LIBRARY ? (o A PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE TWENTY-FIFTH GENERAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION HELD AT NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y, JUNE 22-26 1903 CONTENTS. TITLE. Address of the President . The treatment of books according to the amo their use unt of I AUTHOR. PAGE. James K. Hosmer 3 W. C. Lane A headquarters for our Association The use and value of fiction in education .... The purchase of current fiction Some problems concerning prose fiction The place of fiction in the free public library . . Greater freedom in the use of books Duplicate pay collections of popular boobs . . . -: Canada and public libraries The country library The small city library Work with the children in the small library . The classification and cataloging of children's books. Southern libraries Report of the Committee en Library Administration. The essentials of a library report Weak points in library statistics Report of the Committee on Library Training . -j Report of Committee on Public Documents . . . Report of the A. L. A. Publishing Board .... Report on gifts and bequests, 1902-1903 .... W. E. Foster E. D. Burton George lies Isabel E. Lord A. E. Bostwick B. C. Steincr /. C. Dana E. W. Caillard P. B. Wright J. F. Langton H. H. Langton H. W. Fison /. Maud CaiafbfU Clara W. Hunt Mildred A. Collar Mary Hannah Johnson W. R. Eastman; Cornelia Marvin W. E. Foster A. E. Bostwick M. W. Plummer; S. C. Fairchild; K. L. Sharp; A. B. Kroeger; E. H. Anderson; M. E. Robbins. R. P. Falkner W. I. Fletcher 7. L. Harrison . i? 19 24 28 33 36 38 40 4i 43 47 50 57 69 71 76 81 83 1 02 Proceedings First Session Secretary's report Treasurer's report and necrology . . . Report of Trustees of Endowment Fund. Report of Committee on Foreign Docu- ments In memoriam Hannah P. James . . . Second Session Niagara in literature Third Session Report of Committee on International Co-operation Report of Committee on Relation of Li- braries to the Booktrade . . . Fourth Session Address of Goldwin Smith Relations of Libraries and Booktrade . Report of Committee on Library Train- ing Fifth Session Commercial circulating libraries . . . Duplicate pay collections 127-169 "7-133 127 128 132 133 133-134 133 134-iSO '34 134 I50-I55 152 I56-IS9 156 156 Sixth Session Essentials of a library report .... Centralization of library activities . . Report of Committee on Title-Pages to Periodicals Plans of the A. L. A. Publishing Board. Seventh Session Co-operative library activities .... Report of Committee on Reduced Postal and Express Rates to Libraries . Report of Committee on Resolutions . Election of officers College and Reference Section Catalog Section Trustees' Section Children's Librarians' Section State Library Commissions Section . . . Round Table Meeting for Small Libraries . Transactions of Council and Executive Board. The social side of the Niagara Conference. Frances L. Rathbone Adventures of a Post-Conference .... Officers and Committees Attendance register Attendance summaries. Nina E. Browne . 1 60 1 60 164 165 165-169 165 167 1 68 169 170-175 176-194 195-205 206-218 319-223 224 224-226 217 228-231 231 232 242 CONFERENCE OF LIBRARIANS. NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y. JUNE 22-26, 1903. SOME THINGS THAT ARE UPPERMOST: ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. + - > , . BY JAMES KENDALL HOSMER, Librarian Minneapolis (Minn.) Public Library. N a lovely evening now nearly half a cen- i**H tury ago, pulling the bow-oar of a well- manned boat, I floated over the Back Bay at Cambridge, brimming with the flood-tide. The expanse was shot through with sunset colors, and as the flying keels cleft it open and the cut closed instantly in the wake, I thought of " c - the comparison in "The autocrat of the breakfast table," then just appearing in the Atlantic, that it was like the wounds of Mil- j<) ton's angels in the wars of heaven, the beauti- A^ful surface healed by heavenly magic as soon *"; as sundered. A boat darted toward us, and as it approachd, lo ! the sturdy rower, brac- ing himself against the wide-spreading out- (v-^riggers, was no other than the Autocrat, Dr. A Oliver Wendell Holmes himself, who as he ^ drew near shouted over his shoulder a greet- ing to our stout stroke, "Why, Charley, I didn't know you were old enough to be out iii a boat !" The stroke was Charles W. , Eliot, known then as a bright young tutor in ' science. I was proud in those days to pull in , 5 the same boat with him ; and in the years T^lhat have come and gone since, during which - the great Harvard president has shown initia- tive and strenuous wisdom that have wrought V ' revolutions in many things, it has continued ^usually to be my happy lot to find myself in : , the same boat with him. (vS At Magnolia, however, last summer, I was not quite sure that we were pulling together Oin the same boat. The Association well re- >members that trenchant address. Libraries, 5isaid he in substance, are always crying for ^ore space. Now just as there are two ways of growing rich, one by increasing a man's ^possessions, the other by diminishing his de- p sires, so there are two ways for making room f>in libraries, one by adding to the size of the "building, the other by diminishing the size of the collection. Then came an advocacy of the latter plan. I am in favor, said he, of sorting out in libraries the dead books, which I would have put out of the way. Two or three copies of each dead book might be pre- served and put into some receptacle especially prepared for them one such receptacle per- haps for the libraries of a commonwealth. I advocate not a crematory where everything shall be destroyed, but rather a receiving- tcmb. In the main, however, let the dead books be summarily disposed of, and for a criterion to distinguish between books dead and books living, let such be regarded as dead, as have not been called for within a certain small number of years. We listened to these revolutionary utter- ances last year at Magnolia quite aghast, but with a conviction that grew and deepened, that we had heard something well worth lis- tening to. Where is the accumulation of books to end? A witty writer once, contem- plating the enormous growth of the libraries of eastern Massachusetts, drew a picture of the book-worm's golden age, which he fore- saw as approaching. The libraries of Cam- bridge were to to grow toward Boston, those of Boston toward Cambridge, until in the in- tervening space everything was to be sub- merged and drowned out in the sea of books. Then the book-worms and dry-as-dust libra- rians were to disport themselves as in a Para- dise. The problem is a grave one. Mr. Eliot states it impressively. If only there were some criterion by which books dead and books living could be separated. Can we be satisfied with that proposed by Mr. Eliot, that books not called for within a certain small numbers of years shall be held as dead and forthwith discarded? Acording to this stand- 'rd, what deader literature through many ages than the accounts on their clay tablets of 325518 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. the Mesopotamian auditor when the temple was built to the god Nisroch, which we read of as lately disentombed and deciphered! And yet, to the anthropologist, as showing bow the mind worked in Nippur, back there in the morning of time, and how society in those days was run, that old cuneiform record is a most precious one. Or, taking an instance of a different kind, I well remember being sent as a small boy in the town of Concord, Mass., by my aunt to do an errand at the house of a friend of hers who had an eccentric son. This son, though he had a good home, had gone off and lived in the woods, which the plain farmers about believed he had set on fire, a report which caused him to be looked a: askance. He was a lounger about the fields ar.d on the river. H had moreover written a book of which it was said no copy had ever been sold; and the story went that the queer man had the whole edition, a thousand cop- ies, in a room in his mother's house, and used to sit with his chums in that odd library all his own book which no one had ever cared to read. I went to the house on my aunt's errand, and when I rapped, lo ! the door was opened by no other than this strange man. I well recall the far-away look in his grey eyes, his slow, rather hesitating speech, as if he did not talk much with people, his slender rather shabbily dressed figure. I believe I fancied he smelt of smoke, and I peered up the staircase behind him to see if I might per- haps get a glimpse of that curious library, the thousand copies of one book which the man had written himself and which nobody wanted. Now, judging by Mr. Eliot's crite- rion, no book could be more dead than that. It not only had not been called for in years, but it had never been called for. It was deader than the dead; it had never been alive; it had fallen from the press still-born. But that man was Thoreau ! and the book was "A week on the Concord and Merrimac rivers !" The book in which that rare and powerful genius stepped out in his great mis- sion as the apostle of Nature, opening the senses of men as they had never been opened before to v:hat lies in the snow crystal, in the scale of the fish, in the cone of the pine, in the clang of the migrating wild geese, sound- ing down from the triangle of their flight drawn across the heavens. Mr. Eliot's cri- terion would have put out of the way as es- pecially uncalled for and dead Thoreau's "Week on the Concord and Merrimac rivers ;" and yet to-day many a man would give far toward its weight in gold for an undoubted copy of that first edition, brushed against and cherished by that self-centered hermit genius as he moved about in that odd library, back there in the forties when he was waiting for his fame. Again, I recall this as something lately oc- curring in my life as a librarian. More than two hundred years ago old Aubrey, who fig- ures quaintly in the "Athenae Oxonienses" of Anthony a Wood, wrote a life of the philoso- pher Hobbes. This book we had possessed perhaps for thirty years, during which time there is no 'evidence to show that the old bcok had ever been opened. But a day came for it. The profoundest thinker in our com- munity found in the long-neglected book just what he required; and the thought of the an- cient writer, still alive like wheat sometimes in mummy wrappings, after many years, stands now transplanted in modern pages, and will affect in a notable \vay perhaps the spec- ulation of to-day. There is no question as to the problem \vhich Mr. Eliot last year so effectively stated ; nor can it be denied that since his statement it must be regarded among the things that are uppermost. But the criterion is unsatisfac- tory. Shall we consign to the receiving-tomb books because they are uncalled for? We may come to that for want of better means of judging; but it should be borne in mind that in the case of the dead book, as of the human soul, there is always the possibility of a resurrection. Like the volume of Tho- reau, the book long dead may spring into vigorous 1'fe. Nor is the usefulness of a book to be measured at all by the number of hands through which it passes. The book which untouched for thirty years, at last fur- nished a philosopher with suggestions which he will utilize for the benefit of the world tc-day vindicates its vitality, even though an- other generation may pass before it is opened again. Among the things uppermost in our world to-day, as always, is the fiction question, and I shall certainly not go wrong if I turn my HOSMER. thoughts for a few moments to that. This pcor novel, held by so many to be the dis- reputable member in the family ! Is it treated ab it deserves? There are few indeed who dc not read novels, but the practice is gen- erally spoken of as one that should be apol- ogized for. Rest was needed; time was to be killed on a tedious journey; distraction was necessary from some unpleasant thought or over-heavy work. Two intelligent men have lately spoken to me, in my library, of novels as a class almost with loathing. Not long since died a librarian whose boast it was that he had never admitted a tovel to his library. I lately read the words of a man inclined to take a gloomy view of the condition of Mas- sachusetts. "They say," he declares, "that every one of her towns has a public library. Is that a good indication? Half or more than half the books they circulate are novels." No more in the opinion of this writer needs to be said. The public library as a means of food can be set aside at once because a large p?rt of its business is the circulation of novels. But the sentiment is not all of this kind. I cculd cite names of weight on the other side Charles Francis Adams, Andrew Carnegie, Lowell, John Morley, Benjamin Jowett, Dr. Emil Hirsch, who once declared that the I'ovel had a place by the Bible. The world is then much at sea here, and why should not I embark with the rest for whatever my word is worth ? This so doubtful member then of the fam- ily of litei ature I would take warmly by the hand. If the novel served only to amuse, \vhat more useful books are there in a racked and overworked world lhan the books that amuse us ? A supervisor of schools, the other day depressed and worn out by nervous strain and hard duty, took from our shelves "Her ladyship's elephant;" and when she described to me the relief she got out of it I really felt that perhaps no one of thj 2500 books we cir- culated that day did a better service. But t:ovel reading may be much more than a mere pastime. Since the beautiful is in the best .esthetics, one and the same thing with the true and the good; and since the taste is that faculty of the soul by means of which we seize hold of beauty, it is well worth while that the faculty of high taste within us should be made firm and strong. Among classes of literature it is, by general consent, poetry that makes fine and strong the taste. Hence mainly it is that the reading of poetry is felt to be a good thing. For some reason, how- ever, the form of poetry has less charm for the world than was once the case. To rhyme and rhythm the world has become in a meas- ure indifferent. The great poets are all dead, we say ; none come forward to take their places; the wells of Parnassus have gone dry. But if there is a dearth of poetry, is there not something that will serve in its place? The Germans give to a class of literature the name Prosa-Dichtung, prose-poetry, and this is no other than the novel. The novel is, they assert, barring its outside form, one and the same thing with the epic and metrical romance, and lies properly under the same canons of criticism. Goethe wrote "Hermann and Doro- thea" and "The sorrows of Werther," Scott wrote "Marmion" and "Ivanhoe," Longfellow wrote "Evangeline" and Hyperion" in each instance a metrical romance and a novel; and except that in the case of one of the pair the writer spared himself the trouble of hunting for chiming syllables and beating out with his fingers the metrical feet, the effort of his genius in both kinds of composition must have seemed to him to be one and the same thing. Except for the musical flow to which for some reason or other the modern ear seems to have become rather unresponsive, in what way is the effect upon the reader's mind different, whether the message is de- livered in verse or otherwise? Yes, the novel, in our time, has to a large extent taken the place of the poem, whether the fact is to be regretted or not; and this can be said with entire truth, that if good poetry heightens and refines the taste, so does the good novel heighten and refine the taste, and therefore does not deserve to be looked upon askance. How impressive is the line of masterpieces in this class which the nineteenth century can show ! The "Heart of Mid-Lothian," the "Scarlet letter," "David Copperfield," "Henry Esmond/' "Romola." What light would go out of the literature of our period if the brightness of these we^e subtracted ! In- deed the dwelling upon these and such as these makes fine and strong the taste, so help- ing us through beauty to the good and the true. NIAGARA CONFERENCE. But the novel has still another function than to improve the taste. The skilful teacher of rhetoric instructs his pupil, desir- ous of effectiveness in the art of putting things, to employ the concrete rather than the abstract, to put the lesson he wishes to con- vey into the form of a s^ory, rather than to state it with bald directness. It is the ex- perience of every one that the preacher but drones who talks abstractions, whereas if he puts his truth into some concrete type the pews are ell alive. By means of the novel it is possible to convey truth in the concrete. There is indeed no more rotent vehicle of in- struction. Charles Reade in "Very hard cash" did much toward destroying abuses in the treatment of the insane; in his "Never too late to mend" he helped powerfully to- v/ard a reform of a vicious penal system. Dickens, in "Nicholas Nickleby," smote at the root with a powerful axe a bad system of education. American slavery seemed impreg- nably entrenched until "Uncle Tom's cabin" laid low its ramparts forever, and it was Ed- ward Everett Male's "Man without a coun- try" that brought home to Americans with profound power in our time of trial the worth of a noble patriotism. That utterance just cited of Dr. Emil Hirsch, "The novel has a place by the side of the Bible" will perhaps jar upon many an ear. Though a Jewish rabbi may say it, would it not be irreverent in a Christian? With all reverence, let us ask what was the method of the Master? "A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me,' and he divided unto them his living." Or this, "And it came to pass that a certain man went down from Jerusalem tc Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him, and departed leaving him half dead." I do not know that it has ever been claimed that the Master in his parables asserted literal fsct. He wishes to teacli the beauty of for- giveness; instead of proceeding abstractly he employs the concrete, putting his lesson into the story of the Prodigal Son. Hs wishes to teach the beauty of compassion, and again employs the concrete by constructing the tale of the Good Samaritan. That is his usual method, and I am unable to see how the meth- od differs from that employed by Ian Macla- ren, who in order to impress upon the world the loveliness of self-sacrifice, tells the story of Dr. MacClure; or of Kipling, who to teach the simple lesson of devotedness to duty, makes up the tale of Bobby Wick; or of Hopkinson Smith, who makes vivid the unselfish heroism of humble life by the por- trayal of his rough divers and pilots. If we could have only the good novels, it may be said, all would b2 well, but the novel is so liable to abuse ! The novel is not the only class of literature liable to abuse. There are poems, poems marke-l by genius, which minister powerfully to what is depraved in man. In philosophy one needs only to men- tion the names of Aristippus, the ancient Hedonist; Schopenhauer, the pessimist, teaching that this is the worst world possible; Nietzsche, the modern decadent, to call up the thought of systems that stimulate what is base, cripple human hope, or paralyze aspira- tion. "The lives of twelve bad men," and of Cole Younger and Jesse James, are authentic biography, but not edifying reading. A good woman came to me not long ago almost in tears over the announcement that a newspaper of the city proposed to print each Sunday morning the story of some great crime. There was reason for alarm. History was to be given, but history to read which could be only demoralizing. There are bad books in other classes of literature than fiction. If the novel is to be discredited because that form of writ- ing is liable to abuse, not the less must poe- try, philosophy, biography, and history suffer discredit. If these considerations seem just, it ought not to be a subject of grief that our libraries are responsible for much novel read- ing. Now and then may come up such a case as John Morley's British Museum frequenter, whose steady ration of fiction was thirty vol- umes a week. It is an abuse; but all things are liable to abuse, those most necessary es- pecially liable. There are drunkards, gluttons and sluggards. But for all that we do not cease to drink, eat and sleep. I am one of those who believe that book ccmmittees and librarians step aside from their proper function when they assume to any great extent the character of the censor, and undertake to prescribe what the public shall and shall not read. In a democratic so- HOSMER. ciety nothing is more unpopular than pater- nalism, the over-officious extension of the guiding hand, and rightly so. In the libraries which the people pay for they should have what they want. The people want good store of stories, and stories they should have. One of the things that should be always uppermost is that the men and women of our profession should have in their mind's eye a noble ideal of what the librarian should be. It is worth while to inquire whether our ideal ia of the noblest. That pleasant writer, Mr. Gerald Lee, in his "Lost art of reading," has lately passed a gentle criticism upon the "new librarian" which has made its impression. "He seems to have decided," says Mr. Lee, "that his mind is a kin I of pneumatic tube, or mechanical carrier system for shoving books at people. There need be no discrim- ination in the shoving; a novel of Bertha Clay and a dialogue of Plato are landed with en- tire impartiality and with equal dexterity and alacrity into the hands waiting to receive. Any higher or more thorough use for a libra- rian's mind, such as being a kind of spirit of books for people, making a spiritual connec- tion with them down underneath, does not seem to have occurred to him. They have r.'Ot alway- been," says Geiald Lte, "what so many of them are now, mere couplings, con- veniences, connecting-rods, literary beltings. They used to be identified and wrought in with the books ;" and Mr. Lee states his pref- erence for the old librarian over the new, a man who though dreamy and unpractical was steeped in the spirit of the literature in the midst of vhich he lived, and capable of com- municating a stimulus from it to minds which approached him. Gerald Lee's touch is light and transient; but interpreting him seriously, we may under- stand him, I think, as making the point against us, that while we magnify in the libra- rian the practical and executive, we postpone, if we do not entirely supersede and cast out as unimportant, a fine scholarship and the pos- session of high spiritual sympathies. There ij a figure which may well stand as a type of the old school librarian. Gotthold Ephraim Lessing is one of the three or four most illus- trious names in the history of German litera- ture; he is justly ranked indeed among the great intellectual lights of- the world. By profession he was a librarian, the scene of his labors being the little town of Wolfenbiittel in Braunschweig. His immediate public was no doubt insignificant enough ; and of the ac- tivities which absorb the modern American librarian as he acquires and distributes by the hundred thousand books of weight and trifles light as air of all this no doubt he knew little. He had, however, in his keeping a great col- lection of solid literature, which he knew, and from this during his years of service he dis- tilled a wisdom which he made beneficently fruitful. Among his works are the "Laocoon," the world's masterpiece in literary and artistic criticism ; the "Education of the human race," an expression of lofty religious philosophy; last and chief, the drama of "Nathan der Weise," which perhaps more powerfully than any other uninspired production teaches the lesson of broad-minded charity and tolerance. Far enough from being one of Mr. Gerald. Lee's mechanical carriers, or pneumatic tubes for shoving at people a heterogeneous mass of books, he was rather the ample conduit which overflowing from noble reservoirs made avail- able to waiting minds the best that the past has stored aside. He was of the old type of librarian, but what recognition did he receive from his own generation? There is a curious significance in the circumstances that surround his statue in Berlin. In "Unter den Linden" towers the colossal equestrian figure of Frederick the Great, about whose pedestal are grouped the forms of the men of his time deemed most worthy of commemoration. All are soldiers, men sworded, booted, spurred types of rude executive force, except that on the back of the pedestal, where the tail of Frederick's horse droops over, almost beneath the charger's hoofs, stands a small group of men of peace. There side by side with Immanuel Kant rises the librarian Lessing. He is thrust as far as possible into the background; the king's face is averted, his back turned square upon the figure, which rises serene and tall with eyes that seem to gaze on some far-off pleasant prospect. Certainly near at hand there was for him no pleasantness. Poverty and mis- appreciation were his lot in life, and he died at fifty-two worn out with hardship. So it was in the eighteenth century. Would NIAGARA CONFERENCE. the twentieth century be appreciative of such a librarian? Mr. Gerald Lee at any rate would seem to indicate that the librarian im- bued with the spirit of books, and capable of putting his public in sympathetic touch with all their sweeter and subtler influences is set aside, while the new librarian, brisk and prac- tical, nev-;r getting below the surface into the deeper waters, possesses in the world's idea, all the important requisites of the profession. Let us hope he is wrong, for it will be a sad day for our calling, if scholarship, soulful in- sight, the capacity for the finer utilizings of literature come to be held as things of small account. Not at all that a low estimate is to be put on the administrative faculty. Hail to the librarian who shall so far utilize the >i-rays or the new metal radium as to be able through them to detect the innermost crav- ings of the public whom he serves who then . can manage to transmit bv wireless telegraphy the message to his issue-desk, and afterwards deliver by swiftest automobile the right book to the right reader! But in our ideal libra- rian there should be a union of all. In him must be combined the administrator, the scholar, the sympathetic familiar of all spirits wise and deep ; and when it is remembered that we have had within our ranks Justin Winsor, William F. Poole, and Richard Gar- nett, it seems not hopeless to expect that the ideal may come real. But I have occupied more time than I ought. The profession to which we belong is one of the most venerable of the profes- sions, a fact which we do not always remem- ber. There seems to be nothing quite so old as the public library. At the present day, when the archor-ologist uwp^tigates a'most the first thing that his spade strikes, is the clay tablet of some old Mesopotamian library. The profession is venerable, and it is indeed honorable. There is a story told by Senator George F. Hoar by many regarded at the present time aa the first citizen of Massachusetts which I am fond of citing. "Some forty-five years ago," said Mr. Hoar, "when I first appeared in public life, I was acquainted with a bright and observing man who was fond of rallying me upon what he called the conceit of the state of Massachusetts. 'You are constantly,' said he, 'making claims which cannot be substan- tiated; you are over-arrogant and you need often to be put down.' I asked him one day," said Mr. Hoar, "when he didn't know what I was driving at, 'Who are the six great poets of America?' and after a moment's hesitation he said, 'Why, Bryant, and Longfellow, and Whittier, and Lowell, and Holmes, and Emerson.' 'And who are the great historians of America?' And after a moment's hesita- tion he said again, 'Why, Sparks, and Ban- croft, and Prescott, and Parkman, and Mot- ley, and Irving.' 'And who are the six great orators of America?' And he mentioned Webster, and Choate, and Everett, and Wen- dell Phillips' among the six. 'Now,' said I, when he had finished (continued Mr. Hoar), 'do you notice that all your poets, all your his- torians but one, and four out of your six ora- tors are Massachusetts men ?' " Said Mr. Hoar : "I think that the estimate of my friend was entirely right. The names that he men- tioned were the names of the intellectual lead- ers of America. Most of them were from eastern Massachusetts, and if I were asked to explain why it was that Massachusetts came forward into such magnificent leadership, I should say that it was for this reason : that at Boston and Cambridge were so early estab- lished libraries to which the people could have access; these were the sources whence thirst- ing genius could imbibe the inspiration and the strength to go forth in noble fields con- quering and to conquer." I think Mr. Hoar was entirely right. In these things Massachusetts undoubtedly has a precedence, but she no longer stands alone. The public library has gone to the north, to the south, to the west, and to the east, and everywhere it does its beneficent work. Our work is to accumulate and distribute the book. Perhaps here at Niagara Falls this comparisoa will be admissible : The book is the storage battery within which the dynamic intellect of a generation accumulates, volt upon volt, increments of spiritual power, power which shall be given forth for the mov- ing of the world. The profession is indeed full of honor; and whatever may be the in- strumentalities for good in the communities in which you live, sweetness and light for those communities will culminate nowhere else than in the halls within which you render your service. LANE. THE TREATMENT OF BOOKS ACCORDING TO THE AMOUNT OF THEIR USE. I. BY WILLIAM COOLIDGE LANE, Librarian of Harvard University. PRESIDENT ELIOT'S address before the Magnolia Conference on the division of a library into books in use and books not in use, stated very clearly the difficulties which confront the modern library in the rapid accu- mulation of books. Certain definite sugges- tions were made in regard to economical methods of storing those books which are not in active use, and these suggestions the speaker asked American librarians to examine and discuss. The difficulties resulting from the enormous production of books at the present day are real difficulties and President Eliot has not overstated them. In fact, he might have put his case still more strongly; for libraries have to deal not only with the mass of current publications, but with the still larger number of old books, which many libraries are buying in greater quantity than the new. The prob- lems presented become daily more pressing, and it is the duty of librarians to meet them squarely, and seriously to study any proposed economy of administration; but before adopting any new policy, it is necessary to watch carefully the ways in which books are used at present, to grasp, if possible, the course of library development, and to forecast the probable effect of changes on the useful- ness of the library. In previous discussion of these problems, different speakers have had different libraries, different conditions, dif- ferent grounds of distinction in mind, and so have failed to reach any accepted conclusion. I propose in this paper to block out the ques- tions at issue as simply as I can, so that the kind of library under discussion, the charac- ter of the distinction which it is proposed to draw between books in use and books not in use, and the effect of such separation upon the various users of libraries, may be made clear. In regard to the smaller libraries, especial- ly town libraries, there need be little funda- mental difference of opinion. Mr. Charles Francis Adams proposed ten years ago, in the annual report of the Quincy Public Li- brary, that for that library a definite limit should be set beyond which accumulation should not go, with the intention that, as new books were added, old ones should be weeded out and sent to some central library. Librarians will perhaps not admit that a fixed limit of this kind can be established in ad- vance, but they will readily agree that the rate of increase can thus properly be dimin- ished, and that smaller libraries should not attempt to build up great independent col- lections, but should depend for less used books upon larger central libraries. The problem before us, however, is the con- dition of the larger libraries, especially those where study is to be done, whose primary ob- ject is to provide the means of research. The proposed separation may be advocated on the ground of more convenient use of books, or it tray be accepted as a policy required by econ- omy, and submitted to as a necessity and not fiom choice. The point of view in regard to this will depend largely upon the age of the library, its size, and the size of its building. A relatively new library, with ample accom- modation for what at the time seems to be an a'most indefinite future, will be inclined to study the question solely from the view of convenience to readers, while another library, with a long past of accumulation behind it and rapidly filling shelves, will realize that economy of administration, as well as con- venient use, demands attention. To us the subject is presented for discussion as a measure of economy, an not omitting the simple cases for travelling and school libraries. The cost of each item in this array should always appear. The pub- lications of our Association might well com- prise illustrations and descriptions chosen from this department. Our headquarters, next after housing, might consider administration. First should be col- lected the laws affecting public libraries, creating state libraries, state library com- missions, and the like, with their reports. Beside these might be placed bound volumes of the leading library journals of the world. Next might stand the works which set forth the chief methods of classification and cata- loging, to be illustrated in the library itself. Then should come bibliographical aids of all kinds, whether in card or book form; to- gether with important trade catalogs, both American and foreign; indexes to publica- tions of the United States and of state gov- ernments, indexes to periodicals, and a com- plete set of the title-cards now being issued by the Library of Congress. Here also should ILES. be found such lists as are issued by the Bos- ton Public Library in special fields of re- search. In print or manuscript should be presented methods of administration illus- trated in detail, with particulars regarding organization, staffs, salaries and the duties of employees. To these should be added statis- tics of expenses of various typical libraries, with results in circulation, and a statement, wherever it can be had, as to what depart- ments stand highest in public regard and in evident fruitfulness. It would be helpful to include here detailed memoranda of the cost of printing and binding in standard styles. Here, too, should be records of the libraries richest in engineering or other special litera- ture, with such of their catalogs as may be obtained in book form. To solicit ]oans from such libraries, whether public or private, on reasonable conditions, might be one of the functions of the bureau. The gist of all this information might well be embodied by our Publishing Board in a hand-book, to be re- issued at intervals in revised form. Work on many other helpful lines might well proceed at the proposed headquarters. There should center the appraisement of books so worthily initiated for us by Mr. J. N. Lamed in his "Literature of American history." That work and its supplement, I am glad to say, are to be continued by our Publishing Board in a series of its card issues. Nothing in Mr. Larned's Guide has proved more useful than Prof. Channing's lists of books suitable for school, town and working libraries. Most of our libraries are small, and it is just such brief selections by scholars of authority that are in the largest request. In extending the work of appraise- ment the first task at headquarters would be to learn what fields may next be entered most acceptably. As far as I can ascertain, fiction, the useful arts, and the "nature-books," are what might be taken up with most benefit. Effectively to carry out appraisement there should be an unceasing canvass for compe- tent and trustworthy critics, chiefly to be found in universities, on the staffs of leading journals, or contributing to the organs of learned societies, such as the Physical Re- view, Each appraisement of a branch of lit- erature should be directed by an editor-in- chief, careful to keep the scope of selections well in hand, and sedulous that notes be given such form as librarians desire. Many of us, I feel sure, would be glad to see such notes brief enough to be printed upon catalog cards. Reviews of indispensable value appear in such journals as Nature of London, the Political Science Quarterly of New York; these should be filed in order to check and supplement the notes received by an editor from his contributors. A review may often be quoted or condensed to serve quite as well as a specially written note. For some years Mr. W. Dawson Johnston, of the Library of Congress, has edited our series of catalog cards for current books on English history, with annotations. He has suggested to our Publishing Board plans for a periodical re- view of current literature in all fields, which would enlist a corps of competent critics. Were the financial outlook for such an enter- prise well assured, it might soon see the light of day. The training of men and women for tasks of criticism at a headquarters has happily begun. During the academic year just closed the State Library School at Albany gave courses in book selection and annotation, directed by Mrs. Salome Cutler Fairchild. Her aim was to cultivate the judgment of book values, the adaptation of books to various types of libraries and of readers. The characteristics of good writing were kept con- stantly in mind that an author's knowledge should be comprehensive and at first hand, that he should be judicial in spirit, and treat his theme with proportion, conciseness and clearness. Each student was required to read with care a selection from recent literature and write notes thereon; these notes were then compared with the reviews of standard periodicals. These periodicals, in turn, were studied with a view to ascertaining their merits and faults. Cards of appraisement prepared at the school are pasted into books at the Cleveland Public Library and at sev- eral small libraries. Another branch of work at Albany has an important suggestion for our headquarters systematic attention to the journals, magazines and reports which supplement books and bring their chapters down to date. Literature, especially in the field of science, is more and more taking the shape of monthly, weekly, or even daily con- 26 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. tributions to the press. To keep track of all these might be one of the most useful func- tions of our central bureau. In all this work it is desirable and probable that our British cousins across the Atlantic might join hands with us. After all, much the larger part of the literature with which we deal is either written in English or translated into that tongue. Why should not the whole English- speaking world co-operate to give its great literature the utmost availability and accep- tance ? Throughout the Union our leading libraries are constantly publishing lists for young folk, selections in biography, travel, and so on. As a rule the titles are drawn solely from the issuing library. All such aids could be better executed at a headquarters bringing into alii- " ance many scattered workers, and dealing with the whole of a literature instead of with only a part. Much duplication of toil would thus come to an end, and the work done would be of improved quality. At St. Louis next year will be published the "A. L. A. catalog" of books, about eight thousand in number, deemed most suitable for small li- braries. To reissue this catalog from time to time, revised and enlarged, would be a fitting task for our central bureau, enlisting the best available advisers in America. Only about one-fourth of our libraries have as many as ten thousand volumes on their shelves; plainly, such a catalog will aid a public much larger than that served by any oi the elaborate guides we may be able to prepare. In 1879 Mr. S. S. Green of Worcester, Massachusetts, began his great work of bind- ing together the public library and the public school. All that has followed from his labors in its salient features should be presented at our headquarters, for it is only in boyhood and girlhood that the reading habit can be formed and trained. A remarkable phase of adult education which continues the work of the public school and makes its home there is conducted in New York as its free lecture system. A standing rule with its supervisor, Dr. H. M. Leipziger, is that the lecturers shall mention such books as most helpfully treat the topics of the platform. Many of his courses develop consecutively, evening by evening, such a theme in science as heat or light, or, in literature, the chief poets of the nineteenth century. For every such series a printed syllabus recommends well chosen books. Dr. Leipziger has furthermore begun the service of "platform libraries." Last win- ter at one of his lecture halls a series of dis- courses was given on applied electricity. No fewer than two hundred copies of a standard text-book on electricity were there lent gratis or sold at cost to all comers. In Philadel- phia is the office of the American Society for the Extension of University Teaching. The syllabi published by this society deserve the widest possible circulation. Take, as an ex- ample, the syllabus of six lectures on Flor- entine history delivered by Mr. W. Hudson Shaw, of Oxford. It offers fifty titles of nota- ble books en the themes of the lectures; the thirty pages which follow are an admirable introduction to the study of Dante, Giotto, Cimabue, the Medici, Savonarola, Machiavelli, and Michelangelo. All such syllabi as these might well be filed at our headquarters, and there, too, should be recorded the most effec- tive modes of organizing lecture courses, part- nered with the dissemination of good litera- ture. These courses are to-day as gladly heard in the country as in the city, and their circuits have much the economy of the travelling li- braries which follow up and strengthen their work. Four years ago Montreal, with aid from New York, established a course of free lectures which last winter went the round of as many as fifty-one towns, villages, mining and lumbering camps throughout the Do- minion. Prof. D. P. Penhallow, who is at the helm, conducts affairs much as if he had charge of a circle of travelling libraries. In his central depository he keeps instead of books the slides and manuscripts of his lec- tures ; the whole store is in active movement from the beginning to the end of a season. Each community gets such lectures as it wants, borrowing instead of having to buy the outfits, at the sole outlay of carriage on small boxes from Montreal and back again. This system has distinctly created a demand for books treating the themes of its lectures. Wisconsin has a lesson as worthy to be placed on record at headquarters as that of Canada. Her farmers are receiving instruc- tion in agricultural and dairy science from a ILES. 27 round of lectures as well illustrated as those familiar to city audiences. In all such work a door opens for the circulation of good books. Nowhere in the Union are travelling libraries more worthy of praise than in Wis- consin. Thus, in city and country, education to-day so far from ending with the school bench only begins there; its continuance through all the years of life, a source as much of joy as of gain, largely turns on good reading. Hence our central bureau should note every new partnership of the public library with schools of art, with trade schools, with colleges of science. Many an isolated student in a par- ish of Louisiana, or Quebec, or elsewhere, wants books and knows not where to find them. For every such inquirer there should be. at our headquarters prompt and judicious aid. What better can we do than rear a con- tinental switch-board to bring together the seeker and the knower, no matter how far apart they may be? Last month it was my privilege to see the work of the Training School for Children's Librarians at Pittsburg, which has just com- pleted its second year of activity. At our headquarters there should be not only cir- culars describing its courses, but a pamphlet, for broadcast distribution, setting forth the hints that these courses have for parents everywhere. To adapt reading to the seasons of the circling year, to follow the procession of the flowers from the blood root in May to the aster and golden rod of October; to awaken interest in the men and women who have made famous one's city and state; to prospect with books of ar$ or science, travel or business, history or romance, until a young reader's bent is discovered; to ally story- telling, visits to museums and picture gal- leries with the printed page, to form home libraries and clubs, is to make literature grap- ple with the mind and heart of boys and girls ai it never grappled before. Surely the ad- dress and patience of it all deserves an audi- ence as wide as the nation. The Library School at Albany, first and chief of its class, has, in the same way, a story to tell which at our headquarters might supplement its formal prospectuses and reports. A pamphlet which might cost but a dime would give everybody who is forming a home library invaluable hints for the choice, the classification and cat- aloging of books and periodicals, the best ordering of the notes which accumulate under the hand of the student or scholar. Of course, at our headquarters the publications of all library schools should be gathered for reference, including the programs of the summer schools conducted at Amherst, Massa- chusetts, and elsewhere. I would like to see every large public library in America con- ducting summer classes for the behoof of li- braries near by. There are thousands of small libraries throughout America, in schools, in villages and towns, which would be greatly bettered if their librarians attended a library school even for a single month. It is becoming the practice for the owners of large private libraries to call in pro- professional classifiers and catalogers, indic?t- ing another service our headquarters could render. In this tentative survey, which seeks to bring out the opinions of this Association as to what its headquarters should be and do, we may, perhaps, consider where it should arise. Plainly, it might with most advantage be placed where geographical claims have had due weight, as well as those which turn upon proximity to great _ editorial and publishing centers. If in the same city and its neighbor- hood, visitors could examine libraries of va- rious types, all good of their kind, so much the better. It is of vital importance that this headquarters should be united with a great library whose books and periodicals could be used by the staff, and where the best adminis- tration would be exemplified. From its shelves loans might be available of books not fiction, of plans, photographic slides, and the like, for all libraries of approved standard, extending to the Union the service which the State Library at Albany now performs for New York. Affiliated with the headquarters, and participating in its work, there might with great advantage be conducted a library school, mainly directed to the higher branches of study and practice, and incidentally serv- ing as a training ground for the staff of the central bureau. A word may be admissible as to the cost of creating and maintaining the institution pro- posed. Much would depend upon the extent to which it carried on its most expensive task, 28 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. appraisement. Basing an estimate on the sales thus far of the Larned Guide, I should say that the net loss in publishing similar aids would vary from three to five dollars for each annotated title. With subjects comparatively popular this loss might sink below three dol- lars; and as our libraries grow in number and strength all such losses would propor- tionately diminish. A million dollars would provide a suitable site, building and equip- ment, and would leave for endowment a sum which would greatly lift the efficiency of our libraries as a whole, and add incalculably to the good that the printed word would do in America and the world. The man or men to give this large gift would undoubtedly as- sure its success by adopting a constitution so wise, and by appointing trustees of such abil- ity and character, as to shed new lustre on the work and aims of us all. THE USE AND VALUE OF FICTION IN EDUCATION. By ISABEL ELY LORD, Librarian of Bryn Mawr College. f~\ NCE upon a time not long ago and ^^^ this is a true story in a city called New York, there assembled a band of men who cared supremely for the study of phil- osophy. They came together for the purpose of deciding by discussion the primal points from which any system of philosophy must be deduced, and the possible deductions from these. With a disregard of human experi- ence that has a comic and a pathetic side, they thought that they would thus be able to find out the two or perhaps three systems of thought that were possible to a man of high intelligence. Doubtless each one, deep down in his consciousness, expected to be able to chose from among these that which could be proved to all intelligent men to be the one only right way of thinking. They met on an evening much like other evenings. With deep gravity the oldest, and probably the best known, among them, taking, in some sort, the chair, stated that their first business would of course be the definition of their terms. There could be no dissent from this ; but one of the most serious among them called their atten- tion to the fact that they must first define a definition. What, he said, is a definition? With brilliancy, ardor, and trained human intelligence they flung themselves into the dis- cussion. The minutes flew by; twelve o'clock came, one o'clock came, two o'clock came, but the philosophers were farther apart than at nine o'clock as to what a definition is. At three o'clock they woke to the hopeless- ness of the situation, and the group of men who had met to give us a philosophy resolved itself again into sad and disheartened individ- uals. They could not define a definition. With such a story before one, it is difficult lo venture to open the most uneventful state- ment with attempts at definition. And yet there is nothing else to be done. It is not pos- sible, for example, to discuss what part fiction plays in education without pointing out in some more or less efficient way what both these terms mean. There is probably less discrepancy between one man's definition and another's than there is between any man's and the truth, but if we are going on with life and the affairs of life that is not a con- sideration to stop us. Education, then, is the development of the physical, mental and spiritual attributes of a sentient being. By common consent the physical is so subordinated to and dependent on the spiritual that in discussing the sub- ject the two latter are spoken of as the real material for the use of the educator. The human mind being that which is capable of the highest development, the term education, unqualified, is universally held to mean that of man. The parts of education, variously stated by various men, resolve themselves into three the acquisition of knowledge, the training of faculties and the develop- ment of character. The last of the three is considered by all educators vastly the most important. As to fiction, a definition is at the same time not needed and difficult to give. Fiction is to make an attempt LORD. 29 any piece of writing, whether prose or verse, in which fact, or the use of fact, is subordi- nate to the imagination of the writer. If historical facts are used they are used not as history but as facts of human life that by chance occurred to definite people. If, on the other hand, a historian writes an account so highly colored by his imagination that it ceases to be true in the historical sense, he has not written fiction, but bad history. Undoubtedly it may read as attractively, be as fascinating and inspiring as a novel, but if we are to be strict in such definitions as we make, we cannot admit such work into fiction. Fortunately for the librarian the question, "Where would it classify?" often clears that matter up. But poetry, whenever it tells any sort of a story, or even hints at one, is fiction. The Iliad and the ^Eneid, the Divine Comedy, are masterpieces of fiction. Indeed, the be- ginnings of fiction were always poetry. We of the English race go back to the chansons de gestes and the sagas for the sources of our magnificent literature, and we date our modern language from Chaucer. All these beginnings were fiction. Plato's "useful lies" were verse, not prose. Yet when the word fiction is used to-day it is used to mean the novel and the short story, and it is this nar- rower use that is here accepted. Time lacks to go into the differences between fiction in verse and fiction in prose, or to point out how their fundamental uses in education may be differentiated. We speak now only of prose fiction, of that form of writing that has become pre-eminently the form of literary expression of the civilized nations of to-day. When Froebel said, "The alphabet . . . places man within reach of the highest and fullest earthly perfection," he did not mean alone that thereby facts were acquired or even that thereby faculties were trained. He meant above all that by the power of reading printed words man wins the possi- bility of the highest development of charac- ter. Yet acquisition of knowledge is the necessary foundation of this development, and there is one kind of knowledge the ac- quisition of which has immense importance, and which is pertinent to our subject, name- ly, the knowledge of human nature and of human life. Such knowledge is gained through experience, whose data the mind ar- ranges in due order. But these data are comparatively few and badly proportioned if they are confined to the observation of an average man. It was Herbart who said, "It easily occurs to us how limited are the op- portunities which circumstances afford, and how far beyond them the really cultivated mind travels. Besides, the most advanta- geous environment is so limited that we could net by any means take the responsibility of confining the culture of a young man within it if not compelled by necessity." And the reading of history will not give the mind this knowledge. Individual history biography, as we call it is of more value in that, and is indeed one of the most important aids in education. But biography, even when well written, with that larger view that makes the story of one life a part of the story of man- kind, is necessarily confined in extent as to numbers and as to experiences. It cannot by any means cover the range of human life. Obviously, fiction alone can supply this lack. If all the knowledge, made up, not of facts in a row, but of facts of atmosphere, of tone, of the spirit of an age or race if all the knowledge of, let us say, English life that has come to us from English fiction, were wiped out of our minds to-day, how much such knowledge would there be left? Would Hume and Macaulay, Froude and Freeman, supply the lack of Anthony Trollope? They could not, and of course they have not tried or wished to do so. Kings, heroes, generals, brave deeds on the field of battle, lamentable lapses of the national honor, regicide and su- premacy in banking, what do they all need to bring them into one fused whole, the im- pression of English characteristics embodied in English life? They need to be bathed in one atmosphere, to receive one tone, and that the atmosphere and tone of the daily life of the English people. That can be had only in tht pages of English fiction. That Anthony Trollope's name should come naturally to mind in such a statement points out the fact that the test of the value of a novel, when considered from this point of view, is not the literary test, not that of form and great creative power. Trollope NIAGARA CONFERENCE. was not a great writer, but he wrote well; he observed the facts about him with marvelous insight and humor, and he had sufficient cre- ative power to vivify those facts in the stories of the men and women who live in his books. It rarely happens that a writer with real power of observation and creation is content with bad English or entire disre- gard of construction, but it is notoriously true that the most perfect form may be given to stories so sordid, vicious or trivial that the knowledge therein acquired is knowledge to be avoided, and the effect on character can at the best be null, at the worst disastrous to the point of ruin. The literary test, beyond the elemental one of well-written English, is of small value for our purposes. But the acquisition of knowledge, as has already been said, is not of supreme import- ance. With the second part of education, the training of the faculties, fiction has little to do except indirectly and in quite a secondary way. In the development of character, how- ever, lies its greatest power. Rash indeed would he be who should lay down the intri- cate laws of character development, of the making of a man as man, yet some of the chief of these we all know and act on. One of the first discovered by students of man was the law of imitation. The child tries to be like the person he ad- mires, the person he ,'oves ; he shrinks from likeness to the person he dislikes or holds in contempt. He lives in life and in thought with the people he cares for, and, says Locke, as he begins to discourse on edu- cation, "having named Company, I am almost ready to throw away my Pen and trouble you no farther with the Subject; for since that does more than all Precepts, Rules and In- structions, methinks 'tis almost wholly in vain to make a long Discourse of other things and to talk of that almost to no Purpose." The objective term for this subjective fact is "personal influence." If any man considers carefully what has counted most in his aims in life he will find that it is the persona) influ- ences, remote or immediate, under which he has come. That such influences are exercised with tremedous force by the creations of fiction is a truism. The boy who reads Thackeray gets from Colonel Newcome a standard of honor and nobility that will in- evitably affect his own personal ideals ; he gets from the Jesse James stories a standard of audacity and succesful crime that will as surely affect his conceptions of right and wrong. To many people one might almost say to the majority such influences are the most powerful personal ones that come into their lives. The saints and sinners with whom we hold daily intercourse need per- spective. Their characteristics are so over- laid and interwoven with conventions and tricks of environment or so tinged for us by our own relations to them that the wisest of us cannot "see them whole." It is well known that some of the men who have best understood human character and best revealed it to the world, were liable to grievous error in judging the people with whom they were brought into contact. We are all psycholo- gists in a small way, but we are better ones when we can look at the subject of our analy- sis with perfectly impartial eyes. It is weli, however, to recall just here the fact that many writers of fiction also are bad at psychology. It is not every novel that has a good influence, or even every novel of im- peccable morals. The stories of Miss Laura Jean Libbey are of a morality that is well nigh monumental, but Miss Libbey is not one of the great influences in the development of character. This is, of course, because her facts of life are as false as her morals are irreproachable. Those who read her books as any other than eminently humorous works get, it is true, no low ideals, but they get en- tirely false ones ; or perhaps it is better to say, their embryonic ideals die for lack of nour- ishing food. The place of fiction in education, then, is not one that ocupies the whole territory. Again to quote Herbart : "Education is a vast whole of ceaseless labor which exacts true proportion from beginning to end." Fiction plays its part in this vast whole, but its role is not the only one. In fact, if it is given the part of a monologue, the most serious results follow. One has been hinted at in the remarks regarding Miss Libbey, the accepting without question any sort of a pic- ture of life. The most serious is the atrophy of the power of concentrated thought that BOSTW1CK. follows a diet of reading that requires no exercise of the mind in order to give pleasure. The oest novels, the best short stories in the world, will not train the logical faculty or de- velop the reasoning power. Such training and development come by hard toil exercised on far other material. But when logic and reason have been given lull sway, there is something left yet to do.- Who has not been stirred by those crystal-clear pages where John Stuart Mill, "the best educated man in Europe," tells how he found himself on the threshold of manhood with intelli- gence and will trained for great work, and how at this moment of crisis the desire to do the work failed him utterly? The human touch was lacking, and he, with his hand put out for the plough, turned back perforce to find it. Even had he failed to recognize the need and gone on to his work with incomplete equipment and the conviction that it was all not worth while, the work of Mill would have counted for his generation and for ours as could count the work of no one whose ideas of life and methods of thought were got from fiction alone, whether verse or prose. But education aims at perfection, not at com- promise, and in a perfect education fiction is a force that must, indeed, be directed, but that cannot safely be left unused. THE PURCHASE OF CURRENT FICTION. By ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Chief of Circulation Department, New York Public Library, *T*HE difference of opinion among librari- ans regarding the admission of current fiction to public libraries is of the kind that must always exist among persons who think it relates to the division of a continuously varying collection into two distinct parts. Where a line must be drawn to separate the good from the bad, the desirable from the un- desirable, in a collection of objects whose qualities are of all possible degrees, from very good to very bad, this difference of opinion will always exist. If we desire it to be otherwise, we are simply desiring the extinc- tion of individuality. What I have to say, therefore, must be regarded as simply a state- ment of what I believe to be the considera- tions that should govern the position of the dividing line in this particular case. I cer- tainly should not and do not condemn others who feel that it should be drawn elsewhere. I shall limit myself pretty closely to a single consideration which, although always recog- nized, has, I feel, not always been given due weight in the present discussion. The recreative function of the public library has not been sufficiently emphasized of late. And especially attention has not been called to the fact that this function is intimately connected with its educational work. Work and play are not two separate and unrelated things, but simply different phases of bodily and of mental training. We are recognizing this by spending public money on school play-grounds, recreation - piers, and public parks. We are committing ourselves daily to the use of the public funds for recreation, so that it is no longer pos- sible to condemn a public service because it is recreational, and, as I have just said, it would be difficult to point out a single dis- tinctly recreational or distinctly educational act. Any act or process of training may be regarded as recreation, and any form of rec- reational amusement may educate. For instance, most of the visitors to a mu- seum or to a zoological garden go there for pure amusement, yet they gain in this way much valuable information that they probably would not otherwise have obtained. So it is with the public library. Its recreational use is at the same time an educational use, and instead of lamenting that a large proportion of our people prefer to get their history and travel, their sociology and psychology in the form of fiction, we should be glad that we have this means of conveying it to them. But incidental education aside, the use of fiction in a public library, especially current fiction, is commonly purely recreational in NIAGARA CONFERENCE. aim whatever it may be in result. Even from this standpoint I regard it as legitimate and as a proper object for the expenditure of a considerable portion of such public money as may be received by the library. I should say that a first-class public library of the largest size should purchase for circulation at least one volume of every work of current fiction that would interest or entertain the average man or woman of good education and good taste. The best of these should be dupli- cated freely. As we pass to the smaller libra- ries, where the funds become more and more limited, of course a further limitation must be made and the books that are of least value must be dropped off. When I say "value" I must be understood as meaning value for the purposes of the library, again bearing dis- tinctly in mind its recreative function. I should in some cases leave out a somewhat dull book of high literary merit and buy an entertaining story of little purely literary in- terest. We can no more insist on the high- est literary quality in a matter of popular lit- erary recreation than we can require that the lads who are kicking a football about a school play-ground should always form elevens and engage in a game strictly accord- ing to rule. It will be noted that the position of the line of separation that I have suggested is governed by simple considerations. We must and do discriminate, but the discrimination had better be in favor of the ordinary person of such people as you and I and those with whom we associate. I should admit nothing that such people would find illiterate or ob- jectionable; I should exclude nothing that could give entertainment to such people. When the question of expense comes up, I should not solve it by deducting wholly from the recreational books, but I should take from ail in proportion. And having made up my mind which kinds or degrees of excellence to admit among books for recreation, I should not cut down, when that became necessary, by omitting solely from what I considered the lower grades, but I should take from all proportionate!} 7 . I speak now of current fiction; the recognized standard works I should of course always include. Naturally a large proportion of current additions in fiction will be only temporary. When they have worn out they will not be replaced. But that current fiction is largely ephemeral is nothing against it from the rec- reative point of view. A considerable part of the amusement one gets from the read- ing of fiction comes from what may be termed the exploratory function of the reader. To run., through the new books for one's self to hunt in the literary haymow and discover the occasional egg of genius laid perhaps by a hen who did not cackle about it at all, is a pleasure only to be com- pared with the search for real eggs in the hay- mow of one's boyhood. Let us not forget that "the public" is just you and I and some other fellows. What we like to do they also like. How shall we know whether the egg be of good flavor till we have tasted thereof? The prize of literary immor- tality is lo be awarded, but by you and me alone, but by the great reading public of which we form bnt an insignificant part. Shall we refuse to let the court see the docu- ments in the case? We are met in this whole matter of the selection of library books with what has al- ways seemed to me the fundamental difficulty in education the fact that each mind with which we have to deal should be dealt with in a separate and characteristic manner and yet that no mind can be trained apart from its fellows. This difficulty is surmountable only by a compromise. In the library, likewise, no two people are affected in exactly the same way by the same book; and yet we must select books for all alike. The reading of current fiction may be very bad for one man, developing the trivial side of his character and shutting off serious thought. In another it may strengthen the critical faculty and stimulate the intellect. After all, correct thought and constructive thought, leading to useful action, is what we are after. A book is no fetish; it is only a means to an end. Fic- tion is the prevalent modern vehicle of lit- erary expression. If a man wants to speak out about something nowadays, nine times out of ten he puts it into a novel I be- lieve that it is not too much to say that if a man wants to keep in touch with the tenden- cies of the day he must read a representative STEINER. 33 selection of current fiction. More than this, he must read it promptly. If we are going to wait a year, or two years, to see whether a novel is going to be remembered by poster- ity, before we read it, we shall do neither one thing nor the other; if we want to know whether a book is to be "fyled on fame's eternal bede-roll," we shall have to wait longer than that. And theryear's wait is enough to take the crispness off. Current fiction must be read while people are talking about it. I fail to see that there is any- thing very dreadful about a desire to see and do and read what others are seeing and doing and reading. It is of course Philistine whatever that may be (my apologies to the late Matthew Arnold). You may if you like avoid London and Paris and Rome because they are so common, and rave about a village in the Austrian Tyrol unvisited by any one except yourself. We hear a great deal of cur- rent fiction sneered at just because it is cur- rent fiction. The terrible trash and the commendable work may all be blazoned and lauded together on the trolley car friezes, but that is no reason why they should be consigned to perdition together by the critic. I believe that the desire of the public to read current fiction is perfectly legitimate, and that the public library cannot ignore it. If we limit ourselves to those volumes that will benefit the person of average taste and education, remembering that anything that interests him will always benefit him, we shall still have plenty of choice. That choice should be freely exercised in a large library and should be given some scope even in a small one. SOME PROBLEMS CONCERNING PROSE FICTION. BY BERNARD C. STEINER, Librarian Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore, Md. r T* HE few words I have to say will not be a very serious attempt to solve but rather to set before you certain problems in connec- tion with fiction in the public library. We have already had defined to us quite carefully ex- actly what the purpose of the public library is, and have had called to our minds the fact that it has a double intent, being established by the municipality as part of the educational system and also as part of the recreational system of the city. It is a supplement to the schools. It is a supplement to the public parks. We have also had called to mind what fiction is, and our attention has been directed to the fact that fiction is largely separated from other branches of literature by its form. Fiction is something which may deal with any branch of knowledge, but it deals with it in a different way from that in which it is dealt with by those who write with the single aim of telling, exactly as they are, the facts in connection with the subject they treat. In other words, the writer of fiction, as the very etymology of the word indicates to us, is one who practices a forming or fashioning of the facts with which he deals, in accordance with certain principles or certain methods of the imagination. This being the case, we include in fiction a n'ultitude of things, so that we have a very great complexity in the question from the very start. We find some books where the fictitious element is very slight indeed, which are really very little more than a statement of facts which may be historical or may be scientific grouped around certain persons so as possibly to make those facts which are grouped around those persons the more inter- esting. This has especially been true with children's' books. We have seen children's books of fiction which were really disguised books of travel ; others that were really dis- guised elementary text-books of science; others disguised elementary text-books of his- tory or biography; and for that reason it is very difficult to say anything about fiction that is accurate, without being entirely too sweep- ing. What may be true of one class of works of fiction may not be true of another. So we see, without any question, it is perfectly pos- 34 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. sible that a work of fiction may be both a work of education and a work of recreation for the public. Then the question com-s before the public library, having admitted that there is no ques- tion that works of fiction have a legitimate place on its shelves, what works of fiction shall be on its shelves? Here we can do nc thing but lay down certain general prin- ciples. The minute we attempt to go into rules, that minute we come to difficulty be- cause the individual equation comes in. We have to confine ourselves to principles and avoid any too close statement concerning an individual book, just as the judges of the courts are very chary about giving any thing that in the least approximates an exact defini- tion of the word "fraud." You can give a general statement oftentimes which :ill will agree to. The first thing we have to note is to see what sort of library we are purchasing books for. Of course, in many special libra- ries, necessarily, there will be no fiction, and in general libraries, if those libraries are for reference, the probability is that whenever you have bought the great standard, classic, works of fiction, you have done all that you ought. The great problem is, then, neither with the special library nor with the reference library, including in that term the college li- brary so far as it is not merely a library for circulation among students, but the problem is that of the free circulating library, and here again there are three different aspects of the problem of fiction. The first thing we have to inquire is, "when was your library founded?" because, if your library was founded sometime ago, the chances are there are a good many works of fiction on the shelves that might just as well come off them; the chances are the public taste is going to be a little better. In times past, men whose literary taste was good and for whose judgment I have the greatest es- teem, read books with pleasure which, I sin- cerely believe, both in literary standard and in truth to life, were far inferior to those of the present day. You all know that, if you talk with a man who was reading novels thirty and forty years ago, he will speak to you of books as extremely interesting, entertaining books, which, if he had been a librarian, he certainly would have bought for a library of his day, which books are utter trash and which prob- ably would be recognized as such if they came out to-day. Of course, our trash is our own t r ash, and it is very difficult to see it is such. But, at the same time, I think we haVe ad- vanced somewhat in our standards, both of truth and of literary excellence, in our works Of fiction. This is so in poetry. We write better poetry, frefn the point of view of form, than was written in generations ago; that is to say, I mean the poets of the same grade of intrinsic excellence write better poetry. The fifth rate poets write a great deal better in rhythm generally than the fifth rate poets did of the earlier centuries. You will find on the shelves of any library that has been estab- lished some length of time books that ought to come off from them. A very delicate problem comes up before the librarian what books shall come off? Some books he can consign to the dust heap at once; there is no question about them. With others, in the more debatable land that is always struggled over, there will be very serious question. There are certain books it is not necessary to name them which lie along the border line, and one man would say they were in this territory and another man would say they were in that. We must re- member that we have to consider not alone the personal equation of the librarian, but the personal equation of the patron of the library. If a number of those books have been for many years very popular books, it is going to be a risky thing to take too many out at once. It can better be done gradually and it can bet- ter be done in a tactful way, not saying "the books are withdrawn because they are worth- less," but that better books are being supplied in their place, books which are not only better in literary character but are better printed, and in that way, gradually, most of those books may be withdrawn, and the public taste may be led up to a rather higher and better level. The second class of institutions which have to meet the problem of fiction are the institu- tions which are just being founded, and this 13 a practical question, not alone for the libra- rian who has to establish a new library, which h fortunately the case in many parts of the country, but also for the librarian who has an old library and is asked to establish a new STEINER. 35 branch in another section of the city, which is also frequently the case. Here the libra- rian has a freer hand ; at least the public have noc been cultivated in bad habits by the books that the city has furnished them in past years, books which are not advisable to be placed in the hands of the public, from the point of view of the highest literary or moral standard of excellence. Even here, though the librarian may be much more cautious and reject many books of the past and confine his purchases more closely to standard fiction, it seems to me there is great need of one's being careful in admitting certain books which are not dele- terious in themselves, which are not as good as some others, and yet which he knows are very popular in the neighborhood. The third branch of the problem is, how- ever, not the purchase of the books of the past but the books of the present, and here the problem is a much more complex one than any of the questions which we have discussed hitherto. The librarian has to decide, first of ali, shall he buy all the current fiction? That is easily answered in the negative. After that, he has to decide which of the books of current fiction he will buy, and, having decided that, when and in how many copies shall the pur- chase be made ? Here again it is a very diffi- cult and dangerous thing to lay down any but general principles. I think it is a pretty safe rule, and I find a good many librarians are going upon it, in regard to the number of copies, that inasmuch as it is hopeless to sup- ply the demand of the first few months, even b> spending all your income upon it, the best thing to do is to try to hit upon the number of copies that will about satisfy the stable and quasi-permanent demand ; that is, the demand of a year or two hence. There are objections to that plan. We may be told that, if we get the book, we are to give it to the public at once ; we may be told, as we are all of us told again and again, that there is more exaspera- tion and more bitterness of spirit to be told a book is in the library and come for it fifteen times and find it is never on the shelves, than to be told. "We won't buy it until next year." Weighing everything, it seems it is rather bet- ter to purchase the book for the library, as soon as by reviews or by personal inspection the librarian shall have ascertained that the book is a book advisable to put on the shelf, and put as many copies on the shelves as the people are likely to ask for a year or year and a half after the date of issue. What books shall we place on the shelves at all ? I confess I am getting a little bit more cautious than I used to be. I confess I am exercising a little stricter censorship over the purchase of novels than I did five years ago. I confess it seems to me that the function of the librarian as a leader has impressed itself upon me a little bit more forcibly in the last three or four years. Here are new books; the public haven't got in the habit of reading them; they haven't learned to think they are proper books to read. Here if ever the libra- rian's duty, it seems to me, is to come in and say, "We cannot advise you to read this book. We do not say it is a bad book. We simply say we do not think it is a book which should be purchased by public money and used by the people of the city as a part of the equip- ment furnished them at government expense." I am growing to be more and more conserva- tive that way. I have every evidence in my own mind that I am going to buy fewer of the new novels next year than I did this year, and I am buying fewer this year than I did last. I believe that if we take that posi- tion consistently, in the course of three or fcur years, the public will agree with us in this position, and I believe it the more, be- cause the public is beginning to come to the conclusion, I am thankful to say, that the pub- lic library cannot be expected to furnish it all the current fiction, and that it is meet and right for persons who wish to obtain the cur- rent fiction as soon as it comes out, and can't wait to be supplied with such books at public expense, to go and either buy them them- selves or to become members of some circu- lating subscription library which can supply and is willing to supply those books for a fair price. NIAGARA CONFERENCE. THE PLACE OF FICTION IN THE FREE PUBLIC LIBRARY. BY J. C. DANA, Librarian Newark (N. 7.) Free Public Library. f ITIES and towns in this country estab- lish and maintain free public libraries to help to make their citizens wiser and bet- ter and happier. These libraries lend books to these citizens for use at home. Of the books they thus lend about 70 per cent, are novels and story books. It is the purpose of this paper to call attention to some of the facts about the work of free public libraries in providing free novels for the public. 1. It discriminates in favor of a certain class. The sales from stores and newspaper- stands of many millions of copies each year of novels by authors never mentioned in lit- erary journals and never appearing in libra- ry lists show that a large part of our people wish for books the libraries do not furnish. 1'he absence of these same people from pub- lic libraries shows that they do not care to read the books the libraries buy. Libraries generally select for purchase novels talked of and read by a very small portion of their several communities. They do not buy for the submerged 90 per cent. Libraries are com- mitted to a policy of selection and discrimina- tion. They can pursue that policy further without violating tradition or precedent. 2. Of the total annual expenditure for sal- aries in the average public library from 25 to 40 per cent, is spent in caring for and lend- ing novels. The money thus spent, largely for work of a purely clerical character, like handing out the books asked for and putting them up again when returned, cannot be . spent on such work as giving expert advice to inquirers for information in regard to other things than novels. 3. The average library spends about 25 per cent, of its book fund each year for fiction. That is, it buys a third less books of other kinds than it would did it buy no fiction. 4. The novels which librarians lend are largely by authors who have acquired no standing in the literary world. Standard writ- ers on English and American literature find scarcely ibo writers of fiction who are worthy of their consideration; while public libraries of 70,000 to 100,000 volumes find from 1200 to 2500 authors who have written books worthy of a place on their book orders and their shelves. 5. An examination of the fiction shelves of any public library shows that in general the authors most often lent are those who have not been proved by time and shown to have permanent value. Were books of a still slighter literary reputation freely furnished they would, it seems, get the maximum of use. 6. The grade of the authors most often lent from public library shelves is shown also, and more definitely, by the answers to an inquiry sent to thirty-four typical libraries. These answers gave the names of all the writers of fiction whose books had been lent by each library on three days, with the total number of books by each writer. A full report on these answers is to appear in the Outlook. They include the names of about 800 different authors; about five times as many as good books on literature find it worth while to discuss. The ten most read novelists in the libraries of this country, as shown by these replies, are, in the order of their popularity, F. Marion Crawford, Rosa Nouchette Carey, Alexander Dumas, Amanda Douglas, Amelia Barr, Clara Louise Burnham, Conan Doyle, Charles King, Anthony Hope, Gilbert Parker. The promo- tion of Crawford takes more of the time and money of public libraries than does the promo- tion of Scott, Eliot, Thackeray, Hawthorne and Balzac combined. The second ten include : Frank Stockton, E. P. Roe, Mary Johnston, Winston Church- ill, Mary Jane Holmes, Mrs. Burnett, S. R. Crockett, Mrs. Alexander, Paul Leicester Ford, Hall Caine. In this twenty there is only one author who has a claim to a place in the Pantheon of let- DANA. 37 ters ; only one whose creations are a part of the legitimate birthright of every one. The twenty-first in order is Dickens. Hawthorne is fifty-ninth. Librarians spend on Rosa Carey five times as much money for both books and distribution as on Hawthorne. 7. Libraries not only spend full 25 per cent, of their book funds on novels, many of which are poor, and 25 to 40 per cent, of their salary fund on distributing those novels; they also fail to keep on hand a good supply in attractive condition of the novels which time has tried and pronounced good. Eigh- teen libraries searched their shelves and noted the number of copies on hand of each book in a list of 100 of the best novels. On the average each of these libraries found only half of these books in. It is probably safe to say that out of a thousand inquiries for any first-class novel at any library in the country five hundred would be answered with a "not in." 8. Libraries wish their books to be used. It has not been demonstrated that the use of their books would be less did they lessen the variety of their fiction stock by dropping the poorer kinds and increasing the quantity of the bet- ter; in fact certain experiments indicate that it would not be less. 9. In view of these facts a few suggestions have been made, as follows : (a) Buy of recent novels only a few. (b) Buy no novel until it has been out a year or more. (c) Put all recent novels on the list ten- tatively only, and drop them if time does not prove them good. (d) Spend less money on fiction. (e) Spend the money thus saved on dupli- cates of other good books. (f) If a reduction in the list of novels re- duces the cost of maintenance, spend the money thus saved in attracting readers to other books. (g) Reduce the formality of book-borrow- ing still further, following recent commercial methods, and secure a larger number of bor- rowers. These suggestions seem reasonable. All of them are being tried and all apparently with success. The facts given can probably be paralleled in juvenile departments, and the suggestions apply to those departments with even more force than to the adult. I know I have sorely tried the patience of my colleagues with my comments on this sub- ject. But it is important. That is my excuse. That the topic is wearing threadbare is my excuse for summing it up in this brief and barren fashion. Let me say again that I am no enemy of fiction. A good story has created many an oasis in many an otherwise arid life. Many- sidedness of interest makes for good morals, and millions of our fellows step through the pages of a story book into a broader world than their nature and their circumstances ever permit them to visit. If anything is to stay the narrowing and hardening process which specialization of learning, specializa- tion of inquiry and of industry and swift ac- cumulation of wealth are setting up among; us, it is a return to romance, poetry, imagina- tion, fancy, and the general culture we are now taught to despise. Of all these the novel is a part ; rather, in the novel are all of these. At the bottom of the Renaissance lay not so much new knowledge as a new attitude of mind. The troubadour had his share mi breaking up the tradition of obedience, the servility to established things. We may doubt if the individual has the will to believe and! so to shake himself free from the bonds of: fact and logic. But a race may surely find: springing up in itself a fresh love of romance, in the high sense of that word, which can keep it active, hopeful, ardent, progressive. Per- haps the novel is to be, in the next few decades, part of the outward manifestation of a new birth of thir We of breadth and happi- ness. NIAGARA CONFERENCE. GREATER FREEDOM IN THE USE OF BOOKS. By EDWIN WHITE GAILLARD, Webster Free Library, New York City. T ET us suppose that we have our library complete and in working order. Let us suppose that all the especial needs of the city have been duly considered, and let us suppose, moreover, that the chiefs or the various departments, patent, law, med- icine, the fine and useful arts, the children's room and the travelling division have compe- tent and well drilled staffs. Let us suppose the school department to be a model of its kind. Whether the staff consists of one per- son or is composed of a hundred experts my message is the same. It is simple, so simple that I am all but ashamed to call it my mes- sage. By every means in your power, by the aid of your local newspapers, by your monthly printed bulletins which are beginning to be annotated, by your notices posted in the libra- ry and tipped into books, by your special reading lists and courses of home study and in other ways not yet common, such as ad- vertisements in the trolley cars, appropriate technical lists posted in factories and work- shops and kept up to date, by placards posted wherever two or three people are gathered together, in short by every means in your power tell the people of the contents of the library and then make rules which will permit the books to be used, and see that every man, woman and child in the city understands the rules. Permit the use of books, advertise the fact, and you will be overwhelmed. That is the whole truth. It is not a new truth, it is not a discovery of my own. Years of the hardest kind of work in direct contact with the public at the loan desk have convinced me that it does not know, does not begin to know the contents of a general library. The same years have borne in upon me the indisputable fact that nearly every public library in the country has contrived rules which seem spe- cially devised to keep books in the library. What is a library in our acceptance of the word? A library is not the building nor the books, it is not the staff nor equipment. The building, books, staff and equipment will never make a library unless back of it all is the desire and the ability to make the books of use to the public. Uuless we bring books to the people we are not librarians. That is the object of the library. And yet most libra- ry rules in practice tend to defeat this very object. Most library rules are restrictive rules, not rules for encouragement of read- ing. The public needs direction in its read- ing sometimes we all need direction but it does not need encouragement. The rules for encouragement should be mainly for the guidance of the staff. I am not here to dis- cuss the encouragement of reading but the greater freedom in the use of books. The two subjects are in reality one and the same. Give freedom and you will have more than you can do. Dismiss the restrictive rules. Begin with the children. Some libraries claim by their rules that a child is unfit to use the books of a public library until the age of ten. How silly almost as silly as the two weeks' rule for non-fiction, almost as silly as the application blank which must be indorsed by a taxpayer or other citizen, thai rule which is as well fixed as the laws of the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. The age rule, I am happy to say, is gradu- ally disappearing from sight. It is a rule which most librarians abolish as the opportun- ity occurs. Librarians are so accustomed to the indorsed application blank that they ac- cept it as a matter of course ; but I know that many persons would use the libraries who do nof on account of that rule. The wife of a coal barge captain whom I know had been in the habit of using the Buffalo public library, but when her husband's barge was transfer- red to New York, for lack of a residence she was refused books in New York, in Brooklyn and in Newark, between which cities she made regular trips. The chief executive of the library department of the board of edu- GA1LLARD. 39 cation in a large city, himself a librarian, told me this month that he was then without a library card as he did not care to ask any one he knew to guarantee the return of his books. A student of criminology and prisons, an of- ficer in whose custody prisoners are paroled, presented his official card in a large reference library last week and asked for books which he needed in his studies of crime. He was the very person for whom the books had been written and preserved, yet though his identity was undoubted he was required to bring a letter from some well known person before he could have the books. As he was a man of mature years, a college man and a former li- brarian, he appealed to the head of the libra- ry, but that dignitary sustained the decision of his subordinate on the ground that the rules must be observed. In a large public library in a representative American city of the Middle States I have personally been re- fused a library card because I did not know a taxpayer whom I was willing to ask to be responsible for my books, and the library, moreover, refused to accept as a deposit the full retail price of the books. That library stood in the path of the development of its city. The barge captain's wife, the board of education librarian, the probation officer and my own are not unusual, not isolated cases. So many such instances have come to light that I am of the opinion that ordinary books should be loaned without indorsement to the application blank when it is possible to lo- cate the borrower in any other way. I lend books nearly as often without as with a guar- antor's signature, and from long experience I can say that the percentage of loss is a little gi eater under the new way, but to offset a little greater loss much good work is done which in the old way would be entirely missed. The rule of two books for two weeks should, in my opinion, be utterly abolished. It was probably adopted in a burst of gene- rosity coupled with the idea of securing a larger circulation with an increased non-fic- tion percentage. As a matter of fact I have time and time again heard that given as the teason for lending the second book, which you will, of course, understand must be one of non-fiction iu classification, even though in reality it may be a bound volume of the magazine known as "Short stories." To make a library really of use it seems to me a truism to say that the people must be given an opportunity to use the books. Fre- quently it is necessary to have a dozen books on one's desk to be able to clearly compre- hend one that is being read with a view of accomplishing a given result. Books of this character cannot be read in two or four or six weeks very often. Then, too, a man may be interested in a dozen subjects which very closely relate to each other. To my way of thinking he should be permitted, nay, encour- aged to take as many books as he needs and to keep them as long as necessary. The ob- vious objections to such a course are after all the very ones which were raised in regard to the circulation of books at all that when the books were needed they were out. After several years of experiment and other years of practice with the more liberal rule I have this to report as my judgment: Books other than popular novels and rare or out of print volumes should be loaned for as long a period as necessary and as many at one time as ac- tually needed but with the provision that they must be renewed once each month, in person, with the books, and with a clear understand- ing that any or all must be returned to the library upon a day's notice 'or delivered to a library messenger upon request after two weeks' time has elapsed from the date of borrowing. In practice the trouble of renew- ing books will check the tendency to take undue advantage of the rule. Time is too short to tell you of the stimulus which a library can be that really makes its non-fic- tion available. I know literally of scores of persons who are doing systematic work for their advancement who would have been una- ble to do so had they been obliged to buy the books which they needed, or had they been confined either to a reference library or one that lent two books only for two weeks with the privilege of one renewal. The time has come to broaden our work and to emerge from the slough of conservatism from which we have been freeing ourselves so rapidly since the organization of the American Libra- ry Association. NIAGARA CONFERENCE. DUPLICATE PAY COLLECTIONS OF POPULAR BOOKS. I. BY PURD B. WRIGHT, Librarian St. Joseph (Mo.) Public Library. TT was intended to confine this discussion to certain points. Three specific questions were asked. These will be taken up in the order propounded. I. Do you favor the duplicate pay collec- tion? Yes. Such a collection is a vast help in the effort to solve the perplexing question of meeting the demand for the temporarily popu- lar book, without unnecessary expenditure from a too often depleted book fund; it is a potent factor in holding patrons, many of whom would otherwise, in their desire to get what they want i.e., the latest book be- ccme members of subscription libraries, or patronize the popular two-cent a day collec- tions springing up in so many localities. A library card-holder, although a persistent fic- tion reader, will now and then, especially in the open-shelf library, use the non-fiction card. From a purely practical standpoint, the li- brary is the gainer, for every book transferred to the regular collection may rightfully be termed a donation from those who used it. It requires close watching to prevent profit from accruing also. The most serious objections that may be offered to the plan are: charging for use of books in a free library supported by taxation ; and the fact that it possibly increases the percentage of fiction used from the library. It undoubtedly does this latter in the library I represent. To coin a word, however, I am no "fictionphobist." With us, this first ob- jection is met by issuing these pay duplicates as an extra privilege. Two regular cards are issued to patrons. A third card, or slip, is sold for five cents, which entitles the holder to any book on the duplicate list for one week. If the book wanted is not in, this card, or slip, may be left for it; regular seven-day books are not subject to reserve. This is a feature especially approved by our patrons. .2. If used in your library what success have you had? From every standpoint, the success of the system is unquestioned. It pleases the patrons and is profitable to the library. From a very small beginning, occasioned by the desire on the part of the library board to test the mat- ter from a business standpoint, as well as to ascertain the wishes of the public, it has be- come a recognized institution. In competi- tion with two-cent-a-day collections, the Tabard Inn and Booklovers' Library, receipts run from $20 to $50 a month. Books are issued on the extra card, time limit one week, with two cents a day for overtime. 3. Should the duplicate collection be con- fined to fiction? Not necessarily. That few non-fiction books pay for themselves is the experience of the library. If the question is looked at from a strictly business standpoint, and each volume is required to stand by itself as to profit or loss, non-fiction books will not be included. If the collection as a whole, or for a given period, is taken into consideration when figur- ing profit or loss, non-fiction books will be included, and the more popular novel per- mitted to carry a portion of the expense. For the general good of the library especially 2 library the book fund of which will not admit of duplication of good popular class books, I should say that unquestionably they should be included in the duplicate pay collec- tion. It may not be out of place here to say a few words as to systems for caring for dupli- cate pay collections, charges, etc. In some libraries a mere record is kept of these vol- umes, by author, title, date, earnings, and final disposition. In others they are recorded in the regular accession register. And in still others a separate accession reg- ister is kept. This shows date of pur- chase, author, title and price, earnings and final disposition, with date. The volumes themselves are marked as little as possible, no call number being placed on back, and ac- cession date penciled. When transferred to permanent collection, they are regularly ac- cessioned, source being indicated in remark column. If sold, price obtained is added to earnings. Charges range from one cent a day to ten LANGTON. cents a week. One library charges ten cents for two weeks; another five cents a week; still another two cents a day. In most libra- ries, and especially those charging by the week, the limit is one week, with the usual charge for overtime. Those charging by the day usually have no time limit, but use a system of notification after a certain length of time. From a business point, the day- charge system is deemed by many to be the best. It would seem that it would necessitate more copies of a given title, but it might also be claimed that it gave better satisfaction to users. In the one case, cash is received in advance for the use of the book, in the other when the book is returned. An experiment was tried in this library the beginning of the year, which may not be with- out interest to other librarians. A contract was made with the Tabard Inn department of the Booklovers' Library to furnish at the option of the library, 125 books for $175; 250 books for $275 ; 500 books for $475, with six changes yearly; payments quarterly in advance. The contract specified that "only those books will be furnished that are listed in the catalogs or bulletins," and catalogs and bulletins of the Booklovers' Library were to be furnished as issued. Trouble com- menced with the first, or trial order. Of 125 books asked for, comprising 28 titles, but lit- tle more than half were supplied, the remain- der not being suitable for duplicate pay col- lections. An effort was made to get the mat- ter adjusted, but this failing the contract was cancelled by mutual agreement. I believed then, and am still of the opinion, that a plan could be evolved on similar lines, which would be mutually advantageous to library owners and public libraries. DUPLICATE PAY COLLECTIONS OF POPULAR BOOKS. II. BY J. F. LANGTON, St. Louis (Mo.) Public Library. *T*HE primary object of this plan was to supply, as far as possible, the demand for new novels and other popular books of temporary interest without encroaching on the regular book fund. To still further ac- commodate card holders the plan was later ex- tended to include the issue of extra volumes from the regular collection on the same terms. Since the issue of a non-fiction card, how- ever, very few books are ever drawn from the regular collection in this way. It is evident that the income of most libra- ries will not warrant the purchase of the nu- merous copies of these new books that would bo necessary to satisfy, even approximately, an eager and multitudinous demand. Any plan, therefore, that will meet this demand, that will give to one class of people what it wants without encroaching on the rights of others, and which is of a decided benefit to all, offers a solution to a problem that has long been a source of vexation not only to li- brarians but to library users as well. After a trial of 32 years, at first in a com- paratively small subscription library and later under the varying conditions of a large public library, we find that in many ways this plan has exceeded the expectations of its origina- tors. With but few exceptions we have no difficulty in supplying the calls that come to us; and even with these exceptions it is but the question of a short time to get the sought for volume. Further, no complaint can be made that an undue proportion of the book fund has been used to supply this demand. An objection urged is that it increases the percentage of fiction. It does. But as fiction is what nost people want, and as very many would not come to the library at all unless they could get it, and if the fiction is of the right sort, why not give it? Especially when it can be done without any cost whatever to the library. Another objection is charging for books in a public library. This seems to be the stumbling block for many who would otherwise be glad to adopt the plan. The re- ceipts from the issue of these books are the sole support of the collection, not one cent being taken from the regular book fund. As these receipts far exceed the expenditures, the NIAGARA CONFERENCE. library, or rather all the people who use the library, are the gainers, for the surplus goes into the general fund. The whole plan is no- thing more than a special privilege for those who are willing to pay for it, the profits go- ing to the general support of the library. The collection is open to all but no one is obliged to use it. Those who do not care to pay, get the regular copies much sooner than they would otherwise, the competition for them be- ing lessened, and by the gradual transfer of the duplicates to the regular collection as the demand for them as duplicates ceases. Every cardholder gets all he is entitled to, the plan works a hardship to none but is a positive benefit to all. It also enables us to supply the current numbers of popular magazines, pro- viding from one to four copies for binding. The surplus copies are sold to regular sub- scribers at a reduced rate. Clubs and read- ing circles are able, at a nominal cost, to get the use of a greater number of copies of books they may be using than the library would otherwise be justified in buying. When "The crisis" was published, being a book of consid- erable local interest, an order was placed for five copies for the regular collection and 50 copies for the collection of duplicates. In a short time 50 more copies were added to the collection and as the demand continued to increase 53 more were added, making five regular copies and 153 in the collection of duplicates. As the demand began to fall off these duplicates were gradually transferred to the regular collection and as their con- dition warranted it they were condemned and not replaced, until to-day we have about 20 copies, which are ample to supply our needs. This plan was adopted by us in 1871 and $500 was borrowed from the book fund to start it. From that time until the library was made free in 1894 the receipts, excluding fines, were $14,675.20 while $9334.71 had been expended, leaving a balance of $5340.49 to the credit of the collection. This with an average home circulation of less than 100,000 a year. During the last nine years as a free library the increase, of course, has been more marked. The total receipts from 1894 to the end of the last fiscal year, April 30, were $11,277.65, while the expenditures were $6526.47, leaving a balance of $4751.18. No account has been U-ken here of the fines or of the books trans- ferred to the regular collection. These two items will about cover the cost of circula- tion. A few figures showing the increasing use of the collection year by year since the li- brary has been free may be interesting. Year .. '94-'9S '95- J 96 *96-'97 *97-'98 '98-*99 Circ 11,986 iSiiS9 13,476 16,915 15.815 Year . . 'gg-'oo 'oo-'oi 'oi-'oa 'oa-'o3 Circ 25,984 35.816 41.263 42.933 I have been asked whether in my opinion this plan might be wisely extended to public libraries all over the country, and whether it has come to be worth while making it a sep- arate department in charge of an attendant. To the first part of the question I say un- qualifiedly, Yes. To the second, No. An at- tendant is entirely unnecessary. Place the books on open shelves where they can be seen and handled and the people will do the rest. With us these books are regularly acces- sioned, shelf-listed but not cataloged being additional copies this is unnecessary. They receive the regular book pocket, book card and C. D. date slip. When they are trans- ferred to the regular collection note is made in the accession book on the book card and title-page of the book. Our charges are five cents a week in advance with two cents a day for overtime. Renewals may be had indefi- nitely by paying five cents for each renewal. I believe the charge per week better than a charge by the day. A definite time will often bring a book back sooner, thereby increasing the available copies. It saves time both at the receiving and issue desks, to say nothing of the fuss the card holder is liable to make v/hen he finds he has kept the book out longer than he intended. The book is charged on the regular book card, a special dating stamp be- ing used with the letter C before the date. Formerly a special card was sold, but after several years of trial it was given up as un- safe. From our experience it seems to me that the problem of how to supply the large and ever-increasing demand for light and popular literature, without appropriating to that end too great a proportion of the funds of the li- brary if not wholly solved by this plan, it at least bids fair to lighten the burden of libra- rians and save considerable annoyance to card holders. LANGTON. 43 CANADA AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES. BY H. H. LANGTON, Librarian University of Toronto. A T the Montreal meeting of the American Library Association in 1900 the statis- tics of Canadian libraries were fully discussed in a paper by Dr. Bain, of the Toronto Public Library. It is unnecessary for me to go over the same ground after a lapse of only three years, since no material changes have taken place in the meantime. I shall rather en- deavor to show how the striking differences revealed by those statistics among the various provinces of Canada in the matter of the sup- port accorded to public libraries are accounted for by differences in social and economic con- ditions. Canada is not a homogeneous country any more than the United States. It is a country of sea coast, mountain ranges and prairies, of mining, agricultural and fishing industries, of French-speaking and English-speaking popu- lation. In the conditions of life it is much less homogeneous than the United States, in consequence of its inferior wealth, density of population, and facilities of internal commu- nication. The division of Canada into prov- inces, having been determined partly by geo- graphical features, partly by considerations of nationality, represents much more than an ar- bitrary partition of territory into political units. Each province is, roughly speaking, a separate region, characterized by special con- ditions both of soil and of settlement. Eco- nomic differences are not slow to manifest themselves under such circumstances, and as a final result social divergences become more pronounced. The Atlantic seaboard of Canada was nat- urally the first part of the country to be in- habited by white men. Indeed the earliest settlement of Europeans on the continent of North America was upon an island in the St. Croix River, included in the present limits of New Brunswick. In the following year the adjacent sea coast of Nova Scotia was the site of another settlement. Nova Scotia, moreover, was the first portion of what is now Canada to come under British rule, and the Maritime provinces, as we call them Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island received the largest number of the loyalists who abandoned their homes in the United States during and after the War of Independence, in order to retain their alle- giance to the British flag. In this region it might be supposed that we should find the greatest development of public libraries. It has been the home of a civilized people for over a century. The founders of most of the settlements were men of superior breeding and education, and the tradition of refinement and culture has been worthily maintained by their descendants. But refinement and cul- ture alone will not support public libraries. An urban population and accumulated wealth are also necessary, and the conditions of set- tlement of the Maritime provinces have hith- erto precluded the formation of large centers of population. The immigrants from Eng- land or the United States came to a country of dense forests, broken in some districts by ranges of rocky and barren hills, that discour- aged agriculture ; but it was a country of ex- tensive coastline and many harbors, well suited to fishing industries. Fishing, accord- ingly, has from the time of first settlement been one of the chief supports of the popula- tion, which is for the most part scattered in villages or small towns all along the coast. So much can be said of the Maritime prov- inces taken as a whole. Each, however, has its special characteristics. Nova Scotia pos- sesses in its barren hills abundant mineral wealth, which the early inhabitants from lack of capital were unable to develop, but which within the last few years has begun to be better appreciated and exploited. New Brunswick, as far as its interior is concerned, has been and still is given over almost en- tirely to lumbering. Prince Edward Island, a very small province, has always supported a farming as well as a fishing population. It is easy to understand that a country of fishing villages, lumber camps and small mining cen- 44 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. ters is not encouraging to the growth of pub- lic libraries. The large aggregations of popu- lation have been wanting. Until recently half the urban population of Nova Scotia was contained in the single city of Halifax, the population of which is about 40,000. The re- maining half was distributed among perhaps a dozen small towns of 2000 to 5000 inhabi- tants. It is true that the last few years have seen an industrial movement in Nova Scotia that bids fair to transform the province into a mining and manufacturing country. The urban population has increased from 80,000 to 130,000 in ten years, and some towns have more than doubled their population in the same period. As yet there are but two muni- cipal free libraries in the province, at Halifax and Sidney, but the time is ripe for the es- tablishment of others. In New Brunswick the urban population is about equally divided be- tween St. John, with 40,000 inhabitants, and half a dozen small towns. St. John has a free public library, as also has Fredericton, the provincial capital, with a population of 7000. The province of Prince Edward Island boasts of but two towns Charlottetown, the capital, with 12,000 inhabitants, and Summerside, with 3000. The legislative library at Charlotte- town in some respect supplies the place of a public library to the town. The next region of Canada is the French- speaking province of Quebec, one of the most interesting communities on this continent to the student of history or of sociology. It is a country of peasant proprietors. The nar- row farms stretching like ribbons back from the high road for a mile or more provide everything that the owners require wheat, barley, oats, hay, potatoes, pasture land for their cattle and for a few sheep whose wool supplies their homespun clothing; wood for their winter fuel, tobacco for their hours of ease. They have no books and want none. The parish priest reads books and sometimes writes them witness the numerous parish histories that are so interesting a feature of the literature relating to Quebec. But the habitant has no taste for literature. Instead of devoting the long winter evenings to study he passes them even more agreeably in sing- ing and dancing. Without looking for libra- ries in the rural districts and villages of French Canada we may expect to find them i the larger centers of population. The prov- ince of Quebec contains many thriving manu- facturing towns of respectable proportions, to say nothing of Montreal, the commercial capital of Canada. Yet there are no muni- cipal free libraries in the province except in Sherbrooke and Westmount, two small towns of predominantly English-speaking population. The cause of this backwardness in recognizing the benefits of free municipal libraries is not far to seek. In all countries where free libraries are in favor their estab- lishment has been due to the initiative of the educated upper classes, but in the province of Quebec the predominant influence of the Roman Catholic Church has led the upper classes on the whole to oppose free libraries. It must be remembered that French Cana- dians, upper and lower classes alike, are dis- tinguished for genuine piety and a simple, un- questioning faith in the doctrines of their church that would be hard to match in other countries. They have as a consequence a deep-rooted suspicion of books of Protestant origin. Not only Protestant theology and philosophy, but Protestant science, history and economics are tainted and suspect in their eyes. To their credit it must be said also that they have no toleration for the am- biguous fiction of their mother country, France, or for any fiction that treats old- established principles of morality or religion as so many problems for which fresh solutions must be worked out by each generation of youthful philosophers. Free municipal libra- ries cannot be so hedged about with restric- tions upon purchases but that many books will of necessity be admitted containing pas- sages or arguments considered to be subver- sive of faith or morals. With these views cur- rent it is difficult even in the cities to pro- cure the necessary vote of the inhabitants for the establishment of public libraries. The conflicting tides of public opinion in Mon- treal recently upon the question of acceptance of Mr. Carnegie's offer of a library building illustrate this attitude of educated French Canadians, and Montreal is still without a municipal free library. Nor has Quebec, the other large city of the province, any municipal library, although a free Workmen's Library does exist in Quebec, which is assisted by a grant from the city. Montreal likewise pos- LANGTON. 45 sesses a free library of private foundation, the Fraser Institute, and another free circulating library with French and English sections, in- dependent however of municipal support. Reference libraries of a more or less special character are not wanting in Montreal or Quebec, some of which are of a most interest- ing character. Laval University at Quebec possesses the largest university library in Canada, especially rich in material, both man- uscript and printed, relating to the history of Canada. The library of the Literary and His- torical Society of Quebec is also noteworthy for the same reason. Additional interest at- taches to this library from the fact that it in- cludes the remains of the first public sub- scription library established in Canada, founded in 1779, and merged about forty years ago in the library of the Literary and Histor- ical Society. Montreal has several valuable reference libraries of a more or less special character. That of McGill University is the most important. Among the many services rendered by this institution and its generous friends to the cause of education there is one that demands notice here, namely, the estab- lishment of a system of travelling libraries in connection with the university library, not for the benefit of the province of Quebec only, but for all Canada. The province of Ontario, lying immediately to the west of the province of Quebec, is totally unlike its neighbor in social conditions, and resembles the states that border it to the west, Michigan and Wisconsin. It is an Eng- lish-speaking community and its manufac- turing interests are considerable. Many cit- ies and towns of fair size are to be found within its territory. It is not surprising there- fore that the prevailing sentiment of the peo- ple is in favor of free public libraries and that there is wealth enough to support them. To an enlightened and far-seeing Superintendent of Education however is due the first step that was taken in this direction. Nearly six- ty years ago legislative authority was given him to establish a common school library in every school-house and a general public libra- ry in every municipality and to make annual grants of public money to aid in maintaining them. The public libraries thus provided for were never organized, for Mechanics' Insti- tute libraries soon began to spring up through- out the towns and villages, and the Govern- ment wisely gave support to these instead of attempting prematurely to establish free libra- ries. In course of time, and with the encour- agement of the department of the government that controlled the grants to libraries, these Mechanics' Institute libraries were taken over by the municipalities and converted into pub- lic libraries, the government grants continuing to be paid. At present the public libraries of the province number about 500. Most of them are small and serve small constituencies, where the local taxes are insufficient to ad- mit of more than a meagre support even with the aid of a government subvention. But that they exist at all is evidence of a public demand for them, and statistics show that the num- ber is being augmented yearly to a remarka- ble extent. In 1900 Dr. Bain, in his state- ment referred to at the beginning of this paper, gave the total number of public libra- ries in Ontario as 406. After two years that number had increased to 477. Besides assist- ing the public libraries of the province the government has also recently undertaken a system of travelling libraries, chiefly to meet the requirements of mining-camps and lum- ber-camps in the province. A further indi- cation of the progress of the library move- ment in Ontario is perhaps afforded by the fact that a Library Association for the prov- ince was formed in 1900, which has met with gratifying success. Although not expecting to become a rival to the American Library Association in numbers or strength, it will endeavor to emulate the activity and use- fulness of that body in its own limited sphere. Westward of Ontario we come to the prairie province of Manitoba and the territories of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan and Alberta. These may be all considered as one region, Manitoba being the only province of the Dominion which was marked out from surrounding ter- ritory by the simple method of ruling straight lines upon a map, and therefore having no features geographical or social to distinguish it from the rest of the prairie region of Can- ada. The prairies, where they are inhabited at all, are devoted either to wheat-growing or .cattle-grazing. As in the adjoining states, the farms and ranches are on a huge scale, ma- chinery is employed for every agricultural NIAGARA CONFERENCE. process, and consequently the population is both small in comparison with the large terri- tory occupied and scattered by families or groups of families at considerable distance from one another. In the whole region com- prising Manitoba and the territories west of it there is but one city, Winnipeg, the popula- tion of which is now over 40,000. The next largest towns are Brandon, with over 5000, and Portage la Prairie and Calgary, each with over 4000 inhabitants. There are perhaps three or four other towns with as many as. 2000 inhabitants each. Small villages and iso- lated farms contain the bulk of the population. The only free public library in this region of more than 250,000 square miles is at Winni- peg. But the rural population, consisting to a great extent of highly intelligent and often well educated men and women, is neither in- different to reading nor entirely without the means of gratifying a literary taste. There exists an admirable philanthropic society, the Aberdeen Association, named after its foun- dress the Countess of Aberdeen, which aims at supplying isolated ranches and farms with magazines and books. Branches of the As- sociation exist in most of the large towns of eastern Canada and also in England. Con- tributions of reading matter, preferably recent numbers of magazines, children's books and standard works of literature, are readily ob- tained in these more fortunate centres from the great public that reads in order to cast aside, and the lonely settler is thus enabled to receive monthly parcels without any expense t-j himself as regularly as he could obtain them from a circulating library. The latest statistics of the work of the Aberdeen Asso- ciation that I have been able to obtain are for 1901. They show that at that date there were eighteen branches of the Association in Canada and three in England. The Canadian branches reported over 2100 families sup- plied with literature during the year. As the number of families in the rural districts of this region is over 70,000, it is evident that the Aberdeen Association has not yet reached the limit of its opportunity. It should be mentioned, however, that settlers applying to any branch for regular parcels of reading mat- ter are invited to assist in the good work by passing on to neighbors what they receive as soon as they have read it themselves. In this manner the number of families profiting by the efforts of the Aberdeen Association is probably somewhat larger than the records of the association show. The last province of Canada to the west British Columbia is saturated with the western progressive spirit. With a popula- tion of only 180,000 souls in a territory of 380,000 square miles, it has taken a stand in library matters that would be praiseworthy if the population were ten times as great. Besides Ontario, British Columbia is the only province of Canada that has adopted a free library act, under the provisions of which free libraries have been already established in the only three towns of the province with more than 6000 inhabitants. A system of travelling libraries also has been instituted in connection with the legislative library at Vic- toria to bring the consolations of literature into the smaller mining camps of the prov- ince. This was done several years age, before the idea of traveling libraries had been taken up either by the Government of Ontario or by the McGill Uuiversity library. In 1887 a list of public libraries then exist- ing in Canada was compiled for publication in the Library Journal by Dr. Bain, whose services in connection with the library move- ment in Canada deserve grateful recognition by all persons interested in the movement. Comparison of that list with statistics of present conditions is interesting. The figures for the maritime provinces in 1887 af e almost unchanged in 1903. In the province of Que- bec there has been an increase in the number of libraries more or less accesible to the pub- lic, but it is practically limited to the city of Montreal. In Manitoba and the Territories the work of the Aberdeen Association is the only new element, although it is of far-reach- ing effect. Only in Ontario and British Col- vmbia has substantial progress been made. FISON. 