's 
collection  of  books.  Something  worth 
while  has  been  done  in  five  or  six  lessons, 
though  not  much  can  be  done  in  less  than 
ten  or  twelve,  and  the  twenty  to  thirty 
periods  which  interested  principals  have 
sometimes  granted  are  none  too  many. 
The  general  plan  will  also  depend  partly 
on  whether  the  instruction  is  all  given  in 
one  year  or  throughout  the  entire  high 
school  course. 

In  the  normal  school  the  purpose  of  the 
library  course  should  be  not  only  to  teach 
the  use  of  books,  but  to  teach,  in  addition, 
the  principles  of  their  proper  selection  and 
enough  of  the  essentials  of  library  tech- 
nique to  enable  the  teacher  to  administer 
successfully  a  small  school  library  and  to 
understand  the  methods  used  in  larger  li- 
braries. It  should  be  not  only  for  indi- 
vidual improvement,  as  in  the  high  school, 
but  designed  also  to  give  skill  in  teaching 
others  how  to  use  the  library.  It  is  neces- 
sary, of  course,  to  supply  any  deficiencies 
in  training  of  the  kind  that  was  suggested 
for  the  high  school,  before  the  administra- 
tive side  of  the  work  can  profitably  be 
taken  up. 

The  technical  side  of  the  work,  there- 
fore, will  be  more  in  evidence  in  the  nor- 
mal school  course.  The  preparation, 
adaptation  and  use  of  the  important  rec- 
ords such  as  the  accession  book,  the  shelf- 
list,  the  catalog  and  the  charging  system 
are  necessary  parts  of  the  equipment  of 
any  teacher  who  is  likely  to  be  put  in 
charge  of  a  school  or  class-room  library. 
A  study  of  the  most  common  trade  lists 
and    a    few    typical    booksellers'    catalogs 


CHILDREN'S   LIBRARIANS'   SECTION 


259 


with  some  comment  on  trade  discounts 
and  the  purchase  of  second-hand  books 
will  save  much  time  and  trouble  later 
when  the  teacher  is  expected  to  advise  as 
to  what  and  where  to  buy. 

Instruction  in  simple  methods  of  book 
repair  will  yield  large  dividends  in  the 
shape  of  better  cared  for  and  longer  lived 
books. 

Simplicity  and  direct  relation  to  school 
work  are  the  two  things  to  be  insisted  upon 
throughout.  Though  the  subjects  and,  to 
some  extent,  the  treatment  should  be  the 
same  as  that  of  the  library  school,  there  is 
neither  opportunity  nor  need  of  the  same 
variety  and  extent  of  instruction  and  prac- 
tice which  should  characterize  schools  for 
the  professional  training  of  librarians,  nor 
should  any  school  which  can  afford  spe- 
cial teachers  in  other  subjects  thrust  tech- 
nical library  work  upon  its  regular  teach- 
ers. To  the  teacher,  the  library  is 
auxiliary  to  her  main  work  and  insistence 
on  elaborate  administrative  methods  will 
defeat  its  purpose. 

This  instruction  in  technique  should  be 
simple,  but  it  does  not  follow  that  a 
teacher  who  has  learned  merely  these  ele- 
ments of  technique  is  fitted  in  turn  to  give 
satisfactory  instruction  to  other  teachers 
or  even  to  administer  a  school  library  in 
the  best  way.  To  do  this  a  librarian  of 
wide  training  and  experience  is  necessary, 
— one  whose  knowledge  of  library  theory 
and  practice  is  wide  enough  to  give  the 
perspective  necessary  to  judge  what  is  es- 
sential, and  intimate  enough  to  determine 
what  adaptations  should  be  made  to  fit 
either  general  library  conditions  or  spe- 
cial contingencies  of  individual  libraries. 
Efficient  simplicity  is  the  result  not  of 
ignorance  but  of  trained  judgment  and  the 
apparent  simplicity  obtained  by  reckless 
or  ignorant  amputation  of  library  manuals 
may  be  worse  than  none  at  all.  A  well 
managed  school  must  have  a  well-admin- 
istered library  and  a  well-administered 
library  implies  a  competent  librarian,  not 
merely  the  regular  presence  of  a  teacher 
with  rather  fewer  classes  and  conse- 
quently more  leisure  than  her  colleagues. 


Indeed,  though  considerable  technique 
has  been  suggested  as  advisable,  I  am  very 
strongly  of  the  opinion  that  technique,  if 
by  this  term  is  meant  the  processes  of 
keeping  library  records,  should  be  thrust 
upon  teachers  only  as  a  necessity,  not  as 
a  desirability.  In  a  school  so  small  that 
one  teacher  or  a  very  few  teachers  at  most 
must  do  all  kinds  of  work,  it  will  be  nec- 
essary and  therefore  it  must  be  taught 
to  these  teachers.  In  larger  and  better 
equipped  schools  there  is  no  more  reason 
for  teacher-librarians  with  a  mere  smat- 
tering of  library  training  than  there  is 
logic  or  justice  in  compelling  the  teacher 
of  English  or  of  history  to  be  the  princi- 
pal's secretary. 

Of  even  more  importance  than  technique 
is  a  careful  study  of  important  reference 
books.  Only  a  small  proportion  of  the 
books  which  would  be  useful  can  possibly 
be  obtained  and  it  is  very"  important  that 
the  teacher  be  able  to  use  to  the  utmost 
such  books  as  the  school  may  possess. 
The  compilation  of  reading  lists  and  lists 
of  references,  whether  for  the  use  of  the 
teacher  or  the  guidance  of  the  pupil,  im- 
plies the  use  of  bibliographies,  footnotes 
and  appendixes  and  a  consideration  of  the 
bibliographic  aids  which  are  so  common 
in  modern  text-books  and  so  little  used 
by  teachers. 

Moreover,  the  teacher  must  know  some 
of  the  principles  of  book  selection,  must 
know  a  fair  number  of  the  best  aids  to 
book  selection  and  must  know  where  to 
find  and  how  to  use  good  book  reviews. 
No  approved  list  of  library,  library  com- 
mission, or  state  department  of  public 
instruction  can  take  the  place  of  independ- 
ent knowledge,  though  these  approved 
lists  are  indispensable  aids. 

The  proper  relations  of  school  and  pub- 
lic library  certainly  must  be  taught  if  any 
closer  and  more  general  cooperation  of  the 
two  is  to  be  brought  about.  Both  teacher 
and  librarian  must  be  parties  to  such  co- 
operation and  each  needs  to  know  the 
point  of  view  of  the  other. 

There  is  no  general  agreement  as  to  the 
amount  of  time  which  the  normal  school 


260 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


ought  to  devote  to  library  instruction.  In 
a  summary  compiled  in  1909  by  the  New- 
ark free  public  library  (Public  libraries 
14:147),  the  number  of  hours  devoted  to 
such  work  in  28  normal  schools  varied 
from  one  lesson  to  60.  Most  of  the  schools 
which  are  recognized  as  leaders  in  this 
work  gave  about  20  lessons.  There  is  rea- 
son to  believe  that  the  general  situation 
has  not  materially  changed  except  that  the 
shorter  courses  are  being  lengthened  and 
more  normal  schools  are  offering  courses 
in  library  methods.  The  small  number  of 
lessons  in  even  the  good  courses  makes 
directness  and  emphasis  on  essentials  im- 
perative. If  all  normal  school  students 
had  been  taught  to  use  books  before  enter- 
ing the  normal  school,  considerable  time 
which  is  now  used  in  teaching  things 
which  should  already  be  known  could  be 
devoted  to  the  methodic  and  pedagogic 
side  of  the  subject. 

More  and  more  normal  schools  are  put- 
ting instruction  in  library  methods  on  a 
par  with  other  subjects  by  giving  credits 
for  it.  This  is  only  what  all  ought  to  do. 
No  normal  school  is  doing  its  work  well 
if  it  sends  its  students  out  unskilled  in 
the  use  of  the  tools  of  their  own  trade.  A 
course  in  the  use  of  books  and  libraries 
is  no  more  of  a  luxury  in  the  general  train- 
ing of  any  teacher  than  a  gas  range  and  a 
kitchen  sink  are  luxuries  in  the  equipment 
of  a  domestic  science  department  or 
planes  and  chisels  in  a  manual  training 
room. 

It  is  not  merely  altruism  that  urges  li- 
brarians to  encourage  this  work.  It  is 
highly  commendable  to  increase  the  good 
feeling  between  two  members  of  the  so- 
called  "educational  trinity,"  the  church, 
the  school  and  the  library,  but  the  benefits 
to  the  library  will  be  more  direct  than 
mere  pleasure  in  promoting  the  success  of 
another  line  of  social  welfare.  To  ensure 
its  own  permanence,  the  library  must  have 
a  reading  public  in  the  future  as  it  has  in 
the  present  and  the  adult  reader  of  the 
future  is  the  child  of  the  present.  To  en- 
sure the  further  development  of  the  li- 
brary, not  only  readers  but  more  readers 


are  needed  and  the  library  will  be  sure  of 
getting  them  only  when  school  room  and 
children's  room  work  together,  and  when 
not  only  those  who  come  to  the  library 
from  choice,  but  all  the  children  whom  the 
community  entrusts  to  the  school  are 
taught  in  the  school  the  latent  power  in 
the  books  the  library  offers  for  their  use 
and  are  taught  by  trained  teachers  how 
best  to  make  that  latent  power  dynamic. 

The  discussion  of  this  paper  was  led  by 
Mr.  W.  J.  Sykes,  librarian  of  the  Ottawa 
public  library,  and  formerly  head  of  the 
English  department  of  the  Collegiate  in- 
stitute of  Ottawa,  who  read  a  paper  pre- 
pared by  Dr.  L.  B.  Sinclair,  dean  of  the 
school  for  teachers,  Macdonald  college. 

MISS  MARY  E.  HALL,  librarian  of  the 
Girl's  high  school,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  read  a 
paper  on 

THE   POSSIBILITIES  OF  THE   HIGH 
SCHOOL   LIBRARY 

Miss  Hall  said  in  part: 

To  those  of  us  who  are  interested  in 
the  problem  of  guiding  the  reading  of 
boys  and  girls  one  of  the  most  important 
recent  developments  of  the  modern  library 
movement  is  the  new  life  which  is  com- 
ing into  the  high  school  libraries  through- 
out the  country. 

The  high  school  library,  although  an 
old  institution,  is  just  beginning  to  "find 
itself"  in  the  library  world  of  to-day.  It 
not  only  has  a  right  to  exist  but  has  pos- 
sibilities for  doing  important  work  in  the 
future  which  will  fully  justify  its  exist- 
ence. It  must  serve  not  only  as  a  great 
laboratory  for  the  work  of  all  depart- 
ments in  the  high  school  but  as  an  im- 
portant experiment  station  for  all  our 
work  with  young  people  of  high  school 
age  and  aid  us  in  the  public  library's  solu- 
tion of  the  problem  of  helping  the  thou- 
sands of  boys  and  girls  who  leave  gram- 
mar school  and  the  children's  room  and 
go  out  into  the  adult  room  of  the  large 
public  library  with  no  one  to  guide  them 
in  their  explorations  among  the  books, 
and  no  one  to  take  the  friendly  personal 
interest  in  them  that  the  teacher  and  li- 


CHILDRENS'  LIBRARIANS'  SECTION 


261 


brarian  of  the  children's  room  always  felt. 
Through  the  high  school  library  and  the 
public  libraries'  young  people's  depart- 
ment of  which  we  dream,  we  must  under- 
take to  "follow  up"  the  work  begun  in  the 
children's  room  and  build  upon  the  founda- 
tions which  librarian  and  teacher  have 
already  laid. 

What  are  some  of  the  revelations  which 
have  been  made  to  those  of  us  who  re- 
luctantly undertook  this  work  some  eight 
or  ten  years  ago?  In  the  first  place  we 
are,  as  our  high  school  debaters  would 
say  "firmly  convinced"  of  the  need  of  a 
large  carefully  selected  collection  of  books 
within  the  high  school  building  where  they 
may  be  had  at  a  moment's  notice  for  refer- 
ence and  reading.  We  are  convinced  that 
we  were  wrong  when  in  our  first  enthu- 
siasm over  the  public  library  we  decreed 
that  the  high  school  library  should  be 
limited  to  books  of  reference  and  "re- 
quired" reading,  and  that  all  books  to  be 
read  for  the  pure  joy  of  reading  should 
be   given  over  to   the   public  library. 

For  four  reasons  I  would  plead  to-day 
for  a  large,  well  equipped  library  in  every 
city  high  school,  a  library  managed  ao- 
cording  to  modern  library  methods  and 
in  charge  of  a  trained  and  experienced 
librarian  who  shall  be  the  equal  of  the 
high  school  teachers  in  broad  education 
and  thorough  professional  training.  This 
librarian  must  be  able  to  win  the  confi- 
dence and  friendship  of  pupils  and  teach- 
ers and  to  enter  sympathetically  into  the 
life  of  the  school.  This  library  may  be 
under  the  control  of  the  Board  of  Educa- 
tion or  a  joint  undertaking  of  Board  of 
Education  and  public  library  as  in  Cleve- 
land, Newark,  Passaic,  Madison,  Wis.,  and 
Portland,  Oregon. 

My  first  reason  for  this  new  high  school 
library  is  found  in  the  aims  and  ideals 
of  the  modern  high  school.  It  is  no  longer 
content  to  serve  merely  as  a  preparatory 
school  for  college.  It  realizes  that  for  the 
great  majority  of  pupils  it  must  be  a  prep- 
aration for  life.  As  these  four  years  end 
their  formal  school  education  it  must  make 
the  most  of  the  time.    These  four  wonder- 


ful years  of  high  school  age  are  the  time 
when  ideals  are  being  formed,  when  boys 
•and  girls  are  hero  worshippers,  and  the 
personal  contact  with  teacher  and  libra- 
rian or  the  reading  of  good  biography  may 
do  marvelous  things  in  moulding  character 
and  setting  up  standards.  In  aiming  for 
social  efficiency  the  modern  high  school 
endeavors  to  prepare  for  intelligent  citi- 
zenship, for  interest  in  and  service  for  the 
various  movements  for  social  betterment. 
My  second  reason  for  this  larger  and 
more  efficient  library  in  the  high  school 
is  the  need  created  by  modern  methods  of 
teaching.  The  text  book  to-day  is  only 
a  guide, — with  its  foot-notes  and  bibliog- 
raphies it  is  a  vade  mecum  to  the  in- 
terested student  to  the  best  books  in  school 
and  public  library  on  the  subject  covered. 
The  efficient  teacher  to-day  uses  books, 
magazines,  daily  paper,  pictures  and  lan- 
tern slides  to  supplement  the  text  book. 
Many  of  these  must  be  at  hand  in  the 
school  building  and  so  classified  and  cat- 
aloged that  they  are  available  at  short 
notice.  Unexpected  questions  arise  in 
class  discussions  and  must  be  settled  be- 
fore the  close  of  the  recitation  period  by 
a  student  being  delegated  to  "look  it  up" 
in  the  school  library  and  report  to  the 
class  while  interest  is  keen.  This  could 
not  be  done  in  a  library  even  five  minutes' 
walk  from  the  school.  There  are  odd  min- 
utes at  the  close  of  a  recitation  when  a 
book  from  the  school  library  can  be  bor- 
rowed and  enough  read  to  make  the  stu- 
dent eager  to  finish  it.  Pictures  are 
wanted  to  illustrate  some  topic  and  are 
loaned  from  one  classroom  to  another  for 
every  forty  minutes  of  a  school  day  when 
the  teacher  finds  they  help  to  awaken 
interest.  The  whole  method  of  the  reci- 
tation has  changed.  "It  becomes,"  says 
one,  "the  social  clearing  house  where  ex- 
periences and  ideas  are  exchanged  and 
new  lines  of  thought  and  inquiry  are  set 
up."  One  of  the  most  interesting  things 
in  the  school  library  work  is  the  use  of 
books  and  magazines  for  the  three  min- 
ute talks  pupils  have  to  give  in  English, 
French,  German  and  Latin  as  cultivation 


262 


OTTAWAIjCONFERENCE 


in  the  art  of  oral  expression.  They  may 
chose  anything  that  interests  them  or 
would  interest  the  class, — some  interest- 
ing bit  of  news  in  the  morning's  paper, 
some  anecdote  about  a  famous  person,  an 
account  in  the  Survey  of  the  Camp-fire 
girls,   etc. 

The  search  for  material  for  these  three 
minute  talks  makes  the  school  library  a 
busy  place  at  times.  Students  vie  with 
one  another  to  bring  to  class  the  most 
interesting  contribution  from  history,  biog- 
raphy, literature,  current  events,  etc.  So 
interested  are  the  students  in  this  kind 
of  library  work  that  some  of  them  began 
making  a  rough  index  of  material  in  news- 
papers, magazines  and  books  that  would 
be  good  for  such  talks.  The  use  of  the 
library  depends  not  so  much  upon  the 
subject  as  upon  the  teacher, — a  teacher 
of  mathematics  who  is  a  constant  reader 
will  get  the  students  to  make  a  better 
use  of  the  library  than  the  English  teacher 
who  prides  herself  that  she  has  taught 
Shakespeare's  "As  you  like  it"  so  thor- 
oughly "inch  by  inch"  that  her  pupils  can- 
not possibly  fail  in  the  final  examination. 
The  biology  teacher  whose  one  cry  a  few 
years  ago  was  the  need  of  cultivating  the 
powers  of  observation  now  acknowledges 
that  the  books  in  the  school  library  or 
public  library  are  needed  to  make  the 
laboratory  and  field  work  of  greatest  value. 
Even  the  instructors  in  the  gymnasium  feel 
that  books  may  help.  Interesting  books 
such  as  Mrs.  Richards'  "Art  of  living," 
Dr.  Gulick's  "Mind  and  work,"  Woods 
Hutchinson's  practical  talks  on  the  sub- 
ject of  health,  etc.,  are  placed  on  reserve 
shelves  or  tables  and  read  by  pupils  not 
as  "required"  reading  but  because  they 
find  them  interesting.  Students  interested 
in  problems  in  chemistry  or  in  the  work 
of  physics  come  up  to  the  school  library 
for  a  free  study  period  to  look  over  the 
books  on  the  library  shelves  and  to  read 
them  on  the  suggestion  of  the  teacher. 
School  library  reading  Is  coming  more  and 
more  to  be  the  result  of  suggestion  rather 
than  compulsion. 

History  teachers  add  to  the  interest  of 
the    recitation    by    suggesting    collateral 


reading  which  will  appeal  to  the  students, 
— biography,  historical  fiction,  orations, 
poetry,  and  drama  are  all  called  into  play, 
attention  is  called  to  articles  in  current 
periodicals  and  a  wise  use  of  the  daily 
paper  is  made  in  order  to  interest  stu- 
dents in  history  in  the  making.  The  his- 
tory teacher  posts  on  the  bulletin  board 
interesting  subjects  for  "special  topics," 
brief  oral  reports  to  the  class  on  interest- 
ing material  outside  the  text  book  and 
students  eagerly  volunteer  to  look  them 
up  in  the  library  and  report  to  the  class. 
"How  did  the  Romans  tell  the  time  of 
day?"  "Describe  the  daily  life  of  a  monk," 
"Methods  of  travel  in  the  middle  ages," 
etc.  Debates  also  are  an  important  fea- 
ture of  the  history  recitation:  "Which  con- 
tributed most  to  civilization,  the  Greeks 
or  the  Romans?" 

In  English  there  has  been  a  great  revo- 
lution recently.  Aside  from  the  inter- 
esting work  in  oral  .expression  already 
mentioned  teachers  are  beginning  to  real- 
ize that  training  in  the  power  of  expres- 
sion and  the  cultivation  of  taste  and  ap- 
preciation must  come  from  extensive  read- 
ing of  good  books,  rather  than  intensive 
reading  of  a  few.  Supplementary  reading 
is  no  longer  an  "assignment"  of  a  stand- 
ard work  of  literature  to  be  taken  as  a 
dose  of  medicine  by  the  pupil  with  the 
comforting  assurance  of  the  teacher  that 
it  "will  do  him  good."  With  the  best 
English  teachers  supplementary  reading 
is  really  an  introduction  to  the  best  books 
in  school  library  and  public  library,  books 
to  be  read  not  for  marks  but  for  pleasure 
with  the  hope  that  it  may  mean  a  perma- 
nent interest  in  good  reading,  a  wise  use 
of  the  public  library  and  the  building  up 
of  home  libraries.  The  supplementary 
reading  list  of  to-day  is  a  list  of  many 
different  kinds  of  interesting  books,  old 
and  new,  which  ought  to  appeal  to  the 
average  high  school  boy  or  girl.  There 
is  ample  opportunity  for  each  to  find  some- 
thing which  he  will  really  like  and  he 
may  take  his  choice. 

The  skillful  English  teacher  no  longer 
spoils  this  reading  by  requiring  an  ex- 
amination  as  to   plot,  charactesr  develop- 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'  SECTION 


263 


ment,  climax,  etc.  Instead  of  this  dreaded 
written  report  which  was  warranted  to 
dull  the  interest  in  the  most  exciting  novel 
as  it  haunted  the  reader  all  the  way 
through  the  book  the  recitation  is  occa- 
sionally given  up  to  an  informal  talk  about 
the  books  the  pupils  have  read  and  en- 
joyed— very  much  such  a  book  symposium 
as  we  librarians  delight  in.  The  enthu- 
siasm of  a  pupil  in  his  report  on  a  book 
v»'ill  create  an  immediate  demand  for  it. 
"I  want  that  book  you  talked  about  in 
class,  it  must  be  a  dandy  one,"  the  libra- 
rian hears  one  student  say  to  another  as 
they  browse  at  noon  among  the  books  of 
fiction.  In  the  more  intensive  study  of 
the  masterpieces  of  English  literature  the 
best  English  teachers  make  the  study  one 
of  training  in  appreciation  and  not  an 
"exercise  in  mental  gymnastics"  or  a  pro- 
cess of  vivisection.  They  realize  with  Bur- 
roughs that  "if  you  tear  a  thing  all  into 
bits  you  haven't  the  thing  itself  any  more." 
They  have  the  pupils  read  other  works 
for  comparison, — the  Alcestis  and  Medea 
and  compare  them  with  some  of  Shake- 
speare's plays  they  have  been  studying.  If 
reading  Lycidas,  then  Theocritus,  Shelley's 
Adonais,  Arnold's  Thyrsis  are  read  and 
discussed.  In  studying  Burke,  orations  by 
Lord  Chatham  and  Mansfield  are  read  and 
compared.  Students  find  in  this  compara- 
tive work  a  great  delight  and  in  this  work 
as  well  as  in  the  debates  which  English 
teachers  encourage  some  of  them  surprise 
us  with  their  powers  of  discrimination  and 
their  deep  thinking.  All  of  this  calls  for 
the  use  of  many  kinds  of  books  in  school 
and   public   library. 

My  third  plea  for  a  school  library  is  in 
the  needs  of  individual  students  for  a 
guidance  in  their  reading  which  can  be 
better  given  by  the  librarian  in  the  school 
library  than  in  the  busy  public  library. 
The  school  librarian  has  the  teacher  al- 
ways close  at  hand  and  can  know  the  prob- 
lems of  these  teachers  in  their  work  with 
pupils.  Through  attendance  at  the  teach- 
ers' meeting  she  can  keep  in  close  touch 
with  the  school's  methods  of  work  and 
its    ideals.      She    can    unify    the    library 


work  which  the  school  is  urging  upon  the 
pupils  as  twenty  branch  librarians  work- 
ing with  groups  of  these  same  students 
cannot  do.  She  comes  to  know  each  of 
these  hundreds  or  thousands  of  pupils  bet- 
ter even  than  some  of  the  teachers  in 
these  large  schools  who  have  them  in 
their  classes  for  only  six  months  or  a 
year  while  she  has  them  in  the  library 
every  day  for  four  years  and  comes  in 
close  personal  touch  with  them.  She 
knows  them  through  their  parents,  their 
teachers,  and  their  friends  and  can  some- 
times find  the  point  of  contact  which  cer- 
tain teachers  have  failed  to  find.  We  must 
make  the  school  library  do  for  the  pupils 
what  the  little  home  library  used  to  do  for 
many  of  us.  In  these  days  of  apartment 
houses  and  tenements,  when  families  move 
about  so  constantly  there  is  little  chance 
for  the  home  library. 

My  fourth  plea  for  a  library  within  the 
high  school  building  is  that  it  is  absolutely 
necessary  as  a  connecting  link  between 
the  high  school  and  public  library  in  our 
large  cities.  Wonderful  things  may  be 
accomplished  by  the  high  school  librarian, 
who  believes  the  most  important  work  of 
the  school  library  is  preparation  for  the 
best  use  of  the  public  library  and  who  en- 
courages the  use  of  the  public  library 
through  all  the  four  years.  She  can  be 
an  excellent  "go  between"  not  only  for 
pupils  who  do  not  use  the  public  library, 
but  between  public  library  and  principals 
and  teachers  who  have  no  idea  what  it 
can  do  for  them.  She  can  enlighten  them 
on  the  functions  of  this  institution  of  the 
people, — show  them  how  much  more  it  is 
than  what  they  suppose  it  to  be,  "a  col- 
lection of  fiction  for  those  too  poor  to 
buy  their  own  books."  She  can  enlighten 
teachers  as  to  the  necessity  for  giving 
the  reference  librarian  due  notice  when 
material  is  to  be  needed  by  classes  on  a 
special  topic,  and  the  need  for  ascertain- 
ing whether  there  really  is  any  available 
material  before  requiring  reports  from  stu- 
dents on  impossible  subjects.  She  can 
bring  about  a  personal  acquaintance  of 
high    school    teachers    and    librarians    in 


264 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


public  libraries  and  invite  the  library  work- 
ers in  public  libraries  to  conferences  with 
teachers  in  the  school  library. 

She  can  take  a  census  of  each  entering 
class  at  high  school  and  find  how  many 
are  not  using  the  public  library  and  why. 
Such  a  census  shows  usually  30%  who 
have  no  library  cards.  Some  have  their 
cards  taken  from  them  by  parents  when 
they  enter  high  school  lest  they  read  so 
many  books  it  interferes  with  their  stud- 
ies. This  is  a  frequent  occurrence.  In 
other  cases  a  heavy  fine  has  made  a  drain 
upon  the  purse  of  some  poor  mother  and 
she  has  vowed  that  not  one  of  her  chil- 
dren should  have  a  card  in  the  public  li- 
brary. Many  of  this  30%  have  never  cared 
enough  for  books  to  have  a  card  in  the 
public  library.  The  librarian  who  finds 
these  conditions  early  in  the  term  ex- 
plains to  parents  by  personal  notes  and  in- 
terviews that  library  cards  in  the  public 
library  will  be  an  absolute  necessity  for 
high  school  work.  Students  who  have 
never  had  cards  are  urged  to  apply  for 
them  at  once  and  they  are  sent  to  just 
the  right  person  in  the  public  library  who 
will  take  an  interest  in  them,  often  a  per- 
sonal note  of  introduction  being  given  to 
the  pupil  to  make  that  first  visit  to  the 
public  library  easy  and  pleasant. 

In  addition  to  the  possibilities  in  high 
school  library  work  already  mentioned  the 
librarian  has  opportunities  for  doing  many 
things  not  possible  or  not  done  so  easily 
in  the  public  library. 
1.     Creating  the  right  attitude  towards  the 

library  reading  calied  for  by  the  modern 

high  school. 

The  old  time  school  library  was  not  a 
pleasant  place.  She  can  introduce  public 
library  methods, — an  attractive  room, 
plants,  pictures,  bulletin  board,  etc.  Let 
them  feel  an  atmosphere  of  friendliness 
from  the  start  and  bring  in  the  spirit  of 
joy  rather  than  stern  duty  by  making  the 
first  visit  a  delight.  An  informal  "library 
reception"  to  each  entering  class  or  to 
groups  of  40  or  more  as  they  enter  the 
school  until  all  have  had  this  meeting 
with  the   librarian,   makes   a   good   start. 


Here  the  students  are  shown  the  beauti- 
ful illustrated  books,  pictures,  etc.,  and 
librarian  and  pupils  talk  over  the  books 
they  have  read  and  liked.  Teacher  and 
librarian  call  attention  to  books  they  may 
like  to  read  during  free  study  periods  and 
pupils  are  made  to  feel  that  the  library 
reading  is  one  of  the  pleasures  of  high 
school  life. 
2.     The  study  period. 

This  has  marvelous  opportunities  for  the 
librarian.  Here,  every  40  minutes  come 
from  60  to  100  pupils,  filling  every  avail- 
able seat.  Many  come  for  definite  refer- 
ence work,  special  topics,  required  read- 
ing,— many  just  to  spend  a  free  period  in 
browsing.  In  our  best  high  school  libra- 
ries there  is  as  little  red  tape  as  possible, 
even  "library  passes"  being  dispensed  with 
at  times.  Pupils  are  free  to  use  books  as 
they  choose.  They  crowd  around  the  li- 
brary bulletin  boards  for  suggestions  as  to 
good  books  to  read,  interesting  magazine 
articles,  a  glimpse  of  the  day's  news  as  it 
had  been  clipped  by  seniors  and  posted  in 
the  form  of  a  "model  newspaper"  under 
heading,  "Foreign  affairs,  National,  State, 
City,  Art,  Civic  and  social  betterment,  etc." 
The  bulletin  boards  call  attention  to  spe- 
cial art  exhibits  in  the  city,  to  musical 
opportunities  in  the  way  of  opera  and 
concerts,  etc.  Teachers  in  the  various 
departments  make  the  department  bulle- 
tin boards  in  the  library  a  constant  means 
of  awakening  interest.  The  French  de- 
partment posts  post  cards  showing  views 
of  places,  mentioned  In  their  reading.  Latin 
teachers  post  reading  lists  on  life  in  the 
time  of  Cicero,  and  pictures  of  Fompeian 
houses,  furniture,  cooking  utensils,  etc.,  to 
make  the  life  real.  Often  at  the  close  of 
a  study  period  if  all  are  through  their 
regular  work  the  librarian  gives  an  In- 
formal three  minute  talk  on  some  interest- 
ing thing  on  the  bulletin  boards,  urges  the 
reading  of  some  poem  or  '  essay  or  new 
book  of  biography,  such  as  Mary  Antin, 
calls  attention  to  some  unusually  good 
magazine  article,  or  to  some  good  edition 
of  a  book  to  buy  and  own, — Hugh  Thom- 
son's illustrated  Silas  Marner  in  the  Cran- 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'  SECTION 


266 


ford  series,  Pride  and  Prejudice  in  Every- 
man's series,  library  binding,  as  a  good 
edition  to  talce  out  into  tlie  country  for 
summer  reading. 

3.  Instruction  in  use  of  books. 

In  tlie  sctiool  library  far  better  than  by 
sending  classes  out  to  the  public  library 
definite  and  systematic  instruction  can  be 
given  by  librarian  on  the  uses  of  books. 
A  regular  schedule  for  this  work  is  pre- 
pared by  principal  or  head  of  English  de- 
partment and  lessons,  lectures,  quizzes 
and  problems  are  given  by  teacher  or  li- 
brarian as  a  part  of  the  school  work.  By 
working  in  this  close  touch  with  teachers, 
problems  will  relate  directly  to  their  every 
day  class  work. 

4.  The  library  as  a  social  center. 

Here  the  librarian  in  the  school  finds 
boundless  opportunities  not  possible  in 
public  library  work.  Parents'  receptions 
are  held  in  the  evenings  in  the  large  and 
beautiful  library  room  and  the  librarian 
acts  as  hostess.  Here  come  rich  and 
poor  of  all  nationalities, — learned  and  un- 
learned and  the  librarian  meets  them  all, 
talk  over  with  them,  the  boys  and  girls, 
shows  them  what  the  library  tries  to  do 
for  them  and  goes  over  the  parents'  prob- 
lems with  those  who  read  too  much  or 
those  who  are  reading  trash, — and  last 
but  not  least  those  who  do  not  like  to 
read.  The  librarian  suggests  good  books 
and  good  editions  for  parents  to  buy  and 
the  number  of  note  books  and  pencils  at 
work  show  how  eager  many  are  for  this 
help — they  delight  in  the  beautiful  illus- 
trated books  almost  as  much  as  the  boys 
and  girls. 

The  noon  hour  offers  great  possibilities 
to  the  school  librarian.  Here  she  is  "at 
home"  to  all  students  who  want  to  talk 
about  books.  Around  her  desk  is  held 
a  daily  "book  symposium."  Absolute  free- 
dom and  frankness  is  encouraged.  She 
is  aided  in  her  recommendations  by  the 
pupils'  own  comments  of  approval  and 
their  word  goes  farther  with  a  doubting 
soul  than  any  word  of  hers.  If  a  pupil 
returns  a  book  with  "I  don't  like  it,"  the 
librarian  tries  to  find  where  the  trouble 


was.  If  it  was  the  first  page  or  chapter 
which  seemed  uninteresting  she  points  out 
the  place  just  ahead  where  it  begins  to 
be  most  interesting,  gets  a  student  nearby 
who  read  and  liked  the  book  to  tell  just 
enough  to  show  the  doubting  pupil  what 
he  is  missing  by  not  reading  it.  Or,  if  on 
talking  with  the  pupil  it  seems  he  would 
not  like  that  particular  book  she  assures 
him  it  is  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of  if  one 
does  not  like  all  great  books, — that  we 
have  to  grow  up  to  some,  that  some  may 
never  be  interesting  to  us  while  absorb- 
ingly interesting  to  others.  The  personal 
equation  has  to  be  considered. 

Library  reading  clubs  are  a  great  power 
for  influencing  the  reading  of  high  school 
pupils.  It  is  the  age  of  clubs  and  organi- 
zations. In  the  books  the  pupils  choose 
while  browsing  the  librarian  finds  a  point 
of  contact  and  by  the  reading  clubs  can 
direct  the  voluntary  reading.  Interests 
unsuspected  by  teachers  are  revealed  to 
the  school  librarian.  An  interest  in  art 
by  a  pupil  thought  hopeless  in  mathematics 
and  physics  and  only  a  fair  student  in 
other  things.  The  librarian  in  the  school 
has  expert  aid  in  this  club  work.  For  the 
library  reading  club  on  art  she  selects  the 
most  inspiring  and  sympathetic  art 
teacher  on  the  faculty.  For  those  who 
are  reading  Darwin  and  Spencer  and  Hux- 
ley, the  finest  teacher  in  biology  who 
thoroughly  knows  the  literature  and  can 
make  the  reading  mean  much.  For  those 
interested  in  civic  and  social  questions, 
clubs  for  discussion  and  debate  are  formed 
with  English  and  history  teachers  for  ad- 
visers, but  all  center  in  the  school  library 
and  meet  there  after  school.  After  school, 
also  where  the  library  Is  large  or  there 
are  two  rooms,  students  may  stay  to 
study, — tenement  homes  and  apartments 
are  often  difficult  places  for  quiet  work. 
For  our  own  school  a  biography  reading 
club  has  been  a  great  success,  the  stu- 
dents reading  interesting  biographies  of 
famous  women,  Alice  Freeman  Palmer, 
Carla  Wenckebach,  Jane  Addams,  Florence 
Nightingale,  etc.  Also  lives  of  great  ex- 
plorers, artists,  musicians,  statesmen,  etc. 


266 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


5.     Vocational  guidance. 

This  is  coming  to  mean  great  possibili- 
ties. If  the  librarian  is  sympathetic  and 
has  won  the  hearts  of  the  students  they 
will  come  naturally  to  her  as  a  source  of 
information  on  what  a  boy  or  girl  can  do 
to  earn  a  living.  It  is  a  serious  problem 
to  the  high  school  pupil, — often  there  is  no 
one  at  home  to  help.  The  librarian  must 
be  ready  with  books,  pamphlets,  clippings 
to  lay  before  the  student  the  many  possi- 
bilities in  choosing  a  vocation.  The  books 
on  these  subjects  are  the  most  popular 
books  in  the  library  of  a  large  boys  high 
school.  Catalogs  of  technical  and  trade 
schools,  etc.,  should  be  on  file  for  refer- 
ence for  students  desiring  to  plan  spe- 
cial courses  in  high  school  to  meet  their 
entrance  requirements.  Where  there  is  a 
committee  of  teachers  on  vocational  di- 
rection the  librarian  can  be  of  great  serv- 
ice in  aiding  in  collections  of  books,  maga- 
zines and  pamphlet  material. 

These  possibilities  of  the  high  school 
library  make  it  a  most  tempting  field  for 
any  one  interested  in  work  with  the  older 
boys  and  girls.  The  librarian  has  the  op- 
portunity of  making  the  school  library: 
(1)  A  great  working  laboratory  for  all 
departments  which  will  meet  their  needs 
for  reference  and  serve  to  stimulate  in- 
terest or  awaken  interest  in  the  work 
of  class  room  or  laboratory.  (2)  A  prep- 
aratory school  for  the  best  use  of  college 
or  public  library  by  training  students  in 
the  use  of  a  library  during  the  four  years 
in  school.  (3)  Compensation  to  the  stu- 
dents for  the  lack  of  a  home  library. 
Carefully  selected,  largely  a  collection  of 
the  best  books  on  the  subjects  which  high 
school  pupils  would  be  interested  in  and 
containing  all  the  really  great  things  in 
the  world's  literature  it  affords  a  brows- 
ing place  which  should  mean  that  inspir- 
ing and  stimulating  contact  with  books 
which  many  have  felt  in  their  home  libra- 
ries, and  it  should  mean  also  that  personal 
guidance  of  the  reading  of  the  individual 
which  in  more  fortunate  homes  parents 
give  to  their  children.  And  perhaps  quite 
as  important  as  any  other  is  the  possi- 


bility of  opening  up  to  the  high  school 
students  and  teachers  the  great  resources 
of  the  public  library.  The  success  of  the 
high  school  library  of  the  future  will  de- 
pend largely  upon  its  relation  to  the  public 
library.  We  are  just  at  the  beginning  of 
things  to-day  in  this  matter  of  co-opera- 
tion and  shall  probably  see  important  de- 
velopments along  this  line  during  the  next 
five  years. 

Mr.  Gilbert  O.  Ward,  supervisor  of  high 
school  branches,  Cleveland  public  library, 
led  the  discussion  on  Miss  Hall's  paper. 
He  said  in  part: 

High  school  pupils  after  all  are  a  very 
small  proportion  of  the  school  community. 
Why  should  a  public  library  put  an  ex- 
pensive assistant  into  a  high  school, 
where,  after  all,  the  actual  numbers  af- 
fected are  small?  One  answer  is  this: 
High  school  students  like  college  students, 
though  in  a  less  degree,  are  a  chosen  few. 
They  are  in  a  position  to  become  naturally 
leaders  in  the  community.  And  it  seems 
to  me  that  public  libraries  which  have  the 
chance  to  establish  high  school  branches 
should  consider  the  possibilities  of  the  in- 
direct infiuence  on  the  community  as  well 
as  the  direct  infiuence  on  the  limited  num- 
ber of  high  school  students. 

In  considering  now  the  relation  between 
high  school  library  and  public  library,  let 
us  first  sum  up  the  needs  of  the  high 
school,  the  points  in  which  the  public  li- 
brary fails  to  meet  the  situation,  and  the 
points  in  which  the  independent  high 
school  library  is  liable  to  failure: 

The  high  school  needs: 

1.  Books,  freely  duplicated,  including 
general  reference  books,  books  relating  to 
school  work  and  selected  generaJ  reading 
adapted  to  the  abilities  and  appreciation 
of  high  school  students. 

2.  A  trained  librarian. 

The  progressive  high  school  needs  these 
in  the  building  as  it  needs  a  chemical 
laboratory  in  the  building.  There  is  no 
better  reason  for  making  a  student  go  to 
the  public  library  for  an  ordinary  bit  of 
class  work,  than  for  sending  him  to  the  Y. 
M.  C.  A.  for  his  gymnasium  work. 


CHILDREN'S  LIBRARIANS'   SECTION 


267 


The  public  librai-y  fails  with  the  hiffix 
schools  as  follows: 

1.  It  generally  lacks  official  standing 
in  the  school  plan,  hence  it  has  to  work 
with  the  individual  teacher  or  principal  as 
chance  offers. 

2.  Teachers  are  often  too  indifferent, 
careless,  or  overpressed  by  work  to  come 
to  the  public  library. 

3.  Visits  to  the  public  library  for  refer- 
ence work,  inside  or  outside  of  school 
hours,  takes  up  pupils'  time,  even  if  the 
school  is  convenient  to  the  public  library. 
This  difficulty  gets  worse  as  reference 
work  increases. 

4.  Library  instruction  should  cover  a 
number  of  periods,  and  if  given  in  the  pub- 
lic library,  the  necessary  number  of  visits 
deranges  schedules,  wastes  time  and 
raises  questions  of  discipline. 

5.  The  public  library  is  sometimes  un- 
able or  unwilling  to  duplicate  books 
freely  enough  to  meet  school  needs. 

6.  The  public  library  is  not  on  the  spot 
to  answer  instant  needs. 

The  independent  high  school  library 
meets  peculiar  difficulties  and  dangers  in 
fulfilling  its  duty.  It  is  right  to  say  here 
that  the  highest  point  of  development  in 
high  school  libraries  has,  to  the  best  of  my 
knowledge,  been  reached  in  certain  high 
schools  in  which  the  library  has  no  con- 
nection with  the  public  library,  but  where 
it  is  managed  by  a  well-paid,  trained  and 
experienced  librarian.  Generally  speak- 
ing, however,  especially  in  the  case  of 
high  schools  which  do  not  employ  a 
trained  librarian,  I  think  I  may  say  that 
the  independent  high  school  library  at 
present  is  likely  to  be  narrow  in  scope, 
badly  administered,  self  centered  and  neg- 
lectful of  co-operation  with  the  public  li- 
brary, and  hampered  by  red  tape  getting 
books  promptly  through  boards  of  educa- 
tion. 

Neither  school  library  nor  public  library, 
it  seems  to  me,  can  alone  meet  high  school 
needs.  The  school  library  needs  the  pub- 
lic library  because  of  the  broadening  in- 
fluence of  the  usually  larger  institution. 
It    needs    the    resources    of    the    usually 


larger  collection.  It  caji  oft«a  benefit  by 
suggestion  and  aid  in  administrative 
details,  especially  when  in  untrained  hands. 

The  public  library  needs  the  school  li- 
brary, among  other  reasons,  to  bring  it  into 
closer  contact  with  the  school  system 
officially.  The  public  library,  it  seems  to 
me,  should  require  the  high  school  li- 
brarian to  attend  its  regular  staff  meetings 
if  she  be  a  public  library  official  or  invite 
her  to  attend  them  if  she  is  not.  The 
high  school  librarian  in  many  cases  attends 
school  faculty  meetings,  and  by  regularly 
attending  public  library  staff  meetings  she 
can  intelligently  interpret  school  to  public 
library  and  vice  versa.  The  public  library 
needs  the  high  school  library  so  as  to  get 
earlier  and  more  certain  information  of 
books  needed  for  class  use,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  reserving  in  the  public  library  or  of 
concentrating  them  in  the  school  library. 
Six  copies  of  a  title  concentrated  at  call 
in  the  high  school  library  and  lent  from 
there  for  short  loans,  prevent  a  few 
students  from  monopolizing  books,  and  so 
do  much  more  satisfactory  work  than 
twice  the  number  lent  from  the  public 
library  in  the  usual  way.  In  general,  the 
public  library  by  working  through  the  high 
school  library  should  work  more  effect- 
ively by  meeting  the  school  on  its  own 
ground. 

It  is  pretty  clear,  I  think,  that  the  school 
library  and  the  public  library  need  each 
other.  The  questions  remaining  are: 
What  kind  of  co-operation  is  most  effect- 
ive? How  can  that  co-operation  be  brought 
about? 

I  doubt  if  there  is  a  universal  answer 
for  either  question.  I  think  that  local 
conditions  will  have  to  be  studied  in  each 
case,  and  under  local  conditions  I  include 
the  school  situation,  the  public  library  sit- 
uation,   personalities,    local    politics,    etc. 

Miss  Hall  has  found  a  satisfactory 
answer  for  the  library  controlled  by  the 
school.  The  solution  which  has  come 
under  my  observation  is  the  administra- 
tion of  the  school  library  by  the  public 
library,  with  a  division  between  school 
and  public  library,  of  the  expense. 


268 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


This  plan  in  one  form  or  another  is  now 
being  tried  with  the  high  school  libraries 
in  five  cities — Cleveland,  C;  Madison,  Wis.; 
Newark,  N.  J.;  Passaic,  N.  J.;  and  Port- 
land, Ore.  This  includes  eleven  libraries 
actually  in  operation,  and  five  others  in 
contemplation.  The  plan  has  also  been 
adopted,  I  am  informed,  by  a  number  of 
towns  in  New  Jersey. 

In  bringing  about  co-operation,  the  first 
step  Is  to  make  a  careful,  thorough  study  of 
conditions,  not  forgetting  the  questions, 
"What  is  the  attitude  of  the  principal?" 
and,  "Which  can  pay  the  higher  salary — 
public  library  or  high  school?" 

The  results  under  any  plan,  may  we  add, 
depend  on  the  high  school  librarian.  She 
should  have  a  college  education  to  put  her 
on  a  par  with  the  teaching  staff.  She  must 
be  adaptable.  She  must  have  solid  book 
knowledge,  especially  of  English  and  his- 


tory. She  must  be  able  to  manage  a  room 
full  of  students  without  fuss  or  strain.  A 
raw  high  school  graduate  with  a  smatter- 
ing of  technique  will  not  do. 

Finally,  whatever  the  public  library's 
part  In  the  scheme  of  co-operation,  the  pub- 
lic library  must  be  willing  to  view  the  sub- 
ject from  the  school  side,  and  be  willing 
to  adapt  its  methods  to  school  needs. 

A  short  business  session  of  the  active 
members  of  the  session  followed  this  meet- 
ing. Upon  recommendation  of  the  Nomin- 
ating Committee  the  following  officers 
were  elected:  Chairman,  Miss  Effie  L. 
Power,  supervisor  of  children's  work,  St. 
Louis  public  library;  vice-chairman.  Miss 
Alice  Goddard,  head  of  children's  depart- 
ment, Washington  County  free  library, 
Hagerstown,  Md.,  and  secretary,  Miss 
Hannah  M.  Lawrence,  children's  librarian, 
Buffalo  public  library. 


COLLEGE   AND   REFERENCE    SECTION 


FIRST  SESSION 

(Friday,  June  28,  8:15  p.  m.) 
The  first  session  of  the  College  and 
Reference  section  was  held  on  the  eve- 
ning of  June  28,  in  the  banquet  room  of 
the  Chautau  Laurier,  about  75  people  be- 
ing present.  In  the  absence  of  Dr.  A.  S. 
Root,  chairman  of  the  section,  and  Miss 
Irene  Warren,  secretary,  the  meeting  was 
called  to  order  by  Mr,  P.  L.  Windsor, 
who  had  at  the  request  of  Dr,  Root  and  of 
Mr.  Utley,  arranged  the  program;  Mr.  S. 
J.   Brandenburg  acted  as  secretary. 

Mr.  THEODORE  W.  KOCH,  librarian 
of  the  University  of  Michigan,  read  the 
first  paper  entitled 

SOME   PHASES   OF   THE   ADMINISTRA- 
TIVE  HISTORY   OF  COLLEGE   AND 
UNIVERSITY    LIBRARIES* 

The  development  of  college  and  univer- 
sity libraries  has  been  so  rapid  during  the 
past  score  of  years  that  it  may  be  worth 

•Abridged  from  an  address  delivered  before  the  New 
York  State  Library  School  and  the  University  of 
Michigan  Summer  Library  SchooL 


while  to  turn  back  for  a  moment  and  col- 
lect a  few  illustrations  of  early  ideas  of 
library  management  from  the  history  of 
the  older  universities.  The  most  inter- 
esting ones  for  this  purpose  are  those 
of  Oxford  ^nd  Cambridge,  Harvard,  Yale 
and  Columbia  universities. 

The  Bodleian  in  its  reorganized  form 
was  opened  in  1602  with  a  stock  of  two 
thousand  five  hundred  volumes — a  fairly 
large  collection  for  those  days.  It  had 
been  established  in  Duke  Humphrey's  day 
In  a  suite  of  rooms  over  the  Divinity 
School  "far  removed"  as  the  old  univer- 
sity records  put  it,  "from  any  worldly 
noise."  The  first  rules  for  the  govern- 
ment of  the  library  were  drafted  by  Bod- 
ley  himself.  While  in  general  they  were 
wise  ones,  they  reflected  the  spirit  of  the 
times  in  which  they  were  written.  Sir 
Thomas  objected  to  the  inclusion  of  belles 
lettres  as  beneath  the  dignity  of  the  in- 
stitution he  was  fostering.  "I  can  see 
no  good  reason,"  said  he,  "to  alter  my 
rule  for  excluding  such  books  as  Alma- 
nacks, Plays,  and  an  infinite  number  that 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


269 


are  daily  printed  of  very  unworthy  mat- 
ters. Haply  some  plays  may  be  worthy 
the  keeping — but  hardly  one  in  forty.  .  .  . 
This  is  my  opinion,  wherein  if  I  err  I 
shall  err  with  infinite  others;  and  the 
more  I  think  upon  it,  the  more  it  doth 
distaste  me  that  such  kinds  of  books 
should  be  vouchsafed  room  in  so  noble  a 
library."  Scholars  were  required  to  leave 
a  deposit  in  cash  as  a  pledge  of  good 
faith  when  borrowing  books,  but  the  de- 
posit was  usually  a  mere  trifle  compared 
with  the  value  of  the  loan.  Unscrupulous 
borrowers  willingly  forfeited  the  money 
and  kept  the  manuscripts.  Some  volumes 
were  stolen,  while  others  were  entered 
in  the  catalog  as  "missing,"  a  distinction 
with  perhaps  very  little  difference.  Tra- 
dition says  that  Polidore  Virgil  had  stolen 
so  many  books  that  the  authorities  were 
finally  compelled  to  deny  him  access  to 
the  library,  whereupon  he  promptly  ob- 
tained from  Henry  VIII  a  special  license 
to  borrow  whatever  manuscripts  he  de- 
sired and  the  librarian  had  to  bow  to  the 
ruling  of  the  King. 

In  a  manuscript  copy  of  the  works  of 
St.  Augustine  and  St.  Ambrose  in  the  Bod- 
leian, is  written,  "This  book  belongs  to 
St.  Mary  of  Robert's  Bridge:  Whosoever 
steals  it,  or  sells  it,  or  takes  it  away  from 
this  house  in  any  way,  or  injures  it,  let 
him  be  anathema-maranatha."  Under- 
neath another  hand  has  written,  "I,  John, 
Bishop  of  Exeter,  do  not  know  where  the 
said  house  is:  I  did  not  steal  this  book, 
but  got  it  lawfully."    . 

At  one  time  folios  in  the  Bodleian  were 
chained  to  the  shelves  but  the  custom 
was  given  up  and  the  chains  sold  for  old 
iron  in  1769.  That  the  arrangements  at 
the  Bodleian  were  viewed  with  favor  by 
library  benefactors  can  be  seen  from  a 
letter  which  the  worthy  John  Hollis  of 
London,  second  founder  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege library,  sent  to  the  authorities  at 
Cambridge  in  1735:  "You  want  seats  to 
sit  and  read  in  and  chains  to  your  valu- 
able books  like  our  Bodleian  library  or 
Zion  College  in  London.  You  let  your 
books    be    taken    at    pleasure    to    men's 


houses  and  many  are  lost,  your  boyish 
students  take  them  to  their  chambers  and 
tear  out  pictures  and  maps  to  adorn  their 
walls." 

Gibbon  in  his  autobiography  has  com- 
mented upon  the  sloth  of  18th  century  Ox- 
ford and  its  absolute  indifference  to  study. 
The  records  of  the  Bodleian '  substantiate 
the  low  point  to  which  the  intellectual 
life  of  the  university  had  ebbed.  The  reg- 
isters of  books  borrowed  for  the  decade 
1730-1740  show  that  only  rarely  were 
more  than  one  or  two  books  asked  for  in 
a  day.  In  some  cases  a  whole  week  is 
passed  over  without  a  single  entry  being 
made.  The  indifference  throughout  the 
university  showed  itself  in  the  manage- 
ment of  the  library.  For  92  years,  that  is, 
from  1768-1860,  the  Bodleian  was  so  un- 
fortunate as  to  be  in  the  hands  of  only 
two  men,  the  Reverend  John  Price,  of 
Jesus  College,  who  died  in  his  eightieth 
year,  and  Dr.  Bulkeley  Bandinel,  his  son- 
in-law,  who  lived  to  be  even  a  year  older 
than  his  predecessor.  As  an  illustration 
of  Price's  ideas  of  librarianship  we  have 
it  noted  by  Professor  Beddoes  that  "hec 
discouraged  readers  by  neglect  and  inci- 
vility, was  very  careless  in  regard  to  the 
value  or  condition  of  the  books  he  pur- 
chased, and  had  little  knowledge  of  for- 
eign publications."  When  Captain  Cook's 
Voyages  were  first  published  there  was 
quite  a  demand  for  the  work.  Librarian 
Price  promptly  loaned  it  to  the  Rector  of 
Lincoln  College,  telling  him  that  the 
longer  he  kept  it  out  the  better,  for  as 
long  as  it  was  known  to  be  in  the  library 
he  would  be  perpetually  plagued  by  in- 
quiries after  it.  Price  has  been  compared 
to  the  verger  who  sorrowfully  complained 
that  people  were  continually  invading  his 
church  and  "praying  all  over  the  place." 
However,  it  must  in  justice  be  said  that 
Price's  correspondence  as  printed  by  John 
Nichols  in  his  "Illustrations  of  the  liter- 
ary history  of  the  18th  century,"  shows  him 
to  have  been  helpful  to  some  of  the  schol- 
ars of  his  day. 

Bodleian's   librarians  in  the  eighteenth 
century   were   mostly  clerks   in   holy   or- 


270 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


ders  and  it  was  not  uncommon  for  them 
to  fail  to  open  the  library  at  all  on  a 
Saturday  if  they  were  "taking  duty  In  the 
country,"  on  the  following  day.  There  is 
preserved  in  the  Bodleian  a  scrap  of  pa- 
per which  an  angry  scholar  affixed  to  the 
door  of  the  library  in  1806  when  he  found 
it  closed  contrary  to  the  statutes.  On  It 
were  these  words  in  Greek:  "Woe  unto 
you  who  have  taken  away  the  key  of 
knowledge  !  Ye  enter  not  yourself  and 
hinder  those  who  come." 

How  striking  is  the  difference  between 
the  lax  administration  of  the  18th  century 
and  that  of  the  20  th  can  be  seen  by  a 
study  of  the  Bodleian  staff-kalendar,  an 
annual  of  over  400  pages  in  which  are 
listed  day  by  day  the  special  duties  of 
various  members  of  the  staff,  with  all 
sorts  of  suggestions  for  the  improvement 
of   the   service. 

King  George  III  in  his  famous  inter- 
view with  Dr.  Johnson  asked  whether 
there  were  better  libraries  at  Oxford  or 
at  Cambridge.  The  sage  replied  that  he 
believed  the  Bodleian  was  larger  than 
any  library  they  had  at  Cambridge,  at  the 
same  time  adding,  "I  hope  whether  we 
have  more  books  or  not  than  they  have 
at  Cambridge  we  shall  make  as  good  use 
of  them  as  they  do," — a  reply  which  I 
always  like  to  associate  with  the  remark 
of  Dr.  Cogswell:  "I  would  as  soon  tell  you 
how  many  tons  the  Astor  Library  weighs, 
as  how  many  volumes  it  contains." 

While  the  university  library  at  Cam- 
bridge has  never  been  the  recipient  of  such 
large  and  rich  donations  as  has  the  Bod- 
leian, it  is  today  one  of  the  best  stocked 
university  libraries  in  the  world.  Its 
first  benefactor  was  Thomas  Scott  of 
Rotheram,  archbishop  of  York,  who  not 
only  gave  200  books  and  manuscripts,  but 
also  the  first  library  building.  Despite 
other  benefactions  the  collection  appeared 
"but  mean"  In  the  eyes  of  John  Evelyn 
when  he  visited  it  in  1654. 

Among  the  earliest  gifts  to  one  of  the 
college  libraries  at  Cambridge  there  are 
some  volumes  which  raise  curious  ques- 
tions.     According    to    Dr.    Montague    R. 


James,  the  provost  of  King's  College,  Cam- 
bridge, one  book  has  the  Bury  bookmark 
and  evidently  came  from  that  source;  an- 
other belonged  to  the  canons  of  Here- 
ford, another  to  Worcester,  and  another 
to  Durham.  How  and  under  what  con- 
ditions did  the  early  collegiate  and  mon- 
astic bodies  part  with  these?  "Was  there 
not  very  probably  an  extensive  system  of 
sale  of  duplicates?  I  prefer  this  notion," 
writes  Dr.  James,  "to  the  idea  that  they 
got  rid  of  their  books  indiscriminately, 
because  the  study  of  monastic  catalogs 
shows  quite  plainly  that  the  number  of 
duplicates  in  any  considerable  library  was 
very  large.  On  the  other  hand  it  is  clear 
that  books  often  got  out  of  the  old  libra- 
ries into  the  hands  of  quite  unauthorized 
persons:  so  that  there  was  probably  both 
fair  and  foul  play  in  the  matter." 

The  most  famous  librarian  of  Cam- 
bridge University  library  was  Henry 
Bradshaw,  who  not  only  left  a  strong  im- 
press upon  the  paleographers  and  histori- 
ans of  his  day,  but  did  much  for  librari- 
anship  by  his  contributions  to  biblio- 
graphy and  his  work  on  the  printed  cata- 
logs issued  by  the  Cambridge  University 
library.  He  believed  in  making  the  li- 
brary as  accessible  as  possible  to  those 
who  were  entitled  to  Its  use.  The  watch- 
words of  his  administration  were  "lib- 
erty and  discretion,"  liberty  for  the  peo- 
ple to  go  freely  about  the  whole  library, 
examining  and  borrowing  such  books  as 
they  liked,  and  discretion  on  the  part  of 
the  administration  in  putting  such  ex- 
tremely moderate  restrictions  upon  this 
freedom  that  the  security  of  Its  most 
precious  books  were  safeguarded  and  the 
presence  of  the  books  most  constantly 
needed  for  reference  was  assured  without 
undue  interference  with  freedom  of  ac- 
cess to  the  shelves  or  the  borrowing  of 
books  from  the  library. 

His  management  of  the  university  li- 
brary was  not  In  all  respects  satisfactory, 
due  mostly  to  the  fact  that  the  staff  was 
very  inadequate  to  the  task  of  the  at- 
tempted reclassification  of  the  large  col- 
lection of  books,  and  also  to  the  crowded 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


271 


condition  of  the  building.  Bradshaw  did 
not  have  a  marked  capacity  for  working 
through  subordinates.  "He  could  not," 
said  one  of  his  assistants,  "bring  himself 
to  allow  any  one  to  answer  letters  for 
him."  He  used  to  carry  large  numbers  of 
unanswered  letters  in  his  coat  pockets 
and  would  sometimes  take  them  out  and 
show  them  with  a  certain  mischievous 
glee  and  say  in  his  droll  way,  "I  am  too 
wicked.  What  shall  I  do?"  No  one  knew 
this  failing  better  than  himself.  He  once 
remarked  to  Thomas  Buchanan  Read, 
who  wanted  some  information  from  him, 
"You  had  better  come  and  get  what  you 
can  by  word  of  mouth.  I  offend  lots  of 
my  friends  by  not  answering  their  let- 
ters, or  by  losing  them  like  yours."  One 
friend,  to  whom  he  had  long  promised  a 
visit  and  who  could  not  get  a  definite 
answer  to  his  invitations,  sent  Bradshaw 
two  post  cards  on  one  of  which  was  writ- 
ten "Yes,"  and  on  the  other  "No,"  ask- 
ing him  to  post  one  or  the  other.  Brad- 
shaw promptly  posted  both,  although  by 
the  next  mail  he  wrote  to  say  that  he 
would  come, — and  he  kept  his  promise. 

Bradshaw  used  to  say  that  whenever  he 
was  asked  to  send  back  an  interesting 
book  he  "suffered  from  a  chronic  paraly- 
sis of  the  will  and  could  not  return  it  un- 
til the  fit  had  passed  away."  In  matters 
of  routine  business  he  was,  however,  sel- 
dom behind  time  and  his  library  accounts 
were  always  accurately  kept.  He  was 
very  strict  about  the  observance  of  the  li- 
brary rules  and  could  never  tolerate  seeing 
books  mishandled.  Dr.  Zupitza,  a  great 
friend  and  admirer  of  Bradshaw,  tells  how 
one  day  he  was  making  notes  in  ink  from 
the  famous  manuscript  of  Bede's  "Ecclesi- 
astical history,"  in  the  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity Library  when  Bradshaw  happened 
to  notice  him.  "You  Germans  have  no 
reverence,"  said  the  librarian  as  he  rushed 
at  the  ink  bottle  and  carried  it  away.  A 
manuscript  of  that  character  was  not  to 
be  approached  with  anything  more  dan- 
gerous than  a  lead  pencil. 

Bradshaw  had  no  personal  ambition 
and  was  only  too  eager  to  give  away  such 


information  as  he  possessed.  He  put  his 
vast  store  of  knowledge  at  the  disposal 
of  his  large  group  of  friends  and  their 
books  were  all  the  better  for  his  biblio- 
graphical zeal.  He  himself  left  compara- 
tively little  finished  work.  "My  province," 
he  once  wrote,  "is  to  give  help  on  certain 
details  which  most  people  don't  care 
about." 

Before  leaving  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
a  word  must  be  said  about  the  individual 
college  libraries.  Many  of  these  date 
from  the  15th  century  when  it  was  the 
exception  rather  than  the  rule  for  uni- 
versity students  to  own  books.  Books 
were  rented  from  both  booksellers  and  tu- 
tors. The  college  libraries  then,  as  to- 
day, did  not  have  enough  copies  of  text- 
books to  go  around.  The  statutes  of  St. 
Mary's  College,  Oxford,  dating  from  1446, 
forbade  a  scholar  the  continual  use  of  a 
book  in  the  library  for  more  than  one 
hour  or  at  most  two  hours,  for  fear  that 
others  wanting  the  book  might  be  hin- 
dered from  the  use  of  it.  Most  of  the  two 
score  colleges  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge 
have  their  own  libraries,  many  of  them 
filled  to  overfiowing  with  precious  manu- 
scripts and  old  authors.  While  the  manu- 
scripts, like  those  of  Corpus  Christi,  nat- 
urally attract  scholars  from  all  over  the 
world,  the  libraries  are  now  comparatively 
little  used  by  the  students  of  the  univer- 
sities themselves.  This  is  not  surpris- 
ing when  it  is  known  that  to  some  of  them 
no  books  have  been  added  for  a  century 
or  more.  There  is  no  union  depository 
catalog  in  a  central  place  showing  what 
these  libraries  contain  and  very  little  cor- 
relation, although  there  has  been  some 
specialization,  as  in  the  dramatic  collec- 
tion at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  or  the 
modern  history  at  Merton  College,  Oxford. 

Several  years  ago  when  I  visited  the 
Bodleian  Library,  I  was  shown  around  the 
portion  known  as  "Duke  Humphrey's  li- 
brary," and  when  I  admired  the  old  parch- 
ment bound  volumes  in  the  alcoves  my 
guide  remarked  sententiously :  "These 
books  were  on  these  shelves  when  the 
Pilgrims   sailed    for  America."     That    re- 


272 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


mark  points  to  an  essential  difference 
between  many  of  the  old  world  libraries 
and  those  of  this  country.  The  museum 
feature  which  is  so  strong  in  the  adminis- 
tration of  some  of  the  European  libraries 
is  much  less  prominent  in  those  of  the 
United  States. 

Illustrations  of  university  library  his- 
tory in  this  country  naturally  begin  with 
Harvard.  The  library  there  was  begun 
on  the  death  of  its  first  benefactor  in 
1638  with  his  bequest  of  320  volumes.  The 
Mathers  were  among  the  largest  collect- 
ors of  books  in  their  day  in  New  England 
but  few  of  their  possessions  passed  into 
the  college  collection,  most  of  the  Mather 
library  having  been  destroyed  in  1775  dur- 
ing the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  About  the 
close  of  the  17th  century  Cotton  Mather 
said  of  the  Harvard  College  Library  that 
while  it  was  "far  from  a  Vatican  or  Bod- 
leian dimension"  he  considered  it  the 
"best  furnished  that  can  be  shown  any- 
where in  the  American  regions."  The 
fire  of  1763  which  destroyed  the  first 
Harvard  Hall  destroyed  also  the  entire 
college  library,  housed  in  an  upper  room, 
with  the  exception  of  one  volume:  Dow- 
name's  "Christian  Warfare,"  which  was  out 
in  circulation  at  the  time.  "May  Har- 
vard Library,"  wrote  John  Barnard  of 
Marblehead,  "rise  out  of  its  ashes  with 
new  life  and  vigor,  and  be  durable  as  the 
Bun,  tho'  the  building  is  a  nuisance."  This 
contemptuous  sounding  phrase,  intended 
to  describe  the  ruined  building,  can  again 
almost  be  justified  in  connection  with  the 
overcrowded  and  outgrown  structure  of 
today.  The  first  general  catalog  of  the 
library,  printed  in  1790,  containing  350 
pages,  devotes  100  pages  to  theological 
tracts,  50  to  religious  books,  3%  to  Bibles, 
%  of  a  page  to  periodicals,  4  to  books  of 
travel,  and  ten  to  Greek  and  Latin  au- 
thors— all  of  which  shows  how  closely  the 
college  had  held  to  its  original  purpose  as 
a  training  school  for  the  ministry. 

There  was  practically  no  change  in  the 
curriculum  at  Harvard  College  during  the 
first  two  centuries  of  its  existence.  The 
old  classical  course  as  pursued    by    our 


forefathers  required  comparatively  few 
books.  With  the  introduction  of  such 
studies  as  modern  history  and  languages, 
the  sciences  and  economics,  came  the  de- 
mand for  access  to  many  books,  both  old 
and  new. 

That  books  were  regarded  as  a  first  es- 
sential in  the  establishment  of  colleges 
in  the  New  World  is  shown  not  only  by 
the  terms  of  John  Harvard's  will,  which 
bequeathed  one-half  of  his  estate  and  all 
his  library  "towards  the  erecting  of  a 
college,"  but  also  by  the  picturesque 
founding  of  Yale  College.  Eleven  minis- 
ters met  in  New  Haven  in  1700  agreeing 
to  form  a  college.  Each  member  brought 
a  number  of  books  and  presented  them  to 
the  body,  and  laying  them  on  the  table 
said  these  words,  or  to  this  effect:  "I  give 
these  books  for  the  founding  of  a  college 
in  this  colony."  Then  the  trustees  as  a 
body  took  possession  of  them  and  ap- 
pointed the  Rev.  Mr.  Russel  of  Branford 
as  keeper  of  the  library,  which  at  that 
time  consisted  of  about  40  folio  volumes. 
The  library  with  the  additions  which  came 
in  was  kept  at  Branford  for  nearly  three 
years,  and  was  then  carried  to  Killing- 
worth.  In  1765  the  library  had  grown  to 
4,000  volumes,  showing  a  growth  of  only 
60  volumes  a  year  through  two  genera- 
tions. 

Other  American  university  libraries 
showed  equally  modest  beginnings.  In  a 
letter  from  President  Manning  to  Dr. 
Llewellyn,  1752,  Is  found  the  following  ref- 
erence to  the  early  efforts  made  on  be- 
half of  the  library  of  Brown  University: 
"At  present  we  have  but  about  250  vol- 
umes and  these  not  well  chosen,  being 
such  as  our  friends  could  best  spare,"  a 
statement  which  was  equally  true  of  many 
other  college  libraries  of  that  period. 

The  vicissitudes  of  American  university 
libraries  in  their  early  years  would  seem 
to  have  been  enough  to  discourage  any 
but  the  stoutest  hearted  librarian.  Thus 
the  King's  College  buildings  in  New  York 
having  been  required  by  the  British  for  a 
military  hospital,  the  books  were  depos- 
ited in  the  City  Hall  or  elsewhere.    Three 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


273 


years  later  some  600  or  700  volumes  were 
found  in  a  room  in  St.  Paul's  Chapel. 
How  they  got  there  is  a  mystery,  but  they 
were  all  that  remained  of  the  nucleus  of 
what  is  today  the  Columbia  University 
Library.  Mr.  John  Pintard,  the  founder 
of  the  New  York  Historical  Society  used 
to  say  that  he  remembered  seeing  the 
British  soldiers  carry  away  the  books 
from  the  college  library  in  their  knap- 
sacks and  barter  them  for  grog.  Horace 
Walpole  in  his  Memoirs  sneers  at  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  afterwards  George  HI, 
for  presenting  a  collection  of  books  to  an 
American  college  during  the  Revolutionary 
War,  and  says  that,  instead  of  books,  his 
Royal  Highness  ought  to  have  sent  arms 
and  ammunition. 

