THE UNIVERSITY 

OF ILLINOIS 

LIBRARY 

^^ 



PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS 



EIGHTEENTH GENERAL MEETING 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 



CLEVELAND, O., and HACKINAW, Wis. 



Sept. 1-4 and S 



1896 



Published by the 
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

1S96 2_ 



CONTENTS. 



Title. 

Hear the other side : President's address 

Retrospect and prospect in the last years of the century . 
The new building for the Library of Congress .... 
Public documents and the proposed new public docu- (_ 

mentsblll ij 

The appraisal of literature * 

Travelling libraries 

Functions of library trustees and their relation to li- 1 

brarians f 

Advertising a library 

Library editions of popular fiction 

" Do" : advice based on experience 

New and old books : what to buy 

Reading-room and periodicals 

Preparing a book for issue ; and charging systems . . , 
Report on the Congress of Women Librarians at Atlanta. 

Report on giftsand bequests 

The librarian's annual report 

Proposition for an American libraries' clearing-house . . 

State aid to libraries 

The stor>' of Mackinac 

Proceedings 78-151 

First Session 78 

Second Session 78-81 

Invitation from Rowfant Club 78 

Report of Committee on Public Documents . 79-81 

Third Session 81-112 

Resolutions of Public Documents Commit- 



J: C. Dan 
/. .V. Lar 



F. A. Cranda 



5(79) 
13 (79) 



41 



G: lies 26 (83) 

J: Thomson 29 {113) 

F: M. Crnnden 32 (118) 

Miss L. E. Stearns 

C: R. Dudley 

Sundry contributors 

Miss C. M, Hewifis 

Miss H. P. James 

F. P. Hill 

Miss A. B. Kroeger 

Miss C. M. Heiuins 

Miss C. N. Garland 

A. Hepner 

G: M. Lee 



R. G. Th-ii 



ites 



Expert annotation of books 83-85 

Report of Executive Board 85-90 

Library Primer 85 

European trip 86-90 

Treasurer's Report 90-91 

Report of Endowment Fund 91-92 

Gifts and bequests 93 

Report on Library Schools 93-96 

On Armour Institute 97 

On Pratt Institute 97 

A. L. A. Publishing Section 97-104 

Supplement to Reading for the young ... 104 

Report of Co-operation Committee .... 105-109 
Foreign Documents 109-112 

Fourth Session 112-124 

Travelling libraries 113 

Amendment to Constitution 113 

Poole Memorial Fund 113-114 

Exhibt:ions of Engravings and Pictures . . 114-117 
A. L. A. and Trustees' Section 117-124 

Fifth Session 124-132 

National Educational Association 125 

Library editions of books 125-127 



Library* furniture and appliances . . . . , 

Reading-room , 

Accessioning, classifying, and cataloging . , 

Reference work , 

Report of Finance Committee 

Sixth Session , 

A. L. A. Catalog Supplement , 

I Sociology , 

Science 

Useful arts , 

History , 

Children's books , 

Fiction , 

Seventh Session 

Charging systems , 

European tour , 

Conference of i8g8 , 

Committee on Resolutions , 

Result of election , 

Banquet , 

Eighth Session , 

Necrology 

Trustees' Section , 

College Library Section , 

State Library Associations 

The Social Side. Miss L. E. Stearns . . . . 
Some memories of the Library Conference, 

Anne Wallace 

The Post-Conference. Miss //. F. Haines. 

Attendance register 

Attendance summaries 



25) 
25) 
43 
47 (129) 
49 (»29) 
51 C147) 
57 ("2) 
. 58 (93) 
65 (131) 
67 (147) 
68 
71 (151) 
. 127-128 
129 
. 129-130 
. 130-131 
. 131-132 
- 132-147 
. 132-146 

• 134-135 
. 135-1 3<5 

137 
. 138-139 
. 139-141 
. 14T-146 
, 147-151 

• 147-149 
. X49-150 



150 

150-151 



152-153 
153-154 
I54-J55 



156-159 
159-165 
165-171 






c caa-^ ■ 



CONFERENCE OF LIBRARIANS. 



CLEVELAND AND MACKINAW, 



September 1-4 and 8, 1896. 



ADDRESS BV THE PRESIDENT, JOHN COTTON DANA, LIBRARIAN OF THE 
DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



HEAR THE OTHER SIDE. 



T SOMETIMES fear my enthusiasm for the 
free public library is born more of contagion 
than of conviction. Consider the thing in some 
of its evident aspects. You have a building per- 
haps erected to perpetuate a good man's mem- 
ory, a monument and of use only as a monu- 
ment ; or constructed in accordance with the 
views of an architect whose ideas of beauty are 
crude and whose thought of utility is naught ; ill- 
adapted to the purpose for which it is intended ; 
poorly lighted ; badly ventilated. In it are stored 
a few thousand volumes, including, of course, 
the best books of all time — which no one reads 
— and a generous per cent, of fiction of the 
cheaper sort. To this place come in good pro- 
portion the idle and the lazy. Also the people 
who can't endure the burden of a thought, and 
who fancy they are improving their minds, while 
in fact they are simply letting the cool water of 
knowledge trickle through the sieve of an idle 
curiosity. The more persistent visitors are 
largely men who either have failed in a career, 
or never had a career, or do not wish a career. 
We all know our own indolents, our own 
idlers, our own "boarders." There is little 
that is inspiring, per se, in the sight of the 
men who gather in the newspaper reading- 
room of any free public library. There is not 
much that is encouraging in a careful look at 
the people who are the more constant visitors 
to the shelves of the reference department. 
Who wear out our dictionaries, the students 
of language or the competitors in a word- 
building contest ? Of those who come to the 
delivery counter, if our friends tell the truth, 60 
to 80 per cent, rarely concern themselves, as far 



as the library knows them, with anything out- 
side of fiction, and in that field concern them- 
selves generally only with the latest novel, 
which they wish because it is the latest. And 
of this 60 to 80 per cent., a large proportion — 
probably at least half — prefer to get, and gen- 
erally do get, a novel of the cheaper kind. 

I am stating the case plainly. I share your 
enthusiasm ; but that enthusiasm is not seldom 
to me — and I believe to you — a cause for sur- 
prise. Has it not often come sharply home to. 
every one of you — the hopelessness of the task 
we assume to set ourselves ? the triviality of the 
great mass of the free public library's educa- 
tional work ? the discouraging nature of the 
field ? the pettiness, the awful pettiness, of re- 
sults? 

Nor is this all. That we strive for great 
things and accomplish the infinitely little ; that 
our output is by no means commensurate with 
the size of the plant and the cost of its main- 
tenance, this is by no means the only fact which 
may rightly sober our enthusiasm. 

Fathers and mothers love their children and 
look after their happiness. The more they do 
this, the more they concern themselves that the 
human beings they have brought into the world 
be self-reliant, self-supporting people, knowing 
how to live in harmony with their fellows, and 
wishing so to live, the more civilized are they. 
Parental responsibility is something the sense of 
which has never been too acute. That I may 
rightly scorn and despise my neighbor if his 
children be not decent, attractive, civilized ; that 
my neighbor may rightly consider himself dis- 
graced if his offspring grew not up in the fear 



324G3? 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



and admonition of the — good citizen; these 
things are not yet commonly received. The 
native manners and the education of the Ameri- 
can child are looked upon, not so much as the 
result of parentage and home training, as the 
good gift of God and the public school. 

A strong sense of parental responsibility — 
this is a prime essential in the growth of true 
culture — in the increase of social efficiency. 
And this feeling of obligation to train properly 
the souls of one's own creation ; this sense that 
the parent can win public approval as a parent 
only when the result is an additional factor in 
the public's happiness and comfort ; this rule of 
living would surely result, if rightly applied, in 
careful consideration of the child's education. 
But what have we done ? We have turned the 
whole subject of education over to the commu- 
nity. We have made it depend very largely on 
the result of an annual counting of noses. We 
have let it slip gradually into the hands of those 
veritable and inevitable children of government 
— the politicians. The American parent is in- 
different to the character of the education of his 
children. The interposition of the community 
in what should be his affairs has not only made 
him indifferent to those affairs, it has made 
others indifferent that he is so. He pays his 
taxes. If the schools are poor the fault is at 
the school-board's door, not his. 

I am dwelling long on this point, for it is vital. 

The free public library not only relieves the 
idle and incompetent and indifferent from the 
necessity — would he have books — of going to 
work to earn them ; it not only checks the 
growth of the tendency of the private individual 
to collect a library of his own, adapted to his 
own needs, and suiting his own tastes and those 
of his children ; it also tends to lead parents to 
become indifferent to the general reading of 
their children, just as the free public school may 
lead them to be indifferent to their formal 
education. Certainly, fathers and mothers 
whose children use public libraries seem to care 
very little what and how much their children 
read. They conceal their solicitude from libra- 
rian and assistants, if it exists. Yet, if a collec- 
tion of books in a community is a good thing 
for the community — and we seem to think it is; 
and if it is a good thing particularly for the 
children of the community — and we seem to 
think it is, then it is a good thing, not in itself 
simply, not as an object of worship, not as an 



adequate excuse for the erection of a pleasing 
mortuary monument on the public street, but 
for its effect on young folks' manners and on 
young folks' brains. But to produce a maxi- 
mum effect herein, to produce even a desirable 
effect, the right books must be put into the 
right hand at the right time. Can any do this 
rightly save the parents at least co-operate with 
them ? But the public library is not an institu- 
tion which the mother helps to support because 
she has come to believe in it; because it is her 
pleasure; because she can and does keep a 
watchful eye on its growth and its methods. 
It is part of the machinery of the state. She 
confides her children to its tender mercies in 
the same spirit with which her forbears con- 
fided in their king ! And she does no more. 

Furthermore, the essence of government is 
force. This essence remains whether the visi- 
ble form be king or majority. It is open to 
question — I put it mildly — whether it is ex- 
pedient to touch with the "strong hand" the 
impulse of a people to train with earnest thought 
their young, or the impulse of a people to give 
light to their fellows. People wish, in the 
main, to educate their children. Without this 
wish a school system, public or private, would 
be impossible. This wish is the vital fact; that 
the system is public and tax-supported is the 
secondary fact; the result, not the cause. Peo- 
ple wish also, in the main, to give their fellows 
and themselves the opportunity for self-im- 
provement. This wish is the vital fact at the 
bottom of the free, compulsorily supported'pub- 
lic library. It is on these vital facts we should 
keep our eyes and our thoughts, not on the 
feature of compulsion. Work, then, for the 
extension of the public library from the starting- 
point of human sympathy, from the universal 
desire for an increase of human happiness by 
an increase of knowledge of the conditions of 
human happiness, not from the starting-point 
of law, of compulsion, of enforcing on others 
our views of their duty. 

I have said enough in this line. To the ob- 
servant eye our libraries are not altogether 
halls of learning; they are also haunts of the 
lazy. They do not interest parents in their 
children; perhaps they lead parents to be indif- 
ferent to their children. 

But really, you say, all this is not our con- 
cern. You have had this thought — what is 
all this to us? — already and many times in 



DANA. 



these few minutes. We find ourselves here; 
loving the companionship of books; desirous 
of extending the joys they can give to our fel- 
lows; embarked in public service, and active — 
none are more so; zealous — none are more so; 
honest — none are more so, in our work of 
making good use of books. Your modern li- 
brarian is in his daily life no disputatious econ- 
omist, idly wavering, like the fabled donkey, 
between the loose hay of a crass individualism 
and the chopped feed of a perfectionist socialism. 
He is a worker. If there are things to be said 
which may add to the efficiency of his attempts 
to help his fellows to grow happier and wiser, 
let us hear them; and for this we have come 
together. 

I have said these things, I am sure you will 
believe me, not with the wish to lessen the zeal 
of one of us in our chosen work. A moment's 
look at the case against us cannot anger us — 
that were childish; cannot discourage us — that 
were cowardly; it may lead us to look to the 
joints in our armor; it should lead us to renew 
our efforts. If the free public library move- 
ment be not absolutely and altogether a good 
thing — and he is a bold economist who vows 
that it is — how urgent is the call to us to make 
each our own library the corrective, as far as 
may be, of the possible harm of its existence. 
A collection of books gathered at public ex- 
pense does not justify itself by the simple fact 
that it is. If it be not a live educational insti- 
tution it were better never established. It is 
ours to justify to the world the literary ware- 
house. A library is good only as the librarian 
makes it so. 

Can we do more than we have done to justi- 
fy our calling ? Can we make ourselves of 
more importance in the world ? — of more posi- 
itive value to the world? Our calling is digni- 
fied in our own eyes, it is true ; but we are 
not greatly dignified in the eyes of our fellows. 
The public does not ask our opinions. We are, 
like the teachers, students; and we strive, like 
them, to keep abreast of the times, and to have 
opinions on vital topics formed after much 
reading and some thought. But save on more 
trivial questions, on questions touching usually 
only the recreative side of life, like those of lit- 
erature commonly so called, our opinions are 
not asked for. We are, to put it bluntly, of 
very little weight in the community. We are 
teachers; and who cares much for what the 



teacher says ? I am not pausing now to note 
exceptions. We all know our masters and our 
exemplars ; and I shall not pause to praise the 
men and women who have brought us where 
we are; who have lifted librarianship, in the es- 
timation of the wise and good, to a profession, 
and have made it comparatively an easy thing 
for you and me to develop our libraries, if we 
can and will, into all that they should be, and 
to become ourselves, as librarians, men and 
women of weight and value in the community. 
I do not pause to praise them. They under- 
stand as well as I that approval and counsel 
cannot well come from me to them. 

I have said that your library is perhaps in- 
juring your community ; that you are not of 
any importance among your own people. And 
these, you tell me, are hard sayings. In truth 
they are. I am not here to pass you any com- 
pliments. If for five minutes we can divest 
ourselves of every last shred of our trappings 
of self-satisfaction, and arouse in ourselves for 
a moment a keen sense of our sins of omission, 
of things left undone or not well done, I shall 
be content, and shall consider that we have 
wisely opened these Cleveland sessions. I 
would wish to leave you, here at the very be- 
ginning of our discussions, not, indeed, in the 
Slough of Despond, but climbing sturdily, and 
well aware that you are climbing, the Hill 
Difficulty. Others. I can assure you, will, long 
before our conference ends, lead us again, and 
that joyfully, to our Delectable Mountains. 

Pardon me, then, while I say over again a 
few of the things that cannot be too often said. 

Look first to your own personal growth. Get 
into touch with the world. Let no one point 
to you as to an instance of the narrowing ef- 
fects of too much of books. Broaden out. 

Be social. Impress yourself on your com- 
munity ; in a small way if not in a large. Be 
not superior and reserved. Remember that he 
who to the popular eye wears much the air of 
wisdom is never wise. 

Coming to your chosen profession; Speak 
out freely on matters of library management; 
and especially, in these days, on matters of li- 
brary construction. In recent years millions 
of dollars have been spent on library buildings 
in this country, and we have not yet a half 
dozen in the land that do not disgrace us. If 
we have stood idly by and not made our opin- 
ions, our knowledge, our experience, felt by 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



trustees and architects, then is ours the blame, 
and we are chief among the sufferers. Per- 
suade architects and their associations, local 
and national — who ignore us because in our 
inconsequence they know they can — that they 
may wisely and without loss of dignity consult 
the professional librarian about the building he 
is to occupy. I say persuade them ; I might 
better say compel them. To compel them will 
be eas)' when you have become of importance 
in the world. Even now it is not too soon to 
attempt to confer with them. You can at once 
make the beginning of friendly and helpful 
relations with the American Institute of Archi- 
tects. But you must ask, not demand. 

Advertise the A. L. A. and what it stands 
for. Help to broaden its field. Support heart- 
ily measures which look to a greater degree 
of publicity for it. Interest your trustees in 
it. Interest your friends, and your patrons 
and constituents in it. Be ready and willing 
to do your share of the work — and there's 
no end of work — that each year must be 
done to keep it properly alive and well in 
the public eye. Call the attention of your 
trustees to the difference between the efficient 
library, such as the A. L. A. advocates and 
strives for, and the dead-and-alive collection of 
books, still altogether too common where the 
A. L. A. spirit has not yet penetrated. Con- 
sider the contrast between the possible public 
library and the public library that is. If the 
causes for that contrast lie at your door, face 
them frankly and bravely, and strive to remove 
them. 

Do not forget the Library Department of the 
National Educational Association, recently es- 
tablished. It gives you excuse, and it gives 
you cause, to take an interest, more active 
even than heretofore, in the introduction of 
books and library methods into school work, 
and to concern yourselves more than ever be- 
fore with the general reading of teachers and 
their pupils. Impress upon teachers the value 
to them of your library. Persuade them, if you 
can, that to do their best work they must know 
well and use freely the good books. 

See that your local book and news man is 
heartily with you in the work of spreading 
knowledge of the right use of books and in 
encouraging ownership of books in your com- 
munity. If you come in contact with the book- 
seller and the publisher of the great cities do 



what you can to persuade them that to join in 
the work of the A. L. A. is not only to benefit 
the community at large, but to help their own 
particular business as well. 

Be not slow in giving hearty recognition to 
those who have, in the beginnings of library 
science, taken the first place and borne the 
burdens and made an easy way for us who fol- 
low. If, perhaps against some odds, a libra- 
rian, man or woman, is making an eminent 
success of some great city library, may you not 
properly send him, once and again, a word 
which shall signify that you, at least, are alive 
to the fact of his good work and are yourself 
encouraged and inspired thereby ? Like words 
of approval you may well extend to the good 
men, outside of the profession proper, who 
have given their time and energy, a labor of 
love, to improve certain features of library 
work. I need not specify. 

Interest in your work in your own communi- 
ty your local book-lovers and book-collectors 
and book-worms and private students and plod- 
ders and burners of the midnight oil. Get in 
touch with the teachers of literature in the col- 
leges and schools of your neighborhood. Ex- 
pound to such, and to the general reader as 
well, whenever you properly can, the difficul- 
ties and the possibilities of your calling, your 
conquests in classification and cataloging, and 
your advances in bibliography and indexing, 
and the progress in recent years of general 
library economy. Remember that all these 
things can be even better done in the small 
community, in the village library of a few hun- 
dred volumes, than in the large library of the 
great city. 

Note the women's clubs, art associations, 
historical societies, scientific societies. Do not 
forget the private schools. In the small town 
you can gain without difficulty the good-will of 
the local newspaper. You can often assist the 
editor in his work, and lead him to help you in 
return. The clergymen in your town certainly 
care somewhat for the reading of their young 
people, and will co-operate with you in any in- 
telligent effort to increase it and improve it. 
The Sunday-school libraries of j'our neighbor- 
hood are open to your suggestions, if you ap- 
proach them properly. And the Y. M. C. and 
the Y. W. C. associations will gladly take from 
you advice and assistance in the management 
of their reading-rooms and their libraries. 



LARNED.. 



None are so poor that they cannot give to 
others; and few libraries are so small that they 
cannot spare books and magazines enough to 
make a little library which may be sent out into 
a still smaller community and there do good 
service. 

Do the business men and the business women, 
the active people, those who feed us and clothe 
us and transport us, those who have brought 
about in the last few decades the great increase 
in creature comforts for every one, do these 
business people take an active interest in your 
library? Do they care for you, or for your 
opinion? If not, is it their fault? is it that 
they are gross and dull and material and world- 
ly; or is it that you, the wise librarian, know 
not yet how to bring your educational forces to 
bear on the life that now is ? Our work is but 
begun so long as we are not in close touch with 
the man of affairs. 

Remember that as you in your little town, or 
in your city, widen the sphere of your influ- 
ence, grow to be a person of worth and dignity 
in the community, you thereby add so much 
to the dignity and to the effectiveness of the 
whole profession. If in a city or town near 
you there is a library which, in its general 
arrangement is not what it should be, which is 
but a dusty pile of printed pages or but a roost- 
ing-place for a flock of cheap novels, yours is 
in part the fault, and you are largely the loser. 
When a dweller in that town, one unacquainted 
with library affairs — and most are such — 
hears you alluded to as a " librarian," he thinks 
of you as a person akin to the bibliothecal 
pagan who fails to manage the library of his 



own town, the only library he knows by which 
he can measure your work. He is a " li- 
brarian"; you are a "librarian." We wear 
the livery of our coworkers as well as our 
own. 

Keep these thoughts in mind and you will 
see how essential it is, would our profession 
reach the standing we wish it to reach, would 
we make it everywhere an honor to wear our 
name, that every smallest library be an effec- 
tive educational machine, and that every hum- 
blest librarian be an active, enthusiastic, intel- 
ligent worker. Yet some people in charge of 
accumulations of books must even now be 
urged to join the A. L. A. 

See that your library is interesting to the 
people of the community, the people who own 
it, the people who maintain it. Deny your 
people nothing which the book-shop grants 
them. Make your library at least as attractive 
as the most attractive retail store in the com- 
munity. Open your eyes to the cheapness of 
books at the present day, and to the unimpor- 
tance, even to the small library, of the loss of 
an occasional volume; and open them also to 
the necessity of getting your constituency in 
actual contact with the books themselves. 

Remember always that ta.xation is compul- 
sion; that ta.xation is government; that govern- 
ment, among present-day human creatures, is 
politics; that the end of an institution may not 
justify its means; that a free public library may 
be other than a helpful thing. See to it, there- 
fore, the more carefully that your own public 
library at least is rationally administered, and 
promotes public helpfulness. 



RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT IN THE LAST YEARS OF 
THE CENTURY. 

HY JOSEPH NELSON LARNED, SUPERINTENDENT, BUFFALO LIBRARY. 



TT is hazardous to attempt to look at things 
in our own time as they will appear to a 
philosophic eye in the future, looking back upon 
them in the perspective which time arranges, 
and under the double light of history which slants 
on them from before and from behind. But I 
shall venture the attempt, and anticipate, if pos- 
sible, the more important judgments that will be 



pronounced on the age which rounds our cen- 
tury to its end, by thoughtful historians of com- 
ing days. 

What I think they will conclude, briefly out- 
lined, is this: That the dominant processes of 
culture in modern civilization have been those 
which tend to what may accurately be called tin' 
tvidaiing of lif,- ; that in our century those proc- 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



esses have reached a climax of acceleration, so 
nearly exhausting the energies of mankind that 
little has been left for the deepening of the cur- 
rents of life which ought to go with them ; that 
the inevitable consequence is a flagrant super- 
ficiality in the character of the time. For the 
life of men, as we all know, is measurable in 
three dimensions : One given by its material 
conditions ; another by the activities and the 
practical knowledge that make up so great a 
part of it ; the third by those things of the spirit 
which hold all its nobility. What I mean, there- 
fore, by the "widening of life" is a develop- 
ment of mankind in the two easier directions, of 
material well-being and practical knowledge, 
along lines which define a plane and not a solid 
of civilization. And I say that in these present 
days we are at or near a climax of thin and 
flattened culture to which the prevailing process- 
es of social evolution in modern times have 
tended steadily. 

The widening of life, which I have named as 
the great and dominant characteristic of civiliza- 
tion in modern times, may be said to have be- 
gun with the spread of Hellenism in the wake 
of the conquests of the Macedonian Alexander. 
Then it met and marched with Rome, and joined 
the following of Christianity, until it possessed a 
more spacious arena of peace, of social order, of 
commerce, of human acquaintance, of the inter- 
change of knowledge, than had ever been 
opened before to the race of men for their 
growth. But when the empire of Rome was 
broken, and the new races out of the barbarous 
north took the making of European history 
into their hands, this movement of expansive 
culture suffered more than a check. The cur- 
rents of life were shrunk into narrow channels 
again, circumscribed by the rude medieeval con- 
ditions of war, anarchy, feudal oppressions, 
ignorance, superstitions. How they won re- 
lease at last, flowing out on vigorous new 
streams of inquiry and enterprise, to revived in- 
tercourse with the east, to impassioned study of 
the forgotten classics of Greece, to the inven- 
tion of printing, to the finding of the Indies by 
the way of the sea, to the discovery of a new 
world in the west, to the settling of the now 
rounded and comprehended globe of the earth 
in its rightful place among satellite planets, in 
the universal procession of the stars, does not 
need to be told. To rehearse the familiar story 
of renaissance is no part of my purpose. What 



I plan to do is to trace partly the course of some 
few among the differing movements in recent 
centuries that make up the distinctly expansive 
progress of civilization, and to show with what 
effect they have been precipitated on the present 
age with a great and sudden increase of velocity. 

The first in time and always the most vigor- 
ous widening of human life has been on the 
lines of trade ; and trade through all past 
periods has borne with, it, in its vessels and 
vehicles, much more than its own merchandise. 
It scattered in the towns and cities of western 
Europe that seed of burgess independence which 
grew into the finally sovereign Third Estate. 
Unwittingly and without intention it has been, 
until these later times, the very servant of Free- 
dom, to nurse its infancy and nourish its 
strength, wherever Freedom had birth and 
growth. The burghers of Holland and the 
commons of England drew alike from it the 
larger measure of their power. And the whole 
greatness of England, what is it, in the frame, 
but a mighty fabric of trade? What pillar of 
her empire is there that her merchants did not 
raise? And where is the considerable shore, 
from America to Australasia, to which the lan- 
guage, the law, the liberties, and some copy of 
the Parliament of England has not been carried 
with her plantations by English ships ? 

In times past, too, the commerce of the world 
was always the one great common school of 
mankind. They learned their geography in it, 
their natural history, and the better part of all 
their science. As said before, they bartered 
more than commodities with one another. Arts, 
economies, methods, experiences, customs, in- 
stitutions, moral notions, ideas, were plentiful 
in the cargoes that went and came between 
strange countries and people. 

And so, throughout history, until we come to 
its later chapters, the merchant-adventurer has 
been invested with a high and grave dignity by 
the vast importance of the many and potent in- 
fluences that were kept active by his enterprise 
and supported by his wealth. 

But now there is little left of those robes of 
dignity which commerce wore formerly, as the 
patron of political freedom and as the teacher 
of many things. The common knowledge of 
the world has outrun its teaching; the common 
condition of men in most lands has become su- 
perior to its patronage. It is no longer the 
merchant only who travels abroad, but all men 



LARNED. 



are travellers. What remains to be learned of 
countries or peoples is looked for from the sci- 
entific explorer ; what remains of popular rights 
to be secured must be won by the artisan and 
the laborer. In a word, there is sheer naked- 
ness to-day for the mercenary motives which 
actuate trade, and all there is of vulgarity in its 
spirit and aims shows bare to the sight. Shows, 
too, more conspicuously than ever before, be- 
cause of its prodigious activity, and the vast 
compass to which it has spread. Neither econ- 
omist nor historian has yet adequately repre- 
sented the magnitude of the revolution wrought 
in commerce within our century by the employ- 
ment of steam. With the fleetness of its carri- 
ers increased and their service cheapened year 
by year ; with its great net of highways, woven 
finer and finer in the mesh, stretching fast over 
the whole habitable earth, and drawing all cov- 
etable things, little or great, into one common 
exchange ; with the commodities of every con- 
tinent gathered into every market, and each 
town made the seat of an endless world's fair — 
the new character developed in commerce and 
the new influences that proceed from it are not 
easily traced or described. 

On one side there are marvellous effects al- 
most wholly good. It is a plain fact that they 
have bettered beyond measure the circumstances 
of material well-being for civilized mankind. 
What were luxuries for the few they have 
cheapened into comforts and pleasures for the 
many ; and by raising the standard of life in its 
physical terms they are helping to prepare it for 
a wholly finer tone. Let that large credit be 
frankly given. But against it we are forced to 
set greeds and vulgarities, in this steam-driven, 
electrified commerce of our day, which are dis- 
gusting and hateful. Having grasped all the 
exchangeable commodities of the earth, and 
trafficked to the uttermost extent of actual trade, 
it turns them now into gambling stakes, dupli- 
cates them in paper fictions, over which gam- 
blers, who call themselves merchants and busi- 
ness men, howl like animals, in places which 
bear the honorable name of exchanges and 
boards of trade. 

But this is not all. Within the honest reali- 
ties of trade there is a clawing scramble of com- 
petition, fairly brutal in its temper, that will 
have a shameful aspect by and by, when it is 
looked back upon over one or two centuries of 
time. Our ancestors of the middle ages saw 



something of its kind, perhaps, now and then, 
when their great market fairs were occasionally 
held, and when the cries from rival booths and 
the shouts of fighting apprentices, and all the 
hurly burly of an eager, mannerless, rough con- 
tention for custom deafened their ears. For 
us, the cries from the booths are put into adver- 
tising print, and the cudgel of the 'prentice is 
exchanged for the bill-poster's brush ; but there 
is not much discoverable refinement in the 
change. And our fair goes on through all 
seasons of all the years. 

Let us leave the thought of it, and turn back 
to consider those movements of political eman- 
cipation which ran parallel, for so long a time 
in history, with the lines on which commerce 
expanded. I shall not attempt to follow the 
steps of the people in their slow advance out of 
servitude, and_from under harsh oppressions, 
to the state of personal freedom and eifectual 
citizenship that prevails in most civilized coun- 
tries to-day. I wish only to point attention to 
a much-overlooked fact in the history of the 
evolution of democracy, which is this : That 
all the acquisitions of political power made by 
the common mass of people, in the freest coun- 
tries, down to a time not remote in the memory 
of living men, were more in seeming than in 
reality — or, rather, they were more potential 
than potent. What in fact the people at large 
had gained was a. footing in the political sys- 
tem, from which it became possible for them to 
exercise an irresistible power of control when- 
ever they found opportunity for organization 
and united action. But opportunities for union 
and organization were few and limited, so long 
as the means of communication were what 
they were until less than half a century ago. 
While the horse, in most regions, remained the 
sole carrier in service, for travel and corre- 
spondence alike, and while weekly journals and 
gazettes were the only disseminators of news, 
it was out of the question for an effective com- 
bination of citizens to be formed on any exten- 
sive scale, for a really independent enforce- 
ment of opinion or will in public affairs. In 
some small local circle, like that of the New 
England town-meeting, they could realize a 
popular government completely. But in the 
larger arenas, of state and federal affairs in 
America, and of national politics in Great 
Britain, their mere suffrage in the election of 
representatives was a half-futile, uncertain po- 



CLE VEL A ND CO NFERENCE. 



litical power. They could not follow events 
closely enough, and they could not keep enough 
in touch with each other and with their political 
representatives, to have opinions much defined 
or currently influential. They were arranged 
more fixedly in two parties, the for and the 
against some broad generality of doctrine, than 
will ever be possible again. The power se- 
creted in their ballots exploded now and then 
in revolutions, which threw one party out of 
the government and another in, and which pro- 
nounced a popular judgment, perhaps, on some 
mischief long after it had been done. But of 
public opinion, as a currently manifested, per- 
sisting, controlling democratic force in politics, 
there was little, and could only be little until 
the quick, tremendous agencies that now acton 
it and for it were recently created. 

Thus democracy, as meaning an effective 
distribution among the people at large, in any 
considerable community, of the practical pow- 
ers as well as the theoretical rights of self- 
government, never existed and was never pos- 
sible before the present time. We are just in 
the stage of social evolution at which a real 
popular opinion, half-informed and unreasonable 
for the most part, but, nevertheless, a deter- 
mined opinion formed by individual minds, 
appears wide-awake for the first time in human 
history — watchful of passing events and rising 
questions, and ready to act on them day by 
day, as they come. It is an absolutely new 
force in society, wholly different in kind as 
well as in degree from what passed for public 
opinion a century or half a century ago. For 
one of its first effects we discover that it is eat- 
ing like an acid into the substance of the great 
old political parties of every democratic nation. 
In France, in England, and here in America 
their hard rigidity has been yielding to it with- 
in the last dozen or 20 years. They are un- 
dergoing dissolution, breaking into shifting 
factions, or making room for ephemeral experi- 
ments in new party organization, on issues 
that excite opinion for a day and then drop 
from the fickle public mind. The day of pure 
duality in politics is gone; we shall never know 
it again. 

And it is not in politics only that these 
phenomena are found. The whole ancient 
structure of society is entering on the same 
process of dissolution in all its parts. The old 
apparent stabilities in it are everywhere giving 



way, to be replaced by conditions of unstable 
equilibrium — the conditions, in fact, which 
Nature, in all her working, identifies with or- 
ganic life, and which promise, therefore, a 
vital and enduring constitution of society for 
the future. But now we are experiencing those 
conditions at their worst. It is the fortune — 
some may say the misfortune — of our genera- 
tion to have its moment of life bestowed in a 
chaotic and anarchic interval, between the 
solidity that was crystallized in the classes and 
parties and churches of an inorganic society 
hitherto, and the elasticity of living tissue that 
will unquestionably come into the substance of 
the social body hereafter. We suffer the 
anxieties of the loss of a static quietude in the 
one ; we shall know very little of the vibrant 
and vivified harmony that must come with the 
other. On us falls the clash of social elements 
breaking out of their old combinations and 
seeking affinities for the new ; the disorder of 
a crumbling labor system ; the disturbed se- 
curity of all provident capital ; the shocks of 
increasing hostility between head and hand, or 
between schemer and toiler, or between purser 
and worker, in the industrial world ; the per- 
sisting mischief of dishonest monetary projects; 
the continual eruption of mad social theories, 
anarchic and nihilistic, and the widening ac- 
ceptance of more innocent and more danger- 
ously delusive social dreams ; these discord- 
ances, which belong to the early movements 
of a great and radical revolution in the con- 
stitution of society, have fallen especially to 
our lot, in the procession of the generations 
of mankind, and it is for us to be as wise and 
as courageous and as hopeful in the dealing 
with them as we can. They are an obvious, 
inevitable outcome of the perfected apparatus 
of communication, which facilitates agree- 
ments, understandings, combinations and un- 
dertakings of every nature, for mischief or for 
good, among men at the present day. If I 
have dwelt on the sinister side in my sketch of 
these phenomena of the time, it is because the 
sinister side is most conspicuous, receives most 
attention, affects most the feeling of our genera- 
tion, and needs explanation most. We need, 
that is, to be made to see that what looks dis- 
couraging to us in the contemporary scene is 
but a phase of human history darkened by 
shadows that will surely pass, even as they 
came. If the old order in society is dissolved 



LARNED. 



by a fluid ease of intercourse and communica- 
tion among its members, a new order will arise 
from the yet greater mobilities of a coming 
time. Many prophetic signs of it are already 
given to us. The ferment of altruism that is 
quickening in all social sentiment day by day 
will produce, at last, a very protoplasm for the 
social body, to be the seat of its life. 

But there is one set of present-day condi- 
tions — the most disheartening, perhaps, of all — 
and one set of influences behind them — the 
most powerful of all — that yet remain to be 
considered. I have scarcely spoken of print 
and the press, among the servants of human 
intercourse which are widening life at the 
present day by so sudden and stupendous a 
stretch, because they need to be distinctly dis- 
cussed. The confusing and overwhelming 
effects that pour from them now are so altered, 
in kind as well as in measure, from all former 
experience, that we cannot easily understand 
them or recognize them for what they are. 
Let us glance back along the lines on which 
the energy and range of written language have 
been expanded by the printer's art. 

From the first movement of its lever, the 
press brought an immeasurable new force into 
modern civilization. Though its earliest ser- 
vice was rendered mainly to scholarship, in the 
diffusion of the classic writings of antiquity, it 
was speedily drawn into a more popular arena, 
and gave a voice to the appeals of religion, a 
weapon to theological controversy. The ra- 
pidity of its work at that early period is shown 
by the rapidity of the spread of the ideas of the 
Reformation, for which it was a vehicle that 
could not have been spared. Between Guten- 
berg's death and Luther's birth there were 
only 15 years ; but the reformer found already 
an extensive commonalty in most parts of 
Europe prepared to be reached and acted on by 
the printed tract and book. That the intellect- 
ual horizons of life were widened from that day 
is one of the plainest facts of history. Its skies, 
too, were lifted to a loftier arch, and it was made 
larger in all ways by energies which the new 
instrument of knowledge set free. For then, 
and long afterwards, the splendid work of type 
and press was earnestly done. Some kind of 
purpose — not always good, nor wise, nor true, 
nor wholesome, but something that had thought 
behind it, or fact, or imagination, or emotion — 
was in most things which received the printer's 



stamp. The stream of print that runs down 
through the 17th and iSth centuries is rippled 
by few extensive shallows. 

At the opening of the iQth century the book 
and the tract remained still the principal prod- 
ucts of the press, and the custody or the convey- 
ance of ideas was still its chief employ. It had 
already engaged itself in a lighter service, as 
the messenger of news; but that was a mere ap- 
prenticeship, not yet promising of much effect. 
So long as the gathering of news depended on 
the vehicles of the olden time, it was too slow 
and too limited a work to greatly stir the 
world. But when the speed of lightning and 
the energy of steam were offered to the news- 
paper press, that passed suddenly to the front 
of all the influences acting on mankind. School, 
pulpit, and platform were left behind it. The 
mastery of our later civilization, in the moral 
moulding of it, if no more, was soon seen to 
have been grasped by adventurers in a new 
commerce, which made merchandise of pass- 
ing history and marketed the tidings of the day. 

Meantime, the common school had been do- 
ing its work far and wide, and most men and 
women, of the leading races, had learned to 
read. That is to say, they had learned to de- 
cipher language put into print, or had learned 
reading as a simple art. But the educational 
use — the culture use — of the art was some- 
thing which no majority of them had yet ac- 
quired. To make readers of them in practice 
as well as potentially, another agency was 
wanted beyond that of the school. The news- 
paper came apparently to supply it. Books 
and libraries of books were not yet equal to 
that mission. Perhaps it will always be im- 
possible for book literature of any kind to push 
its way or to be pushed into the hands of the 
people with the penetrating energy which car- 
ries newspapers among them. At all events, 
the common school making'possible readers, and 
the newspaper inviting them to read, arrived 
together at a conjunction which might have 
seemed to be a happy miracle for the univer- 
salizing of culture in the western world. The 
opportunity which came then into the hands of 
the conductors of the news press, with the new 
powers that had been given them, has never 
been paralleled in human history. They might 
have been gardeners of Eden and planters of a 
new Paradise on the earth ; for its civilization 
was put into their hands, to be made what they 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



would have it to be. If it could have been pos- 
sible then to deal with newspapers as other 
educational agencies are dealt with; to invest 
them with definite moral responsibilities to the 
public; to take away from them their commer- 
cial origin and their mercenary motive; to in- 
spire them with disinterested aims ; to endow 
them as colleges are endowed; to man them for 
their work as colleges are manned, with learn- 
ing and tried capacity in the editorial chairs — 
if that could have been possible, what imagina- 
ble degree of common culture might not Europe 
and America by this time be approaching to ? 
As it is, we are as we are to-day, disputing and 
striving to explain to one another a condition 
of society which shames all who think of it. 

Nevertheless, during the first two or three 
decades of the modern news-market, as it 
took shape, we will say early in the forties, the 
influence of the newspapers was generally more 
wholesome than otherwise. Readers of them 
were made acquainted with things worth the 
knowing. The world and their life in it, as 
part of a great whole, were very genuinely and 
wholesomely widened to them, and by much 
more than the larger knowledge of it which 
they gathered from day today. The widening 
of the sympathetic life of mankind, meaning 
thereby an increment and expansion of all the 
feelings which press men into closer and warm- 
er relations, and prepare them for a truer un- 
derstanding of one another, was the supreme 
effect upon them of the daily world-history 
which began to be reported to them in the 
period named. 

But the time came when one arose, among 
the brokers of the news-market (it might not 
be impossible to give a name to him, and a 
place in American history), who made a discov- 
ery which proved nearly fatal to daily journal- 
ism in its influence and dignity. He discerned, 
that is, with low shrewdness, an unbounded pos- 
sibility of degradation in human curiosity and 
vanity, as opening a great, vulgar, and profitable 
field to unscrupulous press-reporting. He was 
not left long alone in the ignoble field of his dis- 
covery. One by one the traflSckers in news yield- 
ed to the corrupting example or they were driven 
by less scrupulous competitors into the ranks of 
the new journalism, until, to-day, we can count 
on the fingers of not many hands the important 
newspapers (in America, at least) that will give 
us real and clean news, and not force us to 



strain some meagre pickings of it out of a sick- 
ening compound of trivialities, impertinences, 
vulgarities, morbidities, and worse. 

Here and there we may still bow with respect 
before a newspaper over which the responsible 
Editor has kept his sovereignty. In most in- 
stances he has been deposed, and the irrespon- 
sible Reporter reigns in his place — master of 
the awful power of the Press — chief educator 
of his generation — pervading genius of the 
civilization of his .time. Trained to look at all 
things, in heaven above or in the earth beneath, 
with an eye single to the glory of big type, he 
sees them in one common aspect. The great 
and the little, the good and the bad, the sweet 
and the foul, the momentous and the trivial, the 
tragic and the comic, the public and the sacred- 
ly private, are of one stuff in his eyes — mere 
colorings of a coarse fabric of life which time 
weaves for him to slit and to slash with his 
merciless, indifferent shears. And so, with 
little prejudice and small partiality between 
things high and things low, he makes the daily 
literature on which most of us feed and tincture 
our minds. It is a monotoned literature, and 
its one note is flippancy ; the flippant head-line, 
the flippant paragraph, the flippant narrative, 
the flippant comment. To jest at public calam- 
ity, to be jocular with crime, to cap private 
misfortune with a slang phrase, or sting it with 
a smart impertinence ; to be respectful and seri- 
ous toward nothing else so much as toward the 
gayeties and the gaming of the world of fashion 
and the world of sport, appear to be the perfec- 
tions of the art to which he is trained. 

And no careful observer can fail to see that 
the degradation of the newspaper press is de- 
grading most of the voices of the time. The 
shallow flippancy which began in journalism is 
infecting literature in every popular form. 
More and more the air is filled with thin strains 
of wordy song ; but the great, deep-toned melo- 
dies of thoughtful poetry are dying out of it 
fast. Rhymers multiply apace, and the Reporter 
inspires them. They worship the god Novelty 
with him, and Apollo is forgotten. They ex- 
ercise a frivolous, nimble fancy on tight-ropes 
and trapezes of metrical invention, in perform- 
ances which are curious to behold and melan- 
choly to reflect upon. 

The Reporter inspires the romancer, too, and 
is training him to his own likeness in spirit and 
method ; while the business manager in jour- 



LARNED. 



nalism commercializes his aims, by contracts for 
a serial "output" of literature, measured like 
a telegram or an advertisement, by the number 
of the words. 

The art world, too, is infected with the irre- 
sponsible levity which had its genesis in the 
newspaper. Half of the men who paint pict- 
ures are doing so with scornful denials of any 
thoughtful purpose in their work. "Art for 
.^rt's sake " is the senseless formula of their 
contempt for the reverent service of imagination 
and reason which Art would command of them 
if Art knew them at all. They have crowded 
noisily into her temple, and their powerful pat- 
ron, the Reporter, dubs them "artist" in his 
puffs and paragraphs ; but they belong in reali- 
ty among the color-mixers and craftsmen out- 
side the temple door, who are artisans, not 
artists. 

On all the commoner sides of its life there is 
a shallowness, there is a flippancy, there is a 
vulgarity in the present age which belongs to 
it peculiarly. Who can dispute the fact ? And 
what is plainer than the cause we find in that 
precipitate, enormous expansion and accelera- 
tion of communication in the world which has 
occurred within our time, acting on civilized so- 
ciety, and most powerfully in America — in the 
three modes I have pointed out, namely : (i) an 
increasing excitement of commerce, following 
closely upon the loss from it of all its older 
vesture of educational dignity and adventurous 
spirit, producing for the time a mercenary na- 
kedness which could not fail to be vulgarizing ; 
(2) an abrupt plunge for the freer peoples from 
theoretical into actual and practical democracy, 
with an inevitable dissolving of their prior 
organizations, political, industrial, and every 
other, more rapidly than the new can be soberly 
formed to take their place ; (3) the evolution of 
the modern newspaper and its speedy corrup- 
tion, from the mighty servant of civilization, 
which it ought to be, into the busy pander of 
every vulgarity that the new conditions can 
feed. 

But that is not the end of the story. These 
effects are but early effects — effects in their be- 
ginning, from great enduring causes, the opera- 
tion of which is far from being exhausted in 
them. If the common mind of the age is triv- 
ialized and vulgarized by its newspapers and 
its commerce, it is being at the same time 
pricked to a new alertness, even by the worst 



journalism and the fiercest money-making, and 
faculties are being wakened in it that will some 
day answer the call to higher uses. The in- 
fluences which bear on it to that result are 
steadily gathering volume and weight. For pow- 
erful forces are even now working in the world 
to broaden life for those who will have it so, 
not superficially but profoundly, and not in 
mere sense and circumstance, but in conscious- 
ness and thought. 

There are some ideas which, when they have 
got a setting in the mind, are like magnifying 
lenses to the eye of reason, clearing and en- 
larging its whole vision of things. The Coper- 
nican idea of the structure of the universe was 
such an one. By dispelling the human egotism 
of the views which put man and his 'habitation 
at the centre of creation, it opened new vistas 
to thinking in a hundred directions. The idea 
which Newton brought to light, of a unity of 
law in the universe, was another. The com- 
pleter development of that idea in the doctrine 
of the correlation of forces, or the present day 
notion of Energy, is still another. But of all 
the emancipating conceptions which, one by 
one, have entered and possessed the mind of 
man, there was never one before that brought 
such liberations with it as came by Darwin's 
message to our own time. It is hardly too 
much to say that the full, free exercise of 
human reason on all the greater problems of 
life and destiny, whether personal or social, 
really began with the perception and apprehen- 
sion of evolutionary processes in God's work. 
That has raised the thinking minds of our day 
to a summit of observation which was never 
attainable before, while eager Science brings 
hourly new helps to them for the expansion of 
their view. 

It is true that this intellectual expansion of 
life is nowhere known to all men. Even so 
much of it as goes with vague glimpses of the 
%vorking of universal law is still no common 
experience ; while those who know it in its ful- 
ness are everywhere a few. But something 
from it is diffusing itself in the whole atmos- 
phere of the age ; something penetrating, stim- 
ulating, virile ; something which most men are 
compelled to feel, whether they comprehend it 
or not, and to which the finer elements in them 
must respond by some sort of rally and growth. 
Of hopeful phenomena in the world, that one is 
the greatest of all. It indexes a new state of 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



the common mind , now cleared for the most part 
of old superstitions, and thus prepared for the 
receiving of light to dispel its old ignorances. 

And what a wakening of moral no less than 
intellectual energies there is in our time for 
work directed to that end ! A little while ago 
the steam-engine, the factory, the forge, the 
mine, the mart, represented about all the human 
energy that made itself conspicuous in the civil- 
ized world, excepting some occasional explo- 
sions of it in movements of religious and polit- 
ical enthusiasm and in raging outbursts of 
war. To-day it is not so. No little part of 
the interest, the ardor, the force, the ingenuity 
which spent themselves on those objects before 
are already going over into a very different 
field. We are seeing the rise of an enterprise 
in education which almost rivals the enterprise 
of mechanic industry and trade. Invention is 
half as busy in the improving of schools, in the 
perfecting of instruction, in the circulating of 
books, in the stimulating of reading and study, 
as it used to be busy in the making of machines. 
The diffusion of literature is left no longer to 
depend, like the diffusion of cotton fabrics or 
tea, on the mercenary agencies of trade. Half 
a century ago the free public library was created. 
For 30 years it has been worked over by one 
set of people, just as the steam-engine has been 
worked over by another set, and the electric 
dynamo by another. Its powers have been 
learned, its efficiency developed, in the same 
scientific way. Cunning variations of form are 
being wrought in it to fit all circumstances and 
to do its civilizing work in all places. It be- 
comes a " Travelling library" to make its way 
into the villages and rural corners of the land. 
It becomes a "Home library" to reach the 
tenement-houses and purlieus of the city. It 
spreads itself in branches and delivery stations. 
It distributes choice reading in the schools to 



broaden the teacher's work. It drums and ad- 
vertises its unpriced wares like a shop-keeper 
avaricious of gain. It is taking up the eager, 
laborious, strenuous spirit of the present age, 
and wresting some large part of it away from 
the sordid activities of life, to give it unmerce- 
nary aims. 

So books are being made to do considerably 
alone what books and newspapers ought rightly 
to be doing together. As a carrier in the spirit- 
ual commerce of the world, the book is not 
nearly so agile, so lightly winged, so Mercury- 
like as the newspaper can be; but when each is 
at its best how much nobler is the freightage of 
books! 

As I have said heretofore, I rest my faith in 
a future of finer culture for mankind upon the 
energy of free public libraries in distributing 
good books, far more than upon any other 
agency that is working in the world. So far, 
they have but opened gates into the field of in- 
fluence that is before them ; but the gates are 
really swung wide, and the length and breadth 
of the field is fully seen, and the spirit that will 
possess it and work in it is eagerly alive. I 
speak soberly when I say that the greatest 
antagonism to be met and overcome is that of 
the vulgarized newspaper press. I say this 
with persisting iteration, because I am pro- 
foundly convinced that it is the fact which needs 
most at the present day to be understood. How 
to win readers of the general mass from un- 
wholesome newspapers to wholesome books, or 
how to change the spirit of the common news- 
papers of the day from flippancy to sobriety — 
from the tone of the worst in social manners 
and morals to the tone of the best — is the 
gravest pending problem of civilization. The 
zeal and the energy of free schools and free 
libraries can achieve the solution of it, and there 
is nothing else that can. 



GREEN. 



13 



THE NEW BUILDING FOR THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



BY BERNARD R. GREEN, CIVIL ENGINEER, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



■yi rHEN your president honored me with an 
invitation to be present at this Conference 
and address you on the subject of the Building 
for the Library of Congress he gave no intima- 
tion what feature of it would be the more inter- 
esting to you, and so, without training or ex- 
perience as a librarian, as you must know, 
but rather as an engineer engaged for many 
years in the construction of large build- 
ings, I am left to my own judgment. It is 
fortunate for me, however, that the subject in 
the abstract is so interesting to librarians, for 
this building is, in the most comprehensive 
sense, the largest, most monumental and beau- 
tiful, the best appointed, and therefore the 
grandest that the wor d has yet erected for the 
sole purpose of a library. Nevertheless, ex- 
perience is likely to discover in it room for im- 
provement, because its design was preceded by 
but few or no good examples of library archi- 
tecture and apparatus on a large scale, and was 
therefore the outcome of theory and deduction 
rather than the application of established prin- 
ciples. Furthermore, at the beginning. Con- 
gress adopted only a general plan, in which 
many important details had not been vforked 
out, and began the work without limit of cost 
or period of construction, or defining the char- 
acter of the building. The consequence was a 
change of law and management, and a necessi- 
ty for pushing on vigorously with the work to 
avoid further delay, narrowing the opportunity 
for that degree of thoroughness in the study of 
the plan in detail which its great importance 
demanded. The effort was, finally, to plan on 
general rather than particular principles, and 
afford the largest latitude for e.xpansion and 
rearrangement in the occupation and uses of 
the spaces. The spaces are therefore left whole 
and undivided, with floors of ample strength, 
thorough illumination and ventilation, and fea- 
sibility for any interior alterations that future 
purposes may require. 

The annual report of the Librarian of Con- 
gress, Mr. Spofford, in 1872, first set forth the 
urgent necessity for more room and better 



conveniences for the already congested libra- 
ry, then — and still — located in the Capitol. 
The subject was immediately taken up by the 
Library committees of Congress, but not im- 
mediately disposed of. On the contrary, de- 
spite the unremitting efforts of many friends 
in Congress, the pressure of other business, 
lack of appreciation of the importance of the 
subject, failure to find advisers having their 
implicit confidence, the question of cost, the 
ever-present hlte noire of the battle of the sites, 
and the embarrassing fact that the personnel of 
the committees changed more or less as new 
Congresses succeeded one another, wearily con- 
tinued the disheartening discussion from 1S72 to 
1SS6 (14 years) before an act was passed looking 
to relief for the crowded library. Perhaps, 
however, this delay was a blessing in disguise, 
for it may well be doubted whether so satisfac- 
tory and magnificent a building as we now have 
would have been authorized and so successfully 
carried to completion had not Congress final- 
ly exhausted both the subject and itself be- 
forehand, and thus become willing to place the 
building on a sure business footing and sup- 
port it to the end. 

Many plans were considered during that long 
period, but most of them were essentially alike 
in arrangement and capacity of building, the 
differences being chiefly in the style of architect- 
ure. By Act of April 15, 1886, one of these 
plans, in the Italian Renaissance style, har- 
monious with the Capitol, was adopted, the pur- 
chase of a site, consisting of two city squares 
east of the Capitol, one-quarter of a mile away, 
provided for, and a commission created to carry 
on the work of completing the plans in detail 
and constructing the building. This commis- 
sion was composed of the Secretary of the In- 
terior, the architect of the Capitol, and the Li- 
brarian of Congress. 

The purchase and clearing of the site, which 
was covered by some 70 houses, consumed the 
first year, and the excavation and preparations 
for laying the foundation occupied the next. 
In the third year a part of the foundation was 



14 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



laid. Mr. Smithmeyer, one of the architects 
who furnished the general plan, was employed 
by the commission as architect to carry on op- 
erations under their direction, but the work did 
not proceed satisfactorily, and finally, by Act of 
October 2, i88S, Congress repealed the original 
act, and substituted therefor one which placed 
the entire control and execution of the work in 
the personal hands of General Thos. Lincoln 
Casey, then just appointed Chief of Engineers 
of the Army. He was required to act directly 
under and report directly to Congress, and to 
prepare a new plan which could be executed 
within the limit of cost of $4,000,000. After two 
and one-half years' delay, added to the 14 that 
had preceded, it would have been unwise indeed 
to have consumed one hour more of time than 
was absolutely necessary for the preparation 
of the new plan. The original general plan 
being very good if not perfect, without more 
ado we adopted it as a basis and worked up the 
f 4, 000,000-plan called for, but took the opportu- 
nity to place with it before Congress a modifica- 
tion of the original plan, retaining practically its 
full dimensions, and giving a complete descrip- 
tion and estimate of cost and time of construc- 
tion. As was anticipated. Congress, caring less 
for the cost within a million or two than for a 
definite plan and estimate that could be de- 
pended on, adopted the larger plan at a cost 
limit, from that date, of six and one-quarter 
millions of dollars, and eight years' time for 
construction. 

General Casey took charge October 2, 18SS, 
and the two new plans were laid before Con- 
gress on December i, with the full detailed re- 
port of the projects. By Act of March 2, 1S89, 
Congress adopted the larger plan, whereupon 
the work of construction was immediately re- 
sumed. It has continued without any inter- 
ruption to the present time. 

The plan of the first story or library floor is 
given in the plate facing page 16. 

The building is essentially of three stories, 
but there is also a commodious cellar, dry, 
well lighted and ventilated, under the entire 
structure. The four courtyards are down at 
the cellar floor level. There is also an attic 
story in each of the six pavilions. The stories 
are designated, architecturally, basement, first 
story, and second story, the basement being 
the ground floor. There are but two entrances. 
The main one is on the west front facing the 



Capitol, and in two parts, the one by way of 
the stone platforms and steps leading to the 
first story, or library floor, and the other just 
beneath by way of thefiortf cochlre entering the 
basement. The latter is approached directly by 
carriages under a broad, protecting archway. 
The other entrance to the building is at the 
east front, where a stone platform and other 
arrangements facilitate the receiving and ship- 
ping of freight. The west main pavilion is 
chiefly devoted to the grand staircase hall or 
foyer of the building. It contains only the 
librarian's oflSce, some lavatories, cloak-room, 
the offices of custodian and captain of the 
watch, and, in the attic, some small rooms 
and a restaurant. 

The great central feature of the building is 
the octagon rotunda, crowned by the dome, 
and constituting the public reading-room, 100 
feet diameter in clear by 125 feet high. It con- 
tains the centre of administration of the library 
proper, and is surrounded by a spacious public 
gallery, the entrance and exit of which is by 
way of the main stair hall, independent of the 
entrances to the reading-room. The three inner 
wings adjoining the octagon on its north, east, 
and south sides, are devoted entirely to the 
storage of books, and are therefore constructed 
especially for and filled with shelving on the 
stack plan. -This shelving extends from the 
basement floor level, in nine stories or tiers, to 
the roof. 

As will be observed, the plan of the building 
is perfectly symmetrical on its east and west 
axes, the north and south halves being precisely 
alike. The exterior dimensions are 470 feet 
by 340 feet, and the area covered is 3^^ acres, 
exclusive of approaches and boiler - house. 
The basement story is 14 feet, the first story 
21 feet, and the second story 28 feet high, floor 
to floor, all being multiples of the stack story 
height, which is seven feet. The main floors of 
the building thus coincide with the correspond- 
ing stack decks, and a door is placed at each 
junction therewith, north, south, and east. 
Lavatories are placed in the four corner pavil- 
ions and in the basement of the octagon. 

The plan especially provides for the so-called 
central system of administration, or, that sys- 
tem whereby, as in the British Museum, the 
general readers make all applications and re- 
ceive and return their books at the desk in the 
centre of the reading-room. In this building 



GREEN. 



15 



the whole working portion of the library will 
be operated and managed from the central desk 
in the following manner : 

The central desk includes the catalog 
counter and contains the attendants with all 
requisite apparatus for communication and 
transportation at hand, and an elevated station 
from which an observer may see every reader 
in the room at any time. The reading-tables 
are arranged around the central desk in three 
concentric circles. The inner one is a combina- 
tion of reading-tables, settees, and standing 
writing desks, containing shelves for printed 
catalogs, etc. The other two circles of read- 
ers' tables are double-faced, permitting readers 
to sit on either side. Allowing four feet of width 
to each, 246 readers may be accommodated at 
one time, and more by seating them closer. 
This concentric circular arrangement is a uni- 
form distribution of space, gives a more sym- 
metrical appearance to the room, and places 
the greater part of the seats around the more 
quiet margin remote from the central desk. 

Shelving is placed in the two tiers of alcoves 
surrounding the reading-room, subdividing 
them into spaces wherein special students, or 
readers desiring privacy and quiet, may be ac- 
commodated. 43 such spaces, each from eight 
to 10 feet square, are thus provided, and each 
reader therein may have a table and facilities 
for writing and extended investigation. A 
stairway in each of the eight main piers, which 
surround the reading-room and carry the dome, 
gives access to each tier of the alcoves. 

The reading-room is lighted mainly by eight 
semicircular clerestory windows, each 32 feet 
wide, occupying the arched spaces between the 
main piers above the public gallery and above 
the adjacent roofs of the building. The sills 
of these windows are about 55 feet above the 
floor; admitting the light so high that they are 
more effective than skylights, without any of 
their evils. No shadows are cast in any direc- 
tion, the amount of daylight is sufficient in the 
darkest days, and the reader's eye meets little 
or no direct light unless cast upward at an 
angle of 30 degrees or more. 

The interior is yellow Siena and quiet red 
African marble up to the gallery, above which 
the color is lighter yellow, merging into ivory 
and gold in the vault of the dome. 

The central desk contains a set of 24 pneu- 
matic tubes, one to each deck of the the north 



and south stack, four to the east stack, one to 
the librarian's office, and one to the Capitol. 
All carry messages swiftly and all but the last 
one are speaking-tubes of the best quality. 
The central desk will also contain the terminals 
of mechanical book-carriers to the north and 
south stacks, and be in telephonic communica- 
tion with the librarian's office, the terminal 
station in the Capitol described below, and 
both houses of Congress. Wires are also laid, 
by means of which any electric communication 
may be had at any time with any part and be- 
tween all parts of the building. 

The construction of the building is monu- 
mental and permanent, being heavy and solid, 
and, of course, fireproof throughout. Thee.xte- 
rior walls are of New Hampshire granite, the 
court walls of English enamelled bricks trimmed 
with Maryland granite, the upper portion of 
the octagon or main rotunda entirely of Mary- 
land granite, the roofs and dome of iron, steel, 
and terra-cotta, the body of all walls of hard 
brick, and the floors of brick and terra-cotta. 
Many of the floors are carried by brick arches 
and vaultings with no metal incorporated. The 
remainder of the floors are carried by iron 
beams and girders of heavy proportions. 

The only combustible material used is a car- 
pet of boards laid on a solid masonry bottom in 
the office and working-rooms only, the window- 
sashes of mahogany, and the doors, which are 
generally of mahogany and oak. The read- 
ers' tables and central desk in the rotunda 
are of mahogany, and a wainscot of oak, as 
a decorative finish, occurs in the two special 
reading-rooms for members of Congress and 
in the librarian's office. All hall, museum, 
and lavatory floors are of tile or marble mosaic, 
and so is that of the main reading-room and 
the basement under it. The book-stacks are 
entirely of steel and cast-iron, with marble 
decks. 

To librarians one of the most interesting 
features of the building is that of the book- 
stacks and the provisions made for their future 
extension. When the building was begun eight 
years ago, book-stacks, properly so-called, were 
small and few in number, and probably the 
best existing example was that of the Gore 
Hall extension at Harvard University. The 
fundamental principles were excellent and in its 
day, a quarter century ago, it was a greatly 
advanced design in storage shelving for books. 



j6 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



With this exception there were few or no pre- 
cedents to guide in designing the best possible 
stack — one which would provide the greatest 
security, convenience of access and classifica- 
tion of the books, as well as maximum storage 
capacity — and it was necessary to investigate 
the needs of the librarian, the readers, and the 
books themselves. The increasing rapidity of 
growth of collections of books, and, for the 
Congressional Library, the broader function as 
a National Library likely to be assigned it, had 
also to be borne in mind. 

The shelving capacity of the building was to 
be about four and a half millions of volumes. 
It appeared that the requisites of such a stack 
were : 

1. Ready access to all the books. 

2. Close proximity to and intimate communi- 
cation with the reading and catalog rooms. 

3. Accommodation of books of all kinds, 
sizes, and conditions in every sort of binding. 

4. Arrangement and classification of books 
variable at will. 

5. Shelves readily adjustable, removable, and 
interchangeable. 

6. Shelf supports of plain and simple form, 
occupying least space, absolutely rigid and sub- 
stantial, and easily removable. 

7. Convenient and rigid support of books on 
partially filled shelves. 

S. Conveniences for every kind of appropri- 
ate work in the stack, including the direct 
handling of books by searchers. 

9. Passages at will through all parts of the 
stack in any direction, including ready vertical 
communication from deck to deck. 

10. Thorough illumination by daylight. 

1 1. Moderate and even temperature and good 
ventilation. 

12. Perfect cleanliness and freedom from 
dust with absolute security from dampness. 

13. Maximum capacity and compactness with 
capability of indefinite extension. 

14. Fireproof. 

15. All surfaces in contact with books per- 
manently smooth and protected from deteriora- 
tion. 

16. Complete ventilation through the shelves 
with minimum of lodgment for dust or insects. 

17. Protection from leaks in roof or over- 
head floor. 

18. Light and simple construction, with mini- 
mum of dissimilar parts. 



The design carried out in the building fulfils 
all these requirements. 

I regret that I have at hand no adequate il- 
lustration of these stacks, and that I must en- 
deavor to describe them without it. Their light, 
open, and cheerful appearance, liberal space 
with compact arrangement, bright illumination 
by daylight, simplicity, convenience of every 
sort, and, withal, their evident strength and sta- 
bility can be realized only by a personal visit 
to the stacks themselves. The stacks are nine 
tiers or stories in height, with white marble 
decks, seven feet apart as before stated. The 
construction is such that, for all practical pur- 
poses, the stack could as well be of 20 or 
more stories without changing materially the 
bulk of the supports. 

Good walls and a good foundation make a 
complete enclosure for such a stack, and if, as 
in the Congressional Library, the side walls 
may admit ample daylight, vertical openings 
of three feet in width, extending from the bot- 
tom to the top of the walls, will make excellent 
windows for the purpose. These windows are 
sealed permanently air-tight. Liberal electric 
illumination is provided for night use. 

In the construction of this stack the element 
or unit is a steel column composed of a pair 
of 2 x 4 inch bars of T section set face to face 
and extending from a footing at the bottom of 
the stack to the top, with a one-half inch space 
between to admit, at each of the seven-foot 
stories, a skeleton flat cast-iron partition or 
shelf-support at either side to make a double- 
faced range of shelving. This cast-iron par- 
tition bears on its front edge a series of blunt 
teeth, and its back, near the column, a corre- 
sponding vertical series of short horns or pro- 
jections, on which the shelf rests. It cannot 
accidentally slip forward or tip in any direction. 
At each deck level two horizontal lines of light 
iron bars, one parallel with the shelves and the 
other at right angles across under the deck, ex- 
tend in both directions through the stack to the 
walls of the building, to which they are an- 
chored. They are also connected to the re- 
spective rows of steel columns in the shelf 
ranges both ways. A thin steel diaphragm 
plate is firmly secured at the deck level in each 
bay of the shelving, and the decks consist of 
solid white marble slabs rubbed on top and pol- 
ished beneath to reflect light, resting on and 
between the cross-bars referred to. The dia- 




KEY- PLAN 
FIRST - STDRY 

(ORlplNAL) S 159. 
•) "SCALE ->ifcToi roOT 



BUILDING FDR LIBRARY OF CDNGREBS: 




KEY- PLAN 
FIRST - STORY 

(ORipiNAt) S 159. 
^ ■»C«i.t-/!iToi rt,OT 



GREEN. 



17 



phragm plates and marble slabs, together with 
the inherent rigidity of the riveted connections 
of the steel framework, furnish all needful lat- 
eral stiffness without the use of upright diagonal 
braces or webs. The great advantages of doing 
away vvith these are, that two opposite shelves 
of any range may be set at the same level to 
receive a book too wide for one, and the shelves 
may all be removed in any bay in a moment to 
open a passageway through. To do this the 
shelves may be readily disposed of by storing 
them overhead in their regular supports. They 
may also be set close to admit atlases and other 
large books on the flat. Such things cannot be 
done with shelves that are not perfectly flat and 
free from sides or end-pieces like those in this 
stack. By removal of the shelves an addi- 
tional aisle may be made through the stack in a 
few minutes, anywhere, through one range, two 
ranges, or the whole length of the stack. An 
open slit of five inches width is left in the deck 
along the front of every range, protected by a 
slight curb, serving to admit light from the side 
windows, free circulation of air for warming 
and ventilation, and convenient communication 
between the stories. Books may, when neces- 
sary, be handed upward or downward through 
these slits at any point. They are too narrow 
and too near the shelving for danger of stepping 
into them, and the liability of dropping articles 
through is very slight. If necessary they may 
be protected at any point by a covering of wire 
netting. 

The shelf itself is composed of a set of paral- 
lel longitudinal bars attached to an end-piece 
which carries a pin and a notch for engagement 
with the shelf-support or partition. Its length 
is 38 inches and width 12 inches. The bars 
comprising it are about one-half inch wide, 
spaced about one-quarter inch apart, and are 
made of cold rolled sheet steel, very thin, and 
bent into an inverted fl section. They are 
highly polished and treated to permanently 
guard against rust. In general appearance the 
shelf is about the thickness of a thin board shelf 
and quite as hat, with no flanges, rough or sharp 
edges or points of any kind. It is also quite as 
light as a board shelf and much stiffer under a 
load of books. In fact it carries, without per- 
ceptible deflection, double the weight of any 
possible load of the heaviest books. It is re- 
moved and adjusted in its supports more con- 
veniently and expeditiously than any other 



shelf. This is easily done even without remov- 
ing the books from it, for all that is required is 
to tilt up the back about one-quarter inch, draw 
the shelf forward about one inch, raise or lower 
it to its new position and push it back to place. 
No key, screw-driver, or other implement is 
needed for removing a shelf. You simply lay 
hold of it with the hands and move it in a 
moment. This open, parallel-bar shelf is natu- 
rally dust and vermin proof and a thorough 
ventilator for the books, while it furnishes at- 
tachment for the most convenient and efficient 
adjustable book -support yet devised. This 
book-support consists of a thin vertical plate of 
such size, say 5x7 inches, or larger, as may be 
desirable, having a short back brace from which 
depends a toggle passing between the shelf bars 
and catching underneath. A set-screw enables 
it to be permanently locked to the shelf when 
desirable, but it acts as an efficient stop without 
locking, and may be slid along the shelf at will. 
It is equally applicable attached to the shelf 
above and hanging downward. In this position 
it may hold the tops of tall books. 

The skeleton form of the shelf-supports and 
the teeth in their front edges lend themselves 
readily to the attachment of movable ledger 
boards along the front of the shelving, on which 
to rest books, make notes, etc., while working 
in the stacks. By removing the shelves in any 
bay not only may a passage be made through 
the range but a desk, case of drawers, or closet 
may be placed therein, anywhere in the stack. 

In every range, a board seat is placed in the 
window for the convenience of the attendants 
and others who may be admitted to work in the 
stack. In the middle of the stack is an iron 
stairway, and a hydraulic elevator of sufficient 
capacity for three or four persons, or one with 
a truck-load of books. By the side of the ele- 
vator is a shaft for the mechanical book-carrier, 
with its receiving and delivery pockets, and also 
the set of pneumatic tubes for messages and 
speaking communication with <he central desk 
in the reading-room. 

This stack was designed six years ago. The 
experience in carrying out its construction so 
far proves its merits that no other system of 
shelving is its equal, although several have 
been devised in the endeavor to compete with 
it in the market. All others are sheet-iron or 
tray constructions, some of them rickety, and 
all more or less inconvenient and lacking the 



i8 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



merits of this one. The stack and shelving in 
the Congressional Library is square, solid, 
plain, and, in every detail, the most appropriate 
and natural holder of books of every size, shape, 
and kind, and, all in all, one which librarians 
find no fault with except that it naturally costs 
somewhat more than less complete structures. 
It fulfils all the requirements that have been 
specified by librarians themselves, the lack of 
which in the past they have greatly lamented. 

A mechanical book-carrier to accomplish more 
than the old simple dumb-waiter is a novelty 
because never before called for, nor have the 
conditions for its satisfactory operation existed 
in libraries heretofore. In this building accom- 
modations for such an apparatus were incor- 
porated in the foundation plans. The carrier 
will consist of a series of trays suspended be- 
tween a pair of small endless chains, the route 
of which is downward from the central desk in 
the reading-room to the cellar, thence under 
the ceiling horizontally to the foot of the shaft 
in the middle of the book-stack, thence verti- 
cally upward to the top of the stack, passing 
through every story. The details cannot be 
made clear without a working model, but the 
principle of operation will be apparent when I 
say that the trays and the receiving and deliv- 
ery slides may be likened to combs engaging 
with each other. The back and two ends of 
the tray are solid plates while the bottom and 
front are a set of long teeth whose ends turn 
upward to form the front of the tray. The 
action may be imitated in general by passing 
the bent fingers of one hand between those of 
the other. The machine is almost entirely au- 
tomatic. To send books from any story of the 
stack the attendant places them on the toothed 
receiving-plate, throws over a short lever and 
goes about his business. In a few seconds one 
of the carrier trays on the continuously moving 
chains comes along, picks up the books, carries 
them to the central desk in the reading-room 
and lands them on a delivery Slide, whence they 
drop into a padded box near the hand of the at- 
tendant, who may pass them at once to the ap- 
plicant. The volumes are returned to their 
proper story, or deck, of the stack by a simi- 
lar operation, the only difference being that, 
on depositing them on the receiving-plate, the 
attendant must set the lever at a number on 
a dial corresponding with the stack deck for 
which the book is destined. Failing to cor- 



rectly set the dial number will result in no dam- 
age to the book but may cause it to be carried 
to the wrong deck. About i8 trays will be 
used, placed equidistant along the endless chains, 
which will run at a speed of about too feet per 
minute. At this rate a book starting from the 
lower deck of the stack will reach the reading- 
room in three minutes, or, from the top deck, 
in two and one-third minutes. The trays will 
carry anything up to the size of a quarto and a 
thickness of about three inches. Thus a single 
volume, or several, held together with a rubber 
band or other strap, may be sent in one tray, 
and very delicate books, pamphlets, or other 
paper matter may be readily handled by placing 
them in simple pouches or envelopes of canvas, 
leather, or other material as may be found con- 
venient. 

Intercourse and service between the central 
desk and the stacks is arranged for as follows : 
The applicant for a book may write out his 
ticket at the standing desk outside the catalog 
counter and hand it to the attendant, who may 
place it in the proper pneumatic tube carrier, 
which is shot in a few seconds to that story of 
the stack where the volume is shelved. The 
stack attendant receives the ticket, takes the 
book from the shelf, places it on the carrier re- 
ceiving-plate and turns the lever. The carri- 
er transports the book to the reading-room. 
Ordinarily not more than five or six minutes, 
including the time necessary to get the book 
from the shelf in the stack and start it on its 
way to the reading-room, will be consumed 
by the whole operation. Oral communication 
between the attendants at the central desk and 
those in the several stories of the stacks is had 
through the pneumatic message tubes by means 
of mouth-pieces provided. Volumes exceeding 
the quarto size will, of course, have to be 
carried by messenger, who may use the stairs 
or elevator, taking with him if necessary by the 
latter conveyance a rubber-tired wheeled truck 
for loads greater than he can handle in his 
arms. 

Future growth and expansion of the library 
and all its co-ordinate branches have been so 
liberally provided for by the size and arrange- 
ment of the building that some surplus space will 
exist at first. The spaces already assigned by 
their special arrangement and construction are, 
besides corridors and lavatories, the main stair 
hall, public reading-room, three book-stacks, 



GREEN. 



19 



two special reading-rooms for members of Con- 
gress, librarian's office, museum halls, two 
rooms for the custodian and captain of the 
watch, and a restaurant. The librarian pro- 
poses to occupy certain of the remaining spaces 
as follows : In the basement story, bookbind- 
ing, printing, stamping, and packing. In the 
first story, catalog-room, copyright-room, copy- 
right office and work, copyright archives and 
reserve. Toner collection, Smithsonian, special 
researches, and Washingtoniana. In the second 
story, exhibition of Americana, art-books, early 
printed books, and a gallery of the graphic art. 

The warming and ventilating apparatus has 
been specially designed for the peculiar require- 
ments of the several parts of the building, 
because the great rotunda reading-room, book 
stacks, museums, halls, offices, and working- 
rooms require each their own means of separate 
control. In general terms the object is attained 
as follows: Indirect radiation — that of warm- 
ing the fresh air in the cellar and passing it up 
through flues to the several appartments — is 
almost wholly used. The radiators in the cellar 
are hot-water coils. The water is warmed by 
steam-heaters, the steam for which as well as 
for power to run the machinery is all made in a 
battery of boilers quite outside the building 
underground on the east front. Here also are 
the coal-vaults and steam-pumps. There will 
be no fires in the building excepting when made 
in any of three fireplaces in the two Con- 
gressional reading-rooms, which are, however, 
independently warmed by the regular appara- 
tus. High-pressure steam is made alike in all 
the boilers (16 in number), of which as many 
may be used from time to time as the needs of 
the building require. The steam runs the 
pumps, air-compressor for the pneumatic tube 
system, and dynamos for illumination and pow- 
er, and heats the water for warming the building. 

Electric motors will drive the book-carrying 
apparatus and ventilating fans, of which a few 
are placed in the cellar, under the book-stacks 
and reading-room, for use in mild or very warm 
weather; more fans may be readily applied in 
these or any other parts of the building in future 
should they be needed. 

Not only has a complete apparatus been pro- 
vided for the internal service of the library it- 
self, but the same has been extended to the 
Capitol, nearly a quarter of a mile away, through 
a subway, or tunnel. This is large enough for 



a man to walk through, and extends in a straight 
line between the buildings from the middle of 
the west front of the library to a small room in 
the rear of the old Hall of Representatives. 
From a station in the basement story of the li- 
brary, immediately beneath the reading-room 
floor, an endless wire cable will run through 
the tunnel to the terminal-room in the Capitol 
at a speed of 600 feet per minute, carrying two 
holders which will automatically pick up and 
deliver parcels up to the size of bound volumes 
of newspapers. Through the tunnel will also 
run the pneumatic message tube and telephone 
wires by which communication may be had at 
any moment between the members of either 
house of Congress and the librarian. By these 
means, with an attendant at the terminal station 
in the Capitol, members of Congress may com- 
municate quickly and fully with the librarian, 
and promptly get such information and books 
as the library can afford, so that the library 
will be, in effect, nearer to congressmen in its 
new quarters than it now is in the Capitol itself. 

The building is ornamented and enriched in 
all its principal halls and apartments by the 
works of the most eminent artists of the coun- 
try. Twenty-three sculptors and twenty mural 
painters have been employed, and their works, 
together with the architecture of the interior, 
have a magnificent setting of the most beauti- 
ful and appropriate decorative painting in the 
country. All suitable spaces are filled with fit- 
ting instructive quotations and names of the 
world's greatest men in all departments of 
knowledge, genius, and human endeavor. A 
mere enumeration of the interesting and in- 
structive architectural and artistic details would 
occupy too much time on the present occasion, 
but they are fixtures in the building, to be the 
permanent delight and edification of visitors for 
generations to come. In short, the whole struct- 
ure, with all its appointments, is in every par- 
ticular an example to be followed rather than 
avoided, for it is a success in economic building 
as well as in art and design. 

Having had as its directing head, under Con- 
gress, a man like General Casey, untrammelled, 
of sound judgment, good sense, experience in 
this line of construction, and unremitting fore- 
sight and energy, the building will not only be 
completed within the time and cost originally 
estimated and fixed by law, but will be, if any- 
thing, more complete, especially in artistic en- 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



richment, than was expected. It was an alto- 
gether unusual undertaking so accurately to 
plan and estimate in advance a monumental 
work of architecture, engineering, and art of 
such magnitude. But there is no insurmounta- 
ble difficulty preventing competent architects 
and builders from estimating within five to ten 
per cent, the sum of money that will cover the 
reasonable cost of any proposed building if its 
character and plan be carefully made and de- 
termined on beforehand. Most of the uncer- 
tainties and disappointments as to the cost of 
buildings, of whatever size or importance, arise 
from incomplete consideration and preparation 
before the estimates and work of construction 
are entered upon, trusting to future study of 
what are assumed to be minor details but which 
often prove to be serious matters, ending ir- 
retrievably in disappointing results. It pays to 
look at the end from the beginning. 

It is e.\pected that the coming session of Con- 
gress will make needed provision by law for 
the occupation, custody, and care-taking of this 
great building, including a general outline at 
least of the e.\tended organization which its 
plan and proportions demand. Such legisla- 
tion should have been had at the last session to 
be in season for prompt removal to the build- 
ing. The subject was taken up at that time 



but laid over. Furniture must be provided, for 
none is included in the law for the construction 
of the building. But the most adequate plan 
for the occupation and use of the building will 
not be discovered and realized at first, for its 
magnitude and resources are not yet, nor will 
they for some time to come, be fully compre- 
hended. Such a spacious, convenient, flexible, 
enduring, and magnificent storehouse for knowl- 
edge, ranking far above anything of the kind 
that has ever been constructed, will not be fully 
utilized until some experience has been gained 
within it, and the librarians and educators of 
the country outside of it have, through Con- 
gress, formulated the functions and organiza- 
tion of what should be, in the highest and 
noblest sense of the term, the National Library 
of the United States. 

The building will be completed and turned 
over for occupancy next winter, and this means 
that nothing whatever will remain unfinished 
or standing over to await further study or re- 
cuperation of exhausted funds, as often hap- 
pens with large buildings, but every inch of it 
will be absolutely completed, leaving nothing 
for successors to do. How best to use it for the 
greatest benefit to the country and mankind 
will be the interesting problem of the immedi- 
ate future. 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS AND THE PROPOSED NEW PUBLIC 
DOCUMENT BILL. 



UV F. A. CR.VNDALL, SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



T N making an informal report of the first 
year's doings of the public document office, 
I wish to say at the outset that this office has 
from the day of its opening been over-pressed 
with routine work, overwhelmed with a corre- 
spondence which has long averaged more than 
loo letters a day, and constantly in contact with 
'problems of legal interpretation and library 
practice for which no precedents were to be 
found. It began with a stafif whose members 
were all strange to each other, and necessarily 
strange to the work, for it was work which had 
not before been done. 

What has been accomplished under these cir- 
cumstances it is my purpose very briefly to 
inform you. 



I have a few statistics to offer, and as statis- 
tics are dull reading, I have put them first that 
they may be the sooner done with. 

The organization had been in a measure com- 
pleted, and active work begun about July i, 
1895. During the 12 months from that date to 
June 30, 1896, the receipts of books were as fol- 
lows: 

Accumulations from various Gov't depts. 252,602 vols. 
New works from Gov't Printing Office.. 143,091 " 

Exchanges from libraries 31.321 " 

Catalog copies, over 60,000 " 

Making a total of about 490,000 publications 

received. Of course these were not all bound 

volumes. Many of the copies for cataloging 

were pamphlets or even leaflets, such as bills, 

resolutions, circulars, etc. These are received 



CRANDALL. 



from all the publishing bureaus, and also in 
duplicate from the Printing Office, and an exact 
account of them is not kept, but I am confident 
I have understated rather than overstated their 
number. 

During the year the number of volumes dis- 
tributed was as follows; 

To depository libraries 105,170 ^ols. 

To libraries other than depositories 66,016 " 

Specific works distributed according to 
law on the order of members of Con- 
gress 13,580 " 

Sold. 3,563 " 

To departments to complete files, etc.... 1,134 " 

Making a total of 189,463 volumes distributed 
during the year. 

That these large sendings have been well 
made we have considerable evidence. We have 
no complaints of books arriving in bad condi- 
tion or not arriving at all. I do not think we 
have ever lost a book, except a few Congres- 
sional Records in a railroad wreck, which we 
were able to replace. There have been some 
few complaints of books being missent, but 
these have been due to incorrect addresses 
furnished to us, and as all our sendings are by 
registered mail, we have been able in all cases 
to trace and deliver the missent volumes. All 
of these cases and those of imperfect books re- 
turned and having to be replaced I do not 
think amount in the aggregate to a score. 

Of the books distributed to libraries other 
than depositories, about 14,000 went to the list 
of so-called "remainder" libraries. This is a 
new list created under a provision of the print- 
ing law of 1S95, and is of considerable im- 
portance. Congress orders editions of public 
documents for its own use in round numbers, 
so many thousands or hundreds for the Senate 
and usually double the number for the House. 
As, however, no one member has more claims 
than another, it has always been the custom to 
divide the editions so that each senator should 
have an equal number, and a similar division 
has been made of the House editions. A frac- 
tional number, which belonged to nobody, had 
always, until the passage of the new bill, been 
left over. These fractions, amounting in the 
aggregate to many thousand volumes for each 
session of Congress, were either wasted or be- 
came the perquisites of the employees in the 
folding-rooms of the Senate and House. (These 
folding-rooms, by the way, are so named 
because nothing is ever folded there. They 
arc the rooms where the books distributed by 



senators and representatives in Congress are 

wrapped for mailing and where an account is 
kept of how many books are due to each mem- 
ber.) 

There is an impression throughout the coun- 
try that a member of Congress can getas many 
books as he likes, but this is quite a mistake. 

A ledger account is kept with each senator 
and member, and he cannot get a copy beyond 
his equitable allotment except by trading with 
some other member or by buying. 

Under the law an attempt is made to utilize 
the fractional remainders for the use of libra- 
ries. It is provided by section 68 that the frac- 
tions shall be sent to the Superindendent of 
Documents for the use of libraries to be named 
by members of Congress, and also for sale. I 
have asked each senator and representative to 
name one library for this purpose. 

Of course there are never enough books in 
our fractional allotment to supply one to each 
Congressional district, but there are so many 
members who fail to designate even one li- 
brary, that those which are designated will get 
a copy of nearly every document that is sup- 
plied to Congress. 

We have now a list of "remainder" libra- 
ries numbering over 240. 

There is one advantage these libraries have 
over the depositories, and that is that the books 
they get are in cloth instead of sheep, and are 
frequently furnished months and even years 
before the same books in sheep are ready for 
shipment to the depositories. 

We have in addition a new list of libraries to 
receive the publications of the United States 
Geological Survey. About 600 of these have 
been designated by members of Congress, and 
to each of them has been sent a collection of 
135 publications of the Survey prior to 1894. 
These libraries are to be supplied with geo- 
logical publications regularly hereafter. 

As the depository list has increased during 
the past year from less than 420 to about 450, 
we have now with the 250 "remainder" libra- 
ries and the 600 geological libraries about 1300 
libraries to which we furnish regular supplies 
of public documents in greater or less number. 
I should prefer to be exact in my figures in- 
stead of saying " about" so often, but the fact 
is, the figures are subject to constant though 
not violent fluctuations. New designations by 
senators and representatives come dribbling in, 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



sometimes two or three a day, sometimes only 
two or three a week. There is, in addition to 
these, what is known as the " Congressional 
designated list of 1S87," for geological publica- 
tions, which numbers about 500, but has in it 
an uncertain number of duplications that need 
to be removed. This list was formerly sup- 
plied by Dr. Ames, but there is no explicit pro- 
vision as to who shall supply it hereafter. 