47 THE COUNTRY LIBRARY. By HERBERT W. FISON, Librarian Narragansett Library Association, Peace Dale, R. I. 'T'HE "little red school-house" on the hill, ungraded though it may have been, con- tained all the elements of an education, and many of our leading men received the greater portion of their education from it. So it is with the country library. Ungrad- ed like the "little school," poorly equipped, cramped for sufficient room, with little money to carry on its work, it is struggling along offering a post graduate course to those, who, when they leave the grammar school, never enter an educational institution again as a pupil. It occupies a position in the educa- tional world that is as interesting as it is important. Situated in those sections of the country which are not so highly favored with the many advantages of cultivating and refin- ing influences, its influence is of compara- tively greater extent than that of libraries situated in the large centers of population. This, as a matter of course, is quite natural, aj the people are dependent on it alone for those advantages which can be obtained from no other source. The importance of these libraries can well be understood when we learn that while 20.2 % of the entire population of this vast country of ours is of school age, only 4.5 % get as far as the high school, and 1.5 % are fortunate enough to receive a college or uni- versity education, or are able to take advant- age of the privileges offered by the higher institutions of learning. The question of furnishing instructions for this vast number of young people, the major- ity of whom are under sixteen years of age, and better fit them to meet the struggles for an existence is a very serious one. There are some 9000 libraries in the Unit- ed States which contain over 300 volumes, and a little more than half of these have looo volumes or more, while 84 % of this number, or 4520, contain from 1000 to 10,000 volumes. Now, my point is that if about 95 % of the children are to get an education a little beyond that furnished by the public schools, it will depend very largely upon the activity of the small libraries, since there are no other insti- tutions equipped for, or capable of carrying on this work. My object is to prove that these little country libraries, in their cramped condition, are doing a greater work than is generally supposed, and you will find upon comparison that their influence and usefulness far ex- ceeds that of the larger and better furnished libraries in the towns and cities. Conse- quently they are entitled to and claim a proper portion of your time in the discussions at these and similar meetings. A great deal of attention is given to the large libraries throughout the country, but statistics tell us that there are only four libra- ries that have more than 500,000 volumes, and those exceeding 100,000 are less than fifty, while there are only 337 that contain from 25,000 to 50,000 volumes. Now if such meet- ings as these are intended to help meet the difficulties that come up in the administration of our duties, then it seems to me that more time and attention should be given to those libraries which comprise more than eight- tenths of all the libraries in the country. We discuss the cataloging of some prom- inent library. Great systems are thoroughly explained, and all the details and workings of these large institutions are carefully laid before us. The smaller librarian is amazed at the magnitude of the work carried on. It is true that he attends club meetings eager to get help and desirous of suggestions for his little library situated in a quiet New Eng- land village, but somehow the intricate prob- lems or history of the Chicago, New York, 01 Philadelphia libraries, although interest- ing and instructive, do not seem to apply to his collection of 8000 on 10,000 volumes, and the classification of the Boston Public, or the arrangement of music at Harvard University library, does not seem to give the help he so anxiously desires. NIAGARA CONFERENCE. A member of the Massachusetts Library Commission made the statement not long ago "that the average home circulation of ten of the chief cities of the commonwealth, exclud- ing Boston, was 2.3 volumes per capita." (Let me add that the circulation of the Bos- ton Library at that time was two volumes per capita), "while the average per capita circulation of one hundred of the smaller towns in the state was 3.4, and these one hundred towns included all in the state hav- ing one thousand inhabitants, while other towns run from 4 to 10 volumes for each citizen." Let me cite an instance with which I am acquainted. It is a country library of about 9500 volumes, situated in a community where there are from 3000 to 3500 people. One- third of the entire population are registered patrons. The radius of its influence is 13 miles. In its last report its circulation was equal to 13 books per annum to each patron, or 4.5 volumes to each individual in the com- munity. Compared with a library noted for its progressiveness, situated in a city of 175,000 people and containing about 100,000 volumes, it will be found that the country library is circulating nearly twice as many books to its patrons and six and a half times as many books per capita, while the number of patrons at the larger library is only about 10 % of the population. The country library contains about three books for each individ- ual, the city library has only three-quarters of a book per citizen. Although these country libraries are doing a great deal, still their work is in its infancy and their opportunities for doing good are many. Unfortunately they are seriously hin- dered in many instances by a lack of funds and live energetic men to carry on the work. I believe that it takes fully as capable a per- scn, who is entirely alone in the administra- tive duties, to successfully conduct a library of 10,000 volumes as it does to manage one of from 25,000 to 100,000 volumes with six or a dozen assistants to run the different de- partments. Unless one has had some actual experience in a small library, and has met face to face the many perplexing questions that come up from time to time, and has be- come personally acquainted with the patrons, their tastes and peculiarities, that person's library training is still incomplete and he is incapable of advising others how to conduct a library. . In the millennial days of library work no person will be allowed to take charge of a lajge library until he has had actual experi- ence with the work in smaller places. All the training at Pratt or Albany cannot give one the ability to understand people. This is gained only through actual experience. If I were librarian of a large library I should want to spend a certain time in the delivery or reference departments each day, in order to know and keep in touch with the thoughts and tastes of the people. The need of adapt- ability also is more keenly felt in the smaller institutions than the larger ones. It is indeed a rare gift, but nevertheless it is absolutely necessary to our success to be able to under- stand and read human nature. We must "become all things unto all men that we might by all means save some." When one sees, in a busy manufacturing city of some 40,000 people, a fine library building containing nothing but the poorer type of books, the "Sunday-school library" and Laura J. Libbey type, it is not difficult to understand why that library is not popular in the community and the people have no desire to visit its beautiful home. The man who is single handed is of necessity the all-round man. He may not have had the advantages of a library school training. The "regula- tion hours" and the "union price of labor" have not yet reached him. His cataloging may not be according to the latest govern- ment instructions and his classification would probably give Cutter or Dewey a chill. But the fact that he is reaching a large number of people, and supplying reading to one-third of the population and circulating, proportionately, from two to six times as many books as some of the larger and better furnished libra- ries of the cities or towns, is sufficient to show that his work is not altogether a failure. Classification is important only so far as it arranges books in some sort of order for the convenience of those in charge, for the great object of the public is to get the books wanted as quickly as possible regardless of classifi- cation. FISON. 49 The country libraries need live, energetic persons to conduct the work successfully. A irere book worm, or literary person, is abso- lutely useless. Young persons full of en- thusiasm and energy are the ones best fitted for this particular field of work. Fads and pet hobbies have no place in any library. I know of instances where persons have been patrons of a library for several years and have never selected a book for themselves. The librarian is proud of the fact that he se- lects the reading for probably a quarter of his readers and knows the tastes of practically every patron on his register. In many instances small libraries are losing their greatest opportunity by being closed most of the time. No matter how small the library is, it should he open every day. If the librarian gives his services for one or two afternoons in the week, surely there are four other persons in the community sufficiently interested to devote a portion of their time for the remaining days. A former governor of my state, a manufacturing man, once said "that it was right that the state should aid all libraries, but why should money be given to buy valuable books to be kept under lock and key five of the seven days in a week? It would be as reasonable for me to equip my mills with all the latest and most improved machinery and only run them one or two days a week. The library that is open only a few hours a week and spending state money for books that are only collecting dust and occupying valuable space does not deserve aid." Full shelves are not an attractive feat- ure in any library. The worn books and empty shelves are the registers of one's act- ivity. In my own state the conditions are peculiar to it alone. There is only one large library center and we are all cosily situated within an easy distance of each other. The one large library naturally takes a parental pride in all the smaller institutions, is interested in their progress, and willingly helps and advises those who need aid or are in perplexity. In a manufacturing village with which I am acquainted the library is open every week day from 9 o'clock in the morning until 8 at night; books are delivered afternoons and; evenings. The librarian's day is eleven hours long, and he finds it necessary to em- ploy all methods possible to enable him to complete the greatest amount of work in the least amount of time. Since he is unable to have printed cards and catalogs, he finds the typewriter to be an excellent substitute. The library is one of those institutions that sends books far and wide. Its influence is felt in practically every home in the commu- nity, and it has become the one meeting place for all. The summer visitors at a neighboring sea- side resort enjoy the same privileges as those who have lived in the village all their lives. There is no red tape. One or two books are issued on a card and they can be kept out for two or four weeks, according to their new- ness. There are rules and regulations, but judgment is exercised in enforcing all rules. There is a hearty co-operation with the schools of the town. The teachers are unre- stricted in the use of the library and every ef- fort is made to get useful material to aid them in their work. About 82 % of the school pop- ulation of the town attend the three schools situated within a mile of the library and 42 % of these are among the regular patrons, while many of those living in the outlying districts have books taken to them by their teachers. Arrangements are being made to make the library even more useful to the schools, and to interest the other libraries of the town in this work. A committee of teachers has been appointed to consult with the librarians of the town in order that such books as will be really helpful may be purchased, and that there may be an organized effort to keep the child- ren reading and to try and follow some defi- nite plan in their reading. This work, how- ex er, will not be confined entirely to the scholars. Teachers, and especially country teachers, get into ruts and need help and en- couragement fully as much as the country librarian. So a special department is to be instituted to contain such material as will help them in their work. The superintendent cf schools has made this one of the features in his annual report to the tax-payers of the town and the results will be watched with considerable interest. If the large libraries can specialize, why not the smaller ones on a NIAGARA CONFERENCE. limited scale? The needs are just as im- portant. The children's department is an interesting feature. While it does not contain all of the many attractions one finds in the model children's room, yet it thrives and is well pat- ronized, and this department is considered to be an important branch of the regular work. The librarian is a single-handed man; he is card cataloger, does the accession work, attends the receiving, delivery, and reference desk. This particular library is doing more work than the majority of country libraries of the same size simply because it is open to tl-.e people. But its work is not complete nor should the librarian be satisfied until every individual within the radius of the library's influence has become a regular patron of the institution. To have a library in every town is some- thing every state might well be proud of, but if these libraries are closed to the public more than half the time, they might as well be out of existence, or at least several of them consolidated into one active association that will do good far and wide. Experience has shown that it requires a great deal more energy to keep an institution alive than it does to start it. It is after the organization that the real struggle for an existence be- gins. At the same time we must not blame thi_ library if it is doing nothing. The con- dition of the librarian will indicate when it is necessary to hold a post mortem examina- tion over the institution. Unless there is life in him, one cannot expect to find any in his surroundings. State clubs will soon recognize the import- ance and necessity of discussing topics of a practical and helpful nature and a greater portion of the time spent at the meetings will be devoted to those libraries which furnish fully nine-tenths of their membership. Here is where the large libraries can do a great work. The distribution of bulletins and interesting material, to those who are unable to otherwise secure such help, acts as a life buoy to one who feels that he is sinking in the sea of obscurity. Occasional visits to larger institutions and frequent talks with those in charge is a great help and stimulus to one who is ever on the alert. The diffi- culties overcome and the victories won through the encouragement and assistance of a "big brother" can only be appreciated by those who have fought the fight. THE SMALL CITY LIBRARY. BY J. MAUD CAMPBELL, Librarian Passaic (N. 7.) Public Library. T TS limitations are what make the small city library the ideal field for library work. With a comparatively small populace to attract and hold, a small income to draw upon, a small supply of books, and very few of the refer- ence books, you never have to take very seri- ously the consideration of becoming a great educational, missionary factor. The best we can hope to claim is that our small library shall become a factor for pleasure and profit to our people certainly an ideal aim, if we can only carry it out in an ideal way. No one disputes the fact that the ideal govern- ment is that of the people, by the people, for the people. The ideal library cannot do bet- ter than be the library wanted by the people for the use of their own community and sup- ported by themselves, so all may feel a pride in its ownership and a satisfaction in knowing that the work they are assisting, in the ac- cumulation of books, is something that shall stand as a testimony of their forethought to coming generations. Fortunately, nearly all the states now have a law providing for the maintenance of a library under these ideal conditions. Being assured of a regular in- come, how shall the affairs of the library of a small city be administered so that we can feel satisfied we have really become a factor for pleasure and profit to our people? One does not have to be a frequenter of the bargain counter to discover that the generally accepted meaning of "profit" is getting the greatest re- turn from the least investment. Applying CAMPBELL. this to the library, in order that we may feel sure that the library shall stand for what is pleasant in the minds of all, we must be pre- pared to give our community the greatest pos- sible advantage in the use of the books in our charge, with the least investment of time, trouble, interest and responsibility on their part. That much worked expression, "the stren- uous life," doubtless answers admirably in the making of nations and other big things, but in the administration of our little city li- braries we had better adopt "the simple life" as our motto. To my mind, the essential thing in the success of a small library is that the most friendly relations shall exist be- tween the library and its supporters that not only in the matter of the books and their contents, but in everything that tends to ele- vate the community and draw the people to- gether, the library can be counted on for as- sistance not patronage, that is deadly but for cordial support and aid. This will call for a great deal that is not treated of in any book on library economy I have been able to find, for the unexpected always hap- pens, but in a small community, if we set ourselves to "the great task of happiness" and let "cheerfulness abound with industry," it is not hard to demonstrate the "great theorem of the liveableness of life." The greatest phil- osopher of our age, probably, has said that "no man is useless while he has a friend." If we make up our minds that every one shall leave the library happy, we can count on friends to demonstrate the usefulness of our institution, even if we have not bought a new novel for six months the usual method of promoting friendly fe'eling toward the library, I believe. There are some agencies through which it io very simple to establish friendly relations in a small town notably the schools, by lending books for both the use of the scholars and the work of individual teachers; through the literary clubs by providing references to the topics under discussion in advance of the demand. Last winter a book of travel of which we only had two copies was in active demand by a club of thirty members. By ap- pjying to our library neighbors I soon pro- cured the use of six more copies which satis- fied the demand of the moment, and on re- turning the borrowed books at the end of two weeks I was surprised to find that gratitude need not be entirely on our side; the books that had not been out in from six weeks to three years in their own library, went home with a record of having been circulated from three to eight times during their two weeks' stay with us. Books of travel, histories, and fiction that have become passe at the library will receive a most cordial welcome at the engine houses and the police stations, while the veritable antiques of the library will be hailed as dear old friends by the residents of the Old Ladies' Homes, Y. M. C. A., and other benevolent institutions ; and volunteer help is usually easily procured to make the exchanges for such places. Of course branches and stations are a fer- tile field to spread the usefulness of the li- brary, for even in a small city, books that will not circulate in one part of town will see ac- tive service not two miles away. Then lists of books in large factories and stores carry home to a host of busy workers information about the treasures of the library that they would not secure in hours of research on their own part. And usually the proprietors of large establishments are very glad to assist in this work by posting the lists and even calling for and returning to the library the books used by their employees. In a city of small size volunteer assistance is easily procured and often effective, but even if it is more of a hindrance than a help, it is desirable, as giving an insight into li- brary methods. Get some of your most care- less borrowers to come to a "book-mending bee." The books to be mended will probably be irretrievably ruined, but your delinquents will be more careful in future. There are details in library work necessary for its success, but to which it is a waste of erergy to devote your best efforts. The trou- ble is for even the ideal library has its mo- ments of serious thought (to which the public are not admitted) how simple can the work be made with perfect security? How liberal can we be in the matter of endorsement and identification before granting cards? How simple can we make the catalog in order to NIAGARA CONFERENCE. bring out all the information in our small stock of books? How far can we safely go as to the number of books we allow each per- son? Conditions must dictate the reply in most cases, though the limitations in the size of the city come to our help again, the stand- ing of the borrowers being more intimately known than is possible in a large city. With us, we require an endorsement, but are doubt- less often imposed upon as to signatures, though we seldom lose a book. Our catalog is most elementary in form but liberal in analytical cards, and is the least used piece of furniture in our whole library equip- ment, the public evidently regarding it as a rid- dle by the side of which that of the Sphinx was a mirror of transparence. Nor do I think we are the only library of the sort that can claim this honor. As to the number of books to allow bor- rowers, my feeling has been to let every one take as many books as I can inveigle them into carrying away with one restriction provided they take more books than they have cards, should any one else call for ex- tra books, they must be returned on notifica- tion. I look on the lending of the books in our care as a purely business proposition. Each taxpayer contributing to the support of the library is entitled to get value in the use of the books up to the full amount he has contributed and as much more as he cares to avail himself. If you are satisfied your bor- rower is entitled to the use of one book which you acknowledge by granting him a card there is no more risk in lending him ten books at one time than at ten separate times. Of course, this could not apply to juveniles or the most recent fiction, and would be impracticable in a large place, but in a small city where you have practically the whole com- munity on your telephone call, it works satis- factorily. If one of your citizens wants the use of ten books to write a club paper this week, and is not likely to honor the library with his presence again for a year, let him take value for the amount of his library tax when it suits him, and you can rest assured he will turn up with confidence next year. American business ability has become a mat- ter of wonder to the world, and in library work we cannot afford to ignore or look with contempt on the principles that have secured this reputation. It has become almost a mat- ter of boast on the part of libraries to com- plain "they have not got any money." While this may be a good argument to ward off a book agent, it is not good business policy. The merchant who pleads poverty is looked upon with suspicion; the man whose capital can be written in three figures is most apt to apply for a large government contract calling for the expenditure of millions. If he gets the contract, the capital is generally forthcoming n very short order. It does not do to be afraid of your equipment. If you can show that you have succeeded in doing good work with poor facilities, the greater will be the confidence in supplying you with means to carry on your business. A handsomely ap- pointed Carnegie building, with its ten per cent, endowment, is not essential to success. In our own town the record made in a small branch, situated on a side street of the tene- ment section, without one single modern li- brary convenience, was certainly a case of the desert blossoming. Into that little store crowded children to overflowing; foreigners unable to speak or read one word of English, discovering there a helping hand, brought all sorts of requests, from the care of their chil- dren and savings to the writing of letters of a most personal nature, and the naming of the last baby. With crowded quarters the maga- zines were literally read to pieces and the at- tendance and circulation steadily increased un- til last year our 1000 books had reached a cir- culation of 29,000. Nor were the assistants dissatisfied ; when fortune favored us and we secured more modern appliances for our work, there were many comments on the inconve- nience of "modern conveniences." There are great advantages in having a hall in connection with the library, to be used for all sorts of social and educational feat- ures. ' This is an age of clubs the leaguing to- gether of people with a common interest and a hall to be freely used by the people in a most liberal and catholic way adds to the ability of the library to keep our community happy and good-natured, even if we cannot hope to reform the universe. HUNT. 53 WORK WITH CHILDREN IN THE SMALL LIBRARY. BY CLARA WHITEHILL HUNT, Superintendent of Children's Department, Brooklyn (N. Y.) Public Library. A S the young theological student is prone ^* to look upon his first country parish as a place to test his powers and to serve as a stepping-stone to a large city church, so the librarian of the country town who, visiting a great city library and seeing books received in lavish quantities which she must buy as spar- ingly as she buys tickets for expensive jour- neys out of her slender income, a beautifully furnished, conveniently equipped apartment especially for the children, for the student, for the magazine reader, evidences everywhere of money to spend not only for the necessities but also for the luxuries of library life so is it quite natural for such a visitor to heave a deep sigh as she returns to her library home and contrasts her opportunities, or limitations as she would call them, with those of the worker in a numerically larger field; and quite natural is it for her to long for a change which she feels would mean a broad- ening and enlarging of outlook and opportu- nity. It is encouraging sometimes to look at our possessions through other people's spectacles, and perhaps I may help some worker in a small field to see in what she calls her limita- tions, not a hedging in but an opening, by drawing the contrast from another point of view from that of one who is regretfully forced to give up almost all personal, individ- ual work with the children and delegate to others that most delightful of tasks, because her library is so large and she has so much money to spend that her services are more needed in other directions. With a keen appreciation of the privilege it is to have charge of a small library, I am going to enumerate some of my reasons for having this feeling. I should explain, in this connection, that my thoughts have centered about the small town library, the library whose citizen sup- porters do not yet aggregate a population large enough to admit of dignifying their place of residence with the name of a city, a place, therefore, where the librarian may really be able to know every citizen of prom- inence, every school principal and teacher, the officers of the women's clubs, many of the mothers of the children she hopes to reach, and a very large number of the children themselves. What are the attractions in a spot like this, the compensations which make up even for the lack of a large amount of money to spend ? Let me begin first with the less appar- ent advantages, the "blessings in disguise," I should call them. The first is the necessity for economy in spending one's appropriation. I imagine your astonishment and disapproval of the judgment of a person who can count the need of econ- omy as any cause for congratulation. But let us look for a moment at some of the things you are saved by being forced to be "saving." The greatest good to your public and to yourself is that you must think of the essentials, the "worth while" things first, last and always. You cannot afford to buy careless- ly. Every dollar you spend must bring the best return possible and to the greatest number of people. Every foolish purchase means disap- pointment to your borrowers and wear on your own nerves. So, instead of being able to order in an off-hand way many things which may be desirable but which are really not es- sential, one gets a most valuable training in judgment by this constant weighing of good, indifferent and indispensable. To apply this to the principle of the selection of children's books and nothing in work with children, except the personality of the worker with them is so important as this we cannot buy everything, we must buy the best, and we therefore have an argument that must have a show of reasonableness to those borrowers who advocate large purchases of books you tell them your income will not cover. What are the essentials in children's books if your selection must be small? Our child- 54 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. ren can grow up without Henty. They must not grow up without the classics in myth and fable and legend, the books which have delighted grown people and adults for gene- rations, and upon the child's early acquaint- ance with which depends his keen enjoyment of much of his later reading, because of the wealth of allusion which will be lost to him if he has not read JEsop and King Arthur and the Wonder Book, Gulliver, Crusoe, Sieg- fried and many others of like company, in childhood. Then the librarian cannot afford to leave out collections of poetry. Her child- ren must have poetry in no niggardly quan- tity, from Mother Goose and the Nonsense Book to our latest, most beautiful acquisi- tions, "Golden numbers" and the "Posy ring." And American history and biography must be looked after among the first things and constantly replenished. So must fairy tales, the best fairy tales Anderson, Grimm, the Jungle books, MacDonald, Pyle, "The rose and the ring." Much more discrimination must be exercised in selecting the nature and science books than is usually the case. But, of course, most of the problems come when we are adding the story books. Here, most of all, the necessity for econ- omy ought to be a help. It is a question of deciding on essentials, and having nerve enough to leave out those books whose only merits are harmlessness, and putting in nothing that is not positively good for something. The threadbare argument that we must buy of the mediocre and worse ior the children who like such literature (prin- cipally because they know little about any other kind) will look very thin when we squarely face the fact that by such purchases we shut out books we admit to be really bet- ter, and when we honestly reflect upon the pur- pose of the public library. The sanest piece of advice that I ever heard given to those librarians who argue in favor of buying all the bootblack stories the boys want, was that of Miss Haines at a recent institute for town libraries. She asked that those men and wo- men who enjoyed Alger and "Elsie" in child- hood and who are arguing in their favor on the strength of the memory of a childish pleasure, take some of their old favorites and re-read them now, read them aloud to their young people at home, and then see if they care to risk the possibility of their own child- ren being influenced by such ideals, forming such literary tastes as these books illustrate. Most of us desire better things for our child- ren than we had ourselves. If a man was allowed to nibble on pickles and doughnuts and mince pie and similar kinds of nourish- ment before he cut all his teeth, miracu- lously escaping chronic dyspepsia as he grew older, he does not for that reason care to risk his boy's health and safety by allowing him to repeat the process. A child's taste, left to itself, is no more a safe guide in his choice of reading than is his choice of food. What human boy would refuse ice cream and pea- nuts and green pears, and piously ask for whole- wheat bread and beefsteak instead? Or choose to go to bed at eight o'clock for his health's sake, rather than enjoy the fun with the family till a later hour? It seems such a senseless thing for us to feel it our duty to decide for the children on matters relating to their temporary welfare, but to consider them fit to decide for themselves on what may affect their moral and spiritual nature. Not only in the selection of books as to their contents, but in the study of the edi- tions the most serviceable for her purposes, will the town librarian gain valuable train- ing from the necessity of being economical. The point is worth enlarging upon, but the time is not here. It will perhaps be harder to look upon the impossibility of having a separate room for the children as a blessing which enforced economy confers. It will doubtless seem heresy for a children's librarian to suggest the thought. Yet while we recognize the great desirability, the absolute necessity in fact, for the separate room in order to get the best results in a busy city library, we can see the many advantages to the children of their mingling with the grown people in the town library. It is good for them, in the public as in the home library, to browse among books that are above their under- standing. It is better for the small boy curiously picking up the Review of Reviews to stretch up to its undiluted world news than to be shut into his Little Chronicle or Great Round World. It is good for the HUNT. 55 American child to learn just a little of the old fashioned "children should be seen and not heard" advice, to learn at least a trifle of consideration for his elders by restrain- ing his voice and his heels and his motions within the library, saving his muscles for the wildest exercise he pleases out of doors. The separate children's room is too apt to become a place for so persistently "tending" the child that he loses the idea of a library atmosphere which is one of the lessons of the place he should not miss. I am of the opinion that, while we want to do everything in the world to attract the children to the library and the love of good reading, they should have impressed upon them so con- stantly the feeling that the children's room is a reading and study room that when a child is wandering around aimlessly, not be- having badly but simply killing time, he should be, not crossly nor resentfully, but pleasantly advised to go out into the park to play, as he doesn't feel like reading and this is a library. I know that this has an excel- lent effect in developing the right idea of the purpose of the place. Sometimes the town library has a building large enough to admit of a separate room for the children, and books and readers in such numbers as would make the use of this room desirable, but there is not money enough to pay the salary of an attendant to watch the room. Here indeed is a blessing in disguise. This idea that the children must be watched all the time, that they cannot be left alone a minute, is fatal to all teaching of honor and self-restraint and self-help. It will take time and determination and tact, but I know that it is possible to train the children not the untrained city slum children perhaps, but the average town children to behave like ladies and gentlemen left almost entirely to themselves through a whole evening. I must hardly allude to further blessings which to my mind the need of economy in- sures. It all comes under the head, of course, of forming the habit of asking "What is most worth while?" before rushing headlong into thoughtless imitation of the larger library's methods, regardless of their wisdom for the small one. The town librarian will thus be apt to use some far simpler but equally ef- fective style of bulletin than the one that means hours of time spent in cutting around the petals of an intricate flower picture, or printing painstakingly on a difficult cardboard surface what her local newspaper would be glad to print for her, thus making a slip to thumb tack on her board without a minute's waste of time. The question of having insufficient help gives an excuse for getting a personal hold on some of the bright older boys and girls who can be made to think it a privilege to have a club night at the library once in a while, when they will cut the leaves of new books and magazines, paste and label and be use- ful in many ways. Of course they have to be managed, but you can get a lot of fine work out of assistants of this sort, and do them a great amount of good at the same time. Another of the blessings for which the town librarian may be thankful is that her rules need not be cast iron, but may be made elastic to fit certain cases. Because the place is so small that she can get to know pretty well the character of its inhabitants, she need not be obliged to face the crestfallen coun- tenance of a sorely disappointed little girl who, on applying for a library card, is told that she must bring her father or mother to sign an application, and who knows that that will be a task impossible of performance. The town librarian may dare to take the very slight risk of loss, and issue the card at once, enjoying the pleasure of making one small person radiantly happy. Then there is the satisfaction of doing a little of everything about your library with your own hands arid knowing instantly just where things are when you are asked. To illustrate from a recent experience of my own. At one of the small branches, or stations rather, of the Brooklyn Public Library, a cer- tain small boy used to appear at least two or three times a week and ask the librarian, "Have you got the 'Moral pirates' yet?" And over and over again the librarian was forced wearily to answer, ''No, not yet, Sam." Now, although the library's purchases of children's books are very generous, running from 1500 to 2000 volumes a month for the 20 branches, of course with such large pur- NIAGARA CONFERENCE. chases it is necessary to systematize the buy- ing by getting largely the same 50 titles for all branches, varying the number of copies per branch according to each one's need. The branch librarian of whom I am speaking did not feel like asking often for specials, realizing that she was only one of many hav- ing special wants, and knowing that we would in time reach the "Moral pirates" in the course of our large, regular monthly pur- chases. But one afternoon I went up to this station and helping at the charging desk, this small boy appeared asking me for the "Moral pirates." The librarian told me of the hopeful persistence of his request, and it did not take long after that to get the "Moral pirates" into the small boy's hands. I only hope the realiz- ation of a long anticipated wish did not prove to him like that of many another, and that his disappointment was not too unbearable in finding a pirate story minus cutlasses and black flags and decks slippery with gore. The point of this tale is, that in a great system it is impossible often to get as close to an individual as in this case, while the town librarian, who does everything from unpack- ing her books to handing them out to her bor- rowers, can many a time have the personal pleasure of seeing a book into the right hands. I have only indirectly alluded to the great- est joy of all, the possibility of personal, individual, first-hand contact with the child- ren whom you can get to know so well and to influence so strongiy, and another joy that grows out of it seeing results yourself. We are so ready to be deceived and dis- couraged by numbers ! The town librarian reads of a tremendous circulation of child- ren's books in a city library, and straightway gets the blues over her own small showing. But I beg such an one to think rather of what the quality of her children's use of the library may be as compared with that of the busy city library. A great department must be so arranged for dispatching a large amount of work in a few minutes of time, that in spite of every effort, something of the me- chanical must creep into its administration. The town librarian may know by name each child who borrows her books. Not only that, but she may know much of his ancestry and environment and so be able to judge the needs of each one. She will not be so rushed with charging books by the hundred that she cannot use that knowledge to help him in the wisest, most tactful manner. But the joy of watching her children develop, of seeing a boy or girl whom she helped bring up, grow into a manhood and woman- hood of noble promise, of feeling that she had a large influence in forming the taste of this girl, in sending to college that lad who wouldn't have dreamed of such a thing had he not been stirred to the ambition through the reading taste she awakened in him these are pleasures the city children's libra- rian is for the most part denied. The latter can see that her selection of books is of the best, she can make her room as attractive as money will admit, she can choose her staff with great care. She knows that good must result in the lives of many and many a child from contact even in brief moments with people of strong magnetic per- sonality, and from constantly taking into their minds the sort of reading she provides. But very rarely will she be permitted to see the results in individual cases that make work seem greatly worth while, and that compen- sate in a few brief minutes, for weeks and months and years of quiet, uninspiring, plod- ding effort. And so I congratulate the worker with children in the small library. It would be a delight to me if I could feel that my ap- preciation of the blessings that are yours might help you to look upon your opportu- nity as a very great and worthy one. The parents of the small town need your help, the teachers cannot carry on their work well without you, the boys and girls would miss untold good if you were not their friend and counselor, the library profession needs the benefit of the practical judgment your all- round training gives. And so you may be- lieve of your position that though in figures your annual report does not read large, in quality of work, in power of influence it reads in characters big with significance, ra- diant with encouragement. COLLAR. 57 THE CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGING OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS. BY MILDRED A. COLLAR, Pratt Institute Free Library. The fact that so many children's rooms are already well established, and that so many are not administered as separate departments, makes the problem of suggesting a scheme of classification and cataloging for general use a very difficult one. It is far easier to adopt and carry out a special scheme if all the work is done in the children's department, and if the statistics and records are all kept separately. CLASSIFICATION. Perhaps the first question to consider is whether the best scheme of classification for books in general would be, or could be, the best scheme for children's books. This would bt the question theoretically stated, but in the individual library the practical question would be, "Is the scheme of classification already in use in the main library suitable for the col- lection of children's books?" Judging from the answers of perhaps ten children's librarians, the majority of libraries use the same classification throughout the li- brary. Whether this is what is desired by them, or what circumstances necessitate, it is impossible to tell. Uniformity has long been a conspicuous watchword among catalogers, oftentimes to their undoing, but with much justice may it be said that one system of classification throughout a library is a saving of time and labor on the part of those who do this work. It is a most difficult matter for a person to keep two schemes of classification in mind, and if that same person has not had close re- lations with the children's department and so can appreciate the reason for modifications and changes in the classification, it hardly seems possible that she should be able to do justice to both. But if the classifying of children's books is done by the children's li- brarian or in that department, this difficulty i: obviated. The argument that if children learn where to go for books on a given subject in the children's room, they will know where to go the past two years there has been evident an increasing interest in the subject of the classification and catalog- ing of children's books. The most recent and striking expression of this interest is manifest in the co-operative scheme of cataloging un- dertaken by the Cleveland Public Library and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. Up to the present time, however, there has been no treatment of the subject as a whole which would enable children's librarians to work out principles which should serve as a basis for a scheme of classification and cata- loging for children's books. While it is hard- ly probable that any scheme for general use would ever be satisfactory to an individual library, the underlying principles for the per- formance of this work may be, and should be, the same for all libraries. No attempt has been made in this paper to fcrmulate such principles ; this can only be done after more concentrated attention has been given to the subject and a more compre- hensive expression of experience on the part of the people most closely connected with this work the children's librarians. What I have tried to do is to offer from the experience of one who has been closely con- rected for several years with the interests of a children's department while actively engaged in the teaching and actual work of cataloging, suggestions which may be useful in establish- ing work of a permanent character along these lines. In order that the work may at- tain this permanent character, it seems essen- tial that it should be done by one who has had experience with the work of a children's room, and who has had good training in cat- aloging. The growing system of branch libraries may very properly make it necessary that the work of classifying and cataloging children's books be put into the hands of one person, but that person can only do efficient and telling work if she has had both the active experience in the work of a children's department and the technical training of a cataloger. NIAGARA CONFERENCE. when they use the main library, the classifi- cation being the same, is, it seems to me, hardly valid. They don't want the same books as they grow older. If they did, in a very short time they would learn where to find them on open shelves, and otherwise a well constructed catalog would lead them to the right books with no assistance. When we also consider that in cities a large proportion of the users of a public library change from year to year, and even from month to month, what a small proportion of the children ever really graduate from the children's room and use the main library! They move from place to place, go to a new library and a new system of classification has to be learned. Another objection which may be offered with much justice is that in many cases it is extremely inconvenient that a book in the library should be represented by two numbers but here again if the children's department is administered separately there should be no real difficulty. If it is not, there are various ways of overcoming the difficulty which will be suggested under the different classes of books. If there is so little to be gained by using the same system of classification for books for children and for adults, regardless of what that classification may be, what can be gained by a change of classification or a modification of the system ? Although in so many libraries the same scheme of classification is used throughout the library, where any special work in classi- fication or cataloging of children's books has been done, we find modifications have been in- troduced. At Scoville Institute fairy stories are taken out and given an F to keep them together. Animal stories are all put with books of information about animals in 590, and I is used for all books about Indians. At Brookline, where the decimal classification is uted, or a modification of it, the classes are less subdivided and some changes are made for the children's books. For travel the his- tory number with decimal six is used. Biog- raphy is given the letter E and picture books are put by themselves. These few examples illustrate some of the changes for children's books which are felt to be needed in almost any system of classifica- tion. Certain kinds and classes of books can be made more useful to children if they stand on the shelves together, which in a library for adults could be scattered without disadvan- tage. The modifications would vary somewhat ac- cording to the scheme of classification em- ployed, but the following considerations of certain of the most important classes of chil- dren's books have for a basis the Dewey deci- mal classification. Picture books. All picture books should be shelved to- gether. Those possessing true artistic merit should always be brought out in the catalog under drawings, and when advisable an illus- trator card made. But the chief value of picture books in the children's department lies in the entertainment they afford very young children, both in the children's room and at home. If we attempt to classify them with art, in 741, with literature in 811 or 821, or with their subject, we shall still have many which cannot be provided for by these num- bers. Moreover, it is difficult to draw the line between those in art and literature, as the following classification shows: Caldecott's "Queen of hearts" and "Ride a cock-horse" in 821; Walter Crane's "This little pig" in 398, "Red Riding-hood picture book" in 741. Picture books illustrating an historical sub- ject may be classed with the subject, but a better way would be to put them with pic- ture books and bring them out under the subject in the catalog, and, of course, they should constantly be used in connection with history by the children's librarian. An ex- ample of this kind of book is De Monvel's Joan of Arc. Picture books at the Brookline Library are given a Z, but P suggests more closely the kind of books, and has the advantage of be- ing a clearer letter to write or print. Of course one number in the decimal classifica- tion might be chosen and given to all picture books, but a letter is simpler and at the same time more significant. The size and varying shapes of picture books likewise makes it more convenient to shelve them together. Easy books for little children. This division has been suggested for two COLLAR. 59 reasons : First, in order that we may have a collection of books regardless of subject, which the youngest children can read. Sec- ond, in order not to detract from the dignity of some of the classes where these books would otherwise be classified. It would be well to take from 372 (Elementary educa- tion) such books as : Riverside primers. Hiawatha primer, etc. From poetry, books of rhymes and jin- gles. Tileston. "Sugar and spice" (821), and Mother Goose unless put with picture books. From science, the simplest nature read- ers, and from literature some collections of fairy tales and fables, as : Rolfe, ed. Fairy tales in prose and verse (828) ; and shelve them together. These books should be placed on low shelves, and be given clear shelf-labels. If we have the two groups, Picture books and Easy books for little children, there will be very few books to be classified with Edu- cation or with Language, and the numbers 372 and 428 may be abandoned. The chil- dren's books in our library which have been given those two numbers would almost all fall very easily into one of these two groups. There are Picture books, such as "Toyshop alphabet;" nature readers, written for very young children ; Kindergarten stories ; Finger piays, all of which are well suited to the youngest readers, and if desirable, the same classification numbers can be kept and a C or P added to show their proper location with Easy books for little children or with Picture books. Mythology, Folk-lore, and Fairy tales. Books which fall under these headings are so closely related in subject, and in such con- stant demand by children that it would seem as if they should stand together on the shelves. If classified by the Decimal Classification we find them in 398, in 291, 292, 293 and in fiction. The best fairy tales are properly folk-lore, and it has always been difficult to know where to draw the line between folk-lore and fairy tale in any classification which required their separation. This is a distinction which need not be considered in classifying a collec- tion of children's books. It seems less natural to classify books on Greek and Roman mythology with folk-lore and fairy tales the line between the two is more sharply drawn. They are so closely connected with the history, literature, and art of Greece and Rome that I venture to make the suggestion that they be given the history number for those countries. There are some objections to this classifi- cation, but it seems to me the advantages out- weigh them. Such books as Hawthorne's "Wonderbcok" and "Tanglewood tales" it might be well to keep with folk-lore and fairy tales; but this would only be an exception, and such books as Bulfinch's "Age of fable," Francillon's "Gods and heroes," Niebuhr's "Greek hero stories," Baldwin's "Story of the golden age," and Zimmern's "Old tales from Greece" would stand on the shelves with such books as Bonner's "Child's history of Greece," Mor- ris's "Historical tales," Guerber's "Story of the Greeks." The letter F could be used for folk-lore and fairy tales, including also Norse mythol- ogy ; and Greek and Roman mythology put in 937 and 938. Science, Out-of-door books, and Nature books. The modifications of the D. C. for books in science used in the children's room at the Brookline Library seem to suit all the re- quirements for children's books with but one exception, apparently no place has been pro- vided for books on fishes. The place for so-called nature books has never been well-defined in the Decimal Classi- fication, and no doubt in different libraries different numbers have been used, such as 500, 504, 590, etc., none of them very good, but serving the purpose fairly well. For a collection of children's books in science two general numbers are needed. One for books on science in general, such as Hodge's "Na- tt're study and life," Fisher's "Fairy land of science," Gary's "Wonders of common things," Troeger's "Nature study readers," and Wallace's "Wonderful century reader," books which deal with all, or almost all, the subjects included in the Decimal classification under Science Astronomy, Physics, Chemis- try, Geology, Botany, Zoology. Another num- ber for nature books pure and simple, or so- 6o NIAGARA CONFERENCE. called out-of-door books which treat of Bot- any and Zoology and the subjects included under them, but which should not properly be put in either 580 (Botany) or 590 (Zool- ogy) alone. Such books are: Miller. Brook Book. (590) Wood. Illustrated natural history. (590) Ingersoll. Country cousins. (590) Lubbock. Chapters in natural science. Buckland. Curiosities of natural history. (390) For the first division, books of science in general, the number 500 may be used as in- cluding all the subdivisions and for the last we shall have to make a choice between 580, using 581 for books on Botany, flowers, etc., and 590, using 591 for animals, unless some- thing better can be suggested. The general class number for all the subjects included un- der science, with the exception of Zoology, is quite sufficient. Special numbers are, how- ever, required for Electricity and for Physical geography. If 537 is the number for Electric- ity, I should put with it all books on practical Electricity and Electrical engineering, which would usually be classed in 614 or 621.3. All Looks on Flowers, Tree;, Ferns, and Plants should be put in a general class for Botany. It might be convenient occasionally to have all our books on Flowers together, but the amount of material in the whole class would not be large, and it is better to let the subject- headings bring out the distinctions. Under Zoology, 591 could be used for all books about Animals, whether informational or stories, 595 for Insects, 597 for Fishes, and 598 for Birds. These divisions are much simpler than when we follow the Decimal classification more closely, and are equally satisfactory. There is also a saving of time in doing away with the distinctions between 590, 591, 596, and 599. Literature. It is safe to say, I think, that no children's librarian would willingly divide her books in American and English literature. Books in foreign languages should be divided by the bnguage. Very few divisions in literature are needed for children's books. There should be a gen- eral number for reference books, such as: Brewer's "Readers' handbook," books of quo- tations and general handbooks or histories of literature. These we could put in 800 or 803, the regular Decimal classification number for dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc. 808 could be used, as in the Decimal classi- fication, for collections, or readers having any literary value. Still another number, perhaps 810, would b-; needed for the individual books in litera- ture, such as Addison's "Sir Roger de Cover- ly papers, Irving's "Old Christmas," "Boy's Browning," etc. Here should be put all books which according to the Decimal classification would be classed with essays, or humor, or oratory, or letters or miscellany, divisions which are useless in a children's room. Cutter numbers should be used for books in this class, that they may be arranged on the shelves alphabetically by author. At Brookline, Greek and Roman literature is given the history number, and considering how few books we have on the history of those countries, this arrangement should prove most useful. If, too, the suggestion of putting Greek and Roman mythology with the history has been followed, we shall then have a very satisfac- tory group of books on the mythology, his- tory, and literature of Greece and Rome, and Bulfinch's "Age of fable," Bonner's "Child's history of Greece," and Church's "Stories from Homer" will stand on the shelves to- gether. Poetry. Although poetry is a form of literature, it should have a distinct number. Two divi- sions only are needed. For collections of poetry, and works of individual authors; 820 might be used for collections and 821 for in- dividual works. Biography, Collective and individual. Biography in a children's room does not need to be classified by subject, using 920, 921, 923, etc. Individual biography should be thrown into one alphabet, and to designate the class a let- ter may be used. In Brookline E, the Cutter number, is used, but B would mean more, as in the case of P for Picture books, and B C could be used for collective biography. Collective biography should likewise be COLLAR. 61 thrown together regardless of classification, and here a one, two, three book number is quite as useful and simpler. Another change suggested by the Brookline Library is one which is also advocated by Mr. Cutter to put the lives of artists with art and of musicians with music. There is a practical advantage in this, as we frequently have books to classify which treat of the sub- ject and include biographical material as well, for example: Lillie. Story of music and musicians. Mrs. Clement. Stories of art and artists. History and travel. A difficulty which all who use the Decimal classification frequently encounter is the sep- aration of the History from the Travel and description of a country. In a children's room it is particularly im- portant that all the books about a country should stand together on the shelves. In our own library in order to bring this about we have tried using labels on the backs of the books bearing the name of the coun- try for both books of travel and history. This obviates the difficulty to some extent, but if we were to reclassify, or in the case of any library starting out afresh, it would perhaps be better to select a number which would bring them side by side on the shelves under country, and yet maintain the distinction be- tween a book of travel and a book of history. At the Brookline Library for Travel a deci- mal six with the history number is used. It is then no longer than the ordinary travel number and keeps the history, and the travel and description of a country close together. Fiction. The classification of children's story books by subject has been very interestingly worked out by Miss Hunt in the Newark Public Li- brary. Miss Hunt describes her scheme in a paper which appeared in the Library Journal for February, 1902. This arrangement of children's fiction is considered a satisfactory one in the Newark library and has been adopted by other libra- ries. The advantages of it seem to me to be: First, that it brings together on the shelves the books of information and the story books belonging to a given subject. For such chil- dren as naturally read by subject this would be a useful arrangement. It should also be suggestive to teachers and students who are seeking to familiarize themselves with chil- dren's literature and who have been accus- tomed to look at children's books from a dif- ferent standpoint. Second, that it requires of the children's li- brarian and her assistants a most careful and critical examination of the books in order to classify them properly. The disadvantages seem to me to be : First, that it leaves the collection of story books as a class inadequately represented on the shelves. For such children as do not nat- urally read by subject and who want story books as story books, this would not seem to be a good arrangement. Many of the best story books would stand with the subject and consequently these children would read a poorer book, because a better one was not at hand.* Second, that the work of classifying may have to be done by a person who is not quali- fied to give that careful and critical examina- tion of the books which an arrangement by subject requires. Under such conditions it would certainly be unwise to attempt this method of classification. If the idea of classifying children's fiction by subject is not deemed feasible, the simplest and most satisfactory method is to arrange the books alphabetically by author, using the Cutter number. No distinct class number is needed. CATALOGING. There are three reasons for having a card catalog in a children's room where the books are on open shelves; first, for the use of teachers, parents and students ; second, for the librarian and her assistants ; third, for the children. Teachers are accustomed to use a card cata- log in the general library, and will turn to it in the children's room rather than to the shelves, to find the material they want. By a judicious use of subject-headings, careful ana- lytical work and good cataloging, the card catalog can be made of the greatest assist- ance to them. The children's librarian and her assistants will use the catalog to supplement their * Examples: "Prince and the pauper" would ap- pear under England, History: "Hans Brinker" uadet Holland; "Master Skylark" under England, History. 62 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. knowledge of the books, and constantly to verify work on lists, and to answer questions as to edition, etc., when the books are not on the shelves. The children I have put last as users of a card catalog but I hope they may be pro- moted to the first place when they have learned the use and uses of catalogs, and when catalogs have been made suited to their use. Keeping in mind, then, the use which is to be made of the card catalog in the children's room, it is easier to decide upon its most essential features, and to make such changes in the methods of cataloging followed in other departments of the library, as this usage would seem to require. Some, if not all, of the arguments in favor o. f uniformity in the work would apply here as in classification, but for one who has had experience with children, knows their de- mands and their point of view, the more or less mechanical methods of cataloging when done for a mass of books at one time, seem entirely inadequate. Whenever it is practicable children's books should be cataloged for the children's cata- log in the children's department, or, at hast, by the children's librarian or one of her assistants. When done at the same time and by the same person who catalogs the books for the general library, it is practically copy- ing, without sufficient consideration of the peculiar needs and demands of the children's room. Nevertheless, most of the libraries re- porting on this subject, make no difference in the information given on the cards for the general catalog, and for the one in the chil- dren's room and so it is necessary to indi- cate very clearly and in detail, the changes which seem advisable in making a card cata- log for a children's library. Form of catalog. Many children's rooms have, as yet, no sep- arate catalog, others have merely a brief list of author and title entries, but I think there can be little difference of opinion as to the form of card catalog most useful in the children's room. The dictionary catalog is the one best fitted to the requirements, and in those libra- ries where it has been in use has justified the value set upon it. Cards. Two sizes of cards are used; the regular catalog card size (P size) and the index size (I size). We use the I size and have found it entirely satisfactoiy. In only a com- paratively few instances has it been necessary to use a second card, and there is economy of space in using the smaller size. The general principles of cataloging should quite properly be the same for the children's catalog and for the catalog of the general library. The Library School rules o r the A. L. A. code may be followed in the main. The changes which seem advisable, and which we have put into practice in the Pratt Institute Library, are as follows : Author's name. Enter under the best known form of the author's name, usually as it is given on the title-page. Example: Under Carroll, Lewis, not un- der Dodgson, Charles Lut- widge. The child knows nothing of "pseuds" and extra initials discovered after much search in biographical dictionaries ; and, in fact, I think there is much to be said in favor of this rule for ayy catalog, unless it be one used solely by librarians, when their previous train- ing might enable them to discover the author they are looking for when entered according to our Library School rule. Use the anglicised form of a Greek or Latin author. Example : Homer, not Homerus. Virgil, not Virgilius. Subject fullness for the author's name we have used throughout the catalog. This I do not advocate. Children frequently know authors by their full names, and would recog- nize them more easily than if initials only tvere given. Although we need not include forenames which authors do not themselves use on the title-page of their books, the forenames which are used should be written out. Titles. Titles may be considered one of the most important points in cataloging chil- dien's books; that is the choice of title, its arrangement on the card, punctuation, etc. Many of the same considerations apply here as in cataloging in general, but there :ire some distinctions to be made. More license COLLAR. should be permitted it seems to me, words of explanation added, numerous omissions and ti a impositions, and in a v.crd, the title made as readable, concise and clear as possible. Children, and grown people as well, will not read through a long title, this is especially Hue of poorly written or crowded t'tles. and the- bit of important information at the very end may be entirely lost to them. Sometimes a title may be shortened on the author card, and the fuller and more explana- tory title be given on the subject card. Example: Bateman. Book of aquaria. (Sufficient to identify the book) but on the subject card under the heading Aquarium title should read: "Book of aquaria, a practical guide to the construction, arrange- ment and management of fresh water and marine aquaria." If the title is obscure in meaning a brief note of explanation is needed. Example : Andrews, Jane. Stories of my four friends. "The seasons of the year" in a note. Lukin. Our wooden clock. "How to make a clock." Bennett. Barnaby Lee. "A story of the settlement of New Amsterdam by the Dutch." Imprint. The subject of imprint on cards for a chil- dren's catalog is one about which there seems to be a diversity of opinion, as indeed about most points in cataloging. In Pratt Institute Library we use: 1. Edition number new revised. 2. Number of vols. ; if more than one. 3. Illustrated (written in full) for all il- lustrations, except in Biography and History we specify maps and por- traits. 4. Place of publication (in full) ; Bos- ton not Bost. 5. Name of publisher (brief form) Scribner. 6. Date of publication using also copy- right date if differing more than one year. 7. Series note, especially if giving school grade. The first two points do not differ from our general rules. Paging we omit as utterly unnecessary con- sidering the use which is made of the chil- dren's catalog. Illustrations. The word "illustrated" was finally decided upon by us after a short-lived attempt to use "Pictures." Pictures is not a good word as applied to book illustrations, and as the word "illustrated" occurs so frequently on the title- pages of books, children are accustomed to it, and it seems the best word to use on a cata- logue card. Certainly it is better to use the word in full than the abbreviations "il." or "illus.", which children never understand. We go a little further and add the name of the illustrator whenever the illustrator's work makes such added information of value. This has been found useful to art students and teachers and distinguishes an edition to the librarian or student more quickly than "new ed." or "rev. ed." Example : Cornish. Life at the Zoo. Il- lustrated from photographs by Gambier Bolton. Ewing. Lob Lie-by-the-fire. Il- lustrated by Randolph Cal- decott. Gould, Sabine Baring-. Old English fairy tales. Illus- trated by Francis D. Bed- ford. Size we omit as unimportant. Place of publication given in full that it may mean something to the child, he will at least recognize it as the name of a place, and be more readily used by everyone. Name of publisher. In answer to the question: "Do you con- sider name of publisher of importance on a card for the children's catalog?" Five out of nine children's librarians answered "no," only two a definite "yes." The reason for not using it given by the Buffalo library was that they use the smaller card and "more essential information might be crowded." Miss Lyman of Scoville Institute says that "teachers and parents have made so much use of publisher in making lists, etc., that it seems of value." In Medford it is used for the "sake of uni- formity." If the catalog is to be consulted by teach- ers, students, and parents there would seem to NIAGARA CONFERENCE. be very good reason for giving the publisher's name, as not infrequently the catalog is consulted for just such information where tc send or to go to buy the book? In our own case it has been of the greatest assistance to the children's librarian in mak- ing lists, and it is a bit of information which 1 should put on a card in preference to place or date, if need be. Price. Some of the same reasons for giving price as for giving publisher's name might be urged, but there are two significant objections which decided us against its use on the catalog card. First, Price is a very variable item and to be able to rely upon it, constant revision would be necessary. Secorid, It does not seem advisable to asso- ciate in a child's mind a book and its money value, and this might easily be the result of putting the price on the face of the card. It is unnecessary to take up other points in detail, btit whatever, information is given in the imprint should be in a smaller hand (if hand-written or hand-printed) and in smaller type if printed. The imprint is only of secondary impor- tance, and there is no better way that I know of to make what is important, the heading and title stand out, than to give other informa- tion in a smaller hand. Different cards to be made. Very few added entry cards except title cards, are needed in a children's catalog. In very rare cases we make an editor or com- piler card. Example: Bulfinch. Age of chivalry; ed. by Edward Everett Hale, we make a card for Hale, E. E. And we make one for A. J. Church as adapter of Virgil. Joint author cards need only be made when the second author is as well, or better known than the first. Lodge, H. C, and Roosevelt, Theodore. Seelye, E. E., and Eggleston, Edward. Illustrator cards. We make cards for all well-known and im- portant illustrators, and as our catalog is used so much by art students and teachers of Pratt Institute, we have made cards, in some cases, for the poorer work of illustrators as useful in the study of the development of their work. It would not be advisable how- ever to do this under the ordinary conditions of a children's library. We have made cards for such illustrators of children's books as Howard Pyle, Percy Bil- linghurst, Randolph Caldecott, Boutet de Monvel, Kate Greenaway, and others. Title cards should be made freely, and prac- tically for all books except when the subject- heading would be the same as the first word cf the title: Example : Botany for young people. Or when the title begins with an indefinite \vcrd. Example : Manual of photography. Series cards. There are two kinds of series for which it seems advisable to make cards. First the series which really classifies the books. Example : i. Riverside art series ; ed. by E. M. Kuril. The second when a name has been given to a group of stories written serially. Example : The Gypsy series. The Katy did books. We also use a series card quite frequently in order to group certain books which would otherwise be scattered if separately entered by title. Example: The Brownie books. Lucy books. Rollo books. Subject and subject analytical cards. Our subject cards, with the subject heading in red ink on the top line, contain very much the same information as our author cards, sometimes with a longer or a shorter title, as the case may be. Subject analytical cards are needed more cften for children's books than for those for the general library, and at. Pratt Institute Li- brary we have made them very freely, es- pecially for books which are in a general class, but have chapters devoted to specific subjects. Example: Ingersoll. Book of the ocean. (Classed in 551) but con- taining chapters on Sea ani- mals, Fishing, Life-saving service, Pirates, etc. We make the form of the subject analytical card as simple as possible author's name, title of analytical part, and we use the "in" COLLAR. form of analytical note whether paging is given or not. The title of the analytical, if there is no chapter heading to use, has to be composed, and here much judgment and discrimination can be shown and the children's librarian im- prove her opportunity of making a clear and concise title. Perhaps it is unnecessary to state that we do not underscore on the cards for the chil- dren's catalog. The children only wonder at such lines, and for our own convenience we trace all secondary and subject cards from the back of the main card, giving subject- headings at the right hand side and the word "title," when a title card has been made, at the left, and note any ottar cards which may have been made for the book. We omit accession numbers. The shelf-list is always at hand and we economize space by leaving them off the cards. We print all our cards. Print is clearer to read and takes up less space than writing. Children, as well as grown people, seem to enjoy reading anything that is hand-printed, and an even, clear handwriting or printing is a good copy to put before a child, which he n:ay consciously or unconsciously try to fol- low. This may seem to many to be an elaborate scheme for cataloging children's books, es- pecially when the books are on open shelves, but we have found it very useful and the ex- tra time and trouble have been well repaid. The Cleveland and Pittsburgh co-operative scheme of cataloging has undoubtedly pro- vided many children's rooms with clearly printed cards for their catalogs. Although the wisdom of such extremely brief catalog- ing is open to question, there is plenty of space at the bottom of the card for adding such information as may be deemed advisable in a given library. SUBJECT HEADINGS. If we advocate and are to make a diction- ary card catalog for the children's room, the matter of subject headings is of very great importance. A poor scheme of classi- fication can be greatly helped by well-chosen subject headings used in the catalog, and however good a classification we may have, it can always be made more useful by the same means. In this connection the same question as regards uniformity arises; whether the same list of subject headings shall be used in the main library and in the children's room. Perhaps on this point we have more lately heard decisive opinions than on many of the others. At the meeting of the A. L. A. at Magnolia last year Mr. Brett announced the list of simplified subject headings which had been compiled at the Cleveland library to be used for the co-operative scheme of cata- loging with Pittsburgh. This announce- ment brought forth several expressions of opinion on the subject, and Mr. Jones, of Salem, said that he did not consider there was any need of simplifying subject headings for children. Miss Olcott thought that the argument stood in favor of more simple sub- ject headings for both catalogs. There seems to be no very strong reason for making the headings uniform. Children learn more readily than grown people any- thing that is required of them, and when they are transferred from the children's room to the main library the fact that they must look for Weather under Meteorology would not confuse them in the least, provided the reference was properly made. Probably a list of simplified subject head- ings would be a good thing for many users of a library, and if this were made, we should not then hesitate to follow the same list in both departments. Two ways suggest themselves for compil- ing a list of subject headings for a dictionary - catalog. Either to follow pretty closely, if not in all particulars, a list of headings already compiled; or to assign subject head- ings to the books without any preconceived scheme, taking into consideration the special requirements of the department and studying in every way to meet them. This has been practically our method at Pratt Institute Library, although whenever we assigned a subject heading we consulted the A. L. A. list, which we use in the main library, and if it differed we weighed very carefully the advantages of the change. It was surprising to find that after subject headings had been assigned to perhaps half 66 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. the collection of books very few changes had to be made, either because of lack of uniform- ity or because synonymous terms had been used. The list of subject headings prepared by Miss Ames, of the Cleveland library, may have been compiled in very much the same way, and as it is now in printed form will no doubt greatly assist catalogers of chil- dren's books, but like any list should only be used as a basis, not followed to the letter. Any suggestions which might be made for a guide in compiling such a list would take the form of warnings rather than definite directions. 1. Not to abandon a good, well-known word or term, even if scientific, for a more popular one. Example : Botany see Plants. Biology see Life. Botany and Biology are two terms which children need have no diffi- culty in learning the meaning of, and they cover far better than Plants or Life, books on those subjects. 2. To avoid indefinite and obscure head- ings. Example: Age, Shadows, etc. Seals (animals or crests?). If a heading be adopted which seems obscure or ambiguous, a word of ex- planation may be added directly after it in parentheses : Example: Cricket (game). 3. To omit headings for all disagreeable things, and for subjects which it does not seem desirable to have children dwell upon. Example: Funerals. Betting. Regicides. 4. Do not use two headings so nearly synonymous that the distinction would be easily overlooked, and either a cross reference made neces- sary, or material lost. Example: Wild flowers nnd Spring flowers. 5. Do not make too minute headings. This is not the same as advocating classing subjects together, but un- less there is a great deal of material, subdivisions are unnecessary and re- quire too many cross references. For example, making a separate head- ing for the different spices. There might be an article or possibly a book on nutmeg, but nearly all books which treat of spice at all would treat of more than one spice, and either analyticals would have to be made for the different spices or end- less cross references would be needed. 6. Make very few see and see also ref- erences. The subject headings should be assigned when the book is classified, and the cata- loging done at the same time. In this way the classification can be supplemented, and one can be quite sure that all the subject matter in the book has been carefully brought out. There are several form and language head- ings which we have made and found ex- tremely useful, such as: French books, German books, Picture books, Funny books, and Irish stories. As in the Cleveland list, we have used phrases as compound headings combining a noun and a verb, such as : Mines and mining. Paper and paper-making. The reason seems to be that books on these subjects almost invariably treat of both mines and mining for instance they are very closely connected and if alphabeted in a different place a see reference could be made. Example: Mining see Mines and mining. Subdivisions. We have found it far better to make our subdivisions only after a good deal of material has been collected on a sub- ject. For example, at first we used Easter for all the books, or poems, or pictures on Easter, but at a time when the call for the material was greater than usual, at Easter- time, we went over it carefully and made the subdivisions, Stories, Poems, Pictures, using the last for pictures only, or pictures and a verse, which might be used by the children or art students to copy for Easter cards. We have used the subdivisions Stories and Poems quite frequently, and shall even more when our catalogue is complete. The subdivisions under Country as given in the Cleveland list are, on the whole, useful, although we haven't material enough as yet to warrant making all of them, even under the U. S. It is much better to put all mate- rial on a country under the name of the country without any subhead until the sub- divisions seem necessary. As in classifica- tion, it is difficult to draw the line between books on the history of a country and travel and description as they so often are com- bined, and if there be the subdivisions two cards have to be made for the same book when one under the name of the country alcne would answer as well. History is the first subdivision which we naturally make under country, then Descrip- tion and travel, and a third which we have made in some few cases, has been Customs. History as a subhead under some countries may have to be again subdivided by period, but this should be done only after so much material has been collected as to justify such subdivision. Very often the title will give the period, but in some cases it is almost impossible to restrict a book to a given period. Historical fiction should be put under the country subdivided by History, by period if necessary, and Stories used as a final sub- head. A simpler way, and one which would serve all the purposes, it seems to me, would be to put all Historical fiction under the country, subhead'/History and the word Sto- ries, rather than attempting to put the fiction with the period. If the title does not clearly show the period, a note of explanation may be added. Almost as careful and critical an examina- tion is needed in order to assign subject headings for story books, as is needed to classify them. The line between historical fiction and fic- tion having a good country setting or show- ing the manner and customs of a country need not be drawn as strictly in a collection ot children's books as it has to be in a library for adults. Such a book as Mary Mapes Dodge's "Hans Brinker" should most cer- tainly be represented in the catalog under Holland. I am inclined to believe by means of well- chosen subject headings for children's stories many of the same results may be brought about in time, as would be attained by the method of classifying fiction with the subject. Biography. Subject headings for biography should be the best known form of the name of the biographee. This would sometimes be the full name and sometimes initials. Example: Ole Bull. The full name with epithets, dates, etc., should appear on guide cards preceding the subject cards. Example: -Bull, Olaus Boonemann, called Ole. Henry IV., King of France. iS53-i6io. Reference should be made from the coun- try, subhead History, to the most distin- guished characters of that country, provided the biographies of such men would warrant making the connection. Example: England. History. See also Oliver Cromwell, etc. Poetry. Subject headings for individual poems may be made, and frequently would be most suggestive. Example: Scott's "Lady of the lake," brought out under Scotland as descriptive of the coun- try. Mythology. We subdivide by country: Mythology, Norse. " Greek, etc. We should not be afraid of making too many subject headings. The more ways in which a book can be used the better. Fre- quently it is well to give a general heading to a book, and then analyze it very fully by means of subject headings. For such a book as Ingersoll's "Book of the ocean" we have made twelve subject ana- lytical cards, and the analytical subject cards from Pittsburg for Beard's "American boys' handy book" number twenty-six. Subject headings should bring together, at least in the catalog, all the material on a subject. For example, our books about In- dians and Indian stories are either classified with American history, or with fiction, but the heading Indians in the catalog will show us what we have on the subject, how- ever widely they may be separated on the shelves. Cross References. The "see" and "see also" cross references may be made as the work of assigning sub- ject headings goes on, or it may be done after the work is completed. Miss Ames, who compiled the Cleveland list, suggests that they be made after the catalog is completed in order that the cataloger may be sure there is material under the head- ing to which the "see alsos" would have to be made at first, if no list of subject heeadings was being followed, because until the work was well under way you would not know what headings were going to be used. On the other hand, it is a much safer way, it seems to me, to make the references when the subject headings are assigned and thus escape the possibility of referring from one heading to another, both of which have been used, but where the material on one subject has absolutely no interest in connection with the other. It would seem hardly profitable for me in this paper to go into the deep and compli- cated subject of capitalization, but the sug- gestion made in the Cleveland list of simpli- fied subject headings is worth calling your attention to "that capitals in subject headings should be used as capitalization is taught in the schools". I do not think that the list al- ways observes this rule however, for in the heading Nibelungen Lied, Lied has a small "1" and a small "d" is used for day in New Year's Day. The main suggestions which I have to offer under classification are: That mythology, except Greek and Roman, all folk-lore and fairy tales be put toge- ther on the shelves of a children's room. That they be given the number 398 from the decimal classification, or an F, or some other designation. That Roman and Greek mythology be clas- sified with the history, art and literature of Greece and Rome. That the subjects under Science be less subdivided than they are in the decimal classification, the general number for each class only being used ; and that two num- bers be chosen, one for general books on science and another for nature books in general. That English and American literature be thrown into one class, and arranged on the shelves alphabetically by authors. That a number be chosen for Travel which shall bring the books close to the history of a country. That Picture books be shelved together, and the letter P used to indicate their loca- tion. That a collection of books for the young- est children be made and placed on low shelves. Under the subject of cataloging I would advocate a dictionary card catalog for the children's room. The best known form of author's name should be used, and carefully chosen titles. The information in the imprint should be given in such form that it may be understood by children and be use- ful to teachers and students. That subject cards should be made under well-chosen, simple, and specific subject headings, not only for books as a whole, but also for parts and chapters of books. From several different libraries has arisen the question, "How shall we induce the chil- dren to use the card catalog in the chil- dren's room?" In our own case I would say that since our catalog has been made a dic- tionary catalog the children, with very slight introduction, have used it sufficiently to make me willing to carry it on and to make it better. SOUTHERN LIBRARIES. BY MARY HANNAH JOHNSON, Librarian Carnegie Library, Nashville, Tenn. T T is not the purpose of this paper to under- take to give a history of library work in the south, with statistical information con- cerning the institution and promotion of li- braries in that section. It is desired, rather, to make a general yet by no means exhaustive presentation of conditions that have obtained in the southern states, which are explanatory of the slower progress in library development in those states as compared with the prog- ress made in the eastern and northern sec- tions and in some of the western states. In the first place, while the free public library admittedly stands as a representative of advanced thought and policy in the promo- tion of general education and in encouraging higher ideals in human life, it is not to be assumed that the failure of the south to keep pace with the east and north in the establish- ment of libraries has been due to a lack of sufficient culture or a non-appreciation of the value of literature and the advantages of its general dissemination. Causes of a peculiar character have operated to retard library growth in the south, and when these causes are rightly considered it will be found that it is not to the discredit of southern intelli- gence and enterprise that the section is still so largely an undeveloped field in this im- portant respect. Prior to the great civil war which devas- tated the southern states the social condi- tions in the south were of a character diffi- cult for the people of the north, or even for the present generation of the south, to fully understand. The existence of slavery was largely effective in shaping those conditions. The wealth and culture of the country were confined mainly to the slave owning class and the professional and the principal business classes that were allied in social sympathy. The higher educational institutions were pat- ronized by those classes, and private libraries, many of them valuable and extensive, were found in the plantation homes and the homes of well-to-do people in the towns and cities. Colleges and private schools were depended upon for educating the youth and the policy of providing free educational . facilities for the poorer classes was not practically consid- ered. The war left the south impoverished to a degree that was discouraging in the extreme. A very large area had been frightfully devas- tated, and thus portions which had not suf- fered from the ravages of armies were utterly exhausted of resources. It was in this de- plorable state that a great and proud people were confronted by the tremendous task of rehabilitation. Added to this lamentable con- dition were the political' troubles of the re- construction period. For years the south was compelled to bend its whole energy to a material upbuilding from the depletions of war. The vast wealth of a once prosperous people had not only been swept away but the states, counties and municipalities were heavily and apparently hopelessly in debt. The first great movement in educational work in the south was the establishment of public school systems. This necessitated large expenditure with increased taxation. The white people taxed themselves to provide free schools not only for white but also for negro children. The development of these schools has been gradual but steady, and yet there is much to be done in improvement which will call for a still greater expendi- ture of public funds. Naturally this educa- tional work, with its pressing claims first in order, has stood in the way of state aid to libraries. The heavy indebtedness of the states and municipalities emphasized the un- preparedness of the south for library estab- lishment. Even had there been an urgent demand for libraries the popular opposition to the incurring of new debts, after so hard an experience, would have checked the movement. Where libraries had already been established they could in few in- stances be properly supported. The state library at Nashville, Term., for instance, was created in 1854 and furnished with an admirable selection of books, but, on account of the burden of a state debt and the imperative drain upon the public treasury for other purposes, no accessions have been made since the war. It has become in the course of time chiefly a depository of acts of assem- blies, legislative journals, law reports and other state documents secured in small part by purchase, but mainly by interchange with other state libraries. At present throughout the south the library spirit is extending and manifesting itself in many ways. The growth in number and quality of school libraries is noteworthy, and religious, social and benevolent organizations are doing much in increasing the class library service. All this tends to promote directly and indirectly the public library idea. Pri- vate enterprises such as the Book Lovers' Library and the traveling libraries make the people familiar with the circulation of books and cultivate a sentiment for free circulation for the many to whom subscription methods are not available. The impulse given the modern library movement by private benefactions, especially those of Mr. Andrew Carnegie, has awak- ened much interest in the south. A number of buildings have been erected or are in course of erection, and this stimulates in- quiry and effort in places not yet supplied. Librarians in the larger cities receive fre- quent requests for information concerning measures and means for library promotion, and it is needless to say that the inquirers are encouraged and aided in every way possible. The question in hundreds of localities is, how to get a library. The average town council holds severely aloof upon the assump- tion that matters of more material importance preempt the use of the public funds, which are scarcely adequate for improvements for which there is constant clamor. Local pri- vate munificence has not yet, except in rare instances, indicated a purpose to furnish the necessary means. Associated effort, there- fere, remains the chief if not the sole depend- ence, and this often fails of the enthusiasm and the means to secure results. In many places, however, organizations are making headway with small beginnings which give promise of developing into free libraries that wili meet the community requirements. The progress of this work must be slow until the local authorities are induced to give munici- pal aid, or the fortunate locality secures a donation for a library building, which quick- ens public interest and by its conditions brings pressure to bear for maintenance out of the public revenues. Another indication of growing library in- terest in the south is the increasing number of persons who are seeking a library training. The belief seems to prevail that the south is on the eve of a library extension which ere long will require many more trained workers. I have frequent applications from persons, principally young women, who request the privilege of serving in the library without compensation just for the benefit of the knowledge and training such service would give. Even as a manifestation of self-inter- est this argues that the free library is coming more and more into the public thought as a necessary institution. One of the difficulties that must be con- sidered in regard to library extension in the south is that involved in the presence of a large negro population. The free library supported by public funds carries with it the suggestion that no portion of the population of the regulation age can be legally excluded from its privileges. A library, the service of which is as free to negroes as it is to whites, is an institution that could be maintained in few southern localities outside of great metro- politan centers. There are those in the north who may regard this indisposition of south- ern whites to be served with negroes as a manifestation of race prejudice that is incon- sistent with a right conception of educational progress. But this view does not compre- hend the true situation. Race prejudice ex- ists undoubtedly, but it is not race prejudice alone that makes the mingling of the races ob- noxious and unwise in a library service. The social line is drawn in the south between the whites and the blacks unalterably. This line has been made and kept distinct and rigid in the public schools and the wisdom of such separation has been clearly demonstrated. The consensus of opinion in the south is that EASTMAN MARVIN. this separateness should be maintained in libraries as well as in the schools. The librarians and library boards are disposed to do all in their power to aid the col- ored people in securing libraries of their own whenever the opportune time arrives. Meanwhile, the libraries, with few excep- tions, are rigidly exclusive of blacks, with only such occasional concessions to persons of the race as in the judgment of the librarian may be made without embarrassment. The south needs a great many more libraries, and if they are to be established they must be li- braries for white people. Afterward the ques- tion of negro libraries will be in order. The general situation in the south may be summed up as one of retarded progress but of increasing promise. There is a great work to be done for which there are yet no beginnings. There is need of the fos- tering influence and aid of state library commissions, library associations and other means of promotion. Much of the present indifference is due to lack of hopeful oppor- tunity and to the failure to grasp the idea that the free library is not an institution that is required and can flourish only in the great- er population centers. The established south- ern libraries are conducted on the most ap- proved plan of administration and service and their influence extends far beyond the localities they serve. Where new libraries are started or old ones are developed upon the free circulating basis the public appreciation is marked and cordial. Full southern library extension is only a question of time. The time may be long but the indications are pointing to an accelerated growth in popular desire which may bring great results in a shorter period than can now be predicted. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION. BY W. R. EASTMAN AND CORNELIA MARVIN. / T*HE Committee on Library Administra- tion is impressed with the importance of a new discussion of the subject of the annual report as a means of library progress. This subject is therefore presented in the hope that it may lead to a fresh attempt to dis- cover or invent the ideal table of statistics. The obligation to report is fully recog- nized by law. In 30 states and in the Dis- trict of Columbia every public library is re- quired to report financially every year to the city or town which sustains it. In a few cases a copy of the report must also be sent to the state. In 13 states report is also to be made directly to the governor, library commission, or other state authority. The U. S. Bureau of Education has also col- lected reports at irregular intervals. But in all these cases the particular form of report is left either to the individual library or to the special authority that collects, with the natural result of an endless variety which makes comparison difficult; and this difficulty is rapidly increasing with the growing num- ber of library enthusiasts in the various commissions, each alive to the importance of the particular work that interests him. To consider the situation intelligently it will be necessary to keep in mind the purpose of statistics. If a city supports a library the city officers and the citizens generally ought to know whether the money is used to the best advantage. The report is a distinctly business account. The value of the work must be shown by the number and class of books that are read and thereby a doubting public are to be satisfied and interested. In this view of the case an English librarian wrote 25 years ago "Statistics are life;" they are "needed to justify existence." Thus the local report informs and persuades the local public and at the same time stirs the next town to a generous rivalry. The next step is the collection and publica- tion of the returns of a large body of libra- ries adding greatly to the sum of information NIAGARA CONFERENCE. and with a constantly widening purpose. It is no longer merely a guard against misuse of public funds or the announcement of a single experience. It has become a picture in broad perspective. It now describes a great movement and declares by its terms the general progress of a state along this one line of reading for the people. It sets the standard for the common work, showing to new enterprises how much will be expected; and the local pride of each city and town is thereby roused anew to an effort to main- tain as high a standard for its own library, to pay as much and show as large results as any of its neighbors. The state report serves another purpose of the first importance in furnishing a basis of study for leaders of the library movement. In order to urge and carry out better meth- ods, arouse fresh interest, secure greater ad- vantages and propose new laws, they need to have the facts before them. Our library ccmmissions must have the statistics not only of their own states, but of as many other states as possible if they are to do their work with their eyes open. But unless we can secure some degee of uniformity and exact- ness of definition, we shall be forever puzzled to know what the statistics mean. At the first annual meeting of this Asso- ciation, held at New York in 1877, the Co- operation Committee, Messrs. Cutter, Perkins and Jackson, among other valuable contribu- tions reported a table of library statistics, adapted to "the requirement of small and medium libraries." They "recommended that the tables be repeated in successive li- brary reports with the addition of a new column for the current year," so as to "place on a line the statement of each detail . . . for a course of years," making comparison easy. This report, after discussion and some slight amendments, was adopted. It does not appear to have been published in its amended form, and even disappears from the index. It was no doubt used by some, perhaps by many libraries, and with modifi- cations may be still in use. It seems to have been intended as a suggestion to individual libraries only, inasmuch as the regular col- lection of library statistics on a broad scale had not then begun. Lists of American libraries had appeared in the American Almanac for 1837 and in reports of the U. S. Census for 1850, 1860 and 1870. Certain individuals, as Jewett in 1849, Rhees in 1857, Spofford in 1863 and Winsor in 1869 had collected library statistics for use in various published papers, and a short list of libraries of 25,000 volumes for the year 1874 is in Appleton's American Cyclo- predia. A report, far more complete than any of these was issued by the U. S. Bureau of Education in 1876 in its centennial volume on "Public libraries in the United States." This included returns from 3647 libraries of 300 volumes and over, giving name, place, date, terms of use, volumes, average yearly additions, circulation, funds, income and yearly expenditures for books and for admin- istration. Of these n items the first four name, place, date and terms of use being merely descriptive, were taken for granted in the A. L. A. schedule of the next year and the other seven items in detailed form were adopted, omitting only the amount of permanent funds. The Bureau of Education again reported for 1885, naming 5338 libraries of 300 volumes, an increase in nine years of 40 %, but only six items were printed, of which five were descriptive and only one, the number of volumes, was subject to current change. A third report for 1891 appeared in 1803, including 3804 libraries of 1000 volumes and giving 20 items ot which 10 were de- scriptive or permanent in their nature and 10 were progressive or annual items. A report for 1896 was issued in 1897 for 4206 libraries of looo volumes, and another for 1900, printed in 1901, showing 5383 libraries of looo vol- umes. These five national reports were of great value to the library movement. Following the pattern set by the U. S. report of 1876, some of the states about 1890 began to collect and publish their own mate- rial, in some cases copying from the national report as a beginning. Yet not all have felt the need of annual statistics. Some states, like Massachusetts, have made an oc- casional report of monumental completeness, presenting most valuable historical and de- scriptive matter, but did not concern them- selves with the annual record of additions, EASTMAN MARVIN. 73 circulation and expense. In Illinois, in the absence of any other authority, the state library association has recently collected the library facts which are to be published by the University of Illinois. There are two or three states which have laws calling for an- nual library reports, where the machinery of collection is not yet in running order. There are now n states which collect li- brary reports once a year or once in two years. These are New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minne- sota and Colorado. Adding Illinois and the U. S. Bureau of Education there are 13 more or less regular collectors in the field. Of these, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota use the same form of report, which has also been adopted by the National Municipal League in their endeavor to unify city statistics. The Idaho Free Library Commission also announce their intention to use the same table in a somewhat simplified form. These three or four instances show the extent of uniformity so far as ascertained. The others differ widely from that form and from each other. We have then before us II distinct va- rieties of report blanks. The confusion is not diminished by the variations of the fiscal year. 23 state laws name particular dates for library reports. Of these, three are in January, one in March, two in April, five in June, five in July, one in December, three at the town meeting and two at the end of the year. One of the simplest is from the Rhode Is- land State Board of Education. Aside from name, place and official signature, seven ques- tions are asked, as follows : Number of vol- umes at the beginning of the year? Volumes added? Volumes lost? Volumes at end of the year? Volumes circulated? Number of different persons drawing books? Number of new patrons? This is followed by space for "Remarks." Income and expenditure are reported on a separate blank. Yet as each of the items relating to volumes is followed by nine columns for the classification of books and two columns for totals, the report may not appear so simple after all. Michi- gan asks 12 questions. The United States asks 19 main questions and 12 sub-questions. New Hampshire has 28 items, New York has nine main items and nine sub-items, Con- necticut has 20 main items and 28 sub-items, Indiana 30 main items and six sub-items. New Jersey has 32 items and Colorado 32. Illinois has 41. Wisconsin, Iowa and Minne- sota ask information on 14 principal topics with more than 100 questions of detail be- sides classified tables of books and of circu- lation which, if completely filled, would require 300 additional entries. The mere number of items will suggest the great diversity. But this is not all. On examination it will ap- pear that the items are of two distinct classes ; one class descriptive and permanent in their nature and the other relating to the current work of the library. In other words, one class of questions is intended to show what the library is and the other class to show what it does. As between these classes there is again an endless variation. Of 12 items in one state eight are permanent and can be answered in a word; only four relate to current work. Of 38 items in another state 30 are permanent and descriptive. Of 20 main items in another nine are of the permanent class. Of nine main items in another report only one is permanent. In the extended and classified schedule of the three unified states the only permanent features aside from the name of the library, are in answer to these questions : For how long a period are cards issued? Is there a separate reference room? Number of books allowed each teacher? And even these will vary somewhat from year to year. All the rest relate to current work. While these facts emphasize still more the diversity of practice, they at the same time suggest a line of division in the character of inquiries which may help us to reach more satisfactory results in the end. In view of existing facts, the committee beg leave to offer some suggestions looking toward greater uniformity and definiteness. i. Separate all descriptive and permanent items of information from those which relate to current work. There are questions, such as date of founding, cost of building, class of library, control, system of classification, cata- log, reference room, etc., which, when once answered, seldom need to be repeated. This important information should be obtained 74 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. once on a separate sheet accompanying the first report of each library, placed on file and brought out whenever the state board think best to use it. When changes occur the librarian will report any new rules, new methods, catalogs or buildings in a certain space for "additional information" to be found in the current annual blank, and the record will be kept up to date. When infor- mation is desired on any special topic such as durability of bindings, comparative popu- larity or usefulness of books, access to shelves, use of cards of the Library of Con- gress, or success of new methods with child- ren or with schools, let it be sought through a special circular. Information for the use of the state commission will also be ob- tained by reports of personal visits duly filed, but let the annual questions relate to work actually done rather than to the way of do- ing it. 2. Select the subjects of report generally recognized as essential. Such are (i) num- ber of volumes; (2) additions for the year; (3) circulation or home use of books; (4) reference or library use; (5) income, includ- ing source; and (6) payments. Two other items hours of opening and terms of use are liable to vary from year to year in small libraries and may be added to the list. The smallest library can readily answer these eight questions at regular intervals. Pro- vide a generous space for "additional infor- mation," a line for the heading and other lines for signatures of president and libra- rian and we shall have the skeleton of our report blank. 3. Expand the selected subjects. We have learned the principle of expansive classifica- tion of books, let us follow the same lines in annual reports. Print the leading items in heavy type and let each main topic be fol- lowed, or preceded, for the sake of addition, by divisions or details of the same in some- what smaller type and some of these again by subdivisions in still smaller type so that the comparative importance of each class may be evident to the eye. All libraries, even the very smallest, may be expected to reply to the gen- eral questions and to as many of the others as they may see fit. Libraries of 10,000 volumes will respond to all questions of the first and second class, and libraries of 100,000 volumes, or of some other readily defined type or size such as city libraries will reply to all. In this way all libraries will have before them the suggestions of the full schedule of organized work without feeling oppressed with the in- fliction of tasks beyond their strength. The summary table will have its main columns for all and its subordinate columns for some without confusion. 4. Define carefully the terms used. Even the word "volume" may be a trifle uncertain. Is a pamphlet a book? Shall magazines in temporary binders pass for bound volumes? Are all public documents to be counted? One report blank says "Include only bound vol- umes," meaning probably those that are per- manently bound. But this uncertainty as to a volume is as nothing compared with that which surrounds the word "circulation." If the librarian could only know that so many books were actually read so many times by some one this difficulty would disappear. But this knowledge is impossible. In a multitude of cases we can only know that books were taken from the library by certain borrowers and were returned after certain intervals showing some signs of use. The issue and the return show circulation. The word is cor- rectly chosen. But if six books are issued to one person in one day and four of them are returned the same day, should such circula- tion count six? If so counted how can this record be properly compared with that of an- other library where the rules forbid any bor- rower to have more than one book ? It is evi- dent that a definition of circulation must be based on uniform rules for lending. This car- ries the difficulty farther back, but does not diminish it. On the contrary the difficulty is greater. For any library must be governed by its conditions, being amenable only to the law of the highest usefulness, and we cannot impose rules upon any. Our only hope is to show to all libraries the great usefulness of an approximate uniformity of rule, and in many cases we shall fail. Here will come in a discussion of the "two book system" and of the system of many books if only one of them h fiction. Then the classifying of fiction must also be considered, and vacation lending and lending for study and many other conditions to meet which the rules must be and ought to be varied. If some books are lent for pay should they be counted in the circulation? If 50 books are sent to a school room for the term, shall the circulation be counted 50? Or shall the actual issues from the school room to individual readers be counted? Or shall the 50 books be multiplied by the number of scholars on the presumption that each one read all the books ? Or shall the 50 books be multiplied by the number of weeks ? Or shall all the books be actually given out once a week and the scholars required to take them hcme? Similar questions arise in regard to all the returns of travelling library work till the librarian who is statistically inclined is quite at sea. We are accustomed to express the value of a library in terms of circulation because it is convenient to use a single item that seems simple and easily ascertained. But we must not overlook the fundamental neces- sity of a fixed standard of measurement. The rules of lending must be clear and approxi- mately uniform if the returns are to have real value for comparison. And uniformity is still more essential if the amount of circulation Is to determine the revenue. In regard to such rules, however, the com- mittee wish to emphasize the duty of liberal treatment of borrowers. The library and the librarian exist for the service of the public, not for the sake of the rules ; and when any rule becomes more vexatious than ser- viceable it ought to be abolished. It seems to promote gcod order to confine each reader to one book at a time. The rule is necessary to fairly distribute those books for which there is an insistent demand. But when books are needed for study and are not in immediate re- quest the rule is unreasonable. Rules must be liberal and elastic enough to allow large room for judicious neglect of the letter. And if such variations sometimes break up the fair lines of our statistics, statistics must stand aside till the reader is served. Besides circulation there are other forms or library service which cannot be overlooked in reporting results. Reading and study in the library, all reference work and work with and for children should in some way be counted. At the same time work of this class is by no means of uniform value in all libra- ries. The hours, the rooms, the tables, the helps, the particular books accessible and, above all, the quality of aid rendered and the supervision are elements in this account. These values are not easily reported. Prob- ably they would have to be told item by item, and, possibly, a way might be found to trans- late them into terms of an equivalent circula- tion by some estimated percentage which would take account of the surrounding con- ditions in each case. 5. Every report blank should have a space for "additional information," in which changes may be noted and remarks of any kind added. In the year's history of a library there is always something which cannot be expressed in figures, and yet it may be quite as important as all the rest. If the librarian appreciates a particular experience and can tell it in a word he owes it to himself, to his library and to other libraries to do so. Profit by experience is the very essence of this whole report business, and we ought not to lose the part which may mean the most. A sentence or two in this direction from each library is enough for the summary in a state report, but it! the case of a library reporting to its own city it will always be a valuable service, both to that community and to others, and one which cannot well be spared, to include a considerable discussion of the library situa- tion, dwelling specially on new features of the growing work. This is necessary to make citizens acquainted with their own library and to secure their intelligent support. They have a good claim to know the whole story and to learn the prospect for the future. Figures are dry and demand interpretation. The li- brarian as a specialist is the only one who can interpret, and for this the annual report is his opportunity. 6. A uniform fiscal year would simplify sta- tistics, but it would be peculiarly difficult to secure it. By long habit i\\ the operations of given libraries have been adjusted to fixed dates. Probably a year ending Dec. 31 would Le convenient to the majority; but in some states where reports of libraries and schools are handled by the same board, the school year ending June 30 might naturally be pre- ferred. A change to one date is not impos- sible, but it must come as the result of a well considered and united determination. 7. A word to the young librarian. Report piomptly! The secret of easy reporting is to keep your material always up to date. Begin with the beginning of the year. Have day blanks ready and columns ruled. Record each day's work before the next begins. Then, if your work is faithful, reporting will be a pleasure, and if the libraries are prompt the state report will appear earlier and be more useful. When all has been said and after the ideal forms have been produced we shall have to confess the insufficiency of statistics to ex- press the real value of library work. There is always a personal co-efficient, and the qual- ity of the librarian cannot be noted in the tables. One man or woman who comprehends and loves the work will often do far better service, even with limited resources and a. small circulation, than another who does not comprehend, though the library is rich and the record large. We are trying to get at this rratter of personal efficiency by training, and the subject claims earnest attention. One of the state report blanks asks, Is the librarian tiained at a library school? Is the librarian sent by the library to the annual meetings of the A. L. A. and of the state association? These are significant questions, but there are persons whom no schools and no privileges of conference can make into librarians. The elusive personal quality is underneath every item in the table. The committee recommf.nd that the follow- ing vote be referred to the Council : Voted, That the Committee on Library Ad- ministration are instructed to report at the next annual meeting a schedule of library statistics to be recommended for use in mak- ing and collecting annual library reports, this schedule to include or be accompanied by rules for counting circulation and for estimat- ing other forms of library service. THE ESSENTIALS OF A LIBRARY REPORT. BY WILLIAM E. FOSTER, Librarian Providence Public Library. 