In  his  report  as  secretary  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution  for  1850,  Prof.  C. 
C.  Jewett  wrote:  "Our  colleges  are  mostly 
eleemosynary  institutions.  Their  libra- 
ries are  frequently  the  chance  aggrega- 
tion of  the  gifts  of  charity;  too  many  of 
them  discarded,  as  well-nigh  worthless, 
from  the  shelves  of  donors.  (But)  among 
them  are  some  very  Important  collections, 
chosen  with  care  and  competent  learning, 
purchased  with  economy  and  guarded 
with  prudence." 

In  1850  Marshall  College  at  Mercers- 
burg,  Pa.,  reported  that  "the  college  li- 
brary is  distributed  among  the  profes- 
sors— each  professor  having  charge  of 
those  books  pertaining  to  his  department." 
Until  comparatively  recent  years  the  peri- 
odicals subscribed  to  by  one  of  our  west- 
ern state  universities  were  sent  direct  to 
the  homes  of  the  professors  interested 
and  whether  they  were  brought  to  the  li- 
brary later  for  binding  depended  upon  the 
whim  of  the  professor. 

One  of  the  striking  contrasts  between 
the  college  library  of  today  and  that  of 
the  middle  of  the  last  century  is  shown 
by  a  comparison  of  the  hours  of  opening. 
The  Chinese  character  for  "library"  means 
"a  place  for  hiding  books,"  and  if  some 
members  of  the  present  day  faculties 
think  there  is  still  justification  for  this 
pictograph,  what  would  they  say  of  the 


apology  for  a  library  which  their  prede- 
cessors had  to  contend  with?  In  1850  the 
libraries  at  Amherst  and  Trinity,  for  ex- 
ample, were  open  once  a  week  from  1 
to  3  p.  m.,  at  Princeton  one  hour  twice  a 
week,  at  the  University  of  Missouri  one 
hour  every  two  weeks.  At  the  University 
of  Alabama  there  was  a  rule  that  "the 
books  shall  ordinarily  be  received  at  the 
door,  without  admitting  the  applicant  into 
the  library  room."  Harvard  with  its  28 
hours  of  opening  per  week  was  as  usual 
in  the  vanguard  of  progress,  but  contrast 
even  those  liberal  hours  with  present  day 
schedules  of  89  hours  and  even  more  per 
week  and  you  see  that  there  has  been 
considerable  progress  along  this  line. 

"A  quarter  of  a  century  ago  the  library 
in  most  of  our  institutions,"  said  the  late 
President  Harper  in  an  address  delivered 
in  1894,  "even  the  oldest,  was  scarcely 
large  enough,  if  one  were  to  estimate  val- 
ues, to  deserve  the  name  of  library.  So 
far  as  it  had  location,  it  was  the  place 
to  which  the  professor  was  accustomed 
to  make  his  way  occasionally,  the  student 
almost  never.  It  was  open  for  consulta- 
tion during  perhaps  one  hour  a  day  for 
three  days  a  week.  The  better  class  of 
students,  it  was  understood,  had  no  time 
for  reading.  It  was  only  the  'ne'er  do 
well,'  the  man  with  little  interest  in  the 
class-room  text-book,  who  could  find  time 
for  general  reading.  Such  reading  was  a 
distraction,  and  a  proposition  that  one 
might  profit  by  consulting  other  books 
which  bore  upon  the  subject  or  subjects 
treated  in  the  text-book  would  have  been 
scouted.  All  such  work  was  thought  to  be 
distracting.  The  addition  of  one  hundred 
volumes  in  a  single  year  was  something 
noteworthy.  The  place,  seldom  fre- 
quented, was  some  out-of-the-way  room 
which  could  serve  no  other  use.  The  li- 
brarian— there  was  none.  Why  should 
there  have  been?  Any  officer  of  the  insti- 
tution could  perform  the  needed  service 
without  greatly  increasing  the  burden  of 
his  official   duties." 

That  the  college  library  of  the  middle 
of  the  last  century  was  little  more  than 


274 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


a  storehouse  for  books,  in  which  the  un- 
dergraduate had  very  little  interest,  is 
amply  substantiated  by  th«  reminiscenceis 
of  older  graduates.  "To  those  of  us  who 
graduated  thirty,  or  forty,  or  more  years 
ago,"  said  the  late  William  Frederick  Poole, 
"books,  outside  of  text-books  used,  had 
no  part  in  our  education.  They  were 
never  quoted,  recommended,  or  mentioned 
by  instructors  in  the  class-room.  As  I 
remember  it,  Yale  College  library  might 
as  well  have  been  in  Wetherfield,  or 
Bridgeport,  as  in  New  Haven,  so  far  as 
the  students  in  those  days  were  con- 
cerned." 

In  the  old  days  at  Columbia  College, 
freshmen  and  sophomores  were  allowed 
to  visit  the  library  only  once  a  month  to 
gaze  at  the  backs  of  books;  the  juniors 
were  taken  there  once  a  week  by  a  tu- 
tor who  gave  verbal  information  about  the 
contents  of  the  books,  but  only  seniors 
were  permitted  to  open  the  precious  vol- 
umes, which  they  could  draw  from  the  li- 
brary during  one  hour  on  Wednesday  aft- 
ernoons. In  1853,  the  salary  of  the  li- 
brarian of  Columbia  was  raised  to  three 
hundred  dollars!  Professor  Brander 
Matthews,  who  graduated  from  Columbia 
in  1871,  says  that  the  library  was  at  that 
time  small  and  inconvenient  and  that  he 
never  entered  it  to  read  a  book  and  never 
drew  one  from  it  during  all  the  time  he 
was  an  undergraduate. 

The  rules  of  the  old  days  forbade  the 
use  of  any  lights  in  the  Harvard  Library, 
"excepting  only  when  the  librarian  is 
obliged  to  seal  official  letters  with  wax 
he  may  with  proper  precautions  use  a 
lighted  taper  for  that  purpose."  This  re- 
calls an  entry  in  the  diary  of  John  Lang- 
don  Sibley,  who  records  spending  "four 
hours  with  a  lantern  and  cloak  in  the 
chilly  cellar"  where  he  found  many  books 
and  pamphlets  not  in  the  College  Library." 

Mr.  Sibley,  who  spent  36  years  in  the 
service  of  the  Harvard  Library,  has  fre- 
quently been  pictured  as  typical  of  the  old 
style  collector  and  custodian  of  books. 
The  story  is  told  of  his  having  once  com- 
pleted  an   inventory   of   the   library   and, 


when  seen  crossing  the  yard  with  a  par- 
ticularly happy  smile,  was  asked  the  rea- 
son for  this  pleased  expression.  "All  the 
books  are  in  excepting  two,"  said  he. 
"Agassiz  has  those  and  I  am  going  after 
them."  Exaggerated  as  this  picture  of 
him  undoubtedly  is,  it  must  be  said  that 
he  did  lay  much  more  emphasis  upon  the 
collecting  and  preservation  of  books  than 
upon  their  use. 

His  successor,  Justin  Winsor,  was  the 
author  of  the  remark  which  has  come  to  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  truisms  of  modern 
librarianship:  "A  book  is  never  so  useful 
as  when  it  is  in  use," 

In  his  second  annual  report  (1879)  Mr. 
Winsor  thus  summed  up  his  idea  of  library 
management:  "Diligent  administration, 
considerate  forbearance,  care  that  no  rule 
is  enforced  for  the  sake  of  mere  outward 
uniformity,  and  the  establishment  of  re- 
ciprocal confidence  between  the  govern- 
ment and  the  users  of  the  library,  open  the 
way  to  many  relaxations  of  old  established 
prohibitions,  which  could  not  be  safely 
allowed  if  a  less  conciliatory  spirit  pre- 
vailed. There  should  be  no  bar  to  the  use 
of  books,  but  the  rights  of  others,  and  it 
is  to  the  credit  of  the  mass  of  library  ' 
users  that,  when  a  librarian  manifests  that 
single  purpose,  he  can  safely  be  liberal  in 
the  discharge  of  his  trust." 

Mr.  Winsor  had  an  exceptional  faculty 
for  organization  and  administration.  For 
some  time  after  he  left  the  service  of  the 
Boston  Public  Library  it  was  hardly  no- 
ticeable that  there  was  no  librarian.  This 
was  due  to  the  fine  organization  which  Mr. 
Winsor  had  effected  and  did  not  prove,  as 
Alderman  O'Brien  of  Boston  argued,  that 
Mr.  Winsor's  services  could  easily  be  dis- 
pensed with.  He  found  time  for  writing 
history  during  the  years  of  his  librarian- 
ship  at  Boston  and  at  Harvard  because  he 
knew  how  to  administer.  No  doubt  in  his 
later  years  the  historian  in  him  overshad- 
owed the  librarian. 

The  salient  feature  of  Mr.  Winsor's  ad- 
ministration of  the  Harvard  College  Li- 
brary lay  in  the  fact  that  he  extended  very 
materially  the  use  of  books  by  students. 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


275 


He  instituted  the  system  of  "reserved" 
books  by  which  the  instructor  is  enabled  to 
have  gathered  in  an  accessible  place  the 
reading  which  he  required  of  his  classes, 
— a  device  absolutely  essential  in  the  new 
method  of  teaching  which  substitutes  the 
reading  of  authorities  for  the  old  time 
study  of  text-books. 

And  what  as  to  the  buildings  in  which 
these  libraries  are  housed?  The  earlier 
ones  like  those  of  Harvard  and  Yale,  were 
suggestive  of  Gothic  chapels,  while  the 
later  ones,  like  Michigan,  Illinois  and 
Cornell,  are  based  upon  an  ecclesiastical 
motif,  and  have  the  questionable  addition 
of  a  clock  tower,  the  usual  accompanying 
chimes  helping  to  break  into  the  quiet 
which  it  is  so  desirable  to  maintain  in  any 
library.  Harvard's  Gore  Hall  was  an  at- 
tenuated copy  of  the  chapel  of  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  England,  and  neces- 
sarily ill  adapted  to  the  needs  of  a  library. 
It  was  poorly  lighted,  poorly  ventilated, 
hard  to  warm  in  winter,  damp  in  parts 
during  the  spring  and  autumn.  There 
were  no  private  rooms,  no  working  room, 
no  conversation  room,  and  no  reading 
room  worthy  of  the  name.  The  only  sav- 
ing thing  about  the  management  was  that 
the  advice  of  old  John  Hollis  was  not  fol- 
lowed and  both  students  and  professors 
were  allowed  to  draw  books  for  use  in 
their  rooms  and  homes. 

In  some  cases  where  the  library  building 
has  been  presented  as  a  gift  or  as  a  memo- 
rial, trouble  has  arisen  from  the  proverbial 
difficulty  about  examining  too  closely  into 
the  lines  of  the  proposed  gift.  Notable  il- 
lustrations of  this  are  found  in  the  li- 
braries of  Columbia  University,  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  and  the  late  but 
not  lamented  library  of  Leland  Stanford 
University.  The  Columbia  University  Li- 
brary, the  gift  of  ex-President  Low  in 
memory  of  his  father,  was  designed  by 
McKim,  Mead  &  White  after  the  plan  of 
the  head  of  the  firm,  the  late  Mr.  Charles 
F.  McKim.  Some  of  you  may  be  familiar 
with  the  story  of  the  visitor  to  Mr.  McKim's 
studio  asking  how  he  was  getting  on  with 
the  plans  for  the  new  library.    "Oh,  every- 


thing is  going  lovely,"  said  he.  "You  see 
there  on  the  wall  the  outline  of  the  fac- 
ade and  the  layout  of  the  building.  I  have 
worked  up  all  the  details  of  the  reading 
room  and  the  large  dome — but  I  don't 
know  where  to  put  the  darned  books." 

"Today,"  wrote  President  Harper,  "the 
chief  building  in  the  college,  the  building 
in  which  is  taken  the  most  pride,  is  the 
library.  With  the  stack  for  storage  pur- 
poses, the  reading  room  for  reference 
books,  the  offices  for  delivery,  the  rooms 
for  seminary  purposes,  it  is  the  center  of 
educational  activity.  The  staff  of  assist- 
ants is  often  larger  than  the  entire  faculty 
of  the  same  institution  thirty  years  ago." 

The  importance  of  the  university  library 
in  the  educational  work  of  the  institution 
is  being  recognized  more  fully  each  year. 
"Much  of  the  usefulness  and  attractiveness 
of  the  university  for  its  students,"  said 
President  Eliot  in  his  annual  report  for 
1905-06,  "depends  on  the  size  of  the  li- 
brary, on  the  promptness  with  which  it  ob- 
tains the  newest  interesting  books,  and 
on  the  efficiency  and  liberality  of  its  ad- 
ministration. Any  need  of  the  library  is 
therefore  a  need  of  the  whole  university." 

The  second  paper  was  then  read  by  Mr. 
WILLARD  AUSTEN,  assistant  librarian  of 
Cornell  University,  His  paper,  an  abstract 
of  which  follows,  was  entitled 

RIGHTS    OF    THE    USERS    OF    A    COL- 
LEGE  AND   UNIVERSITY   LIBRARY 
AND  HOW  TO  PRESERVE 
THEM 
The  problem  of  administering  a  college 
or  university  library  with  due   regard  to 
the  rights  of  all  the  users  is  far  from  sim- 
ple.   A  college  or  university  community  is 
not  a   democracy,   where   all  have   equal 
rights.      The    natural    division    into    two 
great  classes,  the  mature  teacher  and  the 
immature    student    is    the    first    apparent 
cause   for   the  modification   of   privileges. 
The  need  of  materials  for  teaching  as  op- 
posed to  the  needs  of  the  student  suggests 
other  modifications.     The  need  for  books 
of  research  at  home  or  in  the  laboratory 
that  may  also  be  wanted  for  general  read- 


276 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


ing,  introduces  a  third  factor  that  may  dis- 
turb any  set  of  rules  that  may  be  framed. 

Any  reader  should  be  allowed  to  use 
any  book  in  the  library  when  and  where  it 
is  most  convenient  to  do  so,  so  far  as  this 
can  be  done  and  preserve  the  rights  of 
other  users  and  preserve  valuable  materi- 
als not  easily  replaced  for  future  genera- 
tions of  users.  The  ability  to  shift  any 
book  from  the  place  where  it  is  little 
needed  to  the  place  where  it  is  much 
needed,  at  a  moment's  notice,  is  the  ideal. 

Users  may  be  roughly  grouped  as  fol- 
lows: 

1.  Instructors  of  all  grades,  those  whose 
need  for  books  is  primarily  for  teaching. 

2.  Those  doing  research  work,  which 
class  may  include  teachers,  graduate  and 
undergraduate    students. 

3.  Students  needing  books  for  collat- 
eral reading. 

4.  General  readers  of  all  classes,  and 
all  persons  are  general  readers  when  not 
reading  for  a  definite  purpose,  but  for  gen- 
eral culture. 

Obviously  the  rights  of  all  these  classes 
are  not  of  equal  importance. 

To  outline  the  means  of  protecting  their 
rights,  it  is  necessary  to  classify  users 
by  certain  of  their  characteristics  which 
bear  no  relation  to  the  groups  named 
above.  First,  the  conscientious  worker 
who,  while  using  many  books,  never  re- 
tains one  beyond  his  real  need  for  it,  and 
who  constantly  bears  in  mind  the  possible 
need  that  others  may  have  for  a  book  he 
is  using.  Library  rules  are  not  made  for 
such.  The  next  and  most  difficult  class  to 
deal  with  are  those  who  want  to  gather 
about  them  all  the  books  they  can  con- 
veniently lay  hands  on,  with  the  thought 
that  they  will  "come  handy  some  day." 
A  large  class,  running  down  to  the  low- 
est ranks  of  college  students,  comprise 
those  who  think  they  must  have  all  the 
material  on  a  subject  at  hand  at  one  time. 
Another  class,  largely  college  students, 
is  made  up  of  those  selfish  persons  who, 
having  a  task,  ride  rough  shod,  if  neces- 
sary, over  the  rights  of  others  in  doing 
it.    Then  there  is  the  small  class  that  can 


be  designated  by  no  other  names  than 
thieves  and  vandals,  those  who  steal 
books,  and  cut  out  text  or  illustrations. 

An  adequate  code  of  rules  and  regula- 
tions should  be  drawn  up,  care  being  taken 
that  all  rules  should  be  made  for  the  sole 
purpose  of  preserving  rights  and  property. 
Of  first  importance  are  the  regulations  for 
getting  books  back  into  the  library.  A 
time  limit  of  one  month  on  all  books  not 
in  use  for  instruction  or  research  has  been 
fairly  successful.  All  bound  volumes  of 
periodicals  may  be  limited  to  two  weeks 
or  one  month.  A  limit  may  be  put  on  the 
number  of  volumes  a  user  may  have  out 
at  any  one  time.  A  requirement  that  all 
books  must  come  back  to  the  library,  once 
a  year,  regardless  of  the  use  being  made 
of  them,  will  keep  in  the  library  many 
books  that  have  been  left  lying  around 
after  being  used. 

Within  the  library  the  problem  of  mak- 
ing all  books  available  for  use  when 
needed  is  not  a  simple  one.  Reserve  col- 
lections, and  the  recall  of  books  when 
needed  are  familiar  practices;  but  when 
the  demand  for  a  book  is  very  great,  its 
use  by  one  person  may  be  limited  to  one- 
half  or  one  hour  as  the  case  may  call  for. 
The  failure  to  return  a  reserved  book 
when  due  interferes  seriously  with  others' 
rights.  In  these  cases  students  must  be 
made  to  respect  the  rights  of  others,  even 
at  the  cost  of  losing  their  own  privileges 
which  is  often  a  more  effective  discipline 
than  a  money  fine.  The  library  shares 
with  other  departments  of  the  college  or 
university  the  duty  of  teaching  student  a 
due  regard  for  the  rights  of  others.  The 
problem  of  detecting  the  few  thieves  and 
vandals  who  curse  all  used  libraries,  may 
require  professional  advice.  Few  seem  to 
be  brought  to  justice,  in  spite  of  all  efforts. 

Whatever  measures  are  employed  to  pro- 
tect the  users'  rights  and  the  library  prop- 
erty, they  must  have  their  foundation  in 
a  system  of  classification  and  notation  that 
clearly  indicates  in  every  record  the  char- 
acter of  the  book  and  its  relation  to  other 
material  in  the  library;  and  in  a  system  of 
record  of  use  that  tells  not  only  where  a 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


277 


book  is  when  out,  how  long  it  has  been 
out,  and  who  is  responsible  for  it,  but  also 
tells  the  life  history  of  that  book  from  the 
time  it  comes  into  the  library  until  it  is 
worn  out. 

After  the  discussion  of  Mr.  Austen's  pa- 
per, Mr.  F.  K.  W.  DRURY,  assistant  libra- 
rian of  the  University  of  Illinois,  pre- 
sented a  paper  on 

DO  WE  NEED  A  SHORT  STORY  INDEX? 

Is  not  this  the  day  of  the  index?  Have 
we  not  Poole,  the  Reader's  Guide,  the 
Portrait  and  the  Engineering  Indexes, 
Granger's  Index  to  Poetry  and  Recitations, 
and  the  Index  to  Victrola  Records?  What 
Granger  is  to  poetry,  may  we  not  compile 
for  the  short-story?  For  if  this  is  the  day 
of  the  index,  is  it  any  less  that  of  the 
short-story? 

If  we  agree  to  omit  fairy  stories  and 
folk  tales  and  most  juveniles  what  is  the 
extent  of  short  story  literature?  In  a 
very  brief  survey  of  the  field  did  I  not 
find  404  English  and  American  authors 
and  37  foreign  authors  in  English  transla- 
tion whose  stories  have  attained  book 
form? 

Let  us  credit  each  author  with  ten  titles 
and  we  have  at  once  4,400  stories  worthy 
of  recognition.  And  these  do  not  include 
the  vast  horde  of '  stories — literally  thou- 
sands— that  have  appeared  and  are  ap- 
pearing monthly,  weekly,  yea  even  daily, 
in  the  magazines  of  the  hour. 

How  recent  then  shall  we  make  our 
list?  Shall  we  anticipate  the  Get-rich- 
quick  Wallingford  tale  announced  for  next 
month?   Where  shall  we  draw  our  line? 

How  inclusive  shall  our  list  be  made? 
Shall  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  and  the 
two  Sunday  magazines  be  indexed?  Or 
shall  we  stay  within  the  circle  of  the 
Readers'  Guide  and  the  Magazine  subject 
index?  How  many  of  the  newstand  best 
sellers  shall  be  admitted?  Mr.  Wyer  shows 
us  the  million  circulation  figures  of  the 
Woman's  World,  Comfort,  the  Vickery 
and  Hill  list  of  three  (Happy  Hours, 
Hearth  and  Home,  and  Good  Stories),  yet 


these  are  not  taken  by  our  libraries  and 
if  indexed  could  be  consulted  with  diffi- 
culty.    Where  shall  we  draw  this  line? 

Again,  how  far  abroad  shall  we  go? 
Shall  the  short-stories  in  foreign  tongues 
fraternize  with  their  English  cousins?  Or 
shall  they  be  aliens  and  only  admitted 
when  really  anglicized?  Do  we  need  an 
index?  Let  us  test  our  present  resources. 
How  do  you  find  in  which  volume  of  Kip- 
ling is  printed  "Thrawn  Janet"  or  his 
"Man  who  would  be  king?"  How  many 
copies  of  "The  necklace"  can  you  supply? 
Granger  tells  you  it  is  in  Cody's  "World's 
greatest  short  stories"  and  your  catalog 
may  show  it  in  De  Maupassant's  works, 
or  his  "Odd  number."  But  how  would  you 
find  out  that  this  classic  is  also  in  "Little 
French  masterpieces,"  in  Esenwein's  book 
on  the  short  story,  and  probably  in  several 
other  places. 

Somebody  comes  in  and  asks  for  "Na- 
poleon Jackson"  and  you  do  not  find  it  in 
the  volumes  you  have  by  Ruth  McEnery 
Stuart.  Perhaps  it  is  loaned  out.  Would 
not  such  an  index  show  that  this  story 
appeared  in  the  Century  for  January, 
1902,  under  the  title  "The  gentleman  of  the 
plush  rocker"? 

Vainly  have  I  searched  through  catalogs 
and  bibliographies  and  even  biographies 
to  find  in  which  book  of  stories  by  "Adi- 
rondack" Murray  may  be  found  "A  busted 
ex-Texan."  The  book  itself  must  be  in 
hand  to  find  this  information.  Try  to 
search  down  a  particular  title  by  Stock- 
ton, or  Bret  Harte  and  you  will  soon  de- 
spair. 

Have  we  not  then  three  distinct  classes 
of  publications  which  can  be  indexed  with 
profit? 

(a)  Collected  stories  of  authors,  of 
whom  we  have  listed  at  least  4,400. 

(b)  Periodical  sets,  which  Poole  in- 
dexed by  titles  only,  but  since  1900  the 
Readers'  Guide  has  by  both  author  and 
title. 

(c)  Collections  of  stories,  of  which  73 
at  least  are  available  today. 

Can  we  not  characterize  or  classify  our 
short-story  by  some  such  terms  as  those 
used    in    the    Philadelphia    free    library 


278 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Catalog  of  Prose  Fiction,  published  in 
1904? 

Have  you  ever  been  disappointed  in 
reading  a  story?  Have  you  not  often 
wished  to  know  if  it  were  a  "good"  one  or 
"worth  while"  before  you  began  it?  In- 
deed, have  you  not  often  refrained  from 
reading  one  for  fear  of  wasting  your  time? 

How  can  we  tell  about  these  short 
stories?  Are  they  good  or  bad?  Detec- 
tive or  amorous?  Psychological  or 
mysterious? 

Have  you  ever  seen  a  short  story  re- 
viewed? Have  you  any  way  of  knowing? 
Must  we  read  every  one  to  find  out? 

Some  may  be  characterized  from  the 
author.  The  Sherlock  Holmes  series  are 
obviously  detective  stories.  We  can  be 
pretty  sure  of  Ambrose  Bierce  and  Edgar 
Allan  Poe.  So  stories  in  Harper's  have  a 
general  tone  quite  characteristic. 

Here  at  once  is  a  most  important  and 
a  most  difficult  part  of  such  an  index.  Is 
not  the  value  of  Granger  immensely  in- 
creased by  the  topical  index?  Are  we  not 
laboring  patiently  to  classify  our  novels 
by  subjects?  Why  not  also  the  short- 
story? 

We  may  now  ask  ourselves:  What 
would  be  the  scope  of  the  entries?  For 
discussion,  we  suggest: 

1.  Author  list;  giving  author,  title, 
number  of  words,  location,  character. 

2.  Title  index. 

3.  Subject  or  character  index. 

You  will  readily  see  the  elements  of  a 
dictionary  catalog  here,  and  it  is  debat- 
able whether  to  separate  the  entries  in 
the  three  groups  as  above,  or  to  alphabet 
them  together.  Shall  we  double  star  the 
100  best  and  star  the  500  next? 

Are  not  these  questions  too  perplexing, 
is  not  the  labor  of  compilation  too  ardu- 
ous, and  is  not  life  too  short  for  the  read- 
ing and  classifying  all  these  titles,  for 
one  person  to  attempt  this  task  alone? 
It  has  seemed  so.  Hence  this  question 
mark  rampant,  hence  this  interrogational 
presentation,  hence  this  request  for  co- 
operation. Without  the  subject  charac- 
terization one  man  could  do  it,  but  would 


not  one  of  the  most  valuable  features  be 
omitted? 

With  definite  assignments,  under  an 
editor-in-chief.  Is  not  this  index  possible? 
Is  it  not  needed? 

In  the  discussion  it  was  brought  out 
that  the  Chicago  public  library  had  made 
a  list  of  fairy  tales,  that  the  Cleveland 
public  library  had  begun  a  list  of  short 
stories  not  in  periodicals,  and  that  titles 
of  stories  frequently  occur  in  reference 
lists  on  subjects  like,  for  example, 
Hallowe'en. 

After  a  discussion  of  Mr.  Drury's 
paper,  Mr.  ROBERT  KENDALL  SHAW, 
librarian  of  the  Worcester  (Mass.)  free 
public  library,  spoke  on  the  subject 

IS    THE    ESTABLISHMENT    OF    A   CEN- 
TRAL   REFERENCE    BUREAU 
DESIRABLE?* 

This  subject  has  been  so  fully  treated 
in  recent  years,  notably  by  Mr.  Lane  in 
an  address  at  Oberlin  college  in  June, 
1908,  and  in  several  reports  of  the  Associ- 
ation of  college  librarians,  that  onjy  an 
outline  will  be  attempted  here. 

A  natural  preliminary  inquiry  presents 
itself:  Is  reference  work  in  all  its  phases 
adequately  performed  already?  With  a 
well  trained  library  staff,  whose  work 
may  be  supplemented  by  the  inter-library 
loan;  by  writing  letters;  by  the  use  of 
the  priceless  though  incessant  telephone; 
or  by  seeking  the  aid  of  some  such 
bureau  of  inquiry  as  that  of  Thos.  Nel- 
son's Sons,  The  Boston  Transcript,  The 
New  York  Times  or  Notes  and  Queries, 
are  we  keeping  our  public  satisfied,  and 
the  voice  of  conscience  still? 

If  not,  and  if  the  question  of  creating 
some  central  agency  for  auxiliary  refer- 
ence service  is  to  be  discussed,  shall  this 
central  agency  take  the  form  of  a  central 
lending  library,  with  its  permanent  build- 
ing, book  reservoir  and  staff  to  administer 
it,  or  of  a  central  reference  bureau,  which 
will  receive  all  kinds  of  inquiries,  and  an- 
swer them,  as  far  as  possible,  by  consul- 
tation in  libraries  already  existing,  or  in 
other  institutions  which  may  possess  the 
desired  information? 
.  *  Abstract. 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


279 


That  a  central  lending  library,  equipped 
and  maintained  under  the  auspices  of  the 
A.  L.  A.  is  today  or  even  tomorrow  im- 
practicable, can  scarcely  be  denied  by  in- 
telligent librarians.  The  writer  believes 
that  no  adequate  endowment  could  be 
secured;  that  if  any  funds  were  obtained 
for  this  purpose,  years  would  be  required 
to  build  up  a  useful  collection;  that  such 
a  collection  would,  to  a  great  extent, 
duplicate  existing  material;  that  running 
expenses  would  be  far  greater  than  for 
an  information  bureau,  and  that  there  are, 
in  short,  other  more  pressing  needs. 

If  a  central  reference  bureau  is  to  be 
established,  what  form  shall  it  take? 
Shall  it  be  attached  to  some  institution 
already  in  operation  or  exist  independ- 
ently? The  latter  seems  preferable,  as  it 
could  then  maintain  a  consistent  policy, 
unhampered  by  political  or  other  undesir- 
able influences;  proceed  unhampered  with 
singleness  of  aim  and  method;  be  gov- 
erned by  persons  disinterested  and  none 
others;  and  restrict  its  collections  exclu- 
sively to  the  purposes  which  its  founders 
intended  it  to  pursue. 

Where  should  such  an  agency  be  estab- 
lished? At  some  library  center  like 
Boston,  New  York,  Philadelphia  or  St. 
Louis?  At  A.  L.  A.  headquarters?  At  the 
Library  of  Congress  or  under  the  auspices 
of  some  active  state  library  commission? 
The  two  institutions  specifically  men- 
tioned are  already  doing  a  large  work  in 
this  direction. 

The  duties  and  opportunities  of  this 
bureau  would  be:  to  collect  and  coordi- 
nate the  public-service  records  of  Ameri- 
can libraries  and  cognate  institutions 
(e.  g.  supply  information  on  special  collec- 
tions, subject  bibliographies,  reading 
lists,  etc.) ;  by  questionnaires,  visits  and 
in  other  ways  obtain  supplementary  infor- 
mation along  these  and  similar  lines;  to 
get  results  printed  and  disseminated;  to 
furnish  definite  information  on  lending 
conditions  now  obtaining  in  American  li- 
braries, and,  when  possible,  to  improve 
them;  and  to  serve  as  a  free  registration 
and    employment    agency     for    librarians 


and  library  assistants.  Although  this  last 
suggestion  has  not  been  proposed,  to  the 
writer's  knowledge  in  earlier  schemes,  its 
importance  as  a  practical  measure,  is  ob- 
vious. To  the  large  body  of  faithful  and 
efficient  workers  who  have  not  enjoyed 
the  benefits  of  a  library  school  training 
such  an  agency  would  render  signal 
service. 

The  unfortunate  but  frequently  recur- 
ring repetition  of  reference  research 
would,  in  large  measure,  be  prevented  if 
librarians  were  enabled  to  derive  prompt 
assistance,  in  case  of  knotty  problems, 
from  a  competent  central  agency.  Their 
duty  to  dispatch  to  this  agency  solutions 
to  such  questions  of  probably  common 
interest  as  they  had  themselves  discov- 
ered, would  be  equally  obvious. 

The  trend  of  library  thought  in  the 
thinking  world  today  is  toward  centrali- 
ation  and  coordination  of  effort;  witness 
the  sense  of  the  Brussels  conference  of 
1910  that  central  information  bureaus 
should  be  established  in  all  countries  of 
progressive  library  spirit;  the  success 
and  practical  value  of  the  gigantic  Ge- 
sammtkatalog;  and  the  expected  benefits 
from  the  youthful  Boston  cooperative  in- 
formation bureau. 

That  American  librarians  are  looking 
toward  a  fuller  development  of  inter- 
library  loans,  and  away  from  a  central 
reference  bureau,  is  the  consensus  of  the 
recent  (1910,  March  and  May)  symposium 
conducted  by  the  Library  Journal.  Our 
duty  now  is,  by  sympathy,  interest  and 
contribution,  to  forward  the  work  of  the 
Library  of  Congress  and  the  A.  L.  A. 
headquarters,  and  to  make  our  own  lend- 
ing conditions  the  most  generous  in  our 
power. 

Mr.  C.  H.  Gould,  chairman  of  the  com- 
mittee on  co-ordination,  stated  that  the 
subject  just  presented  had  a  close  rela- 
tion to  several  matters  before  his  com- 
mittee, and  gave  a  r6sum6  of  their  report 
submitted  in  print  to  a  general  session  of 
the  conference. 

Dr.  Andrews,  as  a  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee, added  that  in  his  opinion  photo- 


280 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


graphic  reproductions  might  prove  a  satis- 
factory substitute  for  many  inter-library 
loans.  The  installation  of  a  cameragraph 
in  the  John  Crerar  library  had  proved 
of  much  more  use  than  had  been  antici- 
pated, not  only  in  regard  to  the  number 
of  copies  made,  but  also  in  regard  to  the 
scope  of  the  material  thus  copied.  It  had 
been  found  in  many  cases  that  these 
photographic  reproductions  could  be  fur- 
nished for  less  than  the  cost  of  transpor- 
tation of  the  volume,  and  that  besides 
they  gave  a  permanent  record  to  the  bor- 
rower. The  only  obvious  limitation  was 
the  impossibility  of  reproducing  copy- 
right material. 

After  further  discussion,  the  chairman 
asked  Dr.  W.  K.  Jewett,  librarian  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska,  to  serve  as  chair- 
man of  the  nominating  committee  and  to 
select  two  others  to  serve  with  him.  The 
session  then  adjourned. 

SECOND  SESSION 
(Monday,  July  1,  2:30  p.  m.) 
The  second  session  was  held  Monday 
afternoon,  July  1,  in  the  ballroom.  The 
first  paper  was  by  Mr.  J.  C.  M.  HANSON, 
associate  director  of  libraries,  University 
of  Chicago,  and  was  read  in  his  absence 
by  Mr.  M.  G.  Wyer,  librarian  of  the  State 
University  of  Iowa.     The   paper  follows. 

SOME     OBSERVATIONS     ON     THE     DE- 
PARTMENTAL  LIBRARY   PROBLEM 
IN    UNIVERSITIES,    WITH    SPE- 
CIAL  REFERENCE   TO   THE 
UNIVERSITY     OF 

CHICAGO 
List  of  references 
Departmental   arrangement   of   college   li- 
braries,   by    Edith   E.   Clarke.     Library 
journal  vol.  11,  1899,  p.  340-343;   vol.  16, 
1891,  p.  264-268. 
Reference,  seminary,  and  departmental  li- 
braries   at    Cornell    university,    by    W. 
Austen.     Library  journal,  vol.  18,  1893, 
p.  181-183. 
Function  of  a  university  library,  by  H.  L. 
Koopman.    Library  journal  vol.  19,  1894, 
p.  24-30  of  Conference  Report. 


The  departmental  libraries  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Chicago,  by  Z.  A.  Dixson.  Li- 
brary journal  vol.  20,  1895,  p.  375-377. 

Notes  on  the  government  and  control  of 
college  libraries,  by  G.  W.  Harris.  Li- 
brary journal  vol.  22,  1897,  p.  55-57  of 
Conference  Report. 

Relation  of  seminary  and  departmental 
libraries  to  the  general  university  li- 
brary, by  George  H.  Baker.  Library 
journal  vol.  23,  1898,  p.  103-106  of  Con- 
ference Report. 

First  Report  of  W.  C.  Lane,  librarian  of 
Harvard  university,  1898,  p.  2-5.  Com- 
pare also  his  5th  Report,  p.  215. 

The  Problems  of  the  departmental  system 
in  university  libraries,  by  W.  W.  Bishop. 
Library  journal  vol.  26,  1901,  p.  14-18. 

Report  of  College  and  reference  section, 
1902.  Library  journal  vol.  27,  p.  172-178 
of  Conference  Report. 

Relation  of  the  departmental  or  group 
libraries  to  the  main  library,  by  Dr.  E. 
D.  Burton.  Library  journal  vol.  28,  1903, 
p.  19-23  of  Conference  Report. 

Discussion  in  College  and  reference  sec- 
tion, 1903.  Library  journal  vol.  28,  1903, 
p.  170-175  of  Conference  Report. 

The  future  university  library,  by  B.  Ranel. 
Nation  vol.   84,  March  21,   1907,  p.  263. 

The  university  branch  library,  by  W.  Aus- 
ten. Library  journal  vol.  28,  1908, 
p.  220-222. 

Plea  for  the  central  library,  by  J.  Bas- 
com.  Educational  review,  vol.  38,  Sept. 
1909,  p.  139-149. 

Departmental  libraries,  by  F.  C.  Hicks. 
Columbia  university  quarterly,  vol.  13, 
March,  1911,  p.  185-195. 

Departmental  libraries  in  universities  and 
colleges,  by  Henry  E.  Bliss.  Educa- 
tional review,  April,  1912,  p.  387-409. 

Ueber  die  Bibliotheken  der  Preussischen 
Universitatsinstitute,  von  Dr.  Naetebus. 
Zentralblatt  fiir  Bibliothekswesen,  vol. 
23.  1906,  p.  341-367. 

Allgemeine  Grundsatze  fiir  die  Vermeh- 
rung  der  Preussischen  Staatsbiblio- 
theken,  von  W.  Erman.  Zentralblatt  fiir 
Bibliothekswesen,  vol.  25,  1908,  p.  429- 
433. 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


281 


Bemerkungen    zu    dem    Brmanschen    Ent- 
wurf    "Allgemeine    Grundsatze    fiir    die 
Vermehrung    der    Preussischen    Staats- 
bibliotheken,"   von  J.   Franke.     Zentral- 
blatt  fur  Bibliothekswesen,  vol.  26,  1909, 
p.  12-22. 
Fiir  die  Seminarbibliotheken,  von  F.  Beh- 
rend.       Zentralblatt     fiir     Bibliotheks- 
wesen, vol.  26,  1909,  p.  23-25. 
Erlauterung   und    Begriindung   der    Allge- 
melnen  Grundsatze  fiir  die  Vermehrung 
der      Preussischen      Staatsbibliotheken, 
von  W.   Erman.  Zentralblatt  fiir  Biblio- 
thekswesen,  vol.   26,   1909,   p.    97-121. 
Universitatsbibliothek  und  Institutsbiblio- 

theken,  von  Karl  Biicher,  1910. 
Zentralization  der  Bibliotheken,  von  Hugo 
Zimmen  Zentralblatt  fiir  Bibliotheks- 
wesen, 28.  jahrg.  1911,  p.  446-469. 
The  pros  and  cons  of  the  departmental 
system  have  been  summarized  in  several 
of  the  articles  mentioned  above.  In  his 
annual  report  as  librarian  of  Harvard  col- 
lege for  1898  Mr.  Lane  calls  attention,  on 
the  one  hand  to  the  more  convenient  use 
of  books  in  a  small  collection,  and  in  case 
of  scientific  subjects,  the  possibility  of 
having  the  books  in  or  near  the  labora- 
tory. On  the  other  hand  he  emphasizes 
the  increased  difliculty  of  consultation  on 
the  part  of  persons-  not  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  department,  less  careful 
supervision,  increase  in  expense  of  admin- 
istration, less  security  from  fire,  lack  of 
that  reinforcement  which  every  depart- 
ment of  a  general  library  receives  from  all 
related  departments,  tendency  to  narrow- 
ness, and  growth  of  special  collections  be- 
yond a  convenient  size. 

On  September  28,  1900,  Professor  E.  D. 
Burton,  the  present  director  of  the  libra- 
ries of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  Pro- 
fessor H.  P.  Judson,  now  president  of  the 
university,  presented  before  the  faculty 
briefs  for  and  against  the  following  pro- 
position: That  a  limit  should  be  placed 
in  the  near  future  to  the  development  of 
the  departmental  library  system.  The  af- 
firmative urged  that  it  was  for  the 
advantage  of  the  departments  whose  inter- 
ests   and    relationships    are    widespread. 


notably  of  philosophy,  history,  political 
economy,  political  science,  and  sociology, 
that  all  the  library  resources  of  the  uni- 
versity should  be  gathered  in  one  build- 
ing and  brought  under  one  administration 
and  catalog  system.  The  convenience  of 
scholars  coming  from  a  distance  de- 
manded concentration  also  facilitated  the 
practical  administration  of  the  libraries. 
As  departments  grew  and  the  number  of 
books  increased,  the  departmental  library 
system  became  unwieldy. 

In  the  negative  the  following  advantages 
of  the  departmental  system  were  em- 
phasized: The  importance  of  close  connec- 
tion with  the  classrooms,  especially  the 
seminar  rooms.  For  the  departments 
which  have  laboratories  the  retention  of 
the  libraries  in  connection  with  the  labor- 
atories was  indispensable.  Granting  the 
importance  of  serving  the  convenience  of 
visiting  investigators,  their  convenience 
must  always  be  subordinated  to  that  of 
the  large  number  of  students  and  profes- 
sors of  the  university.  Practically  all  the 
valuable  results  of  concentration  could  be 
secured  by  a  catalog  of  all  the  depart- 
ments in  the  general  library  and  a  system 
of  underground  book  railways  and  tele- 
phone communication. 

The  latest  summary  which  has  come  to 
my  attention  is  one  by  Mr.  Hicks  in  the 
Columbia  university  quarterly  for  March, 
1911. 

There  is  little  that  can  be  added  to  the 
arguments  presented  in  these  statements. 
Perhaps  the  following  points  in  favor  of 
the  departmental  system  might  be  em- 
phasized: 

(1)  Books  in  the  same  room  with  the 
reader  and  free  access  to  them  is  a  great 
inducement  to  study.  It  increases  the  use 
of  books,  makes  it  easier  for  the  investi- 
gator to  consult  books  in  use  by  others, 
and  also  to  consult  with  colleagues  in  re- 
gard to  questions  which  arise  during  the 
investigation.  The  student  feels  more  at 
home,  less  subject  to  inspection  and  ob- 
servation by  oflBcials.  This  adds  to  the 
pleasure  which  he  may  take  in  his  work 
and    to   the    feeling    of   personal    respon- 


282 


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sibility  for  the  collection  of  books  with 
which  he  is  working. 

(2)  The  ability  of  a  departmental  li- 
brary to  make  collections  of  minor  publi- 
cations in  the  line  of  its  special  investiga- 
tion to  an  extent  difficult  or  even  impossi- 
ble for  the  general  library  may  also  be 
conceded. 

Against  the  system  more  emphasis 
should  b3  placed  on  the  following: 

(1)  As  Mr.  Lane  points  out  segregation 
of  books  in  departments  tends  to  narrow- 
ness. While  seminary  methods  of  instruc- 
tion should  lead  the  student  to  avail  him- 
self of  the  entire  resources  of  the  univer- 
sity library,  the  departmental  system  as 
carried  out  in  many  universities  tempts 
him  to  limit  his  investigations  to  the  de- 
partmental library.  The  narrowing  influ- 
ence of  this  must  be  obvious  to  those  who 
have  observed  how  various  subjects  and 
classes  overlap  and  intertwine,  how  ma- 
terial of  importance  is  found  in  unex- 
pected places,  in  general  collections,  trans- 
actions and  proceedings  of  societies  and 
institutions,  government  reports,  and  en- 
cyclopedic works,  not  in  the  departmental 
library,  the  loss  therefore  of  that  rein- 
forcement which  each  department  should 
receive  from  all  other  related  depart- 
ments. 

(2)  The  use  of  the  departmental  li- 
brary is  often  limited  to  students  of  a 
particular  department.  It  becomes  dif- 
ficult therefore  for  others  to  gain  access. 
If  admitted,  they  are  hampered  by  special 
rules  and  arrangements  unfamiliar  to 
them.  Books  are  as  a  rule  not  allowed  to 
circulate  and  their  withdrawal  for  use  in 
connection  with  other  related  works  be- 
comes difficult. 

(3)  Many  valuable  books  of  reference 
which  cannot  well  be  duplicated  are 
placed  beyond  the  reach  of  the  majority 
of  students  and  professors. 

(4)  It  increases  the  liability  to  loss, 
because  when  there  are  many  depart- 
mental libraries  open  many  hours  a  day 
it  becomes  practically  impossible  to  pro- 
vide in  all  of  them  adequate  supervision 
at  all  times. 


(5)  The  growth  of  the  departmental 
libraries  beyond  a  convenient  size  and  the 
incidental  disadvantages  of  inadequate 
shelf  space,  disorder,  lack  of  accommoda- 
tion for  students,  the  relegation  of  less 
used  books  to  garrets  and  cellars. 

6.  To  provide  fairly  complete  catalogs, 
author,  title,  and  subject,  for  a  large  li- 
brary is  becoming  more  and  more  difficult 
as  the  collections  increase  in  size.  To 
provide  these  calalogs  also  for  a  number 
of  departments,  or  to  furnish  copies  of  the 
sections  likely  to  interest  a  given  depart- 
ment, would  require  an  expenditure  of 
time  and  money  quite  beyond  the  means 
of  any  university,  and  entirely  out  of  pro- 
portion to  the  advantages  to  be  gained 
therefrom.  The  absence  of  satisfactory 
catalogs  in  departmental  libraries  will 
therefore  have  to  be  reckoned  with  and 
must  be  emphasized  as  one  of  the  most 
serious  disadvantages  of  the  system. 

I  realize  that  no  argument  is  likely  to 
change  the  conviction  of  certain  profes- 
sors and  departments,  that  the  depart- 
mental system  is  the  only  one  which 
merits  consideration,  or  the  view  on  the 
other  hand  of  other  professors  and  stu- 
dents, perhaps  also  the  librarian,  that  a 
strong  general  library  with  small  working 
collections  in  the  departments,  largely 
duplicating  books  in  the  general  library, 
is  in  the  interest  of  the  great  majority  and 
offers  the  only  reasonable  solution.  It 
may,  nevertheless,  be  convenient  to  have 
at  hand  a  summary  of  the  question  with 
references  to  the  literature  on  the  sub- 
ject, especially  if  governing  bodies  should 
be  called  upon  to  regulate  the  issue  as  has 
been  the  case  in  Italy  and  Prussia. 

The  development  of  the  departmental, 
problem  in  university  libraries  dates  back 
to  about  1870.  While  a  great  many  sem- 
inar collections,  especially  in  Germany, 
were  started  prior  to  that  year,  they  had 
not  as  yet  reached  a  size  which  called  for 
funds,  special  administration,  or  space,  to 
a  degree  sufficient  to  embarrass  the  gen- 
eral library  and  the  university. 

It  may  have  its  interest  to  give  a  brief 
outline  of  the  development  of  the  system 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


283 


in  Prussia.     It  should  prove  suggestive  as 
furnishing  a  parallel  to  our  own  situation. 

In  his  'Eine  Reise  durch  die  Grosseren 
Bibliotheken  Italiens,"*  Dziatzko  speaks 
of  the  Italian  government  regulations  of 
1885-1889  governing  the  relation  of  the  de- 
partmental libraries  to  the  general  uni- 
versity library.  The  Italian  regulations 
specified  among  other  points  the  follow- 
ing: 

Departmental  collections  are  to  be  con- 
sidered as  part  of  the  university  library. 
The  library  commission  of  the  university 
is  to  superintend  the  departmental  li- 
braries through  the  director  of  the  univer- 
sity library.  Second  copies  of  books 
already  in  the  university  are  to  be  pur- 
chased only  in  case  of  the  most  pressing 
necessity,  and  periodicals  are  not  to  be 
duplicated.  Books  are  to  be  transferred 
from  one  library  to  another  according  to 
definite  agreement.  Books  are  to  be  ac- 
cessioned in  the  university  library  and  to 
be  entered  in  its  author  catalog  and 
stamped  with  the  university  library  stamp. 
■  The  approval  of  book  appropriations  on 
the  part  of  the  ministry  depends  on  com- 
pliance with  these  regulations.  The  li- 
brary commission  had  apportioned  the  an- 
nual book  appropriations  as  follows:  six- 
tenths  to  departmental  libraries,  labor- 
atories, clinics,  collections,  etc.,  four- 
tenths  to  the  general  library. 

Whether  the  Prussian  ministerial  regu- 
lations adopted  soon  after  were  based  on 
the  Italian  is  not  known;  but  the  similar- 
ity of  the  problem  has  undoubtedly  led  to 
considerable  uniformity  in  the  measures 
adopted. 

It  was  in  1891  that  the  situation  in  the 
Prussian  universities  had  reached  a  point 
where  some  government  intervention 
seemed  called  for  in  order  to  regulate  the 
relations  between  the  university  libraries 
and  the  so-called  institutsbibliotheken. 
The  regulations  formulated  (printed  in 
the  Zentralblatt  fiir  Bibliothekswesen, 
1897)    specified    in   part    as   follows:    De- 

•BeitrSge  zur  Theorie  und  Praxis  des  Buch — ^und 
Bibliothekswesens.  Sammlung  Bibliothekswissenschaft- 
licher  Arbeiten.      6.  heft.     p.  106-109. 


partmental  libraries  cannot  dispose  of 
their  books;  when  no  longer  needed  they 
are  to  be  turned  over  to  the  university  li- 
brary. They  are  reference  libraries  and 
no  books  can  be  loaned  except  by  order 
of  the  university  council,  or  at  Berlin 
which  has  no  council,  by  the  ministry.  All 
students  of  the  university  are  admitted  to 
the  use  of  the  departmental  libraries. 
The  university  library  shall  make  an 
author  catalog  of  the  books  in  the  de- 
partments, one  copy  for  the  departmental 
library,  the  other  for  the  union  catalog  in 
the  general  library.  The  university  li- 
brary can  loan  books  to  the  departmental 
library  for  a  semester,  provided  they  can 
be  spared. 

While  the  government  passed  the  regu- 
lations it  neglected  to  provide  sufficient 
appropriations  to  carry  them  out,  the  re- 
sult being  that  the  union  catalog  referred 
to  was  begun  at  only  two  universities, 
Berlin  and  Bonn,  and  at  the  former  lack 
of  help  soon  caused  a  considerable  ac- 
cumulation of  arrears.  The  experience 
gained  showed  that,  an  indication  in  the 
catalog  of  the  general  library,  that  a 
given  book  can  be  found  in  a  department 
is  of  little  value.  The  general  library  has 
not  on  that  account  been  able  to  dispense 
with  the  purchase  of  a  copy,  the  distance 
to  the  departmental  library  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  securing  access  making  it  neces- 
sary to  duplicate.  Occasionally  a  student 
has  been  referred  to  a  departmental  li- 
brary, but  it  has  not  happened  frequently 
enough  to  warrant  the  extra  expenditure, 
or  the  duplication  of  catalogs.  It  has  on 
the  other  hand  proved  of  great  assistance 
to  the  departmental  library,  and  in  Bonn 
its  continuance  is  strongly  urged  by  the 
departments.  The  same  holds  true  of 
Berlin,  although  instances  have  been  re- 
corded where  a  department  has  refused 
to  accept  the  catalog  prepared  by  the 
general  library. 

In  other  respects  the  departments  have 
neglected  to  follow  the  regulations.  It 
has  been  said,  for  instance,  that  instead 
of  turning  duplicates  over  to  the  univer- 
sity library  certain  departments  have  dis- 


284 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


posed  of  them  through  exchange  or  have 
sold  them  outright  to  book  dealers. 

In  his  report  before  the  Versammlung 
Deutscher  Bibliothekare,  1896,  Dr.  Naete- 
bus  gives  an  excellent  survey  of  the  de- 
partmental libraries  of  the  Prussian  uni- 
versities, reporting  in  all  on  367  different 
collections.  A  perusal  of  his  report  and 
of  the  discussion  which  followed  shows 
that  the  problem  in  Prussia  is  in  most  re- 
spects similar  to  our  own. 

In  the  Zentralblatt  fiir  Bibliotheks- 
wesen,  1909,  p.  103,  et  seq.,  Dr.  Erman 
criticizes  the  regulations  of  1891  for  not 
specifying  or  providing  means  for  enforc- 
ing them.  Incidentally  hesays  with  refer- 
ence to  the  development  of  the  departmen- 
tal libraries,  that  while  the  original  plan 
had  been  to  make  the  books  most  urgently 
needed  by  students  in  seminars  and  lab- 
oratories more  convenient  of  access  than 
was  possible  in  the  overworked  and 
overcrowded  university  libraries,  var- 
ious circumstances  had  cooperated  to- 
wards gradually  making  these  collections 
more  comprehensive  than  they  were  in- 
tended to  be,  to  include  in  fact  almost  all 
the  literature  in  a  given  field  or  in  related 
and  overlapping  fields  of  knowledge,  thus 
making  the  departmental  libraries  quite 
independent  of  the  university  library. 
While  the  original  plan  had  seemed  to 
furnish  welcome  relief  to  the  university 
libraries,  its  recent  extension  had  threat- 
ened seriously  to  cripple  them. 

It  was  perhaps  the  lack  of  funds  on  the 
part  of  the  university  libraries  which  had 
caused  the  difficulty  in  the  first  place.  The 
departments  finding  that  certain  expen- 
sive books  could  not  be  obtained  through 
the  university  library  began  to  purchase 
them  for  their  own  use.  As  the  funds  of 
the  departments  were  too  small  to  permit 
of  extensive  purchases,  every  effort  was 
made  to  increase  them  by  special  and  ex- 
tra appropriations,  this  being  so  much  the 
easier  as  the  directors  of  the  departments 
were  frequently  the  most  influential  and 
powerful  men  in  the  faculties,  and  funds 
which  otherwise  would  have  fallen  to  the 
university  library  were  thus  diverted   to 


the  departments,  extending  the  size  and 
scope  of  their  working  collections  far  be- 
yond the  bounds  originally  intended. 

Dr.  Erman  states  that  many  professors 
have  according  to  his  own  experience 
sought  to  secure  practically  all  new  acces- 
sions of  value  for  the  departmental  li- 
brary, leaving  for  the  general  library  only 
the  books  seldom  or  never  asked  for.  To 
discontinue  the  university  library  alto- 
gether and  divide  its  collections  among 
the  departments  would  seem  a  far  simpler 
and  more  logical  plan,  and  there  should 
be  no  hesitation  in  considering  its  realiza- 
tion provided  there  seemed  any  hope  that 
forty  departmental  libraries  would  replace 
the  university  library  and  perform  its 
functions  in  a  satisfactory  manner.  Un- 
fortunately, such  a  solution  seems  out  of 
the  question.  It  would  prove  disastrous 
to  the  university  in  various  ways.  There 
would  be  lost  to  it  the  one  department 
alike  common  to  all  members  of  the 
faculty  and  to  the  student  body.  Very  few 
work  in  so  narrow  a  field  that  they  would 
be  served  by  consulting  only  one  of  the 
departmental  libraries.  The  younger  in- 
structors and  students  who  might  not 
have  any  department,  would  be  at  a  great 
disadvantage.  If  the  university  libraries 
were  ever  discontinued  Dr.  Erman  thinks 
that  there  would  soon  arise  an  irresistible 
demand  for  their  restoration.  He  also 
thinks  that  the  increase  in  the  adminis- 
trative expense  resulting  from  a  depart- 
mental system  would  be  so  great  as  to  be 
practically  prohibitive. 

In  Germany  as  with  us,  the  desirability 
of  some  modus  vivendi  by  which  univer- 
sity libraries  and  the  departments  could 
be  made  to  work  in  harmony  and  mutually 
assist  one  another,  has  repeatedly  been 
emphasized.  As  it  is,  the  professor  to 
whom  a  general  library  was  once  a  vital 
question,  but  who  has  now  at  hand  a  well 
equipped  departmental  collection,  is  likely 
to  lose  all  interest  in  the  former  and  de- 
vote himself  entirely  to  the  development 
of  the  latter.  Here  in  America  the  sepa- 
ration may  not  as  yet  have  reached  the 
point  where,  as  in  a  case  cited  by  Dr.  Er- 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


285 


man,  a  professor  on  being  elected  to  the 
library  council  said  to  him  that  this  was 
the  first  intimation  he  had  had  of  the  ex- 
istence of  a  university  library.  At  the 
same  time,  we  have  here  and  there  evi- 
dence of  a  strong  drift  in  this  direction, 
particularly  so  in  universities  where  the 
departmental  system  has  been  most  fully 
developed. 

Another  eminent  German  librarian  who 
touches  on  this  problem  is  Dr.  Milkau.  In 
Kultur  der  Gegenwart,  Abt.  1,  p.  579,  he 
states  that  in  certain  universities  the  total 
appropriation  of  all  departmental  libraries 
sometimes  equals  or  even  exceeds  that  of 
the  general  library.  Originally  intended 
as  collections  of  reference  books  to  be 
used  in  connection  with  instruction,  they 
have  gradually  grown  to  considerable 
size,  so  that  their  supervision  and  regula- 
tion is  year  by  year  becoming  more  diffi- 
cult. Dr.  Milkau  would  not  abolish  the 
departmental  libraries;  on  the  contrary  he 
freely  grants  their  great  value  and  superi- 
ority in  some  respects  to  the  university 
library.  There  must,  however,  be  co- 
operation between  the  departmental  li- 
braries one  with  another,  and  with  the 
university  library.  .Purchase  of  sets  and 
expensive  books  must  not  be  decided  upon 
regardless  of  what  is  already  in  the  uni- 
versity. Each  department  must  limit  it- 
self strictly  to  its  own  particular  field  and 
omit  all  works  not  urgently  needed,  or  of 
some  permanent  value.  He  offers  as  a 
remedy  for  the  problem  the  following:  To 
limit  the  size  of  the  departmental  collec- 
tion, setting  a  maximum  number  of 
volumes  not  to  be  exceeded,  a  cure  which 
seems  a  little  too  radical  to  find  favor 
with  all  parties   concerned. 

In  the  discussion  on  the  report  of  Dr. 
Naetebus  referred  to  above.  Dr.  Gerhard, 
of  Halle,  insisted  that  the  only  way  to  se- 
cure relief  would  be  through  radical  meas- 
ures on  the  part  of  the  government,  viz., 
to  cut  down  the  departmental  appropria- 
tions to  a  point  where  they  would  be 
forced  to  restrict  purchases  to  the  books 
most  urgently  needed  for  use  in  connec- 
tion  with  instruction,   the  appropriations 


thus  saved  to  be  turned  over  to  the  uni- 
versity library.  Dr.  Roth,  of  Halle,  com- 
plained of  the  lack  of  system  in  the 
development  of  the  departmental  libraries 
due  to  the  frequent  change  of  directors. 
He,  however,  considered  the  power  of  de- 
partments to  secure  books  through  gift 
and  exchange  an  important  and  valuable 
factor,  one  not  to  be  underestimated.  Dr. 
Erman,  Breslau,  agreed  with  Dr.  Gerhard 
and  stated  that  there  must  be  a  readjust- 
ment of  the  funds  appropriated  for  the 
purchase  of  books  for  the  university  and 
departmental  libraries.  There  could  be 
no  complaint  with  the  development  of 
large  and  comprehensive  collections  in 
the  departments,  if  at  the  same  time  the 
university  libraries  received  enough  to  se- 
cure at  least  a  small  part  of  the  books 
needed  to  keep  their  collections  up  to 
date.  There  would  never  have  been  so 
large  a  development  of  the  departmental 
libraries  if  the  university  libraries  had 
been  in  a  position  to  answer  the  demands 
made  on  them.  As  it  is,  when  an  ex- 
pensive book  is  wanted  and  the  university 
library  has  not  the  funds  to  secure  it, 
there  immediately  appear  from  two  to 
three  copies  in  as  many  departmental  li- 
braries, while  there  is  no  copy  in  the 
university  library.  The  situation  which 
results  is  intolerable.  If  in  Breslau  in- 
stead of  31,000  marks  a  year  for  the 
university  library  and  31,000  for  the  de- 
partmental libraries,  the  former  had  40,- 
000  and  the  latter  20,000,  it  would  mean 
an  immense  improvement  for  all  con- 
cerned. 

Dr.  Geiger,  Tubingen,  and  Dr.  Frank- 
furter of  Vienna,  reported  that  essentially 
the  same  or  even  a  worse  state  of  affairs 
exists  in  Wurtemburg  and  in  Austria. 

The  radical  measures  recommended  by 
Dr.  Gerhard  and  others  were  not  approved 
by  Dr.  Naetebus,  especially  on  account  of 
the  ability  of  departmental  libraries  to 
secure  gifts  and  exchanges  not  within  the 
reach  of  the  university  library. 

Since  this  discussion  took  place  I  under- 
stand that  the  book  funds  of  the  Prussian 
university  libraries  have  been  materially 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


increased,  thus  somewhat  relieving  the 
situation.  After  this  brief  survey  of  the 
conditions  existing  in  certain  European 
universities  it  may  be  of  interest  to  turn 
to  one  of  the  two  American  universities  in 
which  the  building  up  of  departmental 
collections  has  preceded  the  development 
of  a  strong  general  library. 

Departmental  Libraries  at  the  University 
of  Cliicago 

The  extraordinary  development  of  the 
departmental  library  system  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago  is  due  largely  to  a  num- 
ber of  causes  and  conditions,  many  of 
them  accidental  and  peculiar  to  the  uni- 
versity. The  main  reason  was  probably 
the  lack  of  a  general  library  worthy  of 
the  name;  also  the  fact  that  some  of  the 
strongest  men  on  the  faculty  favored  the 
departmental  system. 

In  the  president's  report  (Decennial 
Publications,  first  series,  1903,  vol.  1, 
p.  266-290)  is  found  an  "Outline  history  of 
the  legislation  of  university  bodies  on  the 
question  of  departmental  libraries  and 
their  relation  to  the  general  library."  The 
first  sentence  reads:  "The  system  of  de- 
partmental libraries  for  research  work, 
supplementing  the  general  library  of  the 
university,  dates  from  the  organization  of 
the  university  itself."  This  would  indi- 
cate that  the  departmental  libraries  were 
considered  supplementary  to  the  general 
library.  However  this  may  have  been  at 
the  outset,  later  developments  show  that 
the  general  library  has  been  so  entirely 
outstripped  and  overshadowed  by  the  de- 
partmental collections  that  in  1910,  at  any 
rate,  when  the  writer  had  his  first  oppor- 
tunity to  observe  conditions  at  close  hand, 
the  general  library  was  found  to  consist 
of  some  75,000  volumes  of  odds  and  ends,  a 
mere  conglomerate  which  would  have 
been  of  little  service,  except  for  the  fact 
that  it  was  the  only  collection  on  the 
campus  from  which  books  could  be  drawn 
somewhat  freely  and  to  which  under- 
graduates had  general  access.  Appropria- 
tions for  books  amounted  to  $25,265,  of 
which  the  general  library  had  only  $1550; 
the  departmental  libraries,  $23,715.     (See 


above,  Dr.  Gerhart's  complaint  about  the 
situation  at  Halle,  31,000  marks  for  the 
general  library,  31,000  for  the  departments). 

While  the  original  plan  had  no  doubt 
intended  that  departments  should  abstain 
from  ordering  books  of  interest  to  several 
departments,  that  books  of  general  inter- 
est therefore  should  be  purchased  only  by 
the  general  library,  the  latter  was  unfor- 
tunately prevented  by  lack  of  funds  and 
equipment  from  meeting  these  demands, 
the  inevitable  result  being  that  the  depart- 
ments soon  ceased  to  look  to  the  general 
library  and  ordered  for  their  own  use  any 
book  to  which  a  professor  might  have 
occasion  to  refer  in  his  courses,  regard- 
less of  whether  it  was  in  the  general,  li- 
brary or  .in  another  departmental  library. 
Whether  in  placing  orders  he  was  in- 
truding on  the  domains  of  a  related 
department  may  or  may  not  have  been 
considered.  At  any  rate  books  on  exactly 
the  same  subject  are  now  found  in  a  num- 
ber of  departmental  libraries,  editions  of 
the  same  book  are  separated  and  there 
is  duplication  of  copies  to  an  extent 
hitherto  unheard  of,  as  far  as  I  know,  in 
any  university  library. 

That  the  president  and  faculty  have 
been  aware  of  the  situation  and  have  tried 
to  find  a  solution,  of  that  there  is  evidence 
enough. 

Mr.  Bishop  in  his  articles  in  the  Library 
journal,  vol.  28,  has  given  a  survey  of 
the  discussion  which  took  place  at  the 
University  of  Chicago  in  1898-1901.  A  full 
report  is  found  in  the  Decennial  Publica- 
tions, first  series  vol.  1  quoted  above,  and 
in  the  University  record  vol.  5.  It  has 
been  referred  to  also  by  Mr.  Henry  E. 
Bliss  in  his  recent  article  in  the  Educa- 
tional review,  April  1912. 

The  solution  attempted,  perhaps  the 
only  one  possible  at  the  time,  consisted  in 
a  grouping  of  related  departmental  collec- 
tions. The  following  group  libraries  were 
formally  approved  by  the  library  board  in 
1899:  Classical,  Modern  Languages,  and 
Historical.  In  1900  the  university  senate 
approved  the  general  plan  that  all  de- 
partments having  laboratories   should  re- 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


287 


tain  their  libraries  in  the  same  building 
with  the  laboratory,  those  not  having  lab- 
oratories should  as  a  rule  be  transferred 
to  the  general  library  building  when  one 
was  erected.  I  have  already  referred  to 
the  briefs  presented  by  Dr.  Burton  and  Dr. 
Judson  in  October,  1900,  on  the  proposi- 
tion that  a  limit  should  be  put  in  the  near 
future  to  the  development  of  the  depart- 
mental library  system.  The  University 
Congress  after  discussing  them  adopted 
two  resolutions:  (1)  That  it  is  the  judg- 
ment of  this  body  that  the  departmental 
library  system  should  be  retained.  (2) 
That  a  committee  of  three  for  each  of 
the  several  groups  of  departments  rec- 
ognized by  the  Board  of  libraries,  labor- 
atories and  museums  be  appointed,  the 
committee  to  consider  and  to  recommend, 
respecting  the  group  represented,  what  is 
best  for  it  and  the  university  in  general. 
The  report  of  this  committee  appeared  in 
the  University  record  Nov.  9  and  16,  1900. 
These  reports  from  the  different  groups 
and  departments  are  of  interest  in  show- 
ing the  sentiment  in  the  various  depart- 
ments of  the  teaching  body.  They  were 
briefly  as  follows:  Of  the  Classical  De- 
partment five  favoyed  the  departmental 
system,  two  a  general  library.  The 
Modern  Language  group  was  unanimous 
in  favor  of  centralization.  The  Haskell 
group  (Divinity  School,  Semitics,  and 
Comparative  Religion)  proposed  the  main- 
tenance of  branch  libraries  of  books  likely 
to  be  in  constant  use  by  students  in  con- 
nection with  the  ordinary  class  work  to 
be  kept  in  the  lecture  hall  building,  that 
no  books  should  be  permanently  assigned 
to  these  branch  libraries  of  which  there 
was  not  another  copy  in  the  general  li- 
brary. The  Historical  group  held  to  the 
departmental  library  system,  but  was  not 
so  particular  about  the  control  of  the  li- 
braries. Like  the  Divinity  School,  it  pre- 
ferred locating  the  departmental  collec- 
tion in  one  building  with  the  general  li- 
brary and  related  departmental  libraries. 
The  Philosophical  group  recognized  the 
great  value  of  location  of  related  depart- 
ments   in    the    same    building,    but   held 


strongly  to  departmental  control  of  the  / 
library  and  free  access  of  students  to 
books  in  which  they  are  interested.  If 
these  two  things  could  be  granted,  they 
would  advocate  a  single  building  for  all 
departments.  The  Mathematical  group 
was  con-committal,  it  emphasized  however 
that  Astronomy  and  Mathematics  must 
be  kept  together  and  that  books  in  these 
libraries  are  used   almost  exclusively  by  s 

students  of  the  two  departments  named.* 
The  Biology  group  recommended  that 
upon  erection  of  a  suitable  library  build- 
ing a  separate  room  be  assigned  to  the 
Biology  library.  That  arrangements  be 
made  for  telephone  communication  and 
speedy  transfer  of  books  to  laboratories, 
that  special  books  and  periodicals  needed 
by  the  department  for  constant  use  be 
kept  in  each  laboratory  building  as  a 
branch  of  the  departmental  library,  that 
books  in  such  branch  libraries  be  rend- 
ered easily  accessible  at  all  hours,  and 
that  provision  for  adequate  supervision  of 
these  branch  libraries  be  considered  an  in- 
dispensable preliminary  to  their  establish- 
ment. The  Chemical  group  wished  the 
Chemical  library  to  be  retained  in  Kent 
Chemical  Laboratory,  but  preferred  to  see 
the  proceedings  of  academies  and  journals 
of  general  scientific  interest  kept  in  the 
general  library,  also  that  a  reference  shelf 
containing  books  of  interest  to  those  who 
are  taking  undergraduate  work  in  chem- 
istry be  maintained  in  the  general  reading 
room  of  the  general  library,  and  that  spe- 
cial books  needed  for  consultation  in  con- 
nection with  laboratory  work  be  kept  in 
the  laboratory.  Physics  considered  the 
departmental  library  as  indispensable  to 
the  department.  The  Geology  group  re- 
ported most  unqualifiedly  in  favor  of  de- 
partmental or  group  libraries  that  should 
embrace  essentially  all  the  literature  per- 
taining to  the  group  so  far  as  practical' 
considerations  would  permit.  The  full 
statement  of  this  group  deserves  to  be 
read.  It  is  a  most  emphatic  defense  of  the 
departmental   system.     The   statement   of 

*NOTE — Later  on   Mathematics  decided  that  their 
library  must  be  kept  in  the  Mathematical  building. 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


the  Modern  Language  group  and  of  Pro- 
fessor Hendrickson  of  the  Classical  group 
contain  the  strongest  statements  on  the 
other  side  of  the  question. 

