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PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



THIRTY-SECOND ANNUAL 
MEETING 



OF THE 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 



HELD AT 



MACKINAC ISLAND, MICHIGAN 



JUNE 30 JULY 6, 1910 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

1 WASHINGTON STREET 

CHICAGO, ILL. 

1910 



CONTENTS 



General sessions Page 

Address of. the President: An anathema 

upon finger-posts N. D. C. Hodges 593 

Address of welcome Nina K. Preston 597 

Technical book exhibition K. H. McClelland 598 

Secretary's report Chalmers Hadley 599 

Treasurer's report Carl B. Roden 671 

Library and the school Dr. Charles Hubbard Judd 607 

Book Symposium James I. Wyer, Jr 611 

Practfcal book reviewing and manuscript 






reading from the inside Wallace Rice .' . i 



630 



Reports of boards and committees: 

Trustees of endowment funds W. C. Kimball 634 

Fublisning board Henry E. Legler 636 

Finance C. W. Andrews... 640 

Co-operation with National education as- 
sociation E. W. Gaillard : 641 

Library training A. S. Root 642 

International relations E. C. Richardson 644 

Book binding B. C. Steiner 645 

Federal and state relations B. C. Steiner 645 

Simplified code Theresa Hitchler 645 

Book buying A. L. Bailey 646 

Library work with the blind Emma R. N. Delfino 648 

Co-ordination of college libraries W. C. Lane '. . . 656 

Co-ordination C. H. Gould 660 

Brussels conference N. D. C. Hodges 661 

Special committee on resolutions Mary W. Plummer 662 

Library administration H. W. Graver 672 

Public documents G. S. Godard 759 

Report of Council 673 

Report of Executive board 678 

Report of Resolutions committee W. N. C. Carlton 684 

Report of Tellers of election C. E. Rush 685 

Selection of technical books and periodicals. .Harwood Frost 663 

Recreation symposium S. H. Ranck 666 

Play and social welfare Graham Romeyn Taylor 668 

Deterioration of newspaper paper .Frank P. Hill 675 

Aberdeen association L. J. Burpee 680 

Social side of the conference 686 

Post-conference trip 686 

Page Page 

Affiliated organizations Sections continued 

National association of state libraries 689 College and reference 762 

League of library commissions 732 Library work with children 775 

American association of law libraries 752 Professional training 776 

Sections Agricultural libraries round table 786 

Trustees 758 Attendance summaries 798 

Catalog 760 Attendance register 798 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



JUNE 30-JULY 6, J9JO 



FIRST GENERAL SESSION 

(Grand Hotel, Friday, July 1, 1910, 
8:15 p. m.) 

The first general session of the Thirty- 
second Annual meeting of the American 
library association was called to order by 
the President, N. D. C. Hodges, on Friday 
evening, July 1, in the Casino of the Grand 
Hotel at 8:15 o'clock. 

The PRESIDENT: It is my duty and 
pleasure to call to order the Thirty-second 
Conference of the American library asso- 
ciation. The first business of the Associa- 
tion is to listen to the President's address, 
the title of which is: 



AN ANATHEMA UPON FINGER-POSTS 

I appreciate that my title needs an apol- 
ogy. It came into existence in this way. I 
had finished my address, as I supposed, and 
had sat down in satisfaction to look over 
the reports of the opening exercises of pre- 
vious conferences. Pride goeth before de- 
struction, and a haughty spirit before a 
fall. My fall came as I read the words of 
other presidents: "The subject. of my ad- 
dress." There was no subject at the head 
of my address. I ran it through hoping to 
find its subject somewhere in hiding; I 
searched dictionaries of quotations and 
dictionaries of synonyms, thinking that 
possibly they might know, when it 
dawned upon me that, floundering in my 
inkwell, I had brought forth an anathema 
upon finger-posts; and all my life through 
I had thought myself fond of finger-posts, 
they are in their idiosyncrasies so human. 
But not a word had I said about finger- 
posts, and I doubted whether my anathema 
would stand unless the name were inserted, 
so back to the beginning I went, to make 
a fresh start. 

In attacking a sociological problem I 



have often thought of some fabric, made 
not only of the warp and woof, but with 
threads worked into it running hither and 
thither in intricate design. Such a fabric 
is the interlacing of the many influences 
which combine to make the lived-in world. 
The fabric is without edges; there is no be- 
ginning or end, no first or last, it may be 
lifted anywhere, and the meandering of the 
threads followed, but with a comprehension 
of the whole far from complete. 

There is an unendingness to sociological 
work, to library work. We are striving not 
for perfection, for beyond any stage of 
development we may reach there are yet 
many others which may be seen, and an 
infinitude of stages far beyond our pow- 
ers even of conception. A great college 
president lays down his burden after forty 
years of successful effort, and we see not 
the stagnation of perfection, but the 
younger successor stepping in with fresh 
ideals, which he proceeds to realize as if 
the work of his predecessor had been mere- 
ly preliminary. 

It has been said, over and over again, 
that as a librarian no one need hope for 
fame; that as a historian or creator of 
literature one might reap such a reward, 
but only bread and butter by labor as a li- 
brarian. First and last, this aloofness of 
fame has given me not a little concern, 
from which there was a short respite the 
other day, when I learned, on the word of 
Confucius, that the philosopher Kiung 
wise enough in books to remove the re- 
jiroach that he was doing nothing to make 
his name famous, took to charioteering. 

Within a few weeks the vulgar concep- 
tion of a librarian was given in "The Na- 
tion" as a "distributor of books for recrea- 
tional purposes, and conservator of mate- 
rial for the scholar and investigator." It 
was added that librarians are wont to re- 
gard themselves as workers in the educa- 



594 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



tional field, and may be credited with the 
wish to spread their ideas of the mission of 
books, and their influence as missionaries 
of the book, though all the while conscious 
that they are not recognized as a profes- 
sion to the same extent as teachers. To 
account for this lack of recognition, libra- 
rians were described as writing or speaking 
too exclusively of matters of technical de- 
tail, and of treating their subjects in a 
somewhat namby-pamby fashion. If this 
characterization is just, it is fortunate that 
few of them contribute articles on library 
matters to the periodical press at large, 
and that the number of books on library 
affairs and management is small when 
compared with the literary output of the 
teaching profession. The writer in "The 
Nation" softens this arraignment with some 
mild excuses, which you can look for, if 
you like. 

Crossing England from London to Liver- 
pool, wrapped most of the way in fog, it 
was my fortune to have the fog lift for a 
few moments as we passed an old country 
church. The church was set apart, with no 
scar of modern industrialism upon the 
rural landscape, of which it was the cen- 
ter. Aside from its use as a place of wor- 
ship, such a church has a story to tell 
the story of the joy of effort on the part of 
its builders a joy which seems to have 
been unbounded. More than a church, as 
we understand that term, it was a center 
of social life; about it the people gathered 
by day to dance and play; and under the 
moonlight, we are told, fairies came to con- 
coct their pranks for the good or ill of a 
happy-go-lucky folk. 

Then our modern world was born, and all 
was stilled: the musical rounds of the 
games were stopped, and the fairies driven 
away. It had all been the invention of the 
devil; grown men and women should not 
play, the world was passing into a new 
phase. Cromwell's soldiers, possibly 
through force of circumstance, beat down 
the exuberant ornament as manifesting 
only the enticing power of the evil one. 

About that time, when raw manhood was 
trying to obliterate the conception of life's 
beauty, which had been little by little chis- 



eled into stone, there was an idea rampant 
that books were doing more harm than 
good, and this largely because clever pen- 
men had made them wondrous beautiful. 
While it is not strictly true, still beautiful 
things were looked upon as the devil's, and 
it was deemed safer to be without them. 
The libraries were broken up, and the 
books scattered. But books asserted them- 
selves; they were not to be downed, were 
soon coming together again, were joined 
by those which had long been forgotten, 
and are generally credited with having con- 
tributed in no small degree to the re-birth 
of the world. 

It is the Puritan world which most con- 
cerns the public librarians, at least it did 
concern them. In that world books of a 
kind were not eschewed. Harvard college 
was founded at once on their arrival by 
the American Puritans; and, on the wall 
of my New England high school was a tab- 
let giving the school's lineage back to a 
Latin school started in 1640 odd as a feeder 
of the college. I doubt the devil's relish- 
ing Puritan books; and surely he would 
have denied the illuminations of the New 
England primer, to the decipherment of 
which by generations of infants may be 
traced much of Yankee ingenuity. 

The whole Anglo-Saxon world has been 
a busy world. For two centuries pre- 
ceding the last that world was constantly 
expanding. It stretched away to America, 
and in America towards the Mississippi, 
it carried its trade to China, to Africa, to 
South America, and the Pacific. There 
were romance and adventure in that ex- 
pansion, but when the world had been 
tracked over, and the adventure subsided, 
and factories were building, there arose 
the library cry, and it came from Ohio 
the same year as from Massachusetts, and 
from the industrial counties of England. 
We look about and laud ourselves and our 
immediate predecessors for the creation 
of our type of public library, but is this 
type of library not a creation of its en- 
vironment, while we are rather the ready 
husbandmen who nurture? 

On the village greens of old England 
the people, invigorated by their outdoor 



HODGES 



595 



life, gathered in their free hours for their 
games. They flocked to their churches, 
and, by their crudely voiced public opinion 
compelled the recording in these of their 
happiest inspirations. That old life gone, 
there was recompense in the stirring ad- 
venture by sea and land. The bread- 
earning hours of the modern industrial 
operatives are devoid of everything that 
is human. It is not surprising that there 
is little love for work, and that a tendency 
to mediocrity is manifested. As Mtinster- 
berg puts it: "Every feature of our social 
life shows an unwillingness to concentrate 
attention.'' The public press offers sensa- 
tionalism; amusements degenerate; we 
even pay professional athletes to play our 
games something which seemed hardly 
believable when, as a child, I was told this 
of the Chinese. Having reached this point 
let us follow a thread leading in the op- 
posite direction. 

Tramping through the woods of New 
Jersey, on the top of the palisades over- 
looking the Hudson it was in bicycle 
days I came upon a young fellow, say 
seventeen, stretched at full length, his 
wheel beside him, and holding a book 
over which he could look upon one of the 
fairest views in America. The book had 
its place in this vision, though as likely 
as not more life insight passed over the 
pages than through them into that young 
brain. It may be that the boy had a long 
read, but I suspect not. It seems more 
likely that the book was but one element 
in the entourage with which the boy's 
mind was in harmony. 

The philosophy of idleness is given by 
Dr. Gulick in his "Efficient life" somewhat 
as follows: "The best work that most of 
us do is not begun in our offices or at our 
desks, but when we are wandering in the 
woods, or sitting with undirected thoughts. 
From somewhere at such times there flash 
into our minds those ideas that direct and 
control our lives visions of how to do 
that which previously had seemed impos- 
sible, new aspirations, hopes and desires. 
Work is the process of realization. The 
careful balance and the great ideas come 
largely during quiet, and without being 



sought. The man who never takes time 
to do nothing will hardly do great things. 
He will hardly have epoch-making ideas 
or stimulating ideals." If our books in 
some subtle way may draw us from our- 
selves, are they not serving a good pur- 
pose? 

There is another manner of reading, 
and that is the manner of him who can 
follow a course of reading. The beings 
with this gift are to be seen, in no small 
numbers, in our reading rooms day in and 
day out. Upon them I gaze with ill-con- 
cealed awe. I calculate upon the volume 
of erudition passing in, and so carefully 
preserved. Such, as I understand it, are 
the perfect readers. It is our effort from 
one year's end to the other to make of 
our young patrons good readers. I think 
that I have never known anything but the 
utmost scorn manifested for the dreamy 
reader. "Don't let your thoughts wander, 
read the best hundred books." Such is the 
advice we lavish. 

Finally, the library is a great store- 
house of knowledge, and there are co- 
operative store-houses, or ought to be, 
and busy men and women dip here and 
dip there to gather bits of wisdom, which 
aid in the concoction of new and wondrous 
elixirs. To r,ll this I subscribe. 

There is one important characteristic 
of our work, there is a chance that the 
knowledge contained in books can be 
labeled, and that we are trying to do. 
The effort leads to our technique, which 
is fascinating but not inspiring. It does 
not appeal to the public. It is not worth 
writing about in the magazines. Other 
social workers are studying human beings, 
especially the weaknesses and foibles of 
human beings. The classification and 
labeling of these multifarious weaknesses 
and their combinations, even if it could be 
accomplished, would be of little avail. It 
is a question of personality in the student 
whether results worth while are obtained. 

Looking through the program for one 
of the season's congresses, I saw repeated 
over and over again the purpose to send 
people home with definite ideas which 
could be applied to the day's work. The 



596 



MACK1NAU ISLAND CONFLUENCE 



inference is that from previous congresses 
people have been sent home without defi- 
nite ideas. I wonder whether the greatest 
good will not be from the overpowering 
of ideas, half thought out and half in- 
choate, which will carry the people through 
the day's work. 

The prominence given those words, 
"something to carry home," gives me rea- 
son for querying whether the aid we can 
render in the development of mankind 
does not resemble that which the farmer 
gives his growing crops. The farmer does 
not seize upon his corn and draw it by 
main force from the seed through the 
various stages of its growth. First, select- 
ing good seed, the offspring of good ances- 
tors, he plants this in well fertilized and 
plowed soil, protects it from drought, from 
overpowering weeds, and from marauding 
insects, making the conditions of growth 
the most favorable, but leaving the result- 
ing product to the inherent capacities of 
the plant. With some, sound husbandry 
is instinctive; others may gain by practice 
a certain degree of skill. There is a 
German proverb that "the stupidest peas- 
ant has the largest potatoes," always sup- 
posing that the largest are the best. The 
congresses plan to send their members 
home with full knowledge of how to get 
results; but the best workers show us 
results, seldom giving generalizations 
which can be followed by the uninspired. 

There may never have been a merry 
past, though it is our fancy to think so. 
It makes little difference whether we are 
striving to regain that which we have lost, 
or are striving to bring into existence a 
human state of greater joy than any so 
far realized. I will even turn back and 
scratch out "striving," and insert the sim- 
ple word "living." Striving people irritate 
me. With the first and controlling ele- 
ment in the struggle for existence, a good 
measure of human selfishness, we need 
not concern ourselves. Of the useful 
drudgery of the world, we do our part in 
furnishing information, mere bald facts 
from our stores of facts. For the hours 
of recreation we have something to offer 
in our fiction, biography, and travel. For 



the inspirational moments, our best books 
best in matter, best in style, and best in 
mechanical execution should be ready. 

St. Jerome has been called unjustly, if 
you like "the patron saint of leisure." 
He can be seen in most of his pictures 
gazing across the pages of a folio, through 
an open window, at green trees and flow- 
ers at some object of art on the wall of 
his faultlessly furnished study, or, best of 
all, at his dog, who knows him for a 
trifler and is ready for another caress. 
The inspirational value of folios is no 
more. Twentieth century inspiration, so 
far as it is to come from books, must be 
looked for over duodecimos. 

There is the delightful lawlessness of 
human nature in this inspirational value 
of books, as there is in the love of song 
and dance and play, in the love of wander- 
ing through woods, though one does not 
catalogue the trees. We shall hear more 
of this in the symposium on recreation. 
Perhaps in this, as in our story telling, 
and our picture gazing, we may find a 
way out of our old character of distribu- 
tors and keepers of books. 

Last year co-operation among libraries 
was the feature of the program. The 
principle of co-operation has been gen- 
erally approved in its various forms as 
already practiced or proposed. Co-opera- 
tion is a question of administration. The 
public is interested when told of its ex- 
istence, and is pleased when reaping some 
of its benefits; but co-operation in the 
handling of books is no more than a duty 
of the distributor and conservator of 
books. 

How is it with co-operation in the han- 
dling of human beings? The public li- 
braries have been called into existence in 
industrial communities apparently to as- 
sist in relieving the strain arising from the 
monotony of modern industrial develop- 
ment. Playgrounds, sensational journal- 
ism, dance halls, moving picture shows, 
ball games, sunshine societies, social set- 
tlements are all coadjutors. It would be 
well if some day we were to have a co- 
operative conference, at which we should 
lay aside, for the most part, consideration 



HODGES 



597 



of our administrative snags, and have 
heart to heart talks with those who are 
answering in such varied ways the un- 
spoken appeals of the lever haulers and 
pedal kickers. We shall have some of 
this in the session of the Children's Sec- 
tion, and some in Mr. Taylor's address 
on Playgrounds. The need of recreation 
for ourselves will be brought out in the 
symposium at the third general session. 

The recreational reading which we cater 
to, does good. The inspirational reading, 
bad as it is according to some standards, 
yet has its advocates. The perfect read- 
ing, the result of the growth of voluntary 
attention, maketh a full man. What mat- 
tereth it if this full man's mind be ob- 
sessed by the printed book? Such reading 
is no more than a harmless vice. It is 
hardly conceivable that through much 
reading the mental powers of observation 
and reason could be atrophied, when there 
results the brilliantly crystallized mind 
which we all know in one class of these 
full men, whom we call doctrinaires. The 
doctrinaires give us pause, they seem to 
see so much further than ordinary mor- 
tals. I cannot say that I ever heard of a 
library doctrinaire. Perhaps one might 
be found, and we should then have a bell- 
wether to lead us out of the maze in 
which, as mortals, we are involved. 

Only another vain hope! The doctri- 
naire's clear sight is in fields in which he 
himself is not called upon to wander. In 
his own field he has no clearer vision 
than his every day associates. Let us 
gaze with St. Jerome upon a world full 
of beauty, and contentedly follow that 
blind guide, the idealist 

"Whose soul sees the perfect 
Which his eyes seek in vain." 

The next item on the program is vocal 
music by William J. Fenton and Francis 
J. Campbell. 

The PRESIDENT: It seemed natural 
that as host we should have the Michigan 
library association. I have the pleasure 
of introducing Miss Nina K. Preston, 
President of that Association. 



Miss PRESTON: Mr. President, Mem- 
bers of the Association: It was with great 
rejoicing that we in Michigan greeted the 
announcement that the American library 
association would hold its conference 
within the borders of our own state, and 
there has been joy in our hearts ever since 
we heard this announcement. If you have 
not seen and felt our welcome by this 
time no words that I might add, were they 
ever so eloquent or chosen ever so wisely, 
would convince you of the truth of the 
statement, for deeds count more than 
words even in the library profession. If 
you have felt our delight in your presence 
here, what need of words? We do not 
claim that we have the best state in the 
Union, but one of our desires has been 
that you might know us and our state 
better, and so we ask you to listen to our 
early history and legend as related to us 
this evening by Mrs. Hulst. If, after hear- 
ing her, you admit our claim to state 
pride, far be it from us to dispute you 
you are for at least to-day our guests and 
you may say what seemeth best to you. 
(Applause.) 

Mrs. HENRY HULST of Grand Rapids, 
Mich., then read a paper on "Early legends 
and history of Michigan." 

She traced the development of what 
was to become the state of Michigan 
through the azoic and later ages, until 
there descended from the north the ice 
sheet which plowed the soil, and hollowed 
the beds of lakes Michigan and Huron. 
The speaker related the Indian legends of 
Michigan and Mackinac Island in particu- 
lar, and of the early Indians she said: 
"The primitive men of our country were 
not only a picturesque people how pic- 
turesque we hardly realize even now with 
passions terrible in anger, of which we 
have heard much, but they were a 
people with many noble ideals and traits 
also, of which we have heard too little, 
as acute unbiased observers like Benjamin 
Franklin and James Fenimore Cooper 
have testified." 

Indian legends were given by Mrs. Hulst 
and the coming of the white men was 
described. 



598 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



Mrs. Hulst related incidents of the 
Shawnee and Pottowatomie war of 1800-11, 
and of the uprising of Tecumseh, after 
which she read Charles Mills Gayley's 
"Goddess of the inland seas," one stanza 
of which is: 

"Now the eyes that are anointed 
See the blossom-tide of spring: 
Ours the blissful age appointed, 
Ours the clime the poets sing, 
Hark, O Maid of western Morning 
Wave and woodland, brook and breeze, 
Hail thee, Queen, beyond adorning, 
Girdled with thy inland seas." 

The PRESIDENT: That we may know 
somewhat more of the land we have come 
to, Mr. H. R. Pattingill of Lansing, Michi- 
gan, will tell us something of the story 
of Michigan. 

Mr. PATTINGILL: I appreciate the 
courtesy which you have shown the Mich- 
igan association, and I appreciate fully 
the honor which is bestowed upon me to 
talk to you. 

[Mr. Pattingill spoke of the things in 
which Michigan excelled, and said that it 
had the first state university in this coun- 
try; that it was through a decision of 
Judge Cooley of Michigan in regard to 
taxation that high schools were made 
possible; that Michigan possessed the first 
Superintendent of Education and the first 
agricultural college in the United States.] 

After singing "Michigan, my Michigan,'' 
the session adjourned. 



SECOND GENERAL SESSION 

(Saturday, July 2, 9:30 a. m.) 

The meeting was called to order by the 
President, and greetings to the American 
library association were read by the Sec- 
retary from Mr. Herbert Baillie of Wel- 
lington, New Zealand. 

The PRESIDENT: The first item on 
the program is an announcement by Mr. 
Elwood H. McClelland with reference to 
the Technical book exhibition. 

Mr. McCLELLAND: The exhibit of 
technical literature which has been ar- 
ranged in the hotel lobby will be open 
for inspection until the close of the con- 



ference. No lengthy announcement is 
necessary in regard to this exhibit; for- 
tunately, many of those interested have 
already found their way to it, probably 
more by reason of its accessibility than 
its merit. The exhibit was rather hur- 
riedly prepared, and it is in no sense ex- 
tensive. It attempts merely to show some 
of the representative forms in which 
technical literature of value is found. It 
includes technical books, trade literature 
in various forms, including a selection of 
trade catalogs from the Pratt institute 
free library, and a set of about 80 recent 
"house organs" from the trade literature 
collection of the Carnegie library of Pitts- 
burgh. There is a collection of the book 
lists on special scientific and technical 
subjects issued by various libraries 
throughout the country, with a comparison 
of the population and industries of the 
cities served by these libraries; also the 
catalog and bulletins, and a complete set 
of the technical bibliographies and in- 
dexes, published by the Carnegie library 
of Pittsburgh. The John Crerar library 
has furnished recent copies of technical 
journals selected for their reliability and 
adequacy as a source of book reviews. A 
number of technical indexes are exhibited, 
and samples of their use in card indexes 
are shown. 

It was the original intention to go 
thoroughly into the collection of indexes 
to current technical literature, but some 
of these are difficult to obtain; most of 
them are not published separately, but 
are hidden away in various journals, and 
in many cases appear irregularly, and they 
are so numerous that it seemed the pur- 
pose might be best achieved by the com- 
pilation of a list. This list, reprinted from 
the June bulletin of the Carnegie library 
of Pittsburgh, is here for free distribution. 
It attempts to give briefly the important 
features of about 85 of these serial bib- 
liographies and indexes to current scien- 
tific and technical literature. The list 
indicates also the journals which review 
technical books. 

The literature of the exhibit is entirely 
in English. On account of the great dis- 



SECRETARY'S REPORT 



tance from most of the publishers, the 
showing of books is necessarily on a 
rather small scale. There are about 250 
carefully selected volumes; most of them 
are recent, and in many cases they are 
the only works of value on the subject. 
There are also some older works which 
are pretty generally recognized as stand- 
ard. A few persons seem, somehow, to 
have obtained the impression that it is a 
trade exhibit. It is not. Although tech- 
nical lists of various publishers are ex- 
hibited, and are available for gratuitous 
distribution, it is no part of our purpose 
to boom the publications of any one firm. 
Several well known publishers, however, 
have responded so liberally to our re- 
quests that whatever of interest the ex- 
hibit may possess will be in large measure 
due to their generous co-operation. 

The PRESIDENT: I am sure we are 
all indebted to Mr. McClelland and those 
who are associated with him on the com- 
mittee which has had this exhibition in 
charge. The idea was to bring together, 
as Mr. McClelland has said, a representa- 
tive exhibit of recent technical books in 
the English language. 

We now come to the secretary's report, 
which Mr. HADLEY will read: 

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 

It is difficult to enumerate the accom- 
plishments of an educational work. The 
difficulty increases when, in addition, that 
work has certain inspirational and mis- 
sionary aspects such as the activities of 
the A. L. A. Executive office ought to 
have. It is as unsatisfactory to attempt 
to measure the results of this work 
through printed statements as it would 
be to describe adequately the place of a 
public library in a city by giving sta- 
tistics of that library's book circulation. 

Persistent attention, and adequate finan- 
cial support will be necessary to develop 
the work of the Executive office, and time 
must elapse before the importance of that 
work can be realized. In addition to car- 
ing for the business details connected with 



the Association's work, the Executive 
office should endeavor to bring more li- 
brarians into touch with the A. L. A., to 
further progress in library affairs, and to 
help bring the American library associa- 
tion into co-operation with other educa- 
tional forces in this country and abroad. 

While results of the Executive office 
work cannot be specified, the activities 
can be roughly classified as to character, 
and information can be given as to what 
has been done in handling the headquar- 
ters' affairs of the Association. 

Before doing so, attention should be 
called to the generous provisions which 
were made during the year by the trustees 
of the Chicago public library and by the 
Chicago library club, for the attractive 
quarters and furnishings which were 
placed at the disposal of the Association. 

In fulfillment of their offer made a year 
ago, the trustees of the Chicago public 
library provided the room, fifty by sixty 
feet in area, on the fifth floor of the li- 
brary building for the A. L. A. office. The 
room is splendidly lighted with natural 
light on three sides, and is supplied with 
nine chandeliers. It is a handsome room 
and has been made more attractive by the 
furnishings supplied by the Chicago li- 
brary club. The Club was enabled to do 
this by the gifts it received to be used 
for the A. L. A. office. They were as 
follows : 

Northwestern University $ 50.00 

University of Chicago 50.00 

A. C. McClurg and Company 100.00 

Field Museum 50.00 

The Newberry Library 150.00 

The John Crerar Library 150.00 

"Public libraries" 100.00 

Sundry contributions 16.00 

The office furnishings provided by the 
Chicago library club are splendidly adapted 
for headquarters use. The furnishings 
include: Three sections, double faced 5 
ft. book shelves; two sections, double 
faced 7 ft. book shelves; three sections, 
single faced 7 ft. book shelves; one flat 
top office desk, with attachments for type- 
writing machine; one roll top office desk; 



600 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



one round table; two 3 by 5 ft. tables; 
one 3 1-2 by 8 ft. table; one 8 ft. settee; 
one table for catalog case; fourteen chairs ; 
one rug, 12 by 15 ft.; one rug, 9 by 12 ft.; 
one desk rug, 4 by 6 ft. 

In addition to the furnishings just men- 
tioned, the Chicago public library and 
Henry E. Legler placed additional furni- 
ture and pictures in the headquarters' 
office. 

Many courtesies have been shown the 
Executive office since it was opened in 
Chicago. The same excellent care, heat- 
ing, and lighting given the Chicago public 
library building have been provided for 
the A. L. A. office. While those in the 
Executive office have endeavored to avoid 
requesting extra privileges and favors of 
the public library force, everything re- 
quested has been cheerfully granted. 
Special elevator and janitor service have 
been supplied when necessary, and the 
use of the Board of directors' room was 
last winter given for the meetings of the 
A. L. A. Council and Executive board, the 
American library institute, and College 
librarians. 

The Secretary wishes to acknowledge 
the courtesies shown the Executive office 
by C. W. Andrews, of the John Crerar 
library. Many bills due the Association 
and Publishing board, from city and state 
institutions, could not be collected without 
the services of a notary public. Mr. 
Andrews gave permission to the treas- 
urer's assistant at the John Crerar library 
to give his services as notary public free 
of cost to the Executive office, by which 
the Association has been saved many 
dollars. 

Additional courtesies have been shown 
also by the Chicago chamber of commerce 
and other organizations. 

Members of the Association who are 
not familiar with the business details of 
the A. L. A. probably would be surprised 
at the amount of routine work necessary 
to conduct its affairs. Receipts to the 
amount of $6,000.00 a year must be at- 
tended to, exclusive of Publishing board 
receipts; attention must be given to mem- 
bership in the Association; material for 



publications must be prepared and publi- 
cations distributed; the details of banking 
and bookkeeping are considerable, and the 
correspondence has shown a steady in- 
crease since September of last year. 

Probably one-fourth of the Secretary's 
time and three-fourths of the time of other 
members of the office force have been 
necessary for Publishing board activities 
since the opening of the headquarters in 
Chicago. There have been no high-priced 
new publications to swell the Publishing 
board's financial receipts during that time, 
but the sales of copies of publications have 
aggregated 8,836, exclusive of card publi- 
cations, and have amounted approximately 
to $6,000.00. 

This work of the A. L. A. and its Pub- 
lishing board was carried on before the 
office was opened in Chicago, and the 
break in its continuity, caused by its re- 
moval to another part of the country and 
its handling by an entirely new force 
of workers, was considerable. Several 
months were required before the work 
was readjusted in Chicago, and the first 
year at the Executive office will prove to 
be different from those which follow. 

In addition to being represented offi- 
cially at twenty state library association 
meetings since last September, the A. L. 
A. and its work have been given publicity 
in other ways. At ten state library meet- 
ings, and at six other public meetings 
attended by the Secretary, the work of the 
A. L. A. was considered; the directors of 
the various library schools of the country 
were requested during the year to speak 
of the A. L. A. and its work; the "Papers 
and proceedings" of the Association were 
sold to non-members throughout the year, 
and the "Bulletin" has been exchanged for 
some ten foreign library publications. 

Sketches and information regarding the 
Association have been sent since last Sep- 
tember to the "New international year 
book," to "Minerva," and the "Educational 
bi-monthly." News of library meetings has 
been inserted in the Chicago daily papers, 
and information has been given to con- 
tributors of library news in other publica- 
tions when the opportunity was given to 



SECRETARY'S REPORT 



601 



do this. The Secretary has asked for the 
names and addresses of such contributors 
from all parts of the country, so that more 
information of the work of the A. L. A. 
and of libraries in general might be dis- 
seminated. 

Material has been sent by the Secretary 
for publication in the "Library journal" 
and "Public libraries," and information 
has been sent occasionally to library com- 
missions for insertion in commission bul- 
letins. Two collections of A. L. A. publi- 
cations were sent from the Executive 
office for exhibition, one in Denmark and 
the other at a library meeting in Japan. 
Between nine hundred and one thousand 
printed circulars giving information re- 
garding A. L. A. publications have been 
distributed since last September. 

Advance notices of the Mackinac Island 
conference were sent to the Associated 
press, the United press, the International 
news service, the Scripps-McRae service, 
the Western news association, the "Li- 
brary association record," and the "Li- 
brary world." Information regarding the 
conference, and summaries from the re- 
ports of A. L. A. committees and of the 
Secretary were sent to thirty newspapers 
which print library news, to the societies 
affiliated with the American library asso- 
ciation, and to secretaries of library com- 
missions. Information regarding the an- 
nual conference was sent also to various 
commercial clubs, chambers of commerce, 
and convention bureaus. 

Advance reports from the committees 
of the A. L. A. were secured this year, 
and copies of these reports were sent to 
newspapers in various sections of the 
country. Money is needed to carry on 
publicity work, but even with no increased 
appropriations the Secretary believes that 
more of this work can be done in the en- 
suing year than has been done since last 
September. 

Efforts have been made by the Secre- 
tary, Executive board, and committees to 
bring the Association into touch with 
other educational forces as much as pos- 
sible. The Secretary of the A. L. A. was 
directed by the Executive board to in- 



terest the commercial library houses in 
this country in the American Exposition 
in Berlin. Several such concerns were in- 
terested, but the Exposition was post- 
poned. The Committee on co-operation 
with the National education association 
prepared an interesting display of library 
methods, and materials of especial interest 
to teachers, for exhibition at the National 
education association's annual conference. 

Through its representatives, the A. L. A. 
has arranged to participate in the Inter- 
national congress of librarians and ar- 
chivists, to be held in Brussels this 
summer. 

The New England education league has 
requested the A. L. A. to take over the 
work it has been doing to further the 
passage of a bill providing for a library 
post. 

As Chairman of a special committee 
appointed by the League of library com- 
missions to increase and improve the facil- 
ities for reading in United States peni- 
tentiaries, the Secretary of the A. L. A. 
has been in correspondence with the At- 
torney General's office in Washington. 
Statistics as to the number of books and 
amounts of money appropriated for li- 
braries in the penitentiaries were obtained 
and sent to the Attorney General. Upon 
request of the acting Attorney General, 
the Secretary submitted suggestions urg- 
ing definite annual financial support for 
penitentiary libraries, the designation of 
some official to act as librarian, the prep- 
aration of printed lists of books in the 
libraries for use by the prisoners, and pro- 
visions for certain time in the evening 
during which the prisoners should be free 
to read, if they so wished. At present 
the Department of justice in Washington 
is in communication with the wardens of 
the United States penitentiaries and has 
requested the wardens to give their views 
on the subject. The only warden seen 
personally by the Secretary was strongly 
in favor of better library facilities in these 
penitentiaries. 

The Secretary has been called upon by 
librarians, trustees, teachers, publishers, 
club women, and others, to give advice in 



602 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



numerous phases of .library work. The 
assistance of members of the A. L. A. was 
solicited by the Secretary at various times 
in complying with some of the requests, 
and, when possible, the inquirer was re- 
ferred to the secretary of the library com- 
mission or head of the library extension 
department of the state in which he lived. 

Frequently the advice sought was of 
sufficient importance to require consider- 
able thought and preparation in replying 
from the Executive office. Information 
has been asked as to features of a good 
library law; how to arouse public interest 
in a library project; conditions required 
for a Carnegie library building; the loca- 
tion and size of a library site; what com- 
mittees were advisable in a board of li- 
brary trustees; what proportion of a li- 
brary's income should be spent for books; 
how may traveling libraries be obtained; 
where may examinations for library posi- 
tions be taken, and how may a person 
best prepare for a library career; what is 
a good arrangement of rooms in a li- 
brary building to cost $50,000.00, should 
there be an auditorium, and if so should 
it be in the basement or on the second 
floor; what periodicals should be in a 
small library; is it preferable to employ 
a recent graduate of a library school as 
librarian, or select some one of library 
experience; how can traveling libraries be 
sent out when the express charges cannot 
be paid by distant readers; where can 
books in Yiddish, Italian, and Polish be 
secured; where may lists of books on 
furniture making and the leather industry 
be obtained? etc. Some advice asked was 
for use in emergency by a librarian, and 
replies to other questions appeared in 
newspapers. 

The publications of the Publishing board 
were used to advantage when certain in- 
formation was desired. The pamphlet 
"Small library buildings" was sent to 
many library boards, and thirty-two plans 
of library buildings were loaned from the 
collection of plans at the Executive office. 

The reports and special lists of books 
issued by libraries were useful to the 
Secretary. When lists of books on certain 



subjects could not be supplied, the in- 
quirer was referred to libraries which had 
published such lists. 

A number of library trustees have writ- 
ten to the Executive office for recom- 
mendations to fill vacant library positions. 
Representatives from ten library boards 
called personally for this purpose, and 
the Secretary of the A. L. A. has recom- 
mended librarians to thirty-four positions 
since September. Letters from about 
thirty librarians wishing positions are on 
file in the office at present. 

As Chicago is on the main line of travel 
from east to west, librarians from all 
parts of the country have visited the Ex- 
ecutive office. Other visitors have been 
architects, library school students, and 
representatives of publishing houses. 

A. L. A. Representatives at Other Con- 
ferences. During last year the policy in- 
augurated several years ago of having A. 
L. A. representatives at state library meet- 
ings was continued. Owing to the good 
service done in the past, and the general 
interest in the opening of executive offices 
in Chicago, the A. L. A. was invited to be 
represented at more meetings last year 
than ever before. 

The questions discussed by the repre- 
sentatives of the American library asso- 
ciation covered many phases of library 
work, and in addition, attention was called 
to the A. L. A. and the importance of its 
work to all librarians. 

Assurances have come from state asso- 
ciations of the benefits received from the 
visits of these representatives. Direct 
contributions were given through ad- 
dresses and discussions, and aside from 
these, there was a strengthening of con- 
nections between the A. L. A. and the 
state associations visited. 

At all meetings the greatest cordiality 
was shown the representatives of the 
national organization. As a result of sev- 
eral such visits to state meetings last 
year, librarians and library trustees have 
written the Executive office of the A. L. A. 
for consultation in library matters. At 
ten state meetings the A. L. A. representa- 
tive was asked not to confine his remarks 



SECRETARY'S REPORT 



603 



to one formal address, but to participate 
in the general discussions of library 
problems as well. At four such meetings, 
publications of the A. L. A. and Publishing 
board were exhibited. In three states, 
the representative of the A. L. A. was in- 
terviewed by newspaper men, and at least 
in ten states information regarding the 
American library association appeared in 
print because of the interest shown in the 
visiting representative. 

It can be readily seen that the A. L. A. 
is benefited quite as much as the state 
association by being represented at such 
meetings. At several state meetings sug- 
gestions of value were made to the Ex- 
ecutive and Publishing boards of the A. 
L. A. regarding their activities. 

It is gratifying to know that states 
which have had a national representative 
present generally extend invitations for 
following years. Three states visited last 
year have already written regarding an 
A. L. A. representative for the coming 
autumn. Last year the American library 
association representatives met with li- 
brary workers at twenty state meetings 
in this country and in Canada. 

N. D. C. Hodges, President of the A. L. 
A., represented the Association at the 
Michigan and Iowa state meetings and 
participated in the tri-state meeting at 
Louisville, Ky., and the Ontario library 
association. 

Miss Alice S. ' Tyler, second vice-presi- 
dent of the Association, was designated 
by the Executive board to represent the 
A. L. A. at the meeting of the Oklahoma 
state teachers' association. The Executive 
board was asked by Oklahoma librarians 
to send some one to discuss before the 
teachers the relation of library and school 
work, and the value of library commission 
work. 

Henry E. Legler represented the A. L. 
A. at the bi-state meeting of Minnesota 
and Wisconsin, and at the tri-state meet- 
ing, participated in by the Indiana, Ken- 
tucky, and Ohio associations. 

The Kansas library association re- 
quested the Executive board of the A. 
L. A. to provide some one to discuss 



"Public documents" at the annual meeting 
of the Kansas association, and M. G. 
Wyer, librarian of the University of Iowa 
library, was designated for this. 

The Northwestern library association, 
composed of librarians in British Colum- 
bia, Washington, Oregon, and upper Cali- 
fornia, asked the A. L. A. to provide a 
representative at the meeting in Portland, 
Oregon. Arthur E. Bostwick was desig- 
nated to represent the A. L. A. at this 
meeting. 

The Secretary of the A. L. A. was the 
representative at the Iowa, Nebraska, Illi- 
nois, Alabama, Louisiana, and Texas asso- 
ciation meetings. In addition, upon invi- 
tation, he spoke at the tri-state meeting 
at Louisville, and at the first state meet- 
ing of the Indiana trustees' association; 
upon request of the Birmingham, Ala., 
Chamber of commerce, he addressed a 
public meeting in that city, and complied 
with the request of the Executive board 
of the Mississippi library association to 
meet with that board for a library con- 
ference in Jackson, Miss. Four library 
school directors invited the Secretary to 
speak before the students, and one invita- 
tion only could be accepted, that from the 
library school at Atlanta, Georgia. The 
invitation from the North Carolina library 
association could not be accepted by the 
Secretary owing to the conflict of its dates 
with the Alabama meeting. 

Membership. Questions of membership 
in the American library association are 
of vital importance. Not only do the dues 
received largely determine the scope of 
activities which the Association can un- 
dertake, but membership is the gage by 
which interest is indicated in the organiza- 
tion which stands for the advancement of 
library work in this country and in Canada. 

For the last few years the increase in 
membership has been gratifying, and it 
is a pleasure to state that the number 
of new members enrolled from last August 
to May 15th of this year, shows an in- 
crease as compared with the correspond- 
ing period in several previous years. It 
is impossible at this time to state what 
the net increase in membership for this 



604 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



year will be. Last January, notices of 
unpaid dues were sent to members and 
second notices were sent again in April. 
Within a few days final notices will be 
sent, accompanied by a letter which will 
urge librarians not to let their member- 
ships in the A. L. A. lapse. Those who 
fail to respond to the third notice will no 
longer be regarded as members. 

While the number of new members in 
the A. L. A. has been large every year, 
those who allow their membership annu- 
ally to lapse are sufficiently numerous to 
greatly reduce the net gains. 

Since the organization of the American 
library association, 2,400 names have been 
withdrawn from the membership rolls. 
There was a net gain of but 2 members 
in 1908, and for the year ending August, 
1909, a net gain of 50 members. Indica- 
tions for the current year are that the net 
increase will be in excess of any of the 
three preceding years, but it will not equal 
the increase in the number of library 
workers who are eligible for membership. 

In the year 1907, there was a total en- 
rollment of 1,807, of which number 169 
were institutional members paying five 
dollars a year in dues. 

In 1908, the total membership amounted 
to 1,809, of which 221 were institutions. 
While this was a net gain of but 2, there 
was an increase of 52 in the number of 
institutions which were enrolled. This 
alone meant an increase of $260 in funds 
available for the Association's work. 

In 1909, the total membership was 1,865, 
or a net gain of 50 over the preceding year. 
Of this membership of 1,865, 237 were in- 
stitutions, a net gain of 16 over the pre- 
ceding year. 

From August, 1909, to May 15, 1910, 
154 new members joined the association, 
as compared with 91 additions for the cor- 
responding period the year before. Of 
these 154 new members, 53 were institu- 
tions, a gain of 44 in this membership 
over the corresponding time for the pre- 
ceding year. This gain was due to 583 
letters sent from the Executive office last 
spring to trustees of libraries which were 
not enrolled in the A. L. A. The mini- 



mum financial income represented by these 
libraries was $2,500 a year, and the general 
income was about that of the institutions 
which were enrolled in the Association. 

The advantages of institutional member- 
ship in the A. L. A. are mutual. This 
membership is more permanent than that 
of individual librarians. Of the 161 mem- 
bers who withdrew from the Association 
in August of last year, only ten were in- 
stitutions. Among the advantages to li- 
braries in belonging to the Association is 
the possession of the A. L. A. "Bulletins," 
including the "Papers and proceedings" 
number, which certainly is worth the mem- 
bership dues to any institution which pre- 
tends to have any collection of material 
on libraries and on librarianship. 

Changes in Officers and Committees. 
During the last year several important 
changes were made among the officers 
and in A. L. A. committees. 

Following her resignation a year ago, 
Miss Nina E. Browne severed her connec- 
tion with the Publishing board when the 
office of the Board was merged with the 
Executive office of the A. L. A. in Chicago. 
During the many years Miss Browne acted 
as Secretary of the Publishing board, she 
gave unsparingly of her services with an 
unselfish devotion to all library interests. 

After two years of efficient, conscien- 
tious service, Purd B. Wright tendered 
his resignation as Treasurer of the A. L. 
A. It was accepted with regret by the 
Executive board and Carl B. Roden of the 
Chicago public library was appointed to 
succeed Mr. Wright. 

Miss Mary W. Plummer resigned as 
Chairman of the Committee on library 
training, and A. S. Root of that Committee 
was designated as Chairman. 

Miss Corinne Bacon resigned as Chair- 
man and member of the Committee on 
library administration, H. C. Wellman be- 
ing designated as Chairman and Miss 
Ethel F. McCollough as member to suc- 
ceed Miss Bacon. Later in the year, Mr. 
Wellman resigned from the Committee 
and Harrison W. Graver was appointed 
Chairman of the Committee on library 
administration. 



SECRETARY'S REPORT 



605 



John Cotton Dana resigned as Chairman 
and member of the Committee on book 
buying, Bernard C. Steiner being appointed 
Chairman and Walter L. Brown as mem- 
ber of the Committee. 

The Executive board voted to continue 
the Committee on work with the blind, 
and Miss Emma R. Neisser was designated 
as Chairman, with Mrs. S. C. Fairchild 
and Asa Don Dickinson as members. 

E. C. Richardson and N. D. C. Hodges 
were named as co-operating representa- 
tives of the American library association 
in plans for the International congress of 
librarians at Brussels. 

Miss Theresa Hitchler was appointed 
Chairman of the Committee on catalog 
rules for small libraries. 

The work of the various committees of 
the Association during the last year has 
been of great value as seen by the reports 
submitted. 

Necrology for 1909-10. During the year 
which has elapsed since the last con- 
ference, the Association has again suffered 
grievous losses in its membership through 
death. Of these one was an honorary 
member of the Association, who attended 
the library conference in 1853, when he 
acted as Secretary, and another was a 
life member, a former trustee of the A. L. 
A. endowment fund, and ex-president of 
the Trustees' section of the American li- 
brary association. A third member who 
died during the last year had served as 
Recorder for the Association, had acted 
as Chairman of many of its important 
committees, and had attended eleven A. 
L. A. conferences. 

Dr. John Griffith Ames, librarian of the 
Episcopal Cathedral in Washington, D. C., 
died February 18, 1910. He joined the 
A. L. A. in 1894 (No. 1311) and attended 
two conferences. 

Deloraine Pendre Corey, member of the 
Massachusetts free public library commis- 
sion, and President of the library board 
of the Maiden (Mass.) public library, died 
May 6, 1910. Mr. Corey became a member 
of the A. L. A. in 1900 (No. 1924) and 
became a life member only a few months 
before his death. He attended ten con- 



ferences of the A. L. A. Mr. Corey was a 
member of the library board of Maiden 
for over thirty years; he had served as a 
trustee of the, A. L. A. endowment fund, 
and served as President of the Trustees' 
section of the A. L. A. for many years. 

For further particulars, see "Library 
journal," v. 35, no. 6, p. 288; "Public li- 
braries," v. 15, no. 6, p. 261. 

Dr. Charles B. Dudley, a trustee of the 
Mechanics' library, Altoona, Pa., died De- 
cember 21, 1909. Dr. Dudley became a 
member of the A. L. A. in 1901 (No. 2131). 
For over thirty years he was actively in- 
terested in the Mechanics' library. 

Miss Anna J. Fiske, assistant librarian 
of the Calumet and Hecla Mining Co., 
Calumet, Mich., died April 25, 1910. Miss 
Fiske became a member of the A. L. A. 
in 1905 (No. 3312), and attended two na- 
tional conferences, those of 1905 and 1906. 

S. Hastings Grant, for many years li- 
brarian of the New York Mercantile li- 
brary, died in Elizabeth, N. J., on May 9, 
1910. Mr. Grant served as Secretary of 
the library conference held in 1853, and 
was an honorary member of the A. L. A. 
(No. 2503). His career was an unusually 
varied one. During his service as librarian 
of the New York mercantile library, 1849- 
1866, he became editor of "Norton's lit- 
erary gazette and publishers' circular." He 
also served as associate editor of the 
"American publishers' circular," 1863-1871. 
Mr. Grant was superintendent of the New 
York produce exchange, 1873-1882; private 
secretary to Mayor Edson, 1882-1883; 
comptroller of New York city, 1883, 1884, 
and Vice-president of the United States 
national bank, 1884-1885. He was a trus- 
tee of the New York genealogical and 
biographical society, and one of the found- 
ers of the "Record" of that society. He 
compiled "New York city during the Amer- 
ican Revolution," and was a contributor 
to various historical publications. 

Miss Elizabeth Harvey, a bibliographer 
of Philadelphia, died July 10, 1909. Miss 
Harvey joined the A. L. A. in 1894 (No. 
1245) and attended the Narragansett Pier 
conference. 

Miss Katherine D. Johnston, librarian 



606 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



of the Astral branch of the Brooklyn, N. 
Y., public library, died November 10, 1909. 
She joined the A. L. A. in 1906 (No. 3716) 
and attended the conference of that year. 

Miss Bertha Alice Kroeger, librarian of 
the Drexel institute library, and director 
of the Drexel institute library school, died 
October 31, 1909. She became a member 
of the A. L. A. in 1889 (No. 728). Miss 
Kroeger began her library career early in 
life in the St. Louis public library, where 
she remained until she attended the New 
York state library school, from which she 
was graduated in 1891. In 1892 she was 
appointed librarian of the Drexel institute 
library, and later organized the library 
school there, of which she served as 
director until her death. During the many 
years of her membership in the A. L. A. 
Mass Kroeger gave many important con- 
tributions to that Association through her 
services on committees, and through her 
invaluable contributions to bibliographical 
literature. She was the author of the 
"Guide to reference books," and "Aids in 
book selection." 

For fuller accounts of her life and work, 
see the Report of the special Committee 
on resolutions, in the "Papers and pro- 
ceedings" of the Mackinac Island con- 
ference, and "Library journal," v. 34, 
No. 11, p. 518. 

Miss Frances M. Mann, librarian of the 
Public library, Dedham, Mass., died May 
5, 1910. Miss Mann joined the A. L. A. 
in 1890 (No. 819), and attended the con- 
ferences of 1890, 1892, and 1894. She also 
attended the international conference of 
1897. 

Miss Mary Olivia Nutting, librarian 
emeritus of Mt. Holyoke college, South 
Hadley, Mass., died February 13, 1910. 
She joined the A. L. A. in 1878 (No. 143), 
and attended two conferences, those of 
1879 and 1887. 

Miss Mary E. Sargent, librarian of the 
Public library, Medford, Mass., died De- 
cember 20, 1909. Miss Sargent was born 
in Boston, and early in life began her 
professional career by teaching in Water- 
town. In 1872 she entered the Middlesex 
mechanics' association library at Lowell, 



and the excellent work accomplished there 
soon advanced her to the Public library 
at Medford. Miss Sargent was always 
particularly successful in her work with 
young people, and to an unusual degree 
she had the ability to make her library 
an active force in the lives of all classes 
of people. In addition to her library work, 
Miss Sargent was a designer of uncommon 
ability and had won recognition both in 
England and this country. She was es- 
pecially active in the Library art club. 
She was one of the best known members 
of the A. L. A., having joined the Associa- 
tion in 1879 (No. 260). Miss Sargent had 
attended fourteen conferences of the A. 
L. A., namely: 1879, '81, '83, '85, '87, '88, 
'90, '92, '94, '98, 1900, '02, '03, '06. 

For further particulars regarding her 
life and work see "Report of the special 
Committee on resolutions" in the "Papers 
and proceedings" of the Mackinac Island 
conference, 1910; "Library journal," v. 
35, no. 1, p. 43-44; "Public libraries," v. 
15, no. 2, p. 59. 

Dr. William Henry Seaman, principal 
examiner in the Department of chemistry, 
United States Patent office, died at his 
home in Washington, D. C., June 11, 1910, 
in the seventy-third year of his age. In 
addition to his work in the Patent office, 
Dr. Seaman was professor of chemistry 
and botany in the medical school of 
Harvard university. He became a mem- 
ber of the A. L. A. in 1907 (No. 4129), 
attended the conference at Asheville that 
year, and was a member of the post 
conference party. 

Emile Terquem, of Paris, France, died 
September, 1909. He was a well known 
book collector and dealer in Paris, and 
joined the A. L. A. in 1904 (No. 3097). 
Mr. Terquem will be remembered by many 
as the genial representative of the French 
publishers at various world's fairs in this 
country, and of the American publishers 
at the Paris expositions. 

The PRESIDENT: This report of the 
Secretary covers, as you are aware, a 
very important year in the development of 
the Association. Is there any discussion? 



JUDD 



607 



Are there any questions? If not, the report 
will stand accepted. 

We are favored in having with us Dr. 
CHARLES HUBBARD JUDD, Director of 
the School of education of the University 
of Chicago, and the representative of the 
National education association, who will 
speak to us on "The library and the 
school." I take pleasure in introducing Dr. 
Judd. 

THE LIBRARY AND THE SCHOOL 

It gives me great pleasure to appear be- 
fore this gathering as the representative 
of the National education association. I 
do not know what qualifications are ordi- 
narily sought in such a representative, but 
I judge that two are at least permitted. 
First, one must be unable to attend the 
meeting of the National education asso- 
ciation itself, because it is so far away; 
and, second, one must be supplied with a 
liberal lack of knowledge of library sci- 
ence. Whatever the qualifications of the 
representative, it is an easy task to say 
to the American library association that 
there is a close bond of connection and 
sympathy between the two Associations. 
We who teach cannot do the work of the 
schools without recognizing our depend- 
ence on the work that is being done in the 
community by the library; and I venture to 
assume that you feel the reciprocal rela- 
tions yourselves and recognize the impor- 
tance of a good school in a city where you 
conduct a good library. 

If I make an effort to comment in any 
wise upon library matters I shall have to 
confine myself to those aspects of library 
work which have to do directly with school 
organization. I am not competent to speak 
on your larger problems of the library and 
the community. But certain it is that we 
are developing within the schools them- 
selves more work of the type in which you 
are interested. 

There are two general lines of discussion 
and interest which it seems to me 'proper 
for one who is interested primarily in the 
school to present to those of you who are 
interested primarily in libraries. First, 



let me say that we are coming to see that 
the study period in the school is more and 
more the place where the kind of work 
that you do in the libraries can very prop- 
erly be introduced and enlarged. You all 
of you know from your own personal expe- 
riences, as students, if not from your ex- 
periences as teachers and I am sure many 
of you have had this latter form of expe- 
rience that the period when students are 
supposed to study has heretofore been a 
period when they have been separated from 
everything except a single textbook, or 
possibly the small supply of books that 
they could have in their desks, and then 
they have been called upon to be extreme- 
ly quiet while they studied. They have 
been called upon to obey the directions of 
some one in charge of the study room, and 
the function of that person in charge of the 
study room has been a rather trying func- 
tion; it has been the function of keeping 
order in the room, not the function of con- 
tributing in any lively way to the actual 
educational progress of the school. The 
study-room period has been a time when 
the teacher has been allowed to catch up 
with her reports, or to catch up with some 
needed work, and perhaps, at times, to 
catch up with her personal correspond- 
ence. At all events, it has been an occa- 
sion when the intellectual contact between 
the school and the children has been some- 
what curtailed, and the school is not sup- 
posed to be wholly responsible for anything 
except order. It has been the kind of a 
substitute for home study, the assumption 
being that the home study would not be 
done quite so vigorously because nobody 
at home would be delegated to watch with 
equal care over the reluctant studier. To- 
day we are modifying all this, and many of 
us are interested in seeing it further modi- 
fied. I am sure that it is appropriate for 
me to enlist, if I can, the sympathies of 
this Association for the modification of 
that sort of a study hour in the schools. I 
think the ideal study hour is a study hour 
in a room filled with books exactly as any 
reference library is filled with books. I 
think the kind of order which should pre- 
vail in that room is the kind of order that 



608 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



prevails in any well organized library; the 
student should have the opportunity to 
leave his individual desk and refer to the 
books which give him enlarged informa- 
tion; he ought indeed to be encouraged to 
leave his own desk, with its meager supply 
of books, and he ought to go from shelf to 
shelf, within any limits of reasonable at- 
tack upon the subject in hand. It seems to 
me there is the finest kind of an oppor- 
tunity for training of a type of study that 
is not common in the individual recitation 
room. As a matter of fact, we are doing 
more and more of this sort of thing in the 
individual recitation room. We are ask- 
ing children to bring into the elementary 
schools, and we are asking the older stu- 
dents to bring into their high school 
classes, reports of what they have looked 
up in the libraries, and we are encouraging 
them to go in a larger way to the shelves; 
but if we could give them definite training 
in how to do this, if we could have the 
teacher who goes about the study room en- 
gaged not merely in keeping order, but in 
helping the students to refer to books 
giving them a kind of training which we all 
of us recommend as important, giving 
them a kind of training for which hereto- 
fore no individual officer of the school has 
been set apart I say, if we could make 
these study periods genuine periods of 
training in the use of books, in the use of 
a library, it seems to me we should add, 
without encumbering the course of study, 
a very important line of training. We 
should thus reduce watching and keeping 
order to their proper place in minor im- 
portance, and elevate to its proper place 
of major importance the function of using 
many books. In other words, we should 
carry over, if you please, a portion of your 
domain into our domain. We should not 
only have the schools made the deposi- 
tories for the books from the public li- 
brary, but we should have the study period 
itself transformed into a period of library 
study or training in library methods. 

If this transformation of the study period 
seems as important to you as it does to 
me, let me urge upon you the responsibility 
for contributing to this movement. We 



cannot work this out merely from the side 
of the schools; we must have the co- 
operation of the technical librarian, who 
comes into the school with an idea that is 
perhaps specialized, perhaps different from 
the ideas of the ordinary teacher who is 
acquainted with the ordinary study period. 
We must have the contribution, from the 
side of the librarian, of enthusiasm for this 
kind of work. We have such a study room 
as this in one of the schools with which I 
am connected. It was suggested by our 
librarian, and is being worked out with her 
co-operation, and we regard it as one of 
our most progressive lines of organization. 
Perhaps you cannot bring about the 
change suddenly, but you could easily be- 
gin to introduce it on a small scale, espe- 
cially if you are situated near the schools, 
or if you have branches in any of the 
schools. You might very properly encour- 
age the school authorities themselves to 
delegate to you the authority to conduct 
one of these study periods. I know you 
are busy like the rest of us, and just as 
soon as you make the proposition that you 
take over this new task, I have no doubt 
that my suggestion will be received with 
enthusiasm by school authorities, and with 
corresponding reserve by librarians. My 
function, however, is to represent the 
school authorities. I see, therefore, very 
clearly how you might make a beginning 
in some such fashion as this: you might 
make the proposition that you would take 
care each day of ten such students for one 
or two periods. Ten students, you know, 
are very simple to handle. Students get 
difficult to handle only when there are fifty 
of them together, and then the accumulated 
momentum of fifty devices for making dis- 
turbance is so great that you have a dis- 
ciplinary problem, but the accumulated 
momentum of ten devices for making a dis- 
turbance is relatively very small, and any 
able-bodied librarian with sufficient self- 
assurance, can put a check to those ten de- 
vices without great difficulty. I should say 
that it might be well for you to get the 
school authorities to arrange the program. 
You can make your period with them very 
attractive to the children. Suppose you 



JUDD 



609 



get the school authorities to make the 
program on a given afternoon that the chil- 
dren should be deliberately let out of a 
certain school to the number of ten, and 
be allowed to go to the library. Of course, 
children go to the libraries now, but let 
us arrange this as a deliberate substitute 
for the old-fashioned study period, and let 
us make this new study period an oppor- 
tunity for training in the methods of the 
use of books. If we do this, I feel sure we 
shall bring together our two institutions in 
a very productive fashion. 

There is another line of interest which 
I am here to suggest to you. We cannot 
co-operate intelligently unless we recognize 
some differentiation of our functions. I 
do not think it is at all fair to say that the 
school and the library are doing the same 
thing. We differ in the first place in the 
fact that you reach a very much larger 
community than we can reach in any given 
year; you reach a larger and maturer read- 
ing constituency, and thereby your func- 
tion is differentiated from ours in the 
school. There is another way in which 
your function differs from ours. Perhaps 
you have thought this out more clearly 
than I, perhaps I am bringing "coals to 
Newcastle" in suggesting it but it has al- 
ways impressed me that you have the ad- 
vantage of us who teach in the schools in 
the fact that you use books as wholes, and 
we use books in very small sections. 
Have you ever been impressed with the 
fact that when a book is used by a class in 
a school it takes a year or half a year 
to read it, and students get notions about 
the difficulty of going through a book 
which are altogether distorted; they get 
the idea that a book must be read in small 
doses; that when you have finished up one 
reading you should set that particular 
reading entirely aside, put it out of your 
mind as soon as possible, so as not to be 
impeded by any memory which you may 
have accumulated out of that small section 
as you pass on to the next. If we have bad 
habits of this kind in the schools, you who 
work in libraries see the opposite vice. 
You see people who come in and read a 
book in fifteen or twenty minutes. Fur- 



thermore, you have people among your 
readers who are mature enough and well 
trained enough to make rapid reading of a 
book a virtue. They know how to select. 
They read the book at the important point, 
and then decide whether they should read 
the other parts of the book. The art of 
rapid use of books is one of the arts which 
we have been learning in the schools very 
gradually. We are just beginning to see 
that children can be taught to deal with 
books as wholes, that they can take up 
books not those that we use merely as 
textbooks, not those that are marked off 
by these heavy headlines so as to impede 
progress but all books containing relevant 
matter. Children should learn that some 
books are made for rapid use. Many books 
ought to be looked over and a large part 
of the contents, for the moment at any 
rate, neglected or even discarded. That 
is, the use of a book as a whole for the 
purpose of extracting from it some infor- 
mation or for the purpose of getting a 
broad general view is just as legitimate as 
the dull grinding over a textbook. We 
can change the attitude of the next gen- 
eration toward books, provided we can 
have some help, and the help which we 
ought to have you are in a position to give 
us. If you would help these students 
when they come to you to pick out those 
portions of a book which are of advan- 
tage, and if you would make it your 
business, or if you would encourage the 
teachers in the schools with which you are 
connected to make it the business of those 
schools, in co-operation with you, to help 
children to learn the methods of using 
whole books and extracting the valuable 
part from books, then we should have a 
very large addition to our pedagogical ma- 
chinery. You know what I mean. You 
ought to have special card catalogs, it 
seems to me, prepared by teachers and by 
yourselves, which will refer in detail to a 
number of different books, citing chapter 
and verse, helping out a faulty index, or 
supplementing a good table of contents. 

Again, I realize that I am unloading on 
this Association a duty which your repre- 
sentative, if speaking this morning before 



610 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



the National education association, would 
be unloading on the teacher. Such 
preaching of new duties is, however, the 
privilege of a prophet who is far away 
from his home constituency and in the 
presence of others who have nothing to do 
but spend their time on beautiful islands 
holding conventions. To charge you with 
any remissness in your duties is certainly 
not my function this morning, but think 
of the great catalogs that might have been 
made up this morning if this whole body 
had set itself about the business of telling 
where all of the information could be had 
about certain phases of fifth-grade geog- 
raphy or history! The trouble with the 
children when we turn them loose in a 
general library is that they have not the 
machinery for the use of that library; and, 
then frankly apologizing for that great 
body which I represent and which is ab- 
sent to-day many of us who teach have 
not the machinery inside of ourselves, if 
we wanted to give it to the children. A 
library is very formidable to a newcomer. 
Even the material equipment impedes 
one's progress. I have long wished for an 
opportunity to tell the makers of card cat- 
alogs that they ought to invent an auto- 
matic device for turning cards, especially 
where there are one hundred and fifty on 
the same subject. Your spiritual equip- 
ment I have never doubted, but your mate- 
rial equipment is very difficult to handle, 
and it gets more and more difficult when 
you offer it to a child in the grades. When 
we see somebody who is just four feet 
high confronting a bureau of information 
that is six feet high, with the top drawers 
of A's just out of reach, you can realize 
how that saps the enthusiasm for the use 
of a library as a source of material re- 
lated to fourth-grade geography. What we 
need is fourth-grade material worked over 
in such a way that pupils will be encour- 
aged from the beginning to realize that the 
book which is given to them in the class- 
room is nothing more or less than a sam- 
ple and very frequently a meager sample 
a sample that raises a great many ques- 
tions and answers very few. He ought to 
learn that if the questions thus raised are 



to be answered, they must be answered in 
the larger book shelves accessible in the 
libraries. Our duty, and, if I may venture 
to preach, your duty, is to make that path, 
especially for the early students, very 
much smoother than it is at the present 
moment. For my own part I am not at all 
persuaded that the path hasn't got to be 
worked out in very much greater detail 
even for older students. Parents come to 
us in our schools very frequently asking 
for lists of books that should be read, lists 
of books that shall be specifically appro- 
priate to the needs of the boy and the 
girl in the sixth, seventh, or the eighth 
grade. This kind of specific preparation 
of a library to introduce the student to 
whole books without throwing the whole 
library at him; to give him the machinery 
by which he shall be able to extract cer- 
tain portions of your shelved wisdom; to 
encourage him little by little to expand 
upon the way in which we use the books 
in the school that is some one's general 
problem. I think we who teach have made 
the mistake, which I confess very frankly, 
of tying ourselves down too closely to the 
single book. We are breaking away from 
that somewhat. We are trying to get chil- 
dren to use books as wholes, and if you 
would come at it from your end of the 
problem, where you deal with the library as 
a whole, and if you will begin to narrow 
somewhat the total view, we shall meet 
each other half way. We shall get our 
pupils to raise a certain number of ques- 
tions, and then shall push them out into 
the library to get their questions an- 
swered. Thus we shall develop the kind 
of co-operation which is at all worth cul- 
tivation that co-operation which permits 
of the differentiation of function. I do 
not believe libraries are going to swallow 
up the schools, at least for some time, nor 
will the schools swallow up the growing 
institutions which you represent. The 
school is very hospitable to the movement 
of introducing into the schools branch li- 
braries; indeed, the school is eager for all 
possible reciprocity between our two great 
educational institutions. You reach a 
larger constituency than we do; you reach 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



611 



your constituency in a somewhat different 
way; we are trying to prepare the future 
constituency for the use of these store- 
houses of knowledge and art of which you 
are the custodians. If you will give us a 
little help in working out some of the 
methods, of which I think we are relative- 
ly ignorant; if you will help the students 
whom we send to you, then we shall be 
forgiven for meeting apart each year and 
merely sending representatives back and 
forth. 

The collection which your executive of- 
ficers have helped to prepare for the Na- 
tional education association, is, I am 
sure, highly appreciated by those who are 
at the other meeting in Boston, and I have 
the message from the executive officers of 
the National education association extend- 
ing to you their very hearty and cordial 
greetings, and their hope for future co- 
operation of the type which has been pos- 
sible in the past. Long may there be the 
warmest sympathy between our two great 
branches of the public educational sys- 
tem! (Applause.) 

The PRESIDENT: I think I can make 
no better comment upon Dr. Judd's ad- 
dress than to say that it is one that will 
help to keep us alive for the coming 
twelve months. I look upon it as an ad- 
dress extremely invigorating. 

We now come to the Book symposium, 
which will be conducted by Mr. WYER. 
I call Mr. WYER to the chair. 

Mr. WYER then assumed the chair, and 
the various speakers took seats on the 
platform. 

BOOK SYMPOSIUM 

Mr. WYER: Through the very cheerful 
and gratifying co-operation of those mem- 
bers of the Association whom we have 
grouped upon the platform, your tem- 
porary Chairman, the ringmaster perhaps, 
has been enabled to present what he is 
assured because despite the suggestion 
upon the program, it will become apparent 
later that his part is to be nil will be an 
interesting and a profitable session. We 
are to deal this morning, as Dr. Judd has 



expressed it, with books as wholes, with a 
number of them. The books we have 
chosen are not in every case books that 
will live for all time, or for any very great 
length of time perhaps. There are some 
notable books upon the list; there are 
some books of unusual interest upon 
the list; there are other books which 
perhaps may not be classified in either 
category, but they are the kind with which 
we all must deal in selecting books for 
our libraries; they are the sort that 
we must encounter continually, and it 
has seemed, therefore, because of their 
temporary lively interest even, if for no 
other reason, to be worth while to include 
them upon the program. 

The pressure of time will make it neces- 
sary to limit participants strictly to five 
minutes in every case, except where more 
than one book dealt with by one person has 
compelled or suggested the extension of 
time indicated upon the program. This 
time limit will be enforced by the chair. 
At the end of each topic, not of each in- 
dividual participation, although in some 
cases the two coincide, there will be oppor- 
tunity, of which announcement will be 
made at the particular point, for an im- 
promptu comment upon any of the books 
that have been formally dealt with. The 
impromptu time limit and we hope that 
many of you will be moved to avail your- 
selves of the opportunity will be one min- 
ute and a half. A great deal can be said in 
one minute and a half, a great deal that 
will be very good. We desire perfect frank- 
ness about these books. If somebody tells 
you that a book on this list is so much 
better than you ever thought it was or 
could be, we want you to say why you, with 
all due respect to their exalted judgment 
for they are several feet above you on 
the platform will still beg to question 
their opinions. Should it be necessary to 
terminate abruptly some of the contribu- 
tions which, if read in extenso. would over- 
step the limit of five minutes, there is this 
compensation suggested at any rate, we all 
know the delight of reading a "continued- 
in-our-next" serial story. 

Where the presentation is not from 



612 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



manuscript, the competent stenographer 
will see that no word is lost; where it is 
in manuscript, and the time limit is 
reached, you will have merely the greater 
avidity for the "Proceedings" which will 
contain all that has been lost to you 
here by the necessity of limiting the 
speaker. It is with great pleasure, then, 
that we take up the broad topic "Recent 
interpretations of American life," and, as 
the first books treated under that, Van 
Dyke's "Spirit of America," and Croly's 
"Promise of American life," by Mr. Carl 
B. Roden, of the Chicago public library. 

Van Dyke. Spirit of America. 
Croly. Promise of American Life. 

Mr. RODEN: I prefer to deal with the 
books in the reverse order, Mr. President, 
as I consider Croly's work by far the more 
important, and it may consume the larger 
portion of my time. Croly's "Promise of 
American life" is the sort of book that you 
do not find reviews of very extensively, 
perhaps for the reason that the reviewer 
would have to read the whole book 
through very carefully, in order to get the 
substance of it sufficiently to write an 
intelligent review. Having accomplished 
that task, with considerable pleasure to 
myself, I shall endeavor to give a more 
or less intelligent summary of its elements 
in the time allowed me. And first it seems 
to me necessary to attempt a definition of 
the title, which is vague enough to cause 
some question. By "the promise of Ameri- 
can life" Mr. Croly means to imply that 
there exists a definite promise, entered 
into more or -less consciously by this na- 
tion, to maintain certain ideals before the 
world. He declares that that promise in 
the early, colonial times was purely eco- 
nomic; it was the promise of unbounded 
possibilties of wealth in this new, unex- 
plored land to which the colonists from 
Europe flocked, to their own material bene- 
fit and future prosperity. He goes on to 
say that it was soon complicated with an 
element of promise of personal liberty; 
refugees from persecution fled here in 
quest of liberty of conscience and liberty 
of action. With the organization of gov- 



ernment after the Revolution, he declares, 
the promise of American life took on cer- 
tain political and social aspects. In other 
words, the promise of American life be- 
came the promise to maintain before the 
world the ideal of democracy. The author 
then proceeds to trace, in a series of ex- 
tremely interesting, fascinating chapters, 
the fate of democracy in the countries of 
Europe. He takes up after that the idea 
of reform, with the purpose of showing 
that the evils which he points out later 
cannot be abated nor cured by modern 
methods of reform. He declares that the 
old optimistic fatalism which governed 
American political philosophy and by the 
terms of which it seemed to be taken for 
granted that the promise of American life 
was by way of fulfilling itself through its 
own momentum, as a man might slide 
down hill has ceased, has become ob- 
solete. Ugly obstacles, he says, have 
arisen, "and," he observes, "ugly obstacles 
are peculiarly dangerous to a man sliding 
down hill." The ugly obstacles which he 
has in mind, and which form the thesis 
of the entire work, are the familiar ones 
of centralization of wealth, the restriction 
of individual opportunities, and the mul- 
tiplication of functions in smaller political 
divisions of the nation. 

Mr. Croly is a Hamiltonian Federalist 
with Rooseveltian amplifications. He be- 
lieves in the strengthening of the central 
government. In fact, the word "centraliza- 
tion" is the one most frequently used 
throughout the book. He opposes the ideal 
of "the nation, the hope of democracy," 
to that of Professor Howe in his cele- 
brated book, "The City, the hope of demo- 
cracy." To librarians I should recommend 
this book for several reasons. In the first 
place it seems to me a book that I should 
recommend to any student, any serious 
reader who likes a close, patient style, 
clear and keen analysis, and the presenta- 
tion of a thesis directly and consistently 
through a large number of pages. The 
idea, the argument, is never lost sight 
of. It is a book which, for anyone 
who enjoys close reasoning and clear 
presentation, it is a pleasure to read. I 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



613 



should recommend it, secondly, as an anti- 
dote or perhaps an antithesis, merely to 
the present school of social and political 
writing. While the ugly obstacles that Mr. 
Croly has found are not different from 
those which are exploited by our friends 
of the "muck-rake," he does it patiently, 
not hysterically; he presents the evils and 
deplores them, rather in sorrow than in 
anger. And, finally, I should recommend 
the book as a sort of a corollary to Bryce's 
"American Commonwealth." It seems to 
me it would be highly appropriate for a li- 
brarian to say to a reader who has brought 
back Bryce's presentation of our excellen- 
cies, "Now, lest you think that this nation 
and its institutions are altogether perfect, 
read Croly's 'The Promise of American 
life,' and see what there is still for us to 
do." 

Of Dr. Van Dyke's book I cannot speak 
with equal enthusiasm. It does not seem 
to me that its title is just. It does not, to 
my notion, interpret the spirit of America, 
but seems to be simply a plain narrative 
of conditions here and of life as we live it. 
There are no profound deductions, and no 
more startling statements than that the 
letter carrier in Princeton has always 
treated Dr. Van Dyke and the late ex- 
President Cleveland with the same consid- 
eration, and that the guides who accom- 
pany him on fishing trips in Maine are not 
always ready to accord him equality with 
themselves. I have never sat in the Sor- 
bonne; I do not know the character of the 
audience, but it seems to me that any in- 
telligent foreigner could understand and 
appreciate the description of American in- 
stitutions in the book, and that the book 
would be chiefly useful in American libra- 
ries for such purposes; at the same time 
I am rather surprised that a Princetonian 
professor of English should perpetrate a 
sentence even before a French-speaking 
audience which, at least according to the 
training which I received, contains two 
palpable, elementary errors of construc- 
tion: "But to really hurt you or to lower 
his own independence would make the 
American feel badly indeed." There we 
have our old abomination of the split in- 



finitive, and an adverbial construction 
which I think is at least questionable, in 
one and the same sentence, and that sen- 
tence issuing from an eminent pen! 

The CHAIRMAN: It would be danger- 
ous to say that neither William Allen 
White nor Winston Churchill could com- 
mand close reasoning and clear presenta- 
tion. Perhaps, however, there are those 
of us who are glad that they do not at- 
tempt to write books like Croly's "Prom- 
ise of American life," but prefer to give 
us their views upon American life in the 
form of fiction. We are grateful for the 
Croly book, we wouldn't be without that 
sort, but it has seemed that in this matter 
a place might properly be given to fiction. 
As possibly a cross between the fiction and 
the strenuosity of the Croly book, we have 
first to introduce Brooks' "As others see 
us," to be presented by Mrs. Julia S. Har- 
ron, of the "A. L. A. Booklist." 

Brooks. As Others See Us. 

Mrs. HARRON: In this book the author 
has marshaled the observations, opinions, 
and judgments of about one hundred more 
or less sane and competent foreigners who 
have traveled or sojourned in this coun- 
try from 1800 to the present time, and have 
afterward gone home and freed their 
minds about us. To characterize our crit- 
ics in nautical terms, the invading fleet 
includes the old-fashioned, three decker 
man-of-war, the privateer, the torpedo 
boat, and the saucy pleasure craft. Eng- 
lish, French, German, and Russian criti- 
cisms are brought into line for quotation 
and comment some familiar, like Dickens, 
Thackeray, and Kipling others well 
known when published but now forgotten, 
like Mrs. Trollope's scandalized account of 
"The domestic manners of the Americans," 
an English "best-seller" of 1832. 

"As others see us" is by no means mere- 
ly an annotated catalog of an hundred or 
so books. The author has a thesis of sev- 
eral points. He aims to present what 
these foreign writers have said and are 
saying about us, both adverse and favor- 
able, and in trivial and vital matters; to 
decide how much of it was and is true; 



614 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



to review our progress as marked by our 
critics' change in tone, and, lastly, to strike 
the note of prophecy or warning which 
their graver judgment has sounded. 

He investigates their credentials and 
motives, weighs their opinions one against 
another, and, taking their seemingly in- 
consistent criticisms as a starting point, 
makes various little explanatory excur- 
sions into our national psychology. He 
handles them with tolerant understanding 
and humor, and, though he records exag- 
geration, superficial observation, conclu- 
sions based on insufficient data, prejudice, 
and even insolence, he finds much that is 
true and suggestive in the severest judg- 
ment. 

There is no phase of our social, moral, 
intellectual, and institutional life that has 
been neglected by our visitors. For con- 
venience Dr. Brooks has grouped his mate- 
rial under two divisions, "The lesser criti- 
cism" and "The higher criticism." Among 
the lesser critics we find discontent with 
our bad roads, worse hotels and boarding 
houses, ice water, overheated rooms, our 
pitiless hospitality, mountainous helps to 
ice cream, raucous voices, and "prolific 
and insane passing of laws." Captain Hall 
finds in 1820 that we have "no class able 
to spend money with grace and distinc- 
tion" (no trouble about that now). By 
common consent we have no manners, no 
fine arts, no imposing ruins. We brag out- 
rageously, we are preposterously sensitive 
and thin skinned, we have a snobbish rev- 
erence for titles, we are intensely curious 
and prying, and, last and most crushing, 
we are deprived of our supposedly inalien- 
able right of regarding ourselves as the 
only nation with a real sense of humor. 
To be sure, Dickens allows us a "certain 
cast-iron quaintness," and Mtinsterberg 
finds a "generally diffused humor which 
explodes all bubbles of pretension." 

With the exception of the French, who 
approved of us on principle, our earlier 
critics one and all entrenched themselves 
behind their barriers of national self-suf- 
ficiency, and dealt us out the hot shot of 
disapproval. As time goes on, however, 
there is a distinct change of tone. Some 



of the moderns are even quite embarrass- 
ingly apologetic for our idiosyncrasies. 
One German ventures that a combination 
of bad digestion and poor circulation ac- 
counts for our habit of elevating the feet, 
and another that our motor restlessness 
gets relief in gum chewing and rocking 
chairs. However, as a sample of the mod- 
ern criticism written in a spirit of appre- 
ciation rather than of prejudice or apology, 
read Miinsterberg's generous and charm- 
ingly expressed tributes to America and 
Americans quoted in this work. His 
eulogy of the American woman the author 
characterizes as "positively incandescent." 

Thus far the book contributes to the 
gayety of nations in every paragraph, but 
the author treats the higher criticism as 
a much graver matter. He dwells long on 
the two greatest criticisms of the theory 
and practice of our political life as a 
whole: De Tocqueville's rosy-hued vision 
of "Democracy in America" and Bryce's 
"American commonwealth." The latter 
bases all his hope for us on the influence 
of broadened education of public opinion 
a verdict confirmed by those other serious 
critics and sincere well-wishers, Munster- 
berg, Ostrogorski, and H. G-. Wells, who 
recognize our material strength and po- 
litical weakness, and with one voice de- 
mand that we wake up to moral and 
mental independence of party tyranny. 

The book would seem to prove three 
things: first, that we are recovering from 
our supersensitiveness. Notwithstanding 
some sincere appreciations it represents, as 
a whole, a startling array of adverse opin- 
ion, but I have seen only one thin-skinned 
and prickly review of it. Second, it shows 
that we have not yet succeeded in reducing 
our bump of self-consciousness. We love 
to hear ourselves talked about few peo- 
ples would be so interested in an objective 
survey of their national character. On the 
other hand, and, thirdly, the book is one 
of the numerous signs of the development 
of a national working conscience. We 
have always been naive about our real 
sins, and have called a spade a spade (in 
the bosom of the family); latterly, the 
spade has been turned into a muck-rake, 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



615 



and now that the alarmist phase is pass- 
ing, the constructive critics are taking a 
hand, not least of whom is Dr. Brooks. 
His effective resum6 and Interpretation of 
outside opinion conveys many a salutary 
lesson and will do a good deal toward im- 
proving the perspective of our home crit- 
ics. But why seek for any other excuse 
for the book than that it is most agree- 
able reading, and is pervaded by good 
sense, humor, and a pretty well-reasoned 
optimism concerning the future of America. 
The CHAIRMAN: There is perhaps 
every reason why a young woman who has 
struggled successfully, or even unsuccess- 
fully, with the problems of administering 
a considerable public library should be- 
come interested in "A certain rich man" 
or in any rich man. One of them has 
and Miss Ethel F. McCollough, of Superior, 
will talk to us a little bit about him. 

White. A Certain Rich Man. 

Miss McCOLLOUGH: Of course, you 
have all read it, or read so many reviews 
of it that you know all about the story 
how in the beginning "a certain rich man" 
was only a poor little barefoot lad; how 
inheritance, education, and opportunity 
conspired to transform him into the "first 
citizen of Sycamore ridge," millionaire, bil- 
lionaire, and, as William Morton Payne 
says, "The typical bogey-man of the muck- 
raking magazine." 

John Barclay crude, monstrous, greedy 
for gold and power may bore you insuf- 
ferably, but nine chances to one are that 
he will set you to thinking, and make you 
a bit curious about the author and the 
invisible line dividing fact and fancy. 

Did William Allen White use a real flesh- 
and-blood man for John Barclay's proto- 
type? Are his scathing anathemas against 
corruption in. high places sincere? Has he 
seen the sociological problem with which 
he wrestles whole, or has he seen only a 
bit of the rough, ugly surface of things? 
And why, oh why, did he suddenly grow 
weary of his task and wash his hands of 
the whole disagreeable business by strip- 
ping John Barclay of his wealth and send- 
ing him over the mill dam to a melodra- 
matic death? 



While endeavoring to answer these and 
a dozen other questions, the sense of hav- 
ing been cheated suddenly comes over one 
the feeling that one had set out to meet 
a man and had encountered only a dummy 
upon which had been hung certain ideas 
usually classified in the "three-hundreds." 

Truly, John Barclay has been dealt with 
unfairly. You know that the man who 
created him worked from the outside in, 
and not from the inside out that John 
Barclay exists merely to demonstrate a 
theory, and that the author stands con- 
victed of having written "that odious thing, 
the purpose novel." 

But even so, although the hero is not 
real, and the book in the main is technical- 
ly well nigh impossible, it is, nevertheless, 
worth reading because of its background, 
for its minor characters, and its portrayal 
of life as it is actually lived in Kansas and 
the Middle West. 

Watts McHurdie, Philemon Ward, Martin 
Culpepper, Lige Bemis, Bob Hendricks, 
Jake Dolan, and a dozen others surge back 
and forth over the field of action, stamping 
individuality upon every page, and convey- 
ing conviction as to the author's honesty of 
purpose. 

His method of dealing with characters 
in a book is exactly the same as his meth- 
od of dealing with characters in real life. 
A number of years ago Mr. White had a 
series of articles in "McClure's magazine" 
on contemporaries in public life, including 
Bryan, Roosevelt, Cleveland, Folk, and 
many others. There he painted his por- 
traits with bold, strong strokes, and when 
he was through with his man, little re- 
mained to be said. While reading these 
articles you may disagree with him in his 
conclusions, and you may be weak enough 
to pity the original of the sketch, but you 
will probably chuckle over his cleverness, 
and rejoice in the feeling that you have 
been in the company of a man absolutely 
unafraid. 

Much of the material, and many of the 
ideas set forth in "A certain rich man" 
have been used by Mr. White in his maga- 
zine articles upon sociological subjects. 
For instance, in an article called "Fifty 



616 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



years of Kansas" published in the "World's 
work" for June, 1904, he says: 

"Unquestionably money spent for schools 
and colleges in Kansas has produced a 
citizenship peculiar in some degree to the 
state. For Kansas has been called the 
Paris of the states; which means that the 
people being highly literate are quick to 
perceive half-truths, and are easily excited 
and always ready to act. Especially does 
anything appeal to Kansas which has a 
moral or emotional character. The state's 
judgment of men and measures is fre- 
quently unsound, and the Kansas political 
type is therefore sometimes freakish and 
impossible or at least highly improbable 
as a public person. This comes from the 
fact that Kansas would sometimes rather 
be wrong than slow. But only in politics, 
and there only once in a long time, does 
Kansas furnish the apotheosis of the half- 
baked. In business, in matters social, Kan- 
sas is sane, shrewd, and admirable. It is 
a remarkable thing what these trans-Mis- 
souri states have done in fifty years to 
build up a commonwealth of people who 
came here poor; to establish institutions 
and pay for them out of the savings of the 
people year by year; to justify a credit 
equal to that of many states three times 
as old and ten times as rich; this Kansas 
has done. It has required hard work and 
pluck to do it. These are the bases of 
the Kansas character." 

Thus, as far back as 1904, we find John 
Barclay and Philemon Ward accounted for. 

And, again, in the author's latest utter- 
ance, "The old order changeth," he says: 

"When business got into politics it found 
that a dollar invested in a campaign fund 
brought, on the whole, more direct results 
than any other dollar that might be in- 
vested up to a certain maximum of in- 
vestment. So money went into politics 
with all the precision and caution that 
always has directed money in any of its 
activities." 

Thus we see Lige Bemis and his cohorts 
accounted for. 

Quoting again from the same book: 

"The courts were not corrupt. They were 
merely human. The people desired busi- 
ness protected. The color of the times 
crocked, and the judges got it on their 
spectacles. They were not to blame. They 
merely saw as we all saw in those times. 
For politics was no better than business, 
and business was no better than the people 

who did the trading So prosperity 

seemed to be the chief end of man. The 
prosperity ideal occupied the mind of a 



nation Every man was willing to 

yield just a little for the larger good of a 
prosperous nation." 

And for this theory, based on exceedingly 
strong evidence gathered from the annals 
of our national history, General Ward and 
Colonel Culpepper had to suffer. 

These and numerous other evidences 
there are of Mr. White's having embodied 
his serious views of life in "A certain rich 
man." And while we cannot admire the 
artistic result of his effort, we must ap- 
plaud his sincerity and his faith in the 
ultimate outcome, for 

"The old order changeth, yielding place to 

new, 

And God fulfills himself in many ways 
Lest one good custom should corrupt 
the world." 

The CHAIRMAN: A still later candi- 
date for popular favor, Churchill's "A mod- 
ern chronicle," by Miss Elva L. Bascom 
of the "A. L. A. Booklist." 

Churchill. A Modern Chronicle. 

Miss BASCOM: In "A modern chron- 
icle," we have a study of divorce among 
the "smart set" in New York where 
money and what it can procure so far out- 
weigh every other consideration as to cre- 
ate a class that is perhaps unequaled for 
sordidness of thought and uselessness of 
life. As a picture of this gay, purposeless 
life, in the fast suburban colonies and on 
Fifth Avenue, the story is wholly success- 
ful. Mr. Churchill is merciless in his de- 
lineation of its foibles, ambitions, follies, 
and tragedies. It is in his central figure, 
which dominates the stage from the first 
page to the last, that one must take issue 
with him. 

In Honora Lefflngwell he has created a 
mild sort of feminine monster. He has, 
however, so clothed her with the fine rai- 
ment of his imagination, given her so gen- 
erously of his own admiration, described 
her so lovingly, excused her weaknesses 
and mistakes so cleverly, that the casual 
reader succumbs to the spell that pos- 
sessed her creator, and finds no great 
cause for quarreling with a story that has 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



617 



many pleasing qualities to commend it. 
But when this spell is removed, one is 
startled to find a wholly selfish, self-cen- 
tered, almost conscienceless woman, cast- 
ing to one side a devoted aunt and uncle 
and the husband she has married solely to 
further her social ambitions, closing her 
eyes to the morals of the people by whom 
she climbs, making use of questionable sit- 
uations to further her ends, seeking a quick 
divorce to free herself from a man against 
whom she can bring no charge except that 
he no longer needs her and that she can 
no longer use him, in order to marry an- 
other of higher social rank, but of whom 
she knows no good and suspects evil. 
Stripped of her graces and charms, this is 
the woman Mr. Churchill holds up for our 
admiration. It is true that he metes out 
to her some measure of sorrow in the 
gradual alienation and tragic death of the 
man for whom she had sacrificed all of 
which she was capable, but it is not the 
poignant suffering a woman feels who sees 
all she holds most dear swept out of her 
life only the misery of the woman who, 
in spite of an infatuation that has for a 
time taken her out of herself, suddenly 
finds that her own happiness and comfort 
are still paramount considerations, and 
who discovers her house, so carefully built 
on the sands, falling about her feet, and 
knows that not only has she built in vain, 
but that there are no materials at her 
hand for reconstruction. 

The mature reader cannot follow Mr. 
Churchill in his assertion that she has 
emerged unstained from her all too willing 
contact with the pitch that has surrounded 
her, and that her devastating ten years 
have been only a preparation for the high- 
er life that is to be hers through the un- 
swerving devotion of the noble man who 
has blindly loved her since her childhood. 
We quarrel, too, with the statement that 
she is still worthy a good man's love be- 
cause she has maintained her ideals un- 
shattered through all her sordid and hu- 
miliating experiences. She is given no 
ideals worthy the name, nor does she show 
at any time the fineness of nature neces- 
sary to appreciate the man to whom she is 



at last handed over as a wounded bird who 
essayed to fly before it had learned the use 
of its wings. One can only hope that Pe- 
ter's illusion continued to the end, and 
that he never discovered how few of the 
womanly qualities Honora possessed. 

What will the average young girl argue 
from this novel? Will she recognize Mr. 
Churchill's constant plea of heredity, and 
because of it excuse in his heroine what 
she would not excuse in herself or her 
friends? Or will she find in Honora's 
beauty and fascination sufficient warrant 
for her heartlessness and erratic conduct? 
Has she not the right to conclude from it 
that a good man is waiting to give an hon- 
orable place in society to a woman after 
she has "lived her life"? 

In Lily Bart (in "The house of mirth") 
we have a tragic study of a young woman's 
constant struggle against the evils to 
which she was heir and among which she 
was forced to live; in Margaret Debree 
(in "A little journey in the world") we have 
the pathetic picture of a true woman of 
refined nature and high ideals, through her 
great love painfully trying to reconcile the 
life of the spirit with that of the flesh. To 
both our instant sympathy goes out as we 
recognize the futility of their high en- 
deavor, but in Honora Leffingwell we find 
no trace of the qualities and struggles that 
saved those two from the sentence of fail- 
ure. She failed, and yet is rewarded as 
if she had conquered. 

The CHAIRMAN: You will agree with 
me, I believe, that the titles Dr. Bostwick 
has selected to present form a significant 
group, emphasizing the attention paid to 
the subject in drama, in fiction, and in 
more serious literature. 

Connor. The Foreigner. 

Coolidge. Chinese Immigration. 

Faust. German Element in the United 

States. 
Holt. Life Stories of Undistinguished 

Americans. 

Steiner. The Immigrant Tide. 
Zangwill. The Melting Pot. 

Dr. A. E. BOSTWICK: I think it is 
Anatole France who says that a critic, 



618 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



if he be really frank, should announce, 
"Now I am going to talk about myself in 
connection with Shakespeare, Schiller, or 
Victor Hugo," as the case may be. I 
should not think of disagreeing with this, 
and as you would not wish me to be other 
than frank, let us proceed at once. 

In reading such a collection of books as 
those that I have been asked to discuss 
here, the conviction presses upon one that 
this question of immigration, like various 
other apparently unrelated questions, is 
merely a phase of a very large problem 
so vast indeed that it is seldom mentioned. 
I think I have read of it in only one book, 
and that not a very serious one, namely, 
Camille Flammarion's "End of the world." 
The question, as it shapes itself in my mind, 
is this: Is it well to hasten universal race 
amalgamation as rapidly as possible? 
Should we look forward to the day as in- 
evitable, even if far distant, when there 
shall be in the world only one race, com- 
pounded of all those that now exist only 
one civilization, the child of our present 
forms, yet differing from all? Or should 
we deny the possibility of such a thing as 
monstrous, and strive to keep for each race 
its own civilization, and to maintain the 
purity of its strain? We have never set 
ourselves down deliberately to answer this 
question; apparently we do not dare to 
face it. So far as our own actions go in 
this country, we are trying to take an im- 
possible middle course welcoming all na- 
tions to our shores, and then endeavoring 
to keep distinct from them. But seldom 
do races in physical contact escape racial 
amalgamation and modification of custom 
and culture. There have been remarkable 
exceptions, but they occur rarely. With us 
amalgamation goes on steadily; with re- 
lated races we do not resist; we even wel- 
come; with those who are farthest re- 
moved, we struggle, despise, and denounce; 
yet the process goes on. Our efforts to 
delay or postpone it are the causes of 
more than one economic movement that 
is hard for us to understand. My desire 
is to look at these books from the stand- 
point thus briefly outlined. 

Mrs. Coolidge's book on "Chinese immi- 



gration" is a thorough and conscientious 
work of the German thesis type. It goes into 
every phase of the subject, and its value is 
undoubted. But it lacks imagination, at- 
mosphere, and sympathy; and the indigna- 
tion of its author at our ill-treatment of 
the Chinese leaves no room for an adequate 
discussion of its causes. The endless de- 
tails of cruelty, misrepresentation, mob- 
violence, and petty annoyance read a good 
deal as would a detailed account of the 
way in which a puppy chased an objection- 
able cat. Racial feeling is fundamental 
quite as fundamental as hunger. A hungry 
man will lie and steal to get food ; likewise 
will a mob filled with race-hatred 'commit 
crimes to get rid of the objects of its feel- 
ing. The question is: Shall we try to 
abolish the feeling or to satisfy it? Tem- 
porary measures, like punishing those 
who commit the misdemeanors, may be 
necessary, but are not worth discussing 
here. Hunger cannot be abolished; it 
must be satisfied. Is racial feeling in the 
same class? Can we do away with it by 
education? Ought we to attempt to do so? 
Or shall we segregate the races, and thus 
satisfy race-dislike? There is one writer, 
at least, who thinks that race-differences 
have been exaggerated; that they are due 
less to heredity than to environment; that 
they are easily made to disappear. This is 
Dr. E. A. Steiner. His book on "The im- 
migrant tide, its ebb and flow," is perhaps 
too optimistic, but it has what the other 
lacks imagination, sympathy, feeling. It 
is deeply personal, largely an account of 
intimate talks and. relations with immi- 
grants, chiefly those who have returned to 
Europe. Dr. Steiner's thesis appears to be 
that American environment quickly acts 
on the visitor: if he stays, he is likely 
(with some notable exceptions) to lose his 
racial peculiarities; if he goes back, what 
he has gained here may react on his home 
environment and modify it, generally for 
good. The writer discusses only European 
races, including the semi-Asiatic Magyar 
and Finn; he says nothing of the Chinese, 
of the Japanese, nor of our long-time guest, 
the African. Probably he himself would 
admit that it is at least doubtful whether 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



619 



his thesis applies to these. This suggests 
the question whether we may divide races 
into two or more groups, within each of 
which amalgamation may, and should, go 
forward, but between which it must be 
discouraged. So far as our feeling in this 
country has had any guiding principle at 
all, perhaps it has been this. But drawing 
a line is difficult and perilous work. Our 
line here has shifted several times. Look- 
ing askance at first upon all but the pure 
Anglo-Saxon, we have next accepted the 
Teuton, the Celt, next the Latin, of various 
races, and now the Slav. Intermarriage 
and exchange of habits and ideas are going 
on all along the line. We have excluded 
the Chinese and Japanese, but we hear 
occasionally of intermarrying between 
these races and the American. Is there, 
side by side with the bitter racial prejudice 
shown by most of us, a giving way of the 
barrier here and there? Yet racial feeling 
has not disappeared, even where the line 
seems to have broken down altogether 
long ago. It crops out between Teuton and 
Celt, between Celt and Latin, even be- 
tween a mother race like the English and 
a daughter race like the American, yet in 
process of formation. It is responsible for 
much that we attribute to differences of 
politics, religion, or education. Again, if 
A may not amalgamate with B, may there 
not be a third race, C, with which each 
may readily mix, thus bringing about ul- 
timately the same result? -Still again: evo- 
lutionary processes are yet at work, turn- 
ing out new races. Is this going on faster 
than amalgamation? Is the ironmaster 
fashioning new tools faster than he is cast- 
ing the old ones into the "melting-pot"? 
What will be the outcome? There is time 
here only to cast a passing glance at these 
things. One who mentions them must per- 
force take Whistler's attitude "My dear 
man, I'm not arguing; I'm telling you." 

There is no better proof that the general 
public is interested in a subject than its 
adoption by a writer of popular fiction. 
Hence Ralph Connor's novel entitled "The 
Foreigner" is noteworthy, although the 
less said about it, from a literary stand- 
point, the better. It is a discreet adapta- 



tion of B. P. Roe, with occasional lapses 
into bloody and incredible melodrama. Its 
theme is the moral redemption of a Rus- 
sian Nihilist's son who turns out in the 
end a highly acceptable Canadian citizen. 
The lesson is precisely the same that Dr. 
Steiner has impressed upon us, namely, 
the power of an environment, or more 
specifically, of an Anglo-Saxon environ- 
ment, to obliterate racial distinctions to 
re-make individuals of one race in the 
likeness of that by whose members he is 
surrounded. This is the old question of 
heredity versus environment. "If the cat 
had kittens in the oven, would they be 
kittens or biscuits?" asked the Irishman. 
Apparently these writers are willing to bet 
on the chance of their turning out biscuits, 
at least provided the oven be an Anglo- 
Saxon one. 