Besides the libraries regularly on our lists we 
have had dealings with many others, of which 
of course we have a record, but time and help 
were lacking to make it up for use in this 
paper. We have received some duplicates 
from these unlisted libraries, but I think we 
have supplied to them more than we have re- 
ceived. The number of volumes so distributed 
I cannot now state, but I know we have helped 
every library listed and unlisted, whenever it 
was within our powers and our legal limita- 
tions to do so. We are always glad to be able 
to help the big and rich libraries in filling their 
sets of documents, but the poor and needy li- 
braries, which want the whole sets, we are 
even more glad to be able to assist. It is not 
often that we can supply absolutely complete 
sets of anything, but we have often succeeded 
in coming near enough to it to elicit very grate- 
ful thanks. • 

A part of our work which to me seems of de- 
cided importance has been our ability to supply 
various missing records to government depart- 
ments. It is stated among people who are 
knowing as to documents, as an axiom, that 
not a single government department or bureau 
has a complete set even of its own publications. 
I presume this is not true of the more recently 
created offices and commissions, but I have 
little doubt that it is true as to all the older 
ones. We have furnished hundreds of volumes 
to such important government offices as the 
Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury Depart- 
ment, the Records and Pension Division of the 
War Department, the Indian Office in the In- 
terior Department, the National Museum, etc. 
The books they wanted have heretofore been in 
existence, but until they were taken out of 
vaults and crypts and assorted and classified 
they were not available and might as well not 
have existed. 

Perhaps the most serious undertaking in 
which we have been engaged, certainly the 
one which has taken the most of our time and 



given us the most worry, has been the prepara- 
tion of the first annual catalog of public docu- 
ments, or "comprehensive index" as it is 
called in the law. I think the law is in error 
in using that title, as the work is properly a 
catalog. It doesn't index any public docu- 
ment, but it catalogs all those of the 53d Con- 
gress and up to the end of the fiscal year 1895. 
Though the work has been difficult and tedious, 
I think it has not been fruitless. I feel a good 
deal of confidence that we shall produce a cat- 
alog that will be intelligible not only to li- 
brarians, but to the general public, members of 
Congress included. In insuring this general in- 
telligibility I flatter myself that I have been of 
some use to the trained catalogers who have 
been in immediate charge of the work. As I 
could not by any possibility pass myself off 
as a trained cataloger, I represented the next 
most important party in interest, namely, the 
ignorant public, for which function my qualifi- 
cations were indisputable. As the work ad- 
vanced the various knotty portions were tried 
on me, on the theory that if they could be 
made clear to me they would be clear to any- 
body. It was a sort of trying it on the dog, 
only in this case if the show was too much for 
the animal there was an opportunity to amend 
it. If I couldn't be instructed up to the stand- 
ard of the work, then the standard was simplified 
till it came within my limitations, and I finally 
feel safe in saying of the catalog that I can 
understand nearly all of it. Never before per- 
haps was the ignorant public brought into such 
close relations with a difficult piece of catalog- 
ing, and the best results are hoped for from 
the combination. 

I am well aware that the catalogers often 
wished the ignorant public at the antipodes or 
farther, and the ignorant public more than once 
became considerably inflamed over the Chinese 
puzzles which the catalogers set for him to 
crack his teeth on ; but the compromises which 
resulted from these strained relations I believe 
finally were accepted by both parties, if not 
with enthusiasm at least with resignation. 

Statesmen and others untrained in the in- 
tricacies of cataloging who may have occasion 
to consult the work may pay me any compli- 
ments they choose for my share in making it 
intelligible to the most ordinary comprehen- 
sion. 

I am happy also to be able to report that, so 



CRANDALL. 



23 



far as the ignorant public is concerned, no symp- 
toms of an attack of that unnatural appetite 
for catalogs which librarians are said to acquire 
have yet appeared. On the contrary, I think I 
may venture to report that an antidote for this 
unnatural appetite has been discovered. If 
any librarian feels it coming on, I can recom- 
mend a twelve-months' struggle with a public 
document catalog as extremely likely to effect 
a permanent cure. 

I have brought along a collection of page- 
proofs, so that all who choose may examine 
them. We have strong hopes that this work 
will be found more convenient and available 
than any previous catalog of public documents. 
We are so confident it will be so that we are 
pushing the work on the next number of this 
catalog on the same plan. The next volume 
will carry the work along a year further, name- 
ly, to the end of the fiscal year i8g6. 

The first number of the so-called "consoli- 
dated index," provided for by the law of Jan- 
uary, 1895, is partially complete in the manu- 
script, but awaits the making up of the volumes 
of the " Congressional reserve " to have the vol- 
ume-numbers filled in on the cards. This, also, 
precisely speaking, is a catalog, but as it will 
take the place of the various and varied so- 
called indexes that have since the 30th Congress 
appeared in the front of the volumes of Con- 
gressional documents, and will be used by peo- 
ple who have always known those lists as in- 
dexes, it was thought best to retain the old 
name. By doing so the "comprehensive in- 
dex " required by the law can be known as the 
" Document catalogue," and the "consolidated 
index" can be known as the " Document in- 
dex," which will be a convenient distinction. 
The index will be practically a finding list for 
Congressional documents proper, and will not 
treat of public documents in general. 

With the comprehensive and consolidated in- 
dexes and the monthly catalog on its hands, the 
small cataloging staff of the office has its hands 
sufficiently full, but it is better off than some 
other branches of our work, which have been 
stripped almost bare in order to give the cata- 
logers all possible help. The fact is, the work 
of the office has proved to be greater in every 
direction than had been anticipated, and it will 
apparently be necessary before long to make 
more extensive provision for it. 

The monthly catalog of public documents, 



which the promoters of the printing bill estimat- 
ed would be a leaflet of four or eight pages, 
grew in the May number of the present year to 
79 pages, and the 18 numbers issued to the close 
of the fiscal year aggregated 702 pages. The 
first number of the Document catalogue (or 
Comprehensive index) fills 645 pages, and the 
check list issued last year is 220 pages. The 
work already done on the Document inde.x 
(consolidated index, so-called) and on the sec- 
ond number of the Document catalogue will 
bring the catalog work of the office for its first 
year very nearly to 2000 pages. Besides these 
there have been reports, bills, resolutions, cir- 
culars, etc., turned out, on which much time 
and thought have been expended, though they 
may not count for much in an estimate of the 
work produced during the year. 

The library work of our office, which has in- 
cluded the receipt and shipment of exchanges 
and the care and arrangement of all the dupli- 
cates, has been prosecuted under discourag- 
ing circumstances. While the work has been 
enormous, the number of assistants at the dis- 
posal of the librarian has been small, and they 
have been mostly without experience or train- 
ing. That so much has been accomplished 
under such conditions is to me a constant sur- 
prise. A reference library containing 12,000 
documents has been established, and a quarter 
of a million duplicates have been assorted and 
made ready for immediate exchange or sale. 
These books, belonging to the government, 
which before were as unavailable and as use- 
less as if they lay at the bottom of the Potomac, 
have been restored to use and are as accessible 
and as available as the day they were printed. It 
does not seem to me an extravagant estimate to 
say that this government property thus re- 
claimed is worth a half-million dollars. The 
printing and binding alone cost at least that 
much, while the cost of compilation is beyond 
computation. 

Probably because it thought we hadn't 
enough to do. Congress at the recent session 
passed a resolution directing us to make the 
distribution of the new compilation of the mes- 
sages and papers of the Presidents for its 
members. The edition is 21,000 and the num- 
ber of volumes will probably be five. Each 
senator makes 73 designations and each rep- 
resentative makes 37. We have found this dis- 
tribution a vexatious piece of work. Duplica- 



24 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



tions, wrong addresses, and like obstructions 
have been numerous, but by transcribing the 
lists on catalog cards and alphabeting them I 
think we shall be able to make an accurate dis- 
tribution. 

An important and most interesting part of 
our work has been that of finding all sorts of 
publications for all sorts of people. We have 
had applications, it would seem, for pretty 
much everything the government has pub- 
lished since Washington's inauguration, and 
certainly for many things that the government 
has never published. I had a letter only a few 
days ago from a citizen of the booming West, 
who wanted to know how he could get copies 
of the " Statesman's year-book" for lS36 and 
i8i)6 without paying I3 apiece for them. An- 
other wanted a copy of Coin's " Financial 
school," either in the Congressional Record or 
otherwise. Such applications as these are 
easily disposed of, but to all applications for 
copies of public documents, no matter how old 
or obscure, we give our most serious attention. 
In the absence of adequate catalogs, and in 
view of the violently eccentric methods of pub- 
lication adopted by some government officials, 
this looking up old documents is a work of ex- 
treme difficulty. When people have some idea 
of what they want it is bad enough, but many 
merely want to know if the government has 
ever published anything on a given subject, 
and if so, what and when, and how to procure 
it — especially how to procure it free. Mr. 
Spofford, in his Forum article on the govern- 
ment as a great publisher, said that the lack 
of catalogs of public documents was supplied 
by five or si.x living indexes in Washington. 
Besides those in Washington, there was one of 
these living indexes — very much alive, in fact — 
of whom he did not know, away off on the shores 
of the Pacific, whose services we were fortu- 
nate enough to secure, and to her expert knowl- 
edge is largely due the fact that even in its first 
year the document office has been able to be 
helpful to a very large number of persons. 

It was a severe disappointment that we were 
unable to secure the passage at the recent ses- 
sion of Congress of the bill to improve the 
printing and binding methods of the public 
documents. Those methods are now just what 
they might be expected to be in view of the fact 
that they are devised by the heads of about 120 
publishing bureaus, few of whom have had any 



training in bookmaking, and each one of whom 
acts for hfmself with little or no central super- 
vision. What was proposed in the new bill was 
to establish by law a few broad general prin- 
ciples, recognized by librarians and publishers 
as sound, and to which no publishing bureau 
would have much, if any, difficulty in conform- 
ing. It was not intended to permit any fads or 
disputable propositions to enter into it. From 
the general and exceedingly cordial support 
given the bill by those interested and most 
competent to judge of its quality it is inferred 
that it hit the mark aimed at. It passed the 
House by unanimous consent, and there was 
no opposition to it in the Senate, but the mem- 
bers of the Senate committee to which it was 
referred were too busy with other matters, 
which they thought more important, to take it 
up. The Senate was well disposed toward it, 
and I have no doubt it would have passed by 
unanimous consent if it had been reported from 
committee. The librarians of the whole coun- 
try came up to the support of the bill most 
nobly. I was able to send to the chairman of 
the Printing Committee, which had the bill in 
charge, as a first instalment, letters from 26 ' 
states, and many more were subsequently sent. 
The bill had the support of all the parties 
in interest — authors, printers, and librarians. 
Never before, I think, has a printing bill com- 
manded such a general support. Every known 
document expert in Washington, including Dr. 
Ames, of the Interior Department, Mr. Rhees, 
of the Smithsonian Institution, Librarian Spof- 
ford, of the Congressional Library, Mr. Ben- 
edict, the Public Printer, Capt. Brian, the 
Foreman of Printing, and Mr. Smith, the su- 
perintendent of the Senate document room, 
gave it emphatic support. I have no doubt of 
the passage of the bill at the next session, and 
I believe its effect will be radical and wide- 
spread. I consider it only a first step in the 
improvement of the document service of the 
government, but a very important one. I also 
sent five resolutions, designed to perfect the 
printing bill of January, 1895, to the Printing 
Committee, but no action was taken on them, 
and I did not attempt to push them, thinking 
it wiser to confine my efforts to the bill for the 
reform of printing and binding methods. These 
resolutions will all be presented again next 
winter, and by beginning early I hope to secure 
their passage. 



CRANDALL. 



25 



I cannot say, however, that I find the pros- 
pect of another lobbying campaign exhilarating. 
On the contrary, I have found that days and 
nights of dancing attendance on very dignified 
gentlemen who are very much interested in 
their own alTairs and very little in mine are 
days and nights most dismally spent. 

If I were to attempt to draw a literary moral 
from the first year's experience of the document 
office, I should probably ask to be credited 
with doing something to offset the flood of fic- 
tion which is giving librarians so much con- 
cern. Possibly, however, the inundation of 
public documents of which our office has been 
the fountain-head may lead to results more ter- 
rible than fiction-reading. 

Suppose the depository libraries should rear 
up a race of Gradgrindian readers who would 
demand nothing but facts — who would burn the 
midnight oil over the Statistical abstract and 
the Nautical almanac, and dissipate on the 
finance report and the census bulletins! Would 
not this be more demoralizing, more devastat- 
ing than the 90 per cent, fiction record which so 
many of our librarians seem to look upon as the 
extreme calamity? It is true there are some 
influences at work to check the Gradgrind 
tendency. We send out a good deal of pure 
imagination ourselves in the Congressional Rec- 
ord and some other publications, and some of 
the librarians help us by stowing away the 
more matter-of-fact public documents where no- 
body can get at them. An illustration of how 
well they do this was supplied a short time ago 
by a young man who came to Washington from 
the Missouri Valley to get a certain document 
which was needed in connection with a public 
enterprise in which he was enlisted. After he 
had made known his errand I asked him if he 
did not know that in his own town was a public 
depository to which all such books were sent. 
Yes, he said, he knew it, and he had been there 
to see about it. He had no doubt the desired 
document was there, and the librarian had been 
very kind and had offered to help him find it, 
but after looking at the .\lplike heaps in which 
the public documents were stored he made up 



his mind that the quickest and cheapest way to 
get that book was to travel 2000 miles to Wash- 
ington and back after it. So he came to Wash- 
ington, and in two minutes after he made 
known his errand he had his book, and said he 
was then certain he had taken the best means 
of getting it. He did not blame the library 
which heaped its public documents instead of 
shelving them — nor do I. He said the library 
had no room to shelve the documents. It ap- 
preciated them, kept them from damage, and 
hoped some day to have a new building in 
which it could give them adequate accommoda- 
tion. Doubtless many other libraries are in the 
same quandary as to public documents. 

Mr. C. A. Cutter has proposed, and the Mas- 
sachusetts Library Club has approved, a propo- 
sition that instead of the present depository 
method, by which everything published is 
forced upon all libraries alike, the plan be 
adopted of authorizing each public library to 
ask for such documents as it needs and can 
care for, with the understanding that all such 
requests shall be complied with as long as the 
supply of books holds out. I give my own very 
hearty approval to this plan, but it can only be 
carried out by legislation. I do not believe it 
would require many, if any, more books than 
the present method, and certainly there would 
be much less waste of books than now, because, 
as each library would receive only what it 
wanted, all could be depended on to care for 
and make useful those that were received, 
whereas now many libraries are compelled to 
receive numerous documents which they do not 
want and for which they have no use, and they 
care for them as anybody might be expected 
to care for that which was forced upon him. 
Under Mr. Cutter's plan it could in a very 
few years be found which sorts of public docu- 
ments were in most demand, and the size of the 
editions published could be gauged according- 
ly. Then it would not so often be the case as 
it now is that books which few want are printed 
in great numbers, while others for which there 
is a most eager demand are in most limited 
supply. 



26 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



THE APPRAISAL OF LITERATURE. 



BY GEORGE ILES, OF NEW YORK CITY. 



A GOOD many of us can well remember the 
typical American museum of 20 years ago. 
It contained many valuable specimens drawn 
from the realms of earth, air, and ocean ; it had 
received rich gifts both from science and art ; 
but truth to tell, the general effect of it all was 
not alluring. An atmosphere of dreariness re- 
pelled ordinary mortals ; it was reser\'ed for 
the lonely and athletic student to find any meat 
and drink on the shelves and perches. To-day 
how great the contrast as one enters the Na- 
tional Museum at Washington, the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, the Muse- 
um of Natural History at New York ! How 
has the marvellous change from dulness to fas- 
cination come about ? Why is it that instead of 
perfunctory glances at minerals and skeletons 
we are held by one vivid interest after another, 
until we regretfully hear "All out" from the 
janitor at the close of day ? Much must first be 
credited to the discoveries and inventions which 
in the past 20 years have so largely increased 
the capital of all museums. Much also has 
been done by giving collections a reasoned or- 
der ; by connecting as a series all the forms 
intermediate, let us say, between copper ores 
and copper ingots ; in bringing clearly to view 
such genealogical trees as those which show 
the horse descended from a creature about the 
size of a fox, and which bid man reluctantly 
acknowledge his poor relations of the cavern 
and the glade. But an improvement equal to 
any other in importance consists in labelling 
every specimen fully and clearly instead of be- 
stowing only its name. Indeed, Professor 
Goode, Director of the National Museum at 
Washington, goes the length of defining a mu- 
seum as a place where instructive labels are 
accompanied by well -selected specimens. It 
would seem that the curator, taught by the in- 
quiries of the visitors to whom he has displayed 
his treasures, and desirous to win attention at 
every step, has taken the printer for his part- 
ner and sought to say once for all everything 
that may awaken the visitor's interest, to an- 
swer every question he is likely to ask. It is 
only eyes already instructed that pause before a 
mineral ticketed "bauxite from Georgia," but 



if instead of a ticket we read a label which tells 
us that bauxite is the basis of the aluminium 
manufactured by electricity at Niagara, the 
specimen at once comes home to our business 
and bosoms. A crystal, a bone, a bird, a bit of 
ore, however remarkable it may really be, can- 
not say so, for it is dumb ; we owe gratitude to 
the man who enables it to tell its story, to ex- 
plain whence it came, what it is good for, what 
it means in the great scheme of interpretation 
which the philosophers are building deeper and 
higher for us every day. 

While the museum has been advancing in 
wealth and in methods of making that wealth 
available to the plain people, the public library 
has borne it fraternal company in the service of 
popular culture. As the museum has been en- 
riched by new gifts from the explorer, the dis- 
coverer, the inventor, so has the public library 
received new capital in the provinces of art and 
science, scholarship and research, history, poe- 
try and romance. And better modes of clas- 
sifying its treasures, new and old, improvement 
in every detail of administration, have brought 
the public library to vastly extended useful- 
ness, and notably in the co-operation more and 
more intimate which has in consequence sprung 
up between it and the museum. Not so many 
years ago teachers thought it great gain to 
have their books enriched by illustrations. To- 
day, whenever desirable, the teacher may pass 
from mere illustration to the thing illustrated 
— the piece of armor, the spray of coral, the 
gleaming crystal, which invites examination in 
the museum. It is the keynote of the new 
education that impressions should be immedi- 
ate, that to rest satisfied with a word when one 
should know the thing the word is about, is to 
allow the usurpation of substance by shadow. 
Often words become charged with their whole 
meaning only when we see and handle what 
they describe and discuss. And there is fur- 
ther reciprocity between the museum and the 
library ; when the label-writer has more to tell 
than a label gives him space for, he can refer 
by title and page to the book where his story is 
continued to the end. 

It is with regard to this matter of the label 



ILES. 



27 



that the methods of the museum are distinctly 
in advance of those of its neighbor and friend, 
the public librarj'. The curator has put so 
much light and color into his ticket that the dry- 
bones of his cases move and live ; the librarian 
still shows a catalog of mere titles which the 
ordinary reader runs over much as he might a 
series of tickets in a museum 20 years ago. 
Great treasures are undoubtedly heaped up on 
the shelves before him, but he takes the fact 
very largely upon trust. The veins of gold 
here and there are mixed with how much dross, 
with how much ore not worth the mining ! 
Beside each other are the few genuine books of 
all time, the volumes which interpret these and 
bring them down to date, in much greater pro- 
fusion the mere echoes and dilutions of weigh- 
ty writing, together with a preponderant mass 
of downright rubbish. Each book bears noth- 
ing more or less than its title : in the unrespect- 
ing catalog no authority is before or after 
another. Francis Parkman and a catchpenny 
historical compiler touch elbows ; George Eliot 
and Mrs. Southworth kiss each other. Of 
course, readers in choosing this book rather 
than that have some reason for their choice. 
But is the reason a good one ; shouldn't there 
be an opportunity to choose with only the best 
reason possible ? Perchance some friend has 
recommended the chosen volume ; but is the 
recommendation informed and trustworthy ? 
Or it may be that a laudatory advertisement 
has directed the choice ; and how much reli- 
ance can be put on advertisements? Or, what 
occurs oftenest of all in the literature of instruc- 
tion, the reader interested in birds, or African 
exploration, or electricity, takes the book most 
recently published, or which bears the name 
buzzed loudest in the public ear. But is it al- 
ways the best book that latest leaves the press, 
even in the realm of travel, or exploration, or 
science on the march ? Is it always the most 
popular author who best deserves popularity ? 
One small class in the community has the good 
fortune always to have the best reasons in 
reading and studying its books. The young 
men and women in our colleges and universi- 
ties enjoy manifold advantages of training, dis- 
cipline, and culture ; among all these benefits 
one of the chief is their economy of time and 
attention through reading and studying only 
the best books. Thanks to the guidance of 
trustworthy judges they can shun the output of 



the mere mechanic of the pen ; one first-hand 
work of authority judiciously supplements an- 
other ; the defects and errors chargeable even 
to the greatest writers are pointed out, and 
where a subject is brought down to date in 
periodicals, the best of these are indicated. 
Popular education will receive an immense im- 
pulse when guidance of this kind is rendered 
the plain people, not only by the university 
professor, but by everybody else able and will- 
ing to give it. That guidance should come, I 
think, in a brief descriptive, critical, and com- 
parative note, duly signed and dated, to be car- 
ried within the book itself, and also to follow 
the title-card in the public library. Thus the 
reader, looking up French keramics, or ento- 
mology, or taxation, might see the relative 
values of all the books on these subjects in the 
library as fully as if there stood at his side a 
company of men and women of authority on 
pottery, insects, or public finance. 

And here we begin to, see why it is that the 
museum specimen has long had its label, while 
the library book still lacks its note. The label 
is descriptive purely ; the book-note must be not 
only descriptive but critical, and so ably and 
justly critical as to commend itself to every in- 
formed and fair mind. By so much as sound 
judgment exceeds simple knowledge is the task 
of the literary evaluator more difficult than that 
of the label-writer. One advantage, however, 
rests with the appraiser of literature, his notes 
can serve at once hundreds of public libraries and 
thousands of isolated students ; a label-writer's 
circle is bounded by his own halls and galleries. 
In canvassing this proposal among librarians 
it has been objected that if notes of the quality 
we seek were to be had, the proper place for 
them would be in bibliographies, and not on 
cards in the library catalog. But if they were 
concealed in bibliographies, I fear that few read- 
ers would take the trouble to find them there, 
whereas a reader could not very well dodge a 
note if it stood before him in the catalog. 
Agur prayed that his food might be conven- 
ient for him.* Let us for this occasion vary 
Shakespeare a little so as to have him say, 

" How oft the sight of means to do good deeds 
Makes good deeds done ! " t 

Library machinery as it stands is excellent, as 
machinery ; it can take on a new character and 

* Prov. XXX. 8. t King John iv. 2. 



28 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



a fresh usefulness when its mechanism includes 
the best available judgments of the stores com- 
mitted to its keeping — judgments put directly 
into the hands of the public, not at so much as 
a single remove from the youngest or poorest 
person who enters a library door. 

How, it may be reasonably asked, are we to 
get all this suggested characterization in the vast 
and swiftly extending field of literature? Of 
course, by piecemeal ; there is no other way. 
Let but one department of history, or biography, 
or applied science, be worthily passed upon, and 
we shall soon know whether the public wishes 
to have our plans carried further. History per- 
haps might be taken up for a beginning. Histori- 
cal literature grows steadily in popular favor ; it 
unites entertainment and instruction, while it nat- 
urally and pleasantly introduces the questions, 
social, political, and economic, which to-day 
knock at the door of the veriest recluse of us all. 
At first a thousand titles might suffice, let us 
say in American history, the choice to rest with 
an editor-in-chief, having a corps of assistants, 
each responsible for a definite part of the whole. 
The notes should have such telegraphic con- 
ciseness as not to burden their cards with a 
needless word, while omitting nothing which 
the reader or student should be told. 

At this point I may say that "The list of 
books for girls and women," published by the 
American Library Association last year, is to 
have two of its departments expanded as a bib- 
liography to be published next March. Music 
will be enlarged by Mr. Krchbiel to comprise 
some 270 titles ; Fine Art will be amplified by 
Mr. Sturgis to the extent of 550 titles ; the book 
will be addressed, not to girls and women par- 
ticularly, but to readers and students gener- 
ally. It is hoped that its notes may commend 
themselves to librarians for use on catalog 
cards. 

On the threshold as we are of this business 
of expert annotation, it is impossible to proceed 
without a subsidy, but we should resolve not to 



go very far if the work does not approve itself 
to the public as worth paying for. We must 
try to educate the people to requiring the aid 
we can render them, and in this regard nothing 
is freighted with more promise than the alli- 
ances that are springing up between the public 
library and the public school. Every teacher 
who educates a boy or girl in the genuine at- 
tractiveness of good books, in the necessity of 
choosing books intelligently, is doing good be- 
yond the reach of praise. Yet if the public, 
after a fair exemplification of the aid we prof- 
fer, still refuses us fair wages, then let us 
gracefully retire to some more fruitful corner 
of the vineyard. 

Success in this matter of literary appraisal 
will turn, I think, upon the adoption of com- 
mon-sense methods. We should first of all en- 
deavor to form a partnership with some leading 
publisher. The publisher who thrives by cater- 
ing to ordinary folk, to the world that now is, 
has a quiet, steadying outlook that we can 
profit by. There is always a risk that your 
subsidizer, who ignores commercial considera- 
tions, will run off on some theme dear to his 
heart and dear to few other hearts. The 
scholar deep in folk-lore, or linguistics, is apt 
to imagine that thousands, instead of units, 
are eager to pursue the researches which to 
him are as the breath of life. It is well to 
qualify opinions as to what people ought to 
want, by cool perceptions of what they really 
do want, as proved by what they buy and pay 
for. Indeed, it would be well to accept no aid 
of money, or time, or manuscript, that is not 
fully subject to the direction or approval of this 
Association's publishing or editorial committee. 
The public library has waited a long time for 
its note of guidance ; let it wait as much longer 
as may be necessary to get that note in sensible 
form, of the right quality, and first of all with 
respect to such books, humble or great, as best 
deserve the golden scales we are trying to set 
up. 



THOMSON. 



29 



TRAVELLING LIBRARIES. 



BY JOHN THOMSON, LIBRARIAN, FREE LIBRARY, PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



AX^E shall not be prepared to dispute that 
stale bread is wholesome eating and 
probably preferable to new bread, but we all 
take the new bread when stale and new are 
both on the table, and if there is a succession 
for several days of stale loaves only, we change 
our place of eating and seek inore pleasant nooks 
for feeding. So in like manner readers will for 
a while devour the books on the shelves of a li- 
brary, but if they are not renewed the scheme 
fails, readers fall off, and books and dust enter 
into a permanent alliance, and the shelves are 
left untouched by young and old. Hence, one 
of the essentials of library work, if good re- 
sults are to follow, is to provide a change of 
books. They need not necessarily be new 
books in the sense of being just published, but 
they must be books not already perused by the 
users of the library. 

This fact has led most librarians to see the 
necessity and advantage of varying the books 
by addition to their number or by changing 
them, and in places not yet ripe for a regular 
free library the want of funds to provide for 
the necessary purchase of enough volumes has 
induced much weighing of methods, and in re- 
sult led to the establishment of travelling libra- 
ries and home libraries. 

In no other way, yet thought of, has it been 
possible to effect so much toward attaining 
the primary end of the American Library 
Association and library work in general. By 
these means books are being brought most 
closely to the people, and we are enabled to do 
much to further the object designated by the 
motto of our Association, namely, "To pro- 
vide the best reading, for the largest number, 
at the least cost." 

This matter is receiving a great deal of at- 
tention in many directions, and an increasing 
interest is being shown on the subject in sev- 
eral of the States. 

It may be well to recite the work accom- 
plished, although the system of travelling li- 
braries is too young to admit of much being 
recorded as yet by way of statistics or results. 

The work achieved in New York State is 



familiar to all members of the American Li- 
brary Association. It is only four years since 
the New York State Library began to send out 
its libraries of 100 volumes to various parts of 
the State. The addresses of Mr. W. R. East- 
man at the Lake Placid Conference in 1S94, and 
of Mr. Frank A. Hutchins, reprinted in the Wis- 
consin Supplement of the Library journal, con- 
tain almost all that can be usefully stated upon 
the subject. It is sufficient now to mention that 
sections 14 and 47 of the New York " Univer- 
sity Law " contain all the legislation that affects 
travelling libraries. Pursuant to the powers 
contained in section 14, the Regents may co- 
operate with other agencies in increasing edu- 
cational opportunities and facilities by, amongst 
other things, lending necessary books. By 
section 47 the Regents are empowered to lend 
from the State Library (duplicate department), 
or from books specially bought or given for 
this purpose, selections of books for a limited 
time to any public library in the State under 
visitation of the Regents, or to any community 
not yet having established such library. The 
sum of from I7000 to f Sooo a year is given by 
the State for the purposes mentioned in these 
two sections. The first travelling library went 
out in February, 1893, and as many as 15.358 
volumes were taken out by readers in six 
months, thereby giving an average of 290 read- 
ers to each 100 volumes. 

Two points deserve special notice. The first 
is, that if permanent and increasing usefulness 
is to be attained the duty must be entrusted to 
bodies having the charge of library work. The 
New York system came into existence after a 
long trial of the district library plan, in which 
system she was copied by Massachusetts and 
21 other States. Those in charge of schools and 
general educational methods have a work in 
hand so gigantic in its proportions that they 
cannot properly enlarge their burden of labor 
by working on any supernumerary lines. To 
carry on schools is a task great enough to tax 
the powers of the most energetic. If travelling 
libraries are to succeed they must be controlled 
and managed by a special commission or some 



3° 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



existing library board, whose energies can be 
devoted to that one business only. The expe- 
rience of New York has been found to be the 
experience of all other States. Out of this 
grows the remark that district libraries and all 
such institutions are found to die or go to 
pieces from the want of means of renewal. The 
district libraries become an old story— their 
readers soon use up the material possessed by 
them and the libraries become stale. 

The second point is that district libraries will 
of necessity remain very much what they are 
in their inception. That is not so in the case 
of travelling libraries. These last throw off 
their birth form and lead to the establishment 
of free libraries. In other words, infants 
become grown men. Many proofs exist to en- 
force this statement. In New York State, for 
instance, Plattsburgh has a duly chartered 
public library. It began by using one of these 
travelling libraries, and Mr. Eastman reports 
that six other public libraries have been char- 
tered in that State within the past year which 
were commenced by petitioning for travelling 
libraries. As the result, 25,000 books have 
been read by residents in villages and small 
settlements, who would otherwise have been 
without such literary nutriment. 

The Legislature of Michigan, by bill passed 
January 15, 1895, appropriated an annual sum 
of $5000 for the purpose of loaning books from 
the State Library at Lansing, on methods similar 
to those used in New York State, and a further 
sum of $2500 for the purpose of travelling li- 
braries, to be sent to communities where no local 
libraries exist. The Michigan libraries num- 
ber 50 volumes each. Mrs. Spencer informs 
me that the most interesting and satisfactory 
results have been obtained from the system. 
The libraries are sent out to the following 
organizations : 25 taxpayers in any commu- 
nity; Granges; Reading clubs and circles, and 
to Associate libraries. The results have ex- 
ceeded the expectation of the projectors of the 
movement. The libraries, with one or two 
exceptions, have gone to small towns or farm- 
ing communities, and (adds Mrs. Spencer) the 
reports received from the librarians have been 
in every case enthusiastic and commendatory. 
The first library was sent out May 14, 1895, to 
North Star, Michigan, and since that time libra- 
ries have been sent out to several other places. 
The goodly number of 30 finding lists of 50 



volumes each have been compiled bj- Mrs. 
Spencer. 

A valuable work was established by Miss 
Alice Chandler, of the Town Library, Lancas- 
ter, Massachusetts, under the auspices or in 
co-operation with the Woman's Education Asso- 
ciation at Boston. In this instance 25 books 
was the number decided on for each libra- 
ry. The work will increase as funds allow, 
and the report of Miss Mary Morison in the 
23d annual report of the Association, pub- 
lished in 1895, gives a most interesting account 
of the establishment of the system, and shows 
how important results are attainable with per- 
severance and a sound method at starting. 
Pelham, in Hampshire County, first accepted 
a travelling library, and the work covers a cir- 
cuit of seven towns which use these libraries. 

The General Assembly of the State of Iowa 
on April 8, 1896, passed a law providing for an 
extension of the use of books through the 
system known as travelling libraries, to take 
effect July i, 1896. By this act it is provided 
that when no "Associate library" exists, 
and whenever 25 resident taxpayers petition 
therefor, collections of books may be lent to 
any college, school, university extension cen- 
tre, Chautauqua circle, literary society, reading 
course, study club, or other association, on 
same being duly approved by the Board of 
Trustees of the State Library. Mrs. Lana H. 
Cope, the State Librarian, has made all the 
preparations possible by preparing rules and 
forms, certificates, applications, etc., which 
will enable her to start the libraries witu the 
commencement of the coming year ; and as 
soon as the trustees reconvene, after the sum- 
mer recess, they will formulate the necessary 
rules and regulations. Mrs. Cope will aim 
to shape the Iowa libraries on the plan of ex- 
isting travelling libraries, looking to make 
them an educational means and supplementary 
to other libraries rather than as a means to 
supply the reading wants of the citizens of 
the State. 

In Minnesota a bill was introduced into the 
Legislature in the early part of 1895 without re- 
sult, but it is hoped that it will be reintroduced 
and become law before long. 

The State of Montana may be mentioned as 
a convert to the travelling library system. In 
March, 1S95, a law was passed appropriating 
$1000 for 1S95, $500 for 1896, and l300annually 



THOMSO^r. 



31 



thereafter, for the creation of circulating libra- 
ries throughout the State of Montana, and the 
purchase of books in libraries to consist of 100 
volumes each. The appropriation has failed to 
be paid, and we must hope for a better issue 
in the future. 

In Wisconsin there is no law on the subject 
of travelling libraries. In the meantime, Mr. 
Stout, a trustee of the Mabel Tainter Memorial 
Library, of Menomonie, is developing " a 
library within a library " in his home town. 
He has beneficently started with 16 libraries 
of 30 volumes each, which are to go from 
place to place for periods of four months, to 
such communities as shall form an association 
with a president, secretary, and treasurer, and 
who shall pay a dollar a year to cover transpor- 
tation. It is noticeable that in this particular 
instance the work is being executed in co-opera- 
tion with decadent and other small home and 
school libraries. The authorities of the Wis- 
consin Free Library Commission are very hope- 
ful that this good work of Mr. Stout may be 
extended so as to carry its benefits throughout 
the whole State. In Wisconsin, within six 
months of the establishment of Mr. Stout's sys- 
tem of travelling libraries in Dunn County, 
three hamlets have taken the preparatory step 
of establishing reading-rooms in connection 
with their new libraries. 

In Pennsylvania the system has only been 
adopted within the last three or four months. 
In order to pave the way for a satisfactory de- 
velopment of the work, the Board of Trustees of 
the Free Library of Philadelphia has started a 
series of libraries to go round in the less ac- 
cessible outskirts of the city. 1000 volumes 
have been put into these travelling libraries, 
and numerous applications have been received 
from police and fire stations, and from residents 
of the outlying parts of the city, which still 
heavily tax the powers of the Board in this di- 
rection. We are fortunate to have the assist- 
ance of Mr. Montgomery, one of our trustees, 
who looks after and develops this work. Be- 
yond what has been already mentioned, I may 
state that applications are continually reaching 
the Trustees from various parts of the State, 



asking for the privileges of these libraries. In 
three instances presidents of companies em- 
ploying large numbers of men have undertaken 
to build suitable rooms and provide at their 
own e.vpense some person to take charge of the 
library as soon as the travelling libraries can 
be extended to them, and it is proposed to apply 
to the State at the next legislative meeting in 
iSgy for an appropriation to enable this work 
to be carried out on a satisfactory scale. 

If the desired end of bringing books within 
the reach of the greatest number is to be fully 
accomplished a great development of the home 
library system will have to be gradually adopt- 
ed in cities and towns to which the travelling 
libraries might be unsuitable. 

Miss Mary S. Cutler, the vice-director of the 
New York State Library School, has published 
an admirable address on the subject, which she 
delivered on January 10, iSg6, before the New 
York Library Association and the New York 
Library Club. The home library idea was 
evolved not by a librarian but by Mr. Charles 
W. Birtwell, the secretary of the Children's 
Aid Society in Boston. The work has been de- 
veloped in Boston, and a better example of its 
value is not to be found. Mr. Soule brought 
news of the movement to the New York State 
Library School, and the students from that in- 
stitution have started libraries in Brooklyn, 
Chicago, Philadelphia, Syracuse, Knoxville, 
Tennessee, and they will be started by them 
this fall in Rochester, Washington, and Pitts- 
burgh. 

The problem before us all is, how best to estab- 
lish travelling libraries in States where they are 
at present non-existent, and to extend their use- 
fulness in the States where they have been set 
on foot, and still further how to make provisions 
of books for study clubs, such as are constantly 
formed on subjects like Shakespeare, Agricult- 
ure, Currency, and for ship-board, army sta- 
tions, police, fire, and telegraph stations, in 
which last boys are much better occupied in 
reading biographies, histories, historical nov- 
els, fairy-books, and Robinson Crusoe, than in 
playing chuck-farthing, or the amusements that 
are possible for idle hands. 



32 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



THE FUNCTIONS OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES AND THEIR 
RELATIONS TO LIBRARIANS. 

BY FREDERICK M. CRUNDEN, LIBRARIAN, ST. LOUIS PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



/"^ERTAINLY nothing can more conduce to 
^^ the advancement of the library cause than 
a clear conception by trustees of their proper 
share in this great work and a full understand- 
ing by trustees and librarians of their mutual 
relations. 

For the rather delicate task of presenting 
this subject from a librarian's point of view be- 
fore an audience of trustees, I can, I think, lay 
claim to one qualification. During 17 out of 
my nearly 20 years as a librarian, I was 
under the most cumbrous system of control 
that was ever invented to worry and ham- 
per an executive officer and impede the prog- 
ress of an institution. The board that had the 
immediate management of the library was com- 
posed of sixteen members, nine appointed by 
the Board of Public Schools from its own mem- 
bers and seven elected annually by the life 
members of the library. This election took 
place in May; the representatives from the 
school board were appointed in November; so 
that the library board changed its composition 
twice a year. There is more involved in this 
than appears in the mere statement. Unless 
special effort was made, very few votes were 
cast at the spring election, so that it was easy 
for any one with a grievance to vent, a grudge 
to avenge, or an axe to grind, to muster 40 
or 50 votes and thus elect a ticket that in no 
way represented the choice of the 4000 life 
members. Uut this was not all. Few of the 
school board contingent took any interest in 
the library or attended the meetings of its man- 
agers; yet every important action of the board 
of managers had to receive the approval of the 
school board. Constant watchfulness and ac- 
tive lobbying by the librarian could not at all 
times prevent detrimental, and occasionally 
ridiculous, decisions by the body that ultimately 
controlled but knew next to nothing about the 
library. This statement shows, I think, that I 
have had some experience with trustees. It is 
also a good illustration of how not to do it in the 
management of an institution. 

But there is another circumstance that fits 



me, in some measure, to speak for my brothers 
in the profession: I have no grievance to air, 
no complaint to make, no suggestion to offer of 
any desired change in the relations between 
my trustees and myself. Their attitude towards 
me is one of the heartiest appreciation, the 
fullest trust, the most generous confidence. 
Whatever I may say, therefore, is entirely free 
from any personal bearing or egoistic bias. 

There is naturally some variance of opinion 
on the subject; and I may not succeed in voic- 
ing the sentiments of even a majority of my 
fellow-workers. But they are here to speak 
for themselves and are free to take issue with 
me. From my own experience and observa- 
tion, combined with confidences received from 
others, I shall try to say what I think the 
occasion calls for and especially those things 
which librarians personally affected might not 
like to say in public. 

In Mr. Soule's paper, read before the Fabyan 
Conference, he puts first among the qualifica- 
tions of trustees "Sound character." Now, it 
is a fortunate fact — which accounts for the 
rapid development of libraries in the past and 
augurs well for the future — that library 
boards have generally — almost universally — 
secured the services of men of the highest 
character. 

In every community the position of library 
trustee is looked upon as one of dignity and 
honor, and is readily accepted by the best citi- 
zens, men of ability and culture and the most 
genuine public spirit. The place has little at- 
traction for the class of men that form so large 
an element of other public bodies, not except- 
ing school boards. Therefore the baser does not 
drive out the better; and there have been in 
library boards very few of those scandals that 
disgrace municipal administration and lead su- 
perficial minds to despair of popular govern- 
ment. There is, indeed, an inspiring, uplift- 
ing, altruistic element in library work that 
captivates every one who is susceptible to such 
influence. Referring in my last report to the 
industry and general good spirit of my staff, I 



CR UN DEN. 



33 



said : "Its work has reflected the singleness of 
purpose and perfect harmony of action that has 
characterized the board and exemplifies the 
power of a common aim — and that a high one 

— to call forth the best that is in people and to 
secure from them a loyalty and faithfulness 
that does not pertain to the average of the 
world's service." 

Mr. Soule's list of qualifications of trustees 
reads as follows : 

Sound character ; 

Good judgment and common sense ; 

Public spirit ; 

Capacity for work ; 

Literary taste ; 

Representative fitness. 

I accept the list without change. No one of 
the qualifications can be spared. Though repre- 
sentative fitness is, perhaps properly, put last, 
it is important that the various elements of a 
community should feel that they are represented 
in the conduct of a public library. It is a source 
of satisfaction to them and of strength to the 
institution. 

Mr. Soule amplifies somewhat on these re- 
quirements and gives a good reason for putting 
" literary taste" low on the list, stating also his 
preference for "general culture and a wide 
range of reading" to the "knowledge of the 
scholar or the specialist." In this I heartily 
concur. Indeed, my contribution might be 
made up entirely of extracts from the three 
papers read at the Fabyan Conference. There 
is nothing I have to say that was not as well, or 
better, said at that time. Mr. Green's paper, 
especially, is an admirable presentation of my 
theme. But a restatement is called for ; and I 
shall present the subject in a different way and 
on some minor points, perhaps, take a little dif- 
ferent position. 

I am supposed to speak from the librarian's 
standpoint. But if that means that the libra- 
rian has one point of view and the trustees an- 
other and somebody else — the community, say 

— a third, I object to the limitation. I don't 
want to take my stand where I can have but a 
partial light on the picture. Though Mr. Soule 
and Dr. Learned were supposed to speak for the 
trustees and Mr. Green for the librarian, I find 
they all occupied practically the same position. 
There is, indeed, properly but one point of 
view. There is but one question to be consid- 



ered : How — i.e., by what qualifications on the 
part of trustees and librarian and by what rela- 
tions between them — can the end for which the 
library was established — viz., the highest ser- 
vice to the community — be most surely attained ? 

Libraries, like all other institutions, are built 
on a foundation of money ; and money is fur- 
ther required for their maintenance. To secure 
this is the first work of the trustee ; and it re- 
mains his constant care for all time. The rais- 
ing of funds, whether from public or private 
sources, is properly the trustees' function. 
When the library is once established, the libra- 
rian, by popularizing the library, will necessarily 
render indirectly efficient aid in enlarging its 
revenues. Librarians often furnish direct as- 
sistance by personal canvass, by newspaper 
appeals, or by giving or getting up lectures 
and entertainments. The librarian should, of 
course, turn his talents to anything that will 
most help the library ; but if he is called upon 
to raise money, it is a diversion of his energies 
from their proper sphere. This field belongs to 
the trustee ; and in it he works from the van- 
tage-ground of disinterested service. 

But the trustees are first in time as well as in 
authority ; and their first act, after the money 
for the establishment of the library is in sight, 
should be the appointment of a librarian. Hav- 
ing secured the most competent person that can 
be obtained, they should take all future steps 
that relate to the technical details of library ad- 
ministration, including planning of building or 
arrangement of rooms, in consultation with him. 
By so doing they will evidence their possession 
of Mr. Soule's second qualification, Good judg- 
ment and common sense. 

Closely akin to the raising of funds is their 
management. This, of course, is exclusively 
the function of the trustees. Good or bad 
management may make or mar the fortunes of 
an institution. I have in mind two libraries 
that illustrate this difference. One of them 
owes its fine building and its solid status large- 
ly to the energy and financial ability of one di- 
rector and its efficient organization chiefly to the 
good judgment, public spirit, and capacity for 
work of another ; while the high place it holds 
in the estimation of the community is due to the 
fact that during the half-century of its existence 
it has always had for directors men of eminent- 
ly sound character. In all that time it has had 
very few men of literary taste ; and being a class 



34 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



library, representative fitness has not been con- 
sidered. 

Over the disbursement of funds and their ac- 
rounting, the trustees should, of course, keep 
a close watch. They should adopt every safe- 
guard against the possibility of misappropria- 
tion and, in addition, should put both treasurer 
and librarian under bond. In the case of a 
public library a treasurer may be dispensed 
with by leaving the funds in the city treasury. 
The librarian's bond should be from a trust 
company, and should be paid for by the li- 
brary. 

In determining the purposes for which dis- 
bursements shall be made, the librarian should 
be called into consultation. He should be able 
to present to the trustees all the varied needs of 
the institution, and should e.\press his opinion 
as to their relative importance. With this in- 
formation before them, the trustees can come 
to a wise decision. If the librarian has estab- 
lished a reputation for good judgment — in 
other words, if he has proved himself thorough- 
ly competent — his recommendations should, 
and will, have great weight. While he should 
freely state his opinions and his reasons there- 
for, he should not urge them unduly, for he 
must remember that not he but the trustees are 
responsible for the management and expendi- 
ture of the library's funds. And in all things 
he should cheerfully acquiesce in the decisions 
of the board and carry out their instructions 
with a hearty loyalty, even when the course 
decided on runs counter to his judgment. This 
goes without saying ; it is of the very essence 
of organization. He rightly expects the same 
spirit of subordination and co-operation from 
his assistants ; and only by their thorough e.\- 
ecution can it be determined whether the orders 
in question were judicious or not. Wise meas- 
ures may fail through a half-hearted enforce- 
ment. 

In all matters of administrative detail the 
librarian should have full freedom and authori- 
ty — so far as he desires and is willing to take 
the responsibility. If, however, he has a good 
board he will be glad to consult the proper 
committee and get the benefit of the members' 
judgment. But, as I have said, this should 
rest with him. If he is sure of his ground he 
should have full power to act. 

While it is, of course, for the trustees to de- 
termine the general policy of the institution, 



they will err in not counselling with a competent 
librarian — as they constantly err in not having 
a librarian whose counsel they value. 

That the librarian may be fitted to act in all 
things as the adviser of the board, and that this 
may be the constant relation, he should be 
present at all meetings of the board and its com- 
mittees. He should, in my opinion, be ex-officio 
secretary of the board and all its committees. 
Only by listening to the discussions of the trus- 
tees can he thoroughly comprehend the spirit, as 
well as the letter, of the instructions he re- 
ceives. He will thus, as Mr. Green puts it, 
"catch the spirit that animates the board and 
become aware of the general principles which it 
desires should underlie the administration of the 
institution." On the other hand, I hardly see 
how a board can wisely decide on numerous 
questions without information which only the 
librarian can supply. The regular participation 
of the librarian in the deliberations of the board 
helps to give continuity and consistency, as well 
as judiciousness, to its decisions. The board is 
a changing body ; the librarian is, or should be, 
a permanent officer, thoroughly acquainted with 
the history of the institution, its past policy and 
the results of previous experiments in adminis- 
tration. 

I cannot take time to state all my reasons for 
holding that the librarian should be ex-officio 
secretary of the board. Perhaps it will be con- 
ceded that if he is present at all meetings, he 
may as well act as secretary. This does not 
offer the least obstacle to holding an occasional 
meeting without the librarian's presence.. 

Conversely, if the trustees are to be efficient 
counsellors of the librarian, they should post 
themselves on the details of administration. 
This applies especially to the president and to 
the chairman and members of the administra- 
tion committee. Their judgment and business 
capacity cannot be applied unless they under- 
stand the problems to be solved. 

A knowledge of administrative methods aids 
the trustee in the performance of another of his 
functions, which is to sift and weigh public 
criticism. The trustee may be indifferent or 
over-sensitive to public opinion. He is gen- 
erally, I think, inclined to the latter extreme. 
He should be quick to investigate any rea- 
sonable complaint and at the same time should 
defend the board and the librarian against 
mere captiousness. He should deem it his 



C RUN DEN. 



35 



special duty to stand between the librarian 
and the attacks of ignorance and personal mal- 
ice. 

Mr. Green thinks it too much to expect the 
trustees to consider, of their own motion, 
whether the increased experience and efficiency 
of the librarian does not call for a larger salary. 
I think it would not be amiss for the board to 
anticipate a request of this kind from the libra- 
rian. Both parties feel better about it. And 
when the need of retrenchment arises, trustees 
do not give the best evidence of their adminis- 
trative capacity and resource by immediately 
scaling down salaries. This sometimes amounts 
to an enforced contribution from the employees 
to the book fund. 

A very important feature of library adminis- 
tration is the appointment of assistants. There 
can hardly be any question that this should be 
left practically to the librarian. He cannot 
justly be held responsible for results unless he 
has the choice of those who are to aid him. 
The formal appointments should, of course, be 
made by the board. 

I speak from fortunate experience in saying 
it is a great advantage to a librarian, and ma- 
terially lightens his responsibilities, to have a 
book committee composed of persons of literary 
taste and extensive reading. But at best the 
task of selecting books for purchase must de- 
volve mainly on the librarian. It is one of his 
most important duties. He best knows the 
deficiencies of the collection and the wants of 
the public. He has the reviewers of two con- 
tinents serving him as an advisory book com- 
mittee, and he can always call on local special- 
ists for aid in choosing the best books in their 
respective departments. It is, of course, for 
the trustees to determine on what lines the col- 
lection shall be developed and what character 
of books shall be admitted or excluded. 

That I might be assured I was not looking at 
this subject through colored glasses, I have 
taken pains to discuss it with three or four 
friends, who are, or have been, library direc- 
tors of another library, one of whom was for 
some years an assistant in the same library. 
I found no appreciable variance of opinion 
among all of us. I asked one of them to dic- 
tate to his stenographer what he had said to 
me. The following statement, sent in response 
to my request, fairly presents the views of the 
other directors. The writer was a library di- 



rector for a number of years ; and after re- 
organizing the library and rehabilitating its 
finances, he has turned his attention to building 
up the university of which he is president. He 
is one of the ablest, broadest-minded, and most 
successful business men in St. Louis. 

" Replying to yours requesting briefly my 
views of the functions of library directors and 
their relations to librarians, I would say that, of 
course, a board of trustees are supposed to have 
those qualifications which will enable them, first, 
to grasp in a broad way the mission of the library. 
They are supposed, of course, to be men of in- 
fluence in the community, who can secure the 
necessary funds for the purpose, and wisely in- 
vest and disburse them. Reduced to detail, I 
should say that they should give most of their 
time either (if it is a public library) to influenc- 
ing the public to secure necessary appropria- 
tions, or (if it is a subscription or private library) 
to securing funds for endowment. They are 
presumed to be men of such executive ability 
as will insure their wise selection of a librarian. 
In connection with the librarian, utilizing his 
information as to the detail of library work, 
they should develop a system that will give the 
public the best service at the least expense. 
They should be more competent than the li- 
brarian to pass upon all matters of investment 
and disbursement of funds, except for book 
purposes, but should expect that the librarian 
will keep himself fully informed as to the 
books to be purchased. In a general way, a 
board of directors is supposed to be familiar 
with every detail of library work involving the 
disbursement of money, except, possibly, the 
purchase of books, and they should have a 
sufficient general knowledge of that to prevent 
the librarian's drifting, as he sometimes does, 
into the development of some special taste or 
literary inclination. If the librarian is all that 
he should be, it seems to me that, he being in 
constant' touch with the public and by special 
training qualified to determine their needs, his 
recommendations as to the purchase of books 
should be closely followed. The librarian. 
however, should in his own interest explain to 
the board, or the committee especially entrusted 
with that branch of the work, the reasons that 
influence his judgment. As the board of trus- 
tees are supposed to be business and professional 
men of wide experience, they should be of val- 
ue to the librarian in working out any system of 



36 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE'. 



organization and fixing the compensation of all 
employees. 

" You will see in a general way I feel that a 
board of trustees can work most independent of 
the librarian in the direction of the securing and 
the disbursement of funds, except the details of 
disbursement for books, periodicals, etc. ; that 
they can assist the librarian very greatly in or- 
ganization and in fixing the compensation of 
employees ; but inasmuch as the librarian only 
comes in contact with these employees, he 
should employ and discharge them at his pleas- 
ure and be held by the board responsible for 
results." 

A prominent librarian, one of a number to 
whom I wrote at the last moment for an expres- 
sion of his views, sends the following off-hand 
statement : 

" My advice to trustees would be to content 
themselves with dealing with the library in a 
large way and on general principles. Mark 
out its line of action and shape its policy. De- 
termine the general character of the literature 
which it shall supply and the purposes which it 
shall undertake to serve in the community. 
Select a librarian in whom they have confidence 
and give him that confidence in full measure. 
Hold him responsible for the results. Do not 
hamper him by interfering in the details of ad- 
ministration. The burden of building up the 
library and of making for it a good name and 
a powerful influence where it should te felt 
must rest mainly upon the librarian. 

"The trustees having made a choice accord- 
ing to their wisest judgment and having given 
him a salary commensurate with his labors and 
the financial ability of the library, should hold 
up his hands just as long as he shows himself 
worthy of their support. The librarian is the 
paid executive officer whose duty it is to run the 
library. So long as it runs smoothly and with 
satisfactory results they should interfere with 
him as little as possible. The moment it ap- 
pears that the results are not satisfactory and 
that the librarian has lost the confidence of the 
board is the time for a change of librarians." 

There are probably few librarians of long ex- 
perience who do not recognize the two opposite 
types of directors referred to by Dr. Learned ; 
the one unwilling to give any time or thought 
to questions that come before the board and its 
committees, the other wanting to assume all the 
functions of board and librarian. Neither one 



is to be desired ; but of the former it may be 
said that if he does no good he at least does no 
particular harm, while the harmful capacity of 
the latter is incalculable. Give me a respectable 
figurehead rather than an opinionated, domi- 
neering meddler. 

One of the most important functions of a 
trustee is to act as a well-informed critic, to sit 
in judgment on the librarian. But if one or 
more of the trustees take it upon themselves to 
do the work of the librarian, who is to act as 
judge and critic ? Here is power without ac- 
countability, while to the librarian is left re- 
sponsibility without power. 

Mr. Green says, " A board of trustees owes it 
to its librarian to protect him from the vagaries 
of impracticable men who may by some chance 
become members of the board." 

It is their duty also to see that the librarian's 
recommendations are not rejected merely be- 
cause they are opposed by a single opinionated 
and aggressive member of the board. It is the 
business of trustees to consider all reasons for 
and against a given proposition and to give as 
careful attention and as much weight to the 
arguments of the librarian as to those of the 
director. The librarian will always acquiesce 
cheerfully in a decision that represents the judg- 
ment of a majority of the board ; but it is rather 
galling to have his well-considered plan set aside 
by the snap-judgment of a single member — it 
may be against the evident preference of the 
rest of the board. It has been my experience 
with trustees that those who know most about 
the library and are most capable of forming a 
wise judgment are usually most willing to leave 
all details to the librarian's discretion and also 
to invite his counsel concerning broad lines of 
policy. 

Lest in thus claiming large liberty for the 
librarian I may seem to make the position of 
trustee a sinecure, let me briefly recapitulate the 
various functions of the latter. 

1. To raise funds, from public or private 
sources or both. 

2. To manage the funds — to finance the in- 
stitution. 

3. To supervise disbursements — to determine 
for what purposes expenditures shall be made, 
to see that they are made judiciously, and to 
see that every dollar is accounted for. 

4. To determine the general policy of the in- 
stitution. 



STEARNS. 



37 



5. To advise with the librarian in administra- 
tive details and give him the benefit of their 
business ability in organizing the staff and sys- 
tematizing the work of the library. 

6. To criticise the methods of the librarian 
and judge the results obtained ; to spur him on 
if he lacks energy and enterprise ; or curb and 
guide his excess of enthusiasm ; to check eccen- 
tricities and to prevent errors of individual 
judgment ; finally, to dismiss him if a failure 
and employ some one whom they believe to be 
competent. 

7. In their representative capacity, as persons 
in whom the community has confidence, to 
give the people assurance that the administra- 
tion of the library is judicious and that it is 
managed for the greatest good of the greatest 
number. 



These various duties will certainly require as 
much time and thought as most men can give 
to gratuitous public service ; and their thor- 
ough fulfilment does not in the least conflict 
with what Mr. Green offers as "the wisest 
course for a board of trustees to pursue" : viz., 
" to let a good librarian do pretty much as he 
thinks best, only keeping a watchful eye upon 
him for the purpose of seeing that things are 
not going wrong under his conduct of affairs." 
It seems to me the best thing a board can do 
for a library is to secure a librarian with whom 
they can feel safe in pursuing this plan. For 
the trustees come and go : the librarian remains. 
To the trustees the library is a side interest, 
at most the avocation of a few hours a week : 
to the librarian it is an absorbing vocation : it is 
not only his source of livelihood, but it is his life. 



ADVERTISING A LIBRARY. 



HY MISS I.. E. STP;ARNS, PUBLIC LIBRARY, MII.WAUKF.E, WIS. 



"yi/ D- HOWELLS, in a recent article on 
* "Advertising" in Harper's IVet'i'fy, 
says: " I wish that some one would give us 
some philosophy of the prodigious increase of 
advertising within the last 25 years, and some 
conjectures as to the end of it all. Evidently, 
it can't keep on increasing at the present rate. 
If it does, there will presently be no room in 
the world for things ; it will be filled up with 
the advertisemen/s of things. Before that time, 
perhaps, adsmithing will have become so fine 
and potent an art that advertising will be re- 
duced in bulk, while keeping all its energy and 
increasing its effectiveness. Or perhaps some 
silent, electrical process will be contrived, so 
that the attractions of a new line of dress goods 
or the fascination of a spring or fall opening 
may be imparted to a lady's consciousness with- 
out even the agency of words. All other facts 
of commercial and industrial interest could be 
dealt with in the same way. A fine thrill," 
he continues, "could be made to go from the 
last new book through the whole community 
so that people would not willingly rest till 
they had it. Yes, one can see an indefinite 
future for advertising in that way. The ad- 
smith may be the supreme artist of the 20th 
century." 



Until human ingenuity has solved the thrill 
problem, we, librarians, must be content, to a 
large extent, with the efficacy of that most 
powerful of modern civilizing agencies — print- 
ter's ink. 

Our president, Mr. Dana, has said, " Busi- 
ness runs the world ; or, the world gets civil- 
ized just as fast as men learn how tc) run things 
on plain, business principles." 

Advertising is one of the recognized depart- 
ments of business. Advertising is not an ex- 
periment, nor is it a business side issue ; it is 
a business necessity, to be studied and experi- 
mented upon as one studies and experiments 
upon the other departments of business econ- 
omy. 

The importance of judicious advertising 
should suggest itself to every wide-awake li- 
brarian, in her endeavor to reach every man, 
woman, and child in her city or village. 

There is no stratum of society not reached 
and influenced by some form of advertising. 
" Nine-tenths of the world would rather be in- 
terested than educated, and the other tenth 
likes to be interested too." The librarian, 
then, must first interest the masses, to bring 
them within her doors, and then attempt to 
educate them. "She must first capture the 



38 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



eye. The eye is the sentinel of the will. Capt- 
ure the sentinel and you will capture the will. 
The feet follow the eyes." It is the untiring, 
unremitting, keeping - everlastingly-at-it-and- 
never-taking-no-for-an-answer appeal to the 
eyes of the people that will bring them within 
your portals. 

But to do all this, the advertiser must be a 
student of human nature and human needs. 
Of all mediums for reaching all classes, the 
greatest for local use is the newspaper. People 
will read the newspapers, for that is what they 
buy them for. Good advertising is good reading. 

To the disbeliever in newspaper advertising, 
the confidence in it displayed by the great mer- 
chants and manufacturers must be incompre- 
hensible. Note what enormous sums are spent 
in that way, and the care and ability bestowed 
upon the preparation of announcements. The 
arts of the painter and the poet, the descriptive 
writer and the mechanical engraver, to say 
nothing of the individual talent of the adver- 
tisement-writer, are daily employed in adver- 
tising. 

Through all this, "every advertiser is trying 
to tell the world his business, to do more busi- 
ness with the world." Ordinarily, people think 
of advertising only as it is exemplified in the 
newspapers, magazines, bill-boards, and other 
openly avowed media, and classify it under 
dignified or undignified sensationalism. All 
this is publicity, it is true, but in our interpre- 
tation of the word advertising we must adhere 
to its original meaning — to advertise, to inform ; 
advertising, dissemination of information ; an 
effort to cause others to know. 

The librarian who asserts that he does not 
believe in advertising has only to glance at the 
sign above his doors and the catalogs and 
bulletins on his counters. What are all these 
but advertisements of the location and contents 
of his library ? But a catalog within a library 
never brought a man to it. That must be ac- 
complished by some outside agency. 

There is a type of sufEcient-unto-the-day-is- 
the-circulation-thereof librarian who does not 
believe in using business bait. He is content 
to try to raise the standard of the elect within his 
doors, and aims at culture rather than general 
happiness. If there is a decrease in the yearly 
circulation he complacently attributes it to the 
reign of the wheel, and makes no attempt to 
recruit his ranks from those of more sedentarv 



temperament. If you suggest that advertising 
is the oxigenic accessory which will promote or 
inflate his circulation, and that an alluring col- 
umn of library notes published regularly might 
stem the falling tide, he complacently tells you 
that he did insert a list once on the " Equipoise 
of Europe," and suggested that it might be cut 
out and be used as a call slip at the library, but 
that no one used it — and he regards this spo- 
radic attempt as a sufficient test of the whole 
question. 

Notwithstanding his antipathy to special lists, 
these are the most common forms of library 
advertising used in this country to-day. Many 
libraries publish lists weekly or oftener, on spe- 
cial topics, or recent additions ; and then are 
often disappointed to find the lists so seldom 
used at the library. But the reason is not far 
to seek. Many a reader sees the list on Mon- 
day, but is deterred from cutting it out on ac- 
count of its being the most recent paper. He 
forgets all about it Tuesday, thinks about 
it Wednesday, and looks for it then. The 
Monday paper is lost, and the Wednesday pa- 
per does not contain it. Now, there is a way 
out of the difficulty, and one by which any li- 
brary may have much of its printing done free 
of charge. 

When you send a list to the newspaper, send 
with it a request to have the type saved for 
further use. Ask your editor to take the type 
composing the list to a small job press, and 
have him strike off 500 or 1000 copies or more 
for your use. The only expense involved in 
this will be the cost of the paper and the 
pressman's services, which generally amounts 
to about $1.50 per thousand copies. Many 
newspapers are willing to perform this service 
for the advertising which it brings if such a 
heading as the following is used in the list: 

IQILWPKEE PDBLIG LIBBHIIY 

CHL-I- SLIP. 



FURNISHED BY THE COURTESY 



THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL 



Watch The Journal for Library Notes and Lists. 



STEARNS. 



39 



We can see no reason why what are termed 
display ads. such as those so skilfully used by 
Mr. Kates, of Philadelphia Branch No. 5, should 
not be used by the larger libraries. Each of 
Mr. Kates's advertisements takes up a half side 
of a newspaper. One of them advertises the 
location of the library and the places where ap- 
plication blanks may be obtained. Another half 
side has to do with the catalog and manner of 
using it. A third gives a list of the periodicals 
which the library contains. 

Then there is the subject of trade journals. 
A list of books on electricity was published in a 
motorman's bulletin, in Milwaukee, and a cor- 
dial invitation was extended to the overworked 
men to become patrons of the library. As a re- 
sult, the number of such men patronizing the 
library was increased many fold. 

Some time ago. Miss McGuffey, of Boston, 
suggested in the pages of the Library journ.\l 
that it might be a good idea for librarians to ad- 
vertise in street-cars. Mr. Peck, of the Glovers- 
ville (N. Y.) Library, is the only one that we 
know of who does this. We can see nothing un- 
dignified in a street-car placard reading, "Get a 
good book at the Free Public Library," or, 
"Tired out? Get the 'Prisoner of Zenda' at 
the Free Public Library." 

From Mr. Peck we have received a sample 
placard which is put up in the hotels and depots 
of Gloversville, advertising the public library 
and extending a cordial welcome to the weary 
wayfarer. 

He who doubts the efficacy of the placard 
should profit by the experience of the Buffalo 
Library. Shortly after the opening of the new 
Children's Department, which was heralded by 
a most tasteful announcement, the authorities 
had a 10x123^ inch card printed in attractive 
red letters reading, 

Boys and Girls. 

A room for you in the Buffalo Library. 

Books for you to read. 

Pictures for you to look at. 

Maps for you to put together. 

Magazines for everybody. 
Some one to tell you stories. 
Bring your little brothers and sisters. 
Come and enjoy your room at the Buffalo Li- 
brary. 
Cor. of Washington St., and Broadway. 

These placards were sown broadcast over the 



city. Missions, hospitals, homes, orphan asy- 
lums, fresh-air establishments, drug-stores (to 
attract the soda-water customers), candy-stores 
— all gladly offered hospitable windows and 
wall spaces. Newspapers posted them where 
the boys who came for the papers would see 
them ; mission Sunday-schools and charity 
organizations co-operated heartily in tacking 
them up and suggesting where others might be 
of use ; and what was the result ? A postal card 
from Miss Chandler, of the Buffalo Library, 
reads as follows : 

" Cards were out Friday and Saturday. 

"Result No. I. — Monday and every day since 
overflow meetings have been held in the adjoin- 
ing committee-room. 

"Result No. 2. — A steady current of extra 
tables and chairs from all parts of the library 
upstairsward. 

"Result No. 3. — More small furniture ordered. 

"Result No. 4.— More dissected maps ordered 
and more animals sliced. 

"Result No. 5 — really A'^o. I. — The happiest 
children anywhere to be found." 

And then there is the power of the bulletin 
board. As a sample of what may be done in 
that direction, I quote from a personal letter 
from Miss Helen L. Coffin, of Aurora, III., a 
graduate of the Armour Institute Class of '95. 
Miss Coffin writes: " When I found myself back 
in my home library, again, as reference li- 
brarian, I remembered the lecture on library 
advertising and after adding ' Advertising 
manager' to my titles, started out to see what 
I could do. 

" Briefly, this is what I have accomplished. I 
took one library wall for a bulletin board, and 
here I keep various and sundry lists, changing 
them often, using signs, big letters, colored inks, 
pictures, catchwords — any and everything to at- 
tract attention. Half of the space is our picture 
gallery — mounted photographs, portraits, views, 
etc., clipped from book reviews, catalogs, etc., 
with lists of our books to which they refer. 
These are also changed frequently and are per- 
haps our most popular advertisements. Just at 
present, the walls contain complete lists on music, 
including musical novels, electricity, mechanics, 
astronomy, metals, selected lists on birds, insects, 
bees and flowers, summer and housekeeping, 
Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, summer sports, 
and Alaska. 

"The list on Alaska asks most solicitously 



40 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



'Hot? Then come to Alaska,' and is illus- 
trated by pen-and-ink sketches, transferred by 
means of tissue-paper from the books cited. 
Whenever possible, I head a list with an ap- 
propriate quotation. For instance, at the head 
of a list for housekeeping is ' Who sweeps a 
room as by God's law, makes that and the ac- 
tion fine,' from George Herbert, and I find an 
interest awakened in the quaint old poet, be- 
cause he chose such a lowly subject. Last 
August Barnum was here and I concocted a 
list for the boys. I cut the elephants, horses, tra- 
pezers, lions, etc., from the posters, mounted 
them with lists of books on those subjects, posted 
them, and waited for the boys. They came in 
droves. The list was kept up all winter, the 
books were always out, and our life of Barnum, 
heretofore left to dust and introspection, had 
to be re-bound. 

" In addition to this bulletin, I have kept lists 
posted in our two high schools, Y. M. C. A. and 
Y. W. C. A. rooms, C, B. and Q. car-shops, and 
Electric R.R. power-house; made lists for the 
various reading and study clubs and vacation 
lists for women and children ; published lists 
for the University Extension course in the daily 
papers ; spoken on library aims to both high 
schools, and have given a ten-lesson course in 
library science to the West Side high school. 
Next year — but my plans are too numerous 
and I will not trouble you with them now." 

This is the reign of the poster. Posters min- 
ister to two great passions of the age — the taste 
for decoration and the demand for publicity. 
Poster shows have drawn many persons to 
libraries for the first time. Our library uses 
posters in its circulating department to hide un- 
sightly walls, to give the public something 
cheerful to look at, and to advertise the circu- 
lating copies of books and magazines. "Do 
posters post ? " Most certainly, when used for 
advertising purposes. 

Among the many minor advertising devices 



may be mentioned book-marks. Mrs. Sanders, 
of Pawtucket, R. I., has a very neat little book- 
mark headed " When in doubt consult the pub- 
lic library." The expense of printing is borne 
by a local store which puts a simple advertise- 
ment on the back. Mrs. Sanders attributes a 
recent increase in circulation and interest in 
the library to this talisman. 

Calendars could be used to good advantage, 
especially the take-a-day-off kind, in which 
books could be suggested for days, holidays, 
etc. 

Time does not permit us to take up other 
forms of advertising than those through the 
medium of printer's ink. It should ever be 
borne in mind, in conclusion, that advertising 
will bring people to your library, and then its 
mission stops. Then success depends upon 
the service within your doors. All the adver- 
tising that you can contrive, even though it 
speaks with the tongues of men and angels, 
will not offset a hard, imperious, domineering, 
or condescending spirit within the library. There 
should be an indefinable something in the ap- 
pearance of your library to draw people in and 
an atmosphere most persuasive in keeping them 
there and making them long to return. Neat- 
ness and order and a certain amount of quiet 
are of course desirable ; but it is submitted that 
there may be a certain amount of orderly dis- 
order, which bespeaks life and business. The 
popularity of your library depends largely upon 
your assistants. The wisdom of Solomon, the 
patience of Job, the tact of a politician, unvary- 
ing courtesy, unremitting energy, concentra- 
tion, the ability to judge character, and above 
all, common sense, make for all that is good in 
library service. With all these conditions ful- 
filled, happy then indeed is the lot of the 
librarian who can say with our friend. Miss 
Garland, of Dover, that "Like the immortal 
Mellin's Food, we are advertised by our loving 
friends." 



DUDLEY. 



41 



LIBRARY EDITIONS OF POPULAR FICTION. 



BY CHARLES R. DUDLEY, LIBRARL'VN CITY LIBRARY, DENVER, COL. 



A T the annual meetings of this Association 
during the two decades of its existence, 
nearly every subject relating to library economy 
has been discussed and re-discussed- until it 
might seem almost impossible to present a new 
topic that would be of general interest to the 
members. 

At the Lake Placid meeting, two years ago, I 
made a suggestion on the subject of better edi- 
tions of popular books for circulating libraries 
than those usually furnished to the trade. A 
short discussion followed. Since that time noth- 
ing has been heard of it. Hence, perhaps, it 
may not be considered presumptuous to claim 
for this paper the distinction of newness. I am 
fully convinced that no matter of greater im- 
portance to all the members of this Association 
and to the libraries with which they are con- 
nected, has ever been considered. More par- 
ticularly is this true of the smaller libraries, 
whose income both for the purchase of books 
and for administration is very limited. 

We have had the question of re-binding most 
fully investigated and the results ably presented. 
Re-binding, however, presupposes a book of 
sufficient commercial value to warrant the ex- 
penditure, and this is not always the case. It is 
a secondary consideration and one that each li- 
brary can take care of for itself, while library 
editions, if secured at all, must come through 
the co-operation of a large part of the libraries 
of the country with the publishers. 

The use of fiction, adult and juvenile, in pub- 
lic libraries averages about 75 per cent, of the 
total circulation, and it is of these only that it is 
necessary to speak. In few other classes is the 
demand great enough, in the ordinary library, 
to necessitate the keeping of more than one 
copy at a time, and, generally speaking, other 
books are made in a more durable manner. 

The smaller libraries after they have been in 
existence a few years must expend a very con- 
siderable and constantly increasing amount each 
year to replace worn-out books, and the larger 
ones even more, in proportion to their size. 
The outlay in the aggregate is something enor- 
mous, and much of it should be done away with. 



The chief trouble in the make-up of the novel 
of to-day is the paper on which it is printed ; 
some of it is pure wood pulp, not nearly as good 
as is used in many of the daily newspapers; 
much is a highly calendered, mineral-filled 
paper, scarcely able to sustain its own useless 
weight, and very little has any cotton, linen, or 
other good fibre worth mentioning. After be- 
ing opened a few times, in the careless way so 
common to library patrons, a leaf breaks out. 
You may tip it in, but the next time it is opened 
hurriedly the leaf comes out again, leaving con- 
siderable of its thickness on the paste to which 
it was attached. Frequently a thread breaks 
the first or second time a book is used and it is 
sent to the bindery. No matter how careful the 
binder may be in removing the glue from the 
back for re-sewing, a great part of the outer fold 
of each section will come off with it, and the 
book is scarcely worth the cost of putting to- 
gether again. 

To adapt the thought of the gentleman from 
Kentucky when speaking of the most popular 
product of his state, we might exaggerate slight- 
ly and say that all novels are poorly made but 
some are worse than others. 

The experience of all is the same, but I do not 
know that any other librarian has made a com- 
parison between the wearing qualities of any 
two grades. In the library with which I am 
best acquainted an opportunity was given to do 
this, and the results are certainly interesting. 
We had, at the opening, nearly 10 years ago, 
1061 volumes of the Tauchnitz edition of British 
fiction. These were wire-sewed, had morocco 
backs and cloth sides. There were also about 
the same number of cloth-bound novels issued 
by American publishers — the usual assortment 
that a small library would buy. At the end of 
five years this was the status : 

We had sent to the bindery 41 volumes of the 
Tauchnitz edition at an expense of less than 
$13, and of the others, 1013 volumes at an ex- 
pense of more than $400. During the same 
period we were obliged to condemn 20 volumes 
of the Tauchnitz and 208 volumes of the others. 
A comparison of the juvenile list shows that as a 



42 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



whole they are even less substantially made than 
books for adults. Our circulation during those 
years ranged from 38,000 to 76,000 annually. 

The Tauchnitz is not an ideal library edition, 
but probably the best, of any considerable size, 
that is available for such purposes. The paper 
is quite good and the binding that we ordered 
the usual style furnished by the publisher. It 
is superior to the average. .\ better book %vould 
wear longer, of course. This comparison was 
made, not for the purpose of advertising, but 
because it was the only one I could make, as 
there was no time in which to visit other libra- 
ries or obtain data from them. The comparisons 
would have been brought down to date had not 
some of our bindery schedules been mislaid. 

Regarding the use of the books in these two 
divisions, I would say that two of the Tauchnitz 
were circulated to three of the others. 

I am not able to draw detailed specifications 
for a book mechanically perfect, nor do I care 
to. Here are a few suggestions, however : 

The paper should be strong, thin, and very 
flexible, so flexible, indeed, that when the book 
is opened the leaves will lie down without com- 
pulsion. It should not be a pure white nor cal- 
endered to such an extent that there will be dis- 
agreeable reflection of light from the page. If 
there is not now a paper made that will meet 
these requirements it certainly can be made. 

In binding, the sewing should be with the best 
thread on tapes, the first and last sections at- 
tached to cloth hinges, the corners of the boards 
tipped with vellum and the covering a strong 
cloth of a color least liable to show dirt. 

Where an illustration is to be inserted it 
should be half an inch wider than the page so 
that it may be folded on the inside edge and 
sewed in. 



In lettering the back, author and title should 
be placed near the top to avoid being covered 
by the library tag. 

Now to make a guess at the additional cost of 
a good book : 

Suppose we take as a basis the novel pub- 
lished at $1.50, with a discount of 40 per cent. 
to the trade, netting the publisher fo.90. This 
costs a library fi.oo. The average weight of 
paper in a novel is not more than one and one- 
half pounds and perhaps costs 10 cents per 
pound. The expense of changing from one 
paper to another, when the edition is being run 
off, cannot be worth mentioning. Suppose a 
paper is used that costs 20 cents per pound, 
there would be only an additional expense of 15 
cents. Let us add 45 cents more for better 
binding and for other expenses that we know 
not of. This makes a book that would be listed 
at $2.50, sell to the trade for $1.50 and cost a 
library fi.66, but would wear from three to 
five times as long as the ordinary edition. In 
all probability the additional cost above men- 
tioned is much too great, but it serves to illus- 
trate. 

The questions then presented are these : Can 
the publishers of this country be induced to 
print a part of each edition of every work of 
fiction that is liable to find a place in most of 
the circulating libraries on a paper that will 
withstand hard usage, and bind it in what ex- 
perience has taught is the most serviceable 
style? Will the librarians agree to purchase such 
editions, and no others, when these are made ? 
It goes without saying that it would be econo- 
my for the libraries and I believe the publishers 
can find a profit in it. Let them not forget that 
the libraries are, in some respects, their best ad- 
vertising mediums. 



CHANDLER. 



43 



'DO": ADVICE BASED ON EXPERIENCE. 



COMMUNICATED BY A NUMBER OF LIBRARIANS ; EDITED BY MISS ELLEN M. CHANDLER, 
BUFFALO LIBRARY. 



T^O try to do something for yourself before 
asking any one to do it for you, and do 
try to find a thing for yourself before asking 
any one else to find it for you. 

Do have an "understudy" for every impor- 
tant position in the library. 

Do see that every person who in any way 
mutilates a book or newspaper is promptly and 
adequately punished, not only in being denied 
access to the library, but in whatever other way 
the law may authorize. 

Do realize that there is such a thing as a com- 
petent student, and when he appears, help him 
to work, and don't take as much of his time as 
possible in attending to obsolete formalities. 

Do try to make your attendants realize that 
they largely merge their individuality in the 
library in which they are employed, in the sense 
that their sins of omission and commission re- 
flect not upon themselves but upon the institu- 
tion. And that they are the ones who make or 
mar the usefulness of a library to an extent 
rarely attained by its chief officer. 

Do be as courteous and considerate towards 
each one who comes into your library as you 
would be towards your friend or fashionable ac- 
quaintance. 

Do all your work in a cheerful spirit, and in 
a willing manner, even if it is distasteful work. 

To trustees and head-librarians : Do give 
generous vacations to your library workers, es- 
pecially heads of departments. They will work 
better and keep in better health for it. 

DO strive to make the attendants feel that 
you have faith in each one and in her interest 
in the library. It will increase her interest, and 
call forth better work. 

Do remember that a library viewed from out- 
sids the delivery-desk and from inside is an en- 
tirely different place. The more the person 
outside can be given the advantages in tools 
and suggestions belonging to the person inside, 
the better can her wants be supplied. And, the 
more completely the attendant imagines herself 
in the place of the proverbial "gentle reader" 



the more easily will she find the way to supply 
that reader's wants. 

Do — something. Mistakes are excusable — 
lethargy and stagnation unpardonable. 

Do have regard to the outsides of books. 
Place labels where they will mar the least, with- 
out regard for imiformity. Do not use them at 
all where not absolutely necessary. 

Do publish lists of new books in condensed 
form, with author, title, and number, and with 
no other matter ; this whether you publish a 
bulletin or not, and in addition to notices in 
daily papers. 

Do have a children's department, if possible, 
for the sake of making a special study of their 
needs. 

Do require written monthly reports from 
every department of the library. It makes the 
heads of departments watchful, and anxious to 
make a good shcrwing. 

Do have a regular order of presenting sta- 
tistics in either written or printed reports, 
and stick to it. Co-operation here is much 
needed. 

DO your best as reference librarian to make 
each reader feel that you are personally interest- 
ed in the complete solution of the question under 
investigation. You will make a friend and 
broaden your own experience. 

Do circulate yourself as well as your books. 

Do put your best bibliographical aids to read- 
ers where readers will be aided — that is, in the 
delivery-room. 

Do have as little red tape as possible, con- 
sistently with proper care for the safety of the 
books. 

Do give the largest liberty possible to teach- 
ers and schools as to number of books taken 
and time of returning them. 

Do try to have patience with those who never 
can ask for the exact subject they want, and so 
oblige one to make many unnecessary trips 
about the library. 

Do welcome the children. 

Do try to have patience with the trustees who 



44 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



are so slow in deciding on books to be bought, 
and on any changes or reforms. 

Do believe that a good employee will work 
better, work longer and more satisfactorily to 
herself and to you, if allowed to go forward in 
her own way, than she would if compelled to 
conform in the minutest details to your own 
thoughts and ideals. 

DO pay the price of two old books, which will 
never leave the shelves, for one new one for 
which the public is clamoring. 

Do keep your card catalog up to date. 

Do remember that the library is for the use of 
the public, and the public is all sorts and con- 
ditions of men. 

Do show that you consider it a pleasure to be 
" bothered " by one in search of information. 

Do give your assistants an opportunity to 
learn all branches of library work. They will 
have more interest in their work if they know 
not only how to lend or return a book, but also 
how to bind, classify, and catalog it. 

Do have a kind word occasionally for your 
assistants ; it will surely be appreciated. 

Do keep up with the times in your ideas, ap- 
pliances, etc. 

Do establish a routine and hold to it. 

Do the odds and ends as they come up, to 
avoid accumulation or omissions. 

Do take time to plan your work thoroughly, 
before you begin to execute it. 

DO get a cat for your library. A well-fed, 
well-treated cat is a valuable object-lesson in 
kindness to animals. I am moved to say this 
by the sight of our Dahomey asleep on a steam- 
radiator near the children's book-shelves. He 
is so friendly with everybody that I am sure no 
child has ever been cruel to him. 

Do always keep wild flowers on the library 
counter from April to November. Label them 
with their common names, and encourage the 
use of Mrs. Dana's " How to know the wild 
flowers " or other books by leaving a copy open 
at the botanical names and description of habits. 
Nine readers out of ten are like the idiot of the 
small boy's definition — " A man who doesn't 
know an arbor-vitje from a pine " — I might 
add, a cardinal flower from a hepatica. 

Do have as few rules as possible. 

Do enforce every rule, fully, impartially, and 
rigidly. 

Do, in particular, see that every fine due the 



library is promptly collected, whether another 
book is taken out or not. 

Do scan the columns of the Library journal 
with sufficient care to note the smaller items as 
well as the more momentous projects, and when 
you find, as you might have found in the July 
Journal, a request for what the library guild is 
more in the habit of demanding than supplying, 
namely, a request for your own full name. Do 
not refuse to supply the desired information. 

Do find out something about the inside as well 
as the outside of your books. 

DO use a rubber-stamp lettered "A gift to 

Library from," under which you can write 

the name of the giver. Such an inscription on 
the back of a title-page, or on the fly-leaf facing 
it, is a permanent record, and requires no care 
when the book is re-bound. 

Do keep your order list on cards, arranged 
alphabetically by authors. The simplest, cheap- 
est, plainest cards — the backs of spoiled or 
withdrawn catalog cards and of the Library 
Bureau catalog cards for books which you are 
not going to buy (supposing you to be a sub- 
scriber), answer as well as those elaborately 
printed with blanks. You will save time, labor, 
money, and endless vexation with duplicates. 

Do open the library doors promptly, at least 
as promptly as you close them. 

Do have a children's room, and do have it 
large enough. 

Do, in their own department, allow children 
freedom to breathe, and think, and even to 
move, to talk (not whisper), and to laugh. 
They will not abuse the privilege, and will be 
infinitely happier than if " hushed " by a warn- 
ing finger or overawed by a threatening pla- 
card. They may even want to come again. 

Do provide bicycle stands or standing-room 
for the wheels which bring your readers to the 
library doors. If you do not, the wheels may 
cease to roll your way, and the riders will stick 
to their wheels. 

DO keep "knitting-work" at hand, leaves of 
books or sheets of titles for bulletins to cut, 
that the time spent in talking with bores and 
book agents may not be entirely lost. 