On  November  4,  1900,  these  reports  were 
referred  by  the  library  board  to  a  com- 
mittee of  three,  one  of  whom  was  the 
Associate  Librarian,  Mrs.  Dixson.  The 
committee  reported  on  March  16,  1901 
(see  University  record  March  22,  1901)  in 
favor  of  maintaining  the  departmental 
system,  but  recommended  the  centraliza- 
tion as  far  as  possible  at  one  point  in  a 
central  building  of  the  administration  of 
the  libraries,  and  of  the  books  of  the  uni- 
versity not  in  use  in  the  departments. 
After  much  discussion  of  the  report  and 
a  later  modification  of  it,  it  was  decided 
to  refer  the  matter  to  a  commission  con- 
sisting of  professors  and  trustees  ap- 
pointed for  the  purpose  of  making  a 
thorough  study  of  the  entire  problem. 
The  outcome  of  the  work  of  this  commis- 
sion was  a  decision  to  place  in  buildings 
connecting  with  the  general  library  the 
following  departmental  or  group  libraries: 
Philosophy,  History  and  Social  Sciences, 
Classics,  Modern  Languages,  Oriental 
Languages,  the  Divinity  School,  the  Law 
School.  That  further,  the  departmental 
libraries  of  Chemistry,  Physics,  Geology, 
and  the  Biological  sciences,  be  retained  in 
the  department  buildings  of  these  depart- 
ments, it  being  understood  that  these  de- 
partments may  place  such  books  as  they 
desire  in  the  general  library  building.  The 
library  of  Mathematics  and  Astronomy 
should  be  associated  with  the  library  of 
Physics. 

Time  will  not  permit  any  detailed  con- 
sideration of  the  report  of  the  commission. 
It  was  approved  by  the  Congregation, 
August  28th,  1902,  and  adopted  by  the 
Board  of  trustees  September  12th  of  the 
same  year.  It  is  the  plan  laid  down  in 
this  report  that  has  in  the  main  been  fol- 
lowed in  the  location  and  erection  of  the 
Harper  Memorial  library,  dedicated  on 
June  11,  1912,  and  which  it  is  also  proposed 
to  follow  in  the  separate  buildings  to  be 
provided  for  the  Historical  Group,  Philoso- 


phy, Modern  Languages  and  Classics. 
When  completed  this  plan  will  bring  the 
Humanities,  with  the  exception  of  Geogra- 
phy into  buildings  adjoining  the  General 
Library,  connected  with  it  or  with  one  an- 
other by  bridges. 

Since  the  adoption  of  the  report  nearly 
ten  years  have  elapsed  during  which  there 
has  been  some  progress  in  the  direction 
of  centralization,  at  any  rate  of  manage- 
ment and  control  of  libraries.  A  some- 
what uniform  system  of  rules  and  regula- 
tions was  adopted  in  1911.  In  the  same 
year  a  common  system  of  catalogs  and 
classification  was  finally  approved. 
The  catalogs  will  include: 

<1)'  A  dictionary  catalog  for  the  pub- 
lic in  the  general  library,  dupli- 
cated in  part  in  the  catalog 
department   (Ofiicial  catalog). 

(2)  Classed  catalog  for  the  public  in 
the  general  library,  duplicated  in 
part  in  the  catalog  department 
(Shelf-list  on  cards). 

(3)  Author  catalog  and  shelf-list  on 
cards  for  the  departmental  li- 
braries located  in  buildings  not 
connecting  with  the  general 
library. 

(4)  Author  catalog  only  for  depart- 
mental libraries  located  in  the 
general  library,  or  in  buildings 
connecting  with  it. 

N.  B.  Catalogs  in  the  departmental  li- 
braries will  not  according  to  the  present 
plan  include  analyticals  or  other  added  en- 
tries which  may  be  provided  in  the  dic- 
tionary and  classed  catalogs  of  the  general 
library. 

Even  with  the  limitations  here  indicated 
the  catalog  plan  as  outlined  may  seem  a 
little  ambitious  and  likely  to  prove  ex- 
pensive and  difficult  to  maintain.  In  view 
of  the  present  situation,  as  well  as  the 
outlook  for  the  future,  even  assuming  that 
departments  which  in  1900  favored  a  de- 
partmental system  should  be  indisposed  to 
change  their  attitude,  it  seemed  neverthe- 
less the  safest  plan  to  adopt.  The  gen- 
eral library  aims  to  build  up  a  strong  cen- 
tral reference  collection.     This  collection 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


289 


should  be  classified  and  cataloged  so  as  to 
yield  the  best  possible  results.  Merged 
with  the  catalog  of  the  general  library 
will  be  one  covering  all  the  departmental 
libraries.  It  would,  of  course,  be  desir- 
able to  provide  every  departmental  library 
with  as  exhaustive  a  catalog  as  the  one 
proposed  for  the  general  library.  The 
expense  however,  even  in  this  day  of 
printed  cards  would,  I  fear,  be  practically 
prohibitive.  Moreover,  it  is  doubtful  if 
many  of  the  departments  would  find  the 
expected  relief  in  an  elaborate  author  and 
subject  catalog  of  their  collections  as  they 
stand.  This  last  statement  may  seem  to 
require  some  further  substantiation,  and 
I  shall  in  the  following  endeavor  to  pres- 
ent the  necessary  proofs  and  illustrations. 
It  is  no  doubt  true  that  heads  of  de- 
partments and  their  associates  frequently 
take  a  personal  pride  in  their  departmental 
library  and  feel  a  certain  responsibility 
for  its  growth  and  development.  I  have 
known  cases  where  a  department  would 
resent  any  suggestion  that  a  part  of 
its  books  might  to  good  advantage  be 
transferred  to  the  general  library  or  to 
another  department  in  exchange  for  ma- 
terial in  these  libr9,ries  bearing  more  di- 
rectly on  the  special  line  of  study  which 
the  department  is  supposed  to  represent. 
The  fact  remains,  nevertheless,  that  these 
libraries  frequently  show  in  their  develop- 
ment a  lack  of  that  strong  coordinating 
Influence  so  essential  to  systematic  growth. 
A  detailed  examination  of  their  collections 
soon  reveals  the  fact  that  books  have  been 
ordered  principally  with  reference  to  their 
use  in  connection  with  courses  given  in 
a  department,  no  one  apparently  ques- 
tioning the  right  of  one  department  to 
poach  on  the  premises  of  another  or  on 
that  of  the  general  library.  There  has  re- 
sulted, therefore,  a  situation  which  can- 
not be  remedied  by  any  catalog,  no  matter 
how  exhaustive  or  how  perfect.  This 
leads  me  to  go  a  step  further  and  to  ven- 
ture the  assertion  that  the  lack  of  a  strong 
central  library  can  not  be  compensated  by 
merely  bringing  together  related  depart- 
mental libraries  into  the  same  or  adjoin- 


ing buildings.  It  is  even  doubtful  if  it 
would  be  worth  while  to  prepare  an  ex- 
haustive union  catalog  of  such  libraries 
without  considerable  migration  of  books 
from  one  department  to  another. 

A  few  illustrations  taken  at  random  from 
the  books  which  have  come  under  my  ob- 
servation during  the  past  month  or  two 
in  connection  with  the  recataloging,  will, 
I  think,  bear  me  out  in  this  statement. 

General  works  on  science  are  in  a  num- 
ber of  libraries,  mainly  in  Geology,  Biol- 
ogy, and  the  general  library,  but  also  in 
a  number  of  other  departmental  libraries. 

The  History  library  includes  many  books 
which  deal  solely  with  Education,  Medi- 
cine, Music,  Art,  Religion,  Technology,  and 
other  subjects,  over-lapping,  therefore, 
practically  with  all  other  departments. 
The  main  duplication,  however,  seems  to 
be  in  Church  History  with  the  Divinity 
library,  in  History  and  Topography  with 
Geography,  in  Ancient  History  with  Class- 
ics and  in  Education  and  other  subjects 
with  the  general  library. 

The  Modern  Language  library  duplicates 
chiefly  material  in  the  libraries  of  History 
and  Geography,  besides  of  course  the  gen- 
eral library.  It  is,  however,  the  one  de- 
partment which  strongly  favors  consoli- 
dation of  books  on  the  same  subject,  and 
if  the  other  departments  in  or  connect- 
ing with  the  general  library  will  agree  to 
such  consolidation,  its  duplication,  except 
with  Geography  and  the  Classical  Depart- 
ment, should  cease  after  the  transfer  of 
its  books  to  the  general  library  building. 
The  fact  that  this  library  has  on  its 
shelves  works  like  Alumni  Oxoniensis, 
Catalogue  of  the  Advocates  Library, 
"Ersch  and  Gruber,"  La  Grande  Encyclo- 
pedic, Dante's  Dictionnaire  biographique 
et  bibliographique  des  hommes  les  plus  re- 
marquables,  Haebler's  Typographia  Iber- 
ica,  etc.,  will  therefore  prove  an  advantage. 

The  Classical  library  presents  one  of  the 
most  vexing  problems  of  our  library  situa- 
tion, one  not  solved  by  a  most  liberal  du- 
plication. Its  collections  overlap  mainly 
with  those  of  History,  Sociology,  Science, 
Political    Science,    Economics,    Literature, 


290 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Divinity,  and  the  general  library.  I  am 
not  now  referring  to  texts  and  transla- 
tions of  classical  authors,  but  to  modern 
books  on  ancient  history,  government,  ad- 
ministration, and  the  like.  What  tends 
to  aggrevate  the  situation  is  the  fact  that 
this  library  possesses  also  the  only  set 
on  the  campus  of  certain  important  gen- 
eral, literary  and  bibliographical  period- 
icals, e.g..  Revue  critique.  Although  this 
department  is  in  the  near  future  to  oc- 
cupy a  building  connecting  with  the  gen- 
eral library,  it  has  always  taken  a  strong 
stand  against  any  merging  of  its  collec- 
tions with  those  of  other  libraries.  There 
is,  therefore  in  this  case  little  hope  of 
relief  through  consolidation. 

Books  on  Education  have  been  a  source 
of  particular  trouble  inasmuch  as  they 
have  been  purchased  extensively  by  a 
number  of  departmental  libraries.  Me- 
diaeval literature  and  the  history  of  the 
middle  ages  is  again  a  field  which  has  been 
developed  by  the  Classical  library.  Modern 
Languages,  History  and  the  general  li- 
brary. General  books  on  Literature  may 
be  found  in  Philosophy,  History,  Modern 
Languages,  and  the  general  library,  and 
likely  also  in  the  Classical  department. 
Books  on  Evolution  treating  the  question 
strictly  from  the  biological  standpoint  may 
be  in  Philosophy  and  History,  but  not  in 
Biology.  Whether  the  reverse  holds  true, 
I  have  not  as  yet  been  able  to  verify  by 
an  actual  examination  of  the  Biology  li- 
brary. Naturally  books  on  Experimental 
and  Physiological  Psychology  may  be  found 
in  Philosophy,  Psychology,  and  also  in  the 
Biology  library. 

Books  on  Metallurgy  while  chiefly  in 
Geology  are  also  represented  in  the  li- 
brary of  Commerce  and  Administration. 
This  holds  true  also  of  Engineering,  Shop 
Management,  and  Agriculture.  The  latter 
subject  is  freely  represented  also  in  Bot- 
any, Economics,  and  in  the  general  library. 

Geography,  which  is  connected  with  the 
departmental  library  of  Geology  in  a  build- 
ing not  to  connect  with  the  general  li- 
brary, buys  extensively  in  History,  also 
In  Economics,  Natural  conservation  of  re- 


sources. Soils,  Economics,  Botany,  Plant 
Industries,  etc,  etc. 

Meteorology  is  represented  in  Geology, 
in  Physics,  Astronomy,  and  in  the  general 
library.  Books  on  Water  Supply,  Irriga- 
tion and  the  like  are  in  Geology  and  Geog- 
raphy, Chemistry,  Economics,  and  the  gen- 
eral library.  Books  on  Fisheries,  Whal- 
ing, and  related  subjects  may  be  found  in 
Geography,  Biology,  and  the  general  li- 
brary. Commerce  is  largely  represented 
in  Geography,  Economics,  the  general  li- 
brary, Commerce  and  Administration,  and 
the  Classical  library.  Canals,  Waterways, 
and  Railroads,  are  mainly  in  Geography 
and  Economics,  but  also  in  the  general 
library.  Mining  is  in  "Geography  and  Geol- 
ogy, and  also  in  Economics.  Marine  Biol- 
ogy will  be  found  in  Geography  and  Geol- 
ogy as  well  as  in  Biology.  Geology  has  a 
considerable  number  of  books  on  Physics 
and  Chemistry.  Books  on  various  indus- 
tries are  found  in  Economics,  in  Geology, 
and  in  the  general  library.  Commercial 
Geography  is  somewhat  evenly  divided  be- 
tween Geography  and  Commerce  and  Ad- 
ministration. 

Another  great  difficulty  is  the  separa- 
tion of  volumes  of  the  same  work.  For  in- 
stance, there  is  in  no  library  a  complete 
set  of  the  Statesman's  Year  Book  or  the 
Almanach  de  Gotha,  but  partial  sets  in 
at  least  two  or  three  libraries.  This  holds 
true  also  of  several  bibliographical  period- 
icals and  annuals,  e.g.,  Le  Soudier's  An- 
nuaire  de  la  Librarie  francaise. 

The  instances  here  cited  consider  only 
the  duplicating  and  overlapping  of  inde- 
pendent books  or  monographs  treating  the 
same  subject,  or  the  same  phase  of  a  sub- 
ject; it  does  not  take  note  of  the  duplica- 
tion common  to  all  libraries  because  of 
the  inclusion  in  encyclopedias,  general  pe- 
riodicals, and  other  comprehensive  works, 
of  material  on  a  special  subject;  neither 
does  it  refer  to  the  duplication  which  may 
be  proper  in  such  subjects  as  Railroads, 
Waterways,  etc.,  where  one  department 
takes  up  the  technical  and  another  the 
economic  phase  of  a  subject. 

It   would    be    possible   to    go   on    citing 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


291 


hundreds  of  illustrations  similar  to  the 
above,  but  time  will  not  permit.  When 
the  work  which  practically  took  its  begin- 
ning in  October,  1911,  viz.,  reclassification 
and  recataloging  of  the  libraries,  has  been 
completed  I  dare  say  that  anyone  con- 
nected with  the  work  who  may  have  had 
time  to  make  notes  by  the  way,  would  be 
in  a  position  to  furnish  valuable  informa- 
tion as  regards  the  practical  workings  of 
a  departmental  system  similar  to  the  one 
which  has  grown  up  at  the  University  of 
Chicago. 

I  have  stated  that  the  bringing  together 
of  related  departmental  libraries  under  one 
roof  and  the  thorough  cataloging  of  all 
the  books  on  the  campus  in  the  manner 
indicated  above,  will  not  furnish  a  satis- 
factory solution  of  our  problems.  This  I 
believe  can  only  come  about  through  some 
exchange  of  books  between  departmental 
libraries  which  shall  bring  together,  not 
necessarily  all  books  on  the  same  subject, 
but  at  any  rate  the  bulk  of  the  material 
which  deals  with  a  special  phase  of  a  sub- 
ject, and  the  various  volumes  of  a  period- 
ical, annual,  or  similar  work  which  I  trust 
all  are  agreed  should  stand  together. 

It  resolves  itself  then  into  a  question 
of  reclassification  or  rather  relocation  of 
a  part  of  the  book  resources  of  the  uni- 
versity, and  a  partial  surrender  of  the 
right  on  the  part  of  the  departments  to 
determine  absolutely  the  physical  location 
of  every  book  purchased  on  their  recom- 
mendation. Personally,  I  feel  rather  hope- 
ful that  when  the  cataloging  of  a  number 
of  libraries  has  been  completed  and  their 
resources  brought  together  in  a  common 
catalog,  the  members  of  the  various  de- 
partments will  see  for  themselves  the  ad- 
vantage to  all  concerned  of  a  partial  re- 
distribution. 

In  a  small  way  the  general  library  has 
inaugurated  such  redistribution  by  indirect 
purchase  of  general  bibliographies  and  re- 
ference works  from  the  departmental  li- 
braries, a  sum  equal  to  the  cost  of  the 
work  at  the  time  of  original  purchase  be- 
ing transferred  from  the  book  apppropri- 
ation  of  the  general  library  to  that  of  the 


department.  Some  of  the  departments 
have  been  most  willing  to  agree  to  such 
transfers.  If  it  can  be  put  into  effect  in 
the  libraries  which  are  now  to  be  brought 
under  the  same  roof,  i.e.,  the  Humanities 
with  the  exception  of  Classics  and  Geog- 
raphy, it  will  go  far  toward  the  establish- 
ment of  what  it  is  hoped  may  prove  a 
fairly  efiicient  central  library.  The  cen- 
tralization of  catalogs  and  reference  books 
alone  would  in  time  make  it  desirable  for 
the  departments  more  and  more  to  con- 
sult the  general  library.  A  real  consoli- 
dation of  the  resources  of  the  Historical 
Group,  Modern  Languages  and  Literatures, 
Religion  and  Theology  with  the  present 
general  library  will,  it  is  hoped,  prove  to 
be  even  more  effective. 

I  have  already  stated  that  Geography 
would  remain  outside  of  this  consolidation 
and  probably  also  the  Classical  depart- 
ment, in  spite  of  the  fact  that  the  latter 
is  soon  to  occupy  a  building  connecting 
with  the  general  library.  It  is  hoped  that 
in  both  cases  arrangements  can  in  time 
be  devised  which,  while  satisfactory  to  the 
departments,  shall  prove  effective  in 
checking  the  almost  unrestricted  duplica- 
tion of  material  in  other  libraries  which 
now  obtains. 

It  is  true  that  ten  years  ago  other  de- 
partments of  the  Humanities  also  held  that 
while  related  libraries  might  to  good  ad- 
vantage be  brought  under  one  roof,  there 
should  be  no  merging  of  their  possessions. 
Considering,  however,  the  lack  of  coordi- 
nation in  the  development  of  the  same  li- 
braries, the  overlapping  and  intertwining 
of  ,their  respective  fields,  it  is  difficult  to 
believe  that  this  view  can  prevail  for  any 
length  of  time. 

I  have  endeavored  in  the  above  notes 
to  show  that  the  departmental  problem  is 
practically  the  same  in  various  countries. 
In  Italy,  Germany,  and  Austria  as  well  as 
in  America  the  development  of  depart- 
mental collections  to  a  point  where  they 
have  become  a  perplexing  and  trouble- 
some problem  to  government  and  univer- 
sity authorities  is  due  primarily  to  the 
inability  of  the  general  university  library 


292 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


to  provide  books  and  conveniences  desired 
by  the  departments.  Neither  a  union  cat- 
alog nor  the  most  exhaustive  duplication 
of  books,  service,  and  equipment  has  so 
far  served  to  offset  the  weakening  of  the 
central  library  which  has  been  an  inevit- 
able result  of  the  rapid  growth  of  depart- 
mental collections. 

Possibly  Mr.  L.  N.  Wilson  of  Clark  uni- 
versity may  have  pointed  out  a  partial 
solution  to  some  of  our  perplexities.  He 
states  that  at  Clark  university  not  only 
is  the  drafting  of  the  classification  sche- 
dules attended  to  by  the  professors,  but 
also  the  actual  classification  of  the  books. 
Where  the  faculty  is  willing  to  undertake 
these  duties  the  librarian  is  naturally  re- 
lieved of  a  great  and  difficult  responsi- 
bility. While  the  plan  has  evidently 
worked  out  in  a  satisfactory  manner  at 
Clark,  it  would  seem  a  difficult  or  even 
impossible  expedient  for  certain  other  uni- 
versities, particularly  the  largest  ones. 
There  would  be  difficulty  in  securing  the 
necessary  volunteer  service.  Then  the  li- 
brarian would  no  doubt  have  to  exercise 
infinite  tact  in  his  efforts  to  coordinate 
and  harmonize  the  work  of  so  many  vol- 
unteer classifiers.  That  some  coordinating 
influence  would  he  required  we  may  take 
for  granted.  Personally,  I  see  little  relief 
in  the  direction  here  indicated.  As  for 
the  University  of  Chicago,  I  imagine  that 
we  are,  in  common  with  most  university 
libraries  destined  to  have  the  depart- 
mental problem  with  us  in  some  form  or 
other  as  long  as  there  are  collections  of 
books  to  be  administered  in  connection 
with  departments  and  courses  of  instruc- 
tion. We  shall  watch  with  great  interest 
the  development  of  the  plans  of  sister  uni- 
versities, a  number  of  which  are  said  to 
contemplate  the  strengthening  and  exten- 
sion of  at  least  a  part  of  their  depart- 
mental collections. 

I  may  say  in  conclusion  that  judging  by 
observations  at  Chicago  I  should  be  dis- 
posed to  agree  entirely  with  Dr.  Gerhard 
of  Halle,  and  others  of  our  German  col- 
leagues, when  they  state  that  there  can 
be  no  objection  to  the  building  up  of  strong 


departmental  libraries,  provided  this  can 
be  achieved  without  crippling  the  general 
library.  But  where  the  departmental  libra- 
ries are  developed  at  the  expense  of  the 
general  library,  and  where  willingness  to  co- 
operate, or  to  observe  the  most  necessary 
restrictions  as  regards  the  fields  to  be  cov- 
ered is  lacking,  there  the  interest  of  the 
great  majority  both  of  faculty  and  stu- 
dents are  made  to  suffer  for  the  conven- 
ience of  the  few,  a  convience  which  is, 
besides,  in  many  cases  only  imaginary, 
and  based  on  a  lack  of  knowledge  and  ap- 
preciation of  the  possibilities  of  a  general 
library,  and  no  doubt  also  of  the  limita- 
tions of  departmental  libraries.  As  pre- 
viously stated,  the  general  library  is  the 
one  department  common  to  the  whole  uni- 
versity, the  department  which  should  have 
no  ax  to  grind,  and  which  under  normal 
conditions  might,  therefore,  be  trusted  to 
preserve  an  impartial  attitude  and  to  safe- 
guard the  interests  of  all  departments 
alike  without  fear  or  favor. 

In  closing  this  paper  it  is  difficult  to 
refrain  from  expressing  the  opinion  that 
whatever  the  policy  adopted  with  refer- 
ence to  its  library  system,  a  university 
owes  it  to  its  constituency  to  see  that  a 
strong  and  well  balanced  general  library 
constitutes  an  integral  part  of  the  scheme. 
The  establishment  of  the  latter  should, 
when  possible,  take  precedence  over  that 
of  large  departmental  collections.  When 
it  becomes  necessary  to  organize  the  lat- 
ter, they  should  be  considered  distinctly 
a  part  of  the  general  library  and  be  placed 
under  its  control.  A  partial  or  nominal 
control  on  the  part  of  the  general  library 
is  not  likely  to  prove  effective  or  to  furn- 
ish the  best  possible  service  for  the  great- 
est possible  number. 

Dr.  W.  K.  JEWETT  then  presented  a 
paper  on 

THE     PROPORTION     OF     UNIVERSITY 

LIBRARY       INCOME       WHICH 

SHOULD      BE     SPENT     ON 

ADMINISTRATION 

The  college  librarian,  like  every  other 

department    head    in    the    institution,    is 


COLLEGE  AND  REFERENCE  SECTION 


293 


anxious  to  spend  as  much  as  possible  for 
the  development  of  his  department  and  is 
consequently  seeking  to  get  his  appropria- 
tion increased  as  often  as  possible.  It  is 
usually  of  assistance  to  him  in  securing 
the  favorable  attention  of  the  authorities 
to  be  able  to  show  that  the  prevailing 
tendency  among  institutions  of  similar 
rank  is  to  do  that  which  he  requests  in 
his  own  case.  Sometimes  the  librarian 
is  asking  more  money  for  books,  some- 
times more  money  for  administration  and 
frequently  more  money  for  everything. 
While  preparing  an  estimate  for  the  au- 
thorities of  our  own  institution,  I  recently 
collected  data  from  25  representative 
college  and  university  libraries  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  country  and  was  inter- 
ested to  compare  the  data  and  draw  what 
conclusions  I  could  from  the  examination 
and  from  my  own  knowledge  of  the  stand- 
ard of  accomplishment  in  the  respective 
institutions.  All  but  one  of  these  libraries 
have  over  60,000  volumes.  I  was  able  to 
separate  them  into  three  groups  with 
reference  to  their  book  expenditures; 
those  spending  $5,000  a  year  or  less,  those 
spending  between  $5,000  and  $20,000,  and 
those  spending  $20,000  or  more. 

Six  of  the  25  libraries  were  in  the  first 
group,  spending  not  to  exceed  $5,000.  In 
all  of  these  the  expenditure  for  library 
administration  exceeded  that  for  books, 
in  some  cases  by  more  than  100%.  By 
amount  spent  for  library  administration 
I  mean  the  amount  spent  for  salaries  and 
wages  of  persons  employed  in  library 
work.  In  other  words  I  mean  to  include 
student  assistants  and  to  exclude  janitors. 

Twelve  of  the  25  libraries  were  in  the 
second  group,  spending  more  than  $5,000 
and  less  than  $20,000  for  books.  Ten  of 
these  spent  less  for  administration  than 
for  books,  one  spent  more  and  the  remain- 
ing library  spent  the  same  for  adminis- 
tration as  for  books. 

Two  libraries  in  the  group  receive  gifts 
of  considerable  sums  each  year  for  the 
purchase  of  books,  the  buying  of  which  is 
done  through  the  library  so  that  for  all 
purposes  of  comparison  it  is  as  though 
their  book  funds  were  increased  just  so 


much.  I  have  regarded  the  gift  money 
as  equivalent  to  part  of  the  book  fund, 
although  the  actual  payment  is  made  by 
the  giver  without  its  passing  through  the 
hands  of  the  college  treasurer.  Aside 
from  these  two,  only  one  library  in  the 
second  group  receives  any  great  number 
of  volumes  by  gift.  The  average  number 
of  volumes  received  by  gift  is  about  one- 
third  of  the  number  received  by  purchase. 
The  proportion  of  income  used  for  salaries 
ranges  from  35%  to  45%  leaving  out  the 
two  libraries  above  mentioned  which 
spent  50%  and  52%  for  salaries. 

Seven  libraries  made  up  the  third 
group  composed  of  those  spending  $20,000 
or  more  for  books.  I  omitted  to  obtain 
any  figures  from  Harvard,  Yale  or  Chicago 
as  they  are  known  to  be  making  extraor- 
dinary expenditures  at  present  in  reorgan- 
izing or  recataloging.  Of  the  seven,  two 
spent  less  for  salaries  than  for  books,  two 
spent  the  same  for  each  and  two  spent 
more  for  salaries  than  for  books.  The 
seventh  library  like  two  of  those  in  the 
preceding  group  has  considerable  sums 
placed  at  its  disposal  each  year  for  book 
buying  but  the  disbursement  is  made  by 
the  donor  and  not  by  the  university  treas- 
urer so  that  exact  figures  for  calculating 
percentages  are  not  available  in  its  case. 
The  proportion  of  income  employed  for 
salaries  by  the  other  six  ranges  from  40% 
to  60%,. 

From  this  brief  comparison  of  data  it 
is  possible  to  draw  the  conclusion  that 
with  the  smaller  libraries  a  certain  mini- 
mum of  administration  cost  is  necessary 
in  order  to  operate  the  library  at  all  and 
that  this  does  not  necessarily  increase 
with  the  growth  of  the  book  fund.  Where 
the  book  fund  is  less  than  $5,000,  it  is  no 
reflection  on  the  capacity  of  the  librarian 
if  his  salary  expense  exceeds  that  amount 
although  it  is  evidently  his  duty  to  devote 
his  principal  efforts  to  securing  increased 
book  appropriations.  After  the  book  fund 
has  passed  the  $5,000  mark,  the  librarian 
should  be  prepared  to  give  most  excellent 
reasons  for  letting  his  salary  roll  exceed 
or  even  equal  the  book  fund  in  case  his 
governing   board    should    begin   to    make 


294 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


comparison  with  the  figures  of  other  in- 
stitutions. If  his  library  is  in  what  I  have 
called  the  second  group  and  his  salary 
expense  exceeds  45%  of  the  total  income, 
he  ought  to  stand  ready  to  show  cause  at 
short  notice  for  some  one  is  likely  to 
attract  the  attention  of  the  president  to 
the  fact  any  day. 

If  on  the  other  hand  his  salary  roll 
represents  less  than  45%  of  total  income, 
the  librarian  may  well  resist  the  sugges- 
tions of  professors  to  call  for  more  book 
money  and  instead  devote  his  annual  ap- 
peals to  securing  additional  needed  as- 
sistance and  more  adequate  compensation 
for  the  members  of  his  present  staff. 

With  the  libraries  of  the  great  univer- 
sities the  case  is  different.  An  institution 
that  can  spend  upwards  of  $20,000  a  year 
for  books  has  more  complex  needs  and 
more  varied  activities  than  the  smaller 
colleges  and  universities.  The  quality  of 
service  demanded  of  the  library  is  higher 
and  much  less  is  forgiven  by  the  ambi- 
tious holders  of  highly  paid  chairs.  The 
pressure  of  research  work  demands 
greater  facilities  for  the  prompt  purchase 
and  cataloging  of  "rush"  books.  More 
accomplished  reference  librarians  must 
be  had  to  meet  the  needs  of  clients  in  a 
great  institution  with  a  large  number  of 
graduate  students.  Catalogers  of  special 
qualifications  must  be  provided  to  handle 
the  books  in  oriental  and  other  languages 
not  commonly  encountered  in  the  ordi- 
nary college  library.  In  the  work  of  a 
large  cataloging  department  there  is  more 
opportunity  for  lack  of  uniformity  to 
creep  in,  and  the  need  of  accuracy  in  an 
enormous  catalog  is  more  vital  than  in  a 
small  one.  Therefore  the  work  of  the 
revisers  has  to  be  more  painstaking  and 
time  consuming  than  in  a  smaller  collec- 
tion where  everything  is  simpler.  Reclas- 
sification of  whole  sections  of  books 
whose  classification  is  now  out  of  date, 
must  be  undertaken.  Bibliographies  have 
to  be  compiled  for  professors.  The  prep- 
aration of  publications,  like  the  catalog 
of  a  special  collection,  is  called  for  while 
the  smaller  library  may  never  print  any- 
thing more   extensive  than   a  list  of  its 


Poole  sets.  The  duties  of  the  shelf  de- 
partment in  a  great  library  are  more  com- 
plicated than  many  persons  dream  of  and 
in  all  the  departments  fuller  and  more 
accurate  records  are  needed.  More  ex- 
tended routine  in  the  order  department 
is  required  in  order  to  prevent  uninten- 
tional duplication.  Messenger  service  for 
the  delivery  of  books  in  response  to  tele- 
phone calls  from  other  buildings  may  be 
furnished.  The  maintenance  of  an  effi- 
cient exchange  bureau  is  needed  in  order 
to  conduct  the  exchange  of  university 
publications  with  the  innumerable  minor 
learned  societies  all  over  the  world. 
These  publications  are  often  called  for  in 
the  great  universities,  although  one  could 
not  reasonably  expect  to  find  them  in  the 
lesser  institutions. 

In  fact  for  many  reasons  the  proportion 
of  income  required  for  administration  in 
libraries  of  the  first  rank  increases  with 
the  size  of  the  collection  itself.  It  is  a  fair 
inference  therefore  that  a  university  li- 
brary with  a  book  fund  of  more  than 
?20,000  a  year  is  justified  in  maintaining 
a  pay  roll  in  excess  of  that  sum  without 
fear  of  criticism. 

The  committee  on  nominations,  report- 
ing through  Dr.  W.  K.  Jewett,  chairman, 
recommended  that  the  by-laws  of  the 
Section  be  so  amended  that,  instead  of 
electing  a  chairman  and  a  secretary  each 
year  as  heretofore,  a  committee  on  ar- 
rangements consisting  of  three  members 
be  elected,  the  one  first  named  by  the 
committee  this  year  to  serve  for  one  year, 
the  second  to  serve  two  years,  and  the 
third  to  serve  three  years;  one  member 
to  retire  each  year  hereafter  and  his  suc- 
cessor to  be  then  elected  for  a  three  year 
term. 

On  motion  the  recommendation  was 
approved  unanimously. 

The  committee  then  recommended  that 
the  following  persons  be  elected  as  the 
committee  on  arrangements:  Mr.  Andrew 
Keogh,  Mr.  N.  L.  Goodrich,  and  Miss 
Sarah  B.  Askew.  On  motion  the  recom- 
mendation was  adopted  and  the  three 
declared  elected.  The  session  then  ad- 
journed. 


PROFESSIONAL   TRAINING   SECTION 


The  meeting  of  the  section  was  held  at 
the  Chateau  Laurier,  Tuesday  morning, 
July  2.  Mr.  M.  S.  Dudgeon,  chairman  of 
the  section,  presided. 

Mr.  FRANK  K.  WALTER  gave  an  ac- 
count of  the  new  quarters  and  resources 
of  the  New  York  state  library  school. 

Mr.  Walter  said  that  the  new  quarters 
in  the  new  State  Education  building 
would  probably  be  ready  by  October  first 
of  the  present  year,  and  would  provide 
the  most  spacious  rooms  belonging  to  any 
library  school.  The  present  temporary 
quarters,  however,  are  comfortable  and 
fairly  commodious.  A  good  working  col- 
lection of  reference  books  and  trade  and 
subject  bibliographies  has  already  re- 
placed that  destroyed  by  fire.  When 
present  orders  have  been  filled  the  new 
collection  will  be  better  than  the  old. 

The  collection  of  illustrative  material, 
thanks  to  the  untiring  industry  of  Miss 
Florence  Woodworth,  is  growing  by  leaps 
and  bounds.  About  4,000  administrative 
blanks  and  forms  are  mounted  and  classi- 
fied and  a  large  number  are  as  yet  un- 
mounted. About  1,400  pictures  and  plans 
of  library  buildings  (including  post-cards) 
are  mounted  and  filed. 

Th^re  is  an  excellent  collection  of 
works  on  bookmaking,  ancient  and  mod- 
ern, and  a  fair  number  of  examples  of 
printing  of  various  periods  and  of  beau- 
tifully bound  books.  About  150  mounts 
show  binding  material,  book  illustrations, 
type  faces  and  other  material  illustrat- 
ing printing  and  binding  processes. 

Mention  must  be  made  of  the  "Alumni 
collection"  which  the  New  York  State 
Library  Association  is  collecting  for  the 
school.  Its  aim  is  "to  cover  all  books, 
pamphlets,  clippings,  etc.,  written  by 
students  of  the  school  and  biographical 
or  professional  material  relating  to  them," 
together  with  portraits  of  the  students 
and  library  buildings  erected  under  their 
supervision. 


The  "class  work  collection"  numbers 
about  2,300  volumes  and  is  intended  pri- 
marily for  class  use,  particularly  in  cat- 
aloging, classification  and  subject  head- 
ings, in  selection  of  books,  and  in  print- 
ing and  binding. 

All  of  this  material  is  listed  in  a  sep- 
arate dictionary  catalog  prepared  ex- 
pressly for  the  school's  use.  More  than 
10,000  cards  are  already  included  in  this 
catalog  which  is  growing  rapidly  as  more 
material  becomes  available  for  use. 

The  collections  of  the  New  York  State 
library  will  be  available  as  soon  as  the 
new  building  is  ready.  Including  such 
documents  and  other  volumes  as  can  be 
temporarily  shelved  for  use,  upwards  of 
200,000  volumes  will  probably  be  avail- 
able. These  include  an  excellent  set  of 
United  States  documents,  a  very  fair  col- 
lection of  state  documents,  many  impor- 
tant foreign  documents,  and  a  good  work- 
ing collection  of  statutes,  law  reports, 
legal  periodicals  and  legal  treatises. 

Mention  must  also  be  made  of  the  700 
annuals  and  serials  (including  reports, 
bulletins,  etc.),  on  various  phases  of  li- 
brary work  which  are  currently  received 
and  filed  and  of  about  500  bound  English 
and  American  periodical  sets  (including 
most  of  those  listed  in  the  various  peri- 
odical indexes)  besides  the  numerous 
foreign  periodicals,  transactions,  etc.,  cur- 
rently received. 

Miss  AGNES  VAN  VALKENBURGH, 
instructor  in  cataloging  at  the  library 
school  of  the  New  York  public  library, 
read  a  paper  on 

TRAINING  OR  TEACHING 

It  may  be  well  at  the  start  to  explain 
the  terms  used,  to  be  sure  that  we  are 
looking  at  the  matter  in  the  same  light. 
Teaching,  in  this  instance,  I  understand 
to  mean  that  assistants  shall  have  had 
library  school  instruction,  while  training 
is  the  instruction  which  is  given   in  the 


295 


396 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


library  or  department  itself  to  fit  the  ap- 
plicant for  the  special  work  she  is  to  do. 
When  I  say  assistants,  I  also  mean  libra- 
rians of  the  smaller  libraries,  such  posi- 
tions as  the  library  school  student  has 
been  called  upon  to  fill. 

There  are  two  points  of  view  in  look- 
ing at  the  question,  that  of  the  assistant 
and  that  of  the  employer.  On  the  first 
there  can  be  little  discussion,  as  the  same 
principles  are  here  involved  which  un- 
derly  all  education.  It  is  certainly  better 
for  any  person  to  have  a  view  of  the 
whole  field  rather  than  of  one  small  part 
of  it.  I  was  talking  to  the  head  cataloger 
of  a  large  department  the  other  day,  and 
she  said  that  one  of  her  main  troubles 
was  in  getting  the  assistant  who  has  been 
given  a  certain  part  of  the  work  to  do,  to 
see  that  any  other  parts  are  necessary 
or  important.  If  the  curriculum  of  our 
library  schools  does  not  give  our  students 
this  broader  view,  we  are  not  living  up  to 
our  opportunities. 

No  library  school,  or  any  other  school, 
for  that  matter,  turns  out  a  finished  prod- 
uct. I  cannot  say  to  you  that  the  best 
pupil  In  my  class  at  the  end  of  one  or 
even  two  years  is  a  first-rate  cataloger. 
I  can  only  say  that  I  hope  and  think  that 
she  understands  the  principles  and  their 
relation  to  the  rest  of  the  work,  and  with 
experience  will  prove  competent,  having 
shown  capabilities  which  point  in  this 
direction.  On  the  other  side,  I  have 
talked  with  many  library  people  of  expe- 
rience and  they  all  say  that,  anxious  as 
they  are  to  give  the  persons  under  their 
care  all  possible  instruction,  they  are  so 
busy  with  the  pressure  of  accomplishing 
so  much  work  every  day,  that  when  they 
find  a  person  who  does  one  kind  of  work 
well,  they  are  very  apt  to  keep  her  at 
that,  rather  than  to  give  her  an  opportu- 
nity to  do  all  the  kinds  of  work,  for  the 
sake  of  her  education. 

I  always  have  the  greatest  admiration, 
not  unmixed  with  reverence,  for  those 
who  can  conduct  the  business  of  a  large 
department  and  a  training  class  at  the 
same  time,  as  either  alone  seems  to  me 


to  take  all  the  energy  of  an  ordinary  per- 
son; also  the  more  people  you  have  to  do 
work  which  can  be  done  by  fewer,  the 
greater  the  economic  waste. 

From  the  point  of  view  of  the  employer 
there  is  something  to  be  said  on  both 
sides.  Now-a-days  the  old  plea  is  seldom 
heard  that  library  school  people  know 
too  much  and  have  no  idea  that  any 
method  is  feasible  but  the  one  they  have 
been  taught.  I  did  have  once  a  graduate 
from  a  so-called  library  school,  to  assist 
in  my  department  while  I  was  ill;  after 
she  had  been  there  about  a  week,  she  an- 
nounced that  she  did  not  like  the  way  the 
library  was  classified  and  during  my  brief 
absence  she  thought  she  would  re-classlfy 
it.  We  had  about  150,000  volumes  at  that 
time  and  more  than  a  million  cards  in  our 
various  catalogs.  Thus  did  ambition 
disqualify  her,  as  we  had  regretfully  to 
let  her  go,  but  fortunately  her  kind  is 
rare  enough  to  be  interesting. 

The  other  objection  to  the  employment 
of  trained  people  is  the  question  of  ex- 
pense. The  niece  of  the  president  of  the 
board  must  have  occupation  and  is  willing 
to  work  for  her  spending  money,  so  as  an 
economical  measure,  it  would  be  a  good 
thing  to  employ  her.  This  has  two  fal- 
lacies: First,  someone  has  to  pay  for  the 
education  of  every  person  and  it  is  better 
from  the  point  of  efficiency  to  have  this 
done  by  the  employee  herself  rather  than 
by  the  institution.  Secondly,  we  should 
all  be  willing  to  pay  for  what  we  get,  and 
you  certainly  get  more  for  your  money  in 
employing  the  skilled  person  than  the 
amateur. 

Miss  SutlifE,  after  years  of  experience 
as  a  library  school  teacher,  and  with 
both  apprentices  and  graduates,  said  to 
me  that  she  thought  that  a  person  who 
was  trained  for  a  certain  piece  of  work, 
at  the  end  of  one  year,  did  that  work  bet- 
ter than  the  school  graduate,  but  at  the 
end  of  five  years  the  second  was  a  much 
better  employee. 

There  is  also  this  to  be  said  on  both 
sides  of  the  question.  There  are  people 
constitutionally    unfit  for    library    work, 


PROFESSIONAL  TRAINING  SECTION 


297 


training  or  no  training,  just  as  there  are 
people  who  can  never  run  an  aeroplane 
or  climb  a  greased  pole  or  be  a  third-term 
president;  they  are  not  fitted  for  it,  and 
all  of  us  have  had  more  or  less  experi- 
ence with  these  both  in  school  and  out. 
They  may  be  excellent  people;  in  fact,  it 
is  exactly  this  class  of  whom  her  friends 
say,  "Isn't  it  too  bad  Mary  never  married; 
she  would  make  such  a  fine  wife  for  some 
good  man." 

I  have  had  a  green  girl  who  could  never 
be  taught  to  write  a  dozen  catalog  cards 
correctly  because  she  had  no  bump  of  ac- 
curacy; I  also  had  a  library  school  grad- 
uate with  the  same  failing,  and  when  I 
mildly  suggested  that  the  number  of  cor- 
rections seemed  excessive,  she  replied, 
"Oh  yes,  but,  you  see,  I  knew  you  were 
going  to  revise  them,  so  I  was  not  more 
careful."  She  also  did  not  remain  with 
me. 

There  are  many  bright  girls  who  will 
pick  up  knowledge  of  all  parts  of  the 
work  on  their  own  initiative  and  without 
any  special  effort  on  your  part,  will  be 
perfectly  qualified  to  step  into  your  place 
should  necessity  arise.  There  is  one 
danger  which  may  be  mentioned  here  and 
that  is  the  possible  inijustice  done  to  this 
exceptional  person  when  library  boards 
refuse  to  consider  any  person  except  li- 
brary school  graduates.  During  the  time 
students  are  at  school,  they  and  the  fac- 
ulty are  carefully  considering  for  which 
branch  of  the  work  they  are  best  adapted, 
so  the  employer  runs  less  risk  in  this  re- 
spect also,  than  when  he  takes  an  un- 
known quantity  which  he  hopes  may  fit 
some  particular  place.  If  the  various  li- 
brary schools  are  not  turning  out  people 
with  broader  horizons  and  greater  adapt- 
ability, they  are  not  doing  their  full  duty; 
but  if  the  students  they  have  taught  are 
better  qualified  for  the  work,  this  fact 
should  have  due  consideration  in  the 
selection  of  assistants  or  librarians. 

Miss  JOSEPHINE  A.  RATHBONE, 
vice-director  of  the  Pratt  institute  school 
of  library  science,  described  a  projected 
normal  course. 


A    PROJECTED    NORMAL    COURSE    AT 

PRATT    INSTITUTE    SCHOOL    OF 

LIBRARY    SCIENCE 

Much  has  intervened,  but  possibly  some 
of  you  may  remember  that  some  thing 
was  said  on  Saturday  about  specializa- 
tion in  the  library  school  course.  Dis- 
cussion among  the  library  school  direct- 
ors present  showed  a  consensus  of 
opinion  that  specialization  is  undesirable 
in  the  first  year  of  a  two  years'  course 
and  practically  impossible  in  a  one  year 
course,  nor  did  any  radical  plan  of  differ- 
entiation of  function  among  the  schools, 
other  than  that  which  has  come  about  al- 
ready by  natural  causes,  commend  itself 
as  possible  at  present  at  least. 

The  only  practicable  form  of  specializa- 
tion therefore  seems  to  be  along  the  line 
of  advanced  courses  for  those  who  have 
acquired  the  fundamentals  of  technique 
and  who  have  had  sufficient  experience  to 
determine  clearly  the  direction  in  which 
their  aptitudes  lie.  Such  a  course  we  are 
making  toward  at  Pratt  Institute  and  it 
is  of  our  plans  and  aims  for  this  normal 
course  in  library  training  that  I  have  been 
asked  to  speak  today. 

The  inception  of  the  course  came  about 
not  as  the  result  of  a  desire  to  do  some 
new  thing,  but  as  a  solution  of  two  press- 
ing problems  with  which  I  found  myself 
confronted  last  summer;  one  of  these 
problems  is  common,  I  am  sure,  to  all 
library  school  directors,  the  difficulty  of 
finding  teachers  for  their  faculties  or  of 
supplying  from  their  graduates  demands 
of  public  libraries  for  directors  of  train- 
ing classes.  The  other  problem  was  local 
and  peculiar  to  ourselves,  and  by  reason 
of  it  a  possible  solution  was  indicated  for 
the  former.  This  was  the  suggestion 
made  by  the  librarian  of  the  Brooklyn 
public  library  that  the  Pratt  Institute 
Library  school  take  over  the  instruction 
of  the  Brooklyn  public  library  appren- 
tices. As  the  professional  school  of 
Brooklyn,  it  was  clearly  our  duty  to  per- 
form this  function  for  the  public  library 
of  Brooklyn,  and  it  only  remained  to  find 
a  way, — first,  that  would  satisfy  the  needs 


288 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


and  requirements  of  the  Brooklyn  public 
library  system;  second,  that  would  so 
strengthen  the  Pratt  Institute  school  as 
to  recommend  the  plan  to  our  trustees; 
third,  would  help  to  alleviate  the  profes- 
sional situation  of  which  I  had  become 
so  acutely  concerned. 

In  response  to  this  need,  almost  an 
answer  to  prayer,  for  the  idea  occurred 
to  me  in  church,  came  the  conception  of 
a  normal  course  to  fit  advanced  students 
for  teaching  positions  in  the  profession. 
Now  for  a  normal  course  three  elements 
are  requisite.  Knowledge  of  the  subjects 
to  be  taught,  training  in  pedagogical 
methods  and  directed  practice  in  teaching. 
The  necessary  knowledge  of  the  subjects 
taught  could  be  obtained  by  admitting  to 
the  course  only  those  who  had  already 
a,cquired  library  technique.  Pedagogical 
training  could  be  given  at  Pratt  Institute 
where  there  already  existed  a  splendidly 
organized  department  of  education  and 
for  the  practice  teaching  there  was  the 
apprentice  class  of  the  Brooklyn  public 
library  for  which  the  normal  students 
could  prepare  and  conduct  the  courses  in 
library  economy  under  the  direction  and 
supervision  of  our  instructor  of  proved 
success  in  teaching.  These  two  indispen- 
sable factors  inherent  in  our  situation 
seems  to  mark  the  Pratt  Institute  library 
school  as  distinctly  the  place  of  all  others 
in  which  this  experiment  of  training  for 
teaching  positions  in  library  work  could 
be  tried.  Now,  does  the  need  exist  for 
librarians  who  are  trained  to  teach? 
What  is  the  situation? 

There  are  ten  or  eleven  library  schools 
offering  courses  of  one  or  two  years. 
There  are  probably  twice  that  number  of 
summer  library  schools.  There  are 
training  classes  in  all  of  the  larger  libra- 
ries and  many  of  the  medium  sized 
libraries.  There  are  many  normal  schools 
in  which  library  courses  are  now  given 
and  the  trend  in  this  direction  is  unmis- 
takable. There  are  school  departments 
in  many  of  the  larger  libraries  in  which 
more  or  less  actual  teaching  is  done,  and 
in  which  a  librarian  who  was  at  the  same 


time  a  teacher,  who  understands  the 
teachers'  point  of  view  would  connect 
school  and  library  the  more  completely. 
Many  of  you  know  that  these  positions 
are  not  easy  to  fill.  But  could  a  course 
be  planned  that  would  fit  candidates  for 
such  positions?    I  believe  so. 

I  am  not  going  to  degrade  pedagogic 
training  for  teachers.  That  battle  has  al- 
ready been  fought  out  in  the  educational 
world.  Of  course,  the  best  teachers  are 
born,  not  made,  and  some  few  heaven 
sent  may  teach  the  better  for  not  having 
learned  how,  but  there  are  not  enough  of 
them  to  go  around  and  the  greater  major- 
ity teach  the  better  for  training  in  tried 
and  approved  methods,  applied  under 
competent  direction. 

The  normal  course  will  therefore  con- 
sist of  two  main  parts — theoretical  train- 
ing and  practice  teaching. 

The  first  part  embraces  educational 
psychology,  a  forty-eight  hours'  course,  a 
thirty-six  hours'  course  in  the  history  of 
education,  a  general  survey  with  a  sup- 
plemental course  on  American  public 
education — high  schools,  normal  schools 
and  colleges — a  thirty-six  hours'  course  in 
the  theory  of  education  taking  up  the 
conduct  of  recitations  and  giving  the  pre- 
sentation of  subjects,  examinations,  etc. 
A  study  of  public  institutions,  both  civic 
and  philanthropic,  will  also  be  included. 
So  much  for  the  theoretical  side.  The 
practical  application  of  the  theory  of  ed- 
ucation to  the  teaching  of  library  tech- 
nique will  be  made  by  the  preparation  of 
the  courses  for  the  Brooklyn  apprentices 
and  the  conduct  of  the  classes.  The  plan 
for  this  work  is  as  follows:  The  normal 
students  will  spend  a  month  before  the 
teaching  of  the  apprentices  begins  in  the 
study  of  the  Brooklyn  public  library 
system  and  in  the  preparation  for  the 
classes  they  are  to  conduct  under  the 
direction  of  Miss  Julia  Hopkins  who  is  to 
have  charge  of  this  work.  This  work 
has  been  planned  in  consultation  with 
the  Brooklyn  public  library  librarian  and 
staff  and  between  us  we  hope  to  work  out 
the   ideal   apprentice   course.     I    will   go 


PROFESSIONAL  TRAINING  SECTION 


299 


into  this  somewhat  fully  in  order  to  show 
its  value  as  teaching  experience  for  the 
normal  student. 

1.  There  are  to  be  two  apprentice 
classes  a  year,  beginning  in  October  and 
March  respectively.  To  these  classes  four 
months  of  instruction  will  be  given.  This 
gives  each  normal  student  the  opportu- 
nity of  preparing  and  conducting  differ- 
ent courses  each  term. 

2.  The  four  months  of  instruction  will 
be  followed  by  three  months  of  practical 
work  in  selected  branches  of  the  Brook- 
lyn public  library,  during  which  time  the 
apprentices  will  learn  the  techincal  de- 
tails of  branch  work  under  the  supervision 
of  the  branch  librarian,  thus  freeing  the 
course  of  these  details  and  making  it  pos- 
sible to  spend  the  class  room  time  on  the 
broader  professional  and  culture  side  of 
the  subjects  taught. 

3.  160  hours  of  instruction  will  be 
given  to  apprentices,  on  three  days  of  the 
week,  Mondays,  Wednesdays  and  Fridays, 
the  alternate  days  to  be  devoted  by  them 
to  study  and  preparation.  Full  library 
time  will  be  required  of  them,  which  will 
ensure  three  hours  of  preparation  for 
each  hour  of  class  room  work  or  lecture. 
This  means  the  compiling  of  full  reading 
lists  by  the  normal  students  to  accom- 
pany the  instruction. 

4.  The  subjects  taught  fall  into  three 
groups,  cultural,  technical  and  profes- 
sional, with  strong  emphasis  on  the  first 
and  an  effort  to  correlate  the  first  two 
quite  closely.  Besides  a  review  of  the 
classics  of  literature,  there  will  be  a  study 
of  the  important  literature  of  different 
subjects — history,  biography,  sociology, 
science,  and  to  this  study  will  be  related 
as  far  as  possible  both  parallel  courses  of 
classification  and  reference  books,  the 
apprentices  being  thus  required  to  handle 
a  great  many  books  and  to  get  at  their 
subject  contents  quickly.  They  will  be 
required  also  to  make  a  great  many  short 
reading  lists  on  related  topics.  In  the 
course  in  children's  work,  which  Miss 
Clara  Hunt  will  supervise,  emphasis  will 
also  be  laid  on  the  book.     Miss  Hunt  will 


examine  and  criticize  the  lectures  pre- 
pared by  the  normal  students.  We  wish 
to  strengthen  this  phase  of  the  work  both 
because  it  is  needed  by  the  apprentices 
and  because  it  will  be  of  the  utmost  value 
to  the  normal  students,  especially  to  those 
who  go  into  normal  school  work  later. 

The  technical  courses  will  take  up  the 
usual  subjects.  In  classification  the  em- 
phasis will  be  laid  on  the  subject  content 
of  the  classes  to  add  to  the  general  infor- 
mation of  the  apprentices  and  the  course 
related,  as  I  said  before,  to  the  study  of 
the  literature  of  the  subjects. 

In  cataloging  the  emphasis  will  be  laid 
on  an  intelligent  understanding  of  the 
use  of  a  catalog  rather  than  on  the  details 
of  cataloging.  On  the  professional  side 
the  course  will  be  stronger  than  is  usual 
in  apprentice  courses. 

Now  of  what  value  will  this  course  be 
in  providing  teaching  experience  to  the 
normal  student? 

1.  As  preparation  for  directing  appren- 
tice classes  in  public  libraries  I  feel  that 
it  will  be  of  direct  utility. 

2.  For  giving  instruction  to  high  school 
students  In  bibliography,  reference 
works,  classification  and  the  use  of  the 
catalog  it  would  seem  to  give  adequate 
training. 

3.  For  conducting  courses  in  normal 
schools  these  mentioned  subjects  plus  the 
course  in  children's  books  and  perhaps 
the  history  of  libraries  would  seem  to  be 
a  good  preparation. 

4.  The  courses  in  classification,  refer- 
ence work,  history  of  libraries,  work  with 
children,  loan  desk  work,  compare  favor- 
ably in  length  of  time  given  to  them  and 
in  thoroughness  with  the  average  one 
year  library  school  course  and  the  prep- 
aration, to  say  nothing  of  the  conduct,  of 
such  courses  would  be  an  excellent  foun- 
dation for  the  teaching  of  the  same  sub- 
jects in  a  library  school. 

In  addition  to  these  main  features  of 
the  course,  the  pedagogic  training  and  the 
practice  teaching,  there  will  be  lectures 
on  normal  and  high  school  library  work 


300 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


and  permission  has  been  obtained  from 
the  public  school  system  for  the  normal 
students  to  have  practical  work  in  the 
library  of  the  buildings,  training  school 
and  in  some  of  the  high  school  libraries. 
Opportunity  to  study  the  organization  and 
methods  of  presentation  of  other  library 
schools  has  been  promised. 

The  first  year  or  two  will,  of  course,  be 
experimental  and  experience*  alone  can 
show  how  the  whole  thing  will  work  out, 
but  we  feel  that  the  opportunity  is  a 
great  one  and  we  mean  to  approach  it 
openmindedly  and  to  allow  it  to  develop 
organically. 

Its  success  will,  of  course,  depend  on 
our  securing  the  right  kind  of  material 
for  the  class  and  for  this  we  must  look 
to  the  profession  at  large  and  especially 
to  the  other  library  schools.  We  do  not 
want  large  classes,  ten  would  be  the  out- 
side limit,  five  or  six  the  desirable  num- 
ber. But  our  own  school  could  not  sup- 
ply even  so  many,  and  if  you  believe  the 
plan  a  good  one,  the  need  real,  and  if  the 
theory  of  differentiation  of  function  seems 
wise,  I  ask  you  to  send  us  those  of  your 
students  who  seem  fitted  for  such  work, 
and  by  cooperation,  council  and  support 
help  us  to  make  the  course  a  benefit  to 
the  whole  profession. 

There  seems  to  be  some  misapprehen- 
sion in  the  profession  as  to  the  relation 
of  the  Brooklyn  apprentice  class  and  the 
general  course  of  our  own  school.  So  far 
as  our  one  year  course  is  concerned  the 
only  connection  is  that  the  Brooklyn  pub- 
lic library  has  graciously  permitted  us  to 
put  our  students  in  the  branches  of  the 
Brooklyn  public  library  for  practical 
work,  while  the  apprentices  are  invited 
to  attend  the  course  of  lectures  by  libra- 
rians. There  is  no  thought  of  combining 
the  two  classes  in  classroom  work,  which 
would  not  be  advantageous  to  either 
group. 

Miss  Mary  W.  Plummer  gave  the  fol- 
lowing outline  of  the  work  done  during 
the  past  year  at  the  library  school  of  the 
New  York  public  library  and  the  plans 
for  the  second  year. 


REPORT  ON    THE   NEW  YORK   PUBLIC 
LIBRARY  SCHOOL 

During  the  past  j'ear  we  have  done  four 
things:  Trained  thirty  students  for  the 
one  year  certificate;  given  partial  train- 
ing to  members  of  the  library  staff,  to 
be  continued  or  completed  the  coming 
year;  given  the  same  to  members  of  other 
library  staffs,  to  be  continued  or  com- 
pleted, both  to  be  recognized  by  pass- 
cards;  and  tested  three  sets  of  probation- 
ers for  the  lowest  grade  of  the  library 
sen-^ice. 

There  is  nothing  especial  to  be  said 
about  the  first  class,  except  that  out  of 
twenty-five  who  were  able  to  do  the  full 
year's  work,  more  than  twenty  applied 
for  the  second  year  and  the  diplomas.  Of 
these,  three  asked  for  the  unpaid  prac- 
tice, amounting  to  fifteen  hours  per  week, 
and  taken  as  an  equivalent  for  their  tui- 
tion. These  three  will  probably  take 
two  courses  of  the  three  offered  for  the 
second  year  in  administration,  advanced 
cataloging,  and  reference  work,  and  in 
work  with  children. 

The  remainder  have  applied  for  paid 
positions  at  not  less  than  $50  per  month,' 
with  one  course  in  the  school.  As  mem- 
bers of  the  staff  for  the  time  being,  they 
will  have  no  tuition  to  pay. 

The  second  type  of  student  we  hope 
may  increase  in  number  as  time  goes  on. 
One  branch  librarian  took  about  half  the 
course,  carrying  on  her  regular  work  and 
responsibilities,  and  seemed  none  the 
worse.  Others  took  single  subjects  in 
which  they  were  interested.  One  assist- 
ant from  a  suburban  library  did  the  same, 
commuting  daily.  These,  of  course,  were 
assigned  only  a  nominal  amount  of  prac- 
tice, since  they  had  their  regular  work. 
For  these  as  well  as  the  probationers  the 
entrance  examinations  of  the  school  were 
insisted  on.  The  probationers  being 
usually  too  young  for  the  school,  were 
allowed  three  conditions,  since  they  have 
plenty  of  time  to  vv-ork  them  off  before 
old  enough  to  enter  the  school.  Others 
take  the  probation  first,  and  if  appointed 
to   the   staff,    serve   six   months  or   more, 


PROFESSIONAL  TRAINING  SECTION 


301 


and  can  then  enter  the  school  as  staff 
members  without  tuition. 

They  understand  that  they  are  not  in 
any  sense  a  class,  that  they  are  not  being 
trained  but  merely  tested,  that  the  school 
is  responsible  only  for  the  original  selec- 
tion of  the  probationers,  and  though  it 
may  take  and  does  take  an  interest  it  has 
no  real  jurisdiction  after  this  selection  is 
made. 

Mr.  Brett  announced  that  the  Cleveland 
public  library  would  introduce  a  training 
class  for  children's  librarians  in  which  the 
students  would  be  given  practical  work 
for  five  days  and  receive  five-sixths  of  the 
regular  salary.  The  remainder  of  the 
time  will  be  given  to  instructions  and  lec- 
tures. 

Mr.  W.  H.  Kerr  stated  that  the  State 
normal  school  at  Emporia,  Kansas,  had  a 
course  in  library  work  which  required 
one-fourth  of  the  time  in  the  four  years. 

Miss  Hazeltine  presented  the  card  code 
of  over  five  hundred  cataloging  rules 
which  had  been  prepared  by  the  Wiscon- 
son  library  school  for  instruction  in  its 
school,  after  consultation  with,  and  as- 
sistance from  many  librarians. 

In  response  to  a  question  by  Miss  Mary 
E.  Hall  as  to  what  was  being  done  to 
train  librarians  to  take  charge  of  school 
libraries,  the  discussion  turned  to  that 
subject. 

Several  of  the  schools  mentioned  that 
practical  work  in  school  libraries  was 
given  their  students.  Emphasis  was  laid 
on  the  point  that  high  school  students 
who  had  taken  a  course  in  the  high 
school  in  library  methods  were  not  quali- 
fied to  have  charge  of  school  libraries. 

A  preliminary  report  was  presented 
from  the  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
the  uniformity  of  forms  of  catalog  cards 
in  simplified  cataloging. 

REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE   ON    UNI- 
FORMITY   OF    FORMS    OF 
CATALOG  CARDS 

The  committee  on  revision  of  catalog- 
tion;  but  there  seems  to  be  some  doubt 
as  to  whether  we  are  to  attempt  to  cover 
subject  of  securing  unification  in  instruc- 
ing    practice    appointed    by    the    library 


schools  instructors  at  their  meeting  in 
January,  1912,  wishes  to  make  a  brief  re- 
port of  the  work  done. 

As  a  preliminary  step  in  securing  opin- 
ions from  the  various  schools  on  the 
extent  of  the  work  and  the  forms  that  the 
code  should  take,  the  following  plan  was 
tried.  A  sufficient  number  of  the  galley 
proofs  of  a  new  edition  of  the  rules  com- 
piled by  the  Wisconsin  library  school 
were  secured  and,  on  May  6,  sent  to  all 
of  the  library  schools;  also  to  one  or  two 
individuals  whom  the  chairman  thought 
might  be  interested  in  the  project  from 
the  teaching  point  of  view.  It  was 
thought  that  this  code,  which  had  proved 
a  practical  one,  might  at  least  serve  as  a 
basis  for  comments.  The  schools  were 
asked  whether  they  desired  to  co-operate 
in  the  attempt  to  secure  uniformity  in 
practice,  and  if  they  approved  of  the 
form  in  which  the  Wisconsin  code  was  to 
be  printed,  that  is,  on  cards;  and  lastly, 
to  show  by  their  comments  the  points 
wherein  their  practice  varied. 

Replies  have  been  received  at  this  date 
from  all  of  the  schools,  and  from  them 
the  following  conclusions  are  reached: 

First,  there  is  a  general  interest  in  the 
all  of  the  points  of  a  complete  catalog- 
ing code,  or  only  matters  of  spacing,  in- 
dention, punctuation,  etc. 

Second,  the  majority  of  the  schools 
returned  the  proofs  fully  annotated  for 
the  changes  which  they  desire.  On  the 
whole,  these  comments  showed  that  the 
differences  are  not  great  and  that  uni- 
formity on  many  at  least  can  be  secured, 
if  so  desired  by  the  schools. 

Third,  a  general  discussion  of  the  sub- 
ject will  be  helpful,  before  any  final  de- 
cision can  be  reached  in  regard  to  a  co- 
operative code. 

The  committee  accordingly  decided  to 
ask  that  there  be  a  discussion  of  the 
matter  at  the  Ottawa  conference  and  a 
notice  to  this  effect  was  sent  to  each 
school. 

A  list  of  the  points  for  discussion  has 
been  made  out.*  The  committee  will  hope 
to  make  a  final  report  at  the  midwinter 
meeting. 

HELEN  TURVILL,  Chairman. 

The  membership  committee,  consisting 
of  Miss  Josephine  A.  Rathbone,  Miss 
June  R.  Donnelly  and  Mr.  Paul  Black- 
welder,  was  continued.  The  program 
committee,  consisting  of  Miss  Mary  W. 
Plummer,  Miss  Mary  E.  Hazeltine  and 
Mr.  Frank  K.  Walter,  was  also  continued. 

Mr.  Frank  K.  Walter  was  elected  chair- 
man for  the  coming  year  and  Miss  Agnes 
Van  Valkenburgh,  secretary.    Adjourned. 

*  See  Catalog  Section  Minutes,  page  246. 


TRUSTEES^   SECTION 


(Friday,  June  28,  8:15  p.  m.) 

The  Trustees'  section  met  on  Friday 
evening,  June  28,  at  the  Chateau  Laurier. 
Mr.  W.  T.  Porter,  of  Cincinnati,  chairman 
of  the  section,  presided  and  Mr.  T.  L. 
Montgomery,  librarian  of  the  Pennsylvania 
State  library,  acted  as  secretary. 

The  first  item  on  the  program  was  a 
paper  prepared  by  Dr.  OTTO  J.  KLOTZ, 
trustee  of  the  Ottawa  public  library,  which 
was  read  in  his  absence. 

THE  TRUSTEE'S  DUTY  TO  THE 
LIBRARY 

Dr.  Klotz  said  in  part: 

It  should  be  assumed  that  when  one  ac- 
cepts the  appointment  as  library  trustee  he 
accepts  therewith  the  duties  and  respon- 
sibilities of  such  position.  He  who  treats 
them  with  indifference  is  a  source  of  weak- 
ness to  the  board.  There  is  no  room  on  a 
library  board  for  a  man  who  accepts  the 
appointment  "just  for  the  honor  of  it." 
The  trustee  must  be  seized  with  the  funda- 
mental idea  and  principle  that  the  public 
library  is  the  people's  university,  that  it  is 
the  fountain  to  which  all  have  access, 
whose  wholesome  waters  shall  give  re- 
newed life  and  intellectual  strength. 

The  trustee's  first  duty  is  to  see  that  the 
library  receives  adequate  municipal  sup- 
port. This  is  seldom  an  easy  matter.  It 
generally  requires  a  good  deal  of  mis- 
sionary work, — through  the  newspapers, 
through  personal  appeals  to  councillors, 
through  public  addresses  before  the  council 
or  otherwise.  The  public  must  be  told  of 
its  need,  which  it  frequently  does  not 
recognize.  The  trustee  must  exercise  the 
influence  of  an  educator. 

The  work  of  the  trustee  is  often  dis- 
couraging and  disheartening,  and  may 
take  years  to  attain  a  particular  end.  Our 
public  libraries  act  favors  the  carrying  out 
of  some  definite  plan,  because  an  ap- 
pointee holds  office  for  several  years,  giv- 


ing him  an  opportunity  of  thoroughly 
familiarizing  himself  with  the  whole  range 
of  library  affairs  to  the  great  advantage 
of  the  best  interests  of  the  public  and 
of  the  library.  A  further  advantage  of 
this  tenure  of  ofiice  is  that  it  permits  of 
what  is  in  athletics  called  "team  work." 
We  know  how  effective  it  is  in  this  latter 
respect,  and  so  it  is  too  with  a  library 
board.  I  have  reason  to  refer  to  this,  be- 
cause all  libraries  in  Ontario  are  not  so 
constituted  that  "team  work"  can  be  ef- 
ficiently carried  out.  I  allude  to  libraries 
whose  board  has  no  fixed  continuity. 
With  a  continuity  to  the  board  definite 
plans  may  be  formulated  that  one  knows 
in  advance  will  take  years  to  carry  out, 
but  if  there  is  no  continuity  to  the  board, 
each  new  board  will  have  its  own  notion, 
using  the  term  notion  advisedly,  in  con- 
tradistinction to  the  matured  plan,  for  it  is 
not  to  be  expected  that  new  men,  thrown 
into  new  surroundings,  faced  by  problems 
wholly  or  nearly  wholly  foreign  to  them, 
can  act  with  that  intelligence,  with  the 
large-mindedness  essential  to  the  best  in- 
terests of  the  community.  The  fault  lies 
not  with  the  men,  but  with  the  system. 