The problem of immigration, as it has 
been briefly set forth, has broadened far 
beyond the question of the admission and 
incorporation of any Teutonic race. Faust's 
"German element in the United States," 
interesting as it is, therefore raises no 
doubts in the reader's mind sets forth no 
question for solution. It interests us in 
much the same way as a book about not- 
able men who trace their ancestry from 
some particular English county. Com- 
pared with the African and the Oriental, 
these men are bone of our bone and flesh 
of our flesh. His two-volume work is ex- 
haustive almost too large for comfortable 
assimilation. The first volume, which is 
historical and philosophical, does not lack 
in interest; the second, which is intended 
to be more concrete and personal, affects 
the reader, after a little, much like the 
bulky county history with its sketches of 
"eminent" physicians, lawyers, and busi- 
ness men all paid for by the page. 

An eminently readable book is Hamilton 
Holt's compilation of interviews from "The 
Independent," entitled "Undistinguished 
Americans." It proves nothing, nor was it 
intended to do otherwise, but from our 
present standpoint it is interesting that 
the universal aspect of our subject appears 
to have occurred to none of the inter- 
viewed immigrants. They are not anxious 



620 



to be assimilated, neither do they shrink 
from the process; they simply don't care. 
They came for liberty and a living; some 
intend to return; those who stay do so for 
some reason that seems to us trivial. The 
Igorrote chief admires our civilization, but 
prefers his own; the French dressmaker 
sighs for Paris; the Swede likes us chiefly 
because here he "has to take his hat off 
to nobody." This human dust hurried 
along by the winds of destiny thinks as lit- 
tle of what is really happening to it as do 
the molecules clashing together in some 
chemical reaction. In Israel Zangwill we 
have at last a universal amalgamationist 
with the courage of his convictions, so 
far, at least, as the United States is con- 
cerned. In "The melting pot" he does not 
hesitate to say that the real American does 
not yet exist; he is to be a product of the 
fusion of Saxon and Jew, Greek and Latin, 
barbarian, Scythian, bond and free. He 
does not except the Mongol and the Negro, 
for he specifically mentions yellow and 
black races among the elements that are 
going into the melting-pot. He fuses to- 
gether, in his story, the Russian and the 
Jew, the persecutor of Kishineff and the 
persecuted; and we are led to infer that, if 
this is possible, a fortiori all things in the 
way of racial amalgamation may follow. 
It is hard to resist Zangwill; he carries us 
aloft, like so many Elijahs, in the fiery 
chariot of his enthusiasm. But may not a 
writer who thinks that Staten Island is 
New York's theatrical center, err also in 
the greater things as he has in the small- 
er? Granted his premise, that out of the 
melting-pot is to come a greater, a more 
glorified race, we may cry with him "Hal- 
lelujah!" but not once does he do aught 
to establish this premise. Most of us are 
assuming that there is no melting-pot at 
all, or that, if there is, some miracle is 
going to keep the ingredients therein from 
running together. So we are left with our 
problem, the tendency to universal fusion 
for our own little melting-pot is but a 
corner of a greater seething cauldron, 
which is the world and the repulsion that 
bids us deny it and fight it. Strangely 
enough, the forces of nature are on both 



sides; we know that attraction and re- 
pulsion may reside in the same particles. 
Two bodies charged with electricity may 
repel each other at a distance and attract 
when they are brought sufficiently near; 
two bits of metal that will not even stick 
together may be firmly welded by heat and 
pressure. So, although nature keeps races 
apart when they know each other not, she 
may and will join them when they come 
into closer contact. Man's will may keep 
them apart or beckon them nearer. We 
seem content to acknowledge that the 
problem is beyond our feeble powers, and 
to leave it in the hands of Providence. 

One thing is certain: the library must 
work, as it is working, along the lines of 
intellectual amalgamation the only phase 
of this racial problem with which it has to 
do. Our duty it is, and our privilege, to 
see that so far as possible, these foreign 
accessions to our ranks come into closer 
mental contact with the phase of civiliza- 
tion that they find here. There may be 
very good reason for keeping some of them 
out; there is no reason for keeping them 
separate, intellectually, when once they 
have been admitted. 

The CHAIRMAN: I am sure that we 
are divided in feeling between admiration 
for so interesting, so informing, so definite 
a discussion of these books, and regret 
that Dr. Bostwick should not have occu- 
pied the few remaining minutes that were 
at his disposal. We come to biography: 
first, to Thompson's "Shelley" Mrs. H. L. 
Elmendorf of the Buffalo public library. 

Thompson. Shelley. 

Mrs. ELMENDORF: I can think of no 
proposition that I would not more willingly 
entertain than to undertake to come into 
any sort of collision with the Chairman. 
For the moment he forces it upon me, for 
I cannot call the little book I hold in my 
hand, Francis Thompson's "Shelley," biog- 
raphy. It is not biography. Thompson 
had no interest in Shelley's life beyond 
its immediate effect upon his poetry. 
Rather than biography it is an oppor- 
tunity to look down into the mind of a 
young poet of more than ordinary genius, 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



621 



as you would look into a Claude Lo- 
raine glass, and see Shelley's image 
looking out from it. The features and 
proportions are all there, the colors and 
values are all there, but they are shadowed 
a little by the darkened surface of the 
glass. Rather than talk about the book, 
if they would extend my five minutes to 
forty-five, I should like to read you the 
whole of it, which would be far more 
enjoyable; but that I suppose they won't 
do, on Miss Ahern's account. So I am 
going to talk a minute about it to try to 
make you want it all. It is an essay, as 
you probably all know, quite as well as I 
do, that was rejected by the "Dublin re- 
view," and, being found in Thompson's 
papers after his death, it was again sent 
by his literary executor to the "Dublin 
review" to give the review a second 
chance. It immediately came into instant 
favor, probably because of the interest 
aroused by his sorrowful death, and for 
the first time in the world the "Dublin 
review" ran to a second edition. That 
second edition was again exhausted, and 
the essay was reproduced in this little 
book. Thompson's distinctive thought 
about Shelley is that he never was a boy; 
that he went, in isolation and reserve, 
escaping the discipline of boyhood, from 
childhood to the threshold of manhood, 
and that the result is shown clearly in 
his poetry, in the never-dulled faculty of 
"make-believe." To Thompson, Shelley is 
always the enchanted child. Listen a 
moment 

"Know you what it is to be a child? 
It is to be something very different from 
the man of to-day. It is to have a spirit 
yet streaming from the waters of baptism; 
it is to believe in love, to believe in loveli- 
ness, to believe in belief; it is to be so 
little that the elves can reach to whisper 
in your ear; it is to turn pumpkins into 
coaches, and mice into horses, lowness 
into loftiness, and nothing into everything, 
for each child has its fairy godmother in 
its own soul; it is to live in a nutshell 
and count yourself the king of infinite 
space 

'To see a world in a grain of sand, 

And heaven in a wild flower, 
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, 
And eternity in an hour' 



it is to know not as yet that you are 
under sentence of life, nor petition that 
it be commuted into death." 

Thompson defines Shelley's place among 
the poets as the crown of the metaphysical 
school. "He is what the metaphysical 
school should have been." 

Wordsworth would never have admitted 
him to place among the "nature poets," 
for he used Nature as a palette for his 
brush, never as a picture for his copying. 

"The universe is his box of toys. He 
dabbles his fingers in the day-fall. He is 
gold-dusty with tumbling amidst the stars. 
He makes bright mischief with the moon. 
The meteors nuzzle their noses in his 
hand. He teases into growling the ken- 
nelled thunder, and laughs at the shaking 
of its fiery chain. He dances in and out 
of the gates of heaven; its floor is littered 
with his broken fancies. He runs wild 
over the fields of ether. He chases the 
rolling world. He gets between the feet 
of the horses of the sun. He stands in 
the lap of patient Nature, and twines 
her loosened tresses after a hundred wilful 
fashions, to see how she will look nicest 
in his song. 

"The nature myths are likewise the very 
basis of Shelley's poetry. The lark, that 
is the gossip of heaven, the winds that 
pluck the gray from the beards of the 
billows, the clouds that are snorted from 
the sea's broad nostril, all the elemental 
spirits of Nature, take from his verse 
perpetual incarnation and re-incarnation, 
pass in a thousand glorious transmigra- 
tions through the radiant forms of his 
imagery." 

I cannot ask you to drop from such 
imagery to the dull prose of description. 
Moreover, if you can see the size of the 
book that Miss Ahern has for review, you 
will know that it is only common, ordinary 
courtesy and kindness for me to cut off 
whatever is left of my five minutes and 
give to her. 

The CHAIRMAN: Stanley's "Autobiog- 
raphy," by Miss Mary Ahern. 

Stanley. Autobiography 
Miss AHERN: Ladies and gentlemen, 
I think I have here what the Chair- 
man classified as "a book of unusual 
interest." In my humble opinion the 
biography of Sir Henry Morton Stanley, 
with the distinctive titles of potentates 
and institutions of learning following his 



622 



name, is only to be classed with that other 
immortal biography of an American, our 
Benjamin Franklin. It is the life story 
of a man who was essentially great. He 
writes it as he were looking at another 
person, analyzing, pitying, sympathizing, 
but not in any sense belittling any of the 
qualities or the circumstances that shaped 
that life. He is frank almost to wonder- 
ment. In fact, one of the criticisms that 
I saw on the book was that he had de- 
tracted from his life history by opening 
to an unsympathetic public those pages 
which could not in any sense be a part 
of the man's life. Well, I do not agree 
with that. It seems to me that the neg- 
lected, abandoned child in the workhouse, 
the cruelly treated child in the charity 
school, the lad cast adrift because his 
nature couldn't join itself to the aspira- 
tions and the wishes of those by whom he 
was surrounded in his English home, com- 
ing to the land that he had heard of as 
a land of freedom and where man alone 
was measured in the estimation of those 
people cast adrift on this shore, one 
would expect him to be lonely, sad-hearted, 
but he tells us frankly that for the first 
time he realized that he lived. Casting 
behind him all the unpleasant memories, 
he enters into the life of the New Orleans 
community with an open mind and eager 
heart, a loving disposition, trying in a 
measure to gather up the things as they 
lay around him that he had missed in his 
former environment. The picture that he 
gives us of the old New Orleans, of the 
Southern gentleman who became his foster 
father, who became indeed more than his 
own father might have been, is particu- 
larly gratifying when looked at as the 
contribution of a man who had, when he 
wrote it, passed through all the experi- 
ences that may come to mankind. He 
follows his Southern life, through the ups 
and downs of a man adrift, into the 
Southern home, and it is particularly in- 
teresting to read the feelings that induced 
him at the time to cast his lot in with 
, the Confederacy as it prepared for war. 
A criticism on the biography has been 
made as to the spirit that he showed, or, 



rather, the lack of sincerity that he showed, 
in casting his fortunes first with the South 
and afterwards with the North, but his 
contribution there on human nature is to 
be valued; because, if we might open the 
histories of many who are now loud in 
their protests of loyalty both North and 
South the experience would not, I think, 
be especially different. We follow him 
through his prison life as it was in the 
North and there again he has given us a 
contribution that ought to be taken to 
heart, when we listen to those by whom 
we are surrounded as they tell of the 
horrors of the Southern prison. Surely 
those chapters that relate to the hospital- 
ities (may we say?), as they were offered 
in Chicago to the Southern prisoner, give 
room for pause, and are a distinct con- 
tribution to the development of human 
sympathy and wideness of vision in com- 
paring ourselves with our neighbors. We 
follow him as he returns to his native 
land; we take up the book, perhaps with 
that feeling of which Dr. Judd spoke this 
morning; the discovery of Livingstone, the 
exploration of the continent of Africa 
opening up, as it did, the largest develop- 
ment of human enterprise and energy that 
this latter part of the world's history has 
seen. It is so large a book that I can 
only touch the high places. But where 
else will we find the setting down not in 
malice nor in extenuation, with no cir- 
cumstance, as Stanley repeats and reiter- 
ates of the difficulties, the experiences 
that came to him, the necessity for deci- 
sions, the understanding of human nature 
that is found in the primitive man, the 
appreciation of mankind and the brother- 
hood of man as it developed in his asso- 
ciation with his officers and with his 
native troops as he finds them there. 
Then the pictures that he gives of meeting 
with Livingstone, of his life there with 
him for all those months, show a man 
in whom the elements were certainly 
mixed up to such an extent that no one 
would question the statement THIS IS A 
MAN. Then his patience, his philosophy, 
nay, his religious spirit through it all, 
particularly when he goes to find the er- 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



623 



ratic German who, in my judgment of it, 
seemed to be a grandstand play, if we 
may use the term, and v^ho slunk out of 
sight as soon as he found that the lime- 
lights were to be turned in other direc- 
tions. There again is another picture of 
the human nature as it is developed under 
certain circumstances. Then Stanley 
comes back to his native land to meet the 
heat of commendation and the cold of 
malicious envy, and one wonders how the 
great English people, noted as they are for 
fair play, could have 

The CHAIRMAN (Rapping with his 
gavel) : You will share with me the regret 
that I felt at a note that has reached me 
since coming here, from Miss Theresa 
Hitchler, stating that she cannot be pres- 
ent. She has sent her paper, and, since 
I have not been able to find a member 
of the staff of her library who was willing 
to attempt what none of us can achieve, 
Miss Hitchler's own incomparable pres- 
entation, I myself am forced to read her 
paper on "Egypt," by Pierre Loti. 

Loti. Egypt. 

Miss HITCHLER: The number of 
books on Egypt are legion: books 
compiled from guide books by hasty 
travelers, semi-sociological utterances by 
the slower voyagers, archaeological 
works by men of world-wide repu- 
tation, not to mention the histories dealing 
with fabulous numbers of years and end- 
less dynasties of kings. But even from 
this appalling array of literature on Egypt 
we may safely single out Loti's recent 
attempt as meriting special notice. There 
is so much to admire in this "Egypt" 
of Pierre Loti, that it is difficult to know 
what to leave unsaid when speaking of 
his book. Even in translation there is 
great beauty in the cadenced sentences, 
and we can but wonder what must be the 
charm of the original text. 

It might well be called "Egypt by moon- 
light" or, "The elegy of the dying Egypt," 
so exquisitely and so well have these 
phases of the country and its conditions 
been portrayed by the author Egypt, that 



land of eternal sunshine, of massive gran- 
ite and shifting sand, under whose crystal 
sky the human intellect first awakened, 
when Europe was still sleeping and the 
glory of Greece was yet to come. But 
little remains to us of its ancient grandeur, 
though centuries of silence and oblivion 
have preserved to us, under the shroud 
of desert sands, priceless prehistoric relics. 
Perhaps we cannot do better than follow 
our author through these scenes of ancient 
splendor, and endeavor to see with his 
clear vision and artistic appreciation the 
progressive development of human thought. 

Loti sees the Sphinx by moonlight, but 
the face of the great Sphinx is at present 
only a mutilated mask, scarred by the 
hand of time and the merciless iconoclast, 
impressive only beneath the enchantment 
of the moon. 

He visits the terrible new Anglicized 
Cairo, and the old, old, native Cairo, for, 
like many old-time cities, Cairo consists 
of two parts, the old and the new. Old 
Cairo is passing away and the Cairo of 
the future is a cosmopolitan city, appar- 
ently ignorant or negligent of the rich 
inheritance of Egyptian art and archi- 
tecture it contains. 

He makes a moonlight visit to the Hall 
of mummies (the doors of which are sealed 
every night in order to guard the precious 
relics collected there), and, after passing 
through a succession of rooms, reaches 
the halls containing the veritable dead 
bodies, where, ranked according to dy- 
nasty, and in chronological order, rest 
the proud Pharaohs. These ancient mon- 
archs are now stripped of their bandages 
and soon will return to dust. If we wish 
to preserve for posterity the lineaments 
of these physiognomies of former centuries 
it behooves us to hasten. 

The religion of the ancient Egyptians 
presumably originated in a low kind of 
fetish worship of purely African char- 
acter. Every village and town seems to 
have had its own special god, worshiped 
in the form of some animal or plant. At 
different periods different animals were 
considered sacred. Among the various in- 
carnations were the bulls (Apis) at Mem- 



624 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



phis, and the visit of M. Loti to the tombs 
of the Apis forms an interesting chapter. 

His description of "The race of bronze" 
and "The downfall of the Nile" is interest- 
ing in the extreme. Although not all of 
us have been privileged to journey up the 
old river in a dahabiya as familiar from 
description as the gondolas of the Vene- 
tion canals, surely all may enjoy the vivid 
word-painting of the author as he tells us of 
"this bright land with its rose-colored dis- 
tances," its gay fields, and flaring desert. 
Along the banks one sees in continuous 
line the shaduf, or primitive rigging, used 
from time immemorial for drawing the 
life-giving water from the river. There, 
from gray dawn until the hour for evening 
prayer, this race of bronze is busy at the 
primordial occupation of Egypt, fetching 
and carrying water. Their action never 
changes, nor does their song. Passive 
endurance has become characteristic of 
the race. 

But the Nile, too, is changing. The 
ascent of the river from Cairo to Nubia 
will soon lose its charm, even though 
days of transparent clearness continue to 
follow nights of transcendent loveliness. 
For foreigners have taken possession of 
the valley, have silenced its cataracts and 
dammed its precious waters. Factories 
are rising along its banks, and the prim- 
itive shaduf is replaced by machines which 
raise the water more easily. "Poor, poor 
Nile!" exclaims Pierre Loti, "What a 
downfall is here." While visiting the great 
temple of Amen-Ra at Thebes at night, 
Loti, with an illustrious savant who is 
comptroller of this vast museum as guide, 
shuts himself up and remains alone in 
the darkness, until moonrise brings a flock 
of tourists to view the ruins with camera 
and magnesium lights. 

And how Loti hates Cook's tourists! 
All the Frenchman and poet in him rises 
up against these professional sightseers 
with their (to him) terrible clothes, their 
inevitable "Baedekers," their spectacles, 
and modern appliances. 

The indictment of Albion is heavy. The 
conquering Angle, wherever he goes, car- 
ries his right little tight little island with 



him. The unhappy native who cannot or 
will not yield to British civilization is 
abolished. It is a question whether the 
survivor who takes on Angleism as a 
garment, and who represents, in the jargon 
of the day, "the fittest" is the most worthy 
of his race. It does not seem that he who 
can forget the traditions of his forefathers 
and mold himself to the ideals of a new 
and vastly different race, was ever of a 
more than jelly-like consistency. 

Loti acknowledges that the English have 
made Egypt, but he thinks the cost is too 
high. They have destroyed the charm of 
Egypt with their steamboats and factories. 
The great works of the Nile, the great 
dam of Assouan, by which they regulate 
the rise and fall of the river, have changed 
the climate made it very damp and fre- 
quent rains, fogs, and fevers result; and 
in the unsanitary surroundings of the 
native village the fellah dies of an hitherto 
unknown ill. With all the money that has 
been spent upon Egypt, they have only 
drained their own quarter of Cairo. The 
native quarter is absolutely without sani- 
tation. In the olden days, when it never 
rained, and when dampness was a thing 
unknown, this was not unendurable, but 
with the new Nile have come frequent 
rains and dense fogs, and the condition 
of the streets is unspeakable. Loti does 
not think that submerging Philae is ex- 
cusable on any grounds, and it is hard to 
approve any such money-making scheme. 
But in this age anything, no matter how 
old or beautiful, that does not make money 
is ruthlessly elbowed aside. 

These things would seem more appalling 
than they do, were we not accustomed to 
the blind greed which, in America, has 
ruthlessly defaced the Hudson Palisades, 
laid low our verdant forests, hushed the 
voices of our song-birds, and attempted 
to harness the majesty of Niagara. 

Since even the God-given landscape is 
not sacred why should the ruined work 
of dead men be safe? 

Loti's style is too well known to need 
characterization. The dreamy poetry of 
it is inimitable. The color of Egypt is 
well painted. It is by no means a guide 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



625 



book, but it leaves the reader regretting 
that he could not see Egypt as Lot! did. 

The CHAIRMAN: We are to have five 
minutes with Lieutenant Shackleton and 
Dr. R. G. Thwaites in "The heart of the 
Antarctic." 

Shackleton. The Heart of the Antarctic. 
Dr. THWAITES: Mr. Chairman, ever 
since the world was young a tale of ad- 
venture into unknown lands has appealed 
to the imagination of man. It is a great 
pleasure on a melting morning like this, 
with the temperature at 90 above, to turn 
for five slender minutes to that other land 
where the temperature is of that killing 
sort of 90 below. The Arctic has ap- 
pealed to men of adventure for three 
hundred years past; we have been 
told that rather frequently by recent ad- 
venturers; but the Antarctic is a com- 
paratively new land of adventure. From 
the days of Wilkes, when he discovered 
the great barrier, the edge of the great 
glacier that overwhelms the southern pole, 
men have become greatly interested in 
the Antarctic. The differences between 
travel in the Arctic and the Antarctic 
are many. In the Arctic men go in on 
the level; to be sure the ice is there, in 
great hummocks; we have had pictures 
of it recently in the magazines and in the 
various journals; but in the Antarctic a 
great glacier thousands of feet high, 
mountain high, covers the pole. In order 
to reach the Southern pole it is necessary 
to surmount this glacier. Whereas the 
temperature in the extreme north, which 
of course gets very low, is reaching an 
almost killing point, the temperature and 
the winds of the Antarctic, at the top of 
the mountain, of course, must be consider- 
ably greater. And so when Shackleton 
takes you to a country seven, eight thou- 
sand, eight thousand five hundred, and even 
nine thousand feet above the level of the 
ocean, amidst temperatures and conditions 
such as that, you have an entirely different 
scene of adventure. Shackleton's two vol- 
umes, the second of which is devoted en- 
tirely to the scientific aspect of his voyage, 



is that of a plain sailor's log; there is no 
attempt at literary erudition; there is no 
attempt at the literature fetish, but he 
just simply gives you the proceedings 
from day to day. That sounds dull in 
the telling, and yet the venture that he 
was engaged upon was one of the sort 
that tests the temperament of man to its 
greatest extreme. You see him taking 
on his supplies and, like some other ad- 
venturers nearer home, they have taken 
on everything from pemmican and gum- 
drops to Kodaks and in the chapters de- 
voted to the supplies every firm that has 
had anything to do with the supplies is 
duly advertised. Not as yet has Shackle- 
ton been shown with all these various 
articles, using them, in the Antarctic, in 
the illustrated pages of the advertising 
portions of our magazines; nevertheless, 
I suppose his time will yet come. I over- 
look that as he proceeds to the southern 
latitudes and takes on his men, little by 
little, testing them little by little, at New 
Zealand and elsewhere. You seem to get 
acquainted personally, intimately, with the 
various members of his expedition; he 
gives their biographies, he tells their 
characteristics with a frankness which 
none but a sailor would indulge; until 
by and by you see at last the expedition 
setting forth with its little company of 
very well-described people, with whom you 
become intimately acquainted, setting off 
to the edge of the great barrier, and reach- 
ing the spot where his former commander, 
Capt. Scott, had formerly wintered, on the 
edge of the great barrier, in Wilkesland. 
The two volumes are filled with pictures, 
most interesting pictures. You have pic- 
tures of the men during that long winter 
in that great camp, in their beds, cooking 
their provisions, amusing the penguins 
with "Caruso records" from Victor and 
other machines you are very carefully 
told which particular machine it is and 
the penguins listening very carefully. You 
seem to see the whole life of the Antarctic 
land spread out before you in this wonder- 
ful array of photographs. Then finally 
you are acquainted with his supplies most 
intimately, with the personnel; you are 



626 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



acquainted with the six months or so that 
they spend in the camp there; and then 
you follow with him the fortunes of the side 
party sent to Mt. Erebus, and the terrors 
of that expedition at the top of that great 
mountain of the Antarctic are very graph- 
ically described, where he tells you that 
the wind blows so hard that in order that 
the men may sleep in their sleeping bags 
at night it was necessary for two men to 
be in each bag, for if there were but one 
man in a bag the wind would get into the 
corners of the flaps of the bag and blow 
the man over the edge of the cliff, two 
or three men having come very near suf- 
fering such a fate. But, of course, your 
very great interest Is with Shackleton 
himself, when starting out with his seven 
or eight or ten companions. Shackleton 
starts off with his ponies, which he con- 
siders better than the dogs, and 

The CHAIRMAN: (Rapping with his 
gavel). 

Dr. THWAITES: Am I through with 
my five minutes? 

The CHAIRMAN: Through. 

Dr. THWAITES: All right. He finally 
got there within a hundred miles. (Laugh- 
ter and applause.) 

The CHAIRMAN: We come to the sub- 
ject of fiction. Hope Anthony Hope 
springs eternal in the public library, and 
he has a horde of companions. We are 
reminded when we come to the subject 
at all that 

"There was once an old lady of Delhi 
Who refused to read Crockett's 'Cleg 

Kelly.' 

When they said 'It's the fashion,' 
She replied in a passion, 
'I know it so's Marie Corelli.' " 

We must bow to the fashion, perhaps 
oftener than we would, but we may take 
time lor only a few novels this morning 
the first, Mrs. Bacon's "Margarita's soul," 
presented by Miss Agnes Van Valken- 
burgh of the Milwaukee public library. 

Bacon. Margarita's Soul. 
Miss VAN VALKENBURGH: It is not 
surprising that Josephine Daskam Bacon 



preferred to write this story under the 
pseudonym "Ingraham Lovell," the aston- 
ishing part is that she should ever have 
owned it. The illustrations are eminently 
fitting, being quite quaint and incompre- 
hensible, and the Whistler butterflies lav- 
ishly used give it an artistic touch other- 
wise lacking. I can scarcely do better 
than to introduce the characters of this 
astonishing book, and then by copious 
quotation let them tell their own story, 
and permit you to judge of the jerky, dis- 
connected style, and the author's idea of 
soul-growth in woman. 

The hero is Roger Bradley, aged forty, 
a successful New York lawyer, of the 
bluest of blue Boston blood, a Yale gradu- 
ate, and a pattern of all the virtues. 
Margarita, whom he marries during a 
moment of inadvertence the lady who 
has no soul, but whose husband procures 
one for her under our eyes. 

The story is told by Winfred Jerrolds, 
commonly called "Jerry," the family friend, 
who is madly in love with his friend's 
wife a very desirable situation. 

When the story opens Roger is strolling 
up Broadway. In "avoiding a flood of 
hurrying citizens," he stepped backward, 
and bumped heavily against the person 
behind him. Being a gentleman he apol- 
ogized. I quote: 

"He took two steps and stopped sud- 
denly, for a hand slipped under his arm. 
'Will you tell me the quickest way to 
Broadway,' said the woman to whom he 
had just spoken. 'To Broadway?,' he 
echoed, stupidly. 'This is Broadway, what 
do you want of it?' 'I want to show 
myself on it,' said the heavily veiled 
woman, a young woman, from the voice. 
'To show yourself on it?' he repeated, 
sternly, 'and why do you want to do 
that?' 'To get myself some friends; I 
have none,' she said, serenely. The bell 
notes, the grave full richness of this veiled 
woman's voice touched Roger deeply, and 
with a brusque motion he drew from his 
pocket a banknote and pressed it into the 
hand under his arm. 'Take this and go 
home,' he said, severely. 'If you will 
promise to call at an address I will give 
you, I will guarantee you a decent means 
of livelihood. Will you promise me?' She 
reached down without a word into a bag 
that hung at her waist and drew out 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



627 



something In her turn. 'I have a great 
many of these,' she said, placidly, 'and 
more at home See them!' And under his 
face she thrust a double handful of 
stamped paper, all green. Roger stared 
at her. 'Put that away directly,' he said, 
'and lift your veil so that I can see who 
you are. There Is something wrong here.' 
The woman threw back her veil so that 
It framed her face like a cloud, and Roger 
looked straight Into her eyes. Roger told 
me afterwards that he literally could not 
say If It were five seconds or five minutes 
that he looked Into the girl's eyes. He 
had since leaned to the opinion that It 
was nearer five minutes, as the passing 
street boys had already begun to collect. 
An Interested cabby caught his eye, 
wasrered his whip masterfully, wheeled up 
to them, and with an apparently complete 
grasp of the situation whirled them off 
throueh a side street, with never so much 
as a 'Where to, sir?' " 

Thus do the hero and heroine meet, 
and he now takes occasion to ask a few 
questions, and finds that she does not 
know her family name, that she Is called 
Margarita, and lives by the sea with two 
servants named Hester Prynne and Call- 
ban, a dumb boy, her father having re- 
cently died. Then this remarkable young 
lady says she Is hungry, and Roger, filled 
with remorse, takes her to a French res- 
taurant. While waiting for their dinner, 

"He studied her, amused partly, partly 
lost in her beauty, for indeed she was 
beautiful. She had a pure olive skin, run- 
ning white Into the neck oh, the back 
of Margarita's neck! that tender nape with 
its soft, nearly blonde locks that curled 
thort about It below the heavy waves of 
what she called her 'real hair.' That was 
chestnut dark brown at night. Nature 
had given her long, dark lashes with per- 
fect verisimilitude, but had at the last 
moment capriciously decided against man's 
peace, and hidden behind them set deep 
behind them under flexible Italian brows 
those curious slate-blue eyes that fixed 
her face in your mind inalterably." 

The waiter brought them, among other 
things, 

"an ivory-white salad of endive, set with 
ruby points of beet, drenched in pure 
olive-oil, and of this soothing luxury Mar- 
garita consumed two large plates in 
dreamy silence. Then she spooned out a 
great mouthful of the delicate ice before 
her. In one second the peaceful dining- 
room was a chattering, howling reign of 



terror. For Margarita, with a choking cry 
of rage and anguish, threw the ice, with 
terrible precision, Into the bland face of 
the waiter who had brought it, threw her 
glass of water with equal accuracy Into 
the wide open eyes of the head-waiter, 
who appeared instantly; threw Roger's 
wine glass full into his own horrified face 
as he rose to catch her death-dealing 
hand, and, lifting with the magnificent 
single-armed sweep of a Greek war god- 
dess her chair from behind her, stood 
facing them, glaring silently, slate-eyed 
Pallas gloriously at bay!" 

After mollifying the waiters, Roger 
found himself again In a closed carriage 
with Margarita, the proprietor having at 
once summoned that vehicle. When he 
ventures to remonstrate with the lady she 
replied by 

"turning in her seat, and with the swift- 
ness of a panther slapped him, a sting- 
ing, biting blow, flat across his cheek. 
A tornado of answering rage whirled 
him out of himself, and seizing her 
wrists he bent them behind her back. 
Unless I am greatly mistaken Roger lived 
fast in those galloping quick-breathed min- 
utes, before he pinioned Margarita, her 
hands behind her back with one arm, and 
held fast about the knees with the other. 
Crushed against him, dead weight she lay, 
her unconquered eyes sea-black now, flat 
against his, her heart laboring heavily, 
under his relentless banding arm. 

" 'Will you be good, you absurd little wild 
cat? will you?' he demanded, his voice shak- 
ing with laughter and triumph. 'No, I will 
not,' said Margarita. 'I hate you, I will 
die before I will obey you.' And at this 
foolish and melodramatic remark Roger 
Bradley, descendant of all the Puritans, a 
respected bachelor of exemplary habits 
and no entanglements, deliberately, and 
with a happy heart-felt oath, kissed Mar- 
garita, at length and somewhat brutally, 
in a hired four-wheeler at the junction of 
34th and 5th Ave." 

So much for Boston-bred manners in 
the initial step to soul growth. Roger 
finally finds an envelope in Margarita's 
bag, which gives the name of a town, so 
he takes her to the 42d St. station and 
buys her a ticket, but she refuses to go 
alone, so he accompanies her, and, after 
traveling all night, they walk five miles, 
incidentally traversing a "certain marshy 
band of vivid green, for several pasture 



628 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



lengths," and arrive at the looked for 
house, where Caliban is engaged in milk- 
ing the cow. Margarita helps herself to 
the new milk and drops asleep for some 
hours, on some fresh hay just beside the 
cow stall. When she awakens, Roger very 
naturally suggests breakfast, and asks 
Caliban to prepare it for them, but poor 
dumb Caliban only stared and walked 
away. Then this son of culture "lifted 
Caliban in the air by the collar of his coat 
and gave him several sharp blows on each 
ear and shook him. Then he threw him 
away on the floor," and, as might have 
been expected, from that hour Caliban 
worshiped his master and developed into 
a wonderful cook. "Roger ate five eggs 
and a great many pieces of bacon and six 
biscuits," besides much coffee, after which 
feat he and Margarita went for a walk. 
Upon their return, Caliban by signs makes 
them understand that Hester Prynne, the 
housekeeper, is dead. Then this remark- 
able New York lawyer, instead of thinking 
of inquests and such unpleasant things, 
remarks, "I am very sleepy, Margarita, 
and don't care to walk back to the village 
directly, since it would do no especial 
good I think I will take a little nap on 
the beach," which he proceeds to do, and 
does not awaken until sunset, when Cali- 
ban intimates that the dead woman is 
gone, and we are obliged to let it go at 
that, while Roger and Margarita take their 
picnic supper on th beach, and he again 
kisses her. This time, "while Roger was 
kissing her that kiss, the tide did come 
in." Is this the origin of the soul kiss, 
or should it be respectfully referred to 
the Committee on navigation? Roger 
stays on the island five days, and then 
sends this telegram to his friend: 

"Please bring bag of clothes and razors 
here will meet train arriving 4 : 30 Tuesday, 
bring sensible parson, don't fail Roger." 

The very parson is just then dining 
with Jerry, and the two, with the clothes 
and razors, go to the island. When they 
arrive, the parson a Yale ex-athlete de- 
cides to row for a few hours, and Jerry 
lands and immediately falls asleep. (What 
an island that would be for people trou- 



bled with insomnia!) When he awakens 
it is foggy. I now quote: 

"As I stared, two great golden arrows 
from the sun behind me cut into the 
thickest of it and tore it like a curtain, 
and in the rent appeared two human fig- 
ures, walking as it might be on clouds to 
earth. More than mortal tall they loomed 
in the mist, and no marbles I have ever 
seen not even that wonder of Melos is 
so immortally lovely as they were. The 
woman wore a veil of crimson vine-leaves 
that wound about her hips and dropped 
on one side nearly to her knee; around 
the man's neck a great lock of her long 
hair lay loose, and on his head a rough 
wreath of the red leaves shone in the 
arrow of sunlight. Beside them a mon- 
strous hound appeared suddenly; a trail- 
ing vine dripped like blood from his great 
jowl." 

I have been fortunate enough to 
know several New York lawyers in my 
day, and there is not one of them who 
would not have drawn the line at the 
rough wreath, and no self-respecting dog 
could be found who would trail that vine. 

After a suitable time, during which Jerry 
falls "senselessly and hopelessly and ever- 
lastingly in love with Margarita," the pas- 
tor rows in and marries the couple, has 
a marvelous dinner, prepared and served 
by the obliging Caliban, and returns to 
the city, much pleased with his visit. 
Shortly after, Jerry returns to New York 
to spend all his savings, a little over five 
thousand dollars, in a single pearl for 
Margarita's wedding gift. Jerry is nothing 
if not generous, but he is rewarded for 
his rashness in being made heir to a 
large fortune, enabling him to put furnaces 
and bathrooms and such, in Roger's island 
home as a surprise. 

As Margarita in her soulless state is 
not calculated to please Roger's mother, 
he takes her to Paris, and that is the proper 
place to supply the needs of ladies. One 
picture of their life in Paris will suffice. 

"In the center of the table was a graceful 
silver dish filled with fruit. Margarita 
with a cooing, throaty cry, reached over 
to it, seized with incredible swiftness two 
great handfuls of the fruit, and, leaping 
from her seat, retreated with her booty 
to the salon. For a second she stood in 



BOOK SYMPOSIUM 



the doorway, two yellow bananas hugged 
to her breast among the rich lace, an 
orange in her elbow, her teeth plunged 
into a great black Hamburg grape, her 
eyes two dark-blue mutinies." 

From now on things move swiftly, the 
customary hidden letters are discovered, 
disclosing Margarita's parentage her 
mother an Italian noblewoman, who left 
a nunnery to marry an American man, 
under a cloud because of having acci- 
dentally killed a relative during the Civil 
war. Margarita becomes mother to a child 
for whom she cares nothing, and develops 
a voice which makes her a wonder of the 
age and sends her to the operatic stage, 
where she captivates all hearts. 

While she was at the height of her 
musical career, Roger's mother inoppor- 
tunely becomes a paralytic, and sends 
for her son and his wife and baby, and 
they become reconciled. Then the family 
and Jerry go to the Island joyfully, with 
the thought of the furnace and bathroom, 
but while all seems so bright, Roger falls 
off the Island and Margarita rescues him, 
by holding him above the water, for a 
long time, screaming violently all the time 
"Bring a rope!" Jerry and Caliban get 
there, summoned by the aforesaid dog, 
in time to save their lives, but the beauti- 
ful golden voice is done for, and when 
Roger recovers from the long attack of 
fever caused by exposure, he finds that 
he has a wife with a soul which must 
have been a great relief to the poor man. 
In the last chapter Margarita is the proud 
mother of six beautiful children, and on 
the last page she tells the family friend: 

"There is only one world for a woman, 
Jerry, and no one can be happy, like me, 
till she lives in it the hearts that love 
her. His and theirs and yours, dear Jerry, 
O, always yours!" 

So they were all satisfied, and I trust 
lived happy ever after. There are oc- 
casional lines where Mrs. Bacon is herself, 
as where she speaks of modern fiction 
and says, "Why is it, by the way, that 
God has hidden so many things in these 
latter days from the prudent and revealed 
them unto spinsters?" Again, speaking 
of that ubiquitous 



"Young Person to whom all print is 
free as air in these enlightened days. 
In America it has been the rule to 
suppress such print as could not brave 
this freedom; in France, to suppress such 
Young Persons as could. There is some- 
thing to be said for both methods, and 
each has, perhaps, its defects; the one 
producing more stimulating Young Per- 
sons, the other enjoying more virile 
prose." 

The review which the publishers selected 
in advertising the book is the following: 

"Distinctly refreshing. At once happy 
and exciting; dreamy yet full of action; 
sad yet joyous; incredible yet natural as 
life." 

All things taken into consideration, I 
think it. is fortunate that most women are 
born with souls, and are spared the neces- 
sity of obtaining them at such expense. 

The CHAIRMAN: Before presenting 
the next speaker, it is my privilege to use 
for a moment the advance sheets of the 
"Book reviewers' handy index" about to 
be published. This is a little compilation 
of phrases, synonyms, words, substitutes, 
catch sentences, designed to facilitate the 
task of book reviewing. The novel under 
review is either a "STRONG, UNFORTUNATE, 

POWERFUL, ABSORBING, CREEPING, OB COMPEL- 
LING" story. The reviewer takes his 
choice, checks off the desired word, and 
passes on. The reader's attention never 
"DIVIDES, DROPS, WANDERS, FLAGS, LIFTS." The 
book is a "character study," and the words 
you may select from "SYMPATHETIC, DELIGHT- 
FUL, CHARMING, MARVELOUS, EXQUISITE," and 

so on. Check again. It shows a "KEEN IN- 
SIGHT INTO CHARACTER, SURPRISING GRASP OF 
THE SUBJECT, DELIGHTFUL NARRATIVE STYLE, 
BARE SYMPATHY WITH HUMANITY, STRONG 

LOCAL COLOR." A few check marks opposite 
the right words and phrases and voilA a 
book review. 

Those of you that are familiar and 
many of us are with the work of the gen- 
tleman who has been good enough to come 
to talk to us, will appreciate the fact that 
a copy of this volume will never be neces- 
sary among his professional tools. There- 
fore we are the more pleased to listen now 
to Mr. Wallace Rice, of Chicago, on 



630 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



PRACTICAL BOOK REVIEWING AND 

MANUSCRIPT READING FROM THE 

INSIDE 

Mr. RICE: I think I may further in- 
troduce myself as the only man in Chicago 
who, without having a definitive salary, has 
for fourteen years earned a mild distinc- 
tion, a mild and impecunious distinction, 
by doing literary work and nothing else. 
I have done all kinds, of all degrees of 
goodness and badness some of it very 
good, I hope; most of it, by reason of 
the environment of which I am to speak, 
very bad. My subject is not logically 
arranged. Book reviewing is in the nature 
of cure; manuscript reading is in the 
nature of prevention. Book reviewers 
suffer usually from any vital interest in 
the community regarding their work, their 
appointment, and any vital interest in 
their employers regarding the pay they 
are to receive. The public gets just about 
as good reviews as, and in most cases 
vastly better reviews than, it pays for. 
Most book reviews are written for nothing. 
Most book reviewers at best get the book 
to keep. Recent proceedings on the part 
of the publishers have made it almost im- 
possible for them to get any money for 
these books if they try to sell them, but 
when you are doing your best you can 
get seventy-five cents for a dollar-and-a- 
half book. Any wise person, of course, 
in those circumstances, writes seventy-five 
cents' worth of review and no more. If 
your family expenses require that you 
should earn something in the nature of 
fifteen dollars a day, it becomes necessary 
for you to read and review thirty books 
in that day it is done, very frequently 
done, and done in just the manner that 
you are so familiar with. There is only 
one valid book review for all purposes, 
and that is an adaptation by Mr. Bill Nye 
of a saying of Artemus Ward to the effect 
that "for those who like this kind of book 
this is the kind of book those people like." 
(Laughter.) But the newspaper book 
reviewer has quite a definite audience in 
mind. When I first went on the news- 
papers, a great many years ago, I was 
told having some knowledge of Latin and 



a tendency to use Latin words that I was 
addressing an audience supposititiously 
situated in Blue Island Avenue, which may 
be identified, for those who live outside 
of Chicago, as in the vicinity of Hull 
House. So the views are not addressed 
to librarians. I do not know that I ever 
heard of a book reviewer who had a li- 
brarian in mind in writing the review. If 
he wrote book reviews such as librarians 
would like, his columns hardly read as 
it is would not be read at all, I am afraid. 
Josh Billings said once, "Most people 
think that anybody can keep a hotel. 
Anybody can. That's why there are so 
many bad ones." Anybody on a news- 
paper can review a book. There are not 
in America, all told, more than forty news- 
papers which pay for a literary editor. 
The rest are given over to people of all 
grades of intelligence, very few of them 
with any literary intelligence, in the fine 
spirit in which the newspaper in America 
does a great many other things. I remem- 
ber, years ago, when Rugby football in 
the West was very young, Mr. Peter 
Dunne the immortal Dooley was sent 
out to a Rugby football match, and when 
he objected that he didn't know anything 
about it, the city editor said, "Of course 
then you will view it with a quite un- 
prejudiced mind." Book reviews are given 
out upon the same principle upon an- 
other newspaper principle, perhaps, which 
led a benevolent-looking old lady once to 
come into the city room and ask the city 
editor if she could thank the delightful 
person who was writing the "Mother's 
talk," and the city editor said, "That's 
him, in the pink shirt, smoking a cigarette, 
in the corner." (Laughter.) 

Book reviews are not read by the public, 
which is one reason why they are so bad. 
Books have no interest to the general 
public. I am very much inclined to think 
that the more one reads the newspapers 
the less he reads books; and, as the two 
come together at very few points, books 
are read by those who prefer not to read 
the papers very much. Magazines stand 
upon almost a precise plane with news- 
papers in this respect. The magazines, 
you will have noticed, are becoming more 



RICE 



631 



and more journalistic, while the entrance 
of what is called the "human interest 
story" into journalism has given journal- 
ism something of a literary character; at 
least there are some of the permanent 
things in human nature recorded from 
time to time in the newspapers. Magazine 
book reviews and there are more mag- 
azines publishing book reviews from time 
to time are almost essentially smart, as 
"The chap book" used to try to be smart, 
without any particular effort to analyze, 
or to tell any of the sort of information 
that is useful for librarians. It is always 
possible in any literature review for the 
editor to secure for any book either a 
favorable or unfavorable notice; that is, 
an editor with his staff well in hand, 
knowing the idiosyncrasies of each mem- 
ber of it, may send a book regarding 
Spain, if written by a friend of his, to a 
man who is very fond of Spain; or, if 
written by an enemy, to a man who 
abominates Spain. It is always possible, 
as you know, owing to human imperfec- 
tions and inadvertencies, for anybody to 
write either a favorable or an unfavorable 
review for any book. One can pick out 
the little things that the author would 
rather not have said, and dwell upon them, 
and make the best book ridiculous. One 
can take the occasional high lights that 
even the worst book succeeds in attaining 
and praise that book beyond measure. It 
requires, I am convinced, something more 
than mere literary training to constitute 
an adequate book reviewer. But it is al- 
ways to be remembered that newspapers, 
in their function, are not pretending to 
criticism; they are reviewing, not criti- 
cizing. I myself very earnestly believe 
that it is not at all the function of any 
newspaper to tell its readers anything 
more than what they wish to know about 
that kind of a book. Is it the kind of 
book that the average reader wishes to 
read? And, if so, why? and to state 
enough concerning that book to prove 
that opinion. The number of critics of 
literature in America at the present time 
who have any pretension to being con- 
sidered as critics is few I doubt if there 



be one, one or two so few that you are 
safe in saying there are no critics in 
America. There are book reviewers oc- 
casionally not very many of them. There 
go out from the great metropolitan papers 
reviews usually extended reviews in some 
cases of important and unimportant 
books. Those are copied all over the 
country. I have seen cases where a review 
a column long in a country paper had 
no two consecutive paragraphs clipped 
from the same paper farther east. Out 
of forty possible newspapers, all the crit- 
ical work, so called, is simply clipped 
from other and larger papers. Some cities 
in America, which you would suppose 
would necessarily carry book reviewers, 
carry none. They prefer to copy verbatim 
from the New York and the Chicago 
papers. 

I have no notion how such a state of 
affairs is to be remedied except by the 
universal method of education. When 
people are educated to look into the lit- 
erary column for something besides a mere 
passing fancy of an immature mind in 
the way of a review, the papers will give 
them something better. If that time ever 
comes, there will be some chance, per- 
haps, of a reviewer being able to make a 
decent living by reviewing. Now it is a 
curious fact for your literary purposes 
that the newspapers actually invert in- 
terest. The books that are permanent and 
interesting are the books that, to the news- 
paper, are the least interesting. One never 
has to read a serious book for newspaper 
reviews; and, as one gets a little more 
money for serious books than for the 
other, they become entirely desirable to 
the reviewer. Any serious book can get 
all the review that any newspaper requires 
from a reading of the Preface, to indicate 
what the author meant to do, and a read- 
ing of the Table of contents to see what 
he has done. It becomes necessary, then, 
practically, to read only works of fiction. 
Now, works of fiction, as you all know, 
are constructed upon a quite definite plan. 
In the first chapter the hero enters, and 
in the second chapter the heroine, or 
vice versa, and, in cases of some daring 



632 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



souls, they both come in the first chapter. 
In the first three chapters the entire 
situation develops, and develops to such 
an extent that you skip from the third 
chapter to the second-before-the-last, 
which contains the dramatic climax. You 
must find all those characters in the first 
three chapters and no others. You save 
much time, because if there are other 
people introduced, or if some of those in 
the first three chapters have disappeared, 
you are immediately able to say that the 
book is improperly constructed. You also 
have to acquire in those four chapters of 
the book some idea of why the book was 
given that particular name. If, however, 
in those four chapters you do not find the 
reason for the book having been given 
that name, you are quite safe in saying 
that it is very ill or inappropriately named. 
Now, that is all most novels are worth. 
It Is more than most novels are worth, 
because novels are put out not for any 
excellence they may contain, generally 
speaking, but because there is in every 
novel the potentiality of a "best seller." 

And that brings me to the second por- 
tion of my disclosure, which has to do with 
manuscript reading. I have, in my day, 
read a great many thousand manuscripts, 
and I have at least one kind word to say 
for them the typewriting, which is in- 
sisted upon, is more legible than the or- 
dinary printed book. It has been objected 
that publishers are publishing too many 
books. I think that is true. I think that 
if when the number of possible authors 
began to increase they had kept the num- 
ber of books to be published at the same, 
without increase, we would have by this 
time had a marvelous literature. As a 
matter of fact, the number of authors has 
increased way beyond the comprehension 
and handling of the publisher who has 
not raised his standard but has, on the 
contrary, in some cases lowered it. 

The only thing that prevents a man- 
uscript from being published and that 
not always is the vice included under 
the generic term of "amateurishness." It 
is quite unmistakable. Any man of ex- 
perience who reads a manuscript and finds 



it amateurish on the first two pages Is 
seldom troubled to read the manuscript 
further. Sometimes a book, by some 
happy chance, written by an amateur 
one who has not learned the art of writing 
by writing contains the germ of an idea. 
That is given into other and more com- 
petent hands, and the royalties shared; 
though, in some cases, a "hack" is hired 
who takes the idea and works it out, 
without royalty, on the basis of so many 
cents a word. Now, you have no possible 
notion of the kind of harm that the pub- 
lisher's reader prevents by insisting that, 
of authors previously unknown, nine hun- 
dred and ninety-nine out of a thousand 
manuscripts shall be rejected, and that 
out of authors previously known not more 
than one in ten shall be accepted. There 
come into every publishing house in 
this country bales of manuscripts of 
the most astonishing badness written by 
crazy people. I had a man come into my 
office once who, after asking if we pub- 
lished books, confided to me that he was 
the Lamb of God, and produced a book 
which he wanted published; he said he 
was able to sit in the chair and close his 
eyes and transport himself forthwith to 
any portion of the world, and on that basis 
wished us to publish his book of travels. 
(Laughter.) It is not at all an unfair 
instance. There are hundreds and hun- 
dreds of crank books, voluminous books, 
books in four volumes, written to prove 
that this earth was once encrusted in what 
afterward became mud and settled upon 
the surface I don't mean encrusted upon 
the surface, but I mean at a distance of 
some eighty or ninety miles above us 
and that that is the reason why you find 
frozen mastodons in Siberia; they were 
under mud when they fell. All that goes 
off to be published at the author's ex- 
pense; and as, by some wise dispensation, 
authors who write that kind of books 
seldom have any money very few of them 
have any money the books seldom are 
published. 

But I want to say just a word for 
the author who does get his book pub- 
lished. The average return upon a printed 



RIO 



033 



book is hardly more than a hundred dol- 
lars. Now, writing is hard work, it is not 
easy work; it becomes increased the dif- 
ficulty as age advances, to most people; 
the actual mechanical labor of it is con- 
siderable. But one faces always, as an 
author, the certainty of smaller and 
smaller receipts, however small they are 
to start with, as one grows older. The 
average book hardly sells at the publica- 
tion more than a thousand copies. The 
average royalty paid is about ten cents 
a volume. It is a very poor way to make 
a living, and those who think that literary 
men are entitled to great sympathy a 
hundred years ago because they starved 
then can be just as sympathetic with a 
great number of people who are living 
now and starving trying to do literature. 
They are the world's benefactors, they are 
the people who say the vital and perma- 
nent things, after all. They get less re- 
turn than almost any form of art, be- 
cause I take it that literature is an art 
equal with painting and sculpture and 
music and the others, and, in this coun- 
try, the state of affairs at the present 
time is such that the greater the literary 
artist the less certain his reception at the 
hands of the American public. We have 
in America at the present time, for ex- 
ample, not less than seventy men and 
women who are writing admirable poetry, 
poetry which will compare favorably, if 
not in certainty of flight, assuredly in 
beauty of expression and in all that con- 
stitutes lyric greatness in verse, will 
bear comparison with the best poetry of 
the English at any time, and that is not 
reviewed in the papers. No book reviewer 
of the ordinary type knows what to do 
with a book of contemporary verse when 
he comes to it. It is not read by anybody, 
and it does not appear to any commensurate 
extent upon the shelves of any library, 
and yet that poetry is going to be, out of 
all this turmoil and sea of literature that 
we are going through at the present time, 
is going to be the only permanent con- 
tribution, broadly speaking, to English lit- 
erature. It is going to survive when it 
does come into a library. The very fact 



that it keeps unread allows it to retain 
its position on the shelves when the novel 
passes from hand to hand, wears out, and 
is not replaced. We are sure of physical 
immortality, if not of any other kind. 

I would like to bespeak your consid- 
eration also for those poor struggling 
souls who, without any preparation what- 
ever, are given books to review. Granted 
time, and opportunity, and extended ex- 
perience, and a knowledge of current lit- 
erature as it runs which is not to be 
derived from any text book (except that 
of Prof. Phelps), which is not to be de- 
rived from a course in any school or col- 
lege they are still trying to do something, 
however unfortunate, in the way of adding 
to the interest in literature. 

I should like very much to bespeak the 
interest of you all in the great permanent 
things in English literature of the present 
time, chief of those poetry, then essays, 
little fugitive volumes, apparently, which 
have in them the germ of the great thing, 
of art, of beauty, and of high purpose. 
(Applause.) 

[Mr. Wyer retires and President Hodges 
assumes the chair.] 

The PRESIDENT: On account of the 
lateness of the hour we will put off the 
consideration of the reports until the next 
general session. I will make one an- ( 
nouncement from the Executive board, 
that the Committee on resolutions consists 
of William N. C. Carlton, Chairman, Miss 
N. K. Preston, and Mr. A. E. Bostwick. 

Adjourned. 



SPECIAL SESSION 
(Monday morning, July 4, 1910.) 

An informal session of the Association 
was called to meet in the Casino at nine 
o'clock Monday morning, for the purpose 
of appropriately observing the Fourth of 
July. 

President Hodges presided, and pre- 
sented Mr. Wallace Rice, of Chicago, who 
read the "Declaration of Independence" in 
an impressive manner. 



034 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



"America" was then sung by the au- 
dience, and a stanza was added which was 
written for the occasion by Mr. Rice. The 
words appeared on a large banner over 
the stage, and were as follows: 

May all the books we know 

Kindle a sacred glow, 

Lit by our hand; 

Let Wisdom's holy fame 

Blazoned in Freedom's name 

Our libraries proclaim 

Throughout the land. 

On Monday evening, July 4, W. R. 
Reinick, of the Philadelphia free library, 
gave a talk on "Insects destructive to 



books." The lecture was illustrated by 
numerous lantern slides. 



THIRD GENERAL SESSION 
(Tuesday morning, July 5, 1910.) 

The third general session was called to 
order at 9:30 o'clock by President N. D. C. 
Hodges, and the Association at once 
passed to the consideration of reports 
from committees. As the reports had been 
printed and distributed, they were not 
read at the session, but were submitted 
for action. 



REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE CARNEGIE AND ENDOWMENT FUND 

To THE PRESIDENT AND MEMBERS OF THE 

AMERICAN LIBBABY ASSOCIATION, 
GENTLEMEN: 

The Trustees of the Carnegie and Endowment Fund, in presenting their annual 
report, are pleased to say that the interest on all bonds has been paid up to date. 

During the year fifteen thousand dollars of the Missouri Pacific 6's were called in 
and fifteen thousand dollars United States Steel Bonds were purchased in their place. 
And, in addition, fifteen hundred dollars of United States Steel Bonds were purchased 
from moneys on deposit in the Union Trust Company. 

The Trustees were not able to exchange any of the bonds profitably for those 
bearing a higher rate of interest owing to the condition of the market. They still hope 
the time is not far distant when they can make this change to the advantage of the 
Association. 

Annexed please find a detailed statement of all our transactions in both funds cov- 
ering the period from January 15, 1909, to January 15, 1910. 

Respectfully submitted, 

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



CARNEGIE FUND, PRINCIPAL ACCOUNT 



Cash donated by Mr. 



June 1, 1908 
June 1, 1908 
June 1, 1908 
June 1, 1908 
June 1, 1908 
June 1, 1908 
June 1, 1909 
May 3, 1909 
Aug. 6, 1909 



$100,000.00 

In addition to the above we have on hand at the Union Trust Company $150.00, 
profit on the sale of the Missouri Pacific Bonds, which we have carried to a special sur- 
plus account. 



allows: 
5,000 4% Am. Tel. & Tel. Bonds 


. 96% 


$4,825.00 




10,000 4% Am. Tel. & Tel. Bonds 


. 94% 


9,437.50 




15,000 4% Cleveland Terminal 


.100 


15 000 00 




10,000 4% Seaboard Air Line 


95% 


9,550.00 


. 


15,000 3%% N. Y. Cent. (Lake Shore Col.). 
15,000 5% Western Un. Tel 


. 90 
.108% 


13,500.00 
15 000.00 




15,000 5% Mo. Pacific 


.104% 


15,000.00 




15,000 U. S. Steel 


104 


15 000 00 




1,500 U. S. Steel 


.106% 


1,500 00 


$98,812.50 










101,500 
Dime Savings Institution 




,..$841.67 




Union Trust 




, . . 345.83 


1,187.50 











ENDOWMENT FUNDS 



035 



CARNEGIE FUND, INCOME ACCOUNT 

Cash on hand, Jan. 15, 1909 $1,165.63 

Jan. 25, 1909, Int. N. Y. Central 262.50 

Jan. 25, 1909, Int. Missouri Pacific 450.00 

March 11, 1909, Int. Missouri Pacific 375.00 

March 13, 1909, Int. Seaboard Air Line 200.00 

May 1, 1909, Int. Cleveland Terminal 300.00 

May 3, 1909, Int. Missouri Pacific (Bonds Paid) 232.53 

July 1, 1909, Int. Union Trust Co 52.71 

July 1, 1909, Int. Am. T. & T. Co 300.00 

July 1, 1909, Int. Western Un. Tel. Co 375.00 

Aug. 5, 1909, Int. New York Central 262.00 

Aug. 5, 1909, Int. Missouri Pacific 375.00 

Sept. 2, 1909, Int. Seaboard Air Line 200.00 

Nov. 3, 1909, Int. U. S. Steel 412.50 

Nov. 4, 1909, Int. Cleveland Terminal 300.00 

Jan. 3, 1910, Int. Am. Tel. & Tel. Co 300.00 

Jan. 3, 1910, Int. Western Union Tel. Co 375.00 

Jan. 15, 1910, Int. Dime Savings Institution 14.69 

Jan. 15, 1910, Int. Union Trust Co 55.30 

Jan. 15, 1910, Int. Dime Savings Institution 19.29 

$6,027.65 
Disbursements 

April 30, 1909, Stationery $ 4.00 

May 3, 1909, Premium 15 Steel 5's 600.00 

May 3, 1909, Accrued Interest Steel 23.62 

Aug. 6, 1909, Premium 1% Steel 5's 103.13 

Aug. 6, 1909, Accrued Interest Steel 5's 19.79 

Aug. 6, 1909, Commission Steel 5's 1.88 

Nov. 4, 1909, Rent Safe Deposit Co 30.00 

Dec. 6, 1909, P. B. Wright, Treasurer 3,000.00 

Jan. 1, 1910, Cash on hand 2,245.23 $6,027.65 

ENDOWMENT FUND, PRINCIPAL ACCOUNT 

On hand January 15, 1909 $6,961.84 

Invested as follows: 

June 1, 1908, 2 U. S. Steel Bonds 98% $1,970.00 

Oct. 19, 1908, 2 U. S. Steel Bonds 102% 2,000.00 

Nov. 5, 1908, iy 2 U. S. Steel Bonds 101 1,500.00 

Jan. 15, 1910, Dime Savings Institution 1,491.84 $6,961.84 

ENDOWMENT FUND, INCOME ACCOUNT 

May 1, 1909, Int. U. S. Steel $137.50 

Aug. 5, 1909, Int. Dime Savings Institution 27.10 

Nov. 3, 1909, Int. U. S. Steel 137.50 

Jan. 15, 1900, Int. Dime Savings Bank 29.82 

$331.92 
Disbursed as follows: 

Aug. 6, 1909, P. B. Wright, Treasurer $134.60 

Aug. 6, 1909, P. B. Wright, Treasurer 30.00 

Jan. 15, 1910, Cash on hand 167.32 $331.92 

Aug. 5, 1909, Int. Dime Savings Institution 27.10 



636 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The PRESIDENT: If no discussion in 
desired, and there is no opposing voice, 
the report will be received and placed on 
file. 

REPORT OF THE A. L. A. PUBLISHING 
BOARD 

For the year which comes to a close at 
this time the Publishing board herewith 
submits the usual financial statement and 
summary of new publications undertaken 
or in contemplation. Jointly with the gen- 
eral offices of the American library asso- 
ciation, the headquarters of the Board 
were removed in September last from the 
quarters occupied for several years at 34 
Newbury Street, Boston, to commodious 
and pleasantly equipped rooms in the Chi- 
cago public library building. Incident to 
removal, much reorganization of business 
machinery and readjustment of office ar- 
rangements became necessary. This un- 
avoidably occupied the time and thought of 
the Secretary and his assistants to such 
an extent as to render inadvisable, for the 
time being, any considerable undertakings 
along new lines. It has, therefore, been a 
year of rearrangement and preparation. 
The new publications, while not ambitious 
as to scope, have proven exceedingly use- 
ful, and have met real needs. 

A. L. A. "BOOKLIST" 

Realizing the great value of the "Book- 
list" to libraries, the Publishing board has 
continued the policy of promoting its use- 
fulness in every way. Assurances of ap- 
preciation have come from librarians in 
all sections of this country and Canada. 
In letters which have been received li- 
brarians of the smaller libraries especially 
have emphasized the importance of the 
"Booklist" to them. This is shown further 
in the fact that nearly 80 per cent, of the 
entire edition has been distributed to li- 
braries through the state library commis- 
sions. 

Miss Elva L. Bascom has continued as 
editor of the "Booklist" during the year, and 
she has had Mrs. Julia S. Harron as her 
assistant. 



Since the last report wa submitted the 
Publishing board has decided that sub- 
scription books are eligible for inclusion 
in the "Booklist" and Supplement to the A. 
L. A. catalog; to reduce the subscription 
price of the "Booklist" press proofs to one 
dollar; and to enter public documents and 
new editions in alternate months, and sec- 
tions separate from the general list. 

Following a consideration of the question 
as to the best time for issuing the Author 
and title index to the "Booklist," circular 
letters were sent to the library commis- 
sions asking for opinions. The commis- 
sions were asked also as to the expediency 
of issuing separately a six months' index 
to the "Booklist" at a cost not to exceed ten 
cents a copy. Replies were received from 
twenty commissions. Of these eight 
favored June as the time for issuing the 
annual index, four favored December, 
and six had no preference. In regard to 
issuing separately a six months' index at 
a cost of not more than ten cents a copy, 
eight library commissions favored such an 
index, eight were opposed to it under the 
conditions named, and three failed to reply. 

At the present time 4,332 copies of the 
Booklist are distributed monthly to sub- 
scribers, of which 65 copies are of the 
press proof printed on one side only for 
clipping and mounting purposes. 

The following interesting extract is taken 
from a comprehensive report covering her 
work submitted by Miss Elva Bascom, edi- 
tor of the A. L. A. "Booklist": 

Book Selection 

"The character of the assistance received 
from the University of Wisconsin faculty, 
individual readers and library workers has 
changed but slightly. Owing to the ab- 
sence of some professors, either abroad or 
as lecturers elsewhere, a few subjects have 
had comparatively little comment, but in 
other subjects the assistance has been very 
generous and valuable; this is especially 
true of the economics, education, and Eng- 
lish departments. A considerably larger 
number of books than last year has had 
the benefit of critical examination. The 
greatest addition to the assistance from 



A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD 



637 



libraries has been the Cincinnati and St. 
Louis public libraries, from which have 
come a large body of notes and comments, 
largely the result of the staff's reading. 
From St. Louis, however, have come also 
copies of the notes furnished that library 
by the faculty of Washington university. 

"In the selection and annotation of tech- 
nical literature, besides the assistance of 
the university faculty the Booklist has had 
again this year the benefit of the active co- 
operation of Mr. McClelland, technology 
librarian of the Carnegie library of Pitts- 
burgh, and Mr. Stevens, librarian of Pratt 
institute free library. The members of 
the Middle West section, League of library 
commissions, at the January meeting re- 
quested the inclusion of technical litera- 
ture along more special lines than have 
heretofore been considered. An attempt 
has been made to meet this demand, but 
the selection of books on very specialized 
industries is a difficult task, requiring con- 
siderable correspondence for each subject. 
It is a question how far this work can be 
carried to advantage in consideration of 
the comparatively small number of libra- 
ries that will profit from it and the amount 
of work now in preparation that will be of 
a more widely useful character. 

"In accordance with the decision of the 
Publising board at the September meeting, 
new editions and government documents 
have been listed alternately and in sep- 
arate sections. In the selection and an- 
notation of the latter the editor has been 
much indebted to Mr. A. C. Tilton, who has 
charge of the public documents department 
in the Wisconsin state historical library. 

"As the result of consultation with many 
of the leading children's librarians, the 
decision was made to hold all children's 
books three months after publication, this 
giving time for more thorough examination 
and also for testing them by actual use 
in children's rooms. In consequence the 
assistance received has been greatly in- 
creased in extent and value. 

"Relations with publishers are on a 
much more satisfactory basis than they 
were a year ago. Not only has the list of 
those sending books been appreciably in- 



creased, but as the result of considerable 
correspondence and personal conversation 
with representatives, the publishers as a 
whole have a clearer idea of what the 
'Booklist' stands for, and this has invaria- 
bly meant a more prompt, generous, and in- 
telligent co-operation." 

NEW PUBLICATIONS 

Since the last report of the Board new 
publications have appeared as follows: 

"Selected list of Swedish books recom- 
mended for public libraries." The list was 
compiled by Miss Valfrid Palmgren of the 
Royal library, Stockholm, Sweden, and it 
has been especially useful to libraries of 
the north central states where there is a 
large Scandinavian population. 

"Selected list of music and books about 
music for public libraries," by Louisa M. 
Hooper, librarian of the public library, 
Brookline, Mass. . The list is of service 
in the problem of how best to start a music 
collection in a public circulating library. 

"Binding for small libraries," suggestions 
prepared by the A. L. A. Committee on 
bookbinding. 

"Mending and repair of books," compiled 
by Margaret Wright Brown of the Iowa 
library commission; a handbook, the pur- 
poses of which are to give practical aid 
and guidance to librarians who are entirely 
inexperienced in the work of mending and 
repair of books and whose knowledge must 
be gained through self-instruction. 

"U. S. government documents in small 
libraries," by James I. Wyer, Jr. Definite 
suggestions as to the acquisition, arrange- 
ment, cataloging, and use of government 
documents in the small library. 

REPRINTS 

During the last year the second edition, 
revised, of the "List of subject headings 
for use in dictionary catalogs" was re- 
printed, as were Tract No. 10, "Why do 
we need a public library?" and Handbook 
No. 2, "Cataloging for small libraries." 
Handbook No. 1, "Essentials for library 
administration," and Tract No. 10 are in 
press at present for reprinting. 



088 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



ADVERTISING 

During the last year notices of publica- 
tions have appeared regularly in five 
periodicals, exhibits of publications were 
sent to four state library associations, to 
two foreign countries, and nearly 1,000 
copies of printed lists of publications were 
distributed. 



FUTURE PUBLICATIONS 
A. L. A. Catalog Supplement 
The month-to-month demands of the 
Booklist and periodical card work, and the 
preparation of the Subject index which 
required the use of the "Booklist" entries 
(mounted on cards) that had been prepared 
for the supplement, have delayed the prog- 
ress in the compilation of the A. L. A. 
Catalog supplement. A tentative selec- 
tion of titles in several classes has been 
made, however, and considerable material 
accumulated, so that when the completion 
of the Subject index releases the "Booklist" 
material, work on the Supplement will ad- 
vance more rapidly. 

Simplified Code of the A. L. A. Catalog 

Rules 

Following the death of Miss Kroeger, 
Miss Theresa Hitchler was appointed 
Chairman of the Committee having this 
work in charge. Those assisting Miss 
Hitchler are Miss Emma Cragin, head cat- 
aloger of the Circulation department of 
the New York public library, and Miss 
Margaret Mann, cataloged of the Carnegie 
library, Pittsburgh, Pa. The Committee 
hopes to present a completed work at the 
next meeting of the A. L. A., if not before. 
The aim is to compile a code, simple in 
language and clear in direction, so that 
librarians, with or without training, and 
without fear of technically worded direc- 
tions, may find the assistance needed in 
cataloging. 



Subject Index 

The decision to extend the scope of the 
index in order to finish v. 6, ending with 
June, 1910, has postponed its publication. 
Copy is now completed and will be ready 
to send out by August 1. 

Revised List of Subject Headings 
Miss Mary J. Briggs of the Buffalo pub- 
lic library has been appointed editor-in- 
charge of the third edition of Subject head- 
ings. Much material for the new edition 
had been gathered by Miss Crawford 
through visits to libraries, correspondence, 
and interviews. At first the work of the 
new editor was largely a process of selec- 
tion and elimination, but constructive 
work has now begun and the Board hopes 
soon to be able to report substantial prog- 
ress. 

Periodical Cards 

Attention has been given by the Board 
to important questions regarding the cards 
for publications in series. It is believed 
that the entire matter should be recon- 
sidered in its various phases, and the 
questions involved will be considered by 
the Board at an early date. 

A. L. A. Manual of Library Economy 

Material for the Manual is being sub- 
mitted to the editors, and progress is being 
made. The editors report that consider- 
able revisory work will be necessary to 
secure some uniformity in the Manual. 

The authors of the general chapters, 
with the exception of four unassigned, are: 
F. F. Hopper, Miss L. A. Eastman, W. S. 
Biscoe, Mrs. S. C. Fairchild, Dr. E. C. Rich- 
ardson, Miss Abby Sargent, Henry E. 
Legler, Mrs. Emma Neisser Delphino, J. I. 
Wyer, Jr., F. P. Hill, Dr. H. Putnam, D. C. 
Brown, Miss J. E. Elliott, Miss I. E. Lord, 
Miss Josephine A. Rathbone, Miss Edith 
Tobitt, Miss M. W. Plummer, A. E. Bost- 
wick, W. D. Johnston, Miss Frances J. Ol- 
cott, W. F. Yust, W. R. Eastman, A. L. 
Bailey, C. K. Bolton. 



A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD 



639 



FINANCIAL REPORT 
Cash Receipts June 1, 1909, to May 31, 1910 

Balance June 1, 1909 $2,797.46 

Trustees of Endowment fund 5,245.23 

*Sales of publications 

Accounts receivable $4,902.91 

Cash sales 1,770.03 6,672.94 

Interest on bank deposits 47.24 

Sundries 251.64 $15,014.51 

Payments June 1, 1909, to May 31, 1910 

Cost of publications: 

A. L. A. Booklist $1,774.59 

A. L. A. Booklist subject index 17.15 

Cataloging for small libraries, Handbook 1, Reprint.. 76.50 

Kroeger guide 185.35 

Music 189.10 

Subject headings, Reprint 390.76 

Swedish list 92.50 $2,725.95 

"'Periodical cards 1,622,40 

Addressograph machine and plates 184.49 

Typewriter 55.00 

Advertising 246.00 

Postage and express 313.91 

Rent 325.00 

Travel 293.12 

Salaries 3,722.75 

Expense at Boston headquarters, July- August 83.33 

Moving expense 266.67 

Expense at Chicago headquarters, September-May 1,125.00 

Sundries 685.51 

Cash on hand May 31, 1910 3,365.38 $15,014.51 

SALES OF A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD PUBLICATIONS 
June 1, 1909, to May 31, 1910 

A. L. A. Booklist, regular subscriptions 990 $990.00 

Bulk subscriptions paid 834.00 

Press proofs 65.00 

Extra copies 247 36.59 

$1,925.59 

Handbook 1, Essentials in library administration 525 57.45 

Handbook 2, Cataloging for small libraries 610 55.42 

Handbook 3, Management of traveling libraries 153 12.87 

Handbook 4, Aids in book selection 279 39.79 

Handbook 5, Binding for small libraries 507 55.38 

Handbook 6, Mending and repair of books 296 24.38 

245.29 

Tract 2, How to start a library 444 11.85 

Tract 3, Traveling libraries 8 .40 

Tract 4, Library rooms and buildings 280 8.24 

Tract 5, Notes from the art section of a library 224 5.20 

Tract 6, Essentials in library administration 18 2.68 

Tract 7, Cataloging for small libraries 39 5.70 

Tract 8, Village library 235 4.70 

Tract 9, Library school training 236 8.63 

Tract 10, Why do we need a public library? 932 24.95 

72.35 

*Exclusive of $1,130.33 sales of periodical cards, July, 1909, to April, 1910, bills for which 
were sent out too late for payment. 
**Payment for periodical cards, $1,622.40 covers bills of October, 1908, to February, 1910. 



640 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



Foreign booklists, French 77 18.85 

Foreign booklists, French fiction 21 1.05 

Foreign booklists, German 62 30.20 

Foreign booklists, Hungarian 40 5.83 

Foreign booklists, Norwegian and Danish 47 11.42 

Foreign booklists, Swedish 159 39.19 

106.54 

Reprints, etc. Arbor day list 16 .80 

Reprints, etc. Bird books 7 .70 

Reprints, etc. Books and life 1 .05 

Reprints, etc. Christmas bulletin 6 .35 

Reprints, etc. Industrial art books 4 .20 

Reprints, etc. Library administration 8 .40 

Reprints, etc. Library buildings 66 5.08 

Reprints, etc. National library problem to-day 2 .10 

Reprints, etc. Political economy books > 2 .10 

Reprints, etc. Question of library training 2 .10 

Reprints, etc. Rational library work with children 39 1.95 

Reprints, etc. Traveling libraries 3 .15 

9.98 

Periodical cards, Subscription 609.15 

Periodical cards, Facsimiles of early tests 6 16.74 

Periodical cards, Old South leaflets 182 v. 82.36 

Periodical cards, Reed's modern eloquence 8 40.00 

Periodical cards, Smithsonian reports 20.48 

768.73 

A. L. A. Index to general literature 24 214.08 

Books for boys and girls 65 9.66 

Catalog rules 481 297.97 

Children's reading 158 40.51 

Girls and women and their clubs 21 5.17 

Kroeger, guide to reference books 610 807.73 

Lamed, Literature of American history 30 148.05 

Lamed, Literature of American history, Supplement 60 58.73 

Music list 264 64.57 

Reading for the young 21 16.50 

Reading for the young, Supplement 7 1.71 

Small library buildings 189 231.85 

Subject headings 320 638.09 

Total $5,663.10 

HENRY E. LEGLER, 

Chairman. 



The PRESIDENT: Is there any discus- 
sion? If not, the report will stand accepted. 
The next report in order will be the report 
of the Finance committee, which will be 
presented by Mr. C. W. Andrews. 

REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE 

To the American library association, 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
The Finance committee respectfully re- 
port that they have estimated the total 
income of the Association for 1910 at 
$7,820, and have approved the appropria- 
tions recommended by the Executive board 
to that amount. 



In behalf of the Committee the Chairman 
has audited the accounts of the Treasurer 
for the year 1909, and has found that the 
printed report truly exhibits the receipts 
and expenditures of the year; that all ex- 
penditures are covered by duly approved 
and receipted vouchers or bills; and that 
the balance, as stated, agrees with the sum 
shown by the Treasurer's bank books and 
transferred to his successor. 

He has also examined the accounts of 
the Treasurer as Treasurer of the Publish- 
ing board for the period from October 9, 
1909, when these accounts begin, to De- 
cember 31, 1909, and has found that the 
receipts and expenditures are correctly 



ANDREWS 



641 



entered, that all expenditures except three, 
amounting in all to $5.05, are covered by 
duly approved and receiped vouchers; and 
that the balances stated to have been re- 
ceived from the preceding and transferred 
to the succeeding treasurer agree with 
their accounts. 

The accounts of the Trustees of the 
Endowment fund were not submitted to 
the Committee in time for the audit re- 
quired by the Constitution. As the veri- 
fication of the securities is the principal 
item in this audit, the Committee suggest 
that the Executive board appoint a mem- 
ber of the Finance committee who can 
visit easily the place of deposit and re- 
quest the Trustees to submit their report 
at the beginning of the year. 

They further report that they have 
adopted a plan by which the Secretary will 
act as Assistant Treasurer, will pay all 
current expenses, and will be reimbursed 
monthly by the Treasurer upon submitting 
an audited account accompanied by duly 
approved and receipted vouchers. This 
procedure will make it possible for the 
Association to secure the services, as cus- 
todians of its funds, of members who could 
not afford to give the time required by the 
old method. At the same time, it enables 
the Finance committee, with little addi- 
tional work, to make sure that the expendi- 
tures of the Association are kept within 
its income. In order to avoid the difficul- 
ties met in securing the return of vouchers, 
especially those for small amounts, the 
Assistant Treasurer, with the approval of 
the Committee, has adopted a form of com- 
bined voucher and check. 

Respectfully submitted, 
CLEMENT W. ANDREWS, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: You have heard the 
report of the Finance committee. What 
ts your pleasure? 

Mr. SMALL: I move the report of the 
Finance committee be accepted. 

Seconded and adopted. 

The PRESIDENT: The next is the re- 
port of the Committee on co-operation 



with the National education association. 
I believe the Chairman is not present. Is 
there any member of the Committee here? 
If not, as this report has been printed, 
and there is no objection, it will stand 
accepted. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CO- 
OPERATION WITH THE NATIONAL 
EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

The Committee of the American library 
association on co-operation with the Na- 
tional education association, begs to report 
as follows: 

This Committee has added to its mem- 
bership, Miss Mary E. Robbins of the 
Department of library science, Simmons 
College, Boston, Mass. Miss Robbins, on 
behalf of the American library associa- 
tion, and with the help of the students of 
the Department of library science, has in 
preparation an exhibition of library meth- 
ods and materials of especial interest to 
teachers, to be placed on view in the Bos- 
ton public library during the week of the 
National education association's 1910 con- 
vention. Miss Robbins has also been made 
a member of the Local committee of the 
Library section of the N. E. A., and is 
working with that Committee. At this 
date it is impossible to give a better report 
of this exhibition, but it is believed that it 
will be one of real value, not only to the 
teachers who attend the convention, but 
through a printed catalog, to the libraries 
of the country. 

This Committee has made diligent ef- 
forts to obtain a speaker to represent the 
N. E. A. at the American library associa- 
tion convention. Owing to conflicting dates 
it was impossible to obtain such speakers. 
This Committee desires therefore to call 
attention again to the difficulty of any real 
co-operation, and especially to the diffi- 
culty of obtaining representatives from 
each great Association when they meet at 
the same time, and usually not less than a 
thousand miles apart. 

EDWIN WHITE GAILLARD, 

Chairman. 



642 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The PRESIDENT: We come to the 
report of the Committee on library train- 
ing. 

Mr. ROOT: The report of the Commit- 
tee on library training is in print, Mr. 
President, and there are no recommenda- 
tions. We therefore submit it as printed. 

The PRESIDENT: Is there any discus- 
sion? If not, the report will stand ac- 
cepted. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON LI- 
BRARY TRAINING 

At the beginning of the year, Miss Mary 
W. Plummer, who had for several years 
held the chairmanship of the Committee, 
declined to continue longer in that posi- 
tion, although consenting to remain a 
member of the Committee. Only those who 
have been connected with the Committee, 
and have taken the pains to compare the 
work which has been done under Miss 
Plummer's leadership with the work done 
in earlier years, can realize how much her 
leadership has accomplished in promoting 
the interests of library training. 

The chief action on the part of the Com- 
mittee during the present year has been to 
recommend to the Council of the Ameri- 
can library association that an appropria- 
tion of $500.00 be made to make possible 
the examination of such schools as desire 
an examination by the Committee. The 
report submitted to the Executive commit- 
tee of the American library association 
was as follows: 

"For some years past, members of the 
American library association have re- 
peatedly called the attention of the Com- 
mittee on library training to the fact that 
on account of the rapid increase of schools 
and other agencies for library training, an 
examination of such places of study by the 
Committee would be of great value. 

"It has seemed to the Committee that in 
this matter merely ex parte statements 
from the schools themselves or from 
others ought not to be accepted, but that 
any expression of opinion on the part of 
the Committee on library training should 
be made only after careful examination, by 



competent examiners, of the existing facil- 
ities for library training. It is the judg- 
ment of the Committee that the present 
situation calls for a very careful examina- 
tion of the present opportunities for library 
training. The Committee therefore desires, 
during the coming season, to give to all 
such places of training an opportunity to 
be examined. Such examinations would be 
conducted by at least two thoroughly 
trained persons selected by the Committee 
on library training, the same examiners 
to inspect all the schools desiring it. Only 
such schools as wish to be examined will 
be visited. 

"If the school should accept the oppor- 
tunity of examination offered by the Com- 
mittee, it will, of course, be necessary to 
pay the expenses of the examiners. There- 
fore, before entering upon this work, this 
outline of the plans of the Committee is 
presented to the Council of the American 
library association, with the request that 
if the plans of the Committee commend 
themselves to the Council an appropriation 
of $500.00, or so much thereof as may be 
necessary, be made to pay the expenses of 
such an examination." 

This report was submitted by the Exec- 
utive council .to the American library 
association council, which, after discus- 
sion of the matter, expressed itself as fav- 
orable to the action proposed. Up to the 
date of writing, however, no action has 
been taken by the Executive committee. 
Until such action, it is impossible for the 
Committee to act in any way with refer- 
ence to examinations. 

The most noticeable change among the 
schools during the year has been the ter- 
mination, by sudden death, of Miss Alice B. 
Kroeger's directorship of the library school 
connected with the Drexel institute. Miss 
Kroeger's fine personality, her enthusiastic 
leadership, and her success as a teacher, 
had all combined to give marked success 
to the school over which she had charge, 
and to make her a strong force within the 
ranks of the American library association. 
The Committee cannot record this termina- 
tion of a very successful directorship with- 
out expressing its own profound regret at 



ROOT 



643 



the close, so early In life, of a most effi- 
cient and beautiful career. 

An excellent example of the quiet way 
in which members of the Committee are 
able to accomplish work of importance 
has occurred during the present year. A 
certain woman's college in the Central 
West contemplated the establishment of 
a library science course in order to enable 
college girls to specialize in library science 
and save one year in a two years' library 
course. Upon consultation with a mem- 
ber of the Committee, the difficulties of 
such a procedure were pointed out and the 
suggestion made that it was far more im- 
portant that more extended study in his- 
tory, literature, general information, and a 
working knowledge of French and German 
be obtained, as well as of bibliography. 
As a result, the idea of establishing a li- 
brary course was wisely given up, and 
instead, a course in library methods intro- 
duced which will enable a student to use 
the resources of the college library to the 
best advantage and get that acquaintance 
with books and with modern library meth- 
ods which will enable him to use any 
library with ease and confidence. This 
example is cited to show how the Commit- 
tee is able from time to time to give such 
advice as will prevent the unnecessary 
duplication of library schools and at the 
same time increase the acquaintance of 
the general public with library methods. 

The schools for instruction in library 
training which have come under the at- 
tention of the Committee for the first time 
during the present year are the following: 

The James Milliken University of De- 
catur, Illinois, offers courses in library 
science. The purpose of the courses of- 
fered, as stated in the catalog of the 
university, are as follows: (1) to bring the 
principles of library economy before the 
general student in such a way as to enable 
him to use with advantage any properly 
arranged library and to assist him in 
selecting and managing his own library, 
and (2) to train librarians. The course 
extends through four years and leads to 
the degree of B. S. with L. S. Only a 
portion of this work has to do with library 



science, the greater part being occupied 
with regular college work in mathematics, 
the classic and modern languages, history, 
the sciences, philosophy, etc. In the 
Freshman year one hour each week is 
devoted to library science courses; In the 
Sophomore year one and two hours per 
week during the two semesters; in the 
Junior year four hours per week; and in 
the Senior year three and one hours per 
week in the two semesters. The aggre- 
gate amount of strictly library science pos- 
sible under the course seems to be equal 
to about one-half of a full year's work. 
The courses covered are History of li- 
braries, Bookmaking, Bibliography, Selec- 
tion of books, Elementary library econo- 
my, Elementary apprentice work, ele- 
mentary reference, and Advanced appren- 
tice work. All the instruction in these 
special library courses appears to be given 
by one instructor, the librarian of the uni- 
versity. 

Columbia University offers three courses 
in library economy during the summer 
session. "These courses offer to librarians 
and teacher-supervisors of school libraries 
opportunity to add six weeks of system- 
atic instruction to library experience. It 
is not a substitute for the one or two 
years' training of the library schools. 
Courses S2 and S3 are restricted to libra- 
rians and teacher-supervisors of school li- 
braries. Course SI deals with Bibliog- 
raphy; Course S2 with Book-selection and 
Book-buying, and Course S3 with Catalog- 
ing and Classification." Several instruc- 
tors give lectures in each course. 

Other plans for instruction in library 
science have been reported to the Commit- 
tee, but consideration is deferred until de- 
tailed statements are published. 

AZARIAH S. ROOT, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: Is there any dis- 
cussion? If not, the report will stand 
accepted. 

The PRESIDENT: We now come to 
the Committee on international relations, 
of which Dr. Richardson is Chairman. Is 
there any member of that Committee pres- 



644 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



ent? If not, as the report contains no 
recommendation, if there is no objection, 
it will stand accepted. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 

The matter of taking part in the Inter- 
national bibliographical and library con- 
gresses, to be held at Brussels in August, 
has been conducted by another committee. 

A new enterprise in international co-op- 
eration is the proposed International bib- 
liography of British history. British and 
American committees have been formed, 
Professor Cheyney of the University of 
Pennsylvania being Chairman of the 
American committee. Professor Prothero 
of the English committee, in conference 
with the American committee, has worked 
out an editorial plan and the matter will 
be pushed for the Tudor and Stuart 
periods as soon as the report is approved 
by the English committee. 

In view of the publication of printed 
catalog cards of current accessions by 
the Berlin Royal library, it has been sug- 
gested to this Committee that some ar- 
rangement by which a set of cards could 
be furnished with each copy of current 
German books furnished to American li- 
baries, is a desideratum. This does not 
seem to call for any action by the Asso- 
ciation beyond publication in this report, 
which will doubtless be called to the at- 
tention of the German booksellers by the 
new Committee. 

E. C. RICHARDSON, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: The Committee on 
book buying? Dr. Steiner is not here. Is 
any member of the Committee present? 
That report, containing no recommenda- 
tions, can follow the same course if there 
is no objection, and stand accepted. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
BOOK BUYING 

Your Committee on book buying re- 
spectfully states that its activity has been 



shown in the reports printed in the vari- 
ous numbers of the American library as- 
sociation "Bulletin" througnout the year. 
We take great pleasure in noting the in- 
creased importance which booksellers and 
publishers are recognizing in library or- 
ders for books. Special library editions 
are being published of certain new books, 
and of "Everyman's library," and the cir- 
culars which all libraries are receiving 
from publishers show the conviction on 
their part that the libraries are good cus- 
tomers. A number of firms are either 
binding books from the sheets in an es- 
pecially strong binding, or are rebinding 
books with special reference to library 
work. While in general the use of such 
special bindings must be warmly com- 
mended, the use which is expected from 
the books must always be considered. 
There are many books so used in public 
library work that they become so soiled 
that they must be discarded before full 
wear of these bindings can be realized. 
The publishers' bindings on many of the 
books used in children's work are strong 
enough, or may be made so by simple 
methods of reinforcement. This is true, as 
well, to a certain degree, of many books of 
fiction, or books which are purchased for 
ephemeral use, such as duplicates of new 
books, etc. On the other hand, it is wise 
to get strong bindings which outlast the 
paper in purchasing those books for which 
there is a steady demand for long periods, 
or which are to be used by borrowers who 
use the books properly or in branches used 
by the borrowers living in the more clean- 
ly parts of the city. 

We are also pleased to see the issue of 
selected lists of books in various classes 
of subjects issued by H. W. Wilson & Co. 
as commercial enterprises, inasmuch as 
these also prove that the library is an im- 
portant element in the field of the pur- 
chase of books. On the other hand, we 
have to regret that a number of good 
books and good editions recommended in 
the American library association catalog 
for 1904 have been allowed to go out 
of print. The many new books and many 
revisions made necessary because of the 



STEINER 



645 



rapid development of science and tech- 
nology, and new editions of older books 
to take the place of those out of print, 
together with the usual addition to all 
classes for so long a period, cause your 
Committee to believe that it is not too 
soon for the Association to take up the 
question of the issuing of a new edition 
of this catalog. The first edition ap- 
peared in 1893; the second in 1904. It 
would seem advisable to issue such a 
catalog once every decade, and it is none 
too early to begin the consideration of 
preliminaries for the next one. 

BERNARD C. STEINER, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: We come to the 
Committee on federal and state relations, 
of which Mr. Steiner again is Chairman. 
Is there any member of that Committee 
present? The report, in the absence of 
objection, can stand accepted. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FED- 
ERAL AND STATE RELATIONS 

Your Committee on federal and state 
relations respectfully reports that the work 
which it accomplished during the year has 
been printed in the American library asso- 
ciation "Bulletin," and that the brief which 
it submitted to the Post office department, 
in the early part of 1909 after revision, 
has been published in the "American law 
review" (Vol. 43, p. 536-46) under the title 
"Legal status of the public library in the 
United States." 

Your Committee recommends that the 
American library association request the 
extension of second-class mail privileges 
to all public libraries, whether separately 
incorporated or not. We also recommend 
that the Association take action with ref- 
erence to the matter of supporting a bill 
for a parcels post, or for special library 
rate for books. 

In April "Library journal" (Vol. 35, p. 
163) was given an abstract of several bills 
recently introduced into Congress upon 
these questions. The New England edu- 
cational league has for some years car- 



ried on an agitation for cheap postage on 
library books, and expresses a willingness 
to leave this field to our Association. For 
these reasons, the present seems a fitting 
time to take up these questions on behalf 
of our Association. 

BERNARD C. STEINER, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: The Committee on 
simplified code of the A. L. A. rules. Is 
Miss Hitchler present? She is not pres- 
ent at the convention, I believe. Then 
the report, in the absence of any objection, 
can stand accepted. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SIM- 
PLIFIED CODE OF THE A. L. A. 
RULES 

The matter still rests as it was left by 
Miss Kroeger. Her material has been 
turned over to the new Committee, which 
now consists of the Chairman, Miss 
Emma Cragin, Head cataloger of the 
Circulation department of the N. Y. P. L., 
and Miss Margaret Mann, Cataloger of 
the Carnegie library of Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Nothing has as yet been done, but the 
Committee hopes to present a completed 
work at the next meeting of the A. L. A., 
if not before. It is the aim of the Com- 
mittee to compile a code so simple in 
language and so clear in direction that 
librarians with or without training who 
are not able to attend any or many con- 
ferences of the A. L. A. or state asso- 
ciations, where such points are brought up 
and discussed, may turn to this Code, 
without fear of complicated or too tech- 
nically worded directions, and find the 
sought-for assistance. In fact, it is the 
opinion of -the Committee that unless the 
Code is presented in so simple, so almost 
elementary a form, it will fail to accom- 
plish the purpose for which it is intended. 
If when first consulting such a code a li- 
brarian finds it incomprehensible she is 
apt to look upon it with dread and dis- 
favor, more apt never to consult it again. 
For those sufficiently experienced, the "A. 
L. A. Code" will serve as, guide, and the 



646 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



"Simplified code," to serve that class of li- 
brarians for whom it is primarily intended, 
must diverge widely in form and manner 
of presentation. 

THERESA HITCHLER, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: Will Mr. Bailey 
kindly present the report of the Committee 
on bookbinding? 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
BOOKBINDING 

Since the last report of the Committee 
on binding, there are many signs which 
indicate that the pressure exerted by the 
Committee on publishers during the past 
three years has had some effect. For the 
first time since 1906, when the Committee 
first advocated reinforced bindings for 
library use, it has made no direct effort 
to induce publishers to issue these bind- 
ings, and yet during the year several pub- 
lishers have themselves taken the initia- 
tive with the result that at the present 
time over 500 titles are now available in 
a strong library binding. When we con- 
sider that less than 40 titles have hitherto 
been available, the large increase is note- 
worthy. Over 450 titles are included in 
the "Everyman's library," issued by E. P. 
Dutton & Co. The entire library can be 
obtained in cloth, and 100 titles also in 
leather. The Committee believes that the 
plan of E. P. Dutton & Co. is one of far- 
reaching good to libraries, since it places 
the best literature of all times in an at- 
tractive and durable form within the reach 
of the smallest library. 

In addition to the volumes in "Every- 
man's library," there are available 20 
titles of Houghton, Mifflin & Co.'s publica- 
tions, which must be purchased through 
H. R. Huntting & Co., of Springfield, 
Mass., and 20 titles of books published 
by Ginn & Co., which may be ordered 
through regular agents. Frederick Warne 
& Co. have seen the necessity of strength- 
ening the binding of the ever-popular 
"Peter Rabbit" books, and this series is 
now available in an exceptionally strong 



binding. They have also strengthened the 
binding of Lang's "Nursery rhyme 
book." With the exception of the Hough- 
ton books all of the above are kept in 
stock by the publishers and can be read- 
ily obtained at any time. Charles Scrib- 
ner's Sons have published library editions 
of selected titles of new fiction and ju- 
venile books as has been their custom for 
three years past. Little, Brown & Co. 
have published an edition of Dickens 
which seems to be very strongly bound, 
although not bound according to the spe- 
cifications of this Committee. 

Evidently special library bindings have 
come to stay, but the main difficulty the 
unwillingness of publishers to carry them 
in stock still exists in large measure. 
From the nature of the case we must 
expect to find such reluctance for a long 
time to come, since it is impossible to 
guarantee even approximately the demand 
of libraries for either new or old titles. 
A middle man, who can solicit orders 
from the libraries and who would be will- 
ing to carry books in stock, must be found, 
or else the American library associa- 
tion itself must act in such capacity, be- 
fore reinforced bindings will have the full 
success that they deserve. The efforts of 
the past year, however, give much cause 
for encouragement. 

Although the Committee has made no 
direct effort to increase the number of 
titles in reinforced bindings, it has brought 
considerable pressure on publishers to in- 
crease the serviceability of their regular 
trade binding. This was done by means 
of sending to the publishers copies of 
that part of the Committee's report for 
1909 which contains statistics of the ser- 
viceability of the books of different pub- 
lishers. With this was sent a copy of 
specifications for commercial binding, 
prepared by the Committee. In the main 
the table of statistics, showing the ser- 
viceability of books, was accepted without 
criticism by the publishers. One publisher 
made the novel plea that it was his duty 
to manufacture books which would soon 
wear out, since if they were strongly 
bound they would be unsanitary and 



BAILEY 



647 



spread disease. One publisher tried to 
shift the blame for poor bindings on au- 
thors who demand advertisement and big 
royalties. Most publishers, however, 
showed much interest in the report and 
made more or less definite promises to 
mend their ways. 

In nearly every case the publishers sent 
the specifications for commercial binding 
to their binders, and many interesting 
comments from binders were received by 
the Committee. Up to this time no binder 
has criticised the specifications adversely, 
while on the other hand, several firms 
noted for good work, such as the DeVinne 
Press, J. F. Tapley Co., Houghton, Mifflin 
& Co., commend the specifications in no 
uncertain tone. 

Those who are interested in commer- 
cial binding should consult G. A. Stephen's 
"Commercial bookbinding," an exhaustive 
account of all the processes of commer- 
cial bookbinding, and the only book on 
the subject. Mr. Stephen is a mem- 
ber of the Book production committee 
of the Library association, in England, 
and some of his suggestions have proved 
valuable to this Committee. 

One of the duties of the Committee is 
that of answering inquiries. During the 
year there have been many requests for 
information from librarians, and a few def- 
inite criticisms of publishers' bindings. 
The information asked for has been given 
whenever possible. Complaints of pub- 
lishers' bindings have been investigated, 
and when found just have been presented 
to the publishers. It is only fair to say 
that complaints regarding the binding of 
specific books have always been courte- 
ously received by the publishers, and, if 
possible, causes for complaints removed. 

The Committee made an effort to get 
information concerning magazine binders 
both for reading-room use and for cir- 
culation, but is compelled to present the 
following simply as a preliminary state- 
ment of the question in the hope that a 
detailed and definite report may be made 
possible by the suggestions and experi- 
ments which it may elicit. 

A circular letter was sent to a number 



of libraries and commissions, and the an- 
swers received were gratifyingly full. 
However, the sum of them all, at least 
with reference to reading-room binders, 
was dissatisfaction. 