'T'HERE are, in the main, four parties to whom a library report is made. The first is, very naturally, the local government, from whom, in most instances, the library's appro- priation is derived. The second is the general public, including the regular or habitual users of the library as well as those who are less habituated to it, and the donors who have made gifts to the library as well as persons who have not. The third comprises other li- braries, whether within the same community or not. Lastly, there should be added the board of trustees (or governing board of the library under whatever name), if, as is often the case, the report is not that of the presi- dent of the board, but some other officer, as treasurer or librarian. Officially such a re- port as this is made to the board, it is true, but, none the less, through it to the other parties specified above. In several states also, as Mr. Eastman has shown, the report must br made to the state. The subjects on which information is sought (and supplied by the report) may be grouped under these four heads: ist, the growth of the library; 26, the use of the library ; 3d, the methods of admin- istration; 4th, the finances. To these may be added two other items, as representing ideas to be kept in mind in preparing a library re- port, namely, "Interrelations" (as, for in- stance, the ratio between the number of vol- umes and the number of leaders), and "Com- mon bases'' (dependent on the uniformity with which the items of information are stated in the reports of different libraries). The pages which follow comprise a large number of the questions to be answered, un- der each of these heads. Information to be included in the report. (A) GROWTH. 1. How many volumes has the library at present? 2. How many pamphlets, etc. ? 3. How many have been added during the past year? 4. How many have been added in each class? S- How many volumes in each class are in the entire library? , 6. How many of the accessions have re- sulted from the binding of publications ? 7. How many from the binding of other periodicals? 8. How many from other sources (already bound) ? 9. How many of the accessions have been gifts? 10. How many have been purchases? n. How many have been transfers, by bind- ing? 12. Of the purchases, how much money was appropriated for any one group of books, as, for instance, works on art? 13. How many such groups have been thus designated, and how much has been appropriated in each? 14. How many volumes have been with- drawn, from wear and tear, and all other reasons during the past year? 15. How many under each heading? 16. Stating the total gain, as compared with the total loss, what is the net gain dur- ing the past year? 17. How many periodicals are regularly re- ceived, from all sources? 18. How many have been subscribed for? 19. How many have been given? 20. From whom (mentioned by name) have all gifts been received (books, pam- phlets, periodicals, etc.) ? How many different donors are included? 21. How many have been received and withdrawn by exchange? 22. What kinds of works are counted as pamphlets ? 23. How have the additions been distribu- uted among the different departments (e.g., the children's library) ? 24. How many among the different classes ? (B) USE. 1. How many volumes have been used during the year at the library building? 2. How many at deliveries, branches, etc. ? 3. How many have been taken home (stating the deliveries, branches, etc., separately) ? 4. How much of the reference use has been registered ? 5. What has been the largest daily circula- tion? 6. What the smallest? 7. What the average? 8. State the figures also in similar terms for the weeks and months. 9. How many pamphlets (defined as above) have been issued during the year? 10. How many days has the library been open for circulation? n. How many for reference? 12. Is the library open on Sundays? 13. Is it open on any holidays? 14. On which ones? 15. During what hours is the library open, on any days, or in any portions? 16. How many readers have been registered in all? 17. How many during the past year? 18. How many non-resident cards have been issued ? 19. Within what limits have non-resident cards been issued? 20. How often are readers re-registered? 21. Has the library any branches, sub- sta- tions, deliveries, etc.? 22. How many readers have been regis- tered at these? 23. How many volumes have been received through inter-library loans? 24. How many lent? 25. With what libraries have these relations been maintained? 26. How many volumes have been issued on one card? 27. How many volumes have been issued in each department (e.g., the children's library). 28. Is there any limit to the number of books per week issued to children? 29. How many volumes have been issued in each class? (C) METHODS OF ADMINISTRATION. i. Does the library occupy its own bujld- ing? 2. When was the library building first oc- cupied ? 3. Supply other items, in regard to cost, architect, style of architecture, etc. 4. Does the library belong to the "depart- mental" type of architecture ? 5. If not, what type does it represent? 6. Has the library open shelves, as a whole ? 7. Or in part? 8. Or not at all? 9. If in part, what classes are included? 10. Has the building separate departments (as a children's department), and if so, which ones? 11. How many volumes have been acces- sioned during the year? 12. HOW many have been entered in the card catalogue? 13. Is the typewriter used for catalog cards ? 14. How many have been cataloged in printed entries? 15. Have the Library of Congress printed cards been used? 16. Has the library any special collections? 17. How many periodicals have been bound ? 18. How many other works? 19. How many in each material? 20. Of how many persons does the library force consist? 21. How is it organized, or classified? 22. What are the minimum qualifications for entering these positions? 23. Are examinations held? 24. Are promotions made, and on what basis? 25. What is the scale of salaries? 26. Of how many persons does the library board ("trustees" or "directors") con- sist? 27. Is it chosen by the municipal govern- ment ? 28. If not, in what way? 29. Are the members chosen for specified terms, and if so, which names are as- signed to each term? 30. What is the organization of the board? (D) FINANCES. 1. What does the balance sheet for the year show, as between receipts and ex- penditures? 2. How much money has been received from the municipal appropriation ? 3. How much from other sources? 4. Are there any income-bearing funds, and if so, what are their conditions and amounts ? 5. How much money has been received from library fines? 6. Is an annual rent paid? 7. If the library has a separate building, what is the annual cost of maintenance ? 8. How much was paid for lights? 9. How much for heating and ventilation (separately). 10. How much for books? 11. How has the money been appropriated among the various classes of book- expenditure (either with income-bear- ing funds or without) ? 12. How much was paid for binding? 13. How many volumes have been bound within the library building by the li- brary binders? 14. How many within the library building, but by an outside firm? 15. How many outside the library building and charged for by an outside firm? 16. Is the annual binding contract awarded after receiving bids from binders? 17. How many volumes in all have been bound ? 18. What has been the average price paid per volume? 19. How many have been bound in each kind of leather or cloth, respectively? 20. How much has been paid for printing during the year, and for what pieces of work? 21. Have any catalogs been printed dur- ing the year, and of what nature? 22. At what cost have they been published? 23. At what price have single copies been sold? 24. How many copies have been sold? 25. Have any library bulletins been pub- lished during the year, and of what na- ture (annotated or not) ? 26. At what period have they been issued? 27. At what cost have they been published ? 28. At what price, if any, have single copies been sold? 29. How many copies have been sold? 30. How much has been paid during the year for miscellaneous supplies? 31. Is the annual contract for supplies awarded after receiving bids from deal- ers? 32. How much has been paid during the year for the salaries of library em- ployees ? 33. How much of this has been paid to the library force proper? 34. How much to the building (or jani- torial) force? 35. Is the amount charged for "care of grounds" included under this latter head, or separately? 36. Is there a specified scale for library sal- aries ? 37. Is this governed both by nature of oc- cupation and length of service? (E) RATIOS. a. General. 1. What is the ratio of the total number of volumes in the library to the popula- tion of the municipality? 2. Also of the total number of readers registered (on residents' cards) to the population of the municipality?* 3. Also of the number of volumes circu- lated, for home use, to the number of readers registered? 4. Also of the number of volumes circu- lated to the total number of volumes in the library? 5. Also of the number of volumes circu- lated to the number of volumes which can be circulated (i.e., excluding refer- ence books, etc. ) ? f b. Cost. 1. What is the ratio of the total cost of cataloging the books, in manuscript or by typewriter, to the number of volumes cataloged? 2. Also of the total cost of printing cata- logs to the price charged for a single copy? 3. Also of the total cost of binding to the number of volumes bound? 4. Also of the total cost of service to the number of volumes in the library? 5. Also of the total cost of service to the number of volumes circulated.** * Information as to the issue of non-residents' cards is necessary. t Information as to the number of volumes which can be issued at a time on one card, is necessary. Comparisons should also be made, based on the num- ber of days from which a book may be kept, also on the classes in which the books issued respectively belong, and also on the number of non-resident's cards. ** Information as to the number of persons on tlie force is necessary. FOSTER. 79 6. Also of the total cost of service to the aggregate expenditure ?* A library report is, in the nature of the case, a statistical report. It should, therefore, of course, comprise tables in which the various items of information are set forth in an or- derly manner. Should it contain anything beyond this ? In other words, should it com- prise text as well as tables ? Certainly if the report is to inform the general public (includ- ing past, present, and future donors, and also the helpers of the library, both by tongue and pen as well as by their cheerful support of it through taxation), it should not be without its pages of text. It is here that the methods of administration are unfolded, the policy of the library developed, effective pleas presented for supplying its needs, and whatever there is of significance in the inter-relation of facts concisely indicated. Moreover, this is the li- brary's natural and obvious chronicle, not merely for the items of routine work which necessarily appear in the tables of statistics, but for the special occurrences and unusual undertakings. In its pages will be found, as a matter of course, the official record of its building enterprises or of its acquisition of noteworthy departments or collections. It hardly needs to be stated that the text of a library report needs to be concise. It is nc place for prolix reflections nor for per- functory space writing. If all that there is to be said can be said in five lines, there is no reason why five lines should not be made to serve. More commonly, however, the pres- sure of an overwhelming mass of significant matters to be chronicled ensures a rigid parsi- mony of language. The need of accuracy is also obvious, and in the financial portion is sure to be impressed upon the mind of the treasurer. In the por- tion of the report presented by the librarian himself (if the library be of considerable size) the information, in regard both to the growth of the year and also to the use, will necessarily have come from other members of the library force. The librarian himself knows, for instance, of the workings of the children's department, but only in a "second- hand" or less intimate way, as compared with the custodian of that department, the chil- * Information as to the question of departmental libraries and of open shelves, is also necessary. dren's librarian. Not only should each head of a department present a report in writing to the librarian each year, but in the libra- rian's report these department reports should ba plainly and systematically cited as the basis of the statements made under the head of these departments respectively. No less necessity exists for avoiding hap-hazard methods, in these department reports, than in the report of the librarian himself, who might very properly supply these several members of the staff with definite outlines, in writing, of the points on which they should not omit to touch. At the same time these staff re- ports should embody the most unrestricted freedom in touching on other matters than these which are definitely specified. Their writers should be encouraged to make as strong a plea as possible for the pressing needs of their own departments. The same necessity for extreme condensation does not exist in these cases as in the printed report of the librarian ; and, while no one should be encouraged to be diffuse, each one should be encouraged to feel that he is to have all the space that he really needs. The accuracy of the report, moreover, is of so commanding importance that a close sys- tem of dove-tailing, so to speak, should be adopted, between the statements in the text, and the corresponding portion of the tables in the appendix. This can apparently be best provided for by references to these tables in the form of footnotes. Whether a report should be provided with an index, with a table of contents, or with il- lustrations, must be left to the judgment of the library which issues it. These are not essentials, but they are features which add greatly to the value of a library's report when used in libraries outside its own community. Deference to recognized bibliographical stand- ards should lead to providing each report with a title-page. Another essential is the definite statement of the period for which the report is made (giving the year, month and day) ; and still another is the supplying of the name or abbreviation of the state, after the city or town. In the library world there are several Springfields which are of interest, and also several Burlingtons to be discriminated from each other. It hardly needs to be added that the report, So NIAGARA CONFERENCE. as it leaves the hands of the librarian, should represent a carefully digested exposition of the subject, rather than a partial, or crude, or impulsive view of the matter. In the staff reports, coming from each of the heads of de- partments, respectively, the heavy emphasis is naturally laid (as it certainly ought to be laid) on the claims of that particular depart- ment. The librarian, however, must possess the Greek dramatist's "even-balanced soul," and must see his little library world "stead- ily" and "see it whole." To do this he must possess the insight to recognize the true significance of the inter- related facts, since there are few phenomena so uninstructive as unrelated facts. Also, while not distorting an apparent inference (which may indeed rest on a mathematical ratio) into an unwarranted generalization, he should let the principle or tendency have, at least, its due weight. Articles such as the instructive study of circulation statistics by Mr. Bostwick, in the Library Journal, have shown the librarian that while statistics are of undoubted value, there are whole sections of the field on which they fail to throw the needed light. The judicious librarian will recognize this fact and proceed accordingly. Lastly, library reports should not lack a common basis of uniformity. The facts pre- sented in one year's report of any given li- brary are frequently chiefly luminous in their comparative relation to similar facts in the previous year's report of the same library, the units or standards of comparison being the same in both instances. In the same way the facts presented in the report of one library are frequently luminous in their comparative relation to similar facts in the reports of other libraries; but too frequently the com- mon basis of uniformity, which alone can render such comparisons valuable, is lacking. I am aware that much can be urged, with a show of reason, against a too rigid uniformity. I desire to give full force to the consideration that it is the local municipality which supplies, in most instances, the funds for maintaining the library, and even for printing the report ; and it seems proper that a preference coming from this source should be influential. I am aware also that the dream of absolute uni- formity, in minutest details, is plainly un- realizable. Above all, I recognize to the full- est extent the fact that a library's methods should possess individuality and adaptation to Iccal conditions, and not slavishly copy the methods of some other community. On the other hand, the tendency to plan methods in common has made rapid and surprising pro- gress among libraries in the past few years. Again, the libraries which perhaps have least expected to do so have made repeated calls on other libraries for comparative details, which the adoption of a uniform basis would have given them without the expenditure of time, money and labor; and have later recip- rocated the service, in still more expenditure of time, rr'Oney and labor, through this scat- tering fire of inquiries. Lastly, the adoption of a uniform basis would not necessarily in- volve the abandonment of the forms and for- mulas already in use. At least one library prints its statistics each year, in its annual re- port, first in the terms of its own system and then in that of a common system. The attempt to collect comparative statis- tics results sometimes in failures to secure uniformity such as the following: FAILURE TO SECURE UNIFORMITY. A. General. 1. In regard to registering additions. (1) Entry embodying in some cases "Books" alone. (2) Entry embodying in some cases "Books and pamphlets." (3) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, pamphlets and reports." 2. In regard to registering use. (1) Entry embodying in some cases "Books" alone. (2) Entry embodying in some cases "Books and pamphlets." (3) Entry embodying in some cases "Books and reports." (4) Entry embodying in some cases J'Books and periodicals." (5) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, pamphlets and reports." (6) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, pamphlets and periodi- cals." B. Cost i. In regard to recording cost of books, etc. (1) Entry embodying in some cases "Books" alone. (2) Entry embodying in some cases "Books and pamphlets." (3) Entry embodying in some cases J'Books and reports." (4) Entry embodying in some cases "Books and periodicals." BOSTWICK. 81 (5) Entry embodying in some cases "Books and binding." (6) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, pamphlets and reports." (7) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, pamphlets and periodi- cals." (8) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, pamphlets and binding." (9) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, reports and periodicals." (10) Entry embodying in some cases "Books, reports and binding." 2. In regard to the cost of library building. (1) Entry embodying in some cases cost of "Building" alone. (2) Entry embodying in some cases cost of "Building and furnishings." (3) Entry embodying in some cases cost of "Building and land." (4) Entry embodying in some cases cost of "Building, furnishings and land." 3. In regard to the cost of maintenance, when in rented quarters. (1) Entry embodying in some cases "Rent" alone. (2) Entry embodying in some cases "Rent and light." (3) Entry embodying in some cases "Rent and heat." (4) Entry embodying in some cases "Rent, heat and ventilation." (5) Entry embodying in some cases "Rent, heat, ventilation and light" [Also a similar confusion when rent is not included.] 4. In regard to cost of service. (1) Entry embodying in some cases "Library service" alone. (2) Entry embodying in some cases "Library service and building ser- vice." (3) Entry embodying in some cases "Library service, building service and care of grounds." Two interesting attempts have been made to construct such a common system, or model, for library statistics. The first draft of one of these appeared in 1877, in the Library Journal, v. i, p. 429-31 (the later draft not having apparently been printed). The other attempt was printed in 1902, in Public Libra- ries, v. 7, p. 466-69. The field would seem to be open for further experiments in this same direction. WEAK POINTS IN LIBRARY STATISTICS. BY ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Chief Circulation Department, New York Public Library. O TATISTICS of library work are very much like statistics of any other kind of work. They are, or should be, collected for the same purposes and are subject to the same weaknesses. Statistics of this kind are numerical statements of results. The word "statistics," to be sure, is also used to denote the systematic study of such statements and the deduction of laws and rules of action therefrom. But, as has been recently re- marked by Mr. Teggart, xhc science of statis- tics is noticeable in library economy, chiefly by its persistent failure to appear, despite the well-meant efforts of a few choice spirits to foster its development. This lack of a science of library statistics is one of the weak points of which I am to speak but of this more anon. A decidedly weak point about the numerical statement of results is that many results are not susceptible of numerical statement. Some are so constituted by nature and others cannot be got at with sufficient accuracy. You can never express in figures, for instance, the in- crease of spiritual-mindedness in a community due to the reading of books. You cannot state in your statistical tables the ratio of pages read to pages unread in the year's home use of books. This latter is not because this is not expressible in figures, but because the data cannot be collected. Among these two classes of inexpressible and uncollectible re- sults are many of the most important that we have to offer. The unfortunate thing is that the tendency is to exaggerate the importance of figures and to assume that the whole of a library's work can be tabulated. There is no remedy for this, so far as I see, except the in- crease and diffusion of intelligence among li- brarians and others. Coming down to the things that can be ex- pressed numerically and tabulated, the first 82 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. weak point is that they are often mendacious o; misleading. This may be rather the fault of traditional inference from the statistics than of the statistics themselves. For in- stance, it is assumed that books withdrawn tor home use are read, which they often are not. Statistics of home use do not claim di- rectly to be statistics of home reading, but they are often incorrectly inferred to be such. Again, many tables of statistics are mis- leading because the reader is not told just what they mean. To be useful, a numerical table should be accompanied by a statement of just how the numbers were obtained. A statement of circulation by classes is of little value unless we know the system cf classification; figures representing the hall use of books tell us nothing unless we know what precautions were taken to insure a fair count and how that count was made; whether, for instance, the looking up of a word in a dictionary is counted or not. If exactitude is unattainable the inexact figures should not be placed side by side with approximately exact ones, leav- ing the reader to infer that they are of equal value. We cannot take the same June 'cir- culation over and over again. Our probable errors must be estimated, not calculated. But we all know that the different statis- tics that we give in our reports are of dif- ferent degrees of accuracy. Let us by no means throw away the least accurate, but let us give an idea of the relative accuracy by stating our estimate, for instance, that those in one table are correct to one per cent., while those in another may be 25 or 30 per cent, in error; and let us at the same time give suffi- cient of the facts in the case that the reader may determine whether or not our estimate is a reasonable one. That we do not do this, or something like it, surely constitutes a weak point. Some library statistics have no weak point because they are all weakness; they should not exist because they are of no use. Nu- merical statements of fact are useful in the first place in satisfying a legitimate curiosity they are to tell those who have a right to know about certain results, certain things re- garding those results. But above and beyond this is a use that has risen to great import- ance of late years, the study and comparison of numerical results to see how the methods of reaching those results may be improved, so that the results themselves may be bet- tered, and to ascertain, when methods have been altered to this end, whether the expected improvement has or has not taken place. This use of statistics is playing a large part in our industrial development. Our large commer- cial and manufacturing concerns often main- tain statistical departments employing large numbers of clerks; and the kind of statistics that shall be collected, as well as the meaning of those that have been collected, are the ob- ject of serious and earnest study, for the con- clusions that may be deduced may affect the policy of the company and gain or lose for it thousands of dollars. As has been said above, we are lamentably far from any such use of our statistics. But at all events we ought to recognize that some of our tables occasionally outlive their usefulness. We should ask our- selves in every case, What is the use of these figures? Who will use them? May they not as well be omitted? The tendency is to mul- tiply statistics unduly. It is well that new points should be covered, but the dead wood ought to be cleared out. Again, if we are ever to make intelligent use of our statistics we must be able to com- pare accurately the reports of different libra- ries. Our statistical reports are in the same chaotic state as were our systems of classifi- cation before the unification of the past twen- ty years. Oh, for some statistical Dewey or Cutter who shall recommend a system with such authority as to force its adoption on all the great libraries! Not that each report is not good in itself, but that one is not easily and directly comparable with another. It is in my opinion most urgently to be desired that this Association should by means of a proper committee indicate a definite homo- geneous scheme for the collection and tabula- tion- of statistics and recommend its general adoption. If this were done it would be the first step toward strengthening a good man> of the weak points in library statistics. PLUMMER. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY TRAINING. BY MAEY W. PLUMMER, SALOME C. FAIRCHILD, KATHARINE L. SHARP, ALICE B. KROEGER, MARY E. ROBBINS, E. H. ANDERSON. r "PHIS committee, while sensible that it might have been composed of persons less likely to be thought prejudiced, did not feel at liberty to decline the task assigned to it or to give less than its very best thought and effort to the work. It conceived its task to be, not the expression of the individual or collective opinions of its members on the sub- ject of library training, but a careful investi- gation of all discoverable sources and a clear presentation of the conditions thus brought to light, to the body by which it was appointed. That it should come to certain conclusions and that these should be stated and some recommendations made was to be expected. Farther than that it seemed undesirable for the present committee to go. The com- mittee has received a letter from a committee composed of members of five western state li- brary commissions, which it desires to ac- knowledge and which it will place, with all the other papers received, at the disposal of the Council, if so desired. The following sources of training were in- terrogated under various heads to be specified later, viz. : 1. The New York State Library School; the Library School of Pratt Institute ; that of Drexel Institute; that of Illinois University; the School of Library Science of the Colum- bian University at Washington; the Depart- ment of Library Science of Chicago Univer- sity; the Course in Library Economics of Syracuse University; the School for the Training of Children's Librarians, of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh; the Course in Library Science of Simmons College, Bos- ton. 2. The summer schools of library economy. 3. Apprentice classes conducted by libra- rians. 4. College courses in bibliography and the history of printing. 5. State normal school courses in library economy. 6. Correspondence courses. The method used for discovering these va- rious sources was as follows : 1st, by inquir- ing of the state library commission of each state; 2d, if there were no state commission, by inquiring of the secretary of the state li- brary association ; 3d, if there were neither of these bodies, by inquiring of the state library or the largest public library in the state. Individual members of the committee also suggested the names of places where train- ing of some sort was reported to be given, in addition to the information given by the com- mission or association. By this means inquiries were addressed to the nine schools mentioned as giving winter courses, to 10 summer schools or courses, to 33 libraries said to be conducting apprentice classes, to 15 colleges said to be giving courses in bibliography and the history of printing, to 12 state normal schools or state colleges giv- ing courses in library economy, library man- agement, or library methods, as it was va- riously called, and to four individuals said to be conducting correspondence courses. Sev- eral responses showed that work given in the past had been abandoned for one reason or another, and some that it was so unorganized as hardly to deserve the name of course or class. The committee has tabulated the re- plies to its questions and has brought the tab- ulation to this meeting, in order that it may be seen by those who wish to follow the in- vestigations closely and to compare one reply with another. A different set of questions was prepared for each type of school or class. These are as follows : Questions for library schools giving winter courses. i. What is the correct title of your school? z. What is the date of its foundation? 3. Have there been changes of title, and, if so, _when did these changes occur? 4. Give the list of the first faculty, showing changes that have occurred to date, and giving present faculty. 5. How many of your present faculty were them- selves trained m one of the four established schools ? 6. How many have had experience in other libra- ries than the one connected with the school? NIAGARA CONFERENCE. 7. What is your tuition fee? 8. What were your original requirements for ad- mission? What changes have occurred in these, and when? Are the present require- ments rigidly insisted upon? Please send specimen of the past year s examination ques- tions. 9. Have you an age-limit for students? If so, what is it? 10. What subjects were included in your original curriculum? What changes have been made, and when? 11. What opportunities have students for actual work in a library, during the course? In what kind of library and in what departments? 12. What is the total number of students entered? 13. What is the total number of students graduated? 14. Are your graduates recognized by letter, certifi- cate, diploma, or degree? 15. What is the length of the course required for your certificate? For the diploma? For the degree ? 1 6. Have you any special, elective courses, and, if so, how are these recognized? 17. What subjects are taught in these courses? 1 8. Is there any formal association _ of your gradu- ates, and, if so, under what title? 19. How many of your graduates now belong to this (or these) associations? 20. How many of your graduates are engaged at present in active library-work? Of those not so, how many have ceased by reason of mar- riage? Death? Engagement in other work? Questions to summer schools. 1. With what institution is the school officially con- nected ? 2. Is this a chartered institution? 3. How long is the course, and at what time of year is it usually given? 4. What is the tuition fee? 5. How many teachers on the staff? How many of them are school trained, and in whatTibrary schools? How many of them have had library experience and in what library? 6. What are your entrance requirements? Do you stipulate for High School graduation or its equivalent? If the school gives entrance ex- aminations, will you please send us a copy of the examination questions used last year? What is your passing mark? 7. Do you aim to accept only persons already en- gaged in library work? If so, do you adhere rigidly to this rule? Do you adhere rigidly to the rule requiring High School graduation or its equivalent? Is the number of students limited? 8. What subjects are covered by the instruction? Is it given in the form of lectures? How many hours' instruction are given to each sub- ject? What opportunities are given for prac- tical work, and in what library? 9. Do you give final examinations on each subject taught, or a gene_ral examination covering all? What is the passing mark in these? 10. Do you give a letter, certificate, or other creden- tials to students doing the work of the course satisfactorily and also passing the examina- tions? Do you call them or allow them to call themselves graduates? 11. Does the school try to obtain positions for its students? Questions to libraries having apprentice classes. 1. Was your apprentice class undertaken and is it continued with the sole object in view of filling vacancies in the staff of your own li- brary ? 2. What is the tuition fee, if any? 3. How many apprentices do you take for one course? What is the length of the course? 4. What are your entrance requirements for the apprenticeship? If you give an entrance ex- amination, will you please send us a set of the examination questions last year? What is the passing mark? 5. What subjects are covered by the instruction, and how much time is given to instruction in each subject? Is the instruction purely in methods, and in the methods of your own li- brary? 6. Do you give final examinations on all subjects taught? What is the passing mark? 7. Are the apprentices taught by one member of the staff only, or by various members? Are these teachers school-trained? If so, in what library school? 8. What proportion do you find able to do the work of the course satisfactorily? 9. Are you able to engage as assistants all the ap- prentices who do satisfactory class-work? If not, what proportion do you engage? 10. Do you give a letter, certificate, or other creden- tials to the satisfactory apprentices at the end of the apprenticeship term? If a letter, is it a general letter such as would help them to obtain positions in other libraries? 11. What is the average interval between the end of the apprenticeship and the engagement as paid assistant of the satisfactory apprentice? 12. Are these apprentices, once engaged as assistants, promoted by competitive examinations? If not, by what test? Questions to colleges and state normal schools giving courses in bibliography or the history of printing. 1. Is there a course in bibliography or the history of printing given at college? 2. Is it given by the librarian or by one of the professors ? 3. Is it given with a view to fitting those who take it for librarianship ? Or is it given in connec- tion- with some other branch or branches of study, and as a general culture course? 4. How many hours are spent in instruction? 5. How much and what kind of work is required of the student? 6. Is it wholly an elective study? If not, in what courses and what years is it required? 7. Do the instructor and the librarian (if he is not himself the instructor) co-operate in the laying out of the course and supervision and revision of the work? 8. What proportion of the colkge students eligible for this course undertake it? 9. Do these courses count toward a degree? 10. What testimony can you give as to the practical value of such a course? Questions to state normal schools giving courses in library economy. 1. What is the name of your school? 2. What is the name of the library course and when was it established? 3. What is the object of the course? And is it required of all students? 4. What is the length of the course? How many hours per week are given to formal instruc- tion? What is the fee? 5. How many students are admitted at a time? Is the course limited to the normal students? 6. What is the method of instruction? And what subjects are covered? 7. Do the students have practical work in the school library, and how much of it? In any other library? 8. How many instructors have you for the course? How many are library-school trained? How many have had experience in other libraries? 9. Do you give a final test at the end of the course, and what does this consist of? 10. Do the students receive special credentials for this course, or is it covered by their normal school diploma or certificate? Questions to libraries or librarians giving correspon- dence courses. 1. Is there any educational or other test imposed on the person applying for a correspondence course ? 2. Do you limit the giving of the course to per- sons already engaged in library work? 3. Is the person (or persons) who conduct the PLUMMER. course a school-trained librarian or library as- sistant? In what library school? 4. What is the tuition fee? Does this go to the library or to the person giving the course? 5. How is the course conducted? Does the student ask questions and the instructor give the an- swer, or vice- versa? 6. Do instructor and pupil have access to the same books? And does the instructor revise the work of classifying and cataloging from the same edition as that used by the pupil? Does the instructor assign the books to be classified and cataloged, or does the. pupil select what he or she rinds easily accessible? 7. If the books to be classified and cataloged are selected by the instructor and are in the hands of both instructor and pupil, how is this re- sult secured? By the use of travelling libra- ries? By dependence on the local library in the pupil's city, town or village? 8. Do you require a final examination? And what safeguards do you put around this, since it has to be conducted at a distance? What is the passing mark? 9. Do you give any letter, certificate, or other cre- dentials to the person completing the course satisfactorily? The questions resolve themselves into five categories : i st. Those regarding the official position of the school or course and its object. ad. Entrance requirements. 3d. Nature and methods of instruction. 4th. Final tests and credentials. 5th. The supplying of positions to students and of assistants to libraries. The summer schools reporting are those of the Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin State Library Commissions, the New York State Summer Library School, and that of the Chautauqua Institution, California Uni- versity, and the State University of Missouri at Columbia, and the Summer Library School at Amherst, Mass. The twerty-three libraries answering as to apprentice classes out of the thirty-three in- terrogated are as follows: California, Los Angeles Public Library; Colorado, Fort Col- lins, State Agricultural College; Connecticut, New Haven, Young Men's Institute ; Georgia, Atlanta, Carnegie Library ; Illinois, Oak Park, Scoville Institute Library; Iowa, Cedar Rapids, Public Library; Maine, Augusta, State Library; Massachusetts, Brookline, Public Library; also Northampton, Forbes Library; Medford, Public Library, and Springfield, Public Library; Missouri, Kan- sas City, Public Library; Montana, Butte, Public Library ; Minnesota, Owatonna, Public Library; New York, Brooklyn, Public Li- brary; also Mt. Vernon, Public Library; New York City, Public Library; Ohio, Dayton, Public Library; Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Carnegie Library; Rhode Island, Providence, Public Library; Tennessee, Nashville, Carne- gie Library; Wisconsin, Madison, Public Li- brary; also, Marinette, Public Library. Of the 10 libraries not included in this list several had never had apprentice classes and others had had them and dropped them with nc thought of trying them again. It will be observed that almost all of these are public libraries, or, at least, circulating libraries. Without doubt many college libraries have apprentices without having apprentice classes, but it seemed impossible to get at the facts in such a wide field of unsystematic practice, and no inquiry was made of them therefore unless information was volunteered by some one. The colleges reported as giving courses in bibliography or the history of printing (and in one case a course called "Books and libra- ries") are as follows: Michigan University, Leland Stanford University, Missouri Uni- versity at Columbia, Nebraska University, Oberlin College, Brown University, Univer- sity of Wisconsin, Colby College, Waterville, Maine; Cornell University, Yale University, and Wellesley College. One or two others were mentioned, but proved to have nothing worth reporting. The committee has recently learned that there is also a course at the Western Reserve College, Ohio. The state universities and normal schools reported as giving courses in library economy are as follows: Illinois State University, Illi- nois State Normal Schools at Carbondale, at DeKalb, at Normal, at Quincy; Kansas State Normal School at Emporia; Wisconsin State Normal Schools at Milwaukee, Oshkosh, Platteville, Stevens Point, West Superior, and Whitewater. It will be noticed that most of this work is reported by two western states. This does not mean that there may not be similar work going on in other states, but that the library commissions and associations of those states did not report anything of the kind to the committee. It should be borne in mind that this com- mittee is obliged to take its report from the formal returns to its questions, and that these questions are answered only by the school or library which is being interrogated. The im- possibility of visiting in person all these 86 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. sources of training and carrying on any sort of investigation must be manifest to all. The questions, however, were designed to discover, ist, the official connection of the school or course with some authoritative institution; 2d, its standards for entrance upon the work ; 3d, the content of its instruction, the time spent upon it, and the methods used; 4th, the tests applied to discover the student's fitness before sending him or her into the field, with or without credentials. As to the quality of the instruction, it is evident that the com- mittee cannot speak in all cases. Some per- sons who have complained of the unsatisfac- tory quality in some places have been either unwilling or unable to give more than hearsay evidence, which a committee desiring to be fair cannot consider. The replies to questions of this scope, if truthfuly given, should at least show whether all these sources of training are reaching a certain standard and feeling a certain respon- sibility to the student and to the calling of li- brarianship. And the committee has found considerable to criticise in this direction sim- ply by an examination and comparison of these replies. It is true that the established schools (i.e., the schools which have always reported to the American Library Associa- tion) began in a more or less informal way, gradually evolving a system and standards; but their experience is now, and has been for years, at the service of the newer schools, which ought to profit, it seems, by their mis- takes and experiments. FACULTY. None of the nine winter schools or depart- ments of library science reports a faculty of fewer than four persons except Simmons Col- lege, whose course at present is but tentative, with two instructors, and Chicago University, where the instruction, except the correspond- ence work, is given by one person. In all but three of these schools Chicago University, Syracuse University, and the Co- lumbian University the majority of the fac- ulty have been themselves trained in one or another of the established schools. The sig- nificance of this lies in tha indication of three things : the continuity of the instruction of the established schools, the use of accumulated teaching experience, the fact that the estab- lished schools have doubtless recommended those who have gone out to make use of this experience and that therefore the quality of the instruction should be satisfactory. In the case of Syracuse University, two of the in- structors were trained in the course in which they are now teaching; at the Columbian Uni- versity one of the four instructors is a one- year student of the New York State Library School, and in the case of Chicago University the one instructor is not school-trained. The school training, in exceptional cases, may be dispensed with in an instructor if he or she has had unusual opportunities for li- brary experience and has become known as an authority. In the case of Syracuse Univer- sity, there is no one on the staff of instructors v/ho has had experience in any other than that library. In all the other schools the fac- ulty included a number of persons experi- enced in other libraries. ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS. The requirements for entrance vary from the college degree implying certain courses of study, and the competitive examination, to the acceptance of a blank filled out by a high school principal, this last by Syracuse Univer- sity, or the requirement of "good intelligence," tc use the words of the Columbian University Library School. The New York State Library School ac- cepts only the college degree; Illinois Uni- versity from now on will require three years of college in place of two ; Chicago Univer- sity accepts two years of college within the last two years (instead of ability to enter the Freshman class as formerly), or the equiva- lent in credits; the Carnegie Training School for Children's Librarians takes the college diploma in lieu of an examination, examining only those without the diploma; Pratt Insti- tute and Drexel Institute Library Schools ex- amine in all cases ; Syracuse University ac- cepts the high school diploma or a blank filled out by a high school principal, and the Colum- bian University requires "good intelligence" without stating how this is to be tested. Five schools only mention an age limit, New York State giving 20 as the earlier limit, Pratt Institute and Drexel 20 to 35 years, with occasional exceptions beyond 35 ; the Carnegie Training School 20 to 30, Chicago University 24; but so far the committee has been unable to learn if this last is the earlier or later limit. The committee does not recommend uni- formity in the entrance requirements of the different schools, believing that the purposes of library training are really better served by a certain variety in these ; but it does feel that where less than three years of satisfactory college training is required for entrance there should be a very comprehensive entrance ex- amination ; and from this point of view it finds that Chicago University, the Columbian University, and the University of Syracuse have fallen short of the standard. The ob- jection to accepting two years in lieu of an entrance examination lies in the fact that most colleges give required work in the freshman and sophomore year, and that the opportunity to elect freely those studies which especially fit for librarianship is not generally given un- til the junior year. For this reason Illinois University announces a change to three years for the coming year. CURRICULUM. The question of curriculum has brought the committee to a very definite opinion that a general revision of the scheme of nomencla- ture of subjects taught should be made by the various school faculties in consultation. When one finds anywhere from 30 to 40 subjects enumerated, it seems as if there should be seme grouping of these, so that the mention of a few comprehensive subjects would neces- sarily imply the rest. Whenever a school in- troduces two or three new lectures on a spe- cific topic, that topic is likely to be set down as a separate part of its curriculum. Library administration, which is given as a separate subject, really includes all the rest in a way; but in one school it covers only certain gen- eral lectures on the relation- of the librarian to his trustees, to his staff, and to the public ; in another it is used to mean the discussion of statistics, supplies, and those matters which do not seem to come under any other head ; and in another it covers buildings and furniture, heating and ventilating and insur- ance, library legislation, etc. One department of library science gives reference work, bibliography, the history of libraries, as its specific subjects of instruc- tion, and includes everything else under the heads "Technical methods" and "Library ad- ministration," without mentioning what sub- jects come under these. Another school re- ports 40 subjects. Surely between these there must be a happy medium. Other terms which need defining are Library economy, Book arts, Bibliography, Practice work, Library exten- sion, Reading-room work. This confusion of terms is not insignificant. It indicates con- fusion of ideas on these subjects, and is bound to lead, as it does lead, to confusion in library reports, and in the arrangement and distribution of the work of libraries. A care- fully considered, systematic classification of the subjects of instruction will tend not only to greater uniformity of library practice but to greater clarity of ideas among librarians. TUITION. Tuition fees range all the way from $10 to $20 per year (in the case of certain universi- ties) to $100 and $150 per year. In two of the four established schools which give sec- ond-year work the tuition is less for the sec- ond year, partly as an inducement to students to continue and partly because the instruction of that year, addressed to smaller classes and to students more or less experienced and sea- soned to study, is less arduous and the paper work less. The New York State Library School, the Library School of Illinois Univer- sity, Columbian University, Chicago Univer- sity, Syracuse University are the schools re- quiring two years for graduation. The Car- negie Training School for Children's Libra- rians gives a diploma for two years and a certificate for one year. Pratt Institute gives a second independent year of advanced work, and this, if institute entrance examinations for normal students are passed, entitles stu- dents to a diploma. Without these both the first and second year are recognized by cer- tificates. Drexel Institute gives a one-year course and a certificate. PRACTICE. The question in regard to the opportunities afforded students for practical work developed the following conditions : Those of the New York State Library School have practical work as follows: juniors, 50 hours cataloging, 10 hours classification, 10 hours shelf-listing, 20 hours on home education work (i.e., travelling libraries, pictures and study clubs) ; total 90 hours; seniors, 100 hours cataloging, 100 hours reference work; total 200 hours. Work in ether departments of the library is optional. There is no practice reported in any other kind of library. Illinois University reports: juniors, i hour daily for 7 months and 3 hours daily for 2 months, or about 260 hours in all; seniors, 2 hours daily for nine months, or about 330 hcurs. The practice is obtained in the uni- versity library and in the Public Library of Champaign, where students have charge of the children's room from 3 to 5 every after- noon, and in a branch of the Public Library where they are also in charge from 3 to 5 p.m. School work, home libraries and three travel- ling libraries supply a part of the practice. Pratt Institute has given hitherto 12 hours weekly in the circulating department of the library during the second term, and 27 hours weekly in all departments during the 12 weeks of the third term, making 468 hours in all. During the second year a minimum of 132 hours of practical work is required, a part of which will be had by putting students in charge of the various departments at stated times. The coming year the experi- ment will be tried of introducing two solid weeks (of 42 hours each) of practice at the beginning of the first term and continuous practice of a few hours per week during the entire term. This will make at least 552 hours during the school year. The practice of the third term covers the Circulating, Refer- ence, Art-reference, Cataloging, Children's and Periodical departments. There is also experience (optional) in home library work. Those students who wish have practice also in the branches of the Brooklyn Public Li- brary. Drexel reports practical work as following the lectures on each subject in all depart - rrents, continued regularly through the year ir its own library. The time varies from 3 hours weekly during the first term to 9 or 10 during the second term. Drexel has two terms of five months each. It would seem as if these statements should dispose once and forever of the often-repeated charge that the established schools give only theory and instruction and no practical work. Chicago University reports two years ap- prentice work in the university library. Sim- mons College reports that the college library will be in charge of the library school, and that apprentice work has been done and will continue to be done in other libraries. The Columbian University, an evening school, whose course is given from 5 to 9 p.m., re- ports that opportunities for cataloging are furnished by the university library. Syracuse University reports six hours weekly for ju- niors and 25 hours weekly for seniors, in the university and the public library. The Carnegie Library School for Chil- dren's Librarians gives one-half the time dur- ing the school year to practice, including work in branches, deposit stations, home libraries, reading clubs, and school work. CREDENTIALS. New York State Library School gives a certificate for the first year, a diploma or a de- gree for two years' work. Now that only col- lege graduates are admitted, degrees will be given to all completing the course. Pratt Institute gives a certificate for the first year and one for the second year course, but students doing two years' work can have the institute diploma by taking the institute normal examinations. Drexel Institute gives a certificate. Illinois State University gives the degree of B.L.S. for two years' university work and two years' L.S. work. In 1904 B.A. in Library Science will be given for three years' univer- sity work in the College of Liberal Arts or in the College of Science with the first year in the Library School, and B.L.S. for the same with two years in Library School. The Carnegie Training School gives a diploma for two years' work, a certificate for one year, and a special certificate for a special one-year course, given only to those with li- brary experience. Simmons College gives a certificate show- ing the ground covered, and will give diplo- mas for the four years college work with the library course. Chicago University, Columbian University, and Syracuse University give a certificate. ELECTIVES. Inquiry as to elective studies or courses brought out the following: New York State Library School allows ex- tra work to be elected in any one of the sub- jects taught, reference work, classification and book selection being the subjects generally elected. The work is recognized only informally in making recommendations. Pratt Institute's entire second year may be called an elective, as the first year is inde- pendent of it. It covers the cataloging of early printed books, a course in Latin palaeo- graphy, Italian for technical purposes, the history of books and printing, of binders and binding, with process lectures, children's literature, history of learning, subject bibliog- raphy, practice in advanced cataloging and ad- vanced reference work, and lectures on ad- ministration. It is recognized by a certificate, or a diploma if the institute normal examina- tions are taken. Drexel Institute reports no electives. Illinois University reports for the future a choice between public documents and book making in the second semester for library stu- dents, and between advanced reference work, public documents and book making for gen- eral students. The last three are also to be electives in the first semester, in addition to elementary reference, book selection, history of libraries, seminar work and bibliography for general students. The Carnegie Training School reports no electives except the special course already re- ferred to in work for children. Simmons College reports none as yet. Chicago University reports none. Columbian University students may elect attendance on lectures or instruction in cata- loging, but this does not entitle them to a cer- tificate. Syracuse University reports none. GRADUATE ASSOCIATIONS. The following schools report associations of graduates : New York State Library School, an Alumni Association, membership 192; Pratt Institute, a Graduates' Association, membership 169; Drexel Institute, a Gradu- ates' Association, numbering 81 ; Illinois University, the Illinois State Library School Association, numbering 76 ; University of Chi- cago, a Library Students' Gub, membership 87- To the question, What becomes of library school graduates? the following tabulation may serve as a reply: E >2 a o a o "S >t 6 i d a i 3 o II o o rt ** H Cl A v Z 5 9 u 5 M O " S Q So N.Y.S.L.S. 39i 78 192 37 18 69 Pratt 28 6 1 80 28 aa Drexel 203 HS 77 10 3 5 JO 28 Illinois 263 90 103 i? 6 (19 Irom Armour Carnegie. . . 3i Instit'te) 15 5 Simmons College 28 Chicago University. Some en- tered for i course, 93 (38 since new en- Cannot keep track of 19 3 4 some trance them for 2 require- ments in 1900) Columbian University. 92 41 75 (45 who took partial courses Syracuse only) University . 61 25 M 3 X 6 *i3S8 t72I tfiss "4 3 151 * Chicago University gives no figures, t Simmons and the Carnegie have not yet graduated any one. The committee believes that it has gath- ered the most significant points from the re- plies of these schools. It would call attention to what seem to it certain failures to reach a desirable standard: In entrance requirements: Chicago University. Two college years only (or equivalent credits), without ex- amination. Columbian University. "Good intelli- gence" required, no ttst of this. Syracuse University. High school diplo- ma or blank filled out by high school principal, without examination. In curriculum: Chicago and Columbian Universities. In allowing a part of the course to be taken. This is likely, later, if the student is in want of a library position, to lead to mis- representation on his part or to misunder- standing on the part of those who employ him, so that it seems very '.inadvisable. All seem to need a general comparison and revision of curricula with a view to classifica- tion and uniformity. Limitations of instruction: Chicago University. One instructor, with- out library school training. Syracuse University. Instructors without library school training or experience in any other library. It is natural that the committee should em- phasize the value of library school training for those who teach in library schools. The case is parallel with that of the colleges which require their professors and instructors to be college-bred, and, as every one recognizes, with good reason. As said before, the con- tinuity of instruction, the use of an accumula- tion of teaching experience, can be had only when the teachers have been school-taught, and the knowledge of comparative methods comes only from the school training or from long and varied experience. CHANGES FOR 1903-4. The changes reported as intended for the coming year may be summed up as follows: New York State Library School. Begin- ning with class of 1905, degrees will be granted for all completing the full course. Pratt Institute. Introduction of practical work two weeks before formal opening of school, with continuous practice thereafter throughout the year. Introduction into sec- ond-year course of the following subjects: History of learning, literature for children, advanced reference-work, administration, and subj ect-bibliography. Illinois University. Three years university work instead of two, required. Simmons College. The course becomes a full Department of Library Science with an acting director. It will also give an ad- vanced course for those who bring college diplomas and give their whole time to techni- cal work. A history of the first four of the schools represented on the committee, in not more than 500 words, has been furnished by them, to be printed as an appendix to this report. These with the tabulations should give all needful information as to the rise and growth of framing in library science in this country. SUMMER SCHOOL:;. An encouraging tendency is noted among the summer library schools, if we may judge from the ten reporting to the committee; and just here the committee wishes to express its thanks to all those schools and libraries which responded so promptly and fully to the ques- tions sent, and this would include nearly aU who were addressed. As several questions were sometimes asked under one head, it is not surprising that one was occasionally left unanswered through in- advertence. As a rule, those unanswered were the least important questions having slight bearing on the general result. The summer schools, through the necessity of lim- iting the number of admissions and the fact that there i^ more demand than formerly from librarians and assistants actually in the ser- vice for instruction, have seen the wisdom of preferring these to inexperienced persons who for one reason or another wish to enter the field after a short course of training. Two schools only report no restriction on this point and no limit to students that of the Min- nesota State Library Commission and that of Amherst, Massachusetts. At least, the only limit at the latter school comes from lack of class room : as it is, 50 are admitted. The answers to the questions addressed to libraries having apprentice classes brought out the fact that young persons were taken into certain libraries as apprentices, with the knowledge and approval of the commission and with a view to preparing them for the summer schools, and were then entered at the school as actually engaged in library work. There can be no objection to picking out ap- parently suitable candidates beforehand (in- stead of letting them pick themselves out) and most of the winter schools would be glad to adopt this method, if possible and then training them by practice and instruction ; but reporting them as actually engaged in library work certainly gives a wrong impression. And while the librarian or assistant who has secured a position without any help from the commission and who then wishes to better her knowledge of the work, should not be fright- ened away by an entrance examination, these candidates whom the commission itself has PLUMMER. chosen should certainly be tested in some way as to their educational qualifications. One of the libraries giving the practical training states that it will give a preliminary examina- tion next year. The best of the summer schools state that this rule of actual service as a qualification for entrance has not been strictly adhered to in the past, but that exceptions have been rare and will be rarer still. All the schools claim to require a high school course or its equivalent, but none give examinations. It seems to the committee that the summer schools should receive only those holding paid positions or under definite appointment to them. It is aware, however, that there are oc- casionally exceptional circumstances which warrant the waiving of this rule, and in those cases it feels that a comprehensive entrance examination should at least be given before admission. The Minnesota State Library Commission, which admits inexperienced persons and an unlimited number to its six weeks' course, without an entrance examination, also allows persons to take a part of the course only, which seems to the committee another error in judgment. This school has now two in- structors trained by experience, and will add a school-trained instructor this year. The Amherst school has but one instructor to the 50 students. Two or three of the schools fail to report as to the opportunity for practical work. Where a school admits only experienced li- brarians and assistants, the necessity for some kinds of practical work may not be so great, but students who come in without experience should have as much as possible. At Am- herst, "12 hours practice per week, chiefly cataloging" is reported. The Minnesota and Amherst schools seem to be the only ones which do not give their students an examination or other test before sending them out. The school at the Uni- versity of Missouri, Columbia, Mo., does not answer this question. All the schools, except that of the Iowa State Library Commission, give a certificate, including the Minnesota and Amherst schools. The University of Mis- souri fails to reply on this point also. All except Minnesota report that they make no attempt to secure positions for their stu- dents, and several, which admit only libra- rians and assistants who have positions, say that they are under no necessity to do so. As to the use of the term "graduate," Am- herst replies that it is allowed in a "merely colloquial way," and the Indiana commission and University of Missouri, do not reply, probably through inadvertence. The majori- ty of the schools state that special effort is made to have students understand that they are not fully trained and should embrace as far as possible, every opportunity of further training. The general course which is given in Wis- consin, Iowa, Minnesota and at Chautauqua, is now supplemented in the case of all but Minnesota by a special course taking up one or two subjects only, such as cataloging, and giving them every two years. The New York State Library School does this every year, leaving Chautauqua free to give the general course. This seems to the committee to work in the interests of thoroughness. California University states that the course will not be given again, as "six weeks is too short a time for crude material and there is not demand enough from library assistants." The committee would sum up by calling at- tention to failure on the part of some schools to reach such a standard as has been reached by the majority of the summer schools, and it calls attention again to the fact that it is from the answer of the schools themselves that the facts are drawn : In entrance requirements. 1. All the schools in not examining those candi- dates who are not actually librarians or paid assistants, or under definite appointment. 2. Amherst and Minnesota Summer Schools in ad- mitting entirely inexperienced persons and without limit as to number. In curriculum and in instruction. 1. Amherst, as offering too little practical instruc- tion for inexperienced students and in too few lines: and as attempting the work of preparation, instruction, and revision, with only one instructor and 50 students. 2. The majority of the summer schools in pro- viding practice only in college and university libraries, whereas the students come from and go back to small circulating libraries, as a rule. Madison and Chautauqua are exceptions to this. Three schools did not state where the practical work was given. On the other hand, there is some compensation to the stu- dent in the opportunity of working in a large collection of books and seeing work done in a large and scholarly way. In credentials. Amherst and Minnesota, in giving credentials NIAGARA CONFERENCE. where there has been no experience, no en- trance examination, and no final test. There may be reasons in the case of one of the state schools why it cannot do as its teach- ing force would like to do. There may be a higher authority which constrains it to a cer- tain course of procedure; but there was no statement to this effect. In justice to itself, the school should make this known if it is a fact. In none of these cases does the committee profess to take into account the personality or inspiring power of the instructors which in rare cases may compensate to some extent for other deficiencies. APPRENTICE CLASSES. The apprentice class may be one of two kinds. The first is formed with the sole ob- ject of providing an eligible list or a substi- tute list, the persons on which will sooner or later receive appointments in the library that trains them. The second is formed in those libraries which need more help than they have or can pay for, and which give experience (sometimes instruction) to pay for the work of the apprentice, who cannot hope to be taken on the staff in the majority of cases. In consequence, when the apprentice has served and been instructed a certain length of time, she must give way to a new one and seek elsewhere for a paying position, forti- fied by her experience. The former type does not, as a rule, come within the province of this committee. The statistics of these are, however, generally encouraging and show an advance in the standard set by libraries for their own staffs. Paid apprenticeship also, such as employed by the Buffalo Public Li- brary, did not come within the scope of the committee's investigations. Of 33 libraries addressed, 23 responded that they had classes and answered the questions. In the first class, the average period of apprenticeship seems to be six months, though it ranges from six weeks, in one case, to two years of ten months each in another. The number taken varies from two in the majority of cases to 15 or (indefinitely) "the number who pass the re- quired examination." Five of the libraries re- plying give an examination to test the appli- cant, and three report an age-limit from 18 to 30 and 18 to 40 years of age. All seem to take into consideration the health, personali- ty, and apparent fitness of the candidate, and two make a wise provision for dropping the apprentice if, after a month's trial, she is un- satisfactory. These libraries with one ex- ception state that regular instruction is given the apprentice in all departments of the li- brary's work. The exception reports differ- ent instruction to different apprentices, one taking reference work and classification, the other cataloging and filing cards. Practice in the library, from four to seven hours daily, is reported. Three give -a final test, and one requires those who aspire to the headship of a department to present a thesis and a written report. Seven have among the teaching members of the staff graduates or students of the various established schools, thus getting the advan- tage of a knowledge of different methods and points of view. In the smaller libraries, the instructor is usually the librarian alone for a class of two or three. In the case of one large library, however, a single instructor, with the help of branch librarians for the practical work, does all the teaching of a class of 15, but this is her sole work. All these report that the satisfactory ap- prentice ; .s taken on the staff sooner or later, the intervals varying from immediate engage- ment to six years, as discouragingly reported by one library. The average interval would seem to fall within a year. The question that concerns librarians gen- erally is this: What becomes of the appren- tices who have failed to satisfy or who cannot afford to wait so long for positions? One library answers with no uncertain sound, "If satisfactory, the library takes them eventual- ly. If not, it does not help them to get in any- where else." This is the conscientious stand to take, and it is also the kindest thing to do. if people are found to have embarked upon the wrong career, to help them get out of it, not to push them farther in. Only two of the libraries report that they give a general letter of recommendation to those whom they cannot take themselves, and one which ab- sorbs all its apprentices after a very sys- tematic course, confers a diploma as recogni- tion of the work. PLUMMER. 93 Only two of these libraries reported exami- nations for promotion. In one of these 50 per cent, is allowed for the examination and 50 per cent, for efficiency and general fitness, and any one on the eligible list can be promoted. In the other, nominations must be made by the librarian, these based on general efficiency, in order that an assistant may take the examina- tion. In the small staff, where the librarian is brought into daily contact with his assist- ants and can estimate their intellectual ca- pacity and educational equipment, such formal methods of promotion may not be necessary; but in the large library, with branches, where many of the assistants must be mere names to the librarian, such a test of an assistant's ability and desire to improve seems highly desirable. It is valuable, too, as breaking down the tradition that length of tenure alone is in itself a qualification for promotion; and every librarian knows how that old ghost arises to torment him occasionally. The librarian of the small town, which is thoroughly Americanized, intelligent, and re- spectable, can know personally the candidates for apprenticeship and feel comparatively safe as to the kind of person, socially speaking, who is likely to present for library work. He does not need such rigid bars as the librarian of the city library, with the constant pressure for "places" of crude persons of all nation- alities, coming from homes of no refinement, and armed with nothing but a high school diploma as with a weapon. The high school education given to a naturally intelligent per- son, of whatever nationality, is sufficient preparation, perhaps, so far as informational equipment is concerned, but it cannot make a gentlewoman, and it is gentlewomen that our large city libraries want. Hence the need of more and more careful sifting in the case of successive promotions. The general impression produced by the re- plies from these libraries is that they are growing increasingly conscious of the neces- sity of care in providing themselves and, pos- sibly, other libraries with assistants. The chief defect of the apprenticeship system, in preparing students for other libraries, lies in the fact that they have had no comparative study. If the Decimal or Expansive classifica- tion is not used in the library giving the work. the apprentice is not likely to know of them. If the library has a fixed location, she knows nothing of the relative. If it uses only a classed catalog, she goes out without know- ing how to \vork with a dictionary catalog, etc. So much for the libraries conducting classes with the object of filling vacancies on their own staffs or providing substitute lists. Now for the libraries, usually small ones, which train apprentices, primarily to get their own work done for nothing and incident- ally to provide other libraries with assistants. Nine of the libraries having apprentice classes belong to this class. Here, as in most debatable cases, everything "depends." With proper safeguards this may be the best thing that can be done at a particular time and place. Without these safeguards it is in- jurious to librarianship and cannot be encour- aged by thoughtful persons. Two of these libraries report that in addition to preparing apprentices for positions in the ' library that trains them they accept as apprentices persons who are under appointment to positions and wish to be fitted for them. This is unobjec- tionable if two conditions are observed : first, that the library itself had nothing to do with securing the appointment, and second, that the candidate is utterly unable, for want of time or money, to take a more thorough training. Two others report that in addition to those who are to fill vacancies they take persons recommended to them by the state commis- sion and fit them for the summer school. These libraries give letters of general recom- mendation. Four libraries state that they give appren- tices, after a certain period of unpaid work, a letter of general recommendation to other libraries. One states that the letter is not needed, as the apprentices take positions im- mediately, though none are engaged by the library that trains them. Another states that in future the library will train only actual li- brarians or persons under appointment. The length of the course in these four libra- ries varies from eight or nine months to two years, the number of apprentices from one to five or six. One of the four does not mention the nv.mber of apprentice?, but says the length 94 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. of the course varies with the time the appren- tice has to give. Only one of the four gives an entrance examination, but it specifies no passing mark. Two report that the work is chiefly or en- tirely practical. Two give no final tests be- fore letting apprentices go out. One librarian says that if they are not qualified, in his opinion, they have to stay until they are. He gives them a letter of recommendation when this point is reached. All four give letters of recommendation, in fact. Now, it seems to the committee that a li- brary that takes in persons not engaged in library work and not under appointment, without any test of their general knowledge by examination, uses them for its own needs only (requiring no fee from them and hence not responsible to them), and at the end of six months or so sends them out with a letter to seek positions in other libraries, is in the way to do considerable harm. If it accepts persons who are occupying library positions or are under appointment, and who wish to get instruction (not simply practice) from a librarian qualified to give it, that instruction should be worth a fee. The fee at once en- ables the apprentice to insist upon instruction in all departments of the work and for her own benefit and this is what she should have if she is to go into some other library or back to her own. If it accepts persons who are merely desirous of entering the li- brary field, it should certainly sift them by a fairly rigid examination, and should then re- quire a fee and do its very best by the pay- ing apprentice. Where the apprentice of either type has covered the entire field of instruction, some carefully prepared test should be given, either an examination or a comprehensive problem. And in making this test the instructor should consider also the personal traits and charac- teristics shown unconsciously by the appren- tice during her term of apprenticeship. No general letter should be given even in these cases, but the librarian should act as refer- ence in case the apprentice applies for a given position. In this way the librarian has the opportunity to state exactly what the ap- prentice has done and learned and in what she is especially good or bad. One librarian not among these four and, alas ! at this date no longer a librarian who has trained persons under appointment has been accustomed to send a letter to the trustees interested stating that the apprentice cannot be called fully trained and cannot ex- pect the salary of a fully trained librarian. This is really the conscientious thing to do. Summing up, the committee does not ques- tion the methods of any of those libraries which train apprentices for their own staff, except in the case of the two which give gen- eral letters of recommendation. As a busi- ness principle it may be stated that the gen- eral letter carries little weight among sophis- ticated persons, and is likely to work unfair- ness to those who do not yet know it at its true value, or lack of value. It seems to the committee that no letter should be given until the apprentice applies for a given position, in which case the library can act as reference and answer as to the student's fitness for such a position. Students sometimes have very little idea of their own limitations, and apply for positions entirely above their capacity to fill or requiring quite different gifts from those they have. In these cases the general letter helps them into the wrong niche, while a spe- cific one would put them into the right place. This suggestion in regard to the letter of recommendation may be made in all cases of training, whether by schools, apprentice classes, or correspondence courses. It should always be a specific letter for a specific case. COLLEGE COURSES IN BIBLIOGRAPHY. The questions sent to colleges giving courses in bibliography and the history of printing were much less numerous and searching, inasmuch as these courses are ad- dressed to college students and not to persons training themselves for librarians. They were asked more to gain a well-rounded view of all that could possibly come under the head of library science than for any other reason. Of the fifteen colleges reported to be giving courses in bibliography and the history of printing n replied to our questions, giving the desired information. Concerning the re- maining four it proved we were misinformed. One of these gives a course in subject- bibliography, consisting of a few lectures only. Another gives courses of three kinds, one consisting of a few lectures at the begin- ning of the year on the use of the library. This is probably given in most colleges, or at least many, and need hardly be considered as a course. A second course, for graduates only, is in historical bibliography (by the professor of history) ; and a third, in the ele- ments of palaeography and diplomatics, is only for graduates. Each of these occupies six months. Four give the work as a culture course, for those students who elect it, one library going into trade and subject bibliog- raphy more particularly, lor those who wish to fit themselves later for librarianship. In all these cases the lectures are given by the librarian, who, in one case, has also the title professor of bibliography. The time given is reported as follows : 24 hours in 24 weeks, with 3 hours weekly of practice; 36 hours in iR weeks, with 4 hours weekly of prepara- tion; 48 hours in 24 weeks for each of three courses, one in the use of the library and in elementary bibliography, one in the history cf printing, and one in the illustration and decoration of books each of these requiring two hours work to a lecture; the fourth re- ports it as occupying one term, with no prac- tice. In all these colleges the work is an elective, and the two which report on the number of students electing it say 20 out of 1300 and 5 to 25 out of 500. In three colleges the work counts toward a degree. The value is reported by one college as being chiefly for student assistants in the library, and those working up theses; in another also, the stu- dent assistant is reported as profiting by them, a; well as some public library assistants and persons intending to go to library schools later. The object of the course in one uni- versity is reported to be "the furnishing of such knowledge of books and libraries as a cultivated man ought to have as a minimum." This showing, the best the committee is able to make from the few indications it re- ceived of places where such courses were be- ing given, shows lack of uniformity among the few colleges taking up the work, in first, the object of the course; second, the subjects of instruction, and third, the persons to whom it is addressed. It is greatly to be desired that some college adequately equipped should work out a standard for such instruction . which might be suggestive to other colleges and imitated by them, and which might event- ually lead to the establishment of chairs of librarianship. The committee would recom- mend this matter to the consideration of the College Library Section, and will place the papers received at its service if desired. STATE NORMAL SCHOOL COURSES IN LIBRARY ECONOMY. The questions addressed to the state nor- mal schools were rather more detailed, as the committee wished to get at the estimate which is put upon this part of the curriculum by the various schools which have recently introduced courses in library management. Although the instruction is addressed to per- sons preparing to be teachers rather than librarians, much the same preparation should be required as for the librarian of the very small public library. Twelve state normal schools or state col- leges were reported to the committee as con- ducting courses in library economy, and from all but two of these answers were received. Strangely enough, all but one of these schools are in one of two states, Illinois and Wiscon- sin. In all probability similar work is done in some of the normal schools of other states, but these seem to take the lead, and they were the only ones reported. The name of the course varies from "Gen- eral reference course" in one school to "Li- brary classes," "Library lessons," "Course in library management," "Course in library methods," "Course in library economy ;" but the object is the same in all, to help students to use the library intelligently while students, and, in the case of the normal schools, to en- able them as teachers to form and manage high school and township libraries. The answer to the question, "Is it a re- quired study?" was not given in a number of cases. In one instance it is required of new students, not of pupil teachers ; in another, the lectures on library methods must be followed, but the course in reference books and use of catalogs is an elective ; in a third, all students above the eighth grade are required to follow the course. The time spent in the work va- ries considerably. In one case it is an hour weekly during a semester; in another, three lessons only are given. Six limit the course to normal students only. Lectures and prob- lems are the methods chosen in all, and the subjects are elementary classification and cat- aloging, accessioning, book numbers, order work and selection of books, reference work, shelf-listing, use of indexes, mending, etc. One school giving 20 weeks to the course re- quires a thesis from senior students. Not all give all of these subjects consideration, how- ever, some limiting the work purely to meth- ods of handling a small library. Very few require any practical work, though nearly all report that students have an opportunity to dc such work if they wish. They say, how- ever, that few volunteer. Only one reports that the practical work is required of all stu- dents, while another requires it of teachers only. Five of the libraries are in charge of library school graduates and two of summer school students ; the lectures are not given by the librarian in every case. Six of these libra- rians have had other library experience than that of their present positions. Four only re- port a final test of the student's acquirement, and one of these for those only who have done work in problems, that being voluntary. In one state university a credit is given of one semester hour for the work, but in none are special credentials given, the normal school diploma covering all work done. Here, as in the college courses, the lack of uniformity is noticeable. As to the time spent on the work, the subjects covered, and the work required of the student, there seems tc be no rule. Yet the object is almost in- variably stated as the same by all the schools. Something more systematic is desirable and will doubtless be forthcoming in time the work in most schools is new as yet. With one exception, the work does not date farther back than 1898, and the majority date the course from 1901. Since this work of sys- temization would not seem to come within the scope of the American Library Association, the committee recommends it to the consider- ation of the Library Section of the National Educational Association, and is ready to place the papers received at the service of the Sec- tion, if desired. CORRESPONDENCE COURSES. The questions addressed to those giving correspondence courses were naturally not so numerous as in other cases, since individual instruction is always a comparatively simple thing; but such questions as were asked en- deavored to go to the root of the matter. So far as it could get information, the com- mittee has cognizance of only one institution and two private individuals who are giving courses in library work by this means. In all probability there are other sources, of which it would be glad to be informed. Some well- equipped library schools would be glad to do this work, but the difficulty of doing certain parts of it well seems almost insurmountable, while the dread of offering a substitute for more thorough work, that might be grasped at by persons desiring a royal road to learn- ing and a position, has also acted as a deter- rent. To the question, "Do you impose any edu- cational test upon applicants for correspond- ence work?" the institution referred to re- plies that it requires two years of college work or experience in library work; one in- dividual teacher that she imposes a test but she does not state of what kind, while the second teacher simply makes inquiries as to education, etc., and gives up pupils after a few lessons if the}' seem unequipped educa- tionally. All prefer to deal with persons already in library work, but do not limit the instruction to these. The institution reports that its in- structor is not library-school trained; one of the individual teachers makes no reply to the question as to technical training, and the other reports special courses taken under a professional cataloger and in a reference li- brary. The fee, ranging from $15 to $40, goes to the instructor in two cases, and in the other is divided between institution and teacher. The institution assigns lessons and revises, and questions and answers are interchanged. One teacher uses a text-book and covers 15 subjects, questions and answers being inter- changed and the pupil's work revised. In the other case specially prepared lessons are sent out and the work revised and corrected. To the question, "Do the teacher and pupil have access to the same books and same edi- tions?" for classifying and cataloging pur- poses, and the question as to who selects the books, the following replies were received: From the institution: teacher and pupil have access partially to the same books and the same editions. Books are both assigned by the teacher and chosen by the student.* One individual answers : the same books and editions are used by both. These are as- signed by the teacher and also chosen by the student. The other teacher reports in the same way, adding that as a rule 100 books are chosen and sent to the student, who goes through all the processes with them. Where the student chooses the book, she sends a verbatim copy of the title-page for the use of the instructor in revising. The relation that this bears to genuine cataloging must be superficial, of course, since the examination of the book itself is the prime requisite. The next question, "How do you secure this?" (i.e., the use of the same books and editions) was answered by the institution: "Through dependence on the local library" (which would be, in many cases, a poor de- pendence) ; by one teacher, "By travelling li- braries somewhat, but chiefly through the lo- cal library;" by the other, that she "knows the 100 books by heart." The question as to a final test and the safe- guards and marks was answered as follows : All report a final examination, the institution only for those who wish a university credit. The institution and one teacher appoint ap- proved examiners, and the other teacher "sees them personally in most cases and arranges for practice in some well-conducted library for from two weeks to two months." The passing mark is reported as 70 in the institu- tion, 75 and 90 per cent, by the two teachers. The institution gives a certificate and one maj or credit ; one teacher gives a certificate, the other acts as reference, and reports that she tries to be careful and to watch the stu- dents' work after the close of the course. The committee believes that in these par- ticular cases the work is in conscientious hands, but doubts if the effect of the work has been sufficiently reasoned out by the teachers. Unless the identical books and edi- tions can be used, unless these are chosen by the instructor with a definite object in view in the case of each individual book, so as to cover carefully the whole ground of catalog- * The italics are the committee's. ing and a great variety of classification, the instruction cannot be called satisfactory. In the case of books sent out after careful selec- tion, unless they are to be gone over after- ward by the teacher with the pupil's efforts at cataloging and classifying them at hand for comparison, the instructor should previously have made hor own catalog of them and kept a record of her own classification by which to correct the student's work. The things that cannot be taught by correspondence, the things that require object-lesson work, speed tests, work with the public or various classes of the public, reference work such as requires a fair collection of reference books for its performance, are all important things. The personal inspiration of the instructor, the broad, general consideration of administra- tive questions, cannot be had by the student; the actual practice in a library must be lack- ing in some cases. Furthermore, and most important, correspondence work by individ- uals cannot be supervised or regulated or controlled, since it can be carried on without the knowledge of any authoritative body com- petent to do these things, and since there is no responsibility to any such body. For these reasons the committee depre- cates correspondence teaching by individuals, no matter how careful or how well qualified, since the tendency is toward irresponsibility and the good teacher cannot be known from the poor one by those who wish instruction. It would recommend that some of the estab- lished schools and perhaps some of the lead- ing libraries be authorized by the Association to do correspondence work of a given stand- ard, with the proper equipment and opportuni- ties for practical work, and with all possible safeguards against its being used by persons with a wrong object, limiting it to persons under appointment or actually in positions, and that such courses be reported on from year to year as a part of their regular school work. Only so can the genuine demand for correspondence work be properly met. SUMMING UP. The committee has one or two recommen- dations to make, to give effect to its report : First. That another and a standing Com- mittee on Library Training be appointed, to be composed of eight persons : one, a member of a state library commission ; one, the libra- rian of a free circulating library of, at least, 50,000 volumes ; one, the librarian of a college 01 reference library; one library trustee, in- terested in questions of training; and four li- brary school graduates engaged in library work in various kinds of libraries and in va- .rious capacities, including one from the fac- ulty of a library school. One school graduate and one ether member to be retired and re- placed at the end of the first two years and each year thereafter. That this committee be required to present an annual report to the American Library Association. That this report be discussed each year and not accepted as a matter of routine. Second. That there be published an A. L. A. tract on "Training for librarianship," making a brief statement of a wholly satisfac- tory standard for each type of school, to which shall be appended the names of such sources of training of different kinds and grades as fully meet this standard, this state- ment and list of schools registered as fully meeting the standard to be revised for the annual report each year. These recommendations are made by the committee from a conviction that something should be done to bring about a higher stand- ard and greater uniformity of standard of training, for the sake of the calling of libra- rianship, for the sake of library boards un- able to discriminate between the various ad- vertised sources of training, and for the sake of those applicants for training who should not be allowed to waste time, effort, and money on an inferior quality or defective quantity of training. The committee repre- sents library schools which are by no means satisfied with their own standards or with their own qualifications for criticism, but which are earnestly endeavoring to introduce better and higher standards as fast as these are recognized. It was asked by the Associa- tion to present a report on library training, and it has tried to do this neither perfunctor- ily on the one hand nor with any feeling of superiority or personal animus on the other. It now asks to be discharged. SKETCHES OF FOUR LIBRARY SCHOOLS. PRATT INSTITUTE LIBRARY SCHOOL. THE Pratt Institute Library School began early in the year 1800 as a class in cataloging for the benefit of the library's staff. In the fall of 1890 its scope was broadened; all who applied were admitted, and the work of train- ing students as assistants in this and other libraries was definitely begun. Two separate courses were offered, cataloging and library economy, taught on alternate days. The mem- bers of the staff who had been trained in the library taught the work of which each had charge and the methods used in the Institute library. For two or three years the work was large- ly experimental, various subjects, such as typewriting, stenography, bookkeeping, Eng- lish and Continental literature, and composi- tion, being introduced, and afterward dropped under changed conditions. By 1894 the num- ber of applicants had so increased that a com- petitive entrance examination was made nec- essary. In 1895 a study of comparative meth- ods was begun under a graduate of the New York State Library School. In 1896 the present director assumed charge of the school and it was reorganized on a different basis. The two courses were united, a school faculty was organized, a head instructor was appointed, who gave most of her time to the work, and instruction was given by only those members of the staff who had given evidence of a gift for teaching. The standards of admission were raised, a knowl- edge of French and German was required, the practical work was carefully systematized and carefully revised. The higher standards for admission made possible the dropping of instruction in literature and composition, thus making room for a course of study of Eng- lish and Continental fiction, from the libra- rian's point of view, more reference work and bibliography, the study of technical French and German, and of indexing, all of which have made the course more practical. In raising the standard of admission it has not seemed wise to insist on the requirement of a college degree. Some of the strongest stu- dents have been those whom travel, wide reading, and experience of life have fitted to do the work quite as satisfactorily as college training could have done. A second year's culture course to fit stu- dents for the more scholarly side of library work was offered in the fall of 1896 and sub- sequently whenever enough students elected to take it. A course to fit students for children's work, offered in 1899, was discontinued in 1902, owing to the establishment of the Pitts- burgh school, with greater facilities for giv- ing the work. Some of the features of that course, however, will be included in the sec- PLUMMER. 99 ond year course, making that a well-rounded preparation for advanced work. From the beginning a strong characteristic of the school has been the stress laid on per- sonal fitness for the work, snd a valuable feat- ure of tta course has been the opportunity given the students to put instruction into practice by working in the library itself. In the beginning the work was of the nature of ap- prenticeship, planned for the benefit of the library, no tuition being charged for the third term's work. With the reorganization, how- ever, this was all changed. The work was carefully planned so as to give the student the widest experience in all kinds of public library and reference work. The school has benefited L> the growth and extension of the library. The children's room, the art-reference loom, the open-shelf room, and the informa- tion desk have added greatly to the practical value of the course, and the careful revision and inspection of the student's work by the heads of departments enable the faculty to es- timate each student's fitness to do various kinds of work much better than would be possible for class-room work alone. DREXEL INSTITUTE LIBRARY SCHOOL. THE Drexel Institute Library School was opened in November, 1892, with a class of 10 students. The first year was an experimental one. The director, a graduate of the New York State Library School, outlined the course to cover as much as possible of the first year's work at Albany. But beginning late in the year and working with the dis- advantages of a library just starting and a small staff, the course was necessarily in- complete. Since 1892 the course of study has undergone some changes and now includes many new subjects, while several experi- ments have been discontinued. For the past five years the curriculum has been practically the same, subject only to slight modifications from time to time. The school has aimed throughout these ii years to give as thorough a one year's course as possible, and has not endeavored to undertake an additional second year. Its stu- dents work in a library which belongs to a technical school, and which is at the same time a free circulating library. In outlining a course in library training there are always two sides to consider. In the first place the students must have a thor- ough technical training, and secondly they must have as wide an acquaintance as pos- sible with books and authors. The Drexel Institute Library School requires for admis- sion a high school education or its equivalent and further, requires its applicants to pass such an entrance examination in literature, history, languages, and general information as would necessitate an education equal to at least two years in college. But even with this it has been found necessary to include, iii addition to the technical work, a study of books. It has often been urged that students should have this knowledge of books before entering the school, and that the school should limit its teaching to technical library subjects, but experience has shown us that even college graduates need to study books from the libra- rian's point of view. The technical branches of library science taught in the school include the usual sub- jects, e.g., cataloging, classification, order work, accessioning, sheif-listing, loan sys- tems, reference work, bibliography, binding, children's readings, etc. Lectures are also given on various general phases of library science, such as library commissions, travel- ling libraries, buildings, etc. A change in the method of cataloging was introduced this year. The new A. L. A. rules are now used as a basis for instruction and the form of card used by the Library of Con- gress has been adopted by the library. In- struction in typewriting is given, owing to the increased use of the typewriter for cata- log cards. Practical work in the school accompanies the lectures on each subject, and is continued throughout the year under supervision. Spe- cial attention is given to work at the delivery desk, which is assigned each day to two stu- dents. A course of lectures on books and printing is given during the second term, and embraces not only the history of printing and writing, but also a history of learning from the earliest times to the i8th century. ILLINOIS STATE LIBRARY SCHOOL. THIS school opened in September, 1893, at Armour Institute (later Armour Institute of Technology), Chicago, with an elementary course of one year for high school graduates, to meet a demand which was felt in the mid- dle west. Its connection with a technical school was at first considered peculiarly for- tunate, but as conditions changed or were more fully appreciated the course was ex- tended to two years, and it soon became evi- dent that the school could not meet the de- mands upon it without larger quarters, more generous equipment, and advanced require- ments. Therefore in the spring of 1897 it ac- cepted the offer of the University of Illinois to adopt the school, and the transfer was made so that instruction was uninterrupted. Part of the faculty, the students, and the technical equipment were moved, with the good will of Armour Institute, the entrance requirements were advanced two years, and the course was honored by the degree of bachelor of library science. In September, 1903. the school will require three years of college preparation for entrance, and will in- crease the equipment in proportion to the de- mand; it will introduce the elective system, and will open some of these electives to un- IOO NIAGARA CONFERENCE. dergraduates in the College of Literature and Arts and the College of Science. There is now offered a five years' course of study leading to the degree of bachelor of library science. Three years of the course are de- voted to general university studies, and stu- dents are urged to complete a four years' col- lege course before applying for admission. It is the purpose of the school to offer in- struction (i) to students who wish to spe- cialize in library work as a profession, and (2) to students who wish to elect library courses as part of a general education. The fourth year combines technical and liberal work, and leads to the degree of bachelor of arts in library science. This will be of value to the general student as part of a liberal education or to a library student who can spend but one year in preparing for minor positions, and it is required of all candidates for the degree of bachelor of library science. The fifth year is advanced and comparative technical work, with the addition of biblio- graphic and historic subjects, and this leads to the degree of bachelor of library science. Electives are here introduced to allow for personal preference and fitness for different positions. The College of Literature and Arts and the College of Science will each offer a three years' course preparatory to the library school, consisting of the courses prescribed for all students and of recommended general electives. Candidates for the degree of bachelor of arts in library science must present 52 hours of library work for graduation. The general student, not a candidate for the degree of bachelor of arts in library science, may elect any subject in the list of library electives for which he is prepared. Such subjects have been indicated as will help the student in general reading, in research work, in club work, or as a member of a library committee or board of trustees. For the general student who does not care to take the required fourth year of the library school, nor to elect any regular library course, the school offers a course of 15 lessons on the use of the library and the ordinary reference books, which will help in general reading or study. The library school has never officially con- ducted a summer session, nor has it offered correspondence courses. TRAINING SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN'S LIBRARIAN S, CARNEGIE LIBRARY OF PITTSBURGH. THE Training School for Children's Libra- rians is the natural outgrowth of the work of the children's department of the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, and the present course of study and practice is based upon five years' experience in training young women for li- brary work with children, first informally, then through a training class and finally through the school. The children's department of the Carnegie Library was organized in April, 1898. Owing to the establishment of branch libraries and deposit stations, as well as the extension of its work through home libraries, reading clubs and schools, the growth of this depart- ment has been very rapid, and there has been a constantly increasing demand for good as- sistants. At first such positions were filled by local applicants without special prepara- tion. This did not prove satisfactory, since the training given these assistants could not be very extended, and they had at once to as- sume responsibilities for which they were un- prepared. The next step was to secure the services of graduates of the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Kindergarten College. This, how- ever, was not entirely satisfactory. The young women had the right attitude toward children and had been trained to work with them, but they lacked knowledge of technical library work and children's literature, and were not ac- customed to deal with older children. During this period the training consisted mainly of informal conferences and round-table discus- sions among the members of the staff of the children's department. In 1900 it was decided to start a training class simply to supply assistants for this li- brary. Entrance examinations in literature, history and general information were held, several of the 13 candidates being from out of town, and in September, 1900, the training class began its work with a membership of five. The course was planned with three special objects in view to erive the student adequate training in technical library work, to introduce her to the best children's books, and to teach her how to deal with children. The instruction in library economy and chil- dren's literature was given by members of the library staff, and courses in psychology and some kindergarten subjects by several of the faculty of the Pittsburgh and Allegheny Kindergarten College. The lecture course was supplemented by practical work in the children's rooms and home libraries. In response to a demand for trained chil- dren's librarians in other libraries, and in order to make the training more systematic and thorough, the training class was reorganized in September, 1901, as a regular training school for children's librarians, with a two years' course. The scope of the work was of course broadened in every way. The faculty consisted of the chief of the children's de- partment as director, an assistant director, who was also special instructor in psychology, etc., and various members of the library staff, who gave instruction in the technical library subjects. Arrangements were also made to have a number of lectures given before the school by practical educators and by libra- rians from other cities. The lecture course was thus greatly strengthened, but since the aim was to make the training practical rather than theoretical, special stress was still laid PLUM HER. IOI upon apprentice work under supervision. Ac- tual work was required in the six children's rooms of the central and branch libraries, also practice in the management of story hours, reading clubs and home libraries, and experi- ence in working with the city schools, the number of hours given by the student to this practical work being equal to half the time of a regular library assistant. So far the training school has been wholly dependent for its maintenance on its tuition fees. In April, 1903, however, Mr. Andrew Carnegie generously gave $5000 a year for the following three years toward the main- tenance of the school. The money was given in this way rather than as a permanent en- dowment, because the authorities of the li- brary thought that educational developments in Pittsburgh in the next three years might make it seem wiste to change their plans some- what. This gift will make it possible to strengthen the course at all points, and par- ticularly to provide more outside lectures from librarians and educators who have given time and thought to problems connected with library work with children. NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY SCHOOL. A BRIEF sketch of the parent library school may perhaps best be presented by comparing in a few important features the Columbia College Library School, which opened Jan. 5, 1887, with the New York State Library School of 1903. The earliest school neces- sarily did much experimental work and there- fore has more radical changes to record than later schools. The entrance requirements in 1887 con- sisted of "sufficient education and ability to undertake the work." The proof of fitness practically amounted to the expression of an earnest desire to enter the school. In 1903 the candidate must present a degree from a registered college, a certified statement that specified courses in literature, history and languages have been taken in college and sat- isfactory evidence of fitness for library work. The test of fitness is a thorough one, and not a few college graduates are rejected. The later policy has attracted no individual stu- dents better qualified than some of those in earlier classes, but it has weeded out many who were obviously unfit, and has resulted in greater homogeneity and in a higher standard of excellence. The credentials issued have been dignified correspondingly. The two classes finishing their course at Columbia College received only a written certificate, issued several years later. The University of the State of New York confers upon present graduates the degree of B.L.S. and makes them eligible for the de- gree of M.L.S. The most notable development is in a re- adjustment of emphasis through which tech- nique is relegated to its proper place, and in a recognition of the enlarged conception of the librarian's function. In the Columbia curri- culum, e.g., there was no course in reference work, in selection of books or in history of libraries. The change is evidenced, however, not simply by these added book courses and certainly not by less perfection of detail in technical instruction. There is a changed per- spective which habituates the student to re- gard the catalog, the charging system, etc., not as ends in themselves, but as means to the end that the library staff, as book inter- preters, shall satisfy the book needs of the community. Such development in the school has been brought about by the same causes that have de- termined the line of progress in the library movement of which the school is itself a part. Receiving the forward impulse it may have been in turn one of the causes of further de- velopment. It has at least kept itself within the moving current. The school is in urgent need of further strengthening before it can meet to its own satisfaction the added demands made upon it for graduates able to cope with the new and complex problems of Ameri- can libraries. Its faculty, or at least a majority of them, should be free to give their main time and strength to instruction, doing only such li- brary work as shall be necessary to make them more competent instructors. Each mem- ber of the faculty should be chosen for knowl- edge and experience in his subject with the same care as is exercised in the choice of university professors. All the courses of- fered could then be more carefully worked out and more perfectly correlated with each other and with the needs of libraries. Labor- atory work in public libraries should be ar- ranged in co-operation with successful insti- tutions in appropriate centers, since not at present possible in Albany. When the conditions just outlined are ful- filled- the school may be distinctly ranked as of graduate grade. That all library schools granting a degree reach such a grade is of the utmost importance, in order that librarian- ship may be recognized as a profession. The development of the school has gone on in spite of serious limitations. From the first it has had to do the best it could, instead of the best it would. Nevertheless, with all its limitations, which are most keenly felt by thosie who know and love the school best, it has from its 391 matriculates sent out a rea- sonable quota of men and women whom the Library Association has honored and many more who have been given places in the ranks. J02 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. BY ROLAND P. FALKNER, Chairman. C INCE the presentation of the last tfeport of your committee Congress has passed two resolutions affecting the distribution of public documents to libraries which are of interest to this Association. One of these, in relation to the American Ephemeris and Nau- tical Almanac, was mentioned in our last re- port as pending. We shall revert to it again. The other resolution, which promises to be of the greatest value to smaller libraries not at the present time depositories, is expressed in a resolution of June 30, 1902, which reads as follows : "Resolved by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That hereafter the documents reserved for binding upon orders of Senators, Representatives, Delegates, and officers of Congress, as provided in paragraph six, section fifty-four, of an act approved January twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, providing for the public printing and _ binding and the distribution of public documents, if not called for and delivered within two years after printing shall be bound in the first grades of cloth and de- Ihered to the Superintendent of Documents for dis- tribution to libraries; and the Public Printer is here- by authorized and directed to bind in cloth all such documents heretofore delivered to the Superintendent of Documents for like distribution. "Approved, June 30, 1902." In explanation of this resolution it should be said that 500 sets of all public documents printed by order of Congress are set aside to be bound upon special order of Senators and Representatives. The law also sets aside a like quantity in the document rooms of the houses for the current use of the Senate and House of Representatives. When a Senator or Representative desires to have a book bound he generally sends to the document room, secures the book and sends it to the Government Printing Office to be bound, and does not draw upon the reserve set aside for this purpose. The resolution under consideration turns over this reserve which, as above indicated, is practically intact, to the Superintendent of Documents to be distributed to libraries. Un- der this resolution the superintendent received the publications of the 54th, the 55th, and the 56th Congresses. He has offered them to a selected list of upwards of 300 libraries, and the distribution of the documents which have been selected is now going on. Upwards of 120,000 books will be thus distributed to the libraries and saved from the furnace. Many libraries will thus receive the public docu- ments, somewhat later, it is true, than do the depository libraries at the present, but under conditions as favorable as characterized the shipments to depository libraries in former years. A year ago your committee directed the at- tention of the Association to two measures then pending in Congress. One of them, of minor interest, authorized the discontinuance of the usual number of the American Ephem- eris and Nautical Almanac and provided that the first edition should be distributed by the Superintendent of Documents to the libraries, a measure which became a law after the pre- sentation of the report of your committee. A second measure, of greater interest, pro- viding for a library edition of the reports of the executive departments and other regular- ly recurrent publications of the government to be sent to the designated depositories as soon as issued in lieu of the volumes now in- cluded in the sheep bound set, failed of con- sideration in the House. In committee it was so amended that the binding of the library edition should be "half morocco" instead of cloth, as proposed by the bill, which passed the Senate. This amendment would not, it is believed, postpone the date on which the docu- ments could be distributed under the proposed law. The joint resolution in regard to the Amer- ican Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac serves as an excellent object lesson on a small scale of the advantages to libraries of the plan pro- posed in the larger act which failed of con- sideration. As is well known, the American Ephemeris and Nautical Almanac is published in two editions, of which, heretofore, the libra- ries have been receiving the second in the sheep bound set. The first edition has not hitherto FALKNER. 