Do invite children from the schools to see 
pictures illustrating poems or stories. Tell them 
how to make scrap-books of such pictures and 
authors' portraits, and also games of authors 
from publishers' catalogs. Give the children 



CHANDLER. 



45 



gingerbread and lemonade before they go home, 
and the scrap-book lessons will be more effect- 
ual. 

Do have a conversation-room for the women 
who gossip and the men who exchange views 
on the questions of the day. 

Do refrain from asking a person if damage to 
a book is due to his carelessness. He will 
break the whole Ten Commandments, if neces- 
sary, to assure you that it is not. 

Do suggest a way to make people return mag- 
azines and papers to their proper places before 
leaving the reading-room. 

Do request readers not to take a daily nap 
over the morning paper. 

Do, if possible, write signs so that people can 
understand them. 

To librarians of school and college libraries, 
where students are employed as assistants: Do 
establish an apprentice system, and do refrain 
from putting a student on the payroll until he 
has learned something about the work and 
shown his fitness for it. 

DO keep cataloging up to date, and have all 
cards written put in place at once. 

Do study practical bibliography. 

Do support all co-operative library efforts, and 
initiate new ones. 

Do all you can to keep library work out of 
the ruts. 

Do discourage the reading of the newest books 
in preference to the better older ones. 

Do insist on intelligence and courtesy in li- 
brary attendants. 

Do the best you can. 

Do endeavor to bring the people into contact 
with the books, by access to the shelves if pos- 
sible. 

DO help to organize a state association if one 
does not already exist. 

Do go to the state meetings, even if at first 
you doubt, being so very wise yourself, whether 
it will be personally profitable. Just consider 
what an advantage contact with such wisdom 
will be to others. 

Do ask publishers for posters for the maga- 
zines which you circulate and post them in your 
circulating department. They attract attention 
to the magazines and it pleases your book-bor- 
rowers to see them. Most publishers see the 
point when you explain the purpose. 

Do talk with your assistants. Their lot is 



not altogether a happy one. If they come to 
feel that they are necessary parts of a great 
whole it makes " bricks " of them. In this con- 
nection 

Do read "The ship that found herself," by 
Kipling, in McClure's for March, 1S96. 

Do make a sample-book of every printed form 
used in the library. Sort the samples by de- 
partments, letter and number them. Give un- 
der the sample the source where obtained, quan- 
tity usually ordered, and price per thousand or 
hundred. If each blank carries a little legend 
giving date of last order and quantity ordered 
(like this, " loM isje 95 "), it helps to check 
small extravagances. It costs nothing to add it. 

Do use a picture lens from four to six inches 
across in reading proof. It is the one instance 
where it is good policy to magnify defects. 

DO listen or read, when'announcements are 
made or posted, for librarians in general, in- 
stead of asking that they be repeated for your 
special edification. 

Do remember that the librarian is, and always 
should be, the servant of the people. 

DO keep a close acquaintance with English 
publications, and not depend on American im- 
porters or reprinters to introduce them to you. 

Do give a fair share of odd minutes to the 
scanning of catalogs of second-hand dealers. 
It will pay. 

Do remember always that cataloging is a 
meiDis, not an end. 

Do cherish the freshness of new books, and 
not allow them to be stalled in the cataloging- 
room. 

Do be patient with impatient people, and rea- 
sonable with the unreasonable. 

Do guard yourself from falling blindly in love 
with your own way of doing things. 

Do give help and support to the co-operative 
undertakings of the A. L. A., and to the biblio- 
graphical enterprises of Mr. Bowker. 

Do report your experiments. When you find 
a good thing tell us about it. When you make 
a failure let us know it. 

Do give all kinds of opinion a fair hearing in 
your library. Be respectful (not obsequious) 
even to fads. 

DO encourage your staff to read bibliography 
and current book reviews. If you cannot trust 
your assistants to read only what directly bears 
upon their work, then by all means do employ a 



46 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



staff you can trust implicitly, even if you pay a 
little more. 

Do enter your periodicals under the last or 
best-known name, letting the salient features of 
dates, volumes, and reviews stand forth clearly. 
Let changes of title, less important editors, and 
irregularities of issue appear in a note in finer 
type. The scholar who seeks the history of the 
journal can thus find it, and the impatient public 
will not be forced to wander through a maze of 
undesired information in the body of the title. 

Do give your catalogers a chance at the refer- 
ence work. An hour a day with the readers 
brings the weary cataloger in touch with the 
outer world, gives a fresh stimulus to her work, 
and teaches her what the public look for in the 
catalog. The reader may receive valuable aid 
from one who has studied and analyzed the 
book, and the cataloger will be presered from 
the inevitable cull of the catalog which results 
from application to the one line of thought. 

DO look at Buffalo's beautiful "ad" 

If you want to know how to make children glad. 

Dissected maps and animals sliced 

Are certainly a most ingenious device. 

Do have a children's department in your li- 
brary. 

Do look at Denver's open shelves 

Where dear little children help themselves. 

Do study the pages of I'^inter^s Infi : 
For all the modern librarians think 
That to advertise is the only way 
To let people know what's read to-day. 

Do have a place in your library for the assist- 
ants to rest during the lunch hour. 

When met at your delivery-desk by stupid 
comments and criticisms on books, authors, and 
library management. Do keep a level head 
" though it pass your patience." 

Do your professional duty to all classes wisely, 
promptly, and above all, cheerily. 

"DO unto others (the public) as you would 
that others should do unto you." 

Do remember that you are but the servant of 
the public, and that you cannot afford, therefore, 
to be uncivil. 

Do lead the public. 

Do bear a pleasant face to rich and poor alike. 



Do be interested in your work — or resign. 
Do give the library the best work. 

DO " take down the bars " so far as possible ; 
avoid "red tape"; give the widest possible 
liberty to those who will appreciate and not 
misuse it. Democratic Americans chafe under 
restraint. 

Do make people know that there is a library 
in town, and where it is ; let them know that it 
is alive, free, and that they will be welcome. 
To this end occasionally use local newspapers 
for the purposes of legitimate, dignified, free 
" advertising." 

Do put good talent at the loan-desk. For 
many readers this is the only point of contact 
with the library, and they are almost entirely 
dependent on the wisdom (or unwisdom) of the 
loan-desk for their choice of reading. 

Do use revolving bookcases in the reading- 
room for shelving books for study-clubs, etc. 
They are convenient and add homelikeness to 
the library. 

Do get books for clubs (or individuals) at the 
time they are wanted, rather than after the 
special reason has ceased to exist. Book com- 
mittees rather than librarians are usually at 
fault here. 

DO answer or acknowledge all inquiries from 
fellow-librarians at once. 

Do make your catalog (however poor) im- 
mediately accessible to the public. 

Do it now, do it carefully, do it relatively, do 
it objectively, do it conscientiously, do it sys- 
tematically, do it calmly, do it for the future as 
well as the present, do it broadly — keeping in 
touch with the interests of the outside world — do 
it cheerfully. 

Do, when other people make mistakes, re- 
member that you, too, may make them, and be 
consideratt'. 

Do answer business letters promptly. 

Do your trustees the compliment of consult- 
ing them individually when asking any new 
thing. By so doing you are more likely to suc- 
ceed. 

Do your best for your library, thereby forcing 
your library to do its best for you. 



HE WINS. 



47 



NEW AND OLD BOOKS: WHAT TO BUY. 



BY CAROLINE M. HEWINS, LIBRARIAN, PUBLIC LIBRARY, HARTFORD. 



A/'OU remember how, in the Story of Aladdin 
in the little fat fairy-book dear to our 
childhood, the princess whom Aladdin had mar- 
ried heard a man shouting outside the palace, 
and sent one of her women slaves to know what 
the man cried. "Madam," said the slave, the 
story goes on, " I cannot forbear laughing to 
see a fool with a basketful of new lamps on 
his arm asking to exchange for old ones," 
Another woman slave who was present said, 
" I know not whether the princess has observed 
it, but there is an old lamp upon the cornice; if 
the princess pleases, she may try if this foolish 
man will give a new one for it." You know 
what happened, how the magician in disguise, 
the forerunner of all the collectors of old furni- 
ture who persuade simple country-folk to ex- 
change their Chippendale chairs and carved 
cupboards and claw-footed tables for the com- 
monplace machine-made ones of to-day, left his 
new lamp and took away the magic one Aladdin 
always carried about with him e.Kcept when he 
went hunting, and Aladdin, whatever game he 
found in the forest, wished that he had stayed at 
home when he saw a sandy desert without 
trace of princess, palace, or slaves where he 
had left them. 

Every library, great or small, has two classes 
of readers to provide for. First, those who 
never read a book-notice, pass by the most gau- 
dy and staring posters advertising new books 
without seeing them, and apparently have never 
heard of anything published in the last ten years. 
Second, those who read all the notices and 
advertisements of novels in the daily papers, 
and besiege the libraries for the latest stories, 
often weeks before they are in the market. A 
small library is constantly confronted by the 
problem of how to satisfy readers of both these 
classes and at the same time to buy a reasonable 
number of new books of a better kind, and fill 
the gaps revealed by an attempt to work up any 
subject in the library for the use of a club. 
The consequences of buying too largely of new 
books instead of old may not be as disastrous as 
they were to Aladdin, but it is well to remember 
what Schopenhauer says; "Consider that the 



man who writes for fools is always sure of a 
large audience. . . . Because people always read 
what is new instead of the best of all ages, 
writers remain in the narrow circle of the ideas 
which happen to prevail in their time ; and so 
the period sinks deeper and deeper into its own 
mire." 

The superintendent of circulation in a large 
library once said to me : " It is as bad for a 
library not to have every book in its printed 
catalog as for a shop-keeper to advertise wares 
not in his stock." We all know the look of sur- 
prise and disappointment which is seen upon a 
reader's face when in answer to a request for 
" True to the last, or, one woman's two lovers," 
he or she is told at the counter, " We used to 
have it, but it is worn out." It is, however, 
often hard to replace novels. I have at hand a 
list of "shorts," as the book trade calls them, 
that have been ordered to replace worn-out 
copies on our shelves, and that our bookseller 
has failed to find. This list includes three titles 
by Mrs. Alexander, two by Anstey, one by 
Barrett, three by Frank Lee Benedict, five 
by Miss Braddon, one by Ada Cambridge, two 
by Mrs. Cameron, one by Miss Croker, three 
by Dumas, two by Annie Edwards, three by 
Gaboriau, four by Theo. Gift, one by Hardy, 
five by Julian Hawthorne, one by EUice Hop- 
kins, eight by G. P. R. James, one by Captain 
King, three by Katherine King, one by Holme 
Lee, seven by Justin McCarthy, eleven by Flor- 
ence Marryat, one by Meade, one by Miihlbach, 
four by Payn. one by Pont-Jost, two by Mrs. 
Riddell, four by Adeline Sergeant, one by Seton, 
one by Julia P. Smith, seven by Annie Thomas, 
one by Tirebuck, one by Sarah Tytler, two 
by Florence Warden, one by Werner, eleven by 
John Strange Winter, and one by Mrs. Henry 
Wood. 

It is best to supply as many as possible of this 
class of books from the stock of second-hand 
dealers in the larger cities. Ordering novels 
from auction catalogs, unless you can see the 
books, often puts on your hands poorly printed 
and worse bound editions. One can often find 
fresh copies sent to and sold by book-reviewers 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



for 30 or 40 cents. Money will go farther spent 
in this way for new copies of old books than 
in any other. Some favorite novels wear out 
every year, and should always be replaced. It 
is impossible to prevent copies of the "Count 
of Monte Cristo," " Uncle Tom's cabin," Les 
Misferables," or "The scarlet letter" from fall- 
ing to pieces in a library of even the smallest 
size. Here is a town library of 5000 volumes, 
not the 5000 approved by the American Library 
Association for the reason that it has been in 
existence for 40 years and has absorbed two 
small subscription libraries. It has this year 
$200 to spend for books, and how is it to lay 
out that money to the best advantage ? 

The statistics of the Hartford Public Library 
show that with 50,000 volumes on the shelves 
and a circulation of 200,000, about 1000 books 
have been removed this year as worn out. It is 
fair to suppose that a library of 5000 has a cir- 
culation of from 10,000 to 20,000, and wears out 
100 books. With only $200 to spend, however, 
is it best to use half of it to replace novels that 
are not of permanent value ? In a still smaller 
library which can spend only $50 a year, it is 
hard to sacrifice 25 of those precious dollars for 
books that have been read over and over again 
— to give up the new illustrated edition of 
White's "Selborne" and "The Gurneys of Earl- 
ham," Grosvenor's "Constantinople" and the 
four volumes of the illustrated Green's "Short 
history," for stories fairly represented by 
" Monte Cristo," "Willy Reilly," " The opening 
of a chestnut burr," "The Green Mountain 
boys," "Toby Tyler," "Two college girls," 
"The red mustang," and "The heir of Red- 
clyffe" — books that you yourself either know 
by heart or have never thought worth read- 
ing through. You have bound and patched 



and mended and stitched and covered, but it is 
of no use. The well-thumbed copies tumble in 
pieces if you touch them, and the public must 
have its books. You draw your pencil through 
the order that was to be a little for your own 
selfish gratification, and write yourself as one 
who loves his fellowmen in sending instead for 
the books that are to give the greatest pleasure 
to the greatest number. In a new library, 
bought with careful consideration from well- 
selected lists, there should be no books not worth 
replacing, but in a library in a country town, 
which has for years received the waifs and 
strays read through and left behind by summer 
boarders, there are always paper-covered and 
other novels not worth binding or cataloging. 
The Boston AthenEeum, says the Library 
JOURN.^L for May, enters current publications of 
little permanent value, but a certain passing in- 
terest, on a temporary list, giving them running 
numbers by which they can be charged, but not 
putting them on the catalog or the shelf-list. 
At the end of a year or after the interest in them 
has passed, the book committee is to decide 
whether they are to be placed in the library or 
thrown aside. 

The Quincy plan, formulated a few years ago 
by Charles Francis Adams, has its advantages, 
in making the smaller town libraries live work- 
ing ones for every-day needs. He fi.\es 15,000 
as the limit for town libraries. We have all, 
nevertheless, found that a book which is taken 
off the shelves and not renewed is sure to be 
in demand for some reason or other, although it 
may have dropped in pieces from standing still. 
It is not right for town libraries to spend any 
money on book-curios, and gone-by books of 
science should be housed in large city or uni- 
versity collections. 



JAMES. 



49 



READING-ROOM AND PERIODICALS. 



BY MISS HANNAH P. JAMES, LIBRARIAN, OSTERHOUT LIBRARY, WILKES-BARRE, PA. 



'T^ HE subject or subjects assigned me admit 
of a variety of treatment, for reading- 
rooms are of many kinds, and each one should 
be adapted to the needs of the place it is in. It 
may be that I am expected to deal entirely with 
periodical reading-rooms, but as the saying 
goes, " It is the unexpected that happens," so 
I have ventured to stray from the obvious path 
of duty and branch out upon a different trail, 
thinking thereby to get at the root of the whole 
matter of library influence, and give a few 
fundamental ideas rather than many technical 
hints. The province of the librarian should in- 
clude not only the library proper, but the read- 
ing-room or rooms, as the case may be, and the 
same care be exercised in the selection of maga- 
zines or newspapers as in books. I have heard of 
a library that subscribed for a number of copies 
of the Police Gazette, as that was more read than 
anything else. The idea that reading in itself 
is meritorious is not tenable, for every thought- 
ful librarian knows that many a naturally sane 
mind has been ruined for all serious thought or 
purpose in life by the opportunity to read friv- 
olous or vicious literature. Better never read 
at all than read only what is debasing. To 
have the noblest faculties of the mind tainted 
and debased by what it feeds on is, or should 
be considered, a crime. That it is not so con- 
sidered is because the crime is too common to 
cause remark. Our public libraries should 
stand as beacon-lights to show a better way 
and lead to a nobler development of life. The 
life is the man, and the development of his life 
the loftiest aim to which we can devote our 
powers; and as in every department of the li- 
brary that aim should be the end in view, so 
we should select the periodical literature as 
well as the books with regard to the true edu- 
cation of the heart and soul, as well as the 
mind, of our readers. The well-known stand- 
ard literary journals should of course be had 
if possible. How large a supply of the cheap- 
er issues should be taken is a question. Not 
that many of them are not of good quality, but 
their place might be better filled by magazines 
especially adapted to various needs. Then, 



too, while we may try to avoid weak fiction 
upon our shelves, we may be furnishing an un- 
told quantity in our multiplicity of magazines. 
The tendency of the time is strongly in the di- 
rection of scrappy, unconnected reading, which 
the great numberof periodicals and newspapers 
tends greatly to foster. It would seem to be 
within the educational province of the library 
to encourage reading with a purpose, and to 
increase the number of technical periodicals (I 
use the term in its broadest sense) rather than 
to enlarge the number of perhaps harmless but 
not especially helpful ones. The industries of 
a place should be one of the first considerations. 
Hobbies should be tenderly cared for. Postage- 
stamps and poultry for the boys, china painting 
and needlework for the girls, music for all and 
science for all — these will do much towards 
correcting the taste and inducing a desire to 
read with a purpose. If in any case the library 
funds do not admit of supplying all the various 
needs, it might be possible to interest a few who 
are especially desirous of having a certain pub- 
lication to contribute the necessary amount for 
the benefit of all. 

Three or four architects, for instance, might 
club together and subscribe for the Architect 
and Building News, who would not feel able to 
procure it individually, but would in this way 
share equally in its use, and others would reap 
the benefit also. Religious, or rather denomi- 
national periodicals should be received as gifts, 
generally speaking. I have already referred 
to the wants of the children. Give them of 
the best — St. Nicholas, Harper's Rouytd Table, 
Youth's Companion, ani everything else equally 
good — to keep them from the debasing in- 
fluences of the pennydreadfuls that lie in wait 
like so many serpents in their paths. It is al- 
most beyond belief to learn the numberand the 
vileness of the publications which are forced 
upon the notice of the children of the present 
day, and anything that the library or the 
reading-room can do to counteract their fatal 
influence should be done. There is another 
tendency abroad which, while it may not be 
classed among the distinctly vicious, is yet 



5° 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



doing much to sap and weaken our higher 
powers, and that is the tendency to turn every- 
thing in life to ridicule. Take the funny papers 
of the day, and you will find that nothing is too 
sacred to form the butt of their wit or sarcasm. 
The very fact that a certain amount must be 
manufactured every week tends to make them 
careless as to the spirit of the joke. I have 
been sorry more than once that we have Life 
on our list when I see the young people call for 
the back volumes and pore over it for hours, to 
the exclusion of better things, or ask for it in 
the magazine-room, and leave if the last num- 
ber cannot be had. There is no danger of our 
becoming too serious a people. All the popu- 
lar magazines have their funny column, which 
furnishes enough amusement along with more 
solid food, but to see young people neglect 
more profitable reading which they would take 
but for it, leads one to doubt the wisdom of 
giving the sanction of the library to the in- 
fluence of this kind of literature. I am aware 
that this will have a very radical sound to 
many, but it is a subject well worthy of serious 
thought. 

The newspapers of our day are among the 
greatest foes of solid and continuous read- 
ing, that steady and persistent reading which 
develops the powers of the mind as health- 
ful physical e.xercise develops the muscles 
of the body. Setting aside those newspapers 
which cater to a low or sensational taste, the 
great dailies, and especially the enormous Sun- 
day editions, are perfect miners and sappers 
of the mind and memory. How many can 
give, after poring over one of these, a clear 
idea of what has been read ? The articles may 
all be true, and many of them interesting, but 
the effect of constant newspaper reading upon 
the average man is necessarily to weaken his 
mental grip and spoil his power of application 
to more serious studies. So it seems to me 
that the average library, and especially the 
smaller ones, can do better service by using 
their money in some other way. Scarcely any 
one in this country who cares to read a paper 
but contrives in some way to get it. The 
newspaper is as common as the day, and he 
who does not get one is hardly the one to go to 
the reading-room for it. 

The better way of spending the newspaper 
money would be to establish a reading-room for 
the children. Our hope for the future lies in 



them, and in the way they are prepared to as- 
sume the responsibilities of the future. 

The Pawtucket Library has for years gathered 
in the children from the streets and given them 
special tables and chairs and a liberal supply of 
attractive magazines. Many others have fol- 
lowed their example. The great Boston Library 
has devoted a large room lined with books ex- 
clusively to children, and finds it crowded daily. 
The last to develop this most important work is 
the Buffalo Library, where chairs and tables of 
kindergarten size invite the smallest child to 
come and partake of the feast provided. And is 
not this going to the root of the whole matter ? 
If our libraries do not stand as potent aids in 
the education and inspiration of the present and 
future generations, they do stand for a wicked 
waste of opportunity and treasure, 

This great agency for the development of 
mankind, the modern public library, has been 
placed in our hands to administer. What should 
our aim be ? Should it be anything short of the 
highest ? Should we not work for the future by 
beginning to cultivate the plant in its infancy ? 
Is it the gnarled and stunted tree, grown crooked 
and one-sided from adverse winds or neglect, 
which you try to train into a straight and 
healthy growth ? Is it not rather the young tree, 
coming up in its tender beauty, that you shield, 
and encourage, and enrich, with good promise 
of reward ? So it is in our libraries. Provision 
should be made for the healthy mental and 
moral growth of the little ones as well as their 
elders. Connect the child with the library in 
his earliest years; let him realize that it is just 
as much for him as for others. Supply his 
needs abundantly, giving him plenty of aids in 
his school work, and make the place as attrac- 
tive to him as possible. He responds quickly to 
the interest shown in him, and is proud to be 
able to help himself to sources of information 
and to help his fellows. 

You cannot often change the mental taste of 
the adult. The mind takes on early the tastes 
and habits which determine its future develop- 
ment. 

A good book, or a bad book ! How often it 
makes or mars the human soul ! Educators re- 
alize fully that the training of the child cannot 
begin too early; and we are realizing that the 
aid of the library in the healthful training of 
the child cannot begin too early. 

Work with the child in every way you can ; 



HILL. 



SI 



be careful that no book or magazine shall lend 
its influence to harm it ; make the library, or 
better, the reading-room, so attractive to him 
that it will become a part of his daily life, a 
powerful foe to the influence of the street, a con- 
stant source of help intellectually, morally, and 
spiritually. 

The work in the Pawtucket Library is an ad- 
mirable example of the inestimable benefit to be 
derived from a children's reading-room. 

In a thickly-settled manufacturing city hun- 
dreds of children roam the streets learning 
lessons in vice and degradation, and in after 
years develop into the thriftless candidates for 
the poor-house or jail. 

The Pawtucket Library has dealt wisely with 
this class, and encouraged and welcomed the 
children to its reading-room to such an extent 
that the testimony of the police is unanimous 
regarding the powerful influence of the library 
for good. 

It is the same work that the kindergarten is 
accomplishing in quickening thought and culti- 
vating the moral sense, only it carries it on 
into the manhood and womanhood of the peo- 
ple, developing honest, industrious, intelligent 



citizens in the place of paupers and crim- 
inals. 

In more favored places the work is not less 
necessary. The temptations of vice are pres- 
ent everywhere, and everywhere need to be 
counteracted. Wealth furnishes no safeguard 
against them, and too often weakens if it does 
not destroy the mental and moral fibre of its 
owner. 

It is the earnest, thoughtful men and women 
who are needed to carry forward the work of 
the world. Men and women whose minds have 
been trained and broadened by communion with 
the best thoughts of those who have preceded 
them preserved on the written page. 

Keep this thought ever before you, that your 
work in your library must be a part of the 
great uplifting force at work at the present day 
which is making for a more honest, thoughtful, 
conscientious, intelligent national life. 

Cherish the highest ideals of the possibilities 
of your profession. You cannot aim too high 
if by wise steps to attain your end you keep in 
touch with the little children and lead them to 
consider the library as much a part of their 
daily life as their homes and their schools. 



PREPARING A BOOK FOR ISSUE ; AND CHARGING SYSTEMS. 



BY FRANK PIERCE HILL, LIBR.\RIAN, PUBLIC LIBRARY, NEWARK, 



"\ XT' HEN I acceded to the request of the 
program committee for a paper on the 
above subjects I supposed I was to describe the 
system or systems in use at Newark; but when, 
some four months later, I took up the matter 
seriously I found that I was expected to cover 
the whole ground. This discovery was made 
too late to permit me " to back out" gracefully, 
and so I took up the task glorying in the fact 
that the hardest part of the work had already 
been done by others. 

If it will not be considered putting the cart 
before the horse I will first describe Charging 
Systems. The first report on Charging Sys- 
tems was made by K. A. Linderfelt at the Cin- 
cinnati conference in 1SS2. (See L. j., 7 : 178.) 

The second and most important contribution 
on the subject was made by Mr. Henry J. Carr 
in 1880. In that vear at the St. Louis confer- 



ence a thorough and comprehensive report was 
made by Mr. Carr in his well-known exhaustive 
manner. At the outset I would refer you to 
the Library journal, 1889, ig : 203, for that re- 
port, and would call your special attention to 
the bibliography thereto attached. 

The Library Handbook, prepared under the 
editorial supervision of Melvil Dewey, and is- 
sued by the U. S. Bureau of Education, con- 
tains Miss Mary Wright Plummer's admirable 
paper (constituting the fourth report), which 
brings the history of the subject down to 1S93. 
What is left for me is to chronicle the doings 
since the Chicago or World's Fair conference. 

And here again I am in clover, for I find that 
there has been but one important addition since, 
that of Miss Nina E. Browne, fully described in 
the Library journal, 1895, 20:168. 

To finish with references I would advise you 



52 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



{Borrower's card) 

SERIES B. 



{Reverse.) 



(Robert Lincoln, 



202g (Broad St., 



is entitled to draw books from the 

Free Public Library, 



No. 



NEWARK N.J. 

65374 



The application, upon 'which this card is 
issued, must be renewed ^Ug. 11, iSgg. 

m^This card must be presented 
whenever a book is taken, or 
RETURNED. If lost, it will be re- 
placed after seven days' notice on 
payment of 1 cents, or, without fee 
at the expiration of twenty days. 

NOTICE. — All books, except those marked 
SEVEN-DAY BOOKS, may be kept fourteen 
days. A fine of two cents a day is charged 
for each day overdue, and if not returned with- 
in one week after notice is sent, 20 cents 
additional wrill be charged. 

No books delivered on cards where fines are 
unpaid. 

Give Prompt Notice of Change of Residence. 

LIBRARY HOURS: 
9 A.M. to 8.30 P.M., legal holidays excepted. 
When not in use, fi/ense leave this card at 
the delivery desk. 


























2 '^ 

It 

\ 


6 
Z 


z 
















































< 


























D 


< 























u 

G 
2 


n 
7, 


bi 
•< 























to consult the Libr.vrv journal for 1894 and 
1895; and last but not least the " Primer" — or, 
as some one has facetiously called it, the " Baby 
Library Pathfinder," printed in Public Libraries, 
vol. I, nos. I -date. 

As this session is supposed to be devoted to 
the interests of " the younger and less experi- 
enced members" of the A. L. A., I may be 
permitted to say that the three requisites of any 
charging system are (i) accuracy, (2) speed, (3) 
simplicity, but no one of these requisites at the 
expense of another; and that the librarian should 
ever strive to make it easier for the borrower to 
get a book. Some of us are somewhat inclined 



to set too high a value on unimportant statistics, 
and are apt to consider as a desideratum the 
number of questions that can be answered by 
the charging system. All of which is well 
enough but may be carried too far. 

Of the questions asked by Miss Plummer the 
system used at Newark will answer all in a 
more or less satisfactory manner --the ones re- 
lating to the borrower being less definite and 
less accurate, as the library does not consider it 
necessary to know what book a borrower reads. 

A word as to the Newark system. The credit 
for the foundation of this system must be given 
to the Evansville (Ind.), Library, where was de- 



HILL. 



53 



vised a plan of a " slip for every book on which 
each successive issue is charged by reader's num- 
ber and stamp of date, and a borrower's card — 
kept by the reader — on which the date and re- 
turn of each issue are stamped."* Modifications 
of this scheme were made by Jacob Schwartz of 



To charge a book, the date on which the book 
is taken from the library is stamped in blue ink 
on the borrower's card (manilla board), on the 
book-pocket (thin paper), which is on the back 
of the last leaf, and on the book-slip (thin board), 
which is in the pocket, and the number of the 



{Book Pocket.) 

[form p., a. p. h.] 

Free Public Library, 

(3 NEWARK, N. J. W 17 



[Form B.] 



One volume allowed each day, and obtained only by 
card. 

Books labeled "Seven Days' Book" must not be re- 
tained more than one week, and cannot be renewed. 

Other books may be retained two weeks, and may be 
renewed. 

A fine of two cents a day, including Sundays and holi- 
days, must be paid on each volume kept over time. 

No book will be delivered to the party incurring fine till 
all indebtedness is paid. 

Borrowers finding this book mutilated or unwarrantably 
defaced are expected to report it. 

The intentional injury of books or other property of a 
Public Library incurs, by statute, a liability of a fine of 
$ioo. 



THE RECORD BELOW MUST NOT BE MADE 
OR ALTERED BY THE BORROWER. 



the General Society of Mechanics and Trades- 
men's Library, New York City, J. F. Sargent, f 
Paterson (N. J.) Library, and the writer, but 
the originality, if any, certainly belongs to Bas- 
sett Cadwallader, of Evansville, Ind. 

The following is a brief description of the 
charging system adopted at Newark : 

*L. J., 14 : 469 — also i : 254. 

tThe changes made by Mr. Sargent were the most im- 
portant and useful, and, with some improvements, were 
adopted at Newark. 



© 



W 17 



Booi^ sli:e». 

ISSUED TO DATE OF ISSUE. 



65374 



: Ag. '96. 



borrower's card is written opposite the date on 
the book-slip (as per samples). 

The book-slip is then taken from the pocket 
and dropped in a drawer provided for the pur- 
pose, and the book and card pass into the bor- 
rower's possession. 

When the book is returned the card only is 
stamped in red ink with the return date (as per 
sample), and the borrower may at once proceed 
to get another book; a fine being charged if the 
book is overdue — which fact is ascertained by 



54 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



the charging date on the left of the borrower's 
card — and the book is laid aside to be dis- 
charged at the pleasure of the slip-rack attend- 
ant. 

At the end of the day the book-slips are taken 
from the drawer and arranged in a tray, (r) 
according to class, (2) alphabetically by book 
number, and the tray is put on the slip-rack 
table. 

An attendant is constantly at work , slipping 
the books which are brought over from the de- 
livery-desk; i.e., ascertaining from the book- 
pocket the date book was charged, then taking 
the book-slip from the tray and putting it in the 
pocket of its book, taking care that book and 
slip correspond as to class, book, and copy num- 
ber. 

Overdue books are indicated by the date-slips, 
the trays being moved along each day. 

Under this system the borrower can tell, by 
looking at his card, on what day the book he 
has was taken from the library; and the librari- 
an can tell from the day's book-slips the amount 
and character of the circulation, and by refer- 
ence from slips to the numerical register can 
ascertain name and address of borrowers to 
whom books are charged. 

The pocket is not used for borrower's cards 
because of time wasted in putting in and taking 
out. 

I am of opinion that Miss Browne's system is 
well adapted to libraries with small circulation. 
The only objection* to it that I can see is that 
the borrower must wait to have his book dis- 
charged. We all know that certain times of the 
day are busier than others, and, while it would 
be easy to discharge, without delay, all books 
at, say 10 a.m., it would be difficult to do so 
with the much larger number at S p.m. It is 
much quicker to stamp date three times and 
write reader's card number once than to dis- 
charge book by any known system, particularly 
in the busy part of the day. (It goes without 
saying that the time taken to get a book from 
the shelves is the same no matter what charg- 
ing system is used.) With regard to sending 
"fine notices" the Browne system is quicker 
and easier, owing to its account with the bor- 
rower, but that is a matter which interests the 
statistical department of the library, not the 
borrower. 

* Miss Browne states that there is no delay, therefore the 
objection is removed. 



The aim of all charging systems is, or should 
be, to relieve the borrower of all trouble and de- 
lay. The library that succeeds in these two es- 
sentials is sure to satisfy its constituents. 

TO RENEW A BOOK. 

To renew a book without coming to the li- 
brary the borrower should send a postal giving 
call number of book, the date on which the book 
was taken from the library, and the borrower's 
card number. 

When the postal is received at the library 
the book-slip called for is found and taken from 
the tray, re-charged to the borrower, stamped 
with the current date, and filed with the day's 
slips; in its place is put a green "renewal" 
slip, giving date to which book has been re- 
newed and other information (sample below). 

Aug. 11, 'g6. 

(Form N.) 
RENEWAL. 



(3 



W 17 



Card No. 



Date. 



65374 



Aug. 26, '96. 



'OX pjina 



'T vyvs.a N a a 
Cm kkoj) 



HILL. 



55 



FREE RUBL-IC LIBRKRV 

RENEWAL 

Booh ^..Jl. has been renewed for two weeks 

from :^1S:J,^,, as requested bij you -^11:1^.. 189<^ 

Respectfully yours 



FRANK P. HILL, 

Liir 



BRING THIS OMRD iA£ITH VO\J 
WHEN BOOK IS RETURNED. 



Notice is then sent by mail to the borrower 
that the book has been renewed (sample above.) 

If request for renewal is made at the library, 
a manilla slip instead of postal-card containing 
the same information is given the borrower. 

When the book itself is returned the renewal 
notice should accompany it, in order to save 
time of borrower by telling at once that it is 
not an overdue book. 

TO RESERVE A BOOK. 

Any book in the library (except fiction) may 
be reserved by the payment of two (2) cents. 
The second volume of a novel may be reserved 
in the same way. 



When a request for a reserve is made, a postal 
addressed to the applicant is filled out with the 
necessary information, as shown in the sample 
below : 

The accompanying "reserve" slip (red) is 
then filled out and placed with the regular book- 
slip in the charging-tray. 

When the book is discharged attention is at 
once called to the "reserve," and the postal- 
card notice is completed and mailed to the ap- 
plicant — the book being placed on the " reserve 
shelf." 

A record is kept of the "reserves" by date, 
name, address, book reserved, and whether it 
was called for or not. 



Form M.— 1-95-1. A.P. H. 

Book 332 H25 No I 

Newark, N. J. 189 

The book asked for by you ^l.-^A:.'.9A _ 

Vol is now in the hbrary, and will be retained until 

8.30 p. m. 189 

Respectfully yours, 

FRANK P. HILL, Librarian. 
1®^ BRING THIS CARD WITH YOU. 



S6 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



27 Aug. 'g6. 

[Form V.] 



RESERVED 



332 H 25 



PREPARING A BOOK FOR ISSUE. 

In as few words as possible I will mention 
the different stages through which a book passes 
(after reaching the librarj') before being ready 
for circulation : 

1. Check invoice, indicating by letter the name 
of the attendant who checked it, and put price 
and source in some specified place in the book. 

2. Check order-slip in order-drawer with in- 
voice (order-book should not be used). 

3. Cut leaves. (Collate only the more expen- 
sive works.) 

4. Emboss fly-leaves, title-pages, full-page il- 
lustrations (if not too many to affect appearance 
of book), and three or four printed pages. 

5. Paste book-plate on inside front cover. 



6. Paste pocket (this pocket holds book-slip 
and has printed on it certain rules) on back of 
last fly-leaf, tipping the two upper corners and 
all the bottom edge. (Mistake to put pocket on 
cover, as stamping is quite likely to break it.) 

7. Paste outside label, unless to be lettered 
by binder. 

8. Write the source on book-plate. 

9. Accession. Put accession number under 
embossing stamp on title-page. 

10. Classify and give dictionary heads; and 
indicate if J or R. 

11. Shelf-list (use cards rather than shelf-list 
book), putting class-book number and copy num- 
ber on book-plate. 

12. Write cards author, title, subject, and ana- 
lytical. 

13. Revise — done by chief cataloger. 

14. Insert book-slip in pocket and print class 
and book number on book-slip and pocket in 
red ink and on back label in black ink. (The 
letter J or R in red ink.) 

15. Place a small label " new book " on pock- 
et, to show that when returned book is to go on 
" new book table " rather than on shelf. 

16. Paste seven days' notice on all juveniles 
and some fiction. 

17. Put book on " new book table," ready for 
circulation. 

iS. Prepare dummy to take the place on the 
regular shelf for a book to go in the Reference 
Department. 

In closing I wish to pay a tribute to a library, 
which, as a lender of books, will soon be out of 
existence, namely, the Middlesex Mechanics 
Association, of Lowell, Mass. 

For many years its interests were looked 
after and its library affairs well governed by 
one of the most conscientious A. L. A. workers. 
Miss Mary E. Sargent. 

It was in this library that I first saw the screw- 
lock which has since been applied by Newark 
and a few other libraries to magazine covers, 
newspaper files, and card cases. Here I first 
saw a successful sliding newspaper file which 
permitted the reader to adjust the paper so as 
to make the least strain on the eyes. This de- 
vice is used at Newark, Worcester, Paterson, 
and several other places. 

If for no other reasons than the above men- 
tioned the Middlesex Mechanics Association 
should be remembered and its name handed 
down to perpetuity. 



KROEGER. 



57 



REPORT ON THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN LIBRARIANS AT ATLANTA. 

BY MISS ALICE B. KROEGER, LIBRARIAN, DREXEL' INSTITUTE, PHILADELPHIA. 



'T'HE Cotton States and International Exposi- 
tion, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia, 
during the fall months of 1895, was the occasion 
of many congresses on various subjects, few of 
which, however, were more important than the 
Congress of Women Librarians, since it created 
an interest in the public library movement which 
promises to be productive in the future of its 
greater development in the South. 

The Congress had for its object to stimulate 
library growth in the South. The programs, 
which were so admirably arranged by Miss 
Anne Wallace, librarian of the Young Men's 
Association Library, of Atlanta, and chairman 
of the Congress, included papers on the vari- 
ous phases of library history and management 
which especially brought forward the broad edu- 
cational side of the free public library and its 
advantages to every community. 

The sessions of the Congress were held in the 
assembly hall of the Woman's Building, on 
November 29 and 30, under the auspices of the 
Board of Women Managers. At the first ses- 
sion, on Friday, November 29, Mrs. Porter 
King, chairman of the library committee, made 
the opening address and introduced Miss Wal- 
lace, who presided as chairman of the Congress. 
In her address. Miss Wallace called attention to 
the lack of a proper library law in the larger 
number of the southern states, which in some 
measure accounted for their lack of free libra- 
ries. The Association Library, with its nominal 
fee, must be maintained and strengthened until 
legislation towards a direct tax for the founda- 
tion and support of public libraries can be 
made. Miss Wallace further urged the estab- 
lishment of state library associations in the 
South, on account of the benefits to be obtained 
by the union of interests and the exchange of 
ideas and experiences. 

The papers of this session included: "The 
public libraries of America," by Miss Hannah 
P. James, librarian of the Osterhout Library, 
Wilkes Barre, Pa.; "Library training schools," 
prepared by Miss Mary W. Plummer, librarian 
of the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, which was read 



by Miss Miller, of Boston; "Libraries of the 
West," prepared by Mrs. Carrie W. Whitney, 
librarian of the Kansas City Public Library, 
read by Mrs. Moses Wadley, of Augusta, Ga. 
At the second session, on Saturday, November 
30, the following'papers were read: "Library 
work in its relation to the public school," by 
Miss Mary P. Sargent, librarian of the Public 
Library, Medford, Mass.; "The American Li- 
brary Association," by Miss Alice B. Kroeger, 
librarian of the Drexel Institute, Philadelphia; 
"Classification, catalogs, and modern library 
appliances," by Miss Nina E. Browne, of the 
Library Bureau, Boston. 

The importance of a close relation between 
the public library^ and the public school; the 
value of a special training in library science for 
the carrying out of the highest ideal of the 
library as an educator; the method available in 
executing the best ideas in administration as 
furnished by the appliances and conveniences 
in use in the best libraries; the history of libra- 
ries in this country and of library associations; 
together with experiences in starting small 
libraries, furnished many themes of interest to 
those who attended the meetings. Among the 
interested visitors to the Congress at the second 
session was Mrs. M. French Sheldon, who spoke 
briefly on the relation of the librarian to the 
publisher. The attendance at the meetings was 
not large, but it included librarians from Massa- 
chusetts, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Alabama, and 
Nebraska. 

That the papers should be more widespread 
in their usefulness and in the purpose for 
which the Congress was intended, the promo- 
tion of library interests in the South, the United 
States Commissioner" of Education will print 
them for general circulation. 

An exhibit of library appliances, including a 
card catalog of the library of the Woman's 
Building and many library supplies and devices 
from the Library Bureau, formed an interesting 
feature of the library-room, which adjoined the 
assembly hall. 

A reception tendered the visiting librarians 



58 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



by Mrs. Porter King, on the afternoon of No- 
vember 29, afforded a pleasant opportunity to 
meet socially many friends to the library cause 
in Atlanta. Another delightful reception on 
the evening of November 30 was held in honor 
of the librarians by the board of directors of 
the Young Men's Association Library, at the 
library building, which is admirably adapted 
to such a social affair, as it was formerly an 
old southern mansion, with spacious halls and 
rooms. 

Several of the northern librarians remained 
for some days after the adjournment of the 
Congress, in order to see more thoroughly the 
beautiful Exposition grounds and buildings and 
to visit the libraries and other points of interest 
in Atlanta. The State Library and the Young 



Men's Association Library are the two large 
libraries of Atlanta, and they showed by the 
use made of their valuable collections the im- 
portance they hold in the intellectual life of the 
city. 

The growth of the South in material prosper- 
ity within the past 20 years has been accom- 
panied by improved school facilities. With the 
increased advantages for education must come 
the need for the public library to supplement 
and continue the work of the school. So from 
the Congress of Librarians at Atlanta it is 
hoped will arise new efforts to obtain for every 
town in the South the opportunity for greater 
intellectual activity which comes from the pos- 
session of a library free to every person in the 
community. 



REPORT ON GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. 



BY MISS CAROLINE M. HEWINS, LIBRARIAN, HARTFORD PUBLIC LIBRARY. 



/~\F 226 answers received to 500 postal-cards 
^-^ sent to libraries all over the country, 80 
report no gifts or bequests of money or books, 
and a few others less than a $100 or 100 vol- 
umes. The others show that in the two years 
covered by the report, from June, 1894, to June, 
1896, nearly f2,50o,oooin money have been given 
to libraries, buildings worth nearly f 1,000,000 
have been erected for the housing of books, 
more than 100,000 volumes have been added to 
the libraries of the country by gift and bequest, 
and pictures, statues, bric-&-brac, coins, and 
manuscripts whose value cannot be estimated, 
have also been bestowed upon them. 

In the whole mass of letters and pamphlets 
that have come in reply to a question regarding 
what has been given to libraries within two 
years, there are several that are most sugges- 
tive and worthy of imitation. 

In a town library stands a plain bookcase, of 
the best wood and workmanship, filled with 
copies of the favorite books of a girl whose ap- 
preciation of the best in literature was only one 
of the noble traits of her character. She died 
in 1894, and her young friends gave case and 
books as a memorial of her to be placed in the 
library of her native town as a silent incentive 
to the boys and girls coming after her to live up 
to her standard. 



In a hill-town in a New England state there 
is a memorial building, the gift of one brother 
to the memory of another, through whose ef- 
forts pure cold water now comes into every 
house in the town from a neighboring mountain. 
This building houses a library that had fallen 
into disuse, and a sister of the two brothers, 
who spends long summers in the town, has 
brought back its old-time reputation as a think- 
ing and reading community by inviting the 
farmers and their wives in the neighborhood to 
study English history with her. A member of 
the family said to me that the strength and 
keenness of mind which they show in their pa- 
pers on historical subjects is most unexpected, 
and that the whole community has felt the ef- 
fects of the new impulse to thought and reading. 
It is hard to say which will be in future years 
the greater blessing, the supply of pure moun- 
tain water, freeing the town from danger of 
drought and pestilence, or the library, broaden- 
ening the horizon of men, women, and chil- 
dren. 

In another town, a memorial library building 
is the centre of all social life. A hall, with a 
stage and a concert-grand piano, and a well-fur- 
nished kitchen, invite the scattered families of 
outlying districts to pleasant, social evenings 
in the long winters, and a chime from the clock- 



HEW INS. 



59 



tower rings out every hour an air from " Parsifal" 
that is heard for miles among the lonely hills 
and over the quiet lakes that lie between them. 

In one city a woman has left half of her by 
no means large estate in recognition of the 
pleasure she had derived from the library and 
of the kindness she had received from all con- 
nected with it. One man gave the public li- 
brary of his city his $500 salary as mayor, and 
another the sum, not stated, that he received for 
filling the offices of selectman and overseer of 
the poor. 

All the libraries that I have mentioned are in 
New England, and I speak of them not be- 
cause there are not others like them in states 
beyond the Hudson, but for the reason that 
they have come under my own personal obser- 
vation or knowledge. The unfairness of any 
statement of gifts and bequests made for the 
whole country by one person cannot fail to im- 
press every one who tries to obtain statistics 
concerning them. It is as difficult for a librari- 
an in the East to keep in touch with libraries in 
states outside his own as for our president or 
secretary to find the library items in newspapers 
published in the smaller cities of Connecticut 
which one of my assistants cuts and pastes 
every week. The new magazine, PubUc Li- 
braries, has a large field for gathering up infor- 
mation on gifts, bequests, and new libraries in 
the West. Even then, the influence of the li- 
brary spirit upon givers of libraries cannot be 
told in figures. A man who has grown rich 
may give a library in his will to his native town, 
that children of future generations may enjoy 
the pleasures which he lacked, but it is not al- 
ways that he or his family can or will teach the 
townspeople how to enjoy these pleasures. An 
account of what a library that has been given is 
actually doing, the use made of the building 
and books, or their influence on the social life 
of the neighborhood, can be written only by 
some one who has seen it. 

The Library journal's returns of gifts and 
bequests are incomplete, even for the East. 



Many postal-cards sent out asking for informa- 
tion never receive answers. I wish to suggest 
the appointment now and here of a librarian or 
library trustee in- every state who will be re- 
sponsible for the news of that state concerning 
gifts and bequests to libraries, and send all 
items collected during the year at least three 
months before the annual meeting of the A. L. 
A. to the person appointed by the e.xecutive 
committee to report upon them. 

This had been written when a letter came 
from our president asking me to say something 
about methods of interesting wealthy people in 
libraries, and persuading them^^to leave books 
and money to libraries in their wills. Once in 
a while a librarian like Dr. William Rice, of 
Springfield, Massachusetts, who has a genius 
for persuading his rich friends to give or leave 
their worldly goods to the city library, may be 
found among librarians, but the profession has 
not many of them. The most successful getter 
of money for library and church whom I have 
ever known is a minister who had a thorough 
business training before he went to college. 
The same kind of tact and adaptation that 
makes a good salesman must be brought into 
play in dealing with prospective benefactors to 
libraries. The every-day librarian who does 
not combine business address with other good 
gifts of nature, and has little time to present 
arguments or subtle flatteries ft> the millionaires 
of his town, must content himself with making 
his library necessary to their comfort and well- 
being. If there are lawyers on the board of 
trustees, they can sometimes say a good word 
for the library when a rich man or woman with 
no children or needy relations makes a will. 
Our own library once received $13,000 and 
several hundred books through the kind sug- 
gestion of a lawyer when drawing up the will 
of a man who did not know where to bestow 
the money that he could not take with him, and 
half a dozen other institutions in the city are 
enjoying an income from the same source to- 
day. 



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GARLAND. 



6S 



THE LIBRARIAN'S ANNUAL REPORT. 



BY MISS CAROLINE HARWOOD GARLAND, LIBRARIAN, PUBLIC LIBRARY, DOVER, N. H. 



TT is usually with a profound sigh that the 
librarian sits down to write his annual re- 
port. That the thing must be done and he 
must do it, is the combination of facts which 
compels action. Without this force many of 
us would willingly omit the annual ceremony. 

But the annual report is just as much an 
opportunity as it is a necessity. Like all inev- 
itable things, while it must be met it may be 
used. Like all inevitables, too, it is only 
through a thorough knowledge of its require- 
ments that one aims at an understanding of its 
possibilities. 

First, then, the librarian will set himself to 
consider what a report ought to show. He 
will remember that it is to be not only the 
vehicle of information to the present reader, 
but that the set is to go on record in the city 
accounts and is to constitute a history of the 
library. With a laudable desire to do this 
work as'well as possible, the young librarian 
will probably try to make use of the experience 
of those older in the profession, and in search 
of an approved model will have recourse to the 
printed library reports within his reach. Among 
these e.xists no uniformity. Many years ago 
there was a plan for statistics formulated and 
published in the Library journal. This table 
seems to provide for everything necessary, yet 
very few librarians follow it. Again and again 
suggestions have been made in the Journal 
that a plan be presented which shall be gen- 
erally adopted. This, however, will depend 
not so much on the plan as on librarians. It is 
no part of this brief paper to attempt to outline 
such a plan. That should be the result of sug- 
gestions from different sources, and should be 
carefully adapted by varying degrees of elabo- 
ration to both the large and the small libraries. 

But with or without this plan, there are cer- 
tain statistics which should always be presented 
clearly : 

1. The year's circulation of books; the differ- 
ent classes, the home use, the library use, the 
school use, the reference use, and the total. 

2. The year's additions; by gift, by purchase, 
by binding; the number of losses, and the total 
number in the library. 



3. The number of borrowers. 

4. The receipts and expenditures, itemized. 
This last account is more often the duty of 

the treasurer of the board of trustees than the 
librarian. 

The arrangement is not vital, though it is 
better to be logical. 

The necessary statistics being prepared, the 
next step is the writing of the text. The libra- 
rian should now look to his opportunities. He 
will remember that his report reaches a class 
of city politicians and ward managers who sel- 
dom learn much in any other way of the work 
of the library. Members of the city govern- 
ment frequently will read a city report when 
they pass by all other forms of information. 
The librarian, then, will count it one of his 
privileges that once a year he may address a 
class in the community whom he does not reach 
ordinarily, yet upon whom the financial welfare 
of the library may depend. He will remember 
that interest is at the root of activity, and he 
will therefore try to interest this class and 
make of it a friend to the library; and one need 
not be wily, one need only be wise, to try to 
put his report in such a form that the reader 
shall be interested as well as instructed. 

The report, too, often may be made the 
means of telling in permanent form to the trus- 
tees whatever the librarian wishes them to 
know. Notwithstanding the fact that every 
year trustees and librarians are drawing nearer 
one another and together are making rapid 
steps forward for the welfare of their libraries, 
yet it is true that sometimes a librarian desires 
to tell his trustees something. Here is his 
opportunity. Clearly and simply, often with 
insistence and persistence, never peevishly, 
but always with dignity, he may put on record 
that which he desires his board to apprehend; 
and he may set forth needs and desirabilities 
and may make suggestions with a certainty of 
attention that is secured in no other way. 

After he has decided upon his material — 
and if he is wise he has been keeping in some 
pigeon-hole of his desk memoranda made 
through the year while things were happening — 
the next thing to consider is the manner of its 



66 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



presentation. Just here many librarians go 
astray. 

A comparison of reports reveals a remarkable 
similarity of fault. What James La"ne Allen 
says of men in one of his books may, with 
equal truth, be applied to annual reports — "they 
vary in their virtues but are singularly alike in 
their transgressions." After doing a little read- 
ing, the observer comes to the conclusion that 
the success of written work depends no less 
upon what is said than upon what is left unsaid. 
He will, therefore, in writing his own report 
leave out several things. 

1. He will leave out the personal element. 
That is, he will not say, " I think," " it seems 
to me," or the like; nor will he bring in his own 
personality at all. 

2. He will avoid any expression of discour- 
agement, even while being truthful and looking 
serious facts square in the face. 

3. He will avoid such phrases, especially 
at the beginning, as, "This year has been an 
eventful one in the history of the library." In 
the first place this ought not to be true, and if it 
be true the librarian certainly should not tell of it. 

4. He will try to avoid the common errors of 
English. 

5. He will not make a mistake in its length, 
knowing that if it is too short it lacks dignity, 
and if too long it becomes tedious. 

But nothing ever attains a high degree of ex- 
cellence by mere avoidance of error. There 
must be definite design in composition. So 
with his material before him, and the point 
that he wishes to make well in mind, he will do 
well before beginning to write to make an out- 
line. In this way he can consider well his 
arrangement, putting related facts together and 
letting different points follow in logical order. 



He will remember that the emphatic part of a 
sentence is the last part and that the place for 
his important paragraph is at the end; and 
then knowing that the ear sometimes detects 
what the eye fails to recognize, when he has 
completed his work let him read it over aloud. 
After this he will perhaps do well to look over 
half a dozen of his exchanges and see whether 
they contain suggestions for him. Of course 
this may be done in the beginning ; but then there 
is danger that the writer will follow along his 
neighbor's lines instead of developing his own 
resources. 

At last, having completed his work to the 
best of his ability, it will be ready to read to the 
trustees, to present to the city government, to 
furnish to the newspapers, to send to his broth- 
er librarians, and to go on record for the future 
antiquarian. Then if he is really wise the li- 
brarian will demand of himself one more little 
report. This last is of himself to himself. He 
will not make it when he is either exhilarated 
or down-hearted, or when he is weary, but 
some time in his ordinary habit he will do well 
to ask himself, simply and honestly, neither 
underrating nor over-valuing himself in his re- 
plies, questions something like these : 

Am I doing easily this year what last year 1 
could do only with difficulty? This is the test 
of growth of capacity. 

Am I seeing this year possibilities that I have 
never seen before ? This is the test of growth 
of ideal. 

Am I being reached by and am I reaching 
persons whom until now I have found it diffi- 
cult to get on with? This is the test of growth 
in intelligent sympathy. It is the highest of all 
attainments. It is therefore most difficult to 
acquire. 



HEPNER. 



67 



A PROPOSITION FOR AN AMERICAN LIBRARIES' CLEARING- 
HOUSE. 



To the American Library Association : 

The suggestion is, that the Government of 
the United States create an American libraries' 
clearing - house, to be administered by the 
United States Commissioner of Education. 
Said office to be a centre of communication and 
distribution between American libraries, and 
especially perform, as a domestic distributing 
medium, the same mission that has fallen to the 
Smithsonian Institution in regard to foreign li- 
braries. The clearing-house to be the centre of 
distribution to American libraries of such books 
and pamphlets as are put free^of charge at its 
disposal. 

There are printed every year many small 
books and pamphlets at the expense of the au- 
thors, without the least hope of sale, or distri- 
bution through the booksellers. Nine-tenths 
of the copies lie idle and a burden to the author 
in his residence, while any library would gladly 
accept a copy, if presented free of charge. A 
pamphlet in itself is usually a trifle, but a col- 
lection of pamphlets on a certain subject some- 
times becomes a very valuable resource for lit- 
erary or scientific research. The establishment 
of such a clearing-house would make available 
many pamphlets which cannot now be pur- 
chased. The trade handles very few pam- 
phlets, as it does not pay publishers to print them 
nor retailers to sell them. Most of these little 
books are at present wasted, while a collection 
of them in a library would furnish very useful 
information on "questions of the day" of their 
time. For instance, how valuable now are the 
pamphlets of the Abolition period, and how 
glad libraries would be to possess some of the 
thousands that have been wasted or destroyed. 
The numerous leaflets of iSSs-'gs on the tariff 
and the silver question, if collected and pre- 
served, will in years to come be very interest- 
ing in connection with the political history of 



the time. Besides pamphlets, many books are 
printed every year at authors' expense, good 
books, although the author found no publisher 
to accept the risk of publication. These find a 
limited sale, because not handled commercially, 
through the regular channels of trade, and the 
author would gladly donate the unsold copies 
to the libraries through the proposed clearing- 
house. Discouraged by the failure of his pub- 
lishing enterprise, he does not care to incur the 
extra expense of distributing them to libraries 
through the mails. An edition of 3000 small 
pamphlets at two cents each would make a cost 
of |6o ; heavier books of five cents postage, 
$150. This is deemed too much after the loss 
for printing outlay. To such authors an Ameri- 
can libraries' clearing-house, through which 
they could give their books to the libraries, 
would be a great relief, and the libraries would 
be greatly enriched. 

It should be understood that the clearing- 
house would have the right to accept or refuse 
all offers at its own discretion, e.g., it would 
refuse pamphlets which are nothing but com- 
mon libels, those limited to local interest en- 
tirely, or published by demented persons. 
Should the clearing-house be established, its 
aims and purposes should be made known 
through the press, especially its readiness to 
distribute free of charge, to American libraries, 
books in any quantity. The clearing-house 
would then find its way to communicate with 
the libraries on the newly-offered books, as well 
as on the books that many libraries would be 
glad to exchange, because they possess larger 
quantities than necessary. 

Respectfully submitted, 

Adolf Hefner, 
Editor "St. Louis Tageblatt." 



68 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



STATE AID TO LIBRARIES. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON STATE AID TO LIBRARIES. 

[Compiled for the committee by George M. Lee, assistant in the Public Library, Denver. 

Send additions and corrections to Caroline M. Hewins, Public Library, Hartford, Conn., secretary of the 
committee.] 



T 



HE committee wishes to incorporate in this For further information address Caroline M. 
report, in its final form, information in Hewins, secretary, Hartford, Conn. 



regard to those states in which a state aid law 
is contemplated or an attempt has been made 
to secure one, as well as those in which state 
aid legislation has been adopted. Information 
is also desired about attempts to pass a state 
law permitting towns to tax themselves. 



Delaware. — No state aid. 
Florida. — No state aid. 
Georgia. — No state aid. 
Idaho. — No state aid. 

Illinois. — No state aid. The Illinois State 
Library Association has appointed a committee 



This circular has been of necessity hastily to arouse interest in a state library commission, 
compiled. It will, consequently, be found in- and to have a bill drafted and presented to the 
complete and incorrect in many particulars. It state Legislature when it shall convene in Janu- 



should be considered as a first draft only; 

Alabama. — No state aid. 

Arizona. — No state aid. 

Arkansas. — No state aid. 

California. — No state library commission. 
Ten per cent, of the school fund annually ap- 



ary, 1897. 

The committee propose asking every libra- 
rian in the state to write his senator and rep- 
resentative, asking that they use their influence 
for a commission. 

Indiana. — No state aid. The state Board of 



portioned, not to exceed 850 in any case, is Education is a library board to provide for the 
available for district libraries. Such libraries administration of the State Library. 



are free to pupils and open to residents, who 
pay fee required by school authorities. 

Colorado. — No state aid. Cities, towns, 
and school districts may establish public li- 
braries. The Colorado State Library Associa- 
tion has appointed a committee on library 



The State Library Association hopes to have 
the Legislature pass a bill at its session the 
coming winter, providing for a state library 
commission, a non-partisan state librarian, and 
travelling libraries. 

Iowa. — No state library commission. Any 



legislation. The committee will present a bill library may, by complying with the law, be- 
to the Legislature, meeting in January, 1897, come an "associate library" with the State Li- 
providing for the appointment and maintenance brary. An associate library may, by paying 
of a state library commission. transportation, borrow books from the State Li- 

CoNNECTicuT. — Library Committee since brary. Where there is no associate library, 

1S93. The Committee is appointed annually books may be lent from the State Library upon 

by the state Board of Education, and the mem- petition of 25 resident taxpayers. $4000 has 

bers serve without pay. been appropriated to buy and equip travelling 

If any town having no free public library libraries, 

will establish one, and comply with the law. It is the duty of the State Librarian to give, if 

the Committee is authorized to expend for asked, information regarding library organiza- 

books selected by them a sum not to exceed the tion and management. 

sum expended by the town, and not to exceed Kansas. — No state aid. Cities and towns 

$200. The Committee may also expend an- may levy tax to support public libraries, 

nually for books selected by them, for any Kentucky. — No state aid. The alumni of 

town, a sum not to exceed the annual library the Louisville High School have drafted a bill, 

appropriation of that town, and not to exceed which is pending in the state Legislature. It 

|;ioo. provides for the appointment of five commis- 

40 towns have established free public libra- sioners who shall serve without pay. They 

ries since the Committee has been organized, will report to the governor, not later than Janu- 



LEE. 



69 



ary 15, 1897, the results of their investigations 
in all departments of library work in other 
states. In their report they will recommend 
such legislation as will best promote the educa- 
tional interests of the people of the state through 
the public libraries. 

Louisiana. — No state aid. 

Maine. — No library commission. Every 
town maintaining] a public library obtains from 
the state treasurer 10 per cent, of the amount it 
spends for books to buy more books. Lists of 
books so bought are reported. Towns of less 
than 1500 inhabitants, if the voters have raised 
$100 for books and provided for their care, may 
receive from the state librarian books costing 
not more than half the cost of books bought by 
the town, and not more than $100 in any case. 

The governor and council may be asked for 
advice in selecting books, and instruction in 
cataloging and library administration may be 
obtained from the State Library. 

Maryland. — No state aid. 

Massachusetts. — A Library Commission of 
five members, appointed by the governor, one 
member appointed each year. Advice in re- 
gard to library administration and maintenance 
may be asked of the Commission. A town hav- 
ing no public library may receive fioo worth of 
books selected by the Library Commission, pro- 
vided it accepts the provisions of the library 
law. The town must make an appropriation 
for a library, the amount of which depends 
upon the town's assessed valuation. Suitable 
provision must be made for the care and dis- 
tribution of books. In addition to state aid, 
the commonwealth allows towns to make such 
appropriations as they please for the establish- 
ment and maintenance of public libraries. The 
State Library Commission has recently com- 
pleted the fifth year of actual work. In this 
time the number of towns without public li- 
braries has been decreased from 103 to 21. For 
further information address Miss E. P. Sohier, 
secretary, Beverly, Mass. 

Of the work of the Massachusetts Library 
Commission, Mr. Henry S. Nourse, in the Li- 
brary JOURNAL, January, iSq6, says: "The 
Commission has spent little time philosophizing 
about those minor details of library manage- 
ment necessary and suited to large towns and 
extensive collections of books. If, in some 
country village, an enthusiastic woman volun- 
teered to give her services as librarian and of- 



fered the use of her sitting-room as a reception- 
room for the gift of the State, or if the local 
store-keeper crowded his calicoes on fewer 
shelves to make roon? for the new library, we 
did not feel called upon to pour cold water upon 
such altruistic ardor by urging the necessity of 
a complex system of classification or the print- 
ing of an elaborate catalog. Advice we are al- 
ways ready to give and have given in great 
variety, although usually in small packages 
adapted to a special locality or suited to the 
personal equation of the inquirer. But our ad- 
vice was always in the direction of simplicity 
and rigid economy ; that every available dollar 
might go to buy new books or to increase their 
circulation. In the choice of books it has been 
the custom to assign each town, upon its appli- 
cation for aid, to some member of the board, 
who at once put himself in touch with the 
officials and leading minds of the town, ascer- 
taining the peculiar needs and tastes of the 
people, the history and industries of the place, 
before making his selection of books." 

Michigan. — No state library commission. 
In 1895 the Michigan Legislature appropriated 
$2500 to buy travelling libraries. It is too soon 
now for definite results, but the success of the 
scheme may be predicted from the fact that 
when the libraries were ready to go out there 
was scarcely half enough to meet the demand. 
The Michigan travelling libraries are of 50 
volumes each and are sent out from the State 
Library. Further information cannot be had, 
it seems, until the state librarian publishes her 
biennial report. 

Minnesota. — No state aid. 

Mississippi. — No state aid. 

Missouri. — No state aid. 

Montana. — No state aid. Legislature failed 
to pass a bill creating a library commission at 
the last session of the Legislature. 

Nebraska. — No state aid. 

New Hampshire. — The State Library Com- 
mission consists of four persons appointed by 
the governor and the state librarian. The Com- 
mission may be asked for information regard- 
ing any matters pertaining to the administration 
and maintenance of a library. The Commis- 
sion is authorized to expend $100 for books 
upon application of any town having no free 
public library. Any town accepting the pro- 
visions of the law for the care and distribution 
of the books to be given, shall annually appro- 



7° 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



priate a small sum for the support of a library. 
The Library Commission shall, at least twice a 
year, issue a library bulletin which shall con- 
tain recommendations as to the best methods 
to be employed in library work and other gen- 
eral library information. At least three copies 
of this bulletin are to be sent to each free libra- 
ry in the state. The selectmen of each town 
must annually make an assessment for the 
maintenance of a public library. In towns 
where no public libraries exist the money so 
raised shall be held until the town votes to es- 
tablish a library. On request of any public li- 
brary any book in the State Library, except law- 
books, will be sent for not longer than one 
week, carriage being paid both ways by the 
borrower. The public library may lend the 
book as if it were its own. Public libraries are 
entitled to receive state publications. For fur- 
ther information write Josiah H. Whittier, 
secretary. East Rochester, N. H. 

New Jersey. — A bill authorizing the gover- 
nor to appoint a library commission of five 
persons has passed the Legislature. The Com- 
mission under this bill can recommend the ap- 
propriation of a sum equal to the sum raised 
by any town if less than $ioo. No appropria- 
tion can be made, however, without a special 
act of the Legislature. 

New York. — No library commission. The 
regents of the State University annually appro- 
priate $25,000 for the benefit of free public li- 
braries. Libraries receiving aid must be under 
state supervision. They must be free to the 
public for either circulation or reference. A 
college library must be open every day while 
classes are in session, and in vacation must be 
open for an hour on three days of each week. 
Other libraries must be open at least one hour 
on three days of each week, and oftener in the 
larger places, according to population. A 
grant is made to each library equal to the 
amount raised from local sources, but not to 
exceed §200. The whole amount of this grant 
must be spent for books approved by the re- 
gents. In nine months, ending June 30, 1896, 
95 libraries in the state received $13,746. 

The use of a travelling library can be had 
by any library under the regents' control, or 
by any community on application of 25 tax- 
payers, or by the ofEcers of a registered ex- 
tension centre, or by a study club, or reading 
circle, by giving a satisfactory guarantee that 



the books will be returned within si.x months 
and paying a fee of $3 for 50 volumes or $5 
for 100 volumes. Annotated catalogs may be 
had, on application, free. 190 travelling libra- 
ries of 100 volumes each were sent out in nine 
months, ending June 30, i8g6. AJibrary not 
owned by the public, but maintained for its 
welfare and free use, if registered as maintain- 
ing a proper standard, may obtain a subsidy 
from local taxation of not more than 10 cents 
a volume of yearly circulation as approved and 
certified by the regents. Any city, town, or 
school district may levy a tax for the mainte- 
nance of a public library. For further informa- 
tion address State Library, Albany, N. Y. 

North Carolina. — No state aid. 

North Dakota. — No state aid. 

Ohio. — The governor appoints three com- 
missioners to serve six years without pay. 
They are allowed $1000 for travelling expenses, 
etc. They appoint the state librarian, and have 
charge of the sale and distribution of the state's 
public documents. The Commission is author- 
ized to extend the use of the State Library and 
furnish advice and help to all public libraries in 
the state. The State Library Commission has 
recently adopted new rules for the government 
of the State Library. Books are sent to any 
part of the state, provided the borrower is able 
to furnish security for their safe return and 
pays the expressage. Borrowers must be over 
21 years of age. Another rule will enable 
persons living at a distance to secure books 
through the local library. The plan adopted is 
similar to that in operation in New Hampshire. 
For further information address Prof. Gal- 
breath, state librarian and secretary, Colum- 
bus, Ohio. 

Oregon. — No state aid. 

Pennsylvania. — No state aid. 

Rhode Island. — No library commission. 
The state Board of Education is authorized to 
appropriate (under certain conditions speci- 
fied by itself) certain annual sums to each free 
public library established and maintained in the 
state, to be expended in the purchase of books. 
This sum is in no case to exceed $500. Each 
town receiving a state appropriation shall annu- 
ally appropriate for the support of its libra- 
ry an amount at least equal to the amount 
received from the state. Each city or town is 
authorized to appropriate money for the foun- 
dation and support of a free public library. 



THIVAITES. 



7" 



" The need in Rhode Island is not for the mul- 
tiplication of the number of free public libraries, 
but rather for the effective equipping of those 
already founded." 

South Carolina. — No state aid. 

South Dakota. — No state aid. 

Tennessee. — No state aid. 

Texas. — No state aid. 

Utah. — No state aid. Cities may levy'a tax 
for the establishment and maintenance of free 
public libraries. 

Vermont. — The governor appoints a board 
of five Library Commissioners and designates the 
chairman thereof. This board shall expend, 
upon application of any town having no free 
public library, a sum not exceeding $loo for 
books. These books to be used for the purpose 
of establishing a free public library. The Com- 
missioners select and purchase all books so 
provided ; but no two lists are alike, and where 
possible they consult the wishes of the towns 
themselves as to the selection of books. Every 
town receiving this aid shall appropriate annu- 
ally a certain sum, the amount depending upon 
its assessed valuation, for library purposes. 
The Board of Library Commissioners shall con- 
stitute an advisory board, which may be called 
upon for advice on all matters pertaining to the 
administration or maintenance of the library. 
The Commission also issues a circular of in- 
structions as to the management, classification, 
etc., of a small library. 

Virginia. — No state aid. 

Washington. — No state aid. 



Wisconsin. — The governor appoints two per- 
sons who, with the president of the University 
of Wisconsin, the state superintendent, and 
the corresponding secretary of the State His- 
torical Society, constitute a State Library Com- 
mission. The Commission gives advice to all 
free libraries in the state, and to all communi- 
ties which propose to establish them, as to libra- 
ry establishment and administration. The Cora- 
mission may also send its members to aid in 
organizing new libraries or improving old ones. 
No member of the Commission receives any 
compensation. Travelling expenses in attend- 
ing meetings or visiting libraries are'paid, and 
S500 allowed for incidental expenses. Through 
the generosity of State Senator J. H. Stout, the 
chairman of the Commission is enabled to de- 
vote his entire'time to the library interests of 
the state. There is a movement on foot toward 
proper legislation, during the coming winter, for 
the establishment of travelling libraries. State 
Senator J. H. Stout purchased 26 libraries of 30 
volumes each for circulation in Dunn county. 
J. D. Witter has started similar libraries in 
Wood county. The town treasurer is required 
to withhold annually from the school fund 10 
cents for' each person of school age, for the 
purchase of books for a school library. Cities 
and towns may establish libraries by majority 
vote. For further information address L. E. 
Stearns, secretary. Public Library, Milwaukee, 
Wis. 

Wyoming. • — No state aid. Counties may es- 
tablish libraries if they wish. 



THE STORY OF MACKINAC. 



BY REUBEN GOLD THVVAITES, LIBRARIAN, WISCONSIN STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 



TJ*OR two and a quarter centuries Mackinac 
has played no inconsiderable part on the 
stage of American history. Early recognized as 
a vantage-point, commanding the commerce of 
the two uppermost lakes of the great chain — 
Michigan and Superior — red men and white 
men have struggled for its mastery, tribe 
against tribe, nation against nation. The 
Jleur-de-lis, the union jack, and the stars and 
stripes, each in their turn have here been sym- 
bols of conqueror and conquered; councils have 
been held here, and treaties signed, which set- 



tled the political ownership of fertile regions as 
wide as all Europe; and when at last armed 
hostilities ceased through the final surrender to 
the Republic, when the tomahawk was buried 
and the war-post painted white, a new warfare 
opened at Mackinac — the commercial war of 
the great fur-trade companies, whose rival ban- 
ners contested the sway of lands stretching 
from Athabasca to the Platte, from the Columbia 
to the Sault Ste. Marie. It is a far cry from 
the invasion of Ojibway Michillimackinac by 
the long-haired coitretirs dc bois of New France 



72 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



to the invasion of Mackinac Island by modern 
armies of summer tourists from New England. 
Much has happened in the interim — necessarily 
happened — in order that there might peace- 
fully be held here to-day the annual outing of 
American librarians. I have been delegated 
to tell the story of how it all came about, but 
in the half-hour allotted to me it will be im- 
practicable to take more than a bird's-eye view. 
Most of you know it all, no doubt — librarians 
are always supposed to " know it all"; I can 
do little more than refresh your memory. 

In the first place, let us understand that the 
term Mackinac, as used in our earliest history, is 
the title of the entire district hereabout, as well 
as that of a definite settlement. There have 
been, in chronological succession, at least 
three distinct localities specifically styled Mack- 
inac: (i) Between 1670 and 1706 the Mackinac 
of history was on the north side of the strait, 
upon Point St. Ignace, and wholly under the 
French regime. (2) From 1712 to 1781 Mack- 
inac was on the south side of the strait — 
until 1763, just west of the present Mackinaw 
City, and possibly between 1764 and 17S1 at 
some point farther west along the coast of Lake 
Michigan; this south-side Mackinac was at 
first French and then English, and the site 
near Mackinaw City has come to be known in 
history as " Old Mackinaw." Finally (3), the 
Mackinac settlement was in 17S1 located upon 
this island near the centre of the strait, and 
while at first under English domination at last 
became American. A remembrance of these 
facts will help to dispel the fog which has 
often obscured our historical view of Mackinac 
— a fog which designing guide-book writers 
delight to maintain, for they wish to beguile 
the summer tourist into believing that Mack- 
inac Island has a clear title to fame, stretching 
back unto good Father Marquette. 

You will recollect that that indefatigable ex- 
plorer of high seas and pathless forests, Sam- 
uel de Champlain, planted the first permanent 
French colony in Canada, on the rock of Que- 
bec, in 1608 — only a twelve month later than 
the establishment of Jamestown in far-off Vir- 
ginia, and full twelve years before the coming 
to Plymouth of the Pilgrim Fathers. It was 
seven years before Champlain saw Lake Huron, 
his farthest point west in the limitless domain 
which the king of France had set him to gov- 
ern. Twenty-one years had passed — years of 



heroic struggling to push back the walls of sav- 
agery which ever hemmed him in — when one 
day there came to Quebec, in the fleet of Indian 
canoes from this far Northwest, which annu- 
ally picked its way over 1500 miles of rugged 
waterways beset with a multitude of terrors, 
a naked Algonkin, besmeared with grease and 
colored clays, who laid at the feet of the great 
white chief a lump of copper mined on the 
shores of Lake Superior. A shadowy region 
this, as far removed from the ordinary haunts 
of the adventurous woodsmen of New France 
as were the headwaters of the Nile to the Afri- 
can explorers of a generation ago, and quite as 
dangerous of access. 

It was five years later (1634) before Cham- 
plain could see his way to sending a proper 
emissary into the Northwest. Finally one was 
found in the person of young Jean Nicolet, 
whom Champlain had trained in the forest for 
tasks like this. Conveyed by Indian oarsmen 
engaged by relays in the several tribes through 
which he passed, Nicolet pushed up the St. 
Lawrence, portaged around the rapids at La 
Chine, ascended the trough of the turbulent 
Ottawa with its hundred waterfalls, portaged 
over to Lake Nipissing, descended French 
Creek to Georgian Bay, and threading the 
gloomy archipelago of the Manitoulins, sat at 
last in a Chippewa council at Sault Ste. Marie. 
Doubtless he here heard of Lake Superior, not 
many miles away, but it does not appear that 
he saw its waters; intent on finding a path 
which led to the China Sea, supposed not to be 
far beyond this point, he turned south again, 
and pushing on through these straits of Macki- 
nac found and traversed Lake Michigan. He 
traded and made treaties with the astonished 
tribesmen of Wisconsin and Illinois, who in 
hfm saw their first white man, and brought the 
Northwest within the sphere of French influ- 
ence. 

Seven years later the Jesuit missionaries, 
Jogues and Raymbault, following in the path 
of the exploring trader Nicolet, said mass be- 
fore 2000 breech-clouted savages at Sault Ste. 
Marie. Affairs moved slowly upon these far- 
away borders of New France, in the 17th cen- 
tury. Jogues and Raymbault had long been 
ashes before the Northwest again appeared on 
the pages of history; nearly a generation had 
passed before (1658-62) the daring forest tra- 
ders and explorers, Radisson and Groseilliers, 



THWAITES. 



73 



came upon the scene, discovered the Upper Mis- 
sissippi, discovered Lake Superior, and first 
made known to the English the fur-trading capa- 
bilities of the Hudson Bay region. The Hud- 
son's Bay Company was organized in London, 
with these renegade Frenchmen as its pilots, in 
1670; the following year at Sault Ste. Marie, St. 
Lusson formally took possession of the great 
Northwest for the French king. I suppose that 
St. Lusson, when he flew the banner of France 
at the gateway of Lake Superior, knew nothing 
of his English neighbors, the Hudson's Bay 
Company; unconsciously he made an important 
play for France on the American chess-board; 
but a century later England won the game. 

You will remember, those of you who have 
read Parkman's " Jesuits," that the Hurons, 
whose habitat had long been upon the eastern 
shores of Georgian Bay, the mouth of which 
we passed on our way hither only the other 
day, retreated northward and westward before 
the advance of the all-conquering Iroquois. At 
first taking refuge with starving Algonkins on 
the Manitoulin Islands, and on the mainland 
hereabout, they were soon driven forth by their 
merciless foe, and made their stand in the 
swamps and tangled woods of far-away Wis- 
consin. Many of them centred upon Chequa- 
megon Bay, the island-locked estuary near the 
southwest corner of Lake Superior, the ancient 
home of the Ojibways. Here Radisson and 
Groseilliers visited and traded with them. The 
Jesuit M6nard, who had accompanied these ad- 
venturers — the first missionary to follow in the 
wake of Jogues and Raymbault — had stopped 
at Keweenaw Bay to minister to the Ottawas, 
and later lost his life while trying to reach a 
village of Hurons crouching, fear-stricken, in 
the forest fastnesses around the headwaters of 
the Black River. Then came, three years later 
(1665), Father Alloiiez, to reopen at Chequa- 
megon Bay the Jesuit mission on our greatest 
inland sea. Alloiiez being ordered, after four 
years of arduous and I fear unprofitable labor 
at Chequamegon, to found a mission at Green 
Bay, was succeeded (i66g) by the youthful 
Marquette. But Marquette was not long at 
Chequamegon before his half-naked parishion- 
ers provoked to quarrel their powerful western 
neighbors, the Sioux, the result being (1670) 
that the Chequamegon bands, and Marquette 
with them, were driven like leaves before an 
autumn blast eastward along the southern 



shore of the great lake; the Ottawas taking 
up their homes in the Manitoulin Islands, the 
Hurons and the Ojibways accompanying Mar- 
quette to a little fur-trading station on the 
north shore of the Straits of Mackinac, where 
he established the mission of St. Ignace. 

Here, in "a rude and unshapely chapel, its 
sides of togs and its roof of bark," Marquette 
ministered to the miserable savages about him, 
and to the handful of nomadic fur-trade em- 
ployees who in spring and autumn gathered 
at this isolated frontier post of New France on 
their way to and from the great wilderness be- 
yond. Louis Joliet, the coureur de bois, was 
sent forth by the authorities at Quebec (1673) 
to explore the Mississippi River, about which 
so much had been heard, and by that route to 
reach, if may be, the great Western Ocean — 
for the road to India, either through the con- 
tinent or by way of the Northwest Passage, was 
still being sought in those days. He stopped 
at Point St. Ignace and served orders on Mar- 
quette to accompany him. The conversion 
of the Inljians went hand in hand, in New 
France, with the extension of commerce ; no 
trading-post was complete without its mis- 
sionary, no exploring expedition without its 
ghostly counsellor. And so Marquette, a true 
soldier of the cross, receiving marching orders, 
promptly closed his mission here and went 
forth to help discover unknown lands and 
carry to their peoples the word of Christ. With 
Joliet he entered the Upper Mississippi at 
Prairie du Chien, and proceeded far enough 
down the great river to establish the fact 
that it emptied into the Gulf of Mexico and 
not the Pacific Ocean. It is probable that 
Radisson and Groseilliers were there 13 
years before them ; but Radisson's journal, 
written in England long after, was not pub- 
lished until our own time, and it is not at all 
likely that Joliet and Marquette, or any one 
else of importance in New France, ever heard 
of this prior claim. The merit of carefully- 
planned, premeditated discovery certainly rests 
with Joliet and his companion. It so hap- 
pened — -you of course remember the story of 
the swamping of Joliet's home-returning canoe 
in the wild rapids of La Chine — that the de- 
tailed journals and maps of the chief were lost; 
whereas the simple story which Marquette 
wrote at the Green Bay mission, and trans- 
mitted by Indian courier to his father superior 



74 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



at Quebec, reached its destination and was 
published to the world for the glory of the 
church. Thus it is that the gentle, unassum- 
ing Marquette, who was the supernumerary of 
the expedition, became unwittingly its only 
historian ; fate willed that his name should 
be more commonly associated with the great 
discovery than that of his secular Superior. 
Four years later the weary bones of this mis- 
sionary-explorer, who had died on his way 
thither from the savage camps of the Illinois, 
were laid to rest " in a little vault in the mid- 
dle of the chapel " at St. Ignace. Early in 
187S, when antiquarians could but ingeniously 
guess at the site of this early mission in the 
wilderness, the bones of Father Marquette 
were discovered in the rude grave wherein 
they had rested for two centuries, and to-day 
are visible relics for inspiration to deeds of 
holiness. 

Throughout the 17th century the outpost 
of Mackinac at Point St. Ignace — Michilli- 
mackinac, in those easy-going days when 
there was more time in which to pronounce the 
name — remained the most important French 
military and trading station on the upper lakes, 
for it guarded the gateway between Huron, 
Michigan, and Superior ; and every notable ex- 
pedition to the Northwest waters had perforce 
to stop here. We must not think of this 
Mackinac of the 17th century, strategetically 
important though it was, as a settlement in any 
modern sense. The policy of the rulers of New 
France was to maintain the interior of the con- 
tinent as a fur-bearing wilderness. Unlike 
Anglo-Saxons, they had no desire to plant 
settlements simply as settlements. They had 
not the colonizing spirit of Englishmen. To 
carry the fur trade to the uttermost limits, to 
bring the savages to at least a nominal recog- 
nition of the cross, were their chief aims ; to 
this end, palisaded trading-posts, which they 
rather grandiloquently called forts, were es- 
tablished throughout the country, the officers 
of which were rare diplomatists, and bullied 
and cajoled the red men as occasion demanded. 
Around each of these little forts, and Mackinac 
was one of them, were small groups of habi- 
tanls, voyageurs, and coureurs de hois, who could 
hardly be called colonists, for few of them ex- 
pected to lay their bones in the wilderness, but 
eventually to return to their own people on the 
Lower St. Lawrence, when enriched or their 



working days were over. It was rather an 
army of occupation than a body of settlers. 

The little log fort at Mackinac, designed only 
to withstand a fusilade of savage arrows and 
musket-balls, was the principal feature of the 
place, and the commandant the chief personage. 
After him, the long-robed Jesuit, and then the 
swarm of folk dependent on the spasmodic fur 
trade. A lot of shiftless, easy-going, jolly dogs 
were the latter — the work-a-day French Cana- 
dians of the wilderness posts. First in this cate- 
gory, the bourgeois, or masters of the forest 
trade; then ^}\&voyageurs, or boatmen, who were 
as well men-of- all- work, propelling the canoes 
when afloat, carrying the boats over portages, 
transporting packs of goods and furs through the 
forest inlands, caring for the camps, and acting 
as guards for the persons and property of their 
employers; the coureurs de bois, or wood-rangers, 
were men devoted to a life in the woods, for the 
fun and excitement in it, sometimes conducting 
a far-reaching fur-trade on their own account — 
the widest travellers and most daring spirits in 
all the great Northwest; the habitants, or per- 
manent villagers, were most of them farmers in 
a small way. Down by the beach were their 
little log-cabins, with their well-sweeps and 
orchards, back of which stretched the narrow, 
ribbon-like fields, such as one may see to-day at 
Quebec and Montreal. The French habitant 
was a social animal. He loved the village 
wine-shop, where, undisturbed by his sharp- 
eyed, sharp-visaged, prim and gossipy, white- 
aproned spouse, he could enjoy his pipe, his 
bowl, and his " fiddlers three." For they were 
famous fiddlers, these French Canadians. The 
fiddle was indispensable on social occasions. No 
wilderness so far away that the little French 
fiddle had not been there. The Indian recog- 
nized it as a part of the furniture of every fur- 
trader's camp. At night, as the wanderers 
lounged around the blazing heap of logs, the 
sepulchral arches of the forest resounded with 
the piercing strains of tortured catgut, accom- 
panying the gayly-turbaned voyageurs, as in 
metallic tones they chanted favorite melodies of 
the river, the chase, love, and the wassail. In 
the village, no christening or wedding was com- 
plete without the fiddler; and at the almost 
nightly social gatherings, in each others' pun- 
cheon-floored cabins, the fiddler, enthroned cross- 
legged on a plank table, was the king of the 
feast. The waterway was their highway. From 



THWAITES. 