One  of  the  first  considerations  is  the 
public.  The  trustee  should  know  his  pub- 
lic well,  just  as  a  physician  can  only  treat 
his  patient  intelligently  after  having  made 
a  thorough  diagnosis.  The  people  of  one 
town  may  differ  from  those  of  another 
town,  their  industries  and  interests  may  be 
different  so  that  a  successful  course 
adopted  by  a  board  in  one  place  may  not 
meet  with  the  same  success  in  another, 
and  as  the  people,  the  citizens,  are  to  be 
beneficiaries  of  a  public  library,  it  Is  all- 
important  that  their  needs  be  closely 
studied.  It  must  ever  be  the  aim  of  the 
trustee  to  try  to  give  the  greatest  good  to 
the  greatest  number,  without  however 
neglecting  to  provide  opportunities  within 
reasonable  limits  commensurate  with  the 


302 


TRUSTEES'  SECTION 


303 


funds  available  to  the  exceptional  artisan, 
mechanic  or  bright  young  man  who  is 
anxious  to  pursue  his  work  beyond  the 
ordinary.  It  can  be  truly  said  that  even 
those  who  do  not  use  the  library  are  to  a 
greater  or  less  extent  benefited  by  it 
through  the  environment  of  those  who  do 
use  it.  One  of  the  functions  of  a  library, 
and  one  that  generally  appeals  most  to 
those  that  control  the  purse  strings,  is  to 
increase  the  industrial  productiveness  of 
the  people  of  the  respective  town  or  mu- 
nicipality. Take  a  town  for  example  whose 
industries  are  almost  wholly  those  of  cab- 
inet making.  It  should  be  the  duty  of  a 
trustee  to  see  that  the  library  and  reading 
room  is  especially  rich  and  complete  in  all 
that  pertains  to  cabinet  making;  to  car- 
pentering; the  different  kinds  of  wood; 
designing;  drawing  and  everything  that 
may  further  the  artisan's  skill  and  thereby 
his  productiveness.  For  we  must  ever  re- 
member that  the  commercial  success  of  a 
nation  rests  on  the  skill  and  productive- 
ness of  its  artisans.  This  function  of  the 
public  library  is  one  that  may  be  measured 
in  dollars  and  cents,  but  the  other  func- 
tion— of  making  better  men  and  women,  of 
character-building,  pf  brightening  homes 
by  the  perusal  of  good  literature,  of  whole- 
some fiction,  of  making  better  citizens,  of 
appreciating  the  rights  as  well  as  the  re- 
sponsibilities of  citizenship,  these  things 
can  not  be  measured  in  coin,  but  they 
make  for  a  nation's  progress  and  stability. 

The  most  important  office  is  of  course 
the  librarian,  and  the  success  of  the  library 
depends  more  upon  him,  or  her,  than  upon 
any  one  else;  for  a  poor  library  board  and 
a  good  librarian  are  preferable  to  a  good 
board  and  poor  librarian. 

Hence  it  is  a  most  important  duty  of  the 
trustee  to  see  that  the  services  of  a  good 
librarian  be  obtained,  not  merely  an  auto- 
maton that  hands  out  books  and  checks  off 
those  returned.  The  day  of  utilizing  men 
or  women  whose  usefulness  In  other  fields 
has  vanished  is  past  and  such  should  be 
kept  out  of  the  library.  What  is  wanted 
Is  a  person  who  has  enthusiasm  for  the 
work,  who  has  studied  library  work  and 


methods,  who  in  an  unostentatious  and 
Quiet  way  will  be  helpful  to  the  readers, 
who  can  guide  particularly  the  youngef 
readers  in  their  choice  of  literature,  who 
can  encourage  the  formation  of  reading 
clubs  and  societies,  who  can  make  the  li- 
brary and  reading  room,  especially  for 
small  libraries,  cheerful  and  attractive  by 
little  devices,  and  by  his  or  her  own  atti- 
tude to  the  users  of  the  library  add  much 
to  its  usefulness  and  influence  for  good. 
The  next  duty  of  the  trustee  is  to  see  that 
adequate  remuneration  be  given  for  the 
services  rendered.  The  good  librarian  is 
in  love  with  his  work  and  is  quite  willing 
to  sacrifice  something  on  that  account  to 
follow  a  chosen  vocation.  But  that  is 
no  reason  why  inadequate  remuneration 
should  be  accorded.  Let  the  librarian  feel 
that  he  is  getting  a  fair  reward  for  his 
services,  co-operate  with  him,  assist  him 
in  his  endeavors  to  improve  the  usefulness 
of  the  library,  let  him  feel  that  he  has  the 
good-will  of  the  board,  and  do  not  throw 
all  the  responsibility  of  the  whole  manage- 
ment and  its  aims  upon  his  shoulders.  Do 
not  dampen  his  enthusiasm  and  zeal  by  in- 
difference and  simply  perfunctory  attend- 
ance at  meetings,  or  absence  altogether. 
The  library  requires  the  undivided  atten- 
tion of  both  librarian  and  trustees.  Bear 
in  mind  that  it  is  an  educational  institu- 
tion of  the  town  with  a  larger  attendance 
than  that  of  the  schools.  It  cannot  too 
strongly  be  urged  upon  the  trustees  and 
board  that  a  mere  collection  of  books  does 
not  constitute  a  public  library,  it  requires 
the  connecting  link,  the  librarian,  to  bind 
those  two  words  more  closely  together — 
the  public  and  the  library,  and  the  more 
intimately  will  they  be  connected  the  more 
efficient  the  librarian  is. 

A  trustee  should  make  a  point  of  becom- 
ing somewhat  acquainted  with  what  other 
libraries  are  doing,  as  found  in  reports  and 
publications.  He  may  at  times  get  thereby 
new  ideas  or  pointers  that  may  be  appli- 
cable In  his  own  library.  Again  If  he  has 
occasion  to  travel  and  has  an  hour  or  so 
to  spare  in  a  town  or  city  where  there  is 
a  public  library,  he  should  go  there,  "nose" 


304 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


about,  and  he  will  find  that  the  visit  is 
profitable.  The  trustees  should  within 
their  means  make  the  library  and  room  or 
rooms  as  cheerful  and  comfortable  as  pos- 
sible. Let  the  rooms  be  well  lighted  and 
the  light  so  distributed  as  to  be  restful  to 
the  eyes.  Try  to  make  the  library  the 
most  attractive  place  in  town.  That  in  it- 
self is  a  standing  temperance  sermon, 
without  being  preached,  which  many  peo- 
ple do  not  like. 

Believe  in  the  library  as  an  educational 
institution  for  all  the  people,  young  and 
old;  believe  in  the  library  as  an  aid  for 
technical  education;  believe  in  the  library 
as  a  good  thing  for  your  town;  and  be- 
lieve in  the  library  as  making  for  a  strong 
and  progressive  nation. 

This  paper  was  followed  by  one  by  Mr. 
WALTE^l  R.  NURSEY,  inspector  of  public 
libraries  of  the  province  of  Ontario,  on 

THE  TRUSTEE'S  DUTY  TO 
THE  PUBLIC 

Mr.  Nursey  said  in  part: 

It  is  well  for  us  all  to  remember,  to 
whatever  country  we  owe  allegiance,  we 
should  be  stirred  by  one  purpose  only,  a 
common  purpose  that  recognizes  neither 
international  barriers  nor  impalpable  lines 
of  latitude;  our  great  aspiration  being  to 
increase  the  spread  of  pure  literature,  the 
democracy  of  letters  through  the  coopera- 
tion of  the  public  library  which  as  an 
educational  factor  is  soon  destined  to  be 
recognized  as  of  equal  importance  with 
university,  college  or  school. 

Before  submitting  to  you  my  views  on 
the  trustee's  duty  to  the  public  let  me 
briefly  recite  library  conditions  that  at 
present  prevail  in  Ontario.  Ontario,  prac- 
tically, is  the  only  province  in  the  Do- 
minion of  Canada  that  has  an  aggrega- 
tion of  public  libraries,  434  in  all,  sup- 
ported in  part  by  the  local  legislature, 
under  the  fostering  care  of  a  sympathetic 
minister  of  education  and  a  very  liberal 
government. 

The  first  library  organized  in  this  prov- 
ince, then  Upper  Canada,  was  at  Niagara- 
on-the-Lake    in    1800.      In    1835,    the    first 


legislation  dealing  in  any  way  with  the 
library  movement  was  passed  and  the 
same  year  the  first  government  aid  was 
granted.  In  1851  a  new  act  was  intro- 
duced creating  what  was  known  for  many 
years  as  the  Mechanics'  Institute,  the  au- 
thorities believing  that  technical  books  for 
the  working  classes  were  not  less  impor- 
tant than  those  for  the  learned  professions. 
At  this  time  only  $2,000  per  year  was  ap- 
propriated and  this  was  found  utterly  in- 
suflScient  for  the  purpose.  In  1869  gen- 
eral literature  was  recognized  in  Upper 
Canada  in  this  connection,  in  addition  to 
the  acquisition  of  technical  books.  In  1882, 
the  first  free  library  was  organized  in  Can- 
ada, at  Toronto. 

In  1900,  following  upon  the  good  ex- 
ample set  by  your  organization,  the  On- 
tario library  association  was  instituted, 
but  it  was  not  until  1909  that  the  present 
Ontario  public  library  act  was  passed  by 
the  legislature,  under  which  all  public  li- 
braries, free  and  association,  are  now  or- 
ganized and  controlled.  To-day  we  have 
140  free  libraries  and  244  association  li- 
braries in  this  province  operating  under 
the  provisions  of  this  act. 

In  Ontario,  whether  the  library  is  free 
or  association,  the  financial  and  domestic 
affairs  of  both  are  under  the  supervision 
of  a  board  of  trustees,  the  only  difference 
in  these  two  boards  being  that  in  the  case 
of  the  free  library,  the  governing  body  is 
called  a  library  board  and  in  the  case 
of  the  association  library,  a  board  of  man- 
agement; the  financial  responsibilities  are 
not  altogether  the  same,  for  while  the 
trustees  of  the  free  library  are  custodians 
and  paymasters  of  an  income  derived  from 
the  special  rate  levied  yearly  for  library 
purposes  by  the  municipality,  the  board  of 
the  association  libraries  have  no  fixed  in- 
come to  disburse,  being  supported  largely 
by  the  fiuctuating  fees  of  the  members. 

The  rates  levied  to  support  a  free  li- 
brary vary,  and  are  based  principally,  as 
in  many  instances  in  your  own  country, 
on  population,  and  range  from  a  minimum 
rate  of  one-quarter  of  a  mill  on  the  dollar 
to  a  maximum  of  three-quarters  of  a  mill. 


TRUSTEES'  SECTION 


305 


In  the  case  of  both  of  these  classes  of 
libraries,  government  aid,  of  course,  is 
extended  in  the  form  of  a  yearly  grant 
based  upon  the  annual  report  of  the  ex- 
penditure of  the  library  upon  books  and 
paid  in  conformity  with  the  libraries  act, 
subject  to  departmental  regulations. 

Once  a  library  in  Ontario  accepts  a  gov- 
ernment grant,  it  automatically  becomes 
a  public  library.  Thenceforward  it  is 
amenable  to  the  provisions  of  the  statute 
and  failure  to  keep  open  or  render  an  an- 
nual report  to  the  department  of  educa- 
tion for  two  consecutive  years,  is  the 
signal  for  dissolution.  In  other  words,  it 
commits  suicide.  The  minister  may  then 
take  possession  of  all  its  books,  its  mag- 
azines and  periodicals  and  dispose  of  them 
as  he  may  deem  best.  Further,  if  a  li- 
brary fails  in  any  year  to  comply  with  the 
regulations,  the  minister  has  power  to 
withhold  the  whole  or  a  portion  of  the 
government  grant  for  that  year. 

The  Ontario  act,  as  you  have  seen,  pro- 
vides for  two  classes  of  libraries,  both  of 
which  are  public  libraries;  the  business  of 
both  classes  being  administered  by  a 
board  of  trustees,  one  of  whom  is  elected 
chairman,  and  while  the  responsibilities  of 
these  boards  is  greater  in  the  case  of  the 
free  libraries,  both  have  equal,  if  not  sim- 
ilar obligations  as  custodians  in  law  of  the 
people's  interests. 

Before  proceeding  to  submit  my  own 
ideas  of  what  appears  to  be  the  most  im- 
portant, if  perhaps  the  unwritten  duties  of 
a  library  trustee  to  the  public,  and  which 
I  present  with  extreme  diffidence  in  the 
presence  of  so  many  experts,  let  me  briefly 
enumerate  what  are  the  legal  obligations 
of  a  trustee  in  this  Province  as  set  forth 
in  the  statute  regulating  the  same  at  the 
present  time. 

These  powers  are  vested  in  the  mayor, 
or  reeve,  as  the  case  may  be,  with  three 
other  members  appointed  by  the  local 
municipal  council,  three  by  the  local  pub- 
lic school  board  or  board  of  education  and 
two  by  the  separate  school  board  repre- 
senting the  Roman  Catholic  section  of  the 
community;  nine  trustees  in  all  who  elect 


their  chairman  and  retire  annually  in  ro- 
tation. These  trustees  forfeit  their  posi- 
tion if  they  absent  themselves  from  three 
consecutive  monthly  meetings  without 
leave. 

The  legal  duties  of  these  trustees  con- 
,  sist  in  the  general  management,  regulation 
and  control  of  the  library  and  reading 
room  entailing  the  securing,  erecting  or 
renting  of  the  necessary  buildings  for  the 
purpose  of  the  library  and  reading  room, 
and  the  purchase  of  books,  newspapers, 
magazines,  maps,  etc.,  illustrative  of  the 
arts  and  sciences  for  the  library  reading 
room  and  museum.  These  responsibilities 
are  further  increased  by  the  necessity  for 
keeping  the  building  and  its  contents  in  a 
proper  state  of  preservation  and  repai" 
and  to  provide  the  necessary  fuel,  lighting 
and  other  necessaries  and  accommoda- 
tions and  also  the  appointment  or  dismis- 
sal at  pleasure  of  the  officers  and  servants 
of  the  board. 

The  board  is  also  obliged  to  make  rules 
for  the  use  of  the  library  reading  room 
and  museum  and  for  the  admission  of  the 
public  thereto  and  for  the  general  man- 
agement of  the  library;  its  reading  room, 
museum,  evening  classes  and  art  school, 
and  of  all  property  under  its  control.  For 
breaches  of  any  of  its  rules,  it  may  im- 
pose penalties  not  exceeding  $10. 

At  least  two  out  of  these  nine  trustees, 
should  be  women;  women  who  have  won 
a  record  for  activity  and  good  common 
sense  in  their  departments  of  business. 

It  is  also  the  duty  of  the  faithful  trustee 
to  encourage  the  public  to  realize  that  it 
is  the  librarian,  not  the  trustee,  who  is  the 
real  pilot  of  the  ship,  and  jealously  up- 
hold the  hands  of  that  important  official. 
Unfortunately  the  library  has  sometimes 
been  converted  into  an  asylum  for  the  vil- 
lage derelict  whose  unfitness  for  any  or- 
dinary business  pursuits  would  seem  to  be 
the  highest  passport  possible,  his  inca- 
pacity emphasizing  in  the  minds  of  some 
trustees  his  apparent  suitability  for  the 
position. 

Summarizing  the  situation,  we  find  the 
general   importance   of   the   position  of   a 


306 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


trustee  viewed  from  the  "library  act"  point 
of  view,  to  be  that 

(1)  He  holds  the  property  of  the  li- 
brary in  trust  for  the  whole  community. 

(2)  That  the  board  has  the  same 
standing  as  any  other  corporate  public 
body,  town  council,  school  board,  board  of 
education,  etc. 

(3)  That  the  trustees  alone  can  man- 
age public  library  affairs  and  that  they 
have  the  exclusive  authority  to  pay  rent, 
to  build  or  to  sell  property,  subject  to  the 
statutory  provisions. 

(4)  That  they  have  the  power  both  to 
raise  and  expend  money  for  library 
purposes. 

(5)  That  they  can  demand  certain 
moneys  from  the  municipal  council,  rang- 
ing from  a  quarter  of  a  mill  up  to  three- 
quarters  of  a  mill  on  the  dollar  of  the  total 
annual  assessment  at  the  will  of  the  rate- 
payers. 

(6)  That  the  trustees  alone  are  em- 
powered to  employ  or  dismiss  the  libra- 
rian and  other  members  of  the  staff. 

(7)  And  that  they  alone  are  respon- 
sible to  the  public. 

Their  importance,  if  further  evidence 
was  wanting,  is  established  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  library  movement  in  the  Prov- 
ince of  Ontario,  demonstrated  by  the  fact 
that  as  individuals,  they  have  been  active 
in  founding  and  maintaining  the  Ontario 
library  association.  Hence  it  Is  easy  to 
understand  that  the  hope  for  the  real  and 
lasting  expansion  of  library  work  largely 
depends  upon  the  educating  of  the  trustee 
up  to  the  sane  realization  of  his  respon- 
sibilities. 

In  order  to  have  a  fair  understanding  of 
the  trustee's  many  obligations,  we  must 
consider  the  duties  he  is  called  upon  to 
perform  in  connection  with  his  own 
library.  He  should  be  present  and  assist 
at  the  Easter  meetings  of  the  Ontario  li- 
brary association,  and  attend  the  library 
institutes  which  are  yearly  held  in  each  of 
the  14  library  districts  into  which  the 
province  has  been  carved  for  this  purpose. 
As  an  evidence  of  the  material  of  which 


the  ordinary  trustee  is  made,  it  is  well 
to  note  that  out  of  nine  presidents  who  up 
to  the  present  time  have  filled  that  office 
in  the  Ontario  library  association,  between 
the  years  1900  and  1912,  six  at  one  time 
or  another  have  been  library  trustees. 
Eighty  trustees  were  active  officers  of 
these  library  institutes  in  1911,  and  of 
these  at  least  75  gave  papers  or  addresses 
during  the  year  ending  April,  1912. 

Wonderful  opportunities  for  extending 
the  influence  of  clean  literature  is  held  by 
every  trustee  in  the  hollow  of  his  hand, 
and  the  literature  of  the  library,  taken  in 
all  its  bearings,  forms  the  great  line  of 
demarkation  between  the  human  and  the 
animal  kingdom.  Hence,  the  sound  and  in- 
telligent coupling  of  morally  well-balanced 
men  and  women  should  be  sought,  not 
merely  the  professional  educationist,  who, 
not  infrequently  is  apt  to  be  somewhat 
narrow  in  his  vision;  "not  the  mere  liter- 
ary triflers  or  amateur  reformers"  nor  the 
league  of  superficial  progressives  who 
amuse  themselves  by  lopping  off  the 
branches  of  an  evil,  but  rather  the  strong 
and  impatient  workers,  the  real  trail- 
makers  who  strike  at  the  roots.  Often  in 
a  rough  and  most  unpromising  exterior  we 
find  the  very  elements  and  characteristics 
we  have  long  sought  in  vain. 

In  and  out  of  season,  first,  last,  and  all 
the  time  in  addition  to  his  statutory  obli- 
gations the  trustee  should  make  the  wel- 
fare of  the  librarian  his  greatest  concern. 
What  the  pilot  is,  what  the  sails  are,  what 
the  wheel  and  the  propelling  power  are, 
individually  and  collectively  to  the  ship — 
so  is  the  librarian  to  the  library.  It  is 
quite  conceivable  that  a  library  could  ex- 
ist without  a  trustee,  but  almost  incon- 
ceivable that  it  could  exist  without  a 
librarian. 

In  Ontario  we  are  doing  all  we  can  to 
elevate  the  status  of  the  librarian,  as  well 
as  her  status  in  the  army  of  intellectual 
workers.  We  have  summer  schools  and 
library  institutes  to  encourage  her  in  her 
ambitions  and  to  improve  her  knowledge. 
1  am  persuaded  that  on  the  walls  of  every 
library   might   well    be    written    in    large 


PUBLIC  DOCUMENTS  ROUND  TABLE 


307 


characters,  and  without  any  suspicion  of 
disrespect,  "God  bless  our  Librarian." 
1  refer  of  course,  to  the  faithful  efficient 
librarian  with  a  proper  conception  of  her 
own  duties  who  should  be  honoured  in  the 
community  by  virtue  of  her  position  entail- 
ing such  profound  responsibilities.  Her 
smallest  act  of  official  consideration,  to 
her  juvenile  readers  especially,  leaves  a 
widening  ripple  of  influence,  the  far- 
reaching  effect  of  which  can  scarcely  be 
over-estimated.  The  librarian,  unless  it  is 
obviously  inopportune,  should  also  without 
doubt  be  invited  to  attend  every  meeting 
of  the  trustees  and  share  their  undivided 
confidence,  and  the  importance  of  her  posi- 
tion and  her  individuality  should  never  be 
dominated  or  over-shadowed  by  the  per- 
sonality of  the  trustee.  Her  suggestions 
wherever  possible  should  be  respected,  de- 
ferred to  and  acted  upon,  and  every  point 
strained  to  give  her  a  living  wage  as 
nearly  commensurate  as  circumstances 
will  permit,  with  a  due  and  extreme  re- 
gard for  the  importance  of  her  task, — at 
best,  a  somewhat  thankless  one. 

I  am  a  strong  advocate  for  Sunday  open- 
ing wherever  it  can  be  accomplished  with- 
out interfering  with  the  conscience  or 
freedom  of  the  employee,  and  if  exempt 
from  hardship.  I  further  believe  that 
every  trustee  should  permit  the  purchase 
of  books  relating  to  any  religious  belief 
providing  that  they  are  not  of  a  contro- 


versial nature,  and  that  he  should  actively 
co-operate  with  the  librarian  in  the  selec- 
tion of  the  really  best  current  literature, 
both  books  and  periodicals,  giving  fiction, 
say  a  50%  maximum  at  the  most. 

Last,  but  not  least  I  maintain  that  It 
should  be  a  man  trustee's  greatest  pleas- 
ure and  manifest  duty  to  secure  the  co- 
operation of  at  least  two  capable  women 
workers  to  share  his  responsibilities  as 
co-trustees. 

Discussion  brought  out  the  interesting 
fact  that  the  Ontario  library  association 
included  in  its  membership  almost  as 
many  trustees  as  librarians.  Mr.  Bowker 
suggested  that  those  from  the  states  inter- 
ested in  library  development  should  seek 
to  follow  the  Canadian  example  in  this  re- 
spect, and  obtain  more  active  participation 
from  trustees  in  the  library  association. 
Dr.  C.  R.  Charteris,  president  of  the  Onta- 
rio library  association,  gave  further  word 
on  the  relation  of  trustees  to  the  library 
organization  in  Canada,  and  Mr.  T.  W. 
Banton,  trustee  of  the  Toronto  public 
library,  who  had  been  present  at  the  Mag- 
nolia conference,  spoke  of  his  disappoint- 
ment at  finding  so  little  participation  by 
trustees  in  that  meeting.  The  officers  of 
the  section  were  re-elected  for  another 
year:  Chairman,  W.  T.  Porter,  trustee  Cin- 
cinnati public  library;  secretary,  T.  L. 
Montgomery,  librarian  Pennsylvania  State 
library. 


PUBLIC  DOCUMENTS  ROUND  TABLE 


A  Public  Documents  Round  Table  was 
held  on  July  1,  Mr.  George  S.  Godard,  State 
librarian  of  Connecticut,  in  the  chair.  Miss 
EJlizabeth  M.  Smith  of  New  York  state 
library  was  appointed  secretary. 

The  preliminary  report  of  the  Committee 
on  public  documents  already  printed  was 
read,  in  order  to  bring  briefly  before  the 
session  the  status  of  the  bills  now  be- 
fore Congress  relating  to  the  printing,  bind- 
ing and  distribution  of  public  documents. 

The  chairman  reported  his  efforts  to 
bring  to  the  conference  the  Superintendent 


of  Documents,  Mr.  August  Donath,  to  pre- 
sent in  person  a  paper  on  the  new  printing 
bill.  A  failure  of  Congress  to  provide  in 
the  appropriations  for  traveling  expenses 
for  this  and  similar  purposes,  made  this 
impossible.  The  chairman,  Mr.  Godard, 
reported  that  he  had  laid  before  the  Sen- 
ate Committee  on  appropriations  the  ad- 
visability of  appropriating  funds  to  pay  ex- 
penses of  the  Superintendent  of  Docu- 
ments, or  some  other  competent  official, 
while  trying  to  get  into  closer  relations 
with  the   depository   and  other   document 


308 


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libraries.  The  secretary  read  a  letter  from 
the  clerk  of  the  Committee  on  appropria- 
tions reporting  that  Mr.  Godard's  letter 
would  be  called  to  the  attention  of  the 
committee  at  the  proper  time.  The  fol- 
lowing letter  from  Mr.  Donath  on  the  sub- 
ject of  public  documents,  dealing  especially 
with  the  new  printing  bill,  was  read  by  Mr. 
Geo.  N.  Cheney  of  the  Cojirt  of  Appeals 
library,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Office    of    Superintendent    of    Documents, 

Washington  June  8,  1912. 

My  dear  Mr.  Godard: 

Complying  with  your  kind  invitation  to 
send  to  your  committee  a  paper  dealing 
with  the  subject  of  public  documents  from 
a  standpoint  of  interest  mutual  to  your 
association  and  to  this  office,  T  herewith 
submit  a  few  words  covering  the  subject 
as  briefly  as  its  intelligent  discussion  will 
permit.  I  deem  it  a  privilege  to  be  able  to 
address  those  to  whom  this  is  a  live  sub- 
ject, and  regret  all  the  more  that  Congress 
does  not  seem  inclined  to  endorse  recom- 
mendations, repeatedly  nlade,  that  would 
bring  the  members  of  your  association  and 
the  official  in  charge  of  this  branch  of  the 
public  service  into  more  intimate  inter- 
course. This  would  surely  be  in  the  inter- 
est of  better  service  on  the  part  of  this 
office  and  a  clearer  interchange  of  expert 
opinion  that  could  not  be  otherwise  than 
beneficial  to  the  cause  which  the  law  cre- 
ating our  connection  was  intended  to  serve. 

The  idea  underlying  the  legislation  that 
created  "designated  depository  libraries" 
was  undoubtedly  the  intent  to  create  five  or 
six  hundred  places  throughout  this  broad 
land  where  the  history  of  the  country,  as 
expressed  in  the  printed  page,  should  be 
accessible  to  the  public.  A  very  good  in- 
tention, and  one  very  largely  impractical. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  the  yearly  out- 
put of  public  documents  is  nearly  a  thou- 
sand, and  that  a  steadily  increasing  amount 
of  shelf  room  is  required  to  make  all  these 
accessible,  even  those  who  only  have  a 
superficial  acquaintance  with  the  subject 
will  see  that  to  live  up  to  the  requirement 
which  accompanies  the  designation  is  be- 
yond   the    ability    of    perhaps    the   major 


number  of  the  libraries  now  regularly  sup- 
plied. Only  in  the  larger  cities  and  the 
most  prosperous  communities  are  there 
libraries  able  to  cope  with  this  "contract." 
Added  to  this  cause  for  failure  to  carry  out 
the  intent  of  thus  creating  permanent 
places  accessible  to  the  student  of  the  his- 
tory of  his  country  has  been  the  right  of 
a  Senator  or  Representative  to  change  the 
designation  at  the  beginning  of  a  Congress, 
thus  leaving  the  discarded  institution  with 
a  partial  supply  of  public  documents,  and 
starting  the  new  selection  with  a  void  that 
is  never  filled.  Poor  business,  surely.  And 
it  is  this  condition  that  the  official  now  in 
charge  of  the  Public  Documents  Division 
has  worked  very  hard  to  have  amended. 

I  am  glad  to  be  able  to  state  that  light 
seems  to  nave  broken  on  this  matter.  After 
repeated  searching  inquiries  on  the  part  of 
the  Printing  Investigation  Commission  the 
true  situation  seems  to  be  understood,  and 
the  measure  popularly  known  as  the  New 
Printing  Bill,  which  deals  with  the  whole 
subject  of  the  public  printing,  promises  to 
establish  a  connection  between  the  libra- 
ries of  the  land  and  this  office  that  shall 
be  of  more  benefit  to  the  public  and  at 
much  less  expense  than  the  operation  of 
the  law  of  January  12,  1895,  permitted.  At 
present  writing  this  bill  has  passed  the 
Senate,  has  been  favorably  reported,  with 
amendments,  to  the  House,  and  appears 
to  be  in  shape  for  speedy  final  action.  It 
contains  many  provisions  that  make  for 
economy  in  the  public  printing,  but  I  will 
only  mention  what  is  of  more  immediate 
interest  to  the  libraries  of  the  country. 

To  begin  with,  the  law  will  permit  selec- 
tion, at  stated  intervals,  of  the  class  of 
publications  that  a  designated  library  is 
able  or  desirous  to  handle.  What  a  relief 
that  will  be  can  best  be  appreciated  by  the 
officials  in  charge  of  the  smaller  libraries. 
It  will  serve  them,  and  it  will  likewise 
save  money  to  the  Government.  The  vol- 
ume of  literature  sent  out  from  here  that 
later  is  returned  can  only  be  realized  from 
personal  observation.  My  personal  ac- 
quaintance with  it  began  on  the  day  I  took 
charge  of  this  office.     There  were  moun- 


PUBLIC  DOCUMENTS  ROUND  TABLE 


309 


tains  of  it,  and  in  a  few  months,  so  the 
Public  Printer  informed  me,  he  desired  to 
lay  before  the  Committee  on  Printing  his 
report  recommending  how  much  of  the  ac- 
cumulation seemed  worth  returning  into 
stock,  and  how  much  should  be  sold  as 
waste  paper.  However,  the  subject  has 
become  so  familiar  to  the  law-making  body 
that  remedial  action  is  now  apparently  in 
sight. 

The  bill  likewise  assures  that  perma- 
nency to  a  designated  library  without  which 
the  original  intent,  above  fully  stated,  is 
defeated.  Once  designated,  no  change  in 
the  political  representation  in  Congress 
from  that  particular  locality  will  affect  the 
library's  status.  Thus  the  two  causes  that 
have  operated  to  nullify  the  intent  to  cre- 
ate permanent  depositories  of  the  coun- 
try's history  will  be  removed.  And  while 
the  question  of  selection  may  at  first  seem 
somewhat  of  a  problem  to  many  librarians, 
I  feel  confident  that  this  matter  will  soon 
work  smoothly  and  satisfactorily.  I  should 
not  forget  to  mention  that  besides  the  priv- 
ilege of  thus  curtailing  their  receipts  from 
this  oflOice,  libraries  may  also,  in  certain 
cases,  receive  duplicates  that  they  find 
desirable. 

Among  other  provisions  of  the  new  bill 
that  will  appeal  to  your  committee  I  may 
mention  that  it  goes  a  long  distance  in 
carrying  out  the  slogan,  "one  edition  for 
one  book,"  by  taking  out  of  the  numbered 
Congressional  series  all  annual  and  serial 
publications  and  those  of  which  a  Depart- 
mental edition  has  been  printed,  the  only 
exception  being  the  Messages  of  the  Presi- 
dents and  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  heads 
of  the  nine  Executive  Departments.  This 
elimination  of  document  numbers  will 
materially  reduce  the  size  of  what  is  com- 
monly known  as  the  "sheep  set,"  and  I 
also  expect  that  it  will  enable  a  speedier 
delivery  of  this  class  of  publications,  be- 
sides permitting  a  return  to  the  old  custom 
of  placing  the  serial  number  on  each 
volume. 

I  believe  the  foregoing  covers  in  as  con- 
densed a  form  as  the  subject  admits  the  mat- 
ters just  now  of  greatest  interest  in  the  dis- 


cussion of  the  subject  of  public  documents. 
I  need  not  assure  you,  and  through  you  your 
associates,  of  the  earnest  desire  on  the  part 
of  this  office  to  co-operate  to  the  fullest  pos- 
sible extent  with  the  good  work  that  the 
libraries  of  the  country  are  doing  in  ad- 
vancing the  intelligence  of  a  people  whose 
will  is  the  foundation  of  our  Government. 
The  greatest  menace  to  a  government  of 
the  people  is  ignorance,  and  no  agency  is 
superior  to  the  libraries  of  the  land  in 
combating  this  foe  of  free  institutions. 

In  the  hope  that  these  remarks  will  be 
kindly  received,  and  assuring  you  of  my 
personal  regard,  I  have  the  honor  to  be, 
Very  respectfully, 
AUGUST  DONATH, 
Superintendent  of  Documents. 
GEO.  S.  GODARD,  Esq.,  Chairman, 

Committee  on  Public  Documents, 

American  Library  Association. 

Before  discussion  was  opened,  the  sec- 
retary of  the  meeting  read  a  courteous  let- 
ter from  Hon.  Reed  Smoot,  Chairman  of 
the  Senate  Committee  on  Printing,  express- 
ing regret  at  his  inability  to  deliver  at 
the  Conference  an  address  on  the  general 
topic  of  printing,  binding  and  distribution 
of  Government  publications,  and  referring 
with  appreciation  to  the  intention  of  the 
A.  L.  A.  Committee  to  deliver  to  him  a 
concise  report  of  the  suggestions  made  by 
the  librarians  interested  in  Government 
publications.     Discussions  followed. 

Mr.  Henry  J.  Carr,  a  former  president  of 
the  A.  L.  A.  and  a  veteran  document  libra- 
rian, advocated  concentrating  the  efforts  of 
the  association  on  getting  the  bill  througn 
in  its  present  form,  on  the  ground  that  it 
was  now  so  nearly  satisfactory,  and  had 
already  been  so  long  in  preparation,  that 
further  delay  would  be  unfortunate. 

Mr.  J.  D.  Thompson,  formerly  chief  of 
the  Department  of  Documents  in  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress,  now  librarian  of  the 
Columbia  University  Law  library,  intro- 
duced the  question  of  a  limited  distribu- 
tion of  bills.  The  following  suggestions 
were  made: 

By  Mr.  Thompson  (1)  that  public  and 
private  bills  form  separate  numbered  se- 


310 


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ries,  the  former  to  be  distributed  to  libra- 
ries requesting,  or,  if  necessary,  subscrib- 
ing through  the  Superintendent  of  Docu- 
ments, or  (2)  that  the  text  of  any  bill 
under  consideration  should  be  included  in 
the  printed  report  on  the  same. 

By  Mr.  Thorvald  Solberg,  United  States 
Registrar  of  Copyrights,  that  every  bill 
which  has  passed  one  house  should  be 
printed  in  a  permanent  form  convenient 
for  library  use. 

By  Mr.  Clement  W.  Andrews,  librarian 
of  the  John  Crerar  library  of  Chicago,  that 
bills  not  favorably  acted  upon  should  also 
be  included  in  any  scheme  to  be  sug- 
gested; that  better  provision  be  at  the 
same  time  recommended  for  supplying 
reports  of  hearings  to  interested  libraries. 

By  Mr.  William  R.  Reinick,  chief  of  the 
Public  Documents  Department  of  the  Phil- 
adelphia Free  library,  in  favor  of  Mr. 
Thompson's  suggestion  of  separate  series 
for  public  and  private  bills,  and  of  better 
distribution  of  reports  of  hearings. 

By  Mr.  Herbert  S.  Hirshberg,  reference 
librarian,  Cleveland  public  library,  that 
bills  be  printed  in  the  Congressional 
Record. 

By  Miss  Edith  E.  Clarke,  now  chief 
cataloger  in  the  library  of  Syracuse 
university  and  formerly  on  the  staff  of  the 
Superintendent  of  Documents,  that  the 
Superintendent  of  Documents  be  given  a 
certain  specified  number  of  copies  of  bills 
to  be  distributed  to  libraries  on  request. 

By  Mr,  R.  R.  Bowker,  editor  and  pub- 
lisher of  the  Publishers'  weekly  and  the 
Library  journal,  that  bills  favorably  re- 
ported be  included  in  Committee  reports; 
that  reports  of  hearings  be  included  in  the 
document  series;  that  the  Superintendent 
of  Documents  be  given  the  power  to  dis- 
tribute, on  request,  copies  of  individual 
bills. 

By  Mr.  Solberg,  that  texts  of  bills  be  in- 
cluded in  committee  reports  whether 
reported  favorably  or  not. 

In  conclusion  the  following  resolution 
was  introduced  by  Mr.  Thompson: 

RESOLVED,  that  the  Committee  on  Pub- 
lic Documents  recommend  to  the  proper 


Congressional  authorities  that  there  be 
appended  to  each  Committee  report  on  a 
public  bill,  when  printed  (1)  the  text  of 
the  bill  and  (2)  the  testimony  taken  if 
stenographically  reported  and  not  con- 
fidential. 

This  resolution  was  adopted. 

Further  suggestions  regarding  other 
provisions  of  the  printing  bill  were  made 
as  follows: 

By  Mr.  Thompson:  That  unbound  num- 
bered documents  be  distributed  in  advance 
of  the  bound  volumes,  and  that  librarians 
be  given  option  as  to  the  form  they 
prefer. 

By  Mr.  Andrews:  That  some  provision 
be  introduced  which  should  place  in  the 
hands  of  some  one  higher  in  authority 
than  the  blanket  clerk,  the  power  to  place 
documents  in  the  confidential  nondistribut- 
able  class  and  thus  keep  out  of  that 
class  documents  of  general  library  in- 
terest which  are  not  confidential. 

The  chairman  then  introduced  the  sub- 
ject of  daily  lists  of  documents,  with  a 
suggestion  that  lists  be  prepared  in  the 
Senate  and  Assembly  Document  Room  and 
printed  daily  in  the  Congressional  Record, 
of  all  documents  received  the  day  pre- 
vious in  the  document  rooms.  Such  a  list 
should  meet  with  favor  from  Congress 
because  prompt  notice  of  publication 
would  be  valuable  to  Congressmen  as  well 
as  to  libraries. 

Doubts  of  its  practicability  were  raised 
by  Mr.  Solberg  and  Mr.  Andrews.  The 
latter  referred  to  the  diflSculty  rising  from 
the  fact  that  the  Congressional  Record 
was  published  only  during  the  sessions, 
and  suggested  that  the  public  printer  fur- 
nish the  lists.  Miss  Laura  A.  Thompson 
considered  the  diflftculty  raised  by  Mr. 
Andrews  a  small  one  because  fewer  doc- 
uments and  documents  of  less  Immediate 
Interest  were  Issued  when  Congress  was 
not  in  session. 

Miss  Clarke  stated  her  opinion  that  the 
Superintendent  of  Documents  should  issue 
the  list  as  a  daily  bulletin.  Mr.  Ernest 
Bruncken  of  the  office  of  the  United  States 
Register  of  Copyrights,  by  letter  advo- 
cated this  plan.     Mr.  Godard  stated  that 


PUBLIC  DOCUMENTS  ROUND  TABLE 


311 


the  Superintendent  of  Documents  was  un- 
willing to  undertake  it.  Mr.  Thompson 
stated  that  the  necessity  of  sending  it  out 
by  mail  daily  made  it  impracticable.  It 
was  decided  to  take  no  action  on  this 
particular  matter.  The  following  resolu- 
tion, however,  was  moved  by  Miss  Clarke 
and  carried: 

WHEREAS:  The  reading  public  of  the 
United  States  are  looking  more  and  more 
to  the  libraries  and  especially  to  the  de- 
pository libraries,  to  supply  to  them  and 
advise  them  about  all  the  publications  of 
the  United  States  Government,  and 

WHEREAS:  The  librarians  must  of 
necessity  largely  depend  for  information 
as  to  these  publications,  upon  the  cat- 
alogs and  bibliographical  aids  issued  by 
the  office  of  the  Superintendent  of  Doc- 
uments, and 

WHEREAS:  Promptness  in  the  print- 
ing of  these  bibliographical  aids  is  most 
essential  to  the  timely  use  of  current  gov- 
ernment material.     Therefore  be  it 

RESOLVED,  That  the  librarians  of  the 
American  Library  Association  assembled 
at  Ottawa,  respectfully  urge  the  Super- 
intendent of  Documents  to  use  all  reason- 
able haste  in  the  compilation,  printing  and 
distribution  to  libraries,  of  the  Monthly 
Catalog  of  United  States  Public  Docu- 
ments and  of  the  Document  Catalog,  so 
that  they  may  be  available  in  libraries  as 
soon  as  possible  after  the  periods  covered 
by  the  same. 

Mr.  James  L  Wyer,  Jr.,  director  of  the 
New  York  state  library,  Albany,  called  at- 
tention to  the  withdrawal  of  free  distribu- 
tion of  the  specifications  and  drawings  of 
United  States  patents,  and  moved  the  fol- 
lowing resolution,  which  was  carried: 

RESOLVED:  That  the  librarians  of  the 
for  a  limited  free  distribution  of  the  bound 
volumes  (or  less  desirable,  the  unbound 
volumes)  of  the  Specifications  and  Draw- 
ings of  the  United  States  Patents,  the 
Superintendent  of  Documents,  perhaps,  to 
designate  or  determine  such  libraries  upon 
presentation  of  good  reasons. 

Mr.  Charles  H.  Hastings,  chief  of  the 
card  section  in  the  Library  of  Congress, 
expressed  regret  at   the   impossibility   of 


printing  on  Library  of  Congress  printed 
cards  the  volume  numbers  of  the  doc- 
uments in  the  Congressional  series,  since 
the  documents  were  not  assigned  to 
volumes  until  some  time  after  publication. 
The  following  resolution,  proposed  by 
Mr.  Thompson,  was  adopted; 

RESOLVED:  That  the  Committee  on 
Public  Documents  recommend  that  ar- 
rangements be  made  at  the  Government 
Printing  office  for  the  assignment  of  bul- 
letin or  document  numbers  at  a  later  stage 
than  at  present,  in  order  that  they  may 
correspond  more  nearly  w^ith  the  order  of 
publication,  and  that  wherever  possible, 
documents  be  assigned  to  their  volumes  in 
the  Congressional  series  at  the  time  of 
publication  in  order  that  the  volume  num- 
bers may  be  used  in  cataloging, 

Mr.  Solberg  called  attention  to  the  un- 
satisfactory method  of  numbering  Treas- 
ury decisions  and  decisions  of  the  Attor- 
ney General. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  House 
amendment  making  centralization  of  dis- 
tributors in  the  office  of  the  Superintendent 
of  Documents  obligatory  to  all  depart- 
ments. A  similar  provision  was  stricken 
out  of  the  Senate  appropriation  bill. 

Mr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Solberg  opposed 
obligatory  centralization  and  suggested 
that  the  association  register  with  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Printing  its  disap- 
proval on  the  grounds  both  of  economy 
and  of  promptness  of  service. 

Mr.  Bowker  expressed  a  hope  that  the 
association  would  strongly  endorse  the 
attempt  now  being  made  to  establish  a 
legislative  reference  department  at  the 
national  capital. 

Mr.  Wyer  moved  that  the  Committee  on 
Public  Documents  send  a  resolution  of 
thanks  to  the  Senate  and  House  Commit- 
tees on  Printing  and  to  the  Superintend- 
ent of  Documents,  for  their  uniform  cour- 
tesy and  careful  consideration  of  the 
several  suggestions  made. 

This  motion  was  carried.  The  meeting 
then  adjourned. 


AMERICAN  ASSOCIATION  OF  LAW  LIBRARIES 

Seventh  Annual  Meeting:,  Ottawa,  Canada,  June  26-JuIy  2,  J9J2 

Expenditures 


FIRST  SESSION 

(June  27,  1912,  2:30  p.  m.,  at  the 

Chateau  LauVier.) 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by 
President  Godard.  forty-four  being  pres- 
ent. 

The  president  introduced  Mr.  H.  H. 
Bligh,  K.C.,  librarian  of  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  Dominion,  who  welcomed  the 
association  to  Canada  and  expressed  the 
hope  that  the  sessions  would  be  profitable 
and  that  the  stay  In  Ottawa  would  be  en- 
joyed. He  invited  the  members  of  the 
association  to  visit  his  library. 

President  Godard  then  addressed  the 
association. 

The  report  of  the  treasurer  was  read 
by  the  secretary,  as  follows: 

To  the  American  Association  of  Law 
Libraries: 

Your  treasurer  respectfully  reports  the 
following  receipts  and  expenditures:  on 
August  24th  I  received  a  statement  from 
Mr.  F.  O.  Poole,  former  treasurer  of  the 
association,  and  a  list  of  receipted  bills 
which  total  $943.71.  These  receipts  are 
expenditures  made  by  Mr.  Poole  on  be- 
half of  the  Association  since  the  balanc- 
ing of  his  books  on  May  5,  1911. 

For  the  period  from  Aug.  26,  1911,  to 
June  24,  1912,  the  following  receipts  and 
expenditures  were  made:  It  might  be  well 
to  state  here  that  your  treasurer  was 
elected  at  the  annual  meeting  of  the  As- 
sociation held  at  Pasadena  in  May,  1911, 
but  the  financial  affairs  were  not  turned 
over  to  him  until  the  above  date. 

Receipts 
F.  O.  Poole,  to  balance  account..!     88.58 

Subscriptions    for    Index 666.50 

Dues    316.00 

Advertising    263.75 

Overpayment  of   dues .26 

Overpayment  of  subscriptions 4.00 

$1,335.09 


Treasurer,  printing   &... 

supplies    $  37.87 

G.  G.  Glasier,  express  . . .       3.96 

H.  L.  Butler,  typewriting 

for  1911 11.35 

The  Index 

Composition,  printing  & 
binding  No.  2  &  No.  4 
and  storage  on  back 
number  as  per  bills...  447.45 

Salary  of  Karl  Ed.  Stein- 
metz  as  Mgr.  Editor  as 
per  agreement  with 
Executive  Committee. .  400.00 

Salary  of  Frederick  W.. 
Schenk  as  per  agree-, 
ment  with  the  Execu- 
tive   Committee 80.00 

Printing  the  report  of 
the  Committee  on  Ses- 
sions           1.75 

Wrapping  and  shipping 
No.  2  of  the  Index 10.41 

Wrapping  and  shipping 
No.  4  of  the  Index 12.52 

Supplies  furnished  the 
Editor  of  the  Index, 
and  express  19.05 

Return  of  overpayment 
of  dues 25 

Refund  of  subscriptions.       4.00 


Balance  in  First  Nat'l. 
Bank,  Montpelier,  Vt. 


1,028.61 


$306.48 


Your  treasurer  wishes  to  express  at  this 
time  his  appreciation  of  the  many  favors 
of  the  different  officers  of  the  association. 
Respectfully  submitted, 

B.  LEE  WHITNEY,  Treasurer. 

The  secretary  reported  that  aside  from 
arranging  the  program  of  the  annual  meet- 
ing, taking  up  details  with  reference  to 
the  election  of  new  members,  and  other 


312 


LAW  LIBRARIES 


313 


routine  matters,  the  Executive  committee 
had  been  obliged  to  meet  the  situation 
arising  from  the  much  regretted  resigna- 
tion of  Mr.  Gilson  G.  Glasier,  as  editor 
of  the  Index,  after  the  publication  of  the 
first  number  of  volume  4.  It  was  finally 
decided  to  engage  Mr.  Karl  E.  Steinmetz, 
as  editor  of  the  balance  of  volume  4  at 
slight  increase  in  compensation  over  the 
amount  he  received  for  indexing.  The 
negotiations  consumed  so  much  time  that 
after  the  publication  of  No.  2  of  volume 
4.  it  was  decided  to  omit  the  third  num- 
ber, and  to  proceed  forthwith  with  the 
preparation  of  the  annual  number  which 
was  to  contain  all  index  material  of  the 
year,  including  that  which  would  have  ap- 
peared in  the  third  number. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Committee  in 
Cleveland,  December  29-30,  there  was  re- 
ceived from  Mr.  Schenk  a  proposition  for 
doing  the  indexing  and  editing  of  vol- 
ume 5  of  the  Index  which  was  so  favor- 
able to  the  association  that  the  Commit- 
tee decided  to  accept  it.  Arrangements 
were  effected  which  the  Committee  be- 
lieved would  place  the  work  on  a  firm 
basis. 

Members  were  urged  to  do  their  best 
to   secure  new   subscribers. 

On  motion  by  Mr.  Small,  the  president 
was  directed  to  appoint  an  auditing  com- 
mittee, a  nominating  committee,  and  a 
committee  on  resolutions,  of  three  mem- 
bers each,  which  committees  were  di- 
rected to  report  at  a  later  session  during 
the  convention.  The  president  appointed 
the  following  committees: 

Auditing  Committee:  Mrs.  M.  C.  Kling- 
elsmith.  Miss  Frances  D.  Lyon,  Harold  L. 
Butler. 

Nominating  Committee:  A.  J.  Small, 
E.  A.  Feazel,  C.  J.  Babbitt. 

Committee  on  Resolutions:  E.  M.  Bor- 
chard,  F.  B.  Crossley,  F.  O.  Poole. 

Dr.  G.  E.  Wire,  chairman,  reported  prog- 
ress on  behalf  of  the  committee  on  the 
Reprinting  of  Session  Laws.  This  report, 
together  with  other  reports  and  papers 
not  set  out  in  this  number,  will  be  found 
in  the  Law  Library  Journal  published  by 


this   association  in   conjunction  with  the 
Index  to  Legal  Periodicals. 

Mr,  George  N.  Cheney,  chairman,  on  be- 
half of  the  committee  on  the  list  of  law 
libraries  and  librarians,  reported  prog- 
ress. 

Mr.  O.  J.  Field,  chairman,  on  behalf  of 
the  committee  on  Latin  American  Laws, 
reported  that  that  committee  had  received 
but  one  response  to  about  thirty  letters 
sent  to  various  South  American  legal  in- 
stitutions. This  reply  came  from  Brazil, 
and  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
National  Press  of  Rio  de  Janiero  had  for 
sale  the  public  laws  of  the  country.  The 
committee  hoped  to  report  additional  in- 
formation at  the  next  annual  meeting. 

Mr.  Poole,  temporary  chairman  of  the 
committee  to  confer  with  the  Library  of 
Congress  on  shelf  classifications  for  the 
law  department,  reported  that  a  series  of 
questions  had  been  propounded  by  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress,  a  copy  of  which  had 
been  sent  to  each  member  of  the  commit- 
tee, and  that  replies  thereto  had  been 
received  from  Mr.  Hewitt  and  Mr.  Bab- 
bitt, which  replies  had  been  transmitted 
to  the  Library  of  Congress.  No  further 
action  was  taken  by  the  committee  pend- 
ing further  word  from  the  Library  of 
Congress,  which  library  since  that  time 
has  seemed  to  be  fully  occupied  with 
other  matters. 

Mr.  A.  J.  Small,  chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Bibliography  of  Bar  Association 
Proceedings,  reported  that  a  complete  list, 
prepared  by  Mr.  Francis  Rawle,  of  Phila- 
delphia, had  been  received  by  the  commit- 
tee, but  that,  in  accordance  with  Mr. 
Rawle's  request,  details  given  in  this  list 
— many  of  which  were  in  very  abbrevi- 
ated form — would  have  to  be  put  into  bib- 
liographical shape  before  publication.  It 
was  further  reported  that  arrangements 
would  be  effected  whereby  this  work 
might  be  done,  and  publication  secured. 

Mr.  Small,  chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  the  Bibliography  of  American  Statute 
law,   reported  progress. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  H.  L.  Butler,  it  was 
voted  to  accept  the  reports  of  the  special 


311 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


committees  so  far  received,  and  to  con- 
tinue all  the  committees,  subject  to  such 
change  in  personnel  as  might  seem  nec- 
essary to  the  incoming  president,  and 
further,  that  all  committees  be  directed 
to  report  at  the  next  annual  meeting. 

Mr.  John  B.  Kaiser,  librarian  of  the  De- 
partment of  economics  'and  sociology  of 
the  University  of  Illinois,  read  a  paper 
on  library  school  training  for  employees 
of  law  libraries.  This  was  followed  by 
an  animated  discussion. 

On  motion,  it  was  voted  to  adjourn,  to 
meet  again  on  June  28th,  at  9:30  a.  m. 

SECOND  SESSION 

(June  28,  1912,  at  9:30  a.  m.,  at  the 

Chateau  Laurier.) 

President  Godard  called  the  meeting  to 
order  and  stated  that  the  first  matter  to 
be  taken  up  was  the  consideration  of  the 
"Tentative  list  of  subject  headings  for 
a  law  library  catalog"  prepared  by  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress. 

Mr.  Edwin  M.  Borchard  introduced  the 
matter.  He  stated  that  the  list  had  been 
prepared  primarily  for  the  use  of  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress  in  its  own  catalog  and 
in  the  work  of  printing  catalog  cards  for 
distribution.  It  was  hoped  that  the  list 
in  its  final  form  would  be  of  help  to  law 
libraries  throughout  the  country,  and  to 
this  end  criticisms  of  the  tentative  list 
and  suggestions  were  asked  for. 

Mr.  Borchard  then  took  up  the  head- 
ings in  regard  to  which  there  might  be 
difference  of  opinion,  and  explained  the 
decision  reached  by  his  library.  He 
pointed  out  several  cases  where  changes 
had  already  been  made  in  the  list. 

Considerable  discussion  ensued  on  vari- 
ous points. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Mr.  Borchard,  the 
president  was,  on  motion,  directed  to  ap- 
point a  committee  of  three  to  confer  with 
the  Library  of  Congress  on  the  matter 
of  these  subject  headings. 

The  president  announced  the  commit- 
tee as  follows:  George  N.  Cheney,  Lu- 
ther E,  Hewitt,  J.  David  Thompson. 


On  motion,  the  resolutions  committee 
was  directed  to  draw  up  and  present  at 
a  later  session  of  the  convention,  a  reso- 
lution of  thanks  to  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress for  undertaking  this  work. 

The  president  announced  that  the  nom- 
inating committee  was  ready  to  make  its 
report. 

The  nominations  presented  by  this  com- 
mittee were  as  follows:  President, 
Franklin  O.  Poole;  1st  Vice-President, 
Frederick  W.  Schenk;  2d  Vice-Presi- 
dent, Mrs.  M.  C.  Klingelsmith;  Secretary, 
Miss  G.  E.  Woodard;  Treasurer,  E.  Lee 
Whitney;  Executive  Committee,  E.  O.  S. 
Scholefield,  O.  J.  Field,  E.  J.  Lien. 

On  motion,  the  report  was  accepted  and 
the  president  was  directed  to  cast  one 
vote  for  the  candidates  mentioned. 

The  president  announced  that  he  had 
cast  the  vote  and  that  the  above  officers 
were  elected  to  serve  during  the  ensuing 
year. 

On  motion,  the  meeting  adjourned  until 
June  30,  at  9  p.  m. 

THIRD  SESSION 

(June  30,  1912,  9  p.  m.,  at  the  Chateau 

Laurier.) 

Mr.  Butler,  of  the  auditing  committee, 
presented  a  report  on  behalf  of  the  com- 
mittee, as  follows: 

The  auditing  committee  begs  to  report 
that  it  has  audited  the  books  of  the  treas- 
urer for  the  year  ending  June  24,  1912, 
and  finds  same  to  be  correct. 

Respectfully   submitted, 
MARGARET    C.    KLINGELSMITH, 
FRANCES  D.  LYON, 
HAROLD  L.  BUTLER. 

On  motion,  the  report  was  accepted  and 
the  treasurer's  report  was  approved. 

Mr.  Poole,  on  behalf  of  the  committee 
on  resolutions,  presented  a  number  of  res- 
olutions acknowledging  the  services  to  the 
profession  of  the  Massachusetts  State  li- 
brary in  publishing  a  list  of  American 
statute  law,  and  the  catalog  of  foreign 
statute  laws;  of  Mr.  Francis  Rawle  in  pre- 
senting to  the  association  for  publication 


LAW  LIBRARIES 


315 


his  list  of  Bar  Association  proceedings; 
of  the  Library  of  Congress  in  compiling  a 
list  of  subject  headings  for  law  library 
catalogs,  and  the  Guide  to  the  legal  litera- 
ture of  Germany;  and  to  all  those  who 
contributed  to  the  program  of  the  meet- 
ing, and  had  been  instrumental  in  mak- 
ing the  stay  of  the  members  in  Ottawa  so 
pleasant  and  profitable.  There  was  also 
presented  a  resolution  in  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  life  work  of  William  J.  C. 
Berry,  one  of  the  charter  members,  and 
formerly  librarian  of  the  Association  of 
the  Bar  of  the  City  of  New  York,  and  of 
Stephen  B.  Griswold,  the  only  honorary 
member  of  the  association,  and  formerly 
state  law  librarian  of  New  York.  All  these 
resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted. 

Mr.  A.  J.  Small  stated  that  he  had  re- 
ceived many  requests  for  information  re- 
garding shelf  classifications  of  text  books 


in  his  library  and  moved  that  the  presi- 
dent appoint  a  committee  of  three  to 
gather  information  regarding  such  classi- 
fications in  the  several  libraries  and  pre- 
pare the  same  for  publication.  After  dis- 
cussion the  motion,  being  seconded,  was 
duly  carried.  On  motion  it  was  voted  to 
appropriate  $25.00  for  the  expenses  of  the 
committee.  The  president  announced  the 
committee  as  follows:  Miss  G.  E.  Wood- 
ard,  G.  N.  Cheney,  E.  A.  Feazel. 

The  business  of  the  association  having 
been  completed  it  was  on  motion,  voted 
that  the  meeting  adjourn  sine  die. 

In  addition  to  the  above  sessions,  the 
association  met  in  conjunction  with  other 
bodies  in  two  joint  sessions,  the  first  with 
the  National  Association  of  State  Libra- 
ries and  the  Special  Libraries  Association, 
and  the  second,  with  the  Bibliographical 
Society  of  America  and  other  bodies. 


LEAGUE    OF    LIBRARY    COMMISSIONS 

Ninth  Annual  Meeting  at  Ottawa,  Canada,  Jone  28- July  J,   19 J 2 


FIRST  SESSION 
(Friday,  June  28,  ^:30  p.  m.) 

The  first  session  was  called  to  order  by 
the  first  vice-president,  Mr.  C.  H.  Milam, 
of  Indiana,  in  the  absence  of  the  presi- 
dent.  Miss   Cornelia  Marvin,   of  Oregon. 

It  was  voted  to  waive  the  reading  of  the 
minutes  of  the  last  annual  meeting.  The 
financial  report  of  the  secretary-treasurer 
was  read  and  accepted. 

The  chairman  appointed  as  a  nominat- 
ing committee  to  report  at  the  last  ses- 
sion, Charlotte  Templeton,  A.  L.  Bailey, 
and  Mrs.  Percival  Sneed. 

Miss  Elizabeth  B.  Wales  then  presented 
the  following  report  on  charter  provisions 
for  public  libraries  in  cities  having  the 
commission  form  of  government. 

REPORT    ON     CHARTER     PROVISIONS 
FOR  PUBLIC  LIBRARIES  IN  HOME 
RULE   OR   COMMISSION    GOV- 
ERNMENT   CITIES 

The  present  chairman  took  charge  of 
the  work  about  May  1st.  The  committee 
found  the  time  remaining  so  short  that 
it  was  deemed  inadvisable  to  attempt  to 
prepare  material  for  the  League  at  this 
meeting.  Therefore  your  committee  begs 
leave  to  report  progress  and  submit  an 
outline  of  its  plans  for  criticism  and  sug- 
gestion. 

The  discussion  of  the  subject  seemed  to 
indicate  that  the  difficulties  might  fall 
into  two  classes.  Cases  involving  a  satis- 
factory library  law  in  danger  of  change, 
and  difficulties  occasioned  by  attempt 
to  better  the  original  law  under  the  Com- 
mission government;  and  a  further  divis- 
ion including  cases  where  the  commission 
law  as  passed  was  inapplicable  to  the  li- 
brary government,  or  conflicted  with  the 
law.  The  committee  suggests  dealing 
with    the    matter   by    statute    law    rather 


than  by  city  charter  provision,  and  would 
suggest  as  a  method,  that: 

(a)  Two  provisional  sections  be  drafted, 
one  to  insure  the  continuing  in  force  of  the 
state  library  law  already  on  the  books, 
to  be  used  in  states  where  such  continu- 
ance is  for  the  interest  of  the  library;  an- 
other to  provide  for  the  organization  and 
control  of  the  library  under  commission 
government  by  a  definite  statement  in 
the  commission  law  to  override  all  former 
statutes,  to  be  used  in  states  where  the 
present  law  is  not  satisfactory. 

(b)  These  sections  be  submitted  to  the 
heads  of  library  commissions  for  criti- 
cism, accompanied  by  a  letter  of  expla- 
nation embodying  the  question,  "Would 
such  state  law  meet  the  problems  of  li- 
braries in  commission  governed  cities  in 
your  state?" 

Another  and  perhaps  better  way  of  se- 
curing the  result  would  be  to  write  to 
library  commissions  and  ask  these  ques- 
tions: 

(1)  What  difficulties  have  arisen  in  the 
library  administration  of  commission  gov- 
erned cities  in  your  state? 

(2)  What  remedies  would  you  suggest 
to  meet  these  difficulties? 

(3)  Would  you  incorporate  these  sug- 
gestions in  the  laws  of  your  state  or  in 
the  charters  of  your  cities? 

The  committee  also  suggests  that  a  let- 
ter be  written  to  Mr.  Richard  S.  Childs, 
stating  the  main  difficulties  experienced 
and  requesting  an  opinion  regarding  the 
best  method  of  meeting  them.  Mr.  Child's 
known  interest  would  no  doubt  bring  an 
enlightening  answer  to  any  communica- 
tion of  reasonable  length. 

Miss  Tyler  has  generously  permitted  the 
committee  to  use  the  letters  received  by 
her  in  the  preparation  of  her  paper  for 
the  Pasadena  conference,  and  to  these 
cities  one  or  two  questions  might  be  sent 
bearing  upon   the   special   conditions   de- 


316 


LIBRARY  COMMISSIONS 


317 


veloped.  This  "second  appeal"  may  be 
made  extremely  valuable  by  careful  treat- 
ment; for  instance,  there  are  twelve  cities 
which  have  experienced  change  in  the 
number  of  trustees  representing  the  ef- 
fect of  the  law  in  California,  Iowa,  Illi- 
nois, Michigan,  and  S.  Dakota;  three  re- 
port a  board  elected  by  the  Commission 
or  council  instead  of  appointed  by  the 
mayor;  again  the  Michigan  law,  and  also 
that  of  Massachusetts  and  North  Caro- 
lina; two  (Lewiston,  Iowa,  and  Decatur, 
111.)  report  supervision  of  buildings  and 
grounds  by  city  committees;  two  (Des 
Moines  and  Tacoma)  mention  the  value 
of  increased  publicity;  one  (Colorado 
Springs)  reports  civil  service;  there  were 
in  this  first  inquiry  between  twenty  and 
thirty  "no  change"  reports;  some  of  these 
said  no  change  "as  yet."  There  were 
many  special  points  noted  in  the  letters 
which  would  repay  investigation  by  the 
committee. 

We  shall  hope  for  a  generous  coopera- 
tion from  the  members  of  the  League,  if 
it  be  your  pleasure  to  continue  this  com- 
mittee. 

Respectfully   submitted, 

ELIZABETH   B.   WALES,   Chairman, 

CARL  H.  MILAM, 

M.  S.  DUDGEON, 

ARTHUR  L.  BAILEY. 
The  report  was  accepted  and  the  com- 
mittee continued. 

In  view  of  the  work  being  done  by  a 
committee  of  the  A.  L.  A.  Council  on  li- 
brary laws  and  charter  provisions,  the 
League  committee  on  the  motion  of  Miss 
Tyler,  was  instructed  to  cooperate  with 
the  A.  L.  A.  Council  committee. 

Mr.  M.  S.  Dudgeon  reported  the  work 
of  the  Committee  on  Library  post  as  fol- 
lows: 

REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON   LIBRARY 
POST 

Your  committee  on  library  post  reports 
as  follows: 

The  present  status  of  federal  legisla- 
tion is  thus  given  in  a  letter  received 
from  the  Hon.  John  J.  Esch,  member  of 
Congress    from   Wisconsin. 


"The  post  office  appropriation  bill,  as  it 
passed  the  House  recently,  provided  for 
a  rural  parcels  post  with  rates  of  5  cents 
per  pound,  and  1  cent  for  each  additional 
pound  up  to  eleven  pounds.  These  rates, 
however,  are  confined  to  parcels  emanat- 
ing in  the  town  from  which  the  route 
runs,  or  along  such  route,  with  the  right 
of  interchange  of  packages  from  route  to 
route.  As  few  books  exceed  a  pound  in 
weight  this  would  mean  a  charge  of  5 
cents.  The  post  office  appropriation  bill 
is  now  before  the  Senate.  What  action  it 
will  take  remains  to  be  seen.  The  House 
bill  contained  a  provision  for  the  appoint- 
ment of  a  commission  to  investigate  the 
whole  subject  of  a  general  parcels  post, 
the  commission  to  make  its  report  to 
Congress  by  the  opening  of  the  next  reg- 
ular session  in  December." 

Parcels  Post  vs.  Library  Post 
Our  League  president  forwards  the  fol- 
lowing letter   from  a  Washington   corre- 
spondent who  is  evidently  perfectly  famil- 
iar with  the  subject: 

"I  am  in  receipt  of  your  letter  of  May 
17th,  asking  me  whether  there  is  any 
hope  of  getting  a  library  post,  and  in  re- 
ply will  say  that  if  you  mean  a  special 
act  providing  for  a  library  post,  separate 
and  distinct  from  other  postal  service,  I 
do  not  think  that  there  is  any  hope  of 
getting  it  in  the  near  future. 

"I  do  think,  however,  that  the  parcels 
post  bill  which  Senator  Bourne  has  pro- 
posed, if  passed  at  this  Congress,  will 
very  rapidly  develop  into  a  law  which 
will  be  entirely  satisfactory  for  library 
purposes.  The  average  library  book 
weighs  slightly  over  a  pound,  but  will 
come  easily  within  two  pounds.  Under 
Senator  Bourne's  bill  the  rate  on  rural 
routes  would  be  5  cents  for  the  first 
pound  and  1  cent  additional  for  each  ad- 
ditional pound;  within  the  fifty  mile  zone, 
6  cents  for  the  first  pound  and  2  cents 
for  each  additional  pound;  within  the  two 
hundred  mile  zone,  7  cents  for  the  first 
pound  and  3  cents  for  each  additional 
pound.  These  rates  were  decided  upon 
with  a  certain  margin  of  profit  to  the 
government  so  that  there  would  be  no 
possibility  of  the  government  sustaining 
loss.  It  was  believed  that  it  would  be 
disastrous  to  the  parcels  post  movement 
to  have  any  loss  at  the  beginning.  Such 
a  loss  would  serve  as  an  excuse  for  the 
abandoning  of  a  parcels  post.  I  am  very 
certain  that  if  this  bill  should  be  passed 
one  year's  experience  would  demonstrate 
that  the  rural  rate  could  be  reduced  to 
4  and  1  cent,  making  5  cents  for  a  two 


318 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


pound  package;  the  50  mile  zone  could 
be  abolished  and  the  rate  for  the  200 
mile  zone  fixed  at  5  cents  for  the  first 
pound  and  1  cent  for  each  additional 
pound.  The  200  mile  zone,  at  that  rate, 
ought  to  give  you  as  good  a  library  post 
service  as  you  can  expect  to  have  within 
a  number  of  years.  I  do  not  think  that 
you  can  expect  to  get  a  law  enacted 
which  will  provide  for  'the  carrying  of 
library  books  at  less  than  cost.  It  is  no 
argument  to  say  that  the  government  is 
now  carrying  newspapers  at  less  than 
cost.  It  made  a  mistake  in  establishing 
such  a  rate,  but  having  made  it,  it  cannot 
easily  increase  the  rate. 

"You  ask  whether  there  is  anything 
the  library  people  can  do  to  forward  this 
matter.  My  opinion  is  that  the  one  thing 
you  could  do  would  be  to  help  get  senti- 
ment back  of  a  general  parcels  post  so 
that  a  bill  on  a  zone  basis  with  rates 
varying  according  to  distance,  will  be 
passed  by  this  Congress.  When  we  once 
get  a  law  of  that  kind,  its  development 
will  be  very  rapid.  The  trouble  will  be  to 
get  the  first  law  on  the  statute  books." 

Senator  Bourne's  Bill 

The  bill  introduced  by  Senator  Bourne 
seems  to  be  all  that  we  can  hope  for  at 
present.    A  summary  of  it  follows: 

Postal  rates  on  parcels  vary  with  dis- 
tance, thus  protecting  local  merchants 
and  competing  with  express  companies. 

Third  and  fourth  classes  of  matter  are 
combined. 

A  special  rate  of  one  cent  an  ounce  up 
to  four  ounces  is  provided  for  circulars 
and  small  packages  of  goods. 

Rates  are  as  follows: 

Local,  city  and  rural  delivery  only,  Sets 
for  the  first  pound  and  one  cent  for  each 
additional  pound. 

Within  50  miles  zone,  6cts  for  the  first 
pound  and  2cts  for  each  additional  pound. 

Within  200  miles  zone,  7cts  for  the  first 
pound  and  Sets  for  each  additional  pound. 