103 been sent to them. It is interesting to note that the latest issue of the first edition, for 1906, which was published in February, 1903, was distributed under the above resolution to the depository libraries before the second edi- tion of 1902, which was originally published ii 1 . cloth for the use of the Navy Department in January, 1902. It should, moreover, be added that the libraries have in the meantime received the cloth bound editions for 1903, 1904, and 1905. Subsequent legislation has rendered the provisions of this resolution nugatory, and it will be necessary to re-enact it at the coming session of Congress. In the meantime we have had an admirable object lesson of the possibility of an early distribu- tion of public documents to libraries. The propositions embodied in Senate Bill no. 4261 of the last Congress should again be urged upon the attention of the National Leg- islature. The report of your committee for last year treated very fully of the probable results of this measure, and we have accord- ingly renewed the recommendations of last year with only such changes in form as are necessary through the fact that the measure must be initiated anew in the present Con- gress. Your committee desires to renew its recom- mendations of last year with respect to print- ing the document number on each page of the congressional documents, with respect to the lettering of the bound volumes of the Con- gressional Record, and with respect to the index of the Congressional Record. The proper indexing of the Congressional Record would be of great service to all who are obliged to consult its pages. At the pres- ent time the index is almost exclusively a personal index of the members of the two Houses of Congress, and this part of the work seems to be thoroughly and effectively done. It is as a subject index that the work 13 open to considerable criticism. The diffi- culty here lies in the fact that the bills and resolutions of Congress only are included un- der the subject entries, there being no refer- ence whatever to debates. Under the appro- priate subject heading the searcher finds the titles of the various bills which have been in- troduced upon that subject. To find the de- bate upon the subject he must turn to the history of bills and resolutions which gives references to the debate. There is no indica- tion in the index, though such indication could easily be made by difference in type, as to which bills were actually reported or de- bated. If the subject is one upon which many bills have been introduced the inquirer may search long before finding the bill which was actually the subject of discussion, and the references to the debate which he desires. This difficulty could be easily remedied. If the bill actually discussed were thus in- dicated it would go a long way to obviate the difficulties of the present index to find a de- bate on a given topic. It would not, however, meet the entire situation, as it would not guide the reader to speeches made on any given topic during the discussion of bills not ger- mane to that subject. During the last session of Congress perhaps the most conspicuous subject of discussion was that of trusts. An examination of the index under trusts will refer to several bills, but as the bill actually discussed was House of Representatives no. 17, the searcher, who will naturally look them up in their numerical order, will in this case soon find the main body of the discussion. At least twenty-four members of Congress reprinted their remarks on the subject of trusts at the last session. The greater num- ber, of course, were made during the discus- sion of the bill to suppress trusts (H. R. 17). It is, however, interesting to note that three speeches on the trust question occurred in the discussion of the Postoffice Appropriation Bill, one en the bill to Provide a Rebate on Coal Duties, one on the Department of Com- merce Bill, one on the District of Columbia Appropriation Bill, and one by Senator Hoar on a bill to Regulate Trusts. It appears, there- fore, that in this trust discussion a not incon- siderable number of speeches would escape the searcher unless he gave himself the pains to examine the index under the name of each senator and representative to find out whether he had made any remarks upon the trust ques- tion. The subjects above noted are appro- priately referred to under the personal author entry as remarks on trusts and not with refer- ence to the subjects of the bills discussed. It would seem, therefore, a comparatively simple matter to assemble these references already made under the authors under the subject heading also, as such an enlargement of the 104 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. index would prove a great boon to the users of the Congressional Record. We would, therefore, most earnestly repeat our recommendation to the Joint Committee on Printing that the scope of the index be so enlarged as to include suitable subject in- dexes. Publications. Since the presentation of the last report of this committee the Superin- tendent of Documents has issued the usual document index to the congressional papers of the 56th Congress, second session, and to those of the 57th Congress, first session. By special arrangement with the Govern- ment Printing Office the superintendent was able to distribute the last-named index to the depository libraries almost imme- diately after it was printed. His office has printed a special list of publications for sale relating to interoceanic canal, ship subsidies, commerce and transportation, Pa- cific railroads and statistics, which was men- tioned in our former report as being in prep- aration. It has made considerable progress in the preparation of the list of department documents. In order to make the publication available as early as possible the superintend- ent has decided to issue this publication in parts, and he promises that the first part, re- lating to the publications of the Department of Agriculture, will be ready shortly. Attention should be called to the publica- tions of other departments of the government which by means of lists and indexes are ren- dering the material preserved in public docu- ments far more accessible to librarians and tc students than heretofore. Thus in the past ytar the Department of Agriculture has pub- lished a list by titles of the publications of the U. S. Department of Agriculture from 1840 to June, 1901, inclusive (Bulletin no. 6 of the Division of Publications). It has also issued an index to the Yearbooks of the Department of Agriculture from 1894 to 1900 (Bulletin no. 7 of the same division). The Division of Entomology of the department has issued in its Bulletin no. 36, new series, an index to the bulletins of the division, r>os. I to 30, 1896 to ipoi. The Department of State has issued a gen- eta! index of the published volumes of the diplomatic correspondence and foreign rela- tions of the United States, 1861 to 1899. The volume is one of nearly a thousand pages, is arranged by subjects, the entries being made chronologically under such subject indexed. The names of the writers of the correspond- ence are printed, indicating their official posi- tions and the volumes in which their letters can be found. In connection with the com- pilation made in 1901 of the reports of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the United States Senate, this volume serves to render the documents of the United States relating to foreign affairs very accessible. An analytical and topical index of the re- ports of the chief of engineers and officers of the corps of engineers of the United States Army from 1866 to 1900 has been published in three volumes as House Document no. 439 of the 57th Congress, second session. The volumes have not been distributed to the de- pository libraries, but will reach them in due course. These volumes will furnish an in- sight into the work of the government relat- ing to rivers and harbors, the surveys of the various localities, and to the special maps of the regions, which accompany the surveys. Printed Cards for Documents. The sub- ject of printed cards for government docu- ments has received considerable .attention during the past year. After the Magnolia conference an inquiry was made as to the need and extent of the demand for such printed cards. As a result of the inquiry the conclusion was reached that such cards would be of considerable value to libraries for cer- tain classes of public documents. This con- clusion was strengthened by an inquiry made later among the government librarians in the city of Washington. Before action can be taken it is highly desirable that certain techni- cal matters, such as the proper form of author entries (a subject which is to be discussed in the Catalogue Section), should be decided. I am, however, authorized by the Superintend- ent of Documents to state that he is ready to undertake the printing of such cards, and we can, therefore, regard their issue as an as- sured fact for the near future. Compilations. The compilations issued from time to time by various public authori- ties bringing into brief compass scattered ma- terial upon given topics are of scarcely in- ferior interest to the librarian than the in- dexes and lists above noted which serve to FALKNER. 105 locate the scattered material. We deem it proper, therefore, to call the attention of the Association to a number of such works which have appeared since our last report. First in order we would mention the com- pilation of bills and debates in Congress re- lating to trusts, from 1888 to 1902, prepared by the librarian of the Department of Justice, and containing copies of all bills relating to trusts and the essential parts of all discus- sions in Congress upon this subject. The volume is adequately indexed. It is pub- lished as Senate Document no. 147 of the 57th Congress, second session. Of like general interest at the present mo- ment is a compilation of state papers and correspondence bearing upon the purchase of the territory of Louisiana, issued as House Document no. 431 of the 57th Congress, sec- ond session. Mention may also be made of three volumes which are possibly of some restricted interest. The first is a compilation of Senate election cases from 1789 to March, 1903, issued as Senate Document no. n of the s8th Congress, special session ; the second is a compilation in two volumes of the laws and treaties relating to Indian affairs to Dec. I, 1902, issued as Senate Document no. 452 of the 57th Con- gress, first session, and the third is volume i of a digest of decisions relating to Indian af- fairs, issued in April, 1903, as House Docu- ment no. 583 of the s6th Congress, second session. Bibliography. Notice has been taken from time to time in these reports of bibliograph- ical publications of the general government which have been of a special interest in view of their references to the public documents. Your committee feels that it is not inappro- priate to call the attention of librarians to the large amount of bibliographic work of a gen- eral character which is being done in the va- rious offices of the government. We have ac- cordingly compiled a complete list of the bib- liographies which are noted in the "Catalogue of public documents" for the year 1902 to April, 1903, inclusive, which we desire to sub- mit as an appendix to this report. An ex- amination of the list reveals no less than 83 titles of bibliographies, great and small, of v-hich we shall not presume to speak in de- tail. The Division of Bibliography of the Li- brary of Congress has published second edi- tions of its lists on Trusts and Mercantile Marine Subsidies, and has published a new list upon Reciprocity. In the publications of the departments we may call attention to the fact that the Monthly Weather Review con- tains frequent reports upon the literature of meteorology, and the Bulletin of the Depart- ment of Labor upon the statistical publica- tions of foreign governments. A quarterly index of material relating to military affairs received by the Military Information Division of the Adjutant General's Office is published by that division. Of the special lists, atten- tion may be called particularly to those upon botany and upon irrigation, issued by the li- brary of the Department of Agriculture, and to the index to reports issued by the Bureau ol Labor Statistics in the United States prior to March, 1902, which have been published by the Department of Labor. The printed list will dispense with the necessity of further enumeration and avoid the danger of burden- ing you with too much detail. State Documents. With respect to state documents your committee would not trespass upon the field of the National Association of State Librarians in venturing to discuss meth- ods of publication and distribution. Our sim- ple duty is to report to the librarians here as- sembled upon such legislation as promises to make the state documents and their contents more accessible to the librarian and to the student, and upon such publications of a bib- liographical character as may facilitate his work. The legislatures of most of the states held sessions in 1903, and in few cases were the statute laws available for consultation in the preparation of this report. We are accord- ingly indebted to the courtesy of the state li- brarians for information regarding the legis- lation of the year. From 12 states only no information has been received, and it is to be presumed that these states had nothing of interest to report. Some 20 states reported that no legislation of interest to the associa- tion had been enacted. The state of Missis- sippi has established a Department of Ar- chives and History upon the model of that .of Alabama, noted in our last report, and we think it proper to add that under the director, Mr. Dunbar Rowland, the administration is io6 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. characterized by the same energy and activity as in the state of Alabama. California by act of March 3, 1903, author- izes the state librarians to establish a system of exchanges, and to draw upon the secretary of state for the publications necessary for this purpose. Illinois authorizes the secretary of state to reprint the scarce session laws. Indiana provided for reprinting some of the early journals and laws not represented in the state library, which can seldom be bought at any price. An act of Minnesota to codify and amend the laws concerning the state library author- izes the state librarian to furnish the custo- dian of public documents a list of the states, territories, countries, and institutions with which he deems it desirable to carry on ex- changes for the benefit of the state library. North Carolina empowers the trustees of the state library to make such distribution of books, reports and publications belonging to the state of North Carolina as in the judg- ment of said board is advisable and proper. Porto Rico constituted the Public Library of San Juan, the Insular Library of Porto Rico, and requires public officers of the in- sular and municipal governments to deposit therein their official reports and to confer with the trustees of the said library concern- ing the custody of any public documents or reports, or records of historical value, printed or in manuscript, as well as concerning dupli- cates no longer needed for official files. It also appointed a historian to collect, preserve and file in the office of the secretary historical data of Porto Rico, and particularly such records and data as may be obtainable in ref- erence to the abolition of slavery in the island. Tennessee authorized the cataloging and arrangement of the state archives. Bibliography of State Documents. The most important publication relating to the state documents issued during the year is Part ii. of Mr. R. R. Bowker's "Provisional list of the official publications of the several states of the United States." The present in- stalment of this valuable publication includes the states of New York, New Jersey, Penn- sylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Those who have used the first volume will rejoice in the progress of the work and pray for its rapid extension. The second part of Miss Hasse's work on documents relating to the legislative bodies contains a partial check list of state legisla- tures. The list extends from Alabama to Maryland and gives dates to the sessions of the legislatures. It furnishes an excellent guide and is of valuable assistance in the ar- rangement and cataloging of the journals and documents. I believe that I am violating no confidence in mentioning the fact that the librarian of the United States Department of Justice has in preparation a catalog of the state session laws in his library which will take the form of a check list of all the ses- sions held by legislative bodies in this country. It will supplement the list before mentioned by including all of the states and by giving fuller details in regard to colonial legisla- tures. From time to time the committee has re- ported to the Association works of a biblio- graphical character referring to the state documents and has also noted the new under- takings in the publication of archives which have rendered historical official documents more accessible to the investigator. The time has seemed ripe to gather this scattered in- formation into a focus. It gives me pleasure to state that we present as an Appendix a re- port upon the bibliographical information re- lating to the documents of all the states and upon the publication of state archives, which has been prepared by Miss A. R. Hasse. In concluding its report, your committee submits two appendices, already noted, with the request that they be printed,* and pro- poses the following resolutions : Resolved. That the Association reaffirm its resolu- tions of last year endorsing the issue of a library edition of the public documents as proposed in Sen- ate bill 4~6i_ of the last Congress, and recommend- ing the printing of the document marks on each page of the Congressional Documents, the placing of dates in the bound volumes of the Congressional Record and especially the enlargement and improvement of the Index to the Congressional Record. Resolved, That the Council appoint a committee of three to urge these resolutions upon Congress by memorial or otherwise. * It is regretted that it was not found practicable to include these appendices; but it is hoped that they may be published in an early issue of the LIBRARY- JOURNAL. FLETCHER. 107 REPORT OF THE A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD. By W. I. FLETCHER, Chairman. T AST year the terms expired of two mem- bers of the Publishing Board, W. I. Fletcher and R. R. Bowker. The Executive Board reappointed Mr. Fletcher and appointed in place of Mr. Bowker, who declined reap- pointment, Mr. Hiller C. Wellman, librarian of the City Library of Springfield, Mass. The Board, at its first meeting thereafter, organ- ized by the choice of W. I. Fletcher as chair- man, C. C. Soule treasurer, Miss Nina E. Browne secretary. Miss Browne's whole time is given to the work of the Board at the head- quarters at io l /2 Beacon street, Boston. The increasing business of the Board, and the need that Miss Browne should devote much of her time to the editing of the Por- trait index, led to the employment of a regu- lar assistant, and Mr. B. A. Whittemore, a graduate of the New York Library School, acted in that capacity for five months. Since his resignation in April, Miss Katharine L. Swift has been temporarily employed. The whole matter of the personnel of this office is still regarded as contingent on the plans now be- ing gradually worked out for a proper head- quarters with permanent officers, for the A. L. A., which would include the Publishing Board with other executive functions of the Association. In this connection attention is called to Mr. George Iles's paper at this con- ference on "A headquarters for our Associa- tion." Our last report closed with an allusion in language borrowed from the previous one, to the "need of a better financial condition" for the Board. It was only a few days after those words were written that Dr. Billings in his presidential address at the Magnolia Confer- ence announced Mr. Carnegie's munificent gift of $100,000 for the work of the Board. The income of this fund began to be realized at once, but our financial year was then half over, so that the treasurer's statement ap- pended to this report does not show the full advantage of our present endowment. But as was intimated last year, when plans for the Board were under discussion, even such a generous addition to our resources will not enable us at once to undertake all the en- terprises that have been contemplated by or suggested to us. The policy of the Board has been to improve the opportunity now afforded us of putting our work on a better business basis and carrying through as rapidly as pos- sible undertakings already in hand which otherwise would have been tediously delayed for lack of funds. We may now proceed to a review of pro- gress in our several lines of work similar to that presented a year ago : i. The A. L. A. Catalog. This is men- tioned first because it has been given first place in our plans and our expenses. As was stated last year, the State Library at Albany, Mr. Dewey recognizing the import- ance of the enterprise, has undertaken, with the financial support of the Board, to pre- pare the new edition, including a thorough revision of the old edition of 1893, the ad- dition of some 3000 more volumes (so that the new edition will represent a "model li- brary" of 8000 volumes instead of 5000), and, above all, the securing of expert advice from a large corps of competent men, largely uni- versity professors, as to inclusions and exclu- sions, this advice often accompanied by brief pithy notes. The service thus rendered by the New York State Library is of inestimable value to the undertaking, and is only partially offset by the payments the Board has made to the library for actual clerical work, for which we have appropriated $100 a month for the last eight months. The work is making excellent progress, and will be done in time for the St. Louis Exposi- tion in 1904. The generous initiative in this work of the New York State Library is paral- leled by the offer of the Library of Congress to print the catalog as one of its bulletins, for free distribution, and to furnish printed cards for all the books included in it on the same terms as other printed cards (or cheaper still io8 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. if the demand should be large). In addition to all this the Library of Congress printed and distributed the tentative lists to the "critics." Collation of the criticisms will have been completed, and the last of the lists sent to the advisory board before this meeting. This effort, so splendidly supported at these two library headquarters, should and doubt- less will result in a greater advantage to the library interests of the country than anything else the Board has done. 2. The A. L. A. Index. The new edition issued last year has not made its way as it should. Only about 300 copies have yet been sold. Apparently many libraries which should profit greatly by it do not appreciate its value. The price ($10) looks large as the cost of a single volume, but when regarded as offsetting the cost of the immense amount of analytical cataloging which this book pro- vides, the sum sinks into utter insignificance. Many libraries have spent hundreds of dol- lars in providing themselves with a decidedly inferior apparatus in this line. The attention of all librarians is called anew to the value and usefulness of this work and to the fact that the new edition is double the size of the for- mer one, and much more than double its value. 3. Literature of American History. This book has now been out a full year, and has proved :ts unique value. It has had a good sale, but the demand for it thus far is not at all commensurate with its merits and its prac- tical value wherever American history is read or studied. Here again is an opportunity which many libraries have not recognized to acquire the fruits of a large amount of expert historical and bibliographical labor, at a very incommensurate expense. A supplement for the two years 1900, 19x11 has been prepared by Mr. Philip P. Wells, of New Haven, and is- sue " in a thin volume uniform with the main work. The annotated cards for English history, edited by Mr. W. Dawson Johnston, of the Library of Congress, have been continued through the year 1901. For 1902 and 1903 cards for American and English history are being prepared by Mr. Wells and Mr. John- stcn. 4. Miss Kroeger's Guide to the Study and use of Reference Books, announced last year, has been issued, and has met with an excel- lent reception, nearly the whole edition of 1000 copies having been sold in a few months. A second edition has been ordered already. Few of our publications have commended themselves more thoroughly to the libraries, and it is evident that no mistake was made in offering a work of this kind. 5. Subject Headings. This continues more in demand than any other of our publications, and is now a source of income. Another edition will soon need to be printed. 6. Books for Girls and Women. 7. Bibliography of Fine Arts and Music. These two books continue to go slowly, but are constantly reaching more libraries, and are highly prized where known. 8. Portrait Index. We are disappointed that this important work has not yet actually gone to press. Miss Browne has done much work on it this year, and yet some rather dif- ficult and perplexing problems of arrange- ment remain. Mr. Lane is acting as editor- in-chief of this work, and hopes to see it in the printer's hands soon. 9. Library Tracts. These are often called for singly, and are freely given in response to such calls. There is not the demand that was expected, from state commissions and others, for supplies of these by the hundred for local use. Attention is called to the list and terms of the tracts in our circular. 10. Cards indexing serials. Little is to be added to what was said last year. The issue has been continued, and sent to a larger num- ber of subscribers. The Library of Congress hcving begun to furnish printed cards, as for books, for such of these serials as have sep- arate title-pages for the individual mono- graphic portions {e.g., the Johns Hopkins Studies in History), the Board will cease to issue these, as the duplication of this work seems unnecessary. 11. Cards indexing miscellaneous sets, out- side of serials. Of these, cards are in stock for the following sets, of which all but the first three have been issued since the last conference : Amer. Academy of Pol it. and Soc. Sci. Annals, 1890-1891. Bibliographica, 3 volumes. British Parliamentary papers, 1896-99. Johns Hopkins University studies. Vols. i-iS- U. S. Geol. Survey. Bulletins. 1883-97. FLETCHER. 109 U. S. Geol. Survey. Monographs. 28 vols. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the terri- tories. Reports. 13 vols. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the terri- tories. Miscell. publications. 12 vols. Warner Library. Entire set. Cards for other sets will be prepared from time to time; also cards for continuations of the sets named. Suggestions are invited of additions to this list. 12. Cards indexing bibliographical serials. Knowledge of this important issue of cards for bibliography and library science does not seem to have reached the libraries generally. The fact that cards can be secured, by partial subscription, for just such periodicals as are subscribed for, should interest many libra- rians who wish to keep up with the times in their bibliographical apparatus. The Board has given much attention during the year to the question of a further develop- ment of the "appraisal" or "annotated bib- liography" idea. Recognizing the force of the well-considered objections that have been made to the scheme of the appraisal of liter- ature by experts to be regarded as authority, it still seems to us that as i matter of practi- c il utility, nothing is more called for by our librarians, purchasing committees, and others, than some expert (though not authoritative) advice in the choice of books. Fault is found, and properly enough, from a theoretical point of view, with some of the judgments expressed in the annotated bib- liographies we have already issued. But it must be admitted by those competent to judge that as a matter of real utility these books have been found of decided value, and have been highly appreciated by all who have used them. To such an extent is this true that they have certainly created a demand for help of the same sort in fields not yet covered. The new edition of the A. L. A. Catalog will be of great importance from this point of view. But there is a special call for some "appraisal" for the benefit of libraries of the new books as they appear from the press. Two problems are presented by the work of the Board in the publication of annotated bib- liographies, first, that of continuing and keep- ing up to date those already published, and, second, that of extending its work in this di- rection to other and equally popular fields of literature. A plan now before the Board pro- poses the solution of these problems by the publication of a periodical devoted to notes upon current literature, so written, classified, and indexed as to assist the librarian in the labor of choosing books for purchase, of as- signing subject entries in cataloging, of classi- fication, and of reference work. Such a pe- riodical might serve other purposes, and we have given considerable attention to the pro- ject, but without as yet seeing our way to its immediate carrying out. In the course of an- other year some such scheme may take shape. Meantime the Board must consider the matter in all its bearings, and especially the ways and means. It is quite evident that it would be easy to expend on such an enterprise more than our entire income, especially if really ex- pert criticism were to be employed and prop- erly compensated. We must therefore begin 01 a moderate scale, and extend the scope and thoroughness of the publication as means are provided. But it is highly probable that the work can b? suitably done without so large expense, the results so far secured in the work on the A. L. A. Catalog being quite encouraging on this point. The active support and assistance of the Library of Congress, of which there is no doubt, will here again go far to ensure sirccess. Other new enterprises ir. abundance are on our horizon, but any consideration of them will be more fitting in the discussion of the work of the Board provided for in a later session of this conference, than in this annual report. no NIAGARA CONFERENCE. A. L. A. PUBLTSHING BOARD STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS, JAN. i TO DEC. 31, 1902 PUBLICATIONS. Copies sold in 1902. Copies on hand Dec 31, 1902. Balances Jan. i, 1902, being excess of expenditures over receipts to date. Operations Jan. i to Dec. 31, 1902. Balances Dec. 31, 1902, being excess of expenditures over receipts to date. Spent Received Expenses Receipts Spent Received A L. A Proceedings 3 IO2 27 pap. 85 cl. 23 ti pap. 42 cl. 235 PtS. 476 1905 $6.17 $1.48 ?3-oo 5-97 64.02 i 6* $7-69 7.60 Books for boys and girls 537 13 pap. 79 cl. 500 198 pap. 226 cl. 3918 pts. 93 cl. 400 sheets Fine arts bibliography ! f $338-47 1 $274.45 41-35 42.99 Books for girls and women . < Guide to reference books.... < library tracts, 1-4 39.00 969.91 141.00 *20 6.97 237.24 562 88 44888 62.80 3900 39*.44 54-45 20 16.78 570.12 1960 40 77-94 56.42 29.00 1821.83 1302.14 129.50 216.00 [ 578.47 153-50 i 66.95 Reading for the young < " Sup. -j " Complete... List of subject headings 4 pap. 14 cl. 2 pap. 5Cl. icl. 37i 289 cl. 9% mor. 4 pap. I Cl. 2 YI mor. 136 pap. 265 cl. 500 sheets 6cl. 252 75 cl. 8% mor. 105 sheets 1 }- 359-66 349-85 72681 1059.69 "39 584-97 1131.62 639-54 17.03 A. L. A. index, ad edition -j Portrait index, prelim, exp . . . > 2649.67 1252.15 I739-50 Bibliographical cards 8565 357 3-75 Current book cards 528.53 English history cards 101.33 1262.11 1000.48 87.02 677.03 86.33 571.9 337-88 Miscellaneous sets, 16-28 Mass Pub Doc cards < 400 sets 400 pams. 34 sets 36 sets 219 sets 147 sets 25-45 461.03 Totals $4748 90 $2214.39 $5598-33 16739 85 $4895.28 $3502.52 i39 2 .77 $4748.90 14748.90 $6739-85 $6739.85 $4895-28 $4895-28 OTHER ACCOUNTS. Balance Jan. i, 1902 Operations of 1902 Balance Dec. 31 ,190* Dr. Cr. Dr. Cr. Dr. Cr. General expense and income account $1046.97 40.09 83.19 $1485.96 1.44 83.19 5022.09 1543-03 3521-24 $1614.40 $n 7 5.4t 38.65 82.14 1928.21 349-24 82.14 4237 65 3047.02 1866.14 $980.36 1200.53 424.22 2004.34 Houghton. Mifflin & Co. ac< Due on bills and subscriptions. ount 867.38 Totals 11064.30 $3598-81 $2180.89 $3573-65 l3598-8i $3598 81 $3573.65 *3573.65 * Credited to Income Account. HARRISON. Ill REPORT ON GIFTS AND BEQUESTS TO AMERICAN LIBRARIES, 1902-1903. BY J. L. HARRISON, Librarian Providence (R. /.) Athenaum. THE report covers the period from June I, 1902, to May 31, 1903, that is, prac- tically the year intervening between the Mag- nolia meeting and the present conference. It includes single gifts of $500 or more, of 250 volumes and upwards and such other gifts, miscellaneous in their character, as seem spe- cially noteworthy. Though some of Mr. Car- ntgie's foreign gifts are recorded, no sys- tematic effort has been made to collect in- formation outside of the United States. The material for the report has been obtained from the Library journal, Public libraries, the daily press, from responses to 650. postals sent to various libraries and to seme sixty letters addressed to the secretaries of state commissions, state associations and smaller library clubs. The many requests sent out were most promptly and graciously an- swered, and to all those who have so kindly assisted in his work the reporter acknowl- edges his deep indebtedness. Five hundred and eleven gifts are re- corded,* representing in all 96,247 volumes and $10,306,407.61. Of this amount $715,800 were given for general endowment funds, $86,700 for building sites, $6,679,000 for buildings from Andrew Carnegie, $1,250,998.55 for buildings from various donors, $108,960 for the establishment of book funds, $101,577.46 for the purchase of books and $1,363,371.60 for purposes the objects of which were not stated. This amount is made up for the most part of bequests and presumably will be used largely for general endowment funds. Mr. Carnegie's gifts f for the year number 158 and amount to $6,679,000. They were for buildings and given subject to the usual con- ditions that a site be provided and that ten * Except when otherwise stated all figures refer only to the United States. t To distinguish between Mr. Carnegie's gifts and offers the reporter has attempted to obtain definite information as to the acceptance or non-acceptance of each offer. Owing to the fact that in a large number of instances replies were not received to in- quiries sent, the precedent of previous reports has been followed and all offers regarded as gifts except where information of their refusal has been received. per cent, of the amount of the gift be pledged for annual maintenance. Analysis of the gifts shows that the North Atlantic division of states received $3,588,000, the South Atlantic $535,ooo, the South Central $467,000, the North Central $1,771,500, and the West- ern, $317,500. There were five gifts un- der $10,000, sixty-three of $10,000, seven- teen between $10,000 and $15,000, sixteen of $15,000, two between $15,000 and $20,000, eight of $20,000, ten of $25,000, two of $35,000 and three of $40,000. Bayonne, N, J., Philadelphia (College of Physicians), Augusta, Ga., Anderson, Ind., and Grinnell, Iowa, each received $50,000. Atlantic City and Colorado Springs each received $60,000, and Norwalk, Ohio, and Spokane, Wash- ington, each received $75,000. Of Mr. Carnegie's total gift of $6,679,000 six cities received $4,150,000, that is, Camden, N. J., $100,000, Philadelphia $1,500,000, Pittsburgh, $1,500,000, Washington $350,000, Savannah $100,000, New Orleans $250,000, and Cleve- land $350,000, including $100,000 for the estab- lishment of a training school for librarians in connection with Western Reserve Univer- sity, a most gracious gift, revealing as it does Mr. Carnegie's kindly interest in the librarian himself. Ten gifts, amounting to $105,000, varying from $2000 to $50,000, and not includ- ing the Pittsburgh gift, were additions to pre- vious donations. Besides these gifts in the United States the report shows 46 gifts, amounting to $2,065,000 to England and her colonies and a gift of $250,000 for a library to form part of the Temple of Peace at The Hague. In connection with Mr. Carnegie's work in behalf of American libraries, and especially \vliere it has come into contact with and met opposition from labor unions, the following letter from Samuel Gompers, president of the American federation of labor, is not only of general interest but should be a strong factor in preventing antagonism by labor organiza- tions to Mr. Carnegie's gifts. The letter is addressed to Thomas Keilty, a factory inspec- tor of Toronto, Canada, and is written in re- 112 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. ply to a letter addressed to him, Mr. Gompers, asking his opinion as to whether or not To- ronto should accept Mr. Carnegie's offer of $350,000 for a public library building and branches. The letter reads : DEAR SIR AND BROTHER: Your favor of the 25th has been received and contents noted. You say that Mr. Carnegie proposes to give a grant /for the establishment of a library in your city, and you ask my opinion whether it should be accepted or rejected. In reply, I beg to say that the matter is one of entire indifference on our part. Mr. Carnegie has accumulated a vast fortune. If justice had been done to labor it is very doubtful if either he or any one else could have accumulated such fabulous wealth. We are not living in Altruria, however, and inas- much as Mr. Carnegie seems bent upon mak- ing grants for libraries in several cities and towns in America, and as there is perhaps no means by which he can be persuaded to devote his wealth to a purpose fraught with better, more important, as well as far-reach- ing results in the interests of the people, I do not see why we should interfere with his carrying out his project. After all is said and done, he might put his money to a much worse use. Yes, accept his library, organize the workers, secure better conditions and, particularly, reduction in hours of labor, and then ths workers will have some chance and leisure in which to read books. Fraternally yours, SAMUEL GOMPERS. The New York Times of May 17, 1903, contained what was intended to be a complete list of Mr. Carnegie's gifts for all purposes up to the time of his departure for Europe, on April 24. Using this list as a basis and supplementing it by the donations of the past year here recorded, Mr. Carnegie's total gifts to libraries in the United States amount to $38,505,600. They have been distributed among the states and territories of the Union as follows : North Atlantic division. Maine, $99,000; New Hampshire, $50,000; Vermont, $50,000; Massachusetts, $331,000; Connecticut, $15,000; New York, $6,226,000; New Jersey, $440,000; Pennsylvania, $18,935,000. Total $26,146,000. South Atlantic division. Maryland, $60,000 ; District of Columbia, $700,000; Virginia, $191,000; West Virginia, $110,000; North Carolina, $40,000; South Carolina, $8000; Georgia, $325,000; Florida, $105,000. Total $1,539,000. South Central division. Kentucky, $537,- ooo; Tennessee, $210,000; Alabama, $60,000; Louisiana, $290,000; Texas, $301,000; Okla- homa Territory, $51,000; Indian Territory, $15,000. Total $1,639,000. North Central division. Ohio, $1,469,000; Indiana, $841,000; Illinois, $871,000; Michigan, $1,194,500; Wisconsin, $536,500; Minnesota, $243,500; Iowa, $700,000; Missouri, $1,330,- 600; North Dakota, $55,000; South Dakota, $70,000; Nebraska, $185,000; Kansas, $220,- 500. Total $6,469,000. Western division. Montana, $95,000; Wy- oming, $70,000; Colorado, $448,000; New Mexico, $25,000 ; Arizona, $29,000 ; Utah, $25,- ooo; Nevada, $15,000; Washington, $387,500; Oregon, $100,000; California, $1,367,500. To- tal $2,562,000. Porto Rico, $150,000. Rhode Island, Delaware, Mississippi, Ar- kansas and Idaho are the only states or ter- ritories that have not been the recipients of Mr. Carnegie's generosity. Gifts to countries other than the United States are recorded to the amount of $5,861,- 350, making Mr. Carnegie's total gift to li- braries $44,366,950. On Jan. 7, of this year, the Carnegie Libra- ry at Washington was dedicated. In the course of an address on that occasion Mr. Carnegie said: "I have helped found 730 libraries and have 800 more under advise- ment." If 730 libraries represent a gift of $44,366950, the total of 1530 constructed and contemplated may represent a gift of $100,- 000,000. With such a bow-of-promise, consideration of the past, brilliant with achievement as it is, may well give way to dreams of the future. ALABAMA. EUFAULA. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 10, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. CALIFORNIA. ALTURAS. Public Library. Ex-Senator Laird has offered to give the town a library build- ing. The offer is conditioned on the insti- tution bearing his name. BERKELEY. Public Library. $40,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Feb. 25, 1903. Site for the building from Mrs. Rosa M. Shattuck. University of California Library. $11,400 for books on history from Claits Spreckels. $2500 for books on physiology from William H. Crocker. $500 for books on engineering from Mrs. A. S. Hallidie. Given annually. HARRISON. BERKELEY. University of California Library. $500 for books on philosophy and compara- tive literature from James K. Moffitt. Given annually. $600 for books on classical philology from Mrs. Jane K. Sather. Given an- nually. OAKLAND. Public Library. $5000 raised by subscription, from the ladies of the Ebell Society, for the equipment of the children's room. PALO ALTO. Public Library. $ 10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Ac- cepted March 3, 1903. $2250 for a site, contributed by citizens. PASADENA. Public Library. Miss Susan B. Stickney has supplemented Mrs. Bowler's gift (mentioned in last year's report) by donating a number of volumes on sculp- ture and several fine pieces of statuary. A section of the library will be set aside for these gifts and be known under the names of the donors. PETALUMA. Public Library. $12,500, Jan. 22, 1903, for a building from Andrew Car- negie. SAN BERNARDINO. Public Library. $5000 ad- ditional from Andrew Carnegie, making total gift $20,000. SAN DIEGO. Public Library. $1600 from George W. Marston, for improvement of lawn and grounds. SANTA ANA. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. STANFORD UNIVERSITY. Leland Stanford, Jr., University. It was announced on Dec. 9, 1902, that Mrs. Jane Lathrop Stanford would erect a magnificent new library building for the university. VISALIA. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 10, 1903, for a building from Andrew Car- negie. COLORADO. COLORADO CITY. Public Library. $10,000, March 24, 1903, for a building from An- drew Carnegie. COLORADO SPRINGS. Coburn Library of Colo- rado College. A set of ten volumes on the great operas from Mrs. B. P. Cheney, of Wellesley, Mass. It is known as the "Me- morial water-color edition" and is valued at $1000. Public Library. $60,000, Jan. 2, 1903, for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Ac- cepted. Site for the building from Gen. William J. Palmer. CONNECTICUT. BRISTOL. Public Library. $4118.62, received in June, 1902, a bequest from Mrs. Augus- tine Norton. It will probably be held as a nucleus for a building fund. DERBY. Public Library. $50,000 from Mr. and Mrs. H. Boltpn Wood for a fully equipped and furnished library building. (This gift is recorded in the report for 1901, but the amount had not then been made known.) ELLINGTON. Public Library. $30,000, a be- quest from Francis Hall, of Elmira, N. Y. HARTFORD. Case Memorial Library of the Hartford Theological Seminary. 360 vol- umes. Name of donor not given. '$1000 to be added to the fund for the purchase of periodicals. Name of donor not given. Connecticut Historical Society. A copy of the "Connecticut law book of 1673," of which only eight copies are known to be in existence. The gift is valued at $1000. Name of donor not given. Public Library. $2000, a bequest from John S. Wells. Trinity College Library. 1044 miscella- neous volumes from Sidney G. Fisher, class of '79. MERIDEN. Public Library. $1000 from Franklin T. Ives, made on the condition that the works of Voltaire and Thomas Paine should be added to the library. MIDDLETOWN. Wesleyan University Library. From the United States government the war tax paid on the Hunt legacy. After deducting certain expenses the amount added from this source to the Hunt Li- brary endowment was $2065.50. In addi- tion, $434.50 have been transferred from income to principal, increasing the endow- ment to $30,000. NEW HAVEN. Yale University Library. As- sociate Justice George Shiras, Jr., of the United States supreme court, has pre- sented his law library to the university. NORWICH. Otis Library. $2000, a bequest from Mrs. Lafayette S. Foster. SOUTHPORT. Pequot Library. 1542 volumes. Name of donor not given. WATERBURY. Silas Branson Library. $50,- ooo from Henry Peck. DELAWARE. WILMINGTON. Wilmington Institute Free Library. $1331.96 from a friend. DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. WASHINGTON. Georgetown University. The Hirsh Library the library of the senior students of the university has been com- pleted by Dr. Anthony A. Hirsh, of Phila- delphia, at a cost of $4500. Library of Congress. Miss Susan B. An- thony will present her entire library of works on woman suffrage and allied sub- jects to the library. Public Library. $350,000, for branch li- braries, from Andrew Carnegie. Smithsonian Institution. General John Watts de Peyster presented to the insti- tution in November. 1902, a valuable col- lection of books and pamphlets relating to Napoleon, to be known as the "Watts de Peyster collection, Napoleon Bonaparte." GEORGIA. ATHENS. Public Library. $50,000 for a building from George Peabody. 114 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. AUGUSTA. Public Library. $50,000, Jan. 22, 1903, for a building from Andrew Car- negie. SAVANNAH. Public Library. $100,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. ILLINOIS. BATAVIA. Public Library. $9000 for a build- ing and grounds from Mrs. D. C. Newton. CARROLLTON. Public Library. $500 from Mrs. C. M. Kelsay. CHICAGO. Chicago Art Institute. $1000 for the purchase of books, a bequest from Huntington W. Jackson. Chicago Bible Society. $1000 for the pur- chase of books, a bequest from Huntington W. Jackson. Chicago Historical Society. $1000 for the purchase of books, a bequest from Hunt- ington W. Jackson. $1000 toward the purchase of the stat- utes of the Northwest Territory from Dr. O. L. Schmidt. 314 volumes and 20 maps relating to Chicago from H. S. Kerfoot, Jr. Chicago Law Institute. $1000 for the pur- chase of books, a bequest from Huntington W. Jackson. Chicago Literary Club. $1000 for the pur- chase of books, a bequest from Huntington W. Jackson. Chicago Society for Home Teaching and Free Library for the Blind. $1000 for the purchase of books, a bequest from Hunting- ton W. Jackson. Field Columbian Museum. $1000 for the purchase of books, a bequest from Hunting- ton W. Jackson. John Crerar Library. 300 volumes of state documents from the Massachusetts State Library. Northwestern University Law School. Complete reports of decisions by the su- preme courts of Germany, France, Spain, Austria and other European countries from Elbert H. Gary, class of '67. The collec- tion numbers 3000 volumes. ELKHART. Public Library. $10,000 for a li- brary building and a site comprising three lots from Jessie D. Gillett. The library will be a memorial to her mother, Mrs. John D. Gillett. The town has voted a two mill tax for its support. EVANSTON. Northwestern University Libra- ry. $3244 for the purchase of books. Names of donors not given. EVANSVILLE. Public Library. $10,000, a be- quest from Almeron Eager for a free public library to be known as the "Eager Library." GREENVILLE. Greenville College Library. 3000 volumes from the Rev. E. M. Sandys, of Pittsburgh, Pa. HOOPESTON. Public Library. $12,500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. A site from Alba Honeywell. LA GRANGE. Public Library. $12,500, Apr. 2, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie, LITCHFIELD. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 8, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. PAXTON. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 30, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. ROCK ISLAND. Public Library. $2500 toward the library building fund from F. C. A. Denkmann. $2500 toward the library building fund from Frederick Weyerhaeuser. SHELBYVILLE. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Feb. 7, 1903. 1000 volumes from citizens. 800 volumes from the high school li- brary. 300 volumes from the Woman's Club,. secured by means of a "book shower." SPRINGFIELD. Public Library. $10,000 from Jessie D. Gillett. STERLING. Public Library. $15,000, Jan. 2, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. TAYLORVILLE. Public Library. $12,000, March 30, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. WILMETTE. Public Library. $10,000, March 28, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. INDIAN TERRITORY. ARDMORE. Public Library. $15,000, April 4,. 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. CHICKASHA. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted April 4, 1903. A site from J. B. Kelsey. INDIANA. ANDERSON. Public Library. $50,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted May 19, 1902. ATTICA. Public Library. $10,000 for a build- ing from Andrew Cnrnegie. The Ladies' Library Association has given to the city for the benefit of the new library its little library building, which is valued at about $iooc. 1500 volumes, costing some $3000, have been donated by the same association. BLUFFTON. Public Library. $14,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. $4000 for a site from citizens. CARTHAGE. Henry Henley Public Library. $1000 additional from the children of Henry Henley, making t.heir total gift $3000. $2000 additional from citizens, making the total gift to the library from this source $3000. EVANSVILLE. Public Library. $13,500, Jan. 7, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. GREENSBURG. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. HANOVER. Hanover College Library. $25,000 from Mrs. Eliza S. Hendricks, widow of ex- Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks, for a library building in memory of her husband. JEFFERSONVILLE. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from ATI drew Carnegie. HARRISON. LEBANON. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 9, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. LOGANSPORT. Public Library. $10,000 addi- tional from Anirew Carnegie, making a total of $35,000. MOUNT VERNON. Public Library. $12,500, Jan. 4, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. A house and farm valued at $7500 from Mrs. H. Alexander. Intended as an en- dowment fund for the new library. NAKOMA. Public Library. $20,000 for a building from Ancrew Carnegie. ORLAND. Public Library. $4000, and also a library room, with income from rental of store below it, from William Joyce. PRINCETON. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted. RENSSELAER. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. SHELBYVILLE. Public Library. $5000 addi- tional from Andrew Carnegie, making total of $20,000. SULLIVAN. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 15, 1903, for a building from Andrew Carnegie. TERRE HAUTE. Public Library. $50,000 for a building from Crawford Fairbanks. The gift is a memorial to his mother, and the library will be known as the "Emeline Fairbanks Library.'' TIPTON. Public Library. $5000 from Mrs. Elbert H. Shirk as an endowment fund to be known as the "Elbert H. Shirk Mem- orial Library Fund." The income is to be used for the purchase of books. VINCENNES. Public Library. $20,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. IOWA. AMES. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 10, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. BOONE. Public Library. $500 for the pur- chase of books from Frank Champlin. CARROLL. Public Library. $10,000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. CHARITON. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted in January, 1903. CHARLES CITY. Public Library. $12,500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted in January, 1903. COUNCIL BLUFFS. Public Library. $20,000 additional from Andrew Carnegie, making total of $70,000. DUBUQUE. Carnegie-Stout Free Public Li- brar.y. $12,000 from citizens, given in amounts ranging from small sums to $1000, for the purpose of shelving and furnishing the new library building. $2500 from Judge O. P. Shiras. $1000 is to be used for furnishing the art room, $1000 for pictures and $500 for an Austrian vase. GRINNELL. Iowa College Library. $50,000, March 31, 1903, for a building, from An- drew Carnegie. The offer has been ac- cepted. INDIANOLA. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. IOWA CITY. Public Library. $10,000, April 14, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. MARENGO. Public Library. $10,000, March 31, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. MARION. Public Library. $10,000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted March 30, 1903. MONTICELLO. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted March 31, 1903. MOUNT PLEASANT. Public Library. $15,- ooo, Jan. 30, 1903, for a building, from An- drew Carnegie. OELWEIN. Public Library. $25,000, Jan. i, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. PERRY. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 6, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. SHENANDOAH. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. SPENCER. Public Library. $10,000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. VINTON. Public Library. $10,000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted. WAVERLY. Public Library. $16,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. KANSAS. ATCHISON. Midland College Library. 456 volumes, bequest from a graduate. BALDWIN. Baker University Library. $10,000 from a friend. EMPORIA. College of Emporia. Anderson Memorial Library. 711 volumes and pam- phlets from Hon. George W. Martin, of Topeka, Kan. All the books in the collec- tion, which the donor was 30 years in ac- quiring, either relate to Kansas, are by Kansans or were printed in the state. LAWRENCE. Public Library. Site for the new Carnegie Library from Mrs. Charles P. Grosvenor. MANHATTAN. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 4, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. Accepted. TOPEKA. Kansas State Historical Society. 4921 volumes and pamphlets on politics and finance, also 120 bound volumes of maga- zines. Washburn College Library. 1000 law books, valued at $4000, from Hon. T. W. Har- rison. KENTUCKY. ASHLAND. Public Library. $25,000, May 8, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. PARIS. Public Library. $12,000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Jan. 2, 1903. $8700 from the musical and literary clubs of the city for the purchase of a site and equipment for the new Carnegie library building. LOUISIANA. BATON ROUGE. Hill Memorial Library of the Louisiana State University. $8000 addi- n6 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. tional from John Hill, of East Baton Rouge Parish, making a total gift of $33,- ooo for a library building as a memorial to his son, John Hill. Jr. NEW ORLEANS. Public Library. $250,000 for a library building and branches from An- drew Carnegie. Accepted March 10, 1903. SHREVEPORT. Public Library. $30,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. MAINE. AUBURN. Public Library. $25,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Feb. 2, 1903. BANGOR. Public Library. $10,000, a bequest from Mrs. Harriet S. Griswold, to be used for the erection of a new building. BRUNSWICK. Bowdoin College Library. $500 from the class of '75, for the purchase of books on American history. Public Library. $15,000 and a site for a building from W. J. Curtis, of New York City. The gift was accepted at a special town meeting held Feb. 2, 1903. Mr. Carnegie withdrew his offer in favor of Mr. Curtis. HOULTON. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted March 22, 1903. PITTSFIELD. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Feb. 7, 1903. $5000 from Robert Dabson & Co. Part of this gift will be used for the purchase of a site and the rest added to the library building fund. PORTLAND. Maine Historical Society. $6306.33 from various individuals and associations. It was given toward the erection of a li- brary building on the Longfellow lot in ac- cordance with the deed of gift from Mrs. Anne L. Pierce. $2000, a bequest from Mary L. Green- leaf, of Cambridge, Mass. WISCASSETT. Public Library. $4000, April 4, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. MARYLAND. BALTIMORE. Johns Hopkins University Li- brary. A sum of money, amount not stated, for the establishment of a collection of books under the style of "The Rowland Memorial Library." 2000 volumes in the Hebrew language to be incorporated in the Strouse Semitic Library. Maryland Diocesan Library. 360 volumes from the Rev. Dr. John W. Nott, of Mt. Savage, Md. The gift includes several in- cunabula, early editions of the classics and a number of valuable works in Syriac and other oriental languages. MASSACHUSETTS. ACTON. Public Library. $4000, a bequest from W. A. Wilde, of Maiden, Mass. AMHERST. Amherst College Library. $25.- ooo, in June, 1902, from Col. Mason W. Tyler, class of '62, of Plainfield, N. J., the income to be expended for books in the de- partment of English, history, Greek and Latin. ARLINGTON. Robbins Library. From Win- field Robbins a large number of portraits, mostly engravings. ASHLAND. Public Library. A legacy from Ella F. Wiggins, amounting to $392.34. ATTLEBOROUGH. Public Library. A choice site for a library building from J. L. Sweet. BOSTON. Massachusetts Historical Society. $100,000 from the Sibley estate. New England Historic Genealogical So- ciety. $10,000, a bequest from the Robert Charles Billings estate. $?io, a bequest from Edward J. Browne. Public Library. $100,000, a bequest from Robert Charles Billings, of Boston. The income alone is to be used, and is to be ap- plied to the purchase of books. $5000, a bequest from John A. Lewis. Received in May, 1903. 2885 volumes, the library of Anna Tick- nor Library Association, presented by that association in July, 1902. Charles Eliot Norton has presented to the library his personal set of Broadsides, of which he was editor, issued by the New England Publication Society in 1863-65. BRIDGEWATER. Public Library. $500 from Samuel P. Gates. BRIMFIELD. Public Library. A library build- ing has been offered the town by James Danielson Lincoln, and been accepted. It is to be a memorial to his mother and wife and to be known as the "Danielson-Lincoln Memorial Library." BROCKTON. Public Library. $1000, a bequest from Mrs. Abby Baker Kingman. It was announced Feb. 18, 1903, but is not yet available. CAMBRIDGE. Harvard Divinity School Library. looo volumes on New Testament study, a bequest from the late Prof. J. H. Thayer. Harvard University Library. From John Drew, the actor, the collection of theatrical history and biography of Robert W. Lowe, who died in London last year. It contains 789 rare books and 47 pamphlets, which, be- fore being placed on general sale in Lon- don, was offered to Harvard at a special price of $1000. $1050 for books relating to the Ottoman Empire, the Slavic countries and to Mo- rocco from Assistant Professor Archibald Gary Coolidge. $1369 in subscriptions collected by Ed- gar H. Wells for the purchase of books in English literature of the period between 1660 and 1790. From James H. Hyde, of New York City, 1514 volumes and 970 pamphlets from the library of Ferdinand Bocher. Of these 938 volumes relate to Moliere, 246 to Mon- taigne and 332 are miscellaneous in charac- ter. HARRISON. 117 CAMBRIDGE. Harvard University Library. From George von L. Meyer, U. S. Ambas- sador to Italy, and Harry Nelson Gay, 339 volumes and 325 pamphlets relating to Italian political history from 1814 to 1871. 1700 volumes from the library of the late E. W. Hooper. Harvard University Astronomical Library. $10,000 from a friend for the purpose of en- larging the library building. Public Library. $7359, a bequest from Miss Abigail L. Prentiss, to be known as the William E. Saunders fund, in honor of her nephew. Part of the fund has been in- vested and the remainder will be allowed to accumulate until the total of the fund amounts to $7500. The income will be used for the purchase of books relating to New England history and genealogy. Under the will of Lucius R. Paige, the historian of Cambridge, the library has re- ceived a collection of letters relating to lo- cal history. CHARLEMONT. Public Library. Nearly 1900 volumes from the library of the late Hon. Joseph White, of Williamstown. CHESHIRE. Public Library. 250 volumes from A. L. Brown, of New York, a part of the collection of his father, Warren Brown. CLINTON. Public Library. $15,000, a bequest from George W. Weeks for a site for the new Carnegie library building. CONCORD. Public Library. $10,000, a bequest from William Munroe, the donor of the li- brary building and of a library fund, has become available during the year by the death of the person holding it for life. DOUGLAS. Public Library. $25,000, name of donor not made public, for a library build- ing. DRACUT. Public Library. The Varnum Li- brary Society of Pawtucketville, Lowell, having abandoned the purpose of its organ- ization, has voted to the Dracut Public Li- brary all its personal property, including about 400 bound volumes, several years' is- sues of the most popular magazines, furni- ture, and nearly $200 in money. EAST BRIDGEPORT. Public Library. $2000, a bequest from the late Mrs. Nancy Rust, to be known as the "Rust fund," the income of which is to be applied for the purchase of books. EDGARTOWN. Public Library. $4000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. EVERETT. Public Library. $500 willed by George N. Benedict, who died in 1888; pay- ment had been suspended by litigation. HAWLEY. Public Library. About 700 vol- umes from the old Con way Library, a gift from Marshall Field, of Chicago. HOLLISTON. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 22, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. HOLYOKE. Public Library. $10,000 from J. Pierpont Morgan. HUDSON. Public Library. $12,500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted May 6, 1003. LAWRENCE. Public Library. $500 for the pur- chase of reference books from the White fund trustees of the library. LEE. Public Library. Through Peter De Baun, of Lee, 250 volumes from the Me- chanics' Institute of New York. LEICESTER. Public Library. From Mrs. Eliza Gilmore, a portrait of Rev. Samuel May its greatest benefactor together with the sum of $500 to provide a suitable frame, and to increase the fund bequeathed to the library by Mary E. Joslin, the artist of the portrait. LEOMINSTER. Public Library. $5000 from the estate of Robert Charles Billings. LITTLETON. Public Library. From E. M. Raymond, Gilbert Stuart's painting, called "The market girl." LOWELL. Public Library. $140,000, a bequest of John Davis. The library will not come into possession of the money for two years. LYNN. Public Library. From Charles W. Bubier, of Providence, painting by George Inness, "The Jersey shore." LYNNFIELD. Public Library. $1000, a bequest from Mary U. Nash. MALDEN. Public Library. $8000, a bequest from Mrs. Kate L. Hoyle, to establish the Syfferman memorial fund for the purchase of books. MARLBOROUGH. Public Library. From John A. Frye and the Hon. S. Herbert Howe a lot valued at $6000 as the site for the new library building, for which Andrew Car- negie has given $30,000. $3000 from individuals toward the build- ing fund. 2700 volumes, given by individuals. MELROSE. Public Library. $1500 from A. P. Jones toward the new Carnegie library. $1000 from Daniel Russell. $1000 from Moses Page. $1000 from S. S. Houghton. MERRIMAC. Public Library. By the will of the late James Whittier the library trustees came into possession of a dwelling house, the rent of which will be available for the purchase of books. NEEDHAM. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 20, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. NORTHAMPTON. Forbes Library. $500 from the trustees of Smith College "as a recog- nition of their grateful appreciation of the services of the library to the students of Smith College." It is understood that the gift is to be an annual one. PITTSFIELD. Berkshire Athenaum. Hon. Zenas Crane, of Dalton, Mass., on March 31, 1903, presented to the trustees of the Athenaeum a deed conveying to them a new and completely equipped museum of natural history and art, together with the land on which it stands. The estimated value of the gift is $100,000. Painting by Bouguereau from Hon. W. Murray Crane, ex-governor of Massachu- setts. n8 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. PITTSFIELD. Berkshire Athenceum. From un- named friends the two volumes of "The Birds and Eggs of Ohio," valued at $500. PLYMOUTH. Public Library. 3000 volumes, a bequest from Mrs. Lucy J. Parker, of Bos- ton. PLYMPTON. Public Library. $3000 from an unknown friend. $1200 from the Village Improvement So- ciety. READING. Public Library. $12,500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. ROCHESTER. Public Library. $500, a bequest from Mrs. Elizabeth G Leonard. 400 volumes, a bequest from Mrs. Eliz- abeth G. Leonard. ROWLEY. Public Library. $10,000, a bequest from David E. Smith. SALEM. Essex Institute. $20,000, a bequest from Captain William J. Chever, of North Andover, Mass. $5000, a bequest from .Dr. William Mack, the income to be used for the pur- chase of rare and expensive medical books. Public Library. $25,588.08 from the estate of the late Walter Scott Dickson, being the library's share of the residue under the will. This is in addition .to the $10,000 recorded in the report on "Gifts and bequests" for 1901. $5000, a bequest from Captain William J. Chever. SHUTESBURY. Public Library. $1580, a be- quest from Mirick N. Spear, late of Am- herst, Mass. SOUTHAMPTON. Public Library. $1000, a be- quest from Mrs. Phebe T Sheldon. SOUTH HADLEY FALLS CENTRE. Public Li- brary. $25,000 for a library building at South Hadley Centre from William H. Gaylord, of South Hadley. The gift was contingent upon the location of the build- ing upon a site owned by a Village Ceme- tery Association, and has been accepted by a chartered society, which will be known as the Gaylord Memorial Association. Mr. Gaylord also will give $10,000 as a permanent fund, the income of which is to be used for the purchase of books. SPRINGFIELD. City Library Association. $500, a bequest from Dr. J. Searle Hurlbut, the in- come to be spent for dental books. STOUGHTON. Public Library. From a former resident of the town, name not made pub- lic, offer of a library building to cost $25,- ooo, if the town will purchase a suitable lot and agree to maintain a room in the building for the use of the historical so- ciety. TAUNTON. Public Library. $10,000 addition- al from Andrew Carnegie, making total of $70,000. UXBRIDGE. Public Library. Mrs. Sarah L. Macomber, who died four years ago, willed to the trustees of the library $1000, "to use for the benefit and assistance of worthy young persons struggling to obtain an edu- cation, either by free public lectures or otherwise as shall seem to them wise, the same to be thus used and expended within five years from her death." The estate has but recently been settled, and the bequest has dwindled to $750, which will probably be expended for lectures and books. WENDELL. Public Library. 428 volumes from Marshall Field, of Chicago, being part of the old library of Conway. WEYMOUTH. Fogg Library. $674.22, the proceeds of a fair held under the auspices of the South Weymouth Improvement As- sociation. WILLIAMSTOWN. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 24, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. Williams College Library. 852 volumes from Prof. Henry Loomis Nelson. 275 volumes from the library of the late Hon. Joseph White, class of '36. WORCESTER. Public Library. $3000, a be- quest from John Green, the principal founder of the library. It is to be added to the Green library fund, which it will in- crease to about $54,000. MICHIGAN. ADRIAN. Public Library. $10,000, April 1, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. ANN ARBOR. Public Library. $20,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. BELDING. Public Library. $10,000, March 25, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. CHARLOTTE. Public Library. $2000 addi- tional from Andrew Cainegie, making total of $12,000. DOWAGIAC. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Jan. 15, 1903. The Ladies' Library and School Library will be merged into the city library. $2500 for a site for the new building. FLINT. Public Library. $15,000, Dec. 29^ 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. GRAND HAVEN. Public Library. $15,000, Jan. 23, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. IONIA. Public Library. Mrs. Marion Fow- ler, of Palo Alto, Cal., has given the family homestead as a memorial library building, to be known as the "Hall-Fowler Library." ISHPEMING. Public Library. $5000 addition- al from Andrew Carnegie, making a total gift of $25,000. MANISTEE. Public Library. $35,000, May 12, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. MARQUETTE. Public Library. $5000 from M. Kauffman. PLAINESVILLE. Public Library. $30,000 from William A. Payne. TECUMSEH. Public Library. $8000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted" March 3, 1903. HARRISON. 119 THREE RIVERS. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Ac- cepted Oct. 20, 1902. A site from W. J. Milits. TRAVERSE CITY. Public Library. $20,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. MINNESOTA. ANOKA. Public Library. $12,500, April I, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. BRAINERD. Public Library. $12,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. RED WING. Public Library. $2000 additional from Andrew Carnegie, making total of $17,000. $4500 for a site from James Lawther. ST. CLOUD. Public Library. $5000 for a site for the new Carnegie library from the Ladies' Reading-Room Society. $1425, a further donation from the same society. Of this amount $1000 was spent in furnishing the reading-room and $425 for four red granite pillars. $600 for books from the same society. A handsomely engraved metal tablet in- scribed to Andrew Carnegie, valued at $300, has been presented to the library by Judge L. W. Collins. ST. PETER. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 9, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. SAUK CENTER. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Ac- cepted Feb. 17, 1903- SPRING VALLEY. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. WHITEWATER. Public Library. $12,000 for a building from Sylvia White, of Minne- apolis. WILLMAR. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. WINONA. Public Library. "After the bat- tle," a painting by Seymour Thomas, from Mr. and Mrs. F. S. Bell. MISSOURI. CARTHAGE. Public Library. $25,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. COLUMBIA. University of Missouri Library. goo volumes of government publications, a gift from ex-Senaror George G. Vest. KIRKVILLE. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. MOBERLY. Public Library. $20,000, March 30, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. ST. Louis. Public Library. $245,000, chiefly from the board of directors of the St. Louis Union Trust Company. The amount was used to pay the debts of the old exposition company, which was necessary in order to fulfil the conditions of the city ordinance granting as a building site for the main li- brary the double block on which part of the exposition is situated. The site cannot be 1 used until after 1004, The gift of the di- rectors of the trust company was funda- mental to the acceptance of Mr. Carnegie's offer. $15,000 for a branch library building site from William Barr. SEDALIA. Public Library. $1000 for juvenile books for the children's room, from the people of the city through a committee of citizens. MONTANA. LIVINGSTON. Public Library. $10,000, March 2 3, J 903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. MISSOULA. Public Library. $12,500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted in February, 1903. NEBRASKA. FALLS CITY. Public Library. $10,000 for a building and books from Lydia B. Woods. HASTINGS. Public Library. $15,000, Jan. 3, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. Accepted. KEARNEY. Public Library. Boo volumes. Name of donor not given. NORTH PLATTE. Young Men's Christian As- sociation Reading Room. $1000 for books from Helen Gould. OMAHA. Public Library. Herbarium and cases given by William Cleburne contain 2200 species of pteridophytes and sperma- tophytes belonging to 800 genera, collected mainly in the states of Nebraska, Kan- sas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho. The species are represented by numerous duplicates obtained from widely distant lo- calities. The museum is under the library management and housed in the same build- ing. PLATTESMOUTH. Public Library. $1861.12 toward a building from various citizens. SEWARD. Public Library. 420 volumes. Name of donor not given. NEW HAMPSHIRE. CORNISH. Public Library. Library rooms have been fitted up by Winston Churchill. IPSWICH. Public Library. $4000, a bequest from Mrs. G. M. Hubbard. PORTSMOUTH. Public Library. $5000, a be- quest from Hon. Frank Jones. NEW JERSEY. ATLANTIC CITY. Public Library. $60,000 for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. Ac- cepted in February, 1903. looo volumes from the Woman's Re- search Club. This gift, forming the nu- cleus of the library, was accepted in March, 1902. BAYONNE. Public Library. $50,000, April 13, 1003, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. BLOOMFIELD. Jarvis Memorial Library. $1000 for reference books. Name of the donor not made public. I2O NIAGARA CONFERENCE. BOUND BROOK. Public Library. A building given by the La Monte family. CAMDEN. Public Library. $100,000 for a building and two branches from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Feb. 26, 1903. It is provided that the central building shall cost $80,000 and the branches $10,000 each. FREEHOLD. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 2, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. Accepted. Money for a site is being raised by pop- ular subscription. MADISON. Drew Theological Seminary Li- brary. 3822 volumes and 1700 pamphlets, the library of the late Rev. Dr. Robert Crook, formerly president of Belfast Col- lege, Ireland, from Anderson Fowler of New York City. 298 volumes, a collection of books on Africa, from the Rev. Dr. J. C. Hartzell, Bishop of Africa. MONTCLAIR. Public Library. $10,000 addi- tional from Andrew Carnegie, making to- tal of $40,000. NEWARK. Public Library. $500 from Henry C. Rew, the donor of the library building. PASSAIC. Jane Watson Reid Memorial Li- brary. $10,000 from Peter Reid, the founder of the library, for the purchase of books. PRINCETON. Theological Seminary Library. 564 volumes from vhe Rev. Dr. Francis L. Patton. .Princeton University Library. $2500 for books from the classical seminar from G. A. Armour. 800 volumes from C. A. McAlpin. 775 volumes from Mrs. W. Humphreys. SOMERVILLE. Public Library. A new library building is being paid for by individual con- tributions. SUMMIT. Public Library. $15,000 for a li- brary building and site from W. J. Curtis. The library will be known as the "Captain Curtis Memorial Library," in honor of his father. NEW YORK. ALBION. Public Library. Mrs. George Hop- kins, of Brooklyn, N. Y., widow of the late editor of the Scientific American, has pre- sented her husband's library of scientific works. AUBURN. Auburn Theological Seminary Li- brary. $8000, a bequest from Anson Judd Upson, available at the death of Mrs. Up- son. The income of the gift is to be used for books. ELMIRA. Public Library. $31,500, a bequest from Francis Hall. GENEVA. Hobart College Library. $1000 from Mrs. C. D. Vail for the direct pur- chase of books; in March, 1903, a further gift from Mrs. Vail, of the Charles Dela- mater Vail fund of $5000, an endowment of which the income is to be used annually for the purchase of books. GOSHEN. Public Library. $5000, Feb. 5, 1903, for a building from Andrew Carnegie. GRAHAMSVILLE. Daniel Pierce Library. $3300 toward a building. Name of donor not given. GRANVILLE. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. HORNELLSVILLE. Public Library. $25,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Ac- cepted Jan. 26, 1903. IRVINGTON. Public Library. $10,000 for fur- nishing the library from Helen Gould. ITHACA. Cornell University Library. The Egyptological library of the late Professor Eisenlohr, of Heidelberg University, pur- chased for the library by A. Abraham, of Brooklyn. The collection cost $2300, and numbers about 900 volumes, including com- plete sets of all the important Egyptological journals and transactions, many costly fac- similes of Egyptian papyri, etc. 300 volumes of historical works from ex-President Andrew D. White. 253 volumes on modern literature from Theodore Stanton, class of '76. JAMAICA, L. I. Public Library. $3000 from Jacob Lawson. MASSAPEQUA. School Library. $1500, a be- quest from De Lincey Floyd-Jones. MEDINA. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 15, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. NEW BERLIN. Public Library. 680 volumes, comprising two parish libraries. NEW YORK. American Museum of Natural History. 358 volumes, valued at $1250, from three donors whose names are not given. Association of the Bar Library. $2500, to be added to the library fund, from John E. Parsons. Columbia University Library. $10,000 for the purchase of books. The name of the donor is withheld. New York Historical Society. $142,000, a bequest from Mrs. Cornelius B. De Peyster, available on the death of her daughters. $50,000, bequest from Eugene Augus- tus Hoffman, late dean of the General The- ological Seminary of New York. New York University Library. $2500 from Helen Miller Gould. $600 from James Loeb. $600 from the woman's advisory com- mittee. 480 volumes from Oswald Ottendorfer. 327 volumes from William F. Have- meyer. Public Library. $10.000 for books for the Semitic department from J. H. Schiff. By the will of Paul Leicester Ford his private library, on the death of his brother, is to go to the public library. 1316 volumes c-nd 5215 pamphlets from the Railroad Gazette. 981 volumes and 132 pamphlets from Mrs. R. G. Beardslee. HARRISON. 121 NEW YORK. Public Library. 1108 volumes and 6345 pamphlets, including government documents, reports of institutions and man- uscripts, from the Rev. D. Stuart Dodge. 904 volumes, 770 pamphlets and 161 prints from Mrs. Henry Draper. 349 volumes and 155 pamphlets from the American Agriculturist. 345 volumes and 760 pamphlets from the Century Association. 287 volumes and 376 pamphlets from the Comptroller of the City of New York. 270 volumes and 1130 pamphlets from the Methodist library. 2783 prints from Harper & Brothers. 345 prints from Frederick Keppel. 338 prints from Charles Scribner's Sons. Union Theological Seminary Library. 2000 volumes, belonging principally to the va- rious branches of theology, from the late Dr. Philip Schaff. NORTH TONAWANDA. Public Library. $20,- ooo for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted April 14, 1903. OGDENSBURG. Public Library. $5000, a be- quest from Mrs. Mary D. Bean. ONEIDA. Public Library. $4000 additional from Andrew Carnegie, making total of $15,000. PAWLING. Public Library. $170,000 for a building and the maintenance of a library, a bequest from A. J. Akin, late of New York City. PENN YAN. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. The offer is still to be acted on. $3000 has been promised for a site. POUGHKEEPSIE. Vassar College Library. $30,000 for a new library building. The name of the donor is withheld, but is sup- posed to be John D. Rockefeller. RIVERDALE. Library Association. Three lots, valued at $4500, for a building site. ROCHESTER. University of Rochester Library. $1360, a fund for the purchase of books in Italian, Spanish and French. The donors are J. S. Fassett, class of '75 ', F. R. Wells, class of '75 ; E. O. Sage, class of '53 ; G. D. Hale, class of '70; W. S. Hubbell, class of '71, and A. P. Little, class of '72. SCHENECTADY. Union College Library. $40,- ooo from Andrew Carnegie for completing Nott Memorial Hall, to be used as a library building. SOLVAY. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 14, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. SOMERSWORTH. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. SYRACUSE. Syracuse University Library. $875 for the purchase of books, from the Historical Association of the university. Friends of the Semitic department have given funds to enable it to purchase some 450 volumes and 500 pamphlets. A fund has been started by William A. Peck, of Scranton, Pa., for the purchase of books to be placed in the "Peck alcove." The fund is a memorial to members of the family who have been Methodist ministers. 600 volumes, the library of the late Rev. J. L. Edson. 250 volumes, the library of the late Rev. D. D. Buck. TARRYTOWN. Hackley School Library. $5000 for a fund. Name of donor not given. $6coo for books. Name of donor not given. THOUSAND ISLAND PARK. Public Library. $10,000, or $15,000, if needed, from Mrs. E. B. Holden, of New York City, to the Thou- sand Island Park Association, for the pur- pose of a public nbrary. TUXEDO. Tuxedo Park Library. $17,000 for a building, given by residents of Tuxedo. UNION SPRINGS. Springport Free Library. 300 volumes from Kate S. Chittenden. UTICA. Public Library. $5000, the income to be used for the purchase of books, a be- quest from Dr. Anson Judd Upson. 1091 volumes from the Faxton Hall Association. Received in March, 1903. WARWICK. Young Men's Christian Associa- tion Library. 295 volumes from the War- wick Book Club and the Warwick Athletic Association. NORTH CAROLINA. CHAPEL HILL. University of North Carolina Library. 400 volumes. Name of donor not given. WILMINGTON. Public Library. $25,000, Jan. 13, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. OHIO. CANTON. Public Library. $25,000, a bequest from Mrs. Katharine Barron Aultman. $10.000 additional from Andrew Car- negie, making total $60,000. CINCINNATI. Public Library. $51,000 from Halsey Hubbard. 258 volumes and 182 pamphlets from R. B. Bowler. 234 books, 228 pamphlets and 168 pic- tures from the Cincinnati Theosophical So- ciety. CLEVELAND. Public Library. $250,000 for seven branch library buildings, from An- drew Carnegie. Accepted April 4, 1903. Western Reserve University. $100,000 as an endowment fund for the establishment and maintenance of a school of library training in connection with the university, from Andrew Carnegie. $1600 from alumni and friends. $1000 from W. S. Tyler. $ 5 oo from J. H. Wade. 55500 from E. W. Oglebay. $500 from Samuel Mather. COLUMBUS. Ohio State University Library. 866 text books, 1300 pamphlets, 154 vol- umes and 356 bound and unbound volumes of magazines, all on educational subjects, presented by the family of the late Dr. Emerson E. White. 122 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. COLUMBUS. Public Library. $50,000 addi- tional from Andrew Carnegie, making a to- tal gift of $200,000. COSHOCTON. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted in January, 1903. GALLIPOLIS. Public Library. $12,500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted in January, 1903. GLENVILLE. Public Library. $40,000 from Andrew Carnegie. GREENVILLE. Public Library. $5000 from Henry St. Clair. Reference library, valued at $10,000, from Henry St. C'air. KENT. Public Library. $1000 from Fanny E. and Claribel R. Barnett, to be known as the "George and Lucina Barnett Memorial fund," the income of which is to be used for the purchase of reference books. LIMA. Public Library., $30,000 from An- drew Carnegie. $1000 contributed towards a site. LONDON. Public Library. $10,000 from An- drew Carnegie. LORAIN. Public Library. $30,000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted July 21, 1903. MANSFIELD.. Memorial Library Association. $35,000, April 6, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. MARION. Public Library. $25,000, July 12, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. NORWALK. Public Library. $75,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted March 25, 1903. OBERLIN. Oberlin College Library. $2300, increase in the library endowment. This amount was allotted to the library from the general half-million endowment recently raised. 1000 volumes from the library of the late Rev. Dr. J. Henry Thayer, of the Har- vard Divinity School. The books were se- lected and given bv the family. SALEM. Public Library. $17,500 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted. SOUTH BROOKLYN. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. STEUBENVILLE. Public Library. 450 volumes, its entire library, from the Methodist Sun- day-school. TOLEDO. Public Library. $8000, bequest from Anna C Mott. URBANA. Public Library. $15,000, March 30, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. WOOSTER. Public Library. $12,500, Feb. 3, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. OKLAHOMA TERRITORY. OKLAHOMA CITY. Oklahoma University Li- brary. $30,000, April II, 1903, for a build- ing, from Andrew Carnegie. PENNSYLVANIA. BRYN MAWR. Bryn Mawr College Library. $258,000 for a library building from friends. $1525 for books from a friend. EASTON. Lafayette College Library. The Oliver library, from Henry W. Oliver, of Pittsburgh. 258 volumes from the estate of Dr. Traill Greene, class of '92. HAMBURG. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted March 6, 1903. HAVERFORD. Haverfp-td College Library. $2350 from various friends for the purpose of shelving and furnishing the large central reading room recently added. LANSDOWNE. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted April 18, 1903. NORTH BESSEMER. Public Library. $30,000 from Andrew Carnegie. PHILADELPHIA. College of Physicians Li- brary. $50,000 from Andrew Carnegie, re- ceived in March, 1903. $50,000 from various sources, raised by the Fellows of the college for the purpose of enabling it to secure the $50,000 offered by Mr. Carnegie. 1177 volumes from the family of the late Dr. William F. Norris. Franklin Institute. $6406 from various sources. $1375. a bequest from George S. Pepper. Free Library. $1,500,000 for 30 branch li- braries from Andrew Carnegie. $40,000 in cash, real estate, mining stock and personal property, a bequest from Dr. Bushrod W. James, the income to be used for the maintenance of a free public library on Green street. Books, valued at $3008.46, from P. A. B. Widener and George D. Widener. Historical Society of Pennsylvania. $1000 from a friend. Name not given. $1000 from a friend. Name not given. $1000 from a friend. Name not given. $500 from a friend. Name not given. $500 from a friend. Name not given. University of Pennsylvania Library. An anonymous gift of $850, the books pur- chased out of this fund to bear the label "Jackson Memorial Library," in memory of the late Professor F. A. Jackson, who was connected with the University of Pennsylvania from 1854 until his death in 1901. Library of Russian literature, 2300 vol- umes, presented by the Hon. Charlemagne Tower. The veterinary library' of the late Dr. Rush S. Huidekoper, consisting of 1500 volumes, purchased for the university li- brary by Dr. Thomas B. Rayne as a memo- rial to his son, Moncure R. Rayner, who died while a student in the veterinary de- partment. The John F. Frazer Library, consisting of about 1000 volumes on chemistry, physics and astronomy, being the collection of the late Professor Frazer, at the time of his death, in 1872, professor of chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, presented HARRISON. 123 as a memorial of Professor Frazer by some of his students and friends. PITTSBURGH. Carnegie Library. April, 1899, Mr. Carnegie gave $1,750,000 for an en- largement of the central library building, which also houses the Carnegie Institute, comprising a department of fine arts, a mu- seum and the Carnegie music hall. Later, the plans were remodelled and the esti- mated cost increased to $3,600,000. Mr. Carnegie in April, 1901, authorized the board to proceed on this new basis. In March, 1903, he added $1,400,000 to the $3,600,000, making a total of $5,000,000, the board having found that owing to the in- creased cost of building materials the ex- tension could not be built according to the approved plans for less than that amount. The original gift appears in the A. L. A. report for 1900. About one-fourth of the enlarged building will be devoted to the library. $100,000 additional for the branch library fund from Andrew Carnegie. $5000 a year from Andrew Carnegie for three years toward the maintenance of the training school for children's librarians now being conducted in the main library build- ing. SCRANTON. Railroad Young Men's Christian Association. $1000 for a library from Sam Sloan, to be known as "The W. S. Sloan Memorial Library," in honor of Mr. Sloan's son. WILLIAMSPORT. Public Library. $150,000 for a public library from J. V. Brown. The gift is a memorial. RHODE ISLAND. PAWTUCKET. Public Library. $250,000 from Frederick C. Saylcs. (The gift is noted in the Report of 1900. The amount of the gift, announced since the Montreal meet- ing, was, however, not then stated.) PROVIDENCE. Brown University Library. $1000 from Dr. William W. Keen as an addition to the Keen fund for the purchase of books on biology. 1200 volumes on Egyptology and in gen- eral literature from the estate of Lysander Dickerman. 524 lantern slides from the same estate. 280 volumes in general literature from the estate of Catharine Sweet. 255 volumes on geology from Professor Alpheus S. Packard. The Providence Atheneeum. $3659.22 from shareholders and subscribers for the gen- eral improvement of the building and grounds. $2078.26 from Mrs. T. P. Shepard. The gift was mainly expended in fitting up and furnishing an art room, known as the "William Giles Goddard memorial room," in honor of Mrs. Shepard's father. 366 volumes from Mrs. T. P. Shepard. SOUTH CAROLINA. UNION. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 29, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. TENNESSEE. COLUMBIA. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 24, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. JOHNSTON CITY. Public Library. $25,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. MEMPHIS. Public Library. The W. A. Goodwyn bequest for a library and lecture hall is now available. It is estimated to be between $300,000 and $500,000. (This be- quest is noted in the report of 1900, when it was thought not to exceed $100,000.) TEXAS. BELTON. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 6, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. BROWNWOOD. Public Library. $10,000, April 2, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. CLEBURNE. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 19, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. DALLAS. Public Library. $1000 to be added to the book fund from Helen Gould. $1000 to be added to the book fund from Philip Sanger. GREENVILLE. Public Library. $20,000, March 28, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. Accepted. SAN ANTONIO. Public Library. $10,000 as a trust fund, the interest to be used for the purchase of books, from George B. Moore. After 10 years the gift may be spent or continued as an investment, as the judg- ment of the trustees may decide. $5000 for books from George W. Brack- enridge. The bonds of the old San Antonio li- brary, amounting to $4000, have been turned over to the new Carnegie library. Also the bonds of the Alamo City Pub- lic Library, amounting to $4000. VERMONT. BENNINGTON. Public Library. $250 from F. B. Jennings. BURLINGTON. Fletcher Free Library. $10,000 from the Horatio Loomis estate. University of Vermont Library. $1000 from Frederick F. Ayer, of New York City, for the purchase of books and periodicals for the chemical department. $500 from a number of friends, whose names are not announced, for the same purpose. ^$2500 as a fund, the interest to be used for the purchase of books for the chemical department, from Frederick F. Ayer. CORINTH. Public Library. $15,000 for a building from C. M. and N. Blake. 700 volumes from C. M. and N. Blake. GREENSBORO. Public Library. A library build- ing from H. S. Tolman. PITTSFORD. Public Library. $350 from a friend whose name is not given. 337 volumes. Name of donor not given. 124 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. SWANTON. Public Library. 500 volumes from the library of the Rev. John L. Tup- per. WALLINGFORD. Public Library. $2000 from Susan E. Boyne. WEST WINDSOR. Public Library. $750 from B. F. Blood. VIRGINIA. CHARLOTTESVILLE. University of Virginia Li- brary. 526 volumes from the Rev. Dr. Haslett McKim, of New York City. WASHINGTON. EVERETT. Public Library. $25,000, Jan. 12, JQCtf, for a buildiiig, from Andrew Car- negie. FAIRHAVEN. Public Library. $12,500, April 6, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. SPOKANE. Public Library. $75,000, April i, 1903, for a building, frorr. Andrew Carnegie. WISCONSIN. ANTIGO. Public Library. $12,500 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. APPLETON. Public Library. $520 from a li- brary benefit social and rummage sale. $500 from Herman Erb. BARABOO. Public Library. $3000 additional from Andrew Carnegie, making a total gift of $15,000. The building was com- pleted in May. $1750 toward a $2000 site from the Free Congregational Society. BAYFIELD. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Feb. 6, 1903. BERLIN. Public Library. $10,000, Feb. 6, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. CLAREMONT. Public Library. $15,000, Jan. 22, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. COLUMBUS. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Ar.drew Carnegie. EVANSVILLE. Public Library. $10,000 for a building, a bequest from Almeron Eager. HUDSON. Public Library. $10,000, March 21, 1903, for a buildin?, from Andrew Carnegie. KAUKAUNA. Public Library. $10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Jan. 6, 1903. LA CROSSE. Library Association. $20,000, May 23, 1902, from the heirs of the late Charles L. Colman, made in accordance with the desire of the deceased. The gift will be used as a permanent endowment fund. LAKE GENEVA. Public Library. $2000 for the children's reading room from the Stur- gis family in memory of Mrs. Sturgis. MADISON. State Historical Society of Wis- consin. Two oil paintings, costing more than $1000 each. Name of donor not given. A collection of Cliff Dweller pottery, worth $500. Name of donor not given. MADISON. University of Wisconsin Library. $500 for the purchase of a collection of books on political science from Fred Vogel, Jr., of Milwaukee. It includes a complete collection of the proceedings and parlia- mentary reports oi the French senate and house of deputies since 1870. MANITOWOC. Public Library. $25,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Jan. 15, 1903. A site has been provided at a cost of $8000. MEDFORD. Public Library. 682 books from the Women's Christian Temperance Union. MENASHA. Public Library. Collection of coins valued at $4000 from Henry Spencer Smith. NEENAH. Public Library. $2500 additional from Andrew Carnegie, making total of $12,500. OSHKOSH. Public Library. Marble busts of Washington and Franklin, valued at $500, from John Hicks, editor of the Daily Northwestern. RACINE. Public Library. $2500 additional from citizens for t'je purchase of a site for the new Carnegie library. RHINELANDER. Public Library. $12,500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Ac- cepted Jan. 6, 190.3. $1500 for a site from Brown brothers. $1500 has been pledged by the Woman's Club. SPARTA. Public Library. $2000 additional from Andrew Carnegie, making total of $12,000. WASHBURN. Public Library. $15,000, Feb. 17, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. Not yet accepted. WATERTOWN. Public Library. $5100 for a book fund, raised by popular subscription. WYOMING. CHEYENNE. Public Library. $500 from Mrs. Andrew Carnegie for furnishing a room in the new Carnegie library for the joint use of all the women's clubs in the city. LARAMIE. Public Library. $20,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted April 7, 1903. ALASKA. ALASKA. Army posts on the Lower Yukon. Supplied with libraries by Helen Gould. DOMINION OF CANADA. NORTH WEST TERRITORY. DAWSON. Public Library. $25,000, Aug. 12, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. ONTARIO. BRANTFORD. Public Library. $30,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. PARIS. Public Library. $10,000, Jan. 8, 1903, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. TORONTO. Public Library. $350,000 for a central library building and three branches from Andrew Carnegie. Accepted Feb. 24, 1903. Branches -ire to cost $75,000 each. HARRISON. 125 ENGLAND* AsHBY-DE-LA-ZoucH. Public Library. 1500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. BIRMINGHAM. Public Library. 3000, June 17, 1902, suburb of Selby Oak, for a build- ing, from Andrew Carnegie. BRENTFORD. Public Library. 5000, July, 1902, for a building from Andrew Carnegie. DOVER. Public Library. 10,000, Feb. 2, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. EASTBOURNE. Public Library. 10,000, July 13, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. Site from the Duke of Devonshire. FENTON. Public library. 5000, July, 1902, for a building from Andrew Carnegie. GRAYS. ESSEX. Public Library. 3000, July, 1902, for a building from Andrew Carnegie. JARROW. Public Library. 5000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. KETTERING. Public Library. 8000, June 12, 1902, for a building from Andrew Carnegie. LEICESTER. Public Library. 12,000, June 30, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. LONDON. BATTERSEA. Public Library. 15,- ooo, June, 1902, for a building, from An- drew Carnegie. FINSBURY. Public Library. 13,000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. HAMMERSMITH. Public Library. 10,000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andre'w Carnegie. LAMBETH. Public Library. 12,500, July 10, 1902, to complete the Lambeth library system, from Andrew Carnegie. PADDINGTON. Public Library. 15,000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. POPLAR. Public Library. 15,000, June 19, 1902, for branch libraries, from Andrew Carnegie. WOOLWICH. Public Library. 14,000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. LOWESTOFT. Public Library. 6000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. MAIDENHEAD. Public Library. 5000, June 20, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. MANSFIELD. Public Library. 3500, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. MOSELEY. Public Library. 3000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. NORTHAMPTON. Public Library. 5500, June 23, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. RAWTENSTALL. Public Library. 6000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. RUSHDEN. Public Library. 2000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. STIRCHLEY. Public Library. 3000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. WORKINGTON. Public Library. 7000, June 5, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. * The record of Foreign Gifts is incomplete, cov- ering only the more important gifts of Andrew Carnegie. SCOTLAND. DINGWALL. Public Library. 2000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. KELSO. Public Library. 3500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. MONTROSE. Public Library. 7500, June 9, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. PARTICH. Public Library. 10,000, June 21, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. STERLING. Public Library. 6000 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. STORNOWAY. Public Library. 3500 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. IRELAND. BELFAST. Public Library. 25,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. CORK. Public Library. 50,000, Aug. 2, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. LARME. Public Library. 2500, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. LIMERICK. Public Library. 7000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. LONDONDERRY. Public Library. 8000, July, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Car- negie. WALES. CRICEIETH. Public Library. 800 for a build- ing from Andrew Carnegie. FLINT. Public Library. 200 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. ISLE OF MAN. Mr. Hall Caine has issued a statement to the Manx people announcing that he has re- ceived from Mr. Andrew Carnegie "an im- portant and most generous proposal." He adds, "As Mr. Carnegie's offer is, very proper- ly, conditional on the active co-operation of our people, and on the sympathy and support of our legislature, I shall ask for time to for- mulate a scheme such as may benefit not only my own town, Ramsey, for which my appeal was made, but Douglas, Peel, Casteltown, and the whole of the island." NEW ZEALAND. DUNEDIN. Public Library. 10,000 for a building from Andrew Carnegie. SOUTH WALES. MERTHYR TYDVIL. Public Library. 6000, June 21, 1902, for a building, from Andrew Carnegie. HOLLAND. THE HAGUE. Temple of Peace. $1,500,000, April 22, 1903, from Andrew Carnegie, for "the erection of a court house and library (a temple of peace) for the permanent court of arbitration established by the treaty of July 29, 1899." The letter of acceptance by Baron Gevers, Minister of the Dutch government to the United States, indicates that the Dutch government will accept Mr. Carnegie's gift and provide for the proper administration of it by means of a board of trustees. 126 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. SUMMARY, BY STATES AND COUNTRIES, OF GIFTS AND BEQUESTS TO LIBRARIES. Total no. Gifts in money. Gifts in money for sites, buildings and furnishings. Sites (value not known). Building and grounds for library uses. Books. Endowment fund. Object not known (largely bequests). No. Carnegie. Andrew Carnegie for buildings. For buildings, etc., other than .Carnegie. For sites. Endowment fund. V a o S Volumes. Collections (value or no. not known), > Western North Central S. Central S. Atlantic North Atlantic ^Division. Division. Division. Division. ' Division. 10 $2,500 $2,000 9,000 13,350 496,894.64 4 $49,000 $3',36 33 $2,500 i $ S co i 2 $2 500 53,5oo 1,500 ',537 i8,593 t Massachusetts 85 103,000 5 65,000 63,000 21,000 i 65 2,500 170,000 84,000 236,700 54,118.62 15,000 500,350 i ,000 e6,86o 2,000 25,175 14,000 2,946 25,944 7,259 i 2- I 9 8 139,000 230,000 3,105,000 7,5oo 4,000 i I 2 12,781 ..... Maryland Dist. of Columbia. i Virginia 3 4 i 350,000 4,500 2,360 2: 526 2 150,000 50,000 ..... Tennessee 3 400,000 35,ooo Louisiana Texas 3 10 8,ooc 100,000 2 4 280,000 50,000 30,000 8,000 12,000 5,000 Oklahoma Ter . Indian Territory. . . 'Ohio 3 35 25 2,300 7,5oo 93,100 7-950 13,744 35,000 2,520 17 15 8 12 13 18 3 i i 737,500 230,000 92,500 170,000 137,500 66,500 252,500 60,000 15,000 10,000 22,500 1,000 5,000 10,000 3,000 8,000 3,240 1,500 !!!! Indiana 75,000 34,000 4,000 3,000 2 Wisconsin 20,000 18,000 1 3,725 14,500 5,750 9,500 1 5,100 500 600 500 1,000 1,000 4,000 682 .... I 245,000 900 1,220 6,088 | 11,861.12 10,000 'Montana Wyoming Colorado 4 i 20,000 5,000 3 6 II2,5OO 92,500 6,600 2,250 I 2 15,000 .... UNITED STATES SUMMARY BY SECTIONS. North Atlantic Division.. South Atlantic Division South Central Division.. North Central Division . . Western Division 248 if; 4 193 $278,000 408,000 29,800 $854,725.64 1,331.96 100,000 00 407,314.00 30 5 14 95 14 $3,588,000 535,000 467,000 i,77i5< 3i7,5oo $1,009,812.43 54,500.00 8,000. PO 167,086.12 11,600.00 $35,000 3 6 $85,860 151,977-46 64,617 3,286 28,344 5 3' 8,700 40,750 2,250 i 6 2 2 2 12,000 11,100 5,000 28,600 Alaska Total 5*i $1,363,371.60 158 $86,700 12 g $715,800 $6,679,000 $1,150,998.55 IO $.08,960 $101,577.46 96,247 FOREIGN SUMMARY BY COUNTRIES. CARNEGIE GIFTS. .\ 1 Scotland 6 " 1 Ireland 3 B..J Wales 1 Canada w I New Zealand I New South Wales 46 Holland FIRST SESSION. 127 THE PROCEEDINGS. NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y., TUESDAY, JUNF, 23, FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1903. FIRST SESSION.* Finance Committee. GEORGE T. LITTLE, ) Necrology, June, igo2-June, 1903. 1. Charles Hare Hutchinson (A. L. A. no. 1567, 1897) died in Paris, France, Oct. 4, 1902. He was born in Lisbon, Portugal, Feb. !3 J833, while his father was U. S. consul there. He was a member of the Philadelphia bar, and connected with many local and state associations. He attended the International Conference of Librarians in London in 1897. Louis K. LEWIS, Sec. and Ln. Athenceum of Phila. 2. Walter Crane (A. L. A. no. 1845, 1899) librarian of the Carnegie Library of Brad- dock, Pa., was born in Rosshire, Scotland, May 16, 1856, and died of apoplexy at his home at Hawkins, Pa., Oct. 19, 1902. Mr. Crane was educated at King's College and at Marischall College, Aberdeen, Scotland, receiv- ing from the latter the degree of A.M. In 1881 he came to Boston, later to Chicago, thence to Joliet, 111., where he was admitted to the bar and practiced for some years. In 1888 he founded, in Joliet, a combination club- house and library, one of the first ventures of the kind in this country, for the 6000 work- men in the Illinois Steel Mills of that place. While thus engaged, Mr. Carnegie made his acquaintance and a warm personal attachment sprang up between the men. In 1898 Mr. Carnegie invited Mr. Crane to take charge of the library and club at Braddock. In addi- tion to his acquirements as scholar, lawyer and librarian, Mr. Crane was a writer of ability in both prose and verse. GEORGE M. LAMB, librarian, Braddock, Pa. 3. Mrs. Mary E. Abell (A. L. A. no. 1360, J 89S) died at her home in Beatrice, Neb., April 4, 1903. She was born in Livermore, Maine, April 21, 1841, and was appointed li- brarian of the Beatrice Free Public Library ir 1893. During the years 1897 and 1898 she was treasurer of the Nebraska Library Asso- ciation. She joined the A. L. A. in 1895 and attended the Denver conference. 4. Hannah Packard James (A. L. A. no. 210, 1879), librarian of the Osterhout Free Library, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Born in South Scituate, Mass., Sept. 5, 1835 ; died at her home in Dorranceton, Pa., April 20, 1903. On her mother's side she was descended from John Alden. She attended the district school ac South Scituate, later a private school, and early showed a fondness for books. At the age of 19 she went to Newton, Mass., and during the Civil War was an active worker on the Sanitary Commission. When the Newton Free Library was opened in 1870 she was- made librarian and remained there 17 years. In 1887 she became librarian of the Osterhout Free Library of Wilkes-Barre, Pa. With a broad knowledge of literature and art, her selection of books for her libraries was high. She was a pioneer in library work with the schools, and early introduced school deliv- eries. She gave this her personal attention, and while every one was welcomed to the li- brary and aided in his work, yet the children were among her best friends. Miss James joined the A. L. A. at the Boston conference in 1879 an d took an active part in its meetings and work, serving as councillor from 1882 to 1887 and from 1892 until her death, and as vice-president from 1896 to 1898. She at- tended the International Conference of Libra- rians in London in 1897, and ably represented the women of the A. L. A. on all public as well as private occasions. L. j., May, 1903. 5. Clinton De Witt (A. L. A. no. 1883, 1899) was born in Montreal, Canada, Sept. 6, 1835, where he was also educated and lived the greater part of his life. In 1896 he be- came connected with the Mingo Coal and Iron Co., of Middlesborough, Ky., which he continued to serve until shortly before his death. He died in Montreal on May 21, 1903. His only connection with library work arose from his attending the Atlanta conference in 1899. On his return to Middlesborough after these meetings he endeavored, without success, to reorganize and convert into a public library a school library in that town. C. H. GOULD, McGill University, FIRST SESSION. 6. Lucius Page Lane (A. L. A. no. 1592, 1897) died at his home in Boston on May 29, 1903, at the age of 31 years. He was born in Boston, attended the Boston public schools, graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1894 and from Harvard Col- lege in 1895, and received the degree of M.A. at Harvard in 1896. After working for a short time in a New York bookstore he en- tered the New York State Library School in 1897. He took the second year's course as a non-resident student, having entered the Bos- ton Public Library service as an assistant in the department of documents and statistics in August, 1898. In 1900 he went into the cata- loging department, from which he resigned in February last because of illness. Mr. Lane joined the A. L. A. in 1897 and attended the International Conference in London in that year. Boston Transcript, June 2, 1903. 7. Minnie Stewart Rhodes James (A. L. A. no. 1668, 1897) died June 5, 1903, at St. Bo- tolph Hospital, Boston. She was a daughter of the late Captain Lawford James, of the Royal Navy, and was born in Devonshire, England. Her library work began at the People's Palace, London, of which she was librarian for eight years. At the Chicago World's Fair in 1893 she read an account of the work of the People's Palace and its li- brary. In 1897 she became a member of the staff of the Boston office of the Library Bu- reau, but she never lost her interest in Eng- lish library activities and was a frequent con- tributor to The Library. She was a regular attendant at the meetings of the A. L. A. and the Massachusetts Library Club. L. j.. June, 1903; Public Libraries, July, 1903. 8. Cecil C. Harvey (A. L. A. no. 1186, 1893) died at the home of her sister in Chi- cago, June 9, 1903. She was born in Elgin, IH- 57 years ago, and was always a resident of her native city. She was educated in the public schools and taught in them for 16 years. For the last 22 years of her life she was librarian of the Gail Borden Public Li- brary. She joined the A. L. A. in 1893 and attended the Denver conference. Elgin Daily News, June 9, 1903. The secretary, in the absence of CHARLES C. SOULE, read the 1902, June 10. " 27. " 27. " 27. Sept. 22. " 22. Oct. 3. 3. " 17. Dec. 27. 1903, Feb. 10. March 2. June i. " I. 1902, June 27. Nov. 18. 1903, Jan. 19. March 3. April 25. REPORT Cash on ha Interest ac Principal Interest Principal Interest Principal Interest Interest Principal Interest Principal Interest Interest Interest OF THK TRUSTEES OF THE ENDOWMENT 1 June 10, 1902, to June 10, 1903. CASH ACCOUNT. Receipts. ad 'UND, $1,705 44 75 oo 100,000 oo 690 41 500 oo 5 83 700 oo 24 50 813 99 25 oo 22 85 25 oo 1,241 10 756 16 38 23 Watson mortgage Montgomery mortgage Carnegie Fund to Sept. 30 Life Membership Anna Fossler International Trust Co. deposit Life Membership A. Keogh Carnegie Fund to Feb. 28 Internal. Trust Co. deposit to June i. . Payments. To A. L. A. Publishing Board $500 oo 500 oo 600 oo 1,200 oo Rent of Safe Box to April 15, 1904. $106,686 or Cash on hand June 10, 1903. 2,810 oo $103,876 01 132 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. CONDITION OF FUNDS. Carnegit Fund. Principal (Inalienable), received June 27, 1902 $ioo,coo oo Interest, Received as above $3,5oi 66 Expended as above 2,800 oo On hand, payable only to the Publishing Board, on order of the A. L. A. Council 701 66 A. L. A. Endowment Fund. Principal (Inalienable), On hand June 10, 1902 $6,237 94 2 Life Memberships (as above) 50 oo 6,287 94 Interest, On hand June 10, 1902 $260 72 Received as above., 228 91 Interest accrued (to Jan. 12, 1903) at Brookline Savings Bank... 44 16 $533 79 Less payment for Safe (as above) 10 oo On hand available for any use at discretion of A. L. A. Council. 523 79 ASSETS. Cash Deposits. Union Trust Co., New York (Carnegie Fund) (at 3 % interest) 100,000 oo International Trust Co., Boston (at 2^ % interest) 3,876 01 Investments. Brookline (Mass.) Savings Bank (at 4^ interest) 1,137 38 Mortgage on Watson property, So. Boston, Mass, (at 5 % interest) 2,500 oo $107,513 39 INCOME PROBABLY AVAILABLE, 1903-4. Carnegie Fund (to be used only by the Publishing Board) about, $3,000 oo A. L. A. Endowment Fund. Interest (available for any purpose), On hand now (as above) $523 79 Brookline Savings Bank about, 45 50 Watson mortgage 125 oo International Trust Co. deposit about, 75 oo $769 29 The following report of audit was ap- several years, and also that at a meeting held pended: yesterday the committee decided definitely to restrict its work for the ensuing year to en- At the request of Charles C. Soule, treas- deavoring to compile a list of German im- urer of the Endowment Fund, we have ex- perial documents dating from 1871. It is amined his accounts and securities. hoped that this list will be perhaps rather We find evidence of assets amounting to more practical than the larger list which was $107,513.39, as stated in his report of this date, at first attempted, and that it may be completed and also find his accounts correctly cast, with within the year, and the committee has also vouchers for all expenditures. assurances that if completed the arrange- TAMES L WHITNEY ) of the merits for publishing the list will not cost the CHARLES'K. BOLTON, f Finance Committee. Association anything. At a joint meeting of the Committee on Foreign Documents and of C. H. GOULD made a the Committee on Public Documents, held yesterday, the members present decided that REPORT FOR COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN DOCUMENTS. ** was verv desirable that there should be more co-operation between the two commit- The committee has to report merely that tees than has hitherto existed, and every ef- during the year certain additions have been fort will be made in the future for the two made to the material for the check list of committees to keep as closely in touch as German documents that has been in hand for possible. SECOND SESSION. 133 ROLAND P. FALKNER read the REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, (5V? p. IO2.) which was accepted with the thanks of the assembly, the resolutions appended being re- ferred to the Council. HILLER C. WELLMAN presented the REPORT OF THE PUBLISHING BOARD (See p. 107.) The president announced the appointment of a COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS as follows: Horace G. Wadlin, Miss A. R. Hasse, and George W. Peckham. The secretary read a IiEPORT FROM THE COUNCIL announcing changes in the by-laws regarding nominations by Council (see Transactions of Council). In the absence of J. LE ROY HARRISON, W. E. FOSTER presented the REPORT ON GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. (See p. in.) IN MEMORIAM HANNAH P. JAMES. F. M. CRUNDEN : There was an item in the treasurer's report under Necrology which should not be passed over without some ac- tion on the part of this Association. While it would not be proper to pass purely per- functory resolutions upon the death of every member of an association so large as this, yet when one of the oldest members of this Asso- ciation, one of the pioneers in the modern American library movement, passes from us and we no longer have the cheer of her pres- ence and the encouragement of her help, it seems proper that formal notice should be taken of that loss. Among the names of the members read as having passed away from us during the year was one who was personally dear to many of us and whom we all admired as a fellow-worker. There are those present who can speak much more adequately than I of the per- sonal qualities of Miss Hannah James, but I knew enough of her personally to ad- mire her as a sterling specimen of American womanhood, and all who knew her work held her in great admiration as a librarian. I need not dilate upon this subject. The senti- ments of this Association should be most properly presented by a formal resolution, and 1 move that the Committee on Resolutions be instructed to prepare a suitable memorial res- olution regarding the loss of Miss James. H. J. CARR. If I may be permitted to say a few words in seconding this resolution I should be very glad to do so. It was my happy fortune to become acquainted with Miss James several years before I entered the ranks of the library profession. Our rela- tionship continued cordial and active up to the time of her death. It is not my prov- ince, it is not in my ability, to add ma- terially to the words Mr. Crunden has al- ready said. I am not gifted in that way, but a? one who mourns her loss earnestly and sincerely I beg to second this motion. Voted. Adjourned at 11.35 P- m - SECOND SESSION. (AUDITORIUM NATURAL FOOD Co., TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 23.) The meeting was called to order by Presi- dent HOSMER at 8.30. Hon. PETER A. PORTER spoke on NIAGARA IN LITERATURE.* Niagara holds a prominent place in the records of the American Indian, of France, of Great Britain, of Canada, and of the United States. Its narrative is "history" in the broadest and best sense; for it tells not only of "wars and rumors of wars," but also of the religions, the civilization, and the prog- ress of many peoples. It dates back, in In- dian tradition, to the remotest past, and in the Indian missions of the Roman Catholic Church and the annals of her priests its name stands out. The earliest description of the Falls by an eye witness is that of Father Hen- nepin, in 1679, although Champlain mentioned them in 1603 and Father Ragueneau in 1648 referred to this "cataract of fearful height." The history of Niagara is closely woven into the history of the country, from the time of the Revolution to the development of the great west. It touches at many points the general literature of the world. In poetry, in prose, in descriptive, reminiscent, scientific works, in travel, it is a component element; w fiction it is not neglected. A bibliography of Niagara is neither uninteresting nor unin- structive, neither is it short. * Abstract. 134 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. Dr. HOSMER then delivered the PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. (See p. 3-) N. D. C. HODGES followed with a paper, giving NOTES ON ENGLISH LIBRARIES AS SEEN BY AN AMERICAN LIBRARIAN.* Adjourned 10.25 p. m. THIRD SESSION. (NATURAL FOOD Co. AUDITORIUM, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JUNE 24.) The meeting was called to order by Presi- dent HOSMER at 9.55 o'clock. Dr. E. C. RICHARDSON read the REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL CO- OPERATION. There have been but two matters before the committee which fall definitely within its scope the familiar matter of the "Catalogue of scientific literature" and the almost equally familiar matter of co-operation with or through the International Bibliographical In- stitute at Brussels. The "Catalogue of scientific literature" needs only to be mentioned here. It is, how- ever, a matter of congratulation that this considerable attempt at international co-oper- ation has reached the point of actual publi- cation. It augurs well for the possibility of future work. The matter of definite co-operation with the Brussels Institute has been brought, the committee is informed, to a point of tangible possibility by the suggestion on the part of the institute that we may be able to reach in- ternational agreement as to cataloging rules. The committee respectfully recommends that this matter be given careful consideration by the Executive Board with reference to the ad- visability of appointing a committee to act in this matter. The Brussels Institute also urges that the A. L. A. tske cognizance of the fact that the institute is printing sets of analytical cards. It suggests a co-operation to the point at * Mr. Hodges' paper will be published in an early number of the Library Journal. least of avoiding duplication in this work, and perhaps also the mutual listing by our Publishing Board and the institute of one an- other's publications of this kind. It will be remembered that the admirable Zurich work of Mr. Field is now affiliated with the work of the institute. Some work in this line of analytical cards is also being done by the McGill University Library and raises the same point that is raised by the institute. The ccmmittee hopes that the Publishing Board will take into consideration some method of extending the mutual understanding which the board has established with the Library of Congress to these enterprises as well. Those who have recently talked with for- eign librarians have found plenty of open- mindedness as to the theoretical possibilities of standardizing methods the world over as we have done here in America. For this reason the committee believes that any overture whatever in this direction from abroad should be carefully considered. E. C. RICHARDSON, Chairman. W. T. PEOPLES presented the REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RELATIONS OF LIBRA- RIES TO THE BOOKTRADE. In March last the Committee on Relations of Libraries to the Booktrade, having in mind the importance of the que-stion of discount on the purchases of books to the libraries throughout the country and in consequence of the solicitude expressed by many librarians to learn what had been done by the committee in its efforts to obtain better terms from the publishers, deemed it expedient to make a report to the Executive Board of the Asso- ciation. This report was as follows : It being apparent that a misunderstanding exists as to the functions of the A. L. A. Committee on the Relations of Libraries to the Booktrade, the committee considers it ad- visable to report to the Executive Board the conditions existing at the present time. The committee was originally appointed at the conference in 1901 "to consider and report upon the relation of libraries to the book- trade." The committee presented its report at the Magnolia conference, and a committee of five was again appointed "to confer with the Publishers' Association on the lines of THIRD SESSION. 135 the foregoing resolution," that is, the resolu- tion adopted by the Association asking for an increased discount, etc. The committee accordingly met early in the fall of 1902 and sent to the American Publishers' Association a communication urging an immediate and definite reply to the resolutions of the Ameri- can Library Association. In due course a re- ply was received that the American Publish- ers' Association board of directors deemed it inexpedient to recommend any change of discount to libraries. The committee after another meeting communicated further by let- ter, and personally through its chairman, with the president of the Publishers' Association requesting that the matter might be acted upon not by the directors only but also by the Publishers' Association itself which alone would have authority to make the change. At a meeting of the Publishers' Association, held on Feb. n, 1903, it was voted that it was inexpedient to make any changes in its rul- ings regarding discount to libraries. The fol- lowing are copies of letters received by the committee : Oct. 31, 1902. DEAR MR. PEOPLES: Your communication of Sep- tember pth was presented to the Board of Directors of the American Publishers' Association at its last meeting. I was directed to write that in view of the opposition of the Booksellers' Association it was thought inexpedient to recommend at present any change of discount to libraries. As I explained, a change could only be made at a meeting of the As- sociation itself. Concerning the prices of books, I would write that these are fixed by individual publishers, and any complaint should be addressed directly to them. The Publishers' Association does not attempt to control the prices at which books should be published, and indeed we_ have been advised that such a control would be illegal. The prices of books are subject to the ordinary business laws of competition and supply and demand. Yours very truly, CHARLES SCRIBNER. THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS' ASSOCIATION. Office of the Secretary, 66 Fifth Ave. NEW YORK. Feb. 14, 1003. W. T.. PEOPLES, ESQ., Chairman. The American Library Association, New York City. DEAR SIR: In reply to your letter of the 9th of September I am instructed by Mr. Charles Scribner, President of the American Publishers' Association, to acquaint you with the fact that the matter of your letter was duly referred to The American Publishers' Association at its last general meeting with the result that it was found, on resolution duly made and sec- onded and afterward unanimously carried, that no difference at present could be made in the recommen- dations of the Association to its members in regard to library discounts. I may also point out to you, in reply to your let- ter, that The American Publishers' Association does not, and cannot, attempt to dictate to its members in regard to the prices at which they issue their books. I am, yours very truly, GEORGE P. BRETT, Secretary, The American Publishers' Association. The committee is clearly of the opinion that concessions will not result from further petition by it to the Publishers' Association. The committee has endeavored to make it clear to the Publishers' Association that the policy adopted by it will inevitably lead to discriminations, as it is credibly reported that many firms make arrangements whereby the total cost of a year's purchase, including net- price books, is less than it would otherwise be under the net-price system. A reference to the organic law of our Association shows that this committee must not undertake to formulate instructions for the guidance of li- braries, consequently the committee feels that in presenting the matter clearly to the pub- lishers and urging the request of the Ameri- can Library Association until definite action was taken it has proceeded as far as it is war- ranted in going, and must leave librarians in- dividually to take such action as will tend to force publishers, first, as public-spirited citi- zens to recognize the impropriety of undue levying by an organized monopoly and for the aggrandizement of a commercial class upon the funds of educational tax supported institutions, and further as business men to perceive their own interests in granting to public libraries concessions similar to those which are customarily accorded to large pur- chasers in all branches of trade. The committee deems it preferable to make the report at this time to the Executive Board rather than wait for the annual meeting to be held in . June at Niagara Falls, trusting that some mode may be found whereby the result of the committee's labors may be made known to the librarians throughout the coun- try at the earliest possible date. The committee submits this as its final re- port, and respectfully requests that the com- mittee be discharged. W. T. PEOPLES, JOHN THOMSON, H. L. ELMENDORF, H. C. WELLMAN, H. J. CARR. On motion the report was accepted and the committee discharged. President HOSMER: We will now hear the publishers' side of the matter from Mr. W. F. Zimmerman, head of the house of A. C. Me- 136 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. Clurg & Co., of Chicago, the chief publishing house of the west. W. F. ZIMMERMAN: In coming before you to speak on the rather prosaic question of dis- counts on the publishers' prices of books a question which has engaged so much of your thought and attention since the new "net sys- tem" inaugurated by the publishers has be- come more and more effective with the in- crease in number of the books issued under it I feel it difficult to say anything new, or to advance arguments that have not been used again and again by one side or the other. Representing a firm engaged in the business of book publishing as well as dealing in books generally, and whose late chief early recog- nized the growing importance of the library from every point of view, I shall endeavor to discuss the subject as impartially as a book- seller can reasonably be expected to do. In doing this it is of course difficult to avoid going over well-beaten ground and to re- state some of the conditions that prevailed in the book business prior to the organization of the Publishers' Association on the one hand and the Booksellers' Association on the other. For a series of years before the period re- ferred to the business of selling books had grown less and less profitable, so much so that those engaged in it were gradually retiring from it or had been obliged to add other lines of goods to their stock. The exclusive book- seller had thus almost wholly disappeared, his place being largely taken by the smart modern merchant to whom books are merely merchandise divided into two general classes copyrighted and non-copyrighted works to be sold upon such terms and by such methods as the dealers' own interests might dictate without regard to the prices fixed by the publishers. The effect of these methods upon the time-honored calling of the book- seller was of course disastrous. The use of books of well-known mint and fixed pub- lishers' prices for attractive but really decep- tive advertising purposes, the practice of giv- ing discounts on large classes of books to all buyers, the extravagant and even reckless dis- counts accorded to libraries, the general in- stability of prices, and the apparent apathy of the publishers in dealing with the problem of maintaining their own prices, all resulted as might have been expected in the wide- spread demoralization of the booktrade and well-nigh destroyed the legitimate old-time bookseller, whose calling was almost a pro- fession and whose disappearance from any ccmmunity is always to be deplored. These evils were widely discussed and finally led to the formation of the booksellers' organization, and subsequently to an association of the publishers, both joining hands in an effort to reform the evils that had befallen the trade and to re-establish the bookseller in the in- terests of all engaged in the making and dis- tribution c books. The most important step thus far taken in furtherance of this purpose is the incorpora- tion of the "net-price" system. Books pub- lished under this system cannot be sold at re- tail at other than the prices fixed by the pub- lisher, the only exception being libraries, which are favored with a discount of 10 per cent. Pardon me for using the word "fa- vored," as I have been led to believe that most of you do not look upon this concession exactly as a favor. All members of the Pub- lishers' Association and it now comprises practically all American publishers are obliged to issue certain classes of books un- der this system, and it is the expectation that in the course of time it will be applied to all books. If required to formulate an answer in one sentence to the question, "What is the 'net-price' system ?" I should say that it is an attempt to substitute fact for fiction, and fixed and unvarying price for a varying uncertain price. Inaugurated in response to the de- mand of the bookseller for his own protec- tion, it is the fundamental step in the present organization of the trade which it is hoped will lead to better conditions for all engaged in the selling of books, and which is ultimate- ly also to benefit the publishers by increasing the sales of the more standard works through the greater zeal the booksellers are expected to develop. Now, as to fixed prices, which this system provides. I think you will all agree that they should be maintained, and that the custom of selling books at retail at less than the pub- lished price is inherently wrong. All you ask, and, as I understand, all the public asks, is that the retail prices as fixed under the "net- price" system shall be correspondingly re- duced. For instance, under the old system a THIRD SESSION. 