75 



earliest youth they understood the handling of 
a canoe. Just as in the Southwest, the cowboy 
mounts his horse to cross the street, and refuses 
work that cannot be done on the back of a bron- 
cho, the French Canadian went in his boat to visit 
his next-door neighbor. 

Thus matters progressed, in their even way, 
until the year of grace 1701, when the little 
group upon Point St. Ignace received word one 
day that a new post, called Detroit, had been 
established away down in the unknown country 
at the narrow mouth of Lake Huron, which 
was henceforth, under one Cadillac, to be the 
centre of commerce in these western parts. 
Heretofore, owing to the Iroquois stoutly hold- 
ing the lower lakes against the French, prog- 
ress to the far Northwest had been altogether 
by way of the raging Ottawa. But now, after 
75 long years of journeying by that toilsome 
route, it had from various reasons become pos- 
sible to come up here through Lakes Ontario 
and Erie. This new post, Detroit, was to com- 
mand a still wider range than that of Mackinac; 
the garrison was soon withdrawn thither; the 
fur-traders, both white and Indian, for the most 
part, soon followed — it was easy for a popula- 
tion like this to pull up stakes and hie away at 
beat of drum. Nearly everybody went to the 
new Mecca, save the Jesuit missionaries, who 
were not wanted by this new man Cadillac, a 
hater of the " black robes." For five years the 
good fathers — there were three of them then — 
maintained their little chapel and school here 
on Point St. Ignace; but they ministered to an 
ever-decreasing, disorderly fiock, and at last, 
burning their crude buildings, with a few white 
followers retired discomfited to Quebec. 

For six years there does not appear to have 
been any French establishment hereabout. But 
in 1712 Governor-General Vaudreuil sent De 
Louvigny, a noted frontier captain, to restore 
the abandoned post on the upper waters. 
This he did, but upon the south shore of the 
strait, not far west of the present Mackinaw 
City; and over there, on the mainland, at what 
came in time to be known as " Old Mackinaw " * 

* Notice the change in spelling. The historic name is 
Mackinac, a cut-short of Michillimackinac, and such is 
to-day the legal designation of Fort Mackinac, Strait of 
Mackinac, and Mackinac Island; but the pronunciation is 
Mackinaw, and the spelling has been made phonetic in 
the cases of Old Mackinaw and Mackinaw City to distin- 
guish them from the island, and many writers prefer to 
use the phonetic form whenever mentioning any of the 



— although it was, as we have seen, not the 
oldest Mackinac — occurred such historic events 
as are spread upon the records to the credit of 
this name between 1712 and 1763. It was on 
the ramparts of Old Mackinaw, that in token 
of the fall of New France, the fieur-de-lis was 
at last hauled down on the 28th of September, 
1761, and the union jack proudly lifted to the 
breeze. Here, upon the 4th of June, 1763, oc- 
curred that cruel massacre of the English garri- 
son, which Parkman has so vividly described 
to us in his " Conspiracy of Pontiac." 

A year or more later the English rebuilt their 
fort, but whether or not upon the site of the 
massacre is a moot question. There appears 
to be good reason for the belief that it was 
among the sand-dunes farther west along the 
coast, for in the official correspondence of the 
next 15 years there is much complaint upon 
the part of commandants that their "rickety 
picket is commanded by sand hills " — a condi- 
tion which does not exist at the ola site near 
Mackinaw City. 

To this rickety picket there came one October 
day, in the year 1779, Patrick Sinclair, lieuten- 
ant-governor of Michillimackinac and its de- 
pendencies, charged with the rebuilding and 
enlarging of His Majesty's post in these parts. 
The Revolutionary War was in progress. 
George Rogers Clark had captured Kaskaskia 
and Vincennes; his emissaries were treating 
with Indian chiefs away off in Wisconsin; 
there were rumors of Clark's intended foray on 
Detroit; and some suspicions that the " Boston- 
nais," as the French Canadians called these 
leather-shirted Virginians, had designs of put- 
ting a war vessel upon Lake Michigan. Sin- 
clair at once saw that the old site was untenable 
and the fort beyond repair. 

In advance of orders he made a bold step. 
Seven miles away to the northeast of Old 
Mackinaw lay a comely island in the midst of 
the strait — -"La Grosse Isle," the Canadians 
called it, although smaller than its neighbor, 
Bois Blanc; a sort of shrine, the earliest In- 
dians deemed it, where at times they gathered 
at their medicine feasts, and to which, as to a 
sanctuary, they fled in periods of extreme 

several Mackinacs. A cultured native of Mackinac Island 
has told me that he has heard but one person pronounce 
it Macki««c*, and he was Samuel Abbott, of the old Ameri- 
can Fur Company, who was regarded in his day as an 
eccentric. 



76 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



danger. It is thought that Marquette once 
taught the natives there, upon his first arrival. 
But if so, it was not for long ; Frenchmen 
were more considerate of the superstitions of 
the dusky tribesmen than were the intolerant 
English. This untenanted island Sinclair ap- 
propriated to the king's use, although he for- 
mally bought it from the Indians some iS months 
later for ;f 5000, New York currency. A month 
after his arrival the lieutenant-governor be- 
gan to erect a durable fort on the island, and 
thither, at last receiving permission from his 
superiors, he finally removed in the spring of 
1781, with him going the now revived Catholic 
mission and the entire fur-trade colony from 
the south shore. 

The new fort still bore the name of Fort 
Mackinac, and La Grosse Isle of the French 
was rechristened Mackinac Island. I have 
spent so much time in telling of the first two 
Mackinacs — should we not say the fmt three, 
if we decide to locate the second English post 
farther west than the ill-fated stockade of 
Pontiac's time? — that but few minutes are 
remaining of my allotment to rehearse the 
story of the present Mackinac. After all, there 
is perhaps little left to say. 

By the treaty of Paris of 1783, Mackinac 
came within the boundary of the United States; 
but of course you remember that the English 
still held the whip-hand in these parts, and 
upon sundry pretexts continued to hold this 
and other lake posts until the Jay treaty set 
matters right. In October, 1796, American 
troops first took possession of the post, and this 
gateway to the upper lakes was at last ours. 
The English, however, were still hopeful that 
they would some day win this part of our 
country back again, and their garrison retired 
to Isle St. Josephs, only some 40 miles to the 
northeast, where in 1795 they had built a fort. 

The French and half-breeds did not at first 
relish Yankee interference in their beloved 
Northwest. They had gotten along very nicely 
with the English, who fostered the fur trade 
and employed the French with liberality. Then, 
too, among the Creoles the reputation of these 
Americans was not of the best. They were 
known to be a busy, bustling, driving people, 
quite out of tune with the devil-may-care meth- 
ods of the French, and were, moreover, an 
agricultural race that was fast narrowing the 
limits of the hunting grounds. The French- 



men felt that their interests in this respect were 
identical with those of the savages, hence we 
find in the correspondence of the time a very 
bitter tone adopted towards the new-comers, 
who were regarded as intruders and covetous 
disturbers of e.xisting commercial and social 
relations. 

When war broke out between England 
and us in 1S12, naturally the Creoles of the 
Northwest were against us, and freely entered 
the service of their old and well-tried friends 
the English. Fort Mackinac was then gar- 
risoned by "57 effective men, including offi- 
cers." There had been no news received here 
of the declaration of war, although the Amer- 
ican lieutenant in charge. Porter Hanks, was 
e.xpecting it. July 17, 1812, a British force of 
1000 whites and Indians from Fort St. Josephs 
secretly effected a landing at the cove on the 
northwest shore of the island — known to- 
day as "British Landing" — took possession 
of the heights overlooking the fort, and then 
coolly informed the commandant that hostilities 
had been declared between the two nations, and 
a surrender would be in order. The Amer- 
icans were clearly at the mercy of the enemy, 
and promptly capitulated. 

The old fort had never from the first been in 
good condition. The English, once more in 
possession, built a new and stronger fort upon 
the higher land to the rear, which they had oc- 
cupied, and named it Fort George, in honor of 
their sovereign. This stronghold was stormed 
on the 4th of August, 1814, by United States 
troops under Col. George Croghan, who also 
disembarked at British Landing. The English 
position, however, was too strong for the as- 
sailants, who lost heavily under the galling fire 
of the French and Indian allies, and Croghan 
was obliged to retire. Among his dead was 
Major Holmes, a soldier of considerable repu- 
tation. 

The treaty of Ghent resulted in the fortifica- 
tion being restored to the United States, the 
transfer being actually made on t"he i8th of 
July, 1815. Col. McDouall, the British com- 
mander at Mackinac, was loath to leave. His 
despatches to headquarters plainly indicate that 
he thought his government weak in surrender- 
ing to the Americans, for whom he had a 
decided contempt, this Malta of the Northwest. 
When at last obliged to go, he went no farther 
than necessary — indeed not quite as far, for 



THWAITES. 



77 



he built a new fort upon Drummond Island, at 
the mouth of River St. Mary, territory soon 
thereafter found to belong to the United States. 
It was not until 13 years later (1S2S) that the 
English forces were finally and reluctantly 
withdrawn from Drummond Island, and Eng- 
lish agents upon our northern frontier ceased 
craftily to stir our uneasy Indian wards to 
bickerings and strife. 

When the United States resumed possession 
of Mackinac Island the name of the fort built 
by the English on the highest ground was 
changed from Fort George to Fort Holmes, in 
honor of the victim of the assault of the year 
before ; but later this position was abandoned, 
and old Fort Mackinac, built by Sinclair and 
capitulated by Hanks, was rehabilitated, and 
remains to this time the military stronghold of 
the district. 

The name of Mackinac will always be inti- 
mately associated with the story of the fur 
trade. We have seen that the first settlement 
upon the shores of these straits had its incep- 
tion in the primitive commerce of the woods; 
and chiefly as a protection to this trade the 
several forts were maintained under changing 
flags unto our own day. In 17S3 the North- 
west Fur Company opened headquarters here; 
later, the Mackinac, Company and the South- 
west Fur Company were formidable competi- 
tors; in 1S15, with the re-establishment of the 
American arms, came the American Fur Com- 
pany, of which John Jacob Astor was the con- 
trolling spirit. 

We cannot fully understand the course of 
history in these parts unless we remember that 
despite the treaty of Ghent (1783), Jay's treaty 
(1794), Wayne's Indian treaty at Greenville 
(1795), and the occupation of Fort Mackinac by 
United States troops between 1796 and 1812, the 
fur trade upon the upper lakes and beyond was 
not really under American control until after 
the war of 1812-15 ; indeed, the territory itself 
was not within the sphere of American influ- 
ence until that time, beyond the visible limits 
of the armed camps at Mackinac and Green 
Bay. After the Jay treaty, British traders, 
with French and half-breed clerks and voya- 
geiirs, were still permitted free intercourse with 
the savages of our Northwest, and held sub- 
stantial domination over them. The Mackinac, 
Northwest, and Southwest companies were com- 
posed of British subjects — Scotchmen mainly 



— with headquarters at Montreal, and distrib- 
uting points at Detroit, Mackinac, Sault Ste. 
Marie, and Grand Portage. Their clerks and 
voyagenrs were wide travellers, and carried the 
forest trade throughout the far west, from Great 
Slave Lake on the north to the valleys of the 
Platte and the Arkansas on the south, and to 
the parks and basins of the Rocky Mountains. 
Goods were sent up the lakes from Montreal, 
either by relays of sailing vessels, with por- 
tages of men and merchandise at the Falls of 
Niagara and the Sault Ste. Marie, or by pict- 
uresque fleets of bateaux and canoes up the 
Ottawa River and down French Creek into 
Georgian Bay, from there scattering to the com- 
panies' various entrepots of the south, west, and 
north. 

The Creole boatmen were a reckless set. 
They took life easily, but bore ill the mildest 
restraints of the trading settlements ; their home 
was on the lakes and rivers and in the Indian 
camps, where they joyously partook of the 
most humble fare, and on occasion were not 
averse to suffering extraordinary hardships in 
the service of their bourgeois. Their pay was 
light, but their thoughts were lighter, and the 
vaulted forest rang with the gay laughter of 
these heedless adventurers; while the pent-up 
valleys of our bluff-girted streams echoed the re- 
frains of their rudely melodious boating songs, 
which served the double purpose of whiling 
the idle hours away and measuring progress 
along the glistening waterways. 

You have all read Irving's "Astoria," and 
have enjoyed his charming description of fur- 
trading life at the Grand Portage of Lake Su- 
perior, over which boats and cargoes were car- 
ried from the eastward-flowing Pigeon to the 
tortuous waters which glide through a hundred 
sylvan lakes and over a hundred dashing rapids 
into the wide-reaching system of Lake Winne- 
peg and the Assiniboine. You remember the 
heroic trans-continental expedition of Wilson 
and Hunt, which started from Mackinac one 
bright morning in August, iSog, and wended its 
toilsome way along many a river and through 
mountain-passes, beset by a thousand perils, to 
plant far-distant Astoria. 

With the coming of peace in 1815, English 
fur traders were forbidden the country, and 
American interests, represented by Astor's 
great company, were at last dominant in this 
great field of commerce. New and improved 



78 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



methods were introduced, and the American 
Fur Company soon had a firm hold upon the 
western country; nevertheless, the great cor- 
poration never succeeded in ridding itself of 
the necessity of employing the Creole and 
mixed-blood voyageurs, engages, and interpre- 
ters, and was obliged to shape its policy so as 
to accommodate this great army of easy-going 
subordinates. 

The fur trade of Mackinac was in its heyday 
about the year 1S20. Gradually, with the in- 
rush of settlement and the consequent cutting 
of the forests, the commerce of the forest waned, 
until about 1840 it was practically at an end, and 
the halcyon days of Mackinac were o'er. For 



years it was prominent as the site of a Protes- 
tant mission to the modernized Indians of Michi- 
gan and Wisconsin; finally, even this special in- 
terest was removed to new seats of influence, 
nearer the vanishing tribes, and Mackinac be- 
came resigned to the hum-drum of modern life 
— a sort of Malta — now but spasmodically gar- 
risoned; a fishing station for the Chicago trade; 
a port of call for vessels passing her door; a re- 
sort for summer tourists such as we ; a scene 
which the historical novelist may dress to his 
fancy; a shrine at which the historical pilgrim 
may worship, thankful, indeed, that in what 
many think the Sahara of American history are 
left a few romantic oases like unto this. 



THE PROCEEDINGS. 

Cleveland, Ohio, Tuesday -Friday, September 1-4, and Mackinaw, 
Tuesday, September 8, 1896. 



FIJiST SESSION. 

(HOLLENDEN HoTEL, TUESDAY EVENING, SEP- 
TEMBER I, 8.30 P.M.) 

An informal social meeting was held in the 
parlors and corridors of the hotel, for the pur- 
pose of enabling members to meet old friends 
and make new ones, to get generally in touch 
with each other, and to examine the exhibits 
of book-stacks, travelling libraries, library ap- 
pliances, and souvenirs of previous meetings, 
which had been arranged in some of the smaller 
rooms. It was a pleasant, profitable, and thor- 
oughly enjoyable gathering. 

SECOND SESSION. 

(Rooms of the Cleveland Chamber of Com- 
merce, Wednesday Morning, September 2.) 

The Association was called to order by Presi- 
dent Dana at 9.15 a.m. 

The Secretary made a number of announce- 
ments and also read the following communica- 
tion from the Rowfant Club : 

*' Rowfant Club, Cleveland, Sept. 1, 1896. 
" My-. John Cation Dana, Presidtnl American Library 
Association. 

"My Dear Sir: Will you kindly announce 
that the Rowfant Club cordially invites the 



members of the Association to an informal re- 
ception at our Club-house, 766 Prospect street, 
Wednesday evening, from 7 p.m. 

" The purposes and objects of your Associa- 
tion, the individuals and their work, are so thor- 
oughly in accord with the aims which prompted 
the organization of the Rowfant Club that we 
esteem it a pleasure and privilege to offer an 
opportunity for a more intimate acquaintance, 
and we trust we may have many of your num- 
ber with us next Wednesday evening. As one 
of the objects in instituting our Club house was 
to found a Mecca where pilgrim bookmen and 
book-lovers might find a congenial oasis in life, 
we cordially tender to the members of the As- 
sociation the freedom of our Club during your 
convention. 

"On behalf of the Board of Fellows and mem- 
bers of the Rowfant Club, 

" Yours very truly, 
" Wm. H. Gaylen, President R. C." 

A meeting of the Council was called to be 
held at the close of this session. 

The president announced the following Com- 
mittee on Resolutions: F. M. Crunden, St. 
Louis Public (Free) Library ; John Vance Cheney, 
Newberry Library. Chicago; Bernard C. Steiner 



SECOND SESSION. 



79 



Enoch Pratt Free Library, Baltimore; and then 
read 

THE president's ADDRESS. 
{Seip. I.) 
This was followed by a paper by Mr. Joseph 
N. Larned. entitled 

RETROSl'ECT AND PROSPECT IN THE CLOSING YEARS 

OF THE CENTURY. 

{Seep. 5.) 

After a recess of five minutes the meeting 
was again called to order at 10.55 a.m., Vice- 
President Henry J. Carr in the chair. 

H ; M. Utley invited all the members to visit 
the Detroit Library. 

R. R. BoWKER (Chairman Committee on 
Public Documents). — I wish simply to make 
an announcement. As the two papers follow- 
ing bear on the several matters at Washington 
which are covered by resolutions of the stand- 
ing Committee on Public Documents, it has 
been arranged that the report of that committee 
shall be considered after these two papers. It 
is therefore suggested that instead of having a 
discussion of each paper immediately after it 
is read, the treatment of these papers shall 
be confined to questions from their authors if 
such are to be made, and that any discussion of 
the subjects presented in these two papers 
should follow the presentation of the resolu- 
tions from the Committee on Public Documents 
bearing on those several questions. 

Mr. B. R. Green read his paper on 

THE NEW CONGRESSIONAL LIBRARY BUILDING. 

{Seep. 13.) 

Mr. Green exhibited large plans illustrating 
his paper, and also circulated among those 
present a number of smaller blue prints of the 
same for examination. 

Mr. F. A. Crandall followed with a paper on 

rUlSLIC DOCUMENTS AND THE PROPOSED NEW PUB- 
LIC DOCUMENT BILL. 
(,Seep. 20.) 
REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 
To the American Library Association : 

The Committee on Public Documents has not 
been called together during the year past, but 
has acted chiefly though its chairman, who, in 
several visits to Washington, has been in close 
consultation with Superintendent Crandall and 
others interested in improvements in the pub- 



lishing and distributing of public documents. 
The work of the committee has been confined 
for the most part to obtaining from librarians 
throughout the country personal support for the 
proposed amendatory act. 

It is a pleasure to report that under the new 
Public Documents act, approved January I2, 
1895, Superintendent F. A. Crandall has done 
able and efficient service in the interest of public 
libraries as well as of the government. Mr. 
Crandall prepared a Supplementary bill " to re- 
duce the cost, increase the value, and simplify 
the methods of publication of public documents " 
— a bill well suited, in the main, to accomplish 
the purposes indicated. The first draft of the 
proposed bill, with a statement of the facts re- 
garding " the public and the public documents," 
was issued by Mr. Crandall in March last, and 
copies were sent to many librarians. A sum- 
mary of the bill was given in the Library 
JOURNAL for March, and a copy of the pamphlet 
is appended to this report. Among its impor- 
tant features are the adoption of a standard size, 
octavo, for all public documents, unless neces- 
sity to the contrary should be shown to the Pub- 
lic Printer; provisions that the binding, letter- 
ing, etc., of public documents shall be of the 
first grade; the adoption of standard colors for 
the several departments; uniform methods of 
lettering; and provisions for supplying public 
depositories more promptly with sets in half 
morocco of the distinctive colors, in place of the 
objectionable and costly " full sheep." 

It was originally proposed that these sets 
should be furnished in cloth, which would prob- 
ably satisfy library requirements, and the pro- 
vision for the more costly binding was made 
largely at the instance of the Binders' Union, 
which feared that the amount of binding in the 
Government Printing Office would be seriously 
reduced by the proposed change. Comment is 
unnecessary ! 

A bill on somewhat similar lines had previ- 
ously been prepared by Dr. John G. Ames, and 
had received favorable consideration and a fa- 
vorable report from the House Committee on 
Printing. An understanding was reached by 
which Dr. Ames, who had originally suggested 
many of the improvements made or yet to be 
made in the handling of public documents, as- 
sented to the withdrawal of this bill in favor of 
that prepared by Superintendent Crandall. The 
latter bill, owing to the earnest efforts of Hon. 



8o 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



George D. Perkins, of Iowa, was carried 
through the House of Representatives without 
objection. It did not, however, obtain right of 
way in the Senate, and has therefore gone over 
to the next session. Objection was raised by 
heads of departments because the wise general 
provision for a standard size, octavo, was too 
sweeping in its provision, and an amendment 
will doubtless be accepted at the coming session, 
excepting specifically from this provision certain 
statistical and-scientific reports. There is good 
hope for the passage of this act the coming 
winter. 

The committee submits resolutions urging the 
passage of this Supplementary bill and acknowl- 
edging the efforts of Mr. Perkins in behalf of 
the measure. 

The work of collecting and cataloging public 
documents under the new law has made excel- 
lent progress. The official monthly catalog, 
started with the number for January, 1895, is- 
sued necessarily some months later than its 
date, has been pushed forward so that it is now 
issued as closely upon its date as the arrange- 
ments of the Public Printer permit. Other cat- 
aloging work is in progress, which will much 
facilitate the use of public documents in libra- 
ries and by the public generally. 

The list of Government Publications, made a 
part of the five-yearly volume of the American 
Catalogue, has been completed for the period 
July I, J890, to June 30, 1S95, and a copy is ap- 
pended to this report. 

Although it is not strictly within the province 
of this committee, it may be worth while to call 
attention to two important matters in connection 
with library relations at Washington. 

A provision for separating the Copyright Of- 
fice from the work of the Librarian of Congress 
came very near passage, but failed in confer- 
ence at the last moment. This is regarded as a 
desirable change, and a resolution is presented 
for the consideration of the Association, with- 
out recommendation as to its adoption. 

The new building for the Library of Congress 
is so nearly completed that provision has to be 
made for the organization of the library in the 
new building. The Joint Committee having 
charge of the library was authorized to sit dur- 
ing the recess and present a plan for the reor- 
ganization of the National Library, and it is 
understood that hearings will be given, if de- 
sired, on this important matter. It has been 



suggested that a committee of members of the 
American Library Association, familiar with 
library organization on a large scale, should be 
appointed to represent the Association at such 
hearing, and a resolution to that effect is pre- 
sented for consideration, without recommenda- 
tion as to its adoption. 

In respect to state publications, there is little 
progress to be reported. A very serious evil, 
however, has been showing itself in connection 
with state and municipal libraries, as noted in 
the previous report of this committee — an in- 
direct result of the extension of civil service 
reform, which has caused politicians to look to 
positions not included under civil service regu- 
lations for opportunities to make changes in 
private rather than the public interests. It may 
be well for the Association to put itself on record 
in this matter, and a resolution is presented 
for consideration, without recommendation as 
to its adoption. 

The appendix of state publications, for the 
five-yearly volume of the American Catalogue, 
for the period July i, 1890, to June 30, 1895, 
has been prepared, and a copy will be filed 
with this report. 

R. R. BOWKER, Chairman. 

RESOLUTIONS. 

R. R. BowKER. — This committee has had leave 
to print. I am afraid not many of you have 
taken leave to read the report on p. 21-24 of 
the Preliminary Papers. As there is so little 
time I shall take it for granted that you have 
read, although it is 90^ fiction. I will pass at 
once to the resolutions. The first is as follows : 

"/'cWw(/,,That the American Library Associa- 
tion approves the general principles of the Sup- 
plementary bill to provide for improved methods 
in publishing and distributing public documents, 
and urges its speedy adoption by Congress." 

The second reads as follows : 

" Kesolvi'd, That the American Library Asso- 
ciation extends its appreciation and thanks to 
Hon. George D. Perkins, of Iowa, for his vig- 
orous and successful efforts to obtain the pas- 
sage by the House of Representatives of the 
Supplementary bill to provide for improved 
methods in publishing and distributing public 
documents." 

I move the adoption of those resolutions. 
Voted. 

I present also, not officially for the commit- 



THIRD SESSION. 



8i 



tee, because it is somewhat beyond its scope, 
but it is presented in this way to facilitate ac- 
tion, the following resolution, which has also 
been argued in advance by Mr. Green ; 

" Resolvt-d, That a committee of the American 
Library Association, consisting of seven mem- 
bers, including the retiring and incoming presi- 
dents of the A. L. A., be appointed by the ex- 
ecutive board, with power to add to their num- 
ber and to ask the co-operation of others than 
members of the committee, to represent this 
Association in relation to the reorganization of 
the National Library in preparation for the oc- 
cupancy of the new building, and to take such 
steps as may promote the future development 
of the National Library on the most modern 
and most comprehensive plans." 

Cyrus Adler. — I should hope that the reso- 
lution would not be speedily adopted, and I 
suggest that it be laid aside for the present. 

Mr. BowKER accepted the suggestion with 
the understanding that it shall come up with 
the business of standing committees in the 
afternoon. 

Mr. BovvKER introduced the following reso- 
lutions : 

"Resolved, That the American Library Asso- 
ciation approves the organization of the Copy- 
right Office as a separate bureau of the Library 
of Congress, and urges the adoption by Con- 
gress of a measure to that effect. 

"Resolved, That the American Library Asso- 
ciation regrets to note that during the past year 
and recent years changes have in several in- 
stances been made in state and municipal li- 
braries from the motive of private political in- 
terest rather than for the public good. It 
submits that in no field is continuity in service 
more necessary to efficient administration than 
in state and municipal libraries, and that in no 
place can more harm be done by the demoraliza- 
tion of good service by changes for political 
reasons. It urges, therefore, that such changes 
shall be condemned promptly and actively by 
state and local public opinion, and appeals to 
the press to join with it in promoting a health- 
ful public sentiment in this respect, which shall 
uphold the effort of librarians in official posi- 
tions to give the state or the city their best ser- 
vice and thus increase the usefulness of state 
and municipal libraries to the public." 

Mr. BowKER moved the adoption of the res- 
olutions as read. Voted. 



The Secretary gave notice of the steps to be 
taken to put in nomination candidates for the 
various offices, to be balloted for on the Austra- 
lian ballot at the regular election on Friday ; 
and announced that, as these rooms were not 
large enough, future meetings would be held in 
the Army and Navy Hall. 

Recess was taken at 12.30. 

THIRD SESSION. 

(Army and Navy Hall, Wednesday After- 
noon, September 2.) 

Called to order at 2.45 p.m., by President 
Dana. 

R. R. BowKER called up the resolution in re- 
gard to the Congressional Library, deferred 
from the morning session. 

R. R. BowKER. — The resolution before the 
house is the following : 

" Resolved, That a committee of the American 
Library Association, consisting of seven mem- 
bers, including the retiring and incoming presi- 
dents of the A. L. A., be appointed by the 
e.\ecutive board, with power to add to their num- 
ber and to ask the co-operation of others than 
members of the committee, to represent this 
Association in relation to the reorganization of 
the National Library in preparation for the oc- 
cupancy of the new building, and to take such 
steps as may promote the future development 
of the National Library on the most modern and 
most comprehensive plans." 

The report of the Public Documents Commit- 
tee {see p. 80) states that a committee of 
Congress, of which Senator Hansbrough is 
chairman, has been appointed to take into con- 
sideration the reorganization of the Library of 
Congress with reference to its occupancy of the 
new building. We know that there have been 
certain difficulties in connection with the Library 
of Congress, and that perhaps it is not in all re- 
spects up to the time, and we have reason to 
suppose that this congressional committee will 
give hearings and will be glad to hear from 
this national Association. Perhaps if the com- 
mittee is not of its own motion desirous of hear- 
ing the views of librarians, it is not less worth 
while that this national Association should put 
itself on record as being ready to offer sugges- 
tions to the congressional committee. The sug- 
gestion has been made by one gentleman from 
Washington that there might be some sensitive- 



82 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



ness on the part of the congressional committee 
on our volunteering to come forward before we 
are asked. Possibly that is what Dr. Adler has 
in mind as his criticism ; but it seems to me not 
only eminently proper, but eminently desirable 
and positively right that this Association, know- 
ing that the country faces this great problem of 
the National Library, should put itself on rec- 
ord even of proffering advice, if it is not asked 
for. I have little doubt that it will be cordially 
asked for through the chairman of that com- 
mittee, but I do not think that the passage of 
the resolution should be affected by an unwill- 
ingness at the moment of the congressional 
committee to hear what we have to say to them. 

That is in brief the purpose of this resolution. 
I should add that the matter came scarcely 
within the scope of the Public Documents Com- 
mittee, but you will note that this resolution is 
somewhat tentative in form. 

Cyrus Adler. — It is with some hesitation 
that I have taken any part in the proceedings 
of this meeting, because, although I have been 
for some years a member of the Association, 
this is my first attendance at a conference, and 
I felt that a becoming modesty might keep me 
in my seat all the time. I also know that large 
bodies of this kind are governed by committees, 
and that all reports from committees are usu- 
ally well considered and are worthy of the 
most favorable consideration. 

When I heard this resolution read this morn- 
ing with reference on the part of the chairman 
that it did not come within the scope of the 
committee which reported it, and with a term 
or a series of terms in it which I had never 
heard used before in connection with the Li- 
brary of Congress at its present stage of exist- 
ence, I simply asked that consideration of the 
matter be delayed, because I saw there were 
only ten minutes left for discussion. I was not 
aware that anybody had taken up the considera- 
tion of the reorganization of the Library of 
Congress. The Library of Congress has been 
organized for a great many years. If there 
are difficulties in connection with it those diffi- 
culties were unavoidable and were difficulties 
occasioned by acts of Congres.s. Mr. Green 
has sufficiently explained the delays in provid- 
ing a new building, and I think you can all see 
for yourselves that in the end these delays 
were beneficial. Therefore I say that the 
question of the reorganization of the Library 



of Congress is not now up. The committee of 
Congress has not proposed to consider plans 
for its reorganization, but simply plans for its 
transfer and for the use of this new building. 

R. R. BowKER. — I will read the resolution 
under which this committee was appointed. Is 
it your understanding that this resolution was 
not passed by Congress ? 

Cyrus Adler. — I say that there has been no 
committee appointed. There is simply the Joint 
Committee of the House and Senate which is 
empowered to sit during recess and call for 
persons and papers to get such information as 
will enable it to prepare for the occupancy of 
this building. 

R. R. BowKER. — The resolution reads as 
follows: 

"Resolved, That the Joint Committee on the 
Library of the House of Representatives and 
of the Senate be authorized to sit in Washing- 
ton during the recess of Congress for the pur- 
pose of inquiring into the condition of the Li- 
brary of Congress, and to report on the same 
at the next session of Congress with such 
recommendations as may be deemed desirable; 
also to report a plan for the organization, cus- 
tody, and management of the new library build- 
ing and the Library of Congress. 

" The said Joint Committee is also authorized 
to employ a stenographer whenever necessary 
during the course of the inquiry. The neces- 
sary expenses of the sittings of the said Joint 
Committee, including the pay of the stenog- 
rapher, are to be paid out of the contingent 
fund of the said House of Representatives and 
Senate, on vouchers approved by the chairman 
of said Joint Committee; Provided, That the 
expenses incurred under this concurrent reso- 
lution be reported to the second session of this 
Congress." 

I think that is a resolution looking to a hear- 
ing, and it really brings the whole question be- 
fore the committee referred to. 

Cyrus Adler. — That resolution looks toward 
the suggestion of plans for the use of this new 
building, and nowhere does it hint that the 
Library of Congress requires reorganization. 
It is hardly possible to discuss such a fine 
question in a moment, but I am sure that if 
Mr. Bowker looks at that question he will see 
the point that I make. The Joint Library Com- 
mittee, of which Senator Hansbrough is chair- 
man, has commenced to call for papers and will. 



THIRD SESSION. 



83 



no doubt, commence to call for persons. It is 
to secure information as to tlie best methods of 
moving great libraries. It will no doubt call 
for more when the proper time comes. It now 
has already in its possession plans for the mov- 
ing of large libraries. The committee will no 
doubt call the American librarians to assist it 
in this matter. It may call on the president of 
the Library Association, and I am sure he 
would feel himself fully empowered to go in 
person, or to ask such of his colleagues as he 
would feel inclined to ask to go with him ; but 
it seems to me that the appointment of a com- 
mittee, more specially the passage of this reso- 
lution as it now stands, is gratuitous, and that 
it is a reflection on the Library of Congress, 
which has existed for a good many years and 
done the best it could, and that it is a re- 
reflection which the Library of Congress does 
not deserve from this Association. Any one 
who is acquainted with procedures in Washing- 
ton knows that the best way to have your ad- 
vice accepted is not to proffer it. If you want 
to get a committee of Congress to do something 
that you wish to have done, or think ought to 
be done, you must get that committee of Con- 
gress to ask you to advise them, and not offer 
your advice. The American Institute of Archi- 
tects, a society which was moved by the highest 
of motives for the improvement of government 
architecture, went to a committee of Congress 
to have a bill drafted for the improvement of 
the methods whereby the plans were drawn. I 
do not think that any one of the gentlemen who 
appeared had the slightest desire to get a job 
out of the government, but every member of 
the House before whom they appeared thought 
they did, and would not have anything to do 
with them. It seems to me that you would be 
doing a very much better thing if you would 
wait, or at least entrust it absolutely to your 
president, and see whether Congress shall ask 
your advice before you proffer it. 

R. R. BowKER. — It seems to me that Dr. 
Adier, whom we are certainly glad to see and 
hear on this floor, and who, any one who has 
visited Washington knows, is doing admirable 
work, has done a real service in presenting ar- 
guments against this resolution, although I 
think that this Association should take action. 
I think that some of his suggestions and criti- 
cisms are well taken, and I shall ask leave to 
modify this resolution in this way: 



"That the Executive Board be authorized to 
appoint a committee of the American Library 
Association, etc., to represent this Association 
in relation to the organization of the Library of 
Congress in its occupancy of the new building, 
and to take such steps as may promote the 
future development of the National Library on a 
more modern and most comprehensive plan." 

That may perhaps not altogether meet the 
views of Dr. Adler, but it seems to me that in 
that way it removes the essential criticisms 
which he has made, and I shall ask leave to 
offer the resolution, as amended, to the house. 

Cyrus Adler. — I always like to meet a man 
more than half way, but still I am not quite 
satisfied with the compromise. I believe that 
this is a matter that would be safely left to 
executive action, and I believe that the passage 
of the resolution will be productive of no good, 
and may be productive of harm. Mr. Bowker 
cannot say to-day that the passage of this reso- 
lution will be productive of any good. I am 
able to say that it may be productive of some 
harm. I am perfectly willing to leave the 
whole question, without any resolution what- 
soever, to the president and council of this 
Association. I submit that in this amended res- 
olution there is a criticism against the Library 
of Congress which is unfair. It states that the 
Library of Congress is to be reorganized on a 
more modern plan, and if Mr. Bowker or any 
other member of this Association had to care 
for 750,000 books in a space which would not 
hold 150,000, I do not believe he could have 
done any better. I do not think that in the 
later years of Mr. Spofford's life this Associa- 
tion or any other association should pass a res- 
olution containing a single word that seemed 
to reflect on him. 

A. S. Root. — It seems to me that it is not 
our place to give advice before it is asked. 

F. B. Gay. — I move that this question be 
laid on the table. Voted. 

Mr. George Iles read a paper on 

THE APPRAISAL OK LITERATURE. 
{St-e p. 26.) 

Theresa West. — I should like to ask Mr. 
lies whether in these books there will be any 
copyright on the notes. 

George Iles. — We talked a little about that 
last night in the Publishing Section. For my 
own part I should not care to have any copy- 



84 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



right; if any one wishes to copy any note I will 
be very glad to have him do it, but I cannot 
speak for the Publishing Section. 

W. I. Fletcher. — A word about this matter 
of copyright. The question has been raised as 
to whether the Publishing Section has copy- 
righted or intends to copyright its material. I 
am not prepared to say just what is the fact 
about the copyrighting, but I am sure that no 
copyright has been taken, at least such as to 
interfere at all with the extracting of notes. So 
far as such copyrights exist, I am sure they are 
simply to cover the execution of the whole work 
and not to interfere with any use of extracts for 
the public benefit. It seems to me with so large 
a company together it would be a pity if special 
attention were not called to the book which has 
been published under the name of " Books for 
girls and women." One thing that needs to be 
said about that book is that its title is somewhat 
unfortunate, and it is probable that a great 
many here might profit by the use of the book 
in their library work who are deterred from it 
by its title. The plan on which that book was 
made at first contemplated the selection of books 
particularly for women and girls' clubs. The 
plan was so carried out that it became ultimately 
a work which might as well have been called 
" A general select and annotated list of good 
books," and the suggestion that it is for girls 
and women ought to be eliminated to show its 
general character, and I suppose it will come 
out later. 

In that book, which is published and for sale 
by the Library Bureau at about the cost of man- 
ufacture, we have an admirable example of just 
what Mr. lies has been proposing. It is a 
somewhat limited example, but, as I said, it is 
in no sense properly confined, as might be un- 
derstood by the title, to books suitable only for 
girls and women. I wish that there might be a 
very general knowledge of the book and that it 
might come into general use, which I am sure 
would be conferring a great public benefit. 

Pres. Dana. — I would ask if the title of the 
book could not be changed in a future edition, 
and if that would not lead to its being more 
widely used ? 

George Iles. — Mr. Beer has some hope of 
ordering from the Library Bureau a paper edi- 
tion of 20OO copies for New Orleans, with the 
title changed to " A list of 2100 books anno- 
tated." I think the orignal title is a mistake. 



The idea was that in addressing a particular 
audience of girls and women we would be en- 
abled to sell a good many copies to their clubs, 
but that expectation has failed. The clubs have 
proved to be too poor to buy it, or it does not 
meet their wishes in some way. It may not be 
good enough. 

Pres. Dana. — I remember quite distinctly 
that one of the few impressions I was able to 
get at Lakewood was of the controversy be- 
tween Mr. lies and Mr. Dewey over the possi- 
bility of the very thing that is now to some 
e.xtent an accomplished fact. If I remember 
right, it was said that these criticisms, these 
evaluation notes, would not serve their pur- 
pose, because they would set people's prejudice 
the other way. Those of you who have exam- 
ined this book will remember that in certain 
parts of it at least the commentator does not 
hesitate to express his mind. If I remember 
Mr. lies aright, he told me that in one or more 
cases he urged the annotators to make their 
notes personal, and I would like to ask if he 
has received any comments from any of the 
readers of the book to indicate that it has 
harmed its usefulness. 

George Iles. — I have not. When I was in 
Chicago during the World's Fair I saw Mr. 
Harris, and he said that he and Pres. Hall, of 
Clark University, had been asked over and 
over again to draw up a bibliography of educa- 
tion, and they could not agree as to which were 
the important books. I would overcome that 
difficulty in the way I would overcome the pro- 
tection and free trade or the gold and silver 
difficulties. If I had a book like White's book 
on banking I would get Mr. Bryan's view and 
David A. Wells's view and then put them one 
under the other. I remember five or six years 
ago, when Mr. Bowker and I were getting up 
" The reader's guide in economic, political, and 
social science " for the Society of Political Edu- 
cation, Mr. McKinley agreed to write an ex- 
position and defence of the principle of protec- 
tion and Mr. Wells a defence of free trade, and I 
think our scheme was to print Wells on one page 
and McKinley.on the opposite page, so that they 
would both be before you ; but the scheme was 
too good and I had a polite note from Mr. Mc- 
Kinley saying that he was very busy and could 
not go on with his part. It is best to have the 
views of two men who are considered authority 
in their particular schools of thought. 



THIRD SESSION. 



8S 



Pres. Dana. — Here at least is one case in 
which it has been possible for the American Li- 
brary Association to free its mind and no harm 
has been done. 

Question — If we are to have these notes on 
every book, how large will the cards be ? 

George Iles. — I would have the note as 
concise as possible, but yet would say every- 
thing necessary to be said. Details will have 
to be worked out when we take the matter up 
practically. It is possible, as we know when we 
cable across the sea, to say a great deal in twenty- 
five words. I would put on the condenser. 

Sec. Elmendorf then read the 

REPORT OF E.XECUTIVE BOARD. 

Meeting of the Executive Board of the A. L. A. 
held in Cleveland, September i, i8g6. Present : 
President Dana, Vice-Presidents West and Carr, 
Ex-President Utley, Treasurer Cole, Assistant 
Treasurer Anderson, Secretary Elmendorf, Re- 
corder Nelson. 

Mr. Carr presented the following resolutions: 

"Resolved, That the Library Primer, if pub- 
lished by the Association, include not more than 
as much matter, including all appendices and 
index, as may be contained in 24 pages of the 
Library Journal." Carried unanimously. 

"Resolved, That if the Primer be printed, it 
shall be revised by a Committee on Revision 
appointed by the incoming Executive Board, be 
submitted to the council for approval, and after 
the council's approval, be published by the Pub- 
lishing Section, and be called a ' Library Prim- 
er.' " Carried unanimously. 

Mr. Elmendorf presented the following : 

"Resolved, That the list price of the Primer 
be fixed at 25 cents ; the Secretary of the Asso- 
ciation to be furnished with 1000 copies for free 
distribution, and that the edition consist of 3000 
copies." Carried unanimously. 

Mr. Utley presented the following resolu- 
tion : 

" Resolved, That the Executive Board sanction 
the expenditures for cuts for the Primer already 
made by the Secretary, about f 16." Carried. 

Mr. Elmendorf presented the following : 

" Resolved, (i) That the A. L. A. accept the 
invitation of the L. A. U. K. to take part in the 
International Library Conference to be held in 
London in July, 1897, and that the Secretary be 
instructed to cable this acceptance to the L. A. 
U. K., now in session. Such members of the 



A. L. A. as can go shall be the authorized and 
instructed delegates. 

"(2) That all arrangements for the presence 
of the representatives of the A. L. A. at the 
International Conference, and all arrangements 
for an itinerary for the entire trip be in the 
hands of a committee of five to be appointed by 
the Executive Board during the present con- 
ference, this committee to have full power to act 
in this matter for the Association. 

"(3) That the time and place of meeting of 
the A. L. A. for 1897, which shall have its final 
adjournment prior to the departure of the dele- 
gates to the International Library Conference, 
be fixed by the incoming Executive Board, in 
consultation with the A. L. A. Committee on In- 
ternational Library Conference." Carried unani- 
mously. 

The records of the meeting of the Executive 
Board at Colorado Springs after the Denver 
Conference, and at Cleveland October 10, 1895, 
will be found in the Library journal. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — The committee for compil- 
ing the A. L. A. Primer was authorized to print 
1000 copies. We determined without farther 
action by the executive board or by the full 
Association in conference, that we would not 
assume the responsibility, although it was 
delegated to us, of publishing the Primer. The 
Primer, as you know, has been published in 
Public Libraries. The notes are not what the 
committee appointed would want. The text is 
not what we would have it in final form. It 
forms a basis for revision for such a book as our 
Association should have to give out in answer 
to the constant inquiries of How shall we start 
and how shall we run a new library in our 
town ? 

The appendices have not all been printed, 
and those printed have not been printed in full 
and need revision. That is the state of the 
Primer business and the recommendation of 
the executive board which I will ask you to 
consider later. 

The next action of the board was the sanc- 
tioning of the expense of the cuts, which was 
the only expense incurred. I believe the entire 
bill amounts to about $23. 

The following report was submitted upon the 
European trip, the proposed trip to Europe of 
the Association next year. If it is the pleasure 
of the Association to act upon the first part, 
the recommendation of the executive board in 



86 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



regard to the Primer, I would like to have that 
settled and out of the way, and I would move 
the adoption of those resolutions as presented 
by the executive board. 

The motion was seconded by Mr. John 
Thomson. 

W. I. Fletcher. — Representing the pub- 
lishing section, I would like to call attention to 
the fact that there seems to be an introduction 
here of a question affecting the business of the 
section, in that the price is fixed of this Primer. 
At the same time it is said that looo copies shall 
be furnished to be distributed without cost and 
that the publishing section shall have 20oocopies. 
It is not a question to be considered here wheth- 
er that can be done or not. Should it not be 
put in such a form that it will be left for the 
publishing section to find out how that can be 
done ? I should think it might be amended to 
read, "At 25 cents, or as near that as can be 
made by the publishing section." 

The amendment was accepted by Sec. El- 
mendorf. 

G. M. Jones. — It seems to me that this matter 
of the number of copies that we shall print, the 
price we shall fix, etc., is not a matter that can 
be settled in a meeting of the Association. I 
therefore move as an amendment that this 
matter be referred to the incoming executive 
committee. 

S. S. Green. — I am always very much troubled 
when I hear of the Association undertaking to 
publish anything. I would rather have these 
resolutions lie on the table till we have con- 
sidered the question whether the publishing 
section is to be a section of the Association, and 
then it seems to me we could best dispose of the 
matter by referring it to that section. 

The first amendment was withdrawn. 

G. M. Jones. — I move that the first two sec- 
tions be passed. They come clearly within the 
scope of the Association as a whole. The other 
resolution can be settled very much better by 
the publishing section. Voled. 

W. C. Lane. — I wish to make a motion in re- 
gard to the other resolution. I should like to 
have the vote put in the way which I will sug- 
gest in order that it shall be a matter of prece- 
dent, and that is that the Association refer 
this resolution to the publishing section as 
recommendations, leaving the publishing sec- 
tion free, if it finds it impossible to adopt the 
recommendations, to do the best they can. 



C. A. Nelson. — This matter received very 
careful consideration in the executive board 
meeting yesterday, and without assuming the 
responsibility it is left to the incoming executive 
board to consider whether the Primer shall be 
published. I think that is what is covered by 
the resolution. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — The resolution remaining 
relates to the details of publishing. 

John Tho.mson. — I would like to see the 
matter disposed of at once. The question of 
price has been carefully considered, and I would 
like to see the question carried through without 
further delay, and therefore I hope that the 
proposition which I seconded will be carried. 

F. M. Crunden. — I second Mr. Lane's mo- 
tion. There are likely to come up points when 
the actual work of publication is in hand that 
have not been foreseen. At any rate, I think it 
would be perfectly safe to refer the whole 
matter, with these resolutions as instructions or 
recommendations, to that section of the Associ- 
ation whose special business it is to do the work. 

The motion as presented by Mr. Lane was 
passed. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — The next matter to be 
considered by the executive board was the 
European trip of the American Library Associ- 
ation. This was brought before the board 
and before the Association by the first notice 
that was sent to you all of the meeting in 
Cleveland, proposing that the Association join 
in an international conference, and the Associ- 
ation voted to go in the months of July and 
August, 1897. Upon the basis of this I notified 
Mr. MacAlister, the Secretary of the Library 
Association of the United Kingdom, that we 
would be glad to meet them in conference 
either in July or August, and that possibly our 
conference meeting be held either at the first or 
the last of our trip. In reply to that I received 
Mr. MacAlister's letter after consultation with 
the L. A. U. K. Council, which I published in 
the Library journal, inviting the American Li- 
brary Association to send delegates to an inter- 
national conference to be held in London in 
July, 1897, intimating that after the conference 
some of the English librarians would be glad to 
go with the American librarians to enjoy the 
hospitalities of the different towns in England, 
which would doubtless be extended to them. 

Various plans for the trip were submitted, and 
in view of the information laid before the ex- 



THIRD SESSION. 



87 



ecutive board the following resolutions were 
unanimously carried by the board and recom- 
mended to the Association: 

Resolved, (i) That the A. L. A. accept the in- 
vitation of the L. A. U. K. to take part in the 
International Library Conference to be held in 
London in July, 1S97, and that the Secretary 
be instructed to cable this acceptance to the 
L. A. U. K., now in session. Sueh members of 
the A. L. A. as can go shall be the authorized 
and instructed delegates. 

(2) That all arrangements for the presence of 
the representatives of the A. L. A. at the Inter- 
national Conference and all arrangements for 
an itinerary for the entire trip be in the hands 
of a committee of five, to be appointed by the 
executive board during the present conference, 
this committee to have full power to act in this 
matter for the Association. 

(3) That the time and place of meeting of the 
A. L. A. for 1897, which shall have its final 
adjournment prior to the departure of the dele- 
gates to the International Library Conference, be 
fixed by the incoming executive board in con- 
sultation with the A. L. A. committee on Inter- 
national Library Conference." 

R. R. BowKER. — At the suggestion of sev- 
eral members I have been asked to present a 
resolution bearing on this question, covering, 
however, only one part of the resolutions pro- 
posed by the executive board. I will read the 
proposed resolution and then say just a word 
on it. 

"Resolved, That the Association approve and 
authorize the appointment of a special commit- 
tee of five to consider and arrange the details of 
the European trip of 1897, and that those pres- 
ent at this conference who have any expecta- 
tion, or who have reasonable expectation, of 
taking the trip, be requested to meet in commit- 
tee meeting at the close of this afternoon's ses- 
sion to consider the general plans of the jour- 
ney and to report back any suggestions to this 
conference as well as to submit them to the 
special committee." 

It has been suggested that it might be very 
important indeed to have the conference rather 
toward the end of the English trip than at the 
beginning, because we have had experiences 
here as everywhere that after an association 
scatters it is very difficult to get them together 
again for any general trip. The opposing 
views on that question it is proposed to present 



at this meeting of those intending to take the 
trip, and if this vote should be carried it would 
involve by tacit consent the consideration of the 
other votes proposed by the executive board 
till some time to-morrow. I would move this 
as a substitute. Secotided. 

H. E. Davidson. — They expect us to come in 
July and have made their plans accordingly. I 
am sure it will be embarrassing to the L. A. U. 
K. and to us to have us ask them to change 
the date which they have practically fixed. 
The L. A. U. K. is in session at the present 
time and I dare say they are watching for a 
cable which shall tell them of the acceptance by 
this Association of their invitation, and for my 
part I think it is desirable that the Association 
act upon this question to-day so that whatever 
answer we have to make to them can be sent 
by cable to-night. 

F. P. Hill. — I would ask Mr. Davidson if 
the sessions of the L. A. U. K. close to-day, or 
whether to-morrow will be time enough to send 
a cablegram. 

H. E. Davidson. — I understand that their ses- 
sions close to-morrow, but we must bear in 
mind that while it is two or three o'clock here it 
is five hours later there, so that we must send 
our answer to-night for it to meet their official 
action to-morrow. That is my reason for calling 
your attention to the invitation being for July. 

R. R. BowKER. — I think I know enough oj 
the English brethren to make sure that they 
would be very glad to receive any suggestions 
from those of the A. L. A. who contemplate 
making this trip that would bring more or that 
would make the trip a greater success, and I 
think Mr. Soule was to suggest that a cable in- 
quiry should be sent to-night to know whether 
the L. A. U. K. could with convenience rear- 
range the plan if that should be the desire of 
the members on this side. I am quite sure that 
our English friends would be willing to act 
sympathetically and kindly in that matter. It 
is now nine o'clock in London and in the other 
Boston, and we could not now get any informa- 
tion to the brethren there till to-morrow, so 
that a cable sent to-night after this meeting 
asking the question would receive a response 
to-morrow very promptly and the thing could 
be settled with full satisfaction to-morrow. It 
is proposed rather to have this discussion in 
the committee of the whole of those going 
rather than in this body so as to cover the 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



points without troubling the members who are 
not going on this trip. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — The ladies and gentle- 
men are familiar with the history of the at- 
tempts in late years to get the Association to 
attend an international conference. At one 
time we decided that we would not accept the 
invitation of the L. A. U. K. for one year when 
we were invited, but we would accept it for the 
next, and we were told, with very great pro- 
priety in my judgment, that they did not want 
us the other year, but wanted us when they in- 
vited us. It seems to me very improper when 
we receive an invitation from a conferenee 
which will be in session just about the time that 
we are, to cable and ask them whether we can 
have the privilege of accepting their invitation 
for July or for some time which we shall set in 
the future. The reason of their changing the 
invitation from September to July was because 
I wrote upon your authority by the return votes 
of the referendum saying that September 
would not suit us, and everything seemed per- 
fectly satisfactory, provided it could be either 
made at the first or the last of our trip, which 
would cover the months, by the vote of this As- 
sociation, of July and August. This is the only 
matter in this report that I am strenuous 
about. I think the details should be left to 
the committee and to the people who go. 
My idea is that the only question before this 
Association is : Will you or will you not ac- 
cept the invitation of the L. A. U. K., or 
shall we send them word saying, " We won't 
accept your invitation for when it is given, but 
we will if you will renew it for some other time" ? 

F. P. Hlix. — I understand that the mem- 
bers of the Association will have to make a 
final decision in this matter, no matter what 
recommendation is made by the committee of 
the whole. 

I move as an amendment, in order to get a 
test vote, that so much of the resolution as re- 
lates to the acceptance of the invitation be 
adopted. 

C. C. SouLE. — I understood that these gentle- 
men who have just spoken in opposition to the 
postponement, had been consulted and had as- 
sented to it. It was urged upon the executive 
committee last winter that after the opinion of the 
Association had been taken in regard to the Eu- 
ropean trip and by a decisive vote the Asso- 
ciation had decided to go, a special committee 



should be appointed, the whole question should 
be discussed at that time, and the whole thing 
should be threshed out ^o that we should have 
all information before us, and then after this 
information was received we should have an 
intelligent vote and submit to the will of the 
majority. The executive committee have 
chosen, without instructions or consultation with 
more than four or five members, to correspond 
with the L. A. U. K. They probably have com- 
promised us, as Mr. Elmendorf says. I would 
like the Association to understand that the 
theory of a large number of the members was 
that we first should decide what we wanted to 
do, being the visiting party, and after having 
decided that we should then consult our foreign 
brethren and see what they could do. That is 
what we wanted to have done. This action of 
the executive committee has probably preclud- 
ed that. We cannot discuss the question very 
thoroughly. A number of us have thought 
that there is still time to have the matter ex- 
plained and find out what the theories might 
be, and then those who go might still have an 
opportunity of expressing their opinions in re- 
gard to certain vital points in the trip. We 
simply do not want snap judgment. We think 
the people who are going ought to be consulted 
first. The time when we arrive in London is 
one essential point of difference. 

Tessa L. Kelso. — When we delegate author- 
ity to certain people it seems to me that when 
they make their report we should decide to re- 
ject or adopt the report in the spirit in which 
we instructed them to investigate. It seems to 
me hardly fair to take the ground that the ex- 
ecutive board did not have full power. 

G. M. Jones. — It seems to me that this is 
idle discussion. As I understand it, the differ- 
ence of opinion is in regard to the details of 
the trip after we reach the other side. The 
question before us to-day is whether we shall 
accept the invitation of the L. A. U. K., to be 
present in London on certain days, and our 
members have already expressed their opinion 
that July and August are the best days to take 
for that trip. Therefore I think that the mo- 
tion of Mr. Hill is the motion for us to adopt at 
the present time. Shall we accept the invita- 
tion of the L. A. U. K., or shall we not? Then 
the matter about the method of appointing a 
committee we can decide later. That does not 
concern our English friends. 



THIRD SESSION. 



R. R. BowKEK. — I would suggest that Mr. 
Hill's amendment be passed with the date left 
blank, and then make the direct question as to 
whether we shall specify that date. 

F. P. Hill. — I think I realize somewhat the 
position of Mr. Soule and Mr. Bowker with ref- 
erence to this question. In iSgo we were in- 
invited by John Vance Cheney and others to go 
to San Francisco. Action was taken in a large 
meeting like this and everybody decided to go 
to San Francisco. When it came to settle on 
those who were going, it was found that only 
about 40 would take the trip, and I have said 
to Mr. Soule and to Mr. Dana, and to others, 
that it seems to me the whole question ought 
to be settled by those who are going to Europe 
and not by those who have no idea of going. 
If there is anything in this resolution which I 
have offered which would in any way hamper 
the Association, I withdraw it, but I cannot see 
why the mere acceptance of the invitation 
should affect us in any harmful way, and I 
would ask Mr. Soule or Mr. Bowker to give 
such explanation to the Association if there is 
any such to give. 

H. E. Davidson. — The only question in- 
volved by this date is whether a conference in 
London shall be held in July or at the end of our 
trip. If we accept the invitation, the conference 
will be in July. If we ask them to change and 
carry on negotiation for a change, it is with a 
view to getting it put later. This does not affect 
the itinerary, it is simply a question whether it 
is desirable to have the conference precede our 
trip or to take what we now call a post-confer- 
ence before the convention. 

H. J. Carr. — If we, as an Association, vote 
to accept the invitation to go abroad, ought 
we not to carry out our agreement ? I would 
like to know before I vote whether we have 
a reasonable showing or proper number to 
go. Is there not some way by which we can 
find out as to the probable number that will 
go? 

Mr. Hill's amendment was adopted. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — The second resolution is 
as follows : 

" That all arrangements for the presence of 
the representatives of the A. L. A. at the Inter- 
national Conference, and all arrangements for 
an itinerary for the entire trip be in the hands 
of a committee of five to be appointed by 
the executive board during the present confer- 



ence, this committee to have full power to act 
in this matter for the Association." 

I would like to say in explanation of this that 
the matter was brought up in the executive 
board meeting when this resolution was passed; 
that this committee ought to call during this 
session a meeting of those interested and take 
the views of all as a committee of arrangements, 
and that was as far as it went. 

F. P. Hill. — I would like to hear Mr. 
Bowker's substitute. I think that the details 
should be left to those who expect to go on that 
European trip. 

F. M. Crunden. — If I understand this mo- 
tion, it does not propose to have this body as a 
whole act on the details of the trip, but to leave 
it to the committee, which committee would nat- 
urally consult the persons whom it was serving. 

G. M. Jones moved that the recommendation 
of the executive board be adopted. Voted. 

Sec. Elmendorf read the next resolution as 
follows: 

"Resolved, That the time and place of meet- 
ing of the A. L. A. for 1897, which shall have 
its final adjournment prior to the departure of 
the delegates to the International Library Con- 
ference, be fixed by the incoming executive 
board, in consultation with the A. L. A. com- 
mittee on International Library Conference." 

F. P. Hill moved that the resolution be 
adopted. Voted. 

C. A. Nelson. — I move that the recommen- 
dations of the executive board as adopted sepa- 
rately be adopted as a whole. Voted. 

F. P. Hill. — Would it be proper to offer a 
motion at this time to the effect that all those 
who intend to take this trip should meet in this 
hall after the meeting this afternoon, or has ev- 
erything been so far arranged that members are 
not to have anything to say about it? I should 
feel very sorry if the executive committee, or 
any committee, can spend money of the Associ- 
ation without direct authorization of the Associ- 
ation for this matter in question, as I understand 
the president to say the executive board could 
do. 

F. M. Crunden. — It seems to me that the 
money matters, like all other details, ought to 
be left to those who are going. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — This is not a delegation 
appointed here to attend an international con- 
ference. The details of that conference you 
have just placed in the hands of a certain com- 



90 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



mittee. The first and natural duty of that com- 
mittee will be to call together those who are 
interested, and the idea of putting this thing 
through at this time, in the judgment of the 
executive board, was that it might be done in 
that way. The committee, I should think, would 
naturally call a meeting as soon as it was ap- 
pointed. 

F. P. Hill. — Cannot the executive board 
now ask the members who intend to go to 
Europe to meet here after this meeting ad- 
journs ? 

The President announced that immediately 
after the afternoon meeting there would be a 
meeting of those who expected to go to Europe 
next year. 

W. I. Fletcher. — It seems to me that a 
meeting of those who intend to go to Europe 
cannot do much without that committee. 

Pres. Dana. — I am sure that if it can be 
done the executive board will immediately ap- 
point a committee before the people who expect 
to go to England have gathered together. 

W. I. Fletcher. — I want to say in reply to 



some suggestions made here that any one should 
fear that this trip is going to involve a large ex- 
penditure on the part of the executive committee 
out of the funds, that I have entire confidence in 
this committee which is to be appointed that they 
will not draw upon the treasury of the A. L. A. 
to pay any expenses of the trip, unless it be 
some proper expenses of the delegates as dele- 
gates. 

C. A. Nelson. — The Association as an asso- 
ciation has voted to accept the invitation of the 
L. A. U. K. The Association has also voted 
that all here and all who may not be here who 
expect to go shall be the regular and appointed 
delegates of this Association. The meeting pro- 
posed to be called as soon as the general Asso- 
ciation adjourns is of those members who are 
going as delegates, and from those members the 
committee of arrangements will be appointed. 

REPORT OI-- TREASURER. 

E. H. Anderson, acting treasurer, read the 
following report, which it was voted to accept 
and refer to the finance committee: 



TREASURER'S REPORT. 
E. H. Anderson, Acting Treasurer, in account with the American Liurary Association. 

1895. Dr. 

Aug. I. To balance reported (Denver Conference, p. 48) « $1108 85 

Aug. I, 1895, to Aug. 31, iSg6 : 

To fees for 534 Annual Memberships, at $2 each: 

For 1894, I $2 00 

For 1895, 96 192 00 

For i8g6, 435 870 00 

For 1897, 3 6 00 

I1070 00 
To fees for 17 Annual Fellowships, at $5 each: 

For 1895, I $5 00 

For i8g6, 16 80 00 

$85 00 
To fees for 29 Library Memberships, at I5 each: 

For 1896, 29 $145 cx) 

To sale of Conference Proceedings 5 00 

To interest on deposit, Aug. i, 1895, to Aug. 29, 1896 41 71 

$2455 56 



THIRD SESSION. 



Cr. 

By Langford & Thompson ; typewriting Treasurer's report 

By C. A. Nelson; expenses in connection with Denver Conference 

By H. M. Utley; expenses in connection with Denver Conference 

By Geo. E. Wire; expenses in connection with Denver Conference 

By W. K. Fleming; stenographer's services and transcripts of Denver Confer- 
ence 

By Library Bureau ; stationery 

By Lon Hardman; printing and stationery 

By G. W. Cole; 500 postal cards 

By M. R. Walter; printing papers of Denver Conference 

By Library Bureau; Cleveland Conference circular No. i, mailing, etc 

By E. H. Merriman ; typewriting and stenographic work 

By H. L. Elmendorf ; expenses of Secretary's office 

By Publishers' Weekly- circulars 

By Stevenson & Foster Co.; stationery for Treasurer's office 

By Publishers' Weekly; printing aod mailing Proceedings 

By H. L. Elmendorf; expenses of Secretary's office 

By E. H. Merriman ; typewriting and stenographic work 

By Mrs. Maud Kennedy ; stenographic and clerical work 

By Stevenson & Foster Co.; stationery for Treasurer's office 

By J. R. Weldin & Co.; cash-book for Treasurer's office 

By Combe Printing Co.; circulars, programs, and Preliminary Papers for 

Cleveland Conference 

By Weber & Co. ; rubber stamp 



$2455 56 



The present status of membership (Sept. i, 
1S96) is as follows; 

Honorary Members 2 

Life Fellows 2 

Life Members 28 

Annual Fellows (paid for lSg6) 16 

Annual Members (paid for l8g6) 435 

Library Members (paid for 1896) 29 

Total 512 

During the period covered by this report, 121 
new members have been added to the list, 20 
have resigned, and 3 have died. 

It seems hardly worthwhile to make a report 
of the amount of membership fees which re- 
main unpaid. Many allow their memberships 
to lapse, neither resigning nor paying their 
fees. It is, therefore, impossible to make a sat- 
isfactory estimate of the collectable unpaid 
fees. 



There are now on hand the following publica- 
tions: 

2 copies of Milwaukee Conference (1886). 
32 " " Thousand Islands Conference 

(1887). 
79 •' " St. Louis Conference (1889). 
18 " " White Mountains Conference 

(1S90). 
25 " " San Francisco Conference (1891). 
6 " " Lakewood Conference (1892). 
12 " " Chicago Conference (1893). 
75 " " Lake Placid Conference (1894). 
14S " " Denver Conference (1895). 

It may be of interest to members to know 
that the cash balance on hand, and the num- 
ber of members in good standing, are the 
largest in the history of the Association. 
Respectfully submitted, 

E. H. Anderson, Acting Treasurer. 

Sec. Elmendorf read the following : 



92 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



REPORT OF TRUSTEES OF ENDOWMENT FUND. 
Trustees A. L. A. Endowment Fund in account with American Library Association. 

Dr. 
To Subscriptions from Oct. 30, 1890, to Sept. i, 1896, 
" Interest received during same period : 

From invested funds, .... 
" loan to Publishing Section, 
" bank balance, .... 

" Pliny T.- Sexton, 
" loan to Charles C. Soule and Henry I. Carr, 



Amounts received in payment of loans : 
From mortgages matured, 
" Publishing Section 
" Charles C. Soule and Henry I. Carr, 

Amounts received for Life Memberships : 

From Henry L Carr Balance old account, 
" new memberships, 



Cr. 
By Amounts paid out from Oct. 30, iSgo, to Sept. i, 1S96: 
Loans on Bond and Mortgage, 
" to Publishing Section, 
" " Charles C. Soule and H. L Carr, 
" Sundry other amounts paid out : 

For printing, . . . . . 

" accrued interest on mortgages, 
" rent of vault (four years), 
" amount paid (not loaned) Publishing Section, 

" Balance, ...... 



<pi,ji/y.ou 

169.70 

35-72 

20.00 

3-75 








$1,300.00 
650.00 
200.00 


2,I50,(X) 
797-47 


1447-47 
350.00 






$8,897.00 


$5,700.00 
900.00 
200.00 




135.10 
133-53 
40.00 
269. 70 


^7,378-33 
1,518.67 






$8,897.00 



Sept. I. To Balance, 
New York, Sept. i, 1S96. 



$1,518.67 
E. and O. E. 
Trustees A. L. A. Endowment Fund, 

by E. C. HovEY, Trcas. 



Financial Condition. 
ASSETS. 



Loans on Bond and Mortgage, .... 

" to Publishing Section (secured by note). 
Cash in International Trust Co. (Boston), 

LIAIilLITIES. 

None. 

Ititcrcst Account. 
To Total amount received, .... 

By Amounts paid out : 

Paid (not loaned) to Publishing Section, 
" for accrued interest on mortgages, 
" " printing, .... 

" " rent of vault, .... 



To Balance, 



$4,400.00 

250.00 

1,518.67 



$6,168.67 





$269.70 
133-50 
135.10 
40.00 




$578.30 
830.73 


$1,409.03 


$1,409.03 



Note. — When, pursuant to a vote of the Association, the then Treasurer, Mr. Henry I. Carr, 
paid over to the Trustees of the Endowment Fund, the sum of $447.47 it was ordered that so 
much of our income as was necessary to increase this amount to $650.00 the original sum, be 
withheld. From Balance, $830.73, I have deducted the sum of $202.53. The available Interest 
Balance is therefore only $628.20. E. H. Hovey, Treas. 



THIRD SESSION. 



93 



W. I. Fletcher. — I move that the report be 
accepted and referred to the Finance Committee 
for auditing. Voted. 

Sec. Elmendorf read a communication from 
Hon. Pliny T. Sexton resigning his position as 
a member of the Board of Trustees of the 
Endowment Fund and presenting $ioo to the 
fund. 

W. C. Lane. — I move that the resignation of 
Mr. Sexton be accepted, with regrets, and that 
the thanks of the Association be sent to him for 
his services in the past and for his generous 
gift in addition to the fund. Voted. 

Miss Hewins then read her paper on 

GIFTS AND BEQUESTS. 
{Seep. 6.) 

Pres. J. C. Dana. — I would ask Miss Hew- 
ins how this report on gifts and bequests com- 
pares with those of former years. 

Miss C. M. Hewins. — It is for two years 
instead of one, and it is larger, I think, than 
usual. 

F. M. Crunden moved that the report be re- 
ceived and filed. Voted. 

Vice-Pres. F. M. Crunden assumed the chair. 

J. N. Larned. — I wish to say that the re- 
port of the Committee on Library Schools as 
printed in the Preliminary Papers requires 
amendment in two or three particulars on 
information received after the printing was 
done. None of them are of very great impor- 
tance. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — The corrections on the 
Preliminary Papers noted by the authors are 
made on the olBcial report which has been set 
aside for the purpose. 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY SCHOOLS. 

The Committee on Library Schools and Classes 
had thought of tabulating a comparison of the 
courses of instruction, pursued in the several 
schools, for the purpose of ascertaining how 
far they work on common lines, with common 
aims, and to what extent they diverge in their 
purposes and plans. But differences of con- 
struction in the schedules of class-work sub- 
mitted to us for the purpose seem to make 
any fully analytical and precise comparison, 
not unpracticable, perhaps, but so difEcult that 
we will not undertake it. The most we can 
attempt is a rough calculation of the propor- 
tions in which the time of study and work in 



each school or class is divided among the sub- 
jects of chief note. This brings to view some 
differences which are interesting, though the 
exhibit of them may have no further impor- 
tance. 

The conspicuous difference is one well under- 
stood as a general fact, namely, that the train- 
ing for library work given at Albany is more 
strictly technical than in any of the other 
schools. Literature, for example, as a distinct 
subject, fills a large place in the courses at 
Armour, Pratt, and Drexel Institutes, while it 
has been wholly omitted, heretofore, from the 
curriculum of the New York State School. At 
Armour Institute about six per cent, of the total 
class-work scheduled in the first year, and 23 
per cent, in the second year, are assigned to 
Literature. At Drexel Institute and at Pratt 
Institute, where the course, hitherto, has been 
one of a single year, the percentage of time 
devoted to Literature is about 21 per cent, and 
12 per cent, respectively in the first term, and 
30 per cent, and eight per cent, in the second 
term. At Pratt Institute it is said to be mainly 
a critical course. In the Albany schedules, 11 
per cent, of class-work appropriated to Read- 
ing, in the junior and senior years alike, may 
cover more or less of discursive literary in- 
struction; and the same is probably true of a 
smaller assignment of time to Reading in the 
Chicago course; but the intention of the New 
York State School is to make that part of prepa- 
ration for library work antecedent to its own 
teaching. This policy seems warranted by cir- 
cumstances which give to the Albany School a 
certain advantage over others. As the parent 
school of all, it enjoys a natural precedence and 
prestige that are attractive to students, and, while 
its classes remain as limited in number as they 
are, it may easily set its standard of require- 
ments for admission at a height that will cover 
all the general knowledge of literature which 
school and college teaching can give. The 
younger classes, at Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and 
Chicago, supplementary and auxiliary, so to 
speak, to the original school, in their rise, 
could hardly plant themselves, perhaps, at the 
beginning, on quite so specialized a ground. 
But some day, no doubt, they will find it best 
to drop out of their curriculum more or less of 
the studies now embraced which are prepara- 
tory to the strictly technical training for library 
work, rather than forming any part of it. The 



94 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



study of Literature, as pursued, is unquestion- 
ably one of these. For while it leads toward 
the knowledge which is fundamental in the edu- 
cation of the librarian — at the bottom of all 
efficiency in his work — -yet it does not and 
cannot be carried far enough, in an ordinary 
course, to win the stamp of practical qualifica- 
tion which a special training school, in any 
department of work, ought to put upon its 
graduates. What we call the study of Litera- 
ture is mainly a study of what the French de- 
fine better for us, as Belles-Lettres. It leaves 
untouched, or nearly so, a large part of the 
comprehensive knowledge of books which the 
librarian needs. The literature of science, of 
philosophy, of religion, of history, of biogra- 
phy, of politics and social economy, in which 
more than half of the problems of library sci- 
ence and the difficulties of library service arise, 
is scarcely approached by it. As a part of 
technical training for the work of the libraries 
it is fragmentary, therefore, and inadequate at 
the best, and for all that is practicable in it, as 
preparatory to that work, the appropriate place 
would seem to be in the prescribed education 
required of students before their special in- 
struction begins in the library school. 

Logically, the study of Literature and the 
study of languages would be excluded from the 
curriculum of the library schools on the same 
grounds. That Literature is a defined subject 
of study in three of them, while one language, 
the German, is taught in only one school, that 
of Pratt Institute (where it is carried through 
the whole course and occupies nearly one-tenth 
of the whole time in the schedule), appears not 
quite consistent. 

Other subjects which, in time, are more than 
likely to be dropped from the library schools 
are English Composition, Book-keeping or Ac- 
counts, and Economics. The first of these sub- 
jects (embracing, however, proof correction and 
the like) has received attention at Pratt Insti- 
tute to the e.xtcnt of about 12 per cent, of the 
working time of the class in its first term. 
Book-keeping takes three or four per cent, of 
class work in one term at the same school, 
while the discussion of Economics is pursued 
at Drexel Institute only, and during but one 
term. There is no apparent better reason for 
introducing these subjects than for entering in 
the course any other of the many branches of 
a general education. 



To raise one more question as to the range 
of a proper course of instruction in library sci- 
ence, we may say that even Typewriting has 
become so common a part of the equipment for 
so many employments in modern life that the 
acquirement of it outside of a library training 
class might fairly be demanded. At present it 
has a place in the course at three schools, taking 
time in the schedules of Armour Institute and 
Pratt Institute to the amount of about eight 
per cent, throughout all the terms, while at 
Drexel Institute it consumes half that propor- 
tion of time in the first term alone. 

If we turn nov7 to the undoubted matters of 
special library training, weshall'find the schools 
and classes differing little from one another in 
the measure of time which they devote to the 
subjects of fundamental importance, while each 
shows a certain character of its own in the em- 
phasis which it puts upon some of the incidentals 
of the practical work. 

Cataloging, as scheduled at .\lbany, fills 33 
per cent, of the regular class-work time in the 
junior year and 21 per cent, in the senior year. 
At Armour Institute the schedules show but 17 
per cent, in the junior year and two per cent, 
in the senior year; but 21 per cent, of the junior 
year and 17 per cent, of the senior year at Ar- 
mour Institute are assigned to what is designated 
as " Apprentice work," in which cataloging pre- 
dominates. At the Albany School there is an 
assignment of time (eight per cent, in the first 
year and 13 in the second) to General Practice 
Work, which is defined as being exclusive of 
cataloging as work required, though students 
may so employ it if they choose to do so. -At 
Pratt Institute, the time given to cataloging 
equals about 24 per cent, of the whole class- 
work in the first term (of the one-year course), 
22 per cent, in the second term, and 12 in the 
third. This we understand to be exclusive of 
equal hours given to practice work. In the 
two terms of the single year at Drexel Insti- 
tute, the time assigned to Cataloging is re- 
spectively 35 and 40 per cent, of the whole. 

To other common subjects and exercises, the 
assignment of time in the class-work of the 
several schools is as follows: 

Classification: New York State Library 
School, seven per cent, in each year; Armour 
Institute, six per cent, in the junior year and 
two per cent, in the senior; Pratt Institute, 
seven per cent, in the first term, four in the 



THIRD SESSION. 



95 



second; Drexel Institute, eight percent, in tiic 
first term. 

Accession Work: New York State School, 
tliree per cent, in the first year; Armour Insti- 
tute, two per cent, in the first year; Drexel In- 
stitute, four per cent, in the first term; Pratt 
Institute, three per cent, in the first term. 

Loan Systems: New York State School, 
three per cent., first year; Drexel Institute, 
three per cent., second (half-year) term; Ar- 
mour Institute, two per cent., first year; Pratt 
Institute, two per cent., second term. 

Shelf Department Work: New York State 
School, three per cent., first year; Armour In- 
stitute, two per cent., first year; Pratt Insti- 
tute, two per cent., first term (besides practice 
work running through three terms); Drexel In- 
stitute, three per cent., first term. 

At Armour Institute, Bibliography and Ref- 
erence Work are alternating subjects, and 
unitedly receive about i6 per cent, of time in 
the junior year and nine per cent, in the senior 
year. At Albany there is four per cent, of 
time in the junior year and five in the senior 
assigned to Bibliography, and nine per cent, in 
the senior year to Reference Work. This is 
independent of a liberal allowance of time for 
Original Bibliography in connection with Thesis 
Work, both at Albany and Chicago. At Pratt 
Institute, Bibliography is the subject of three 
closing lectures in the last term; at Drexel In- 
stitute, it is made part of the Reference Work 
in each term. At Pratt Institute, the percent- 
age of time given in the schedules to Reference 
Work is four in the first term (but this recog- 
nizes lectures only and not practice work), 
seven in the second. At Drexel Institute, the 
percentage is two and twelve in the two terms 
of the year. 

The Order Department furnishes a subject 
of class-work at Pratt and Drexel Institutes, 
but elsewhere appears to be incidental. 

Current Topics are dealt with more or less 
at each of the schools. 

General Library Economy is a distinct sub- 
ject at Albany and Chicago, while at Brooklyn 
and Philadelphia it is probably covered in a 
more detailed way. 

Bookbinding receives attention at Albany to 
the extent of two per cent, of the class-work in 
the junior year; in the other schools it is touched 
upon less fully. 



Printiiig as an art, and Proof-Reading in 
connection with it, are technically studied in 
Albany to the extent of three per cent, of time 
in the first year, and at Philadelphia and Brook- 
lyn to the extent of one per cent, in the first 
term of each class. At Chicago, the historical 
side of Printing is more considered, in connec- 
tion with the history of Books. 

The history and description of libraries, their 
founding and government, the architecture and 
fittings of their buildings and the legislation 
which relates to them, are discussed in all the 
schools, and in no very unequal measure. 

At Albany alone the schedule provides for 
instruction in Indexing, but that important sub- 
ject receives attention likewise at Chicago, and 
will be introduced in the second-year course at 
Brooklyn. 

At Drexel Institute alone. Children's Read- 
ing is among the subjects in the schedule; but 
it has been the topic of a course of lectures by 
Miss Stearns at Armour Institute during the 
year past, while at Albany it is the subject of a 
course of lectures given by Miss Hewins every 
other year. 

At Pratt Institute, a distinguishing feature 
of the last term is an extended course of lect- 
ures on the greater libraries of the world. 
Apart from these, the closing term is mainly 
given to practical work in the general free 
library of the Institute. 

In all the schools, a practical study of library 
work under different systems and circumstances, 
by the visitation and examination of various 
leading libraries, and the subsequent discussion 
of their several methods, is made more and 
more an important and most commendable feat- 
ure of each case. 

This comparative survey of the courses of 
study and work pursued in the several library 
schools brings nothing of great importance into 
view, but it may have some suggestiveness not 
wholly without worth. 

The four schools named have all been visited 
during the year by the chairman of the com- 
mittee, though not all at times which permitted 
their work to be seen. The Armour Institute 
school has been visited likewise by Miss Brown, 
ing, of the committee, and the Pratt Institute 
school by Miss Hasse. 

Of all the schools it can be reported with no 
hesitation, that the past year has been, on the 



96 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



whole, the most satisfactory in their history, 
giving encouragement in all of them to larger 
undertakings and plans of future work. The 
school at Pratt" Institute announces, in conse- 
quence, a second-year course, "not wholly," 
says the circular, "an extension of the first 
year's work, but rather a development of 
another phase, the historical and bibliographi- 
cal." 

The New York State Library School opened 
its first summer session at Albany in July last, 
conducting a short course of five weeks, espe- 
cially for the benefit of library assistants who 
seek technical instruction in elementary work. 
In its regular course, the work of the school 
has been greatly systematized and improved dur- 
ing the year last past. The faculty has been 
enlarged, and the non-resident lectureships have 
assumed a more organized character, certain 
subjects being permanently assigned to given 
lecturers, who are expected to appear before 
the school with regularity once in two years. 
The Library School Museum and the collections 
of photographs, clippings, pamphlet material in 
bibliography, library economy, etc., have been 
thoroughly cataloged and much increased; while 
important beginnings have been made with an 
exhaustive Index of library economy which 
should some day be put into print. 

The Summer School conducted by Mr. Fletch- 
er at Amherst held its session in July and Au- 
gust, with undiminished success. The class 
numbered 36 against 30 last year. 

A second session of the Wisconsin Summer 
School, conducted by Miss Sharp, of the Ar- 
mour Institute School, under the auspices of 
the University of Wisconsin, but supported by 
the generosity of the Hon. J. H. Stout, was 
held at Madison for six weeks, closing August 
14. There were 27 pupils in attendance, from 
nine western states, all but four having had 
more or less library experience. 

In conclusion, the committee presents a com- 
pilation of statistics (see next column of this 
page) which summarizes the practical results 
of the work done in the four fully founded 
library schools of the United States. 
Respectfully submitted, 
J. N. Larned, 
Adeuiide R. Hasse, 
Eliza G. Browning, 
Caroline H. Garland, 

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THIRD SESSION. 



97 



SPECIAL RErORT ON ARMOUR INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
TRAINING CLASS. 

Armour Institute is proceeding along the 
same general lines indicated in last j'ear's re- 
port, except that the course now consists of 
two years' instruction instead of one, and type- 
writing has been added to the list of studies. 

The methods used here are based on those 
in use at Albany, except that they are modified 
to suit the requirements of the Armour Insti- 
tute students. Greater stress is laid here upon 
the practical things of library life. Invariably 
it has been the public library which has ap- 
plied to Armour for a librarian, hence the 
aim of this school has been to train the student 
in the practical needs of a public library rather 
than along the theoretical lines more applicable 
to the college or reference library. 
Respectfully submitted, 

E. G. Browning. 

SPECIAL report ON PRATT INSTITUTE LIBRARY 
SCHOOL. 

In June, 1S96, the Pratt Institute Library 
School completed its sixth year of library in- 
struction. The total number of pupils who 
have entered the classes since their inception 
in l8go is 142; 104 were graduated. The course 
was augmented during the year by lectures 
given by librarians of the vicinity on their 
methods, by regular weekly visits of the class 
to neighboring libraries, and by a practical 
course in library accounts. 

Stenography was omitted from the course, 
and the work in library economy was put un- 
der the direction of one instructor, instead of, 
as formerly, under the care of different mem- 
bers of the staff. 

The Director of the Library School reports 
the demand for trained workers to be steadily 
increasing, the increased demand coming more 
especially from the smaller towns. 

During the moving of the library into the 
new building, which was accomplished, exclu- 
sive of the reference-books, in two days and a 
half, the current work of the library was car- 
ried on by the students of the Library School. 
The class took charge of the reading-room, 
reference-desks, and circulating department, 
and largely because of this assistance the pub- 
lic was granted the use of the library without 
interruption during the moving. 

The systematic manner with which the re- 



moval of the books was conducted must have 
been a valuable object lesson to this class. 

The popular Current Topics work was con- 
tinued through the first and second terms of 
this course. 

Just before the close of the course of 1895 -6 
a circular was issued announcing a second-year 
course for 1896-7,10 deal with Library Science 
and Bibliography. A corps of lecturers has 
been obtained, and the term will open Sep- 
tember 28. 

By an arrangement with Dr. John S. Billings, 
Director, New York Free Public Library, the 
subjects of Advanced Cataloging and Bibliog- 
raphy will be pursued during the second-year 
course under a competent instructor, by means 
of the collections of the Lenox Library. 

A directory of graduates of Pratt Institute 
Library School, 1890-95, was published in the 
Pratt Institute MontJily, June, i8g6. 

The satisfaction with the practical work of 
the class in the third term is constantly in- 
creasing. The students take turns in all the 
departments of the library, wait on the public 
in the reading, reference, and delivery rooms 
at varying hours of the day, and frequently at 
the hours of greatest pressure. The verdict is 
that this experience makes them more prompt 
in emergencies, keener and more tactful in 
contact with the public, and more conversant 
with the needs and wants of the public. 

Adelaide R. Hasse. 

W. C. Lane presented the report of the 
Executive Board of the A. L. A. Publishing 
Section. 

REPORT OF the EXECUTIVE BOARD OF THE A. L. 
A. PUBLISHING SECTION, SEPTEMBER I, 1 896. 

A report of the Publishing Section was pre- 
pared last year, but on account of the absence 
of all members of the executive board from the 
Denver meeting it failed to be presented. The 
report this year must therefore cover the opera- 
tions of two years. In our last report we re- 
gretted that no larger progress had been made, 
and we might say much the same in regard to 
the past two years, for librarians are all en- 
grossed in the daily administration of their own 
libraries, and it is difficult to accomplish any 
considerable undertaking in addition. Some 
important work has, however, been done. Three 
regular meetings of the executive board have 



98 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



been held, two in New York and one at North- 
ampton ; the records of the last two meetings 
will be found in the Library journal for July, 
1896, and it is the intention to make public in 
the same way the record of future proceedings. 