Binders are used for two sharply dif- 
ferentiated purposes: to protect magazines 
in the reading room, and to bind them for 
circulation. 

Every kind of reading-room binder on 
the market is criticized severely. There 
are four common types: the spring-back, 
the eyelet-and-tape, the sewed, and the 
rod. The spring-back is clumsy to han- 
dle, the eyelet-and-tape is loose in its 
hold, the sewed is slow of application, and 
the rod hurts the magazine. To solve 
the problem an inventive genius is needed 
and he would make money. There is 
also the sanitary question. This point, 
suggested by Miss Bonner of Providence, 
has worked on the Committee's imagina- 
tion until it feels like reporting that the 
best reading-room binder is none at all. 
This agrees with the practice of many 
small libraries, and some larger ones. 
But since unprotected magazines become 
unsightly so soon, a tentative suggestion 
is made, that for the octavo magazines a 
modification of the Brooklyn binder, to 
consist of something like that anathema 
of libraries, the brown paper book-cover, 
be adopted. It would grip, by staples or 
paste, eight or ten advertising pages, front 
and back, and could be renewed every 
week, if necessary. Or, if a stiff-sided 
binder is used, it could be kept covered 
with paper. But there remain unsolved 
the problems of the large weeklies, the 
magazines whose advertising pages must 
not be hidden, and the unsatisfactory stiff- 
sided binder. 

With regard to binding magazines for 
circulation the problem is simpler. Here 
the experimenter is not hampered by the 
necessity of having the magazine easily 
removable. Consequently a number of 
satisfactory methods have been evolved. 
For the result of an investigation of this 
subject see "Lib. Jour." 33:90-91. It is 
evident from that report and from the 
letters received that the trend is toward 



648 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



a cheap covering permanently attached 
to the magazine, usually made by the 
library staff. Red rope manila or some 
similar material may be glued or stitched 
to the magazine in various ways and at 
small cost. The method just worked out 
by the Cincinnati public library seems 
simple and cheap and should be published 
for further trial. At slightly greater cost 
covers to be glued, stitched stapled, or 
laced on may be bought from Gaylord 
Bros., or made at a local bindery, and have 
a more finished appearance. 

It has been thought not worth while 
to describe binders or processes in detail 
until more information has been collected. 
Also, it is understood that matter relat- 
ing to the question will be found in the 
forthcoming new edition of J. C. Dana's 
"Bookbinding for libraries," and in two 
American library association publications, 
the pamphlet on "Mending and repairing," 
and the "Manual." 

ARTHUR L. BAILEY, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: If there is no objec- 
tion the report will stand accepted. The 
report of the Committee on library work 
with the blind follows. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 

LIBRARY WORK WITH THE 

BLIND 

The Committee on work with the blind 
reports a steady growth in the extension 
of library facilities for those who must 
read with the fingers. Two libraries, the 
St. Louis public and the Louisville free 
public, have within the past year made 
arrangements for circulating embossed 
books. The Passaic public library, Pas- 
saic, New Jersey, though not owning 
books, has circulated those borrowed from 
the New York public library, to readers 
in Passaic and adjacent suburbs. 

The New York public library, the 
Free library of Philadelphia, and the Cin- 
cinnati public library have continued the 
lending of embossed books to other librar- 
ies throughout the country. The state 



libraries of California and New York have 
also supplied a number of public libraries 
within the boundaries of their respective 
states. 

Other communities are awakening to the 
needs of their blind citizens and are in- 
vestigating methods of extending library 
privileges to them. 

The Committee has record of the fol- 
lowing public libraries circulating em- 
bossed books: 

California, San Francisco Reading room 
and Library for the blind: Stock 204 
v.: 156 American Braille; 1 Line letter; 
1 Moon; 46 New York point. Circula- 
tion 198: 158 American Braille; 40 New 
York point. 

California, Sacramento state library: 
Total accessions, 1206 as follows: Amer- 
ican Braille 178 v.; music 72; Euro- 
pean Braille 40 v.; Line letter 24 v.; 
Moon 413 v.: music 3; New York point 
374 v.: music 44; Ink print magazines 
and articles 31; maps 3; games 4; ap- 
pliances (for writing, etc.) 20. Circula- 
tion 3,466 v.: American Braille 686; 
European Braille 25; Line letter 97; 
Moon 1,796; New York point 862. 

New features in work this year: "We 
have added a few English Braille books, 
which seem to be creating quite an inter- 
est. We have begun a collection of games 
for the blind. These are to be loaned as 
samples, so that the blind can try them 
before buying from the different schools, 
etc., supplying them. These are being 
borrowed frequently." 

Connecticut, New Haven Free public li- 
brary: American Braille 1 v.; Line let- 
ter 116 v. No statistics of circulation; 
very few books loaned. 

Delaware, Wilmington Wilmington In- 
stitute free library: Accessions, 372: 
American Braille 173 v.; Moon 199 v. 
Circulation 539: American Braille 198 
v.; Moon 341 v. 

District of Columbia, Washington Library 
of Congress, Reading room for the 
blind: Total accessions, 1318, as fol- 
lows: American Braille 75 v.; English 
Braille 50 v.; Line letter 336 v.; Moon 
95 v.; New York point 740 v. Circula- 
tion 901: American Braille 36; English 



649 



Braille 90; Line letter 40; Moon 55; 
New York point 680. 

Illinois, Chicago Chicago public library: 
Stock 1226 v.: American Braille 536; 
Line letter 250; Moon 386; New York 
point 54. Circulation 967 v.: American 
Braille 758; Line letter 62; Moon 120; 
New York point 27. 

Indiana, Indianapolis State library: 
Stock 515 v.: American Braille 31 v.; 
Line letter 222 v.; New York point 262 
v.; circulation 297. Largest per cent 
New York point. 

Iowa, Des Moines, Iowa library com- 
mission Free traveling library. 
Owns 137 v. in New York point; 87 
borrowers; 277 v. circulated. Circula- 
tion is limited to residents of Iowa. 

"The Society for promoting the inter- 
ests of the blind in Iowa was organized 
in Des Moines, October, 1909. It is an 
outgrowth of the Des Moines auxiliary to 
the State association of the blind, whose 
membership was confined to former stu- 
dents of the State college for the blind. 
Miss Margaret Wright Brown writes: 
'This Society meets every three months in 
the rooms of the Library commission, and 
the president, Miss Hoyt, had a statement 
about the work in the last 'Outlook for 
the blind.' (Autumn, 1909, p. 130.) 

"After thoroughly discussing what would 
be for the best interests of the organiza- 
tion it was decided that much better and 
more effective work could be done by re- 
organizing under the new name and ad- 
mitting seeing people to full membership. 

"Our interest in the blind has grown out 
of the understanding we have come to 
have of their special needs through our 
acquaintance with them in the circulation 
of the books in New York point. Even- 
tually I think the Society will be able to 
accomplish good results, but it takes time 
and a great deal of educational work to 
awaken many people to the point of co- 
operation and the necessary financial sup- 
port." 

Kansas, Leavenworth Leavenworth free 
public library: Stock 63 v.; Line letter 
*22 v.; Moon 22 v.; New York point 19 v. 
Circulation 81 v.: Line letter 3; Moon 
40; New York point 38. 

"The books noted above are loaned us; 
we do not own any books for the blind. 
We send books to one blind person in 
Kansas City, Olathe, and Paola, Kansas, 
each, as well as to Leavenworth people." 



Kentucky, Louisville Louisville free 
public library: The library recently 
began circulating embossed books, hav- 
ing received a gift of 107 embossed vol- 
umes; the total stock is 112 volumes, of 
which 72 volumes are 'in New York 
point and 40 volumes are in Line letter. 

Maryland, Baltimore Enoch Pratt free 
library: Stock 1290 vol.: Line letter 
648 v.; New York point 642 v. Added 
during the year a number of musical 
scores. Circulation 376 v. 

Massachusetts, Boston Boston public 
library: Stock 439 v.; American Braille 
15 v. (including 1 periodical); English 
Braille 6 v. (including 3 periodicals); 
Line letter 158 v.; Moon 156 v. (includ- 
ing 1 periodical) ; New York point 104 v. 
(including 1 periodical); besides these 
23 pieces of music in New York point. 
Circulation: "We keep no separate rec- 
ord of circulation." 

"The condition in Boston is somewhat 
peculiar. The Perkins institution con- 
ducts a special circulation department of 
books for the blind, keeping it up to date 
by purchases in all types, and circulating 
the books by mail freely to applicants in 
New England. 

"The local field is therefore so well cov- 
ered by them that we do not purchase 
extensively in the various types (this ac- 
counts for the small number we have in 
Braille, for example) and by arrangements 
with them, refer mail orders to them, in 
cases where we do not have the books in 
the type desired." 

Massachusetts, Brookline Public library 
of Brookline: Stock 58 v.: American 
Braille 38 v.: Line letter 1 v.; Moon 
19 v. Circulation 38 v. not classified. 
No time limit. 

Massachusetts, Lynn Free public li- 
brary: Circulation (which includes re- 
newals) 551 v. 39 different sightless 
people visited the room, 22 being the 
average attendance. There are 396 visi- 
tors, which include 123 readers to the 
blind; 50 books were borrowed from 
the Perkins institution, 16 presented by 
5 individuals. 

Massachusetts, New Bedford Free public 
library: Stock 41 v.: American Braille 
27 v.; Line letter 14 v. Mr. Tripp writes: 



650 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



"We have not circulated enough of the 
embossed books for the blind to make 
any special separation of the circulation 
figures, but within a few months we are 
to move into our new building where we 
shall have a special room for the books 
for the blind, and hope then to keep the 
circulation distinct, and make more suc- 
cessful attempts to reach that class of read- 
ers than we have been able to do at pres- 
ent with our crowded condition." 

Massachusetts, Somerville Public libra- 
ry: Stock several hundred volumes; 
circulation very limited (1909). 

Massachusetts, Worcester Free public 
library: Stock 285 v.: American 
Braille 57 v.; Line letter 172 v.; Moon 
56 v.; also Moon and Matilda Ziegler 
magazines. 

"Our use of blind books is only occa- 
sional, and we have kept no separate rec- 
ord of their use." 

Michigan, Detroit public library: 
Stock 156 v.: American Braille 71 v.; 
Line letter 42 v.; New York point 43 v. 
Total circulation numbered 32 v. in these 
types and represents actual number of 
volumes loaned. 

Michigan, Grand Rapids Grand Rapids 
public library: Stock 40 v.: Line let- 
ter 4 v.; New York point 36 v. Circu- 
lation: New York point 2 v. 

"We have hardly any readers here 
fewer than we had a few years ago." 

Missouri, St. Louis Public library: The 
library has received 134 volumes as 
donations. New books will be pur- 
chased. Mr. Bostwick writes: 

"It is my intention to place in this li- 
brary a collection of books for the blind, 
and I am merely waiting to decide what 
is best to do about selection of typography. 
I am getting a list of blind persons in the 
city and am sending out to them a mim- 
eographed circular. I suppose we shall 
have to satisfy the demand in this city 
before going outside, but I do not see why 
we should not ultimately send books all 
over the state." 

Missouri, St. Joseph Free public library: 
Stock: Line letter 46 v.; New York 
point 14 v.; also 76 numbers of the Zieg- 
ler magazine in American Braille and 
New York point. 



New Jersey, Jersey City Free public 
library: Stock 197 v.: American Braille 
1 v.; Line letter 120 v.; New York point 
76 v. Circulation: Line letter 1 v. 

New Jersey, Newark Free public li- 
brary: Stock 90 v.: English Braille 3 
v.; Line letter 20 v.; Moon 1 v.; New 
York point 66 v. 

New York, Albany New York state li- 
brary for the blind: Stock 2947 v: Am- 
erican Braille 542 v.; English Braille 73 
v.; Line letter 212 v.; Moon 79 v.; New 
York point 2041 v. Circulation 5644 v.: 
American Braille 554; English Braille 
249; Line letter 119; Moon 143; New 
York point 4579. 

"The annual appropriation for the New 
York state library for the blind has been 
doubled this year, and it is now $2,000. 
Perhaps it would be of interest to note the 
experiment we have made of using the 
letter x for a capital sign in our publica- 
tions of 1909 and 1910. We are ready to 
adopt a better sign if one can be decided 
upon, and are hoping that Mr. Holmes of 
the Ziegler publishing company will be 
able soon to reach a satisfactory conclu- 
sion on the subject." 

New York, Brooklyn Brooklyn public 
library: Stock 1240 v.: American 
Braille 45 v.; English Braille 12 v.; Line 
letter 295 v.; Moon 179 v.; New York 
point 709 v. Circulation 664 v. (not 
kept by types). Renewals are included 
but are not numerous. 

New York, Buffalo Buffalo public li- 
brary: Stock: American Braille 5 ti- 
tles; Line letter, 5 titles, 7 v.; Moon 
magazine; New York point 30 titles, 51 
v. No separate statistics of circulation 
kept; about 30 or 40 volumes were cir- 
culated. Books are borrowed from New 
York City and from Albany. 

New York, New York New York public 
library: Stock, books and music, 7662: 
American Braille 551 v.; English Braille 
707 v.; Line letter 368 v.; Ink type 27 
v.; Moon 1208 v.; New York point 1625 
v.; Oriental Braille 12 v.; Braille music 
792; New York point music 2371; Line 
letter music 1. Circulation 14,827: Am- 
erican Braille 438; European Braille 
4236; Line letter 214; Moon 2399; New 
York point 7536; Ink type 4. 



DELPINO 



651 



"The fact that we have been able to 
co-operate with the public schools and sup- 
ply the pupils with quite a number of 
books has been the most distinctive fea- 
ture of our work last year." 

New York, Niagara Falls Niagara Falls 
public library: Stock 116 v.: Ameri- 
can Braille 37 v.; Line letter 7 v.; New 
York point 72 v. 

"We have only one blind reader and he 
has been out of the city most of the year, 
so we have no report to make of any cir- 
culation." 

Ohio, Cincinnati Public library of Cin- 
cinnati: Stock 1213 v.: Line letter 171 
v.; Moon 222 v.; New York point 820 v. 
Circulation 1455. Record is not kept of 
kinds of type circulated. v . 

The Cincinnati library association for 
the blind, which circulates embossed lit- 
erature from the Public library, reports 
the most successful year of its history. 
"Through an article which was published 
in the "Ziegler magazine for the blind" (a 
free magazine which reaches thousands) 
stating that the books would be loaned 
to people living in other cities, a great 
number of applications were received, and 
the books were sent to almost every state 
in the Union, 1427 books having been cir- 
culated during the year." In addition 27 
volumes were distributed through the sta- 
tions department of the Public library. 

Ohio, Cleveland Cleveland public li- 
brary: Stock 459 v., 7 mags.: American 
Braille 25 v., 1 mag.; English Braille 19 
v., 2 mags.; Line letter 67 v.; Moon 42 
v., 1 mag.; New York point 306 v., 3 
mags. Circulation 840 v.; record riot 
kept by kind of type. New York point 
books are used most, Moon second. 

Mr. Brett writes: "The only fact of 
special interest which occurs to me is the 
moving of the library for the blind to 
Goodrich House recently. This we hope 
will have a favorable influence on the li- 
brary work with the blind, as it brings it 
into the same building where so much of 
the work of the Society for the blind is 
carried on." 

Oregon, Portland Library association of 
Portland: Stock 39 v. in New York 
point. No separate statistics of circu- 
lation. One man comes regularly for 
one magazine, which is the only circu- 
lation. 



Pennsylvania, Philadelphia The Free li- 
brary of Philadelphia: Stock 1412 v.; 
American Braille 450 v.; English Braille 
198 v.; Line letter 237 v.; Moon 356 v.; 
New York point 171 v. In addition the 
Pennsylvania Home teaching, which 
co-operates with the Free library, owns 
1916 v. as follows: American Braille 49 
v.; English Braille 12 v.; Line letter 12 
v.; Moon 1802 v.; New York point 23 v. 
Circulation: 17,422 v.; American Braille 
3241 v.; English Braille 366 v.; Line let- 
ter 344 v.; Moon 13,004 v.; New York 
point 407 v. 

Owing to the terms on which funds are 
provided the books belonging to the Free 
library are now circulated within the city 
limits only. Many requests have been 
made by readers outside Philadelphia for 
books in American Braille and New York 
point which the Home teaching society 
does not own, and until they are added 
to the Society's library the circulation out- 
side Philadelphia will therefore be limited. 
Since the enforcement of this ruling it 
has been necessary to refer to other li- 
braries all such applications. 

In co-operation with the Pennsylvania 
Institution for the blind the Free library 
plans to remove the department of em- 
bossed books to 200 South 13th Street, 
where the library will occupy the first 
floor and the school will have the use of 
the rest of the building as a bureau of 
information on matters pertaining to the 
blind, for special instruction, a salesroom, 
board room for the managers, etc. Ar- 
rangements are now being made for the 
transfer of books and shelving to the new 
quarters. 

Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh Carnegie Li- 
brary of Pittsburgh: Stock 962 v.: Am- 
erican Braille 152 v. (16 volumes of these 
loaned by Pennsylvania home teaching 
society); English Braille 2 v.; Line let- 
ter 77 v.; Moon 515 v. (450 loaned by 
Pennsylvania home teaching society) ; 
New York point 216 v. (2 v. loaned by 
Pennsylvania home teaching society). 
Circulation: 2033 v.: American Braille 
655 v.; Line letter 80 v.; Moon 1110 v.; 
New York point 188 v. 

There has recently been organized the 
Pittsburgh association for the adult blind, 
which has grown out of the movement 
started by the Congress of women's clubs 
of Western Pennsylvania. Mr. Charles F. 



652 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



F. Campbell, editor of the "Outlook for 
the blind" and agent of the Massachusetts 
Association for promoting the interests of 
the blind, has been appointed to take 
charge of the work of the newly formed 
association and enters on his duty June 1st. 

Rhode Island, Providence Providence 
public library: Stock 270 v.: American 
Braille 96 v.; Line letter 137 v.; Moon 36 
v.; New York point 1 v. ; also magazines 
in American Braille, Moon, and New 
York point. Circulation 451 v., chiefly 
American Braille and Moon, perhaps 20 
in line letter. These figures do not rep- 
resent full circulation, for the two home 
teachers often carry books from pupil to 
pupil without a return to the library; no 
time limit. 

Utah, Salt Lake City public library- 
Stock 46 v.: American Braille 42 v.; 
Moon 4 v. Circulation 51 v. "Have not 
kept records of separate systems." 

Virginia, Richmond, Virginia state li- 
brary Stock 135 v.: American Braille 7 
v.; Line letter 35 v.; New York point 93 
v. Circulation 96 v.; Line letter 10 v.; 
New York point 86 v. 

Dr. Mcllwaine writes: "The decrease 
in the circulation during the past year is 
due to the fact that conditions in the li- 
brary made it impossible to do more than 
fill the orders. Previous experience has 
shown that blind readers need encourage- 
ment and assistance or they cease to read." 

Washington, Seattle public library 
Stock 240 v., 158 titles: American Braille 
21 v., 19 titles; Moon 48 v., 16 titles; 
New York point 171 v., 123 titles. Cir- 
culation 28 v. Records of circulation not 
kept separate. 

Wisconsin, Milwaukee public library 
Stock 260 v.: American Braille 62 v.; 
Line letter 8 v.; New York point 190 v. 
Circulation 250 v.: American Braille 100 
v.; New York point 150 v. Actual num- 
ber circulated does not include renewals. 
The following libraries report that work 

for the blind has been discontinued for 

the present: 

Georgia, Atlanta Carnegie library "Our 
work with the blind has been practically 
discontinued. For two years the Public 
library of Cincinnati has placed a small 
collection of books here and they were 



much enjoyed. Some months ago we 
returned them, and since their return 
we have referred requests for books di- 
rect to the Cincinnati library. These 
requests have been numerous, and none 
were from people here in Atlanta. All 
of the blind people in this part of the 
country seem to prefer the New York 
point." 

Minnesota, Minneapolis public library 
"I think you might as well cut off this 
library from your list of libraries with 
a blind department. We have only a 
few books which were presented to us. 
We are not making any additions to the 
department, nor developing it in any 
way. Most of the books which were 
given us have been sent to the School 
for the blind at Faribault, Minnesota." 

Ohio, Dayton public library & museum 
"We have no library for the blind at 
present. The small beginning of several 
years ago has not been developed. The 
outgrowth of that small beginning, how- 
ever, was the organization of the Dayton 
association for the blind, which special- 
izes in social and industrial work but is 
in no sense a department of the Public 
library. It is hoped that some day a 
good collection of books for the blind 
will be demanded, encouraged, and sup- 
ported here, but at present such is not 
the case." 

Pennsylvania, Erie public library "We 
do absolutely no work with the blind; 
our blind books are very rarely called 
for." 

Colorado, Denver public library The 
Public library of Denver, Colorado, re- 
ports as follows: "A few years ago this 
library put in 17 books in New York 
point, and advertised the fact among 
the blind people of this city, but prac- 
tically no use has been made of these 
books. I suppose that is due to the fact 
that they can get what they wish from 
the School for the deaf and blind at 
Colorado Springs, and from other li- 
braries throughout the country. We 
have never had a request for a volume 
to be sent by mail." 

Connecticut, Hartford public library 
The Hartford, Connecticut, public li- 
brary reports: "We make no effort to 
circulate them because the Institution 
and School for the blind have good li- 
braries and are willing to lend their 
books outside. Under existing condi- 
tions there is no need of increasing the 
library's work for the blind." 

Desiring to ascertain all the library fa- 
cilities available in the United States for 



653 



readers of embossed books, the Committee 
has this year extended its investigation to 
the school for the blind as well as to 
public libraries. 

To all institutions listed in the report 
of the American printing house for the 
blind for 1909 a circular letter was sent, 
together with a series of questions. Re- 
plies were received from 42 schools; the 
Maine institution at Portland was not 
named in the list, the first superintendent 
having been appointed in July, 1909. 

The total number of volumes in the 
different schools, itemized by types and 
also by titles, has already been printed in 
the statistical table in the "Outlook for the 
blind" for October, 1908. The information 
is therefore not repeated here. The fol- 
lowing questions were sent: 

1. Do you lend embossed books to per- 
sons outside the school? 

Two schools, Connecticut and Idaho, re- 
port that the supply of books is too limited. 

The State school for colored deaf and 
blind children at Newport News, Virginia, 
was opened September 8th, 1909, and no 
arrangements have yet been made for the 
circulation of books. 

Seven schools do not send books outside 
the institutions: California, Connecticut, 
Idaho, Indiana, Virginia state school for 
colored deaf and blind, Texas state colored 
and Texas deaf and dumb and blind in- 
stitute for colored youths. 

Owing to the efficient service from the 
State library at Sacramento, the circula- 
tion of books outside the school is not 
undertaken by the California institution. 

2. Is the circulation of embossed books 
limited to former pupils? 

Four schools loan books throughout 
their respective states but limit the circu- 
lation to former pupils only: Kansas, New 
Mexico, New York State (Batavia), and 
Oklahoma. North Carolina also limits the 
circulation within the state, "generally to 
former pupils." North Dakota is "willing 
to circulate books to those not former 
pupils, but no requests have come from 
outside." 

3. Is the circulation of embossed books 
limited to your state? 



Alabama, Florida, Iowa (except in a 
few special cases), Kentucky, Mississippi, 
Montana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, 
South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, 
Virginia, Western Pennsylvania, reply in 
the affirmative. 

Not limited to states: Colorado, Illi- 
nois, Maryland, Michigan employment in- 
stitution, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, 
Pennsylvania, Perkins institution, Utah, 
Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin. 

4. Is any effort made by the school or 
by some other organization to teach the 
adult blind throughout the state to read? 

5. How is this accomplished? 

a. By correspondence? 

b. By home teaching? 

c. By some other method? 
Twenty schools report that no effort is 

made to teach the adult blind; in 12 
schools instruction is given by correspon- 
dence; and 10 schools report that the 
adult blind are instructed by home teach- 
ing. 

Mississippi says an effort is made to 
teach adults but does not state how; Ne- 
braska "admits adults on trial, who may 
have the advantage of the school provided 
they profit thereby." 

6. How many persons borrowed em- 
bossed books to read at home from Janu- 
ary 1, 1909, to December 31, 1909? 

7. How many embossed books were 
loaned from your library from January 
1, 1909, to December 31, 1909? 

Alabama About 20 persons borrowed 
40 volumes (Amer. Braille). 

Colorado Exact records not obtainable. 
25 or 30 persons borrowed about 100 vol- 
umes in New York point. 

Illinois 283 borrowers. Circulation: 
2500 volumes and pamphlets, American 
Braille, 730 volumes Line letter, 360 vol- 
umes in New York point. 

Iowa Exact records not kept. About 
60 borrowers; circulation 200 volumes 
New York point. 

Kansas Began the circulation of em- 
bossed books in September, 1909. 

Kentucky No records kept. 

Maryland Library work suspended for 
a time owing to temporary quarters. Many 



654 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



of the books are in storage until new 
building is ready. 

Michigan No records. 

Michigan employment institution 117 
borrowers; Amer. Br. 1009; Line letter 
156; European Br. 51; New York point 
315. Total 1531. 

Minnesota 50 borrowers. Circulation 
300 volumes in New York point. 

Mississippi 5 or 6 books in Line letter 
and 25 or more in New York point were 
circulated. 

Missouri 102 borrowers; circulation 
892 volumes in Amer. Br. 

Montana 13 borrowers; 306 volumes in 
Amer. Br. were loaned. 

Nebraska No records. The number of 
volumes is so limited that none are loaned 
outside while school is in session; during 
the summer months books are loaned. 

New Mexico Records not kept, though 
books have been circulated. 

New York (Batavia) Estimated that 10 
persons borrowed 20 volumes in New 
York point and American Braille. 

New York institution No record. 

North Carolina "About 16" borrowers; 
circulation: Amer. Br. 2; Line letter 6; 
New York point 54. Total 62 volumes. 

North Dakota One borrower; 6 New 
York point books were circulated. 

Ohio 101 borrowers; about 800 volumes 
in New York point loaned. 

Oklahoma 7 borrowers; circulation 7 
volumes Amer. Braille. 

Oregon 12 volumes Amer. Br. loaned. 

Pennsylvania 71 borrowers; circulation 
350 Amer. Br., 1 Line letter. 

Perkins institution 872 borrowers; cir- 
culation Amer. Br. 3034; Line letter 655; 
Moon 593; New York point 225; total 
4507 volumes. 

South Carolina No records kept. 

South Dakota 9 borrowers; 20 volumes 
in Amer. Br. loaned. 

Tennessee "About 60" persons bor- 
rowed 74 volumes in Amer. Br. 

Utah 24 borrowers; circulation 263 vol- 
umes in Amer. Br. 

Virginia No, records ; all who applied for 
books had the use of the library; circulation 
chiefly New York point; few in Line letter. 



Washington 10 borrowers; circulation 
30: Line letter 10; New York point 20. 

West Virginia 16 borrowers; 40 vol- 
umes in New York point loaned. 

Western Pennsylvania Records not 
kept. Former pupils and others and the 
home teacher have free use of books. 

Wisconsin 73 persons borrowed 516 
volumes: Amer. Br. 2, Line letter 11, New 
York point 503. Moon magazine loaned to 
4 readers. During the summer vacation 33 
pupils read 52 additional volumes. 

Only one school, Missouri, has a special 
form of application blank for the loan of 
books; two schools, Perkins institution and 
Wis., lend borrowers embossed catalogs. 

It should be remembered that the li- 
braries of the institutions are intended 
first for the use of pupils; in a number of 
cases the institutions have neither the 
funds to supply the books for outside cir- 
culation nor the assistant to attend to 
their circulation. 

The apportionment for each school from 
the funds of the American printing house 
is soon exhausted for necessary text-books 
and supplementary reading, and no doubt 
a larger sum is already needed in many 
schools for the purchase of additional lit- 
erature for the use of resident pupils. 
Nevertheless, each school owes a duty to 
its former pupils and if no other agency 
in the state offers to provide library facil- 
ities then the school should take the mat- 
ter up in justice to the blind, and secure 
a special appropriation from the state for 
this particular purpose. 

New Publications 

1. In ink print. 

In "The American public library," re- 
cently published, Mr. Arthur E. Bostwick 
has entitled one chapter "Libraries for the 
blind," which should be read by all inter- 
ested in the circulation of embossed books. 

A union list of all titles published in 
American Braille has been compiled by 
the Pennsylvania institution for the blind 
at Overbrook, and may be had on request. 

The New York public library has pre- 
pared "A list of music added to the library 
for the blind since January 1st, 1908." 



DELFINO 



655 



The general awakening of interest in 
behalf of the blind throughout the country 
has led to the creation of a number of local 
associations which are interested in all 
matters pertaining to the welfare of the 
blind. The reports and folders of these 
associations contain much information 
valuable to librarians who undertake to 
circulate embossed literature. Descriptive 
accounts of these associations may be ob- 
tained from the "Outlook for the blind." 

2. In embossed type. 

For the lists of recent publications in 
embossed types consult the catalogs of 
the American printing house for the blind, 
Louisville, Kentucky; The Perkins institu- 
tion, South Boston, Mass.; Pennsylvania 
institution for the blind, Overbrook, Pa.; 
Pennsylvania home teaching society; "The 
Braille review"; "The Blind"; and "The 
Outlook for the blind." 

The School for the blind at Jacksonville, 
Illinois, issues a new musical magazine en- 
titled "The Braille transcript," published 
bi-monthly, price $.50 per year. The first 
number was published October, 1909. The 
"Matilda Ziegler magazine," 306 W 53d 
St., New York City, has begun the publica- 
tion of a musical quarterly. 

Following his custom for several years 
past, Judge J. M. Pereles of Milwaukee 
donated $50.00 for the publication of a new 
embossed volume in memory of his 
mother, the title chosen being "The story 
of the other wise man" by Van Dyke. 

The Pennsylvania Bible Society 
which has for many years been interested 
in the circulation of the Bible in embossed 
type, has arranged to become the head- 
quarters of a new agency of the American 
Bible society, to be called the Atlantic 
agency. The committee notes that the 
Pennsylvania Bible society has hitherto 
been generous to the Pennsylvania home 
teaching society, and to the Carnegie li- 
brary of Pittsburgh, by donating the Bible 
in embossed types for free circulation 
among borrowers, and suggests that the 
various agencies of the American Bible 
society may be willing to make similar 
donations to other libraries if the matter 
is brought to their attention. 



The following is the list of Home agen- 
cies of the American Bible society: 

Agency for the colored people of the 
south Rev. J. P. Wragg, D. D., Agency 
Secretary, South Atlanta, Ga. 

Northwestern agency Illinois, Indiana, 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, 
Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Da- 
kota. Rev. J. F. Horton, Agency Secre- 
tary, 42 East Madison St., Chicago, 111. 

South Atlantic agency Virginia, West 
Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Florida. Rev. M. B. Porter, 
Agency Secretary, 208 North 8th St., Rich- 
mond, Va. 

Central agency Missouri, Kansas, Col- 
orado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, 
New Mexico and Arizona. Rev. S. H. Kirk- 
bride, D. D., Agency Secretary, 1025 Four- 
teenth St., Denver, Colo. 

Pacific agency California, Nevada, Or- 
egon, and Washington. Rev. A. Wesley 
Mell, Agency Secretary, 216 Pacific Build- 
ing, Fourth and Market Sts., San Fran- 
cisco, Cal. 

Southwestern agency Texas, Oklaho- 
ma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. Rev. Glenn 
Flinn, Agency Secretary, 422 Main St., 
Dallas, Texas. 

Eastern agency NeV York and adja- 
cent regions not otherwise cared for. Ad- 
ministered from Bible House, Astor Place, 
New York. 

Middle agency Ohio, Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, Alabama, Mississippi. Rev. George 
S. J. Browne, Agency Secretary, 222 West 
Fourth St., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Atlantic agency Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, and Delaware. Rev. Leighton W. 
Eckard, D. D., Agency Secretary, 701 Wal- 
nut St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

The Society for providing evangelical 
religious literature for the blind has af- 
filiated with the American tract society. 
Information concerning the publications 
and objects of the society may be obtained 
from the Financial Secretary, Rev. James 
Garland Hamner, Jr., 45 Broadway, New 
York City. 

The Society for the promotion of church 
work among the blind is willing to donate 
its publications to libraries circulating em- 



656 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



bossed books. To obtain these volumes 
address Mr. John Thomson, The Free li- 
brary of Philadelphia, Treasurer of the 
Society. 

The need for additional distributing 
centers in the United States is very great. 
The blind are scattered over an area 
twenty-five times as great as Great Brit- 
ain and Ireland. The immense distances 
make it advisable that there should be at 
least one center in each state, for the un- 
desirability of sending books all over the 
country from one center is very apparent 
when one considers that volumes are sub- 
jected to severe wear and tear in the mails 
and are out of service during the time con- 
sumed in long distance traveling. 

Public libraries supported by city tax 
are urged to co-operate with public library 
commissions in circulating throughout the 
state embossed books owned by the city 
library, at a given rate per volume circu- 
lated. This arrangement is already suc- 
cessfully carried out between the Enoch 
Pratt free library and the Maryland 
state library commission. In some states 
it may be possible for the schools for the 
blind and the library commission to co- 
operate with the public library. 

Space does not permit more than the 
mention of various forms of social service 
that have grown out of the work with the 
blind. At the Cincinnati public library 
the education of a little deaf blind girl has 
been undertaken by Miss Trader. The 
child has been taught to read and write 
New York point, to write with pencil, to 
read the lips and to talk quite plainly. 
This is only one of the interesting items of 
the work of the Cincinnati library society. 

Children's librarians will be interested 
in the San Francisco reading room and 
library for the blind. The superintendent 
in charge, Miss Mabel Adams Ayer, who 
has formed a Boys' club and a Girls' club 
for the blind, writes as follows: "The chil- 
dren have signed a pledge to be kind to all 
the blind people they meet and to try to 
help them. The boys go after the blind and 
take them to the library when there is no 
one in the home to guide them, and also 
to carry the heavy books the blind people 



borrow from time to time. Last Saturday 
I had the children combine to give a little 
entertainment to sell the toy furniture 
made by an old man who is blind and deaf. 
The children all took part in the pro- 
gram." 

In the Cleveland public library nine of 
the Children's clubs which have their 
meetings during the winter in the branch 
libraries, have contributed the money for 
the purchase of a number of volumes of 
embossed music and books on music and 
musicians, forming "the notable beginning 
of a collection of which there has long 
been need." 

The Committee recommends the contin- 
uation of a Committee on work with the 
blind to report to the next Conference on 
the progress during the year. 

EMMA R. NEISSER DELFINO, 
Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: You have heard the 
summary of this report on Work with the 
blind. The recommendation is one which 
would go naturally to the Executive board, 
as the Executive board appoints the com- 
mittees. Is there any discussion? If! 
there is no objection the report will be 
accepted and the recommendations sub- 
mitted to the Executive board. 

The PRESIDENT: The Committee on 
co-ordination of college libraries. There 
is a report, I believe, by Mr. Lane, who is 
not present at the conference. Is any 
member of the Committee in the room? 

Mr. ROOT: I take the liberty for the 
Committee to submit the report, Mr. Presi- 
dent. It contains no recommendations. 

The PRESIDENT: In the absence of 
any objection the report will stand ac- 
cepted. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON CO- 
ORDINATION OF COLLEGE 
LIBRARIES 

The Committee on co-ordination of col- 
lege libraries, representing the libraries 
of Clark University, Cornell University, 
Harvard University, the University of 
Michigan, Mt. Holyoke College, Oberlin 



LANE 



657 



College, Princeton University and Yale 
University, and the John Crerar library 
was appointed at the Bretton Woods con- 
ference of the American library associa- 
tion to study the proposition submitted 
on behalf of the New England college 
librarians. The Committee met at Lake 
George on September 21 and 22, 1909, all 
the members except two being present. 

The proposed bureau of information 
and central lending library was dis- 
cussed at length, and the scheme as already 
outlined was approved in general terms 
as a project likely to be of distinct service 
to American scholars and to college and 
other reference libraries, provided a suit- 
able endowment could be secured. To 
some of the members the proposed Bureau 
of information seemed to be the more im- 
portant branch of the undertaking; to 
others, the central reservoir of books for 
lending. 

The scale on which the work could prof- 
itably be taken up and the expense of 
carrying it on were discussed, and the 
tentative figures presented the year be- 
fore were revised, the final opinion of the 
Committee being that an income of $50,000 
or more might be used to advantage, and 
that at least $30,000 a year would be 
necessary to undertake the work in any 
satisfactory form. The general character 
of the expenditure contemplated is as fol- 
lows: 

Books and binding $12,000 

Salaries 10,000 

Printing and stationery 1,500 

Running expenses including jan- 
itor and supplies 4,000 



Fund for enlargement of 

building $1,500 

Repairs, etc 1,000 2,500 



$30,000 

The point was emphasized that, while 
the proposed institution might be primar- 
ily useful to college libraries, its benefit 
should not be restricted to such, but 
should be available to all reference libra- 



ries that provide for the needs of scholars. 
The subject was referred to a sub-commit- 
tee of three, who were expected to confer 
with the Librarian of Congress, to discuss 
the matter further at a later meeting, and 
to take such action as seemed wise to 
them to secure an endowment. This sub- 
committee was prevented from holding a 
formal meeting by the illness of one of 
the members at the time for which the 
meeting was planned, but it has taken the 
matter up in an informal way with the 
Librarian of Congress, and is pleased to 
find, both from a communication from him 
and from Mr. Bishop's paper on "Inter-li- 
brary loans" in the "Library journal" for 
December, 1909, how far the Library of 
Congress has already gone in meeting 
the needs which the Committee is consid- 
ering, and how favorable are its plans for 
the future. The Library of Congress has 
already established a union catalog, in 
which are filed cards furnished by the 
John Crerar library, the Harvard College 
library, the Library of Columbia Uni- 
versity, the Boston public library, the 
New York public library, the Library of 
the District of Columbia, and several of 
the government departments. In most in- 
stances, these cards do not cover the en- 
tire contents of the library from which 
they come, but they form a useful basis 
upon which a more comprehensive cata- 
log can be built up in the future. The 
Library also takes pains to procure the 
printed catalogs of other American li- 
braries, and to have on file all the informa- 
tion in regard to other libraries that is 
accessible in print. It willingly answers 
inquiries from individuals and from li- 
braries in regard to books and where they 
may be found, and, so far as it is able, 
without injustice to the rights of readers 
in Washington, it lends freely to other 
libraries when it can serve scholarly pur- 
poses. The Library's memorandum gov- 
erning inter-library loans, which was 
printed in the "Library journal" for De- 
cember, it may be worth while to reprint 
in this report, for the purpose of showing 
what kind of service the Library under- 
takes to give. 



658 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



"Under the system of inter-library loans 
the Library of Congress will lend certain 
books to other libraries for the use of in- 
vestigators engaged in serious research. 
The loan will rest on the theory of a 
special service to scholarship which it is 
not within the power or duty of the local 
library to render. Its purpose is to aid 
research calculated to advance the bound- 
aries of knowledge, by the loan of unusual 
books not readily accessible elsewhere. 

"The material lent cannot include, there- 
fore, books that should be in a local li- 
brary, or that can be borrowed from a 
library (such as a state library) having a 
particular duty to the community from 
which the application comes; nor books 
that are inexpensive and can easily be 
procured; nor books for the general read- 
er, mere text-books, or popular manuals; 
nor books where the purpose is ordinary 
student's or thesis work, or for mere self- 
instruction. 

"Nor can it include material which is in 
constant use in Washington, or whose loan 
would be an inconvenience to Congress, 
or to the executive departments of the 
government, or to reference readers in the 
Library of Congress. 

"Genealogies and local histories are not 
available for loan, nor are newspapers, 
for they form part of a consecutive his- 
torical record which the Library of Con- 
gress is expected to retain and preserve. 
And only for very serious research can 
the privilege be extended to include vol- 
umes of periodicals. 

"A library in borrowing a book is un- 
derstood to hold itself responsible for the 
safe-keeping and return of the book at 
the expiration of ten days from its receipt. 
An extension of the period of loan is 
granted, upon request, whenever feasible. 

"All expenses of carriage are to be met 
by the borrowing library. 

"Books will be forwarded by express 
(charges collect) whenever this convey- 
ance is deemed necessary for their safety. 
Certain books, however, can be sent by 
mail, but it will be necessary for the bor- 
rowing library to remit in advance a sum 
sufficient to cover the postal charges, in- 
cluding registry fee. 

"The Library of Congress has no fund 
from which the charges of carriage can 
be prepaid." 

Mention should also be made of the 
report on special collections in American 
libraries, now being drawn up for the Bu- 
reau of education by the Librarian of 
Columbia University. 

These are admirable beginnings toward 
supplying the needs outlined by our Com- 



mittee, and it brings distinctly before us 
the crucial question whether such work 
can best be done by an institution en- 
dowed for this specific purpose, or by the 
national library and other centralized 
government agencies. The advantages of 
the separate institution, granted the neces- 
sary endowment, would seem to be (1) 
continuity of policy unaffected by possible 
changes in the administration of a govern- 
ment department, (2) singleness of aim, 
unhampered by the other and more press- 
ing functions necessary to a great library, 
and (3) control by a body representing di- 
rectly the libraries and scholars most in- 
terested. Moreover, the collection of 
books, whether great or small, would be 
chosen solely with a view to lending and 
would be exclusively devoted to this use. 
On the other hand, there are advantages 
to be had from union with a great library, 
and in default of a generous endowment, 
the help which can be given by a library 
such as the Library of Congress is to be 
heartily welcomed. It is to be noticed also 
that a small endowment, totally insufficient 
for the support of a separate institution, 
might accomplish great things if used to 
supplement the work of the Library of 
Congress in a way which that library 
might not feel justified in adopting. Five 
thousand dollars spent annually in collect- 
ing precise information in regard to the 
resources of American libraries, and the 
conditions under which these resources 
can be used, would soon bring together a 
most useful mass of facts supplementing 
the records of the union catalog main- 
tained by the Library of Congress. The 
same amount, spent with discretion for 
expensive books and useful sets of period- 
ical and society publications, would soon 
form a lending library that would be of 
the greatest value to the smaller college 
and reference libraries. It would seem, 
therefore, that the most useful directions 
in which to press for immediate future 
development are (1) the further enlarge- 
ment and strengthening of the work al- 
ready begun by the Library of Congress, 
and (2) the application of an endowment 
of moderate size to extending that LI- 



LANE 



659 



brary's work into new fields. The first 
object might be fostered, on the one hand, 
by organizing the work of collecting in- 
formation as a separate department and 
thus giving it greater prominence among 
the Library's other activities, and, on the 
other hand, by more frequent application 
on the part of other libraries to the Li- 
brary of Congress for information of this 
kind, thus showing a general appreciation 
of what the Library is trying to do. The 
endowment, if it could be obtained, might 
be used, for example, to employ special 
agents to visit libraries and make reports 
in regard to their resources, to prepare 
and print union lists of accessible ma- 
terial in different fields, and to purchase 
books specifically for lending. 

A third way in which co-ordination 
might be encouraged to advantage would 
be in some measure of co-operation 
among libraries as to purchases. A com- 
mittee of professors and librarians might 
institute an inquiry into the deficiencies 
still existing in certain fields of study, 
might thereupon draw up a list of desi- 
derata, and might induce an agreement 
among the institutions they represented 
to purchase as large a number of these 
as possible, avoiding duplication, until 
practically the whole list was accessible 
somewhere, and expecting in the mean- 
time to make these purchases available to 
one another by inter-library loans. 

The Committee calls the attention of 
all libraries not only to Mr. Bishop's arti- 
cle on "Inter-library loans" in the Decem- 
ber number of the "Library journal," but 
also to an interesting and suggestive 
"Symposium on co-ordination or affiliation 
of libraries" in the numbers for March and 
May, 1910. 

In closing, it may not be out of place 
to mention the fact that the Harvard 
library is studying the possibility of 
printing its whole catalog on cards (ex- 
cept titles contained in the printed stock 
of the Library of Congress and of the John 
Crerar library) and proposes to issue 
these cards to other libraries. If the 
project is carried out, it will result in 
placing at least in the union catalog of 



the Library of Congress and, judging from 
the initial response to the circular sent 
out by the Harvard library, probably in a 
number of other libraries complete in- 
formation in regard to books in that li- 
brary not only accessible in the Library 
of Congress or in the John Crerar library. 
Our Committee has advocated the collec- 
tion at a central point of titles from a 
large range of libraries. The Harvard 
plan will place information in regard to 
one library at a number of scattered 
points, but if a number of the larger li- 
braries of the country should follow Har- 
vard's lead in this respect, we would have 
records of very considerable extent and 
value accessible at different points, pro- 
vided that the subscribing libraries did 
not find the burden of caring for cards 
from several different libraries more than 
they could carry. 

WILLIAM C. LANE, 
Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: We have now 
reached the report of the Committee on 
co-ordination, of which Mr. Gould is the 
Chairman. 

Mr. GOULD: Mr. President, like the 
other report, this report is printed and 
contains no direct recommendation. I 
may merely say that it calls attention to 
specific instances of co-ordination, both in 
foreign countries and in the United States. 
I will not take up the time of the meeting 
by doing more than mentioning this, but as 
the report submits two questions for dis- 
cussion I will read or outline very briefly 
those questions, and I dare say that the 
meeting will not care to discuss them at 
this time. I am obliged to read them, I 
suppose, as the Committee wish them to 
be submitted. They are put in the form 
of resolution: "That certain libraries, 
which are now lending, or are willing to 
lend to others, adopt uniform rules for 
lending, with the right to exceed these 
rules in generosity when such action 
seems desirable to the lenders; and that 
the rules thus adopted be printed and 
circulated with the addition of the names 
of the libraries that have adopted them. 
In connection with the foregoing the 



660 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



question arises, whether, in view of the 
growth of the inter-library loans, libraries 
co-operating in such work would favor a 
small fee to cover the labor involved. 
That an effort be made to develop a sys- 
tem of inter-library readers' cards, which 
cards will be good between specified li- 
braries." 

I move the adoption of the report. 

The PRESIDENT: Is there any dis- 
cussion? If not, as there is no objection 

Mr. ANDREWS: I rise to a point of 
order. The adopting would mean that we 
endorse the resolution. While I do, never- 
theless 

Mr. GOULD: I move the report be 
accepted. These recommendations were 
intended only for discussion. Perhaps 
Mr. Andrews did not notice the report says 
they are put in the form of resolutions. 
They were merely inserted that there 
might be discussion upon them if desired. 
I move the acceptance of the report. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
CO-ORDINATION 

This Committee, appointed at the Bret- 
ton Woods Conference, was instructed to 
consider the various phases of co-ordina- 
tions, and to report hereon. The Commit- 
tee takes the term co-ordination as the 
equivalent of planning and arranging for 
the advancement of co-operation on a large 
scale; and understands that it has been 
instructed to take cognizance of and to 
report upon whatever in its opinion will 
tend or is tending either to promote or 
to impede systematic co-operation. 

So wide a field as this, the Committee 
has not, for the present, attempted to 
cover; but the following is submitted as 
in some sense a preliminary report: 

Conditions in different countries vary 
so greatly that what is done in one may 
prove actually misleading if accepted as 
a criterion for another; yet as a matter 
of record, and for the sake of comparison, 
which is always helpful, mention should 
here be made of the far-reaching plans 
that center in the Institut international 
de bibliographie in Brussels. These are 



so familiar to members of the American 
library association that the mere mention 
of them will suffice. Those activities which 
bear more particularly on co-ordination, 
viz: the Bibliographic bureau, with its 
universal catalog, and suggestions looking 
towards "organization of all the libraries 
of a country, with the national library as 
the head or heart of the system in which 
the books circulate and are exchanged, 
with a central office for cataloging, pur- 
chasing, and exchanges." In the same 
document from which these words are 
quoted, it was reported that an arrange- 
ment involving a large measure of co- 
ordination had for some time been in 
operation in Norway. "All libraries sub- 
sidized by the State are considered mem- 
bers of one vast body, the parts of a net- 
work which extends over the whole coun- 
try and through which the books circu- 
late" (Analytical account of the Interna- 
tional Conference of bibliography and 
documentation, Brussels, July 10 and 11, 
1908, page 8). Of the practical expediency 
for American libraries of certain features 
(notably the suggestion of centralization 
of purchase) embodied in the foregoing 
plans, the Committee is by no means sure. 
But the plans are worthy of study, and 
certainly, of record. The project, too, for 
co-ordinating the free public libraries in 
greater London, though it seems as yet 
to have taken no definite form, cannot be 
ignored in a report like the present. In 
the United States, the county libraries, 
which constitute a prominent advance in 
co-ordination, seem capable of large de- 
velopment in certain directions that have 
just been indicated. 

The Committee has discussed two plans 
somewhat similar in purpose to the vari- 
ous movements above referred to, though 
modified to suit changed conditions. Both 
plans have already been before the Ameri- 
can library association. They are (a) A 
central lending library and bureau of in- 
formation, discussed by the College and 
Reference Section at the Bretton Woods 
Conference, (b) Regional or reservoir li- 
braries, considered by a general meeting 
of the Association at the same time. 



GOULD 



661 



Libraries in America are undoubtedly 
developing a feeling of interdependence 
and a sense of the advantages to be de- 
rived from increased co-operation. The 
national library and other important li- 
braries are steadily extending more and 
greater privileges to sister institutions less 
fortunate than themselves, and are placing 
their resources more and more completely 
at the disposal of others. The service of 
a Bureau of bibliographic information for 
the country as a whole, undertaken several 
years ago by the national library, is be- 
ing rapidly developed; and within the past 
few months, the same library has issued 
a tentative statement of the conditions 
under which it will print copy furnished 
by libraries outside the District of Colum- 
bia. The Library of Harvard University 
contemplates reprinting, on cards of stan- 
dard size, its entire catalog, excepting 
titles already included in the stock of the 
Library of Congress and of the John 
Crerar library; and is considering means 
to enable other libraries to purchase copies 
of such cards. 

Finally, a matter that tends to impede 
co-operation in inter-library loans is cost 
of carriage. The question of a library 
post is, of course, sourrounded with diffi- 
culties, and perhaps ought not to be in- 
troduced here. Nevertheless, whatever 
may be done in any way to lessen the ex- 
pense of sending books back and forth 
will assuredly promote co-operation. 

The Committee now begs to submit for 
discussion the following questions, which 
do not arise immediately from the subject 
matter of this report, although they are 
strictly relevant to it. They are put in the 
form of resolutions, but the Committee 
wishes neither to advocate nor to impugn 
them. 

That certain libraries, which are now 
lending, or are willing to lend to others, 
adopt uniform rules for lending, with the 
right to exceed these rules in generosity 
when such action seems desirable to the 
lenders; and that the rules thus adopted 
be printed and circulated with the addi- 
tion of the names of the libraries that 
have adopted them. In connection with 
the foregoing the question arises, whether 
in view of the growth of inter-library 



loans, libraries co-operating in such work 
would favor charging a small fee to cover 
the labor involved. 

That an effort be made to develop a 
system of inter-library readers' cards, 
which cards will be good between speci- 
fied libraries. 

C. H. GOULD, 
Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: Is there any dis- 
cussion? If not, and no objection, the 
report will be accepted. 

The next report, which comes last in 
order, is that of the Committee on the 
Brussels Congress, of which I happen to 
be Chairman, if I may offer it from the 
chair. There are no recommendations, 
and if there is no objection to the ac- 
ceptance of this report, it will be ac- 
cepted. 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE 
BRUSSELS CONGRESSES 

The special committee on the Brussels 
congresses, consisting of N. D. C. Hodges 
and E. C. Richardson, has sent to the Sec- 
retary of the Brussels library congress 
the following reports on American prac- 
tice: 

"Government publications" by Miss 
Adelaide Hasse. 

"Library appointments and pensions" 
by Mr. Geo. F. Bowerman. 

"Cataloging" by J. C. M. Hanson. 

"Education of library assistants" by 
J I. Wyer, Jr. 

"Copyrights" by Thorvald Solberg. 

"International exchanges" by Paul 
Brockett. 

"Work with the blind" by Mrs. Emma 
R. Neisser Delflno. 

Besides these it is likely that a repre- 
sentative of the A. L. A. will give an 
illustrated lecture on American libraries. 

The Travel committee reports that at 
the date of this report about forty persons 
are proposing to attend these congresses. 
Respectfully submitted, 

N. D. C. HODGES, Chairman. 

E. C. RICHARDSON. 

Secretary Hadley then read the follow- 
ing report, adopted by a rising vote: 



662 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



REPORT OF THE SPECIAL COMMITTEE 
ON RESOLUTIONS 

The Association has to record three 
very serious losses from its membership, 
in the death of Dr. James H. Canfield, 
librarian of Columbia university, March 
29, 1909, of Miss Alice B. Kroeger, libra- 
rian of Drexel institute and director of its 
library school, October 31, 1909, and of 
Miss Mary E. Sargent, librarian of the 
Medford public library, on December 20, 
1909. 

Dr. James Hulme Canfield was graduated 
from Williams college in 1868. After the 
trial of various lines of work, he became 
definitely an educator and rose to the 
presidency of the University of Nebraska, 
and then to that of the University of Ohio. 
He entered the field of the library soon 
after the completion of the new library 
of Columbia university, in 1899, assuming 
the librarianship of the University, an 
office which he held until his death. 

He retained always his position and 
rank among educators and was in demand 
all over the country as a speaker on sub- 
jects of educational and civic importance. 
His interest in the library arose from his 
belief in it as a factor in education and 
culture, and with this point of view he 
was always ready in its service, as in the 
service of all humanitarian and civilizing 
movements. Indeed, his premature break- 
down (for he was only 62 years of age at 
his death) was perhaps owing to the con- 
stant drain on his vitality made by travel- 
ing and speaking in all good causes. 
Author of several books on education, and 
member of many learned societies, he was 
quite without affectation, and as glad to 
assist the individual or the humble cause 
as to figure in more prominent works or 
on occasions of greater dignity. His in- 
terest in the affairs of the Association 
was keen, and his services to it out of 
all proportion to the length of his member- 
ship. Genial and quick of wit, he was 
popular with all classes of persons, and 
especially endeared to those who served 
under him. The cause of education, in- 
cluding that of libraries, has lost severely 
by his death. 



Miss Kroeger's connection with the pro- 
fession dates from the year 1883, when 
she became an assistant in the St. Louis 
public library, then the Public school li- 
brary. Inspired with a desire for further 
knowledge always an impelling conside- 
ration with her she attended the New 
York state library school, from which she 
graduated in two years. Immediately 
after, in 1891, she was called to Drexel 
institute to organize a library school, and 
as librarian and director she remained 
there until her death. Miss Kroeger was 
essentially a worker, inheriting from the 
German side of her ancestry the passion 
for thoroughness and accuracy character- 
istic of that race. 

For a number of years she was appointed 
on committees of this Association, being 
elected also to its Council. Wherever she 
was appointed to serve, she served, with 
all her ability and all her interest. Her 
contributions to the cause of good catalog- 
ing were most valuable, and in the prep- 
aration of her "Guide to reference books" 
and "Aids in book selection" she made 
the librarian of every town and village 
and every library school student her 
debtor. 

To all appearances, she had many years 
of usefulness before her, which deepens 
the tragedy of her unexpected death. 

Miss Sargent had been a member of the 
Association from its first year, and a li- 
brarian for four years preceding that date. 
For the Medford library, which she con- 
ducted from 1891 to within a year of her 
death, she made a reputation of liberality 
of management, good book selection, and 
good administration. 

In 1904 she conducted the Maine summer 
library school. She was in sympathy with 
all that was progressive in the library 
movement, at the same time representing 
in her own personality the charm of cul- 
ture and of the ideals that are sometimes 
erroneously called old-fashioned errone- 
ously,, for they are never out of date, but 
are the best ideals of all periods. Her 
interests were by no means confined to 
her profession. She was a member of 
various clubs and societies, and the first 



FROST 



663 



American whose work in design was pub- 
lished in the "London art journal." She 
edited and supplemented her brother's 
compilation, "Reading for the young," and 
contributed papers to several professional 
periodicals. During the last year of her 
life, in spite of illness and suffering, her 
thoughts were especially busy with plans 
for a recreation center for the boys of 
Medford, a class of the community with 
which she was always in strong sympathy. 
Frequently in attendance on library 
meetings, national and local, she had made 
many friends among her colleagues; and 
perhaps there was no one in the Associa- 
tion to whom the rising generation of 
women-librarians could better be pointed 
as a model of what the town-librarian 
should be. 

MARY W. PLUMMER, 
WILLIAM C. LANE, 
CLEMENT W. ANDREWS. 

The PRESIDENT: We will now pass 
to the regular business of the session. 

Mr. HILL: Mr. President, before start- 
ing in with the regular program, there is a 
small matter I would like, with your per- 
mission, to bring to the attention of the 
Association, and it will take but a mo- 
ment. The good news comes to us that 
the condition of Mr. Crunden, of St. Louis, 
is very much improved. I am sure that 
he would be very glad to hear from us 
while we are in session, and I move that 
the following telegram, which I shall ask 
the Secretary to read, be sent to him 
during the day. 

Secretary HADLEY then read: 

"Frederick M. Crunden, 

St. Louis, Mo. 

The American library association, at its 
thirty-second conference, Mackinac Island, 
1910, sends greetings and best wishes to 
one who has done so much to make the 
Association a power and influence in the 
educational world." 

Mr. GOULD: Mr. President, I am sure 
that there are great many people in this 
room who would like the privilege of 
seconding this motion of Mr. Hill, and I 
have been selfish enough to get up as 



quickly as I could, to seize the first op- 
portunity of doing it. It is a very great 
pleasure to me to second it, and I am sure 
we are all delighted to learn that it is to 
be sent. 

The motion was unanimously adopted 
by a rising vote. 

The PRESIDENT: We will now pro- 
ceed to the regular program, and I will 
ask Miss Tyler, the second Vice-president, 
to take the chair. 

The PRESIDENT (Miss Tyler in the 
chair) : I feel that the members are so 
appreciative that I cannot please you bet- 
ter than to proceed at once with the next 
number on the program. I will present to 
the Association for the next paper, Mr. 
HARWOOD FROST, Secretary of the En- 
gineering news publishing company, who 
will speak to us on 

THE SELECTION OF TECHNICAL 
BOOKS AND PERIODICALS 

The difficulties and disappointments in- 
cident to a selection of technical literature 
can, to a great extent, be overcome by a 
knowledge of some of the points which 
involve, in the case of books, some con- 
sideration of the vast quantity and the 
many varieties from which to select, and 
the means of selection, and also some 
consideration of the book itself, Its make- 
up and character, the author and the pub- 
lisher and the opinions of others in regard 
to it. 

The subject of periodicals is quite dif- 
ferent, and reduces itself essentially to 
the question of what kind of material the 
readers need, and what periodicals will 
give them the greatest amount of such 
information. 

There is a wide range of selection in 
books open to librarians. Some technical 
books are good literature but bad engineer- 
ing practice, while others are good practice 
but poor literature. Ninety-nine per cent 
of them probably consist of compilations 
of material from various more or less 
authentic sources, as it is very seldom 
that an entire technical book is the ori- 
ginal production of one man. 



664 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The original records of experimental re- 
search or descriptions of works are to be 
found in the pages of the "Transactions" 
of engineering societies and in the columns 
of technical periodicals. Thus the period- 
ical tends to reflect the work of the im- 
mediate past, or the practice of the pres- 
ent, or plans for the future. 

The book may be said to be a permanent 
record of approved practice, tending to 
reflect the work of from one to ten years 
past. 

Now, the many varieties of technical 
books are due to the varied experience 
and knowledge of the authors, their ability 
or inability as writers, and the purpose 
of the books whether the writer intends 
to fill a gap in the existing literature of 
the subject, or merely to produce a com- 
mercial article for the sake of the royal- 
ties resulting from its sale. There is one 
variety which is unfortunately too common 
to-day, a sort of rehash of material con- 
tained in trade publications, written by 
hack writers who know little or nothing on 
the subject. The opposite book, which may 
be called the average good technical book, 
consists of a smoothly written and well 
balanced treatise, prepared from material 
which has been compiled from the most 
reliable sources with good judgment as to 
its value. Now, while neither of these 
books really adds anything to our present 
source of knowledge, the hack book is, 
as a rule, at best unreliable and mislead- 
ing, and useless from an engineer's point 
of view, while the other presents the best 
available knowledge on the subject, in ac- 
ceptable form, and should always consti- 
tute a welcome addition to a library. 
However, a good technical book must con- 
sist not merely of a statement of facts, 
however accurate those facts may be; but 
the facts must be presented in logical 
order and in language that is clear, concise 
and grammatical, and convey but one 
meaning. The book should be sufficiently, 
but not excessively illustrated, and should 
clearly evidence the purpose of the writer 
in producing it. 

The selection, as also the preparation 
of text-books, is a very much more serious 



matter than the selection of books for 
practicing engineers. The engineer is sup- 
posed to have a sufficient amount of 
knowledge of the subject to judge as to 
the reliability of the practice given in the 
book; but in the case of text-books for 
use in colleges and libraries, for the 
younger readers, a seed is sown in virgin 
soil and that seed has to be very carefully 
selected. What the student learns in col- 
lege or from a text-book is likely to be 
very tenaciously held in memory, so it is 
necessary that the material be carefully 
selected, and that the statement of facts 
and principles be adequate and accurate, 
and, in all technical and industrial mat- 
ters, that only the very latest and best 
accepted theory and practice be presented. 
There are many books, however, excel- 
lently prepared in some ways, that are 
based upon wrong theory or practice, or 
which exploit the personal fads or fancies 
of the writers. There are others which 
are written by experienced practitioners, 
and which may be a valuable record of 
achievements, but written in a style about 
as valuable as the "Patent office gazette" 
or the "Census report," while another 
author may present the same facts, tables 
and all, in a form almost as readable as a 
book of fiction. There are many other 
kinds of books too numerous to mention. 
Some of them are padded with useless 
words and illustrations, while others have 
a scarcity of facts, and some assume rather 
too high a plane of importance for the 
subject, and others may be said to be 
too modest; and there are still others 
that present out-of-date practice, while 
some are too advanced, presenting practice 
that is merely in an experimental state. 

One very important fact connected with 
technical books is the fact that they go 
out of date so quickly. An out-of-date 
technical book has about as much interest 
or enlightening value as the proverbial 
candle under a bushel. 

As to the means of selection open to 
librarians, I think your plan of a technol- 
ogy exhibit is a step in the right direc- 
tion. But where you cannot see the books 
you must buy either from advertised de- 



FROST 



665 



scription, or depend on the advice of a 
dealer or publisher, or on the views pub- 
lished in the various technical periodicals. 
Now, of these different methods I would 
recommend the advice of the dealer first, 
that is, provided you can select as a dealer 
some man on whose judgment you can 
rely, but even that should be taken in 
connection with the reviews published in 
the periodicals. The advice of the pub- 
lisher is, of course, always worthy of 
consideration, but most publishers are 
chiefly interested in the sale of their own 
publications, and they do not recommend 
books of other publishers where it will 
only promote the interests of their com- 
petitors. 

Occasionally pamphlets are issued giv- 
ing lists of recommended books, but much 
depends upon who issues the pamphlet, 
and for what purpose it is issued. I think 
good work in this line has been done by 
the Booklist of the Association, and also 
by the Carnegie library in Pittsburgh, and 
by the Pratt institute library in Brooklyn. 
The list put out some years ago by the 
Society for the promotion of engineering 
education is a good list, but it is out-of- 
date, and a year ago the Committee on 
technical books of that Society, submitted 
a revised list which was so defective that 
it was referred back to the Committee 
and its circulation was considered inad- 
visable. This year the Committee revised 
that list, and submitted it to the Society 
two weeks ago; it was accepted and will 
be published shortly. 

There are very few periodicals that 
really review technical books in a fair 
and intelligent manner. 

The ideal book review should be a dis- 
interested appraisement or analysis of the 
book judged by the standard of its use- 
fulness to a certain class of readers. The 
purpose of the review should be to convey 
to these readers sufficient information re- 
garding the book to enable them to Judge 
of its value to them without an actual 
examination of the book. 

The essential components of a technical 
book may be said to be the Table of con- 
tents, the Preface, text, and Index. The 



book may be illustrated or may not, and, 
of course, may be bound in a variety of 
shapes or sizes. All these must have 
consideration in the review. The review 
should usually be headed with the author's 
announcement of title, author, binding, 
number of pages, illustrations, the name 
and address of the publisher, and the cost. 
After the publisher's announcement, a 
note on the general scope of the book 
would be in order, and this may be a 
resum6 of the Preface or Introduction, 
together with similar matter taken from 
the body of the book. The Preface is 
that part of the book in which the author 
states his purposes in writing the book, 
and the scope to be covered. Some authors 
take advantage of the fact that a number 
of periodicals simply quote from the Pref- 
ace as a review, to enter into a little 
self-praise and make very broad state- 
ments of what their book is, or is sup- 
posed to be, and thus obtain some good 
notices with consequent sales. The con- 
scientious reviewer ignores all these ex- 
pressions of self-esteem, and looks on the 
Preface of the book merely as a statement 
in writing of the intentions of the author. 
Next in order would be an outline based 
on the Table of contents, although the 
"Contents" is very often a misleading 
affair. This outline would deal with a 
general division of the book into subject 
and parts, and, when possible, extend to a 
subdivision into chapters, or at least into 
groups of chapters, but it should show 
clearly the scope of the book, and indicate 
the amount of space devoted to each phase 
of the subject. The reviewer then takes 
up the details of appraisement of the 
book, and the extent to which he will do 
this depends very much on the importance 
of the subject, but also on the periodical's 
opinion of it, which determines the amount 
of available space. The discussion as to 
the completeness of treatment in the 
book the noting of errors and omissions 
calls for a wide knowledge of what has 
already been written, and good judgment 
on the part of the reviewer. Comments 
along these lines must be specific ex- 
pressions of the reviewer's opinions, which 



666 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



can be accepted or rejected by the reader 
at his discretion. 

To all readers it is important to know 
if the book contain later material than a 
book of a year ago, or if it treat the sub- 
ject more thoroughly than some other 
book; if it is more practical, or mathemat- 
ical, or statistical, or theoretical; whether 
it is a book written for reference only, 
or as a text-book. 

Another important part of the review 
is the estimate as to the value of the 
Index. Engineering books, you know, are 
not bought with the intention of being 
read and thrown aside; they are bought 
principally for use as reference, and every 
book should be thoroughly and compre- 
hensively indexed. Where a book is not 
so indexed, it is imperfect and incomplete, 
and as to this point the reviewer may do 
the reader a great good. 

The feature of illustration is also open 
to considerable criticism, as there is too 
much carelessness exhibited in the prep- 
aration of illustrations for technical books. 

This ideal review is an outline for the 
book of real worth, but for worthless or 
harmful books the best review is silence, 
and for books of mediocre value a few 
general statements of contents. 

The PRESIDENT: It seems to me a 
courtesy we owe to our speakers to be 
quiet before taking up the next number, 
although I am sure that the subject does 
not require such extreme concentration of 
thought probably as some other subjects 
that might appear upon the program at 
this time. We are to take up next the 
recreation symposium, which is in charge 
of Mr. Samuel H. Ranck of the Grand Rap- 
ids public library, who, I presume, com- 
bines the two qualities of the strenuous 
librarian with the adept at recreation. I 
therefore turn over the program to Mr. 
Ranck. 

RECREATION SYMPOSIUM 

Mr. RANCK was the first speaker on the 
symposium program, his paper being en- 
titled: 



Recreation for Librarians 

The announcement of this subject seems 
to have stirred up a variety of emotions in 
different people. Some have regarded it 
as juvenile for a learned and dignified or- 
ganization to devote any of its time to the 
consideration of recreation thought of 
only as a frivolous subject. Others regard 
it as a new evidence that librarians take 
themselves altogether too seriously when 
they think that their occupation needs to 
be offset by any special kind of recrea- 
tion; and still others believe that it is a 
subject of the very greatest importance to 
each of us personally, and indirectly to the 
institutions and the public we serve. 

Whatever be our views regarding the 
form of recreation for ourselves, every- 
one must admit that it is the business 
the bounden duty of every man and 
woman to keep fit for their daily work. 
The man or woman who deliberately regu- 
lates his or her life so that he does not 
keep fit is untrue to himself and untrue 
to society, and falsehood in this direction 
is akin to crime. A writer in the May 
"Fortnightly review," in discussing Phys- 
ical energy in modern affairs, speaks of 
Mr. Roosevelt as the "Moses of the 
eleventh commandment," and that that 
Commandment is "Keep fit." 

To keep fit, I believe, it is the first busi- 
ness of every one to endeavor to know his 
own fatigue curve, and then to regulate 
his life accordingly. This curve is, of 
course, different in different people, and, 
therefore, much of the strain of modern 
life comes from conventionalism and in- 
stitutionalism, thereby forcing many into 
a routine of life which is the hardest to 
bear. Every one for his best normal life 
needs many forms of expression, and, 
therefore, a change from one form to an- 
other a change of work is very gener- 
ally a rest. 

Whether librarians need recreation 
more than others, or whether their work 
is harder than that of others, I do not 
propose to discuss. I merely say it is a 
fact, which might well be regarded as a 
scandal, that too many librarians, many 
of them not yet of the age of two score 



RANCK 



667 



and ten, have been breaking down forced 
to retire from the work. Recalling those 
who have failed, in the last five or six 
years, to stand up under the burden of the 
work, I find it is not difficult to make a list 
of about 50 names. And there are many 
others, I am sure. Some of these have 
died before their time, others have been 
obliged to retire from library work per- 
manently, and others temporarily, either 
on extended leaves of absence or to the 
friendly sanatorium. Whether this condi- 
tion of affairs is worse among librarians 
than among other professional people I 
do not know, but when every year a con- 
siderable number of our fellow-workers 
are breaking down, it is time for us to 
give the matter some consideration. 

The causes of these breakdowns are, I 
know, very frequently outside of the li- 
brary. Who cannot recall the conscien- 
tious librarian carrying in addition to his 
perhaps more frequently her regular 
work, the burden of nursing a sick mem- 
ber of the family, running a large Sunday 
school class, a missionary society, or some 
other form of religious or philanthropic 
endeavor? Then, too, there may be social 
dissipations which are responsible for ex- 
tra wear and tear of nerves dances, par- 
ties, etc. extending too far into the hours 
required for sleep. Many have the 
strength to do these extra things, and in- 
terest in outside affairs is most valuable 
for the library work, but at the same time 
the library has a right to insist that they 
shall not be at the expense of the energy 
needed to keep fit. 

In planning the program for this sym- 
posium, the effort has been to get the per- 
sonal experiences of a number of people 
as to the value of specific forms of recrea- 
tion, and therefore the ego is to be put 
forward without reserve and without apol- 
ogy. 

Accordingly I shall start off by stating 
my own creed, or, if you please, my phi- 
losophy of life and work. If you prefer to 
call it religion, do so. I believe that one's 
attitude of mind toward his work is a most 
important element in whether he finds it 
easy or hard; in other words, joy in the 



work lessens the burden of it. This brings 
into our exercises for recreation the ele- 
ment of purpose. For example, a walk 
with a dinner at the other end is better 
as exercise recreation than the walk to 
no purpose. The latter is like fanning the 
air. 

During the last 20 years I have worked 
on an average of from 60 to 75 hours a 
week; not all at library work at any time, 
and it has been the exception to find the 
work I was doing a burden. Of course, I 
have been exceptionally fortunate in be- 
ing to a large extent master of my own 
time; that is, when I did not feel like 
doing one thing I could nearly always turn 
to something else, without following a 
pre-arranged or fixed schedule. This, of 
course, I know is impossible for every 
one in the routine of a large institution, 
but I believe that it helps immensely in 
the ease with which a given quantity of 
work may be accomplished. Freedom in 
this direction helps enormously to keep 
oneself fit. 

In keeping fit there are two elements 
which to me have always been of the 
greatest importance eating and sleeping. 
A sufficient quantity of wholesome food is 
absolutely essential for every one to get 
the maximum of energy and efficiency out 
of himself. . In order to get the best out 
of his food, it is necessary to keep the 
nervous system in first-class condition; 
for any unusual nervous strain may affect 
directly the ability to assimilate properly 
an adequate supply of food. I believe that 
the beginning of the disorganization of the 
nervous system among librarians is fre- 
quently due to eye-strain. I have seen 
many examples of this where nervous in- 
digestion, leading up to nervous prostra- 
tion, and all the ills that follow, began 
with eye-strain. Library work and library 
lighting can easily make all of us victims 
of eye-strain; and I may add that the light- 
ing in many of our libraries is vicious. 

Mr. Ranck then announced that Dr. Vic- 
tor C. Vaughan, of the University of Michi- 
gan, was to have presented a paper on 
"Recreation," but in the absence of Dr. 



668 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



Vaughan, his paper was summarized by 
Mr. John Cotton Dana. 

Five-minute talks by librarians who ex- 
tolled the virtues of their favorite recrea- 
tion were given by: Miss Gratia A. Coun- 
tryman on "Sleeping out of doors;" Miss 
Alta L. Stansbury, "Walking"; Charles 
R. Dudley, "Watching the game"; Killer 
C. Wellman, "Tennis"; Miss Elfrida Ever- 
hart, "Baseball"; Henry J. Carr, "Auto- 
mobiling"; Lawrence J. Burpee, "Riding 
a hobby"; Clement W. Andrews, "Golf"; 
Reuben Gold Thwaites, "Canoeing"; Purd 
B. Wright, "Horseback riding"; Miss Ag- 
nes Van Valkenburgh, "Bird study"; Ar- 
thur E. Bostwick, "In-door exercise." 
William Warner Bishop discussed the 
"Sabbatical year for librarians." 

At the close of the Recreation sympo- 
sium President Hodges assumed the chair 
and adjourned the meeting until the even- 
ing. 

On Tuesday evening, July 5th, an illus- 
trated lecture on Play and social welfare 
was given by Graham Romeyn Taylor, of 
Chicago, Associate editor of "The Survey." 

PLAY AND SOCIAL WELFARE 

Among all the movements for social ad- 
vance which have come to the fore during 
the last two decades, none has had a more 
rapid and extensive development than that 
to provide play and recreative facilities 
for the children in our cities. The last 
four years have witnessed the most extra- 
ordinary growth of all. In 1907 there were 
90 cities which maintained playgrounds 
for children; in 1908 the number rose to 
185, and by the end of 1909 there were 
336. 

This recent widespread activity has 
been due primarily to a new appreciation 
of the value of play as a positive force 
whose benefit should be made available 
for all children, rather than as an amelio- 
rative effort to make life a little more 
endurable and normal for the children in 
crowded city centers. It was, of course, 
natural that playgrounds should start 
where city conditions were seen to bear 
down the hardest upon child life; the 



first one in this country was established 
in Boston a little more than 20 years ago, 
and the movement soon spread to New 
York, Chicago, and other large cities. 
The more extensive adoption of the play- 
ground idea, however, by communities of 
every sort has come in response to the 
recognition of the new idea that whole- 
some play is not merely a preventive of 
ill health and delinquency among city chil- 
dren, but that it is an essential in the 
process by which all children grow up a 
promoter of good health, good character, 
and the spirit of co-operation and team 
play which is so necessary in the civic 
life of to-day. 

Interesting instances of the development 
of play facilities in small communities are 
to be found in Missouri and Massachusetts. 
In the former state, under the auspices of 
the State University, a "play drummer" 
recently visited about 30 of the smaller 
cities, 12 of which started playgrounds. 
In Massachusetts a state law has been in 
effect for two years, under which refer- 
endum votes are held in cities or towns 
of over 10,000 population on the question 
whether playgrounds shall be established. 
Such votes in over 30 cities have, with two 
exceptions, resulted in an overwhelming 
majority in favor of playgrounds. Even 
in rural communities the play spirit has 
begun to manifest itself in such occasions 
as "a field day and play picnic for coun- 
try children," which is now held annually 
in Ulster county, New York, the leader- 
ship coming from a state normal school. 
The whole countryside, young and old, ral- 
lies for one festal day which has far- 
reaching influence in stimulating neigh- 
borly relations and a community spirit. 

The play spirit, in the opinion of those 
who attended the recent Play Congress at 
Rochester, should extend far beyond the 
playground or special occasion, and should 
permeate our whole life. It was even 
proposed that we should now supplement 
playgrounds by making definite provision 
for recreation along many residential 
streets on which traffic is not frequent. 

Play for children, in fact, is now seen 
to be only part of a far larger movement 



TAYLOR 



669 



to solve the problem of public recreation 
for all the people. Thus far, the provision 
of recreation has been largely left to those 
whose sole interest is commercial profit, 
and who often provide amusement of a de- 
moralizing sort. The amazing spread of 
amusement parks, nickel theaters, and 
similar enterprises throughout the country 
testifies to the fact that if the community 
itself is blind to the recreative needs of 
the people, commercial exploitation cer- 
tainly is not. The country, however, is 
rapidly coming to understand that recrea- 
tion is the concern of all, and that pro- 
vision for it must be adequately made by 
the whole community. Our playgrounds, 
bathing beaches, municipal gymnasia, and 
recreational uses of public school build- 
ings are a recognition of this new point 
of view. City parks, too, are now looked 
upon as far more than "beauty spots," 
and many facilities are being introduced 
so that they serve more adequately the 
needs of the people for sport, and active 
rather than passive recreation. 

Our juvenile court statistics show the 
need for a continuity of recreative facili- 
ties in which the older type of playground 
is only an early step. The age at which 
a large proportion of delinquents come 
into the juvenile courts is between the 
years of 14 and 16 the very period at 
which the small children's playground be- 
gins to lose its grip and its appeal. The 
police arrests in most large cities show 
that a large proportion of offenders are 
under the age of 25. It is evident, there- 
fore, that our recreation policy should ex- 
tend beyond the small playground. We 
should not leave young people in the lurch 
just at the most critical periods of life. 

The increasing specialization and strain 
in industry make all the more insistent 
the demand of modern life for recreation. 
This has been most strikingly set forth 
by Jane Addams in her recent remarkable 
book on "The spirit of youth and the city 
streets." She points out that during the 
last few decades, since the introduction 
of the factory system, we have been "try- 
Ing the experiment of getting along with- 
out recreation," at the very period of all 



in the world's history when it has been 
most needed. In ancient Greece the thea- 
ter and the stadium were established al- 
most at the same time as the market 
place. The history of other countries 
shows the prominence which has been 
given to festival occasions. The* village 
life of the Middle ages involved all sorts 
of folk games and dances. The pageantry 
and festal observances of the Church it- 
self played no unimportant part in the re- 
creation of the people. Yet all of this was 
at a time when industry held the interest 
of the worker in the whole process of 
making the finished product from the raw 
material. Just at the time when factory 
methods brought monotony into the life 
of the toiler, the world began to try to do 
without recreation. 

The new conception of play and its rela- 
tion to life has a most important bearing 
upon the industrial efficiency of the whole 
people. Business men find out that a Sat- 
urday afternoon at golf makes them 
keener and more alert in dealing with the 
problems of the business day. It is all 
the more important that the factory work- 
er, whose day of toil is far more monot- 
onous, should have adequate opportunity 
for relaxation and recreation if he is to 
have the "spring" and freshness and quick 
perception which are so important a factor 
in real efficiency. Just in proportion as 
industry makes daily life most barren, 
must the community provide recreation 
which shall restore richness and fullness 
to life. 

The most significant advance toward 
meeting the recreative needs of the whole 
population of a city has been made by 
Chicago, which not only maintains play- 
grounds, but has established a great sys- 
tem of recreation centers to meet the 
needs of young people and adults as well. 
In the last six years no less than $11,000,- 
000 have been devoted by Chicago to this 
development, and 14 large recreation cen- 
ters are now in operation. The funds still 
at disposal will establish several more. 
The annual maintenance is at present 
very nearly half a million dollars. 

The total attendance at ten of these 



670 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



recreation centers during one year, by 
people who actually used the facilities, 
was 5,500,000. In area these centers vary 
from 3 to 60 acres. The facilities in 
each one provide for all manner of out- 
door and indoor recreation, so that a 365- 
day-in-the-year service is maintained. 
There is a generous ball field, which in 
winter is turned into a skating rink. An 
outdoor gymnasium for men and boys, and 
another for women and girls, are both 
under the care of competent instructors. 
A large swimming pool is provided suits, 
towels, and use of dressing rooms being 
absolutely free. The part set aside for 
the play of children contains sand courts, 
wading pools, and various sorts of simple 
apparatus. Nearby are plenty of seats, so 
that mothers can sit comfortably in the 
shade and watch their children at play, 
busying themselves with sewing, or such 
other work as can be brought from the 
home. 

A fine and spacious recreation building, 
with beautiful architectural features and 
surroundings, houses an indoor gymnasium 
and locker rooms, baths, a restaurant pro- 
viding simple articles of food at small cost, 
a reading room maintained as a branch 
of the Public library, club rooms for the 
use of small groups and societies, and an 
assembly hall for meetings and social 
gatherings. The use of these rooms is 
entirely free, and all sorts of entertain- 
ments, as well as parties, dances, and lec- 
tures are arranged by local organizations 
or individuals. If the crowded back yards 
or alleys in the city centers are inadequate 
as play places for younger children, the 
two-and-three-room tenements with their 
cooking odors, washing tubs, and clutter 
are even more inadequate for the social 
gatherings of the young people. If Mary 
Sullivan wants to invite her friends to a 
birthday party, she can secure a beautiful 
hall at no cost provided she applies before 
any one else has secured its use for the 
evening desired. Dramatic and orchestra 
rehearsals, mandolin clubs, wedding recep- 
tions, and every variety of social occasion 
are represented in the use of these halls 
and club rooms. 

Most important of all is efficient leader- 



ship and supervision. So fundamental is 
this to the best success, that leaders in 
play and recreation work throughout the 
country declare that in most cases it is 
better not to have a playground than one 
without a supervisor who understands play 
and the various recreational activities 
which are best adapted to different ages 
and nationalities. Without such leader- 
ship, playgrounds in some cities have ac- 
tually become a nuisance and even a 
menace to morals. 

Recreation affords a most effective me- 
dium through which can be promoted 
those qualities of toleration and fair play 
which are so greatly needed in the civic 
and industrial life of to-day. It is one of 
the few planes upon which we can unite 
and forget the things which divide us. All 
true civic and social advance must rest, 
in the last analysis, upon acquaintance- 
ship, mutual understanding and faith in 
each other neighbor with neighbor, and 
citizen with citizen. This function of 
recreation is finely typified in a great play 
festival which is annually held in Chicago. 
All ages from little children to adults, and 
all nationalities, take part in this great 
occasion which involves over 2,000 par- 
ticipants, and frequently a combined at- 
tendance of 30,000 at the morning, after- 
noon, and evening sessions. The ways in 
which the play and recreative spirit ex- 
presses itself are represented in the play 
of the smaller children, in the games of 
girlhood and boyhood and older life, in the 
festival customs, national dances, and folk 
games of all nationalities. America has 
been far too neglectful of the rich heritage 
which is brought to her shores by the im- 
migrants from every nation. We go 
abroad and travel in the out-of-the-way 
places of every country to see the pic- 
turesque customs of the common folk, 
when if we but took the trouble to get 
acquainted with our immigrant population 
we should find the same quaint costumes 
and the same spirit in our midst. Such 
an occasion as this play festival, bringing 
together all ages and nationalities, each 
one contributing its best to the common 
store of recreation, affords a prophetic 
glimpse of the social spirit that will one 



TREASURER'S REPORT 



671 



day permeate all the people and 
classes. 



all 



FOURTH GENERAL SESSION 

(Wednesday, July 6, 9:30 a. m.) 
The PRESIDENT: The first business 
this afternoon will be the report of the 
Treasurer. 



Mr. RODEN: Mr. President, inasmuch 
as the Treasurer's report has been printed, 
along with the other reports of the Asso- 
ciation, and has been submitted, I beg 
leave to present it without comment, and 
move that It be referred to the Finance 
committee. 



TREASURER'S REPORT 

Jan. 1 to June 1, 1910. 
Balance, Jan. 1, 1910 $3,499.56 

Receipts 

Membership dues 

1909 19 at $2.00 $38.00 

2 at $5.00 10.00 

1910 1,141 at $2.00 2 282 00 

91 at $3.00 273.00 

243 at $5.00 1,215.00 

2 at $1.00 (partial payment) ; 2.00 

1 at $2.50 (partial payment) 2.50 

1 at $3.00 (partial payment) 3.00 

Life 3 at $25.00 75.00 3,900.50 

Life Interest on bank balance (Jan. 1 to May 31) 18.15 

Publishing Board, Proportion of expenses at headquarters! '. 625 00 

Sale of Bulletin 40 55 

Miscellaneous (Postage $.08, Exchange $.55). .'.".".'.'.'.*.'.'.'.'.'. '.63 $8,084.39 

Payments 

Bulletin $885.30 

Committees 

Bookbinding $1.25 

Bookbuying 18.45 

Library administration 14.13 

Library statistics 13.50 47.33 

Headquarters Secretary's salary 833.30 

Headquarters Other salaries 750.00 

Headquarters Miscellaneous 310.57 

Contingencies 149.58 

Travel 119.88 *$3,095.96 

Trustees endowment fund 75.00 

Balance, June 1, 1910 

Deposit, Union Trust Co., Chicago $4,663.43 

Deposit, National Bank of the Republic 250.00 4,913.43 $8,084.39 

BUDGET 1910 

Apprppria- Balance on, 
tions hand 

Bulletin $2,180.00 $1,294.70 

Conference 400.00 400.00 

Committees 400.00 352.67 

Headquarters Secretary's salary 2,000.00 1,166.70 

Headquarters Other salaries 1,800.00 1,050.00 

Headquarters Miscellaneous 440.00 129.43 

Treasurer Expense 35.00 35.00 

Contingencies 265.00 115.42 *3,095.96 

Trav ei 300.00 180.12 4,724.04 

$7,820.00 $4,724.04 $7,820.00 

CARL B. RODEN, 

Treasurer. 



672 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The PRESIDENT: If there is no objec- 
tion this report will be referred to the 
Finance committee in regular course. 

The PRESIDENT: Is Mr. Craver in the 
room? The next report to be considered is 
that of the Committee on library adminis- 
tration. 

Mr. CRAVER: That report also, being 
so fortunate as to be printed, I shall not 
read it, with your permission. In the re- 
port we have tried to lay out a plan, a 
small questionaire, which will be a source 
of some information to future committees. 
The report is in print, and I submit it at 
this time. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION 

The . Committee on library administra- 
tion has had an unfortunate experience 
during the past year in that its member- 
ship has suffered several changes. Miss 
Bacon was unable to serve and was suc- 
ceeded as Chairman by Mr. Wellman, Miss 
McCollough being appointed to complete 
the Committee. In January Mr. Well- 
man's resignation was presented, and Mr. 
Craver was appointed in his stead. This 
changing personnel has prevented any con- 
tinuous line of action being carried out, 
and the present Committee found itself in 
the position of being required to do such 
work as could be done in a very brief time. 

A serious handicap from the point of 
view of the members of the Committee, is 
a point which should be one of satisfaction 
to the members of the Association. The 
returns from the searching schedule of 
questions submitted at the Asheville Con- 
ference have all been analyzed and pre- 
sented to you. This has formed the work 
of the last two Committees and has given 
every member of the Association some val- 
uable information. Your present Commit- 
tee had hoped that it might be able to sup- 
plement the past work by further investi- 
gation along the same lines, but the time 
available has not been sufficient. It is 
therefore compelled to present only some 
general observations. 

The work of recent Committees has cov- 



ered very fully much of the work of a li- 
brary and in careful detail, so much, in 
fact, that untouched subjects worthy of 
general notice are scarce. The leading 
questions of routine have been included, 
book purchase, preparation of books for 
use, lending to readers, reports, stocktak- 
ing, etc. 

The leading administrative problem 
which has not been investigated is that 
of the staff. The questions here increase 
in number and difficulty directly as the 
size of the library, but no library fails to 
have some troublesome points. While lo- 
cal conditions must always have much 
effect, some systematized statement of 
current practice might be of value. 

Among points which might be discussed 
are the question of grading the staff, the 
amounts of vacation and sick leaves, pro- 
motions, etc: The advisability of the vol- 
untary co-operative aid associations In 
large libraries might be worth investiga- 
tion. 

Your Committee submits the following 
suggested questionaire as a possible means 
of obtaining information on some of these 
points. It would be necessary to classify 
the answers according to the size of the 
libraries : 

Name and location of library? 

Number of volumes in library (date) ? 

Total accessions during past year? 

Total income for past year? 

Total expenditures during past year? 

Total expenditures for books, binding, 
periodicals, etc., during past year? 

Total expenditures for salaries during 
past year? 

Total expenditures for other purposes 
during past year? 

Have you a graded and non-graded ser- 
vice? 

What is included in each? 

Give requirements and range of salaries 
in each grade. 

Do you have grade examinations? 

If not, on what are promotions based? 

What qualifications do you require of 
your assistants? 

How many library school graduates have 
you on your staff? 



COUNCIL'S REPORT 



673 



Name the schools represented' and the 
departments they are serving. 

How many college graduates have you 
on your staff and what departments are 
they in? 

How are appointments made? 

To whom are your assistants respon- 
sible? 

How are removals made? 

If your service is ungraded, how are sal- 
aries fixed? 

On , 1910, what were the salaries 

of: 

Librarian? 

Assistant Librarian? 

Senior and junior assistants in Catalog 
department? 

Reference department? 

Circulating department? 

Children's department? 

Order department? 

Binding department? 

Branches? 

How much do you pay substitutes by the 
hour? Day? Month? 

How many hours per week do your as- 
sistants work? 

Do you require Sunday work of your 
regular assistants? 

Do you pay extra for Sunday work? 

What provision do you make for legal 
holidays ? 

What are your arrangements in regard 
to sick leave? 

State length of vacation in terms of 
number of working days granted? 

Do you have staff meetings? How often? 

Is attendance obligatory? 

Is the time for the staff meetings in- 
cluded in the regular hours of assistants, 
or must they give extra time? 

Do your annual reports give personal 
credit to staff members for work done? 
Why? 

Do you have an apprentice course? 

What qualifications do you require for 
entrance? 

How long is the course? 

How much formal instruction do you 
give? 

How much practical work do you re- 
quire? 



If the apprentice course is successfully 
finished does the library guarantee a po- 
sition? Why? 

If the schedule of questions is approved 
by the Association and the Committee to 
be appointed for the ensuing year, they 
may be sent to the list of libraries which 
received the former questions and the 
answers may be classified as before. 
HARRISON W. CRAVER, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: If there is no ob- 
jection this report will be accepted. The 
next business will be the report of the 
Council, which I will ask the Secretary to 
read. 

REPORT OF THE COUNCIL 

Three meetings of Council of the A. L. 
A. have been held during this annual con- 
ference. A number of communications 
and questions have been considered, some 
of which were of prime importance. 

From the North Carolina library com- 
mission came a communication urging the 
Council to help secure lower postage rates 
on commission publications. The Commit- 
tee on federal relations will take up this 
question, and it was proposed that librar- 
ians confer with their Congressmen in 
regard to the importance of these lower 
postage rates. 

Much interest was shown by Council 
in the report submitted by Miss Alice 
S. Tyler on the Affiliation of the A. L. A. 
with state library associations. Miss Ty- 
ler has secured opinions as to the relation 
of the national and state associations from 
many officers of state associations. 

Among the suggestions made in Coun- 
cil was that state associations which paid 
an annual membership due in the A. L. A., 
should have the privilege of appointing a 
delegate to attend the A. L. A. Conference 
with permission to attend the Council 
meetings. 

Other suggestions were made, and the 
question was deemed of so much impor- 
tance that it was voted to continue the 
Committee on affiliation, which was in- 
structed to recommend definite suggestions 
at the midwinter meeting of the Council. 



674 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



By unanimous vote the Council elected 
to its membership: George F. Bowerman, 
W. N. C. Carlton, Linda A. Eastman, Mary 
F. Isom, and Judson T. Jennings. 

The question of membership in the Exec- 
utive board, by which a person may serve 
both as an elected member and also as an 
ex-officio member, was referred for con- 
sideration of the Executive board. 

The Special libraries association, which 
held its meetings at Mackinac Island, 
voted to request the A. L. A. to allow it 
to become affiliated with the American li- 
brary association, and to establish the 
usual relations maintained by that Asso- 
ciation with its affiliated organizations. 
Council referred the request to a special 
committee to be appointed by the Presi- 
dent, to report at the January meeting of 
Council. The President appointed C. H. 
Gould, C. W. Andrews, and A. E. Bost- 
wick as members of this Committee. 

Following the consideration given by 
the Public documents committee to the 
questionaire sent out by the Congressional 
printing investigation commission, impor- 
tant recommendations were made to Coun- 
cil by the Committee. 

Council voted to adopt the following: 

Whereas frequent injustice has been 
done both to the government, and in many 
instances to the several libraries desig- 
nated as regular depositories, by requiring 
said libraries to receive all publications 
issued by the government whether able to 
care for them or not; and, Whereas va- 
rious depositories of long standing and 
wide use and influence have, from time to 
time, been removed from the depository 
list by direction of Congress, 

Resolved, That in the judgment of the 
American library association, depository 
libraries should be divided into two class- 
es: First, permanent depositories, which 
shall include all state libraries and such 
other large or important libraries as may 
from time to time be designated. They 
shall receive all publications issued by the 
government, and shall from time to time 
be visited by an official, competent to give 
criticism or advice. Second, other librar- 
ies, which shall be allowed to select such 
publications as may be of service to their 
several communities. All documents so 
deposited shall be made accessible to the 
public. 

A second resolution was submitted by 



the Committee and was adopted as fol- 
lows: 

Whereas, under the present printing 
law, Congressional titling has been omit- 
ted, and wisely so, from departmental pub- 
lications distributed by the Superintendent 
of documents to depository libraries, 

Resolved, That we recommend such pub- 
lications be withdrawn from the Congres- 
sional set, and whether mailed thereafter 
by the Superintendent of documents or by 
the several departments, the circulation 
of them be left to the discretion of the 
receiving library. 

Resolved, We recommend that unless 
otherwise requested, one copy only of each 
publication be sent, and that the granting 
or refusal of duplication be a matter of 
discretion with the Superintendent or de- 
partment. 

Resolved, We recommend also that the 
serial number be restored to documents 
bearing the Congressional titling, and that 
all documents, whether Congressional or 
departmental, be mailed promptly upon 
issue. 

Mr. Wellman presented the following 
resolution, which was adopted: 

Whereas, The "Patent office gazette" is 
one of the most valuable public documents 
received by a large number of libraries, 
especially those situated in manufacturing 
districts, 

Resolved, That we deprecate any action 
depriving these libraries of the receipt 
of the "Patent office gazette" free of 
charge. 

Council voted also that 

"We approve of the suggestion of Presi- 
dent Heinemann of the League of Ameri- 
can municipalities to centralize the distri- 
bution of official publications of all depart- 
ments of American cities," 

and the Secretary was instructed to for- 
ward a copy of this resolution to the 
League of American municipalities. 

Following a general discussion, Council 
voted to approve the preparation of a 
statement of American library conditions 
existing at the present time, and to print 
this in handsome form in English, German, 
and French, to be published by the Pub- 
lishing board of the A. L. A., and distrib- 
uted to foreign libraries and elsewhere at 
the discretion of the Publishing board. 

The PRESIDENT: If there is no objec- 
tion, this report will take the usual course, 
and be accepted. 



HILL 



675 



Our first paper on the program this af- 
ternoon is on the Deterioration of paper 
used in newspapers by MR. FRANK P. 
sHILL, of the Brooklyn public library, whom 
I have the pleasure of presenting. 

THE DETERIORATION OF NEWS- 
PAPER PAPER* 

At the conference of librarians held at 
Bretton Woods in 1909, Mr. Chivers pre- 
sented the subject of "The paper of lend- 
ing library books"t in such a thorough and 
valuable manner that it aroused discussion 
and interest, not only among those in at- 
tendance, but of the library profession 
generally, both here and abroad. He dealt 
chiefly with the quality of the paper used 
in the popular fiction of the day and books 
for children, which represent the classes 
of books most largely used in our libraries 
and most frequently needing rebinding 
and replacing. 

The substitution of cheap wood-pulp 
paper for that made from rags, in the 
stock used for our daily newspapers, pre- 
sents another problem, and it is of that 
which I wish to speak to-day, for if book 
paper is bad, that used for newspapers 
is worse. 