Within  500  miles  zone,  8cts  for  the  first 
pound  and  5cts  for  each  additional  pound. 

Within  1,000  miles  zone,  9cts  for  the  first 
pound  and  Sets  for  each  additional  pound. 

Outside  2,000  miles  zone,  12cts  for  the 
first  pound  and  lOcts  for  each  additional 
pound. 

These  rates  are  based  on  a  careful 
computation    of   the   actual    cost   of   col- 


lecting, distributing  and  delivering  pack- 
ages, plus  the  actual  cost  of  transporta- 
tion. 

Weight  limit,  11  pounds  and  maximum 
charge  12cts,  the  international  limit 
and  rate. 

Committee  Progress  and  Recommendations 

The  committee  has  canvassed  the  situ- 
ation carefully  and  corresponded  at  some 
length  with  many  persons.  It  has  also 
suggested  that  the  various  commissions 
take  up  and  follow  the  matter  with  their 
respective  congressmen.  Many  commis- 
sions have  done  this.  South  Dakota,  at 
its  annual  library  association  meeting 
adopted  a  formal  resolution  to  be  for- 
warded to  senators  and  congressmen  for 
the  state. 

The  committee  recommends: 

1.  That  the  secretary  of  each  commis- 
sion which  has  not  already  done  so  im- 
mediately communicate  in  a  personal  let- 
ter as  already  suggested  with  each  sena- 
tor and  congressman  from  his  state. 

2.  That  each  state  commission  at  its 
next  annual  meeting  adopt  a  resolution 
endorsing  a  parcels  post  law  similar  to 
Senator  Bourne's  measure,  urging  low 
rates  on  rural  routes,  and  a  zone  system 
and  send  such  resolutions,  signed  if  pos- 
sible by  all  the  members  of  the  commis- 
sion, to  each  senator  and  congressman  in 
the  state. 

3.  That  each  state  library  association 
do  the  same. 

4.  That  this  League  adopt  such  a  reso- 
lution, and  that  the  secretary  from  each 
commission  sees  that  such  resolution 
reaches  the  senators  and  congressmen  in 
his   state. 

5.  That  efforts  to  secure  a  separate  li- 
brary post  law  be  abandoned  for  the  pres- 
ent. 

Respectfully   submitted, 

M.   S.  DUDGEON,  Chairman. 

The  report  was  accepted  and  the  com- 
mittee continued  and  the  secretary  of  the 
League  was  instructed  to  place  its  recom- 
mendations before  the  Council  of  the  A.  L. 
A.,  in  order  to  secure  the  cooperation  of 


LIBRARY  COMMISSIONS 


319 


that  body.  The  members  of  the  League 
were  particularly  urged  to  assist  the  com- 
mittee in  its  efforts. 

A  report  of  the  committee  in  state 
school  library  systems,  in  the  absence  of 
Miss  Martha  Wilson,  the  chairman,  was 
read  by  the  secretary.  It  consisted  chiefly 
of  a  summary  of  the  school  library  laws 
of  the  different  states.  The  report  was 
accepted. 

The  report  of  the  committee  on  study 
clubs  outlines,  prepared  by  Miss  Marga- 
ret Brown  was  read  by  Mr.  Dudgeon.  It 
was  as  follows: 

REPORT    OF    COMMITTEE    ON    STUDY 
OUTLINE 

The  committee  finds  that  the  difficul- 
ties encountered  by  traveling  libraries  in 
attempting  to  supply  satisfactory  and  ade- 
quate reference  material  to  the  many 
study  clubs  largely  dependent  upon  them 
for  books,  is  chiefly  because  of  the  mis- 
cellaneous program,  covering  a  wide  va- 
riety of  subjects. 

In  addition  to  this,  many  traveling  li- 
braries receive  requests  for  study  out- 
lines or  are  asked  to  prepare  them; 
hence  it  was  decided  by  the  committee 
that  a  plan  should  be  submitted  for  the 
preparation  of  study  outlines. 

This  plan  once  in  use  by  traveling  li- 
braries preparing  outlines,  would  bring 
about  a  certain  standardization,  thus  mak- 
ing an  outline  prepared  by  one  useful  to 
all.  Such  a  plan  could  not  only  be  uti- 
lized by  traveling  libraries  but  by  other 
organizations  concerned  in  providing  out- 
lines for  study  clubs. 

A  plan  was  presented  at  the  mid-winter 
meeting  of  the  middle-west  section  of  the 
League,  which  after  discussion  has  been 
revised  and  is  herewith  again  presented 
with  the  following  recommendations: 

First.  Plan  for  preparation  of  study 
outlines 

Basis. 

A      One  book  selected  as  foundation  for 

outline.    If  a  single  book  suitable  for  text 

cannot  be  found,  outline  to  be  based  on 

fewest  number  of  books  necessary  for  the 


purpose.  Texts  selected  to  be  authori- 
tative, reasonable  in  price,  readable  and 
stimulating. 

B.  Five  to  ten  bocl<s  as  collateral  ref- 
erence. Selected  to  cover  subject  in 
study  outline  and  amplify  the  text.  Pub- 
lisher and  price  given  for  all  books  in- 
cluded, for  use  in  purchase.  A  more  ex- 
tended list  of  books  can  easily  be  pre- 
pared by  any  library  where  additional 
material   is  available. 

Lessons  should  be  outlined  by: 

C.  Question  method.  Five  to  ten  defi- 
nite questions  on  each  lesson. 

D.  Or,  Topical  method.  Topics  as- 
signed under  each  lesson  should  be  those 
which  present  special  phases  of  the  gen- 
eral subject.  The  two  methods  may  some- 
times be  combined.  Written  papers,  if 
included  under  either  Question  or  Topi- 
cal form  of  study  outline,  should  be  as- 
signed only  for  subjects  which  require 
some  degree  of  original  thought;  all  in- 
formation to  be  derived  from  text  books 
and  encyclopedias  should  be  covered  by 
the  regular  lesson  for  oral  discussion. 
Note.  Number  of  meetings  of  study  clubs 
vary.  Probably  not  less  than  sixteen  or 
more  than  twenty-six  lessons.  Many  aver- 
age two  meetings  a  month.  October  to 
May. 

Second.  That  this  committee  be  au- 
thorized to  draw  upon  the  League  treas- 
ury for  a  definite  sum  for  the  employment 
of  a  capable  compiler  to  prepare  outlines 
based  on  this  plan. 

Third.  That  if  possible  the  cooperation 
of  some  publisher  be  secured  to  print  the 
outlines  thus  prepared,  or  others  passed 
upon  by  the  committee,  and  furnish 
them  at  reasonable  cost  to  the  various 
commissions  operating  traveling  libraries 
and  to  club  and  individuals  desiring  them. 

Fourth.  That  the  study  outline  com- 
mittee be  constituted  a  sub-committee  of 
the  publications  committee  and  be  em- 
powered to  select  subjects,  revise  and 
pass  upon  all  outlines  submitted,  before 
printed. 

MARGARET  BROWN,  Chairman. 


320 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Explanatory  Notes  on  the  Plan  of 
Preparation  of  Study  Outlines 

A.  The  use  of  a  few  designated  books 
(or  a  single  book)  as  a  basis  for  com- 
mon study  of  the  same  subject,  or  closely 
related  topics,  provides  the  means  by 
which  the  unity  and  coordination  is  se- 
cured, which  is  essential  for  effective  and 
satisfactory   results. 

Each  member  may,  if  she  so  desires, 
provide  herself  at  nominal  cost  with  the 
source  references  necessary  to  cover  the 
essential  point  contained   in  the  outline. 

B.  The  books  ,for  collateral  reading 
should  be  carefully  evaluated  and  selec- 
tion based  upon  their  real  value  in  supple- 
menting text,  from  the  standpoint  of  re- 
liability, readableness  and  stimulative 
quality,  also  that  the  price  shall  not  be 
prohibitive  of  purchase  by  clubs,  local 
public  libraries  and  duplication  in  travel- 
ing libraries  of  large  number  of  copies 
for  use  in  supplying  many  different  clubs. 

Any  local  or  traveling  library  may  eas- 
ily provide  additional  books  for  collateral 
reading  whenever  the  collection  permits. 
It  is  not,  however,  deemed  advisable  to 
have  such  extended  lists  incorporated  in 
the  outlines;  as  a  demand  would  then  be 
created  which  could  not  be  supplied  by 
the  small  library,  and  therefore  would  be- 
come  a   handicap    and    embarrassment. 

C.  In  outlining  lessons  by  the  ques- 
tion method,  the  questions  should  be  so 
formulated  as  to  stimulate  discussion; 
not  simply  to  be  answered  in  the  aflBrma- 
tive  or  negative. 

The  question  method  permits  a  free  ex- 
pression of  individual  opinions  based  on 
personal  reading.  Such  "discussion  awak- 
ens the  keenest  interest  through  the  ac- 
tivity of  different  minds  upon  the  same 
fact  or  idea,"  as  each  member  is  ex- 
pected to  prepare  herself  to  answer  all 
questions. 

The  question  method  is  endorsed  by 
many  educational  experts  as  a  desirable 
method  for  the  conduct  of  study  classes, 
and  has  been  found  to  be  practical  and 
satisfactory  by  many  study  clubs. 

D.  In  outlining  lessons  by  the  Topical 


method,  care  should  be  taken  to  include 
no  more  topics  than  can  be  thoroughly 
discussed,  and  such  phases  of  the  sub- 
ject assigned  as  topics  as  will  amplify 
the  general  subject  which  has  been  stud- 
ied in  common  by  all  members  from  the 
text  upon  which  the  outline  is  based. 

The  report  was  accepted.  On  the  mo- 
tion of  Mr.  Bliss  it  was  voted  that  the 
chairman  of  the  committee  be  authorized 
to  draw  upon  the  treasurer  of  the  League 
for  any  amount  not  to  exceed  $100.00  to 
defray  the  expenses  of  preparing  some 
experimental  outlines  carrying  out  the 
plans  suggested  in  the  report.  It  was 
moved  by  Mr.  Dudgeon  that  the  chairman 
be  instructed  to  enter  into  negotiations 
with  some  publisher  to  secure  coopera- 
tion in  printing  study  outlines  approved 
by  the  committee,  to  be  sold  to  study  clubs 
and  library  commissions  at  reasonable 
cost.  Carried.  On  the  motion  of  Mr. 
Bliss,  it  was  voted  to  continue  the  study 
outline  committee,  with  Miss  Brown  as 
chairman,  and  to  authorize  the  commit- 
tee to  select  subjects,  revise  and  pass 
upon  all  outlines  before  printed. 

Adjourned. 

SECOND  SESSION 
(Saturday,  June  29,  8:30  p.  m.) 

As  there  were  several  important  com- 
mittee reports  still  to  be  received  it  was 
voted  to  hold  a  meeting  on  Monday  after- 
noon at  4:30  to  complete  the  transaction 
of  business.  Mr.  Milam  then  turned  the 
meeting  over  to  Miss  Miriam  E.  Carey,  of 
Minnesota,  and  the  evening  was  devoted 
to  the  consideration  of  libraries  in  insti- 
tutions. 

Miss  B.  KATHLEEN  JONES,  librarian 
of  the  McLean  Hospital,  Waverley,  Mass., 
read  a  paper  on 

LIBRARY     WORK     AMONG     THE 
INSANE 

I  have  been  asked  to  talk  about  two 
things  to-night, — our  library  at  McLean 
Hospital  in  Waverley,  Massachusetts,  and 
my  idea  for  organization  among  the  state 
hospitals  of  the  different  states.     By  dint 


LIBRARY  COMMISSIONS 


321 


of  considerable  money,  much  thought  and 
labor  and  an  unlimited  amount  of  in- 
terest and  cooperation  with  the  librarian 
on  the  part  of  superintendent  and  trus- 
tees, we  have  been  able  to  build  up  at 
the  McLean  Hospital  something  which  ap- 
proaches pretty  near  our  ideal  of  what  a 
library  in  a  hospital  for  the  insane  should 
be.  But  in  regard  to  the  second  subject 
I  feel  a  little  diflfident,  since  there  are 
several  among  you  who  have  actually 
organized  the  institution  libraries  of 
your  different  states  and  combined  them 
under  one  head,  while  I  have  only 
dreamed  about  it.  Still,  the  dream  and 
the  vision  must  always  be  forerunners  of 
accomplishment,  and  you  also  must  have 
dreamed  before  you  were  able  to  build. 

At  McLean  Hospital  we  have  two  li- 
braries,— one  for  the  use  of  the  patients, 
which  was  started  in  1835  with  160  vol- 
umes and  now  numbers  over  7,000,  and  a 
medical  library  organized  in  1887  and  con- 
taining over  5,000  volumes.  The  two  are 
kept  entirely  distinct  with  separate  ac- 
cession-book, catalog,  classification  and 
finances.  The  medical  library  comprises  a 
fairly  good  department  in  general  medi- 
cine and  a  very  fine  one  in  chemistry;  but 
of  course,  its  principal  features  are  books 
and  periodicals  in  psychology  and  psychi- 
atry. We  take  85  medical  and  chemical 
journals,  most  of  them  German,  and  the 
care  of  these  periodicals  alone  is  no 
slight  task  for  the  librarian.  I  will  just 
say  incidentally  that,  unable  to  find  any 
classification  for  medical  books  which 
seemed  at  all  adequate  to  our  needs  we 
have  evolved  one  for  ourselves,  using 
the  decimal  idea  in  numbering.  It  is  a 
thoroughly  satisfactory  scheme  for  us  and 
we  hope  some  time  to  print  it  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  medical  libraries  m  other  hos- 
pitals for  the  insane. 

Although  our  general  library  for  the 
patients  has  been  in  existence  for  sev- 
enty-five years  and  more,  for  the  first 
six  decades  it  was  conducted  in  a  rather 
desultory  manner,  as  indeed,  most  li- 
braries were  at  that  time.  It  was  not  till 
1895  that  any  attempt  at  classification 
and   cataloging  was  made,   and  not  until 


1904  was  a  trained  librarian  installed  and 
the  whole  department  put  on  a  business 
basis.  The  expenditure  of  the  annual  ap- 
propriation was  at  that  time  put  into  the 
librarian's  hands  with  directions  to  build 
up  the  library  at  her  own  discretion,  sub- 
ject, of  course,  to  the  approval  of  the  su- 
perintendent and  trustees.  That  the  busi- 
ness basis  is  the  only  successful  one, 
these  figures  show: — in  1904,  after  sev- 
enty years,  the  library  numbered  only 
4,000  volumes,  with  few  new  books  but  a 
large  assortment  of  old  sermons  and  evan- 
gelical biography,  and  its  circulation  was 
about  5,000.  During  the  eight  years  of 
the  new  regime,  more  than  3,000  volumes 
have  been  added  and  the  circulation  has 
increased  to  over  8,500. 

During  its  seventy-five  years  of  service 
our  library  has  exemplified  at  least  four 
important  things: — first,  as  has  been 
shown,  that  one  cannot  get  such  good  re- 
sults from  the  old  desultory  method  of 
having  a  few  books  on  the  wards  looked 
after  by  nurses,  or  even  in  a  central  li- 
brary run  by  a  stenographer  in  her  spare 
moments,  as  from  an  organized,  central  li- 
brary with  a  trained  librarian  at  its  head. 
Second,  that  although  the  business  basis 
is  the  only  successful  one,  the  admin- 
istration of  it  should  be  as  simple  and 
free  from  "red  tape"  as  possible.  The 
nearer  a  hospital  librarian  can  keep  her 
library  to  the  idea  of  the  private  library 
and  the  more  friendly  and  personal  rela- 
tions she  can  establish  with  the  patients 
the  more  good  she  can  accomplish.  The 
third  point  I  would  make  is  that  unless 
they  are  very  ill  and  destructive,  books 
are  treated  as  carefully  by  the  insane  as 
by  the  users  of  the  public  libraries.  Last 
year,  out  of  8,686  volumes  taken  out  by 
patients  and  nurses,  only  9  were  lost  or 
destroyed,  and  of  these  only  two  were 
charged  to  patients.  It  is  the  proud  boast 
of  one  of  our  head  nurses  who  has  under 
him  the  next  to  the  most  violent  and  de- 
structive ward  on  the  men's  side,  that 
he  has  had  out  for  his  patients  over  450 
volumes  in  the  last  two  years,  and  has 
not  lost  or  had  mutilated  one  single  book! 

The  fourth  and  most  important  lesson 


322 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


we  have  learned  is  that  the  value  of  a 
well-selected  library  can  hardly  be  over- 
estimated as  a  therapeutic  agent.  I  do 
not  mean  by  this  that  a  cure  can  be  ef- 
fected simply  by  reading  the  right  books; 
that  of  course  is  absurd.  But  it  is  a  fact 
recognized  by  all  psychiatrists  and  at  the 
basis  of  the  treatment  of.  the  insane  in 
all  hospitals  to-day,  that  whatever  takes 
a  patient's  mind  off  himself  and  his  own 
troubles  and  directs  his  thoughts  into 
other  and  more  wholesome  channels,  con- 
tributes to  his  recovery.  And  when 
amusement  pall,  handicrafts  tire  and  golf 
and  tennis  are  too  strenuous,  books  and 
pictures  will  almost  always  help.  It  is 
for  this  reason  that  we  have  to  be  so 
careful  of  the  kind  of  reading,  especially 
of  fiction,  which  we  put  into  the  hands  of 
our  patients.  They  must  be  wholesome 
stories;  anything  dealing  with  suicide  or 
insanity  is  strictly  tabu;  also  stories 
which  are  morbid  or  would  be  apt  to 
arouse  a  morbid  train  of  thought.  With 
these  exceptions  the  insane  want  and 
should  have  the  same  books  which  you 
and  I  read.  Moreover,  and  I  wish  I  could 
say  this  loudly  and  emphatically  enough 
to  be  heard  over  the  whole  country,  the 
insane  are  not  imbeciles  and  they  are 
not  children,  and  they  resent  it  when  they 
are  treated  as  such  just  as  much  as  you 
or  I  would.  If  the  old  ladies  like  to  re- 
read the  stories  they  loved  when  they 
were  young,  so  do  old  ladies  everywhere, 
but  they  do  not  want  kindergarten  sto- 
ries. And  they  are  as  interested  in  what 
is  going  on  in  the  world  and  in  keeping 
up  with  the  times  as  anyone. 

About  once  a  week  I  go  to  Boston,  look 
over  the  new  books,  select  the  ones  I 
like  the  looks  of  and  have  them  sent  out 
"on  approval."  Every  book  of  fiction  is 
read  by  me,  or  if  it  is  distinctly  a  man's 
book,  by  someone  of  the  staff  in  whose 
literary  judgment  I  can  rely.  The  books 
which  are  kept  are  then  classified  and 
cataloged  and  either  sent  directly  to 
some  patient  or  ward  where  I  know  they 
will  be  appreciated,  or  else  placed  on  the 
"new  book  shelves."  Neither  staff  nor 
nurses  are  allowed  to  have  the  new  books 


until  the  patients  have  read  them.  The 
patients  come  over  four  evenings  a  week 
to  the  library,  the  men  Mondays  and  Fri- 
days and  the  women  Wednesdays  and 
Saturdays.  Our  library  consists  of  two 
large  and  very  beautiful  rooms  with  open 
shelves  and  open  fires.  Some  of  the  pa- 
tients roam  about  and  browse  among  the 
books,  others  sit  at  the  tables  and  look 
at  pictures  and  magazines,  while  still 
others  join  the  ladies  of  the  house  who 
generally  sit  in  the  front  library  in  the 
evening  with  their  fancy-work  and  the 
fire.    Sometimes  we  play  cards  with  them. 

Besides  these  four  evenings,  certain  pa- 
tients are  sometimes  allowed  to  come 
over  in  the  daytime,  and  the  nurses  come 
in  at  any  time  of  day  to  get  books  for 
some  particular  patient  or  for  their  ward. 
These  "traveling  libraries"  on  the  wards 
are  our  most  successful  means  of  reach- 
ing those  patients  who  are  too  feeble, 
or  too  ill,  or  who  lack  the  initiative  to 
come  to  the  library  and  select  their  own 
books,  but  who  will  often  get  interested 
in  a  book  which  lies  on  the  sitting-room 
table  of  their  ward. 

I  am  often  asked  what  kind  of  books 
aside  from  fiction  the  patients  call  for. 
I  suppose  books  with  pictures  would  rank 
first,  for  patients  who  are  too  ill  to  read 
will  often  look  at  these  by  the  hour. 
These  picture-books  comprise  art  books, 
of  which  we  have  a  very  fine  collection 
bought  and  added  to  each  year  with 
money  from  a  bequest  to  the  hospital; 
Black's  travel  books;  Country  Life  in 
America,  etc.  Next  come  the  nature  and 
out-of-door  books;  then  literature,  espe- 
cially Longfellow,  Whittier  and  Tennyson. 
History  is  seldom  called  for  by  the  pa- 
tients,— sociology  and  economics  never; 
yet  our  nurses,  especially  our  Canadian 
nurses  who  want  to  know  about  condi- 
tions in  the  States,  frequently  ask  for 
these,  and  we  have  books  on  all  these 
subjects;  for,  though  our  hospital  motto 
is  "Patients  first,"  we  find  that  whatever 
increases  the  intelligence  of  the  nurses 
increases  their  efllciency,  and  we  are  glad 
to  have  them  avail  themselves  of  every 
opportunity   for   reading   and    study. 


LIBRARY  COMMISSIONS 


323 


Frankly  humorous  books  I  have  learned 
never  to  give  to  a  depressed  patient,  and 
Miss  Carey  tells  me  she  has  had  the  same 
experience.  If  a  patient  is  much  de- 
pressed he  seems  to  resent  being  cheered 
up  if  he  knows  it,  and  we  all  have  real- 
ized in  ourselves  that  unless  we  are  in 
the  mood  for  it  there  is  nothing  in  the 
world  so  dreary  as  an  avowedly  funny 
story.  Neither  is  there  any  call  for 
collections  like  the  "International  li- 
brary of  famous  literature,"  and  the  "Li- 
brary of  American  literature,"  and  in  this 
matter  too.  Miss  Carey  agrees  with  me. 
Short  stories  also  are  at  a  discount  here. 
The  patients  want  novels  which  shall 
grip  and  hold  their  attention  in  spite  of 
themselves.  We  all  know  that  the  com- 
plete librarian  is  supposed  to  have  an 
extra  sense  of  intuition,  and  I  think  I  un- 
consciously say  to  myself  in  selecting 
books  for  the  patients,  "If  I  felt  the  way 
that  patient  looks  as  if  he  felt,  what  kind 
of  books  would  I  want?"  Sometimes, 
though,  one  makes  mistakes.  For  instance, 
— we  have  one  patient,  a  dear  old  lady, 
somewhat  prim,  a  little  austere,  a  typi- 
cal New  England  aristocrat  of  the  old 
school,  with  whom  one  immediately  asso- 
ciates "Cranford"  and  "Oldfield"  and  Mrs. 
de  la  Pasture.  But  this  dear  lady  wants 
detective  stories,  if  you  please,  and  the 
more  gruesome  and  bloodier  they  are  the 
more  she  revels  in  them.  In  her  estima- 
tion, "The  Marathon  mystery"  and  "The 
Boule  cabinet"  and  "The  Mystery  of  the 
yellow  room"  totally  eclipse  "Down  our 
street"  and  "Queed"  any  day. 

But  while  short  stories  are  seldom 
called  for,  the  "short  story  in  long 
dresses"  and  bound  by  itself,  is  very  popu- 
lar with  patients  who  are  physically  weak 
and  unable  to  hold  large  volumes  or  to 
read  very  long  at  a  time.  I  always  keep 
a  collection  of  these  little  books  in  a  spe- 
cial bookrack  so  I  can  lay  my  hands  on 
them  at  any  moment.  They  comprise  such 
titles  as  "Pigs  is  pigs,"  "The  good  Samari- 
tan," "Philosophy  Four,"  "Stickeen,"  "The 
perfect  tribute,"  "Songs  from  Vagabondia," 
"The  friendly  craft,"  etc.  Then  I  have 
other  racks  on  tables  and  window  shelves 


which  I  keep  filled  with  different  books, 
changing  them  often.  And  I  find  that 
shifting  the  books  on  the  shelves  every 
little  while  brings  into  prominence  some 
which  have  heretofore  been  overlooked. 
In  short,  I  try  to  keep  something  new  in 
the  library  all  the  time,  even  if  only  a 
new  plant  or  arrangement  of  flowers,  for 
the  patients  in  a  hospital  of  this  sort  are 
very  dependent  on  outside  agencies  for  di- 
version and  interest,  and  their  attention 
must  be  caught  and  held  by  some  means 
or  other. 

So  much  for  the  reality:  now  for  the 
dream. 

Because  the  library  in  our  hospital  has 
been  such  a  success,  because  it  has  so 
thoroughly  proved  its  therapeutic  value, 
I  dream  of  the  time  when  one  as  eflicient 
shall  be  in  every  hospital  in  the  country. 
The  fact  that  ours  is  a  private  hospital 
means  that  we  are  not  helped  by  the 
slate;  it  also  means  that  most  of  our 
patients,  but  by  no  means  all,  are  on  a 
paying  basis;  it  most  emphatically  does 
not  mean  that  we  have  the  monopoly  of 
the  educated  class.  While  it  is  true  that 
there  are  many  illiterates  in  the  state 
hospitals,  it  is  also  true  that  there  are 
in  them  thousands  of  men  and  women  as 
well  educated,  as  refined,  as  great  lovers 
of  books  as  those  in  our  private  hospital. 
For  the  majority,  it  is  the  question  of 
money,  not  of  education,  which  deter- 
mines a  patient's  place  in  the  state  or  the 
private  institution.  If  our  people  value 
our  library  so  highly,  what  must  be  their 
deprivation  when  because  of  lack  of  funds 
they  have  to  go  to  state  institutions  where 
there  are  no  books  and  periodicals  or  at 
best  only  a  few  old  ones,  never  changed 
and  seldom  added  to. 

The  state  says  it  cannot  afford  to  ap- 
propriate for  each  of  its  hospitals  and 
asylums  an  annual  sum  sufficient  to  build 
up  such  a  library  as  ours  and  maintain 
so  many  trained  librarians,  and  the  state 
is  justified.  But  I  have  dreamed  of  a 
cooperation  by  means  of  which  there  shall 
be  in  every  state  one  trained  librarian 
who  shall  organize  into  a  library  what 
books  there  already  are  in  each  institu- 


324 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


tion,  advise  and  train  in  library  methods 
tliose  in  charge,  and  buy  from  an  annual 
appropriation  such  as  the  state  can  afford, 
new  books  which  shall  be  sent  from  one 
hospital  to  another  in  the  form  of  trav- 
eling libraries,  and  after  they  have  gone 
the  round  be  divided  up  among  the  indi- 
vidual institutions, — thus  -slowly  building 
up  each  library.  This  organizer  should 
be  in  the  employ  either  of  the  State 
Board  of  Insanity  (or  its  equivalent)  or 
else  of  the  State  Library  Commission.  It 
would  seen  that  the  former  would  be  more 
satisfactory  and  less  complicated,  as  the 
state  institutions  already  are  under  their 
control,  but  in  some  states  the  library 
commission  seems  to  have  have  been  en- 
tirely successful  in  cooperating  with  the 
state  board.  One  thing  seems  certain, 
that  unless  the  state  board  and  the  hos- 
pital superintendents  can  be  interested 
in  the  scheme  little  can  be  done;  while 
with  their  Interest  and  cooperation  suc- 
cess is  insured. 

That  this  dream  is  practical  has  been 
proved  in  Iowa,  Minnesota,  Nebraska  and 
a  few  other  states.  In  New  York,  most 
of  the  state  hospitals  seem  to  have  fairly 
good'  libraries,  and  the  one  at  Middle- 
town,  N.  Y.,  ranks  very  nearly  with  Mc- 
Lean in  the  number  of  volumes,  and  seems 
to  be  carried  on  very  efficiently.  In  Tren- 
ton, N.  J.,  there  is  a  state  hospital  which 
has  a  memorial  library  with  a  good  an- 
nual appropriation  and  which  adds  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  books  a  year.  I 
have  with  me  the  figures  of  the  hospital  li- 
braries in  nineteen  states,  if  anyone  cares 
to  see  them. 

In  my  dream  I  see  equal  library  advan- 
tages to  every  state  hospital  in  the  coun- 
try, and  I  hear  from  them  all  the  words 
they  will  say  to  you  who  are  able  to  re- 
alize these  dreams, — words  our  patients 
at  McLean  have  said  to  us  over  and  over 
again, — "You  don't  know  what  this  library 
has  meant  to  me!"  This  is  an  opportun- 
ity for  intimate  helpfulness  and  real,  prac- 
tical usefulness  which  I  hope  everyone  of 
you  will  try  to  introduce  into  his  state. 

In  the  discussion  that  followed,  Miss 
Jones  said  the  McLean  Hospital  library 


had  an  appropriation  of  about  $300  a  year 
for  books  alone  for  the  patients,  but 
thought  that  a  state  hospital  library  could 
get  on  nicely  with  less.  Miss  Templeton 
gave  an  account  of  state  institutional 
work  in  Nebraska  where  the  policy  has 
been  to  get  library  work  in  these  institu- 
tions under  the  control  of  the  state 
library  commission. 

Mr.  Dudgeon  said  that  a  list  of  simple 
industrial  books  had  been  prepared  with 
much  care  for  the  prisoners  in  the  Wis- 
consin state  prison.  Also  that  the  chap- 
lain helped  in  recommending  reading  for 
the  prisoners,  those  who  expected  to  get 
out  being  especially  anxious  to  keep  up 
with  events  and  not  be  Rip  Van  Winkles 
when  released. 

Miss  Carey,  of  Minnesota,  said  their 
state  commission  has  made  special  ef- 
forts to  know  what  the  libraries  of  the 
institutions  were  doing,  how  many  read- 
ers they  had,  and  how  many  books 
they  circulate.  She  said  this  familiarized 
the  institutions  with  the  commission  and 
so  the  officers  were  glad  to  put  the  burden 
off  on  the  commission.  She  thought  it 
was  impossible  to  do  anything  until  the 
officers  of  the  institutions  were  on  your 
side;  that  this  must  be  worked  for  until 
secured. 

After  discussion  the  session  adjourned. 

THIRD  SESSION 
(Monday,  July  1,  4:30  p.  m.) 

The  third  session  of  the  League  opened 
with  a  report  from  Mr.  F.  F.  Hopper,  of 
Tacoma,  on  the  work  of  the  Committee 
on  federal  prison  libraries.  His  report 
was  as  follows: 

REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON   LI- 
BRARIES   IN    FEDERAL 
PRISONS 

The  report  of  this  committee  made  by 
Mr.  Hadley  at  the  Pasadena  meeting,  out- 
lined correspondence  with  the  Depart- 
ment of  Justice  in  Washington,  which  De- 
partment has  supervision  of  the  peniten- 
tiaries including  their  libraries.    After  re- 


LIBRARY  COMMISSIONS 


325 


peated  efforts  by  Mr.  Hadley,  the  de- 
partment seemed  to  become  interested  in 
the  libraries  in  the  prisons,  and  friendly 
to  suggestions  for  improving  them,  but 
the  officials  considered  that  proper  li- 
brary facilities  were  dependent  upon  the 
provision  by  Congress  of  a  system  of  edu- 
cation for  the  prisoners.  However,  the 
department  already  had  the  authority  to 
appropriate  money  from  its  own  funds  for 
the  purchase  of  books  for  the  prison  libra- 
ries. In  his  report,  Mr.  Hadley  recom- 
mended that  a  bill  be  introduced  in  the 
next  Congress  for  an  annual  appropria- 
tion for  books  and  their  care  in  peniten- 
tiary libraries. 

In  1911  catalogs  of  the  libraries  in  the 
penitentiaries  at  Atlanta  and  at  McNeil 
Island  were  prepared  by  the  prison  libra- 
rians and  printed.  After  these  were  sub- 
mitted to  the  Department  of  Justice,  it 
seems  to  have  been  decided  to  adopt  a 
definite  policy  for  the  annual  expenditure 
of  money  for  the  purchase  of  books  for 
one  of  these  libraries,  that  at  McNeil  Is- 
land. This  decision  was  probably  has- 
tened by  the  disclosures  the  cataloges 
made  in  regard  to  the  kind  of  books  al- 
ready in  the  libraries.  It  is  evident  that 
fiction  constitutes  almost  the  whole  of  the 
collections.  At  any  rate  in  January  the 
attorney  general  wrote  the  secretary  of 
the  American  Library  Association  that  the 
department  would  spend  $100  annually  for 
the  purchase  of  books  for  the  library  at 
McNeil  Island,  and  requested  that  a  list 
of  books  be  prepared,  none  of  the  books 
to  be  fiction,  but  chiefly  history,  biog- 
raphy and  science.  Mr.  Utley  asked  the 
present  chairman  of  your  committee  to 
prepare  the  list  since  the  Tacoma  library 
is  the  nearest  to  McNeil  Island  and  the 
present  chairman  was  somewhat  ac- 
quainted with  the  conditions  and  needs 
there.  A  list  of  500  titles,  with  a  first 
choice  of  books  to  cost  $100.00  was  con- 
sidered, but  the  list  was  reduced  to  175 
titles,  since  it  was  deemed  best  to  pro- 
vide only  for  purchase  for  two  years. 
Since  the  library  already  contained  con- 
siderable fiction  and  the  public  libraries 
of   both   Seattle   and   Tacoma   frequently 


send  the  prison  selected  books  from  their 
discards,  it  was  fortunate  that  the  de- 
partment wished  no  fiction  on  the  list. 

We  have  learned  from  the  Department 
of  Justice  in  the  last  few  days  that  simi- 
lar purchases  were  not  contemplated  for 
the  much  larger  prisons  at  Atlanta  and 
Leavenworth.  No  attempt  was  made  to 
secure  the  introduction  of  a  bill  in  Con- 
gress providing  for  an  annual  appropria- 
tion for  books  and  their  care  in  the  pen- 
itentiary libraries,  since  it  was  already 
so  late  in  the  present  session;  since  the 
new  interest  of  the  department  under  the 
present  law  appeared  promising;  and 
since  it  seemed  desirable  first  to  secure 
the  discussion  and  cooperation  of  the 
American  Prison  Association  and  other 
societies  interested  in  prison  administra- 
tion and  reform.  It  was  hoped  that  a 
member  of  this  committee  could  present 
the  subject  of  libraries  in  the  federal  pris- 
ons at  the  meeting  of  the  Conference  of 
Charities  and  Corrections  in  Cleveland 
during  the  present  month,  but  it  was  not 
possible  to  carry  out  the  plan.  The 
American  Prison  Association  has  for- 
mally invited  a  member  of  the  committee 
to  discuss  the  same  subject  at  the  annual 
meeting  of  the  association  at  Baltimore  in 
November,  and  it  is  highly  desirable  that 
the  invitation  be  accepted.  It  should  be 
possible  to  interest  and  secure  the  power- 
ful backing  of  the  American  Prison  Asso- 
ciation in  securing  the  passage  of  any 
contemplated  legislation  looking  to  the 
improvement  of  prison  libraries. 

The  warden  of  the  prison  at  McNeil  Is- 
land secures  some  fifty  magazines  as  gifts 
by  merely  begging  them  from  the  publish- 
ers! At  both  Atlanta  and  Leavenworth, 
the  only  new  magazines  the  prisoners  see 
are  those  which  they  subscribe  for  them- 
selves or  which  are  sent  by  their  friends. 

In  the  Atlanta  prison,  a  regular  school 
is  conducted,  and  whatever  books  are  pur- 
chased from  the  general  funds  are  school 
books.  A  school  should  be  established  at 
McNeil  Island.  At  present  there  are  no 
facilities  for  such  work  there  but  with  the 
example  of  the  one  at  Atlanta,  it  should 
be   possible   to   urge   effectively   that   the 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


department  establish  a  school  at  McNeil 
Island. 

In  the  coming  year  the  commendable 
start  which  the  Department  of  Justice 
has  made  in  purchasing  books  for  the 
prison  at  McNeil  Island,  should  open  the 
way  for  successful  efforts  in  persuading 
the  department  to  undertake  much  more 
liberal  purchases  of  books  for  the  libra- 
ries of  the  much  larger  prisons  at  Atlanta 
and  at  Leavenworth. 

It  is  earnestly  recommended  that  a  vig- 
orous presentation  of  the  needs  of  the 
prison  libraries  be  made  to  the  depart- 
ment by  someone  in  person,  backed  by 
all  the  influence  obtainable.  It  is  also 
urged  that  a  list  of  fiction  suitable  for 
prison  libraries  be  cooperatively  made 
with  the  utmost  care.  The  needs  of  the 
prisoner  in  his  reading  for  recreation  are 
very  special,  and  many  books  entirely 
suitable  for  the  open  shelf  room  of  a  pub- 
lic library  should  be  ruthlessly  excluded 
from  the  prison.  Expert  knowledge  of  the 
psychology  of  the  prisoner  should  in  some 
way  be  obtained  in  preparing  a  list  of 
fiction  for  reading  in  prison.  It  is  bet- 
ter that  the  prisoner  read  not  at  all  than 
that  he  should  be  given  many  of  the  books 
eminently  fit  for  one  in  the  normal  con- 
ditions and  relations  of  life. 

FRANKLIN  F.  HOPPER,  Chairman. 

Mrs.  Sneed  supplemented  Mr.  Hopper's 
report  with  a  report  of  conditions  in  the 
federal  prison  at  Atlanta  and  of  confer- 
ences which  she  had  had  with  oflBicials 
from  Washington.  It  was  her  opinioji, 
based  on  advice  from  the  prison  authori- 
ties that  the  only  way  to  accomplish  any- 
thing is  for  some  one  to  go  to  Washing- 
ton, put  the  case  plainly  before  the  De- 
partment of  Justice  and  ask  that  an  ap- 
propriation be  made  for  libraries  in  the 
federal  prisons.  Mr.  Dudgeon  moved  that 
Mrs.  Sneed,  Dr.  Owen  and  Mr.  Hopper  act 
as  a  committee  representing  the  League 
with  full  power  to  act,  and  that  the  League 
pledge  itself  to  hearty  cooperation.  Car- 
ried. Miss  Tyler  moved  that  the  secre- 
tary of  the  League  send  a  communication 
to  the  Council  of  the  A.  L.  A.,  stating  the 


progress  of  the  committee  and  asking  for 
its  cooperation.  On  the  motion  of  Mr. 
Dudgeon,  $50.00  was  placed  at  the  dis- 
posal of  the  committee  to  carry  on  its 
work. 

The  report  of  the  publications  committee 
was  then  presented  by  the  chairman,  Mr. 
M.  S.  Dudgeon.  At  his  suggestion  the  rec- 
ommendations of  the  committee  were 
voted  on  as  they  were  read. 

The  League  adopted  the  first,  second 
and  third  recommendation  of  the  commit- 
tee; took  no  action  on  the  fifth,  and 
adopted  the  sixth.  The  report  of  the  com- 
mittee was  then  accepted. 

REPORT  OF  THE  PUBLICATIONS 
COMMITTEE 

Your  committee  respectfully  reports  the 
following: 

1.  A  very  definite  demand  has  been 
presented  to  the  committee  from  the  va- 
rious commissions  calling  for  the  publica- 
tion of  a  buying  list  of  about  one  thousand 
titles  for  use  by  small  libraries.  The 
committee  has  investigated  the  matter  and 
is  glad  to  report  that  Miss  Zaidee  Brown's 
list  has  been  revised  and  brought  up  to 
date  by  Miss  Webster  of  New  York,  and 
that  this  will  admirably  meet  the  demand. 
After  going  over  the  matter  with  Mr. 
Utley,  it  appeared  that  no  advantage  would 
result  should  this  committee  handle  this 
publication.  The  committee  recommends 
that  the  separate  commissions  deal  di- 
rectly with  the  New  York  state  library. 
The  committee  is  informed  that  the  com- 
missions will  be  circularized  by  the  New 
York  authorities  for  this  purpose.  The 
price  is  exceedingly  reasonable,  probably 
not  exceeding  two  cents  each  in  large 
quantities.  It  seems  likely  that  arrange- 
ments can  be  made  so  that  each  commis- 
sion can  stamp  or  print  upon  the  title 
page  such  matter  as  it  sees  fit. 

We  understand  that  copy  of  the  list 
is  now  ready  for  the  printer.  When 
printed  this  list  will  also  contain  a  maga- 
zine list. 

2.  It  was  suggested  by  the  president 
of  the  League  that  the  committee  collect 
and   print   short   paragraphs   suitable   for 


LIBRARY  COMMISSIONS 


327 


publication  in  newspapers  during  local 
campaigns  for  a  library.  The  committee 
recommends  that  this  be  undertaken  by 
one  of  the  commissions  as  a  sub-commit- 
tee, rather  than  by  the  publications  com- 
mittee. 

3.  Mr.  Gillis  of  California,  has  sug- 
gested that  each  commission  prepare  a  list 
of  the  best  material  available  treating  of 
the  history  of  its  state.  This  seems  to 
the  committee  the  function  of  the  state  li- 
brary rather  than  the  commission  and  it 
recommends  that  this  request  be  referred 
to  the  National  Association  of  State  Li- 
braries. 

4.  It  was  suggested  that  the  committee 
reprint  Moulton's  "Aids  to  Library  Work 
with  Foreigners."  This  matter  was  re- 
ferred to  the  A.  L.  A.  Publishing  Board, 
which  has  arranged  for  its  publication. 

5.  The  committee  has  been  asked  also 
to  consider  the  publication  of  a  buying 
list  for  traveling  libraries,  to  be  followed 
by  a  periodical  supplement  probably  is- 
sued in  mimeograph  form.  The  question- 
naire submitted  to  the  commissions  indi- 
cates that  there  would  be  only  a  limited 
use  of  such  a  list,  many  commissions 
maintaining  that  present  aids  are  suffi- 
cient. The  commissions  exhibited  so 
little  interest  in  the  matter  that  this  ques- 
tion is  submitted  to  the  League  without 
recommendation. 

6.  The  loss  resulting  from  the  suscep- 
tibility of  the  trustee  or  librarian  of  many 
of  the  smaller  libraries,  to  the  subtle  wiles 
of  the  eloquent  book-agent,  calls  for  some 
authoritative  pronouncement  upon  the 
value,  or  lack  of  value,  of  subscription 
books.  To  make  such  a  pronouncement 
seems  to  be  the  function  of  the  A.  L.  A. 
Publishing  Board.  The  committee  there- 
fore respectfully  recommends  that  such 
board  be  requested  to  make  proper  provi- 
sion for  such  pronouncement. 

Respectfully    submitted, 

M.  S.  DUDGEON,  Chairman, 
ZAIDEE  BROWN, 
MARY  E.  DOWNEY. 

In  the  absence  of  the  chairman  of  the 


committee  on  uniform  financial  reports 
for  library  commissions,  the  following  re- 
port was  read  by  the  secretary: 

REPORT  OF  COMMITTEE  ON  UNIFORM 
FINANCIAL   REPORTS 

The  difficulties  confronting  the  compiler 
of  statistics  of  expenditures  of  library 
commissions  or  library  extension  depart- 
ments are  obvious,  owing  (1)  to  variations 
in  organization  and  scope  of  work  in  dif- 
ferent states,  (2)  to  variations  in  account- 
ing systems  which  must  conform  to  the 
state  accounting  system,  and  (3)  to  vari- 
ations in  methods  of  appropriations.  For 
example,  in  some  states  definite  appropria- 
tions are  made  for  certain  departments  of 
work,  in  others  certain  expenses  such  as 
printing,  binding  and  office  supplies  are 
paid  from  the  general  state  fund  for  all 
departments.  In  view  of  these  facts,  many 
commissions  are  of  the  opinion  that  a  uni- 
form accounting  system  which  will  meet 
the  needs  of  every  state  is  impracticable. 

Your  committee  collected  the  financial 
reports  of  each  library  commission,  or 
other  state  department  doing  library  ex- 
tension work  and  made  a  careful  compari- 
son of  the  items  included. 

It  was  found  that  these  items  could 
practically  all  be  grouped  under  a  few 
general  headings,  as  given  in  Table  I.  It 
was  further  suggested  that  another  sum- 
mary giving  approximate  totals  for  vari- 
ous departments  be  added,  as  outlined  in 
Table  II. 

The  committee  therefore  submits  this 
summary  of  expenses,  as  a  tentative  form, 
to  be  used  in  the  annual  report  of  the 
League  for  purposes  of  comparison. 

The  work  of  the  committee  has  shown 
that  such  a  summary  can  readily  be  made 
from  the  financial  reports  of  the  several 
commissions  as  they  are  now  published 
and  it  is  believed  that  this  table  would  be 
a  useful  addition  to  the  yearbook. 

The  outline  here  presented  is  not  re- 
garded as  final,  but  is  submitted  for  your 
discussion  and  amendment. 

CLARA  F.  BALDWIN,  Chairman. 


328 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


TABLE  I. 
Summary  of  Expenditures 

Books  and  binding 

Direct  aid 

Pamphlets   for  distribution 

Express,  freight  and  cartage 

Office  supplies  and  furniture 

Periodical  clearing  house 

Periodical    subscriptions    and    member- 
ships 

Postage 

Printing 

Salaries 

State  institutions 

Summer  school 

Traveling  expenses 

Traveling  library  boxes 

Miscellaneous 
Total 

TABLE    II 

Summary  of  Expenses  by  Departments 

Field  work 

Instruction  ' 

Traveling  library 

Direct  aid 

Legislative  reference 

School  library  work  (for  Oregon) 

Educational  reference  (for  N.  Dakota) 

The  report  was  accepted. 

The  secretary  then  presented  the  fol- 
lowing report  of  what  the  League  Year- 
book should  contain. 

LEAGUE    OF    LIBRARY    COMMISSIONS' 
YEARBOOK 

In  accordance  with  the  request  of  the 
president  of  the  League,  the  secretary  has 
made  the  following  outline  of  the  matter 
which  should  be  included  in  the  Yearbook 
to  be  published  this  coming  autumn: 

List  "of  members  of  the  League. 

Officers. 

Committees. 

Constitution. 


Report  by  states,  giving  under  each  the 
names  of  the  executive  staff,  a  list  of  the 
publications  in  print,  and  new  legislation 
pertaining  to  library  extension,  any  dis- 
tinctly new  phase  of  work  taken  up,  and 
in  the  case  of  a  new  commission  a  full 
account  of  its  form  of  organization  and 
scope  of  activities. 

Traveling  libraries:  Number  of  vol- 
umes in  fixed  groups;  number  of  volumes 
on  open  shelves;   loans. 

Number  of  requests  in  answer  to  which 
books  have  been  sent;  number  of  volumes 
sent  out. 

Requests  classified  as  follows:  Groups 
of  taxpayers,  public  libraries,  schools,  in- 
stitutions, study  clubs,  individuals,  other 
organizations. 

Summary  of  public  library  conditions  by 
states:  Population,  number  of  towns  of 
over  2,000;  number  of  libraries  supported 
by  tax;  number  of  libraries  supported  by 
associations;  number  of  subscription  libra- 
ries; number  of  library  buildings;  num- 
ber of  trained  librarians. 

Financial  report  according  to  the  recom- 
mendations of  Miss  Baldwin's  report. 

The  report  was  accepted. 

The  nominating  committee  then  pre- 
sented the  following  names  as  officers 
of  the  League  for  the  ensuing  year: 

For  president,  Mr.  C.  H.  Milam,  Indi- 
ana; for  first  vice-president,  Miss  Eliza- 
beth B.  Wales,  Missouri;  for  second  vice- 
president.  Dr.  Thomas  M.  Owen,  Alabama; 
for  secretary-treasurer,  Miss  Zaidee 
Brown,  Massachusetts;  publications  com- 
mittee: M.  S.  Dudgeon,  Wisconsin,  chair- 
man; Miss  Fannie  C.  Rawson,  Kentucky; 
Miss  Caroline  F.  Webster,  New  York. 

It  was  voted  to  instruct  the  secretary  to 
cast  the  ballot  for  these  officers. 

The  meeting  adjourned. 


SPECIAL   LIBRARIES  ASSOCIATION 

Fourth  Annual  Meeting:,  Ottawa,  Canada,  June  26— July  2,  J9J2 


nRST  (GENERAL)  SESSION 
(Thursday,  June  27,  2:30  p.  m.) 

In  the  absence  of  the  president,  the  vice- 
president,  Herbert  O.  Brigham,  state  libra- 
rian of  Rhode  Island,  called  the  meeting  to 
order  in  the  ball  room  of  the  Chateau 
Laurier. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  Ladies  and 
Gentlemen,  we  will  open  the  session  this 
afternoon  with  the  consideration  of  a  gen- 
eral topic,  which  will  be  taken  part  in  by 
Mr.  Dudgeon  and  by  other  speakers  who 
will  discuss  Mr.  Dudgeon's  paper.  It  so 
happens  that  this  year  we  have  been  so 
fortunate  as  to  have  the  article  reprinted 
beforehand  in  the  publication  of  the 
Special  Libraries  Association,  so  that 
doubtless  many  of  you  are  already  familiar 
with  the  paper. 

I  am  going  to  appoint  on  the  nominating 
committee  Messrs.  George  W.  Lee  of  Bos- 
ton, John  A.  Lapp  of  Indianapolis,  and 
Miss  E.  V.  Dobbins  of  N6w  York  City. 

We  are  very  fortunate  in  having  with  us 
to  take  the  main  paper  for  this  opening 
session  a  man  who  has  been  actively  en- 
gaged in  special  library  work  for  some 
time  in  the  west,  one  who  is  very  familiar 
with  the  development  of  the  "Wisconsin 
idea"  of  legislative  reference  work,  and 
closely  associated  with  Dr.  McCarthy  in 
developing  that  idea. 

I  take  great  pleasure  in  introducing  to 
you  Mr.  M.  S.  Dudgeon,  secretary  of  the 
Wisconsin  library  commission,  who  will 
talk  upon  the  subject  of  "The  plan,  scope 
and  results  of  special  libraries." 

Mr.  DUDGEON:  Mr.  Chairman,  Ladies 
and  Gentlemen — There  are  those  who 
maintain  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  a 
special  library  in  a  class  of  its  own,  but 
that  what  we  call  a  special  library  is 
simply  a  general  reference  library  which 
by  the  needs  of  its  patrons  has  become 
somewhat  specialized  in  its  methods  and 


in  its  equipment.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  those  who  maintain  that  a  special 
library  has  so  distinctly  a  different  func- 
tion and  purpose,  that  its  scope  is  so  dif- 
ferent, that  its  equipment  is  so  different, 
and  that  the  equipment,  the  qualities  and 
the  characteristics  of  those  who  man  the 
library  are  so  different,  as  to  entitle  such 
an  institution  to  an  entirely  different  clas- 
sification; that  it  is  not  a  general  reference 
library,  but  a  special  library,  something 
entirely  different.  It  seems  to  me  to  be 
more  or  less  a  distinction  witnout  a  dif- 
ference, more  or  less  a  play  upon  words. 
I  have,  at  the  request  of  the  Program  Com- 
mittee, written  down  what  seemed  to  me 
the  perfectly  obvious  things  that  might  be 
said  about  the  scope  and  purposes  of  the 
special  library.  You  have  the  paper  be- 
fore you  as  printed  in  "Special  Libraries," 
and  will  probably  be  fortunate  enough  to 
escape  some  detail,  as  I  will  try  to  shorten 
this  somewhat  in  the  reading.* 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  I  think  we  all 
have  a  clear  understanding  of  just  what  a 
special  library  means,  and  I  think  we 
should  all  notice  especially  the  allusion 
that  Mr.  Dudgeon  made  to  the  reference 
library  as  compared  to  the  public  library, 
in  the  definition  of  the  use  of  the  book. 

I  think  one  of  the  finest  examples  of  a 
special  librarian  one  can  find  is  in  our 
absent  president.  Dr.  Whitten  is  doubtless 
one  of  the  best  authorities  to-day  on  public 
utilities,  and  he  has  this  month  gone  to 
London,  where  he  is  spending  the  summer 
investigating  public  utilities  for  the  Na- 
tional Civic  Federation.  That,  I  think, 
accounts  for  his  absence,  and  we  regret 
very  much  that  he  is  not  here. 

I  am  going  to  ask  Mr.  Josephson  of  the 
John  Crerar  Library,  Chicago,  to  lead  the 
discussion. 

A.  G.  S.  JOSEPHSON:  I  am  afraid  that 

*Mr.  Dudgeon's  paper  appeared  in  full  in  "Special 
Libraries,"  June,  1912,  pp.  129-1S8. 


329 


330 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


you  will  not  find  my  paper  what  you  ex- 
pected it  to  be,  a  discussion  of  Mr.  Dud- 
geon's paper.  When  Mr.  Lapp  wrote  me 
some  time  ago  to  ask  if  I  would  not  dis- 
cuss the  question,  I  began  to  try  to  make 
up  my  own  mind  as  to  what  a  special  li- 
brary was.  I  had  made  my  mental  notes  on 
that  subject,  and  when  Mr.  Dudgeon's  paper 
came  and  I  read  it  and  undertook  to  dis- 
cuss it,  it  happened  that  my  own  ideas 
came  first.* 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:   I  am  going  to 

ask  Mr.  W.  P.  Cutter,  librarian  of  the  En- 

.  gineering  Societies  of  New  York  City,  to 

contribute   either  by   a  paper  or  an   oral 

discussion  of  Mr.  Dudgeon's  address. 

Mr.  CUTTER:  I  do  not  know  that  I  have 
anything  to  offer  as  a  contribution  to  the 
discussion  of  Mr.  Dudgeon's  very  interesting 
paper  and  Mr.  Josephson's  very  interesting 
discussion  of  it.  I  might,  perhaps,  with  my 
usual  liking  to  express  things  briefly,  say 
that  I  consider  a  special  library  as  one  that 
serves  people  who  are  doing  things,  and  a 
reference  library  one  which  serves  people 
who  are  thinking  things.  The  former  are 
not  thinking  about  doing  things,  they  are  al- 
ready doing  them.  I  think  that  applies  also 
to  people  who  are  serving  as  legislators,  who 
are  making  laws;  to  sociologists,  who  are 
making  attempts  to  handle  crime  and  other 
sociological  questions.  I  believe  that  the 
development  now  in  the  public  library 
world  is  in  the  direction  of  service  to  the 
public.  For  twenty-five  or  twenty-six  years 
now  we  have  been  talking  about,  first, 
books,  and  then  about  places  for  storing 
books,  buildings  to  put  them  in,  methods 
of  cataloging  them,  charging  them,  of 
making  picture  bulletins  for  children  and 
all  that,  and  we  have  finally  arrived  at  a 
discussion  of  the  methods  of  serving  the 
people  who  are  really  doing  things.  It  has 
taken  about  twenty-five  years  to  arrive  at 
that  point,  and  I  think  we  are  reaching 
that  goal.  I  noticed,  although  I  was  not 
present  at  the  meeting  this  morning,  that 
in  two  reports  of  committees  of  the  Amer- 
ican Library  Association,  an  instrument 
was   mentioned   which   has   been   used   in 

*Mr.  Josephson's  discussion  will  appear  in  a  later 
issue  of  "Special  Libraries," 


one  library,  at  least,  to  my  knowledge,  for 
the  reproduction  of  material  for  people 
who  are  doing  things,  a  reproduction  of 
printed  material,  manuscripts,  maps,  draw- 
ings, etc.  This  is  the  first  time  that  has 
come  up,  I  think,  in  a  report  in  the  Amer- 
ican Library  Association  on  the  reference 
side. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  I  hoped  that  Dr. 
McCarthy,  the  head  of  the  legislative  ref- 
erence department  of  the  Wisconsin  li- 
brary, and  Mr.  Galbreath,  former  state 
librarian  of  Ohio,  who  is  now  secretary  of 
the  Constitutional  Convention  of  Ohio, 
would  be  present  to-day.  In  their  absence 
the  discussion  is  now  open  to  the  members, 
and  I  hope  there  will  be  a  very  general 
and  free  discussion. 

JOHN  A.  LAPP:  I  have  not  very  much 
to  say  except  to  emphasize  one  or  two 
points  which  Mr.  Dudgeon  brought  out  in 
his  paper.  One  of  those  points  is  the  fact 
that  the  material  which  we  deal  with  In 
special  libraries  is  not  found  in  books.  In 
a  short  experience  of  only  four  years,  I 
think,  outside  of  those  references  to  legal 
works,  to  law  periodicals  and  law  books, 
I  have  not  been  able  to  do  one-tenth  of  my 
work  from  books  or  from  published  ma- 
terial. Most  of  the  work,  the  real  work, 
which  has  been  done  by  the  legislative 
reference  department  of  Indiana  has  been 
done  through  work  which  we  have  pre- 
pared, which  we  have  drawn  up  from  the 
general  material  scattered  here  and  there 
in  obscure  sources  and  from  letters  which 
we  had  written  to  experts  outside.  I  say 
scarcely  one- tenth,  and  I  do  not  know  but 
perhaps  that  is  too  liberal.  One-tenth  of 
the  questions  we  have  been  able  to  an- 
swer from  published  material.  That  would 
seem  to  me  to  be  the  most  distinguishing 
point  about  the  special  library.  I  believe 
that  the  heads  of  the  industrial  libraries, 
the  manufacturing  libraries,  the  commer- 
cial libraries,  will  agree  with  me  on  that 
point.  '' 

The  subject  of  the  training  of  special 
librarians  is  the  one  subject  here  upon 
which  there  seems  to  be,  thus  far,  a  divi- 
sion of  opinion.     I  have  always  believed 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


331 


that  the  person  who  has  a  general  knowl- 
edge of  the  subject,  with  a  library  training, 
is  the  person  who  is  best  qualified  to  do 
the  work  of  a  special  library.  I  think  that 
is  true  particularly  in  legislative  and  mu- 
nicipal reference  work;  but,  on  the  other 
hand,  it  should  be  emphasized  that  if  that 
person  did  not  have  a  pretty  good  knowl- 
edge of  library  work,  or  if  he  did  not  have 
a  pretty  efficient  librarian  with  him,  he 
would  make  a  sorry  failure,  as  Mr.  Dud- 
geon has  suggested.  At  the  same  time,  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  librarian  who  is 
trained  as  a  librarian  merely,  who  loves 
books  and  so  on,  can  get  hold  of  the  real 
vital  part  of  the  work  in  a  way  that  the 
person  who  is  using  the  special  library 
demands.  On  the  whole  I  am  inclined  to 
believe  that  the  best  working  arrangement 
is  to  have  a  man  in  the  library  who  has  a 
knowledge  of  the  subject  matter  and  a  per- 
son who  knows  something  about  library 
work  and  library  training,  and  then  to 
have  him  supplemented  by  some  one  who 
knows  the  library  side  of  it,  with  a  bare 
knowledge  of  the  other  subjects,  and, 
working  together,  they  can  bring  about  a 
very  efficient  special  library  service.  That 
is  the  ideal  of  a  special  library  combina- 
tion. I  think  it  has  worked  out  in  most 
cases.  But,  again,  speaking  from  personal 
knowledge,  I  do  not  think  that  I  could  ever 
do  very  much  in  legislative  reference  work 
if  I  were  a  librarian  without  the  other 
training.  Whatever  I  had  of  librarian 
training,  through  the  school,  when  I  went 
into  the  work,  might  be  placed  in  very 
small  compass — I  haven't  told  this  before 
but  I  will  confess  now  that  when  I  began  I 
knew  very  little  about  librarianship.  If  my 
assistants  knew  that  at  the  time,  at  any 
rate,  I  have  never  told  it  before,  but  I  have 
learned  something  about  it  since  that  time. 
But  I  think  I  could  have  made  a  better  suc- 
cess of  librarianship  if  I  had  had  more 
library  training.  On  the  other  hand,  I  do 
not  believe  I  could  have  gotten  along  if  I 
had  not  had  the  other  side  of  the  subject 
more  largely.  So  I  agree  with  Mr.  Dud- 
geon on  most  points  as  to  that  question; 
but  I  would  suggest  that  the  person  who 


is  in  charge.  If  he  is  not  fairly  well 
grounded  in  librarian  skill  and  librarian 
art,  should  have  some  one  with  him  who 
would  keep  him  off  the  rocks,  because  he 
will  go  on  the  rocks  if  he  does  not  have 
some  one  to  guide  him. 

The  special  library  meets  a  very  special 
need.  That  has  been  pointed  out  many 
times.  We  deal  with  material  that  is  not 
in  print.  We  manufacture  it.  Many  times 
we  must  color  it  with  our  own  opinions. 
Some  people  say  that  in  public  affairs,  in 
municipal  and  legislative  reference  work, 
we  should  not  allow  our  own  personality 
or  our  judgment  to  enter  into  the  work. 
I  should  like  to  find  a  librarian  who  is 
able  to  keep  from  doing  that.  If  I  have 
knowledge  which  to  me  seems  certain,  if 
I  know  a  certain  fact  and  have  the  informa- 
tion right  at  hand,  I  cannot  refrain  from  tell- 
ing the  person  who  ought  to  know  that  fact; 
I  cannot  refrain  from  telling  him  that  a  cer- 
tain thing  is  right,  or  a  certain  thing  is 
wrong.  While  we  must  all  do  it  diplomatic- 
ally, it  is  out  of  the  question,  I  believe,  for  a 
man  to  be  efficient  as  a  special  librarian, 
even  in  dealing  with  the  public  affairs  in  li- 
braries, to  avoid  giving  his  own  opinions  on 
subjects.  What  is  the  use  of  his  getting  a 
knowledge  of  the  subject  if  he  cannot 
really  use  it?  But  he  should  use  it  very 
discreetly. 

The  special  library  was  very  well  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  Cutter  when  he  said  it  was 
a  library  for  those  who  do  things,  while 
the  reference  library  is  for  those  people 
who  think  of  things.  This  is  the  age  of 
efficiency.  I  believe  that  the  librarian  is 
the  efficiency  engineer,  or  ought  to  be 
the  efficiency  engineer,  of  the  educational 
world.  I  think  the  general  reference  libra- 
rian ought  to  be  that,  and  I  think  the 
librarian  of  the  special  library,  particu- 
larly of  the  manufacturing  and  industrial 
library,  can  be  to  a  large  degree  the  effi- 
ciency expert  of  such  a  concern. 

GUY  E.  MARION:  I  think  the  people 
who  are  present  here  would  take  a  good 
deal  of  satisfaction  in  knowing  who  the 
people  are  that  are  actually  and  most 
vitally  interested  in  special  library  work. 


332 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


and  I  have  analyzed  an  up-to-date  mem- 
bership list  which  I  hold  here  in  my  hand, 
of  which  I  should  be  glad  to  show  copies 
to  any  who  may  be  interested.  We  have 
now  grown  to  a  group  of  224  people  who 
are  interested.  That  is  a  growth,  roughly, 
of  twenty-five  per  cent  since  our  last  meet- 
ing in  New  York  City.  'There  are  four  in- 
surance libraries  in  the  country.  There 
are  nineteen  people  who  are  interested  in 
public  utilities.  There  are  five  financial 
libraries.  There  are  among  the  com- 
mercial, technical  and  scientific  libraries 
(many  if  which  are  in  manufacturing  con- 
cerns), forty-eight.  Among  the  public 
affairs  libraries,  which  cover  the  legisla- 
tive reference  departments  of  state  li- 
braries as  well,  there  are  something  like 
thirty-six.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that 
the  public  libraries  have  themselves  been 
sufficiently  interested  to  know  what  we  are 
doing,  so  that  forty-five  of  them  have  be- 
come members  of  this  association,  to  be 
iu  touch,  I  presume,  with  what  we  are  aim- 
ing for.  There  are  twenty-nine  colleges 
and  universities  interested;  and  of  miscel- 
laneous people  whom  we  can  hardly  clas- 
sify, not  knowing  where  they  belong,  there 
are  thirty-eight.  In  this  connection  I 
think  it  is  worth  while  to  say  to  you,  many 
of  you  who  frequently  change  about  the 
country,  or  are  looking  for  advancement, 
that  it  would  not  be  amiss  for  you  to  fill 
out  one  of  the  little  blanks  showing  your 
qualifications,  the  things  in  which  you  are 
interested.  At  the  present  moment  I  know 
of  the  largest  automobile  concern  in  this 
country,  the  automobile  trust,  which  is 
looking  for  an  active,  wide-awake  librarian, 
probably  a  man.  Those  opportunities  are 
coming  to  the  attention  of  your  secretary 
quite  frequently,  and  we  shall  always  be 
glad  to  have  you  keep  in  touch  with  us  by 
filling  out  one  of  these  little  blanks.  We 
may  be  able  to  readjust  you. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  The  Secretary 
has  an  announcement  to  make  in  regard  to 
city  planning. 

Mr.  MARION:  I  think  it  would  not  be 
amiss  for  me  to  speak  of  three  or  four  of 
our  bibliographies.     There  has   been   one 


list  published  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Meyer  of  the  Library  of  Congress,  called 
"Selected  list  of  references  on  the  short 
ballot,"  which  is  easily  obtainable  at  our 
headquarters;  also  a  list  of  references  on 
street  railway  service  by  Robert  H.  Whit- 
ten,  our  president.  There  was  prepared  by 
Mr.  Dana,  "The  social  questions  of  to-day," 
which  is  a  very  useful  compilation  of  sub- 
jects, and  institutions  and  people  interested 
in  social  questions.  Then,  in  addition,  our 
May  number  of  "Special  Libraries"  has  pub- 
lished probably  the  most  remarkable  col- 
lection of  city  planning  items  that  has 
ever  been  gathered  together.  It  was  done 
co-operatively  between  the  Library  of 
Congress  and  the  Department  of  landscape 
architecture  of  Harvard  university.  (Here 
the  Secretary  read  a  notice  of  a  later 
complete  bibliography  of  City  planning 
which  will  be  published  by  the  Library  of 
Congress  in  which  a  new  complete  clas- 
sification scheme  for  the  arrangement  of 
all  the  articles  will  be  used.) 

I  think  that  the  classification  alone  will 
be  exceedingly  useful  to  you  who  ulti- 
mately, with  the  growth  of  American 
cities  and  their  rapid  development,  are 
going  to  be  forced  to  take  an  interest  in 
the  subject  of  their  re-arrangement.  This 
is  going  to  become  more  and  more  a  vital 
problem,  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  future 
here  in  America  than  it  ever  has  been  in 
the  past;  and  when  the  final  list  is  pub- 
lished it  will  consider  not  only  American 
experience,  but  also  European,  appertain- 
ing to  that  subject. 

GEORGE  W.  LEE:  I  should  think  this 
might  be  a  good  chance  for  people  to  ex- 
press themselves  as  to  the  need  of  biblio- 
graphical matter  to  go  into  "Special 
libraries,"  as  members  who  receive  "Spe- 
cial Libraries,"  whether  they  think  the 
trend  of  articles  is  about  right  and  to 
make  suggestions.  Possibly  it  might  be 
some  guide  to  the  editorial  committee  to 
know  whether  the  material  they  are  put- 
ting in  is  about  right,  or  whether  there 
are  certain  things  that  might  with  ad- 
vantage be  inserted.  Then  the  question 
comes,  are  you  helping,  yourself,  to  make 
up  these  bibliographies? 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


333 


The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  Perhaps  Mr. 
Lapp  can  speak  of  the  various  ways  in 
which  we  made  the  bibliographies,  work- 
ing with  the  Library  of  Congress  methods 
and  various  others. 

Mr.  LAPP:  That  question  might  prop- 
erly come  up  later,  but  I  just  mention  at 
this  time  that  we  should  be  thinking  about 
it,  and  report  at  a  later  session  of  this 
organization,  this  week.  The  matter  is 
very  important  to  us,  because  we  have 
some  diflBculty  in  selecting.  We  have 
some  difficulty  in  knowing  just  what  the 
members  of  the  association  desire  most, 
and  at  the  present  time  we  have  a  work- 
ing arrangement  with  a  number  of  people 
who  are  supplying  things  regularly.  We 
should  be  glad  to  enter  into  arrangements 
with  others  if  the  demand  seems  to  be 
great.  Just  now  we  have  an  arrangement 
with  the  Public  Utilities  Committee, 
which  supplies  every  two  or  three 
months  a  summary  of  the  best  public 
utility  references  of  the  period  before. 
We  also  have  an  arrangement  with  the 
Library  of  Congress,  through  Mr.  Meyer, 
by  which  we  receive  a  bibliography  for 
every  issue,  a  short  bibliography  on  some 
obscure  subject,  some  subject  that  is  not 
covered  in  any  systematic  bibliography, 
or  not  covered  adequately;  and  the  desire 
is  to  get  questions  which  would  be  of  the 
widest  interest  and  at  the  same  time  not 
conflict  with  something  that  has  already 
been  published,  because  the  whole  pur- 
pose of  the  Special  Libraries  Association 
is  to  do  those  things  which  nobody  else 
does.  If  we  find  that  we  are  doing  some- 
thing now  which  somebody  else  can  do 
better,  we  should  be  very  glad  to  transfer 
it  to  them,  and  merely  undertake  those 
things  which  nobody  else  does.  We  have 
an  arrangement  also  by  which  we  are 
going  to  receive  some  of  the  best  refer- 
ences to  material  on  city  documents, 
beginning  with  the  next  issue.  That  I 
think  will  add  very  materially  to  the  value 
of  the  publication,  because  city  documents, 
as  you  know,  are  now  almost  inaccessible 
for  the  reason  that  no  one  knows  that  they 
are  published  until  they  are  perhaps  out 
of  print,  and  they  cannot  be  obtained. 