In regard to each of our publications, a brief 
but detailed statement follows : 

The A. L. A. Index. The total expenses 
have been $2600.14 and the total receipts 
$2982.30, the balance $382.16 has been paid in 
five semi-annual payments to the editor, Mr. 
W. I. Fletcher, in accordance with our agree- 
ment with him. Of the 750 copies printed, 722 
have been sold, 78 of these in the last two 
years. A supplementary volume, to be pub- 
lished in 1897, is already in hand, and will in- 
clude material already published in the Annual 
Literary lnde,\, and as much as possible be- 
sides. The editor, Mr. W. L Fletcher, libra- 
rian of Amherst College, will be glad to receive 
suggestions in regard to works which should 
be indexed. It is hoped that the new material 
may be combined with that of the original in- 
dex so that we may have a new edition and not 
simply a supplement. This will be done if the 
advance subscriptions, when called for, war- 
rant it. 

Sargent's Reading for the Young. In the last 
report a sale of 3464 copies was reported. Dur- 
ing the last twenty-two months there has con- 
tinued a small but steady demand for the work, 
amounting to 171 copies. The net receipts for 
these have been $125.45, but, 200 copies having 
been bound at an expense of $46, and the sum 
of $11.80 being chargeable to insurance, the net 
profit has been $67.65, leaving the total expenses 
from the beginning still $89.49 in excess of the to- 
tal receipts. A supplement to this book also is in 
press, and will be published immediately. It 
has been compiled by Misses Mary E. and 
Abby L. Sargent, who have personally examined 
and passed upon every book included in it. 
They have added to it, beside the author-index, 
a subject-index which covers the whole work, 
original and supplement, and will very much 
increase the value of the book. The prepara- 
tion of this index has caused an unavoidable 
delay in the issue of the work, so that it will be 
found that although published in the autumn 
of 1896, it contains none of the books published 
this year or in the latter part of 1895. 

List of Subject Headings. This list, compiled 
by Mr. G. M. Jones, working with a committee 



of the Library Association, was published in 
October, 1895, and has found an excellent sale. 
The cost of manufacturing 500 copies was 
$405.93, the expenses of the committee for cleri- 
cal labor and stationery came to $54, making 
the total cost $459.93. Three hundred and fif- 
teen copies have been sold, net receipts $431.62, 
so that the publication has already almost paid 
for itself, and some 175 copies remain on hand. 
No plates were made, as it was intended to be 
simply a preliminary work, and it was thought 
that a new edition enlarged and improved 
would soon be wanted. Criticisms and sug- 
gestions are invited and the Section will be in 
position to have a new edition printed when- 
ever it may be thought necessary. 

List of Books for Girls and Women and their 
Clubs. For the publication of this List the As- 
sociation, and the library profession generally, 
are indebted to the generosity and public spirit 
of Mr. George lies. Mr. lies advanced the 
money for the whole expense of manufacture, 
$1983.42 ; he has also furnished at his own ex- 
pense the manuscript, the editorial work, the 
advertising, and the cost of press copies, the 
total being about $3700. The item of cost of 
press copies ($174.74) >s to be deducted from 
the sum mentioned above, so that for the ex- 
pense of printing we owe Mr. lies $iSo8.68, 
which is to be repaid to him as far as receipts 
from sales allow. At a meeting of the execu- 
tive board it was Resolved, That the Publishing 
Section record its cordial appreciation and ear- 
nest thanks to its associate, Mr. George lies, for 
his most generous service to the American Li- 
brary Association and to all readers of books, 
in both editing and providing for the large ex- 
pense of publication of the evaluated " List of 
Books for Girls and Women," recently issued 
through the Publishing Section, and that this 
minute be specifically reported at the next con- 
ference of the American Library Association. 

Three thousand copies in large form of the 
whole list and 2000 copies of the separate parts 
in small form were printed. The sales during 
the nine months, October, 1895, to June, 1896, 
have been of the complete list, 251 copies, pa- 
per, and 414 in cloth, with S43 copies of the 
separate parts. The net receipts have been 
$410.35, which has been paid to Mr. lies. The 
smallness of the sales is disappointing, as great 
pains were taken to secure for the different 
sections of the work able editors, whose opin- 



THIRD SESSION. 



99 



ions should carry authority. The name has 
perhaps had some effect in diminishing the sale, 
as it seems to limit its usefulness to girls and 
women. As a matter of fact, while there are 
some sections, such as nursing, domestic econ- 
omy, livelihoods, which are of especially femi- 
nine interest, the list as a whole is equally val- 
uable as a selected list of general scope for all 
classes of readers, and we would suggest that 
librarians might find it very useful if purchased 
in large quantities to be sold to their readers. 
Special editions with a new title-page suited for 
special use will be supplied at special rates. 
Reprints of separate sections of the List will 
also be made if there is a demand for them. It 
is hoped that, although the initial sales have 
been small, librarians will later find that they 
have here a tool which can be made widely use- 
ful. 

It has been one of the intentions of the Pub- 
lishing Section to issue frequently small leaflets 
on subjects of library interest. Only two such 
have been printed, one a folder describing the 
work and plans of the Section, and giving its 
constitution and a list of publications ; the other 
an address on " Paper and Ink," by Robert T. 
Swan, the Commissioner of Public Records in 
Massachusetts, read before the Massachusetts 
Library Club, March i, 1895. One thousand 
copies were reprinted from the Library journal 
at an expense of $10.20. They have been dis- 
tributed with other publications to members, 
but there has been practically no other call for 
them. 

At the meeting of the Association in 1S94, it 
was voted that the executive board prepare an 
annotated list of undesirable fiction. The exec- 
utive board has discussed this proposition and 
has not seen its way clear to carry it out ; they 
therefore voted to refer this vote back to the 
Association with the recommendation that if 
the work be undertaken at all it should be placed 
in the hands of a special committee. 

In accordance with another vote passed at 
the same meeting of the Association the exec- 
utive board adopted, after consultation with a 
committee appointed by the Association, the 
following scheme for the various publications 
of the Section : 

first. — To adopt for all catalogs and in- 
dexes the standard column of 6 cm., and for 
the size of page the two standard sizes of 7.5 by 
12.5 cm. (postal size) and 17.5 by 25 cm. (maga- 



zine size), the printed page of the former being 
just one-fourth that of the latter. 

Second. — To indicate the successive publica- 
tions in each series, by letters A, B, C, etc., in 
the larger series, and by numbers i, 2, 3, etc., 
in the smaller. 

Third. — To use for catalog work, antique 
brevier for entry words, old-style brevier for 
titles, old-style nonpareil for notes, and old- 
style long primer for reading-matter, all work 
to be single leaded. 

Fourth. — To use a paper rag or partly rag, 
reasonably opaque and sized so as to take ink 
easily in writing notes, etc. 

Fifth. — To adopt in all publications of the 
Section the preferred spelling of the Century 
Dictionary as the standard, but to retain the 
spelling "Catalog" now used for many years 
by the A. L. A. 

The work of the Section has been generously 
supported by the Trustees of the Endowment 
Fund. The $650 borrowed in February, 1891, 
and June, 1892, was repaid October 15, 1895, 
with interest amounting to $169.70. ' The Trus- 
tees have appropriated for the use of the Sec- 
tion $ioo in November, 1895, and $169.70 to 
cover the payment of interest. They also loaned 
us in March, 1896, $250. 

By vote of the board a discount of 50 per 
cent, on the publications of the Section is made 
to actual students in library schools and train- 
ing classes, if purchasing for their own use. 

The statement of the cash receipts and pay- 
ments from Jan. i, i8g5, to Aug. 31, 1896, is as 
follows: 

RECEIPTS. 

Balance Jan. I, 1S95 $62 54 

Membership subscriptions.. .$245 00 

Endowment Fund. Appropri- 
ation 100 00 

Endowment Fund. Appropri- 
tion covering interest on 
former loan 169 70 

Endowment Fund Loan 250 00 

Library Bureau. Sales ; on 
account 150 00 

Houghton, Mifflin&Co., sales 
of A. L. A. Index (2 years) 246 39 

Seymour Library. Balance.. 80 

1 161 S9 

Withdrawn from Savings B'k. 550 00 

$1774 43 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



PAYMENTS. 

W. I. Fletcher (A. L. A. In- 
dex) $254 39 

George lies (Books for girls 
and women) 410 35 

G. M. Jones (Subject-head- 
ings) 5400 

" Paperand ink " 1020 

Library Bureau. On account 100 00 

Endowment Fund. Loan re- 
paid 650 00 

Endowment Fund. Interest 
on same 169 70 

Miscellaneous expenses 43 72 

Balance 



$1692 36 
82 07 

S1774 43 



A further statement in regard to assets and 
liabilities will show other facts in regard to the 
financial condition of the Section: 



ASSETS. 

Cash $8207 

Cambridge Savings Bank 11 09 

Library Bureau, due 294 37 

Members, due 6 76 

I-IABII.ITIES. 

Endowment Fund $250 00 

Due to members in money or 

publications 162 SS 



$394 29 



$412 SS 

It will be noticed that on the one hand no ac- 
count is made of the value of the publications 
in stock, which, however, is not large if we ex- 
clude the " Books for Girls and Women," and 
that on the other hand nothing is said of the 
money payable to Mr. lies from future sales of 
the latter list, and that the bill for the Supple- 
ment to Reading for the Young has not yet been 
rendered. 

Work in hand or proposed for future publica- 
tion. Mention has already been made of Sup- 
plements to Reading for the Young and to the 
A. L. A. Index. In accordance with the recom- 
mendation made by the Association two years 
ago a brief list of books for children's reading 
has been compiled by Miss C. M. Hewins, of 
the Hartford Public Library. She submitted 
her manuscript some months ago, and it was 
referred back to her with the request that she 



add notes descriptive, critical, and comparative, 
and allow members of the board and others, at 
her discretion, to see galley proofs. The list, 
which is to be sold at a very small price, might 
have been pushed forward this summer, but it 
was thought better to defer it until later in the 
year, and until after the publication of the Sar- 
gent list. 

Mr. George lies offers to furnish the manu- 
script for two more annotated lists, one on mu- 
sic, compiled by Mr. H. E. Krehbiel, the other 
on fine arts, by Mr. Russell Sturgis. The same 
gentlemen were the editors of the correspond- 
ing sections of the " List for Girls and Women," 
but the catalogs now proposed are much fuller. 
The board has accepted Mr. Iles's offer, and 
the lists will doubtless be published in the 
course of the coming winter. 

Another work which librarians have long 
considered of the first importance the Publish- 
ing Section desires to undertake in the immedi- 
ate future, namely, an Index to portraits con- 
tained in books and magazines. There is 
doubtless much material already accessible in 
various public libraries which can be drawn 
upon in compiling such an index; but the lar- 
gest body of material of this kind available 
known to us is that of Mr. Bunford Samuel, 
of the Library Company of Philadelphia. Mr. 
Samuel has indexed, we understand, all the 
works in the Ridgeway Branch of that library, 
and others besides, and has now 40,000 refer- 
ences to the portraits of about 22,000 individ- 
uals. He has kindly submitted a description 
of his work and of the principles which he has 
followed, from which it appears that he has 
included among his portraits caricatures, repro- 
ductions of medals, statues, etc. He states 
that the index "is non-selective and general in 
character, indexing all portraits contained in 
works covered by it, without regard either to 
the importance of the individual represented or 
to the value of the portrait. This plan neces- 
sarily indexes much of slight and ephemeral 
value, but it has been adopted from the follow- 
ing considerations; Library practice shows that 
almost any item of information on a given sub- 
ject is sure to be of some use in time, so that it 
is difficult to predict certainly of anything that 
it has no value. And, in regard to portraits, 
one which is of little value now may, owing to 
the celebrity of a descendant or other causes, 
become of value later. Such a plan eliminates 



THIRD SESSION. 



the personal judgment of the compiler, and, in 
particular, by it the necessity of future search 
for any given portrait, that might in the select- 
ive plan be supposed to have been omitted, is 
obviated." Mr. Samuel considers " that the 
ideas of at once gathering the material and 
passing upon its value are to a large extent in- 
compatible." He has, therefore, not attempted 
to determine the authenticity or any doubtful 
points in regard to portraits, and has given 
only such details in regard to artists and en- 
gravers as the plate or the context itself fur- 
nishes. He has not yet sent us a complete list 
of the works indexed, but it appears that he 
has paid special attention to periodicals. An- 
other accumulation of material of the same 
kind is to be found in the Boston Athenaeum, 
where the indexing of plates in the larger illus- 
trated books has been carried on for many 
years. The portrait references perhaps num- 
ber about 10,000, and may represent some 6000 
persons. The work done at the Athen^um has 
duplicated Mr. Samuel's to a remarkably small 
degree, the original interest having been at the 
Athenaeum in the portraits as works of art, so 
that art periodicals and extensive publications 
relating to art were the first indexed, while Mr. 
Samuel has begun his work at the other^nd 
and taken first the more numerous but less 
artistically valuable illustrations in general peri- 
odicals. These two collections it is expected 
will make an admirable basis for further en- 
largement, and the first necessary step seems to 
be to print a list of the works already indexed, 
and a tentative list of works which should be 
indexed, to which additions can be made on the 
suggestion of librarians who are interested. It 
must then be decided just what descriptive de- 
tails are desirable, and a working plan laid out 
by which to secure the co-operation of many 
librarians. It will probably be found wise to 
limit the descriptive details, as Mr. Samuel has 
done, to the names of artist and engraver, with 
an occasional explanatory note in cases where the 
portrait is a caricature, medal, statue, or death- 
mask, or represents the subject at some particu- 
lar age or under particular conditions. Some 
further communication in regard to the details 
of the work of compilation may be expected in 
the Library journal. 

Other suggestions which have been made to 
the board in regard to desirable publications are 
a Manual on the use of government documents, 



an Elementary manual on cataloging, with il- 
lustrations, a specimen of which has been sub- 
mitted for our examination, and a Manual on 
the use of reference-books. A Manual on ref- 
erence-books has been already partly prepared 
by Miss Kroeger, of Philadelphia, who pre- 
sented a synopsis and a specimen of her work. 
The board discussed the scope and character 
that such a work could usefully have, and asked 
Miss Kroeger to submit for their examination 
" an elementary text-book designed to teach the 
use of reference-books." 

It may be expected also that the Library 
Primer, which has been apprearing by instal- 
ments in a preliminary form in Public Libraries, 
will soon be presented to the Publishing Section 
for printing. 

Perhaps the most important question which 
has recently come before the executive board is 
the proposition of the Library Bureau that we 
should undertake the work which it has carried 
on for the last three years — the issue of printed 
catalog cards for new books. The story of this 
work is briefly this: — about 5000 cards issued 
every year for some 1700 new works published; 
on an average 60 sets have been sent out, 
making some 300,000 cards distributed in the 
course of the year. The price has been $7.50, 
$9, and $10.50 a thousand cards, according to 
the quality of the stock used. This experi- 
ment, it must be said, has been distinctly more 
successful than any previous one made along 
the same lines, and in spite of the small num- 
ber of sets sold it has just about paid expenses. 
The principal difficulty has been to obtain books 
promptly and steadily from the publishers, and 
it has only been by constant watchfulness at the 
book-stores and continual prodding of the pub- 
lishers that a degree of promptness has been at- 
tained which has satisfied most reasonable de- 
mands. The cataloging being done at the 
Library Bureau, where there is no adequate 
collection of reference-books, has been ham- 
pered by this lack, but for the general accuracy 
and promptness of the work all praise is due to 
the energy and enthusiasm of Miss Nina E. 
Browne, of the Library Bureau. 

The managers of the Library Bureau think 
that the difficulty of obtaining books from the 
publishers and the imperfections of the catalog- 
ing will both be obviated if the Publishing 
Section will become directly responsible for 
the work. The executive board recognizes 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



the justness of the Library Bureau's position 
and has discussed the subject in all its as- 
pects. The first thought naturally is that this 
work should be done at one of the Library 
schools, but it is very doubtful if the necessary 
promptness could be secured, and the Albany 
school at least is too far from publishing centres. 
The schools themselves also do not seem anx- 
ious to take the job. On the whole the most 
feasible plan seems to be that the cataloging 
should be done at the office of TJie Publishers' 
Weekly, duplicate slips being written at the 
same time for their record and for our use, and 
that the printing and distribution of the cards 
be carried on at the Library Bureau as at 
present.* 

Certain slight changes in the form of the 
cards will probably be made, but we shall 
continue on practically the same plan. At 
the foot of the card we shall still give the deci- 
mal class number, the dictionary catalog head- 
ings, and the e.xpansive classification mark. 
The Board would be inclined to omit all of 
these particulars, as they increase considerably 
the cost of the work and the difficulty of getting 
it done properly, but the answers to a circular 
of inquiry, sent out by the Library Bureau, in- 
dicate that this feature of the cards is generally 
valued by those who use them. 

By a change in the basis of subscriptions 
we hope to increase the number of sets sub- 
scribed for. It is manifestly impossible to allow 
each purchaser to select from the whole num- 
ber printed simply those he wants, yet to take 
the whole number costs from $37.50 to $52.50 a 
year, a price which in practice is prohibitory to 
many libraries, for it is found that even under 
the most favorable conditions a library can use 
not much more than one-third of the cards it 
receives. Probably it is not wise to cut down 
the number of titles cataloged much (they are 

* Since the meeting of the Association the executive 
board has met again and after further discussion of the 
whole situation has decided that the time has come when 
it ought to have in its employ a competent person at work 
upon its various undertakings. The secretary has accord- 
ingly been authorized to employ a cataloger to work un- 
der his direction, probably at the Boston Athenseum. 
This assistant will catalog the books for the printed cards, 
will push along the work on the A. L. A. Index supple- 
ment, and on the Portrait Index, will be ready to read 
proof of other work when needed, to send out circulars, 
to keep the books of the section, and relieve the secre- 
tary of correspondence and other clencal work. 



only about one-third the number recorded in 
The Publishers' fVeetly), but it might be practi- 
cable to allow libraries to subscribe to a select 
list of those now printed representing only the 
more important books, and covering, it would 
be expected, most of the purchases of the 
smaller libraries. If we can considerably in- 
crease the number of subscribers on this line 
without cutting down too far thereby the num- 
ber of subscribers to the whole set, we can still 
make both ends meet and perform a larger ser- 
vice to the libraries. If, on the other hand, the 
number of subscribers to the large set were 
very much diminished by this change, it would 
show that we ought to drop the more extensive 
plan and keep up only the restricted list.* 

Another subject which has come before the 
Publishing Section must be briefly mentioned. 
During the last year the Massachusetts Library 
Club has issued monthly lists of new fiction 
recommended for purchase by a committee of 
fifteen readers, each book having been read by 
at least three members of the committee, and 
those cases in which the opinion of the readers 
was not clearly unanimous, having been dis- 
cussed in a meeting of all the readers held 
monthly. The club has found that the expense 
of this undertaking is more than it can afford 
for a second year, and the Publishing Section 
was asked if it could take the List and issue it. 
The executive board replied that they would 
print and distribute the List if the club would 
Ijear the expense of preparation, in return for 
which service members of the club and Massa- 
chusetts libraries would receive it at half price, 
twenty-five cents a year. The expense of prep- 
aration is about $75 a year, and even this sum 
the Club does not feel justified in continuing to 
devote to this use, and in addition, great diffi- 
culty is found in securing the continuous ser- 
vices of competent readers and of a person to 
manage the work. The List seems to have 
been of very little value to the larger libraries, 
but of some real help to the smaller ones, and it 
is a pity that it should be given up. The ex- 
ecutive board suggests that it would be a good 
plan for the New York Library Club to take the 
matter up for the next year, and for other clubs 
to undertake it in turn, and that the List be 
printed, not as a separate leaflet or sheet, but 

*A circular proposing a somewhat different plan was 
sent out in December, 1896. 



THIRD SESSION. 



103 



in the Literary News and other library and lit- 
erary papers. If we can do anything to pro- 
mote such an arrangement we shall be glad 
to. 

The last matter which the Board wishes to 
bring before the Section is an important but 
revolutionary one. It is nothing less, in fact, 
than the entire reorganization of our work on a 
different basis. 

As constituted at present the Section consists 
of about 50 members (most of them libraries 
and a few individuals) who have paid member- 
ship subscriptions of $5, in return for which 
they have received the publications of the Section 
charged at 20 per cent, discount on list prices, 
and as many additional copies as they required 
up to the amount of the subscriptions credited 
to them, a new $5 subscription being called for 
when that already paid had been exhausted. It 
had been intended at the beginning to make the 
subscription an annual charge, on the plan of 
the English publishing societies, but it was 
found to be impracticable to arrange yearly for 
publications of an approximately equal value, 
and as it also appeared that some members 
would want one copy and others several copies 
of single publications, the more elastic method 
of accounting was adopted. This, however, 
makes necessary separate accounts with the 
several members, each account being charged 
with a different number of publications, and re- 
newed each at its own time. The distinction 
between members and non-members has also 
caused some inconvenience and delay, orders 
from the former being filled by the treasurer 
and those from the latter by the Library Bureau. 
These complications, however, could be kept 
straight, and thebusinessconducted ina fairly sat- 
isfactory manner, though at the cost of some ad- 
ditional labor and watchfulness, if there appeared 
to be any sufficient resulting advantage. It was 
thought at the beginning that the Section would 
profit from the system adopted by having a con- 
siderable sum in hand as capital for immediate 
use, and that the libraries would be benefited 
by the 20 per cent, discount allowed them. But 
the number of members which the Section has 
had at any time has been so small that the ad- 
vantage of their advance payments has been 
but slight, and the 20 per cent, discount has 
apparently not been a sufficient inducement to 
the libraries to overcome the disadvantage of 
having to take all publications and make ad- 



vance payment therefor — an arrangement to 
which library boards generally object. 

It is therefore proposed to drop this feature 
of our organization, and to make the Publishing 
Section simply a board of five members, ap- 
pointed by the Association as other standing 
committees are appointed, its work being " to 
secure the preparation and publication of such 
catalogs, indexes, and other bibliographic and 
library aids as it may approve." This may 
be done by abolishing its present constitu- 
tion and inserting a new section in the A. L. A. 
constitution defining its duties, method of ap- 
pointment and organization. 

If this change is made the present accounts 
of members will be balanced and closed as op- 
portunity occurs, and in the future the Library 
Bureau, which acts as our publishing agent, 
will fill all orders. 

The means for carrying on our work will be 
derived — as they have been principally in the 
past — from the Endowment Fund, in the form 
either of loans or appropriations — loans to pro- 
vide for the expense of publications which will 
yield a return, and appropriations to cover 
other expenses which cannot be made good in 
the course of business. 

Running expenses might properly be borne 
by the treasury of the Association under ap- 
propriation by the Finance Committee. 

The Board therefore recommends that the 
following votes be passed : 

Voted, that the Treasurer be instructed to 
receive no new membership subscriptions and 
to close the accounts of present members as he 
has opportunity with a view to the dissolution 
of the Section as at present constituted, at the 
end of another year. 

Votid, that the following amendment be pro- 
posed to the Constitution of the A. L. A., namely, 
to insert a new section between §§ 15 and 16 
substantially as follows : 

16. Publishing Section. — The Publishing Sec- 
tion shall consist of five members appointed by 
the Executive Board for terms of not more than 
three years. Its object shall be to secure the 
preparation and publication of such catalogs, 
indexes, and other bibliographic and library 
aids as it may approve. 

The Section shall annually appoint from its 
own number a chairman, secretary, and treas- 
urer. 

No moneys shall be paid by the treasurer ex- 



I04 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



cept with the written approval of three other 
members of the Section, and no work shall be 
undertaken except by vote of a majority of the 
whole Section. 

The treasury of the Section is entirely dis- 
tinct from that of the Association, and the 
Association is not liable for any debts incurred 
by the Section. With the approval of the 
Finance Committee money may be appropriated 
from the treasury of the Association for the 
running expenses of the Section, but the Section 
depends on the Endowment Fund as the finan- 
cial basis of its undertakings. 

The Section shall report in writing at each 
annual meeting of the A. L. A. 

All of which is respectfully submitted. 
For the Executive Board, 

William C. Lane, 

Secretary and Treasurer. 

A. L. Peck moved that the resolution of the 
Executive Board in relation to the vote of 
thanks to Mr. lies be adopted. Voted. 

S. S. Green. — In regard to the report in 
general, it is not proper for us to aidopt the 
report or audit the treasurer's account, but sim- 
ply to receive the report. I move that the 
report be received and the thanks of the Asso- 
ciation be presented to the Publishing Section 
for the very valuable work which it has done 
the last year, and to the secretary for the long 
and interesting report of their doings which he 
has presented to-day, and that the Treasurer's 
statement be referred to the Auditing Com- 
mittee. Voted. 

F. M. Crunden. — There was one point 
brought out in the report that I would like to 
speak of. The Lists issued by the Massachu- 
setts Library Club, it was modestly stated, 
would, perhaps, hardly be of use in a large 
library. We claim to have in St. Louis a large 
library. We have found those Lists useful. 
They are certainly worth 50 cents, and I hope 
every one in this room who has not tried them 
will invest 50 cents in their purchase. 

A. L. Peck stated that he had found them 
very useful. 

S. S. Green. — As we all know, the National 
Educational Association made a new section at 
its last meeting in July, which is to consider 
specially the connection of libraries and schools. 
It seems to me eminently proper that this As- 
sociation should appoint a committee to express 



the sympathy of this organization with the work 
which that section of the National Educational 
Association has undertaken, and that this com- 
mittee should also offer to do anything in its 
power to aid in the work which the officers of 
that section may think it desirable for the com- 
mittee to do. I understand also that the section 
of the National Educational Association voted 
that it would like to have this Association rep- 
resented at its meetings by delegates. I would 
move that a committee of five be appointed by 
the executive committee to act as the committee, 
expressing sympathy and offering aid, and that 
these same five persons act as delegates of this 
Association to the meetings of the National 
Educational Association. Seconded. 

W. R. Eastman. — Inasmuch as the library 
department of the National Educational Asso- 
ciation of Buffalo expressly instructed its oiB- 
cers to consult with the A. L. A. at this meeting, 
there is no need of our taking this action, or 
offering advice. We have not been asked for 
it, any more than that they cordially invited 
not only this Association but every other library 
association in the United States to send dele- 
gates to their meetings, so that we are not in a 
position to offer advice. 

F. M. Crunden. — The invitation has not yet 
been presented to us. 

Mr. Green. — If there is no objection I will 
withdraw my motion and renew it at a later 
session. 

SUPPLEMENT TO READING FOR THE YOUNG. 

W. C. Lane. — I should be glad if you would 
take pains to provide yourselves with the cir- 
culars which are on hand. I expect as large a 
sale for that as we had for the original book. 
You will see on the circular that advance sub- 
scriptions are asked for immediately to an edi- 
tion which shall contain both the original list 
and this supplemental list — the two bound 
together. We want to get in orders early so as to 
be able to judge better how many to print. In 
regard to the Index of portraits, I should be 
very glad to talk with anybody who has material 
accumulated at home which can be used. 

TRAVELLING LIBRARIES. 

W. I. Fletcher moved that the paper by Mr. 
John Thomson on this subject which is on the 
program for this session, be the first order of 
business for the morning session to-morrow. 
Voted. 



THIRD SESSION. 



»o5 



W. H. TlLLlNGHAST. — The report of the Co- 
operation Committee has been printed in the pre- 
liminary form and distributed. The committee 
held a meeting, its first and only meeting, this 
morning, and voted to present that report as the 
report of the committee. At that meeting a sug- 
gestion was made by Mr. Beer, a member of the 
committee, that this Association would do well 
to prepare a list of newspapers published in the 
United States down to 1825, arranged in chrono- 
logical order of their first appearance, and the 
committee voted to add that recommendation to 
the report as printed, and they would submit the 
report as printed, with that addition, to the As- 
sociation, 

REPORT OF THE CO-OPERATION COMMITTEE — 

iSg6. 

The co-operation committee was created by 
the Constitution of the A. L. A., and is now in 
the 20th year of its service. Appreciation of its 
work will be most vivid if gathered from the 
records in the files of the Library journal, but 
the committee of 1S93, Mr. Brett, chairman, 
taking pity upon the little leisure of librarians, 
gave at Chicago a sketch of the history of the 
committee, which all would do well to read. As 
first organized in 1877, the committee was the 
right hand of the Association. It consisted of 
three members, Messrs. Cutter, Perkins, and 
Jackson, with Mr. Dewey as secretary. In 
18S0, Mr. Scudder succeeded Mr. Perkins ; in 
1882, Mr. C. B. Tillinghast succeeded Mr. Jack- 
son ; in 1S83, Mr. Lane succeeded Mr. Scudder. 
All near neighbors, holding frequent sessions 
and meeting constantly informally, the commit- 
tee outlined within a short time most of the 
work that has since been accomplished — laid 
the foundations of a library code and fostered 
the habit of agreement. Its work developed in 
three directions : In formulating library cus- 
toms and methods ; in stimulating invention, 
valuing devices and reducing cost of materials ; 
in preparing bibliographic aids. From the com- 
mittee sprang in due time the supply depart- 
ment, now incarnated as the Library Bureau 
and the Publishing Section, for the conduct of 
the second and third branches of the work. 
Thus is left to the committee the field of sugges- 
tion, advice, and criticism. If its energy has 
seemed somewhat to flag of late, it seems so in 
part because of this division and delegation of 
its duties, in part because its function as a 



demonstrator of methods has been occasionally 
assigned to individuals. If there be any truth 
in the seeming, it is due, we may be sure, not 
to lack of interest on the part of the committees, 
but to difficulties in consultation arising from 
the selection of members residing widely apart. 
Mr. Dewey pointed out the difficulty in his re- 
port read at Denver, and the change in manner 
of appointment was made, no doubt, with that 
point in view. Custom, however, once more 
prevailed, and the present committee is widely 
scattered. Committee work by correspondence 
requires superhuman attributes, and this report 
was not submitted to the members of the com- 
mittee except in outline before it was sent in. 
It therefore lacks the benefit of full discus- 
sion. 

The duty of the co-operation committee is to 
"consider and report on plans for securing im- 
provement, economy, uniformity and harmony 
in any department of library work." In so do- 
ing it justifies its name, yet may properly sug- 
gest much in which co-operation, as commonly 
understood, has small share. As a method of 
production or of exchange, co-operation is a re- 
source for such as have small means, or scanty 
numbers, or aim at an unusual end. What very 
many people want the ordinary channels of trade 
will supply ; what few people want, or want un- 
der special conditions, yet must have cheaply, 
those channels will frequently fail to supply. 
Hence, co-operation, where special intelligence 
and an enthusiasm that scorns to reckon the full 
expenditure of time and thought achieve what 
cautious trade would not undertake. The 
spirit is noble, the working together for a com- 
mon end earns dividends that do not appear in 
the yearly balance. Yet co-operation is ex- 
change, and it is possible to give too much and 
get too little, especially if the terms of the ex- 
change are not reduced to money values. Bar- 
ter is out of place in co-operation, to which it 
is not essential. Nor should it be forgotten 
that it is often more difficult to withdraw from a 
co-operative undertaking without producing ill- 
will than to sever an ordinary business connec- 
tion. In short, the benefits of applied co-opera- 
tion involve returns, and the inexperienced 
should bear in mind that a scheme is not neces- 
sarily to be adopted because it is co-operative. 
The co-operation on which the A. L. A. is 
based, however, is something higher than a 
special method, it is the soul of social progress, 



io6 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



the free exchange of ideas, making, the gain of 
each the gain of all; in which exchange no one 
can be a loser. 

The phases of co-operation in library work 
which present themselves at this time may be 
roughly divided into neighborhood, general and 
international co-operation. 

Neighborhood co-operation is sufficiently de- 
fined by the term used, and may be applied to 
growth or use. Co-operation in growth may be 
attained by union, as in New York, by the rep- 
resentation of one library on the controlling 
board of another, as in Hartford, or by simple 
agreement, such as has just been formulated in 
Chicago, and exists in fact in Boston, Brooklyn, 
and elsewhere. The aim, in either case, is 
a division of function to a greater or less extent 
and the prevention of wasteful duplication, with- 
out injury to the service-rendering power of any 
participant. This may be facilitated by a sys- 
tem of notification between adjacent libraries of 
purchases of rare or valuable works. For this 
purpose a printed form on a reply postal card, 
devised by Mr. Lane, is used by the Boston 
Athenaeum and Harvard College Library. The 
card reads: " Dear Sir: I beg to ask if the 
work mentioned on the annexed card is owned 
by your library; also, in case you do not now 
own it, if you intend to purchase it. Your 
answer will be kept on file for future reference." 
At Harvard College this is done by placing the 
reply in the official card catalog. The reply 

card reads: "Author Title 

Owned by Purchase ordered by 

Date " This is supplemented at the 

Boston Athenfeum by sending to neighbor- 
ing libraries announcements of important pur- 
chases on a similar form. These when received 
at Harvard College Library are filed in the 
official catalog. 

Somewhat similar methods are available be- 
tween small libraries situated within convenient 
distance of one another, and might be supple- 
mented by exchange of catalogs or marking of 
standard catalogs like the A. L. A. Catalog, or bet- 
ter still, the projected 500-volume catalog, in li- 
braries of recent growth. It would often be prac- 
ticable and desirable for neighboring libraries 
having imperfect sets of reports, etc., to com- 
bine these into one more perfect set, the library 
receiving the set agreeing to continue and 
complete it. Indeed a division of the task of 
keeping up sets of documents, and even of 



some periodicals and serials, might be made to 
advantage. 

Co-operation in use is a more delicate mat- 
ter, though to a certain extent practicable and 
frequently practised. It is distinctly a courtesy, 
however, and one that depends on compara- 
tively infrequent use. If it ever dies it will be 
of a plethora. The larger libraries are glad to 
permit persons recommended to them by other 
libraries to consult particular books, even if 
their rules do not open their reading-rooms to 
all comers. Several large libraries lend books 
readily for use in other libraries, but it it is 
generally required that such use should be in 
the interest of scholarship, not for general read- 
ing, and that the books wanted should be at 
once not too easy of access elsewhere and not 
too rare. The line between duty to itself and 
its future, and the obligation which the posses- 
sion of opportunity imposes even on corpora- 
tions, each library must draw for itself, but if 
the more important libraries would define in 
print the limits of such privileges, the dissemi- 
nation of that information would be of great 
value to other libraries without being injurious 
on cither side. The Harvard College Library 
has a printed circular stating its customs as to 
loans, and the Boston Public Library has just 
adopted a printed form for application for loans, 
but in neither case is an attempt made to place 
this information before libraries generally. 

Small libraries in thinly populated districts 
often suffer severely from dearth of new books. 
The reading power of the people vastly exceeds 
their power to buy books. The state helps to 
establish libraries; it may well undertake, either 
by direct grants or by travelling libraries, etc., 
to maintain the libraries at a reasonable level of 
usefulness, with care not to undermine local 
self-helpfulness. How far co-operation among 
groups of such libraries is possible would be an 
interesting topic for debate. Direct exchange 
of books from the existing stock would seldom 
be practicable, but a combination of purchasing 
funds with the condition of exchange until each 
participant had the benefit of all the books, 
might, as was lately suggested, be worth trying. 

By general co-operation is meant such co- 
operative work as may be useful to all libraries 
regardless of their situation with respect to one 
another. Such work may take the form of prep- 
aration of bibliographic aids or of various 
developments of organization. Under the for- 



THIRD SESSION. 



107 



mer head much has already been achieved, 
such as Poole's Index, and its continuation, the 
Index to general literature, the Index of subject 
headings, the A. L. A. Catalog, the Chicago 
papers, the lists of books for the young, for 
girls' clubs, etc., and much is in progress under 
the efficient control of the Publishing Section. 

An Index of portraits has been a desideratum. 
It was suggested in Mr. Fletcher's report in 
1888, and a special report on the subject was 
made by Mr. Bowker at St. Louis in 18S9, which 
summed up the work that had been done in that 
line, but was not hopeful of any particular re- 
sult from co-operative action. It is good to 
know that the Publishing Section has under 
consideration the publication of such an index, 
based in part upon the work already done by 
Mr. Bunford Samuel, of Philadelphia, and in 
part upon the co-operative indexing of portraits 
undertaken by the Athenseum and other libra- 
ries. This latter work is done upon cards, 
designed by Mr. Lane, where the labor of entry 
is much reduced by underlining the terms ap- 
plicable to the work in hand, from among a 
number of terms printed on the card. 
E.g.: 

Description. Head; length; seated 

( face, profile); recumbent; equestrian; 

caricature. 

Original. Photograph; painting; drawing; 
miniature; sketch; statue; bust; bas-relief. 

Such work will have great permanent value, 
but it is not intended to supply reference al- 
ways up to date to portraits of celebrities of the 
hour which are much in demand in public libra- 
ries, yet as hard to find when wanted as the 
private address of a widely-known person. 

A field of work as yet barely entered upon is 
the preparation of indexes to indexless books — 
a term that ought to express a contradiction of 
nature. Think of the volumes of essays, the 
collected works, the voyages and travels, the 
town histories, the genealogies that exist and 
are still being printed without indexes, or, what 
is almost worse, without adequate indexes. The 
harvest is ripe, where are the laborers? No 
organization of method is necessary. Any li- 
brarian having a bulletin can place the result of 
work in this line at the service of other libraries, 
as was recently done by Mr. Bolton. Can we 
not have more such work ? The matter of out- 
ward form is not of great importance. Most of 
us would be glad to get an index to place in an 



indexless book, even though the book were 
quarto and the index sixteenmo. 

Another work of value would be an inde.x of 
poetry by title, first lines, and subject. It should 
cover as wide a field as possible, not wholly neg- 
lecting fugitive verse, and including lyrics in 
dramas and short poems. Something more ex- 
tensive is needed than the volume: "A concise 
poetical concordance to the principal poets of 
the world," etc. By C: A. Durfee, N. Y. 1883. 
Sr. 800. 

It is suggested by Mr. Beer, of the commit- 
tee, that a list of newspapers published in the 
United States before 1825, with indication of 
the libraries in which files and parts of files of 
the newspapers are to be found, be compiled so 
that access to a given issue of any paper may be 
facilitated. Such a list would have great value, 
and, if not already in course of preparation, 
might well be undertaken by the Association. 

An interesting experiment, yet hanging be- 
tween success and failure, has been made dur- 
ing the past year by the Massachusetts Library 
Club, in the preparation of monthly lists of 
selected fiction. Finding itself possessed of 
that evil thing, a surplus, the Club resolved to 
issue these lists for a year, in the hope that if 
they proved useful to libraries of limited means 
some method might be devised to place their 
publication on a permanent footing. The work 
was placed in the hands of a committee of 15 
readers, divided into five groups, and a chair- 
man and secretary. Each book placed on the 
lists is approved by three readers. The lists 
were sent free to public libraries in Massachu- 
setts and Rhode Island, and to subscribers for 
25 cents for the 12 numbers. The lists have 
met with approval, about 170 subscriptions hav- 
ing been received, but they must prove them- 
selves worth their full cost if they are to be 
continued, as the income of the Club is entirely 
insufficient to meet the expense beyond the year 
of trial. The Publishing Section has offered 
to take over the work of printing and distribu- 
tion, but the cost of preparation, involving 
much expressage and postage, is likely to ex- 
ceed two-thirds of the Club's income, nor is it 
likely that the membership of any local associa- 
tion can furnish readers indefinitely. A larger 
co-operation is indicated. 

The future of co-operative cataloging by 
means of printed cards is undecided at the pres- 
ent time, but the history of that undertaking is 



io8 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



too well known to need more than mention 
here. The difficulty in such work is the re- 
markably small proportion of the same books 
which two or more libraries receive at the same 
time. The success of co-operative cataloging 
depends on making the supply of available 
cards so inclusive of the best books, so prompt, 
and their character so attractive in typography, 
annotation, etc., that they compensate for the 
unused cards, unless some scheme of selection 
can be made to work. There is, however, one 
field in which co-operative work might be done 
to advantage : in analyzing Transactions, Mi- 
moires, and Abhandlungcn of learned societies, 
and perhaps in cataloging books issued in se- 
ries. If but two or three libraries could divide 
the work on but a few sets of this sort the gain 
to them would not be small. 

The cataloging of serials received at infre- 
quent intervals, but of indefinite continuance, in 
a separate catalog, either on large cards or 
laced sheets or in bound blank-books, proves of 
so great value when it has been tried, in saving 
work, facilitating reference, and keeping up 
sets, that the supplying of blank forms for such 
work might be profitable. Possibly in the case 
of state reports, etc., there might be a demand 
for sheets containing a printed conspectus of 
the sets up to date, which libraries could buy, 
check, and continue. It should be said, how- 
ever, that the use of a bound book for such 
work has one advantage over sheets capable of 
alphabetical arrangement. It is much easier to 
carry in the mind from the reference in the main 
catalog to the serial catalog a volume and page 
number than to remember a title entry, which 
in reports of commissions, societies, etc., is apt 
to be long and complicated. 

Turning to the co-operation of organization, 
the source of all co-operative work, and in itself 
the field, perhaps, wherein the greatest gains 
are still to be expected, we note its increasing 
growth. A few years since and the A. L. A. was 
all, now we can count at least l8 state and four 
city organizations. This growth will continue, 
fraught as it is with good, and will still further 
develop. Mr. Bowker said at Northampton, the 
other day, that it was pleasant to feel that a 
member of one association is a member of all, 
and welcome to attend meetings wherever he 
may be. Let us hope that this spirit of frater- 
nity will be encouraged by all library clubs. 
Library work is a solvent of social conventions, 



members of one club are supposed to be friends, 
not strangers, and to converse without intro- 
duction — the associations themselves should 
cultivate a like spirit. It is sometimes pos- 
sible for an association to hold a meeting in a 
place accessible from one or more other states. 
In such cases the meeting may to advantage be 
made interstate, not necessarily very formally, 
but by inviting the associations of other states 
as a body and individually to attend. 

Much would be gained in many places by the 
establishment of local clubs, affiliated with the 
state association. Hardly any state is so small 
that all parts are equally accesssible to the state 
association. There will be districts where it 
cannot meet oftener than once in a year or two. 
The librarians of these distant parts can gener- 
ally ill afford to attend meetings held afar off. 
The result is that the cost of the annual fee ex- 
ceeds for them the benefits of memberships and 
they hesitate to join. A local club, meeting 
more easily, attended occasionally by delegates 
from the state association and sending dele- 
gates to state meetings, at the charge of the 
club, would meet the difficulties. There are 
several city clubs, and New Hampshire has a 
local club, the Cocheco Library Club, but atten- 
tion is here directed especially to those rural 
districts remote from towns, where intellectual 
isolation still prevails, and where, to help offset 
the attractions of the city, it is necessary that 
we should do all in our power to create and to 
satisfy book-hunger. 

An exchange of club publications is desirable, 
and this is now much facilitated by the enter- 
prise of the Library journal in printing in 
each number the names of presidents and sec- 
retaries of associations. Committees in charge 
of club work find it useful to see what other 
associations have discussed ; information as to 
future programs might be usefully exchanged 
between neighboring associations, with a view 
to co-operating on topics. 

It is sometimes thought necessary not to 
dwell upon the social side of association meet- 
ings. This is always a misfortune and gener- 
ally a mistake. Librarians are too much in 
earnest not to bend even their pleasure to their 
professional gain. The greatest advantage of 
such meetings is often got in private conversa- 
tion and the extension of acquaintance. Formal 
papers are desirable ; they help us to " orient " 
ourselves, but the most helpful discussions are 



THIRD SESSION. 



109 



generally those that are most conversational in 
tone. Nor is there any reason why purely so- 
cial gatherings and entertainments should not 
be held by library clubs. 

Finally, there remains the simplest form of 
co-operative work, for which a word should be 
said because it is often neglected. The libra- 
rian, and still more the assistant, generally 
takes as little time as possible away from the 
library, dreading the judgment of trustees. 
Certainly the work in the library is the first 
duty, and even the appearance of neglect of 
duty must be sedulously avoided, but the library 
where the librarian and staff never get an after- 
noon or a day off to visit other libraries, except, 
perhaps, on occasion of an association meeting, 
suffers from the omission. Teachers are ex- 
pected to visit other schools ; trustees would do 
well to see that librarians make careful per- 
sonal acqaintance with the working of all note- 
worthy libraries within their reach, and libra- 
rians should secure the same privilege, as far as 
possible, for their assistants. 

In international co-operation the event of the 
year will be, of course, the conference to take 
place in July, in London, under the auspices of 
the Royal Society, to formulate a plan for the 
co-operative indexing to current scientific litera- 
ture. The fact that the action of the confer- 
ence will be definitely known when the A. L. A. 
meets at Cleveland, makes it unnecessary to 
dwell upon the matter now, but there can be 
little doubt that the next century will see a se- 
ries of determined efforts to effect bibliographi- 
cal control of the stream of literature. 

At the beginning of this report certain diffi- 
culties were mentioned as inherent in the pres- 
ent custom of appointing this committee. In 
conclusion, the following recommendations are 
offered; that this coiymittee should be so chosen 
that a majority should live near enough together 
to hold meetings for the discussion of matters 
within their province; that it should have a cer- 
tain permanency, to enable it to formulate its 
activities and transmit a tradition of procedure, 
being appointed for more than a year, or hav- 
ing a certain number of members retire each 
year in a fixed order, and finally that it have 
the duty of procuring written reports from com- 
petent persons, not necessarily members of the 
committee, upon various branches of library 
work and their progress during the year, such 
reports — upon cataloging, classification, refer- 



Co-operation 
Committee. 



ence work, etc. — to be presented to the confer- 
ence under the names of their authors, as a part 
of the co-operative report, but not to supersede 
a general report and suggestions from the com- 
mittee. 

Respectfully submitted, 

W: H. TiLLINGHAST, ") 

W: Beer, 

M. Emogene Hazeltine, 
G: T. Little, 
Katharine L. Sharp, J 

C. A. Nelson moved that the discussion of 
the report be postponed. Voted. 

The Committee on Foreign Documents re- 
ported progress as per Report printed in the 
Preliminary Papers, which was accepted with- 
out reading. 

REPORT OF the COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN DOCU- 
MENTS. 

The committee regret that at this date they 
are able only to make a partial report. Euro- 
pean officials who have been approached are 
slow in making response, but possibly we may 
have something definite from that field by the 
time the convention opens in Cleveland. 

Mr. C. H. Gould, librarian of McGill Uni- 
versity, Montreal, one of our number, has sent 
in the following report on Canada, which will 
be helpful to all concerned: 

"All of the provincial governments, with the 
exception of that of Quebec, say they know of 
no difficulty in the way of exchanging documents 
with state librarians. The Province of Quebec 
says that the item of expense would for the 
present prevent the idea of making exchanges. 

"Following are lists of different series issued 
by the several governments: 

" Dominion Government — The sessional pa- 
pers, Hansard reports. Geological Survey re- 
ports. Statutes, Year-Book, and any special 
royal commissions. 

"Prince Edward Island — Journals of the 
Legislative Assembly, Statutes of the Province, 
Reports of the provincial Auditor, and Reports 
of the departments of Education, Public Works, 
and Crown Lands. 

"Nova Scotia — The acts or laws passed at 
each annual session of the Legislature, Legisla- 
tive debates. Journals of the Legislature, and 
departmental reports. 

" Qtie/'cc — Not exchangeable, as yet. 

" Netu Brunswick — Report of the Auditor- 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



general (containing statement of the receipts 
and expenditures of the provisional govern- 
ment), Reports of departments of Crown Lands, 
Education, Public Works, Public Health, Agri- 
culture, and Lunatic Asylum. 

"British Columltia — Reports of Education, 
Mining, Lands and Works (including Timber); 
Crown-land surveys, agricultural, etc. Also, 
occasional reports of a semi-official character, 
pamphlets, and special publications." 

The following letter from Mr. Griffin gives 
all necessary information relative to Dominion 
publications: 

" Ottawa, June 4, 1895. 

" Dear Sir: Your letter to the Secretary of 
State has been forwarded to me for reply. In 
regard to the publications of the Dominion 
government, they are no doubt all in your 
library, ;'. e. 

" The sessional papers. 

"The Hansard reports. 

"The Geological Survey reports. 

" The statutes. 

" The Year-Book. 

" And any special royal commissions. 

" These documents are purchasable from the 
Queen's printer, who will supply a price list on 
application. They are exchanged with the 
provincial governments and with such states 
as have made arrangements with the Library of 
Parliament. 

"As to exchanges with the states of the 
American Union, a system has been established 
these many years. The Library of Parliament 
receives and distributes exchanges with the 
United States and with such of the states as it 
is desirable to exchange with. Each legislative 
library in Canada has its own system and ex- 
change list. 

" Pray command me if I can be of any fur- 
ther use in this matter. I am, dear sir, 
" Very faithfully yours, 

" Marti.n J. Griffin. 

"ToC. H. Gould, Esq." 

Mr. Gould's report gives us no information 
about Newfoundland. I am able to add person- 
ally, that the officials thereof appear to be desir- 
ous of obtaining reports from the several United 
States. I am at present, through the United 
States consul at St. Johns, arranging for my 
own library an exchange of Wisconsin docu- 
ments for those of the island. No doubt other 



state-supported libraries, with documents to 
spare, can negotiate similar exchanges. 
Respectfully submitted, 

Reuben G. Thwaites, Chairman. 
July i, 1896. 

FURTHER REPORT OF THE FOREIGN DOCUMENT 
COMMITTEE. 

Madison, Wis., July 27, i8g6. 
In October, 1895, I asked Mr. C. H. Stevens, 
of the Boston Book Co., who was just then de- 
parting upon a business trip to the several 
English-speaking colonies around the globe, to 
gather for this committee information under the 
following heads: 

1. A list, so far as possible, of the series of 
public documents issued by the several foreign 
governments, with which he should come in 
contact. 

2. A statement of the terms upon which such 
documents are published — whether for free dis- 
tribution within the respective countries, or for 
sale; if the latter, the prices asked. What priv- 
ileges, if any, do public libraries enjoy with 
said countries in this respect ? 

3. Upon what terms can the principal state, 
state-supported, and university libraries, obtain 
these documents from the several countries ? 
Many of these institutions within the United 
States publish works of considerable value, or 
can control the distribution of the documents — 
can these be e.xchanged with foreign countries 
for the documents issued by the latter ? 

Mr. Stevens has recently returned home, and 
sends me the annexed report of his investiga- 
tions. The lists of documents promised by the 
several governments have not yet come to 
hand; if they arrive in time they will be synop- 
sized for the Cleveland meeting. 

The sincere thanks of the Association arc due 
to Mr. Stevens, who has been at much trouble 
in our behalf. The information which he sends 
will prove useful as a basis for individual oper- 
ations upon the part of those librarians who 
feel in a position to offer foreign governments 
quid pro quo. 

Reuben G. Thwaites, Chairman. 

Dear Mr. Thwaites: I send you herewith 
the results of my inquiries about public docu- 
merits exchanges with British colonies in Aus- 
tralia, India, etc. I have asked the proper 
authorities in each country to mail you a list of 



THIRD SESSION. 



the government documents at their disposal, so 
that with these lists and addresses our librari- 
ans can send counter lists and make direct a 
definite proposition of exchange. 

The results are not as satisfactory as I could 
wish, but I regret to say that there is not in 
these countries the same energy and_interest in 
library matters as is shown here in America. 
With few exceptions the officials in charge do 
not as yet show much appreciation of American 
public documents, placing little value upon 
such as they already have and showing little 
desire to add to them. Even when offered them 
in exchange they argue lack of room, or labor 
of cataloging, infrequency of use, etc. In Aus- 
tralia, too, where there has been such a long- 
continued financial depression, some of the 
governments have gone to the extreme in econ- 
omizing on their public printing, and have 
unwisely cut down their issue of public docu- 
ments, sometimes entirely discontinuing those 
not absolutely necessary, and again printing 
only a small number for the necessary supply to 
certain departments and officials. In India 
there' is so much red tape that I could accom- 
plish little or nothing for you. As all Indian 
exchanges are conducted by the Indian office in 
London with the Smithsonian Institution, they 
preferred that all applications should come 
from our librarians officially. 

But meagre as are the results, I think that 
my information may serve as a starting-point 
for official application on the part of such libra- 
rians as wish to make exchanges, and if I can 
further assist in any way I shall be glad to do 
so. Very truly yours, 

C. H. Stevens. 

GENERAL ANSWERS TO YOUR INQUIRIES. 

First. Lists of the public documents issued by 
the various foreign governments will be sent 
you by the custodians with whom exchanges 
may be negotiated. Reports of the courts are 
not as a rule issued by the government and are 
not classed as public documents. 

SiconJ. These public documents are not dis- 
tributed free, but are for sale at prices indicated 
on the printed lists. As a rule free distribution 
is not made to libraries, except to the parliamen- 
tary library and occasionally in the Australian 
colonies to the public library at the seat of gov- 
ernment. 

Third. Several of our various state libraries 



already have arrangements of partial exchange 
with these foreign countries, receiving, how- 
ever, only such documents as seem to be of 
special interest. Where these exchanges are 
conducted through the Smithsonian Institution 
(as on Indian publications) it is for the pur- 
pose of saving postage, but it opens the way to 
delay and occasional loss of books. Official 
application will best accomplish further devel- 
opment of such exchange relations, and lists 
should first be exchanged showing what each 
library can offer to the other, and from these 
lists selection could be made of the documents 
desired. 

INFORMATION BY COUNTRIES. 

[The custodian of public documents in each countrj' will 
mail you printed lists of his publications.] 

New Zealand — Samuel Costall, government 
printer, Wellington, is custodian to whom appli- 
cation should be made for printed list. Propo- 
sition of exchange should be made to him, with 
counter list of books offered in exchange. He 
appreciates desirability of such exchange rela- 
tions, and will assist as far as possible. 

Tasmania — Wm. Grahame , government print- 
er, Ilohart, is custodian from whom you will 
receive list. Proposition of exchange and coun- 
ter list should be sent to H. T. Manning, par- 
liamentary librarian at Hobart, who will conduct 
further negotiations and give every assistance. 

Victoria — R. S. Brain, government printer, 
Mellnntrnc, is custodian, and will furnish lists. 
The parliamentary librarian, with whom ex- 
changes should properly be made, is at present 
hampered from lack of room. Michael F. Dow- 
den, librarian of Melbourne Public Library, is 
energetic, appreciates importance of exchange 
relations, and will assist in establishing them. 

A'^ew South Wales — Chas. Potter, government 
printer, Sydney, is custodian, and will furnish 
lists. Mr. Wright (ca.re of Public Library, Syd- 
ney) is chairman Board of International Ex- 
changes, through whom negotiations should be 
made. //. C. L, Anderson, librarian of Public 
Library of New South Wales, Sydney, is inter- 
ested in extending exchanges, and will help in 
so doing. 

Queensland — Edmund Gregory, government 
printer, Brisbane, will furnish lists. D. O' Don- 
ovan is parliamentary librarian at Brisbane, but 
was away at tiine of my visit. I think, how- 
ever, he will aid in further negotiations. 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



South- Australia — C/tas. E. Bristo-we, gov- 
ernment printer, Adelaide, will furnish lists. 
Jas. P. Morice is parliamentary librarian, and 
willing to help as far as possible ; but, unfort- 
unately, the government has cut down its 
printing department to the lowest point, and 
may object to further extending its exchanges. 

India — Foreign exchanges for all the prov- 
inces of India are conducted by the India office 
in London, with the Smithsonian Institution. 
Propositions of further extending such ex- 
changes should be made to Mr. Wade, care In- 
dia Office, St. James Park, London. 

Ceylon, Straits Settlements and Burma — The 
government printers will furnish lists of their 
documents, but they do not offer much encour- 
agement of exchange relations. 

Miss Alice M. Kroeger being absent, her 

REPORT ON THE CONGRESS OF WOMEN LIBRARIANS 
AT ATLANTA, 

was read by title and ordered printed. 
(See i>. 57.) 

Adjourned at 6:40 p.m. 

FOURTH SESSION. 
(Thursday Morning, Sept. 3.) 

The Association was called to order by the 
President at 9:15 a.m. 

The Secretary announced that the Executive 
Board had appointed the following committee to 
take charge of the European trip: S. S. Green, 
Mary S. Cutler, W. C. Lane, \V. I. Fletcher, 
Mary W. Plummer. 

S. S. Green. — I hold in my hand a resolu- 
tion which Mr. Putnam, of the Boston Public 
Library, left with me. He had to go back to 
Boston yesterday afternoon. I will ask the 
secretary to read it in a moment. It relates to 
the matter under discussion yesterday regarding 
aid to be offered to the committee on the Con- 
gressional Library, and it meets the wants of 
both parties. But before I give this to the sec- 
retary I wish to say that Mr. Putnam came here 
at the request of his trustees and at great incon- 
venience to himself, spending two days with us, 
and that Mr. Whitney is here also from that li- 
brary, both of them with the express purpose of 
showing the great interest which that important 
library has in the doings of this Association. 

Sec. Elmendorf. — I would like to add that 
we have a similar message from Dr. Billings, 



of the New York consolidated libraries. Dr. 
Billings is now on the water on his return from 
the International Conference on scientific index- 
ing held under the auspices of the Royal So- 
ciety of England, and he says that he would 
like to be here, not that the New York consol- 
idated library or Dr. Billings can do very much 
or anything, as he expresses it, for the A. L. A.', 
but that both Dr. Billings and the New York 
consolidated libraries can get very much from 
this Association. Dr. Billings wrote a very 
cordial and very delightful letter. 

Mr. Dewey, whom many have asked for dur- 
ing this conference, has also written us. It is 
not customary to read regrets from members, 
but I would like to inform the Association that 
Mr. Dewey greatly regrets his inability to be 
with us. He is a victim of hay fever which 
affects his eyes, and he is confined to his Adi- 
rondack home during the summer. He sends 
most cordial greetings and the most earnest 
wishes for the success of our meeting. 

Pursuant to the orders of the Association 
yesterday, I cabled the L. A. U. K. in session 
at Buxton, England, as follows: 

" American Library Association in session 
sends cordial greetings; formally accepts invita- 
tion to International Conference, London, July, 
1897." 

I have just received the following answer: 

" Library Association, Cleveland : Library 
Association resolves to make conference a suc- 
cess. Cordial greetings. MacAIister, Sec." 

The resolution offered by Mr. Putnam is as 
follows: 

" Resolved, That the Association notes that 
the Joint Committee of the Senate and House 
of Representatives on the Library of Congress 
is to sit and consider questions relating to the 
organization of the library in. the new library 
building, with power to send for persons and 
papers. 

" Resolved, That should such committee dur- 
ing the ensuing year request information or 
counsel of this Association, the president is au- 
thorized to appoint six members of the Associa- 
tion, who, with himself as chairman, shall act 
as a committee to furnish such information as 
maybe within their power, and such counsel as 
seems to them to represent justly the views of 
this Association." 

S. S. Green said that the resolution was ap- 
proved by Mr. Bowker and Dr. Adler. 



FOURTH SESSION. 



"3 



Voted, That the resolution be adopted. 
Mr. John Thomson read a paper on 

TRAVELLING LIBRARIES. 

{See p. 29.) 

W. I. Fletcher. — I wish to make a motion 
that whatever else happens with regard to our 
program this morning, at the hour of 10:30 we 
shall take up the joint meeting of the A. L. A. 
with the Trustees Section. We all know that 
trustees are busy men, and they made an ap- 
pointment to be here at 10:30. It would be an 
unfortunate thing if they should be disap- 
pointed or delayed for half an hour. I move, 
therefore, in order that there may now be an 
understanding about it, that the program be 
adhered to in so far as that that meeting shall 
be held at 10:30. Voted. 

C. A. Nelson. — While Mr. Thomson was 
reading the closing paragraphs of his paper, it 
occurred to me that he might add the police and 
fire stations in our cities and the life-saving 
stations on the coast. I think the men who are 
compelled to stay on the shore of this country 
and watch through storm and sunshine for ves- 
sels that may be in danger have certainly a 
very lonesome time of it, and if we can send 
travelling libraries to those stations we shall be 
doing a great deal of good work. 

F. A. HuTCHiNS. — I should like to call at- 
tention to one benefit that is derived from the 
travelling libraries. It meets a defect in the 
large libraries that was alluded to yesterday by 
our president. In Wisconsin, for instance, in 
the libraries established in Dunn County by 
Senator Stout, we selected first the 500 best 
popular books of the language, divided them 
into 16 libraries that go into 16 stations and are 
read by the people of farming communities, 
thus controlling their reading and holding them 
year by year to the best popular books of the 
language. 

Mrs. Lana H. Cope. — I wish to say that in 
Iowa 200 letters have been received, and all are 
from the rural districs where there are no libra- 
ries. Very few have been asked for from clubs. 
This is very encouraging for us. We want to 
place these travelling libraries in just such com- 
munities where they have none. We want to 
stimulate them to read. This is my first attend- 
ance at the meetings of the American Library 
Association, and it gives me e.xtreme pleasure 
to be here. There is an added strength and 



cheer that comes to workers by hearing of the 
work that you are doing. 

Lodilla Ambrose. — I have had the privilege 
of summer visiting in a neighborhood in Michi- 
gan where a year ago they secured with a great 
deal of enthusiasm, very soon after the passage 
of the law, one of the travelling libraries, and 
this summer, with considerable effort, they have 
raised $5 again and are going on for another 
year. The enthusiasm of some of those mem- 
bers would be worthy of A. L. A. members. 

W. W. Bishop. — I want to call attention as a 
teacher to the benefit the New York State libra- 
ries are to those engaged in summer school 
work. It would have been utterly impossible 
for the work at Chautauqua this summer to 
have been conducted in the manner that it was 
and with the success which we reached, had it 
not been for the books sent to us by the travel- 
ling libraries of the state of New York. We 
are all grateful, and we hope they will send us 
more next year. 

Hon. J. H. Stout. — I hardly know how I can 
add very much to the subject now under discus- 
sion, but for the benefit of those interested in 
the free travelling libraries system I would like 
to suggest that the important matter first to 
consider, as far as legislation is concerned, is 
that a state commission be created in order that 
the work may be systematically carried on and 
the books may be properly selected. We will 
make another effort in our state this winter to 
enlarge the work of the commission and we 
hope to meet with success. 

AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. 

C. A. Nelson. — I have been handed a reso- 
lution which I think will meet with the appro- 
val of the Association, and which it would be 
well to pass, although it may not be absolutely 
necessary. It puts the matter in such shape 
that there can be no question another year con- 
cerning it. 

'^ Voted, That the amendment to the Constitu- 
tion of the A. L. A., submitted by the Publishing 
Section, be approved by this Conference and be 
submitted for adoption to the Conference of 
1897, according to the requirements of our Con- 
stitution." 

I move that this be adopted. Voted. 

POOLE memorial FUND. 

F. M. Crunden. — I desire to make a report 
from ihc committee on the Poole Memorial. You 



'14 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



remember, those of you who were present at 
the last convention, that it was decided that the 
memorial should take the form of a bronze 
bust. Dr. Wire, the secretary of the committee, 
has obtained estimates from two sculptors, and 
we find that a suitable bust can be obtained for 
a minimum of $500. We must therefore raise 
that amount. We have thus far in hand a lit- 
tle over $150. It seems to me that it ought not 
to be necessary to make any appeal to libra- 
rians to adopt this measure of recognition to 
one of the pioneers in the profession. As Pres. 
Dana said yesterday, we ought all of us who 
are now in this work to acknowledge our in- 
debtedness to those who have gone before, 
who have lifted it to the dignity of a profession. 
I therefore think that every library worker, 
however humble, should take a pleasure and 
pride in contributing to this memorial. We 
have had one contribution from a librarian of 
$15. We do not, of course, expect many such 
as that. We have had one from a publisher of 
|io, and we have had a number from librarians 
of $5. The subscriptions have gone all the way 
to 50 cents. I think there are few librarians or 
assistants who cannot contribute that much, 
and I hope that at this session we shall com- 
plete the amount necessary, either actually 
handed in or at least pledged. It will be more 
convenient to hand in the cash and then it will 
be done with. Any one of the committee is au- 
thorized to take subscriptions or collect the 
money — Dr. Wire, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Wing, or 
myself. They will be conveniently placed at 
the close of this meeting, and you can see one of 
us and give what you choose. 

W. I. Fletcher. — lam entirely unprepared 
to make any special remarks about this matter, 
and there is only one remark that I should 
think of making, and that is that it seems tome 
a great deal more desirable that this fund shall 
be an expression of the appreciation of Dr. 
Poole and his labors on the part of a large num- 
ber than that it should come from a few. I 
have not any doubt at all that this sum could be 
raised by passing a subscription paper to a few 
with a statement of the fact that so many $10 
or so many I5 would complete it ; but it seems 
to me it is a great deal better that every one 
who would like to be represented should have 
a fair opportunity to do so, and that a large 
number of small subscriptions should be wel- 
comed even more than a small number of large 



ones. I think it will be found desirable that 
there shall be some gifts of $5 or f 10. It is not 
that I would economize gifts which some will 
make, but I wish it to be distinctly recognized 
that it will be a very acceptable thing to the 
committee to have gifts of 25 or 50 cents from 
those who cannot give more. 

Miss M. E. Ahern. — I should like to ex- 
press thanks both to Mr. Fletcher and Mr. 
Crunden for the last statement. There are 
many of us whose financial burden is incom- 
mensurate with the respect and love we had for 
Dr. Poole. I speak for myself when I say that 
the amount of money which I felt I might con- 
tribute was such a small thing to offer that 
there was a shade of embarrassment. I am 
glad that this thing has been said publicly, and 
for my part I shall feel it a decided pleasure 
voluntarily to make this small contribution, and 
I want to answer for others who have expressed 
the same doubt and feelings with me. 

J. N. Wing. — As I understand it, the names 
of the contributors will be published, but not 
the amount of the contribution, so that those 
who give a dollar will go down on the same 
footing alphabetically, A. L. A. fashion, with 
those who give $10 or $15. 

EXHIBITIONS OF ENGRAVINGS AND PICTURES. 

C. A. Cutter. — The last interesting paper 
was about sending books out to readers. I 
wish to say a few words about one means of 
getting the readers to come to the library. I 
wish simply to tell what I have done in the last 
six months or more in this way of e.xhibitions, 
in order to suggest to you ways in which you 
can hold exhibitions and to induce some of you 
to do likewise. 

We have at the Forbes Library two large 
upper rooms which are admirably adapted for 
exhibitions, but I was not able to use them till 
at the annual meeting of the Appalachian Moun- 
tain Club, in Boston, I learned from Prof. 
Charles E. Fay that the Club owns a large col- 
lection of photographs of mountain scenery, 
taken by Antonio Sella, an Italian wool manu- 
facturer, a man who is enthusiastic both as a 
mountain-climber and as a photographer. For 
the last 16 years he has spent his vacation of 
two months in carrying his camera high up on 
the Alps and the Caucasus and taking views of 
rocky and of snowy peaks, of glaciers, and all 
those features of great elevations that are 



FOURTH SESSION. 



115 



usually seen only by the robust climber. These 
have been printed and can be bought, though 
with some difficulty. The Appalachian Moun- 
tain Club, however, has procured a large part 
of them and now is ready to lend them to any 
institution which will exhibit them, the institu- 
tion paying the cost of freight and of course the 
cost of exhibition, whatever it may be. Part 
of this expense may be recouped by the sale of 
a catalog which is furnished by the Club at the 
cost of printing. In our own case I think our 
expenses were about $10 more than we received 
from the sale of catalogs. The exhibition has 
been given in various parts of the country and 
has been very successful. At Bridgeport, Ct., 
20,000 persons went to see it. I kept no account 
of our visitors, but they were numerous and 
some of them came four or five times. I have 
never attended any exhibition which interested 
me more than this. It is not necessary to say 
much about the importance to a library of such 
exhibitions. Everything is of importance which 
makes the library the intellectual centre of the 
town; everything is of importance which brings 
people to the building and lets them see that 
there is a library and leads them to think of 
taking out books. 

After this exhibition was over, Mr. Horace 
K. Turner, who is the travelling agent of the 
Soule Photograph Co. in Boston, asked to pre- 
pare an exhibition in our hall, he to bear all 
expenses and to take orders for his goods. I 
did not find the commercial element at all ob- 
jectionable, and I would advise any libraries 
that have suitable halls to offer them to him. 
His exhibit was very popular. 

One of our townspeople who had been inter- 
ested in both of these exhibitions offered to ex- 
hibit with us for the public good the photo- 
graphs, idols from temples, and other oriental 
curiosities which he had gathered during his 
residence in Siam, Japan, and India. This 
show also drew many to the library and inter- 
ested those who were already in the habit of 
coming there. Would it not be well for a libra- 
rian in a town where there is no photographic 
society to found one in connection with the 
library ? The American Photographic League 
sends round in a circuit from town to town the 
slides taken by members of its clubs, to be ex- 
hibited in the magic-lantern by the local clubs 
which receive them with explanations by the 
president of the club or any suitable person. 



It occurs to me, too, that many of those who 
are going to Europe next year will probably 
have kodaks. Would it not be well for them to 
take photographs abroad with a special view to 
having them made into slides to form a nucleus 
for exhibitions in their libraries? 

When the Massachusetts Library Club met 
at Northampton I prepared an exhibition of 
the photo-lithographs of the Arundell Society, 
plates from Bancroft's " Book of the Fair," and 
from Gerome's works, and other similar art 
books. That furnished a very interesting ex- 
hibition. If we had not had these we might 
have taken engravings and photographs out of 
bound books with the intention of either keep- 
ing them loose to use for future exhibitions or 
fastening them back in the book afterwards. 

To come to the practical part of the matter. 
In the first place you must have room. Many 
librarians will say that they have no room. 
One of my exhibitions I held in the reading- 
room. It made, of course, a little confusion, 
but it apparently did not trouble our people at 
all. A library can generally find some place 
for an exhibition, large or small, and it is worth 
while to use even an inconvenient place rather 
than not have any exhibition. 

Then as to the means of fastening them 
up. Our walls are plastered, but there is a 
picture moulding. A small cord, fastened to 
the moulding, was carried down and tacked to 
the baseboard. Another cord was carried along 
horizontally and knotted at every juncture, and 
on that the pictures were hung by "bull-dog 
grips." The fault of this is that the cords sag 
unless the upright cords are close together. 

Mr. Carr suggested an improvement: to hang 
wooden strips half an inch thick and an inch 
broad on the cords, which should pass through 
two holes in the slats. The mere friction of the 
cord on the holes will hold up the strips. Then 
you have something that is absolutely firm and 
even. But the cords lengthen in dry weather 
and contract in wet so much that I have lately 
suspended the slats by small brass chains. This 
has proved entirely satisfactory. 

S. S. Green. — The Free Public Library in 
Worcester, Mass., has given exhibitions for a 
good many years, and when the great addition 
was made to its building, which we call the new 
building, as I was allowed to plan the interior 
of the building, especial arrangements were 
made for these exhibitions. As at present ar- 



ii6 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



ranged, the whole upper story of the new build- 
ing can be thrown into an art gallery, and in 
the story below there is a lecture-room, which 
can be used for small exhibitions. 

In regard to mechanical contrivances, I think 
I can give you something even better than the 
two mentioned by Mr. Cutter. I have picture 
moulding around the tops of all the rooms. Go- 
ing to a hardware-store I bought long brass 
chains with small links, had a great number of 
little hooks made of brass wire in an s shape, 
which will fit into the links ; then I had long, 
thin slats made which set into the curves of 
the s of the hooks. The hooks can be placed 
far apart or near together, according to the 
height of your photograph or engraving, and 
everything seems to be firm. The pictures are 
attached to the slats by placing a clothes-pin, 
with a wire spring, at each corner. This is a 
very cheap and excellent way of hanging photo- 
graphs and engravings. 

I ought to say in beginning that Worcester 
is five or six times as large a place as North- 
ampton, and that the arrangements that would 
be wanted in the latter place would often have 
to be changed with us. We spend f 11,000 a 
year for books and papers, and out of that 
amount I can easily take f looo to spend for 
collections of photographs, engravings, and fine 
illustrated books. Wc buy pictures in port- 
folios rather than bound. In the old building we 
had no suitable room, but I took what we know 
as the medical library room and put up the 
photographs and engravings in front of the 
book-shelves, as the doctors did not use the 
room so often as to make it inconvenient for ex- 
hibitions. But, as I say, in our new building 
we have suitable quarters. In the old building 
I began by exhibitions such as the following : 
Photographs bought of different European deal- 
ers that would illustrate the development of the 
genius of Raphael. Putting these around the 
room we showed people the principal works of 
that great artist, painted at several periods in 
his life. I will not multiply examples. We had, 
as would be implied from what I have said be- 
fore, many exhibitions in the old building. In the 
new building we have had numerous exhibitions 
of various kinds. For example, we have shown 
a great work issued by the Russian Government 
illustrating the ecclesiastical, imperial, military, 
and domestic antiquities of the empire. The 
pictures are in color and sufficient in number to 



go around the three large rooms which we have 
in two or three tiers. We put a card on a bulle- 
tin-board at the foot of stairs and near an ele- 
vator, stating what is being exhibited, notice the 
opening in the papers, and have reporters write 
about it. People become interested in it, and 
enjoy very much coming to it. We have had 
exhibitions of representations of tapestry and 
china, and of textile fabrics to be found in 
the South Kensington Museum. We have 
shown illustrations of the history of architecture 
and collections of photographs giving represen- 
tations of modern French, English, and Spanish 
art. I give these examples as specimens. If 
you wish to know the exact works and collec- 
tions which we have shown from year to year, 
you will find the titles of them in the annual re- 
ports of the library which were issued next after 
the exhibitions. 

I wish to speak of two points which seem to 
me of great value if borne in mind in connection 
with these exhibitions. They have proved of 
great importance in connection with the school- 
work which we are doing. You know that 
Worcester was the pioneer in this school-work. 
Every day that the schools are open in cooler 
weather we have 2000 of our books in the school- 
rooms in use by teachers and scholars, and there 
is a regular wagon which goes once a fortnight 
to every school-building in the city, carrying 
such books as are wanted and bringing back 
those which are done with. I was interested re- 
cently to see a communication in PubUe Libraries 
which declared that children and others ought 
to be encouraged to go to libraries instead of 
having books carried to them. It is desirable 
that they should go to libraries, but it is also 
desirable that books should be carried to school- 
rooms. Use 2000 books a day in the school- 
rooms, and also have an extra session of the 
schools every afternoon in the library. In doing 
work in connection with schools bow do pictures 
come in? We put on the walls of a hall 100 
photographs taken from battlefields, some even 
before the dead were removed, and from build- 
ings bridges, and other objects made memorable 
by incidents in the war, after the children in the 
grammar schools have done studying about the 
civil war and while their memories are filled 
with the names of places and engagements. 
We place beside them the extensive work of 
Forbes illustrating camp life in the late war, 
and a set of Confederate etchings, and invite 



FOURTH SESSION. 



117 



the heads of the different grammar schools to 
invite the children to come to see the pictures. 
Fifty or so come in an afternoon. We keep 
the exhibition open a week, a fortnight, or such 
other period of time as is necessary to give all 
the children a chance for a good view. Their 
memories are full of the names which are on 
the pictures, and they get more definite ideas 
of occurrences by means of the pictures. When 
the scholars in the high schools have done 
studying about Shakespeare, we invite them to 
come to the library and display there on the 
walls that great work, "The homes and haunts 
of Shakespeare," which undertakes to give ob- 
jects which Shakespeare's eyes rested on while 
his genius was developing, in reproductions from 
water-color drawings and in black and white. 
At the same time we get together fac-similes 
of the quartos and folios and books illustrating 
architecture and costumes of the time of Shake- 
speare. The teachers of English literature 
come to the exhibition, bringing manageable 
squads from time to time, and together they 
get whatever enjoyment and profit the illustra- 
tions may afford. When engaged in studying 
the works of Addison and the Spectator, we in- 
vite teachers and scholars to come to the li- 
brary to see books which illustrate London at 
the time of these writings, and enable them to 
get a more intelligent view of the time when the 
Spectator was written, and of the buildings and 
life in London at that time. So much for use- 
fulness of exhibitions in connection with the 
school-work. Another important point is in re- 
gard to exhibitions in towns where there are 
art societies. Join with such societies in doing 
this work. When the new library building 
was put up in Worcester, instead of having 
dedicatory exercises (I at that time was presi- 
dent of the Art Society, and both that Society 
and the Library wanted to do good work for the 
benefit of citizens), the Art Society spent three 
hundred dollars in collecting all the portraits 
that could be found in our houses and arranged 
them by families, nearly covering the walls of 
the entire upper story of our building. It also 
put rugs on the floors and tapestry.on the walls. 
Since then we have had a great exhibition of 
china, the Art Society spending three or four 
hundred dollars in collecting everything in our 
houses and seeing that loans were carefully 
returned. 
We have just had a continuous exhibition of 



four months, in which the Art Society and our 
own Library united. The Art Society spent about 
seven hundred dollars in getting up and main- 
taining this exhibition. It procured oil-paint- 
ings from houses in Worcester, and also sent 
to Boston to get others. It made changes in 
the exhibition twice during the four months, 
taking down 20 or more pictures and putting 
up 20 fresh ones on two different occasions. 
The exhibition was also one of bric-a-brac, 
which was lent to the Society. The Library 
filled up one room with very large photographs 
of cathedrals. They were procured of Mr. 
Hagger, of New York, and give you a real 
idea of the immensity of the buildings. We 
are now buying photographs of town-halls and 
other public buildings of the same large size in 
Europe. When the second change in oil-paint- 
ings was made by the Art Society, I put those 
photographs in another room to accommodate 
persons who still wished to see them. In the 
room first used for the cathedrals we put up 
representations of Michael Angelo"s frescoes in 
the Sistine Chapel, 125 photographs giving the 
details of the ceiling, which can be had of 
Braun in Paris, and a representation of the 
whole ceiling in one picture procured in Rome. 

We have skylights under which photographs 
can be taken, and a dark closet for developing 
photographs. Some of our teachers teach geog- 
raphy by means of slides, and when we get a 
book illustrating a country of which they have 
not good illustrations in slides already owned 
by them, they take photographs from the pict- 
ures in the book and use those in the instruc- 
tion of the children in school. 

Recess at 10:30 a.m. 

The meeting was called to order again at 10:35 
a.m., C. C. Soule in the chair, as a 

JOINT MEETING OF THE A. L. A. AND THE TRUS- 
TEES' SECTION. 

C. C. SouLE. — Fellow-trustees and fellow- 
librarians : We are all fellows in one good 
cause. Since the early years of the American 
Library Association it has been a common thing 
for trustees to attend the sessions. No at- 
tempt, as I remember, was made to insure a 
special attendance till the iSgo conference at 
Fabyan's. At that time a special circular was 
sent out and a special session was devoted to 
trustees. Three papers were read, one by a 
librarian and two by trustees. These papers 



ii8 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



were not only published in the conference pro- 
ceedings but were published in a separate 
pamphlet, which you have probably seen, and 
as a result an organization was effected called 
the Trustees' Section. A very practical result 
of this action followed in the shape of the es- 
tablishment of an Endowment Fund of about 
$5000. It was intended to raise $10,000, but 
unfortunately business difficulties intervened, 
and Mr. Hovey, who had charge of the collec- 
tion, concluded that it was unwise at that time 
to push it farther. The fund has now accumu- 
lated to over $6000. The income is used for 
the benefit of the Publishing Section. Conse- 
quently, the organization of that Trustees' Sec- 
tion not only marked progress in the relation of 
trustees and librarians, but marked a very im- 
portant step in the progress of the Association. 
The only meeting of the Section since that time 
that I know of was held at Lakewood, which 
simply resulted in the election of new officers. 
This year the executive committee have made a 
special effort to get an attendance of trustees, 
and at their suggestion I also sent out for the 
Trustees' Section an urgent letterasking trustees 
to attend. Trustees are very busy men and it 
has been almost impossible to stir many of them 
up, but there is a very gratifying attendance, 
and I have in my hand a bunch of letters from 
all parts of the country evincing great interest 
in the organized work of this Association. I 
think that the attendance here of trustees is 
typical of a very large reawakening and an in- 
creasing interest on the part of trustees all over 
the United States. 

In opening this joint session I want to take a 
little more joyous and hopeful tone than the 
President of the Association took yesterday 
morning. His motive was good in calling our 
attention to the dark side of library administra- 
tion, but the effect on me was rather one of dis- 
couragement, and on the part of trustees, who 
are business men, I want to remind you that 
no man ever goes into good work with much 
encouragement or gets much satisfaction in the 
result. I think all those of you who have been 
engaged in church work, or social or political 
reform, will bear me out in saying that the men 
you meet are discouraging and results are 
generally unsatisfactory. If you will go into a 
common council meeting, or into a legislative 
meeting, or into Congress, and listen to the 
discussions, you will wonder how democratic 



America lives. It is just the same way with 
our library movement. When we watch what 
is done in our library, and in our bodies of trus- 
tees, when we see slow and incompetent libra- 
rians, when we try to stir up teachers of the 
schools to an interest in educational work, and 
we find that we have to lift them bodily, we 
cannot help being discouraged. But when we 
come to this meeting and meet other people who 
have the same purpose, we ought to have a 
feeling of inspiration and hope rather than that 
of regret and disappointment. We ought to 
bear in mind that no man or woman can devote 
all his life to a good cause without the world 
being better for it, whether he sees results or 
not. That is the message the trustees bring to 
you librarians here. 

The executive committee of the Association 
have asked our friend and former president, 
Mr. Crunden, of St. Louis, to open the session 
with a paper. 

THE FUNCTIONS OF LIBRARY TRUSTEES AND THEIR 
RELATIONS TO LIBRARIANS. 
(See p. 32.) 
C. C. SouLE. — To start the discussion I will 
briefly comment myself on Mr. Crunden's pa- 
per. One point I wish to make is that he 
shares my joyous hope in one particular in call- 
ing attention to the fact that very few scandals 
attend library administration in this country. I 
differ from Mr. Crunden materially in the same 
point in which I differed from Mr. Green in 
1890, and that is as to whether the librarian 
should be made the secretary of the board and 
be present at all its meetings. Fortunately, Mr. 
Crunden has proved that I am right in his pa- 
per. He has given points on which the trus- 
tees may properly discuss and exercise their 
authority. Of those points, only one or two 
require the presence of the librarian. One 
point requires his absence, and that is the dis- 
cussion and criticism of the librarian's con- 
duct. He says there are times when all libra- 
rians are not efficient and when the board 
must consider the question as to whether or not 
they must dismiss the librarian. At the same 
time an opportunity should be allowed for dis- 
cussion of that fact. Many of the complaints 
against the librarian which come up can be 
checked and answered at once by a free and 
informal discussion of the trustees. I think the 
rule which we follow in Brookline is the best 



FOURTH SESSION. 



119 



rule, because it fills the actual purpose of having 
the librarian present. We simply go on with 
our records, and bring up financial matters and 
matters that do not require the presence of the 
librarian. Then we send for the librarian and 
take him in very freely on any point where his 
advice is required. He is present at committee 
meetings and board meetings, with the exception 
of the beginning of the meeting, which is an 
executive session. We find that the position of 
secretary of the board of trustees affords agree- 
able occupation for one of our members who 
otherwise might be idle. It seems to me that 
our habit in Brookline is one that boards gener- 
ally had better follow. I agree with almost 
all that Mr. Crunden advances in his paper. I 
want to emphasize one point, and that is that 
trustees should inform themselves in regard to 
the details of library administration, not so far 
that they wish to become librarian themselves, 
but that they may be competent critics of the 
librarian's action. 

B. F. Wright. — I rise, not for the purpose 
of making a speech, but I simply want to em- 
phasize the last point made by our president. 
The paper seems to be on both sides for that 
matter. It seems to me that the library trustee 
should inform himself upon all matters of detail 
with reference to the library, the conduct of the 
library, new methods of management, and all 
other details, and that we can never have the 
best in this regard till we have educated trus- 
tees. I do not mean to say that they shall 
interfere. There is attention to detail which 
does not savor of interference. 

I want to congratulate myself on being pres- 
ent at this meeting of the Library Association. 
I feel that it is good for me to be here, and I 
believe that the libraries of this country could 
have no better thing found for them than if we 
in this Association could have from every libra- 
ry board in the country an accredited delegate 
at each of our sessions. 