My attention was recently called to the 
necessity for rebinding some of the Brook- 
lyn and Manhattan papers in our library. 
Upon examination it was found that in 
many instances papers published within 
the last forty years had begun to discolor 
and crumble to such an extent that it 
would hardly pay to bind those which had 



* "Prof. Justin Winsor, foreseeing that 
in course of time the issues printed on the 
ordinary newspaper of to-day must end 
in dust, 20 or 30 years ago tried to induce 
the publishers of the leading daily news- 
papers of Boston to have a few copies of 
each issue printed on paper of extra good 
and durable quality, for the files of the 
Boston public library, with which he was 
connected. But his efforts were in vain, 
because, as the proprietors of the journals 
put it, it was 'too much fuss.' " ("Library 
journal," 16:242.) 

t See "Bulletin of the American library 
association," September, 1909, 5:231-259. 



been folded for any length of time. Fur- 
ther investigation showed that practically 
all of these newspapers were printed on 
cheap wood-pulp paper, which carries with 
it the seeds of early decay, and that the 
life of a periodical printed on this inferior 
stock is not likely to be more than fifty 
years. 

This is a serious matter, and demands 
the attention of publishers and librarians 
throughout the country. It means that 
the material for history contained in the 
newspapers will not be available after 
the period mentioned, and that all such 
historical record will eventually disappear 
unless provision is made for reprinting 
or preserving the volumes as they exist 
at present. The historian depends to such 
an extent upon newspapers for his data, 
that it will mean a serious loss if some 
preservative process cannot be found. We 
can very well bear the loss of many books 
printed upon wood-pulp paper, but the loss 
of newspapers containing the events of 
the day would be one which would be felt 
for all time. It would seem possible that 
some means might be provided whereby, 
for filing purposes, a better paper would be 
used for newspapers. The matter is pre- 
sented at this time for the purpose of call- 
ing the attention of the publishers and li- 
brarians to the necessity for a better 
quality of paper for such files of news- 
papers as are to be preserved. 

As soon as the condition of the files of 
the Brooklyn public library was discov- 
ered, a circular was sent to some of the 
prominent newspaper publishers asking 
(1), the result of their experience; and 
(2), whether a better grade of paper was 
being used for running off extra copies for 
their own files; and (3), what, if any, means 
were being taken to preserve the files in 
their own offices. It was hoped as a result 
of the circular that definite measures of 
improvement would be suggested. From 
responses received it is evident that there 
Is a desire on the part of the publishers 
to meet the requirements of librarians and 
others on this subject; and it is likely that 
a conference of publishers and librarians 
will be held in the near future to con- 



676 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



sider the feasibility of printing some 
copies on better paper; but the answers 
showed that no special paper was used, 
and that no means were taken to preserve 
(by reprinting or by chemical process) 
those in the worst condition. 

Inquiries were also sent to various 
manufacturers of paper with no better re- 
sult. No encouragement was received 
from this source except that one manufac- 
turer thought that some newspaper pub- 
lishers were using a better grade; and 
another, that he had just the paper which 
ought to be used. It was stated that two 
New York publishers used a better grade 
of paper for a few additional copies, but 
returns from these papers indicate that 
no difference is made at the present 
time. We have not found any newspaper 
that runs off extra copies on a better 
grade. 

There appear, in fact, to be two very 
strong objections to striking off special 
copies for filing purposes. The first is 
that the better grades of paper are not 
made to fit the large rolls used in printing 
presses; the second, that the limited num- 
~ber of subscribers who would purchase 
such an edition would not compensate the 
publishers for the increased cost of the 
paper and the expense of changing rolls. 

Inasmuch, therefore, as it is hardly prob- 
able that publishers will agree to strike 
off a special edition of their publication 
on a paper better suited to binding, two 
other methods are possible for preserving 
the valuable material stored in newspapers 
already printed on the cheap grade paper: 
(1), by reprinting; (2), by the use of some 
chemical process as a preservative. 

The first is eliminated because of its 
expense; this would be greater than that 
of striking off extra copies on better paper 
in the beginning. 

It is undoubtedly true that the quality 
of paper, in common with the quality of 
other articles of commerce, has suffered 
because the demand for a high class mate- 
rial is so small. 

In the late sixties, when wood pulp was 
first used in this country, and the early 
seventies, the grade was higher than that 



of paper made between 1876 and 1886, im- 
proving in the nineties, and being still bet- 
ter since 1900. If only the better grades 
now manufactured were used, there would 
be less cause for complaint. The enor- 
mous quantity of paper required is an- 
other reason for the cheap quality used. 
A newspaper with a circulation of about 
one-half million copies per day consumes 
185 tons of paper every week, and practi- 
cally all of the half-million copies serve 
their purpose and may be destroyed al- 
most as soon as they are issued. For this 
reason, publishers have heretofore been 
chiefly interested in getting the cheapest 
possible paper for their purpose. As a 
general thing, the 3-cent newspapers use 
a better grade than do those papers selling 
for 1 or even 2 cents; but all the 3-cent 
newspapers do not use the best paper, as 
the files of the Brooklyn public library 
show. One of this price, printed in 1905, 
shows marked indications of deterioration. 
The publishers of some of our daily 
journals have shown a marked interest in 
the subject. The "Brooklyn Eagle," for 
example, as soon as the matter was called 
to its attention, instituted an investiga- 
tion, and has printed several articles on 
the subject. A reporter of the paper 
called at the office of Albrecht Pagen- 
stecher, 41 Park Row, New York, the man 
who first introduced the wood-pulp paper 
process into this country. Mr. Pagen- 
stecher, ST., was out of town, but his son, 
who is thoroughly conversant with the 
paper business, consented to discuss the 
situation as follows: 

"Until the end of the sixties, all paper 
manufactured in the United States was 
made entirely of rags, the cheapest grades 
selling for something like 15 cents per 
pound. . . . The notion that paper 
could be made from wood pulp was formed 
in Germany. The story goes that the in- 
ventor of the process was walking through 
the woods one day when his attention was 
called to a large wasp's nest hanging 
from a tree. He wondered idly where the 
wasps could have secured the paper to 
make their nests, examined the material 
more closely, and came to the conclusion 
that it was nothing more than chewed 
wood. He experimented until he found 
that wood, after being ground to a pulp, 



HILL 



677 



could be rolled out Into paper. About 1850 
several paper mills on a small scale were 
established In Germany. 

"Hearing of this process, Albrecht Pa- 
genstecher of Osnabrtick, who was at that 
time an exporter, decided shortly after 
the Civil war to buy a couple of the stone 
grinders and send them to the United 
States. He shipped them to Curtisville, 
Mass., sent along a mechanic to set them 
up and operate them, and then asked the 
American manufacturers to have a look 
at the new process. But they took no 
stock in it, and it required some time be- 
fore any of them bought grinders. Pagen- 
stecher meanwhile established mills of his 
own, bought power on the Hudson River, 
and, as a result of his faith and enterprise, 
the use of wood to make paper became 
general about 1870. Paper dropped quickly 
from its former price of 15 cents to 10 
cents and even 5 cents a pound. 

"But even up to 1890 this ground wood 
paper still contained 25 per cent of rags, 
it being necessary to put in this amount 
to make the paper strong enough to pass 
over the paper-making machine and subse- 
quently through the newspaper process. 
Then, early in the nineties, the sulphide 
process was introduced, in which a mixture 
of chemicals in liquid form takes the place 
of rags. The mechanical pulp, produced 
by grinding the wood under hydraulic pres- 
sure, and the chemical pulp, produced by 
cooking the wood in a mixture of sulphur, 
water, and lime, are mixed together in dif- 
ferent proportions, depending on the qual- 
ity of the paper that Is to be produced." 

This further reduced the cost of paper, 
but, In the opinion of Mr. Pagenstecher 
still further reduced the paper's power of 
resistance to wear and tear. 

"I do not believe," said he, "that the sul- 
phide-process paper is as strong as the 
25-per-cent-rags paper. 

"This difficulty with newspaper files has 
been called to our attention several times, 
and I confess that we are unable to suggest 
a remedy. So far as I know, there is no 
preservative on the market that would give 
newspapers a better wearing quality. The 
only thing to do, in my opinion, is to print 
the number of papers required for filing 
purposes on a better grade of paper. The 
expense of an extra roll of good paper 
would not be great, and the papers could 
be run off after the press had turned out 
the regular issue." 

Mr. Pagenstecher offered to write to 
Prof. Herzberg, of the University of Ber- 
lin, who is at the head of the government 



testing office, where all the paper sold to 
the government undergoes a special test 
to determine its quality. In the early part 
of June a reply was received from Prof. 
Herzberg to the effect that experiments re- 
cently initiated by the German govern- 
mental paper-testing-institute of Berlin, 
had resulted in producing a liquid mixture 
by the use of which wood-pulp paper may 
be indefinitely preserved. The method as 
described by Prof. Herzberg is as follows: 

"We have recently given much thought 
to the matter of preserving crumbling and 
decaying papers, and have secured some 
excellent results. There is a way of mak- 
ing old and brittle newspaper usable. 
They can be put back into condition so 
that they may be read and preserved for 
centuries to come. Our method is to dip 
the sheets, one by one, into a cellit solu- 
tion, and then hang them up to dry. If 
their condition makes it impossible to 
hang them up, they may be dried by being 
spread on large meshed nets. This treat- 
ment binds the sheets, does not damage 
the paper body, and makes it possible to 
preserve newspapers for a long time. 

"The solution used in the experiment 
was prepared in the Institute. It can be 
purchased from the Technical department 
of the Friedrich Bayer & Co., color fac- 
tories of Elberfeld, Germany. I should 
suggest the importation of several quarts 
of this mixture for experimental purposes. 

"The success of this treatment is very 
surprising. Sheets which before were rot- 
ting, and about to fall to pieces, can be 
handled readily, and acquire a parchment- 
like firmness. If, after an interval of sev- 
eral decades, it should be found necessary 
to repeat immersion in the solution, this 
will not damage the paper, and it would 
seem that in this way published matter 
might be preserved for centuries." 

The news of this discovery will be joy- 
fully welcomed by librarians and historical 
institutions everywhere, and thorough 
tests should be made of the process. It 
may be found perfectly feasible to apply 
the preparation to papers issued from now 
on; but there will still remain the problem 
of the volumes already bound, since It 
would be extremely difficult, if not impos- 
sible, to treat these volumes, page by page, 
with the solution, because the size of the 
sheets and the weakened condition of the 
paper would make it practically impossible 
to handle them. 



678 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



If publishers can be made to see that 
it is to their interest as well as ours to 
have their publications preserved, they 
may be willing to print a few copies of 
each issue on paper which has been treat- 
ed with this chemical in the roll. They 
may also be willing to co-operate with us 
in finding the best way of dealing with the 
bound pages.. The only practical sugges- 
tion I have to offer at this time is that 
a committee be appointed from this Asso- 
ciation to confer with the publishers on 
the subject of the deterioration of news- 
paper 'paper, with the hope of finding a 
practical remedy for existing conditions. 

The PRESIDENT: You have heard this 
important paper and the recommendation. 
Is there any discussion? It would be in 
order to refer to the Executive board this 
recommendation that a committee be ap- 
pointed. Do I hear that motion? 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: I will make that 
motion, Mr. President. 

Seconded and adopted. 

The PRESIDENT: We will now hear 
the report of the Executive board. 

REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD 

At the first of two meetings held by 
the Executive board of the American li- 
brary association at Mackinac Island, there 
was considerable discussion of the recom- 
mendation made by the Committee on li- 
brary training for the appropriation of 
$500 to defray expenses Incident to a pro- 
posed examination of all library schools 
which wished such investigation, and the 
Executive board voted that money is not 
available at this time for the purposes 
suggested. 

The Board voted that the list of li- 
brary schools be omitted in the "Hand- 
book" of the A. L. A., and the Secretary 
was instructed in answering any inquiries 
in regard to library schools to disclaim 
any endorsement of the same by the Amer- 
ican library association. 

Changes in the By-Laws 
The Board voted that the President and 
Secretary prepare a draft of the changes 



in the By-laws of the Association, neces- 
sary to carry out the recommendations of 
the Council made in January, 1910, in re- 
gard to the establishment or discontinu- 
ance of sections of the A. L. A. 

The President and Secretary drafted the 
following proposed changes, which were 
adopted by the Board: 

Petitions for the establishment of sec- 
tions shall be presented only by members 
actively engaged in the work of the pro- 
posed section and by not less than 20 such 
members. Before such a petition be grant- 
ed by Council, it shall be referred to a 
special committee to be appointed by the 
President, which committee after investi- 
gating the grounds for the petition and 
the conditions regarding it, shall report 
to the Council as to the desirability of such 
a section. Council shall have power to dis- 
continue a section when in the opinion of 
Council, the usefulness of that section has 
ceased. 

The New England education league had 
requested the A. L. A. to take over the 
work it had been doing in urging Congress 
to provide for a library post. The Execu- 
tive board referred the matter to the A. L. 
A. Committee on federal relations, with 
power. 

Committees 

The following committees were appoint- 
ed for the ensuing year: 

Publishing board: Mrs. Elmendorf was 
reappointed a member of the Publishing 
Aboard for a term of three years. 

Finance committee: C. W. Andrews, F. 
F. Dawley and E. H. Anderson. 

Public documents committee: G. S. God- 
ard, Johnson Brigham, Ernest Bruncken, L. 
J. Burpee, T. W. Koch, C. S. Reeder, T. M. 
Owen, S. H. Ranck, J. D. Thompson. 

Co-operation with the N. E. A.: Mary E. 
Ahern, Genevieve M. Walton, Irene War- 
ren, Ida M. Mendenhall, and George H. 
Locke. 

Library administration: The Executive 
board approved the Committee's list of 
questions to be submitted to members 
during the year, and Voted, To continue 
the present Committee, namely, Harrison 
W. Craver, H. M. Lydenberg and Ethel 
F. McCollough. 



EXECUTIVE BOARD 



679 



Library training: A. S. Root, A. E. Bost- 
wlck, Mary W. Plummer, Grace D. Rose, 
Adam Strohm, Caroline M. Underbill, Alice 
S. Tyler, Albert Brandeis. 

International relations: Voted, To con- 
tinue unchanged the present membership 
of this Committee, namely, E. C. Rich- 
ardson, Cyrus Adler, J. S. Billings, W. 
C. Lane, and Herbert Putnam. 

Bookbuying: W. L. Brown was designated 
as Chairman, with power to select two 
other members. 

Bookbinding: Voted, To continue the 
present Committee unchanged, namely, A. 
L. Bailey, Margaret W. Brown, and N. L. 
Goodrich. 

Federal and state relations: The Exec- 
utive board designated the following as 
members of this Committee: B. C. Steiner, 
T. L. Montgomery, J. L. Gillis, C. K. Bel- 
den, H. R. Mcllwaine. 

Catalog rules for small libraries: Voted, 
To continue the present Committee, un- 
changed, namely: Theresa Hitcheler, Mar- 
garet Mann, Emma Cragin. 

Brussels conference: Present Committee, 
consisting of N. D. C. Hodges and E. C. 
Richardson continued until its report is 
made. 

Work urith the blind: Committee con- 
tinued unchanged, namely, Mrs. Emma 
Neisser Delfino, Mrs. Salome Cutler Fair- 
child, Asa Don Dickinson. 

Travel: F. W. Faxon was designated 
Chairman, with power to add to Commit- 
tee's membership. 

Co-ordination among college libraries: 
Continued unchanged, namely, W. C. Lane, 
C. W. Andrews, Bertha E. Blakely, G. W. 
Harris, T. W. Koch, E. C. Richardson, A. 
S. Root, J. C. Schwab, L. N. Wilson. 

Co-ordination: Committee continued un- 
changed, namely, C. H. Gould, J. L. Gillis, 
F. P. Hill, N. D. C. Hodges, W. C. Lane, 
Herbert Putnam, Mary L. Titcomb. 

It was Voted, that the chairmen of the 
Committees on Co-ordination among col- 
lege libraries, and on Co-ordination, be 
requested by the Executive board to con- 
fer as to the advisability of combining 
their Committees or defining their separ- 
ate fields. 



Program: James I. Wyer, Jr., Mrs. H. 
L. Elmendorf, Chalmers Hadley. 

Place of Meeting 

After an informal discussion of the 
various meeting places suggested for 1911, 
the Executive board limited the choice 
of the meeting place to Denver, Colorado, 
and Southern California. After hearing 
from representatives of these two places, 
an informal ballot was cast. 

Voted, That in the absence of more 
definite assurances as to hotel accommo- 
dations, meeting rooms, etc., received be- 
fore July 25, the Secretary is instructed 
to proceed to arrange for a meeting of 
the A. L. A., 1911, in Southern California. 
Should more definite information be re- 
ceived by the date mentioned, the Secre- 
tary is instructed to submit it to the 
Executive board for further consideration. 

The resignation of Mrs. Elmendorf, as 
one of the two members of the Executive 
board whose term expires in 1911, was 
accepted by the Executive board, and 
Alice S. Tyler was designated by the 
Executive board to serve pro tempore 
(until 1911), to succeed Mrs. Elmendorf 
on the Executive board. 

Communications 
"American Library Association. 

Gentlemen: My father, the late S. 
Hastings Grant, an honorary member of 
your Association, was one of the principal 
organizers and the Secretary of the first 
librarians' convention, which in a way 
was the parent of your Association. Among 
the papers which my father left me are 
practically all of the documents relating 
to that convention. Many of them are of 
intrinsic interest and value, and the col- 
lection as a whole has a historic value, 
which should make its permanent preser- 
vation in proper form most desirable. I 
shall be pleased to turn this collection 
over to any library which you shall desig- 
nate on three conditions: 

1. That the collection shall be properly 
mounted in a scrap-book under the super- 
vision of a competent person, and retained 
as a book of reference in the designated 
library. 

2. That this shall be done within one 
year, or if not done the papers shall re- 
vert to me. 

3. That the collection shall have 



680 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



stamped upon the cover 'Collected and pre- 
sented to the American library association 
by S. Hastings Grant, Secretary of the first 
librarians' convention.' 

As some of the letters are written on 
both sides they should be mounted be- 
tween bolters' silk; and, as this and the 
proper binding of the volume will entail 
some expense, I beg to be permitted to 
contribute the sum of $25.00, or so much 
of it as may be needed for that purpose. 

While sentimental reasons might indi- 
cate the New York mercantile library, of 
which my father was for many years li- 
brarian, as the depository of this collec- 
tion, the fact that it is a private library 
should, I think, outweigh them. It would 
seem more appropriate to entrust it to 
the Library of Congress, as a national in- 
stitution, or to the New York public li- 
brary, as the convention was held in that 
city. 

Trusting that this offer may be found 
acceptable, I am 

Yours respectfully, 
ARTHUR HASTINGS GRANT." 

After which it was 

Voted, That President Wyer be request- 
ed to draft suitable acknowledgment of Mr. 
Grant's offer, and to state that the Ex- 
ecutive board would accept his suggestion 
made for either of the two libraries he 
mentioned, but would ask if the A. L. A. 
Headquarters would not be the proper 
place as depository for the material left 
by Mr. Grant's father. Of the two libraries 
mentioned in Mr. Grant's letter, the Ex- 
ecutive board would prefer the Library 
of Congress. 

The PRESIDENT: If there is no objec- 
tion, this report will take the usual course. 

The President announced that the old 
Canadian folk songs to be sung by Mr. 
Le Fevre would be rendered during vari- 
ous intervals in the afternoon's program. 
Mr. Le Fevre then gave two selections. 

The PRESIDENT: As you may notice, 
several of the papers this afternoon bear 
on Canadian subjects. The idea was that 
we should have a presentation of Canadian 
literature the Canadian English, the Ca- 
nadian French, and even the Canadian 
Indian. Much of the Canadian French Is 
in the form of songs. Our next paper is 
by L. J. BURPEE on the Aberdeen associa- 



tion. Unfortunately, Mr. Burpee has been 
called to Ottawa, but Mr. Roden has kindly 
consented to read the paper. 

THE ABERDEEN ASSOCIATION 

Organized at Winnipeg, some twenty 
years ago, the Aberdeen association stands 
for a single idea the distribution of good 
literature to settlers in isolated parts of 
Canada. It is absolutely free from all 
bias, political, social or religious. Its mis- 
sion is to brighten the lives of Canada's 
new citizens; to furnish means of recrea- 
tion and education to those sturdy pioneers 
who are doing so much to strengthen and 
enrich the Dominion. It is essentially a 
Canadian institution, because Canada alone 
supplies, to any material extent, the con- 
ditions under which it exists. It is the 
public library of the frontier of the Last 
West. 

Starting from one small center, the As- 
sociation is now national in scope, with 
branches in every important city through- 
out the country, and a central organization 
at Ottawa. This organization includes, be- 
sides the usual executive officers, a strong 
central Committee, of which the Presidents 
of branches are ex-officio members. It 
also embraces a central branch, whose 
principal duty is to act as a collecting and 
distributing center for the branches, and 
for the Minto libraries, of which some- 
thing will be said later. The Secretary 
of this central branch, who is the only 
paid officer connected with the Associa- 
tion, looks after all routine correspon- 
dence, and has charge of the consolidated 
mailing list. 

In the early years of the Association, 
its work was confined to the distribution 
of literature to individual settlers, the 
value of which is proved by hundreds of 
grateful letters received at the branches 
and at headquarters. At the inception of 
the work, notices were published in all 
the more important newspapers, especially 
in the west, explaining the object of the 
Association, and asking those interested 
to send in their names. A form was 
then sent them, with a few questions de- 



BURPEE 



681 



signed to give necessary information as 
to the applicant. This bit of newspaper 
publicity proved so effective that there 
has been no need to repeat it. Those 
whose names first went on the mailing 
list told their friends far and near, until 
applications began to pour in from every 
remote corner of the country. 

The greatest care has always been taken 
to study the special needs of each indi- 
vidual, and to that end the work assumed 
a personal character, which in the end 
gave it a peculiar value. Each worker 
in a branch (the workers are all women) 
was assigned a certain number of names, 
and thenceforward these recipients of lit- 
erature were her special charge. She 
entered into correspondence with her own 
little group of readers, with no deeper 
motive in the first instance than to ascer- 
tain their tastes and preferences as read- 
ers, but out of this has grown what is in 
many respects the most vital and sig- 
nificant phase of the Association's work. 
Its success depended inevitably upon the 
character of the individual worker upon 
her tact and sympathy and intuition; but 
these attributes are not rare among the 
class of women who have taken up the 
work of the Aberdeen association. Just 
consider what this meant, especially to 
women out on the frontier, where the 
unutterable loneliness and monotony have 
driven many into madness! Think what 
it meant to receive a friendly, sympathetic 
letter from some one in this new land, 
with its unfamiliar surroundings; some 
one who would listen to the tale of hard- 
ship and drudgery, and who would under- 
stand the homesickness and longing for 
some spot beyond the seas. Many of 
these letters are too intimate to go on 
official files, but those that have been 
preserved throw an extraordinarily vivid 
light on the causes and conditions of set- 
tlement in a new country. Many a comedy, 
and many a tragedy, are revealed in these 
human documents. There is in them the 
material for a score of novels of life on 
the frontier of the great Northwest. It 
is safe to say that this purely incidental 
work of the Association has been of deeper 



service, from a national as well as a 
humanitarian standpoint, than have any 
of its other activities. 

But to return to the distribution of par- 
cels of literature. The magnitude of this 
branch of the work may be gathered from 
the fact that up to the present time nearly 
half a million parcels of carefully-selected 
books and magazines have been sent out 
to settlers in every out-of-the-way quarter 
of the country. The material is, to a 
large extent, Jcollected locally by each 
branch; but much of it comes also from 
England, where we work in affiliation with 
the Victoria league. The publishers of 
magazines often send surplus copies of 
their periodicals; and special donations 
are sometimes made, such as one from 
Mr. W. T. Stead, a few years ago, of 
25,000 copies of his cheap reprints of stan- 
dard books. Material collected in England 
is carried free to Montreal by the steam- 
ship companies. It is classified and ar- 
ranged by the Central branch at Ottawa; 
and the railways carry the boxes free to 
their destination. Finally, the post office 
carries all the individual parcels of lit- 
erature free from the branches to their 
readers. In these ways the Association 
is saved what would otherwise be a very 
heavy expenditure for freight and postage. 

Reference has been made to the con- 
solidated mailing list. Each of the 
branches has its own mailing list, and 
these lists are sent annually to head- 
quarters, where any changes are noted in 
a card index arranged by locality, cover- 
ing the entire field of the Association's 
activities. New applications must be sent 
to Ottawa for approval, and these are 
checked with the consolidated mailing 
list, not merely to prevent any one from 
drawing parcels from more than one 
branch, but also to avoid sending too 
many parcels to the same locality. One 
of the obligations or perhaps I might 
say the only real obligation imposed on 
recipients of literature, is that they are 
to pass the books and magazines on to 
their neighbors. This obligation is faith- 
fully discharged in most cases; indeed, 
we have found magazines passed from 



682 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



hand to hand over a territory of several 
hundred square miles, until they were re- 
duced to rags and tatters. But there is 
another reason for exercising care in this 
matter. Some years ago an inquisitive 
Postmaster-General stopped an unusually 
heavy load of mail matter in Ottawa, on 
its way down to the station to catch the 
western train, and asked what it was. 
"Lady Aberdeen, sir," replied the mail 
clerk. This passed off as a joke at the 
expense of the founder of the Association; 
but we have not always got off so easily. 
Every now and then the Post office depart- 
ment gets restive over some complaint of 
a mail car overloaded with Aberdeen par- 
cels, and it takes the combined energies 
ofi the executive at Ottawa, especially the 
feminine part of it, to soothe the irate 
officials. With the threatened withdrawal 
of the franking privilege held perpetually 
over our heads, we keep the pruning knife 
handy, and lop off every name that cannot 
justify its presence on the mailing list. 

As to the field covered, the policy of 
the Association is to keep on the crest of 
every wave of settlement that eats into 
the unoccupied wilderness. When the 
Association was organized, our field did 
not reach much beyond the boundaries of 
Manitoba. To-day we send literature by 
canoe or dog-train to the Peace River 
country, five hundred miles north of Ed- 
monton; we are supplying lumber camps 
in northern British Columbia, and mining 
camps in the Yukon; the Aberdeen par- 
cels reach isolated homesteaders and 
ranchers, trappers and fishermen, in a 
hundred out-of-the-way corners of the 
broad Dominion. A special French branch 
in Montreal looks after the interests of 
French settlers in the Lake St. John 
district, and other parts of northern 
Quebec; and boxes of suitable literature 
are sent to the Doukhobor colonies, to 
the Mennonites, Galicians, and other for- 
eign communities in the west. The Hali- 
fax branch sends large boxes of magazines 
to the immigration sheds for distribution 
among the immigrants landing in Halifax; 
and to the Sailors' home. It also supplies 
books and magazines to the sealers and 



fishing vessels bound for Labrador and the 
far north. At the other end of the country, 
the Vancouver branch makes up boxes of 
periodicals for the coasting vessels and 
tramp steamers. Last year a box of lit- 
erature was sent by the Victoria branch 
to Pitcairn Island, in the southern Pacific, 
by one of H. M. ships, on its periodical 
visit to the island. 

Four or five years ago, with the object 
of meeting changed conditions in the 
west, it was decided to establish small 
libraries in newly-settled districts, wher- 
ever sufficient population was found to 
warrant it. This system of libraries 
known as the Minto libraries is still in 
the experimental stage, but the results so 
far achieved lead to the belief that the 
Association may find here an even broader 
field of usefulness than in the distribution 
of literature to individual settlers. 

About fifty of these libraries have so 
far been established, principally in the 
provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and 
Alberta, and applications for many more 
are on file, to be filled as soon as the 
material has been collected. In this, as 
in other branches of its activities, the 
Association works in co-operation with the 
Victoria league, which acts as our agent 
in England for the collection of books. 
The procedure is, when an application has 
been received for one of these libraries, 
to have a local association formed, which 
will become responsible for the library. 
The library must be controlled by, and 
open to, the community as a whole, not 
any particular group, religious or other- 
wise. The local association appoints a 
librarian, and fills in a form which we 
supply, giving full particulars as to the 
area and population of the district, and 
the general character of the people to be 
served. On this statement, if the condi- 
tions are found satisfactory, we base the 
selection of books, trying as far as pos- 
sible to meet the special needs of each 
district. It is the settled policy of the 
Association that these libraries should, as 
population grows, become the nucleus of 
free public libraries supported by the 
community in which each has been estab- 



FITZPATRICK 



683 



lished. In addition to the regular Minto 
libraries, we have sent collections of books 
to all the cottage hospitals in the west, 
to the Gravenhurst sanitarium, to the Co- 
lumbia coast mission ship, to Dr. Gren- 
fell's Labrador mission, to lumber camps 
in the north country, from Quebec to the 
Pacific, and even to the remote posts of 
the Mounted police on Hudson Bay, and 
at Herschell Island off the mouth of the 
Mackenzie River, where American whalers 
from New England and California help 
to boost the circulation. 

In these ways the Aberdeen association 
is doing what it can to make Canada's 
new settlers, wherever they may come 
from, happier, more contented, and more 
intelligent citizens. 

I have been asked, in connection with 
this paper, to say a few words about what 
have been called "floating libraries," In 
Canada. Fortunately for your patience, I 
have not material for more than a very 
general outline. This particular phase of 
library work in the Dominion may be 
divided into three sections: Dr. Grenf ell's 
work on the Labrador; the Columbia coast 
mission on the Pacific coast; and the work 
of the Upper Canada tract and book so- 
ciety on the Great lakes. Dr. Grenfell, 
among his innumerable activities on behalf 
of the primitive fishing folk of the Labra- 
dor coast, carries on his little vessel from 
settlement to settlement a floating library 
of books and magazines. Mr. Antle per- 
forms the same service to the fishing 
camps of northern British Columbia. At 
Union Bay, on Vancouver Island, Mr. Kidd 
has established a free reading room and 
library, for the people of the settlement 
and the neighboring islands, and also for 
the benefit of the ocean steamers that 
coal here on the outward voyage. He 
also supplies these ships with books and 
magazines for the voyage, whenever he 
can spare them. As the voyages run any- 
where from thirty to a hundred days, the 
reading matter is tremendously appre- 
ciated by the crews. He tells me that the 
books and periodicals are passed around 
from ship to ship, as they meet in different 
ports, making the scene a sort of trans- 
Pacific circulating library. 



The work on the Great lakes was started 
several years ago, and has grown steadily. 
In the last report of the Upper Canada 
society particulars are given as to its 
character and scope, the special object 
being to reach the sailors of the great 
inland seas. Lake Ontario and the St. 
Lawrence River are looked after from 
Kingston; Owen Sound is the center for 
Lake Huron; and Fort William for Lake 
Superior. Small libraries in special boxes 
are put on the different lake vessels, and 
exchanged at the end of each voyage; bags 
of magazines are also provided, which 
hang somewhere near the men's bunks. 
During the past year over 20,000 books 
and magazines were supplied in this way 
to the crews of lake vessels. "Realizing," 
as the Secretary admirably puts it, "that 
there is nothing so important in character- 
building for the individual or the nation 
as good literature, the aim of the society 
has been to bring such literature within 
the reach of every man." One cannot 
wish too great a measure of success to 
the floating libraries. More power to the 
elbow of these good men, on the salt 
seas and the fresh! 

The PRESIDENT: You have heard Mr. 
Burpee's paper. Is there any discussion? 
I am sorry that Mr. Burpee is not here 
to answer any inquiries which might be 
made. We can return for a few moments 
to the songs of early Canada. 

(Mr. Le Fevre sings again.) 

The PRESIDENT: We shall now have 
the opportunity of listening to one of the 
men of Canada who has carried out an 
especially interesting library work. Mr. 
Fitzpatrick, who organized the work, and 
is still carrying it on, will tell us of what 
he has done among the lumber camps. 

Rev. ALFRED FITZPATRICK, of To- 
ronto, Canada, then described, by the aid 
of lantern slides, his work with the read- 
ing tents among the lumber camps. 

He said that books for the tents were 
secured at the start from private sources, 
but later the Ontario Department of edu- 
cation initiated a system of camp libraries. 
Mr. Fitzpatrick spoke of the difficulties of 



684 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



conducting the reading tents because of 
the loss of books and the cost of ex- 
pressage. Another difficulty was the large 
number of foreigners in each camp who 
could not read English books, and so had 
to be instructed in that language. 

Mr. Fitzpatrick said in part: 

At present we have nineteen reading 
tents, seven in Ontario, two in Manitoba, 
five in Alberta, two in Saskatchewan, and 
three in British Columbia. 

We have never even dreamed of being 
able to establish this work at all of the 
camps; that is a Herculean task and can 
only be performed by the state. We sim- 
ply profess to experiment in each province, 
demonstrate the practicability of camp 
education, and urge the provincial depart- 
ments of education to take it up and make 
it a part of the educational system of the 
provinces. 

We are thus gradually winning the con- 
fidence of employers and men, and we 
trust our provincial and your state gov- 
ernments will take this matter up in the 
not too distant future and extend their 
systems of education to the camps the 
first point of contact with the foreign 
immigrant. This would keep him at the 
camps, away from the towns and cities, 
and would help solve the slum prob- 
lem of the cities. It would place the im- 
migrant on a footing of equality with 
English speaking citizens, and would en- 
courage him to settle in the country, bring 
his family and invest his money here in- 
stead of sending it home as he so often 
does. 

This would be in the interest of the 
government of the country generally, 
and the state ought to act. We boast of 
our great systems of education. Surely 
these systems are wieldy enough to adapt 
themselves to the needs of the boys in 
our frontier camps. There is no reason 
why a boy's education should end with 
the public school. We should follow him 
to the woods and mines, to the farthest 
confines of the earth. Every state and 
every province on this continent has made 
money out of the lumber industry, out 
of its railroads and mines, indirectly if 



not always directly, and we owe the 
woodsman, miner, and fisherman an edu- 
cation. 

I am glad to be able to tell you that 
Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, 
and British Columbia co-operate with our 
Association in this work, and we hope 
some day they will assume full responsi- 
bility, as they alone have the necessary 
machinery to carry it on, and they alone 
can do it satisfactorily. 

The PRESIDENT: Are there any ques- 
tions? If not, we can return once more 
to Old Canada. 

(Mr. Le Fevre again sings.) 

The PRESIDENT: The report of the 
Committee on resolutions is in order. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
RESOLUTIONS 

Resolved, That the grateful thanks of 
the Association are due to the Michigan 
library association for its hospitality, and 
especially to those of its members who 
took part in the exercises of the opening 
day. 

Resolved, That the Association learns 
with gratification of the improved health 
of its former President, Mr. Frederick M. 
Crunden, and earnestly hopes that at no 
distant date it may again have the benefit 
of his presence and his counsel. 

Resolved, That in the death of Mr. Delo- 
raine P. Corey, this Association has lost 
a faithful friend and tireless worker in 
its behalf. He was for many years the 
leading figure in that group of library 
trustees, always too small, who have reg- 
ularly attended the meetings of the Asso- 
ciation and taken an active part in its 
work. In particular, his services as Trus- 
tee of the Endowment fund were conspi- 
cuously useful. 

Respectfully submitted, 

W. N. C. CARLTON, 
A. E. BOSTWICK, 
NINA K. PRESTON. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY moved that the 
resolutions be adopted, which was done by 
a rising vote. 



WYER 



685 



Miss STEARNS then moved that a vote 
of thanks be extended to "Madam Presi- 
dent, Mrs. N. D. C. Hodges," in apprecia- 
tion and thanks for her helpfulness, kind- 
ness, and courtesy during the conference, 
which motion was seconded in many 
places and unanimously adopted by a 
rising vote. 

The PRESIDENT: I am sure this vote 
is appreciated, and in my wife's name I 
thank the Association. 

Have the tellers of election their report 
ready? 

Mr. CHARLES E. RUSH then presented 
the 

REPORT OF THE TELLERS OF 
ELECTION 

No. of 
For President: votes 

James I. Wyer, Jr., Albany 98 

For 1st Vice-President: 

Mrs. H. L. Elmendorf, Buffalo 103 

For 2nd Vice-President: 

W. Dawson Johnston, New York. . 103 
For Executive board: 

Herbert Putnam 104 

Purd B. Wright 105 

For Members of the Council: 

Johnson Brigham 104 

L. J. Burpee 103 

Eliza G. Browning 100 

Julia T. Rankin 99 

Sula Wagner 103 

For Trustee of Endowment fund: 

W. T. Porter 102 

C. E. RUSH, 
F. L. D. GOODRICH, 
Tellers of Election. 

The PRESIDENT: It now becomes my 
pleasant duty once more to thank all those 
who have helped me in the labors of the 
past year, and to induct into office the 
President-elect, Mr. Wyer. 

Mr. WYER: Mr. President, Friends in 
the American library association: The 
presidency of our Association is an honor 
which, in the face of your suffrages, can- 
not be repudiated nor lightly regarded. 
For a number of years it has been my 



happy fortune to be serving the Associa- 
tion in capacities which have made it 
peculiarly evident that the responsibilities 
of the President in guiding the policies 
of the Association are great. These ser- 
vices have perhaps left with me an ex- 
perience which shall be yours in perform- 
ing the duties of the presidency during 
the coming year. But I cannot do it alone. 
It will be possible to make of this office, 
of the Association, and its welfare during 
the coming year what we all want to make 
of it, only with help from every one of 
you. I shall make numerous calls upon 
many of you. I am sure of the spirit in 
which they will be met. I bespeak your 
co-operation in this way, for without it 
the year cannot be what I want to make 
it, and what I am sure every one of us 
wants to have it. 

One day, about thirty years ago, in a 
little district school, the teacher suddenly 
sat down upon a pin, and suspicion turned 
wrongly upon your President-elect. I draw 
a veil over just what happened. It was 
a painful experience. When it was over 
I felt upon that occasion very much as I 
do now upon a totally different occasion 
that I really didn't deserve what I got. 
With that thought uppermost in my mind, 
I promise you the best work that is in 
me. Time and strength without stint shall 
be at the disposal of the Association, 
whose welfare I have come to love through 
years of service for it, and we will all 
pull together for as good a year as it has 
ever had. At the end of that year there 
will be waiting that which must act as a 
stimulus to the best service that I can 
offer, membership in the honorable order 
of ex-presidents a sort of a Nirvana wait- 
ing for those whose services to the Asso- 
ciation shall have culminated in the highest 
gift within its choice. Thank you. (Ap- 
plause.) 

The PRESIDENT: (Hands the gavel 
to President Wyer.) The Thirty-second 
conference of the American library asso- 
ciation is adjourned, and I pass this token 
of office to President Wyer. 

Adjourned. 



686 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



THE SOCIAL SIDE OF THE CON- 
FERENCE 

It was evident that the time spent in 
traveling to the A. L. A. was not wasted, 
for it seemed, as the different boat loads 
were landed at Mackinac Island, that the 
conference had already begun. Remem- 
bering the deck conferences, and story 
hours already enjoyed, every one viewed 
with happy anticipation the great verandas 
of the Grand Hotel. 

Friday, July first, was Michigan day, 
and in the afternoon the long drive around 
the island and through shady wood roads 
was taken by many. At five o'clock tea 
was served on the verandas, where the 
music, tasteful arrangements, and pretty 
gowns made an impression most pleas- 
antly remembered. In the evening, at the 
opening session, Miss Nina K. Preston, in 
a few graceful words of greeting, made 
us feel that we were all welcome and that 
there was much to be enjoyed. After the 
regular program an informal rally was 
held down on the lawn, among the trees, 
where, by the light of many gay Japanese 
lanterns, Michigan songs and other old 
favorites were sung. Suddenly inspired, 
the singers (and others) took the lanterns, 
and waving them, moved in fantastic lines 
across the green and on up the hill to 
the hotel. Viewed from the verandas the 
sight was most picturesque. 

Taking time from the great number of 
programs prepared, short excursions to 
Bois Blanc, St. Ignace, and Les Cheneaux 
were taken, and the fascinating old fort 
and quaint town were well inspected. 

Mr. Faxon kindly arranged a whole day 
at Les Cheneaux, where long walks and 
delightful explorations through deep woods 
could be enjoyed by those who, in spite 
of their strenuous library duties, had cul- 
tivated their love of woods and birds. A 
luncheon was served in the home of a 
hospitable resorter who kindly acted as 
guide in the afternoon. 

In spite of the hot weather, considerable 
vigor and energy were displayed. The 
tennis courts were well patronized, while 
a most exciting series of ball games was 



loudly cheered by enthusiastic fans. 
Horseback riding was not neglected, and 
many narrow roads, almost inaccessible 
by carriage, were explored and enjoyed 
by merry parties who clattered gaily 
through leafy paths. The regularity with 
which certain prominent members of the 
Association disappeared in the morning or 
afternoon bespoke the excellency of the 
golf links, and in fact almost every recrea- 
tion so eloquently vouched for in that 
most excellent session, "Recreation for 
librarians," was here tested and enjoyed. 
On four different evenings, .after lec- 
tures and programs were over, the strains 
from a fine orchestra beguiled many to 
an extra hour of pleasure. These informal 
dances were very popular, and did much 
to promote acquaintance and good fellow- 
ship. The spirit of camaraderie and good- 
will at this Thirty-first conference was 
marked, and much commented upon. 

C. H. F. 



THE POST-CONFERENCE TRIP 

Before recounting the post-conference 
experiences, mention should be made of 
the "inter-conference picnic" to the 
"Snows," as Les Cheneaux Islands are 
called. Mr. Stevens of the Homestead, 
Pa., library, placed his cottage near Arnold 
Point at the disposal of the party, and 
his broad piazza was a delightful head- 
quarters both for serving the lunch, and 
as a resting place during the day. 

About 150 left Mackinac Island on July 
3 on the steamer Islander, and after a 
pleasant sail among the islands, disem- 
barked at Arnold Point, where Mr. Stevens 
loaded the supplies in his motor boat, 
while the party walked over the cobbles 
along the beach, a narrow way between 
forest and lake, which the nature-lovers 
thoroughly enjoyed, but of which one 
lady French-heeled and hobble-skirted 
was heard to say, "The idea of taking us 
over such a place! I would never have 
come a step had I known." Nevertheless, 
all arrived none the worse for the trip 
at the Stevens bungalow, delayed some- 
what by wild strawberries in the meadow 



FAXON 



687 



nearby. Then the lemon-squeezers took 
off their coats, and all the lemons with 
which the Island of Mackinac could supply 
us that morning were soon converted into 
tubs of lemonade. The hungry crowd, 
sandwiches in hand, hung round the vi- 
cinity till each of the forty tin cups the 
combined supply which the Mackinac 
stores had for sale had done heroic 
service. The Stevens boys probably had 
enough work for the rest of the summer 
disposing of the bushels of lemon and 
orange peel left on the place. After 
lunch a walk to Sand beach was in order, 
and after traversing a forest path the 
librarians were soon renewing their youth 
on the white beach by building sand cas- 
tles, forts, Carnegie libraries, and other 
edifices without semblance to anything 
ever before seen. Some skipped pebbles, 
others played leapfrog, while many were 
content to lie at length on the warm sand. 
Toward sunset we retraced our steps 
through the woods to the cottages for our 
wraps, and to render thanks to the Stevens 
family for our enjoyable day; then round 
by the shore again to the dock, where 
half an hour later our good ship took us 
off. The six who, when they saw the 
small size of the lunch-hampers had stayed 
aboard, anxiously inquired as to our con- 
dition. And thus ended our "Sunday- 
school picnic," and the first clear, bright 
day of our stay in the region. 

On the day after the conference ad- 
journed, nineteen intrepid souls unscared 
by persistent rumors of cannibalistic 
black-flies and rapacious mosquitoes said 
to infest Ontario in the early summer 
embarked upon the steamer Majestic, 
bound for Temagami Lake. Several others 
from the convention were fellow-passen- 
gers for the first stage of our journey, so 
we had some thirty in all on board. Al- 
though forest fires had again made the 
distance invisible, we enjoyed the sail and 
the stop, at night, at the "Soo," for several 
hours. 

Next day the North Channel of Lake 
Huron was explored, our steamer making 
a special stop at one o'clock to land the 
party and its trunks at Cutler, Ont. While 



the conductor was personally conducting 
the trunks and some twenty-seven hand- 
bags to the railway station on a wagon 
made for the occasion, of four wheels, 
three planks, and two Interstices, thd 
party explored Cutler a mill settlement, 
rocky and parched from long drought. In 
the course of an hour, after all had in- 
spected the post-office and general store, 
the only points of interest in Cutler, the 
afternoon Canadian Pacific train east 
came in, and in the fine special car, with 
seats for sixty, our party of nineteen per- 
sons (and twenty-seven hand-bags) trav- 
eled comfortably through the hot and 
dusty country to North Bay. Here two 
of our party bade us good-bye, continuing 
their journey to Montreal and thence 
home. We now were seventeen (and 
twenty-five hand-bags), and the two men 
of the party were soon nicknamed as 
hailing from Salt Lake City. 

North Bay, Ont., is particularly noted 
for its myriads of May-flies which, in the 
early evening, nearly obscure the electric 
lights, but which, by 10:30 p. m., lie dead, 
inches deep upon the walk underneath. 
In the morning the English sparrows, 
acting as undertakers, were clearing the 
ground. The Queen's Hotel called us early, 
and we were on the train going north 
toward Hudson Bay, by 6 a. m. Our party 
just filled the caf6 car, our bags were 
comfortably disposed in a special coach. 
A delicious moving breakfast was eagerly 
devoured before the passengers in the 
sleepers were aware of the presence of 
so distinguished a delegation. The morn- 
ing was clear, the woods and little ponds 
along the track gave promise of the in- 
teresting places to come. In the middle 
of the forenoon we transferred at Tema- 
gami station to the little steamer Queen, 
but only after one of our two men had 
heroically fed a black bear, while the 
ladies looked on in awe, wondering who 
would carry the twenty-five hand-bags 
should the bear prove too hungry. After 
a fifteen-mile steam, Temagami Inn re- 
ceived us with open doors, and there we 
stayed for several days. 

Temagami is certainly a beatiful lake, 



688 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



clear as crystal, with wooded, hilly shores, 
and many beautiful islands, but hardly a 
sign anywhere of human occupation. This 
lake is very peculiar in shape, something 
like an octopus, there being many arms 
and bays, and nowhere any wide expanse 
of water, yet the shore line measures two 
thousand miles, and the islands are said 
to number fifteen hundred. The Inn is 
built of great logs, but very comfortable 
and well kept. Its location on a wooded 
island is ideal; tall evergreens surround 
the bouse and give vistas up and down 
the lake. The old white horse which 
drags the trunks from landing to Inn, 
was used as a lawn-mower between ar- 
rivals. That night we sat down at a long 
table in the center of the rustic dining- 
room, wishing that all who were at Macki- 
nac could be there, too. In the big office 
a wood fire crackled, and strains from 
harp and violin added to our enjoyment. 
In the evening the big bear-skins were 
removed from the office floor, and dancing 
was in order. We were in the wilderness 
of Canada, in the sub-Arctic regions, on a 
government forest reserve, yet a comfort- 
able, well-appointed hotel had been found, 
and a region free from black-flies and 
mosquitoes (that report that we were lost 
and probably eaten by the flies, was a 
muck-raker's yarn). During our stay the 
only black-flies we saw were one or two 
in the deep woods. 

Going fishing? It was too easy. Bass 
and pickerel of two to four pounds weight 
were waiting to be hooked. A member 
of the orchestra would daily, between the 
musical selections, saunter down to the 
wharf, watch for a good fat pickerel in 
the crystal clear water, wave his baited 
hook before the fish's nose, and then pull 
him out. We* could watch the whole 
operation, nor did the fish seem to mind 
spectators in the least. Time passed 
rapidly; one day a steamer trip to the 
farther end of the lake, some fifteen miles, 
with dinner at Lady Evelyn Hotel, another, 
a motor-boat excursion to Bear Island, 
where was the Hudson Bay company's 
store, and an interesting Indian settle- 
ment. Ko-ko-ko Bay was visited by canoe 



or by power-boat, manned by Indians, 
over whom the young ladies of the party 
went into raptures. The Friday boys were 
certainly sturdy examples of their race, 
and most competent as guides and skilful 
at the paddle. The delightfully long days, 
when the sun did not set until ten minutes 
past 8, and the twilight lasted until after 
9, should be mentioned as adding greatly 
to the enjoyment of our stay. College 
songs on some evenings furnished amuse- 
ment for the younger members of the 
party, and doubtless helped to lull to 
sleep the rest. Especially pleasing was 
that little ditty heard here by many of 
us for the first time the plot of which 
was something as follows: 

She sat in her hammock and played the 

guitar. 

He sat beside her and smoked a cigar. 
He told her he loved her, but Oh! how 

he lied! 
She said she believed him, but 'm, 'm, 

she didn't. 
They were to be married, but she up and 

died. 
He went to the funeral, but just for the 

ride. 

She went to Heaven, and flip-flop she filed. 
He went to Hades, and sis-sis he fried. 

And so all "too soon our stay was over. 
Five hardy members, including one of the 
men, ended their trip with a three-day 
canoe expedition through Lady Evelyn 
Lake and the Montreal River, coming out 
with their Indian guides, none the worse 
for two nights in the open, at Latchford, 
where they joined the party en route 
south. One other departed early to visit 
a friend on the way home. The other 
man, becoming discouraged at his lone- 
someness, made believe he had an im- 
portant business engagement at Cobalt, 
the new silver mining center, and departed 
with three trunks and five hand-bags, 
alone in his glory, the sole passenger on 
the evening steamer. 

The party was re-united the following 
day in the Pullman sleeper for Toronto. 
Here a "rubberneck" wagon served as a 
medium for our being seen by Toronto. 
Mr. Locke showed us over his public li- 
brary and here at Toronto ended the post- 
conference of 1910. F. W. F. 



NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF STATE LIBRARIES 



Thirteenth Annual Meeting, Mackinac Island, Michigan, July J-5, J9JO 



FIRST SESSION 

Friday, July 1, 1910, 10 a. m. 
The meeting was called to order by the 
President, John E. King, of Minnesota. 
Mrs. MARY C. SPENCER, of Michigan, wel- 
comed the Association on behalf of the 
state. 

ADDRESS OF WELCOME 

When I received the very courteous in- 
vitation from the President to give the 
welcoming greeting to the members of our 
Association assembled within the borders 
of my state, I felt a certain degree of par- 
donable pride and satisfaction; and, though 
I can be neither graceful in diction nor 
brilliant in oratory, it is, I assure you, a 
great pleasure to welcome so representa- 
tive a body, and to offer you in fullest 
measure the hospitality of Michigan. It 
was a gracious thought on the part of the 
American library association to make this 
meeting possible >and to bring to us an or- 
ganization which is recognized as one of 
the great educational forces of the age. 
And I know that you will be glad that you 
are here; for Mackinac is full of tradition 
and historic lore. 

A strange history has this island of ours. 
She lay for untold ages on the bed of a 
prehistoric ocean; she has been beaten by 
the waves, ground and eroded by glacial 
movement; has stood a limestone hill in 
the midst of a level plain, washed iagain by 
the currents of two widespreading lakes 
Algonquin and Nippissing, which, in their 
turn, were drained away and followed by 
our present lake system and the beginning 
of Mackinac island, resting fresh and 
beautiful and young on the bosom of the 
waters, and undisturbed by the mutations 
of time, watching the centuries go by. 
Her shores have rung with the savage cry 
of contending tribes, and have echoed the 
sweet and joyous chanson of the wander- 



ing voyageur, that careless soldier of fort- 
une. French, English, and Americans have, 
in turn, dominated the island, and for 
greed and glory her fields have been 
stained with blood. For more than two 
hundred years, owing to her strategic val- 
ue, Mackinac was the scene of continual 
warfare, massacre, and unrest. To-day, 
peacefully and quietly, there marches 
through the open gates another host, an 
army of men and women who battle not 
for gain nor fame, who bear emblazoned 
upon their banner not the lily, the lion, 
nor the eagle, but that symbol of true civ- 
ilization and real national strength, the 
open book. And of the great educational 
forces gathered here to-day I count my 
own craft as among the foremost. Our 
work is not alone state-wide, but connected 
with duties of national importance. To 
us comes the task of working out, and help- 
ing others to work out, great present day 
problems which make for the moral .and 
spiritual betterment of the state and the 
country. We have come together to learn 
from each other what we have left undone, 
and what we might better have left un- 
done, to strengthen the ramparts we have 
already built, and to advance our lines 
against the common enemies, ignorance 
and indifference. This I think is the object 
of this gathering of earnest men and wo- 
men who have come to sit together for a 
little to learn from each other and rejoice 
in the inspiration which comes from close 
and sympathetic contact with those who 
are working in a common cause, for after 
all it is the touch of nature which makes 
the whole world kin. And so with deepest 
emotions of pleasure, and heartfelt glad- 
ness that the privilege is mine, officially 
and personally I bid you welcome to your 
Mackinac and mine her past so pregnant 
with events, so full of history and romance, 
and rejoicing to-day in your presence 
within her borders. 



690 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The President, JOHN E. KING, then de- 
livered his annual address. 

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 

By courtesy the President has a right 
once a year to make an address, whether 
or not he may have anything to say. How- 
ever, it is not only a privilege, but a genu- 
ine pleasure, to respond to the hearty 
welcome given us by the state librarian of 
the great commonwealth within whose 
confines we meet to-day. The sense of 
pleasure voiced by me is felt by every 
member of the Association, and the words 
of welcome that come from the lips of our 
good friend and sister librarian are doubly 
appreciated by reason of our splendid sur- 
roundings. To those of us who have never 
visited this beautiful island there comes 
an inspiration from its wooded heights, 
its charming atmosphere, and its romantic 
history. Here are ancient reminders of 
the early haunts of the Indian, and here 
were some of the first struggles between 
the British and the French for the conquest 
of America. Near by is the last resting 
place of Pere Marquette, and here once 
lived other French explorers whose names 
are so closely associated with the dis- 
covery and early history of the Mississippi 
valley. We have met in a congenial clime 
and at a place of historic interest here 
where East meets West, at the confluence 
of the three greatest of the Great Lakes, 
here where the early missionaries and ex- 
plorers halted for a time on their way to 
western and southern El Dorados, here 
where on every hand the blue of sea 
touches the blue of sky an oasis hid 
away in the Great Lakes; a rocky fortress 
embowered in trees and shrubs and flow- 
ers. 

Our program this year promises to be of 
exceptional interest, touching topics of vital 
concern to every state library. The re- 
ports of committees will prove something 
more than a dull recitation of figures and 
uninteresting detail. Mr. Brigham, of 
Rhode Island, is always enthusiastic, with 
helpful suggestions for the improvement of 
existing conditions. This is a theme of 
prime importance, for one of the great 



dangers in serving the public as a librarian 
is the temptation to "let well enough 
alone." The hookworm of dry rot affects 
not only sheep bindings, it gets under the 
cuticle of sheep librarians. As a book 
standing on the shelves unused becomes 
the insidious prey of time, so inertia and 
decadence follow the beaten path. 

The paper by Mr. Soule on "Foreign law 
in state libraries" gives us the opinions 
and experiences of a past master. To the 
libraries that are wholly or in part legal 
collections, this paper will prove a notable 
contribution and a blazing of the trail 
through a forest of doubt and despair. 
The contributions by Mr. Brown, of Indi- 
ana, and Mr. Brigham, of Iowa, while co- 
related, give us different phases of an im- 
portant question, and will aid us materi- 
ally in deciding what is conceived to be 
the true library policy of the state. Miss 
Price, of Pennsylvania, comes to us with 
the inspiration of successful work among 
the libraries of the Keystone state. 

I assume that it is universally agreed 
among state librarians that legislative re- 
ference is now the most important question 
affecting state libraries, and needs our 
best thought and effort. It would be in- 
appropriate at this time to enter into an 
extended discussion since one of our ses- 
sions is to be devoted entirely to this sub- 
ject. 

This session is in charge of Mr. Godard, 
of Connecticut, a librarian especially 
qualified by experience and attainment to 
speak authoritatively. It will not be inop- 
portune at this time, however, to take 
cognizance of some of the pitfalls and em- 
barrassments in the way of the establish- 
ment of such a department. In many 
states, the lack of library co-ordination 
and fraternal spirit prevents agreement 
among the friends of the movement; in 
other states, political dissensions and 
complications are factors not to be disre- 
garded; and, more especially, are we con- 
fronted, in many states, with the opposition 
of the special interests and public service 
corporations, which, for obvious reasons 
look askance on the new era of enlighten- 
ing legislators and the public on many 



STATE LIBRARIES 



691 



propositions about which they prefer to Boston public library 5.00 

maintain secrecy and ignorance. California state library 10.00 

One of the most benefic.a, resuHs of the gjyftBIBfr * ?-." I 

deliberations of our Association is a better Connecticut state library 10.00 

understanding of the relation between the Illinois state library 7.50 

various library activities of the state, and Indiana state library 5.00 

whilP thprp still is much to bp aocom- Indiana state library for 1909 5.00 

wnile Iowa state library 10.00 

plished in that direction, conditions are John Crerar library . . 10.00 

much improved. This success encourages Kansas state historical library 5.00 

the hope that through the activities of this Kansas state library 5.00 

Association, and by reason of a tnow.edge ^f^lCaT^ .*" . X 

of the purposes and needs of the state li- Massachusetts state library 10.00 

brary on the part of legislatures and the A. H. Mettee, Baltimore 2.00 

general public, there will in good time be Michigan state library 5.00 

pvolvpd a morp svmmetrical sohpmp of on- Minnesota state library 5.00 

evolved a more symmet U scheme of op- New Hampshire state library .... 5.00 

eration, more approved methods, and an ac- New York public library 5.00 

cepted chart and log-book of the course it New York state library 25.00 

is safe to follow with the shoals and rocks Northwestern university law 

marked bv thP failurps and disannoint- school library, Chicago 5.00 

Ohio state library 7.50 

ments of the early explorers. Ohio supreme court library 5.00 

The future of the state library is not Oregon state library 5.00 

easy to determine. Such marvellous ad- Pennsylvania state library 20.00 

vances have been made in the past two ? *.* llto.,7 . . . ; 10.00 

decades that no prophet is willing to stake Vermont state library 5.00 

his reputation on the possibilities of the Virginia state library 5.00 

future. It is only fair to assume, never- Washington state library 5.00 

theless that thP work of thP librarian will Wisconsin state historical library. 5.00 

tneiess, mat tne work ot the ibrarian wiu Worcester county (Mass.) law . 

keep step with the advance of civilization library 5.00 

and the progress of the human race. Wyoming state library 5.00 

The Mackinac conference ought, by rea- 
son of the large and representative at- Total, $293.75 
tendance and the exceptional program, to _ 

prove to be one of the most profitable and Expresg and f JJ m $ g 3? 

inspiring in the history of the Association. Postage 7.00 

Stationery and supplies 6.13 

The Secretary-treasurer, Asa C. Tilton, Printing 1909 "Proceedings" in A. L. 

read his annual report. A. "Proceedings" 70.20 

Printing 300 separates of 1909 "Pro- 
ceedings" 34.85 

REPORT OF SECRETARY-TREASURER Programs, 1909 8.25 

Stenographer, 1909 meeting 37.00 

The most important of the duties of the Expenses of Prof. F. J. Stimson, 1909 

Secretary are those which relate to the meeting 6.35 

finances of the Association; and they may Telegram 30 

well be placed first among the matters to ^payment of loan 5.00 

be brought before you. Total, $183.45 

Balance, 110.30 

Receipts 

Balance from 1909 $37.60 $293.75 

Law library association, one half of 

expenses of joint session, 1909 . . . 9.15 The account, with vouchers, is ready for 

Cash advanced by Secretary 5.00 auditing. The dues paid by the old mem- 

LJUOS LS lOllOTVS * 

Alabama dept. of archives and bers of the Association have been changed 

history 5.00 in two or three cases, but the changes 



692 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



have not materially affected the total in- 
come. The addition of a number of new 
members has produced a gratifying in- 
crease in income concerning the use of 
which recommendations will be made later 
in the report. The prompt attention given 
to bills for dues has materially lightened 
the work of the Secretary. 

The resolutions passed at the last meet- 
ing relative to the resignation of Mr. Wil- 
liam L. Post as Superintendent of docu- 
ments directed the Secretary to send 
copies of the resolutions to the President 
of the United States, the Chairman of the 
joint Committee on printing, and the pub- 
lic printer. I sent copies of the resolutions, 
as directed, and in reply received the fol- 
lowing letters: 

The White House, 
Washington, 
July 10, 1909. 
My Dear Sir: 

Your letter of July and the accompany- 
ing resolutions relating to the resignation 
of Mr. William L. Post have been received, 
and I shall take pleasure in bringing them 
to the attention of the President. 
Very truly yours, 
Fred W. Carpenter, 
Secretary to the President. 

United States Senate, 
Committee on Printing, 
Washington, D. C. 
July 12, 1909. 
Dear Sir: 

I wish to acknowledge receipt of your 
letter of July 2, 1909, together with a copy 
of resolutions relating to the resignation 
of Mr. William L v Post, as Superintendent 
of documents, pa'ssed at Bretton Woods, 
New Hampshire, July 2, 1909, by the Na- 
tional association of state libraries. I shall 
be very glad to place the same on file. 
With best wishes, I remain, 

Yours very truly, 
Reed Smoot. 

Office of the Public Printer, 

Washington, 

July 12, 1909. 
Dear Sir: 

I have the honor to acknowledge receipt 
of your communication of the 8th instant, 
transmitting copy of resolutions relating 
to the resignation of Mr. William L. Post 
as Superintendent of public documents, 
which resolutions were passed at Bretton 
Woods, New Hampshire, July 2, 1909, by 
the National association of state libraries 



and the Government documents section of 
the American library association at a joint 
session, the session being one of the 
sessions of the annual conference of tne 
American library association and affiliated 
organizations, for which I thank you. 

I wish to assure the American library 
association, through you, that I am deeply 
sensible of the purposes and objects to be 
attained in the conduct of the office of the 
Superintendent of documents, and that in 
selecting Mr. Post's successor I had in 
mind the placing of that office on the plane 
of the highest efficiency, progress, and 
usefulness to the public. 

Thanking you and the American library 
association and affiliated organizations for 
the interest they have taken in the dis- 
tribution of public documents to libraries, 
and in the administration of the office 
having the work in charge, I have the 
honor to be, 

Very respectfully, 

Samuel B. Donnelly, 
Public Printer. 

Mr. Brigham, of Rhode Island, who, since 
1906 has so well filled the office of Com- 
mittee on statistics of state libraries re- 
commended at the beginning of the year 
that the Committee be discontinued. The 
recommendation was based on the diffi- 
culty of obtaining and tabulating statistics 
which would add to those published by the 
U. S. Bureau of education. The recom- 
mendation met the cordial approval of the 
President and Secretary the other mem- 
bers of the Executive committee and the 
Committee was dropped from the list of 
committees by the President. 

The increased membership of the Asso- 
ciation is bringing into the treasury an 
annual income which makes it possible for 
the Association to consider some modest 
extension of its publications. The first 
enterprise in this direction should be, in 
my judgment, the preparation of an index 
to the "Proceedings" of the Association. 
In the Secretary's work matters have fre- 
quently come up which have shown this 
need. Such an index should include refer- 
ences to the pages of the A. L. A. "Proceed- 
ings" devoted to our "Proceedings," and 
should also cover such material as relates 
to state libraries in the A. L. A. "Pro- 
ceedings" before the Association was 
formed. I would recommend that the 



STATE LIBRARIES 



693 



Secretary be authorized to expend such 
surplus as may remain in the treasury 
each year on the preparation and printing 
of an index. The whole could not be done 
in one year, perhaps not in two. 

I have endeavored in the distribution 
of the "Proceedings" of the last meeting 
to learn how many copies each library 
really wishes to use, and have sent that 
number. In most cases this has been be- 
low the number formerly sent, and in a few 
cases, above. Copies have also been sent 
to the principal library periodicals, and 
to the Presidents of the A. L. A. and 
affiliated organizations. 

New members have been provided with 
complete files of the "Proceedings" of 
former years so far as possible. The num- 
ber of copies of some years in the hands 
of the Secretary is becoming small. It 
would be a convenience if libraries would 
return to the Secretary any duplicates 
which they may have and do not wish to 
use. 

There is one field of activity of some, 
, at least, of the members of this Association 
to which the Association has so far given 
no attention. This is the care of public 
archives. More than half of the states 
have already passed laws relating to the 
subject, and it is likely to receive increas- 
ing attention in the future. I recommend 
that the Association carefully consider the 
advisability of adding to its committees a 
Committee on public archives which shall 
collect material relating to archives and 
present the same to the Association in 
annual reports. Such reports would keep 
such state libraries as have to do with 
archives informed of what is being done in 
other states and countries, and would be 
of great service to libraries which may 
have the care of archives added to their 
duties in the future. 

The PRESIDENT: I assume that the 
report will be accepted. Is there any 
comment? 

Mr. MONTGOMERY (Penn.) : Do you 
wish to act on the last recommendation 
now? 

The PRESIDENT: That is for the Asso- 
ciation to decide. 






Mr. TILTON (Wis.): Perhaps the mo- 
tion should be for the appointment of a 
committee to consider the question and 
report. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: I think it would 
be better to make the motion that the com- 
mittee be formed. 

Mr. TILTON: I move that a committee 
of five be appointed by the President, to 
be known as the Committee on public 
archives, which shall collect material on 
that subject and report annually to the 
Association. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: I second that 
motion. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) : The only point 
to be considered in the matter is whether 
it would conflict in any way with the work 
of the Public archives commission of the 
American historical association. I do not 
mean to imply that we should not do any 
work of this nature; but that we ought to 
guard ourselves against duplicating other 
work. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: I should think 
this would be the very thing which that 
Commission would desire. They would 
have the information which would come 
from such a committee as this, to use for 
their own reports to the American his- 
torical association. 

Mr. TILTON: That is one thing I had 
in mind. It would be an advantage to the 
Commission to have an Archives committee 
in an association whose membership in- 
cludes the custodians of state archives 
where they have been centralized. The 
state, and state historical librarians will 
be in a position, it seems to me, to help 
the Commission. My own idea is that the 
Committee would report on legislation re- 
lating to archives and take up administra- 
tive subjects, such as binding, mounting, 
repairing, arrangement, principles of 
calendaring, etc., and not actual calendar- 
ing and publishing. It might arrange for 
sessions on archives at some of the annual 
meetings. 

Mr. GODARD (Conn.): Mr. President, 
just one word to show why I am so much 
in sympathy with the motion. Our 1909 
General assembly passed a bill authorizing 



694 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



any state, county, town, or other public 
official to turn over to the state librarian, 
with his consent, for permanent preserva- 
tion in the state library, any records, files, 
or other official papers in his custody 
which are not in current use in the busi- 
ness of his office. That, in brief, is the 
law which ultimately will lead, I hope, to 
more centralization of these records in 
our new state library building. 

Mrs. WEBER (111.) : We have a similar 
law in Illinois. 

Mrs. SPENCE'R (Mich.): I would like 
to have an exact definition, if I may, of 
the term "archives," to know exactly what 
it covers? 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: I think "public 
records" is the term more generally used. 

Mrs. SPENCER: Then I would like to 
know exactly what public records are. 
The reason I ask this, is because in Michi- 
gan our records are scattered. For ex- 
ample, there is a large amount of material 
stored in the Executive office, and in the 
Secretary's office. Then we have a His- 
torical society, in which there is a large 
amount. The State library really has 
nothing of those early records except treaty 
material. But I would like to know exactly 
what is covered by the term so that I 
could consider more intelligently what 
might be done towards collecting them. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: In answering that 
question I think as a usual thing the 
term "public records" means anything you 
can lay your hands on. Of course, in its 
limited sense, it would mean those things 
which had to do with the prosecution of 
the business of the commonwealth. We 
started in the Pennsylvania state library 
with an accumulation of something like 
sixty tons of papers from the various state 
departments. That has all gone through 
the mill, I am happy to say; and we are 
now on the lookout for anything else that 
we can obtain. 

Mr. BROWN (Ind.) : I would like to say 
a word in favor of the creation of this 
Committee. If we can stir up some in- 
terest in the matter and can make that in- 
terest known it would be of considerable 
profit in states where the records are 



scattered. For instance, in the Land office 
department of the Secretary of state of 
Indiana, there are historical documents 
such, for example, as the original survey 
of the territory of the Pottowatomie 
Indians of northern Indiana and in the 
Governor's office the same way. These 
documents should be brought together in 
a central repository. Such a committee 
as this will aid in arousing public senti- 
ment in the states; and I am sure for my 
part that I would make it known through 
bulletins and in every other way possible 
and stir up much interest. 

The President then put the motion and 
it was carried. 

The PRESIDENT: The next order of 
business will be the reports of committees. 

Mr. BROWN (Ind.), Chairman, read the 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EX- 
CHANGE AND DISTRIBUTION OF 
STATE DOCUMENTS 

In 1908 your Committee made a report 
showing the distributing officer in each 
state, the classes of documents distributed, 
times of distribution, payment or non-pay- 
ment of carriage, etc. That report was 
tabulated and published in the "Proceed- 
ings." In 1909 the Committee made a sup- 
plementary report pointing out what states 
had been added to the list, and what ones 
were still not partaking in the distribution. 
It has been the effort of the Committee 
during the last year to center the distribu- 
tion of documents in the office of the state 
librarian, and the Conimittee believes that 
some work has been accomplished in this 
regard. 

Missouri will now distribute documents 
through its State library at Jefferson City. 
If it lacks copies of various documents, 
the State historical society, Columbia, 
Missouri, will have copies to make up the 
deficiency. 

Your Committee is officially informed by 
the Secretary of state of Alabama that the 
special session of the Legislature in 1909 
passed an act providing for the distribu- 
tion by the State librarian of reports, docu- 
ments, and acts. 



STATE LIBRARIES 



695 



The State librarian of Illinois has in- 
formed your Committee that his office dis- 
tributes the public documents of his state 
to all other state libraries. The distribu- 
tion, however, has not been regular, as is 
shown by the fact that the Indiana state li- 
brary has not received Illinois documents 
for many years past, unless it has made a 
special request for them. 

Nevada has not given your Committee 
any information as yet. 

The Committee believes that with these 
states added to the list as made in 1908 
and 1909, nearly all will be accounted for. 
We still fear, however, that it will require 
vigilance and accurate checking up of lists 
to keep files of state documents complete. 

The PRESIDENT: Are there any sug- 
gestions relating to this report? 

Mr. TILTON (Wis.) : Mr. President, the 
Committee on distribution of documents 
has confined its attention in the past to 
the official exchange of documents between 
the states. Now a great deal of attention 
In the collection of public documents is 
being given by libraries other than the 
official state libraries. In many of the 
states there are several state-supported 
libraries which are interested in the col- 
lection of documents; as are also university 
libraries, public libraries, and law libraries. 
It seems to me the Committee on distribu- 
tion of documents could do some very 
valuable work by collecting information 
and reporting, in addition to reporting on 
official exchange, on distribution to all li- 
braries supported by the states and to 
public, university and law libraries. 

I would move, therefore, that the Com- 
mittee on distribution of documents be in- 
structed to collect information concerning 
the field of document collection of each 
state-supported library in each of the 
states, and information concerning the 
field of document collection of the prin- 
cipal public, law, university, and other 
libraries of the country, and to embody 
this information in its annual reports, in 
addition to the material on official ex- 
change of documents between the states, 
which shall be reported on as in the past 

In this way we can be bringing together 



information concerning the libraries which 
are collecting documents, find out what 
they want, and then urge such system and 
legislation as may seem advisable. Some 
public and law libraries have joined the 
Association. They have done this because 
of their interest in public documents and 
in their distribution. 

Mr. BROWN (Ind.) : I am heartily in 
favor of this resolution because it is my 
custom to send the public documents of 
Indiana to other libraries besides the state 
libraries, I mean others outside the state. 
I have quite a list, including many of the 
larger institutions of learning, and many 
public libraries not all, because I cannot 
get enough copies. I believe it is a good 
thing to do, and that the Committee should 
find out what institutions would like to 
have the public documents of the various 
states, and then try to secure provision 
for their getting them. I think that is just 
as important as the distribution of these 
documents to the official state libraries. 
I am very glad the resolution has been 
offered. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY (Penn.) : I would 
like to ask Mr. Brown if he includes in 
this distribution all publications issued by 
the state? 

Mr. BROWN: Yes. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: One of my chief 
troubles is dealing with laws which au- 
thorize the publication of special reports 
and getting introduced into them a pro- 
vision stating that at least 300 copies shall 
be given to the State librarian for distri- 
bution. I have been very successful along 
that line, and I think we ought all to do 
everything we can toward accomplishing 
the result aimed at by the resolution. 

Mr. BROWN: I sometimes can't do it 
in Indiana. For instance, an office may 
publish some special reports through its 
own office funds and not through the pub- 
lic printing board. In that case I am not 
able to get enough copies to distribute to 
all the public libraries. 

Mrs. SPENCER (Mich.): Our list of 
Michigan exchanges and distributions 
shows 135 depositories in the different 
states and territories, and then we have a 



696 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



long list of colleges and institutions that 
have requested our documents. We do 
not ask them if they want them; for we 
take it for granted that if they want them 
they will ask for them. We have in our 
state what we call an associate library 
system. All libraries in the state, of over 
1000 volumes, may become associated with 
the State library, and through that asso- 
ciate membership, twice a year when 
we send out our regular exchanges a box 
of the documents is shipped to each of 
these libraries. In that way all of our 
large counties have one library where 
people can go and find all the documents. 
I find that that has relieved very much the 
individual demands upon the State library 
for documents. 

Michigan documents are thus distributed 
widely. I wish I could say that we receive 
as freely as we give. We have had trouble 
with southern states, and trouble, of 
course, with the far West. I have been 
buying documents of South Carolina which 
we ought to have received by distribution; 
the same is true of other southern states. 

The motion, having been seconded, was 
put by the President and carried. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (Iowa), Chairman, then 
read the 



REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON EX- 
TENSION OF MEMBERSHIP 

For the report of progress which your 
Committee is able to make at this time I 
am chiefly indebted to the Secretary. He 
reports that through the efforts of Presi- 
dent King two state libraries have been 
added to the list of members, namely, 
Colorado and Texas, and that Wyoming 
and the Wisconsin legislative reference li- 
brary have also joined with us, additions 
which greatly strengthen the Association. 

The 1910 list of states directly represent- 
ed in this Association includes Alabama, 
California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, 
Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachu- 
setts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hamp- 
shire, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsyl- 
vania, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, Vir- 



ginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming 
twenty-four in all. 

The states not in our Association, and 
constituting our direct missionary field, 
are Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, 
Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, 
Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, 
Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mex- 
ico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Okla- 
homa, South Carolina, South Dakota, Ten- 
nessee, Utah, West Virginia twenty-four 
in all. 

In pursuance of the plan adopted a year 
ago for the further extension of our mem- 
bership, the following libraries have since 
been added to our list: New York public 
library, Law reporting company of New 
York, Worcester county (Mass.) law li- 
brary, Northwestern university law school 
library of Chicago. 

There are encouraging prospects for a 
larger membership from the law libraries. 
In this connection, it should be stated that 
a few weeks ago, the Chairman of the 
Membership extension committee wrote 
Mr. Feazel, of Cleveland, President of the 
American association of law libraries, ask- 
ing him to urge upon his Association, in 
his opening address, the active co-opera- 
tion of its members with ours through 
joint membership in both organizations. 
Mr. Feazel replied, assuring me that he 
would be glad to touch upon the subject 
suggested, though he thought the sugges- 
tion would have more weight were it to 
come from one who was himself eligible 
to membership in our Association. I wrote 
him assuring him that he was quite as 
eligible as anybody else. 

It will be remembered that several li- 
brarians of large city libraries attended our 
meetings at Bretton Woods, and intimated 
that it was their purpose to unite with us. 
The only librarian of this class who was 
a member of record a year ago was Mr. 
Andrews, representing the John Crerar li- 
brary, Chicago. There are several others 
who, I trust, have come to this conference 
prepared to identify their libraries with 
our Association. In these days of splendid 
and promising activity in state libraries, in 
the collection and collation of legislative 



STATE LIBRARIES 



697 



reference material on municipal questions 
and other questions in which they are 
interested, it would seem that the repre- 
sentatives of large city libraries could 
not afford to remain outside our organiza- 
tion. 

I submit that should you continue this 
Committee, its membership might well be 
chosen from those best qualified for mis- 
sionary work in that comparatively un- 
worked field. 

While your Committee is able to report 
progress in the addition of state and law 
libraries to the membership of this Asso- 
ciation, and has reason to expect other ad- 
ditions from a missionary field so large 
as to include twenty-four states, and as 
many law libraries other than those main- 
tained by the state, yet it would more 
especially urge upon its successor should 
another Extension committee be named 
the desirability of more actively working 
the larger and practically unworked muni- 
cipal field. With a large accession of 
r members from this field, our Association 
will be enriched not only in funds, but 
also in a membership that will be of great 
assistance to the State libraries in their 
reference work, and, too, a membership 
of itself so alert and eager for .material 
collected by the state, as of itself to be a 
stimulus to new and broader endeavor in 
the collection and collation of reference 
material. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY (Penn.) : Mr. 
President, I would like to ask whether the 
communications sent out by the Com- 
mitttee looking towards increase in mem- 
bership were sent to the governors of the 
states, or to the libraries? There are in 
many states institutions which have taken 
more or less the place of the state library, 
and it seems to me that we should see to 
it that every state comes into this work. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (Iowa): A year ago I 
made a very thorough investigation of the 
question of membership, and where I found 
the librarian's duties were performed by 
the Secretary of state or other state official, 
I wrote that state official and got some 
promising answers and others quite un- 
promising. 



This year, as stated in the report, I 
have been unable to give any attention to 
the matter. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) : I quite agree 
with Mr. Montgomery in regard to writing 
to the governors because it gives an official 
status to the Association, and also calls 
the attention of the Executive to our ex- 
istence. A similar plan was tried some 
time ago, in regard to delegates to the 
annual meeting, and bore direct results, as 
at least three members were present from 
distant points through executive action. 

The PRESIDENT: I think that our 
great field of work is with library com- 
mittees and boards of trustees. In my 
correspondence last winter with librarians 
relating to becoming members of this As- 
sociation I received many replies, stating 
that they were much interested in our 
work and would like to become members, 
and attend our conventions; but that their 
committees or boards did not approve. It 
seems to me that if this Committee would 
take up the task of communicating directly 
with these boards, it might result in quite 
a number of new members. 

The PRESIDENT: The Committee on a 
legislative exchange bureau is headed by 
Mr. Godard and we will now have a report 
from that Committee. 

Mr. GODARD (Conn.): The Committee 
has been exceedingly busy for two years. 
At the joint meeting of the law and state 
librarians at the Bretton Woods conference 
we made quite an extended report, pro- 
posing a plan whereby the Law-reporting 
company of New York had agreed to under- 
take the furnishing of the legislative in- 
formation which we so much desired. In 
view of the fact that the joint meeting of 
the law libraries and state libraries on 
Monday morning is to be devoted to the 
report of those who received the service 
this last year, your Committee thinks it 
better not to submit its report this morn- 
ing, but rather to let the report be the em- 
bodiment of the recommendations of the 
joint meeting. 



698 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The PRESIDENT: The next report is 
on 

SYSTEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF 
STATE OFFICIAL LITERATURE 

Mr. GODARD (Conn.): Mr. President, 
that Committee also has been busy. We 
are pleased to report that during the last 
year Miss Everhart's "Manual of public 
documents" has appeared. We are also 
pleased to note the appearance of the 
"Monthly list of state publications" by the 
Division of documents of the Library of 
Congress, which is along the line of our 
efforts, as shown by our reports in proceed- 
ing meetings. I have in my hand a letter 
from Mr. Thompson, chief of that Division, 
which promises to send a statement of 
what he would like to have embodied in 
our suggestions, and of what his division 
proposes to do if it can. As I have not re- 
ceived this statement I would like to have 
our regular report postponed until our 
Committee can get together and consider 
those suggestions. 

Mr. BELDEN (Mass.), in the absence of 

the Chairman, then read the 

/ 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON UNI- 
FORMITY IN PREPARATION AND 
PUBLICATION OF SESSION LAWS 

Your Committee presents the following 
report. 

Missouri ('09, p. 650) revised its law rel- 
ative to the publication of session laws. 
The act provides that the secretary of state 
shall prepare marginal notes and indexes, 
and that the acts and resolutions shall be 
bound together in one volume, in buckram 
binding. This state arranges the laws by 
subject, and gives them no chapter num- 
ber. 

New Jersey ('09, ch. 6) provided that the 
pamphlet print' of session laws should show 
chapter numbers at the top of each page. 

North Carolina ('09, ch. 473) provided 
that the session laws should be classified 
for publication into "public," "public-local," 
and "private." 

Wisconsin ('09, ch. 484) made some fur- 
ther changes in its laws. The volume 



now contains in the first part all general 
legislation, viewed as sections of the sta- 
tutes, and arranged in the numerical order 
of such section numbers. In Part 2, of the 
volume, the laws of the session are printed 
in the order of chapter numbers. The text 
of each section in Part 1, is preceeded by 
the section-number, the subject, the chap- 
ter citation, and the date of taking effect. 

It is also provided ('09, ch. 488) that the 
constitutional amendments adopted shall 
be published with the laws of the succeed- 
ing session. 

New York adopted a series of consoli- 
dated general laws, and provided ('09, ch. 
87) for their publication apart from the 
remaining laws of the session although of 
course all bear chapter numbers. These 
laws form practically a set of revised gen- 
eral statutes, and are printed in seven vol- 
umes, including one volume of index, and 
one of statutory record. 

Wisconsin ('09, ch. 546) created the of- 
fice of Revisor of the statutes, such officer 
to keep loose leaf sets of the statutes, with 
annotations and card indexes; to supervise 
printing of complete revisions and in- 
dexes; and to formulate revisions for the 
consideration of the legislature. This step 
promises much for the working out of a 
careful and comprehensive form of stat- 
ute law presentation, publication, and pres- 
ervation. 

Your Committee has considered the 
items suggested in the report of last year, 
and the recommendations submitted in 
Prof. Stimson's paper. We note that of the 
seven states mentioned in the report of 
1901 as not assigning any consecutive 
number to laws which could be used in 
citation, only Illinois, Missouri, and Ohio 
still fail to use such a number. The state 
of Nevada alone still uses the objection- 
able Roman numeral in chapter numbers; 
the use of them in the Texas general laws 
of 1907 was changed in the 1909 laws. 
Since uniformity has so nearly been 
reached in these two respects, special ef- 
fort might well be put upon these points at 
the coming sessions. 

These points, and, in addition, the use 
of a uniform basis for indexing the latter 



STATE LIBRARIES 



as the matter of particular new endeavor 
in the Committee's work might be made 
the basis for correspondence with the 
governors of states where legislatures are 
to be in session, with a view to possible 
recognition in messages, and also with 
persons interested in those states, so that 
bills might be prepared and introduced if 
such seemed necessary. 

The PRESIDENT: The last report is 
from the Committee on the publication of 
a municipal year book, of which Mr. Brig- 
ham is Chairman. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) : The Committee 
on a municipal year book is the result of 
an attempt at the last meeting of this As- 
sociation to devise some method of reach- 
ing municipal libraries and obtaining facts 
relative to municipalities. Your Commit- 
tee offers this suggestion I will later put 
It in the form of a motion that we co- 
operate with other bodies which are work- 
ing along the same lines. The Special li- 
braries association keeps somewhat in 
touch with municipal affairs, and there 
are two national organizations that de- 
vote their attention to them; one is the 
National municipal league, and the other 
is the League of American municipalities. 

I would move, therefore^ that the Asso- 
ciation empower this Committee to confer 
with the officers of the Special libraries 
association, and if possible to form a joint 
committee which shall be authorized to 
enlist the interest of the National munici- 
pal associations, to arrange for the publica- 
tion of a municipal year book, and to do 
such other things as shall seem proper to 
the Committee. 

The motion, having been seconded, was 
put by the President and carried. 

The SECRETARY: In the list of com- 
mittees appears a Committee on a clear- 
ing house for state publications. So far 
as I know this Committee has never done 
anything, and I have never been able to 
make out just what it was intended to ac- 
complish. If it be desirable that It be con- 
tinued, and there Is some definite work for 
it to do, it should be retained; but if not, 
I see no reason for keeping it on the list. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY (Penn.) : I think 



that is to the point. There is no use in 
keeping that Committee on the list. The 
Library of Congress has taken action in 
regard to sending to each state all surplus 
copies of the documents of that state, and 
I think we should all do the same. 

A motion to drop the Committee was 
made; and, having been seconded, was put 
by the President and carried. 

The SECRETARY: In my report I ask 
that the Secretary be authorized to pro- 
ceed with the compilation of an index to 
the "Proceedings." I should like to have 
that recommendation taken up and de- 
cided one way or the other. 

Several persons discussed the matter. 

MR. GODARD (Conn.): I would like to 
move that the recommendation be referred 
to our Executive committee with power to 
have an index printed if in their judg- 
ment it can be done with the funds at 
hand. 

The motion, having been seconded, was 
put by the President and carried. 

Mr. TILTON (Wis.): I move that the 
President appoint a committee of three to 
nominate officers for the coming year. 

The motion, having been seconded, was 
put by the President and carried. 

The PRESIDENT: I will appoint Mr. 
Montgomery of Pennsylvania, Mr. Brigham 
of Rhode Island, and Mr. Godard of Con- 
necticut. 

MR. BROWN (Ind.) then read his paper 
on the 

RELATION OF THE STATE LIBRARY 

TO OTHER LIBRARIES OF THE 

STATE 

The character of the state library will 
determine very largely the point of view 
and the judgment to be formed about this 
proposition. If the state library is dis- 
tinctly for the state officers and the legis- 
lature, and possibly the courts, then it 
does not seem appropriate that it should 
have any authority or supervision or right 
of inspection over other libraries in the 
state. This province of the state library is 
held by many to be the correct one. If, 
however, the state library is a general ref- 



700 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



erence and public library, then the power 
of supervision and inspection may, I think, 
very properly belong to it. The most pro- 
gressive state libraries are in this class 
nowadays. They are the center of library 
work in the state, and with many of them 
is combined, in a more or less close way, 
the work of what is called the library com- 
mission, that is, organizing the libraries of 
the state, and sending out traveling libra- 
ries. It is quite plain, I think, that there 
is a line of distinction here which may be 
properly drawn. 

The great difficulty which immediately 
arises is that of interference with local 
government. Most men, when they get 
into a position of considerable power in 
the state, begin to believe at once that 
their official authority should extend over 
local offices. It is the same feeling exactly 
which affects a Liberal nobleman in Eng- 
land when he becomes a member of the 
House of lords. He becomes a Conserva- 
tive and feels his power. Now this ques- 
tion of interfering with local government 
is undoubtedly a very serious one. The 
writer of this paper recently advocated the 
granting of supervisory power to state 
boards of charities, over county and mu- 
nicipal almshouses and prisons. Not abso- 
lute authority was asked for, but the super- 
vision and inspection by a central board 
over local institutions. The same principle 
may apply here. There is, however, one 
difference, and it lies in the fact that libra- 
rians are usually equipped for their work. 
They have had general and specific train- 
ing in the work which they are appointed 
to do. In the case mentioned above, the 
heads of the local institutions know little 
or nothing about the duties which they 
are appointed and elected to carry out; in 
other words, they are simply political. Un- 
questionably a central authority causes a 
raising of standards. There is always a 
belief, I think fairly well founded, that the 
head of a great central institution and his 
assistants are in closer touch with all ad- 
vanced movements. Now, if this knowl- 
edge and power can be communicated to 
local libraries with sympathy and tact, 
and not merely with authority, then, I 



think, the central library should have cer- 
tain rights of supervision over the other 
libraries in the state. I am not sure that 
I know when or where to draw the line. 
I am a believer in both local government 
and central authority. I fancy that the 
state library authorities of New York will 
affirm that their system works satisfactor- 
ily. By the last report of the New York 
state library it is noted that there are four 
hundred and six libraries in the state 
under direct supervision of the central 
library at Albany. As the library is a part 
of the state educational system, this seems 
entirely appropriate. You must recall also 
that in New York the State library grants 
charters to other libraries in the state, and 
makes allotments of certain state funds in 
the Extension department, when these are 
called for by local libraries. Here, it is 
readily seen, are several strong points of 
connection between the central and local 
authorities, which in other states might 
seem overdone. 

As is well known to you all, the Cali- 
fornia plan is not so rigid as the New 
York; ar>d the supervision is much milder, 
and covers county libraries more particu- 
larly. Which state gets the better results? 
That, I fancy, can be shown very soon 
when the California system receives a 
longer trial. We should wait and decide 
the case on its merits. 

In both states mentioned above, the sys- 
tem is undoubtedly good. The danger is in 
too much mechanism; for system is not 
everything. Considerable initiative should 
be allowed to local libraries. I have a 
feeling that the same kind and amount of 
supervision and inspection which a state , 
superintendent of public instruction main-lr 
tains over the schools of the state, is about 
what we would all agree to. Under certain 
conditions, such supervision may be au- 
thoritative, and rightly so. In Indiana the 
State library has no authority over local 
libraries. The local libraries of the state 
are registered, and are assisted by the 
State library whenever they call upon us 
for references, books, and in any other way 
deemed fit. The documents of the state 
are distributed to the local libraries by 



STATE LIBRARIES 



701 



authority of law. Other service is given 
voluntarily. So far, this is working out 
satisfactorily. The writer feels certain that 
\ the state authorities should fix qualifica- 
tions for librarians of local libraries. These 
qualifications should apply to both general 
education and technical training. This re- 
quirement, however, could easily be lodged 
in the general statutes and not in the State 
library, though the State library might be 
made the executive in this work. The 
following, I believe, is always necessary 
and should be made legal and not left 
voluntary, namely: The lending of books, 
assistance by check-lists, references, and 
opinions about books, and the visiting and 
encouragement by lectures if necessary by 
the staff of the State library. If done with 
tact and skill, this would always bring 
about good feeling. Intelligent assistance 
cannot be resented. The question is not, 
Are libraries well organized? That we 
must have, but organization must never 
be carried so far as to be cumbersome 
and fall of its own weight. A question 
more important is, Do people read intel- 
ligently? Is the love of reading good books 
Jv extended by supervision and authority and 
organization? If not, these are failures. 
My position then is, that there should be 
a certain amount of supervision by State 
libraries, but that the details must be 
worked out by practice and experience; 
that a large share of initiative should be 
left with the local community. In many 
states this supervision and organization 
are lodged in the library commission, 
which, of course, takes it out of the prov- 
ince of the State library unless the two 
are under one management. 

The PRESIDENT: We would like to 
hear a little discussion of Mr. Brown's 
admirable paper. 

Mr. BR1GHAM (Iowa) : It seems to me 
that the work, so well outlined by Mr. 
Brown, belongs to the library commission, 
and, when the library commission is oper- 
ated by the State library, I would fully 
agree with all his suggestions. But I have 
always fancied that there are two trends 
to the library work in every state: one 
centripetal, and the other centrifugal. 



The library commission is entirely centrif- 
ugal, reaching out in its missionary work 
over the entire state. The province of the 
State library is a drawing in. It is dis- 
tinctively a reference library, and should 
have on its shelves that which people come 
from afar to get. While I have no question 
but that the work of the library commis- 
sion can be operated along with that of 
the State library, as it is in California 
and other states, yet I think the line of 
distinction should, always be kept between 
the missionary and the distinctively ref- 
erence work. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) : In Rhode Island, 
when the State library came into the field, 
we found the Department of education 
directing the extension work, so we have 
not done what we otherwise would have 
done in that connection. 

Mrs. SPENCER (Mich.) : Mr. President. 
It largely lies with the state librarian what 
the course of the library shall be. Now, 
in the State of Michigan we have a rather 
complicated situation. The educational 
affairs of each county are entirely under 
the county Commissioner of schools. Un- 
der him are the local school officers, and 
over him stands a Superintendent of public 
education, who comes in touch with li- 
braries through the distribution of the 
biennial funds which go for the support 
of the township and district libraries. If 
the state library, or the library commis- 
sion undertook to interfere with that ma- 
chinery, it would be very detrimental to 
the library interests of the counties. But 
the state library as it stands today in our 
state is a library for the people of the 
state. We have a reference library, a law 
library, and a documents library which 
are kept absolutely intact for reference. 
Then we have a large circulating depart- 
ment, from which any one in the state 
may receive books. This has popularized 
the library. The objection can no more 
be brought up that the taxpayers are pay- 
ing for the support of a library which is 
of no possible use to them, and the legis- 
lators have become so interested that we 
have no difficulty whatever in getting the 
money for the support of the library. 



702 



Mr. BRIGHAM (Iowa): Is it purely 
voluntary with them whether they become 
associate? 

Mrs. SPENCER: It is; but they have 
to become associate with the state library 
before they receive the regular distribution 
of documents, free of all expense. As 
associate libraries they are required to 
make an annual report to the state library, 
and these reports are embodied in our 
"Biennial report." The advantages are so 
great that they are more than anxious to 
come into touch with the state library. 

The registered library reports come in 
the report of the commission. That was 
a difference which we made because we 
did not want to take in all the small li- 
braries as associate. A registered library 
is one which has a collection of one hun- 
dred or more books, and wishes to receive 
only the most important state publications. 



SECOND SESSION 

July 4, 10 A. M., being a joint session 

with the American association 

of law libraries 

The meeting was called to order by the 
President of the State library association. 

Mr. Feazel, President of the Law library 
association, read the paper of Charles C. 
Soule of Boston on 



FOREIGN LAW IN STATE LIBRARIES 

Our state libraries are peculiarly Amer- 
ican institutions, which have developed 
gradually to meet the literary needs of in- 
telligent and progressive communities, al- 
ways eager for light. Their scope is 
special, and different from the scope of 
other libraries in this country. Besides 
other activities which they are developing, 
they have four principal functions, namely: 

1 Service of the legislature and its com- 
mittees, and of citizens favoring or oppos- 
ing legislation. 

2 Service of the governor and the ex- 
ecutive departments. 

3 Service of the supreme court and its 
practitioners. 

4 Service of the library and school sys- 



tem of the state by providing such ref- 
erence books of general use as local 
libraries cannot afford. 

The question to be answered by this 
paper is this: for these four functions, 
what modern foreign law-books would be 
useful in a state library? 

Foreign law may be divided into two 
classes: 

a. The law of countries using the Eng- 
lish language and the English common-law 
system. 

b. The law of countries using neither. 

In the first class come Great Britain and 
Ireland, the English colonies, and Liberia. 
In legislative law and methods, and in 
court-made law, the records and precedents 
of these countries which are dealing with 
problems of government and of commercial 
and social development very like our own, 
on the basis of similar systems of law 
are evidently of great value in framing 
legislation, and in suggesting precedents 
for decisions on all points where our own 
records and precedents do not throw suffi- 
cient light on new questions. 

It will probably be conceded that as soon 
as a state library has made a fair start in 
American literature, it ought to begin to 
collect, so far as its funds may allow, the 
laws and law reports of England, Canada, 
Australia, Ireland, Scotland, and, if pos- 
sible, of the other British colonies and de- 
pendencies, somewhat in the order named, 
governing its selection of books according 
to the questions which are pressing from 
time to time in courts and legislatures. 
The Canadian and Australian conditions 
are so like ours, especially in our younger 
states, that their laws and decisions, run- 
ning parallel with, and sometimes ahead 
of, our own, are always interesting, and 
often illuminating. 

But when we come to consider the law 
of other countries, especially those of con- 
tinental Europe, the need of foreign litera- 
ture and the canons of selection are not 
so evident. 

Would such foreign law-books be useful 
in any of the four main functions of a 
state library? 



STATE LIBRARIES 



703 



The answer may be affirmative in several 
particulars. 

For use in examining and framing legis- 
lation, the codes and "usual laws" of for- 
eign countries are valuable for comparison. 

For reviewing and testing details of 
method in executive offices, the adminis- 
trative laws of European countries are 
equally valuable. 

In the courts, foreign law may have 
three uses: for the study of comparative 
jurisprudence, in questions involving the 
commercial relations of our citizens abroad, 
and in questions arising out of the former 
citizenship of the immigrants who are 
flocking into all parts of our country. 

The last use named for the courts would 
apply also to inquiries coming from town 
libraries to the state library on behalf of 
naturalized or resident foreigners. 

In very large libraries, with ample funds, 
it might be desirable to go further, and 
get not only the laws, but also decisions 
of the courts, sets of the leading law peri- 
odicals, and some of the text-books which 
discuss questions of "private international 
law." 