137 book published at $1.50 was generally sold to the public at $1.20. Under the new net sys- tem the publishers' price should be about $1.20. In short, the public asks that the es- tablishment of net prices shall not tend to make books dearer. On the whole, I think publishers have recognized the justice of this demand; and, indeed, from the start, it was announced that such would be their policy. But to you it perhaps seems unfair that li- braries should be called upon to contribute to the support of the booksellers, and that the discount for you should be fixed by decree of the publishers, whose patrons you conceive yourselves to be quite as much as the book- sellers, although not to so large an extent There is here a clash of interests as well as a question of equity which it seems a little diffi- cult to reconcile or adjust. There can be no doubt that the library sys- tem has largely increased the number of book readers, but has it also increased the number of book buyers? If statistics were available, or, rather, if it were possible to gather statis- tics to determine this question, it would prob- ably be found that the introduction of the li- brary system has not increased the. sales of books to the extent that is sometimes sup- posed, however much it may have contributed to the advancement of culture and learning. Now, the bookseller, as merchant, is desirous of selling as many books as possible if he can sell them at a profit, and he fails to see why institutions that seem to lessen the number of buyers should be favored with large dis- counts. On the other hand, as custodians of public funds, it is undoubtedly your duty to obtain as many books of value as possible with the money assigned to you for this pur- pose; and right here comes to my mind the chief argument for your side in the contro- versy. Indeed, as a citizen and tax-payer, I am forced to agree with you in theory that public funds money raised by taxation shall not be used for other than public pur- poses, and that such money shall not be used for the support or aggrandizement of any one class in the community or state. Still, theory and practice are often wide apart, and in making this statement I find I am entering the field of political economy, and am con- fronted by the fact that the whole theory of a tariff for protection seems to run counter to the proposition above stated, and that to tax the many for the benefit of the few but con- duces to the general welfare through the es- tablishment and building up of infant indus- tries. The idea may seem far-fetched, and yet to a candid observer there is something similar in the present endeavor to build up the book business and in the workings of a protective tariff. The main difference is that in this case there is no foreign producer to pay the tax, which, as you doubtless know, is sometimes held to be the case in the workings of a protective tariff. So much for that phase of the question. I will now turn to the book- seller, and my defense of his position, which is really what I am here for, though I wish it distinctly understood that I hold no brief for the American Booksellers' organization, and do not endorse all that has been said or done in its name. In the evolution of affairs the time may come when the bookseller will be entirely eliminated from the process of book distribu- tion, though I sincerely hope he may not be, even though so great a thinker as Mr. Her- bert Spencer many years ago set out to wipe him off the face of the earth. Some of you may remember that he proposed to the British government that its postal department should act as agent between the publisher and the reader or book buyer. His plan, briefly stated, was this : You want a book. You step into a convenient post-office and write on the face of a postal card the address of the publisher of the book. On the back you write your order, leaving space for the affixing of stamps to the amount of the price, mail your card, and in due time receive the book direct from the pub- lisher. The publisher takes the card to his nearest post-office and gets the cash for the cancelled stamps. Now this is all very sim- ple, is it not? This plan for the annihilation of the bookseller was doubtless devised under the very common principle of the desirability of getting rid of the middleman, and the ob- vious economy of the directest possible rela- tions between the producer and the consumer. Time never was, perhaps, when booksellers were not assailed for endeavoring to make money out of books ; but just why this should be so is not clear No fault, to a like extent, is found with those who handle the neces- saries of life or produce them. Perhaps one 138 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. reason for it is in the fact that the bookseller is called upon to bear not only his own sins, but also those of the publisher, who may fix too high a price upon a book, although the public here has redress within reach by letting the book alone until the price has been re- duced or a cheaper edition of it published. In this matter of prices of books it would seem that there are three chief interests to be considered : (1) The author, who expects compensation for the time and labor put into his work. (2) The publisher, who takes the risk and supplies the capital for the making and mar- keting of the book. (3) The bookseller, who takes part of the risk from the publisher by buying a stock of the books frequently in advance of publi- cation and who expects compensation in the way of discounts or profit for the risk thus assumed. From this point of view, with no risk as- sumed, the librarian is not entitled to a dis- count, inasmuch as he assumes no risk. On the other hand, however, it is generally con- ceded that some discount should be given him because of the number of books he purchases in other words, that quantity to some ex- tent enters into the question of price. But here again comes the argument that the multi- plication of libraries decreases the sale of books. And if this view is correct, the ma- terial interests of publisher, as well as book- seller, would seem to lie in such an adjust- ment of price as will yield a profit to both par- ties from the sale of books to librarians. I say the material interests; for, after all, both are in the business mainly for the purpose of making a living more than that, if possible. The higher conception the publishing and selling of books for the purpose of the ad- vancement of learning, of education, and the higher motives that stimulate men to action while not lost sight of by the nobler minds in the calling, yet still must be held in check by the money question, the question Will it pay? I sometimes wonder if librarians who sub- mit long lists of books upon which they ask quotations, which lists they send to a number of dealers, have any appreciation of the amount of work such quotations entail not upon one bookseller, but upon all to whom their list is submitted and who care to make the attempt to secure the order. This custom has contributed much to the demoralization of the trade, with small gain to the librarian. Far better to make your arrangements with a responsible and honorable dealer whose prices can always be verified by reference to pub- lishers' catalogs if doubt is entertained con- cerning their correctness. If purchases gen- erally were made in this way, much of the friction that exists between the bookseller and the librarian would be removed, and in the long run the librarian would not fare the worse. This does not mean that quotations should not be sought on purchases of the more expensive books, or those that no longer have a fixed price; or, again, on books that are not published in the usual way. I simply mean that when you have found a bookseller who is honorable in his dealings, with whom you have agreed upon a scale of prices, and who has been found not disposed to take un- due advantages, then do not show that you distrust him by asking for quotations when- ever you have a list of books to buy, at the same time indirectly notifying him that other booksellers will be asked to do the same thing; in other words, let the relations be those of mutual confidence until good reason appears why they should cease. The interests of librarian and bookseller are mutual, or should be in one respect, at least, and that is to promote the taste for good literature and to keep out of their shelves the worthless or positively vicious books. Remember that the bookseller who really loves his business likes to indulge himself in the idea that he, too, belongs to the profes- sions, and it is not very pleasant to be obliged to state in advance the price to be charged for professional services, which is practically the case when one is obliged to compete with others in attempting to render the service. As librananship is also rising to the dignity of a profession, you can the more readily ap- preciate his feelings. Ah ! but you will say, "That is riot business." No, it is not. Neither is the selling of books quite like other lines of business. The dry goods merchant buys his calico or silk at a certain price, and sells it again at another, which he fixes according to circumstances; and if his competitor sells the same quality at a lower price there is always doubt in the minds of most purchasers as to THIRD SESSION. 139 whether his goods are not of inferior quality. Not so with the bookseller. His prices are fixed by the publisher, and "David Harum" is the same book whether you buy it of the bookseller or at the dry goods store. And you know about what the book costs the book- seller, while you do not know the cost to the dealer of the calico or silk. The retail bookseller, who is taxed in com- mon with his fellow-citizens for the support of the libraries, takes the view that books for his local institutions should be bought through him, and that he is entitled to a profit just as much as the publisher, who doubtless would be quite unwilling to furnish the books at cost and rightly so. The booksellers of this country are not alone in holding to this view, but it is shared by those in other lands, although, as far as I know, no such general library system, supported by taxation, exists elsewhere. The example of Germany, with its thoroughly organized book- trade, is serving, to some extent, as a model for the trade here. Although it has had its trade organization for more than a century, abuses prevailed similar to those that existed here prior to the formation of the Publishers' Association, until in recent years stringent measures were taken to do away with price- cutting, and booksellers were required to ad- here to the prices established by the publisher. Ihe desire for self-preservation on the part of the booksellers there as well as here led to the promulgation of rules forbidding the giv- ing of discounts to private purchasers, and it is largely to this fact that the exceptional po- sition of the booksellers in that country is to be attributed. It must not be forgotten, how- ever, that the booksellers there are well edu- cated, undergo a period of special training, and are regarded almost as members of a pro- fession, who render valuable service to the state. It was for this reason that the public as well as the state were content to pay a lit- tle more for books rather than see so useful and deserving a class ruined and deprived of the small profit which at best was theirs. I venture the assertion that you can travel all over Germany, as well as the United States, and you will never hear of a rich bookseller, grown so through the selling of books. Pub- lishers sometimes grow rich booksellers never. Fortunate is the lot of the librarian, for in him or her the desire for riches has not found lodgment, as it sometimes has in the breast of the bookseller a desire never likely to be gratified. It is altogether likely that the present move- ment will continue to grow, and that further measures will be taken to strengthen the po- sition of the bookseller and to make his busi- ness more profitable. But when that has been effected it is probable that a larger number of persons will engage in the business, the strug- gle for trade will grow keener, and the end finally will be either the abandonment of the system or a still closer union of the dealers, with restrictions on the number of those per- mitted to engage in the business, much on the order of our skilled labor unions. As indica- tive of this probable tendency, it may here be stated that while the condition of the book- trade in Germany under its present organiza- tion has vastly improved, it has also resulted in an enormous increase in the number of bookstores, there being in 1861 1538 firms carrying n miscellaneous stock, which number had grown in 1901 to 5520. The cry is there- fore already heard that there are too many bookstores which the public is asked to sup- port, and Professor Fred. Paulsen, in a re- cent article contributed to a German paper, has voiced the demand for lower prices on standard books books required in the pur- suit of education and he inclines to the view that the present system of the book business is backward, and not in harmony with the trend of modern commerce, and questions whether it can be long maintained. He contends that too many books are pub- lished, that there are too many firms engaged in the publishing business, that the market is overcrowded, and that unimportant and bad books make it difficult for meritorious works to find room, while at the same time they must yield a profit to cover the loss sustained on the other class. This is as true here as it is in Germany, but how a remedy can be ap- plied is not clear. Your grievance, however, I take it, is main- ly against the publishers because of their ac- quiescence in the demand of the booksellers, although they did not yield to the extreme view held by many that no discounts what- ever should obtain on net books. Now it is doubtless true that in limiting the discount to 140 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. libraries the publishers were actuated mainly by a desire to help the booksellers through whom their publications are distributed, and whose continued existence is essential for that purpose under the present trade system. The publisher as merchant is bound to recognize the wishes of those who handle his books and sell them to the public, and this question of discounts is but one of many that perplex him. His chief concerns are to create a de- mand for his books and to enlist the aid of the dealers, making it to their interest to keep his books in stock and to help him find buyers. Should the time come when it would appear to be to his interest to abandon the "net-price" system, I doubt not that it would be abolished along with the rules that have been formu- lated to sustain it. You must not forget that the 10 per cent, rule becomes inoperative after the expiration of the first year in the life of a book, and you are therefore only debarred a year in this matter of discount, although I notice that the booksellers' organization is likely to appeal to the publishers to extend the period to two years. Then, too, books, for- tunately, are not like bread and meat for the body, which we must have comparatively fresh, but rather they improve with age that is, their value or importance becomes more cbvious ; or, perhaps, at ihe end of a year we find that they are not fit or necessary food at all, and thus you may save your money alto- gether. What changes the future may have in store no one can foresee. It may possibly come to pass with the growth of the library system, now so largely stimulated by wealth accumu- lated in the protected industries, that publish- ers will arise who will look to libraries for their main support, and who in determining upon a publishing venture will take into con* sideration library needs alone, and not seek to distribute their books to the general public through the bookseller. When that day comes the tables may be turned, and the boolc- seller be met with the statement that a given book is issued for the libraries, and is subject to no discount to the trade. You will then have a sweet revenge, for it is quite certain that such books will be of the highest order, without which the bookseller's stock will suf- fer by comparison with what is offered by th library. In considering this whole question, and the justice of the position taken by the trade, you must not be unmindful of our change in atti- tude on many questions of public policy. For instance, the axiom that competition is the life of trade has almost given way to the other formula that competition is the death of the trader. First, we found that foreign competition was injurious to our industries, and now that the latter are strong and healthy it is found that domestic competition is like- wise injurious, and combination takes the place of competition. We find combination on every hand, in all lines of industry and in all walks of labor. Indeed, combination is the watchword of the hour, and doubtless will be until the pendulum shall again swing the other way, unless, indeed, combination is to land us in the millenium of the socialistic state, where competition nd all ruder things shall be happily and wholly eliminated. President HOSMER: The chair ventures to thank Mr. Zimmerman in behalf of the Asso- ciation for his eminently clear and fair and interesting paper. The topic will now be pre- sented from the point of view of the librarian, first by Mr. Gardner M. Jones, of Salem. GARDNER M. JONES: As ex-bookseller and present librarian I have followed closely the history of the net-price system and have tried tc understand both sides of the question, but I wish it distinctly understood that I now speak as a librarian and advocate only what 1 consider for the best interests of libraries. If I differ in some respects from some of my fellow-librarians it is simply that I feel that somewhat different methods of dealing with the matter are now necessary. What I shall say divides itself into two heads: First, The net-price system itself; second, The increased cost of books- First, The net-price system itself. Shall we, as librarians, aim to break down the pres- ent net system or shall we support it? I an- swer, unhesitatingly, we ought to support it. The net system aims to place the book busi- ness upon an honest basis, with one price to all. The advertised price is to be the real price to all retail buyers, with the single ex- ception of libraries. These are given a dis- count of 10 per cent. The whole tendency of modern business methods is in the direction of uniform prices. We even go so far, in THIRD SESSION. 141 some cases, as to compel this by law, as in our interstate commerce acts and anti-trust laws, forbidding special prices and rebates. I remember when the one-price system was just coming in. Here and there would be fjund shops advertising themselves as "one- price stores." At other shops one could never be sure that he was buying at the low- est price. A process of bargaining was neces- sary. This is still the custom in many parts of the world, probably the universal custom in uncivilized countries. Without the fixed price the careless or unskilful buyer is at the mercy of the unscrupulous dealer. But the princi- pal objection to the old system in the book- trade was that without the fixed price there arose a reckless competition. Business was done on so small a margin of profit that in all but the largest cities, and under the most favorable conditions, the old-fashioned book- seller was driven to the wall. A good retail bookstore is an important factor in the educa- tion of the community. I mean a bookstore which carries in its stock not only the latest widely advertised novels of the day, but a general assortment of standard literature as well as the more important new books. One hundred years ago there were such book- stores in all important towns, such as Salem and Lancaster, Mass., and Exeter, N. H., and irrportant books bore the imprint of the local bookseller. With the changing conditions of trade these bookstores have ceased to exist, and will return only when there is again an opportunity for educated men to make a fair living in the book business. The local book- seller is as useful to the library as to the pri- vate buyer. The great majority of our public libraries are so distant from large cities that their librarians can seldom visit large book- stores nor can they have books sent on ap- proval. We need places where we can see a good stock of the new publications as they appear. It is practically impossible to order books from advertisements and reviews with- out at times getting what is unsuited for our particular library, no matter how truthful the advertisements or how discriminating the re- views. It has been suggested that we can do without the retail bookseller and that books can be sent on approval from the publishers, but that means a multiplication of accounts both at the library and the publishers, and an increased cost for books, for the purchaser in the end pays the expense of transportation, books lost or damaged in transit, extra book- keeping, etc., even although this extra cost is covered up in the price of the book. Because it has a tendency to perpetuate the old condi- tions and break down the local bookseller, I believe the resolve adopted at the Magnolia conference asking publishers for an increased discount on net books was a mistake. I did not oppose it at the time, as such a resolve was asked by our committee, and I did not wish to say or do anything which would hamper the committee in its negotiations with the American Publishers' Association. The request for increased discounts has been re- fused, and it appears useless to attempt fur- ther progress in this direction. It is now time to adopt other measures, and this brings me to the second part of my theme. After all, the essential thing is not the advertised price, nor the nominal discount, we receive on books. What really concerns us is the actual price we pay. Are we really paying more for our new books than we were paying two years ago ? We all know we are ; at least, we all think we are. I have made a comparison of a number of volumes bought for my library and their cost during the past three years, with the follow- ing results: In 1900 we bought 1815 volumes ; spent for books $1923, or $1.06 per volume. In 1901 we bought 1992 volumes; spent for books $2132, or $1.07 per volume. In 1902 we bought 1665 volumes; spent for books $2059, or $1.25 per volume. This shows an increase during the past year of 17 per cent, over the average cost of the two previous years. It may be said that a comparison of this kind cannot fairly be made, as the character of purchases would vary from year to year. I admit this might be true in some cases, but I think it does not hold in ours. The per- centage of fiction bought each year is nearly the same, being 46, 53 and 46, respectively. This includes duplicates and replacements as well as new books. Furthermore, I have gone through the accession book in order to ascer- tain if we have been buying an unusual num- ber of expensive books during the past year. In 1900 we bought 48 volumes costing $5 each 142 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. or over at an average cost of $6.50 per vol- ume. In 1901 we bought 55 such volumes at a cost of $7 each. In 1902, 59 volumes at a cost of $6.44 each. It will be seen that instead of buying a larger proportion of high-priced books we have bought less than usual. I therefore think that the three years in question offer a fair basis of comparison, and that I am not mistaken in saying that our books are costing us about 17 per cent, more than before the introduction of the net system. In the first announcements of the net sys- tem it was stated that prices would be ad- justed upon such a basis as to make an ad- vance of about 8 per cent, in the cost to libra- ries. To this, I think, most librarians found no objection, being willing to pay the slightly increased price in order to support the retail bookseller, who, as we have seen, is so im- portant an agency in the distribution of books and the education of the community. The librarians' real ground of complaint is that the publishers have used the net sys- tem as a means of increasing their own profits, and prices have been unduly ad- vanced. Instead of the new net prices being reduced about 20 per cent, from the old long price, it is well known that they are often only 10 per cent, below the old basis. In some cases the net price is as much or more than the old retail price would have been. If the cost of manufacture has really increased to this extent there is some excuse for the pub- lishers, but I fail to find any plea of this sort set forth on their behalf. It certainly has not been made prominent in the discussions of the subject. They simply seem to be try- ing to make the prices as high as the market will stand. What is the remedy for this ? What are we to do about it? So far as I can see the only thing we can do is to refuse to buy books that are so excessively costly. Of course, there are some books that we must buy on publica- tion, but a little experimenting will show that we can delay buying most of the offending books without injury to our libraries and without incurring much criticism. If the lat- ter comes to us, let us boldly give our reasons for not buying ; let us frankly show our critic that prices are exorbitant and that the library cannot afford them. I do not advise any con- certed effort, anything like an organized boy- cott, but our individual action, our refusal to buy books on which exorbitant prices have been set by the publishers, will bring the lat- ter to terms, and we shall soon find prices adjusted on a more reasonable basis. President HOSMER: The discussion will be continued by Miss Hazeltine, of Jamestown. Miss HAZELTINE: In giving testimony on this subject, I can offer nothing essentially different from the experience of other libra- rians, and speak only from the standpoint of a librarian of a small library in a community that is some little distance from commercial centers. We find that the net-price system is working us great hardship, for under it books are costing us more than in former years, the purchasing power of our annual book appro- priation having been reduced 20 per cent., or, in other words, a decrease of one book for every five books bought from the net price list. This rate is quoted after a careful study of our accession book and a comparison of the book purchases for several years. This decrease in the purchasing power of our book fund is teaching us to be very care- ful buyers, for as far as possible we must make one dollar do the work of two, a neces- sity that exists also in other libraries. To this end we have learned first to buy only such net books as are necessary during the year that marks the protected price. There are some books published every year that a library needs, even at increased cost, but of these we buy only such as seem absolutely necessary, selecting with greatest care and waiting a year for the others, when a larger discount is given. We find, however, that during the period of waiting time has tested many of these books and found them wanting, which saves us not only from buying unnecessary and undesirable books, but aids us materially in selecting from the remaining list. Secondly, we are learning that buying new books is not alone a question of new publica- tions, but of books new to our library, what- ever date their imprint may bear. We are making careful study of our needs in older books, the standard publications, and are fill- ing up gaps and rounding out special classes where we are weakest. We are replacing worn volumes to a large extent, even dupli- cating many of the older books that are never THIRD SESSION. on the shelves and for which there is con- stant demand. In times past we 'have bought domestic foooks almost entirely; now we are beginning to import largely for current publications, and find that we save money. And even at our distance from the market, we are learning that it is quite possible to profit by the various bargain opportunities that are offered in auc- tion sale and old book catalogs, and in "clearance" and "remainder" sales. As I understand the matter, the booksellers are really the greatest offenders in this mat- ter, and to them we must look for redress. It is hard to understand their attitude in urging discrimination against libraries. Even their argument that in circulating free books libra- ries diminish their sales seems to be without foundation. The booksellers in our city bear testimony to the fact that the library has in- creased their sale of books. They say that by bringing books to the people and in creating the reading habit, the library has also created the desire among its readers to own books themselves; and they say further that their sale of books increases as the influence of the library extends. It is true that many come to the library seeking information concerning suitable books for buying, the orders for which go to the bookseller. This is especially noticeable at the holiday season, when the li- brary gives many suggestions regarding books suitable for gifts. If Herbert Spencer evolved a plan by which books could go directly through the mails from the publisher to the consumer, there is another leader who had a belief concerning books and their sale. Baron von Humboldt, in writing to Agassiz, gave him very explicit directions concerning booksellers, but I hope librarians will not be reduced to such drastic methods. Wrote Humboldt to Agassiz, "Ex- ercise great severity towards the booksellers, an infernal race, two or three of whom have been killed under me." President HOSMER: This topic is now open for general discussion. HENRY MALKAN : I am one of those unfor- tunate men that are not in the bookselling business on account of the professional side of it, but merely to make a living and something more. In regard to the bookselling profes- sion, I think that personally if I dropped out of it the educational part wouldn't be missed by it, but from the booksellers' point of view I would like to give you some trade secrets. Speaking of new books, I will give you a general idea of discounts of the bookseller. We pay for an ordinary dollar-and-a-half book of fiction and probably some of the out-of- town dealers pay more say ninety cents a copy. Now, if we sell that for a dollar to the librarian we are making 10 per cent. That is the uniform discount unless we buy a large quantity, when we speculate, and that shouldn't be counted. The outside dealer never gets a single copy or five copies at a rate better than a third from the publisher; or a third and five, which is ninety-five cents, from a jobber, who will give a little better discount sometimes than a publisher. Now, on the net books. A new net book is pub- lished for $1.50, say, and the dealer gets 25 per cent, discount; that makes 15 per cent, discount after we give 10 per cent, to the li- braries. Averaging those two kinds of books, saying that the libraries buy half fiction and half the other class, makes about 12^/2 per cent. Now, I have had the good fortune to supply local libraries in New York, and it is a good deal of trouble to fill library orders. To keep good men you have got to pay pretty fair salaries, and this 12 per cent, as average almost pays the expenses of the store. Now, the reason personally that I seek the library trade is that we get so many plugs in buying that we are obliged to unload them on some- body, and the libraries are really my best cus- tomers to that extent. So far as the retail trade is concerned, I figure out that if I did $65,000 worth of business a year, which would mean a great deal in my retail department, I would be making about $12,000 or $13,000 a year. When I went in the book business my expenses never were less than $100 a week, and after the first year have never been less than about $250 a week or $1000 a month. Selling $65,000 worth of books at 20 per cent, profit I absolutely would be a loser in my business so you get an idea where the profits come in. In New York City we have great advantage over the ordinary dealer, over any dealer in any other part of the United States. In the first place, I think that over 80 per cent, of the books are made in New York, or are brought to New York. 144 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. When a library in any part of the country, or sometimes even in Europe, is to be sold, it is generally brought to New York, and cash purchases from private dealers and book- sellers all over the country, who have an overstock of goods and want to get rid of them, are over 60 per cent, of my general business, and on those books we probably make 80 per cent, or 200 per cent. So there is where our profits come in. T. L. MONTGOMERY: I would like to ask why it is that book dealers taken collectively are so much in favor of this net-price book system? When you get them off in a corner separately they tell you that they are not par- ticularly interested in it and don't care about it. I have had conversations with, I think, twenty book dealers who have had business with the Free Library of Philadelphia, and in not one case have they said that they are benefited by this net book rule, but they said that libra- rians were not buying in the same quantities as before, and that their business hadn't the volume that it formerly had. I would like to know why collectively they express one opin- ion and in privacy they have an entirely dif- ferent view. I would like to ask one further question, and that is, What is the moral re- sponsibility of the librarians in accepting the rule that the publishers have put upon them? Why should we in any way consider their rule? Have we any particular moral respon- sibility in keeping to the arrangement that they have made with the book dealer, or can we go and make the best bargain with the dealer we possibly can? This would be done in any other business, and I would like to know what the feeling of librarians is on this point. Mr. PEOPLES: I would say for my institu- tion, in reply to Mr. Montgomery, that I buy wherever I can get the best terms. I do not consider myself required to stand by the rules as made by the publisher of books. The man who can sell me the books cheapest will get my trade. ANDERSON H. HOPKINS: Before entering upon the main question I would like to pay my respects to the committee that has just been discharged, to congratulate its members upon their happy release, and to commiserate with them in that they did not succeed in ac- complishing more. May I speak for a moment from the view- point of the small library? Perhaps I have no great right to do it, but there are many small libraries in Illinois and the number is increas- ing. They are finding that our books are costing us from 20 to 30 per cent, more than they did before this thing called the net-price system went into effect. Now I am not op- posing a net-price for books. I agree with Mr. Jones in so far as to say that we should sup- port, not the net-price system, but a net-price system. Of course we should have a net-price, but not the net-price now ruling. Let us go back a little and view the field. Some three years ago, or a little more, about four American booksellers, conceiving that their business was being ruined by internal abuses, department stores, cut-rate bookstores and cut-rate men generally, got together and arranged a plan, with the aid of some pub- lishers, to reform the trade. The thing has grown from that day to this. One of their first motions was to send around a list of questions to the booksellers all over the United States. Of course, most of the recip- ients not having had much of the library trade, but conceiving that it was a good thing and that they would like to have some of it, and that here might be a chance to get it, answered the questions in the way they did. A few of the larger traders who had been do- ing the business and were doing it very satis- factorily, voted the other way hopelessly in the minority, naturally enough. This is history that some of you may know, but per- haps most of you do not. From that action grew "Reform resolution no. T," and later the "net-price system," the evil effect of which libraries are now feeling keenly. Now, having become an Association and waxed fat, the booksellers met again last week and they are going to have the publishers do us some more damage if they can. Witness the record of their proceedings. They and the publishers say directly that there is no discrimination. An editorial in that same is- sue of the Publishers' Weekly which reports the proceedings of the American Booksellers' Association, flatly says there is no discrimina- tion. I assert that there is discrimination now, and I believe a case in court could be won upon it. The libraries buy more net- price books than any one class of purchasers. THIRD SESSION. 145 That is one fact. Publishers and booksellers admit it. Another fact is that this net-price class of books furnishes the major part of their purchases. These two significant facts put together are the elements that combine to form a discrimination against libraries. If they were not both true perhaps there might be no discrimination, but both statements are absolutely true. Do you get my point? First, that libraries buy more net-price books than anybody else does; second, that the largest part of all their purchases (even though they may purchase large quantities of fiction) is of the net-price books; and third, that these two elements combined form a discrimination against li- braries, with a resultant decrease of nearly 20 per cent, in the purchasing power of libraries. I say 20 per cent. now. The reason is that, whether or not we think it, probably it is true that the cost of production of books has in- creased considerably. Some librarians that I know have said that the cost to us has been increased 30 per cent, but let's knock off the 10 per cent, to offset the increase in cost of production and we still do find that there is an increased cost to us of some 20 per cent. Now, the librarian will say he believes this ; the bookseller will say that he does not believe it Can you get the publisher to say what he does believe? We have come nearest it in Mr. Zimmerman's address this morning. In the last two or three years we have had un- limited quantities of whitewash from the pub- lishers, and for one I am heartily tired of it. But we cannot expect a publisher or a book- seller to come up here and get on the stand and tell us what to do and how to do it. If we have come to that pass we had best sit down and fold our hands and not attempt to do anything but pay the percentage. Mr. Zimmerman has come just as near telling us as we can expect anybody to come; and per- haps a little nearer than we had any right to expect from one in his position. He has prac- tically told us how we can retaliate. See here ! Let's consider for a minute such a plan. Suppose for the next year you and I and the rest decided that we would not buy a net book while it remained a net book. Would any of our libraries die? Would one of the libraries have to close its doors if we lived up to the agreement exactly? Suppose we should so agree. We would have our funds for book purchases. There are plenty of older books that are not net-price books and that we would like to have on our shelves. Many of them are better than the books that will come out under the net-price system. Would one library close its doors? Not one. How many publishers would? The production and sale of these new books is the breath of life to the publishers, but forms no such necessity to us. We have the key in our hands. The question is, shall we use it? That is one thing we might do. There is another thing that is a good deal uglier. I will not talk about that yet; I want to go back to another thing. Do not forget those four men that were mentioned. There were about four. There may have been six, but there are only about four of them now. Some time ago, talking with some booksellers and some publishers both large and small, I raised the question if any of them actually knew the facts. That is, I said, the librarian says he be- lieves this is so ; the bookseller says he doesn't believe that is so but he believes the opposite is so; the publisher doesn't say. None of them know; you don't know the truth and I don't know the truth; but the thing we want to get at is the truth. Suppose, then, that the American Library Association should agree to pay its fair share of the expenses toward a commission to make an investigation and find out the truth, and that the American Booksel- lers' Association should do the same thing toward the same commission, and that the American Publishers' Association should do likewise in other words, that we should have a joint commission to find out where we do stand, and that we pay the bill jointly. What would be the attitude of the three asso- ciations toward a proposition of that kind? The answer came back flatly from the pub- lishers, no; the Publishers' Association will not consider any such proposition for a min- ute. Well, are we to suppose they don't want the truth? What are we to suppose? Another question to the same lot of men concerning the attitude of the publishers in general led to this answer: The American Publishers' Association is absolutely under the domination of the American Booksellers' Association to-day and will practically do what it requires. And I say to-day privately 146 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. that the American Booksellers' Association is controlled practically by four booksellers. In other words, four booksellers are taxing the publicly supported libraries of America to- day about 20 per cent, of their book purchas- ing capacity. Why? Because they can. Why can they? Because you let them. There is no other answer. What are you going to do about it? Mr. ELMENDORF: This matter is not so simple as it seems. We all know of the de- moralization of the publishing business some years ago. It was not only booksellers that were failing in all parts of the country, but publishers as well. The entire trade was de- moralized, and it was absolutely necessary for publishers and booksellers as a matter of self- preservation to take some means of assuring a living, and this net-price system was re- sorted to. They formed what is to-day prac- tically one of the most vulnerable trusts in this country. If we have the money to prose- cute the matter in the United States courts, to take it out of the New York state courts, even in view of the Macy decision, and bring it to higher authority, we are in my opinion sure to win, and in the judgment of the very best men that I have been able to consult. But we are not in a position to do that. What I object to in this net-price system is not that publishers and booksellers have adopted measures of self-preservation, but that they have taken the very best class of their custom for a "hold-up" job. They have said that in our private capacity you and I and any one can buy books if we wish to ; we can decide when the book is offered to us whether we want to pay tru price or not, and we can accept the book or go without it, as we think best; but here is a certain class of institutions, tax-supported and public, that has got to have books. The booksellers de- mand this price because here is a purchaser that has got to buy. There is where the in- justice comes in. What the American Li- brary Association should ask is that price protection should be entirely taken off as far as libraries are concerned, and that each dealer should be allowed to make his own terms. If he is an honest man, he has a cus- tomer that has got to buy and he can charge a living profit. Every library is willing to pay a living price; they want to buy at the best rates they can, but they recognize that the dealer has got to live. But the present rule, in view of the fact that we have got to buy the books where others can exercise dis- cretion in the matter, is simply in the nature of a "hold-up;" it is a "stand-and-deliver." And libraries individually or collectively should take whatever means they can to put a stop to the absolute extortion that allows us not to make our own terms as large buyers and as buyers in an open market, but de- mands that we pay a tariff for the preserva- tion of booksellers who are very questionably worth preservation. Mr. MONTGOMERY: I would like to ask Mr. Elmendorf whether he buys books at the low- est possible cash price, irrespective of this agreement ? Mr. ELMENDORF: I buy books at the low- est possible cash price. Mr. MONTGOMERY : How many here present buy books at the lowest possible cash price, ir- respective of any agreement between the pub- lishers and the booksellers? About 30 rose. MR. MONTGOMERY: Now, I should like to know how many would do this would take advantage of any business arrangement that might be suggested, irrespective of this agree- ment between publishers and booksellers. Miss KELSO : It is unfair to ask the members of this Association to put themselves on such record without a statement of the penalty which librarians commit themselves to when they stand up and say they would buy or they have bought books in this way. Mr. MONTGOMERY: The first statement I made when I got on the floor was to ask what was the moral responsibility of the li- brarian in this matter? Miss KELSO : You have not told us clearly except in the bare question whether they would violate the agreement, or encourage the bookseller to violate the agreement, be- tween the bookseller and the publisher. Mr. MONTGOMERY: I put it in a different way. Miss KELSO : I think you did. Mr. HOPKINS : Librarians are not all moral infants ; most of them would be able to settle that question for themselves. I think Mr. Montgomery's question is a perfectly fair one, and that every one who rose to answer the. THIRD SESSION. 147 question knew perfectly well what was meant. The PRESIDENT: The chair decides that the question was perfectly fair. The second ques- tion has now been propounded. Those who would buy books at the lowest cash price if they could will please rise. A large number rose. Mr. WELLMAN : I want to say a word in re- gard to ascertaining the expense of conduct- ing the book business from statements of booksellers or by a joint commission, or by any other means of that kind. There is just one way of determining at what discount the bookseller can afford to sell books to libraries, and that way is prohibited by this trust ac- tion on the part of the Publishers' Association. That is, competition determines it. Several booksellers have told me that they could do business and make a reasonable profit allow- ing to libraries more than the 10 per cent, dis- count. If they could not there would be no need of enforcing a rule limiting the dis- count. I believe this is a purely commercial ques- tion and must be met by purely commercial methods. I believe that last year when this question came up the Publishers' Association was watching our action to ascertain what was to be the attitude of librarians. I believe that if they had seen that the librarians would refuse to pay the advanced prices and would not buy the books that there would not have been the slightest difficulty in securing an in- creased discount. Mr. HOPKINS: There are more of us who believe the same thing, Mr. Wellman. Mr. WELLMAN : At that meeting I advo- cated action, not conference. That action was defeated; the question was immediately re- ferred to the Council. We were told that we would better not offend the publishers it was a dangerous matter ! The Council re- ported a recommendation to the Association, appointing a committee v/ith power to confer, and without funds. That committee had the pleasure of spending its own dollars in meet- ings, travelling expenses and conferring with publishers, for a result which was a foregone conclusion. When I urged communicating with librarians through the country, show- ing them the state of things, and showing them some remedies at least, I confess that I was astonished to learn what I should have known that the committee had no power. Now I submit that an association of business men would not appoint or would not be con- tent with such a committee; I submit that there is one thing at least that every member of this Association ought to know and I have ir. on the testimony of a publisher that of li- brarians in general there isn't one in fifty who does know it. Within two weeks I went into a publisher's and looked at his recent books. When I learned the price of one, of which I happened to know the English price, I said, "Why do you put a price on that book which, with the limited discount, I can't afford to pay, when you know I shall simply order the English edition?" And he said, "Mr. Wellman, there isn't one library in fifty that ever thinks of importing." Now, I hold that it is the duty of this Association to inform librarians how they can import books and what the advantages are and to offer some comparisons of cost. There is a work that has just come out where there is a difference of just $6.85 between the price at which the English work can be purchased and the cost in America. Mr. HOPKINS : And I venture the English edition is the better one. Mr. WELLMAN : The only thing which is go- ing to affect the publishers is what will affect their pockets. They adopt these rules, be- lieving that they will thus increase their sales. If they are led to believe otherwise, they will very quickly abandon the 10 per cent. rule. The one remedy which has been suggested, which might include importing where that is desirable, is refraining so far as possible from purchase of the net-price books. But the per- son advocating that procedure has said he would leave it to individuals and not have the Association take concerted action. That is a point on which I am not clear, and I would ask why this Association should not take con- certed action ? I should like to ask Mr. Jones this question. Mr. JONES : We all have our local com- munities to face on this question, and the local community will demand that we have certain of the new books. They say, if we have a public library, supported by public taxation, we have a right to have the new books as they are published. I think that we can draw some lines, as I said, and not buy the 148 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. most exorbitantly priced books; but if we should say that we would not buy any books, I think we should get into a good deal of dif- ficulty. I think it is better to leave this to the individual judgment of the librarians. Mr. WELLMAN : You misunderstood my question. I didn't mean that no net books should be bought, but why should not the Association take concerted action in limiting the number of net books that should be bought, so that this action would be more powerful ? Mr. JONES: I do not object to the Associa- tion taking such concerted action. Mr. HOPKINS: I wish to carry Mr. Jones's objection on the other question one step fur- ther than he has, and I hope that I am not taking too much time. It is quite true that the librarians will have to face their commu- nities. They need not fear their communi- ties very much. But the librarian of the pub- lic library will have one other thing very much more to be feared. The librarian of the pub- lic library in the town is usually the appointee of a board which in its turn is appointed by the mayor. Now, the mayor can't help being vulnerable. The publishers have considerable business strength, tact and discretion; and they have a way of reaching out and touching things. So your librarian may feel something touch him on the shoulder. If we attempt concerted action and say we will not purchase any net books within the period allotted for their protection, that is a way in which they will get back at us almost certainly. But after all, if we will do it and let our action be both quick and severe, some of them will fall. There is one other thing that we could do that would be a deal uglier. It would be much easier to select one good specimen and shake him good and hard. And if you pick the right one, what will become of the Amer- ican Publishers' Association ? Mr. MALKAN : I was going to ask, Mr. President, to have the lady's privilege of say- ing the last two words. In regard to the formation of the Booksellers' Association, I am not responsible for it. They didn't con- sult me. The main reason why I am in favor of the Booksellers' Association is that we in New York could hardly exist with the com- petition of the dry goods stores, which sell all new books of any value, of any publisher, at almost below cost and use them as "leaders." That competition we general booksellers couldn't stand, and that is one of the reasons for the formation of the Booksellers' Asso- ciation. Mr. Hopkins stated that it would be fairer to make all books at one price. Well, I believe that the learned counsel for the American Publishers' Association has said that they could not enforce any uniform price on any books but copyright books, and that would knock out any movement to make all books net. You take a book like the "States- man's year-book," which is published net and is an importation. That book we can sell at any price we choose. I do not want to be any way personal, but I would like to mention that Mr. Hopkins also stated that if libraries didn't buy books the publishers would go out of business and the booksellers wouldn't be successful. Well, now, what does that mean ? A year-and-a-half or two years ago, pre- vious to the entrance of the Booklovers' Library, we did an immense business in fiction, and there wasn't a new novel that any large dealer did not sell 250 copies of very easily. But I must say, almost as a posi- tive assertion, that since the Booklovers' Li- brary has come in our fiction sales have fallen off about 50 per cent. Well, if this applies to the Booklovers' Library it probably applies to the public libraries, too; if they didn't have the books, while everybody wouldn't buy books, more people probably might step into a bookstore, and even with the loss of the books sold to public libraries the publishers would sell just as many copies. It seems so to me. That is all. S. F. McLEAN : I had no thought of enter- ing into this discussion, but there have been a few statements made which seem to me are not quite right. The statement has been made that the American Booksellers' Asso- ciation is controlled by four men. I am a charter member of the American Booksellers' Association, and that, upon my word of honor, is news. I never heard it before. Mr. HOPKINS : I imagine not, sir. Mr. McLEAN: And I don't know it yet! The Booksellers' Association, of course, like all similar organizations, has its committees to look after the important matters that come before it. Booksellers, being scattered from Maine to California, cannot possibly act on THIRD SESSION. 149 every question that conies up, but I wish to assure you that whenever there is an election or any matter of special importance a vote is sent broadcast to every member of the asso- ciation, and that vote is recorded and counted as it is cast. Four men or forty-four men do not, emphatically, control the American Book- sellers' Association, to the best of my knowl- edge and belief. And, furthermore, it certain- ly is the case that the American Publishers' Association is not dictated to by the Ameri- can Booksellers' Association. Mr. PEOPLES : I would like to ask Mr. Mc- Lean if he remembers my reading the letters of Mr. Brett and Mr. Scribner, who said that "in view of the opposition of the Booksellers' Association" they declined to grant our re- quest? Mr. McLEAN : I must confess that I was not here at the time and did not hear that read. In regard to the matter of 10 per cent, profit, it seems to me that there is no library, public or otherwise, that does its business, pays its librarians and assistants, its coal and light, and all running expenses on less than 10 per cent, of the income set aside for that library. I doubt if there is a library that, if it gets $5000 a year, can be run on less than $500. Now, if that be true of a public library, which is ordinarily rent free and has other privileges, how under heavens can a book- seller live on 10 per cent, profit when he pays gas, fuel, clerks, insurance and other ex- penses, and has no source of income but the public? It cannot be done. A bookseller cannot live under modern circumstances on less than 25 per cent., and a vote was taken on that very point. It was not decided by four men. A vote was sent broadcast, and that was the result. Mr. HOPKINS: Therefore it is, of course, the duty of the public library to furnish the 25 per cent. Mr. MCLEAN: No, I do not say that. I made the statement because, so far as I know, this point had not been brought up. At the last Booksellers' Association meeting this story was told : In a certain town they wanted to increase their library. Somebody in au- thority made up a list of the prominent citi- zens of the town and noted what they thought those citizens ought to be willing to donate for this special book purchase fund. The local bookseller was put down for a hun- dred dollars. The bookseller did not at first object to the rating; he thought he would get a chance to bid on the books they wanted to buy for the library. But when it came to buying he never got a chance even to estimate on the books. They were all sold from New York. Now, one of the ideas of the Ameri- can Booksellers' Association is that it will foster a bookstore in all towns; all orders will not go to New York as that particular order did. And I think you will at once see the force and reason for that. If in Niagara here the librarian buys the books from the Niagara bookstore, a store is supported in the tcwn ; the money stays in the town ; the edu- cational influences emanating from the book- store remain for the town, and the town is benefited thereby. The point was also made, I think, that librarians buy more net books than all other buyers. Mr. HOPKINS: I did not make any such statement. I said that the public library buys more net books than any other single class of buyers, and it is true. Mr. McLEAN : I did not so understand. No doubt that is true. Finally, let me recall the old adage that you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I think what the American Library Association should do is to recommend to the American Publishers' Association such alterations and changes as they desire. I do not think they will succeed by saying "you must." Of course, you look at it from the standpoint of the librarian, and you want as much for your money as you can get. I, as a bookseller, look at it from the standpoint of the bookseller, and I want as much for my money as I can get, and the publisher does the same. Will we not do better if we get together in an amicable way? Such a commission as was suggested, I think, would be a good idea. Whether the publish- ers would consent to it or not I can't say, but it seems to me that the booksellers would be glad to meet librarians and publishers half- way at any time, and that, it seems to me, is the only way that we shall succeed in settling this or any other knotty problem. Mr. HOPKINS : Since I have told the gentle- man who has just left the stand some news to him, perhaps I can tell him something else 150 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. that will be news. I may say, if any reply to his query is needed, that unfortunately he left out "practically" from my statement that four booksellers practically control the Amer- ican Booksellers' Association. Some of you will remember that. The publishers' and booksellers' associa- tions say very frankly and openly that they have spent a good many hundreds of dollars in retainers the last year or two. Of course they had a right to; they are business organ- izations. Have we not such rights? Shall we do it? Are we a business organization, or is this simply a sentimental affair? I was glad to hear the last speaker's cordial commendation of the suggestion I made for a joint commission. Some such arrangement would be gratifying. Perhaps I had better move that we make overtures toward getting such a joint commission and that we agree to pay our full third of the expense of the commission whose duty it should be to find out the truth about these relations. If you like I would make such a motion. If you like better another kind of motion I would be ready to make that. But I do not quite know what to do because I don't know what you want and you do not tell me. Will some- body else make the motion? Mr. MONTGOMERY: I move that the matter be referred to the Council. Mr. HOPKINS : I would add that the Coun- cil be required to consider and report a method of action by or before to-morrow night for the further action of this Associa- tion. Voted. Adjourned, 12.15 p.m. FOURTH SESSION. (AUDITORIUM NATURAL FOOD Co., THURSDAY MORNING, JUNE 25.) The meeting was called to order at 9.55 o'clock by President HOSMER. President HOSMER: When Niagara Falls was determined upon as a place of meeting for this convention, being on the frontier, it was felt that it would be especially appro- priate to give this meeting, if possible, an in- ternational character. To that end the pro- gram committee invited Professor Goldwin Smith, one of the leading literary men of the age in which we live, to give the principal address of the occasion. Professor Goldwin Smith has had a career in England full of honor; he has had also a career in Canada. It is no stretching of the matter to say that he has likewise had a career in the United States. He has considered various parts of the history of England; he has considered the conditions of Canada; he is one of the best historians of the United States, his work having all the more value from the fact that it is not an undiscriminating eulogy of the United States, but that he points out our faults while he recognizes our merits. Un- fortunately Professor Smith has been ill and unable to give us the address, but in spite of weakness he has honored us by coming to our meeting. He consents to speak a few words to us, and I have the great honor of presenting to you Professor Goldwin Smith, of Toronto. GOLDWIN SMITH : I could not refuse to re- spond to so kind an invitation. The power of saying a "few words" is an American gift and I am a Britisher, and although I am an emeritus professor of Cornell and greatly cherish that honor, it has not conferred on me the American gift. I am very sorry that I could not respond to the call so kindly made upon me to give a studied address at this meeting. The fact is that I am not only just recovering from a severe illness, which makes it impossible for me to address a large audience, but I am suffering from the incur- able disease of eighty years. There was also another impediment my ignorance of the subject. I am very grateful indeed to librarians. I owe to them not only books, but guidance as to what I should read, and that is a very im- portant part of a librarian's function. My old friend Mark Pattison condemned your profession not to taste of the cup which you offer to others. He said, "The librarian who reads is lost." But though you may not be allowed to read, you are allowed to know what are the contents of books and to be help- ful indeed to the student. A formidable fu- ture opens before the librarian. I saw in a New York paper the other day a list of new novels for the season; it filled two columns- FOURTH SESSION. and a half, in small type. You are to debate that question of Fiction to-morrow, and I must not anticipate it, but it is perhaps the most remarkable literary event of this age that poetry has collapsed and apparently given way to fiction, which now absorbs the imagi- native powers. Look around the world, and I think you will not find a great poet now liv- ing. In England we have still Swinburne; we have my old friend Sir Edwin Arnold, with his gift of luscious language; Mr. Wat- son writes some good things. But we can hardly say that we have a great poet. And it is the same in the other countries of Eu- rope. Poetry seems suddenly to have col- lapsed. It is a very curious subject of in- quiry what is the connection of poetry with the general moods and development of a na- tion? Now fiction reigns, and its production has become an enormously lucrative trade. I regard the novel as a sort of intellectual sa- loon. It has upon the mind much the same effect that the ordinary saloon has upon the body. I do not see how the continual reading of novels can fail to confuse moral ideals and to somewhat disqualify for unromantic duties. I am much obliged for your kind reception. I heartily wish that I could have contributed more to the success of this meeting. A bet- ter speech I might easily have contributed, but it would be impossible for me to con- tribute a warmer sense of the worth of what libraries and librarians do for us, or more hearty thanks for their help. REPORT OF COUNCIL. The SECRETARY : In the matter of relations with the booktrade, the Council reports that it finds it impossible within the time allotted to make a definite and formal report on this subject, and therefore reports progress. Regarding place of meeting, St. Louis has been chosen as the meeting place for 1904, in conjunction with an International Library Congress, the meeting to be held in October. RELATIONS OF LIBRARIES AND BOOKTRADE. Mr. HOPKINS : May I ask if this report of progress on the question of relations with the booktrade means that the Association may expect further report at this evening's ses- sion? This body yesterday gave the Council instructions to report a plan of action at this evening's meeting. Mr. PEOPLES : I have to say that the Council' has the matter under consideration. It is a topic that cannot be decided in an hour. To present any practical plan that would com- mend itself to the Association requires time, and we will have to ask the indulgence of the Association until it can be thoroughly considered. P. B. WRIGHT: Without desiring to force the hands of the Council, but to get this mat- ter definitely before the Association, I have a resolution which I desire to offer. It is as follows : Whereas, An effort is being made on the part of the American Booksellers' Associa- tion to secure an extension of the period of protection of net-price books from one year to two years ; and Whereas, It is the declared intention of said Association to work for the ultimate abolish- ment of all discounts to libraries ; be it Resolved, That the Council of the A. L. A. be and is hereby directed to provide for the immediate establishment of a committe, prop- erly financed, whose duty it shall be to keep informed as to this and other movements det- rimental to library interests ; to represent the A. L. A. before the proper bodies, boards, of- ficers or committees which have under consid- eration such matters, with especial reference to book prices and discounts; to advise, at least twice yearly, librarians as to the meth- ods and advisability of importing books; and to report through said Council at least once each year, with recommendations for such ac- tion on the part of the members of the A. L. A. as will tend to secure for libraries fair treatment. Mr. PUTNAM : Upon the merits of this sug- gestion I have nothing to say. It may be an excellent suggestion, but the Council has been instructed to bring in some plan to the Asso- ciation; the Council has reported progress, but has asked in effect for further time. Cannot we postpone final action upon this motion until at least to-morrow morning's session? Mr. WRIGHT: In offering this resolution it was not my desire to take the matter out of the hands of the Council, and if it is satis- factory to my seconder I am willing that the resolution should go to the Council, with the proviso that if it is not reported on the con- vention should have an opportunity to ex- press itself on the resolution to-morrow. A. G. S. JOSEPHSON: I offer an amend- ment to the effect that Mr. Wright's resolu- 152 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. tion be referred to the Council, to be reported this evening. Voted. Mr. HOPKINS : In view of the fact that I am, with others, on the program to-night, I have taken the liberty of asking the individual members on to-night's program to join with me in a request that the program for to-night bo set aside for a consideration of the report of the Council on relations with the book- trade, and I therefore move that the program for to-night be set aside in favor of such a discussion. Mr. BRIGHAM : I trust the motion will not prevail. We have looked forward to this evening's program with great anticipation. The members on the program for this even- ing have come far to perform the parts as- signed them. There was nothing for them to do when asked if they would give way but to say yes; they couldn't have said no; but we can't afford to let them carry out their with- drawal. It is a wrong precedent anyway. The program committee has worked for weeks and months upon this program, and it should be carried out. Mr. HOPKINS' motion was lost. Dr. CANFIELD then took the chair. Miss PLUMMER read the REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY TRAINING. (See p. 83.) The CHAIRMAN : In the discussion of this subject we will hear from Miss Stearns. Miss STEARNS: The Wisconsin commission is in no sense in an apologetic attitude con- cerning its summer school. It regards the summer school simply as an expedient or de- vice for meeting an actual need in small com- munities in the west that cannot afford to import or employ trained or experienced ser- vice. Just as soon as the towns in the west can afford to have such service the summer schools will be discontinued. Library condi- tions in the west are not easily understood here in the east. We still have in Wisconsin hundreds of little places all through the for- ests where Polish, Norwegian, Swedish and Belgian settlers are coming in, and cutting out farms or little settlements for themselves in the heart of the forest. We wish to make good American citizens of those people, and we go to the towns, we get a meeting to- gether, and we show them the necessity of a public library. There will be in this little town of, say, 200 people, not one perhaps who ever heard before of a free public library. They are paying for school-houses, for side- walks, for water works, for churches, for municipal improvements; they are very heav- ily taxed, but such a community will ofttimes make an appropriation of $200 which is a very large amount to them for a little pub- lic library. Now, there is not a woman in that town who has ever had library experi- ence or library training. The town picks out the best young woman that it can find to run that little library ; they pay that librarian $100 a year, and in one instance in Wisconsin a librarian who received $100 a year spent $65 of that hundred for tuition, board and rail- road fare to attend the summer school that she might get the help, the instruction, the in- spiration which the school could give. When this young woman goes back to the little town she is not left to her own devices. An officer of the library commission goes to the town, aids in selecting the books and stays there three, four, five or six weeks, just as long a time as is necessary to start the library, to classify, to shelve, practically to organize that library for that young woman, all the time teaching her so that the work may be contin- ued in the future. After the library is or- ganized the library instructor or organizer goes back to that town again and again, not in any way in the sense of inspectorship, but in friendly visiting. Of course, there are li- brarians in Wisconsin who are in actual em- ployment there, who come to the summer school to get a knowledge of better methods. They go back to their libraries, they work out the methods they have learned, and then they come back again for a supplementary course. The summer school, be it understood, is not in any sense a money-making institution. When it was started in 1895, Senator Stout paid the entire expenses for the school for the first two years. Now it has become practical- ly self-supporting, but since the state has doubled the appropriation of the commission at the last session of the legislature, we pro- FOURTH SESSION. 153 pose to make the summer school wholly free to our students. Next year, for Wisconsin students, fees will be wholly removed. Now, what are the results of this summer school training? It gives a better knowledge of library methods and impresses upon stu- dents all the time that this is not the end of their work ; that this, of course, is but the be- ginning. Many students come back for fur- ther work, and in some instances some grad- uates have gone to take the two-years' course at the regular library schools. But the best result of the summer library school is to bring together the librarians of little towns and get them into touch with what we call the library spirit. Mr. BRIGHAM: I feel somewhat strange in talking on library training, because I am in- nocent of all knowledge of it. My position is like that of the "wild western" member of Parliament who was found on his feet ad- dressing a question after Fox, Burke. and Pitt had spoken. Some of his friends asked him how he dared to speak under those cir- cumstances, and his answer was, "I am just as much interested as they are." That is my excuse. Take, for instance, the state of Mas- sachusetts and the state of Iowa Massachu- setts with its libraries and trained librarians everywhere; Iowa with its library possibili- ties. If we do not need training, who does? I take this subject very seriously, and I take great satisfaction now in acknowledging my indebtedness to the Library Association and to the schools that have given this Associa- tion its strength. My first call for help was to the library school, and I accepted a cataloger sent me. My second obligation was when that cataloger was called up higher, and I found that I could get another who would not revolutionize things, but would take up the work where the other had left off and carry it along on the same general lines. Then came the organization of our library commis- sion, and I found a trained librarian to act as secretary, and I have never found that our secretary knew too much about cataloging for her work on the stump, as one might call it. When we finally had our commission the call began to come for more trained help, and then came the desire for a summer school. We haven't any lumber regions in Iowa, but we have wide-reaching prairies with little li- braries, school libraries and small college li- braries, and we have many worthy women and a few worthy men who lack the train- ing that you have had, but who have the love for the work and the desire to do the work, and to them we were indebted for the library movement in Iowa. It was that they might get in line with the great library movement of the country that our summer school was instituted. There is no question that there is a new library spirit in our state; our state library association has taken new life, is reaching out for higher standards, we are dis- cussing new themes, and we think we can do very much. Every one of the trained libra- rians who has come into our state, whether she likes the name or not, is a missionary and is doing missionary work. This is my ex- perience, and in my experience you will find my tribute to library training. The CHAIRMAN : We will now hear of Library school training from the standpoint of previous practical experience. Miss FRANCES RATHBONE: The value of practical library work before theoretical and technical training has been discussed many times, but oftenest from the school's point of view. I would take the individual's point of view. Through practical library work one learns whether one really likes it, and so can be sure one is making no mistake in investing in a library school training. Besides this, one has a chance to discover what kind of library work one is best fitted for, and so can choose the school and the course that will best round out one's natural capabilities. This precludes many mistakes and places one in harmony with the spirit of the course, which increases its effectiveness enormously. Then, too, one in in readiness to receive the instruction un- derstandingly, with a true valuation of its im- portance and with a chance for poised appre- ciation of the points brought out. The library school course is constantly throwing side- lights on the difficulties one has faced from one point of view only, and with but one set of conditions. Wherever one has had the practical experience, and however good it may have been, there must be limitations. Given the most inspiring librarian as a guide, he 154 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. cannot change the conditions, location nor kind of library his happens to be, and these must be the limitations of the assistant's ex- perience. If he is not an inspiring librarian, and not interested in recent methods of work, the assistant loses accordingly. In a small li- brary there is not the need for speed, and there are economies usually necessary that cut off possible activities of the library. But then in a small library there is chance for rounded experience that a large library can- not give. In a large library one has a larger and more varied experience in one depart- ment, and therefore gains greater efficiency in that. But one knows only superficially de- partments outside of one's own, can have prac- tical training only in the elementary or cleri- cal lines of work in other departments, and cannot, therefore, gain a rounded knowledge of library science. So promotion and in- crease of salary beyond a certain point are doubtful. For both sets of conditions the library school course does its effective work. It fur- nishes a background for all one's future. It fills in the gaps, rounds out the potentialities, develops latent powers, gives one the courage of knowledge to dare ! Before the course one did not know in how many ways a problem might be met beside the familiar way. After it, even if one chose that same way, one would know why and could defend the choice. Just as until there is an opportunity for choice there is little moral growth and stam- ina, so in library work, until there is a suffi- cient background of knowledge to make choice of method and even choice of work possible, there is but a limited growth and outlook for the librarian. There may be conditions and complications that would prevent one from taking a library school course, but if one is ambitious, interested in the work and judged fitted for it by those with whom one's work is cast, I can see no such short road to effi- cient and compensating work as a library school course. The practical money return can but be greater, and the process is all pleasure if one is not afraid of hard work and if one is, he ought not to enter the library field. To put in practice what has been studied in theory and in strictly technical lines is, appar- ently, more necessary to a student who has had no practical experience before. It cer- tainly is invaluable in fixing his knowledge and giving him command of himself. But it is equally invaluable in a larger way to the student with previous experience, for it lets him compare. Experience without training is one-sided and often narrow and self-satisfied. Training without experience leaves one un- certain, with a feeling that one is supposed to know, does know, but with a vague help- lessness and dread of cutting loose. And this is dispelled by practical work as part of the course command of self is gained. Neither experience nor training can bring out what was not latent in the individual ; can give common sense if one has it not; can do more than develop tact and judgment and poise and power and justice and breadth and character. But the influence of schools in these lines can be wide-spread and deep and their inspiration lasting. And given experi- ence plus training and plus such influence, the student is in a fair way for larger library usefulness and to find himself. Miss EMILY CLARKE : I am to tell, first, why I went to a library school; second, what I gained there; third, what the consequences were. The circumstances which sent me to a li- brary school were perhaps a little unusual. I had been trying for a year to catalog in a public library under difficulties, having had very limited instruction to work on. Long before the end of the year I had learned that the things I did not know about library work in general and cataloging in particular were too numerous to mention. I wanted more definite rules of action, better methods in- cidentally, I wanted a larger salary. In the school course I got very much what I was looking for, but I also gained much that I had not dreamed of finding. Instruction in methods of work, learning the technique of library science, are a great deal, but that is not all nor the most impor- tant part of what you gain in a library school. There is a widening of the horizon, a rais- ing of ideals, as you realize the large field of work outside your own little vineyard. Chil- dren's work, co-operation with the schools, Home libraries and Travelling libraries all these larger interests were new to me. Li- brary work acquired a broader meaning as I FOURTH SESSION. 155 turned from the technicalities of cataloging to dealing with the outside world. I do not mean to say that untrained work- ers are lacking in zeal and interest in their work, but there is a certain fine enthusiasm and generous emulation contagious in the li- brary school which few of its students man- age to escape. I have also noticed in the work of library school graduates a superior- ity in accuracy a finish and attention to details. At the same time there is sometimes danger of making a fetich of library school methods to the point of being unwilling or unable to adapt them to the unusual circum- stances of one's position, or the prejudices of one's board of trustees. In teaching the more practical work of a library, I think it would be a great advan- tage could every school have a good-sized public library annexed, where the students could not only act as assistants, but each in turn serve as librarian. The next best thing would be to have on the staff of every library school at least one instructor who had had five years' experience as the head of a public library of at least 15,000 volumes. And I would suggest that one of her subjects should be a short course in bookkeeping and library accounts. Doubtless men know these things by instinct, but women do not, and so much business ability is expected nowadays of a librarian that a little previous training for such work would be a great advantage. No one can doubt that a course in a library school is a good investment financially. My own salary, which was very small as an un- trained worker, was doubled at once in the organizing work which I entered on leav- ing school work which I could not have done without my year at the Armour Insti- tute School. Mr. CRUNDEN: Mr. President, I think you will all agree with me that the report of the Committee on Library Training is one of the best reports the A. L. A. has ever listened to. I have never heard a better-considered, more comprehensive report in the whole history of the Association, and I think it is so valuable that it ought to be in more available shape than it will be in the Proceedings of the As- sociation. But first I move that the recom- mendations be referred in the usual order to the Council, and the committee be discharged with the hearty thanks of the Association. Voted. Mr. ELMENDORF: I would endorse most heartily what Mr. Crunden has said in regard to the value of this report. I have never lis- tened to anything before the Association that seemed to indicate the thoroughness with which the committee has gone into this matter and the clearness with which it has been pre- sented; but, as a member of the Association of probably ordinary comprehension, I have not been able to fully take in this report, and I would be glad, in a formal way, to lay be- fore the Council the extreme desirability of having such reports as this printed before- hand, so that we may get not a set reading, but a valuable discussion of the contents of the report. We should insist that our au- thorities should give us such reports in the form in which we may make the best and most use of them. Mr. HOPKINS : There is one other point that I would like to call attention to. You will notice that in the report reference was made to a set of standards. Of course, these stand- ards were mentioned in the report, but the Association and its members might like a fuller and plainer statement of these stand- ards. I wish that whatever action we now take regarding the report and its recom- mendations to the Council, permit also our asking this committee to make a further state- ment of the standards. Mr. DEWEY: I was about to make the very same proposition. This committee has han- dled this subject and studied it and knows it from top to bottom, and they can put in a few sentences a digest as to what the stand- ards of library training should be. I sec- ond the suggestion that this same committee be asked to submit a digest of the various standards recommended for library schools of the various kinds. It was voted to reconsider Mr. Crunden's motion. Mr. HOPKINS : I now move that the com- mittee's report be accepted, its recommen- dations referred to the Council, and that the committee be asked to formulate a statement of the standards to be required of the various library schools, and that the committee then be discharged. Voted. Adjourned, 12.15 P- m - 156 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. FIFTH SESSION. (AUDITORIUM NATURAL FOOD Co., THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 25.) President HOSMER called the meeting to order at 8.20 p.m. The secretary read the REPORT OF COUNCIL ON RELATIONS WITH THE BOOKTRADE, (See Transactions of Council.) which was accepted. Papers on FICTION IN PUBLIC LIBRARIES were read by Miss ISABEL ELY LORD (p. 28), A. E. BOSTWICK (p. 31), Dr. B. C. STEINER (p. 33). and J. C. DANA (p. 36). E. W. GAILLARD read a paper on GREATER FREEDOM IN THE USE OF BOOKS. (See p. 38.) ANDERSON H. HOPKINS spoke on COMMERCIAL CIRCULATENG LIBRARIES : THEIR IN- FLUENCE UPON AND RELATIONS WITH THE PUBLIC LIBRARY. Mr. HOPKINS: Commercial circulating li- braries may be rationally and not very scien- tifically classed or divided into three classes, the first one of which let us call the salaried class, the kind of commercial circulating li- brary that is organized upon a basis of paying salaries to its employees. These, like the Book- lovers' Library and the Tabard Inn Library, operate for the most part in the larger cities and towns of- the country. The second class we may call non-salaried. That is, they are organized on the basis that the manager must make the business pay him his salary in each particular place. These operate for the most part in the smaller villages and towns of the country, although they have headquarters in the larger cities, and the types are the Ply- mouth libraries or the Parmalee libraries, with headquarters at Boston and Chicago. The third class is that often called bookstore or book club libraries, like the Twentieth Century Library, run by the branches of the American Baptist Publication Society, and many bookstores in various cities have what they call book clubs, which are virtually lending libraries. So far as I know these comprise the three classes of commercial cir- culating libraries. There are three distinct classes and the fact that they exist would seem to indicate that there is some reason for their existence. Now, leaving that and passing on to the question of their influence upon the public library, we are at once led to a brief consid- eration of the functions of the public library. From the educational standpoint, we may say, putting them alphabetically, .that these functions are: amusement, instruction, re- search. And it seems likely that the influence of commercial circulating libraries would lead in public libraries to a decrease of fic- tion reading, a decrease of circulation and an increase of instruction. The question, then, as I conceive it, is, What is to be our atti- tude toward the commercial circulating li- brary? That is what I would like to have you answer. PURD B. WRIGHT read a paper on DUPLICATE PAY COLLECTIONS OF POPULAR BOOKS. (See p. 40.) A second paper on this subject was read by J. F. LANGTON (p. 41). W. R. EASTMAN: Regarding the last sub- ject, I would like to ask the simple question whether a free library, so called, giving spe- cial privileges to special borrowers for pay, and making money thereby and doing good also, is still entitled to be called a free library? In this state the legislature entrusts us with funds to be given to free libraries. Would we be justified in giving a portion of those funds to a library which gave special privi- leges for pay? Mr. DEWEY: I think that is the most non- sensical argument that could be advanced. The objection has been raised before, but I am delighted to find that libraries are ignoring it, and going on giving out good reading at a low cost, increasing their facilities and not worrying over the question whether it is con- stitutional or not. The same argument would close our parks because we could get a glass of soda water there; it wouldn't be a free park any more because soda water was sold in it. FIFTH SESSION. 157 Mr. CRUNDEN: Look at it this way: Sup- pose in any town library in this country a number of citizens were to organize a book club. Instead of passing the books on from one neighbor to another, as is generally done, they come to the public librarian and say, "Fifty of us have formed a book club to read the new books when they come out. You don't have them. We don't blame you. We know you can't afford to buy them; but we want to read them while they are fresh. Now, we will buy all the good new books that come out and will give them to you after we get through with them. You have no objection to taking such a donation, have you?" "No," the librarian says. "What do you expect me to do in return for that?" "Just leave them on your open shelves and charge them to the members of our club as they go out. Jf ycu will do that the club, in return, will give you all those books at the end of a few months, after we have read them." That is practically what is done, only there is no formation of a club. The library organizes the club, so to speak. It puts the books on the shelves. The people come in of their own volition. Any- body can join by paying five cents and taking the book, and when those comparatively few people get through with them the books be- long to all the other people. The other peo- ple are benefited, in the first place, by the lessening of competition for books not in this collection. There is a little profit; we do not aim to make a profit, but it comes in. What is done with it? It is given to the mass of readers of the library; it buys just that many more books of some other kind. So that those who use the collection of du- plicates are benefited by having the books when they are new, and those who decline to use them and a few make the complaint that has been mentioned here are neverthe- less benefited by it, first, by reducing the number of competitors for the regular copies, and finally by the fact that $500 a year is turned into the treasury to buy more books. Mr. BOSTWICK: Mr. Dewey's illustration of the public park is not quite fair. When we charge for books in a public library we are charging in one part of the library for the same kind of thing that is free in another part. A more exact illustration, it seems to me, would be if a part of a public park should be set aside and an admission fee thereto charged, or, if an admission fee to a public park were charged for one day in the week; and it seems to me we have a perfect right to say that in so far as an admission fee were to be charged to the public park, that park was not a free park. Mr. CRUNDEN : I can give an illustration about the park. Forest Park, in St. Louis, is a very large place and is entirely free; but we have an arrangement which everybody thinks is perfectly legitimate. We have or- ganized an amateur athletic association and we have the privilege of a corner of the park suitable for our purposes, where we have put up a clubhouse, and we charge $10 a year for admission to that part of the park. The only stipulation on the part of the city was that we should not be exclusive, and that anybody of proper character should be allowed to join that club. I think that is an exact compari- son of the two cases. Dr. STEINER: There is another point to be made which shows how inextricably the last two subjects we have discussed are bound together, namely, the question of pay collec- tions and the question of commercial libra- ries. This is, that the free library, as soon as it goes into the question of forming a pay collection, is going into the commercial field. So long as the free library charges nothing for its facilities to the public there is no question of any commercial element coming in. As soon as it establishes pay collections there conies the commercial element. Then the question immediately conies up whether the public library has a right to take the commercial field; whether, in other words, the public library should establish a collec- tion of duplicates which must necessarily produce a profit. If they produce a profit then the public library directors are probably personally responsible to the people of the city for using public money for private privi- lege. It may be a question whether they are not so responsible anyway. They are giving free rent to the duplicate collection, and while probably that is so small a matter that legally no judgment could be brought against them, it is a serious question whether the fact of their allowing free rent to such a collec- 158 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. tion does not put them technically against the letter of the law. Certainly if the dupli- cate collection was a loss to the library it would not be only technically but absolutely against the letter of the law, and the direc- tors would be responsible for misuse of public funds. Therefore they must have a dupli- cate collection which will produce a profit, and that means that they must put themselves in an attitude of competition to the commer- cial libraries of the country, and that brings up the question what the attitude of the pub- lic library should be towards such commercial libraries. Should we regard them as supple- ments or should we regard them as competi- tors? Should we endeavor to aid them or endeavor to hinder them? And here again there are two kinds of such libraries to be considered. I have never thought that it was wise for me to establish a duplicate collec- tion in Baltimore for one reason alone, if there were no others, and that is, that there is a mercantile library in the city which is not established for the purpose of making money for anybody, but for furnishing special privi- leges to persons who desire such privileges in the way of obtaining books, particu- larly new books, which cannot be obtained from the public library with the appropria- tions it receives from the city government. I regard such a mercantile library as a most important institution, and believe that the public library should do all in its power to encourage such an institution. On the other hand, there are certain institutions known as stations of the Tabard Inn; there is a branch of the Booklovers' Library ; there may be other libraries of the sort which are car- ried on not alone for the good of the persons who draw books from them, but for the com- mercial profit of their stockholders. At any rate, they are not established merely for the purpose of giving facilities to the persons who draw books therefrom; they are estab- lished for a commercial purpose. What should be the attitude of the public library towards such commercial institutions ? Clearly the public library is under no obligation to them, and there is no reason why it should restrain itself from any course of conduct that it thought desirable, that they might make a better profit. It may be a question whether the public library should welcome them or not. I am inclined to think it should. I am not willing to give a definite judgment on the question, and yet it seems that such an institution as this, giving special privi- leges to people who care to pay for them all over the country, may be productive of a cer- tain advantage and a certain interchange which a public library in any one city can- not furnish. Mr. DANA : The point which Mr. Dewey made, it seems to me, is entirely correct. Or, to take another illustration: the state now furnishes free education. Free education in an ordinary school means free text-books ; free education in a state university means also ordinarily free text-books ; but it does not mean free pencils and free chemical apparatus which the university furnishes for a certain sum of money. That is, it sells apparatus to its students. The point as regards a duplicate collection in a library, as I see it, is simply this : does the law as it stands to-day permit us to do this thing? I had supposed from the first that if any one were to bring the proper kind of an action against the trustees of a public library for establishing a duplicate collection, in competition with a money- making enterprise, he could, in all proba- bility, find in the law establishing that library sufficient warrant for causing them to give up that collection. As far as I am concerned, 1 propose to maintain a duplicate collection until somebody, by law, chooses to say that we shall not do so. As regards the Tabard Inn Library and the Booklovers' Library in general, it might be wise if we could get from them some good example to copy. It would be possible for a good many libraries to establish Tabard Inn libraries of their own, to put in stores throughout the city simple bookcases with from one to five hundred volumes, which should be lent by a process as simple as is the process of the Tabard Inn, but perhaps without the payment of a fee. As a matter of fact, we have established a couple of deposit stations of this kind. They are in drug stores; people come to them, go over the shelves, pick out the books they please and are charged with them. I think it would be possible to devise some system whereby with almost entire safety we could allow the public to come into a store in the SIXTH SESSION. 159 center of the community, find there a branch of the public library, pick out a book, put in the proper charge slip and take his book away. If people can do this on a commercial basis, and books are not lost or stolen, why can't we, as free public institutions, do the same thing? Mr. DEWEY: There are some people in this Association who, whenever they hear of a good thing, do not question that it is a good thing, but try to hunt for some difficulty to prevent its execution. We are all lawbreakers all the time. The statute books are full of statutes that are very good perhaps, but which, when you come down to a technical question, a lawyer will show you are being con- stantly broken. We should not waste time on these imaginary dangers. I do not believe there is a legislature in the world that would not authorize library trustees to maintain a pay duplicate collection when it was explained to them that everybody was better accommo- dated by it and it was a source of profit. We are wasting our time in discussing imaginary difficulties of that kind. H. G. WADLIN : But why should the public library take on a duplicate commercial col- lection in competing with the Booklovers' Library, for example? Why should we enter upon a field which the Booklovers' Library is evidently cultivating with success and profit? If the private school is succeeding in filling a need which the public school does not fill, why should the public school take on a pay annex, which seems to me a parallel case? I think many of us are fearful of competition of the Booklovers' Library with the public library in circulating fiction. From my point of view we need not fear that at all. From my point of view the public library has primarily an educational function. Let the commercial li- brary meet, if it will, the desire for amuse- ment. I don't believe this pay-collection question would have been brought forward at all if it had not been for the development in recent years of the public circulating li- brary which circulates mainly fiction. I am heartily in sympathy with, and I want to ex- press my appreciation of the excellent brief paper which Mr. Dana presented to-night; and I want to say briefly, that you may un- derstand my position, that the Boston Public Library to-day is buying practically no fiction and has bought none for six months, except from the few writers who have recognized standing and recognized ability, and we are not afraid of the development of the Book- lovers' Library, but we welcome it. We wel- come it because I believe you can all see that if you develop the circulation of books, no matter how, you will aid your public library. Develop the use of books through commer- cial libraries if you will. The more readers that are made the more the constituency of the public library is enlarged in the end. Mr. CRUNDEN: The attitude of the public library toward the Booklovers' Library, so far as my experience goes, has been one of cordial welcome. The Booklovers' Library is helping us to solve the very problem which we have been trying to solve by the duplicate pay collection, and if the Booklovers' Library succeeds so well that one or two copies of a popular novel will suffice us, we shall be greatly relieved. I agree entirely that the more Booklovers' libraries and Tabard Inn libraries there are, the better for the public library, because the more readers you make the more people will come to the public li- brary, and as more private enterprises take up the supplying of reading for amusement the more money and time we shall have for higher educational work. At the same time, the duplicate collection serves a public use, and I do not think we should quibble about it one way or the other. We certainly are serv- ing the public. We are gratifying the nat- ural desire that everybody has, except a few abnormal people, who say they do riot like to read any novels at all. Therefore I think we should go on and do that work until private enterprise relieves us of it. Adjourned, 10.45 P- SIXTH SESSION. (AUDITORIUM NATURAL FOOD Co., FRIDAY MORNING, JUNE 26.) The meeting was called to order by Presi- dent HOSMER at 10 o'clock. W. R. EASTMAN read the REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY ADMINIS- TRATION. (See p. 71.) It was Voted, That the report be accepted and the recommendations referred to the Council. i6o NIAGARA CONFERENCE. W. E. FOSTER read a paper on ESSENTIALS OF A LIBRARY REPORT. (See P. 76.) E. W. GAILLARD spoke on the same subject. He said: No two reports which I have ever ex- amined have been the same. After careful examination of many reports, I am now pre- pared to say what is essential. The essentials are neither facts nor figures ; they are that the librarian must put himself bodily into his report, with all his strength and vitality. The keynote must be interest. It is not enough to tell that so many books have been circu- lated and that the percentage is so-and-so. He must tell of his aspirations and his ideals, of what he is trying to do, of where success is indicated and where failure has occurred. He should give a careful study of the work that has been done, and the reason therefor, when that work has been of an unusual char- acter. In cases of failure he must endeavor to show the reasons for it, and how it may be overcome. It is that which he must put into the report: his brains, his heart, and his soul are the essentials, not figures. He may use figures to illumine, but that is all. For com- parison with the work of previous years sta- tistics may be appended, but let no one sup- pose statistics make a report. One more point in regard to reports I de- sire to mention. All of our work is done by assistants. Some of them work their proper hours and render all the service that is re- quired. Others give far more than their hours. They put their whole personality into their work. They make the departments what they are to-day. The attendance yesterday at the Children's Librarians' meeting showed the class and types of persons to whom I refer. We all know that they are doing a fine work, in some cases a truly noble work. Then let us say so in our reports. Let us call attention to the assistant each year whose work has had a marked effect upon the library. That is not only justice but good business. Let the librarian put his own self into his report. If he is interesting and interested in his work, and is doing things worth while, his report will be interesting. If he is not, all the papers and addresses in the world will not infuse into his report a single essential. A. E. BOSTWICK read a paper on WEAK POINTS IN LIBRARY STATISTICS. (See p. 81.) The general subject, CENTRALIZATION OF LIBRARY ACTIVITIES. was introduced by a paper by GEORGE ILES on A HEADQUARTERS FOR OUR ASSOCIATION. (See p. 24.) Dr. J. H. CANFIELD: Mr. lies has taken up, I think, every detail of this scheme in a very clear and definite way. I am here, therefore, simply to say a hearty amen to the general proposition. We have entered a century in which we seem to have developed a sixth sense, the sense of organization. We have come to understand the place and value of or- ganized effort, and it would be strange indeed if those of us who are engaged in library work should be either the last to appreciate that fact or slow to appreciate it. The question of a similar headquarters has been before the National Educational Association for some years, and it has been distinctly understood that it would be helpful in the extreme. That there is a demand for such a library head- quarters goes without saying. I do not ex- aggerate when I say that the plans of at least ten libraries, college and public, have passed through my hands within the last year, have been sent to me simply because of my posi- tion and experience in connection with this work. Letters come to my office every week of the year making inquiries as to library training, where it can be had, how much it costs to get it and what its value is when it is received. I speak of this not because I imag- ine for a moment that it is exceptional, but simply as illustrating this constant demand. The demand ought to be met. It would be most helpful if we could meet it, and meet it in this way. I imagine, however, we are not going to get what we want all at once. I have had an abiding impression for a good many years, from what I have seen in the business world and elsewhere, that it takes about $5000 worth of experience to know how to handle $5000, and that a man either gets this experience by losing the $5000 that has been given him before he has the experience, or he gets it by administering his own af- SIXTH SESSION. fairs until he makes the $5000; and I am not sure but that it will come to us all the more surely and will be more efficient in the long run if it comes to us piecemeal. We may ex- pect to do a little here and a little there and more by and bye, and I wish especially to em- phasize this one thought, that I sincerely hope that the question of location will not be taken up until after we know what we can do, and when we can do it, and how we are to go about it. J. N. LARNED: The substantial reasons for desiring a permanent headquarters for the A. L. A. have been set forth by Mr. lies so fully, so clearly and so convincingly that I think it is quite useless to undertake to add to them. But on this matter, and on most matters that concern the American Library Association, I think it is true that what we would call the substantial considerations considerations, that is, that have to do with probable facts, visible effects traced to visible causes are very far from being all that is important to take into account. When we give our attention to the teaching work of the Association, to the instructive fruits of these meetings, to its dissemination of improved library methods, to its co-operative work and to all its dynamics and economics, we have touched only one side of its influence, and I doubt that side being the superior side. All the tangible products of the Associa- tion which we can estimate have been pro- digious, amazing; they astonish our eyes in every library in the country, and yet it is doubtful if their value is not secondary com- pared with the subtle animations by which this Association has stimulated effort and in- spired work in the library field. We know what those influences have been very well. We have all of us felt them, though we should not know how to describe them even to our- selves. They belong among the mysteries of the psychology of the multitude, the psychol- ogy of congregations of people, which nobody has ever expounded satisfactorily, so far as I know. A really organic body of people, united by common interests and common purposes, seems to become permeated in some strange way with a life of its own which acts in all its members and affects their feeling and their thought. There is more in that than we ordinarily mean when we borrow the phrase of the French and speak of an esprit de corps. I think we see in past history that even nation-making has been among its ef- fects. Our own nation is the most striking example of this effect. By their national union the American people were made a very dif- ferent people from what they had been be- fore; different in their attitude of mind and disposition, different in their collective tem- per and power, and the more organic their union became the more it endowed them with new capacities and with a new spirit and force. But that union, we should notice, did not really become organic until they obtained a capital to be the center of their unity and the focus of all the influence which the union produced. So long as their government was afloat, resting now in New York and now in Philadelphia, in a confusing association with this state and that state, the growth of a real national spirit and of the energies of the young nation was very slow and very feeble as compared with what it became after a na- tional capital began to rise on the banks of the Potomac, distinct and conspicuous in the mind's eye of the people. That brings me to the point I wish to reach in urging what we may call a capital for our Federation of American Libraries. We should do for the American Library Association very much what was done by the creation of its national capital for the Federation of the United States. At present we are only real- izing our Association once a year, in these gatherings at different places, for a few days, and yet its influence has been more than we can measure or describe. Now, if we make that realization continuous, by establishing a center of unity, a focus of influence, can any one doubt that the potency of the effect will be very greatly enlarged? I cannot. I, for one, was very slow in comprehending the im- portance of organization and incorporation in work of this kind. I have come to see that an almost inconceivable and miraculous power of inspiration and achievement is developed by such means, and I wish to pay my tribute of grea; admiration to those of more sagacity who were the founders of this Association and who have been the makers of its strength. We have one man among the workers in the library field who, I think, saw more of this from the very beginning than any one else, 1 62 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. and who has done more than any one else to put us and keep us in the way to such ful- filment as we have reached, and that is Melvil Dewey, and if we acquire a capitol I hope that his statue will some time appear in its halls. Dr. E. C. RICHARDSON : Those of us who are old habitues of these meetings realize that this is not a new topic, but we realize that it has been made a new topic by the sys- tematic and complete way in which it has been presented at this time. I judge that we are all agreed as to the ideal of the matter. We have no doubt but that it is a good thing to do, but unless we can make some definite steps towards it we are no further along than we have been before. As a matter of fact, this question is one of a local habitation, and it is a fact that we are not wholly without such a local habitation at the present time. We have the Publishing Board, already organ- ized, with a place of residence in Boston. Most of our other activities are itinerant, but we have this one definite thing. Shall we not gather this in with some other of our activities in Boston, or some- where else, and see if we cannot develop those into something greater? It is not possible to gather all the elements of our activity into one place. You cannot give the most help to the small libraries if you have all building plans in Albany or in New York or Chicago; they should be in several centers. But I think that the most practical thing at the present moment would be to try to do something in the way of securing a paid sec- retary, who might for the present have his quarters at Boston, with our present Pub- lishing Board office, but with a prospect that we would decide later what was the really practical central point. To my mind it is either New York or the capital of the United States, and I believe it should be at the capital. The PRESIDENT: This discussion will be continued by reports of institutions which are especially interested in this idea. Mr. Herbert Putnam will speak for the Library of Con- gress. Mr. PUTNAM : The only reason for placing particular institutions under this section up- on the program is in order to enable us to estimate as to how far work co-operative in nature may be taken care of by existing agencies. As to the Library of Congress two heads are given, bibliography and cataloging. The latter refers particularly to the service ren- dered by the distribution of our catalog cards. I have here a statement by Mr. Hastings of the operations of the past year. I offer it to be printed. The number of libraries thus far subscribers to a large or small degree is 281 ; of these 168 are public libraries, 42 univer- sity and college libraries, 12 government li- braries, and the remaining 45 miscellaneous. The exact number of cards distributed is not given by Mr. Hastings. The receipts in sub- scriptions that is, the cash sales amount- ed to $6500, but the distribution during the last five months of this fiscal year has been double that of the similar five months of 1902. Beginning with July first there will be some change in the card stock in the direction of improvement the highest quality we can get, slightly additional thickness, conforming as nearly as possible to what is considered the most desirable, I believe, of the standard stock of the Library Bureau. An additional effort has been made to cover the non-copy- righted English publications by cards promptly available, and by additional assistance through the Copyright Office in hastening be- lated copyrighted publications. The mere fact that the law requires the deposit of copies does not always secure their prompt deposit, and we find it necessary constantly to prod publishers for books of which the copies have not been deposited to perfect the copyright. The library is undertaking to see in print the revised edition of the "A. L. A. catalog." That edition will presumably contain the clas- sification symbols, Decimal and Expansive. These will be repeated on the cards we shall distribute, corresponding to all the titles in that catalog. We shall also include the print- ers' serial numbers for the cards correspond- ing to each title. So that the possessor of that catalog may be able to order from the Library of Congress cards for any titles in- cluded in that volume by simply quoting a serial number which we shall append to such titles in the volume. Those cards we shall keep in stock. As to bibliographical projects in general. The library is of course issuing from time to time lists on certain topics which it considers of interest to the public. It considers pri- SIXTH SESSION. 163 marily the needs of Congress, but it is going far beyond those, and will, I suppose, increas- ingly go beyond them. The Library of Con- gress naturally, as a national library, is col- lecting statistics as to libraries in this country and abroad. It is collecting material towards a history of the libraries of this country and will have to invoke the aid of all librarians to make that complete. The library is also mak- ing as complete as possible a collection of bibliographies themselves and of all that infor- mation which exhibits the resources of other libraries. That is, of course, freely available. The distribution of our catalog cards is al- most an inevitable, it is certainly a logical result of the work we are doing on our own account. We are getting the books, we are provided with a cataloging force, we are printing the cards for ourselves, and it is perfectly logical that we should endeavor to make them available to others. It is natural that as a national library we should have the largest procurable collection on bibliographic matters in general. It is natural that we should collect for our own information in answering inquiries from all over the country, the catalogs of other libraries in book form, on printed cards, on manuscript cards, if necessary. As far as possible, of course, we are called upon to be a bureau of information as to matters bibliographic, particularly as to the resources of various libraries. We natu- rally should be in a way, more than any other one library, to secure information as to the contents, methods and operation, statistics, of libraries abroad, because as gradually we come to be known as a national library rather than merely the Library of Congress, we should be the natural medium of communication with libraries abroad. Last year we undertook to perfect our files of serial publications, and as an aid to this issued lists of duplicates and a list of wants. We printed those and sent them out to looo libraries, too responded with proffers of exchange, and we have since been in correspondence with them and in active re- lations of exchange. We have issued about 1200 volumes and about 700 numbers and have received about 1700 volumes and 34,000 numbers. Four foreign libraries were in- cluded in this exchange. From one we got a number of a New York periodical that we had in vain advertised for. Now we find often that one library will inform us of a want which another library may be able to supply or a duplicate which the other library may desire to secure. This enables us, by putting them into correspondence with one another, to supply their mutual needs. Our primary purpose in this exchange was the benefit of the Library of Congress; but the aid which we have been able to render other libraries as between themselves suggests that there might be possible a central clearing house which should systematically attend to this matter. But there I distinguish. I do not regard such a service as by any means so appropriate to the Library of Congress as it might be to a headquarters of the A. L. A. The service might be rendered without hand- ling perhaps a single volume or number by simply setting off need against surplusage. There are many who are ambitious for a great extension of our present service. I do not believe they are any more impatient for that extension than we are ourselves, with- in proper constitutional limitations. But we have entered into a contract, and I hope you will excuse me if I am explicit as to what that contract is. Three and a half years ago we went to Congress, stating certain things, ele- mentary things, that needed to be done as a preparation for developing that library fundamental things, the things that ought to be done before we should go into any specu- lative, doubtful or even widely eixtended service. We asked for certain money with which to do those things within a certain period. The money was granted. We are un- der contract to do those things ; and no execu- tive officer who has money granted to him for doing one thing can excuse himself because before he has completed that thing certain fascinating opportunities for other service have come his way and he has been drawn off to them. We must reclassify that library; we must catalog that library; we must have a printed card for every book in that library. Incidentally if in the course of this work there is any product of our work that we can make available to other libraries, we are going to do it, and we want to do ineffably more. But we must do first the things which we have contracted to do. As a member of this Asso- ciation, dealing with a legislative body that has been to the highest degree sympathetic, desires to be liberal, desires to do the fair thing and the large thing as a member of 164 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. this Association I should be ashamed to go to Congress two or three years hence and say, "Gentlemen, you have given us money for this work, but this other work attracted us and tempted us and it seemed to be of gen- eral benefit; we have done it; we have not completed the other within our estimates; we need more money for it." Now, I don't want to do that, and I want you to help us pro- tect ourselves from the temptation to do it. I know you would all feel the same way in my place. I feel perfectly safe in this position; and yet I don't believe you know how sorely tempted we are. Now, besides the things that we may do of general benefit, there are so many forms of service that we cannot undertake that the es- tablishment of an agency for doing them has seemed to me the inevitable result of any dis- cussion of them. I have had the experience which the vice-president has mentioned, of re- peated inquiries from trustees and librarians who were about to erect library buildings, from others who are anxious about library apparatus, from others who wish to get the best service, but who do not know precisely the best way of going about it, from others who wish to have guidance as to methods of pur- chase and from others who wish to get the best information possible as to books critical estimates to guide them in their selection. Now, we are only one library, I am only one librarian; I have done my best whenever any such inquiries came to me to put the inquirer into correspondence with men who could attend to him better than I and with helpful litera- ture, but this aid is insufficient; it is all too local, in particular; it is not authoritative enough; it does not represent any organized body of opinion or any organized judgment. And I have seen for years past the need of a headquarters which shall represent that or- ganized judgment; which shall represent con- tinuity of judgment and expert knowledge and which shall be, in addition to its other service, at the disposal of trustees, librarians, study clubs and other agencies which wish to affiliate with the work of libraries, be pre- pared to advise them, supply them with the best literature and best advice. Now that ought to be, and I for one will echo the "amen." W. I. FLETCHER read the REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON TITLE PAGES TO PERIODICALS. The committee have only an apology for a report ; we had no meeting and took no action until about a week before this conference opened a fact for which the chairman ac- cepts the responsibility and can aver only the hackneyed "pressure of other business" as an excuse. But while the committee has thus been inactive, the cause which it repre- sents has not been entirely neglected, Mr. Faxon of the Boston Book Co. having done it very intelligent, and we may hope ef- fective, service through the columns of the Bulletin of Bibliography issued by his firm, rnd otherwise. In the circular sent out by this committee last year stress was laid on the importance of the inclusion of title pages rnd indexes with every copy of the concluding number of a periodical volume, in order that the market might not be flooded with num- bers from which complete volumes could not be made up, owing to the lack of these essen- tial pages. The justice of this contention is enforced by the fact that Mr. Faxon, from the point of view of a dealer in volumes and sets of periodicals, has entered the lists in its behalf. Mr. Faxon appreciated the force of the several points made in our circular, and in order to call attention to the vagaries of periodical publishers, compiled a list of all those within his knowledge which violated one or another of the canons laid down in our circular. This list, comprising about 400 titles, was published in the Bulletin of Bibliography, each title having affixed lo it a letter signifying, on reference to a code, which of the canons it violated. It is quite evident that the standard set up by our cir- cular was in some sense a counsel of per- fection, and that a list of the American peri- odicals which do live up to our standards would be much shorter than this list of those which do not. But as most European peri- odicals are properly conducted in this re- spect, and at least a goodly number of the best American ones, it cannot be claimed that the standard is really too high. The editor of Public Libraries took excep- SEVENTH SESSION. 