I  would  like  to  take  this  opportunity  of 
asking  all  our  friends  to  contribute  when- 
ever they  know  of  anything  that  is  done  or 
that  has  happened  regarding  a  bibliography 
or  in  the  way  of  a  special  locality  that  you 
think  should  be  mentioned,  that  you  send 
a  note  to  the  editors,  or  send  us  a  copy  of 
the  publication  itself.  This  is  purely  a 
co-operative  enterprise,  and  it  is  by  co- 
operation that  we  get  the  real  value  of  the 
work.  The  hope  is  to  cover  the  whole 
country,  so  that  if  a  man  is  working  on  a 
subject  in  Boston  some  one  in  San  Fran- 
cisco can  learn  about  it,  and,  if  he  is 
thinking  of  doing  the  same  thing,  have  him 
co-operate  and  perhaps  get  that  thing  done 
better;  and  any  information  which  can  be 
given  which  will  facilitate  that  plan  will  be 
of  very  great  value  to  the  association  and 
be  a  very  great  help  to  the  editors. 

Mr.  CUTTER:  The  first  statement  Mr. 
Marion  made,  about  obtaining  assistants 
for  the  people  who  need  them,  is,  I  think, 
the  most  searching  question  in  connection 
with  special  libraries.  It  seems  to  me  it 
would  be  wise  for  this  association  to  com- 
municate with  graduating  classes  of  some 
of  our  universities  and  suggest  to  the  mem- 
bers of  those  classes  well  enough  in  ad- 
vance that  the  library  profession  is  a 
desirable  thing  for  young  men  to  enter.  I 
think  it  would  be  a  very  wise  thing  for 
this  association  to  take  that  up,  and  tell 
them  the  reasons  why,  and  the  demand  for 
assistants.  At  the  present  time  I  have 
knowledge  of  several  positions,  but  the 
specification  is  made  that  men  are  desired, 
as  most  of  our  business  men  are  so  ignor- 
ant that  they  do  not  know  how  efficient 
women  are. 

I  would  say  in  regard  to  what  Mr.  Lapp 
mentioned,  that  I  have  some  250  bibliogra- 
phies on  engineering  subjects,  some  of 
them  too  special,  but  some  of  them  would, 
I  think,  be  of  general  interest,  and  I  will 
take  the  opportunity  of  sending  him  a  list 
of  these. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  It  might  be  of 
interest  to  note  what  has  already  been 
printed  in  connection  with  the  Library  of 
Congress,  to  show  the  character  of  the 
publications    received    from    that    source. 


334 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


You  will  recall,  for  instance,  a  bibliography 
on  the  drinking  habit,  the  short  ballot,  on 
anti-cigarette  ordinances  and  laws,  the 
open  shop,  public  utility  rates,  the  pardon- 
ing power,  compulsory  voting,  preferential 
voting,  and,  finally,  city  planning,  and, 
also,  I  might  say,  one  on  the  administra- 
tion of  charities  and  correction  boards,  a 
rather  technical  subject,  which  appeared 
in  the  April  number,  1911. 

(There  here  followed-  a  discussion  led  by 
Mr.  C.  A.  George,  of  Elizabeth,  N.  J.,  in 
which  he  asked  for  information  as  to  the 
real  purpose  of  the  Special  Libraries  move- 
ment. Mr.  Josephson,  the  vice-president, 
and  Mr.  G.  W.  Lee,  of  Stone  &  Webster, 
Boston,  offered  replies  to  the  questions 
asked.) 

Mr.  DUDGEON:  My  connection  with 
this  association  was  due  to  this  concep- 
tion, that  in  my  business,  which  was  legis- 
lative work,  etc.,  I  conceived  that  there 
was  a  great  deal  in  books  that  ought  to  be 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  people  who 
were  doing  the  work,  and  I  was  glad  to 
join  an  association  whose  special  function 
seemed  to  be  to  help  one  another  devise 
ways  and  means  of  getting  book  knowledge 
into  the  hands  of  the  actual  workers. 
Now,  that  seems  to  me  to  be  somewhat  of 
a  distinct  proposition.  I  think  Mr.  Cutter's 
definition  justifies  our  existence.  We  are 
specialized  in  getting  knowledge  out  of 
books  and  out  of  the  experience  of  others 
into  the  hands  of  workers  rather  than  into 
the  hands  of  people  who  are  just  thinking 
about  working.  It  seems  to  me  that  it  is 
quite  distinct  although  hard  to  distinguish. 

Miss  LINDHOLM:  I  believe  in  the 
effort  to  make  the  business  public  more 
appreciative  of  the  work  we  are  doing,  we 
should  write  more  articles  about  our  work 
and  our  libraries.  I  think  if  there  were 
articles  written  for  the  different  electrical, 
engineering,  automobile  and  manufacturing 
periodicals  it  would  help  a  great  deal. 

Mr.  CUTTER:  I  would  suggest,  Mr. 
President,  that  you  can  combine  all  those 
periodicals  the  lady  mentions  by  writing 
articles  for  the  Wall  Street  Journal.  That 
is  the  place  where  the  people  read  things. 


The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  The  editor  of 
the  Wall  Street  Journal  was  with  us  at  our 
September  meeting  and  gave  us  a  very  in- 
teresting description  of  his  own  part  of  the 
work  in  connection  with  the  business,  and 
the  information  bureau  established  by  the 
Wall  Street  Journal.  I  sometimes  think 
we  fail  to  note  the  speed  with  which  that 
information  must  be  obtained,  either  in  the 
reference  department  or  the  newspaper. 
They  will  sometimes  employ  a  mere  me- 
chanical device  to  save  two  minutes  in  con- 
nection with  the  information  given. 

I  think  Miss  Lindholm's  suggestion  is  a 
very  good  one  and  possibly  can  be  worked 
out  by  getting  more  and  more  in  touch 
with  the  trade  periodicals.  Many  of  those 
trade  periodicals  are  not  taken  by  the  pub- 
lic libraries,  are  not  listed  in  any  indexes 
of  periodicals,  and  much  of  the  material 
afforded  there  is  of  unusual  value. 

Mr.  CUTTER:  I  would  suggest  that  we 
have  a  committee  on  publicity  for  the  asso- 
ciation. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  The  committee 
have  a  plan  to  advance  for  that  which  I 
think  they  will  bring  out  at  the  next  meet- 
ing. 

SECOND  (FIRST  JOINT)  SESSION 
(Friday,  June  28,  2:30  p.  m.) 

The  second  session  was  a  joint  session 
held  in  conjunction  with  the  National  As- 
sociation of  State  Libraries,  the  American 
Association  of  Law  Libraries  and  the 
Bibliographical  Society  of  America.  Mr. 
George  S.  Godard,  acting  secretary-treas- 
urer of  the  National  Association  of  State 
Libraries,  called  the  meeting  to  order  and 
occupied  the  chair. 

Before  beginning  the  regular  program, 
Mr.  Beer,  librarian  of  the  Howard  Memo- 
rial library  at  New  Orleans,  called  atten- 
tion to  a  bibliography  of  French  fiction, 
which  he  had  come  across  during  his 
travels  in  Europe  last  year.  He  said  in 
part:  "I  discovered  that  there  was  being 
published  at  Lisle  on  the  borders  of  Bel- 
gium by  a  Roman  Catholic  priest  the  most 
honest,  the  bravest  review  of  fiction  that 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


335 


exists  in  any  language.  He  does  not  fear 
to  mention  every  book  which  is  published. 
He  praises  those  which  are  good,  and  he 
scathes  with  the  most  bitter  sarcasm  and 
truthfulness  those  that  are  absolutely  bad. 
He  is  the  Abb§  Bellian.  If  a  young  lady 
goes  to  buy  a  book  she  is  asked  if  that 
particular  book  is  in  the  list  of  Abb6 
Bellian.  If  it  is  not  that  store  refuses  to 
supply  it  to  any  one  who  is  not  of  lawful 
age.  It  has  been  supplemented  by  a 
monthly  publication  which  is  very  reason- 
able in  price.  It  has  been  published  since 
1903."  He  urged  that  all  become  familiar 
with  this  book  in  order  that  the  supply  of 
French  books  generally  throughout  the 
United  States  in  our  libraries  may  be  much 
more  carefully  selected  and  be  more  repre- 
sentative of  the  great  French  fiction.  Dean 
Walton  of  the  McGill  University  law 
school,  Montreal,  prepared  a  paper  entitled 
"Legal  systems  of  Canada,  with  a  list  of 
statutes  and  other  legal  papers  of  the 
Province  of  Quebec."  This  paper  opened 
the  formal  program  and  was  read  by  Mr. 
Charles  H.  Gould.  This  paper  was  fol- 
lowed by  another  entitled  "Present  Status 
of  legal  bibliography"  by  Dean  Wigmore  of 
the  Northwestern  University  law  school. 
This  was  read  by  Mr.  Edwin  M.  Borchard, 
law  librarian  of  the  Library  of  Congress, 
in  connection  with  his  own  paper  on  "The 
bibliography  of  international  and  foreign 
law,  with  an  account  of  the  method  of 
building  up  the  collections  of  foreign  and 
international  law  in  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress." After  reading  Dean  Wigmore's 
paper  and  discussing  the  present  literature 
in  this  field  and  existing  bibliographies, 
Mr.  Borchard  called  attention  to  the  effect 
which  the  increase  in  foreign  travel  had 
had  upon  all  law  library  problems  in 
America,  bringing  in  as  it  had  the  wider 
international  relations  from  year  to  year. 
He  said  "There  are  three  points  of  view 
that  have  guided  us"  (in  the  formation  of 
the  Library  of  Congress  collection)  "the 
practicing  lawyer's  necessity  of  knowing 
foreign  law,  the  legislator's  necessity  for 
knowing  the  solution  of  social  and  eco- 
nomic problems,  the  scientific  object,  the 


students'  need  of  developing  the  science  of 
law."  He  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the 
methods  which  he  had  used  in  arriving  at 
the  best  selection  of  foreign  continental 
law  books.  Through  his  connection  as  in- 
ternationl  law  expert  at  the  Hague  Fish- 
eries Arbitration  he  was  enabled  to  get 
first  hand  judgment  regarding  the  actual 
books  by  foreign  lawyers.  Further  in  the 
name  of  the  Government  by  correspond- 
ence he  approached  the  law  departments 
of  universities,  judges  of  Supreme  Courts, 
practicing  lawyers,  etc.,  of  other  countries. 
In  Latin  America  he  worked  through  the 
consuls  and  ministers  of  the  United  States 
to  get  such  information.  By  these  methods 
the  books  were  ordered  and  many  have 
now  arrived.  The  question  now  presents 
itself  as  to  how  to  make  available  this  new 
material.  This  is  being  done  by  the  pub- 
lication of  guides  to  the  foreign  law.  "The 
first  guide,  the  guide  of  the  law  of  Ger- 
many, appeared  about  a  month  and  a  half 
ago.  ...  It  undertakes  to  furnish  an 
introduction  to  the  German  system  as  a 
whole,  and  to  the  principal  leading  in- 
stitutions, as  parts  of  the  system  in  some 
detail,  mentioning  particularly  the  impor- 
tant literature  and  how  to  use  it,  what  the 
American  lawyer  in  terms  of  his  own  law 
may  expect  to  find  in  these  European 
books.  .  .  .  The  guide  of  the  law  of 
France  is  now  in  course  of  preparation, 
and  will  probably  appear  about  the  first  of 
next  year.  We  hope  then  to  continue  with 
Austria,  Spain  and  Italy,  which  we  con- 
sider the  important  countries.  Later  we 
may  publish  Belgium  and  Switzerland  in 
one  volume,  perhaps  including  Scandina- 
via, and  then  one  volume  for  the  law  of 
Latin  America.  If  we  do  not  get  to  the 
publication  of  guides  we  will  publish  the 
material  that  we  have  received,  editing  it 
v/ith  perhaps  bibliographic  notes  of  such 
information  as  v/e  can  convey  in  order  to 
open  up  this  bibliographic  source  to  the 
general  investagator.  .  .  .  We  are 
getting  many  letters  every  week  in  Wash- 
ington from  lawyers  throughout  the  whole 
United  States,  asking  for  information  on 
foreign  law.     .     .     .     Comparative  law  is 


336 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


a  field  which  is  now  getting  great  impetus, 
partly  through  the  work  of  developing 
legal  collections,  partly  through  the  neces- 
sities of  a  case.  We  are  no  longer  an  in- 
sular nation.  Growing  International  rela- 
tions are  making  necessary  some  knowl- 
edge of  foreign  law  and  the  desirability  of 
its  knowledge  to  legislators  is  admitted,  I 
think,  without  a  question." 

Mrs.  Margaret  C.  Klingelsmith,  librarian 
of  the  Biddle  law  library  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  followed  with  a  paper 
upon  "The  books  of  the  beginnings."  Prof. 
Archibald  McGoun  of  McGill  university 
next  presented  a  paper  entitled  "The  bibli- 
ography of  Canadian  law."  Dr.  G.  E.  Wire 
of  the  Worcester  county  law  library  of 
Massachusetts  opened  the  discussion. 
Speaking  of  the  ordinary  bar  library  for 
the  working  lawyer,  he  urged  that  there 
was  needed  an  extension  of  Mr.  Soule's 
Manual  referred  to  in  Dean  Wigmore's 
article.  He  advocated  also  a  much  shorter 
list  of  citations  than  that  employed  in 
Soule.  He  further  referred  to  the  need  of 
some  publication  on  Spanish  American 
bibliography,  which  would  cover  such 
things  as  the  number  of  Porto  Rican  re- 
ports in  a  given  series.  He  would  like  also 
some  publication  which  would  give  the 
various  codes  and  compilations  of  laws, 
both  official  and  unofficial,  in  advance  of 
"our  law  book  friend"  who  comes  along  to 
tell  us  about  it.  From  the  practical  stand- 
point he  said  that  books  on  foreign  laws 
were  so  much  more  useful  when  translated, 
that  in  the  average  law  library  the  same 
books  in  the  original  language  would  be 
rarely  used. 


THIRD   (SECOND   GENERAL)    SESSION 
(Monday,  July  1,  1912,  2:50  p.  m.) 

The  third  session  was  the  second  session 
for  discussion  of  problems  peculiar  to  the 
special  library  and  was  called  to  order  by 
Vice-President  Brigham. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  We  have  one 
paper  which  remains  from  our  first  session, 
and  I  am  going  to  call  for  that  paper  first. 


That  will  be  a  paper  by  Mr.  T.  J.  Homer, 
member  of  the  Massachusetts  bar,  on  "The 
Boston  co-operative  information  bureau." 
The  development  of  that  bureau  is  interest- 
ing and  is  the  first  attempt,  I  think,  in  this 
country  co-operatively  to  work  the  libraries 
by  exchange  of  publications,  and  I  think 
probably  you  can  be  supplied  on  applica- 
tion with  copies  of  their  bulletins  which 
some  of  us  have  here,  and  which  will  show 
you  the  extent  of  the  movement.  I  am  go- 
ing to  ask  Mr.  Marlon  to  read  Mr.  Homer's 
paper.* 

The  VICE-PRESIDEINT:  We  will  now 
proceed  to  the  regular  program  for  the 
day.  We  have  a  paper  by  Mr.  D.  N. 
HANDY.  The  topic  has  been  changed  by 
the  speaker  s()  that  it  reads,  "The  library 
as  a  business  asset;  when  and  how?"  and 
I  introduce  now  Mr.  Handy  of  the  Insur- 
ance Library  Association  of  Boston. 


THE  LIBRARY  AS  A  BUSINESS  ASSET; 
WHEN   AND   HOW?** 

I  feel  that  this  subject  of  the  asset 
value  of  the  special  library  is  one  that 
is  bound  to  be  constantly  growing  in  in- 
terest, because,  of  course,  the  tendency  of 
business  is  to  scrutinize  carefully  the 
things  •which  it  pays  money  for,  and  unless 
it  can  be  shown  that  the  library  has  some 
asset  value,  naturally,  the  library  will  come 
in  for  the  first  cuts  in  the  budgets,  and, 
later  on,  a  complete  cutting  off.  When  the 
subject  was  assigned  me  by  Mr.  Marion 
he  put  the  subject  as  "The  library  as  a 
business  asset."  I  have  therefore  dis- 
cussed the  subject  from  that  standpoint, 
and  inasmuch  as  it  seemed  to  me  that  the 
whole  thing  resolved  itself  into  a  few  very 
general  and  broad  principles  I  have  not 
made  any  attempt  to  consider  details  at 
all,  but  have  assumed  one  or  two  things 
that  it  seemed  to  me  must  lie  at  the 
bottom  of  the  whole  proposition  and  must 
decide  for  us  whether  the  library  is  to  find 

•This  will  be  published  in  full  in  the  Library  jour- 
nal and  reprinted  in  Special  libraries. 

**  Abstract.  The  full  paper  will  appear  in  "Special 
Libraries." 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


337 


a  place  among  commercial  assets  and  is  to 
receive  from  business  the  support  to  which 
as  an  asset  it  is  entitled. 

An  asset,  in  business,  is  a  debt-satisfying 
possession.  In  determining  business  sol- 
vency assets  are  set  over  against  liabilities, 
and  if  the  former  exceed  the  latter,  the 
business  is  said  to  be  solvent.  The  term 
assets  is  applied  technically  to  material 
possessions.  But  there  are  possessions 
other,  and  even  more  essential  than  ma- 
terial: these  are  the  moral,  out  of  which 
assets  grow.  At  the  foundation  of  every 
business  lie  courage,  competency,  integ- 
rity, preseverance.  These  cannot  be  com- 
puted or  averaged,  but  their  commercial 
value  is  everywhere  recognized. 

Wherefore,  let  us  at  the  outset  agree 
that  when  we  speak  of  the  library  as  a 
business-asset,  we  speak  not  of  its  value  as 
so  many  books  and  pamphlets,  but  of  its 
value  as  a  contributing  agency  to  those 
more  fundamental  possessions  to  which 
material  assets  owe  their  existence. 

What,  then,  has  the  library  contributed 
and  what  may  it  in  the  future  hope  to  con- 
tribute that  will  add  to  business  courage, 
integrity,  competency,  preseverance?  In  a 
word,  to  business  eflaciency? 

The  answer  is  found  in  a  measure  in  our 
conception  of  a  library  and  its  function. 
Shall  we  then  describe  what  we  have  in 
mind  when  we  speak  of  the  library  that  may 
become  a  business  asset? 

It  certainly  is  not  any  collection  of  books 
and  pamphlets  under  any  custodian  and 
handled  probably  more  often  by  the  janitor 
than  the  manager.  That  is  not  the  kind 
of  library  that  we  have  in  mind.  Our  li- 
brary is  a  collection  organized  and  planned 
for  a  definite  end.     .     . 

The  measure  of  its  value  is  to  be  sought 
in  increasing  efficiency  of  personnel ;  wider 
outlook,  clearer  vision,  firmer  grasp, 
greater  fortitude. 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  think  of  the  pre- 
cise manner  in  which  a  library  might  en- 
trench itself  in  business  favor,  until  it  be- 
came admittedly  indispensable.  Such  an 
experience  is  not  uncommon.  Libraries 
there   are    to-day — adjuncts    of   successful 


business  houses — which  stand  on  a  plane 
of  equality  with  every  other  department; 
whose  directors  are  in  every  sense  advis- 
ers; whose  position  in  importance  and  dig- 
nity yields  precedence  to  none.  They  add 
efficiency  to  the  entire  staff,  and  by  breadth 
and  merit  bring  distinction  to  the  business 
they  serve. 

The  asset  value  of  a  library  is  dependent 
upon  a  variety  of  conditions. 

Foremost  among  them,  I  should  say, 
must  be  a  condition  of  receptivity  on  the 
part  of  business  itself. 

Again,  and  only  second  in  importance,  is 
the  attitude  of  the  library  towards  busi- 
ness. If  the  library  shall  cling  to  tradi- 
tional aims;  shall  overestimate  the  im- 
portance of  conventional  methods;  shall 
hold  disdainfully  aloof  from  those  adapta- 
tions and  changes  which  alone  can  make 
it  useful  to  business,  then  its  asset  value 
will  never  be  large  or  general. 

Finally,  assuming  business  and  the  li- 
brary to  agree  as  to  their  mutual  helpful- 
ness, the  lines  along  which  they  are  to 
co-operate,  if  the  results  are  to  be  satisfying 
to  both,  must  be  susceptible  of  being 
easily  seen  and  followed.     . 

At  no  time  in  the  history  of  the  modern 
business  world  has  the  opportunity  been 
so  favorable  for  a  lasting  alliance  between 
the  library  and  business.  Business  was 
never  more  complex,  nor  more  moral. 
Greater  wisdom  is  required  to  develop  it. 
It  is  more  sensitive.  Results  come  quicker, 
failure  follows  more  promptly  on  the  heels 
of  error — success  almost  anticipates  the 
footsteps  of  sound  judgment.  Conse- 
quences are  more  far  reaching.  Disaster 
to  one  involves  many — while  bankruptcy 
carries  overthrow  and  panic  to  hundreds 
of  others. 

The  greater  demands  of  business  are 
seen  not  only  in  the  enormous  growth  of 
industrial  enterprises,  and  the  larger 
responsibilities  of  management,  but  in  the 
increasing  numbers  of  college  and  univer- 
sity men  who  are  seeking  business  careers. 

Again,  an  almost  revolutionary  change 
has  taken  place  in  the  public  attitude 
towards  business  of  every  kind.    It  matters 


338 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


not  what  It  is.  The  Idea  now  is  that  men 
live  for  service;  that  men  organize  socially, 
commercially,  and  industrially  for  service. 
And  if  any  organization  is  unable  to  under- 
go this  test  it  must  reform,  or  stand  aside 
and  let  a  better  take  its  place.  This  I  take 
it  is  the  interpretation  of  the  great  unrest 
which  has  possessed  England  and  America 
in  the  last  decade.     . 

All  these — this  increasing  complexity, 
growing  sense  of  social  responsibility,  de- 
mand for  an  increasing  inflow  of  college 
men  into  business — spell  opportunity  for 
the  library  as  an  indispensable  adjunct  for 
business  enterprise.  Answering  for  our  first 
condition,  then,  it  may  be  said  that  busi- 
ness is  in  a  receptive  mood,  and  that  it 
stands  ready  today  to  welcome  among  its 
productive  forces  the  library  organization. 

But  if  the  library  is  to  be  truly  an  asset 
to  business  enterprise,  the  library  itself 
must  recognize  not  only  its  opportunity  but 
its  responsibility.  The  failure  of  the  gen- 
eral library  to  lead  in  this  work  of  aiding 
business  in  the  solution  of  its  problems  has 
been  inevitable.  Business  wants  its  own 
technology;  it  wants  pamphlets,  clippings, 
reports — all  sorts  of  special  things  which 
no  public  library  with  all  its  other  obliga- 
tions could  ever  hope  to  get  and  to  classify. 

Hence  the  need  of  specialized  libraries 
and  special  methods.  It  is  evident  that  the 
special  library  has  a  whole  field  of  methods 
yet  to  amplify,  systematize  and  unify.  If 
the  library  is  to  help  business  it  must  be 
organized  as  business  is  organized.  To  get 
everything  on  a  subject  may  be  necessary 
for  some  purposes,  and  is  always  interest- 
ing to  the  bibliographer;  but  to  get  the 
adequate  thing  is  the  business-librarian's 
ideal  of  service,  and  if  he  misses  it  he  may 
wake  up  surprised  to  find  his  labor  unap- 
preciated. 

Business  is  multiplying  short-cuts,  mo- 
tion-savers, "efficiency"  getters  in  every 
department;  it  will  tolerate  nothing  less 
from  the  library.  It  is  for  the  library  to 
prove  its  value — to  demonstrate  its  prac- 
tical worth  by  adjusting  itself  to  the  busi- 
ness environment.  It  must  not  follow  too 
closely   the   traditions   of   general    library 


work.  It  ought  to  be  familiar  with  general 
library  methods;  but  it  should  never  lose 
sight  of  the  fact  that  general  library  meth- 
ods were  devised  with  an  eye  single  to 
general  library  problems.  The  problems  of 
a  business  library  are  different 

This,  then,  is  the  duty  of  the  business 
library  if  the  title  to  asset-value  is  to  go 
unchallenged.  And  the  library  may  be 
certain  that  business  will  not  take  it  at  its 
own  appraisal  but  will  demand  to  see  for 
itself  whether  its  claims  are  justified. 

Business  libraries  in  many  cities  are 
justifying  their  existence  and  are  gradually 
making  for  themselves  a  secure  place 
among  the  assets  of  the  enterprises  which 
they  represent.  .  .  .  Finally,  how  are 
the  library  and  business  to  co-operate  for 
their  mutual  advantage? 

It  is  evident  that  in  this  respect  business 
has  to  perform  a  duty  even  greater  than 
we  have  laid  upon  the  library  itself.  If  the 
library  is  under  obligation  to  adapt  itself 
to  the  needs  of  business,  business  is  under 
special  obligation  to  place  its  resources 
more  completely  at  the  disposal  of  the  li- 
brary. It  must  take  the  library  seriously 
and  plan  for  it  accordingly.     .     .     . 

Business  fails  to  appreciate  the  ally  that 
it  might  have  in  the  well  conducted  library. 
It  appreciates  and  at  times  is  mildly  grate- 
ful for  the  library's  service;  but  it  has 
shown  no  great  discernment  when  it  came 
to  an  understanding  of  the  means  by  which 
the  service  was  rendered.  It  asks  for  and 
expects  results;  but  has  little  appreciation 
of  the  price  at  which  results  must  be 
bought. 

An  indispensable  requisite  of  a  business 
library  is  a  librarian  thoroughly  conversant 
with  the  main  facts  of  the  business.  He 
must  know  its  theory  and  history.  He 
must  be  freed  from  routine  at  least  to  the 
extent  necessary  to  enable  him  to  become 
an  expert  in  the  materials  which  he  hand- 
les. He  must  be  treated  as  a  literary  ad- 
viser and  given  the  opportunity  to  develop 
literary  discrimination  and  judgment  In  the 
field  which  he  covers.  Then  he  becomes 
more  than  a  custodian  of  book«;  he  is  a 
counselor,  impressing  his  personality  upon 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


a  unique  source  of  business  inspiration, 
namely,  tlie  business  literature  of  his  col- 
lecting and  bringing  direct  to  his  superiors 
the  information  which  they  will  know  how 
to  use  for  the  good  of  the  business  as  a 
whole. 

Subordinates,  working  under  him,  will 
assemble,  classify,  card  index,  bulletin  and 
distribute,  while  the  library  itself  will 
stand  on  a  level  with  manufacturing, 
accounting  and  selling.  It  will  be  a  de- 
partment of  the  business,  organized  like 
other  departments,  for  efficiency.     . 

The  library  may  adapt  itself  to  business, 
but  it  is  for  business  to  say  whether  the 
adaptation  shall  be  thoroughgoing  and 
effective.  Is  the  library,  then,  a  business 
asset?  My  answer  is  that  it  is  such  just  in 
proportion  as  business  is  willing  to  let  it 
be.  When  business  shall  treat  it  as  it 
treats  other  factors  of  business  success, 
discerning  its  possibilities  of  usefulness, 
encouraging  and  planning  for  its  develop- 
ment, adapting  it  to  the  requirements  of 
business  activity,  then  it  will  justify  itself 
unquestionably.     . 

Business  has  already  awakened  to  the 
possibilities  of  library  help,  and  wherever 
it  has  done  so  with  insight  and  courage  it 
has  answered  for  itself  the  question  which 
we  have  here  proposed.  In  banking,  in 
finance,  in  engineering,  in  applied  chem- 
istry, in  insurance  and  in  numerous  other 
fields,  business  has  set  itself  to  the  task  of 
adapting  library  methods  to  business  needs. 
Special  collections  administered  for  special 
requirements  are  springing  up  in  every 
large  city,  and  the  liberality  with  which 
these  are  beginning  to  be  supported  is  in 
some  respects  an  indication  of  business' 
own  estimate  of  their  value. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  The  matter  is 
now  open  for  discussion,  and  I  will  ask  Mr. 
Morton,  librarian  of  the  United  Gas  &  Fuel 
Company,  to  be  the  first  speaker.?^ 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  The  next 
speaker  is  Miss  MARGARET  E.  MURRAY, 
librarian  of  Wm.  Filene's  Sons,  Boston,  who 
will  address  us  on  the  subject 

•Mr.  Morton's  discussion  will  appear  in  "Special 
Libraries." 


THE   EARNING   POWER   OF  A   SPECIAL 

REFERENCE  LIBRARY  ON  RETAIL 

DISTRIBUTION 

The  Wm.  Filene's  Sons  Company  of  Bos- 
ton are  retailers  of  men's,  women's,  chil- 
dren's and  infants'  wearing  apparel  and 
employ  at  present  about  900,  but  in  a  few 
months  will  employ  2000  employees.  Among 
other  innovations  they  have  made  provision 
for  a  Business  Reference  Library  in  their 
new  building,  which  they  are  to  occupy  this 
coming  fall,  and  which  is,  so  far  as  we 
know,  the  first  in  this  line  of  business. 

It  is  planned  to  have  on  file  all  informa- 
tion relating  to  the  business  and  such  other 
information  as  may  be  helpful  to  the  man- 
agement and  all  other  employees  in  the  dis- 
charge of  their  duties,  such  as  daily  papers, 
technical  and  general  reference  books, 
trade  journals,  newspaper  clippings,  and 
typewritten  material. 

The  library  was  created  because  there 
was  a  definite  need  for  a  central  clearing 
house  of  information  on  the  latest  and  best 
in  retail  distribution  and  because  it  was 
urgent  that  one  department  should  be 
responsible  to  care  for  safely  and  mobilize 
the  valuable  information,  books  and  pam- 
phlets scattered  throughout  the  various 
offices  of  the  organization. 

Now  what  will  the  earning  power  of  this 
special  reference  library  be?  It  will  be  in 
exact  proportion  to  its  use  and  efficiency, 
based  on  just  how  well  and  how  often  it  can 
make  or  save  a  dollar  for  the  business.  It 
will  depend  largely  on  how  aggressive  the 
library  policy  will  be  in  creating  needs  and 
meeting  the  needs  for  its  material,  and 
although  it  may  not  be  able  to  show  quite 
as  tangible  a  profit  and  loss  statement  as  a 
merchandise  department,  still  there  should 
be  the  same  effort  and  desire  to  know  the 
stock  on  hand  the  first  of  the  month,  the 
purchases,  the  expenses  of  the  department, 
the  stock  on  hand  at  the  end  of  the  month 
(having  in  mind  depreciation)  and  the 
sales,  which  would  be  services  rendered. 

The  more  efficiently  and  oftener  the  ref- 
erence library  serves  the  organization,  the 
more  time  it  saves  high-priced  executives. 


340 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


and  helps  the  rank  and  file,  the  more  cer- 
tain it  will  become  a  permanent  paying 
department  of  the  business  and  make  itself 
indispensable.  This  is  in  general  how  the 
earning  value  will  be  determined.  How- 
ever, if  the  library  is  to  succeed,  such  gen- 
eral statements  will  not  be  sufficient. 

The  chances  for  service  ■end  making 
definite  contributions  toward  business  effi- 
ciency in  a  large  retail  establishment  are 
innumerable,  and  especially  in  a  pro- 
gressive house  like  the  one  with  which  I 
have  the  honor  to  be  associated. 

But  such  service  and  such  contribution 
must  be  made  very  definite,  must  be  made 
very  specific  and  must  be  applied  to  every 
member  of  the  organization. 

For  some  years  past  our  company  has 
been  experimenting  with  profit  sharing 
agreements,  and  one  of  the  difficulties  has 
been  for  general  profit  sharers,  men  and 
women  in  non-selling  departments,  working 
for  the  whole  store,  to  show  what  has  been 
his  or  her  contribution  toward  profits. 

Therefore,  if  a  reference  librarian,  who 
would  be  termed  a  general  profit  sharer, 
fails  to  study,  position  by  position,  just  how 
he  or  she  can  contribute  to  the  needs  of  the 
men  and  women  connected  with  the  organ- 
ization, the  library  will  not  be  recognized 
and  felt  as  a  money  making  investment. 
It  is,  therefore,  along  these  lines  that  the 
Filene  reference  library  will  be  operated. 

In  all  the  initial  steps  and  preparatory 
work  of  organizing,  the  methods  of  the 
legislative  reference  libraries  are  as  far  as 
possible  being  applied. 

The  work  of  some  of  the  successful  legis- 
lative reference  libraries  is  divided  into 
three  main  divisions — comparative,  critical 
and  constructive,  and  in  analyzing  the  store 
material  on  hand,  it  is  found  that  pretty 
nearly  all  of  these  main  divisions  of  refer- 
ence work  have  in  the  past  been  practically 
ignored.  In  isolated  cases,  comparative 
work  has  been  attempted,  as  for  instance, 
furnishing  specific  information  from  some 
other  store  on  some  store  policy  for  some 
one  manager,  but  it  has  not  been  dissemi- 
nated and  placed  at  the  service  of  all.  The 
need  of  having  this  work  done  has  been 


recognized  and  in  the  future  will  be  done 
through  the  library. 

Retail  distribution  has  its  laws  and  pol- 
icies, but  the  laws  and  policies  are,  to  a 
large  degree,  empirical.  They  are  the 
result  of  years  of  effort  and  experience,  and 
what  was  good  five  years  ago,  may  not  be 
good  today.  All  policies  are  constantly 
changing. 

Therefore,  the  first  work,  and  at  present 
in  hand,  before  the  library  can  start  on  its 
aggressive  mission  is  to  tabulate,  classify, 
index  and  fit  for  use  the  present  valuable 
information  scattered  throughout  the  offices 
of  the  management,  destroying  everything 
obsolete  or  whatever  has  become  a  per- 
manent part  of  the  store  organization. 

For  it  is  imperative  in  a  fast  growing 
business  employing  an  increasing  number 
of  executives,  that  now  employees  should 
profit  to  the  fullest  extent  by  the  experience 
of  past  years  and  how  other  people  have 
handled  problems  new  to  us,  and  the  library 
can  assist  very  definitely  by  placing  in  their 
hands  brief  summaries  on  important  sub- 
jects connected  with  the  business,  revised 
copies  of  duties  of  various  positions,  bibli- 
ographies on  important  subjects  related  to 
the  business,  and  any  other  material  that 
will  help  them  absorb  in  the  shortest  pos- 
sible time  the  fundamentals  of  the  business. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  of  interest  to  mention 
briefly  what  special  subjects,  both  general 
and  technical,  the  library  must  watch  out 
for.  The  best  way  is,  with  apologies,  to 
give  you  an  idea  of  the  personnel  of  the 
management.  The  Filene  brothers  and 
their  partners  are  public  spirited  citizens; 
one  brother,  Mr.  Edward  A.  Filene,  with  a 
few  other  men,  organized  the  present  suc- 
cessful Boston  City  Club  and  was  largely 
responsible  for  the  amalgamation  of  the 
numerous  commercial  organizations  of  the 
city  into  the  present  Boston  Chamber  of 
Commerce,  and  was  chairman  of  the  recent 
Metropolitan  Plan  Commission  of  Massa- 
chusetts. The  other  brother,  Mr.  A.  Lincoln 
Filene,  served  for  three  years  on  the  State 
Commission  for  Industrial  Education  and 
is  now  a  member  of  the  Executive  Board  of 
the  National  Society  for  the  Promotion  of 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


341 


Industrial  Education,  and  also  contributed 
largely  in  time  and  money  to  the  Boston 
Vocational  Bureau.  The  other  partners  are 
also  serving  on  special  committees  of  vari- 
ous organizations  and  are  all,  with  the 
Filenes,  very  keenly  interested  in  labor 
problems,  the  relations  of  employers  to  em- 
ployees, and  each  has  on  his  desk  the  best 
books  on  scientific  management,  as  Tay- 
lor's, Gantt's,  Emerson's  and  Brandeis'. 

Therefore,  first  of  all  the  business  refer- 
ence library  will  have  on  its  shelves  six  or 
seven  of  the  best  books  on  scientific  man- 
agement, also  books  on  organization  and 
finance.  Then  will  be  added  special  books 
on  bookkeeping,  auditing,  insurance,  statis- 
tics, advertising,  decorating,  buying,  sell- 
ing, materials,  and  subjects  of  interest  to 
the  Filene  Co-operative  Association  (an  or- 
ganization consistng  of  all  employees  and 
members  of  the  corporation,  each  member 
having  a  single  vote)  such  as  pensions, 
arbitration,  compulsory  insurance,  co-oper- 
ative housing,  etc. 

Perhaps  it  might  also  be  well  to  add  that 
this  association  has  maintained  a  library  of 
all  the  popular  fiction  for  the  past  twelve 
years,  and  no  fiction  will  be  placed  in  the 
new  business  reference  library. 

The  librarian  is  also  custodian  of  all  the 
private  contracts,  leases  and  corporation 
records,  and  is  expected  to  prepare  digests 
of  any  important  papers  at  any  time. 

This  is  what  the  Filene  library  expects  to 
do  and  must  arrange  for  resources  to  actu- 
ally obtain  and  devise  ways  and  means  for 
the  dissemination  of  information  needed. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:— We  have  with 
us  to-day  Miss  B.  V.  Dobbins,  who  is  libra- 
rian of  the  Edward  Accounting  library  of 
the  American  Telegraph  &  Telephone  Com- 
pany, New  York  City,  and  she  will  add  to 
the  discussion. 

Miss  DOBBINS:  I  desired  not  to  write  a 
paper,  because  I  might  write  one  too  long 
and  not  say  much  in  the  end,  so  I  thought 
perhaps  it  would  be  interesting  just  to  tell 
you  why  our  immense  corporation  found  it 
necessary  to  have  a  library.  We  have  a 
large  engineering  library;  that  is,  we  have  a 
very  fine  collection  of  technical  books — un- 


fortunately, as  yet,  no  librarian;  we  have  a 
splendid  legal  library,  and  I  represent  the 
accounting  library.  Two  years  ago  our 
comptroller,  who  is  an  authority  on  account- 
ing in  the  United  States  and  has  some  rep- 
utation abroad,  decided  that  it  was  neces- 
sary to  get  together  the  material,  and  they 
were  good  enough  to  offer  me  the  position, 
which  I  was  very  glad  to  accept.  So  we  col- 
lected what  few  books  we  had.  We  didn't 
have  much.  We  bought  largely.  All  our 
men  are  authorities  on  the  particular  sub- 
jects with  which  they  deal,  so,  consequently, 
in  buying  books  for  our  library  we  cannot 
select,  as  we  used  to  in  the  public  library, 
with  due  respect  to  the  library,  any  and  all 
books  on  a  particular  subject.  We  have  to 
have  the  last  word  upon  it.  Accounting  is  a 
peculiar  subject  inasmuch  as  there  are  only 
about  four  or  five  authorities — I  may  be 
wrong,  that  is  all  I  could  ever  find.  If  any- 
body knows  of  any  more  I  should  be  more 
than  glad  of  the  information. 

We  go  largely  into  economics.  We  also 
take  up  public  utilities  and  reports  of 
county  and  state  governments  and  city  re- 
ports. We  do  some  little  work  in  scientific 
management.  I  do  not  think  the  sym- 
pathies of  the  officials  lie  very  largely  in 
the  direction  of  scientific  management,  how- 
ever. Everybody  there  is  supposed  to  know 
his  job  and  do  it.  We  are  very  fortunate  in 
not  being  handicapped  for  money.  We 
can  buy  whatever  is  out,  just  as  soon  as  it 
is  out,  and  as  many  copies  as  we  find  it 
necessary  to  have.  We  deal  primarily  with 
the  accounting  department,  which  includes 
the  statistician's  department  too,  and  the 
executive  department.  Those  are  two  very 
big  departments  and  they  kebp  us  pretty 
busy  all  the  time.  We  have  quite  a  file  of 
pamphlets.  We  do  not  give  as  much  care 
to  the  pamphlets  as  we  do  to  the  books. 
When  we  came  to  the  question  of  catalog- 
ing I  realized  that  we  had  a  very  big  piece 
of  work  on  our  hands,  and  we  were  short 
of  help,  and  it  was  essential  that  we  have 
everything  up  to  date  just  as  quickly  as  we 
possibly  could.  So  I  bought  Library  of 
Congress  cards,  and.  it  was  a  very  happy  in- 
spiration, for  we  had  everything  done  by 


342 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


sub-headings  and  everything  assigned  in 
about  two  weeks,  and  of  course  that  helped 
considerably. 

The  library  is  used  frequently  and  pri- 
marily by  the  officials  and  the  directors. 
The  employees  of  the  company  have  the 
privilege  of  coming,  and  they  come  often 
and  freely.  The  comptroller  has  told  me 
time  and  time  again  that  he  could  not 
measure  in  actual  money  value  the  service 
the  library  has  given  the  house  and  him- 
self primarily.  We  take  all  the  leading 
economic  and  scientific  journals  and  they 
circulate.  I  have  a  list  of  the  names  of  the 
various  men  to  whom  they  go.  I  tried  to 
have  a  specified  time  for  their  return,  but 
I  am  sorry  to  say  it  did  not  work  out.  Our 
desks  are  all  equipped  with  telephones,  so 
we  telephone,  and  if  they  can  find  them 
they  return  them.  When  they  cannot  find 
them  the  oldest  office  boy,  Joseph,  is  en- 
listed. I  think  he  was  the  leader  of  the 
Boy  Scouts.  He  knows  generally  where  to 
get  them.  I  think  he  says  they  are  gener- 
ally behind  the  desks,  but  in  any  event  we 
get  them,  and  if  they  are  very  badly  torn, 
mutilated  or  marked,  we  buy  other  copies 
to  bind.  The  leading  magazines  we  bind  as 
soon  as  the  volume  is  completed.  They 
form  the  largest  part  of  our  reference  work. 
I  go  over  those  magazines  very  carefully 
and  find  what  I  would  like  to  bring  out  more 
prominently  than  in  a  bound  magazine,  and 
we  catalog  those  particular  subjects,  buy 
extra  copies,  put  them  in  the  pamphlet  file, 
catalog  them  and  put  them  in  the  pamphlet 
catalog,  so  that  if  by  any  chance  the  bound 
volume  is  out  and  a  particular  article  is 
sought,  we  have  it.  We  find  in  those  two 
places  we  can  generally  meet  all  the  needs 
of  the  library.  I  do  not  think  any  of  the 
people  of  the  corporation  have  really  ever 
become  familiar  with  the  actual  library  side 
of  it.  They  look  upon  a  shelflist  as  some- 
thing fearful  and  awful,  and  they  do  not 
understand  it,  but  as  long  as  they  get  what 
they  want  when  they  want  it,  they  seem 
thoroughly  happy.  Speaking  in  a  quite  im- 
personal way,  I  think  our  library  is  quite  a 
business  asset,  because  I  can  candidly  say 
that  the  men  who  are  at  the  head  of  our 


corporation  would  not  tolerate  it  five  min- 
utes if  it  were  not. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  We  were  to 
have  a  paper  by  Miss  Abbott  of  the  ref- 
erence department  of  the  Studebaker  Cor- 
poration of  South  Bend,  Ind.  She  was 
hindered,  however,  in  the  preparation  of 
this  paper,  and  also  from  coming  to  this 
meeting,  but  the  paper  will  be  furnished 
later  and  printed  in  "Special  Libraries." 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  I  would  like  to 
inquire  whether  Mr.  Pack,  Secretary  and 
Comptroller  of  the  Toronto  Electric  Light 
Company  is  here. 

Mr.  LAPP:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  have  a  letter 
from  Mr.  Pack  which  I  wish  to  read.  When 
Mr.  Pack  was  asked  to  be  present  at  this 
meeting  he  said  he  would  write  his  views  at 
least,  if  he  could  not  come.  He  has  written 
a  general  statement  of  his  belief  in  the 
special  library. 

(Mr.  Lapp  here  read  the  letter  which  is 
available  at  the  office  of  Secretary.) 

Mr.  MARION:  May  I  ask  whether  Miss 
Tutt,  who  is  present,  I  think,  might  not 
have  something  to  say  in  relation  to  the 
automobile  library,  inasmuch  as  she  is  act- 
ively representing  Miss  Elizabeth  Abbott 
here? 

Miss  TUTT:  Mr.  Chairman,  I  scarcely 
feel  prepared  to  say  anything  about  her 
library,  particularly  as  an  automobile  li- 
brary, for  I  do  not  know  that  she  has  done 
anything  especially  in  the  automobile  work 
of  her  library,  her  work  taking  up  all  lines. 
Her  work  has  grown  to  such  an  extent  that 
she  told  me  just  a  day  or  two  before  I  left 
that  she  really  did  not  know  but  that  they 
would  have  to  get  another  name  for  it;  she 
had  not  as  yet  found  anything  in  the  cor- 
poration that  she  had  not  been  called  upon 
to  do,  so  that  she  was  at  a  loss  to  know 
just  what  it  was  that  she  was  expected  to 
do.  It  has  developed  wonderfully  and  very 
satisfactorily.  It  has  been  up-hill  work,  as 
you  all  know.  The  corporation  has  changed 
hands,  gone  into  various  companies,  come 
back  again,  and  she  had  it  all  to  meet  and 
arrange.  All  that  work  and  all  the  papers 
and  records  have  just  simply  piled  up,  are 
all  being  sorted  out  now,  indexed  and  put 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


343 


in  order.  She  is  doing  a  wonderful  work. 
The  other  institutions  there  in  South  Bend 
are  watching  very  closely  her  work  and  I 
think  it  will  be  but  a  short  time  before  the 
other  factories  will  be  following  suit;  but 
so  far  as  the  automobile  part  is  concerned, 
there  is  nothing  any  more  special  in  that 
than  in  any  other  line  of  work  that  she  has 
done ;  that  is  to  say,  nothing  that  I  know  of. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  I  am  going  to 
ask  Mr.  Marion,  our  secretary,  who  is  at 
the  head  of  a  technical  library,  to  take  part 
in  this  discussion. 

Mr.  MARION:  I  must  say,  as  one  of  the 
other  speakers,  that  I  have  not  prepared  a 
paper,  believing  that  in  such  an  assemblage 
of  essayists  and  discussers  it  would  not  be 
impossible  to  find  some  very  good  material 
from  which  to  talk  extemporaneously.  I 
have  not  been  disappointed.  Two  or  three 
points  I  will  mention  in  what  may  be  only 
a  rambling  discussion,  but  they  may  be 
worth  while  to  some  of  you. 

Mr.  Handy  mentioned  in  a  passing  way 
only  the  entrance  of  a  large  number  of  col- 
lege men  into  business  to-day.  I  do  not 
think  he  put  the  matter  nearly  strong 
enough.  It  is  this  very  entrance  of  well-, 
educated  men  into  business,  rather  than 
coming  in  through  the  long  process  of  ex- 
perience, entering,  that  is,  half  way  up  the 
scale  of  life,  equipped  with  a  fine  technical 
training,  making  them  already  professional 
men,  as  the  physician  steps  into  the  com- 
munity a  professional  man,  that  has  forced 
business  to  equip  Itself  along  a  little  dif- 
ferent line.  It  seems  to  me  this  is  one  of  the 
great  telling  reasons  why  more  and  more 
special  libraries  are  going  to  be  built  up  in 
manufacturing  concerns  and  industrial 
plants;  for  with  these  men  coming  in,  they 
do  not  come  as  mechanics  wanting  a  plane, 
a  Saw  or  a  hammer;  they  come  primarily 
wanting  books  and  nothing  else.  They  have 
been  trained  to  the  ample  use  of  books  for 
four  and  sometimes  six  years  previous  to 
their  entrance  to  business,  and  to  take 
books  away  from  them  would  be  like  tak- 
ing the  plane  or  saw  or  hammer  away  from 
the  carpenter.  So  these  men  must  be  pro- 
vided for,  and  I  think  that  is  one  of  the 


chief  causes  that  is  compelling  business  to 
adopt  libraries. 

Regarding  the  type  of  librarian  that  is 
required  for  administering  this  sort  of  a 
library,  I  think  enough  emphasis  has  not 
been  put  upon  the  keen  aliveness  which  is 
required  in  these  people,  if  I  may  be  par- 
doned for  saying  so,  in  comparison  to  those 
who  are  employed  in  public  institutions, 
where  the  term  of  oflBce  is  likely  to  run 
anyway  for  a  year.  In  business,  we  have  to 
maKe  good,  and  to  make  good  seriously, 
daily.  Our  reputation  is  at  stake  every 
time  a  question  is  asked. 

Then  it  seems  to  me  there  is  no  oppor- 
tunity for  the  quiet  type  of  librarian  who 
would  like  short  hours  and  the  freedom  to 
come  and  go  at  leisure.  It  requires  pri- 
marily some  one  of  tireless  vitality  and  one 
who  is  ready  to  sacrifice  himself  to  build 
up  not  only  the  efficiency  of  his  own  depart- 
ment, but  to  support  other  departments 
when  they  may  be  overworked. 

This  brings  me  to  the  point  of  the  prepa- 
ration for  special  librarianship.  I  question 
very  much  whether  the  librarian  who  Is 
prepared  through  the  regular  source  of  sup- 
ply, the  library  school,  to-day,  is  going  to 
become  just  the  type  of  person  to  take  up 
this  special  library  work.  It  seems  to  me 
the  more  I  consider  it  that  a  great  many 
of  the  most  successful  special  librarians  are 
those  who  have  grown  up  through  business, 
at  least  to  a  certain  degree,  and  have  taken 
on  the  library  training  in  their  own  quiet 
moments.  If  this  is  the  case,  would  it  be 
worth  while  for  the  library  schools  to  con- 
sider a  list  of  special  libraries  where  candi- 
dates for  their  certificates  or  diplomas 
might  go  to  spend  a  fraction  of  their  sum- 
mer vacation  in  actual  special  library  work 
and  receive  credit  in  their  schools  toward 
their  diplomas?  I  think  that  that  might  be 
worked  out  with  more  careful  thought. 

Mr.  Morton  mentioned  the  fact  that  the 
statistics  of  the  library  do  not  show  up 
against  the  operating  department,  the 
manufacturing  department,  etc.  I  want  to 
say  that  with  the  Arthur  D.  Little,  Inc., 
Library,  we  are  now  obliged  to  pass  In  time 
slips.    In  other  words,  the  library  has  been 


344 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


put  upon  a  par  with  the  other  departments, 
the  chemical,  the  research  and  the  engineer- 
ing departments,  and  at  the  end  of  every 
month  we  are  given  an  opportunity  to 
show  what  we  have  done  in  the  way  of  re- 
sults. 

If  there  has  been  a  quiet  month  of  course 
there  will  be  little  put  in  in  the  way  of 
service,  in  time,  but  the  time  siips  show 
and  it  is  up  to  the  library  to  maintain  its 
standing,  to  show  just  what  it  has  done 
during  the  month  in  actual  time,  because 
with  a  concern  of  the  nature  of  ours,  which 
is  a  consulting  and  engineering  corporation, 
time  is  a  great  element.  Mr.  Handy  touched 
upon  that,  but  not  half  emphatically  enough. 
In  the  insurance  library  I  am  sure  he  does 
not  appreciate  it.  The  monthly  report  is 
based  primarily  on  the  time  spent  on  dif- 
ferent problems,  and  these  time  slips  are  all 
assorted  and  tabulated  against  special 
pieces  of  work  which  are  generally  known 
in  an  engineering  organization  by  what  is 
called  a  job  number;  and  so  the  librarian's 
time  is  now  being  accounted  for  in  the  same 
way  that  that  of  the  head  of  the  research 
department  is  being  accounted  for.  It 
seems  to  me  that  that  is  a  step  in  advance 
and  indicates  progress. 

It  occurred  to  me  to  say  to  you  that  while 
I  have  been  here  at  this  conference  I  have 
received  application  for  another  member- 
ship, so  that  while  we  came  with  224,  we 
now  have  225  members.  The  Metropolitan 
Life  Insurance  Company  have  requested 
their  librarian  to  become  a  member  of  this 
association,  so  that  we  grow  daily. 

Mr.  Brigham  has  called  my  attention  to 
the  fact  that  it  ought  to  be  brought  out 
forcibly  here  how  necessary  it  is  for  every 
one  of  you  people,  no  matter  what  part  of 
the  country  you  may  go  to,  to  bring  to  the 
attention  of  this  association  officially,  either 
through  the  secretary  or  the  president,  the 
birth  of  every  such  library  that  you  may 
know  of.  Business  does  not  know  us.  We 
know  business  of  course,  but  until  this  as- 
sociation has  had  a  much  wider  publicity 
campaign  that  we  have  been  able  with  our 
meager  means  to  give  it,  business  cannot 
come  to  us  and  cannot  get  the  help  that  we 


can  give  it.  If,  then,  when  you  go  to  your 
respective  places,  you  would  be  alive  to 
the  creation  of  every  special  library  in  your 
part  of  the  country,  and  when  you  know  of 
a  collection  of  books  where  a  librarian 
might  be  necessary,  you  would  bring  it  to 
our  attention,  we  would  write  them  and  tell 
them  of  the  service  that  we  can  render 
them. 

I  think  the  thing  that  has  impressed  me 
most  in  the  discussion  that  has  gone  on  just 
now  is  the  fact  that  the  company  that  em- 
ploys Miss  Dobbins  has  three  special  libra- 
ries. That  is  unique,  it  seems  to  me,  that 
one  corporation  should  employ  three  special 
libraries;  not  merely  one,  but  a  library  for 
the  legal  department,  another  for  the  ac- 
counting department  and  a  third  for  the 
engineering  department.  That  it  seems  to 
me  represents  a  pretty  high  development  of 
the  special  library  idea. 

Miss  DOBBINS:  May  I  just  interrupt  a 
moment  to  say  that  I  too  submit  a  report 
at  the  end  of  every  month.  It  was  my  own 
suggestion,  for  I  wanted  the  company  to 
know  that  we  were  doing  something,  and 
we  would  possibly  be  lost  sight  of  in  such 
an  enormous  place.  So  I  sent  in  a  report, 
very  brief,  just  giving  the  number  of  books 
circulated  in  the  various  departments,  the 
number  of  pamphlets  and  the  reference 
work  done.  They  said  they  were  very  glad 
to  get  it,  and  that  it  put  us  on  a  working 
basis. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  Before  opening 
a  more  general  discussion  I  would  like  to 
have  the  secretary  make  a  few  announce- 
ments regarding  certain  things  of  interest. 

Mr.  MARION:  I  have  here  a  bound  vol- 
ume of  "Special  Libraries"  that  all  may  see 
everything  that  has  been  published  to  date. 
I  think  it  would  be  of  interest  to  some  of 
you  who  are  not  familiar  with  its  contents. 
We  also  have  for  sale,  if  any  one  cared  to 
purchase  them,  three  copies  of  Volume  2 
complete.  Then  we  have  for  distribution 
to  any  who  might  care  for  it,  "The  earn- 
ing power  of  chemistry,"  which  is  writ- 
ten by  Mr.  Little,  the  president  of  the  con- 
cern which  I  serve.  As  you  know,  Mr. 
Little  is,  to-day,  one  of  the  foremost  in- 


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345 


dustrial  chemists  In  this  country,  If  not  In 
the  world.  He  Is  also  this  year,  by  a  very 
fortunate  circumstance,  it  seems  to  me, 
president  of  the  American  Chemical  Soci- 
ety. I  say  fortunate  because  this  year 
America  is  entertaining  the  International 
Congress  of  Applied  Chemistry  that  meets 
in  Washington  and  New  York  in  September. 
This  is  a  review  to  convince  the  business 
man  of  the  usefulness  of  chemistry  in  solv- 
ing his  everyday  problems.  It  is  a  reprint 
of  a  free  public  lecture  delivered  to  the 
business  men  of  Indianapolis  last  June.  It 
is  simply  a  talk  upon  business  from  another 
angle.  In  the  same  way  Mr.  Handy's  talk 
is  equally  strong,  it  seems  to  me,  from  the 
library  standpoint. 

We  have  also  for  sale  here,  should  any 
one  care  to  purchase  it,  the  city  planning 
bibliography  which  was  published  as  the 
May  issue  of  "Special  Libraries."  It  is  25 
cents  a  copy.  This  was  compiled  by  Har- 
vard university  and  the  Library  of  Con- 
gress. 

I  have  a  few  copies  left  of  "The  library 
as  an  adjunct  to  industrial  laboratories,"  a 
paper  which  I  submitted  originally  to  the 
American  Chemical  Society  at  its  Boston 
meeting,  and  describing  in  minute  detail 
my  own  personal  library.  It  may  be  of  in- 
terest to  some  and  you  are  welcome  to  it  if 
any  of  you  wish  to  take  it  away. 

Mr.  HANDY:  I  was  particularly  inter- 
ested in  Mr.  Marlon's  discussion,  and  in  one 
suggestion  more  especially,  that  the  library 
school  might  specialize  somewhat  more 
along  the  lines  of  special  library  work. 
While  I  think  that  might  well  be  brought 
up  as  a  subject  of  discussion  this  evening, 
I  should  like  to  say  just  now  that  it  seems 
to  me,  in  the  first  place,  that  there  is  a 
great  dearth  of  properly  prepared  assistants 
to  do  the  kind  of  work  that  is  needed  in 
the  special  library.  I  think  the  libraries 
that  specialize  in  business  library  work 
have  found  that  to  be  true,  and  that  these 
library  schools  in  general  are  not  particu- 
larly adapted  to  meet  that  requirement.  It 
occurs  to  me,  then,  that  it  might  be  possible 
for  special  libraries,  possibly  through  the 
co-operation  of  the  American  Library  Asso- 


ciation, to  get  the  library  schools  of  the 
country,  at  some  time  in  their  course,  to 
offer  a  more  specialized  course  which  could 
be  taken  by  those  students  who  intend  to 
specialize  in  library  work,  and  that  in  that 
course  an  attempt  be  made  to  develop  the 
special  library  attitude,  which  is  absolutely 
and  wholly  different  from  the  general  li- 
brary attitude,  toward  the  subjects  handled. 
It  seems  to  me  that  several  exceedingly 
good  things  could  come  of  it.  In  the  first 
place,  if  the  library  schools  would  do  for 
special  libraries  as  they  do  for  general  li- 
braries, that  is,  if  they  would  select  a  cer- 
tain number  of  libraries,  which  measure  up 
to  certain  standards,  throughout  the  coun- 
try, and  assign  pupils  to  those  libraries, 
with  the  understanding  that  before  they 
could  be  qualified  they  would  have  to  meas- 
ure up  to  a  certain  standard ;  then  a  student 
v/ho  spent  a  certain  amount  of  time  in  such 
a  library  would  receive  credit  for  special 
library  work  in  the  library  course,  exactly 
the  same  as  students  do  now  in  general 
library  work.  Then  I  think  you  would  find 
that  you  would  get,  in  the  first  place,  more 
specialized  students;  in  the  second  place,  I 
think  you  would  lift  the  plane  of  special 
library  work  immensely,  you  would  lift  it 
to  a  much  higher  plane  of  professionalism 
and  you  would  find  that  your  directors  and 
your  people  who  pay  the  money  to  support 
these  libraries  would  vie  with  one  another 
to  be  qualified  by  the  leading  library  schools 
in  the  country,  and  I  think  that  in  itself 
would  be  an  inducement  to  a  good  many 
halting  business  concerns  to  support,  as 
they  are  not  supporting  now,  their  libraries; 
they  would  see  the  advertising  value  of  be- 
ing endorsed  by  the  leading  library  schools 
in  the  country,  if  they  did  not  see  anything 
else,  and  they  would  pay  the  money  neces- 
sary to  bring  their  own  libraries  up  to  that 
degree  of  efiiciency. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  special  library  is  offering  an  exception- 
ally Interesting  field  to  young  women  going 
into  library  work,  and  that  the  library 
schools  as  at  present  organized  are  not 
pointing  the  way  to  them  as  they  should; 
and  possibly  the  library  schools  are  not  in 


346 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


a  position  to  do  it.  I  did  not  mean  to  con- 
sider this  at  tliis  point,  but  I  do  think  that 
is  one  of  the  subjects  that  might  be  seri- 
ously considered  now  or  this  evening,  and, 
if  necessary,  a  committee  appointed  to  go 
over  the  whole  subject,  and  possibly  co- 
operate with  the  American  Library  Associa- 
tion or  the  library  schools,  whichever  might 
be  necessary,  to  bring  it  to  a  focus. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  It  might  be  of 
interest  to  know  that  in  Simmons  we  have 
a  library  school  which  appoints  special 
courses  with  a  view  to  fitting  women  espe- 
cially for  economic  and  business  library 
work. 

Do  you  desire,  Mr.  Handy,  to  put  your 
suggestion  in  the  form  of  a  motion  now  or 
later? 

Mr.  HANDY:  My  motion,  then,  would 
be  this,  that  the  subject  of  co-operation 
between  the  library  schools  and  the  special 
libraries,  with  the  aim  of  preparing  students 
especially  for  special  library  work,  be  taken 
up  at  the  conference  this  evening.  (Carried) 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  Before  we  take 
up  any  further  discussion,  out  of  respect  to 
the  Chairman  of  the  Municipal  Year  Book 
Committee,  I  wish  to  ask  for  a  report  from 
that  joint  committee,  of  which  Mr.  Ranck 
is  chairman. 

Mr.  RANCK:  I  can  only  report  progress 
again.  I  had  hoped  to  be  able  to  report 
something  very  definite  at  this  time.  Our 
committee  had  a  meeting  in  New  York  in 
June,  after  the  Pasadena  meeting,  at  which 
time  there  were  present  Mr.  Baker,  the 
editor  of  "Engineering  News;"  Professor 
Hart  of  Harvard;  Professor  Rowe  of  the 
University  of  Pennsylvania;  Mr.  Woodruff 
of  the  National  Municipal  League,  Dr.  Whit- 
ten  of  the  New  York  Public  Service  Library 
and  myself.  I  think  that  includes  all  of  the 
persons  who  were  present. 

The  committee  discussed  first  of  all  what 
should  be  included  in  a  municipal  year  book, 
and  as  a  result  of  that  discussion,  which 
lasted  three  hours,  in  the  City  Club,  Mr. 
Woodruff  was  delegated  to  take  up  with 
certain  publishing  houses  the  project  of  put- 
ting this  thing  through.  I  have  had  several 
letters  from  Mr.  Woodruff  within  the  last 


few  months,  or  weeks,  on  this  subject,  and 
he  hoped  to  have  a  definite  announcement 
ready  for  this  meeting.  The  delay  has  been 
on  account  of  the  fact  that  the  head  of  one 
of  the  publishing  houses,  the  one  that 
seemed  most  favorable  toward  this  project, 
and  a  publishing  house  that  is  in  the  busi- 
ness of  making  year  books  and  encyclo- 
pedias, was  in  Europe,  and  so  Mr.  Woodruff 
could  not  get  that  thing  put  through.  How- 
ever, he  is  in  hopes  that  it  may  be  put 
through  almost  any  day. 

I  may  say  that  thus  far  the  prospects  of 
our  having  for  the  cities  of  the  United 
States  and  Canada  an  American  municipal 
year  book,  are  altogether  favorable. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  Do  you  wish 
the  committee  to  be  continued? 

Mr.  RANCK:  I  think  we  have  this  in 
hand  and  that  perhaps  we  might  continue  it. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  This  committee 
has  rather  a  unique  function  anyway.  It 
speaks  for  both  the  State  Libraries  and  the 
Special  Libraries  associations,  a  joint  com- 
mittee. 

Mr.  RANCK:  And  there  was  brought 
into  it  the  National  Municipal  League  and 
several  others. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  Doubtless  the 
National  Municipal  Review  will  contain  in 
time  notes  of  the  proceedings  of  that  com- 
mittee, so  that  the  members  will  be  in- 
formed.   Could  it  not  be  done  that  way? 

Mr.  RANCK:  As  soon  as  the  thing  is 
definitely  decided  I  will  notify  the  sec- 
retary. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT :  Yes,  but  I  mean 
it  would  be  available  for  any  one  to  read  in 
the  National  Municipal  Review  which  ap- 
pears from  time  to  time. 

Mr.  RANCK:  Probably,  yes.  If  I  may  be 
permitted,  I  should  like  to  say  a  word  about 
another  matter  that  was  under  discussion 
this  afternoon.  I  was  very  much  interested 
in  what  was  said  about  present  engineering 
training  and  the  kind  of  training  of  men 
who  are  going  into  business,  in  their  use  of 
books,  and  their  demand  on  libraries.  A 
few  weeks  ago  I  had  the  privilege  of  going 
through  one  of  the  largest  electric  lamp 
factories    in   the    country,    one    of   whose 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


347 


branches  has  2000  people  employed,  and  I 
was  particularly  Interested  in  the  corps  of 
professional  men.  I  went  there  to  visit  a 
friend  of  mine  who  is  a  physical  engineer. 
He  was  a  professor  at  the  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  was  afterward  at  the  head  of 
the  department  of  physics  in  one  of  our 
state  institutions,  and  was  taken  from  that 
into  this  concern,  and  within  the  last  three 
years  that  concern  has  engaged,  I  think, 
four  or  five  doctors  of  philosophy,  four  or 
five  men  who  have  been  professors  in  tech- 
nical schools,  and  they  are  going  at  that 
business  altogether  different  from  the  rule 
of  thumb  method;  and  that  type  of  men 
who  are  accustomed  to  use  books  and  who 
do  use  them  are  coming  into  demand  more 
and  more.  One  thing  my  friend  said,  that 
impressed  me  very  much,  was  this,  that  in 
going  about  to  a  number  of  engineering 
schools,  Cornell,  the  State  College  of  Penn- 
sylvania and  several  others,  he  has  been 
talking  to  the  boys  taking  engineering 
courses,  of  the  chances  and  opportunities 
for  going  into  that  sort  of  work.  These 
companies  are  after  technically  trained  men 
from  the  colleges  and  universities  and  they 
send  men  like  him  out  to  talk  to  the  boys 
and  try  to  get  them  to  come  into  their 
works.  Another  thing  he  emphasized,  and 
which  I  think  we  must  keep  in  our  mind 
all  the  time — it  is  a  thing  we  emphasize 
as  librarians  of  the  public  libraries,  but  it 
has  a  bearing  in  the  work  of  this  organiza- 
tion as  well — he  said  he  was  telling  the  boys 
at  Cornell  and  those  other  engineering 
schools  that  while  engineers  have  to  deal 
with  things,  they  have  to  know  science ;  yet 
that  more  than  half  of  the  problems  of  the 
average  engineer  are  problems  of  men 
rather  than  problems  of  things.  In  other 
words,  that  the  humanities  must  be  studied ; 
that  you  must  know  sociology — that  was  re- 
ferred to  here  this  afternoon — and  eco- 
nomics, just  as  much  as  chemistry  and 
business  and  all  that  sort  of  thing.  In 
short  the  two  must  go  together. 

Mr.  G.  W.  LEE:  Mr.  Chairman,  you  have 
a  question  box  there  which  has  been  for- 
gotten all  about,  and  I  am  not  very  sorry. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:     No,  I  haven't. 


I  am  going  to  put  it  In  for  discussion,  the 
whole  thing. 

Mr.  LEE:  There  were  no  questions,  I 
think,  except  the  question  box.  I  should 
like  to  question  that.  There  ought  to  be 
some  machinery  at  these  conferences  for 
introducing  the  new  members;  some 
method  by  which  we  can  all  let  it  be  known 
what  we  especially  want  to  know;  some 
way  to  meet  the  people  that  have  this  in- 
formation. 

Now,  what  I  want  to  say  about  the  ques- 
tion box  is  that  It  seems  to  me  that  the 
Special  Libraries  Association  might  intro- 
duce a  circular  that  tells  about  the  next 
conference  of  the  American  Library  Asso- 
ciation, and  could  put  in  a  little  slip  saying, 
"Please  send  to  headquarters  a  statement 
of  what  you  want  to  know,  what  is  your 
specialty."  It  would  help  immensely. 
People  come  here  to  get  some  information; 
they  want  to  know  about  filing  photographs, 
about  dry-goods  libraries  and  so  on,  and  we 
ought  to  make  it  possible  for  them  to  get 
something  out  of  the  convention  without 
trying  too  hard. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  I  think  Mr. 
Lee  has  raised  a  very  natural  question.  I 
have  talked  with  some  of  the  older  mem- 
bers of  the  American  Library  Association, 
and  it  seems  to  be  the  feeling  that  we  have 
lost  something  since  we  have  grown  so 
large.  With  eight  hundred  members,  it  Is 
almost  Impossible  to  know  every  one  per- 
sonally, as  it  was  when  there  were  only  a 
couple  of  hundred  In  attendance  at  the 
meetings.  The  New  York  library  meeting 
in  September  will  bring  together  as  many 
people  as  used  to  come  to  the  American 
Library  Association  meetings  ten  or  fifteen 
years  ago.  I  do  not  see  any  way  out  of  it 
except  to  follow  some  definite  method  from 
headquarters  so  that  the  American  Library 
Association  itself  can  arrange  the  matter. 
It  Is  not  a  matter  of  hospitality  necessarily, 
but  oftentimes  the  stranger  within  our 
gates  is  the  one  that  suffers  In  these  re- 
spects. After  you  have  been  to  three  or 
four  conventions  you  enjoy  yourself,  but  the 
first  year  it  is  diflBcult  to  know  people. 

Mr.  MORTON:   I  should  like  to  offer  a 


348 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


suggestion  with  regard  to  the  difficulty  of 
the  newer  members  getting  to  know  the 
older  ones.  I  find  out  that  the  way  to  get 
acquainted  Is  to  pitch  in  and  do  some  work. 
Then  they  have  to  know  you.  I  would 
therefore  suggest  putting  the  younger  mem- 
bers on  the  various  committees  and  make 
them  work  and  work  hard;  then  they  will 
come  to  know  people. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  You  have 
brought  up  a  very  important  point,  and 
that  is  what  we  might  call  the  committee 
system.  The  system  has  often  failed  by 
being  limited  to  three  members.  The 
chairman  does  the  work  and  sends  around 
to  the  other  members  to  sign  up;  or  they 
live  at  various  points  of  the  country  and 
the  chairman  forgets  to  do  the  work  or  for 
various  reasons  fails  to  report.  The  way 
to  get  the  best  results  is  to  appoint  a  com- 
mittee of  one  and  get  the  work  done  by 
that  committee,  and  if  he  does  not  do  the 
work,  discharge  him  and  get  another  per- 
son in  his  place  who  will  do  the  work.  We 
are  suggesting  now  a  re-arrangement  of 
that  method  by  which  we  can  get,  I  think, 
better  results,  in  answer  to  your  remarks. 

Mr.  MARION:  I  wonder  if  Mr.  Handy 
would  develop  a  little  the  idea  that  was 
brought  out  in  a  conversation  that  he  held 
with  me  some  little  time  ago  in  Boston,  in 
which  he  pointed  out  the  sort  of  large  op- 
portunities that  come  to  the  special  libra- 
rian, that  do  not  come  to  the  public  libra- 
rian, and  cannot  from  the  very  nature  of 
things. 

Mr.  HANDY:  I  had  in  mind  especially 
when  I  was  talking  with  Mr.  Marion  a  man 
who  at  present  holds  the  position  of  assist- 
ant manager  in  New  York  of  the  Fire  In- 
surance Exchange.  I  think  his  salary  is 
between  six  and  seven  thousand  a  year.  It 
happens  that  he  is  a  very  bright  fellow,  and 
he  is  taking  charge  also  of  evening  classes 
in  the  New  York  University  school  of  com- 
merce and  accounts,  which  adds  another 
thousand  dollars  a  year  to  his  salary.  I  am 
speaking,  in  this,  simply  from  the  stand- 
point of  salary.  He  started  in  as  a  special 
librarian.  He  came  into  opportunities 
solely  through  the  close  personal  contact 


with  superiors  who  were  looking  for 
exactly  this  kind  of  advisory  and  expert 
service  that  I  tried  to  emphasize  in  my 
paper.  Of  course,  he  made  good  in  the 
smaller  position,  and  through  making  good 
there  got  the  opportunity  to  go  to  New  York 
in  the  first  place,  in  a  position,  which  while 
not  particularly  better  than  the  one  he  had 
occupied  as  librarian,  was  better  in  oppor- 
tunities and  much  beyond  anything  that 
any  special  library  would  be  likely  to  offer; 
and  he  has  so  far  made  good  in  New  York 
that  he  has  come  into  the  opportunity  that 
I  spoke  of,  and  he  has  the  present  salary, 
which  of  course  carries  with  it  responsi- 
bilities; but  it  seems  to  me  it  will  be  a 
great  many  years  before  in  general  library 
work  one  would  find  an  opportunity  like 
that  for  advancement,  because  it  was  all 
done  in  about  seven  or  eight  years.  It  is 
that  possibility  of  getting  in  close  contact 
with  the  heads  of  great  industrial  organiza- 
tions and  great  enterprises,  and  by  making 
one's  self  extremely  serviceable  and  valu- ' 
able  there,  that  makes  the  special  library 
a  particularly  promising  field  either  for 
bright  men  or  bright  women.  It  is  not  the 
library  service  in  itself  but  it  is  the  oppor- 
tunity of  getting  into  close  contact  with 
men  who  have  made  great  successes  in 
business,  and  that  opportunity,  I  think, 
does  not  come  to  the  general  librarian. 
The  person  entering  the  general  library 
must  expect  that  the  top  of  the  work  is 
simply  the  library  oportunities  themselves, 
and,  of  course,  they  are  somewhat  limited. 
A  person  entering  special  library  work 
feels  that  the  top  is  the  whole  vast  indus- 
trial or  commercial  enterprise  in  which  he 
is  engaged,  and  if  he  has  the  adaptability 
— and  that  is  precisely  the  thing  which  we 
have  been  trying  to  emphasize  as  necessary 
in  library  work, — he  naturally,  as  time 
goes  on,  sees  the  field  of  opportunity 
broadening,  and  the  opportunity  comes  for 
him  to  step  out  of  the  more  restricted  Into 
the  larger,  more  active  field. 

I  know  another  person  who  received  a 
very  Interesting  offer,  with  a  considerably 
larger  salary  and  greater  executive  respon- 
sibilities, due  entirely  to  the  fact  that  he 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


349 


had  made  good  In  special  library  work;  to 
the  fact  that  that  work  brought  him  into 
contact  with  superiors  who  were  able  to 
help  him  Into  a  broader  opportunity.  I 
think  that  is  well  worth  emphasizing  for 
either  men  or  women  interested  In  this 
meeting. 

Mr.  LAPP:  Just  that  fact  is  the  reason 
why  we  should  have  some  means  of  train- 
ing special  librarians.  The  good  men  are 
being  drawn  off  so  rapidly  that  it  is  Im- 
possible for  the  demand  to  be  supplied,  and 
I  am  glad  that  the  question  of  training 
librarians  Is  coming  up,  and  I  hope  that 
when  It  does  come  up  we  shall  have  some 
provision  made  for  a  committee  that  will 
work  out  a  complete  scheme  In  co-opera- 
tion with  the  American  Library  Association 
and  the  library  schools  for  the  training  of 
special  librarians.  But  right  there  we 
should  also  emphasize  the  fact  that  It  Is 
not  merely  the  librarians  that  should  be 
trained,  but  we  should  train  the  directors 
of  the  establishments,  and  it  ought  to  be 
emphasized  In  all  special  library  work  that 
there  Is  a  difference.  I  would  agree  with 
many  who  have  spoken  before,  that  the 
director  of  an  establishment  need  not 
necessarily  be  a  person  trained  in  library 
work,  although  a  person  trained  in  library 
wok  could  make  a  good  success  of  It  if  he 
also  had  an  insight  Into  the  business.  But 
I  would  emphasize  the  fact  that  we  need  a 
training  for  directors  of  establishments  and 
we  also  need  a  special  training  for  libra- 
rians and  assistants.  It  Is  a  great  deal  In 
the  library  world  as  It  is  in  the  college 
world,  that  the  men  who  become  really 
worth  while  as  college  professors,  in  the 
commercial  departments  at  least,  and  In  the 
engineering  departments,  unless  they  have 
a  taste  for  the  teaching  work  which  would 
prevent  their  leaving  it,  do  not  stay  very 
long  in  the  business  of  teaching,  and  the 
college  must  continually  recruit  new  men, 
and  that  is  a  difficulty  that  is  going  to  con- 
front the  Special  Libraries  Association  and 
people  who  are  establishing  special  libra- 
ries, more  and  more.  I  believe  that  If  the 
number  of  concerns  to-day  that  ought  to 
have    special   libraries    and    would    profit 


wonderfully  by  them,  were  to  attempt  to 
get  special  librarians  or  directors  of  depart- 
ments, they  would  fail  completely  and  the 
whole  movement  would  go  to  the  bad, 
simply  because  you  could  not  supply  the 
people  who  would  be  competent  for  the 
work.  The  same  thing  is  true  of  municipal 
reference  departments.  It  is  unfortunate 
if  they  are  established  and  men  who  are 
not  qualified  are  put  in  charge.  The  same 
thing  Is  true  of  legislative  reference  de- 
partments. We  might  better  wait  for  years 
rather  than  establish  them  before  we  can 
put  them  in  charge  of  people  who  appre- 
ciate the  work  to  be  done,  and  who  have 
the  ability  to  do  it.  So  that  I  think  our  big 
problem  is  to  keep  the  special  library 
movement  from  growing  too  fast  for  us  to 
supply  the  men  and  women  who  can  do  the 
work;  and  I  would  emphasize  again  that  we 
need  two  or  three  different  kinds  of  train- 
ing; one  for  those  who  are  to  have  general 
direction  of  the  work,  for  those  who  are  to 
do  the  actual  work  on  the  library  side,  and 
also  for  the  assistant  side. 

Mr.  LEE:  One  difference  is  that  in  the 
public  library  you  are  being  asked  ques- 
tions all  the  time,  and  in  the  special  library 
you  are  being  asked  questions  two-thirds 
of  the  time,  and  the  other  third  you  ask 
questions  yourselves,  so  you  get  the  benefit 
of  variety;  part  of  the  time  you  are  a  stu- 
dent, and  the  rest  of  the  time  you  are  a 
librarian,  and  there  is  that  stimulating, 
broadening  effect,  and  to  me  it  has  been  a 
very  uplifting  effect. 

Mr.  MORTON:  Mr.  Marion  spoke  of  the 
training  of  the  librarian,  also  Mr.  Lapp  and 
one  or  two  others.  I  do  not  know  whether 
our  position  is  particularly  unique,  but 
some  months  ago  I  lost  my  assistant,  and 
instead  of  going  to  a  library  man  I  con- 
sidered myself  extremely  fortunate  to  get 
a  man  who  was  a  graduate  chemist,  a  civil 
engineer,  a  mining  engineer  and  a  man  who 
had  had  wide  experience  in  all  of  those 
branches.  It  seems  to  me  that  for  tech- 
nical business  the  practical  training  in  the 
particular  line  of  business  is  of  far  greater 
value  than  training  in  any  library  system, 
simply  on  account  of  the  nature  of  the  in- 


350 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


formation  that  they  are  called  upon  to 
produce. 

Miss  LINDHOLM:  I  wish  to  add  a  word 
to  what  Mr.  Lapp  has  said,  to  point  out  the 
fact  that  even  if  we  should  try  to  give 
courses  in  special  library  work  in  the 
library  school,  there  would  not  be  any 
teachers  in  the  library  scjiool  qualified  to 
give  these  courses,  because  they  would  not 
have  the  special  library  experience,  and  we 
ourselves  are  too  busy  running  our  special 
libraries  to  give  the  courses,  so  that  it  is 
really  a  matter  quite  far  in  the  future,  I 
should  think.  Last  spring  I  read  in  the 
Library  Journal  a  very  good  article  on  a 
course  for  legislative  reference  librarians, 
but  that  is  the  first  article  of  the  kind  I 
have  ever  seen,  although  I  had  often 
thought  about  it  myself. 

Another  thing  that  would  help  out  in  try- 
ing to  give  some  idea  of  special  library 
methods  to  new  people,  would  be  for  those 
of  us  who  have  gotten  our  libraries  well 
in  hand,  our  systems,  etc.,  to  get  up  a  series 
of  little  handbooks  on  how  to  organize  a 
financial  library,  a  public  utilities  library, 
a  legislative  reference  library  and  so  on, 
those  who  are  perhaps  library  school  stu- 
dents could  use  these  pamphlets  as  text- 
books. This  would  necessitate  our  starting 
In  the  publishing  business  and  having  a 
publishing  board,  like  the  American  Li- 
brary Association. 

Miss  HOAGLAND:  I  think  we  should  fail 
in  our  whole  duty  toward  the  library  profes- 
sion, and  especially  to  the  profession  of  the 
special  librarian,  if  we  did  not  take  some 
account  of  this  growing  demand  for  train- 
ing in  special  library  work.  I  think  that  we 
appreciate  the  great  difiiculty  of  combina- 
tion of  the  technical  work  that  is  necessary 
in  library  training  and  the  special  library 
field  that  each  might  wish  to  occupy.  It 
has  seemed  to  me  that  it  was  possible  to 
make  a  combination  by  giving  a  minimum 
of  library  training,  and  then  for  students 
to  specialize  in  some  business  lines  and 
learn  the  bibliography  of  that  trade.  Of 
course,  that  is  a  very  difficult  operation  in 
the  ordinary  library  school,  but  I  believe 
there  are  places  in  the  country  where  that 


might  be  acquired,  where  many  businesses 
are  present,  capable  of  furnishing  the 
libraries,  and  where  students  can  take,  say, 
three  months  of  technical  training,  which 
would  include  typewriting  of  records,  and 
then  can  be  sent  into  the  field  to  learn  that 
field,  the  school  to  furnish  them  the  special 
bibliography  for  that  special  work.  In  that 
way  I  believe  we  could  develop  a  series  of 
libraries  that  would  train  for  special 
librarianship. 

Miss  MILLER:  There  is  already  one 
school,  the  Wisconsin  school,  which  gives 
regular  instruction  to  such  students  as 
wish  to  take  up  legislative  reference  work. 
They  are  given  from  one  to  two  months 
library  experience  during  those  two  months 
in  the  winter  when  the  other  members  of 
the  class  go  to  the  public  libraries.  They 
at  least  get  the  principles  of  legislative 
reference  work. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  If  there  is  no 
further  discussion,  we  will  take  up  the  re- 
ports of  committees,  and  the  first  will  be 
Mr.  Lapp's  report,  as  editor  of  the  publica- 
tion. 

Mr.  LAPP:  There  is  very  little  to  report 
in  regard  to  the  publication.  It  has  been 
issued  regularly  since  January,  1910,  and 
the  third  volume  is  now  nearly  completed. 
The  growth  of  subscriptions  has  been  grati- 
fying, and  the  publication  has  been  able  to 
do  what  was  done  on  the  membership 
which  we  have  had.  We  hope  to  have  an 
increased  membership,  because  there  are 
a  number  of  things  which  we  can  do.  We 
have  now  regularly  established  several 
sources  of  information,  we  are  going  to 
have  others,  and  out  of  those  we  will  pub- 
lish, I  think,  a  better,  more  useful  maga- 
zine the  coming  year  than  we  have  in  the 
past.  We  have  a  connection  with  the  Li- 
brary of  Congress  by  which  a  special 
bibliography  is  furnished  every  month  upon 
some  obscure  question.  We  have  a  connec- 
tion with  the  New  York  public  library  by 
which  we  receive  municipal  documents. 
We  have  a  connection  with  the  Public 
Utilities  Committee  by  which  we  will  have 
public  utility  references  and  the  others, 
insurance  references  and  so  on.    The  pub- 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


351 


licatlon  will  issue  also  some  special  bibliog- 
raphies such  as  the  one  that  was  issued 
recently  on  city  planning.  It  will  take  up 
certain  others  and  publish  them  as  means 
permit. 

The  main  thing  I  want  to  ask  as  editor 
of  "Special  Libraries"  is  that  the  editor 
should  receive  co-operation  from  persons 
connected  with  the  association.  This  is  a 
co-operative  enterprise  and  every  one 
should  co-operate.  Whenever  you  know  of 
anything  which  has  happened  in  your  com- 
munity in  the  special  library  interest,  or 
of  any  publication  that  does  not  get  into 
the  ordinary  sources,  furnish  that  to  the 
editor  and  it  will  be  scattered  over  the 
country  through  "Special  Libraries." 

A  new  system  will  be  organized  following 
this  meeting,  we  hope,  by  which  the  coun- 
try will  be  divided  into  districts  in  each  of 
which  there  will  be  one  person  who  will  be 
responsible  for  that  district,  and  we  hope 
in  that  way  to  keep  in  closer  touch.  We 
will  also  have  a  representative  in  the 
different  classes  of  special  libraries  so  that 
no  one  will  be  left  out,  and  we  will  get  re- 
ports from  all  persons  who  are  represent- 
ing the  different  departments  in  the  special 
libraries,  which  now  number  perhaps  seven 
or  eight  that  are  active  different  classes  of 
libraries. 

I  want  to  ask  for  suggestions  also  from 
the  members  of  the  association  about 
things  that  we  want  published.  I  would  be 
glad  to  receive  letters.  I  do  not  receive 
enough  of  them;  and,  another  thing,  I  do 
not  receive  criticisms.  There  are  many 
things  we  would  like  to  know  about  the 
publication,  many  things  we  would  like  to 
learn.  We  would  like  to  hear  from  you 
either  one  way  or  the  other  on  the  publica- 
tion. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  I  will  call  for 
the  report  of  the  Committee  on  Public 
Utilities,  Mr.  Morton. 

(Mr.  Morton  rendered  a  brief  report 
which  is  available  in  the  secretary's  office 
to  those  who  may  be  interested  to  see  it.) 

The  session  then  adjourned. 


FOURTH  (EXTRA)  SESSION 

(Monday,  July  1,  8:15  p.  m.) 
After  an  informal  interchange  of  ideas 
among  a  small  group  of  people  who 
gathered  in  the  private  dining  room,  the 
business  session,  continued  from  the  after- 
noon, was  called  to  order  by  Vice-President 
Brigham.  In  view  of  the  small  attendance 
and  in  order  to  allow  greater  publicity  the 
meeting  was  adjourned  to  Tuesday,  July  2, 
9:30  a.  m. 

nFTH  (SECOND  JOINT)  SESSION 
(Tuesday,  July  2,  9:30  a.  m.) 

The  second  joint  session  was  attended  by 
the  National  Association  of  State  Libraries, 
the  American  Association  of  Law  Libraries 
and  the  Special  Libraries  Association 
delegates,  and  was  presided  over  by  Mr. 
Brigham,  vice-president  of  the  Special  Li- 
braries Association.  The  meeting  was  held 
in  the  ball  room  of  the  Chateau  Laurier. 

Mr.  Charles  J.  Babbitt  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts state  library  read  the  first  paper, 
entitled  "Snags,  stumbling  blocks  and  pit- 
falls among  the  session  laws."  During  the 
course  of  his  paper  Mr.  Babbitt  touched 
upon  some  very  interesting  phases  of  these 
questions.  In  the  absence  of  Mr.  James 
MKirdy,  Mr.  Thomas  Montgomery,  state 
librarian  of  Pennsylvania,  presented  his 
paper,  entitled  "Bill  drafting."  Following 
this,  in  the  absence  of  Dr.  John  H.  Arnold, 
librarian  of  the  Harvard  Law  School,  Mr. 
George  S.  Godard  read  his  paper,  entitled 
"The  history  of  the  growth  and  develop- 
ment of  the  Harvard  university  law  li- 
brary." Great  regret  was  expressed  at  the 
absence  of  Dr.  Arnold,  who  may  now  be 
looked  upon  as  the  father  of  law  libraries. 

Following  this  Mr.  Lapp  discussed  the 
question  of  co-operation  between  legislative 
reference  departments.  This  address  also 
covered  a  report  upon  the  same  subject  as 
well  as  a  report  on  legislative  reference 
service.  Mr.  Godard  followed  with  general 
remarks,  in  which  he  called  attention  to 
the  great  changes  in  our  present  social  life. 


352 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


brought  about  by  Improvements  In  our 
methods  of  transportation,  so  that  now  our 
view  point  Is  so  much  broader  that  In  the 
drawing  of  bills  we  can  no  longer  overlook 
what  other  states  are  doing,  hence  the 
great  necessity  for  co-operation  and  wider 
knowledge  In  this  field.  He  reviewed 
briefly  the  work  of  the  X.aw  Reporting 
Company  and  tried  to  point  out  how  service 
such  as  they  had  rendered  might  be  made 
practical.  He  appealed  for  a  national 
legislative  information  bureau,  and  he 
questioned  whether  this  could  ever  be 
brought  about  by  co-operation,  but  rather 
Insisted  that  it  must  be  a  definitely  estab- 
lished service  run  for  profit  or  subsidized 
by  government  support.  The  chairman 
called  attention  to  the  library  law  abstracts 
which  are  probably  present  In  every  state 
library  in  one  form  or  another.  In  these 
abstracts  minute  subjects  are  touched 
upon  which  are  difllcult  to  get  at.  The  ma- 
terial usually  exists  only  in  carbon  form. 
As  a  result  of  an  interview  with  a  commer- 
cial concern,  the  chairman  found  that  with 
the  use  of  the  multigraph  this  firm  would 
agree  to  furnish  three  hundred  copies  for 
$1.00  a  folio  with  $5.00  for  composition  and 
general  work.  This  would  mean  on  a  thirty 
folio,  a  total  of  |35.00  for  an  issue  of  three 
hundred  copies.  He  suggested  that  such 
material  be  sent  to  a  central  agency  and 
believed  that  such  a  scheme  could  be 
worked  out  successfully.  Mr.  Babbitt 
called  attention  to  several  interesting  In- 
stances where  the  assistance  of  such  a 
scheme  would  have  been  invaluable  In 
furthering  greater  publicity  for  material 
which  was  only  found  through  co-operation 
among  the  state  libraries.  Dr.  Clement 
W.  Andrews  believed  that  this  sort  of  work 
should  be  done  at  the  American  Library 
Association  headquarters  and  thought  with 
competent  operators  this  was  the  most 
practical  way  to  have  It  done.  He  also 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  Illinois 
State  Bankers  Association  had  asked  the 
John  Crerar  library  to  undertake  an  analy- 
sis of  the  State  Banking  Association  publi- 
cations. He  offered  to  send  circulars 
covering  that  work  to  any  state  or,  law 


libraries  that  might  find  them  of  useful- 
ness. 

Mr.  D.  N.  Handy  of  the  Insurance  Library 
Association  of  Boston  spoke  In  regard  to 
the  recently  organized  legislative  bureau  of 
the  National  Board  of  Mre  Underwriters. 
One  of  the  chief  functions  of  this  bureau 
will  be  to  bring  together  an  abstract  card 
index  of  the  laws  In  the  various  states  in 
the  country  bearing  on  fire  Insurance.  Re- 
cently the  Association  of  Life  Insurance 
Presidents  has  completed  a  card  Index 
abstract  of  the  laws  bearing  on  life  Insur- 
ance, comprising  something  like  four 
thousand  cards.  Mr.  Godard  offered  fur- 
ther discussion  which  he  finally  followed 
with  a  motion  to  the  effect  "that  our  com- 
mittee on  resolutions  prepare  suitable  reso- 
lution directed  to  Congress,  endorsing  the 
bill  now  before  Congress  looking  toward 
the  permanent  establishment  of  a  legisla- 
tive bureau  at  Washington  and  expressing 
our  hope  that  It  may  be  established  in  the 
very  near  future,  and  at  the  same  time  ex- 
pressing our  willingness  to  co-operate  in 
any  way  that  we  can."  Mr.  Montgomery,  as 
chairman  of  the  Committee  on  resolutions 
then  offered  several  resolutions.* 

Mr.  Johnson  Brigham  of  Iowa  then 
opened  up  the  discussion  of  the  relation 
between  state  libraries  and  legislative 
reference  bureaus,  to  which  Mr.  Mont- 
gomery replied.  General  discussion  fol- 
lowed In  which  several  told  of  the  actual 
working  relations  between  these  two  juris- 
dictions in  their  several  states.  The  meet- 
ing adjourned  at  12:24  p.  m. 

SIXTH  (BUSINESS)  SESSION 
(Tuesday,  July  2,  12:25  p.  m.) 

At  the  close  of  the  second  joint  session, 
a  business  meeting  of  the  Special  Libraries 
Association  was  called  to  order  by  Vice- 
President  Herbert  O.  Brigham  in  the  ball 
room  of  the  Chateau  Laurier. 

The  VICE-PRESIDENT:  The  first  bus- 
iness Is  the  report  of  the  secretary-treas- 
urer. 

'These  resolutions  will  be  found  in  full  in  the 
proceedings  of  the  National  Association  of  State  Li- 
braries, which  will  be  printed  by  that  association. 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES 


353 


Mr.  MARION:  The  membership  has  in- 
creased, from  September,  1911,  from  171 
members,  until  June,  1912,  to  224  members, 
which  is  an  increase  of  thirty  per  cent. 
The  bulletin  has  increased  in  pages  from 
12  to  16.    The  financial  situation  seems  to 


be  very  satisfactory.  We  have  a  cash 
balance  of  $292.15.  There  seems  to  be  an 
increased  call  for  special  librarians  in 
heretofore  unknown  fields.  The  following 
statement  Indicates  the  condition  of  the 
treasury  as  of  the  date  given: 


SPECIAL  LIBRARIES  ASSOCIATION 

July  1,  1912. 

Financial  statement  of  the  books  as  of  the  above  date. 

Receipts 

Cash  on  hand  Sept.  27,  1911 $119.07 

Membership  fees  and  subscriptions 415.80 

Sale  of  back  numbers 85.28 

Sale  of  reprints,  bibliographies,  etc 31.13 

Advertising 12.00 

Expenditures  $663.28 

Rent  of  hall  at  New  York  meeting 15.00 

Stenographic  work  of  New  York  meeting 15.00 

Postage,  telegrams,  express,  etc 41.08 

Storage  cabinet  for  editor's  office 13.25 

Indexing  of  volume  1 10.00 

Printing 275.50 

Bank  Exchange 1.30            371.13 

July  1,  1912,  Cash  on  hand $292.15 

Accounts  Receivable  144.10 

Accounts  Payable no  bills 

rendered 
GUY  E.  MARION,  Treasurer. 

On  motion  of  Mr.  Montgomery  the  report  Executive  Board:  Officers  ex-officio:  O. 

was  received.  E.      Norman,      Chicago;      Florence 

The  CHAIRMAN:   The  report  of  the  ex-  Spencer,  New  York, 

ecutive  board  of  the  Special  Libraries  Asso-  There  being  no  counter  nominations,  on 

elation  Is  brief.    It  is  proposed  during  the  motion,  the  secretary  cast  a  ballot  for  the 

coming  year  to  readjust  as  far  as  possible  association,  and  the  chair  declared  the  nom- 

the  committee  system  and  substitute  there-  inees  elected  for  their  respective  offices, 

for  representatives  for  certain  sections  of  ^j.  hANDY:  Will  it  be  In  order  now  to 

the  country,  so  that  the  persons  who  rep-  t^^g  ^p  the  matter  of  special  education  for 

resent  those  sections  shall  be  responsible  ^j^e  special  training  of  library  assistants? 

for  the  part  in  which  they  are  located.    It  ^^^^  CHAIRMAN:  That  comes  under  the 

is  entirely  a  matter  for  the  board.    I  think  ^^^^  ^^  ^^^  business,  which  we  are  now 

that  will  be  the  extent  of  their  report,  in  ^^^.^^  ^^     ^^^  ^^^  ^^^^^  j^  ^^^^^ 

brief,  and  I  will  now  call  for  the  report  of  ttat^tt^tt    t         i^       i  ^,      ^x,  ^ 

.      ..  ...        ,,„   T  „„  Mr.  HANDY:  I  would  make  a  motion  that 

the  nommatmg  committee,  Mr.  Lee.  ,  ^  ^  ^     xi. 

X  T-<T-<     mi-  1  -i..  ij.*«^  a  committee  of  three  be  appointed  by  the 

Mr.    LEE:    The    nominating    committee  j.^     j.     .  .         ^  /  ,  ,. 

^.  ,,         X.    IX     XI.     *  „      1       T  i     *  President,  upon  the  training  of  special  11- 

respectfully  submits  the  following  list  of  ^      .         'li.^^.        , 

^  .     ^,  ,  brarians,  with  instructions  to  report  upon 

officers  for  the  ensuing  year:  ^.,         /        ^  xi. 

■r,      .J,     xx^xTTT     J     Tix  this  matter  at  the  next  annual  meeting. 
President:  D.  N.  Handy,  Boston. 

Vice-President:  R.  H.  Johnston,  Wash-  The  motion  was  seconded  by  Mr.  Lapp 

Ington.  and  carried. 

Secretary-Treasurer:  G.  E.  Marion,  Bos-  Upon  motion  of  Dr.  Andrews  the  meeting 

ton.  adjourned  sine  die.  • 


ATTENDANCE  SUMMARIES 


By  Position  and  Sex 

Men  Women  Total 


Trustees  21 

Library  Commissions 

representatives 9 

Chief  librarians  103 

Assistants 50 

Library  scliools 1 

Editors  of  lib.  periodicals  2 

Commercial  agents 24 

Others  38 

Total   248 


By  Geographical  Sections 
6  of  the  6  New  England  States  sent. 


21 


12 

21 

130 

233 

191 

241 

13 

14 

2 

4 

3 

27 

105 

143 

456 

704 

5 

5  North  Atlantic  States  and 

District  of  Columbia  sent. 

.   179 

5 

6  South-eastern  States  sent. 

.     12 

7 

7  North  Central  States    "  . 

.  203 

3 

6  South  Central  States     "  . 

.     23 

7 

11  Western  States "  . 

.     26 

4 

7  Pacific  States                  "  . 

.     16 

5 

Canadian  Provinces "  . 

.   144 

England 

.       1 

Japan 

" 

.       1 

Total   704 

By  States 


Alabama  1 

California 8 

Colorado 4 

Connecticut 17 

Delaware  1 

District  Columbia  20 

Florida  1 

Georgia   5 

Illinois   82 

Indiana 17 

Iowa 10 


Missouri 17 

Nebraska  4 

New   Hampshire.     7 
New  Jersey 13 


New  York  . . . . 
North  Carolina 

Ohio 

Oklahoma 

Oregon  

Pennsylvania   . 
Rhode  Island  . . 


99 
2 

45 
1 
1 

40 


Kansas  5   South  Dakota  ...  1 

Kentucky 5   Texas   1 

Louisiana  1   Utah   1 

Maine    5    Vermont 9 

Maryland   6   Virginia   3 

Massachusetts    .     53   Washington 6 

Michigan   34  West  Virginia  ...  1 

Minnesota  9  Wisconsin 15 

By  Provinces 

Alberta 1    Ontario 125 

British  Columbia     1    Quebec  13 

Manitoba  3    Saskatchewan    . .  1 


99      ETngland 


Foreign  Countries 
, 1   Japan   1 


Total    ..704 


By  Libraries 
Libraries  having  five  or  more  representa- 
tives : 

Brooklyn  Public  L 8 

Chicago  Public  L 22 

Cleveland  Public  L 24 

Detroit  Public  L 8 

Grand  Rapids  Public  L 6 

Illinois,  L.  of  Univ.  of  10 

Indiana  State  L 5 

John  Crerar  L 7 

Library  of  Congress   10 

McGill  Univ.  L 9 

New  York  Public  L 7 

New  York  State  L 12 

Ottawa  Public  L 11 

Pittsburgh  Carnegie  L 11 

St.  Louis  Public  L 12 

Toronto  Public  L 10 

Note:  Those  who  participated  in  post- 
conference  trip  only  are  not  counted  in 
above  statistics. 


364 


ATTENDANCE  REGISTER 


♦  Prefixed  to  a  name  indicates  participation  in  post-conference  trip  on  the  lower  St.  Lawrence  and  Saguenay  Rivers 
**  Prefixed  to  a  name  indicates  participation  in  post-conference  trip  only. 


Abbreviations:  F.,  Free;  P.,  Public;  L., 
Library;  In.,  Librarian;  asst.,  Assistant; 
trus.,  Trustee;  ref.,  Reference;  catlgr., 
Cataloger;  Br.,  Branch;  sch.,  School. 

Abbot,  Etheldred,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Brookllne, 
Mass. 

Ahearn,   Mrs.    Thomas,   Ottawa,   Can. 

♦Ahern,  Mary  Eileen,  editor  "Public  Li- 
braries," Chicago,  111. 

♦Alexander,  W.  H.,  asst  In.  Assn.  of  the  Bar, 
New  York  City. 

♦Alexander,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  New  York  City. 

Allln,  Eugenia,  organizer  111.  L.  Ex.  Com- 
mission, Decatur,  111. 

♦Anderson,  Mrs.  C.  N.,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Anderson,  Edwin  H.,  asst.  director  P.  L., 
New  York  City. 

Anderson,  John  R.,  bookseller.  New  York 
City. 

♦Anderson,  Margaret  M.,  asst.  P.  L.,  De- 
troit, Mich. 

Anderson,  Robert  B.,  asst.  In.  Harvard  Law 
L.,  Cambridge,  Mass. 

Andrews,  Clement  W.,  In,  John  Crerar  L., 
Chicago,  111. 

Andrus,  Gertrude  E.,  supt.  child,  dept., 
Seattle,  Wash. 

♦Anthony,  Grace  P.,  New  York  City. 

Arbique,  Georgette,  asst.  P.  L.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Archer,  Frances  R.,  In.  P.  L,,  Talladega, 
Ala. 

Arms,  Jessie  L.,  1st  asst.  catlgr.,  Univ.  of 
Iowa,  Iowa  City,  la. 

♦Askew,  Sarah  B.,  organizer  P.  L.  Com- 
mission, Trenton,  N.  J. 

Ault,  A.  W.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Austen,  Willard,  asst.  In.  Cornell  Univ.  L., 
Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Austen,  Mrs.  Willard,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 

Ayer,  Clarence  W.,  In.  P.  L.,  Cambridge, 
Mass. 

Babbitt,  Charles  J.,  asst.  State  L.,  Boston, 
Mass. 


Baer,  Harriet  Irene,  Hebrew  Institute  Br., 
P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Bailey,  Arthur  L.,  In.  Wilmington  Inst.  F. 
L.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Baker,  Charlotte  A.,  In.  State  Agric.  Coll., 
Fort  Collins,  Colo. 

Baker,  Herbert  W.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Baker,  Mary  N.,  In.  P.  L.,  Elwood,  Ind. 

Ball,  Fanny  D.,  In.  Central  High  Sch.,  Grand 
Rapids,  Mich. 

♦Banks,  Mary,  In.  P.  Service  L.  of  N.  J., 
Newark,  N.  J. 

Banton,  T.  W.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Toronto,  Can. 

Barickman,  Mrs.  Rena  M.,  In.  P.  L.,  Joliet, 
111. 

♦Barnett,  Claribel  R.,  In.  U.  S.  Dept.  of 
Agric,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Barnett,  J.  Davis,  sec'y-treas.  P.  L.,  Strat- 
ford, Ont. 

Barnstead,  Winifred  G.,  asst.  catalog  dept. 
P.  L.,  Toronto,  Can. 

Barrr,  May  H.,  asst.  Geological  Survey  L., 
Ottawa,  Can. 

♦Bascom,  Elva  L.,  editor  A.  L.  A.  Booklist, 
Madison,  Wis. 

Bates,  Helen  C,  chief  order  dept.  P.  L., 
Detroit,  Mich. 

Bates,  Mary  R.,  asst.  In.  Univ.  of  Vt.,  Bur- 
lington, Vt. 

Baxter,  Miss,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  London,  Ont, 

Beatty,  Alma,  In.  P.  L.,  Pembroke,  Ont. 

Beer,  William,  In.  Howard  Mem.  L.,  New 
Orleans,  La. 

♦Bell,  Madelene  M.,  senior  asst.  child, 
dept.  F.  P.  L.,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Bergman,  F.  W.,  mgr.  Chateau  Laurler,  Ot- 
tawa, Can. 

Bergold,  Bertha  R.,  asst.  Lincoln  L.,  Spring- 
field, 111. 

Bergold,  Mrs.  E.,  Springfield,  111. 

Berry,  Ethel  I.,  N.  Y,  State  L.  Sch.,  Albany, 
N.  Y. 

Billlngsley,  Mary  P.,  asst.  In.  State  L.,  Tope- 
ka,  Kas. 


355 


356 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Black,  Mary  J.  L.,  In.  P.  L.,  Fort  William, 
Ont. 

Blackwelder,  Paul,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  St.  Louis, 
Mo. 

♦Blanchard,  Grace,  In.  P.  L.,  Concord,  N.  H. 

Bligh,  Harris  H.,  In.  Supreme  Court  L.,  Ot- 
tawa, Can. 

Bliss,  Robert  P.,  asst.  sec'y  F.  L.  Commis- 
sion, Harrisburg,  Pa. 

Blodgett,  Evelyn  M.,  catlgr.  State  L.,  Mont- 
pelier,  Vt. 

Bogle,  Sarah  C.  N.,  director  Training  Sch. 
for  Children's  Lns.,  Carnegie  L.,  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. 

Booth,  Mary  J.,  In.  State  Normal  Sch.  L., 
Charleston,  111. 

Borchard,  Edwin  M.,  law  In.  L.  of  Con- 
gress, Washington,  D.  C. 

Borresen,  Lily  M.  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Two  Har- 
bors, Minn. 

Bostwick,  Andrew  Linn,  technical  In.  P. 
L.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Bostwick,  Arthur  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  St.  Louis, 
Mo. 

Bostwick,  Mrs.  A.  E.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Bowerman,  George  F.,  In.  P.  L.,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

*Bowker,  R.  R.,  editor  "Library  Journal," 
New  York  City. 

♦Bowker,  Mrs.  R.  R.,  Stockbridge,  Mass. 

Boyd,  Anne  M.,  In.  James  Millikin  Univ., 
Decatur,  111. 

Boyd,  Edward  J.,  mgr.  Cassell  Co.  Ltd.,  To- 
ronto, Can. 

Boyd,  Mrs.  W.  P.,  Arthur,  111. 

Boyle,  Gertrude  M.,  asst.  catalog  dept.  P. 
L.,  Toronto,  Ont. 

Brandenburg,  S.  J.,  In.  Miami  Univ.  L.,  Ox- 
ford, O. 

Brett,  William  H.,  In.  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

*Briggs,  Walter  B.,  In.  Trinity  Coll.,  Hart- 
ford, Conn. 

♦Briggs,  Mrs.  Walter  B.,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Brigham,  Herbert  O.,  In.  State  L.,  Provi- 
dence, R.  I. 

Brigham,  Johnson,  In.  State  L.,  Des  Moines, 
la. 

♦Brown,  Alice  Harris,  In.  Kingsbridge  Br., 
P.  L.,  New  York  City. 

Brown,  Demarchus  C,  In.  State  L.,  Indian- 
apolis, Ind. 


Brown,  Geo.  A.,  chairman  Carnegie  P.  L., 

Campbell  ford,  Ont. 
Brown,  Walter  L.,  In.  P.  L.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
Browning,  Eliza  G.,  In.  P.  L.,  Indianapolis, 

Ind. 
Brydone,  William,  trus.  P.  L.,  Clinton,  Ont. 
Bryson,  Dr.  Mary,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Bucher,  Mrs.  E.  A.  Sherwood,  asst.  U.  S. 

Dept.  of  Agric.  L.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Bulmer,  Jeanie  N.,  In.  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  New 

York  City. 
Burpee,  Lawrence  J.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Burpee,  Mrs.  L.  J.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
•Burr,  Clara  J.,  Rocky  Hill,  Conn. 
Burrell,  Hon.  Martin,  minister  of  agricul- 
ture, Ottawa,  Can. 
Burrell,  Mrs.  Martin,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Butler,  H.  L.,  Am.  Law  L.,  New  York  City. 
Butters,  Mary  T.,  In.  P.  L.,  Niagara  Falls, 

Ont. 
Eyam,  C.  A.,  chairman  P.  L.,  New  Liskeard, 

Ont. 
Calder,  Mrs.  Mary  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Fenelon 

Falls,  Ont. 
Caldwell,  Clara  A.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Cleveland, 

O. 
Caldwell,  Lena  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Flint,  Mich. 
♦Calhoun,   Alexander,   In.    P.   L.,   Calgary, 

Alta. 
♦Calhoun,  Marion,  asst.  In.  Geological  Sur- 
vey L.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
♦Calhoun,  Mrs.  R.  C,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Cameron,   A.  W.,   ex-pres.   Ont.   L.   Assn., 

Woodstock,  Ont. 
Carey,  Miriam  E.,  organizer  P.  L.  Com., 

St.  Paul,  Minn. 
Carr,  Henry  J.,  In.  P.  L.,  Scranton,  Pa. 
Carr,  Mrs.  Henry  J.,  Scranton,  Pa. 
Carson,  W.  O.,  In.  P.  L.,  London,  Ont. 
Carswell,  F.  Edina,  Toronto,  Can. 
Carswell,  R.,  law  book  publisher,  Toronto, 

Can. 
Carswell,  Mrs.  R.,  Toronto,  Can. 
Carter,  Bertha,  asst.  catlg.  dept.  State  L., 

Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Casey,  Magdalen,  In.  Archives  L.,  Ottawa, 

Can. 
Caswell,  B.  S.,  sec'y-treas.  P.  L.,  Toronto, 

Can. 
Champion,  Miss  J.  H.,  In.  P.  L.,  Sault  Ste. 

Marie,  Ont. 


ATTENDANCE 


357 


Chapin,  Artena  M.,  In.  A.  K.  Smiley  P.  L. 

Redlands,  Cal. 
Chapman,  Effie   Louise,    In's   sec'y,   P.   L. 

Seattle,  Wash. 
Charlton,  Miss  M.  R.,  In.  Medical  L.,  Mc 

Gill  Univ.,  Montreal,  Can. 
Charlton,  Ruby,  N.  Y.   State  L.   Sch.,  Al 

hany,  N.  Y. 
Charteris,  Dr.  C.  R.,  pres.  Ontario  L.  Assn. 

Chatham,  Ont. 
Chase,  Kate  B.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 
Cheney,  George  N.,  In.  Court  of  Appeals  L. 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Cheney,  Mrs.  George  N.,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Chidester,  Maud,  children's  In.  P.  L.,  Evan 

ston,  111. 
Chipman,  Frank  E.,  managing  director  Bos 

ton  Book  Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 
Chivers,     Cedric,     bookbinder,    Brooklyn 

N.  Y. 
Clapp,  Clifford  B.,  catlgr.  Dartmouth  Coll 

L.,  Hanover,  N.  H. 
*Clark,  Mrs,  George  Edward,  Skaneateles 

N.  Y. 
Clark,  Geo.  L.,  State  L.,  Lansing,  Mich. 
Clark,  Mrs.  G.  L.  Lansing,  Mich. 
Clarke,   Edith   E.,   head   catlgr.    Syracuse 

Univ.  L.,  Syracuse,  N,  Y. 
•Clarke,  Elizabeth  P.,  In.  Seymour  L.  Au- 
burn, N.  Y. 
•Clayton,  Reta,  Ocean  Grove,  N.  J. 
Cleavinger,   John   S.,   In.   P.   L.,   Jackson, 

Mich. 
Cleland,  Ethel,  asst.  &  catlgr.  leg.  ref.  dept, 

State  L.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 
•Clement,  Caroline  B.,  asst.   P.   L.,  Man- 
chester, N.  H. 
Cllmie,  Janet,  asst.  P.  L.,  Listowel,  Ont. 
Climie,  Lillie,  In.  P.  L.,  Listowel,  Ont. 
Cobb,  Edith  H.,  asst.  F.  P.  L.,  New  Bedford, 

Mass. 
•Cochran,  Mary  R.,  In.  Walnut  Hills  Br.,  P. 

L.,  Cincinnati,  O. 
Colby,  Adah  M.,  supt.  of  branches  and  ap- 
prentices, P.  L.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Colegrove,  Mrs.  Mabel  E.,  Heermance  Mem. 

L.,  Coxsackie,  N.  Y. 
•Cotter,  Minnie  B.,  In.  P.  L.,  Derby,  Conn. 
•Craig,     Jennie     A.,     custodian     English 

Seminar,  Univ.  of  111.,  Urbana,  111. 


Craver,  Harrison  W.,  In.  Carnegie  L.,  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. 

Craver,  Mrs.  H.  W.,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Crevecoeur,  P.  B.  de.  In.  Fraser  Institute, 
Montreal,  Can. 

Crocker,  Mary,  chief  open  shelf  dept.  P.  L., 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 

**Crosby,  Caroline  R.,  Milford,  N.  H. 

Crossley,  F.  B.,  In.  Northwestern  Univ. 
Law  L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Cruikshank,  D.  P.,  mngr.  Library  Bureau, 
Ottawa,  Ont. 

Cruikshank,  Mrs.  D.  P.,  Ottawa,  Ont. 

Cunningham,  Jesse,  municipal  ref.  In.  P.  L., 
St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Curtiss,  Frances,  asst.  P.  L.,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Cutter,  Annie  S.,  supervisor  sch.  dept.,  P. 
L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

Cutter,  W.  P.,  In.  Engineering  Societies  L., 
New  York  City. 

Cuttle,  A.  H.,  chairman  L.  board,  Colling- 
wood,  Ont. 

Cuttle,  Mrs.  M.  A.,  Collingwood,  Ont. 

•Dakin,  Maude  I.,  asst.  L.  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Dale,  Dorethea  P.,  asst,  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

•Dame,  Katharine,  instructor  N.  Y.  State 
L.  Sch.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Daout,  Emilieu,  vice-pres.  Librarie  Beau- 
chemin,  Montreal,  Can. 

Datz,  H.  R.,  Library  Bureau,  New  York 
City. 

Davis,  Eva,  asst.  P.  L.,  Toronto,  Can. 

•Davis,  Georgia  S.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Grand  Rap- 
ids, Mich. 

Davis,  Mary  I.,  1st  asst.  Carnegie  West  Br., 
P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

Davis,  Mary  L.,  In.  P.  L.,  Troy,  N.  Y. 

Davis,  Orlando  C,  In.  P.  L.,  Waltham,  Mass. 

Davison,  Mrs.  Hannah  P.,  In.  P.  L.,  San 
Diego,  Cal. 

DeCelles,  Alfred  D.,  In.  of  Parliament,  Ot- 
tawa, Can. 

Dewar,  A.  F.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

•♦Dewey,  Mrs.  Melvil,  Lake  Placid  Club, 
N.  Y. 

Dice,  J.  Howard,  N.  Y.  State  L.  Sch.,  Al- 
bany, N.  Y. 

•Dickerson,  L.  L.,  In.  Iowa  College  L.,  Grin- 
nell,  la. 

•Dill,  Maude,  Decatur,  111. 


358 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Dinsmoor,  Kate  B.,  head  catlgr.  State  L., 

Topeka,  Kas. 
*Dinsmore,  Lucy  C,  In.  Walker  Br.,  P.  L., 

Minneapolis,  Minn. 
♦Dobbins,  Elizabeth  V.,  In.  Am.  Tel.  &  TeL 

Co.,  New  York  City. 
Doren,  Electra  C,  Dayton,  O. 
Dougan,  Alice  M.,  N.  Y.  State  L.,  Albany, 

N.  Y. 
•Dougherty,  Anna  R.,  chief  art  dept.,  F.  L., 

Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Dougherty,  Harold  T.,  In.  Sayles  Mem.  L.., 

Pawtucket,  R.  I. 
♦Dougherty,  Helen  R.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Dow,  Mary  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Saginaw,  Mich. 
**Drury,  Miss  C.  K.,  New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 
*Drury,  F.  K.  W.,  asst  In.  Univ.  of  111.,  Ur- 

bana,  111. 
♦Drury,  Mrs.  F.  K.  W.,  Urbana,  111. 
**Drury,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  New  Brunswick,  N.  J. 
Drysdale,  Sara  E.,  head  circ.  dept.,  P.  L., 

Ottawa,  Can. 
Dudgeon,   M.   S.,   sec'y  Wis.   F.   L.   Com., 

Madison,  Wis. 
Duefel,  Jennie,  P.  L.,  Decatur,  111. 
Dunham,  B.  Mabel,  In.  P.  L.,  Berlin,  Ont. 
Durfee,  Jennie  T.,  Decatur,  111. 
Dwight,  Edith  C,  In.  Ont.  Agric.  College 

L.,  Guelph,  Ont. 
Eakins,  Wm.  Geo.,  In.  Law  Soc,  of  Upper 

Canada,  Toronto,  Can. 
Eaman,  Mabel,  asst.  John  Crerar  L.,  Chi- 
cago, 111. 
Eastman,  Linda  A.,  vice-In.  P.  L.,  Cleve- 
land, O. 
Elliott,  Caroline  L.,  ref.  In.  P.  L.,  Chicago, 

111. 
♦Elliott,  Edith  L.,  clerk  Democrat  Printing 

Co.,  Madison,  Wis. 
Elliott,  Thos.  E.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Kenora,  Ont. 
Eniis,  Helen,  asst.  P.  L.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
•Ellis,  Victoria,  In.  P.  L.,  Long  Beach,  Cal. 
Elmendorf,  Mrs.  H.  L.,  vice-In.  P.  L.,  Buf- 
falo, N.  Y. 
Eno,  Sara  W.,  In.  Stetson  Univ.  L.,  DeLand, 

Fla. 
Erb,  Frederic  W.,  supervisor  loan  div.  and 

asst.  In.,  Columbia  Univ.  L.,  New  York 

City. 
Erskine,  Edith,  In.  Mark  White  Sq.  Br.,  P. 

L.,  Chicago,  111. 


Estabrooke,  Mrs.  Kate  C,  Maine  L.  Com- 
mission, Orono,  Me. 

Evans,  Mrs.  Alice  G.,  In.  P.  L.,  Decatur,  111. 

Fatout,  Nellie  B.,  Pacific  Br.,  P.  L.,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. 

Faxon,  Frederick  W.,  L.  mgr.,  Boston  Book 
Co.,  Boston,  Mass. 

Faxon,  Mrs.  F.  W.,  Boston,  Mass. 

*Faxon,  Mrs.  Marcus,  Boston,  Mass. 

Feazel,  Ernest  A.,  In.  Law  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

F'ellows,  Jennie  D.,  instructor  N.  Y.  State 
L.  Sch.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

*Fenton.  Polly,  catlgr.  P.  L.,  Milwaukee. 
Wis. 

Field,  O.  J.,  chief  clerk  Dept.  of  Justice, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Field,  Pearl  I.,  sen.  asst.  P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Field,  Ruth  K.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

♦Fison,  Herbert  W.,  In.  P.  L.,  Maiden,  Mass. 

*Fix,  Arminda  L.,  Walla  Walla,  Wash. 

Flexner,  Jennie  M.,  classifier  F.  P.  L.,  Louis- 
ville, Ky. 

Ford,  Eva  M.,  Chicago,  111. 

♦Forstall,  Gertrude,  asst.  catlgr.  John 
Crerar  L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Foster,  Consul-General  John  G.,  Ottawa, 
Can. 

Foster,  Mrs.  J.  G.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Fuller,  George  W.,  In.  P.  L.,  Spokane,  Wash. 

•Furness,  Margaret,  sen.  asst,  John  Crerar 
L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Gamble,  Wm.  B.,  chief  tech.  div.,  P.  L.,  New 
York  City. 

Gay,  Helen  K.,  In.  P.  L.,  New  London,  Conn. 

Gaylord,  H.  J.,  Gaylord  Brothers,  Syracuse, 
N.  Y. 

Geddes,  Helen  C,  asst.  Univ.  of  111.  L.,  Ur- 
bana, 111. 

George,  C.  A.,  In.  P.  L.,  Elizabeth,  N.  J. 

George,  Mrs.  C.  A.,  Elizabeth,  N.  J. 

♦George,  Lillian  M.,  catlgr.  Purdue  Univ. 
L.,  Lafayette,  Ind. 

Gerould,  J.  T.,  In.  Univ.  of  Minn.,  Minne- 
apolis, Minn. 

Gifford,  Florence  M.,  asst  P.  L.,  Cleveland, 
O. 

Gill,  Anna,  asst  P.  L.,  St  Louis,  Mo. 

Glasgow,  Ellen,  Richmond,  Va. 

♦Gleason,  Celia,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Los  Angeles, 
Cal. 


ATTENDANCE 


359 


Godard,   Geo.    S.,   In.    State   L.,   Hartford, 

Conn. 
Godard,  Mrs.  Geo.  S.,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Goldberg,  Bessie,  head  catlgr.,  P.  L.,  Chi- 
cago, 111. 
Gooch,  Harriet  B.,   instructor  Pratt  Inst., 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Goodchild,  F.  D.,  publisher,  Toronto,  Can. 
Goodchild,  Mrs,  F.  D.,  Toronto,  Can. 
Goodrich,  Nathaniel  L.,  In.  Dartmouth  Coll., 

Hanover,  N.  H. 
Gosnell,  R.  E.,  Dom.  Mss.  Com.,  Victoria, 

B.  C. 
*Goss,  Agnes  C,  In.  State  Normal  Sch.  L., 

Athens,  Ga. 
♦Gould,  Charles  H.,  In.  McGill  Univ.,  Mon- 
treal, Can. 
Grant,  D.  M.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Sarnia,  Ont. 
Grant,  Sir  James,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Grasty,    Katharine   G.,   In.   Eastern   High 

Sch.  L.,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Greene,  Ainslie  W.,  chairman  P.  L.,  Ottawa, 

Can. 
Greene,  Chas.  S.,  In.  F.  L.,  Oakland,  Cal. 
Greene,  Mrs.  Chas.  S.,  Oakland,  Cal. 
*Greenman,  E.  D.,  asst.  U.  S.  Bur.  of  Educ. 

L.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
♦♦Greenman,  Mrs.  E.  M.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
**Greenman,    E.    May,    asst.    State    Educ. 

Dept.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
Griggs,  Lillian,  asst.  Barr  Br.,  P.  L.,   St. 

Louis,  Mo. 
Gymer,    Rose   C,   In.    Perkins   Br.,    P.    L., 

Cleveland,  O. 
Hadley,  Chalmers,  In.  P.  L.,  Denver,  Colo. 
Hall,  Bessie  G.,  Trav.  L.  Dept.,  McGill  Univ., 

Montreal,  Can. 
♦Hall,  Drew  B.,  In.  P.  L.,  Somerville,  Mass. 
**Hall,  Mrs.  Drew  B.,  Somerville,  Mass. 
Hall,  Ernest  S.,  In.  P.  L.,  Plattsburgh,  N.  Y. 
Hall,    Mary   E.,    In.    Girl's    High    Sch.    L., 

Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Hamilton,  W.  J.,  chairman  P.  L.,  Fort  Wil- 
liam, Ont. 
Handy,  D.  N.,  In.  Insurance  L.  Assn.,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 
Hardenberg,  Bessie,  asst.  P.  L.,  Scranton, 

Pa. 
Hardy,  Judge  A.  D.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Brantford, 
Ont. 


Hardy,  E.  A.,  sec'y  Ontario  L.  Assn.,  Toron- 
to, Can. 

*Hardy,   Mary   T.    asst.   In.   P.   L.,   Grand 
Rapids,  Mich. 

Harris,  Miss  A.  M.,  In.  P.  L.,  Guelph,  Ont. 

Harrison,    Joseph    LeRoy,    In.    Forbes    L., 
Northampton,  Mass. 

Hartshorn,  W.  H.,  Maine  L.  Commission, 
Lewiston,  Me. 

Hasbrouck,  Mary  K.,  In.  P.  L.,  Ogdensburg, 
N.  Y. 

Hastings,  C.  H.,  chief  of  card  section,  L. 
of  Congress,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Hatton,  Wm.  H.,  chairman  Wis.  F.  L.  Com., 
New  London,  Wis. 

Hawkins,  Eleanor  E.,  head  catlgr.,  P.  L,, 
Kansas  City,  Mo. 

Hawkins,  Mrs.  W.  M.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Hawley,  Mrs.  Joseph  R.,  Chicago,  111. 

*Hawley,  Mary  E.,  asst.  catlgr.  John  Crerar 
L..  Chicago,  111. 

*Hay,  Flora  N.,  ref.  In.  P.  L.,  Evanston,  111. 

*Hayes,  Ethel  M.,  acting  In.,  Tufts  College 
L.,  Tufts  College,  Mass. 

Hazeltine,  Mary  E.,  preceptor  L.  Sch.  of  the 
Univ.  of  Wis.,  Madison,  Wis. 

Henderson,  Lucia  T.,  In.  James  Prendergast 
F.  L.,  Jamestown,  N.  Y. 

Henley,  Lillian,  asst.  ref.  In.,  State  L.,  In- 
dianapolis, Ind. 

Hepburn,  William   M.,   In.   Purdue   Univ., 
Lafayette,  Ind. 

♦Herrick,  Cate  E.,  New  Haven,  Conn. 

Hewins,  Caroline  M.,  In.  P.  L.,  Hartford, 
Conn. 

Hewitt,  Luther  E.,  In.  Law  Assn.,  Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Hildreth,   Eugene   W.,    Publisher,   Boston, 
Mass. 

*Hill,  Edith  M.,  1st  asst.  St.  Clair  Br.,  P.  L., 
Cleveland,  O. 

Hill,  Frank  P.,  In.  P.  L.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Hill,  Grace,  N.  Y.  State  L.  Sch.,  Albany,  N. 
Y.  (Ft.  Dodge,  la.) 

*Hills,  Elizabeth  C,  In.  Cobleigh  L.,  Lyn- 

donville,  Vt. 
Hinchey,  Comptroller  Edward  H.,  Ottawa, 

Can. 
Hirshberg,  Herbert  S.,  ref.  In.,  P.  L.,  Cleve- 
land, O. 
Hirshberg,  Mrs.  Herbert  S.,  Cleveland,  O. 


360 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Hoagland,  Merica,  director  Indiana  L.  Sch. 

Indianapolis,  Ind. 
Hodge,  Cordelia  B.,  F.  L.  Com.,  Harrisburg, 

Pa. 
Hodge,  Mrs.  J.  M.,  Harrisburg,  Pa. 
Holmden,  Kate,  asst.  P.  L.,  Ottawa,  Ont. 
Honeyman,  J.  R.  C,  In.  *P.  L.,  Regina,  Sask. 
Hookstadt,    Carl,    asst.    L.    of    Congress, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
Hooper,   Louise   M.,   In.   P.   L.,   Brookline, 

Mass. 
Hopkins,  Jessica,  In.  P.  L.,  Paducah,  Ky. 
Hopper,  Franklin  F.,  In.   P.   L.,   Tacoma, 

Wash. 
♦Horsfall,  Elizabeth  L.,  Br.  In.,  F.  L.,  New- 
ton, Mass. 
Hough,  Romeyn  B.,  Lowville,  N.  Y. 
Houston,  Charlotte  S.,  asst.  McGill  Univ. 

L.,  Montreal,  Can. 
Hubbard,  Anna  G.,  order  In.,  P.  L.,  Cleve- 
land, O. 
Hubbell,  Jane  P.,  In.  P.  L.,  Rockford,  111. 
Huestis,  A.  E.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Toronto,  Can. 
*Hughes,  Howard  L.,  In.   P.   L.,   Trenton. 

N.  J. 
Hunter,  Adam,  In.  P.  L.,  Hamilton,  Ont. 
Huntting,  Henry  R.,  bookseller,  Springfield, 

Mass. 
Hutchins,  Margaret,  ref.  asst.  Univ.  of  111. 

L.,  Urbana,  III. 
*Hutchinson,  Helen,  In.  Am.  Medical  Assn., 

Chicago,  111. 
Hutchinson,  Susan  A.,  In.  Brooklyn  Inst. 

Museum  L.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Hyde,  Sophie,  head  order  dept.,  Univ.  of 

Minn.  L.,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
♦Ideson,  Julia,  In.   Carnegie   L.,  Houston, 

Tex. 
lies,    George,    New    York    City.     (Trustee 

Hackley  School  L.,  Tarrytown,  N.  Y.) 
Imai,  K.,  director,  P.  L.,  Osaka,  Japan. 
ImhofC,  Ono  Mary,  asst.  In.  legislative  ref. 

dept,  Madison,  Wis. 
Imrie,  William,  In.  P.  L.,  Tillsonburg,  Ont. 
Ingersoll,  Elizabeth  S.,  supt.  order  dept, 

Cornell  Univ.  L.,  Ithaca,  N.  Y. 
Inman,  Grace  E.,  1st  asst.  F.  L.,  Olneyville, 

R.  I. 
Inman,  Harris  W.,  Providence,  R.  I. 
*Jackson,  Emeline,  asst  P.  L.,  Winnipeg, 

Man. 


♦Jackson,  Henrietta,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Win- 
nipeg, Man. 
Janvrin,  Charles  E.,  In.  Nat  Hist  L.,  Univ. 

of  111.,  Urbana,  111. 
Jardine,  Isabella,  In.  P.  L.,  Hespeler,  Ont. 
Jellinghaus,  Carl  L.,  asst.  editor  "Library 

Journal,"  New  York  City. 
Jenkins,  Frederick  W.,  In.   N.   Y.  Sch.  of 

Philanthropy,  New  York  City. 
Jenkins,  Mrs.  F.  W.,  New  York  City. 
Jennings,   Judson   T.,   In.    P.    L.,    Seattle, 

Wash. 
Jerome,  Janet,  asst.  child.  In.,  P,  L.,  Denver, 

Colo. 
♦Jessop,  Edith,  Columbus,  Ga, 
♦Jewell,  Agnes  H.,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Adrian, 

Mich. 
Johnson,  Josephine  M.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Chicago, 

111. 
Johnston,  Louise,  In.  P.  L.,  Stratford,  Ont. 
Johnston,  R.  H.,  In.  Bur.  of  Railway  Eco- 
nomics, Washington,  D.  C. 
Jolicoeur,  Marie  E.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Jones,  E.  Kathleen,  In.  McLean  Hospital, 

Waverly,  Mass. 
Jones,  Mabel  Delle,  In.  P.  L.,  Charleston,  W. 

Va. 
Jones,  Mary  L.,  In.  Bryn  Mawr  L.,  Bryn 

Mawr,  Pa. 
Josephson,  Aksel  G.  S.,  chief  catlgr.  John 

Crerar  L.,  Chicago,  111. 
Josephson,  Mrs.  Aksel  G.  S.,  Chicago,  111. 
Josselyn,  Lloyd  W.,  In.  Univ.  Club,  Chicago, 

111. 
Jutton,  Emma  R.,  loan  In.  Univ.  of  111.  L., 

Urbana,  111. 
Kaiser,  John  B.,  In.   Dept   of  Economics, 

Univ.  of  111.,  Urbana,  111. 
Kaiser,  Mrs.  John  B.,  Urbana,  111. 
Keator,  Alfred  D.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Brooklyn, 

N.  Y. 
Keefer,  Jessie  G.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Scranton,  Pa. 
Keith,  Kate,  gen.  asst  child,  dept  Carnegie 

L.,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 
Kelso,  Tessa  L.,  The  Baker  &  Taylor  Co., 

New  York. 
Kennedy,  Annie  A.,  In.  P.  L.,  Kingston,  Ont 
Kennedy,  Ellen  L.,  sec'y  to  In.  P.  L.,  Chi- 
cago, 111. 
Keogh,  Andrew,  ref.  In.  Yale  Univ.  L.,  New 

Haven,  Conn. 


ATTENDANCE 


361 


Kerr,  Mrs.  Jessie,  In.  P.  L.,  Brussels,  Ont. 

Kerr,  Willis  H.,  In.  Kansas  State  Normal 
Sch.,  Emporia,  Kas. 

Kerr,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  Emporia,  Kas. 

Kimball,  W.  C,  chairman  N.  J.  P.  L.  Com., 
Passaic,  N.  J. 

King,  Dr.  W.  F.,  Dominion  Astronomer,  Ot- 
tawa, Can. 

Klingelsmith,  Mrs.  M.  C,  In.  Biddle  Law 
L.,  Univ.  of  Pa.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Koch,  Theodore  W.,  In.  Univ.  of  Mich., 
Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

Koch,  Mrs.  T.  W.,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

♦Koerper,  Anna  C,  asst.  order  div.  L.  of 
Congress,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Kohler,  Minnie  M.,  In.  P.  L.,  Moline,  111. 

Kopp,  Adeline  B.,  In.  P.  L.,  Palmerston,  Ont. 

Krause,  Louise  B.,  In.  H.  M.  Byllesby  &  Co., 
Chicago,  111. 

Lagergren,  Anna  C.  asst.  Univ.  of  Chicago, 
Chicago,  111. 

Lamprey,  Mary  L.,  In.  Ames  F.  L.,  North 
Easton,  Mass. 

Lane,  Harriet,  In.  P.  L.,  Freeport,  111. 

Lapp,  John  A.,  leg.  ref.  In.,  State  L.,  Indian- 
apolis, Ind. 

Lapp,  Mrs.  John  A.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Larmouth,  Mrs.  L.  P.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Latham,  Calhoun,  In.  P.  L.,  Bridgeport, 
Conn. 

Laurier,  Sir  Wilfrid,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Law,  Marie  H.,  asst.  Carnegie  L.,  Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. 

Lawrence,  Hannah  M.,  child.  In.  P.  L.,  Buf- 
falo, N.  Y. 

Le  Sueur,  Dr.  W.  D.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Lease,  Evelyn  S.,  In.  Kellogg-Hubbard  L., 
Montpelier,  Vt. 

Ledbetter,  Mrs.  Eleanor  E.,  In.  Broadway 
Br.,  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

Lee,  George  W.,  In.  Stone  &  Webster,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Legler,  Henry  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Legler,  Mrs.  Henry  E.,  Chicago,  111. 

♦Lehman,  Reba  F.,  In.  P.  L.,  Hazelton,  Pa. 

Leitch,  Harriet  E.,  In.  Edgewater  Sub.  Br., 
P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

♦Leslie,  Eva  G.,  child.  In.  P.  L.,  Cleveland, 
O. 

Lewis,  Eleanor  F.,  head  of  circ.  &  ref. 
depts.  Northwestern  Univ.  L.,  Evanston, 
111. 


Lewis,  Sarah  Virginia,  1st  asst.  circ.  dept. 
P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

*Libbie,  Frederick  J.,  book  auctioneer,  Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

*Libbie,  Mrs.  Frederick  J.,  Boston,  Mass. 

♦Lindholm,  Marie  F.,  In.  P.  Service  Com., 
New  York  City. 

*Ling,  Katherine  G.,  asst.  ref.  In.  P.  L.,  De- 
troit, Mich. 

Locke,  George  H.,  chief  In.,  P.  L.,  Toronto, 
Can. 

Loeffler,  Olive  N.,  asst.  child,  dept.,  Car- 
negie L.,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Lomer,  D.  A.,  asst.  McGill  Univ.  L.,  Mon- 
treal, Can. 

*Loomis,  Nellie  A.,  In.  P.  L.,  Columbus,  Wis. 

Lovi,  Henrietta,  chief  order  div.,  P.  L., 
Chicago,  111. 

*Lucht,  Julius,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Lyman,  Bertha  H.,  ref.  In.  P.  L.,  Provi- 
dence, R.  I. 

Lyman,  Edna,  story  teller  and  lecturer  on 
children's  work,  Oak  Park,  111. 

Lyon,  Frances  D.,  sub.  In.  State  Law  L., 
Albany,  N.  Y. 

McClelland,  E.  H.,  technology  In.,  Carnegie 
L.,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

McCormick,  M.  C,  asst.  L.  of  Parliament, 
Ottawa,  Can. 

*McCrum,  Blanche  P.,  Lexington,  Va. 

McCurdy,  Mary  de  Bure,  supervisor  of  sch. 
div.,  Carnegie  L.,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

McCurdy,  R.  M.,  In.  Mercantile  L.,  Cincin- 
nati, O. 

Macdonald,  Mrs.  A.  C,  In.  P.  L.,  St. 
Thomas,  Ont. 

♦McDowell,  Grace  E.,  In.  Winthrop  Station 
Br.,  P.  L.,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

McElroy,  Annie,  asst.  P.  L.,  Ottawa,  Ont. 

MacEwen,  Violet  M.,  asst.  P.  L.,  West- 
mount,  Que. 

MacGuiness,  Miss  C.  L.,  Assn.  of  the  Bar 
L.,  New  York  City. 

Mackay,  Margaret  S.,  head  catlgr.  McGill 
Univ.  L.,  Montreal,  Can. 

McKellar,  Janet  C,  In.  P.  L.,  IngersoU,  Ont. 

McKillop,  Samuel  A.,  In.  South  Side  Br., 
P.  L.,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

♦McLachlan,  Nancy  C,  In.  F.  P.  L.,  Hanni- 
bal, Mo. 

McLenegan,  Chas.  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Milwaukee, 
Wis. 


362 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


McLenegan,  Mrs.  Chas.  E.,  Milwaukee,  Wis. 

*McLoney,  Ella  M.,  In.  P.  L.,  Des  Moines, 
la. 

MacNair,  Mary  W.,  asst.  L.  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C, 

Macnaughton,  Prof.  Jbhn,  McGill  Univ., 
Montreal,  Can. 