If these views are accepted, a further 
question may arise, how far is it wise to 
buy books in foreign languages? The an- 
swer depends on two considerations: are 
court interpreters available for making 
translations, and are there any competent 
translators among the resident foreigners? 

It seems clear space and funds allow- 
ing that all translations of foreign law 
into English may properly be placed in a 
state library. The civil codes of France, 
Germany, and Belgium have been trans- 
lated; the comparative law bureau of the 
American bar association has announced 
a forthcoming translation of the new Swiss 
code; there are English versions of foreign 
commercial laws, and of Spanish law as 
practised in Mexico, the Philippines, etc., 
and a comprehensive series entitled "Com- 
mercial laws of the world," already pub- 
lished in German,, is now being translated 
into English. 

French, German, and Spanish are so 
generally read by cultivated Americans 
Italian may perhaps be added that a 



large library might surely include foreign 
law in these languages without having to 
rely on court interpreters. Dutch, the 
Scandinavian tongues, Russian, Hungarian, 
Greek, and Turkish are "caviare to the 
general," but there are many translations 
of continental law into French and German 
which are available where there have been 
no English editions. 

The various needs above mentioned have 
already impelled several state, university, 
and bar libraries to develop departments 
of foreign law. There are three, perhaps 
four, such collections in American libraries 
which might be called first-class, and a 
number of other libraries have made fair 
beginnings. Information as to foreign legal 
bibliography is obtainable in this country, 
and sufficient experiments have been made 
to furnish experienced advice for librarians 
who may become interested in this subject. 

The PRESIDENT: The remainder of 
the session will be taken up with the dis- 
cussion on special research work in libra- 
ries which are called upon to give infor- 
mation to public officials, legislatures, and 
lawyers. 

Mr. Godard will be the presiding officer, 
and' I now have the pleasure of turning 
the meeting over to him. 

The CHAIRMAN (Mr. Godard of Conn.) : 
We are all interested in the subject of 
legislative reference, and in the plan for 
reporting legislation, which was started 
under the auspices of this Association last 
year. In order to have a service which 
would be capable of adaptation to the 
needs of each of the forty-eight states, we 
had to have something of a general and 
all-inclusive make-up, and then leave it to 
the libraries to adapt it to their own par- 
ticular needs. We were fortunate in find- 
ing an organization, the Law reporting 
company of New York, which had already 
inaugurated a private legislative service 
along definite lines. When I found out 
that they had machinery already in opera- 
tion which could furnish such a service 
for us, I made bold one day, on my own 
account, to go down to New York and call 
on their Secretary, Mr. Allen. When I 
first made the proposition he would not 



704 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



listen to me; but fortunately in the end I 
was able to get him to consider it a little. 
Then he began to think of its possibilities; 
but he would not consider it seriously. 
Finally we were able to make arrange- 
ments so that we could report in 1908 a 
definite proposition for a trial of what 
seemed to be a satisfactory national legis- 
lative reference bureau. 

I will now read our report of last year 
in which the proposition was definitely put 
before you.* Then I would like to have 
those who have subscribed to the service, 
and any others who have definite opinions 
upon it, frankly tell us how it has worked 
out, how they think it can be improved, 
and how they think it might be cut down. 
I think it is our duty to ourselves and 
others interested to give our actual ex- 
perience and opinions. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.): We used the 
service the past year, and found it gen- 
erally satisfactory. I recently called on 
the Law reporting company and talked 
with them at length on the whole subject. 
They feel that they have learned many 
lessons this year, and that they will be 
able to do very much better work in the 
coming year. It is a peculiar thing that 
prior to this time no one has known how 
many bills were introduced in legislatures, 
and the extent of the subject-matter cov- 
ered by them. 

It takes about the time of one clerk to 
keep the routine of the system in operation 
in our library. It was exceedingly valu- 
able to us, to the legislature, state offi- 
cers, and political leaders. It meant more 
to us than mere notice; it meant the ob- 
taining of information which had never 
been obtainable before. 

Mrs. SPENCER (Mich.) : I cannot ex- 
press myself too strongly with regard to 
the benefits which the Michigan state 
library has received from this service. 
For several years we had collected much 
material from the states concerning the 
legislation in progress. In that way we 
had grown gradually into an appreciation 
of the value of such a service as this. The 

*1909 "Proceedings," p. 32. 



one hundred dollars which we paid last, 
year was so small for the benefits received 
that I really sometimes felt that we ought 
to offer to pay more. 

Mr. SMALL (Iowa): I would like to 
know to what extent the service includes 
local and special legislation. 

The CHAIRMAN: It has been an all- 
inclusive service this year local and all 
in the belief that it was better to send 
out all legislation and let each library 
select what was needed in its state, rather 
than to let somebody who did not know 
the immediate needs and requirements of 
any particular state try to sort it for them. 
Now that is one of the questions to be 
considered this morning, whether it would 
be advisable and desirable to cut down 
the service at the central source, and run 
the risk of getting what we need for our 
own state. 

Mr. SMALL: I know that in some 
states, especially in New England, they 
had many local laws. These would hardly 
apply to other states, and would make this 
card system cumbersome. But when we 
attempt to draw a line, possibly there is 
danger there. The opinion of one person 
may not meet the needs of another. 

Mr. GALBREATH (Ohio) : There is one 
point which I wish to suggest along the 
line of this discussion. While we may 
know what we wish this year, we do not 
know what will be the subjects of chief 
interest one or two years hence. We pro- 
pose in the Ohio state library to keep 
these cards for a number of years, at least, 
and make the work cumulative, so that we 
shall have the benefit of it for three or 
four years back. If we select, or have 
selected for us a portion of it, we could 
not use it in that way. I think that is an 
argument in favor of the plan which has 
been followed in this experimental year. 
While I am on my feet I may as well beai 
testimony to our use of the system. We 
have found the service entirely satisfac- 
tory, and I have been surprised that so 
much could be given for so little money. 
I am sure that the cards for our own state 
were worth more than we paid for all. 
The cards were sent with wonderful 



STATE LIBRARIES 



705 



promptness. They were never more than 
a week behind time. We did not need to 
make our own cards for our Ohio bills; 
we used these cards. This cost us less 
than it would have cost to have indexed 
them ourselves. Our legislature at the 
last session authorized the establishment 
of a legislative reference department. I 
am very glad that we commenced this 
service, and we shall certainly continue it, 
even if it does cost considerably more in 
the future. 

Mr. ANDREWS (John Crerar Library): 
This is the off year for legislation. Next 
year almost all the legislatures will be in 
session. I wish to ask the Chairman 
whether he has any figures as to the 
difference between this year and next in 
the number of bills, cards, and report 
sheets that we shall have to handle? 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.): Last year the 
number was 13,000; two legislatures are 
still in session, so they probably figure on 
a total of about 15,000. Next year there 
will be forty-two or forty-three legislatures 
in session and there will be probably about 
80,000 bills. Last year there were fifteen 
or twenty thousand progress sheets and 
that number will probably triple. 

I asked Mr. Allen this definite question, 
"Would you advocate abandoning the cards 
that are of purely local interest?" He 
answered that it would not save much to 
do that. You would have to have a person 
in charge who would know just what to 
throw out. You might save in stock, post- 
age, etc., perhaps a hundred dollars, but 
you would lose two hundred in trying to 
find out what to exclude. If you left out 
all corporation laws, as local, you might 
throw out a law relating to an important 
public service corporation which all the 
states would like to know about. An elim- 
ination list would have to be a positive 
list. 

Mr. SMALL (Iowa): That is what I 
had reference to. I think it is very desir- 
able that all bills should be included, 
rather than risk having what we want 
thrown out things that would interest one 
state and not the others. 

Mr. GALBREATH: I would like to add 



one word to the remark I made a moment 
ago. There is one library in which all the 
cards would be desired by every one pat- 
ronizing the institution that is the cards 
of its own legislature. If we cut out some 
cards, the list for our own state would 
not be complete. 

Mr. CLARKE (Mich.) : If I may answer 
the question as to the bookkeeping side of 
the cards. I have had one season's ex- 
perience with it, and it is my opinion, that 
it will take the whole time of one clerk 
to enter the action upon the bills on the 
cards. We throw out local and special 
bills. 

The CHAIRMAN: I was wondering if 
what is dead wood for Michigan would 
really prove dead wood in all the other 
states? 

Mrs. SPENCER: No, it would not. 

The CHAIRMAN: That is the vital 
point. It seems to me that the question 
is whether it is safer to ask somebody at 
a distance to adapt things to local condi- 
tions, or to take all the material and adapt 
it ourselves. 

It gives me pleasure to say that Mr. 
Allen has just come in. He can answer 
our questions better than we could guess 
before his arrival. For his information, 
let our "experience meeting" continue. How 
about Pennsylvania? 

Mr. MKIRDY (Penn.): There is one 
new criticism that I would like to make, 
one which I think is more important than 
any thus far touched upon. This criticism 
is that there is no uniformity in the con- 
densing of the titles on the cards. I have 
handled all the cards this year. We have 
often been misled by the titles into sending 
for bills in which we thought we should 
be interested. They have proved to be 
different fiom what the titles indicated. I 
would suggest to Mr. Allen that if they 
used a uniform system of condensing titles, 
and of indicating whether a bill is an 
original, an amendment, or an unimportant 
or special measure, it would add materially 
to the value of the service. So far as 
Pennsylvania is concerned we would not 
be without the service, even if they raised 
the price somewhat. We have had it for 



706 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



six months, and it is a splendid thing. 
Outside the one criticism which I have 
made, I do not see how it could be im- 
proved at the present time. 

Mr. ALLEN: The matter of uniformity 
in condensing titles is a matter of the 
personality of the man who does the work. 
We have employed the best trained legis- 
lative lawyers that we could find. I do 
not know of any way to get a satisfactory 
result except to train them at this work 
for a number of years. Ultimately we 
shall find those who will do it satisfac- 
torily. There have been so many new 
things this year to attend to that we have 
not been able to give each all the attention 
it may have needed. There are some 
states where the briefing has to be done 
from titles, which do not indicate much 
as to the contents of the bills. I doubt if 
uniformity is the word to use, perhaps 
clearness and conciseness is better. When 
you have one man doing the work for one 
or two states, and another for two or three 
other states, the difference in their person- 
alities will show in the result. 

Mr. MKIRDY: Could you not prepare a 
series of model titles, covering certain 
classes of bills? If this were done and 
they were followed, I think you would se- 
cure both clarity and uniformity if you 
will pardon me for persisting in the word 
uniformity. In addition to clarity we 
should have uniformity, so that the parties 
receiving this service can accurately de- 
termine the relative value of a bill. 

Mr. ALLEN: We do not do the con- 
densing from an examination of the bill, 
but from an examination of the title; and, 
if it is an amendment, of the law which is 
amended. If we waited for the bills to be 
printed, or to get typewritten copies of the 
bills which are not printed in many states 
the bulk of the bills are not printed at 
all you would not get your cards for 
many weeks after the bills are introduced, 
and in many cases you would not get them 
at all. 

Mr. BROWN (Ind.) : I desire to mention 
one or two reasons why Mr. Lapp and I, 
after due consideration, declined the ser- 
vice. The first is the matter of expense; 



the second is that it is unwise for the head 
of the legislative reference department to 
use his time to weed out the dead wood. 

Mr. LAPP (Ind.) : I am not inclined to 
oppose anything because it is a big propo- 
sition. But I am inclined to think that 
the amount of work which is necessary in 
using this service will make the less im- 
portant the supreme thing. In legislative 
work the first thing we do, when we wish 
to draft a bill, is to look at the laws on 
the subject in our own and other states, 
and at the court decisions and adminis- 
trative ruling on them. If we can find a 
law which has been enacted and enforced, 
we should accept that as better than a bill 
which has not been passed. In case we find 
that there has been no legislation, we are 
then glad to use bills as models. For that 
purpose we keep a file of the bills of a 
number of states. If we had this service 
of 80,000 bills, it would take the time of 
one clerk to keep it up; then the head of 
the department must go through the cards 
to keep in touch with them. While I think 
the service is a splendid one, and that 
there is a possibility that it can be used 
in practical legislative reference work, still 
I think it has been a little overdone. 

The most impressive thing I have heard 
about it was from a famous political boss 
in one of the eastern states. I had a con- 
versation with him in which he said that 
this was one of the greatest services a 
state library could render. I was impressed 
because of the fact that he is not generally 
supposed to be interested in progressive 
legislation, and he looked at it from the 
standpoint of a complete, comprehensive 
service. I am very glad that the service 
has been started, and of the success which 
it has had. It is more than likely that 
Indiana would eventually come in in a 
limited way. It is a matter of funds and 
of relative importance of things. We 
should like to have it for general informa- 
tion and reference uses, if we could get it 
and make it effective. I see one further 
possibility of using it. There are state 
boards and commissions which are anxious 
to get all legislation upon their particular 
subjects. For instance, the state board of 



STATE LIBRARIES 



707 



charities might wish information concern- 
ing all bills relating to charities, the rail- 
road commission concerning railroads, the 
labor bureau, all bills relating to labor, 
etc. They might perhaps co-operate in 
getting and using the cards. Then in some 
states like New York, Illinois, and Massa- 
chusetts they have commissions working 
upon various subjects which do far more 
intensive work than Is done in other 
states. In connection with such investiga- 
tions this service would be splendid, in 
showing what bills had been introduced 
during a number of years. 

The CHAIRMAN: I am in hearty sym- 
pathy with everything that Mr. Lapp has 
said. In the first place, a law that has been 
passed and tried is better than any bill 
as a model. In Connecticut we have found 
that the best way of getting at past legis- 
lation is to take the New York index of 
legislation, and paste each number on a 
card, year by year. That gives us a minute 
index to the past legislation of the several 
states. The bills which we receive are 
classified by the same system, so that pro- 
posed legislation is covered. Now in this 
card service I do not propose to check 
up the 80,000 cards, but I do propose to 
check the bills. When the cards come in 
I shall select those in which we are spe- 
cially interested. They, also, can be filed 
according to the New York classification. 
Then we shall keep track of only those 
bills which interest us. We shall not throw 
away the other cards, we shall simply 
select those which we need. 

Mr. WRITTEN (N. Y.) : There must be 
some selection, it seems to me either 
local or by a central body. It may be 
well to recall the various uses to which 
the service may be put by legislative ref- 
erence departments. One is to secure 
model bills, when no law has been enacted 
and tried, or where a bill has some novel 
features. For instance, in smoke-legisla- 
tion there might be some bill, containing 
novel features, and well worked out, but 
not passed. We would like to have that 
on file in case it were needed. In addition 
to that we want to use these bills some- 
times for reference purposes. Occasionally 



it is of interest in connection with pending 
legislation to know what other states are 
doing, in order that we may be able to 
correspond and get material that they may 
have collected, or simply to know how the 
subject is being treated in other states. 
Then there is the advantage of the index 
to local bills. This is not an advantage 
in states where they have good indexes; 
but it is an advantage in states where such 
indexes are not published, and where the 
library can use the cards as an index to 
the bills of its own state. As Mr. Galbreath 
has said, this use alone may be worth 
more than the cost of the entire set of 
cards, even if you throw all the rest away. 
Then, too, there is the comparative legis- 
lation use of this material. This does not 
concern the legislative reference library 
especially; it concerns more a large public 
library that wants to have on file material 
that will be called for by persons, organiza- 
tions, and corporations that are interested 
in the legislation of all the states. In a 
public library this service would doubtless 
be valuable to many national organizations 
that are promoting legislation throughout 
the country. They could here find just 
what progress their movement was making. 
Undoubtedly there is an enormous mass 
of this material that is of no use to the 
legislative library. It is of use to the 
public library that wants to make it avail- 
able to the organizations, corporations, and 
lawyers who are interested in that sort of 
thing; but it is not of special use to the 
legislative library, and the legislative li- 
brary ordinarily will want to select. The 
question is whether the selection shall be 
done by the library itself or by some cen- 
tral organization. My own opinion is that 
it will save the legislative library a great 
deal of work to have a part at least of the 
selection made by some central bureau. 
You could easily eliminate the local laws 
in all states except your own, if you cared 
to keep a full file of your own state for 
index purposes, and that forms a large 
part of the total legislation. If the local 
selection is made at all carefully, it will 
take much of the time of some one who 
probably could employ this time to better 



708 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



advantage. Mr. Godard is not in favor of 
selection; but it seems to me that with 
the great mass of material, selection is 
indispensable. We have got to select con- 
stantly, and we cannot do all the selection 
ourselves; we have got to rely upon other 
agencies for a large portion of the selec- 
tion. Mr. Mkirdy brought up the ques- 
tion of uniform headings. That is very 
important, because if we can have a uni- 
form system of subject headings for these 
cards and use the same system in our 
index to legislation and to our reference 
material on legislation, we then have under 
one term, and perhaps in one file, all of 
the material that is of interest in relation 
to any particular subject. 

Mr. BRUNCKEN (Library of Congress) : 
The California state library is situated so 
that it cannot get as full value from this 
service as can those libraries that are 
nearer to New York; but even if we were 
nearer, it seemed to me and I think Mr. 
Gillis still agrees with me that the ac- 
cumulation of all these cards would not be 
worth the candle. For we all agree that 
among the bills there are but few that will 
prove of any interest to us. Moreover, of 
the bills which are of interest, most relate 
to subjects which have been widely dis- 
cussed, perhaps for years. If the legisla- 
tive reference librarian does what he 
should do, he will be informed before his 
legislature meets concerning the societies 
and associations which will introduce bills 
in the legislatures on important subjects, 
and he can write to them for information. 
In that way it will be possible to obtain 
most of the bills of value. The great mass 
of the bills will be those which we would 
much rather do without. 

Now, it is perfectly true that theoreti- 
cally it would be highly desirable to have 
in each state a repository where all the 
bills which have been introduced in state 
legislatures and in Congress could be 
found; so that if once in ten or fifteen 
years somebody should want a particular 
bill he could find it. But I do not think 
it worth while for us to spend our time 
and the money of the state in providing 
material which will probably never be 



used. This being so, I advised Mr. Gillis, 
when I was in California, not to subscribe 
for this service, and that advice has been 
followed so far. 

If, however, a library does subscribe for 
these bills, I should advise that it get all. 
It has been said that many of the local 
bills are of no interest whatever. I have 
had an object lesson which convinces me 
that that is not a correct principle. Some 
years ago I made a compilation of state 
laws relating to fire, trespass, etc. When 
I came to the southern states I found that 
there were very few general laws, but a 
large number of special enactments relat- 
ing to particular counties, in which some 
particular idea had been worked out which 
was highly interesting and suggestive. 
Such are laws relating to the smoking of 
pipes and cigars within the turpentine 
forests of North Carolina. Now, while no 
state might wish to pass exactly those 
laws, still they have suggested provisions 
which have been enacted in general laws 
by other states. 

Mr. DUDGEON (Wis.) : It seems to me 
that experience teaches one very definite 
principle in legislative reference work, and 
that is that a legislative reference library 
should not acquire much material, but 
should make a little carefully selected ma- 
terial very useful and accessible and easily 
handled. It seems to me that this report- 
ing system must have some effective se- 
lective process before it is going to be of 
very much value to a legislative reference 
library. I appreciate fully, however, its 
value as a matter of record and history. 

The CHAIRMAN: I think we have got- 
ten an idea when we say that there are 
to be 80,000 bills that we are going to 
make an attempt to have all of these 
80,000 bills accessible. These cards are a 
protection to warn us against many of the 
bills. Again, when a bill is passed, we 
take its card under "proposed" legislation 
and place it under "legislation," and* we 
can then know that this bill on this subject 
was signed on such a day. This would 
give us an index of legislation which would 
be up to date. 

Mr. MKIRDY: The chief bogie seems 



STATE LIBRARIES 



709 



to be the fear that it will consume a great 
deal of time to make the selection. During 
the past six months I went over every one 
of the cards myself, and I want to tell 
you that it did not take over half an hour 
daily, and the 80,000 would not take much 
more time. If we did not have the cards 
we should have to spend as much time in 
reading newspapers and magazines to get 
the information we want. 

Mr. ANDREWS: Reference has been 
made to the use which a large public li- 
brary could make of this material. The 
John Crerar has been one of the sub- 
scribers this year. I, perhaps, subscribed 
partly from a sense of duty to the Com- 
mittee, of which I am a member, but mainly 
because it did seem a useful experiment. 
This is from the point of view, really, of a 
library catering to students of comparative 
legislation, a need which Mr. Lapp has 
indicated the state library ought to fill, 
and which I think has been neglected. You 
have been speaking entirely from the point 
of view of your legislative reference bu- 
reaus, and you have forgotten the broader 
demands that come upon the state library, 
because we consider that we are perform- 
ing the functions of a state library in 
Chicago. We had made a previous experi- 
ment along this line, and there we stand 
in a position only occupied by the New 
York public library and the Library of 
Congress. These three libraries receive a 
copy of every bill introduced into Congress. 
It is an immense mass of material, and 
we cannot afford to keep it in the most 
accessible form. Yet our use of it is thirty 
or forty times that mentioned by Mr. 
Bruncken. Instead of once in fifteen years 
we have three or four times a year a man 
who is willing to go through that mass to 
get what he wants. In regard to the cost 
we are on the border line. The number 
of people interested in this material in a 
city like Chicago is not large enough to 
make us willing to contemplate any increase 
in the cost of the subscription; rather, we 
would prefer to have it simplified so that 
it would cost us less. And, I may say 
what has not been brought out, that if all 
the state libraries would subscribe, the 



service would be profitable to the company, 
and we might hope for its continuance at 
a cheaper rate. We decided in the beginning 
that we could only treat the material as 
Mr. Galbreath treats it; that is, we ar- 
ranged the cards by subject, with a sub- 
arrangement by states, and we arranged 
the reporting sheets by states and then 
by date. Now the reference-desk reports 
th'at the actual use is not as great as we 
hoped. They find that the main interest 
people have in coming to us is not to find 
the bills introduced, but the bills passed 
before they get into the indexes. Here 
I wish to make a suggestion to Mr. Allen. 
If any one is looking up a particular bill 
we do not think it too much to ask him 
to look through the sheets. But the ques- 
tion that comes to us most often is, what 
legislation has been passed this year on a 
certain subject? and that is a difficult 
question to answer with the present form 
of the reporting sheets. If the company 
would issue a separate sheet on different 
colored paper so that it could be easily 
distinguished a list of the bills passed by 
each legislature, we could check those up 
very quickly, and we would have a record 
which would answer most questions. For 
our purposes this would be a great im- 
provement, with only a small increase of 
work at the central office. If they cannot 
do that, I think I shall undertake next year 
to have the reporting sheets checked for 
certain subjects, as to passage only. If I 
repeat the previous speakers, I do so de- 
liberately in order that you may see that 
the same difficulties occur in treating the 
material from entirely different stand- 
points. The reference-desk reports that 
the mistakes in assigning the subject head- 
ings form perhaps the most frequent cause 
of complaint. We recognize that the first 
year must produce more errors in this, 
and in the treatment of the numbering, 
than will occur in future years. They also 
object that the subject headings used are 
in some cases too broad. They would like 
to have "taxation" more closely defined 
into the various forms of taxation; they 
would like to have "public utilities" much 
more closely classified, and they also say 



710 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



that they would like to have local and 
private bills eliminated. I appreciate fully 
that it is much easier to include than to 
exclude, and that we must pay a much 
higher price in proportion to the number 
of bills treated, if we are going to have a 
selection by the company. But it seems 
to me that the general trend of this dis- 
cussion shows that my own peoples' view 
is correct that a selection by the com- 
pany is well worth the extra proportional 
cost of the service. 

Mr. BELDEN (Mass.): I am very glad 
to say that our experience in Massa- 
chusetts has been in accord with the favor- 
able testimony of the other librarians who 
have subscribed to this service. This 
year we have found it impracticable to 
check all of the bills as the reports were 
received. We tried to do this in the be- 
ginning, but we found that it took more 
time than the assistant who had charge 
was able to give, so we checked the bill 
only when we knew in what way it was 
finally disposed of. A considerable num- 
ber of the legislators have used the index, 
and have experienced a good deal of satis- 
faction in the service. We have also been 
able, because of the service, to have on 
hand a number of important bills. It does 
seem to me, as Mr. Andrews has sug- 
gested, that it would be very serviceable 
to the libraries to receive a check list, 
once a week or once in two weeks, giving 
the number of the bills that have been 
passed. I am afraid I am wavering in my 
opinion as to the advisability of having a 
record of all the bills introduced into the 
various legislatures. I think if a state 
library could receive cards showing all 
the legislation of its own state, and then 
could have eliminated the local and private 
bills of other states, that in a very large 
measure our wants would be met. Of 
course there would be a danger of losing 
now and then some more or less important 
piece of legislation; but I think there are 
other ways in which we could keep track 
of this. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) : I think we have 
overjudged the purpose of the index. In 
Rhode Island we have followed the system 



used by Ohio and Massachusetts, and filed 
by subjects. A question that came to us 
this year will serve as a good illustration 
of the usefulness of the system. Somebody 
asked how many states had already passed 
"Columbus day" bills, and it was answered 
within five minutes. I cannot understand 
why it is necessary that the chief of the 
department should see every card. He 
can go to the trays and see at his leisure 
the subjects that he desires to look at. 
It seems to me it is making a mountain 
out of a mole hill to consider the number 
of bills, although I admit that we do not 
want the local bills. But what is the use 
of the Law reporting company's furnishing 
a Massachusetts card for the Massachu- 
setts state library, and throwing the rest 
in the waste basket? They have got to 
print them all anyway. 

The CHAIRMAN: Mr. Meyer, of the 
Library of Congress, is here, and under- 
stands something of the plan that has 
been outlined for that "Monthly list of state 
publications," which interests us so much. 

Mr. MEYER: I understand Mr. Thomp- 
son plans to include in the list the slip 
laws, if he can keep track of them by the 
assistance of the state librarians. 

The CHAIRMAN: That is what I had 
in mind. The suggestion has been made 
that it would be a good idea to have a 
monthly list of laws passed, and the propo- 
sition has been tentatively accepted by 
the Document department of the Library 
of Congress. 

Mr. ANDREWS: Unless their work is 
far more prompt than it has been in the 
past the Law reporting company will be 
two or three months ahead of them. 

The CHAIRMAN: That is what I wanted 
to have brought out. 

Mr. POOLE (New York City) : We have 
heard a great deal from the state libraries; 
I do not know that we have heard anything 
from libraries that are used solely by 
lawyers. Mr. Andrews's institution prob- 
ably has a certain amount of that use. I 
want to say that the Bar association of 
New York considers this service a very 
valuable addition to its tools. I cannot 
say much of its use, because it has only 



STATE LIBRARIES 



711 



been with us six months or so and few 
people know anything about it. We have 
tried to give it the publicity which it ought 
to have, and those who do know of it have 
found it extremely useful, and consider it 
an unusually profitable investment. It 
seems to me from our point of view that the 
service for each state should be complete, 
so that the local library can make its 
own choice. I am afraid if other people 
choose they will leave out things that we 
need. It might be possible to leave out cer- 
tain states. I doi not think we would want 
to do it; but I should think if the service 
were adjusted so that one institution 
should have only a certain number of 
states, that might reduce the work. And 
I think that in this coming year, if we 
continue the service as I hope we may, if 
the price is not too much, that we will 
post merely for the passage of the bill. 
We have tried this past year to keep the 
whole up religiously. Some method of 
showing clearly and promptly the passage 
of bills, and having those lists separate 
from the other daily information-lists, 
would give us practically all the informa- 
tion that we need. An index to current 
legislation is of immense value. I was 
rather surprised to hear other opinions 
brought out. They were very interesting, 
but they were very surprising. 

Mr. ALLEN: You are not going to have 
80,000 cards in 1911, and I hope you will 
never have them. In 1907 we had the most 
tremendous year in legislation that there 
has ever been, and we had about 80,000 
bills. In 1911 you will have 45,000 or 50,000. 
This year we had 14,000. That does not 
include Congress, of course. We ourselves 
are using this card system just as many 
of your libraries are, as it seemed unde- 
sirable to post the action on all bills. We 
posted on the twenty or twenty-five sub- 
jects in which we were specially interested. 
While it is ideal perhaps to post action on 
all the bills, the plan that the Committee 
put up to us to carry out was to give you 
this information in a way so that you could 
select and post what you wanted. That 
is the reason why on the daily report 
sheets the subject classification has been 



included in addition to the number of the 
bill, and the action taken on it. I do not 
see myself why it is not thoroughly prac- 
tical for each library to post only the 
subjects in which it is interested. I sup- 
pose that different methods of filing have 
been adopted by the different libraries. 
Some of you file in numerical order under 
states; others under subject classification. 
That is a matter of the individual needs 
of the library. If you are going to be 
called upon for bills by number, you want 
the cards filed numerically. If you are 
going to be called upon for all the bills on 
public utilities, for instance, you want to 
file by subject. This brings me to the 
subject classification which has been 
adopted. That was a good deal of bother 
to us. We took the New York index as 
one of the things to work it out from. Mr. 
Brigham, Mr. Godard, and I went over it, 
we submitted it to Mr. Belden, and he 
looked it over and made his suggestions, 
so that I do not claim any particular re- 
sponsibility for it. I made some sugges- 
tions as to how it might be made a little 
more efficient. But we are willing to use 
any classification that your Committee may 
make. You frame your classification, and 
we will follow it just as closely as we 
can. As to a plan for making the subject 
headings more uniform, and following the 
classification more closely, any rules that 
you will lay down we will, with all the 
intelligence we have, and all the energy 
that we can bring to it, get our readers 
to use it in making the classification and 
doing the briefing. It seems to me that 
you should assume the responsibility for 
the subject classification, and perhaps 
should draft a set of rules which are to 
guide us in drawing up our headings. 
Then, if each library, when it finds some- 
thing that is wrong, would call our atten- 
tion to it we should soon get our people 
trained so that you can get a service that 
is pretty satisfactory. 

It is going to cost a great deal more 
money to give this service, going to cost 
the libraries a great deal more money to 
have this service next year, than it did 
this year. When this thing was first 



712 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



brought to me two years ago, I did not 
think much of it because it did not appeal 
to me as a business proposition; but Mr. 
Brigham and Mr. Godard aroused my curi- 
osity, and that curiosity has been an ex- 
pensive proposition, as curiosity usually is, 
We are not charging anything for the col- 
lection of information and the material 
from which your matter is sifted out; but 
the actual cost of the preparation of the 
cards and reports the libraries have got 
to meet. Now, it is going to cost to give 
this service in 1911, not counting anything 
for collecting the material, simply for do- 
ing the briefing and classifying, printing 
the cards, and mailing them about $11,250. 
If this service is continued in 1911 we shall 
offer it generally to corporations. How 
many of them will take it I don't know. 
But if it is going to cost $11,250 we think 
that $10,000 ought to be in sight before 
we start. That means that it is going to 
cost forty libraries $250 a piece. And that 
does not leave us a single thing for the 
interest on the money that is being used, 
for the general office expense, or anything 
else. That is figured right down to the 
actual expense of doing this particular 
work in addition to the other work. The 
time may come when a hundred libraries 
and corporations will take the service and 
your expense can be reduced. I am talking 
of the expense now, based on the plan as 
at present followed. If you get a hundred 
libraries you can see that in the odd 
years the heavy years your expenses 
are going to be practically a hundred dol- 
lars a year. In the light years the even 
years if the thing is carried on for a 
few years more, perhaps the expense can 
be kept below a hundred dollars. You 
must figure that your expense will be dif- 
ferent in the odd and even years; one year 
it will be about three times as much as 
the next. And that expense will vary di- 
rectly with the number of libraries and 
the number of corporations that take it, 
because the chief expense is not in making 
a few more sets of cards, but in the initial 
work, the briefing, subject classification, 
and typesetting. I worked out all the 
figures very closely, and the figures I have 



given you for 1911 are based on furnishing 
forty sets of cards. If fifty libraries or 
corporations took the service the extra 
ten sets of cards probably could be made 
for $500 more. We want you to plan, and 
tell us what you want us to execute. You 
know what you want, we do not. We can 
do the work; we have the material and 
the staff. We are willing to go ahead and 
do this thing for two or three years more 
without making any money out of it, be- 
cause we think that if it gets well estab- 
lished it will become a necessity and there 
will be money in it then. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (Iowa): If your work 
has been fairly satisfactory to the few 
corporations which have been subscribers, 
haven't you every reason to expect that 
there will be a large list of subscribers 
outside the libraries which will bring the 
expense down? 

Mr. ALLEN : I have hopes in that direc- 
tion, but it is nothing that you can count 
on. This year we selected the corporations 
whose interests were not limited to one 
line of legislation, but which were in- 
terested in many lines all over the country. 
If we could offer the service for individual 
states there would be many corporations 
that would buy the reports for their states. 

Mr. ANDREWS: Would you kindly 
state what would be the effect of cutting 
the forty-five thousand bills in half? How 
much would that affect the subscription 
per library? 

Mr. ALLEN: It would not reduce the 
cost of briefing or classification. It would 
reduce the cost of printing, the amount 
of stock, and the postage. I think many 
of you have a mistaken idea as to the 
number of local bills. If you were to ap- 
point a committee to stay in our office 
through the year and do this eliminating, 
the number of bills you would throw out 
would surprise you in its smallness. I do 
not think that the cards will give you a 
proposition that will be heavy to handle. 
They come to you in numerical order. You 
file them in the same order, or select sub- 
jects, and file the cards for them. A clerk 
can do this from a subject list. The record 
can be kept from this list also. The ques- 



STATE LIBRARIES 



713 



tion of special reports on bills passed has 
been raised. We have tried to provide 
these reports this year. It is prefectly 
practicable and they can be furnished on 
separate sheets. 

The CHAIRMAN: Before we adjourn, 
if you think best, I will appoint a special 
committee to take up this matter with 
Mr. Allen while he is here, and to see if 
the service cannot be continued along 
lines which will more nearly meet our 
wants. 

Mr. SMALL: I move that a committee 
of five be appointed by the Chairman of 
the session, and that he be the Chairman 
of the committee. 

The motion, having been seconded, was 
put and carried. 

The CHAIRMAN: May I ask Mr. 
Whitten, Mr. McKirdy, Mr. Lapp, and 
Mr. Brigham (R. I.) to act with me? * 

[The following paper was read by Mr. 
Meyer, Chief of the Division of bibliography 
of the Library of Congress, and discussed 
at an informal meeting of persons inter- 
ested. It is inserted here because of its 
relation to the subject of the session and 
of its importance and interest to state 
libraries generally. The Secretary.] 

ON THE CO-OPERATION OF THE STATE 

LIBRARIES AND THE LIBRARY OF 

CONGRESS IN THE PREPARATION 

OF REFERENCE LISTS 

Last spring a letter was received at the 
Library of Congress, from the Legislative 
reference bureau of the Pennsylvania state 
library, inquiring if the Library of Congress 
could undertake the preparation of ref- 
erence lists on topics of interest to the 
various state legislative reference bureaus. 
In reply, the Librarian pointed out that the 
Library of Congress was preparing such 
lists ia the natural course of its duties, and 
he further invited suggestions. The most lib- 
eral interpretation was apparently put 
upon this invitation, and a circufftr letter 
seems to have been sent out from the 

*The report of this Committee will be printed separ- 
ately for temporary use, and in the "Proceedings" of 
next year for permanent preservation. It was not ready 
in season for printing in these "Proceedings." 



Legislative reference bureau of the Penn- 
sylvania state library, with the result that 
a series of letters was received at the 
Library of Congress, from state librarians 
and legislative reference librarians in all 
parts of the country, suggesting the prepa- 
ration of reference lists on subjects in 
which the writers were interested. 

These letters covered a wide range of 
subjects sixty-three in all. The first glance 
over the field gave us a feeling of chagrin, 
for we could not help noticing the extent 
to which all but a few of the lists of sub- 
jects submitted for bibliographical re- 
search included topics for which the Di- 
vision of bibliography had actually pro- 
vided printed lists. Our records showed 
that all of our printed lists have been 
sent to all of these libraries, and that, 
moreover, all of the seven or eight editions 
of the "List of publications" had been sent 
to them also. This was somewhat disap- 
pointing, but I ought in fairness to say 
that I have had a satisfactory word from 
some of our correspondents. 

The question now arises, What can we 
do with these subjects? They differ in 
character and in importance, and an ex- 
amination from our point of view shows 
that they may be distributed into three 
groups: (A), those which fall properly 
within the scope of the national library; 
(B), those which seem to fall more within 
the field of some special bureau of the 
government; (C), those which are of state 
or local interest and therefore fit subjects 
for investigation by some state library. 
Arranging along these lines, and putting 
doubtful subjects in Group (A), we have 
the following result: 

(A) Subjects within the scope of the 
Library of Congress 

** Acounts, Regulation of official and 
office. 
** Boycotting 

* Casualty insurance (employer's lia- 
bility) 

Codification of statutes 
Compiled statutes 

* Corrupt practices 

** Direct legislation (Initiative and ref- 
erendum) 

* Direct primaries 



714 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



* Employer's liability 

** Guarantee of bank deposits 

* Immigration bureaus 

* Income tax 

* Inheritance tax 

* Prices and cold storage 

* Proportional representation 

* Railroad commissions 
** Recall 

* Senators, Popular election of 
Unemployment 

* Wage, Minimum 
** Water power 

Weights and measures 

(B) Subjects within the scope of a special 

bureau 

** Agricultural schools (Dept. of agricul- 
ture) 

Drainage (Dept. of agriculture) 
Oyster industry (Fisheries bureau) 
** Reforestation (Forestry bureau) 
**Road building (Office of public roads) 
School hygiene (Education bureau) 
Schools, Evening (Education bureau) 
** Schools, Trade (Education bureau) 

Tuberculosis sanitariums (Surgeon gen- 
eral's office) 

(C) Subjects for state investigation 
Budget making, state and city 
Cabinet system of state government 

** Commission form of city goverment 
Compilation of city ordinances 
Constitutional conventions 

** Convict labor 

County government 

** Death penalty abolition 

** Employment bureaus 

* Fire insurance regulation 
Fee system 

Home rule 
** Inebriate asylums 
** Juvenile courts 

Legislative expenses 

Legislative session, Divided 

Legislature, Annual sessions of 

Library commissions 
** Liquor traffic regulation 
** Mines (safety regulations) 

Normal schools 
** Public utilities 

Revenues, Separation of source of state 
and local 

Single tax 

Social and civic centers 
** State highways 
** State land grants 

State printing 
** Taxation, State and local 

Taxation of church and school property 

Torrens land system 

Traveling libraries 



There is not one of the above questions 
that is not of great interest to the whole 
country and worthy of our attention, but 
my knowledge of our sheer inability to 
handle so great a number of subjects 
coupled with the belief that certain special 
subjects ought to be handled by specialists 
has prompted the above grouping. The ex- 
tent to which the Division of bibliography 
has covered this long list of subjects is 
indicated by the * placed before subjects 
for which printed lists have been provided, 
and ** placed before subjects for which 
typewritten lists have been compiled. Out 
of 22 subjects in the first group, the Li- 
brary of Congress has lists for 18. Out of 
the 9 in the second group, it has lists for 4. 
Out of the 32 in the third group, it has lists 
for 13. Therefore, out of the 63 subjects, 
lists either printed or typewritten have 
been made for 35. I have placed in the 
first group "Compiled statutes," but I ques- 
tion if it is not more properly a subject 
for state research, or better still, a fine 
subject for cooperative research. The 
state librarian of Indiana ought to have 
on his shelves every edition of every com- 
pilation of the laws of Indiana. Similarly, 
in the case of California, Massachusetts, 
and so on! Now, if the state libraries will 
each prepare a list of the compiled laws 
of its own state and send it to the Library 
of Congress, we can undertake the editorial 
work there, and I am sure there will be 
no trouble about printing a list of such 
value. Our own direct contribution to such 
a list would be the compiled statutes of 
the national government, which are very 
numerous on the subject s}de. 

Let me now select a subject from the 
second group Oyster industry. Only the 
more northern seaboard states are directly 
interested in this subject. Obviously, the 
Fisheries bureau is the place where a list 
of references should be prepared. Road 
building is of interest to all the states. 
The Office of public roads is probably bet 
ter acquainted with the literature of the 
subject than any other office or bureau in 
the country; the conclusion is no less 
obvious than in the previous case. My 
suggestions concerning this second group 



STATE LIBRARIES 



715 



take two possible directions, one that a 
combined request for the list required be 
made to the bureau concerned; the other 
that the Library of Congress prepare a 
preliminary list with a view of submitting 
it to the bureau for additions before print- 
ing. That this would be no new work 
for the bureaus is evident to any one who 
has looked through the Monthly list of 
documents and noted the large number of 
government publications containing bib- 
liographies. 

My inclusions in the third group may be 
open to question, but at any rate the sub- 
jects are excellently suited to bibliogra- 
phical research by some state or local 
office. It is to be noted that the Library 
of Congress has not left even this group 
untouched; seventeen of the subjects are 
starred. 

As a practical plan of co-operation the 
following suggestions are submitted. The 
choice of subjects must be left to the 
Library of Congress; but, of course, such 
choice would be largely influenced by sug- 
gestions received from the state libraries. 

The Library of Congress will prepare a 
preliminary list, and run off copies on a 
duplicating machine so as to be able to 
send one to each state library for addition 
and suggestion. The lists are then to be 
returned to the Library of Congress for 
editing and printing. This presents a prac- 
tical plan of co-operation of which the 
Library of Congress is willing to make a 
trial, in spite of some rather unsatisfactory 
experiences in co-operative undertakings 
in the past. I shall be glad to have your 
views on the subject. 



THIRD SESSION 
Tuesday, July 5, 1910, 2:30 P. M. 

The meeting was called to order by the 
President. Mr. Bliss (Pa.) read the paper 
by Miss Helen U. Price (Pa.) on 

THE MAKING OF PENNSYLVANIA 
LIBRARIES 

The making of Pennsylvania libraries as 
a part of the educational movement 



throughout the state has been largely in- 
fluenced by the early colonization and the 
topography of the state. 

The early colonization by William Penn 
and the Society of Friends, marked the 
beginning of educational influence in Penn- 
sylvania, and the beliefs of the Quakers 
have played a large part in the history 
of education in the state. Three tenets 
of the faith the inward light, non-resist- 
ance, and religious liberty have made 
themselves felt in the general educational 
plan, and on the growth of the free library 
movement as a part of that plan. The 
emphasis laid on the growth of the spirit 
through the inspiration of the inward light, 
overshadowed for many years the necessity 
of cultivating the brain, and, although this 
gentle people later founded such institu- 
tions as Bryn Mawr, Haverford, and 
Swarthmore, and were among the first to 
provide public libraries, the effect of this 
early lack of interest is still measurably 
felt. 

Again, persuasion was the method of in- 
troducing new ideas and new interests, 
and to-day one of the prevailing arguments 
in a community settled by Friends is that 
the people's wish shall be law. "If the 
people do not care for a free library, they 
must not have it forced on them." It is 
said that the same argument was used at 
the time of the establishment of the free 
school "If the people did not wish to be 
educated, their wishes should be re- 
spected." Theoretically this may be right; 
practically it often results in great loss to 
the individual and to the state. 

The religious liberty of the Quakers at- 
tracted to Pennsylvania a great variety of 
people. The Germans flocked in great 
numbers to the state, representing many 
different sects one county is said to have 
contained at one time over thirty. The 
Welsh settled along the ridge just outside 
of Philadelphia, the Scotch-Irish came in 
large numbers, and a group of men from 
Connecticut settled the Wyoming valley. 

The German colonists, drawn from the 
educated classes in Germany, founded 
some of the earliest schools, notably the 
one at Bethlehem, established by the 



716 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



Moravians. The sects drawn from the 
peasant class in the fatherland contributed 
a different element to the state. These 
various sects were small in numbers, and, 
fearful of absorption, each was watchful. 
Each, therefore, led an isolated existence; 
the manners, customs, dress, and language, 
were carefully guarded. Few innovations 
were allowed. Individual sects were too 
small to conduct efficient schools of their 
own, and, afraid to join with their neigh- 
bors, a very ineffectual education was the 
result. As their fertile valleys in the lapse 
of time yielded material prosperity, educa- 
tion became of less and less importance, 
and strong community life and rich fields 
became the end of their striving. To-day, 
the result is a large group of people speak- 
ing a German patois unintelligible to 
English and German alike, and resembling 
in dress and customs their early fore- 
fathers. The language debars them from 
easy natural intercourse with their neigh- 
bors, and its resultant benefits, and these 
peculiarities of dress and customs tend to 
intensify the strong clannishness of the 
people. When the Germans have mingled 
with other races and become an integral 
part of Pennsylvania, they have formed 
the backbone of our educational system; 
but the groups which have practiced com- 
plete separation have hindered the whole 
educational scheme, and particularly the 
effort for free libraries, since these are so 
dependent upon voluntary action and the 
wish of the people. 

The Moravians, while holding a belief 
in a strong community life, were among 
the pioneers in education; and their 
schools, which were among the first, have 
continued among the best in the history 
of the state. Their strong belief in mis- 
sions caused them to extend their educa- 
tional advantages to all who wished to 
avail themselves, and with this influx of 
outside life they were saved from the per- 
nicious effects of intensive community life. 
They form to-day one of the most sub- 
stantial elements of the life of the state. 

The Welsh began their colony much as 
did the Germans; but, little by little, ab- 
sorbed the spirit of the state and became 



a force somewhat resembling in character 
the Moravians a steady, persistent people, 
generally conservative. Therefore the 
state needed the Scotch-Irish to add the 
spirit of daring and adventure and the 
willingness to make ventures. The Scotch- 
Irish have probably contributed more to 
the cause of education in Pennsylvania 
than any other group, but in the early days 
of extreme Calvinism they, too, hindered 
the cause. The doctrine of election found 
no need for education except as it appeared 
incidentally as a part of the scheme of 
predestination. Later they became the 
founders of two of the early seats of learn- 
ing with which so many famous names are 
linked Dickinson college at Carlisle, and 
Washington and Jefferson, at Washington; 
both of which, like Princeton and Hamp- 
den-Sidney, sprang from the "Log college" 
movement started in Bucks county in 1726. 
The library movement is indebted to the 
Scotch-Irish blood in the person of the 
man who has not only inspired such in- 
stitutions as the Carnegie library at Pitts- 
burgh, and many kindred movements in 
our state, but who has done so much to 
stimulate and make possible the spread of 
free libraries throughout the world. 

The incident in Pennsylvania history, 
known as the "Connecticut invasion," had 
a beneficial effect on education in the state, 
and it is said that when free schools were 
introduced into Pennsylvania the institu- 
tion was no new thing in the Wyoming 
valley, and the state free school system 
was only an extension of the system which 
had existed in that New England colony 
for many years. A story told of one of 
the legislators expresses the effect of race 
conditions on state education. It is said 
that at the time of the discussion of free 
schools in the State Senate, a well-known 
member arose and said, "Gentlemen, I hold 
in my hand the strongest argument for 
free schools which can be presented to 
you. It is a petition against free schools 
signed by more than a hundred farmers 
from one of my constituent townships. Of 
these signatures, all but four have been 
signed with a cross." This was a district 
settled by one of the German sects. 



STATE LIBRARIES 



717 



A few years ago at the opening of the 
first free library in that county, one of the 
visitors told the story of a circulating 
library established by a group of farmers 
some fifty years ago. The books were 
rented at the rate of so much for each 
fifty pages, and this had been a paying 
proposition. The man who told the story 
could not believe that the new library was 
perfectly free. This incident happened in 
the same township, and yet in the northern 
part of the state a scheme of education was 
already well advanced. The Connecticut 
settlers had much to give in definite edu- 
cational helps, but they could not add to 
the harmony of the state. They believed 
themselves a part of New England, and did 
not wish to be considered citizens of Penn- 
sylvania, so one more barrier was added 
to a possible feeling of state unity. 

The Connecticut settlers had not even 
the wish to understand their neighbors in 
the state, end the Pennamite wars helped 
to widen the natural breach. The Scotch- 
Irish, the Germans, the Quakers none of 
them understood one another; and the 
spread of education, which would have 
occurred so naturally among friends, was 
indefinitely delayed through lack of under- 
standing. 

The topography of the state has in- 
fluenced education in two ways: through 
the separation by mountain ranges, and 
through the effect of the fertility of the 
soil and the natural mineral resources. 

The ranges of mountains have separated 
small groups of people, and, by these nat- 
ural barriers, cut them off from asso- 
ciation with other people having similar 
interests. The difficulty of railroad and 
trolley engineering has played its part, and 
one group may know little of the activities 
of its neighbor. This has meant a distinct 
loss in the growth of certain phases of 
education. The library idea which moves 
in a valley seldom climbs the mountain. 
The separation by mountain ranges has 
fostered the establishment of a great num- 
ber of small colleges, and while these are 
doing a splendid work, the process of weld- 
ing together the mass through association 
at some central point is impossible. The 



idea of free libraries must be planted in a 
hundred different places, when, without 
the mountain barriers, a much smaller 
number would suffice. Also, racial condi- 
tions have been affected by these mountain 
ranges, and the natural differences of race 
have been accentuated by a lack of under- 
standing through association. 

The land itself has had no small part 
in the destinies of the state. The fertility 
of the soil has bred a race of farmers who 
have had a means of livelihood at their 
very door. These men have not been 
forced back on the cultivation and exercise 
of their brains, as were the New Eng- 
landers, and this has, of course, minimized 
the necessity for education. Also, the man 
who has followed the plow all day, as well as 
the man who is a part of the industrial 
system, has no strength left in him at the 
end of the day to cultivate his brain, unless 
he is a person of unusual mental thirst. 
His work does not absolutely demand it, 
therefore it is a luxury; and luxury cannot 
always be afforded. And while generations 
of wresting a living from the soil make a 
substantial background for the state, 
breeding a philosophy of life and a habit 
of native thinking, they do not usually, 
without outside persuasion, lead to an ap- 
preciation of the value of good books. 

The natural resources of Pennsylvania 
have resulted in an unusual development 
of the industrial life. The valuable deposits 
of coal and iron, oil and gas, and the great 
tracts of timber, together with the large 
manufacturing interests, have brought to 
us hordes of foreign immigrants, until to- 
day we stand among the first in foreign 
population in the United States, with per- 
haps the largest state-wide foreign popula- 
tion. Out in the mining and coke districts 
it is not unusual to find more than a thou- 
sand workmen gathered together on a pay 
night with only half a dozen able to speak 
English. These people have, for the most 
part, neither time nor strength to learn to 
read English. Even the children leave 
school as soon as the law allows. There- 
fore it becomes the duty, as well as the 
privilege, of free libraries to undertake, 
especially through the children, the as- 



718 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



similation of these foreigners. It is not 
a difficult task; they are willing and eager 
to learn, and the library presents a won- 
derful opportunity for an indefinite period 
of education. 

One phase of education commends itself 
especially to our people. This is the study 
of the trades, which leads naturally, as 
the subject is followed further, to the pur- 
suit of science, and here our state offers 
special opportunities. In the early days 
of the commonwealth, the state because 
of its principle of religious liberty at- 
tracted to itself many men eminent in 
science, and we find the name of Rush, 
the pioneer in medicine, Rittenhouse in 
astronomy, Bartram, in botany, Priestly, in 
chemistry, and Franklin, in electricity. 
These men lighted the lamps for the study 
of sciences, but the flame has grown. They 
founded many institutions of great value 
to the state, the American philosophical 
society, The Academy of natural sciences, 
The Franklin institute, and many others. 
But it is the institution for the reading of 
books founded by Franklin which attracts 
our interest in the study of Pennsylvania 
libraries, and we read with interest the 
opening words of the charter which inau- 
gurated the public library movement in 
Pennsylvania and the nation: 

"John Penn, Thomas Penn, and Richard 
Penn, esquires, true and absolute Proprie- 
taries of the Province of Pennsylvania and 
counties of New Castle, Kent, and Suffex 
upon the Delaware: To all to whom these 
presents shall come, greeting. Whereas 
Benjamin Franklin, James Morris (with 
many other famous names following) have, 
at great expense, purchased a large and 
valuable collection of useful books in order 
to erect a library for the advancement of 
knowledge and literature, do give and 
grant " 

Thus, in 1732, did the Library company 
of Philadelphia, with Franklin as the 
leader, lay the corner-stone of library 
work in Pennsylvania. One year later a 
group of Quakers, at Darby, met and 
formed a similar association. When one 
considers that the books for these institu- 
tions were almost entirely brought from 
London, and in a day when the transporta- 
tion service was both slow and expensive, 



this effort to provide a public collection 
of books as a means of education became 
very remarkable. These two libraries, 
bearing so nearly the same date, have 
differed widely in their history. The Li- 
brary company has always held a reputa- 
tion for literary and scholarly quality, 
while the Darby library company, early 
in its history, declared itself for popular 
education. Early in 1800 we find a record 
of a report from a Book committee of the 
Darby library company to the effect that 
they felt it "incumbent upon them to rec- 
ommend some works, the object of which 
will be to give direction to the tastes of 
the young portion" of the readers. It Is 
interesting in the light of present-day be- 
lief in children's library work, to learn that 
the spirit was in the state as early as 
1800. When, in later years, the law en- 
abled libraries to become free, it was the 
Darby library company which opened its 
doors to all. 

This effort to provide good books which 
might be available to all at small cost 
has worked both benefit and hardship to 
Pennsylvania. While good books were 
provided much earlier for the few, the 
cause of good books for the many has been 
delayed. The subscription library took 
root and spread. Throughout the central 
and eastern portions of the state many 
such libraries were opened; and there is 
scarcely a city or town of any size in. these 
districts which has not at some time had 
a library of this sort. So generally is 
this true, that the subscription library is 
a very real problem in the question of the 
development of the free library movement 
throughout the commonwealth. 

To the average man, a library is a li- 
brary, and the fact that one must pay one 
dollar or two dollars for the privilege of 
drawing books means nothing. The library 
is there, and is not used, therefore the 
"town does not want the books, the people 
do not read." As in Sam Walter Foss's 
town of Fuddydud, no precedent has any 
significance "Our town is different 
quite different." And yet there are to be 
found in the heart of the subscription li- 
brary strongholds, many people who be- 



STATE LIBRARIES 



719 



lieve in free libraries and honestly desire 
such an institution. They simply cannot 
see their way clear to this change. One 
such library has on its Board of directors 
two men who devoted their entire vacation 
last summer to visiting libraries, in order 
to improve conditions in the home institu- 
tion; and these same men have spent their 
evenings for weeks together classifying, 
cataloging, and accessioning their books. 
Frequently early Sunday morning found 
them still at this work. This library is 
among the number which are struggling 
to be free. 

Another such has been working for at 
least three years to educate the community 
to an appreciation of the benefits of a free 
library. The end of this particular struggle 
is apparently in sight, but these instances 
serve as an evidence of the effort neces- 
sary to make over these institutions 
founded in such good faith. 

There are many records of the change 
of subscription libraries to the list of free 
institutions, with the consequent attendant 
benefits. In one town the subscription li- 
brary, dating back well into the seventeen 
hundreds, closed its doors with less than 
two hundred borrowers; and, at the close 
of the first year as a free institution, reg- 
istered thirty-five hundred borrowers. In 
another town in the lumber country, the 
subscription library had only twenty-five 
borrowers when it became free. Its first 
annual report as a free movement showed 
over seven hundred people borrowing 
books a record of a full third of the popu- 
lation of the town. A little subscription 
library founded in the hemlock belt by a 
group of gray-bonneted women has become 
in these later years a vital force in the 
whole district, stimulating new centers of 
library activity, as well. as serving its par- 
ticular community. In 1853, this library 
was kept in a little red bookcase, and the 
entire catalog printed on a sheet of com- 
mercial notepaper, in long primer type. 
These people were awake to their oppor- 
tunities, and the result is a well-equipped 
free library. 

The effect of this early subscription idea, 
oddly, is still felt even in the present cen- 



tury's development of the free -library 
plan. A woman who has spent a large 
part of her life in the vicinity of sub- 
scription library activities, changed her 
residence to a distant part of the state. 
She is a most progressive person, and be- 
lieves in the value of a public library, but 
her experience had been almost exclusively 
with the subscription institution. Very 
naturally, her plans for a new library 
grouped themselves around the plan most 
familiar to her, and only by a fortunate 
chain of events and her breadth of vision, 
was the library plan transferred from the 
subscription to the free-library side. This 
librarian tells the story of an elderly man 
who came into the upstairs room while the 
process of pasting and labeling was still 
going on. He sat down at a table with a 
group of small boys, and began to read, 
when, suddenly realizing that the library 
was not yet open, he began to apologize 
for what he regarded as an intrusion, but 
he added in explanation, "You know, I 
have waited so long it doesn't seem as 
though I could wait any longer." In the 
same town one small boy, a most en- 
thusiastic reader, confided to the librarian, 
"You know, when the library opened, I'd 
only read one book; but o' course I'd read 
that a lot." A few days later he appeared 
with a much battered book, his one pos- 
session, under his arm, and this he gave 
to the free library. 

Another factor in the library problem in 
Pennsylvania is the gift library. Many 
times libraries are given without adequate 
support, and yet with a memorial name 
attached. In such a case it is more than 
difficult to procure financial aid from the 
town; and when it is obtained, it is again 
too often inadequate. One such gift was 
so hedged in by restriction that, according 
to the terms of the will, it could be used 
neither as> a reference collection nor a cir- 
culating library. Another was built upon a 
lot so far from the center of the town that 
the institution has worked under the con- 
tinual handicap. Another group of gift li- 
braries has had more than the usual amount 
of difficulty in obtaining even a working 
financial foundation from the towns, in 



720 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



spite of the fact that the libraries did not 
bear the name of the donor "The library 
was his, let him support it." In one city, 
by the terms of the will, several thousand 
dollars were left with the stipulation that 
a room on the second floor of the High 
school building be "forever set apart for 
library purposes." The city long ago out- 
grew the institution, as it stands, but this 
gift, left with the best of intentions, bars 
the way of efficient library service for the 
town. On the other hand, some of you are 
familiar with the story of the founding 
of one of the finest libraries by an old 
man who, during his lifetime, endured the 
reputation of miser and bore the attacks 
both of friends and of enemies without 
complaint, in order that he might leave to 
the valley money for an institution which 
should make for civic betterment. One of 
our more recently endowed institutions is 
carrying on a system of traveling libraries 
throughout the county, and the building 
which faces the village green is a model 
for small towns. Two recent gifts for 
library work have been in the heart of the 
German districts, and already their influ- 
ence is being felt. Considering the ques- 
tion in a large way, Pennsylvania has been 
greatly blessed in the number of her sons 
and daughters who have furthered free 
education through the gift of libraries. 
The difficulties have come largely through 
lack of vision of the future. 

According to Pennsylvania law, both 
School board and Council are empowered 
to establish and maintain a free public 
library; and this, too, brings about a com- 
plexity of situation. The Council believes 
it is work for the School directors, the 
School board refers it to the Council. In 
many cases, however, the School board 
undertakes the whole support, and some of 
our most efficient libraries are supported in 
this way. But again, according to law, the 
School board has final decision in library 
matters; and one uninformed member can 
hamper library advancement very serious- 
ly. Of course this is also true of library 
trustees in general; but in the natural 
course of events these men are chosen be- 
cause of their special fitness to direct the 



fortunes of a library. This is an isolated 
case, but it shows the difficulties. Both 
councils and school boards are giving evi- 
dence, throughout the state, of a broad 
understanding of the library movement 
and are extending hearty cooperation 
when the matter is rightly presented. A 
codification of the present library laws will 
aid in the furtherance of the free library 
movement and this will probably be accom- 
plished in the near future. 

Pennsylvania, as do other states, owes a 
large debt of gratitude to her women for 
the part they have played in establishing 
libraries. It is, as a rule, the women who 
are willing to give time and strength in 
the initial efforts. They are the ones who 
will bake and will brew, and, if necessary, 
make a house-to-house canvass in order to 
secure support. They are the ones who 
stand ready to help paste and label, scrub 
and sweep, and they are the ones who will 
help most of all by always believing that 
somehow, some time, the goal will be 
reached. The establishment of a free li- 
brary requires much work, but more faith; 
and one without the other is helpless. In 
one new library, organized by a group of 
women from proceeds of bake sales, and 
the like, a woman offered her services as 
janitress for the first year because she was 
so "glad to have her girl have good books, 
and she had nothing else she could give." 
Another town having a library founded by a 
group of women, draws its borrowers from 
all over the country round about to a dis- 
tance of seven or eight miles. A story is 
told of this neighborhood, a few years 
back, concerning a family living up in the 
mountains whose sole glimpse of the life 
of the world was through a pictorial New 
York weekly. Each Saturday one member 
of the family would go into the town for 
this paper. If suitable, he drove; if too 
muddy, he rode horseback; and, in ex- 
treme weather, he walked. The family of 
six sat up until his return, and at his com- 
ing they gathered around the candle light 
while some one read aloud, and not until 
every word had been read did the family 
light go out the hour of night being of 
small importance. This is a district where 



STATE LIBRARIES 



721 



back on the mountains one may still hear 
the whirr of the spinning wheel and read 
by tallow dips. The library at present is 
supported by the receipts from bits of 
fancy work made for this purpose. Need- 
less to say, the needlework is done by 
women. 

But the women do not by any means 
have a monopoly of library interest. One 
library was made possible by the splendid 
cooperation of men with a single purpose. 
A subscription library had stood in the way 
for many years, and the town sadly needed 
free books. Three men joined forces; and, 
while one gave wood for tables and book- 
shelves, others gave time to make them; 
another gave coal for heating, and still 
another paint for the walls; a member of 
the Royal Academy loaned pictures, and 
so, all working together, the institution 
was realized. This library has a most cap- 
able and willing ladies' auxiliary, which 
only proves the truism that it is through a 
broad cooperation between men and wo- 
men, a harmonious joint service, that the 
best library work is being done. We, in 
Pennsylvania, have not always known each 
other very well; but Pennsylvania libra- 
rians to-day are working shoulder to should- 
er; and the work at Foxburg is known at 
Montrose, and the work at Montrose at 
Lancaster and Hanover. Methods and 
means must necessarily vary widely but 
the spirit is the same. Because A has a li- 
brary, S thinks that it can do likewise. 
And when the library at G hears the story 
of the small boy at L, and how he had to 
save up his reading against the "long win- 
ter nights," it sends tangible help. No one 
can possibly estimate the inspiration and 
practical help which come to the state at 
large from the libraries in our two great 
cities. Pittsburgh, with its splendid work 
for people of every class and nation, and 
its Training school for children's libra- 
rians, seems extensively to inspire the li- 
brary world; but intensively the effect is 
upon Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, with its 
libraries whose subscription lists are a his- 
torical record, its scientific and philosoph- 
ical libraries, the libraries of the Society 
of Friends, and the great Free library, 



with its network of branches and tremen- 
dous circulation, is at once a justification 
of pride and a source of help. 

A discussion of the growth of libraries 
in Pennsylvania would be incomplete with- 
out an appreciation of Alice B. Kroeger 
and her work at Drexel institute. She was 
constantly a factor in Pennsylvania li- 
brary work, both in her work in the school, 
and her ardent cooperation in the work of 
the state association. Her work cannot 
die. 

We believe in Pennsylvania that the li- 
brary is the librarian arid the librarian the 
library, and that, given the right libra- 
rian, all else will be added unto us. 
Therefore the state stands ready to 
hold up her hands in every good work, 
glad to give counsel when counsel is 
needed, and help always, whenever and 
wherever possible; but in the final analy- 
sis it is the librarian who is responsible. 
The colonization and topography play a 
part, the subscription and the gift library 
have their particular influence, the city 
School board and Council have power to 
help or hinder, and the people of the com- 
munity have much opportunity for ser- 
vice; but the librarians of Pennsylvania 
are the ones who are making Pennsylvania 
libraries. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) then read his 
paper on "Library efficiency under new 
conditions."* 

The PRESIDENT: If there is no dis- 
cussion, we will proceed to the business of 
the Association before listening to the 
closing paper. The Nominating committee, 
I understand, is ready to report. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY (Pa.): The Nomi- 
nating committee suggests the following 
ticket of officers for the coming year: 
President, Demarchus C. Brown, of India- 
na; first Vice-president, Charles F. D. 
Belden, of Massachusetts; second Vice- 
president, Mrs. Jessie P. Weber, of Illinois; 
Secretary-treasurer, Asa C. Tilton, of Wis- 
consin. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) : I move that the 
report of the Committee be adopted, and 

*Printed in "Library journal," vol. 35, p. 302-309, 
July, 1910. 



722 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



that the Secretary be authorized to cast 
the ballot of the Association for the offi- 
cers suggested. 

The motion, having been seconded, was 
put by the President and carried. The Sec- 
retary cast the ballot as directed, and the 
officers were declared duly elected. 

Mr. GODARD (Conn.) then read the 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SYS- 
TEMATIC BIBLIOGRAPHY OF STATE 
OFFICIAL LITERATURE 

Your Committee is pleased to call at- 
tention to the excellent contributions to 
this field, made during the year, by Miss 
Hasse in the new volumes of her "Index:" 
also to the "Handbook of United States 
documents," prepared by Miss Everhart of 
Atlanta. We are especially pleased, how- 
ever, to note the appearance of the "Month- 
ly list of state publications," recently un- 
dertaken by the document division of the 
Library of Congress. In order that the ex- 
tent and importance of this new publica- 
tion may be understood and appreciated, 
we take pleasure in appending to this re- 
port a statement relating to it, which has 
been prepared by James David Thompson, 
Chief of that division. May we not be- 
speak the hearty co-operation of all state 
officials in this work? 

Mr. THOMPSON'S statement is as fol- 
lows: 

Monthly List of State Publications 
I have the honor to lay before you, not 
a project, but an undertaking actually in 
progress, which is known to you all, name- 
ly: the "Monthly list of state publications," 
which the Division of documents of the Li- 
brary of Congress has issued from the be- 
ginning of this year. It seems desirable 
that a brief statement should now be made 
in regard to this work, in order that the 
difficulties experienced thus far may be 
dealt with, and the publication improved 
through further cooperation of the state 
libraries and legislative reference depart- 
ments. 

In the first place, it is, perhaps, impor- 
tant to indicate the basis on which this list 



is compiled and published. It is essential- 
ly a by-product in the work of the Division 
of documents, the main function of which 
is the acquisition of official publications of 
all countries, states, and cities for the Li- 
brary's collections. The current publica- 
tions of the several states, territories, and 
insular possessions of the United States 
form only about one-eighth of the total doc- 
ument accessions handled and recorded 
in the division. As all parts of the collec- 
tion, foreign as well as domestic, have to 
be kept up to date, the issue of the "Month- 
ly list" has only been made possible by the 
elimination of individual acknowledgments, 
for which the printed list has been sub- 
stituted, and by the reduction of the num- 
ber of requests hitherto sent out for this 
material, brought about by the more com- 
plete, prompt, and centralized distribution 
of state documents to the Library of Con- 
gress since this undertaking was started. 
The publication is, under the circum- 
stances, necessarily limited to being a rec- 
ord of the Library's accessions in the field 
of current state documents. It will, how- 
ever, approximate to a complete bibliog- 
raphy of such material, in proportion as 
the distributing centers in the various 
states send the state publications to the Li- 
brary of Congress, as soon as issued, for 
inclusion in the list. The state librarian is 
obviously the person to whom this publica- 
tion, if complete, will be of greatest ser- 
vice, and if in each state he can be induced 
to accept the responsibility of seeing that 
no document is omitted from the record of 
the publications of his own state, the net 
result will be that each month he will have 
at his desk a useful tool for checking up 
the documents issued by all of the states. 
I wish, therefore, to urge each state librar- 
ian here present, who may not yet have 
made permanent arrangements for regular 
cooperation with us, to take up the matter 
as soon as possible, both in his own inter- 
est, and in the interest of his colleagues 
in other states. 

A number of state librarians have indi- 
cated that no provision exists in their 
states for a centralized distribution of doc- 
uments. In many cases this can be most 



STATE LIBRARIES 



723 



effectively adjusted by legislative enact- 
ment, and it is suggested that an effort be 
made in such states to secure the neces- 
sary legislation next session. In the mean- 
time, it would be of the greatest service if 
each state library would regularly check 
up that portion of each "Monthly list" 
which relates to its own state publications, 
both with its own accessions during the 
period covered, and by inquiry at the 
various offices of the state government, 
generally located in the same building 
with it. 

To judge by results, excellent arrange- 
ments have already been made in several 
states. Perhaps in the course of the dis- 
cussion the details of these arrangements 
may be set forth by those responsible for 
them, in ofder that other states, in which 
the distribution of documents is not yet 
satisfactorily organized, may profit there- 
' by. 

Some inquiries have been made regard- 
ing the scope of the "Monthly list," and the 
interpretation which we have given to the 
group "State publications." The original 
circular enumerated the following, namely: 
legislative journals and documents, laws, 
proceedings and documents of constitution- 
al conventions, governors' messages and 
proclamations, reports of state officers, 
boards, commissions, and institutions, and 
all other serial and special publications. 
We desire to include all of the material 
here indicated in every form in which it is 
issued, for example: the legislative docu- 
ments, both in separate form as printed 
for the use of the legislature, and as issued 
later in bound volumes; the separate law 
chapters, if printed in slip form, as soon 
as approved, in addition to the volumes of 
the session laws, codes, revised statutes, 
and such compilations as school laws, in- 
surance laws, game laws, etc.; the separate 
issues of governors' messages and other 
executive documents; the annual or bien- 
nial reports of state officers, etc., both as 
separate issues and as collected documents; 
the bulletins and circulars of agricultural 
experiment stations, departments of agri- 
culture, departments of public instruction, 
bureaus of labor statistics, boards of 



health, and other state offices and institu- 
tions whose work necessitates the publica- 
tion of bulletins on special subjects, apart 
from their administrative reports; the ad- 
vance issues of decisions and orders of 
railroad and public service commissions, 
as well as the completed volumes; the 
catalogues, reports, and learned contribu- 
tions of state universities, normal schools, 
etc.; the periodicals issued by state char- 
itable and correctional institutions; the 
transactions of societies subventioned by 
the state in the interests of agriculture, 
horticulture, dairying, etc. As a matter of 
convenience, the current volumes of court 
reports have been admitted in all cases, 
whether issued by the state or by publish- 
ing firms. We have included also such 
publications as the "Vital records" of Mas- 
sachusetts towns, which are prepared and 
published by private societies, but which 
become semi-official in character through 
a regular legislative provision for the pur- 
chase of 500 copies for distribution by the 
state. 

One class of material above mentioned 
has thus far been sent to us only to a 
very limited extent. I refer to the separate 
issues of the law chapters. You may have 
noticed in the March and April numbers, 
that for Massachusetts and New York we 
have been able to give select lists of the 
current legislation in these states in so 
far as it seemed likely to be of more than 
local interest. Few legislatures are in ses- 
sion this year, but in 1911 over 40 of them 
will meet, and if the Library of Congress 
is furnished with the laws printed separ- 
ately each month, it will be possible to 
make the list serve the purpose of a 
monthly record of legislation in the states. 
The selection of the chapters of sufficient 
interest to be noted, will be the chief diffi- 
culty to be encountered in this connection, 
and we should welcome the assistance of 
legislative reference departments in indi- 
cating the selection to be made. 

The publications of state institutions 
located elsewhere than at the state capitol 
present difficulties, even to the state libra- 
rian in many states, and in these cases we 
should be glad to be furnished with a list 



724 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



of such institutions, and the titles of their 
publications, so that the Library of Con- 
gress may enter into direct communication 
with them to procure the material for the 
"Monthly list." 

A word of explanation regarding the 
style adopted in the list, and the nature 
of the annotations seems to be needed also. 
The arrangement of the titles under each 
state was indicated in the first number, 
and will be sufficiently well known. With 
regard to the form of entry, we have en- 
deavored to make it as simple as possible, 
and sufficiently accurate for practical pur- 
poses; and have aimed to note the content 
of a publication, when not adequately ex- 
pressed by the title, rather than full biblio- 
graphical details. The latter are given on 
the printed cards prepared by the Catalog 
division, at any rate for monographs; and 
we have, therefore, inserted the serial 
numbers after the titles for which cards 
are available, so as to facilitate ordering 
by libraries and to avoid unnecessary dup- 
lication of work. The contents notes are 
generally made up from half titles, chapter 
headings, etc., and do not profess to show 
complete contents, but only the principal 
features which the title does not bring out. 
In some cases, however, on account of the 
make-up of a document, the items of 
special interest in it are not obvious, and 
are liable to be missed unless our attention 
is called to them by the state library or 
other office supplying the material. 

In conclusion, I am authorized to an- 
nounce that a beginning has been made 
with the preparation of a similar list to 
cover the five years 1905 to 1909, in- 
clusive between the end of the period 
covered by Miss Hasse's "Index," and the 
first number of the "Monthly list." It is 
proposed to issue this in one volume, with 
a subject index to serve as a temporary 
guide to the state documents of this period, 
until the continuation of Miss Hasse's 
valuable work from 1904 onward is pro- 
vided for. In the course of the next few 
months we shall send to each state libra- 
rian a card record of the documents of 
his state, issued 1905-1909, which the Li- 
brary of Congress has in its collections 



at the present time. Additions to this 
record will be cordially welcomed, and if 
we can secure in this way the co-operation 
of all of the states, it should be possible to 
complete the five-year list for publication 
before the end of December, 1910. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) presented a 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON A 
MUNICIPAL YEAR BOOK 

The Committee has consulted the Special 
libraries association, and a committee has 
been appointed by that Association to act 
with our Committee as a joint committee 
to confer with the municipal associations 
and Individuals who are interested in the 
preparation of this volume. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.) : I also desire to 
submit, with the request that it be referred 
to the Committee on uniformity in session 
laws, a pamphlet by Mr. Wire of Wor- 
cester, Mass., which is entitled, "The re- 
prints of session laws." No objection being 
made, it was ordered submitted. 

Mr. TILTON (Wis.) : Our Constitution 
and by-laws, I believe, make no provision 
for honorary members; but several years 
ago Miss Ahern was elected an honorary 
member, in appreciation of the aid which 
she had rendered the Association. This 
seems to establish a precedent. It has 
occurred to me during the year that the 
Association of state libraries should recog- 
nize the work which Miss Hasse has done, 
and is doing, in the bibliography of public 
documents, by making her an honorary 
member. 

I move, therefore, that in recognition of 
her pre-eminent and invaluable contribu- 
tions to the bibliography of state official 
literature, Miss Adelaide R. Hasse be made 
an honorary member of this Association. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (R. I.): I take great 
pleasure in seconding that motion. 

The motion was put by the President 
and unanimously carried. 

Mr. BRIGHAM (Iowa) then read his 
paper, entitled: 



STATE LIBRARIES 



725 



HOW CAN CO-ORDINATION BEST 

SERVE THE LIBRARY INTERESTS 

OF THE STATE 

Co-ordination is a word big with mean- 
ing and yet bigger in suggestion. In it 
was long concealed, but now clearly seen, 
the open secret of success in the modern 
business world. Some call the secret "sys- 
tem"; others, with a nearer approach to ac- 
curacy, call it "co-ordination." By what- 
ever name it is known, it is the finest flow- 
er of modern practical education. It may be 
described in general terms as the harmoni- 
ous working of mind with mind, of mind 
with hand, and of hand with hand, with one 
general purpose and under one general 
headship that purpose so general as to 
give ample scope and encouragement for 
individual initiative along widely varying 
lines of individual activity. 

While the open secret of success in busi- 
ness and in library activities as well is 
co-ordination the open secret of co-ordina- 
tion is consent. I looked in vain for the 
word which would best convey this secret, 
and then accidentally happened upon it in 
"The Garden of Cyrus," by Sir Thomas 
Brown. In his fine enthusiasm Sir Thomas 
exclaims: "What consent and co-ordina- 
tion there is in the leaves and parts of 
flowers!" There can be a measure of 
subordination without consent, at least for 
a time; but there can be no real co-ordina- 
tion unless it be accompanied by consent. 
The base-ball nine, the surveying party, 
the personally conducted excursion, the 
great manufactory, the great cordon of 
factories operated by a central board, the 
still greater aggregation of railroads cov- 
ering vast areas, and controlled like clock- 
work from one central source of author- 
ity all are successful only as there is 
willing subordination to that central au- 
thority, and willing consent of subordinates 
to serve co-ordinately. 

Whatever we, as individualists, may 
think of the moral question involved in 
these great aggregations of capital, ini- 
tiative, and executive force, as affecting 
competition, we must admit that they "do 
things." The individualist, even though 



exceptionally endowed with initiative, en- 
ergy, and means, is compelled to admit 
with the poet (?) that he 

"Aint in it 
For a minute," 

with the trust, in which willing subordina- 
tion is supplemented by heartily consent- 
ing co-ordination. 

We who are in the service of the state 
need waste no self-pity on the fact that 
we are servants of the state, for individ- 
ualist and socialist, Christian and pagan, 
alike are ever dreaming of that far-off di- 
vine event, called by the old-time Christian, 
the "millennium," the happy consummation 
of all our hopes for the future the acme of 
civilization when "none are for the party, 
and all are for the state." In fact, we 
may self-complacently regard ourselves as 
the forerunners of that happy day; for, 
are we not, one and all, working "for the 
state," and should we not, one and all, be 
willing, yea eager, to subordinate our in- 
dividual predilections and interests to the 
state's welfare? And to that end should 
we not be ready, when wisdom points the 
way, to co-ordinate our special range of 
activities with those of others who would 
work with us on lines converging toward 
the common end, the best interests of the 
state? 

I had thought to make a careful study 
of the laws of the several library states, 
and to present some deductions therefrom; 
but, not having sufficient time at my dis- 
posal, I have come before you as a ques- 
tionaire, not as a doctrinaire. In response 
to President King's request for program 
suggestions, I proposed the subject of co- 
ordination, not because I had views, but 
because I wanted views. I know of no 
distinctively library state in which there 
is not more or less co-ordination in library 
administration. Instead of presenting 
long-range guesses as to what you ought 
to have to make your respective measure 
of co-ordination more successful, my pur- 
pose is to draw you out as to the weak 
points in your respective systems, or, if you 
are not ready to admit that there are any 
weak points, then, to draw from you the 
sources of strength which, in your respec- 



726 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



tive systems, can be still further strength- 
ened. 

This is no idle inquiry. I would bring 
to your attention a complicated condition, 
as a surgeon brings a case to a clinic, 
that, from your varying range of experi- 
ence, observation, and reflection, you may 
give me your judgment as to the best 
treatment. I would resort to the algebraic 
method elimination by comparison. 

A few years ago the newspapers had 
much to say about "the Iowa idea" but 
that was political, and has nothing to do 
with "the Iowa case," which I now bring 
to you. Our case is likely to go to our 
Iowa clinic our state legislature next 
winter, and any previous knowledge or 
suggestions we can get from this inter- 
state clinic will be of service in making 
up the case for presentation to that body. 

The state of Iowa is committed to libra- 
ries in several ways: 

1 In its state institutions, both char- 
itable and penal, I raise no question here, 
simply referring to these institutional li- 
braries as possibly presenting a suggestion 
to you. 

The libraries in these institutions are 
maintained by the state board of control. 
Each is managed by the local superin- 
tendent who usually appoints some 'clerk 
or trusty inmate of the institution to act 
as librarian. Miss Tyler, of our Iowa com- 
mission, and myself, a few years ago, rec- 
ommended an organizer for these institu- 
tions, and Miss Carey, whose paper on 
the work created a profound impression 
at the Asheville conference, was appointed 
to perform that service. Miss Carey or- 
ganized every institutional library in Iowa, 
and instructed some one in every institu- 
tion to carry on the work. This done, she 
accepted a call to Minnesota to perform a 
like service in that state. Here certainly 
is a clear-cut non-political "Iowa idea" 
which, I doubt not, should be extended to 
every library state in the Union. Would 
it not be well to adopt the Minnesota im- 
provement on the Iowa idea, and have a 
state Institution organizer added to the 
force of the state library commission, with 
power to supervise library work in every 



state institution, other than the higher 
institutions of learning? But kindly re- 
serve your answer to this question until 
a more convenient season. 

2 The state also maintains a library 
in the State university, in the State college 
of agriculture and mechanic arts, and in 
the State normal school. 

These three institutions have recently 
been placed under a single State board of 
education, and the work of library co-or- 
dination has but just begun in those insti- 
tutions. I do not think it would be well 
to suggest any change in the present order 
of things here, deeming it best to let time 
work out the closer coordination which 
the single board suggests. 

3 The state also maintains the histor- 
ical library in the State historical society. 

4 The state also maintains an extensive 
traveling library system operated by the 
Iowa library commission. 

5 The State library, with its three de- 
partments, the Law, the Historical, and 
the Miscellaneous or general, is directly 
maintained by the state, for the conve- 
nience of the courts, the executive depart- 
ments, the state legislature, and the gen- 
eral public. 

These three departments are separately 
housed: the Law in the capitol for the 
convenience of the Supreme court, the 
Legislature, and the executive depart- 
ments; the Historical in the west wing of 
the historical building; the General in the 
east wing of the historical building. 

To give you an understanding of the 
degree of co-ordination already accom- 
plished in these departments of the State 
library, let me state that a few years ago, 
the Historical department at the state cap- 
ital was under one board, the Law and 
Miscellaneous departments were under 
another board, each ex-officio in char- 
acter, and both identical in personnel. 
Some ten years ago, these two boards 
were by statute made one in name as 
they were before in fact; and the ac- 
counts of the Historical department, before 
kept separately, were placed with those 
of the other two departments, and the 
State librarian was given charge of all 



STATE LIBRARIES 



727 



three. This single step, though not all 
that was desired, has been approved by 
time, simplifying the detail work of the 
board, and resulting in closer and more 
satisfactory relations between the depart- 
ments. 

The Iowa library commission was born 
with a mental suggestion of co-ordination. 
This is observable in the composition of 
the Commission itself. Besides the four 
commissioners appointed by the Governor, 
it has three ex-officio members, the State 
superintendent of public instruction, who 
is at the head of an enormous aggregation 
of school libraries, the President of the 
State university, whose co-operation with 
the commission in the development of a 
summer library school has been most help- 
ful, and the State librarian, who, by reason 
of his accessibility, has from year to year 
been chosen to preside over the Commis- 
sion, and whose co-operation with the trav- 
eling library has unquestionably been 
helpful. 

We have' now reached the case on which 
your critical judgment is asked: 

1 Legislative critics, also other state 
officials who have given more or less 
thought to the subject, see no reason why 
the task of co-ordinating the activities of 
the state library, proper, and of the his- 
torical department should not be carried 
still further. For example, they see no 
reason why there should be two historical 
libraries under the same roof, and conse- 
quently would transfer the books in the 
Historical department to the historical sec- 
tion in the State library, thus giving the 
Historical department room much needed 
for museum and general purposes, room 
also for the accession of the state's ex- 
tremely valuable collection of archives, 
which, all are agreed, should be turned 
over to that department. These critics 
would also transfer the museum features, 
now a burden to the state -Historical so- 
ciety in Iowa City, to the state Historical 
department at the capital. They insist 
that by this re-arrangement, both the His- 
torical department and the State library 
would be strengthened, and the state His- 
torical society distinctively committed to 



research and publication would be re- 
lieved of its present burden of curios. 

2 Other critics would consolidate the 
State historical society, now housed with 
the State university at Iowa City, with the 
State historical department at Des Moines, 
attaching thereto the state's valuable col- 
lection of archives. The reason most com- 
monly given for the consolidation is that 
the state cannot consistently maintain two 
organizations having the same general end 
and aim; that either the Board of curators 
of the society should control the depart- 
ment, or the State library and Historical 
department board should control and di- 
rect the activities of the society. They 
assert that such consolidation would result 
in a logical division of activities, now more 
or less duplicated, delegating to the society 
at Iowa City research work and publica- 
tion, and to the state capital, the dis- 
tinctively museum features. 

3 Still other critics propose a division 
of the present State library, and a dissolu- 
tion of its present Board, turning the Law 
library over to the six Supreme court 
justices, now on the Board, and transfer- 
ring to the State library commission the 
Miscellaneous or General department, mak- 
ing the State librarian ex-officio President 
of the Commission. 

4 Then there are those who would turn 
the three departments of the State library, 
and the Library commission, and the ar- 
chives, over to the new Educational board, 
now having in charge the State university, 
the State college of agriculture and me- 
chanic arts, and the State normal school. 
The objections to this plan are: the mem- 
bers of the Educational board say they 
are already overworked; and the friends 
of the state's library interests feel that 
those interests thus transferred would nec- 
essarily be subordinated to the larger in- 
terests with which the new board is 
commissioned. 

5 There are a few who would round 
up all the library interests of the state, 
not now included in the fields occupied 
by the two boards the Board of control 
and the Educational board these bodies 
to be governed by the State library board, 



728 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



a board of itself well co-ordinated, com- 
posed as it is of two members of the 
Supreme court, the State superintendent, 
the Secretary of state, and the Governor. 

This, in general, is the Iowa case on 
which your outside and therefore impartial 
judgment is asked. The question may be 
re-stated in general terms, as follows: 

Having in view the future of the State 
library, with its three departments law, 
historical, and general; the Library com- 
mission, with its present correlation with 
the state Library, the schools of the state, 
and the State university, and having in 
view present and possible relations of the 
State library and the Library commission, 
what is the most logical division of au- 
thority, and under such division where 
should the controlling authority be lodged? 

The PRESIDENT: The Iowa case cer- 
tainly affords considerable subject-matter 
for discussion, and the Program committee 
has arranged to have several state libra- 
rians talk on this topic. I will now call 
on Mr. Gillis. 

Mr. GILLIS (Cal.) : When I first saw 
my name on this program I had no idea 
what kind of a contract was being provided 
for me. When I saw the place where it 
says "wherein I could improve the law in 
my own state if I were given the oppor- 
tunity," I thought it was an easy proposi- 
tion, because, at the present time, with 
the exception of a new law for a county 
library system, I had no suggestions to 
make in regard to changing of the present 
laws. The law gives us practically a free 
hand to operate the library activities of 
California as may seem best to us, and 
as long as we were allowed such wide 
latitude, I didn't see what else we had 
to ask. All I can do is to explain present 
conditions in California, and how they 
came about. The library originally was, as 
most state libraries are, simply a law 
department for the use of the Legislature 
and state officers; later, it was broadened 
and a general collection provided. That 
was the condition it was in when I was ap- 
pointed. After that, an Extension depart- 
ment was established. The California li- 



brary association believe that a library 
commission should be established, and 
prepared a bill and presented it to the 
Board of state library trustees for their 
consideration. They consulted with the 
Governor, and he decided that there were 
enough commissions already. He said that 
he did not believe in dividing such work, 
and suggested that the State library carry 
it on, and so the State library took up 
the work. That was in 1903. Later, the 
California department the historical de- 
partment in other states was established. 
This is the condition and extent of the 
State library at the present time. It has 
been demonstrated to our satisfaction that 
to have all activities combined in one 
institution, working one with the other 
and using each force to help the other is, 
in case of necessity or of advantage, more 
economical and effective. 

The Extension department has been ex- 
tremely active, and has helped in many 
ways to build up the Historical depart- 
ment. Traveling as the organizers do 
from one end of the state to the other, 
and meeting people in all directions, they 
have gathered immense amounts of his- 
torical material that probably would never 
have been received otherwise. The force 
of the Library is used wherever it can be 
most effective, and to assist in those de- 
partments where necessity demands at the 
time. For instance, during a session, all 
the institution is used to aid the legisla- 
ture. The Legislative reference depart- 
ment has at command the resources of 
the Historical department, which has a 
splendid index of the state newspapers, 
from the first one published in 1846 to the 
present time. This has proven of very 
great value in connection with legislation 
relating to California, and in all historical 
questions, referred to by bills or otherwise. 
The Extension department has also made 
the Legislative reference department more 
effective by coming in contact wth the 
members of the Legislature and the people 
of the counties, ascertaining what their 
wants are and what legislation they will 
probably advocate. We find that it is much 
easier to ask to have the appropriation for 



STATE LIBRARIES 



729 



one institution increased than to ask in- 
creases for three or four. 

There is a peculiar situation in Cali- 
fornia in "regard to the finances of the 
state Library. The fees of the Secretary 
of state are largely obtained from the 
filing of articles of incorporation. The 
funds of the state Library are provided 
for by a clause in the "State library law," 
which directs that five thousand dollars 
a month, or whatever the sum may be, 
shall be set aside from the fees of the 
Secretary of state's office to create a li- 
brary fund. It, has seemed to me, in view 
of the manner in which the State library 
of California has gone ahead, and of the 
cordial relations which exist with the 
Legislature and other departments of the 
state government, that we were extremely 
fortunate. Whether our plan is the best 
or the most effective, of course, I cannot 
say; but we do feel that it has been ex- 
tremely satisfactory. We have simply 
grown as the conditions and circumstances 
seemed to direct, and we have felt that 
our work has been broad and satisfactory 
to the people of the state. 

The one thing that we have especially 
in view at the present time is the estab- 
lishment of a county library system. The 
law passed at the last session of the 
Legislature was defective, and we have 
to pass a new act in order to put it in 
full operation. However, an alternative 
section of that law has enabled us to try 
it. It permitted the Board of supervisors 
of a county to enter into a contract with 
the Board of library trustees to carry on 
the functions of a county library, and un- 
der that section we have seven county 
libraries in operation. We expect to have 
before the next session of the Legislature 
half the counties in the state in operation 
under this plan. If we succeed in having 
the county libraries established, we intend 
to use the State library as the center of 
this organization, and to furnish books 
upon the request of the county librarians, 
so that a resident may borrow a book from 
the county library or from the State li- 
brary without expense. 

Mrs. WEBER (111.) : May I ask if the 
appropriation is itemized? 



Mr. GILLIS: The money comes to us 
entirely free, and there has never been 
any attempt to specify for what it shall 
be used. We receive from the state each 
year $67,000 in cash, and we operate with 
that money in whichever direction seems 
to be most necessary or desirable. 

Mrs. WEBER: Do you have control of 
the county libraries? 

Mr. GILLIS: The state has supervision 
over the county libraries, just as the State 
superintendent of instruction has over the 
public schools. The county maintains its 
own institution, separate and distinct, and 
the state has nothing to do with it except 
to encourage its formation and organiza- 
tion, and to assist and co-operate after it 
has been established.. 

The PRESIDENT: We would like to 
hear from Mr. Galbreath. 

Mr. GALBREATH (Ohio) : I think that 
about all I have to add is to join my con- 
gratulations to your applause of the Pacific 
coast which has accomplished so much, 
and in my opinion is accomplishing it in a 
very logical manner. I believe in this 
work of co-ordination. I believe that the 
more work can be consolidated the better 
will be the results, the less the liability 
to duplication, and the more satisfactory 
the service in every way to the state. In 
Ohio we began with a Library commission, 
with a broad and all-comprehensive pro- 
vision similar, to that mentioned by Mr. 
Gillis. It provided that the Library com- 
mission might do as it pleased to carry 
out certain broadly defined objects. Under 
that general provision our traveling library 
system has been established. The words 
"traveling library" do not occur in any 
Ohio law, and yet we have built up a 
large system of traveling libraries. Last 
year there were issued 1,222 traveling li- 
braries. This department has been or- 
ganized under the Commission. We have 
a department of the general library which 
includes the historic library, and all books 
on general literature; but does not include 
the law library. I would not separate the 
general and historic library from the law 
library, and make them independent one 
of the other. I think that in view of the 



730 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



development of legislative reference work 
there are certain advantages in a very 
close union between the general library 
and the law library. We have recently 
had provision made for a Legislative ref- 
erence department, and this work is under 
our Library commission and is to be car- 
ried on and administered under the gen- 
eral direction of the State librarian. I 
omitted to state that we had about two 
years ago started a Department of library 
organization in some states it is called 
the Department of library extension. This 
department is also under the Library com- 
mission, and so far as co-ordination is con- 
cerned, there is little occasion for com- 
plaint from our experience thus far. We 
are very glad that all of these agencies 
have been organized under one board the 
Library commission and, while I shall not 
take time to explain in detail these ad- 
vantages, I think that they are so apparent 
from what has been said thus far that 
they are self-evident. Co-operation is the 
tendency of the age; organization, bringing 
together the different things that are re- 
lated, and administering them under one 
general authority. 

The PRESIDENT: I know of no one 
who can tell us more about co-ordination 
than our friend from Pennsylvania, Mr. 
Montgomery. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY: I think the Iowa 
case is part of a concerted movement by 
the public school system to take the li- 
braries absolutely over into their own 
jurisdiction. I have seen the evidences 
of it in many eastern states, and it was 
only at the last session of our Legislature 
that I found in the school code a provision 
which would practically take under the 
superintendence of the various school 
boards all the libraries that had been es- 
tablished under what is known as the 
school law. And it is a thing that we 
ought to be cognizant of, because I think 
we shall all have some trouble of this 
kind sooner or later. Of course, I do not 
view it with any pleasure whatever. With 
regard to the Pennsylvania state library, 
I have spoken to you several times about 
it. The Legislative reference department 



was established at the last meeting of the 
Legislature. The law provides that the 
Governor shall appoint the Legislative di- 
rector, but the division is under the state 
Librarian. The salary of the Director was 
fixed at $3,500. I did my best to have it 
made $5,000, and the Governor, at the time, 
looked a little surprised and said, "Why, 
that is more than you get." "Well," I said, 
"I don't think it is any more inconsistent 
than the fact that you get ten thousand 
and your Attorney-general twelve," and 
he saw the point. But the Legislature 
thought that $3,500 was a large enough 
salary for the place, and the vice-director 
was placed at $2,000; and there was only 
a $2,000-a-year provision made for the 
other expenses of this bureau, but I made 
arrangements with the Board and with the 
Governor that whatever the Director wants, 
he is to have. I have given him the best 
cataloger that I have, and I shall give 
him all the forty-five people in the building 
if he needs them during legislative sess- 
ions. 

The PRESIDENT: We would like to 
hear from you, Mrs. Spencer. 

Mrs. SPENCER (Mich.) : I do not think 
I have anything that I could add to what 
is already known of the Michigan state 
library. It was established not quite so 
soon as the Pennsylvania library, but was 
started in 1828. A librarian was appointed 
who received $250 a year for work through 
the session of the Territorial council. 
Since that time there has never been any 
division of authority. The state Librarian 
has always been at the head of all the 
library activities of the state. The Law 
department, the General and Historical 
department, the Document department, 
the distribution work, the traveling library 
department, and the Legislative reference 
bureau are all under one control. The 
trouble with me has been to avoid new 
responsibility. I protested against having 
the Legislative records department under 
my care, for I felt that I had more than I 
ought to be asked to take care of. When 
I became head of the State library in 
1883, there were 60,000 books; there are 
now, with the traveling library, about 



STATE LIBRARIES 



731 



200,00. That has been the growth of the li- 
brary during that time. We had last year 500 
traveling libraries circulating in the schools. 
These libraries, as you no doubt understand, 
are fixed libraries; they are made up and 
cataloged, and they are kept together; we 
also have special libraries which are taken 
from the open shelves. Our resources: 
during the last few years I received $6,500 
for the State library, and $6,000 for the 
traveling, and about $5,000 for the Library 
commission. This does not include sal- 
aries. I have sixteen assistants who re- 
ceive a thousand dollars a year, and those 
salaries are paid out of the general fund, 
and also the printing and binding; every- 
thing connected with that part of the 
library is paid for out of the general fund; 
so that my appropriation is entirely for 
the purchase of books. Yet I can see 
many places in which our law could be 
improved. 

The PRESIDENT: Mr. Godard, will you 
speak on this topic? 

Mr. GODARD (Conn.): I can only say 
that so far as Connecticut is concerned 



our library authority is called the Public 
library committee. It has charge of the 
traveling libraries, and has a field agent 
who goes through the state assisting the 
librarians of the smaller libraries. There 
are also library institutes held two or 
three times a year in different parts of 
the state. This Public library committee 
was established under the State board of 
education, prior to my coming to the 
State library. It seems to be an ideal 
condition, because the committee works 
largely in connection with the schools, and 
the libraries are looked upon as a part of 
the educational machinery of the state. 

The PRESIDENT: The meeting will 
now be brought to a close. I am sure that 
this conference has been one of the most 
successful in the history of the Association, 
I think there has been a larger attendance 
than ever before. It shows a healthy in- 
terest in the growth and development of 
state library work, and wherever we meet 
next year I hope that we can all be there, 
and bring others with us. 



LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



Seventh Annual Meeting at Mackinac Island, July J-2, J9JO 



FIRST SESSION 
Friday, July 1. 

The first session was called to order 
July 1, at 10:00 a. m., by the President, 
Mr. A. L. Bailey of Delaware. 

On roll call it was found that fifteen of 
the commissions having membership in the 
League were represented. 

It was voted that the reading of the 
Minutes of the last annual meeting be 
waived, as full reports had already been 
given in the library periodicals. 

The Treasurer's report was read, and, 
upon her motion, it was 

Voted that an Auditing committee be 
appointed to audit the Treasurer's books. 

The President appointed Mr. Bliss and 
Miss Downey as Auditing committee to 
report at the second session. 

As Chairman of the Committee on ar- 
rangements for sectional meetings, the 
President stated that two meetings had 
been held: the Middle West, in Chicago 
in January, and the Eastern, in Albany in 
February; that the Committee had decided 
as to the conduct of these meetings, the 
most important decision being that no of- 
ficial action could be taken on any busi- 
ness presented to the League at its sec- 
tional meetings; he also stated that re- 
ports of the meetings had been given in 
the library periodicals, and that minutes 
of each are on file in the Secretary's book. 

The Chairman of the Publications com- 
mittee, Miss CLARA F. BALDWIN, 
Minnesota, presented the following: 

REPORT OF THE PUBLICATIONS COM- 
MITTEE 

The Publications committee begs to sub- 
mit the following report of work for the 
year 1909-10, as to publications which have 
appeared during the year, and the progress 
of those in preparation. 



Publications Issued During 1909-10 
Swedish list, compiled for the League by 
Miss Valfrid Palmgren of the Royal 
Library, Stockholm, which was in press at 
the time of the last report, has been is- 
sued by the A. L. A. Publishing board, as 
"Foreign book-list No. 5." Its price is 25c 
per copy 

Library tract No. 10, in the A. L. A. 
series, has also appeared, being a revised 
edition of "Tract No. 1," combined with 
"Tract No. 10," and entitled "Why do we 
need a public library?" with sub-title, 
"Material for a library campaign," com- 
piled by Chalmers Hadley, Secretary, A. 
L. A. Price 5c per copy. 

Mending and repair of books. The 
pamphlet on this subject, prepared by 
Margaret Wright Brown of the Iowa li- 
brary commission, has been published by 
the A. L. A. Publishing board as "Library 
handbook No. 6." It contains clear, con- 
cise directions as to when to bind and 
when to mend, ways to mend and clean 
books, notes on the mending table and its 
supplies, binding records, etc. As reported 
a year ago, actual tests were made of the 
methods suggested and the result is a 
thoroughly practical handbook which can 
be placed in the hands of inexperienced 
librarians. The price is 15c for single 
copies, or $5 per 100. 

Buying list of books for small libraries, 
compiled by Zaidee Brown, was published 
in February, 1910, by the N. Y. State Edu- 
cation Department. An edition of 1000 
copies was printed for the League and has 
already been entirely exhausted. 

The reports of the Committee on com- 
mission work in state institutions and es- 
sentials of a model commission law as 
given at the Bretton Woods conference, 
and appearing in the official "Proceedings" 
of the League at that meeting, have been 
reprinted as separates, and are available 
for free distribution to commissions which 
are members of the League, and to others 
upon special request. 

Government documents in small libra- 
ries. A pamphlet on U. S. Government 
documents in small libraries, by J. I. Wyer, 
Jr. was published by the League in 1905, 
as its first publication. The League edi- 
tion has been long out of print, and the 
enlarged .and revised edition later issued 
by the N. Y. State library as "Bulletin 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



733 



102," is also out of print. A new and re- 
vised edition of the briefer pamphlet has 
recently appeared, published by the A. L. 
A. Publishing board in its "Handbook" 
series. 

Publications in Preparation. 
Children's list. Part 2 of the "Sugges- 
tive list," including "Books for children 
recommended for the small public library" 
is now in press. The list has been com- 
piled by the Wisconsin free library com- 
mission, and comprises about 500 titles, 
arranged by classes, graded, and anno- 
tated. Special attention has been given to 
editions, and in the case of classics, sever- 
al editions have been noted, including the 
less expensive as well as those with the 
best illustrations. As a supplement to the 
list are a number of special lists such as 
"College stories for boys," "Boarding 
school stories for girls," "Detective 
stories," "Railroad stories," "Indian stor- 
ies," "Sea stories," etc., also the chief 
children's series, such as "Told to the 
children," and "Little cousins series," are 
listed, with a descriptive note for the 
series as a whole, and the best titles 
starred. A cordial vote of thanks is due 
to the Wisconsin commission and the 
members of its staff, who have devoted 
many extra hours to the preparation of 
this list. The list will be published by the 
Wisconsin commission, and the Committee 
recommends that the A. L. A. Publishing 
board be asked to take over this publica- 
tion. 

Library commission handbook. At a 
meeting of the Publications committee held 
in the mid-winter, in consultation with 
members of the Executive board, it was 
suggested that the annual publication of 
the League "Yearbook" was an unneces- 
sary expense, involving as it does so much 
repetition. It was therefore determined 
by the Publications committee that with 
the forthcoming edition, its title should be 
changed to "League or library commis- 
sions handbook," that it should contain 
the historical sketch of Commission work 
in general, with the "Constitution" and 
history of the League, and a general state- 
ment of the organization and work of each 
Commission, and that annual supplements 
should be issued, containing statistics for 
the year, and supplementary matter such 
as the establishment of new commissions, 
or important new lines of work undertaken 
by any commission. The material for the 
"Handbook" is all in hand and is practi- 
cally ready for the printer, but its publica- 
tion has been postponed, owing to pending 
changes in the League "Constitution." 

A Graded list of stories for reading 
aloud, was published by the Indiana libra- 



ry commission several years ago, and 
many commissions at that time expressed \ 
a desire for copies of this pamphlet. A 
revised edition is now in press, and an 
edition of 500 copies will be reprinted for 
the League. This will be obtainable from 
the Secretary of the League at lOc for 
single copies, and at the rate of $7 per 100 
in quantities of 25 or more. 

Suggestive list. A new edition of the 
"Suggestive list" was assigned to the Wis- 
consin commission some years ago, but the 
great amount of time involved in the pre- 
paration of the "Children's list" has made 
it impossible to push this work further. It 
has been suggested that since the New 
York Buying list has appeared, which 
meets the immediate needs of commissions 
satisfactorily, the publication of the "Sug- 
gestive list" be deferred for the present. 

Future Co-operative Work 

After the establishment of A. L. A. head- 
quarters in Chicago, it was proposed that 
in order to centralize the sale of all library 
publications, the A. L. A. Publishing board 
should be asked to handle the sale of 
League publications from the central office. 
The plan was laid before the Board at 
its January meeting, but pressure of 
work in the A. L. A. office made it impos- 
sible to undertake additional work at that 
time, although the sentiment of the Board 
was in favor of the plan. Further develop- 
ments seem to indicate that the most 
satisfactory solution of the problem is 
that all League publications, excepting the 
"Handbook," and occasional reprints of 
Commission publications, be taken over by 
the Publishing board and published by 
that Board for the League of library com- 
missions. This has already been done in 
the case of the pamphlet on "Small library 
buildings," several "Foreign book-lists," 
and some of the publications in the "Hand- 
book" series, as, "Material for a library 
campaign," and "Mending and repair of 
books." This not only relieves the League 
of financial responsibility, but does not in- 
volve any complications in the A. L. A. 
system of accounts. 

The League of library commissions was 
organized primarily to further co-operation 
between library commissions, especially in 
the publication of material which is of 
value to all commissions. Following the 
mid-winter meetings at Chicago and Al- 
bany, an effort was made by the Publica- 
tions committee to inaugurate a more 
effective system of co-operation. A circu- 
lar letter was sent to each of the 23 com- 
missions, including all those which publish 
any material other than annual or biennial 
reports. This letter urged each commis- 



734 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



sion to notify the Chairman of the Publi- 
cations committee whenever they proposed 
to print lists of books, bibliographies, or 
reading-lists of any kind, or articles of 
general interest, either in bulletins or in 
separate form. The Committee proposed 
to keep this information on file, for the 
benefit of .all commissions, who could by 
this means readily ascertain whether 
material on any subject was already in 
print or in preparation. Whenever it was 
deemed advisable, these lists or articles 
could be reprinted for the League at small 
cost, before the type was distributed. Re- 
plies were received from 7 out of the 23 
commissions, all of whom expressed ap- 
proval of the plan, and 5 of whom reported 
on publications in preparation. Sugges- 
tions as to needed publications were also 
asked for, and, in response to this request, 
the following were mentioned: "List of 
agricultural books," "List of Polish books" 
in hands of Publishing board, "Study out- 
lines for study groups." 

It will readily be seen that the work of 
the Publications committee and the co- 
operative work of the League can be made 
successful, only if the co-operation and in- 
terest of every commission is secured. A 
card catalog of publications in preparation, 
and of publications asked for, has been 
started, and the committee once more asks 
your assistance in carrying out this plan, 
or any other which may be devised by fu- 
ture committees to make co-operation 
effective. 

CLARA F. BALDWIN, Chairman, 
CHARLOTTE TEMPLETON, 
ROBERT P. BLISS. 

The desirability of placing the League 
publications on sale with the A. L. A. Pub- 
lishing board was discussed. It was the 
concensus of opinion that the League 
should not attempt the publication of any 
new printed matter, except that pertaining 
to the specific work of the League as an 
organization. 

Voted that the Publications committee 
be instructed to confer with the A. L. A. 
Publishing board in regard to the relation 
of the Publications committee to the A. L. 
A. Publishing board, also regarding all 
present publications and such as are un- 
dertaken in the future. 

Miss Stearns moved, and it was 

Voted that the recommendations of the 
Publications committee in reference to the 
"Handbook" and its supplements in lieu of 
the "Yearbook" be accepted. 



After a general discussion of the pro- 
posed new edition of the "Suggestive list," 
Mr. Dudgeon moved, and it was 

Voted that the matter of the "Suggestive 
list" be referred back to the Publications 
committee with the suggestion that so 
long as the old edition of the "Suggestive 
list" and the "New York Buying list," 
compiled by Miss Zaidee Brown, are avail- 
able, that the publication of a new list be 
indefinitely postponed. 

Miss Baldwin urged that the Commis- 
sions issuing publications for their own 
state use notify the Publications committee 
regarding such publications while yet in 
type. 

During the discussion of the report, Mrs. 
Estabrook of the Maine Library commission 
stated that lists of books on agriculture, 
forestry, and domestic science were being 
issued by that Commission. 

Mr. Dudgeon, Wisconsin, spoke of the 
need of study-club outlines. Believing that 
co-operation regarding these is desirable, 
he moved, and it was 

Voted that the matter of preparation and 
printing of study-club outlines be referred 
to the Publications committee with power 
to appoint a sub-committee to investigate 
and report at the mid-winter meeting. 

Continuation of the discussion of the re- 
port of the Publications committee led to 
a motion: 

That the matter of reprinting the New 
York Buying list be referred to the Pub- 
lications committee for consideration in 
connection with other matters to be dis- 
cussed with the A. L. A. publishing board, 
with power to act. The motion carried. 

The report of the Committee on libraries 
for federal prisons was presented by the 
Chairman, Mr. CHALMERS HADLEY, as 
follows : 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIBRA- 
RIES FOR FEDERAL PRISONS 
At the meeting of the League of library 
commissions at Bretton Woods last year, 
a committee was appointed to consider lib- 
rary conditions in United States peniten- 
tiaries, and was empowered to introduce 
a bill into Congress for the better support 
of these libraries. The committee con- 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



735 



sisted of Mr. Hadley, Mrs. Mary E. Root, 
Providence, R. I., and William F. Whitcher 
of Woodsville, N. H. Last autumn the 
Chairman of the Committee communicated 
with the wardens of the United States 
penitentiaries in regard to tho libraries 
in their institutions. These are at Atlanta, 
Georgia, Leavenworth, Kansas, and Bee, 
Washington. Letters were sent also to the 
naval prisons at Boston, Mass., and Ports- 
mouth, N. H. 

The Warden at the Atlanta penitentiary 
stated that there was a library at that in- 
stitution for the benefit of the prisoners. 
The number of volumes is 6,785, not In- 
cluding 1,938 school and text-books. There 
is no annual financial support. Books are 
donated from time to time by friends of 
the institution. The Government has not 
up to this time made any appropriation for 
the library. 

At Leavenworth, Kansas, the number of 
volumes is 7,500. Additions are made as 
often as there are funds with which to 
buy books. The source of financial sup- 
port is the United States Government 
through the Department of Justice. 

At Bee, Washington, the number of 
volumes is 400. No financial support is 
received, except such contributions as are 
made by visitors calling at the institution. 

Last December the Chairman of the 
Committee called on the warden of one of 
these penitentiaries, who seemed to be 
much interested in the library. He criti- 
cized adversely existing library conditions 
in the penitentiary, and agreed to certain 
plans suggested by the Chairman for their 
improvement. A hasty inspection showed 
that little attempt at book selection had 
been made, as the collection consisted of 
a general assortment of all classes of 
books, including standard works, Sunday 
school stories, some very trivial children's 
books, with a superabundance of depress- 
ingly moral homilies. The books were in 
all sorts of condition. There was an ab- 
sence of the usual facilities for library 
work as compared to what some of the 
state prisons are providing. The Chaplain 
had charge of the books, and had a printed 
list which was out of date. There was no 



reading hour at the penitentiary, but there 
was time provided every evening during 
which the men could do as they pleased 
in their cells. As many of them were 
supplied with cornets, fifes, jew's-harps, 
etc., it was inferred there was not that 
quietness conducive to reading or study. 
Following a conference with the Warden, 
the Chairman of your Committee decided 
it would be a mistake, at least at that time, 
to introduce a bill into Congress last win- 
ter, as this would reflect directly on the 
administrative officers at the penitentia- 
ries, and on the U. S. Department of 
Justice, which has jurisdiction over these 
prisons. The other members of the Com- 
mittee concurred in this opinion, and the 
Chairman recommended, at the mid-winter 
meetings of the middle-western and east- 
ern sections of the League, that no legis- 
lation be attempted without first trying to 
better the penitentiary libraries by work- 
ing through the Department of Justice. 
This recommendation was favorably con- 
sidered by the two sections. 

Early in the present year, the Chairman 
communicated in regard to the prison lib- 
raries with Mr. Wickersham, United States 
Attorney General, who referred the matter 
to Mr. Ellis, acting Attorney General. Mr. 
Ellis replied in part: "The supervision of 
these penitentaries is placed under the 
Department of Justice by law. I should 
be glad to entertain any suggestions of 
your Association looking to any improve- 
ment in these libraries. For any detailed 
information regarding the books which 
compose these libraries I must refer you 
to the wardens of the penitentiaries. The 
annual appropriations made by Congress 
for the support of these institutions pro- 
vide for the purchase of library books, 
newspapers, and periodicals, so that it is 
not thought that it would be necessary to 
introduce a bill as proposed by you for 
this purpose." 

Before anything definite could be done 
Mr. Ellis left Washington and was suc- 
ceeded by William R. Harr as acting At- 
torney General. The Chairman called his 
attention to previous correspondence with 
his office, and upon request submitted the 



736 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



following suggestions for the improvement 
of the libraries in the penitentiaries: 

"First. That a definite sum of money 
be provided annually for the maintenance 
of the library work in each penitentiary. 
This amount need not be large necessarily, 
but it is suggested that some ratio exist 
between the amount of money expended 
and the number of prisoners to be provided 
with books. 

"Second. That when possible the selec- 
tion of books for purchase be delegated to 
some one who understands penitentiary 
conditions, and who also knows books. 
Unless a definite policy in book purchase 
be followed, economy in buying will be 
difficult. 

"Third. When possible, some one to be 
designated as librarian, to be responsible 
for the care and loaning of books, and to 
give assistance to prisoners in their selec- 
tion of books for reading. 

"Fourth. That at least one hour in the 
evening be set apart as a reading hour 
when quietness is insisted on. 

"Fifth. That some adequate system be 
used for the loaning of books, to detect 
the guilty when books are mutilated, to 
show statistics of book circulation, and 
character of the reading done. 

"Sixth. A printed catalogue of books in 
the library be prepared for use of the 
prisoners, so they can select their own 
books and follow a definite line of read- 
ing." 

In a letter received from Mr. Harr, he 
said in part: "I am in receipt of your 
letter containing suggestions for the bet- 
terment of the libraries in U. S. peniten- 
tiaries, for which I thank you. The war- 
dens of the penitentiaries have been re- 
quested to give their views upon the sub- 
ject. ... I shall take pleasure in 
advising you of any changes adopted as a 
result of the suggestions which have been 
made." 

Mr. Harr's attention was called to the 
advantages which would result both to 
prisoners and penitentiaries if better lib- 
rary facilities existed. The work of lib- 
raries in certain state prisons was cited 
for illustration. 



Just before coming to Mackinac Island 
another letter was received from Mr. 
Harr, acting Attorney General, as follows: 

"Referring to my letter of the 26th, in 
which I advised you that the suggestions 
for the improvement of the United States 
penitentiary libraries, made in your letter 
of the 23rd, had been communicated to 
the wardens of the respective penitentia- 
ries with a request for their views, I have 
received replies from each of the wardens. 

"Your first suggestion is that a definite 
sum of money be provided annually for 
each penitentiary to maintain its library. 
In the appropriation for the maintenance 
of each penitentiary is a sub-appropriation 
for miscellaneous purposes, including 
books for the library. The Attorney Gen- 
eral, under whose authority the appropria- 
tion is disbursed, is empowered to incur 
such expenses for library books as he 
deems proper. It is not thought that any 
change is necessary or advisable. The 
appropriation is now sub-divided as far as 
desirable. 

"Your second suggestion is that the se- 
lection of books be delegated to some one 
who understands penitentiary conditions 
but who also knows books. This arrange- 
ment already exists in the institutions, the 
selection of books, etc., being under the 
penitentiary Chaplain and the Warden, and 
approved of by the Attorney General. 

"Your third suggestion, that when pos- 
sible some one be designated as librarian, 
to be responsible for the care and loaning 
of books, and to give assistance to prison- 
ers, when needed, in their selection of 
books for reading, is in practical operation. 
At Atlanta and Leavenworth the chaplains 
act as librarians. At McNeil Island, be- 
cause of the smallness of the institution, 
there is no regularly employed chaplain, 
but the Warden informs me that his pres- 
ent arrangement for the care and loaning 
of books meets the requirements of the 
institution, and, until his accommodations 
and population grow considerably larger 
there will be no need for a change in car- 
ing for the library. 

"As to your fourth suggestion, that at 
least one hour in the evening be set apart 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



737 



as a reading hour, the Warden at Leaven- 
worth informs me that it is intended to 
put such a plan in force as soon as the 
institution is sufficiently completed to pro- 
vide the necessary reading room with 
lights, desks, etc. The Warden at Atlanta 
says this suggestion is a good one as far 
as it goes, but, in his opinion, it does not 
go far enough. He says that the time 
between six o'clock and nine o'clock in the 
evening, three hours, is set apart for read- 
ing, and there are other periods in the day 
when prisoners are permitted to read. 

"Your fifth suggestion, that some ade- 
quate system be used for the loaning of 
books, to detect the guilty when books are 
mutilated, to show statistics of book circu- 
lation, and to show the character of the 
reading done, is endorsed by the wardens, 
who say that such a system is in operation 
in their institutions. 

"Your sixth suggestion, that printed cat- 
alogues of the books in the library be 
prepared for use by prisoners so they can 
select their own books and follow a definite 
line of reading, is also endorsed by the 
wardens, who say that they already have 
such catalogues. The Warden at Atlanta 
says his catalogue divides the books up 
into different heads: Fiction, Magazines, 
Biography, History and Travels, Religion 
and Theology, and Miscellaneous. 

"I again wish to thank you for your sug- 
gestions. However, I do not see where 
any material change is feasible in the con- 
duct of the prison libraries." 

Both from conversation with one war- 
den, and through correspondence with him, 
I believe that the wardens, excellent men 
though they are, are averse to admitting 
publicly any weakness in the present sys- 
tem of conducting the libraries. The un- 
wisdom of quoting criticisms from the 
wardens to the Department of Justice was 
especially pointed out to me, and the 
replies sent by the wardens to the Depart- 
ment of Justice do not agree with the 
statements and wishes made personally 
by one warden, at least, to the Chairman 
of your Committee. 

I believe the situation for the libraries 
is hopeful, if care be used. I have been 



informed that the Attorney General has 
shown personal interest in these libraries 
during visits to the penitentiaries. 

It is suggested that the next step taken 
by the League should be the designation 
of librarians who are near these peniten- 
tiaries to make a careful investigation of 
library conditions, including financial sup- 
port, selection of books, encouragement, 
or otherwise, to the best use of books, etc. 
The wardens lack the information regard- 
ing proper library work, which blinds them 
to many deficiencies in their own libraries. 
If aTeport of existing conditions and needs 
be sent directly from this organization, or 
the American library association, to the 
Attorney General, I believe some progress 
will be made. If the Department of Justice 
refuses to act after receiving such a re- 
port, the results of the suggested investi- 
gation, and the report of librarians will be 
available should a bill be introduced over 
the heads of those in charge of the De- 
partment of Justice. 

Mr. Whitcher, of the Committee, con- 
ferred with the Chairman of the House 
Committee on libraries, who stated that if 
necessary, a rider for the benefit of the 
penitentiary libraries, might be put on 
the library appropriation. Mr. Whitcher 
agreed, however, that action had best be 
taken through the Department of Justice. 
Even if definite financial support be 
granted, however, the Chairman of your 
Committee believes that comparatively 
little will be accomplished unless the De- 
partment is shown the importance of 
proper book selection, and the right loan- 
ing of books in the penitentiaries. It is 
believed this can be done better by calling 
attention to what is already being done 
in various state prisons, rather than by 
direct criticism of the lack of proper 
library conditions in the United States 
penitentiaries. 

Miss Tyler moved and it was 

Voted that the report be accepted and 
the committee continued with power to 
add to its number three members to aid 
in the investigation of conditions in these 
libraries; these members to be librarians 
living in convenient distance from the 
three federal prisons. 



738 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



After considerable discussion of the de- 
sirability of a list of books to be recom- 
mended for purchase by penal and other 
state institutions, it was moved by Miss 
Stearns and 

Voted that the Publications committee 
take under consideration the advisability 
of having recommended lists of books for 
penal and charitable institutions compiled 
and printed. 

It was suggested that Miss Carey, of 
Minnesota, be called upon by the Com- 
mittee for advice and counsel regarding 
the compilation of these lists. 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON UNI- 
FORM TRAVELING LIBRARY STA- 
TISTICS 

The Chairman, Miss MARGARET W. 
BROWN, Iowa, presented the following 
report: 

A uniform basis for traveling library 
statistics has long been recognized as 
necessary for comparative purposes. A 
paper on the subject was presented at the 
Minnetonka meeting of the League (1908), 
the matter generally discussed, and a Com- 
mittee of three appointed to submit a ten- 
tative blank for consideration at the mid- 
winter meeting in Chicago, the following 
January (1909). This was presented and 
thoroughly discussed, item by item, by 
those present who were actually engaged 
in the detail work of conducting traveling 
library systems. Decisions were made by 
them as to items to be included, and they 
agreed to co-operate in testing the blanks 
to verify the use of the items agreed upon. 

Following the meeting the Committee 
put into tentative form three blanks, which 
were sent to the traveling library systems, 
whose representatives were present and, 
from participation in the discussion, knew 
the points to be tested. 

After the test the majority expressed 
a willingness to accept the blanks in the 
form, presented, some suggesting slight 
changes. A report regarding the test was 
made in full at the Bretton Woods con- 
ference (1909). An extension of time was 
granted the Committee, and two blanks 
were put into printed form (embodying 
certain minor changes) and again tested. 



At the mid-winter meeting in Chicago 
(1910) a report was again made. The 
Committee recognized that the blanks 
were probably not in final form, but pre- 
sented a sufficiently satisfactory basis for 
comparative traveling library statistics, 
and recommended their use for such pur- 
poses, in connection with the League 
"Yearbook." No official action could oe 
taken at this meeting, because of the de- 
cision at Bretton Woods regarding sec- 
tional meeting of the League. The report 
was also presented at the sectional meet- 
ing at Albany, N. Y., in February, 1910. 

The blanks have been sent this year by 
the compiler of the "Yearbook" to all 
traveling library systems in the League, 
and the Committee presents as its final 
report these blank forms to be used as a 
basis of League statistics for the "Year- 
book," and asks to be discharged. 

Voted that the report be accepted and 
the Committee be discharged, with the 
thanks of the League for results accom- 
plished. 

The President stated that certain amend- 
ments to the Constitution had been sug- 
gested to members of the Executive board, 
but, as the Board was not unanimous, as 
required by the Constitution, it was im- 
possible to present these amendments for 
action. 

Mr. Bliss moved and it was 

Voted that the revision of the Constitu- 
tion be referred to a Committee of three 
appointed by the President. 

The President appointed as the Com- 
mittee on revision, Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, 
Wisconsin, Mrs. Belle Holcomb Johnson, 
Conn., Miss Alice S. Tyler, Iowa. 

A communication was presented from 
Mr. Louis R. Wilson, of North Carolina, 
asking that the matter of securing second- 
class mail rates for Commission bulletins 
be considered, and it was moved and 

Voted that a Committee be appointed 
consisting of Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, Mr. C. H. 
Milam, Mr. Louis R. Wilson, to consider 
methods by which such mail rates may be 
obtained. 

Co-operation of the various commissions 
in selecting books for traveling library 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



739 



purposes was discussed, and Miss Stearns 
moved, and it was 

Voted that the various state library com- 
missions be requested to mail a copy of 
every list of books selected for traveling 
libraries to all other commissions having 
Traveling library departments. 

The President appointed as the Com- 
mittee on nominations, Miss Tyler, Mr. 
Milam, Miss Wales. 

Adjourned. 



SECOND SESSION 
Saturday, July 2, 1910, at 8:00 P. M. 

"Books for the farmer: library extension 
in rural communities," was the general 
theme of the second session. The first 
paper, by Miss FRANCES HOBART, Ver- 
mont, was read by Miss Hickin, of Grand 
Rapids, Michigan, as follows: 

THE FARMER, HIS BOOK AND HEART 

. They should never part, but, for some 
unknown reason, they seem to have done 
so, for the librarian is troubled to get the 
farmer and his books together. We have 
discussed the rural problem a great deal; 
we have bought agricultural books; we 
have gotten "Farmers' bulletins" and leaf- 
lets from the experiment stations and 
departments of agriculture; we have tried 
nature study clubs and improving courses 
of reading; we have tried to beguile him, 
and uplift him from his rough furrows of 
ignorance to our own smooth, shiny pave- 
ments of culture. But something is the 
trouble; some way he doesn't lift easily. 
Sometimes it would seem as tho' we re- 
quired a derrick, and even then the awk- 
ward fellow might slip on our glazed walk 
and slide back again. 

We have tried to bring him up to our 
standard, to fit his heart to our book. 
Suppose, for a change, we try to discover 
what his heart really is, and then adapt 
our books to it. If possible go with a mind 
free from previous conceptions, and study 
the man himself. There are many grades: 

First the man who owns his farm; sec- 
ond the man who rents a farm; third 



the man who works on a farm by the day 
or month, but neither owns nor rents; 
fourth the man who lives in a rural com- 
munity, and be he doctor, lawyer, mer- 
chant, blacksmith, or livery man he is 
likely to work at least a garden and may 
own a cow; and as he associates largely 
with tillers of the soil, he comes to be 
like them, and possesses their character- 
istics to a greater or less degree. 

From an economic standpoint there is a 
wide difference between these classes, but 
it would be impossible to keep them in 
the same classes if they were graded in- 
tellectually. One would naturally suppose 
that the man owning the farm would be 
the superior, and certainly that the profes- 
sional man of the fourth class would be 
superior, yet that does not always follow. 
I know a day laborer who reads the poets 
so much that he can finish, and continue 
for many lines, almost any quotation one 
may begin the "Rubaiyat" he knows to 
the end. Not so very far from him lives the 
lawyer who, in court one day, asserted 
that he was present when Jehu was tried 
for fast driving. 

The man who rents the farm is quite 
likely eventually to own a farm himself; 
and the man who begins by the day or 
month is apt to change to the man who 
rents; and, in the end, the country doctor, 
or lawyer, or even minister, also buys a 
farm as soon as he wishes to retire or 
gets prosperous. So our distinction of 
classes is quite lost and we must again 
depend upon a general similarity and a 
study of the individual. 

It is never really quite safe, to be sure, 
just what these dwellers in the rural dis- 
tricts do know, or don't know. Often they 
assume not to know things with which 
they are perfectly familiar just to amuse 
themselves at some one's else expense, for 
the man who toils has a sense of humor 
all his own. It may not coincide with 
your sense, but it is genuine nevertheless. 
There is always a possibility that he may 
have a mind that knows and appreciates 
the best, and it is always safe to say that 
the average man in the country is a person 
of more thought and capability than the 
average man in the city; >and at his worst 



740 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



the "man with the hoe" is slow to change, 
cautious and canny. He views a new 
thing with a suspicious eye; but, if it 
seem likely to benefit him, he does not 
utterly decline, but considers the matter. 
The very occupation by which he gets his 
living has made him capable of reasoning, 
and has taught him patience and perse- 
verance, and made him a philosopher. He 
must plow and harrow, plant and cultivate, 
reap and garner, before he sees the result 
of his toil. He must plan; he must con- 
trive; he must invent and circumvent, to 
conquer the elements and gain his living. 
The more he is able to plan, the better is 
he able to control the elemental forces of 
life. His work constantly increases his 
reasoning powers, while the work of a 
mill-hand, of a clerk, or any wheel of a 
great machine in a city existence, con- 
stantly decreases the reasoning powers. 
Even the most stupid-appearing rustic has 
powers of intuition, and keenness of dis- 
cernment of character that would surprise 
you. 

You think Long John is a lout he stum- 
bles, and blushes, and acts clumsily gen- 
erally. But wait! When you are away, 
he smiles and winks knowingly, he takes 
off your pet expressions, and apes your 
walk to the hired girl till she screams 
with laughter. He knows to a jot whether 
or not you are a pretty good fellow, and 
can be trusted, and have a real interest 
in him. 

The last driver who took me out to a 
library confided to me, "Some of them 
city folks that ride with me make my ears 
ache talking about how beautiful 'tis all 
the time. I can hardly wait till I get out 
the wagon." "But then," he added, con- 
descendingly, "there's just as much dif- 
ference in city folks as there is in anybody 
else, and I can size them up by the time 
they've got into the wagon." Yet he was 
not insensible to the beauty of the land- 
scape, for he drove out of his way to 
show me new views, and was constantly 
calling my attention to stream and hill 
and the light through the trees. 

It is a part of the farmer's nature that 
he assumes a humility he does not feel, 



and disguises his emotions. The farmer is 
one of the most sentimental men in the 
world but he would not have you know 
it. You should see the love letters he 
can write. Library men are the most 
unsentimental they would not have you 
know that either. When Farmer Jones 
really loves, he shuns his divinity lest he 
should shock her by his rudeness; like- 
wise he scoffs at the appreciation of 
beauty that is loud and insistent, but he 
journeys back thousands of miles to the 
home of his boyhood that he may "lift up 
his eyes unto the hills" once more. He is 
apt to be a scoffer religiously, too; no mat- 
ter what his denomination he does not 
love religion as his forefathers did. Oc- 
casionally you will find a pious "Deacon 
Brown," but for the most part he believes 
in works more than in doctrines. He is, 
as a rule, strangely lacking in artistic 
sense, and usually prefers reality to rep- 
resentation. He is unhygienic in his 
habits, not sensitive to cruelty, and chi- 
valrous only on impulse never as a rule, 
or duty. He is not a fighter, yet he is 
terrible in battle when aroused. I leave 
it for the reference librarian to name the 
various instances in history where the 
farmer-soldier has wiped up the dust with 
his enemy. 

The primitive man that much abused 
expression is strong in him, and so is 
the "Bowery element." Rich or poor, old 
or young, you can never be certain that 
he will not surprise you. His dramatic 
possibilities are great, and there is seldom 
any limit to the possibilities of his devel- 
opment. To-day you may see him grimy 
with toil, unshaven, plodding the fields 
with hobnailed shoes, battered hat, and 
patched overalls to-morrow literally 
he may be hundreds of miles away in his 
motor car, administering the affairs of 
state or nation, or maybe dipping his 
brown hand in stocks; and the day after 
he may be home for milking, his frock 
smelling of the barn. 

He can sing, he can pray, he can swear, 
he can dance till broad daylight; he can 
make money and he can spend it; he can 
dissipate like a beast, or die like a saint. 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



741 



What are you going to do with him? Is 
this man of so various capabilities, so in- 
finite in his variety, going to be lightly 
moved? Can you reach out the tips of 
your fingers and say, "My good fellow, 
let me improve your mind?" Assuredly 
you cannot. His force is elemental; in 
order to meet and master it you must 
have something more than mere book 
learning, or a theory derived from this or 
that L. A. or school. First you must be 
and not seem, for he sees through you; 
you must have power enough to be his 
equal in spirit, before you can convince 
him. You must have common sense 
enough to realize the immutability of the 
value of things, just simple, every-day 
things. Then you can take your book in 
your hand and walk in the furrow with 
him, instead of attempting to pull him up 
to your slippery, trestled way. You will 
find the farmer with a poet's heart, and 
supply him with the rhythm and song he 
loves; you will find the good old saint, 
and gladden his heart with accounts of 
his favorite missionaries and tales of 
moral worth; you will see that poor, 
feeble-minded "Jake" has easy boys' books 
to keep him company; that the old soldier 
gets all he wants about the battles he 
faced; that giddy "Tom" has harmless 
love stories; that "Miser Means" gets the 
books that tell him how to make one doller 
do the work of two; that the man with a 
mortgage has a funny yarn to cheer him; 
that fat "Mrs. Breen" has a beauty book, 
and that all the farmers' wives have some- 
thing to cheer and amuse and maybe in- 
struct their odd moments, and all the 
farmers' children the necessary amount 
for a foundation in standard and classic 
literature and useful things. 

Find out the need in the hearts and 
then supply the book accordingly, and 
there won't be any more trouble about the 
"parting." 

But the agricultural books! Why, yes, 
have some of them, too, a few of the best 
ones, just as many as your patrons will 
read; but don't expect to use them for 
bait. What do you suppose old "Farmer 
Slow" cares about the opinion of the 



beardless boy who has just been gradu- 
ated from one .agricultural college to be 
professor in another, and writes so glibly 
of "technical abstracts," and the "synopsis 
of statistics," and the "biological survey," 
and the "chemistry of soils," and so forth 
and so on? Quite possibly he never raised 
an acre of potatoes or ran a 40-cow farm 
in his life, and "Farmer Slow" knows it, 
and treats his book with silent contempt 
accordingly. 

Imagine yourself after a hard day's 
work in cataloging, reference, or children's 
room would you post off in great haste 
and glee to a library that offered you 
nothing but different editions of the "Deci- 
mal classification," fancy copies of the 
"Expansive," "Cutter's rules," "Simplified 
library school rules," and various other 
rules and bibliographies and catalogs? 
There is no need for an answer, I know 
you wouldn't. Such things are tools to 
be had for reference when necessary but 
for recreation, rest, attraction never. 

Don't you suppose the farmer wants 
something beside his work to think of? 
Isn't he often so tired that he drops to 
sleep over his book? What does he want 
to know about "bee keeping" when he 
hasn't a hive, nor wouldn't have one on 
his farm? Why should he read about ir- 
rigation when his farm is covered with 
little streams? Why a treatise on the 
side-hill plow when he has a prairie be- 
fore him? Does a doctor read nothing 
but books on anatomy, or would a lawyer 
be attracted to your library by copies of 
the "Revised statutes?" Give the farmer 
books as you would other men; study him 
individually, and supply his need. The 
very character of his work makes him a 
thinker if not a reader, and he may be 
both. No other occupation in life has 
furnished so many great men as farming. 
In all lands and times the great men have 
been farmers' boys. Do not try to take 
their birthright from them by keeping 
them all forever studying agriculture. It 
is but their school for development of 
strength and spirit. The cities and the 
state need them. The solitude and mo- 
notony of tasks on the farm foster great 



742 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



thoughts and aspirations, and the long 
hours great endurance. 

Give them your best, the best there is; 
do not limit their capabilities. Search 
the ten classes into which all knowledge 
is divided "by decimals of Dewey" for 
the best, and give it to the farmer and his 
boy understandingly. Then his "book and 
heart shall never part." 

The discussion of this paper was led by 
M. S. Dudgeon, Wisconsin, and Miss 
Eugenia Allin, Illinois. 

The subject of a paper presented by Miss 
CHARLOTTE TEMPLETON, Nebraska, 
was: 

THE POSSIBILITIES OF DIRECT SER- 
VICE TO INDIVIDUAL FARMERS, 
INCLUDING THE LOCATION OF 
TRAVELING LIBRARIES 

THROUGH GRANGES, AGRI- 
CULTURAL SOCIETIES, 
FARMERS' CLUBS 

RURAL SCHOOLS, 

etc. 

It would certainly seem time that we 
seriously consider effective methods of 
supplying books to country people, a class 
constituting over fifty per cent of our 
population, and which, as yet, has been 
scarcely touched by the library movement. 
Of course we have no way of knowing 
how many farmers patronize city libraries, 
but I presume that the number is so small 
as to be almost negligible. In an endeavor 
to get some idea of the use of town lib- 
raries by the farmers in my own state, I 
included a question on the subject in the 
library report blank sent out two years 
ago. When there was an answer given at 
all it was likely to be, "They use it 
some," a sort of statement on which it 
is somewhat difficult to base statistics, 
but I dare say that in Nebraska, and in 
other states, the country patrons to town 
libraries are very few. 

If we are not reaching them to any ex- 
tent through the city libraries, what is the 
state doing for them? Here again we 
cannot get exact statistics. There are 
twenty-five states doing library commission 
work. In the year 1908 these states sent 



out, in round numbers, 400,000 volumes; 
but there is no way of knowing how many 
of them went into the country, for this 
number includes the books which were 
sent out as study libraries, which I pre- 
sume for the most part went to towns, 
where the high school lads hold forth in 
debate and the woman's club flourishes; 
it includes also the books sent to state 
institutions and to public libraries, leaving 
about 350,000 which went out to groups 
of taxpayers and to schools which may or 
may not have been in rural communities. 
Let us assume that seventy-five per cent of 
them went into the country a generous 
enough estimate, I think and you will see 
that about 260,000 went out in a year to 
supply with reading matter thirty-nine and 
one half millions of persons, the rural 
population of those twenty-five states, in 
addition to the country people in the states 
having no traveling libraries. Here surely 
is a big field for our efforts at library 
extension, and much as we have already 
accomplished, I think that we must admit 
that we have done little more than break 
the sod, and that, only in spots. But we 
are not discouraged by the smallness of 
our beginning, for, like the homesteader, 
who, as he is plowing up the prairie grass 
sees in vision great fields of waving wheat 
and corn, so we look forward to a time 
when every citizen, even though he dwell 
in the country, shall be supplied with 
good, wholesome, stimulating reading. 

Just how this Is to be brought about, 
or when, I will not attempt to say. As a 
first step we have the traveling library 
sent out by the state. That the state trav- 
eling library is to be the permanent means 
of supplying all of these people with read- 
ing, I do not believe. I look upon it rather 
as a step leading up to the establishment 
of the local country library either county 
or township which will in time, through 
its own system of traveling libraries, 
branches, and book wagons, reach all of 
the people of its own community. I think 
that we will all agree that this is the end 
to be desired, for there are, and must be, 
certain disadvantages in trying to supply 
people with reading at long range. The 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



743 



expense of the journey to and from the 
capitol less a consideration in the eastern 
than in our large western states the lack 
of any personal contact between the lib- 
rarian and the readers, the liability to 
mistakes in placing libraries all of these 
things make it difficult for the state to 
supply people satisfactorily with general 
reading. In states where a library visitor 
is employed, many of the difficulties are 
obviated, at least in part, but should the 
system grow as it must grow unless some 
other agent is to take its place, some of 
these difficulties would always remain. 

There is one disadvantage which can 
never be overcome, and that is the limita- 
tion of the borrower in the choice of books. 
Any one who has ever been a desk at- 
tendant in a public library knows how 
many, many books she passes over in 
order to give the right sort of book to a 
patron who has asked her to choose some- 
thing for him. And when that same patron 
conies week after week, particularly if he is 
a person of limited tastes, the task in time 
becomes difficult indeed. But suppose she 
had at her command but fifty volumes, and 
half of those juvenile, and for three or 
six months only those fifty. The rapid 
readers read all that the library contains 
for them in a couple of months, and then 
must wait for another supply. Unless all 
the people have finished the books, those 
financially responsible hesitate to ex- 
change a library sooner than necessary, 
for every exchange, of course, increases 
the expense. It is very hard to suit widely 
differing communities with fixed groups of 
books, nor do I think that the open shelf 
plan helps matters to any extent, for 
people do not know what they want, or 
if they do, they do not know how to ask 
for it. A discerning desk attendant, using 
intuition and a tactful question or two, 
can usually discover what a patron wants. 
But the librarian of a traveling library 
with nothing but the written word to aid 
her is very apt to blunder. When you 
ask, as we always do, for special charac- 
teristics and tastes of the community, the 
answers do not enlighten you much. When 
a librarian says that they wish religious 



books chiefly, you are just as likely to 
discover later that she had in mind the 
novels of B. P. Roe, as that she meant 
theological works. I think that this one 
trouble limitation in the choice of books 
is inherent in the system. 

The advantages of having the local lib- 
rary supply the country people's needs are 
obvious. Doubtless one way in which the 
state can help the farmer most, is by get- 
ting him interested in reading through the 
traveling library, in getting him to see 
something of the possibilities of a library, 
and to see at the same time to how much 
greater degree these may be realized 
through a good local library. It is for 
library extension workers to direct legis- 
lation which will make it possible for such 
libraries to be supported by country and 
town people alike, free to all, and to en- 
courage and assist the library in broaden- 
ing its field. 

But though the strong local library is 
the end desired, it will be many years 
before these country libraries will exist 
in sufficient numbers to supply the whole 
state with reading, and in the meantime 
the state traveling library is our best 
agent. 

Traveling libraries are usually of two 
sorts for general reading, and for special 
study. The latter, as I mentioned before, 
are usually sent to towns, so it is with the 
general traveling library that we are to 
do our work with country people. The 
first thing to consider is the make-up of 
the library, and here we may be guided 
by our experience in any public library 
work, for farmers read just about what 
the patrons of town libraries read what 
you and I read and want mostly fiction. 
We started out with a fixed group of 40 
volumes 10 adult fiction, 10 adult non- 
fiction, and 20 juvenile books. I felt that 
the proportion of non-fiction was too large, 
and three years ago we took out some 
non-fiction and put in fiction. But we still 
had in the libraries non-fiction which was 
read very little, so now we are modifying 
again and are making up a fixed group of 
35 20 juvenile and 15 adult fiction, and 
we add to each library 10 or 15 volumes 



744 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



to suit the community, giving them the 
privilege of selecting the sort of non- 
fiction they wish, or of having extra chil- 
dren's books or fiction. We began the plan 
last winter, and soon our shelves were 
entirely bare of agricultural and domestic 
science books, and many books which had 
gone out in traveling libraries time after 
time having little or no circulation, were 
sent out in answer to special requests. 
It seems to be a fairly satisfactory plan. 

Now, when you have the libraries made 
up, your next work is to get them to the 
people. The farmer, as we know, is most 
conservative. He does not take readily to 
new enterprises; they must be explained 
and explained again before he is convinced. 
You must bear in mind that even in this 
day of rural mail delivery, daily papers, 
and telephones, he is, after all, still isolated, 
and your advertising must be even more 
persistent than ordinary, if you are to 
get hold of him. In planning a publicity 
campaign, one naturally thinks of the 
various gatherings where the farmers may 
be reached in numbers. It seemed to us 
that the state fair would be an excellent 
place to make known our work to the 
country people, and for several years we 
had a booth with a traveling library ex- 
hibit and circulars for distribution at our 
state fair; but we have decided that this 
hardly brought returns enough to pay. 
Doubtless this was partly due to the lack 
of a proper "Spieler," neither the Secretary 
nor the Librarian being talented in that 
line. But visitors to a state fair are bent 
on pleasure and the collection of souvenirs, 
and I do not like to think of what became 
of our advertising cards when the people 
discovered that they simply contained 
reading matter and could not be converted 
into ash trays, pocket mirrors, or button- 
hooks. Theoretically, a state fair offers 
a good opportunity for getting hold of the 
farmer, but our own experience has not 
borne this out. 

In states where the Grange flourishes, 
I presume that there is no better place 
to bring traveling libraries to the farmer's 
attention. In Nebraska, however, we do 
not have the Grange. Farmers' institutes 



offer a fine chance for publicity work, and 
the institute directors are always glad to 
give time to a traveling library demonstra- 
tion. Here the farmers are gathered to- 
gether, not for pleasure as at the state fair, 
but for instruction, and they are open to 
all suggestions. The meetings of the 
women's auxiliary to the farmers' institutes 
are really the best places to give such 
talks, since the women are closely con- 
cerned in questions of social betterment. 

By far our own most effective method 
of reaching the farmers is through a local 
agricultural paper, which has a wide cir- 
culation in the state. One article last 
winter brought forth 67 letters of inquiry, 
and resulted in the placing of 27 libraries. 

Another good method of advertising is 
through the county teachers' institutes 
and summer normal schools. To get books 
actually into the country we find the rural 
school the best place for a library. The 
objection that is made in some states to 
keeping libraries in schools the long 
summer vacation we do not regard very 
seriously, because we find that the eight 
months of the school year cover the read- 
ing year, too, in the country, and that 
even libraries which are kept in other 
places are usually returned in the early 
summer with the request to send another 
library in the fall, for they have no time 
for reading after the out-of-doors work 
begins. Almost without exception, I find 
on talking to rural teachers, that both 
adults and children use the books from 
the school traveling libraries. We are 
making an effort, in Nebraska as else- 
where, to make the country school a sort 
of social center. It is there that literary 
entertainments are held, political speeches 
made, and often preaching and Sunday 
school on Sundays. With the consolida- 
tion of district schools, this will be more 
and more the case. In the effort to make 
the school a social center, the traveling 
library is usually a help. To be sure, I 
imagine that very few adults come them- 
selves for a book, but rather that Johnnie 
or Mary is commissioned to bring one 
home. However, it brings the parents into 
a little different relation to the school. 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



745 



Another reason for having the library at 
a school is that the charges are usually 
met out of the school funds, and so no 
one person feels the financial responsi- 
bility. As we know, few people object to 
indirect taxation. There is another point 
in favor of the library in the school. The 
teacher is used to keeping records, and to 
checking up supplies, and the actual care 
of the library does not seem burdensome 
to her. Then, too, she finds that she gets 
enough help in her own work to more than 
repay her for the trouble of taking care 
of them. In cities we are coming to see 
that often the best places for branch lib- 
raries are public school buildings, and it 
seems to me that the same conditions hold 
in regard to traveling libraries and rural 
schools. 

Aside from the rural school, there is no 
very good place in the country for a travel- 
ing library station. Under ordinary cir- 
cumstances a library which is placed in 
a farm-house has limited use; although, 
of course, there may always be exceptions 
and an enthusiastic farmer's wife may 
bring about a fairly wide reading for a 
group of books. But even if the number 
of readers is limited to a single family we 
are always glad to send books, even a 
full traveling library, to a farm or ranch 
house. Our books go to ranches forty and 
fifty miles from a railroad, and the letters 
of appreciation are sometimes pathetic. 
The library most used by farmers, how- 
ever, is placed in a town. Among the 
best stations that we have had have been 
creameries, general stores, telephone ex- 
changes, and barber shops. If the farmer 
is to use the library, it must be placed 
where it is brought to his attention when 
he is looking after his business; but the 
success of the library, as we have all dis- 
covered, depends not so much on the place 
as on the librarian. I think that one great 
need in traveling library work is material 
for press work concerning the books them- 
selves. It seems to me that with every 
library it would be well worth while to send 
some good brief reviews of the notable 
books in the collection to be published in 
the local paper. A desk attendant can tell 



a patron in a word or two something about 
a book which will interest him in it, and 
induce him to take it home; but the person 
in charge of the traveling library does not 
always have a discriminating taste, and 
does not know the books, and many a good 
interesting book is passed over unread. 
A work is being done in one of our small 
public libraries which shows what can be 
done in this direction. One club woman, 
who is also an enthusiastic member of 
the library board, for her share of the 
club work for the year, gives at each meet- 
ing a two-minute review of some book 
which is in the library and which is well 
worth reading. That book review is writ- 
ten out and published in the local paper, 
and, in consequence, books are read in 
that town which never go off the shelves 
of many small libraries. Now, it seems to 
me that that same sort of thing could be 
done with books in a traveling library. 
Perhaps it has been done, but if so I have 
not known of It. 

There is one branch of traveling library 
work which, with us, has grown greatly in 
the last few years, and that without special 
effort on our part. This is supplying in- 
dividuals with books on special subjects. 
Here, it seems to me, is a field capable of 
indefinite extension a field which will be 
increased, rather than otherwise, by the 
general establishment of local libraries and 
the growth of the habit of going to authori- 
tative books for information concerning 
the subjects in which people are inter- 
ested. It seems to me that with the local 
library to supply books for general reading, 
the state can well supply the books for 
special use particularly as these are apt 
to be expensive and of limited use in the 
small library. But before this work can 
be developed to any great extent we must 
get together in some way, and, by our 
united efforts, force the passage of a lib- 
rary post bill. We have talked about such 
a law a long time, and have worked more 
or less for its passage, but with no success. 
Mr. Lawrence's bill in the last session of 
Congress went the way of the others. It 
seems to me that if the League went seri- 
ously to work, and each state saw to it 



746 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



that every one of its representatives and 
senators received a letter from some con- 
stituent from whom such a letter would 
bear weight, that something could be ac- 
complished. Until this is done, this work, 
which, it seems to me, is going to be the 
best work of the library commissions in 
the future, is seriously handicapped. When 
a man pays 50 cents in express charges 
for the use of a $2.00 book, he may well 
feel, as did one rural patron of ours, that 
this privilege comes high. To quote his 
letter, he says: "Much as we need books 
in this county" he lives in one of the 
great sparsely settled counties in the west- 
ern part of the state "the most of us are 
renters, and rent must be paid, books or 
no books. The state library may be a 
fine institution, but it seems to run for the 
benefit of the express companies." 

If we can do this one thing secure the 
passage of a library post bill, I think that 
we will accomplish more for the advance- 
ment of the library cause than through 
any other enterprise in which we may en- 
gage. 

That the best work of the state for the 
library interests of the farmer is to be 
accomplished by bringing about better pub- 
lic library conditions, I am convinced, and 
I feel that the most of the work which we 
are now doing is tending to that result. 
The traveling library is a stepping stone 
to the permanent local library, and it is a 
good, sure foothold. Our direct service to 
farmers in the future will be rather in 
supplying books on special subjects which 
the local library lacks. We will probably 
in consequence build up strong special 
collections agricultural libraries, books 
on domestic science and will serve the 
people in their serious needs, rather than 
for recreational reading. And we must 
bear in mind that to do this effectively 
we must have a library post. 

The discussion following this paper was 
led by Mr. Robert P. Bliss, Pennsylvania, 
and Miss L. E. Stearns, Wisconsin. 

Mr. CARL H. MILAM, Indiana, presented 
a paper on: 



CO-OPERATION ON THE PART OF COM- 
MISSIONS WITH PUBLIC LIBRA- 
RIES IN THEIR EFFORTS TO 
REACH THE FARMER 

This paper treats of the development 
that has been made in rural extension 
work of public libraries; of the different 
systems of conducting the work as they 
exist in New England, in the Central States 
and the Middle West, and in the West; of 
the financial question involved; of the 
methods used by librarians in extending 
the use of books into the country; and of 
the part library commissions take in this 
movement. 

There are 25 states that have made pro- 
vision for public libraries which are to 
serve the rural citizens. This number in- 
cludes the New England states, in which 
the library's unit is the town, which is 
both urban and rural; it includes 7 states 
that have county systems, and 12 states 
other than those mentioned above, that 
have a township system. Two, at least, 
have both a county and township system 
well developed. These figures do not in- 
clude any state whose library system is 
essentially a school affair, but do include 
one or two in which the school district 
is the unit. 

In the New England states the laws 
usually provide for the organization of 
a public library by any town or any 
group of towns working together; also 
for an appropriation by a town to 
secure the free use of a public library 
already established in a neighboring 
town. The Maine law specifies that 
branches may be established "as the con- 
venience and wants of the citizens seem 
to demand." In Vermont, the Library com- 
mission is encouraging this establishment 
of stations by making the distribution of 
state funds conditional upon such exten- 
sion. As a result of this conditional giving 
of state money, "twenty-one towns," at the 
end of the first year, "had placed collec- 
tions of books in one or more of the public 
schools of the town and changed the books 
regularly. Several towns had placed 
branch libraries in remote parts of the 
town." 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



747 



The laws providing public library facil- 
ities for the townships in the other states 
are of various kinds. They may be 
grouped, however, in two divisions: those 
which provide for township libraries pure 
and simple; and those which provide for 
township support of public libraries in 
cities and towns. The former was the 
earlier plan. 

These old township libraries were simply 
collections of books purchased by the state, 
and sent out to the different townships. 
No adequate provision was made for 
proper care or distribution of the books. 
Frequently the system was an adjunct to 
the public schools of the state, and was 
under the control of the State Superin- 
tendant of public instruction. 

The experience of Indiana with town- 
ship libraries was probably not very dif- 
ferent from that of the other states. The 
law was passed in 1852, and two years 
later nearly $150,000 were spent for books. 
The law provided for the purchase of com- 
plete libraries, but for the distribution of 
them to counties according to population. 
This broke the libraries up, and made the 
apportionment to townships very unsatis- 
factory. In spite of these defects, the 
libraries were much appreciated, and Caleb 
Mills, State Superintendent of public in- 
struction in 1856, said of them that an ex- 
amination of the statistical reports of the 
libraries "would convince the most skep- 
tical that one quarter of a mill property, 
and a twenty-five cent poll tax never ac- 
complished so much for education in any 
other way." 

But this Indiana township library system 
had at least two very serious faults. One 
was that there was no annual fund for 
purchasing new books or rebinding the old 
ones. The other, and perhaps the more 
serious defect, was that the libraries were 
placed in the hands of the township trus- 
tees, men who usually had absolutely no 
interest in libraries and who consequently 
took no pains to see that the books were 
used, or returned, if borrowed. The plan 
was finally abandoned, and the tax for the 
support of these libraries abolished. Sev- 
eral states still have a good many town- 



ship libraries, some of them controlled by 
the central educational bureau, some of 
them managed locally. 

A later method of township library de- 
velopment is found in the laws which pro- 
vide for a co-operative library, serving all 
the people of the township, and supported 
by a tax on all township property. Iowa, 
Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Washington, and 
other states have laws of this sort. In 
Iowa, the library may secure support from 
the township in which it is situated, or 
from any neighboring township, by making 
a contract to that effect with township 
trustees. 

In Indiana, the law provides for a town- 
ship tax for the support of a public library 
situated in any town or city in the town- 
ship, after the library board has expressed 
a willingness, and after a certain petition 
has been filed calling for said tax. 

As indicated, some allow for a levy on 
petition; others require a majority vote of 
the citizens; and some allow the township 
officers to make the levy without submit- 
ting the proposition to the people at all. 
The laws also vary in other ways. In 
some of the states, there is simply a pro- 
vision that a township may contract for 
library service for a year. In others, the 
library becomes really a co-operative in- 
stitution. The township has a representa- 
tion on the library board, and the tax levy 
cannot be removed so long as a certain 
per cent of the people are active patrons 
of the library. In nearly all the states 
having such laws, it is possible to get 
townships, other than those in which the 
library, city, or village is situated, to assist 
in the library support. 

The Iowa township extension plan is 
likely to develop in such a manner as will 
make the central libraries, in effect, the 
heads of county systems, serving most or 
all the different townships in accordance 
with contracts made separately with each. 

Concerning county libraries, we have 
heard a good deal of late. The develop- 
ment in California has been the most nota- 
ble, and the discussion of this system has 
brought to our attention similar develop- 
ments in other states. 



748 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The county system, according to "News 
notes of California libraries," had its or- 
igin in the Indiana Constitution adopted 
in 1816. This provided that each county 
should reserve a certain per cent of the 
income from the sale of town lots for the 
establishment of a public library for the 
use of the county. A few of these still 
exist, and one, at least, is now an up-to- 
date public library with a Carnegie build- 
ing. 

Wyoming passed a law in 1886, allowing 
counties to establish libraries at the 
county seats. In 1898, in Ohio, there were 
established two county libraries, under 
two laws enacted for their benefit that 
year. One was a new library, the other a 
reorganization. The Washington County, 
Md., free library also began in 1898. 
Since 1900, county library laws have been 
enacted in Wisconsin, Oregon, Minnesota 
and California. 

In summarizing, the above mentioned 
article in "California news notes" says: 
\"In Wisconsin and Minnesota the trend 
has been toward county support of travel- 
ing library systems; Cincinnati, Ohio, and 
Portland, Oregon, are examples of the ex- 
tension of the field of a large city library 
to cover the needs of a tributary county; 
while in the Brumback library, Van Wert, 
Ohio, and the Washington County free 
library at Hagerstown, Md., we find still 
another type, serving a rural population 
scattered over four or five hundred square 
miles." 

The California plan is an effort to sys- 
tematize the public libraries of the state, 
to co-ordinate the libraries as the public 
schools are co-ordinated. The State li- 
brary is the head of the system, and the 
Librarian of the State library is given 
certain powers comparable to those en- 
joyed by the State Superintendent of pub- 
lic instruction. This is said to be the most 
decisive step in recent years in public 
library development. 

The money for rural extension will have 
to come from taxation. A few endowed 
libraries are doing this sort of work, but 
we may safely assume, I believe, that a 
very small part of the total rural popula- 



tion will ever be benefited by such institu- 
tions. 

Assuming that there is a general agree- 
ment to the effect, that the way to obtain 
money for rural extension is to tax the 
people who will be benefited, the question 
becomes, "What shall the rate be?" or, 
perhaps, more specifically, "Shall the rate 
be equal to, or less, or greater than, that 
which is levied in the town or city, for the 
same purpose?" 

The maximum tax levy provided for in 
the different states is usually about one 
mill. Indiana fixes the minimum in the 
township at five-tenths of a mill, and the 
maximum for any library at one mill. In 
Iowa, where the maximum for cities and 
towns having public libraries, is two and 
three mills, the townships cannot levy 
more than one mill. Ohio has a maximum 
of one-half mill for county, and of one mill 
for township libraries. California's new 
law provides for a tax of not to exceed 
one mill. Naturally this levy, whatever it 
may be, yields a varying amount in the 
different districts, owing to the assessed 
valuation of the county or township. 

In Indiana, the poorest township in the 
state can have a maximum library income 
of $52.58. There are only 63 out of over 
1000, however, that cannot raise as much 
as $300. The wealthiest township in the 
state, on the other hand, can raise over 
$4600. The population of the poorest 
township is about 650; of the richest, 2800. 
I have not had at hand similar statistics 
for other states. 

These figures prove only this, that there 
are some townships which are unable to 
support public libraries independently. 
These townships must be provided with 
library privileges in some other way, it 
may be by a co-operative scheme, joined 
in by two or more townships; it may be 
by a county system as in California; or it 
may continue to be as it is now in many 
states, by a state system of traveling li- 
braries. 

Concerning this financial question, I 
should like to make one general statement. 
Rural extension is not a missionary move- 
ment, nor a thing to be thrust on from the 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



749 



outside. We must demand that, in the end, 
farmers shall pay for their library service 
what it is worth, and not what the city 
library (already established) can afford to 
do it for. Twenty-five dollars a year might 
pay for the wear and tear on all the books 
that would be lent to rural patrons in a 
small township, but it is important that 
the farmers pay their quota toward the 
management of the library as a whole, so 
that they may demand and receive their 
share of the librarian's service. 

The amount of money that may properly 
be demanded of the rural patrons, will de- 
pend upon the conception librarians have 
of what rural extension of libraries means. 
If we are going to be content when we 
have opened the library to all the township 
or county, assuming that the people who 
want books will come for them, we cannot 
expect a very large appropriation from our 
rural patrons. On the other hand, if we 
consider it our duty to do some aggressive 
work to further reading and the use of 
books for reference in the country, then 
there is a need for large appropriations. 

Many different methods will, no doubt, 
be found for getting the books to the out- 
of-town citizens. The one that has been 
most widely advertised is that of the book 
wagon distribution, as carried on by the 
Washington County library at Hagerstown, 
Maryland. This plan is too well known to 
need further discussion. 

A common method of distribution is 
through deposit stations. These, like the 
traveling libraries that are sent out by the 
state commissions, are put in every con- 
ceivable sort of place stores, post-offices, 
creameries, shops, private houses, and 
schools. One county library reports as 
many as 69 deposit stations, one of which 
has become a regular branch library with 
a reading room. Another county library 
reports 16 deposit stations, receiving every 
three months from one hundred to two 
hundred books; and besides this, collec- 
tions of books are sent to 43 schools, ex- 
clusive of those in the county seat. Some 
of these are strictly reference collections, 
others are circulated to all the citizens of 
the district. The population of the county 



seat is 7,000, and the total circulation in 
one year was about 45,000. The total 
population of the county, exclusive of the 
county seat, is 24,000, and the recorded 
circulation through branches and schools 
about 21,000. 

The record of a library in a small Indi- 
ana town that has recently developed a 
very good township work may be sugges- 
tive. The committee from the library 
board appointed to consider the question, 
recommended, first, the establishment of 
deposit stations in two school districts 
farthest from the library. The places de- 
cided upon for these two stations were the 
homes of well known farmers. The first 
collections of books included a large pro- 
portion of works on farming, with the re- 
sult that the second request for books 
from those districts was accompanied by 
a plea for more light reading. It was re- 
ported, however, that one patron had 
boldly read every book in that collection. 

"The kind reception given to this offer 
encouraged them to further trial and an- 
other station was established, not, how- 
ever, until after the librarian and one 
member of the Board had paved the way 
by a visit to the school. The teacher's 
co-operation had already been secured, and 
time was given for a little talk by the 
librarian about the use of books as school 
helps; a story was told to the interesting 
point and the book designated that would 
tell them the rest. * * * The library 
was then taken to its destination, the home 
of a most intelligent and progressive fam- 
ily, well liked by everybody in the neighbor- 
hood." The extension agitation continued, 
and a request was soon received from a 
fourth district. This new community 
specified that few books of fiction were 
desired. They wanted books on farming 
and other serious subjects. The families 
in this neighborhood had met previous to 
their request, and decided upon the place 
where the library should be kept. 

This township is six miles square. It 
has a population of about 1800, exclusive 
of the town, with its population of 1300. 
The assessed valuation of the town is over 
$830,000; of the township, over $300,000. 



750 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



The total library income is $334, $261 of 
which is paid by out-of-town people. It 
will be considerably more in the future. 
The town is situated in the extreme north- 
west corner of the township, but the de- 
posit station system has placed a good col- 
lection of books within two or three miles 
of every citizen. 

Another thing that the librarians who 
are doing rural extension work should 
keep in mind is, that part of their personal 
attention belongs to the out-of-town patron. 
A retail book seller, who claimed recently 
to have made between seventy and one 
hundred thousand dollars in three years, 
mentioned as one of those things which 
make for sucess his being on the floor, 
ready to speak to his customers. "They 
always like to see the boss," he said. The 
librarian should not only be on the floor 
at the central library frequently, she 
should somehow make it possible to visit 
at intervals the districts whose patrons 
never reach the main library. In a large 
county system, the chief librarian cannot, 
of course, find much time for this sort of 
thing, but some one who knows books and 
is qualified to speak intelligently about 
them, and who can officially represent the 
main library, should meet the people of the 
rural districts, individually, or in groups, 
at regular intervals. These patrons should 
pay for and receive their share of all li- 
brary service. 

So far I have almost ignored the exact 
topic which I am supposed to be discuss- 
ing, namely: Co-operation on the part of 
the- Commission with public libraries in 
efforts to reach the farmer. But I have 
done so deliberately. If we have clearly 
in mind the present condition, and know 
definitely the results we seek, then the 
duty of the Commission is evident, and the 
methods to be used in this special field will 
differ little from those we use in all our 
extension work. 

First, it will be a matter of law. None of 
the states, not even California with its 
elaborate new system, has as yet a perfect 
law. Some have none at all dealing with 
this question. It will be the duty of each 
commission to decide what sort of system 



is best suited to the conditions of the state 
in which it works, and then to seek to have 
a law enacted making such a system pos- 
sible. Several things will need to be con- 
sidered before this step can be taken. Per- 
haps the most fundamental question to be 
answered is concerning what the unit is 
to be. In New England, the towns are 
veritable republics ; in the South and West, 
the county is the important unit of taxa- 
tion and local government; in the Central 
States and Middle West, we find a com- 
bination in some states the townships 
are powerful, in some they are merely 
nominal. Each state will have to choose 
the unit to suit its own conditions. 

In deciding on the amount of the tax 
levy, the important thing is to have a 
minimum large enough to insure success; 
and not to have a maximum so large that 
people will be afraid of it. 

When these, and other questions have 
been settled, and the law is passed, con- 
siderable agitation will be necessary to 
persuade the public to take advantage of 
it. In the very beginning we do not even 
get the support of all the librarians. After 
having tried for some time to persuade 
public librarians to develop rural library 
extension, one state librarian writes as 
follows: "The librarian is usually without 
any qualifications for the office, and her 
work is wholly routine, and carried not at 
all beyond the actual necessities. We 
have made several efforts to stir up libra- 
rians to an ambition to the greater success 
of their libraries, and the use of their 
mental powers towards its development, 
but we always find that they are limited 
mentally, and actuated by a desire to do 
just as little as they can for the small 
salary which they receive." Fortunately, 
a good many states are blessed with a 
better class of librarians. In my limited 
experience, I have yet to find a single 
librarian who does not become interested 
in this rural extension work as soon as she 
knows of its possibilities. 

When the librarians have had their at- 
tention called to the new law, we must 
then turn to the trustees. Some persua- 
sion is frequently necessary with them. If 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



751 



they are in a large city, they will probably 
assume a "What-is-there-in-it-for-us" atti- 
tude, and wherever they are, they are like- 
ly to believe that the farmers will not be 
willing to pay taxes for a library, and that 
any effort to persuade them to do so will 
be wasted. 

When librarians and trustees all under- 
stand rural extension and are concerned 
about it, we still have the public to con- 
vince. This time it is a rural public, but 
the methods of persuading farmers that 
they should have library privileges for 
their children and themselves will not be 
much different from the methods used to 
secure library organization in the towns 
and cities. Perhaps the only difference of 
importance will be that we now enjoy the 
co-qperation of librarians and trustees. 

As the township and county libraries 
develop, we shall find out traveling libra- 
ries going more and more to the central 
libraries to be sent out by them to their 
deposit stations. Commissions may well 
afford to encourage this tendency, for it 
helps to bring about permanent rural 
libraries. A few new technical questions 
also will arise, which must be answered 
when this sort of library becomes common. 
The charging system for the deposit sta- 
tions, the boxes for use in distribution, 
statistics of rural circulation, etc., are 
topics on which organizers must be posted, 
if they are to co-operate fully in this rural 
extension work. 

But the most important part that the 
commissions can take is that of encourag- 
ing the librarian and her board to do some- 
thing for the out-of-town people. It is not 
enough that the library be free to every- 
body; it is not enough that country school 
teachers be allowed to take several vol- 
umes and sub-let them to country pupils. 
There should be a complete system of 
deposit stations and traveling libraries; 
and, if it is a county system, there should 
be several reading rooms; the rural school 



problem should be studied and special 
work done to assist country teachers; the 
clubs in the country should receive the 
same attention that the clubs in town re- 
ceive; rural patrons should be allowed 
long-time loans; and the librarian should 
find time to visit the rural centers, become 
acquainted with the needs, and prepare to 
meet them. The main library of each 
township should make itself the active in- 
tellectual center of the rural community. 

Commission workers should keep re- 
minding the librarians of the idea ex- 
pressed in the following clause found in 
the old Wyoming county library law: "In 
the management of the library, the best 
possible provision shall be specially made 
for the convenient use of the books thereof 
by the residents of such county, residing 
out of the town wherein the library is 
situated." 

The discussion was led by Miss Alice S. 
Tyler, Iowa, and Miss Mary E. Downey, 
Ohio. 

The Auditing committee reported that 
the accounts of the Treasurer had been ex- 
amined, that debit and credit entries 
checked with bank balance, showing a 
balance on hand of $273.08 as reported by 
the Treasurer, and it was voted that the re- 
port be accepted. 

Miss Tyler, as Chairman, presented the 
report of the Nominating committee as 
follows: 

President, Miss Clara F. Baldwin, Minne- 
sota; 1st Vice Pres., Miss Cornelia Mar- 
vin, Oregon; 2nd Vice Pres., Mr. H. C. 
Wellman, Mass.; Secy-Treas., Miss Char- 
lotte Templeton, Nebraska; Publications 
committee, Mr. R. P. Bliss, Pa. Chairman, 
Miss Wales, Missouri, Mr. M. S. Dudgeon, 
Wisconsin. 

On motion, the Secretary was instructed 
to cast the ballot for the above named of- 
ficers. 

Adjourned. 



, J 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES 



Fifth Annual Meeting, Mackinac Island, Michigan, July 2-6, J9JO, at the 

Grand Hotel 



FIRST SESSION 

July 2, 2:30 p. m., President E. A. Feazel 
in the chair. 

The Association was welcomed by Theo- 
dore W. Koch, librarian of the University 
of Michigan, and the response was made 
by John E. King, of the Executive com- 
mittee. 

The President's address followed. 

On motion, the minutes of the fourth 
annual meeting were approved as printed 
in the "Law library journal." 

The Secretary-treasurer of the Associa- 
tion made his report as follows: 

Your Secretary-treasurer respectfully re- 
ports receipts and expenditures during the 
past year, to the closing of the accounts on 
June 22, 1910, as follows: 

Receipts. 

Balance on hand, close of last fis- 
cal year $377.07 

Exchange on checks .79 

Dues 214.00 

Subscriptions for the "Index" 1,298.88 

Advertising in the "Index" 828.01 

$2,718.75 
Expenditures 
General Expenses 

Secretary-treasurer, Print- 
ing $49.75 

Secretary-treasurer, Post- 
age 41.70 

Secretary-treasurer, E x - 
change on checks 3.20 

Secretary-treasurer, M i s - 
cellaneous expenses 14.68 

Share expenses of joint 

meeting 9.15 

The "Index"- 

Composition, printing, 

binding No. 4 vol. 1 313.00 

Composition, printing, 

binding No. 1 vol. 2 182.35 

Composition, printing, 

binding No. 2 vol. 2 249.50 

Composition, printing, 

binding No. 3 vol. 2 154.09 



Composition, printing, 

binding No. 4 vol. 2 275.10 

Composition, printing, 

binding No. 1 vol. 3 147.95 

Managing editor's ex- 
penses, including postage 127.07 

Business manager, vols. 2, 
3, expenses 16.78 

Business manager, vol. 1, 
commissions 262.65 

Business manager, vol. 1, 
expenses 27.82 

Indexer, vols. 2 and 3 500.00 

Advertising in "Harvard 
law review" 16.00 

Miscellaneous expenses . . 6.00 



2,396.79 



$321.96 

Your attention is called to the fact that 
we have paid during the past year for six 
number of the "Index," instead of for four, 
the usual number issued in twelve months. 
Among these were two cumulative num- 
bers. We have also defrayed the cost of 
the work of the Business manager of vol- 
ume 1, as contracted for by the Association. 
So far as your Secretary-treasurer is 
aware, all bills are paid. The balance on 
hand, as stated above, is on deposit in the 
Fifth Avenue Bank of New York. 

There are now 125 members, a net gain 
of 11 over last year. 

Respectfully submitted, 
FRANKLIN O. POOLE, 

Secretary-treasurer. 

On motion of Mr. Small, an Auditing 
committee was appointed by the President, 
consisting of Messrs. A. Coleman Sheetz, 
Edward B. Adams, and O. J. Field. 

Mr. O. J. Field, Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on securing Latin-American laws, 
reported for the committee, which report, 
together with other reports and papers not 
included in these minutes, will be found in 
the "Law library journal." It was sug- 
gested that Mr. Field's report be copy- 
righted, and, on motion of Mr. Hewitt, the 
matter was referred to the Executive com- 
mittee for such action as might seem best. 
On motion, the report was accepted 
and the Committee continued, with instruc- 



LAW LIBRARIES 



753 



tions to co-operate, so far as possible, with 
the Comparative law bureau of the Ameri- 
can bar association. 

Dr. G. E. Wire, Chairman, read the re- 
port of the Committee on binding. 

Mr. A. J. Small, Chairman, reported for 
the Committee on the bibliography of the 
statute laws of the states. In connection 
with this report Mr. Myers, of the Library 
of Congress, announced that the New York 
state library was compiling the biblio- 
graphies of session laws. 

On motion, the report of the Committee 
was accepted and approved, and the Presi- 
dent was directed to arrange for a continu- 
ation of the work. 

SECOND SESSION 

July 4, 10 A. M. 

Joint session with National association of 

state libraries, George S. Godard 

in the chair. 

The Chairman outlined the work of the 
National legislative reference service for 
1910, and asked for suggestions of sub- 
scribers who were present. 

Herbert O. Brigham stated that the 
Rhode Island state library had found the 
service of great value. Legislators had 
been able thereby to refute misstatements 
and keep in touch with the volume, char- 
acter, and progress of legislation in other 
states, information which had never before 
been available. 

Mrs. Spencer, of the Michigan state 
library, said she could not express herself 
too strongly with regard to the benefits 
derived from the service in her library. 

On question from A. J. Small the Chair- 
man stated that the service covered all 
bills introduced. 

Mr. Galbreath, of the Ohio state library, 
said that he proposed to keep the cards for 
a number of years and cumulate the in- 
formation. He felt it desirable that the 
company furnish comprehensive, and not 
selected, information. 

Mr. McKirdy of the Pennsylvania state 
library, suggested the advisability of 
greater uniformity in the briefing of the 



titles of the bills, to show whether bills 
contained new matter or merely amenda- 
tory matter. Mr. Allen, of the Law report- 
ing company, stated that lack of uniform- 
ity or clarity was in many instances un- 
avoidable, that the briefing of the titles 
was done by lawyers experienced in that 
class of work, and that the company had 
constantly in mind the necessity for care 
in this particular, but that the briefer was 
under the necessity of working from the 
official titles of the bills and not from the 
bills themselves, and that the official titles 
were often not illuminating. 

Mr. Lapp, of the Indiana legislative 
reference department, stated that he had 
not subscribed because he considered 
keeping up the work of the service fully 
might result In a thing of lesser impor- 
tance becoming the supreme thing in the 
department. He dwelt at length on the 
advantages of the service. 

R. H. Whitten said that there must be 
selection of some kind in handling the 
cards, which, when nearly all the legisla- 
tures should be in session, would probably 
total 80,000. This selection might be made 
either in the locality, or by some central 
body. 

C. W. Andrews, of the John Crerar li- 
brary in Chicago, spoke of the value of the 
service to a large public library which 
aimed to supply information to students of 
comparative legislation. He recommended 
that at least once a month the company 
issue a separate sheet giving for each 
state a list of bills passed. 

C. F. D. Belden, of the Massachusetts 
state library, stated that the legislators 
had made considerable use of the informa- 
tion, and that the library had been able to 
send for, and have on hand, the more im- 
portant bills. 

Mr. Allen, of the Law reporting com- 
pany, stated that he expected the legis- 
lation of 1911 would produce 45,000 to 
50,000 bills. He stated further that the 
service had been operated during 1910 at 
a loss to his company of about $1,700, and 
that the cost for the coming year would 
have to be about $250, unless the number 
of corporations subscribing should be 



754 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



largely increased. He expressed confi- 
dence that in a year or so the subscribers 
would so increase as to make it possible to 
reduce the price to $100 for heavy years, 
and less than $100 for light years. He 
asked that the committee supply a classi- 
fication for the arrangement of the cards. 
He promised to consider the various sug- 
gestions which had been made. 

On the suggestion of the Chairman, a 
motion was made and carried directing 
him to appoint a committee of five to con- 
fer with Mr. Allen. In accordance with the 
resolution, the Chairman appointed, be- 
sides himself, Messrs. Whitten, MKirdy, 
Lapp, and Brigham. 

Adjourned. 

THIRD SESSION 
July 4, 2:30 p. m. 

Mr. Schenk read a paper on "Instruction 
in the use of a law library." After dis- 
cussion it was voted that the President 
appoint a committee of five to report to 
the Association on an ideal course for law 
schools in legal bibliographical training. 

Professor Cooley spoke regarding the 
beginning of the movement for giving 
courses on legal bibliography in law 
schools. 

HAROLD L. BUTLER, Business man- 
ager of the "Index," reported as follows: 

During the year ending July 1, 1910, I 
have exchanged advertising space with the 
"Michigan law review," one-half page; 
"Yale law review," one-half page; "Cen- 
tral law journal," one page. I have taken 
a half page in the "Harvard law review" 
at the special rate of $16.00 for four issues. 
The publishers of "Case and comment" 
are willing to make an exchange and I 
think that publication is a pretty good 
advertising medium. As a result of these 
advertisements I have received 49 in- 
quiries, a fair percentage of which I have 
sent in their subscriptions. 

I have sent out three general letters, 
one to the members of the Association, 
asking their support, and one to the trade, 
notifying them that we would give them a 
discount of 20 per cent on all subscriptions 



taken by them; and one letter to the deans 
of the various law schools. The letter to 
the members of the Association brought 
forth a few replies but very little business. 
The letter to the trade did us some good. 
I think we received about a half dozen 
subscriptions through the dealers, mostly 
from Canada. I have received only one 
reply to my letter to the deans of the law 
schools. 

We have not accomplished nearly as 
much during the year as I thought we 
would, but we have gone ahead a little, 
and the outlook is very bright for next 
year. 

What we want is more advertising. We 
have got to educate the lawyers up to 
using the "Index" before we will ever be 
able to build up a large subscription list. 
I hope we will have time at one of our 
meetings to give this matter our careful 
consideration. 

On motion, this report was accepted and 
approved. 

In the absence of the Managing editor, 
Mr. Glasier, his report was read by Miss 
HARRIET J. IMHOFF, his assistant in the 
Wisconsin state library, as follows: 

Not many material changes have been 
made in the make-up of the "Index" during 
the past year. The Managing editor has, 
from the beginning, been firm in the be- 
lief that the author index is little used, 
and therefore of minor importance; and, 
pursuant thereto, and by the authority of 
the Executive committee, such author 
index has been materially shortened and 
relegated to a place following the subject 
index instead of preceding it. I deem this 
change an improvement from a practical 
as well as an economic standpoint. 

In the list of magazines indexed appear- 
ing on the first page of each number we 
formerly included the period covered by 
each magazine. It was thought best by 
the Executive committee at their annual 
meeting to substitute for this the ad- 
dresses of the magazines indexed, owing 
to numerous requests which came to the 
editors for information on this subject. 
The period covered is of no great practical 






LAW LIBRARIES 



755 



value to any except the editors, and this 
Information can be kept on a separate list 
for their use. Where a reader Is looking 
for an article, however, the magazine con- 
taining It Is frequently unavailable and It 
is convenient to have the address so that 
he may send to the publishers for it. 

Pursuant to the direction of the Execu- 
tive committee we have continued the 
book reviews, and are awaiting the action 
of the Association on the question of 
whether we shall continue them further. 
It is a serious question in the mind of the 
Managing editor whether, In view of the 
labor of compiling these book reviews, the 
amount of space occupied by them, and 
the consequent expense of printing, they 
are worth the cost. This can only be de- 
termined by ascertaining at the meeting, 
or otherwise, how much practical use Is 
made of this feature by our subscribers. 
Personally, I am not in favor of continuing 
the book reviews, but they should by all 
means be continued if found to be suffi- 
ciently useful by our subscribers. 

It is with considerable satisfaction that 
I call attention to the growth of the "In- 
dex" as to the field covered. The April, 
1909, number Indexed 35 magazines. The 
April, 1910, number indexed 49 magazines, 
including the "Political science quarterly," 
which was omitted from the list by mis- 
take. The current, or July, number will 
include in its list 53 magazines, besides a 
number of general magazines through 
which Mr. Steinmetz searched and found 
articles which he has indexed. It will be 
our endeavor In the future to search out 
and index practically all the legal material 
appearing in the general magazines, 
although this involves a large amount of 
work. It has been found impracticable to 
depend upon any general index for this 
material, the only safe way being to go 
through the magazines themselves, one by 
one. 

In the May, 1910, number of the "Am- 
erican political science review" there was 
a short review of the January, 1910, num- 
ber of the "Index," criticising it for having 
omitted some important magazines, to wit: 
"Journal of comparative legislation," 



"Maine law review," "Political science 
quarterly," and the "Yale law review." 
The "Political science quarterly" was In- 
dexed, but inadvertently omitted from the 
list. The "Journal of comparative legis- 
lation" was overlooked. The "Maine law 
review" will be included from the October 
number on, and the "Yale law review" 
also, If we can make arrangements with 
the publishers to get it by exchange. We 
will also include the "Journal of criminal 
law and criminology," and the "Lawyer 
and banker." It has been the endeavor of 
the editors to include every legal maga- 
zine available containing legal articles of 
importance, and if any of the members 
know of any that we may have overlooked 
we shall be grateful for advice regarding 
them. 

Another matter which must be solved 
sooner or later is the inclusion of the Bar 
association "Reports." This is rather a 
large field, and we have had our hands 
full so far without attempting It, but if the 
'Index" is to reach its fullest usefulness 
and cover the entire field open to it, the 
problem should be met. The removal of 
our Indexer from Madison makes this 
problem a still more difficult one, as the 
place to which he is going, I understand, 
has not the facilities afforded by a large 
law library. The only method which sug- 
gests itself to me of immediately meeting 
and solving this problem is the appropria- 
tion by the Association of such an amount 
as may be necessary to hire this work 
done. I can probably arrange to have the 
work done here if the Association sees fit 
to adopt that course, but the whole matter 
is one which I wish to leave entirely with 
the Association, without recommendation. 

About a year ago I made application to 
have the "Index" entered at the Madison 
postoffice as second-class matter, which 
would give us a rate of 1 cent per pound, 
whereas we are now paying 8 cents. This 
application ran along until the early part 
of this year, when I received a letter from 
the third assistant postmaster-general 
stating that the application had been de- 
nied. I have intended to take some further 
action In the matter, but have not had the 



756 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



time, and am not fully convinced that it 
would pay to trouble with it further. 

We are now having printed 500 copies of 
each number. As we have only about 150 
subscribers there is a large excess of un- 
used copies which I am obliged to store. I 
have inquired of the printer how much we 
could save by cutting down the number 
printed, and am advised that the saving 
would be four dollars per hundred on the 
quarterly numbers. The saving on the 
annual number would be larger. I think 
300 copies would be ample for all purposes, 
and recommend that the number of copies 
printed be reduced to that extent. This 
will mean a saving of between thirty and 
forty dollars per year on the printing, and, 
at the same time, leave us an ample num- 
ber of copies, in my judgment, for all or- 
dinary purposes. 

Mr. Steinmetz has been doing good work 
on the indexing and it should not be over- 
looked that a large part of the credit for 
the success of the magazine is due to his 
efforts. Having finished his law course 
here, he expects to move to Knoxville, 
Tenn., within the next few days, to prac- 
tice law. This is a matter of much regret 
to the writer, for I have found it very de- 
sirable and much more convenient to have 
all of the work done here; and if I am to 
continue with the editorship I sincerely 
hope that, when Mr. Steinmetz resigns the 
work, it may be returned to Madison. 

The July number is progressing favor- 
ably, nearly all the work of indexing hav- 
ing been done. We hope to get it out at 
least as promptly as we have the other 
numbers. 

On motion, the Managing editor was re- 
quested to apply for a second-class postage 
rate on the "Index" as a publication of a 
learned society, and not a publication for 
gain. 

On motion, it was voted to continue the 
policy of inserting in the "Index" refer- 
ences to book reviews, but to abbreviate 
the entries as much as possible, and to 
omit references to all notes and reviews 
which, in the opinion of the editor, might 
seem of no great value. 



On motion, it was resolved to include in 
the "Index" references to Bar associa- 
tion proceedings, and to annotated cases, 
and to enlarge the author index by the in- 
sertion of short titles and specific refer- 
ences to the places where the articles may 
be found in the periodicals, if, in the 
opinion of the Executive committee, it 
seemed feasible. 

On motion, the President was directed 
to appoint a nominating committee of 
three, and, in accordance therewith, an- 
nounced the following Committee: Charles 
F. D. Belden, Chairman; E. E. Willever; 
Mrs. Mary C. Spencer. 



FOURTH SESSION 
July 5, 9:30 a. m. 

Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, 
addressed the Association on the "Cata- 
loging of the law division of the Library 
of Congress." He reported substantial 
progress, and stated that many cards were 
now available for those who might desire 
them. He recommended that the Associa- 
tion appoint a committee on legal classi- 
fication for shelf arrangement and cata- 
loging. 

On motion, a vote of thanks was passed 
for the suggestions made by Mr. Putnam. 

On motion of Mr. Small, the President 
was directed to appoint a committee, as 
suggested by Mr. Putnam, to co-operate 
with the Library of Congress in the prep- 
aration of a classification of law. 

Mr. Godard addressed the Association on 
the "Equipment," arrangement, etc., of the 
new Connecticut state library," presenting 
plans, and answering many questions. 

A rising vote of thanks was tendered to 
Mr. Godard for the information given. 

Miss Ingeborg Fredlund and Mrs. Eva N. 
Hawley read papers on "Loose-leaf lav/ 
reports," which were followed by a dis- 
cussion. 

On motion of Mr. Godard it was voted to 
ask publishers of reports to include in 
each number of the advance parts of any 
volume a cumulative index covering sub- 
jects and cases in the volume. 



LAW LIBRARIES 



757 



FIFTH SESSION 
July 5, 8:30 p. m. 

Edward B. Adams read a paper on the 
cataloging of the Social law library in 
Boston. 

In the absence of J. Osoar Emrich, a 
paper by him was read by the Secretary- 
treasurer on the methods pursued in the 
cataloging of the Allegheny County law 
library in Pittsburgh. 

Miss Gertrude E. Woodard, Chairman, 
presented the report of the Committee on 
exchange of duplicates. After discussion, 
it was resolved to continue the Committee, 
and the Committee was directed to make 
an attempt to get together an exchange 
list of Bar Association duplicates and to 
publish the same in the "Law library 
journal." 

SIXTH SESSION 
July 6, 9:30 a. m. 

Luther E. Hewitt presented a paper on 
"Pennsylvania side reports." 

Miss Gertrude E. Woodard reported on 
the cataloging of the session laws in the 
law library of the University of Michigan. 
A special statement regarding this work 
will be found in the "Index to legal peri- 
odicals," and "Law library journal" for 
October, 1910. 

In the absence of A. H. R. Fraser, his 
paper on the "Duties of the librarian of a 
university law library towards the library 
patrons," was read by the Secretary- 
treasurer. 

O. J. Field read a paper on the same 
general subject, from the point of view of 
a government or state institution. 

F. O. Poole spoke of the regulations in 
force regarding this matter in the library 
of the Association of the Bar of the City 
of New York. 

On motion of John E. King, it was voted 
that any member of the Association who 
might attend the Brussels international 
library convention might do so as a dele- 
gate of this Association, but without cost 
to the Association. 

Mr. Sheetz, Chairman of the Auditing 



committee, reported on behalf of the Com- 
mittee that they had examined the ac- 
counts of the Secretary-treasurer and the 
vouchers showing expenditures during the 
past year, and had found them correct and 
in good order. 

On motion, the report was accepted and 
approved. 

Dr. G. E. Wire read a paper from Miss 
Hetty Gray Baker on the "Loaning of law 
books," and he described the practice of 
his own library in the matter. He prom- 
ised for the "Minutes" a statement from 
Mr. Colson, librarian of the New York state 
law library on the same subject. 

On motion of Dr. Wire, the President 
was directed to appoint a Committee to 
consider the reprinting of early state and 
terrkorial session laws, and to co-operate 
in the matter with the Committee of the 
National association of state libraries. 

Mr. Godard, as Chairman, presented the 
report of the committee appointed at the 
joint session with the National association 
of state libraries, on the national legisla- 
tive reference service, as follows: 

The Committee appointed at the Joint 
Meeting of the American association of 
law libraries and the National association 
of state libraries, to report upon the en- 
dorsement of the plan, for prompt, detailed, 
and comprehensive reports upon current 
legislation, respectfully report that the 
National legislative reference service as 
inaugurated in connection with the legis- 
lation of 1910, by the Special committee of 
the National association of state libraries, 
has proven itself to be possible, service- 
able, and desirable. 

We therefore respectfully urge all libra- 
rians who are able to do so to subscribe 
for the service at as early a date as possi- 
ble in order that necessary arrangements 
may be made, and the necessary cost of 
the service more equitably distributed. 
Respectfully submitted, 

GEO. S. GODARD, 
HERBERT O. BRIGHAM, 
JOHN A. LAPP, 

per A. J. SMALL, 
ROBT. H. WHITTEN, 
JAMES M'KIRDY. 



758 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



On motion of Mr. Small, the Joint com- 
mittee was continued, to take such action 
as might be necessary. 

Mr. Belden, Chairman of the Nominating 
committee, reported the following candi- 
dates to fill offices during the coming year: 

President, George S. Godard; Vice- 
president, Luther E. Hewitt; Secre- 
tary-treasurer, Franklin O. Poole; for 
elected members of the Executive com- 
mittee: Miss Gertrude E. Woodard, 
Gileon G. Glasier, G. E. Wire. 
Gamble Jordan moved that the Secre- 
tary cast one ballot for the above candi- 
dates. This being done, the President an- 
nounced that the candidates were elected. 
On motion of Mr. Belden, the thanks of 
the Association were tendered to Messrs. 
Glasier, Butler, and Steinmetz for their 
labors on behalf of the "Index." 

Mr. Belden, on behalf of the Nominating 
committee, recommended that the office of 
Secretary-treasurer be divided, and that a 
second Vice-president be elected. 

On motion, the Secretary-treasurer was 
directed to prepare and send to the mem- 



bers of the Association in due course, 
prior to the next annual meeting, a notice 
proposing an amendment to the Constitu- 
tion .at said meeting, abolishing the office 
of Secretary-treasurer, and establishing 
the office of Secretary, the office of Treas- 
urer, and the office of Second Vice-presi- 
dent; and at the same time to send a 
second notice proposing alternate amend- 
ments to the Constitution, one making 
officers elected to fill the new offices ex- 
officio members of the Executive com- 
mittee, and the other making the ex-officio 
members of said committee the President, 
Vice-president, and Secretary. 

On motion, the thanks of the Association 
were tendered to the President and the 
Secretary-treasurer. 

On motion, the Secretary-treasurer was 
directed to provide for the "Law library 
journal" a plate showing the group as 
taken by the local photographer at this 
convention. 

There being no further business to trans- 
act, the President announced that the con- 
vention was adjourned sine die. 



TRUSTEES' SECTION 



The Trustees' section met at 2:30 p. m. 
July 5, W. T. Porter, Chairman, presiding. 

The following resolution was presented 
and adopted: 



IN MEMORIAM 
DELORAINE P. COREY 

The Trustees' section of the American 
library association pays this tribute to 
the memory of Mr. Deloraine P. Corey, a 
former Chairman of the Section, who died 
May 6, 1910, at his home in Maiden, Mass. 
Mr. Corey was one of the original members 
of the Section, and was for many years 
its Chairman. He was a constant attend- 
ant at the meetings of the Association. 



He was also for many years one of the 
Trustees of the Endowment fund of the 
Association. His wise counsel in matters 
incident to the welfare of the Association 
will ever be remembered, and his loss will 
be deeply felt. 

The Association has lost a strong sup- 
porter and earnest friend, and the Trus- 
tees' section a faithful member. 

Resolved, That this memorial be spread 
upon the minutes of this meeting, and a 
copy thereof be sent to his widow. 

After a short conference, the Section 
adjourned. The organization for the en- 
suing year is as follows: W. T. PORTER, 
Public library of Cincinnati, Chairman; 
THOS. L. MONTGOMERY, of Pennsyl- 
vania, Secretary. 



GODARD 



759 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC 
DOCUMENTS* 

Your Committee has delayed the draw- 
ing up of this report until the last moment, 
in order that it might have the benefit of 
certain documents and papers in connec- 
tion with the Printing investigation com- 
mission (which were only received at 
Mackinac a day or so ago) and to get the 
view of the varied library interests con- 
cerned, for which purpose several round 
table discussions were held in the last few 
days. 

In reviewing the work of the year, be- 
fore taking up the report of the Printing 
investigation commission, your Committee 
wishes to commend the adoption of buck- 
ram by the Government printing office for 
binding public documents. Your Commit- 
tee also commends, as indicative of the 
growing interest and importance of pub- 
lic documents, the publication of Miss 
Everhart's "Handbook of United States 
public documents." 

Since the last meeting of the Associa- 
tion, Kentucky and Delaware have been 
issued in the monumental index of "Eco- 
nomic material in the documents of the 
states of the United States," compiled and 
edited by Miss Hasse. Your Committee 
desires again to express its thanks and 
appreciation to the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington for the publication of this 
and similar works. 

Your Committee also notes with pleas- 
ure the publication by the Library of Con- 
gress of a monthly list of state publica- 
tions, and most heartily approves of the 
same. The gap which exists in the index 
of public documents, 1905 to 1909, inclu- 
sive, will be bridged, we understand, by 
the Library of Congress. 

Superintendent of documents Donath, in 
a long letter to the Committee, reviewed 
the work of his department for the year, 
and we approve his plan of issuing United 



* A synopsis of the report from the Com- 
mittee on Public Documents was given at 
the third general session of the conference, 
The written report was not submitted 
until after the conference. (Ed.) 



States documents in one edition only 
one edition for one book. 

A class of public documents to which 
libraries give little attention is that of 
municipal publications, the importance of 
which is beginning to be recognized, how- 
ever, by a number of libraries. Your Com- 
mittee believes that the first requisite for 
satisfactory work with municipal docu- 
ments in libraries is the centralization in 
each city of the distribution of all such 
documents issued by each city, and we 
endorse this idea as recommended by 
President Heinemann to the League of 
American Municipalities. 

A great deal of the Committee's time 
was given to a consideration of the pre- 
liminary report of the Printing investiga- 
tion commission. We believe that this 
Commission is in error in putting the 
onus of the present bad state of affairs 
in the case of government publications, on 
libraries, when, as a matter of fact, it 
should be placed on the government meth- 
ods of printing and distribution. There 
has been, however, we regret to say, jus- 
tification for some of this criticism on ac- 
count of the laxness and indifference of 
certain librarians in replying to the re- 
quests for information sent out by the 
Commission. 

It seemed to be the consensus of opin- 
ion of those present at the various round 
tables, which included the librarians of a 
number of the larger state libraries, that 
the continuation of serial numbers should 
be restored, and that the Government 
printing office should adopt a uniform title- 
page for all serial publications. 

Your Committee feels very strongly that 
certain classes of depository libraries 
should be made permanent, and that the 
regular receipt of documents from the 
United States government by large, well 
established, and well organized libraries, 
should not depend upon the mere whim of 
members of Congress. We protest most 
strongly against the proposal of the Print- 
ing investigation commission to discon- 
tinue the sending of the Patent office 
gazette to such libraries. 

Your Committee believes that duplicates 



760 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



of some documents are absolutely neces- 
sary for good work in certain classes of 
libraries, as, for example, some of our 
university libraries, and some of the pub- 
lic libraries, having large branches, in our 
largest cities; and, therefore, that the pro- 
posal of the Commission to cut out dupli- 
cates indiscriminately is most unwise. 

While it is true that a large number of 
depository libraries in the country are not 
able to take adequate care of public docu- 
ments, the sins of omission of these should 
not be visited upon the larger libraries 
which are caring for them properly, and 
where they are extensively used. For this 
reason we urge most strongly that the 
Association place itself on record as favor- 
ing the privilege of selection of the docu- 
ments desired on the part of a large pro- 
portion of institutional and public librar- 
ies: in other words, that libraries which 
can use some of the documents be able 
to select those which they can use, and 
not be obliged to take everything sent out 
by the Government printing office, as the 
present law requires. 



In order to insure a proper administra- 
tion and care of depository libraries we be- 
lieve that the government in establishing 
such depository libraries should also es- 
tablish a system of inspection, and we 
heartily recommend the endorsement of 
such inspection on the part of this Asso- 
ciation. 

The whole matter of the Printing inves- 
tigation commission report is of such great 
importance to the larger libraries of the 
country that we believe that final action on 
this matter should not be taken at this 
time, owing to the fact that additional in- 
formation and light is likely to be brought 
to bear on this subject during the next 
few months. We, therefore, recommend 
that the consideration and the determina- 
tion of the policy of the Association with 
reference to the Printing investigation 
commission report in general and in par- 
ticular be referred to the Council, with 
power to act. 

GEORGE S. GODARD, 

Chairman. 



CATALOG SECTION 



FIRST SESSION 

Saturday, July 2, 2 p. m., in the Grand 
Hotel 

In the absence of the Chairman and the 
Secretary, C. B. Roden called the meeting 
to order, and, by unanimous consent, pre- 
sided as temporary Chairman. A. G. S. 
Josephson acted as temporary Secretary. 
The following communication from the 
Chairman, Miss Margaret Mann, and the 
Secretary, Miss Sophie K. Hiss, both un- 
able to attend the conference, was read: 

24 June, 1910. 
Mr. Chalmers Hadley, Secretary A. L. A., 

1 Washington St., Chicago, 111. 
Dear Mr. Hadley: 

I inclose herewith the report of the offi- 
cers of the Catalog section for 1910, and 
regret to say that neither the Chairman 
nor the Secretary find it possible to attend 
the meeting. I think in such a case it 
would be best for you, as Secretary of 



the Association, to open the meeting and 
let the members present elect their own 
Chairman. I have not appointed a Nom- 
inating committee because I think those 
catalogers at the Mackinac meeting would 
prefer to attend to that. 

I hope the report will be read at the 
meeting. 

Yours very truly, 

MARGARET MANN, 
Chairman, Catalog Section, 
A. L. A., 1910 

Report of the Officers 

24 June, 1910. 
To the Members of the Catalog Section of 

the A. L. A. 

It has been the custom of the Catalog 
section to hold two sessions at each meet- 
ing of the A. L. A., one devoted to the 
problems of the small libraries, and the 
other given up to the discussion of sub- 
jects dealing with more advanced methods. 
In order to get at the needs of the small 
libraries, and make the program of the 
Catalog section as helpful as possible, the 
Committee this year sent to each library 



CATALOG SECTION 



761 



commission a list of questions, asking what 
subjects they would like to have discussed 
for the benefit of the small libraries, and 
what printed matter is most needed on the 
subject of cataloging by librarians of little 
or no experience. The Committee was of 
the opinion that few librarians of the 
smaller libraries are able to attend the 
A. L. A., and therefore the reports in the 
printed proceedings must be of a helpful 
nature if we accomplish our purpose. 

The answers received confirmed our 
opinion as to the attendance of the libra- 
rians of the small libraries. It was in- 
teresting in compiling the answers from 
the commissions to find that, with one or 
two exceptions, the same subject was sug- 
gested by all the commissions, which was 
"The need of simple rules for cataloging." 

The Committee next communicated with 
the A. L. A. Publishing board to ascertain 
the status of the "Simplified code," which 
is now being compiled, and learned that 
the Chairman appointed to succeed Miss 
Kroeger had been unable to devote any 
time to the work since assuming the chair- 
manship, and was therefore not prepared 
to discuss the subject at this meeting of 
the Catalog section. It seemed unwise 
and unnecessary for the Section to devote 
the valuable time of the meeting to the 
discussion of a subject already being 
worked out. 

The Library of Congress has eliminated 
so many problems in cataloging, and con- 
tributed so many printed aids to assist 
the cataloguer that there seem to be fewer 
subjects each year from which we can 
make up an interesting program. The 
question of the subject headings seemed 
to your Committee to be the one subject 
most unsettled, but it was felt that little 
could be gained by papers on this subject 
until we had some definite list before us. 
This is also in the hands of the Publishing 
board. 

An effort has been made to have papers 
presented on several other subjects, but 
the Committee has met with failure to find 
any favorable response to requests for 
papers from those who have had experience 
in the subjects suggested. 

After this investigation into the condi- 
tion of the different phases of catalog 
work, it was deemed wise by your Com- 
mittee to suggest to the President of the 
Association, and the Program committee, 
that we omit this section meeting this 
year and await developments, rather than 
discuss subjects now in the hands of other 
people, or subjects in which there seemed 
to be little general interest. 

The Committee offers this explanation 
for the omission of papers, and we wish to 
emphasize the fact that the conclusion was 



not reached without careful thought, and 
after conditions were thoroughly under- 
stood. The meetings of this Section have 
been stimulating and helpful, and they 
should be kept so. We suggest that those 
interested in the progress of cataloging 
should make known the perplexing ques- 
tion and the questions upon which discus- 
sion is desired, to the Chairman in charge 
of the meetings. 

The Chairman and Secretary held a 
meeting in Pittsburg in April, after plans 
had been partially developed, and at this 
time made further plans which they were 
unable to carry out. 

Respectfully submitted, 

MARGARET MANN, 

Chairman. 

SOPHIE K. HISS, 

Secretary. 

After considerable discussion, during the 
course of which it was pointed out by sev- 
eral members that the Section had never 
taken up the important subject of classifl 
cation, and that many related topics 
awaited attention, it was voted that a 
committee be appointed to draw up a plan 
of organization with a view to securing 
greater continuity for the Section, and, if 
possible, more organic connection with the 
A. L. A. The Chair appointed A. G. S. 
Josephson, J. C. M. Hanson, and Miss 
Agnes Van Valkenburgh. 

Moved, that a committee be appointed 
to nominate officers for the Section. Car- 
ried. By unanimous consent this duty was 
assigned to the Organization committee, 
which had been previously appointed. 



SECOND SESSION 
Monday, July 4, 8 p. m. 

The Organization committee reported a 
plan for organization of the Section, which 
was adopted as follows: 

The Catalog section shall meet regularly 
at the annual meetings of the A. L. A. and 
also, if the Committee of the Section deems 
it advisable, or if ten members of the Sec- 
tion so request, at such joint meetings of 
two or several states as are held at other 
times of the year. 

At each annual meeting the Section shall 
elect a Chairman and a Secretary to hold 
office until their successors have been 
elected; these officers, together with the 



762 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



retiring Chairman, shall constitute the 
Committee of the Section. The duties of 
the Committee shall be to have charge 
of the meetings of the Section, to arrange 
for programs, and to see that records of 
meetings and a register of members of 
the Section be kept. 

At each annual meeting of the Section 
two sessions shall be held, one of which 
shall ordinarily be devoted to cataloging 
problems of interest to large libraries, in- 
cluding classification, indexing, and similar 
bibliographical subjects; the second to be 
devoted to the same problems, as far as 
they affect smaller libraries. 

In preparing the programs for the annual 
meeting the Committee shall consult 
with the Program committee of the A. L. 
A. in order to secure unity of plan, and 
avoid duplication of, and conflict with, the 
programs of the general sessions and of 
other sections. 

The Committee shall appoint a Chair- 
man or Secretary pro tern., in case either 
or both of these officers are prevented from 
attending a given meeting of the Section. 

If, at any meeting of the Section, the 
Committee has been unable to prepare a 
formal program, a round table meeting of 
members of the Section shall be held for 
discussion of such subject or subjects as 
any member may wish to bring up. 

The Secretary shall, at the annual meet- 
ing, report the expenses of the year, to 
be covered by subscription money among 
those present. 



The Committee further recommended 
that a copy of the Minutes of the two 
meetings of the Section be sent to the A. 
L. A. Council. It was moved that this 
recommendation be approved; it was so 
voted, and the Secretary pro tern was in- 
structed to send a copy of the Minutes to 
the Secretary of the A. L. A. to be sub- 
mitted to the Council. 

The Committee then reported its nomi- 
nations for officers of the Section for the 
ensuing year, namely: for Chairman, An- 
drew Keogh of Yale University; for Secre- 
tary, Miss Mary S. Oakley, of the Seattle 
public library. 

Miss Bess Goldberg, of the Chicago pub- 
lic library, told of the use of the multi- 
graph in that library, for special lists, 
notes, circulars, and anything that was 
wanted in several copies. 

M. L. Raney, librarian of the Johns 
Hopkins university supplemented his ar- 
ticle in the June "Library journal" in tell- 
ing of the use of, and his experiments with, 
the multigraph and the flexitype. 

C. H. Hastings reported on the use of 
the flexitype at the Library of Congress. 

After a short discussion the meeting 
adjourned. 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



FIRST SESSION 

The following papers were presented in 
the two sessions of the College and ref- 
erence section, held, the one on the even- 
ing of July 2, the other on the afternoon 
of July 3. Mr. W. Dawson Johnston, of 
Columbia University library, presided at 
both sessions. 

The first paper was presented by Dr. 
W. K. JEWETT, librarian of the Univer- 
sity of Nebraska, as follows: 

THE RELATION OF THE COLLEGE 
LIBRARY TO THE PUBLIC 

In using the word "public" in the present 
connection, I construe it to mean all 



persons not connected with the college. The 
diploma given to the graduate usually de- 
clares him entitled to all the rights, priv- 
ileges, and honors pertaining to the bach- 
elor's degree, and among these we are 
glad to reckon the privilege of using the 
library. By thus becoming the possessor 
for life of academic citizenship, the 
alumnus is not to be classed with the 
public, and his right to use the library 
should be taken as a matter of course. In 
the institution which I serve, we extend 
the use of the library to the bookkeepers, 
stenographers, and janitors employed by 
the University, regarding them as legiti- 
mate members of our constituency. 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



763 



Colleges and universities are chartered 
by the state for public purposes, and the 
powers conferred on them by charter are 
to be used for the benefit of the public, 
and not for private or commercial ends. 
It is for this reason that such institutions 
are exempted from taxation since their 
tribute to the state is paid in other ways. 
It is usually agreed that this obligation to 
the state is fulfilled when the institution 
imparts instruction to those who enroll 
themselves in its membership, and dis- 
seminates learning by sending out its 
graduates into the community. It is a 
matter of opinion how far it is expedient 
for the institution to go in the direction of 
tendering its facilities to those not en- 
rolled in its membership. Undoubtedly its 
first duty is toward the members of the 
college, and expediency must determine in 
each individual case what can be done for 
the public without interfering with the 
rights of those to whom the college pri- 
marily ministers. In the case of univer- 
sities supported wholly, or in most part, 
by the proceeds of a state tax, it is easy to 
see that it may frequently be expedient to 
go further in the effort to serve the general 
public than in colleges on a private found- 
ation. 

The college library stands in a better 
position to be of service to outsiders than 
most of the other departments. Such ser- 
vice may be performed in co-operation with 
public libraries, or independently, but 
should avoid trenching on the functions of 
any other medium of library service. The 
most familiar form of co-operation with 
the public library is of course the inter- 
library loan. Harvard and Columbia, by 
reason of their rich collections, efficient 
organization, and liberal policy render 
more service to the public by this means 
than any other universities. 

The most complete co-operation yet sug- 
gested is that contemplated by the Iowa 
law of 1904, which permits colleges and 
towns to undertake the joint maintenance 
of a library, and authorizes the town treas- 
urer to pay the proceeds of the library tax 
to the college treasurer. So far as I can 
ascertain, this arrangement has been en- 



tered into in but one instance. Cornell 
college and the city of Mount Vernon, 
Iowa, took advantage of this law in 1905, 
following the erection of a Carnegie build- 
ing for the college library. The library is 
governed by a board of nine trustees, com- 
posed of three faculty members, two col- 
lege trustees, and four citizens of Mount 
Vernon. The financial administration is 
in the hands of the college. The library 
contained about 27,000 volumes at the 
time the present form of government was 
adopted. This interesting experiment in 
political science, as well as library manage- 
ment has not proven satisfactory so far as 
I am informed. The amount contributed 
by the town is very small by reason of the 
customary absurd provision in the state 
law limiting the amount which can be 
raised by taxation for library purposes. 
The share in the management conceded to 
the town, and the number of popular books 
demanded by the people have, I under- 
stand, been disproportionate to their mod- 
est financial contribution. 

In Europe there is at least one instance 
of a university library serving also as a 
public library. The library of the Univer- 
sity of Strasburg, which is the largest uni- 
versity library in the world, bears the title 
Kaiserliche Universittits-und Landes-Bibli- 
othek. It serves also as the central library 
for the two imperial provinces of Alsace 
and Lorraine. According to "Minerva," it 
circulated, in 1908, over 9,000 volumes out- 
side the city, and 55,000 in the city. As 
the university is supported by the govern- 
ment, there is no chance for misunder- 
standing about the funds of the library. It 
is interesting to note, however, that the ad- 
ministration of the latter is directly re- 
sponsible to the Ministry of education, and 
not to the University authorities. 

College libraries sometimes have oppor- 
tunities to exercise in part the functions 
of a public library during vacation time, or 
on some special occasion when unusual 
circumstances occur. Williams college en- 
joys an opportunity of this kind, which, so 
far as I know, is rare. Situated in the 
beautiful Berkshire Hills, Williamstown is 
the most attractive college town I have 



764 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



seen; and, like the other Berkshire towns, 
is a resort for summer visitors. For years 
the policy of the institution has been most 
liberal toward the summer people, and 
they have been admitted to both reading 
room and circulation privileges. As the 
college library is well stocked with the 
best literature, and the town library is not 
open to visitors who wish to draw books, 
the privilege is highly appreciated. The 
college authorities consider that courtesies 
shown to visitors are advantageous, as 
tending to make friends for the institution. 
The acting librarian informs me that the 
privilege is never seriously abused by the 
visitors, and that books frequently come 
into the library by gift from persons who 
noted their absence while using the library 
during the summer. Many volumes of fic- 
tion have been given by departing guests, 
and books written in Williamstown by vis- 
iting authors have often been received. 
Valuable suggestions regarding purchase 
have been made by guests who have noted 
gaps while using the library. 

The University of California library was 
fortunate enough to render valuable public 
service to the people of San Francisco 
after the earthquake, when the libraries of 
the city had been destroyed by fire, and 
the university possessed the only large col- 
lection of books in the near vicinity. Mr. 
Rowell informs me that the use of the law 
library was immediately tendered to the 
Bar association, and that several hundred 
lawyers availed themselves of it. The re- 
sources of the engineering library were 
placed at the disposal of the Street depart- 
ment, Sewer department, and other de- 
partments of the city government, which 
made use of the bo6ks and maps for ascer- 
taining street grades, and other necessary 
duties. Similar assistance in the way of 
maps and other material was extended to 
the Southern Pacific railway at the same 
time. 

A university library having an engineer- 
ing collection does not need to wait for a 
great emergency like the San Francisco 
fire in order to make itself useful to the 
public, without in the least inconvenienc- 
ing its students. At the University of 



Nebraska, the engineers of the Burlington 
railway system, the assistants in the City 
engineer's office, and many visiting engi- 
neers all use our engineering collection 
with profit to themselves and pleasure to 
us. 

Several articles have been written in the 
library periodicals during the last two or 
three years in which emphasis has been 
laid on the importance of reaching the 
business and professional men in public 
library work. I believe this is also a desir- 
able object for the university librarian to 
keep in mind, especially if he is connected 
with a state university. A state university 
dependent on the goodwill of the voters 
for adequate support needs all the friends 
it can get. From the worldly standpoint, 
the friendship of the lawyers, business 
men, and engineers is more important than 
that of the women's clubs and reading cir- 
cles. No opportunity should be lost to 
make the university's books on law, fi- 
nance, engineering, and medicine useful to 
the local lawyers, bankers, engineers, and 
doctors. This it seems to me, is only or- 
dinary prudence. The pastors and teach- 
ers will probably make their wants known 
without special effort on the part of the 
librarian, and are more likely to be already 
interested in the welfare of the university. 

As an instance of a liberal policy shown 
toward professional men by a university 
library, I would like to cite the University 
of Michigan, which extends to local law- 
yers and doctors both reference and cir- 
culation privileges in its law and medical 
libraries. It also makes out-of-town loans 
from the medical library to the physicians 
and chemists of Detroit and Grand Rapids. 

On account of its superior bibliographic 
equipment, the college library not situated 
in a large city, can frequently be of ser- 
vice to local booksellers who desire infor- 
mation regarding titles which they are un- 
able to identify. In the great cities, the 
bookseller is often able to help the libra- 
rian in the matter of trade bibliography. 
In case the neighboring public libraries 
are small, and do not possess much in the 
way of trade bibliography, the college li- 
brarian is in a position to aid them with 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



765 



advice about the purchase of foreign books. 
In fact he may be the adviser of the entire 
community in this particular. 

In my own experience, I have found that 
many persons consult the college librarian 
with reference to the purchase of histories, 
cyclopedia, and other subscription works 
that they think of buying. The visit of a 
book agent offering an expensive set is 
generally marked by frequent telephone 
calls from people seeking advice before 
coming to a decision. 

The state of California presents one ex- 
ample of an unusual function assigned to 
the university librarian. The law passed 
in 1909, establishing a county library sys- 
tem, provides that no person shall be 
eligible to appointment as county librarian, 
unless holding a certificate that he is quali- 
fied for the position, signed by the librarian 
of the State library, State university, or 
Leland Stanford university. How the li- 
brarian of either of the two universities is 
to satisfy himself of the qualifications of 
the applicant, is not specified. The official 
recognition of the librarian of Leland 
Stanford university, an institution on a 
private foundation, is one of the interest- 
ing features of the enactment. 

One very important way in which the 
university library may serve not only its 
constituents, but the whole library world, 
and in fact the literary world, is by the pub- 
lication of bibliographies. These are most 
useful when they list the resources of the 
university in some special field, in which 
its collection is particularly strong. Not- 
able examples are the "Catalog of the 
Andrew D. White library," and the "Dante 
collection," both Issued by Cornell, the 
"Catalog of the Avery Architectural lib- 
rary," issued by Columbia, and the "Har- 
vard bibliographical contributions," com- 
menced by Justin Winsor and still in pro- 
gress. The bibliographical activities of 
the university may be conducted independ- 
ently, or in conjunction with other libra- 
ries, as when compiling a union list of pe- 
riodicals. In either case, I am of the opin- 
ion that this is probably the channel 
through which the most permanent, and 
most widely appreciated, contribution to 



public welfare can be made by a university 
library. 

The second paper of the program was 
presented by PHINEAS L. WINDSOR, li- 
brarian of the University of Illinois, on 

THE RELATrON OF THE STATE UNI- 
VERSITY LIBRARY TO THE OTHER 
LIBRARIES OF THE STATE 

The other libraries of the state, with 
which the state university library is, under 
present conditions, most likely to have di- 
rect relations, include a large number of 
tax-supported municipal libraries, a con- 
siderable number of college and university 
libraries, libraries of professional schools, 
including normal schools, a few public li- 
braries supported by endowments, the 
state library, libraries of high schools and 
academies, and occasional libraries of 
learned societies, and other educational ag- 
encies. Within each state the library of the 
state university is generally found among 
the largest two or three, and generally is 
growing relatively fast; so that the rela- 
tions to be considered are those between 
a large library and smaller ones. How- 
ever, a more potent factor in determining 
the relation lies in the fact that the state 
university library is supported by state 
funds, and, in common with the other parts 
of the university, belongs, in a peculiarly 
close sense, to the people at large. 
Through the students, it comes into per- 
sonal relations with the citizens of every 
corner of the state; and, as a consequence, 
the people and their local institutions gen- 
erally feel that they have a valid claim on 
its services and resources. Many men of 
the faculty of the state university identify 
themselves with the various educational, 
commercial, philanthropic, and other inter- 
ests of the state; prosecute special investi- 
gations into the resources of the various 
parts of the state, and in every way possi- 
ble try to extend the benefits of their de- 
partments of the university to the whole 
state; all this, too, makes it the natural 
thing for the library also to plan and carry 
on a work that reaches beyond the resi- 
dent student body and faculty. 



766 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



But though this library generally has a 
superior collection of books, and has a 
body of specialists at hand whose knowl- 
edge is always at its service, there are cer- 
tain obvious limitations that should be re- 
membered. For example, the university 
library contains relatively few of the cur- 
rent popular books, and relatively few 
books not more or less directly connected 
with the subjects in the curriculum. Its 
first work is, of course, with and for the 
faculty and resident students. And even 
in state universities there is still much 
academic conservatism which looks doubt- 
fully upon innovations, and makes prog- 
ress in the less common forms of library 
work slower than in public library work. 
First among the services the state uni- 
versity library should render to the other 
libraries may be mentioned a willingness 
to make inter-library loans freely, which, 
in spite of our present high transportation 
charges on books, can be developed much 
farther than heretofore. We already free- 
ly loan to the librarians of other college 
and university libraries for use of profes- 
sors and serious students. If a local pub- 
lic library's constituents generally know 
that almost any book or small group of 
books they are likely to need can be had 
in three or four days from the state uni- 
versity library, if not in the local library, 
it is likely that the privilege will be used 
oftener than at present. And if among 
these constituents there are, as is likely, 
any considerable number of alumni or 
former students, or extension students of 
the university, the tendency to ask the 
local library to borrow, in any time of real 
need, will be all the stronger. 

To further supplement the resources of 
the local library on any particular subject, 
a box of books, or lantern slides, or pic- 
tures, can be loaned by the state university 
library for a limited period. There is no 
conclusive reason why the state university 
library should not send out such traveling 
libraries, and in some states this library 
is an agency ready at hand which could do 
much of the work better than the state li- 
brary or a library commission. With the 
state university so frequently attempting 



so many forms of extension work and non- 
formal instruction, the traveling library 
for the use of study, club, and high school, 
constituents of the small public library 
ought not to be thought beyond the scope 
of its work. 

A third service the state university li- 
brary can render to the other libraries is 
to avail itself of its natural position as a 
training ground for librarians and library 
assistants, for the state library schools and 
summer library schools fall so easily with- 
in the generally accepted scope of a state 
university's activity, that where there is 
any real need for either of these agencies, 
the library should aim to supply it. Cord- 
ial, active support of library institutes is 
akin to this work of instruction, and should 
be expected of the state university library. 
Nor should this training of library workers 
cease with these more formal agencies; 
the library should hold itself ready and 
willing to attempt an answer to any speci- 
fic questions relating to library manage- 
ment that arise in the libraries of the state. 
The state university library should be an 
experiment station for the libraries of the 
state, within certain obvious limitations. 
For example, is there a section of the state 
overrun with tuberculous people, do the li- 
braries of that section have to face the 
question of disinfection of books? The 
university library should seize the oppor- 
tunity to prosecute such inquiries or ex- 
periments as will lead to the adoption of 
the simplest, most economical, and most 
effective methods of disinfection of books. 
Or, for another example, if insects are in- 
juring books in a library of the state, let 
the university library see that the ques- 
tion is taken up, and that the resources of 
the whole university are behind the inves- 
tigation into the best remedy. 

The state university library is generally 
well prepared to answer general "refer- 
ence" questions put to it by smaller li- 
braries, and to serve also as a bureau of 
bibliographic information for them. Not 
only its superior collection of books, but 
the special bibliographic training and 
knowledge of its staff, and the generally 
ample resources of the faculty, make the 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



767 



performance of this service entirely 
feasible; and if such questions are asked 
that prove to be beyond the resources of 
the library and university, they can be re- 
ferred to the most convenient large or 
special library which has presumably bet- 
ter facilities with which to answer them. 
Here again, if all the constituents of a 
local library know that they may ask their 
library almost any sort of a question about 
books, their editions, prices, etc., and that 
if the local resources are not sufficient to 
answer it, the question will be referred by 
their library to the state university library, 
the privilege will be appreciated. One 
benefit accruing to the public might be a 
healthy decrease in the business of a cer- 
tain sort of traveling subscription book 
agent. 

In the disposition of state university 
publications, exchanges, and library dup- 
licates, the state university library may 
well give first thought to the needs of the 
libraries of its own state, and seize every 
opportunity to add in these ways to their 
resources. Let the librarian see to it that 
the current university publications go 
regularly to every library in the state that 
is likely to wish them. Twice in my own 
experience the unsold remainder of student 
annuals, a year or two old, has been given 
to the library, and the copies sent to li- 
braries in the state, in one case 40 and in 
the other case (this year) over 100, and 
in every case the University has paid the 
express charges. 

To a modest degree, some of the state 
university libraries may serve also as 
regional libraries, or as central reservoirs 
of books, or as first steps toward these. 
Here, however, so much depends upon the 
resources and needs of the particular state 
university, its ambitions, the probable di- 
rection of its development, and its near- 
ness to or distance from, other large and 
amply endowed libraries or institutions, 
that mere mention of the possibility of 
such a future service is all that can be 
safely attempted. If, in the development 
of real universities, there comes a general- 
ly accepted division of the field of graduate 
study and investigation, so that, for ex- 



ample, one will have unquestioned super- 
iority in finance, transportation, and com- 
merce, and a neighboring one superiority 
in the classics and philology, it may easily 
become practicable for the library to fol- 
low such university specialization, and 
make of itself a central reservoir of books 
on one of these subjects, receiving from 
the other libraries of the state their dead 
bo'oks on these subjects, and trying to 
make its collection on them complete to 
the last degree. 

In addition to these specific forms of 
service to the libraries of the state, it is 
assumed that the state university library 
performs certain less tangible duties to 
them, actively supporting all movements 
for the betterment of library conditions in 
the state, especially those represented by 
its state organizations of librarians and li- 
brary workers, and by its state library, and 
its state library commission. Very rarely 
indeed do any circumstances in any state 
justify any other than a spirit of mutual 
helpfulness and co-operation between all 
these forces for popular education. 

In conclusion: If I have considered only 
one side of the relations which should, and 
do, exist, it is partly because the state uni- 
versity library does owe everything to the 
state which supports it, partly because it 
is much more frequently able to offer help 
than are the great majority of other libra- 
ries within the state, and partly because it 
is perfectly safe to leave them to discover 
any service they may render the state uni- 
versity library. 

In what I have said there has been lurk- 
ing no unexpressed desire for, or expecta- 
tion of, any equivalent return of so called 
"favors"; the justification of our support by 
state funds lies in the service we can ren- 
der, and the more complete this justifica- 
tion the better satisfied we shall be. 

The next paper was submitted by W. I. 
FLETCHER, librarian of Amherst college, 
on: 

RELATION OF THE COLLEGE LIBRARY 
TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITY 

To the saying of the Great Teacher "To 
him that hath shall more be given" a say- 



768 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



ing quite inconsistent with the Socialist 
theory, but one that proves itself curiously 
true in fact, if not acceptable in theory 
to this saying there has been worked out 
in our day a corollary "He that hath 
shall give." Not that this is a new 
doctrine or principle; it is as old as the 
New Testament or the teachings of Plato 
or Socrates, older in fact than any of 
them. 

But selfishness and greed have a strong 
hold on the human heart, and it has taken 
many centuries to bring even the Christian 
world to a practical acceptance and carry- 
ing out of the idea that possessions and 
endowments of one kind or another in- 
volve an obligation to share them with 
those less favored, to use them pro bono 
publico. True enough many men of 
wealth, from time Immemorial, have been 
large givers, and the founding of colleges 
and hospitals by such men is no new 
thing; but it has remained for this present 
time to witness the awakening of the sense 
of obligation on the part of rich men to 
make the world better by their use of 
their riches. George Peabody, Cecil 
Rhodes, D. K. Pearsons, J. D. Rockefeller, 
Andrew Carnegie these are not only 
great givers, but they are also the apostles 
of a new doctrine as to wealth, which runs 
counter to the old idea that a man may 
surely do what he will with "his own." 
"Ownership is trusteeship," is a succinct 
statement of the new doctrine. 

Nor is the ownership to which this new 
doctrine relates confined to the possession 
of wealth by individual men. It includes 
all holdings of resources of any kind by 
institutions as well. That it has been 
recognized by colleges and universities the 
whole university extension and social set- 
tlement movement is a witness, and from 
this point of view I prefer to approach 
the question of the relation of the college 
library to the community. Recognizing 
the potential value of what is in our col- 
lege libraries, not only for the furtherance 
of the college work, but for the help and 
uplifting of the community about us, we 
may well seek for means of establishing 
such relations as will put these resources 



in the way of as complete exploitation as 
possible. 

Within a few years our college libraries 
have grown rapidly and have acquired a 
new character. They have gone beyond 
the point where they barely meet the needs 
of the college work, and have grown rich 
in works of a more general character 
in art, in music, in biography, especially 
in science. Only a small proportion of 
their books are, at a given time, in use in 
the college, and more and more must the 
college librarian feel the strong desire 
that these unused resources might be 
benefiting the outside community. 

In my consideration of this theme, I 
practically pass by the case of the college 
or university located in a large city where 
an adequate public library exists. Public 
libraries of some size and value are now 
to be found in most of the towns, certainly 
in the college towns. But outside of the 
large cities they are generally small, and 
limited in their scope, bearing no com- 
parison to the college libraries in size or 
possibilities for general efficiency. The 
relation of the college library to the public 
library in its town is the subject of an- 
other paper at this session, and is not for 
me to treat. I may say that I would have 
named co-operation with the local public 
library as the first method of the college 
library's influence in the community. Next 
to that, I would certainly place the public 
schools. The college library can find no 
field of usefulness, outside of the direct 
work of the college, more promising and 
fruitful than is offered by the teachers in 
the schools. The small town library may 
contain some books of special value to 
teachers, but the ample collections in the 
college library, and the scholarly atmos- 
phere which prevails there, should make 
it a place to which the teachers, especially 
in the high school, would constantly resort. 

I have sent inquiries to about fifty col- 
lege libraries preparatory to this discus- 
sion, and I find that the practice is general 
of encouraging the teachers to use the 
college library. Only a few, however, re- 
port that books are loaned to the teachers. 
In some of the colleges the supply of 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



769 



books is hardly adequate to the college 
needs, and the circulation of the books 
outside of the college is not attempted. 
But the larger college libraries loan books 
freely to the teachers, giving them nearly 
as much liberty in the use of books as 
is given to members of the faculty. When 
we consider the vital importance to the 
colleges of anything that can be done to 
improve the quality of secondary instruc- 
tion, we can but be convinced that such 
help as can be given along this line is 
not only a public benefit, but also has its 
direct reaction on the college itself. 

The same might be said of help given 
to pupils in the schools, and would largely 
hold true. But until the facilities in books 
and in rooms for their use in the college 
libraries are further increased, no great 
frequenting of the library by school pupils 
can be encouraged. For this work, the 
town libraries should be especially equipped 
and administered. 

Another avenue for the influence of the 
college library is found in the study clubs 
which are now so numerous. In some col- 
lege libraries membership in such a club 
qualifies a person to use the library both 
for reference and for the drawing of books. 
These club-members are often not of a 
scholarly type, and their work in the li- 
brary is easily looked upon as that of 
tyros, who are only acquiring that "little 
knowledge" which is "a dangerous thing." 
But a more sympathetic view will recognize 
that in all this even superficial cultivation 
of the minds of the citizens, especially 
of the mothers, there is promise of future 
crops of college students, and here again 
a wise self-interest coincides with the im- 
pulse of the well-stored library to seek 
outlets for its treasures of wisdom and 
knowledge. This club work is one es- 
pecially requiring a larger supply, espe- 
cially of reference books, sets of period- 
icals, etc., than the town library is likely 
to furnish, and is also so like much of the 
college work as to be much better done 
with the use of the same apparatus and 
the aid of the same attendants. 

Beyond these special classes in the com- 
munity there remains another, well worthy 



of cultivation by the college library. This 
class is made up of those individuals who 
are really bookish, and can make good 
use of a good library. No college library, 
so far as I know, is open to the inhabitants 
of the town generally, as a circulating 
library. But it is the rule in some to admit 
as borrowers of books all who will make 
application indicating some special course 
or line of reading that they wish to follow, 
or some subject in which they are specially 
interested. All resident graduates of the 
college, all who can be registered as grad- 
uates of some sister institution, all pro- 
fessional men and women, come into this 
class. Here again, an enlightened self- 
interest would suggest great liberality in 
administration. For the free use of a good 
library will count with other advantages 
to draw to a town the most desirable class 
of residents, who in turn will be friends 
and supporters of the college. 

In Massachusetts we have been passing 
through an era of disturbance as to the 
exemption from taxation of the property 
of the colleges. Short-sighted and one- 
sided views as to the loss of taxable prop- 
erty have been honestly held by some, 
and strongly advocated by demagogues 
with "an axe to grind," but no success at 
all has attended the effort to change the 
law. It would not seem amiss to ascribe 
much of the public sentiment which has 
frowned down these attempts to put a 
burden on the colleges, to the good feeling 
fostered by the wise and liberal adminis- 
tration of the libraries and other public 
facilities of the colleges. 

The college libraries may yet do much 
more to fasten and seal the bond which, 
through all petty and superficial rivalries, 
should hold together Town and Gown. 

Miss LAURA R. GIBBS, of the Brown 
University library, presented a paper on: 

STUDENT ASSISTANTS IN COLLEGE 
LIBRARIES 

Graduating from a library school with 
the strong bias in favor of trained workers 
which all library schools must give, I had 
the fortune for several years to work in 



770 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



college and university libraries which em- 
ployed few or no student assistants. Then 
for four or five years, as the senior as- 
sistant in one of our smaller women's col- 
leges, I used all my influence to prevent 
the custom of employing them from gain- 
ing a foothold there. Two years ago, 
however, when I became cataloger at 
Brown university, there were a round dozen 
of them ahead of me, and so useful have 
I found them that frequently one or two 
extras are temporarily employed at my 
own request, and another year will see 
two more permanently added to our staff. 

The problem of managing such assist- 
ants to the best advantage has proved a 
most interesting one, and, as in many 
other cases, that which was accepted 
merely as a necessary evil has proved to 
be far less of an evil than it appeared on 
the surface. Interest in how others met 
the problem led me to borrow from Mr. 
Koch the statistics of college libraries col- 
lected for his report to the Asheville meet- 
ing of the A. L. A. in 1907. And, rather 
to my surprise, I found that the tendency 
of those libraries which employ students 
was to consider the custom not only eco- 
nomical, but also fairly satisfactory. The 
smaller libraries, as a rule, report the 
best results from their work, for the ir- 
regularity and uncertainty of the student 
would probably prove more serious in the 
complex machinery of a big institution 
than where a smaller force could more 
conveniently shift the work a shifting 
which is unavoidable with the short hours 
and frequent vacations of students. 

Of course if a library has the money at 
its disposal, it is unquestionably better to 
employ two or three regular assistants 
at fair salaries than to scatter the work 
among a dozen or more untrained workers 
who can give very few hours each day, 
and whose main interest lies elsewhere. 
But frequently it is a question of the stu- 
dent or nothing; then by all means take 
the student, and take as many as you can 
plan and revise work for. I am much in- 
clined to think that one of the secrets of 
success with student assistants lies in em- 
ploying them in large enough numbers, 



certainly with a good many it is easier to 
keep somewhere near an even output of 
work, in spite of irregularity in hours, and 
even at the examination periods, as there 
are more apt to be people making up time. 

Many colleges seem to regard the library 
appointments somewhat in the light of 
scholarships, help which must be given 
a student because he or she needs it, re- 
gardless of whether he is especially fitted 
for the work in question. I still congratu- 
late myself that I have not yet had to 
deal with the sentimental "office," and our 
assistants are chosen because they are 
promising material, and are dropped when 
their work ceases to be satisfactory a 
method which is not only just, but is also 
the only kind treatment of the student. 
To accept poor work from a man or woman 
who is hard up, or is trying to do too 
much, fosters a willingness to do inferior 
work, and that surely is little help to one 
who is presumably being trained to work 
to the very best of his abilities. 

Another question, too, is that of the 
indolent or overcrowded student, who re- 
gards a library appointment carrying a 
certain reduction of tuition in return for 
a given number of hours of work as a form 
of, or substitute for, a scholarship. Hence 
he considers himself as merely less fav- 
ored than some luckier classmate, who has 
the aid without the compensating labor, 
and feels no impulse to do his best work. 
Fortunately, these cases are rare and can 
be dealt with peremptorily. 

Presumably the brightest students get 
the free scholarships, so the library has, 
as it were, only second choice; but the 
brightest students are not always the best 
workers, and a student who seriously 
wants to help himself through college is 
not a lazy person, and is seldom unaccus- 
tomed to hard work. More often we meet 
the case of the man or still more often 
the girl who is trying to carry too much 
work. Here it is hard for the library to 
know just what attitude to take. Between 
the Scylla of paternalism, and the Charyb- 
dis of indifference to the outside interest 
of your assistants, is a narrow course to 
steer. How much allowance should you 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



771 



make for mid-term examinations which 
demand extra study hours, the library time 
to be "made up next week"? What shall 
you say to a sleepy man who does his 
work stupidly because he has been kept 
up more nights than one, as a part of his 
fraternity initiation? 

Then there is the endless string of in- 
terruptions; the library is a good place 
for a friend to see the girl she has missed 
at the class-room door; she speaks only 
for a moment, but multiply her by three, 
and in one hour there is serious inter- 
ference with the work of the room. Once 
I even had trouble with the too capable and 
attractive girl one who could aarry on 
her own work and a conversation with 
the man at the next desk quite satisfac- 
torily, but I never found the men equally 
gifted. This particular girl had a fancy 
for making up lost time during the evening, 
and I once commented to a friend that 
the men showed remarkable interest in 
doing likewise, on those particular even- 
ings. "More interest than principle?" was 
his pertinent surmise. 

The library has, then, the second choice 
of students, and its work comes second at 
least in their interest. Still I maintain 
it should secure good results from them. 
How? 

To accomplish this I find it best to 
require pretty regular hours of work. I 
ask each student to give me, within a 
week of the opening of the term, a schedule 
of the hours he or she intends to work 
each day of the week. Our requirement 
is 140 hours for each of the three college 
terms, that means twelve hours a week 
the first term, and fifteen or sixteen in 
the winter and spring. This division 
provides for the student's work in the 
library to be finished before the term ex- 
aminations begin, though as a matter of 
fact, there are always ia few who have 
lost time to make up, and who by special 
arrangement are permitted to do so during 
examination week, or, in urgent cases, 
even in the shorter vacations. As far as 
is reasonable, however, we require that 
the work shall be done regularly, and stu- 
dents are not allowed to drop too far be- 



hind. Now and then one is unable to 
finish a term's work, and the matter is 
adjusted at the college office, but when- 
ever it is possible to prevent this we do 
so, as it gives the student a feeling that 
it is largely a matter of his own con- 
venience, and does not foster a sense of 
responsibility. Also it deprives the library 
of just so much time, for unless the time 
lost is considerable, it is hardly worth 
while to employ another person to make 
it up. 

The time which students give is neces- 
sarily much broken, the average being two, 
or two and a half, hours a day, and that 
is usually divided. Then there is the dis- 
advantage of hours between classes, which 
are slightly less than sixty minutes, yet 
it will generally seem best to consider 
them full time as long as the student 
comes directly from the class-room and 
stays as long as he can. We have already 
spoken of the interruptions from outsiders, 
the pressure of fraternity rushing seasons, 
of mid-term examinations, and of conges- 
tions of long papers to be prepared all 
of which affect the work more or less 
seriously. Still, if you will not demand 
too much of him, the student does good 
work for you, only remember it is work 
which needs all his good will to make it 
of any value; you cannot afford time for 
nagging, neither can you afford to have 
it done ungraciously. Therefore, if you 
cannot get satisfactory results under the 
easiest relationship try another student, 
and if you have to try too many, the nat- 
ural conclusion should be that you your- 
self are not fitted for just this kind of 
work. Do not put up with perfunctory 
work, and do not ignore work that falls 
short of your standard only be very sure 
your standard is not only a fair, but even 
a generous one, more generous than in 
the case of a regular employee. 

Of course, considerable time is spent at 
the beginning in training assistants, and 
we usually ask each applicant to give some 
twenty hours' apprenticeship. This has 
the added advantage of preventing a stu- 
dent taking up the work experimentally 
and dropping it for slight cause. 



772 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



A student's term of employment in the 
library is four years at most, and the 
average would hardly be two. On this 
account, it is evident that any considerable 
amount of training would be quite out of 
proportion to the service rendered, and in 
planning the work this fact should be al- 
ways before the person in charge of the 
assisants. A lack of library training is, 
of course, a foregone conclusion; and alas! 
a lack of orderliness and accuracy is al- 
most as common. So valuable are the last 
two traits that it is well to choose a care- 
ful person rather than a brighter one who 
will be more likely to slight details. 

All student work requires careful super- 
vision, and in this supervision it is well 
if you can bring yourself to a point where 
you regard some things which you may 
have considered vital, as unessential or of 
minor importance. One case which comes 
to mind now is of a student who seemed 
hopelessly stupid until it was discovered 
that he could copy subject from author 
cards, with perhaps two or three typo- 
graphical errors in a hundred cards. Now, 
at that particular time we needed just 
this work done, but the student seemed 
incapable of learning that when an author 
has two forenames his initials only should 
be given on the subject cards. After re- 
turning some forty or fifty cards to be 
re-written, I decided the point was not 
worth while, and the work goes on entirely 
satisfactorily. The student is a reasonably 
quick and extremely conscientious worker. 

After considerable experimenting as to 
the kind of work in which students can be 
of most use we have reached the following 
conclusions: It is hardly worth while to 
use them in order work; but one student, 
with now and then a second to help out, 
does all our accessioning, and does it satis- 
factorily. All mechanical preparation of 
the books plating, stamping, labelling, 
and cutting can profitably be left entirely 
in the hands of one or two more; and we 
have had two or three men who covered 
pamphlets and repaired books as well as 
could be desired. Personally I feel very 
strongly that it is best not to put them at 
the desk, even in slack hours, as the desk 



gives the tone of the library to the public, 
and should stand for dignity and efficient 
service. The public even a college pub- 
lic seldom discriminates between desk at- 
tendant and reference librarian, and it ex- 
pects to find trained assistance at the first 
point to which it applies. If you select 
your men carefully, there is no reason why 
they should not put away books, though it 
is well to train them for this by prelimi- 
nary practice in reading the shelves in var- 
ious parts of the classification. Last year 
one of our probationers put in order three 
or four sections which were in considerable 
confusion. With a list, students can read 
shelves as well as any one, and, where the 
reserves are read every two or three days, 
that is capital work for them. 

In our catalog department we make ex- 
cellent use of five or six students. Catalog 
entries made on temporary slips are type- 
written by students, who make all added 
entry cards noted on the slips half a dozen 
sample cards serving for the simple forms 
in use. One student devotes a large part 
of her time to putting numbers and head- 
ings on Library of Congress cards. An- 
other orders cards for books piled on her 
desk; and it is at rarer and rarer intervals 
that I feel I should really like to apologize 
to Mr. Hastings for some peculiar entry 
that falls to his people to decipher. The 
same assistant withdraws "continuation" 
cards from the catalog, when new volumes 
come in, and even writes slips for some of 
the simpler titles. One looks up author's 
names and dates, and another alphabets all 
the cards we expect to put two more at 
this work when our Library of Congress de- 
positary catalog arrives putting them Into 
the drawers, where it is a matter of a few 
minutes for the cataloger to run over them 
and draw out the rod, letting them fall into 
place. Our shelf list cards are written by 
still another student from the catalog 
slips as they are on their way to the waste 
basket, and from the Library of Congress 
cards. He quickly learns to abbreviate 
titles, and selects the important informa- 
tion from the longest with considerable 
discrimination. After revision, the shelf 
list cards are filed in the same way that 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



773 



the catalog cards have been. More revis- 
ion! If there is opportunity for choice I 
should suggest that girls, as a rule, are 
more successful in the work of the catalog 
room, especially in writing catalog cards, 
than are men, the latter do better with 
shelf list, than with the more finicky 
catalog entries. Men do better plating, 
and, as a matter of course, should carry 
and put up books, and do any other heavy 
work. 

Do you perhaps wonder what has be- 
come of the cataloger in all this confusion? 
Truth to tell she wonders sometimes if she 
is a cataloger, so curious a change has 
come over her in fact it seems more or 
less of a joke anyhow, for she never in- 
tended to be a cataloger, and hated it most 
cordially when she was one under the old 
regime, polishing the tails of the commas. 
If you expected to find her at her desk 
writing cards in her best library hand you 
would be shocked I fear. She is sometimes 
sorting great piles of printed and type- 
written cards, often revising students' 
work of various kinds changing a group 
of headings because the Library of Con- 
gress uses another form, and her adopting 
it now will save work in the future it is 
much less of a circumstance to change 
cards than in the days of that library hand. 
Not the least part of the cataloger's duty 
in this sort of a library is the care of the 
machines, for she is called upon frequently 
to see why this carriage will not move, 
why the tabulator sticks on another; she 
must drop her work to show how a ribbon 
is put on, and there is endless watching of 
workers who will use a machine that needs 
the type brushed. 

Anyone in charge of student work would 
do well to plan it so that there is little 
variety for any one assistant, as each new 
kind of work means previous instruction, 
slower work, and extra revision. This of 
course is not so interesting for the stu- 
dent; it is monotonous and means that his 
or her work leads to little in the future. 
It Is merely a way of making a little 
money now, not a part of education, and 
cannot give training that will be of value 
in any future library work, save the drill 



which any part of the work, well done, 
necessarily gives in accuracy, neatness, 
and orderliness. The work, however, does 
give the student some knowledge of what 
work in a library means that there is 
much drudgery, much detail, and plenty of 
dust. No girl who has served an appren- 
ticeship will ever choose the profession be- 
cause it is "ladylike," and "gives one an op< 
portunity to read all the new books." Now 
and then a student does see beyond the 
drudgery, and finds a real interest in li- 
brary work of one kind or another. Per- 
haps he or she keeps on in the same place, 
gradually working up; but remembering 
my own experience, I always urge at least 
a year in a good library school. 

One more point if you still have patience, 
and that is the effect the system has on the 
profession as a whole. I should like to 
make a statistical study of this side, but I 
am inclined to believe that the student 
assistant who goes into the work after- 
ward, is quite as apt to turn out a success 
and a credit to the profession, as the man 
who chooses it from the outside, as it were. 
Certainly some of our good library workers 
have begun as student assistants, and it 
would be reasonable to suppose that in 
some cases, at least, it was because of this 
experience that they chose the profession 
perhaps not actually chose It in all cases, 
but only drifted into it, lacking a stronger 
attraction in some other direction. 



SECOND SESSION 

At the second session of the section W. 
H. Brett, librarian of the Cleveland public 
library, summarized, and read extracts 
from the replies of some of the eighty-six 
public and fifty-three college libraries 
which had responded to a set of questions 
he had sent to two-hundred librarians, in 
his effort to obtain information on the 
"Relation of the public library to the col- 
lege library." 

CLEMENT W. ANDREWS, librarian of 
the John Crerar library, and member of 
the A. L. A. Publishing board, submitted 
the following report on 



774 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



THE CO-OPERATIVE WORK OF THE A. 
L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD 

As a result of conferences and consulta- 
tions culminating at the Cleveland confer- 
ence in 1896, the Publishing board under- 
took the publication of printed cards for 
analytical entries from a selected list of 
serials, and has continued the work to the 
present time. Recent developments, how- 
ever, appear to require a redetermination 
of the principles which should govern the 
work, and a radical revision of the list of 
serials to be analyzed. 

The original list was formed by each of 
the five libraries, which agreed to furnish 
titles, naming enough serials to give ap- 
proximately an equal number of titles. As 
the first list of 194 serials did not give the 
intended number of 3,000 titles the list was 
increased from time to time until a maxi- 
mum of 306 was reached. On the other 
hand, when the Library of Congress began 
to issue printed cards for a considerable 
number of these serials, all such were 
dropped by the Publishing board, so that at 
present there are only 200, yielding about 
2,700 titles a year, and of these 12 are not 
assigned to any library. 

Besides the heterogeneous character of 
the list, due to the manner of its formation 
and increased by the subsequent changes, 
the greatest drawbacks are the discrepan- 
cies in the subject headings, and the delays 
in issue, both inevitable in co-operative 
work, even with the careful attention to 
details given by Miss Browne and later by 
Miss Bascom, and the impossibility of 
filling any but advance orders. On the 
other hand, where all are taken, the price 
one and one-quarter cents per card Is 
the same as that asked by the Library of 
Congress, while for a selection the charge 
of two cents a card is still low, considering 
the small edition. 

On the whole, the undertaking has been 
successful. The number of subscribers 
has not changed greatly; some 16 take 
complete sets, and 60 odd subscribe to a 
selection. 

The developments which make neces- 
sary a revision of the work are: first, the 
issue of the Library of Congress cards; 
second, the extension of that work, in ac- 
cordance with its recent offer, to include 
certain classes of desirable titles received 
from other libraries; third, the issue of 
the "International catalogue of scientific 
literature"; fourth, a growing feeling that 
the list is altogether too miscellaneous; 
and fifth, the change in editor made neces- 
sary by the change in the location of the 
work of the Board. 

It has seemed to the Board .that there 
are three ways in which the work may be 



curtailed to the advantage of all concerned, 
and they hope by doing this to make it pos- 
sible to add to it in any direction which 
may be desired by any considerable num- 
ber of subscribers. 

In the first place, they propose to ask the 
Library of Congress to undertake, on its 
own account, a few serials strictly mono- 
graphic in character or else published by 
the United States Government which 
would appear to have been overlooked. In 
the second place, they hope that that libr- 
ary will extend its offer to print titles furn- 
ished by other libraries, when five sub- 
scriptions are assured, to include material 
from the more important serials even if 
not strictly monographic in form or char- 
acter. In the third place, they would be 
inclined to drop all special periodicals 
containing only short articles, and perhaps 
all scientific periodicals covered by the 
"International catalogue." 

A cursory examination of the first fifth 
of the present list indicates that of a maxi- 
mum of 2,700 titles a year from 200 serials, 
the Library of Congress ought to catalog 
for itself about 100 titles from 20 serials; 
that it might be expected to print from 
copy sent it about 300 from 65; that about 
800 from 50 ought certainly to be printed 
by the Board, and that the remainder, 1,200 
titles from 65 serials should be considered 
doubtful. Some of these ought to be 
printed by the Library of Congress, or if 
not by them, certainly by the Board; but 
many may well be dropped entirely, while 
as to a very considerable number the de- 
cision will depend upon the views taken 
by the subscribers as to the advisability 
of duplicating material in the "Internation- 
al catalogue." The Board feel that this is 
a most important point, and hope that it 
may receive due attention in the discus- 
sion which they hope will follow this pres- 
entation of the problem before them. 

This is a question which interests chiefly 
the College and Reference section. Most 
general public libraries in any case will 
subscribe to a selection only, but if a few 
general questions can be settled to the 
satisfaction of a considerable number of 
college and reference libraries, they ought 
to find it advantageous to make complete 
subscriptions. 

In drawing up the circular which they 
propose to issue soon, the Board will bear 
in mind the opinions expressed here. In 
that circular, also, they will ask for sugges- 
tions as to any expansions which may be 
desired. 

W. P. Cutter, librarian of the Forbes 
library, Northampton, Mass., presented a 
statement of the problems involved in the 



CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION 



775 



recent discussion between the trustees of 
Smith college and the Forbes library. 

The election of officers of the Section for 
the ensuing year resulted as follows: 



Chairman, A. S. Root, librarian, Oberlin 
College; Secretary, Miss Irene Warren, li- 
brarian, School of education, University of 
Chicago. 



CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS' SECTION 



FIRST SESSION 

Saturday evening, July 2. 

The sessions of the Children's librarians' 
section were presided over by Miss May 
Massee, of the Buffalo public library. The 
first session was opened with a symposium 
on books about children, and the following 
books were discussed: 

E. K. S. Key, "Century of the child." 
Mrs. Henry L. Elmendorf. 

B. B. Lindsey & H. O'Higgins. "The 
beast." Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick. 

John Spargo. "The bitter cry of the 
children." Miss Linda A. Eastman. 

Jane Addams. "The spirit of youth and 
the city streets." Mr. Henry E. Legler. 

K. L. L. Bosher. "Mary Cary." Miss 
Lutie E. Stearns. 

R. R. Reeder. "How two hundred child- 
ren live and learn." Miss Caroline Web- 
ster. 

Jacob A. Riis. "The peril and preserva- 
tion of the home." Miss Esther Straus. 

H. G. Parsons. "Children's gardens." 
Miss Elva L. Bascom. 

G. S. Lee. "The child and his book." 
Miss May Massee. 

The session closed with a short discus- 
sion on intermediate work, led by Miss 
Mary Douglas, of the St. Louis public 
library. Miss Dousman, of Milwaukee, Miss 
Straus, of Cincinnati, Miss Zachert and 
Miss Flexner, of Louisville, Mr. McKillop, 
of Milwaukee, and Miss Massee, of Buffalo, 
took part in the discussion, in which the 
results of what had been done in several 
large libraries were presented, and the 
necessity was shown for a closer study of 
the needs of the older children with a view 
to meeting them adequately. One con- 
ception of an intermediate department was 
described as an accessible and attractive 
corner or room, provided with an specially 



selected collection of books, with an as- 
sistant in charge peculiarly fitted to work 
with older boys and girls, and one who was 
familiar with both the children's and adult 
departments. Others felt that there should 
be no separate collection of books, but that 
more personal aid in selection should be 
given the younger readers in the adult de- 
partment. A proposed method of marking 
certain books in an open shelf collection to 
facilitate the finding of an "intermediate" 
book was described by Miss Massee, and a 
somewhat similar method successfully 
practised in the Louisville public library 
was mentioned by Miss Flexner. The dis- 
cussion closed with recommendations for 
further consideration of the subject at 
future meetings. 

SECOND SESSION 

A short business meeting was held on 
Monday, July 4, at 2:30 p. m. when Miss 
Massee was in the chair, and there were 
twenty-six members present. In the ab- 
sence of Miss Clara W. Herbert, Washing- 
ton, Miss Mary Douglas, St. Louis, acted 
as Secretary. After the reading of the 
Minutes, the following officers were elected 
for the ensuing year: Chairman, Miss 
Faith E. Smith, Chicago; Secretary, Miss 
Mary Douglas, St. Louis. Miss Olcott 
moved that a committee of one be ap- 
pointed by the Chair to investigate the or- 
ganization of other sections to see if an 
Executive board were necessary, and to 
provide for a succession in office. The mo- 
tion being carried, the Chairman appointed 
Miss Esther Straus, of Cincinnati. The 
business meeting adjourned for an infor- 
mal round table discussion of questions of 
interest to children's librarians. 

MARY DOUGLAS, 
Acting Secretary. 



776 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



SECTION ON PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR 
LIBRARIANSHIP 



Saturday, July 2, 1910, 2:30 P. M. 

The meeting was called to order by the 
Chairman, Chalmers Hadley, and in the 
absence of the Secretary, Mrs. H. P. 
Sawyer, Miss Julia M. Whittlesey was 
designated to act as Secretary. 

The Chairman appointed as members of 
the Nominating committee, Frank K. Wal- 
ter, Miss Mary W. Plummer, and Miss 
Linda A. Eastman. 

The program was as follows: 

1. Report of the Secretary. 

2. "The essentials of a good library school" 
Miss Edith Tobitt, Omaha public li- 
brary. Discussion William F. Yust, 
Louisville free public library, and Purd 
B. Wright, Los Angeles public library. 

3. "The apprentice class": 

(a) In the large library Miss Jessie 
Welles, Carnegie library, Pittsburgh; 
and Miss Alice Shepard, City library 
association, Springfield, Mass. Discus- 
sion Frank P. Hill, Brooklyn public 
library; Arthur E. Bostwick, St. Louis 
public library; George F. Bowermann, 
Public library, District of Columbia. 

(b) In the small library Maude Van 
Buren, Mankato (Minn.) public library; 
Grace Delphine Rose, Davenport public 
library. Discussion Arthur L. Bailey, 
Wilmington institute free library; John 
G. Moulton, Haverhill public library. 

4. Election of officers, 1910-11. 

5. Adoption of by-laws. 

The first paper, by Miss EDITH TOBITT; 
librarian of the Omaha public library, was 
as follows: 



THE ESSENTIALS OF A GOOD LIBRARY 
SCHOOL 

Just what constitute the "essentials" of 
any course of study depends entirely upon 
the general or specific purpose to which 
this is applied, when completed. In a 
course of study of library methods, the 



essentials most necessary for work in a 
college library may be different from those 
necessary for work in a branch library 
surrounded by a foreign population of the 
emigrant class, so I shall make an effort 
to find a happy mean in stating "essen- 
tials," and hope that these recommenda- 
tions will apply to the majority of cases 
rather than to the extremes. 

The first thing necessary in the estab- 
lishment of a school is a complete equip- 
ment ready for the use of all classes of 
library students. This equipment must 
contain, not only representative collections 
of classes of books generally found in a 
public library, but must also contain a 
map collection, picture collection, docu- 
ments, publications of societies, reference 
books both foreign and English a full col- 
lection of trade bibliographies, when pos- 
sible some special collections, and as much 
more material as may be necessary to 
form a basis for the instruction of students 
who are to become librarians of various 
classes of libraries. All of this material 
must be so shelved and arranged that it is 
readily available for the use of the student. 
This corresponds to the equipment of a 
medical college, or a chemical laboratory; 
and the reason for its existence is obvious. 
Without it only the mere elements of li- 
brary instruction can be given. 

Possibly the most difficult part of the 
work of the management of any library 
school is that which has to do with 'the 
entrance requirements. It is scarcely pos- 
sible to place the standard of general 
education too high, for without this all 
else is valueless in librarianship, even 
though the other requirements are of such 
vast importance that it seems unfair to 
give them second place. 

The personal fitness for any position 
must take first rank after the scholastic 
requirements have been filled. Age must 
always be considered in this matter of 
fitness, but age does not always mean only 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP 



777 



the number of years. In library work it 
means that the applicant must either give 
promise of ability to add to a store of 
knowledge and general attainment as the 
years pass, or, the years having passed, 
must be able to show an accumulation of 
personal accomplishments worthy of the 
number of years spent in acquirement. 
Only people having this freshness or ripe- 
ness of mind can appreciate the needs of 
others, and give to them valuable service. 

Those who have had experience in select- 
ing either students or employees know how 
difficult a task this is. The applicant who 
seems very well fitted, and bids fair to 
be one of the best, proves to be too poor 
to keep and not quite bad enough to let 
go; while the one who seems altogether 
impossible, and who is kept out year after 
year, and only after persistent effort is 
admitted, proves to be, later, the one who 
can carry the greater load. Because of 
this almost impossible task of selection, 
why should not experience in a library of 
good standing be one of the recom- 
mendations for admission to a library 
school, as a test of general fitness. Few 
libraries would recommend a student who, 
in personal qualifications, ranked below 
the library school standard. It is gen- 
erally possible to obtain entrance to a 
training class in some large library, so 
that experience of this kind is easily ob- 
tained, even without a definite position as 
an employee. These students with ex- 
perience will accomplish much more in a 
given time than those who have had no 
such advantages, will be more responsive, 
and will have more time to devote to the 
study of books a subject which is fre- 
quently too much neglected. If the stand- 
ing in scholarship is high, and the applicant 
has had experience, and through this ex- 
perience has proved himself to possess 
those qualities which should be found in 
a librarian, it follows that not only can 
the technical side of library work be em- 
phasized as much as it now is, but also 
there may be introduced such study and 
work as could scarcely enter into the life 
and the work of the average student unless 
introduced for some special purpose. 



It would not be possible in the case of 
any technical or professional school to 
define the exact method by which instruc- 
tion should be given. It is only possible 
to give the minimum standard by which 
we are to be governed, and to hope that 
each school will rise to heights beyond 
this in its own peculiar way. 

Considering the breadth of the subject, 
it is safe to assume that ten months is 
the least time in which the general prin- 
ciples of this work may be mastered. In 
order to put into this short time the best 
possible, it is necessary to have among 
the instructors people of wide education, in- 
cluding library school education, and of li- 
brary experience along the lines which they 
are to teach. Because of the value of ex- 
perience, and of the changes in library 
methods, it is not an unknown thing for 
the instructors to spend weeks, or even 
months, in obtaining this valuable acqui- 
sition. 

Perhaps the most practical method of 
teaching is by application. Those schools 
which are connected with libraries, which 
can give general practice in the work of 
all departments are fortunate. I do not 
believe, however, that work in a library 
can take the place of the work in a library 
school, even if the worker has the oppor- 
tunity to serve in all departments. 

Assuming that everything may be left 
out from a library course which the re- 
quirements for entrance may be expected 
to cover, it is safe to say that all that 
branch of learning known as "library tech- 
nology" must be introduced. It is not 
necessary to enumerate these subjects. 
They are always dwelt upon fully, partly 
because it is necessary, and partly because 
they are the subjects which are definite, 
and consequently easy to teach. 

There are two other subjects which have 
heretofore received but little attention, but 
which are now coming to the front because 
of necessity. I refer to "business and 
finance," and to the "social extension" 
work of the library. Only a limited num- 
ber of library school graduates are re- 
quired to attend to that part of the ad- 
ministration which has to do with the 



778 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



finances, but for the sake of those who 
do, something of this should be taught. 
Methods of administration in the offices 
of city comptroller and city treasurer are 
so nearly the same in different cities that 
it would be possible, with one general 
plan, to open the eyes of the student to 
the methods used in any special place. 
This, with a general knowledge of business 
methods, such as those used in large busi- 
ness establishments, would do more toward 
helping the librarian to gain the confidence 
of the library board, and to feel at ease 
in the presence of this awe-inspiring body, 
than any other one thing. Any library board 
would respect a librarian who knew how 
to prepare a budget, and how to stick 
to it. 

Librarians realize the necessity of keep- 
ing the card catalog up to date, but It is 
almost as necessary to keep the letter file 
up to date, to attend to all correspondence 
promptly, and to communicate by mail 
with people who have requested books, or 
who have been unable to find just the 
material wanted. The librarian must learn 
somewhere to follow up every patron with 
the same zeal with which a real estate 
man in a western town follows possible 
purchasers. The librarian should also learn 
somewhere what represents good advertis- 
ing. The elements of these things men- 
tioned should be taught in the library 
school. Teaching possible librarians how 
best to promote harmony among the mem- 
bers of the board can scarcely be a part of 
the duty of the library school, but if the 
student is taught to understand good busi- 
ness methods, and how to promote the in- 
terests of the library as a business man 
promotes his business, he will command 
the respect of the staff and the board, and 
the rest will be easy. 

Regarding the social side during the 
last few years professional library work 
has seemed to develop from the simple 
handling of books, and to have taken over 
some of the work which used to belong 
only to the social settlement. It is probably 
through this work that we shall in the 
future issue more books than by any other 
means. The distribution of books from 



points where many people are employed 
will be a more popular method than through 
branches, because of the relatively small 
cost; and more popular than stations, be- 
cause it is more personal. Almost all li- 
braries can afford an "extension worker," 
while few libraries can afford branches. 
We have schools of philanthropy where 
methods of dealing with special classes of 
people are taught. May we not introduce 
into our library schools some course which 
will not only teach methods, but which 
will also teach something of the books 
which are the best for the use of special 
classes? It is necessary to know who are 
the writers in Bohemian, Yiddish, German, 
Swedish, and Norwegian, who correspond 
to Burnham, McCutcheon, McGrath, the 
Duchess, and others of this class. It is 
true these books are light, and may be 
read only for amusement, but their readers 
are sometimes the people who should be 
amused. There is as much reason for 
library workers to have a knowledge of 
the stories in foreign languages which are 
suitable, according to foreign standards t 
for the boys and girls of sixteen, as there 
is for a full knowledge of children's books ; 
and I believe that it should have greater 
attention than it now receives. It would 
not be out of place to introduce a course 
of lectures, and to require the reading of 
such books as Jane Addams's "Spirit of 
youth and the city streets," and with this, 
a study of such books as seem best for 
individual cases. Library schools are giv- 
ing courses which best apply to the work 
of the library commission, which is lim- 
ited largely to the work in the country 
and small town, then why not add to this 
the work of the social extension worker 
for the city having a population of 100,000 
and over. 

With the requirements placed as high 
as they are by our library schools, per- 
haps it seems unnecessary to say that the 
library school should develop the bookish 
tastes of the student. With the great mass 
of technical material to be mastered in 
one year, there is great danger that the 
books will be forgotten, but all depart- 
ments must be subordinated to this. To 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP 



779 



bring the right book to the right person 
must be the sole object of the library's 
existence. It would be far better to neglect 
some of the lesser details than to fail to 
learn to set aside a part of each day for 
a study of books. It is only by concen- 
trated effort that the librarian can learn 
the stock sufficiently well to be able to 
know what classes of books and what 
classes of people should be brought to- 
gether. This can be taught only to a lim- 
ited degree, but its importance can be 
emphasized. 

Some of our educational institutions are 
attempting to conduct library classes and 
courses without having at their command 
either the necessary equipment, or teachers 
who have specialized in library subjects. 
Schools so poorly equipped will not attract 
those who wish to attain to the highest 
in library methods. This criticism does 
not refer to apprentice classes, which are 
conducted for the purpose of teaching local 
methods, and summer library schools, 
which give their courses as the best means 
of helping the small library. 

There are some schools in existence 
which are purporting to teach in full all 
details of our profession, when in reality 
only the most elementary instruction is 
being given, frequently by means of trifling 
collections of books and other material, 
and to students wholly unprepared. The 
same condition exists in other professions, 
and we must, therefore, expect it in ours. 
Schools of this class, and also schools 
teaching only technical work, should be 
avoided by the student who works with 
the end in view of giving the best of him- 
self in the service of the public. 

As time passes no doubt our libraries 
will change in method as they have in 
the past, and the library schools wilJ find 
it necessary to change the curriculum to 
meet the needs. It is even possible that 
some lectures on the management and ar- 
rangement of museums, for instance, will 
be necessary. But this is in the future. 
It is not necessary now. The part at 
present is to introduce to the student the 
library problem of to-day, in reality not 
in theory. 



In discussing this paper, William F. Yust 
and Purd B. Wright emphasized the points 
made by Miss Tobitt concerning the ne- 
cessity for the teaching of proper business 
methods, and familiarity with the work 
of social service as conducted in large 
cities. 

In the open discussion, H. C. Wellman 
declared that if specialists were to be the 
products turned out from a library school, 
one course would be necessary, but if gen- 
eral workers, another sort was necessary, 
and that, therefore, two courses should be 
offered by the same school. He thought 
that the general course as now offered by 
library schools embodied altogether too 
much technical training, and too little 
culture; that the details of accessioning, 
cataloging, charging systems, etc., could 
be learned after leaving the schoo.l in 
whatever library one was working; that 
what a library school student really needed 
to learn in the school were the broader 
considerations of the aims of a library, 
methods of advertising a library's work, 
and other administrative problems. 

Charles H. Gould contended that the 
technical features of school training were 
of the class that could not be gained out- 
side afterwards, so easily as the general 
features ^emphasized by Mr. Wellman as 
essentials in training; that library schools 
exist for instructing in the technique which 
is peculiar to library work, and which dis- 
tinguish it from other lines of work. 

Frank K. Walter thought that the ele- 
ment of time was a most important factor 
not enough considered by those outside 
of the schools in judging the work of the 
schools; that everything could not be given 
in ten months; and that if librarians could 
agree as to what should be given and what 
cut out, perhaps the makers of library 
school courses would be glad to comply. 

The second topic of the session was 
opened by two papers on "The apprentice 
class." The first one was written by Miss 
JESSIE WELLES, Superintendent of the 
Circulation department in the Carnegie li- 
brary, Pittsburgh, and was in part as fol- 
lows: 



780 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



THE APPRENTICE CLASS IN THE 
LARGE LIBRARY 

The apprentice class conducted by the 
Carnegie library of Pittsburgh is for the 
purpose of training local people for minor 
positions in that library. Actual residence 
in the city is one of the entrance require- 
ments, and the student definitely under- 
stands that we are not training her for 
general library service, nor for responsible 
positions in our library. Such positions 
are filled by people who have had a 
broader training in library schools, or in 
fields which have fitted them for special 
work. 

Our work is so centralized that assistants 
in the Central loan division and branches 
have practically no work with the catalog 
and shelf list, except to file cards and add 
entries for added copies and replacements. 

The statistical work is also centralized, 
all totals and percentages being computed 
in the Librarian's office. 

Our aim in training apprentices is thus 
made quite definite. Two or three students 
must be prepared for occasional positions 
in the Catalog or Order departments, and 
the rest must be taught to serve people 
agreeably, intelligently, and efficiently. 

Examinations are usually held in May 
and September, publicity being given them 
through the press, and by means of notices 
posted in libraries, local colleges, and high 
schools. As we must keep within the 
range of the high school students' field 
of knowledge, they are of the usual hack- 
neyed "library entrance examination" type. 
An application form is filled out and 
presented with the examination paper, giv- 
ing the necessary personal information. A 
standing of 75 per cent is required. Appli- 
cants passing the May examination are 
given at least a month's practical work 
during the summer, as they are then much 
better prepared to take up intelligently the 
class work which begins in October. The 
September examination is a concession to 
local conditions. Normal school graduates 
who have failed to obtain schools apply 
at this time, and many of them are too 
good to lose. 



The time given to class work covers 
three days a week from October first to 
January thirty-first. In addition to this, 
750 hours' practice work are required, or 
about four months' service. The practice 
schedules of the individual student differ 
greatly, being fitted to the needs of the 
student and the convenience of the library. 
Students who are much dazed by their 
first plunge into library technique are often 
relieved of all practice work until they 
begin to "find themselves." The whole 
course including class, and practice work, 
and lectures (of all kinds) is equivalent 
to five and a half months' service on a 
forty-two hour schedule. 

There are three groups of lecture 
courses, most of which require class work: 

1. A group treating of library technique 
designed to give the student a general 
survey of the subject and special instruc- 
tion in the systems used in our library. 

2. A group planned to familiarize the 
student with the work of the Pittsburgh 
library, of other Pittsburgh institutions, 
and with local conditions and history. 

3. A group on general history and lit- 
erature, designed to acquaint the student 
with the best books on these subjects. 

The courses are given by different mem- 
bers of the staff, each one selected for 
his or her ability to deal practically with 
the subject in question. 

In Library technique the classes are as 
follows: Vertical handwriting, Order and 
accession work, Classification, Use of the 
catalog, Reference work. 

A thorough course in vertical handwrit- 
ing is given, and an elementary one in 
order and accession work. These two 
courses test and train the students in ac- 
curacy and neatness. 

The courses in "Classification" and the 
"Use of the catalog" are conducted by an 
assistant on the Central loan division staff, 
whose special work is to help the public 
in the use of the catalog, and in the choice 
of books. In each, an elementary course 
in the subject is given, followed by direct 
application of knowledge gained to work 
with the people. 

In the course on "Use of the catalog," 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP 



781 



the student is taught to use understand- 
ingly the catalogs in our library, including 
a classed catalog in book form, a dictionary 
card catalog, and, in the Technology de- 
partment, author and subject catalogs. She 
is also taught how to explain these catalogs 
to the people a delicate task, to be ap- 
proached with caution, and performed in 
humility of spirit. 

Students who, having done good work 
in the "Handwriting" and "Order work" 
courses, show aptitude for work with the 
catalog, are later entered in the full course 
in cataloging, given to the Training school 
for children's librarians, and prepared for 
work in a record department. 

The course in "Reference work" is given 
by the Librarian of one of our large 
branches, and consists in a careful study 
of the Branch collection, supplemented by 
study of important reference books to be 
found only in the Reference and technology 
departments at the Central library. 

The second group of lecture courses, on 
general information in regard to local in- 
stitutions and conditions, consists of: (a) 
talks by heads of library departments and 
divisions, describing the equipment and 
work of the library, and accompanied by 
visits of inspection; (b) talks on allied and 
other Pittsburgh institutions, civic clubs, 
charities, etc., with some study of local 
conditions and history. 

The third group of courses, on literature 
and history, consists: (a) of a course on 
the history and development of periodical 
literature, with a critical study of im- 
portant periodicals and newspapers of the 
day; (b) a course in good reading. This 
is conducted by a woman of wide reading 
and culture, and is practically a reading 
club, the members presenting papers which 
are followed by discussion. There is a 
general review of the books which consti- 
tute the great literature of the world, ac- 
companied by a rapid survey of the history 
contemporaneous with each period studied. 
This is necessarily very superficial, but 
insures at least a bowing acquaintance 
with the best books, and creates a taste 
for good reading. The time given to this 
is not counted as either class or practice 



work. The students are told that a libra- 
rian must be a reader, and that during 
their apprenticeship they are given the 
best possible guidance, so that future read- 
ing may be well directed. 

In addition to the above courses, a cer- 
tain amount of formal instruction is given 
in "practice work" to the class as a whole, 
the individual instruction being in charge 
of the head of the department or branch 
in which each student is scheduled. This 
general instruction deals with the policy 
underlying our system and rules, especially 
In relation to our treatment of people. 
Young women who have never been in 
public positions before cannot be expected 
to know by instinct the right attitude to- 
ward our readers, nor to choose always 
the most tactful method of dealing with 
them. Believing that a sympathetic knowl- 
edge and understanding of books and of 
people are the real essentials in our work, 
we emphasize these points throughout the 
course. 

Students are marked for their daily work 
in classes; and tests, or formal examina- 
tions are given at the end of each course. 

"Practice work" standings are assigned 
from the written report forms filled out 
by the head of each department or. branch 
in which a student is scheduled. Each 
student is scheduled under at least three 
different people during her apprenticeship. 

Students reaching satisfactory standings 
in class and "practice work" are, at the 
end of the course, placed on the substitute 
list from which they are appointed to posi- 
tions according to their qualifications. 

Every student thoroughly understands 
the difference between apprentice class 
training and library school training, and 
knows that she cannot reach the grade 
of first assistant in the Pittsburgh library 
without the broader training and knowl- 
edge of library affairs which a library 
school gives. She also knows that the 
breadth of education which entrance to a 
library school requires is an asset which 
we value very highly in a "trained 
librarian." 

If she show adaptability for library 
work, and a desire to study to enter a 



782 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



library school, she is given all the help 
and encouragement possible. 

The second paper on this topic was that 
of Miss ALICE SHEPARD of the City li- 
brary association, Springfield, Mass. After 
describing the course of work outlined at 
the Springfield library for the apprentice 
classes, Miss Shepard said in part: 

Every apprentice is made to feel from 
the day she enters the class that she is 
in all practical ways a part of the working 
force of the library, and that her service 
is an important and vital element in the 
whole work of the institution. Effort is 
made to inspire professional pride and high 
ideals, and a class spirit is encouraged 
that often proves helpful to individual 
members. Honest criticism of work is 
given, and our aim is to correct faults, of 
whatever nature, as soon as discovered. 
No instance has yet occurred of the neces- 
sity of dropping any member of the class 
because of extreme unfitness or "misfit- 
ness" for the work. 

The period of service required without 
pay is ten months, with an allowance of 
four weeks during this term for vacation, 
thus making the actual service cover only 
nine months. The weekly schedule in- 
cludes forty-three hours' service, as in the 
case of the regular staff, of which time 
about fifteen hours weekly is devoted to 
study and class work. 

Each pupil is given a month's instruction 
and practice under the supervision of the 
assistant in charge in each of the main 
departments of the library. 

The main advantages of the apprentice 
system with us have been proved to be: 
first, the actual addition in service of 
several persons to the working force of 
the library through the busiest months of 
the year; second, the reflex benefit upon 
the staff through their work in teaching 
the class a by-product of the system; 
third, and most important, the provision 
for an eligible list of available candidates 
for vacancies that may occur in the staff. 
This list is of double value, in that it is 
made up of persons, who not only have 
passed a carefully prepared educational 



test, but who have proved by a year of 
actual experience in our library what is 
their general working capacity, and to 
what extent they possess special fitness 
for library service. We thus are able to 
eliminate from the risks that a library 
always takes in making appointments the 
troublesome one of not having any positive 
knowledge of the individual under consid- 
eration. 

Miss MAUDE VAN BUREN, of the Man- 
kato (Minn.) public library, presented the 
first of two papers dealing with "apprentice 
classes in small libraries." She gave, in 
story form, the experience of "Cordelia 
Works" in dealing with apprentices, and 
then presented her conclusions as follows: 

That a practical knowledge of the tech- 
nical, the inspirational, the business sides 
of library work can be acquired in no 
better way than by actual experience in a 
small, well administered library; and that 
the student entering library school without 
it is woefully handicapped. 

That the student will surely learn, in 
her two or three months of long hours 
and self sacrifice whether or not she cares 
to make this her life work. That it is 
better for her to discover at this stage of 
her experience whether or not she is 
adapted to the work, than to assume the 
expense of beginning her training at a 
library school with the possibility of failure 
to adjust herself. That she also discovers 
much more readily than in class work 
what particular line of work she is best 
fitted for, in case the general work of a 
library does not appeal to her. 

That her apprentice course should be 
taken during the time of year when the 
most active work of the library is in prog- 
ress, when clubs and schools are making 
their largest demand upon the library's 
resources. 

That examinations in the small library 
seem hardly necessary. The librarian 
of the small library is in the closest pos- 
sible touch with each student, and is able 
to judge of her work much better from 
observation than by examination, as she 
herself supervises and revises. 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR LIBRARIAN SHIP 



783 



That relative values, and the distinction 
between essentials and non-essentials, are 
brought out in the work of a small library 
to a degree Impossible in the library 
school, unless the instructors have had 
broad experience in the general work of 
a library. The gravest mistake a library 
school can make is to place on Its faculty 
a graduate from school who has not had 
years of actual experience in the general 
work of a library. 

That the inexperienced graduate is likely 
to over emphasize particular phases of the 
work (picture bulletins, for example) which 
later she learns are of secondary im- 
portance; and that she who organizes an 
apprentice class Immediately upon her grad- 
uation from school, has considerable self- 
assurance, to say the least. 

That the work actually accomplished by 
the short-term apprentice hardly compen- 
sates for the time the librarian spends in 
instruction and revision. After the first 
three months, a wide-awake apprentice 
really pays for services rendered; but up 
to then, the time the librarian spends in 
teaching and in revision might be devoted 
much more profitably to the actual work 
of the library, especially as the patrons 
are better pleased with the service of one 
in whom they have confidence than with 
a raw recruit. 

That whether librarians of the small li- 
brary shall, or shall not conduct apprentice 
classes is likely to depend upon the point 
of view. If it is actual service they are 
after, they can more easily and satisfac- 
torily render that service themselves. If, 
out of sympathy for the profession, libra- 
rians are willing to help the prospective 
student to become a better student, and 
eventually a better librarian, and can con- 
scientiously devote themselves and their 
libraries to the cause for a couple of 
months, they at least have the satisfaction 
of knowing that other libraries will receive 
the benefit; and what benefits one, accrues 
to the advantage of all to some extent. 

That a year's apprentice course in a 
small library cannot possibly take the 
place of library school training; with want 
of contact with teachers and lecturers, the 



elect of the profession, it would require 
several years of practice in a small library 
to make up for one year in school; but 
just as surely as school training is de- 
sirable for librarianship, practical experi- 
ence is desirable for school training. 

Miss GRACE DELPHINE ROSE, of the 
Davenport public library, read a paper on: 

APPRENTICE CLASS IN THE MEDIUM- 
SIZED LIBRARY 

Public libraries of to-day are all eager 
to accomplish far more than their funds 
permit; and, animated by the spirit of the 
missionary book, seek to reach every cor- 
ner of their communities, to touch every 
interest, and even to register every family. 
This we call "library spirit," and encourage 
its growth. The support given, however, 
is seldom sufficient for more than a portion 
of this comprehensive service, and never 
yet has it been sufficient for adequate 
compensation for trained workers in all 
departments. 

Thus it has been necessary for the li- 
brary economist to train his assistants by 
the time-honored apprentice system. In 
the small library this is done in order to 
gain unpaid labor; and in the large library, 
to fill subordinate positions at small 
salaries. 

In the \ ery small library, there Is seldom 
prospect of a permanent position, but it is 
necessary to have an occasional substitute 
and help during busy days. The training 
thus received is usually too limited to 
prepare the apprentice for work elsewhere. 

The large library gives positions to all 
of the members of its apprentice classes, 
and the classes are conducted with its 
special needs in view. 

Between the very small library, where 
the librarian with perhaps one assistant 
constitutes the working force, and the 
great city library, whose accession num- 
bers require six figures, and whose staff 
would make a good library club, there is 
a medium-sized, small city library, with 
from fifteen to seventy-five thousand vol- 
umes. As size is only relative, this library 
seems large in comparison with the village 



784 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



book collection, and it is certainly very 
small when contrasted with the resources 
in a great city library. 

This medium-sized library is the one 
which we shall discuss in relation to the 
apprentice class. It has a different out- 
look from either the very small, or very 
large library. It is able to employ a small 
staff, some of whom may be graduates of 
library schools. The staff is large enough 
to require a certain organization, to have 
the work divided into departments, and to 
hold the heads of these departments re- 
sponsible for results. If this library con- 
ducts an apprentice class regularly, it is un- 
able to supply all of the members with posi- 
tions; and thus they may become appli- 
cants for positions elsewhere. 

Is it wise or necessary for the medium- 
sized library to train workers for the gen- 
eral field? Does the amount of unpaid 
labor received compensate for the time of 
librarian or trained assistant given in in- 
struction and supervision? Is the standard 
of education, usually a high school course, 
sufficiently high for the best interests of 
the individual library, or of the library 
profession at large? 

Let us briefly consider these three ques- 
tions from the viewpoint of the large 
small library. 

First, Is it wise or necessary to train 
workers for the general field? Much may 
be said in favor of the man who has 
learned his profession or trade from the 
bottom up; and reams might be written 
on the value of practical, versus scholastic 
training. There are distinguished exam- 
ples in every profession of those who are 
broader than any school and wiser than 
any system. The exceptional person will 
always succeed, but we may not have the 
foresight to select and advance the right 
ones. The practical-experience path to the 
top is also a much longer and harder trail 
than the well-graded roadway that has 
been laid out by the schools. Each outlook 
must be gained step by step, and often 
years pass before the broad and compre- 
hensive view of the whole field is reached. 

There are opportunities in libraries of 
this size for assistants to work into ex- 



ecutive positions; and each librarian, em- 
ploying one of his own apprentices, or one 
from another library, should appreciate his 
responsibility in training his successors. 
He should urge such assistants to obtain 
the best and broadest preparation possible 
perhaps attend a regular library school 
and should make then realize that they 
will have to meet the problems of the 
future, if they seem to think that to-day's 
problems have been satisfactorily solved. 

There is also no doubt that these home- 
trained workers are keeping the salaries 
of all library assistants below the figures 
which would commend librarianship to 
more educated people. As prices increase, 
salaries advance slightly; but, in order to 
raise them to the scale where they should 
be, in view of the quality of service de- 
manded, every librarian is in duty bound 
to raise the requirements for admission to 
the apprentice class, and to urge assistants 
to further study and training. 

When only the person of educated mind 
and special personal qualifications will 
think it possible to enter library work, 
and the librarian has a recognized position 
in the professional world, then all workers 
will be paid according to service and re- 
sponsibility. Until this Utopian period is 
reached, it is perhaps wise to train only 
such assistants as are needed for the work 
of each library, and even to consider care- 
fully whether that may not be better done 
by people with more technical training. 

This brings us to the second question: 
Does the amount of unpaid labor received 
compensate libraries for the time of li- 
brarian or trained assistant given to in- 
struction and supervision? 

The apprentice class in our medium-sized 
library consists of from one to three mem- 
bers. They receive regular class instruc- 
tion five days a week for three or four 
months, and the remainder of the term is 
filled with practical work. The instruction 
covers a thorough drill in the decimal 
classification, work of the circulating de- 
partment, general reference books, and 
simple cataloging. Lists of required read- 
ing are given in both adult and children's 
books. In this library, the departments 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING FOR LIBRARIANSHIP 



785 



are closely related, and the assistants 
must be able to interchange at times, and 
often regularly relieve each other for meal- 
hours and half-holidays. The cataloger 
may supply for the reference librarian, and 
the latter may at times be found at the 
circulating desk; and either of them is 
able to take charge of the children's room 
in an emergency. The smaller the staff, 
the more general the character of the 
work; and, while each member has definite 
duties, there are often no understudies 
except the apprentices. Thus we see that 
the training must be thorough, and may 
take a great deal of time that could be 
used to advantage in other lines. 

It has been our experience that the 
amount of help given by apprentices just 
out of high school does not compensate 
for the time their instruction requires; 
while several apprentices who were college 
graduates were reliable assistants long be- 
fore their term was over. This question, 
however, must be left for each to answer 
according to individual needs and condi- 
tions, and we win take up the third ques- 
tion which has been touched upon in con- 
sidering both of the others. 

Is the standard of education, usually a 
high school course, sufficiently high for 
the best interests of the individual library, 
or of the library profession at large? 

Librarianship is one of the professions 
or occupations that requires both special 
training and general education. Mr. Crun- 
den once said that "the training of all 
librarians should begin with a liberal edu- 
cation. That is a cardinal doctrine." It 
is the practical, sometimes humdrum, 
actual work of the library that must test 
the value of the general education, but we 
all know how little time there is for study 
or culture after we have begun our work. 
It is, therefore, necessary that the general 
education be gained first. 

The love of reading which often attracts 
to the library, seldom means scholarship 
or literary taste, and these should be 
sought in our apprentices. The average 
high school graduate is not ready for gen- 
eral library work after taking the ap- 
prentice course. This is especially true 



in the medium-sized library, for patrons do 
not distinguish between grades of service, 
and accept any one who is temporarily at 
the desk as representing the library, and 
form their opinion of its value from the 
character of the assistance received. 

In the small city, where the high school 
student may be well known, further study 
and a few more years are also desirable 
that she may be given the respect and 
confidence due her position. 

If we raise the standard of education, 
we shall lose some of the eager enthusiasm 
of youth, but in return gain maturity of 
character, a virtue that stands high in 
Miss Hitchler's list. We shall also make 
the public library a stronger force in each 
community. 

In the discussion of this paper, by 
Arthur L. Bailey, he read a sketch pre- 
pared by JOHN GRANT MOULTON, of the 
Haverhill (Mass.) public library, in which 
conclusions were drawn by Mr. Moulton 
as follows: 

As to an apprentice class without pay, 
I cannot speak from actual experience, but 
I should not want one. Such service would 
be of a low grade, and worth little to a 
library. 

As to formal training classes for the 
general field, they do not seem within the 
province of any public library, either large 
or small. The public funds are appro- 
priated for local library service, an4 not 
for running a school. Better training can 
be obtained at the regular library schools; 
higher standards can be maintained, and 
better workers can be trained who can 
command higher salaries. If the multipli- 
cation of library schools leads to lower 
standards in efficiency and salaries, a 
further multiplication, through training 
classes in libraries, of the number of li- 
brary workers who are looking for situa- 
tions lowers still more the standard of 
salaries. Better reduce the number of 
schools than increase the number of train- 
ing classes, and thereby increase the num- 
ber of library workers who are doomed to 
disappointment in finding positions with 
living salaries. Each year I have applica- 



786 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



tions for situations from people who have 
attended training classes in libraries, for 
whom there seems a small chance of get- 
ting a decent situation. The salaries they 
have demanded have usually been out of 
proportion to what we could pay here, and 
the training they had received I know 
would not come up to our standards. 

If training classes are needed in large 
libraries, let them limit their classes to 
those whom they can employ at respectable 
salaries. 

Let the medium-sized and small libraries 
train only those assistants they actually 
need, by whatever method is cheapest and 
best for that particular library. 

Leave training for the general field to 
the accredited library schools. 

By a unanimous vote, officers for the 
ensuing year were elected as follows: 
Chairman, Phineas L. Windsor, University 
of Illinois library school; Secretary, Miss 
Alice S. Tyler, Iowa summer library 
school. 

The following By-laws were adopted: 

Name. This section shall be called the 
Section on professional training. 

Object. Its object shall be the discussion 
of questions pertaining to preparation and 
qualification for librarianship. 

Membership. There shall be two kinds 



of membership, active and associate. The 
following classes are eligible for active 
membership, including participation in the 
business of the section: 1) All persons 
belonging to the faculties of library 
schools, or lecturers for regular courses 
of three or more lectures, in such schools; 
2) Instructors giving three or more lec- 
tures in regular training classes. 

All members of the A. L. A. interested 
in the object of the Section are eligible 
for associate membership, which admits to 
the meetings and to discussions but not 
to participation in the business of the 
Section. 

A register shall be kept of each class 
of members. 

Officers. The officers of the Section shall 
be a chairman, a vice-chairman, and a 
secretary, who shall be chosen from the 
active membership, and who shall serve 
for one year. 

Committees. There shall be two stand- 
ing committees, one on membership, and 
one on program; and the officers, with 
the chairmen of these committees, shall 
constitute the Executive committee. 

The membership and program commit- 
tees shall each consist of three persons 
appointed by the Chair, one for one year, 
one for two years, and one for three years ; 
one member thereafter retiring and being 
replaced at the end of each year. 

Meetings. The Section shall meet at the 
time and place of the Annual conference 
of the A. L. A., and may hold executive 
sessions at such other time and place as 
the Executive committee may appoint. 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES ROUND TABLE 



FIRST SESSION 
Saturday, July 2, 2:30 P. M. 

The first session was called to order 
Saturday, July 2, at 2:30 p. M. by the 
Chairman, James I. Wyer, Jr., Director of 
the New York state library. In the ab- 
sence of Dr. A. C. True, Director of the 
Office of experiment stations, U. S. Depart- 
ment of agriculture, who was to have de- 
livered the first paper on the program, 
Mr. WYER gave a brief opening address on 

AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES 

A notable feature of the last ten or fif- 
teen years in American library develop- 



ment is the growth of what have come to 
be called "special libraries." These are 
libraries on one subject engineering li- 
braries, legislative reference libraries, 
libraries of professional schools, collec- 
tions of books used in scientific labora- 
tories, in investment brokerage houses, in 
large factories, and in a great variety of 
industrial enterprises. Another phase of 
this specialization is the growth and em- 
phasis, within great libraries, of special 
departments, such as law, medicine, theol- 
ogy. This is especially the case with 
large reference libraries or with university 
libraries in which the special library has 
grown up in connection with the develop- 
ment of a separate school or college. 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES ROUND TABLE 



787 



We are met to-day to discuss some of the 
problems peculiar to agricultural libraries. 
Of these there are several distinct types 
which have grown with the growth of 
agricultural research, education, and popu- 
larization in this country: 

1 Those in colleges of agriculture. 
These may be either (a) Experiment sta- 
tion libraries for research use by members 
of the staff of one of the United States or 
State experiment stations, or of a private 
experiment farm such as those at Rotham- 
sted or Biltmore. This type of library 
does not contemplate use by undergrad- 
uate students, and exists when the station 
is not in close connection with a college of 
agriculture, 

(b) General libraries serving at once 
the student body of an agricultural college, 
its faculty, and the research staff of an 
experiment station either immediately con- 
nected with the college or in its vicinity. 

2 Government agricultural libraries. 
Typified above all by the library of the 
Department of agriculture at Washington, 
with its many branch or subordinate li- 
braries in such Bureaus as Entomology, 
Chemistry, and others. Considerable agri- 
cultural collections are growing up in 
many of the state departments of agri- 
culture. These are usually unorganized, 
miscellaneous collections of books, most 
of them received in exchange for the pub- 
lications of the state department, and 
many of them remotely related to agri- 
culture. There will be a great growth 
within the next ten or twenty years in the 
classification, arrangement, weeding out, 
and utilization of these libraries in the 
state departments. 

3 The agricultural collection or depart- 
ment in large scientific and technical ref- 
erence libraries. While these in a way 
are not separate libraries, they may be 
considered legitimate for our purpose. 
They are very rigidly special; they are not 
always homogeneous, because of the limi- 
tations of a system of library classification 
as applied to an entire library. They are 
composed of agricultural books In a much 
stricter sense than a library which is en- 
tirely devoted to agriculture, and whose 



classification groups around agriculture all 
of the very many related subjects and 
sciences. 

All of these libraries are concerned 
solely with the literature of agriculture in 
the broadest sense, for agriculture has a 
great and a growing literature a refer- 
ence literature, a periodical literature, an 
official literature, even a belles lettres 
(Warner's "My summer in a garden"), 
and, as fiction, the numerous books with 
titles like "$10,000 a year on the farm." 

Speaking strictly and within narrow 
limits, we should perhaps omit considera- 
tion in such a program or meeting as this 
of the slender agricultural departments in 
city or village public libraries. The rural 
public library likewise scarcely comes 
within our field. In them, while the litera- 
ture of agriculture is an incident, still it 
is present, and, as a social question, it is 
quite proper that the place of agricultural 
literature in rural communities and the 
methods of disseminating it should be dis- 
cussed here. 

It is interesting to note how the scope 
of a special library has broadened and 
constantly tends to broaden. In no subject 
is this more true than in agriculture. 
Chemistry, physics, economics, zoology, 
veterinary science, transportation, and a 
host of other miscellaneous topics, all have 
distinct agricultural relations; and the 
agricultural library, no matter how re- 
stricted may have been its original plan, 
is bound to expand in scope to include a 
large collection of literature on related 
subjects. 

This raises at once the question of the 
classification of such a library, and sug- 
gests the general observation that the 
classification of any special library should 
be one which should place in the center 
of the scheme and magnify to any extent 
the particular subject of the library, and 
which should group round this subject, in- 
timately connected with its different 
branches by arrangement or notation, all 
the literature of the various auxiliary sub- 
jects. 

The subject "Popularizing agricultural 
literature," was represented on the pro- 



788 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



gram by two papers. The first, by Charles 
B. Galbreath, Librarian, Ohio state library, 
was read at the second session, as Mr. 
Galbreath was unable to be present at 
the first session, and was entitled: 

TRAVELING LIBRARIES FOR 

FARMERS 

The second paper on the general subject 
was by Miss LUTIE E. STEARNS, Chief, 
Traveling library department, Wisconsin 
free library commission, and was entitled: 

AGRICULTURAL COLLECTIONS IN 
PUBLIC LIBRARIES 

The popular interest in agricultural lit- 
erature may be said to be a growth of the 
last twenty years, the first great impetus 
being given by the United States govern- 
ment through the raising of the Depart- 
ment of agriculture in 1889 to an Executive 
department, with its head a member 6f 
the Cabinet. 

The further recognition of farm life 
through the appointment by President 
Roosevelt of the Commission on country 
life and the tour of the country by the 
Commission thus appointed, aroused an 
interest which is still being felt, notwith- 
standing the fact that the Commission it- 
self was killed by some Tawney opposition. 

The replies to a circular of inquiry con- 
cerning agricultural collections in public 
libraries recently sent to libraries north, 
south, east, and west, give abundant proof 
of the increasing popular interest in the 
subject. 

Indeed, so keen has the interest become 
in popular books, it is reported that such 
works as St. Maur's "Self-supporting 
home," and "The Earth's bounty," origin- 
ally published and read by hundreds of 
thousands of readers in "Good housekeep- 
ing," together with Bolton Hall's "A little 
land and a living," and "Three acres and 
liberty," have to be constantly duplicated 
and rebound. Other books, such as Butter- 
field's "Chapters in rural progress," Card's 
"Farm management," Meline's "Return to 
the land," Morris's "Ten acres enough," 
Masse's "Practical farming," Powell's 



"Country home," Roberts' "Farmstead," 
and Streeter's "Fat of the land," have come 
to be almost as popular as novels. Bailey's 
"Cyclopedia of agriculture," the most 
scholarly and comprehensive work of that 
nature yet published, finds many inter- 
ested readers, particularly the fourth vol- 
ume of the work, which deals with farm 
life and its possible uplift. 

In the circulation of the books given, it 
should be noted, however, that the readers 
of these books are almost wholly city 
folks. It is usually only the farmer who 
has graduated from some agricultural col- 
lege, or taken a university course in farm- 
ing, and who does it on scientific princi- 
ples, who is interested in books on the 
subject. The result of the symposium on 
the subject shows that the most popular 
subject of all is poultry raising. Many li- 
braries make a practice of advertising their 
books on farming. 

The library at Portland, Ore., has gone 
so far as to publish a splendid little manual 
of 28 pages which is issued free of charge, 
containing a list of books on agriculture. 
The books on agriculture are used as much 
as, and even more than, the engineering 
collection. 

Bloomington, 111., reports that "early in 
the spring, so early that the farmer has 
two months before he can get out into the 
country, we begin to advertise our books on 
farming." 

The Buffalo public library has books on 
agriculture in the stacks, open shelf room, 
and sends them to the branches. The 
library has taken the two latest and best 
bibliographies which could be found of 
some 60 or 70 books each, and has pur- 
chased copies in duplicate of all the books. 

Des Moines, Iowa, uses the agricultural 
bulletins and reports constantly, and the 
collection of material on agricultural sub- 
jects is in great demand. The library keeps 
the farmers' bulletins, experiment station 
bulletins, and those of the experiment sta- 
tion record on file where they are acces- 
sible until a sufficient number have ac- 
cumulated to form a volume, when they 
are bound and indexed by subject on cards. 
The government index to the farmers' 
bulletins is found a convenient tool in the 
library. 

The Detroit, Mich., library reports that 
there are no official publications of any 
sort used to anything like the extent to 
which the agricultural bulletins are used. 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES ROUND TABLE 



789 



Eau Claire, Wis., reports that it has 
found that "the list of publications of the 
U. S. agricultural department, 1862-1902, 
with analytical index, is a very useful 
book," and is anxious that the Department 
should be persuaded to keep it up to date, 
as it does away with the need of cataloging 
the multitudinous pamphlets. 

Janesville, Wis., reports that it keeps 
and uses the farmers' bulletins most ex- 
tensively, having them bound on tapes with 
stiff covers, 25 bulletins to a volume, which 
are pocketed and issued as books. It also 
makes great use of the University of Wis- 
consin experiment station reports. 

Oconto, Wis., finds that great use is 
made of the agricultural collection by the 
county teachers who are required to teach 
the first principles of agriculture; part of 
the examination for teachers' certificates 
consisting of questions on agricultural sub- 
jects. 

Galveston, Texas, makes great use of 
books on garden fruits and domestic ani- 
mals, and reports the Bulletins of the 
United States Department of agriculture 
of great value. 

Indianapolis, Ind., secures through the 
local Congressman, duplicates of farm bul- 
letins when special ones that prove de- 
sirable are issued. Miss Browning writes, 
"If we have a good bulletin on poultry- 
raising, we get duplicates, and put each 
in a Gaylord pamphlet cover, and circu- 
late them. When other bulletins are re- 
ceived on the same subject, such as the 
building of poultry houses, or relative 
value of breeds of chickens, we bind them 
together, thus making a first rate poultry 
book. Indianapolis is a city of spacious 
grounds, with beautiful flower gardens. 
The children are taught gardening in 
the schools, while a vacant lot society 
borrows vacant ground that is not to be 
built upon during the current year, has the 
heavy plowing done, gives the seed, and 
starts the idle and unemployed making 
gardens. All this keeps the books in the 
library in demand all the time." 

Jacksonville, Fla., tries to secure every- 
thing possible relating to agricultural 
conditions in the South and especially in 
Florida. The bulletins of the Florida agri- 
cultural experiment station find use, as do 
some of the farmers' bulletins from Wash- 
ington, and the "Yearbooks" of the Depart- 
ment of agriculture, but most of the litera- 
ture is not suited to local conditions. 

Newark, N. J., has practically all of the 
reports, bulletins, and circulars issued by 
the United States government. In the 
springtime flower and seed circulars are 
secured in quantities, and distributed free 
from the tables. For Arbor Day, the library 
secured many copies of the bulletin re- 



lating to trees, their growth and protec- 
tion. These were distributed to teachers 
through the Board of education, and stu- 
dents were invited to the library for 
copies of the books about trees. 

Oklahoma City has the United States 
publications, together with the Oklahoma 
State agricultural department biennial re- 
ports, which are greatly used, as is every- 
thing about Oklahoma's crops and soils in 
encyclopedias, atlases, local newspapers, 
and almanacs. 

Omaha, Neb., reports that it has many 
agricultural publications but that although 
it is in a farming district, and the city 
almost entirely maintained by farmers, yet 
the farmers are not supplied with litera- 
ture, as the distance is too great to do 
so without some system of traveling li- 
braries. Many of the farmers receive the 
agricultural reports directly from the gov- 
ernment. 

The Philadelphia free library reports 
that next to the Patent office "Gazette," the 
agricultural reports are used more than 
any other. 

Topeka, Kan., states that the state li- 
brary, which is a depository, furnishes all 
the bulletins and agricultural reports that 
are needed by the community. 

The foregoing papers provoked much 
interesting discussion on farmers' reading, 
participated in especially by those con- 
nected with state library commissions. 

The next paper on the program was by 
CLEMENT W. ANDREWS, Librarian, The 
John Crerar library, on 



AGRICULTURAL LITERATURE IN A 
REFERENCE LIBRARY 

When the plan for the organization of 
The John Crerar library was drawn up, 
in 1895, the subject of agriculture was 
intentionally omitted from the list of sub- 
jects to be covered, and it was stated that 
the Directors would await the expression 
of a demand before attempting to supply 
it. Contrary to their expectations the 
demand was immediate, persistent, and 
urgent. It did not come from the farmers; 
the Directors were quite right in supposing 
that the farmers who visit Chicago would 
have other things to do. It did come, 
however, from the general public as well 
as from certain special classes of readers. 

Typical cases are as follows: the city 



790 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



man who wishes to get "back to the soil"; 
the amateur who wants general books on 
kitchen gardening, poultry raising, and 
once wanted books on the Belgian hare; 
the city tree owner who wants informa- 
tion on the extermination of tree pests; 
and the advertisement writers for devel- 
opment companies, who want material such 
as railroad folders, commercial club publi- 
cations, and some state publications. 

Other classes of readers make demands 
less readily met: the practical gardener 
wants more extended reading and on a 
much larger range of special topics; in- 
deed sometimes he or she wants informa- 
tion that has not yet been made accessible 
in print, as was the case until quite re- 
cently in regard to raising frogs for the 
market. The prospective investor wants 
to know whether the statements of agents 
are correct in regard to a commercial 
venture, or is looking for a home, and 
wants especially the official literature on 
climate, resources, special industries, and 
new methods. Absentee landlords, manu- 
facturers, and investors, ask for informa- 
tion in regard to farm machinery, farm 
buildings, etc. The growing class of teach- 
ers of agriculture needs not only the works 
on the teaching of agriculture as a science, 
but general and special treatises. 

Finally two classes of readers require, 
or should require, a most extensive col- 
lection of scientific and technical material 
in all languages and on all branches of 
agriculture and related topics. One of these 
is the scientific investigator, and the other 
the writer for agricultural periodicals. 
According to the "American newspaper 
annual" 52 agricultural papers are pub- 
lished in Chicago, while New York has 30. 

To meet these demands the library has 
accumulated over six thousand volumes 
classed between 630 and 639 in the Deci- 
mal classification. How much related ma- 
terial is classed elsewhere cannot be 
stated. This collection contains nearly 
everything of importance published since 
1896, and some of the older material. The 
annual increment is now some 600 volumes 
at a cost of nearly $700 for books, <and $120 
for the 80 periodicals currently received. 



While the amounts which different li- 
braries can spend profitably on the sub- 
ject will vary very greatly, yet perhaps 
this review of the experience of one li- 
brary may be of service, to use an appro- 
priate metaphor, in determining the ex- 
tent of the field and the results which may 
be expected from its cultivation. 

The last paper of the first session was 
presented by Miss ANNA M. SMITH, Li- 
brarian, Department of agriculture, Uni- 
versity of Minnesota, the subject being: 

THE INSTRUCTION OF STUDENTS IN 

THE USE OF AGRICULTURAL AND 

SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE 

In view of the fact that so many of the 
better class of normal schools of the coun- 
try have inserted in their curricula courses 
for the instruction of students in the use 
and management of libraries, the more 
general phases of the question need little 
discussion at this time. 

The College of Agriculture of the Uni- 
versity of Minnesota now offers a course 
of instruction in the use of the library, 
which course is required in the sophomore 
year in the Department of home economics, 
and is given as a junior elective in the 
Department of agriculture and forestry. 
This course includes three lectures and 
three laboratory periods each week for 
eighteen weeks. The subjects discussed 
are: 

1 History of libraries. 

2 Relation between the library and the 
schools. 

3 The parts of a book. 

4 Classification and Arrangement of 
books. 

5 The Catalog. 

6 The making of indexes. 

7 Magazine indexes, including biblio- 
graphies and reference work. 

8 Reference books, including biblio- 
graphies and reference work. 

9 United States, state and city publi- 
cations, including bibliographies and ref- 
erence work. 

10 General bibliographies of subjects 
pertaining to home economics. 

11 Book selection and book buying. 

12 Study of books etc. on Home eco- 
nomics. 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES ROUND TABLE 



791 



13 Scope and methods of library ad- 
ministration for school libraries. 

An interesting discussion followed as to 
courses in the use of the library for agri- 
cultural students in various colleges, in- 
cluding the University of Illinois, Agricul- 
tural college of Utah, Ohio State university, 
and Massachusetts agricultural college. 

Adjourned until Monday, July 4, 9:30 
A. M. 

SECOND SESSION 

Monday, July 4, 1910, 9:30 A. M. 
The first paper read at the second 
session was by C. B. Galbreath on "Travel- 
ing libraries for farmers," as stated before. 
This was followed by a paper by CHARLES 
R. GREEN, Librarian, Massachusetts agri- 
cultural college on 

THE RELATION OF THE EXPERIMENT 

STATION LIBRARY TO THE 

COLLEGE LIBRARY 

In discussing the relationship of the 
experiment station library to the college 
library, it is my idea that we must go 
back to the fundamental basis upon which 
agricultural colleges were established, 
namely: first, teaching agriculture and the 
mechanic arts to the students assembled at 
the college; second, to carry out various 
lines of investigation work at the experi- 
ment station; and third, to teach agricul- 
ture in every other legitimate manner 
wherever opportunity affords, such as short 
courses during the summer and winter, 
farmers' institutes, special railroad trains, 
correspondence courses and in any other 
manner which would come under the 
generally accepted term of extension work. 
So far as I have been able to learn, the 
libraries of the agricultural colleges have 
not been noted for their activity in any 
one of these phases of work. At the 
present time, however, they are coming to 
a realization of their opportunities along 
the first or most important line, namely: 
that of teaching agriculture to students at 
the colleges. As far as being of service in 
extension work, the libraries of the agri- 
cultural colleges have been of little or of 



no service, and concerning the relation of 
the college library to the experiment sta- 
tion work I am unable to find that there 
has ever existed any relation at all, so that 
when considering this subject it seems 
that I am treading on forbidden, or at 
least unbidden, ground. 

I am rather inclinded to think that a 
great many of the experiment station li- 
braries have been built up, or rather have 
come into existence, under a rather "hit 
or miss" fashion, and just because of this 
lack of organization, are libraries of the 
agricultural colleges able to find an op- 
portunity to render valuable service. I 
think I am safe in saying that in the ma- 
jority of cases the experiment station li- 
braries are not libraries at all; rather that 
they are merely small, haphazard collec- 
tions of books which have accumulated in 
the headquarters building, quite as much 
through gift as through premeditated pur- 
chase, and in consequence we find that a 
great many of the experiment stations 
throughout the country are in possession 
of nothing worthy of the name of a library, 
or which can be considered to be of much 
value as a vital working force in the work 
of the experiment station. 

Now no matter what conclusion we may 
reach in this discussion, we must strive 
for a better spirit of mutual helpfulness 
and co-operation in all the persons con- 
cerned. This is fundamental; it applies 
equally well to every phase of college work, 
and is absolutely essential in whichever 
course we decide to pursue. There has 
always been a sense of remoteness when 
considering the experiment station. It fre- 
quently exists at some distant place on the 
campus, or in the town or state. This may 
account for its being left severely alone 
aloof from the regular ordinary college ac- 
tivities, but this idea must give way to one 
of closer relationship. 

Having in mind, then, our desire to be 
of the greatest assistance to the experi- 
ment station people in this library matter, 
I am inclined to think that we can be of 
the greatest service only when we con- 
sider the experiment station as one of the 
departments of the college, just as much 



792 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



as we consider the botany department, or 
the department of veterinary medicine in- 
tegral parts of the entire institution. 
Granting this departmental relationship, 
and remembering the supervision exer- 
cised by the college Board of trustees, 
college president, and college treasurer, it 
seems only fair to assume that the college 
librarian should exercise that same au- 
thority over all the books bought by or for 
the experiment station proper. Working 
under this scheme, all the books in the 
experiment station department should be 
considered as belonging to the main college 
library, and under the supervision of the 
college librarian. He should be considered 
the custodian the caretaker, the careful 
keeper, of them all. All books should be 
purchased by the college librarian upon 
request from the proper experiment sta- 
tion officer. These books, as they are de- 
livered at the college library, would go 
through the various processes similar to 
those of any other book coming to the 
library. They would be properly acces- 
sioned, classified, shelf listed, and cata- 
loged, and then assigned to their particular 
-office. If necessary, duplicate cards could 
be made, so that in addition to the main 
library catalog, a card catalog could be 
kept either at the department headquarters, 
or in the office of the particular depart- 
ment. But on cards, in the main library 
catalog, there should be added sufficient 
information to designate the present abid- 
ing place of those volumes which have 
been 'assigned to the experiment station, 
or any other department, as the case may 
be. This process, it seems to me, would 
facilitate matters immensely in every re- 
spect; books could be bought cheaper, ac- 
counts could be kept easier, and every 
transaction and operation could be carried 
on in the best possible form; and then, too, 
every user of the catalog could see at a 
glance whether the book he is anxious to 
secure is in the main college library, or 
in some department library. In discussing 
this matter with some people I have heard 
one objection only, and that is the lack 
of suitable headquarters where a depart- 
ment library could be established and be 



of equal assistance to all the working de- 
partments in the experiment station. This 
is really not an objection worth consider- 
ing, because the experiment station botan- 
ist, for instance, can have his assignment 
of books, and in the majority of cases they 
would be in or near the working library 
which he has at his command as botanist 
of the regular college staff. It would be 
the same way with the chemist, or the en- 
tomologist. As long as the books belong 
to the college, and as long as the proper 
designation has been made on the proper 
library cards, books can go wherever they 
may be of the most service. In connection 
with this point about properly designating 
the abiding place of these particular 
volumes, I think it would also be a wise 
provision to make some particular desig- 
nation in every volume so removed from 
the main college library. Either a particu- 
lar bookplate could be used, or perhaps a 
rubber stamp could be used in addition to 
the regular college library bookplate. 

In summing up this matter, it seems to 
me that we cannot help returning to the 
old and much-discussed question of de- 
partment libraries, and here again we must 
take our stand according to our particular 
opinions, but I do not hesitate to think 
that this department library idea must 
prevail in the experiment station, just as 
much as it does and will prevail in every 
other live and active department. The 
experiment station people cannot get along 
without their books books of research 
and reference. It is simply a question of 
ministering to them along the best and 
most approved lines; and so we must re- 
turn again to the original proposition. 
There must prevail a spirit of interde- 
pendence, mutual helpfulness, and co-op- 
eration which is essential without question 
in the working of the library with every 
other department of the college. 

While this question of books has b&come 
the most important one in considering the 
relation of the experiment station library 
to the main college library, there is an- 
other phase of the situation which must 
not escape attention. In particular, J 
wish to speak of the large number of re- 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES ROUND TABLE 



793 



ports iand pamphlets, and the periodical 
literature which the experiment station 
receives in enormous quantities in ex- 
change for the bulletins and reports which 
it sends broadcast throughout the country. 
This material sometimes receives atten- 
tion at the hands of some clerk in the 
headquarters building, but I do not be- 
lieve that it ever receives all the consid- 
eration which it deserves. Some of the 
experiment stations maintain a reading 
room where a good deal of this material is 
either shelved, or piled upon the table for 
the inspection of the station workers as 
they happen to frequent that building. 
Quite often this material is free to any 
of the station staff who may care to ap- 
propriate it, all of which is a very hap- 
hazard and a very unbusinesslike way of 
doing things. I think the experiment sta- 
tion people should see to it that printed 
matter sent to them in exchange for bulle- 
tins and reports is mailed direct to the col- 
lege library. In that way, a uniform check 
list could be maintained, a check list which 
would show everything received by the li- 
brary, either by gift or purchase; and also 
in this way would the librarian be able to 
keep his files more complete. 

In return for all of this miscellaneous ma- 
terial from the experiment station the col- 
lege library should keep on file in the 
experiment station such periodical litera- 
ture as is deemed essential by the experi- 
ment station workers. The experiment sta- 
tion library would then consist of a goodly 
selection of books and periodicals adapted 
to the special needs of its particular line 
or lines of work. 

I feel quite sure that in working along 
some such lines as those suggested above 
will we approach nearer to our ideal of 
service. 

The next paper was by W. P. CUTTER, 
Librarian, Forbes Library, on 

THE CLASSIFICATION OF AN AGRI- 
CULTURAL LIBRARY 

What is an (agricultural library? I take 
it to be, in the broadest sense, such a 
library as will furnish information on 



every subject which is of interest to the 
student of agriculture. But the student of 
agriculture is the student of human life, 
and in treating of literature which he may 
use, I know of few branches of human 
knowledge that may not in some measure 
be included. 

An agricultural library is far from being 
merely a library of agriculture; a classi- 
fication made for such a library would in- 
clude many more subjects than could by 
any stretch of the imagination be con- 
nected closely with agriculture. But each 
of these must touch the life of the live 
farmer more or less, and therefore must be 
included. Transportation, sociology, sta- 
tistics, political economy, natural history, 
medicine, architecture, engineering, domes- 
tic economy, politics all interest the 
farmer to-day. The farmer will rarely read 
a library made up entirely of agricultural 
books. 

As for the subject of agriculture itself, 
there is slight choice. The two existing 
American classifications leave little to 
choose. The "Expansive" uses a classi- 
fication made by me. The new edition of 
the "Decimal" is, I understand, to use 
one based on mine, but expanded and 
adapted by Mr. J. I. Wyer. There is, in the 
main, little difference between them. The 
notation, differing in the "Expansive" and 
the "Decimal," renders some difference 
in arrangement necessary. 

The difference in the natural sciences 
and natural history is much greater. The 
"Expansive" classification is far more de- 
tailed, and is more modern in its nomencla- 
ture. This is to be expected, since it is of 
much more recent preparation. In the 
domain of non-agricultural technology, I 
speak with more diffidence, for two rea- 
sons. In the first place, the work is not 
complete. In the second place, it happens 
to be my own work. I have, naturally, 
tried to make it better, and I hope it is. 
I should expect the new "Decimal" to be 
better than mine, were it not for the 
avowed disinclination to make radical 
changes. The "Decimal classification" has 
the great advantage that its index is 
finished. 



794 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



That is as far as I care to go in my 
characterization of the two classifications, 
except that I naturally believe the "Ex- 
pansive" to be the more scholarly and 
more logical, and to have the more usable 
notation. 

A reference library needs a closer classi- 
fication than one of more popular use; 
expecially if it is to have open access. 
If it is to have closed shelves, it needs 
classification only as a convenience to the 
librarian and assistants, and this may be 
broader. Of course, in either case, the 
catalog should be one containing, not 
necessarily great detail of collation, but 
surely great detail in subject work, espec- 
ially subject analyticals. Above all, it 
needs assistants of college education, with 
a good knowledge of languages, and a 
knowledge of recent agricultural develop- 
ment. 

There are other systems than those I 
have mentioned, but few which have any 
general use. The classification of Mr. J. 
Duff Brown is singularly deficient in many 
respects. The classification of the Depart- 
ment of agriculture is not logical, being 
made years ago, and subdivided from time 
to time as occasion arises. The French 
adaptation of the "Decimal" to agriculture, 
published by M. Vermorel, is unnecessarily 
detailed, and is hysterical in its notation. 
Mr. G. E. Morton's adaptation of the 
"Decimal," published in the 16th annual 
report of the Wyoming Agricultural ex- 
periment station and designed as a system 
of filing clippings, is no improvement on 
Mr. Wyer's scheme. 

References 

Brown, James D. Manual of library 
classification and arrangement. Lon- 
don, 1898. 

Cutter, C. A. Expansive classification. 
Northampton, Mass. 

Cutter, W. P. Suggested classification of 
agriculture. (In U. S. Department of 
agriculture, Office of experiment sta- 
tions, Bulletin No. 65, 1899, pp. 50-54.) 

Morton, G. E. A classification of agricul- 
tural literature. (In Wyoming Agricul- 
tural experiment station, 16th Annual 
report. Laramie, 1906.) 

U. S. Department of agriculture library. 
Scheme of classification, Washington, 
1906. 



Vermorel, U. Manuel du repertoire biblio- 
graphique des sciences agricoles, 6tabli 
d'aprfis la classification d6cimale. 
Bruxelles, 1900. 

Wyer, J. I. Jr. A classification of the liter- 
ature of agriculture enlarged from 
the Decimal classification of Melvil 
Dewey. (In Nebraska Agricultural ex- 
periment station, 13th Annual report. 
Lincoln, 1900, pp. 91-121.) 
Miss E. L. Ogden, Librarian of the Office 
of experiment stations, U. S. Department 
of agriculture, then read a paper entitled 
"Guides to recent agricultural literature," 
which is to be published later in the form 
of an annotated list. As a contribution, to 
the subject of indexing agricultural litera- 
ture, Mr. C. H. Hastings, Chief of the Card 
section, Library of Congress, described the 
various printed catalog and index cards 
prepared by the Library of Congress, and 
the Library of the U. S. Department of ag- 
riculture, and called attention to the com- 
plete set of cards for the Department of 
agriculture publications, which was on ex- 
hibition at the meeting. Mr. Hastings was 
followed by a discussion of the cards pre- 
pared by the Office of experiment stations, 
indexing State experiment station litera- 
ture, a partial set of which was also on ex- 
hibition. 

The final paper by WILLIAM M. HEP- 
BURN, Librarian, Purdue University, was 
read by William H. Powers and was en- 
titled: 



AGRICULTURAL PERIODICALS, THEIR 
SELECTION AND PRESERVATION 

The short time allowed for the prepara- 
tion of this paper, and the press of other 
duties have prevented that complete and 
systematic study of the practice of the 
various Agricultural colleges and experi- 
ment stations which was at first intended, 
and which should be made as a basis for 
action on this subject of the selection and 
preservation of agricultural periodical 
literature. For it is certain that no one 
institution, not even the Library of the 
Department of agriculture, without great 
expense for storage space, clerical labor, 
and binding, could hope to procure and 
preserve all of the agricultural journals 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES ROUND TABLE 



796 



that have been, now are, and hereafter 
shall be printed. Many of these journals 
are of small value, or of local Interest only, 
or important for statistical purposes chief- 
ly; and there is no good reason why each 
separate school of agriculture or experi- 
ment station should keep complete files 
of all of them on their library shelves, even 
if they could obtain them. Co-operation 
and co-ordination of effort is necessary, 
and a study of the practice of all of the 
active agricultural libraries must be made 
as a basis for this concerted action. 

This paper therefore is merely prelimi- 
nary and general in its nature. 

It will be quite unnecessary to empha- 
size the importance of periodical literature 
to the librarians of agricultural libraries. 
It is safe to say that in all of them, from 
one half to two thirds of the annual acces- 
sions are serial in character, including 
the bulletins and reports of societies, state 
boards, and stations, together with the 
regular periodicals dealing with agriculture 
and related subjects. 

I. Of first importance to an agricultural 
library are the journals representing those 
sciences which underlie agriculture or are 
closely related to it. These include the 
biological sciences, anatomy, physiology, 
bacteriology, botany, and zoology with 
their subdivisions, together with geology, 
physics, and chemistry. In fact, hardly a 
science exists which may not at some point 
yield matter of value to the agriculturist. 
If the School of agriculture is part of a 
university, most of these journals, being 
of interest to other departments of the in- 
stitution, will naturally be in the general 
library. In most cases it is enough for 
the agricultural library that they are on 
the campus, either in the main library, or 
in one of the department libraries where 
they can be made available to the agricul- 
tural student and professor. Here is a 
place where the general college library, 
and the libraries of the School of agricul- 
ture and the Experiment station, if all 
three exist, may co-operate with good ad- 
vantage, by seeing that all the valuable 
scientific periodicals in English and in 
foreign languages are subscribed for by 



one or the other of them. No library can 
have too many of these reputable journals, 
the supply being limited only by space, 
cost, and the ability of the faculty to use 
them. 

It is necessary to secure these by pur- 
chase, very few being available gratui- 
tously to any one library. It goes without 
saying that all should be bound. The 
money spent in a subscription is practical- 
ly wasted unless the volumes are preser- 
ved complete and in useable form, and this 
can be done only by binding them. 

Included in this group should be men- 
tioned the engineering periodicals, a selec- 
tion of which should be included in every 
agricultural library, or be otherwise avail- 
able to it. The chief engineering topics 
of interest to agricultural students at 
present are cement and concrete, the build- 
ing arts, farm machinery, road making, the 
gas engine, irrigation and drainage. 

For the most part the information con- 
tained in this class of journal is available 
to the searcher by means of indexes, 
annual or consolidated, and this fact sup- 
plies another argument for their binding 
and preservation. 

II. A second group of journals of in- 
terest and value to students of agriculture 
are the trade journals of the various manu- 
facturing industries associated with agri- 
culture, to which agriculture supplies raw 
materials, or which have a reflex influence 
on agriculture from the nature of the de- 
mand which they make for certain types 
of product, or because the farming popula- 
tion is a large consumer of their product. 
These may, or may not be, of interest to 
other departments of an educational in- 
stitution with which an agricultural li- 
brary may be associated. And here again 
is a field for the fullest co-operation be- 
tween the various interests involved. 
These journals are devoted largely to the 
commercial side of industry, as related to 
the production, distribution, and consump- 
tion of the great staples or of manufac- 
tured articles. There is a very great 
variety of these periodicals, hardly a trade 
or industry being unrepresented. The se- 
lection therefore must be determined by 



796 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



local needs and conditions, consideration 
being given to the industries of the state, 
the courses given in the School of agricul- 
ture, or the experimental work carried on 
by the Station. It would be absurd for an 
agricultural library, as such, and apart 
from iany definite need for them, to at- 
tempt to cover the whole of this vast field 
even by a representative of each trade or 
industry. Very few of these journals are 
provided with an annual index, and they 
are usually not included in any of the 
consolidated indexes, so that their use as 
reference material is difficult. Also their 
bulk far outruns their real reference value, 
so that binding is an expensive matter. If 
bound, they should be covered with a ma- 
terial that will last well in an undisturbed 
state, as after a few years they are likely 
to be little used. Notwithstanding this, 
their value for current use is often very 
high. 

III. The third group of journals of in- 
terest to the agricultural library are the 
strictly professional periodicals, the farm 
papers, of which there is always a luxu- 
riant crop. With few exceptions the pro- 
fession of agriculture can take but little 
pride in journals of this class. In many 
cases they aim to provide all the reading 
necessary for the farmer and his family, 
being newspaper and magazine in one, pro- 
viding him with professional information, 
amusement, social, political, and religious 
instruction to the extent of 20 to 30 pages 
per week, and all for $1.00 a year. Many 
of them will, in time to come, provide a 
fine field for the sociologist who wishes to 
study rural conditions in a given state or 
territory. But whatever their value social- 
ly or statistically to the student or pro- 
fessor of an agricultural college, it must be 
admitted that their value is slight. 

This is not to be taken to mean that 
their value to the farming community has 
also been small notwithstanding their 
obvious deficiencies. Many of them have 
had a long and an honorable history. The 
first agricultural journal, with the com- 
prehensive title "The American farmer," 
appeared on April 2, 1818. "The New Eng- 
land farmer," still current, although there 



are some gaps in the connection, first ap- 
peared in 1822. The "Rural New Yorker," 
"Prairie farmer," "Country gentleman," 
"Coleman's rural world," and others were 
household words back in the '70s, all 
being distinct forces for good on the social 
and industrial life of the farming commu- 
nity. They did much to prepare the way 
for the scientific methods of the last 
quarter of a century. Any library which 
has files or even odd volumes of agricul- 
tural journals dating before 1870 may con- 
sider itself fortunate. This early litera- 
ture, now of historical value, is in a class 
by itself and no library would think of 
discarding it or hesitate to acquire it. 

In 1872 there were 21 weekly, and 35 
monthly or semi-monthly, newspapers and 
periodicals published in the interests of 
the farmer and stock-breeder. Doubtless 
as many more had even at that time been 
discontinued, for the mortality rate in this 
group is very high. The number of these 
journals has largely increased during the 
last 15 or 20 years. In 1894, the Library of 
the Department of agriculture was receiv- 
ing 100 journals of this kind, while in 1909 
they were receiving nearly 300. Many of 
the stations and agricultural libraries re- 
ceive from 100 to 200 by gift or exchange. 
In 1904, the "American newspaper annual" 
listed 420 of these farm journals in the 
United States alone, while in 1910 the 
number was 435. 

It is manifestly impossible for any one 
library to receive, bind, and preserve all 
of these journals; and yet it is evident that 
practically all of them, for one reason or 
another, have some claim to immortality. 
I believe that the libraries of the Agricul- 
tural colleges and experiment stations have 
a duty to perform in preserving the period- 
ical literature of their own state. If the 
agricultural libraries will not do it, no one 
will. The scientific journals and the trade 
journals already mentioned will be pre- 
served, entirely independently of the agri- 
cultural libraries. The scientific, and 
technical, and special libraries will take 
care of that. Surely the agricultural li- 
braries may be expected to care for the 
journals in their own special field, al- 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES ROUND TABLE 



797 



though they do not form the most valuable 
part of their collections from the point of 
view of study and research. This plan 
will indeed put an uneven burden upon the 
libraries. Some libraries would have but 
a single journal to care for, while others, 
such as California, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, 
Missouri, and New York would have from 
15 to 50 to provide for. It is true, how- 
ever, that the libraries of these states 
would be better able to assume the burden 
than those of less populous and less 
wealthy states. 

The real question, however, as to what 
are the best of the agricultural journals 
still awaits an answer. The expert advice 
of the officials of the various colleges and 
stations, and of the Department of agri- 
culture, has not yet been taken on this 
subject, and before it is taken no final 
answer can be given. About a year ago 
several of the agricultural college libraries 
were asked what American farm journals 
were bound for permanent preservation. 
Answers were received from five, and the 
results have some interest in this connec- 
tion. These libraries bound 7, 10, 14, 18 
and 32 titles, respectively. The "Rural 
New Yorker" was bound by all five librar- 
ies; "Wallace's farmer" by four; "Country 
gentleman," "American sheepbreeder," 
"Breeders' gazette," "Hoard's dairyman 
and Jersey bulletin" by three; "Ameri- 
can agriculturists," "Farmer's advocate," 
"Orange Judd farmer," "Pacific rural 
press," "American fertilizer," "American 
veterinary review," "Gardening," "Garden 
magazine," "Irrigation age," and Holstein- 
Friesian register" by two; while 39 others 
were bound in one library only, making a 
total of 54 American farm journals bound 
by these five libraries. In addition, 10 
foreign periodicals were bound. 

Much might be said with reference to 
these foreign journals, with reference to 
the difficulty of securing volumes of the 
titles in the third group, the difficulty of 
completing broken volumes and sets, the 



proper materials for binding, and other 
topics that will inevitably suggest them- 
selves to those who have worked with this 
class of literature. Without going further 
into details, however, the purpose of this 
paper will be fulfilled by suggesting three 
desiderata in this field. 

1. A check list of agricultural periodi- 
cals in the three groups mentioned above, 
giving a complete statement of the vol- 
umes existing in the agricultural libraries 
of the country. Such a list or catalog of 
one library was issued by the Library of 
the Dept. of agriculture in 1901 as "Bulle- 
tin 37." 

2. An agreement by the various agri- 
cultural libraries that they will endeavor 
to secure complete sets of, and to bind all, 
the agricultural journals of Group III. pub- 
lished within the state. 

3. An attempt at the appraisement, by 
means of the advice of experts, of the 
more worthy of the journals, especially in 
Group III. so that a list of from 20 to 50 
might be selected in the various depart- 
ments of agricultural science, as a guide to 
the smaller agricultural libraries, and to 
the public libraries that are beginning to 
pay some attention to the literature of 
agriculture. 

The subject of the preservation of agri- 
cultural periodicals led to the question of 
indexing them, and Miss Anna M. Smith 
described a project which is under con- 
sideration at the University of Minnesota 
for the indexing of a limited number of the 
best agricultural periodicals on a plan 
similar to the "Readers' guide." 

The last question to be discussed was 
that of permanent organization. After con- 
sidering the various kinds of organization 
through which it would be possible to 
carry on the work begun at these round 
table meetings. It was voted that the of- 
ficials of the American library association 
be communicated with in regard to form- 
ing an Agricultural libraries section, and 
in the event of such a section being for- 
mally established, that Miss Claribel R. 
Barnett serve as Chairman, with power to 
appoint a Secretary. 



ATTENDANCE SUMMARIES 



By position and sex 

Men Women Total 
Trustees 2 



Commissioners 5 

Chief Librarians 98 

Assistants 32 

Library Schools 2 

Commercial agents 21 

Others 9 

Total 173 

Deduct those counted 
twice . 6 



8 

122 

192 

11 

2 

39 



167 



By geographical sections 
8 of the 9 No. Atlantic States sent. 

4 " 9 So. Atlatinc States " . 

3 " 9 So. Central States " . 

8 " 8 No. Central States " . 

8 Western states " . 

8 Pacific states " . 



Canada 
Germany 



2 
13 
220 
224 
17 
23 
48 



374 547 



15 



365 532 



126 

10 

38 

319 

18 

12 

8 

1 



Total ..532 



Ala. . 

Ark. 

Cal. 

Col. 

Conn 

Del. 



By states 
5 Ga 


3 


1 in 


69 


2 Ind 


24 


3 la 


17 


8 Kan 


1 


1 Ky. 


12 


. 14 Me. 


2 



Md 1 Ore 1 

Mass 24 Penn 34 

Mich 74 R. I 4 

Minn 26 S. D 1 

Mo 25 Tex 4 

1 Utah . 1 



3 Wash. 7 



Mont 

Neb 

N. H 2 Wis 37 

N. J. 8 Canada 8 

N. Y 44 Germany 1 

N. D 5 

Ohio 58 Total 532 

Okla 1 

By libraries 

Libraries having five or more representa- 
tives: 

Brooklyn Public L 6 

Buffalo Public L 6 

Chicago Public L 11 

Cleveland Public L 19 

Cleveland Public L 19 

Detroit Public L 10 

Grand Rapids Public L 10 

Illinois University L 9 

Indiana State L 6 

John Crerar L. 9 

Library of Congress 8 

Louisville Free Public L 7 

Michigan University L 9 

Milwaukee Public L 7 

Minneapolis Public L 8 

New York Public L 5 

Penn. State L 5 

Philadelphia Free Public L 7 

St. Louis Public L. , .12 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



Abbreviations: F., Free; P., Public; L., 
Library; In. Librarian; asst., Assistant; 
trus., Trustee; Ref., Reference; catlgr., 
Cataloger; Br., Branch; Sen., School. 

Abbott, Katherine L., Elgin, 111. 
Ackley, Gabriella, In. P. L., Watertown, 
Wis. 



Acomb, Irene A., child. In. Norwood Br. 
Cincinnati P. L., Norwood, O. 

Adam, Benjamin, chief Circulating Dept. 
P. L., New York, N. Y. 

Adams, Edward B., In. Social Law L., Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Ahern, Mary E., ed. Public Libraries, Chi- 
cago, 111. 



ATTENDANCE 



799 



Aicher, Amalia, In. P. L., Michigan City, 

Ind. 
Alexander, Catherine C., Iron Mountain, 

Mich. 
Allen, Frank, 84 Mercer Ave., Plainfleld, 

N. J. 
Allen, Harriet L., In. P. L., Rhinelander, 

Wis. 
Allen Mary C., asst. P. L., Milwaukee, 

Wis. 

Allin, Eugenia, organizer Illinois L. Exten- 
sion Commission, Decatur, 111. 
Anderson, E. H., P. L., New York, N. Y. 
Anderson, Mrs. E. H., New York, N. Y. 
Anderson, John R., Bookseller, 76, 5th 

Ave., New York, N. Y. 
Andrews, C. W., In. John Crerar L., Chi- 
cago, 111. 
Arnold, Lillian B., In. Carnegie-Stout F. L., 

Dubuque, la. 
Avey, E. Gertrude, child. In. Walnut Hills 

Br. P. L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Babbitt, Charles J., In. Social Law L., Bos- 
ton, Mass. 
Bailey, Arthur L., In. Wilmington Institute 

F. L., Wilmington, Del. 
Bailey, Charles H., 878 Ellicott Square, 

Buffalo, N. Y. 

Bailey, Leonard H., Buffalo, N. Y. 
Bailey, Louis J., In. P. L., Gary, Ind. 
Bailey, Sarah R., child. In. Crunden Br. P. 

L., St. Louis, Mo. 
Baker, Ethel G., asst. In. P. L., South Bend, 

Ind. 
Baker, Mary E., head catlgr. Bryn Mawr 

College L., Bryn Mawr, Pa. 
Baldwin, Bessie R., In. Adams Memorial 

L., Wheaton, HI. 
Baldwin, Clara F., sec'y Minnesota P. L. 

Commission, St. Paul, Minn. 
Baldwin, Emma V., sec'y to In. P. L., 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Ball, Fanny D., In. Central High Sch. L., 

Grand Rapids, Mich. 
Banks, Mary, Seattle, Wash. 
Barickman, Rena M., In. P. L., Joliet, 111. 
Barnett, Claribel R., In. TJ. S. Dept. of 

Agriculture L., Washington, D. C. 
Barr, Charles J., asst. In. John Crerar L., 

Chicago, 111. 
Bascom, Elva L., ed. A. L. A. Booklist, 

Madison, Wis. 



Bates, Flora J., asst. Chicago Normal Sch. 

L., Chicago, 111. 
Batt, Dr. Max, Agricultural College, Fargo, 

N. D. 
Beadle, Nancy, charge Bookbinding P. L., 

Battle Creek, Mich. 
Belden, Charles F. D., In. State Library, 

Boston, Mass. 
Bell, Bernice W., asst. Child. Dept. P. L., 

Louisville, Ky. 
Belser, Amanda, Michigan University L., 

Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Benjamin, Anna, In. P. L., Saginaw, Mich. 
Bishop, Frances A., asst. In. P. L., Kansas 

City, Mo. 

Bishop, W. W., L. of Congress, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Bixby, Alice P., catlgr. Michigan Univer- 
sity L., Ann Arbor, Mich. 
Bixby, Harriet, In. P. L., Antigo, Wis. 
Black, M. J. L., P. L., Fort Williams, 

Canada. 
Blackwelder, Paul, asst. In. P. L., St. Louis 

Mo. 

Blackwelder, Mrs. Paul, St. Louis, Mo. 
Bliss, Robert P., Pennsylvania Free L. 

Commission, Harrisburg, Pa. 
Bond, Bertha J., asst. Missouri University 

L., Columbia, Mo. 
Booth, Mary J., In. Illinois State Normal 

Sch. L., Charleston, 111. 
Bostwick, Arthur E., In. P. L., St. Louis, 

Mo. 

Bowen, Lila, asst. P. L., Omaha, Neb. 
Bowerman, George F., In. P. L., Washings- 
ton, D. C. 
Braley, Esther, In. Western State Normal 

Sch. L., Kalamazoo, Mich. 
Brayton, Mrs. Nellie E., Carnegie P. L., 

Ishpeming, Mich. 

Brett, W. H., In. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 
Briggs, Ethel J., Providence, R. I. 
Briggs, Walter B., In. Trinity College L., 

Hartford, Conn. 

Briggs, Mrs. Walter B., Hartford, Conn. 
Brigham, Herbert O., In. Rhode Island 

State L., Providence, R. I. 
Brigham, Johnson, In. Iowa State L., Des 

Moines, la. 
Brotherton, Nina, child. In. Broadway Br. 

P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 
Brown, C. R., Toronto, Ont. 



800 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



Brown, Demarchus, In. Indiana State L., 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

Brown, Ethel S., 1st asst. Walnut Hills Br. 
P. L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Brown, Gertrude L., P. L., Evanston, 111. 

Brown, Margaret W., Iowa L. Commission, 
Des Moines, la. 

Browning, Eliza G., In. P. L., Indianapolis, 
Ind. 

Bruncken, Ernest, asst. Register of Copy- 
rights, L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Budington, Ethel H., supervisior Serial 
Dept. Columbia University L., New York, 
N. Y. 

Budlong, Mrs. Minnie Clark, sec'y North 
Dakota L. Commission, Bismarck, N. D. 

Bullock, Edna D., H. W. Wilson Company, 
Minneapolis, Minn. 

Bunker, May T., catlgr. P. L., Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

Burns, Agnes T., sec'y of Child. Dept. P. 
L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Burpee, Lawrence J., In. P. L., Ottawa, 
Ont., Canada. 

Butler, H. L., 60 Wall St., New York, N. Y. 

Butlin, Iva M., In. Beloit College L., Be- 
loit, Wis. 

Calkins, Mary J., In. P. L., Racine, Wis. 

Campbell, Cornelia S., supt. of Br. L. P. L., 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Carlton, W. N. C., In. Newberry L., Chi- 
cago, 111. 

Carothers, Wilhelmina E., chief catlgr. 
Portland L. Association, Portland, Ore. 

Carpenter, Etta, In. Christian Association, 
Harbor Springs, Mich. 

Carr, Henry J., In. P. L., Scranton, Pa. 

Carr, Mrs. Henry J., 919 Vine St., Scran- 
ton, Pa. 

Carson, Helen D., head Serials Dept. Min- 
nesota University L., Minneapolis, Minn. 

Carson, W. O., In. P. L., London, Canada. 

Chapin, Artena M., In. P. L., Muncie, Ind. 

Clark, George L., legislative Ref. Dept. 
Michigan State L., Lansing, Mich. 

Cleavinger, John S., In. P. L. Jackson, 
Mich. 

Cleland, Ethel, catlgr. Legislative Ref. 
Dept. Indiana State. L., Indianapolis, Ind. 

Clinton, Lucile A., In. P. L., Charleston, 111. 

Cloud, Josephine, supt. of Circulation P. 
L., Minneapolis, Minn. 



Cochran, Mary R., In. Walnut Hills Br. P. 
L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Coffin, Winifred, 1st asst. P. L., Eau Claire, 
Wis. 

Cole, Mrs. Emma H., In. P. L., Benton 
Harbor, Mich. 

Colerick, Margaret M., In. P. L., Fort 
Wayne, Ind. 

Collins, Mabel, In. Parmly Billings Memo- 
rial L., Billings, Mont. 

Comings, Marian E., In. Elyria L., Elyria, 
Ohio. 

Conner, Mrs. Flora C., In. Carnegie P. L., 
Austin, Minn. 

Converse, M. Louise, In. Central State Nor- 
mal Sch. L., Mount Pleasant, Mich. 

Cooley, Dr. R. W., St Paul, Minn. 

Cooley, Mrs. R. W., St. Paul, Minn. 

Coy, Alice B., catlgr. P. L., Cincinnati, 
Ohio. 

Craven, G. Jeannette, Scranton, Pa. 

Craver, Harrison W., In. Carnegie L., Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. 

Crocheron, Annette, Gadsden, Ala. 

Crocheron, Mabel, Gadsden, Ala. 

Curran, Mrs. Mary H., In. P. L., Bangor, 
Me. 

Curtiss, Frances E., In. Br. No. 4 P. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Dana, John Cotton, In. P.- P. L., Newark, 
N. J. 

Davies, Estelle A., asst. P. L., Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Davis, Georgia S., asst. P. L., Grand Rap- 
ids, Mich. 

Davis, Helen, In. Traveling L. P. L. Com- 
mission, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Davis, Olin S., In. P. L., Laconia, N. H. 

Davis, Mrs. Olin S., Laconia, N. H. 

Dean, Mildred, asst. P. L., Eau Claire, Wis. 

De Laughter, N. M., In. Carondelet Br. P. 
L., St. Louis, Mo. 

Delflno, Emma R. N., 200 S. 13th St., Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

De Puy, Almena R., catlgr. P. L., Jackson, 
Mich. 

Dickinson, Sarah S., asst. John Crerar L., 
Chicago, 111. 

Dignan, Frank W., Chicago University 
Press, Chicago, 111. 

Dinsmore, Lucy C., In. North Br. P. L., Min- 
neapolis, Minn. 



ATTENDANCE 



801 



Dortch, Adalene, Gadsden, Ala. 

Dougherty, Anna R., asst F. L., Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Douglas, Mary, supt. of Child. Work P. L., 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Dousman, Mary E., head Child. Dept. P. L., 
Milwaukee, Wis. 

Downey, Mary E., L. organizer, State L., 
Columbus, Ohio. 

Draper, Miriam S., In. Child. Museum L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Drury, F. K. W., asst. In. Illinois Univer- 
sity L., Urbana, 111. 

Dudgeon, M. S., sec'y Wisconsin F. L. Com- 
mission, Madison, Wis. 

Dudley, Charles R., In. P. L., Denver, 
Colo. 

Duncan, Anne Stuart, Marquette, Mich. 

Dunham, B. Mabel, In. P. L., Berlin, Ont., 
Canada. 

Dunham, Mary, ref. In. -Indiana Univ. L., 
Bloomington, Ind. 

Durham, Josephine E., In. F. P. L., Dan- 
ville, m. 

Durnett, Mrs. Julia E., In. Port Richmond 
Br. P. L., New York, N. Y. 

Earhart, Frances B., In. P. L., Duluth, 
Minn. 

Earl, Mrs. Elizabeth C., Indiana P. L. Com- 
mission, Connersville, Ind. 

Eastman, Edith L., In. Glenville Br. P. L., 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

Eastman, Linda A., vice-In. P. L., Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Elmendorf, Mrs. H. L., vice-In. P. L., Buf- 
falo, N. Y. 

Ernst, Gertrude, asst. Registration Dept. 
P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Estabrooke, Mrs. Kate C., L. Commission, 
Orono, Me. 

Evans, Mrs. Alice G., In. P. L., Decatur, 
111. 

Everhart, Elfrida, ref. In. Carnegie L., At- 
lanta, Ga. 

Farnham, Elsa R., Laurium, Mich. 

Farr, Mary P., Missouri L. Commission, 
Jefferson City, Mo. 

Faxon, F. W., manager L. Dept. Boston 
Book Co., 83-91 Francis St., Boston, 
Mass. 

Feazel, E. A., In. Law L. Assn., Cleveland, 
Ohio. 



Feazel, Mrs. E. A., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Fenton, Polly, asst. Catalog Dept. P. L., 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Fernald, Louise M., In. P. L., Rochester, 
Minn. 

Field, O. J., Dept. of Justice, Washington, 
D. C. 

Field, Pearl I., asst. P. L., Chicago, 111. 

Field, Ruth K., child. In. Woodland Br. P. 
L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Finney, Grace B., asst. P. L., Washington, 
D. C. 

Flexner, Jennie M., asst. F. P. L., Louis- 
ville, Ky. 

Foote, Elmer L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Forgeus, Margaret, catlgr. Iowa State Col- 
lege L., Ames, la. 

Forstall, Gertrude, asst. John Crerar L., 
Chicago, 111. 

Foye, Charlotte, senior asst. John Crerar 
L., Chicago, 111. 

Fredlund, Ingeborg S., asst. In. Law L., 
Michigan University, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

French, Anna L., asst. In. Western State 
Normal Sch. L., Kalamazoo, Mich. 

French, L. Ruth, catlgr. Hackley P. L., 
Muskegon, Mich. 

Frost, Harwood, New York, N. Y. 

Fullerton, Caroline Q., act. ref. In. F. P. 
L., Louisville, Ky. 

Furness, Margaret, asst. John Crerar L., 
Chicago, 111. 

Galbreath, C. B., In. Ohio State L., Colum- 
bus, Ohio. 

Ganley, Marie, supt. Catalog Dept. P. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Gast, Cornelia A., asst. Birchard L., Fre- 
mont, Ohio. 

Gast, Mrs. Harriet A., In. Birchard L., Fre- 
mont, Ohio. 

Gay, Helen In. P. L., New London, Conn. 

Gaylor, Alice G., child. In. P. L., Duluth, 
Minn. 

Gaylord, H. J., Syracuse, N. Y. 

George, C. A., In. F. L., Elizabeth, N. J. 

George, Mrs. C. A., Elizabeth, N. J. 

Gibbs, Laura R., catlgr. Brown University 
L., Providence, R. I. 

Gibson, Irene, asst. Order Div. L. of Con- 
gress, Washington, D. C. 

Gilbert, Lucy B., attendant, Art Gallery, 
P. L., Minneapolis, Minn. 



802 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



Gillis, J. L., In. California State L., Sacra- 
mento, Cal. 

Glenn, Marian R., asst. Ref. Dept. P. L., 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

Godard, George S., In. Connecticut State L., 
Hartford, Conn. 

Goding, Sarah E., 1st asst. F. L., Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Goetzman, Charlotte E., In. P. L., Fort 
Dodge, Iowa. 

Goldberg, Bess, asst. P. L., Chicago, 111. 

Goodrich, E. May, child. In. Miles Park Br. 
P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Goodrich, F. L. D., in charge of accessions, 
Michigan University L., Ann Arbor, 
Mich. 

Goodrich, Nathaniel L., In. University of 
Texas L., Austin, Texas. 

Goss, Agnes C., In. Georgia State Normal 
Sch. L., Athens, Ga. 

Goss, Edna L., asst. John Crerar L., Chi- 
cago, 111. 

Gould, C. H., In. McGill University L., 
Montreal, Canada. 

Grace, Louise C., asst. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Graham, Emma, In. P. L., Sidney, Ohio. 

Gratiaa, Josephine, asst. P. L., St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Green, Charles R., In. Massachusetts Agri- 
cultural College L., Amherst, Mass. 

Grierson, Mrs. E. S., In. P. L. of Calumet 
and Hecla Mining Co., Calumet, Mich. 

Griffin, Jeanne, asst. Catalog Dept. P. L., 
Jackson, Mich. 

Guntermann, Bertha, child. In. F. P. L., 
Louisville, Ky. 

Hackett, Irene A., In. American Book Com- 
pany, New York, N. Y. 

Hadley, Chalmers, sec'y American Library 
Association, 1 Washington St., Chicago, 
111. 

Haines, Mabel R., managing editor Library 
Journal, 298 Broadway, New York, N. Y. 

Haley, Emilie L., asst. P. L., Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Haley, Grace G., asst. Carnegie West Br. 
P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Hane, Mary E., Paine Memorial L., Paines- 
dale, Mich. 

Hanson, J. C. M., chief of Catalog Div. L. 
of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Hardy, A. J., Brantford, Ont, Canada. 



Harron, Mrs. Julia Scofield, A. L. A. Book- 
list, Madison, Wis. 
Hastings, C. H., chief of Card Section, L. 

of Congress, Washington, D. C. 
Hawley, Mrs. Eva N., Detroit, Mich. 
Hay, Flora N., ref. In. F. P. L., Evanston, 

111. 
Hazeltine, Mary E., preceptor Wisconsin 

L. Sch., Madison, Wis. 
Hedrick, Blanche, In. Agricultural Dept. 

University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 
Hedrick, Katherine, Law L., W. Virginia 

University, Morgantown, W. Va. 
Henderson, Lucia T., In. James Prender- 

gast L., Jamestown, N. Y. 
Henley, Eunice D., In. Carnegie L., Wa- 

bash, Ind. 
Henley, Lillian, asst. ref. In. Indiana State 

L., Indianapolis, Ind. 
Henry, W. E., In. Washington University 

L., Seattle, Wash. 
Herron, Leonora E., In. Hampton Inst L., 

Hampton, Va. 
Hewitt, Luther E., In. Law Association of 

Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Hickin, Eleanor M., P. L., Grand Rapids, 

Mich. 

Hicks, Frederick C., New York, N. Y. 
Hill, Edith M., 1st asst. St. Clair Br. P. L., 

Cleveland, Ohio. 

Hill, Frank P., In. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Hillkowitz, Anna, child. In. P. L., Denver, 

Colo. 
Hoagland, Merica, director Indiana L. Sch., 

Indianapolis, Ind. 
Hobart, Mrs. A. S., supervisor of stations, 

P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 
Hodges, N. D. C., In. P. L., Cincinnati, 

Ohio. 

Hodges, Mrs. N. D. C., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Holmes, Florence M., In. P. L., Coldwater, 

Mich. 
Hopkins, Jessica, In. Carnegie P. L., Pa- 

ducah, Ky. 

Hopkins, Julia A., Drexel Institute L., Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. 
Hopper, Franklin F., In. P. L., Tacoma, 

Wash. 
Houghton, Mabel, ref. In. P. L., Jackson, 

Mich. 

Howe, Harriet E., catlgr. P. L., Minneap- 
olis, Minn. 



ATTENDANCE 



803 



Howmiller, Olinda, Cabanne Br. P. L., St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Hubbard, Georgia M., in charge Historical 
Room and Binding P. L., Grand Rapids, 
Mich. 

Hubbell, Jane P., In. P. L., Rockford, 111. 

Hull, Fanny, In. Schermerhorn St. Br. P. 
L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hunt, Elizabeth J., supt. Ref. Dept. P. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Huntting, H. R., bookseller, Springfield, 
Mass. 

Hutchins, Margaret, ref. asst. Illinois Uni- 
versity L., Urbana, 111. 

Hutchinson, Helen, In. Michael Reese Hos- 
pital L., Chicago, 111. 

Hyde, Gertrude, asst. City L., Springfield, 
Mass. 

Imhoff, Harriet J., Madison, Wis. 

Imhoff, Ono Mary, asst. Wisconsin F. L. 
Commission, Madison, Wis. 

Isbister, Jennie E., station supervisor, Lo- 
rain-Clark Sub-Br. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Jeffers, Le Roy, chief of Book Order Dept. 
P. L., New York, N. Y. 

Jennings, J. T., In. P. L., Seattle, Wash. 

Jessup, Luella N., stenographer P. L., 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Jewell, Agnes H., Adrian, Mich. 

Jewett, Walter K., In. Nebraska Univ. 
L., Lincoln, Neb. 

Joeckel, C. B., Lake Mills, Wis. 

Joel, Bertha, P. L., Valparaiso, Ind. 

Johnson, Alice S., catlgr. Illinois Univer- 
sity L., Urbana, 111. 

Johnston, W. Dawson, In. Columbia Uni- 
versity L., New York, N. Y. 

Jones, Florence, sch. ref. asst. P. L., In- 
dianapolis, Ind. 

Jordan, Gamble, In. Law L. Association, 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Jordan, Lois M., head of Order Dept. P. 
L., Minneapolis, Minn. 

Josephson, A. G. S., catlgr. John Crerar 
L., Chicago, 111. 

Josephson, Lucia, Chicago, 111. 

Jutton, Emma R., loan asst. University of 
Illinois, Urbana, 111. 

Keating, Anne C., Indiana State Normal 
Sch. L., Terre Haute, Ind. 

Keefer, Jessie G., asst. P. L., Scranton, 
Pa. 



Keefer, M. Louise, Scranton, Pa. 

Kellogg, Louise Phelps, Wisconsin His- 
torical L., Madison, Wis. 

Kenworthy, Martha, In. F. L., Chester, Pa. 

Keogh, Andrew, ref. In. Yale University 
L., New Haven, Conn. 

King, George, asst. P. L., Chicago, 111. 

Koch, Theodore W., In. Michigan Univer- 
sity L., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Koch, Mrs. Theodore W., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Kohler, Minnie M., In. P. L., Moline, 111. 

Krause, Louise B., In. H. M. Byllesby & Co. 
L., Chicago, 111. 

Lacy, Mary G., U. S. Dept. of Agricul- 
ture L., Washington, D. C. 

Lamb, George H., In. Carnegie F. L., 
Braddock, Pa. 

Lane, Grace, catlgr. Minnesota University 
L., Minneapolis, Minn. 

Lane, Harriet, In. P. L., Freeport, 111. 

Lapp, John, State L., Indianapolis, Ind. 

Larson, Charles A., editor of publications, 
P. L., Chicago, 111. 

Lathrop, Olin C., catlgr. Michigan State L., 
Lansing, Mich. 

Lawrence, Hannah M., child. In. P. L., 
Buffalo, N. Y. 

Learning, Nellie, In. Richmond Br. F. L., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Ledbetter, Mrs. Eleanor E., In. Broadway 
Br. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Lee, G. W. In. Stone & Webster, Boston, 
Mass. 

Legler, Henry E., In. P. L., Chicago, 111. 

Leupp, Harold L., associate In. California 
University L., Berkeley, Cal. 

Lindsay, Mary B., In. P. L., Evanston, 111. 

Lonyo, Martha A., asst. Registration Dept. 
P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Lowe, Harriet Louise, In. P. L., Cloquet, 
Minn. 

Lucht, Julius, In. F. P. L., Leavenworth, 
Kan. 

Lusk, Amy, In. P. L., Petoskey, Mich. 

McBride, Jessie E., ref. In. P. L., Daven- 
port, la. 

McCaine, A. M., 813 Fairmount Ave., St. 
Paul, Minn. 

McCaine, Mrs. Helen J., In. P. L., St. Paul, 
Minn. 

McCarthy, Ada J., In. Stephenson P. L., 
Marinette, Wis. 



804 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



McClelland, E. H., technology In. Carnegie 
L., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

McCollough, Ethel F., In. P. L., Superior, 
Wis. 

Macdonald, Angus S., Snead & Co. Iron 
Works, Jersey City, N. J. 

McDonell, Mrs. A. F., Bay City, Mich. 

McKenzie, Jessie, In. Minnesota State 
Normal Sch. L., Moorhead, Minn. 

McKillop, Samuel A., In. South Side Br. 
P. L., Milwaukee, Wis. 

MKirdy, James, asst director Pennsyl- 
vania Legislative Ref. Bureau, Harris- 
burg, Pa. 

McLoney, Ella M., In. P. L., Des Moines, la. 

McVeety, Ethel, In. North Dakota Agri- 
cultural College L., Fargo, N. D. 

Malone, Marcella, asst. P. L., Jamaica, 
N. Y. 

Marion, Guy E., In. Arthur D. Little, inc. 
Laboratory of Engineering Chemistry, 
93 Broad St., Boston, Mass. 

Marshall, Eugenia J., P. L., Carbondale, 
111. 

Martin, Deborah B., In. Kellogg P. L., 
Green Bay, Wis. 

Martin, Lena, In. P. L., Gadsden, Ala. 

Martin, Mary P., In. P. L. Association, 
Canton, Ohio. 

Massee, May, head Child. Dept. P. L., 
Buffalo, N. Y. 

Matthew, Harriet L., In. P. L., Lynn, Mass. 

Meiner, Felix, Leipzig, Germany. 

Merrill, Julia W., chief br. In. P. L., Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. 

Messer, Angie, In. P. L., Manistee, Mich. 

Meyer, H. H. B., chief bibliographer, L. 
of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Middleton, Jean Y., chief Book Order 
Dept. Queens Borough P. L., Jamaica, 
N. Y. 

Milam, C. H., sec'y Indiana P. L. Com- 
mission, Indianapolis, Ind. 

Miller, Clara, In. McClymonds P. L., Mas- 
sillon, Ohio. 

Miller, Else, asst. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. 

Miller, Lulu F., In. Hackley P. L., Mus- 
kegon, Mich. 

Milliken, Marie H., child. In. Carnegie 
West Br. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Monchow, Carrie M., In. F. L., Dunkirk, 
N. Y. 



Montgomery, Thomas L., In. Pennsylvania 

State L., Harrisburg, Pa. 
Moos, H. A., San Antonio, Texas. 
Morrison, Sarah M., Racine, Wis. 
Mudge, Isadore G., 340 Park Place, Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. 
Munger, Mrs. G. B., In. Spies P. L., 

Menominee, Mich. 

Murphy, J. V., L. Bureau, Chicago, 111. 
Myler, Mary, In. Br. No. 1 P. L., Detroit, 

Mich. 
Nachman, Selma, catlgr. John Crerar L., 

Chicago, 111. 
Nason, Sabra L., In. Carnegie P. L., Iron 

Mountain, Mich. 

Netherwood, H. C., Madison, Wis. 
Newberry, Marie, In. P. Sch. L., Ypsilanti, 

Mich. 

Newcomb, Florence S., asst. P. L., India- 
napolis, Ind. 

Newhard, Mabel. In. P. L., Virginia, Minn. 
Noble, Esther, asst. P. L., Columbus, Ohio. 
Noll, Amy W., P. L., Waterloo, la. 
Norman, Carl, sec'y Bjorck & Borjesson, 

publishers, 40 W. 28th St., New York, 

N. Y. 

Noyes, Miriam, In. P. L., Oshkosh, Wis. 
Nursey, Walter R., inspector of P. L. of 

the Province of Ontario, Toronto, Can- 
ada. 

O'Brien, Myra, In. P. L., Galena, 111. 
O'Connor, C. W., American L. Bindery, 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
Ogden, E. Lucy, In. Office of Experiment 

Station, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 

Washington, D. C. 
Oko, A. S., In. Hebrew Union College L., 

Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Olcott, Frances J., director Carnegie L. 

Training Sch., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Olson, Nelle A., In. North Dakota State 

Normal Sch. L., Mayville, N. D. 
Ormes, M. D., In. Colorado College L., 

Colorado Springs, Colo. 
Osborn, Elizabeth C., Peabody Historical 

Society, Peabody, Mass. 
Osborn, Lyman P., In. Peabody Institute L., 

Peabody, Mass. 

Oxley, Mary, Cedar Rapids, la. 
Paddock, Alice M., In. P. L., Jamestown, 

N. D. 
Palmer, Margaret, In. P. K, Hibbihg, Mich. 



ATTENDANCE 



805 



Parham, Nellie E., In. P. L., Bloomington, 
111. 

Parker, Phebe, In. Sage L., Bay City, Mich. 

Parsons, Maud A., Steel Works Club, 
Joliet, 111. 

Partch, Isa L., br. In. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Patten, Frank C., In. Rosenberg L., Gal- 
veston, Texas. 

Patten, Katharine, asst. In. Minneapolis 
Athenaeum, Minneapolis, Minn. 

Pattengill, Henry R., Lansing, Mich. 

Pattison, Franc, Ann Harbor, Mich. 

Patton, Adah, Illinois University L., Ur- 
bana, 111. 

Peacock, Joseph L., In. Memorial and . L. 
Association, Westerly, R. I. 

Peckham, Mary C., Michigan University 
L., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Perry, Mrs. Jessie Booth, clerk, P. L., 
Chicago, HI. 

Phelan, John F., supervisor of Br. P. L., 
Chicago, 111. 

Phelps, Edith Allen, In. Carnegie L., Okla- 
homa City, Okla. 

Phillips, Grace D., in charge of periodicals, 
University of Missouri L., Columbia, Mo. 

Plummer, Mary W., director Pratt Insti- 
tute L. Sch., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Pollard, Annie A., second asst. In. P. L., 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Poole, Franklin O., In. Association of the 
Bar L., New York, N. Y. 

Porter, W. T., trus. P. L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Potter, Nettie R., F. P. L., Camden, N. J. 

Powers, W. H., In. South Dakota Agri- 
cultural College L., Brookings, S. D. 

Preston, C. A., Ionia, Mich. 

Preston, Nina K., In. Hall-Fowler Memorial 
L., Ionia, Mich. 

Price, Franklin H., asst. in charge of 
bindery and exchanges, F. L., Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Pugh, John J., In. P. L., Columbus, Ohio. 

Pugsley, M. M., In. P. L., Little Rock, Ark. 

Putnam, Herbert, In. L. of Congress, 
Washington, D. C. 

Ramsburg, Alice L., Circulation Dept. P. 
L., Washington, D. C. 

Ranck, Samuel H., In. P. L., Grand Rapids, 
Mich. 

Raney, M. L., In. Johns Hopkins University 
K, Maltimore, Md. 



Redfield, Jennie L., Bay City, Mich. 
Reed, Lois A., asst. Order Dept. Illinois 

University L., Urbana, 111. 
Reeder, C. W., asst. ref. In. Ohio State 

University L., Columbus, Ohio. 
Reese, Rena, asst. In. P. L., Utica, N. Y. 
Reever, Kate K., asst. In. Illinois State L., 

Springfield, 111. 
Reid, Adelia, asst. P. L., Sault Ste. Marie, 

Mich. 
Reinick, W. R., chief Public Documents 

Dept. F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Reinke, Louisa M., catlgr. P. L., Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. 

Rice, Wallace, Chicago, 111. 
Robbins, Ethel A., Cedar Rapids, la. 
Roberts, Blanche C., vice & child. In. P. 

L., Columbus, Ohio. 
Robinson, Lucien Moore, In. Divinity Sch., 

50th St. and Woodland Ave., Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Roden, C. B., asst. In. P. L., Chicago, 111. 
Root, Azariah S., In. Oberlin College L., 

Oberlin, Ohio. 

Rose, Grace D., In. P. L., Davenport, la. 
Roulon, Miss, Peru, Neb. 
Rowell, W. C., 116 E. 28th St., New York, 

N. Y. 
Rupp, Julia, child. In. Morrisania Br. P. L., 

New York, N. Y. 

Rush, Charles E., In. P. L., St. Joseph, Mo. 
Sampson, Mrs. E. A., 797 Carroll St., 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Sanborn, W. F., In. P. L., Cadillac, Mich. 
Sanborn, Mrs. W. F., Cadillac, Mich. 
Schaefer, Ida, In. P. L., Fargo, N. D. 
Schauers, Jane, re-organizer, P. L., Fond 

du Lac, Wis. 
Schenk, Frederick W., law In. University 

of Chicago, Chicago, 111. 
Schenk, Mrs. F. W., Chicago, 111. 
Schmidt, Willy, ref. In. P. L., Milwaukee, 

Wis. 
Scott, Jennie F., chief catlgr. Indiana State 

L., Indianapolis, Ind. 
Sears, Minnie E., head catlgr. Minnesota 

University L., Minneapolis, Minn. 
Seely, Blanche M., In. Pillsbury Br. P. L., 

Minneapolis, Minn. 

Sette, Myrtle E., catlgr. P. L., Racine, Wis. 
Severance, H. O., In. Missouri University 

L., Columbia, Mo. 



806 



MACKINAC ISLAND CONFERENCE 



Sewall, Willis F., In. P. L., Toledo, Ohio. 

Seward, W. F., In. P. L., Binghampton, 
N. Y. 

Shaw, Robert K., In. P. L., Worcester, 
Mass. 

Shaw, Theodore L., Houghton, Mifflin Co., 
Boston, Mass. 

Sheetz, A. Colman, asst. In. Pennsylvania 
State L., Harrisburg, Pa. 

Sheldon, Philena R., catlgr. L. of Congress, 
Washington, D. C. 

Shepard, Frederick J., P. L., Buffalo, N. Y. 

Sherman, S. L., In. Carnegie P. L., Brad- 
ford, Pa. 

Simpson, Frances, instructor Illinois Uni- 
versity L. Sch., Urbana, 111. 

Skinner, Anna B., In. Rockford College L., 
Rockford, 111. 

Small, A. J., Iowa State L., Des Moines, la. 

Small, Mrs. A. J., Des Moines, la. 

Smith, Anna M., In. Dept. of Agriculture, 
University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minn. 

Smith, Bessie Sargeant, br. In. P. K, 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

Smith, Elizabeth C., In. Agricultural Col- 
lege of Utah, Logan, Utah. 

Smith, Esther A., head catlgr. Michigan 
University L., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Smith, Faith E., director, Chicago P. L. 
Training Class, Chicago, 111. 

Smith, Jessie Graham, head Catalog Dept. 
F. P. L., East Orange, N. J. 

Smith, Marriette A., In's. asst. P. L., Mil- 
waukee, Wis. 

Smith, Martha P., In. P. L., Beverly, Miss. 

Smith, Mary A., In. P. L., La Crosse, Wis. 

Smith, Walter M., In. Wisconsin Univer- 
sity L., Madison, Wis. 

Sornborger, Harriet B., In. Bancroft Me- 
morial L., Hopedale, Mass. 

Spear, Gladys B., St. Louis, Mo. 

Spear, Lois M., supervisor of Binding, P. 
L., Minneapolis, Minn. 

Speck, Celeste, asst. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. 

Speck, Mrs. Laura, general asst. P. L., 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Spencer, Mrs. Mary C., In. Michigan State 
L., Lansing, Mich. 

Stansbury, Alta L., In. P. L., Spokane, 
Wash. 

Stearns, Lutie E., chief Traveling L. Dept. 
Wisconsin L. Commission, Madison, Wis. 



Stearns, Mae I., 826 Lake Ave., Racine, 
Wis. 

Steele, Edith McH., Waterbury, Conn. 

Steele, Elizabeth K., asst. Carnegie West 
Br. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio 

Steele, Grace, ref. In. Carnegie P. L., 
Bradford, Pa. 

Stetson, Edith, F. L., Oakland, Cal. 

Stetson, Willis K., In. F. P. L., New Haven, 
Conn. 

Stevens, W. F., In. Carnegie L., Home- 
stead, Pa. 

Stevenson, Luella M., asst. ref. In. Car- 
negie F. L., Braddock, Pa. 

Stewart, Rose G., catlgr. F. L., Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Straus, Esther, chief Child. Dept. P. L., 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Strohm, Adam, In. F. P. L., Trenton, N. J. 

Strohm, Mrs. Adam, Trenton, N. J. 

Swezey, Anne D., In. P. L., East Chicago, 
Ind. 

Taylor, W. B. A., In. Mercantile L., Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. 

Templeton, Charlotte, sec'y Nebraska P. 
L. Commission, Lincoln, Neb. 

Thain, Mabel A., In. P. L., Oak Park, 111. 

Thomas, Anna Belle, Youngstown, Ohio. 

Thomas, Harriet J., In. Br. No. 6 P. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Thomas, Helen, Michigan University L., 
Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Thompson, Adelaide J., Missouri L. Com- 
mission, Jefferson City, Mo. 

Thompson, Dorothy H., asst. P. L., Grand 
Rapids, Mich. 

Thompson, Mrs. Estelle H., Calumet, Mich. 

Thompson, Laura E., asst. P. L., Grand 
Rapids,' Mich. 

Thompson, Margaret, catlgr. P. L., Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. 

Thwaites, Reuben G., supt. Wisconsin 
State Historical L., Madison, Wis. 

Tilton, Asa C., chief Maps and Mss. Dept. 
Wisconsin State Historical Society, 
Madison, Wis. 

Tobitt, Edith, In. P. L., Omaha, Neb. 

Townsend, Eliza Ellen, Iowa L. Commis- 
sion, Des Moines, la. 

Tracy, Nellie, Lafayette, Ind. 

Tyler, Alice S., sec'y Iowa L. Commission, 
Des Moines, la. 



ATTENDANCE 



807 



Tyler, Matilda B., asst. P. L., Louisville, 

Ky. 
Upleger, Margaret C., In. P. L., Mount 

Clemens, Mich. 

Utley, H. M., In. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 
Vander Haagen, Wilhelmina, In. Palmer 

Avenue Branch P. L., Grand Rapids, 

Mich. 
Van Duzee, E. P., In. Grosvenor P. L., 

Buffalo, N. Y. 
Van Valkenburgh, Agnes, chief catlgr. P. 

L., Milwaukee, Wis. 
Venn, Florence, ref. In. Indiana State L., 

Indianapolis, Ind. 
Vought, Sabra W., asst. L. organizer, Ohio 

L. Commission, Columbus, Ohio. 
Wagner, Sula, chief catlgr. P. L., St. Louis, 

Mo. 
Waite, Frank A., head of Tech. Dept. P. L., 

St. Louis, Mo. 
Wales, Elizabeth B., sec'y Missouri L. 

Commission, Jefferson City, Mo. 
Walter, Frank K., vice-director N. Y. State 

L. Sch., Albany, N. Y. 
Walter, Mrs. Frank K., Albany, N. Y. 
Warner, C. Elizabeth, catlgr. P. L., Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. 

Warren, Irene, In. Sch. of Education, Uni- 
versity of Chicago, Chicago, 111. 
Waterman, Lucy D., Gorham, Me. 
Waters, Alice G., In. Essex Institute L., 

Salem, Mass. 
Watts, Irma A., chief catlgr. Legislative 

Ref. Bureau, Harrisburg, Pa. 
Weber, Mrs. Jessie P., In. Illinois State 

Historical L., Springfield, HI. 
Webster, Caroline, In. Wadsworth L., 

Geneseo, N. Y. 
Wellman, Killer C., In. City L., Springfield, 

Mass. 
Whipple, Nellie M., In. Carnegie Br. L., 

West Somerville, Mass. 
Whitmore, F. H., In. P. L., Brockton, 

Mass. 
Whitney, Mrs. Carrie Westlake, P. L., 

Kansas City, Mo. 

Whitten, Robert H., P. Service Commis- 
sion L., New York, N. Y. 
Whitten, Mrs. R. H., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Whittier, Florence, A. L. A. Headquarters, 

1 Washington St., Chicago, 111. 



Whittlesey, Julia M., director Western 
Reserve University L. Sch., Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Wilford, Eugenia, asst. P. L., Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Willever, E. E., Northport, N. Y. 

Williams, E. J., asst. In. P. L., Columbus, 
Ohio. 

Williams, Lizzie A., In. P. L., Maiden, 
Mass. 

Williams, Ora, In. Cumminsville Br. P. L., 
Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Wilson, Albert S., Illinois University L. 
Sch., Urbana, 111. 

Wilson, Halsey W., Index Press, Minne- 
apolis, Minn. 

Wilson, R. W., New York, N. Y. 

Wilson, Mrs. R. W., New York, N. Y. 

Windsor, P. L., In. University of Illinois 
L., Urbana, 111. 

Wing, Alice L., In. P. L., Ludington, Mich. 

Wire, G. E., deputy In. Worcester County 
Law L., Worcester, Mass. 

Wire, Mrs. G. E., 46 Williams St., Wor- 
cester, Mass. 

Wolter, P., L. Dept. A. C. McClurg & Co., 
Chicago, 111. 

Wood, Mary W., Blackstone Br. P. L., 
Chicago, 111. 

Woodard, Gertrude E., In. Law L. Michi- 
gan University, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Woodford, Jessie M., catlgr. P. L., Chicago, 

m. 

Wootten, Katharine, asst. In. Carnegie L., 

Atlanta, Ga. 

Wormer, Grace, P. L., Waterloo, la. 
Worth, Lynne G., In. P. Sch. L., Battle 

Creek, Mich. 
Wright, Purd B., In. P. L., Los Angeles, 

Cal. 
Wulfekoetter, Lillie, In. North Cincinnati 

Br. P. L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 
Wyche, Benjamin, In. Carnegie L., San 

Antonio, Texas. 
Wyche, Mrs. Benjamin, San Antonio, 

Texas. 
Wyer, J. I., In. N. Y. State L., Albany, 

N. Y. 

Yust, W. F., In. F. P. L., Louisville, Ky. 
Zachert, Adeline B., director child, work 

F. P. L., Louisville, Ky. 



INDEX 



Aberdeen association (Bur- 
pee), 680. 

Adams, Edward B., 752, 757. 
Adler, Cyrus, com. on inter- 

nat. relations, 679. 
Agricultural libraries round 

table. See A. L. A. 
Ahern, Mary E., review of 
Stanley. "Autobiography, 
621-623; com. on co-opera- 
tion with the N. E. A., 678. 
American library association, 
president's address (Hod- 
ges), 593-597; secretary's 
rpt., 599-606; rpt. of trus- 
tees of the Carnegie and 
endowment fund, 634-635; 
treasurer's rpt., 671; rpt. of 
Council, 673-674; rpt. of 
Executive board, 678-680; 
election of officers, 685; at- 
tendance summaries and 
register, 798-807. 
A. L. A. Agricultural libra- 
ries round table, 786-797. 
A. L. A. booklist, rpt. of Pub- 
lishing board on, 636-637. 
A. L. A. catalog rules, rpt. of 
the com. on simplified code 
(Hitchler), 645, 646; com. 
on catalog rules for small 
lib., 679. 
A. L. A. Catalog Section, 

proceedings, 760-762. 
A. L. A. Children's librarians' 

section, proceedings, 775. 
A. L. A. College and reference 
section, proceedings, 702- 
775. 

A. L. A. committees on 
blind. See Blind, 
bookbinding. See Book- 
binding. 

bookbuying. See Book- 
buying. 
Brussels congresses. See 

Brussels, 
catalog rules. See A. L. A. 

catalog rules. 

'college libraries. See Col- 
lege libraries, 
co-operation with N. E. A. 
See National education 
association, 
co-ordination of libraries. 

See Libraries, 
co-ordination among col- 
lege libraries. See Col- 
lege libraries, 
federal and state relations. 
See Federal and state re- 
lations. 

finance, rpt. of Andrews, 
640-641; appointments to, 
678. 
international relations. See 

International relations, 
library administration. See 

Library administration, 
library training. See Li- 
brary training, 
program, appointments, 

679. 
public documents. See 

Public documents, 
resolutions, appointment of 
com., 633 rpt. of the spe- 
cial com. (Plummer), 662. 
663; rpt. of the com. 
(Carlton), 784. 



simplified code of the A. L. 
A. rules. See A. L. A. 
catalog rules. 
Travel, appointment of, 679. 
work with the blind. See 
Blind. 

A. L. A. Council, rpt. of, 673- 
674; election of members, 
685. 

A. L. A. Executive board, rpt. 
of, 678-680; election of 
members, 685. 

A. L. A. headquarters (rpt. 
of the secretary), 599, 600. 

A. L. A. membership (rpt. of 
the secretary), 603. 

A. L. A. necrology, 1909-10 
(rpt. of the secretary), 605, 
606. 

A. L. A. post-conference trip. 
686-688. 

A. L. A. Professional training 
for librarianship section, 
proceedings, 770-780. 

A. L. A. Publishing board, 
rpt. of (Legler), 636-640; 
appointment of members, 
678. 

A. L. A. Trustees' section, 
proceedings, 758-760. 

American association of law 
libraries, proceedings, 752- 
758. 

Ames, John Griffith, died, 605. 

Anderson, Edwin H., mem- 
ber finance com., 678. 

Andrews, Clement W., rpt. of 
the finance com., 640-641; 
member of finance com., 
678; com. on co-ordination 
among college lib., 679; 
rpt. on the co-operative 
work of the A. L. A. Pub- 
lishing board, 773-744; ag- 
ricultural literature in a 
reference lib.. 789-790. 

Attendance register and sum- 
maries. See American Li- 
brary assoc. 

Bailey, Arthur L., rpt. of the 
com. on bookbinding, 646- 
648; member of the com. on 
bookbinding, 679; presi- 
dent, League of lib. com- 
missions, 732. 

Baker, Hetty G., loaning of 
law books, 757. 

Baldwin, Clara F., rpt. of the 
publications com. (League 
of lib. commissions), 732- 
734. 

Bascom, Elva L., review of 
Churchill. "A modern 
chronicle," 616; of Parsons. 
"Children's gardens," 775. 

Belden, C. K., member com. 
on federal and state rela- 
tions, 679, 698. 

Billings, John S., com. on in- 
ternal, relations, 679. 

Blakeley, Bertha E., com. on 
co-ordination among col- 
lege lib., 679. 

Blind, rpt. of the com. on 
lib. work with (Delflno), 
648-656; members of com., 
679. 

Bliss, Robert P., 732-734. 

Book symposium (Wyer), 
611-633. 



Bookbinding, rpt. of the com. 
on (Bailey), 646-648; com. 
on, 679. 

Bookbuying, rpt. of com. on 
(Steiner), 644-645; com. on, 
679. 

Bostwick, Arthur E., review 
of Connor. "The foreign- 
er," Coolidge. "Chinese 
immigration," Faust. "Life 
stories of undistinguished 
Americans," Steiner. "The 
immigration tide," Zang- 
will. "The melting pot," 
617-620; com. on resolu- 
tions, 633; com. on lib. 
training, 679; rpt. of the 
com. on resolutions, 784; 
review of Lindsey and 
O'Higgins. "The beast," 
775. 

Brandeis, Albert, com. on lib. 
training, 679. 

Brett, W. H., relation of the 
public lib. to the college 
lib., 773. 

Brigham, Herbert O., library 
efficiency under new con- 
ditions, 721; rpt. of the 
com. on a municipal year 
book (Nat. assoc. of state 
lib.), 724; rpt. of com. on 
Nat. legislative reference 
service, 757. 

Brigham, Johnson, member 
of pub. docs, com., 678; 
member of Council, 685; 
rpt. of com. on extension 
of membership, Nat. assoc. 
of state lib., 696-697; how 
can co-ordination best 
serve the library interests 
of the state? 725-728. 

Brown, Demarchus C., rpt. of 
the com. on exchange and 
distribution of state docs., 
Nat. assoc. of state lib., 
694-695; relation of the 
state lib. to other libraries 
of the state, 699-701. 

Brown, Margaret W., 679, 
738. 

Brown, Walter L., com. on 
bookbuying, 679. 

Browning, Eliza G., member 
of Council, 685. 

Brussels conference. See 
Brussels congresses. 

Brussels congresses, rpt. of 
the com. on the (Hodges), 
601; com. on, 679. 

Bruncken, Ernest, public 
documents com., 678. 

Burpee, Lawrence J., mem- 
ber pub. docs, com., 678; 
Aberdeen assoc., 680-683; 
member of Council, 685. 

Butler, Harold L., 754. 

Carlton, William N. C., chair- 
man of com. on resolutions, 
633; rpt. of com. on resolu- 
tions, 784. 

Cataloging. See also A. L. A. 
Catalog section. 

Chicago, A. L. A. headquart- 
ers In. See A. L. A. head- 
quarters. 

Children's librarians' section. 
See A. L. A. 



810 



INDEX 



College and reference sec- 
tions. See A. L. A. 

College libraries, rpt. of the 
com. on co-ordination of 
(Lane), 656-659; appoint- 
ment of com. on, 679. 

Corey, Deloraine Pendre, 
died, 605; in memoriam, 
758. 

Cragin, Emma, com. on cata- 
log rules for small lib., 679. 

Craver, Harrison W., rpt. of 
the com. on lib. adminis- 
tration, 672-673; member 
of the com. on lib. admin- 
istration, 678. 

Cutter, W. P., 775; classifica- 
tion of an agricultural lib., 
793-794. 

Dawley, Frank F., member 
of finance com., 678. 

Delflno, Mrs. Emma R. Neis- 
ser, rpt. of the com. on lib. 
work with the blind, 648- 
656; member of com. on lib. 
work with the blind, 679. 

Dickinson, Asa Don, member 
of com. on work with the 
blind, 679. 

Douglas, Mary, 775. 

Dudley, Charles B., died, 605. 

Eastman, Linda A., review of 
Spargo. "The bitter cry 
of the children," 775. 

Election of officers. See 
American library assoc. 

Elmendorf, Mrs. H. L., review 
of Thompson. "Shelley," 
620, 621; member of Pub- 
lishing board, 678; com. on 
program, 679; elected 1st 
Vice-president, 685; review 
of Key. "Century of the 
child," 775. 

Emrich, J. Oscar, cataloging 
of the Allegheny Co. law 
lib. in Pittsburgh, 757. 

P., C. H., social side of the 
conference, 686. 

Fairchild, Mrs. Salome Cut- 
ler, member com. on work 
with the blind, 679. 

Faxon, Frederick W., travel 
com., 679; post, conference 
trip, 686-688. 

Federal and state relations, 
rpt. of com. on, 645; mem- 
bers of com. on, 679. 

Field, O. J., 752, 757. 

Fiske, Anna J., died, 605. 

Fitzpatrick, Rev. Alfred, 
reading tents among lum- 
ber camps, 683, 684. 

Fletcher, William I., relation 
of the college lib. to the 
local community, 707-709. 

Fraser, A. H. R., duties of 
the librarian of a univer- 
sity law lib., 757. 

Fredlund, Ingeborg, loose- 
leaf law reports, 756. 

Frost, Harwood, selection of 
technical books and period- 
icals, 603-606. 

Gaillard, Edwin White, rpt. 
of com. on co-op, with N. 
E. A., 641. 

Gibbs, Laura R., student as- 
sistants in college libra- 
ries, 769-773. 

Gillis, J. L., com. on federal 
and state relations, 679, 
com. on co-ordination, 679. 

Glasier, Gilson S., 754-756 
758. 

Godard, George S., chairman 



of com. on pub. docs., 678; 
chairman of discussion on 
nat. legislative reference, 
703-713, 753; rpt. of com. 
on systematic bibliog. of 
state official lit., 722-724 
753; equipment of newConn. 
state lib., 756; rpt. of com. 
on nat. legislative refer- 
ence, 757; president Amer. 
assoc. of law lib., 758; rpt. 
A. L. A. com. on pub. docs., 
760. 

Goldberg, Bess, 762. 

Goodrich, F. L. D., rpt. of the 
tellers of election, 685. 

Goodrich, N. L., com. on 
bookbinding, 679. 

Gould, Charles H., rpt. of 
com. on co-ordination, 660, 
661; member of com. on 
co-ordination, 679. 

Grant, S. Hastings, died, 605. 

Green, Charles R., relation of 
the experiment station to 
the college lib., 791-793. 

Hadley, Chalmers, rpt. of the 
secretary, A. L. A., 599-606; 
member of com. on pro- 
gram, 679; rpt. of com. on 
libraries for federal pris- 
ons (League of lib. com. 
missions), 734-737; chair- 
man, section on profession- 
al training for librarian- 
ship, 776-786. 

Hanson, J. C. M., member of 
organization com. Catalog 
section, 761, 762. 

Harris, G. W., com. on co- 
ordination among college 
lib., 679. 

Harron, Mrs. Julia S.. review 
of Brooks. "As others see 
us," 613-615. 

Harvey, Elizabeth, died, 605. 

Hastings, C. H., use of flexl- 
type at Lib. of Congress, 
762. 

Hawley, Mrs. Eva N., loose 
leaf law rpts., 756. 

Hepburn, William M., agri- 
cultural periodicals, their 
selection and preservation, 
794-797. 

Hewitt, Luther E., Pennsyl- 
vania side reports, 757; 
vice-pres., Amer. assoc. of 
law lib., 758. 

Hill, Frank P., deterioration 
of newspaper paper, 675- 
678; member of com. on co- 
ordination, 679. 

Hiss, Sophia K., 760, 761. 

Hitchler, Theresa, review of 
Loti. "Egypt? 1 623-625; 
member 1 of com. on resolu- 
tions. 633; rpt. of the com. 
on simplified code of the 
A. L. A. rules, 645, 646; 
member of com. on cata- 
log rules for small lib., 679. 

Hobart, Frances, the farmer, 
his book and heart, 739- 
742. 

Hodges, N. D. C., anathema 
upon finger-posts (presi- 
dent's address), 593-597; 
rpt. of com. on the Brussels 
congresses, 661; member of 
com. on Brussels confer- 
ence, 679; member of com. 
on co-ordination, 679. 

Hulst, Mrs. Henry, early 
legends and hist, of Michi- 
gan, 597-598. 



International congress of li- 
brarians at Brussels. See 
Brussels. 

International relations, rpt. 
of com. on, 644; members 
of com. on, 679. 

Jewett, Walter K., relation 
of the college lib. to the 
public, 762-765. 

Johnston, Katherine D., died, 
605. 

Johnston, W. Dawson, 2nd 
vice-president, A. L. A., 
685; presided at College 
and ref. section, 762. 

Josephson, Aksel G. S., rpt. 
of organization com. of 
catalog section, 761, 762. 

Judd, Charles Hubbard, the 
library and the school, 607- 
611. 

Keogh, Andrew, chairman 
organization com., Catalog 
section, 762. 

King, John E., president's 
address Nat. assoc. of 
state lib., 690-691, 752. 

Koch, Theodore W., member 
of pub. docs, com., 678; of 
com. on co-ordination of 
college lib., 679; address of 
welcome, Amer. assoc. of 
law lib., 752. 

Kroeger, Bertha Alice, died, 
606. 

Lane, William C., rpt. of com. 
on co-ordination of college 
lib., 656-659; member of 
com. on internat. relations, 
679; of com. on co-ordina- 
tion among college lib., 
679; of com. on co-ordina- 
tion, 679. 

Lapp, John A. 757. 

Law libraries', American as- 
sociation of. See American 
association, etc. 

League of library commis- 
sions, proceedings, 732-751. 

Legislative reference, Nat. 
assoc. of state lib., discus- 
sion on, 703-713; 763-754. 

Legler, Henry E., rpt. of A. 
L. A. Publishing board, 
636-640; review of Addams. 
"The spirit of youth and 
the city streets, 775. 

Libraries, rpt. of com. on co- 
ordination among (Gould), 
660, 661; members of com. 
on, 679. See also College 
libraries. 

Library adminstration, rpt. 
of com. on (Craver), 672- 
673; members of com. on, 
678. 

Library commissions, League 
of. See League, etc. 

Library training, rpt. of com. 
on, 642-643; members of 
com. on, 679. 

Locke, George H., 678. 

Lydenberg, H. M., 678. 

McClelland, Elwood H., ex- 
hibit of technical litera- 
ture, 598-599. 

McCollough, Ethel F., review 
of White. "A certain rich 
man," 615-616; member of 
com. on lib. admin., 678. 

Mcllwaine, Henry R., 679. 

MKirdy, James, 757. 

Mann, Frances M., died, 606. 

Mann, Margaret, member of 
com. on catalog rules for 
small lib., 679; rpt. of 



INDEX 



811 



chairman of Catalog sec- 
tion, 760, 761. 

Massee, May, presided over 
Children's librarians' sec- 
tion, 775. 

Mendenhall, Ida M., 678. 

Meyer, H. H. B., on the co- 
operation of the state li- 
braries and the Lib. of 
Congress in the prepara- 
tion of reference lists, 713- 
715. 

Milam, Carl H., co-operation 
on the part of commissions 
with public lib., to reach 
the farmer, 746-751. 

Montgomery, Thomas L., 
com. on federal and state 
relations, 679; secr'y Trus- 
tees' section, 758. 

Municipal year book, rpt. of 
the com. on (Nat. assoc. of 
state lib.), 724. 

National association of state 
libraries, proceedings, 689- 
731; joint session with 
Amer. assoc. of state libra- 
ries, 753-754. 

National education associa- 
tion, rpt. of com. on co- 
operation with, 641; mem- 
bers of com., 678. 

Necrology. See A. L. A. 

Neisser, Emma R. See Del- 
flno. 

Nutting, Mary Olivia, died, 
606. 

Oakley, Mary S., secr'y of 
organization, com., Catalog 
section, 762. 

Owen, T. M., public docu- 
ments com., 678. 

Pattingill, H. R., address, 
598. 

Plummer, Mary W., rpt. of 
the special com. on resolu- 
tions, 662, 663; com. on lib. 
training, 679. 

Poole, Franklin O. f rpt. of 
secretary- treas. (Amer. as- 
soc. of law lib.), 752; ap- 
pointed secretary - treas., 
758. 

Porter, "Washington T., trus- 
tee of endowment fund, 
685; chairman, Trustee sec- 
tion, 758. 

Preston, Nina K., rpt. of the 
com. on resolutions, 784. 

Price, Helen U., the making 
of Pennsylvania libraries, 
715-721. 

Prisons, rpt. of com. on li- 
braries for federal (League 
of lib. com.), 734-737. 

Professional training for li- 
brarianship, Section on. 
See A. L. A. 

Public documents, members 
of com. on, 678; rpt. of com. 
on, 759, 760. 

Publishing board. See A. L. 
A. 

Putnam, Herbert, com. on 
internat. relations, 679; 
com. on co-ordination, 679; 
member of Executive 
board, 685; cataloging of 
the law division of the Lib. 
of Congress, 750. 

Ranck, Samuel H. and others, 
Recreation symposium, 666- 



668; public documents 
com., 678. 

Raney, M. L., 702. 

Rankin, Julia T., member of 
Council, 685. 

Recreation symposium, 
(Ranck and others), 666- 
668. 

Reeder, C. S., public docu- 
ments com., 678. 

Reinick, W. R., insects de- 
structive to books, 634. 

Rice, Wallace, practical book 
reviewing and manuscript 
reading, 630-633. 

Richardson, Ernest C., rpt. 
of the com. on internat. 
relations, 644; member of 
com. on internat. relations, 
679; com. on co-ordination 
among college lib., 679. 

Roden, Carl B., review of 
Van Dyke, "Spirit of 
America," Croly, "Promise 
of American life," 612-613; 
Treasurer's rpt., 671. 

Root, Azariah S., rpt. of the 
com. on lib. training, 642- 
643; com. on lib. training, 
679; com. on co-ordination 
among college lib., 679; 
chairman, college and ref. 
section, 775. 

Rose, Grace D., com. on lib. 
training, 679; apprentice 
class in the medium-sized 
lib., 783-785. 

Rush, Charles E., rpt. of the 
tellers of election, 685. 

Sargent, Mary E., died, 606. 

Schenck, Frederick W., in- 
struction in the use of a 
law lib., 754. 

Schwab, J. C., com. on co- 
ordination among college 
lib., 679. 

Seaman, William Henry, died 
606. 

Session laws, rpt. of the 
com. on uniformity in pre- 
paration and publ. of (Nat. 
assoc. of state lib.), 698- 
699. 

Sheetz, A. Coleman, 752, 757. 

Shepard, Alice, 782. 

Small, A. J., 753. 

Smith, Anna M., instruction 
of students in the use of 
agricultural and scientific 
literature, 790-791. 

Soule, Charles C., foreign 
law in state lib., 702-703. 

Spencer, Mrs. Mary C., ad- 
dress of welcome (Nat. 
assoc. of state lib.), 689. 

State documents, rpt. of the 
com. on exchange and dis- 
tribution of (Nat. assoc. of 
state lib.) 694-696. 

State libraries, National as- 
sociation of. See National 
association, etc. 

State official literature, rpt. 
of the com. on systematic 
bibliography of (Nat. assoc. 
of state lib.), 722-794. 

State relations, com. on fed- 
eral and. See Federal and 
state relations. 

Statistics, rpt. of the com. on 
uniform traveling lib. 
League of lib. com.), 738. 



Stearns, Lutie E., review of 
Bosher. "Mary Gary," 775; 
agricultural collections in 
public lib., 788-789. 

Steiner, Bernard C., rpt. of 
com. on bookbuying, 644- 
645; rpt. of the com. on 
federal and state relations, 
645; com. on federal and 
state relations, 679. 

Straus, Esther, 775. 

Strohm, Adam, com. on lib. 
training, 679. 

Taylor, Graham Romeyn, 
Play and social welfare, 
668-670. 

Templeton, Charlotte, 732- 
734; possibilities of direct 
service to individual farm- 
ers, 742-746. 

Terquem, Emile, died, 606. 

Thompson, J. D., public 
documents com., 678. 

Tobitt, Edith, essentials of a 
good lib. school, 776-779. 

Thwaites, Reuben Gold, re- 
view of Shackleton "The 
heart of the Antarctic" 
625-626. 

Titcomb, Mary L., com. on 
co-ordination, 679. 

Tyler, Alice S., presiding, 
663; com. on lib. training, 
679; member of Executive 
board pro tern., 679; secr'y 
of professional training 
section, 786. 

Underbill, Caroline M., com. 
on lib. training, 679. 

Van Buren, Maude, 782-783. 

Van Valkenburgh, Agnes, re- 
view of Bacon. "Margar- 
ita's soul," 626-629; organ- 
ization com. of catalog sec- 
tion, 761. 

Wagner, Sula, member of 
Council, 685. 

Walton, Genevieve M., com. 
on co-operation with the 
N. E. A. 678. 

Warren, Irene, com. on co- 
operation with the N. E. 
A., 678; secr'y, College and 
ref. section, 775. 

Webster, Caroline, review of 
Reeder. "How two hun- 
dred children live and 
learn," 775. 

Welles, Jane, apprentice class 
in large library. 779-782. 

Whitten, Robert H., 757. 

Wilson, L. N., com. on co- 
ordination among college 
lib., 679. 

Windsor. Phineas L., relation 
of the state university lib. 
to the other libraries of 
the state, 765-767; chair- 
man, professional training 
section, 786. 

Wire, George E., 753, 758. 

Woodard, Gertrude E., 757, 
758. 

Wright, Purd B., member of 
Executive board, 685. 

Wyer, James I. Jr., chairman, 
book symposium, 611-633; 
member of com. on pro- 
gram, 679; president, A. L. 
A., 685; chairman, agricul- 
tural libraries round table, 
786-797. 



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