165 tion to the publication of this list as a "black list," and noted that both itself and the Library Journal, while issuing title page and index as a separate section, failed to fasten it into the completing number of each volume. As a result of this editorial notice some corre- spondence appeared in Public Libraries, one librarian Dr. Steiner going so far as to characterize as a fraud on a subscriber the failure to send him everything needed to make his volumes quite complete. The committee did finally meet in New York on June 18, and were fortunate enough to secure the attendance at their meeting of representatives of Charles Scribner's Sons and Doubleday, Page & Co. Quite a full dis- cussion of the points at issue was had, and a strong case was made out in favor of those periodicals which have a sale of 100,000 or more, mostly at the news stands, issuing title pages and indexes only to regular subscribers and to others who may call for them. It ap- pears that these publishers regard as pro- hibitory the extra expense of issuing title pages and indexes or contents with every copy of a completing number. As against this view, Mr. Faxon, in a letter published in the Publishers' Weekly of June 6, proposed that these very necessary pages should be allowed to replace an equal number of pages of reading matter, and made a cogent argu- ment in favor of this solution of the diffi- culty. It is too early as yet to say how this proposal may be regarded by the publishers. As will be seen by the dates mentioned above, it is only recently that the matter has been seriously taken up. Our suggestion would therefore be that the Association continue a committee on this subject with the special purpose of continuing its discussion in such ways as seem most hopeful of results, es- pecially by friendly conference with pub- lishers. ,,, T W. I. FLETCHER, A. E. BOSTWICK, E. LEMCKE. W. I. FLETCHER spoke on THE PLANS OF THE A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD.* The report of the Publishing Board closes with a statement that new enterprises in abundance are available. Before going into these, I should like to know the feeling of * Abstract. librarians as to the matter of appraisal. Fault has been found as by Professor Ely more than a year ago with some of the judgments expressed in the annotated bibli- ographies we have already issued. I should be glad to know by a show of hands whether librarians find these annotated bibliographies of practical value in their work. [A large number of hands were raised.] Is there a demand for help of this sort ni other fields not yet covered by such lists? [A large number of hands were raised.] A plan has been brought before the Board for the carrying forward of this annotation work through the issue of a serial publica- tion. One question about it is whether the Board should undertake to issue a serial of that kind on a paying basis, that is, on a sub- scription list, or whether it should be distrib- uted gratuitously. In the latter case, it might both serve to advertise the work of the Board and also be a useful missionary effort to ad- vance library interests. Such a publication might contain each month reading lists suit- able for average libraries on the topics of the day. I should like to know how many here present would be glad to see such a periodical published. [A large number of hands were raised.] Another publication in view is the list of children's books, reported on yesterday at the Children's Librarian Section meeting. There are also proposals for extension of ap- praisal work, the enlargement of the "A. L. A. index," or a supplement to include ref- erences to books in other languages than English. Adjourned, 12.20 p.m. i SEVENTH SESSION. (CATARACT HOUSE, FRIDAY EVENING, JUNE 26.) President HOSMER called the meeting to or- der at 8.25 o'clock, and announced that the discussion of CO-OPERATIVE LIBRARY ACTIVITIES would be resumed. E. H. ANDERSON spoke briefly of the Co-operative catalog cards for children's books, issued by the Cleveland Public Library and i66 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. He said: A full account of this enterprise has ap- peared in the Library Journal and Public Libraries, and is also issued in pamphlet form. As to its origin, we found when we began to make a dictionary card catalog for our own juvenile collection, that the Cleveland Public Library had just completed such a dictionary card catalog, and as it seemed a waste of time to duplicate their work, we arranged to co-operate, they to furnish the copy and we to print the cards. We also agreed to furnish the cards to other libraries at a cent apiece if we received as many as 50 subscriptions outside of the co-operating li- braries. We received in all about 53 sub- scriptions, not including the 15 sets which we print for Cleveland and Pittsburgh respect- ively, and the work is going o'n satisfactorily on those lines. A. G. S. JOSEPHSON read a paper prepared by C. W. ANDREWS on Co-operative work of the John Crerar Library. The John Crerar Library has been com- mitted to a policy of co-operation so far as its special character will permit, not only through the general assent of its directors, but especially by the earnest desire of its first president, the late Norman Williams, who, up to the time of his death, was an in- terested member of the A. L. A. In accord- ance with this policy, the library was one of the first to join in the plan for the co-operat- ive analysis of serials, and has tried to do its share in that work. The fact that the library prints its cards has made it possible to offer the results of its cataloging work to other libraries. The suc- cessful initiation of the work of the Library of Congress in this line has necessarily lim- ited our usefulness, but we find that not in- frequently other libraries and private students wish to obtain all the titles in our catalog on a given subject. These we offer in the form of printed cards at one cent each. If the library should desire to give an advance order for several copies they could be fur- nished at a considerable reduction for all copies after the first. Where a selection is made, for instance, of all works in English on a given subject, we are obliged to charge two cents a title; where a copy is wanted of all the titles printed by the library, making unnecessary any selection whatever on our part, they are offered at three dollars a thousand. It should be understood that these titles include not only those printed by us, but those printed by the Library of Congress on which we have placed our shelf- mark; therefore the arrangement of these cards by their shelf-marks will secure a copy of our subject catalog on the subject in question. The only omissions are the A. L. A. analytical references. The other side of the library's co-operative work is in the printing of bibliographical lists. The latest of these has just been re- ceived from the press. It is the first supple- ment to the "List of serials" in public libraries in Chicago and Evanston, corrected to April, 1903. It is a pamphlet of no pages and con- tains 4060 titles, of which 2190 do not occur in the original list published by the Chicago Public Library in 1901. Like the latter, it gives the exact volume numbers and years of all sets of any importance in the co-oper- ating libraries. The utility of such a list has been well established by the experience of the last two years. More than one library has found it to be the most convenient source of information in regard to its own sets. This administrative use would seem to justify the expense of publication independ- ently of the main purpose of the work, which is, of course, to show a scholar where a cer- tain set may be found most conveniently. Besides this strictly co-operative piece of work, it should be said that most of the bib- liographical lists issued by the library have been planned to benefit, if possible, other libraries as well as the readers in the John Crerar Library. Thus it was hoped that the "List of books in the reading room" might serve as a useful guide in the selection of ref- erence works, especially on science and tech- nical subjects. The "List of bibliographies of special subjects," publication of which was announced at the Magnolia Conference, has been found by many to be a convenient tool in bibliographical research. The "List of books on industrial art" which is now in preparation has been undertaken at the request of the Industrial Art League of Chicago, and the directors have authorized SEVENTH SESSION. 167 the publication of a list of encyclopedias, scientific dictionaries, and other books of ref- erence whose contents are alphabetically ar- ranged, which, as the experience of our refer- ence desk seems to indicate, will be found of use in reference work. The secretary read by title the REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON REDUCED POSTAL AND EXPRESS RATES TO LIBRARIES. Owing to the wide separation of the mem- bers of the committee and the special condi- tions in Congress this year, the committee has held no meetings and taken no active steps to press forward the work committed to it. A bill to establish a library post was intro- duced into Congress early in 1900 by Senator Lodge, in the Senate, and by Mr. Lawrence, in the House. This bill provided that "books and other printed matter belonging to and passing from and to" public, school and society libraries, supported wholly or in part oy taxation or by tax exemption, should be "admitted to carriage by mail at one cent per pound or fraction thereof." It was referred to the Committee on the Post-office and Post Roads, but has never been reported for action. In this year's short closing session of Con- gress there was no prospect of this receiving attention, and with the expiration of the 56th Congress the bill itself disappears, and the agitation will have to be begun anew when Congress meets again next December. Nevertheless, the year has not been without some progress. At the suggestion of the New England Education League, which, through its secretary, Mr. Scott, has given constant attention to this measure, resolutions in sup- port of the bill were introduced in the Mas- sachusetts legislature on February 3, 1903, and after a hearing before the Committee on Federal Relations, at which the chairman of your committee and other gentlemen inter- ested in the library post were present and spoke, the resolutions were passed early in March. Since that time a similar resolution has been passed by the legislature of Cali- fornia, and it seems to be desirable that early next winter resolutions of the same kind should be introduced in the legislatures of other states. The advantage to the educa- tional interests of all parts of the country is so evident that there should be no difficulty in securing the adoption of favorable reso- lutions. The members of the Library Asso- ciation also should let their representatives and senators hear from them in support of the bill and in explanation of its importance. Information in regard to what has been done already, with the text of the bill which has been before Congress and the text of the resolutions passed by the Massachusetts legis- lature, can be obtained by addressing "The Library Post, Cambridge, Mass." Another closely related subject was re- ferred to the committee by a special vote of the Council, namely, the question of postage rates on foreign periodicals imported into this country by agents and remailed here. The chairman of the committee, has taken pains to inquire into the facts, and has learned that in New York, at least, the post-office reg- ulations were so interpreted as to make the entry of foreign periodical publications ex- tremely difficult and in many cases impossible. Two letters to the Third Assistant Postmaster General, together with personal visits at the Post-office Department by leading New York importers, have secured a correction of the misunderstanding on the part of the New York office, and it is hoped that in the future the entry of such publications can be made reasonably simple. The Third Assistant Postmaster General states that the "depart- ment aims to exercise the utmost liberality, consistent with the law, in all cases of this kind," and he thinks there will be no further cause for complaint. The statute of March 3, 1879, requires that foreign newspapers and periodicals should have "the same general character as those admitted to the second class in the United States/' a phraseology which seems to imply that they are not ex- pected to conform as strictly in details as is required of American publications. The re- quirements of the statute seems to be, first, an application by the publishers themselves or by their authorized agents, and second, the possession of the statutory requirements of (a) regular issue at stated intervals, (b) bear- ing a date of issue and a consecutive num- bering, (c) the issue from a known office of publication, (d) the absence of substantial binding, and (e) the general character of the contents. i68 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. The provision that the application shall be made with authority of the publisher is prob- ably the most troublesome of these require- ments, but that cannot be changed without a change in the statute. If the other require- ments can be so interpreted by the regulations as not to demand that the information re- quired shall be in all cases printed in a pre- cise form on the publication itself, and if additional regulations which are necessary in the case of American publications are not enforced against foreign ones, there ought to be little real difficulty. It is of real conse- quence to American libraries that foreign periodical publications of this kind should be admitted freely when of a suitable character to second-class rates, for it directly affects the large number of libraries which find it to their advantage to receive their foreign periodicals through an American importer rather than from the hands of an agent abroad or directly from the publishing office of the pe- riodical, and if it should appear that the reg- ulations of the Post-office Department continue to be unnecessarily burdensome, a strong representation of the facts should be made to the proper officials. The following resolution was appended: Moved: That the committee be continued, and be instructed to place their influence and the influence of this Association in favor of all legitimate efforts to secure the passage by the next Congress of a bill equivalent to the Lodge library post bill. A paper by A. R. KIMBALL on BINDING ADVERTISEMENTS IN SERIALS* was read by title. The secretary read the REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLUTIONS. The Committee on Resolutions, who were instructed to report a resolution in memoriam of Miss Hannah P. James, report the fol- lowing: Resolved, That this Association record its tribute to the memory of Hannah P. James, of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who has passed away since our last conference. Some- time a member of its Council and one of its vice-presidents, her connection with the Asso- ciation was intimate. She was deeply inter- * This will appear in the Library Journal. ested in its purposes, which by her ability and attainments, joined with her high sense of the librarian's profession, she did much to pro- mote. To many of our members individually she was an inspirer and friend. The young li- brarian found in her a patient counsellor and wise guide. Always unsparing of self in her efforts to assist others, out of her fuller ex- perience she was ready to aid the inexperi- enced from the rich resources of a high per- sonal character, under the unfailing stimulus of a consecrated and helpful spirit. Always true to the important trusts re- posed in her; in her relations with the public obliging and courteous; she faithfully filled her place among us, honoring our profession and hers, and presenting to all who came within the sphere of her influence a type of noble womanhood. Fidelity to the high aims that ruled her life is the best tribute we may render to her memory. The Committee on Resolutions also respect- fully report the following: Resolved, That the hearty thanks of the Association be tendered to the local committee for its painstaking efforts which have done so much to promote the success of this con- ference, and to contribute to the enjoyment of our visit here; and especially for the de- lightful excursion of Tuesday afternoon. Resolved, That our acknowledgments are due to His Honor Mayor Hancock, Mr. Peter A. Porter, Mr. T. V. Welch, and to Profes- sor Goldwin Smith and Mr. W. H. Drum- mond for their interesting and profitable ad- dresses in connection with the conference. Resolved^ That our especial thanks be given to the Natural Food Company of Niagara Falls for the hospitality extended to the Asso- ciation in the free use of its auditorium for our meetings. Resolved, That we express our indebted- ness to the Cataract and International Ho- tels Company for courtesies in behalf of the convenience and comfort of the Association during the session of the Conference. For the committee, HORACE G. WADLIN, Chairman. The resolutions were adopted by a rising vote, and a rising vote of thanks was spe- cially tendered to Mrs. A. B. Barnum, libra- rian of the Niagara Falls Public Library, for her help and services toward the success of the meeting. Papers by H. N. LANGTON on and on CANADA AND PUBLIC LIBRARIES, (See p. 43.) SEVENTH SESSION. 169 SOUTHERN LIBRARIES, by Miss M. H. JOHNSON (see p. 69), were read by title in the absence of the speakers. The secretary stated that he had received a communication from F. J. TEGGART, chair- man of the COMMITTEE ON HANDBOOK OF AMERICAN LIBRARIES, asking that the committee be discharged. The secretary announced the ELECTION OF OFFICERS, giving the result of the balloting as follows : President: Herbert Putnam, 178. ist Vice-president: Ernest C. Richardson, 178. 2d Vice-president: Mary W. Plummer, 176. Secretary: ]. I. Wyer, Jr., 174. Treasurer: Gardner M. Jones, 176. Recorder: Helen E. Haines, 176. Trustee of Endowment Fund: George W. Williams, 144. A. L. A. Council: R. G. Thwaites, 144; George T. Little, 141 ; Dr. J. H. Canfield, 140; Gratia Countryman, 139; C. H. Dudley, 138. President HOSMER: I wish to correct the phraseology of the secretary in one respect. It is no longer "Mr." Herbert Putnam, it is "Doctor" Herbert Putnam, and in behalf of the select class of doctors of this Associa- tion I welcome Mr. Putnam to our ranks. Twelve years ago Dr. Putnam turned over to me the librarianship of the Minneapolis Pub- lic Library. One good turn deserves another. I turn over to him to-night the Presidency of the American Library Association. Mr. PUTNAM : I am grateful for this wel- come to the honorable company of "doctors." As to the presidency, I was somewhat late in reaching this conference; I had thought that office happily disposed of elsewhere, and yet you are most kind, friends. There are some offices which a man of experience cannot but covet ; there are others which a man of under- standing cannot refuse. There are a few offices of both classes. Any one who has tasted the privileges of the presidency of this Association, even in part, as I have, must covet the office. I am told that for the com- ing year, as the next conference is to have some features of an international conference, there is a special appropriateness in this office being in the custody of the National Library. Under those circumstances I am not in a po- sition to decline it. I thank you, and I accept it and shall do my best. The decision has been reached that next year's conference be held at St. Louis. That means that it is to be held in connection with the International Exposition. You know the attractions of such a meeting; you can easily guess some of its perils. There is the possi- bility of a distinctive program, somewhat different from our ordinary programs at ordinary conferences ; distinctive, interest- ing, stimulating. There is the possibility of the presence of men and women of our pro- fession whom we do not ordinarily see, whom it will be interesting and helpful to meet. The Congress of Arts and Sciences, which is to be held at St. Louis in the autumn of next year, is a congress in which we as an associ- ation do not participate. It is a congress with a single purpose an attempt to survey the history of the various arts and sciences during the past century, to state the relations of the various sciences to one another to-day, and to outline the existing problems in each. Li- brary affairs appear upon its program in the meeting of one section, within the space of but a couple of hours. This Association does not, as an association, participate in that con- gress, but subsequent to the week or fortnight given to the Congress of Arts and Sciences will be given opportunity for association meetings. There is the opportunity for our Association and for a conference truly inter- national. It may be a great success; that is for you to say* The question is, will you make it so? President HOSMER introduced Dr. W. H. DRUM MONO, who read most delightfully from "The habitant," his volume of French-Cana- dian dialect poems. A rising vote of thanks was tendered to Dr. Drummond. Mr. PUTNAM then accepted the gavel from the retiring president, and declared the meet- ing adjourned until the autumn of 1904, in St. Louis. A later meeting, with final adjournment, was held on the afternoon of Thursday, July i'i by the post-conference party on its trip across Lake Ontario to Niagara Falls, when a token of appreciation for the excellent man- agement of the party was presented to Mr. F. W. Faxon, who had served as "personal conductor" of the post-conference. 170 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION. *T*HE College and Reference Section of the American Library Association held its regular annual meeting on the afternoon of Thursday, June 25, at the Cataract House, Niagara Falls. The chairman, C. W. An- drews, presided, and in the absence of George W. Danforth, Dr. B. C. Stelner acted as secretary. The meeting was called to order at 2.45, and the chairman appointed a nomi- nating committee of three persons : W. I. Fletcher, Miss Lord, C H. Gould. The general subject of the meeting was THE TREATMENT OF BOOKS ACCORDING TO THE AMOUNT OF THEIR USE. This was opened with a paper by W. C. LANE, which, in Mr. Lane's absence, was read by the secretary. (See p. 9.) The CHAIRMAN: We will next hear from Dr. Canfield, of Columbia University. Dr. CANFIELD : This question is an important one; it is a pressing question; it is a question that comes home to each one of us in con- nection with college and university libraries, and it is a question which must ultimately press quite as hard upon the public libraries as upon our own. I wish to give my unal- loyed adherence, at the very start, to one or two fundamental principles which we cannot afford to set aside under any circumstances whatever. One is that the unification of the library ought not to be broken. It seems absolutely essential that we maintain the system of classification which we have under- taken, whatever that may be; that the library shall not be scattered in any true sense of the word. That it may be in different places goes without saying. That comes quite as a matter of course in the administration of cvery-day affairs. In the university library, for instance, we have the "special reserve" books, the books that are in constant use be- cause they are referred to in the syllabi of the lectures or directly by the instructors them- selves. They are books that are in constant demand ; and in all college or university libra- ries now such books are brought together at the loan desk; if not there, in the immediate vicinity, where they can be handed out quick- ly upon a day-and-hour schedule. The pos- sible use of a book under such circumstances is about 14 hours a day. The probable use of it in the hands of a borrower would be perhaps two hours a day. We do not feel that we can afford to lose the 12 hours' pos- sible use, and we do not feel that we can afford to duplicate, as we must duplicate, without limit practically, if we do not adopt some such scheme as this. Right there, in the very fact that we take the books which are most constantly in demand and place them nearest the reader, nearest the delivery desk, we have the beginning of the workings of this principle of separation of books which are used and books which are not used not used as much as the reserved books at least. The librarian is necessarily and always and I am almost ready to say chiefly H time- saver. His chief function is to save time. His time is valuable, it is true, but he can make use of his own time and the time of his staff, so that he saves almost without limit the time of other people. That ought to be kept constantly in mind. On the other hand, the librarian must be ready to serve the greatest number. That must be considered. There is room for doubt as to whether the librarian can really undertake what may be called the evaluation of readers, and say that it will be better to serve this one reader im- mediately and well than these twenty-five readers immediately and well, because of the very valuable returns that will be derived from the service of this one exceptional read- er. If that kind of evaluation of readers is to be undertaken, it must be undertaken with extraordinary care ; it must be done by a librarian who has no prejudices at all for any given field of literature or of .literary effort; it must be done by a librarian who has within him a very insistent democratic principle at \\ork which will keep him in the correct path in such matters. The specific investigator, Ihe high-class reader, generally and almost always knows exactly what he wants. , He does not need so very much assistance from COLLEGE SECTION. 171 the librarian. He does need some, as a mat- ter of course. The librarian will be of some service to him by the general scheme of classi- fication, in the arrangement of books upon the shelves, and in other ways. But it is the sick who need the physician, if I remem- ber rightly; and it is those who do not know, both within the college and the univer- sity and outside, who need the constant min- istrations of the librarian. Now, those who do not know are certainly in the majority. If they were not we would have compara- tively little need of libraries. They are cer- tainly in the majority, and they are the ones who need the most constant exercise of our thoughtfulness. Although they are working within the general lines of the library, it is not difficult to determine from the results of their work, and from an examination of these results as shown by our records, the kind of books, the titles which are most con- stantly used. At least, speaking from my own experience, we at Columbia do not find it difficult to determine. So we place upon these special reference shelves not only the books suggested by those in the instructional corps, but we place there on our own author- ity any book which we find is quite con- stantly in demand. We intend to have that book within easy reach, and there we make the first distinction as between the books that are most constantly used and those that are less constantly used. That simply means that 1 will not permit the Congressional Record, say, to get in the way of the books which two or three hundred students are using every day ; that, as a matter of course, I am going to put the Congressional Record afar off and 1 am going to put the other books nigh. That is all. It is a very simple proposition, and it seems to be a very rational proposition. The question, then, is not whether I shall put the Congressional Record afar,, but how far. That is all. When you make this dis- tinction and look at the matter in this light, it is nothing very new. This idea of a dis- tinction between books, a distinction in loca- tion, is old. Every librarian makes it. The question, then, is simply how far? Well, how far will depend upon the use and the general local conditions. In a library in which there is as yet no crowding there need be comparatively little distinction. In a li- brary in which all the books are of such a general nature that they are all in reason- ably general use there will be almost no dis- tinction whatever. In a library in which there is considerable crowding you will make quite a sharp distinction. In other words, the in- dividual institution or the individuality of the institution, if you please, seems to be a constant and dominating factor in this. It is a matter of conditions. I do not believe that any one institution can, under any cir- cumstances, lay down a law which will apply to another institution exactly, closely, any more than any one individual can determine what books other individuals are going to need. It is really another form, a modified form, of the old problem of what we shall absolutely throw away; which is the extreme of changed position, absolute rejection. No one can determine for another what that shall be. But, whatever it is, the unification of the li- brary should be maintained. As Mr. Lane has so wisely and consistently put it, access to the shelves should be maintained. We ought not to consider for a moment placing books upon the shelves one row back of another or tier upon tier. We ought not to think of dumping these books in some ware- house, without classification. Wherever they go they must be within reasonable reach as tc time. That again is a question of condi- tions. There is a large liberty of interpreta- tion to be given to "reasonable." It depends again upon who wants it and what he wants it for. And they must be reached with rea- sonable convenience, again a general term demanding interpretation. There must be nothing exclusive about their storage. They must be in a place to which we can send prac- tically any one who desires to consult the shelves. At Columbia we have found it possible to co-operate with other libraries. For instance, there is an understanding between the Lenox Library and the Astor Library now the Pub- lic Library and the Columbia University Library that we will not duplicate expendi- ture, or will duplicate as little as possible. We buy almost nothing in the line of geneal- ogy, and very little in the line of early rare Americana. That goes over to the Lenox Library. We are not undertaking to secure complete files of the daily press; even when they are given to us we are not retaining 172 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. newspapers. They take a great deal of room and care; they are expensive from every standpoint; they are not consulted very fre- quently. There is a complete set at the Astor Library. There is another complete set at the Cooper Union Library. We transfer everything that comes to us to one or the other of thesp. We are not retaining in Columbia University Library books on educa- tion, although we are able to show something like fourteen thousand titles; we are passing these over to the Library of Teachers' Col- lege, on the theory that they are closer to education from the instructional standpoint than we are. In many ways we are dividing our work and our interests, although we do not find it always a most convenient thing to do. If somebod} wishes certain information immediately, it would be very pleasant if we could send him to our own shelves, but we are obliged to say and we do say, "You will find that information at the Astor Library, cr at the Lenox Library, or at the Bryson Library." Then we are transferring to the sub-basement, and we shall send down to the sub-sub-basement if necessary, all public documents, state and national, except those of the last two years. These later years con- lain matter which may be of some immediate interest. But wherever books are placed we are classifying, we are abiding by our system, we are keeping everything upon the shelves, and books can be consulted just as well there as elsewhere. If we did not have the sub-base- ment we would not hesitate to put that class of books in the basement of some other building on the block, but we would not send them off the block unless under the greatest pressure. As another illustration, and an illustration in which some of you may have no patience with us; we bought last year some 24,000 German dissertations. That was simply a very large addition to quite a collection of dissertations which we had before. We are making a special catalog of these, cata- loging loosely rather than completely, writ- ing a brief card. The cards for these dis- sertations are placed in a special case. It is entirely true, therefore, that any one coming to look up certain questions will have to go to two places and to two catalogs. I un- derstand this is not orthodox at all. But it occurs to us that cataloging these disserta- tions means fifty or sixty thousand cards, or is the equivalent of one hundred to one hun- dred and twenty drawers, scattered through our entire card catalog. This means that everybody using the general catalog must finger all those cards, or a great many of them. By putting these dissertation cards in a sepa- rate case time would be saved by the many, and only a very few would be put to the slight inconvenience of stepping into another room. It seemed to me wise to do that. We have tried this hardly more than a year, but so far it is working well. Hereafter the library an- nouncement will be that we have so many books "and 40,000 dissertations." There is a saving both in the cataloging and in the time and labor at the catalog, we think, and a saving in space as well. All this, and more, simply means that at Columbia we are willing to extend and make flexible the principle of classification in the usual sense of the word, until it becomes selection; and we are willing to extend selec- tion, including location, almost indefinitely, provided we are not driven off the block. My opinion is that we are coming very rap- idly, in public libraries and in all libraries, to a specialization of libraries. I cannot see how it is possible to avoid that in the end. The time is coming when libraries will be like net- ting, of different mesh. Certain titles will start at a certain point and will be stopped by, say, a four-inch mesh; and the titles that are less in demand than that will pass through to some other library, and will be stopped by a two-inch mesh; and others will pass through till they are stopped by a one-inch mesh. In time we can no longer retain even in our pri- vate libraries and this is largely true to- day a great many books that we have read with delight and to which we would be glad to refer; but space is valuable and scarce, and rents are high, and we cannot keep them. We must pass them on to some other library, per- haps some public library. Precisely so the public library will pass on its more general books to other libraries, retaining only those for which there is special local demand. We shall specialize our libraries in that way, es- tablishing or retaining at some central point a central library in which the great mass of the general literature which is little used will be collected. COLLEGE SECTION. 173 W. E. FOSTER read a paper on the subject (See p. 17-) and E. D. BURTON followed with a third paper on the general topic. (See p. 19.) The CHAIRMAN : The subject is now open for discussion, and I will call upon Dr. Richardson to speak first. E. C. RICHARDSON : T appreciate and am much interested in these last plans, and they suggest that we are actually, in the university libraries at the present day, facing a problem that President Eliot had in mind, and are working at it and carrying it to solution. Now, each of these departmental libraries, as we have them in all university libraries, is itself a little library with its own problems of overcrowding. Our buildings are small; we must have the books that are most used easy of access for those who wish to use them, and when the room available is filled up, what are we to do? The first proposi- tion is to send the overplus to the general stack. President Eliot's plan is simply car- rying this one step further. Shall the books be sent up further still? For my part, there are a great many books in our library which I would just as soon as not send to the Li- brary of Congress, say, providing it will cata- log them and let me have a card showing that they are there. They are so little used, that when they are used I should be willing to send to the Library of Congress for them. The great difficulty of this whole matter is deciding when a book is dead. I remember, when I was trying to get 40,000 volumes into a library which was shelved for 14,000 vol- umes, I used to get gratuitous advice from the professors as to the books that could just as well be put into the cellar, and one of the pro- fessors was especially dogmatic about it. There was a little closet in the basement and I piled some of the books in there. It was not many days afterward before the precise book that particular professor wanted was one of the books piled away behind the others, and when I told him he couldn't have it be- cause it was packed away the professor did not see the wisdom of his own advice. C. H. GOULD : I have been greatly interested in the plans which Prof. Burton has just ex- plained to us, and particularly so because, apart from their inherent interest, they show that after careful consideration the University of Chicago favors the policy of housing all its books under one roof. I think few libra- rians will dissent from the wisdom of such a course. Indeed, it seems the only true way of avoiding the difficulties which arise in con- nection with departmental libraries. But for the larger number of libraries in which the departmental system has become so firmly fixed that it could hardly be abolished, perhaps the modifications I am about to suggest would be advantageous. I refer to those special collections of books consisting of several hundred volumes and upward housed either in different buildings or in separate rooms in the library building and known as departmental or seminary li- braries. These libraries have certain advan- tages which are generally admitted perfect freedom of access to the books they contain; greater conveniences and greater quiet and seclusion than the general reading room af- fords. On the other hand, the following objections to them are also generally admitted : they are notoriously incomplete. Even the largest li- braries cannot attain to completeness in any given subject. Still less can a selection from what is itself only a selection claim anything approaching completeness. Hence arises loss of time in getting at the full resources of the library on a given subject, since at least two places must always be visited to accomplish it. Hence also the further objection that either through indolence or ignorance, or both, a part may be accepted for the whole. Among other objections are the cost of many duplicates, otherwise unnecessary, which are still insufficient; loss of labor and time in extra checking of shelves, in culling, replac- ing, and so on. My own conclusion has long been that de- partment libraries are at best only make- shifts, and I would suggest the following sub- stitute : Let the rooms be reading rooms, book lab- oratories, not attempts at small librariesi They should be attractive and comfortable as possible, with all facilities for using books, e.g., the best of light (both natural and arti- ficial), of tables, book rests and chairs, but without books. Few scholars or students actually employ many books at a time except NIAGARA CONFERENCE. when making references (stack work). Let lists of books needed for a week, a month or longer be sent in by professors, and let the books be supplied on requisition, to be replaced by others in due course, the volumes withdrawn from the general library being charged just as if lent to an individual. It may be objected that most professors have neither time nor inclination to prepare the requisite lists. But I am sure there are very few who would not make the effort, be- cause when once drawn up such lists would only need revision from time to time, and this would not be burdensome. Possibly some inexpensive mechanical car- rier may be devised which would greatly facilitate such methods as those suggested. But in any case the plan mentioned would set free for general circulation a large number of volumes which are now held for the use of comparatively few people. It would thus in- crease the resources of the library, make them more readily available, and therefore could not fail to improve the service. Finally, it would save the library both time and money. How much time and how much money I have hitherto been unable to determine in my own case; but I am inclined to believe that the economy of both would be so great as to surprise us would be more, in fact, than any of us imagines. H. L. ELMENDORF: The problems of a large public library which attempts reference work are very similar to those that have been de- scribed to-day, in the overcrowding of de- partments and the need of a central storage place. In the Buffalo Public Library, as you know, we have a collection of what might be called our most-used books on open shelves, and the advantage of this system as it ap- plies to the question before us to-day is that it allows, in the central stack, of closer stor- age than would be otherwise possible by ac- commodating the great mass of our readers in this open shelf room, and making the num- ber who would naturally use the stack very few, so that the spaces between the book shelves can be very much less than would otherwise be required. Our collections on -spen shelves are duplicates of the books in the stack. We do not put any books on the open shelves without providing another copy for the stack, so that the privileges of the reader who comes to the library knowing what he wants and wanting to go directly to the desk and ask for it are not at all curtailed because a copy of that same book is to be found on the open shelves. In regard to the main subject, I am very much in favor of sending our unused books to a general depository, providing it is practical, and one practical solution of the problem we found as regards directories. We are given each year the directories of from fifty to one hundred cities; we keep them one year only, and we then send them to the Historical So- ciety. While we find it useful to have a directory of New York City, Brooklyn, Jer- sey City, the different large cities of the country, it would be cumbersome to store the accumulation of different years, and we find that the Historical Society is very anxious to get such books. Department reports we de- sire to treat in the same way, and have plans under consideration for transferring to so- cieties such reports and documents as are little used in our library and are desirable for historical purposes and for preservation. I think that our state libraries should be util- ized for this storage of books. If it is known that a book can be got at the state library at any time when it will be required, the catalog could often be made perfectly available in place of the book. We are all finding the problem of overcrowding, even in the smallest collections, a very serious one, and over- crowding with dead books to the detriment of the use of the library seems a great mistake. G. W. HARRIS: It seems to me that Dr. Canfield was perfectly right when he said that in facing this problem local conditions must be taken into consideration, and the considera- tions of a reference library or university library in a large city are very different from those of a university library situated, as is Cornell University Library, several hundred miles away from any large city or any col- lection of great libraries. In a large city the libraries can specialize to advantage and without much inconvenience to the users of any one. In our own case such specialization would be difficult to carry into effect outside of a very limited field. Neither are we very greatly troubled by the problem of which President Eliot seems to have made such a bogey for librarians, the necessity for the COLLEGE SECTION. 175 storage of dead books. He says that it is great waste of money to store little-used books on land worth a million dollars an acre where you can store them on land worth a hundred dollars an acre. Well, we have plenty of land that isn't worth much more than a hun- dred dollars an acre. We could extend our buildings almost indefinitely. So that prob- lem does not touch us very seriously. But we have certainly begun to discriminate between the books that are much used and the books that are the least used. Leaving out of account the law library, we have perhaps 240,000 volumes in the general university li- brary; there are in what we call the reference library, in the main reading room, some 8000 volumes; there are in the seminary rooms of the building about 7000 volumes more, selected from the books in the general library; and there are in the department and laboratory collections, taken also from the general store in the stacks, about 11,000; making roughly about one-tenth of the total number of books which are kept together, and, of course, clas- sified, following in the main the general classification of the stacks and accessible to readers very freely. Then again, in the stacks themselves we have taken large classes of books and put them farthest away from the reading room and from the desk. Such classes are the public documents of the United States and the states, the English blue books, which are placed upon the upper floor on the stack; the newspapers, which are put on the lowest floor of the same stack, and for which we are now planning another room ad- jacent thereto in order to give more room for the ordinary books in the stacks; so, too, the patent collections which are placed by themselves on the lower floor of the other wing of the stack. In that way we have be- gun this process of discrimination. But that it would be possible or advisable to make an actual separation of the less-used books from those which are more constantly used, and to store them at any considerable expense, for the sake of economy, seems out of the ques- tion, for us at least, and it seems to me it is rather early in the day to begin to be alarmed at the future extent of our libraries. We have not yet a library in the country, I think, that numbers a million volumes. J. T. GEROUI.D: Of course at the University of Missouri the matter of a library building is not on so large a scale as at Chicago, but the problem which we are to meet is a very simi- lar one. We have only about 50,000 volumes now, but we are growing quite rapidly, and we are planning for a library to contain im- mediately about 500,000 volumes, with an ulti- mate capacity a good deal larger than that. The plan which we have now, but which may be considerably modified before we build, is the separation of the stack room in some- what the manner that is at present adopted in the Columbia University into a number of rooms, each with its portions of a stack, and reading rooms and tables and lockers for the use of the students. We shall use in con- nection with that a stack room where we shall probably place the less-used books. Just how this will be worked out we cannot tell as yet, but we are obliged to make provision for economy of administration, which a great university like the University of Chicago will have less interest in. It seems to me that the plan in vogue at the John Crerar Library and at a good many other libraries, for the chrono- logical arrangement of scientific literature, ac- complishes very simply the chief effect that we are trying to attain. They separate the most- used books that is, the most recent scientific books from those which have previously ap- peared, and it would be very easy for them to shelve the earlier books in some other sec- tion of the library without disturbing that classification to any extent. In our own li- brary we separate the books into three classes, although two of the classes are constantly shifting: the books in which reading is re- quired in connection with the different courses; the books in which reading is recom- mended in connection with the different courses; and the great bulk of books of the library; and we shall continually be shifting the collection from one place to another as the needs of the institution require. W. I. FLETCHER submitted the report of the COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS, presenting the name of Dr. J H. Canfield for chairman, and James T. Gerould for secretary. The report was adopted and the persons named were declared elected. Adjourned, 4.40 p.m. NIAGARA CONFERENCE. CATALOG SECTION. r*HE Catalog Section of the American Li- brary Association held two sessions in connection with the Niagara conference. The chairman, C. H. Gould, presided at each, and Miss Sula Wagner acted as secretary. FIRST SESSION. The first session was held on Wednesday evening, June 24, in the Cataract House. Mr. Gould, the chairman, called the meeting to order at 8.15 o'clock. The secretary read a letter from the chair- man of the Children's Librarians' Section, in- viting members of the Catalog Section to attend the second session of the former Sec- tion, when a paper on "The classification and cataloging of children's books" was to be read by Miss Mildred Collar. The CHAIRMAN : Before asking Miss Hasse to prepare the way for discussion by reading the paper which she has been good enough to write upon the first item of to-night's pro- gram, I should perhaps remind you that for some time past a revised edition of the A. L. A. cataloging rules has been in preparation by advisory committee of the Association, and that an advance edition of these rules revised by the advisory committee of 1902 was, in August of that year, printed by the Library of Congress. On certain points, however, notably in con- nection with the cataloging of United States documents, the committee was not entirely unanimous, and asked for suggestions. This spring the question of co-operative cataloging of government documents was taken up by the departmental librarians at Washington. A committee of these depart- mental librarians was appointed to consider the identical question which had been before the advisory committee. The departmental committee has prepared a printed statement giving the arguments for and against two al- ternative forms of cataloging United States government publications. This statement is now in your hands and will be read in due course, and its several arguments will be fully presented to you. Your careful and thoughtful consideration of these arguments and of the points at issue is requested by both the ad- visory and departmental committee. Miss A. R. Hasse spoke on THE CATALOGING OF GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS, UNITED STATES AND FOREIGN. To illustrate to you how simple it is to mis- apprehend the operation of cataloging gov- ernment documents, let me cite two instances : Not very long ago I made the statement to an assemblage of catalogers that if a govern- ment publication had a personal author it was preferable to give the personal author pre- cedence over the official author. This, you will see, at once results, when you come to write your official author, in an author entry subordinate to an author entry. Immediately I was challenged by the question, "Then where would you have us indent the personal author entry on the official card, at the first vertical line or at the second vertical line?" At the other extreme is the following in- stance. In the early forties N. P. Trist was American consul at Havana. It was at the time when England was actively engaged in endeavoring to abolish the use of American vessels as slavers. Trist, the American con- sul, signed some blank ship's papers for Por- tuguese vessels. The act was protested, and a long diplomatic correspondence ensued. It was at a time when each House of Congress employed its own printer. The correspond- ence, as issued by one house, was entitled in substance the "Correspondence of N. P. Trist relating to the African slave trade," that of the other house came out in substance as "Correspondence with Great Britain on the right of visit and search." The two docu- ments are identical in contents, and both con- tain only extracts from the correspondence. Accompanying the President's message of the same session is an appendix with the run- ning title "Documents accompanying the Presi- dent's message." These documents contain that part of the Trist correspondence omitted irom the regularly printed documents. As a CATALOG SECTION. 177 problem facing the cataloger of government documents, such contingencies need to be considered. However, to bear down on the facts imme- diately before you, i.e., the normal method for the normal document, there is, on the sub- ject of cataloging United States federal doc- uments, nothing really that needs specifically to be said. The very excellent catalogs is- sued by the superintendent of documents cover the ground in every sense of the term. Any person employed as a cataloger who cannot catalog any United States federal document by the aid of the document cata- log cannot catalog at all. Catalogers may differ from it in minor detail, but for the purposes of a general catalog it cannot be improved upon. Questions of abbreviation, of punctuation, of inversion, etc., belong to those difficulties that, in the end, each li- brary decides for itself. On the subject of cataloging state and city documents a little more needs to be said. The difficulty you profess to experience would disappear if you would apply the method so clearly expounded in the document catalog. You may be troubled about the selection of your official authors. That, however, is not a question of cataloging, but of local ad- ministration. When you get into trouble of that kind it is wise to refer to the various state constitutions, to the state manual or its equivalent, to the city charter and to the city manual. These will give you the fundamental structure, i.e., the proper names of official publishing bodies and their relation one to the other. A few general observations may be of serv- ice. Learn to distinguish between an author and a publisher. A department, a bureau, a division or a committee, even, may be one or both. A governmental publishing body is the au- thor of all publications, issued by its authority, which are not acknowledged as the work of one or more individuals. A governmental publishing body is the pub- lisher and author of those publications, ac- knowledged as the work of one or more indi- viduals. When your main entry is the author entry, give precedence to personal over official au- thor. For official author entry select the name of that authority immediately respons- ible for the appearance of the document to be cataloged. These are the essentials for the main entry of all documents, United States and foreign. The accepted forms for institutions are not affected by the fact that an institution may be operated by the government or by a private corporation. The accepted forms for title entry are not affected by the fact that a serial is published by a government office or by a private corpo- ration, barring one instance. It is not wise to make the title entry the main entry when the serial is not the publication of an execu- tive department or of a subordinate office, as Gaceta oficial, Recopilacion de leyes, Collec- tion de tratados, Reichsgesetsblatt, Journal oficiel, etc. In a general way, you see, the outward form of the catalog entry is fairly estab- lished for documents. It is when you come to those features which are essentially the in- herent characteristics of documents that pre- cedents are lacking. How to recognize and to treat abnormal cases like some of the publi- cations of the British foreign and colonial offices, when the inclusion of the end of the fiscal year becomes necessary, how best to dis- tinguish between two or more annual reports which may be issued by the same office, regu- lations for denoting splitting and merging of offices, etc., are questions not yet decided for all of us. Neither are they questions which should in- terfere with that immediately before you, viz., the adoption of inversion or non-inver- sion of author entry on document cards to be issued by the Library of Congress and by the superintendent of documents. The expressed opinions of this body will affect the printed card system by which you will be supplied with cards for United States documents. Many of you have, I do not doubt, arguments to present in favor of one or the other method. It is the conviction of the majority, backed by good reasons for your conviction, that is want- ed by the promoters of the printed document card system. The secretary read the statement issued by the departmental committee on i 7 8 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. FORM OF HEADINGS FOR UNITED STATES DOCU- MENTS. The undersigned, having been appointed by the Association of Departmental Librarians of Washington, D. C, to consider the subject of uniformity in entry of United States docu- ments on printed catalog cards, have decid- ed, after consideration of the problems in- volved, to lay the following statement before the Catalog Section of the A. L. A. in the hope that it may be taken up for discussion at the forthcoming meeting of the Associa- tion. Special consideration has been given to the following alternatives in author headings of United States government documents: 1. The name of the department or bureau to be given without inversion, e.g.: UNITED STATES. Bureau of Education. UNITED STATES. Department of Agricul- ture. This form is favored by the majority of the committee. 2. The name to be inverted, e.g.: UNITED STATES. Education, Bureau of. UNITED STATES. Agriculture, Department of. A brief summary is herewith submitted of the arguments which have been advanced in support of each one of the above forms. Against inversion. (a) Uncertainty as to the word under which the entry is made; difficulty in arriv- ing at uniform decisions in regard to same; great danger of inconsistency and confusion in entries, and additional time and expense involved when this method is followed. (&) Awkwardness of the headings. (c) The decided inferiority of any arbi- trary method to the simple rule of entering under the first word, as proven by the expe- rience of libraries which have applied it in the entry of titles. (rf) Inversion tends to confuse the func- tions of the author and the subject catalog. (e) The cards printed with some inverted form of heading can be used only by libraries that follow that particular form. This method is therefore objectionable, especially when ap- plied to catalog cards printed for general use. In favor of inversion. (a) If any form of heading for cards radi- cally different from that used in the document catalog, which cannot legally be changed by the superintendent of documents, shall be adopted, a lack of harmony would thereby necessarily result. (b) In spite of the constant changes which take place in the official names of United States and state offices, the users of the cata- log would always be able to find the entry at once by looking under the distinctive word and would not be annoyed by a cumbrous system of cross references. (c) Most of the libraries of this country use the inverted form, and the majority of the li- brary schools teach it. (d) It brings entries of a like character to- gether under the significant word of the head- ing. (e) It does not require technical knowl- edge of the organization of the government departments on the part of the public who use the card or printed catalog. This is the most important point of all, as not one person in a hundred outside of a library would know whether the office is a bureau, division or de- partment, but would look first under the dis- tinctive word. L. C. FERRELL, J. C. M. HANSON, F. B. WEEKS. J. C. M. HANSON: This statement treats of the form of heading for United States docu- ments only. When Mr. Weeks and I decided to compile a statement supporting the argu- ments, which you will find under the caption Against inversion, we thought it advisable to approach the subject from the general stand- point and ask the question, "Is this to be rec- ommended as a general rule applicable to all government documents, federal, state, muni- cipal, either in English or foreign languages ?" I shall read this statement point for point. (a) Even when applied to United States documents only, there will always be more or less uncertainty in the selection of the distinct- ive word, the method of inverting a particular name, etc. One library will decide on one form, another on a different one. Even if all the selecting is left to a central bureau there remains the danger of inconsrstency, time wasted in consultations, and far greater lia- bility to confusion and disagreement than where the simple rule, to enter under the first word, is followed. The greater the collec- tion of cards the greater becomes the diffi- culty of maintaining an approximate uniform- ity in the entries. No two persons will always agree on the same form of inversion, nor can the same person be expected to be at all times uniform in his decisions. (&) The awkwardness of headings. The following examples are given to illus- trate this point. United States documents. CATALOG SECTION. 179 (Form selected by superintendent of docu- ments) : U. S. Antietam battlefield board. U. S. Criminal and penal laws, commission to revise and codify. U. S. Forest reservations and protection of game committee. U. S. Nashville, Tennessee centennial ex- position, 1897. The report is sub- mitted by board of management of government exhibit, Tennessee cen- tennial exposition. 1897. U. S. District of Columbia, Gas and tele- phone company of, Committee to investigate. (House.) U. S. District of Columbia, Joint select committee to investigate charities. Additional names in English for which it is difficult to provide a satisfactory heading if inverted : U. S. Bureau of American Ethnology is entered as follows: Catalog of public documents: U. S. Ethnology bureau. By inversion the same has been en- tered : U. S. American ethnology, Bureau of and U. S. Ethnology, Bureau of American. U. S. Commission to investigate leprosy in the United States. U. S. Commission to negotiate with the Crow Indians in Montana Territory. Board of examiners of architects. Bureau of Agriculture, Horticulture and statistics. Massachusetts. General committee. Joint standing committee on towns. Commissioners for publishing the ancient laws and institutions of Ireland. Commission for printing and publishing state papers. Commissioners of Her Majesty's woods, forests and land revenues. Committee for compounding with delin- quents. Committee for plundered ministers. (House of Commons.) Committee for the consideration of all mat- ters relating to trade. In foreign languages it becomes still more awkward, especially where the cataloger is not thoroughly familiar with the language. Instances are: Departement van den Registrateur van Oc- trooien, Maatschappijen, Handelswerken en Auteursrechten. Kommissionen for Ledelsen af de geolo- giske og geografiske Undersogelser i Gron- land. In many languages there are numerous headings which do not lend themselves to in- version at all. Examples are: Service hydrographique. Bureau centrale meteorologique. Comite archeologique, etc., etc. The significant words here are the adjec- tives, hydrographique, meteorologique, arch- eologique. (c) The number of entries affected by the proposed rale is so considerable that the question at issue may well be compared to the problems connected with the cataloging of anonymous books. The minutes of evidence of the commis- sioners appointed to inquire into the consti- tution and management of the British Mu- seum (1847-49) gi ve a most instructive survey of the discussions which led to the adoption of the present catalog rules of the British Museum. The evidence relating to the methods of entering anonymous books is particularly full. It was noticeable that those who testified before the commission in favor of entry un- der the significant word were scholars and literary men who had had very little experi- ence in the practical construction of a cata- log. These included well-known literary men like G. L. Craik, J. P. Collier, T. H. Turner, George Soane and others. The testi- mony indicates that their judgment on that question had been formed on the merits of a limited number of cases, and mainly cases where entry under catchword was simple, the titles being comparatively short and the choice of a "distinctive" word easy. But these cases form a very small portion of the anonymous entries to be dealt with in a cata- log. If confined to a list of selected titles specially adapted to that treatment, catch- word entry may be admitted to have some ad- vantage. Of those who favored the simple rule to enter under the first word not an article, or under the first substantive, Mr. J. H. Parry, for many years a cataloger in the British Museum, testified as follows: "If Mr. Pan- izzi's plan with respect to anonymous works had been adopted, it would have given great facility to the compilation of the catalog. His plan was the plan of Audiffredi in the i8o NIAGARA CONFERENCE. catalog of the Casanate library at Rome, and the plan followed by Barbier in his 'Dic- tionnaire des anonymes.' The plan was tak- ing the first word not an article or a prepo- sition, or, as it might be modified, the first substantive for the heading of the title." S. R. Maitland, librarian, Lambeth Palace, states as follows: "The great object is cer- tainty, and if a man who knows there is a catalog knows there is a rule, though it is an absurd rule, and that he will find the books by adhering to that rule without minding whether it is an absurd rule or not, or setting his judgment against the librarian's as to whether it should be put under one word or the other, he knows that under that word he will find it; at least, that is my own feeling which I should act upon." From the evidence of Panizzi: "It is stated that if we adopt the plan of taking the first word, it is a course unintelligible and the work unfindable. I say the book is more easily findable for those who know correctly the title. Mr. Collier says, in Answer 5037, that 'an entry on that system would be of no service to anybody.' I say that such an entry would be of the greatest service, and of positive service to everybody who knows the title of the book ; and we cannot go upon any other principle ; we expect the readers to know the title of the book just as we expect them to know the name of the author when there is one; we do not trouble ourselves with the subject. Then Mr. Collier says, in Answer 5039, 'I should never think of looking for 'Anecdotes of a private gentleman' under the word ' Account.' I should never think of looking for a 'Dissertation of coal tar' under the word 'Account;' nor should I think of looking for cases of 'Epidemical madness' under the word 'Account,' but I should look under the heads of 'Gentleman,' 'Coal tar' and 'Epidemical madness.' If he knew the titles correctly and if he knew our rule, he would look under ' Account ;' but why, if he would look under the word 'Gentleman' for ' private gentleman,' should he look under 'Epidemical madness' for 'madness'? Just observe to what these trifles lead. In the first case he will put the title under 'Gentleman' although there is an adjective 'Private gentle- man,' and in the case of Epidemical madness he will put it under 'Epidemical.' These in- consistencies will always happen when there is no fixed rule." The evidence given before the commission- ers is extremely interesting and instructive and should be consulted by all who are spe- cially interested in this phase of the ques- tion. The arguments advanced for and against catchword entry fifty years ago apply with equal force to-day. The hearings did not bring about any ma- terial changes in the practice of entering anonymous works, the rules which were then in force in the British Museum catalog hav- ing remained so to the present time. No one who has consulted the latter catalog for entries of anonymous books and turned to Barbier, Gushing, Halket and Laing, or the many modern catalogs, especially American, which have followed the simpler rule to enter under the first word not an article can ques- tion the superiority of the latter. The entries affected by the proposed rule for the names of official headings are so nu- merous that any large library which here adopts the principle of catchword entry in its author catalog will in a measure have to contend with the same difficulties which have confronted the British Museum in the appli- cation of its rules for the entry of anonymous books, which, in spite of the best efforts of the many able men who have at one time or another been connected with that great under- taking, have proven stumbling-blocks to all who have had frequent occasion to refer to it (d) It tends to confuse the functions of the author and the subject cataloged. It has been urged in favor of the system of catchword entry that its application in an author catalog will in a measure meet the demands which can otherwise be answered only by the subject catalog. This argument cannot be conceded to have any special weight in the present question. Where a library is forced to rely solely on manuscript entries it may be necessary for purposes of economy to combine author and subject entry. With the increased use of printed cards this necessity should largely be obviated. In consulting the catalog for a particular publication the student will usually turn to one of three headings, viz., author, subject or CATALOG SECTION. 181 title. If the author is a government office and the student knows its name, he is likely to look under the regular, not the inverted, form of the name. If he is not certain of the name of the author, he will turn to the subject or the title entry. Where the latter entries are supplied there should therefore be far less need of introducing into the author catalog, a feature which properly belongs only to the subject catalog, and which, if applied to the former, must sooner or later lead to perplex- ities and confusion. (e) When the heading is printed without inversion it gives each library a better oppor- tunity to fit the card into its own particular system. Where an order differing from that given in the printed heading is preferred, the word or phrase under which the card is to be ar- ranged may be underscored, or may be pre- fixed to the name in manuscript. Where it is desired to enter the bureau or division un- der the department of which it forms a part, the name of the department can likewise be inserted. Neither of these expedients can be applied as readily where the printed heading appears in some inverted form. While entry under some catchword may t have an advantage in a printed list, it is not a practice which can be recommended for printed cards which t.re to be issued for gen- eral use. With either form of entry it will be neces- sary for the librarian or the public to have a considerable knowledge of the location of certain bureaus and divisions in the govern- ment departments to avoid serious confusion. At one time there was a Division of Irriga- tion in the Geological Survey under the De- partment of the Interior, and at the same time pne in the Department of Agriculture. There may be established at any time a Div- ision of Soils in the Geological Survey, while a similar division may exist as now in the De- partment of Agriculture. The development of work in the different departments varies so much that confusion of entry under the sig- nificant word may arise at any time. In deciding upon what form of entry shall be employed, it should be borne in mind as the most important consideration that these print- ed cards will find their way into almost every public library and many private libraries in this country and possibly into foreign libra- ries. If the inverted form is adopted, they can be used in many libraries only at a great dis- advantage. If form number one is adopted, namely, that without inversion, it can be made to fit in any catalog, and can be readily used by any librarian or by the public, no mat- ter what form of entry may be employed in any particular library. This consideration should outweigh all others. Miss ALICE FICHTENKAM read a letter from L. C. FERRELL, superintendent of documents, as follows: "DEAR Miss FICHTENKAM : "In consideration of 'form of heading for United States Documents' at the A. L. A. meeting at Niagara Falls, you are requested to present the views of this office upon that subject. "Herewith I hand you a circular letter, which was printed and distributed to a num- ber of the leading libraries by Mr. Hanson, head cataloger, Library of Congress, so that they might be informed as to the arguments for and against the inverted form of heading. "The circular does not indicate the major- ity or minority of the committee, but as the Documents Offi6e has always used the in- verted form, there has probably been no mis- understanding in regard to my position. I favor the inverted form for the reasons given in the circular, which although briefly stated are sufficiently comprehensive for a thorough understanding of the subject by the experi- enced catalogers who will pass upon the question. "On the 3d instant I sent out a circular to each designated depository of United States public documents which reads as follows : " Tn cataloging public documents do you use the inverted form for your government author headings?' "Up to to-day 213 replies have been re- ceived. One hundred and twenty-six use the inverted form; thirty-four do not use that form, and two answering in the negative, ask what is meant by 'inverted form.' Forty have not cataloged their documents, and most of them seem to think they can get along very well by the use of our catalogs. Thirteen answer in such a way that it is impossible to determine whether they are for or against the proposition. "These replies indicate very clearly to me that the great majority of the leading libra- ries (about 80%) which receive all the docu- ments printed by the government use the in- verted form. It would undoubtedly be a great hardship to most of them to change a form which they have always used, which the 1 82 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. people generally understand, and which has been formally approved by the Joint Commit- tee on Printing of Congress, as required by law, thus practically designating the inverted form as the official government system. "I will dose my suggestions by saying that my five-years' experience in answering hun- dreds of thousands of letters is that at least 80 per cent, of the inquiries indicate the docu- ment desired by the significant word. "Very truly yours, "L. C. FERRELL, "Superintendent of Documents." CHARLES MARTEL: Miss Hasse has put the question of cataloging public documents on a broad and philosophical basis, with a view of discovering a principle by which a uniform and satisfactory method of dealing with these publications in the catalog may be arrived at. Governments of civilized countries, be- sides performing the ordinary administra- tive functions, conduct experiments in the interest of agriculture, commerce, science and industry; they carry on topographical, hydro- graphic, geological, and geodetic surveys; they collect statistics, maintain institutions and equip scientific expeditions or missions. The published results of all these activities constitute the literature of government publi- cations. The organization of the departments, bureaus and offices instituted for these pur- poses, their relation to one another and their names differ in different countries and states, and they change from time to time in the same country, new ones being added, others discontinued or combined, but the object of their existence remains more or less constant. The proposition, then, should be to have a constant uniform name for each object of activity or for each subject of a report, in whatever form or under whatever name it may have been published, and arrange them under the name agreed upon, which will be found in a great many cases to be the sig- nificant part of the official name. Inversion of the official name will, however, not accom- plish this purpose except in the case of the limited number of well-known departments with a short, simple name of long standing. Let the arrangement be, for example, under the heading: UNITED STATES Statistics; GREAT BRITAIN Statistics; FRANCE Statistics, etc., and put under this heading all the publica- tions of various statistical bureaus and div- isions no matter what their name and under what department they may be organized (in so far as they should not go under agricul- ture, commerce, finance, labor, etc.), but do not confuse this heading with the author heading of any given publication. The list of state publications published by Mr. Bowker is a good example of such an arrangement. The main argument in favor of entry under inverted form of name is the assumption that few inquirers know the actual name of the government department in whose publications they are interested. I believe that in this con- nection the following points have been greatly underestimated or overlooked: (a) Inquiry for a given document or series of documents starts in a great number of cases from a direct reference found some- where in writing or in print In the majority of such references the name of the department is given as printed on the documents and con- sequently looked for under that form. I think it will be admitted that the more exact the ref- erence the better the authority is likely to be, and conversely the more indefinite, careless or arbitrary the reference the less the state- ments are to be depended upon.. Frequently such references cannot be identified with any book until the reference has been looked up in a bibliography and the name found as printed on the document. There is, then, a numerically as well as otherwise important class of inquiries including all bibliographical inquiries which is better served by the entry under the full name of the department in the natural order of the words, because it may then be found at once with practically abso- lute certainty. (&) When the name is not known, or im- perfectly known, there will usually be un- certainty as to the distinctive part of the name as well. This may be very generally the case with the casual reader. But it will not avail him to look under "Education" as subhead- ing when the entry is: Public instruction, Dept. of. Public schools, Supt. of. Schools, Public, Supt. of. Instruction publique, Ministere de 1'. Geistlichen, Unterrichts und Medizinal Angelegenheiten, Ministerium fur die, etc. (c~) Entries under headings beginning with CATALOG SECTION. 183 the phrases Department of, Bureau of, Board of, Commission of, Ministere de, bring about to a certain degree a grouping of departments of the same rank and character. To many persons who have occasion to consult official literature this incidental classification is an aid rather than a disadvantage. (d) In conversation government depart- ments are very generally mentioned under their regular name. People visit "the Bu- reau of Education" not the "Education Bu- reau." O) The unfamiliar or less familiar names - are those of minor offices or committees and commissions created for a special purpose. Long and involved names with several "dis- tinctive" words belong usually to this class. Waiving the serious objection of awkward- ness, the inversion in all such cases means uncertainty and loss of time on the part of the cataloger and reader. It is practicable mainly in the case of simpler headings, including the publications of well-known departments. (f) It follows that the only practice which can be carried out uniformly and consistently is entry under the regular form of name. (g) This form of entry may be easily adapted to the arrangement under catchword without marring the looks of the card to any extent. Libraries, on the other hand, which have practiced or prefer to adopt the arrange- ment under first word of name, would have to rewrite the headings if using cards printed under the inverted form, involving consider- able expense, destroying the clearness and spoiling the appearance of the cards. (h) Arbitrary forms of entry are subject to change in course of time. The name in the regular form holds good, whatever views may prevail at a given 'time as to arrangement of the entries. In this connection a suggestion occurs to me which might be of some practical use in the cataloging of public documents. The Library of Congress contains thousands of catalogs and similar publications of firms issued at intervals during long series of years under a variety of varying forms of the firm name. Some part the name of the founder or senior member is usually constant for a greater or less period of time. In order to avoid the difficulties of arrangement under the inverted form of name it has been decided to enter these publications under the best known surname, followed by the definition firm, name of business and place, e.g., Scrib- ner, firm, publishers, N. Y. Under this, on a separate line, a subheading in parenthesis put- ting first the date of the given publication, followed by the full name as it happened to be at that time, e.g., Scribner, firm, publishers, N. Y. (1890. Charles Scribner's Sons.) This mode of entry brings together all the publications of the firm in chronological or- der, showing incidentally the variations of name in succession, and avoids all difficulties of arrangement and form of heading. When the best-known name disappears, and the firm is reorganized under an entirely new style, ref- erence is made to the new name for all pub- lications of that firm after the date of reor- ganization. Government publications might be similarly treated, taking an agreed distinct- ive word as heading, followed on a separate line by the name of the department in full and in the ordinary order of the words. Mr. JOSEPHSON : We should like to know a little more on the first point of the argument in favor of inversion. What rule is it that governs the cataloging of the superintendent of documents? Is it a rule of Congress or is it a rule of the superintendent of documents? Mr. WEEKS: I think this is simply a ques- tion that was decided by the committee of Congress which has charge of the printing. No law has been passed by Congress which makes any form an accepted one. The Libra- rian of Congress uses an entirely different form from that used by the Document Div- ision, and I think neither can claim that his is the accepted legal form. The different de- partmental librarians use the methods which each one chooses. Mr. JOSEPHSON: If the superintendent of documents does not feel that he can change, legally or otherwise, the present form of the entry used in his catalogs, I cannot see that he can adopt either of these forms. The form of the superintendent of documents is : "United States, Education Bureau." How can he then accept "Education, Bureau of? It seems to me that it would be just as easy 1 84 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. for him to accept the form used by the Libra- rian of Congress and, I believe, by a great majority of librarians who have (lone inde- pendent work in that line. The majority of librarians, of course, follow the lead of some one authority or other, old or recent; and the chances are that most of those who have adopted inversion have simply followed in the old rut, just as the library schools have done in this case. F. B. GAY : Aren't catalogers rather apt to fight wind-mills? Do they make catalogs solely for their own use or for those who use the library? Should not we consider the pub- lic ? In my own catalog I attempted to change this practice of entry; inside of a few weeks I had three different inquiries why I had changed. The CHAIRMAN : In other words, you changed from the inverted to the uninverted form? Mr. GAY: Yes. I did it because it was easier for me ; but I changed it back because it was easier for the public. H. J. CARR: Speaking from the standpoint of the public rather than those having tech- nical knowledge, speaking also as one who has favored the inverted order, I must admit, after listening to the arguments pro and con to- night, that to me the weight of evidence and argument are in favor of the uninverted form, the straight natural form, conforming to the same treatment we give anonymous works. Now, that is reversing myself and my own practice and the views that I have heretofore had, but I do think the statements given by Mr. Hanson are those that have the most weight as I now see the matter, and that we who take the other stand can make the neces- sary changes in the printed cards to conform to our practice, if we wish to still keep up that practice more easily, with less detriment to the cards, than would be the case were the inverted form followed, with all its uncer- tainties; and that as regards the public, they will, in nearly all cases, as Mr. Martel stated, take the reference from which they will make the search to the author entry, from some other printed prior reference or title, and that will give them the right clue. In the matter of subject entries we can decide and use them for ourselves, and the author cards, which we will have to change anyway for subject en- tries, we can easily conform to our practice. Mr. BISHOP: May I call attention to Sec- tion D of the arguments against inversion? It seems to me that the pith of most of what has been said lies there. There should be no confusion between a subject entry and an author entry in a matter which involves at the present time tens of thousands of docu- ments, and which, if we take in foreign docu- ments, will very soon reach hundreds of thousands. If we cannot follow the plain principles of scientific cataloging, and if we adopt some makeshift for what will prove so large a portion of our books, it seems to me we shall involve ourselves in endless con- fusion and that we shall find ourselves com- pelled to change back at ruinous expense to the form that we now employ for the hand- ling of anonymous books. Dr. R. P. FALKNER : It was not my intention when I came here to speak in this Section, as I am not a cataloger nor versed in the tech- nical details of cataloging. But your chair- man has asked me to present this evening the views of those who favor inversion in the catalog cards. I regret that the shortness of the notice makes it impossible for me to present this side of the case with the same thoroughness and with the same clearness with which the opposing side has been presented. I trust, therefore, that you will not expect any- thing more than a few remarks, rambling so far as construction goes, but which, I trust, will be to the point. In the first place, we are told that the card printed in the form which is now used by the Library of Congress, namely, the regular official entry for the official author, can be readily adapted to the catalogs of other libraries which up to this time have been using the inverted form. That is a propo- sition from which I wish to dissent most thoroughly. I believe that if you put in a catalog designed for public use a card which reads, "U. S. Bureau of Forestry," with "Forestry," perhaps, underlined, after a card which reads, "U. S. Education, Bureau of," the public will not understand it. They will say you do not know how to put your alphabet; that the alphabet isn't right. It will only confuse the public. CATALOG SECTION. 185 The system of direct entries does not work well in practice. I have a slight record in my own division which I made in the same way that the ordinary cards in the Library of Congress are made. When I came into this kind of work about three years ago I made my record to conform to the record of the library. I am very sorry that I did so, and am about to change it. Of course my friends of the library tell me my situation is a some- what peculiar one. I have charge of the docu- ments, in a general way, of the United States and of the states. I get the request from the official bureaus of the government, "Please send us the auditor's report for the New England States." Now really I do not know what they call the offices in each of the New England States. If my catalog were ar- ranged so that all the auditors' reports were under "Auditor" I could find out with com- parative ease what we had. But I have to see whether it is "Board of State Auditors" or "State Auditor" or "State Board of Audit- ors" or some other combination. Those are practical difficulties. They are difficulties that come to me in the peculiar work that I have in the Library of Congress very keenly. But I think that the problem that comes to me is only the problem that reaches the public in a somewhat intensified form. I do not believe that you have served the public in the most expeditious way when for a given class of entries you require them to look up a cross-reference every time. Though the individual inquirer is oftentimes looking for only one report and the burden of one cross-reference is not great, is it not a burden upon your catalog to have every- body who looks for that class of literature required to look up a cross-reference? Does it not increase the number of people that are waiting around for your catalog cases? Let me turn a moment to some of the diffi- culties of the case. I would not underesti- mate the difficulties of making the inversion in some cases, but it seems to me that in a question of this kind the thing to be gained is the greatest good for the greatest number; that we cannot settle this question as one of absolute principle; that we must adopt the solution which, on the whole, is the most convenient. Some of the speakers have given you illus- trations in which the inversion is very diffi- cult; they have not mentioned the cases in which the inversion is very easy. In the same way let me enter my protest against illustrations drawn from foreign lan- guages in determining a point of this kind. It is easy to get difficult illustrations from foreign languages, but we have few such books to catalog. In a communication which I made to Mr. Hanson I estimated that even in the Library of Congress, where prob- ably we have more foreign books than in the ordinary library, that not more than twenty per cent, of the entries were in the languages other than English. The estimate was not controverted. If you consider the vast num- ber of English-speaking official authors, the states, the cities, the United States, Great Britain, the English colonies, India, these are not only the documents which you have and which you want to have, but also, in a large measure, are the great majority of the public documents which actually exist. If we were to have a catalog which would comprise every public document that had ever been printed, I think it is safe to say that seventy- five per cent, of the entries would be in the English language. And therefore I j udge that the question here is not what could be done in the foreign languages, but rather what can we do in English, not only for ourselves, but for the public we are supposed to serve. WILLARD AUSTEN : I want to add a word to this subject, not from the standpoint of the cataloger, but of one who has over ten years' experience in trying to interpret the catalog to the user. I thoroughly believe, as has been said here to-night, that the average user approaches the subject under the United States division with a specific department in his mind, with- out reference to its official heading. I think you will all agree with me that there is no department of a catalog that is so difficult to use as the United States division, and, to a limited extent, the state divisions also. I have yet to find one person not trained in cataloging methods who can find his way in the catalog of the United States docu- ments. The question comes to me over and over, day after day, just as Dr. Falkner i86 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. said, "I want the Auditor's Report," "I want the Charities Report," "I want this report," and the inquirer almost invariably uses the name which designates the particular report they want. In my experience with graduate students from the university (and they are about as select a class of students as you can expect to find) they come to me to know where they will find such and such a particular report. Many of them do not think to look under "United States" even. There might be an argument for putting the item under "Board" and not under "United States Board," if you are going to argue from that point, but we have got to have uniformity so far as the country. The first great advantage in using the inverted order and entering under the specific heading is that the librarian will know every time where to turn in the catalog to help his reader. If you enter under the official form the librarian himself does not know. So that you have got two persons instead of one who does not know where to look. I realize the difficulties in adopting a uniform order in some cases I know there are complicated cases where the "commission" or the "board" is so thoroughly mixed up that there doesn't seem to be any significant word, but those cases are not many, and, in my experience of over ten years, I know that the library can serve its readers in a great deal less time, the readers can be taught to help themselves in a great deal less time, if you use the inverted order and put the entry under the significant word which they all have in mind when they want a given report. Mr. HANSON: I would like to read a letter I have received from Mr. Lane, of Harvard University Library, bearing on this question: "DEAR MR. HANSON: "In reply to your letter of April 14, in re- gard to headings for government departments, I beg to say that I am entirely in sympathy with yourself as to the unwisdom of adopting a system of inversion. Whether the distinc- tive word in the heading is indicated by a distinctive type I think is of comparatively little importance, but that the heading should appear in the form in which it is used is, I think, of great importance if the cards so printed are to be of use to librarians in gen- eral. Inversion prevents their being used ex- cept by libraries which have adopted the same practice, but the straight heading can be eas- ily adapted by a red line or other mark so as to be useful, whatever the system employed by the library. For a printed list of docu- ments a list such as Mr. Ferrell issues I can see an advantage in the inverted heading, for it serves practically as a subject, as well as author, list; but in the case of cards for general catalog use, I think there is no room for doubt as to the best plan. "Very truly yours, "W. C. LANE." For myself I am glad to have had an op- portunity to put myself on record against in- version. If you begin inverting the headings of documents it will of course lead to the inversion of the names of societies, names of institutions. In fact, it will in the course of time apply to all anonymous literature and to the entire literature which we catalogers speak of as corporate entries, and if so, I be- lieve we are treading on dangerous ground. I do not believe it will be possible to apply it with any degree of consistency, whether we limit it to United States documents only or include also state and municipal in English and foreign languages. As far as the other form is concerned, I cannot quite understand that it will do away with the cross-reference entirely, as has been stated here this evening. It seems to me that it will be necessary to have a system of cross- references, no matter what form you apply. If you enter under "Labor" you must refer from "Department" if the name is "Depart- ment of Labor." In fact, no matter what system you adopt, it will be necessary to refer from any form under which a person is likely to look. Mr. FALKNER: I did not wish to give the impression that cross-references would be abolished. I think they will be necessary. But under the inverted arrangement the cross- references would not be used. Miss HASSE : I would like to interpose with a compromise. You have all heard Dr. Falk- ner's very excellent arguments in favor of inversion for United States or English docu- ments; you are all familiar with that form for English documents. Why wouldn't the plan be a good one of adopting for printed cards the author entry in the inverted form for English documents, while using the straight form, the uninverted form, for the CATALOG SECTION. I8 7 foreign documents? As a matter of fact, the foreign documents, those documents that find their way into American libraries, are largely serials for which you would have no author reference. The person who uses them is very much more familiar with these documents by title. Why would not that compromise be effectual ? Miss EDITH CLARKE: I think the compro- mise which has been suggested by Miss Hasse is the solution of the difficulty. I think every one here who has a library in which the cat- alog is used by the public should register himself in favor of the inverted entry, for you are all going to get into a serious trouble with your catalog if you adopt the entry which the Library of Congress thinks neces- sary because of the great variety of foreign publications and the vast number of docu- ments which they have which will never come into the work of the great majority of libraries. I think Mr. Hanson is much mis- taken in saying that this inverted entry is an entering wedge for inversion in society and corporate entries. I do not think it will ever go any further than English documents, and that is all that I should care to advocate it for. Mr. GAY: Don't be afraid to make a mis- fit catalog if it fits your public. Mr. MARTEL: A little too much stress has been laid on the question of foreign docu- ments. I think the question of inversion and the uncertainty applies equally to English headings. To mention only one example: how many would find in the documents cata- log of the United States "The Government Printing Office," or under what heading would they look? Now, if the principle is a distinctive one, I should say that "Printing Office" is the distinctive word, but it is not entered under "Printing Office," but under "Government Printing Office." And there are numbers and numbers of similar cases, and that is the contention. There is always uncertainty as to the view of the person who makes the entry and the view of any other person, and, while it is admitted that there are a great number of cases where inversion is simple and easy, as a principle it does not work. For the arrangement of the entries the makeshift which I proposed I think is per- fectly practical; let the heading be made under the name of the country and an agreed subject word under which you think readers will generally look, but do not let it affect the author heading. It has nothing to do with it. C. B. RODEN : I may be preaching false doc- trine and heresies, but I think catalogers are worshipping the old idol of uniformity, and the sooner it is shattered the better it will be for every public library. I do not see what the top line of the printed cards has to do with the value of the cards. The point is, somebody is willing to do some work for us that we have never been able to do for our- selves, and we ought to let him go ahead and do it and not mind how the top line looks. Give me six or seven different entries and plenty of guide cards and I can fix matters so that the public will find what it wants. The public looks for guide cards. The heading is something for the catalogers. But the point of our discussion is this: that the Document Office wants to print cards for our use. And I believe that we should not prolong this discussion with the result, perhaps, of weak- ening the noble resolve of Mr. Ferrell to do this work for us. The CHAIRMAN : The matter before you is, I think, the question as to the desirability of inverting or not inverting the titles of docu- ments written in English. Whatever may be the desire of the meeting as to foreign docu- ments, I think we shall first decide what the desire is in regard to documents in the English language. Mr. GAY: Is this for printing or for indi- vidual catalogs. The CHAIRMAN: I should have added that the question relates to printed cards. We are not dealing with written cards. Miss CLARKE: I move that this meeting show by a rising vote its opinion on the sub- ject of the inversion or direct entry of gov- ernment documents as a form of catalog entry. Mr. CAKR: I move as an amendment that the whole matter be laid on the table. . The amendment was lost. The CHAIRMAN: The question recurs on Miss Clarke's motion. Miss FICHTENKAM: The superintendent of documents desires to issue these cards as soon as possible, and we are depending upon the 1 88 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. vote of the Catalog Section at this time to know what the sense of the libraries of this country is on the matter. If we can come to some conclusion on the matter I think we might begin to issue the cards next January; otherwise I do not know when they can be issued. If the cards can be issued. as we in- tend to issue them, with the depository ship- ments each month, I think it would be a great convenience to the libraries of the country; but I do not think we want to issue the cards until there is some decision as to the form to be adopted in the matter of the headings of the government offices. Miss HASSE: We have gathered together to consider this seriously; a serious appeal has been made to us. I therefore move, in amend- ment to Miss Clarke's motion, that it is the sense of this meeting that we approve of the inverted form for English-speaking docu- ments. The amendment was accepted and the origi- nal motion withdrawn. Voted. Adjourned 10.10 p.m. SECOND SESSION. The second session of the Catalog Sec- tion was held in the Cataract House on Fri- day afternoon, June 27. The chairman, Mr. Gould, called the meeting together at 2.40 o'clock. A nominating committee was appointed, consisting of Mr. Josephson, Miss Fichten- kam and Mr. W. W. Bishop. C. H. HASTINGS spoke on DISTRIBUTION OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARDS. Mr. HASTINGS : I am aware that the proper business of the Section this afternoon is the subject of the use of the printed cards and not the distribution of cards, but it seems that it would not be out of place, before that discus- sion is taken up, to make a short announce- ment in regard to the distribution of the cards. What I wish to say is in regard to the cards that are to be issued for the titles included in the new edition of the "A. L. A. catalog." These cards will be issued for every title in that catalog, and they will contain subject headings and 'all the class numbers that are given in the catalog itself, while the serial number that is given on the card will be put into the catalog. Small libraries that wish to either catalog or recatalog with the printed cards need only check a copy of the catalog and send it in, and they can get the cards with the very least amount of trouble. There will be a special price on the cards if the library orders a considerable quantity. The cards will probably not be ready until some time in the first part of next year, but a library that wants to begin at once to recata- log or even to catalog its new purchases can begin on the sections that are already re- cataloged at the Library of Congress. These sections are American history, Bibliography, English history and Mathematics. The CHAIRMAN : In connection with the dis- cussion at our last session, a letter from Mr. Thomson, of the Free Library of Philadelphia, should have been read. I will ask the secre- tary to read it now. The secretary read Mr. Thomson's letter, which was, in part, as follows: FORM OF HEADINGS FOR UNITED STATES DOCUMENTS. I would like to make a few remarks on this subject, as I am myself very strongly in favor of giving the name of the department or bu- reau in the inverted form. I am unable to concur in the view taken by the majority of the committee. As to the five arguments ad- vanced to support or controvert this question, it may be well perhaps to answer according to the same method. (a) A reader using the library would be a person most likely also to use the monthly document catalog. As this is printed in the inverted form, a reader would be accus- tomed to this method when using the card catalog and would expect to find the head- ings entered in the same method. No uncer- tainty seems likely to exist, inasmuch as the word which indicates the subject of the bu- reau or department would be the word with which the entry in inverted form commences. In cases of bureaus, divisions or departments containing two words designating one depart- ment, as for instance, Division of Customs and Insular Affairs, the entry would start with the word "Customs," and a cross-entry, "Insular Affairs, see Customs," would meet every requisite. (&) A catalog is supposed to be for the use of a general public, and as the general CATALOG SECTION. 189 popular method of using inversions is to get catalogs as nearly as possible into diction- ary form, I cannot follow the suggestion that it would be awkward to have an inverted sys- tem. Why should a general reader be ex- pected to be familiar with the variations in titles of governmental departments ? A knowl- edge of what you are looking for, be it gov- ernment revenue, botany, insurance, fossils, fish or agriculture, will not facilitate a hunt for a particular publication when you have first to decide what is the title of the partic- ular government department haviner charge of the subject searched for. Some bureaus or divisions have been transferred from one de- partment to another. This would make con- fusion worse confounded if the uninverted system were insisted on. (c) The Free Library of Philadelphia at first cataloged their documents by entries under the first word. "An ounce of experi- ence is better than a pound of speculation." The Free Library has changed its methods by adopting the inverted form, and this has proven to be the most satisfactory form, so far at least as regards the public. (rf) The answer of the minority seems con- clusive. (e) The printed answer in favor of inver- sion seems to deal with the whole question concisely and indisputably. There may be a multitude of bureaus, but only one Bureau of Education. Why go through a large number of titles beginning with bureau, each with possibly only a few publications, until you reach Bureau of Education with that particu- lar word "education" hidden up in a mass of other matter when the ordinary human being would turn to "education" and expect to find what he wants under that first word. I, for one, strongly advocate the adoption of -the use of the inverted form. JOHN THOMSON, Free Library of Philadelphia. The CHAIRMAN: The last item upon our program is THE PRINTED CARDS OF THE LIBRARY OF CON- GRESS, THEIR VARIOUS USES, AND PRACTICAL DIFFICULTIES EXPERIENCED IN THEIR USE, and other questions relating to them; and I will ask Mr. Hanson to explain some of the points in connection with this subject. Mr. HANSON : In order to make a satisfac- tory explanation of the difficulties which are encountered in adapting the printed cards of the Library of Congress to the catalog of a public library, some familiarity with the question from the standpoint of the latter is necessary. As I have not had the opportu- nity to view practical difficulties from the standpoint of the subscribing library, I shall limit myself mainly to a brief sketch of the origin and development of the Library of Congress cards, hoping that this will serve to explain, at least in part, some of the varia- tions in typography and style of entry which must have puzzled librarians not familiar either with the rapid developments in the li- brary or with general conditions in Wash- ington. The Catalogue Division of the Library of Congress was organized during the autumn of 1897. From 5 assistants in October of that year it had increased to 15 by March I, 1898. This number was totally inadequate, especially when it is considered that it was in part untrained and was charged with not only cataloging, but also classification, order- ing and binding. In spite of the rather dis- couraging conditions, it was decided that it would be wise to take immediate steps toward printing the catalog entries, particularly for current books entered for copyright. This meant revision of the rules then in force. It was held that the possible future relations of the Library of Congress to other libraries de- manded that wherever it should not involve too great a sacrifice, changes in the rules should be instituted which would tend to- ward securing approximate uniformity be- tween the rules of the Library of Congress and those followed by the majority of other American libraries, particularly the large ref- erence libraries. Cutter's "Rules for a dictionary catalogue" were accepted as a working basis, but sug- gestions from other codes, especially from the Library school rules, were freely adopted. The new rules were applied for the first time in the entries supplied by the Catalogue Div- ision for the Copyright Bulletin of April 27, 1898, and by the end of June of the same year arrangements with the Government Printing Office had been so far perfected that it was possible to begin actual printing of cards on July I, the opening of the new fiscal year. As previously stated, the conditions were far from promising. The new and partly inexperienced force was sadly handicapped by the lack of reference works. There was no official cata- 190 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. log, the. only catalog of the library being located in the center of the reading room, a distance of 70 yards from the Catalogue Div- ision. The Government Printing Office was not as yet well equipped for this particular kind of work, the available card stock and machinery for cutting and perforating left much to be desired. Besides, the printing of- fice was situated at a considerable distance from the library, and it was difficult to secure the necessary opportunities for consultation with the printers and proof-readers. The result is that the earliest cards, especially those of 1898 and 1899, arj d in part 1900, are in- ferior in almost every respect to those now being issued. The rules which the library had adopted in May, 1898, were tentative. Changes have therefore been freely made, even after it be- came definitely known that the cards were to become available for the use of other libraries. From the present time on, however, the situa- tion becomes somewhat different in this re- spect. The final edition of the "A. L. A. rules" is likely to appear toward the close of the present year. We have assurance of agreement on all essential points between the latter and the forthcoming editions of "Cutter" and of the Library school rules. Harmony being, therefore, practically established and the number of libraries subscribing to the printed cards constantly increasing, it will be necessary in the future to restrict changes as far as possible. While, therefore, changes in the rules themselves should be few, and if made at all should be sanctioned by the body of this Association, there will be no hesita- tion in altering a heading or an individual entry where later or better information indi- cates that the entry as originally printed is incorrect or deficient. Presumably every library which subscribes to cards issued by a central bureau edits the card's for its own catalog. In doing so they must discover errors. The Library of Con- gress has attempted to profit from this revis- ion by placing at the disposal of all subscrib- ing libraries return postals on which can be noted any error or discrepancy discovered in the entries. The assistance here rendered by some of the libraries has been ot great value, and many slips and defects have been called to our attention which otherwise would prob- ably have remained undetected. With the year 1900 there came important developments. Thanks to the efforts of the present librarian, the force of the Catalogue Division was increased from 17 to 46; a new division was organized to take charge of or- dering, a superintendent of binding appointed with 2 assistants, thus relieving the Catalogue Division of much detail work. Increased ap- propriations for books as well as for binding and printing secured on the one hand the ac- quisition of the much-needed bibliographical apparatus, and on the other facilities for printing catalog entries for all accessions, not only for those secured by copyright, as heretofore. And finally the branch printing office was installed at the Library of Congress. It is unnecessary to state that the latter was of the greatest importance in its effect on the printed cards. Consultations could now be held freely between the Catalogue Division and the printing office. The latter has been able to develop a force of proof-readers and compositors who may be said to have special knowledge of the particular line of work on which they are engaged. It was the autumn of 1900 that witnessed these great improvements. On December 15 of the same year there came a request from the Publishing Board that the Librarian of Con- gress designate some one to represent the library in the Advisory Catalog Committee which had been appointed to revise the A. L. A. rules. This committee held its first meet- ing in March, 1901. Certain modifications in style of type and form of entry to be observed on the printed cards issued by the Library of Congress were here decided upon. Libraries receiving the cards will be able to explain many of the variations if they will read that part of the Introduction to the "A. L. A. rules," Advance ed., which enumerates these modifications, and then bear in mind that cards printed after the decisions went into ef- fect must necessarily differ somewhat from those of 1898, 1899 or 1900. In 1901 the librarian was again successful in securing an increase in the force. The number oppositions available in the Catalogue Division was raised from 46 to 67. It stands to reason that the rapid increase in the force, CATALOG SECTION. 191 the addition of 31 assistants in 1900, of 21 in 1901, and finally of 24 in 1902, involved some difficulties. It takes time to develop a highly efficient body of catalogers, and where a comparatively new force is confronted by 80,000 to 85,000 volumes of new accessions per year, some 700,000 volumes of arrears to be reclassified and recataloged, and a very large proportion of the material to be handled con- sists of extremely difficult books, it is not to be wondered at that the entries here and there show room for improvement. It is doubtful whether any previous enterprise in cataloging or classification can compare in difficulty with that undertaken by the Library of Congress when it was decided to compile a full dictionary catalog in three copies, and at the same time to develop and apply a minute system of classification. Of special criticisms and queries which have come to my attention, it may be worth while to dwell briefly on the following: 1. When an author always uses one fore- name only, to the exclusion of others which he may have received in baptism, and this forename is not the first, the Library of Con- gress has usually adopted a form which would bring the forename used immediately after the surname, then repeating all the fore- names. We have felt that in a catalog so extensive as that of the Library of Congress it is in the first place of importance, where pos- sible, to arrange the name where the great majority will look for it; and secondly, also, to provide the full name for purposes of distinc- tion. The form "Harte, Bret, i.e., Francis Bret," was therefore adopted toward the lat- ter part of 1899 for just such cases. It has been objected to by many. In some instances, perhaps, because they have received an early card with the name given in the ordinary form, i.e., "Harte, Francis Bret," and later a card has come to hand bearing the other form. The majority of criticisms favor dropping the unused names entirely. A few would have all the names, but would not arrange under the call name. In view of the diversity of opin- ions, as well as the necessity of considering the needs of the library, no change in the form adopted in 1899 has so far been deemed ad- visable. 2. Another point is full names and dates. While full names are supplied in a great many cases, likewise dates, there are many in- stances where it has not seemed worth while to put forth any special effort to do so, at least not for the time being. Where the name is manifestly a common one, and danger of confusion can be foreseen, every reasonable effort is made to provide the means for iden- tification. 3. One of the rules which was modified in 1900 was the one governing the entries for married women. The old rule read: "Enter married women under the latest form of the name." The modified rule as it appears in a note to Section 46 of the "A. L. A., rules, An- vance ed.," is : "Enter married women under the latest form unless an earlier one is de- cidedly better known." While this modifi- cation has met with the approval of the great majority of librarians, it has also been the cause for some dissatisfaction. I can best illustrate by taking the well-known instance, Kate Douglas Wiggin. In the old author catalog of the Library of Congress her works appeared first under "Wiggin, Kate Douglas." In the '8o's the heading was changed to "Riggs, Kate Douglas Smith." The form was again changed in 1893 to "Riggs, Kate Douglas." In the revision of the rules which took place in 1898 the name was once more taken up, and this time the form "Riggs, Kate Douglas (Smith) Wiggin" was decided on. The first cards printed appear under this heading. After the rule had been modified in 1900 this name was once more the subject for consider- ation. The result is the form under which her books have since appeared on the printed cards, namely, "Wiggin, Kate Douglas (Smith), Mrs. G. C. Riggs." Subjects. Subject entries are now assigned to all books added to the following classes : Bibliography and Library science. History. Geography. Biography and genealogy. Anthropology including ethnology. Science except Physiology and Anatomy. Agriculture. Music. In Technology subjects are now assigned to general works General Engineering, Civil and Mechanical, Sanitary, Electric, Mining 192 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. and Railroad engineering, Motor vehicles and Aeronautics. Reclassification of Social and Political sci- ence is to be taken up immediately. Subjects will before long be printed for all books added to this important class. Of the remaining classes it can be stated with reasonable certainty that Fine Arts, Philology, Literature and Medicine are to be taken up during next year ; Philosophy, Edu- cation and Theology will follow in order. Are the printed cards adapted to the use of the smaller libraries? General criticisms have been made that the Library of Congress printed cards are not suitable for the catalogs of the smaller li- braries. It has been very difficult to secure testimony which points out exactly wherein they fail. One criticism refers to entry under the real name rather than the pseudonym. It is true that entry under the pseudonym is permitted in only a few instances, but on the other hand the false name is invariably given in the title, and any library which prefers to enter under the latter can write it in manu- script above the real name and refer from the latter, or order two cards, placing one under the real name, another under the pseudonym. It has been said that the titles are too long. This may have been so in a very few cases, but I feel quite convinced that a careful examination of the proof sheets will show that ordinarily the titles are not too long. If I were to analyze the criticisms re- ceived so far I feel certain that for every one that objects to the title being too long, fifty would be found to ask for more information, be it in titles, notes or contents. When the Library of Congress has solved some of the problems of internal administra- tion to which I have made reference, it is not impossible that arrangements may be made to print a special short title issue for certain books which seem to be especially suitable for the smaller popular library. These cards might be made up as follows: The popular name to be selected as entry word, title abridged, name of publisher omitted from im- print, only one place of publication to be given, approximate paging only to be given, bibliographical notes to be omitted ; but wher- ever possible a brief characterization of the book to be added. The question is, would there be enough libraries that preferred the short entry to the fuller one to warrant the extra expense and labor involved? There are many things in the way of cata- loging which the Library of Congress may be in a position to do if it is only given time to put its own affairs in order. The supple- mentary catalog rules with illustrations and examples which the library has decided to print on cards, as well as in form of leaflets, may be mentioned. Numerous special lists containing the schedules of arrangement under certain subjects, as Countries, Cities, Particu- lar sciences, etc., must in time be printed for the use of the library, so also' its supplements to and developments of the A. L. A. "List of subject headings." It is with great pleasure that I take this occasion to state that Mr. Putnam has himself assured me that his pol- icy in the distribution of all such material will be a liberal one. Mr. BISHOP: I wish to bear some testi- mony to the remarkably satisfactory results we have obtained at Princeton University Li- brary in the use of the Library of Congress printed cards. I will give only one instance. I obtained the permission of the librarian of our institution some three or four weeks ago to catalog all the books in our collection on the Civil War for which we could find cards printed by the Library of Congress, and I de- termined to see how rapidly we could do it, using our whole cataloging force. That cata- loging force consisted of four persons besides myself and the employment of part of the time of one copyist and the whole time of another for affixing subject-headings and call-numbers on our extra cards. I will say, also, that we use these printed cards for shelf-list purposes. Now, it proved that we could find printed cards from our file of L. C. cards, and from a special catalog which Mr. Hastings very kindly sent us for about 850 titles; that is, 850 serial numbers had to be drawn off. It takes a long time to draw off the serial numbers for 850 books, and it has to be done with excessive care, because a single slip, of course, means that we get a wrong set of cards. That happened in four instances out of these 850. We used 850 sets, but only 728 at once, owing to delay in bind- CATALOG SECTION. 