J. K. HosMER. — I feel as if it were not inap- 
propriate for me to occupy a few minutes, owing 
to the circumstance that I am the connecting- 
link of library administration. I e.xhibit myself 
as a specimen in natural history. I am the con- 
necting -link between the trustee and libra- 
rian. For a number of years I was one of the 
spokes of that cumbrous and awkward machine 
which Mr. Crunden stigmatizes at the opening 
of his paper. To describe the process of my 



evolution in the terms of natural history : as a 
grub, I was a trustee ; I spun about myself a 
cocoon and merged at length into the beautiful 
librarian. Our chairman still remains in the 
grub condition. As Charles Lamb put it once 
when he attempted to quote David Crockett, 
" He is the same old coo-coon." I am Mr. Crun- 
den's bibliographical child, I am very much 
like Mr. Crunden, and find that my thoughts, 
my ideas and conceptions of library manage- 
ment run in Mr. Crunden's groove. I follow the 
impulse which he gave me. It was he that gave 
me the training and the desire to become what 
I have become as a librarian. There is only 
one point upon which it seems to me he might 
well have touched, and that is the value of hav- 
ing upon a board of trustees some good women. 
I have no women on my board at Minneapolis. 
We had women upon the board in St. Louis, 
and they were always among the most efficient 
and useful members of the board. For a num- 
ber of years, till her lamented death, a member 
of the St. Louis board of trustees was Mrs. 
Noble, the wife of General Harrison's secretary 
of the interior. At the time of my connection 
with Mr. Crunden's board there were upon the 
board two of the strongest women in the city, 
both of them teachers, one of them the princi- 
pal of one of the chief schools, and their ser- 
vice was most excellent. It was excellent in 
this point: It seems to me that there was a su- 
perior faithfulness in the women members; we 
could always count upon them for being pres- 
ent. In my board at Minneapolis we are 
plagued to death often to get a quorum. When 
the month comes around we have to run our 
legs off to get a quorum, and I tell the Minne- 
apolis public and my trustees that if we only 
had two or three good women on the board we 
should be helped in that respect. 

J. W. Thompson. — I want simply to express 
my hearty appreciation of the admirable paper 
of Mr. Crunden. The gentleman who has been 
honored as a trustee and the other as a connect- 
ing-link have stated some things that I pur- 
posed saying. One thing that I should want to 
emphasize was the one just said a moment ago 
with reference to having women on the board of 
trustees. I heartily believe in it. We are so fort- 
unate in Evanston as to have very many ladies 
who are eminently qualified for such a position, 
much better, I think, than any of the gentlemen 
who occupy or hold the position of trustee. I 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



hope soon to see that change inaugurated in the 
organization or make-up of our board in Evans- 
ton. 

We have one thing in Evanston that has not 
been spoken of by any one here that affects our 
management or direction of the employees in 
the library. That is, we have the civil service 
law, and all employees in the library, from the 
librarian down to the janitor, hold positions on 
merit and cannot be removed by the trustees 
only on their recommendation to the civil ser- 
vice commission, and the recommendation ac- 
companied by a plain staterfient of the cause for 
removal. The civil service commission act in 
perfect harmony with and are guided in all their 
actions with reference to the public library by 
the recommendations of the board of trustees. 
When vacancies occur in the staff of the library, 
requisition is made upon the civil service com- 
mission for a person to fill the position. The 
person standing highest on the list is recom- 
mended as a person to fill that position. When 
vacancies occur — none have occurred yet, but 
probably will soon in our library — the promo- 
tion is made on merit. The library board is 
not troubled about that. Neither is the libra- 
rian, so far as he is involved in the direct man- 
agement of promotion. 

Another thing that this relieves the board of 
trustees of is applications for positions on the 
library staff. It relieves entirely the political 
pressure. There can be no politics. There never 
has been any in our board, and there can be 
none under this system. 

The gentleman who preceded me spoke about 
difficulty in securing a quorum. One year, at 
the organization of our board, I said to the 
members of the board, " Now, if you want to 
hold your positions on this board of trustees, if 
I have any influence, and I think 1 have, with 
the present administration, it will be necessary 
for you to show a respectable interest at least in 
attendance upon the meetings of our board of 
trustees." I emphasized it, and 1 said to our 
librarian, " I wish you would keep a little tab 
on that ; not only on that, but also a little tab 
on the number of times the directors come into 
the library when there is not any meeting. I 
want to know something about that." I am 
happy to be able to state to you that of a board 
consisting of nine directors the average attend- 
ance at our meetings last year was a little over 
seven. The secretary of our board was sick 



for five months and another member was absent 
on account of sickness, so that we would almost 
have had an average of eight had it not been for 
sickness. The enthusiasm never was so great. 
The interest in the work was never anything 
that can be compared with what it was last 
year. I said to the chairmen of the various 
committees, and also to the board as a whole, 
" If any committee on this board fail to perform 
the duties belonging to that committee I shall 
not hesitate to speak of it in open board meet- 
ing." 

I heartily endorse what has been said regard- 
ing the hearty co-operation of the board in the 
work of the librarian. In our board we work 
as one. Our board does not have the librarian 
as the secretary, but in all matters pertaining to 
the executive part or the province of the libra- 
rian, the librarian is always consulted outside of 
the board meeting or in the board meeting, and 
is always asked for an opinion, and that opinion 
in nine cases out of ten has prevailed, and in 
some cases where there have been modifications 
it has been, after mutual consultation, unani- 
mously decided that it was better than the rec- 
ommendation; so that I am glad to say that 
this spirit prevails, to have it announced posi- 
tively as was done in the paper, and that I 
am able to give this testimony, that so far as 
our library board is concerned it is the policy of 
our board. 

One word is due from me to members of the 
A. L. A. It is the first time I have ever been 
permitted to enjoy a session of the American 
Library Association, and when I look in the 
face of some of these gentlemen here and listen 
CO their inspiring words, I think of some of the 
articles 1 have read from their pens and of the 
first inspiration I received with reference to 
library work. It was penned by your highly 
esteemed colaborer, Mr. Fletcher. It thrilled 
me. It seemed to open up the whole field of 
library work. It came home to me as a director, 
and I must say that it was the first impulse 
toward a desire for a more extended knowledge 
of library work and a better information re- 
specting all that is involved, not only in the 
directorship but in the field of the librarian. 
Others I might mention here, and I have en- 
joyed all of these remarks and all of these 
papers, and I hope that the time may come 
ivhen, as has been already said, these meet- 
ings may have in them more largely a repre- 



FOURTH SESSION. 



121 



sentation of the trustees, and that there may 
grow this spirit of mutual co-operation. 

Rutherford P. Hayes. — I am very glad to 
see that Mr. Crunden has toned down a little 
bit. At the Library Association in 1887 or 1889 
that I attended he was very severe on the trus- 
tees, and specially on the trustees of endowed 
libraries where the trustees were trustees for 
life. I am in that position. I am a trustee of 
a library in a small town where, although I 
have not lived in the city for two years, I hold 
on to the place, have not attended a meeting for 
two years, and am going to occupy the place 
the rest of my life if I can. Our board was ap- 
pointed by the donor of the library, and I filled 
the first vacancy that was made by resignation. 
In the 16 years that I have been on the board 
we have had the same librarian, and our library 
I think has got along well, because we had a 
good librarian. We have two trustee meetings 
in a year, one on the 1st of May and one on the 
1st of June. At our meeting in May we elect 
our librarian and the year begins for the libra- 
rian on the ist of June. At that time we have 
the reports of the officers of the board. I think 
our library has done good work, although it is 
not quite up to the standard of what the trus- 
tees should do and are doing in other places. 
I found it was difficult to get a quorum even at 
those two meetings, so when last winter, in 
connection with the trustees of another library, 
we endeavored to make a change in the govern- 
ment of the state library in Ohio, it was thought 
best to put the very lowest number of commis- 
sioners possible. We have three, and up to 
this time I have been the only one that was ab- 
sent from the meetings. That was excusable 
last Saturday, when I was on my way here. 
One of the changes we made was in our state li- 
brary where the librarian was appointed for two 
years, appointed by the governor, and with 
every change of governor the librarian was 
changed. Since an unfortunate experiment that 
Ohio made just before i860, in which in three 
years she spent $280,000 for books that were 
distributed to the public schools throughout the 
state, the state library has been considered 
merely as a necessary evil. They have appro- 
priated as little money as possible and have 
done almost nothing for it, and to-day we have 
a collection of books numbering from 40,000 to 
60,000, though nobody knows how many, hav- 
ing no catalog. We are going to work. We 



are studying on the plan of the travelling libra- 
ries to see what we can do when we get in a 
little better condition and what we can do to 
arouse an interest in library work throughout 
the state, and I think with help from our friends 
outside the state, and the enthusiasm that we 
hope to have in the state, we will have some 
library awakening here within the next year or 
so. 

Lana H. Cope. — I agree with the gentleman 
who just sat down that the trustees are improv- 
ing. We all realize and recognize this. I occu- 
py the place of one of the trustees and librarian 
at the same time. By virtue of my office, the 
law says, the librarian shall be one of the trus- 
tees. The trustees of Iowa are composed of 
the supreme judges, six of them, with the state 
executive council. The supreme judges are 
scattered all over the state, but we have no 
trouble in getting a meeting. It always occurs 
at the time of the session of the supreme court. 
I act as secretary, and we are always in accord 
and we are doing a great work. 

Hon. James A. Garfield. — Mentor is a vil- 
lage of but 500 people, therefore we are some- 
what limited in our ability to raise funds for car- 
rying on library work. But some six years ago 
15 of us got together and began holding a series 
of meetings every month, something in the nature 
of the old New England township meeting, for 
the purpose of stirring up an interest in town af- 
fairs, and in doing that we considered it neces- 
sary to have some central point of interest around 
which we could all work, and we chose as that 
the library. There had never been a library in 
the village except a small circulating library. We 
all believed that the use of books and the great-' 
er knowledge of books would be acommon centre 
of interest around which we could all work and 
toward which we would be glad to give work. 
The result of five years' work in this way was 
that we now have a library of about 1600 vol- 
umes, and two years ago, acting under a gen- 
eral law of the state, we became incorporated, 
and requested the village council to levy a tax for 
the support of the library. We at that time had 
about 1000 volumes. The council very readily 
saw the advantage of this kind of work. They 
appreciated what was being done for the citi- 
zens and schools of the state, and therefore they 
levied a tax and turned the proceeds of the tax 
over to the library board. In this way, you will 
see, the library board is kept entirely aloof from 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



politics. There are no elections by the people, 
nor is the board appointed by any political offi- 
cers. It is a self-constituted body, a corporate 
body under the laws of this state, and as long 
as we maintain our corporate existence the vil- 
lage may turn over the funds to the library. 
We settled this difficulty of women's rights by 
having an equal number of both men and wom- 
en on the board, and then in order to avoid the 
question of disruption of families we made the 
other member of the family who was not on an 
honorary member of the board. In this way we 
increased the number of workers and at the 
same time satisfied the desire of many people to 
hold office. 

1 heartily agree with what has been said rela- 
tive to the number of trustees. We found that 
15, together with the supernumerary and hono- 
rary members, were unwieldy, and the work 
practically devolved upon very few of the mem- 
bers. Therefore, when we incorporated we 
made an executive board consisting of five mem- 
bers, and they had absolute management of the 
library proper. They are elected every year 
from the members of the association, the 15 and 
these others, and they have absolute control of 
the library. In this way we have found it very 
easy to accomplish the work we have set out to 
do. 

I have stated this result of our work to show 
what can be done. I believe that one of the 
best and easiest methods of education is through 
the library, that we reach all classes, all ages, 
and all kinds of people, and by making the li- 
brary an adjunct of the public-school system we 
add materially to the advantages that may be 
offered to the pupils. Although our library is 
supported by the village, we make it absolutely 
free to any one who desires to use it. Those out- 
side the village or township are required to put 
up a nominal deposit merely for the safe return 
of the book. We made this the ideal towards 
which we are working — that the friendship of 
books is like the friendship of men ; it is worth 
nothing and avails nothing unless it is used con- 
stantly and improved constantly. 

Mrs. H. M. Weeks. — I am glad to find that 
all the trustees are not busy men. It has been 
said every time it has been mentioned that they 
were busy men, and as I am a trustee on the 
library board in our village, I began to wonder 
if I were entirely alone. 

I want to second what the men have said that 



having women on the board is a very good 
thing, and I am glad the men trustees see that. 
I think one good reason why women should 
be on the board is that very often they can 
give more time to the work than the business 
men can give, and there is a class of work that 
women on the board can do that men can 
hardly be expected to do. When I went on our 
village board the house committee fell to me, 
and I had a sharp eye for the janitor and saw 
that the windows were shaded and the rooms 
kept in better order, and first one thing and then 
another fell to me, till I rather regard myself 
as one of the village constables. I hope we 
shall have more women library trustees than 
we seem to have now. 

Tessa L. Kelso. — A lady wrote me the 
other day to ask if I did not think that there 
might be a case where it was a bad thing to 
have too many women. She cited her case. 
She is in one of the largest cities of the Union. 
Her library numbers only 360 volumes and she 
has 60 lady trustees. I think that is a record 
unequalled in the country, and she has come to 
the conclusion that there is such a thing as 
having too many women. I think the sym- 
pathies of the Association are due to any woiri- 
an who has 60 women trustees to administer 
360 volumes. 

F. M. Crunden. — It simply shows another 
illustration that you can have too much of a 
good thing. 

R. G. Thwaites. — I merely wish to dupli- 
cate Miss Kelso's experience. I belong to a 
board of trustee-! of which there are 62 mem- 
bers, all men. We meet once a year against 
Mr. Hayes's twice a year, and we are a very 
unanimous body indeed. 

Tessa L. Kelso. — These ladies meet once a 
week. \Laughtcr,^ 

Member. — While I have been a librarian I 
have seen the advantages of having ladies on 
the board of trustees. At present with aboard 
of 15 members one-third of them are ladies, 
and they are faithful friends of library work. 
We also experience the disadvantage of having 
so large a membership in the trustees, but they 
have obviated that difficulty by having an ex- 
ecutive committee who do all the work, and I 
can say that the library is constantly improv- 
ing and is becoming a power in the village, 
which 25 years ago cared very little for books. 

William Joii,s-son. — Our city is about to 



FOURTH SESSION, 



123 



erect a new building. We have available a 
fund of $350,000, and it has been our object to 
visit other institutions so that we can get good 
hints. I endorse most heartily some of the 
statements made by Mr. Crunden. I am very 
glad that our board enabled me to be present 
with you in the instructive meetings we have 
had here during this session. 

Geo. a. Macbeth (trustee of Carnegie Li- 
brary, Pittsburg). — The librarian is the head 
and the trustee the right hand of the library. 
The selection of books requires a peculiar judg- 
ment of your reading public. The board of 
trustees as men of judgment have a proper 
function to perform in the adaptation of mat- 
ters. They are the connecting link between 
the librarian and the public. It is one thing to 
know how to select books and another to know 
how to bend your public. You cannot make 
a librarian by rote nor a trustee. It falls to 
the librarian to do all the work and make the 
library what it is to be. The busier the man 
the better the trustee he makes. The librarian 
is in the stream of knowledge of demand. He 
cannot be both hand and head, and ought to 
be the head. 

Mr. Crunden read the following letter : 

Saint Louis, Attg. 31, iSg6. 

Dear Mr. Crunden : Even after I wrote you 
that I would be unable to attend the confer- 
ence, it seemed that I could arrange it and be 
with you after all. Circumstances, however, 
arose calling me home last week instead of this 
as intended, and here I am and must forego 
the pleasure of being present again this year. 

Have read your paper with interest and re- 
turn it by this post. I do not think of anything 
to add which will make it more effectual. There 
are some things which I would like to have said, 
could I have been present at the trustees' meet- 
ing, regarding the American Library Associa- 
tion. I do not think its value is sufficiently 
well known by the average library trustee, and 
therefore the benefit to be derived from it is 
greatly lessened. It does not seem possible 
for one to accept the position of director of a 
library and assume conscientiously its duties 
without a full appreciation of the great impor- 
tance of the influence of the public library upon 
the community in which he lives. Second it 
seems to me only to the church and Sunday- 
school. A most potent factor for the advance- 



ment of culture and intelligence of the masses, 
and therefore directly instrumental in the pres- 
ervation of the church, the home, and the state 
— the foundation of all national prosperity. 

With the full appreciation of the importance 
of the duty assumed, every adjunct which will 
assist in furthering this interest should be 
brought into use. The A. L. A. is certainly 
entitled to unlimited credit for what it has done 
in influencing public opinion in regard to li- 
braries and library work, and shaping and 
educating this opinion so as to make it prac- 
tical and effective. Having had much experi- 
ence with national commercial organizations, 
officially and executive, I must say that in my 
opinion the annual report of no other organiza- 
tion impresses me with more force than that of 
the A. L. A. 

It is a matter of astonishment to one who 
has seen time and money wasted in other di- 
rections, to see how painstaking, practical, far- 
reaching, and effective has been the result of 
these annual conferences. 

Where would library work be to-day were it 
not for this very effectual labor on the part of 
comparatively few devoted individuals? There- 
fore, 

First, I would urge upon every library mana- 
ger or director everywhere to become a member 
of this Asociation, and thus contribute in a 
small way to its support and continued influ- 
ence, as well as to being himself or herself 
in close touch with the work he has assumed in 
its latest practical detail. 

Second, every library in the country should be 
represented at these annual gatherings by its li- 
brarian or assistant, not at his or her expense, 
but sent regularly by the board as a legitimate 
and necessary addition to the cost of their ad- 
ministration. I care not whether it be a large 
or small sum required, it will be the best outlay 
in practical results of the whole year. It will 
pay, and as we say commercially, "it is busi- 
ness." What is worth doing at all, is worth 
doing well. Better that the book fund should 
suffer to this extent that the work that is 
done may be done in the most effective man- 
ner. 

At a recent conference it was a matter of as- 
tonishment to me that only a very small minor- 
ity of librarians present were sent there by 
their respective boards, while the majority at- 
tending were doing so at their own expense. 



124 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



and doubtless, in many instances, at great per- 
sonal sacrifice. 

In this progressive age the very brsl is de- 
manded. This can only be obtained through 
organization and co-operation. Let us as li- 
brary trustees see to it that we are not behind 
in applying the same business sense and judg- 
ment to this work that we have to exercise in 
the ordinary pursuits of life. 

These are some of the thoughts which force 
themselves upon my mind in connection with 
the trustees' meeting. If you can make any 
use of them shall be glad to have you do 
so. 

With kind regards, 

Yours faithfully, 

O. L. Whitelaw. 

Letters of regret at not being able to attend 
the Conference were received from Seth Low, 
President of Columbia University ; John Bige- 
low, Trustee of the New York Consolidated 
Libraries ; Gen. Francis A. Walker, Pres. In- 
stitute of Technology and Trustee of P. L., 
Boston ; Hon. Wm. T. Harris, Commissioner 
of Education; Rev. James De Normandie, Trus- 
tee Boston P. L., and others. Gen. Walker 
wrote, " It would have given me very great 
pleasure to attend the meeting had it been pos- 
sible. I will not say I trust it will be a profit- 
able Conference, I know it must be." Mr. Dc 
Normandie wrote, " I think our Library should 
be represented, and I wish I could go, but my 
engagements for September cannot now be 
changed so as to give me the opportunity. . . . 
I am surprised to learn that we have not been 
represented at every session, and trust we may 
be hereafter." 

F. P. Hii.i,. — I do not wish to take exception 
to much that has been said in Mr. Crunden's 
excellent paper, but I hope he can modify the 
statement made to the effect that the salaries of 
members of the staff are reduced whenever ex- 
penses have to be curtailed. It has been my 
experience that the book fund suffers rather 
than the fund provided for the maintenance of 
the full staff on full salary- 

F. M. Crunden. — I beg to correct Mr. Hill. 

I made no such statement. I said it was not 

evidence of good administrative ability to do it. 

F. P. Hill. — I desire to offer the following 

resolution: 

"Resolved, That this joint meeting recom- 



mend to the American Library Association the 
publication and distribution, among trustees 
especially, of Mr. Crunden's paper on the rela- 
tion of trustees to public libraries." 

W. R. Eastman. — It seems to me that it 
would be very valuable if we could have relia- 
ble statistics through the ordinary channels 
from all the states respecting the libraries, 
as to the number of trustees, the manner of 
appointment and terra or continuity of of- 
fice. 

W. C. Lane. — I move to amend Mr Hill's 
resolution by including an abstract of the dis- 
cussion and letters. 

Accepted by Mr. Hill and votcJ. 
C. C. SouLE. — This meeting is an illustration 
of what I said in my opening remarks, that you 
must not yield to discouragement. Mr. Dana 
has done a good deal of the work to get the 
trustees together. 

When I got on the train a lady said to me, 
" Mr. Soule, I want to give you an illustration 
of the indirect good results of your effort to get 
the trustees together, by saying that I should 
not have been present at this conference if it 
had not been for your circular to the trustees." 
She said, " I forwarded your letter to my trus- 
tees, and they said to me that they could not go, 
and asked, ' Are not you going?' I said no, I 
could not afford to go. They said, ' Wouldn't 
you go if we paid your expenses ? ' I said ' Cer- 
tainly.' " The trustees sent her here at the ex- 
pense of the library. That is a result of the 
indirect effect of active work. You see what a 
success this conference has been, what harmony 
there has been between trustees and librarians 
present. I hope the Trustees' Section will do 
more active work in the future and that all 
will take part in the future success of this Asso- 
ciation. 

Recess at 12: 25 p.m. 

FIFTH SESSION. 
(Thursday Afternoon, September 3.) 

Called to order by the president at 2:55. 

S. H. Berry introduced the following resolu- 
tion : 

" Resolved, That the Executive Board be re- 
quested to appoint a committee on gifts and 
bequests, to consist of one person from each 
state, to report to the chairman of that commit- 
tee." Voted. 



FIFTH SESSION. 



125 



INVITATION FROM THE LIBRARY DEPARTMENT 
OF THE NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL ASSOCIATION. 

Miss M. E. Ahern. — I am authorized by 
the executive board of the library department 
of the National Educational Association to pre- 
sent the following communication: 

At a meeting of the library department of the 
National Educational Association in Buffalo 
July 9, i8g6, the following resolution was unan- 
imously adopted: 

"Resolved, That a cordial invitation be ex- 
tended to the American Library Association and 
to all state library associations and clubs to co- 
operate in the work of this department, and to 
that end that delegates from those associations 
be invited to attend and participate in the meet- 
ings of the department of library work in the 
National Educational Association." 

S. S. Green. — I move that the invitation of 
the library department of the National Educa- 
tional Association be accepted and that the 
executive committee appoint five or more dele- 
gates to attend the meetings of that section. 

I move also that the executive committee ap- 
point a committee of five which shall do any 
work that they may think would afford the 
means of collecting information that would be 
useful to place before our own body and that 
section. Voted. 

CANDLESTICK FOR THE ROWFANT CLUB. 

Miss T. L. Kelso. — I move that the Ameri- 
can Library Association request the executive 
board to procure and present to the Rowfant 
Club an A. L. A. candlestick to add to their col- 
lection. Voted. 

Miss L. E. Stearns then read a paper on 

ADVERTISING A LIBRARY. 

(5«/. 37-) 
Owing to the absence of C. R. Dudley, the 
paper on 

library EDITIONS OF POPULAR FICTION, 

which was down on the program to be pre- 
sented by him, was not read. 

{Set p. 41.) 
W. L Fletcher. — I move that the executive 
board appoint a committee of three to make an 
investigation and report to the Association at 
our next meeting some plan, if possible, to be 
presented to publishers with the hope of induc- 
ing them to print special editions of popular 



works for libraries on better paper and in good 
strong binding. 

F. A. HuTCHiNs. — I am very glad to speak 
on this subject, because I think it is a very im- 
portant one which has been greatly neglected, 
and I wish to speak from the standpoint of the 
small libraries, meaning by small libraries those 
in isolated hamlets, and from the standpoint of 
the school libraries. It has been my fortune 
within the last few years to visit a great many 
school libraries in isolated farming neighbor- 
hoods. It has been very diflScult in those 
neighborhoods to awaken people to know fully 
the value of good books and of school libraries, 
and I have found that the interest in school 
libraries has been very frequently weakened, 
and by causes that do not lie within the books 
themselves. For instance, I have gone very 
frequently to a country neighborhood and have 
found an argument against the purchase of 
books that the books tumbled to pieces so soon. 
"They fall to pieces; what is the use of get- 
ting them?" they say. For instance, in Wis- 
consin the books for our school libraries have 
been furnished under contract for a time by 
McCIurg, by Maxwell, and others. They do not 
distinguish between the publishers and the 
wholesalers. They say, "We buy some of the 
books of McClurg and his books fall to pieces." 
This discouragement injures the teachers and 
is a drawback on their work in trying to get 
good books. In the small libraries, too, where 
they do not know how to select editions care- 
fully, they buy frequently from the bargain- 
counters. The books tumble to pieces and they 
do not know how to get them rebound. In 
your large libraries you have a system, and 
when a book begins to fall to pieces you have 
it sent to the binder. But here is a man 40, 50, 
or 60 miles from a binder. He does not know 
where there is a binder. When the books be- 
gin to fall to pieces that is the last of them, and 
it is discouraging. I have had a little experi- 
ence with the publishers in this line, and I have 
said to some of them, " We should be very glad 
to put your books on the lists of books in the 
Wisconsin libraries, but they fall to pieces and 
we cannot afford to. Now, if you bind your 
books better we will put them on the lists, and 
we will not otherwise." We have been success- 
ful with some publishers and with others we 
have not. As an example of the work that we 
have done I wish to show you a copy of this 



126 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



edition of " Birds' Christmas carol." You will 
see that it is bound in brown linen. It has upon 
its front cover the same design that is used in 
the ordinary edition. We put for one or two 
years the ordinary edition of "Birds' Christmas 
carol" on our list. I found on going to the 
libraries that they were defaced, the corners 
were split up, and they were filthy. I found 
that the children, when they were allowed to 
handle books that were so filthy, were demor- 
alized by it, and they lost their respect for a 
book by being allowed to handle filthy books. 
This is of course one of the best books that we 
have on our list and we disliked to lose it, and 
I explained to an agent the difficulty that we 
had. He said, " I do not know that we are 
ready yet to publish an edition for the trade in 
a better form, but if you will tell us how many 
you want we will bind for you a special edition 
and your contractor may keep them on sale." 
They have furnished for the last three or four 
years this edition to us in all parts of the state, 
to the school and to the other libraries. The 
Milwaukee library people, who had, I think, 
somewhere near 40 or 50 volumes of this Carol 
in the school libraries, buy from the same con- 
tractor and use them. I also wrote to Hough- 
ton, Mifllin & Co. about " Betty Lester." It 
seems to me that for its purpose in a certain 
class it is one of the best books (if not the best) 
published. But as I visited the libraries of the 
state, and the school libraries specially, it made 
me heartsick to see that beautiful, dainty, 
charming book covered with filth and finger- 
marks. I wrote to the house in regard to it, 
but have not yet been able to get them to put 
it in better binding. I think this Association 
ought to be able to induce Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. to put that book in such a binding that it 
would be useful and well kept upon your 
shelves. 

We brought another means to bear to interest 
the publishers in this matter of putting out bet- 
ter editions. We found certain books that we 
did not feel justified in dropping from the list. 
There are some teachers in the state who have 
their books kept very nicely indeed, some who 
are willing and take pains with such books to 
cover them, although they ought not to be cov- 
ered generally. But we gave a word of advice 
to them and stated that the book was daintily 
bound, and that people who could not take a 
good deal of pains with it had better not buy it, 



and I am confident that the publishers read 
that note. I marked a copy and sent it to 
them. For instance, " Children of the poor," as 
you know, is made on heavy paper; it is very 
poor paper and tears to pieces easily, and is a 
book which in most of the schools is broken in 
two after it has been read once or twice. With 
that book we added a note stating the fact that 
unless they could take good care of it they had 
better not buy it at all. It seems to me that if in 
that admirable list of books something of this 
kind could be done, if a word of caution could be 
put in in regard to certain editions, the publish- 
ers with their publishers' instinct would be 
more likely to try to make better editions; and 
if the American Library Association could as a 
whole join with the school libraries to draw the 
attention of publishers to their poor editions, it 
seems to me that it would be of value. Lists of 
recommended books are published by the state 
departments of North Dakota, Minnesota, Wis- 
consin, Michigan, Maryland, and some other 
states, and also by the state department of New 
York. These recommendations are the means 
of selling hundreds of books for the publishers, 
and if this committee which is to be appointed 
could make an alliance with the school libraries 
it seems to me that they could secure these 
better editions for us. 

As another instance of what we have been 
able to do, many of you remember that when 
the Riverside Library Literature series were 
first put up in the double and triple numbers 
they were put up in pasteboard. We found 
the same difficulty that we found with " Birds' 
Christmas carol." We brought the matter to 
the attention of Houghton, Mifllin & Co., and 
were instrumental in the way of having the 
change made in the binding of that series. 

W. I. Fletcher. — I would like to say a 
word about a certain movement in that direction 
which some of you may remember. I am sure 
it is over a year ago that I had it published in 
the Library journal. I obtained the facts 
from Mr. Jones at Salem, and published with 
comments of my own stating that there were 
certain books that came to rebinding after hav- 
ing been circulated for some time. Certain 
ones had stood it 50 times or more, and others 20 
times. Attention was called to the fact that those 
which stood it the best were published by cer- 
tain publishers. I wish that this effort might 
be carried forward. At that time I expressed a 



FIFTH SESSION. 



127 



wish that other librarians would send in lists 
which they could make when they sent books 
to be rebound, simply making a memorandum of 
how many times the charging slip shows that 
book to have been out and who the publisher is. 
On talking over the matter with Mr. Mifflin he 
said that he for one would be very glad to see 
such a list published. I told him what was the 
fact, that in the honor list I had to include the 
name of Houghton, Mifflin & Co. I wish that 
we might have a more extended statement of 
that kind and be able to name about a dozen 
publishers in the order of durability of their 
books. It would not perhaps be an absolutely 
correct indication, and it should be made plain 
that it was not intended to be. 

A. W. Whelpley. — This subject might be 
carried along farther to great advantage. There 
are commissions for pure food, there are com- 
missions to distinguish between butter and 
oleomargarine; why should there not be one to 
show what a crime it is to publish and print 
books as nearly half the American publishers do? 
In the first place, some of the publishers use their 
stereotype plates till you can scarcely discern 
the print, and they ask the same price that they 
did when the plates were new. Then they 
print on paper which if you look at it will dis- 
integrate, and the binding — well, the least said 
about it the better. These men know that that 
is wrong. The books of Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co., Appleton, and Scribner always wear well. 
They make better books and generally charge 
more than those who give poorer material. 

A. L. Peck. — Houghton, Mifflin & Co. have 
published lately a new Riverside School Libra- 
ry, and were so courteous as to send me a copy 
of " Ivanhoe." I wrote to them and said, "Gen- 
tlemen, I only wish that we could have more 
such works well printed on good paper and well 
bound." By return mail I received the follow- 
ing ; " Will you be so kind as to name all the 
popular books on our list which you would de- 
sire to have printed on better paper and bound 
in the same style as our new Riverside School 
Library ? " So you see from this that the publish- 
ers are willing to give us what we ask for — 
books printed on good paper, in a readable type, 
and well bound. I do believe that good will result 
from this gathering and that other publishers 
will follow the example of Houghton, Mifflin & 
Co. Let us get better editions and more dura- 
ble binding for our best and most wholesome 



literature. I do not get reprints of Miss Holmes's 
novels because I do not wish to increase the 
sale of them. 

W. R. Eastman. — If our committee is to do 
good service to the small libraries I wish they 
would make a clear utterance in regard to the 
extravagance of buying cheap books. The dry- 
goods trade is advertising very largely about 
making prices for libraries. They are selling 
books printed on the poorest paper, in binding 
that is good enough perhaps, but the whole ap- 
pearance of the book is cheap, and many of our 
library trustees feel that they can make their 
money go a good deal farther by buying these 
books than by getting good editions. We have 
this continually coming up in Albany on the 
part of the small libraries, who have but a lit- 
tle money and want to make it go a great ways. 
They can hardly be persuaded that it is not 
good policy to fill their shelves with those cheap 
and shabby books. I think one clear, ringing 
utterance from such a committee as is contem- 
plated now would mark the opinion of this As- 
sociation and have great weight with such li- 
braries. 

F. M. Crunden. — A good deal of this rests 
with the librarian. We refuse to buy poor edi- 
tions, and send them back to the bookseller 
and demand certain editions that we know are 
printed at least on tolerably good paper and in 
good type. The binding is bad in all cases. 

Miss Ellen M. Chandler next read a paper 
entitled 

"do": advice based on experience. 
{Seep. 43.) 
Mr. W. I. Fletcher took the chair and ar- 
ranged for a symposium on various subjects. 
Questions concerning 

library furniture, fixtures, and appliances 

were answered by Mr. C. A. Cutter. 

Pres. Dana. — Can you describe your system 
of charging ? 

C. A. Cutter. — In registration we give to 
the borrower instead of a library card a libra- 
ry pocket. In charging, the book-card (which 
bears the number, the author's name, and the 
title and the classification mark of the book, 
and is always kept in a pocket at the end of the 
book when the book is in the library) is taken 
out from the book pocket and put in the bor- 
rower's pocket, which is kept at the desk as a 



128 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



sort of receipt for the book. The book itself 
goes out. The borrower's pocket bears the 
registration number of the borrower, his name 
and address, so that in case one has to send for 
the book one has the address before one. The 
pocket at the end of the book is stamped with 
the date when the book is to be returned, so 
that the borrower has not the excuse of having 
forgotten when his book was due. These bor- 
rower's pockets are filed away day by day ; 
when the book is returned the clerk, seeing this 
date on the pocket of the book, looks up the 
borrower's pocket in the package for that date 
and returns the book-card to the book and the 
pocket to the borrower. In a very large city 
it would be well that the borrower should keep 
his pocket to serve as his identification card. 
In a small place like Northampton, to save our 
borrowers the trouble of carrying all those 
pockets, we keep them at the library desk in 
registration order. 

G. W. Cole. — How is a borrower's pocket 
better than the usual borrower's card ? 

C. A. Cutter. — I do not know that it is bet- 
ter in itself. I chose it because I intended to 
use my book-card, whose merits I knew from 
experience, and the pocket offered a cheap and 
convenient place to keep the book-card in while 
the book is out. The pocket can do all that the 
card does and this besides. 

Question. — What is the disposition made of 
these pockets containing book-slips between the 
time of charging the book and the time of filing 
the slips ? 

C. A. Cutter. — The pockets are put in a 
tin box, divided into ten unequal compartments, 
one for each group of the classification. This 
makes the count of circulation easy. 

Question. — Do you ever have any trouble 
with the cards falling out? 

C. A. Cutter. — No. The pocket is suffi- 
ciently tight to keep the cards in. 

Question. — What do people have to show 
that they are entitled to books? 

C. A. Cutter. — The pocket if they keep it, 
and the knowledge of their registration letter 
and number when the pocket is at the desk, 
and in a small town recognition by the attend- 
ants. 

Pres. Dana. — Do you have any fence be- 
tween the attendants and the people around 
your counter? 

C. A. Cutter. — I have just put in a railing 



some four feet long to prevent people handling 
the boxes of pockets and cards on the counter. 

Pres. Dana. — Do you approve of fences for 
any purposes? 

C. A. Cutter. — I do not like them. I would 
not have that fence if I could avoid it, but a 
year's experience showed that it was absolutely 
necessary to prevent not so much intentional 
as idle meddling. I want the whole library to be 
and to appear as free as possible, with no marks 
of separation between the force and the public, 
and as few notices about keeping quiet and not 
doing this and that and the other thing as pos- 
sible. I wish my library to appear like a home, 
but open fireplaces, flowering plants, pictures, 
statues, will miss their effect if they are accom- 
panied with the marks of the office and the 
prison. 

W. I. Fletcher. — What kind of chairs would 
you prefer for a reading-room ? 

C. A. Cutter. — Light chairs with arms. I 
prefer cane bottoms. 

Question. — What is a good mucilage? 

C. A. Cutter. — Dextrine. 

Question. — What is the best temporary bind- 
er for weekly periodicals ? 

C. A. Cutter. — I find the spring-back bind- 
er, furnished by the Library Bureau, best for 
the temporary loan of single numbers of period- 
icals, because it can be slipped on and off easily, 
and the Neilson binder best for those periodicals 
that are loaned like books. But neither of these 
is good iox Harper s Bazar ox Youth's Companion. 
They are too heavy. I prefer to make a port- 
folio of red press-board, which is light and costs 
so little that it can be thrown away when it be- 
comes dirty. 

S. S. Green. — I have used the spring-b.ick 
binder for years. 

Miss H. P. James. — We have covers made 
for five cents. They work very nicely, particu- 
larly for circulating. 

J. N. Larned. — Does Mr. Cutter or any one 
else know of any binder that is good for the 
YotitJi's Companion, or a paper of that size and 
kind ? The binders that are good for papers of 
smaller size do not seem to work at all for pa- 
pers of the size of the Youth's Companion. 

F. M. Crunden. — 1 was going to say awhile 
ago that our reading-room attendant has tried 
every sample binder that has come along. She 
is rather conservative and a little bit against 
innovations, but on the whole I think her judg- 



FIFTH SESSION. 



139 



ment is good in preferring the simple arrange- 
ment that we have. It is a portfolio with the 
pasteboard sides covered with paper. At the 
top and bottom are two or three eyelet holes for 
Harper's Weekly and papers of the size of the 
Youth's Companion. She simply puts some 
stitches in along the whole length of the paper 
and fastens through these eyelets, and does ex- 
actly the same with Harper s Magazine and 
Scribner's. In that case there is the trouble of 
using the punch, which does not interfere, how- 
ever, with the binding of the magazine. The 
thing which recommends itself specially to me 
is that it is less expensive than the patent 
binders. 

Miss C. M. Hewins read a paper on 

NEVif AND OLD BOOKS — WHAT TO BUY. 
(.S-,v/. 47.) 

Miss Hannah P. James followed with a paper 
on 

READING-ROOM AND PERIODICALS. 
{Seep. 49.) 

Question. — How do you consider the Ladies' 
Home Journal ? 

Miss James. — It is all right so far as I know. 

Question. — Puck and Jtidgc ? 

Miss James. — I do not think I should spend 
money for them. I think they minister to a 
coarse taste. 

Question. — Won't you lose a class of readers 
by cutting off Puck and Judge that you won't 
get in any other way? 

Miss James. — I do not know ; I never tried 
having them. 

F. B. Gay. — Do you not think that Puck a.nd 
Judge represent the drummer class of the United 
States ? 

Miss James. — They see them on the cars 
every day. 

Question. — How about the Arena ? 

Miss James. — That depends on the constitu- 
ency. Our people do not want it. 

Question. — Youth's Companion ? 

Miss James. — That is all right. 

F. M. Crunden. — A librarian of a normal 
school library requests me to ask whether you 
would put Puck and Judge in that sort of a li- 
brary. 
- F. B. Gay. — Certainly not. 

Miss James. — If they are not good for a nor- 
mal school library, why are they good for the 
public ? 



F. B. Gay. — I think the editorial page of 
Puck is one of the most valuable in this country, 
because it puts in short space things that you 
will not see anywhere else. 

ACCESSIONING, CLASSIFYING, AND CATALOGING. 

W. I. Fletcher. — Accessioning. Do have 
an accession catalog. Make a place for it as 
against what is sometimes said about doing 
away with it by making a combined bill-book 
and accession-book, and add one or two features 
by means of which you can do away with an- 
other record. 

Classifying. Get the best, and when you 
have got it make it better. Make it suit your 
case. As I buy ready-made clothing, I gener- 
ally have them cut to fit a little better after I 
buy them. I think there are two things to be 
guarded against: one is too much of a tendency 
to classify with a great deal of care on abstract 
principles. As against that we want to classify 
the books for use. The other thing is classify- 
ing with too little care, saying that because a 
book resembles certain others it goes with them. 
Danger probably exists in every case of a new 
book that it is a little different from these 
others, and in one sense you put two things to- 
gether which seem opposite to each other. A 
book needs to be examined carefully to see if 
it does resemble these others. Classify care- 
fully on principles of utility. 

Cataloging. Have the author card for a btjok 
written before the accession-book is done, in 
order that the looking-up may be done once for 
all then, and that the record may be about the 
same in the accession catalog that it is on the 
card. Have the cataloging done as promptly as 
possible. Do not allow books to wait before 
they can go into the hands of their would-be 
users to be cataloged. There is no necessity of 
this unless you are flooded with a donation, 
which I hope you are, in which case you cannot 
catalog them all in a day. 

Question. — Do you think it wise to put the 
shelf-mark on the accession-book ? 

W. I. Fletcher. — I would not say that it is 
absolutely necessary, but I prefer to do it. Our 
practice is to write the card without numbering. 
The next process is to have the book put on the 
shelf-list and the number assigned, then that 
number is put on the card and also in the acces- 
sion catalog. 

Question. — A small library of five hundred 



I30 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



volumes has $25.00 to spend for cataloging. 
What kind of a catalog can they make, and 
spend the money to the best advantage ? 

W. I. Fletcher. — I would get a cheap mem- 
orandum-book and put in it all the essentials of 
an accession catalog. It depends a good deal 
on the surroundings of the library. I would get 
at the most convenient local paper and have a 
list printed there, and get copies of those lists 
and use them in the library. 

Question. — If you have but one card would 
it be the author or the subject card ? 

W. I. Fletcher. — Author. 

Question. — If you make the author card the 
principal card, would you not include on the 
subject card, in addition to brief title any facts 
which would indicate the character of the edi- 
tion, the number of volumes, etc., something 
which would indicate the value of that particu- 
lar book ? 

W. I. Fletcher. — I would say the date and 
such other remarks as the cataloger is qualified 
to make should appear. I would be very brief 
and be sure that it is correct. Always have 
first in your catalog the best edition, presuma- 
bly the latest, and if possible have it on the 
same card. The reason is that in a great many 
cases if these are on separate cards, particular- 
ly if the new edition is arranged after the old, 
the person will open on the inferior edition, 
write out the number and call for it and get it, 
and perhaps never know that there is a better 
edition in the library. 

F. M. Crunden. — There have been several 
points brought out and questions asked which 
have been subject to controversy for years and 
regarding which we in our library are saved 
the trouble by having a simpler system. This 
last difficulty that Mr. Fletcher speaks of pre- 
sents no difficulty to us, is of no practical im- 
portance to us, because we do not have any 
shelf numbers. We simply give the author and 
title of the book. That is all that is necessary. 
That saves in nine cases out of ten all necessity 
of going to the catalog at all. I think I am 
correct in holding to the view that the particu- 
lars about a book should be given in the subject 
part of the catalog. If a person looks in the 
author catalog and finds that you have a book 
that he wants by that author, that is the end of 
it. If he is looking through the subject catalog 
he is not satisfied when he finds that you have 
books by certain authors. He wants to know 



the date and all about it. Inasmuch as this 
meeting is intended, as I understand, largely 
for the instruction of novices, I would wish to 
make that point and simply present it to their 
common sense. 

REFERENCE-BOOKS AND REFERENCE WORK. 

S.S.Green. — The first thing is to invite 
everybody to come to the library who has a 
question to ask, an answer to which is likely to 
be found in books. Exert yourself to the ut- 
most to get answers to questions asked. Much 
time of accomplished assistants will be required. 
Curious questions will be asked. I heard John 
Harrison, librarian of the London Library, say 
that Thackeray once came into his library and 
said he wanted to know something about Gen- 
eral Wolfe. He didn't want to know what he 
could get from histories. He wanted to know 
what the color of his breeches was. Questions 
relating to every-day matters will be asked. 
Recently I was asked, " Where shall I find how 
to make a gelatin mould for plaster' of Paris 
casts ? A man says he will let me have the re- 
ceipt if I will pay him $50. I want to get it for 
nothing, if I can." A man came to me two or 
three days before I left home and wanted to 
know how to make plaster masks from the 
faces of living or dead persons. I told an as- 
sistant to get books on modelling in clay and on 
the process in sculpture. He found from these 
in a general way how to make a mask, but not 
as particular an account as he wanted. I found 
a magazine article on the subject, and that gave 
him the details he wanted. A few days ago a 
man came to the library and wanted to know 
what the law of partnership was in Switzerland. 
He didn't know whether he wanted the national 
law or the law of the canton of Zurich. Both 
the national law and that of the canton of Zu- 
rich were borrowed for him. You see what 
kinds of questions are asked. The common, 
every-day questions seem to be the hardest for 
the assistants to answer. 

J. K. HosMER. — The Pabst Brewing Co. not 
long ago offered a prize for a collection of the 
largest number of omens. It was won by a 
Minneapolis lady. These omens were collected 
in our library, and help was furnished her by 
our reference assistant. How much time is a 
library justified in spending in helping such 
people ? 

S.S.Green. — Where important wants are 



FIFTH SESSION. 



131 



to be supplied it seems proper to take consider- 
able time to supply them. In such cases as 
those referred to by Dr. Hosmer, I always say, 
"We will help you and give you just as many 
books as you want. What is your question?" 
Then I tell an assistant to get a half dozen 
books on that subject and set the inquirer at 
work to find what he wants. I tell him that, 
of course, he cannot expect us to take time to 
find the answers to his questions, saying that we 
will make his work light by giving him books 
likely to have them. When he gets through 
with one lot of books we' give him another. 

C. A. Nelson. — When I was in New Orleans 
a great many questions came in from the school- 
children who were seeking answers to the test 
questions given in their school histories. In 
order to save the time of my assistants, I had a 
memorandum made of each question and where 
the answer was found, and when a question 
was repeated, it was a simple matter of con- 
sulting the cards. 

J. K. Hosmer. — We have sometimes been 
puzzled over this question: What animal famous 
in fable made a daring leap which excited great 
merriment and afterwards resulted in an elope- 
ment ? I looked up the answer, and it was one 
of my early triumphs as a librarian, " The cow 
jumped over the moon, the little dog laughed 
to see such sport, and the dish ran away with 
the spoon." 

S. S. Green. — I think it is best that several 
persons in a library should be trained to answer 
questions so that there will be one or more per- 
sons in the library all the time to do it. Then 
I believe they should be taught that they should 
never try to answer a question unless they know 
how to do it, and to pass along questions which 
they cannot answer to a higher officer of the 
library. 

W. C. Lane. — Is it not the proper thing to do, 
instead of answering the questions yourself, to 
tell the people where the answers can be found ? 

S. S. Green. — Certainly. The proper thing 
is not for the librarian or assistant to tell the 
person what the answer to a question is, but to 
give him a book and show him how to find the 
answer to the question for himself. You want 
to teach children how to use books so that they 
will be able to find information in books when 
they want it. 

It would seem as though you ought to have 
a great deal of information in order to do this 



kind of work. The more education you have 
the better. You better read a good newspaper 
every day to find out what people are thinking 
about, and be able to refer them to good author- 
ities on the matters which are under discussion 
in the community. You ought to read a good 
literary paper and keep all the numbers and see 
what literary matters are under discussion. If 
any subject comes into consideration in the 
community, such as faith cure, you ought to 
know what it is. Bear in mind that while you 
cannot have too much knowledge a good libra- 
rian needs to be a walking bibliography rather 
than a walking encyclopjedia. 

Miss C. H. Garland read a paper on 

THE librarian's ANNUAL RErORT. 
{Seep. 65.) 
REPORTS OF THE FINANCE COMMITTEE. 
The members of the finance committee de- 
sire to place on record their sorrow that Mr. 
George W. Cole was obliged, by reason of ill- 
health, to resign the office of treasurer, which 
he filled so acceptably. They are pleased to 
learn that he has so far recovered as to be able 
to resume his work. 

The Association is fortunate in securing the 
services of Mr. E. H. Anderson, librarian of 
Carnegie Library at Pittsburgh, as acting 
treasurer, whose report, as submitted, is most 
satisfactory. 

The receipts of the Association for the year 
from annual memberships have been $1070, and 
from annual fellowships $85. The addition to 
this of the sum of $145 from library member- 
ships is a welcome one. No better work could 
be done by this Association than to call the at- 
tention of the boards of managers of the libra- 
ries of the country to the desirability of enrolling 
the institutions under their charge among the 
members of the Association. 

The payments of the treasurer have been au- 
thorized by the committee and have fallen within 
the estimates. The balance on hand, as report- 
ed by the treasurer, is $1558.14. The number 
of members is 512. 

Respectfully submitted, 

James L. Whitney, 
Gardner M. Jones, 
A. W. Whelplev, 

Sept. 3, i8g6. 

The undersigned have examined the accounts 
of the Treasurer of the American Library Ast 



Finauce 
Committee 



132 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



Finance 
Cojnmittee. 



sociation for 1895-6 and find them correctly 
kept, with vouchers for all payments. 

James L. Whitney, 

Gardner M. Jones, 

A. W. Whelpley, 

Cleveland, Ohio, I 
Sept. 3, 1896. f 

The undersigned report that they find the ac- 
counts of the Trustees of the A. L. A. Endow- 
ment Fund correctly kept. 

James L. Whitney, 

Gardner M. Jones, 

A. W. Whelpley, 



Finance 
Committee. 



Cleveland, Ohio, I 
Sept. 3, 1896. f 

Voted, That the reports be accepted and 
adopted. 

Recess at 5; 37 p.m. 

SIXTH SESSIOX. 
(Thursday, Seitember 3, 1896.) 

Called to order by the President at 8:17 p.m., 
after which J. N. Larned assumed the chair. 

J. N. Larned. — Ladies and gentlemen : I 
take the chair very willingly because I think it 
is desirable that our President should have some 
rest from his arduous labors, and I am quite 
willing to bear my part for that purpose. 

The session this evening is to be devoted en- 
tirely to the discussion of this list which was 
prepared as a Supplement to the A. L. A. Cata- 
log. The list is selected from the publications 
that have appeared since that time in 1893 when 
the selection of books for the A. L. A. Catalog 
ended, bringing it down to the present year and 
as late in the present year as was practicable. 
This Supplement was prepared under the direc- 
tion of a committee appointed by the A. L..'\. 
for that purpose, of which committee Miss Cut- 
ler is the chairman. The list as submitted was 
made from a larger list, which went to each 
member of the committee, and I believe that 
the books that appear in this list are those that 
received not less than three votes from the com- 
mittee. This of course does not represent a 
unanimous judgment on the part of the com- 
mittee, but it simply represents a choice made 
by the votes of at least three members of that 
committee. The list as thus prepared and 
printed was sent out for the criticism of mem- 
bers of the Association, and I suppose that each 



member of the Association received a copy of 
the list and was requested to make any criti- 
cisms or suggestions in regard to it. I under- 
stand from Miss Cutler that only 60 of those 
lists were returned. The remainder are pre- 
sumably in the hands of the members of the 
.Association. It is to be hoped that they have 
all brought their lists with them. If they have 
not, it is impossible to supply them all with lists 
for this evening's discussion. Those that were 
returned have been distributed to the persons 
who returned them, and a few other copies have 
been distributed. 

A plan of discussion has been arranged by 
the committee because it is impracticable to 
have such a list of books as this satisfactorily 
discussed without some quite definite plan. 
The committee have arranged for a division of 
subjects and for a selection of subjects also. 
You will observe that not all the subjects ap- 
pear in the little program * which has been 
printed for this evening's discussion. It is im- 
possible within the two hours that we are to 
give to the subjects to-night to go over them 
all. The discussion on each subject has been 
placed under the direction of some one person 
who will attempt, if it is possible to do so, to 
give some guidance and direction throughout 
the discussion. It has been made a rule by the 
committee for the evening, which will be ad- 
hered to imlcss it is overruled by a vote of the 
Association, that no speaker shall occupy more 
than three minutes. That will be necessary in 
order to make the most of our time. 

report of committee on a. l. a. supplement. 

Mary S. Cutler. — The report of the com- 
mittee is really the list which most of you hold 

♦AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION, 

CLEVELAND, SEPT. 3, 1896, 

A. L. A. Catalogue Suppleinent. 



Report of the committee. 
Introduction, - - - 
Discussion on tentative list : 

Subject Conducted by 

Sociology, F: M. Crunden, 

Science, T: L. Montgomery, 

Useful arts, G. M. Jones, 

History, R. G. Thwaites, 

Children's books. Miss C. M. Hewins, 
Fiction, J. N. Larned, 

All are invited to take part in the discussion. 

Each speaker limited to three minutes. 



Miss M.. S. Cutler 
- C: A. Cutter 



SIXTH SESSION. 



133 



in your hands with the three pages of prefatory 
matter. I do not feel at all sure how many of 
you have read this preface. This summer it 
was my pleasure to attend for the first time Bar- 
num & Bailey's greatest show on earth, and in 
front of one of the biggest signs I saw a man 
calling loudly to the crowd as they passed by 
and exhorting them to read that sign. When I 
picked up the August number of the Library 
JOURNAL and in an editorial article on the A. L. 
A. Supplement read as a suggestion something 
which had been decided upon by the committee 
and printed in this preface, I felt that I should 
have to play here the part of the man in the 
circus and call upon you to read our sign. How- 
ever, I will content myself with emphasizing 
three points for the discussion: 

First, this list is, as it claims to be, only a ten- 
tative list. It does not pretend to be the final 
and unalterable decision of the committee. We 
are hoping to get some light from the discussion 
here this evening, and also from the opinions of 
experts to whom this list will be submitted be- 
fore final publication. It is certainly very im- 
portant in the discussion that we bear constant- 
ly in mind the scope of the list. As the chair- 
man has already said, the list covers a limited 
period; that is, books from January i, 1893, to 
June I, 1S96. Of course, in the final publica- 
tion it will be brought down to date, but as it is 
printed it only extends to June i. The criti- 
cism has been passed more than once that the 
Supplement to the A. L. A. Catalog should not 
have been confined to the current books, that it 
should have contained many of the older books 
which a library starting with the A. L. A. Li- 
brary as a basis might naturally and properly 
add as well as some of the current books. This 
criticism is certainly a perfectly fair one. It 
may be that this plan would have been wiser 
than the plan which the committee decided on. 
It seems to me, as a matter of personal opinion, 
that the plan of the committee was the better 
one, and that we should have ultimately not 
only our A. L. A. Catalog of 5000 volumes, but 
an A. L. A. Catalog also of 10,000 volumes, 
and an A. L. A. Catalog of 25,000 volumes, and 
possibly one of 50,000 volumes, all from the 
standpoint of the public library, these to be ac- 
companied by a yearly supplement of the best 
current books. However, this is a matter of 
opinion. As a matter of fact, for the purposes 
of discussion this evening, we are bound by the 



decision of the committee to stick to the cur- 
rent books, for our A. L. A. Supplement. 

Again, we must bear in mind the scope of the 
list as regards the size of the library planned 
for. The committee have intended to include 
in this list the best books of this period which 
the larger libraries should buy (leaving out the 
very great public libraries like those of Boston 
and Chicago, which presumably will buy prac- 
tically everything that is of any value what- 
ever), and it is their intention in the final publi- 
cation to provide for the smaller libraries, the 
libraries of 5000 volumes, we will say, which 
started out with the A. L. A. Catalog, by check- 
ing in this list books which will be of service 
to them. We shall save endless confusion in 
the discussion if we bear in mind these three 
points: (i) that the list is a tentative list; (2) 
that it covers only books published in the Eng- 
lish language from January i, 1893, to June ij 
1896; and (3) that it is not limited to the uses of 
the small poor library. 

INTRODUCTION. 

C. A. Cutter. — What is there more important 
for us than the choice of books, the selection of 
those tools with which we are to work upon the 
public, the selection of what will in the end de- 
termine whether the public will come to our li- 
braries at all, and what influence we shall have 
on them ? When I realized what it was to under- 
take to select and to build up a library, the A. L. 
A. Catalog was one of the first things to which I 
turned to assist me in the choice of books. We 
got for the library everything in that catalog 
that was not already in the other city library. 
The librarian can hardly have too many aids in 
this work. Although it is a little away from 
the subject, let me mention the advantage which 
I have found in the list appearing every month 
in the Bookman of the boojcs which are most 
popular in the different cities. 

I have no doubt that the Supplement to the 
A. L. A. Catalog now in preparation will be as 
useful as the original list. In bringing us to- 
gether to-night to assist the committee in their 
final decision, of course their purpose was to 
get advice, but there is another good end to be 
attained. This discussion will be to us an ob- 
ject lesson in criticism. The Massachusetts Li- 
brary Club has a board of 15 members, to whom 
are submitted novels which they read and re- 
port upon. I will venture to say that every 



'34 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



member of that board is a much more accom- 
plished critic and a much better judge, after 
having read two novels a week for a year with 
a view of deciding upon them, than he was be- 
fore. So that to-night we ought to go away 
better critics, after having noted the different 
principles on which the different persons who 
will speak judge their books, and having con- 
sidered whether we should judge on the same 
principles or not. It is not so much the judg- 
ment which may be pronounced on any particu- 
lar book which is going to do us any good, but 
seeing why the judgments are rendered by the 
different persons. 

SOCIOLOGY. 

F. M. Crunden. — Such a formal announce- 
ment as we have on this card would seem to 
imply thorough preparation on the part of 
those who were to lead the discussion. I think 
it is only just, in self-defence, that I betray some 
secrets and say that the committee were all 
averse to this sort of an arrangement, and we 
left the whole thing to the chairman. She has 
abused her autocratic power by making these 
assignments and putting them in print, and 
anything in print has the seal of authority. If 
I could have found a quarter of an hour for 
quiet thought, since she told me at noon what 
I was to do, I should have liked to present in 
somewhat consecutive form some of the ideas 
that I had when I was called upon to vote on 
this list. I was very much impressed, as of 
course all of us were, by the remarks made in 
the thoughtful and scholarly address of Mr. 
Larned regarding the ferment of the present 
time. That is constantly in my mind. I was 
reminded of what a friend of mine said not long 
ago, a man of considerable prominence. He 
said that he actually trembled for the fate of 
his children. I do not go that far, because I 
am an optimist. I think everything is going to 
come out all right, but we are certainly in a 
state of great turmoil at present. I therefore 
think that of all the departments in the library, 
sociology is the most important, that all the 
others are important as they lead up to that, 
that all discoveries in science are for the build- 
ing up of a better society. As I said once in an 
address before the St. Louis Commercial Club, 
much better things could be done for the cities 
of St. Louis and Chicago than to bring them 
within two hours of each other by an electric 



railroad. We have developed far enough, as 
Mr. Larned said, on that line. We have found 
means of creating wealth in abundance. What 
we want now is to devise an organization that 
shall secure a more equitable distribution of 
that wealth. The same thing applies whether 
it is material wealth or wealth of knowledge. If 
I were a very rich man I would much rather en- 
dow a magnificent public library for everybody 
in the city and the surrounding country than 
I would a university for a few. I believe it is 
much more important that every boy and girl 
should learn to read his or her native tongue 
than that a few people should learn to read 
Greek and Latin, Hebrew, and various other 
things. It is not of much consequence to 
me what my neighbors believe in matters 
of theology; I consider it of no consequence. 
Any creed, if thoroughly carried out, is good 
enough to live by. It is of no consequence 
to me what he believes about philosophy 
except in so far as it affects his actions in 
daily life, but it is of great consequence to 
me and to all society what his opinions are on 
these great sociological questions that are now 
before the world. It is of great importance to 
me what he believes on the principles of taxa- 
tion, because on that depends the proper devel- 
opment of the city in which I live, and of the 
country of which I am a citizen. 

Referring to Mr. Cutter's last remark as to 
the principle on which I cast in my votes for 
the books, I will say it was in short this : I 
know, and my limited experience and my read- 
ing of history teach me that whatever may be 
the right thing, the best thing, it is not that 
which we have now. I know that surely is not 
the best ; it never has been, it never will be ; 
there is always something better beyond. I 
can therefore clasp hands with anj'body who has 
something new to propose. I may not adopt 
it, but I am willing to consider it. I can clasp 
hands with anybody except the rock-ribbed con- 
servative. Therefore my votes have been in 
this matter of sociology in favor of the books 
that propose new theories. They may not be 
sound, but, at any rate, they are worth consider- 
ing. Some of the old books are just about as 
useful as some of the books on astronomy were 
(if we can dignify it by that name) before the 
time of Copernicus, and they will be just as 
much out of date some years from now as are 
the books of Copernicus. Perhaps it would be 



SIXTH SESSION. 



135 



proper for me to add that I had no more to do 
with this particular department than any other 
member of the committee, and that it was arbi- 
trarily assigned to me by the chairman. 

W. I. Fletcher. — I would like to bring up 
the third title under Sociology, the "Brooklyn 
Ethical Association," with the inquiry whether 
it is not somewhat too fragmentary to deserve 
a place among these books on that subject. My 
impression is that it is a collection of quite short 
pers, possibly not quite worthy of a place in this 
list. 

F. M. Crunden. — I am thoroughly in favor 
of including those books. I think that a few 
pages on a live question and with discussion of 
it by bright men and women, such as take part 
in those meetings of the Brooklyn Ethical Asso- 
ciation, are worth more than a whole volume in 
the way of a systematic treatise. It seems to 
me above all things what we want are books or 
chapters of a single page that will awaken 
thought. 

G. M. Jones. — I will say as Mr. Crunden has 
said, that these brief essays, though they may 
not settle very much, are very stimulating. 

S. S. Green. — I thought all those books were 
considered very good indeed. 

W. A. Bardwell. — They are very good 
books. 

F. M. Critnden. — I should not take the au- 
thority of Brooklyn ; Brooklyn might be partial, 
but I certainly would put every one of them 
into the collection. This last is included be- 
cause it is the last one out. 

Mary S. Cutler. — The earlier publications 
are in the A. L. A. Catalog. 

C. W. Andrews. — One of them is in this 
list under Biology. 

F. M. Cru.nden. — Under Political science I 
would call special attention to Prof. Commons's 
" Proportional representation." As that ques- 
tion certainly lies at the basis of all political 
reform, it ought to be in every library. 

W. A. Bardwell. — Codman's " Brook Farm " 
is represented by Rev. Mr. Chadwick as being 
a very poor work. 

Miss C. M. Hewins. — It is a book of some- 
what gossipy reminiscences of Brook Farm 
and of the people who were there, and has a 
certain value in relation to the transcendental 
movement. It is not a history of it, but a sup- 
plement to some of the histories of the tran- 
scendental period in New England. 



W. I. Fletcher. — I would call attention to 
Call's "Coming revolution," to say that I do 
not know who this Call is. 

F. M. Crunden. — I read that book with a 
great deal of interest. There was some doubt 
expressed by members of the committee, and I 
checked it with a double check and put oppo- 
site, what I now repeat with emphasis, that 
as an awakener of thought it is worth any 
average dozen books in the list. If you read 
it I think you will agree with me. You may 
not agree with his view, but you will agree 
that it sets people thinking, and thinking, 
too, on live questions of the day, the life that 
now is. It is a call to the unawakened. 

W. I. Fletcher. — It seems to me that we 
want to be cautious in recommending, as it is 
a rather serious business for the A. L. A. to 
stand behind this catalog. I am a little in 
doubt, with all respect to friend Crunden's 
views, about our recommending books whose 
chief recommendation is that they are awaken- 
ers of thought. A good many of the most 
questionable books published are books whose 
chief recommendations are that they set people 
to thinking. I do not know just what is best 
to do about this, but, knowing a little about the 
character of this book, and not knowing who 
the author is, I should question the advisabil- 
ity of the Association recommending it. We 
have a long list on Political Economy, and it 
seems to me that we might cut it down a little. 



T. L. Montgomery. — It may seem rather 
presumptuous in me to criticise in any way a 
list which has been so carefully prepared as 
this has been by very competent people, but in 
general I would say that if I make any mis- 
takes I hope you will ascribe them to my ex- 
treme youth. 

The point spoken of by Miss Cutler was, I 
think, very well taken. I think that in cases o£ 
this sort, where we are adding to what is sup- 
posed to be a very valuable collection of books 
for library purposes, it would be very much 
better if we were allowed to choose these books 
from the whole realm of knowledge rather than 
to confine them to the new books. Going over 
the list, I would take the opposite course from 
Mr. Crunden in Science, I think, and not admit 
anything that has new ideas in it till the library 
is stocked with the books that have established 



136 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



notions with regard to the several sciences. 
Then, I think, when a person has thoroughly 
mastered those, perhaps a few books of the 
newer creation might be put in. 

The books of Ball should be in everybody's 
library, and more specially the "Story of the 
sun." The book by Bonney has much justifica- 
tion. " History of mathematics" is an exceed- 
ingly good work. "Mars" is a very sound 
book. It seems peculiar that Tarr's " Geology " 
should be mentioned and Geikie's * " Text-book 
of geology " should be left out. I think 
Keane's f "Ethnology" and Osborn's "From 
the Greeks to Darwin" are the best books. 

In regard to the botanical section Dana's 
books are very good, and Mr. Gibson's " Edible 
toadstools and mushrooms " is exceedingly 
good. With regard to Botany generally I should 
advise Koehner's "Systematic botany," in four 
volumes, as the most important book on that 
subject. It is an exceedingly valuable treatise 
and the text is far above the plates, which were 
very good. 

One of the very best books on Zoology is 
Comstock's " Manual for the study of insects." 
So is Hickson's " Fauna of the deep sea," and 
Houssaye's " Industries of animals," and Scud- 
der's books. Tryon's " Structural conchology " 
is an exceedingly good book. It sells for $4.50. 
It is not a new book, but is more valuable than 
most of the books mentioned in a list such as 
this. 

In general in the selection of books for a 
popular library I think a mistake is made of 
getting a tremendous lot of books that no one 
knows anything about. It seems to me very 
much better to get a number of guides, or a 
standard text-book, than to get a whole mass of 
material, more specially in astronomy. In the 
libraries I have visited they have more in as- 
tronomy than all the rest of natural sciences 
put together. It is not more interesting, cer- 
tainly, than the rest of the scientific sub- 
jects. 

G. M. Jones. — Geikie's "Text-book of geol- 
ogy " did not come in because it is a new edition 
of an old book, and the committee decided that 
we should confine ourselves to books originally 
published within the period. That would ap- 
ply also to Useful Arts. I was ruled out on 

* Geikie's "Text-book of geology" is in the A. L. A. 
Catalog, 
t In the A. L. A. Catalog. 



some books because they were new editions of 
old books. 

In regard to astronomy, I think it is one of 
the most popular subjects in the library. Good 
popular books in astronomy are always in de- 
mand. That is a reason why we should have 
more books on astronomy. 

C. W. Andrews. — I would like to call the 
attention of the committee to the fact that they 
have included one book in Chemistry, and, so 
far as I can find out, two or three on Physics, 
to about 15 or 20 on Botany, the same number 
in Zoology and the same number in Biology. 
It does seem to me that there is a slight lack of 
proportion. 

Cyrus Adler. — It occurred to me that it 
might be well to recommend Bolton's "Select 
bibliography of chemistry," and I think that 
Lord Rayleigh's "Theory of sound" is as good 
a book as has appeared in a great many 
years. 

G. W. Cole. — A great deal has been said in 
regard to children in libraries. It seems to me 
that if we confine ourselves in Science to tech- 
nical books and the advanced treatises there 
will be nothing for the children to take hold of 
and to interest them in these sciences. As has 
been said, we want something that they will 
become interested in and that will lead them 
up, and for that reason I think that these popu- 
lar books, which as far as my observation 
goes are taken out to a great extent in the 
popular libraries, should be included in such a 
list as this. 

S. H. Berry. — I believe it is our place and 
privilege to push this sort of book to the front. 
If one once gets interested in beginnings of in- 
vestigation in these scientific lines, then he will 
go forward and be able to make use of the 
higher treatises which he could not first have 
made any use of whatever. 

T. L. Montgomery. — I think the trouble 
has been that so few of these books are written 
by good men. They are almost all treatises 
written by people who have had very little ex- 
perience in the study of science, and they are 
not only superficial but they are written at the 
expense of science as a usual thing. I think 
that if you get books of the character of " The 
story of a candle" there is no trouble in 
making it popular, but there must be the per- 
son back of it to make the book worth any- 
thing. 



SIXTH SESSION. 



137 



USEFUL ARTS. 

G. M. Jones. — The criticism has been made 
upon the list of Useful Arts as submitted by the 
committee that it is long in proportion to the 
whole list. That is true. We have about 200 
titles which come under the heading of Useful 
Arts, but as is suggested in the heading the 
department of Useful Arts is one in which the 
ordinary public library buys only in certain 
lines. The library in the farming community 
would buy the books on agriculture; a library 
in Philadelphia would buy books on coal-mining 
and iron-raining; the library in Lowell, Mass., 
would buy books on cotton and wool manu- 
manufacture, and so on. We have thought it 
proper that we should include books on all 
branches of Useful Arts, and that explains the 
length of the list. If you look at the list you 
will find that about two pages are included 
under the head of Engineering, which looks 
disproportionately long, but if you run your 
eye through the list you will see that there are 
very few cases in which the books duplicate 
each other. There will be one or two or three 
books on engineering in general, and one or 
t%vo or three on the steam-engine, and so on, 
so that after all the list is not disproportion- 
ately long, I think. 

There is another matter in this connection 
of which the chairman of the committee has 
thought it well I should speak, and that is in 
regard to the advice of specialists in select- 
ing books. The experience of our committee 
seems to be that specialists are not best fitted 
to recommend books for the ordinary public 
library. The specialist looks at matters from 
too elevated a standpoint. Mr. Montgomery 
has had a little too much, I think, of that way 
of looking at things in speaking of books on 
Science. The specialist will not look at a book 
on Electricity unless it is full of mathematics, 
going into higher trigonometry, perhaps into 
calculus, while in our libraries 99 out of 100 
readers know little about mathematics. The 
specialist is also more apt to have prejudices, 
and, as Mr. lies suggested in his paper, they 
might condemn the man who does not exactly 
believe as they do in regard to some disputed 
points. 

H. J. Carr. — From my experience I agree 
most heartily witff Mr. Jones's remarks. Mr. 
Jones says Philadeljihia would buy only books 



on coal and iron mining. On the contrary, we 
should want books on all manufacturers' arts. 

There is one book in Chemical Technology 
(hat 1 would question very much — Gathmann's 
" .American soaps." It is an exceedingly ex- 
pensive book in proportion to others named in 
the list, costing $15. I have had occasion to 
go over the subject with two soap manufactu- 
rers, and they reported that it was a very ex- 
pensive book, and that Carpenter's "Soap, 
candles, glycerine, etc.," filled the bill and 
cost about $4 or $4.50. 

G.M.Jones. — There is no department of 
the list upon which the committee more anx- 
iously invites criticism from those who are 
posted than the department of Useful Arts. I 
found on going through the list that there are 
about 450 titles to be dealt with. Of these 
I found I had about 125 in my own library. 
Most of the others I have looked at, mostly at 
the Boston Public Library. Of course I am not 
an expert on these matters. No man can be an 
expert on all branches. I have simply been 
able to judge whether the book has been well 
made, whether the author appeared to be. an 
authority, and so on. I feel my ignorance 
largely, and if anybody who has had experi- 
ence with any of these books would inform me 
of any poor books, I should be specially glad 
to know of them. I do not need so much to be 
told what the good books are, but I want to be 
told of the poor books, so that the books can be 
omitted from the final list. 

G. W. Cole. — Under Mechanic Trades half 
the list is made up of books on bookbinding. I 
suppose that arises from the fact that these are 
all the books that are published during the period 
covered. There is a question in my mind why 
the Supplement to the A. L. A. Catalog should 
not be compiled on the theory that the 1600 next 
best books should have been selected, not only 
from those which are current, but also from 
the best books of all time. 

H. J. Carr. — I have been administering a 
library that has been buying books of this char- 
acter and largely guided by the principle indi- 
cated by Mr. Jones. We buy not to exceed 
$3000 worth of books a year. I had one of my 
assistants go through the list and attach call 
numbers to such books as we had, and I find 
that, with the exception of fiction, we have 
about 90^ of the books on this list. 



138 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



HISTORY. 

R. G. Thwaites. — I have very few remarks 
to make by way of introduction. The depart- 
ment of History, like that of Fiction, is one that 
almost every intelligent librarian is supposed to 
know all about. The committee, I might as 
well confess, was very much at sea on the 
question of proportion in the matter of History 
and Travel. The list of Individual Biographies, 
commencing on page 3, is, in my opinion, dis- 
proportionate to other departments of History. 
Had my individual vote carried the point, I 
think that at least a third of the books men- 
tioned here would have been omitted; yet 
doubtless there are good reasons for including 
all of them; there seemed, any way, to be good 
reasons in the minds of the majority of the 
committee. I doubt the policy, myself, of the 
average public library going so minutely into 
Biography as this list does. It seems to me 
that such a library should collect only the lives 
of purely representative men and women, rather 
than those who have figured solely in the by- 
ways of life. There are a great many biog- 
rafthies here which I would myself eradicate; 
they are all good biographies, though some of 
them cannot command general interest. Of 
course every public library should purchase bi- 
ographies of the distinguished citizens of its 
own particular section. A library in New Eng- 
land would wish a great many biographies of 
New England people, that would be of little use 
to libraries in the Middle or Western states. 
That is a matter of local determination. If we 
pass for a moment to the history of the United 
States, there is one work in the list which many 
of you may object to and upon which I would 
be glad to have opinions. That is, President 
Andrews's " History of the United States." I 
would like to have the opinions of those present 
upon this book. It has been severely attacked, 
particularly in The A'alion. What does Dr. 
Hosmer think of it? 

J. K. HoSMER. — I have never read it. 

S. S. Green. — I think it is very poor. 

H. L. Elmendork. — I have read it, and I 
agree with Mr. Green. 

A. W. Whelpley. — We would like to know 
why Mr. Thwaites would scratch it out, as I in- 
fer that he would. 

Mr. Thwaites. — Upon the general grounds 
laid down in The Nation. The review was per- 
haps too severe on the whole, but still it is not 



altogether a creditable book. It has in it too 
much of the newspaper manner, both as to 
treatment and material, to be seriously recom- 
mended to the inquiring student. 

There are two other books, Mrs. Latimer's 
latest productions in her series on the 19th cen- 
tury: " England in the 19th century " and " Eu- 
rope in Africa in the 19th century." Personally, 
I consider them "paste and scissors" work. 

W. I. Fletcher. — I should commend "Eu- 
rope in Africa in the igth century" on account 
of its availability. 

F. M. Crunden. — I was going to say the 
same thing. " England in the 19th century" I 
voted against, because I think it has no par- 
ticular value. They are both works of scissors 
and paste, but "Europe in Africa in the 19th 
century " is on a subject that is very much in 
the public mind now, and about which we have 
insufficient information, and therefore on the 
ground, as was said, of availability, it ought to 
be included. 

J. N. Larned. — I have an idea that the 
Latimer books are very good for what they pur- 
port to be. They only purport to be compila- 
tions. They seem to me very good specimens 
of compilation. They are very useful to a large 
class of people. 

Mr. Thwaites. — There is Longstreet's" From 
Manassas to Appomattox." I think it is a ques- 
tion whether we ought to include in so restricted 
a list as this books of detail like that. 

S. S. Green. — No books in a public library 
are more in demand than books on the Civil 
War. There are an immense number of old 
soldiers who still take an interest in following 
the records of the war. 

J. K. Hosmer. — I should say that it is a book 
that should come in. It seems to me that Long- 
street is one of the most interesting figures that 
came up in connection with the Civil War, and 
his presentation of the great struggle is some- 
thing of the utmost interest. 

II. L. Elmendork. — I find it much used. 

H. J. Carr. — Powell's " Fifth Army corps" 
came to us with Longstreet's work, and our G. 
A. R. men, who are very strong in Pennsyl- 
vania, want both of them, and they read both 
as far as we can judge. As Lincoln said, " For 
those that like that sort of thing, it is the sort 
of thing they like." 

C. A. Nelson. — It seems to me that when 
you come to an author such as Longstreet, 



SIXTH SESSION. 



139 



whether he be a literary man or not, his book 
should come into a public library which has any 
collection whatever relating to the Civil War. 
I think that we have reached a period in our 
history when people looking back on the con- 
flict want to know what was done or what was 
said by the generals on both sides ; and the 
books of Longstreet and Johnston will be read 
with just as much interest as those of Grant 
and Sherman. 

Mr. Th WAITES. — I would like to know wheth- 
er many librarians purchase all the regimental 
histories in their state ? 

S. S. Green. — I think it would be advisable 
to purchase histories of all the regiments of 
one's own state and of certain neighboring 
states, and, in general, histories of the army 
corps. 

Mr. TuwAiTES. — There are many local his- 
tories in this list of ours which we are recom- 
mending for general libraries throughout the 
United States. The question might arise 
whether such a local work as Child's " An old 
New England town" ought to be here recom- 
mended ; whether that ought not to be left to 
the judgment of the local libraries. 

W. I. Fletcher. — I would suggest that that 
book has a great value, outside of its references 
to local facts. 

F. M. Crunden. — Will you give us an opin- 
ion of Lummis's little book, "Spanish pioneers " ? 
It is a small book, and yet if it is correct in its 
facts it is a very desirable book to have in 
every library. I read it with great interest, 
and an eight-year-old nephew of mine read it 
with equal interest. 

Mr. TnwAiTEs. — I think Lummis's books are 
very interesting indeed. He is an excellent 
writer. 

F. M. Crunden. — The value of this book is in 
correcting wrong impressions in which too many 
American boys are growing up. 

Mr. Thwaites. — I suppose that most of you 
have, and you all ought to have, Jamieson's 
" Dictionary of United States history." But I 
would call attention to the fact that it has many 
mistakes in it. Nevertheless it is very useful, 
more so than Lossing's book, now out of print. 

Fiske's "Discovery of North America" is, 
too, a most admirable thing. Every librarian is 
liable to have questions speared at him rela- 
tive to mounds and Indians, and other matters 
of American ethnology and archasology, and 



ought to be familiar with the opening chapter 
of Fiske's* " Discovery of America," which is 
the best up-to-date summary which we have. 
I cannot say as much for his " History of the 
United States." 

Question. — What of Harper's "Book of 
facts ?" 

Mr. Thwaites. — It is ah Americanized edi- 
tion of Hayden's " Dictionary of dates." 

W. I. Fletcher. — Will you kindly give us 
the gist of expert comment on that book ? 

Mr. Thwaites. — Gentlemen who have spoken 
to me about that book say that so far as they 
have examined it critically, in certain features, 
it has in it numerous errors. 

I consider Fiske's " History of the United 
States " one of the least satisfactory small one- 
volume histories that we have. The bibliog- 
raphy in it, by another hand, is of little value. 
The distinguishing characteristic of that bibli- 
ography is, that it mentions all the works on 
American history and biography issued up to 
date by the publishers of this particular book, 
and none of the histories of rival publishers 
that have appeared in the last 20 years. A gen- 
tleman has told me that in a conversation with 
Mr. Fiske relative to his " History of the United 
States," the latter confessed that he had had 
very little to do with some portions of it. 

W. I. Fletcher. — I cannot help remarking 
that a friend of mine informed me in confidence 
that Dr. Jamieson had had very little to do 
with some parts of his book; and I thought as 
much when I read it. 

S. S. Green. — John Fiske's little "History 
of the Revolution " seems to me one of the finest 
books on Revolutionary history. 

Mr. Thwaites. — In regard to Longman's 
" Gazetteer," edited by Chisholm, recently is- 
sued, I would say that it is most excellent for all 
British colonies, but for the United States it is 
rather weak. 

S. S. Green. — I wrote many of the articles 
on Massachusetts cities. 

Mr. Thwaites. — And in the preface you will 
find words thanking the conductor of this sec- 
tion for having contributed " very much on 
American cities." [Laughter.] 

children's books. 
Miss C. M. Hewins. — Most of the children's 
books in the A. L. A. Supplement are under 

* Tn A, L, A. Catalog. 



140 ' 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE 



Fiction. Some of them are hidden away in So- 
ciology, and I should even recommend as a 
children's book that light, pernicious, and su- 
perficial work, Abbott's " The birds about us." 
I like very much James Baldwin's "Horse 
fair," which tells of all the famous horses in 
story, mythology, and history. Then Boyesen's 
" Norseland tales " is good. Helen D. Brown's 
"Little Miss Phoebe Gay" is a very pretty 
child's story. Coffin's " Daughters of the Rev- 
olution " is a good Revolutionary story for young 
people. Du Chaillu has been very much criti- 
cised. Joel C. Harris's books are very delight- 
ful for the children who enjoy them. I ques- 
tion whether the children in our public schools, 
who have h.id to learn English after they came 
to school, or who have not any books at home, 
would enjoy Uncle Remus's stories as much as 
children brought up in a different atmosphere 
would, but they are very delightful to children 
who have a great many books at home. 

Then the Henty question comes up. We 
were talking it over in the train the other day. 
I read within a few days an article in one of the 
English magazines (and if we had had time to 
breathe here I should have gone into the library 
and refreshed my memory about it) about the 
indifference of the boys of the present day to 
Scott and their love for Henty. The writer 
claimed that there was room for both authors. 
My own theory about Henty is that the frame- 
work of the story is always the same. The 
hero goes through a number of adventures 
and shows a remarkable amount of wisdom for 
his years. He is not a street boy. He is a 
boy somewhat outside the e.xperience of our 
own boys in school. A boy who has read 
Hcnly will know that there was such a man as 
Charles xii. of Sweden; he will know something 
about the republic of Venice and the Massacre 
of St. Bartholomew, something about Russia 
and the wars in India; he will remember that 
there was once a great fire in London, and 
something about earlier English history. It is 
very possible, as we all know, for a boy to go 
through school and study the historical text- 
books without having anything to clinch the 
facts in them, and I believe that Henty's books 
do that. 

Mrs. Jamison's " Toinette's Philip" is a very 
prettily-told story. It is romantic. It is a story 
of a lost child. His relatives are discovered by 
and by and he has a happy home. I recom- 



mend Captain Charles King's "Cadet days." 
"The jungle book " and "The second jungle 
book " ought to be accepted. Emma Marshall's 
" Kensington Palace" is a good book for girls 
studying English history, and performs the 
same thing for girls that Henty's books do 
for boys. 

Munroe's " Snow-shoes and sledges " is very 
good. I think that a boy who read "Fur- 
seal's tooth" and "Story about the seas" 
would have a more tender heart for animals all 
his life, and I think that he would be unwilling 
to do anything as he grew up that would en- 
courage the dreadful cruelty of killing the 
mother seals. 

The " Story of Jack Ballister's fortunes," by 
Howard Pyle, is good for a boy that likes that 
kind of a story. Marshall Saunders's " Beauti- 
ful Joe " is a story that takes the place of "Black 
beauty," and one of the children in the Hart- 
ford schools who was asked to write about the 
books and favorite characters she had read 
about during the year, said : " My two favorite 
characters are ' Beautiful Joe ' and ' Thomas 
Jefferson.'" M. E. Seawell's naval books are 
very good for the period covered, and are 
among the best books of the year for children. 

Gertrude Smith's "Arabella and Araminla" 
stories are very delightful. I gave the book to 
one of my library committee to read. He is one 
of the members of the board of education of 
the state of Connecticut. He is a man who 
does a great deal of educational work and has 
written some pamphlets on phonetics. He is 
much interested in teaching children the art of 
reading, and he said he thought it was the very 
best book for children. He said the only ob- 
jection he had to introducing the book in the 
schools was its cost. It is $2 and no discount. 
I have been trying it on a little girl, who is de- 
lighted with it. One day the copy was taken 
out of the house and carried over to amuse the 
little granddaughter of one of our former presi- 
dents. The little girl came up to look for the 
book and was told that it had gone, and she 
said, " If I cannot have it, I am very glad that 
Lucy can," and Lucy was just as delighted with 
it as Josephine was. 

I would say of Trowbridge's "Three boys on 
an electrical boat" that the electricity in it is 
correct. "When Molly was six," by E. O. 
White, is another sweet, wholesome book for 
girls. We have no books in our library that 



SIXTH SESSION. 



141 



are more of a delight to the children, especially 
the children from poorer families, than Andrew 
Lang's Green, Yellow, Red, and Blue fairy- 
books, and his " Red true story-book." Lum- 
mis has some good Indian stories which I 
think are all right for children. Some of the 
short scientific books, such as " Story of a piece 
of coal," by E. A. Martin, are not beyond the 
child who likes to read about such things. 
Scudder's books on butterflies certainly need no 
recommendation in this direction, and Miller's 
"Four-handed folk" is interesting. Jenks's 
"Century World's-Fair book," I think, is a 
good book and I should recommend it. " Tom- 
my Toddles" is here. I think myself that it is 
a poor imitation of "Alice in Wonderland." 
Miss Cutler thinks differently. 

Question. — How about Stanley's book, " My 
dark companions and their strange stories " ? 

Miss Hewins. — That is not a child's book. 

T. L. Montgomery. — There is one book 
which I think is very undesirable. It is Eugene 
Murray-Aaron's " Butterfly-hunters in the Car- 
ibbees." It is very untrue from cover to cover, 
and is a book that has no foundation in fact. 

W. I. Fletcher. — What about the Elsie 
books ? 

Miss Hewins. — We condemn them. 

R. G. Thwaites. — Don't you think it's about 
time to have a funeral for nine-tenths of the 
children's literature of the present day ? 

Miss Hewins. — -I do. 

Mr. Thwaites. — Just so long as librarians 
persist in buying the " rot " (it is a professional 
term, Sir), which circulates as children's litera- 
ture, in the form of books and in the alleged 
children's magazines, it will continue to be 
published. I think that nine-tenths is of such 
a character that it ought never to be placed in 
the hands of our young people at all. You are 
feeding a child with skimmed milk, when he 
ought to have full cream. Most childrem may 
just as well have good solid literature put into 
their hands, right off, and not be led up to it by 
the easy path of so-called "language lessons." 
When I was a boy, we were at ten years of age 
put right into Greene's big English grammar, 
and I fancy we got along just as well as our 
children, who have to wade through several 
series of language lessons before getting down 
to business on the "parts of speech." The 
same strictures are applicable to the current 
notion that children need to be "led up" to 



solid literature. My experience convinces me 
that this is a fallacy. 

Miss Hewins. — In our cities a very large 
proportion of the children have to learn English 
besides learning to read, and I find that a great 
many children twelve years old read about the 
same kind of English that you and I would 
read German if we had studied it one winter. 

R. G. Thwaites. — Are these children's books 
written and published and bought by our libra- 
rians for the benefit of foreign children, or for 
our own ? 

Miss Hewins. — In cities the proportion of 
foreign children is larger than American-born 
children. The proportion of children who have 
books at home is very small, and for children 
about twelve years old we find that the simplest 
fairy-tales are all that they can grasp. 

Miss L. E. Stearns. — We have over 80;^ 
of foreign-born population in Milwaukee. The 
"Prudy" and "Dotty Dimple" books teach 
them English. They read German an hour a day 
at school, and English at school, and we want 
them to talk English as soon as possible. That 
is why we use these books as the best kind we 
can find. 

Miss Tessa A. Kelso. — We have had a great 
deal of talk about children and the relation of 
the school in what seems to me an extremely 
superficial manner. It is true that the teachers 
claim that many of the magazines and so-called 
juvenile books are historical, but they bring the 
childi'en into a blasJ attitude of mind, and you 
cannot get them to touch other books that are 
quite within their capacity. 

I think it is too bad that we should encourage 
the publication of so much of this literature 
written for children which utterly unfits them 
for the reading of books that are quite within 
their understanding. I wish we might have a 
more serious consideration of what kind of 
books we are giving these teachers, not how 
many. 

FICTION. 
Conducted by J. N. Lamed. 
F. M. Crunden. — The President called on me 
this morning to speak about a matter which I 
thought could be most appropriately brought up 
in connection with the discussion of Fiction. I 
have here a dozen or twenty copies of the Pro- 
gram for iSf)6-7 of the Modern Novel Club, a 
club that has been carried on in St. Louis for 
the last eight or ten years, which -makes a study 



142 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



of the modern novel. Mrs. Stone, the lady 
who originated this club, and, by the way, her 
Novel Club ante-dated Moulton's " Study of the 
novel," and also the study of the novel under 
some other professor at Yale College, holds 
that the novel is a reflection of modern life in 
all its phases. She holds, too, that modern life 
is the thing that is interesting and important 
for us to study; that it finds its best reflection 
in the modern novel; that you cannot get a 
great many people to read the essay which pre- 
sents the thought of the present time, but that 
they will read the novel. She therefore argues 
in favor of the study of the modern novel. I 
will leave these copies of the Program here for 
those that may be interested in them. Her 
name is Mrs. C. H. Stone. 

At the meeting of this committee the other 
night three of us found, on comparing notes 
with each other, that the last official act done 
by each of the three before leaving our libraries 
was to give directions for the purchase of all 
the books on the money question. Before I 
left one list had come in of twenty or thirty 
books, nearly all of them in paper covers, and 
some of them containing only a few pages, and 
some small pamphlets. I would simply call 
attention to the importance of collecting these 
books now, because in a year from now you 
will probably not be able to get them. It is 
those books that cost scarcely anything that 
are worth preserving now. Furthermore, Mr. 
Thwaites spoke of a plan of his of sending to 
the campaign committees of every party and 
getting their publications now while they are 
to be had. He carries it to a still greater ex- 
tent, to pasters, leaflets, and newspaper cut- 
tings, which he places in scrap-books, so that 
he has a complete history of the campaign. 

J. N. Larned. — I do not know whether I was 
assigned to the leadership of the discussion of 
Fiction by Miss Cutler on the supposition that 
I read all the novels that are published, or on 
the contrary assumption that I do not read any, 
and am therefore unprejudiced. As a matter 
of fact, I must confess to the reading of a good 
many novels, and I also must confess that a 
very large number that are likely to be called 
into question are books that I have not read. 

Perhaps the most serious question of book 
selection that comes up in libraries is that con- 
nected with the novel. The novel, in the first 
place, is a piece of literature; in the second 



place it is a question of morals, and the ques- 
tion of morals is really the serious one that 
arises. It is very hard indeed to draw the lines, 
for we must draw them somewhere, against the 
theory which is gaining ground in modern fic- 
tion, the theory of purposelessness in the novel 
combined with the theory of realism, which de- 
scends to things which are of questionable pro- 
priety in treatment. There are certain very 
important facts in life which we have no busi- 
ness to ignore, which it is our duty to become 
acquainted with, to know as much about as we 
can know, and to deal with as thoroughly as 
we can. It is the business of literature and it 
is the business of art to deal with those facts 
when they come in the way, but I think the ques- 
tion that arises in this matter of literature, with 
reference to facts of the kind to which I al- 
lude, is whether it is at all the province or the 
duty or the right of art and literature to go out 
of their way to seek for these facts. But if they 
come in their way necessarily, let them be dealt 
with plainly and squarely and honestly. But 
when the writer who professes a great contempt 
for the novel of purpose, for example, produces 
a novel which distinctly has a questionable pur- 
pose, as is very often the case, then he is show- 
ing himself to be false to his own theory, and 
he has no right to be judged with any refer- 
ence to the justness of that theory at all. I 
think that is a fact with regard to a great many 
novels that are questionable in the issues of the 
present day. The spirit in which that kind of 
literature is dealt out to us and that kind of art 
is prepared for us is a spirit which would bring 
toadstools and toads and old bones into our par- 
lors, and would send us to the garbage dumps 
for our picnicking, and perhaps give us the 
boiler-shop for our music. Those are the ugly 
things in life which we have got to have and 
got, I say, to deal with; but it is not necessary 
that we should undertake to make them any 
part of the decorative outline of life or under- 
take to deal with them in a decorative way. 
Among the books mostly of this nature that 
have been called in question, in the correspond- 
ence which the chairman of the committee has 
had with members of the Association to whom 
this list has been submitted, there are several, 
the titles of which I will read, and they will al- 
most necessarily be brought up for discussion, 
and beyond these I hope there will be discus- 
sion of others that may be suggested. 



SIXTH SESSION. 



'43 



There is Mrs. Burnett's " Lady of quality," 
which I have not read and have no opinion 
about, but I have heard a very vigorous opinion 
of the book expressed this evening which I 
hope will be repeated on the floor. 

Caine's "The Manxman," Crane's "Red 
badge of courage," Frederic's "Damnation of 
Theron Ware," Morrison's " Tales of mean 
streets " ; I did read a few of Morrison's " Tales 
of mean streets" for the purpose of having an 
opinion upon the book, and I felt as mean as a 
mean street after I had finished it. 

Then there are the tales of Parker and the 
Henty books on which Miss Hewins has com- 
mented. Those are the books in the Fiction 
list which have been called in question in the 
correspondence which the chairman of the com- 
mittee has had. I would like to have some ex- 
pressions of opinion on Mrs. Burnett's "Lady 
of quality." 

H. L. Elmendorf. — The best criticism I 
have heard on the book is that she is a lady of 
bad quality. 

W. F. Stevens. — My private opinion ex- 
pressed publicly is that it is not fit to be read. 

S. S. Green. — I have not read the book, but 
Miss Anna Tickftor, who is at the head of the 
Society for study at home, told me that she con- 
sidered it a very bad book for young people to 
read. It is a story of a lady whose life is very 
wrong, who reforms, but marries somebody of 
great wealth and lives in luxury all the time 
after. She ought to have gone into obscurity 
instead of being placed in a prominent position. 

W. \. Fletcher. — I understand that there is 
a very serious objection to the book ; that the 
style of the language is very inferior. 

J. K. Hosmer. — I have read the "Lady of 
quality," and I read it with very great interest, 
because it was written by the author of " Little 
Lord Fauntleroy." I think that it is a story of 
power, though lacking in artistic quality. The 
book is an uncompromising picture of life 
as it was in the beginning of the last century. 
There is plenty of profanity in it, and no veil is 
thrown over other matters that are commonly 
concealed. It seems to me that it is a book that 
is questionable, although it is a book which has 
strong marks of power, though very faulty. 

Mrs. Zeli-A a. Dixson. — I think the whole 
question of that book should rest with the per- 
sons who are to read it. I think there are a 
large number of persons who should not read 



the book, but I am sure that to professors of 
criminology and persons who are studying that 
class in sociology the book would be of use. 
The purpose of the book is to show that it is 
possible for a woman who has had a sinful ca- 
reer to redeem her life, in the same way that it 
is for a man who has made mistakes. It seems 
to me that such books should be classed with 
books like Adam's " Memoirs of a physician "; 
should be put in a certain class and not in a 
general list for persons who have no excuse for 
investigating realms of that kind. 

F. B. Gav. — I read the book, and I have read 
a great many more very bad books. [Laughter. ] 
It seems to me that that is the most vulgar book 
I have ever read, vulgar in its conception and 
vulgar in its working out. If that book is true 
to the time in which she places it, then " Henry 
Esmond" is very untrue, and "Tom Jones" 
and "Clarissa Harlowe" are also untrue. It 
is a bad book any way you look at it, as a piece 
of art or as a story. 

R. G. Thwaites. — In regard to Mrs. Dix- 
son's statement, I doubt very much whether 
any Chicago professor of criminology could get 
any new points from the book. He might like 
a collection of erotic knowledge to add to his 
collection, but I doubt if such books would give 
him any pointers. 

Ella M. McLoney. — I have read this book 
and I will confess to ordering a second copy 
for my own library. I think the book is a per- 
nicious one and one that the A. L. A. should be 
very slow to recommend in its special list. The 
whole conception is unnatural and the influence 
must inevitably be unwholesome so far as it 
goes. 

S. H. Berry. — Most of us have very little 
money to spend on modern fiction, and why 
can't we find books that can be recommended 
without any question? It is not a question as 
to whether we should put in all that is pub- 
lished, but what must we select from the large 
field ? There are a few books that we can buy, 
and can we not surely find these few books 
such as are of undoubted high character from 
the literary and moral standpoint ? 

F. M. Crunden. — I was one of five that took 
part in a little symposium on the question of 
books after the Lake Placid Conference. Mr. 
Gay was another one of those five. After hav- 
ing heard the character of the books that he 
has read, to which he has made general con- 



144 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



fession, and after having listened to his con- 
demnation of this book, I should think there 
could be no longer any question about it; it 
should be barred out. 

J. N. Larned. — If there is any character in 
"The Manxman" we will have that dissected. 

F. R. Kantz. — I want to make a statement 
for "The Manxman" coming from a native 
Manxman. I know a man who lived in the 
place where this story was written. He says 
its scenes are absolutely true. It has at least 
that much value. He knows the old mill, he 
knows the house where the Manxman lived, 
and the jail, and all the scenes of the story. 
Its character-drawing is excellent, and the only 
question which remains about the story — for 
its artistic value goes without saying — is that 
of its morality. To me it has been a very 
strong book and a book the morality of which I 
do not question. It seems to me that the moral 
lesson and teaching of it arc altogether good. 

There is one book that was not mentioned, 
and that is James Lane Allen's "Summer in 
Arcady." That has been so vigorously con- 
demned that I want to say a word for it. If 
anybody has any doubt about its purpose, I 
should ask him to read the preface before read- 
ing the book. To me it is a very beautiful, 
simple, altogether good story. 

A majority favored retaining "The Manx- 
man" on the list and excluding "The lady of 
quality." 

Mr. Larned. — What of Crane's "Red badge 
of courage " ? 

A. L. Peck. — It abounds in profanity. I 
never could see why it should be given into the 
hands of a boy. 

Miss Tessa L. Kelso. — I think the "Red 
badge of courage " is an important contribution 
to the literature of arbitration. I think it be- 
longs to that. I think that any one who reads 
that book will say that it is the finest thing in 
the world to put into the hands of people to 
make them converts to the abolition of war, and 
therefore it should go under arbitration. 

Miss C. M. Hewins. — There is a better war 
story than that, and that is Suttner's, translated 
under the title of " Ground arms." 

C. W. Andrews. — I have had the pleasure 
of listening to the comments of men who stood 
high in the ranks of the army and who declared 
that the "Red badge of courage" is not true. 
Therefore I should be decidedly against leaving 



it on the list because of its not being true to the 
facts. 

C. A. Nelson. — If we object to the English 
in children's books 1 think we certainly should 
object to the English in this " Red badge of 
courage." ' 

G. M. Jones. — This "Red badge of cour- 
age " is a very good illustration of the weak- 
ness of the criticism in most of our literary 
papers. The critics in our literary papers are 
praising this book as being a true picture of 
war. The fact is, I imagine, that the criticisms 
are written by young men who know nothing 
about war, just as Mr. Crane himself knows 
nothing about war. Gen. McClurg, of Chi- 
cago, and Col. Nourse, of Massachusetts, both 
say that the story is not true to the life of 
the soldier. An article in the Independent , or 
perhaps the Oullook, says that no such profanity 
as given in the book was common in the army 
among the soldiers. Mr. Crane has since pub- 
lished two other books on New York life which 
ape simply vulgar books. I consider the " Red 
badge of courage " a vulgar book, and nothing 
but vulgar. 

F. M. Crvndkx. — I think in all cases of doubt 
we ought to leave the book from the list. There 
certainly has been objection enough raised to 
make this a doubtful book. 

J. N. Larned. — If it is a fact that the book 
is not true to the realities of war, then I think 
that that should be decisive against it. My own 
opinion was that it was a wonderful piece of 
writing. Whether a young man could have 
possibly acquired any notion of war that would 
enable him to imagine reality, is a question. If 
he has not, I do not think his book will stand. 

S. S. Green. — Mr. Jones mentioned the name 
of Col. Nourse ; he said the same thing to me. 

The majority recommended striking the " Red 
badge of courage " from the list. 

Mr. Earned. — Frederic's "The damnation 
of Theron Ware." 

J. N. Wing. — I read that book and I think it 
is far more pernicious than the " Lady of quali- 
ty." I think no one can read it without feeling 
the worse for reading it. It is a slur at re- 
ligion, it is on the borderland of immorality, 
and is a book, I think, pernicious, and most de- 
moralizing. 

G. M. Jones. — I must get up in defence of 
" The damnation of Theron Ware." I think it 
is a great book. It is one of the greatest novels 



SIXTH SESSION. 



MS 



that has been written in five years. It strikes 
me that it is very true to life, and the moral 
question brought up is a very important one. 
All I can say is that every one here ought to 
read that book carefully and thoughtfully. I 
think quite a large proportion of those here 
will admire the book as much as I do. 

A. W. Whelpley. — I read the book with 
interest. I do not think that I ever read of 
such a fool as Theron Ware in my life. He 
got himself into the difficulty with his eyes 
open. I do not think that it is the greatest book, 
or the noblest book, but I really do not think it is 
the worst. I would vote not to throw it out. 

H. C. VVei.i.m.\n. — I should like to ask 
whether this Association wants to recommend 
a book which has made a large number of our 
members who have read it feel worse off for 
reading it. I do not think we ought to recom- 
mend it. 

S. S. Green. — I think it ought to go into 
the intermediate department, not for circula- 
tion. It would be better for Mr. Jones to put it 
in the intermediate department of his library 
instead of in the circulating. 

A. H. Hopkins. — I have not read the book ; 
I do not expect to read it, but I wish to express 
myself very strongly against putting any such 
book on this list. 

F. R. Kantz. — The really serious thing 
about this book is that Mr. Wing and Mr. Jones 
are both right. The serious thing is not 
whether it shall be read or not, or whether it 
shall go into the libraries or not ; it is a book 
that can produce very much evil. The right 
people do not read it. It is all right for the li- 
brarians to read it, but they are not the persons 
who will be harmed by it. 

C. A. Nelson. — I am not prepared to vote 
to put on this list any book that two librarians 
will stand up here and declare to be a bad 
book. 

A majority favored expunging "The damna- 
tion of Theron Ware" from the list. 

Miss Tessa L. Kei.so. — We may discuss it 
as much as we like, but we should exclude 
Fiction from the lists. I think it is one thing 
that we ought to exclude. Discuss it as much 
as you like here for informal action, but ex- 
clude it from the printed list bearing the im- 
print of the A. L. A. 

G. M. Jones. — I would ask if the chairman 
of the committee is not ready to give us some 



figures, which were talked about the other day, 
about the number of books to which there 
were serious objections, to illustrate the difficul- 
ty in making a list like this. 

Miss M. S. Cutler. — I have not" the statis- 
tics for the other classes, but in Fiction one- 
third of the books on the list were objected to. 

Mr. Larnkd. — Now for Morrison's "Tales 
of mean streets." 

W. I. Fletcher. — I read the first story, and 
immediately moved on to a better street. 

H. M. Utley. — I objected to the book for 
my library, and therefore would object to 
putting it on the list. 

H. L. Elmendorf. — I bought the book for 
my library, and took it out immediately. 

A majority favored expunging " Tales of mean 
streets " from the list. 

Mr. Larned. — What is to be said of the 
stories by Gilbert Parker? 

H. L. Elmendorf. — I am more heartily in 
favor of Gilbert Parker's series than anybody's 
else that I read. I cannot see the slightest objec- 
tion to them. We are told that he makes his 
hero a bad man; certainly his good actions are 
related and not his bad ones, and the way they 
are presented by Mr. Parker is not only fasci- 
nating but admirable. I do not see why the 
books should be called into question. 

R. G. Thwaites. — I can testify to the truth 
of the historical setting and of the local color of 
Parker's series. I think they are most admira- 
ble historical novels, treating of a significant 
and very romantic period of American life, that 
of New France. I do not know of anything in 
the market that begins to approach them. As 
American historical novels I consider them of 
great importance. 

Miss Mary S. Cutler. — Mr. lies, who made 
the objection, has left the meeting, and is not 
here to state it for himself. Mr. lies has lived 
for many years in Canada, but he gives an en- 
tirely opposite statement to Mr. Thwaites. He 
says they are untrue to the life which they rep- 
resent. 

Mr. TnWArrES. — According to my study of 
New France they are true to the life of that 
period. In a number of Gilbert Parker's stories 
he treats of the country around Lake Superior, 
of Wisconsin, of the country between Lake 
Superior and Hudson Bay, and of the Georgian 
Bay region. I should say that he scores a high 
degree of success. 



146 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



A majority favored retaining the stories of 
Gilbert Parker. 

Mr. Larned. — We now come to the Henty 
books. 

A. L. Peck. — They fill a very good purpose 
in small communities, and for all our young 
men who never read history the Henty books 
give them at least some ideas, and with the e.\- 
ception of one, which is nothing but a blood- 
and-thunder story, I bought the entire set, and 
my boys and some of my girls have stopped 
reading Alger and Optic. I think the Henty 
books have done a great work in our communi- 
ty in making our young people acquainted with 
historical novels and leading them up to the 
study of history. 

S. S. Green. — I have read three or four of 
them myself. I think, on the whole, that the 
books are very useful. 

H. L. Elmendorf. — I should like to say a 
word for Henty, and lately I have not had any 
mind to read much else besides Henty books, 
that Henty is not doing as some of our other 
writers. His last batch of books and those 
that are included in this list, I think to be the 
very best of his productions and the most in- 
teresting and the nearest true to the historical 
fact. 

A majority favored retaining the Henty 
books. 

Miss Kate E. Sanborn. — I should like to ask 
for the expression of some opinion concerning 
Hamlin Garland's " Rose of Dutcher's Coolly." 

W. I. Fletcher. — I have been asked to speak 
for a librarian here and to say that the book is 
reprehended very severely in their library and 
community. 

B. C. Steiner — I purchased the book and 
decidedly advise any one against buying it. 

Henry F. Jenks. — The book was read by 
two ladies in our place and was submitted to 
me for judgment. I pronounced it extremely 
coarse and undesirable, and that no good pur- 
pose was to be gained by the reading of it, and 
I recommended its being taken out. 

Miss C. M. Hewins. — A copy was sent to us 
and the leaves were cut before we decided 
whether to order it or not. We could not send 
it back, but the book has been lost and never 
found since. 

Miss Mary S. Cutler. — I wish Miss East- 
man would read us a letter she received from 
Mr. Garland himself stating that he had a pur- 



pose in writing the book and what the purpose 
was. 

Miss Linda A. Eastman read a letter received 
from Mr. Garland, 

-V majority voted to exclude " The Rose of 
Dutcher's Coolly " from the list. 

H. M. Utlev. — I notice upon the list one 
book which I have refused to buy. Although 
the "Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes" are very 
fascinating, I object on principle to putting de- 
tective stories on the shelves of a free public 
library. 

S. S. Green. — Do you object to Gaboriau ? 

H. M. Utlev. — I have no detective stories in 
the library. 

Miss C. M. Hewins. — May I ask if Mr. Utley 
would bar " Bleak House" from his library. 

H. M. Utley. — The point is that this is a 
detective story pure and simple. Of course 
crimes and detection of crimes may be intro- 
duced incidentally, but a story which deals ex- 
clusively with crime and the detection of crime 
I do not think should be placed in the hands of 
the public, specially of young persons. 

Mr. Earned. — What is the opinion of George 
Meredith's novels ? 

A. L. Peck. — I believe it would be advisable 
to exclude at least " Lord Ormont and his 
Aminta " and " The amazing marriage." 

The opinion of the majority was in favor of 
retaining " Lord Ormont and his Aminta" and 
" The amazing marriage." 

W. L Fletcher. — It seems to me that it 
would be a very great advantage if there was 
an opportunity after the discussion to-night for 
those who take any interest in it to do some 
marking on this list. I think the discussion 
has been just what will prepare us to do our 
marking much more intelligently. I would 
suggest that the time be extended if convenient 
to have further marking done on the list. I 
think the list would be very greatly improved 
now if we could have an opportuntty of going 
over it again. 

Miss M. S. Cutler. — As 600 lists were sent 
out and only 60 have been returned, there is 
every opportunity afforded those who wish for 
marking. If those 60 would like to have their 
lists back for further revision we shall be very 
glad to return them. 

Recess at 11 p.m. 

The chairman announced that the local com- 
mittee regretted being obliged to abandon their 



SEVENTH SESSION. 



J47 



plan of having music at the Holltnden House, 
but hoped that the substitute provided would be 
acceptable. In a few minutes the hall was 
cleared for dancing, and the members, forget- 
ting the stormy day and the three long and 
busy sessions to which they had devoted them- 
selves, indulged in well-earned relaxation and 
tripped 

" On the light fantastic toe" 

well into the " wee sma' hours ayont the twal'." 

SEVENTH SESSION. 
(Friday, September 4, iSg6.) 

Called to order by the president at 9:15 a.m. 

The president appointed S. H. Berry, of 
Brooklyn, and A. S. Root, of Oberlin, tellers 
for the election of otBcers. 

John Thomson introduced the following reso- 
lution : 

"Resolved, That a committee of five (to be 
nominated by the Executive Committee) be ap- 
pointed to collect information and statistics 
both as to the laws affecting, and as to the 
work of Travelling and Home libraries, with 
instructions to report thereon at the next con- 
ference, with suggestions as to the best meth- 
ods of carrying on and extending these sys- 
tems." 

Mr. Thomson moved the adoption of the 
resolution. Voted. 

The president ruled that in the election of 
officers a plurality of votes shall elect. 

C. A. Nelson withdrew his name as a candi- 
date for secretary of the A. L. A., thanking the 
committee for the honor of the nomination, and 
stating that pressure of regular duties would 
not allow a proper performance of the require- 
ments of the position if he should be elected. 

The president called attention to a letter 
from Adolph Hepner, printed in the Prelimi- 
nary Papers, on 

A rROrOSITION FOR AN AMERICAN LIBRARIES' 

CLEARING-HOUSE. 

(.S-^,'/. 67.) 

S. H. Berry moved that the Executive Board 
be requested to appoint a committee of three to 
consider and report on the feasibility of estab- 
lishing an American libraries' clearing-house. 
Voted. 

Mr. Utley called a meeting of the Michigan 
Library Association for 11 o'clock. 



The Recorder requested that records of all 
special meetings be sent to him by their respec- 
tive secretaries for publication. 

H. J. Carr assumed the chair. 

Almon Burtch (of Chicago) read a paper on 
the 

RELATION OF THE BOOKSELLER TO THE 
LIBRARIAN. 

[Mr. Bunch declined to furnish his paper for 
publication.] 

Almon Burtch. — I move that the Executive 
Board appoint a committee to consider this 
question of the relation of the bookseller and 
the library, and to recommend such measures 
as it may deem best for the better education of 
the bookseller. Voted. 

A. L. A. SUPPLEMENT. 
F. P. Hill. — I move that the Committee on 
A. L. A. Supplement be continued. Voted. 
Mr. Hill then read his paper on 

PREPARING BOOKS FOR ISSUE, AND CHARGING 

SYSTEMS. 

{See p. 51.) 

Pres. Dana. — Do you use two colored inks 
in stamping your dates ? 

F. P. Hill. — Yes, sir; I think the different 
colored inks catch the eye quickly. 

J. F. Langton. — I did not catch what you 
did with the readers' card; do you put it in a 
pocket ? 

F. P. Hill. — No, sir; it goes back to the 
reader. The pocket is for the book slip. When 
the book is not on the shelf it is in the charging 
tray. 

J. F. Langton. — I would ask also how you 
get the readers' card when you want to take it 
up. 

F. P. Hill. — The cards are usually left at 
the library when not in use, and if we wanted 
to take a card up we should send our messen- 
ger to the house to get it; very likely send no- 
tice in the first place 

Miss L. E. Stearns. — I think the idea of 
keeping the card in case the fine is not paid 
makes more enemies to the library than any- 
thing else I know of. Supposing a child comes 
three miles to the library. If you tell him that 
there is a fine of nine cents on his card he can- 
not pay it, and so you send him back without 
the book and very often he does not return. In 
our library, if a boy is fined nine cents on his 



148 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



card and he has not the money with him, we 
tell him that he can pay the fine the next time 
he comes. The object is to keep the child, or 
the man or the woman, a patron of the library. 
We have a rubber stamp on which is the word 
" Fine," and we put the amount against it. The 
child takes the card with him and it is a re- 
minder that the fine is not paid. The ne.xt time 
he comes he pays the fine. If the fine is not 
paid then, then the card is kept. But the first 
time let the boy take home the book. In 99 
cases out of 100 you will get the fine the next 
time the boy comes. 

F. P. Hill. — I think there is a word to be 
said on the other side, and that is this: that in 
not one case in ten, and I would almost say not 
one case in fifty, is the trouble with the boy or 
girl. The trouble is with the man or woman 
who wants to get rid of paying the fine. The 
little boys and girls are the best customers that 
come to the library. 

G. W. Cole. — I would ask Mr. Hill what 
the object is of stamping the date on the pocket. 

F. P. Hill. — It has the greatest object possi- 
ble. This, you understand (indicating), repre- 
sents the book. That book may be laid down 
there on the slip-rack table and discharged at 
any time the attendant finds time to do it. The 
last date found shows the date on which the 
book was taken out. Then she can turn to it 
whenever she pleases. 

G. W. Cole. — The point that I wish to make 
is that that requires three stampings in the 
first place, in addition to writing the book-bor- 
rower's number. This stamp on the pocket is 
simply put there for the purpose of postponing 
the labor of discharging to some further time. 
We always discharged the book as it came in. 
That did not require passing the book to some 
other table and then taking up the whole work 
again and doing it. We had no trouble about 
speed. Even in our busiest times we were 
never clogged up at our receiving-desk. 

F. P. Hill. — The circulation may be larger, 
but at the same time the borrower has to wait 
till the book is discharged. I believe that 
whatever system we use we ought to give the 
borrowers as little trouble as possible. 

Miss Nina E. Browne. — My feeling is that 
the reader when he comes into the library is in 
a comparatively good state of feeling, and he is 
willing to wait and have his book discharged 
so as to feel that he is freed entirely from all 



obligations in regard to the book. If the boxes 
are properly made and the cards properly ad- 
justed, the discharging can be done very quick- 
ly, and it can be done a great deal more quickly 
than Mr. Hill can do his charging. So if the 
reader has to wait, 1 would rather make him wait 
while his book is being discharged than while 
it is being charged. Let those who believe 
in Mr. Hill's plan try the system of having the 
books discharged when they come in, as I have 
planned to have it done, and then compare the 
state of mind of their readers with Mr. Hill's 
readers and see which is the more agreeable. 

F. P. Hill. — It is not the person who is at 
the window ready to get a book, but it is the 
personjust behind that one who finds the fault 
and makes trouble. 

G. W. Cole. — 1 think that if Mr. Hill can de- 
vise a system by which a borrower can get a 
book as readily as he can leave a book he will 
incur the thanks of the entire library world. 

F. P. Hill. — I think I have such a system. 
We have a fair-sized library and we allow ac- 
cess to shelves. I think that is the best system 
to get a hookas rapidly as possible, and when I 
tell you here that our loss in any one year has not 
been over fifty volumes from all sorts of ways, I 
think you will concede the point that access to 
shelves is the coming thing, not only in the 
small library, but in the large library ; not only 
in the general books, but in your best books. 

J. F. Langton. — I would suggest to Miss 
Stearns that if she stamps on the card the date 
when the book is due instead of the date when 
the book is taken out, she would do away with 
one difficulty. There is no calculation to be 
made, and a child can see when the book is to 
be returned. At St. Louis we have tried the 
two systems. We are now working practically 
under .Mr. Hill's system. We at one time did 
discharge the book ; now we do the same as he 
does, and we find that the latter system is by far 
the better. 

Pres. J. C. Dana. — Now that the system of 
open shelves is brought up, I would be pleased 
to have a show of hands on the subject. 

On a show of hands it was found that si.xty li- 
brarians present had open shelves. The vote in 
favor of having open shelves was nearly unani- 
mous. Those opposed to open shelves were 
twelve in number. 

H. J. Carr. — At the time I gave an investi- 
gation to this subject I was asked to recommend 



SEVENTH SESSION. 



149 



some special system. I was very careful not to 
do that. In that same connection, I can say, in 
reply to Miss Stearns's suggestion about letting 
them have a card if the fine is not paid, that I 
have tried both methods. It is merely a matter 
of local circumstances. You must be guided by 
what seems to you best. It is certainly feasible 
to let them draw a book a second time. On the 
other hand, it does not pay. You will accumu- 
late a vast number of unpaid fines and deterthe 
people from using the library. The best way 
is to keep a spare fund at the desk, and if a 
child comes in without the two cents or the four 
cents, lend him the money as a personal favor. 
He will appreciate it immensely. 

C. A. Nelson. — Miss Moore, at the Univer- 
sity Settlement library in New York, has no 
trouble in collecting fines, or even payment for 
lost books, from the " hoodlums," as some would 
call them, in the section where she is located. 
The boys, who will steal each other's caps and 
any other thing, will pay for the books that 
somebody else steals from them, and they pay 
their fines even if they pay a cent at a time. 
These are boys from the foreign element and 
the street gamins of New York, who keep in 
constant use fifty-four copies of the history of 
the United States, and all the geometries, al- 
gebras, and arithmetics that they can get hold 
of. 

F. M. Crunden. — It seems to me rather 
strange that the point that Mr. Langton made 
has not been brought out before, and I would 
advise every one that has not done so to make 
that change at once. Put on the cards any rec- 
ords you keep about the issue of books, the date 
when the book is taken out and when it should 
be returned. The reader should know when he 
ought to bring the book back. 

While I am on my feet I want to say what 
may interest some of you as a matter of study 
of comparative methods, that you will find in 
my last report a complete explanation of all the 
details of the administration of our library, and 
in the forthcoming one a list of the records 
kept. 

F. P. Hill. — I wish to say that I think that 
is one of the best reports I have seen come from 
any library in a great many years. 

EUROPEAN TOUR. 

W. C. Lane. — The committee on the Euro- 
pean tour have instructed me to present to the 



Association two votes which they would like to 
have passed by the Association. 

First, in regard to an enrolment fee, so that 
there may be a sum of money on hand from 
which to pay the preliminary expenses of print- 
ing and postage, and very likely clerk hire. 
That is an expense that should not come out of 
the general treasury of the Association. Here 
is the first resolution: 

"Resolved, That each person enrolling for the 
foreign trip shall pay to the European commit- 
tee in advance an enrolment'fee of five dollars. 
The enrolment fees thus paid shall constitute 
a fund for payment of the preliminary and 
general expenses of the trip. Persons who 
subsequently decide not to go will not have 
their fees returned. If any portion of the en- 
rolment fees remain unexpended at the end of 
the trip it shall be paid into the A. L. A. Endow- 
ment Fund." 

I should hope that this vote would not deter 
anybody who has any reasonable hope of going 
from enrolling, because the committee of course 
will need to know as soon as they can as far 
as possible the probable number who will be 
likely to go. 

Pres. Dana moved that the resolution be 
adopted. Voted. 

W. C. Lane. — The next vote is in regard to 
who shall be permitted to enroll themselves. 
We want, on the one hand, to have as large 
and representative a body of librarians and 
persons interested in library work as possible. 
Of course we want them to bring their hus- 
bands and wives and daughters, and their im- 
mediate families, and to some degree their 
friends, but we want to guard somewhat against 
having too large a number of people not imme- 
diately interested in library work. We want to 
have a good-sized party, on the one hand, to 
be able to make good terms in regard to the 
expense of it. On the other hand, we do not 
want to have too large a number, as it is not 
fair to our friends on the other side. Here is 
the second vote: 

"Resolved, That only members of the Amer- 
ican Library Association, together with the 
members of their families, shall be enrolled for 
the English trip except by unanimous vote of 
the European trip committee." 

Take notice that this does not say "only 
f resent members." We do not wish to cut off 
future additions to the American Library Asso- 



'5° 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



ciation by any means, but it says members of 
the American Library Association and their 
families. 

Pres. Dana moved the adoption of the resolu- 
tion. Voted. 

Dr. Cyrus Adler then read a paper on 

FIFTY YEARS OF LIBRARY PROMOTION AT THE 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

[Dr. Adier's paper will appear in the Smith- 
sonian Publications. A brief abstract was given 
in L. J. 21 : 417.] 

INVITATIONS FOR CONFERENCE OF iSgS. 

C. A. Nelson. — As there is no provision on 
the program, this seems the proper time to 
call attention to one or two matters. I hold in 
my hand letters from the Mayor of Atlanta, 
Ga., from the Young Men's Library, and from 
two prominent journals of that city, earnestly 
urging and inviting the American Library As- 
sociation to hold the meeting for iSgS in that 
city. As it is not competent for us to say now 
where the meeting for iSqS will be held, I shall 
put these communications in the hands of the 
E.\ecutive Hoard for 1S97. 

I also am the bearer of a cordial invitation 
from Mr. George H. Baker, librarian of Colum- 
bia University, to meet in New York City in 
l8g8. We then expect to be fully settled in our 
new library on Morningside Heights, and that 
will be but one of the attractions which New 
York City can offer to the A. L. A. We think 
that it is about time that the Association met 
again in New York. I may be anticipating the 
action of the Lxccutive Board for next year, 
but I throw it out as a warning not to do it, 
for we want them in iSgS. 

C. H. Gould presented an invitation from 
Montreal for iSgS. 

Pres. J. C. Dana. — Invitations have also 
been received from the city of Lincoln, Nebras- 
ka, and from the city of Indianapolis, to hold 
the meeting of the Association in either one of 
those places in iSyS. 

DIGF.ST OF LIBRARY LAWS. 

Pres. J. C. Dana. — I would like to know if 
anybody is making a digest of the library laws 
in the United States. 

W. R. Eastman. — Mr. Harrison has made 
such a digest but it is not yet published. 

Miss M. S. Cutler. — It is not completed- 
Mr. Harrison has it in preparation. 



Pres. J. C. Dana. — I would like to ask if a 
digest which one of my assistants is compiling, 
which is a very perfect digest and outline of 
the library laws of the several states, with 
probably the addition of the library commission- 
ers, and names of people to whom- one could 
write in the several states for library informa- 
tion, stands in the way at all of the publication 
of Mr. Harrison's digest, or is this entirely un- 
necessary in view of his digest ? 

R. G. Thwaites. — Miss Stearns has prepared 
for the Wisconsin Free Library Commission a 
purely popular digest of the existing statutes 
in various states. 

Miss L. E. Stearns. — That Includes only the 
laws relating to the different library commis- 
sions. 

Pres. Dana. — Will that be available for dis- 
tribution ? 

Miss Stearns. — I will be very glad to send 
it to all who apply. It will be printed in the 
report of the Wisconsin Library Commission. 

Mr. Thwaites. — The forthcoming report of 
the Wisconsin Free Library Commission, which 
will contain a good deal of miscellaneous mate- 
rial pertaining to the conduct of small libraries, 
will be sent to the leading libraries of the coun- 
try. The edition is small. If those who wish 
it will send their names to Miss L. E. Stearns, of 
Milwaukee, they will doubtless receive copies 
so long as the stock holds out. 

W. R. Eastman. — The annual report issued 
by the Regents in .Albany has a summary of 
the library legislation of that year. Sometimes 
it is a year behind, but when requests come to 
us to Albany we send what we have. 

Pres. Dana. — This question has brought out 
information which it has not been easy for me 
to get hold of. 

report of committee on resolutions. 

F. M. Cru.nden, — The duty of the committee 
on resolutions this year was a very simple one. 
Usually there is a great mass of resolutions re- 
ferred to the committee which it has to sift 
over, consider and revise, etc. This time the 
sole duty of the committee was the pleasant 
one of putting in form a vote of thanks for the 
courtesies received in Cleveland. We submit 
as our report the following resolution : 

" Resolved, That the thanks of the American 
Library Association are due and are heartily 
tendered to the Rowfant Club for its unique 



EIGHTH SESSION. 



'S' 



entertainment ; to Mr. Charles F. Olney for his 
hospitable welcome to his art gallery ; to the 
local Committee of Arrangements for careful 
forethought, efficient service, and numerous 
courtesies ; and to the Cleveland newspapers 
for the full and accurate reports of the proceed- 
ings which they have given in their columns. 
F. M. Crunden, 
Theresa West, 
Bernard C. Steiner." 

This report was accepted and the resolution 
was adopted unanimously by a rising vote. 

H. J. Carr. — Almost every year of our con- 
ference meeting has been marked by some 
event that we consider memorable. I have 
been waiting and waiting to hear a word about 
the Accumulative index to periodicals. I sup- 
pose, as you are all aware, that it owes almost 
its entire being to Mr. Brett. I wish to com- 
mend it to the attention of you all, and hope 
you will give it your hearty support both by 
word of encouragement and by personal aid in 
the shape of subscriptions. 

The President announced that ballots for offi- 
cers might be cast as the members left the hall, 
and the result would be announced at the ban- 
quet at the Ilollenden in the evening. 

Adjourned. 

The members, after voting, gathered in a 
group in front of the building and a photograph 
was taken, a reproduction of which, slightly 
reduced in size, was given in the Library 
Journal for September. 

The afternoon of Friday was given up to the 
trolley ride which was postponed from Thurs- 
day on account of the storm. The ride and the 
banquet in the evening, together with the re- 
ception which preceded the latter, are described 
by those who have written up the ' ' Social Side " 
of the Conference. 

The tellers of the election reported the result 
of the balloting, as follows : 

President. — William H. Brett, 207 ; (scatter- 
ing, 36). 

Vice-Presidents. — H. L. Elmendorf, 164 ; Han- 
nah P. James, 150; James K. Hosmer, iig ; 
(three others, III, loS, and 74 respectively; 
scattering, 3). 

Secretary. — Rutherford P. Hayes, 164 ; (one 
other, 74, scattering, 13). 



Treasurer. — George W. Cole, 115; (two others, 
75 and 57 respectively). 

A. L. A. Couniil. — John C. Dana, 192 ; Melvil 
Dewey, 172; Mary W. Plummer, 140; Henry 
J. Carr, 137 ; (four others, 47, 64, 79, and 128 
respectively). 

Trustee of Endowment Fund. — John C. Hutch- 
ins, 133 ; (two others, 50 and 65 respectively ; 
scattering, i). 

The names of those elected were announced 
at the banquet, and the president elect was made 
the recipient of a beautiful basket of roses, 
presented by Judge Hutchins, who presided at 
the dinner, on behalf of Mr. Brett's many 
friends and well-wishers. 

EIGHTH SESSION. 
(Grand Hotel, Mackinaw, Tuesday Evening, 
September 8.) 
Association called to order by the president 
at 8 p.m. 

Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites read his paper on 

the story of MACKINAC. 

{.Seep. 71.) 
Miss M. E. Ahern presented to the retiring 
president a slight token of the esteem and sweet 
favor which he had found in the hearts of those 
over whom he so well presided during the Con- 
ference. 

the committee on resolutions 
presented the following additional report : 

The American Library Association desires to 
present to the Detroit Public Library and to Mr. 
Henry M. Utley, assurance of its thorough 
appreciation of the delightful opportunity offered 
by them for seeing the beautiful City of the 
Straits; to the Grande Pointe Club for its graceful 
hospitality ; and to its president, Mr. F. B. 
Uickcrson, fur his cordial welcome. 

F. M. Crunden, 
Theresa West, 
Bernard C. Steiner, 

which was unaminously accepted and adopted. 

The president then declared the Conference 
adjourned sine die. 

C: Alex. Nelson, 

Peeorder. 



IS2 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



NECROLOGY. 



A LLAN, Miss Jessie (registration no. 534), 
■^^ librarian of the Omaha Public Library. 
Omaha, Nebraska, died on September 12, 1895, 
of tuberculosis, with which she was attacked 
during November of the World's Fair year. 

Miss Allan was born in Omaha, December 
15, 1S61. She was connected with the Omaha 
Public Library for the last fourteen years of 
her life; ten years as librarian. 

Among librarians she had a national repu- 
tation as a successful administrator and an 
effective worker in every way. She became a 
member of the American Library Association 
in 1886 at the Buffalo Conference, where she 
was cordially welcomed, and continued a mem- 
ber to the time of her death. She always took 
an active interest in the affairs of the Associa- 
tion, and her opinion on matters of library 
economy or matters of the Association's policy 
was always highly considered. She served on 
several committees, and at the time of her demise 
was a member of the Endowment Committee. 

She was prominent in the movement to ex- 
tend the free public library idea in her own 
state, and at the time of her death was second 
vice-president of the Nebraska State Library 
Association. She was most successful in the 
administration of the library of which she had 
charge, had been largely instrumental in work- 
ing up a public sentiment in favor of the 
new library building, and, before her death, 
saw her plans for that building carried to com- 
pletion. She was devoted to her work and 
untiring in her zeal in it. Those who knew 
her best must always feel that her end was 
unduly hastened by her refusal to put her own 
personal physical welfare before the affairs of 
the institution of which she had charge. 

The following resolution, spread upon the 
minutes of the library board, under which Miss 
Allan served so long and faithfully, is a con- 
cise statement of the work which Miss Allan 
accomplished. The resolution was fortunately 
adopted in time for presentation to Miss Allan 
a few days before her death: 

" The directors of the Omaha Public Li- 
brary, for themselves and the reading public of 
Omaha, desire to express to Miss Jessie Allan 
their sincere appreciation' of her long, faithful, 



and effcient service as librarian. The best 
growth of the library has been coincident with 
Miss Allan's management, and in large meas- 
ure due to her personal effort. She brought to 
the work of librarian a natural aptitude, but 
over and above that she showed a peculiar 
alertness to the needs of the reading public 
and a zeal in meeting them that more than 
anything else established the present popularity 
of the library." 

M.VCKV, Miss Bessie Rutherford (registra- 
tion no. 959), assistant librarian aud instructor in 
the library class at the Drexel Institute, Phila- 
delphia, died at her home in Philadelphia on 
April 4, 1896. Miss Macky, who had been con- 
nected with the Institute since September, 1892, 
was a graduate of Wellesley College, B. A. i88g, 
and of the N. Y. State Library School, B. L. S. 
1892. She had many friends in the A. L. A. 
and the Pennsylvania Library Club, and her 
personal charm and particular fitness for library 
work make her loss especially sad. The fol- 
lowing resolutions were adopted by the faculty 
of the Institute, at a meeting on April 11, in her 
memory; 

" That in the death of Miss Macky the Insti- 
tute has lost an able otBcer and an instructor of 
rare personal and mental endowments. 

" Miss Macky brought to the discharge of her 
duties, both as assistant librarian and as in- 
structor of the library class in library economy 
and in English literature, the thorough equip- 
ment of a collegiate and professional training 
united with extraordinary talent and with that 
singular modesty which is the grace of one who 
gives to the daily work of life the best efforts 
of mind and soul and stops not to count the 
value of the gift. 

" As an advocate and a product of the higher 
education of women. Miss Macky was a strik- 
ing example of the fulfilment of the supreme 
purpose of that education — namely, the capacity 
for spiritual enjoyment and for unselfish creative 
activity. 

" That while we sorrow for this young life, cut 
off in the beginning of a career of great prom- 
ise, we yet rejoice that the quickening influence 
of her bright clear spirit has touched our lives 
and that it remains to all who have been privi- 



MEETINGS OF TRUSTEES' SECTION. 



»S3 



leged to kno\¥ her both a blessing and an in- 
inspiration." — Library journal. 

Woodward, Robert C. (registration no. 414), 
librarian of the Springfield (O.) Public Library, 
died suddenly on July 24, 1896, at his home in 
Springfield. Mr. Woodward had been librarian 
of the Warder Library for nineteen years, and 
built it up from a small and chaotic collection to 
one of the best organized and most useful libra- 
ries in Ohio. He was a native of Springfield, 
where he was born in 1829, and studied at the 



Ohio Conference High School and at Witten- 
berg College. He went into the printing busi- 
ness, was later a travelling salesman, and from 
1859 to 1861 conducted a book-store in Spring- 
field. Later he engaged in the book business in 
Lima, 111., and in i86g returned to Springfield 
and again entered the bookselling and printing 
business. In 1877 he was appointed city libra- 
rian. Mr. Woodward had been a member of 
the American Library Association since 1882. — 
Library journal. 



MEETINGS OF TRUSTEES' SECTION. 



A MEETING of the Trustees' Section was 
■^^ held at the HoUenden House on Thurs- 
day, Sept. 3, 1S9C, immediately after the morn- 
ing session of the Association. 

Mr. Chas. C. Soule, trustee of the Public Li- 
brary, Brookline, Mass., occupied the chair. 
Rev. Henry F. Jenks, trustee of the Public Li- 
brary, Canton, Mass., was chosen secretary. 

It was voted to proceed to the election of a 
permanent chairman of the Trustees' Section, 
and Mr. Geo. A. Macbeth, of Pittsburg, Penn., 
was chosen. 

Mr. Macbeth inquired what is was desirable 
for this Section to do, and the chairman replied 
that it was for this meeting to determine. 

It was Voted : That the permanent secretary 
of this Section be appointed by the permanent 
chairman. 

On motion of Mr. Jenks it was Voted : That 
an executive committee of seven be chosen, 
to be selected from diflerect sections of the 
country. 

On motion of Miss West it was Voted : That 
a committee be appointed by the chair to pro- 
vide for a fuller organization of this Section 
and report their action, with nominations for 
an executive or advisory committee, at a meet- 
ing to be held this evening at 7:30 p.m. 

The chair appointed Miss West, Mr. Jenks, 
and Mr. Reuben G. Thwaites as this com- 
mittee. 

It was Voted: That the chairman of this 
meeting and the permanent chairman elect be 
also members of this committee. 

Adjourned to 7:30 p.m. 

At 7:30 p.m. the Section reassembled. Mr. 
Macbeth occupied the chair. 

The secretary presented the following report 



from the committee appointed at the forenoon 
session. 

The committee would suggest to the officers 
elected by this Section for the ensuing year 
the following line of action : 

1. That endeavors be made to increase the 
Endowment Fund. 

2. That efforts be made to increase the inter- 
est of trustees in the American Library Associ- 
ation, so that 

3. They shall be induced to have their libra- 
ries become members of the Association, and 
be represented at its annual sessions by some 
of the members of their own boards, as well as 
by some of the library officials sent as dele- 
gates and at the expense of the libraries. 

4. That an effort be made to interest trustees 
in the various library journals, and to that end 

5. The editors of those journals be urged to 
devote more space to discussion of matters 
specially interesting to trustees, such as ques- 
tions of administration, architecture, means of 
securing gifts ; and should furnish more items 
of news respecting these points. 

6. To prepare a program of special interest 
to trustees for the meeting of this Section next 
year. 

7. And to stimulate efforts to secure a larger 
attendance of trustees at the next Conference. 

8. That the advisory committee to be elected 
formulate a plan of future action for this Con- 
ference. 

The committee nominated for advisory com- 
mittee Rev. Jas. De Normandie, trustee of the 
Uoston Public Library; Hon. John Bigelow, of 
the New York Library; Dr. V^ictor Rosewater, 
regent of State University and trustee of 
Omaha Public Library, Nebraska; Hon. James 



154 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



H. Stout, of Menomonie, Wis.; O. L. Whitelaw, 
trustee of Public Library, St. Louis; and sug- 
gested that the remaining vacancies be filled by 
selections from Chicago and Baltimore, or 
Washington. 

The report of the committee was accepted 
and adopted. 

The chairman stated that he would appoint 
Mr. F. H. Anderson, of the Carnegie Library, 
Pittsburg, permanent secretary of this Sec- 
tion. 

It was Voted : — That the vacancies in the ad- 
visory committee be filled by the chairman. 

Adjourned. 

Henry F. Jenks, Secretary. 

The chairman subsequently reported that 
Mr. Bigelow, of New York, had declined on 
account of ill-health, and nobody has been put 
in his place. No one has been selected in Balti- 
more, and no one in Chicago. 

There were present at one or both meetings : 

Brandegee, John E., Utica, New York. 
Browning, Eliza G., Indianapolis. 
Conover, Frank, Dayton, Ohio. 
Garfield, Hon. James R., Cleveland, Ohio. 
Green, Samuel Swett, Worcester, Mass. 
Hayes, Rutherford P., Columbus, Ohio. 



Hewins, Miss Caroline M., Sec. Ct. Pub. Lib. 
Com. 

Hoag, F. J., Toledo, Ohio. 

Hoagland. Miss Merica, Ft. Wayne, Indiana. 

Howell, J. E., Newark, New Jersey. 

Hutchins, F. A., Pub. Lib. Com., Baraboo, 
Wisconsin. 

Jenks, Rev. Henry F., Canton, Massachusetts, 

Johnson, Wm., Newark, New Jersey. 

Jones, Gardner M., Salem, Mass. 

Jones, Miss Mary L., Univ. of Nebraska, Lin- 
coln, Neb. 

Macbeth, Geo. A., Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 

Montgomery, Thomas L. , Philadelphia, Penn. 

Soule, Charles C, Brookline, Mass. 

Stearns, Miss L. E., Sec. Wisconsin Lib. Com., 
Milwaukee, Wis. 

Stout, Hon. J. H., Menomonie, V/is. 

Thomson, John, F. L. Philadelphia. 

Thompson, John W., Evanston, Illinois. 

Thompson, Leonard, Woburn, Mass. 

Thwaites, Reuben G., Madison, Wis. 

Weaver, Mrs. H. M., Mansfield, Ohio. 

Weeks, Mrs. .\nna R., Winnetka, 111. 

West, Theresa, Milwaukee, Wis. 

Whittier, J. H., Sec. N. H. Lib. Com., East 
Rochester, New Hampshire. 

Wright, B. F., St. Paul, Minn. 



THE COLLEGE LIBRARY SECTION. 



•yWENTY-SIX members of the College Sec- 
tion met in the parlor of The Hollenden 
at 12 o'clock on Thursday, September 3, and 
were called to order by Mr. C. W. Andrews. 

On motion, W. I. Fletcher was chosen chair- 
man and C. A. Nelson secretary. 

Dr. Cyrus Adler made some interesting state- 
ments concerning the publication abroad of 
catalog cards in several departments of science. 
He referred especially to the scheme of the Bib- 
liographical Bureau at Zurich to issue cards for 
zo51ogical literature. Dr. Field is at the head, 
assisted by Dr. Moebius, and a complete classi- 
fied index to the zoological literature of the year 
will be issued at a cost of $16. The plan 
was officially adopted by the last International 
Congress of Zoologists held at Leyden. He also 
referred to the catalog of the Royal Society, 
which required 300 drawers, each one foot in 
depth, to hold the titles. 

Mr. Fletcher spoke of the subject inde.x which 



the Royal Society proposes to make, and after 
some explanations the following resolution was 
unanimously adopted : 

Resolved, That this Section has learned with 
great satisfaction that the Council of the Royal 
Society proposes to add to the debt which the 
scientific world already owes it for its valuable 
Catalog of scientific papers, by making a subject 
index to the papers contained therein. 

Dr. Adler suggested that a paper should be 
brought before the Association each year treat- 
ing of some topic of special interest to college 
and reference libraries. 

Mr. Nelson expressed the opinion that unless 
some steps were taken in this direction the in- 
terest of the larger and more important college 
and reference libraries in the annual meetings 
of the Association would be lost. 

Mr. A. H. Hopkins, Dr. Adler, and others 
took part in a brief discussion on scientific 
lines. 



THE SOCIAL SIDE. 



'55 



On motion, X'olcd : That the Executive Com- 
mitttee of the A. L. A. be requested to put on 
the program for the next year one or more 
papers on subjects of special interest to college 
and reference libraries. 

Voted: That Messrs. Fletcher, Nelson, and 
Adler be appointed a committee to suggest sub- 
jects for these papers. 

On motion of Dr. Adler, Voted : That the 
officers of this meeting be made the permanent 
officers of this Section for the ensuing year. 

Adjourned at 12:40. 

C: Ale.x. Nelson, Secretary. 



Libraries of the following (22) institutions 
were represented : Amherst College, Baldwin 
University, Boston Athenaeum, Butler College, 
Columbia University, Cornell University, Gar- 
rett Biblical Institute, Harvard University, 
Iowa State University, John Crerar Library, 
McGill University (Montreal), Mass. Institute 
of Technology, Michigan State Normal School, 
Normal .Schools at Clarion and Millersville (Pa.), 
Ohio State University, Smithsonian Institution, 
State Normal School (111.), L^niversity of Chi- 
cago, University of Michigan, University of 
Nebraslva, and Wisconsin Normal Schools. 



PUBLISHING SECTION. 

'X'HE proceedings of the annual meeting of the board, held at Lake Placid, Sept. 7-S, have 

Publishing Section, held at the Hollenden been published in the Library Journal for 

Hotel on the evening of September i, together October (21 :459). 
with those of the meeting of the executive 



STATE LIBRARY ASSOCIATIONS. 



O EPORTS of the meetings of the several State 
Library Associations, held at Cleveland, 
have already been printed in the Library jour- 
nal, as follows : 

ILLINOIS library ASSOCIATION. 

(L. J. 21 :462.) 

INDIANA LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 

(L. J. 21 :462.) 



MICHIGAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 

(L. J. 21 :465.) 

OHIO LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 

(L. J. 21:465. 506.) 

ViTISCONSIN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION. 
(L. J. 21 :466.) 



THE SOCIAL SIDE. 



BY MISS L. E. STEARNS. 



"T^O the weary traveller that arrived at the 
Hollenden on Tuesday evening, Septem- 
ber I, only to find all room reservations null 
and void (through no fault of the local commit- 
tee), and who was stowed away with three oth- 
ers in a room on an inner court; to one who laid 
her tired head each night on a pillow filled with 
moth or billiard-balls, on an improvised cot ; 
upon the mind of such a martyr (No. 1266, A. 
L. A.) as this, was impressed the fact that in 
point of numbers, at least, the Cleveland Con- 
ference was an unqualified success. 



This opinion was strongly emphasized at the 
first social session which was held that evening 
in the hotel parlors, and which proved a verita- 
ble "crush." This preliminary reception was 
strictly informal, even the reception committee 
being incog to the members in general and not 
known to each other, but doing yeoman service 
as a "steering committee." That "auld ac- 
quaintance should (not) be forgot" and that 
many new ones should be made, were the watch- 
words of the hour — unless one was buttonholed 
by the representative of the Only Perfect Red, 



iS6 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



White, and Blue "Out" and "In" Indicator 
(limited), from whom an early retirement was 
the only escape. 

The next evening a more formal reception 
was tendered the delegates by the Rowfant 
Club. Not having been present at this func- 
tion, we quote from Miss Haines's report in the 
September (1S96) Library journal: 

" The rooms were attractively decorated with 
flowers, refreshments were served, and until 
midnight the club-house was thronged with in- 
terested librarians, meeting new and old friends 
and examining the Club's many treasures of 
books, etchings, and candlesticks. The Club 
takes its name from the country seat of the late 
Frederic Locker Lampson, who is its patron 
saint, and its object is ' the critical study of 
books in their various capacities to please the 
mind of man, and the publication from time to 
time of privately-printed editions for its mem- 
bers.' Its emblems are the American gopher 
and the candlestick, and it possesses a varied 
and interesting candlestick collection, ranging 
from tiny bronze or silver holders to great six- 
foot columns for pillars of wax. The annual 
meeting of the Club is held on Candlemas day, 
when each member adds a candlestick to the 
array which now ranges from roof to attic of 
the club-house." 

The session of Thursday evening was not 
originally planned as a social evening, but the 
exercises proved most diverting and interesting. 
The instrument provided as the business of the 
evening was an innocent-enough appearing list 
of books for a future A. L. A. Catalog Supple- 



ment, but which proved decidedly spicy subjects 
for gay repartee, etc., etc. 

Friday afternoon was devoted to a trolley 
ride, which included a visit to the Garfield mon- 
ument, the Western Reserve University Libra- 
ry, where the party was cordially greeted by Dr. 
Thwing; the Miles Park and Woodlawn Avenue 
branch libraries, and thence to the hospitable 
mansion of Mr. and Mrs. Charles F. OIney, 
where the members were personally greeted by 
host and hostess and invited into their beauti- 
ful private art gallery. After inspecting the 
works of art, carving, etc., Mr. Larned, in the 
absence of the president, tendered thanks to 
Mr. and Mrs. Olney for their gracious and 
kindly hospitality. After singing " America," ac- 
companied by Mr. Olney on the pianoforte, 
and receiving the compliment from him that 
"Librarians could sing as well as care for 
books," the party wended thier way back to the 
Hollenden to prepare for the evening's ban- 
quet. 

The banquet was most elaborate, and was at- 
tended by several hundred persons. Music en- 
livened the occasion until the time for toasts, 
which were responded to by Dr. Thwing, Mr. 
R. G. Thwaites.and Rev. Dr. Sprecker. Owing 
to the lateness of the hour, Judge Hutchins, 
toastmaster, was obliged to cut short the time 
for speech-making, to enable the post-conference 
party to catch the midnight boat for Detroit. 
Then "there was hurrying in hot haste," quick 
transformation scenes, a rush for cabs and car- 
riages, and the Cleveland Conference was a 
thing of the past. 



SOME MEMORIES OF THE LIBRARY CONFERENCE, HELD IN 
CLEVELAND, OHIO, Sept. 1-4, 1896. 



BIT MISS ANNE WALLACE. 



"LT AVING been requested by the Recorder to 
furnish for the official proceedings an ac- 
count of the social side of the Library Conference 
held at Cleveland as seen by a new member, I 
hesitated to comply, as this was the only feature 
of the meeting that I had failed to take advantage 
of. Consequently I took the liberty of chang- 
ing the assignment, and giving to the readers 
of the Journal a few impressions that I thought 
might be of interest, coming from one whose 
point of view was at least geographically differ- 



ent, and more especially because they represent 
the views of a new-comer — one who was in 
touch with library ideas and economies, but 
whose enthusiasm was not dulled by previous 
meetings, whose ear was not wearied by reit- 
eration of shelf-worn theories that must always 
exist in so large a gathering, continually aug- 
mented by the addition of youth and inexperi- 
ence. 

How fortunate was I, then, in this my first at- 
tendance to find such a representative meeting. 



WALLACE. 



157 



as I have since been assured this was, not only as 
to members, but in the serious attention given to 
the business on hand. Such indeed was the 
conference held at Cleveland, now rapidly be- 
coming a memory, and ticketed in our minds as 
the l8th annual meeting of the American Li- 
brary Association. 

The wind was blowing fresh from the lake as 
I climbed the hill above th^ station, and stood 
gazing at the beautiful inland sea, after a long 
and dusty journey from my Southern home. 

It was with a great sense of responsibility 
and no little feeling of lonesomeness that I 
gripped my satchel and entered the rotunda of 
the Hollenden House, the headquarters of the 
Association. Fortunately I fell into the hands 
of those librarians whom I had had the honor 
of entertaining during the Cotton States and 
International Exposition at Atlanta, in 1895. 
These public-spirited women had responded 
generously to my call for help and prepared 
papers on library economies for the Conference 
of Women Librarians, held at that time in 
Atlanta. 

The kindness and courtesies I experienced at 
the hands of these sister librarians will always 
be a pleasant obligation. 

The informal gathering in the parlors and 
corridors of the Hollenden on that first evening 
was an auspicious beginning. It was a notice- 
able group of men and women. It is impossible 
to individualize, when praise is due to all for 
the earnest purpose and ability which have 
raised the profession from the former low level 
of clerical inefficiency, and produced from its 
ranks thought-leaders of the century. 

It was a great social as well as professional 
pleasure to meet on friendly terms the promi- 
nent librarians of the country, whose names 
had long been familiar to me through the pages 
of the Journal, or through the mediums of 
their own productions. 

It seems flippant to have joked and laughed 
with the author of "History for ready refer- 
ence and topical reading," that awkwardly- 
christened but indispensable encyclopredia of 
history, which has become the delight of the 
reading public, the best friend of the business 
man, and a god-send to the overtaxed librarians 
of the country. 

It is very helpful to feel one's self in touch 
with the great intellectual products of one's 
generation, and no matter how busy I am, I 



never fail to smile when my eye rests on those 
" five imperial volumes." 

I counted it quite an honor to lunch with 
the gentleman, a well-thumbed copy of whose 
" Public libraries of .\merica" now lies on my 
desk. 

And then, again, the memory of having danced 
with the man who originated and perfected that 
complete and wonderful device known as " Cut- 
ter's Rules for making a dictionary catalog," 
which represents in the most complete and 
compact form possible the American system of 
cataloging ! 

In recalling the incidents of the busy days 
that followed, the clearest impression made on 
my mind was the immense amount of work ac- 
complished by such a large and mixed confer- 
ence. It evidenced the good work of the ex- 
ecutive committee and the interest of all present. 
So well had the program been prepared that not 
a dull or uninstructive hour was passed. No- 
where have I seen a more representative body. 
The proceedings were free from any sectional 
feeling, devoid of mannerisms, characterized by 
simple and business-like methods, and running 
through the whole was a vein of witticism and 
good-humor that lent a charm to the driest of 
detail. Nothing shows the growth of the Li- 
brary Association so much as the devotion to 
the ethics of the profession and the absence 
of all controversy over administrative policies 
that used to absorb the time of the annual meet- 
ings. This work, as I take it, can best be 
handled at the meetings of the state associations. 
Mr. Dana's opening remarks, unlike the usual 
optimistic report of retiring officers, dwelt on 
the seamy side of the public library, and so 
aptly did he cite the dark and discouraging side 
of the question, that I found myself aggrieved, 
feeling that he had singled out my own weak 
points. It was not long, however, before I dis- 
covered that the restive feeling was general, 
and that the depressing reaction that comes to 
all philanthropic movements, even in moments 
of certain success, is peculiar to no section but 
exists wherever man's shortcomings are to be 
found. As if to counteract this pessimistic 
view, Mr. Larned's scholarly paper was one 
that would have pleased the most critical of 
audiences ; it reached far out into the world of 
thought and action, and was tonic in its effect; 
lifting one above the petty worries, and broad- 
ening one's horizon very perceptibly. 



'S8 



CLEVELAND C0NFERE:NCE. 



The next three or four days were so crowded 
with work it seemed that the social feature was 
no feature at all. An all-day attendance on a 
meeting where every moment meant the acqui- 
sition of something of interest, where the atten- 
tion was concentrated for hours together, left 
one pretty tired and indifferent to social ameni- 
ties. 

But the good people of Cleveland, through 
their local committee, had other things in store 
for us, so after a bri?k walk out beautiful Eu- 
clid avenue, and a dinner with congenial com- 
pany, we gathered in the cosey quarters of the 
Rowfant Club, with its interesting collection of 
books and curios. A pleasant evening was 
passed in social intercourse, and in meeting 
new and renewing old acquaintances. 

Perhaps the most enjoyable of all the outings 
planned for our pleasure was the trolley party, 
which took us through the streets of this West- 
ern city, with its miles of boulevards, beautiful 
residences, and well-kept lawns, with their 
brilliant parterres of vivid coloring. It seems 
that Nature has compensated these Northern 
climes, with their short summers, by intensify- 
ing the greens and reds of its gorgeous vegeta- 
tion. 

The cemetery, with its imposing mausoleum, 
erected in memory of President Garfield, crowns 
a noble hill, from whose summit one gets a 
fine view of the city, spread fan-like on the 
borders of Lake Erie. The day was perfect, 
the sky cloudless. As far as the eye could 
reach, with the blue waters of the lake for 
background, the fair city lay bathed in the 
golden afternoon sunshine, and the great white 
sail in the far distance looked indeed like "a 
painted ship upon a painted ocean." 

On our return trip we were entertained in- 
formally at the delightful home of Mrs. Sarah 
K. Bolton, and later at the art gallery of Mr. 
OIney. 

It was due to the fresh air and invigorating 
effect of the afternoon ride that the evening 
session was characterized by a crispness and 
penetration equal to the lake breezes. It 
seems to me now, as I recall that evening 
through the perspective of the intervening 
months, that no brighter or cleverer lot of peo- 
ple ever met to discuss the fitness or unfitness 
of books. Miss Cutler surely deserves credit 
for originating so unique an evening as was 
that spent in considering the Supplement of the 



A. L. A. Catalog. The discussion of the books 
on scientific and sociological subjects was con- 
fined to a well-bred contest between specialists. 
As history, biography, and juveniles were 
reached, the talk became more general, and 
when fiction was introduced it was the signal 
for epigrammatic pyrotechnics unequalled in li- 
brary conferences. "A lady of quality" was 
handled without gloves, and in a manner calcu- 
lated to convince its author, " the laureate of 
the nursery," that the long-suffering librarian 
will turn. " The damnation of Theron Ware " 
also came under the ban. 

The concluding event of the Cleveland Con- 
ference was the annual banquet, which was 
spread in the ornate dining-room of the Hol- 
lenden Hotel. 

Plates were laid for five hundred guests, and 
the scene presented was beautiful in the ex- 
treme. Amid a profusion of gorgeous flowers, 
and with electric lights, music, and laughter, the 
guests were seated about the tables, made brill- 
iant with the whiteness of the linen and the vivid 
red of the carnations scattered on their surface. 

It was an inspiring scene. The Pompeiian 
red of the dining-room was reflected in the 
many mirrors, the draperies and color effects 
were Eastern in their gorgeousness. It was a 
contented crowd that sat down to the good 
things provided by the excellent cuisine, and by 
a market unrivalled for variety and quality. 
Many congenial coteries were formed about the 
board, and the happy nothings, quick repartee, 
and sparkling epigrams showed that these se- 
date pedants of the library world can, at will, 
throw off the serious affairs of life and enjoy 
" cakes and ale " with a light heart. One inci- 
dent was a particularly happy one tome. When 
the banquet had reached its height, when each 
one was sufficiently impressed with the desire- 
ableness of his neighbor, when a spirit of com- 
radeship and cordiality had been established, 
and each one was vying with the other in mat- 
ters of friendly attention, there was a lull in 
the conversation, and then the orchestra struck 
up " Dixie." Can you appreciate my emotions ! 
Never before had the inspiring old strains 
thrilled me as they did then, way off in this 
strange country. Without a moment's hesita- 
tion I clapped my hands, and out of sympathy 
with the Southern girl, my neighbors took it up, 
and as the music swelled, right royally did ap- 
plause greet the familiar song. 



HAINES. 



J59 



The kindness and cordiality with which my 
enthusiasm was received was characteristic of 
the meeting, a generous and non-sectional as- 
sembly, applauding all true feeling, and only 
discountenancing the sham and the unreal. 

Of the subsequent break-up, before the post- 
prandial Depews had had the opportunity to 
get off the good things they had booked for the 
occasion, the unceremonious leave-taking of the 



hospitable city, the checking of baggage, the 
hurried trip to the boat, it is unnecessary to 
speak. The delightful glimpse of Detroit and the 
lakes, the very good dinner (and its memories) 
served at the charming little club-house way up 
on the flat, and the remainder of the post-con- 
ference trip have all been told of by a better 
pen than mine, and form another story. 
Atlanta, Ga. 



THE POST-CONFERENCE. 



BY HELEN E. HAINES. 



'V^T'IIEN it came every one was thoroughly 
ready for it. Three days of steady atten- 
tion to business, with sessions packed one on 
top of another and few intervals for refresh- 
ments, made the prospect of playtime doubly 
welcome. "Ah," thought the weary ones, " we 
will loaf and invite our souls as we sail through 
the placid lakes and wander o'er the sunny 
shores." How they did it, it is the purpose of 
this chronicle faithfully to set forth, and if the 
Loafing Section of the A. L. A. Post-Conference 
seems to be overlooked, it should be remem- 
bered that this record is confined to what oc- 
curred, and not to what it was thought would 
occur. 

The post-conference, then, entered into life 
at midnight of Friday, Sept. 4, and for the first 
few hours of its existence it made things 
exceedingly lively for some five-score people. 
The program simply stated — "Friday, Sept. 
4, 8 p.m. — Annual dinner; followed by depart- 
ure at midnight for Detroit." As, however, the 
annual dinner was not cut short until after 11 
o'clock, it will be seen that departure at mid- 
night was not so simple as it looked. For an 
hour or more the Hollenden was the scene of 
distracted farewells, lightning-change perform- 
ances, frantic strapping of trunks, and pathetic 
appeals to porters and expressmen. Even after 
the party was safely at the steamer, with state- 
rooms secured, a large assembly waited anx- 
iously through a fast-speeding hour, and, like 
the Roman ghosts, did squeak and gibber on 
the Cleveland wharf in search of luggage. At 
last all things were decently in order, and the 
stragglers retired to sleep soundly through the 
too-short hours, unaware even in dreams that 
they were passing without proper emotion the 



historic spot where, under Perry, we met the 
enemy and they were ours. 

Breakfast at Detroit, according to the itine- 
rary, was "at individual expense." But the 
itinerary-makers had not counted on the hospi- 
tality of Detroit hosts, and pleasant breakfast 
parties were the first order of the day. Then 
gradually the party found its collective way to 
the Public Library, where the most cordial of 
welcomes awaited it. The whole library staff 
seemed to have resolved itself into a reception 
committee, and the visitors were piloted through 
the entire building, where they found much to 
examine and admire. The children's room, a 
light, pleasant apartment in the basement, with 
low open shelves, plenty of magazines, reading- 
tables and chairs, was a centre of interest. So, 
too, was the school library room, where were 
the boxes in which the library's school col- 
lections make their journeys to and fro. The 
new reference-room on the second floor was 
admired, with its attractive oak cases and hand- 
some fittings, and both the old building and its 
new annex were so thoroughly explored, from 
the alcoves of the great delivery-room to the 
bindery and newspaper store-rooms in the base- 
ment, that by 11 o'clock most of the visitor^ 
were quite willing to settle themselves comfort- 
ably in convenient chairs and await the second 
act in the day's program. 

This was a direct plagiarism from the reper- 
toire of the Greatest Show on Earth, consisting, 
as it did, in a Monster Chariot-Ride of some two 
hours' duration. Eleven o'clock was the hour 
set for the performance, but with the varied 
methods of time-keeping in vogue — for the 
visitors followed their own sweet will as to 
Eastern or Central standards, and the local 



i6o 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



time, like Hood's sarsaparilla, was peculiar to 
itself — it is safe to say only that in good season 
the chariots ranged themseh^es about the park- 
like square on which the library stands. There 
were 14 in all, seven of them large 'busses 
whose coveted roof-seats were promptly cap- 
tured by the mountaineers of the party. That 
morning's drive is one of the most delightful 
memories of the trip, and Detroit will hence- 
forth have a warm spot in every A. L. A. heart. 
The morning was beautiful, though at the end 
a moment's sprinkle added variety, and as the 
triumphal procession wound through the broad 
streets, lined with attractive homes, overhung 
by stately trees and interlaced with charming 
parks, the beanfields of Boston, the cafions 
of Chicago, and the maelstroms of New York 
seemed murky and melancholy compared with 
this delightful city, whose cheerful population 
improve the shining hours in cycling on multi- 
tudinous wheels along wide and noiseless ave- 
nues. 

From the business and residence districts 
the procession turned aside into the outskirts 
of the city, and thence, across the bridge and 
over the clear green waters of the lake, en- 
tered Belle Isle, the loveliest of island parks. 
Here they were whirled past the gay club- 
houses and the pretty Casino, through winding 
roads, now along the margin of the lake, now 
half-hidden in a tangled woodland, then back 
past the more frequented region of the men- 
agerie and deer park to the Casino, where a 
bounteous lunch was found awaiting them. It 
did not wait long; the busy morning, the sun- 
shine, and fresh air proved capital appetizers, 
and the lavish array of "cold victuals" was 
attacked with more energy than had been awak- 
ened by the most elaborate menus of the Hol- 
lenden. 

After luncheon the trip to the pier — whence 
the steamer was to carry the party to Grande 
Pointe Club-house — was next in order. Some 
preferred the park carriages as means to this 
end, but the majority set out for the mile-and-a- 
half walk, eager to explore as closely as possible 
the beauties of Belle Isle. Of course, the me- 
nagerie could not be neglected, and the A. L. A. 
Natural History Section held an interesting ses- 
sion on bears, monkeys, and small deer, when 
the Belle Isle live-stock received proper Dewey 
classification, with the exception of one small 
woolly creature that obstinately refused to un- 



roll itself, and was finally classified as "smelly, 
and nothing else." 

The walk through the park was not devoid of 
a pleasant element of uncertainty. No one was 
really sure of the route; still less was any one 
sure of the time. Every one knew that the 
steamer was due at three o'clock, but each 
watch kept different time and no one knew 
whether the steamer time was Central or local. 
In the end some of the party took a short-cut, 
the rest kept to the principle of "follow my 
leader," and all arrived at the wharf, after 
many misgivings, to find that the steamer 
was behind time and they had about an hour 
to wait. The waiting was enlivened by an in- 
teresting display of thunder, lightning, and 
rain, but luckily the steamer arrived in time to 
save a general drenching. The far-sighted 
people who had wraps and umbrellas kept dry 
and conceited; some of those who had neither 
found comfortable shelter under the wharf, 
where reserved seats on a pine board were at a 
premium and, a la Mikado — 

They sate in solemn silence 'neath a deep, dark dock. 
On a soft and muddy lake shore, in a rather dampish 

flock. 
Awaiting the sensation of a short, sharp shock 
From a lively bolt of lightning a'striking them a knock. 

The lightning was considerate, however, and 
before the rain had settled down to business 
the party was aboard the steamer and gliding 
over the tossing whitecaps of Lake St. Clair. 
Damp as it was, few sought the cabin; most 
stayed on deck and admired the scenery, or as 
much of it as rain and mist left visible. And 
then the rain ceased, the clouds dispersed, the 
sun returned to his own again, and the wide in- 
land ocean was arched by a glorious rainbow, 
perfect, spanning the whole lake, smiling the 
storm away, and reflecting a myriad rosy rip- 
ples. It was with the bow of promise still 
shining fair above that the long, green meadow- 
strips of the St. Clair flats first revealed them- 
selves — "broad, green, unmarsh-like marshes, 
like a prairie dropped down on the bosom of a 
beautiful rushing sea." The steamer made its 
way through a wide central channel, the St. 
Clair flats canal, bordered on either side by 
what seemed a single strip of meadowland and 
what was a literal Venice — a double row of 
small green islands, built on or strengthened by 
sturdy piles, connected and separated by in- 
numerable grass-girt channels and waterways. 



HAINES. 



i6i 



Here were the summer-homes of the dwellers 
in Detroit, each house its own island fortress, 
with its moat of running water; here were 
pleasant club-houses and large hotels - a veri- 
table lake-dwellers' country, where the only 
highways were the intersecting "channels and 
the wide expanse of the lake. Then there were 
long stretches of reed-meadows as yet un- 
invaded by the summer guest — wide green 
marshes of swaying grasses that seemed to rise 
direct from the waves. At one and another of 
the island stations the steamer left its quota of 
passengers, and by the time Grande Pointe was 
reached darkness had fallen and Little Venice 
was perceptible only as a broken double line of 
twinkling lights, tremblingly reflected in the 
dark waters. 

It was a damp but cheerful crowd that in- 
vaded the hospitable club-house, where a bright 
open fire gave a grateful welcome, and where 
the long dining-room was soon filled with an 
appreciative assembly discussing the "dinner 
tendered the American Library Association" by 
the Club. Then came a social session in the 
Club parlors, when the president of the Club 
made a short address of welcome and when 
those who were to have been the speech-makers 
of the night before disposed of their "left- 
overs" with brilliant success. Mr. Utley was 
chairman, and one by one the veteran story- 
tellers of the Association had their innings and 
added to their laurels. Dr. Hosmer was one of 
the first called upon, and he presented to the 
A. L. A. the following contribution to Minne- 
apolis folk-lore: 

"You are aware," he said, "ladies and 
gentlemen, that I come from Minneapolis, and 
that opposite that great city stands the little 
burg of St. Paul. The difference between 
these two places I shall illustrate by this true 
story: 

' ' There was once a Minneapolis frog and there 
was also a St. Paul frog. One day, through 
some inadvertence, each frog found himself 
suddenly immcr.«;ed in a can of milk. 

"' Oh dear, oh dear, I shall drown!' wailed 
the St. Paul frog. 

" ' Hustle, hustle! ' answered the Minneapolis 
frog. 

" ' I shall drown ! Dear, dear, I shall drown I ' 
came again from the St. Paul frog. 

"'Hustle! Hustle!' was the response of the 
Minneapolis frog. 



"'I shall drown, oh I shall drown I' came 
from the can of the St. Paul frog. 

" ' Hustle ! Hustle!' was the answer of Min- 
neapolis. 

"Then there was silence, save that from the 
can of the Minneapolis frog came constantly a 
faint but steady splashing. 

" In the morning appeared the milkman and 
looked into the cans. He turned first to the can 
in which the St. Paul frog had fallen. He saw 
its pallid corpse floating in a milky grave. He 
turned to the other can. The Minneapolis frog, 
floating peacefully upon a pat of butter, gazed 
up at him and winked." 

Of the touching tales told by Mr. Green, Mr. 
Thwaites, Mr. Hill, Mr. Cutter, and Mr. Crun- 
den time and space permit no record, though 
surely the proceedings of that social session 
deserve to be spread upon the minutes. Then 
followed dancing, general conversation, and a 
visit to the club boat-house. But gradually 
evening waned into night. At midnight the 
dancing stopped and the proprieties of Sunday 
morning were recognized by the formation of a 
class for the study of Bible conundrums, the 
members of which carried on their researches 
with commendable and infectious enthusiasm. 
But despite efforts to be wakeful, the wee sma' 
hours were not winged. Gradually those whose 
post-conference ended here retired to their 
rooms; some of the intending pilgrims followed 
their example and sought an hour's sleep; most 
of the others slowly gave up the battle and 
disposed themselves in graceful chrysalis atti- 
tudes upon convenient chairs ; while the few 
who watched kept vigil with pathetic solemnity. 
It was not until three o'clock in the morning 
that the hoarse whistle of the City of Mackinaw 
was the signal for the gathering of the clans, 
dazed and drowsy, and for a general exodus to 
the steamer, where at last, after a weary wait 
for luggage, the blessedness of bed found deep 
and general appreciation. 

For Sunday the log-book reads : sky, water, 
wind, and waves — and undoubtedly a goodly 
majority of the party would dwell with special 
emphasis on the last item. It may here be 
said that officially the trip was not a rough one; 
unofficial opinions differ. At any rate, the 
land-lubbers felt that they were being rapidly 
initiated into the delights of a life on the ocean 
wave, and even the experienced mariners need- 
ed their sea-legs when it came to a constitu- 



l62 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



tional around the upper deck. Early in the 
afternoon the steamer entered the broad ex- 
panse of Saginaw Bay, where the separate and 
combined effects of a "pitch" and a "roll" 
were presented for scientific discussion. Here 
for a while, with the aid of the mist, no land 
was visible, and those who chose could make- 
believe at ocean voyaging. In some respects 
there was no make-believe about it. One after 
another the pilgrims, pale and stern of mien, 
sought the seclusion of their state-rooms, until 
hardly a baker's dozen were left to breast the 
sweep of the wind, drink in the fresh, saltless 
air, and commiserate, with a fine pharisaical 
flavor, the weakness of their fellow-mortals. In 
the end it turned out that most of the party had 
retired " only for a nap," and that there had 
been a strikingly unanimous desire to make up 
for lost sleep. But Saginaw Bay was at last 
left behind, and gradually the sluniberers 
emerged, pale and wan, perhaps, but smiling, 
and not averse to suggestions of supper. 

It was dusk when three warning blasts an- 
nounced that Alpena was reached, and all 
hands prepared to go ashore and "do " the town, 
for here there was a stay of forty minutes. 
Evidently the Sunday night visit of the steamer 
is the one event in life at this Michigan metrop- 
olis, for the wharf, the adjacent piles of lumber, 
and the surrounding territory were all black 
with a rejoicing multitude, which was pictu- 
resque to look at, but made those who struggled 
through it appreciate practically the simile of 
the camel and the needle's eye. Then came the 
tour of Alpena, a straggling, unhappy-looking 
little city, in the throes of a double revival by 
the regular and irregular branches of the Sal- 
vation Army. To show the breadth of library 
sentiment, one party of the visitors first attend- 
ed the street-corner meeting of the original Sal- 
vationists, then spent five minutes at the Con- 
gregational church service, and topped off with 
the Volunteers' prayer-meeting in a barren little 
school-house. There is a public library at Al- 
pena, but it was visible only to the eye of faith, 
through locked doors. The return followed, 
through unfamiliarstreets, to the steamer, where 
the Newsboys' Band of Detroit, which was a fel- 
low-traveller with the librarians, was soon 
escorted by the approving populace, who 
thronged the landing, perched on the adjacent 
roofs, and gave a noisy farewell to the City of 
MiKkinaw as she backed slowly away, casting 



the glare of her search-light on the mass of dark 
forms, and white, upturned faces. 

Every one was on deck bright and early 
Monday morning, when a first landing was 
made at Mackinac at the unearthly hour of 
5:30. Most of the party remained on board, 
however, breakfasted in comfort, and spent 
half an hour exploring St. Ignace, whence 
they were set ashore at Mackinac at half-past 
eight. Of natural attractions St. Ignace can- 
not boast, although the lakeward view, with 
the bold, outward curve of the shore, and the 
distant, dark masses of Mackinac and its satel- 
lite islands is indeed beautiful. A desolate, 
forlorn little settlement it seemed, to have been 
a stronghold of French dominion in the North- 
west, and one of the earliest of the Jesuit mis- 
sion stations. The little Catholic church, with 
its pathetically scant furnishings, its plaster 
statues, and its large altar-piece of St. Ignatius 
— " St. Olio," according to one of the persistent 
would-be guides — was first visited, and then 
the party wandered up the hillside, past the 
church-bell, oddly mounted like a grind-stone 
on a frame platform and manipulated by a 
wooden handle, and beside the old burying- 
ground, long since overgrown with straggling 
bushes, where a few weather-beaten wooden 
crosses still marked the scarce perceptible 
mounds. Further on was Marquette's grave, 
or the spot known as Marquette's grave, for 
the Jesuit Relater, whose mission in life seemed 
to be to dissipate "the fogs of romance," 
proved concisely that the real burying-place 
was unknown, and that the tomb shown was 
probably — though that even was not certain — 
erected on the site of the old Jesuit mission 
chapel, abandoned in 1706. 

The half-hour was soon over, and in a few 
minutes the steamer was resting under the 
white cliffs of Mackinac, loveliest of islands, 
its cedar-clothed walls rising from the white 
shingle, and washed by rippling waves, through 
whose crystal clearness the pebbly bottom 
gleamed distinct. 

Here a dozen of the party started at once for 
the " Soo," to return in time for the final ses- 
sion on Tuesday night. For the others there 
was a walk along the beach, bordered in places 
by wave-washed, storm-writhen underbrush, 
and an upward climb through a woodland of 
cedars and hemlocks to the great veranda of 
the Grand Hotel, below which lay spread the 



HAINES. 



'63 



whole marvellous picture of white cliffs, cedar 
forests, changing waters, green islands, and 
distant hazy shores. 

The delights of that perfect day cannot be 
compressed into cold type. Some earthly- 
minded ones, perhaps, had thought of rest and 
rocking-chairs ; but such fancies vanished in 
the joy of the sunshine, the blue sky, the danc- 
ing lake, and the beckoning cedars. Rapidly 
the party melted away to explore the fairy isle 
in groups, bevies and couples, by carriage, on 
foot or awheel, as seemed best to each. How 
shall we chronicle all they saw and did? The 
barren title-entry gives no clue to the host of 
fair memories that are the harvest of those 
golden days; yet to the title-entry only must 
this record be confined. 

First, then. Fort Mackinac was the general 
goal. Since 1780 it has crowned the natural 
fortress of cliffs, rising on the east end of the 
island, and its white walls have held this gate- 
way to the lakes. Established in the name of 
his majesty King George, it was taken by Ameri- 
can troops in 1796, and in the War of 1S12 was 
recaptured by the British, who abandoned it, 
removing to the new Fort Holmes, further to 
the westward; later, by the treaty of Ghent, it 
was restored to the American Government, and 
it remained the military stronghold of the dis- 
trict until the present year when, abandoned by 
the Government, it became a part of the Michi- 
gan State Park. Several of the original build- 
ings still remain, and the place was full of 
interest to the historical enthusiasts, the only 
regret being that its history was not sufficiently 
" bluggy." Here was a sally-port, a water-gate, 
a bastion, and the Enthusiast discovered, with 
thrills of joy, an oubliette — a dark, delight- 
ful cavity, hidden in the wall, and guarded by a 
heavy door, where doubtless many an unfortu- 
nate had found a living grave. This was the 
Jesuit Relater bidden to stand and admire. 
" An oubliette," said he, and fixed it with his 
glittering eye. — "An oubliette? Dear me, 
no. — It is connected with the drainage system of 
the fort." And such is the Romance of history ? 
But even he could not disprove the two block- 
houses, with their rough brick fireplaces, their 
shuttered windows, their slanting loopholes, and 
their rusty gun-rests. Here Leatherstocking 
walked beside us, the loopholes bristled with 
muskets, arrowswhizzed throughevery opening, 
and the warwhoop sounded shrilly from below. 



From the old fort, across the fields, the ob- 
servatory was reached, built on the remains of 
the English Fort Holmes, and from its airy 
height the lovely world below took on another 
loveliness. Then Sugarloaf was climbed; the 
Cave of the Winds, e.xtending for an astonishing 
distance through the interior of the rock, was 
e.xplored, and an object lesson in " How to de- 
scend a ladder " was given by the Sage from the 
South. Then on, through winding paths, bor- 
dered with daisies, buttercups, and thistles, 
overrun with silvery juniper, and always bow- 
ered in cedars — and suddenly there rose a 
great stone arch, framing in its embrace the 
blue sky and the ever-changing lake. For that 
there are no words but those of the Bene- 
dicite, and in the hush of its presence silence 
was the only eloquence. 

There is no time to tell of the spring, gush- 
ing from a crevice in the cliffside and reached 
after a rough downward scramble through the 
odorous woods, over a treacherous trail half 
hidden among tall ferns and a tangled network 
of roots ; nor yet of Robinson's Folly, a bold 
headland jutting out over the lake, where, ac- 
cording to apocryphal romance, an Indian maid 
pursued one night by an unwelcome suitor 
plunged into the lake below. And it was unani- 
mously agreed that any man who would pursue 
any maid at any time over such a road deserved 
to have his folly handed down to posterity. 
Near by was Giants' Stairway, sloping steeply 
to the white beach below, which shone so invit- 
ingly in the sunshine that the question of de- 
scent was raised. It was soon settled. Two 
figures were observed upon the strand, and 
these were hailed by the group above, thus : 
"Hello! What's down there ? Anything worth 
seeing?" Instantly the answer floated back: 
" Self and girl — nothing else." The hint was 
taken and Eden was left unvisited. 

The straggling village, too, had to be ex- 
plored, with the old Catholic church and the 
John Jacob Astor House, once headquarters of 
the fur trade, as special landmarks. Here the 
relic-hunters gathered in the " National Park 
Bazaar," where dazzling arrays of Indian curios 
were displayed, ranging from birchbark match- 
boxes and embroidered slippers to cedarwood 
napkin-rings, souvenir-spoons, " mustache - 
cups" decorated with views of Arch Rock in 
green and blue, and similar aboriginal relics. 
Here were Indian war-clubs of fresh pine, con- 



164 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



siderately spotted, in advance, with gore, and ing Well? Some of the explorers found an 

— an indispensable part of the garb of every aerial well of their own. It stood high up upon 
Indian warrior — "gents' cravats" of rattle- the western bluff, beyond the Devil's Kitchen 
snake-skin, lined with olive-green satin and and the flat summit of Pontiac's Lookout — a 
adorned with a row of rattles as a crowning windlass well, of two pulley-ropes on which a 
finish. " Sell them ? Indeed we do," said the tin pail journeyed to and fro between the lake 
custodian of these treasures. " Why, the gen- beneath and the high bluff above. Promptly the 
tlemen buy lots of them cravats — they're such pail was sent upon its downward trip, with fear 
ajt/;*/ souvenirs." Literature was there a-plenty and trembling was it guided past the tops of the 

— "Anne," "Castle Nowhere," "The White impeding cedars, and when at last it returned. 
Islander," and "The Island beauty : a romance brimming with cold, clear water, it was unani- 
of Mackinac," leading the array. "Anne," we mously agreed that with a wishing well, a 
were told, "sells best, but some folks is so fairy spring, and a windlass well, Mackinac pos- 
ignorant they want to get it in paper covers, sessed, indeed, an unrivalled water-supply, 
and it a copyright book. Why, anybody who Late that afternoon the " Soo" party returned, 
knows anything about books knows you can't disclaiming all fatigue, sunburned, and bubbling 
get a copyright in paper covers." over with enthusiasm. We will let one of them 

So the day passed, and in the evening the tell of the delights of that not-to-bc-forgotten 

members gathered in the corridors and parlors side trip : 



of the hotel and compared notes, each remain- 
ing content that his own exploring tour had 
been a little superior to his neighbor's. There 
was dancing in the Casino, and the undaunted 



THE "soo" TRIP.* 

Leaving Mackinac Island in the morning 
the day was spent upon the water, the party 
reaching Sault Ste. Marie in the early even- 
Spirits, who had walked, cycled, or climbed in- ing. The scenery by the way was beautiful, 
defatigably since breakfast whiled away the the numerous islands, large and small re- 
.,,.,...- , . mindmg the traveller of the stately St. Law- 

hours till midnight in further exercise. ^^^^^_ ^^j^^ ^^ thousand isles, while in many 

On Tuesday morning most of the party took places the abrupt and precipitous bluffs of the 
a steamer trip around the island, spending an shore recalled the palisades of the picturesque 
hour at St. Ignace, where Father Marquette's Hudson. The party domiciled themselves upon 
r . , „ A L . T, 1 the boat for the round trip, somc%vhat Rudder 

grave was visited. St. Anthonys Rock was Grange " fashion, so were quite independent of 
pointed out, the soda-water resources of the vil- tj,c hotels of the village. Upon reaching the 
lageweretested, and theguilelesslibrarians were town it was still early enough for an inspection 
beautifully buncoed by the native hackmen. of the great locks now, by reason of the recent- 
.,, , , . , , u • ly constructed additional ones, the largest in 

Others still clung to their wheels; others again ^^^ ^^.^^,j ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^^ ,^3^ interested in 

spent the perfect morning in a boating trip to watching the great boats that were in waiting, 
" Boblow," the poetic Mackinac version of representing as they did such an important 
Bois-blanc, one of the many smaller islands of P^rt of the commerce of the world, as they 
^ . , I .^^ made their way through the narrow passage. 

.U-. -„„,«„. Then came the interesting experience of 

' ' shooting the rapids " of the river, a feat which 
is performed in small open boats, under the man- 
agement of Indian guides. The foaming waters, 
the swift descent, the semi-twilight, and the 
wild cries of the guides, these evidently being 
Snows," an archipelago of some hundred little considered by them part of the service which 

. , , . , • 1- „ „ c^u- A-u„< thev were expected to render, all combined to 

islets, clustered in a famous fishing ground but ' . ^ ^ ■ • j j u 1/ 1 

' >•'" ' J J I ■ give to the experience a weird and half unreal 

of the piscatorial exploits there performed, this character, which did not, however, prevent it 

chronicle saith not. Mackinac itself seemed in- from being wholly delightful. A tour of the 

exhaustible. Skull Cave, Chimney Rock, Brit- shops was then in order, the inspection of 

ish Landing, Friendship's Altar, the spot where photographs and curios of various kinds result- 

. 6, , , ^ „ , , r., . ., ing in additions to several individual collections 



that island region ; — 

and with it all the wonder grew 
When so much had been done, so much remained to do. 

In the afternoon another steamer trip was 
made to Les Cheneaux, barbarized into " The 



stood the house of Anne, all these had their pil 
grims; Cupid's Pathway — which, illogically did 
not lead to Lover's Leap — was not neglected, 
nor was Lover's Lane unfrequented, and who 
could leave without a visit to the mystic Wish- 



of souvenirs. 

After a night upon the boat the early morn- 



* By Miss Ella McLoney, librarian Des Moines Public 
Library. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 



lOS 



ing found the tourists abroad for a walk about 
the quaint town, until warned that the time for 
starting upon the return trip was at hand. 
Late afternoon found them again in Mackinac, 
assuring their friends that, however pleasant 
the two days upon the island might have 
been, their delights could not possibly have 
exceeded those of the northern journey. As 
one of the number exultantly put it, " We have 
the combined pleasure of anticipation and pos- 
session. We have had the ' Soo ' trip, and the 
beauties of Mackinac are still before us!" 

But all things have an end, and at last 
those two delightful days drew to a close. 
On Tuesday evening was held the final session 
of the Conference, fittingly devoted to " The 
story of Mackinac," told by Mr. Thwaites. It 
was generally known that Mr. Thwaites spoke 
from the fullness of personal experience, for had 
he not sailed in birch canoes with Marquette 
and Joliet, joined in the boating-songs of the 
coureurs dc bois, and lent his authority to the abo- 
riginal councils of the Hurons and the Iroquois ? 
What wonder, then, that he brought the dead 
past into the living present, and made the 
Jesuit missionary, the long-haired voyageur, 
the hardy courcur de bois, and the subtle savage 
live again in these their ancient haunts, now in- 
vaded by igth century librarians? Of "The 
story of Mackinac " there is no need to speak 
in detail; it is recorded elsewhere in these Pro- 
ceedings; but its clear and picturesque narra- 
tive deepened the mental pictures of the lovely 
island, and freighted its memory with historic 
associations as well as with remembered beau- 
ties of sky and sea and shore. 

Then occurred what was, perhaps, the sweet- 



est episode in the history of the A. L. A. Deep- 
ly had the Association grieved to note the abys- 
mal gloom wherein their President had been en- 
wrapped since the first sentence of his opening 
address fell upon the conference. Vainly had 
they sought to "charm him with smiles and 
soap," but, Snarklike, he remained unmoved. 
It rame to pass that at last the secret of his 
melancholy was penetrated by the Lady from 
Chicago, and now, on behalf of the Association, 
she presented to him an offering that it was 
thought might dispel the shadows from his mar- 
ble brow. It was a five-pound box of Huyler's 
bon-bons, and it may faithfully be recorded that 
it proved a prompt and effective gloom-dispeller. 

There only remained for the Association to 
express, in a hearty resolution, its sincere 
thanks to Mr. Utiey and the Detroit Public Li- 
brary for the delightful welcome accorded them 
at Detroit, and then the end came, and the l8th 
Conference of the American Library Association 
was declared adjourned. 

Properly speaking, the post-conference ended 
here. But it was succeeded by a score of indi- 
vidual post-conferences, of which those con- 
cerned have pleasant recollections. Gradually 
the party dispersed ; most departed by Wednes- 
day's steamer for Chicago or New York, some 
lucky ones remained for a day longer, and a 
few, luckiest of all, stayed out the week, and, 
it is rumored, rested. But to all the Conference 
of 1896 was to be henceforth but a memory — a 
memory of happy days, in pleasant places, with 
the best of company — the finish and crown of a 
successful Conference. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 



F., Free ; L., Library ; Ln,, Librarian ; P., Public ; As., Assistant ; R-R., Reading-i 
* Prefixed indicates participation in the Mackinac trip. 



Adams, Emma L. , Ln. P. L., Plainfield, N. J. 

Adams, Sarah P., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Adler, Cyrus, Ln. Smithsonian Institution, 
Washington, D. C. 

*Ahern, Mary Eileen, Editor "Public Libra- 
ries," Chicago, 111. 

Allen, Sylvia M., Issue Clerk P. L., St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Althoff, Minnie E., As. P. L., Dayton, Ohio. 

Ambrose, Lodilla, As. Ln. Northwestern Univ., 
Evanston, 111. 



Anderson, Edwin H., Ln. Carnegie L., Pitts- 
burg, Pa.; Trustee Carnegie L. , Braddock, 
Pa. 

Andres, Lucie V., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

* Andrews, Clement W., Ln. John Crerar Li- 
brary, Chicago. 

Atkinson, Mary B., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Bain, James, Jr., Ln. P. L., Toronto, Can- 
ada. 

Baker, Charlotte A., Classifier P. L., Denver, 
Col. 



1 66 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



Baldwin, Martha, Trustee P. L., Birmingham, 

Mich. 
Bardwell, Willis A., Ln. Brooklyn Library, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

* Barnes, Elizabeth L., Order Dept. Carnegie 

L., Pittsburg, Pa. 
Bates, Helen C, As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

* Beach, M. Elizabeth, Ln. Jervis Library, 

Rome, N. Y. 

Beer, William, Ln. Howard Memorial Library, 
New Orleans, La. 

Benedict, Laura E. W., As. Lewis Institute, 
Chicago, 111. 

Benton, Harvey S., Catalog Dept. P. L., Cleve- 
land, O. 

Berry, Silas II., Ln. Y. M. C. A., Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

Bicknell, Percy F., Ln. Univ. of Illinois, Cham- 
paign, 111. 

*Biscoe, Ellen L., Albany, N. Y. 

* Biscoe, Walter S., Cat. Ln. N. Y. State Li- 

brary, Albany, N. Y. 
Bishop, Frances A., As. Ln. P. L., Kansas 

City, Mo. 
Bishop, W: W., As. Ln. Garrett Biblical Inst., 

Evanston, 111. 
*Blackwell, R. J., Ln. P. L., London, Ont. 

* Blair, Emma H., .Ks. Wisconsin State His- 

torical Soc'y Library, Madison, Wis. 

*Boardman, Alice, As. Ohio State Library, 
Columbus, Ohio. 

Boland, Frank T., Head Stenographer L^niv. 
State of N. Y., Albany, N. Y. 

Bolton, C: K., Ln. P. L., Brookline, Mass. 

Bowerman, George F., Ln., Rochester, N. Y. 

Bowker, R: R., Editor Library journal; Trus- 
tee Brooklyn Library; Chairman Committee 
Brooklyn Institute, Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Bradley, Isaac S., Ln. State Historical Society, 
Madison, Wis. 

Bradley, Mrs. I. S., Madison, Wis. 

Brandegee, John E., Trustee P. L., Utica, 
N. Y. 

Brett, Mercy C, As. Ln. National Military 
Home, Ohio. 

* Brett, William H., Ln. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 
Brett, Mrs. W: H., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Briggs, Mary J., Cataloger F. P. L., Wor- 
cester, Mass. 

Bromley, Allan R., .As. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Brooks, H. St. B., Chief Cat. Carnegie Library, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

* Browne, Nina E., Ln. Library Bureau, Boston. 



Browning, Eliza G., Ln. P. L., Indianpolis. 
Ind. 

Brudin, WalfridL., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Bunnell, Ada, Classifier N. Y. State Library, 
Albany, N Y. 

Burns, W: S., Cataloger Office of Supt. of Pub- 
lic Documents, Washington, D. C. 

Burns, Wylie C, with W. A. Wilde & Co., Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

* Burtch, Almon, with A. C. McClurg & Co.. 

Chicago, III. 

Callow, Hattie M., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Campbell, D. A., Ln. Neb. State Library, Lin- 
coln, Neb. 

Campbell, Mrs. D. A., Lincoln, Neb. 

*Carr, Henry J., Ln. P. L., Scranton, Pa. 

*Carr, Mrs. Henry J., Scranton, Pa. 

Cathcart, W. H., Sec'y and Chairman Library 
Comm. Western Reserve Hist. Soc, Cleve- 
land, O. 

Chamberlain, S. E., .As. Case Library, Cleve- 
land, O. 

* Chandler, Ellen M., Cataloger Buffalo Libra- 

ry, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Charlton, Margaret R., As. McGill Univ. Medi- 
cal Faculty, Montreal, Canada. 

Chase, Jessie C , As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Cheney, J: V., Ln Newberry L., Chicago. 

Church, Henrietta, As. Ln. P. L., Utica, N. Y. 

Clark, Arthur H., with Burrows Bros., Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Clarke, Edith E., In charge of Cataloging 
Office of Supt. of Public Documents, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Clarke, Elizabeth P., As. P. L., Syracuse, N. Y. 

Cochrane, Sarah A., 2d As. Ln. P. L., Detroit, 
Mich. 

Cole, G: Watson, Ln., New York City. 

Conover, Frank, Trustee P. L., Dayton, Ohio. 

*Conover, Louisa, As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

*Cope, Mrs. Laura H., Ln, State Library of 
Iowa, Des Moines, la. 

Crandall, F. A., Supt. Office of Public Docu- 
ments, Washington, D. C. 

Crawford, Esther, Cataloger P. L., Dayton, 
Ohio. 

Crew, Florence B., Cataloger Free Library of 
Phila., Philadelphia, Pa. 

* Crunden, F: M., Ln. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. 

* Crunden, Mrs. F; M., St. Louis. 
Cunningham, Arthur, Ln. State Normal School, 

Terre Haute, Ind. 
Curran, Mrs. Mary H., Ln. P. L., Bangor, Me. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 



167 



Cutler, Mary S., Vice-Director N. Y. State Li- 
brary School, N. Y. State Library, Albany, 
N. Y. 

* Cutter, C; A., Ln. Forbes Library, North- 

ampton, Mass. 
Cutler, W: R., Ln. P. L., Woburn, Mass. 

* Dana, J; C, Ln. P. L., Denver, Col. 

* Davidson, Emma L., Ln. State Library of Ind., 

Indianapolis, Ind. 

Davidson, H. E. , Vice-Pres. Library Bureau, 
Boston, Mass. 

Davidson, Mrs. H. E., Boston, Mass. 

Davie, Eleanor E., Ln. Buffalo Catholic Insti- 
tute, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Davis, Alice S., As. Ln. Wooster University Li- 
brary, Wooster, Ohio. 

Dempsey, Helen E., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Dickinson, Sarah S., Periodical Clerk JohnCre- 
rar Library, Chicago, 111. 

Dixson, Mrs. Zella A., Ln. University of Chi- 
cago, Chicago, III. 

Dodge, Virginia, Student Armour Inst., Chi- 
cago, 111. 

Doolittle, Mary, Ln. Williams F. L., Beaver 
Dam, Wis. 

Doren, Electra C, Ln. P. L. , Dayton, Ohio. 

Douglas, Alice E , As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Dousman, Mary E., As. P. L., Milwaukee, 
Wis. 

Earley, Maude O. , Ln. P. L., Chippewa Falls, 
Wis. 

* Eastman, Linda A., As. Ln. P. L., Cleveland 

Ohio. 
Eastman, W: R., Inspector of Libraries, State 

of N. Y., Albany, N. Y. 
Edgerton. M. Pauline, Ln. P. L., Akron, Ohio. 
Elliott, Carrie L., Re£. Ln. P. L., Chicago, 111. 
Elliott, Julia E., Cumulative Index Dept., P. L., 

Cleveland, O. 

* Elmendorf, H. L., Ln. F. P. L., St. Joseph, 

Mo. 

* Evans, Mrs. Alice G., Ln. P. L., Decatur, 111. 
Fellows, Jennie D., Student Library School, 

Albany, N. Y. 

Fernald, Hannah G., As. Buffalo Library, 
Buffalo, N. Y. 

Fitch, Elizabeth H., As. Case Library, Cleve- 
land, O. 

* Fitzgerald, Eva M., 2d As. State Library of 

Ind., Indianapolis, Ind. 
Fletcher, F. R., Library Bureau, Boston, Mass. 
Fletcher, W: I , Ln. Amherst College, Amherst, 

Mass. 



Foster, W: E., Ln. P. L., Providence, R. I. 
Fowler, Clara M., Fort Wayne, Ind. 

* Francis, Mary, Hartford, Ct. 

Frederick, Mrs. A. E., Ln. Way Library, Per- 
rysburg, Ohio. 

Furbish, Alice C, Ln. P. L., Portland, Me. 

Galbraith, C. B., Ln. Ohio State Library, Co- 
lumbus, Ohio. 

Gale, Ellen, Ln. P. L., Rock Island, 111. 

* Ganley, Marie, As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 
Garfield, Hon. James R., Trustee P. L., Mentor, 

Ohio. 
Garland, Caroline H., Ln. P. L., Dover, N. H. 

* Gay, Frank B., Ln. Watkinson L., Hartford, 

Ct. 

* Glasier, Jessie C, Cumulative Index Dept. P. 

L., Cleveland, O. 
Coding, Sarah E., As. Ln. Free Library of 

Phila., Philadelphia. 
Gould, C. H., Ln. McGill University, Montreal, 

Canada. 
Granger, Anne C, Ref. Dept. P. L., Cleveland, 

Ohio. 
Green, Bernard R., in charge of Building for 

Library of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

* Green, S: Swett, Ln. F. P. L. , Worcester, 

Mass. 

* Guild, Helen T., Ln. E. J. Hamilton Library, 

Fort Wayne, Ind. 

Guilford, Linda T., Teacher, Cleveland, O. 

Hagar, Sarah C, Ln. Fletcher F. L., Burling- 
ton, Vt. 

* Haines, Helen E., Editorial As. Library 

JOURNAL, N. Y. City. 

Hanna, Belle S., Ln. P. L., Greencastle, Ind. 

Hanna, Gertrude H., Catalog Dept. P. L., 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

Harbaugh, C. Lee, As. in Office P. L. , Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Harrison, Joseph L. , Ln. Providence Athe- 
nreum. Providence, R. 1. 

Hasse, Adelaide R., Ln. Office of Public Docu- 
ments, Washington, D. C. 

* Hawley, Emma A., As. Wis. State Hist. Soci- 

ety, Madison, Wis. 

* Hawley, Mary E., Cataloger N. Y. State Li- 

brary, Albany, N. Y. 

Hayes, John S., Ln. P. L., Somerville, Mass. 

Hayes, Rutherford P., State Library Commis- 
sioner, Columbus, Ohio. 

Hazeltine, Mary Emogene, Ln. James Prender- 
gast F. L., Jamestown, N. Y. 

Henderson, Maude R., Armour Inst., Chicago. 



i68 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



Herrick, Frances, As. P. L., Newark, N.J. 

* Herzog, Alfred C. Ln. F. P. L., Bayonne 

N.J. 

* Hewins, Caroline M.. Ln. P. L. ; Sec. Ct. P. L 

Commission, Hartford, Ct. 
Heydrick, Josephine S., Ln. Pequot Library 

Southport, Ct. 
Hickman, Minnie, P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 
Hiles, W. R., U. S. Mail Service, Minneapolis 

Minn. 

* Hill, Duke, with Montgomery, Ward & Co. 

Chicago, 111. 

* Hill, Frank P., Ln. F. P. L., Newark, 

N.J. 

* Hill, Mrs. Frank P., Newark, N. J. 
Hitchcock, Julia A., Ln. F. P. L., Youngstown, 

Ohio. 
Hoag, F. J., Trustee F. P. L., Toledo, Ohio. 
Hoagland, Merica, Sec'y of Lib'y Comm. P. L., 

Fort Wayne, Ind. 
Hollands, W. C, Binder Univ. of Mich. Lib'y, 

Ann Arbor, Mich. 

* Hopkins, Anderson H., As. Ln. John Crerar 

Library, Chicago, 111. 
Home, Alfred A., Manager D. Appleton & Co., 
Chicago, 111. 

* Hosmer, James K., Ln. P. L., Minneapolis, 

Minn. 

Howell, James E., Trustee F. P. L., Newark, 
N.J. 

Howell, Mrs. J. E., Newark, N. J. 

Howell, Thomson, Newark, N. J. 

Ilubbell, Maria T., Chief Clerk P. L., Cleveland, 
O. 

Hull, Fanny, Ln. Union for Christian Work, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Ilurst, Lizzie, As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Hutchins, F. A., Chairman Wis. F. L. Commis- 
sion, Baraboo, Wis. 

Hutchins, John C, Pres. P. L. Board, Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Hutson, Cecilia M., West Side Branch P. L., 
Cleveland, Ohio. 

lies, George, New York City. 

Isbister, Jennie E., P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Ives, William, Ln. Buffalo Library, Buffalo, 
N. Y. 

Jacobs, Mary C, As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Jahrans, Edw., Clerk P. L., Cleveland, O. 

James, Hannah P., Ln. Osterhout F. L., Wilkes- 
Barre, Pa. 

♦James, William J., Ln. Wesleyan Univ. Li- 
brary, Middletown, Ct. 



* Jenks, Rev. Henry F., Trustee P. L., Canton, 

Mass. 
Jermain, Mrs. Frances D., Toledo, Ohio. 
Jeschke, Martha L., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 
Jessup, Jennie B., Ln. P. L., Laporte, Ind. 

* Johnson, William, Trustee F. P. L., Newark, 

N.J. 

* Jones, Gardner M., Ln. P. L. ; Member of Li- 

brary Committee, Essex Institute, Salem, 
Mass. 

Jones, Jessie B., Cleveland, O. 

Jones, Mary L., Acting Ln. Univ. of Neb., 
Lincoln, Neb. 

Jones, Olive, Ln. Ohio State University, Co- 
lumbus, Ohio. 

Kautz, F. R., with Bowen-Merrill Co., Indian- 
apolis, Ind. 

Kelley, Helen T., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Kelso, Tessa L,, with Charles Scribner's Sons, 
New York City. 

Kendrick, Lilyan, As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Kent, Eliza M., As. P. L., Toledo, Ohio. 

Lane, W: C, Ln. Boston Athenaeum, Boston, 
Mass. 

Langton, J, F., As. Ln. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. 

* Larned, J. N., Supt. Buffalo Library, Buffalo, 

N. Y. 

* Larned, Mary, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Lazarus, Clara E., As. Carnegie F. L., Pitts- 
burg, Pa. 

*Leavitt, Charlotte D., Ln. Elyria Library, 
Elyria, Ohio. 

* Lemcke, Ernst, Bookseller, New York City. 

* Lemcke, Mrs. Ernst, New York City. 
Leonard, Ella E., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

* Leonard, Grace F., As. Providence Athenseum, 

Providence, R. I. 
♦Lindsay, Mary B., Ln. F. P. L., Evanston, 111. 
Lord, Isabel E., As. N. Y. State Library, Al- 
bany, N. Y. 
Lowe, May, Associate Ln. P. L., Circleville, 

Ohio. 
Lundy, Helen V., As. P. L., Cleveland. O. 
Lyon, L., Bookseller, Ashtabula, Ohio. 
Macbeth, George A., Trustee Carnegie Library, 

Pittsburg, Pa. 
McCabe, Margaret B., As. Buffalo Library, 

Buffalo, N. Y. 
McCrory, Harriette L., Ln. Normal School, 

Millersville, Pa. 
MacDougall, Jennie, As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 
McEwen, Sara E., Ln. L. Assoc, Sandusky, 

Ohio. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER. 



169 



Mackay, Margaret S., As. McGill University L., 

Montreal, Can. 
McKee, Mary, As. Ln. P. L., Kalamazoo, Mich. 

* McLoney, Ella M., Ln. P. L., Des Moines, la. 
Macrum, Mary F., Supt, Loan Dept. Carnegie 

L., Pittsburg, Pa. 
Madden, Florence H., As. Buffalo Library, 
Buffalo, N. Y. 

* Manchester, Bessie I., As. P. L., Detroit, 

Mich. 
Mann, Margaret, Cataloger Armour Institute, 

Chicago, 111. 
Mannaring, Anna A., Ln. P. L., Port Huron, 

Mich. 
Martin, Mary P., Ln. P. L., Canton, Ohio. 
Marvin, Cornelia, Ref. Ln. Armour Institute, 

Chicago, 111. 

* Medlicott, Mary, Ref. Ln. City Library, Spring- 

field, Mass. 

* Meleney, G: B., Manager Library Bureau, Chi- 

cago, 111. 
Mercer, Elizabeth, Ln. Normal School, Clarion, 

Pa. 
Mercer, Martha, Ln. Mem. Library Assoc, 

Mansfield, Ohio. 

* Merriam, Erie H., As. F. P. L., St. Joseph, 

Mo. 
Middleton, Jennie Y., Ln. Apprentices' Library^ 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
Miller, Else, P. L., St. Louis, Mo. 
Miller, Mary J., Ln. School Library, Mt. Her- 

mon, Mass. 

* Milner, Ange V., Ln. 111. State Normal School, 

Normal, 111. 

Miner, Mrs. Sarah H., Cataloger, Madison, 
Wis. 

Monfort, E. M., Ln. Marietta College, Marietta, 
Ohio. 

Montgomery, Thomas L., Ln. Wagner F. In- 
stitute of Science; Trustee Free Library of 
Phila., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Moore, Annie Carroll, Limerick, Maine. 

Moore, Evva L. , Ln. Withers P. L., Blooming- 
ton, 111. 

Moulton, John G., Ln. P. L., Quincy, III. 

Mueller, Anna C, Cleveland, O. 

Myler, Mary, As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

* Neff, Angie, Ln. P. L., Duluth, Minn. 
Neff, Elizabeth C, Cleveland, O. 

Neff, Peter, Librarian and Curator Western Re- 
serve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Neisser, Emma R., As. Free Library of Phila., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 



Nelson, C: Alex., Deputy Ln. Columbia Univ. 
Library, New York City ; Recorder A. L. A. 

Northrop, Frances, As. Carnegie Free Library, 
Pittsburg, Pa. 

Norton, Mary C, Ln. Steele Mem. Library, 
Elmira, N. Y. 

Odor, Virginia N., Catalog Ln. P. L., Cleve- 
land, O. 

O'Brien, Margaret A.. Chief Asst. Ln. P. L., 
Omaha, Neb. 

Olcott, Mary A., As. P. L., Oshkosh, Wis. 

Olin, Charles R., Ln. Buchtel College, Akron, 
Ohio. 

Olin, Gracia G., Akron, Ohio. 

Orr, Charles, Ln. Case Library, Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Palmer, W. Millard, Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Paoli, Minnie B., As. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Parker, W: E., Treasurer Library Bureau, Bos- 
ton, Mass. 

Parsons, Mrs. A. F., Ln. P. L., BayCity, Mich. 

* Patten, Frank C, Ln. P. L., Helena, Mont. 
Paul, Mary, Ln. C. F. L. C. Assoc, Cuyahoga 

Falls, Ohio. 
Peck, A. L., Ln. F. L., Gloversville, N. Y. 
Peck, Edwin S., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 
Pierce, Margaret G., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 
Plummer, Mary W., Librarian and Director 

Pratt Inst. Free Library, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Poesche, H., Library Bureau, Chicago, 111. 
Pollard, Miss A. V., Ln. Polytechnic Society of 

Kentucky, Louisville, Ky. 
Powell, Mrs. L. L., P. L., Cairo, 111. 

* Power, Effie L., As. P. L., Cleveland, O. 
Proehl, J. M., As. Ln. P. L., Akron, Ohio. 
Purchase, Grace L., As. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 
Putnam, Herbert, Ln. P. L., Boston, Mass. 
Rathbone, Frances L. , As. Buffalo Library, Buf- 
falo, N. Y. 

Rathbone, Josephine A., As. Pratt Inst., Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. 

* Resor, Mrs. J. H., Ln. Parlin Library, Canton, 

111. 

Rezner, Adaline T., Govt. Dept. P. L., Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Rice, P. C, Ln. Wallace Library and Art Build- 
ing, Fitchburg, Mass. 

Rich, J. W., Ln. State University of Iowa, Iowa 
City, Iowa. 

Richardson, W: C, Architect (llartwell, Rich- 
ardson & Driver), Newtonville, Mass. 

Ridgway, Edith, Cataloger Free Library of 
Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa. 



170 



CLEVELAND CONFERENCE. 



Ritter, Jessie L., As. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Roberts, Isabella C, Ln. P. L., Kalamazoo. 
Mich. 

Root, Azariah S., Ln. Oberlin College. Oberlin, 
Ohio. 

Roper, Eleanor, Reading Rondure, Armour 
Inst., Chicago. 

Runner, Emma A., Cataloger Zarncke L., Cor- 
nell Univ., Ithaca, N. Y. 

* Sanborn, Kate E., Ln. City Library, Manches- 

ter, N. H. 

Schwarz, Stella, As. P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Seaman, Augusta L., As. P. L., Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Semple, Mary P., Pittsburg, Pa. 

Sewall, Willis F., Ln. Institute Free Library. 
Wilmington, Del. 

Sheldon, Helen G., Cataloger Drexel Institute, 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Sickley, John C, Ln. P. L., Poughkeepsie, 
N. Y. 

Sickley. Mrs. John C, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

Simon, Hermione A., As. P. L., Cleveland, 
Ohio. 

Simpson, Elizabeth F., As. P. L., Grand Rap- 
ids, Mich. 

Skinner, James A., Ln. N. Y. State Teachers' 
Library, Albany, N. Y. 

Smith, C. W., Ln. P. L., Seattle, Wash. 

Smith, J. A., Trustee P. L., Cleveland, Ohio. 

Smythe, Bessie H., Private Cataloger, Colum- 
bus, Ohio. 

Snead, W: R., Mgr. Snead Co. Iron Works, 
Louisville, Ky. 

Soule, C: C, Trustee P. L., Brookline, Mass. 

Southworth, Myra F., Ln. P. L., Brockton, 
Mass. 

Sperry, Helen, Ln. Carnegie Library. Brad- 
dock, Pa. 

* Stanley, Harriet H., Ln. P. L., Southbridge, 

Mass. 

* Stearns, Lutie E., Supt. Circ. Dept. P. L.; 

Sec'y Wis. Library Commission, Milwaukee, 
Wis. 

* Stechert, G. E., Bookseller, New York City. 

* Stechert, Mrs. G. E., New York City. 

* Steiner, Bernard C, Ln. Enoch Pratt Free 

Lib., Baltimore, Md. 
Stetson, Willis K., Ln. F. P. L., New Haven, 

Ct. 
Stevens, Eugenie, Rome, N. Y. 
Stevens, W. F., Ln. R. R. Y. M. C. A., New 

York City. 



Stewart, Rose G., Chief Cataloger Central Li- 
brary, Free Library of Philadelphia, Phila- 
delphia, Pa. 

Stockin, A. C, with Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 
Boston. Mass. 

Stone, W. C, in charge of Delivery Dept. City 
Library, Springfield, Mass. 

* Stout, Hon. J. H., Mabel Tainter Library, 

Menomonie, Wis. 
Swan, Elizabeth D., Ln. Purdue Univ., LaFay- 

ette, Ind. 
*Swan, Lizzie P., Cataloger Wisconsin Normal 

Schools, Milwaukee, Wis. 
Taber, Isabelle, As. Buchtel College, Akron, 

Ohio. 
Taylor, B. J., Pres. L. Assoc, Warren, Ohio. 
Thompson, John W., Pres. F. P. L., Evanston, 

III. 

* Thompson, Leonard, Trustee P. L. , Woburn, 

Mass. 
Thomson, John, Ln. Free Library of Phila., 

Philadelphia, Pa. 
Thurston, Elizabeth P., Ln. F. L., Newton, 

Mass. 

* Thwaites, Reuben G., Sec'y State Hist. Soc. of 

Wis., Madison, Wis. 

Tillinghast, W; H., Harvard Univ. L., Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

Tyler, Alices., Catalog Dept. P. L., Cleveland. 

* Underhfll, Caroline M., Ln. P. L., Utica, N. Y. 

* Utley, H: M., Ln. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Van Duzee, E: P., Mgr. Grosvcnor Library, 

Buffalo, N. Y. 
Van Vliet, Jessie S., -'\s. Ln. Armour Inst., Chi. 

cago. 111. 
Virtue, A. G., with G. P. Putnam's Sons, New 

York City. 
Wager, Olive M., Lockwood, Ohio. 

* Wagner, Sula, Cataloger P. L.,St. Louis, Mo. 

* Waldo, CeliaF., Ln. P. L., Jackson, Mich. 
Wales, Caroline I., As. Ln. P. L., Toledo, Ohio. 
Wales, Elizabeth B., As. Ln. Carnegie Free L., 

Braddock, Pa. 

Walker, Harriet A., As. Botany Dept., Welles- 
ley College, Wellesley, Mass. 

Walker, Katharine F., Dayton, Ohio. 

Wallace, Anne, Ln. Young Men's Library Asso. , 
Atlanta, Ga. 

Walton, Charles, with Charles Scribner's Sons, 
New York City. 

Walton, G. M., Ln. State Normal School, 
Ypsilanti, Mich. 

Walton, Lilian, Cleveland, O. 



A TTENDANCE SUAfMAK/ES. 



171 



Weaver, Mrs. H. M., Trustee P. L., Mansfield, 

Ohio. 
Webb, P. L., Treas. L. Assoc, Warren, O. 

* Weeks, Mrs. Anna R., Trustee P. L., Win- 

netka, III. 
Wellman, Hiller C, As. Boston .^thenaiuni, 

Boston, Mass. 
Weiss, Mary C, Ln. P. L., Warren, Pa. 

* West, Theresa, Ln. P. L., Milwaukee, Wis. 
Westervelt, Arthur A., with A. B. cS: W. T. 

Westervelt, New York City. 

Whelpley, A. W., Ln. P. L., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Whelpley, Mrs. A. W., Cincinnati, Ohio. 

White, Andrew C, As. Ln. Cornell Univ. Li- 
brary, Ithaca, N. Y. 

Whitney, James L. , Chief Cataloger P. L. , 
Boston, Mass. 

Whittier, J. H., Sec'y N. H. Library Commis- 
sion, East Rochester, N. H. 

Wilde, Allan H., with W. A. Wilde & Co., 
Boston, Mass. 



Willard, Elisa M., Ref. Ln. Carnegie Library, 

Pittsburg, Pa. 
Williams, Edward C, Ln. Adelbert College, 

Cleveland, O. 
Williams, Lizzie A., Ln. P. L., Maiden, Mass. 
Wing, J. N., with Charles Scribner's Sons, 

New York City. 
Wire, G. E., M.D., Ln., Evanston, 111. 
Wood, Julia S., Ln. Hackley P. L., Muskegon, 

Mich. 
* Wood, Mildred C, 2d As. Ln. P. L,, Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 
Woodard, Gertrude E., As. Ln. Mich. State 

Normal School, Ypsilanti, Mich. 
Woodford, H. W., Ln. P. L., Warren, Ohio. 
Woodward, Mrs. R. C, Springfield, Ohio. 
Wright, B. F., Trustee P. L., St. Paul, Minn. 
Wyer, J. I., Jr., Student Library School, Albany, 

N. Y. 
Yardley, A. E., Ln. City Library, Monroe, 

Mich. 



ATTENDANCE SUMMARIES. 



Bv Assistant Recorder Nina E. Browne, Lihrarian of Library Bureau, Boston ; 
ANT Secretary, A. L. A. Publishing Section. 



BY rOSITION AND SE.X. 

Men. Women. Total. 

Trustees and other officers. 25 4 29 

Chief librarians OS 66 134 

Assistants 22 112 134 

Library Bureau, booksell- 
ers, architects, etc 25 4 29 

Others 5 31 36 

145 217 362 
Deduct those counted in 
two classes 3 ... 3 

142 217 359 

BY GEOGRAPHICAL SECTIONS. 

9 of the 9 No. Atlantic States sent 140 

4 " 9 So. Atlantic States " 9 

2 " 8 Gulf States " 3 

8 " S Lake States " 194 



2 of the 8 Mountain States sent. 
I " 8 Pacific States " . 

Canada " . 



Total 359 



Me 3 

N. H 3 

Vt I 

Mass 34 



BY STATES, 
O... 
Ind , 



R. I. 

Ct... 

N. Y. 

N. J. 

Pa... 

Del.. 

Md .. 

D. C. 

Ga... 

La... 

Ky... 



III... 

Mich. 
Wis.. 



32 

25 

15 

Minn 4 

la 3 

Mo 10 

Neb 4 

Mont I 

Col 2 

Wash I 

Canada 5 

Total 359 



INDEX. 



Abbott's, C. C, "Birds about us," 

140. 
Accessioning^ (Fletcher), 129. 
Accumulative index to periodicals, 

Adler, Dr. Cyrus, on the reorganiza- 
tion of the Library of Confess, 82- 
S3; read paper on the Smithsonian 
Inst., 150; remarks at College Sec- 
tion, 154 ; recommends Bolton's 
" Select bibliography of chemis- 
try " and Lord Rayleigh's " Theory 
of sound," 1^6. 

Advertising, W. D. Howells on, 37. 

Advertising a library, 37-40. 

Age, Vulgarity of the present, 11. 

Ahcrn, IMiss M. E., on the Poole Me- 
morial, 1 14; presents invitation from 
the Nat. EducationaL Assoc, 125; 
presents a token to the retiring 
president, 151. 

Aid to libraries from states, 68-71. 

Aladdin, The story of, 47. 

Albany Library School, Technical 
trainin^^ at, 93. 

Alcoves in reading-room in Library 
of Congress, 15. 

Allan, Miss Jessie, Notice of, 152. 

Allen's, J. L.,"Asummerin Arcady " 
commended, 144. 

Alpena, A visit to, 160. 

Ambrose, Lodilla, on travelling li- 
braries, 113. 

American catalog, The, 80. 

American Library Association, Ad- 
vertise the, 4. 

A. L. A., J. W.Thompson on the, 120. 

A. L. A. banquet, 151, 156, 158. 

A. L. A. Catalog, 132, 133. 

A. L. A Constitution, Amendment 

A. L. A. Index and Supplement, 98. 

A. L. A. Supplement. See Supple- 
ment to A. L. A. Catalog. 

Anderson, E. H., Report of Treas- 
urer, 90-01; permanent Secretary of 
Trustees Section, 154. 

Andrews, C. W., 00 lack of pro- 
portion in list of books on Science, 
136; on the " Red badge of cour- 
age," 144. 

Andrews's, E. B., " History of U. S." 
severely criticised, ^38. 

Annual report ; what it should con- 
tain, 65-66. 

Appalachian Mountain Club, Collec- 
tion of photographs owned by the^ 

Architects, Librarians should influ- 
ence, 4. 

Armour Institute, j^f Library Schools, 
Report on, 93-96 ; special report on, 
97- 

Art world crowded with artisans not 
artists, 11. 

Assistants should be appointed by the 
librarian, 155 ; should have time to 
visit other libraries, 109. 

Astronomy, E.\cess of books on, in li- 
braries, 136. 

Atlanta, Congress of women libra- 
rians at, 57-58; invites the confer- 
ence of 189S, 150. 

Attendance register, 165-171. 

Author cards, Fulness of, 130. 



Baldwin's, James, "Horse fair" ap- 
proved, 140. 

Ball, Sir R. S., Books by, recommend- 
ed, 136. 

Banquet, Annual, 151, 156, 158. 

Bardwell, W. A., on Brooklyn Ethi- 
cal Assoc, publications, 135; on Cod- 
man's " Brook Farm," 135. 

Beer, W., on list of newspapers, 105, 

Bellelsle, Theride to, 160. 

Bequests, Report on, 58-64. 

Berry, S. H., resolution for Com- 
mittee on gifts and bequests, 124; 
on selecting books on Science, 136; 
on '*A lady of quality," 143; appoint- 
ed teller of election, 147. 

Best thing. The, is not that which we 
have now, 134. 

Bibliographic aids. Co-operation in, 
107. 

Bibliography in the library schools, 
5»5- 

Billings, Dr. J. S., sends regrets, 112. 

Binders, Temporary, 128. 

Biography, Individual, List of, too 
long, 138. 

" Birds' Christmas Carol," a better 
edition of, secured, 126. 

Bishop, W. W., on travelling libra- 

Bolton's, H. C, " Select bibliography 
of chemistry recommended, 136. 

Bonney, T. G., books by, recommend- 
ed, 136. 

Book, Charging a, 53 ; renewing a, 
54- 

Book, Preparing a, for issue, 56. 

Book-card, 127-8. 

Book-carrier, Mechanical, 18. 

Book-collectors to be interested, 4. 

Book committee. Composition of, 35. 

Book-making, Suggestions for good, 
42. 

Book-marks for advertising, 40. 

Book-notes, 27-28; 83-85. 

Book-pocket, specimen, 53; use of, 53, 
54, 147; Cutter's, 127-8. 

Book-shelves of Library of Congress, 
17- 

Book slip, specimen, 53; use of, 53, 54, 
147; Cutter's, 127. 

Book-stacks in Library of Congress, 
15-18; construction of, 16. 

Books, Expert annotation of, 27-28; 
discussion on, 83-85; should be se- 
lected by the librarian, 35 ; replac- 
ing worn-out, 41, 47; wearing quali- 
ties of, 41 ; extra cost of making 
good, 42 ; committee on securing 
better editions, 125; discussion on 
better editions, 125-7; extravagance 
of buying cheap, 127; tentative list 
of for A. L. A. Supplement, 132-3; 
that are awakeners of thought, 135; 
suitable to local needs, 137. 

Books for girls and women. List of, 
28, 84, 98. 

Books, new and old: what to buy, pa- 
per by Miss C. M. Hewins, 47-48. 

Books out of print, How to get, ^7. 

Bookseller, Librarian should influ- 
ence the, 4. 

Bookseller, Relation of, to the li- 
brary, 147. 



Borrower's card, Specimen blank of, 
52; use of, 53, 147. 

Borrower's pocket, 127-8. 

Botany, Books on, recommended, 136. 

Bowker, R. R., on public documents, 
79-80; reorganization of the Library 
of Congress, 81-83; on the Interna- 
tional Conference, 87. 

Boyesen's, H. H., " Norseland tales " 
commended, 140, 

Brett, W: H., elected president. 

British Columbia documents, no. 

Brooklyn Ethical Assoc, Publications 
of, approved, 135. 

Browne, Nina E., on charging sys- 
tems, 148; attendance register, 165- 
171. 

Browning, Eliza G., report on Ar- 
mour Inst. Library Class, 97. 

Buffalo Library, Advertising at, 39. 

Bulletin board. Wall space used for a 
pictorial, 39. 

Burnett's. Mrs. F. H., "Lady of 
quality," discussed and condemned, 
143- 

Burtch, A., motion on relation of 
bookseller to the library, 147. 

Business men to be influenced, 5. 

Caine's, Hall, " The Manxman " dis- 
cussed and approved, 144. 

Cajori's, Florian, " History of mathe- 
maticSj" a ^ood work, 136. 

California, Aid to libraries in, 68. 

Canada, Public documents of, joo-io. 

Candlestick for the Rowfant Cflub, 

125- 

Cards, Arrangement of, for different 



edii 



[30. 



Carpenter^s, W. L., " Soaps, candles, 
glycerine, etc.," recommended, 137. 

Carr, H: J., on the International Con- 
ference, 89 ; on books in Useful 
Arts, 137 ; on books on the Civil 
War, 138 ; on charging systems, 
148^ ; on Accumulative index to 
periodicals, 151 ; elected councillor, 
151- 

Casey, Gen. T: Lincoln, put in charge 
of library building, 14. 

Catalog cards, printed, 101-2; 108. 

Catalog, Monthly, of public docu- 
mentSj 22. 

Cataloging as scheduled in library 
schools, 94 ; co-operative, 108 ; of 
serials, 108 ; Fletcher on, 129. 

Catalogs of public documents, 22-23, 
80. 

Century, Retrospect and prospect in 
last years of the, 5. 

Century Dictionary adopted as the 
standard, 99. 

Ceylon, Public documents of, 112. 

Chairs for reading-rooms, 128. 

Champlain, Samuel de, at Quebec, 72; 
sencfs Nicolet to the NortKwest, 72. 

Chandler, Miss E. M., " Do ": advice 
based on experience, 43-46. 

Charging systems. F. P. Hill on, 51- 
56 ; reports on by Linderfeldt and 
Carr, 51 ; by Misses Plummer and 
Browne, 51 ; three requisites of a, 52; 
Newark system, 52, 53; as scheduled 
in library schools, 95; C. A. Cutter's, 
127-8; discussion on, i47-<). 



«74 



INDEX. 



Children, Education of, a; reading of, 
2; should have the best periodicals, 
40; establish reading-rooms for, 50. 

*' Children of the poor" issued on 
poor paper, 126. 

Children's books. Discussion on, 139- 

Children's reading.Course in, at Drex- 

el Institute, 05 ; List of books for, 

by Miss C. ^I. Hewins, 100. 

See also Sargent's Reading for the 
young. 
Choice 01 books without reason, 27 ; 

guidance in needed, 27. 
Civilization, Processes of culture in 

modem, 5 ; expansive progress of, 

6 ; the gravest problem of, 12. 
Classification as scheduled in library 

schools, 94-95. 
Classifying, 129. 
Clearing-house, American Libraries', 

67, 147. 
Clubs, local, Advantages of, 108. 
Codman's, J. T., "Brook Farm" 

criticised, 135. 
Coffin's, C: C., "Daughters of the 

Revolution " praised, 140. 
Coffin, Miss H. L., methods of bulle- 



SciencC; 13^; on the theory of selec- 
tion in list for A. L. A. Supplement, 
137; on charging systems,i48; elected 
treasurer, 151. 
College Library Section, Meeting of, 

Colorado libran,* law, 68. 

Commerce, in times past, the common 
school 01 mankind, 6 ; new charac- 
ter in, 7 ; increasing excitement of. 

Committee on Resolutions named, 78; 
reports of, T50-1. 

Commons', J. R., "Proportional rep- 
resentation," endorsed, 135. 

Competition, The crawling scramble 
of, 7. 

Comprehensive Index of public docu- 
ments, 22. 

Conference of 1898, Invitations for, 
presented, 150. 

Congress discusses a new library, 13 ; 
Act of April 15, i886, 13; Act ot Oct. 
2, 1SB8, 14. 

Congress of women librarians at At- 
lanta, 57-58. 

Connecticut Library Committee and 
aid to libraries, 68. 

Consolidated Index of public docu- 
ments, 23. 

Constitution, Amendment to, 104. 

Co-operation Committee, Report of, 
105-9 ' members should live near 
each other, 100. 

Co-operation, Neighborhood, 106; in 
growth and by union, 106 ; in use, 
106; international, 109. 

Cope, Mrs. Lana H., on travelling li- 
braries, 113 ; on trustees and Iowa 
State Commission, 121. 

'Copyright Office, On the organization 
of the, as a separate Bureau, 81. 

Copyright on book-notes, 83-84. 

Counter railing or guard, iz8. 

■Crandall, F. A., Paper on public 
documents, 20; Com. on Pub. Docs. 
commend, 79. 
Crane's, S., "Red badge of courage" 

discussed and rejected^ 144. 
Criticism, Weakness of, in most liter- 
ary papers, 144. 
Creole boatmen, 77. 

Crunden, F: M.: paper on Library 
trustees, 32-37; on the International 
Conference, 89; on Mass. Lib. Club 
Lists, 104; report on Poole Memo- 
rial, 113-14; on poor editions, 127; 
on subject cards, 130; on books on 



Sociology, 134-5; on publications of 
Brooklyn Ethical Assoc, 135; on 
Call's " Coming revolution," 135; on 
JMrs. Latimer's books, 138; on Lum- 
mis's "Spanish pioneers," 139; on 
the Modem Novel Club, 141 ; on 
books on the money question, 142 ; 
on " A lady of quality," 143 ; on 
dating books, 149; Reports of Com- 
mittee on resolutions, 150, 151. 

Culture, A thin and flattened, 6. 

Cutler, Mar>' S., member of Com. on 
European trip, 112; Report of Com- 
mittee on A. L. A. Supplement, 
132-3 ; "1 further revision of A. L. 
A. Supplement, 146. 

Cutter, C; A., plan for distribution of 
public documents, 25; on exhibitions 
of engravings and pictures, 114-15; 
explains his charging system, 127-8; 
on A. L. A. Catalog and Supple- 
ment, 133. 

Dana, J; C, President's address, i ; 

on evaluation notes in book-lists, 84: 

on Committee on European trip, 90: 

on a digest of library laws, 150 ; 

elected councillor, 151; presentation 

to, 151, 165. 
Dana's, Mrs. F. T., books on botany 

recommended, 136. 
Dance at Army and Navy Hall, 147. 
Davidson, H. E.,on the International 

Conference, 87, 89. 
Democracy, Evolution of, 7, 8. 
De Normandie, Rev. James, extract 

from letter of, 124. 
Depository libraries, 21. 
Detroit, Post at, 75; reception at and 

chariot-ride, 159^; P. L., 159. 
Dewey, Melvil^ sends regrets, 112; 

elected councillor, 151. 
Dextrine a good mucilage, 128. 
Digest of library laws, 150. 
Dixson, Mrs. Zella A., on " A lady of 

guality," 143. 
'o": advice based on experience, 
43-46. 

Document Catalog, see Comprehen- 
sive Index, 2j. 

Document Indfex, see Consolidated 
Index, 23. 

Drexel Institute, see Library Schools, 
Report on, 93-<)6. 

Dudley, C: K., on Library editions of 
popular fiction, 41-42. 

Duplicate Government documents, A 
quarter million of, arranged, 23. 

Eastman, W: R,, on Nat. Ed. As- 
soc, 104; on library trustees, 124; on 
the extravagance of buying cheap 
books, 127. 

Editor deposed by the reporter, 10. 

Education turned over to the com- 
munity, 2; enterprise in, 12. 

Election, Tellers appointed for the, 
147; result of the, 151. 

Elmendorf, H: L., on Report of Ex- 
ecutive Board, 85; on European 
trip, 86-89; presents regrets from 
Mr. Dewey and Dr. Billings, 112; 
on "A lady of quality," 143; rejected 
" Tales of mean streets." 145 ; com- 
mended Gilbert Parker s books, 145; 
on the Henty books, 146; vice-presi- 
dent, 151. 

Elsie books condemned, 141. 

Endowment Fund, Report of Trus- 
tees of, 92; audited, 132. 

Energies, Wakening of moral and in- 
tellectual, 12. 

England's greatness a fabric of trade, 
6. 

English, The study of, 141. 

Enrolment fee for European trip, 149. 

Enthusiasm in library work, i. 



European trip, 85 ; discussion on the, 
86-90; Committee on the, 112 ; reso- 
lutions on the, 149. 

Evanston P. L. Trustees, 120. 

Evolution, Power of the idea of, 11. 

Exchanges and boards of trade, 7. 

Executive Board, Report of, 85. 

Exhibitions of engravings and pict- 
ures, by C: A. Cutter, 114; by S: S. 
Green, 115-17; in connection with 
school-work, 116. 

Fiction readers, 1; library editions of 
popular books of, 41-42 ; use of 
about 75 i, 41 ; discussion on list of, 
141; one-third of the books objected 
to, 145. 

Finance Committee, Report on the 
Treasurer's Report, 131; on accounts 
of Trustees of Endowment Fund, 

Fine Art, List of books in, annotated 
by Mr. Sturgis, 28. 

Fines. Collecting, 147-8. 

Fiske's, J;, '* Discovery of North 
America" recommended, 139; "His- 
tory of the \2. S." criticised, 139. 

Fletcher, W; I., oncopyrightingbook- 
notes, 84; on the European trip, 90; 
member of Com. on European trip, 
112; on meeting of Trustee Section, 
113; on the Poole Memorial, 114; 
moves for a Com. to report on bet- 
ter editions of popular books, 125; 
on statistics of reoinding, 126 ; on 
accessioning, classifying, and cata- 
aloging, 129; on the Brooklyn Ethi- 
cal Assoc, 135 ; on Call's " Coming 
revolution," 135; on books that are 
awakeners of thought, 135 ; on "A 
lady of quality," 143; on Morrison's 
"Tales of mean streets," 145; on 
"Rose of Dutcher's Coolly," 146; on 
the A. L. A. Supplement, 146, chair- 
man of College Section, 1 54. 

Flippancy the one note of the news- 
paper, 10. 

Force the essence of government^ 2. 

Foreign documents, Report of Com- 
mittee on, 109-12 ; inquiries made, 
110; general answers, 111 ; informa- 
tion by countries, 111-12. 

Frederic's, Harold, " Damnation of 
Theron Ware" discussed and re- 
jected, 144-5. 

French Canadians, 74-75- 

Frogs, Story of the Minneapolis and 
St. Paul, 161. 

Functions of library trustees and their 
relations to librarians, paper by F. 
M. Crunden, 32-37; discussion on 
this paper, 118-24. 

Funds, Raising and management of, 



Garfield, J. R., on the library work at 
Mentor, 121; on trustees, 122. 

Garland, Miss C. H., on the Libra- 
rian's annual report, 65-66. 

Garland's, Hamlin, "Rose of Dutch- 
er's Coolly" discussed and reject- 
ed. 146. 

Gathmann's, H., "American soaps" 
too expensive, 137. 

Gay, F. B., on "A lady of quality," 
143- 

Geological Survey, Libraries to re- 
ceive publications of, 21. 

Gibson's, W. H., "Our edible toad- 
stools" recommended, 136. 

Gifts and bequests. Report on, 58-64, 
93; one person cannot report on all. 
59; committee of one from each state 
to report on, 59, 124. 

Giving to smaller libraries, 5. 

Gopher and candlestick, emblems of 
Rowfani Club, 156. 



INDEX. 



175 



Gould, C. H., on Canadapublic docu- 

Governraent departments, Records 

supplied to, 22. 
Grande Pointe Club, Reception and 

dinner at the, 161 ; resolution of 

thanks to. 151. 
Green, Bernard R., The new building 

for the Library of Congress, 13-20. 
Green, S: S., on the qualitications of 

trustees, 33 ; on the Treasurer's re- 

Sort of Publishing Section, 104; on 
^at. Educational Assoc, 104, 125; 
member of Com. on European trip, 
112; presents Mr. Putnam's resolu- 
tion on the National Library, 112; on 
exhibitions of engravings and pict- 
ures, 115-17; on reference booksand 
work, 130-1; on books on the Civil 
War, 138-9; on "A lady of quality," 
143; on the " Damnation of Theron 
Ware," 145; commends the Henty 
books, 146. » 

Griffin, M. J., on Dominion publica- 
tions, no. 

Habitant, The French, 74-75. 

Haines, Helen E., The post-confer- 
ence, 159. 

Harper's *' Book of facts" criticised, 
139- 

Harris's, Joel C, books praised, 140. 

Hasse, Adelaide R., report on Pratt 
Inst. Library School, 97. 

Hayes, R. P., on trustees and libra- 
rians, 121; on the Ohio Library Com- 
mission, 121; elected secretary, 151. 

Henty's, G. A., books discussed and 
approved, 140, 146. 

Hepner, Adolf, Proposition for a li- 
braries' clearing-house, 67; com- 
mittee appointed on, 147. 

Hewins, Miss C. M., paper on New 
and old books, 47-48 ; Report on 
gifts and bequests, 58-64, 93; List of 
books for children s reading, 100; 
on Codman's "Brook Farm," 135; 
on children's books, 139-41 ; on 
*' Rose of Dutcher's Coolly," 146. 

Hill, F. P., paper on Preparing a 
book for issue, and charging sys- 
tems, 51-56; discussion on the pa- 
per, 147-9; 01 the International Con- 



History, Discussion of list of books 

Hobbies should be cared for, 49. 

Home libraries, 31. 

Hopkins, A. H., on the " Damnation 
of Theron Ware," 145. 

Hosmer, J. K., as the connecting 
link, 119; on women as trustees, 119; 
on prize questions, 130-1; on Gen. 
Longstreet's "From Manassas to 
Appomattox," 138; on "A lady of 
tjuality," 143; elected vice-presi- 
dent, 151; on Minneapolis folk-lore, 

Houghton, Mifflin & Co. willing to 
make good editions, 126-7. 

Howells, W: D., on advertising, 37. 

Hudson Bay Co. organized, 73. 

Hutchins, F. A., on travelling libra- 
ries. 113; on making better editions 
of good books, 125-6. 

Hutchins, J: C, president at banquet, 
151; elected councillor, 151. 

Ideas, Power of certain, n. 

lies, G:, paper on the appraisal of lit- 
erature, 26-2S ; on notes in anno- 
tated booklists, 83-84; paid for pub- 
lishing List of books for girls and 
women, 98; thanks voted to, 98, 104; 
objected to Gilbert Parker's books, 
..^45-. 



Index, Comprehensive, or, Annual 
catalog of public documents, 22. 

Index to portraits, 100, 107; by Mr. 
Lane, 107. 

India, Foreign exchanges of, 112. 

Indiana, Board of Education has 
charge of State Library in, 68. 

Instruction, Proper courses of, for li- 
brary schools, 93-94. 

International Library Conference, 85; 
resolutions on, 87, 88 ; discussion 
on, 87-90 ; committee of arrange- 
ments for the trip, 89. 

Iowa, Associate libraries in, 68. 

James, Miss\{. P., paper on Reading- 
room and periodicals, 49-51 ; on 
Ladies' Home Journal, Puck, 
Judgey Arena, and Youths' Com- 
panion, 129 ; elected vice-president, 

Jamieson's, J. F,, " Dictionary of U. 
S. history" recommended, 139. 

I's, Mrs. C. v., "Toinette's 



Coolly," 146 ; chosen secretary of 
Trustees' Section, 153. 

Jenks's " Century World's Fair book " 
commended, 141. 

Jogues at Sault Ste. Marie, 72. 

Johnson, Wm., on new building at 
Newark, N. J., 122. 

Joliet, Louis, the coureur de 6ois, 73. 

Jones, G. M., on the International 
Conference, 88 ; motion, 89 ; on the 
Brooklyn Ethical Assoc, pubs., 135; 
on books in Science, 136 ; on list of 
books in Useful Arts, 137; on the 
"Red badge of courage," 144; on 
the " Damnation of Theron Ware," 



Kansas, Tax may be levied for libra- 
ries in, 68. 

Kautz, F. R., on "The Manxman" 
and "A summer in Arcady," 144; 
on the " Damnation of Theron 
Ware," 145. 

Keane's, A. H., " Ethnology " recom- 
mended, 136. 

Kelso, T. L., on the International 
Conference, 88 ; on women as trus- 
tees, 122; motion to present a candle- 
stick to the Rowfant Club, 125 ; on 
children's books, 141 ; on the " Red 
badge of courage, 144 ; would ex- 
clude fiction from the lists, 145. 

Kentucky, Efforts to secure a library 



King, Mrs. Porter, gives reception to 
librarians at Atlanta, 58. 

Kipling's, R., Jungle books commend- 
ed, 140. 

Koehner's "Systematic botany" rec- 
ommended, 136. 

Krehbiel, H. E., List of books on 

Kroeger, Alice B., on the Congress of 
women librarians at Atlanta, 57-58 ; 
" Manual of reference-books, 101. 

Lane, W: C, Report of Publishing 
Section, 97-104; member of Cora, on 
European trip, 112; on answering 
questions, 131; presents resolutions 
on European trip, 149. 

Lang's, Andrew, fairy-books very 
popular, 141. 

Langton, J. F., on dating cards, 148. 

Larned, J. N., Retrospect and pros- 
pect in last years of the centur>', 5; 
report of Committee on Library 
Scnools, 93-97; chairman of evening 
session, 132 ; on Supplement to A. 
L. A. Catalog, 132 ; on Mrs. Lati- 
mer's books, 138; on realism in fic- 



tion, 142; on the "Red badge of 
courage," 144. 

Latimer's, Mrs. E. W., latest books 
discussed, 138. 

Lee, G; M., compiler of report on 
State aid, 65. 

Lending books to other libraries, 106. 

Librarian a worker, 3 ; makes the li- 
brary, 3 ; advice to the, 3 ; the suc- 
cessful should be encouraged, 4 ; 
must grow in worth and dignity, 5 ; 
appointment of by trustees, 33 ; 
should be consulted by trustees, 34 ; 
should be secretary of the board, 34; 
should have pretty much his own 
way, 37; must interest the masses, 
37; should select periodicals as well 
as books, 49 ; should visit other li- 
braries, 109; should not be secretary 
of trustees, 118. 

Librarian's annual report. Paper on 
the, by Miss Garland, 65-66. 

Librarianship a profession, 3. 

Libraries' clearing-house, 67, 147. 

Libraries, State aid to, Report on, 
68-71. 

Library, Advertising a ; paper by 
.Miss Stearns, 37-40. 

Library Association of the United 
Kingdom, Invitation from to Inter- 
national Conference," 85 ; accepted, 
89 ; telegrams exchanged with, 112. 

Library construction, 3. 

Library editions of popular fiction ; 
paper by C R. Dudley, 41-42. 

Library furniture, fixtures and ap- 
pliances, 127. 

Library laws and legislation, 150. 

Library must be made attractive, 5 ; 
atmosphere for, 40. 

Library of Congress, The new build- 
ing for, 13-20, 80; the Commission 
for the, 13 ; warming and ventilat- 
ing apparatus for, 19; resolutions and 
discussions on the reorganization 
of, 81-83 ; key-ptan, first story, 16. 

Library Primer, The, 85 ; discussion 
on the, 86; resolutions on, 85, 86, 

Library Schools^ Report of Commit- 
tee on, 93-97. 

Library, The public, the great agency 
for developing mankind, 50. 

Library trustees and their relations 
to librarians, 32-37. 

Li/e read to the exclusion of better 
things, 50. 

Life, The widening of, 5 ; intellectual 
e.xpansion of, 11. 

Lists, Special, for advertising, 38. 

Literature, Diffusion of, by the libra- 
ry, 12 ; appraisal of, 26-28. 

LiteratHire omitted from curriculum 
of Albany Library School, 93 ; in- 
cluded at the other schools, 93. 

Literature, teachers of, Librarians 
should get in touch with, 4. 

Local histories, On the purchase of, 

139- 
Longmans' Gazetteer weak on the 

United States, 139. 
Longstreet's, J., " From Manassas to 

Appomattox" discussed, 138. 
Lowell's, Percival, "Mars" a sound 

book, 136. 
Lummis's, C. F.," Spanish pioneers" 

recommended, 139 ; also his Indian 

stories, 141. 

Macbeth, Geo. A., on the librarian, 

123 ; chosen president of Trustees 

Section, 153. 
Mackinac Island, Sinclair builds new 

fort on, 75-77 ; attractions of, 163-4, 
Mackinac, The story of, by R. G. 

Thwaites, 71-78. 
Mackinaw, Last session held at, 151. 
Mackinaw, Old, Massacre at, 75. 



176 



INDEX. 



Macky, Miss Bessie R., Notice of, 152. 
Maine, State aid to libraries in, 69. 
Mankind, Material well-being of, bet- 
tered, 7. 
" Manual on reference-books," by 

Miss Kroeger, loi. 
Marquette and the mission of St. 

Ignace, 73-74. 
Martin's, E. A., "Story of a piece of 

coal " commended, 141. 
Marshall's, Emma, '^Kensington Pal- 
ace " commended, 140. 
Mass. Library Club's " Monthly 

lists," 102-3, ^^4' ^*^7' 
Massachusetts Library Commission 

and aid to libraries, 69. 
McLoney, Ella M., on "A lady of 

quality," 143. 
Membership, Status of, 91. 
Memorial library of a young girl, 58 ; 

to the memory of a brother, 58 ; the 

centre of social life, 58. 
Memories, Some, of the Conference, 

156-^. 
Menard, the Jesuit, 73. 
Meredith's, G:, novels approved, 146. 
Metrical invention, Tight-ropes and 

trapezes of, 10, 
Michigan Library Association, 155. 
Michigan, Travelling libraries in, 69. 
MiUer^s, Olive T., "Four-handed 

folk " commended, 141. 
Milwaukee P. L., Advertising at, 58- 

39- 
Modern Novel Club of St. Louis, 141-2. 
Money question, Purchase of books 

on the, 142. 
Montgomery, T. L., opens discussion 

on books on Science, 135; opposed 

to books of new ideas, 135. 
Morrison's, A., " Tales of mean 

streets" rejected, 145. 
Mucilage, Dextrine a good, 128. 
Munroe, Kirk, Books by, commended, 

140. 
Murray- Aaron's, Eugene, ** Buttertiy- 

hunters in the Caribbees" con- 
demned, 141. 
Museums of the past and present, 26; 

in advance of the public libraries, 27. 
Music, List of books on, annotated 

by Mr. Krehbtcl. 28. 

National Educational Association, Li- 
brary Dept. of the, 4 ; invites A. L. 
A. to send delegates, 125. 

National Library, Kcsolutionsand dis- 
cussion on the reorganization of 
the, 81-83, 112- 

Necrology, i52-3- 

Nelson, C: Alejt.. motion on recom- 
mendations of E.vecutive Board, 89; 
on Committee on European trip, 90; 
on travelling libraries, 113; on the 
amendment to the Constitution, 113; 
advised keeping notes of answers 
to questions, 131 ; on books relating 
to the Civil War, 118-9; on the " Red 
badge of courage," 144; against any 
book condemned by two fibrarians, 
145 ; declined to be a candidate for 
secretary, 147 ; on collecting fines, 
149; presents invitations for Con- 
ference of 1898, 150; secretary of 
College Section, 154. 

New and old books : what to buy, 
paper by Miss C. M. Hewins, 47-48. 

New Brunswick documents, 109. 

New France, French policy in, 74- 
75; admirably described in Gilbert 
Parker's historical novels. 145. 

New Hampshire Library Commission 
and aid to libraries, 69-70. 

New Jersey Library Commission, 70. 

New South Wales, m. 

New York, Aid to libraries and trav- 
elling libraries in, 70. 

New Zealand, iii. 



Newfoundland public documents, no. 

Newspaper readers not inspiring, i. 

Newspapers, good-will ot local, 4 ; 
mission of, 9; wholesome influence 
of, 10; degradation under the ir- 
resjaonsible reporter, 10, n ; vul- 
garized, the greatest antagonism to 
wholesome books, 12; use of local, 
38 ; advertisements in, 39 ; greatest 
loes to solid reading, 50. 

Nicolet, Jean, visits the Northwest 
and Mackinac, 72. 

Nomination of candidates for election, 
81. 

Nourse's, Col , opinion of " The red 
badge of courage," 144. 

Nova Scotia documents. 109. 

Novels, Some favorite wear out every 
year, 48. 

Ohio Library Commission, 70. 
Olney, C: F., Reception at house of, 

156, 158; resolution of thanks to, 151. 
Oriental curiosities, Exhibition of, 115. 
Osborn's, H. F., '* From the Greeks 

to Darwin " recommended, 136. 

" Paper and Ink," by R. T. Swan, 98. 

Paper, Quality of j used in books, 41-42. 

Parental responsibility, i. 

Parker's, Gilbert, stories discussed 
and approved, 145-6. 

Pawtucket Library's work for chil- 
dren, 50, 51. 

Peck, A. L., advertises in street cars 
39 ; on Mass. Lib. Club Lists, 104 
on Houghton, Mifflin & Co.'s books^ 
127 ; on the *" Red badge of cour- 
age," 144; on the Henty books, 146 
on George Meredith's stories, 146. 

Periodicals, Care in selecting, 49 ; in- 
crease the number of technical, 49. 

Perkins, Hon. G. D., Resolution com- 
mending, 80. 

Pettiness of results, i. 

Photographs of mountain scenery by 
Sella, 114. 

Pictures, Methods of hanging un- 
framed, 115, ii6. 

Place of meeting for 1897, 87. 

Plummer, Mary W., member of Com. 
on European trip, iia; elected coun- 
cillor, 151. 

Poetrj'j An index of needed, 107. 

Point St. Ignace, 73-74, 75. 

Political emancipation, Movements 
of, 7-8. 

Political parties, Dissolution of every- 
where, 8. 

Poole Memorial Fund, 113-14. 

Portraits. See Index of portraits. 

Post-conference, The, 159. 

Poster shows, 40. 

Pratt Institute, see Library Schools, 
Report on, 93-96; special report on, 
97- 

Press, The, a new force in modern 
civilization, p-n. 

Prince Edward Island documents, 109. 

Proceedings of Conference, 78-151. 

Public Document Office, Work done 
at, 20-24; catalogs issued by the, 22- 
23; Reference Library in the, 23. 

Public documents and proposed docu- 
ment bill, 20-25 ; allowance of to 
members of Congress, 21 ; annual 
catalog of , 22; applications for, 24; 
bill for printing and binding, 24, 79- 
80; report of committee on, 79-80. 

Public library-, Effects of the, 2 ; the 
haunt of the lazy, 2; movement, 3; 
may be an injury, 3; powers and ef- 
ficiency of, 12; to create a finer cult- 
ure for mankind, 12. 

Public opinion a new force in society, 
8. 

Publishers, Can, be induced to make 
better books ?, 42, 



Publishing Section, Report of Execu- 
tive Board of, 97-104 ; scheme for 
the publications of, 99 ; reorganiza- 
tion of, 103-4; reference to annual 
meeting, 155. 

Puck SLnd/uti^e, Discussions on, lag. 

Putnam, Herbert, resolution on Li- 
brary of Congress, 112. 

Bueensland. Public documents of^ 111. 
uestions, Curious, asked librarians^ 
130; time to be given to prize, 130-1. 

Radisson and Groseilliers, 72, 73. 

Rayleigh's, Lord, *'Theorj' of sound " 
recommended," 136. 

Raymbault at Sault Ste. Marie, 72. 

Readers, Two classes of, 47. 

Reader's card. See Borrower's card. 

Reading in itself not meritorious, 49. 

Reading-room and periodicals, paper 
by Miss H. P. James. 49-51. 

Reading-room dt Library of Con- 
gress, 14-15. 

Reading-rooms for children, 50. 

Rebinding, 4: ; statistics of wanted, 
126. 

Reception, The preliminary, 155, 157; 
at Rowfant Club, 156; at Mr. Ol- 



Regimental histories, Purchase of, 
139. 

'* Remainder " libraries, 21. 

Renev/al slip, sample, 54; postal card 
notice, 55. 

Reporter, The irresponsible, io~ii. 

Reserve postal, sample, 55; slip, 56. 

Resolutions : on G. D. Perkins, 80 ; 
on Supplementary Document Bill, 
80; on reorganization of the Na- 
tional Library, 81 ; on the Copy- 
right Office, 81; on removal of li- 
brarians for political reasons, 81; 
on Library Primer, 85, 86; on Inter- 
national Library Conference, 85, 87, 
88; on time and place of meeting for 
1897, 87j 89; for Committee on Euro- 
pean trip, 89; of thanks to //cw. P. 
T. Sexton, 93; of thanks to George 
lies, 98, 104; on Mr. Crunden's pa- 
per, 124; appointing Com. on Gifts 
and bequests, 124; appointing Com. 
of five to work with Nat. Educa- 
tional Assoc, 125 ; on candlestick 
for the Rowfant Club, 125; on Trav- 
elling and Home libraries, 147 ; on 
the European trip, 149; Reports of 
Committccon, 150, 151. 

Rhode Island, Aid to librarians in, 70. 

Ridicule sapping the higher powers^ 
50- 

Root, A. S., appointed teller of elec- 
tion, 147. 

Rowfant Club, Invitation from the, 
78; candlestick for the, 125; resolu- 
tion of thanks to, 150; reception at 
the. 156. 

Royal Society's Subject index, Reso- 
tion on, 154. 

St, Clair flats, The, 160. 
, The stop at, 

P. L. Board of Trustees, 
Composition of, 32. 

St. Lusson at Sault Ste. Marie, 73. 

Salaries, Increase of, 35 ; given to 
libraries, 59. 

Samuel, Bunford, ms. inde.x of por- 
traits, 100, 107. 

Sargent's Reading for the young and 
Supplement, 98, 104. 

Sault Ste. Marie, 72, 73 ; a trip to the, 
164-5. 

Saunders's, M.,** Beautiful Joe "com- 
mended, 140. 



School, Work of the common, 9 ; 

books should be sent to the, 116. 
Science, Discussion of list of books 

on, 135-6. 
Scudder's, S. H., books recommended, 

136, lAI. 

Seawell s, M. E., naval books com- 
mended, 140. 

Serials, Co-operative cataloging' of, 
108. 

Sexlon, P. T., resignation of, as trus- 
tee of Endowment Fund, 93 ; gives 
$100 to the Fund, 03. 

Shelves, Open, 148. ' 

Shelving capacity of Library of Con- 
gress, i6. 

Smith's, Gertrude, " Arabella and 
Araminta" stories praised, 140. 

Smithmever, J. L., architect of Li- 
brary of Congress, 14. 

Social meeting at The HoUenden, 78. 

Social side, The, 155. 

Societv, Dissolution of the structure 
of, 8^, 11. 

Sociology, Discussion of list of books 
on, 134-5. 

Soule, C: C, on qualifications of trus- 
tees, 33; on the International Con- 
ference, 83 ; address to Trustees' 
Section, 117-18 ; comment on Mr. 
Crunden's paper, iiS-19 ; result of 
circular sent to trustees, 124 ; pre- 
sided at meeting of Trustees' Sec- 
tion, 153. 

Soule Photograph Co. of Boston, 115. 

South Australia, Public documents of, 

Specialists, Views of, too narrow in 
selecting books, 137. 

Spofford, A. R., urges the need of a 
new library, 13. 

State aid to libraries, Report of com- 
mittee on, 68-71. 

State Librarj' Associations, Reference 
to meetings of, 155. 

Statistics, Plan for librar>', 65. 

Stearns, Miss L. E., paper on Adver- 
tising a library, 37-40; on children's 
books, 141 ; on collecting fines, 147 ; 
The social side, 155. 

Steiner, B. C, on " Rose of Dutcher's 
Coolly," 146. 

Stevens, W. F., on *' A lady of quali- 
ty," 143- 

Stone, Mrs. C. H., founder of Modern 
Novel Club, 142. 

Stout, J. H., Generosity of, in support 
of libraries, 71 ; on the need of a 
state commission, 113. 

Street-cars, Advertising libraries in, 
39- 

Sturgis, Russell, List of books of fine 
arts, loo-ioi. 

Subject cards, Fulness of, 130. 

Subject headings, List of, 98. 



IJVDEX. 

Superficiality of the time, 6. 

Supplement to A. L. A. Catalog, 132 ; 
plan of discussion, 132; Report of 
Committee on, 132-3; discussion on, 
133-147; Committee on continued, 
147. 

Sympathy the starting-point for work, 

Tauchnitz edition of British fiction, 
41-42 



Thompson, J. W., on trustees and li- 
brarians, 119-20. 

Thomson, J;, on Travelling libraries, 
2Q-31; presents resolution on Trav- 
elling and Home libraries, 147. 

Thwaites, R. G., The stor>- of Mack- 
inac, 71-78; Report of Foreign Docu- 
ments Committee, 109-10; on trus- 
tees, 122; on list of books on History, 
138-9 ; on children's books, 141 ; on 
"A lady of quality," 143; highly 
commends Gilbert Parker's books, 
145; on Report of Wis. Library Com- 

Tillinghast'^ W. H., Report of Co- 
operation Committee, 105-0. 

Time, Our own, as seen by the future 
historian, 5. 

Trade formerly the servant of Free- 
dom, 6; nakedness and vulgarity of 



1 New York State, 
29 ; lead to' free libraries, 30 ; in 
luichigan, 30 ; in Iowa, 30 ; in Mon- 
tana, 30-31 I in Wisconsin, 31 ; in 
Pennsylvania, 31 ; discussion on, 
113- 

Treasurer's Report, 90; audited, 131-2. 

Trolley ride through Cleveland, 151, 
158. 

Trustees, library. Functions of, and 
their relations to librarians, paper 
by F: M. Crunden, 32-37; high char- 
acter of, 32; C: C. Soule on, 32-33; 
qualifications of, 33 ; first work of, 
33 ; should be posted on details 
of administration, 34 ; should up- 
hold the librarian, 36; may be in- 
formed through librarian's annual 
report, 65 ; should know details of 
libran/ administration, 119; number 
of, 122 ; should send librarians to 
A. L. A. conferences and pay their 
expenses, 123; good result of circular 
to trustees, 124. 

Trustees' Section, Joint meeting of 
with A. L. A., 117-24; meetings of 
the, 153-4- 

Tunnel from Library to Capitol in 
Washington, 19 



177 



Useful arts, Discussion of list of books 
on, 13^. 

Utah, Cities in, may levy tax for li- 
braries, 71. 

Utley, H. M., extends invitation to 
Detroit, 79 ; objected to " Tales of 
mean streets," 145; on detective 
stories, 146; resolutionof thanks to, 



Vermont Library Commission and aid 

to libraries, 71. 
Victoria, Public documents of, m. 
Vileness of publications forced on 

children, 49. 
Visitors, library. Character of , i. 



Walker, Gen. Francis A., extract from 

letter of, 124. 
Wallace, Miss AnnG, and the Congress 

of Women Librarians, 57 ; Some 

memories of the Conference, 156-0. 
Wealth, A more equitable distribution 

of, desired, 134. 
Wealthy, Interesting the, in libraries, 

59- 
Weeks, Mrs. H. M., on women as 

trustees, 122. 
Wellman, H. C, on the "Damnation 

of Theron Ware," 145. 
Whelpley, A. W., on poor editions of 

books, 127; on the "Damnation of 

Theron Ware," 145. 
Whitelaw, O. L., Letter on functions 

of trustees, 35-36 ; letter to Mr. 

Crunden on library trustees, 123-4. 
Widening of life, Progress of the 

forces at work for the, 6, 11. 
Wing, J. N., on the Poole Memorial, 

114 ; on the " Damnation of Theron 

Ware," 144. 
Wisconsin Library Commission, 71 ; 

travelling libraries in, through gen- 
erosity of J. H. Stout, 71. 
Witter, J. D., gives libraries to Wood 

Co., Wis., 71. 
Woman's Education Assoc, of Boston, 

Travelling libraries of the, 30. 
Women as library trustees, 110-22, 
Woodward, Robert C, Notice of, 

153- 
Worcester Art Soc. unites with the 

Library in giving exhibitions, 117. 
Worcester F. P. L., Exhibitions at 

the, 116-17. 
Wright, B. F., on duties of library 

trustees, no. 
Wyoming, Counties in, may establish 

libraries, 71. 



Zeal of librarians, 3. 

Zoulog)', Books on, recommended, 13^. 



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