Manche,  Hellene,  asst.  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

Mann,  B.  Pickman,  bibliographer,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

Mann,  Mrs.  B.  Pickman,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Mann,  Margaret,  chief  catlgr.  Carnegie  L., 
Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Marion,  Guy  E.,  In.  Arthur  D.  Little,  Inc., 
Boston,  Mass. 

Marquand,  Fanny  E.,  asst.  catlgr.  P.  L., 
Cleveland,  O. 

♦Martin,  Mary  P.,  In.  P.  L.  Assoc,  Canton, 
O. 

Martyn,  A.  E.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Mason,  Mrs.  Anna  P.,  asst.  P.  L.,  St.  Louis, 
Mo. 

Massee,  May,  head  open  shelf  dept.  P.  L., 
Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

Masson,  Annie  A.,  catlgr.  P.  L.,  Ottawa, 
Can. 

♦Matthews,  Harriet  L.,  In.  P.  L.,  Lynn,  Mass. 

Mears,  Igerna  A.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

*Mell,  Mildred,  chief  of  Staff,  Univ.  of  Ga. 
L.,  Athens,  Ga. 

Merrill,  Wm.  Stetson,  chief  classifier,  New- 
berry L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Mettee,  Andrew  H.,  In.  L.  Company  of  the 
Bar,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Metz,  Corinne  A.,  In.  Brumback  L.,  Van 
Wert,  O. 

Milam,  Carl  H.,  Sec'y  P.  L.  Com.,  Indian- 
apolis, Ind. 

Milam,  Mrs.  Carl  H.,  Indianapolis  Ind. 

Millard,  Alice  G.,  In.  P.  L.,  Gait,  Ont. 

Miller,  Mrs.  A.  J.,  Muskegon,  Mich. 

Miller,  Lulu  F.,  In.  Hackley  P.  L.,  Muske- 
gon, Mich. 

♦Miller,  Zana  K.,  In.  Wis.  Tax  Com.,  Madi- 
son, Wis. 

*Moir,  Elizabeth,  ref.  In.,  P.  L.,  Toronto, 
Can. 

Monchow,  Carrie  M.,  In.  F.  L.,  Dunkirk, 
N.  Y. 

Monrad,  Anna  M.,  asst.  Yale  Univ.  L.,  New 
Haven,  Conn. 


Montgomery,  Thomas  L.,  In.  State  L.,  Har- 
risburg.  Pa. 

Montgomery,  Mrs.  Thomas  L.,  Harrisburg, 
Pa. 

Morningstern,  Wm.  B.,  head  tech.  dept.  F.  P. 
L.,  Newark,  N.  J. 

Morningstern,  Mrs.  Wm.  B.,  Newark,  N.  J. 

Morse,  Anna  L.,  In.  Reuben  Macmillan  F. 
L.,  Youngstown,  O. 

Morton,  F.  B..  Philadelphia.  Pa. 

♦Moulton,  John  G.,  In.  P.  L.,  Haverhill, 
Mass. 

Murray,  Margaret  E.,  In.  Filene  Ref.  L., 
Boston,  Mass. 

♦Myers,  Frances  E.,  child.  In.  P.  L.,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. 

Naughton,  Jane,  Watertown,  N.  Y. 

Nichols,  Albert  R.,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Provi- 
dence, R.  I. 

Norman,  O.  E.,  In.  People's  Gas  Light  & 
Coke  Co.,  Chicago,  111. 

Norton,  Mary  K.,  In.  P.  L.,  Proctor,  Vt. 

Nursey,  Walter  R.,  inspector  of  libraries, 
Dept.  of  Education,  Toronto,  Can. 

♦Nutting,  Geo.  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Fitchburg, 
Mass. 

♦Nutting,  Mrs.  Geo.  E.,  Fitchburg,  Mass. 

O'Flynn,  Josephine,  instructor  of  appren- 
tices, P.  L.,  Detroit,  Mich. 

♦Ogden,  E.  Lucy,  asst.  L.  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

5ko,  Adolph  S.,  In.  Hebrew  Union  College 
L.,  Cincinnati,  O. 

O'Meara,  Eva  J.,  asst.  McGill  Univ.  L., 
Montreal,  Can. 

O'Shaughnessy,  Margaret,  principal  asst. 
P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 

Owens,  Alpha  L.,  asst.  John  Crerar  L., 
Chicago,  111. 

Palmer,  Margaret,  In.  P.  L.,  Hibbing,  Minn. 

♦Palmer,  Mary  Bell,  In.  Carnegie  L ,  Char- 
lotte, N.  C, 

Paoli,  Mrs.  Minnie  B.,  loan  In.  P.  L.,  Cleve- 
land, O. 

Parent,  Dr.  R.  H.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Parker,  John,  acting  In.  Peabody  Institute, 
Baltimore,  Md. 

♦Partch,  Isa  L.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Patten,  Katharine,  In.  Minneapolis  Athene- 
um,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 

Pattengill,  Henry  R.,  Lansing,  Mich. 


ATTENDANCE 


363 


Patterson,  J.  Ritchie,  supt.  binderies  div., 

P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 
Patterson,  Mrs.  J.  R.,  Chicago,  111. 
*Patton,  Adah,  classifier,  Univ.  of  111.  L., 

Urbana,  111. 
Peacock,  Joseph  L.,  In.  Memorial  &  P.  L., 

Westerly,  R.  I. 
Peck,  Nina  A.,  asst.  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 
Peoples,  W.  T.,  In.  Mercantile  L.,  New  York 

City. 
Peoples,  Mrs.  W.  T.,  New  York  City. 
Perley,  Hon.  George  H.,  Acting  Prime  Min- 
ister of  Canada,  Ottawa,  Can. 
♦Peters,  Mary   G.,   In.   F.  P.   L.,   Bayonne, 

N.  J. 
♦Petty,  Annie  F.,  In.  State  Normal  and  In- 

dust.  Coll.  L.,  Greensboro,  N.  C. 
Phelan,  John  F.,  supt.  dept.  of  branches,  P. 

L.,  Chicago,  111. 
Phelps,  Edith  Allen,  In.  Carnegie  L.,  Okla- 
homa City,  Okla. 
Phillips,  E.  C,  Oneonta,  N.  Y. 
Phillips,  Mary  E.,  ex-ln.,  Oneonta,  N.  Y. 
Pillsbury,  Olive  E.,  In.  Davis  Sq.  Br.,  P.  L., 

Chicago,  111. 
Plummer,  Mary  W.,  director  L.  Sch.,  P.  L., 

New  York  City. 
Pollard,  Annie  Archer,  2d  asst  In.,  P.  L., 

Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 
Poole,  Franklin  O.,  In.  Assn.  of  the  Bar  L., 

New  York  City. 
Porter,  W.  T.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Cincinnati,  O. 
Potter,  Mrs.  Frederick  W.,  Oakland,  Cal. 
Power,  Effie  L.,  supervisor  of  child,  work, 

P.  L.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
♦Pratt,  Adelene  J.,  Asbury  Park,  N.  J. 
♦Pratt,    Edna    B.,   organizer   P.   L.,   Com., 

Trenton,   N.  J. 
♦Preston,  Nina  K.,  In.  Hall-Fowler  L.,  Ionia, 

Mich. 
Proulx,  Adelard  E.,  ref.  asst.  P.  L.,  Ottawa, 

Can. 
Putnam,  Herbert,  In.  L.  of  Congress,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 
Quinn,  Florence,  asst.  P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 
♦Rabardy,  Etta  L.,  asst.  Boston  Atheneum, 

Boston,  Mass. 
Ranck,  Samuel  H.,  In.  P.  L.,  Grand  Rapids, 

Mich. 
♦Rand,  Mrs.  H.  T.,  Boston,  Mass. 


Randall,  Bertha  T.,  In.  East  Liberty  Br., 
Carnegie  L.,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Raney,  M.  Llewellyn,  In.  John  Hopkins 
Univ.  L.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

♦Rankin,  Eliza  J.,  In.  P.  L.,  Newark.  O. 

Rankin,  H.  M.,  Chatham,  Ont. 

Rankin,  Ina,  asst.  P.  L.,  New  York  City. 

Rankin,  M.  S.,  Chatham,  Ont 

Rathbone,  Josephine  A.,  vice-director 
Pratt  Inst.  Sch.  of  L.  Sci.,  Brooklyn, 
N.   Y. 

Rawson,  Fannie  C,  Sec'y  L.  Com.,  Frank- 
fort, Ky. 

Read,  Eva  G.,  Hon.  In.  Women's  Can.  Hist, 
Soc,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Reece,  Ernest  J.,  Cleveland,  O. 

Reed,  Amy  L.,  In.  Vassar  Coll.  L.,  Pough- 
keepsie,  N.  Y. 

**Reed,  Edith. 

Reed,  Lois  A.,  asst.  In.  Univ.  of  Rochester 
L.,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 

Reese,  Rena,  asst.  In.,  P.  L.,  Denver,  Colo. 

Reid,  Adelia,  asst.  In.  State  L.,  Lansing, 
Mich. 

Reid,  Jennie  S.,  In.  P.  L.,  Chatham,  Ont. 

♦Reid,  Marguerite  McQ.,  foreign  dept.,  P.  L., 
Providence,  R.  I. 

Reinick,  Wm.  R.,  chief  pub.  doc.  dept.,  P. 
L.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Reque,  Anna  C,  classifier  P.  L.,  Chicago, 
111. 

Richardson,  E.  C,  In.  Princeton  Univ.  L., 
Princeton,  N.  J. 

Richardson,  Mabel  K.,  In.  Univ.  of  So.  Dak., 
Vermillion,  S.  D. 

Ritchie,  Hazen,  chairman  P.  L.,  Peterbor- 
ough, Ont. 

Robb,  Miss  M.  I.,  In.  P.  L.,  Woodstock,  Ont. 

Robbins,  Mary  E.,  In.  &  chairman  L.  Facul- 
ty, Simmons  College,  Boston,  Mass. 

Roberts,  Mrs.  Blanche  W.,  In,  Bates  Col- 
lege, Lewiston,  Me. 

♦Roberts,  Flora  B.,  In.  P.  L.,  Superior,  Wis. 

Roberts,  Mary  H.,  order  asst.  Univ.  of  111. 
L.,  Urbana,  111. 

Robertson,  J.  P.,  In.  Provincial  L.  of  Man- 
itoba, Winnipeg,  Man, 

Robertson,  Dr.  James  W.,  C.  M.  G.,  Ottawa, 
Can. 

♦Robinson,  Helen  F.,  Divinity  Sch.  L.,  Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. 


364 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


♦Robinson,  Rev.    L.    M.,   In.    Divinity   Sch. 

L.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Roden,  C.  B.,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 
Roden,  Mrs,  C.  B.,  Chicago,  111. 
♦Rolland,  Anna  P.,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Dedham, 

Mass. 
Rose,  Grace  D.,  In.  P.  L.,  Davenport,  la. 
Ross,  L.  I.,  asst.  McGill  Univ.  L.,  Montreal, 

Can. 
Rowe,  Carrie  A.,  clerk  of  files.  Office  Spe- 
cialty Co.,  Toronto,  Can. 
Rowell,  W.  C,  rep.  of  H.  W.  Wilson  Co., 

New  York  City. 
Rule,  Elizabeth  E.,  asst.  In.   P.   L.,  Lynn, 

Mass. 
Rush,  Charles  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  St.  Joseph,  Mo. 
*Russ,  Nellie  M.,  In.  P.  L.,  Pasadena,  Cal. 
Ryan,  M.  Lillian,  sen.  asst.  Br.  dept.,  P.  L., 

Chicago,  111. 
Sanborn,  Alice  E.,  In.  Wells  Coll.,  Aurora, 

N.  Y. 
Sanborn,  Henry  N.,    stud.   N.    Y.    State   L. 

Sch.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
Sanborn,  W.  F.,  In.  P.  L.,  Cadillac,  Mich. 
Sanborn,  Mrs.  W.  F.,  Cadillac,  Mich. 
Sargent,    Abby    L.,    In.    P.    L.,    Medford, 

Mass. 
Sargent,  Jessie  M.,  1st  asst.  circ.  dept.,  P. 

L.,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 
Saxe,  Mary  S.,  In.  P.  L.,  Westn^ount,  Que. 
Scarth,  Mrs.  W.  B.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Schenk,    Frederick    W.,    law   In.    Univ.    of 

Chicago,  Chicago,  111. 
Schenk,  Mrs.  F.  W.,  Chicago,  111. 
Scott,  Mary  McKay,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Scott,  Victoria,  In.  P.  L.,  Owen  Sound,  Ont. 
♦Secombe,  Annabell  C,  In.  P.  L.,  Milford, 

N.  H. 
Seemann,  Samuel,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 
Settle,  Geo.  T.,  acting  asst.  In.   F.  P.  L., 

Louisville,  Ky. 
*Sewall,  W.  F.,  In.  P.  L.,  Toledo,  O. 
♦Sewall,  Mrs.  W.  F.,  Toledo,  O. 
Seward,  Wm.   F.,  In.   P.   L.,   Binghamton, 

N.  Y. 
Seymour,  May,  Lake  Placid  Club,  N.  Y. 
Shattuck,  Helen  B.,  In.  Univ.  of  Vt.,  Bur- 
lington, Vt, 
Shaw,  Robert  K.,  In.  F.  P.  L.,  Worcester, 

Mass. 


Sheaf,  Edith  M.,  In.  F.  L.,  Herkimer,  N.  Y. 

Shearman,  Edna  M.,  Dept.  of  Labor,  Ot- 
tawa, Can. 

Sheetz,  A.  Coleman,  2d  asst.  State  L., 
Harrisburg,  Pa. 

*  Sheldon,  Philena  R.,  asst.  L.  of  Congress, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Shepard,  Rhoda  C,  asst.  P.  L.,  Cleveland, 
O. 

Sherwood,  Kittle  W.,  Cincinnati,  O. 

Shortt,  Mrs.  Adam,  Ottawa,  Can. 

*Sibley,  Mrs.  Mary  J.,  acting  In.  and  director 
L.  Sch.,  Syracuse  Univ.,  Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

Silverthorn,  Bessie  B.,  asst.  In.  Kellogg- 
Hubbard  L.,  Montpelier,  Vt. 

Simms,  Clara  A.,  asst.  sec'y  A.  L.  A.,  Chi- 
cago, 111. 

Simpson,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  Ottawa,  Can. 

Sine,  Clifford,  sec'y  P.  L.,  Gananoque,  Ont. 

Small,  A.  J.,  law  In.  State  L.,  Des  Moines, 
la. 

Smith,  Adam  F.,  Office  Specialty  Mfg.  Co., 
Toronto,  Can. 

Smith,  Arthur  B.,  In.  State  Agric.  Coll., 
Manhattan,  Kan. 

Smith,  Bessie  Sargeant,  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 

Smith,  Mrs.  Elizabeth,  In.  P.  L.,  Chadron, 
Neb. 

Smith,  Elizabeth  M.,  ref.  asst.  N.  Y.  State 
L.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Smith,  Elizabeth  W.,  Portland,  Me. 

Smith,  Frances,  Chadron,  Neb. 

Smith,  Rev.  G.  L.,  In.  P.  L.,  Forest,  Ont. 

Smith,  Geo.  Dana,  In.  Fletcher  F.  L.,  Bur- 
lington, Vt. 

Smith,  Jessie  F.,  Forest,  Ont. 

Smith,  M.  E.,  trus.  P.  L.,  Niagara  Falls,  Ont. 

*Smith,  Robert  L.,  asst.  ref.  In.  P.  L.,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. 

Sneed,  Mrs.  Percival,  prin.  Atlanta  L.  Sch., 
Carnegie  L.,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Snyder,  Mary  B.,  In.  Nelson  Br.,  P.  L., 
Queens  Borough,  N.  Y. 

*Solberg,  Thorvald,  reg.  of  copyrights, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

*Speck,  Mrs.  Laura,  asst.  P.  L.,  St.  Louis, 
Mo. 

Spencer,  Lois  A.,  In.  Spies  P.  L.,  Menom- 
inee, Mich. 

Spereman,  Patricia,  catlgr.,  Dept.  of  Educ, 
Toronto,  Can. 


ATTENDANCE 


365 


•Sperry,  Helen,  In.  Silas  Bronson  L.,  Water- 
bury,  Conn. 
•Sperry,  Ruth,  Waterbury,  Conn, 
Sprague,  Joanna  H.,  In.  P.  L.,  Salt  Lake 

City,  Utah. 
Sprague,  Katherine  T.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
Sproule,  Jessie,  asst.  P.  L.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Staton,  Frances  M.,   asst.   ref.   dept.   P.   L. 

Toronto,  Can. 
Steele,  Elizabeth  K.,  In.  P.  L.,  Lorain,  O. 
Steiner,  Bernard  C,  In.  Enoch  Pratt  F.  L., 

Baltimore,  Md. 
Stetson,  Willis  K.,  In.  F.  P.  L.,  New  Haven, 

Conn. 
Stevens,  W.  F.,  In.  Carnegie  L.,  Homestead, 

Pa. 
Stevenson,  Luella  M.,  1st  asst.  Carnegie  F. 

L.,  Braddock,  Pa. 
Stewart,  Mrs.  McLeod,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Stewart,   Margaret    M.,  In.   P.  L.,  Brock- 

ville,  Ont. 
Stimson,  Florence,  loan  desk  asst.  Univ.  of 

Cincin.  L.,  Cincinnati,  O. 
Streeter,  Margaret  E.,  In.  P.  L.,  Muncie,  Ind. 
Strohm,  Adam,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Detroit,  Mich. 
Strong,   George  F.,   In.   Adelbert   Coll.   L., 

Cleveland,  O. 
Stuart,  W.  H.,  bookseller,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Stuart,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Sutherland,  Elizabeth  M.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Sutton,  Edith,  In.  P.  L.,  Smith's  Falls,  Ont. 
♦Swezey,  Anne  D.,  In.  P.  L.,  East  Chicago, 

Ind. 
♦Sykes,  W.  J.,  In.  P.  L.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Sykes,  Mrs.  W.  J.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Talcott,  Mary  K.,  In.  Conn.  Soc.  of  Colonial 

Dames,  Hartford,  Conn. 
Tamblyn,  W.  W.,  Bowmanville,  Ont. 
Templeton,    Charlotte,   sec'y   P.   L.    Com., 

Lincoln,  Neb. 
Templeton,    Mrs.    Robert,    Sturgeon    Bay, 

Wis. 
Thain,  Mabel  A.,  In.  P.  L.,  Oak  Park,  111. 
Thayer,  Maude,  In.  State  L.,  Springfield,  111. 
Thomas,  Herbert  I.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Thomas,  Mrs.  Herbert  I.,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Thompson,  H.  F.,  representative  of  B.  F. 

Stevens  &  Brown,  London,  Eng. 
Thompson,  J.  David,  law  In.  Columbia  Univ., 
N.  T.  City. 


Thompson,  Laura  A.,  asst.  L.  of  Congress, 

Washington,  D.  C. 
Thompson,   Laura   E.,   asst.   P.   L.,   Grand 

Rapids,  Mich. 
Thuman,  Jane  E.,  child.  In.  F.  P.  L.,  New 

Bedford,  Mass. 
Thurston,  Elizabeth  P.,  In.  F.  L.,  Newton, 

Mass. 
Thwaites,  Reuben  G.,  supt.  Wis.  Hist.  Soc, 

Madison,  Wis. 
Tilton,    Edward   L.,    architect.    New   York 

City. 
Tinkham,  Mabel,  catlgr.  and  ref.  In,  P.  L., 

Gary,  Ind. 
Titcomb,  Mary  L.,  In.  Washington  Co.  F.  L., 

Hagerstown,  Md. 
Tobitt,  Edith,  In.  P.  L.,  Omaha,  Neb. 
Tracey,  Angle  E.,  asst.  In.  P.  L.,  Lewiston, 

Me. 
Tremblay,  Am^d6e,  Ottawa,  Can. 
Turnbull,  John,  trus.  P.  L.,  Toronto,  Can. 
•Turner,   Louise   G.,   asst.   P.   L.,   Detroit, 

Mich. 
*Tutt,  Virginia  M.,  In.  P.  L.,  South  Bend, 

Ind. 
Tyler,  Alice  S.,  sec'y  Iowa  L.  Com.,  Des. 

Moines,  la. 
♦Underbill,  Adelaide,  assoc.  In.  Vassar  Coll. 

L,,  Poughkeepsie,  N.  Y. 
♦Underbill,  Ethel  P.,  child.  In,  F,  P.  L.,  Wor- 
cester, Mass. 
*UtIey,  George  B.,  sec'y  A.  L.  A.,  Chicago, 

111. 
*Utley,  Mrs.  George  B.,  Chicago,  111. 
Van   Benschoten,  Miss   M.   M.,  ref.  In.   L. 

Assn.,  Portland,  Ore. 
Van  Duzee,  Edward  P.,  In.  Grosvenor  L., 

Buffalo,  N.  Y. 
Van  Valkenburgh,  Agnes,  instructor  L.  Sch., 

A.  P.  L.,  New  York  City. 
Vincent,  Dr.  George  E.,  president  Univ.  of 

Minnesota,  Minneapolis,  Minn. 
Wadlin,  Horace  G.,  In.  P.  L.,  Boston,  Mass. 
*Wagner,  Eva  K.,  Dedham,  Mass. 
*Wagner,  Sula,  chief  catlgr.  P.  L.,  St.  Louis, 

Mo. 
Wales,  Elizabeth    B.,    sec'y    Mo.    L.    Com., 

Jefferson  City,  Mo. 
Walker,  A.  R.,  In.  P.  L.,  Belleville,  Ont. 
Walker,  Mrs.  A.  R.,  Belleville,  Ont. 


366 


OTTAWA  CONFERENCE 


Walter,  Frank  K.,  vice-dir.  N.  Y.  State  L. 

Sch.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
Walter,  Mrs.  Frank  K.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 
Ward,  Gilbert  O.,  supervisor  of  high  sch. 

branches,  P.  L.,  Cleveland,  O. 
*Ward,  Helen  M.,  In.  Scripps  Br.,  P.  L.,  De- 
troit, Mich. 

Warner,  Mrs,  Cassandra  W.,  asst.  in  charge 
of  loan  desk,  Bryn  Mawr  Coll.  L.,  Bryn 
Mawr,  Pa.' 
♦Warner,  Nannie  M.,  asst.  F.  P.  L.,  New 
Haven,  Conn. 

Watts,  Irma  A.,  leg.  ref.  bur..  State  L.,  Har- 
risburg.  Pa. 

Weaver,  A.  B.,  Buffalo,  N.  Y. 

*Webber,    Anna    Louise,    In.     Silsby     L., 
Charlestown,  N.  H. 

Weber,  Jessie  Palmer,  In.  111.  State  Hist.  L., 
Springfield,  111. 

Webster,  Caroline  F.,  L.  organizer,  N.  Y. 
State  L.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

♦Welles,  Jessie,  supt.  of  circulation,  Car- 
negie L.,  Pittsburgh,  Pa. 

Wellman,  Harold  O.,  asst.  to  chief  of  cir- 
culating dept.  P.  L.,  New  York. 

Wellman,    Hiller    C,    In.    City    L.    Assn., 
Springfield,  Mass. 

"V\Tialen,  Gladys  E.,  Hay  Mem.  L.,  Sacket's 
Harbor,  N.  Y. 

Whare,  Grace  A.,  In.  P.  L.,  Houghton,  Mich. 

Wheeler,   Sumner  York,  treas.  Essex   Co. 
Law  L.  Assn.,  Salem,  Mass. 

Whitcomb,  Adah  F.,  In.  Hiram  Kelly  Br.,  P. 
L.,  Chicago,  111. 

♦White,  Anne  R.,  In.  Washington  &  Lee 
Univ.  L.,  Lexington,  Va. 

Whitmore,  F.  H.,  In.  P.  L.,  Brockton,  Mass. 

Wilcox,  Helen  C,  Mt.  Vernon,  N.  Y. 

♦Wildman,  Bertha  S.,   Carnegie  L.,   Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. 

*Wilkins,  Lydia  K.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Wilkinson,  O.  A.,  rep.  Globe- Wernicke  Co., 
Cincinnati,  O. 

Wilkinson,  Mrs.  O.  A.,  Cincinnati,  O. 


♦Williams,  Carrie  L.,  asst.  F.  L.,  Newton, 

Mass. 
Williams,    Lizzie    A.,    ex-ln.,    Cambridge, 

Mass. 
Wilson,   Mrs.    Cora   McDevitt,    bookseller. 

New  York  City. 
Wilson,  H.  W.,  president  H.  W.  Wilson  Co., 

Publishers,   Minneapolis   Minn. 
Wilson,    Mary   Augusta,    child.   In.    Black- 
stone  Br.,  P.  L.,  Chicago,  111. 
♦Winchell,  F.  Mabel,  In.  P.  L.,  Manchester, 

N.  H. 
Windsor,  P.  L.,  In.  Univ.  of  111.,  Urbana,  111. 
Wink,  Mrs.  J.  S.,  In.  P.  L.,  Port  Arthur.Ont. 
Wire,  Dr.  G.  E.,     dep.  In.  Worcester  Co. 

Law  L.,  Worcester,  Mass. 
Wire,  Mrs.  G.  E.,  Worcester,  Mass. 
Wise,  Flora  E.,^sst.  F.  L.,  Newton,  Mass. 
Wolter,  Peter,  manager  L.  dept.  A.  C.  Mc- 

Clurg  &  Co.,  Chicago,  111. 
Wood,  Mable  J.,  Herkimer,  N.  Y. 
Wood,  Mary  W.,  In.  Blackstone  Br.,  P.  L., 

Chicago,  111. 
Woodard,   Gertrude   E.,   law   In.    Univ   of 

Mich.,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 
♦Woodman,  C.  Belle,  Springfield,  Mass. 
♦Wootten,  Katharine  H.,  In.  Carnegie  L., 

Atlanta,  Ga. 
Wright,  Charles  E.,  In.  Carnegie  F.  L.,  Du- 

quesne.  Pa. 
Wright,  Ida  F.,  asst.  In.  Lincoln  L.,  Spring- 
field, 111. 
*Wright,  Rebecca   W.,  sec'y  Vt.  L.   Com., 

Montpelier,  Vt. 
Wyer,  James  I.,  jr.,  director  N.  Y.  State  L., 

Albany,  N.  Y. 
Wyer,  Malcolm  G.,  In.  Univ.  of  Iowa,  Iowa 

City,  la. 
Wyer,  Mrs.  Malcolm  G.,  Iowa  City,  la. 
Wyse,   Cornelia,   asst.   catlg.   dept.   P.   L., 

Chicago,  111. 
Yust,  William  F.,  In.  P.  L.,  Rochester,  N.  Y. 
Zachert,  Adeline  B.,  director  of  child,  work 

F.  P.  L.,  Louisville,  Ky. 


INDEX 


Accessioning  (of  books),  rpt.  of  com. 
on  lib.  administration  on,  105-6. 

Adams,  Zu,  died,  81. 

Affiliation  of  other  than  local,  state 
and  provincial  associations,  rpt. 
of  com.  on  conditions  governing, 
196. 

Affiliation  of  state  library  assns. 
with  A.  L.  A.,  recommended 
amendment  to  constitution  affect- 
ing, 192-3;  rpt.  of  com.,  196. 

Agricultural  libraries  section,  pro- 
ceedings of,  213-27. 

Ahern,  Mary  Eileen,  chrm.  com.  on 
co-operation  with  N.  E.  A.,  194; 
"Day  in  Toronto,"  208-9. 

American  Association  of  Law  Libra- 
ries, proceedings  of,  312-5. 

American  Library  Association,  presi- 
dent's address  (Elmendorf),  67-71; 
secretary's  rpt.  (Utley),  75-81; 
treasurer's  rpt.  (Roden),  81;  rpt. 
of  trustees  of  Carnegie  and  En- 
dowment fund,  91-2;  rpt.  of  Exec- 
utive board,  192-4;  rpt.  of  Coun- 
cil, 195-200;  election  of  officers, 
204-5;  attendance  summaries  and 
register,  354-66. 

A.  L.  A.  and  certain  other  national 
associations,  relations  between, 
rpt.  of  com.  on,  195-6. 

A.  L.  A.  Booklist.  Rpt.  of  Publishing 
board  on,  86. 

A.  L.  A.  Catalog,  1904-11,  sugges- 
tions regarding  (Elmendorf),  84; 
rpt.  on  (Bascom),  84-6. 

A.  L.  A.  changes  in  officers  and  com- 
mittees (rpt.  of  secretary),  79. 

A.  L.  A.  committees  on 
blind.     See  Blind, 
bookbinding.     See   Bookbinding, 
bookbuying.     See  Bookbuying. 
co-operation  with  N.  E.  A.     See 
National  Education  Association, 
co-ordination.     See  Co-ordination, 
federal   and   state   relations.     See 

Federal  and  state  relations, 
finance.    See  Finance, 
international  relations.     See  Inter- 
national relations, 
library    administration.     See    Li- 
brary administration, 
library     training.     See     Library 

training, 
newspaper     paper.     See     News- 
papers, 
program.     See  Program, 
public     documents.     See      Public 

documents, 
resolutions.     See     Resolutions, 
travel.     See  Travel. 

A.  L.  A.  Constitution,  recommended 
amendment  to,  and  by-law  to, 
adopted,  192-3. 

A.  L.  A.  Council,  amendment  to  con- 
stitution relative'  to  election  of 
members  to,  proposed,  192-3; 
rpt.  of,  195-200. 

A.  L.  A.  Executive  board,  rpt.  of, 
192-4. 

A.  L.  A.  membership  (rpt.  of  sec- 
retary), 77-8. 

A.  L.  A.  necrology  (rpt.  of  secretary), 
79-81. 

A. -L.  A.  publishing  board,  rpt.  of 
(Legler),  83-90;  recent  publica- 
tions, 83-4;  policy  of,  84;  period- 


ical cards,  87;  advertising,  87; 
financial  rpt.,  88;  sales,  89-90. 

A.  L.  A.  representatives  at  other  con- 
ferences (rpt.  of  secretary),  78-9. 

Anderson,  Edwin  H.,  discusses  paper 
on  library  schools  by  Hadley,  153- 
4;  member  finance  com.,  194;  mem- 
ber program  com.,  195;  first  vice- 
pres.,  A.  L.  A.,  204. 

Andrews,  Clement  W.,  rpt.  of  finance 
com.,  81-2;  re-elected  member 
Publishing  board,  194;  chrm. 
finance  com.,  194;  informal  rpt. 
as  member  com.  to  promote  printed 
cards  in  relation  with  international 
arrangements,  196;  reports  for 
com.  governing  affiliation  of  other 
than  local,  state  and  provincial 
assns.,  196;  presents  rpt.  of  com. 
on  memorial  to  F.  M.  Crunden, 
203;  reports  on  use  of  camera- 
graph,  279-80;  addresses  public 
documents  round  table,  310. 

Andrus,  Gertrude,  reads  paper  by 
Alice  Goddard,  247. 

Arnold,  John  H.,  "History  of  the 
growth  and  development  of  the 
Harvard  university  law  library," 
351. 

Askew,  Sarah  B.,  member  com.  on 
arrangements  College  and  ref. 
section,  294. 

"Assistant  and  the  book"  (Hazel- 
tine),  134-8. 

Assistants,  type  of  (Tobitt),  138-42; 
"Efficiency  of  the  library  staff  and 
scientific  management  (Strohm) , 
143-6. 

Attendance  summaries  and  register. 
See  American  Library  Association. 

Ault,  Mrs.  Herbert,  205. 

Austen,  Willard,  "  Rights  of  the  users 
of  a  college  and  university  library 
and  how  to  preserve  them,"  275-7. 

Babbitt,  Charles  J.,  "Snags,  stum- 
bling blocks  and  pitfalls  among  the 
session  laws,"  351. 

BaUey,  Arthur  L.,  rpt.  com.  on  book- 
binding, 93-5;  chrm.  com.  on  book- 
binding, 195. 

Baldwin,  Clara  F.,  represents  A.  L. 
A.  at  Montana  assn.,  79;  rpt.  of 
com.  on  uniform  financial  reports, 
327-8. 

Baldwin,  Emma  V.,  member  com.  to 
investigate  cost  and  method  of 
cataloging,  193. 

Banton,  T.  W.,  addresses  Trustees' 
section,  307. 

Barnett,  Claribel  R.,  chrm.  Agricul- 
tural libraries  section,  227. 

Bascom,  Elva  L.,  rpt.  on  A.  L.  A. 
Catalog,  1904-11,  84-6. 

Bay,  J.  C,  member  com.  on  code  for 
classifiers,  193. 

Beer,  William,  participates  in  dis- 
cussion, 334-5. 

Belden,  C.  F.  D.,  member  com.  on 
federal  and  state  relations,  195. 

Berry,  W.  J.  C,  315. 

Billings,  J.  S.,  member  com.  on  inter- 
national relations,  195. 

Biscoe,  W.  S.,  member  com.  on  code 
for  classifiers,  193. 

Bishop,  W.  W.,  member  of  Council, 
205. 

367 


Blackwelder,  Paul,  member  com.  on 
federal  and  state  relations,  195; 
member  membership  com.  Pro- 
fessional training  section,  301. 

Blair,  Emma  H.,  died,  79. 

Bligh,  H.  H.,  welcomes  Am.  Assn.  of 
Law  Libraries,  312. 

Blind,  rpt.  of  com.  on  work  with  the 
(Delfino),  114-5;  com.  on,  195. 

"  Book  advertising:  information  as  to 
subject  and  scope  of  books" 
(Roden),  181-7;  "B.  a.:  illumina- 
tion as  to  attractions  of  real  books" 
(Miller),  187-92. 

Bookbinding,  rpt.  of  com.  on  (Bailey) , 
93-5;  com.  on,  195. 

Bookbuying,  rpt.  of  com.  on  (Brown) , 
95-6 ;"  Breadth  and  limitations  of" 
(Brown),  124-7;  com.  on,  195. 

Books,  knowledge  of,  among  lib. 
assistants  (Hazeltine),  134-8;  (To- 
bitt), 138-42. 

Borchard,  E.  M.,  addresses  Am. 
Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  314;  reads 
paper  by  Wigmore,  335;  partici- 
pates in  discussion,  335. 

Bostwick,  Arthur  E.,  speaker  at  Ala. 
lib.  conference,  79;  chrm.  com.  on 
lib.  administration,  79;  rpt.  of 
com.  on  lib.  administration,  102- 
13;  discusses  library  schools,  154- 
5;  re-elected  member  Publishing 
board,  194;  chrm.  com.  on  library 
administration,  194;  rpt.  of  com. 
on  gov.  of  Am.  libraries,  196-9. 

Bowerman,  George  F.,  letter  from, 
regarding  meeting  in  Washington, 
193;  member  com.  on  library  ad- 
ministration, 194. 

Bowker,  R.  R.,  responds  to  welcome 
by  Laurier,  160-1;  member  com. 
on  international  relations,  195; 
speaks  on  printed  card  work  abroad, 
196;  addresses  Trustees'  section, 
307;  addresses  public  documents 
round  table,  310. 

Bradley,  Isaac  S.,  died,  79. 

Brett,  Wm.  H.,  discusses  paper  on 
library  schools  by  Hadley,  151-2. 

Briggs,  Mary  J.,  "A.  L.  A.  list  of 
subject  headings,"  227-31. 

Brigham,  Herbert  O.,  presides  Spe- 
cial Libraries  Association,  329. 

Brigham,  Johnson,  participates  in  dis- 
cussion, 352. 

Brown,  C.  H.,  member  com.  on  book- 
buying,  195;  member  travel  com., 
195. 

Brown,  Dcmarchus  C,  member  com. 
on  federal  and  state  relations, 
195. 

Brown,  Margaret,  rpt.  of  com.  on 
study  outlines,  319-20. 

Brown,  Walter  L.,  rpt.  of  com.  on 
bookbuying,  95-6;  "Breadth  and 
limitations  of  bookbuying,"  124- 
7;  chrm.  com.  on  bookbuying 
195. 

Brown,  Zaidee,  secretary-treasurer 
League  of  Library  Commissions, 
328. 

Bruncken,  Ernest,  member  public 
documents  com.,  194. 

Burnite;  Caroline,  member  of  Coun- 
cU,  205. 

Burpee,  Lawrence  J.,  reads  messages 
of  greeting,  66-7;  181,  205. 


368 


INDEX 


Burrell,  Hon.  Martin,  address,  67-8; 
addresses  Agricultural  libraries 
section,  213. 

Butler,  H.  L.,  313,  314. 

California  Library  Association,  reso- 
lution to  invite  A.  L.  A.  to  Cali- 
fornia for  1915,  200. 

Cameragraph,  use  in  John  Crerar 
library  (Andrews),  279-80. 

Canada,  conservation  in  (Robertson) , 
161-9. 

Canada,  resolution  relative  to  a 
national  library  for,  202. 

Cards,  Printed  Catalog,  informal 
rpt.  by  C.  W.  Andrews  on  work  of 
special  com.  to  co-operate  in  devel- 
opment of,  in  relation  with  inter- 
national arrangements,  196. 

Carey,  Miriam  E.,  member  com.  on 
work  with  blind,  195;  presides  at 
session  of  League  of  Library  Com- 
missions, 320. 

Carpenter,  George  O.,  member  com. 
on  library  training,  194. 

Carr,  Henry  J.,  moves  message  of 
greeting  be  sent  to  F.  W.  Faxon, 
181;  addresses  public  documents 
round  table,  309. 

Carson,  W.  O.,  member  of  Council, 
196. 

Catalog  rules  for  small  library,  rpt. 
from  com.  on,  101;  com.  on,  195. 

Catalog  section,  proceedings  of,  227- 
47;  resolution  from,  193. 

Central  reference  bureau.  Is  the 
establishment  of  a,  desirable 
(Shaw),  278-9. 

Charging  systems  and  methods,  rpt. 
of  com.  on  lib.  admiinistration, 
106-13. 

Charter  provisions  for  public  libra- 
ries in  commission  governed  cities, 
rpt.  on  (Wales),  316-7. 

Charteris,  C.  R.,  addresses  assn., 
146;  addresses  Trustees'  section, 
307. 

Cheney,  George  N.,  addresses  Am. 
Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  313;  mem- 
ber com.  on  subject  headings,  314; 
member  com.  on  classification,  315. 

Children's  librarians'  section,  pro- 
ceedings of,  247-68. 

Chivers,  Cedric,  discusses  preserva- 
tion of  newspaper  paper,  118-20. 

Clarke,  Edith  E.,  addresses  public 
documents  round  table,  310. 

Classifiers,  code  for,  proposed  and 
committee  appointed,  193. 

Claxton,  P.  P.,  telegram  of  greetings 
from,  170. 

Cleavinger,  John  S.,  member  com. 
on  library  administration,  194. 

College  and  reference  section,  pro- 
ceedings of,  268-94. 

Commis<iion  governed  cities,  rpt.  on 
charter  provisions  for  public  li- 
braries in  (Wales),  316-7. 

Connaugbt,  Duke  of,  telegram  from, 
66. 

Constitution,  See  A.  L.  A.  Constitu- 
tion. 

Co-ordination,  rpt.  of  com.  on  (Gould, 
Putnam,  Lane,  Gillis),  96-101; 
com.  on,  195. 

Crunden,  Frederick  M.,  died,  80; 
memorial  on  life  and  services,  203- 
4. 

Cutter,  W.  P.,  member  com.  on  code 
for  classifiers,  193;  participates  in 
discussion,  330,  333,  334. 

Dawley,  F.  F.,  member  finance  com., 
194. 

Delfino,  Emma  R.  N.,  rpt.  of  com.  on 
work  with  blind,  114-5;  ehrm.  com. 
on  work  with  blind,  195. 

Departmental    library    problem    in 


universities.  Some  observations  on 
(Hanson),  280-92. 

Dickinson,  Asa  Don,  proposes  clear- 
ing bouse  for  periodicals,  193; 
addresses  Agricultural  libraries 
section,  223-4. 

Dobbins,  Miss  E.  V.,  participates  in 
discussion,  341-2,  343. 

Donath,  August,  letter  from,  308-9. 

Donnelly,  June  R.,  member  member- 
ship com.  Professional  training 
section,  301. 

Drury,  F.  K.  W.,  "Do  we  need  a 
short  story  index?"  277-8. 

Dudgeon,  M.  S.,  presides  third  gen- 
eral session,  146  ff ;  member  public 
documents  com.,  194;  member 
com.  on  gov.  of  Am.  libraries,  196; 
member  of  Council,  196;  presides 
Professional  training  section,  295; 
rpt.  of  com.  on  library  post,  317- 
8;  rpt.  of  publications  com.,  326-7; 
chrm.  publications  com.,  328;  ad- 
dresses Special  Libraries  Assn., 
329. 

Education  through  the  library: 
"Open  door,  through  the  book  and 
the  library"  (McLenegan),  127- 
32. 

"Efficiency  of  the  library  staff  and 
scientific  management"  (Strohm), 
143-6. 

Election  of  officers.  See  American 
Library  Association. 

Elmendorf,  Mrs.  H.  L.,  president 
A.  L.  A.,  responds  to  welcome,  58- 
9;  president's  address,  67-71; 
represents  A.  L.  A.  at  conferences 
in  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.  78 ;  suggestion  regarding 
A.  L.  A.  Catalog,  84;  participates 
in  discussion  on  library  schools, 
154;  accepts  gavel  in  behalf  of  A. 
L.  A.,  169-70. 

Executive  board.  See  A.  L.  A.  Exec- 
utive board. 

Farley,  Caroline  A.,  died,  81. 

Faxon,  Frederick  W.,  message  of 
greeting  to,  181;  chrm.  travel  com., 
195. 

Feazel,  E.  A.,  member  com.  on 
classification,  315. 

Federal  and  state  relations,  rpt.  of 
com.  on  (Steiner),  102;  com.  on, 
195. 

Federal  prisons,  See  Libraries  in 
federal  prisons. 

Field,  O.  J.,  addresses  Am.  Assn.  of 
Law  Libraries,  313;  member  Exec- 
utive com.  Am.  Assn.  of  Law 
Libraries,  314. 

Finance,  rpt.  of  com.  on  (Andrews), 
81 ;  com.  on,  194. 

Financial  reports,  rpt.  of  com.  on 
uniform  (Baldwin),  327-8. 

Foster,  Hon.  J.  G.,  welcomes  assn., 
57. 

George,  C.  A.,  discusses  library 
schools,  158. 

Gibson,  Irene,  died,  80. 

Gile,  Jessie  S.,  died,  80. 

(3illis,  J.  L.,  rpt.  of  com.  on  co- 
ordination, 99-101;  member  com. 
on  co-ordination,  195. 

Godard,  George  S.,  rpt.  com.  on 
public  documents,  115-6;  chrm. 
public  documents  com.,  194;  pre- 
sents res.  from  public  documents 
com.,  200;  presides  public  docu- 
ments rouncl  table,  307;  presides 
Am.  Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  312; 
presides  joint  session,  334;  partici- 
pates in  discussion,  351-2. 

Goddard,  Alice,  "County  work  with 
children,"  247-50;  vice-chrm.  Chil- 
dren's librarians'  section,  268. 


Goooh,  Harriet  B.,  chrm.  Catalog 
section,  247. 

Goodrich,  N.  L.,  member  com.  on 
arrangements  College  and  ref. 
section,  294. 

Gould,  Charles  H.,  rpt.  com.  on  co- 
ordination, 96;  chrm.  com.  on  co- 
ordination, 195;  reads  paper  by 
Walton,  335. 

Grant,  Sir  J.,  addresses  assn.,  169. 

Greene,  Charles  S.,  member  com. 
on  work  with  blind,  195. 

Griswold,  Stephen  _  B.,  died,  81; 
resolution  concerning,  315. 

Hadley,  Chalmers,  represents  A.  L. 
A.  at  Pacific  N.  W.  Lib.  Assn.,  78- 
9;  "What  library  schools  can  do  for 
the  profession,"  147-51;  member 
com.  on  library  training,  194, 

Hall,  Mary  E.,  "Possibilities  of  the 
high  school  library,"  260-6. 

Handbook,  biographical  data  for, 
193. 

Handy,  D.  N.,  "Library  as  a  busi- 
ness asset;  when  and  how?  "  336-9; 
participates  in  discussion,  345-6, 
348-9,  352;  pres.  Special  Libraries 
Assn.,  353. 

Hanson,  J.  C.  M.,  member  com.  on 
code  for  classifiers,  193;  "Some 
observations  on  the  departmental 
library  problem  in  universities, 
with  special  reference  to  the 
University  of  Chicago,"  280-92. 

Harvard  university  law  library. 
History  of  (Arnold),  351. 

Hasse,  Adelaide  R.,  member  public 
documents  com.,  194. 

Hastings,  C.  H.,  addresses  public 
documents  round  table,  311. 

Hatton,  Wm.  H.,  "Publicity  for  the 
sake  of  information,"  72-5. 

Hawks,  Emma  B.,  addresses  Agricul- 
tural libraries  section,  227. 

Hazeltine,  Mary  E.,  "Assistant  and 
the  book,"  134-8;  presents  card 
code  for  catalog  rules,  301;  mem- 
ber program  com.  Professional 
training  section,  301. 

Hean,  C.  S.,  "Some  types  of  agricul- 
tural college  and  experiment  sta- 
tion libraries,"  222-3. 

Heney,  Mr.,  presents  Drummond's 
poems  in  character,  181. 

Hepburn,  Wm.  M.,  "Library  ex- 
tension work  of  agricultural  col- 
leges," 213-6. 

Hewitt,  L.  E.,  member  com.  on  sub- 
ject headings,  314. 

High  school  library,  Possibilities  of 
(Hall),  260-6. 

High  schools.  Teaching  library  use 
in  normal  and  (Walter),  255-60. 

Hill,  Frank  P.,  rpt.  of  com.  on  pres- 
ervation of  newspapers,  116-8; 
discusses  library  schools,  155-6. 

Hinchey,  E.  H.,  welcomes  assn.  to 
Ottawa,  57. 

Hirshberg,  H.  8.,  addresses  public 
documents  round  table,  310. 

Hitchler,  Theresa,  chrm.  com.  on 
catalog  rules  for  small  libraries, 
195. 

Hoagland,  Merica,  participates  in 
discussion,  350. 

Hodges,  N.  D.  C,  member  com.  on 
co-ordination,  195. 

Homer,  T.  J.,  "Boston  co-operative 
information  bureau,"  336. 

Hopper,  F.  F.,  rpt.  of  com.  on  library 
work  in  federal  prisons,  324-6. 

Hutchins,  Margaret,  addresses  Agri- 
cultural libraries  section,  224-6. 

Ideson,  Julia,  "Post-conference  trip," 
211-3. 


INDEX 


Imhoff,  Ono  M.,  "Cataloging  in 
legislative  reference  work,"  238-45. 

Ingcrsoll,  Elizabeth  S.,  addresses 
Agricultural  libraries  section,  227. 

Insane,  Library  work  among  the 
(Jones),  320-4. 

Institutional  membership,  by-law 
regulating  vote  of,  192. 

Inter-library  loans,  rpt.  com.  on  co- 
ordination, 96-101. 

International  relations,  com.  on, 
state  they  have  no  rpt.,  102;  com. 
on,  194-5. 

Isom,  Mary  F.,  second  vice-pres. 
A.  L.  A.,  204. 

Jennings,  J.  T.,  member  com.  on  gov. 
of  Am.  libraries,  199;  member  com. 
on  resolutions,  202. 

Jewett,  W.  K.,  "Proportion  of  uni- 
versity library  income  which 
should  be  spent  on  administration," 
292-4. 

Johnston,  R.  H.,  vice-pres.  Special 
Libraries  Assn.,  353. 

Jones,  E.  Kathleen,  "Library  work 
among  the  insane,"  320-4. 

Josephson,  A.  G.  S.,  discusses  library 
schools,  158;  chrm.  com.  to  investi- 
gate cost  and  method  of  cataloging, 
193;  "What  is  cataloging?"  245- 
6;  discusses  paper  by  Dudgeon, 
329. 

Josselyn,  L.  W.,  teller  of  election,  205. 

Kaiser,  John  B.,  314. 

Kelso,  Tessa  L.,  addresses  assn.,  71; 
discusses  library  schools,  156. 

Keogh,  Andrew,  member  com.  on 
arrangements  College  and  ref. 
section,  294. 

Kidder,  Mrs.  Ida  A.,  addresses  Agri- 
cultural libraries  section,  226-7. 

Kimball,  W.  C.,  trustee  of  Endow- 
ment fund,  205. 

Kingsbury,  David  L.,  died,  80. 

Klingelsmith,  Mrs.  M.  C.,  second 
vice-pres.  Am.  Assn.  of  Law  Li- 
braries, 314;  member  auditing  com. 
Am.  Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  314; 
reads  paper  at  joint  session,  336. 

Klotz,  Otto  J.,  message  from,  58; 
"Trustee's  duty  to  the  library," 
302-4. 

Koch,  T.  W.,  member  com.  on  co- 
ordination, 195;  member  Execu- 
tive board,  204;  "Some  phases  of 
the  administrative  history  of  col- 
lege and  university  libraries,"  268- 
75. 

Lane,  Evelyn  N.,  died,  80. 

Lane,  Wm.  C,  rpt.  com.  on  co^ 
ordination,  97-9;  member  com.  on 
international  relations,  195;  mem- 
ber com.  on  co-ordination,  195. 

Lapp,  John  A.,  member  public  docu- 
ments com.,  194;  participates  in 
discussion,  330-1,  333,  349,  350, 
351. 

Laurier,  Sir  W.,  addresses  assn.,  159- 
60;  presents  gavel  on  behalf  of 
Canadian  librarians,  169. 

Lawrence,  Hannah  M.,  sec'y  Chil- 
dren's librarians'  section,  268. 

League  of  Library  Commissions,  pro- 
ceedings of,  316-28. 

Lee,  George,  W.,  participates  in  dis- 
cussion, 332,  347,  349. 

Legislative  reference  work,  catalog- 
ing in  (Imhofl),  238-45. 

Legler,  Henry  E.,  rpt.  A.  L.  A.  pub- 
lishing board,  83-90;  presides 
second  general  session,  101;  chrm. 
program  com.,  195;  president  of 
A.  L.  A.,  204,  205;  reads  paper  by 
Jean  McLeod,  250. 

Lester,  C.  B.,  member  public  docu- 
ments com.,  194. 


Librarianship,  aim  and  definition  of 
(Putnam),  69-66. 

Libraries,  government  of,  and  their 
relation  to  the  municipal  au- 
thorities, rpt.  of  com.  on  (Bost- 
wick),  196-9. 

Libraries  in  federal  prisons,  rpt.  of 
com.  on  (Hopper),  324-6. 

Library,  Public:  "a  leaven'd  and 
prepared  choice:"  president's  ad- 
dress (Elmendorf),  67-71. 

Library  administration,  rpt.  of  com. 
on  (Bostwick),  102-13;  com.  on, 
194;  "Proportion  of  university  in- 
come which  should  be  spent  on 
(Jewett),  292-4. 

Library  extension  work  of  agricul- 
tural colleges  (Hepburn),  213-6. 

Librarv  post,  rpt.  of  com.  on  (Dud- 
geon), 317-8. 

Library  schools,  proposed  inspection 
of,  113;  "What  1.  s.  can  do  for  the 
profession"  (Hadley),  147-51;  dis- 
cussion of  above  paper  (Brett, 
Anderson  and  others),  151-8. 

Library  training,  rpt.  of  com.  on 
(Root),  113;  com.  on,  194. 

Lien,  E.  J.,  member  Executive  com. 
Am.  Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  314. 

Lighting  and  ventilation  of  libraries, 
rpt.  of  com.  on  (Ranck),  196,  199- 
200. 

Lindholm,  Marie  F.,  participates  in 
discussion,  334,  350. 

Little,  Robbins,  died,  80. 

Locke,  George  H.,  member  com.  on 
co-operation  with  N.  E.  A.,  194. 

Louisville,  invitation  from,  193. 

Lucas,  Stella,  died,  80. 

Lyon,  Frances  D.,  member  auditing 
com.  Am.  Assn.  of  Law  Libraries, 
314. 

McCurdy,  Mary  de  B.,  presides 
Children's  librarians'  section,  247. 

McGoun,  Archibald,  "Bibliography 
of  Canadian  law,"  336. 

Mackay,  Margaret  S.,  sec'y  Catalog 
section,  247. 

McLenegan,  Charles  E.,  "Open  door, 
through  the  book  and  the  library," 
127-32. 

McLeod,  Jean,  "Employees'  library 
—  its  scope  and  its  possibilities," 
250-4. 

MacNair,  Mary  W.,  "Librarj'  of 
Congress  list  of  subject  headings," 
231-4. 

Macnaughton,  John,  addresses  assn., 
169. 

Magazine  binders,  rpt.  on,  95. 

Mann,  Margaret,  member  com.  on 
catalog  rules  for  small  libraries, 
195;  member  Council,  204. 

Manual  of  library  economy.  Rpt. 
of  Publishing  board  on,  86. 

Marion,  Guy  E.,  participates  in  dis- 
cussion, 331-2,  343-4,  345;  pre- 
sents rpt.  as  sec.-treas.  Special 
Libraries  Assn.,  353;  sec.-treas. 
Special  Libraries  Assn.,  353. 

Martel,  Charles,  member  com.  on 
code  for  classifiers,  193. 

Marvin,  Cornelia,  member  com.  on 
library  training,  194. 

Merrill,  W.  S.,  chrm.  com.  on  code 
for  classifiers,  193;  discusses  uni- 
formity in  catalog  entries,  246. 

Milam,  Carl  H.,  "Publicity  for  the 
sake  of  support,"  120-4;  presides 
League  of  Library  Com.,  316; 
pres.  League,  328. 

Miller,  Grace,  "Book  advertising: 
illumination  as  to  attractions  of 
real  books,"  187-92. 

Miller,  Zana  K.,  participates  in  dis- 
cussion, 350. 


MKirdy,  James,  "Bill  drafting,"  361. 

Monrad,  Anna  M.,  discusses  subject 
headings,  238. 

Montgomery,  T.  L.,  member  com. 
on  federal  and  state  relations,  195; 
secy.  Trustees'  section,  307; 
participates  in  discussion,  362. 

Montreal,  day  in  (Roden),  209-11. 

Morton,  F.  B.,  participates  in  dis- 
cussion, 339,  347-8,  349. 

Municipal  yearbook,  rpt.  on  (Ranck), 
346. 

Murray,  Margaret  E.,  "Earning 
power  of  a  special  reference  library 
on  retail  distribution,"  339-41. 

Murray,  Rose  G.,  member  com.  on 
bookbinding,  79;  member  com.  on 
bookbinding,  195. 

National  education  association,  rpt. 
of  com.  on  co-operation  with 
(Ahern),  101;  ofiQcial  greetings 
from,  170;  com.  on,  194. 

Necrology.     See  A.  L.  A.  necrology. 

New  York  public  library  school,  rpt. 
on  (Plummer),  300-1. 

New  York  State  library  school, 
account  of  new  quarters  and  re- 
sources (Walter),  295. 

New  Zealand  Libraries  Assn.,  greet- 
ings from,  67. 

Newberry,  Marie  A.,  member  com. 
on  co-operation  with  N.  E.  A.,  194. 

Newspapers,  rpt.  of  com.  on  preserva- 
tion of  (Hill),  116-8;  discussion  on 
subject,  118-20. 

Normal  and  high  schools.  Teaching 
library  use  in  (Walter),  255-60. 

Normal  course  at  Pratt  Institute, 
proposed  (Rathbone),  297-300. 

Norman,  O.  E.,  member  Executive 
board  Special  Libraries  Assn.,  363. 

Normandin,  Monsieur,  sings  Cana- 
dian folk  songs,  181. 

Nursey,  Walter  R.,  "Trustee's  duty 
to  the  public,"  304-7. 

Ogden,  E.  Lucy,  addresses  Agricul- 
tural libraries  section,  227._ 

Ontario,  history  and  condition  of 
libraries  in,  304-7. 

Ontario  Library  Association,  greeting 
from  president  of,  146. 

"Open  door,  through  the  book  and 
the  library"  (McLenegan),  127-32. 

Owen,  T.  M.,  member  public  docu- 
ments com.,  194;  second  vice-pres. 
League,  328. 

Paper,  rpt.  of  com.  on  preservation  of 
newspaper  (Hill),  116-8. 

Parker,  William  E.,  died,  81. 

Patterson,  J.  R.,  member  com.  on 
bookbinding,  195. 

Peck,  Adolph  L.,  died,  80. 

Perley,  Hon.  Geo.  H.,  welcomes  assn. 
to  Canada,  67. 

Perry,  E.  R.,  member  of  Council, 
205. 

Phelan,  J.  F.,  member  travel  com., 
195;  teller  of  election,  205. 

Plummer,  Mary  W.,  member  com. 
on  library  training,  194;  member 
com.  on  resolutions,  202;  rpt.  on 
N.  Y.  public  library  school,  300- 
1;  member  program  com.  Pro- 
fessional training  section,  301. 

Poole,  F.  O.,  addresses  Am.  Assn.  of 
Law  Libraries,  313;  pres.  Am. 
Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  314. 

Porter,  W.  T.,  presides  Trustees' 
section,  302;  chrm.  Trustees'  sec- 
tion, 307. 

Post-conference  trip  (Ideson),  211-3. 

Power,  EflSe  L.,  chrm.  Children's 
librarians'  section,  268. 

Pratt  Institute  school  of  library  sci- 
ence, Proposed  normal  course  at 
(Rathbone),  297-300. 


370 


INDEX 


Prisons,  See  Libraries  in  federal 
prisons. 

Professional  training  section,  pro- 
ceedings of,  295-301. 

Program  com.,  195. 

Public  documents,  rpt.  of  com.  on 
(Godard),  115-6;  com.  on,  194; 
res.  from  com.  on,  200. 

Public  documents  round  table,  pro- 
ceedings of,  307-11. 

Publications,  recent,  of  A.  L.  A. 
publishing  board,  83-4. 

Publications  committee  of  the  League 
of  Library  Commissions,  rpt.  of 
(Dudgeon),  326-7. 

Publicity  for  the  sake  of  information 
(Hatton),  72-5;  p.  for  the  sake  of 
support  (Milam),  120-4. 

Publishing  Board.  See  A.  L.  A. 
Publishing  board. 

Putnam,  Herbert,  address,  59-66; 
rpt.  com.  on  co-ordination,  96-7; 
chrm.  com.  on  international  rela- 
tions, 194;  member  com.  on  co- 
ordination, 195;  speaks  of  proposed 
Leipzig  exhibit  of  book  arts, 
196. 

Ranck,  8.  H.,  member  public  docu- 
ments com.,  194;  rpt.  com.  on 
ventilation  and  lighting  of  li- 
braries, 196,  199-200;  member 
com.  on  gov.  of  Am.  libraries,  199; 
reports  for  municipal  yearbook 
com.,  346;  participates  in  discus- 
sion, 346-7. 

Rathbone,  Josephine  A.,  discusses 
library  schools,  155;  member  of 
Council,  196;  "Projected  normal 
course  at  Pratt  Institute,"  297- 
3(X);  membership  com.  Professional 
training  section,  301. 

Rawson,  Fannie  C,  member  publica- 
tions com.  League  of  Library  Com- 
missions, 328. 

Reference  work.  See  College  and 
reference  section. 

Regina,  Sask.,  message  of  sympathy 
to,  on  account  of  cyclone,  170. 

Reinick,  W.  R.,  addresses  public 
documents  round  table,  310. 

Resolutions,  rpt.  of  Com.  on 
(Thwaites),  201-2. 

Richardson,  E.  C,  member  com.  on 
international  relations,  195;  "Fun- 
damental principles  of  Cataloging," 
234-7. 

Robertson,  James  W.,  presides  pre- 
liminary session,  57-ff;  presides 
fourth  general  session,  15&-£f;  ad- 
dresses assn.  on  Conservation  in 
Canada,  161-9;  addresses  Agricul- 
tural libraries  section,  216. 

Roden,  Carl  B.,  represents  A.  L.  A.  at 
Wisconsin  assn.,  79;  rpt.  of  treas- 
urer, 81;  "Book  advertising:  in- 
formation as  to  subject  and  scope 
of  books,"  181-7;  member  com.  on 
bookbuying,  195;  "Day  in  Mon- 
treal," 209-11. 

Root,  A.  S.,  rpt.  com.  on  lib.  training, 
113;  chrm.  com.  on  lib.  training, 
194. 

Sanders,  Minerva  A.,  died,  80. 

Sawyer,  Mrs.  Harriet  P.,  member  of 
Council,  196. 

Sawyer,  Laura  M.,  member  com.  on 
work  with  blind,  195. 

Saze,  Mary  S.,  "With  the  children  in 
Canada,"  247. 

Schenk,  F.  W.,  first  vice-pres.  Am. 
Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  314. 

Scholefield,  E.  O.  S.,  member  Exec- 
utive committee  Am.  Assn.  of 
Law  Libraries,  314. 

Schools.  See  High  Schools,  Library 
schools. 


Schwab,  J.  C,  member  com.  on  co- 
ordination, 195. 

Secretary's  rpt.   (Utley),  75-81. 

Settle,  George  T.,  invites  A.  L.  A.  to 
Louisville  on  behalf  various  organi- 
zations, 193. 

Shaw,  R.  K.,  "Is  the  establishment 
of  a  central  reference  bureau  de- 
sirable?" 278-9. 

Short  story  index,  Do  we  need  a 
(Drury),  277-8. 

Shortt,  Mrs.  Adam,  welcomes  assn. 
on  behalf  women's  clubs,  57. 

Sicotte,  L.  W.,  died,  80. 

Sinclair,  L.  B.,  discusses  paper  by 
Walter,  260. 

Small,  A.  J.,  member  public  docu- 
ments com.,  194;  addresses  Am. 
Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  313. 

Smith,  Elizabeth  M.,  sec'y.  public 
documents  round  table,  307. 

Smith,  Faith  E.,  member  com.  on 
library  training,  194. 

Smith,  Laura,  member  com.  on  work 
with  blind,  195. 

Smith,  T.  Guilford,  died,  80. 

Smoot,  Reed,  letter  read  from,  309. 

Sneed,  Mrs.  Percival,  member  of 
Council,  196. 

Special  Libraries  Association,  pro- 
ceedings of,  329-53. 

Spencer,  Florence,  member  Executive 
board  Special  Libraries  Assn., 
353. 

Social  side  of  the  conference 
(Thwaites),  205-8. 

Solberg,  Thorvald,  addresses  public 
documents  round  table,  310. 

Steiner,  Bernard  C,  rpt.  com.  on 
federal  and  state  relations,  102; 
chrm.  com.  on  federal  and  state 
relations,  195. 

Strohm,  Adam,  "EflSciency  of  the 
library  staff  and  scientific  manage- 
ment, "  143-6;  member  com.  on 
library  training,  194;  member  com. 
on  gov.  of  Am.  libraries,  196. 

Study  outlines,  rpt.  of  com.  on 
(Brown),  319-20. 

Subject  headings,  papers  and  dis- 
cussion on,  227-38. 

Sutliff,  Mary  L.,  member  com.  on 
catalog  rules  for  small  libraries, 
195. 

Sykes,  W.  J.,  reads  paper  by  L.  B. 
Sinclair,  260. 

Thompson,  J.  D.,  addresses  public 
documents  round  table,  309;  mem- 
ber com.  on  subject  headings,  314. 

Thompson,  Laura  A.,  presides  Cata- 
log section,  227. 

Thwaites,  Reuben  G.,  represents  A. 
L.  A.  at  inauguration  CJeo.  E.  Vin- 
cent, 79;  rpt.  of  com.  on  resolu- 
tions, 201-2;  social  side  of  the  con- 
ference, 205-8. 

Tobitt,  Edith,  "Type  of  assistants," 
138-^2. 

Toronto,  day  in  (Ahem),  208-9. 

Travel  com.,  195. 

Treasurer's  report  (Roden),  81. 

Tremblay,  Amedee,  181. 

True,  A.  C,  "Suggestions  as  to  a 
policy  of  administration  of  agri- 
cultural college  and  experiment 
station  libraries,"  216-22. 

Trustees'  section,  proceedings  of, 
302-7. 

Turvill,  Helen,  rpt.  on  uniformity  in 
cataloging  rules,  246,  301. 

Tutt,  Virginia  M.,  participates  in 
discussion,  342-3. 

Tyler,  Alice  S.,  elected  to  Executive 
board,  79;  rpt.  of  com.  on  relation 
of  A.  L.  A.  and  state  library  assns., 
196. 


"Type  of  assistants"  (Tobitt),  138- 
42. 

Underhill,  Caroline  M.,  member 
com.  on  library  training,  194. 

Uniformity  in  cataloging  rules,  rpt. 
of  com.  on  (TurvUl),  246,  301. 

Utley,  George  B.,  rpt.  of  sec'y,  75-81; 
represents  A.  L.  A.  at  conferences 
in  Ohio,  Minnesota,  Nebraska, 
North  Dakota,  Indiana,  Wis- 
consin, 78-9;  lectures  before  li- 
brary sch.  Iowa,  New  York, 
Illinois;  member  program  com., 
195. 

Van  Valkenburgh,  Agnes,  member 
com.  to  investigate  cost  and  meth- 
od of  cataloging,  193;  "Training 
or  teaching,"  295-7;  sec'y  Pro- 
fessional training  section,  301. 

Ventilation  and  lighting  of  libraries, 
rpt.  of  com.  on  (Ranck),  196,  199- 
200. 

Vincent,  George  E.,  address  by,  170- 
81. 

Wales,  Elizabeth  B.,  rpt.  on  charters 
provisions  for  public  libraries,  316- 
7;  first  vice-pres.  League,  328. 

Walter,  Frank  K.,  discusses  library- 
schools,  156-8;  member  Council, 
204;  "'Teaching  library  use  in  nor- 
mal and  high  schools,"  255-60; 
gives  account  of  new  quarters 
N.  Y.  State  library  school,  295; 
member  program  com.  Professional 
training  section,  301;  chrm.  Pro- 
fessional training  section,  301. 

Walton,  F.  P.,  prepares  paper  for 
joint  session,  335. 

Ward,  G.  O.,  discusses  paper  by 
Mary  E.  Hall,  266-8. 

Warren,  Irene,  member  com.  on  co- 
operation with  N.  E.  A.,  194. 

Washington,  D.  C,  suggested  for 
1913  conference,  193. 

Webster,  Caroline  F.,  member  pub- 
lications com.  League  of  Library 
Commissions,  328. 

Welles,  Jessie,  "What  do  the  people 
want?"  132-3. 

Wellman,  H.  C,  reads  paper  by 
Grace  Miller,  187;  member  Execu- 
tive board,  204. 

Whare,  Grace  A.,  addresses  Chil- 
dren's librarians'  section,  254. 

What  do  the  people  want  (Wells), 
132-3. 

Whitney,  E.  L.,  rpt.  as  treas.  Am. 
Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  312;  treas. 
Am.  Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  314. 

Wigmore,  J.  H.,  prepares  paper  for 
joint  session,  335. 

Windsor,  P.  L.,  member  com.  on  code 
for  classifiers,  193 ;  presides  College 
and  reference  section,  268. 

Wire,  G.  E.,  discusses  subject  head- 
ings in  medicine,  237-8;  addresses 
Am.  Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  313; 
participates  in  discussion,  336. 

Wood,  Harriet  A.,  member  com.  on 
co-operation  with  N.  E.  A.,  194. 

Woodard,  Miss  G.  E.,  sec'y  Am. 
Assn.  of  Law  Libraries,  314;  mem- 
ber of  com.  on  classification,  315. 

Wyer,  J.  I.,  Jr.,  represents  A.  L.  A. 
at  conferences  in  Iowa,  Illinois, 
Missouri,  78;  presides  third  gen- 
eral session,  133;  member  com.  on 
conditions  governing  aflSliationof 
other  than  focal,  state  and  provin- 
cial assns.,  196;  presides  Agricul- 
tural libraries  section,  213-27; 
reads  paper  by  A.  C.  iTrue,  216; 
addresses  public  documents  round 
table,  311. 

Wver,  M.  G.,  reads  paper  by  Hanson, 
280. 


BULLETIN 


OF  THE 


.    Ameeican  Library  Association 

Entered  as  seoond-olasg  matter  December  27, 1909,  at  the  Post-Office  at  Ohioago,  UL 
Under  Act  of  Congress,  July  16,  1894. 

Vol.  6,  No.  4.  CHICAGO,  ILL.  July,  1912 


CONTENTS: 

Papers  and  Proceedings  of  the  Ottawa 

Conference  ' 


OFFICERS   OF   THE  ASSOCIATION : 
PRESIDENT 

Mrs.  H.  L.  Elmendorf  .        .        -     Buffalo  Public  Library 

FIRST  vice-president 

Henry  E.  Legler Chicago  Public  Library 

second  vice-president 
Mary  W.  Plummer        -        .        .        New  York  Public  Library 

treasurer 
Carl  B.  Roden Chicago  Public  Library 

secretary 
George  B.  Utley      -        -        -        -     A.  L,  A.  Executive  Office 


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