193 ing. We cataloged the books by means of the printed cards. The subject cards were made and the whole thing was completed in one week, to an hour, from the time per- mission was given to go at the task. I think that is a pretty fair instance of what can be done by careful system, when the method is very carefully worked out in advance. I wish to say, also, at Dr. Richardson's re- quest, that some careful experiments were made at the Princeton University Library to determine the exact saving in the use of Li- brary of Congress cards in the case of vari- ous types and sets of books. Now, we live in the country and we are able to employ our staff in various departments of the library at salaries that are really moderate, and so our figures of saving will not be so great as where larger salaries are paid; but after a long series of careful experiments our mini- mum saving on each title was found to be ten cents. Our maximum saving has not been yet wholly ascertained, but it is very nearly double that figure. We are making use of the Library of Congress printed cards to the very largest extent that we can. We have nothing to complain of in regard to the service. Wherever we order by serial number it is exceedingly prompt. We ordinarily get cards back from Washington in about 36 hours ; sometimes within 24 hours of the time the order is sent. Still, when we order by title it sometimes takes a long time. Occa- sionally there is some little hitch, but take it on the whole, I do not see how anything more satisfactory could be rendered than the serv- ice that is given us at Washington in this matter, and we only wish the accessions of the Library of Congress covered our field of purchase completely. Mr. BOSTWICK : The circulating depart- ment of the New York Public Library has been using the Library of Congress cards for something over six months. We are using them for current publications only, and I think probably we are ordering the largest number of titles of single cards of any sub- scriber to the cards. We have now 18 branch libraries, and as we may order as many as three cards for every book, we may send an order for 54 cards of each title. We are very well satisfied with the cards. The only objection I have to make is that in one or two cases the cards came a little late, but in other cases the cards come extremely early, for we have sometimes taken from the proof sheets the titles we want and ordered them from the publishers before the order department of those publishers knew they had issued such a book. I have ordered a book from more than one publisher in New York and received an answer that they published no such book; and I have had the pleasure of sending them a copy of the Library of Congress card and telling them that they not only published it, but had copyrighted it, and the catalog card had been printed. I would like to have some of the catalogers present give their opinion on the following point. The criticism has been made that the work done on Library of Con- gress cards ordering, receiving proof, com- paring, checking, etc. is very nearly as great as that required to make an original card. It does not seem to me that this can be correct. Even granting it is, you have a better card. Mr. JOSEPHSON: In the John Crerar Li- brary the Library of Congress cards are used to the extent of one-third or one-fourth of the books we catalog. Our cataloging staff consists of four persons besides myself. We catalog ordinarily about 5000 titles a year. Of Library of Congress cards we get not quite 2000. We have one person who de- votes all her time to that, but in addition she sometimes assists in preparing the books for classification. Occasionally some of the cards have to be somewhat revised. They all go through the hands of the assistant cataloger, who assigns the author heading, and she also sees to it that the card in hand corresponds with the book. Occasionally we have to make some little changes, and occasionally we want to add some note to the cards. We print our cards and also send the Library of Congress card to our printer in order to get the call-numbers printed on, as well as any note we want to add. If we say that to use the Library of Congress card costs us about one-fifth of the amount it costs us to cata- log books ourselves, I think that would be a pretty fair estimate. Mr. GAY : May I ask the experience in cut- ting the cards down to the 33 size? I am anxious to use the cards, but I have an old 194 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. card catalog of the 33 size, and I cannot use them without cutting them down. Mr. RODEN : In the Chicago Public Library we have two catalogs, one 32 and one 33 size; we order the same number of cards for each and one set of cards is cut down. I do not remember that we have ever lost a card. We have an ordinary photograph cutter which is gauged to size, so that there is uniformity in cutting the card, and if we find that the contents extend so far down that it might be injured by trimming, a little edge is cut off of the top and then we cut the bottom. 'This sacrifices a little of the space for the subject heading, perhaps, but the subject heading can be adapted to the space remaining. Mr. ROOT: I have a catalog of 300,000 or 400,000 cards of the index size, and after getting a large number of sample copies of the Library of Congress cards and mark- ing them carefully with a pencil, I decided that in cutting we should lose such important bibliographical details that I have decided to wait a little longer and then get one of the travelling catalogs of the Library of Con- gress and change over to the new size en- tirely. The CHAIRMAN: I have been requested to ask if the Library of Congress is likely to print references within a short time or if it contemplates printing them at all? Mr. HANSON: We should like to print ref- erences, but so far at least we have not felt that we could afford it. The CHAIRMAN : The next topic is "Un- used Christian names." Mr. GAY: In regard to unused Christian names, I know of a case where an assistant in a library spent nearly an hour in trying to identify a name from an initial. There wasn't any name to go with that initial. It was an initial without a name. Mr. BOSTWICK: I have always felt that un- fortunate people who have disused their first names and whose names are hunted up by the catalogers and put into the catalogs have cause for complaint, as long as the general public absolutely does not identify those per- sons by their unused Christian names. Mr. AUSTEN : It has seemed to me that if an author has always been consistent in pub- lishing under one name, whether that name be a pseudonym or a real name or part of his baptismal name, the cataloger is imperti- nent in adding any more than he HMthorizes, unless in the case of names that are alike and therefore must be distinguished. Some- times this cannot be done by dates. At any rate, it seems to me that the writers have a right in this respect that we ought to respect more than we do. Then again, in the case cf authors who change the form of their names, you have to use all forms somewhere in a catalog in order to guide the reader to the proper entry, and of course in a large library it is more often necessary to hunt up full names than in a small library. But what is the use of doing it until the necessity for it arises ? The discussion was continued by Miss Clarke, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Gay and others, Mr. Fletcher maintaining that while difficulties would arise in any practice, work solidly done, supplying full names whenever possible, would certainly cause no more trouble than any other practice. The chairman then requested the secretary to read the questions received in the question drawer, which were responded to by Mr. Roden and by Mr. Hanson. Mr. JOSEPHSON presented the report of the COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS in favor of Mr. C. B. Roden for president, and Miss Josephine Clarke for secretary. The report was accepted and the persons named elected. Adjourned. TRUSTEES' SECTION. 195 TRUSTEES' SECTION.* HP HE Trustees' Section of the American Li- brary Association held its annual meeting at the Cataract House, Niagara Falls, on the afternoon of Wednesday, June 24. Deloraine P. Corey, chairman of the Section, presided, with Thomas L. Montgomery as secretary. The meeting was called to order at 2.30 by the chairman, who said : I wish to take this opportunity to speak briefly of a matter of business which concerns trustees. The librarians who come to the annual conferences of this Association come as the representatives of our libraries. What- ever broadening and strengthening they re- ceive is for the advantage of our libraries; they are our delegates who, in a manner, act for us and for our benefit. Is it not pertinent to ask if we ought not to pay a portion at least, if not the whole, of the expenses of our representatives? I know that this may not be possible in some of the smaller libraries, but in many it is possible, and they can bear the burden, in part or entirely, better than their librarians. Now I have three propositions to offer for your consideration. First, this action is proper; second, it is desirable; third, in many causes it is practicable. I think no one will dispute the first two propo- sitions. The difficulty lies in the third. The position of a library with regard to that prop- osition depends more upon its ability than upon its will, and each board must settle that for itself. But remember that a conviction of the right and a will to carry- it out go fur in deciding the matter. It was objected by one library board that municipal appropria- tions and library funds are given for the maintenance and extension of library work, and that an expenditure of this kind would be a diversion of funds from their proper uses. I answer that the work of the Amer- ican Library Association is for the improve- ment and extension of library methods and means, and that the placing of a librarian within its influence, where he may gather in its benefits, is as legitimate an expense as the payment of his salary. There is one thing which even the smallest library can do that is, when a librarian wishes to at- tend the conference, it can grant him or her leave of absence without loss of pay or the loss of a portion of his or her vacation. I speak of this because I have been informed that in some libraries even this concession has not been granted. I trust, however, that that is a thing of the past and not of the present. It is unwise, it is unjust. I like to think it is one of the errors of the weaker nineteenth century which the stronger twen- tieth will not make. W. E. HENRY read a paper on THE CHIEF DUTY OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. It is to be presumed that the conscientious trustee feels that every official duty that he is called upon to perform requires all his ca- pacity to do it as it should be done. Yet the one duty that towers infinitely above all other * A misunderstanding in relation to the manage- ment of the Trustees' Section of the American Li- brary Association appeared at the recent conference, an impression prevailing in some quarters that the Section is under the control of librarians and is con- ducted in their interest. The Trustees' Section is an integral part of the Association; but its purposes are distinct from those of other sections, and it takes cognizance of the affairs of librarians only as they are connected with those of trustees. Its present chairman, who was elected at Waukesha, has been president of a libra- ry board for more than a quarter of a century and has never been a librarian. Its secretary, who for a longer term has been indefatigable in his endeavors to advance the purposes of the Section, is a trustee of a prominent library, and his position as a state librarian does not interfere with his earnest efforts in the interest of trustees. It has been the aim of the Section to interest trustees by such papers, addresses and appeals as are available; to bring trustees and librarians into a closer sympathy; and to raise the standard of trusteeship, where needed, by a wider knowledge of library means and methods. Papers dealing with matters of importance to trustees have been presented by trustees and libra- rians of experience; and if the latter have spoken from the standpoint of librarians, it has been to en- large the field of observation and to set forth such facts and suggestions as might not otherwise come before an enquiring trustee. D. P. COREY. 196 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. possible duties is the selection of the managing and responsible head of the institution the selection of the one who shall bring honor and reputation and distinction to the institution or the one who shall permit the institution to weaken and deteriorate and pass almost into oblivion under his management. I consider the selection of a librarian the one essential obligation of a board of trustees of a library the one duty which, if success- fully performed, sinks all else into insignifi- cance to nothingness. On the other hand, if this one duty be unsuccessfully performed, all other functions must likewise fail. Many other official duties performed by boards, while valuable and helpful to the one central idea of institutional success, are non- essential when compared with the paramount trust. They must understand and act upon the doctrine that "but one thing is needful," and their chief official duty is to supply the one thing, and that is a librarian. Those things that we are likely to give our- selves most concern about are usually the non- essentials. Gifts in the form of valuable buildings and endowments are desirable and helpful, but not essential after a library io es- tablished. Large collections of books are much to be sought, but where a few are gath- ered together in the proper spirit they en- gender much life. Particular systems of library economy are of superior value to other systems, but there is little vital distinction between any two systems when either is in the hands of a com- petent librarian. An exceedingly attentive board, regulating every movement of the li- brarian, may show interest, but it is not essential and may show meddlesomeness ra- t ther than vital concern. But if you should ask me how to detect a real librarian from the various counterfeits I should have no difficulty in describing the species so that it might be identified wher- ever found. The way in which I happen to know just the essential marks of a librarian is this: J went directly to those persons who are librarians and inquired of them and they gave me all the signs. One says "she should by all means be a trained librarian, either from a library training school or by experi- ence in a well-managed public library." Another says, "The library is whatever the librarian makes it, and she cannot make it what she is not." Says one, ''She must bt by nature patient, just, generous, gentle, mild, positive, firm, rapid, but not hasty, in her judgment, and so finely tempered that she may yield but never break." "The failure or success of a library is largely determined by the librarian," says another. "No one should seek such a calling until assured of an abiding interest in learning, and in learning as related to the people." "All his life and all his work are to be directed toward and in the interest of others." "It is to the librarian, then, that we must look for leadership in making our libraries more and more a wise and valuable investment for the good of the people." "A librarian guides the reading of the young and strives to elevate that cf the general public." "The librarian ought to be able to select the books to be purchased; if this work is done by others he should still be able to guide readers, and this implies lib- eral education in school and extended read- ing." "A librarian must be both a scholar and a person of some executive ability." "The library is a part and ought to be the center of the intellectual life of the commu- nity, and needs at its head an intellectual leader." "To the qualities of mind and heart which give sympathy and interest the libra- rian should add a professional training in the use and care of a collection of books that shall make the contents of her treasures in- stantly accessible to students in many occu- pations and all classes." Another says, "It is no light matter to select a librarian. There must be courteous and discriminate handling of a very varied public, appreciation of the differing needs and wants of different peo- ple, and sympathy with those whose life has been affected by hard conditions." Mr. An- drew Carnegie said, "If you ask whether a library is worth having, I answer 'That de- pends on the librarian.' " This leads me to another phase of the question : What is the relation of the board to the librarian after the selection is made and the librarian installed? If the board has been so unfortunate as to select the wrong person for librarian, then the board must give much of its time and energy and patience to superintending the poor librarian. If supervising could make a good librarian out TRUSTEES' SECTION. 197 of a poor one we could feel compensation in the saving of souls, but with all this vexing supervision the incompetent librarian usually remains so. Trustees of a college do not em- ploy a president and then expend their ener- gies in showing him how to do his work. The stockholders of a mine do not run the actual workings of the mine; for that they employ what they believe to be a competent superintendent. If he does not prove so he is relieved at once. If the right person has been selected for li- brarian then the board can expend its ener- gies where there is more money and less vex- ation of spirit than is to be found in supervising the work of an incompetent libra- rian. Let the librarian conduct the library. The ultimate answer to this question will, I presume, depend somewhat upon our respect- ive views of the large subject of government. For myself I believe in absolute authority coupled with absolute responsibility; in short, absolute monarchy with the ultimate author- ity resting in the electors. Let the librarian understand, when elected, that he is the only one who can make a mis- take in the library and he alone must be ac- countable for every error; alike shall he be credited with every success. You see where this doctrine leads. It means that the head of the library must be free to select all assistants and equally free to dispense with the service of any who do not serve well. No person can afford to take the re- sponsibility for the work of persons whom he did not appoint and whom he cannot dismiss. After the librarian is installed and made absolute in control, the degree of direct sup- port needed from the board of trustees de- pends largely upon the size of the city con- sidered. In a large city, where the head of the institution is not personally known to a con- siderable number of the people, he needs less of the direct personal support of his board, but in the small town or city, where the li- brarian is known to most of the people and comes in contact with the patrons of the li- brary, it is more and more necessary that the people as well as the librarian feel that the board of trustees is directly behind every order, and that the librarian is the executive officer of the board. Of course the board should know what is going on in the library management and be interested in it, but not with the thought of personally interfering in the management of Ihe institution. Another point. I have stated what is the common opinion as to what a librarian should be, and I have not put the standard any higher than the times and circumstances demand, nor higher than can now be supplied, but I have placed it higher than we are always ready to compensate. The librarian and competent assistants must be adequately remunerated. The best service is always the cheapest, either in public or private, and this is especially true where the institution served is not a money- making institution, existing for commercial ends. The head of any public library ranks with the city superintendent of schools and the principal of the high school of the same city, and should rank so in pay, and no person is a competent assistant who is not worth the salary paid to the subordinate teachers in the same city high school. With such remunera- tion we can secure and retain the services of really competent librarians, and without it we must be satisfied with as much less than the best, as we pay less. A communication was read from Mr. HER- BERT PUTNAM on THE YEAR'S WORK AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. The description or discussion of the Li- brary of Congress at this Section, or of any- particular library, is justified only by the as- sumption that the operations of this library are of somewhat specific concern to those in conduct of other libraries. They may be of concern in the case of a national library they ought to be of concern as offering use- ful example of processes, the most scientific and efficient processes. But in this country, under present conditions, in the case of the national library they should be of concern as contributing directly to the aid of other li- braries either by adding to their resources or by improving their bibliographic apparatus, or by increasing the efficiency or reducing the cost of their administration. A. At the Section meeting of the last year I mentioned as a chief such aid the distribu- tion of our catalog cards (i) without charge to certain depositary libraries, (2) at cost t 198 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. any others that may choose to subscribe. This distribution, begun in November, 1901, has been steadily pursued, enlarged, further sys- tematized and improved, and may now, I think, be considered to be upon a substantial basis. I remark here merely these character- istics of the system : I. The distribution not requiring subscription to a series or any speci- fied number of cards, or copies of cards, may be of interest to the smallest as to the largest library. 2. While the distribution in its early stages could interest chiefly the library desir- ing cards for its current accessions, the stock of cards as it approaches toward a complete exhibit of the collection in the Library of Congress contains now a large percentage of the titles in an ordinary library wishing to recatalog or to substitute printed for written cards. 3. A "travelling index" to the cards in stock, consisting of a copy of every card thus far printed, can now be borrowed by any library desiring L. C. cards for books in its existing collection. Arranged by author, it forms a precise and convenient guide for or- dering. It comprises nearly 100,000 titles. Similar indexes of smaller groups 15,000 ti- tles and upward covering the books most common in smaller libraries are also available and may be borrowed without charge save for transportation. 4. The revised, enlarged edi- tion of the A. L. A. catalog is to be seen into print by the Library of Congress. The titles comprised in it will all be covered by L. C. cards. These cards will, we hope, in- clude the class numbers in both the Decimal and the Expansive classifications, and possibly some annotations. B. The library is continuing the publica- tion of lists of material in its collection, which lists are freely distributed to other in- stitutions. Since the last conference there have been issued one on the Philippine Islands, one of Lincolniana, one a calendar of Paul Jones manuscripts. In addition to such, how- ever, it is issuing reference lists upon topics of current interests which may serve useful pur- pose in any library dealing with the reference reader. Ten such have been published during the past year, not including revised editions of the list on Trusts and of that on Marine Subsidies previously issued. They are on Anglo-Saxon interests, Arbitration, Cabinets, Constitution, Corporations, Negro question, Pensions, Railroads (government ownership of), Reciprocity, and Strikes. C. The library gladly answers inquiries ad- dressed to it by mail as to the existence and location of material in quest by an investi- gator. It is acquiring, and proposes without consideration of expense to complete, the ful- lest possible information as to matters bibli- ographic: as to what material exists on any subject, and as to where it may be found. This information and the aid of the experts in charge of it are freely at the disposal of any inquirer; but with especial willingness are at the disposal of librarians of other insti- tutions whose immediate resources are insuffi- cient to furnish an adequate answer to their constituents. D. Within the limitations defined in our published statements, the library is tending to increase its loans of books to other institu- tions in order to supply a need of a serious nature which cannot be met by the local re- sources. E. Within the past year the library has initiated an exchange of duplicates with other libraries. This may grow into a system of large dimension and general interest. F. In its purchases the Library of Congress is endeavoring by its specific action and by its influence to recognize the claim of other libra- ries to material local to the regions in which they lie and not duplicable. It will not. for instance, though its own interest is universal, compete against the New York Public Li- brary for a manuscript whose primary inter- est is local to New York. It hopes by this course to help in bringing about a greater specialization among the archive and research libraries of this country, a mutual respect for the fields proper to each, forbearance in com- petition and positive reciprocal aid in their development. G. The library is initiating a series, which it will edit and publish, covering a history of the libraries of this country and incidentally of the development of library administration here. H. Fundamental, however, to the larger service which the library may perform as a national library are the following : the comple- tion of its reclassification, and of a catalog which shall contain at least an author card (printed) of every book in its collection; TRUSTEES' SECTION. 199 the enlargement of its funds for purchase; and the rounding out of its expert service. I am glad to be able to report that the reclas- sification and recataloging have made such substantial progress that the rate of progress is now sensibly increasing, and an end may be looked for within three years. The force for this work reached its normal of 91 persons on the first day of last July. The funds for increase, four years ago but $30,000, are for the coming year $100,000. The allotment for printing and binding essential to the service to other libraries and the general public four years ago but $25,000, was this year $95,000, and for next year will be $185,000. In several directions the expert judgment and service of the library has been strengthened; in two most notably: by the acquisition of a highly trained expert to take charge of and develop its department of Music; and by the acqui- sition of Mr. Worthington C. Ford to take charge of and develop its department of Manuscripts. With Mr. Ford in this posi- tion, the library is in a way to respond to the obligation upon it to become the headquar- ters for the investigation of original sources in American history an obligation and pros- pect recognized by the government in making it the custodian of historical manuscripts in its keeping; and by the Carnegie Institution in associating with it its first two grants for historical research. During the past year the library has ac- quired by purchase manuscript material of great importance, including the papers of Sal- mon P. Chase, papers of Commodore Preble, a large collection of letters of Daniel Web- ster, etc., and by gift the superb and hitherto unexploited collection of Andrew Jackson pa- pers in the possession of the Blair family at Washington. It is seeking originals wherever obtainable, and it is reaching out into remote parts of the globe for information of others of which transcripts may be obtainable, to the advantage of the student of American history. The chairman announced the appointment of a committee on nominations, consisting of S. W. Foss, N. D. C. Hodges, W. E. Foster. A. E. BOSTWICK read a paper on LAY CONTROL IN LIBRARIES AND ELSEWHERE. The system by which the control of a con- cern is vested in a person or a body having no expert technical knowledge of its workings has become so common that it may be regard- ed as characteristic of modern civilization. If this seems to any one an extreme state- ment, a little reflection will convince him to the contrary. To cite only a few examples, the boards of directors of commercial or financial institutions like our manufacturing corporations, our railways and our banks, of charitable foundations like our hospitals and our asylums, of educational establishments like our schools and colleges, are now not ex- pected to understand the detail of the insti- tutions under their charge. Their first duty is to put at the head of their work an expert with a staff of competent assistants to see to that part of it. Even in most of our churches the minister or pastor the expert head is employed and practically controlled by a lay body of some kind a vestry, a session or the like. Government itself is similarly conduct- ed. Neither the legislative nor the executive branch is expected to be made up of experts who understand the technical detail of depart- mental work; all this is left to subordinates. Even the heads of departments often know nothing at all of the particular work over which they have been set until they have held their position for some time. It is hardly necessary to say that this system of lay control is of interest to us here and now, because it obtains in most libraries where the governing body is a board of trustees or directors who are generally not experts, but who employ a librarian to superintend their work. To multiply examples would be superfluous. Lay control, as above illustrated, is not uni- versal, but I postpone for the present a consid- eration of its antitheses and its exceptions.' It looks illogical, and when the ordinary citi- zen's attention is brought to the matter in any way he generally so considers it. In certain cases it is even a familiar object of satire. The general public is apt, I think, to regard lay control as improper or absurd. With the expert and his staff, who are con- cerned directly with the management of the institution in question, the feeling is a little different. It is more like that of President Cleveland when he "had Congress on his hands" a sort of anxious tolerance. They bear with the board that employs them be- cause it has the power of the purse, but they 2OO NIAGARA CONFERENCE. are glad when it adjourns without interfer- ing unduly with them. Are either of these points of view justified? Should lay boards of directors be abolished? Or, if retained, should those without expert knowledge be barred? Now at first sight it certainly seems as if the ultimate control of every business or operation should be in the hands of those who thoroughly understand it, and this would certainly bar out lay control. I believe that this view is superficial and will not bear close analysis. The idea that those who control an institu- tion should be familiar with its details appears to originate in an analogy with a man's con- trol of his own private affairs, when his occu- pation and income make it necessary that he should attend to all those affairs personally. The citizen who digs and plants his own gar- den must understand some of the details of gardening. The man who does his own "odd jobs" about the house must be able to drive a nail and handle a paint brush. This neces- sity vanishes, however, as the man's interests become more varied and his financial ability to care for them becomes greater. At a cer- tain point personal attention to detail becomes not only unnecessary but impossible. To ex- pect the master of a great estate to under- stand the details of his garden, his stable, his kennels, as well as the experts to whom he entrusts them, is absurd. He may, of course, as a matter of amusement, busy himself in some one department, but if he tries to super- intend everything personally, still more to understand and regulate matters of detail, he is wasting his time. We must seek our analogy, then, both for lay control and for the attitude of the ordi- nary citizen toward it in that citizen's man- agement of his private affairs. He knows his own business or thinks he does and he finds it hard to realize that the details of that busi- ness could ever grow beyond his personal con- trol. But, after all, this progress is one towards the normal. Attention to details in the case of the poor man is forced upon him. Except in rare cases, he does not really care to shovel his own snow ; he would prefer to hire a man to do it, and as soon as he can he does do so. So long as his sidewalk is properly cleared he is willing to leave the details to the man who clears it. He does not care whether that man begins at the north or the south end, or whether his shovelfuls are small or large. Here, if we examine, we shall find a com- mon characteristic of those kinds of work where laymen are in control the persons for whom the work is done care very much about results; they are careless of methods so long as those results are attained. And in a very large number of cases the persons for whom the work is done will be found to be the pub- lic, or so large a section of it that it is prac- tically a group of laymen so far as the par- ticular work in question may be concerned. A lay board of directors or a lay depart- mental head, then, is simply and properly a representative of a greater lay body that is particularly anxious for results and not par- ticularly anxious about methods. Lay control is thus not illogical, but is the outcome of a regular and very proper development. But, as has been said, it is not the only method of controlling a great institution. An institution may be managed by a graded body of experts. So were the old guilds of craftsmen man- aged. So are many ecclesiastical bodies, nota- bly the Roman Catholic Church. We may call this method of control hierarchical. It has some advantages over lay control and some disadvantages. We may Imagine such a system applied to libraries. All the libra- ries in a state, we will say, would then be managed by the state librarian, and all these officers would be subject to the orders of the librarian of the national library, who would be supreme and accountable to no one. With- out going into detailed discussion of this ex- tremely supposititious case, we may say that the objection to it would be that the persons who are especially interested in the results of the work done are not represented in the con- trolling hierarchy. Where the persons inter- ested are all experts, as in a guild of crafts- men, there can perhaps be no objection to control by experts; though even in this case we are leaving out of consideration the per- sons, generally laymen, for whom the crafts- men do their work. In fact, any trouble that may arise from the lay control of a body of expert workers lies just here in the failure either of the con- trolling authority or the trained subordinates TRUSTEES' SECTION. 2O I to recognize and keep within their limita- tions. It should be the function of the su- preme lay authority to decide what results it wants and then to see that it gets them to call attention to any deviation from them and to replace those who cannot achieve them by others who can. It should be the part of the expert staff of subordinates to discover by what methods these results can best be reached and then to follow out these methods. When the lay head attempts to direct the details of method, or when the trained sub- ordinate thinks it his duty to influence the policy of the institution, then there is apt to be trouble. Such results are apt to follow, on the one hand, the inclusion in a board of trustees of a man with a passion for detail and a great personal interest in the work under him, but without a keen realization of the necessity for strict organization and discipline in his ex- pert staff; or, on the other hand, from the presence in that staff of a masterful man who cannot rest until he is in virtual control of whatever he concerns himself about. I say trouble is apt to follow in such cases. It does not always follow, for the organization may adapt itself to circumstances. The in- terested trustee may play with ease his two roles, fitting into his board as a lay member and becoming practically also a part of the expert staff. The masterful subordinate may dominate his board so as to become its dic- tator, and thus do away for a time with his lay control. We have all seen both these things happen, not only in libraries, but in banks, in hospitals, in charitable institutions. In some cases it has been well that they have happened. But although an occasional stick is flexible enough to be tied into a knot, it would be hazardous to try the experiment with all sticks. Some may bend but more will break. Is it not better to accept frankly the division of labor that seems to have been pointed out by the development of our institutions for the guidance of their management? Boards of trustees in this case would find it necessary to decide first on the desirable re- sults to be reached in their work. This is a phase of library discussion that has been somewhat neglected. What is the public li- brary trying to get at? Not stated in vague terms, but in concrete form, so that the trus- tees can call the librarian to account if he fails to accomplish it? It is only fair to the librarian that he should be informed at the outset precisely what he is expected to do, and then it is only fair that he should be left to do it in his own way. This is an unoccupied field, and it would be an eminently proper one for the Trustees' Section of the American Library Association. We librarians should be very glad to know just what you expect us to accomplish, for on that depends our manner of setting to work. Do you wish us to aim at decreasing the per- centage of illiteracy in the community? or the arrests for drunkenness ? Are we to strive for an increased circulation? And will an absolute increase be satisfactory, or must it be an increase proportionate to population? Is it definitely demanded of us to decrease our fiction percentage? Shall we, in any given case, devote our attention chiefly to the home use or the reference use of the library? Shall we favor the student or the ordinary citizen? These questions, of course, cannot receive a general answer; they must be decided dif- ferently in different cases, but at least we may agree on the type of question that it is admis- sible to answer at all and on the degree of de- tail to which it is permissible to go in stating a requirement. For instance, is it admissible for a board to say to its librarian, "The results that we re- quire you to show include the following: A well-ordered collection of books classified ac- cording to the Dewey system, bound in half duck and distributed wth the aid of the Browne charging system?" I think it will be granted that this would be an attempt to control the details of method in the guise of a statement of desired results. But where shall we draw the line? How specific may be the things that a board may properly re- quire of its expert staff? That is the ques- tion whose solution by this Section would be an inestimable benefit to all libraries and li- brarians. At present there is wide difference of opinion and of practice on this point. Many people would not agree at all with the limitations that have just been laid down; even those who do agree would differ widely over their interpretation. There is hardly time to anticipate and 2O2 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. meet criticism. I shall be reminded, I sup- pose, that the funds for carrying on the li- brary's work are in the hands of the trustees, and that one of the main objects of their ex- istence is to see that the money is honestly spent, not stolen or wasted. How can they do this without close oversight of methods? To this I would reply that this important function of the board is distinctly the require- ment of a result, that result being the honest administration of the library. The method by which it may be administered most hon- estly is best left to the expert head. Natur- ally, if evidence of peculation or waste comes before the board the librarian will be held to account as having failed to achieve the re- quired result of honest administration. In this and in other respects the necessity that the board should know whether or not the desired results are being attained means that the work of the executive officer should be followed with attention. It must be evident, however, that this does not involve control and dictation of methods. It must also be remembered that what has been said refers only to the administrative control of the institution. The duties of trus- tees as custodians of an endowment fund, if such there be, or in soliciting and receiving contributions as well as other financial con- siderations, are separate from this and have not been considered. Again, I shall be told that the head of the executive staff is not only a subordinate but also an expert adviser of his board. This is true; and as a consulting expert it is his duty to give advice outside of his own ad- ministrative field if he is asked for it. It may even be his duty to give it unasked occasion- ally, but this comes very near to the interfer- ence that I have deprecated. He who would tread this borderland must tread softly. On the other hand, the expert may and should ask the advice of members of his board as individuals or of the board as a whole when he needs it and when he feels that it would give him confidence or strengthen his hand. In this whole matter there is a clear distinc- tion between the advisory and the executive function on one hand and on the other. In short, the view taken in this paper may be briefly summed up as follows : Lay con- trol in libraries and elsewhere is a logical and proper development. It would net, on the whole, be well for one who should wish to endow a library to make an expert libra- rian sole trustee for life with power to select his successor. That would be a fine thing for the librarian, but it would be neither desir- able nor proper. It is well that the trustees should be responsible representatives of the lay public, for whose benefit the library is TO be conducted. But as the public is inter- ested chiefly in results, the trustees should confine themselves largely to the indication and requirement of these results, leaving methods in the hand of their expert staff of subordinates. And it. is eminently desirable that librarians should hear from a represent- ative body of trustees some expression of opinion regarding the extent of this limita- tion. Miss CRAFTS : Would it be out of place for one who is both trustee and librarian to make some suggestion in regard to these so- called Trustee Section meetings? It has been my privilege to attend three since I have been on the board of directors and they are identi- cal in their prominent characteristics. As a rule the officers are one or both of them libra- rians. The people who take part in the pro- gram are librarians. In the audience the trustees are conspicuous by their absence. In their principal lines of thought, so far as I have observed in these meetings, the speak- ers have been treading on what Mr. Bostwick has called the borderland where we need to tread softly. They have been giving direc- tions to the trustees as to their functions and their duties and in such a way sometimes as to occasion offense. I know that last year the proceedings of this section meeting were print- ed and distributed, and in the board with which I am connected two or three members of that board spoke to me of having received those pamphlets with resentment of the spirit of the meeting as shown in the report. They were members of the board, who have had the best interests of our library at heart, who are giving time and thought and money, but they did not like the spirit of that report. Now, if I am not mistaken, the object of this Section is to interest the trustees, to make it really and truly a trustees' section, to bring out a good attendance of those in control of the libra- ries of the country; and in order to do this it TRUSTEES' SECTION. 203 seems to me we must adopt somewhat differ- ent tactics from those so far in use. If the meetings could be put into the hands of trus- tees altogether, having both members and offi- cers of the Section trustees, and letting trus- tees take part in the program, it would be but a few years before we should have an at- tendance of trustees that we might be proud of. The trustees have' their own problems to meet and. discuss. I know that members of my board would be very glad indeed for a con- ference with other trustees who have similar problems. But what is the use of their com- ing to a meeting like this? It seems to me that we, as librarians, when I speak from the other point of view, would find it very help- ful if certain members of our boards of trus- tees could be induced to come to these meet- ngs feeling that they had a real part in it, and that when they went back the A. L. A. meant something, they would work in better harmony with their librarians. When trustees ask librarians to take part in the program of a real trustees' section it would probably be to discuss the problems that they want discussed from the librarians' point of view, and not to have the librarians tell them just what their own duties are. Mr. MONTGOMERY: I would like,to say, in reply to the general criticism brought out by this statement, that both the officers of this Section are trustees, and that one of them is president of his board, and the other is the chairman of the board of one of the largest libraries in the country. That, I think, ought to dispose of the idea that either or both of them are without sympathy for the trustees' standpoint. I have done active work of trus- teeship in connection with the Free Library of Philadelphia since its foundation, and the problems which interest me most are the problems that meet the trustees of any large institution of that kind. In acting as trustee of that institution I have always taken a ground, not like that taken by Mr. Henry, but rather the opposite one, that the trustees should supplement the work of the librarian. No librarian is omniscient; he cannot be; and there are in every board of trustees men who know certain things better than the librarian. When I am a librarian and I am a librarian I try to make the best uses of those qualities in the members of the board of the institution that I am connected with. Vice versa, when I am a trustee I try in every way that I can to help that librarian along, not to retard him in any way, but to help him in the things which perhaps he knows least about ; not in a dictatorial way, but to persuade him, if I can, that it is for his own best interests and the best interests of the institution. Regarding the question of asking trustees to take part in this discussion, it may be inter- esting to note that I asked exactly 28 trus- tees to take part in this meeting to-day, and that, for one reason or another they were all prominent men they were unable to be with us. As to the trustees who. were of- fended by the pamphlets sent out by this Sec- tion, I cannot understand their attitude. It may be that they had the idea that it was sent out to them by librarians. It is due to the Section that such an idea should be corrected. Both Mr. Corey and myself are trustees, and we are the only officers of this Section. It is unfortunate if we are not able to make the trustees understand the fact that they are not only welcome, but that both Mr. Corey and myself would rejoice to step down and out if we could find the proper men among the trus- tees to take our places and carry on this work. If we can find anybody who will do this work, and do it energetically, they can rely upon Mr. Corey and myself to do everything in our power to forward it. But when I tell you that about 150 letters were written in get- ting up this meeting, I think you will under- stand that it means a large amount of detail work, and the results do not always justify the amount of work demanded. As for the papers read to-day, I think they were all ex- ceedingly good papers, and I would not be at all averse to having them go into the hands of every trustee of every library in the United States and run the risk of giving offense. H. T. KELLY : Mr. Chairman, I believe I am indirectly responsible for calling forth this discussion. I was the person who last year moved the resolution that the proceedings of last year's meeting be printed and circulated among trustees. I stated then what my ob- ject was in doing so, and I was glad to express my satisfaction at the progress that had been made under you, sir, in the matter of helping along the Trustees' Section of the American Library Association. With the lady 204 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. who has recently spoken I had felt that the trustees had not been "in it" for some time. Some years before I had travelled from To- ronto to Philadelphia to attend one of the meetings of the Trustees' Section, and I found nothing whatever to interest trustees. Last year I found a marked improvement. I know, as has been said, that there has been some misunderstanding about the character of the report that was sent out last year from this Section to trustees, many thinking it was issued by librarians and was made up of sug- gestions from librarians to trustees, and that was due to the fact that some of those who were prominent in discussions and in prepar- ing the papers were librarians. Now, there should be no objection to that. Trustees and librarians must co-operate. But I think trus- tees should be made to feel that this is their Section; if librarians can aid them by inter- esting them in their work, so much the better ; but let the trustees feel that they are a part of this Section. Then you can induce trus- tees to come to it. There are very many questions which can be very readily dis- cussed both by librarians and trustees at such a meeting as this, and if I may make a sug- gestion, it is that in some future meeting there may be more discussion and fewer papers ; that certain subjects be announced beforehand rel- ative to the work of trustees, and that certain trustees come prepared to discuss these mat- ters. I am glad this discussion was started, and I hope that still greater progress may be made in interesting trustees. With that in view, I would recommend that the proceed- ings of this Section be published and sent out to trustees this year and their source made clear. Mr. COREY : The attitude of trustees to- ward this Section, as shown by their not coming here, shows that there is much need of this Section. We need to do a good deal of missionary work. I am rather glad to hear the statement made by the trustee from Minneapo- lis that some of her trustees took exception to the papers read last year. I wish they had taken exception so strongly that they had come here to controvert those statements. The quickest way to bring about such an under- standing in anything of this kind is to get up a disagreement, and I like to have a paper read that is radical and that brings on good discussion. There is no other way of find- ing out where we stand. Now, if the trustees who are here would interest themselves to bring other trustees next year, I think we might do something. And I am going to say for myself what I wouldn't say to trustees and the librarians need not hear it either that I have no great opinion of the average trustee. Trustees should take more interest in the work which they have to do. With a good many their work is entirely perfunctory. W. C. KIMBALL: Speaking as a trustee from the Passaic Public Library, I want to say that while there may have been a possi- bility that the report sent out last year was not taken quite in the spirit that it was in- tended, I think that a proportion of 99 out of loo went to the right place and did lots of good. I want to say, as a trustee, that it would be a very difficult matter to get very many trustees to attend these meetings. The trustee of a public library puts in anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes a month attending the monthly meeting. He comes there, the libra- rian has the bills all prepared, the secretary reads the minutes of the last meeting, the bills are approved, the committee on books are told that they can, in conjunction with the libra- rian, expend so much money, and a motion to adjourn is made, and there is an interval of another 30 days. Now, if you have a good librarian the library will run along satisfac- torily. If you haven't a good librarian, you will have lots of trouble; so I think if trus- tees would go on the principles set forth in the papers read to-day they will get along right. In my experience, trustees can't run a library. They must have a good librarian to do that; and when the trustees have en- gaged a good librarian they can approve the bills and adjourn in 20 minutes; and in my opinion it will be impossible to get active business men and those are the men we want for trustees to pay their carfare and spend two or three days at a convention of the A. L. A. I happen to be here on some other business or I should not be here as a trustee. Mr. KELLY: I will make the same motion that I did last year, and that is, That it be recommended to the executive board that the proceedings of this meeting be printed and distributed in separate form as was done last year. Voted. TRUSTEES' SECTION. 205 Mr. MONTGOMERY: Just as a last word, I would say that the officers of the Associa- tion have information that the sending out of that reprint from the proceedings last year was certainly productive in certain cases. A number of librarians are attending this conven- tion as a result of that pamphlet having been sent to their trustees. They had never be- fore had their attention called to the fact that it was their duty to send their librarian to the A. L. A. meetings at the expense of the library, and we have very positive evidence that at least that much has been accom- plished by last year's action. E. A. HARDY : I should like to take excep- tion to the statement of Mr. Kimball on two points. It is not always the case that trus- tees are usually business men. Some of the most valuable trustees we have are profes- sional men lawyers, doctors, teachers, and ministers and I think if the matter were brought properly home to them they would take part of their vacation time to come to the A. L. A. meetings. I also disagree with the state- ment that it is impossible to get a good attend- ance of trustees at an A. L. A. conference. I know in the Ontario Library Association, which has been in existence now three years, the majority of our attendance is from trus- tees. I am satisfied that a large proportion of the public libraries of this continent must to a very large extent be managed by trus- tees. In many public libraries there is no li- brarian as librarians understand the term. Anybody does the work who is willing to accept the office, and if there is any intelli- gent or expert service at all in connection with that library, it must come from some of the trustees. That trustee may be a lawyer, physician, teacher, or some one of that sort. There are many such people who would come to these meetings if the matter were clearly put before them. It seems to me that the Trustees' Section attendance must largely be made up by those within a hundred or two hundred miles of the place of meeting. Mr. Montgomery worked very hard to get a good attendance here, but the special announcement circular was sent to only one library in the Province of Ontario. Now, there are about 2CO libraries within 75 miles of here. We do not expect our American brethren to know a great deal about Canadian deta. : Js any more than a Canadian knows about the small libra- ries of Pennsylvania, but it seems to me that the secretary of this Section might well co- operate with the secretary ci president of the library .issodation of ihe stu- or province in which the meeting is to be held. Mr. MONTGOMERY : That is a very proper suggestion. Mr. HARDY : In that way an attendance of possibly 25 to 100 trustees might be obtained. In the Trustees' Section at the two previous meetings I have attended, and in several of the meetings of the Association, the trustee has been frequently referred to as a neces- sary evil that librarians must put up with. He furnishes the sinews of war and has his uses, of course, and we can tolerate him and he has his place; but he is a necessary evil. That is perhaps the impression that trustees have received. I think all such references as that were made jocularly and were not intend- ed to be taken seriously, but that impression may have gone abroad. If it has, I think it has done harm. The report of the COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS was presented, recommending the re-election of the present officers, viz. : Deloraine P. Corey, trustee Public Library, Maiden, Mass., chairman; Thomas L. Montgomery, state librarian of Pennsylvania, secretary. The re- port was accepted. Adjourned, 4 p.m. 2O6 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. SECTION FOR CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS. *T*HE Children's Librarians' Section of the American Library Association held two sessions during the Niagara Conference. Miss Mary E. Dousman, chairman of the Section, presided, with Miss Alice Jordan as secretary. FIRST SESSION. The first session was held in the Cataract House, Wednesday afternoon, June 24, Miss Mary E. Dousman in the chair. Following the secretary's report, the chair announced the name of Miss Annie Carroll Moore as chairman of the committee on the projected juvenile list. This was in accordance with action of the Section in 1902, in compliance with a request of the Publishing Board. In Miss Moore's absence, the secretary read the REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF CHILDREN'S LIBRA- RIANS'" SECTION ON THE RECOMMENDA- TION OF THE PUBLISHING BOARD TO PREPARE A LIST OF CHILDREN'S BOOKS. The committee appointed to undertake the preparation of a new list to replace the Sar- gent "Reading for the young," which has been allowed to go out of print, is not yet prepared to present a report embracing de- tailed methods. So important a piece of work as the prepa- ration of a list which is to represent the best judgment of active workers in a special line for a term of years should be a matter for well-matured consideration. It should not be undertaken without a carefully conceived and clearly stated purpose and plan of action on the part of those who pledge their active sup- port to so arduous and so prolonged a task, namely, the children's librarians, nor without an equally clear statement on the part of those who assume the financial responsibility involved in the preparation and the publica- tion of such a list, namely, the members of the Publishing Board. I. What are the demands of such an un- dertaking from the children's librarians ? Years of reading, comparing, judging, weighing, sifting and evaluating of a crude mass of material designated as children's lit- erature on the part of a body of people who are as yet without critical standards, who have no formulated principles of selection to guide them, whose daily work imposes more demands upon them than they are prepared to meet and whose work cannot yet be counted upon to stand the test of time. Are we then capable, as children's libra- rians, of making a list which will be of suffi- cient value when finished to justify the labor we must put upon it? Unquestionably we are not yet capable of making a list of children's books which would fulfil all the requirements of the widespread demand for "a list of children's books which can be depended upon," but how are we going to become capable without reaching out to make the attempt and how are we going to turn away from a responsibility which is clearly ours to assume? Most of us are largely indebted to the Sar- gent lists and to the lists compiled by Miss Hewins for our general grasp on children's literature. These lists are now out of date and we have been asked to carry on the work. With the assurance of the support and co- operation of the chief librarians who are counted among our associate members it ought to be possible for us to build upon the foundation already laid a list which shall at least be up to date and possess a value for the children's librarians who succeed us. Until children's literature is cast into more perma- nent form than that in which it now exists this is perhaps as much as can reasonably be expected of us. II. How may the demands of the work be met by the children's librarians? i. By placing each class of books in the hands of a committee whose chairman shall be entirely responsible for the class, and who shall have associated with her a group of people with whom it will be possible for her to confer at frequent intervals. This would mean localizing the work of each class. CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION. 207 There would seem to be no other way of do- ing strong, effective work than by such local- ized effort. The time, strength and money saved by doing away with the correspondence and tabulation incident upon an extensive co- operative plan could all be put into telling, intensive work upon the books. 2. By conferring with the chief librarians and making such an adjustment of regular duties as should enable its to give a reason- able number of library hours each week or each month during the period of preparation of the list. 3. By not limiting the time of preparation by a fixed date until the work is fairly inaugurated. 4. By presenting at our Section meeting reports of the work which is being done in the various classes. 5. By asking that all critical work of a suf- ficiently high standard be credited with the initials of the person who presents it. This crediting of the work would have the effect of raising the standard for the compilation of lists of children's books in general, and it would also have a certain professional value for the individual compiler. III. What are the demands of such an un- dertaking from the Publishing Board? 1. A careful consideration of the question whether it is worth while to make the list under the condiiions stated. 2. Decision as to the form of the list. Shall it represent a full bibliography of children's literature, or a selected list to be used as a catalog ? There exists at present no bibliography of children's literature. Numerous selected lists have been issued, all of which fail when put to the test, chiefly because they have not been based upon a comprehensive presentation of the subject which has grown out of critical study. I do not believe it is possible to make good selected lists of books for children until we have a full bibliog- raphy of children's books and some tested principles of selection. 3. A stated fund for the mechanical prepa- ration of the list and its ultimate publication. 4. The appointment of an advisor from the Publishing Board to confer with the chairman of the committee in charge of the list as to the details of carrying on the work of prepa- ration, and to assume the entire financial re- sponsibility for the list. 5. A critical estimate from the publisher's standpoint of the strong points and weak points in the lists of children's books which have been published already. The following persons have consented to represent certain classes of books under the conditions stated: Fiction. (With Boston as a center for work.) Miss Harriet H. Stanley, Brookline Public Library; Miss Alice M. Jordan, Boston Pub- lic Library. Mythology and Fairy Tales. (With Pitts- burgh as a center.) Miss Frances J. Olcott, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh. Travel. (With Providence as a center.) Mrs. Mary E. Root, Providence Public Li- brary. Biography. (With Buffalo as a center.) Mrs. Adelaide B. Maltby, Buffalo Public Library. History. (With Chicago as a center.) Miss Edna Lyman, Scoville Institute. Books for Youngest Children. (With Cleve- land as a center.) Miss Effie L. Power, Cleveland Public Li- brary. Literature (Poetry and Prose). (With Brooklyn as a center.) Miss Annie C Moore, Pratt Institute Free Library. At Magnolia, Miss Hewins, Miss Sargent, Miss Plummer, Miss Eastman, Mrs. Fairchild, Miss Doren, Miss Garland, Dr. Hosmer, Mr. Crunden, Mr. Elmendorf and other librarians promised their support as advisors and critics. The formation of committees which shall be able to work together effectively is no easy task, and appointments will be made slowly and cautiously, even at the risk of delaying the work. It was recommended last year that effort be made to get enough work accom- plished on the list to incorporate in the A. L. A. Catalog. This was found to be quite im- practicable. Ten years from now we may be able to stand as a Section for a juvenile cata- log, but it is first necessary that we should stand firmly in our feet in general Section 208 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. work, and I believe there is no more effectual means of gaining this standing than by con- centrating our best powers during our best years on the prime factor in our work the comparative study of children's books. ANNIE CARROLL MOORE, Chairman. This was followed by Miss Dousman's re- port of the evaluated fiction list summarized from the Proceedings of previous years. Action on these reports was deferred until the business meeting of the Section. The chair named a committee on nomina- tions, consisting of Miss Olcott, Mrs. Root and Miss Engle. Miss Helen U. Price read a paper by Miss H. H. STANLEY, noting the chief CHILDREN'S BOOKS OF 1902. Poetry. "Golden numbers," a book of verse for youth, chosen by Wiggin and Smith, is an at- tractive and excellent collection of classic poems, including some less familiar ones. "A pocketful of posies," by A. F. Brown, reminds one in quality of Stevenson's "Child's garden," and is likely for the most part to appeal to readers of any age. "Careless Jane," by Katharine Pyle, is a little book of verses and pictures in imitation of the old-fashioned moral style, tolerably amusing, but hardly worth spending money for. Riley's "Book of joyous children" is reminiscent of childhood, and, with some exceptions, unsuited to chil- dren in sentiment and humor. Nature Books. Among the nature books "True tales of "birds and beasts" is the most acceptable, though the tales are of varying worth and interest. Pierson's "Among the night people" is up to her usual level of merit, whatever that is considered to be. Chambers' "Outdoorland" is of the same type, poorer in matter, but made attractive with large print and colored pic- tures. This kind of book, in which animals and plants carry on conversations, sometimes idle and sometimes instructive, is, to my mind, unappetizing and innutritious diet. I am told by one father and by a governess that in their experience children like Miss Pierson's books, but does the average sturdy youngster take kindly to them if left by him- self? Even if he does, might he not have something more genuine and less sentimental ? "What Gladys saw," by Fox, is another mod- ern type of nature story. The author creates a naturalist father who instructs Gladys for the benefit of children in general. The story is more pleasing than is sometimes the case, so that by skipping the natural history infor- mation I was easily able to read to the end of it, which would, I fancy, be the case with most children. Three of the year's books not specially for young readers are simple, vigor- ous and entertaining French's "Hezekiah's wives," Long's "School of the woods," and Roberts' "Kindred of the wild." Physiology. H. A. Guerber in "Yourself" writes about the body and its proper care. Praiseworthy pains have been taken in presenting matters usually omitted, but the result is not wholly satisfactory. The book has some merits, but is too long and too moral; the mark is some- times overshot to untruthfulness, as in the statement, "While only some of the good men smoke, all the bad ones do." Geography. The books of geography have no remark- ably good one among them. Wade's "Little cousin" series and the Youth's Companion geographical series are interesting and use- ful. Allen's "Children of the palm lands," George's "Little journeys," and Muller's "Lit- tle people of Japan" are cheap books handy for reference. Du Chaillu's "King Mombo" is readable. Deming's "Red folk and wild folk" seems to me poor in matter and pictures. The other two books published in 1902 by the same writer are only parts of this one given new titles a questionable proceeding which has occurred before with his books. Butter- worth's "Traveller tales of the Pan-American countries" follows closely the plan of his "Zig- zag journeys;" material selected from other books of travel is interspersed with pieces of fiction not always suited to children, seldom really illustrating the subject, and sometimes almost irrelevant. Biography and History. Gordy's "American leaders and heroes" is good, though in text-book form. Price's "Wandering heroes" presents with consider- able imagination such men as Moses, Cyrus the Great, and Leif Ericson. Charles East- man's "Indian boyhood," his own life told for his little son, is straightforward and not without poetry. Carpenter's "Joan of Arc" is absurd, for the story-telling aunt is sup- posed to spend a forenoon in relating what you can read in ten minutes. The narrative pro- ceeds at this fatiguing pace to the end. Tap- pan's "In the days of Queen Elizabeth" and Lovell's "Stories in stone from the Roman CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION. 209 Forum" both promise to serve a useful turn when one wishes to hunt up a bit of informa- tion in simple language, but each taken as a whole seems to lack the breath of life. "The adventures of Marco Polo," edited by Ather- ton, appears desirable. "The children's Lon- don," by C. Thorpe, has good pictures, but the author has not made a judicious selection of material and takes too much knowledge for granted in the reader. Mythology. "In the days of giants" is a book of Norse tales told simply and well by A. F. Brown. Church's "Stories of Charlemagne" and Lang's "Book of romance" are both good; so also is "Heroes of myth," by Price and Gilbert. Miss Holbrook says the material for her "Book of nature myths" has been gathered from scholarly works on Indian folklore, but her little stories are sometimes' uninteresting. Zitkala-Sa's "Old Indian legends" are quaint and entertaining. Perry's "Boy's Iliad" is stiff and takes the poetry out of the story. Why is not a translation such as Bryant's to be preferred to this form of presenting the Iliad? Fairy Tales and Nonsense Stories. Djurklo's "Fairy tales from the Swedish" are pleasing folk tales. "The reign of King Oberon," edited by Jerrold, is a collection of classic fairy stories, attractive in appearance, ilustrated by Charles Robinson. "Where the wind blows" is the title of ten tales from ten nations, retold by Katharine Pyle. Many of the tales are familiar ; there are eleven colored plates of what seem to me not very good pic- tures; the size and shape of the books are awkward. "In the green forest" is one long story written by Katharine Pyle herself; it is rather pretty, but of small merit. "Miss Muffet's Christmas party," by Mr. Crothers, is a slight fabric into which are woven Alad- din, Rosamond of the purple jar, the Rock-a- by lady, and other story-book folk. The characters are too slightly indicated to arouse curiosity, and the humor and point of view are often unchildlike. Carolyn Wells' "Folly in fairyland" is similar in plan and introduces familiar fairy tale people, with a good deal of incidental nonsense. It is harmless and fairly amusing, but of little account. "Molly and the unwiseman," by Bangs, of the "Alice in wonderland" type, is not worth putting on the child's bill of fare. Will some one tell us if children are entertained by the "Just so stories" ? Historical Stories. Some of the stories aim to revive historic events or old-time manners. Others locate their fiction in historic times and make use of famous names and ancient forms of speech, but do not in reality reproduce the past. Of these latter, some evidently do not attempt to be genuinely historical, but seek merely a stage setting for imaginary persons. Others of them, however, we suspect of trying to appear what they are not in order that they may commend themselves to the public as "improving reading for the young." True's "On guard" and Tomlinson's "Under colo- nial colors" approach the standard of the first class. So does Robin's "Chasing an iron horse," though it is no more readable than the plain narrative of the locomotive chase writ- ten by Pittenger. "Brave heart Elizabeth" is Elizabeth Zane; her story as told here has life and substance and moves naturally. "Mayken" is a pretty picture of the little daughter of William the Silent. Belonging to the second class good fiction with an historic background is French's "Sir Marrok," a tale of enchantment; the author has imagina- tion and the story-telling gift. "The bale marked Circle X," by Eggleston, is whole- some, and its store of practical information is made palatable. The reader's heart warms toward Dix's "Little captive lad," so natural is he and so appealing is the story of his for- tunes. "The flag on the hill-top," by Mary Tracy Earle, is good. Of Henty's three books, I should say "With Kitchener in the Soudan" was the only one worth considering. Even with that it must needs be an alert reader to find the needle of fact in so huge a haystack of fiction. "With the flag in the channel," "In the wasp's nest," "A Puritan knight-errant," "Barnaby Lee" are harmless, but long drawn out and hardly to be remem- bered. "A boy of a thousand years ago" and "The errand boy of Andrew Jackson" are dis- tinctly poor. "The adventures of Torqua" is useless; "Under the pine-tree flag" second rate; "The boy and the baron" melodramatic. "Jack and his island" is a feeble approach to a novel. "A little girl in old Detroit" is a novel. Stories for Boys or for Boys and Girls. Of stories not historical, intended for boys or for boys and girls, these seem to me silly: "The Burgess letters," by Lyall, "The Bal- aster boys," by Channing ; these are artificial : "Jack of all trades," by Birdsall, "Tommy Remington's battle," by Stevenson, "Boys of Bunker Academy," by Stoddard, "The little citizen," by Waller; these are more or less cheap in tone: "Boys of Waveney," by Leigh- ton, "Dan, a citizen of a Junior Republic," by Thurston, and "Play away," by Allen. "Pick- ett's Gap," by Greene, is unobjectionable, un- less it be too sad, and it is a welcome variety among stereotyped plots. "Jeb Hutton," by Connolly, is also somewhat novel. Jeb is a manly Southern fellow who works at dredg- ing for the United States government. 2IO NIAGARA CONFERENCE. "Glengarry school days," by Connor, deals with Canadian country life; it is warm with human interest. The author sometimes for- gets that his readers are not grown people. Barbour's "Behind the line" is athletics wholly, but not overdone; the pervading spirit is intelligent and comradely. "The champion," by Craddock, is interesting. The lad's honesty and pluck lend wholesomeness to the story in spite of the sensational plot. Howell's "Flight of Pony Baker" I enjoyed; but do boys like it? "Foxy the faithful," by Wesselhoeft, is the record of the simple do- ings of a happy family of brothers and sisters. "Boys of Rincon ranch," by Canfield, is not uninteresting; it abounds in information about Mexico. In "Rob and his gun" Mr. Linn gives practical hints on becoming expert in shooting, and aims, he says, to show the difference between the pleasure of a true sportsman and of a gunner who takes life for the sake of killing. Sharp's "The other boy" is one of a household of English children; it would seem as if truth to nature did not re- quire so much rudeness and slang, but the young folk are honest and good-hearted and the book has some merit. Wright's "Dog- town" is a too extravagant expression of the modern fondness for dogs. Waterloo's "These are my jewels" is a poor story which serves as a vehicle for teaching the "new thought." Stoddard's "Voyage of the Charlemagne" and Saunders' "Beautiful Joe's Paradise" have no- thing to commend them. Stories for Girls. Among the year's books I find fifteen or more titles of what may be called stories for girls. Five of these are fairly good. "Three little Marys," by Smith, stands rather by it- self as appealing particularly to the adult delight in children. The stories are little more than pictures of three dear small maid- ens, two Irish and one English. Of the others, "A Dornfield summer" seems on the whole the best. A well-brought-up girl has as a summer guest her girl cousin, whose home has been less happy. They are so unlike that they have some difficulty in making friends, but the wise mother aids each in cor- recting her faults and brings the two into cor- dial and helpful relations. The story is pleas- ant and natural. "Lois Mallet's dangerous gift" is a remarkable beauty, of which, as a modest Quaker girl, she is unconscious until she goes to visit some gayer relatives in Boston. Then she impulsively spends for pretty clothes money she has earned for her invalid father and is overcome with regret and shame. The story is slight but readable. "Polly's secret," by Nash, is rather old-fash- ioned but interesting and harmless. An old man who dies at a country inn confides to the tavern keeper's little daughter the trust of conveying his property to his absent son. Her promise to tell no one and the scheming of the old man's dishonest nephew cause Polly much trouble, out of which she comes happily at last. She is a natural and wholesome child. "Mr. Pat's little girl" goes to live with her grandmother and aunt in the country town which was her father's home as a boy. Some misunderstanding has caused strained rela- tions among several members of the family, and the story deals with the restoring of mu- tual good will. It is a pleasant tale, with good ideals, though a bit sentimental. The remainder of these books are character- ized in a greater or less degree by one or both of two faults : some provide the outline of a good story, but fail from poor workmanship in managing the materials ; some have life and interest, but are poor in tone, either from wrong emphasis, from misrepresentation of life, or from faulty ideals of thought and be- havior. "Sarah the less," by Sophie Swett, tells of two girls at a country academy, who share the same room and cook their own food. The thread of the story holds the reader to the end, but persons and incidents are overdrawn and improbable. The book gives the dis- comfort of a picture out of drawing. "Grandma's girls" spend the summer with her in the country. They are rude and quar- relsome, and the author seems at a loss to know what to do with them. "A little girl next door," by Rhoades, has a hackneyed plot and a tiresome working out of it. The poor girl has her much-refused stories accepted by a first-rate publisher, who afterward marries her. A rich grandfather is provided at the right moment, and is at once transformed from an absurdly grumpy old gentleman into the most amiable of men. "Brenda's cousin at Radcliffe," by Helen Reed, is proper, but tedious. The charac- ters are not firmly drawn, there is hardly any plot and no clear picture of college life, noth- ing but commonplace doings and dull talk. Carolyn Wells' "Eight girls and a dog" ap- peared in St. Nicholas as "Hilarity Hall." It is gay and innocent, but in places overdrawn and silly. Of books poor in tone, "Hortense, a diffi- cult child," by Foster, is a conspicuous ex- ample. A Southern girl twelve years old vis- its her cousins at their summer home in Maine. In many ways the children are hon- est and happy, but Hortense analyzes her own nature and emotions and the others discuss her characteristics. The book is on the sur- face cheerful and suitable; it illustrates the necessity of reading a book before you buy it for a child. Hamlin's "Catharine's proxy" is not with- out good points. Catharine is frank and gen- CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION. 211 erous, though a good deal spoiled. The sim- ple manners and more sensible ideas of Rosalie, reinforced by her beauty, have a good influence on the school-girls. One could wish the author had paid less attention to clothes and to a "splendid wealth of chestnut hair and topaz eyes," and had spared her readers such lapses of taste as this : "Shadow and Sunshine the girls called the two teach- ers, Miss Montgomery, with her sinuous Athene brows, Miss Graham, with her Aph- rodite lips." "The Wyndham girls," by Taggart, ap- peared in the St. Nicholas. It is about third- rate in tone and workmanship. The "Little colonel" stories, by Johnston, are popular, but they are rather too sentimental and make the heroine too conspicuous. This time the "Little colonel's hero," a St. Ber- nard dog, shares with his mistress the read- er's attention. I wonder if others agree with me in criti- cism of "Nathalie's chum," by Anna Chapin Ray? The "chum" is a rather spoiled semi- invalid boy of fifteen. The relation between the boy and girl is unoffending, but the people in the book are so wholly correct and are com- placent to snobbishness over their accomplish- ments and good taste. The satisfaction of the author in some episodes that she seems to think smart is displeasing. The religious baby- talk of the small brother is in bad taste and not amusing. Because such books as this are cheery and deal with modern interests, they appeal warmly to girl readers; then all the more do the minor points that give tone to the story need scrutinizing. The discussion of Miss Stanley's paper was opened by Miss ABBY L. SARGENT, who said : To the books of poetry named by Miss Stanley I would add "The great procession and other verses," by Harriet Prescott Spof- ford, and "Trees in prose and poetry," by Gertrude Stone. "Songs of nature," compiled by John Burroughs, appeared so very late in 1901 (December 17) as to be practically ex- cluded from the books of that year, and might well be included in those of 1902. It contains very many of the poems which chil- dren are required to memorize in school. For this reason it should be included in a chil- dren's collection, even if not especially intend- ed for such use. Katharine Pyle's work may safely be counted inferior, and "The book of joyous children" I should also reject. Until the Publishing Board provides us v ith a trustworthy guide we must still grope blind- folded among the 'nature' books. One sus- pects that the formula for writing many of them is after this fashion : Consult no recog- nized authority, neither write from personal observation; but find the simplest popular article already written and condense to two- thirds its present bulk. Make sentences of one line each. Insert occasional drawings. This will make a small square book of about thirty or forty pages. Bind in thin board cov- ers, with some bright-colored flower not re- ferred to in the text, on the outside, and sell for twenty-five cents. I know at least of one book on American industries which is being constructed in this way. It is not yet in press, because I have not so far found anything simple enough for the would-be author to simplify. Miss Stanley proclaims her trust in "The school of the woods," and I see no rea- son to accept Mr. Burroughs' wholesale con- demnation of the book, although my personal observation includes only cats, squirrels, robins and a few of the other birds which favor our premises. Mr. Burroughs' birds are more poetical than Mr. Long's, but the child does not find them so interesting to watch. Per- haps less harm is done with inferior nature books than we imagine, because, after all, nature can only by studied through nature's own open story book. Not many children will read nature books from beginning to end unless they are really interested in observing for themselves, any more than they will read a book of ethics from choice. But we have one excellent book of ethics among the books of 1902, and we certainly should include on our list Mr. Lar- ned's "Primer of right and wrong." The Hon. Mrs. Evelyn Cecil has written on "Children's gardens." Although for English children, it is neither uninteresting nor unsuitable for those on this side of the water. To the books of history I would add the "Book of famous battles," with introduction by John D. Long. This book belongs to the "Young folks' library." All of this set twenty volumes under the general editor- ship of Thomas Bailey Aldrich, are excellent except in make-up, which is clumsy; the vol- umes in the set which are intended for the youngest children are too heavy for little hands to hold. In the department of folklore I have no- ticed nothing more that is desirable unless we 212 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. include the two volumes in the "Home and school classics," "Old world wonder stories," and "Tales of Mother Goose" ; edited respect- ively by M. V. O'Shea and Charles Welsh. The question is asked, Are children really entertained with the "Just so stories"? Miss Paul, who has the Medford children under keen and intelligent scrutiny, says, "No, not even with the illustrations." Oliver Herford's drawing they delight in, and I can quite un- derstand why. The small children who have been kind enough to show me their drawings have made just such ones themselves. What child has not drawn some long attenuated animal, and with charming candor instructed you that the rest of him is on the other side? Fiction has been so well covered that there is little to be said. Miss Stanley says of one author, "He for- gets that his readers are not grown people." To me that is almost a recommendation; at least it is far and away better than writing down to children. Those writers who bear too constantly in mind the age of their readers are apt to fall below the intelligence of chil- dren and lose the opportunity which the author of "Glengarry school days" has taken for up- lifting thoughts and guiding principles; but in the reaction that has set in against the Optic and Alger books and others of that ilk, is there not growing a tendency to be too instructive in our relation, unmindful of the fact that, if well written, what is purely amusing or humorous has its share in the rounding out of child nature. I would per- haps add to the list "Historic scenes in fic- tion," in the "Young Folks' Library," with an introduction by Henry Van Dyke. As the title suggests, it is a selection from the best that has been written in historical fiction. It in- cludes such writers as Scott, Kingsley, George Eliot, Hawthorne and Sir Gilbert Parker. Happily the question of new or old in fiction never need arise in a children's room. While what is good of past years is plentifully re- produced, we need not deplore the poverty of any one year supplying only the very few praiseworthy books which each year offers. In the open discussion which followed, opinions on individual books were freely ex- pressed. Questions raised in Miss Stanley's paper were considered, and the "Just so sto- ries," Mrs. Pierson's books, the "Little jour- neys" series, and others received both com- mendation and disapproval, the conditions in different libraries producing different results in the use of debatable books. Miss BLANCHE OSTERTAG spoke on PRINCIPLES OF DECORATION AS APPLIED TO LI- BRARIES AND SCHOOLS. The purpose of these remarks is to present an earnest plea for mural decoration in pub- lic libraries as applied to children's rooms. We know that for some time to come v/e cannot hope to see the rooms in libraries even of our larger cities adequately decorated as the Boston Library is, but the painted stories on those walls belong to all who can enjoy them as much as does the printed story in the circulating library book, and like that book they should be reproduced in the best manner that can make them accessible to many. I would like to see these pictures in the Boston Public Library reproduced on a large scale say 30 x 40 inches in full colors making each print a large facsimile reproduction that should at least attempt to do full justice to the scale and color of the originals, and as most of the rooms in our libraries have fairly large wall surfaces these large color prints would be in good proportion to their surroundings and carry with them the beauty and dignity of their originals. I can so fully appreciate the possibilities of the influence of good color pictures since I know how much some little picture with a story to tell might have brightened the years of my childhood that I spent In the ugliness and dinginess of the public school rooms an ugliness I rebelled against unconsciously, even from the kindergarten days, for I remem- ber frequent inattention to dry recitations when I was caught drawing on the black- board. Everything is so changed now education is no longer by induction, but by the encourage- ment of expression. Pictures adorn the halls and rooms, and the color schemes of walls and hangings are carefully planned to make sur- roundings harmonious. You are all too famil- iai with these changes to need further com- ment on them, but I would like to suggest CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION. 213 to you that as these changes in the schools affect the child and the home, so your good influence in a more liberal way can become still more powerful than you have already made it. Your admirable catalogs for graded reading and your helpfulness and sympathy with the child who comes to you for something to fill his leisure hours with have already made the library a treasure- house for him instead of the rebuke to igno- rance it has always seemed. In your cata- logs you have a list of books by one of the most remarkable artists this country and cen- tury has produced Howard Pyle. He has done more with his stories and pictures to give English-reading children Art in its broadest sense than any man who has ever worked for that delightful public. I need not remind you of his wonderful illustrations that have appeared for many years in our mag- azines pictures of the early period of our country's history. I wish that the services of such an artist and true American could be enlisted that we might have a series of really great pictures of American history subjects which could be printed and hung on the walls of our public institutions. Then there is that charming serio-comic artist illustrator of Kenneth Grahame's "Gol- den age," Maxfield Parrish. The children all love his "Mother Goose" pictures. He could make Hans Christian Andersen's tales very real with his pictures, or illustrate for us more of the Norse mythology with its giants and gnomes. Then there are the remarkable color pictures he made of the great Southwest which are so fine in color and of such interest in subjects that they ought to be properly re- produced, large enough to be hung in schools and libraries. Another artist, whose exceptional talents ought to serve for something besides painting portraits of his family, is George de Forest Brush. He is the one man who understands the Indian character well enough to adequately illustrate Longfellow's "Hiawatha," to give it its true Indian character and express its own sentiment, not the white man's version of it. We can find many beautiful things among the works of German and French artist lithog- raphers to use until our own artists shall be able to fill our needs; but they have one dis- advantage perhaps two; first, they are of subjects and scenes unfamiliar to us; and again, importation duties make them more ex- pensive than our own prints would be. What we need are prints in good colors, large enough for average library or school rooms subjects of interest or familiar to the general public, and plenty of nature, sky and out of doors, living and growing things. Such pictures, finely printed, should be sold at a moderate price, that the people who most need them, who cannot own or see good originals, may learn to appreciate good pic- tures through these prints and also be taken out of their sordid life to a healthy state of enjoyment of things beautiful about them. Many libraries, especially smaller ones, may find it difficult to buy pictures out of their funds, but each state could have a circuit among its libraries and by joint contributions make loan collections of pictures which would eventually be distributed to the different libra- ries in the circuit and could be added to from year to year. A QUESTION BOX devoted to miscellaneous subjects connected with children's work was then conducted by Miss L. E. STEARNS of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission. One of the questions made an appeal for substitutes for Alger and Optic, whose popu- larity is still undimmed in some libraries. Tomlinson, Henty and Trowbridge were named as stepping-stones, and the warning given that care must be taken not to step the wrong way down, instead of up. It was reported from a second-hand book dealer in New York that five years ago he made all his money in two or three news-stands where he sold the Jesse James Weekly, "Nick Carter," "Diamond Dick," etc. In the last few years, especially since the provision for children in public libraries had begun, his trade in this line had fallen off forty or fifty per cent., and was no longer profitable. Contrast was drawn between the present children's librarians' meeting, with its large and interested attendance, and the convention of 1889, when a paper on children's reading was purposely read on a rainy night so people could not get away. 214 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. SECOND SESSION. The second session of the Section was held on the afternoon of Thursday, June 25, in the Cataract House. Miss MILDRED A. COLLAR presented a paper on CLASSIFICATION AND CATALOGING OF CHIL- DREN'S BOOKS. (See p. 57-) The discussion of the paper was opened by Miss MARGARET MANN, who said: The children's room and I call it such intentionally because it should be considered as a part and not as a unit is doubtless the most difficult place in the whole library to keep in order. Wherever access to shelves is allowed this difficulty has to be met, and what- ever classification we adopt will not materi- ally affect this. Turning to the first point made in Miss Col- lar's paper, "Is the scheme of classification al- ready in use in the main library suitable for the collection of children's books?" The answer to this was made that children do not want the same books as they grow older. They do not want the same books, but is it true that the subjects change? If a boy becomes interested in electricity in the chil- dren's room it seems probable in my mind that he will want to continue reading books of the same subject when he advances into the adult room. So from fairy stories to mythology, from nature stories to natural science, he goes from the simple to the more complex. The system of classification adopted by any library, whether it be Dewey or Cutter or home-made, must of necessity be complicated and people have to be educated to it. We hear complaint about the amount of red tape in libraries, and we hear even university profes- sors say that the classification of the books is a puzzle and beyond their comprehension. Should we not inititate the child into this dif- ficulty while he is in a receptive stage of de- velopment? Is it not best to simplify the classification already in use in the main li- brary? I do not mean to simplify by chang- ing the notation. If, for example, the notation be numbers, use these rather than changing to letters. The point was made that books might be classed in two, three or four numbers, but in such a case it would be a simple matter to choose one and discard the others, and would at the same time impress upon the mind of the child one number which he might have occa- sion to use later. One symbol may be as easily learned by a child as another, it makes little or no difference whether that symbol be a letter or a number, and nothing should be taught which the child will have to unlearn. The simplicity should come in the use of broad numbers, using few subdivisions. By adopting the simple broad number we can keep classes of books together by number just as easily as by making a variation and using letters. The statement was made that books in Pratt Institute which have been given the numbers of 372 and 428 would almost all fall very easily into one of the two groups men- tioned, namely, Picture books and Easy books for little children. So we see that numbers can be used here as well as letters. Applying this same reasoning to fairy stories, which, as Miss Collar says, may be classed in four places, would it not be best to select one D. C. number and discard three hather than discard all? Being a strong believer in the value and necessity of centralization in a library, it is difficult for me to sanction the advisability of having the cataloging of children's books done by the children's librarian because ( i ) it is economy of administration to have all work of one kind done by the department organized for that work; and (2) the children's librarian must be relieved of some of the work of her department. It is not a case of knowing what to leave undone, but it is a case of knowing what you can get some one to do for you. If the catalog department, as Miss Col- lar says, does the work without the slightest consideration of the peculiar needs and de- mands of the children's room, then the cata- logers are not doing their work as it should be done. There must be co-operation between the cataloger and the children's librarian. The cataloger should not minimize the work of the children's department nor should the children's librarian demand unreasonable work. The equilibrium of administration must be maintained in a library, and when we begin to divide work which is common to all departments among those departments there is CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION. 215 danger of missing a cog and allowing some part of the machinery to grow rusty. The reference librarian does not care to catalog the books in the reference department, but he can often give suggestions to the cataloger and have his ideas carried out for him. If the cataloging is done in the catalog department, this makes more necessary the printed guides which have been worked out and compiled by the children's librarian. If this work could be done once carefully, it would save much time and insure the uni- formity which is so essential in card cata- logs. A beginning has been most success- fully made in the list of subject headings compiled by Miss Ames of the Cleveland Library and printed by the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh. This gives the cataloger a suggestive list at least, and she always has the children's librarian near at hand to aid in making additions as they arise. It might be practicable for the children's librarian to assign subject headings and indicate the ana- lyticals which she thought necessary to be made. And as it is wise for the catalogers in a library to meet the public and become ac- quainted with their wants to some extent, no matter in what department these wants may arise, it would be an excellent idea to have an assistant in the catalog department who should spend a certain amount of time in the children's room. The necessary qualifications of a good cataloger are not always those possessed by the children's librarian. Miss HUNT: If there is a better way than to have children use the catalog it is to put the books in the hands of the children. I should say the first object of the catalog is to help the children's librarian to help the children. Mr. FAIRCHILD: The catalog should be made from the standpoint of the child, with reference to the highest ideals of education. This is very different from a multiplication of views of the D. C, which was never made to classify a library as related to the human mind, but just for the convenience of the library. Mrs. MALTBY : Is there any method of teach- ing children to use the catalog? In answer, the following points were de- veloped : Older children show younger ones how to use it. Children teach themselves. In some libraries definite instruction is given to classes from schools. Several speakers urged that the catalog in the children's room should conform to that used in the main part of the library. The danger of another classification is that upon graduating to the adult department children will be unable to use the catalog there. Miss OLCOTT : The children's room is a school to teach children the use of the adult library. We should feel that we had failed if chil- dren did not go from the children's room to the other departments and know how to us the catalog. A plea for the teaching of the alphabet was made, the complaint being that the children taught to read by the word method frequently cannot spell, and consequently have great dif- ficulty with both dictionary and catalog. And finally it was agreed that children always prefer to go to the shelves for their books in preference to using the catalog. Miss CAROLINE BURNITE presented a paper on THE YOUNGEST CHILDREN AND THEIR BOOKS.* Taking this subject from the standpoint of average conditions, let us assume a square room with about 4000 volumes, the service of two assistants, one of whom is responsible for the work of the room, an average daily attendance in winter of 350 children, 100 of whom are between the ages of four and nine. Probably one-fourth of the children are from educated homes, one-half are from comfort- able homes where the parents care for their material welfare only, and the other fourth are children who are really poor and uncared for. The average daily circulation in winter is 250. Plans for work with other children have been in execution long enough to see encouraging results, but from the little chil- dren no one has expected results, and their use of the library is often a trial to the librarian. There are disadvantages in having the books for children of all ages shelved together. In selecting books they can enjoy and under- stand whole rows of books are torn down, while only an assistant can find suitable books * Abstract. 2l6 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. from the classes not on familiar shelves. Since the mingling of the older and younger children is not conducive to discipline, and shelving their books together has not facili- tated service, a natural alternative is the sepa- ration of the books and the consequent sepa- ration of the children. As it is the children of the ages between four and nine who have dif- ferent activities and different interests from the older children, it is their books the chil- dren's librarian will re-shelve, expecting the children to follow them. She will put them in one corner of the room, near the desk for supervision, and if she disregards the class number and shelves in one alphabet under author, she may safely assume that the ar- rangement is one that the children can com- prehend. But in separating the books care must be taken not to impair the main collec- tion for reference work. That can be avoided by having copies of simple books which can be used for school reference books on the main shelves and putting other copies in the corner for little children. Of course tables about 22 inches and chairs about 14 inches in height must be placed near these shelves. A separation of the children must naturally fol- low; that means less friction between the two classes. The arrangement of books will en- courage the children waiting upon themselves ; that means a saving of time of the children's librarian. In making this division of books the chil- dren's librarian will be surprised to see the amount of space occupied by "Dotty Dimple" and "Little Susy" and the "I-see-a-ball" lit- erature, books which reflect the minute daily interests of child life the Rosa Carey liter- ature of childhood. While such books do re- spond to certain tastes of very young children, she does not feel justified in taking them away from the children, but she hopes to supplant them by better things. Her main tool is the best books, such as -^Esop, "Mother Goose," Grimm, Andersen and Lewis Carroll, and as many copies of each as she can possibly use. She should duplicate the best editions of such classics, but have copies of all editions upon her shelves except those which are directly at variance with the traditional conceptions of the characters. Of Mother Goose probably she will need more copies of "The nursery rhyme book," edited by Andrew Lang and the edition published by Houghton, MifHin and Company than any others, but she should have also those pub- lished by Routledge, Burt, Heath, Warne, and perhaps others. There are many reasons for this. The child involuntarily acquires a taste in editions; he forms an opinion of how he likes his friends dressed, what pleases him most and what pleases him least, which makes this a means of forming a book lover. An- other reason is the pleasure of the child in finding something he knows in an unknown book; he usually selects his books by the pic- tures, and when he finds he knows the text he takes the book with greater delight. This brings us to the third and most important reason, the educational value of repetition. Just as the value of games lies in playing them over and over again in order that the children may get not only the mental discipline, but de- velop a sense of fairness, patience, etc., so re-reading the books not only aids in facility in reading, but broadens and deepens the im- agination by visualizing the characters and situations of the story. Good picture books are another important tool. Only the children should never regard them as a bewildering and inexhaustible pile which they can pull around at will. They should be kept in a rack similar to a magazine rack. It might be well not to keep the full supply out at any one time. Keep, say, six titles out at once and a dozen duplicates of each, and at the end of two or three weeks put away the ones which have been out and pro- duce fresh ones. The old lot can be used again, the children have forgotten them. The use of so many picture books entails great expense of cataloging. Some librarians do not catalog them, but keep a separate ac- cession book and use accession number for book number. From the standpoint of content, to say no- thing of artistic excellence, well-illustrated books have a greater value as picture books than the usual linen picture books. A child will acquire curiosity from looking at Brooke's "True story of Washington" or the "Pilgrim's progress" illustrated by the Rhead brothers, which will carry him later into the text. Such books are too heavy to be circulated, CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION. 217 and every one knows it adds very much to the attractiveness of the room to have some popu- lar books not removable. For methods of inducing the children to read the best books, the main reliance will be upon informal reading and the story hour. It is hoped time will permit frequent informal readings to groups of six or eight; that is a practical way to show children the contents of a book. In reading, the selection should have more than momentary interest. Indeed, one should seize this opportunity to present a new interest by reading from a book which is a little hard for the child's own reading, but which has the power of holding his attention. A child will listen to Peary's "Snow baby" be- cause of his love for child life; before he has heard the entire book it is probable he will have a real interest in the wonderful region of the long night. The folklore of Grimm answers a child's early needs; all the stories are in such bold outline that they seem to have been made for half-seeing eyes. But by the time the child is seven or eight, he should be introduced to Andersen. Children do not usually appreciate his stories unless they are led to know them, and they are, therefore, the finest material for story telling, but mainly in the words of the author. With regard to nature books, one feels that only those have any educational value which reflect the author's association with and love for nature in such a high degree that the child appreciates more keenly the apple tree in his own yard or develops a more minute interest in the robin on the bough. All others should rank with the old-fashioned common school geography wherein the child is ex- pected to learn the geographical forms from a few bad illustrations. Has not a well- illustrated book on nature more value to the child for recreative reading than supplemen- tary text-books? There are old-fashioned books which scientists say are better in illus- tration than in text that are excellent for this purpose, because they give so much attention to the marvellous in nature. In the treatment of this subject probably no new ideas have been offered. The aim has been to reason from the successful methods used with the older children. More practical work with the youngest children will doubt- less lead to newer and more original lines of work. Just now what we expect from our assistant in our usual children's room is that she may know her own problems and do her own thinking, ever realizing that the work with younger children bears the same rela- tion to the older children that the work with older children does to the adult. Mrs. Ew- ing's remark about girls applies to all chil- dren: "Girls' heads not being jam pots which, if you do not fill them, will remain empty the best way to keep folly out is to put something less foolish in." Discussion of this subject was opened by Miss EFFIE L. POWER, who said: I agree that in a large, busy children's room some separation of the younger chil- dren's books is necessary. The collection need not be large. I prefer fewer titles and more duplicates of the best books. But in making this selection let us not be too critical of the simply written books. A one-syllable book may be meaningless to our eyes, but a child reads between the lines and weaves wondrous fancies into the story. The method of ar- rangement on the shelves of a small collection for very young children is not very essential, but after trying the alphabetical arrangement in two children's rooms I prefer the regular classification. The younger children have little knowl- edge of authors, but they like to find all the books on a subject together, such as birds, animals and picture books. If it is not too early to cultivate a taste in editions, it is not too early to suggest a classification of knowl- edge. As regards the picture books, I would use fewer linen picture books and more of the Caldecott, Crane and Greenaway type. How- ever, I have recently tried the experiment of using cheap picture books, twelve copies each of three titles, for a few weeks with some success. Mrs. MARY E. ROOT spoke on the same sub- ject. She said, in part: I have been forcibly impressed with the re- marks on the duplication of editions. Con- sidering supply and demand, it is inevitable that we must often offer children other than the best or duplicate largely. A successful child's book has these characteristics : inter- NIAGARA CONFERENCE. est, briefness, good paper, large black type, attractive binding, and the best illustrations or none. In regard to the separation of books, we select each morning some thirty or forty books from our main collection and place them upon shelves reserved for small chil- dren's books. This does not bind us to any fixed class and allows us to offer now and then peeps into the beyond. A book need not always be wholly within a child's compre- hension, but it must be within his interest and must be sympathetic. There is danger in all specialized work with little children. The children's library is but a part of the main library, not a kinder- garten, and should represent an atmosphere not heretofore in the child's experience. She who selects work in this department of li- brary work does so from a natural love of child nature; but if she is not guarded she will find demands for special attention and affection which will not only make serious in- roads upon her time, but spoil the child's own independence of action. I know the child loves story telling, but I like to think of chil- dren getting the power of some of this match- less literature of ours by direct reading aloud. Predigested food as a steady diet will weaken the natural functions. Let me briefly sum up the attitude of a children's librarian toward our subject. She should search for the books which are the small child's own choice. When found, she should bring all her critical knowledge to bear in regard to their make-up, and when she is quite sure of her product, duplicate largely. She should allow the children in the room to feel a kindly interested friend always at hand, but she should not allow them to lean upon her. She should make no excuses to herself for not knowing this class of literature by actual reading thoroughly; economy of time or money in regard to this particular class of books should not be the all-pervading cry. The rest of the meeting was devoted to an exchange of opinions on books suitable for very little children, methods of shelving, pic- ture books, etc. At the close of the second session a business meeting of the active members was held. The first business was to ascertain the will of the Section regarding a further disposal of the co-operative list of children's story books un- dertaken at the Waukesha Conference, edited from comments sent her by children's libra- rians by Miss Linda A. Eastman, and reported on both at Magnolia and at the formal session of the present conference. It was obvious that, having committed itself to a list of dif- ferent classes of children's books, as called for by the Publishing Board in 1902, the Section had pledged itself to include fiction also in the projected new list. While heartily appre- ciating Miss Eastman's painstaking work on the co-operative list, its continuance was deemed of less importance than the concen- trated efforts of the Section on a more com- plete guide. It was therefore voted : That the work on the co-operative fiction list be re- ferred to the committee on the projected new list and merged in the latter. Miss Moore's report, read at the first session, was formally acted upon and accepted. THE COMMITTEE ON NOMINATIONS presented the following names : chairman, Miss Clara W. Hunt; secretary, Miss Alice M. Jordan. These officers were elected. While membership in the Children's Libra- rians' Section was largely increased during the Niagara Falls convention, it is hoped that there may be others who wish to identify themselves with this Section, either as active or associate members. Those so desiring are asked to send their names to the secretary, Miss Alice M. Jordan, Boston Public Library, for enrollment in the Section register. STATE LIBRARY COMMISSIONS SECTION. 219 STATE LIBRARY COMMISSIONS SECTION.* 'T'HE State Library Commissions Section of the American Library Association held two sessions in connection with the Niagara Falls Conference. FIRST SESSION. The first session was held on Thursday afternoon, June 25, in the Cataract House. The program was opened by Miss Merica Hoagland, corresponding secretary of the Indiana State Library Commission, who spoke on "How far can commissions wisely organ- ize or be responsible for library round tables, institutes, summer schools, or instruction by correspondence." The speaker outlined first the essentials in the matter of round tables and institutes. The first essential, she said, was that the state should be divided into small districts, bearing in mind railroad facil- ities. The second essential needed was that four classes should be interested in the round table or institute, namely, librarians, trustees, teachers and club women ; the third essential, that the librarian in the town in which the round table or institute was held should act as secretary; fourth, that the commission should assume full direction; fifth, that the programs should be issued in due season and sent to the newspapers as well as to all who might be thought interested; sixth, that the round table or institute should be held, for the convenience of those in attendance, in the middle of the week; seventh, that at least three sessions should be held, and that in the preparation of the program one should reach out to help all forms of libraries repre- sented. The chairman, Mr. Dewey, Called the atten- tion of the members to the wrong use of the word "institute," and made a careful distinc- tion betwen institute and round table. An institute, he said, was an educational meet- ing, called by authority, at which the form of questions and answers were used, followed by examinations. A round table, he said, was a small, informal conference. * Report furnished by Miss L. E. Stearns, secre- tary of the section. In the matter of summer schools it was urged that no one should be accepted who had not had at least high school training as a minimum, and that an examination should be held at the end of the school before a certifi- cate was granted. The question of instruction by correspond- ence was next discussed. Mr. Dewey said that he thought correspondence courses in library work were eminently practical, and should be conducted for the benefit of those who could not attend the regular library schools. Miss Stearns stated that she regarded. Mr. Dewey's statement as a dangerous one, unless it were modified by the assertion that correspondence courses should be conducted by first-class li- brarians, having a practical knowledge of library work and by those who would recog- nize the limitations of such a course. She pointed out the fact that a correspondence course was being conducted in one part of the country, at least, by one who had had no library training and one who had had no ex- perience in public library work. After further discussion, Mr. Brigham moved that it 'be the sense of this meeting that the State Library at Albany be requested to institute a correspondence course for libra- rians. Voted. Miss Stearns then opened the discussion on "Should commissions plan for a system of registration and licensing of competent libra- rians corresponding to similar safeguards against incompetent teachers?" She said that library work was nowadays called a profes- sion and yet no educational qualifications were required a sixteen-year-old girl could serve as librarian in a community just as well as a trained graduate of a library school ; that there were apparently no educational qualifi- cations necessary, as in the case of other pro- fessions, such as that of the law and medicine. In these days barbers, dentists and druggists are licensed, but the woman who is to be the teacher of teachers and the leader of commu- nities can exercise her powers without any restrictions. If librarians are to be licensed, who is to do it? The National Library at 220 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. Washington, the state librarian, the library commission? In states where there are no commissions, what then? Shall state library associations license? What form of certificate shall be given? Shall all be dealt with alike? Shall the certificate be given after examina- tion or after inspection of work done? Shall librarians be licensed in various grades as voluntary librarians, as librarians competent to manage libraries under 5000 or 10,000 or over 25,000 volumes? Shall life certificates be granted? Shall various grades of certificates be given after so and so many years of ex- perience? It was the consensus of opinion that it was time that communities should be protected against incompetency ; and it was Voted, That a committee of three be appointed by the chair to consider a scheme for licens- ing or registration of librarians, the plan to be presented at the next annual meeting of the Section. The next topic was, "Should commissions confine their efforts to reading of books, or is it practicable to influence newspaper and magazine reading?" The chairman con- fessed that this was a serious problem and would not be settled until some Carnegie should endow a newspaper which would be wholly independent in principle. The officers of various commissions reported that yellow journals were not subscribed to by their local libraries, and that every effort was being made to supplant them by the better classes of news- papers. Johnson Brigham, of the Iowa Library Com- mission, then discussed the matter of commis- sions offering to pass on building plans so as to provide for satisfactory and economical administration, thus putting an official check on waste of money in badly planned or equip- ped buildings. His first illustration was that of a $10,000 library, the gift of Mr. Carnegie to one of the small cities in Iowa. His com- mission, through its secretary, Miss Tyler, on learning of the gift, promptly tendered the local library board its advice and its secre- tary's services free of all expense to the board. The offer evoked no response whatever. The board promptly proceeded to employ a local architect who had never planned a library building and had no conception of library economy. The contract was as promptly let, and the community, which so heartily re- joiced over Mr. Carnegie's response to its appeal, will soon celebrate the opening of what? Not a twentieth-century free public library with all the words imply ; but, rather, a mediaeval vault for book storage, with every provision for the preservation of books from the light of "garish day" and from free public use the library treasure of fiction and fact shut off from the outside world by a brick wall and an iron door, and the book stacks standing across the entrance to the vault thus deepening the gloom of the miniature canyons between the stacks, adding to the sacredness of the retreat to those who by special permit are allowed to pass the iron- barred entrance! The secretary of the commission, hearing that the architect's plan included a closed wall between the librarian's desk and the books, wrote the mayor of the city, asking if her information was correct, and modestly expressing the hope that she had been incor- rectly informed. The mayor promptly ans- wered her letter, politely thanking her for her interest in the enterprise, and answered her inquiry with this sweeping generalization : "We never had any intention of opening our books to the public." Then, with a touch of unconscious humor, his honor added this bit of consolation: "We want an up-to-date li- brary!" The second case cited of "How not to do it" was that of a larger library given by a gener- ous lowan to his home city. The architect who was chosen by the local board was one of the best and best-known architects in the state, but unfortunately he had never planned a library, and had no comprehension of li- brary economics, as summed up in the motto of the American Library Association, "The best reading for the largest number at the least cost." When asked how many attend- ants he was planning for, he naively ans- wered: "I don't know. I didn't think to ask the librarian what her force would be." Now the commission happened to know that the local board, with a very small appropria- tion, was planning to "man" the library with one lone woman, assisted by a janitor. And yet that architect laid before them when it was to late to mend his carefully elabo- STATE LIBRARY COMMISSIONS SECTION. 221 rated plans for a vault in the rear for books, the vault inaccessible except to the librarian in charge, and for a children's room in the basement of the building; thus imposing con- ditions which will either compel a much higher tax levy or drive the librarian to sui- cide or resignation ! And yet the architect who made these plans was within easy reach of the office of the com- mission and the donor had duly referred to him the secretary's offer to assist in planning the interior arrangements ! Months afterward, when too late to make the radical changes suggested by the commission secretary, the architect acted upon the invitation to call upon her, only to find to his chagrin that he had missed a fine opportunity to learn something practical and had unwittingly done a too trusting community more harm than good. Had the necessity of consulting with the commission been impressed upon the donor, and through him the architect, the consulta- tion would have freed the architect from several blunders and would have been worth hundreds of dollars a year to the taxpayers of that city, to say nothing of the service it would have tendered the librarian in charge. The third instance was one of a still larger library in one of the larger cities in the state. This building has been open to the public for several years, but its children's room in the basement is not yet occupied. Knowing the librarian's keen interest in library work for children, the commission secretary on visiting her asked her why this room was not in use. The answer was, "It is simply impossible to spare an attendant for exclusive work on another floor. It is a question of money pure and simple." The main floor of this library is ill-arranged for general supervision, and the unused upper floor is cut up into rooms that look like hotel bedrooms. Thus a costly structure is doing the work of a ten-thousand- dollar building, and all through the ignorance of the architect and the local board all in- telligent, capable men ignorance of what the trained librarian and the specialist in li- brary architecture would regard as the A B C of modern library construction. Enterprises of great pith and moment are thus continually turned aside, are seriously handicapped from the outset, simply because men who hold public trusts do not realize the full measure of their opportunities for public service, and because the so-called spe- cialists whom they consult are only feeling their way along towards special knowledge, and at public expense. In view of the many possibilities for a re- production of such costly blunders as have been described, is it not the duty of the Li- brary Commissions Section of the American Library Association to put itself in commu- nication with prospective donors of money for library buildings, urging upon them for their own protection and for the protection of the public, the desirability of attaching to their offers of money the condition that the plans for the building in every instance shall be submitted to the nearest library commis- sion, or to some architect known to the donor as having had successful experience in plan- ning libraries? Miss Stearns spoke for the Wisconsin Com- mission, stating that their experience had been the exact opposite of that of Iowa that they had found that communities were most anx- ious to have any assistance that the commis- sion could offer. Many of the architects have worked directly with the commission, at the request of the local boards, and at least four towns have placed the whole matter of selection of architects, etc., in the hands of the commission. A number of illustrations were cited by others, showing the great need of sets of model plans for buildings costing $10,000, $15,000, $25,000 and $50,000. It was Voted, That the Publishing Board of the A. L. A. be requested to hasten the publication of the pamphlet on library plans. SECOND SESSION. The second session of the State Library Commissions Section was held on Friday afternoon. The meeting was opened by a discussion, led by Miss Stearns, on the need of travel- ling libraries and book wagons to supply per- sonal contact with rural readers. The book wagon, she said, is the latest development along the line of travelling libraries. The in- troduction and spread of the rural mail delivery has made a great difference in the 222 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. quality of books desired by farming and here- tofore isolated communities. The book wag- on will and should supply the demand newly created for books on current topics. The great difficulty in travelling library sys- tems heretofore has been the fact that the books on a current topic, for instance, such as wireless telegraphy, placed in a travelling library may not reach a certain reader until twenty years after publication, if it is in a cir- cuit of forty libraries. The book wagon, go- ing about from house to house, will supply this need. In this connection, Mr. Dewey spoke of a new scheme to be instituted in New York state, of what will be called "House libraries," to consist of little boxes of ten or twelve volumes to be placed in individual homes. The chairman was instructed to report to the A. L. A. Council that it was the sense of the Library Commissions Section that the movement to secure a library post should be earnestly supported by the Council. Mrs. Eugene B. Heard, superintendent of the Seaboard Air Line travelling libraries, read a paper on RAILROAD TRAVELLING LIBRARIES. For fourteen years I have studied the sub- ject of rural libraries. Long before the work reached practical and effective materializa- tion my mind had been full of plans and theo- ries by which the people of isolated communi- ties might have library privileges. Therefore, when five years ago the Seaboard Air Line Railway Co. opened the way for the coalition of our plans and purposes, the ideal combina- tion was reached and the pathway to success- ful work became clear. The unsolicited, unex- pected donations of Mr. Andrew Carnegie have placed the work upon a sure and safe footing. We do not believe that this great benefactor has ever bestowed his bounty more wisely or in a way in which he will so quickly realize the good he desires his gifts to accomplish than when he put into circula- tion the "Andrew Carnegie Free Travelling Libraries." We had from the first a high standard, and determined that no book that had not passed its critical period should be placed in our collection. The rules govern- ing the distribution of the books are few and simple, based upon the careful handling and the safe return of the books. No fee is charged for the use of the books, everything, in fact, being done to invite and attract rather than to repel or hinder their perusal. Responsible persons, influential and benevo- lent citizens are selected as local librarians. Our libraries are divided into two classes community libraries and school libraries. The community libraries are miscellaneous collec- tions. The application blanks for the com- munity libraries provide for the organization of village improvement clubs, which not only assist in placing the books in the hands of the many, but are the means of upbuilding and beautifying our library stations. These clubs have also increased the demand for books on civic improvement, rural life, arts and crafts, home-making, etc. The co-ordination of vil- lage improvement work with our libraries is a most happy and successful one. Our school libraries, which we have recently added to the system, have greatly increased the use- fulness of the work. These libraries are of- fered as prizes to the schools that make need- ed improvements in their school houses and grounds. Not only have hundreds of school houses and grounds been improved, but a wave of public sentiment has been created de- manding better school surroundings and im- . proved facilities. It is interesting to know that in the last three years there is not such a demand for fiction as formerly, but books of travel and description are more appreciated, and from a number of schools we have re- ceived requests for geographical readers, which have been supplied. The demand for libraries outside of our territory, which includes six Southern states, viz., Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro- lina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, has caused us to add another series which is known as the William McKinley Memorial Series. Mr. McKinley was deeply interested in this work of placing pure and wholesome literature in the isolated communities and common schools of the South. These libraries, like those of the Carnegie endowment, are prize libraries offered to the schools that make the required improvements in their school buildings and grounds. The demand for them is more than the supply, and while we have many books STATE LIBRARY COMMISSIONS SECTION. 223 given by friends of Mr. McKinley through- out the United States, we have yet no fund for the construction of cases. We have, how- ever, shipped these books in boxes to a num- ber of schools in the mountains which have complied with the conditions governing their circulation, and they are yielding most satis- factory results. In course of time we believe the William McKinley libraries will become a well-established series. The next subject discussed was that of travelling libraries for individual students. Mr. C. H. Galbreath, of Columbus, Ohio, outlined the work done in his state in assist- ing club women. Mr. E. A. Hardy, of Lindsay, Ontario, spoke on the CANADIAN READING CAMP MOVEMENT. The Canadian Reading Camp Movement is a phase of the travelling library. We have in northern Ontario a large district, 1200 miles from east to west, a district of forests, lakes, farms and rocks. Up till very recently the in- habitants of this tract have been chiefly lum- bermen, miners and trappers, though now set- tlers are pouring in. In the lumber industry at least 50,000 men are employed every winter, and it is these men we are trying to reach. Three years ago Rev. Alfred Fitzpatrick began in a tentative way to reach these men by endeavoring to induce the employers to build a camp or shanty at each lumber camp to be used as a reading room. In spite of rebuffs he succeeded in getting the movement started. It has prospered so that last year over 30 lumber camps had reading camps es- tablished, and we could have 50 this next year if we could handle them. To provide books and papers, government and private aid was asked and granted. Last year tons of papers and magazines were col- lected from those interested and sent into the camps. The government has been liberal in suplying travelling libraries. Two years ago they spent $1200 on books, last year $2000 and this year they intend to spend $4000. The work has now broadened so that we are trying to supply teachers for the men, as well as books and papers. Last winter we had eight teachers in the camps, three of whom were graduates. Their work was exceedingly encouraging. What we are trying to do now is to get the government to take over this work and put it on a strong financial basis. It is too great a work for private individuals to carry on, and as the government derives about a third of its revenue from the forest industries, it is mani- festly their duty to set aside a portion of this revenue for this worok. The prospects are encouraging for a movement which will mean ultimately that every lumber camp will pro- vide a reading room and library and a teach- er. This will also apply to mining and railway construction camps. The problem of co-operation by state com- missions in selection and appraisement of books for libraries under their supervision was next discussed. E. C. Richardson, of the New Jersey State Library Commission, spoke upon the difficulty of selection in the vast quantities of literature now published. Miss Stearns then outlined the plan used in Wisconsin, where advantage was taken of securing the co-operation of the professors in the univer- sity who were always willing to look over the books in their various lines. The commissions represented at the meeting were those of New York, Indiana, Vermont, Maine, Delaware, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Geor- gia, Ohio and Ontario. Officers of the Section were elected for the ensuing year as follows : Chairman, Mel- vil Dewey; secretary, Miss L. E. Stearns. 224 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. ROUND TABLE MEETING FOR SMALL LIBRARIES. A ROUND TABLE meeting, devoted to the consideration of matters interest- ing to the librarians of small libraries, was held in connection with the A. L. A. Confer- ence at the Cataract House on the evening of Wednesday, June 24. The meeting was con- ducted by Miss Beatrice Winser, chairman, and was called to order at 8.15 p.m. Four papers were read, as follows : "The country library," by H. W. FISON (see p. 27) ; "The small city library," by Miss J. M. CAMPBELL (see p. 50) ; "Work with children in a small library," by Miss CLARA W. HUNT (see p. 53) ; and "Reference work in a small public library," by Miss EWA L. MOORE.* There was no discussion of the papers, but the attendance was large and interest in the subjects appeared evident. While this round table meeting has no regular annual place on the program, it seems to have fully proved its value as a conference feature. TRANSACTIONS OF COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE BOARD. TV/I" EETINGS of the Council of the Ameri- can Library Association were held in connection with the Niagara Falls Conference on June 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, in all five sessions being held. Short meetings of the Executive Board were held on June 22 and 26. Of the 25 members of the Council, 17 were present at some or all of the meetings, as follows : Mary E. Ahern, E. H. Anderson, C. W. Andrews, Johnaon Brigham, F. M. Crunden, Melvil Dewey, Electra C. Doren, C. H. Gould, N. D. C. Hodges, F. P. Hill, J. K. Hosmer, W. T. Peoples, Herbert Putnam, E. C. Richardson, Katharine L. Sharp, Lutie E. Stearns, H. M. Utley. The members of the Executive Board served as ex officio members and officers of the Council. They included the president, J. K. Hosmer; ist vice-president, Dr. J. H. Canfield ; secretary, J. I. Wyer, Jr. ; recorder, Helen E. Haines; treasurer, Gardner M. Jones. PROCEEDINGS OF COUNCIL. Method of nomination. C. W. Andrews reported as chairman of the committee ap- pointed to consider the principles and meth- ods on which nominations to the Council should be based and report its findings. The committee submitted a series of recommenda- * It is regretted that Miss Moore's paper was not received in time for publication in the Proceedings. tions with the suggestion that they be adopt- ed in the form of by-laws. These were sever- ally discussed and amended, and were finally adopted as follows: Changes in the by-laws. That present Section 3 be numbered Sec- tion 4. That present Section 4 read as follows : ^ "Section 3. In making nominations the Council shall be governed by the following rules: Nominations shall be regular business for the first meeting of the Council at each annual conference. Members shall be notified that at least one informal ballot will be taken at that meeting. The executive officers of the Association, i.e., the president, secretary, treas- urer and recorder, shall be chosen solely with reference to their ability and willingness to serve the Association, without regard to resi- dence or previous service, except as herein- after provided. The vice-presidents, one at least of whom shall be a woman, shall be se- lected from ex-members of the Council. In general, nominations to the Council shall be made with a view of having it representative of all sections of the country and of the principal classes of the libraries included in the Association. No person shall be nomi- nated as president, first or second vice-presi- dent or councillor of the Association for two consecutive terms. No more than the re- quired number of nominations shall be made by the Council. The position and residence of each nominee shall be given on the official ballot." TRANSACTIONS OF COUNCIL AND EXECUTIVE BOARD. 225 Nominations. It was Voted, That a com- mittee of the Council be appointed to present nominations for the ensuing year, to be re- ported to the Council. This committee (Messrs. Crunden, Utley, Peoples) reported at a later session and the nominations sub- mitted were adopted, with the provision that the ticket include also names sent in on nomi- nations signed by five members of the Asso- ciation. Relations with the book trade. The Com- mittee on Relations with the Book Trade made a final report to the Association and requested that it be discharged. At the gen- eral discussion of this subject a resolution was adopted requiring the Council to consider and report upon a method of action regarding the present net-price system. A special meet- ing of the Council was held, and it was Voted, That a committee of three be appointed by the incoming Executive Board, which shall specially represent the Association in efforts to mitigate the restrictions imposed on book- sellers by the American Publishers' Associa- tion in limiting the discount on books pur- chased by libraries. This committee shall secure, and from time to time communicate, to the librarians of the country all the in- formation procurable relative to this question ; and it shall advise librarians as to any meas- ures that may seem feasible, including varia- tions in methods of purchase, for the avoid- ance or mitigation of the hardships experi- enced through the net-price system. For the expenses of the committee during the coming year the sum of $200 is appropriated from the treasury of the Association. Place of next meeting. Invitations for the 1904 meeting of the American Library Asso- ciation were presented from Asheville, N. C, Atlantic City, N. J., Nashville, Tenn., and St. Louis, Mo. An invitation for 1905 was pre- sented from Portland, Ore. The matter was referred to a committee of the Council (F. P. Hill, Miss L. E. Stearns, E. H. An- derson) to report later. The committee later reported, and after discussion it was Voted, That the next annual meeting be held in St. Louis in October, 1904. It was also Voted, That in the opinion of the Council the meeting at St. Louis in the autumn of 1904 should take the form of an International Li- brary Conference, and that the incoming Ex- ecutive Board be requested to take all meas- ures necessary to that end. In this connec- tion the following announcement was drafted and accepted : "The American Library Associa- tion, from its annual conference of 1903, sends greeting to the several associations of librarians abroad, and this early notice of an International Library Congress, to be held at St. Louis in October, 1904, in connection with the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. It extends to all librarians a cordial and urgent invitation to participate in that congress, and begs that all library associations adapt their programs for the coming year to the possibil- ity of such a participation by accredited dele- gates and by their members at large. Details will be forwarded later by its Executive Board." Permanent A. L. A. headquarters. The fol- lowing resolution was adopted : "The Council of the American Library Association feels it highly desirable that steps be taken to secure a national headquarters for the Association; it is therefore Voted, That the Executive Board be requested to appoint a committee of five to formulate a plan for permanent head- quarters of the A. L. A., to estimate neces- sary expense, to consider means by which this expense may be met, and to report on the whole matter as soon as possible to the Coun- cil. Commercial advertising in connection with A. L. A. meetings. The following petition, signed by nine members of the Association, addressed to the Executive Board and by it referred to the Council, was presented : "We, the undersigned, respectfully petition your board that no form of commercial adver- tising be countenanced officially by the Amer- ican Library Association, either through cir- culars sent out by its officers, or by permit- ting exhibits at headquarters during meetings of the Association." The matter of securing advertising support for handbooks issued by local committees at place of meeting was brought up, and it was Voted, That it is the sense of the Council that no printed matter be issued by local commit- tees without the approval of the Executive Board. It was also Voted, That a committee of three, consisting of the president and sec- 226 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. reary, and a third member, be appointed to draft a by-law or by-laws covering the whole question of the relations of the Association to advertisers and advertising. Library training. The Committee on Li- brary Training submitted the following, which was accepted : "The Committee on Li- brary Training reports progress in the making of a system of standards for recommenda- tion to the Council. It does not wish to act hastily, and thinks it most desirable to confer with some of the summer schools and with some of the libraries training apprentices be- fore finally presenting such recommendations. It would be glad if the Council would permit the committee's recommendations to be sent in writing to each member of the Council when formulated, to be acted on when the Council thinks best." Pending the conclu- sion of this undertaking by the committee, no action was taken on the two recommend- ations presented in its report. International code of cataloging rules. A communication was presented from the Insti- tut International de Bibliographic, requesting the American Library Association to aid in the development of an international code of cataloging rules. It was Voted, That the Li- brary Association will be happy to co-operate so far as possible in this proposed agreement on a code of international cataloging rules. Library post bill. The resolution submitted in the report of the Committee on Reduced Postal and Express Rates to Libraries was accepted. Library Administration. The following res- olution, submitted in the report of the Com- mittee on Library Administration, was ac- cepted : Voted, That the Committee on Li- brary Administration is instructed to report at the next annual meeting a schedule of library statistics to be recommended for use in mak- ing and collecting annual library reports, this schedule to include or be accompanied by rules for counting circulation and for estimat- ing other froms of library service. Custom-house rules regarding printed mat- ter. Mr. N. D. C. Hodges presented the mat- ter of the new custom-house regulations ex- cluding "printed matter" from the usual li- brary importation exceptions, and pointed out the difficulties entailed by recent rulings made under this provision. It was Voted, That this matter be referred to a committee to be ap- pointed by the chair. This committee was later appointed as N. D. C. Hodges and James H. Canfield. Delegates to L. A. U. K. conference, 1903. It was Voted, That Mr. Herbert Putnam and Mrs. S. C. Fairchild be accredited delegates to the coming annual meeting of the Library Association of the United Kingdom, to be held at Leeds, Sept. 7, 1903. Later, it was learned that Dr. J. S. Billings might be able to attend that meeting, and by special action of the Executive Board he was accredited as representative of the American Library Asso- ciation. Change in program. A recommendation from Mr. Anderson H. Hopkins was present- ed, that the fiction discussion set by the pro- gram for Friday night be omitted and time be given for a continuance of the discussion of the subject "Libraries and the book trade;" but it was decided that such a change in the program was inexpedient. Friends' Press Association. A communica- tion from the Friends' Press Association ask- ing co-operation in its movement in favor of a pure press was received and filed. TRANSACTIONS OF EXECUTIVE BOARD. Reporting sections. It was Voted, That the Executive Board be authorized to employ such additional stenographic help to report section meetings as may be deemed desirable. Assistant secretaries. It was Voted, That the secretary be authorized to employ R. W. McCurdy and Malcolm Wyer as assistant secretaries during the Niagara Falls meet- ing. Non-library membership. It was Voted, That the list presented by the treasurer of persons not engaged in library work be ac- cepted and the persons named admitted to membership in the Association. Appointments to committees, etc. Publish- ing Board: W. C. Lane, C. C. Soule (re- elected). Finance committee. The resignation of J. L. Whitney as chairman of this committee was received with regret, and the committee was appointed as follows : George T. Little, C. K. Bolton, W. E. Foster. Program committee. President, secretary, Miss Haines. SOCIAL SIDE OF THE NIAGARA FALLS MEETING. 227 THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE NIAGARA FALLS MEETING. BY FRANCES L. RATHBONE, Pratt, '03. TT began with the recognition of a famil- iar face on the steps of the Cataract House ; it hummed through the office; it fairly buzzed in the reception room; and it went by twos in the ball-room, on the piazzas and on the tempt- ing paths worn smooth by the many twos for which Niagara is famous. For surely in these five days some must have seen the natural phenomenon peculiar to this mighty river must have seen the tide come in at Niagara. The social side may have begun even before the steps of the Cataract House were reached. It certainly did if, ignorant of the distance, the pilgrims chose an omnibus ride from the station, with one or two enlightened fellow- passengers aboard. If one invests in a din- ner with frills one wants the frills, and from this view-point Niagara's omnibus system was not disappointing. First, the omnibus was filled, which took time. Next, beautiful green tickets were made out, as slowly and cau- tiously as application blanks. Then funds to run the omnibus were collected, after which a driver was promised. Then a straight drive down the street being too simple and evident the route followed three sides of a square. But be not in haste to dress and see your friends and increase the buzz. The omnibus stopped. A figure appeared at the door. The green application blanks were collected, when, finally, the driver was instructed to take his, by this time, socially active passengers, to the Cataract House. Having said "Chickadee, chickadaw," and perhaps something more, to all old friends and many new ones on this first evening, the gathering clans were glad to be formally and cordially welcomed on the following morning by Hon. John M. Hancock, Mayor of Niagara Falls, and to be introduced to Niagara's his- tory by the superintendent of the state res- ervation at Niagara, Hon. Thomas V. Welch, always a welcome speaker. Tuesday morning one feared there would be too much waterfall to view ; but later the sun joined the local committee in acting host and tempted over four hundred of the library craft to accept the hospitality offered in a ride in observation cars to Lewiston. Thence by steamer they followed the waters, so recently terrific in their power, to Lake Ontario, and some distance into the lake, returning at the close of the afternoon. Conversation never lags among librarians, and these informal trips are the foundation of many pleasant and helpful friendships that bear fruit their publics wot of, but little guess the source. Sometimes the whole of a conference program seems to do its most lasting work in serving as a key to people, and to the sources of ideas so fully, freely and frankly are intro- ductions and individual discussions sought But at Niagara, housed in two hotels for the most part, with overflow parties at others near by, and more than one prearranged luncheon, the social converse lasted all day and usually ended in dinner parties, with a final swing around the ball-room to cap the evening ses- sion. Mr. and Mrs. Carr began by arranging a dinner for A. L. A. friends of long stand- ing. As one looked down the line one saw whence the pulse of library work had sprung, the merriment suggesting the cause in their natures. Wednesday evening held three dinners for those coming to their power the graduates of library schools. Albany, informal and en- joyable; Illinois State University and Pratt Institute with danger of too much formality! The order of precedence at a state dinner is nothing to the difficulties that faced the head waiter when he realized that a request for a table with covers for 34, for a library school dinner, by one messenger, and a request for a table with covers for 34 for Pratt Institute Library School by another messenger, did not mean one and the same 34! The Illinois in- fantry arrived first, 34 strong, and were duly seated, as who should not be? The Pratt platoons came on, up the center of the dining- room, past the smaller tables pause. Where was the table? More pause. The head waiter 228 NIAGARA 'CONFERENCE. appeared and looked troubled. So did the Pratt platoons. So did the Illinois infantry. Each knew arrangements had been made. Each planned to dine with the other, but at different tables. The head waiter's wits left him. The gentlewoman's wits served the head of the Illinois infantry, and to make a bad matter no worse she took her cue from the head waiter's remark, that the table was pre- pared for the Pratt School, and, like the King of France with 40,000 men, she first marched up the hill and then marched down again. When, later, the Illinois School were seated at a parallel table, and welcomed each new course with their university yell, their heartiest encore came from the Pratt School, who, apparently victors, still felt that the real victory lay in the admirable spirit exhibited at the table across the way. The following evening came the Drexel Institute Library School dinner, a little be- lated, but with no complications. Chautauqua Summer School also made itself felt as a unit, and had a very good time doing it; and the Children's Librarians followed, with the longest table of all. The weather, not allowing itself, as in Twain's "American claimant," to be crowded all to the back of the book, came into promi- nence once a day at least, but was considerate enough of dinner gowns to allow even the five-blocks' walk to be taken in safety to the spacious auditorium placed at the disposal of the A. L. A. On Tuesday evening one's memory was taxed to fix the wealth of references that lit- erature has made to Niagara Falls, a tax that seemed as naught to Hon. Peter A. Porter, so fluent was his command of the subject. Another treat was given us in the presence of the venerable Mr. Goldwin Smith ; and the last evening of our stay Dr. W. H. Drum- mond, the Canadian poet, recited some of his poems in the dialect of the habitant delightfully. As one of his hearers said, "it is a rare thing to find one man com- bining both the creative and interpretative genius." The meeting place being but forty-minutes' run from Buffalo, the sessions attracted many Buffalonians of varied interests. The local committee was aided and abetted by Buffalonians, yet to the librarian and citi- zens of Niagara Falls is due the success of the A. L. A. conference, and to them we ex- tend our hearty congratulations for one of the most genial, profitable and enjoyable meetings of recent years. THE ADVENTURES OF A POST-CONFERENCE. BY ONE OF THE ADVENTURERS. T T was a sleepy lot of people that gathered at the Niagara Falls station, July 27, to take the 7.20 a.m. train for Lewiston, where they were to board the steamer Corona for Toronto. When the train started, the secretary of the conference leaned back in his seat with the care-free, irresponsible look of the person- ally conducted, for his burdens were at an end and the travelling manager's were be- ginning. At this season of the year the cherry seems to be the Niagara emblem of good-bye and welcome, for their ruddy temptation was the last thing the party met on embarking and the first thing they encountered on returning, and many there were that did not resist it. The sail down the river was delightful, and the view of Fort Niagara obtained from the boat as picturesque as any spot in the Old World. It was post-conference weather, but Lake Ontario was a trifle chilly and windy, not having realized just whom she was carrying. The only accident of the trip happened during this crossing, some of the machinery getting out of control so that the Corona was obliged to stop at the nearest dock and was glad not to have run into it. Very few of the party knew of their possible danger until it was all over, fortunately, but we have the consolation of believing, though without proof, that we should all have exhibited great presence of mind had there been any necessity for it. At Toronto the train was found waiting, THE ADVENTURES OF A POST-CONFERENCE. 229 but locked, with the exception of the dining car a very agreeable refuge, as dinner was ready. Here for the first time one of the party learned that "cream loaf," set down among the des- serts, was milk bread, an inquiry of the col- ored waiter as to the composition of this new dish, bringing the reply, "Cream loaf? Ain't you been eatin' it all dis time?" From the train the party was transferred to the steamer Nipissing at Muskoka wharf, at the southern end of Lake Muskoka, at about three o'clock. The sail up the lake was like one on the St. Lawrence, the scenery being very similar, though the numerous islands were not so generally inhabited. The British flag flew on the tops of cottages at occasional landings, the Nipissing making two or three stops at these places to let off passengers not belonging to the party. The stop at Port Carling, where the boat passes through a lock and enters Lake Rosseau, was long enough to allow the party to go ashore and stretch their legs, and two or three enterprising individuals brought back library cards as the result of their explorations. The arrival at the Royal Muskota was, in one respect, like that of a cloud of locusts. Nobody wanted to register; there was abso- lute indifference as to rooms ; but with one ac- cord the party fell upon whatever was de- vourable and devoured it. By the time this performance was over it was too dark to see anything, and discovery of the island had to be put off until morning. The hotel itself was charming, with its big vaulted dining- room in native woods and windows look- ing in every direction, its lobby, parlor, and clerk's office all in one, lighted by electricity and heated by a great open fire a combina- tion made by the moderns in these out-of-the- way places that gives convenience and pictur- esqueness and satisfies alike the prosaic and the poetic soul. The Sunday in this restful spot was one long to be remembered. Sunny and cool and breezy, with odors of pine and spicy herbs and shrubs, and of the soft tan bark used for all the walks, it was ideal, so far as weather and surroundings could make it. Some of the party, not yet ready for Nir- vana, rowed about the lake, some picked wild strawberries on the golf links or went with cameras in search of snap-shots and pursued a flock of picturesque sheep, only to be pursued in turn as the idea gained ground among them that the camera was a box of salt ; while some sat on the piazzas or in the summer houses and simply basked, pictures of pure content. "And there was evening and there was morn- ing, the second day," as the Revised Version has it, before this satisfying spot must be deserted. The hotel orchestra gave the guests American patriotic airs during dinner, and there was singing before the fire after supper, while a few stole quietly apart to listen to the reading of "Fanny Fitz's Gamble" and "The Connemara mare" by one whose command of the brogue is undeniable. The next day saw trunks, bags and people off for Rosseau and Hotel Monteith, reached by a half- hour sail on The Islander. Rosseau is on the mainland, a village of 400 inhabit- ants in the winter, and boasts of several shops, two ice cream saloons, and a public library, fee one dollar per year or ten cents per week to the summer visitor. Its collection and records were dutifully examined and an old number of Public Libraries clasped as a long-lost friend. There was great glee over the assignment of rooms and the discovery that few had keys that would fit. By this time, however, all of the party had got so far towards Nirvana that a little thing like the lack of a key was no bar to enjoyment. In no time, boats and canoes from the dock near by were floating in every direction, manned by experience or inexperi- ence, it mattered not. It was soon learned! that Shadow River was the proper destination for tourists in boats, and a procession wi:ndedi its way lazily up that enchanting stream.. Slow, still, without a ripple, bordered oy low banks fringed with low trees and every kind of water plant except the tropical, with con- stant curves and picturesque bridges, where ''Low bridge!" was. the cry it was really like a stream bewitched. Every tree and bush, every reed and rush and lily-pad was mir- rored in the water as clear and perfect as on the banks, and one seemed to be drifting be- tween two earths on some intermediate plane. Threatenings of rain kept the party close home later on, and after dinner an impromptu entertainment was organized in the casino, beginning with a Virginia reel. 230 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. The morning of the third day s?w the boats again in requisition and the river again the haunt of many of the party, who found it difficult to tear themselves away, though the heavy rain of the night had ruffled its stillness and it was now simply like other picturesque rivers. The same rain had done us a great favor, however, in laying the dust for the twelve-mile stage drive to Maple Lake, across country; and the part of the journey which had been anticipated with somewhat of dread turned out to be very agreeable, with its long whiffs of clover from the fields, the glimpses of woodland and isolated farms, and water in the distance, and with the constant breeze that cooled the air. At Maple Lake the station inn was ready to tempt the inner man, and he in turn, having learned by experience the meaning of schedule time in these wilds and not knowing when his next scheduled meal might be forthcoming, was ready to be tempted. And cold meats and home-made bread and cookies and marma- lade disappeared as by magic. Wonderful to relate, the train expected appeared almost on time, and soon we were carried to Rose Point and thence by ferry to Parry Sound. Past the log jams and saw-mills to the dock, and then on foot or on wheels up the hill to the Hotel Belvidere, the party travelled, finding from the piazza, of the latter the most ex- tensive and beautiful view that had yet greeted them. The fact that something had gone wrong with an electric switch, and that one candle lighted the parlor and the piano, and one the office, mattered little since there was light in the dining-room ; and those who had refreshed themselves cannily at Maple Lake were not last in the onslaught at the Belvi- dere. It began to look as if some among us might soon be designated as "hollow spheres," so rotund without and so apparently unfillable within had they become. The very -sleepy elected to spend the night at the hotel and get up in time to sail at six a.m. The far-sighted preferred to wait for the boat, the City of Toronto, at half past ten and sleep aboard her as late as they liked in the morning. A faggy morning found us under way, with two miles of reefs, rocks and islands on either side the channel and called islands by cour- tesy conscious o the fact that there was some danger and also that we were losing some of the most delightful scenery. But the usual post-conference luck did not desert us long; the fog lifted nnd the morning was passed alternately skirting close to rocky ledges almost near enough for us to pluck leaves from the trees or leaving a wake through a wide channel, with cottages and tents gleaming from distant islands, all dressed up with British and colonial flags in honor of Dominion Day. One exciting incident oc- cured. As the boat, a little ahead of time, was making for a certain landing, a canoe was seen to shoot out in her wake from one of the islands, one of whose occupants was car- rying a bag and evidently intending to catch the boat. He was seen only by passengers in the stern, apparently, for the boat landed a trifling piece of freight and was off before the canoe came alongside, managed most dexter- ously as it rocked in the wash of the steamer. Appealing hands and voices were raised from the canoe, the passengers looked eager and sympathetic, and compassionate exclamations of, "Oh, do stop !" "Let him on !" were heard on every side, and finally with the delibera- tion of large bodies the steamer slowed to a halt, a rope ladder was flung down and the would-be passenger climbed nimbly aboard, while the canoe went on its way as if nothing had happened. Those of us who had held our breath fearfully in canoes in the stillest of waters could not help doing a little reflect- ing as we realized what that canoe had done tinder skilful management. Penetang was reached just after noon, and train taken to Toronto, which was reached in time for dinner at the Queen's Hotel, the stop- ping-place for the night. Here mail was found in quantities and trunks were finally unpacked and packed for the home journey. Mr. Bain stood on the steps to welcome us as "Home-comers" it was really"Home-comers' day," and Toronto was said to be full of visitors and to tell us of the tally-ho drive for the next morning, tendered by the univer- sity. This was the last and one of the most charming events of the trip. Through the flag-bedecked streets, in the clear sunshine, tempered by a cool breeze from Lake Ontario, OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES. 231 the three tally-hos wound their difficult but always skilful way. bringing us among the tree-shaded residences where "Low bridge!'' was the constant admonition, past the Par- liament houses, through the parks t etc., and letting us down for brief visits to the Public Library and that of the University. Mr. Langton, the university librarian, who was prevented by illness from attending the confer- ence, was still detained by the same cause, much to our regret; but Mr. Bain, who ac- companied the party, and members of the University Library staff, did the honors most acceptably, and nothing was lacking but the much-desired presence of the host. The return trip on the Chippewa across the lake to Lewiston and Niagara was perfect, the lake having by this time realized the im- portance of proper treatment of such a dis- tinguished party. It was at this point of the trip that the party was able to assemble once more and to present a vote of thanks to the successful manager of the week, Mr. Faxon, accompanied by small souvenirs for himself and Mrs. Faxon as remembrances of the general good time. Seventy people or more had journeyed together for a week, making sometimes three or four changes a day from train to boat and boat to train, each one with a trunk or a valise or some checked piece of baggage, and nothing had been lost or stolen, no one left behind, no one ill, and there had been no accidents to speak of it was a rec- ord to be proud of. Much of it was due to Mr. Faxon's superintendence and something to the ready acquiescence and good nature of the party; but then who could be anything but acquiescent and good natured under such cir- cumstances? Mark Tapley would have sunk under the unredeemable cheerfulness of the situation. We clung to every shred of festiv- ity left us as we realized more and more dis- tinctly that the end of our good times was approaching. At Niagara there was a general scramble in the baggage-room to get checks, a hurried meal at the Imperial, and then the three 'lonely ones who were left at the hotel until morn- ing looked at one another and said, pensively, "Vere is dot barty now?" Wherever it was, it was carrying home tanned faces, smoothed-out wrinkles, clearer eyes and a host of pleasant recollections to brighten the coming year. OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES SERVING IN IOO2-3 AND DURING THE NIAGARA FALLS CONFERENCE. President: James Kendall Hosmer, Minne- apolis Public Library. First vice-president: James H. Canfield, Col- umbia University Library. Second vice-president: Anne Wallace, Car- negie Library, Atlanta, Ga. Secretary: J. I. Wyer, Jr., University of Ne- braska Library, Lincoln, Neb. Treasurer: Gardner M. Jones, Public Library, Salem, Mass. Recorder: Helen E. Haines, Library Journal, New York City. Registrar: Nina E. Browne, A. L. A. Pub- lishing Board, Boston, Mass. A. L. A. Council: * Mary E. Ahern, E. H. * Includes, in addition, members of Executive Board. Anderson, C. W. Andrews, J. S. Billings, W. H. Brett, Johnson Brigham, F. M. Crun- den, Melvil Dewey, Electrat. Doren, C. H. Gould, F. P. Hill, N. D. C. Hodges, J. K. Hosmer, Hannah P. James, W. C. Lane, J. W. Larned, W. T. Peoples, Herbert Put- nam, E. C. Richardson, Katharine L. Sharp, C. C. Soule, Lutie E. Stearns, John Thom- son, H. M. Utley, J. L. Whitney. Trustees of the Endowment Fund: George W. Williams, Salem, Mass; Charles C. Soule, Boston, Mass; Alexander Maitland, New York City. Executive Board: President, ex-president (Dr. J. S. Billings), vice-presidents, secre- tary, treasurer, recorder. Publishing Board: Chairman, W. I. Fletcher, W. C. Lane, C. C. Soule, Melvil Dewey, H. C. Wellman. 232 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. STANDING COMMITTEES. Finance: James L. Whitney, Charles K. Bol- ton, George T. Little. Library Administration: W. R. Eastman, F. J. Teggart, Cornelia Marvin. Public Documents: R. P. Falkner, Adelaide R. Hasse, W. E. Henry, Johnson Brigham, Charles McCarthy. Foreign Documents: C. H. Gould, C. W. An- drews, Adelaide R. Hasse, J. L. Whitney, R. P. Falkner. Co-operation with Library Department of National Educational Association: James H. Canfield, Melvil Dewey, Isabel Ely Lord. Library Training: Mary W. Plummer, Sa- lome Cutler Fairchild, Katharine L Sharp, Alice B. Kroeger, Mary E. Robbins, Ed- win H. Anderson. SPECIAL COMMITTEES. A. L. A. Exhibit at Louisiana Purchase Ex- position: Melvil Dewey, F. M. Crunden, J. C. Dana, E. H. Anderson, Mary W. Plum- mer. Gifts and Bequests: Reporter, Joseph Le Roy Harrison. Handbook of American Libraries: F. J. Teg- gart, T. L. Montgomery, C. W. Andrews. International Co-operation: E. C. Richardson, R. R. Bowker, S. H. Ranck, Mary W. Plum- mer, Cyrus Adler. Relation of Libraries to the Book Trade: W. T. Peoples, H. L. Elmendorf, H. J. Carr, John Thomson, H. C. Wellman. Reduced Postal and Express Rates to Libra- ries: W. C. Lane, Johnson Brigham, Mel- vil Dewey, J. H. Canfield. Title-pages to Periodicals: W. L Fletcher, Ernst Lemcke, A. E. Bostwick. COMMITTEES OF THE COUNCIL. Affiliation with Federation of Women's Clubs: Lutie E. Stearns, F. M. Crunden, Marilla W. Freeman. Nominations: C. W. Andrews, Herbert Put- nam, F. M. Crunden, Mary E. Ahern, Han- nah P. James. SECTIONS AND SECTION OFFICERS. College and Reference Section: Chairman, C. W. Andrews; secretary, George F. Dan- forth. Trustees' Section: Chairman, D. P. Corey; secretary, T. L. Montgomery. Catalog Section: Chairman, C. H. Gould; secretary, Sula Wagner. Children's Librarians Section: Chairman, Mary E. Dousman ; secretary, Alice D. Jor- dan. State Library Commissions: Chairman, Mel- vil Dewey; secretary, Gratia Countryman. ATTENDANCE REGISTER. ABBREVIATIONS: F., Free; P., Public; L., Library; Ln., Librarian; As., Assistant; Tr., Trustee; Ref., Reference; S., School; Br., Branch; Cat., Cataloger. Abbatt, William, Publisher, N. Y. City. Abbott, Mary Ethel, As. Syracuse Univ. L., Syracuse, N. Y. Achilles, Lillian A., Albion, N. Y. Ahern, Mary Eileen, Ed. Public Libraries, Li- brary Bureau, Chicago, 111. Albro, Marion L., Providence, R. I. Albro, Sarah E., As. Children's Dept, P. L. Providence, R. I. Ambler, Sarah, Ln. Iowa Wesleyan Univ. L., Mt. Pleasant, la. Ambrose, Lodilla, As. Ln. Northwestern Univ. L., Evanston, 111. Ames, Sara H., Ln. Pattison L., Westfield, N. Y. Anderson, Edwin Hatfield, Ln. Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Anderson, John R., Bookseller, 4 W. I5th St., N. Y. City. Andrew, Mrs. Kate Deane, Ln. Steele Me- morial L., Elmira, N. Y. * Took the Post-conference trip. Andrews, Clement Walker, Ln. The John Crerar L., Chicago, 111. Andrews, Grace K., Cat. P. L., Toronto, Ont. Anson, W. H., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Askew, Sarah, As. P. L., Cleveland, O. Austen, Willard. Ref. Ln.. Cornell Univ. L., Ithaca, N. Y. Babine, Alexis V., As. Catalog Division, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Bache, Mrs. Dallas, Columbus, O. Bailey, A. L., Sub-In. N. Y. State L., Albany, ^ N. Y. Bain, James, Jr., Chief Ln. P. L., Toronto, Ont, Canada. * Baldwin, Emma V., Ln.'s Sec'y P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. Baritot, Alice M., As. in Children's Room P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. * Barnum, Mrs Adele B., Ln. P. L., Niagara Falls, N Y. Barrows, Rev. William, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Barton, Philip, Niagara Falls, N. Y. ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 233 Bate, Florence E., McClure, Phillips & Co., N. Y. City Baumer, Bertha, As. P. L., Omaha, Neb. Beach, Harriet A., Head Delivery Counter, P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Benham, Mrs. N. L., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Berry, C. Harold, Y. M. C. A. L., N. Y. City. Berry, Silas Kurd, Ln. Y. M. C. A., 317 W. 56th St., N. Y. City. *Betteridge, Grace L., As. N. Y. State L., Albany, N. Y. Bishop, Frances A., As Ln. P. L., Kansas City, Mo. Bishop, William Warner, Chief Cat. Prince- ton Univ. L., Princeton, N. J. Blackwell, R. J., Ln. P. L., London, Ont., Canada, Boardman, Alice, As. Ln. State L., Columbus, Ohio. Bogardus, John D., Tr. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Bogle, Sarah C. N., Student Library Science, Univ. of Chicago, Chicago, 111. Bostwick,' Arthur Elmore, Chief of the Cir- culation Dept. P. L., N. Y. City. Bowerman, George F., Ln. Wilmington Inst. F. L., Wilmington, Del. Boyd, Edward J., Phila. Bookstore Co., Phila- delphia, Pa. Bradley, Harry E., Madison, Wis. Bradley, Isaac S., Ln. and As. Supt. State Hist. Soc., Madison, Wis. Bradley, Mrs. I. S., Madison, Wis. Bradley, Mabel J., Madison, Wis. Braegger, Emmy, N. Y. City. Braley, Esther, As. Cat. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Breckenridge, Mrs. S. M., As. P. L., Cleve- land, O. Brett, Clara Amelia, Cat. P. L., Brockton, Mass. Brett, William Howard, Ln. P. L., Cleve- land, O. Briggs, Mary J., Cat. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Brigham, H. Eleanor, As. P. L., Hartford, Conn. Brigham, Johnson, Ln. State L., Des Moines, Iowa. Brigham, Mrs. Johnson, Des Moines, Iowa. Brooks, Henrietta St. Barbe, Chief Cat. Car- negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Brow, Bessie B., As. P. L., Detroit. Mich. Brown, Charles Harvey, Classifier The John Crerar L., Chicago, 111. Brown, Eurydice, Ln. Forman L., Orlean, N. Y. Brown, Gertrude Le Roy, Cat. F. P. L., Ev- anston, 111. Brown, Walter L., As. Supt. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Browne, Nina E., Sec'y A. L. A. Publish- ing Board, ioj-^ Beacon St., Boston, Mass. Brownlee, Rev. R. C., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Brownlee, Mrs. R. C., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Brownlee, S. H., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Buchanan, Henry C., Ln. State L., Trenton, N. J. Buchanan, Mrs. H. C., Trenton, N. J. Budington, Margaret, Ln. State Hist. Soc., Iowa City, Iowa. Bullock, Waller Irene, ist As. Ln. P. L., Utica, N. Y. Bunker, Mabel E., Ref. and Art. Ln. P. L., Somerville, Mass. Bunting, Helen M., As. F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. Burnett, Martha Alice, As. Ln. P. L., Madi- son, N. J. Burnite, Caroline, As. Carnegie L., Pitts- burgh, Pa. * Burns, William Savage, Cat. Office Supt. of Documents, Washington, D. C. Burpee, Lawrence J., Dept. of Justice, Ot- tawa, Ont. Burrows, Dorothy E., Training Class Car- negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Burton, E. D., Administrative Board, Univ. of Chicago L., Chicago, 111. Bushnell, Stella M., Supt. of Sch. L., P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Butters, Mary, Ln. P. L.. Niagara Falls, Ont. Cady, Anita L., Southbridge, Mass. Campbell, J. Maud, Ln. P. L., Passaic, N. J. Campbell, Margaret C, As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Canfield, Dr. James Hulme, Ln. Columbia Univ. L., N. Y. City. Canthard, Lola A., Cleveland, O. Carey, Miriam Eliza, Ln. F. P. L., Burling- ton, Iowa. * Carr, Henry J., Ln. P. L., Scranton, Pa. * Carr, Mrs. Henry J., ex-Ln., Scranton, Pa, Carter, Emeline, Ln. P. L., Champlain, 111. Carter, Lucy L., Cat. P. L., Brookline, Mass. Carver, Leonard D., Ln. State L., Augusta, Me. Gary, Eugene, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Cathcart, Maude, As. P. L., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Chamberlain, Rose Elder, As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Chamberlain, F. W., Library Bureau, De- troit, Mich. Champion, Marietta Kay, Ln. F. P. L., Cam- den, N. J. Chandler, Ellen M., Cat. P. L.; Buffalo, N. Y. Chandler, Isabel S., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Chapman, Grace P., N. Y. State L. S., Al- bany, N. Y. Chase, Adelaide M., Ln., Stone & Webster, 93 Federal St., Boston, Mass. Chase, Arthur Horace, Ln. State L., Concord, N. H. Chase, Jessie C.. Supt. Branch Libraries, P. L., Detroit, Mich. Chivers, Cedric, Bookbinder, Bath, England. Christey, Ella G., Cat. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Clapp, Nellie M., As. Forbes L., Northampton, Mass. 234 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. Clark, Josephine Adelaide, Ln. Dept. of Ag- riculture L., Washington, D. C. Clarke, Edith Emily, Ln. Univ. of Vermont, Burlington, Vt. Clarke, Elizabeth Porter, Ln. Seymour L., Auburn, N. Y. Clarke, Dr. Ida, Tr. Reuben McMillan F. L., Youngstown, O. Clatworthy, Linda M., Cat. P. L., Dayton, O. Coignon, Caroline, Manchester, Eng. Coit, Charles W., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Coit, Emily S., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Cole, Jessie H., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Cole, Theodore Lee, 13 Corcoran Bldg, Wash- ington, D. C. Collar, Mildred Averill, Instructor Pratt Inst. L. S., Brooklyn, N. Y. * Corey, Deloraine Pendre, Pres. P. L., Mai- den, Mass. * Corey, Mrs. D. P., Maiden, Mass. Corkery, Mary E., As. Grosvenor L., Buffalo, N. Y. Cowper, George, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Crafts, Lettie M., As. Ln. Univ. of Minn., and Trus. P. L., Minneapolis, Minn. Crandall, Francis Asbury, Ln. Public Docu- ments L., Washington, D. C. Craver, Harrison Warwick, Technology Ln. Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Crocker, Eloise H., Hyannis, Mass. Crunden, Frederick M., Ln. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. Cullis, Edna M., Oil City, Pa. Curran, Mrs. Mary H., Ln. P. L., Bangor, Me. Currier, Dr. A. F., Pres. Tr. P. L., Mt. Ver- non, N. Y. Cutter, William P., Chief Order Division, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Dailey, Mrs. Mary E., Ln. F. P. L., Council Bluffs, la. Dame, Katherine, Chief Cat. Cornell Univ. L., Ithaca, N. Y. Damon, Lalia Mae, As. Forbes L., Northamp- ton, Mass. *Dana, John Cotton, Ln. F. P. L., Newark, N. J. * Darlington, Genevieve, Ln. State L. S. Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, 111. Darlington, Herbert, La Grange, 111. Davis, Eva B., As. P. L., Toronto, Ont. Davis, Mary L., Cat. Pratt Inst. L., Brook- lyn, N. Y. Day, Anna Bounell, Ln. Carnegie F. L., Connellsville, Pa. Deming, Mary, Ln. P. L., Lorain, O. * Denison, George A., Springfield, Mass. Dennison, B. B., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Dcwey, Melvil, Director State L., Albany, N. Y. Dickinson, A. Don, N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Dickson, Helen S., 111. State L. S., Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, 111. Dielman, L. H., Cat. Maryland State L., An- napolis, Md. Doane, W. H., Jamestown, N. Y. Doane, Mrs. W. H., Jamestown, N. Y. Dodd, Helen P., As. F. P. L., Newark, N. J. Donnelly, June R., As. P. L., Cincinnati, O. Doren, Electra Collins, Ln. P. L., Dayton, O. Doren, Elizabeth B., Library Student, Day- ton, O. Douglass, Matthew Hale, Ln. Iowa Coll. L., Grinnell, la. Dousman, Mary Ella, Head Children's Dept. P. L., Milwaukee, Wis. Dowling, Katherine J., Ln. Central L., Rochester N. Y. * Downey, Mary Elizabeth, Ln. P. L., Ot- tumwa, la. Draper, Annie Elizabeth, Student N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Drury, Francis K. W., As. Ln. Gardner A. Sage L., Theological Seminary, New Brunswick, N. J. Dudley, Charles R., Ln. P. L., Denver, Col. Duel, A., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Dunlap, Margaret, Ln. L. Ass'n, Chatta- nooga,Tenn. Dunlap, Orrin, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Dunsford, Ruth E., Teacher, Rochester, N. Y. Durdan, Mabel M., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Durham, Josephine E., Ln. F. P. L., Dan- ville, 111. Dyer, M. F., American Architect, 211 Tre- mont St., Boston, Mass. Eakins, William George, Ln. Law Soc. of Upper Canada L., Toronto, Canada. Eames, Wilberforce, Ln. Lenox L., N. Y. City. Earhart, Frances E., Karns City, Pa. Earl, Mrs. Elizabeth C., P. L. Commission of Indiana, Connersville, Ind. Eastman, William Reed, Inspector P. L. Dept. State L., Albany, N. Y. Eaton, Harriett L., Ln. State Normal School, West Superior, Wis. Edwards, Grace Osborne, Ln. P. L., Michigan City, Ind. Elliott, Agnes M., Ln. West End Branch, Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Elliott, Julia E., Ln. P. L., Marinette, Wis. Elmendorf, Henry L., Supt. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Elmendorf, Mrs. Henry L., ex-Ln., Buffalo, N. Y. Elston, Catherine Impey, As. Ref. Dept. Car- negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. * Emerson, Mabel E., Ref. Ln. P. L., Provi- dence, R. I. Engle, Emma Robinson, Supt. Children's Rooms, F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. Ensign, Katherine W., Children's Ln. P. L., Duluth, Minn. Erwin, Mrs. Julia G., Ln. P. L., Painesville, O. * Eschwege, Herman, London, Eng. * Eschwege, Mrs. Herman, London, Eng. * Eschwege, Miss, London, Eng. Estabrook, Mrs. Kate C., Maine L. Com- mission, Orono, Me. ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 235 Eustis, George H., Tr. P. L., Winchester, Mass. Eustis, Harriet Sigourney, Head Cat. P. L. of the District of Columbia, Washington, D. C Evans, Jane A., L. S. Drexel Inst., Phila- delphia, Pa. Fairbanks, Edward T., St. Johnsbury, Vt. Fairchild, Rev. Edwin Milton, Lecturer Edu- cational Church Board, Albany, N. Y. Fairchild, Mrs. Salome Cutler (Mrs. Edwin Milton,) Vice-director N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Falkner, Roland Post, Chief Division of Doc- uments L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Farr, Mary Parry, Library Organizer, 258 So. 44th St., Philadelphia, Pa. * Faxon, Mrs. Adeline True (Thompson) (Mrs. Frederick Winthrop), 108 Glenway St., Dorchester, Mass. * Faxon, Frederick Winthrop, The Boston Book Co., 81 Francis St., Back Bay, Boston, Mass. Fellows, Jennie Dorcas, State L., Albany, N. Y. Fichtenkam, Alice Carlisle, Chief Cat., Of- fice Supt. of Documents, Washington, D. C. Fichtenkam, Mrs. M. C., Washington, D. C. Field, Mrs, Aaron, Brooklyn, N. Y. Field, Hamilton Easter, 106 Columbia Heights, Brooklyn, N. Y. * Field, Herbert Haviland, Director Concil- ium Bibliographicum Zurich, Switzer- land. * Field, Mrs. H. H., Zurich, Switzerland. Finney, B. A., As. Univ. of Michigan L., Ann Arbor, Mich. Finney, Mrs. B. A., Ann Arbor, Mich. Fison, Gertrude S., As. Forbes L., Northamp- ton, Mass. Fison, Herbert W., Ln. Narragansett L. Assoc., Peace Dale, R. I. Fletcher, F. Richmond, Library Bureau, Bos- ton, Mass. Fletcher, William Isaac, Ln. Amherst Coll. L., Amherst, Mass. Forbes, R. J., Ln. Westminster House Br. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Foss, Sam Walter, Ln. P. L., Somerville, Mass. Foster, William Eaton, Ln. P. L., Providence, R. I. Frankenberg, Pearle, Student 111. State L. S. Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, 111. Friedman, Joseph B., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Frothingham, Mabel Augusta, Ln.'s Sec'y Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Fuller, Frances Howard, Asst. The Millicent L., Fairhaven Mass. Fulton, Mrs. Bertrice S., Supt. of Circulation P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Gaillard, Edwin White, Ln. Webster F. Cir- culating L., N. Y. City. Galbreath, Charles B., Ln. State L., Colum- bus, O. Galbreath, Mrs. Charles B., Columbus, O. Gale, Mary E., Auburn, N. Y. * Gardner, Eva S., Ref. As. P. L., Providence, R. I. Gardner, Jane E., Ln. People's L., Newport, R. I. Gartland, Ella B., Stenographer P. L., Buf- falo, N. Y. Gay, Frank B., Ln. Watkinson L., Hartford, Ct. Geist, A., Bookbinder, 455 Sixth Ave., N. Y. City. Gerould, James Thayer, Ln. Univ. of Mo. L., Columbia, Mo. Gibson, Irene, As. Order Division L. of Con- gress, Washington, D. C. Gilkey, Malina A., Catalog Division L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Gillespie, Edith A., As. Hampton Inst. L., Hampton, Va. Godard, George Seymour, Ln. State L., Hart- ford, Ct. Godard, Mrs. G. S., Hartford, Ct. Goddard, Edward M., Ln. Vt. Hist. Soc., and As. Ln. State L., Montpelier, Vt. Coding, Sarah E., ist. As. F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. Gooch, Harriet Bell, Cat. L. Assoc., Portland, Ore. Gould, Charles Henry, Ln. McGill Univ. L., Montreal, Canada. Gould, H. A., L. Dept. A. C McClurg & Co., Chicago, 111. Graham, Emma, Ln. P. L., Sidney, O. Graham, Robert H., Tr. P. L., Toronto, Ont. Grant, Mrs. George P., Jr., Fitchburg, Mass. Gray, Mrs. John, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Grierson, Mrs. E. S., Ln. P. L. of Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., Calumet, Mich. Greenwood, Samuel, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Griffith, Anna Elliott, Ln. P. L., Elkhart, Ind. Groves, Charlotte E., N. Y. State L. S., Al- bany, N. Y. Gutman, Josephine L., Children's Ln. Mt Washington Br. Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Hadley, Anna, Ln. Ansonia L., Ansonia, Ct. *Hafner, Alfred, Bookseller, of firm G. E. Stechert, 9 E. i6th St., N. Y. City. Hagar, Sarah C., Ln. Fletcher F. L., Burling- ton, Vt. Hagey, Emma Joanna, Ln. P. L., Beatrice, Neb. * Haines, Helen E., Managing Ed. Library Journal, N. Y. City. Hall, Drew Bert, Ln. The Millicent L., Fair- haven, Mass. Hall, Ethelwyn B., As. L. of Congress, Wash- ington, D. C. Hall, Florence S., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Halsey, Francis W., D. Appleton & Co., N. Y. City. 236 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. Hancock, John M., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Hanson, J. C M., Chief Catalog Division, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Hardy, E. A., Ln. P. L., Lindsay, Ont. Hardy, Mrs. E. A., Lindsay, Ont. Harper, Henry S., Harper & Bros., N. Y. City. Harris, George William, Ln. Cornell Univ. L., Ithaca, N. Y. Hasse, Adelaide Rosalia, As. P. L., N. Y. City. Hastings, Charles Harris, Catalog Division L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Haven, Georgetta, Cat. P. L., Cincinnati, O. Hawkins, Jean, As. Bryn Mawr Coll. L., Bryn Mawr, Pa. Hawley, Mrs. Eva N., Ln. Detroit College of Law, Detroit, Mich. Hawley, Josephine, As. P. L., Scranton, Pa. Haynes, Emily M., Ln. Worcester Polytech- nic Inst., Worcester, Mass. Haynes, Jeanne, Chief Children's Dept., Erie, Pa. Hazeltine, Alice I., Cat. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Hazeltine, Mary Emogene, Ln. James Pren- dergast F. L., Jamestown, N. Y. Heard, Mrs. Eugene B., Supt. Andrew Car- negie Free Travelling L., Middleton, Ga. Heaton, Florence J., Children's Ln. P. L., Washington, D. C. Heatwole, Mrs. Ella R., Ln. P. L., Goshen, Ind. Hegl, William P., Chairman Committee Brooks Mem. L., Dunkirk, N. Y. Henderson, Mrs. Kate A., Ln. P. L., Joliet, 111. Henderson, Lucia T., As. Ref. Ln. P. L., Buf- falo, N. Y. Hendricks, Minnie, As. P. L., New Haven, Ct. Henry, William Elmer, Ln. State L., Indian- apolis, Ind. Hensel, Martin, Ln. Public School L., Col- umbus, O. Hepburn, Susie B., As. P. L., New Rochelle, N. Y. Hepburn, William Murray, Student N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Herron, Sarah, As. F. P. L., Newark, N. J. Hild, Frederick H., Ln. P. L., Chicago, 111. *Hill, Frank Pierce, Ln. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. * Hill, Mrs. F. P., Brooklyn, N. Y. Hills, Mrs. Agnes, Ln. P. L. and Reading Room, Bridgeport, Ct. Hine, J. William, Art Metal Construction Co., 213 Tremont Bldg., Boston, Mass. Hoagland, Merica, Sec. Ind. P. L. Commis- sion, Indianapolis, Ind. Hodge, Mrs. Harriet Evans, Ln. Univ. of Cin- cinnati L., Cincinnati, O, Hodge, Louisa A., As. Osterhout L., Wilkes- Barre Pa. Hodges, N. D. C, Ln. P. L., Cincinnati, O. Hooper, Louisa M., Ln. P. L., Brookline, Mass. Hopkins, Anderson Hoyt, As. Ln. The John Crerar L., Chicago, 111. Hopkins, Mrs. A. H., Evanston, 111. Hopkins, Julia Anna, Ln. F. L., Madison, Wis. Hopper, Franklin F., Wylie Ave. Branch Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Hoskins, Ethel P. H., As. P. L., Dayton, O. Hosmer, James Kendall, Ln. P. L., Minne- apolis, Minn. Hosmer, Mrs. J. K., Minneapolis, Minn. Hostetter, Lillie, Ln. F. L., Tuscola, 111. Howe, Adelaide, As. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. Hubbard, Anna G., As. and Ref. Ln. State L., Indianapolis, Ind. Huffner, Grace, As. Children's Dept. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Hume, Jessie F., Ln. Queen's Borough L., Long Island City, N. Y. Humphrey, Gertrude Priscilla, Ln. P. S. L., Lansing, Mich. *Hunt, Clara Whitehill, Supt. Children's Dept. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. Huntington, Mary E., As. P. L., New Ro- chelle, N. Y. Hutcheson, David, Supt Reading Room, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Hutchings, Estelle C, Dorchester, Mass. Hyde, Mary E., N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. lies, George, Journalist, Park Ave. Hotel, N. Y. City. Irway, James, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Isaacs, H. W., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Ives, William, Ln. P. L., Buffafo, N. Y. Jackson, Fanny R., Student 111. State L. S., Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, 111. Jackson, Henriette, Ln. P. L., Winnipeg, Can. Jaquith, A. B., Woodstock, Vt. Jaquith, Mrs. Olivia Briggs, Ln. The Nor- man Williams P. L.. Woodstock, Vt. Jenks, Edwin M., N. Y. State L. S., Albany. N. Y. Jennings, Judson T., Sub-In. Ref. N. Y. State L., Albany, N. Y. Johnson, Mrs. Belle H., As. State L. Com- mittee, Hartford, Ct. Johnson, F. B., Library Bureau, N. Y. City. Johnson, Mrs. F. B., Englewood, N. J. Johnson, Mrs. L. H., Organizer P. L. State Committee, Hartford, Ct. Johnson, Ortha Belle, As. Ln. P. L., Leaven- worth, Kan. Johnston, Richard H., As. Reading Room L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Johnston, W. Dawson, L. of Congress, Wash- ington, D. C. Jones, E. Louise, Library Organizer, 91 Sum- mer St., Waltham, Mass. Jones, Gardner Maynard, Ln. P. L., Salem, Mass. Jones, Mrs. G. M., ex-Ln., Salem, Mass. Jones, H. A., Waltham, Mass. Jones, Kathleen, Pratt Inst. L. S., Brook- lyn, N. Y. ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 237 Jones, Ralph Kneeland, Ln. Univ. of Me. L., Orono, Me. Jordan, Alice M., Children's Ln. P. L., Bos- ton, Mass. Josephson, Aksel Gustav Salomon, Cat. The John Crerar L., Chicago, 111. *Jutton, Emma Reed, Univ. of 111. L., Ur- bana, 111. Kates, Clarence S., Tr. F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. Kates, Mrs. C. S., Wynnewood, Pa. Kautz, F. R., Tr. Butler College L., Irving- ton, Ind. Kavana, Harriet W., Somerville, Mass. Kavana, Julia D'W., Ln. P. L., Wendell, Mass. Keller, Helen Rex, As. State L., Des Moines, la. Kellicott, Gertrude S., As State Univ. L., Columbus, O. Kelly, H. T., Tr. P. L., Toronto, Ont. Kelso, Tessa L., Baker & Taylor Co., N. Y. City Kimball,' William C, Tr. P. L., Passaic, N. J. * Kirkland, Marian P., Ln. Cary L., Lexing- ton, Mass. Knapp, Lucie, As. Forbes L., Northampton, Mass. Koch, Theodore Wesley, Catalog Division L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Kraemer, Emma J., As. P. L., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Krauser, Florence G., As. F. L., Philadel- phia, Pa. Krouse, Edna L, Cat. Carnegie L., Alle- gheny, Pa. Krum, Gracie B., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Lamprey, Mary L., Ln. Ames F. L., North Easton, Mass. Langton, Joseph F., As. Ln. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. Larned, Josephus Nelson, ex-Ln., Buffalo, N. Y. Lee, Mary Cornelia, Manhattan, Kan. Lemcke, Ernst, Bookseller, 812 Broadway, N. Y. City. Lemcke, Hildegard, Orange, N. J. Lemcke, Marie, Orange, N. J. Libbie, Frederick J., Book Auctioneer, 646 Washington St., Boston, Mass. Libbie, Mrs. F. J., Dorchester, Mass. Lindsay, Mary Boyden, Ln. F. P. L., Evans- ton, 111. * Lindsey, Anna B., Fall River, Mass. *Lindsey, Eliza, As. P. L., Fall River, Mass. Ling, Katherine G., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Ljungberg, Eline, As. James Prendergast F. L., Jamestown, N. Y. Locke, John F., Shelf Dept. P. L., Boston, Mass. Lord, Isabel Ely, Ln. Bryn Mawr Coll. L., Bryn Mawr, Pa. Love, Mrs. Hattie B., As. James Prendergast F. L., Jamestown, N. Y. Lovell. Thomas B., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Lovenberg, L, Galveston, Tex. Lucas, Rena A., 111. State L. S. Univ. of Illi- nois, Champaign, 111. Lyon, L., Bookseller, 43 King St., Ashta- bula, O. McBrier, Mrs. Elizabeth, Music Division, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. McCabe, M. B., Cat. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. McCarthy, Charles, Wisconsin F. L. Commis- sion, Madison, Wis. McCarthy, Mrs. Charles, Madison, Wis. McColloh, Walter, Niagara Falls, N. Y. McColloh, Mrs. Walter, Niagara Falls, N. Y. McCollough, Ethel, N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. McCurdy, Robert M., N. Y. State L. S., Al- bany, N. Y. McDevitt, Cora E., Bookseller, I Barclay St., N. Y. City. McDonald, Charles F., Niagara Falls, N. Y. McDowell, Grace E., As. P. L., Bushwick Br., Brooklyn, N. Y. McKay, Mabel, N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. * McKee, Rose Thompson, As. P. L., Leaven- worth, Kan. * McKee, Syrena, Ln. P. L., Leavenworth, Kan. McKnight, Herbert, ex-Ln., Albany, N. Y. McLean, S. F., Bookseller, N. Y. City. *McLoney, Ella M., Ln. P. L,, Des Moines, la. MacMahon, Rev. T. H., Director Cathedral L., N. Y. City. McMillan, Elizabeth McNeish, Children's Ln. P. L., Scranton, Pa. MacNair, Mary W., As. L. of Congress,^ Washington, D. C. Macomber, Mary E., Ln. Kellogg-Hubbard L., Montpelier, Vt. Magill, Luella F., As. P. L., Utica, N. Y. Maischows, Florence, Head of Registration, P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Malkan, Henry, Bookseller, N. Y. City. Maltbie, Anne L., Cat. State L., Hartford, Ct. Maltby, Mrs. Adelaide B., Children's Ln. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Mann, Margaret, As. Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Martel, Charles, As. Classifier, L. of Con- gress, Washington, D. C. Martin, Margaret, Niagara Falls. N. Y. Martin, Mary P., Ln. P. L. Assoc., Canton, O. Mattes, Cornelia W., Ref. Ln. P. L., Scran- ton, Pa. Maxwell, Louise, As. Ln. Indiana Univ. L., Bloomington, Ind. Mayo, George E., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Mead, Mrs. Ellen W., Ln. Spalding Mem. L., Athens, Pa. Meleney, George B., Library Bureau, Chi- cago, 111. * Merrill, Bertha H., Book Buyer and Cat. P. L. of Calumet & Hecla Mining Co., Cal- umet, Mich. (Address, 12 Ashburton PI., Boston, Mass.) * Merrill, Mrs. Emily A., Cambridge, Mass. 2 3 8 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. Mery, Sophie A., As. P. L., Toledo, O. Messing, Sara, As. P. L., Indianapolis, Ind. Meyer, Emma, Ln. P. L., Delphi, Ind. Miersch, Ella Emilie, Ln. P. L., Southbridge, Mass. Miller, Zana K., Ln. P. L., Neenah, Wis. Mills, M. Eleanor, 1st As. Travelling Dept. P. L., N. Y. City. Miner, Charlotte Iloskins, Teacher, Roches- ter, N. Y. Mirick, Lilian, Ln. Southworth P. L., Dry- den, N. Y. Monshow, Carrie M., Brooks Memorial L., Dunkirk, N. Y. Montgomery, Thomas Lynch, Ln. State L., Harrisburg, Pa. Montgomery, Mrs. T. L., Harrisburg, Pa. Moody, Henrietta, Ln. Thornton L., Saco, Me. Moore, Evva L., Ln. Scoville Inst., Oak Park, 111. Morgan, Richard F., As. Ln. Grosvenor L., Buffalo, N. Y. Morse, Anna Louise, Ln. Reuben McMillan F. L., Youngstown, O. Morton, Florence, As. P. L., Sidney, O. * Moulton, John Grant, Ln. P. L., Haverhill, Mass. Mullineaux, Mrs. R. H., New Rochelle, N. Y. *Mumford, Rosalie, N. Y. State L. S., Al- bany, N. Y. Murray, Edwin, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Murray, Mary S., As. Ln. P. L., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Nason, Sabra L., Ln. Carleton College L., Northfield, Minn. Neisser, Emma Rittenhouse, Dept. for the Blind, F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. Newcomb, Mrs. Alice, Dorchester, Mass. Newhall, Emma K, Ln. F. >P. L., Saugus, Mass. Newhall, Mrs. Florence M. (Mrs. Henry E.), 56 Rutland Square, Boston, Mass. Newton, E. J., Ln. Robbins L., Arlington, Mass. Nicholson, Carrie, 4009 Lake Ave., Chicago, 111. Nutting, George K, Ln. P. L., Fitchburg, Mass. Nutting, Mrs. G. K, Fitchburg, Mass. Oakley, Minnie M., As. Ln. State Hist. Soc., Madison, Wis. Olcott, Frances Jenkins, Chief Children's Dept. and Director Training School for Children's Librarians, Carnegie L., Pitts- burgh, Pa. Olmstead, E. F., Bureau of Conventions, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Olmstead, Mrs. E. F., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Onnen, M. F., Bookseller, The Hague, Hol- land. Osborn, Mrs. Anna F., Tr. P. L., Hartland, Me. * Osborn, Lyman P., Ln. Peabody Inst., Pea- body, Mass. * Osborn, Mrs. Lyman P., Curator and Ln. Peabody Hist. Soc., Peabody, Mass. Ostertag, Blanche, Chicago, 111. Owen, Esther B., Ref. As. P. L., Hartford, Ct. Paddack, Alice, Ln. Amer. Book Co. L., Cin- cinnati, O. Parker, N. B. H., Library Bureau, N. Y. City. Parker, Mrs. N. B. H., N. Y. City. Parker, Phebe, Ln. Sage L., West Bay City, Mich. Parsons, Emma, Cleveland, O. Parson, Harry N., As. Sch. Dept. P. L., Buf- falo, N. Y. * Parsons, Henry S., Cat. Office Supt. of Doc- uments, Washington, D. C. Partch, Isa L., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Patenaude, Rose Euphrosyne, Ln. Peter White P. L., Marquette, Mich. Patten, Frank C., Ln. Rosenberg L. Assoc., Galveston, Tex. Pearson, Edmund L., N. Y. State L. S., Al- bany, N. Y. Pease, C. Grace, Ln. Field Memorial L., Ccn- way, Mass. Peckham, George W., Ln. P. L., Milwaukee, Wis. Pendleton, Amena, Training Sch. for Chil- dren's Lrts., Pittsburgh, Pa. Peoples, William Thaddeus, Ln. Mercantile L, N. Y. City. Perley, Clarence W., L. of Congress, Wash- ington, D. C. Perry, Everett Robbins, Student N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Perry, Mrs. Jessie Booth (Mrs. Chesley Rey- nolds), As. P. L., Chicago, 111. Peters, Orpha Maud, N. Y. State L. S., Al- bany. N. Y. Pettee, Julia E., As. Vassar College L., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. Pierce, Frances M., Ln. Fletcher Memorial L., Ludlow, Vt. Plummet, Helen L., As. Ln. of Congress, Washington, D. C. * Plummer, Mary Wright, Director Pratt Inst. F. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. Pollard, Annie V., Ln. P. L., Louisville, Ky. Poray, Aniela H., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Porter, Annabelle, Children's Ln., West End Branch, Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Porter, P. A., Buffalo, N. Y. Potter, Mrs. E. H., Pres. Bd. of Tr. P. L., Tyler, Tex. Power, Effie Louise, Children's Ln. P. L., Cleveland, O. Preston, Nina Kate, Ionia, Mich. Price, Helen Underwood, Children's Ln., Car- negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Pulsy, Henry D., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Putnam, Beatrice, Ln. F. P. L., Uxbridge, Mass. Putnam, Herbert, Ln. L. of Congress, Wash- ington, D. C. ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 239 * Quimby, Cora A., Ln. P. L., Winchester, Mass. * Rabardy, Etta L., As. Boston Athenaeum, Boston, Mass. Randall, Bertha T., Instructor 111. State L. S., Univ. of Illinois, Champaign, 111. * Rankin, Julia Toombs, As. Carnegie L., At- lanta, Ga. Rathbone, Francis L., Student Pratt Inst. L. S., Brooklyn, N. Y. Rathbone, Georgia W., As. Children's Dept. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Read, Albert C, Ln. P. L., El Paso, Tex. Redfield, Jennie L., As. P. L., Bay City, Mich. Reed, Susan H., As. P. L., Harlem Br., N. Y. City. Reeder, Louise M., Ln. P. S. L., Williams- port, Pa. Reichel, Mary J., Ln. P. L., Bethlehem, Pa. Reid, Margaret, Paisley, Scotland. Reinmuller, G. W., As. L. of Congress, Wash- ington, D. C. Remmer, Mary E., As. P. L., Chicago, 111. Reynolds, Georgia H., Ln. Travelling L., P. L. Commission, Indianapolis, Ind. Reynolds, Thomas, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Rhodes, Mrs. Benjamin, Niagara Falls, N. Y. *Rice, H. R., Lowell, Mass. *Rice, Mrs. H. R., Lowell, Mass. * Richardson, Cass, E. P. Dutton & Co., N. Y. City. Richardson, Dr. Ernest Gushing, Ln. Prince- ton Univ. L., Princeton, N. J. Richmond, Henry, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Richmond, Henry A., ex-Tr., Buffalo, N. Y. Ridgway, Edith, Chief Cat. Branches F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. Robbins, Mary Esther, Instructor Library Science Simmons Coll., 45 St. Botolph St., Boston, Mass. Roberts, Flora B., As. State L., Lansing, Mich. Roberts, Harriet P., Libary Bureau, Boston, Mass. Roden, Carl B., Supt. Ordering Dept. P. L., Chicago, 111. Root, Azariah Smith, Ln. Oberlin Coll. L., Oberlin, O. Root, Mrs. Mary Elizabeth Stafford, Chil- dren's Ln. P. L., Providence, R. I. Rose, Grace Delphine, Head Open Shelf Dept. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Rosenmuller, Anne, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Rushworth, Mabel Lois, As. S Dept. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Saffell, C. C, Baltimore Book Co., Balti- more, Md. Saleski, Mary, N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Sanborn, Alice Evelyn, Ln. Wells Coll. L, Aurora, N. Y. Sargent, Abby L., Ref. Ln. P. L., Medford, Mass. Sargent, Mary E., Ln. P. L.. Medford, Mass. Savage, Agnes, As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. * Saxe, Mary S., Ln. P. L., Westmount, Can- ada. Schaff, Mae Beatrice, As. State L., Columbus, O. Schanzlin. Bessie, As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Schmidt, Alfred F. W., Catalog Division L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Schoeneweiss, Louise, As. State L., Columbus, O. Scott, Beulah A., As. Grosvenor L., Buffalo, N. Y. Scott, Mrs. Frances H., Ln. Mich Coll. of Mines, Houghton, Mich. Scovell, J. Boardman, Pres. F. L., Lewiston, N. Y. Seaver, Susan R., Boston, Mass. Seemann, Samuel, Care William G. Johnston & Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. Selden, E. C, As. P. L., Duluth, Minn. Severence, H. O., As. Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. Sewall, Willis F., Grolier Club, N. Y. City. Sharp, Katharine Lucinda, Head Ln. and Di- rector L. S. Univ. of 111., Urbana, 111. Shattuck, Helen B., City L., Springfield, Mass. Shaw, Laurence M., As. P. L., Providence, R. I. Shawhan, Gertrude, Instructor L. Manage- ment, Kansas State Normal School, Em- poria, Kan. Sheldon, Sara Palmer, As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Shepard, George G., Local Committee, Niag- ara Falls, N. Y. Shepard, George R., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Shepard, Mary G., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Shiels, Effie H., L. Club, Buffalo, N. Y. Shryock, Mabel, Ln. Carnegie L., Mt. Wash- ington Br., Pittsburgh, Pa. Sibley, Mrs. Mary J., As. Ln. and Assoc. Prof, of Bibliography, Syracuse Univ. L., Syracuse, N. Y. Simpson, Frances, Head Cat. Univ. of 111. L., Champaign, 111. Sinclair, Annie L., As. Cat. Division, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Slauson, Allan B., Chief Periodical Division L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Smith, A. Elizabeth, Ln. Southside L. P. L., Cleveland, O. * Smith, Abbie C., Lexington, Mass. Smith, Adele, As. Ln. P. L., Somerville, Mass. Smith, Charles W., Ln. P. L., Seattle, Wash. Smith, Cornelia G., Ln. P. L., Warren, O. Smith, Edith M., As. Carnegie L., Pitts- burgh, Pa. * Smith, Elva S., As. Carnegie L., Pitts- burgh, Pa. Smith, Goldwin, Toronto, Canada. Smith, Marie M., Children's Ln. Lawrence- ville Br. Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. * Smith, Martha Putnam, Ln. P. L., Beverly, Mass. Smith, Nellie M., As. Dyer L., Saco, Me. 240 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. Smith, T. Guilford, Regent Univ. of State of N. Y., Buffalo, N. Y. Soule, Martha N., Ln. State Normal School, Hyannis, Mass. Spangler, Louise, Chambersburg, Pa. Spellman, Lorinda B., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. Spencer, Mrs. Mary C, Ln. State L., Lan- sing, Mich. Stackus, Edith Chatham, Children's L. Sey- mour L., Auburn, N. Y. Standbridge, Mary E., Ln. William Ives Br. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Staton, Frances M., Ref. Dept. P. L., Toronto, Ont. Stearns, Alice Imogene, Milwaukee, Wis. Stearns, Lutie E., Wis. F. L. Commission, Madison, Wis. * Stechert, Mrs. Gustav, N. Y. City. * Steiner, Dr. Bernard Christian, Ln. Enoch Pratt F. L., Baltimore, Md. Steinman, Elizabeth, Ln. P. L., Grand Rap- ids, Mich. Stern, Renee B., 5515 Woodlawn Ave., Chi- cago, 111. Stetson, Willis Kimball, Ln. F. P L., New Haven, Ct Stetson, Mrs. W. K., New Haven, Ct. Stevens, Mrs. Alice F., Catalog Division L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Stevens, Bertha V., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. .Stevens, Frank W., Jamestown, N. Y. Stevens, Margaret K., Jamestown, N. Y. * Stevenson, Mabel, Supervisor of Work with Schools, Carnegie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. Stewart, Rose Gemmill, Cat. F. L., Philadel- phia, Pa. Stone, George, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Strickland, Edward Dinwoodie, As. Sec'y Buf- falo Hist. Soc., Buffalo, N. Y. Strohm, Adam, Ln. P. L., Trenton, N. J. Sutliff, Helen B., Classifier and Cat. Kansas State Univ. L., Lawrence, Kan. Swan, Mrs. William G., Tr. Swan L., Al- bion, N. Y. Taber, Esther, Sec'y Vermont F. P. L. Com- mission, Burlington, Vt. Taylor, Ida M., Cat. City L., Springfield, Mass. Taylor, R. A., Niagara Falls, N. Y. * Temple, Mabel, Ln. P. L., North Adams, Mass. Thayer, Charles Snow, Ln. Case Memorial . L., Hartford, Ct. Thayer Maude, As. Ln. 111. State L., Spring- field, 111. Thwaites, Reuben Gold, Sec'y and Supt. State Hist. Soc., Madison, Wis. Tobitt, Edith, Ln. P. L., Omaha, Neb. Todd, Mary E., As. P. L., Syracuse, N. Y. Tompkins, Kathleen, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Tompkins, Marion V., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Tutt, Helen, Cat. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. Tuttle, W. E., Local Committee, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Tyler, Philippa E., N. Y. City. Underwood, F. J., General Fire-proofing Co., N. Y. City. Upleger, Margaret C., Ln. P. L., Mt. Clem- ens, Mich. Utley, G. B., Jr., Maryland Diocesan L., Bal- timore, Md Utley, Mrs. G. B., Jr., Baltimore, Md. Utley, Henry M., Ln. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Van Duzee, Edward P., Ln. Grosvenor L., Buffalo, N. Y. Van Duzee, Mrs. E. P., Buffalo, N. Y. Van Hoevenberg, Elizabeth, Ln. Ferguson L., Stamford, Ct. Van Peyma, C. J., As. N. Y. State L., Albany, N. Y. Van Scoter, William B., Ln. Y. M. C. A. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Virgin, E. H., As. Harvard Coll. L., Cam- bridge, Mass. Wadlin, Horace G., Ln. P. L., Boston, Mass. Wagner, Sula, Chief Cat. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. Wait, Marie Fox, Ln. Longstreet L., Peddie Inst, Hightstown, N. J. Waldo, Celia F., Ln. P. L., Jackson, Mich. Walker, Mrs. Dora P., North Cambridge, Mass. Wallace, Mrs. F. W., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Ward, Helen M., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. Ward, Langdon L., Supervisor of Branches P. L., Boston, Mass. Warner, Alice MacDougal, As. Syracuse Univ. L., Syracuse, N. Y. Warner, Nannie Morison, As. P. L., New Haven, Ct. Warren, Mrs., Ln. P. L., North Tonawanda, N. Y. Waters, Caroline E., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. Watson, Carrie M., Ln. Univ. of Kan. L., Lawrence, Kan. Watson, Jessie McLeish, Catalog Division L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Watson, William Richard, As. Ln. Carnegie L.. Pittsburgh, Pa. Watts, Florence A., As. Osterhout F. L., Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Weber, Mrs. Jessie P., 111. Hist. Soc. L., Springfield, 111. Weber, Miss, Springfield, 111. Weeks, Fred Boughton, Ln. U. S. Geol. Sur- vey, Washington, D. C. Welch, Ellen, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Welch, T. V., Chairman Local Committee, Niagara Falls, N. Y. Wellman, Hiller C, Ln. City L., Springfield, Mass. * Welsh, Robert Gilbert, with Chas. Scrib- ner's Sons, N. Y. City Westcoat, Lula M., As P. L., St. Louis, Mo. Wessels, A., Pres. A. Wessels Co., N. Y. City. Wharton, Sarah P., As. Periodical Dept. L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. * White, Alice G., Cat. Thomas Crane P. L., Quincy, Mass. White, Andrew Curtis, As. Ln. Cornell Univ. L., Ithaca, N. Y. ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 241 White, Cornelia C, Cat. Seminary L., Caze- novia, N. Y. White, E. R., Niagara Falls Gazette, Niagara Falls, N. Y. White, Eugene, Niagara Falls, N. Y. White, Gertrude Fitch, Children's Ln. F. P. L., New Haven, Ct. White, Marinda S., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Whitney, Mrs. Carrie Westlake, Ln. P. L., Kansas City, Mo. Whitten, Robert H, Sociology Ln. State L., Albany, N. Y. Whittlesey, Julia Margaret, Student N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Wicoff, S. L., Tr. P. L., Sindey, O. Wicoff, Mrs. S. L., Sidney, O. Wightman, Alice G., As. P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. Wilbur, Amey C, Substitute P. L., Provi- dence, R. I. Wilbur, Mary J., As. P. L., Providence, R. I. Williams, E. T., Cataract Journal, Niagara Falls, N. Y. * Williams, Lizzie Annie, Ln. P. L., Maiden, Mass. Williams, Mary, ex-Ln., Brookline, Mass. Williams, Rufus P., Teacher, Cambridge, Mass. Williams, Mrs. Rufus P., North Cambridge, Mass. Wilson, Halsey W., Minneapolis, Minn. Windsor, Phineas Lawrence, Chief of Index and Catalog Division, Copyright Office, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. Windsor, Mrs. P. L., Washington, D. C. Winser, Beatrice, As. Ln. F. P. L., Newark, N. J. * Wire, Dr. G. F., Deputy Ln. Worcester Co. Law L., Worcester, Mass. * Wire, Mrs. G. E., Worcester, Mass. Witmar, Jennie A., As. P. L., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Wolle, Grace A., Pres, Tr. P. L,, Bethlehem, Pa. Wood, Frederick C., Head Cat. Grosvenor L., Buffalo, N. Y. Wood, Mildred C, Ln. Woodland Br. P. L., Cleveland, O. Woodcock, Anna S., As. Grosvenor L., Buf- falo, N. Y. Woodman, Mary S., As. P. L., Somerville, Mass. Woodmansee, Ralph C., As. Univ. of Illinois L., Champaign, 111. Woods, Catharine J., As. P. L., Niagara Falls, N. Y. Wright, Ada, Ref. Ln. P. L., Syracuse, N. Y. * Wright, Jennie C, As. P. L., Milton, Mass. Wright, Margaret, Ln. P. L., Lewiston, N. Y. Wright, Mary M., Lewiston, N. Y. * Wright, Purd B., Ln. F. P. L., St. Joseph, Mo. *Wyer, James Ingersoll, Jr., Ln. Univ. of Neb. L., Lincoln, Neb. *Wyer, Malcolm Glenn, N. Y. State L. S., Albany, N. Y. Wyman, A. L., Manager Library Dept. Li- brary Bureau, Boston, Mass. Wyman, Mrs. A. L., Boston, Mass. Young, Hester, Cat. Univ. of Toronto L., Toronto, Can. Yust, William Frederick, As. State Inspector of Libraries, N. Y. State L., Albany, N. Y. Zimmerman, W. F., A. C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 111. 242 NIAGARA CONFERENCE. ATTENDANCE SUMMARIES. BY NINA E. BROWNE, REGISTRAR; SECRETARY A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD. BY POSITION AND SEX. BY STATES. M Trustees and commissioners. Chief librarians en. Wo 14 80 52 34 7 So lien. II 106 205 6 26 93 Total. 25 186 257 40 33 143 Me 7 Ind ... 12 N H i Ill ... 39 Vt 9 Mich ... 27 Mass 85 Wis . ... 16 Library school students R. I ii Minn 7 Others f7 Tfl N. Y .. 21"? Mo 10 Total 237 CTIONS 447 684 419 56 6 162 12 2 18 5 i i 2 Pa 56 Kan 7 BY GEOGRAPHICAL SE 9 of the 9 No. Atlantic states 5 " 9 So. Atlantic states 3 " 8 Gulf states 8 " 8 Lake states 3 " 8 Western states 2 " 8 Pacific states Canada England Scotland Holland Switzerland N. T.. 18 Neb 4 Del ...... ii Col i Md 5 Or .. .. I (i D C 'y Wash i fi Va. j I Trtfol tt Ga 2 fi:*? if tt Tex 4 Foreign . . . .... 057 27 Tenn I 684 Kv i a o At Total. 684 INDEX. The colon after the initial of a given name means that it is the most common name beginning with that initial, as A: Augustus ; B: Benjamin ; C: Charles ; D: David ; E: Edward ; F: Frederick ; G: George ; H: Henry ; I: Isaac ; J: John ; K: Karl ; L: Louis; R: Richard ; S: Samuel ; T: Thomas; W: William. Abbatt, W:, 232. Abbott, Mary Ethel, 232. Abell, Mrs. M. E., necrology, 130. Achilles, Lillian A., 232. Ahern, Mary Eileen, 232. Alabama, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 112. Alaska, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 124. Albro, Marion L., 232. Albro, Sarah E., 232. Ambler, Sarah, 232. Ambrose, Lodilla, 232. American L. Assoc., president's address (Hosmer), 3-8; head- quarters proposed for (lies), 24-28, 160, (Canfield) 160-161, (Lamed) 161-162, (Richardson) 162, (Putnam) 163-165, (Coun- cil) 225; rpt. on gifts and be- quests (Harrison), 111-126, 133; secretary's rpt., 127-128; treas- urer's rpt., 128-128; necrology, 130-131; rpt. of trustees of en- dowment fund, 131-132; rpt. of com. on resolutions, 168; elec- tion of officers, 169; 1904 meet- ing at St. Louis Exposition, 151, (Putnam) 169, (Council) 225; changes in by-laws, 224; resolu- tion on commercial advertising, 225-226; international catalog- ing, 226; delegates to L. A. U. K. meeting, 226; communication from Friends' Press Assoc., 226; reports of section meetings authorized, 226; ass't secretaries, 226; non-lib, membership, 226; appointments to committees, 226; social side (Rathbone) 227-228; adventures of post conference, 228-231; officers and committees serving during conference, 231- 232 ; attendance register, 232- 241; attendance summaries (Browne), 242. A. L. A. catalog, (Fletcher) 107- 108. A. L. A. Catalog Section, proceed- ings, 176-194. A. L. A. Childrens" Librarians' Section, proceedings, 208-218. A. L. A. College and Reference Section, proceedings, 170-176. A. L. A. council, rpt. to assoc., i33i iSii transactions, 224-226; rpt. and by-laws on method of nomination, 224. A. L. A. endowment fund, rpt., 131-132; G: W. Williams trus- tee, 169. A. L. A. index, (Fletcher) 108. A. L. A. Publishing Board, rpt., (Fletcher) 107-110, 133; plans of, (Fletcher) 165; appointments to, 226. A. L. A. State Library Commis- sions Section, 219-223. A. L. A. Trustees' Section, pro- ceedings, 195-205. Ames, Sara H., 232. Anderson, E. H., 232; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. training, 83- 101; co-operative catalog cards for children's books, 165-166. Anderson, J: R., 232. Andrew, Mrs. Kate Deane, 232. Andrews, C. W., 232; co-operative work of John Crerar L., 166-167. Andrews, Grace K., 232. Anson, W. H., 232. Apprentice classes in libs. (A. L. A. com. on lib. training), 92-94. Art. See Mural decoration. Askew, Sarah, 232. Austen, Willard, 232; forms of heading for public documents, 185-186; unused Christian names, 194. Babine, Alexis V., 232. Bache, Mrs. Dallas, 232. Bailey, A. L., 232. Bain, Ja., 232. Baldwin, Emma V., 232. Baritot, Alice M., 232. Barnum, Mrs. Adele B., 232. Barrows, Rev. W:, 232. Barton, Philip, 232. Bate, Florence E., 233. Baumer, Bertha, 233. Beach, Harriet A., 233. Benham, Mrs. N. L., 233. Berry, C. Harold, 233. Berry, Silas Hurd, 233. Betteridge, Grace L., 233. Bibliography, college courses in (A. L. A. com. on lib. training), Billings', Dr. J: S., A. L. A. dele- gate to L. A. U. K. meeting, 226. Bishop, Frances A., 233. Bishop, W: W., 233; forms of headings for pub. documents, 184; L. of Congress printed cat- alog cards, 192-193. Blackwell, R. J., 233. Boardman, Alice, 233. Bogardus, J: D., 233. Bogle, Sarah C. N., 233. Bolton, C: K., on finance com., 226. Books, treatment according to use, (Hosmer) 3-4, (Lane) 9-16, 170, (Foster) 17-19, 173, (Burton) 19-23, 173, (Canfield) 170-172, (A. L. A. Coll. and Ref. dis- cussion) 170-175; greater free- dom in use of (Gaillard), 38-- 39, 156. See also Children's books; Duplicate pay collections; Fiction. Booktrade, rpt. of A. L. A. com. on relations of libs, to, 134-135; relation to libs, of net system, (Zimmerman) 136-140, (A. L. A. discussion) 140-150, (A. L. A. Council) 151, 156, 225, (Wright resolution) 151, (A. L. A. discussion) 151-152. Bostwick, A. E., 233; purchase of current fiction, 31-33, 156; weak points in lib. statistics, 81-82, 160; duplicate pay collections, I 57> r Pt- of com. on title-pages to periodicals, 164-165; L. of Congress printed catalog cards, 193; unused Christian names, 194; lay control in libraries and elsewhere, 199-202. Bowerman, G: F., 233. Boyd, E: J., 233. Bradley, Harry E., 2. Bradley, I: S., 233. Bradley, Mrs. I: S., 233. Bradley, Mabel J., 233. Braegger, Emmy, 233. Braley, Esther, 233. Breckenridge, Mrs. S. M., 233. Brett, Clara Amelia, 233. Brett, W: H., 233. Briggs, Mary J., 233. Brigham, H. Eleanor, 233. Brigham, Johnson, 233; objection to change in program, 152; lib. training, 153; lib. buildings, 220-22 1. Brigham, Mrs. Johnson, 233. Brooks, Henrietta St. Barbe, 233. Brow, Bessie B., 233. Brown, C: Harvey, 233. Brown, Eurydice, 233. Brown, Gertrude Le Roy, 233. Brown, Walter L., 233. Browne, Nina E., 233; attendance summaries, 242. Brownlee, Rev. R. C., 233. Brownlee, Mrs. R. C., 233. Brownlee, S. H., 233. Buchanan, H: C., 233. Buchanan, Mrs. H: C, 233. Budington, Margaret, 233. Buildings, library, plans for Univ. of Chic. L. (Burton), 19-23; should be supervised by lib. commissions (Brigham, Stearns), 220-22 1. Bullock, Waller Irene, 233. Bunker, Mabel E., 233. Bunting, Helen M., 233. Burnett, Martha Alice, 233. Burnite, Caroline, 233 ; youngest children and their books, 215- 217. Burns, W: S., 233. Burpee, Lawrence J., 233. Burrows, Dorothy E., 233. Burton, E. D., 233; treatment of boo_ks according to amount of their use, 19-23, 173 Bushnell, Stella M., 233. Butters, Mary, 233. Cady, Anita L., 233. California, lib. gifts to son), 112. Campbell, J. Maud, 233; the small city lib., 50-52, 224. Campbell, Margaret, 233. Canada, public libraries in (Lang- ton), 43-46, 1 68; lib. gifts to (Harrison), 124-125. (Harri- 244 INDEX. Canadian reading camp movement (Hardy), 223. Canfield, Ja. H., 233; headquar- ters for A. L. A., 160-161; coun- cillor A. L. A., 169; treatment of books according to amount of use, 170-172; com. on custom- house rules, 226. Canthard, Lola A., 233. Carey, Miriam Eliza, 233. Carnegie, And., lib. gifts, 1902- 1903 (Harrison), 111-126. Carnegie L. of Pittsburgh train- ing school for children's libns., sketch of, 100-101. Carr, H: J., 233; in memoriam Hannah P. James, 133; com. on relation of libs, to booktrade, 135; forms of heading for gov. documents, 184. Carr, Mrs. H: J., 233. Carter, Emeline, 233. Carter, Lucy L., 233. Carver, Leonard D., 233. Gary, Eugene, 233. Cataloging of children's books (Collar) 57-68, (Mann) 214- 215; of public documents, (Hasse), 176-177, (A. L. A. Catalog Section discussion) 178- 188, (Thomson) 188-190. See also International cataloging; Printed catalog cards. Cathcart, Maude, 234. Centralization of library activities (A. L. A. discussion), 160-164. Chamberlain, F. W., 233. Chamberlain, Rose Elder, 233. Champion, Marietta Kay, 233. Chandler, Ellen M., 233. Chandler, Isabel S., 233. Chapman, Grace P., 233. Chase, Adelaide M., 233. Chase, Arthur Horace, 233. Chase, Jessie C., 233. Children, lib. work with (Hunt), 53-56, (Burnite) 215-217, (Pow- er) 217, (Root) 217-218. Children's books, classification and cataloging of (Collar), 57-68, (Mann) 214; printed catalog cards for (Anderson), 165-166; rpt. of Section com. on list of (Moore), 206-208; of 1902 (Stanley), 208-210, (Sargent 211-212; for youngest children (Burnite), 215-217. Children's Librarians' Section of A. L. A., proceedings, 206-218. Children's Librarians' Training School, Carnegie L. of Pitts- burgh, IOO-IOI. Chivers, Cedric, 233. Christey, Ella G., 233. City library, the small (Campbell), 50-52- Clapp, Nellie M., 233. Clark, Josephine, 234; sec. A. L. A. Catalog Section, 194. Clarke, Edith E., 233; form of heading for gov. documents, 187. Clarke, Eliz. P., 234. Clarke, Emily, lib. training from standpoint of previous practical experience, 154-155. Clarke, Dr. Ida, 234. Classification of children's books (Collar), 57-68, (Mann) 214-215. Clatworthy, Linda M., 234. Coignon, Caroline, 234. Coit, C: W., 234. Coit, Emily S., 234. Cole, Jessie H., 234. Cole, Theodore Lee, 234. Collar, Mildred A., 234; classifi- cation and cataloging of chil- dren's books, 57-68, 214. Colorado, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 113- Commercial circulating libraries (Hopkins), 156, (A. L. A. dis- cussion) 157-159. Congressional Record, improved in- dex desired (A. L. A. com. on public documents), 103-104. Connecticut, lib. gifts to (Harri- son), 113. Co-operation. See International co-operation. Co-operative work of L. of Con- gress (Putnam), 162-164; cata- log cards for children's books (Anderson), 165-166; of John Crerar L. (Andrews), 166-167. See also Centralization. Corey, D. P., 234; purpose of A. L. A. Trustees' Section, 195, 204; chairman A. L. A. Trus- tees' Section, 205. Corey, Mrs. D. P., 234. Corkery, Mary E., 234. Correspondence courses in lib. training (A. L. A. com. on lib. training), 96-97. Country library (Fison), 47-50. Countryman, Gratia, councillor A. L. A., 169. Cowper, G:, 234. Crafts, Lettie M., 234; aims of A. L. A. Trustees' Section, 202-203. Crandall, F. A., 234. Crane, Walter, necrology, 130. Graver, H. W., 234. Crerar L., co-operative work of (Andrews), 166-167. Crocker, Eloise H., 234. Crunden, F: M., 234; in memo- riam Hannah P. James, 133; lib. training, 155; duplicate pay collections, 157, 159. Cullis, Edna M., 234. Curran, Mrs. Mary H., 234. Currier, Dr. A. F., 234. Custom house rules regarding printed matter, com. on, 226. Dailey, Mrs. Mary E., 234. Dame, Katherine, 234. Damon, Lalia Mae, 234. Dana, J: C., 234; place of fiction in public lib., 36-37, 156; dupli- cate pay collections and com- mercial libs., 158-159. Darlington, Genevieve, 234. Darlington, Herbert, 234. Davis, Eva B., 234. Davis, Mary L., 234. Day, Anna Bounell, 234. Delaware, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 113- Demmg, Mary, 234. Denison, G: A., 234. Dennison, B. B., 234. Dewey, Melvil, 234; com. on lib. training asked to define stand- ards, 155; duplicate pay collec- tions, 156, 159; chairman A. L. A. State L. Com. Section, 223. De Witt, Clinton, necrology, 130. Dewey, Melvil, 234. Dickinson, A. Don, 234. Dickson, Helen S., 234. Dielman, L. H., 234. Discount to libs. See Booktrade. District of Columbia, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 113. Doane, W: H., 234. Doanc, Mrs. W: H., 234. Dodd, Helen P., 234. Donnelly, June R., 234. Doren, Electra Collins, 234. Doren, Elizabeth B.,"234. Douglass, Matthew Hale, 234. Dousman, Mary Ella, 234. Dowling, Katherine J., 234. Downey, Mary Elizabeth, 234. Draper, Annie E., 234. Drexel Institute L. School, sketch of, 99. Drummond, W: H., reading from "The habitant," 169. Drury, Francis K. W., 234. Dudley, C: R., 234; councillor A. L. A., 169. Duel, A., 234. Dunlap, Margaret, 234. Dunlap, Orrin, 234. Dunsford, Ruth E., 234. Duplicate pay collections of popu- lar books (Wright), 40-41, 156, (Langtpn) 41-42, 156, (A. L. A. discussion 156-159. Durdan, Mabel M., 234. Durham, Josephine E., 234. Dyer, M. F., 234. Eakins, W: G:, 234. Eames, Wilberforce, 234. Earhart, Frances E., 234. Earl, Mrs. Elizabeth C., 234. Eastman, W: R., 234; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. administra- tion, 1-76, 159; duplicate pay collections, 156. Eaton, Harriett L., 234. Edwards, Grace Osborne, 234. Eliot, C: W., storage method for books not in use (Hosmer), 3- 4, (Lane) 9-16, (Foster 17-19, (Burton) 19-23, (Canfield) 170- 172 (A. L. A. Coll. and Ref. discussion) 173-175. Elliott, Agnes M., 234. Elliott, Julia E., 234. Elmendorf, H: L., 234; A L. A. com. on relations of libs, to booktrade, 135; net-price system, 146; lib. training rpt., 155; treatment of books according to amount of their use, 174. Elmendorf, Mrs. H: L., 234. Elston, Catherine Impey, 234. Emerson, Mabel E., 234. Engle, Emma Robinson, 234. English libraries as seen by an Amer. libn. (Hodges), 134. Ensign, Katherine W., 234. F.rwin, Mrs. Julia G., 234. Eschwege, Herman, 234. Eschwege, Mrs. Herman, 234. Eschwege, Miss, 234. Estabrooke, Mrs.' Kate C., 234. Eustis, G: H., 235. Eustis, Harriet Sigorney, 235. Evans, Jane A., 235. Fairbanks, E: T., 235. Fairchild, Rev. Edwin Milton, 235. Fairchild, Mrs. S. C., 235; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. train- ing, 83-101; delegate to L. A. U. K. meeting, 226. Falkner, R. P., 235; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on public docu- ments, 102-106, 133; forms of heading for pub. documents, 184-185. Farr, Mary Parry, 235. Faxon, F: W., 235. Faxon, Mrs. F: W., 235. Fellows, Jennie Dorcas, 235. Ferrell, L. C., headings for pub. documents, 181-182. Fichtenkam, Alice, 234; letter from L. C. Ferrell on headings for pub. documents, 181-182; printed catalog cards for gov. documents, 187-188. Fichtenkam, Mrs_. M. C., 234. Fiction, in public libs (Hosmer), 4-7, (Lord) 28-31, 156, (Bost- INDEX. wick) 31-33, 156, (Steiner) 33- 35, 156, (Dana) 36-37, 156. See also Duplicate pay collections. Field, Mrs. Aaron, 235. Field, Hamilton Easter, 235. Field, Herbert Haviland, 235. Field, Mrs. Herbert Haviland, 235. Finney, B. A., 235. Finney, Mrs. B. A., 235. Fison, Gertrude S., 235. Fispn, H. W., 235; the country lib., 47-50, 224. Fletcher, F. R., 235. Fletcher, W: I:, 235; rpt. of A. L. A. Publishing Board, 107- 110; rpt. com. on title-pages to periodicals, 164-165; plans of Pub. Board, 165; chairman A. L. A. College and Ref. Section, 175- Forbes, R. J., 235. Foreign documents, rpt. of A. L. A. com. on (Gould), 132. Foss, Sam Walter, 235. Foster, W: E., 235; treatment of books according to amount of their use, 17-19, 173; essentials of a lib. rpt., 76-81, 160; on finance com., 226. Frankenberg, Pearle, 235. Friedman, Joseph B., 235. Friends' Press Assoc., communi- cation to A. L. A., 226. Frothingham, Mabel Augusta, 235. Fuller, Frances Howard, 235. Fulton, Mrs. Bertrice S., 235. Gaillard, E. W., 235; greater free- dom in the use of books, 38-39, 156; essentials of a lib. rpt., 160. Galbreath, C: B., 235. Galbreath, Mrs. C: B., 235. Gale, Mary E., 235. Gardner, Eva S., 235. Gardner, Jane E., 235. Gartland, Ella B., 235. Gay, F. B., 235; forms of head- ings for pub. documents, 184; unused Christian names, 194. Geist, A., 235. Georgia, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 113-114. Gerould, J. T., 235; treatment of books according to amount of their use, 175; sec. A. L. A. Coll. and Ref. Sec., 175. Gibson, Irene, 235. Gifts and bequests, A. L. A. rpt. on (Harrison), 111-126, 133 Gilkey. Malina A., 235. Gillespie, Edith A., 235. Godard, G: S., 235. Godard, Mrs. G: S., 235. Goddard, E: M., 235. Coding, Sarah E., 235. Gooch, Harriet Bell, 235. Gould, C. H., 235; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on foreign documents, 133; treatment of books accord- ing to amount of their use, 173- 174. Gould, H. A., 235. Government documents. See Pub- lic documents. Graham, Emma, 235. Graham, Robert H., 235. Grant, Mrs. G: P., 235. Gray, Mrs. J:, 235. Great Britain, Carnegie lib. gifts to (Harrison), 125. Grierson, Mrs. E. S., 235. Greenwood, S:, 235. Griffith, Anna Elliott, 235. Groves, Charlotte E., 235. Gutman, Josephine L., 235. Hadley, Anna, 235. Hafner, Alfred, 235. Hagar, Sarah C., 235. Hagey, Emma Joanna, 235. Hague, The, Carnegie gift for Tample of Peace (Harrison), 125- Haines, Helen E., 235; recorder A. L. A., 169; on program com., 226. Hall, Drew Bert, 235. Hall, Ethelwyn B., 235. Hall, Florence S., 235. Halsey, Francis W., 235. Hancock, J: M., 236. Handbook of American libs., com. on discharged, 169. Hanson, J. C. M., 236; forms of headings for public documents, 178-181, 1 86; printed catalog cards for L. of Congress, 189- 192. Hardy, E. A.. 236; aims of A. L. A. Trustees' Section, 205 ; Can- adian reading camp movement, 223. Hardy, Mrs. E. A., 236. Harper, H: S., 236. Harris, G: W., 236; treatment of books according to amount of their use, 174-175. Harrison, J. L., A. L. A. rpt. on gifts and bequests, 111-126. Harvey, Cecil, necrology, 131. Hasse, Adelaide R., 236; on A. L. A. com. on resolutions, 133; cat- aloging of gov. documents, 176- 177, 186-187, 188. Hastings, C. H., 236; distribu- tion of L. of Congress catalog cards, 188. Haven, Georgetta, 236. Hawkins, Jean, 236. Hawley, Mrs. Eva N., 236. Hawlay, Josephine, 236. Haynes, Emily M., 236. Haynes, Jeanne, 236. Hazeltine, Alice I., 236. Hazeltine, Mary E., 236; relation of libs, to booktrade, 142-143. Heard, Mrs. E. B., 236; railroad travelling libs., 222-223. Heaton, Florence J., 236. Heatwole, Mrs. Ella R., 236. Hegl, William P., 236. Henderson, Mrs. Kate A., 236. Henderson, Lucia T., 236. Hendricks, Minnie, 236. Henry, W: E., 236; chief duty of board of trustees, 195-197. Hensel, Martin, 236. Hepburn, Susie B., 236. Hepburn, W: Murray, 236. Herron, Sarah, 236. Hjld, F: H., 236. Hill, Frank Pierce, 236. Hill, Mrs. Frank Pierce, 236. Hills, Mrs. Agnes, 236. Hine, J. William, 236. Hoagland, Merica, 236. Hodge, Mrs. Harriet Evans, 236. Hodge, Louisa A., 236. Hodges, N. D. C., 236; notes on Eng. libs., 134; custom-house rules regarding printed matter, 226. Hooper, Louisa, 236. Hopkins, Anderson, H., 236; rela- tions of libs, to booktrade, 144- 146, 148, 149-150, 151, 152; com. on lib. training asked to define standards, 155; commercial cir- culating libs., 156. Hopkins, Mrs. Anderson H., 236. Hopkins, Julia Anna, 236. Hopper, Franklin F., 236. Hoskins, Ethel P. H., 236. Hosmer, Ja. K., 236; some things that are uppermost, 3-8; 134. Hosmer, Mrs. Ja. K., 236. Hostetter, Lillie, 236. Howe, Adelaide, 236. Hubbard, Anna G., 236. Huffner, Grace, 236. Hume, Jessie F., 236. Humphrey, Gertrude Priscilla, 236. Hunt, Clara W., 236; work wifh children in the small lib., 53-56; 224; chairman Children's Libns. Section, 218. Huntington, Mary E., 236. Hutcheson, David, 236. Hutchings, Estelle C., 236. Hutchinson, C: H., necrology, 130. Hyde, Mary E., 236. lies, G:, 236; headquarters for A. L. A., 24-28, 160. Illinois, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 114. Illinois State L. School, sketch of, 99-100. Indian Territory, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 114. Indiana, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 114-115. International cataloging code, A. L. A. co-operation in (Council), 226. International co-operation, rpt. of A. L. A. com. on (Richardson), J34- International library congress at St. Louis for 1904, 151, (Put- nam) 169, (Council) 225. Iowa, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 115. Irway, Ja., 236. Isaacs, H. W., 236. Ives, W:, 236. Jackson, Fanny R., 236. Tackson, Henriette, 236. James, Hannah P., necrology, 130; in memoriam, 133, (com. on res- olutions) 168. James, Minnie S. R., necrology i3J- Jaquith, A. B., 236. Jaquith, Mrs. A. B., 236. Jenks, Edwin M., 236. Jennings, Judson T., 236. John Crerar L., co-operative work of (Andrews), 166-167. Johnson, Mrs. Belle H., 236. Johnson, F. B., 236. Johnson, Mrs. F. B., 236. Johnson, Mrs. L. H., 236. Johnson, Mary H., southern libs., 69-71, 179. Johnson, Ortha Belle, 236. Johnston, Richard H., 236. Johnston, W. Dawsoa, 236. Jones, E. Louise, 236. Jones, Gardner M., 236; A. L. A. treasurer's rpt., 128-129; necrol- ogy, 130-131; relations of libs, to booktrade, 140-142, 147-148; treas. A. L. A., 169. Jones, Mrs. Gardner M., 236. Jones, H. A., 236. Jones, Kathleen, 236. Jones, Ralph K., 237. Jordan, Alice M., 237; sec. Chil- dren's Libns. Section, 218. Josephson, A. G. S., 237; forms of heading for public docu- ments, 183-184; L, of Congress printed catalog cards, 193. Jutton, Emma R-., 237. Kansas, lib. gifts to (Harrison), US. Kates, Clarence S., 237. Kates, Mrs. Clarence S., 237. Kautz, F. R., 237. Kavana, Harriet W., 237. Kavana, Julia D'W., 237. Keller, Helen Rex, 237. 246 INDEX. Kellicott, Gertrude S., 237. Kelly, H. T., 237; aims of A. L. A. Trustees' Section, 203-4, 2 4- Kelso, Tessa L., 237; relations of libs, to booktrade, 146. Kentucky, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 115- Kimball, W. C., 237, aims of A. L. A. Trustees' Section, 204. Kirkland, Marian P., 237. Knapp, Lucie, 237. Koch, Theodore Wesley, 237. Kraemer, Emma J., 237. Krauser, Florence G., 237. Kroeger, Alice B., rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. training, 83-101. Krouse, Edna L., 237. Krum, Gracie B., 237. Lamprey, Mary L., 237. Lane, L. P., necrology, 131. Lane, W: C., treatment of books according to amount of their use, 9-16, 170; re-appointed to A. L. A. Pub. Board, 226. Langton, H. H., public libs, in Canada, 43-46, 168. Langton, J. F., 237; duplicate pay collections of popular books, 41- 42, 156. Lamed, J. N., 237; headquarters for A. L. A., 161-162. Lee, Mary C., 237. Lemcke, E., 237; rpt. of com. on title-pages to periodicals, 164- 165. Lemcke, Hildegard, 237. Lemcke, Marie, 237. Libbie, F: J., 237. Libbie, Mrs. F: J., 237. Librarians, registration or licens- ing of (A. L. A. State L. Com- missions Section), 219-220. Libraries, the country lib. (Fison), 47-So; the small city lib. (Camp- bell), 50-52; com. on Handbook of Am. libs, discharged, 169; round table meeting for small libs., 224. Library administration, rpt. of A. L. A. com. on (Eastman, Mar- vin), 71-76, 159. (Council) 226. Library Assoc. of United King- dom, A. L. A. delegates to, 226. Library of Congress, co-operative work of (Putnam), 162-164; printed catalog cards of (Has- tings), 188, (Hanson) 189-192, (A. L. A. Catalog Section dis- cussion) 192-194; year's work at (Putnam), 197-199. Library post. See Postal rates. Library reports (A. L. A. com. on lib. administration), 71-76; es- sentials of (Foster), 76-81, 160, (Gaillard) 160. Library schools. See Library training. Library training, rpt. of A. L. A. com. on (Plummer, Fairchild, Sharp, Kroeger, Anderson, Rob- bins), 83-101, 152, (A. L. A. discussion) 152-155, (Council) 226; com. requested to define standards, 155. Lindsay, Anna B., 237. Lindsay, Mary Boyden, 237. l.indsey, Eliza, 237. Ling, Katherine G., 237. Literature of American hist. (Fletcher), 108. Little, G: T., councillor A. L. A., 169; chairman finance com., 226. T.jungberg, Eline, 237. Locke, T: F., 237. Lord, Isabel E., 237; use and value of fiction in education, 28- 31. 156. Louisiana, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 115-116. Love, Mrs. Hattie B., 237. Lovell, Thomas B., 237. Lovenberg, L, 237. Lucas, Rena A., 237. Lyon, L., 237. McBrier, Mrs. Elizabeth, 237. McCabe, M. B., 237. McCarthy, C:, 237. McCarthy, Mrs. C:, 237. McColloh, Walter, 237. McColloh, Mrs. Walter, 237. McCollough, Ethel, 237. McCurdy, Robert, 237. McDevitt, Cora E., 237. McDonald, C: F., 237. McDowell, Grace E., 237. McKay, Mabel, 237. McKee, Rose Thompson, 237. McKee, Syrena, 237. McKnight. Herbert, 237. McLean, S. F., net price system, 148-149, 237. McLoney, Ella M., 237. MacMahon. Rev. J. H., 237. McMillan. Elizabeth McNeish, 237. MacNair, Mary W., 237. Macomber, Mary E., 237. Magill, Luella F., 237. Maine, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 1 1 6. Maischow, Florence, 237. Malkan, H:, 237; relations of libs, to booktrade, 143-144, 148. Maltbie, Anne L., 237. Maltby, Mrs. Adelaide B.. 237. Mann, Margaret, 237; classifica- tion of children's books, 214- 215. Martel, C:, 237; forms of head- ings for pub. documents, 182- 183, 187. Martin, Margaret, 237. Martin, Mary P., 237. Marvin, Cornelia, rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. administration, 71- 76. Maryland, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 116. Massachusetts, lib. gifts to (Har- rison), 116-118. Mattes. Cornelia W., 237. Maxwell. Louise, 237. Mayo, G: E., 237. Mead, Mrs. Ellen W., 237. Meleney, G: B., 237. Merrill, Bertha H., 237. Merrill, Mrs. Emily A., 237. Mery, Sophie A., 238. Messing, Sara, 238. Meyer, Emma, 238. Michigan, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 118-119. Miersch, Ella Emilie, 238. Miller, Zana K., 238. ' Mills, M. Eleanor, 238. Miner, Charlotte Hoskins, 238. Minnesota, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 119. Mirick, Lilian, 238. Missouri, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 119. Monshow, Carrie M., 238. Montana, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 119. Montgomery, T: L., 238; relations of libs to booktrade, 144, 146; aims of A. L. A. Trustees' Sec- tion, 203, 205; sec. A. L. A. Trustees' Section, 205. Montgomery, Mrs. T: L., 238. Moody, Henrietta, 238. Moore, Annie Carroll, rpt. ( f Section com. on list of children's books, 206-208. Moore, Evva L., 238; reference work in a small lib., 224. Morgan, R: F., 238. Morse, Anna Louise, 238. Morton, Florence, 238. Moulton, J: G., 238. Mullineaux, Mrs. R. H., 238. Mumford, Rosalie, 238. Mural decoration, as applied to schools and libraries (Ostertag), 212-213. Murray, Edwin, 238. Murray, Mary S., 238. Nason. Sabra L., 238. Nebraska, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 119. Neisser, Emma R., 238. Net price system. See Booktrade. New Hampshire, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 119. New Jersey, lib. gifts to (Harri- son), 119-120. New York, lib. gifts to (Harri- son), I2O-I2I. New York State L. School, sketch of, 101. New Zealand, Carnegie lib. gift to (Harrison), 125. Newcomb, Mrs. Alice, 238. Newhall, Emma E., 238. Newhall, Mrs. Florence M., 238. Newton, E. J., 238. Niagara in literature (Porter), 133- Nicholson, Carrie, 238. Normal schools, lib. instruction in (A. L. A. com. on lib. training), 95-96. North Carolina, lib. gifts to (Har- rison), 121. Nutting, G: E., 238. Nutting. Mrs. G: E., 238. Oakley, Minnie M., 238. Ohio, lib. gifts to (Harrison), I2I-I22. Oklahoma Territory, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 122. Olcott, Frances Jenkins, 238. Olmstead, E. F., 238. Olmstead, Mrs. E. F., 238. Onnen, M. F., 238. Osborn, Mrs. Anna F., 238. Osborn, Lyman P., 238. Osborn, Mrs. Lyman P., 238. Ostertag, Blanche, 238; principles of decoration as applied to li- braries and schools, 212-213. Owen, Esther B., 238. Paddack, Alice, 238. Parker, N. B., 238. Parker, Mrs. N. 'B. H., 238 Parker, Phebe, 238. Parson, Harry N., 238. Parsons, Emma, 238. Parsons, H: S., 238. Partch, Isa L., 238. Patenaude, Rose Euphrosyne, 238. Patten, Frank C., 238. Pearson, Edmund L., 238. Pease, C. Grace, 238. Peckham, G: W., 238; on A. L. A. com. on resolutions, 133. Pendleton, Amena, 238. Pennsylvania, lib. gifts to (Har- rison), 122-123. Peoples, W: T., 238; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on libs, and booktrade, 1 34- 1 35; net price system, 144, 149, 151- Periodicals, rpt. of A. L. A. com. INDEX. 247 on indexes and title-pages to, 164-165. Ferley, Clarence W., 238. Perry, Everett Robbins, 238. Perry, Mrs. Jessie Booth, 238. Peters, Orpha Maud, 238. Pettee, Julia E., 238. Pierce, Frances M., 238. Plummer, Helen L., 238. Plummet, Mary W., 238; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. training, 83-101, 152; 2d vice-pres. A. L. A., 169. Pollard, Annie V., 238. Poray, Aniela H., 238. Porter, Annabelle, 238. Porter, Peter A., 238; Niagara in literature, 133. Portrait index (Fletcher), 108. Postal rates, reduced for lib. books, rpt. of A. L. A. com., 167-168, (Council) 226. Potter, Mrs. E. H., 238. Power, Effie L., 238; work with youngest children, 217. Pratt Institute L. School, sketch of, 98-99. Preston, Nina Kate, 238. Price, Helen Underwood, 238. Printed catalog cards for govt. documents (A. L. A. com. qn public documents), 104, (A. L. A. Catalog Section session on form of heading) 176-188; of A. L. A. Pub. Board (Fletcher), 108-109; for children's books (Anderson), 165-166; of L. of Congress (Hastings), 188, (Han- son) 189-192, (A. L. A. Catalog Section discussion) 192-194. Public documents, rpt. of A. L. A. com. on (Falkner), 102-106, 133; cataloging of (Hasse), 176-177; forms of heading for (com. cir- cular), 178, (Hanson) 178-181, (Ferrell) 181-182, (Martel) 182- 183, (A. L. A. Catalog Section discussion) 183-188, (Thomson) 188-190. Pulsy, H: D., 238. Putnam, Beatrice, 238. Putnam, Herbert, Wright resolu- tion on relations with book- trade, 151; co-operative work of L. of Congress, 162-164; head- quarters for A. L. A., 164; pres. A. L. A., 169; year's work of L. of Congress, 197-199; dele- gate to L. A. U. K. meeting, 226. Quimby, Cora A., 239. Rabardy, Etta L., 239. Railroad travelling libraries (Heard), 222-223. Randall, Bertha T., 239. Rankin, Julia Toombs, 239. Rathbone, Frances L.,~239; lib. training from standpoint of pre- vious practical experience, 153- 154; social side of conference, 227-228. Rathbone, Georgia W., 239. Read, Abert C., 239. Redfield, Jennie L., 239. Reed, Susan H., 239. Reeder, Louise M., 239. Reference books, Kroeger's guide to (Fletcher), 108. Reichel, Mary J., 238. Reid, Margaret, 238. Reinmuller, G. W., 238. Remmer, Mary E., 238. Reynolds, Georgia H., 238. Reynolds, T:, 238. Rhode Island, lib. gifts to (Har- rison), 123. Rhodes, Mrs. B:, 239. Rice, H. R., 239. Rice, Mrs. H. R., 239. Richardson, Cass, 239. Richardson, E. C., 239; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on internal, co-op- eration, 134; headquarters for A. L. A. 162; ist vice-pres. A. L. A., 169; treatment of books ac- cording to amount of their use, 173- Richmond, H:, 239. Richmond, H: A., 239. Ridgway, Edith, 239. Robbins, Mary E., 239; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. training, 83- 101. Roberts, Flora B., 239. Roberts, Harriet P., 239. Roden, C. B., 239; L. of Congress catalog cards, 194; chairman A. L. A. Catalog Section, 194. Root, A. S., 239; L. of Congress catalog cards, 194. Root, Mary E., 239; work with youngest children, 217-218. Rose, Grace Delphine, 239. Rosenmuller, Anne, 239. Round Table meeting for small li- braries, 224. Rushworth, Mabel Lois, 239. ' Saffell, C. C., 239. St. Louis for 1904 A. L. A. meet- ing, 151, (Putnam) 169, (Coun- cil) 225. Saleski, Mary, 239. Sanborn, Alice Evelyn, 239. Sargent, Abby L., 239. Sargent, Mary E., 239. Savage, Agnes, 239. Saxe, Mary S., 239. Schaff, Mae Beatrice, 239. Schanzlin, Bessie, 239. Schmidt, Alfred F. W., 239. Schoeneweiss, Louise, 239. Scott, Beulah A., 239. Scott, Mrs. Frances H., 239. Scovell, T. Boardman, 239. Seaver, Susan R., 239. Seemann, Samuel, 239. Selden, E. C., 239. Serex, Frederic, 239. Severence, H O., 210. Sewall, Willis F., 239. Sharp, Katharine L., 239; rpt. of A. L. A. com. on lib. training, 83-101. Shattuck, Helen B., 239. Shaw, Laurence M., 239. Shawhan, Gertrude, 239. Sheldon, Sara Palmer, 259. Shepard, George G., 239. Shepard, Mary G., 2-?o. Shiels, Effie H., 239. Shryock, Mabel, 239. Sibley, Mrs. Mary J., 239. Simpson, Frances, 239. Sinclair, Annie L., 239. Slauson, Allan B., 239. Smith, A. Elizabeth, 239. Smith, Abbie C., 239. Smith, Adele, 239. Smith, Charles W., 239. Smith, Cornelia G., 239. Smith, Edith M., 239. Smith, Elva S., 239. Smith, Goldwin, 239; remarks to A. L. A., 150-151. Smith, Marie M., 239. Smith, Martha Putnam, 239. Smith, Nellie M., 239. Smith, T. Guilford, 240. Some things that are uppermost (Hosmer), 3-8, 134. Soule, C: C., rpt. of trustees of A. L. A. endowment fund, 131- 132; re-appointed to A. L. A. Pub. Board, 226. Soule, Martha N., 240. South Carolina, lib. gifts to (Har- rison), 123. South Wales, Carnegie lib. gift to (Harrison), 125. Southern libraries (Johnson), 69- 71, 169. Spangler, Louise, 240. Spellman, Lorinda B., 240. Spencer, Mrs. Mary C., 240. Stackus, Edith Chatham, 240. Standbridge, Mary E., 240. Stanley, Harriet H., children's books of 1902, 208-210. State documents (A. L. A. rpt. on public documents), 105-106. State library commissions. See A. L. A. State Library Commis- sions Section. Statistics, lib., (rpt. A. L. A. com. on lib. administration), 71-76, (Foster) 76-81 ; weak points in (Bostwick), 81-82, 160. Staton, Frances M., 240. Stearns, Alice Imogene, 240. Stearns, Lutie .,240; lib. train- ing of Wis. summer school, 152- 153; registration or licensing of libns., 219-220; lib. buildings, 221; sec. A. L. A. State L. Commissions Section, 223. Stechert, Mrs. G. E., 240. Steiner, B. C-, 240; some prob- lems cone, prose fiction, 33-35, 156; duplicate pay collections and commercial libs., 157-158. Steinman, Elizabeth, 240. Stern, Renee B., 240. Stetson, W. K., 240. Stetson, Mrs. W. K., 240. Stevens, Mrs. Alice F., 240. Stevens, Bertha V., 240. Stevens, Frank W., 240. Stevens, Margaret K., 240. Stevenson, Mabel, 240. Stewart, Rose Gemmill, 240. Stone, G:, 240. Strickland, E: Dinwoodie, 240. Strohm, Adam, 240. Subject headings, A. L. A. list of (Fletcher), 108. Sutliff, Helen B., 240. Swan, Mrs. W: G., 240. Taber, Esther, 240. Taylor, Ida M., 240. Taylor, R. A., 240. Temple, Mabel, 240. Tennessee, lib. gifts to (Harri- son), 123. Texas, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 123. Thayer, C: Snow, 240. Thayer, Maude, 240. Thomson, T:, A. L. A. com. on re- lation of libs, to booktrade, 135; forms of headings for gov. docs., 188-189. Thwaites, R. G., 240; councillor A. L. A., 169. Tobitt, Edith, 240. Toad, Mary E., 240. Tompkins, Kathleen, 240. Tompkins, Marion V., 240. Travelling libraries (A. L. A. State L. Com. Section discus- sion), 222-223. Trustees, relations to libn. See A. L. A. Trustees' Section pro- ceedings, 195-205. Tutt, Helen, 240. Tuttle, W. E., 240. University libraries, relation of de- partmental and group libs, to main lib. (Burton), 19-23. Underwood, F. J., 240. University of Chicago, plans for 248 INDEX. new lib. building (Burton), 19- 23- Upleger, Margaret C., 240. Utley, G: B* 240. Utley, Mrs. G: B., 240. Utley, H: M., 240. Van Duzee, E. P., 240. Van Duzee, Mrs. E. "P., 240. Van Hoevenberg, Elizabeth, 240. Van Peyma, C. J., 240. Van Scoter, W: B., 240. Vermont, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 123-124. Virgin, E. H., 240. Virginia, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 124. Wadlin, H. G., 240; on A. L. A. com. on resolutions, 133-168; duplicate pay collections, 159. Wagner, Sula, 240. Wait, Marie Fox, 240. Waldo, Celia F., 240. W'alker, Mrs. Dora P., 240. Wallace, Mrs. F. W., 240. Ward, Helen M., 240. Ward, Langdon L., 240. Warner, Alice MacDougal, 240. Warner, Nannie Morison, 240. Warren, Mrs., 240. Washington, lib. gifts to (Harri- son), 124. Waters, Caroline E., 240. Watson, Carrie M., 240. Watson, Jessie McLeish, 240. Watson, VV: R:, 240. Watts, Florence A., 240. Weber, Mrs. Jessie P., 240. Weber, Miss, 240. Weeks, Fred Boughton, 240. Welch, Ellen, 240. Welch, T. V., 240. Wellman, H. C., 240; com. on re- lation of libs, to booktrade, 135; net price system, 147, 148. Welsh, Robert Gilbert, 240. Westcoat, Lula M., 240. Wessels, A., 240. Wharton, Sarah P., 240. White, Alice G., 240. White, Andrew Curtis, 240. White, Cornelia C., 241. White, E. R., 241. White, Eugene, 241. White, Gertrude Fitch, 241. White, Marinda S., 241. Whitney, Mrs. Carrie Westlake, 241. Whitney, J. L., resignation from finance com., 226. Whitten, Robert H., 241. Whittlesey, Julia Margaret, 241. Wicoff, S. L., 241. Wicoft, Mrs. S. L., 241. Wightman, Alice G., 241. Wilbur, Amey C., 241. Wilbur, Mary J., 241. Williams, E. T., 241. Williams, G: W., trustee A. L. A. endowment fund, 169. Williams, Lizzie Annie, 241. Williams, Mary, 241. Williams, Rufus P., 241. Williams, Mrs. Rufus P., 241. Wilson, Halsey W., 241. Windsor, Phineas L., 241. Windsor, Mrs. Phineas L., 241. Winser, Beatrice, 241. Wire, Dr. G: E., 241. Wire, Mrs. G: E., 241. Wisconsin, lib. gifts to (Harri- son), 124. Wisconsin summer school of lib. training (Stearns), 152-155. Witmar, Jennie A., 241. Wolle, Grace A., 241. Wood, F: C., 241. Wood, Mildred C., 241. Woodcock, Anna S., 241. Woodman, Mary S., 241. Woodmansee, Ralph C., 241. Woods, Catharine J., 241. Wright, Ada, 241. Wright, Jennie C., 241. Wright, Margaret, 241. Wright, Mary M., 241. Wright, P. B., 241; duplicate pay collections of popular books, 40- 41, 156; resolution on net price system, 151. Wyer, J. I., jr., 241; A. L. A. secretary's rpt., 127-128; sec. A. L. A., 169. Wyer, Malcolm Glenn, 241. Wyman, A. L., 241. Wyman, Mrs. A. L., 241. Wyoming, lib. gifts to (Harrison), 124. Young, Hester, 241 Yust, W: F:, 241. Zimmerman, W. F., 241 ; relations of booktrade and libs., 136-140. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBAN*