THE UNIVERSITY 

OF ILLINOIS 

LIBRARY 





BULLETIN 



OF THE 



AMERICAN LIBRARY 



Entered as second-class matter December 27, 1909, at the Post Office at Chicago, 111., under 
Act of Congress of July 16, 1894. Acceptance for mailing at special! rate fi)f 
provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorize 



VOL. 13, No. 3 



CHICAGO, ILL. 



JULY, 1919 



CONTENTS 

Papers and Proceedings of the Asbury 

Park Conference 



OFFICERS OF THE ASSOCIATION 
PRESIDENT 

WILLIAM WARNER BISHOP University of Michigan 

FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT 

CHARLES F. D. BELDEN Boston Public Library 

SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT 

BURTON E. STEVENSON - Chillicothe (0.) Public Library 



TREASURER 



CARL B. RODEN 



Chicago Public Library 



SECRETARY 

GEORGE B. UTLEY - - A. L. A. Executive Office, Chicago 



PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL 
MEETING 



OF THE 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 



HELD AT 

ASBURY PARK, N. J. 

JUNE 23-27, 1919 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

CHICAGO, ILL. 

1919 



CONTENTS 



TITLE 



AUTHOR 



PAGE 



President's address: The American Library Asso- 
ciation at the crossroads William Warner Bishop 99 

The library war service and some things it has taught Chalmers Hadley 106 

Reaching all classes of the community .... John H. Leete HI 

The library's task in reconstruction Paul M. Paine 117 

Some present-day aspects of library training . . Charles C. Williamson 120 

The high school library of the next decade . . Jesse B. Davis 126 

The true Americanization of the foreign child . . Herbert Adolphus Miller 130 

The place of the commission in child welfare work Elva L. Bascom 133 

Getting books to farmers in California .... Milton J, Fergruson 137 

A look ahead for the small library Charles C. Williamson . . . . . . . 141 

How the public library commission of Indiana works 

with the small public libraries of the state . . Margaret A. Wade 146 

Library commissions and the high school or rural 

school library Elizabeth B. Wales 149 

How the Army libraries have helped our fig:hting men Frederick P. Keppel 152 

Books and reading for the Navy, and what they have 

meant in the war Albert Cleaves 155 

By Flanders bridge: the adventures of an A. L. A. 

man overseas Asa Don Dickinson 157 

Advanced library training for research workers . Andrew Keogh 165 

A new plan for training library assistants . . . Julia A. Hopkins 167 

A clerical course for library assistants .... Bertha R. Barden 171 

The training of assistants for lending department 

work Josephine A. Rathbone 173 

Labor saving in the lending department . . . Jessie Sargent McNiece 175 

Arrangement and binding of British Blue Books . William Teal .177 

Bibliographical opportunities in horticulture . . Marjorie F. Warner 178 

Libraries and reading as an aid to morale . . . Edward L. Munson 184 

Statement of the chairman, War Service Committee J. I. Wyer, Jr 188 

A. L. A. War Service Committee report ... 190 

Statement of the general director, A. L. A. war 

service Herbert Putnam 261 

Statement of the acting general director, A. L. A. 

war service Carl H. Milam 263 

Salvaging war library service for peace times . Jason S. Joy . . 265 

Library service for the permanent naval establishment C. B. Mayo 267 

Our library resources as shown by some Govern- 
ment needs in the war . Andrew Keogh 270 

Training for the librarian of a business library or 

a business branch Frank K. Walter 273 

Training for high school librarianship .... Sarah C. N. Bogle 277 

Training teacher-librarians in normal schools . . Mary E. Robbins 279 

Problems in the production of books for children Franklin S. Hoyt 282 

What can the League of Library Commissions do 
for its members? An evaluation of library com- 
missions and their League^ ....__... Minnie Clarke Budlong 286 

What can the League of Library Commissions do 

for its members? Publications John A. Lowe 291 

What the League of Library Commissions can do 

for states without organized commissions . . Mary Elizabeth Downey 292 

Recent tendencies in state publications .... Dena M. Kingsley 294 

A librarian's job in Base Section No. I, France . Samuel H. Ranch 297 

Experiences overseas Orlando C. Davis 303 

With the A. L. A. service overseas Judson T. Jennings 307 

A. L. A. news from overseas Mary Eileen Ahcrn 309 

Six months at headquarters and in the field . . Theresa Hitchler 312 

Excerpts from reports of A. L. A. workers overseas .316 

Reports of committees . 326 

Proceedings of general sessions 345 Normal school librarians round table . . . 401 

Executive board 359 Public documents round table 401 

Council 361 Round table of the libraries of religion and 

Agricultural libraries section 373 theology 403 

Catalog section Trustees section .... 375 Training class teachers round table .... 404 

Children's librarians section 387 League of library commissions 404 

College and reference section 388 Special libraries association 409 

Professional training section 395 American association of law libraries . . . 412 

School libraries section 397 Attendance summaries 413 

Camp librarians round table 399 Attendance register 414 

Hospital librarians round table 399 Index t 427 

Lending department round table 400 

NOTE: The minutes of the National association of state libraries have not been receive'' f^r inclusion 
in this volume. 



^ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 

JUNE 23-27, W9 

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS: THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION AT THE 

CROSSROADS 
BY WILLIAM WARNER BISHOP, Librarian, University of Michigan 



It is inevitable that we should recall 
tonight the amazing change in world con- 
ditions from the situation at the time of 
our last annual conference. Then the 
darkest days of the great war had indeed 
passed, though none of us could know for 
a certainty that the tide of German at- 
tack pressing on toward Paris had truly 
ebbed. The courageous and of a truth su- 
premely daring offensive already launched 
by Marshal Foch in mid-June had just 
begun to put hope into the hearts of 
the allied peoples, stunned by the con- 
stantly widening and steadily renewed 
German offensives of the spring of 1918. 
The great days of Chateau-Thierry and 
the second Marne were those on which 
we met at Saratoga anxious days on 
which our minds continually reverted to 
France and refused to concentrate even 
on problems of the library war service. 
We were more eager for the latest news- 
paper than for advice, inspiration, discus- 
sion on themes ordinarily absorbing to us. 
We adjourned just as the Germans were 
definitely driven across the Marne for the 
second time. And we adjourned confident 
(though no man ventured to say what he 
thought) that July of the next year would 
see us still struggling to end the 'business 
and to finish our share of the supreme 
task of western civilization the final de- 
feat of Germany and her allies! Indeed, 
BO fearful were we, and rightly, that 
sterner sacrifices would be demanded of 
us, that we passed a resolution empower- 
ing our Executive Board to postpone this 
annual meeting, if the public emergency 
should be such that conventions and con- 
ferences would prove undesirable. 

How different the national and interna- 
tional atmosphere today! The war won 



in November our men returning as rap- 
idly as they were ferried across the ocean 
industry and agriculture resuming their 
wonted courses problems of details of 
readjustment agitating nations and indi- 
viduals the Peace Congress almost over 
a league of nations almost an actuality 
disarmament going on the world over 
and stricken humanity endeavoring to 
bind up its wounds and to console its 
broken-hearted. The note of our meeting 
today is necessarily one of triumph and 
jubilation. We are not forgetful of the 
problems of peace, many of them as ugly 
as those of war (or so they seem to our 
still taut nerves). But after all the war 
is behind us. We are living through a 
period of rapid change, and our foes, if 
foes there be, are at least likely to be 
those of our own household. We doubt- 
less have enormously difficult days ahead 
of us, but happily our own land has been 
spared the sorrows that have afflicted our 
noble French and Belgian allies, and we 
are materially and morally less stricken 
by war, less worn and weary, more able 
to face the future with smiling confi- 
dence, resting assured that the American 
spirit which brought us through war will 
still carry us on to a larger life and a 
greater service in peace. 

And so we meet again after a year to 
take up with renewed zest and energy 
those problems of our work which we are 
accustomed to attack in our annual gather- 
ings. And yet we are none of us quite 
the same as we were in 1917 or 1916. Our 
work, while still "the trivial round and 
common task," is not done can not be 
done in exactly the same spirit as of 
old. We have dreamed dreams and seen 
visions, and we are turning to the future 



100 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of our own library service with a pro- 
found conviction that it is service pub- 
lic service of the highest type. To that 
end we are met, to consider our war 
service aud to render an account of our 
stewardship in that branch of our labors; 
to transact our routine business and to 
hear and discuss reports of our commit- 
tees; but chiefly to survey our own ca- 
pacities, and to talk over the possibilities 
of the near future. This is a forward- 
looking conference. No other could be 
held by progressive Americans in this 
year of grace 1919. 

In planning the papers for this series 
of meetings your Program Committee has 
had in mind just three purposes. First, 
we have felt that we should emphasize 
and make of practical import our com- 
mittee reports. Too frequently these have 
been perfunctory and have received but 
little discussion. Such of the reports as 
are necessarily of special interest to 
smaller groups of our membership are to 
be presented this year for discussion to 
certain of the section meetings, an inno- 
vation which will, we trust, result in ani- 
mated discussion of a sort frequently im- 
possible in our general sessions. Other 
reports, being on topics of more general 
interest and importance, will come up for 
discussion in our second general session. 
So far as possible these reports have been 
printed in advance, and, instead of being 
read in full, will be presented in summary 
only, in order to leave time for discus- 
sion. They represent much work on the 
part of the committees, and I bespeak for 
them your interest and your comment. 

The most important certainly the most 
interesting report is likely to be that of 
the War Service Committee, which is now 
before you in printed form. Natur- 
ally the war service looms large in our 
eyes, and we have devoted to it no small 
share of our general program. One of 
the natural consequences of that service 
or at least what we librarians feel 
should be one of its results is the es- 
tablishment of similar service on a per- 
manent basis for the Army and Navy. We 



are most fortunate in the presence of 
very distinguished representatives of both 
branches of the service to speak upon 
this topic. 

Our second theme is a statement of 
certain present day conditions in our 
American libraries. We should have been 
glad to devote the major part of our time 
to this purpose of setting forth our con- 
ditions and resources. A few sample top- 
ics of necessity have to suffice us. But 
we present a preliminary report on plans 
for a complete survey, plans to which I 
shall revert later. 

Finally we look to the immediate fu- 
ture. Here again we can offer but cer- 
tain phases of a complete forecast. But 
we have tried, as I said a moment since, 
to make this a forward-looking meeting, 
even if necessarily our topics are but a 
selection from many. Things historical 
save of our war service things theoret- 
ical, things technical, we have tried for 
this occasion at least to avoid. 

It has seemed to me peculiarly fitting 
that the president of the Association 
should at this time review the work of 
this body and perhaps endeavor to show 
certain possibilities which have revealed 
themselves to him in the course of his 
term of office. I do not apologize for 
speaking to the American Library Asso- 
ciation about the American Library Asso- 
ciation. Not that I wish to dogmatize or 
to appear to have any peculiar message to 
impart. It does seem, however, that we 
may well spare the time and strength to 
confer a little about our own affairs and 
our means of doing business collectively, 
in the interests of librarianship and of 
American libraries. 

At the Niagara Falls Conference in 1903, 
Mr. J. N. Lamed, then retired from active 
public service though by no means from 
active work, spoke very convincingly of 
the life of this Association as a body. He 
said to a little group of younger people, 
what he later repeated on the platform be- 
fore the Association as a whole, that com- 
ing back after an interval of several years 
he was conscious of the fact that the 



BISHOP 



101 



American Library Association had a life, 
an organism, apart from the individuals 
who composed it. "I feel it," said he, "it 
is almost palpable; it exists, it influences 
you and me. We can not escape it, it 
forms us, and yet we form it." How true 
these words were the experience of fifteen 
years has proved again and again. The 
Association has a vigor, a power, an influ- 
ence of which we are perhaps but dimly 
conscious. That power and influence has 
worked hitherto chiefly on professional 
librarians. It has molded their thoughts 
and guided their actions. It has stimu- 
lated their ideals and has kept up their 
standards. It has worked largely as a 
sort of professional public opinion, func- 
tioning more or less well as circumstances 
have permitted. The great shock of war 
has, however, released an enormous latent 
energy in our Association and in our call- 
ing outside its ranks, for not all strong 
librarians are members of our body. We 
are conscious today of greater possibilities 
in library work and in the concerted work 
of librarians than we ever sensed in days 
gone by. Much of this feeling is naturally 
the result of the war service. It is in 
every way proper, then, to inquire how 
far we have measured up to the opportuni- 
ties the war has thrust upon us. And 
further, what are the next steps? 

To a thoughtful person it was a very 
significant thing that the United States 
Government through the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities applied to this 
Association to render service along strictly 
professional lines. It asked us as libra- 
rians to contribute our professional serv- 
ices, just as it asked the doctors and the 
chemists to serve as doctors and chemists. 
That such a thing was possible shows that 
the value and need of the librarian's work 
in massing, arranging, and interpreting 
books had at last gained the recognition 
which it deserves. No single fact in con- 
nection with our war service has more 
significance for us as we face the prob- 
lems of peace than this recognition. Our 
war service was sought and was per- 
formed on the ground of our special fit- 



ness to give it. The history of the library 
war service has been one of steady gain in 
this sort of recognition, for the discern- 
ment of certain farseeing men in Wash- 
ington did not mean that their judgment 
must necessarily be final and instantly ac- 
cepted. Nay, it was their initial wisdom 
which made possible the gradual winning 
by the librarians of a professional status 
in the minds of thousands of commanding 
officers, soldiers, sailors, marines. I be- 
lieve it is now true that even the scornful 
and the doubting among the military have 
seen that books plus librarian are very 
different from books alone. And it has 
been no small gain for us as a profession 
that scores of our folk, mostly our younger 
members, have had to win their way to 
this esteem under novel and difficult cir- 
cumstances. They have had to make 
good in most cases with very little prep- 
aration of the way by others. How hard 
that task was, and how strenuous and un- 
remitting the labor involved in setting up 
a new work amid adverse conditions, few 
who were not themselves engaged in it 
can understand. Long hours, obstacles in- 
numerable, delays, red tape, failure of 
books and of supplies, cold, rain, even lack 
of sleep, were the lot of many of our 
pioneers in the war service. The general 
testimony is, however, most gratifying. 
They did make good. The exceptions 
were few enough to "prove the rule." And 
as I look about me and see these men 
and women who have worn and are wear- 
ing our uniform, these younger folk who 
have toiled incessantly and with good 
spirit and good humor at manifold and 
difficult tasks, I am moved to no small 
pride and thankfulness. In the name of 
the American Library Association I salute 
you all, present and absent! We who 
could not go acknowledge to the full your 
sacrifice, your devotion, your skill, your 
energy. We share in the honor reflected 
on our calling by your labors. The name 
librarian henceforth means something to 
millions of men because of your work. 

And to those also who planned and 
toiled to carry out this war service are 



102 



due the hearty thanks of the American 
Library Association, and them also I 
salute In your name. From the very first 
days of our entrance into the war until 
now two full years certain officers and 
committee members of this body have been 
unsparing in their devotion of strength, 
time, and effort to the library war serv- 
ice. They have worked to raise money 
and books, have sacrificed time and 
strength to attend committee meetings, 
have neglected their own work to do this 
patriotic service, and have given them- 
selves generously in your behalf, in the 
name of the American Library Association. 
You know them all, and it would be eas- 
ier, less invidious perhaps, to mention no 
names. But while recognizing that all of 
them have been devotion itself, I cannot 
refrain from stating publicly the obliga- 
tions which we owe to a certain few. There 
is our secretary, Mr. George B. Utley, who 
has served as executive secretary of the 
War Service Committee, who has known 
no limit of hours for two years, and who 
has carried the greatly increased burden 
of his regular work in addition to all this 
war work. There is the chairman of the 
War Finance Committee, Dr. Frank P. 
Hill, to whose untiring and truly heroic 
efforts we owe the raising of the first war 
service fund of eighteen hundred thou- 
sand dollars, and the second fund of three 
and a half million. There is the chair- 
man of the War Service Committee, Mr. J. 
I. Wyer, Jr., who has spent his time and 
strength, I fear too KCVishly, on the war 
service and on the work of the Commit- 
tee of Eleven in charge of the United War 
Work Campaign Fund. No one who has 
not been a part of that work can realize 
the burden he has carried, and the way 
he has carried it. There is the associate 
general director of the war service, Mr. 
Carl H. Milam, to whom sixteen hours a 
day of the hardest kind of work seem a 
pleasing measure, and who has carried 
successfully administrative burdens which 
would have laid most of us on the shelf. 
And finally, there is the general director of 
the War Service, Dr. Herbert Putnam, of 



whom I can say no more than that we all 
marvel at his capacity for work, his ad- 
ministrative skill, his foresight and his 
penetration. Volunteer work, all of it! 
Money does not, cannot, pay for the sort 
of labor these men and their colleagues 
for I speak of them all equally with these 
I have ventured to name have lavished 
on our contribution to America in her hour 
of need. It is our part not only to recog- 
nize their labors, but to carry on their 
work, to carry its spirit back to our offices 
and desks, into our reading-rooms aind 
stacks. We librarians are bound to be 
and do more because of what these our 
colleagues have been and have done. 

We are bound as an Association to do 
more not as much or less than we did 
before this emergency, this national crisis, 
showed us our power to do. This obliga- 
tion is very real and vital and comes 
home to all of us. Just because the offi- 
cers of the Association feel it so keenly, I 
have ventured to make it the topic for this 
address which our custom requires of each 
retiring president. But first in any con- 
sideration of our possible future activities 
there necessarily comes the question, 
"What sort of machinery do we have with 
which to work?" May we descend from 
thoughts of our accomplishments, and from 
our aspirations for future tasks to very 
practical considerations of our 'form of or- 
ganization? 

Few things are more tiresome, especially 
in annual conferences, than "tinkering" 
with constitutions, as all who recall cer- 
tain of our meetings will doubtless agree. 
I must almost apologize for taking these 
matters up here and now. But I must also 
in honesty say that my experience as your 
president shows that our organic law is 
very far from making for smooth and 
rapid achievement. We really have a most 
clumsy organization, particularly in view 
of the fact that we live all over the United 
States and Canada, and that actual meet- 
ings of committees and boards are most 
expensive of time and money. Let me 
mention only a few of the obstacles and 
anomalies resulting from our constitution. 



BISHOP 



103 



We expressly, and most wisely, place 
the responsibility for the business of the 
Association in the intervals between meet- 
ings on the Executive Board. One of the 
fundamental functions of such a board is 
the making up of the budget which gov- 
erns practically all expenditure and hence 
determines the extent and range of the As- 
sociation's activities. But the budget of 
this Association is prepared for the Ex- 
ecutive Board's adoption by the Finance 
Committee, only one of whose three mem- 
bers, by our constitution, is a member of 
the Executive Board. This is not said in 
criticism of the work of the Finance Com- 
mittee, but of the system, and of the pos- 
sibilities of friction and delay which are 
involved. We have also a constitutional 
provision allowing mail votes of the Ex- 
ecutive Board; an absolute necessity, since 
we now choose that board largely for geo- 
graphical reasons, that all parts of our 
territory may be represented. And as a 
result meetings of the board can be held 
but seldom, generally only twice or thrice 
a year. Hence the provision for voting toy 
mail. But as matters now stand, a single 
disapproving vote (when conducted by 
mail) negatives absolutely any proposal 
until it can be taken up and acted on at a 
meeting. Now it is of course difficult to 
secure absolute unanimity of opinion on 
important matters of business, and this 
provision results in very serious delays 
and failures. 

We confide our publishing activities 
one of our chief functions, and one des- 
tined to an increasing importance, to the 
Publishing Board, which is by the consti- 
tution so devised that but one member of 
the Executive Board serves on it, and 
which contains no other officer of the As- 
sociation. The Publishing Board has done 
fine work, and deserves the thanks of this 
body. But it is not necessarily responsive 
to the policies of the Executive Board or 
of the Association, and in fact it may per- 
fectly well be out of harmony with both. 
Again, I repeat, the form of organization 
is not one which works smoothly and 



quickly; again without criticism of indi- 
viduals. 

The treasurer of the Association does 
not sit on either the Finance Committee 
or the Executive Board. His function 
under our constitution seems merely cleri- 
cal, and it is no small tribute to Mr. 
Roden's patience and loyalty that he has 
been willing to serve us these many years 
without greater recognition and without 
the power to put his business experience 
in office at the disposal of the Association. 
While recognizing the public spirit and 
fidelity with which he and the members 
of the Finance Committee and of the Pub- 
lishing Board have done the Association's 
work, it appears strangely anomalous that 
in these days of efficiency systems our 
various bodies should be so disjointed. In 
the direction of smooth and rapid func- 
tioning I suggest that a simple scheme of 
things in which our Executive Board 
should serve virtually as a Board of Direc- 
tors performing the work of the Associa- 
tion through committees of its own body 
would prove a signal advantage. In my 
judgment, our organization is far too com- 
plex. It should be simplified and made 
more efficient by following the example of 
business corporations. If we but detach 
ourselves from the circumstances which 
have produced our present form of organ- 
ization and view it from the standpoint 
of an efficiency engineer, we can see at 
once that it would benefit greatly by cen- 
tralizing responsibility and authority. 
Some such process is a necessity, I believe, 
if we are to meet the demands which are 
pressing upon us. 

I therefore urge that you consider this 
matter very carefully at the business ses- 
sions, for I am convinced that until the 
constitution of this Association permits, 
concentration of authority and rapidity of 
action we shall never perform the work 
we ought to do. This conviction is the 
direct result of my observation in the past 
year when so many important matters 
have been before the officers of the Asso- 
ciation. I know it is shared by many 



104 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



thoughtful persons, and I trust you will 
give it your attention. 



What are these demands of which I have 
just spoken? The chief of them all comes 
from ourselves. We have seen the splen- 
did spirit with which our library folk have 
responded to the call for their services in a 
time of national peril. We have felt both 
pride and satisfaction in the way the 
American Library Association has been 
doing big things in a big way. On every 
hand I hear librarians saying, "We must 
not lose this spirit this momentum. We 
must keep it for our peace time work. We 
need it. There must be no slackening, no 
(slump, no dropping back, no disobedience 
to the vision." .Do you not meet this sort 
of feeling and of talk? I do, wherever I 
go. Sometimes it takes one form, some- 
times another, but it is there, constantly 
and always, this determination not to drop 
back into mere routine, not to let slip this 
sense of power. Can we, dare we, ignore 
this call to continuing service, service as 
a body, not merely as individuals. What- 
ever else we do here in this week, we must 
not, I feel and I am sure you all agree 
with me we must not assume that with 
the war our collective responsibility ends, 
and we may now go back to 1917 and take 
up the old threads where we left off. 

So strongly has this feeling been in the 
hearts of the officers of the Association 
that they felt confident that you would 
wish, would decide, would plan to go on 
to further corporate work in peace, work 
for the benefit of all libraries, and of com- 
munities having no libraries. To this end 
a library survey of the entire country was 
authorized by the Executive Board in Jan- 
uary and entrusted to a Committee of Five 
on Library Service. This committee was 
charged with the duty of setting down the 
actual conditions of American libraries 
today, their incomes, their property, their 
staffs, their salaries, their methods, their 
practice. It is to report here on its plans. 
How great is the need for some such state- 
ment of conditions, practice and standards, 
I can testify from repeated experiences 



during the past four months. "Can't you 
give us some definite statement of what it 
would cost to run a college library in the 
right way?" That was the demand the 
Ohio College Association made on me last 
April. "What should we as trustees ex- 
pect our librarian to do?" has been 
asked of me a dozen times in the last year. 
"Is our library doing well for its income?" 
is a fair question for any citizen, whether 
a trustee or not. Some norm by which 
we can measure ourselves, some statement 
of practice, of salaries, of methods, of 
training, which trustees and librarians can 
set before them as a goal, or a point of 
departure, this is what the Committee of 
Five will try to draw up. To do it prop- 
erly will be most costly, but then, so will 
any other piece of good work. If we are to 
go forward, we must first know where we 
stand. This we hope the Service Commit- 
tee of Five will tell us, and I appeal to 
you all to second their efforts in your most 
hearty manner. 

One of the amazing experiences of the 
library service for soldiers and sailors has 
been the repeated calls for similar service 
to civilians. The money contributed for 
war work has been used solely for war 
work, but it has been heart-breaking to 
refuse the many appeals for help help 
which we could give, had we but the 
means. At the Council meeting, which is 
open to all members, some of these kinds 
of work will be brought out by persons 
who have knowledge of them. But let me 
say in advance that we could keep an 
active force at work at headquarters doing 
perfectly legitimate library work not now 
being done by established agencies, had we 
the means. There is the continuing serv- 
ice to the Army and Navy, which we hope 
will be taken over by the Government; 
service to the merchant marine, now so 
sadly neglected, and so appealing in its 
demand; service to lighthouses and light- 
ships, and to the coast guard; informa- 
tion and Inspection service for communi- 
ties in real need of expert advice, par- 
ticularly in states having no library com- 
missions; service to the blind, which is so 



BISHOP 



105 



costly and which so few local libraries are 
able to render effectively; service in or- 
ganizing interlibrary loans, and thus mak- 
ing the resources of the whole country 
serve research; service in cooperative buy- 
ing, in which we ought to bring to play 
for the benefit of us all the experience of 
buying for the war work; service In pub- 
licity which will recognize that the best 
publicity is service; service to practical 
bibliography, unlocking the treasures too 
frequently concealed in card catalogs; 
service in preparing all manner of union 
lists, to avoid much duplication of rare 
sets, and much bidding against one an- 
other; service in aid of special library 
training; service but I will stop; why 
catalog the various cobperative enterprises 
and public benefits in which we are eager 
to engage? The work is here and ready 
to our hands. The harvest needs but the 
reapers. 

But, says doubting Thomas for he is 
here, many of him where is the money 
coming from to do all these fine things? 
Where, I ask, did the millions of books 
come from? What was the source of the 
millions on millions of magazines? Who 
gave us nearly five million dollars for our 
war work? Who is buying doughnuts for 
dollars as I write these words? The Amer- 
ican people only have to be convinced that 
we have a good thing, to give us all the 
money we need. If we can't convince 
them, then we won't get it. But we 
should, I am sure, have a friend in every 
man in both services who saw our book- 
plate on a book he read. If we can be 
lieve the tales we hear and the letters that 
come in, the boys believe in us and in our 
work. If, as I believe, we have their 
good-will, the rest is easy. The money 
will come, but not without asking, if also 
not for the asking. It will be your task 
at this conference, my fellow members, to 
decide whether you wish to make the ven- 
ture, to ask for the money, to decide 
whether you believe enough in your work 



to try to make the American people believe 
in it. 

A word in conclusion. The emergency 
work of the past two years has been done 
by a happy combination of our experienced 
leaders and our younger men and women. 
If the American Library Association is to 
go forward, whether on the plans before 
us today or on any others, it matters not 
which; if the American Library Associa- 
tion is to go forward, it must be by the 
efforts of the younger generation. I see 
before me a few veterans who have been 
with the Association since its first meet- 
ings. We listened last year at Albany to 
him who was long its chief servant and 
its chief inspiration, Melvil Dewey. But, 
ladies and gentlemen, his words, prophetic 
as they were, marked the end of an epoch. 
The men of 1876 are almost all gone. The 
men who came into the work in the nine- 
ties are getting old. The war has shown 
the powers of those men and women who 
have come to us in the last two decades. 
To them belong the tasks of the near fu- 
ture. If ever we feared lest the men who 
should succeed Dewey and Winser, Larned 
and Poole and Cutter, Fletcher and Brett, 
and our other pioneers should set a lower 
mark than theirs, that doubt has been dis- 
solved by the last two years. Those who 
come after our pioneers are more than 
equal to the task. Together, if they will 
bear with the slower wits and less active 
bodies of us older men and women, we 
can carry the American Library Associa- 
tion on to greater and nobler service. 

For very plainly we stand at the cross- 
roads. Our war service is all but done. 
Six months will see the end of It. We can 
of course go lumbering on, doing fairly 
well, as of old, our accustomed tasks. Or 
we can strike out into new fields, into 
ways of practical library service that are 
clearly open. I am confident of your 
choice, and more confident that we can 
not go back. We shall, I am sure, make 
1919 memorable as the year of the great 
decision. 



106 



THE LIBRARY WAR SERVICE AND SOME THINGS IT HAS TAUGHT 
BY CHALMERS HADLEY, Librarian, Public Library, Denver, Colo. 



The year is half gone and few have re- 
membered it as the centenary of one who 
for more than half a century profoundly 
influenced British and American thought. 
For fifty years John Ruskin represented 
finality in matters of art to the Anglo- 
Saxon mind, and his pronouncements in 
political economy were absolute to a 
smaller but equally fervid following. It 
fell to the waspish Whistler to remark of 
Ruskin, "Political economists considered 
him a great art critic, and artists looked 
upon him as a great political economist." 

If his panegyrics on the old masters, 
long-discovered before Ruskin's time, con- 
tinue to be read in these revolutionary 
days, it will be largely due to the English 
in which they are couched. Of his phil- 
osophical utterances, his belief in the 
beneficence of war makes Treitschke 
sound as a belated echo. 

It was in an address at the Royal Mili- 
tary Academy at Woolwich that Ruskin 
concluded, "When I tell you that war is 
the foundation of all the arts, I mean also 
that it is the foundation of all the high 
virtues and faculties of men." 

We are much too close to the last five 
years to get any perspective or proof of 
Ruskin's words. We can only believe 
that through an all-wise Providence, prog- 
ress will follow that cataclysm. We know, 
however, that it has already developed 
a sturdier patriotism and a national con- 
sciousness in this country, that will go 
far in guarding us against Colonel Roose- 
velt's fears that we become merely an in- 
ternational 'boarding-house or a debating 
society for parlor bolshevists. 

Time alone can reveal full results, and 
we can only realize now how profoundly 
and universally every activity was af- 
fected. The war changed women's styles 
and men's shoulders. Our painters dropped 
their futurism and devoted themselves to 
camouflage. Our architects left their sky- 



scrapers and betook themselves to in- 
dustrial cities. Our musicians forsook 
the perversions of contemporary German 
composers and returned to the clarity of 
the classicists. The voices of our poets, 
whether they sang in traditional verse or 
in the recitative of the free school, were 
drowned by the songs of those who held 
"rendezvous with death." 

But how did the war affect us as citi- 
zens who made a particular contribution 
to the war's winning through the library 
war service of this Association? What did 
this service teach our individual libraries 
and the American Library Association it- 
self? What benefits have accrued to us 
as individual library workers? 

To agree with Ruskin on war as a benef- 
icence is quite the same as urging a con- 
flagration to give firemen employment, 
but surely our efforts through the library 
war service have done much more than 
supplying books to our men at home and 
abroad, incomparable as that work has 
been in all the annals of library history. 

What we got as individuals from the 
library war service depends on the rule 
which governs all investments we re- 
ceived in proportion as we put in. What 
we got as librarians, as library institu- 
tions and as an organization, is another 
matter. 

One of the first things we got and got 
hard was a shock to our pride as re- 
spected and heretofore useful citizens. Be- 
cause of the varied activities in which we 
had participated through years of peace, 
it was a jolt to our complacency to real- 
ize how lightly we were held in the fever- 
ish activities of war. The mechanic, the 
farmer, the fighter all were seized by 
the government in the stress of prepara- 
tion, but as librarians, we found ourselves 
at first with the physically or mentally 
unfit. Even when we began to see our 
place as an organization in the machinery 



HADLEY 



107 



of war, we were humbled by the popular 
ignorance of what the A. L. A. was and 
what it stood for. We remembered be- 
ing mistaken on one sad occasion for the 
American Laundry Association, and it 
was fresh evidence of our isolation when 
now we were thought to be, as Dr. Raney 
found, the Australian Light Artillery. 

We have blamed ourselves solely for 
this condition and have railed against our 
seclusion. We have called on our powers 
that be, to sing aloud the song of the 
bandar-log, and they sang. Probably no 
other organization of our type was ever 
given the publicity that was secured for 
us and our library war service through 
posters, press and preachers. The Presi- 
dent of these United States and his cab- 
inet officers, trained campaigners and un- 
trained ones, magazines and the daily 
press called attention to the officially des- 
ignated organizations of which we were 
one. 

" 'Sisters and brothers, little maid, 

How many may you be?' 
'How many? Seven in all,' she said, 
And wondering looked at me.' " 

We, wondering, looked at each other 
through the early days of our war work, 
and looked particularly wondering when 
after a year of intensive work and exten- 
sive publicity, we discovered the volume, 
"War relief work," published late in 1918 
by the Academy of impressive name, and 
read, "The Academy has had in mind two 
principal objects in presenting this vol- 
ume to its readers. First, to provide up- 
to-the-minute and accurate information 
in regard to the whole subject of war re- 
lief at home and abroad. .." 

In this volume we read of war insur- 
ance and the Red Cross, of training camp 
activities and religious organizations in 
war relief work. We found also one en- 
tire section on the war relief of social 
welfare organizations, and of the six 
brother and sister associations who were 
supposed to be seven. But there was no 
part or chapter devoted to the American 
Library Association or its library war 
service. It was only by consulting the index 



that we discovered the entry, "Library as- 
sociation. America: activities," which gave 
us the reminiscent feeling that conies from 
continued incorporation of our national ac- 
tivities into the annual reports of our co- 
operating friends. 

In spite of such occasional ignorance 
of our war service, at no time has there 
been the widespread information of the 
American Library Association and of li- 
braries in general, as at present. We may 
not yet have mastered the psychology of 
library advertising but never before has 
there been such an intelligent or exten- 
sive campaign about library work as the 
library war service brought forth. 

One of the lessons it has given, is the 
demonstration of the innumerable ways 
in which, the library can advertise its 
work as an educational institution, with- 
out resorting to the particular methods of 
the department store bargain sale, or the 
flippant vernacular of the so-called com- 
mercial "live wire." 

Our publicity not only produced results 
in the various campaigns, but it also pro- 
duced favorable comment from 'business 
men and other alert citizens. They evi- 
dently interpreted it as a demonstration 
of energy and resourcefulness in terms 
they understood, on the part of an insti- 
tution which too frequently has appeared 
as moribund outside of its own walls. 

(Successful and instructive as have been 
the many graphic methods employed to 
get our war libraries together, the great 
use of those libraries in camps and can- 
tonments resulted primarily through the 
thousands of men who were supplied with 
the books they desired, and who told their 
comrades of those books. Good books and 
good service after all are a library's best 
advertisement. This does not minimize 
in any way, however, the importance of 
using every proper means of extending a 
library's usefulness by extending infor- 
mation regarding it. There are thousands 
of people who will respond to a poster, 
whether it advertise bustless screens or 
rustless books, and one great lesson from 
the war service which we must apply to 



108 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



our library activities as never before, is 
publicity and more publicity. 

When the library war service was 
opened to the experience and ability of 
our library workers, it provided a great 
outlet for the patriotism and desire for 
service in our midst. Dr. Dewey used to 
remark that one advantage a man libra- 
rian possessed over a woman lay in his 
ability to eject an obstreperous library in- 
truder if necessary, but the qualities dis- 
played by our woman librarians in war 
service dispelled even this illusion. For 
several decades our alleged humorists have 
produced their perennial allusions to the 
prudish, bespectacled spinsters, both male 
and female, in library work. No one who 
saw the educated, well-bred, entirely ca- 
pable women of the American Library As- 
sociation, devoting their energies in hos- 
pital libraries, dispatch offices, navy yards 
and other activities during this last year, 
will ever again look upon a skirt as an 
impediment, either literally or figurative- 
ly speaking. 

In the camps and hospitals of this coun- 
try were librarians, both men and women, 
who opened the eyes of the military offi- 
cers and our own, if they needed opening, 
to the admirable type of library worker in 
the library war service. Many of them 
were young, late products of our library 
schools, but with a catlike ability of 
alighting on their feet. There were those 
who had never filled conspicuous seats in 
our Association, but who reflected credit 
on all of us. As a body of workers, the 
representatives of the A. L. A. were the 
equal of any, and for personal qualities 
and a certain finesse, they were the supe- 
rior of any other body of volunteer work- 
ers who came under my observation. 

It was largely due to these qualities that 
this Association of only 3,500 members was 
given equal recognition by our national 
Government with the more powerful ones. 
A critic once characterized this Associa- 
tion as one where dullness was mistaken 
for learning, and human interest for frivol- 
ity. Our library war service has showed 
critics of every type, that of all the or- 



ganizations in this country classed as 
"learned," ours was the one at least that 
could place its equipment for peace, in the 
machinery of war, and make a particular 
and definite contribution to the winning of 
the war. In doing this, it welded itself 
into a cooperative force that none of its 
articles of incorporation could have ef- 
fected. 

One revelation the library war service 
gave us was a realization of the unique 
and admirable place filled by the Library 
of Congress in this country. As library 
workers, we thought ourselves somewhat 
acquainted with the possibilities of that 
institution, but we found our knowledge 
of it still in the evolutionary stage. To 
our younger eyes it once appeared as the 
climax of architectural grandeur, and later 
we knew it as the peer of any of the great 
national libraries abroad. 

When the library war service was need- 
ed, we saw the Library of Congress take 
the position assumed by the wisest of our 
state universities that their greatest con- 
tribution and service could be made di- 
rectly to the people of the state at large, 
and not necessarily through the small, se- 
lected number in attendance as students. 
The way in which the Library of Congress 
made available for the library war serv- 
ice its machinery, staff and organization 
in general, gave a new conception of what 
a truly national library could be. 

The success of this relation between the 
Library of Congress and the American Li- 
brary Association emphasizes the value 
of a continuance of some definite coopera- 
tion between our Association and a gov- 
ernmental department The close of the 
war by no means closed the value of our 
library service. There are other library 
conditions which are pregnant with pos- 
sibilities, and of such scope that only a 
national handling of them can insure suc- 
cess. They are not of a type to be han- 
dled as a by-product of existing Washing- 
ton bureaus, but they require the intelli- 
gent direction of experienced librarian- 
ship backed by governmental authority. 

Another important lesson taught by the 



HADLEY 



109 



library war service, was the great defect 
shown in our library organization, through 
the failure to gear up the library trustees 
of this country and Canada with the 
American Library Association itself. This 
defect was made more glaring than ever 
before, when we saw the result of what 
the war service secured through the co- 
operation of library trustees, which the 
A. L. A. has lacked. 

Few of us doubtless realized the extent 
of this loss until recently, when statistics 
of A. L. A. membership were published by 
our secretary. With a total enrollment of 
3,400 members, Mr. Utley stated there 
were 7,000 libraries, 16,000 librarians and 
assistants, and 40,000 library trustees in 
the land. 

I do not know the exact number of li- 
brary trustees enrolled in our Association, 
hut of the first 500 names listed in the 
'ast Handbook there were sixteen trustees. 
\t this rate, we have among our 3,400 
members about 112 trustees of the 40,000 
who are eligible. 

Taken as a civic body, I believe the 
typical library board represents the best 
citizenship in its community. Since its 
members are usually appointed, not elect- 
ed, and serve without pay, a careful dis- 
criminative selection is insured. Their 
greatest value usually is not what they 
do in the library itself, but what they rep- 
resent and stand for, in and to the com- 
munity outside. They usually are the 
leading business and professional men, 
and women who are most interested in 
the city's educational and social work. 

When we remember the work of these 
trustees in the war service campaigns, and 
their ability to get library activities be- 
fore the public and in cooperation with 
other activities, we realize what a loss 
of 39,888 library trustees in our member- 
ship means. Certainly we must devise 
some special plan to increase this mem- 
bership. Our 'bankers and lawyers and 
business men who serve as library trus- 
tees, devote time and attention to our in- 
stitutions, which if given to private en- 
terprise, would represent large financial 



returns. Since they serve the city with- 
out pay, would it not be entirely proper 
therefore, for the larger library institu- 
tions at least, to take out memberships in 
the A. Li. A. for their trustees? Such a 
use of city moneys would be an econom- 
ical investment because of the information 
and consequent effectiveness library trus- 
tees would be given through membership 
in this Association. 

The A. L. A. has reached a place where 
the active assistance and cooperation of 
our library trustees are imperative. Our 
Association no longer can limit its work 
strictly to the library problems represent- 
ed 'by its membership. As a result of its 
war activities, a program of great con- 
structive service lies immediately before 
it. As Horace Mann said, "One former is 
worth a thousand reformers." The most 
important problems immediately before us 
will require much money for their solving. 
The spirit of giving, tinged with deep emo- 
tions of self-sacrifice and patriotism, made 
the raising of funds comparatively simple 
during the last two years. The armistice 
changed this overnight, and the days of 
easy contributions are over for the pres- 
ent. I believe we librarians would have 
small success in collecting any consider- 
able sums in our various communities, but 
our library trustees could do immeasur- 
ably more if they can he thoroughly im- 
pressed with the importance of the work 
which lies immediately before this Asso- 
ciation. The definite concern of library 
boards in the work of the A. L. A., hereto- 
fore has been entirely too remote. Their 
interest is too largely a reflection from 
that of their librarians, and before any 
great step forward can be taken by this 
Association, I believe we must first secure 
the vital interest and definite support of 
our library trustees. The future program 
of the A. L. A. cannot be limited to "the 
best reading for the largest number at 
the least cost." 'The demands of today 
call on us for the greatest possible public 
service through books whatever the cost. 

Another direct lesson taught by our 
library war service is the importance of 



110 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



continuing that service in our large, perma- 
nent military and naval stations at least. 
It is not necessary for us to prove the value 
of this service, since this has already been 
done for us by the men and officers, from 
General Pershing down. Statements as to 
what the library service means in the edu- 
cational and recreational life at the camps 
have not been of the perfunctory sort in 
response to requests from us. They have 
been unsolicited, enthusiastic reports from 
the men and from officers, some of whom 
were dubious about the desirability of this 
service when it was started. 

Anyone who saw the collections of books 
at many of our forts and posts, will realize 
the great difference between them and the 
libraries handled there at present by this 
Association. Before our own books were 
provided, the collections consisted of gov- 
ernment documents, pamphlets, gifts from 
friends of the officers and men, and pur- 
chases made by the officers from their own 
pockets. I know of one collection which 
filled a dozen wall cases. Fully half of the 
books were government documents census 
reports, War of the Rebellion records and 
messages of the presidents. For more 
recreational reading there were, "Stepping 
heavenward," "Won by waiting," "Ten 
nights in a barroom," and other heady bot- 
tles of the 1879 vintage. All of these 
treasures were kept behind glass doors, the 
key of which was at headquarters. There 
was no careless handling of these rarities, 
which were as fresh and clean as when 
they were locked up. 

At another post, isolated by. a dreary 
stretch of semi-desert, 'baking under a 
tropic sun, and with recreational activities 
limited to the offerings of a small town, 
was a library maintained by the men. The 
chaplain was the librarian, and being a man 
of scholarly tastes, the book selection repre- 
sented his conservative judgment. He had 
no objection against novel reading for those 
who cared for this, however, and had placed 
in the library the best our language af- 
forded. There were "Tom Jones," "Clarissa 
Harlowe," "Evelina," and their lineal 
descendants on through to "Diana of the 



crossways" the array being an excellent 
one for studying the development of the 
English novel. 

'Such ill-balanced book collections repre- 
sent a desire for reading and an apprecia- 
tion of its benefits, but they represent also 
the inaptitude of busy officers with no ex- 
perience in selecting wisely or of buying 
economically. 

Frequently the selecting, buying and han- 
dling of these books have been delegated 
entirely to the chaplain, and the libraries 
unfortunately represent too largely, his own 
taste in reading. Our chaplains are 
splendid devoted men, but they are re- 
sponsible for many duties other than serv- 
ing as librarians, in which capacity they 
can bring neither special training nor 
trained experience. If the results of such 
undirected library activities did not repre- 
sent so much sincere endeavor, they would 
suggest "musical comedy with the music 
left out." 

In the libraries maintained by this Asso- 
ciation at military and naval stations, bal- 
anced collections have been provided to 
meet the various moods of various types of 
men. They have met the reading ability, 
the special interests and the many in- 
tellectual and recreational claims in books 
of men from every walk in life. These 
books represent economical buying and 
economical service, which means high re- 
turns in usefulness on a modest invest- 
ment. 

The A. L. A. has not stated definitely how 
long it can continue this service in camps 
and stations, but this service represents too 
much work, money, and usefulness to be 
discontinued. It seems to me that the only 
proper basis of library work in the future, 
at the large, permanent stations at least, 
will be the continuance of this work, han- 
dled as an official activity by experienced 
librarians, under the War and Navy De- 
partments. 

It seems unnecessary to speak at greater 
length of the library war service and what 
it has done. How it has given the Ameri- 
can Library Association a new and enlarged 
vision of usefulness and service such as it 



LEETE 



111 



never had before, need not be dwelt on, 
since all of us realize this. The A. L. A. 
has put its hand to the plow and cannot 
look back. Neither need we dilate on the 
achievement of the service in placing li- 
braries on the map to a large part of our 
male population by teaching thousands of 
our men, unacquainted with libraries be- 
fore the war, to use them. And in passing, 
may we express our full sense of the fine 
cooperation given us in this accomplish- 
ment by the book publishers of this coun- 
try. Neither can we do more at this time 
than mention the stimulus given by the 
war service to the professional conscious- 
ness of library people all over this co'untry. 
But in closing, we must speak of one great 
satisfaction the library war service has 
given this Association, and that is the 
knowledge that through it the A. L. A. has 
found itself. Do you remember Kipling's 
story, "The ship that found herself?" The 
day had come for the vessel's first over- 
seas voyage, "and though she was but a 
steamer of 2,500 tons, she was the very best 
of her kind, the outcome of forty years of 
experiments and improvements in frame- 
work and machinery." 

"And now," said the owner's daughter de- 
lightedly to the captain, "she's a real ship, 
isn't she?" 

"Oh, she's not so bad," the skipper re- 
plied, "but I'm sayin' it takes more than 



christenin' to make a ship. She has to 
find herself yet. She's all here, .but the 
parts of her have not learned to work 
together yet. They've had no chance. 
Every inch of her, ye'll understand, has to 
be livened up and made to work with its 
neighbor sweetenin' her, we call it, techni- 
cally." 

And the ship departed on her first over- 
seas voyage, and in the midst of it she en- 
countered a storm which tossed her up and 
plunged her down and battered her super- 
structure and flooded her decks until she 
thought herself lost. And all through the 
stress of storm, the ship's many parts called 
to each other. There was friction between 
the plates and the rivets as the plates cried 
aloud at the strain, and the engines called 
on the steam for more power, and all called 
on the rudder for a straighter course, but 
suddenly among the complaining parts 
"there was a long silence that reached with- 
out a break, from the cutwater to the pro- 
peller blades of the ship, and the steam 
knew what had happened at once, for when 
a ship finds herself, all the talking of the 
separate pieces ceases and melts into one 
voice, which is the soul of the ship." 

"Well, I'm glad you've found yourself," 
said the steam, "and now we'll &o to our 
wharf and clean up a little and next month 
we'll do it all over again" if we have to. 



REACHING ALL CLASSES OF THE COMMUNITY 
BY JOHN H. LEETE, Director, Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Judging by the library records of the 
fifteen largest cities of the United States, 
we have made some progress toward reach- 
ing all classes of the community. Our 
books, at least, are leading a useful life. 
The circulation figures of these cities show 
what would be an average demand of five 
times a year for every book in their col- 
lections. These same figures would seem 
to show that every resident, including 



babies in arms, reads one book every four 
months. The registration records show 
that one person in every seven of the to- 
tal population is nominally, at least, a 
patron of the library. This means that 
even more than one family in every seven 
must come within the sphere of the libra- 
ry's influence. 

Now if these were facts and not mere 
misleading statistics and still more de- 



112 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



ceptive averages the situation would be 
somewhat satisfactory and extremely en- 
couraging. If every resident took even 
such a moderate dose of library salvation 
as one book in four months we would pos- 
sibly be justified in adopting a policy of 
watchful waiting. But unfortunately for 
our peace of mind we know that the fig- 
ures quoted are only statistics and aver- 
ages and not solid facts. We know that 
our ftoofc* can do more work we may 
question whether the librarian can do 
more work but we will not question the 
fact that there is more work that ought to 
be done. We know that many intelligent 
people of the community, many of our 
personal friends, make no use of the libra- 
ry and that few, very few, have the library 
habit. We know, in short, that we are 
very far from reaching all classes of the 
community. We know that we are even 
far from making a sale to many who must 
be regarded as hopeful prospects for libra- 
ry service. If we look facts in the face 
we must recognize that the library is not 
holding the place in the community that 
it ought to hold and unless we are over- 
optimistic we will not count upon riding 
into that place on the wave of war activi- 
ties. 

In one particular, at least, the library 
is not to blame for this situation. What- 
ever the shortcomings of library work of 
yesterday, no one can doubt the willing- 
ness, the intense desire of the public li- 
brary of today to be of service to the com- 
munity. We have left far behind the time 
when the library was simply a mausoleum 
for the safe-keeping of books the time 
when the book was chained tight to the 
desk, and the chain was made short to 
prevent the book being polluted by too 
great a circle of readers. We have gone 
beyond the stage in which mechanical 
technique necessarily consumed the most 
of the time of the librarian. Today we 
are unanimous in making not mere pos- 
session, but use, the test of library effi- 
ciency. 

We have made another step toward uni- 
versal library service by adopting more 



businesslike methods. Few of us would 
now feature fur coats in midsummer or 
attempt to turn the ten-year-old boy from 
his coveted Jew's harp to a grand piano. 
We may wisely go farther in the adapta- 
tion of our stock to our patrons, not at the 
sacrifice of our ideals, but as a means of 
reaching them. We may certainly do more 
to anticipate the needs of the community 
we serve. The library is still too often 
the place for post-mortems. However, 
while there are still many business prin- 
ciples and practices which remain to be 
generally adopted by the library, no argu- 
ment is now necessary to prove that libra- 
ry work is a practical business as well as 
a theoretical profession. 

In order to limit the discussion of this 
question to the three points I have in mind 
we shall make two additional assumptions. 
We shall assume for one thing that the 
library has ample funds to carry its ideals 
into fulfillment. Unfortunately this is not 
always true, but I know of no surer way 
to make it come true than by reaching 
more of the community more effectively. 
It is true that more funds are necessary 
to do a bigger job, but it is equally true 
that it is necessary to do a bigger job in 
order to secure more funds. We shall also 
assume that the public is ready for more 
extensive library service. This I believe 
to be unquestionably true. The public is 
more appreciative of past services, more 
ready to ask for new services, more recep- 
tive of the advances of the library than 
ever before. 

If then we are eager to serve if we have 
the staff and the resources that are needed 
for service if the public wishes to be 
served why is the library not reaching all 
classes of the community? I would not 
presume to answer this question definitely 
or professionally. However, my viewpoint 
has until recently been that of the outside 
public, and from that viewpoint certain 
general principles seem to have a direct 
bearing upon this question. It is these 
general principles which I wish to bring 
to your consideration. 

The first condition I believe to be abso- 



LEETE 



113 



lutely essential to reaching all classes of 
the community is a more sympathetic, 
genuine and active participation by the 
library in all the interests and activities 
of the community. I mean by this not 
only participation as a professional libra- 
rian in activities bearing directly or close- 
ly on library work. I mean also partici- 
pation in non-library activities, both as 
individuals and as an organization. I 
mean not only participation in book cam- 
paigns but in bond campaigns. I mean in 
short that the library and the librarian 
must be part of the community. 

We have held closely to our professional 
groove. As a result, our work, which 
touches so many interests of active life 
which finds indeed its chief justification 
in its service of those interests has come 
to be regarded by many people as a call- 
ing for the recluse and the hermit. The 
"niceness" and "retiredness" of our work 
is even regarded as sufficient reason for 
placing our salaries also at the vanishing 
point. We are apparently expected to 
soften the pangs of hunger by devouring 
exclusively the product of the pen not 
of the pen that makes Chicago famous. 
We are the objects of some curious mis- 
understandings. Even in the throes of 
the most human as well as the most divine 
passion we are represented as running true 
to type. The profession is not often hon- 
ored by the attention of the artist, but re- 
cently a librarian was depicted in what 
might be designated as a library balcony 
scene. The lover, an anaemic, emaciated, 
bloodless individual is pictured bearing an 
enormous armful of bulky volumes to his 
lady-love. I have chanced also upon sev- 
eral word pictures recently and they all 
tell the same story. It is not a true story, 
of course (I trust we have some sense of 
humor), but it does give a caricature of 
the popular conception of the librarian. 
What is the basis of this reputation un- 
less it be the impression we have given 
that we are interested only in books and 
books alone! 

During the war the religious organiza- 
tions went outside the spiritual field to 



provide bodily comfort and cheer for the 
soldier. Chocolate and doughnuts, and 
even cigarettes, for the first time became 
parts of our religious creeds. I wonder 
what we would have thought if our War 
Service Committee had proposed that we 
undertake such a service. We would have 
thought that they were candidates for even 
greater seclusion than a librarian's sanc- 
tum. And still worse, I am afraid that 
the public would have agreed with us. 
Whether or not chocolate and cigarettes 
and doughnuts go as well with a good book 
as they do with indifferent salvation, is 
beside the question. The point I am trying 
to make is not that we should have mixed 
doughnuts and books, but that we think 
of ourselves and the public thinks of us 
as interested exclusively and eternally in 
books and immune from all other sym- 
pathies and activities. In other words 
that we are in a backwater of books, and 
not out in the full sweep of the current 
of active life in the community. 

Let me mention just one additional in- 
stance in support of the statement that we 
librarians confine our interests largely to 
the book side of our work. Recently I 
attended a conference of social work it 
was more than that it was the National 
Conference of Social Work. It represented 
the ideals and the activities of social work 
of to-day in the United States. It included 
practically every organization interested 
in community welfare work, giving the 
term welfare its most liberal interpreta- 
tion. Its program discussed topics bear- 
ing closely and sometimes directly upon 
our own field of work. The purpose, the 
personnel, the program of the conference 
were all kin to us. Yet the library and 
library work were not mentioned and the 
librarian was noticeably absent. 

Now, of course, we must know books 
that is our business or at least is a part 
of our business but 'books and bookish 
things should not be the exclusive interest 
of the librarian. There is a human side 
of our work and if we are to reach all 
classes of the community, that human side 
must be emphasized. We must know what 



114 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



our people are interested in, what they are 
thinking about, what they are doing, in 
order to make the library of real service to 
them; and we cannot know what they are 
thinking and doing without being active 
in the general community life. We can- 
not trust long range observations from a 
library pinnacle for our working knowl- 
edge of the community and the definite 
service needed. Nor can we interpret the 
thought of the community at large by ob- 
servations made upon a narrow circle of 
bookish people. You recall the incident of 
the Scandinavian woman who spent her six 
months in this country viaiting various 
Scandinavian communities. She returned 
to her native land convinced that the 
United States was virtually a Scandinavian 
colony. Public institutions need intimate 
contact with the whole community if they 
are to serve the whole community. The 
government that loses close contact with 
its people soon ceases to serve them. The 
church has learned the necessity of aban- 
doning the seclusion of the study and is 
bending every energy to come close to the 
everyday life of the people. Education 
became a factor of wide power only when 
it popularized its exclusive academic theo- 
ries. So it seems to me that the effective- 
ness of the service of the public library 
depends upon its establishing close rela- 
tions with the public. These relations 
must come from an identity of interests 
and sympathies. This identity of inter- 
ests and sympathies must be expressed by 
active participation in the affairs of the 
community. 

We need the backing of the community 
if we are to reach all classes of the com- 
munity, and we can only secure that back- 
ing by doing our share of the general com- 
munity work. The library must support 
the community if the community Is to 
support the library. Do you recall the 
feeling of dismay that came over you when 
you were asked to undertake the first mod- 
est money campaign for books for sol- 
diers? Do you recall also the feeling of 
relief that you experienced when our or- 
ganization was classed in the last cam- 



paign with the other welfare organiza- 
tions? What was the cause of that dis- 
may? What was the basis for that relief? 
Were we not dismayed because we feared 
that we had not formed that personal con- 
tact with the community as a whole which 
#ould enable us to make a strong appeal 
to the public and to form an organization 
of active workers which would be effect- 
ive in presenting that appeal? Were we 
not relieved in the last campaign because 
we felt that these other organizations had 
formed this contact and could make this 
appeal? I know that we argued with our- 
selves that the other organizations from 
their very nature took hold of the imagi- 
nation and hearts of the people but are 
there not similar opportunities open to the 
library? We had allowed ourselves to be 
regarded as an institution shut in by the 
two covers of a book. We had neglected 
to emphasize the human side of our work, 
and it is from that side of our work that 
our appeal must be made to a large part 
of the community. We must serve as 
privates in the ranks of other activities if 
we hope to muster followers in the libra- 
ry's cause. The appeal of the community 
must reach the library, if the appeal of the 
library is to sound not faintly in the ear of 
the community. 

I hope no one will misunderstand me. I 
am not arguing that we should lower our 
standards. I am not arguing that we 
should turn our backs upon the books. I 
am not even arguing for the adoption of 
side show methods in library work. I be- 
lieve that in books and related literary 
material we have our natural approach to 
the community and that through them we 
may most effectively serve them. I am 
arguing, however, for the broadening of 
our interests to include the other inter- 
ests of the community. I am arguing that 
the library as an institution and the mem- 
bers of the staff as individuals should be- 
come active participants in the general 
affairs of the community. I do believe 
that the library should become a true com- 
munity center. The library is primarily a 
localized institution and if it is to be 



LEETE 



115 



alive and growing it must sink its roots 
deep in the community. 

As a second essential for reaching all 
classes of the community we must have 
something to give that is of value to all 
classes of the community. There can of 
course be no question of the intrinsic 
value of what we have to offer. The rec- 
ords of the experiences, the beliefs, the ac- 
cumulated wisdom, the hopes and fancies, 
the achievements of mankind of yesterday 
and of today surely have something of 
worth in themselves. But even articles of 
great intrinsic value are not always valu- 
able to every individual under every con- 
dition; under certain conditions they may 
be negatively worthless or even positively 
injurious. The question therefore is not 
the intrinsic value of our material but its 
value to the man whom we are trying to 
reach. 

This means that we must take the 
broadest possible view of our work. We 
cannot satisfy the varied interests of a 
community by offering a standard quantity 
of standard material of standard quality. 
We must "make the punishment fit the 
crime." The public has come to have a 
nice discrimination even in breakfast 
foods. Nor can we always serve articles 
in their original packages. We must be 
ready with our teaspoonful of broth as 
well as our pound of beef. Sometimes 
our prescriptions must even be of the 
predigested variety. Are we always ready 
to do this or if we are ready to respond 
to an insistent demand for this simple 
service do we cultivate this humble field 
as diligently as the more attractive pro- 
fessional fields? Do we recognize that the 
teaspoonful of gruel may be more neces- 
sary than the pound of steak? Are we 
really anxious to make the library popular? 

Certainly our conception of our work 
must be broad enough to enable the li- 
brary to fill its proper place in democracy. 
That is not only advisable as a means of 
reaching all classes of the community it 
is also a plain duty. We are at the begin- 
ning of a new order of things. The peo- 
ple are in the saddle and they are leaving 



the beaten trails. New relations must be 
established between capital and labor, be- 
tween employer and employed, between 
government and the governed. Conflict- 
ing opinions and clashing interests must 
be reconciled if order is to come from the 
present unrest. Many students of govern- 
ment believe that a clearing house of ideas 
and opinions must be established if or- 
derly democracy is to survive. In this 
great work of informing and educating the 
community, in this readjustment of old 
ideas to meet new conditions, in helping 
the individual to find his place in the new 
order, the library should play some part. 
Granted that this seems an ambitious pro- 
gram to undertake under present condi- 
tions, it still remains true that the library 
has many qualifications for the role. It is 
a public institution free from religious 
prejudices and class interests. It has the 
material resources and the trained work- 
ers. It is a welfare organization that be- 
longs to the whole community. I am ab- 
solutely convinced that in this service we 
have a great opportunity an opportunity 
to make the library a truly vital force in 
the community, to make it in fact the peo- 
ple's university. Have we the vision and 
the courage and the Initiative to take ad- 
vantage of this opportunity? 

A few weeks ago without warning I 
asked fifteen of my staff holding executive 
positions, most of whom had long expe- 
rience, to state in not more than twenty- 
five words their conception of the function 
of the public library. They were allowed 
less than five minutes for what they laugh- 
ingly called "the examination." These 
definitions all breathed the spirit of serv- 
ice, but in breadth and in depth they varied 
greatly. One of them so aptly expresses 
the point I am trying to make that I shall 
quote it. It read, "The function of the 
public library is to supplement every in- 
terest of the community with literary ma- 
terials and related literary materials and 
to provide means and methods of contact." 
That is the broad conception we must take 
of our work if we are to reach all classes 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of the community. That conception makes 
library work a real job. 

There is a third essential for reaching 
all classes of the community. We must 
not only know and be a part of all the in- 
terests of the community, we must not 
only have something to give of value to 
all classes of the community, we must also 
let all classes of the community know that 
we have something to give them. We all 
recognize the importance of this principle 
in the abstract but, speaking for one 
library at least, we do not carry it into 
very effective execution. If you have any 
doubts as to the ignorance of the public 
upon the service offered by the library, 
ask the man in the street what he thinks 
is the function of the public library. You 
will find a tremendous gap between your 
conception as a librarian and his concep- 
tion as one of your prospects. And that 
is one of the chief reasons why the library 
is not giving its full service to the com- 
munity. We sit in our strongholds behind 
a barricade of books, waiting patiently 
too patiently for a call upon our serv- 
ices, when I venture to say not fifty per 
cent of our people know that we have any- 
thing to offer them beyond the loan of a 
book they do not particularly crave. 

Is our duty done when we meet the de- 
mand that is thrust upon us? Are we to 
sit with folded hands and wait for more 
demands? That is not the American way. 
The American doughboy did not sit in his 
trench and wait for the attack, reasonably 
safe but perfectly harmless. He sought 
the Hun. He went over the top and left 
the safety of his trenches behind him. 
Isn't it time for the American public li- 
brary to go over the top of the books and 
put the no-library land of today behind 
the trenches of tomorrow? Let us make 
some new library territory. Let us let 
the public see at short range what we have 
for them. 

We need aggressiveness. We need no 
longer tell the man in the street there is a 
public library but we do need to tell him 
Just what that public library can do for 



him. And that message should not be 
held till he calls for it at the library. It 
should go to him at his home, at his club, 
at his place of business. It should be a 
personal message brought in person when- 
ever possible; it should be a definite mes- 
sage of help, not a general exhortation to 
use the public library; it should be put in 
plain English, not couched in library Jar- 
gon. Still more important, the message 
should come not from the director or 
heads of departments alone, but from 
every member of the staff. And our staffs 
must be organized as carefully to accom- 
plish results in this direction as in other 
departments of library work. We must 
make it our business. 

Greater activity by the library in the 
community and community affairs, some- 
thing to give of value to all classes of the 
community, aggressiveness in getting to 
the community a definite message of spe- 
cific service these seem to me three 
essential conditions for reaching all 
classes of the community. They are gen- 
eral principles, of course, and not a spe- 
cific formula. You have heard of them all 
many times before, but that does not de- 
tract from their importance. At any rate 
they are three prominent articles in my 
creed as a pseudo-librarian. How shall 
they be accomplished? I am sure of two 
facts. They cannot be accomplished by 
one grand push or the sounding of a 
trumpet. We may walk round about the 
walls of Jericho seven times indeed fn 
some cases we probably have already done 
so and it won't do any harm to blow the 
trumpet; but I'm afraid the walls will still 
have to be scaled. I am equally con- 
vinced, however, that there is not one per- 
son present who does not know of prom- 
ising points of attack on the Jericho that 
stands in the way of his library. On the 
contrary the very multitude of opportuni- 
ties is itself confusing. We hardly know- 
where to strike first. Then too we have 
friends within the walls. 

If you ask me what we have done in 
Pittsburgh, I shall have to answer, practl- 



PAINE 



117 



cally nothing we have but scratched the 
surface, but we have made a beginning; 
and while it is still only the substance of 
things hoped for, the evidence of things 
not seen, I have su ;h a firm belief in the 



future of library work, I have such confi- 
dence in the ability of the workers, that I 
know in time the things hoped for will be 
accomplished and the things not seen will 
be tangible realities. 



THE LIBRARY'S TASK IN RECONSTRUCTION 
BY PAUL M. PAINE, Librarian, Public Library, Syracuse, N. Y. 



What is meant by the subject of this 
morning's meeting is, I take it, that we 
who are here feel a new call to service. 
That word is our creed. Service is the 
whole duty of all of us heralds and bill- 
posters of literature. 

For us, as for others, many things have 
changed. But the ideal of service has 
not changed. The material with which 
we work has not changed; nor has the 
need of our work diminished. What our 
whole duty was before the war is our 
whole duty now. Has the glow of the 
great conflagration of the past four years 
thrown a new light upon it? Has it kin- 
dled anew the inspiration to service? Has 
the war brought any fresh conception of 
how our service to mankind may be bet- 
tered and built up? These are the ques- 
tions I shall try to answer. My twenty 
minutes deals with the worker and his 
field, not with his tools. 

L- answer these questions in two state- 
ments. The first is that as agents of free 
reading we need to go back to rock bot- 
tom, and consider anew some old ideas 
about what books can do. The second is 
that we need to broaden the field, recruit a 
new army of readers, engage in a big plan 
of home mission work on behalf of books. 

Nine years ago the Amherst class of 
1885 met for its twenty-fifth reunion. It 
did not confine itself to the usual activ- 
ities of quarter century reunions con- 
gratulating those who have succeeded; 
toasts to the memory of those who have 
died; speculating idly on the fate of those 
who have failed; passing the hat, perhaps, 
for some new memorial of the class; en- 



gaging as youthfully as possible in the be- 
wildering new college yells and the 
alumni parade. The class of '85 asked it- 
self what Amherst had become, what fu- 
ture it had, a small college among so 
many great and booming universities, 
what its loyal and intelligent alumni ought 
to do about it. 

What the address of the class of '85 to 
the trustees of Amherst college was, and 
the effect it had upon the fortunes of 
Amherst, are matters of history. I am not 
concerned with that, but I am concerned 
with certain passages in the address, for 
example: 

"Amherst has never taught that every 
man stands for himself alone, nor that the 
value of education is in its purchasable 
gratifications. 

"Technical education, which, so far as 
government is concerned, for the most part 
teaches devices but not principles, pro- 
ceeds upon the assumption that it is not 
wise to look back, and that in any diffi- 
culty we should consider, not how we got 
there, but how we can get out. 'As if,' said 
Edmund Burke, 'we should consult our in- 
vention and reject our experience.' In- 
vention is the parent of Utopias, radical- 
ism of all kinds. Experience is the parent 
of improvement, progress, conservatism." 

And quoting Dr. Woodrow Wilson, as he 
was then called: 

"Liberal training was meant to prepare 
them for the whole of life rather than 
some particular part of it." 

These words represent one side of a 
great educational dispute, the dispute be- 
tween vocations and humanities. We li- 
brarians have no part in that quarrel. We 
are not trying to exclude any class of 
readers, nor to deny to anybody any kind 
of useful reading. Our courses are all 



118 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



electives. But it is important (that we 
should know what we are doing, that we 
should be acquainted with the material 
we have, that we should know the value 
of the inagic key which we hold in our 
hands to unlock to mankind the most 
precious goods that mankind possesses. 
And so in this hour when the pressure 
upon us to provide books which teach how 
to make a living is at its height, I am 
urging upon you to remember that it is 
vastly more important that a man or 
woman should know how to live. 

The sons of Martha did not really need 
Kipling's noble defence. Everybody knows 
what the service is that is rendered by 
those who take care that the gear engages 
and that the switches lock, and that the 
wheels run truly. The master of technical 
processes is still, in the opinion of the ma- 
jority, the master of the world. 

"They do not preach that their God will 

rouse them a little before the nuts 

work loose; 
They do not teach that His pity allows 

them to leave their work whenever 

they choose. 
As in the thronged and the lightened ways, 

so in the dark and the desert they 

stand, 
Wary and watchful all their days, that 

their brethren's days may be long in 

the land." 

A corking ideal, as Roosevelt might have 
put it, of the technical man standing 
stoutly at his post of duty. I wish all the 
technical men, masters and employees, 
were living up to this handsome picture. 
But whether the person be a son of 
Martha or of Mary, it seems to me vitally 
important that he should be a person and 
a citizen first, and a technician after- 
wards; that he should know mankind as 
well as knowing a trade; that he should 
be somebody, as well as do something. Let 
H. G. Wells' hero in the striking story 
"The Undying Fire" tell you what I mean: 

"I have been giving sight to the blind. 
I have given understanding to some thous- 
ands of boys. My boys have learnt the 
history of mankind so that it has become 
their own adventure; They have learnt 



geography so that the world is their pos- 
session; I have had the languages taught 
eo as to make the past live again in their 
minds and to be windows upon the souls 
of alive peoples. 

. . . "You made us think and feel that 
the past of the world was our own history; 
you made us feel that we were in one 
living story with the reindeer men and the 
Egyptian priests, with the soldiers of 
Caesar and the alchemists of Spain; you 
made discovery and civilization our adven- 
ture and the whole future our inherit- 
ance." 

So that is the side of the librarian's 
service in this present crisis that I say 
needs emphasis today. The liberation of 
the spirit of man is after all the main task 
of education, rather than the liberation of 
the forces of nature. 

Men need as never before the light of 
history, that they may see through what 
agonies liberty has been achieved in all 
the ages down to the present for that is 
what history is. They need books of fancy 
and of imagination, that they may feel, 
if but once in a lifetime, that immortal 
thrill that Keats' explorer felt when he 
stared at the Pacific. They need poetry, 
for, as someone has recently said, "The 
poet lives as on a mountain noting 
the essential movement of human life 
beneath his life and drafting for us 
its cost, its dangers and its end." 
They need 'books that show how much 
greater the soul is than any mate- 
rial thing can be, and how faith can move 
mountains. They need, for immediate use, 
more perhaps than they need anything but 
the barest necessaries of life, books that 
can teach them what the duty of the neigh- 
bor is between nations, what it is between 
the one who makes the profit and the 
one who gets the wages, what it is be- 
tween society and the child, society and 
the weak, society and the sinner, society 
and the man who lies on the ground beside 
the road to Jericho. I mean that if we are 
to escape a new kind of domination which 
now threatens the world, we must know 
more than either the radicals on the one 
side or the reactionaries on the other do 
of real democracy and social justice. Or, 



PAINE 



119 



as my friend Frank Parker Stockbridge 
puts it, "It is of a good deal more conse- 
quence for the average man to learn the 
difference between democracy and an- 
archy, between bolsLtvism and socialism, 
than to teach him the difference between 
a belaying pin and a marline spike." 

And, then, secondly, we need to broaden 
the field of readers. We need to make 
converts to the book habit. It is a great 
thing to have a mission, to believe in some- 
thing strongly enough to long to make oth- 
ers believe in it. For my part I am sorry 
for the man who says, "When I go out of 
my office door I forget my business." The 
worker is to be envied whose business is 
big enough, broad enough, varied enough, 
so that he never wants to forget it. 

Well, our business has these qualities; it 
consists in advertising and retailing im- 
mortal truth itself. To how many of us 
in this business has it occurred that we 
owe a duty to our calling that reaches be- 
yond business hours, a duty to those who 
do not know what good reading is, and 
have yet to be convinced that there is any 
such thing? That duty is to make him a 
convert, to open the golden door to him. 
Supposing that each of us in this room 
were sufficiently proud of our occupation 
in life, sufficiently in love with the glori- 
ous task that has been entrusted to us to 
be willing to promise to make one such 
convert before the end of summer. Could 
we engage in a more worthy propaganda? 
Could we estimate the possible value of the 
service we might render? 

Someone may say that everybody knows 
that good reading is a good thing, and 
that books are to be had everywhere. I 
know an editor who never reads a book. 
I know a college library that gets no 
patronage to speak of from the faculty. 
I know, and you know in your own ac- 
quaintance, good men and women who are 
blinded by superstition and materialism, 
living in daily fear, laying up treasure 
where moth and rust doth corrupt, dating 
back in their conception of the social 
gospel to the time of Queen Elizabeth, 
untouched by any exalted ideals. Beyond 



this class you and I know that there are 
millions of people in the United States 
who might be eagerly drinking at the foun- 
tain of good reading, but who, by the acci- 
dent of race or position in life, have never 
felt the impetus or found their way to the 
fountain. I am not in favor of denying 
this blessing to these people because they 
have not yet had time to learn the Eng- 
lish language. 

It is to such as these that we owe the 
missionary duty, not alone to those who 
are registered as borrowers or who have 
credit accounts at the book stores. 

To sum up, then, I say that the duty 
of the agent of free reading in this great 
crisis is to keep in mind the priceless 
treasures of the past that are entrusted 
to us and to remember that how to live 
is greater than how to make a living. And 
second, that we owe a duty to the great 
class of persons who are never found in 
libraries, as well as a duty to those who 
are already enlisted on our side. The duty 
of library service, then, is a missionary duty 
to reach with good books the great masses 
of Americans who are not now reached 
by the precious and inspiring message that 
is contained in books and nowhere else; 
and in this effort we can call to the colors 
not librarians alone but educators, book- 
sellers, publishers, and all who share in 
this ideal. 

Finally I invite my fellow workers in 
public libraries everywhere to remember 
what John Milton asked the Houses of Par- 
liament to consider, the kind of people we 
are serving. I am urging, as that saint 
and prophet of good reading urged, a fear- 
less trust in the inherent sense and judg- 
ment of enlightened mankind. I am 
speaking for Americans. I am speaking 
for those who inherit the spirit and tradi- 
tions of that race which invented self- 
government and liberty. English speaking 
people have been, and always will be, im- 
patient under censorship. It is useless to 
try to keep these people from thinking for 
themselves. The very genius of self-gov- 
ernment lies in extracting from a diversity 
of opinions upon given facts a final judg- 



120 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



ment and course of action. If we are not 
safe in placing before our -patrons both 
sides of great questions, social and politi- 
cal, if we are afraid to let them know 
that there is another side to the question 
of prohibition, if we dare not put in their 
hands books which advocate socialism as 
a widely held idea of the road to free- 
dom, and" what the programs of labor are; 



if we dare not let them see what even 
bolshevism says of itself, then we are com- 
mitting the sin of the buried talent. "I 
cannot," said Milton, "prize a fugitive and 
cloistered virtue, unexercised and un- 
breathed, that never sallies out and seeks 
her adversary, but slinks out of the race 
where that immortal garland is to be run 
for, not without dust and heat." 



SOME PRESENT-DAY ASPECTS OF LIBRARY TRAINING 
BY CHARLES C. WILLIAMSON, Chief, Economics Division, New York Public Library 



The president had invited me to discuss 
this topic and I had promised to do so 
before I had any idea that I might have 
some responsibility for the professional 
training division of the investigation to 
be conducted by the Committee of Five. I 
have not consulted my colleagues on that 
committee in regard to what I am about 
to say. In other words, the proposal made 
in this paper is a personal and not in any 
sense a committee affair at the present 
time. I feel it is incumbent on me to 
make this statement, lest I may seem in 
what I shall say to have committed my- 
self, and to some extent the committee 
itself, to definite conclusions in advance 
of the investigation. I shall state my pres- 
ent personal views as clearly and as pos- 
itively as I can, but not dogmatically, I 
hope, and only in general outline. If the 
plan I am about to propose were actually 
to be adopted, extended investigation 
would be necessary before details could be 
worked out. But even the main features 
of the plan itself I would gladly abandon 
in favor of anything else that seems to the 
profession as a whole more likely to ac- 
complish the object desired. 

In order to bring this paper within the 
prescribed twenty minutes, If possible, I 
propose to narrow my subject from the 
plural to the singular and present only one 
aspect of the training problem, but one 
which seems to me of far-reaching im- 
portance. Omitting further preface and 
foreword and coming to the point at once, 



I wish to propose for serious thought and 
discussion, to be followed by some kind 
of action, in the not distant future, I hope, 
the organization of all training activities 
and facilities into one system under the 
general direction of an A. L. A. Training 
Board, with a permanent staff and a com- 
petent expert as its executive, and empow- 
ered to work out and adopt a scheme of 
standards of fitness for all grades of li- 
brary service and to grant appropriate cer- 
tificates to properly qualified persons. 

Let us not delude ourselves into think- 
ing that we already have a system of train- 
ing for library work. He must be a hope- 
less optimist indeed who can see in the 
present training situation anything more 
than a variety of valuable parts scattered 
around waiting for vital machinery not 
yet constructed or even planned. We 
cherish the delusion that library work is 
a profession. At best it is only semi-pro- 
fessional. What real profession is re- 
cruited largely from wholly untrained per- 
sons? Let us face the facts. Every real 
profession is based on technical training 
and recognized standards of fitness. That 
condition is in sight for library work, but 
it is not here. A system of training ade- 
quate to meet the situation, a recognized 
standard of fitness for different grades of 
professional work and a system of certifi- 
cates by which to label those found to be 
fit, will put library work on a professional 
basis in the near future. I do not believe 
anything else will do so in fifty years. 



WILLIAMSON 



121 



We need not stop to engage in aca- 
demic discussion of the significance of 
professionalism nor need we rehearse the 
story of the sporadic and futile efforts to 
arouse some genuine interest in certifica- 
tion. I frankly confess that I have no new 
ideas to present. The proceedings of this 
Association and the professional journals 
are strewn with papers and committee re- 
ports setting forth with penetrating analy- 
sis and irrefutable logic the importance of 
certification. But plans for bringing it 
about are conspicuously absent. We be- 
lieve certification would be a good thing? 
Well, then, let's have it. Shall this Asso- 
ciation, which probably enrolls in its mem- 
bership every person in the country seri- 
ously interested in elevating the stand- 
ards of library service, sit back and expect 
others to plan a system of training and 
certification? Nothing ever happens that 
way. Progress in library service, as in 
everything, has always been and will al- 
ways be the direct result of vision and pur- 
poseful planning on the part of those en- 
gaged in the work. One needs only refer 
for proof to two outstanding events the 
organization of the American Library As- 
sociation and the establishment of the first 
school for training librarians. Yes, and a 
third must be added the A. L.. A. War 
Service, splendidly planned, splendidly ex- 
ecuted! The Association must become 
much more than a debating society or a 
social club. We must shoulder the re- 
sponsibility for keeping the library serv- 
ice of this country fully abreast of the 
times literally, indeed, we must keep 
ahead of other branches of the public serv- 
ice, for more and more every interest in 
the community looks to the libraries for 
guidance. 

To avoid being found guilty myself of 
the fault I may seem to ascribe to others, 
I venture to suggest the following definite 
plan for organizing training, formulating 
standards and certifying library workers. 
Let this Association establish forthwith a 
training board an A. L. A. Training 
Board, analogous to the A. L. A. Publish- 
ing Board. Let that board be made up of 



a proper number of representatives of li- 
brary schools, training class interests, 
state commissions, etc. Make it truly rep- 
resentative. Then let it employ a compe- 
tent executive who will give all his time 
to its work, and such other expert assist- 
ance and such clerical service as expe- 
rience shows to be desirable and feasible. 

Before sketching the functions of the 
Training Board, let us take stock of the 
material on hand to be organized into a 
system with the Training Board at its cen- 
ter. Note that I do not say "at its head." 

First: We have more than a dozen full 
fledged library schools with some approach 
to uniformity of minimum standards 
standards which all are agreed should be 
raised. These schools are organized into 
an association which serves in some re- 
spects as a coordinator but seems ineffec- 
tual to produce any real cooperation. Sec- 
ondly: We have an indefinite and fluc- 
tuating number of training classes fol- 
lowing no common plan some striving to 
become accredited library schools and 
others falling by the wayside. Next we 
have summer schools some good, some 
better and many more needed. We have 
normal schools, high schools, colleges, and 
universities giving courses in library 
economy courses which look much alike 
in the catalogs and circulars. Who dares 
to say that one is better than another? 

A multiplicity of training agencies we 
have, it is true, but no system, no recog- 
nized standards (if, perhaps, we except the 
accredited schools). The inadequacy of it 
all is shown by the fact that most of those 
who enter library work do so with no pre- 
tense of special training. The anarchy of 
it all is shown by a statement of the head 
of a normal school, who recently boast- 
fully declared that when he gets his li- 
brary school going he will put the school 
(an accredited school) in a neighboring 
state "out of business." A university li- 
brary course consisting of a few general 
evening lectures, gets into the Library An- 
nual on a par with the accredited schools. 
And so it goes. Who's who? And what's 
what? Do we wonder that "trained" libra- 



122 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



rians are looked upon askance in some 
quarters? Must we look forward to thirty 
years more of this haphazard growth, of 
duplication of agencies already adequate, 
of failing to provide facilities where the 
need is greatest? Heaven forbid! 

Three major functions would develop 
upon such a board and call for imme- 
diate and continuous attention: (1) The 
fomulation of a standard scheme of grad- 
ing library positions which would neces- 
sarily resemble the best schemes of serv- 
ice now in use, but which would be so ex- 
tended as to cover all kinds of professional 
library work, and possibly include also 
at least the higher grades of the clerical 
service. (2) Its second task would be, 
first, to decide, with the advice and coun- 
sel of the whole profession, what should be 
the minimum standard of qualification in 
the way of training and experience for 
each grade; and then to issue certificates 
of the appropriate grade to all applicants 
who qualify. (3) The third task would 
relate to training agencies. Having de- 
cided that library school training of a cer- 
tain character constitutes the desirable 
minimum for one or more of the higher 
grades of library service, the board could 
proceed, as the Association of Library 
Schools does now, to examine and approve 
such schools as meet a reasonable stand- 
ard. Graduates of these schools who have 
a minimum period of successful experi- 
ence could be given a Training Board cer- 
tificate of high grade without further ques- 
tion. Similarly, successful completion of 
an accredited training class course, com- 
bined with a minimum period of experi- 
ence in a library approved for practice 
work, might almost automatically entitle 
to a Training Board certificate of an ap- 
propriate grade. 

Below the better grade of training 
classes found at present, there is perhaps 
no training offered that in a single con- 
secutive period of instruction could cover 
the field thoroughly enough to meet the 
requirements for even the lowest grade 
certificate. However, much of the work 
offered in summer courses and many of 



the courses in library economy given in 
schools and colleges, are in themselves 
good enough to receive the approval of 
the Training Board and be thereby per- 
mitted to count toward the credits neces- 
sary for a Training Board certificate. 

Upon this last feature of the proposed 
Training Board's function too much stress 
cannot be laid. Librarians and assistants 
in small libraries cannot afford the time 
and expense to attend library schools or 
training classes, even if the latter were 
open to them. They can, however, take 
accredited courses in summer schools, per- 
haps attending different schools, until they 
accumulate enough credits and experience 
to entitle them to at least an elementary 
Training Board certificate. And it is right 
here that I would propose to use the corre- 
spondence method of instruction which 
has recently been discussed with fairly 
general approval. If offered under proper 
auspices, credits toward an elementary 
certificate could be given for correspond- 
ence courses. 

The proper auspices for such corre- 
spondence courses would need the care- 
ful study of the Training Board. It seems 
fairly obvious that correspondence courses 
could be offered by library schools if 
proper attention were paid to developing 
the best methods of instruction and if fol- 
low-up work and practice could be prop- 
erly lined up with it. It seems equally ob- 
vious that all the schools should not be 
expected to offer a full line of correspond- 
ence courses. In any case, courses offered 
should be subject to the approval of the 
Training Board. Tentatively, I would sug- 
gest that such schools as are willing to do 
so be asked by the Board to offer corre- 
spondence courses in certain subjects 
in which they are perhaps already 
specializing and in which they are 
likely, because of their specially skilled 
instructors, to be most successful. It is 
possible, on the other hand, that the cor- 
respondence courses should be given by 
specially trained instructors attached to 
the staff of the Training Board itself. 

On the whole, however, my conception 



WILLIAMSON 



123 



of the Training Board is that its function 
should be confined to examining, approv- 
ing and certifying; that it should not be 
primarily an instructional agency. Never- 
theless, it should bj constantly pointing 
out where new training facilities are 
needed, where additional courses should 
be given. Its central position in the sys- 
tem and its representative character 
should make it easy for the proposed 
Board to coordinate, extend and standard- 
ize agencies of all kinds offering training 
for library work. We would look to it 
largely for the initiation and promotion of 
plans for extension training, for effecting 
a closer cooperation between the schools, 
and for discovering and developing skilled 
instructors in library subjects. 

Perhaps it would be well to explain that 
when I use the word standardize I do not 
mean thereby that everything touched is 
to be forced into the same mold. Far from 
it. In the first place, there would be no 
compulsion at all, any more than there is 
pressure now for a library school to meet 
the minimum standards and become an 
accredited school. All would be free, 
moreover, to go as much farther as they 
wish, to raise standards of admission, to 
lengthen courses, to specialize, etc.; but if 
they wish their work to receive credit to- 
ward A. L. A. Training Board certifi- 
cates, they must meet the minimum 
standards set up. And so with all other 
training agencies. A graduate of an ap- 
proved school or a training class would get 
whatever certificate or diploma the school 
sees fit to bestow upon him. In addition, 
if he desires and meets all conditions, he 
could have the appropriate Training Board 
certificate, which would lead after a period 
of successful experience in definite kinds 
of professional work to higher and eventu- 
ally to the highest certificate. Graduates 
of the best schools would continue to be 
sought after as now. The possession of a 
certificate would not be a badge of su- 
periority as much as a guarantee against 
gross incompetency. The same is true, of 
course, of library school diplomas and de- 
grees even now. 



Bear in mind, then, that we do not pro- 
pose an autocratic agency arbitrarily set- 
ting up standards and attempting to force 
them on schools and public authorities 
against their will. The board proposed 
would be a representative body of practi- 
cal librarians whose duty it would be to 
translate into concrete definitions and 
standards the best thought and experience 
in all matters of training for library serv- 
ice, to insure a reasonable degree of com- 
petency in the product of various kinds of 
training agencies, to protect libraries 
everywhere from inadequately trained and 
incompetent persons, to raise standards as 
rapidly as conditions permit, to promote 
the establishment of training agencies in 
sections of the country where they are 
needed and in all sections of the country 
for grades of service unprovided for under 
the present planless scheme of profes- 
sional training. 

It goes without saying that everyone 
now in library service would receive cer- 
tificates, if they applied for them, corre- 
sponding to the grade of work in which 
they are now successfully engaged, with 
due regard to general fitness and training. 
This would take a little time, but need 
not be a serious obstacle; and fear on the 
part of library workers that they person- 
ally might not be rated high enough should 
not be allowed to determine their attitude 
toward certification. Any board would 
adopt a liberal policy toward all now in 
the service. Original certificates would 
probably be based primarily on the nature 
of positions now held. A person who is 
doing good work will receive recognition 
and have a better chance to improve his 
position. Only those who fail conspicu- 
ously to measure up to the size of their 
present post need fear the results of im- 
partial grading and certification. 

I anticipate that some will say, "Fine 
idea, something of that sort must be done 
sometime, but let's not be in any hurry." 
Certainly, we must not act on impulse; we 
want to think about it, think hard and dis- 
cuss it; and then if the balance of opinion 
is in favor of some such plan, let us act. 



124 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



It's folly to think we'll wait until no one 
opposes the idea. The forward-looking 
members of the profession, those who 
have vision, though they are not vision- 
aries, already see the necessity of some 
such step. Certification is even now a fact 
for certain classes of librarians in more 
than one state. Ten years from now, if 
we work hard enough, a little progress 
will have been made here and there in the 
way of getting certification by state law, 
but most of us will not live to see a satis- 
factory system on the statute books of half 
the states. But even if by some act of 
magic every state could be moved to adopt 
a reasonable system of certification 
shortly, we would certainly be worse off in 
some respects than now. In the first place, 
we should probably have forty-eight differ- 
ent systems. The schools, I anticipate, 
would have to offer technical courses on 
the laws and regulations governing em- 
ployment of librarians! Your New Jersey 
certificate would not be good in Pennsyl- 
vania, and so on, unless perchance inter- 
state comity becomes vastly more fash- 
ionable than it has ever been with respect 
to all other matters, including the practice 
of other professions. The freedom with 
which librarians have been accustomed 
to move from one state or city to another 
is a precious asset, not only to the indi- 
vidual but to the progress of library serv- 
ice as well. Even if an unwonted degree 
of interstate reciprocity in the recognition 
of certificates should follow our assumed 
system of state certification,, inevitable 
variations in grades would tend to check 
our present freedom of movement. 

For still other reasons even the most 
ideal system of state certification would 
fail to meet the needs fully. State certifica- 
tion could apply only to libraries sup- 
ported by public funds. An A. L. A. Train- 
ing Board could cover the entire field of li- 
brary service, if it were found desirable. 
It could, in other words, certify for busi- 
ness libraries and libraries of many special 
types which fall principally or altogether 
outside the class of publicly supported in- 
stitutions. 



If we desire a simple system of certifica- 
tion for the whole country; if we hope for 
a consistent, uniform system of certifica- 
tion under the control of the profession, 
there is only one way to get it. There 
is an old proverb which warns that if you 
want a thing done right, do it yourself. 
Let me commend this to the American 
Library Association in the matter of cer- 
tification. 

It is safe to predict that as soon as a 
system of A. L. A. certification gets under 
way library authorities everywhere will be- 
gin to accept our standards and provide 
by law that an A. L. A. certificate of a cer- 
tain grade shall be a prerequisite for em- 
ployment in a given post. Already a few 
states require certificates of high school 
librarians. Would it not be relatively easy 
to persuade all progressive states to re- 
quire high school librarians to have the 
special school certificate of the A. L. A. 
Training Board? And where states as a 
whole are backward would not individual 
progressive schools unconsciously fall in 
line and demand certified librarians? 
There is nothing in the plan to prevent any 
public library, state library commission or 
education department from requiring more 
than the A. L. A. Training Board certifi- 
cate. They could, if they saw fit, have 
their own system of certification in addi- 
tion. Perhaps a few would find it advisa- 
ble to do so, but I feel confident the great 
majority would prefer to fall in line and 
rely wholly on the Training Board certifi- 
cates. 

Frankly, I cannot help being enthusias- 
tic about the effect of country-wide certifi- 
cation on the demand for technical and 
professional training. It will give the in- 
dividual definite professional objectives to- 
ward which to strive; it will give library 
authorities much needed * guidance in 
selecting and appointing employees; it will 
furnish a basis for gradation of salaries 
and promotion from grade to grade; it will 
help to solve the problem of civil service, 
because many states and cities will prefer 
to accept A. L. A. certificates rather than 
to set up their own tests of fitness; it will 



WILLIAMSON 



125 



help to put library work on a professional 
plane in the eyes of the public; it will be 
a very positive aid in securing better sal- 
aries. 

The proposed bo^rd will be able to 
strengthen and extend training facilities, 
particularly for the benefit of the small 
public libraries now so much in need of a 
personnel trained for that special and most 
important work. Many incidental advan- 
tages will occur to everyone. A very im- 
portant by-product should result from the 
necessity the board would probably be 
under of maintaining a list of libraries of 
different types and sizes in all parts of the 
country approved for practice work. The 
schools have individually done something 
of the sort more or less informally, but 
the board would probably have to carry 
the method much farther. The result 
would naturally be a general effort on the 
part of libraries to raise their standards 
to meet the conditions required by the 
board. 

I am not aware that the members of the 
Association have had the desirability of 
certification before them in such a fashion 
that they could express an opinion on it, 
but I cannot believe there would be any 
serious opposition if the proposal and its 
full significance for the profession and for 
library service were clearly understood. 
Perhaps there may be some who readily 
grant the desirability of a central body to 
supervise and promote training agencies 
and to grade and certify library workers 
and who yet prefer to see it done by the 
Government. If established on a national 
scale, as every important consideration de- 
mands, the natural agency of the Federal 
Government to undertake it would be the 
Library of Congress, but we doubt whether 
the national library would be willing to 
assume this function and we doubt still 
more whether libraries and educational in- 
stitutions would cooperate as fully with 
any governmental agency having no au- 
thority to command, as with a board op- 
erating under the auspices of the Ameri- 
can Library Association, democratically 



selected and in close touch with profes- 
sional needs and opinions. 

Other professional organizations have 
taken a leading part in standardization 
and extension of training. Such activity 
is not only a public service, but is good 
business as well. The American Bankers' 
Association, for example, fosters a system 
of education in the theory and practice of 
banking, maintaining standards of training 
by means of official examinations and the 
issuance of certificates. This work is in 
charge of an educational director, under 
the general management of a board of re- 
gents. Systematic courses of study, in- 
cluding correspondence courses, are avail- 
able to those who meet a prescribed stand- 
ard of education and banking experience 
and these courses lead to standard certifi- 
cates. 

The war has given a tremendous impetus 
to the use of books and libraries for voca- 
tional training. Should not the library 
profession grasp the opportunity to set a 
splendid example of a vocational group 
fully and efficiently organized for the tech- 
nical training and certification of its mem- 
bers of every grade? 

As is well known, the British Library 
Association, through its Education Com- 
mittee, has long maintained a system of 
professional examinations and certificates, 
and library authorities base their promo- 
tions and salary increases on these certifi- 
cates. Many of you are doubtless more 
familiar with this system than I am. I 
understand that there is dissatisfaction, 
not with the system of certification, but 
because it is generally felt that the exam- 
inations based on the syllabus put out by 
the Education Committee are not enough. 
There is serious need of training facilities 
such as our library schools, training classes 
and summer schools to prepare candidates 
for these examinations. Most of those who 
take the examinations are self-prepared by 
the help of the syllabus and correspond- 
ence courses. The inspiration and insight 
imparted by competent instructors, the per- 
sonal relations of students with each other 
these and other tremendous advantages 



126 



inhere in class-room instruction, but it 
should be possible for us to supplement our 
schools with something analogous to the 
Library Association's syllabus and corre- 
spondence courses. 

"The syllabus . . . ," says one recent 
critic, "is a fairly comprehensive one, and 
if crowded in some sections, is clear and 
straightforward, and any assistant pos- 
sessed of interest in his or her work and 
an average amount of common sense would 
do well, instead of sitting down and be- 
wailing the lack of library schools, to work 
carefully through that syllabus, subject by 
subject, sit for the examinations, and by so 
doing acquire a serviceable weapon for fu- 
ture use." 

One very important practical question I 
have not touched upon, namely the finan- 
cial support of a Training Board. I have 
not even attempted to estimate the amount 
of money required in the beginning. If 
the library profession is ready for such a 
step, I have little doubt that a way can 
be found to put it into effect. A graduated 
scale of fees might be charged for certifi- 



cates, corporate membership fees in the 
Association, or similar sources of income 
could be used. It is also possible that 
some support could 'be secured from gen- 
eral educational agencies. The problem of 
financial support is far less important at 
this juncture than the moral support of all 
the progressive and forward-looking ele- 
ments in the profession. If we really want 
to do this thing it can be done. 

In this brief sketch I cannot, of course, 
go into details as to organization or func- 
tions of the proposed board. It would be 
the business of the board to work out de- 
tails with the aid of all the talent and wis- 
dom the members of this Association pos- 
sess, which is surely ample for the task. 
The big outstanding facts I want to leave 
with you. I want you to think about them 
and discuss them and in some way record 
your best judgment as to the feasibility 
and desirability of taking this most es- 
sential step in planning for library de- 
velopment. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARY OF THE NEXT DECADE 
BY JESSE B. DAVIS, Principal Central High School, Grand Rapids, Michigan 



Reorganization is the key word in this 
after-war period. Industry, business, edu- 
cation, and government are all undergoing 
radical changes. For some years we have 
realized that rapid progress was being 
made; that we were in a state of transi- 
tion; that traditions were being swept 
away; and that an age of scientific meth- 
od was rapidly coming to pass. But trans- 
ition has now become scientific reorgan- 
ization. 

Among the various divisions of our edu- 
cational system, the high school has al- 
ready made greater progress than any 
other, and is facing a period of reorgan- 
ization that borders on the revolutionary. 
The very population of our high schools 
has completely changed during the past 
few decades. Widely differing types of 
pupils, from every nationality and from 
all manner of homes are demanding the 



kind of education that will fit them for 
satisfactory living in the everyday world. 
In our attempt to satisfy these conditions 
the traditions of the past are giving way 
before the economic and social needs of a 
changing civilization. 

The scientific study of our educational 
system, of our traditional curriculum, of 
methods of teaching, and of the applica- 
tion of modern psychology to business, to 
industry, and to the abilities of the indi- 
vidual is already bringing about a revolu- 
tion in educational procedure. 

A commission of the National Educa- 
tion Association on the Reorganization of 
Secondary Education has recently an- 
nounced in its bulletin on the "Cardinal 
principles of secondary education" the 
seven main objectives of modern educa- 
tion in a democracy. These objectives 
are health, command of fundamental 



DAVIS 



127 



processes, worthy home membership, vo- 
cation, citizenship, worthy use of leisure, 
and ethical character. Under this com- 
mission is a 1'arge number of committees 
working upon the administrative problems 
and the various subjects of the curricu- 
lum, preparing reports for a nation-wide 
reorganization which will be based upon 
these cardinal principles and will put into 
effect the main objectives as enumerated. 
The influence of these reports, prepared 
by well-known educators from all parts 
of the country and crystallizing the ideas 
that were already being formulated in the 
minds of progressive school men, is bound 
to be such that we must take this move- 
ment into consideration in discussing the 
high school library of the next decade. 

Reorganization of the high school in 
its administration, in its curriculum, and 
in the content of the subject matter 
taught, means of necessity a reorganiza- 
tion of the school library. If some of the 
subjects that have dominated the tradi- 
tional curriculum are either eliminated or 
modernized to any considerable degree, 
the reference books once demanded will 
be discarded and a new list will be com- 
piled. If the newer subjects of the mod- 
ern curriculum are enriched and raised to 
the educational standards of the older sub- 
jects, then there must be provided a well 
selected library of business and of indus- 
try to meet these needs. Parallel with 
the reorganization of the curriculum of 
the high school from the seventh grade 
through the twelfth must come the reor- 
ganization of the library. This will mean 
that the librarian must keep abreast of 
the times, must be informed with respect 
to every progressive movement, must keep 
in touch with, every department of the 
school, and so be prepared to render valu- 
able assistance in bringing about the re- 
organization that will take place during 
the next decade. 

The library cannot ignore any of the ob- 
jectives of secondary education in bringing 
about its own reorganization. The subject 
of health has never received the proper 
attention of the American people. Not 



only the surprising failure of our young 
men to meet the physical standards of 
the army, but the scientific study of pub- 
lic health and of the prevention of dis- 
ease in recent years has shown our neg- 
lectful ignorance and has demanded that 
we pay greater attention to this funda- 
mental problem in the future education 
and training of youth. The library must 
cooperate with all agencies and efforts to 
raise these standards. The room can at 
least be properly ventilated and hygienic 
in its own appointments. 

The reorganization of secondary educa- 
tion assumes the establishment of the ju- 
nior and senior high school system. There- 
fore, in this discussion jt should also be 
assumed that the high school library of the 
next decade will serve pupils from the 
seventh through the twelfth grades. 

One of the chief functions of the junior 
high school organization is to help the 
pupil to find himself and to classify the 
pupils with regard to their probable fu- 
ture training. One group of these pupils 
will go on into the various curriculums of 
the senior high school. The other group 
will go out into business or industry as 
soon as the compulsory school laws will 
permit. To both of these groups the libra- 
ry has a special mission in the teaching of 
vocations and in educational guidance. A 
few school libraries in the country have 
been splendid pioneers in this work, but 
their example must be followed by others 
and extended still further. 

Like every other institution that has 
rendered service to the army and to gov- 
ernmental agencies during the war, the 
library has learned its great lesson. No 
longer can the Y. M. C. A. erect buildings 
in our cities, and charge large fees for its 
privileges. Now it must go out into the 
community, into industry, out where men 
and boys are, and render service. In the 
same manner the library can no longer sit 
comfortably back within its walls! and 
hand out books to those who come and 
ask for them. The library has gone out 
into the camps, into war industries, and 
over the seas; it has labored side by side 



128 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



with the Food Commission, with the 
United States Employment Service, with 
the guidance, training, and placement of 
the returning soldier and with the Fed- 
eral Board for Vocational Education; and 
it can never go back to its former con- 
servative position. These war experiences 
can now be applied to the schools, and to 
the communities to be served. The same 
methods of interesting soldiers in their 
future occupations, suggesting a few good 
books to read, etc., may be applied to the 
high school by a wide-awake librarian. 

Americanization will have a larger 
meaning as a result of the war. Even 
native-born youths of our country must 
be given a world-wide vision of the new 
responsibilities of American citizenship. 
It is not always possible to reach every 
pupil in a large high school organization 
by offering subjects in civics, economics, 
sociology, or ethics. As desirable as these 
subjects are in the teaching of citizenship, 
not all pupils can or will elect them nor 
can they be made compulsory. However, 
the library is open to all pupils throughout 
their entire course, and they can be in- 
fluenced to read along these lines when 
proper opportunity Is given for the libra- 
rian to guide the free reading of pupils. 

There are two of the objectives of sec- 
ondary education that suggest a special 
application to the library. These are 
"worthy home membership" and the 
"worthy use of leisure time." It was the 
feeling of the committee of the N. E. A. 
that the sentiment which prompted the 
words of the song "Home, sweet home" 
was too rapidly disappearing from Amer- 
ican life. The average home in the typ- 
ical American city is losing its hold upon 
the young people. They are growing up 
with the idea that pleasure cannot be 
found without going somewhere else and 
without the spending of money. They 
would scorn the suggestion that real pleas- 
ure can be found in good books, in good 
music, or in good pictures within the 
home. And are not our own schools part- 
ly responsible for this condition? Our 
teaching of literature has utterly failed to 



ievelop a love for good reading. Rag- 
time music is the vogue and the "movies" 
are the only popular pictures. 

Home membership and the use of leis- 
ure are two very closely allied objectives. 
With the coming of an eight hour work- 
ing day, the question is, Where and how is 
this extra leisure time going to be spent? 
If the home can be made more attractive 
and people can be taught how to find 
pleasure within the home, many of the 
problems of our social and economic life 
will be solved. As the school attempts to 
reach these two objectives the library 
will prove a most powerful factor. A few 
libraries have already fitted up a room 
to appear homelike, with a fireplace, easy 
chairs and surroundings unlike that of 
the rigid school room. This plan must 
be applied everywhere and used to the 
limit of its possibilities. With such equip- 
ment the school library can better teach 
the habit of reading, a love for good books 
and the principles of selecting, arranging 
and maintaining a suitable home library. 

To suggest to librarians the demands 
upon the library in meeting the objectives 
of a reorganized high school program and 
to go no further, Is to meet the problem 
only half way. Many librarians have al- 
ready caught the vision of their possibili- 
ties and are chafing at the leash because 
they are not permitted or are not given 
the opportunity to do what they know 
they might do. The solution of the prob- 
lem of the high school library of the next 
decade lies in the reorganization of the 
administration of the high school. 

The changes that will take place during 
the next decade will bring the realization 
of the ambition of the progressive librarian 
to be the head of a department coordinate 
with the other departments in the school. 
The head of such a department must be as 
broad of vision as the principal himself, 
and should attend with the principal all 
departmental meetings in order that the 
library may function properly with every 
other department. 

As an educational department the libra- 
ry should have at its command and com- 



DAVIS 



129 



pletely under its own direction its propor- 
tion of the pupils' time. Under the pres- 
ent system a certain number of pupils are 
using the library every hour in the day, 
but they are there u^der the direction of 
some class-room teacher or for some gen- 
eral reference work. They are not receiv- 
ing library instruction directly nor are 
they receiving all that it is possible for the 
library and the librarian to give them. 
The librarian of the next decade will not 
sit behind a desk in a reference room to 
hand out books and keep order. She will 
be doing actual teaching and directing of 
educational work each hour of the day. 
Not less than one hour per week through- 
out the entire six years of the reorganized 
high school should te at the disposal of 
the librarian. This hour or period could 
best and most profitably be taken from the 
five hours per week usually given to the 
department of English. 

The use of this time can best be worked 
out by the expert librarian, but it is not 
difficult for the administrator to catch a 
vision of what might be accomplished. The 
total of forty hours for the year and two 
hundred and forty hours for the entire 
six-year course can be assigned in propor- 
tion to the aims to be sought. Running 
through the entire six years, there should 
be time for a graded and systematic course 
of instruction In the use of books and li- 
braries. The content of such a course has 
already been ably worked out by one of 
your number, but few administrators have 
yet come to appreciate its need or its 
educational value. However, the greater 
proportion of the time that the librarian 
has control over in this special course 
should be left for the pupil to do free and 
pleasurable reading, free from the compul- 
sion of the class exercise and pleasurable 
because of the voluntary choice of books. 
In this work the librarian might well be 
assisted by the right kind of teachers of 
English who know their pupils and are 
personally interested in them as individ- 
uals. 

The "class room" of the librarian should 
be the homelike reading room free from 



the formalities of the recitation room. 
Whatever work is done should be so con- 
ducted that the pupils will look forward 
to the library hour with the keenest pleas- 
ure. The time spent in this period should 
be compulsory, but the pupil should be 
made to feel the freedom of the use of his 
leisure in finding pleasure in reading some- 
thing of his own choice. 

The open shelves should contain a wide 
variety of books to attract pupils of all 
types and degrees of interest. The libra- 
rian should have no desk in this homelike 
room. It would look out of place and 
would prevent the librarian from acting 
as if she were in her own home. Let her 
assume that she is receiving in her own 
library a group of pupil friends whom she 
is trying to interest in good books, and in 
this manner she will best be able to guide 
'boys and girls in forming right habits in 
the use of leisure time. 

It will be a difficult task for the school 
to teach the worthy use of leisure when its 
ideal has 'been to teach pupils to work 
who do not wish to work. Youth feels that 
it has an abundance of time and does not 
hesitate to spend it freely. The school 
must teach the difference between a worthy 
use of leisure time and a waste of time. 
No department of the reorganized school 
will have a better opportunity to teach this 
much needed lesson than the library. 

The high school library of the next de- 
cade calls for a librarian of rare qualities 
and qualifications. She must be more than 
an instructor in the subject of the use of 
books. The reorganized library calls for 
a librarian of wide knowledge and 'broad 
outlook; it calls for an individual of orig- 
inality, of sympathy, of resourcefulness in 
attacking new problems and in working 
out new methods of procedure. 

With a library department placed in ju- 
nior and senior high schools throughout 
the land, organized under the leadership 
of efficient librarians, and equipped to 
carry out the objectives of modern educa- 
tion in democracy, the high school library 
is destined to rise from a subordinate po- 



130 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



sltion to the very center around which all 
other school activities will revolve, and 
will prove to be the unifying factor among 



all the other departments in bringing 
about during the next decade the reorgan- 
ization of secondary education in America. 



THE TRUE AMERICANIZATION OF THE FOREIGN CHILD 
HEBBEBT ADOLPHUS MIIXEB, Director, Mid-European Union 



When the children of immigrants look 
like Americans, talk like Americans, and 
play like Americans, it may be taken as 
prima facie evidence that they are not being 
truly Americanized. It means simply that 
there has been an unnatural break with 
parental control and parental values, 
which must inevitably result in a charac- 
ter unformed and unstable. There can be 
no greater family tragedy than the com- 
plete reversal of the relation of parent 
and child, a relation as old as the human 
race. This reversal ie seen whenever the 
children try to recognize only American 
values, while the parents still cling to 
Lithuanian, Polish or Italian traditions 
and habits. Parental guidance and filial 
respect are suddenly overthrown; and 
while we have the outward appearance of 
the American child, we find him in dispro- 
portionate numbers in the juvenile court. 

Americanization of children must be 
based on the fundamental consideration 
that character is the one requisite in the 
true American; and the problem resolves 
itself into trying to find the best method of 
developing character. It becomes really a 
matter of reaching and molding the second 
generation, for the character of the adult 
immigrant is already formed when he 
reaches America, and no matter what meas- 
ures are adopted, there can be little change. 

To assume that this character of the 
adult immigrant is not fitted for American 
life, is often a baseless misapprehension. 
He has many qualities which it would be 
most valuable to incorporate into American 
life. Each nationality has developed dis- 
tinctive virtues, as well as vices; and true 
Americanization must conserve the virtues 
and eliminate the vices. The practical 
problem is how America can do this. One 
can but be encouraged by the eager and 



wise interest which is being so generally 
shown by just such people as this Confer- 
ence represents. 

Very few people who are close to the im- 
migrant have any sympathy with the meth- 
ods of Bismarck, though the newspapers 
and many superficial people urge the same 
practices that he employed. Bismarck was 
afraid of the Polish children, and he insti- 
tuted a system of forcibly transforming 
them into Prussians. One of his methods 
was to forbid their learning the language 
of their mothers. The failure of his plan 
was absolute; for not only did it store up 
wrath between the Poles and the Germans, 
which cannot be allayed for generations, 
but far worse it has produced abnormal 
conditions among the Poles themselves. 
True or false, the persistent rumors of 
pogroms instigated by Poles, and the unde- 
niable record of their recent conflicts with 
Czechs, Ukrainians and others, are evidence 
of their bitter heritage of ill will. 

The American problem is the develop- 
ment of the child into a democratic char- 
acter adapted to the purposes of America. 
This is not a simple problem, whether 
the children descend from old Americans 
or new; but the difficulties in connection 
with the children of foreign parents have 
several peculiar aspects, about which dis- 
agreements are easy, but concerning which 
mistakes may be almost fatal, both to the 
child and to the nation. 

As was implied in the opening sentence, 
there is great danger of making too rapid 
a transition; and this danger is enhanced 
because the speedy acquisition of an Amer- 
ican exterior is so tempting a goal. 

The child of the foreign family has ex- 
ceedingly difficult adjustments to make. 
This condition often results in extraordi- 
nary stimulations, which may tend either 



MILLER 



131 



to the upbuilding or the disintegration of 
character. 

Loss of respect for parents Is one of the 
most dangerous atutudes possible in the 
immigrant child, and it is equally danger- 
ous to himself and to America. A charac- 
ter in "The honorable Peter Stirling," by 
Paul Leicester Ford, says something to this 
effect: "Sometimes a man marries a 
woman who is strong and fine, and he 
comes to love her biglike; but if he's the 
sort of man who forgets his poor old 
mother, who has slaved for him and done 
her best 'by him, he is not the sort of man 
to make a good husband." 

The foreign child not only has human 
parents, but he has a mother country be- 
sides America; and in most cases not only 
his parents but his mother country have 
suffered from unjust discrimination and 
from obloquy. The child who does not en- 
ter into some sort of loyal relationship 
with his parents and his mother country 
is not the sort to make a good American 
citizen. The very beginning of character 
is in some sort of attachment. Professor 
Royce put loyalty as the basic virtue. He 
defined it as the devotion of a person to a 
cause. When people like the Jews, the 
Poles, the Czechs, and the Irish remember 
the age-old oppressions under which their 
people have suffered, annoying to us as 
their convictions may be, their own char- 
acters are enriched by the very enlarge- 
ment of ideal which this vicarious partici- 
pation implies. The child, by repudiating 
his identity, might escape the prejudices it 
awakens, both in Europe and America; but 
such immunity is dearly purchased by the 
surrender of the highest loyalties. 

Forty years ago one might have seen in 
Boston signs reading, "Help wanted: no 
Irish need apply." Any Irish child today 
who does not resent that advertised dis- 
crimination, cannot make a good citizen 
of America. Every nationality suffers from 
some form of prejudice. It may not be en- 
tirely unjustified in some oasx,s, but to seek 
to escape it, when one belongs to the group 
to which it inheres, is cowardly. 

Often I have had the experience, in go- 



ing successively among different nationali- 
ties, whose antipathies to one another are 
strong and whose characteristics are very 
distinctive, of discovering in myself both 
sympathy and respect for these representa- 
tives of different traditions and different 
religious beliefs. For a time I feared that 
I must be a hypocrite; but I knew that my 
attitude was honest, and I concluded that 
what I respected was the character which 
grew out of these various loyalties. 

A year ago President Masaryk of Czecho- 
slovak republic, addressing a great mass 
meeting of Czecho-Slovaks, said that he had 
noticed their attitude of profound rever- 
ence when the band played their national 
airs, and observing the same spirit of de- 
votion when "The star-spangled banner" 
was played, he came to the conclusion that 
through being good Czechs, they had be- 
come good Americans. 

To return to the child. He is caught by 
the sweep and the language of America. He 
first becomes ashamed of his parents, and 
then he feels superior to them. Nothing 
could be worse than the attitude of the 
child who said, "I am an American, born 
here, but my father, he is only an unedu- 
cated Italian"; or of the child who said, 
when his father undertook to punish him, 
"I won't be licked by any foreigner." 

America should be a place where all the 
values that contribute to democracy have 
free play. The struggle for freedom, 
which is the heritage of so many of our 
immigrants, is the very heart of the Amer- 
ican ideal; and should be recognized and 
merged into the common life, rather than 
suppressed. Freedom of religion is a 
means to a larger spiritual realization, and 
the immigrant greatly enriches American 
life by bringing in the historic religions. 
These religions represent long and varied 
human experience in its highest aspira- 
tions, and each has developed something 
of permanent and genuine value; and when 
they can be purged of the dross of super- 
fluity and bigotry, society will have made 
an incomparable spiritual advance. 

The child who has no respect for his 
parents or for the church lacks a funda- 



132 



mental element of social control, while he 
Is not yet equipped for self-control; and his 
Inevitable goal is the juvenile court. 

In most of the cities of the United States, 
half of the children speak some other lan- 
guage besides English. They speak this 
non-English tongue more freely than most 
college graduates ever succeed in master- 
Ing any foreign language. They have 
learned it without effort, and if it could be 
conserved, it would be one of the finest as- 
sets of American culture. The advantage 
of being bilingual consists not only in the 
added body of knowledge to which it gives 
access, but still more In the increased flex- 
ibility of mind, which Is one of the most 
valuable means of mental and moral de- 
velopment. 

In many cases the immigrant's mother 
tongue has been the symbol of the nation- 
ality of his people, and devotion to it has 
been necessary for the very national ex- 
istence. To seek ruthlessly to destroy this 
language is as unwise as to destroy re- 
ligion; for often devotion to one's mother 
tongue has all the characteristics of re- 
ligion. The one, no less than the other, 
Is the manifestation of the ideals of the 
group. 

It is the business of the libraries and the 
librarians to understand this problem of 
the character of the foreign child, and to 
help develop it. It should never be for- 
gotten that each nationality is unique In 
its history, literature and art. In the case 
of every group of immigrants there is a 
literature which represents not only a high 
standard of merit, but an Interpretation of 
the peculiar genius of the people. The li- 
brarian in every community should study 
the particular nationality that forms its 
constituency, and should make a definite 
appeal to the children and the community 



from which they come, by sympathetically 
promoting the best things in that group. 
The best books in the foreign languages 
should be secured and the best pictures. 
There should be sympathetic appreciation 
of the national aspirations. The library 
should help break down in the community 
the arrogant prejudice which talks about 
the "one-hundred-per cent American," ae if 
he could be secured by a dead level of uni- 
formity and superficial culture. 

There is no danger that the children born 
in America will not learn English, and the 
utmost encouragement should be given 
them in learning it and mastering the 
wealth of its literature. The child who 
knows the language of his foreign-born 
parents, as well as English, is a far greater 
asset to America than the child who knows 
only the latter. John Hus represents just 
as fine ideals of religious freedom and the 
quest for truth and righteousness as the 
pilgrim fathers who landed on Plymouth 
Rock. Garibaldi is just as genuine a con- 
tributor to the things for which America 
stands as George Washington. 

True Americanization is not superficial, 
but fundamental. It is the process of pre- 
paring people for a democracy in which, 
more and more, true values shall prevail, 
where bigotry and prejudice shall be re- 
duced to a minimum. This true American- 
ism must be developed in both the foreign 
and the native child, through attachments 
that are natural and personal, not through 
those that are abstract and impersonal. We 
must get rid of the idea that there is any- 
thing divisive in this method. Rather, it 
is the only means whereby we can secure 
unity and cooperation, greatly enriched by 
the very fact of its complex variety. The 
task is gigantic, but no lower aim is worthy 
of our American history and tradition. 



BASCOM 



133 



THE PLACE OP THE COMMISSION IN CHILD WELFARE WORK 

BY ELVA L. BASCOM, In Charge of Library Cooperation, Children's Bureau, U. B. Depart- 
ment of Labor 



If anyone needs to be convinced of the 
value of an active library commission, he 
has only to conduct a country-wide cam- 
paign. In organizing such a campaign 
one is at a loss to know to whom to turn 
for the information that is needed where 
there is no commission. In carrying it 
on, the leader finds himself or herself de- 
pending more and more on the commission 
workers to infuse into the work an interest 
that only personal conference and first- 
hand enthusiasm can engender. 

As planned, the library campaign of the 
Children's Bureau was to be carried out 
in cooperation with a state agent, in the 
states having commissions able to furnish 
such an agent. This policy seemed wise 
because the campaign was expected to be 
only an entering wedge. Whether or not 
permanent results were obtained would de- 
pend as much on the work carried on after 
the campaign was over as during its few 
months of existence. Hence the desira- 
bility of securing the interest and coop- 
eration of the one official body in the state 
that was in a position to continue the 
work, or any part of it. 

Most of the commissions showed a real 
interest in the plan, many were enthusi- 
astic, and the letters sent to their libraries 
urging their attention to it were greatly 
appreciated. But owing to arrears in com- 
mission offices caused by war work, and to 
a depleted staff in several cases, my sug- 
gestion that all distribution of material be 
made directly to the libraries was wel- 
comed. This seems to me a very obvious 
labor and time-saving measure. In states 
having no commission, or in which the 
commission was unable to furnish an 
agent, all the work was done directly with 
the libraries. 

The first material distributed contained 
two "come-backs." A study of these re- 
turns, which are still coming in, conclu- 
sively shows that the libraries which have 



had the advantage of the advice and as- 
sistance of commission workers respond 
more promptly and enthusiastically to of- 
fers of assistance than those that have 
struggled on unassisted. The ten states 
from which the largest number of replies 
have been received are all commission 
states, mostly those that are ranked as 
the strongest; the ten returning the few- 
est replies are states without commissions, 
with the exception of three, which have an 
organization but are able to do little work. 

There is no method by which the co- 
operative work which the bureau has been 
able only to start, can be continued where 
there is no commission. The more popular 
of the bureau's publications and occasion- 
al circulars will be designated for sending 
to all libraries, for which a library mail- 
ing list has been established, but we all 
know how little this will mean in many 
libraries only a few more pamphlets to 
put through the necessary routine in order 
to file them away in pamphlet boxes. 

What happens in a library when a de- 
mand comes from a student, a teacher, a 
parent-teacher's association, a mothers' 
club, a civic or home economics section of 
a general club, for material on the nutri- 
tion of the child, the need of clinics or 
medical inspection in schools, the question 
of the child in industry, the problem of the 
backward or defective child? Those who 
belong to commissions that furnish mate- 
rial to their libraries know very -well what 
happens! It is difficult to imagine how 
these needs are supplied in libraries hav- 
ing no commission to turn to. Similarly, 
any field visitor can tell what happens 
when a librarian becomes convinced that 
she needs to build up her own collection 
on a subject. And if the visitor does not 
always know the bibliography of that sub- 
ject well enough to give final advice, she 
knows to whom to turn for assistance. 
What do the untrained librarians in 



134 



states having no commissions do when 
they want to buy the best book, or the 
three best books, on a subject? These mat- 
ters of first selection and elimination, and 
the final fitting of books to community, 
are difficult enough when the subject is 
one that is fairly definite, like an English 
literature text, a French dictionary, or a 
book on birds or flowers; but in subjects 
which are constantly subjected to scientific 
research and in which important discover- 
ies or decisions are frequently being made, 
selection is a much more difficult matter, 
and carries with it a serious responsibility 
which comparatively few librarians seem 
as yet to realize. 

The state library commission has a van- 
tage point in the promotion of any work 
affecting community life which is not pos- 
sessed by any other agency. The war has 
shown us what the Government can do in 
reaching and influencing communities. 
Its defects of administration and its 
wastefulness were largely due to the haste 
with which the work had to be organized, 
but with the best sort of organization such 
long-range work must necessarily lose 
much of its effectiveness. A few sentences 
spoken with conviction by a commission 
worker who utilizes a personal knowledge 
of the librarian's ability in modifying the 
enthusiasm of the central officer, to whom 
bis subject is liable to loom so large that 
everything else dwindles beside it, are 
more sure to gain results than all the 
printed eloquence issued from Washing- 
ton. ; '*ffl| 

The field visitor of the library commis- 
sion knows the libraries of her state as no 
one else does. She is the surest medium 
by which can be continued whatever seems 
desirable of the various Government cam- 
paigns, subject, of course, to the sanction 
and cooperation of her chief. Her position 
is strategic; she marks the effect of a cam- 
paign on the library and librarian; she can 
gauge its measure of success whether, if 
incomplete, it should be continued, en- 
larged or dropped. She assists the libra- 
rian in her selection of material for ex- 
hibit, for distribution, and for buying for 



the shelves; she adds to the librarian's 
knowledge of the agencies that she can 
cooperate with, and sometimes can fur- 
nish the valuable knowledge as to which 
can be cooperated with and which cannot. 
She can detect to what degree the regular 
work is neglected in order to carry on this 
extra work, and suggest readjustments. 

The field visitor is, or can be, a power- 
ful agent for social reform work. Any 
person who has a message worthy the at- 
tention of the libraries of the country 
should get the ear of these visitors and, if 
there were as many of them in the states 
as there should be, the most important 
part of their work would be done. But, 
unfortunately, they are a comparatively 
small group, and it is doubtful if the pro- 
fession as a whole appreciates their serv- 
ices. 

Whether or not the commission has spe- 
cial field workers, the members of the 
staff should have complete knowledge of 
any cooperative work that the libraries of 
the state are asked to undertake. This is 
more true of the Children's Bureau cam- 
paign like mine than of those campaigns 
in which the libraries were used largely 
as a means of reaching the people with 
the information the federal office furnished. 
Perman'ent improvement in the conditions 
of child-life can not be brought about in 
that way. It is a personal and community 
task, in which the federal government can 
help only to a limited extent. For the indi- 
vidual and the various community groups, 
whether working for the children in their 
own homes or for mothers and children in 
general, the library's function is that of a 
lever, its source of power 'being the written 
experience of the trained men and women 
who are saving mothers and children in 
other communities or who have studied the 
many problems of child welfare as they 
have affected other individuals and groups. 
No distant person or agency can perform 
for the libraries the task of building up 
this collection, they can only suggest mate- 
rial and furnish general principles. In 
little libraries with small appropriations, 
a good collection may not be built up in a 



BASCOM 



135 



year or even two. Kere is where the nur- 
turing care of the commission is almost a 
necessity. Who does not know the young 
librarian whose intentions in any line are 
the best this summer, but who by next 
summer will have found a new enthusiasm, 
the interest in last year's totally gone? 
Even if visits are necessarily at long in- 
tervals, much can be, and is, in many 
states, accomplished by a correspondence 
in which a spirit of friendliness and help- 
fulness is happily combined with an atti- 
tude of "I expect the best of you; are you 
continuing the good work we began at my 
last visit?" 

Since some libraries will proceed no 
further in their child welfare work than the 
conception of it which the commission fur- 
nishes them, it is important that the mem- 
bers of the commission staff should be con- 
vinced of its worth and of its importance 
in their state. Meetings of the commission 
staff are usually too infrequent and too 
crowded to permit of the presentation of 
special subjects, but the attention of its 
members could very quickly be called to 
the few pamphlets which furnish a fairly 
adequate survey and which present the 
need for community work. It is not so 
easy to furnish the data showing the con- 
ditions in the state. The Children's Bu- 
reau has recently prepared a bulletin 
which tabulates the laws governing child 
labor in all the states but it does not 
name the industries nor show how many 
of the children in each state are employed. 
The only sure source of the statistics of 
infant and maternal mortality of a state is 
the Census Bureau, which is very oblig- 
ing about furnishing them. In some states 
these figures are available from the state 
health department, as are also the com- 
parative figures for the larger cities. For 
example, during the baby week campaign 
in Wisconsin, we knew which town had 
the greatest number of babies dying yearly 
and also the reasons why; we knew why 
another city lost the fewest babies; we 
never did find out why one of the richest 
agricultural counties had the worst record 



in the state, despite a Children's Bureau 
survey. 

If every commission contained one mem- 
ber who was interested in child welfare 
work in the state, there are very many im- 
portant ways in which he or she could 
help the librarians, who, as many have 
written to me, want to do all they can but 
don't know what to do. Many of the 
boards and agencies with which the libra- 
ries can cooperate or which can help 
the libraries, are of state origin and have 
headquarters in the capital. Not only the 
publications dealing with children which 
they issue are of value in libraries; more 
valuable often is the information the libra- 
rian can give to other people as to what 
they can do. What the state offers for the 
backward, the defective, the delinquent 
child; how laws can be enforced to change 
a laboring child into a school child; 
whether or not this mother is eligible for 
a pension; whether a boy over fourteen 
can be held at work until nine or ten 
o'clock p. m. how many librarians know? 
A woman may inquire casually at the desk 
if the librarian has any book which tells 
how to get a public health nurse; if she 
hasn't, the half-awakened interest may die, 
and no nurse be obtained. But if the libra- 
rian replies, "I will write to the commis- 
sion and they will surely know o,f some- 
thing," and if the commission member who 
receives the letter knows where to turn 
to find the person who will follow up that 
interest, a nurse may be obtained, a few 
more mothers and babies may be saved, 
fewer children may have measles or scar- 
let fever and so fewer physical defects, and 
a few promising young people may be 
saved from tuberculosis. Surely such work 
is worth the little it costs. 

The printed bulletin of the commission 
is too obvious a tool to need mention. 
Material for it should be chosen, in most 
states, primarily to arouse interest in 
child welfare work; secondarily, to furnish 
any information the commission has to 
impart, such as the improved record of the 
state over last year's; the banner city or 
county in mortality statistics or work for 



136 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



children; a bit of good publicity in a 
library; notices of new books and pam- 
phlets; report of a new development or 
piece of work in a state department, etc. 
The libraries should not be allowed to for- 
get that the commission can supply books 
and pamphlets, singly or in groups, as 
needed, nor that charts and exhibit mate- 
rial can be borrowed from the health de- 
partment, the board of education, the uni- 
versity, etc. As these collections are add- 
ed to, a notice should be inserted in the 
bulletin. 

Any organized attempt to better condi- 
tions in the state should have not only the 
good will of the commission but active sup- 
port. The most obvious examples are the 
baby week campaigns, which gave some 
commissions an excellent opportunity to 
show their value both to libraries and to 
communities having no libraries. Similar 
work has been done in connection with 
the child welfare committees who have 
been carrying on the Children's Year work; 
and there is no doubt that such work will 
be continued under some auspices owing 
to the enthusiasm of the women of these 
committees, who feel, according to their 
reports, that they have only made a start. 

The traveling libraries must not be for- 
gotten. Should a group of fifty or a hun- 
dred or even twenty-five books be sent to 
a community having no library without 
the welfare of the children being repre- 
sented? I think not. Parents form a con- 
siderable proportion of any normal com- 
munity, and is there any subject in which 
there is more need of help in the isolated 
village, where doctors and nurses, if they 
are available at all, are often inaccessible, 
where good dentists are a rarity, and mal- 
nutrition flourishes in the midst of the 
most nourishing food that a child can 
have? It is in the country districts, too, 
that some of the greatest evils of child 
labor flourish, since the laws restricting 
the labor of children do not include agri- 
cultural pursuits and only the school at- 
tendance officer has the authority to drag 
the children out of the fields, and even 
this authority is nullified by exemptions. 



The high percentage of illiteracy found in 
the regions where children work on farms 
and in big-crop fields is a shameful testi- 
mony to the laxness of law and officer 
alike. 

Not all the subjects that are important 
to country children are presented in sim- 
ply enough written books for traveling 
library uses, but they are gradually appear- 
ing. Besides a book or two on infant and 
child care, let us include some that show 
what education does for a child, why he 
needs recreation, what the country has to 
offer him for his life work, why he should 
aim to be a good citizen, what is essential 
to clean, healthy living, etc. We have 
many good books for parents, teachers, 
children and young people on these really 
vital subjects, and most of them cost very 
little. Shall we not make a sacrifice some- 
where else in order to give them a reading 
where it will do the most good? The rou- 
tine of creating an army has forced a real- 
ization such as we have never had before 
of what our young people have suffered in 
the way of physical defect, narrowness of 
life and thought, and handicapped careers. 

The public library is no longer just a 
library, except where the call to arms 
caught one that was so inanimate that not 
even the great tide of war preparation 
caused a ripple in the routine of its calm 
existence. It has become a center of com- 
munity activity, an agency of reform, a 
counselor to people who knew it not be- 
fore the clouds of war descended. To be 
a "guide, philosopher and friend" to this 
new library is the privilege of the com- 
mission. It cannot lag behind if it does 
not wish to lose its influence and its use- 
fulness. The soldiers will, except for a 
mere handful, soon be fitted into civilian 
life again, and the many movements or- 
ganized for their benefit will have served 
their usefulness and disappeared. The 
mother, the baby, the pre-school child, and 
the child in school and in industry will 
still be with us, shorn of none of the vex- 
ing problems that existed before the war 
overshadowed them. We have been star- 



FERGUSON 



137 



tied into a new conception of the meaning 
of life, death, heroism, service, and no- 
blesse oblige. There are many signs that 
we shall not lapse back into the old 
grooves, but shall readjust our purposes 
and performance to harmonize with the 
new valuations the war has produced. If 
this shall be true, the constructive forces 



of the nation of which the library is 
surely one will duplicate the energy and 
enthusiasm with which it is welcoming 
home its soldiers, in working for better 
conditions for their children, that they 
may carry into manhood and womanhood 
the strength and bravery which they have 
inherited. 



GETTING BOOKS TO FARMERS IN CALIFORNIA 
BY MILTON J. FERGUSON, Librarian, California State Library 



With the announcement in 1849 of the 
discovery of gold in California a great 
tide of emigrants set their faces westward. 
They went on horseback, in ox-drawn wag- 
ons, on foot, around the Horn, across the 
Isthmus; they went in great companies 
and in small groups. Eagerly, yearning- 
ly they pushed onward over boundless 
plains, through lofty, rugged and un- 
mapped mountains, through forest and 
across desert. They were all classes, all 
creeds, men of good repute and men of 
ill. They were alike in buoyant energy, 
willingness to endure hardships in order 
to arrive soon and in confidence of ulti- 
mate success. The suffering, the weary 
dogged plodding of thousands finally wore 
trails and the trails became roads which 
men could travel with some assurance of 
reaching the journey's end. But whatever 
the business of the travelers, however 
diversified their opinions and their for- 
tunes, they all in time gladly availed them- 
selves of these main traveled roads. 

In 1910 my state suddenly came to her- 
self on the subject of highways. A com- 
prehensive system of roads was presented 
and the people approved of the plan carry- 
ing with it an appropriation of $18,000,000. 
Six years later this beginning in road mak- 
ing was further supplemented by an addi- 
tional fund of $15,000,000; and on July 1 
the state will doubtless go over the top 
with a $40,000,000 bond issue for the same 
purpose. One of our counties, the other 
day, voted $4,800,000 to build county roads 
in addition to the broad ribbons of con- 
crete which are being laid down by the 



state from end to end of the common- 
wealth. And the people townfolk and 
country folk, farmers and foresters and 
miners, movie actors and politicians and 
bankers all use the same broad high- 
ways. 

Some of you are no doubt now begin- 
ning to wonder whether you may not be 
in the wrong meeting; or at least what 
the trails of '49 and the highways of to- 
day have to do with farmers and books. 
The point is this: People who travel on 
the public roads want the best roads ob- 
tainable, the safest and the smoothest and 
usually the most direct. So they com- 
promise their differences, consolidate their 
funds and construct a system of highways, 
permanent, extensive, continuous; and ev- 
erybody travels thereon. 

When it comes to the matter of furnish- 
ing books to farmers, and farmers' wives 
and farmers' hired men, we are acting 
upon the principles I have tried to indi- 
cate as being satisfactory with highways. 
We do not build highways for farmers 
.that would be too expensive; we do not 
organize libraries for farmers that would 
be inadequate. But we construct roads for 
all the people; and we are well on the 
way towards a library system for every- 
body. It is true special attention is given 
farmers; but then we give special atten- 
tion to everybody. I will tell you about 
the big plan as we see it and then about 
some of its special applications to the 
country folk. 

We call it the county library plan, but 
a more definite title would be the Call- 



138 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



fornia library system. For while the 
county is the newer and perhaps the more 
startling development in our work, it is 
but one of the elements of which the mu- 
nicipal libraries and the state library are 
the others. But, of course, in considering 
the subject before us the county library 
is of greater moment 

I think it worth while briefly to recount 
to you what the framework of the county 
free library is, upon which we have build- 
ed so successfully during the past few 
years, and something of the stage of de- 
velopment at which we have now arrived. 
Our present law was passed by the legis- 
lature of 1911, the previous act of 1909 
having proved unsatisfactory of opera- 
tion. The library is created by ordinance 
of the board of supervisors, the governing 
body of the county; and remains under 
the general control of that board, with- 
out the interposition of appointive trus- 
tees. Therein lies our first feature of 
great strength; because the supervisors, 
as the tax levying power, may the more 
readily be induced to give the library an 
adequate fund, since they are responsible 
for its success. The maximum tax rate 
is fixed by statute at one mill on the dol- 
lar of assessed valuation. 

The county librarian is appointed by 
the board of supervisors; but since the 
law requires that candidates eligible for 
appointment must hold a certificate, is- 
sued by the board of library examiners 
only after a searching professional ex- 
amination, the bugaboo of politics has 
been effectively banished. Under the di- 
rection of the librarian the county sys- 
tem is organized and developed: she has 
very wide professional latitude in the se- 
lection of books, the employment of as- 
sistants, the establishment of branches; 
and in the history of the service has al- 
most without exception given entire sat- 
isfaction to her overlords, the supervisors, 
and to her patrons, the people. 

Since this library plan was placed on 
our statute books forty-three of our fifty- 
eight counties have adopted it; to that 
number might well 'be added San Fran- 



cisco which as a city and county has li- 
brary service covering its entire area. Of 
the forty-three counties mentioned but 
thirty-eight have actually put the plan 
into operation, but the thirty-ninth will 
begin work July 1, and the fortieth on 
January 1, 1920. These thirty-eight coun- 
ties spent last year a total of $539,460; 
they have accumulated book collections 
numbering a million volumes; they have 
established throughout their territory al- 
most 3,000 branches; they are serving 
about 1,700 of the 2,698 school districts 
within their borders and this number is 
increasing rapidly. For the first time in 
the history of the state an adequate school 
library service has been made possible for 
the boys and girls of the country chil- 
dren for whose supposed library needs 
hundreds of thousands of dollars have 
been spent, with the visible result of a 
few shelves of rags and tatters worn be- 
yond recognition and certain sets of sub- 
scription works unused and unusable. 
That deplorable condition has been 
changed; and our country pupils where 
county library service is adopted have a 
constant supply of fresh books of the right 
kind, which they read themselves and 
take home for the use of their parents 
and adult brothers and sisters. 

Turning now from this general survey 
of a library system designed to fill the 
wants of the entire population, let us con- 
sider what in particular it can do for the 
farmer folk. In the first place it will be 
quite evident that dotting the country 
side with library branches has made it 
infinitely easier for the tiller of the soil 
to secure books for recreation and for 
business. Furthermore in the selection 
of a custodian in each community the 
county librarian has not only sought for 
intelligence but also for that friendliness 
of spirit which would invite to the use of 
the books. These custodians are sedu- 
lously trained and encouraged to assist 
the borrowers in finding what they want 
or need, to consider that forwarding a 
request for special volumes or specific in- 
formation to the county headquarters at 



FERGUSON 



139 



the county seat or on to the state library 
in Sacramento is not a bother but a priv- 
ilege. 

The person who is the prime mover in 
arousing interest, creating a demand, in 
satisfying the doubters and in awakening 
the satisfied is naturally the librarian. She 
must truly 'be all things to all men, women 
and children. One of these versatile in- 
dividuals not only carried on the regular 
duties of her office, but also led the choral 
society and filled the Protestant pulpit 
when the war took the only available 
preacher away from her country town. I 
do not know where Mr. Howard Mumford 
Jones secured the models who sat for his 
lines on "The librarians," but I can as- 
sure you definitely it was not in Califor- 
nia. 

When the county librarian enters into 
her office in an unorganized county she 
must build up a library where none ex- 
isted before. Frequently she must train a 
staff for except in the more populous 
counties there is sometimes a prejudice 
against the immediate importation of 
trained talent (that fortunately wears off 
In time) and she must make the ac- 
quaintance of the future users of her in- 
stitution. You can appreciate some of the 
difficulties in the way of travel alone when 
you realize that if our 58 counties were 
equal in area, each would contain 2,730 
square miles. Librarians in times past 
have not been considered perambulating 
personages, in fact they had a pretty def- 
inite, if not restricted, local habitation. 
With the county librarian, however, that 
practice is radically changed; she must 
be a traveler. To the extent that she 
does not travel, just to that extent she is 
a failure. Supervisors do not always ap- 
preciate the need and value of a first- 
class automobile in the development of 
library service, and sometimes let their 
librarians show their skill and prowess in 
subjugating an ill-tempered, common- 
property county machine. I know young 
women who, armed with a pair of broken 
pliers, have brought over mountain roads 
and after nightfall the wildest, most 



treacherous contraptions that any auto- 
mobile manufacturer could turn out. In 
time and gradually, however, the libra- 
rians are coaxing from their fiscal supe- 
riors more dependable cars, upon the sides 
of which are emblazoned the library in- 
signia, so that the automobile and what it 
carries may be known and hailed and wel- 
comed by teacher and pupil and farmer 
as it goes about the country in its daily 
service. 

When the librarian enters her domain 
she usually finds a county official to whom 
she can turn for all kinds of assistance 
and in practice the assistance is not all on 
one side; that person is the farm adviser. 
He is a young man, young in spirit if not 
in years, and his work takes him over the 
county, into the homes, into the orchards 
and fields. The county librarians and the 
county farm advisers have effected an al- 
liance, defensive and offensive. I have 
sometimes thought that this entente cor- 
diale was promoted by the automobile 
which the adviser had and which the li- 
brarian wished to share. In the begin- 
ning that was perhaps the case; but a 
closer acquaintance and an understanding 
of the avenues for cooperation which lie 
before them soon develop a warm profes- 
sional and personal admiration on both 
sides. Now when the farm adviser goes 
into the country he not infrequently takes 
the county librarian along; and almost 
invariably he carries a bundle of library 
books, technical volumes, which he dis- 
tributes along his line of travel. His serv- 
ices are not those of the ordinary carrier; 
for he knows the rancher's needs and he 
places in his hands the literature which 
will be of immediate interest and value 
in the production of better crops or the 
growing of a finer quality of live stock. 
When the farm adviser has a meeting of 
farm folk the librarian is given an oppor- 
tunity to talk books, books for recreation 
and books for business, books for the 
housewife, for the child, for the Indoors, 
books for the husbandman and for the 
fields. Furthermore the librarian gener- 



140 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



ally places a technical collection in the 
adviser's office and these volumes are 
given out to the farmer who has come in 
for special advice on his own problems 
and difficulties. It becomes in time a sim- 
ple matter for dwellers in the country 
who have had this intelligent sort of li- 
brary service to make full use, on their 
own initiative, of the county library 
branch in their neighborhood, or to call 
at the county headquarters when they mo- 
tor into town. 

Out of this cooperative association of 
farm adviser and county librarian, we have 
recently had a new development which 
promises great things. In every county 
there are several officials whose duties 
are promotional, cultural or in a practical 
way educational, and who much of the 
time are traveling about the county. One 
of our librarians not long ago was struck 
by the possibilities which might result 
from monthly meetings of these persons 
the farm adviser, the county superintend- 
ent of schools, the district forester, the 
horticultural commissioner, the sealer of 
weights and measures, the emergency 
home demonstration agent, the county li- 
brarian. The plan is working. Each offi- 
cial is learning about the work of the 
others; each one sees possibilities of link- 
ing his service up in a cooperative way 
with that of the other; each one is a more 
intelligent public servant because of his 
understanding of the county program as a 
whole. The originator of this plan hit 
upon the very happy title of "county 
itinerants" as a designation for this body; 
but straightway some vigorous-minded in- 
dividual among them translated the phrase 
into the "county tramps." 

These county itinerant bodies are or- 
ganized (if that word may be used) on the 
very loosest sort of plan. There are no 
initiation fees, no dues, no board of di- 
rectors. Each county is more or less suf- 
ficient unto itself; each has its own pro- 
gram. There is no state organization, al- 
though in a way touch is maintained 
through certain state officers the state 



leader of the farm advisers, the state li- 
brarian, etc. 

Another plan, which we are develop- 
ing and which promises both economy and 
efficiency, is the collecting of special agri- 
cultural and horticultural books in the 
counties where certain industries are of 
great importance. In one county rice is 
predominant; in another, olives; in an- 
other, walnuts; in still another, citrus 
fruits, and so on. A better than ordinary 
collection on each of these subjects in 
the county where it is of prime interest 
will give us several special libraries. Our 
habits of freest interlibrary loans permit 
us to profit by such practice much more 
generously than would be the case if each 
library tried to meet its needs on all the 
subjects. 

Here I think it timely to say that the 
function of the California State Library 
is to supplement the other libraries of 
our commonwealth. By not buying fiction 
or juvenile books our fund is left intact to 
purchase rare works, technical volumes, 
the unusual, the scholarly, or the expen- 
sive publications which perhaps are sel- 
dom called for in any one city or county 
but for which throughout the state the de- 
mand is more or less constant. It is our 
contribution to the cause of cooperation. 

With wheat at $2.50, oranges at 85 
cents, with hogs aspiring to aristocratic 
ranks and wool become a golden fleece 
indeed, with wine grapes holding their 
own even in the face of the irresistible 
prohibition onslaught, country life must 
inevitably take on added charms. Hired 
men may be hard to get and harder to 
keep; but the day of machinery is here 
and men of nerve and force will find it 
pleasant to live out of doors, to be their 
own masters and to get close to nature. 
The automobile and the good road are 
throwing a magic bridge over that slough 
of despond which once lay between the 
old farmstead and town. And the library 
bringing books of recreation and business 
to the rancher's door makes farming a 
surer undertaking and country life a full- 
er joy. 



WILLIAMSON 



141 



A LOOK AHEAD FOR THE SMALL LIBRARY 
BY C. C. WILLIAMSON, Chief, Division of Economics, New York Public Library 



Let me confess at once that I venture to 
discuss the problem of the small library 
only as an onlooker. Though for twenty 
years I have had a more or less intimate 
association with some small libraries, my 
professional work has been done in one of 
the two largest libraries in the country. 
My object is therefore to try to convey to 
you who are intimately acquainted with 
the problems of the small library some of 
the impressions an outsider has acquired 
in one way or another of its present status 
and some of his guesses as to what are 
likely to be the immediate lines of prog- 
ress. 

By small library I mean roughly speak- 
ing all public library work outside of the 
large cities. Nor is it entirely a matter of 
the size of a city, for some fairly large 
cities have small libraries, and vice versa. 
Perhaps you have read the "Portrait of a 
Village" in a recent issue of the Atlantic 
in which the author says, "I am going to 
venture, while I have the courage of my 
discouragement, a guess that the future of 
civilization and well-being of this conti- 
nent is in the cities. . . . It is a bitter 
thought for the country-minded person to 
be forced to." My impression of the pres- 
ent status of the small library in this 
country borders on bitter disappointment 
to one who would like to think that the 
future of library service is in the small in- 
stitution that comes close to the people in 
their everyday lives. If it were not for the 
exceptions, for the bright spots here and 
there, and the signs of something better 
in the future, I fear that in the "courage 
of my discouragement" I would locate the 
future of library service entirely in the 
larger cities. 

Letters come to us from every part of 
the country, as I suppose they do to all 
large libraries, begging for assistance in 
getting access to books which ought to be 
available in every community. Anyone 
who tries to do anything more serious 



than recreational reading outside of the 
large city, knows how very little help he 
will get from local libraries. The simple 
fact is that only a small per cent of the 
population of this country has an oppor- 
tunity to use even the most important 
things in print. If we believe in democ- 
racy and equality of opportunity, we must 
look forward to giving everyone an oppor- 
tunity to a share, through reading, in the 
culture, experience and knowledge of man- 
kind. If opportunity for religious wor- 
ship were as unevenly distributed as ac- 
cess to books, city churches would have an 
unexampled opportunity for missionary 
work. 

If we are to look ahead in any practical 
way, we must scrutinize more closely the 
present status of the small library, and in 
doing so perhaps we shall find that the 
fundamental cause of its present low estate 
is the fact of its smallness. Most libraries 
are too small to be administratively and 
economically efficient. I know that many 
small libraries indignantly repudiate this 
suggestion, and without doubt some few of 
them succeed remarkably well under the 
circumstances. It seems to me that the 
average small library in most states is an 
anachronism and a survival, in a class 
with the ungraded and unsupervised dis- 
trict school; and no one who has not 
known such schools intimately realizes 
how serious an indictment this is. 

The small, independent and self-sufficing 
library represents a stage of social develop- 
ment now definitely belonging to the past. 
Historically the small collection of books, 
intrinsically good, perhaps, but ill-adapted 
to the tastes and needs of the community, 
and unconnected with the resources in 
books and personnel of the larger com- 
munity, belongs with the village shoe- 
maker or wagonmaker and many other 
features of a time when social and eco- 
nomic organization was far simpler thap 
it can be today. The small community in 



142 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



most parts of the country no longer aims 
to be economically self-sufficient. My 
great-grandfather worked in the winter 
making boots and shoes for his neighbors. 
The product was expensive and inferior in 
nearly every way to the machine-made 
product of today. Some may lament the 
passing of the simpler stage of economic 
life, but it is gone beyond recall, unless 
some ignorant attack on the so-called cap- 
italistic production succeeds in turning 
back momentarily the wheels of time and 
reducing life again to its primitive forms. 
The attempt of the small community to 
be self-sufficient in library service is just 
as much a relic of the past as the village 
shoemaker actually making shoes in com- 
petition with modern machinery and fac- 
tory methods. Economic forces automati- 
cally and painlessly eliminated the shoe- 
maker, but educational and cultural insti- 
tutions do not so automatically conform 
to new conditions. Inertia, failure to un- 
derstand what has happened, a mistaken 
sense of local pride, combine to block the 
wheels of progress. 

Changes in social, political, . industrial 
and economic life usually necessitate cor- 
responding modifications in educational 
and cultural institutions. Great changes 
have been wrought in the educational sys- 
tem, but in most places the public library 
stands where it was a generation ago. 
Small public libraries as a rule continue in 
the grooves marked out at the time the 
library movement started. In the mean- 
time a vast evolution has occurred. Read- 
ing for practical purposes connected with 
affairs of daily life has grown from noth- 
ing to very great importance. Cheap and 
abundant reading matter, particularly for 
recreational needs, in newspapers and 
magazines, has made most communities in- 
dependent of the public library for "some- 
thing to read." While practical coopera- 
tion with the public schools and other pub- 
lic interests and work with children and 
other special classes, have developed in 
the larger libraries, except in a few cases, 
small libraries have stood still. 

On the other hand, since the movement 



began for establishing in every community 
a separate free library, revolutionary 
changes have occurred in means of trans- 
portation and communication. Cheap and 
rapid transportation, parcel post, rural 
mail delivery, automobiles and good roads, 
telephones, -etc., have wrought great 
changes in the problems of small commu- 
nities. A vital library movement starting 
now would take account of these factors. 
Here and there a library service has been 
developed in keeping with present-day con- 
ditions, but for the most part outside the 
large cities it is a generation behind the 
times, and new libraries are being estab- 
lished as if nothing had happened. 

The present status of the small library, 
as I see it then, with exceptions here and 
there, perhaps in a few cases almost mak- 
ing exception of whole states, is that of an 
institution a generation behind the times, 
untouched by changes which have taken 
place in our economic and social life. The 
indifference of the community proves in 
itseix that the library is a dead or decadent 
institution. It will have to be made over 
into an active force in the community or 
disappear. , 

One of the most important causes of its 
present condition is a disregard of the vi- 
tal demand of modern life that every occu- 
pation must be based on fitness and skill 
which is nearly always the product of spe- 
cial training. The chief reason the small 
library is so near the discard is that it 
lacks a trained personnel. Perhaps we 
may say that it lacks a trained personnel 
because it is so badly adjusted to our social 
and economic life. I do not raise at this 
moment the question of whether it is go- 
ing to be possible to get trained librari- 
ans without radically making over the sys- 
tem. 

We have spoken of some changes that 
have already taken place. Changes of 
great importance in their effect on library 
service will continue to take place. Many 
of them cannot now be anticipated; per- 
haps some can be. Conditions under which 
the small library, in common with all libra- 
ries, must operate twenty-five years from 



WILLIAMSON 



143 



now, will doubtless be very different. 
While we are striving to break the bonds 
of the past, should we not also seek to 
sense what the future has in store and en- 
deavor to avoid another crystallization? 
We think too little of the necessity of flex- 
ibility in organization, aims and methods 
to meet changing conditions. 

Trying to forecast what the future holds 
that must be taken into account in plan- 
ning for library progress, it seems to me 
we can safely assume that: 

(1) Transportation and communication 
will constantly improve, which means, 
among other things, that less and less 
reason will exist for even fairly large li- 
braries trying to hold in their own local 
collections all the books that are to be 
used in the community at any time. 

(2) All branches of the public service 
must increase in efficiency, because the 
public will demand a full return for the 
expenditure of public money. 

(3) Everybody will be trained for his 
work. A school of instruction for street 
sweepers has already proved its utility. 
Libraries will not be granted an exception. 

(4) Specialization of function will re- 
ceive still more emphasis, giving the bene- 
fits of division of labor and requiring a 
more scientific organization. 

(5) All processes that can be reduced 
to routine will take advantage of the econ- 
omies of large scale operations. 

(6) Illiteracy will practically disap- 
pear, while working hours grow shorter, 
and a larger proportion of the population 
will demand an opportunity to make prac- 
tical use of their ability to read. 

(7) New methods of instruction and 
new avenues of recreation and culture will 
arise, some requiring the cooperation of 
the library, others competing with it. The 
library must be flexible in spirit and or- 
ganization. 

(8) We shall know more about the for- 
mation and control of public opinion in a 
democracy. There is an important role for 
the public library if it can adapt itself to 
the needs of the hour. 

It is a rich opportunity that awaits a 
properly organized library service outside 
the large cities. Only thirty-one per cent 
of the population live in places of more 
than 25,000. In the cities educational op- 
portunities are richer and more varied, so 
that the library field is somewhat narrow- 
er than in the smaller community where 



the library is the most practical substitute 
for many agencies which in the city work 
independently of it. Not only does it have 
less competition from other claims on the 
attention of the people, but it is in a posi- 
tion to mold public opinion as the city 
library is not. 

In every small community there should 
be an opportunity for the trained libra- 
rian at least equal to that of the doctor, 
the minister, and the head of the schools. 
Like them, she should, given proper condi- 
tions, command the respect and confidence 
of the community and be a leader in all 
community enterprises. The librarian in 
the small community, provided she have 
energy, tact, intelligence and human sym- 
pathy, may become the friend and counsel- 
or of all the people. 

I have touched upon the present status 
of the small library, and the opportunity 
awaiting it, as they present themselves to 
my limited view. If my estimate is cor- 
rect, there is a great gap between perform- 
ance and opportunity which should be a 
challenge to everyone who believes in the 
social utility of a library service. Three 
needs stand out conspicuously the need of 
a trained personnel, the need of coopera- 
tion and some degree of centralization, 
and a fundamental need for standards of 
service. 

I have a hope that the training problem 
can be solved by some such plan as I shall 
outline at a later session of the Conference. 
I get the impression that very little train- 
ing is available for meeting specifically the 
larger problems of library service in a 
small community. A few commissions are 
evidently doing good work, but I fancy you 
will agree with me that an adequately 
trained personnel for the small library as 
at present organized is either an economic 
impossibility or most wasteful. Coopera- 
tion between libraries and some degree of 
centralization is a prerequisite for effi- 
cient service at a cost within the reach of 
small communities. The opportunity for 
genuine cooperation is probably little real- 
ized cooperation in book selection, pur- 
chase, cataloging, classification, binding, 



144 



etc. But none of these is possible with 
wholly untrained and often incompetent 
librarians. 

In the matter of book selection, even the 
trained librarian needs more skilled assist- 
ance than is now available as a rule. It is 
quite out of the question for one person in 
a small part of her time to keep abreast of 
what is published on many subjects in such 
a way as to make a little money produce 
large results. A good illustration of the 
kind of help I should think ought to be 
extended continuously to the librarian of a 
email library, not in one subject only but 
in a large number, is found in an article 
in the current issue of Public Libraries on 
"Art work that can be done in small libra- 
ries." Speaking of the fact that small 
libraries do little in art because of the 
erroneous notion that large expenditure 
for books is necessary, the author says: 
"When it is not so much a collection of 
books as the librarian's interest in the sub- 
ject that is needed, the matter becomes 
very simple"; all of which is very true, 
but no librarian can make every subject a 
hobby. We need some way of passing on 
to the rest of us the knowledge and expe- 
rience of the hobby rider. 

Now I dare say I have dwelt at too great 
length on some well-known problems and 
difficulties that face the small library. 
Perhaps I have succeeded in giving the 
impression that I am wholly unaware that 
anybody has ever before thought of these 
things or been striving to find a way out. 
Of course I know full well that each of the 
commissions in the League is endeavoring, 
with every means at its command, to help 
the small libraries by bringing them to- 
gether in some kind of cooperative system, 
to offset some of the disadvantages of the 
small unrelated library, to promote pro- 
fessional spirit and training and to set 
standards of efficiency. Of course, also, I 
know something about the county system 
which is so well adapted to solve many of 
the problems of the small library. 

When I speak of the need of coopera- 
tion and centralization as the great desid- 
eratum, I am thinking of the commissions 



and county work. It seems to me we 
should look forward to giving the state 
library commissions much larger authority 
than any of them now possess and much 
greater financial support. I fancy we face 
an uphill task in bringing local boarus 
and librarians to realize that their oppor- 
tunity for usefulness depends to a great 
extent on giving up some of their precious 
independence. If they could see the situa- 
tion as an outsider sees it, the small 
libraries in every state would become ar- 
dent champions of county systems and 
strong commissions, instead of looking 
with suspicion and jealousy on what seems 
to them an unwarranted encroachment on 
local autonomy. 

The outlook for small libraries seems 
so entirely dependent on the work of com- 
missions, county systems, and improved 
state laws, that mere enlightened self-in- 
terest ought to lead them to organize a 
movement for library extension that would 
convince members of the legislatures of its 
vital importance. I fear that too often, 
however, legislators get the wrong kind of 
impression from attempts to strengthen 
commission work. On the one hand, the 
commission, not being sufficiently distin- 
guished from the more politically minded 
state bodies, is suspected of desiring mere- 
ly to extend its power for selfish reasons. 
On the other hand, the indifference or 
hostility of local library interests makes it 
perfectly safe for legislatures to withhold 
their aid. With taxpayer, politician and 
local influences against them, progressive 
library measures have little chance. We 
cherish the thought that library commis- 
sions are not in politics and doubtless in 
most cases they are not, of their own voli- 
tion, but it has seemed to me they are the 
victims of a situation which is primarily 
political. 

If the actual situation is at all as I 
imagine it to be, it is the most urgent duty 
of the League of Library Commissions and 
of the A. L. A. to organize a country-wide 
library propaganda. As to the form and 
methods of such propaganda, I am not 
rash enough to dogmatize, but since in this 



WILLIAMSON 



145 



"look ahead" a liberal dose of speculation 
may be in order, I would suggest that none 
of our professional organizations, state or 
national, is fitted to take the leadership. 
I have a notion that in every state is need- 
ed a strong organization of prominent lay- 
men who thoroughly understand the 
library problem in its larger aspects and 
who will work hand in hand with the pro- 
fession in putting the library system of the 
state on an efficient basis. It will require 
skill and tact on the part of the profes- 
sional librarians to engineer such an or- 
ganization into activity, but I see no in- 
superable difficulty. 

Since I know of no such organization, 
perhaps I can illustrate what I have in 
mind by citing the Civil Service Reform 
League in New York State. There is a 
body of substantial citizens, lawyers and 
business men, men and women prominent 
in various walks of life, who make it a 
serious business to protect and promote 
the merit system in public office. It 
watches legislation and administrative offi- 
cials with an eagle eye. Its statements 
carry far more weight than would the 
protests or recommendations of the civil 
service employees, because, for one thing, 
no one suspects the Reform League of act- 
ing from ulterior motives. I must not take 
the time to enlarge upon this suggestion. 
Underlying it is the fundamental idea that 
extensions and improvements in any 
branch of the public service do not origi- 
nate in legislative or official bodies nor, 
as a rule, in the ranks of the employees 
who conduct the service which needs to be 
reorganized and extended, but in some or- 
ganized movement of public-spirited citi- 
zens. I believe it will be found that this 
principle holds in respect to nearly all 
kinds of educational and developmental 
work. I believe we have no such organiza- 
tions anywhere ready to use every legiti- 
mate means to secure a modern and effi- 
cient library service throughout the state. 

In what I have just been saying I have 
had in mind particularly those states that 
have made some beginning at least 
towards solving the problem of the small 



and rural library. Much more discourag- 
ing, of course, is the situation in a large 
number of states where extension work is 
entirely lacking. Here, too, it seems to me 
the first step must be to organize also into 
some sort of a public library association 
all the influential citizens who can be in- 
terested in library extension. The main 
difference between such an organization in 
the backward and the more progressive 
state is that in the backward states the 
primary and immediate object would not 
be to secure legislation, but to educate the 
people of the state to the meaning of a 
library service. Through the moral and 
material support which can be mustered 
within and without the state, such an asso- 
ciation could unofficially function in many 
respects as a library commission, coordi- 
nating such local activities as exist, operat- 
ing traveling libraries, and conducting an 
educational campaign designed to bring 
the local communities to the point of being 
willing to vote taxes and support state 
legislation. In other words, I visualize the 
backward state as a kind of mandatory in 
charge of the voluntary organization until 
such time as it is ready to take its place 
as a member of the League. 

And this leads me finally to one more 
speculation as to what the future may hold 
for the small library interests which I 
think of as identical with the work of the 
commissions. Has the League ever con- 
sidered the feasibility of setting up mini- 
mum standards for commission work and 
according some special recognition to the 
states that maintain such standards? We 
think at once of the accredited library 
schools as a similar device. My thought is 
that certain most salutary results might 
follow formal recognition of the excellent 
work being done by some of the commis- 
sions. Might it not save them from being 
forced to take backward steps at times? 
Might it not reinforce the efforts being put 
forth in those states which have inade- 
quate laws? It seems to me that perhaps 
in the first flush of enthusiasm for pub- 
licity we are in danger of relying upon it 
overmuch. Publicity of a high order will 



146 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



be required, but do we not In addition 
need to set up definite standards of 
achievement? Publicity for liberty and 
victory loans, book funds, etc., would have 
failed without definite quotas for states 
and communities, i. e., without definite 
standards of achievements which stimulate 
endeavor and arouse local pride. Definite 
standards of attainment represent a funda- 
mental psychological principle which has 
too small a place in library organization 
and administration. 

I do not know, of course, whether the 
League would feel able to standardize its 
own membership or whether it would pre- 
fer to have the standards fixed by, and 
their application entrusted in part to, some 
detached body, such as the A. L. A. Let us 
hope, however, that we do not have to look 
too far ahead for the time when we can 
say that this state or that is meeting the 
recognized professional standards. 



Sooner or later, and of course as soon 
as possible, the up-to-standard commission 
should be in a position to apply minimum 
standards to all local library activities. I 
cannot omit to express the belief that we 
must look forward to such standardization 
and make it one of our principal objects 
of endeavor, but that is a very large sub- 
ject which I have neither the detailed in- 
formation or time at present to discuss. 
The little that I do know about the prob- 
lem of standardization strengthens my be- 
lief that when we come to attack it, it will 
not be found so difficult as we may now 
imagine. In this optimistic view I am en- 
couraged by what Mr. Sanborn writes In 
the June Library Journal: "Judging from 
an acquaintance with many librarians and 
as many library trustees, I feel safe in 
saying that practically every one of them 
has an honest pride in his own library 
and a desire to see it better ^han any other 
in its class." 



HOW THE PUBLIC LIBRARY COMMISSION OF INDIANA WORKS WITH THE 
SMALL PUBLIC LIBRARIES OF THE STATE 

BY MARGARET A. WADE, Assistant Organizer, Indiana Public Library Commission 



The Public Library Commission of In- 
diana, now about twenty years old, is 
among the older organizations established 
in the various states for the purpose of 
aiding and increasing the efficiency of 
public libraries. 

Very naturally a large part of the work 
of the commission lies in its service to the 
smaller libraries. To fully appreciate the 
value of such service one must at some 
time be a trustee or the librarian of a 
small library and learn by actual experi- 
ence how many and how varied are the 
problems in administration and economy 
which develop at a rapid rate from the 
moment the possibility of having a free 
library in the town is considered. 

Few large towns or cities are now with- 
out well established libraries with trained 
librarians to administer them. Their real 
difficulties are comparatively few and are 



more easily adjusted. It is the library in 
the small town or rural community which 
finds the public library commission "a 
very present help." 

Many of our smaller libraries have had 
their origin in the women's clubs or among 
the school people who have felt the need 
of books but who did not fully understand 
the best method of attaining the desired 
result. How to go "about getting a collec- 
tion of books, where to house them, what 
to do with them, and how to keep up the 
supply; these are questions which some- 
one must answer. 

Public interest must be aroused and 
stimulated, and counsel given. A plan of 
organization that will be acceptable and 
at the same time insure legal rights must 
be formulated. The public library com- 
mission is called upon for advice. Meetings 
are held at which a representative from 



WADE 



147 



the commission explains the laws of the 
state which concern libraries and tells 
how to organize the local board, the legal 
rights of boards as to tax levies and ex- 
tension of service; how to begin service 
without a building; how to obtain the 
expected Carnegie donation, etc. 

An organization is finally effected and 
the newly organized board starts on its 
way, light of heart and brimful of enthu- 
siasm and energy. But traps for the un- 
wary spring up at unexpected times and 
places. In case a new building is to be 
erected a location must be decided upon. 
If the lot is a gift, frequently it is in an 
undesirable part of town. Shall the board 
accept it, or will it be wiser to decline the 
gift and buy a lot on a more prominent 
corner? An architect is to be selected and 
plans drawn for a building. The commis- 
sion is usually expected to advise on every 
point. The commission office has pictures 
and plans of many library buildings and 
is able not only to suggest what is most 
desirable, but to point to mistakes in 
building made in other communities. 

Sometimes an unwise board takes the 
bit in its teeth and rushes on with its 
plans without consulting the commission 
or without heeding its advice, and comes 
to grief with its building. An instance of 
the sort occurred recently in the case of a 
library that had obtained a gift of money 
for a new building. The exterior of this 
building was artistically correct, the in- 
terior very pleasing to the eye; but the 
shelving was of assorted heights and 
lengths. Many feet of beautiful panel ef- 
fects ornamented the interior, but there 
was not sufficient shelf space to hold all 
of the books in the old collection, to say 
nothing of future additions. It is very 
important that shelving, periodical racks 
and other furnishings be of proper con- 
struction and dimensions, and of this part 
of the work the average board knows little. 

The organization of the library, the clas- 
sification and arrangement of books, and 
the establishing of a loan system demand 
the assistance of a trained worker. Often 
the income of the small library does not 



permit the employment of a trained libra- 
rian and the work of organizing the library 
devolves upon the field organizers from the 
public library commission. An organizer 
spends three or four days possibly a week 
at the library, accessioning, classifying, 
shelf listing, and putting the library into 
working condition. 

The commission furnishes lists of sup- 
plies which will be necessary to start the 
work and tells where they may be bought. 

High schools are also given assistance in 
the work of organizing their libraries, and 
teacher and pupils instructed in the use 
of the library and its care. 

A most important feature of any libra- 
ry's work is the selection of books. Funds 
are usually limited and librarians and 
trustees are urged to consult the commis- 
sion before placing the first big order. 
Book lists, selected to suit the needs of 
each individual community, are compiled 
and given to any library, old or new, that 
asks for them. Commission workers also 
visit the book shops with any librarian or 
board member desiring such help, and give 
personal advice and assistance in making 
up an order of books. Often someone from 
the commission office is asked to assume 
this responsibility alone, and having been 
given authority to spend a certain sum, 
selection is made of books which will be 
useful in that particular library. 

The traveling libraries department of 
the commission frequently renders service 
by loaning collections of books, either mis- 
cellaneous collections or books on special 
subjects, to the struggling library having 
an income of $3,500 or less and whose 
book allowance is not sufficient for its 
needs. These books may be kept from 
three to six months and the service is 
free. Traveling library collections are 
sent only to the libraries that have the 
local maximum tax levy and no books are 
sent to libraries that do not file their reg- 
ular reports at the commission office. 

Instruction, too, is given in many cases 
where the library cannot afford a trained 
librarian. Sometimes this is given in the 
commission office, but more often to the 



148 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



new librarian in her own library. She is 
shown the correct way to keep her records; 
how to make her. reports; the simple rudi- 
ments of ordering, accessioning, classify- 
ing and shelving books, and advice is also 
given in regard to repairing and binding 
of books. 

Where the board and the librarian are 
wide awake, this instruction will be fol- 
lowed by a six weeks' course in library 
methods at the summer school which is 
held by the commission each year. From 
thirty to forty students attend this course 
and receive instruction from the commis- 
sion staff and additional instructors, as 
outside help is needed. Only those stu- 
dents are admitted who are regularly ap- 
pointed librarians or assistants in some 
public library or high school library, and 
the institution reaps the direct benefit of 
better service as a result of this instruc- 
tion which is free to all Indiana students. 

The commission aims to have some 
member of the staff visit every library 
in the state once a year. Public ad- 
dresses are given by the secretary of the 
commission and counsel given to trustees 
as well as librarians. This does not nec- 
essarily mean consideration of large prob- 
lems, but often just talking things over 
and making suggestions as to the libra- 
rian's work, or the budget, or thoughtless 
mistakes in policy. Here, again, the em- 
phasis is on the work with the smaller 
libraries. 

Two assistant organizers are in the field 
most of the time, visiting libraries, sug- 
gesting and instructing, and, in the case of 
new libraries, conducting the work of or- 
ganization. 

In matters which require legislation the 
libraries, as a rule, depend entirely upon 
the commission. A committee from the 
state association of librarians is generally 
appointed to assist in special cases, but 
the initiative in obtaining wise new laws 
needed and changes in the old ones lies 
mainly with the commission. Definiteness 
in rights of library boards, possibilities of 
extension of service, all legal authoriza- 
tion, are results of commission activities. 



Informal district meetings of librarians 
and trustees are held in the several dis- 
tricts of the state throughout the year, 
some member of the commission staff at- 
tending each meeting. An outline of the 
program is made by the secretary of the 
commission for most of these meetings, the 
subjects discussed being of a very prac- 
tical nature. Questions of binding, new 
books, janitors, L. C. cards, and always 
library extension, are considered. Usually 
there is a round table discussion in which 
all present take part. 

These meetings are particularly helpful 
to the librarians from small libraries who 
are not always able to attend the larger 
state meetings. They bring their individual 
problems, receive suggestions as to their 
solution; interest in their work is stimu- 
lated and they are given an opportunity 
of meeting and knowing other members of 
their profession. The district meetings 
do much to encourage the young librarian 
who, by taking at first some slight part in 
the program, gains confidence in her abil- 
ity to do things and to present her ideas 
and opinions to an audience. Older libra- 
rians are apt to forget their own abysmal 
ignorance at the beginning of a library 
career, and do not realize what a little en- 
couragement of this sort means to the less 
experienced members of the profession. 

The Library Occurrent, a quarterly bul- 
letin published by the commission, is still 
another feature designed chiefly to help 
the small libraries. It gives recommended 
lists of books and pamphlets and calls at- 
tention to those which are undesirable. 
It includes news notes about the libraries 
and librarians of the state and any infor- 
mation which may be of interest or benefit 
to those engaged in library work, or a bit 
of inspiration that may come as a refresh- 
ing breeze to the librarian who works 
alone with no professional associates. This 
bulletin is sent free to all librarians and 
trustees in Indiana. The commission also 
supplies free copies of the A. L. A. Book- 
list to libraries of the state whose income 
is less than $2,000, and we aim to have it 
used. 



WALES 



149 



Commission work, like most work of an 
educational nature, has its discouraging 
side. To organize a new library in a good, 
new building, and then return after a sea- 
son during which it has been administered 
by an inefficient or careless librarian, or 
one too old to take any degree of interest 
in the work aside from that of a booklover, 
is one of these discouraging features. To 
pee a board of trustees spend every avail- 
able penny in the construction of a build- 
ing designed for ornament rather than 
utility, and leave not a cent for books or 
for salaries, is another. These cases, for- 
tunately, are the exception. More often 
we find that the appreciative librarian of 
the small library has put forth every effort 
to carry out the plans advised by the com- 
mission, and that she and her board are 
all working for the best interests of the 
community. When the commission visi- 
tor arrives the librarian usually has a 
list of questions ready. She has a little ex- 
tra money for books and, wishing to use it 
wisely, wants a list of the best ones to 
buy. Possibly she has some new books 
which she has been unable to classify cor- 
rectly will the visitor help her? What 
about a certain new novel is it the thing 
for her library? Shall she buy second- 
hand books, and where? Many old public 
documents and pamphlets have been al- 
lowed to accumulate which are worth 
keeping and which shall she discard? 
These, and dozens of other questions, 
many of them involving a "Please tell that 



to my board," are asked. Worries and 
difficulties are brought up and talked over 
and sometimes the commission worker acts 
as peacemaker between neighboring library 
boards when it comes to a question of ex- 
tension work. 

Through correspondence also many prob- 
lems are solved. It may be that a new as- 
sistant is needed, perhaps a new librarian. 
The commission keeps a file of names of 
those who are available in the profession 
and can tell who would best fit into this 
or that position. Many and varied are 
the questions which come with each day's 
mail: Hours of opening the library; the 
city treasurer wants a salary; who wrote 
a certain book? What shall we do about 
tubercular borrowers? About fumigation 
of books? Our board president will not 
tell us what funds are available what 
can we do with him? Shall we accept cer- 
tain gifts? What charge shall be made in 
the case of out of town pupils who wish 
to use the library? These are samples of 
the queries which come from all over the 
state. 

One librarian recently expressed her 
opinion by saying that "The commission 
is the real backbone of the work for small 
libraries of the state." These are the 
things that make the commission worker 
feel that efforts have not all been in vain 
and that there is a very definite work for 
the Public Library Commission to perform 
in helping the small library serve its 
patrons more effectively and thoroughly. 



LIBRARY COMMISSIONS AND THE HIGH SCHOOL OR RURAL SCHOOL LIBRARY 
BY ELIZABETH B. WALES, Secretary, Missouri Library Commission 



Since it has been decreed that I am not 
to have the pleasure of sitting with you 
in counsel, I shall discourse in a letter 
upon the subject assigned me rather than 
in a more formal way. 

As the matter now stands, the problem 
of the high schools and the rural schools 
in the management of their libraries is 
governed by two factors the knowledge 
of what is best in the organization and de- 



velopment of a library, and the money with 
which to produce results. The first of 
these desiderata should be found in the 
principal or teacher of the school, the sec- 
ond (in the providence of the taxpayer), 
is in the hands of the school board or com- 
mittee. At present no high school man- 
agement denies the necessity of a library. 
Indeed, one meets with the most bristling 
affirmative if one questions the existence 



150 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of a library as a school equipment. It may 
be old, dusty, shelf-worn, but it is there, 
"so many" volumes for you to note in your 
list of accessories. The need of the school 
librarian is not yet recognized in the same 
proportion; that is coming. 

The question of helping on the happy 
day when every high school shall have a 
well-organized library of well-chosen books, 
administered by a well-trained librarian, 
who shall live to give, and shall graduate 
real library lovers to become forthwith 
ardent patrons and supporters of public 
library, college library and special libra- 
ry 'the question of thus helping on, I say, 
is one which is capable of many solutions. 
Going back over the record of the years, 
I find that our state forces show little dif- 
ference in their desire to make school li- 
braries profitable investments. The terms 
of their existence have brought the public 
libraries an especially energetic develop- 
ment in the art of choosing books and 
coaxing readers. The schools, in later 
years advancing into the regions of re- 
search, have encountered similar problems, 
but having a more definite hold on their 
constituency, have proceeded along less 
persuasive lines. With the establishment 
of state library central agencies, the ap- 
peal of both of these classes of libraries 
was apparent. One of them, having behind 
it the mandatory power of the state bu- 
reaus of education, had already some stand- 
ards of support and limitation. It is not 
strange therefore that the public library, 
afloat, as it were, without a pilot, was the 
first care of the library commissions. It is 
probably true that the traveling libraries, 
seeking out the corners of the states where 
folks managed to eke out an existence 
without books, were the origin of the inter- 
est taken by library commissions in school 
libraries. All the states report the lend- 
ing of traveling collections sometimes de- 
bates, sometimes supplementary school- 
books and sometimes general books for 
community use to rural schools. 

In the League Handbook of 1907, three 
states especially reported work with school 
libraries under their library commissions. 



At this time Nebraska reported no law 
requiring the purchase of library books 
for school districts, but the commission 
of its own initiative distributed a list of 
500 books suitable for purchase. 

During the next three years Minnesota 
developed a far-reaching system of aid for 
school libraries, which in 1911 was taken 
over into the Department of Education; 
this constituted a division of libraries 
which for some years worked successfully 
with the schools. The 1919 session of the 
Minnesota legislature passed a bill which 
consolidated the department of education 
and the library commission in one depart- 
ment, but so arranged the transfer of acti- 
vities that practically no jar was given 
the operation of the commission office. 

What is the record in other states? Ac- 
cording to the 1916 yearbook (which being 
"befo' de wan" may have been superseded 
as an authority) ten states reported active 
connection with school library work out- 
side of the usual lines of traveling library 
loans. This yearbook made special re- 
quest for statistical information concern- 
ing the work with schools and very few 
states ignored it. It is of interest to note 
the lines of development in the states in- 
cluded in these ten (I group them accord- 
ing to a certain similarity of work) : 

Oregon complete supervision since 1906 ; 
compiles list from which books must be 
purchased, and rules for care of libraries; 
New Jersey complete supervision since 
1915; has compiled school library laws, 
and published list for book purchase; 
Utah list from which books are pur- 
chased made by the library secretary and 
approved by the superintendent of educa- 
tion. (These three have been able to ac- 
complish much that would be interesting 
to tell if I were not pledged to brevity.) 

Connecticut visits school libraries but 
not systematically, and will furnish in- 
struction on request; Massachusetts sends 
a trained instructor to teach pupils in the 
schools the use of books and library equip- 
ment, and has tried a plan of having an 
advisory librarian for a county; Michigan 
has served its county normal schools by 
instructional courses. (In this group the 
effort is all toward the training of those 
who are to use the library, in the expecta- 
tion of thus making improvement perma- 
nent.) 



WALES 



151 



Indiana will organize school libraries 
when desired, and has organized as many 
as ten in one year (presumably there has 
been no withdrawal from the field of the 
institute which was so well begun in 1907, 
for late reports indicate a large number 
of schools participating in these local li- 
brary meetings) ; Missouri likewise has 
organized school libraries, confining such 
work to high schools, and on request only; 
while publishing only a few special lists, 
the commission has helped school library 
organization by supplying class numbers 
for the superintendent's recommended list; 
Kentucky publishes a list for book pur- 
chase and is making special effort to get 
in touch with the school libraries. 

Minnesota 'because of the aforesaid de- 
velopments is now in a class by itself; so 
also is California under its county libra- 
ry system this state has a school-library 
organizer to assist in "articulating," as it 
were, the school libraries with the coun- 
ty library. New York has, of course, its 
separate division of school libraries under 
the Department of Education. 

To what conclusion would the study of 
these facts lead us? Nothing in the evi- 
dence seems to point to a fixed and rigid 
rule for the placement of school library 
supervision, as it has been done with vary- 
ing degrees of success and continuity in 
library divisions of school departments, 
and in school divisions of library commis- 
sions. Mr. Watson, of the New York State 
Library, has said in this connection, "Un- 
less a most cordial relationship exists be- 
tween the commission and the department 
of education, there would seem to be great 
danger of friction." In studying the rec- 
ords and make-up of the various commis- 
sions, I find no reason to believe that such 
cordiality might not exist, for ten of them 
had as one of their members the state 
superintendent of schools, in 1907, and the 
two exceptions, Maryland and Washington, 
certainly have shown no localization. In 
1916, five more have organized with the 
same representation of the educational de- 
partment, and of these, three operate di- 
rectly under the state board of education: 
Tennessee, Texas and Utah; again you will 
notice no tendency to localize. Miss Bald- 
win expresses her opinion that the super- 
vision of school libraries, which had been 
dropped two years ago by the educational 



department, will now be resumed, since 
the commission and school work have been 
consolidated. (Then the educational de- 
partment in this case must have grown 
weary of well-doing.) 

One of the objections to the commission 
management is that the librarian trained 
for public library work seldom under- 
stands the teacher or the school condi- 
tions. Miss Richardson of the Geneseo 
Normal School goes so far as to say that 
"the school librarian must first of all be 
a good teacher," and I have heard a very 
lively discussion of the same point among 
school men in Missouri, when the claim 
was made that they would rather have a 
good teacher who did not have library 
training than a trained librarian who did 
not know how to teach or have any expe- 
rience therein. Of course, this is only say- 
ing in another way that the librarian must 
understand the problems of his constitu- 
ency. Miss Templeton of Nebraska feels 
that if the library commission has not def- 
inite authority granted under the law to 
bring school libraries up to standard and 
keep them there the work will be irregu- 
lar, some profiting thereby, and some re- 
fusing. The Missouri experience of thor- 
oughly organizing one year to find "all that 
sort of thing" relegated to the "closet un- 
der the stairs" by a new principal another 
year, is a very discouraging one. Miss 
Martha Wilson finds that the state educa- 
tional department has over the schools an 
excellent "whip" which is also much 
needed, and advocates that all state aid be 
conditioned on observance of proper or- 
ganization rules. 

Summing up the balances, Miss Wilson 
finds nearly as much in favor of the one 
method as the other. Under the school 
control, one has an understanding of 
school methods, authority which produces 
undivided allegiance, and cooperation 
which minimizes friction; on the other 
hand there is danger of poor equipment 
being supplied and lack of appreciation of 
library detail, the possibility of the work 
being put into hands untrained in library 
technique and library service, whereas the 



152 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



commissions give assurance ot good equip- 
ment, clear system, and trained supervi- 
sion. She feels very keenly that there is 
danger to the public libraries in being 
placed under the supervision of the edu- 
cational department. 

From this point on the discussion is in 
your hands; I shall only add a few words 
more. It seems reasonable to say that for 
library work of any kind we need trained 
library workers, and it is probably a 
healthy sign of growth that every year 
brings a need for expert librarians in some 
special line. The balance for best library 
standards in school libraries dips to the 
side of the library commissions; for the 
authority to enforce them it dips to the 
side of the legal head of the school, the 
state superintendent. An equally satisfac- 
tory adjustment of these two items may 
possibly be made officially or unofficially. 
School librarians and teachers are nowa- 
days encouraging all they can the use of 



public libraries; they are trying to teach 
books and the use of libraries as they 
formerly taught writing and drawing and 
geography; but an older generation of 
school teachers have cast suspicion into 
the library camps, and it is not always 
that we meet -these advances with the re- 
sponsiveness they deserve. Let us boldly 
say, "No ancient feuds in the library fam- 
ily" and accept the olive branch of these 
earnest workers. Let no librarian cast 
the eye of suspicion upon a school library 
because it was organized by someone from 
the educational department. 

Whether at this session you will decide 
for or against the library commission as 
the source of school library organizing, I 
know not, but I feel sure that you will be 
in favor of a real and separate section for 
the school library work under either su- 
pervision, and my last word shall be that 
you keep on keeping on with the educa- 
tion of the school board and the library 
board, the teacher and the taught. 



HOW THE ARMY LIBRARIES HAVE HELPED OUR FIGHTING MEN* 
BY FREDERICK P. KEPPEL, Third Assistant Secretary of War 



With this particular matter of the war 
work of the Association I happen to have 
had something to do before most of 
you who are members. The war was 
about two weeks old, so far as our parti- 
cipation in it was concerned, when I went 
to breakfast at the Cosmos Club in Wash- 
ington one morning and saw there Dr. 
Herbert Putnam. His eye was unusually 
bright, and I suppose you all know how 
Mr. Putnam looks and acts when he is in 
the throes of a new idea. He had all the 
symptoms, and as he knew that I had some 
remote connection with the War Depart- 
ment he came over and sat down by me 
and said, "What are your soldiers going 
to have to read?" I replied, "I have not 
the slightest idea." "Well," he said, "It 
is about time to begin to think of it." So 
I arranged to have him talk with Mr. 
Baker on the subject, and the interview 



Extemporaneous address. 



was most satisfactory to the Secretary of 
War, because he himself had I think an en- 
tirely new conception of what the training 
of citizen soldiers should be. 

We all know that in the past, so long 
as soldiers were valiant and were reason- 
ably disciplined in arms, it was looked on 
as rather unwise to inquire too curiously 
into their conduct in other respects. The 
phrase "brutal, licentious soldiery" was 
regarded as not inappropriate or deroga- 
tory. Of course, we also know the ter- 
rible cost in human lives and human suf- 
fering from that assumption that soldiers 
were naturally and inevitably disorderly 
and dissolute. 

So, just at the time when Mr. Putnam's 
suggestion came to Mr. Baker, the War 
Department was considering how to build 
up a wholesome series of substitutes in 
the way of diversion and relaxation for 
the soldiers to take the place of the other 



KEPPEL 



153 



kind, which they would, in all probability, 
find if the wholesome ones were not pro- 
vided. The assumption that an officer is 
a gentleman is almost as old as the mili- 
tary profession, but I think it is the first 
time in history that any nation assumed 
and acted on the assumption that the com- 
mon soldier is also a gentleman. And it 
is the fact that the American Army was 
drilled and trained on that broad assump- 
tion which I think is the reason, more 
than anything else, that by and large, 
and with comparatively very rare excep- 
tions, the American soldier in the world 
war was a true gentleman and acted as 
such. 

Just before the suggestion from the 
American Library Association was made, 
the Commission on Training Camp Activi- 
ties had been organized under the chair- 
manship of Mr. Fosdick, and plans were 
under way for athletics and singing, and 
movies and dramatics and dances in 
fact, the soldiers up to that time had had 
planned for them practically all that is 
accepted under the term of college life, 
with the exception of the college. And 
therefore the intellectual element coming 
in through the suggestion from the Amer- 
ican Library Association was doubly wel- 
come and doubly appropriate. The work 
of the Association was welcomed by the 
Training Camp Commission, and as you 
all know, was taken in with open arms at 
the training camps and into France. I 
have visited a good many of the training 
camps and I have seen a little of the work 
on the other side, so I speak to some de- 
gree from personal experience. 

The buildings of the American Library 
Association in the training camps in this 
country were havens of refuge to the 
men who wanted to take their relaxation 
a little quietly. I saw a communication 
from one of the inspectors general I 
can't quote it exactly, but his comment 
was about as follows: "I have been ask- 
ing the soldiers about the usefulness of 
the American Library Association build- 
ings, and I have been told by a number 
of soldiers that they are the only places 



in the camp where a man is reasonably 
free and reasonably secure from either 
ragtime or prayer-meetings." That was 
from an official communication. 

The men and women who are classed 
in the great army of civilian war workers 
and it was a great army and it did a 
great work these men and women are 
divided rather sharply between those who 
with the best will in the world dashed off 
into some wholly new and untried field of 
activity (and they were in the majority), 
and those who were willing to forego 
some of the excitements of novelty and 
variety in order to bring to the common 
task the training they had had in their 
daily work. The librarians are a very 
good example of the second group: in- 
stead of rushing off to do things that they 
knew nothing about, they brought their 
professional skill, their professional en- 
thusiasm and their pride in the job, to 
the work that had to be done, and as a re- 
sult the work was well done in all its 
aspects, and not only the War Depart- 
ment, but the individual officers and en- 
listed men in the Army, owe a very great 
debt of gratitude to the Association. I 
don't suppose any organization, in propor- 
tion to its numbers, did a finer or a bet- 
ter all-around job. I was trying to figure 
it out, and it seems to me that if each 
member of this Association received his 
share of the letters of thanks and appre- 
ciation that should come from the Army, 
each member of the A. L. A. would have 
about from 1,200 to 1,500 letters to open 
and read. And that's a very fair propor- 
tion. 

I want to say a word perhaps the rep- 
resentatives of the Training Camp Com- 
mission can't say it quite so well I want 
to say a word of thanks for the unfail- 
ingly cooperative spirit which the Asso- 
ciation has shown in its relation to the 
commission. The commission was given 
the job of driving a team of seven horses, 
none of which had had any particular ex- 
perience in going in harness, and it wasn't 
an easy job. The very zeal for service 
of the various groups meant that they 



154 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



would get into one another's way, and 
Mr. Fosdick and his associates had no 
easy task of it, I assure you. But I don't 
think there was any exception to the rule 
that the A. L. A. stayed in the traces and 
pulled hard all the time; in fact, they 
were pointed to as examples. I do not 
know whether that added to their popu- 
larity with the others or not. 

As I say, your work was well organ- 
ized; it showed both ingenuity and ini- 
tiative. I think any organization which 
succeeded in getting Mr. Burleson to send 
printed materials for a cent without ad- 
dresses or other technicalities shows that 
it has the power to get other people to 
do what it wants. 

So far as I can see, the Association had 
no theories in advance, but met each sit- 
uation as it developed, and met it well. 
It seemed to have learned since I was 
an undergraduate that the theory of li- 
brary administration is to get the books 
to the readers, and not the readers to the 
books, and that certainly was welcomed 
by the soldiers, who had very little time 
to make long trips for books. It also 
seemed to believe that a worn-out, shab- 
by book was the cause for congratulation, 
and not for apology. That also was very, 
very satisfactory. 

The Association cooperated most effec- 
tively, and I think most unselfishly, in 
the great plan for educational work in 
France. That educational project, which 
before it came to a conclusion resolved 
itself into a university of some 15,000 stu- 
dents, and a series of post and divisional 
schools that ran the total of students after 
the armistice in France up to nearly a 
quarter of a million men a perfectly im- 
mense enterprise was built very solidly 
on the help of the American Library As- 
sociation in providing reference books and 
other books that were needed. 

The books got over on time and were 
very much appreciated. One of the great 
revelations of the war has been the fact 
that the average, normal, young American 
male does like to read; he does like to use 
his brain, and that's a factor which I 



think we can remember, in your profes- 
sion and mine. I think we very much un- 
derestimate the real pleasure that young 
men, and presumably young women, get out 
of using their brains. I venture to proph- 
esy that the use of public and private li- 
braries and library facilities among the 
men who are now returning to civil life 
from the Army, will be a very interesting 
phenomenon. I know that the American 
Library Association didn't perform its 
service with a lively sense of favors to 
come, and perhaps for that very reason 
your rewards will be very sure, and will 
develop very soon. You may have noticed 
that Admiral Sims, who is in charge of 
the fleet in foreign waters, has already 
made a very definite recommendation to 
the Navy that every battleship and every 
ship on which our Navy is stationed 
should have an adequate library, properly 
administered. And the plans for the per- 
manent administration of the Army in- 
clude both a very carefully studied edu- 
cational plan and a plan for opportuni- 
ties for reading and for the use of books 
under proper care within the Army. So 
that both Army and Navy have learned 
the lesson so far as the use of books is 
concerned, I think. 

Not long ago the War Department en- 
deavored to ascertain, through the Train- 
ing Camp Commission, the names of a 
few of the members of the different co- 
operating organizations whose service 
was of so outstanding a character that it 
would be appropriate for the Secretary of 
War to make some personal acknowledg- 
ment, and this request for a suggestion 
went to the American Library Associa- 
tion as well as to the other bodies. Let 
me read you the reply perhaps you 
haven't heard it: 

"While recognition of the Association 
as such will be very much appreciated, 
personal recognition of any sort is re- 
spectfully waived and distinctly not de- 
sired." 

That brought us up rather with a turn, 
but on re-reading one could see that it 
was one more example and proof of the 
spirit of team play which is so striking 



GLEAVES 



155 



a characteristic of this Association, of the 
subordination of the individual to the gen- 
eral plan. Now if I were a French field 
marshal, I could decree that from now on 
and forever after, members of this Associa- 
tion couH wear a fourragere of some ap- 
propriate shape and texture to loop around 
I think it is the left shoulder; and I 
may say, incidentally, from our experi- 
ence, the fourragere would not be made of 
red tape! I lack that power, and don't 



know that the fourragere would not be a 
little embarrassing, in the long run, in any 
case. However, in all sincerity, Mr. Pres- 
ident, I express on behalf of my chief and 
his advisers, both military and civilian, 
the very sincere and heartfelt thanks of 
the Army for the generous, intelligent, and 
altogether effective cooperation of the 
American Library Association throughout 
the period of the war. This I do with 
very great pleasure. 



BOOKS AND READING FOR THE NAVY, AND WHAT THEY HAVE MEANT IN 

IN THE WAR* 

By VICE-ADMIRAL ALBERT GLEAVES, Navy Department, U. 8. A. 



It is a very great pleasure and privilege 
for me to be here with you today. Next to 
ships I would rather talk about books than 
anything in the world. Since I first began 
my excursions into literature, through a 
little classic called "Reading without 
tears," in words of one syllable, books 
have been my constant companions. When 
I first went to sea in 1877 and that is a 
mighty long time ago I was accustomed, 
whenever I had the opportunity and cir- 
cumstances permitted, to carry with me 
up on deck, in the mid watch (that is, 
from midnight to 4 o'clock in the morn- 
ing) four or five books; I liked to vary 
my menu every hour. One of those books 
always was "The spectator"; I don't be- 
lieve as a midshipman I ever kept watch 
without "The spectator." 

In those days the library aboard the old 
flagship Hartford consisted of a Bible, 
Story on the Constitution, and Frank 
Moore's "History of the rebellion," in end- 
less number of volumes. Now, the Bible 
was used for strictly professional purposes. 
It was taken out frequently to swear wit- 
nesses in court martial cases. I don't 
think anybody in the ship cared anything 
about Judge Story's "Commentaries," and 
as for the "History of the rebellion," the 
events it described were too recent then 
to warrant an excursion into the Admiral's 
sanctum. So the people who loved books 



Extemporaneous address. 



usually took them to sea with them. I 
think, if I remember correctly, that it was 
not until the eighties that regular libraries 
were established on board ship, and it was 
done at the instigation and suggestion of 
the late Admiral Chadwick, who was a 
great book man himself. The Government 
provided very generously for two libraries 
aboard ship, one for the officers, called the 
ship's library, and the other for the crew, 
but both officers and crew had access to 
either one or both of the libraries. The 
ship's library consisted largely of more 
serious works what nowadays you call 
"high-brow stuff" technical and profes- 
sional books, essays, histories, and biogra- 
phies, and things of that sort, while the 
crew's library consisted mostly of fiction. 
Those libraries were kept up to date and 
very generously supplied with the newest 
books by the Navy Department. The lists 
were revised from time to time by compe- 
tent people in the Navy Department, and 
our libraries aboard ship were such that 
they were the subject of comment by for- 
eign officers when they came on board 
ship. The British followed in our foot- 
steps in regard to the establishment of li- 
braries. 

When the war came on, the department 
made further generous allowances, not for 
the officers alone, but also for the men, 
in allotting sums for magazines, weeklies, 
and things of that sort, and in the newer 



156 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



and larger ships, reading-rooms have been 
provided for the men, and the men have 
been encouraged to occupy them and to use 
them. On Sunday afternoons on board 
ship, as you will see if you go aboard any 
of these ships now anchored in harbor in 
the North River, those rooms are not only 
occupied by the men, but by the men with 
their sweethearts. It is a very nice place 
for men to talk over their affairs with 
their best girls and every sailor man has 
a best girl if he ie the proper kind of 
sailor man. 

My attention was first called to the 
American Library Association in the early 
part of the war by a representative of the 
Association, who came to talk over the 
question with me, as to the possibility of 
supplying our ships with books. The idea 
appealed to me instantly, and we decided 
that a fair proportion of books would be 
one for every four men. That is the num- 
ber shown by my order, and those books 
were put on board ship. I have forgotten 
how many books were allotted to my force 
alone. Of course the transport and cruiser 
force was the largest single active unit 
during the war; necessarily so, because 
we had to carry over so many men. 

The American Library Association has 
provided for both services, including the 
marines, something like a million and a 
half books. I think I am correct in saying 
that about 650,000 were sent to the ships, 
the naval stations, and to the marines. 
Now, 650,000 books is a goodly number, 
but the work of the Association did not 
stop there. When the ships returned, rep- 
resentatives of the Association would 
come aboard, the books that had been worn 
out in use were gathered up, and were re- 
placed by good books. The thing that ap- 
pealed most, I think, to every officer and 
every man was the unostentatious way in 
which this work was carried on. There 
was never any Macedonian calls for help 
in the way of contributions, but above all, 
the men were made to realize and to feel 
that the books were their own. There was 
no restriction whatever on men drawing 
them. All the Association asked they re- 



quired nothing demanded nothing all 
the Association asked was that the books 
should be kept in circulation. That was 
a very modest request, and that was done. 

Now, the question is asked sometimes, 
"Do the sailors read very much? Do the 
soldiers read very much?" I know from 
personal observation that the books were 
in constant demand, and that they were 
in constant circulation. They were placed 
as a rule near the troop compartments for 
the soldiers, and for the sailors they were 
placed in their compartments. The books 
were allotted to them and they would draw 
these books; they were not responsible in 
any way for their condition or what be- 
came of them. If the books were lost, 
that was profit and loss to the A. L. A., 
and didn't concern the sailor man. There 
was no compulsion, no restraint; they had 
free access to these books. 

The character of the books furnished 
was above the average. I think the en- 
listed man does not care so much now- 
adays about reading wild west stories as 
he does about something adequate to pre- 
pare himself for civil life when he leaves 
the service. Many of them have only one 
enlistment, but every man that goes out 
into the great body politic from the Navy, 
if he is the right sort of man, is better 
equipped than when he entered the serv- 
ice. So they want to prepare themselves 
for civil pursuits, and there has been a 
great demand, I understand from some of 
the officers of the Association, for technical 
books, on electricity, steam, boilers all 
that sort of thing. They can read and 
study on board ship. 

I have seen men around on the decks, 
absorbed in books, and I have always felt 
if the bos'n mate had to pipe his whistle 
more than once to get attention and the 
youthful sailor or soldier who was just a 
little bit slow in answering the call be- 
cause he wanted to finish his page or para- 
graph, and probably did it by carrying the 
book with one finger in between the pages, 
was to be excused, because there is nothing 
that so develops a man as reading. I have 
often wondered how people who do not 



DICKINSON 



167 



care for reading stand it on board ship, 
when there is nothing else going on. If 
he has the love of reading, he wants noth- 
ing else; and so I don't see how, when 
people go abroad and look at pictures and 
statuary, they can appreciate that art un- 
less they have read about it and know 
what those things mean. 

Your work is education of soldier and 
sailor along those lines. I have been 
asked to answer two questions: In the 
first place, is the work appreciated, and 
in the second place, is it worth while? I 
think I am speaking as one having au- 
thority, and can say that after close ob- 
servation I know your work is appre- 
ciated. You can see the answer to that 
in the ragged books passed from hand to 
hand, and turned in at the end of each 
voyage. They certainly show that they 
are appreciated, and I think that you are 
entitled to the thanks of the Army and 
the Navy for the splendid work you have 
done. 

Above all, there is nothing sectarian in 
your work, and if war should come again, 
I would like to see in all the welfare activ- 
ities no religious lines drawn. I don't 
think they make for the best. We are all 
one in our endeavor to win the war, to 
save the country, and it does not make any 
difference whether the Jewish Welfare 
Board, or the American Red Cross, or the 
Y. M. C. A. or the Knights of Columbus 
direct the welfare work. What difference 
do creed, race, or color make? There 
should be no distinction, and you are un- 



consciously, perhaps, the pioneers on those 
lines, because your books are there. 

Now, is it worth while? I think I may 
speak for both services when I say that 
it is. Your work has been most benefi- 
cent; your influence has been far-reaching, 
far more so than I believe any man or 
woman here realizes except those who 
have been aboard ship, and have been 
to the front, and have been in contact with 
it. All you have done strengthens the 
mental, moral, and intellectual fiber of 
every sailor and every soldier, and all for 
the glory of the nation. 

There is just one suggestion I am going 
to make, and then I am through. We all 
know your splendid poster of the soldier 
with the tin hat and his arms full of 
books. Many of us watched it while it 
was in its original conception and the art- 
ist was painting it there at the library. 
Now I am going to tell you a little story, 
and then you will see the point. A lady 
coming out of the Metropolitan Opera 
House in New York wasi talking to a 
friend, and was enthusiastically praising 
the soldiers. She said, "My soul has been 
in khaki for fourteen months." There 
was a young sailor standing by, who had 
also been at the opera, and he couldn't 
help saying to her, "Madam, couldn't you 
put your soul in blue for a change?" 

I am taking the liberty of suggesting, 
Mr. President, that when your artist de- 
signs the next poster, he will put his soul 
in blue for a change. 



BY FLANDERS BRIDGE: THE ADVENTURES OF AN A. L. A. MAN OVERSEAS 

9 

BY ASA DON DICKINSON 



On December 14 last a group of people 
assigned to overseas duty with the A. L. 
A. sailed from New York on the little 
French liner Chicago. In the party were 
Miss Macdonald of Harrisburg, Miss Fast 
of Chillicothe, Mr. and Mrs. Kerr of Em- 
poria, and myself. We were joined by Mr. 
William Allen White, who was going over 
to report the doings of the Peace Confer- 



ence. Norman Angell, also, was on board, 
very pensive over "The great illusion." 

It was a dismal voyage, brightened only 
by Mr. White's efforts to "come out strong 
and be jolly," in noble emulation of Mark 
Tapley. The weather was bad, the food 
poor, the ship crowded. The tempera- 
mental French skipper left the dock in one 
of the worst fogs New York has ever 



158 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



known. Fortunately we did no worse than 
run into a mud bank in the Lower Bay 
where we lay for twenty-four hours, wait- 
ing first for the fog to lift and show us 
where we were, then for the top of the 
flood tide to float us off. Meanwhile we 
watched several ships with more cautious 
commanders slide by us out to sea. They 
had taken no chances but remained snugly 
in their berths till the fog lifted and then 
sailed away with hours the start of us. 
The only bright spots of the voyage were 
the good humor of Mr. White, and the 
imaginative discourses of the other news- 
paper correspondents who vied with each 
other in vivid reports of the advice they 
had given Wilson and the advice Wilson 
had asked of them. There was plenty of 
"flu" aboard. One man died in his berth 
within a dozen feet of mine. In fact, 
many a poor fellow was dropped quietly 
overboard with a round shot tied to his 
heels before we reached the Bay of Biscay. 
Christmas Day came and went it was by 
no means merry and we sailed up the 
Garonne towards Bordeaux on December 
28. Our spirits rose as we passed mile 
after mile of American docks and ware- 
houses, swarming with grinning negro 
stevedores, who hailed us with jovial in- 
quiries as to the price of watermelons, the 
bright lights of Broadway, etc. 

On landing I made at once for the Y 
headquarters, which was then and still is, 
I think, the center of the A. L. A. activities 
at Bordeaux. There I encountered for the 
first time a phenomenon with which I was 
soon to become familiar. I found an ac- 
complished librarian in the uniform and on 
the pay roll of the Y. M. C. A. but giving 
her whole time to the conduct of A. L. A. 
work, and ordering about several hulking 
tut cowed-looking Y secretaries. 

Just here let me say that we never could 
have done what we did in France without 
the help of the Y. M. C. A. They have 
stolen a good deal of our thunder, it is 
true; sometimes, I fear, by wilful misrep- 
resentation of facts, but more often in per- 
fect innocence. Scores of Y men and Y 
women saw books handled always and 



only by members of their own force. Was 
it not natural that they should assume 
that they were Y books? Nobody living 
understands all the intricacies of the re- 
lationship between the A. L. A. and the Y. 
M. C. A. Some day perhaps a German 
will win his Ph.D. by producing three large 
volumes on the subject. Till then we 
must be content with the generalization 
that the two organizations helped each 
the work of the other to a very large ex- 
tent. The Big Fellow won more kicks 
than ha'pence for his pains. Perhaps the 
Little Brother would have done no better 
had he been forced to recruit an equally 
large personnel in an equally short time. 

We found Bordeaux swarming with 
American soldiers, the streets in charge of 
American M. P.'s, as seems usual in pro- 
vincial French towns where large numbers 
of our troops are quartered. In strolling 
about the streets, I noticed two little 
French gentlemen in high hats and frock 
coats who had become engaged in an al- 
tercation. Their voices grew shriller and 
shriller. Soon the richly sibilant epithet 
"Assassin," which had been the favorite, 
gave place to an even more opprobrious 
vocabulary. A crowd began to gather and 
a big American M. P. strolled up to see 
the fun. He and I took up good positions 
on the side lines. Words soon gave place 
to warlike gestures unfamiliar to the 
Anglo-Saxon. The open hand would be 
thrown violently backward as the antag- 
onists pranced about each other; but no 
fist was doubled, no blow was delivered, 
though tongues and voices continued to 
work overtime. Then as their rage in- 
creased the antagonists began most vi- 
ciously to spit at one another like a couple 
of tomcats. This struck Sammy as bad 
form and he adjured them in no uncertain 
terms to "Cut that out!" They were be- 
side themselves by this time, however, and 
paid no heed. On the contrary they made 
violent efforts to kick each other in the 
stomach. Then the big M. P., thoroughly 
disgusted, thought it was time to act. He 
strode between them, with each hand 
seized a man by the collar of his coat, 



DICKINSON 



159 



turned them about, and shoved them vig- 
orously in opposite directions with a 
"Gwan now, youse! Dat's enough! Fade 
away!" They faded; each toward his 
home, doubtless. At any rate they disap- 
peared and I went to dinner a very good 
one with some French officers, steamer 
acquaintances. The only drawback was 
that, being their guest, I was compelled to 
eat large quantities of French oysters and 
pretend that I liked them. After dinner 
we boarded the night express for Paris. I 
occupied a couchette. The couchette 
is exactly the kind of sleeping-car the 
Spartans would have had, if they had had 
any. 

In the morning we arrived at the Quai 
d'Orsay, Paris. A stone's throw away at 
the Palais d'Orsay the Peace Conference 
was in session. This was interesting of 
course, but some of us relished even more 
the reflection that a little way to the east, 
along the bank of the Seine, past Marie 
Antoinette's Conciergerie, the bouquinistes 
and bouquineurs of the Quai Voltaire 
awaited our attention. 

As we walked through the station it was 
something of a shock to see the more or 
less dainty Parisiennes, disguised as lug- 
gage porters, vying with one another for 
the privilege of tossing about trunks and 
carrying heavy valises. 

Breakfast in the Hotel Palais d'Orsay 
was next on the program. We of the A. L. 
A. party marched boldly in, conscious of 
the good American money in our pouches. 
But immediately we issued forth unfed 
and rather disgruntled. You see we had 
no bread tickets, nor did we know how to 
get any. But an obliging M. P., as always, 
came to the rescue and gave us a handful 
of the special variety which are issued for 
the use of MM. les militaires en permis- 
sion. So the pangs of hunger were soon 
allayed if not satisfied note the grim dis- 
tinction and we took our first lesson in 
Paris food prices. It was very interest- 
ing. 

Then came a walk across the Pont de la 
Concorde, built of the stones of the Bas- 
tille, and the Place de la Concorde, where 



the guillotine parties used to be held dur- 
ing the days of the Terror. Here we saw 
a German tank and hundreds of captured 
German guns, set forth for the little 
French boys to play with. 

In a moment or two we came upon a 
large and shining sign, directing us to the 
A. L. A. Library. Then hove in sight 
Number Ten, Rue de I'filys^e, the overseas 
headquarters of the A. L. A. War Service, 
and right proud we were of this splendid 
mansion, formerly the residence of the 
Papal Legate. He must have been a rep- 
rehensible old boy, however, if we are to 
judge by the number of back stairs and 
the many secret doors, chambers, and 
passages which he found necessary for his 
comfort. Just across the street is Presi- 
dent Poincarg's garden, and beyond, the 
Islysee Palace. It was quite thrilling of a 
Sunday afternoon to stand at a front win- 
dow and watch the President of the Third 
Republic strolling along the paths with 
his little daughter. We had a fine view, 
too, one afternoon, of the garden party 
wherewith official France welcomed Ad- 
miral Beatty and his brother officers of 
the British fleet. Lest the A. L. A. be ac- 
cused of extravagance, however, let me 
hasten to explain that the upper floors of 
the building are occupied by the Y. M. C. A. 
Entertainment Department, and more 
than once I have seen the holy calm of our 
educational department shattered by some 
red-triangled soubrette, who would breeze 
in, joyously caroling, "Where do we go from 
here, boys, where do we go from here?" 
Then Mr. or Mrs. Kerr would have to ex- 
plain with dignity who and what we were. 
I do not seem to remember that the in- 
souciance of the soubrette was ever dis- 
concerted. 

A cordial welcome from Mr. and Mrs. 
Stevenson and the other veterans of the 
battle of Paris was followed by the most 
trying ordeal which the new arrival in 
Paris is called upon to undergo the 
search for a room. I don't know how 
many hotels turned me away, but I do 
know there were dozens of them. It was 
not a question of price. There were no 



160 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



rooms to be had at any price. When I 
started to look for a room I was afraid 
one of the many reckless, rushing taxicabs 
would run over me; before the eventually 
successful termination of my search, I 
wanted to sit down in the middle of some 
boulevard and tempt one of the hooting 
things to put me out of my misery. I 
ended that exhausting afternoon, I remem- 
ber, by creeping into the Madeleine and 
going to sleep. And I stayed asleep till I 
was put out at lock-up time by a terrific 
beadle in a large cocked hat. 

Now if you will all turn to the large 
maps in the back of your Paris Baedekers, 
you will note in the upper right hand 
corner of the brown one, which comes 
first, a cozy district, just within the fortifi- 
cations, called Villette. It is almost en- 
tirely given over, please observe, to 
slaughter-houses, canals, freight yards and 
warehouses. There it is that the Apaches 
of Paris most do congregate, and this was 
the scene of my labors for six of the long- 
est months that ever took advantage of a 
helpless calendar. The warehouse occu- 
pied jointly by the Y. M. C. A. and the A. 
L. A. is here. The Baedeker map shows 
the actual building, and here are many 
other storehouses filled to bursting with 
the goods of the Red Cross and the U. S. 
Quartermasters. The railroad station for 
this region bears the charming name Pont 
de Flandres. As it is about the only bit 
of beauty in the neighborhood, I always 
liked to make the most of that name and 
so have called this story, "By Flanders 
Bridge." There is not much poetry about 
a warehouse, but we may as well make 
the most of such poetry as there is. 

I hope none of you will ever know how 
cold and damp and dark and dirty a 
French warehouse can be in midwinter. 
But it was unmistakably the best place for 
our business, and we should be thankful 
that we managed to get a foothold there, 
and then wriggled about till we expanded 
that foothold to 25,000 square feet. Freight 
cars could be unloaded at both front and 
rear and five or six camions at once could 
be loaded or unloaded at as many doors in 



front. Unfortunately there was no ele- 
vator. The French boast these newfangled 
contraptions only in such hotels as bid for 
the patronage of Americans. As soon as 
possible after their installation they are 
broken, thus saving all the trouble and ex- 
pense of operating them. Still, when your 
business is situated au troisieme and au 
quatrieme (on the third and fourth floors), 
and you are receiving and dispatching 
every day hundreds of packages, each 
weighing one hundred and twenty-five 
pounds, you can't help thinking that an 
able-bodied American elevator would be a 
great convenience. We had a substitute, 
a dangling rope known as a chable, oper- 
ated by a skilled laborer of almost pro- 
fessional status called a chableur. And 
they are very uncertain fellows those 
chdbleurs. Every now and then one would 
take it into his head to quit in the middle 
of a job, with a camion half loaded or a 
freight car half unloaded. Then his satel- 
lites, the porters, quit too, settling happily 
down to the practice of the French art of 
conversation, each man leaning upon his 
(liable, as the hand trucks are called. This 
happens many times a day. You get a job 
of loading or unloading well under way, 
and then step away to arrange another. 
Soon there is a noticeable diminution in 
the din about you. You miss the familiar 
screech of the chaole. Having become sus- 
picious through sad experience, you return 
at the first opportunity to Job No. 1. Ab- 
solutely nothing doing! The explanation 
is always the same happy smiles, shrugs, 
"le chable ne marche pas." And it does 
no good to dismiss the chableur. He can 
easily find work at another warehouse. 
About all one can do is to propitiate him 
with frequent offerings of commissary 
cigarettes and chocolates. Sometimes we 
tried to break in new chableurs. Then a 
hundred-pound Hoboken box, swinging in 
mid-air, would work out of its rope and 
go crashing down through the roof of 
whatever was beneath, whether camion, 
freight car, or man. 

Just what did we do at the warehouse? 
Well, at first we merely received books for- 



DICKINSON 



161 



warded to us by tho A. L. A. representa- 
tives at the ports, and sent them on in the 
quantities and to the addresses designated 
by our Paris headquarters. That does not 
sound very difficult, but the mere bulk 
of the business kept us moving and com- 
plications developed later. Well do I re- 
member the time when four carloads of 
books arrived in one day two of them 
big American cars. That meant the han- 
dling of about 1,200 boxes, 90,000 books, in 
eight hours of daylight. Another time a 
convoy train of eleven three-ton camions 
materialized before the warehouse. Did 
you ever have thirty-three tons of books 
drop upon you quite without notice? I 
may as well confess that they knocked the 
wind out of me and left me gasping and 
flapping my hands helplessly for some min- 
utes. Then the circumambient ether be- 
came resonant with pigeon French: 

"Tout le monde, cherchez les diables! 
Cherchez les chableurs! Emportez les 
caisses vides! Tout de suite! Dischargez 
les camions! Les bouts bleus au qua- 
trieme, fiction au troisieme! Tou jours les 
numeros en haut! Dpe~chez-vous ! Beau- 
coup de cigarettes Americaines apres! 
Dites done, Frangois, vous tes embusque; 
pas le travail, pas d'argent. Souvenez- 
vous! Je vais en haut. Allons, mes 
braves! Le chable ne marche pasf OH est 
le chableurf Ah, le void! Attention des- 
sous! Gardez vos tetes en bas Id! Allons; 
de'pe'chez-vous, gargons! N'oubliez pas les 
cigarettes! Tout de suite, tout de suite!" 

That's the sort of jargon I expect to be 
talking in my sleep for some time to come. 
We had some very amusing French help- 
ers. There were MM. Doen and Gillet a 
happy pair, recently demobilized. Courtly 
fellows, they were, who would have been 
right welcome at Elsinore, so they soon 
learned to answer to the names of Rosen- 
crantz and Guildenstern. They were good 
workers and although one had but to look 
in their direction to see them always to- 
gether, side by side, bowing and smiling, 
they were not at all ridiculous, and I was 
never tempted to call them Alphonse and 
Gaston. Some day I expect to see them 
playing the boulevardier on Broadway. 
Then it will seem most natural to give 
them Hamlet's greeting, "My excellent 



good friends! How dost thou, Guilden- 
stern! Ah, Rosen cr an tz! Good lads, how 
do you both?" 

Papa Frangois was stout, elderly, good- 
humored and strong as an ox. His soldier 
son, a typical poilu, worked with us for a 
time. The old man had a way of disap- 
pearing when work was heaviest. Then 
the saucy boy would shout "Dites done! 
Oti Gtes-vous, vieux embusquef" The day 
before the general director of the A. L. A. 
War Service was to visit the warehouse we 
were trying to clean up a little. Think- 
ing it might inspire Francois, I told him 
Le Grand Chef was coming. In my mind's 
eye I still can see his elephantine pirouette 
as he snapped his fingers and joyously 
cried out, "Oh, la, la! Champagne, cham- 
pagne!" Alas, he was grievously disap- 
pointed; there was only an extra ration 
of cigarettes the next day. 

There was another fellow a timorous, 
pallid Pole, who was said to have been a 
student at the Sorbonne. His name was 
impossible, but we used to call him Mac- 
beth because whenever I looked at him I 
thought of the bearer of evil tidings and 
sometimes yielded to the temptation to 
shout, "Now devil damn thee black, thou 
whey-faced loon, where got'st thou that 
goose look?" 

The warehouse work ordinarily was not 
difficult till the educational sets began to 
arrive. These were to have been assem- 
bled in New York. On my last visit to 
Mr. Bailey, he had shown me with some 
pride the excellent arrangements he had 
made for handling this work. But some- 
body somewhere at the last moment de- 
cided that these books should be rushed 
over to us as fast as they were received, 
leaving to us the task of assembling the 
collections. We had no space for it, but 
by almost a miracle we managed to get 
the space and the work was done; though 
it entailed the shutting down of one of the 
Y. M. C. A. departments. Think of it! The 
Y appreciated our work BO highly that they 
gave up some of their own activities to al- 
low us to do our job in their warehouse. In- 
deed, as the A. L. A. came to need more 



162 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



and more space and more and more men, 
the Y management gave them to us till I 
thought often of the tale of the camel and 
the too-indulgent Arab. For many a long 
week the A. L. A. camel occupied the best 
part of the Y-man's tent. 

It was no small task to deal with those 
educational books in the time at our dis- 
posal. Many of you are familiar with 
book aggregations of similar size about 
one-quarter of a million volumes. Think 
what it would mean to receive, unpack, 
sort, assemble into standard libraries, and 
re-ship this many books in about six 
weeks' time. We received them packed in 
boxes containing each about seventy-five 
volumes. These boxes had to be hauled 
up one or two at a time to the fifth floor. 
Then they were opened and unpacked, and 
the books were sorted and stacked so 
that any one of the thousand titles could 
be found when required. The educational 
book stock occupied nearly 10,000 square 
feet closely packed. There were any- 
where between ten copies and fifteen hun- 
dred of each title, 'but five hundred was 
the number of copies ordinarily purchased. 
The standard collection of educational 
books filled six boxes and comprised about 
450 titles. At the time I left France nearly 
four hundred of these sets had been as- 
sembled and sent out. It is not too much 
tc say that our educational books were 
highly thought of by all the welfare organ- 
izations and by the Army educational men. 
They made possible the partial accomplish- 
ment of the Army's extremely ambitious 
educational program. The A. L. A. alone 
had the books that were needed and with 
the help of the Army Post Office we man- 
aged to distribute them in time to be of 
service. The ordinary weight limitation 
on mail packages was, I , believe, four 
pounds, but for several weeks the Army 
Post Office received from us practically 
every day scores of packages weighing 125 
pounds each. Indeed, I am told that for a 
time the A. L. A. mail exceeded in bulk 
and weight all the rest of the Army mail 
put together. It is only fair to say that 
our books were packed in a Y warehouse, 



to a great extent by Y men, and that they 
were carted from warehouse to Post Office 
or railroad station in Y trucks. 

We were still struggling with the edu- 
cational books when the people back home 
began to pay us another compliment. In- 
stead of continuing to send boxes of as- 
sorted fiction or assorted non-fiction which 
could be shipped out again by us un- 
opened, they began calling practically 
everything "Stevenson Specials," and 
shipping nearly all their material in that 
form. That is to say, the boxes were each 
filled with one or two titles only. This 
was easy for the dispatch offices but hard 
on the Paris warehouse. While the edu- 
cational-book rush was at its height, we 
had little or no time or space for unpack- 
ing, sorting and repacking these innumer- 
able "Stevenson Specials," and we were 
forced to allow them to pile up till the 
more important educational sets were dis- 
posed of. 

But the worst was yet to come. It is, I 
suppose, common knowledge that the Y 
tried to stampede the A. L. A. into buying 
far more educational books than were 
actually required. When we refused to go 
further in this direction than we consid- 
ered reasonable, the Y went ahead and 
bought on its own account, only to come 
.begging us to help them out of their trou- 
tle when vast quantities of their books ar- 
rived in France rather late in the day. For 
reasons of policy we agreed to give them 
a lift, and soon there was added to our 
warehouse stock in Paris about 80,000 vol- 
umes which had to be plated, pocketed and 
carded before they could be used. 

For some months the Army has gone 
ahead sending men home faster than the 
welfare organizations anticipated. So, 
like the other organizations, we now have 
a large stock in the Paris warehouse, and 
vill have much more when the salvaged 
material is returned. My last work in 
Paris was to estimate the number of books 
in good condition which will be left on our 
hands, and to formulate a plan for their 
disposition. This, however, is neither the 
time nor place for an exposition of this 



DICKINSON 



163 



matter. Let me rather tell you something 
of the field trip which concluded my stay 
in France. It was my first excursion be- 
yond the fortifications of Paris. Dr. Put- 
nam and Mr. Stevenson were both unwill- 
iLg to have me report at this Conference 
without knowing anything except Pont de 
Flandres and the "Metro" line by means 
of which I oscillated between the ware- 
house and headquarters. 

On May 26 I left Paris for Dijon, on the 
"American train." In the compartment 
with me were two American aviators who 
had been up to Paris to take examinations 
for the diplomatic and consular service. 
They had prepared by studying the books 
on diplomacy and international law which 
are included in our educational set. So 
they were glad to direct me how to find 
the A. L. A. Library at Dijon, and it was 
well that they did so, for it Is in a Y build- 
ing that is tucked away on a back street 
and not easy to find. It is a charming 
place when one finds it, however, and Miss 
Goddard seems to be enjoying her success 
there. One of the boys who frequented 
the library expressed the spirit of the es- 
tablishment by remarking: "This Is one 
place where the Sam Brown aint got 
r.othin' on yeh." The following morning 
Miss Goddard was able to leave her library 
in charge of some trusty volunteers, and 
tc secure for us both places in a Y car 
which was running over to Beaune, some 
score of miles away. It was a delightful 
ride through a country bright with the 
golden flower of the mustard, which is one 
of the principal products of the region. 

At Beaune we found Miss Long and Mr. 
Goodrich enthusiastic over the unparal- 
leled success of our work at the A. E. F. 
University there. Mr. Dickerson had just 
departed for his new field of service with 
the Army of Occupation, taking with him 
the grateful good wishes of everybody. It 
is not for me to tell the story. Suffice it 
to say that at Beaune we scored the most 
spectacular of our successes in France. 
The A. E. F. University was an ambitious 
and praiseworthy attempt to do a very big 
thing in a very little time. The library 



end of it actually functioned, thanks to 
the A. L. A., and early enough in the 
game to perform really substantial service. 
How many college libraries in the United 
States can and do seat fifteen hundred 
readers at once? How many circulate 
fifteen hundred books in a day? Was 
there ever before a library building so 
crowded four days after the opening that 
the medical authorities were compelled to 
close it till it could be doubled in size? 
These questions are but hints of the good 
news we shall hear when the time comes 
tc tell the story of our work at Beaune. 

In the evening Miss Long and I had 
managed to break Into the ancient Hotel 
DIeu, the pride of the little city of Beaune, 
and very interesting it was to walk 
through the great lofty hall where the 
good Sisters have nursed the sick since 
long before Columbus sailed the ocean. At 
one end of the hall is the high altar where 
mass is said every Sunday, the patients 
assisting (in the French sense) without 
stirring from their recessed beds. 

The next morning I returned by train 
to Dijon and began the long wait for the 
night train which was to take me on to 
Gievres. The time passed quickly, how- 
ever, in visiting the old palace of the 
Dukes of Burgundy and in looking over 
sundry gargoyliferous cathedrals. At the 
dinner hour I had the good fortune to en- 
counter at the Red Cross canteen Miss 
North, one of the best of last year's vol- 
unteers at the Hoboken dispatch office. 
She is now in charge of the dining-room 
at Dijon and I couldn't have been better 
fed at that canteen if I had been a buck 
private. 

After midnight I boarded the "Amer- 
ican train" for Gievres. There was no 
sleeper, but a U. S. Department of Agri- 
culture agent and myself had a compart- 
ment to ourselves, and we managed to pass 
the night pretty comfortably. The next 
morning we enjoyed a real American 
breakfast of ham. and eggs and griddle 
cakes, the first one I had eaten in France. 
It was served in what looked like a real 
American dining-car by spotlessly-clad 



164 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



colored compatriots of just the appetizing 
caf6-au-lait shade of complexion affected 
by our best railroads for their dining-car 
service. At Gievres I fell in with Chap- 
lain Evans, the welfare officer of the re- 
gion. He took me to the headquarters 
mess to luncheon. This was delayed 
twenty minutes because the Commanding 
Officer, Colonel Simpson, refused to sit 
down without Miss Craigin, the A. L, A. 
representative. She had been off in her 
car visiting one of her outlying branches. 
Please note that the A. L. A. lady was the 
only one of the score or more of welfare 
people at this camp who lunched regu- 
larly at the C. O.'s mess. This was not 
the only time I noticed special favors to 
our people eloquent testimony of the 
light in which our service is regarded 
by the Army. 

After luncheon Miss Craigin ran me 
around in her car to visit her main libra- 
ry, her two branches and several of her 
many deposit stations, and then away 
from the camp across a dozen miles or 
so of beautiful country, odorous with 
acacia bloom, to St. Aignan, where my 
old shipmate, Miss Macdonald, holds sway. 
I hope it may not be construed as deroga- 
tion of Colonel Simpson's and Miss Crai- 
gin's hospitality to say that I am sorry 
for the people at GiSvres. There is liter- 
ally nothing but camp in the immediate 
vicinity no town, no hills, no trees, noth- 
ing but barracks, tents, duckboards and 
dust or mud. No wonder our service is 
so highly appreciated there! As we 
skimmed past the warehouse which the 
Army built at Gievres last fall to house 
A. L. A. books, I was thankful indeed 
that transport problems had necessitated 
the removal of our warehouse work to 
Paris some weeks before my arrival in 
France. 

At St. Aignan we found Miss Macdon- 
ald happy and busy as a bee with her big 
main building, her four branches, and her 
countless deposit stations. Everywhere 
on my tour, but especially at St. Aignan, 
it gladdened my heart to see my old 
prote'ge', the "Hoboken box," doing yeoman 



service as a sectional bookcase. It should 
be a matter of record that this box was 
designed at the Washington headquarters 
ty Mr. Wheeler; but I claim credit for 
promptly recognizing its merits and de- 
fending it against all fussy experiment- 
ers. It would be hard to overestimate the 
share of the "Hoboken box" in the success 
of our work overseas. 

The Commanding Officer at St. Aignan, 
by the way, is General Malone, who years 
ago as Captain Paul B. Malone more than 
once delighted the boy patrons of my li- 
brary at Leavenworth, Kansas, by read- 
ings from his West Point stories. 

After dinner with Miss Macdonald in a 
real old French inn in the charming town 
of St. Aignan, I departed for Tours, where 
I arrived at midnight and made my way 
to the Y. M. C. A. Officers' Hotel. I found 
the manager sitting in his office with an 
elderly American Major. The Y-man 
looked me over rather doubtfully, but 
finally admitted that he supposed I was a 
part of the A. E. F. At that the old ma- 
jor bounced up and ripped out: "Yes, and 
a damned good part." I was shown to a 
room at once about the best room in 
the house. Later I learned that the old 
Major had seen something of Mr. Dicker- 
son's work at Beaune. 

The next morning I visited "our Miss 
Yerkes" at her library in the main Y 
building at Tours. It is sandwiched in be- 
tween the canteen and an ice-cream gar- 
den, but she manages to maintain a libra- 
ry atmosphere nevertheless. I had a talk 
with her assistant, a Y worker. It was 
typical of many that I enjoyed with Y 
people who had been assigned to our serv- 
ice. This lady had been a high school 
principal at home, and she had accepted 
the assignment to the A. L. A. with some 
reluctance. But never had she enjoyed 
work so much, and it was her firm inten- 
tion to stay with the job as long as she 
might be needed. 

The following morning I found Mr. 
Moulton, Miss Huxley and Mr. Emerson 
at their desks at the welfare headquarters 
of the LeMans area. The A. L. A., by the 



KEOGH 



165 



way, Is the only organization which is per- 
mitted to have office room there, and it 
gives us a great advantage in the con- 
stant readjustments of our work necessi- 
tated by the kaleidoscopic changes al- 
ways going on at the American Embarka- 
tion Center. It seemed odd at first to find 
most of the A. L. A. personnel nowhere 
near a library. But before my day at Le 
Mans was ended I understood the situa- 
tion. Many branches were ably admin- 
istered from a bookless headquarters just 
as the Brooklyn Public Library is man- 
aged from 26 Brevoort place. All day long 
Mr. Moulton and I drove from branch to 
branch throughout this great area and al- 
though we must have covered fifty or six- 
ty miles, I was told we had not seen a 
quarter of it. Suffice it to say that never 
in my life have I visited so many libra- 
ries in the course of a single day. I met 
a great many librarians too, but the one 
I remember best of all I didn't even see. 
This was Miss Ferguson. She was ab- 
sent from her post by the express com- 
mand of the General. Some international 
horse races were in progress and she had 
to ride the. General's horse! Our over- 
seas personnel must be prepared, you see, 
to serve the A. L. A. and advance its in- 
terests in ways which are often quite un- 
foreseen. 

That night I had some rest in a Red 
Cross dormitory, but was called by the 
faithful Jap steward at the unseemly hour 



of 2:45 a. m. to take the train back to 
Paris. Thus ended my service with the 
A. L. A. in France. After a day or two 
in Paris, mostly devoted to American, 
French and British passport vise's, I em- 
barked for England, whence I was booked 
to sail for home. After six months of 
Paris, everybody in England seemed in- 
credibly kind, everything in England in- 
credibly low in price. I was almost sorry 
to leave England even to come to the 
A. L. A. 

Although the Holland-American liner 
Nieuwe Amsterdam, the ship that 'brought 
me home, is not a transport, she took on 
two thousand American troops at Brest 
before turning her nose westward. It was 
with some misgivings that I inquired 
whether any reading matter for the men 
was on board. I need not have worried. 
The Hoboken dispatch office is still very 
much on the job, and there was an ample 
supply of fresh new books and recent 
magazines. At last I was in a position to 
do a bit of work on shipboard myself. Now 
I have seen with my own eyes how far 
good books can go to make boys forget 
the cramped discomfort of a sea voyage in 
the steerage. Scarcely ever were books 
and magazines out of the hands of those 
boys until we sighted the Statue of Lib- 
erty last Thursday. Then my eighteen 
months with the A. L. A. War Service 
came to an end. It was hard work, it was 
great fun, and I'm glad its over. 



ADVANCED LIBRARY TRAINING FOR RESEARCH WORKERS 
BY ANDREW KEOGH, Librarian, Yale University 



In giving this subject to a university 
librarian, the implication must certainly 
have been that a "research worker" is to 
be understood in the university sense, and 
not in the ordinary sense of a person who 
is carrying on any kind of careful inquiry 
or examination. If I am right in restricting 
"research" in this way, I will go further 
and say that although the epirit and 
methods of research are by no means 
limited to the graduate school, it is chiefly 



in that school that the spirit of research 
is inculcated and its methods taught and 
required. Research is indeed the mark of 
the graduate school, distinguishing it from 
the college on the one hand and from the 
technical and professional schools on the 
other. The research worker that I have in 
mind is therefore a person who has had 
such preliminary training as to be able to 
profit fully by higher training, and who 
enters a graduate school for the double 



166 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



purpose of enlarging his knowledge of a 
subject that appeals to him and of acquir- 
ing the best methods of research in his 
chosen subject. 

Students offering themselves for such 
training usually fall into one or other of 
two classes. They are either persons with 
library training or experience who wish to 
become experts in some special field of 
knowledge; or they are persons of special 
knowledge who wish to become librarians 
or bibliographers. 

The librarian who takes up the higher 
study of a subject usually aims at equipping 
himself to become librarian of a special 
library, or head of a department in a large 
library, and this aim is just as legitimate 
as that of his fellow student who intends to 
teach. He will naturally pay special atten- 
tion to the bibliography of his subject, but 
otherwise he does not differ from his class- 
mates, and there is no reason why he should 
not get his master's and doctor's degrees in 
due course. Some university libraries make 
grants of time, or pay the tuition fees for 
approved courses taken by members of their 
staff, and they encourage euch study by 
showing that it leads to higher salaries. 
I believe that higher study of this kind will 
be much commoner ten years hence than 
it is to-day, for libraries will have a new 
impetus as a result of the war, and will 
have the means to pay higher salaries. 

The person of special knowledge in some 
field of study who seeks advanced library 
training may also aim at becoming a li- 
brarian, but his needs are very different. 
If he wishes to acquire library technique, he 
should go to a library school, and not to a 
graduate school. If, however, his purpose 
is to master his field bibliographically, he 
may enter a graduate school, and proceed to 
his master's degree. He may have some 
difficulty in finding a school that will meet 
his needs, for some teachers pay little or 
no attention to the bibliography of their 
subjects, and would be unwilling to spend 
time in planning and carrying through a 
special course for a single student. But 
in the humanities, at least, there are 
courses in encyclopaedia, methodology, and 



bibliography that would serve his purpose. 
The wise student will seek his teacher in 
a university where there are facilities for 
bibliographic research and opportunities 
for work on the library staff, or where 
such facilities and opportunities are at 
hand in some great reference or special 
library. 

There will probably be little difficulty in 
obtaining a degree for meritorious biblio- 
graphic work. A discriminating selection 
of the best books on any subject of impor- 
tance, with careful annotations showing the 
scope and limitations of each book, and 
references to others that correct or sup- 
plement it, would probably be accepted any- 
where for the master's degree; while the 
rare .bibliographical dissertation that not 
only incorporates discoveries of impor- 
tance, but by sound criticism throws light 
on disputed literary or historical or other 
problems, might be offered for the degree 
of doctor of philosophy. The dean of the 
Yale Graduate School is very willing to 
give degrees for bibliographical work. 

There remain two problems, one con- 
nected with graduate work in the univer- 
sity, and the other with work in a library 
school. 

The first is the case of a person who 
desires to take up one or more courses in 
the graduate school of a university, but is 
technically barred because he is not a col- 
lege graduate, or the graduate of a library 
school that confers degrees. A student of 
this sort may have the same amount of 
ability, education, training, and experience 
as the one who holds a degree; he may 
have more; but he lacks the hall-mark. 
But no person who has carried on library 
work for any reasonable length of time 
in a professional way need feel that he 
lacks a liberal education, and most uni- 
versities would admit him at once. The 
Yale Graduate School, for example, has 
admitted to its courses members of the 
Yale library staff who had no degree of 
any sort; and this was done, not because 
these persons were on the staff of the Yale 
library, but because it is part of Yale's gen- 
eral plan to admit to its graduate and pro- 



HOPKINS 



167 



fessional courses all students who are ade- 
quately equipped. Each case is considered 
on its merits, and if the applicant is ad- 
mitted, he is not enrolled at the beginning 
as a candidate for a higher degree, but as 
a so-called "special student." If hie work 
should prove equal in quantity and quality 
to the regular students, he can take the 
final examinations and get his degree. 

The second problem is that of the stu- 
dent who wishes to carry on advanced 
work of a technical character, such as is 
more appropriately given and sought in a 
library school than in the graduate school 
of a university. Such courses are graduate 
courses, but they are professional rather 
than cultural. A student seeking advanced 
training may already have the degree of 
B.L.S.; or may be the graduate of a li- 
brary school not conferring degrees; or 
may be a college graduate with library ex- 
perience but without library school train- 
ing; or may be an educated and experienced 
person without a degree of any kind. 



There is at present no regularly organized 
graduate school to which such a student 
can go, but this is not from lack of desire 
on the part of faculties. The demand for 
advanced training is too slight to warrant 
the expenditures involved. Such demand 
as exists is too varied to fill; and students 
expect intensive training which is difficult 
in a one-year course. Until the means are 
provided the schools should throw open 
more widely their present facilities. If 
Yale admits students without degrees to 
its graduate school, the library schools can 
do the same. The so-called "open courses," 
to which experienced library workers are 
now admitted, should be greatly increased 
in number. The schools might also fore- 
stall demand by relieving their undergrad- 
uate seniors of some of the more formal 
courses required for graduation, allowing 
them instead to pursue some investigation 
of special interest. If such investigations 
can be carried on better in other libraries, 
the student should get leave of absence 
without loss of credit. 



A NEW PLAN FOR TRAINING LIBRARY ASSISTANTS 
By JULIA A. HOPKINS, Supervisor of Staff Instruction, Public Library, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Among the many wonderful develop- 
ments in the field of library work during 
the last decade, none perhaps has been 
more rapid or more interesting than that 
of the training class conducted by the in- 
dividual library for the enlargement and 
strengthening of its own staff. 

In the early days every librarian learned 
his trade by working at it in the old style 
apprentice method; and this method was 
fairly satisfactory when libraries were 
small and the field of their work limited. 
But as they increased in size and in the 
number of their activities, demanding a 
proportionately larger force of workers, 
the time necessary to devote to the super- 
vision of the work of beginners was too 
great; hence, as an economy of time and 
effort, the library began to admit new 
workers at stated times during the year, 
giving direction and supervision to the 



group instead of to the individual; and so 
we have the so-called "apprentice class." 

In these first apprentice classes, how- 
ever, the old method of training through 
practical experience prevailed to a large 
extent; the class periods being limited al- 
most entirely to description of routine 
methods, criticism of work done, and dis- 
cussion of problems arising in the every- 
day work of the library. 

With the tremendous growth of the 
great branch library systems in our large 
cities, a new phase developed. The amount 
of work to be handled in such systems de- 
manded a larger number of trained assist- 
ants than could be obtained from the li- 
brary schools. Moreover, the large in- 
crease in the number of small libraries 
(brought into existence through Mr. Car- 
negie's gifts of library buildings), and the 
rapid development of the various types of 



168 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



special libraries, offered to graduates from 
library schools positions carrying execu- 
tive and administrative duties, compared 
with which the position of under assist- 
ant in a branch system had little attrac- 
tion. As a result, the large libraries, in or- 
der adequately to man their staffs, were 
forced to abandon the old plan of appren- 
ticeship and to organize some form of defi- 
nite library training. 

These training classes, of which there 
are many today, vary greatly in size, en- 
trance requirements, length of course, char- 
acter of instruction, etc. In their simplest 
form we find them very slightly advanced 
beyond the apprentice type; in their most 
developed organization they in many re- 
spects approach quite closely the one-year 
library schools. Some of these latter 
classes are In charge of trained librarians 
who have had teaching experience in a 
library school. 

The field of their usefulness and value 
of their service is unquestioned. It is 
doubtful If the great branch systems and 
the large public libraries could have 
become what they are without the assist- 
ance rendered by their training classes. 
While every such library needs and wants 
graduates from the library schools on its 
staff, yet undoubtedly the rank and file of 
the staff, in all grades of its service, will 
be made up of the graduates from its own. 
training class. 

The objective points of the two types of 
training will always differ. The training 
class trains its students for a particular 
library; the library school prepares its 
students for service in any library. 

The Importance of the work professional- 
ly has progressed to the point where, for 
the last few A. L. A. Conferences, the need 
of discussion of training class problems 
has been recognized as deserving a place 
on the program of this section. In addi- 
tion, for the last two years training class 
instructors have been granted space on the 
program for a round table. They are tak- 
ing steps to organize and to consider a 
possible standardization of courses. 

However, standardization of training 



class courses will be a much more difficult 
matter to effect than standardization of 
library school courses. As the objective 
point of each individual training class is 
the service of its own library, the needs of 
that library must determine its course of 
instruction. Not only does each separate 
training class differ from every other, but 
its own history would probably show many 
changes in the development of its course. 

With the entry of our country into the 
war, two years ago, and the resulting con- 
ditions in the business world and in the 
government service, the training classes 
had not only to drop, for the time, all 
thought of standardization, but many of 
them had to throw over carefully built up 
courses and organize, on an entirely differ- 
ent basis, courses that would serve the im- 
mediate and pressing need. 

The Brooklyn Public Library was one of 
these. Through various changes it had 
evolved a seven months' course of training 
which had for three years proved very sat- 
isfactory. Its classes averaged twenty in 
number and always had some students 
with college training or some other form 
of education higher than that of a high 
school. In the fall of 1917 the class num- 
ber dropped to twelve; and in view of the 
great strain of the library's service and the 
increasing need for rapid replenishment of 
its diminishing force, it was decided ma- 
terially to shorten the course, to graduate 
its students early, and to take on a new 
class in the spring. 

Long before time for the spring class 
the situation had become so acute that the 
library decided to abandon entirely the 
course in library training, and to substi- 
tute for it a one month's clerical course, 
to which were added five months of proba- 
tionary practice work in the branch libra- 
ries, the practice work being paid for. 
The announcement of this course brought 
a large and very satisfactory response; 
and the continued pressure on the staff 
made it necessary, two months later, to 
offer it again. 

This same change to a clerical course 
was made in several other libraries; and 



HOPKINS 



169 



a comparison of the outlines of subjects 
they covered shows a close similarity. The 
course gave, ' in brief, a few lectures on 
library standards and business methods, 
some talks on the local library by heads 
of departments, a few lessons in filing, 
some problems on the use of the shelf list 
and the card catalog, and required the 
memorizing of the decimal classification 
and the book of rules for the staff, with 
some drill in routine work. 

This course relieved the immediate 
situation; but it was a distinct menace for 
the future. It presupposed that its gradu- 
ates would do only clerical work, and 
necessitated a sharp differentiation be- 
tween the duties of the clerical workers 
and the library assistants. Moreover, if 
no means of promotion were provided, the 
clerical workers would soon leave the serv- 
ice for business positions with better pay; 
and that class of workers would have to 
be recruited so frequently that the energy 
of the training force of the library would 
be largely expended in that type of effort 
exhibited by a squirrel chasing its tail 
around the wheel of its cage. 

In addition, if the clerical course were 
all the preparation given for entrance 
upon the library's service, that service 
would be slowly disorganized and disin- 
tegrated. In the organization of the staff 
the higher grades of service are admin- 
istrative. These grades can be supplied 
from the library schools, from other libra- 
ries, or by promotions from the staff. The 
lowest grade requires only clerical effi- 
ciency, and can 'be well supplied by such a 
course of clerical training as we have been 
considering. But the intermediate grades, 
demanding professional knowledge and 
equipment, are the hardest to fill. As has 
been shown above, the type of work and 
the pay, in these grades, has little at- 
traction today for the library school gradu- 
ate. In very few instances would it at- 
tract assistants from other libraries. If 
therefore the library itself provides no 
means for feeding these intermediate 
grades from the grade below, an important 
link in the library's service is broken. 



To remedy this defect and prevent its 
disastrous consequences one of two things 
could be done. The first method would 
provide for the promotion of the gradu- 
ates from the clerical course, by organiz- 
ing the library's service so as to offer 
successive grades of clerical work. Such 
opportunity for advancement would doubt- 
less hold to the library many of the cler- 
ical workers; and thus do away with the 
expensive bookkeeping necessitated by 
many changes on a staff. In addition, a 
short entrance course in library training 
would have to be given, to prepare for the 
lower grades of the library's service such 
students as showed themselves capable of 
professional work. This method of han- 
dling the problem has, I believe, been 
tried by the Cleveland Public Library. 

The other method would incorporate 
into the clerical course such elementary 
library training as would form a basis for 
professional work; and then build upon 
this a more advanced course, providing 
for promotion on the staff. This method 
is the one which the Brooklyn Public Li- 
brary has tried to work out. It may inter- 
est you to know how we did it: 

We first strengthened our entrance 
course, not by giving more time to it, but 
by changing the schedule. Instead of de- 
voting the first month of the six to class 
instruction, we now give twenty-five days, 
scattered over five months two days a 
week during the first month, and one day 
a week during the four months following. 
The sixth month is entirely given to prac- 
tice work in the branch libraries. 

This change of schedule enabled us to 
add several courses not possible under the 
former arrangement. With class recita- 
tions following each other every day, there 
was very little time for the student for 
preparation or reading, and almost no 
time for the instructor for revision. With 
the new plan we are able to give a course 
of over one hundred lectures, forty-two of 
which are devoted to classification, cata- 
loging, and library economy (this last in- 
cluding most of the former clerical course), 
forty-seven to reference work, literature 
and bibliography; four to the history of 
books and libraries; and eleven to the 
study of the Brooklyn Public Library. 

The literature courses are reading 
courses, and the students are provided 



170 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



with lists of books from which they are 
required to read and report upon certain 
volumes during the course, and which they 
are advised to keep and use as suggestions 
for their reading after appointment on the 
staff. 

The object of the course is not only to 
prepare the student for the clerical work 
of the first grade, but also to add to her 
knowledge of books, to foster and develop 
her love of reading, to arouse her interest 
in the library profession, and her desire to 
remain in it. 

The course is given twice a year, the 
classes forming in October and in March. 
Upon it, as a foundation, was built an ad- 
vanced course; and the two courses, taken 
together, will, we hope, give professional 
training comparable to that of a one-year 
library school course. 

Library schools very generally group 
their courses under three heads: Tech- 
nical, bibliographic, and administrative. 
This classification corresponds quite strik- 
ingly with the types of work required in 
the successive grades of the library's serv- 
ice, which demand proficiency (1) in tech- 
nical matters, (2) in work with books and 
with the public, and (3) in administration. 

Following a comparative and analytical 
study of the one-year courses, a course was 
mapped out which, in length and subjects 
covered, struck the average and, at the 
same time, tried to embody the best fea- 
tures of all. This course was then divided 
into two an elementary and an advanced 
course. 

Almost every subject taught in a library 
school has its elementary and its advanced 
phases. Every library school has to in- 
clude both phases in its instruction. The 
Brooklyn Public Library includes both, but 
gives them in two sections instead of at 
the same time. 

In the cataloging course, library hand, 
proper forms of cards, neatness of execu- 
tion, accuracy in transcribing items, abil- 
ity to follow a given code of rules in mak- 
ing the cards, are elementary phases of 
the subject. 

In classification, the memorizing of the 
scheme, learning to relate subheads under 
different classes, use of the index, relation 
between the class number and the subject 
heading in the catalog, are elementary 
phases. 

So, in reference work, are such matters 
as learning how to gather information 
from books, proper methods of investigat- 
ing a subject and the study of a few of the 
most-used reference books. All such ele- 
mentary phases of study can be assimilated 
by high school graduates. 

The advanced phases of these subjects 



involve more knowledge and information 
on the part of the student, a comparative 
study of books and methods, the training 
of the judgment in making decisions, and 
the exercise of the power of initiative. 

Making a distinction between these two 
phases, we included the elementary treat- 
ment of subjects in our entrance course, as 
described above. The advanced phases 
were then provided for in a course of 
about two hundred and forty lectures one 
hundred being given to the technical sub- 
jects, one hundred to bibliographic, and 
forty to administrative and miscellaneous 
subjects. 

The two courses, elementary and ad- 
vanced, taken together, make a complete 
whole; for completion of which the library 
will give a certificate. The entrance 
course counts a certain number of credits 
toward the certificate; upon the satisfac- 
tory completion of each subject in the ad- 
vanced course the student will be given a 
pass-card stating the number of credits 
assigned to that subject; and upon com- 
pletion of all the subjects, the certificate 
will be granted. 

The assistant must attend the lectures 
and do the work of the course in her own 
free time; but there is no charge for the 
instruction. On the staff of the Brooklyn 
Public Library there are many heads of 
departments and branch librarians who 
are regular lecturers before library schools. 
The supervisor of staff instruction, who 
is in charge of the course, has been offi- 
cially connected with three liorary schools. 
It therefore goes without saying that the 
instruction will reach the professional 
standard. 

An assistant will be able to complete 
the advanced course in from two to four 
years, dependent upon her physical 
strength and her own desire. 

The course is open to all assistants in 
the Brooklyn Public Library. 

Assistants in the second grade (or 
higher grades) are eligible without an en- 
trance examination. -Every assistant in 
the second grade is either a graduate of a 
library school or has passed a promotion 
examination covering the same educa- 
tional equipment. 

Assistants in the first grade who are 
college graduates are also eligible with- 
out examination. Other first grade assist- 
ants have to pass an entrance test cover- 
ing one year of college work. 

The course was offered for the first time 
in October, 1918. 

For the past five years we have been 
giving a special training course for chil- 
dren's librarians. This is a nine months' 
course, open to college graduates or to 



BARDEN 



171 



those who have had some college work and 
pass the entrance examination. Twenty 
hours a week are given to class work, and 
an equal number of hours to practice work 
in the branch libraries, this practice work 
being paid for at the rate of one-half the 
salary of the second grade, to which the 
graduates from the course are eligible. 

The instruction in children's literature 
and methods of work with children is 
given by Miss Clara W. Hunt, superin- 
tendent of work with children; and for 
instruction in other subjects the students 
join the classes in the advanced course. 

This special course is also open to as- 
sistants on the staff of the library who 
can meet the entrance requirements. Pass- 
cards are given for the various subjects as 
they are completed, and a certificate at 
the end. 

Another feature of the plan is that the 
pass-card in any subject will be accepted 
in place of a promotion examination in 
that subject. 

For promotion from the first to the sec- 
ond grade, or from the second to the third 
grade, two examinations are required; 
one technical, the other educational and 
bibliographical. 

If an assistant has successfully covered 
either the technical or the bibliographic 
work in the advanced course, she will be 
excused from taking that part of the pro- 
motion examination. 

This adds to the attractiveness of the 
plan for the assistants, as many of them 
dread an examination coming "out of a 
clear sky," as it were, much more than 
they do one following a definite course of 
study under an instructor. 

As you see, the plan is intended primar- 
ily to benefit the Brooklyn Public Library; 
and we hope that it will do this in several 
ways: 

1. It will give those entering the sys- 
tem an incentive to work for promotion 



right from the start. Too often, the new 
assistant, having finished her entrance 
course and gained appointment, feels that 
she has arrived, and settles back without 
realizing that she has really only begun 
her work. The opportunity offered in this 
plan will tend to correct this attitude. If 
she is really a librarian at heart and has 
normal strength, she will either (if she is 
eligible) enter the advanced course, or 
(not being eligible) take some cultural 
courses of study outside to prepare her- 
self for entrance. 

2. It prepares assistants for promotion 
steadily and systematically. 

3. By its offer of instruction according 
to professional standards, it will tend to 
hold on the staff all those who are work- 
ing for the certificate. 

4. It offers to the assistant who wishes 
for more extended knowledge of a parti- 
cular branch of library work an opportu- 
nity for further study. 

5. Indirectly, the library's service can- 
not help but be freshened and strength- 
ened, kept "toned up" as it were, by this 
steady application of many on its staff to 
the acquiring of professional knowledge 
and the study of library problems. 

6. It may probably attract to the libra- 
ry some women who feel an interest In 
library work but who cannot afford to 
take the time and spend the money, even 
for a one-year course, at a library school, 
but who would be glad to take such a 
course if, at the same time, they could be 
earning money and covering their ex- 
penses. If this occurs, the advanced 
course will open another avenue of ap- 
proach to the profession for those who 
otherwise would be excluded from it. If 
professional standards are maintained, the 
course will then benefit not only its own 
library but the profession at large, whose 
need of trained workers Is so great. 



A CLERICAL COURSE FOR LIBRARY ASSISTANTS 
BY BERTHA R. BARDEN, Supervisor Apprentice Class, Public Library, Cleveland, Ohio 



Present conditions in library service are 
forcing more clearly upon us the distinction 
between library work which is purely cleri- 
cal and that which is really professional in 
character. Necessity has ehown that much 
of the routine work of the loan desks 
particularly, can be done by assistant* with 
limited education and with no professional 
training, provided they are taught to do 
this special work. In a large library this 



training can best be given in a class, where 
instruction can be systematic and uniform. 

The object of this paper is to present the 
experience of the Cleveland Public Library 
in organizing the clerical course which has 
been given in addition to the regular ap- 
prentice course in the past two years. 

Training in the apprentice classes in the 
Cleveland Public Library is given not as 
a preliminary to employment in the library, 



172 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



but rather as a required part of the first 
year's work as an apprentice, and serves 
also as part of the compensation for the 
first year's service, since the course is taken 
on library time and no tuition is charged. 
In this library apprentices are paid at the 
rate of $50.00 to $65.00 per month, accord- 
ing to their previous preparation and ex- 
perience. The appointment of apprentices 
to the regular library service with the rank 
of "library assistant" is conditioned upon 
the successful completion of the full appren- 
tice course together with the year's work 
as an apprentice, and the passing of an 
examination in literature, history and gen- 
eral information, which may be taken be- 
fore or after the apprentice course. 

The course for clerical workers is an out- 
growth of the regular apprentice class, 
brought about by various conditions, par- 
ticularly the number of apprentices to be 
trained and the difference in their educa- 
tional qualifications and ability. 

In 1917, with the increased loss of assist- 
ants in the lower grades of service, came 
the necessity of filling their places with ap- 
prentices. As a result, in both 1917 and 
1918 there were about forty-five apprentices 
to enter the apprentice class. The educa- 
tional background of these students varied 
from less than a full high school course to 
a full college course. It was obvious also 
that some apprentices were best fitted for 
clerical positions and needed instruction 
especially related to the work they were 
doing, while they were not qualified to 
do passing work in the bibliographic 
courses. It was decided, therefore, to divide 
the class and give to those qualified only 
for clerical work a shorter course, including 
mainly technical subjects, which would give 
the information most immediately useful. 
The short course classes have been made 
up largely of students who have had no 
more and frequently less than a high school 
education. The examinations in literature, 
history, etc., are of course not required of 
apprentices in the clerical course. 

This short apprentice course, as it has 
been given so far, consists of twenty-five 
lectures, given in fifteen half-day periods, 
or one morning a week for about three 



months. The schedule is so arranged that 
some lectures of a general nature, not re- 
quiring practice work, are given at one 
time to students in the full course and 
short course, thus saving the time of the 
lecturer. The technical subjects are given 
in two courses: one in loan work; the 
other, called for want of a better term 
catalog records, including the arrangement 
of books on the shelves, the meaning of 
call numbers and accession numbers, and 
the use of the catalog and shelf list. These 
courses cover the same ground as in the 
full apprentice course, so that students who 
pass the short course satisfactorily can be 
given credit for this part of the full course 
when they are ready to take it. In addi- 
tion to this instruction in library records a 
few lectures on the work of the library in 
general are given, and one lecture on books 
and reading has been included ior the pur- 
pose of stimulating a desire for more and 
better personal reading. Practice in library 
handwriting is required, and an examina- 
tion on the work of the course is given. 

The loan work course consists of eleven 
lectures, six devoted to the records of the 
loan desk and accompanied by class prac- 
tice work, and five dealing with the broader 
phases of loan work, such as the spirit of 
the loan department, qualifications of assist- 
ants, and the reasons for rules and regula- 
tions. Since the majority of students tak- 
ing the apprentice courses are assigned to 
positions requiring desk work, this course 
includes sufficient detail to give an under- 
standing of all the records involved, which, 
supplemented by regular work wherever the 
apprentices are assigned, will enable them 
to develop more rapidly into efficient desk 
assistants. 

The purpose of the catalog records course 
is to teach students to make intelligent use 
of the shelf arrangement and records of 
books. It consists of nine lectures with 
practice problems in using the catalog and 
shelf list and in alphabeting. No attempt is 
made to teach students to classify, catalog, 
or even to accession and shelf list books, 
since the comparatively few apprentices 
who are assigned to work in the catalog 
department as typists and shelf listers, learn 



RATHBONE 



173 



to do this special work under supervision. 
The apprentice class training serves as a 
general introduction to such record work. 
The results of this clerical course thus 
far evident may be summarized as follows: 

1. It has given a general knowledge of 
the library records, together with some in- 
formation about the library as a whole, to 
a group of clerical assistants whose educa- 
tional qualifications will hardly permit 
them to advance to the regular library 
service, but whose work is necessary to the 
library and should be recognized as a 
clerical grade of service. Such clerical 
positions are those of desk assistants at the 
main library and branches, typists in the 
catalog department, and certain assistants 
in the offices of the stations department, 
bindery department and the order depart- 
ment. 

2. It is a test of the apprentice's useful- 
ness to the library, since students who can- 
not pass this course have, as a rule, proved 
to be unfitted for even clerical positions. An 
exception to this are the foreign girls, who 
are valuable to the library because of their 
knowledge of a foreign language, but some- 
times so handicapped by difficulty with 
English that it is necessary to take these 
technical courses a second time in order to 
pass them. In such cases the short course 
frequently serves as introductory to the 
full apprentice course, in which the techni- 
cal courses are taken over again. 

3. The short course, which usually be- 
gins in January, also serves as part of the 
full course in cases where apprentices come 
into the library after the beginning of the 
full course in October, thus enabling new 
apprentices to begin their training without 
waiting until the next year. In other 
cases, for different reasons, apprentices may 
be advised to begin with the short course 
and later on, after additional outside study 
and reading, complete the full course. Of 
the first class of eighteen, five have been 
taking the full course this year and three 
will complete it. 



Whether the clerical course should be a 
longer and more comprehensive one is a 
question to be considered from the stand- 
point of both the student and the library. 
Would more subjects of study, which may 
not be related to the work which the ap- 
prentice is doing, be of value to her in her 
work? This problem is already apparent 
in the case of assistants in the catalog de- 
partment to whom the loan work course is 
always more difficult and for whom spe- 
cial practice work at the loan desk has 
to be arranged. More attention might be 
given to training for speed and accuracy, 
but this should be in connection with the 
technical courses now included. On the 
side of the library, the number of appren- 
tices who stay in the library only a short 
time after completing the course, raises the 
question as to whether the library would 
be justified in putting any more time and 
effort into the class. Out of the first class 
of eighteen, six have left. Students who 
are ambitious and promising are given the 
opportunity to take the longer course when- 
ever they can be recommended for it. 

A clerical course for assistants in a library 
might be called the junior high school grade 
of training for library work. Is there not 
a grade of library work for which such 
training is sufficient? If the clerical course 
is to be more than simply a preliminary to 
further training, a clerical grade of service 
must be developed, in which skill in record 
work shall be recognized by salaries which 
will hold clerical workers trained by the 
library in its own service, rather than pre- 
paring them for better positions in some 
business office. 



THE TRAINING OF ASSISTANTS FOR LENDING DEPARTMENT WORK 

By JOSEPHINE A. RATHBONE, Vice-Director, School of Library Science, Pratt Institute, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



When asked to speak on the circula- 
tion department from the point of view 
of the library school, I was more than 
glad to accede to the request, for though 
the school I represent has always em- 
phasized and even exalted the work of the 
circulation department, I realized that I 



had never really investigated just what 
preparation the students themselves found 
they had gotten from the school. I knew 
that the fiction seminar was planned to 
meet the needs of the desk assistant and 
the course in book selection is also 
planned partly to increase her book knowl- 



174 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



edge, while the curriculum includes charg- 
ing systems, of course, as well as 105 
hours of carefully planned work in the 
circulation department. 

But I confess I was surprised on asking 
a graduate of 1916 who has done circula- 
tion department work in two libraries 
what parts of the course she had found 
most helpful in her work, to have her say 
emphatically, "All of it, with the possible 
exception of technical French and Ger- 
man there is no part of the course I 
haven't used." Pinning her down to de- 
tails, she said the fiction seminar had been 
of the greatest help, next to classification, 
which latter enabled her to put her hand on 
things quickly or to direct a borrower to 
the exact spot where chess or forestry 
or calculus would be found, which, she 
said, always gave the borrowers confi- 
dence in a new assistant. Cataloging en- 
abled her to show people how to use the 
catalog or to help them discover in it 
what they could not find for themselves. 
The course in book selection she had 
found very useful, as I had hoped, and to 
my surprise she added reference work 
because when people asked reference 
questions in the circulation department, 
as they often do, they were so pleased to 
be told that the answer would be found 
in a specific book. Charging systems she 
put last. 

Another graduate who had been a cir- 
culation department assistant before tak- 
ing the course and who is now the head 
of a large circulation department told me 
that the thing that had helped her most 
in the course was the fact that she had 
done practical work in all the departments 
at Pratt reference, art reference, catalog- 
ing, etc. and hence came to understand 
the relations of the several departments 
of a library. She said that she could not 
only guide borrowers more surely, but 
that she no longer expected the impos- 
sible of the other departments; or in 
other words that she could correlate the 
circulation department with the rest of 
the library. 

Pursuing the matter further, I asked 



the students in the present class who had 
come from and were returning to circula- 
tion department work what they felt they 
were taking back with them. All of 
them put the fiction seminar and refer- 
ence lectures as first among the courses 
they were glad to have had and had felt 
the need of before. Current topics was 
specified more than once, also bibliog- 
raphy, publishers, and library visits, both 
the spring trips and the weekly visits. 

So I begin to think that my first in- 
formant was right and that practically the 
whole course is a preparation for circu- 
lation department work and that con- 
versely you cannot adequately train for 
circulation department work with less 
than a full library school course. This for 
many libraries may be at present a coun- 
sel of perfection, but I am sure all heads 
of circulation departments will agree with 
me. 

Classroom instruction, however, is not 
by itself adequate preparation for satis- 
factory work in the circulation depart- 
ment. A student may do good work in 
the classroom, may classify intelligently, 
may make reports in fiction seminar that 
show fine literary appreciation and wide 
reading, may speak with the tongues of 
men and of angels, and yet may be a fail- 
ure on the firing line. The circulation 
assistant needs, as you all know better 
than I, to have accuracy, dispatch and re- 
sourcefulness, and a pleasant way with 
her, but she must also be able to work 
under pressure, to keep her head and 
her temper under trying situations and in 
emergencies. She needs, in short, quali 
ties that neither entrance or term exam- 
inations nor recitations in class can dis- 
close either the presence or the absence 
of, and having these qualities (discover- 
able only by actual test) she needs more 
than a theoretical knowledge of the work 
before she can be an acceptable member 
of a staff. 

These two desiderata the testing out 
of the student and training her to the 
ready us* of her knowledge and faculties 



McNIECE 



175 



can only be arrived at through carefully 
supervised work done under working con- 
ditions, and, as has been suggested be- 
fore, she needs work not only in a circu- 



lation department but in other depart- 
ments of a library before she is qualified 
for a position of responsibility in a cir- 
culation department. 



LABOR SAVING IN THE LENDING DEPARTMENT 
BY JESSIE SAROENT MCNIECE, Chief , Circulation Department, Public Library, St.. Louis, Mo. 



Let us begin by differentiating sharply 
between legitimate short cuts and labor 
saving at the expense of our readers. Any 
practice however convenient or efficient 
it may seem from the librarian's point of 
view which tends to lessen the privileges 
or rights of the borrower, is reactionary 
and will in time work to the disadvantage 
of the library. 

The St. Louie Public Library, with this 
distinction in mind, considered and in- 
vestigated several plans for lessening or 
entirely abolishing certain features of cir- 
culation work, and for the present de- 
cided adversely in every instance. This 
being the case, there arose the question 
of how to meet tremendously increased 
work, our circulation being greater in 
March, 1919, than ever before in the his- 
tory of the department, with a perma- 
nently weakened and constantly changing 
staff. The only practical answer seemed 
to be contained in the slogan of the effi- 
ciency expert, "install a system." 

The first consideration was one of mo- 
tion study. Ours is partially a closed 
shelf department, requests being presented 
at a long desk in the main hall and the 
books brought by the assistants from 
book stacks. A buzzer has been installed 
at this desk connected with the work- 
room in the rear and a code of signals 
established. An effort was made to keep 
all material which could possibly be re- 
quested within reach of the desk assist- 
ant. The Harvard classics, beloved of all 
seekers after culture of the canned vari- 
ety, found a lodging on one end of this 
desk, and have never been allowed to 
stray from it, so great was the pleasure of 
the public and the relief of the assistant 
at having the entire set on tap, so to 



speak, the only difficulty being raised by 
a few captious students who insist on 
reading the volumes in order. 

Like every other library, our desk has 
been covered with posters urging all who 
approach it to "buy thrift stamps" or 
"make a scrapbook" and the backs of 
these posters have been utilized as bul- 
letin boards, notes and instructions for 
the desk assistants being pasted on them. 

In the workroom behind the desk, the 
telephone was moved from its table to 
the desk on which the trays of circula- 
tion stand, so that a telephone renewal 
might be looked up under the proper date, 
and indicated on the book card by the as- 
sistant slipping books without change of 
position. The arrangement of our circu- 
lation has always seemed to be a time- 
saver over the more complicated systems 
in use in some libraries. The book cards 
are filed under date in but two alphabets, 
for fourteen and seven-day books, ar- 
ranged by author and accession numbers. 

We are blessed (or cursed, according to 
the point of view) with a large music roll 
collection. Six rolls are issued on a card 
and the problem of handling them was 
serious since each roll must be charged 
as a separate book. Eventually they were 
treated as ephemera, without book cards 
and a record kept under the borrower's 
card number, of the number of rolls 
charged to him. These borrowers' cards 
are filed by date. The bottom of the box 
is used for a dating slip and the read- 
er's card stamped in the usual manner 
with "6 m. r." penciled opposite the date. 

All special catalogs and indices have 
been distributed through the stacks and 
shelved with the material which they in- 
dex. 



176 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Books for special days are collected as 
soon as the call begins, equipped with 
seven-day labels, and issued without re- 
newal, so that repeated and fruitless comb- 
ing the shelves for this material is elim- 
inated. 

I have been asked to describe our plan 
of parcel post delivery. It is used prin- 
cipally in connection with the reserve sys- 
tem. The reader requesting the reserva- 
tion of a book is given a perforated form 
on the upper half of which he writes the 
book desired, and at the bottom his name 
and address, at the same time paying five 
cents for the postage. The slip with his 
name is filed with the money in the de- 
livery stations department which has 
charge of all mailing and the upper slip 
is turned over to the reserve assistant. 
When the book is located, book and slip 
are given to the assistant in charge of 
parcel post, and mailed at once. Bor- 
rowers desiring regularly to receive their 
books through the mail deposit any sum, 
usually fifty cents or a dollar. This is 
credited to their account and when the 
money is exhausted a note is sent them 
to that effect. 

Four daily newspapers in St. Louis pub- 
lish weekly annotated lists of new or in- 
teresting books in the library, prepared 
by members of the staff, all regular as- 
sistants in turn being drafted. At the 
head of these lists appears the caption: 
"Any of these books will be sent by par- 
cel post to card holders on receipt of 
postage, in order of application." In gen- 
eral the parcel post privilege is used far 
less than would be expected when one con- 
siders that the deposit required, five cents, 
is actually less than one carfare. And 
yet the amount charged for a reserve 
postal is gladly paid. The reserve sys- 



tem indeed is constantly growing. Eight 
hundred reserves for books were left dur- 
ing the month of February. Undoubtedly 
in time our patrons will realize the ad- 
vantages of having these books delivered 
to their door instead of being obliged to 
call for them within two days after no- 
tification, and we shall then have greatly 
augmented use of the parcel post delivery. 

The final step was the more intensive 
organization of the staff. With one en- 
tirely untrained assistant and several 
others to whom circulation work was new, 
it was necessary to have very minute 
schedules, and since all worked under high 
pressure, their time was divided into 
short periods, no one working more than 
an hour and a half at a given task and 
sedentary work always alternating with 
"running," which is the technical name we 
give to bringing books to the readers from 
the book stack or open shelves. For sev- 
eral years the library staff have served 
afternoon tea, the tea hour being from 
3:45 to 4:30 and each department being 
responsible for its service at least one 
day on alternate weeks. Emphatically 
this institution has added twenty per cent 
to our afternoon efficiency; it is not too 
much to say that it unquestionably saved 
four times the number of hours lost from 
illness that its actual serving entailed. 

I realize quite well how rudimentary 
and unbalanced most of these attempts at 
system must seem, but they have helped 
solve our problem, and I feel sure that in 
efficiency, not used in the hackneyed 
sense in which it has been employed ad 
nauseam, but rightfully considered as "the 
relation of what is to what ought to be" 
lies the true road to short cuts in our 
lending departments. 



TEAL 



177 



ARRANGEMENT AND BINDING OF BRITISH BLUE BOOKS 
BY WILLIAM TEAL, Superintendent of Delivery, The John Crerar Library, Chicago 



In presenting this paper I realize that 
there are perhaps not very many libraries 
subscribing for the British Parliamentary 
Papers, but from the inquiries that we 
have received concerning them I judge the 
number is increasing and I am informed 
that trouble is met in keeping these pa- 
pers arranged so that they may be of use 
before being bound. Therefore I have 
been asked to prepare this paper with the 
hope that by explaining the arrangement 
at the John Crerar Library aid may be ex- 
tended in solving these difficulties. 

To those who are not familiar with the 
British Blue Books, as the Parliamentary 
Papers are commonly known, let me ex- 
plain that they are in two series, namely: 
Sessional Papers of the House of Lords and 
Sessional Papers of the House of Com- 
mons. The former are composed of the 
House of Lords Papers and Bills and Pa- 
pers by Command. The latter consist of 
House of Commons Reports and Papers, 
House of Commons Bills and Papers by 
Command. The Papers by Command are 
listed in each series as they are presented 
to both Houses of Parliament by command 
of His Majesty. Each division of each 
series has a distinct method of number- 
ing, as for instance the House of Lords 
Papers and Bills have their numbers en- 
closed in parentheses, the House of Com- 
mons Bills have the word "Bill" preced- 
ing the number, the House of Commons 
Reports and Papers have the number only, 
and the Papers by Command have "Cd" 
preceding the number and the whole en- 
closed in brackets. Since this paper was 
written some of the 1919 Sessional Pa- 
pers arrived and I notice they have 
changed the "Cd" to "Cmd." The Papers 
by Command are numbered continuously 
through several sessions until they reach 
five figures, or the sovereign changes, 
when they begin to renumber from one. 
The other divisions renumber for each 
session. Having learned this method of 



numbering one can tell at a glance when 
seeing a paper to which series and divi- 
sion it belongs. 

A check list is published monthly and 
quarterly. Each quarterly list cumulates 
from the beginning of the year so that the 
last quarterly list is the check list for 
the year. 

These are shelved at the delivery desk 
in the reading room. As soon as the pa- 
pers are received they are arranged in or- 
der according to the series and division 
for checking. In going over them I watch 
for reports of committees and royal com- 
missions, or bills which I think may be 
called for, and turn them over to the ref- 
erence librarians that they may make 
note of them. Just at present we are 
making note of all the reports from the 
Ministry of Reconstruction. The Fisher 
Educational Bill is very much in demand 
at present writing. These reports and 
bills are kept near the delivery desk so 
that they are easily accessible when 
wanted. 

After the papers are checked they are 
taken to the shelves and placed in boxes 
which are specially made for them. These 
boxes are made of light wood and are 34% 
inches long, 9^ inches wide and 13^ 
inches high with two partitions inside. 
You will readily see from these dimen- 
sions that a box will just fill a shelf and 
accommodate the quarto size papers. The 
front side of the <box is hinged at the bot- 
tom with a flap on the top of the box to 
keep it in place when the box is closed. 
In shelving the papers in the boxes they 
are arranged in numerical order exactly 
as they appear in the check list, with 
space left for those papers reserved at 
the delivery desk. The boxes are then 
labeled with the first and last number of 
the series and division. 

The papers cannot be bound until the 
title pages, tables of content, and the in- 



178 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



dexes have arrived, which is generally 
about a year and a half after the close of 
the session. The volumes are then made 
up and sent to the bindery. The index 
forms the last volume of each series. 

As was stated in the beginning, the Pa- 
pers by Command are printed in each 
series, but, as we subscribe for only one 
eet, they are bound in the House of Lords 
series. If not called for by the House of 
Lords Index, the paper is inserted in its 
place in the House of Commons series. 
There are not more than three or four 
Papers by Command that are not bound 
in the House of Lords series. In the ta- 
ble of contents of those volumes of the 
House of Commons series from which the 
Papers by Command are missing a writ- 
ten reference in red ink is made to those 
volumes of the House of Lords series that 
contain the missing papers. A printed 
pink slip is also inserted in front of each 
table of contents in which such reference 
is made, explaining the reference. Be- 
cause of these missing Papers by Com- 
mand and in order to make volumes of 
sufficient size it is frequently necessary 
co run several volumes of the House of 
Commons series into one. When all the 
papers of a volume are missing the table 
of contents is bound with the preceding 
volume. In two or three of the volumes 
an octavo is bound with the quarto, but 



in general the octavo volumes are sep 
arated from the quarto. 

After the books are returned from the 
bindery they are turned over to the card 
department to be sent to the classifiers 
for Library of Congress analyticals. They 
are then shelved and when the cards are 
filed in the public catalog the Blue Books 
are in demand. 

The Catalog of Parliamentary Papers, 
1801-1900, and its Supplement, 1901-1910, 
published by King & Son, is of great as- 
sistance in locating material in the Blue 
Books. It would be a great help, though, 
if the number of the paper and the year 
were given in this catalog instead of the 
year only. Each item is numbered and 
placed in brackets which at first glanca 
makes one think it is a Paper of Com- 
mand. 

Before drawing this to a close let me 
call to your attention that often a paper 
is called a Blue Book when it does not be- 
long to the Parliamentary Papers but to 
the official publications which are issued 
by the official branches of the government 
such as the Home Office, the Admiralty 
and the Board of Trade. A monthly and 
quarterly check list of these is issued, sim- 
ilar to the Parliamentary Papers. Some- 
times an official publication is made a Par- 
liamentary Paper and in such cases the 
number of the paper is given in the check 
list. 



BIBLIOGRAPHICAL OPPORTUNITIES IN HORTICULTURE * 

BY MABJOBIE F. WAENEB, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. 8, Department of Agriculture, 

Washington, D. C. 



Horticultural bibliography has two im- 
portant phases: (a) Study of works con- 
cerning the cultivation of fruits, flowers, 
and vegetables, and of plants in relation to 
landscape, constituting what we call horti- 
cultural literature; and (b) collection of 
data on the history or origins of the plants 
and processes of horticulture, whether in 
works of the preceding group, or gleaned 
from the most diverse sources travel, 
biography, general history, manuscripts, old 



Abridgment of paper. 



newspapers, and what not a form of re- 
search no less vital than the other, though 
less frequently undertaken by librarians, 
and requiring, moreover, selective and 
critical faculties of a very high order. 

Bibliographical work in connection with 
horticulture has been greatly neglected. 
The most comprehensive bibliography of 
the literature is the third section of 
S6guier's "Bibliotheca botanica" (Lugduni 
Batavorum, 1740) ; not that this contains 
the largest number of titles, as there are 



WARNER 



179 



others more extensive, but for his time, 
Se"guier appears to cover most thoroughly 
all the literature of cultivated plants and 
plant culture, including not only gardening, 
but field crops and arboriculture. I believe 
there has been no attempt in modern times 
to cover the entire field of horticulture, 
though there are selected lists and partial 
bibliographies by country, as Mariboe 
( (t Fortegnel6e over Dansk Havebrugslit- 
teratur fra 1546-1908." K0benhavn, 1909) on 
the Danish; Johnson ("History of English 
gardening." London, 1829), and Cecil ("His- 
tory of gardening in England." London, 
1895), on the English; Bailey (list of 
American horticultural books in "Standard 
cyclopedia of horticulture," v. 3: pp. 1523- 
1562. New York, 1915) on the American; 
Dochnahl ( "Bibliotheca hortensis." Ntirn- 
berg, 1861) on the German (including 
Austrian) literature; by subjects, as 
landscape gardening, pomology, floriculture, 
etc.; but no single authority on the litera- 
ture as a whole, nor anything whatever 
on some portions of it, although some oth- 
ers have been very competently treated. 

Recent bibliographical work in this field 
has generally taken the form of researches 
into the history of cultivated plants, save 
in France and England, where it has also 
included critical study of books and authors, 
as well as the treatment of interesting and 
obscure phases of gardening history. In 
this country almost nothing has been done 
with horticultural literature, in the limited 
sense, prior to 1915, when L. H. Bailey's 
List of American horticultural books ap- 
peared in the "Standard cyclopedia of horti- 
culture," a big and useful undertaking, 
which will inevitably furnish the basis for 
the more critical bibliography, which it is 
to be hoped we may have in the near future. 

Check List of American Horticultural 
Books One of the most obvious oppor- 
tunities, therefore, consists in bringing this 
list down to date, and amplifying it as to 
earlier titles and editions. As Professor 
Bailey himself is not making a supplement, 
this task is open to any library or librarian 
who will be responsible for it, and make the 
information accessible to others. It would 



be a comparatively simple matter to turn 
the list into card form, which would make 
it possible to incorporate additions to date 
in one alphabet, and would also give oppor- 
tunity for inclusion of critical notes and 
supplementary information which would be 
invaluable in the compilation of a more 
extended bibliography. Happily for us, 
American horticultural literature is suffi- 
ciently distinct, both as to period and as 
to materials and conditions of cultivation 
in this country, to enable us to treat it 
Independently. With American publications 
eliminated, the remaining literature of 
horticulture seems to fall naturally into 
two groups: Modern European literature 
from the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury; and earlier works coming down to the 
end of the eighteenth. We need hardly 
concern ourselves with these groups, how- 
ever, as European horticultural literature, 
especially that of the last half century, is 
too voluminous to be satisfactorily handled 
save in European libraries, nor does it ap- 
pear that we can do a great deal with the 
very old books, as we have too few for 
purposes of comparison. 

Indexes Indexes afford a wonderful 
chance for the bibliographer. Few Ameri- 
can horticultural periodicals possess even 
tolerable annual indexes; at the present 
time I recall only one, now extinct, which 
has a really excellent one, i. e., Garden and 
Forest, and European journals are no bet- 
ter. Even the Gardeners' Chronicle, pre- 
eminent in many respects, is most ineffec- 
tively indexed, the total absence of authors' 
names being a serious defect when it comes 
to locating faulty or incomplete references, 
while the method of entering under sub- 
ject varies from time to time, and is never 
adequate to all requirements. Gartenflora, 
which at times has had fairly good an- 
nual and even decennial indexes, varies 
so much from one volume to another that 
one cannot tell how to look for book re- 
views, personal notices, etc. Several valu- 
able journals have indexes which are mere- 
ly lists of titles, slightly altered to bring 
them under leading words, and examples 
of inadequate indexing might be multiplied 



180 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



indefinitely. Of course, the great bulk of 
some of the series would make the~cost 
of publishing a comprehensive index al- 
most prohibitive, but if it were known that 
there was an adequate index in card form 
for some of these sets, there would be 
many inquiries for the information it 
might contain on various aspects of hor- 
ticultural and botanical work. Whosoever 
would deserve well of posterity could hard- 
ly do better than compile a thorough index 
to the Gardeners' Chronicle, or the Journal 
of the French National Horticultural So- 
ciety, or our own Horticulturist or Ameri- 
can Gardening. Then, too, many of the 
publications of our state and local societies 
and boards of horticulture would be ren- 
dered more valuable by thorough indexes, 
especially for the earlier issues. 

Rarities in Periodicals One of the most 
difficult as well as one of the most fasci- 
nating opportunities is the collection of 
data on early American journals and so- 
cieties. There are several horticultural 
journals, mostly very fragmentary it is 
true, which so far as I can discover have 
not been noted in any bibliography, and 
in some cases a single issue may be lo- 
cated in one library and another in a dis- 
tant collection, so that no one knows ex- 
actly what or how much has ever been 
published. There have also been many 
reports and transactions of local societies, 
of which there is not the slightest record. 
So elusive is this kind of material that it 
is not safe to pass by a stray issue of any 
American report or journal, unless one 
absolutely knows it to be common. An 
interesting example of this kind is the 
Magazine of Gardening and Botany, of 
which vol. 1, no. 1, January, 1834, was pub- 
lished in Baltimore under the editorship of 
H. F. Dickehut. I have seen only this one 
issue and have never seen any allusion to 
either the journal or its editor. Again, I 
lately noted in a bibliography of Dr. C. C. 
Parry, a paper published in the Utah Po- 
mologist for May, 1874, a periodical not in- 
cluded in L. H. Bailey's list of journals, 
though found in Bolton's "Catalogue of 



scientific and technical periodicals" (Wash- 
ington, 1897). 

Societies Without Transactions Here 
too we may mention the horticultural so- 
cieties which appear to have published few 
or no reports, but are chiefly immortalized 
by printed addresses at annual meetings 
and fairs, etc., while their actual transac- 
tions, if any, were in all probability print- 
ed in local newspapers. Such was the case 
with the important society flourishing in 
New York from about 1824; the Pennsylva- 
nia and Maryland state societies started 
about 1830, and the New Haven county so- 
ciety in the forties, and even the Massa- 
chusetts Horticultural Society during the 
first decade or so after its establishment 
in 1829. Hence the record of what these 
various organizations did to stimulate the 
science and practice of horticulture in 
this country is chiefly to be sought in gen- 
eral agricultural journals or in local news- 
papers. Sometimes valuable information 
is found in very remote sources, as for in- 
stance, a letter by Robert Schomburgk on 
the horticultural societies of Philadelphia 
and New York, In the transactions of the 
Berlin gardening society in 1830. It would 
be useful to have even a bare list of the 
names of very local societies, like the 
Aiken (S. C.) fruit-growing society, which 
existed in 1859, on evidence of an address 
of that date by H. W. Ravenel ; or the Scott 
county (Iowa) horticultural society, be- 
fore which Dr. Parry gave a paper (noted 
in the bibliography above mentioned), 
which was printed in the Western Weekly 
of Davenport, February 21, 1874; while the 
history of some of these societies is like- 
ly to be as interesting as it is obscure. 

Literature of the Seed and Nursery 
Trade Apropos of rare and fugitive mate- 
rial, let me adjure you never to throw 
away trade catalogs of seed and nursery 
firms without consulting the Massachusetts 
Horticultural Society or the Library of the 
Department of Agriculture, both of which 
have in recent years been slowly and pain- 
fully collecting just such material as is 
constantly being destroyed, though per- 
haps not so recklessly at present as in 



WARNER 



181 



times past. Such catalogs may be of serv- 
ice under various circumstances, as (a) 
determining identity of new plants which 
have been exploited by the trade before 
receiving botanical recognition; (b) care- 
less use of trade names, which makes it 
doubtful whether a plant sold and widely 
known under a given name is actually the 
botanical species entitled to that name; 
(c) interest in the date and place of no- 
table advances in plant breeding, produc- 
tion of important hybrids, etc.; (d) origin 
and history of plants introduced into cul- 
tivation from a wild state or from other 
countries. The uncertainty surrounding 
the origin or introduction of some of our 
well-known cultivated plants is surprising, 
and there is always a chance that some 
item of information may have appeared in 
a trade catalog, long before it was taken 
up by the more enduring literature of the 
horticultural manuals, or even mentioned 
in periodicals. 

Inasmuch, therefore, as the earliest no- 
tice of plants brought into cultivation 
often occurs in trade lists, and as the lat- 
ter have in many cases utterly disappeared, 
it is particularly important that we, in in- 
dexing periodicals, should not fail to re- 
cord plant novelties quoted from such cata- 
logs, as well as the names of firms whose 
catalogs are mentioned; for instance the 
lists in Allgemeine Gartenzeitung of 
plants offered for sale by Deegen of Koes- 
tritz or Friedrich Adolph Haage, Jr., of 
Erfurt. The introduction of a given va- 
riety can often be traced to a certain firm, 
but there is sometimes great difficulty in 
discovering the exact date when it was 
first produced or distributed. 

Biographical and Bibliographical Data 
One of the facts strongly emphasized in 
my experience is the difficulty of obtaining 
biographical and bibliographical data in 
connection with special subjects like horti- 
culture. In case of persons thoroughly 
identified with the literature, one may ex- 
pect to find all the essential data in hor- 
ticultural reference books; but if, as fre- 
quently occurs, important contributions to 
horticultural knowledge are made by physi- 



cians, members of the clergy or monastic 
orders, business men, or even legislators, 
it is necessary to call to our aid biograph- 
ical or historical works dealing with the 
profession, the sect or occupation of the 
author. A case in point is that of Ed- 
ward Sprague Rand, Jr., who wrote many 
floricultural treatises from about 1863 to 
1884, when he lost his life in a steamboat 
disaster, although L. C. printed cards give 
the date of his death as 1897. The infor- 
mation given in horticultural journals is 
meager, but mentions Rand as a Boston 
lawyer, so one would probably be more 
likely to discover a good account of him 
in the records of the legal profession than 
those of gardening. On the other hand, 
general reference books of apparently re- 
mote interest often yield information on 
persons who are otherwise very elusive. 
Of course, one would naturally make use 
of local history, genealogies, and collected 
and individual biography, while there is a 
vast amount of material on the lives and 
work of authors, plant breeders and col- 
lectors, etc., in horticultural journals and 
reports, which should either be brought 
together in the course of regular indexing, 
or which might be made the object of spe- 
cial work in this direction the data thus 
collected would be indispensable to the 
editor of a critical bibliography of horti- 
culture, and a card index of such material 
would probably be frequently called upon 
to furnish information to investigators 
and authors in horticultural subjects. A 
very natural and desirable outcome of the 
quest for such data would moreover be the 
publication of biographical sketches of 
older, often almost unknown authors and 
horticulturists, after the fashion of the 
excellent biographies which have been pub- 
lished in Le Jardin, Gardeners 1 Chronicle, 
and Garden. 

Historical Research For historical re- 
search in the field of horticulture, actual 
treatises on the history of agriculture and 
gardening or of cultivated plants form hut 
a small proportion of our sources. The 
trade literature has already been men- 
tioned, and there is, of course, much to be 



182 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



found in gardening and agricultural jour- 
nals, but for the study of early American 
horticulture, one of the chief sources of 
information is found in newspaper files. 
Though difficult and tedious in the ex- 
treme, the search of local papers is some- 
times rewarded by notes on. experiments 
with crops, new and marvelous fruits and 
vegetables of local production, personal 
data, advertisements of seeds and "garden 
sass," which are not to be found else- 
where. The examination of manuscripts is 
still more difficult, but journals, letters, 
account books, and even legal documents 
may yield significant bits of gardening his- 
tory, as exchange of seeds and plants (of 
great importance from the point of view 
of plant introduction and distribution), 
notes on climate in relation to vegetation, 
data on prices of seeds, tools and garden 
produce, or wages of garden labor, etc. Lo- 
cal history and natural history are also to 
be considered, as well as description and 
travel, biographies and published diaries 
and letters, to say nothing of the transac- 
tions of learned societies, which in early 
times covered a wide range of economic 
and practical topics, as those of the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Society and Royal So- 
ciety of London. 

For early European work in plant in- 
troduction, besides the agricultural books, 
we turn to such travels in the Levant as 
Busbecq's "Epistolicae Turcicae" (Parisiis, 
1589), or Belon's "Observations de plu- 
sieurs singularity et choses me"morables 
trouv6es en Gr&ce, Asie, Inde"e, Egypte, 
Arabic," etc. (Anvers, 1555), or to the let- 
ters of Peiresc ("Lettres de Peiresc, 
publie"es par Ph. Tamesey de Larroque." 
Paris, 1886-98. 7 v.), the friend of Clusius 
and other naturalists of his day, who "was 
zealous in the introduction of new plants 
at his estates in Provence. 

Critical Work on Old Books Unhappily 
the really old gardening books, especially 
English ones, seem to be in such demand 
from collectors that our agricultural libra- 
ries, with their modest funds, are not like- 
ly to compass many of them. A census of 
sixteenth and seventeenth century books 



in the United States might reveal many 
choice volumes in private hands, while 
showing regrettable deficiencies in this 
line in our library collections. Many of 
these works, moreover, printed in times 
when labor was relatively cheaper than 
paper and ink, were issued in such small 
editions as to be today practically non- 
existent. If there was any demand for a 
work, this naturally led to frequent re- 
prints, and together with the common 
practice of anonymity, helps to explain the 
extensive production of plagiaries. It thus 
occurs that we rarely find two copies 
precisely alike of certain books, while on 
the other hand, similar or practically iden- 
tical contents often masquerade under sev- 
eral different authors or titles. All these 
factors render it difficult, when we get ref- 
erences to some of these works, and even 
in handling the volumes themselves, to 
identify the author or original source of 
the work. If we could have access to all 
other publications on the subject for about 
the same period, the difficulty might some- 
times be solved by comparison, but in the 
absence of the books themselves, we are 
glad of any clue to aid in identifying our 
titles and establishing their relationship 
to others. There is an article by R. P. 
Brotherston in the Gardeners 1 Chronicle 
(The carnation in French literature. Gard. 
Chron. III. 39: 97. P.17, 190) giving an 
account of a very rare book: "Le Jardinage 
des oeillets," par L. B. (Paris, 1647) which 
I have been unable to locate in this coun- 
try, but from this description it is evident 
that the "Traite" des oeillets" in Pierre 
Morin's "Remarques ne"cessaires pour la 
culture des fleurs."... Nouvelle 6d. (Lyon, 
1686) is derived from the same source, if 
irdeed not entirely taken from the earlier 
work. This is but a single instance of the 
utility of studies of this kind, although I 
am likewise deeply indebted to many sim- 
ilar ones which have been published in 
England and France, primarily from the 
literary or bibliographical standpoint, 
rather than from that of the scientific or 
practical horticulturist. This is not to say 
that practical and scientific knowledge do 



WARNER 



183 



not play an important part in such work, 
but merely to suggest the possibilities open 
to the bibliographer in the study of gar- 
dening books as books. And while we in 
this country have comparatively few of 
these critical old books to deal with, it is 
hardly an exaggeration to say that the 
majority of those we have present more or 
less serious difficulties. When the latter 
have been successfully cleared up, it is all 
the more important, therefore, that the re- 
sults should not be lost; in case cards are 
to be printed, rather full explanatory notes 
may sometimes be given, but in many 
other cases the publication of a more ex- 
tended bibliographical note is clearly ad- 
visable. 

Editing One field of activity, although 
not strictly bibliographical, which calls for 
a considerable degree of bibliographical in- 
sight and experience, is the editing, index- 
ing and translating of the agricultural 
classics, which are essential to a knowledge 
of the history of plants under cultivation. 
The early Latin and Greek authors have 
been many times edited, and there are Eng- 
lish versions of the "Geoponika" and 
"Scriptores rei rusticae," but there are 
many important writers down into the 
eighteenth century who are l?ttle known, 
partly because of their rarity and partly 
because they have not been exploited. 
Colerus ("Oeconomia ruralis et domestica." 
Wittembergae, 1597) and Hohberg ("Geor- 
gica curiosa." Niirnberg, 1687) are indeed 
rare; Herrera ("Obra de agricultural' 
Alcala deHenares, 1513) has not been trans- 
lated save into Italian, although there are 
numerous editions, including a compara- 
tively modern one ( "Agricultura general." 
Madrid, 1818-19. 3 v.) in Spanish; and 
even the work of Crescenzi ( "Opus ruralium 
commodorum." Augsburg, 1471. [Modern 
ed.] "Trattato della agricoltura. Ridotto 
a migliore lezione da Bartolomeo Sorio." 
Verona, 1851. 3 v.), which was richly rep- 
resented among incunabula, and between 
1500 and 1851 had possibly two score edi- 
tions in Latin, French, Italian, and Ger- 
man, is comparatively little known. Even 
if all the wisdom of these early writers 



had been condensed into the modern trea- 
tises, the individual flavor of their work 
cannot be thus transmitted, and without 
this our conception of the literature of 
agriculture and gardening is apt to be dry 
and dull. The rarity of these books is a 
strong argument for bringing them to 
wider notice, and while modern editions 
or complete English translations are in 
most cases impracticable, it would be in- 
spiring if summaries of the portions on 
plants and cultivation could be published, 
with well-chosen and carefully translated 
extracts a task which should appeal to 
some of you in whom a taste for languages 
is joined to the love of books. 

In this connection we should also note 
the value and interest of material relating 
to gardening which may be excerpted from 
old books other than agricultural, and com- 
monly supposed to have no bearing on the 
subject. An example of this kind recently 
appeared in the Gardeners' Chronicle, be- 
ing a translation with explanatory notes, 
by P. M. Graves ("On the walled garden." 
Gard. Chron. III. 65: 105-106. Mr. 8, 1919) 
from "Le Menagier de Paris," a late four- 
teenth century manuscript published by 
the Societe" des Bibliophiles in 1846. This 
suggests what might be done for American 
horticultural history by the publication 
in accessible journals of material on gar- 
dening to be found in books on American 
history and description of the colonial pe- 
riod, or to be gleaned from manuscript 
sources, etc. While the works from which 
coherent garden documents could be ex- 
tracted are not very numerous, there are 
many fragmentary items suitable for in- 
teresting and useful notes on the horti- 
culture of particular periods or localities, 
or special aspects of cultivation. The his- 
torical section of Miss Tabor's "Old-fash- 
ioned gardening" (New York, 1913) is a 
good illustration of the richness and in- 
terest of the data on American gardening 
which may be painstakingly collected from 
miscellaneous sources. 

Conclusion It is perhaps superfluous to 
suggest the two factors indispensable to 
such undertakings as I have outlined (a) 



184 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



the library worker with a passionate zeal 
for research and great persistence in the 
prosecution of aims which lie somewhat 
outside the range of everyday routine; and 
(b) the library sufficiently catholic and 
far-sighted to realize the advantages of 
bibliographical thoroughness and special- 
ization. One cannot lightly recommend to 
already overburdened librarians tasks 
which involve considerable time, nor is it 
practicable for the average library to grant 
its assistants unlimited leisure for research 
v/hich may seem unproductive so far as the 
library itself is concerned. But I would 
call attention to the fact that in this coun- 
try most of the bibliographical work in the 
field of horticulture is not being done by 
those specially trained for that kind of 
work, but by the scientists. Are we es- 
sentially incompetent to handle it, or is it 
not rather through sheer inadvertence 
that we have overlooked the opportunity? 
Do not misunderstand me if I say in this 
connection that there is danger of dwelling 



too much on cooperation and too little on 
specialization; the former too often aims 
only at visible and tangible results, and 
necessarily fails to take into account in- 
dividual adaptations for peculiar lines of 
work. Let us therefore encourage the 
spirit of personal research along bibliogra- 
phical lines, endeavoring to direct it into 
channels of ultimate usefulness, and by 
coordinating the work of individuals, make 
it as generally available as possible. It 
should be evident that a large fund of spe- 
cial personal qualifications in various de- 
partments of science and literature is a 
rich asset in any library, while as for in- 
dividual rewards, I am convinced that the 
literature of agriculture and horticulture 
offers to librarians and bibliographers op- 
portunities for monuments of scholarship 
no less dignified, even if less conspicuous, 
than some of those which have already 
been established by fellow librarians in 
general literature and history 'or in other 
sciences. 



LIBRARIES AND READING AS AN AID TO MORALE 

BY EDWARD L. MUNSON, Colonel, General Staff, United States Army, Chief, 

Morale Branch 



Libraries and reading as an aid to the 
morale of troops have a value which the 
Morale Branch, on its organization, 
promptly recognized and set about to use 
as fully, systematically and efficiently as 
possible. Possessed, as it is, of intimate 
and accurate knowledge of the desires and 
needs of the soldier, it at once saw the 



desirability of establishing as close a rela- 
tion as practicable with the American Li- 
brary Association, to the end that the lat- 
ter might have all available information 
whereby it could function to full efficiency. 
The Morale Branch believes that a 
proper library is far more than a mere 
collection of books. If suitably handled, 



185 



It Is a powerful agency for the promotion 
and maintenance of good morale. For 
morale is a state of mind which has its ex- 
pression in behavior, and anything which 
contributes to wholesome mental state is 
reflected in conduct. 

The Morale Branch is essentially an 
agency of conservation and economy, for 
it capitalizes and turns to practical mil- 
itary account and purpose the desirable 
states of mind which are created prac- 
tically as a "by-product" in the pursuit of 
aims in which morale does not directly ap- 
pear but which are, to greater or lees de- 
gree, likewise sources of contentment, in- 
terest, discipline, and high ideals. It has 
endeavored to turn the great contribution 
which the American Library Association 
has made in these respects to the service 
into terms of increased good order and 
military efficiency. 

It has recognized the use of books by 
soldiers, not only as a valuable means of 
recreation and an essential agent in edu- 
cation and instruction, but as a ready 
channel for the conveyance of suggestion 
and thought for the betterment of char- 
acter and behavior. The importance of 
this has more and more been recognized, 
for war is a clash of wills even more than 
one of arms. An act results only from sen- 
timent, ideals and purpose. The Morale 
Branch has been interested accordingly, 
not only that libraries be available and be 
fully used, but that the selection of their 
literature be so judiciously made as to 
meet general and special needs and up- 
build morale and stabilize behavior by en- 
gendering wholesome states of mind. 

The Morale Branch recognized the fact 
that literature arouses certain mental 
imagery which incites to action. Stand- 
ards and ideals are presented which are 
more or less unconsciously adopted by the 
reader and serve as guides for later con- 
duct. By suggestion, literature arouses 
the factor and instinct of imitation. It 
was therefore interested in having these 
standards high". Cooperation between the 
American Library Association and the" Di- 
vision of Military Intelligence insured that 



the literature of the former would, in all 
cases, make for high ideals and .beneficent 
results. 

Contrary to the general idea, there Is 
little idle time in the Army, as the mil- 
lions of soldiers throughout the country 
will testify. The eight-hour day of the 
workingman finds no counterpart in any 
time limit in the service, for anything 
which has to be accomplished is done with- 
out regard to hours. But though the sol- 
dier's day is long, his work is systematized 
and accordingly there are brief intervals 
which may be snatched between exercises 
and duties; and, in common with other 
citizens, he has certain periods for rest, 
relaxation, and recreation, which he can 
call his own. 

Men whose duties require much physical 
exercise tend to take their amusements 
and recreation quietly, and many after 
the work of the day have found pleasant 
and beneficial mental activity in the rest- 
ful quiet of your libraries. At such times, 
the Morale Branch felt that they were in 
good hands and for the time 'being need 
receive no concern relative to thoughts or 
acts of indiscipline or disorder. Moreover, 
it felt that the lasting ideals conveyed by 
your books would help to relieve any ap- 
prehension for conduct in the future. 

Many soldiers also were at times re- 
stricted by duties from participating in 
other forms of amusement. The man on 
guard or on special duty in barracks could 
not visit his friends, go to the show, or 
participate In the athletic contest. In 
such cases books were of particular value, 
for they were always available, could be 
picked up and read in the intervals of 
duty, serving to pass away time, other- 
wise idle, with profit as well as pleasure. 

This also particularly applied to the sick 
in hospitals, whose infirmities largely cur- 
tailed participation in other pleasures, and 
whose surroundings were such that few 
other measures for promoting morale could 
be directly applied. The value of good 
books in meeting this particular situation 
can scarcely be over-estimated. 

The printed word was accordingly es- 



186 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



pecially available as a morale agency at 
times when other stimulants to morale had 
their functions in abeyance. It was a 
powerful agency, for there is such a popu- 
lar respect for the printed word as to 
render the mind especially receptive to 
the ideas it conveys. To a certain class, 
seeing a thing in print is a guarantee of 
correctness, as an advertising expert will 
tell you. The old words, "it is written," 
are the finality in law and religion. 

All this reading promoted contentment 
and bettered conduct through suggestion 
and environment. It opened up a new 
vista of opportunity to many, thereby 
bringing into play, as a constructive force 
for military efficiency, the factor of self- 
interest, which is one of the mainsprings 
of individual endeavor. It also at the 
same time stimulated and satisfied the 
natural instinct of curiosity, which is at 
the basis of all human progress. 

The American Library Association was 
most generous to the Army in its provision 
of books of all sorts. In the six million 
books it supplied there was something for 
every man and every mood. The latter 
changed. While the war -lasted, books re- 
lating to military methods and purposes 
were particularly called for; after the 
armistice, books on agriculture, trades, ac- 
counting, shorthand, business methods, 
philosophy, etc., became the popular ones. * 

The American Library Association, on 
suggestion of the Morale Branch, at this 
time added a suitable series of good books 
on civics, citizenship and the principles of 
good government, with the idea that if the 
soldier returning to civil life no longer 
need to die for his country, he should 
know how best to live for it. The use of 
these books was popularized in every pos- 
sible way, and doubtless has had great 
stabilizing effect in these times of world 
unrest. 

The Morale Branch was early faced with 
the problem of illiteracy, which existed on 
a scale previously unsuspected. The psy- 
chologists found that one soldier in every 
four could not take English literacy tests 
of an equivalent to the second grade, either 



because of lack of education itself or 
through unfamiliarity with the English 
language. The channel for the creation 
of American and soldierly ideals through 
the printed word was thus closed to one- 
quarter of the Army. 

Further investigations showed that the 
education of another twenty-five per cent 
was too limited to enable them to read 
high class literature with full under- 
standing and profit. This was a most re- 
grettable condition of affairs, for it was par- 
ticularly the ignorant, illiterate and those 
of alien ideas who formed the weakest link 
in the morale chain and who most stood in 
need of the high purposes and ideals so 
well conveyed by literature. 

The difficulty was at once reported to 
the American Library Association, and a 
vast amount of primers, readers, elemen- 
tary textbooks, and simple literature was 
furnished by it to meet the needs of the 
schools and classes which were promptly 
started and promoted. Many men were 
given higher purposes and sounder ideas 
of American citizenship as a result of this 
most valuable and timely aid. 

Libraries in civil life had largely catered 
to the educated and student class. Their 
assistance had to be sought out. But the 
Morale Branch felt that restriction of li- 
brary function in the Army to one of digni- 
fied helpfulness would curtail its useful- 
ness by at least a half as a result of the 
social, racial and literacy composition of 
the troops. Since the average soldier could 
not be expected to seek out the books vol- 
untarily, the books must be brought to him 
or at least their availability and value 
brought to his attention. Accordingly, 
with the full cooperation of the Ameri- 
can Library Association and the effective 
morale organization in camps, a systema- 
tized campaign of library publicity was in- 
augurated. This included special posters, 
signboards, slides at moving picture shows, 
articles in camp papers, announcements of 
new books, systematic addresses to organ- 
izations by effective speakers, appeals to 
officers, publication of special lists of 
books especially suitable for reading by of- 



MUNSON 



187 



fleers and enlisted men, lists of books sup- 
plementing special courses of study, etc. 
The use of book wagons was promoted, 
more branch libraries were established, 
book carts wheeled through the hospital 
wards, and nothing left undone which 
could bring about physical contact between 
the literature and the soldier and arouse 
the latter'e interest therein. 

As a result, there was a most satisfac- 
tory increase in the use of books, especially 
those of practical and industrial informa- 
tion and value. Some camps reported that 
even though their strength had greatly 
dwindled under demobilization the actual 
number of books loaned had greatly in- 
creased. On a percentage basis, it is quite 
possible that the advertising campaign 
made nearly two books blossom into use 
where only one had bloomed before. 

This practical experience on a great scale 
in the Army may have in it the germ of 
a suggestion for the greater popularization 
and utilization of libraries in civil life. It 
would seem as if, especially at the present 
time, libraries rest under the patriotic ob- 
ligation of using every possible measure to 
extend their facilities and good offices to 
that class of citizenry which, through il- 
literacy, inertia, and unfamiliarity with 
American language, customs and ideals 
have heretofore made little use of them. 
In addition to furnishing facilities, they 
might well charge themselves, as a func- 
tion of at least equal practical importance, 



with promoting a greater ability and de- 
sire in the public to make use of them. 
The problem includes not only the provid- 
ing of books, but seeing that the latter 
are widely used, especially by that class 
which stands most in need of their sound 
suggestion and wise counsel The tradi- 
tionally dignified and reserved atmosphere 
characteristic of some civil libraries will 
not unduly suffer through the injection of 
business methods and aggressive publicity 
in reaching a wider clientele which will 
include the class more in need of good 
offices. 

It is probable that every library has its 
untouched opportunities for good. Can 
they not 'be carefully sought out, classified, 
and the needs of the community, as" de- 
veloped, satisfied, better than is being done 
now? Never in its history has the world 
been in such a state of inquiry as at pres- 
ent. Never was there a greater demand 
and need for the dissemination of sound 
principles and ideas than exists today. 
Never have libraries had such a tremen- 
dous opportunity to render public service 
of far-reaching and immediate value. Will 
not the American Library Association re- 
peat for the Nation itself, on a still larger 
scale and without delay, the wonderfully 
valuable constructive service which, as rep- 
representative of the Morale Branch, I am 
here to testify it has performed for the 
Nation's Army? 



188 



STATEMENT OF THE CHAIRMAN, WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE* 
J. I. WYER, JB., Director, New York State Library 



There is little to add to the printed re- 
port which is in your hands delivered, I 
believe, to each registrant at the New 
Monterey Hotel, at the moment of regis- 
tration. The committee hopes that you 
will read this report, though conscious 
that it is official in form, and perhaps not 
enlivening in character. You know the 
work of the committee, and the war serv- 
ice; it has been presented to you not only 
in publications from the offices in Wash- 
ington continuously, but in the journals 
of the profession from month to month. 
In addition, and more important still, 
more informing and heartening to all of 
you, you know the work because it is you 
who have done the work, and there is no 
occasion for a description of it, even a 
summary of it, from this platform. You 
have done the work actually, to the num- 
ber of hundreds; you have done it poten- 
tially at home, in service which permit- 
ted the other hundreds to go out into the 
field. I think there should be and I find 
no place on the program for such a meet- 
ting, a round table for those who stayed 
at home and did war work. 

We hope and expect that by next year 
your war service will be finished. Until 
it is complete, the official story in the re- 
port of the War Service Committee is con- 
fined to plain, unadorned facts, to such 
prosaic matters as the minutes of the meet- 
ings of the War Service Committee, a 
brief letter of transmittal, and a statement 
of operations from the general director. 

There is no discussion of tendencies. 
There might easily be. There is no dis- 
cussion of results in the remoter sense: 
the effect of the work upon the personnel, 
for example, of the Association. There is 
no surmise as to how long it will take the 
members of the Association who have done 
library war work throughout the past year 
or two again to get their feet firmly 
planted upon the earth and be content 



Extemporaneous address. 



with the day's job, after the inspiring 
service that this has meant to so many 
hundreds of our members. There is no 
discussion of the encouraging tendency to 
which Dr. Keppel has referred, the discov- 
ery that the American young man likes 
to read, and likes to use his brains in 
reading. The war has revealed to the li- 
braries of the country a reading constit- 
uency of three or four millions of men 
who perhaps did not read as much at home 
as in the Army, and that discovery of our 
own opportunity, added to the War Depart- 
ment's confirmation of it, is food for re- 
flection in our conduct of the libraries at 
home. 

There is a brief discussion of the future 
of the work; very brief, however, because 
the future of the work will speak for itself 
as it develops, and I can assure the Asso- 
ciation that no effort has been lacking on 
the part of the War Service Committee 
to enjoin upon those in authority the 
wishes and desires, the disposition to co- 
operate in advancing the future of the 
work, with the officials of the War and 
Navy Departments. To repeat the illustra- 
tion used last evening by the president in 
his address, the position of the Associa- 
tion briefly is this: That it is a profes- 
sional body invited to do a specific, pro- 
fessional task or duty or pleasure I like 
the latter word much the best that it has 
done this as best it could; that it is not its 
proper province to continue such a work 
indefinitely at its own expense or at the 
expense of the American people through 
popular subscription, any more than it 
would be the province of the American 
Medical Association to take responsibility, 
financial and administrative, for the med- 
ical corps and the medical service in the 
Army and the Navy. 

I know that this Association differs 
somewhat from the other six "Sisters of 
Service," but in the matter of converting 
the war service into a peace service and 



WYER 



189 



the Association and the War Service Com- 
mittee have that peace service as earnestly 
at heart as any member here there have 
been possibilities and opportunities for 
consultation, for suggestion, perhaps even 
for advice as to what has been in the 
minds of the committee and of the Associa- 
tion touching the form and conduct of a 
permanent peace association. You have 
had hopeful assurances this morning from 
Dr. Keppel. The program apparently of- 
fers opportunity for further such assur- 
ances during the course of the meeting. 

I wish to call particular attention to a 
little pamphlet entitled "The A. L. A. in 
Siberia," which is distributed from the 
alcove devoted to the war service exhibit 
in the New Monterey Hotel. In a sense 
this is a supplement to the report of the 
War Service Committee. It presents let- 
ters written by Mr. Harry Clemmons, for- 
merly reference librarian of Princeton 
University, and for the past few years pro- 
fessor of English and librarian of the 
Chinese university of Nanking, who served 
during the entire emergency as A. L. A. 
representative in Siberia. These letters 
are thrilling, and of keen interest. They 
are perhaps the best specimens of sus- 
tained English that the rush and hurry of 
the service has produced anywhere. They 
call for this permanent dress, and they are 
worthy your careful reading; I can be- 
speak a keen enjoyment of them when this 
pamphlet can claim a few minutes of your 
time. 

One thing more: The formal printed re- 
port contains no statement of obligations. 
It is a heavy roll. The obligations run of- 
ficially, as has been expressed by Mr. 
Bowker, from the floor, to the officials of 
the War and Navy Departments who have 
cooperated so thoroughly, so promptly, so 
informally in many cases, with the Amer- 
ican Library Association, as to deprive 
most of us of the accepted notion that red 
tape abounded in those departments. We 
have been able to get action and decision 
with gratifying speed in most cases, and 
our work has gone on the better in every 



way for the relations of which I speak. Of, 
course, the American Library Association 
is under obligations to the people of the 
country, for it is the people of the country 
who have provided the funds that have 
made its work possible. It is under ob- 
ligations and this has been hinted at al- 
ready to the members of the Association, 
to many librarians who are not members 
of the Association (for there are still 
some, despite the secretary's efforts to en- 
roll everyone), and to many civilians who 
have been more or less perhaps usually 
less exposed to librarianship or library 
influence, but have been moved by the op- 
portunity and the incipient knowledge of 
our work to volunteer, and have rendered 
in large numbers exceedingly efficient 
service, under competent direction, 
throughout the country and abroad. 

To all of these the service is under an 
obligation that cannot adequately be ex- 
pressed. Dr. Keppel has, for the Govern- 
ment, referred to it. The War Service 
Committee must do so again in turn. 

Mention of individuals is obviously out 
of the question. It only remains to be 
said that while it has not been possible 
for everyone called upon to go into the 
service, yet there are very few instances 
indeed where invitations to participate in 
the war service have been declined or 
turned aside, where there were not per- 
fectly obvious and satisfactory reasons 
that such a decision was the inevitable 
one. The committee will continue the 
work until it is done. We hope the money 
will last as long as the work does; there 
have been times when we were not sure 
it. would. Perhaps we are not sure of 
that yet, but all proper means will be 
taken to make the money last until every 
soldier has returned, until that rather un- 
certain date shall arrive when the war is 
officially and actually over. There seems 
to be a little doubt as to when that will 
be, but we are going to give the soldier 
and the sailor the benefit of the doubt as 
long as there is any money left to render 
this service, 



190 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 
WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



To the President and Members of the 

American Library Association: 

Within the year now under review the 
War Service Committee suffered a grevious 
loss in the death of William H. Brett, on 
August 24, 1918. To complete the mem- 
bership of the committee, President Biahop 
named as his successor R. R. Bowker, who 
had heretofore cooperated with the com- 
mittee as advisory member. There have 
been no other changes in personnel, 

During the year ending May 31, 1919, the 
War Service Committee has held five meet- 
ings, as follows: 

July 3, 1918, Saratoga Springs, N. Y.; 
all members present. 

September 24, 1918, Lake Placid, N. Y.; 
four members present. 

November 30, 1918, New York City; six 
members present. 

January 29, 1919, New York City; six 
members present. 

April 5, 1919, New York City; six mem- 
bers present. 

The full minutes of these meetings are 
printed on later pages of this pamphlet. 

The functions of the War Service Com- 
mittee being legislative and supervisory, 
analogous to those of the usual 'board of 
trustees, its own particular and formal 
report is brief little more, indeed, than a 
letter of transmittal. The documents thus 
transmitted follow and recount in consid- 
erable detail the activities carried on in 
the committee's name. These activities 
broadly are two the raising of the money 
for the work of the committee, conducted 
by a Subcommittee on Library War Pi- 
nance, and the Library War Service, con- 
ducted by the general director. Full 
statements from both are appended. Cer- 
tain other and minor activities of the 
committee are noted below, with references 
to fuller accounts in the minutes. 

First war service fund Belated contri- 
butions and additions to this fund swelled 
its total to $1,780,898.24 on September 1, 
1918, after which date, and by the terms 



of an agreement with the other six war 
welfare organizations associated in the 
United War Work Campaign, all subscrip- 
tions and payments on them were merged 
into the common fund. A formal state- 
ment of receipts and payments also ap- 
pears in Appendix B. 

Second war service fund Of the $3,500,- 
000 fixed by the President of the United 
States as quota for the American Library 
Association in the United War Work Cam- 
paign of November 11-18, 1918, $2,800,000 
have been turned over to the War Service 
Committee up to May 31, 1919; $2,609,- 
196.25 in cash and $190,803.75 in liberty 
bonds and war savings stamps. The re- 
mainder, $700,000, is expected in monthly 
instalments within the next six months as 
United War Work pledges by individuals 
and war chests mature. The original 
quota will doubtless be somewhat in- 
creased by collections on oversubscrip- 
tions to the United War Work fund. A 
formal statement of receipts and pay- 
ments appears in Appendix B. 

Committee of Eleven During the 
United War Work Campaign, in order to 
facilitate and safeguard the collection of 
the resulting large fund, and especially 
to take proper and wholesome measures 
fixing the manner and purposes of its use, 
the Secretary of War named a Committee 
of Eleven under the chairmanship of Ray- 
mond B. Fosdick of the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities. Mr. Frank A. 
Vanderlip was designated to represent the 
American Library Association on the Com- 
mittee of Eleven, and after the first meet- 
ing delegated the representation to the 
chairman of the War Service Committee. 
To Mr. Vanderlip the Association is in- 
debted for valuable services in both cam- 
paigns for War Service funds. The text 
of an Interesting and important memoran- 
dum adopted by the Committee of Eleven, 
affecting the expenditure of the United 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



191 



War Work fund, appears on a following 
page with the minutes of the War Service 
Committee meeting of January 29, 1919. 

Library war service This, the principal 
work entrusted to your committee, has 
grown steadily during the year. The sign- 
ing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, 
brought fresh demands and opportunities 
and opened the way for a work which in 
volume and extent far exceeded previous 
efforts. The large camps at home were 
far slower in closing than had been ex- 
pected; great numbers of men were kept 
in them throughout the entire period of 
the emergency; the process of discharg- 
ing returned members of the American Ex- 
peditionary Force took much time; hos- 
pital service quickly assumed surprising 
proportions; service to crews and soldiers 
on returning transports required tens of 
thousands of books and such men as could 
be so assigned; the hundreds of small 
camps and naval stations have scarcely 
yet diminished in number. 

The work overseas increased steadily 
as the Navy and the American Expedi- 
tionary Force in foreign lands and waters 
came to number two-thirds of the whole 
number of Americans under arms. Not 
only the volume but the geographical 
range of the work as set forth in the ap- 
pended statement of the general director 
are impressive. Overseas, too, the armis- 
tice, while decreasing neither the need 
nor the value of the service, yet made 
much easier a systematic and effective 
service to all units and indeed to individ- 
ual men. The ambitious educational pro- 
gram of the Army called for several hun- 
dred thousand volumes; an amazing in- 
terest developed in books helping toward 
preparation for "Your job back home," 
whatever it might be; the Army of Occu- 
pation, the gigantic embarkation camps, 
the newly crowded rest areas, the conges- 
tion of American soldiers in Paris, the sud- 
den and considerable hospital service, all 
brought new situations and an ever in- 
creasing volume of work that has inevi- 
tably claimed the full time of the general 
director in Europe since January, 1919. 



To those in the thick of the service it 
was immediately apparent that the armis- 
tice would bring just this access of work, 
the peak of which in France was not 
passed, indeed, until early in May, 1919, 
when the first traces of diminishing activ- 
ity were noticed. But the general public, 
solicited for continuing supplies of books 
and magazines, even some librarians and 
library trustees, solicited for the indis- 
pensable personal service, have often sur- 
prisingly failed to appreciate that the 
armistice ended neither the war nor the 
imperative need of service to the forces 
which were waging it. 

In addition to the statement of the as- 
sistant general director there will be found 
on later pages, prepared by Dr. A. H. 
Shearer, a connected narrative of the 
American Library Association war service 
from its inception to January 1, 1919. The 
account is, of course, but an imperfect part 
of the story, to be continued (we hope con- 
cluded) within the coming year, yet it 
seems appropriate to offer it as an infor- 
mal and effective supplement to the neces- 
sarily official and statistical character of 
the other reports and documents included. 

Library research as war service At 
Lake Placid, in September, 1918, the com- 
mittee approved the appointment of E. C. 
Richardson as chairman of a Subcommit- 
tee on Library Research as War Service. 
Dr. Richardson completed the committee 
by the designation of H. M. Lydenberg and 
H. H. B. Meyer as his associates. There 
appears as Appendix A to the minutes of 
the War Service Committee's meeting of 
November 30, 1918, an interesting plan for 
the work of this subcommittee, and in the 
minutes of the meeting for April 5, 1919, 
a brief progress report. 

Food information Although the United 
States Food Administration has finished 
its work and the original activities of the 
Subcommittee on Food Information (Clar- 
ibel R. Barnett, chairman) are at an end, 
it is still coSperating with the United 
States Department of Agriculture in the 
recommendation to libraries and others of 
books on agricultural subjects and in the 



192 



preparation of annotated book lists. 

"After-war" reading lists At its Lake 
Placid meeting in September, 1918, the 
War Service Committee approved a plan 
for the preparation and publication, with 
the United States Bureau of Education, of 
a series of fifty annotated book lists on 
war subjects. For the War Service Com- 
mittee, this project is being carried out by 
J. L. Wheeler. Several of the lists are 
ready for distribution at the Asbury Park 
conference and the others will follow 'be- 
fore autumn. They are to be available In 
quantities for wide distribution by all li- 
braries. 

Audits The Finance Committee of the 
American Library Association has from 
the beginning assumed responsibility for 
periodic audits of the accounts of the War 
Service Committee, the general director 
and the Subcommittee on Library War Fi- 
nance. These audits have been made during 
the past year by Marwick, Mitchell, Peat 
and Company, chartered accountants. 
Copies are on file with the chairman of 
the War Service Committee and the chair- 
man of the American Library Association 
Finance Committee, and the particulars as 
to the audits are noted in connection with 
the several financial exhibits which appear 
on subsequent pages. Upon the establish- 
ment of a fiscal routine by the Committee 
of Eleven, the American Library Associa- 
tion (with the six other welfare organiza- 
tions) was required to submit a quarterly 
audit to that committee. By a slight shift 
of the audit date, the same examination 
serves all three purposes, covering ac- 
counts of the War Service Committee, the 
general director and meeting the require- 
ments of the Committee of Eleven. The 
accounts of the first war service fund 
were last audited by a chartered account- 
ant on November 30, 1918. Since that 
date the account has been almost inactive, 
less than a dozen entries appearing on 
both sides of it and the balance being al- 
most unchanged. For this period and ac- 
count the American Library Association 
Finance Committee has accepted bank 
statements and made its own examination. 



The future However willing or eager 
the American Library Association may be 
to carry its present service to American 
soldiers and sailors into times of peace 
and thus meet the undoubted and ex- 
pressed wish of the War and Navy De- 
partments, there are certaia conditions 
and considerations which limit and re- 
strain such action by the present War 
Service Committee. 

Perhaps the most positive and con- 
trolling of these is the following pro- 
nouncement of the Committee of Eleven: 

"The United War Work Campaign fund 
was raised to make possible the serving 
by the seven cooperating organizations in 
the present war emergency of soldiers and 
sailors, and this purpose is to be a gov- 
erning principle in its use, and none of 
the fund shall be expended for non-war 
work or for permanent establishments or 
for endowments." 

Again, the position of the American Li- 
brary Association is unlike that of any of 
its six sister organizations. They are re- 
ligious, semi-religious, charitable or philan- 
thropic and not professional bodies. The 
American Library Association, like, for 
example, the American Medical Associa- 
tion, was invited to render a particular 
professional service during a particular 
emergency. It has no thought (such is 
the feeling of your War Service Commit- 
tee) that it is to continue this service 
into peace times. If the service has ap- 
proved itself to the Army and Navy, their 
officials can organize it as part of their 
regular establishments, as the Medical 
Corps is organized. The Navy has al- 
ready moved to this end by the creation 
of the Sixth (or Morale) Division of the 
Bureau of Navigation, which is to be re- 
sponsible for all welfare work in this de- 
partment, and the plan of organization 
includes a measure of library service for 
its men as soon as funds are available. 

Even if the Association does wish to 
continue the existing library service in the 
peace establishments of the Army and 
Navy, the present committee is a war 
service committee and may not properly 
move in such a matter without instruc- 
tion. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



193 



It therefore becomes necessary as our 
present war service begins to diminish 
and tends in some cases to shade almost 
imperceptibly into peace service to keep 
these considerations clear before us. This 
is not always easy. When is the war 
technically or legally over? Is it when 
the peace treaty has been signed and ap- 
proved by all governments who are par- 
ties to it? Perhaps; but the "present 
emergency" will exist until three months 
after all the "for the duration of the war" 
men have been discharged. 

In cases of doubt, especially when urged 
or requested by the Government, it seems 
clearly wiser to render needed service 
while the money lasts. At the present 
rate of demobilization and peace negotia- 
tions, it looks as if the money would not 
last as long as the "emergency." Your 
committee will, however, use every proper 
effort to make it do so. 

And when either the money is gone or 
the work finished or at any time that the 
Army and Navy is ready to set up an ef- 
fective library service, the War Service 
Committee has offered to turn over such 
books, buildings and equipment as may be 
acceptable to the War and Navy Depart- 
ments, thus giving soldiers and sailors the 
preference over many civilian applicants. 
These offers have been formally made to 
the proper officials in the War and Navy 
Departments, and although neither has as 



yet formally accepted the offers, there is 
every reason to believe that both depart- 
ments will accept them and that some 
means will be provided for administering 
library service in the permanent military 
and naval organizations on a more effect- 
ive basis than has prevailed in the past. 

Every effort has been made by the gen- 
eral director's office and the chairman of 
the War Service Committee, through con- 
ference and correspondence, to effect a 
continuity of service and avoid the break 
which would surely follow from stoppage 
of our own work if arrangements had not 
been carefully made to carry it on. It is 
understood by both War and Navy Depart- 
ments that the American Library Associa- 
tion will probably be able to carry on the 
work until January 1, 1920. The War 
Service Committee may confidently report 
that no effort has been omitted looking 
toward the transfer of this work to army 
and navy authorities, in such manner as 
shall insure its continuity on an effective 
basis and with at least a minimum of pro- 
fessional supervision. 

Respectfully submitted, 

J. I. WYEB, JR., Chairman. 

EDWIN H. ANDERSON. 

CHARLES F. D. BELDEN. 

R. R. BOWKEB. 

GRATIA COUNTRYMAN. 

ELECTRA C. DOREN. 

FRANK P. HILL. 



194 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

Second Financial Campaign 

REPORT OF THE LIBRARY WAR FINANCE COMMITTEE 

J9J8-J9J9 



February 24, 1919. 

To the War Service Committee of the 
A. L. A.: 

The details of the receipts and expendi- 
tures connected with the second library 
war fund campaign are to be found in the 
tables appended to this report, together 
with the report of the secretary, the finan- 
cial statement and the audit of Marwick, 
Mitchell, Peat and Company, all of which 
are made a part of the report of the War 
Finance Committee. 

The Library War Service Committee 
voted an appropriation of $175,000 for cam- 
paign purposes, of which $79,630.86 were 
expended, leaving a balance of $95,269.14. 
Of this balance $50,000 was transferred by 
the War Finance Committee, December 2, 
1918, to the American Security and Trust 
Company, treasurer of the Library War 
Service fund; and the remainder, $45,- 
269.14, is on deposit with the Empire 
Trust Company, New York City, subject to 
disposition by the War Finance Commit- 
tee. 

Originally plans were made for a sep- 
arate campaign, and the machinery was 
"set up" with that end in view; but with 
the amalgamation of the seven organiza- 
tions (Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., K. of C., 
War Camp Community Service, A. L. A., 
Jewish Welfare Board, and Salvation 
Army), these plans had to be reconsid- 
ered and modified, both to permit coop- 
eration with the other organizations and 
to reduce as far as possible the total cost 
of the A. L. A. campaign. The War Fi- 
nance Committee had gone so far in the 
placing of contracts that the saving was 
not so great as it would have been had the 
merger occurred two months earlier. 

The committee received designated sub- 
scriptions amounting to $6,889.41, which 



were turned over to the treasurer of the 
United War Work Campaign, Inc., and also 
received $14,226.80 on account of deferred 
subscriptions to the first fund and from 
the sale of old books, waste paper, etc., by 
librarians, which amount is on deposit in 
the Peoples Trust Company of Brooklyn, 
N. Y., subject to checks drawn jointly by 
the chairman of the War Service Commit- 
tee and chairman of the War Finance Com- 
mittee. 

Official information, under date of Feb- 
ruary 10, 1919, states that "the reported 
subscriptions to December 31, 1918, amount 
to $205,188,793," but without any detailed 
supporting schedule. The only detailed 
statement received from the United War 
Work Committee is that of November 25, 
1918, giving a total of $203,149,575. 

Under date of February 10, 1919, Dr. 
John R. Mott, vice-chairman of the United 
War Work Campaign, Inc., wrote as fol- 
lows: "The last word I had from the 
deputy treasurer indicated that there had 
been paid in to the New York Treasury, 
and this was up to early last week, approx- 
imately $75,000,000, of which, as I recall, 
nearly $8,000,000 was in the form of Lib- 
erty Bonds.** It would appear from the 
statement of Dr. Mott, that the American 
Library Association, in common with the 
other six organizations, would not be able 
to make up budgets covering the full 
amount subscribed. 

In view of the fact that three months 
after the campaign less than forty per cent 
of the whole subscription has been paid 
in, it seems probable that the total collec- 
tion will fall considerably short of the 
original expectation. Under these circum- 
stances the War Finance Committee sug- 
gests the advisability of reconsidering the 
budget heretofore proposed by the war 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



195 



Service Committee, to the end that plans 
may not be made for future expenditures 
in excess of the funds which may be avail- 
able therefor. 

Upon the acceptance of this report the 
committee would ask for its discharge. 

Respectfully submitted, 
For the Library War Finance Committee, 
FRANK P. HILL, Chairman. 

REPORT OF THE SECRETARY 

Last year the American Library Associa- 
tion, for many years chiefly a deliberative 
body, was galvanized into an active organ- 
ization for Library War Service and was 
ushered into the responsibilities of its new 
position by a financial campaign which 
was successful beyond the expectation of 
the most optimistic. 

At the time the first campaign was un- 
dertaken, the contribution which our As- 
sociation could make in time of war was 
based largely upon hope. When, however, 
the need for increased funds became ap- 
parent, the Association had a volume of ex- 
perience which gave eloquent testimony to 
the need and importance of its work in 
the camps and to the appreciation of the 
books for recreation and serious study 
which had been made available to the 
men in the service through the efforts of 
the A. L. A. The year of our participa- 
tion in the war witnessed a great expan- 
sion of library war service and revealed 
opportunities of even greater proportions, 
calling for sums vastly larger than those 
raised in the first campaign. 

The inspiration of this experience was 
shown in the readiness with which the 
librarians responded when plans for a sec- 
ond financial campaign were laid before 
the state directors at the Saratoga Springs 
conference. The enthusiasm of all pres- 
ent at that conference was greatly stimu- 
lated by Dr. Raney's splendid report of the 
work and opportunities overseas. 

A fair proportion of those who had 
acted as state directors in the former 
campaign were present at the conference, 
as were also the newly elected campaign 
director, Mr. Wickes Wamboldt, formerly 



with the American Red Cross, and mem- 
bers of the Finance Committee. 

Several informal conferences were held 
and campaign plans discussed. Immedi- 
ately after the conference, the list of state 
directors was completed and the chairman 
of the state war councils appointed. 

The members of the National Library 
War Council, appointed by the Secretary 
of War in 1917, had generously consented 
to continue to act as members of that 
council. At the request of the Finance 
Committee this council was increased in 
number to twenty-six. Following is the 
full membership: 

FRANK A. VANDERLIP, Chairman, 
ASA G. CANDLER, 
P. P. CLAXTON, 
J. RANDOLPH COOLIDGE, JR., 
MRS. JOSIAH E. COWXES, 
MRS. JAMES S. CUSHMAN, 
W. C. D'ARCY, 
COL. HARRY CUTLER, 

T. COLEMAN DuPONT, 

JOHN H. FINLEY, 
JAMES A. FLAHERTY, 
FRANK P. GLASS, 
DAVID E. HEINEMAN, 
HENRY E. HTTNTINGTON, 
JOSEPH LEE, 
ARTHUR D. LITTLE, 
WALLACE Me CAM ANT, 
J. P. MORGAN, 
JOHN R. MOTT, 
JOHN POOLS, 
WILLIAM A. ROGERS, 
MRS. FINLEY J. SHEPARD, 
E. T. STOTESRURY, 
Jos. P. TYNAN, 
THEODORE N. VAIL, 
HARRY A. WHEELER. 

Campaign headquarters were established 
at 124 East Twenty-eighth street, in the 
building formerly occupied by the Inter- 
national Y. M. C. A. and owned by them, 
this space being generously allowed the 
American Library Association by the 
Y. M. C. A. without charge. 

In addition to Mr. Wamboldt, the na- 
tional campaign director, the campaign 



196 



organization was completed by the ap- 
pointment of Mr. Frank Parker Stock- 
bridge as director of information, and 
Mr. Leo L. Redding as campaign director 
for New York City, with a competent staff 
of assistants, stenographers, etc. 

By the courtesy of the director general, 
the organ of the library war service, the 
Library War Service Bulletin, was turned 
over to the Finance Committee for the 
duration of the campaign, and four num- 
bers under the title "War Libraries" 
were issued. 

An extensive publicity campaign was 
planned under the directorship of Mr. 
Stockbridge, with the cordial cooperation of 
authors, artists, editors and librarians. 
Mr. Charles Falls, whose splendid posters 
had been so effective in stimulating the 
donation of books and the use of camp 
libraries, offered to interest other artists 
in our work, and several designs for an 
appropriate poster for this campaign were 
submitted. From them, that designed by 
John E. Sheridan was selected, and among 
the many posters used during the cam- 
paign it was one of the most striking and 
pleasing. 

Six regional meetings were arranged for 
the detailed discussion of campaign plans. 
In fact, the campaign organization had 
practically been completed, and every- 
where there was evidence of a splendid 
and encouraging spirit of cooperation. 
State directors were enthusiastically per- 
fecting the machinery for the conduct of 
the campaign within their territory and 
there was every reason to believe that suc- 
cess would crown our efforts this year, as 
it had our initial effort in the previous 
year. The most serious question which 
had confronted the Finance Committee 
had been that of the proper date for the 
campaign, since with the campaigns 
planned by the other welfare organiza- 
tions and that of the Liberty Loan, there 
promised to be a continuous series of cam- 
paigns from the latter part of September 
well into January. 

But before the first number of War Li- 
braries had made its appearance, all plans 



were changed by the request of the Gov- 
ernment that the several organizations 
which were engaged in welfare work with 
the Army and Navy should unite in their 
appeal for funds. 

It was at first suggested that there 
should be two campaigns, one in Novem- 
ber and the other in January, the A. L. A. 
to join with the Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., 
and the War Camp Community Service in 
the first campaign. The organization of 
representatives of each of these bodies was 
effected and plans formulated, when again 
the subject was reopened and in compli- 
ance with a definite request from President 
Wilson the Y. M. C. A., Y. W. C. A., Na- 
tional Catholic War Council (Knights of 
Columbus), Jewish Welfare Board, War 
Camp Community Service, the A. L. A. 
and the Salvation Army decided to com- 
bine their appeal for funds in a single 
campaign to be held during the week of 
November 11 with $170,500,000 as a goal. 

The new organization was perfected 
within a remarkably short time, the three 
latest additions to the United Campaign 
generously agreeing to accept the plans 
and program which had been adopted by 
the four organizations in the original com- 
bination. Two representatives each from 
the Y. M. C. A. and National Catholic War 
Council and one from each of the other 
five organizations, together with the na- 
tional treasurer and the director of the 
United Campaign for New York City, con- 
stituted the Committee of Eleven which 
formulated the memorandum of agree- 
ment and outlined the general policies of 
the campaign. A General Committee of 
Thirty-five, consisting in most part of the 
campaign heads from the several organ- 
izations five from each was formed to 
assume general charge of the campaign 
under the leadership of Dr. John R. Mott 
as director general. 

Mr. Vanderlip was selected as the repre- 
sentative of the A. L. A. upon the Com- 
mittee of Eleven, and Dr. Frank P. Hill, 
Mr. Theodore L. Frothingham, Miss Em- 
ma V. Baldwin, Mr. Wickes Wamboldt and 
Mr. Frank Parker Stockbridge as its rep- 



197 



resentatives upon the General Committee. 

It having been decided that the commit- 
tee organization already established 
throughout the country should be dis- 
turbed as little as possible, a policy of ad- 
dition rather than elimination being ad- 
vised, representatives of each of the six 
other organizations were added to the dis- 
trict and state executive committees pre- 
viously appointed by the Y. M. C. A., and 
every effort was made to extend this form 
of organization down to the localities. 

The time for the working out of the 
plan throughout the nation was all too 
short, but the spirit of willingness to sub- 
merge individual interests in the common 
cause was truly remarkable. 

The members of the A. L. A., as the rep- 
resentatives of one of the smaller organ- 
izations among the "Seven Sisters of Serv- 
ice," as they have appropriately "been 
called, threw themselves whole-heartedly 
into the work and were ready to serve in 
any capacity in which they could be use- 
ful. In several states, the state representa- 
tive of the Association acted as head of the 
state speakers' bureau, while in all, the 
facilities of the local libraries, including 
their staffs, were placed at the disposal of 
the local committees. The combined re- 
sources of the seven organizations offered 
an unusually large number of available 
and willing workers, so that in many in- 
stances the local leaders were embarrassed 
by the necessity of having to select from 
among the many who proffered their help. 

It was decided by our committee that 
the regional conferences, as previously 
planned for our independent campaign, 
should be held, because they afforded an 
opportunity to make clear to the library 
representatives the general purpose of the 
United Campaign and the part expected of 
them. Eight meetings were held, Mr. 
Wamboldt and Dr. Raney attending those 
at Atlanta, Oklahoma City, Denver, Chi- 
cago, Boston and New York, and Dr. Hill 
and Mr. Milam those at Seattle and San 
Francisco. All of these meetings were well 
attended and served to strengthen the bond 
of sympathy and understanding between 



the state representatives and the head- 
quarters staff. 

Arrangements had also 'been made by 
the Y. M. C. A. for a series of conferences 
during the latter part of September. It 
was decided to hold these meetings as 
planned but to transform them into United 
Campaign meetings, at which each of the 
seven organizations should present its war 
work. The shortness of time for the per- 
fection of schedules for speakers caused a 
few hitches, but on the whole the A. L. A. 
made a splendid showing. Any misgivings 
as to the possibility of securing effective 
team work among the various organiza- 
tions was dispelled by these conferences 
and the enthusiasm with which the plan 
for a united effort was accepted was most 
gratifying and promised well for the suc- 
cess of the campaign. 

When the question of providing speak- 
ers for the campaign and the resources of 
each organization were under considera- 
tion, Mr. George Gordon Battle, as the rep- 
resentative of the Salvation Army, said: 
"The members of the Salvation Army are 
all speakers and every one of them is at 
the service of the campaign." Unfortun- 
ately the A. L. A. could not boast that 
every librarian was a public speaker and 
some of those most gifted could not be 
spared from other important work to de- 
vote their time to a speaking campaign. 
But since it was planned that special em- 
phasis should be laid upon public meet- 
ings, we were able to secure from our 
ranks and from our friends among clergy- 
men, authors and public-spirited men and 
women of the various communities, a very 
creditable list of speakers to represent the 
A. L. A. A special manual was prepared 
for their use in addition to the section 
contained in the United Campaign hand- 
book for speakers. Mr. John Lowe, camp 
librarian of Camp Devens, Massachusetts, 
and Mr. Joy Morgan from Camp Mac- 
Arthur, Texas, started upon speaking tours 
in the Middle West and an itinerary was 
prepared for Dr. Raney, who, as the only 
representative of our Association who had 
had experience in France, was in great d- 



198 



mand. Mr. Lowe and Mr. Morgan were 
most successful during the early part of 
their trips but the epidemic traveled fast- 
er than they did and one after another 
of the towns on their schedules fell under 
the ban, a strict quarantine preventing 
public meetings of any sort. Consequent- 
ly their trips had to be abandoned, while 
Dr. Raney's plans for later dates were al- 
most entirely given up and the larger 
number of those who had generously of- 
fered to assist the campaign by speaking 
in our behalf could not be given an oppor- 
tunity. Never before was a campaign of 
like magnitude conducted with so few 
public gatherings, and it speaks well for 
the determination and resourcefulness of 
the workers that they were able, at the 
last moment, to devise other ways of 
reaching and interesting the people of 
their communities and of bringing the 
campaign to success without the inspira- 
tion of such gatherings. 

The campaign was launched on the very 
day that the armistice was signed with 
Germany, at a time of such general re- 
joicing over the return of peace that it 
was difficult to get the public's attention 
or to impress upon it the stupendous work 
still remaining to be done for our forces 
during the period of demobilization. Yet 
in spite of these tremendous drawbacks, 
the greatest campaign which had ever 
been conducted for an altruistic purpose 
was an unqualified success and the goal of 
$170,500,000 was surpassed by over $30,- 
000,000. Reports show that every state ex- 
ceeded its quota; some in fact securing an 
over-subscription of from fifty to a hun- 
dred per cent. Arizona was the banner 
state, its subscription of $595,000 being 
248 per cent of its quota. It was followed 
by Delaware with 229 per cent and Texas 
with 222 per cent. New York subscribed 
the largest amount, $45,584,728. 

Of the total amount collected, the Ameri- 



can Library Association will receive 2.05 
per cent. 

Aside from the accomplishment of the 
direct purpose for which a campaign is 
conducted, its indirect results are not to 
be ignored. Chief among these is the pub- 
licity which an association receives during 
a campaign and the opportunity which is 
afforded it to tell the public something of 
its purpose, its policies and its accomplish- 
ments. When the United Campaign was 
at first considered it was felt that the op- 
portunity for publicity for each organiza- 
tion might be somewhat curtailed, because 
it seemed inevitable that individual pub- 
licity must be submerged in the united 
idea if the common goal was to be at- 
tained. The close cooperation among rep- 
resentatives of the seven organizations 
brought together many workers who had 
heretofore been too deeply engrossed in 
their own concerns to have time to inform 
themselves fully of the accomplishments 
or resources of other organizations, and 
the American Library Association is to- 
day undoubtedly more intimately known 
among those interested in social and edu- 
cational work than it was before the 
United War Work Campaign, and, as one 
of the organizations in the sevenfold 
group, has probably enjoyed a wider pub- 
licity than would have been accorded to 
it as an individual organization. The 
A. L. A., on its part, has been ushered into 
a wider and richer fellowship with the 
representatives of the other organizations. 
The results of this cooperation and mutual 
understanding among the national, state 
and local representatives of the various 
organizations will be far-reaching, and will 
be manifest in countless ways long after 
the immediate work in which they were 
united is finished. 

Respectfully submitted, 

EMMA A. BALDWIN, 
Secretary, Library War Finance 
Committee. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



199 



REPORT OF THE AUDITORS 



New York, February 18, 1919. 

Library War Finance Committee, American 

Library Association, 26 Brevoort Place, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Dear Sir In accordance with instruc- 
tions, we have made an audit of the re- 
ceipts and disbursements of the Library 
War Finance Committee of the American 
Library Association second campaign fund 
up to February 15, 1919, and now submit 
our report thereon, together with sched- 
ules in support thereof. 

We have examined vouchers in support 
of all the disbursements for campaign ex- 
penses. These vouchers all appear to be 
properly approved and in order. We have 
also compared the disbursements with the 
checks paid by the bank. 

We have received certificates from the 
banks showing balances on deposit, which 
are in exact agreement with the balances 
shown herein. 

The following is a summary of all cash 
received and disbursed during the cam- 
paign beginning July 19, 1918, and ending 
February 16, 1919: 

CASH RECEIPTS AND DISBURSEMENTS 
Receipts 

American Library Association 
War Service Committee $125,000.00 

United War Work Campaign, 
Incorporated *100,000.00 

Miscellaneous contributors 21,115.06 

Interest on daily bank balances. 1,009.66 



Total receipts $247,124.72 

Disbursements 
Expenses of campaign: 

Gross amount paid out $ 83,159.05 

Less unused expense money re- 
funded 3,528.19 



$ 79,630.86 

Deposited with American Secu- 
rity & Trust Co., of Washing- 
ton, D. C., to the credit of 
American Library Association 
War Service Committee 100,000.00 

This amount should have gone direct to 
the American Security and Trust Company. 



Deposited with the People's 
Trust Co., of Brooklyn, N. Y., 
to the credit of American Li- 
brary Association War Service 
fund, including interest on 
daily bank balances 14,334.03 

Remitted to United War Work 
Campaign, Incorporated 6,888.26 



Total disbursements $200,853.15 

Balance, cash on deposit with 
Empire Trust Co. of New 
York City $ 46,271.57 

Receipts 

American Library Association War Serv- 
ice Committee, $125,000; United War Work 
Campaign, Incorporated, $100,000. These 
sums, together amounting to $225,000, 
were received as follows: 

July 19, 1918 $ 75,000.00 

October 14, 1918 50,000.00 

November 22, 1918 100,000.00 



Total $225,000.00 

This is the total amount advanced to 
your committee. Of the $100,000 received 
November 22, 1918, from the United War 
Work Campaign, Inc., $50,000 was to com- 
plete the $175,000 allotted to carry on the 
campaign. The other $50,000 was merely 
handed to your committee to be trans- 
ferred to the American Library Associa- 
tion War Service Committee. It was at 
once so transferred, as was also the other 
$50,000 on December 2, 1918, when it had 
become evident that it would not be need- 
ed in the work of your committee. 

Miscellaneous contributors, $21,115.06. 
This comprises all contributions received 
by your committee directly from contrib- 
utors and is of two classes. The first 
class consists of contributions received 
from various libraries and others. This 
money belonged exclusively to the Ameri- 
can Library War Service Committee. The 
other class includes all other contributions 
received by your committee whether des- 



200 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



ignated for the United War Work fund or 

not designated at all. The amounts are as 

follows: 

American Library Association.. .$14,226.80 

United War Work fund 6,888.26 

Total . $21,115.06 



checks filed in good order. Every facility 
was afforded to us in our examination of 
the accounts. 

We shall 'be pleased to furnish any fur- 
ther information desired. 

Yours truly, 

Details of these amounts, showing states MABWICK, MITCHELL, PEAT & Co. 

from which the contributions came, are FINAL FINANCIAL STATEMENT, 

set forth in Schedule "1." The first sum APRIL 22, 1919 

has been deposited with the People's Trust Receipts 

Company, of Brooklyn, N. Y., to the credit 

* *v. A~,O ,.., T , r A <,<,/*/.{ a+t/, -nrow From American Library Asso- 
of the American Library Association War ciation first war servi j e fund. $125,000.00 

Service fund; the second sum was re- interest from Empire Trust Co. 

mitted from time to time to the United to April 22, 1919 1,155.65 

War Work Campaign, Inc., as shown by 

receipts on file. $126,155.65 

Interest on daily bank balances. $ 1,009.66 Disbursements 

This consists of the following: Expended to February 15, 1919, 

Empire Trust Company $ 902.43 as reported by Marwick, Mit- 

The Peoples Trust Company : chell, Peat & Co., audit 79,630.86 

Interest credit $112.34 Expended from February 15, 

Less charges for Ex- 1919, to April 22, 1919 588.58 

change 6.11 Final check No. 770 drawn to 

107.23 order of American Security & 
Trust Co., treasurer. First 

Total $ 1,009.66 war service fund to balance. 45,936.21 

Disbursements $126 155 65 

Expenses of Campaign, $79 630 86 De- NoTE ._ In addi tion $100,000 was received 

tails of this amount are set forth in Sched- b th Librarv War pi nan( . P rommittpe 

m'ary?'" f "^ *" f 110Wing '* * "^ ""om^he United War ^Work'campaSn! Snc 

Expended by states $ 7,007.96 A P ril 25 - 1919 - 

United War Work 2,793.33 Tn A. L. A. Finance Committee has 

City publicity 3,904.90 examined the report of the audit of the 

National publicity 38,271.14 war Finance Committee to February 15, 

National headquarters 27.653.53 ' m9> madg by Marwlck) Mitchell> p eat & 

Total $79,630.86 Co., also the accounts of the War Finance 

The following'is a summary 'of the same Committee from February 16 to April 25, 

expenses distributed according to the na- an ^ find them correct; leaving, as stated, 

ture of the disbursements: no balance in the Empire Trust Co. and a 

Personal service $29,806.74 balance of $14,332.28, with interest, in the 

MalntenfncT 6 ! !. ! .' ! ! .' .' '. ', '. ! ! ! .' ! 2 J3l5l People ' s Trust Co ' of oklyn, contributed 

Telegraph and telephone 2,259.59 to tne second war service fund, subject to 

Postage and express 5,728.28 checks drawn jointly by the chairman of 

Office expenses and supplies 2,366.99 the War Service Committee and the chair- 

C^UnYen^ 1!T^: "I" I! *"% ' te w " F! - <"" 

ABTHXJB L. BAILEY, 
Total $79,630.86 CLEMENT W. ANDREWS, 

We have to report that the accounts are HARBISON W. GRAVER, 

carefully maintained and the vouchers and A. L. A. Finance Committee. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



201 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION WAR SERVICE 

Statement by Acting General Director as to Operations, 
July J, J918-June 30, \919 



The general director in his statement 
to the Association a year ago spoke of a 
"vast field" and an "ever enlarging oppor- 
tunity." Though diminishing, the field is 
still vast; and new opportunities for serv- 
ice arise almost daily. 

When the A. L. A. conceived the idea of 
library war service, it talked in terms of 
a million men. At the time of its confer- 
ence last year the service had already 
reached 2,800,000 men. When the armis- 
tice was signed on November 11 there 
were 4,250,000 men in the Army, Navy and 
Marine Corps. Our service had, to some 
extent at least, been extended to all of 
them. As this statement goes to the 
printer (June 1) there are 1,580,000 men 
In the service; and !t is estimated that 
this number will be reduced probably to 
about 1,250,000 by June 30. 

The number of camps, stations, hospitals 
and vessels which were served according 
to last year's statement, was 777. The 
total number served since that time is 
3,981. The number of live service points 
In America at the present time is 2,132. 

During the year, more than 800 persons 
have been engaged in the work, not count- 
Ing pasters and packers at dispatch of- 
fices or men detailed to library service by 
the military authorities. 

And the extent of the work is indicated 
not only by the number of points and the 
number of men who were supplied with 
reading matter, and the number of people 
engaged in the service, but by their dis- 
tribution over the earth. Books 'bearing 
the A. L. A. bookplate have reached the 
men in America, France, Germany, Rus- 
sia, Siberia, the Philippine Islands, Alaska, 
the West Indies, the Canal Zone, Hawaii, 
the Virgin Islands, Guam, Samoa, Ber- 
muda, Nicaragua and China; and on board 
ship everywhere. 



Changes brought about by the signing of 
the Armistice 

A year ago, the problem seemed easy; 
it was but to amplify the work already or- 
ganized. And so it was, for a few months. 
Then came the armistice. And with the 
armistice came new problems. As soon 
as the prospect of demobilization and dis- 
charge became imminent the thoughts of 
the men turned from military to civilian 
subjects. They became restless, the hours 
given over to drilling were largely re- 
duced and the men had time on their 
hands. 

Wounded men were at once returned 
to America in large numbers, filling our 
hospitals, and causing the opening of new 
ones; thus creating new problems and en- 
larging old ones. The return of soldiers 
from France brought new problems of 
service to the transports. 

Which camps would be closed and when, 
how long it would take to demobilize the 
men, and other similar questions, were 
subjects for constant speculation, not 
only by library war service officials, but 
also by other welfare organizations and 
the Army and Navy officials themselves. 

There seemed to spread over the coun- 
try immediately a feeling that "the war 
Is over." It was reported that many peo- 
ple and a few cities had announced that 
they would not pay their subscriptions to 
the United War Work fund. 

Requests began at once to come in to 
headquarters and to the War Service Com- 
mittee, asking what was to be done with 
our vast supply of books which were no 
longer needed. A bookseller in Boston, 
who had bought a lot of A. L. A. discarded 
books from a salvage officer in one of the 
ports, immediately advertised them for 
sale, stating that they were American Li- 
brary Association books (conveying the 



202 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



idea, of course, that our work was over). 

And when demobilization began there 
arose the question of when our responsi- 
bility to the men ceased. Did It cease 
when a man was discharged from the 
Army; or when he ceased to wear his 
uniform; or when he had actually resumed 
his place in civil life? 

Some of these questions are not yet 
fully answered. 

Hospital Libraries 

The relative importance of library serv- 
ice in the hospitals greatly increased with 
the signing of the armistice and the re- 
turn of the wounded soldiers to America. 
During the year there have been 170 libra- 
rians in this branch of the service; there 
being at the present time 68 librarians 
and 36 assistants in hospitals covering a 
territory from Boston to Honolulu, and 
from Oregon to Florida. 

Fortunately, hospital work has not been 
limited to the people who were engaged 
directly by the A. L. A. Many librarians 
and assistants in city and town libraries 
where the hospitals are situated, have 
given their service freely, and have done 
much toward establishing library work on 
broad lines. They have aroused their 
communities to the possibilities of library 
work in the hospitals and have brought 
to the attention of various organizations 
and individuals the joy men find in read- 
ing newspapers, magazines and books. 

Reading matter has been supplied to all 
hospitals and transcontinental hospital 
trains which were used by soldiers, sail- 
ors and marines. Librarians have been 
provided for general hospitals having one 
thousand beds, and for reconstruction hos- 
pitals having five hundred beds. The 
smaller hospitals were sometimes organ- 
ized by field representatives and nave 
usually been closely supervised by libra- 
rians of public libraries or secretaries of 
library commissions. 

The organization and administration of 
the hospital service has been covered in 
the "Hospital library handbook," issued 
by the A. L. A. War Service during the 



last year. Two or three features of the 
work seem worthy, however, of special 
comment: The service to the wards, the 
newspaper service, and the relation of the 
library to the occupational and vocational 
work. 

Every hospital librarian has a bedside 
book truck which she uses in carrying 
books, magazines and newspapers to the 
men confined to the wards, making it 
possible for them to select their own read- 
ing matter. In the smaller hospitals it 
has been possible to visit each ward two 
or three times a week; 'but in the larger 
hospitals, even with a staff of three or 
four, the librarians have been able to 
make the rounds only once a week. 

Probably the most popular feature of 
the work has been the distribution of 
"home town" papers. Thanks to the co- 
operation of the Stage Woman's War Re- 
lief, New York papers have been pur- 
chased in very large quantities for the 
hospitals in and near New York City; 
and no request for a "home town" paper 
is ever refused by that organization. All 
hospitals have been supplied with a se- 
lected list of newspapers from various lo- 
calities and in many cases the librarian 
has been able to extend the list through 
the cooperation of local agencies. 

One librarian writes: "We have all 
kinds of men from all sorts of homes and 
all parts of the country but every one 
comes back with the idea that he can get 
just what he needs and wants now that 
he is 'home,' and his first request is usu- 
ally, 'Have you a newspaper from my 
town? I haven't had a word from home 
in four months.' " 

The educational departments of the re- 
construction hospitals have looked to the 
library for help and have given the libra- 
rian the opportunity of cooperating in 
their undertakings. The instructors and 
occupational aides have assisted in bring- 
ing to the attention of the men the fact 
that books on the trades and vocations 
were available in the library and might 
be useful. In some hospitals the men 
have been required to take courses in vo- 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



203 



catlonal work and the libraries have found 
many opportunities to aid the instructors 
by supplying the books they needed. 

The Surgeon General of the Army and 
the Surgeon General of the Navy have 
shown an appreciation of the value of 
library work in the hospitals and have 
furnished up-to-date information at all 
times; thus making it possible to extend 
our service to all hospitals as soon as 
they were established. The Association 
has also enjoyed the fullest cooperation 
of the Army and Navy officers in the hos- 
pitals, the Red Cross representatives and 
representatives of various other welfare 
organizations; all of whom in certain 
camps have carried on for our Associa- 
tion certain features of library work. 

While the number of Army hospitals is 
decreasing, an entirely new field of serv- 
ice has been presented in the establish- 
ment of Public Health Service Hospitals, 
authorized by Congress to provide hospi- 
tal and sanitarium facilities for dis- 
charged sick and disabled soldiers, sailors 
and marines. 

There are already 35 of these hospitals 
with bed capacities ranging from 25 to 
1,500, and one community hospital is be- 
ing established at Perryville, Maryland, 
where all the industries of the community 
are owned or operated for the 'benefit of 
the hospital. 

At the request of the Surgeon General 
of the Public Health Service, the A. L. A. 
is rendering some service to these hospi- 
tals with an informal understanding that 
if legally possible, the work will be taken 
over later by the United States Public 
Health Service itself. 

When the movement of troops started 
from France to America, it became neces- 
sary to begin what was practically a new 
phase of service. On the way over the 
men had been supplied with reading mat- 
ter by the placing of books on the decks 
of the transports, the boxes to be opened 
and the 'books circulated to the men dur- 
ing the voyage and returned to their boxes 
and delivered to the A. L. A. in France. 
But when the men began to come back, 



books were too scarce in France to per- 
mit the return of any on the transports. 
Therefore, it became necessary to estab- 
lish so-called "permanent" libraries on 
each transport. These libraries have been 
supplied by the officers at all of the over- 
seas dispatch offices. 

In the beginning, books were placed on 
the boats in the ratio of about one book 
to four men. Magazines, largely new pur- 
chased copies of the latest numbers, were 
put on the vessels in the ratio of one 
magazine to ten men. Dispatch officers 
now have instructions to place not less 
than one book and one magazine to every 
two men if the officers will accept this 
quota, and may supply as many as one 
book and one magazine to each man if, 
in the opinion of the dispatch officer, that 
number is required. 

No greater desire for reading matter 
has been shown by the men anywhere 
than on the returning transports. The 
magazines are all distributed in the first 
two or three days and, of course, are never 
returned to their source, being passed 
about among the men until worn out and 
thrown away. In some cases the pub- 
lishers have been able to supply copies 
two or three weeks in advance of the 
date of publication, so that when the men 
went aboard the transports they received 
current issues of their favorite weekly. 

The books, too, usually disappear dur- 
ing the first two or three days, nothing 
remaining on the shelves except, perhaps, 
a few of the classics. The greatest 
amount of reading is, of course, for recre- 
ation, the usual type of fiction being in 
great demand. A few vocational books 
have been placed on every transport and 
reports are that they find eager readers 
among a select few. The editor of Asso- 
ciation Men, who returned recently on a 
transport, says, "the men are more eager 
for the best literature than for cigarettes, 
chocolate, or any such baby-food provi- 
sions." 

A surprisingly large number of men 
have been brought back on vessels which 
were assigned to transport duty in Euro- 



204 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



pean waters and could not be supplied 
with reading matter by the dispatch offi- 
cer on this side. In some cases, unfor- 
tunately, they were not supplied by our 
representative in France, though we were 
recently informed by Mr. Stevenson that 
every vessel assigned to transport service 
in European waters is now being equipped 
by his associates at the French ports. 

Librarians have been placed on nine 
different transports for one or more trips, 
as members of the Morale Party. These 
Morale Parties are now discontinued and 
the work is carried on by the Navy, under 
the general direction of the Sixth Divi- 
sion, Bureau of Navigation. 

Service to the Fleet 
Although thousands of books had been 
supplied to the naval vessels by the dis- 
patch offices in America and other thou- 
sands had been shipped to Europe for 
them, it cannot be said that an adequate 
supply of reading matter had actually 
reached the vessels prior to November 11. 
The return of the fleet to American wa- 
ters gave the Association an opportunity 
to increase its service. While the ves- 
sels were in New York their most urgent 
needs were supplied by the New York 
and especially the Brooklyn dispatch offi- 
cers. A representative of the Brooklyn 
dispatch office visited many of the ves- 
sels and learned from the chaplains and 
commanding officers exactly what their 
needs were. 

In order that this work might be fol- 
lowed up, Mr. Harold Wooster, a repre- 
sentative from the Brooklyn dispatch of- 
fice, was sent to Guantanamo Bay with 
the approval of the naval authorities. 
Some 15,000 books, carefully selected to 
meet the needs that had been observed 
while the fleet was in New York, were 
sent down in advance of Mr. Wooster. 
When he arrived he assembled them on a 
barge in the bay. A radio communica- 
tion was sent out by the chaplain of the 
fleet announcing Mr. Wooster's headquar- 
ters and telling the officers of every vessel 
what they might expect of him. 



"In spite of the fact that fleet athletics 
were in full swing, supplies were being 
taken aboard, target practice was in prog- 
ress and several of the vessels were coal- 
ing ship, still the response to the mes- 
sage was practically universal. The first 
day after the message was sent out, officers 
from thirty vessels came to the A. L. A. 
office to secure books and magazines," and 
in the end every vessel was served. In 
many cases the commanding officers of the 
vessels, the engineers and other technical 
men came personally to select the books 
for themselves and for their men. 

Incidentally Mr. Wooster was able also 
to establish library service for certain per- 
manent naval and marine corps stations 
on the islands. (Mr. Wooster's own ac- 
count of his service was printed in War 
Library Bulletin, Number 9, and in Libra- 
ry Journal, June, 1919.) 

Service to the N. O. T. S. and U. S. S. B. 
Vessels 

The Naval Overseas Transport Service 
is the name given to freig-ht-carrying ves- 
sels manned by naval crews. In Decem- 
ber, 1918, the Naval Commission on Train- 
ing Camp Activities supplied us with a 
complete list of these vessels, together 
with the names of the base ports for all 
of them. Dispatch officers were asked to 
get in touch with the commanding officers 
at the bases and to supply small collec- 
tions of books to each vessel. On the end 
of each box supplied, there was a printed 
label instructing the man in charge to ex- 
change his box with another N. O. T. S. 
vessel, or at any of the dispatch offices 
(addresses and telephone numbers given) 
at his convenience. 

Recently many of these vessels have 
been transferred to the United States 
Shipping Board and the crews are now 
civilian crews. The same vessels are do- 
ing the same work and in a few cases 
they are manned by the same crew. After 
some hesitation it has been decided to 
continue the service to these vessels, as 
the United States Shipping Board is es- 
sentially a war board; the men are paid 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



205 



by the Government and many of the ves- 
sels are still doing war work. 

A Diminishing Service at Certain Camps 

Thirteen large camps have been or are 
being abandoned. Each of these camps 
had an A. L. A. Library building and a 
large collection of books, an automobile 
and miscellaneous equipment. Some 
months ago, instructions were sent to all 
camp librarians, instructing them how to 
dispose of their material and what to do 
when a camp was about to be discon- 
tinued. 

The buildings, with the approval of the 
War Service Committee, have been of- 
fered to nearby towns or cities for pub- 
lic library purposes. None have so far 
been accepted. The -building at Camp 
Wadsworth has, however, just been given 
to the Textile Industrial Institute at 
Spartanburg on the agreement of the 
president to maintain a free library with 
an annual appropriation of at least $800. 

The building at Camp Cody was given 
to the military authorities and transferred 
by them to Camp Furlong, where it was 
set up and is now being used as an A. L. A. 
Library. The buildings at the following 
camps have been sold to the highest bid- 
der for the sums named: 

Greene $ 300 

MacArthur 500 

Sevier 525 

Beauregard 1,000 

Logan 485 

Fremont 350 

And at the following closing camps the 
buildings are still in our possession: John- 
ston, McClellan, Hancock, Sheridan. 

The first two are on property owned by 
the Government and have, therefore, not 
been offered for sale, because it is assumed 
that they may be used later for military 
purposes. 

Automobiles and miscellaneous equip- 
ment have been sold to the highest bid- 
der or transferred to other camps. 

Books, with a few exceptions, have been 
transferred to the overseas dispatch offi- 
ces for use on transports or other ves- 
sels, for shipment overseas or for use in 



the American camps and stations under 
the supervision of the dispatch offices. 

The number of books available for 
transfer from each camp averages about 
20,000, and of these a good many are not 
very useful when received at the dispatch 
offices. Naturally, there is a very large 
overstock at the present time of books on 
military subjects and narratives of the 
war. These are being stored with the ex- 
pectation that they will be found useful 
in the permanent libraries of the Army 
and Navy. 

Books and Magazines 

Whether library war service has selected 
wisely and has made deliveries with rea- 
sonable promptness are subjects which 
will doubtless remain open for discussion 
indefinitely. There is no doubt, however, 
that new world records were established 
in the speed with which books were se- 
lected and in the size of the orders placed. 

On the 8th of February the office re- 
ceived a nine-page cablegram from Mr. 
Stevenson in Paris, requesting some thir- 
ty thousand books. Every item on the 
list was ordered before the office closed 
for the night. Specific titles were men- 
tioned in that cable, and the work was 
comparatively . easy. 

Another cable of about the same length 
arrived on the 4th of March, this time call- 
ing for books on certain subjects. It took 
the book department four days to make 
the selection and place the orders. 

When the Y. M. C. A. lecture courses 
on citizenship were being prepared, it not 
infrequently happened that a bibliography 
or reading list for a lecture was requested 
one day and had to be in New York City 
in the hands of the printer the next; thus 
requiring quick decisions. 

In December, 1918, and January, 1919, 
which were banner months, orders were 
placed for 843,068 volumes. The total 
number ordered from July 1, 1918, to May 
31, 1919, was 2,050,000. The estimated 
number for June is about 30,000 volumes, 
which will bring the total for the year up 
to approximately 2,080,000 volumes. 



206 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Magazine subscriptions placed during 
the year total 27,000, and more than 950,- 
000 magazines have been purchased in 
bulk for shipment overseas and for use 
on the transports. Recently the Y. M. C. A. 
discontinued its shipments of magazines 
to France, and the A. L. A. took over that 
work, which involved the shipment of 
nearly half a million pieces in May. 

Educational purchases In November 
the A. L. A. War Service was informed 
by the Y. M. C. A. Army Education Com- 
mission that three million dollars' worth 
of library books would be necessary for 
the overseas educational libraries, to sup- 
plement the five million dollars' worth of 
textbooks which the Y. M. C. A. proposed 
to purchase. Lists were placed in the 
hands of the A. L. A. to indicate what 
should be purchased, and in what quan- 
tities. Needless to say the A. L. A. War 
Service did not act without some investi- 
gation on its own account. 

Without going into detail, it may be 
stated that the Y. M. C. A. was author- 
ized by the War Department to purchase 
two million dollars' worth of textbooks,* 
and the A. L. A. purchased approximately 
1500,000 volumes of books for the educa- 
tional libraries. The original orders, 
which have been supplemented from time 
to time with additional titles and addi- 
tional copies, comprised approximately 
800 titles. At least 500 copies were or- 
dered of each of, perhaps, half these titles, 
so that they could be made up into basic 
educational libraries of 400 volumes each. 
Quantities varying from a very few copies 
up to 300 were ordered of the other titles. 
They were used to supplement the basic 
libraries when the demand at any given 
point for books on certain subjects could 
not be met from the collection in the 
basic library. 

To Mr. W. H. Kerr, Mr. L. J. Bailey and 
Mr. L. L. Dickerson belongs the credit for 
the selection of these books, a list of 
which has been printed and doubtless is 
familiar to most of the people who will 



Later taken over by the Army. 



read this statement. It is entitled, 
"A. L. A. educational list." 

Books on vocations Very heavy de- 
mands came for books of a practical char- 
acter immediately after the signing of the 
armistice. Headquarters made every ef- 
fort to meet these demands, but succeed- 
ed only after several weeks of strenuous 
efforts. Books wanted were out of stock 
or out of print; publishers, printers and 
binders were working at full speed to get 
out the large Y. M. C. A. and A. L. A. 
educational orders; and it was the pub- 
lishers' busy season. It was only the 
hearty cooperation of the publishers, 'both 
in spirit and in actual service, that en- 
abled us to overcome the various handi- 
caps. 

Books on citizenship Immediately fol- 
lowing the armistice an effort was made 
to put into circulation large numbers of 
good books on citizenship and world prob- 
lems, both independently and in" coopera- 
tion with the various lecture courses that 
were being given in the camps by the 
Y. M. C. A. and other organizations. A 
few of what were thought to be the best 
books were sent to each large camp and 
hospital and were offered to the supervis- 
ors of the small camps and hospitals, if 
needed; as was true also of the voca- 
tional books. Additional titles were sug- 
gested for the consideration of librarians 
in all camps, stations and hospitals. 

Our information, 'briefly summarized, is 
that the books on the selection of voca- 
tions were little used; that the books on 
individual vocations that is trades, busi- 
ness, professions, etc. were very largely 
used in most places, though there are 
some exceptions; and that the books on 
citizenship have been popular in very few 
camps. 

Compilation of lists During these 
months when hundreds of thousands of 
volumes were being purchased almost 
every week, the book department was also 
called upon to compile various important 
lists. 

Brief lists of six or seven titles were 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



207 



compiled on twenty-three different sub- 
jects for the vocational leaflets. 

Short lists of the most popular novels 
were compiled as purchase lists, since the 
gift books by this time were quite inade- 
quate to meet the legitimate demands for 
fiction. 

"Books on subjects taught in recon- 
struction hospitals" was the title of an 
important selected list issued in January, 
and revised in February. In the revised 
form the list covers 108 mimeographed 
pages. 

Overseas replacement lists were com- 
piled for the convenience of dispatch offi- 
cers in placing orders for their miscel- 
laneous books to be shipped overseas and 
to be used on board transports. List 
number 2 comprised about 300 titles. List 
number 3 about 980 titles. It is esti- 
mated that approximately 165,000 vol- 
umes have been ordered frpm the last re- 
placement list. 

A list of books on citizenship and a 
brief list on the various vocations were 
also compiled for use in the book, "Your 
job back home," and for separate distribu- 
tion. 

"One thousand technical books" is the 
title of a list now being published. It was 
compiled by Herbert L. Cowing, of the book 
department, and represents, in a way, the 
accumulated experience of the A. L. A. War 
Service in meeting the needs of soldiers, 
especially those who have had only limited 
mathematical and scientific training. The 
list is to be distributed generally, in the 
hope that it will be helpful to both war 
service librarians and public librarians in 
meeting the technical book needs of men 
who are or have recently been in the serv- 
ice. 

"How to fight tuberculosis" is the title 
of a list compiled by the A. L. A. War Serv- 
ice, and printed by the National Tubercu- 
losis Association for general distribution. 

Other lists were made on military morale, 
journalism, plays for amateur production, 
one hundred war books of interest to the 
general reader, war fiction, war poetry, 
books of humor, and other subjects. 



There were also frequent compilations for 
special purposes, and from time to time 
lists of recent books were compiled as sug- 
gestions to camp and hospital libraries. 
Many special orders required considerable 
selection, as, for example 1 , one for 150,000 
volumes of books published in 1918. 

Special requests from the camps run from 
15 to 75 a day. Some of these are made 
up of specific titles, others of subjects. 
Though standard lists are kept on hand, the 
requisitions bring in new problems of se- 
lection almost every day. 

Gift Books and Magazines 

In July, 1918, it began to be evident that 
so many of the three or three and a half 
million gift books collected in the spring 
were being discarded because unsatisfac- 
tory for use that another appeal would 
have to be made. Announcement was, 
therefore, sent out to librarians of the 
country on July 24, 1918, asking them to 
renew their appeal for books, but at the 
earnest request of the Library War Finance 
Committee, the members of which felt that 
this would seriously interfere with the 
financial campaign, this request was prac- 
tically withdrawn on August 8th. 

In December Mr. Stockbridge, who han- 
dled the publicity for the Finance Com- 
mittee during the United War Work Cam- 
paign, was engaged to issue a brief and 
urgent appeal to the libraries of the 
country for more gift books. In May an- 
other urgent appeal was made especially 
for books for use on the transports. 

Even librarians have been surprised to 
learn how many books were required to 
keep the men supplied. It has been hard 
even for us to realize the rapidity with 
which books wear out in service; the num- 
ber of books that are necessarily lost in the 
camps, in shipment, and in France. It may 
not be inappropriate to say that Headquar- 
ters has aimed to be conservative in mak- 
ing its requests; that it has erred on the 
side of modesty or conservatism rather 
than in asking too largely. 

There were times, too, when librarians 
did not understand why with three and 



208 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



one-half or four million dollars it was nec- 
essary to use any gift books. In this con- 
nection it should be known that during the 
year just closed there have been times 
when the outlook from the financial stand- 
point was grave indeed. Payment on the 
United War Work fund pledges has been 
spread over at least a year. There were 
at one time evidences that there would be a 
very large reduction in actual collections 
as compared with the subscriptions. For 
several months in fact, the library war 
service ran on a working budget of $3,000,- 
000, and there were one or two members of 
the War Service Committee who hesitated 
to approve a budget of even, that size. And 
we have until the last month or two kept 
our payments, plus outstanding obligations, 
up to within a few thousand dollars of the 
total amount actually in hand. It, there- 
fore, seemed not only appropriate but nec- 
essary that gift books should be used large- 
ly to supplement the hundreds of thousands 
of volumes that had to be purchased. 

During the year there have 'been pur- 
chased, approximately, 600,000 volumes of 
fiction and humor which were used to sup- 
plement the gift fiction. 

With the signing of the armistice the 
supply of so-called Burleson magazines 
dropped off rapidly. There was a time 
when it appeared that the magazine serv- 
ice would have to be cared for entirely by 
purchase or by our own independent solici- 
tation. On the recommendation of the War 
Department, made at our request, a new 
Burleson notice was issued on March 27, 
1919, and a letter was printed in the Postal 
Bulletin, urging people to continue their 
gifts of magazines. A change was made in 
the wording of the notice so as to make it 
appropriate to the situation at that time. 
Letters were sent by us to the publishers 
of the leading magazines, urging them to 
continue the use of the notice, and the 
War Department, at our request, sent sim- 
ilar letters reinforcing our recommenda- 
tions. 

In the meantime special campaigns were 
launched in New York, Brooklyn, Boston 
and Washington (later extended to other 



Cities) for the collection of magazines for 
shipment to France and for use on the 
transports, and many A. L. A. representa- 
tives in the field appealed to nearby cities 
and towns for a larger supply. 

That the work of librarians who re- 
mained at home was a fundamental part of 
the library war service is clearly shown by 
the history of the book campaigns. Librari- 
ans have made the appeals with a prompt- 
ness and a success that commanded the 
highest praise and gratitude of those who 
served the books to the men. 

Dispatch Offices 

Overseas dispatch offices have been main- 
tained at Hoboken, New York, Brooklyn, 
Philadelphia, Newport News, Boston, 
Charleston and San Francisco. The New 
York office is a clearing house for new 
books and gift books for all camps, a dis- 
patch office for shipment of books and mag- 
azines overseas, and for the placing of 
books and magazines on transports and 
other vessels; it is also the headquarters 
for the supervisor of the large number of 
small camps, stations and hospitals in New 
York City and vicinity. 

The Newport News, Brooklyn and Phila- 
delphia dispatch offices have all these fea- 
tures except that they are not clearing 
houses for new books shipped to all camps. 
The Boston office has shipped books to 
France and placed books on the transports, 
and the Charleston office has served the 
transports and the camps, stations, hos- 
pitals and vessels in that vicinity. 

The office at San Francisco has made 
shipments to Siberia, Philippine Islands, 
Hawaii, and a few other distant places, 
where American soldiers, sailors and ma- 
rines have been stationed. The dispatch 
officer there is in charge of the small 
camps, stations and hospitals in that vicin- 
ity under Mr. M. J. Ferguson, state libra- 
rian. 

All of the above dispatch offices and 
seven other offices have been used as clear- 
ing houses for the receipt, preparation and 
shipping of gift books collected in certain 
states. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



209 



During the months of December, Janu- 
ary, February and March, 929,917 volumes 
passed through the overseas dispatch offices 
on their way to the American Expedition- 
ary Forces in France, Russia, Siberia or 
to the transports. 

Industrial War Work Community 

Libraries 

On September 24, 1918, the War Service 
Committee passed the following resolu- 
tion: 

"It is to be taken as the sense of the 
committee that so far as books and money 
shall permit, it is the policy of the commit- 
tee to provide book service to workers in 
munition plants and other industries en- 
gaged in war work, where local libraries, 
library commissions or other local agencies 
cannot provide it." 

This was followed so promptly by the 
signing of the armistice that the work was 
never organized on a large scale. 

For the last few months, however, there 
has been an organizer at Nitro, West Vir- 
ginia. Though the plant stopped produc- 
tion shortly after the signing of the armis- 
tice, and though there were few men in 
uniform there to be served, it seemed that 
these people had a claim on our service. 
They were there because of the war. They 
went there to do war work and if the war 
had continued we would undoubtedly have 
served them. The fact that the fighting 
had ceased had not really affected them. 
They were still in that community and they 
were destined to remain there for some 
time; and they certainly needed library 
service. 

It is expected that when the organizer 
leaves Nitro another librarian will be ap- 
pointed. She will be paid, not from A. L. A. 
funds, 'but from certain funds that are 
available to the commanding officer at 
Nitro for such purpose. The books and mis- 
cellaneous equipment will remain, but from 
the day our organizer leaves, it will be es- 
sentially a local institution. 

A similar service has been undertaken at 
a town near Nashville, Tennessee, and read- 
ing matter and a paid supervisor have 
been supplied to the Government nitrate 



plants at Mussel Shoals, Alabama. Books 
and periodicals have been furnished to 
various other industrial war work organ- 
izations in communities that could not well 
be served by municipal or state libraries. 

Publicity 

The aims of the publicity department 
have been: 

1. To give to librarians and others who 
made library war service possible the in- 
formation about their work to which they 
are entitled. 

2. To make available to the War Service 
Committee and to give out directly to the 
public such information and appeals as 
might be expected to persuade people that 
they should continue to support the A. L. A. 
War Service with money and books. 

3. To cooperate with camp, hospital and 
public libraries in calling to the attention 
of the men of the military forces the books 
and magazines which might serve for 
recreation or advancement. 

This statement, the exhibits that have 
been held in various libraries during the 
year, the exhibits prepared for this confer- 
ence, the facts that have been presented 
through the library periodicals, through 
our own bulletin and through certain press 
bulletins are representative of the channels 
through which information is imparted. 

The library war service of the American 
Library Association was an exhibitor in 
the Allied War Exposition, running from 
midsummer, 1918, to March, 1919. In the 
section of the exposition devoted to the 
work of the organizations under the direc- 
tion of the Commission on Training Camp 
Activities, was an A. L. A. booth showing 
the interior of a camp library and convey- 
ing pictorial information about the scope 
of the work as a whole. Pamphlet material 
was also provided for free distribution. 
Many of the chief cities of the country were 
included on the schedule of the exposition, 
the A. L. A. booth being given supervision 
and attendance through the ready coopera- 
tion of the librarian of the public library 
in each city. 

Preceding and during the United War 
Work Campaign, A. L. A. War Service 
headquarters furnished the Finance Com- 
mittee with statistics, photographs and 



210 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



anecdotes suitable for publicity use in the 
appeal for money. Certain members of the 
staff were also released from time to time 
for such other campaign work as seemed to 
be required. 

The appeal for books and for magazines 
in support of the service has been pressed 
constantly. Since the signing of the armis- 
tice, special efforts have been made to re- 
mind the public that so far as the A. L. A. 
is concerned the war is not over and that 
it will not be over until all the men in 
military service for the war emergency 
have been discharged. 

Publicity to encourage reading in the 
camps and hospitals has employed various 
mediums. A pictorial poster, "The camp 
library is yours," and several placards were 
issued for posting throughout camps and 
camp areas. This sought to point out to 
the soldier, sailor and marine the oppor- 
tunity which the library offered for per- 
fecting himself as a fighting man. Lantern 
slides, to be used in the motion picture en- 
tertainments throughout the camp, carried 
the same message and sought also to in- 
terest the enlisted man and officer in the 
camp library as a place for recreational 
reading and for vocational study. Sugges- 
tions were passed on to A. L. A. representa- 
tives about the use of the local issue of 
Trench and Camp, the camp paper, as a 
means for giving publicity to the library 
service among the men. 

After November 11 the interest in mili- 
tary manuals and technical books about 
the science of warfare ceased abruptly. 
The men were now chiefly concerned about 
their work in civil life, and those who had 
used the library before for recreational 
reading or study of military subjects 
turned to it now for vocational books. 

The demand for books on trades and oc- 
cupations was enormous without any effort 
at stimulation on the part of the library 
war service. It was apparent, however, 
that many of the men did not know of this 
practical service which the camp and hos- 
pital library stood ready to render; if the 
A. L. A. in its war service was to be worthy 



of its trust, it must spread the idea and 
take up its delegated share in the great 
work of reconstruction already begun. 

To bring vocational books to the atten- 
tion of the men, reading lists were issued 
on twenty4hree of the chief vocational sub- 
jects. Each list presented an average of six 
titles, the choice of the book selection de- 
partment, and described each book in a 
simple way. These lists were displayed in 
centers throughout the camp and hospital, 
arranged in racks so that a man might look 
the lists over at his leisure and pick out 
the one of special interest to him. Used in 
connection with the racks and posted else- 
where throughout the camp and hospital 
area was a placard, "Back to the job," 
which called attention to the helpful books 
on the trades and professions in the library. 

Several sets of lantern slides were issued 
to carry this message. The most effective, 
perhaps, has been a set of seven showing a 
clear-cut photograph of a group of books on 
one vocational subject with an appropriate 
caption. 

The methods employed have been simply 
those of legitimate advertising. Their ef- 
fectiveness was limited in duration. It has 
been constantly necessary to replace the old 
methods, grown stale, with new ways of 
presenting the idea. A distinctive publica- 
tion having this purpose is a 64-page pic- 
torial reference book entitled, "Your job 
back home," which seeks to couple with an 
arresting photograph illustrating some 
tra"3e or profession, the suggestion of a 
definite book on that vocation available in 
the camp, hospital or public library. In- 
tensive use of this issue has been made in 
the camps and hospitals in America, over- 
seas and on transports and it has also been 
made available to public libraries. The 
book was compiled and published at the 
suggestion of the Morale Branch of the 
General Staff. 

Growing out of the book, "Your jab back 
home," has been another publication 
worthy of mention "The job book." This 
was issued at the suggestion of Frederick 
J. Raskin, of the Haskin Information Bu- 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



211 



reau, an advertising agency reaching a 
large number of newspapers throughout the 
United States. The book is sent by the 
Haskin Information Bureau to readers of 
those newspapers who ask for it and en- 
close a two-cent stamp, in response to a 
published advertisement. The content of 
the book is essentially the same as that of 
"Your job 'back home." The result of its 
distribution is to stimulate the use of 
vocational books available in the public 
libraries and the message which it conveys 
has interest for the civilian as well as the 
man returning from military service, 
though it is addressed to the discharged 
soldier, sailor and marine. 

The project of advertising aggressively 
the 'book and magazine service in camps 
and hospitals has received the active sup- 
port of the Morale Branch of the General 
Staff, which has encouraged the detailing 
of advertising men to the library service in 
order that the camp librarian might have 
advice and expert assistance in preparing 
his camp publicity. Many camp librarians, 
whether they have received such a detail 
or not, have been alert in this phase of the 
work, keeping in touch with the activities 
of the camp and the interests of the men 
and bringing to their attention at the 
proper time the books on special subjects. 
All books on agriculture, for instance, have 
been displayed temporarily in a building 
where an agricultural lecture was to be de- 
livered and have been discussed briefly by 
the lecturer, thereby bringing the books to 
the attention of the men. 

The hospital library service does not call 
for aggressive advertising of the library 
idea to the degree necessary in camps. The 
hospital librarian is able to establish a di- 
rect contact with the men and to interest 
the individual in books or magazines 
through a personal knowledge of his case. 
Lantern slides and placards and other ad- 
vertising methods are utilized, however, in 
so far as they prove practicable. 

Much of the work of the library war 
service with individual men might be 
abruptly broken off and lost if it did not 
help them in their return to civilian life. 



For the continuance of the service, the vo- 
cational book lists, slides and "Your job 
back home" have been furnished in public 
library editions. A new poster has been 
prepared with the purpose of encouraging 
discharged soldiers to read for advance- 
ment. This is being distributed not only 
to camp and hospital libraries, but also to 
public libraries throughout the country. 
The Morale Branch of the War Department 
has also issued and distributed widely some 
small posters directing the attention of the 
men to vocational reading. 

What is considered the best placed sign- 
board in Washington, the one directly op- 
posite the Union Station, has for months 
carried an advertisement of the service of 
camp and public libraries. A photograph 
of this billboard was reproduced in War 
Library Bulletin, Number 8. 

A special publicity representative has 
been giving attention during the past few 
weeks to cooperation between the library 
war service and public libraries in provid- 
ing reading matter for the returned sol- 
diers. Loans of technical books themselves 
have been made to small libraries in states 
without library 'commissions or state li- 
braries. The cooperation of various organ- 
izations has been obtained in furthering the 
announcement of opportunities in libraries; 
notably that of the Labor Press of Ameri- 
ca, through its president; of the Educa- 
tional Press Association, and many of the 
publishers. 

As a result of the various editions of 
"Your job back home," many letters from 
individuals requesting special technical 
books reach headquarters of the A. L. A. 
War Service or of the American Library 
Association. These are referred by the 
special publicity representative directly to 
the local or nearest library or to the state 
library commission. This may prove to be 
the beginning of a valuable information 
bureau service which will connect individ- 
uals with books through the nearest library 
agency. 

All such work is done in close coopera- 
tion with the A. L. A. Publicity Committee. 



212 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Organization 

Under the general director and the assist- 
ant (now acting) general director, the work 
is divided more or less definitely into sev- 
eral different groups. 

The executive secretary is responsible for 
personnel, office routine, the purchase and 
distribution of supplies, uniforms and mis- 
cellaneous equipment. 

The disbursing officer is responsible for 
the expenditure of all funds upon properly 
authorized vouchers, keeps the accounts 
and make financial reports. He is bonded 
and his accounts are audited quarterly by 
chartered accountants. 

Service in America 

The assistant to the director in charge 
of large camps has under his supervision 
all the camp and station libraries in which 
are maintained central libraries with an 
A. L. A. representative in charge and a 
comparatively adequate library service un- 
der our direct supervision. At one time 
during the last year the number of large 
camps was 49. There are now 34 in this 
classification. The largest number of 
branches and stations maintained in these 
camps at one time during the year was 
1,886. The present number is 1,273. 

The assistant to the director in charge 
of small camps is responsible for the 
library service in small camps and stations, 
in a few industrial war work communities 
and on board ships. During the year the 
service has extended to 604 small military 
camps, posts and fields, 265 naval stations, 
64 marine corps stations, 13 industrial war 
work communities and 1,150 vessels. Serv- 
ice is now being maintained in 494 military 
camps, posts and fields, 234 naval stations, 
63 marine corps stations, 12 industrial war 
work communities, and approximately 1,- 
150 vessels. 

The assistant to the director in charge 
of hospitals supervises all work in hos- 
pitals. The service has reached a total of 
259 hospitals, 86 of which were supplied 
with regular librarians. 

The assistant to the director in charge of 
the book department supervises the selec- 



tion and ordering of books not only for all 
camps, stations and hospitals and vessels 
in this country, but for the overseas serv- 
ice as well. During the first several 
months of the year this work was divided 
into two departments, one person being in 
charge of the book selection, another in 
charge of the book ordering. 

The assistant in charge of -publicity edits 
the Bulletins, issues news letters and pre- 
pares slides, posters and articles for cam- 
paign, camp, station, hospital and general 
publicity. With him there has recently been 
associated a special publicity representa- 
tive whose purpose is to cooperate with 
libraries in their efforts to serve the dis- 
charged soldier, sailor and marine. 

From time to time there have been other 
special assistants at Headquarters who were 
practically independent in their own field; 
as, for example, one in charge of the work 
with the Student Army Training Corps; 
another in charge of personnel; and an- 
other in charge of transport libraries. 

Field representatives for camp service 
and for hospital service are actually head- 
quarters representatives who spend most 
of their time in the field. The number of 
these has varied from four to nineteen. 

Library supervisors, usually librarians 
of State, public or university libraries, or 
secretaries of library commissions, have 
been appointed to give direct attention to 
a few large camps and to nearly all small 
camps, stations and hospitals in their vicin- 
ity. The territory sometimes is a whole 
State, sometimes only a city; and com- 
prises anywhere from one to forty service 
points. In several cases Supervisors have 
been regularly employed by the A. L. A. 
War Service. 

In the large camps and hospitals the 
library has its own representatives. In 
most of the small camps, hospitals, sta- 
tions and on all vessels (with the excep- 
tion of a few transports), the service has 
been administered directly by some welfare 
officer, chaplain or man detailed to that 
work. 

Overseas dispatch offices have been main- 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



213 



tained in eight cities and other dispatch 
offices in seven additional cities. 

Transport librarians were placed for one 
or more round trips on nine vessels and 
were members of what was called the 
Morale Party. 

The office of state agent has been con- 
tinued for purposes of book collection and 
general publicity. The service rendered by 
these state agents is worthy of special 
commendation. 

Service Overseas 

An overseas director was in charge of 
this work until December when the over- 
seas representative, Mr. Burton E. Steven- 
son, assumed the full responsibility under 
the general director who, since the first of 
January, has been in France. 

The work overseas is divided roughly in 
the following groups: 

Headquarters librarian. 

Shipping department. 

Mailing department. 

Field representatives, camp service. 

Field representatives, hospital service. 

Educational representatives. 

Regional libraries. 

Librarians for the First, Second and 
Third Armies. 

Central librarian for the Army of Occu- 
pation. 

Mr. Stevenson's own statement of the 
work overseas follows this general state- 
ment. 

A. L. A. representative in Siberia. A 
statement about the service in Siberia is 
printed as a supplement to this general 
statement, and a pamphlet comprising most 
of the weekly letters of the representative 
there is printed separately for general dis- 
tribution. 

Personnel 

More than 800 persons were engaged in 
library war service during the year, not 
counting pasters and packers in the" dis- 
patch offices, or men detailed to library 
service by the military and naval author- 
ities. The number now engaged in the 
service is 552. Of this number 329 are 



women. The total number now oversea* 
(included in the above figures) is 147.* 

(Women are now in charge of eight 
camps: Upton, Devens, Grant, Eustis, 
Bowie, Mills, Ft. Leavenworth, Vancouver 
Barracks; seven have served as field repre- 
sentatives; and they outnumber the men in 
responsible positions at headquarters.) 

The directories that have been published 
from time to time give the names of most 
of the people who have been engaged in 
library war service a notable group. The 
current directory, just published, will be 
available for distribution at the conference. 
Conferences 

Some weeks after the signing of the 
armistice, a conference was called in Wash- 
ington of field representatives from the 
entire service camp librarians, hospital 
librarians and supervisors within easy 
reach of Washington. The various ques- 
tions raised by the change in war status 
were discussed fully. Representatives of 
the Commission on Training Camp Activi- 
ties (both War and Navy Departments) of 
the Morale Branch of the General Staff of 
the Surgeon General's Office of the Army, 
and of the Educational Bureau of the Y. M. 
C. A. were present to talk to the A. L. A. 
representatives. 

Shortly after this conference similar con- 
ferences were held in New York, Chicago, 
San Antonio and Atlanta, to which were in- 
vited the camp librarians, hospital libra- 
rians and supervisors for discussion of the 
same series of questions. These confer- 
ences were attended in each case by one 
field representative and one other head- 
quarters' representative and were ad- 
dressed in each case by representatives of 
the War Department and the Y. M. C. A. 

In addition to this series of conferences, 
there have been small informal conferences 
of dispatch officers, hospital librarians, or 
other A. L. A. representatives from time to 
time; usually for the purpose of settling 



*This number includes employed civilians 
and persons detailed to library work by 
other welfare organizations, as well as peo- 
ple sent over by the A. L. A.; but does not 
include Army details. 



214 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



some definite question that was of consid- 
erable importance at the time. 

A. L. A. War Service representatives 
have attended conferences of field direc- 
tors of the C. T. C. A. and important meet- 
ings of the workers of other welfare or- 
ganizations. 

Cooperation of the Government Depart- 
ments and other Welfare Organizations 
The A. L. A. War Service has at all 
times enjoyed the full cooperation of War 
and Navy Department officials. It is a 
pleasure to report that their active inter- 
est has constantly increased from month 
to month. 

The Third Assistant Secretary of War, 
Dr. F. P. Keppel; General E. L. Munson, 
chief of the Morale Branch of the General 
Staff; Major Jason S. Joy, director of the 
War Department Commission on Training 
Camp Activities; the Secretary and Assist- 
ant Secretary of the Navy; Commander C. 
B. Mayo and Chaplain J. F. B. Carruthers 
of the Sixth Division of the Bureau of 
Navigation, and Mr. Marion Jackson, sec- 
retary of the Commission on Training 
Camp Activities for the Navy, and the 
Surgeon Generals of the Army, Navy and 
Public Health Service all have shown a 
special interest in the library war service 
and have been available on short notice 
and under almost any circumstances for 
conferences. They have offered sugges- 
tions, constructive criticism, have encour- 
aged us to make requests from them and 



have generally made possible whatever 
seemed necessary for the good of the li- 
brary war service. This cooperation has 
not been limited to Washington. The rep- 
resentatives of the Commission on Train- 
ing Camp Activities and of the Morale 
Branch in the field as well as the officers 
of the camps, stations, hospitals and ves- 
sels, have in nearly every case done all 
that could have been expected to make our 
service effective. 

Since November there has been increas- 
ing cooperation between the seven welfare 
organizations that took part in the United 
War Work Campaign. 

In General 

This statement is an account of the 
work, not of a few people at headquarters 
and in the field, but of the American Id- 
brary Association as a whole. Some of 
us have been privileged to serve at head- 
quarters, some to serve the men them- 
selves in the field and on the sea, but all 
have found opportunities of usefulness 
somewhere. We, at headquarters, are 
grateful for the cooperation that has 
made the work possible. 

The only expression of thanks that 
really counts, however, must come from 
the men served. That they are grateful 
is shown by their written and spoken 
words of commendation, and by their use 
of what the Association provided. 

GAEL H. MILAM, 
Acting General Director. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



216 



Appended are financial and statistical exhibits and two supplementary statements 
from A. L. A. representatives in Europe and Siberia. 

EXHIBIT A FINANCIAL REPORTS 
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION FIRST* WAR SERVICE FUND 

Statement of Receipts and Disbursements under Herbert Putnam, General Director 

May 31, 1918, to May 31, 1919 



RECEIPTS 

Balances brought forward May 31, 1918: 
In American Secu- 
rity & Trust Co. $146,412 57 
In hands of libra- 
rians and agents 33,500 00 

$179,912 57 

Credits transferred to this ac- 
count in American Security & 
Trust Co.: 

June 19, General funds 75,000 00 

July 1, Interest on deposits. 4,487 78 

July 16, General funds 400,000 00 

Oct. 23, General funds 100,000 00 

Nov. 5, General funds 50,000 00 

Nov. 8, General funds 50,000 00 

1919 
Jan. 1, Interest on deposits. 1,499 55 

$860,899 90 



DISBURSEMENTS 

Buildings, Carnegie grant $48,133 92 

Building equipment, Carnegie 

grant 4,195 18 

Buildings, general funds 13,823 39 

Building equipment, general 

funds 4,399 38 

Books 398,207 36 

Binding 211 02 

Book campaign 433 28 

Freight 18,970 18 

General equipment 48,734 86 

Service, including subsistence. . 195,785 31 

Sundry 28,888 33 

Supplies 64,368 39 

Travel 29,664 60 



Total expenditures $855,815 20 

Balance on hand May 31, 1919: 

General funds $84 70 

Insurance fund 5,000 00 

5,084 70 



$860,899 90 
Respectfully submitted, 

WILLIAM L. BROWN, 

Disbursing Officer. 



* NOTE: The second war service fund became available on December 10, 1918, when 
the first fund was practically exhausted. The only subsequent transactions in this fund 
were the receipts of interest and refund of amounts advanced to librarians, and the ex- 
penditure of these receipts which properly belonged to the first war service fund. 



216 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION SECOND WAR SERVICE FUND 

Statement of Receipts and Disbursements under Herbert Putnam, General Director 
December 10, 1918, to May 31, 1919 

RECEIPTS 

Credits transferred to this 
account in American 
Security & Trust Co. 



Dec. 8, 1918 $100,000 00 
Dec. 12, 1918 50,000 00 
Dec. 17, 1918 36,000 00 
Dec. 26, 1918 200,000 00 
Jan. 3, 1919 300,000 00 
Jan. 14, 1919 50,000 00 
Feb. 6,. 1919 475,000 00 
Feb. 8, 1919 75,000 00 
Feb. 19, 1919 175,000 00 
Feb. 24, 1919 25,000 00 
Apr. 15, 1919 775,000 00 
Apr. 29, 1919 25,000 00 




$2,286,000 00 
DISBURSEMENTS 
America Overseas 
Buildings $18762 33 


Total 
$18,762 33 


Building equipm't 2631 10 


2,631 10 


Books 298,718 15 $727,574 56 


1,026,292 71 


Periodicals 40,118 70 28,415 89 


8,534 59 


General equipm't.. 32,895 27 19,878 65 
Packing cases 29,414 17 


52,773 92 
29,414 17 


Freight 9,700 96 18,568 69 


28,269 65 


Rent 1,399 15 5,517 50 


6,916 65 


Services, including 
subsistence 252,769 69 83,285 55 


336,055 24 


Sundry 49,110 88 10,720 95 


59,831 83 


Supplies 70,612 12 12,476 63 


83,088 75 


Travel 25,102 23 14,294 81 


39,397 04 







Total payments. $801,820 58 $950,147 40 $1,751,967 98 
In the hands of 
librarians and 

agents 31,525 00 97,421 59 128,946 59 

Balance in American Security & Trust 
Co., May 31, 1919 405,085 43 



$2,286,000 00 
Respectfully submitted 

WILLIAM L. BBOWN, 

Disbursing Officer. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



217 



Total Expenditures May 31, 1918, to May 31, 1919, from 
War Service Funds: 

First Fund 

Buildings (all) $61,957 31 

Building equipment 8,594 56" 

Books and periodicals 398,418 38 

Service (including subsistence) 195,785 31 

General equipment 48,734 86 

Supplies (including packing cases) 64,368 39 

Travel 29,664 60 

Freight 18,970 18 

Sundry (including rent) 28,888 33 

Book campaign (first fund) 433 28 



both the First and Second 



Second Fund 

$18,762 33 

2,631 10 

1,094,827 30 

336,055 24 

52,773 92 

112,502 92 

39,397 04 

28,269 65 

66,748 48 



Total 

$80,719 64 

11,225 66 

1,493,245 68 

531,840 55 

101,508 78 

176,871 31 

69,061 64 

47,239 83 

95,636 81 

433 28 



$855,815 20 $1,751,967 98 $2,607,783 18 

The Total Expenditures from August 17, 1917, to June 1, 1919, from both the First 
and Second War Service Funds, separately stated, under the various accounts, are as 
follows : 

First Fund Second Fund 

Buildings (all) $309,907 18 $18,762 33 

Building equipment 48,358 23 2,631 10 

Books and Periodicals 609,087 06 1,094,827 30 

Service (including subsistence) 280,986 80 336,055 24 

General equipment 90,129 23 52,773 92 

Supplies (including packing cases) 100,955 15 112,502 92 

Travel 42,751 54 39,397 04 

Freight 27,012 35 28,269 65 

Sundry (including rent) 44,164 36 66,748 48 

Book campaign (first fund) , 25,000 00 



$1,578,351 90 $1,751,967 98 
Respectfully submitted, 

WILLIAM L. BROWN, 

Disbursing Officer. 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION SECOND WAR SERVICE FUND 
EXPENDITURES BY BUDGET DEC. 10, 1918, to MAY 31, 1919 

America 
A Buildings and equipment (including automobiles, uniforms and general 

equipment) $ 54,288 70 

B Personnel (salaries, subsistence and travel) 277,871 92 

C Books and periodicals 338,836 85 

D Administrative expenses (supplies, freight, rent, sundries).... 130,823 11 

Overseas 

A Buildings and equipment (including automobiles, uniforms, general 

equipment and shipping cases) 

B Personnel (salaries, subsistence and travel) 

C Books and magazines 

D Administrative expenses (supplies, freight, rent, sundries) 



44,462 38 
97,580 36 
755,990 45 
52,114 21 

Total expenditures Dec. 10, 1918, to June 1, 1919 $1,751,967 98 



218 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



The Fund as a Whole 
It will be noted that the figures given 
above refer only to the funds transferred 
to the credit of Herbert Putnam, general 
director. There remains in the hands of 
the American Security and Trust Com- 
pany, as treasurer, a balance not yet trans- 
ferred. 

Exhibit B General Statistics 
NOTE. Readers should understand that 
nearly all figures used throughout this 
statement (except those on finances) are 
estimates. Exact figures are not possible. 
Service In America No. 

Total Junel, 
for year 1919 

Large camp and station li- 
braries 49 34 

Branches and stations in 

large camps 1,886 1,273 

Small military camp and 

post libraries 604 494 

Small naval station libra- 
ries 265 234 

Small marine corps station 

libraries 64 63 

Vessels supplied with books 1,150 1,150 

Hospital libraries 259 145 

Industrial war work com- 
munity libraries 13 12 

Personnel 678 405 

Buildings In America 
Buildings erected by A. L. A. during year 4 

Buildings purchased by A. L. A 1 

Buildings sold 7 

Buildings transferred to Army. . . / 1 

Buildings transferred to educational in- 
stitution 1 

Books and Magazines 
(Most of these figures are for eleven 

months) 
America Overseas Total 

Purchased 815,000 1,235,000 2,050,000 

Gift books 

shipped 2,060,000 1,190,000 3,250,000 

Periodical sub- 
scriptions ... 24,500 2,500 27,000 
Periodicals pur- 
chased i n 
bulk 950,000 950,000 

STATEMENT OF THE A. L. A. REPRE- 
SENTATIVE IN EUROPE 

May 28, 1919. 

DB. HEBBEBT PUTNAM, General Director 
Library War Service, 

American Library Association. 
Dear Dr. Putnam In this, my first an- 



nual report to you, I shall not attempt a 
detailed statement of the operations of the 
overseas war service. Such a statement 
must wait until these operations, now in 
full swing, have been brought to a close; 
you will, however, find attached a copy of 
a resum6 of our work to April 1, 1919, sub- 
mitted to General Pershing, at his request, 
to be embodied in his report of the opera- 
tions of the American Expeditionary 
Forces. This is intended solely for the 
permanent records of the Association, and 
is not to be released or published until 
after the publication of the report of the 
Commander-in-Chief, of which it will form 
a part. 

Since this resum6 was written, our es- 
tablishment has increased considerably, 
for the demands on our service seem to 
grow rather than to diminish. At the pres- 
ent time, we have in France a personnel 
of sixty-two wearing A. L. A. uniforms. Of 
these, 26 are men and 36 women; 34 of 
them came to France in the A. L. A. serv- 
ice; 16 were transferred to us by other or- 
ganizations, and 12 yere discharged from 
the army to enter our service. A detailed 
statement of this personnel is attached. 

This list does not include many trained 
librarians who are working under the di- 
rection of the A. L. A. but are paid by 
their own organizations, nor the A. L. A. 
workers who have returned to America 
prior to this report. The latter are: O. C. 
Davis, who did brilliant service in organ- 
izing the work at St. Aignan and after- 
wards at Le Mans; Mary Frances Isom, 
who organized the service in the principal 
hospital centers; Judson T. Jennings and 
E. E. Ruby, who organized the work with 
the Army of Occupation; William D. 
Davies, who was in charge of the headquar- 
ters shipping department, Mrs. Grace B. 
Jekyll, who succeeded him, and Pauline Ful- 
lerton, who assisted first at headquarters 
and afterwards with the work at Beaune. 
It should also be noted that, prior to his 
assignment to Le Mans, Mr. Emerson had 
supervision of the work with the First 
Army, with headquarters at Chaumont, 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



219 



and Mr. Dudgeon, who Is now in the field, 
was in charge of the work with the Sec- 
ond Army, with headquarters at Toul, 
until the divisions composing the army 
embarked for the United States. 

All of the above personnel are working 
in A. L. A. buildings, either leased, or 
erected for us by army engineers. This 
willingness on the part of the military au- 
thorities to provide adequate quarters for 
our work wherever necessary has been, 
perhaps, the most striking evidence of the 
way in which the army has welcomed our 
service. This had its beginning in May, 
1918, when the Army erected for us a 
warehouse at Gievres, and this has been 
followed by library buildings at St. Aignan, 
Gievres, Brest and Le Mans (two), all but 
one of which were subsequently doubled 
in size, and all of which were erected by 
army engineers without cost to us. The 
most attractive building at the A. E. F. 
University at Beaune was set aside for 
our use, and tripled in size before the 
work there closed. Good collections have 
been placed in all of them, the total num- 
ber of books shipped to each being as fol- 
lows, these being intended, of course, for 
the use of the area as well as for the build- 
ing itself: 

Beaune 25,917 

Brest 39,526 

Coblenz 178,097 

Gievres 32,954 

Le Mans 84,636 

St. Aignan 40,335 

Savenay 8,970 

To the other places where we have rep- 
resentatives, but no buildings of our own, 
the shipments have been: 

Bordeaux 84,307 

Chaumont 50,698 (1st Army) 

St. Nazaire 31,770 

Toul 66,184 (2d Army) 

The central collection at Paris now con- 
tains 12,000 volumes, and, of course, at all 
times, has the warehouse stock to draw 
upon. In order to handle the book distri- 
bution, we have three automobile trucks 
in use in Paris, two at Coblenz, and one 
each at Bordeaux, Brest, Gievres, Le Mans, 
St. Aignan and St. Nazaire. 

Of course this service to our own cen- 



ters is a comparatively small part of our 
work, for we have placed book collections, 
varying in size from one hundred to six 
thousand volumes, in 636 Y. M. C. A. huts, 
41 Salvation Army cabins, 56 Knights of 
Columbus huts, 17 Y. W. C. A. Hostess 
Houses and Nurses Clubs, 7 centers of the 
Jewish Welfare Board, 35 Foyers du Sol- 
dat, with many other smaller welfare or- 
ganizations, as well as directly with 718 
military units. 

Our records show that the total number 
of books received at the Paris warehouse, 
from May, 1918, to May, 1919, was 1,294,- 
977; at the Gievres warehouse, 99,900; and 
25,000 were brought to France on Red 
Cross tonnage, and 3,500 have been received 
by mail. About 1,700 cases (approx- 
imately 129,000 books) were received in 
England, and 12,876 were distributed 
there; 7,280 were sent to Russia and 1,400 
to Switzerland, the remainder being 
shipped to France. Approximately 1,200 
cases, or 90,000, were used to equip the 
base areas, without being forwarded to 
Paris; and about 200 cases, or 15,000 books, 
were distributed directly from Pauillac to 
the naval aviation stations along the coast. 
This makes a grand total of 1,549,933 vol- 
umes received from America. 

This total, of course, leaves a very large 
number of books shipped overseas from 
America of which our records show no 
trace. Many, of course, were delivered di- 
rectly to the Navy and used by it, without 
report to us; but the greater part of the 
discrepancy is due to the fact that, in the 
first six months during which our books 
were shipped to France, there was a loss 
of nearly 40 per cent on shipboard, due to 
the custom (very difficult to stop) of the 
welfare workers on board passing out the 
books to the men to bring into France 
with them. Then, too, for a long time our 
boxes bore a label authorizing their deliv- 
ery to almost anybody who wanted them, 
and naturally a great number of them 
never came into our hands at all. (I sup- 
pose, too, that the submarine took its toll 
of our property as well as that of others.) 
There is some consolation in the thought 



220 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



that these books (except the submarined 
ones) were, after all, used by our men 
though not as effectively or economically 
as they would have been had they come 
directly under our control. 

In addition to the books received from 
America, about 60,000 were purchased 
either in Paris or In England, and 1,100 
were purchased in Switzerland to be sent 
to our prisoners of war in Germany. 
Finally, a total of 85,314 educational books 
were taken over from the Army Educa- 
tional Commission. 

Our record of distribution is as follows: 

Total books available 1,696,347 

Distributed 
In France from 

Paris 1,228,608 

Gievres 98,500 

Pauillac 15,000 

Base Areas. . 90,000 

1,432,108 

In England 12,876 

In Russia 7,280 

In Switzerland (prison- 
ers of war) 2,500 

Discards 4,500 



-1,459,264 



On hand at warehouse 237,083 

The graphic map which accompanies 
this report indicates how generally 
throughout France our collections have 
been established. 

There is one feature of our work which 
the resume 1 attached does not touch upon 
the magazine service. When we opened 
our work in France, we found that the 
A. R. C. and the Y. M. C. A. had both es- 
tablished magazine services for their cen- 
ters and for the army generally, which 
they were desirous of retaining, and as the 
problem of book distribution, which had 
been placed wholly in our hands, was one 
which demanded all our energies, no ef- 
fort was made to build up a magazine 
service except to our own centers. But 
in April, 1919, a committee of the 
Y. M. C. A., headed by Mr. Mortimer Shiff, 
asked us to take over this service. This 
we consented to do, though somewhat re- 
luctantly because of the feeling that the 
end was so near that there would not foe 



time to organize it in a really effective 
manner. 

Immediately upon learning that we had 
taken over this work from the Y. M. C. A., 
the A. R. C. made a similar request which 
was granted; and since it was evident 
that the whole service should be in our 
hands, we offered to relieve the Knights 
of Columbus, the Jewish Welfare Board 
and the Salvation Army of their maga- 
zine work. This offer was gratefully ac- 
cepted by all of them, and since May 1, 
1919, the entire magazine service for the 
A. E. F. has been under our control. 

Our first task was to combine these va- 
rious mailing lists into one list; our sec- 
ond, to build it up until we were certain 
that the service was reaching every unit 
of our army, no matter how small or iso- 
lated. The idea from the first was to es- 
tablish a weekly service of unit packages 
direct to each organization; G. H. Q. thor- 
oughly approved and issued a general or- 
der (copy attached) calling attention to 
this offer, and a great number of form let- 
ters outlining the plan were sent out from 
these headquarters. The hundreds of let- 
ters which have since been received from 
commanding officers, asking for the serv- 
ice, prove how welcome it is. 

For the month of May it was necessary 
to use the bulk shipment already started 
on their way under the old regime; but 
beginning with June, we will receive our 
magazines in unit bundles, made up in 
America, and ready for distribution. This 
will immensely simplify the work here 
and will enable us to give a more effective 
service than has heretofore been possible. 

One instance will show how heartily the 
military authorities are cooperating with 
this plan. Here in Paris there are per- 
haps two hundred places where a supply 
of magazines is needed welfare centers, 
club rooms, hotels, canteens, hospitals, 
military headquarters, barracks, prisons 
what not. The service to them has often 
been spasmodic and haphazard, but, at our 
suggestion, the Army welfare officer has 
detailed an officer to supervise the work, 
and has arranged for transportation, so 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



221 



that hereafter all of these places will get 
a regular weekly delivery of magazines. 
Furthermore, the army post office has de- 
tailed an expert to each of our mailing 
rooms to make sure that all addresses are 
correct and that the bundles are properly 
assembled and sacked before they go out. 
It is a pleasure to submit, in connection 
with this brief report, summaries of the 
work from our various representatives in 
the field, as well as many photographs il- 
lustrative of that work. There is also a 
map showing the location of the Second 
Army, which will indicate the difficulties 
we have encountered in endeavoring to 
reach our widely scattered men. And 
finally there are added a few letters of 
appreciation a small selection from many 
hundreds of such which have come to us 
unsolicited from every rank, from the 
Cominander-in-Chief himself clear down 
the lines. All files and records are, of 
course, being carefully preserved, and will 
ultimately be turned over to the Associa- 
tion, as a complete record of our work. 
Respectfully submitted, 

BURTON E. STEVENSON, 
European Representative American 
Library Association. 

STATEMENT OF AMERICAN LIBRARY 
ASSOCIATION REPRESENTATIVE 

IN SIBERIA 
December 3, 19*18, to May 18, 1919 

Vladivostok, Siberia. 
On November 6, 1918, I received, in 
Nanking, China, a cable message from the 
Washington headquarters of the American 
Library Association, Library War Serv- 
ice, asking: "Will you accept appoint- 
ment official representative American Li- 
brary Association to develop library serv- 
ice for American forces in Russia?" Ar- 
rangements having been effected for a 
leave of absence from the University of 
Nanking until May, 1919 (later extended 
to June 1), I left Nanking on November 
27 and arrived in Vladivostok on the 
evening of December 3, 1918. The next 
morning I reported at the American head- 



quarters and was assigned to work with 
the Expedition, 

Previous to my arrival, the American 
Library Association had sent from the 
San Francisco dispatch office five ship- 
ments of books covering a period from 
July 23, 1918, to October 22, 1918, and ap- 
proximating 6,200 volumes. A portion of 
these books apparently was taken over 
by the Y. M. C. A. for distribution, but 
the majority was handled by Captain F. 
F. Moore, morale officer. Exact records 
of the distribution have not been avail- 
able; but books were certainly received 
by eighteen units and probably by more. 

This distribution had been completed 
before my arrival. In December twenty- 
four boxes of old books and periodicals 
which had been generously donated by 
people in the Philippine Islands and for- 
warded through an American Library As- 
sociation agent in Manila were turned 
over to me, and I was permitted to use a 
small storeroom opposite the post-office in 
Warehouse No. 3, at the Base. Later this 
room was roughly shelved and has proved 
convenient and useful as a clearing house, 
reference and circulating library large 
names for a little place. Still later, an 
English-speaking German prisoner was as- 
signed as my assistant, and has proved 
to be intelligent and careful. 

From the welter of old books there were 
sorted out enough to fill ten small boxes 
which were turned over to the Thirty-first 
Infantry, the Twenty-seventh Infantry, the 
Evacuation Hospital No. 17, and to one 
or two smaller units. About an equal 
number of these books was given away 
singly or in parcels. Some three hundred 
have remained as an apparently irreduc- 
ible minimum. Because of lack of any 
supply of the cards and pockets used in 
the library war service books and because 
of the condition of many of these volumes, 
no attempt was then made to retain con- 
trol over the circulation of the books. 
However, several hundred were in condi- 
tion to be useful as exchanges for Amer- 
ican Library Association books previously 
distributed and already much read; and 



222 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



later It was possible to fit some of these 
out with the regular cards and pockets. 

The periodicals from the Philippines 
found a wide use. Among them were all 
varieties, from the Atlantic Monthly to the 
Parisienne, from the Scientific American 
to the Bowler's Journal, from the Police 
Gazette to the Woman's Home Journal. 
Some of these magazines and a few of the 
books were removed as undesirable, but a 
great majority were distributed as rapidly 
as possible. Since December occasional 
additional supplies of periodicals, includ- 
ing four boxes from the A. L. A., one box 
from the United States Soldiers' Christian 
Aid Association of New York, and parcels 
from the United States, Manila, Shanghai, 
and Hongkong have been received, sorted 
and distributed. A regular proportion of 
these has been given out freely from the 
Base library, and no records of these have 
been kept. The totals to date of the re- 
corded distribution are 194 parcels and 75 
mail sacks sent to fifty-seven locations. 

On February 3, 1919, I received a cable- 
gram from the Washington headquarters 
of the American Library Association 
which contained an inquiry as to the ad- 
visability of the American Library Asso- 
ciation subscribing to periodicals for this 
Expedition. After consultation with the 
Chief of Staff, I answered: "Advise sub- 
scription periodicals Twenty-seventh, Thir- 
ty-first Infantry, permanent units." The 
magazines thus regularly subscribed for 
have not yet begun to arrive. 

New cases of American Library Asso- 
ciation books commenced to come in Janu- 
ary. Since then 130 such cases, approxi- 
mating 9,000 books, have been received by 
me. In addition I have purchased from 
Shanghai about seventy volumes on his- 
tory, politics, economics, business, Russia, 
mathematics, medicine, and other subjects, 
these works being needed for special use. 
An appeal to Shanghai for hooks in math- 
ematics and one to Nanking for books in 
English brought a number of donations 
which were given to men desiring to study 
these subjects. Altogether something over 
16,000 books have come to the Expedition 



through American Library Association 
sources, an equivalent of nearly two book* 
to each man. 

The regular American Library Associa- 
tion cases received in 1919 have been un- 
packed at the Base library, a part of the 
contents retained there, and the rest re- 
packed and distributed through the Expe- 
dition. The Base library now contains 
nearly 2,800 volumes, of which about sixty 
per cent are non-fiction. One hundred and 
one cases, averaging slightly over seventy 
volumes each, have been repacked and 
sent by me from the Base library. The 
contents of each repacked case have been 
chosen with some attention to the location 
in which the case was to be used the 
selection of books for the Signal Corps, 
for example, being somewhat different 
trom the selection for hospital nurses. By 
keeping at the Base library lists of the 
contents of each of these repacked cases, 
it has been possible to make more effec- 
tive exchanges and to build up collections 
for larger units in which duplications 
could be avoided and a. due proportion 
maintained between fiction and non-fiction. 
Transportation has proceeded chiefly 
through the Quartermaster Corps and the 
postal service, the assistance given by 
these departments being uniformly cour- 
teous, prompt, and efficient. The cases 
distributed have been sent to commanding 
officers and the arrangements for local use 
(whether in charge of an officer or an en- 
listed man, or a Y. M. C. A. secretary, or 
otherwise) determined by them. The 
number of places in which the American 
Library Association books, received since 
January 1, 1919, have been located is now 
forty-one. 

The use of the books has been large and 
steady. There has been no necessity for 
creating a desire for reading matter in the 
Expedition. On November 29, 1918, Chap- 
lain J. M. Webb wrote to Captain Moore 
concerning six cases received earlier in 
the month: "Every book, except atlases 
and encyclopaedias which we do not let 
out, was gone in twenty-four hours after 
the library was opened and the men were 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



223 



calling for more." From one case of about 
eighty volumes sent out to one detachment, 
330 loans were recorded from October 24 
to December 7. About the middle of De- 
cember, out of a collection of 200 books 
sent to another detachment, I found sev- 
enteen on the shelves. New shelves made 
for new books at one regimental library in 
January were practically emptied the day 
the books were received. Mr. F. C. Mer- 
edith, the Y. M. C. A. secretary in charge 
of the books with one unit, reported to the 
commanding officer that for the week Feb- 
ruary 10 to 16 from a collection then con- 
taining about 450 books there had been 
420 loans. During March and April the 
Base library had 2,986 loans of books be- 
sides the steady distribution of period- 
icals. The reading accomplished by some 
individuals has been fairly phenomenal. 
In these two months one enlisted man at 
the Base took seventy-seven books and 
another sixty-four. Very recently an offi- 
cer, handicapped by a cold, got through 
six books in thirty-six hours. Thus the 
Base library has both marathon and sprint 
records. Obviously most of these were 
books of fiction. Yet the proportion of 
these 2,986 loans which were non-fiction 
books was over .twenty-six per cent. And 
there has been a gratifying use of the 
books received at the Base library for spe- 
cial reading in Captain L. B. Packard's 
lecture courses in history and politics. 

The effects of this reading are not suffi- 
ciently tangible for any statistical report; 
and it would be rash for any single ob- 
server like myself to attempt a general 
statement of intangible results. An ob- 
servation made by several commanding of- 
ficers that the receipt of fresh books or 
periodicals has been promptly followed by 



a reduction of requests for leave of ab- 
sence and by a more cheerful tone in let- 
ters home, is perhaps one straw to show 
the direction of the wind. 

The library war service in the Expedi- 
tion has at every point been favored by a 
remarkable degree of cooperation. It is 
to be remembered that these books have 
been the gift of the people of the United 
States to the soldiers and sailors, so that 
any thanks from the soldiers and sailors 
should go back to the people of the United 
States. The work of the American Libra- 
ry Association at home, as agents, has 
been inspiring to me in its evidences of 
careful planning and eager and unwearied 
effort. And in Siberia the lone American 
Library Association representative would 
have been pathetically helpless in trying 
tc accomplish anything amid strange sur- 
roundings, shifting conditions, and two 
thousand mile distances, had it not been 
for the unvarying consideration given to 
requests for advice and the constant and 
hearty response to the need of assistance 
of every kind which have been shown by 
the officers and men of the American Ex- 
peditionary Forces, Siberia. 

HAEBY CLEMONS, 
A. L. A. Representative in Siberia. 

NOTE: This is a part of the report sub- 
mitted by Mr. Clemons to the Commanding 
General, American Expeditionary Forces, 
Siberia, on May 6, 1919. Names of places 
have been omitted. A few figures have 
been revised to bring the report up to 
May 18, the last day of Mr. demons' serv- 
ice. On May 19, the work was taken over 
by Chaplain Joseph S. Loughran. 

A selection of letters written by Mr. 
Clemons to A. L. A. Headquarters in Wash- 
ington has been printed separately for 
distribution at the conference. 



224 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



BY DR. A. H. SHEABEK, Librarian, Grosvenor Library, Buffalo, N. T. 



The undertaking of the American Li- 
brary Association to provide reading mat- 
ter and library facilities for the American 
military and naval forces during the war, 
like many another branch of war service, 
official and unofficial, was quite unexpect- 
ed when the war began. Although there 
had been organizations for social and 
moral welfare in previous wars, such as the 
Christian and Sanitary Commissions dur- 
ing the war between the States, and the 
Young Men's Christian Association and 
Salvation Army, it was only in this war 
that the humanitarian spirit was linked 
with the realization that the understand- 
ing, happiness, and spirit of a man were 
vital to his military efficiency. In the 
United States there was also a distinct 
feeling, as the citizen army was formed, 
that the new soldier, called from his or- 
dinary life for a different and greater 
service, was worthy of no less, but rather 
greater, opportunities for recreation and 
improvement than those to which he was 
accustomed. 

Preliminary Arrangements 

Consequently librarians, like members of 
other vocations and professions, were 
quick to ask what they could do to aid in 
the war work. The work of English vol- 
untary organizations in supplying reading 
matter to the troops was known in Amer- 
ica, and various suggestions for service 
began to be offered by different members 
of the American Library Association. As 
the annual conference of the American Li- 
brary Association (Louisville, June, 1917), 
was approaching, President Walter L. 
Brown appointed a preliminary commit- 
tee to assemble and digest those sugges- 
tions and make recommendations to the 
national body. This committee, consist- 
ing of Herbert Putnam (chairman), Arthur 
E. Bostwick, R. R. Bowker, Gratia A. 
Countryman, M. S. Dudgeon, Alice S. Ty- 
ler and James I. Wyer, Jr., presented a 
well-digested report on June 22, 1917. 



The report, in addition to laying down 
certain general statements, which served 
as principles of action throughout the 
war, recommended the appointment of a 
library war service committee of seven, 
with power to add to its number and to 
create subcommittees. This committee, 
named at once, consisted of J. I. Wyer, Jr. 
(chairman), E. H. Anderson, Arthur E. 
Bostwick, Gratia A. Countryman, M. S. 
Dudgeon, Frank P. Hill, Electra C. Doren. 
The committee continued throughout the 
war, though with some changes in person- 
nel. Dr. Bostwick and Mr. Dudgeon re- 
signed in the fall of 1917 and were suc- 
ceeded by W. H. Brett and C. F. D. Bel- 
den. Upon the death of the former, Au- 
gust 24, 1918, R. R. Bowker was appointed. 

A number of subcommittees were im- 
mediately appointed finance, publicity, 
camp libraries, state and local agencies, 
food information, war manual, federal pub- 
lications, transportation, book selection, 
etc. Most of these were later merged 
into the general library war service or- 
ganization. 

Relations with the Government 

The War Department's Commission on 
Training Camp Activities, which had been 
actively planning provisions for camps 
and correlating all forces tending to camp 
betterment, learning of the action of the 
Association on June 28, asked the Amer- 
ican Library Association to take charge 
of the work of providing reading matter 
for the soldiers, not only by securing books 
and distributing them, but by providing 
library buildings and librarians. This in- 
vitation was accepted, thereby putting the 
Association in official relation with the 
government a significant and vital factor 
in the prosecution of its work. 

The situation on the 1st of July, 1917, 
called for the providing of library facili- 
ties in sixteen cantonments, soon in- 
creased to thirty-two, and later to forty. 
All realized that in time provision must be 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



225 



made for the sending of books overseas. 
The work from July to October was di- 
rectly in the hands of the War Service 
Committee, which held formal meetings 
on August 14, August 28, and October 3. 
In the meantime its subcommittees also 
were actively at work. 

The immediate and important task of 
raising funds fell to the subcommittee on 
War Finance, of which Dr. Frank P. Hill 
of the Brooklyn Public Library was chair- 
man, for nothing could be done without 
financial backing, and until the amount 
available should be known plans could not 
be effectually discussed. In order to have 
the benefit of the advice and cooperation 
of a larger number of interested persons, 
the Finance Committee was enlarged to 
seventy-three members librarians, trus- 
tees and others from thirty-six different 
localities. The amount proposed to be 
raised was a quarter of a million for 
books, and $128,000 for expenses. This 
amount was expected to satisfy adequately 
the needs of the camps as seen at that 
time. 

The generous offer of the architect, 
E. L. Tilton, to design the library build- 
ings, was accepted, and plans for the 
buildings were discussed and approved at 
one of the early meetings of the War Serv- 
ice Committee. An application was made 
(July 5th) to the Carnegie Corporation 
for a grant of $320,000 to provide build- 
ings at the thirty-two large camps then in 
prospect. This request was favorably con- 
sidered and the sum asked was granted 
September 14, on condition that the As- 
sociation raise an equal amount. 

First Financial Campaign 

The plan of a money campaign now 
changed from an effort through libraries 
only to a general "drive" such as other 
organizations had made, an appeal to be 
made to the public in general for an ob- 
ject which might interest many who 
would not be reached by the librarians. 
At the same time librarians in various 
parts of the country were consulted in 
regard to local campaigns. A wider ap- 



peal was evidenced in the appointment 
by the Secretary of War of a Library 
War Council to assist the War Finance 
Committee. The council consisted of men 
and women of affairs nationally promi- 
nent, who saw the need and were willing 
to give their services to aid the cause. 
These members were Frank A. Vanderlip 
(chairman), Asa G. Candler, P. P. Clax- 
ton, J. Randolph Coolidge, Jr., Mrs. Jo- 
siah E. Cowles, John H. Finley, James A. 
Flaherty, E. T. Stotesbury, Theodore N. 
Vail, and Harry A. Wheeler. 

Up to this time the small amount sub- 
scribed through a Dollar-a-Month Club and 
others had been sufficient to carry on the 
work of the War Service Committee, but 
in promoting a countrywide campaign 
large expenses would be entailed. Through 
the efforts, therefore, of the War Finance 
Committee, libraries and individuals com- 
bined to underwrite the proposed finan- 
cial "drive" and together with a loan of 
$25,000 from, the Rockefeller Foundation, 
raised $44,700, which amount, after being 
used to meet the expenses of the cam- 
paign, was returned to the subscribers 
from the proceeds. An experienced cam- 
paign director was employed. Headquar- 
ters were established without expense to 
'the Association, at the Public Library of 
the District of Columbia, twelve field di- 
rectors were appointed, and the local cam- 
paigns were started. A proposed library 
war manual took shape in a War Library 
Bulletin which kept librarians and others 
in touch with the situation and gave in- 
structions for the campaign. 

Washington Conferences 

On August 14 the War Service Commit- 
tee and the Executive Board of the Amer- 
ican Library Association met in Washing- 
ton. At this meeting it became evident 
that the resolutions adopted at Louisville 
were far too limited for effective work by 
the War Service Committee under the now 
changed conditions of vastly enlarged 
projects. The Executive Board therefore 
authorized the committee to proceed with 
the work in accordance with the request 



226 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of the Commission on Training Camp Ac- 
tivities in its letter of June 28; that is, 
that the committee solicit funds for books, 
salaries and expenses; and that it follow 
a certain procedure in its financial opera- 
tions. 

At a larger meeting attended by libra- 
rians and trustees, and addressed by Ray- 
mond B. Fosdick, chairman of the Com- 
mission on Training Camp Activities, by 
Dr. P. P. Claxton and J. Randolph Cool- 
idge, Jr., of the Library War Council, the 
goal was set at a million dollars, that 
amount being agreed upon as necessary. 
A Million Dollar Budget 

This decision started the money cam- 
paign off enthusiastically. Although the 
amount seemed large in view of first plans, 
it was in reality small in comparison with 
what other organizations had asked. 

The "drive" was held for the week of 
September 24, 1917, starting sooner in 
some places and in others continuing later. 
The appeal was not uniform, for methods 
had to be learned and applied to local con- 
ditions. In some places it required educa- 
tion as to what the American Library As- 
sociation was, as well as reasons for sup- 
plying books to soldiers. The result, how- 
ever, was far beyond the million asked. 
On April 1, 1918, when the final accounts 
were settled, the total was $1,749,706.31, 
the expense of the campaign being a lit- 
tle over four per cent of this amount. 

By October 1, the Association having 
become assured of a fund sufficient to 
carry on its work, the next important 
move was to centralize the administra- 
tion and service. This feat was accom- 
plished by the action of the War Service 
Committee on October 4 in asking Dr. 
Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Congress, 
to take over the general direction of the 
work. The definition of his powers in- 
cluded appointments and salaries; the de- 
termination of all questions concerning 
buildings and equipment; the contracting 
for supplies; the selection and collection 
of books; and the determination of rela- 
tions with other organizations. The finan- 
cial provisions included the submission of 



an annual budget and monthly statements, 
the appointment of a depository, of an 
executive secretary, and a disbursing of- 
ficer, and the arrangement of a financial 
routine. Headquarters were established at 
the Library of Congress without expense 
to the service. By November 17 most of 
the subcommittees had been dissolved, 
their work being either ended or placed in 
the hands of the headquarters organiza- 
tions. 

Personnel 

Gradually the number of the staff in- 
creased. From the beginning to January 
1, 1919, there served from time to time at 
headquarters, in the camps, at the dis- 
patch offices and overseas, seven hundred 
and seventeen persons three hundred and 
fifty women, three hundred and sixty- 
seven men. 

LIBRARY WAR SERVICE ORGANIZATION 

On the following dates: 
Oct. Jan. June Jan. 
4, '17 1, '18 20. '18 10, '19 

Headquarters 

Administrative. . . 3 7 12 24 

Clerical 10 34 38 

Camps (33) (45) (47) 
Librarians, assist- 
ants and organ- 
izers 12 62 - 145 170 

Dispatch offices (1) (6) (15) 

Agents 1 6 42 

Assistants 2 17 12 

Hospital service 

Librarians 24 71 

*Field representa- 
tives 

Camp and hos- 
pital 6 4 

Overseas 2 28 

Total 15 82 246 389 

Many were volunteers, some paying all 
of their expenses, others serving for liv- 
ing expenses only. Some were released by 
their home libraries with their salaries 
continued, the libraries considering this 
their contribution toward winning the 
war. Other libraries having but a small 

Three camp and four hospital field repre- 
sentatives under appointment on January 10. 
1919. 

NOTB: There were also on January 10, 
1919, 63 supervisors in different parts of the 
country who were doing important work on 
part time with the war service in addition 
to their regular library duties. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



227 



margin of funds, substitutes had to be se- 
cured. In other cases, legal obstacles 
standing in the way, salaries had to be 
met by the library war service itself. The 
devotion of the staff could not be meas- 
ured in terms of money, however, for 
nearly every one disregarded hours and, 
If necessary, worked overtime seven days 
In the week. The personnel frequently 
changed, librarians coming for a few 
weeks or a few months, but the continuity 
of the work suffered less than might have 
been expected as one took up duties where 
another left off and applied his own libra- 
ry practice to work that was similar, al- 
though specialized for a particular pur- 
pose on a larger scale. At headquarters, 
the expert force of the Library of Con- 
gress was always at hand for advice, and 
many of its members spent generous ex- 
tra hours in war work. 

Among the powers given to the general 
director was that of establishing relations 
with the War and Navy Departments and 
with other organizations. With these de- 
partments there was frequent communica- 
tion. To Miss Caroline Webster fell the 
duty of making the first arrangements for 
library work in the hospitals, to Dr. M. L. 
Raney the task of going abroad and nego- 
tiating with Admiral Sims and General 
Pershing for privileges and powers for 
work among the sailors and soldiers over- 
seas. With the welfare organizations no 
difficulty was encountered in establishing 
mutually satisfactory arrangements. 

Such is the outline of the organization. 
It has been an emergency measure, and 
as such has had its unsatisfactory fea- 
tures and its shortcomings, but without 
it any attempted distribution of books 
would have been irregular, unequal to 
emergencies, and a failure at critical 
times. Through it the collection and dis- 
tribution of reading matter, and the main- 
tenance of library service wr" possible. 

The Call for Books 

The need for books led to a continuing 
and at times an intensive campaign. Every 



book given left money free for other 
purposes and the conviction of those who 
urged this activity was amply justified by 
the result. Early in the summer of 1917 
books were collected and made available 
for camps, having been collected by state 
and local organizations, which at first act- 
ed on their own initiative and later under 
the direction of subcommittees appointed 
by the war service committee. The first 
books came in fairly large quantities and 
before the American Library Association 
was prepared for the work in the camps 
were placed in the Y. M. C. A. huts and 
cared for by their secretaries. Following 
the money campaign of September, 1917, 
came an intensive "drive" for books. 
Again in March, 1918, came a better or- 
ganized, more widely advertised and more 
successful campaign. A feature of this 
campaign was the poster, the artistic de- 
signs being the contribution of Charles B. 
Falls. All over the country people gave 
their books, the more willingly since they 
had been brought to see the value of books 
to men who were preparing to help win 
the war. Up to December 31, 1918, the 
total number of gift books was 3,987,440. 
These books were of all kinds. Some 
few, the "Elsie books," and the Undertak- 
er's Review, were unsuitable, but since the 
men asked for nearly everything and since 
donors in the main exercised discrimina- 
tion, the percentage of rejected 'books was 
small. Some of the gifts were collectors' 
rareties and were sold for far more than 
the price of their reading value, the money 
thus obtained being used to buy other and 
more suitable books. The books were sent 
to designated libraries and thence dis- 
tributed to camps or overseas according 
to instructions from headquarters. Ship- 
ments were permitted by quartermaster 
freight and hence greater speed and econ- 
omy were secured. At some point before 
reaching the soldiers, either at the home 
library, or at the collecting point, or per- 
haps at camp, the books were prepared for 
circulation. In some cases they had been 
inscribed by their donors, in others book- 
plates were inserted by individuals or 



228 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



libraries. Nearly all received the attrac- 
tive A. L. A. bookplate which had been 
designed from the poster by Mr. Falls. The 
books also received the book pocket, 
charging card and shelf-list card. Fic- 
tion was generally listed by author and 
title, and non-fiction roughly classified for 
the convenience of the user as well as for 
the assistance of the librarian. Fiction 
naturally was the chief gift and the sup- 
ply from the two drives was in the main 
sufficient with the continuing inflow, until 
the armistice caused the cessation of near- 
ly all such gifts. 

Book Buying 

The purchased books up to December 
31, 1918, numbered 1,709,377. The need 
for purchasing was speedily seen after 
the camp libraries were in operation. Spe- 
cial books for special purposes were 
wanted which the interested public did 
not have or did not imagine could be 
used. Negotiations with the publishers 
brought favorable discounts from nearly 
all often 40 per cent and 50 per cent 
so that to the Association the cost was 
practically that of making the book. This 
contribution was the service of the pub- 
lishers toward the winning of the war. 
Magazines and Newspapers 

A great demand arose also for maga- 
zines, a large number of which were given 
early. Of these some proved to be too 
old, and others unsuitable. The order of 
the Postmaster-General by which a one- 
cent stamp, without address would carry 
a magazine to the soldiers proved of great 
value. These so-called "Burleson maga- 
zines" were distributed by the postoffice 
according to prepared directions. At first 
they went to Y. M. C. A. secretaries. 
Later they were sorted and distributed by 
camp librarians. A lack was felt, however. 
Story magazines need not be new, but in- 
formation periodicals must be fresh. A 
list, therefore, of forty-five popular and 
technical magazines was compiled and or- 
dered for all A. 1i. A. camp libraries. In 
addition, a list of eleven magazines was 
provided for huts of any organization giv- 



ing library service. The desire for news- 
papers was also great. The metropolitan 
dailies were supplied for all camps and 
selected papers from different sections of 
the country. Copies of papers in places 
near the camps were often furnished free 
by the publishers. 

Second Financial Campaign 

As the war continued and the work ex- 
tended, the need for more funds began 
to be realized, and plans were laid for a 
second financial campaign. Up to June 1, 
1918, nine hundred thousand dollars had 
been spent in eight months' work, and it 
was evident that December would see the 
end of the remaining funds. A Finance 
Committee was appointed with Dr. Hill 
again chairman, the budget carefully pre- 
pared, and plans made for organization 
and direction. Three and one-half million 
dollars was decided upon as the amount 
to be raised, a million books and 
magazines, a million for service, the bal- 
ance for additional buildings, equipment, 
and supplies. The War Library Bulletin, 
under the title of War Libraries, was di- 
rected widely to those interested. 

Other organizations, however, were pre- 
paring for like campaigns in the fall and 
winter and it was quite evident that in 
many places the same men would be called 
upon to manage the campaigns and the 
same people would be asked for contribu- 
tions. The idea of a united campaign then 
took shape and when thoroughly under- 
stood was accepted and heartily approved. 
Four organizations joined first, then by the 
President's letter of September 3, three 
others were added in the "United War 
Work Campaign." The time set was No- 
vember 11-18, and the goal $170,500,000. 
This was the largest amount ever asked for 
as a gift for any purpose, but the figures 
were based upon established facts, and as 
the public had become acquainted with the 
services of the welfare organizations, the 
amount was not judged excessive. 

The campaign committees were com- 
posed of representatives from the seven 
organizations, Frank A. Vanderlip being 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



229 



A. L. A. committeeman on the central com- 
mittee at New York. By the end of the 
campaign, differences of organization had 
almost entirely disappeared in the one end 
the welfare of the soldier and sailor ad- 
ministered to by the organization best 
fitted. The desired sum was over-sub- 
ecribed by thirty-five million, the total 
subscription being two hundred and five 
million dollars, of which the share of the 
American Library Association was about 
four million. 

The money raised in the two campaigns, 
as well as the books, were to aid in car- 
rying out the plan of placing reading mat- 
ter in the hands of the country's fighting 
men. All the details of administration, 
the personal service, the buildings and 
eqripment were for that specific end. Five 
million books were given and purchased 
for this purpose and an equal number of 
magazines. These found their way even- 
tually to every large and small camp, to 
the men overseas and to hundreds of places 
where soldiers, sailors and marines were 
stationed. 

Camp Library Buildings 

The needs of the large cantonments 
were the first object of provision. Loca- 
tions for buildings had been secured on 
the cantonment plans early in the move- 
ment and the buildings were constructed 
in the fall and winter of 1917-18. They 
were of wood, one story high, plain but 
well suited for the purpose. The plans 
called for a building 40x120 feet, but a 
number were smaller (40x93). Some had 
extensions added later. The charging 
desk faced the entrance as in the usual 
home library. Shelving for from ten to 
fifteen thousand volumes was arranged in 
alcove form. Comfortable reading chairs 
and tables were provided, the War De- 
partment heating and lighting the build- 
ings. Some of the libraries had open fire- 
places, while others claimed different 
features of attractiveness. Quiet was ob- 
served and altogether the library was dif- 
ferent from any other place in camp. Here 
two hundred officers and men could read 



comfortably, or books could be taken to 
tents or barracks. 

Camp Librarians 

To each large camp was assigned a li- 
brarian and one assistant. Often there 
were two or three, and sometimes more 
assistants. In some of the libraries as- 
sistants came for the day from the neigh- 
boring cities (as at Camp Zachary Taylor, 
from Louisville, and at Camp Sherman 
from Chillicothe). In such cases women 
were permitted, and as time went on and 
conditions settled, women were allowed by 
the War Department to be the librarians 
in several instances. The usual hours of 
the camp library were from eight in the 
morning to ten at night, but the busiest 
time was from five-thirty throughout the 
evening. The Association did not favor 
asking for enlisted men with library train- 
ing to serve as librarians or assistants, 
nor exemptions from the draft for men in 
library war service. Some of the camp 
librarians served only a short time, oth- 
ers went from post to post. Still others 
stayed until the men in training had 
changed, several times over. One of 
these, familiarly known by his first men 
as "Dad," was written to by them as to 
a father after they had gone overseas. He 
was an example of the general character 
of the librarians, efficient but human, es- 
sentially one with the other welfare secre- 
taries, dovetailing his work in with theirs. 

Branch Libraries 

The A. L. A. soon found that it must 
place books in other buildings than the 
main library buildings, for the way was 
often long from the far end of a camp 
to the library. It therefore established 
branches in many of the recreation huts 
of the "Y" and "K. of C.," the welfare 
secretaries looking after the books. Three 
hundred volumes or more was the general 
quota for these branches. In addition to 
the branches there were numerous sta- 
tions where smaller collections of books 
were placed and frequently changed. A 
monitor was usually appointed but some- 
times the men drew the books and 



230 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



charged them themselves. It was the 
hope that every company might have a 
station, as well as the barracks, mess 
halls, officers' clubs, division and regi- 
mental headquarters. 

Quarantined men were supplied with 
reading matter that was afterward burned. 
Nor were the prison and guard-houses 
neglected. 

Publicity within the Camps 
It was not sufficient merely to provide 
the building and books, for there were 
thousands of men who knew nothing of a 
library or how to use one. Library ad- 
vertising was necessary to reach these 
men and it was used in many forms. Each 
building bore a large placard sign and a 
roof sign which was lighted at night. Camp 
library picture postcards were provided, 
placards for the A. L. A. work, colored 
posters "Use your camp library" for dis- 
play In barracks and other camp buildings, 
and small circulars for distribution to sol- 
diers and visitors. "Stories" and book 
notes were to be found in the camp pa- 
pers. Notices and bulletins calling atten- 
tion to the library as an aid in military 
training were Issued through division 
headquarters, book displays with placards 
were made at conspicuous points, with 
other devices used to bring books to the 
attention of the men. 

Extending the Field 

The large camps provided for, it became 
evident that a considerable number of 
small camps and other units must be given 
reading matter if the purpose of the li- 
brary war service was to be carried out. 
The plan for these smaller camps was the 
same as for the branches and stations in 
the large camps. The huts of the other 
welfare organizations and shelves in bar- 
racks and mess halls were utilized. Since 
these units were usually too small for 
each to have a librarian, supervisors were 
appointed. Some of these gave full time 
to supervising a number of small libra- 
ries, while others were neighboring libra- 
rians who watched conditions, solved 
problems and reported new needs to head- 



quarters. Thus the libraries went to 
small and special camps, such as aviation 
fields, observation, transportation and 
medical units and isolated guards. Nor 
were the men doing monotonous guard 
duty on the Mexican border forgotten. To 
them traveling libraries from the Associa- 
tion headquarters at El Paso and San An- 
tonio came as a great boon. The work 
was rapidly extended to naval stations 
and to ships, to the naval bases along the 
Atlantic coast, the naval radio stations, 
the training stations for men and officers, 
the naval hospitals and hospital ships. 
Then gradually the distant stations, mil- 
itary, naval and marine, in Guam, the Phil- 
ippines, Porto Rico, the Canal Zone, Ha- 
waii, Alaska, the Virgin Islands, began to 
receive books. Even the little submarine 
patrols along the coast were supplied with 
frequently exchanged boxes, while the 
large convoys and battleships were pro- 
vided with regular libraries. Many of these 
stations and ships had been provided 
with books before, but a systematic 
extension of library service was the new 
feature of the work. 

Another field was the Student Army 
Training Corps. Its early demobilization, 
however, soon ended the work. The need 
was mainly for reference books and books 
on military science at colleges without 
adequate library facilities, but there was 
also a need for recreational reading, es- 
pecially for magazines. For this need the 
A. L. A. was preparing when the corps was 
demobilized. 

Going Abroad 

The work in the training camps dealt 
with the men only in the first stage of 
their call for service abroad. When the 
time for preliminary training was ended, 
the men were moved to embarkation 
camps. On the troop trains boxes of books 
and magazines were placed, usually under 
the care of the Y. M. C. A. secretary. At 
Camp Merritt and Camp Mills provision 
was made for reading matter for the men 
who were waiting under strict camp reg- 
ulations for embarkation. 

On board ship recreation became a 



231 



necessity. This necessity the welfare or- 
ganizations provided, the American Li- 
brary Association doing its part. Boxes 
of books, 125 in each and a box to every 
thousand men, were placed aboard each 
transport in the care of the chaplain or 
welfare secretary. The books were used 
on board and then cased again on the 
other side for use at the front. Magazines 
supplied at this time were generally worn 
out by the time they reached the other 
side. This provision of reading matter 
for the long and tedious voyage proved to 
be one of the most important and appre- 
ciated efforts of the service. 

As the men went overseas the library 
war service entered upon new work under 
new conditions. In order to have books 
accompany them, not only on the trans- 
ports but to their final training camp and 
to the firing line, overseas dispatch offices 
were opened at Hoboken in January, 
1918, at Newport News in March, and later 
at other places. 

The Work Overseas 

The privilege of supplying books over- 
seas was secured, and early plans devel- 
oped, by Dr. M. L. Raney of Johns Hop- 
kins University, who went abroad in Feb- 
ruary, 1918. Later arrangements were 
made by Burton E. Stevenson, of Chilli- 
cothe, the Association's European repre- 
sentative, and Dr. Putnam himself. Dr. 
Raney, after interviewing Admiral Sims 
and securing a pass, visited many naval 
points, finding everywhere that the men 
not only wanted books, but clamored for 
them. Books were wanted at the naval 
aviation stations, on the vessels of the 
convoying fleet, at the naval bases, at the 
mine-sweeping bases, and on the battle- 
ships. The work of filling this demand 
for books on the part of the navy was be- 
gun immediately, either by shipments 
from America or by purchase in England. 

With the army, overseas, Dr. Raney found 
similar conditions and desires. Letters 
home, newspapers and books describing 
life at the front, gave evidence of times 
of leisure and times which created a great 



desire for reading or study. But the sit- 
uation abroad was not the same as in the 
training camps in this country. The army 
in France was in the fighting area where 
encumbrances were discouraged. The Red 
Cross and the Y. M. C. A. both appre- 
ciated, however, the possibilities of as- 
sistance from the library war service and 
officially endorsed the Association's plans. 
Dr. Raney, conferring with General 
Pershing, received an official order which 
centralized the supply of books in the A. 
L. A., and granted space for fifty tons of 
books a month on the transports. 

Fifty tons of books a month seems a 
large amount; whole American libraries 
could be sent over every month and yet 
not fill the space. It sounded large, in- 
deed, but it was needed and has been 
more than used. The books as they ar- 
rived were distributed according to agree- 
ment first by the Red Cross and Y. M. C. 
A., then later also by the Salvation Army, 
Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare 
Board and Y. W. C. A. Books and maga- 
zines were sent everywhere. They were 
sent to the front line trenches and used 
by the men on duty while waiting for the 
order to go over the top; in the reserve 
areas just back of the front, in huts or 
other places of shelter; in the disinte- 
grating areas; in the training camps 
where men were fitted for transfer to the 
front; in the rest areas; at the points of 
debarkation; and in the more isolated 
places where the foresters and engineers 
worked. 

As the knowledge spread that books 
were available, request for them came 
from all quarters, so that the A. L. A., after 
securing from General Pershing franking 
privileges, was enabled to send books to 
all points where the American postofflce 
reached. 

Through the agency of the Red Cross, 
books have been sent by way of Switzer- 
land to our prisoners of war in the vari- 
ous prison camps of Germany. To them 
reading matter was an especial boon, help- 
ing them to keep their mental balance 
through the terrible ordeal. 



232 



The overseas work in charge of Burton 
E. Stevenson was centered at headquar- 
ters established at 10 Rue de I'filys6e, 
Paris. Here a central reference and cir- 
culating library of about 10,000 volumes 
was organized with offices of administra- 
tion. A medical reference library was 
also built up. The staff increased from 
two in June, 1918, to twenty-eight by the 
end of the year. The quartermaster de- 
partment provided a warehouse for re- 
ception of books from the transports, 
whence they were distributed at will. 
Books have also been sent to the Ameri- 
can Expeditionary Forces in Italy, Arch- 
angel and Vladivostok, work at the latter 
point being in charge of an A. L. A. repre- 
sentative dispatched especially for the 
work. In short, it has been the aim of the 
library war service to provide books and 
library facilities to American soldiers and 
sailors, wherever they may be found at 
home, abroad, in camp, on shipboard, in 
out-of-the-way corners of the world 
everywhere. 

Effect of the Armistice 
After the signing of the armistice, read- 
ing matter was wanted just as much as 
ever, but it differed in kind and distribu- 
tion. Books were needed for the trans- 
ports on their return voyages, the Army 
of Occupation needed books to take with 
it into Germany. In the time of waiting 
in camps before demobilization, books 
were needed for educational work. This 
need was met by the library war service 
with both general books and special voca- 
tional books. In the Navy even greater 
opportunities offered themselves for a 
more regular and systematic educational 
service on naval vessels and for work at 
the Naval Officers' Training Schools. 

Hospital Libraries 

There was also the man sick or wounded 
for whom the medical service had pro- 
vided ample hospital facilities, but who 
needed mental recreation as well. The 
shellshock men needed short stories, sim- 
ple and easy to read, the extremely weak 
men who could not hold or pay attention 



to books, needed scrap books. The surgi- 
cal cases, mentally alert, soon ceased to 
be satisfied with recreational books and 
wanted serious matter, frequently of the 
vocational and re-educational type. For 
the hospital patients special librarians 
with their assistants were provided al- 
ways women, permission to install library 
service being obtained from the Surgeon- 
General, the Navy Department and the 
Red Cross. The library service, in fact, 
has everywhere been welcomed, and by its 
reciprocal relations with other agencies, 
looked upon as an important part of the 
curative and re-educational work. 

What the Men Read 

Besides interest in the question of how 
the books were secured and distributed 
to the men, there has always been a desire 
to know what the men wanted to read. A 
book selection committee early compiled 
a list, never using it in its fullness, how- 
ever, as the supplies to the camps were 
mainly conditioned on the reports of the 
camp librarians and on specific requests. 
In these reports and requests fiction 
naturally took the first place. This was 
to be expected, since it was in hours of 
recreation that the library would be called 
upon most. The fiction called for, how- 
ever, was good fiction, detective stories, 
stories of adventure, stories of the fron- 
tier, love stories being by no means un- 
popular. Zane Grey was perhaps the most 
popular author, but there were other 
favorites: Harold Bell Wright, Conan 
Doyle, Jack London, Rex Beach, Kipling, 
Conrad, O. Henry, Mark Twain, McCut- 
cheon, Tarkington, Haggard, Oppenheim 
and Chambers. Most of the men wanted 
a happy ending to their stories. Stories 
of the localities from which the men came 
also possessed an absorbing interest. 

Besides fiction there was always a 
strong demand for non-fiction of all kinds, 
and a recital of some of the subjects indi- 
cates what has been going on among the 
men in the army during this unusual pe- 
riod Of enforced absence from home. On 
the one hand were the illiterates, not a 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



233 



large proportion, but some in every camp, 
especially camps recruiting from Florida 
and the southern mountains. The Y. M. 
C. A. started classes for these men, and 
as books were needed, the libraries sup- 
plied them with primers and easy readers. 

At the opposite extreme were the well- 
read, the studious, the college-bred. In 
this class Shakespeare was always wanted. 
Poetry was a subject which some renewed 
and many others became acquainted with 
for the first time. Dramas, especially the 
modern plays, were eagerly read and am- 
ateur theatricals, not only the plays, but 
books of instruction, were provided. The 
same was true of concerts and athletic 
entertainments. Religious books were 
frequently called for and were supplied, 
but not those of a sectarian nature. 

There was also that class of soldiers to 
whom increasing attention has been 
drawn and for whose return many agen- 
cies are preparing the foreign born who 
can speak or read the English language 
only imperfectly or not at all. The work 
of Americanizing these men made its start 
in the camps, for the need was evidenced 
by the great call for books in other lan- 
guages. Yiddish, Polish, Italian were per- 
haps most called for, but Dutch, Rou- 
manian, Slovak, modern Greek, Bohemian, 
Syrian, Turkish books were asked for and 
supplied as far as it was possible. Books 
on the war itself were asked for at one 
time or another by nearly every reader. 
If a man had no previous interest, he was 
generally aroused by lectures and pictures 
to an interest in the war, its causes and 
its objects. Histories of the warring coun- 
tries, books of travel and guidebooks (for 
a time there was a great demand for Bae- 
dekers), maps, French books of all kinds, 
particularly grammars and easy readers, 
and war books in the stricter sense not 
only those on the background of the war 
and the events leading up to the outbreak 
of hostilities, but early accounts and per- 
sonal narratives. Enough of these could 
not be supplied, but from the day of the 
armistice the demand ceased outright. 
The war was no longer a matter of inter- 



est; it had been a bad job which must be 
finished, and it could be finished best with 
the fullest knowledge of its life and con- 
ditions; but the job finished, few wanted 
any longer to read about it 

Books of a serious character were also 
demanded by the soldiers. Men who had 
become interested in their work, men who 
looked forward to advancement, men who 
had been sent to special camps for study, 
demanded books of an advanced grade 
along military and technical lines. French 
books, books on mathematics, books on 
special subjects were wanted. Books on 
all sorts of trades were asked for by the 
quartermaster's training camp at Camp 
Johnston, naval subjects were asked for 
at Pelham Bay and Newport, artillery 
books were called for at the training 
schools, arithmetics, algebras and geome- 
tries for machine gun companies, aviation 
books at the flying fields. The question of 
supplying textbooks became indeed a seri- 
ous one. It was decided finally that books 
wanted by men for classroom use could 
not be supplied, but books wanted for in- 
dividual efforts or for reference work, the 
service would secure quickly and in suf- 
ficient quantities. For officers as well as 
men the service supplied books, some of 
the highest technical nature. In some 
cases books were borrowed from public 
libraries. 

After November, 1918, not only were 
fiction, educational and vocational books 
supplied in greater numbers for men on 
active duty and for those returning home 
and in the hospitals, but preparation was 
made for shipments of the best current 
books on all subjects, such as a public 
library of today would secure for itself, 
so that the men might read abroad or on 
shipboard what they would find in the 
public library at home. 



The library war service, an inspiring 
service to all engaged in it, reached its 
climax after hostilities had ceased, and a 
full account of its activities and an esti- 
mate of its results cannot be written until 
a later time. The present short narrative 



234 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of processes, organization and general 
scope ends with January 1, 1919, while the 
work is yet at its height. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF A. L. A. WAR 
SERVICE 

Books, Pamphlets, etc. 

A list of books, pamphlets and articles 
relating to the activities of the -American 
Library Association during the war. 
American Library Association, Library 
War Service. Camp Library Handbook 
(1918). 51 pp., typewritten. 
American Library Association, Library 
War Service. Information Circular No. 
1. Nov. 20, 1917 

American Library Association, Library 
War Service. The Library War Serv- 
ice of the American Library Association. 
Jan., 1919. 28 pp., typewritten. 

Report prepared for the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities. 
American Library Association, Library 

War Service. Press Bulletin, weekly. 
Feb. 2, 1918 

American Library Association, Library 
War Service. Soldiers, sailors and books. 
(Wash.), 1918. 32 pp. 

Booklet of information prepared for 
United War Work Campaign. 
American Library Association, Overseas 

War Service. Suggestions for Camp 
Library Service. (1918). 4 pp. 

American Library Association. Papers and 
Proceedings, Louisville, Ky., 1917, Sara- 
toga Springs, N. Y., 1918. (Bulletin of 
the A. L. A., Vol. 11, No. 4, Chicago, July, 
1917, and Vol. 12, Chicago, Sept., 1918.) 

American Library Association, War Fi- 
nance Committee. Library Service for 
Soldiers and Sailors. The Story of the 
Million-Dollar Campaign of the Ameri- 
can Library Association (1918). 22 pp. 

American Library Association, War Serv- 
ice Committee. Report. Albany, 1918. 
60 pp. 

Includes report of the War Service Com- 
mittee, June 30, 1918, pp. 5-12; statement 
by the general director, Oct. 4, 1917-June 
30, 1918, pp. 13-28; minutes of meetings 
of the War Service Committee, pp. 29-59. 

Koch, T. W. War Service of the Ameri- 
can Library Association. 37 pp. 1918. 



3d ed., with foreword by Herbert Put- 
nam. July, 1918. 40 pp., illus. 

Koch, T. W. War Libraries and Allied 
Studies. New York, G. E. Stechert & 
Co., 1918. pp. xxii-f-287. 87 plates. 

Library Journal. Monthly. May, 1917- 
Dec., 1918. 

Articles, editorials and news notes in 
each number. 

Library War Council. How to Conduct the 
Campaign for Libraries for Our Sol- 
diers. Wash. (1917). 

Library War Council. Libraries for Our 
Soldiers and Sailors. Wash. (1917). 

Public Libraries. Monthly. May, 1917- 
Dec., 1918. 

Articles, editorials and news notes in 
each number. 

War and Navy Departments Commissions 
on Training Camp Activities. Wash. 
(1918). 32 pp. 

A statement of the commissions and the 
welfare organizations. 

War Libraries. Vol. 1, Nos. 1-4, Aug. 22, 

1918-Oct. 10, 1918. 
War Library Bulletin, Vol. 1, Nos. 1-7, Aug., 

1917-July, 1918. 

Periodical Articles 
A. L. A. in Paris. Bookman, November, 

1918. 
American Library Association. F. P. 

Stockbridge. Overland, November, 1918. 
The American Library Association War 

Service. Dial, May 23, 1918. 
Army's Index. Literary Digest, September 

21, 1918. 
Book and the Soldier. Outlook, . April 3, 

1918. 
Books and Bullets. Theodore W. Koch. 

American Review of Reviews, November, 

1918. 
Books for Our Men in the Army and Navy. 

World's Work, April, 1918. 
Books for Soldiers and Sailors. American 

Review of Reviews, November, 1918. 
Books for Soldiers and Sailors. 8t. Nich- 
olas, May, 1918. 
Books for the Soldiers. Literary Digest, 

July 21, 1917. 
Books for the Soldiers. Literary Digest, 

August 11, 1917. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



Books Wanted Over There. Literary Di- 
gest, April 6, 1918. 

Draft Army of Books. M. J. Moses. Book- 
man, February, 1918. 

Editorial. Saturday Evening Post, Sep- 
tember 7, 1918. 

Educational Opportunities of Soldiers in 
Camps. W. L. Brown. Southern Work- 
man, June, 1918. 

Halt! What Book Goes There? M. J. 
Moses. Nation, March 21, 1918. 

Leaves from a Camp Librarian's Notebook. 
W. F. Seward. Bookman, November, 
1918. 

Library War Service. School and Society, 
August 17, 1918. 

Not Enough Books for the Army. Literary 
Digest, October 19, 1918. 

Reading at the Front. Eveline W. Brain- 
erd. Independent, January 19, 1918. 

Three Million Books for Army's Readers. 
Stars and Stripes, June 14, 1918. 



Uncle Sam: librarian. C. O. S. Maweon. 
Bookman, October, 1918. 

Wanted A Book for Every Man Over 
There. H. H. Moore. Outlook, October 
16, 1918. 

War Service of the American Library As- 
sociation. Dial, January 31, 1918. 

What Books are Doing to Americanize 
Soldiers of Many Races. G. F. Worts. 
Outlook, October 2, 1918. 

What Do "Our Boys" Want to Read? 
Ladies Home Journal, November, 1918. 

What Do Soldiers Read? Nation, October 
25, 1917. 

What the Men Read and Why. (Chapter 
in "Keeping Our Fighters Fit for War 
and After," by Edward F. Allen, 1918.) 

What the Soldier Prefers to Read. Lit- 
erary Digest, August 28, 1917. 

What the Soldier Reads. Literary Digest, 
November 10, 1917. 

When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Har- 
rison Rhodes. McClure's, January, 1919. 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 




Grand Union Hotel, Saratoga Springs, 
N. Y., July 3, 1918 

Present: James I. Wyer, Jr., Edwin H. 
Anderson, Charles F. D. Belden, William 
H. Brett, Gratia Countryman, Electra C. 
Doren and Frank P. Hill (being every 
member), Herbert Putnam, general direc- 
tor; George B. Utley, executive secretary, 
and, later in the meeting, Thomas L. 
Montgomery, president of the American 
Library Association. 

Minutes of meeting of June 8, 1918, ap- 
proved as sent to members in typewritten 
form. 

Audit Voted, That upon advice from 
the A. L. A. Finance Committee that the 
audit by Marwick, Mitchell, Peat & Co. of 
the Library War Fund handled by the 
American Security & Trust Co from its in- 
ception to May 31, 1918, and of the books 
and accounts of the general director from 
October 4, 1917, to May 31, 1918, is cor- 
rect, that the bill of $433.75 to the same 
company be paid from the general fund of 
the War Service Committee. 

Funds Voted, That the action of the 
chairman in notifying the American Se- 
curity & Trust Company that the commit- 
tee does not wish to reinvest any part of 
the $500,000 credited to its account on 
repayment on June 25, 1918, of United 
States Treasury certificates of the same 
amount due that date, be the action of 
the committee. 

After discussion and without objection, 
it was taken as the sense of the commit- 
tee that the goal for the "American Li- 
brary Association second war service 
fund" be $3,000,000. 

War Finance Committee Recommenda- 
tions 

On consideration of recommendatione 
from the Library War Finance Committee 
It was 

Recorded as the sense of the committee 



that the approaching financial campaign 
be conducted independently. 

Voted, That the People's Trust Company 
of Brooklyn be designated as depository 
for the funds collected in the "American 
Library Association second war service 
fund" campaign. 

Voted, That the first library war fund 
be closed on August 1, 1918, and that 
amounts received by the treasurer of the 
A. L. A. on and after that date be credited 
to the "American Library Association sec- 
ond war service fund." 

Voted, That the general director be re- 
quested to furnish at an early date an ex- 
planatory statement showing the probable 
expenditures of the sum proposed to be 
raised in the approaching campaign, 
namely, $3,000,000. 

Voted, That the chairman, in consultation 
with the general director, be authorized to 
prepare an application to the Carnegie Cor- 
poration asking for such funds as they 
deem desirable for additional buildings and 
additions to existing buildings. 

Second war service fund Voted, That 
in the campaign for the "American Library 
Association second war service fund," spe- 
cific provision be made for other forms of 
library war service than the supplying of 
books to the military and naval forces of 
the United States. 

Voted, To re-enact in the form approved 
by the Executive Board (on July 1, 1918) 
the vote passed by the committee on June 
8, 1918, and recommended to the Execu- 
titve Board for approval, the vote author- 
izing a second campaign; the vote in its 
final form to read: 

Voted, That the following action of the 
War Service Committee be recommended to 
the Executive Board of the American Li- 
brary Association for its approval; 

That the War Service Committee of the 
American Library Association, through its 
Subcommittee on Library War Finance, be 
authorized to conduct a second financial 
campaign, to solicit funds in the name of 
the American Library Association for the 
purpose of providing books and personal 
library service to soldiers and sailors in 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



237 



this country and abroad and for carrying 
on such other activities as are manifestly 
related to library war service. The funds 
BO collected shall be styled "The American 
Library Association second war service 
fund." 

Supplementary budget The general di- 
rector submitted the following supple- 
mentary budget for action by the commit- 
tee: 

Service $100,000 

Books, magazines and bindings.. 150,000 
Miscellaneous (including build- 
ings) 150,000 



$400,000 



It was thereupon 



Voted, That the American Security & 
Trust Co., as treasurer, is authorized and 
requested from the A. L. A. War Service 
moneys in its hands, to transfer to the 
account of the A. L. A. War Service fund, 
Herbert Putnam, general director, the sum 
of four hundred thousand dollars ($400,- 
000) in addition to all similar grants here- 
tofore authorized. 
Adjourned. 

Attest: 

J. I. WYEB, JR., 

Chairman. 



Lake Placid Club, Essex County, N. Y. 
September 24, 1918 

Present: James I. Wyer, Jr., Charles 
F. D. Belden, Frank P. Hill, Gratia A. 
Countryman and Electra C. Doren 
(through proxy held by Linda A. East- 
man), a quorum of the committee, also 
William W. Bishop, President of the A. L. 
A.; Herbert Putnam, general director; 
George B. Utley, executive secretary, and 
Florence A. Huxley, by invitation, as rep- 
resentative of R. R. Bowker. 

Minutes of meeting of July 3, 1918, were 
approved as sent to members in 'typewrit- 
ten form. 

The following memorial minute was read 
and unanimously adopted by a rising vote: 



WILLIAM HOWARD BRETT 

In the death of William Howard Brett, 
the library profession has lost a great 
leader and the War Service Committee of 
the American Library Association an 
ardent and untiring member. He was a 
pioneer of the social and democratic spirit 
in a new field of educational and com- 
munity service the public library an~3 
his contributions in almost every line of 
endeavor within this institution's scope 
have been significant and epoch-making. 
He introduced cumulative indexing and 
proved it practicable, and triumphantly 
justified his early faith in the open-shelf 
system: conceived upon the broadest scope, 
library and school cooperation; developed 
the branch library system; fostered library 
instruction; built into library architecture 
the principle of response to both com- 
munity and administrative needs; in li- 
brary legislation he was a recognized au- 
thority. Through the Cleveland Public Li- 
brary's work, through state and national 
library associations, for a generation he 
spread the spirit and ideals of a new force 
in education and society. But to the city 
whose life he has enlarged and adorned 
through its public library, and to others of 
his colleagues belongs the memorializing 
of these manifold and generous labors. 

To the War Service Committee there re- 
mains the distinction of recording the 
noble and self-sacrificing service which he 
rendered to his latest hour in the newest 
and, to him, the most deeply significant 
development of that profession to which he 
had already devoted a lifetime. 

From the beginning of the war, and long 
before our entrance into the world conflict, 
he was vitally concerned as to its issues. 
He entertained no hesitations and no 
doubts as to the course which we should 
pursue as a nation. His fighting spirit as 
expressed in his own field, whether by good 
generalship, by fine sense of relationships, 
or in generous rivalry of service, was 
throughout his life, always clear and defi- 
nite in its objective. And action direct, 
personal, and constructive action was, 
saying his considerate and democratic 
spirit, his foremost characteristic. When 
but a lad he ran away from home to en- 
list in the civil war. Too young to fight, 
he could only be a bugler, but there he was 
on the spot, to be and to do whatever he 
could. Before the close of the war, how- 
ever, it was his privilege to serve in the 
ranks. 

When the time came to put libraries into 
winning this war he was at hand, with all 
the resources of his varied and rich expe- 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



rience; himself, his library hoard, and hie 
library staff attuned to the task of mobiliz- 
ing the service of books to the needs of 
civilians and soldiers for winning the war, 
whether at home or abroad. From the 
very first hour that such service was con- 
ceived, he began his work. A member of 
the Library War Finance Committee upon 
whose success depended the whole camp 
library project, he was active personally 
and officially in formulating plans, in 
shaping policies and in raising funds. 
These larger functions did not prevent his 
personal attention to the immediate and 
definite work of initiating the library war 
service in his own state and directing the 
work of collecting funds; of supplementing 
the library at Camp Sherman, and hasten- 
ing the realization of an adequate building, 
the first in the country to be dedicated; 
and later in sustaining the stream of effi- 
cient camp library service by supplying 
workers from his own staff. Subsequently, 
at the request of the general director, he 
organized and directed the work of one of 
the two largest dispatch offices for for- 
warding books overseas, that at Newport 
News, and extending its work as a book 
distributing station to over thirty camps 
in the vicinity. A cherished dream of his, 
unfulfilled because of the tragic accident 
of his death, was to work in France among 
the soldiers in the furlough region of the 
American Expeditionary Forces. 

His candor, his utter absence of pose, his 
magnanimity, his kindly, buoyant, tem- 
pered spirit, thinking no evil, hoping all 
things, placed each man at his best and 
acted as a solvent upon every problem and 
in any crisis; but underlying these quali- 
ties was the tenacious will, which halted 
at no obstacle until the goal was com- 
passed. A vital, constructive personality, 
royally democratic, has passed from 
among us. In the fullness of years, yet 
with vigor undiminished and vision un- 
dimmed, he went out in the full tide of 
action. Be It therefore 

Resolved, That the sense of our irrepar- 
able loss in counsel and in action be re- 
corded in the minutes of this committee, 
and that, as a fitting memorial of the life 
purposes and last work of our late col- 
league, we cooperate to the fullest extent 
with the library board and library staff of 
Cleveland in furthering in France the 
work which he so ardently desired to un- 
dertake. Be it further 

Resolved, That a copy of this memorial 
be sent to the members of his family, to 
the Cleveland Public Library Board, to the 
vice-librarian, Miss Eastman, and the li- 
brary staff. 



Second war service fund The chair an- 
nounced the result of two recent corres- 
pondence votes: 

1. That the goal in the forthcoming 
financial campaign had been increased 
from three million dollars, as voted at 
Saratoga, to three and one-half million 
dollars. 

2. That the committee had approved a 
joint campaign with three other organiza- 
tions, viz., the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., 
and the War Camp Community Service, 
the total goal being $133,500,000. 

Payment of bill of counsel The presi- 
dent of the association brought to the at- 
tention of the committee an opinion of 
Counsel H. C. Buckley, of Detroit, relative 
to the relations between the American Li- 
brary Association, its Executive Board, its 
War Service Committee, and the general 
director of the library war service, and as 
to the custody of the funds raised by sub- 
scription to carry on the war work of the 
Association, which opinion was obtained 
in pursuance of a vote of the Executive 
Board of July 5, 1918. The opinion was re- 
ceived by the committee and placed on 
file and the secretary instructed to send 
a copy to each member of the War Serv- 
ice Committee. 

Voted, That bill of counsel (for $300) be 
presented to the Library War Finance 
Committee with request that it be consid- 
ered for payment from funds in the hands 
of that committee. 



Military exemption The general direc- 
tor presented the following letter from the 
acting chairman of the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities, War Depart- 
ment: 

WAB DEPABTMENT, 

COMMISSION ON TRAINING CAMP ACTIVITIES, 
WASHINGTON. 

September 7, 1918. 
DB. HEBBEBT PUTNAM, Library of Congress, 

Washington. 

Dear Dr. Putnam I am glad to inform 
you that Secretary Keppel has assured me, 
as a result of a conference with General 
Crowder, that draft boards will be in- 
structed to honor exemption requests for 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



239 



men employed in the work of the organi- 
zations affiliated with this commission in 
welfare work with the soldiers. While the 
need is not economic, still it will be rec- 
ognized and this has the approval of the 
President. Useful and necessary men in 
these organizations can without embar- 
rassment remain in their particular serv- 
ice. It will be necessary for the heads of 
the organizations to write to the respective 
Boards where these men are registered 
and no doubt formal notification will be 
given within a day or two. Relative to 
men for foreign service, in addition to the 
above recommendations, the War Depart- 
ment itself will be glad, we are informed, 
to recommend the names of all men for 
passports who have the approval of their 
respective organizations for foreign serv- 
ice and where they have passed the neces- 
sary individual examination. We will be 
very happy to assist you in securing the 
approval of the War Department for indi- 
vidual passports if you will send the names 
of such men to this office with their age 
and the location of the local board where 
they have registered. 

Very truly yours, 

MALCOLM L. MCBBIDE, 
Acting Chairman. 

Whereupon it was 

"Voted, That the opportunity offered by 
the above letter for general exemption 
should not be availed of. 

Service to industries engaged in war 
work The question of supplying library 
service to workers in munition plants, 
shipbuilding yards and other industries 
engaged in war work, being under consid- 
eration, it was 

Voted, That it be taken as the sense of 
the committee that so far as books and 
money shall permit, it is the policy of the 
committee to provide book service to work- 
ers in munition plants and other industries 
engaged in war work where local libraries, 
library commissions or other local agencies 
cannot provide It. 

Supplementary budget The general di- 
rector having submitted a statement show- 
ing the funds now in hand, and the proba- 



ble financial needs for the next two 
months, which statement included the fol- 
lowing proposed apportionment of a sup- 
plementary budget: 
Books, magazines and binding. . . . $125,000 

Service 70,000 

Miscellaneous (including build- 
ings) 41,000 

$236,000 
It was 

Voted, That the American Security and 
Trust Company, as treasurer, is authorized 
and requested from the A. L. A. War Serv- 
ice moneys in its hands to transfer to the 
account of the A. L. A. War Service fund, 
Herbert Putnam, general director, the sum 
of two hundred thirty-six thousand dollars 
($236,000) in Addition to all similar grants 
heretofore authorized, and that transfers 
be made as required, not to exceed in any 
one month 50 per cent of the sum now 
granted, and as the funds in the hands of 
the American Security & Trust Company 
shall permit. 

War Finance Committee Voted, That 
after approval by the Executive Board of 
the American Library Association, the 
American Security & Trust Company, as 
treasurer, is authorized and requested from 
the A. L. A. War Service moneys in its 
hands, to transfer to the credit of the Li- 
brary War Finance Committee the sum of 
one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) 
from the general fund, in addition to all 
similar grants heretofore authorized, and 
that transfers be made as required, not to 
exceed in any one month 50 per cent of the 
sum now granted, and as the funds in the 
American Security & Trust Company shall 
permit. 

NOTE: The foregoing vote was form- 
ally approved and ratified by the Execu- 
tive Board of the American Library As- 
sociation at a meeting on September 25, 
1918. 

Voted, That after approval by the Execu- 
tive Board of the American Library Asso- 
ciation, the People's Trust Company of 
Brooklyn, New York, is authorized to pay 
checks drawn upon the "American Library 
Association second war service fund" bear- 
ing the joint signatures of the chairman 



240 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of the War Service Committee and the 
chairman of the Library War Finance 
Committee. 

NOTE: The foregoing vote was form- 
ally approved and ratified by the Execu- 
tive Board of the American Library As- 
sociation at a meeting on September 25, 
1918. 

Voted, That the committee approves the 

proposal and accepts the offer of the Li- 
brary War Finance Committee, making 
available its campaign organization for the 
conduct of a book campaign as soon as pos- 
sible after the money campaign of the 
week of November 11, 1918. 

Voted, That the committee approves the 
action of the Library War Finance Com- 
mittee in joining in a financial campaign 
with six other organizations, viz., the 
Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the National 
Catholic War Council, the War Camp Com- 
munity Service, the Jewish Welfare Board, 
and the Salvation Army. 

Liberty bonds Voted, That the execu- 
tive secretary be requested to arrange 
with the American Security & Trust Com- 
pany for the conversion of three $100 par 
value United States of America Second 
Liberty Loan 4 per cent bonds into 4*4 
per cent of the Third Liberty Loan. 

The committee took recess to 11 a. m., 
Wednesday, September 25, 1918. 



The committee met at the appointed 
hour. Present: Same as at session of 
preceding day. 

After-war reading lists The chairman 
having presented a plan proposed and pre- 
pared by J. L. Wheeler for the prepara- 
tion and publication of certain war time 
reading lists in cooperation with the 
United States Bureau of Education, which 
plan proposed a grant of fifteen hundred 
dollars ($1,500) from the Library War 
fund, to be used in editorial and clerical 
work, it was 

Voted, That the War Service Commit- 
tee approves the plan proposed by J. L. 
Wheeler, but finds itself unable to make 
the requested grant at the present time, 
but is willing to make such grant if the 



forthcoming campaign yields a sufficient 
sum in excess of $3,500,000; that in the 
meantime the committee refers the mat- 
ter back to the A. L. A. Publishing Board, 
with the recommendation that the project 
be presented to the libraries of the coun- 
try, and that they be invited to subscribe 
to the carrying out of the work. 

War service for libraries aside from 
supplying reading matter to Army and 
Navy The chairman read to the commit- 
tee a communication addressed to him by 
Dr. E. C. Richardson relative to possible 
war service for libraries aside from fur- 
nishing books and library service to the 
military and naval forces. 

After consideration of this communica- 
tion, the committee adopted the following 
minute: 

T~hat the War Service Committee is 
keenly sensible that there are useful and 
appropriate opportunities for the library 
war service aside from the supplying of 
reading matter to men of the army and 
navy. 

That in the opinion of the committee 
the nature of its first appeal for funds 
unfortunately limited their application 
solely to the before-mentioned use. 

That by action of July 3, 1918, the com- 
mittee voted that in the second campaign 
for funds, specific provision be made for 
other forms of library war service than 
the supplying of books to soldiers and 
sailors. 

That in the hope that the approaching 
campaign may yield funds enough to un- 
dertake any worthy form of war service, 
the committee welcomes the above-men- 
tioned communication, and authorizes the 
chairman to name Dr. Richardson as 
chairman of a subcommittee of three on 
Library Research as War Service (the 
two remaining members to be added by 
him) to prepare and submit a detailed 
plan for such work with any appropriate 
suggestions or recommendations. 

Memorial to W. H. Brett Proposals for 
a memorial to the late William Howard 
Brett having been brought to the atten- 
tion of this committee, it was 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



241 



Voted, That the committee approves the 
suggestion for a memorial and authorizes 
the chairman to appoint a member to rep- 
resent this committee on a committee rep- 
resenting the American Library Associa- 
tion, to cooperate with a special commit- 
tee of the board of trustees of the Cleve- 
land Public Library; and that this action 
be reported to the Executive Board. 

NOTE: To represent this Committee the 
chair later appointed Miss Countryman. 

Buildings The chairman submitted to 
the committee a statement prepared by 
the general director, showing the sum 
spent on each building, a tabulation show- 
ing building details and variations from 
standard plan in each, a separate audit of 
the Carnegie Corporation grant made at 
the instance of the A. L. A. Finance Com- 
mittee, a list of constructing contractors 
and a copy of the uniform contract exe- 
cuted with each. 

It was taken as the sense of the com- 
mittee that the general director be au- 
thorized to proceed with the erection of 
new buildings as needed in anticipation of 
receipt of forthcoming funds. 

It was taken as the sense of the com- 
mittee that the chairman include in his 
memorial to the Carnegie Corporation for 
a further grant provision for buildings in 
England, the amount therefor not to ex- 
ceed $50,000. 



Voted, That the chairman or someone 
appointed by him, be requested to visit 
the camps once or twice a year. 

The chairman of the Library War Fi- 
nance Committee having presented a let- 
ter from the librarian of the Canton (Ohio) 
Public Library, stating that a club of that 
city had collected funds amounting to 
about $700, which the club wished to have 
expended for current magazines, papers 
and books for our forces overseas, and 
that this contribution need not be applied 
to the coming campaign because the city's 
subscription would be made from its war 
chest, it was 

Voted, That the letter be referred to the 



general director and that he be requested 
to furnish a list of magazines and books 
which can be bought with the above-men- 
tioned contribution. 
Adjourned. 

Attest: 

GEO. B. UTLEY, 
Executive Secretary. 



New York Public Library 
November 30, 1918 

Present: James 1 I. Wyer, Jr., chairman; 
E. H. Anderson, Charles F. D. Belden, 
R. R. Bowker, Electra C. Doren and Frank 
P. Hill (part of meeting only), a quorum 
of the committee; also William W. Bishop, 
president of the A. L. A., Carl H. Milam, 
representing the general director of the 
A. L. A. War Service, and George B. 
Utley, executive secretary. 

Minutes of the meeting of September 
24-25, 1918, were approved as sent to mem- 
bers in typewritten form. 

War Finance Committee reports and 
recommendations. The chairman of the 
Library War Finance Committee, report- 
ing on the United War Work Campaign, 
informed the committee that the campaign 
had been successful, and that the total 
sum subscribed to present date is approxi- 
mately $205,000,000, and that, therefore, 
the American Library Association would 
receive as its quota at least $3,500,000, the 
sum contemplated in its budget. 



The chairman of the Library War Fi- 
nance Committee, having reported that 
Mr. Carl H. Milam, assistant to the gen- 
eral director, had written him that in 
view of the rapidly changing military 
situation he was not prepared to recom- 
mend, as was done at the Lake Placid 
meeting, the urgent need of an intensive 
book campaign (immediate publicity by 
Washington headquarters as to the need 
for more gift books being the recommend- 
ed substitute for an intensive campaign) ; 
and the chairman of the Library War Fi- 
nance Committee having further reported 
that with the above information before it, 



242 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



that committee had unanimously voted 
that it would be unwise to put on an in- 
tensive campaign the week of January 13, 
1919; and that therefore the subject was 
now turned back to the War Service Com- 
mittee for action; it was 

Voted, That the report of the Library 
War Finance Committee on the subject 
of a book campaign be received, and the 
committee be relieved from further action 
on the matter. 

It was taken as the sense of the com- 
mittee that the further collection of books 
be referred to the headquarters office of 
the Library War Service, with power. 



The selection of a treasurer of the sec- 
ond War Service fund being under consid- 
eration, it was 

Voted, That after approval by the Execu- 
tive Board of the American Library Asso- 
ciation the American Security and Trust 
Company, of Washington, D. C., be des- 
ignated as treasurer of the fund, which 
shall be known as the "American Library 
Association second war service fund," and 
that the account be kept separate from 
the first fund. 



Dr. Hill, as chairman of the Library War 
Finance Committee, presented two letters; 
one from C. H. Murphey, assistant treas- 
urer of the United War Work Campaign, 
to Mr. Carl B. Roden, treasurer of the 
American Library Association; the other 
from himself (Dr. Hill) to Mr. George W. 
Perkins, chairman of the Finance Commit- 
tee of the United War Work Campaign, 
Inc., the texts of which letters are as 
follows: 

November 22, 1918. 

MB. CARL B. RODEN, Treasurer American 
Library Association, Chicago, 111. 

My dear Mr. Roden At a meeting of the 
Finance Committee held today, I was re- 
quested and directed to write to each of 
the seven contributing organizations, ask- 
ing them to have passed at the next meet- 
ing of their board of directors, or proper 
committee, a resolution officially desig- 
nating someone of their organization to 
whom checks may be drawn on account of 



payment of their quota, or any part 
thereof, and someone who has the power to 
officially receipt for any such payments. 
Very truly yours, 

C. H. MUBPHEY, 
Assistant Treasurer. 



November 30, 1918. 

MB. GEOBGE W. PEBKINS, Chairman, Finance 
Committee, United War Work Cam- 
paign, 347 Madison avenue, New York 
City. 

My dear Mr. Perkins I beg to acknowl- 
edge with thanks receipt of check for $100,- 
000, payable to the chairman of the Libra- 
ry War Finance Committee on account of 
the American Library Association, it being 
part of the fund raised in the United War 
Work Campaign. 

The work of the Library War Finance 
Committee is practically over and the com- 
mittee has voted to recommend that the 
treasurer of the United War Work Cam- 
paign fund be requested to pay over to the 
American Security and Trust Company of 
Washington, D. C., treasurer of the Li- 
brary War Service Committee of the 
American Library Association, upon the 
request of that committee, that part of the 
fund which is the proportionate share of 
the American Library Association. 

I have notified Mr. J. I. Wyer, Jr., State 
Library, Albany, N. Y., chairman of the 
War Service Committee, of the action of 
the Library War Finance Committee. 
Very truly yours, 

FBANK P. Hnx, 

Chairman, 

The committee voted its approval of and 
adopted the recommendation in the letter 
of Dr. Hill to Mr. Perkins. 



Voted, That the Library War Finance 
Committee be authorized to request state 
directors of the library war fund to com- 
municate with all libraries in their re- 
spective states, requesting immediate re- 
mittance to the Library War Finance Com- 
mittee of any funds in their hands arising 
from the first library war fund, or re- 
ceived from the sale of old books or maga- 
zines. 

Subcommittee on education and research 
The Subcommittee on Education and Re- 
search (appointed at the Lake Placid 
meeting as the Subcommittee on Library 
Research as War Service), Dr. E. C. Rich- 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



243 



ardson, chairman, having reported through 
the executive secretary the completion of 
the personnel of the subcommittee by the 
appointment of H. M. Lydenberg and H. H. 
B. Meyer as the other members; and the 
subcommittee having also submitted a 
"Plan for work" (Appendix A to these min- 
utes) ; the executive secretary informed 
the committee that by an affirmative cor- 
respondence vote of the War Service Com- 
mittee these gentlemen were appointed as 
a "working subcommittee" to supersede 
the subcommittee appointed at Lake 
Placid, which was only authorized to "pre- 
pare and submit a detailed plan," etc.; 
and that the subcommittee is authorized 
to proceed to work according to its pro- 
gram as outlined in its "Plan for work," 
with the understanding that it is not au- 
thorized to incur expenses in behalf of 
the War Service Committee until further 
authorization is given, except nominal ex- 
penses for postage, stationery and a mini- 
mum of clerical service. 

It was taken as the sense of the com- 
mittee that the activities of the subcom- 
mittee shall end with the discharge of the 
War Service Committee, unless the sub- 
committee is continued as a special com- 
mittee of the A. L. A. 



The chairman of the War Service Com- 
mittee presented the following memoran- 
dum, which had been adopted on this date 
by the Committee of Eleven of the seven 
organizations engaged in war work: 
Memorandum regarding Expenditure of 

the Fund raised in connection with the 

United War Work Campaign 

The signing of the armistice having up- 
set the calculations upon the basis of 
which the budgets of the seven cooperat- 
ing organizations were submitted to the 
War Department through the Commission 
on Training Camp Activities, and uncer- 
tainty concerning the Government plans 
of demobilization making it impossible to 
restate at this time with any degree of 
exactness the full budget estimates of the 
organizations, the following principles and 



regulations are agreed upon for their 
guidance in their expenditures: 

(1) The United War Work Campaign 
Fund was raised to make possible the 
serving in the present war emergency of 
soldiers and sailors and of certain other 
classes of men and women affected by the 
present war conditions, and this purpose 
is to be a governing principle in its use. 

(2) Each of the seven organizations 
should restudy its budget and should ad- 
just Its expenditures to the demobilization 
plans of the Government, and to this end 
it should submit to the Committee of 
Eleven periodic budgets as well as month- 
ly statements of expenditures. 

(3) The organizations should severally 
assume as nearly as may be their respec- 
tive proportionate shares of responsibility 
for work to be done the proportions of 
responsibility to be determined not only 
by their pro rata share of the fund but 
also by the judgment of the Committee 
of Eleven. 

(4) The organizations should give ef- 
fect to the resolutions already approved 
by the Committee of Eleven regarding the 
additional temporary service buildings for 
use at home and overseas. (See minutes 
of meeting of Committee of Eleven of No- 
vember 6, 1918.) 

(5) None of the campaign fund shall 
be expended for permanent structures ex- 
cept in each case upon the express pre- 
vious approval of the Committee of 
Eleven. 

(6) The organizations should give ef- 
fect to the agreement approved by the 
Committee of Eleven with respect to the 
giving away of supplies and the affording 
of free use of certain facilities. (See min- 
utes of meeting of Committee of Eleven 
of November 6, 1918.) A similar agree- 
ment shall be prepared covering the work 
in this country. 

(7) The organizations should take steps 
to bring about, so far as possible, a stand* 
ardization of salaries and observe true 
comity with reference to approaching or 
calling workers to leave one organization 
to serve another. 

(8) The United War Work Campaign, 
Inc., is responsible for the collection and 
the custody of the fund and its disburse- 
ment to the cooperating organizations. In 
making such disbursement, it acts solely 
upon the request and as the corporate 
agency of the Committee of Eleven. In 
authorizing disbursement to the cooperat- 
ing organizations, within the quotas agreed 
upon, the Committee of Eleven will act 
upon the new budgets required by section 
(2) and in view of changed conditions as 



244 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



they arise. In case of need the commit- 
tee will submit the new budgets to the 
War Department for approval or criticism 
and in case it should appear that any sur- 
plus of the fund will ultimately exist the 
committee, with the President of the 
United States, will determine the disposi- 
tion thereof in a manner believed to be 
in accordance with the intentions of the 
donors. 

(9) The above memorandum is unani- 
mously approved as of date below by the 
Committee of Eleven, which at its meet- 
ing includes a representative from each 
of the seven constituent societies, and it 
is referred to the governing board of each 
of these societies for their confirmation. 

November 30, 1918. 

NOTE: The minutes of the meeting of 
Committee of Eleven of November 6, 1918, 
referred to under sections (4) and (6) of 
the above memorandum, have not been 
furnished to the executive secretary of 
the War Service Committee. 

Voted, That the foregoing memorandum 

regarding custody and expenditure of the 
fund raised by the United War Work Cam- 
paign as approved by the Committee of 
Eleven is hereby approved by the War 
Service Committee and referred to the 
Executive Board of the American Library 
Association for its approval. 



Voted, That the thanks of the War Serv- 
ice Committee be given to Mr. Frank A. 
Vanderlip for his work in behalf of the 
American Library Association in connec- 
tion with the United War Work Cam- 
paign, and that his acts as representa- 
tive of the American Library Association 
are hereby approved; and that Mr. J. I. 
Wyer, Jr., chairman of the War Service 
Committee, is hereby designated as Mr. 
Vanderlip's alternate, to be present at such 
meetings as the latter cannot attend; and 
that this action be referred to the Execu- 
tive Board of the American Library Asso- 
ciation for its approval. 



After-war read'ng lists Recurring to 
the proposal presented to the committee 
at Lake Placid by Mr. Joseph L. Wheeler 
for the preparation of annotated war time 
reading lists on subjects patriotic, mili- 
tary, naval, vocational, and on conserva- 



tion and reconstruction; such lists to be 
distributed in all camps and through libra- 
ries to the schools and homes of the coun- 
try; it was 

Voted, That the War Service Committee 
hereby appropriates the sum of fifteen 
hundred dollars ($1,500) from available 
unexpended balances of the first war 
service fund to the A. L. A. Publishing 
Board, to be expended in the preparation 
of "After-war reading lists," under the di- 
rection of Mr. Joseph L. Wheeler; and 
that after approval by the Executive Board 
of the American Library Association, the 
American Security and Trust Company, 
of Washington, D. C., is authorized and re- 
quested from the A. L. A. War Service 
moneys of the first library war fund in its 
hands, to transfer to the credit of Carl B. 
Roden, treasurer of the American Library 
Association Publishing Board, the sum of 
fifteen hundred dollars ($1,500). 



Supplementary budget The general di- 
rector, having submitted a statement 
showing the need of additional funds for 
the conduct of the library war service and 
having suggested a grant of $700,000, ap- 
portioned as follows: 

Books $500,000 

Service 100,000 

Miscellaneous, including whatever 
buildings may not be provided for 
by special funds 100,000 



Total $700,000 

It was 

Voted, That the American Security and 
Trust Company, as treasurer, is author- 
ized and requested from any moneys in 
its hands to the credit of the A. L. A. sec- 
ond war service fund to transfer to the 
account of the A. L. A. War Service fund, 
Herbert Putnam, general director, the sum 
of seven hundred thousand dollars ($700,- 
000). And should the funds at present in 
the hands of said company to the credit of 
the second war service fund be insufficient 
for this action, then to credit to his ac- 
count the sum on hand and from moneys 
later received from time to time to credit 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



245 



further sums until the total shall reach 
the sum of $700,000 above stated. 



Voted, That after approval by the Execu- 
tive Board of the American Library Asso- 
ciation, the American Security and Trust 
Company, as treasurer, is authorized and 
requested from the A. L. A. War Service 
moneys of the first library war fund in its 
hands, to transfer to the credit of George 
B. Utley, executive secretary, the sum of 
two thousand dollars ($2,000), to be used 
to meet general expenses of the commit- 
tee not justly chargeable to the fund voted 
to the credit of the war service fund, Her- 
bert Putnam, general director, bills cover- 
ing such expenses to be approved by the 
chairman of the committee, and checks to 
be drawn and signed by George B. Utley, 
executive secretary. 

Adjourned. 

Attest: 

GEORGE B. UTLEY, 
Executive Secretary. 



Appendix A, Nov. 30, 1918 
Plan for work by a Subcommittee on Li- 
brary Research as War Service 
The committee shall be called a Sub- 
committee on Education and Research. 

It shall be the duty of this subcommit- 
tee to stimulate and aid libraries in the 
spread of war information and the pro- 
motion of research intended directly for 
war and reconstruction ends: 
In particular to stimulate and aid them: 

(1) To encourage reading and school 
research in the matter of war issues, 
aims, methods of civilian cooperation, war 
finance and other matters bearing directly 
on the civilian aid in winning the war. 

Immediate program Cooperation with 
the Board of Historical Service, American 
Security League, etc. 

(2) To purchase necessary material for 
scientific research in live questions in 
chemical, physical, historical, economic, 
legal or other fields of critical research, 
bearing directly on the war. 

Immediate program Recommending to 



research libraries the best books for re- 
search workers in libraries. 

(3) To aid individuals, organized insti- 
tutions of research or Government de- 
partments in the investigation of such top- 
ics by providing the material and the ref- 
erence service in the fullest way. 

Immediate program Help readers to lo- 
cate copies, i. e., joint lists of (a) best aids 
and guides, (b) best books for use. 

(4) To cooperate in the preparation of 
aids to such research in the way of spe- 
cial bibliographies and guides for topics 
actually under consideration for practical 
war ends. 

Immediate program 1. Periodical arti- 
cles since 1910 on (a) War area coun- 
tries, (b) Economic and international law 
aspects. 2. Location lists for books want- 
ed for specific researches. 

The two most keenly felt needs at the 
present moment are: (1) Some system of 
quickly locating a borrowing copy of 
works needed at once in practical research 
and not to be found in the local library; 
(2) guide to learned periodical articles, 
especially of the last eight years, on live 
topics in (a) history, political economy, 
geography, ethnography, and religion of 
the war area countries; (b) economic and 
international law subjects affecting the 
foreign relations of the next few years. 

The opinion is freely expressed among 
research institutions that for the next 
twenty years the main weight of the re- 
search activity and of graduate instruction 
in America will be concerned with these 
topics. Pretty much all the trained re- 
search ability of this country is now con- 
centrated on these practical war topics, 
and the work having been thus begun and 
specialties established, these will natur- 
ally keep the field for some time even if 
the topics do not themselves remain alive. 
On the other hand, it is figured that it 
will be ten or twenty years before the re- 
adjustments of the world, necessitated by 
the war, will have been so far completed 
that these topics are not the live, prac- 
tical topics of research. The libraries 
must, therefore, perforce, shape them- 



246 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



selves in view of these circumstances, and 
the sooner they do it on a considerable 
scale, the greater the practical economic 
and social gain to America will be. 

As to an executive plan for this work: 
For the present and until funds have been 
raised through the second drive, the com- 
mittee can do useful work, without funds, 
simply by inducing the libraries to co- 
operate in doing it. 

If and when funds are available, it 
should have a small clerical organization 
involving (1) a good deal of systematic 
correspondence, (2) a certain amount of 
clerical help for handling joint lists and 
answering reference requests; (3) if prac- 
ticable, a certain bibliographical force for 
preparing reference reading lists in co- 
operation with the Board for Historical 
Service, and such lines of effort and per- 
haps preparing bibliographies or organiz- 
ing cooperative aid of libraries for the 
preparation of bibliographies on such mat- 
ters as the plan for a league of nations, 
war loans, war pensions, and other mat- 
ters for which no research library, even 
the Library of Congress, is quite equipped 
in routine equipment. This feature would 
depend for its quantity on developments, 
but its object would be to procure the 
making of research reference aids on any 
really live war topic which might be 
handed to It, first, by departments of the 
United States Government; second, by 
semi-official or unofficial institutions or or- 
ganizations, and third, by unmistakably 
competent private research workers, work- 
ing on approved topics. 

Respectfully submitted, 

E. C. RICHARDSON, 
H. M. LYDENBEBG, 
H. H. B. MEYER, 

Committee. 



New York Public Library 

January 29, 1919 

Present: Chairman Wyer, Miss Doren, 
Messrs. Anderson, Belden, Bowker and 
Hill (a quorum of the committee); also 
Mr. Milam, acting general director of the 



A. L. A. War Service, and Mr. Utley, ex- 
ecutive secretary. 

The minutes of the meeting of Novem- 
ber 30, 1918, were approved as sent to 
members in typewritten form. 

Memorandum of the Committee of 
Eleven Attention being called to the fact 
that the memorandum of the Committee 
of Eleven, as adopted by the War Service 
Committee on November 30, 1918, had 
since been revised by the Committee of 
Eleven, it was 

Toted, That the memorandum of the 
Committee of Eleven, as revised and 
adopted by that committee on December 
24, 1918, be approved by the War Service 
Committee of the American Library As- 
sociation. 

The executive secretary informed the 
committee that the memorandum in its 
form as revised December 24, 1918, was 
approved by the Executive Board of the 
American Library Association on January 
11, 1919. 

The text of the memorandum, as re- 
vised on the above date, is as follows: 
Memorandum regarding Expenditure of 

Funds raised in connection with the 

United War Work Campaign 

The signing of the armistice having up- 
set the calculations upon the basis of 
which the budgets of the seven cooperat- 
ing organizations were submitted to the 
War Department through the Commission 
on Training Camp Activities, and uncer- 
tainty concerning the Government plans 
of demobilization making it impossible to 
restate at this time with any degree of 
exactness the full budget estimates of the 
organizations, the following principles and 
regulations are agreed upon: 

(1) The United War Work Campaign 
fund was raised to make possible the serv- 
ing by the seven cooperating organizations 
in the present war emergency of soldiers 
and sailors and of certain other classes of 
men and women affected by the present 
war conditions, and this purpose is to be 
a governing principle in its use. 

(2) Each of the seven organizations 
shall restudy its budget, and in so doing 
will welcome the cooperation of the War 
and Navy Departments In connection 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



247 



therewith, and shall adjust Its expendi- 
tures to the demobilization plans of the 
Government. 

(3) The several organizations shall sub- 
mit quarterly statements certified by char- 
tered accountants, which statements shall 
be subject to the examination of an ac- 
countant appointed by the Committee of 
Eleven and reports thereof shall be sent 
to the chairman of the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities, to each member 
of the Committee of Eleven, and to the 
presidents of each of the societies. 

(4) The seven organizations shall sev- 
verally assume as nearly as may be their 
respective proportionate shares of respon- 
sibility for work to be done and all ex- 
penditure of money shall be strictly in 
accord with their respective war work 
activities and none of the fund shall be 
expended for general non-war work or for 
permanent structures of establishment or 
for endowments. 

(5) The national treasurer of the 
United War Work Campaign, Inc., shall 
distribute to the cooperating organiza- 
tions of the aforesaid fund, in the percent- 
ages heretofore agreed upon, substantially 
as and when received by him and capable 
of distribution by him; it being under- 
stood that the cooperating organizations 
shall be governed in their use of funds so 
received by the foregoing regulations and 
principles. 

(6) The Committee of Eleven shall be 
continued for the purposes expressed in 
Article Eleven of the cooperating agree- 
ment of the seven organizations dated Sep- 
tember 4, 1918, and in this agreement 

Disposition of books, buildings and 
equipment The final disposition of the 
books, buildings and equipment of the 
A. L. A. War Service being under consid- 
eration, it was 

Voted, That a special Committee of 
Three, of which the chairman of the War 
Service Committee shall "be a member, be 
appointed, which, in conference with the 
general director, shall consider and pre- 
sent to the War Service Committee a plan 
for the disposition of the books, buildings 
and equipment of the library war service. 

[The chairman later announced as the 
other two members Miss Countryman and 
Mr. Belden.] 

The committee, considering the possible 
outgrowth of a permanent library service 
to the Army and Navy, 



Voted, That the chairman, in conference 
with the headquarters office of the library 
War service, be authorized to offer to the 
War and Navy Departments first and free 
preference in the disposition of books, 
buildings and equipment in hand at the 
end of its war service, for the establish- 
ment of a permanent and continuing, effi- 
cient library service throughout the mili- 
tary and naval establishments of the 
United States. 

Historical account of the library war 
service The preparation of an adequate 
history of the A. L. A. War Service for 
submission to the War Department at its 
request being undr consideration, it was 

Voted, That the chairman be requested 
to have prepared an adequate historical 
account of the war work of the American 
Library Association from its inception and 
that it be submitted to the chairman of 
the War Service Committee before it is 
submitted to the War Department. 

Requests for appropriations for various 
projects The following communication 
was laid before the committee: 

NATIONAL WAR WORK COUNCIL 

OF THE 

YOUNG MEN'S CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATION OF THE 
UNITED STATES 

January 21, 1919. 

MR. J. I. WYER, JR., New York State Libra- 
ry, Albany, New York. 

My dear Mr. Wyer The Committee of 
Eleven at its meeting this morning recom- 
mended that the seven organizations repre- 
sented should cooperate with the Bureau of 
Morale In the issuance of morale posters, 
up to a total of $5,000, the amounts to be 
apportioned among the seven organizations 
on the basis of their participation in the 
United Campaign. 

Captain Grant, chief of staff of the Mo- 
rale Branch, presented O. K.'d bills 
amounting to $2,371.50. It was understood 
that these bills were to be included in the 
total grant, leaving a balance of $2,628.50, 
to be expended from time to time in the 
future for posters issued by the Morale 
Branch and O. K.'d by the Committee of 
Three, consisting of Father Burke, Mr. 
Teller and myself. 

I assume that the recommendation of 
the Committee of Eleven will need to be 
endorsed by each of the various organiza- 
tions in turn. I would suggest that this 



248 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



should be done at your earliest opportu- 
nity and immediately upon favorable ac- 
tion you send me a check for $48.62, being 
your quota, 2.05 per cent of the bills now 
on hand. 

Very truly yours, 

J. S. TlCHENOB. 

The chairman stated that the following 
additional requests had been received by 
the Committee of Eleven, for the amounts 
and purposes noted: 

Americanization Campaign (Interior De- 
partment). 

East St. Louis Survey (War Depart- 
ment) $200,000. 

Aid to Wounded Soldiers (Federal 
Board for Vocational Education), $25,000. 

U. S. Employment Service, Department 
of Labor "to finance its work"; no amount 
named. 

U. S. Surgeon General's Department, 
"for its work," $4,800. 

After discussion it was 

Voted, That while the projects suggested 
in the letter from Mr. Tichenor, and in 
the additional requests made on the Com- 
mittee of Eleven are intrinsically of the 
utmost worth and social importance, it is 
the sense of the War Service Committee 
that appropriations for such objects are 
not a proper charge against the war serv- 
ice fund administered by the American 
Library Association, a fund 1 contributed 
by the American people for the specific 
purpose of furnishing books and library 
service to the American soldiers and sail- 
ors a service too, which will clearly re- 
quire more money than the Association 
now has in hand or in prospect. 

The chairman of the Library War Fi- 
nance Committee, Dr. Frank P. Hill, re- 
porting informally, stated that there would 
be a balance of about $46,000' of the funds 
appropriated to the use of that commit- 
tee, which would be turned back into the 
first war service fund, and that at the 
next meeting of the War Service Commit- 
tee, the Library War Finance Committee 
would make a full report. 

Supplementary budget The acting gen- 
eral director, Mr. Milam, submitted a 
statement showing the need in the near 
future of additional funds for the conduct 
of the library war service and suggested 



an additional grant of $750,000; this 
amount, with the balance on hand, being 
thought sufficient, according to his esti- 
mates, for perhaps three months. 

The following estimate of expenditures 
for the next three months was submitted: 

Estimate of Expenditures for the next 
three months 

Books, overseas $350,000 

Books, America 140,000 

Periodicals, overseas 

Periodicals, America 7,500 

Building and equipment, overseas 

Building and equipment, America. 9,000 
Rent, overseas (dispatch office)... 1,500 

Rent, America 700 

Service (including subsistence), 

overseas 25,000 

Service (including subsistence), 

America 115,000 

Shipping cases, overseas 20,000 

Transportation (travel, overseas) . 2,000 
Transportation (freight, overseas) 12,000 
Transportation (travel, America) . 12,000 
Transportation (freight, America) 3,500 

Supplies, overseas 9,500 

Supplies, America 55,000 

Sundries, overseas 4,500 

Sundries, America 17,000 



$784,200 

It was thereupon 

Voted, That the American Security and 
Trust Company, as treasurer, is author- 
ized and requested from any moneys in its 
hands to the credit of the American Li- 
brary Association, second war service 
fund, to transfer to the account of the 
American Library Association War Serv- 
ice fund, Herbert Putnam, general direc- 
tor, the sum of seven hundred and fifty 
thousand ($750,000) dollars, and should 
the funds at present in the hands of said 
company to the credit of the second war 
service fund be insufficient for this ac- 
tion, then to credit to his account the sum 
on hand and from moneys later received 
from time to time, to credit further sums 
until the total shall reach the sum of 
seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars 
($750,000), above stated. 

Revised budget The chairman reported 
that an immediate request was in pros- 
pect from the Committee of Eleven for a 
full budget showing proposed expenditures 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



for the war service of the American Li- 
brary Association, for the year 1919 a 
budget revised in the light of present de- 
mobilization conditions, and suggested 
such action as would enable him to submit 
this budget whenever required. He laid 
before the committee a budget of Decem- 
ber 9, 1918 (see Appendix A), prepared by 
the general director, totaling $3,813,200, as 
a basis for consideration. After discus- 
sion it was thereupon 
Voted, That the chairman be authorized 
on request of the chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Eleven to present the tentative 
budget just submitted, reduced to $3,500,- 
COO, with such alterations, explanations 
and reservations as may prove desirable, 
and submit to the committee a revised 
budget which shall have further consider- 
ation, and be finally approved at a subse- 
quent meeting. Dr. Hill amended, That If 
there is a standardized form used by the 
seven organizations, this budget be re- 
shaped in that way. 
Adjourned. 
Attest: 
GBO. B. UTLEY, 
Executive Secretary. 

Appendix A, Jan. 29, 1919 
Budget A. L. A. War Service 
Proposed Revision 

December 7, 1918. 
Books 
Overseas Itemized Total 
France $1,500,000 


at $40 


24,000 
8,000 


200 hospitals at $40 


Building and Building 
Equipment 
Overseas 
5 buildings at $10,- 
000 


50,000 

40,000 
5,000 

6,000 


10, rented at $4,- 
000 


Paris headquarters 
Rental overseas 
dispatch offices.. 


America 
Repairs to 40 
buildings at $300 
5 buildings at $10,- 
000 


12,000 
50,000 
15,000 
10,000 
2,000 

7,200 


5 buildings at $3,- 
000 


Equipment, 5 large 
build's at $2,000 
Equipment, 5 small 
build'gs at $400. 
Rental distributing 
centers, 12, at 
$600 




Overseas Service 
Overseas dispatch of- 
ficers, 30, at $200. 
France and British 
Isles 


36,000 

150,000 
5,000 
100,000 


Elsewhere abroad . . . 
Subsistence 




America 
Headquarters and 
field 
Representatives, 
60, at $1,500 
50 large camps at 


90,000 
300,000 
30,000 

200,000 
100,000 


Siberia 100 000 


25 small camps at 
$1,200 


. . , . *-i K[\n nnn 


America 
50 large camps at 
$2,000 $100,000 


100 hospitals at 
$2,000 




600 small camps 
at $100 60000 


Subsistence 


Shipping Cases 
Overseas 


75,000 

50,000 
50,000 


200 hospitals at 
JKOO i nn nnn 


Naval vessels 50,000 


Transportation 
Overseas 
France 


_. o-i n nrif) 


Magazines and News- 
papers 
Overseas 50 000 50 000 


Freight 




America 
50 large camps at 
$500 25,000 


America 
Travel 


30,000 
30,000 


Freight 


600 small camns 





249 



57,000 



101,000 



96,200 



291,000 



720,000 
75,000 

100,000 
60,000 



250 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Supplies, Equipment, 

Sundries 
Overseas 
Automobiles, 10, 

at $700 

Miscellaneous over- 
seas 



7,000 
50,000 



America 

Headquarters, sta- 
tionery, etc 48,000 

Printing and pub- 
licity 36,000 

Automobiles, 10, 
at $700 75,000 

50 large camps at 

$1,500 75,000 

400 small camps 

at $25 10,000 

100 hospitals at 

$200 20,000 



57,000 



196,000 



Books, periodicals and 
miscellaneous ex- 
pense; ordnance res- 
ervation, shipbuilding 
plants and other in- 
dustrial war work 
communities 100,000 100,000 



Total $3,813,200 

New York Public Library 
April 5, 1919 

Present: Chairman Wyer, Mr. Anderson, 
Mr. Belden, Mr. Bowker, Miss Doren and 
Dr. Hill (a quorum); also Mr, Bishop, 
president of the American Library Asso- 
ciation, Mr. Milam, acting general direc- 
tor, A. L. A. War Service, and Mr. Utley, 
executive secretary. 

Minutes The minutes of the meeting of 
January 29, 1919, were approved as sent 
to members in typewritten form, after the 
following corrections had been made: 

Page 3. Minutes to show that vote rel- 
ative to a Committee of Three to present 
a plan for the disposition of books, build- 
ings and equipment, was taken "on motion 
by Dr. Hill." 

Page 3. Bracket the sentence "The 
chairman announced as the other two 
members Miss Countryman and Mr. Bel- 
den," and insert the word "later" after 
"chairman." 

Finance statements Monthly report 
from the American Security and Trust 
Company was read, showing balance on 



hand March 31, 1919, in the second war 
service fund, $614,020; also letter from the 
company, dated April 1, stating that $175,- 
000 (additional) had that day been re- 
ceived from the United War Work Cam- 
paign, thus making a total of $789,020 on 
hand. 

Monthly statement of disbursing officer, 
A. L. A. War Service, for month of March, 
was read, which showed the following to- 
tals for the second war service fund: 

Expenditures to March 1 $876,067.07 

Expenditures for March 263,411.65 

Total expenditures, 2d fund 1,139,478.72 

In hands of librarians and 

agents 138,775.00 

Balance on hand March 31 207,746.28 

The gross expenditures from both the 
first and second war service funds, com- 
bined and totaled to April 1, 1919, were 
reported as $2,669,099.12. 



The chairman reported that $2,275,000 
had been received to date, on the second 
war service fund, and that $1,486,000 had 
been voted to the credit of the general 
director. 

Letter was read from C. H. Murphey, 
assistant treasurer United War Work 
Campaign, to Mr. Wyer, stating that the 
total collections of the United War Work 
Campaign to March 28, 1919, are $126,000,- 
000, and that the committee in charge of 
collections is hoping to collect 85 per cent 
of the total subscriptions, or about $170,- 
000,000, which would mean that the Amer- 
ican Library Association would receive 
practically 100 per cent of its original 
quota; and that it could reasonably rely 
on 5 per cent monthly until such amount 
is paid. The letter stated that 60 per cent 
of its original quota had been advanced 
to each organization and that the com- 
mittee was preparing to make an addi- 
tional distribution of about 5 per cent in 
cash on March 31, and about 5 per cent 
in liberty bonds, and war savings stamps, 
thus bringing the payments up to 70 per 
cent of the original quota of each organ- 
ization. 

Budgets The chairman reported that 
following the vote of the War Service 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



251 



Committee, at its meeting of January 29 
(see p. 64, minutes of that meeting, for 
vote, and Appendix A for budget referred 
to) he prepared for the Committee of 
Eleven the hudget found on pages 16 and 
17 of the pamphlet "To the subscribers of 
the United War Work Campaign." He 
called attention, however, to the fact that 
the budget as printed in this pamphlet 
aggregates $4,517,800, instead of $3,500,- 
000, the sum named in the vote of the War 
Service Committee referred to above. 
This increase, he explained, was made to 
comply with the instructions of the Com- 
mittee of Eleven, in a letter from Dr. 
Mott, written from Postville, Iowa, Janu- 
ary 25, 1919, and received by the chair- 
man of the War Service Committee on 
his return from attendance at the meet- 
ing of January 29. The letter requested 
each organization to submit at the earli- 
est practicable date a revised statement of 
its budget, in order that these budgets 
might in turn be examined by the War 
and Navy Departments and then be print- 
ed together in a pamphlet to be sent out 
to the subscrihers of the United War 
Work Campaign. The letter requested 
each organization to make it clear that 
the full amount expected from the cam- 
paign would be required to run it up to 
December 31, 1919, and that therefore the 
organization should have in mind, in pre- 
paring its revised budget, not only the 
original quota of $170,500,000, but also the 
oversubscription, and that thus the Amer- 
ican Library Association in framing its 
budget should plan for an expenditure, not 
only of its $3,500,000, as its part of the 
original $170,500,000, but for an increase 
of 24.6 per cent more. 

The budget prepared in response to the 
above request, and as printed in the pam- 
phlet "To the subscribers of the United 
War Work Campaign," is appended to 
these minutes as Appendix A. 

On motion of Dr. Hill, duly seconded, it 
was 

Voted, That the budget for $4,517,800, 
printed by the United War Work Cam- 
paign, in their pamphlet "To subscribers 



of the United War Work Campaign," and 
submitted by the chairman as conditioned 
on the payment of the full subscription of 
$205,000,000, be approved. 

The chairman stated that in conjunction 
with the acting general director a work- 
ing budget in the sum of $3,000,000 had 
been prepared, this being necessary be- 
cause of the slowness with which collec- 
tions are being made, and the probability 
that the full amount received will not ex- 
ceed the original quota and may fall be- 
low it. 

This working budget for period Decem- 
ber 1, 1918, to December 31, 1919, dated 
March 8, 1919, in the sum of $2,999,840, 
follows these minutes as Appendix B. This 
budget was discussed in detail and con- 
sidered with great care, the acting gen- 
eral director answering questions freely 
relative to various items. 

On motion of Mr. Bowker, duly sec- 
onded, it was 

Voted, That the budget for $3,000,000 
(exact amount $2,999,840) be approved, 
subject to instructions to the headquar- 
ters office of the A. L. A. War Service, to 
keep the immediate and contingent liabil- 
ities within the actual receipts reported by 
the United War Work Campaign as hav- 
ing been paid in. 

On motion of Mr. Bowker, duly sec- 
onded, it was 

Voted, That the headquarters office be 
authorized to make transfers from one 
appropriation head to another as develop- 
ments of the work may require. 

To a question from Dr. Hill as to what 
will be the effect on our budget and pros- 
pective receipts of decision of the Com- 
mittee of Eleven to limit gifts to soldiers 
to ten per cent of the total receipts, the 
chairman replied, that the American Li- 
brary Association, as it made no gifts to 
soldiers, was outside the operation or in- 
tent of the decision. 

Report by War Finance Committee 
The report of the Library War Finance 
Committee, to February 20, 1919, with ap- 
pended report of the auditor, was sub- 
mitted by Dr. Hill, chairman. 



252 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



On motion of Mr. Bowker, duly sec- 
onded, it was 

Voted, That the report of the Library 
War Finance Committee and the accom- 
panying report of the auditors be received 
and referred to the Finance Committee of 
the American Library Association for re- 
port. 

NOTE: It was taken as the sense of the 
committee that the following statement, 
phrased by Mr. Bowker, should be here in- 
corporated as a foot-note into the minutes 
of this meeting: 

"It is noted that of the $225,000, ac- 
counted for by the committee and the au- 
ditors, $125,000 was the amount received 
out of the total appropriation by the War 
Service Committee, and $100,000 was re- 
ceived by the chairman of the War Fi- 
nance Committee from the general treas- 
ury of the United War Work Campaign, 
and duly transferred in two installments 
of $50,000 each to the American Security 
and Trust Company." 

The reports of the War Finance Com- 
mittee and of the auditors are appended 
to these minutes as Appendix C and D 
respectively. 



Report of Subcommittee on Disposition 
of Books, Buildings and Equipment The 
chairman, in his capacity as chairman of 
the subcommittee (Messrs. Wyer and Bel- 
den and Miss Countryman) to report a 
plan for the disposition of books, build- 
ings and equipment of the library war 
service, submitted (without full reading, 
but with a summary statement of its tenor 
and recommendations) its report to the 
War Service Committee, under date of 
March 26, 1919. (See Appendix E.) Where- 
upon it was, upon motion of Mr. Bowker, 
duly seconded, 

Voted, That the report of the Subcom- 
mittee on the Disposition of Books, Build- 
ings and Equipment be received and made 
the subject of discussion at the next meet- 
ing of the War Service Committee; that 
copies of it be at once transmitted to the 
committee; and that authority be given to 
the headquarters office of the library war 
service to dispose of buildings and equip- 
ment according to the lines laid down in: 
the report handed in herewith by the sub- 



committee, first preference being given to 
the Army and Navy for library purposes. 

Permanent library service to the Army 
and Navy The chairman reported that, 
pursuant to action by the War Service 
Committee on January 29, 1919, prompt 
conferences were held with officials at 
the headquarters office of the library war 
service, with executive officers of the 
Army and Navy Commissions on Training 
Camp Activities, and with the Third As- 
sistant Secretary of War. 

Following these conferences, a letter 
was sent on January 30 to the Secretary 
of the Navy with an accompanying pr6cis 
of the permanent service suggested. A 
similar letter (save for obvious minor 
changes in wording) was sent to the War 
Department. These letters were ac- 
knowledged by Secretary Jackson of the 
Navy Department Commission on Training 
Camp Activities and Third Assistant Sec- 
retary of War Keppel. (Copies of all of 
these letters have been sent to each mem- 
ber of the War Service Committee and to 
President Bishop.) 

Since that time several letters have been 
exchanged and various interviews held 
looking toward the development of this 
work. Every possible effort is being made 
by the chairman (for the War Service 
Committee) and by the headquarters offi- 
cials of the library war service to ad- 
vance acceptable plans for such a per- 
manent service and so to direct the exist- 
ing war service that, as permanent poli- 
cies are announced and orders issued, it 
may be merged into the prospective per- 
manent library service with a minimum of 
jar and readjustment. 

Historical account of the A. L. A. War 
Service Referring to action of committee 
at meeting of January 29th requesting the 
chairman to have prepared an adequate 
historical account of the war work of the 
Association, the chairman laid before the 
committee an historical account prepared 
by Dr. A. H. Shearer, librarian of Gros- 
venor Library, Buffalo, covering the war 
work of the A. L. A. from its inception to 
January 1, 1919. The chairman explained 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



253 



that it was as any sketch prepared while 
the work was still in progress necessarily 
must be, incomplete and tentative, and 
could not be considered as a definitive ac- 
count of the war activities of the Associa- 
tion. On motion, duly seconded, it was 

Voted, That the historical sketch pre- 
pared be received, and that it be dupli- 
cated and copies sent to members of the 
committee. 

Report from general director As a re- 
port from the general director, the chair- 
man referred to Dr. Putnam's letters of 
February 2 and 19, copies of which he had 
sent to all members of the committee. 

Sale of buildings Mr. Milam, acting gen- 
eral director, reported the sale of the fol- 
lowing camp library buildings: 

Camp Greene for $ 300 

Camp MacArthur for 500 

Camp Sevier for 525 

Camp Beauregard for 1,000 

Camp Fremont for 350 

The Government leases the land on 
which all the above camps are located. 

The following "buildings at camps or- 
dered abandoned have not been sold: 

Sheridan Cody Wheeler 

McClellan Johnston Wadsworth 

Hancock Logan 

The books in these abandoned camps 
have been transferred to other points of 
service; in some cases to other camps or 
stations in this country, but for the most 
part the books have been sent to dispatch 
offices for shipment overseas. 



Supplementary budget The acting gen- 
eral director, Mr. Milam, submitted state- 
ment showing the need in the near future 
of additional funds for the conduct of the 
A. L. A. War Service, and suggested an 
additional grant of $800,000; this amount 
with the balance on hand being thought 
sufficient, according to his estimates, for 
perhaps three months. 

The following estimate of expenditures 
for the next three months was submitted: 
Estimate of Expenditures for April, May 
and June, 1919 

America 

Buildings and equipment (in- 
cluding uniforms) $ 48,000 



Personnel Salaries, subsist- 
ence, travel 180,000 

Books magazines news- 
papers 200,000 

Administration expenses rent, 

supplies, printing 70,000 

Overseas 

Buildings and equipment (in- 
cluding uniforms) 30,000 

Personnel Salaries, subsist- 
ence, travel 65,000 

Books magazines news- 
papers 370,000 

Administration expenses rent, 

supplies, printing 40,000 



$1,003,000 



Balance on hand $ 207,000 

Amount asked for 800,000 



$1,007,000 
It was thereupon 

Voted, That the American Security and 
Trust Company, as treasurer, is authorized 
and requested from any moneys in its 
hands to the credit of the A. L. A. second 
war service fund to transfer to the ac- 
count of the A. L. A. War Service fund, 
Herbert Putnam, general director, the sum 
of eight hundred thousand dollars ($800,- 
000). And should the funds at present in 
the hands of said company to the credit 
of the second war service fund be insuffi- 
cient for this action-, then to credit to his 
account the sum on hand and from mon- 
eys later received from time to time to 
credit further sums until the total shall 
reach the sum of $800,000 above stated. 

After-war reading lists A report of 
progress was presented from Mr. J. L, 
Wheeler, Youngstown Public Library, rel- 
ative to his "After-war reading courses." 
Following the appropriation made on No- 
vember 30, 1918, an assistant was em- 
ployed at $125 per month; other expenses 
postage, Mr. Wheeler's time, incidentals, 
etc. are paid by the Youngstown Library. 
Mr. Wheeler expects four of the lists to 
be ready within a few weeks, and the 
entire series by fall. With the report Mr. 
Wheeler submitted a list of fifty topics 
on which reading courses are being pre- 
pared. 

Subcommittee on Education and Re- 



254 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



search The chairman laid before the 
committee a progress report of work done 
by the Subcommittee on Research, pre- 
pared by its chairman, Dr. E. C. Richard- 
son. 

The sudden ending of the war cut off 
much of the systematic work planned in 
the way of indexes to recent periodicals 
and other bibliographical or joint list mat- 
ters, but some progress was made, how- 
ever, especially a rough guide to interna- 
tional law articles which will shortly be 
brought to completion. The primary ob- 
ject of the committee (although it could 
not be so stated while the war was in 
progress) was to prepare material for the 
United States Government Inquiry Com- 
mittee for use at the Peace Conference, 
and although the sudden signing of the 
armistice required rush plans in place of 
the systematic plans formulated, there 
was time for the gathering and inventory- 
ing of several thousand volumes most 
wanted by the experts who, according to 
newspaper accounts, went over with the 
Peace Commission. Mr. Keogh, of Yale, 
had been released by the university for 
work with the Inquiry Committee until the 
end of the last college year, and when he 
was obliged to relinquish it, the chairman 
of the subcommittee and the Librarian of 
Congress took up the work and carried it 
forward. The subcommittee feels that it 
has stood for the interest of the Associa- 
tion in the research, propaganda and ad- 
vertising aspects of war work, has aided 
and stimulated research libraries to help 
the work of the Inquiry Committee, has 
given the practical advice and aid needed 
and requested by that committee for the 
formation of its library, and has promoted 
the preparation of certain aids and guides 
for 'the direct use of the Inquiry Commit- 
tee. 

Liberty bonds and war savings stamps 
A letter having been read from C. H. 
Murphey, assistant treasurer of the United 
War Work Campaign, requesting the 
committee to pass a resolution designat- 
ing proper person to obtain and receipt 
for certain liberty bonds and war savings 



stamps and thrift stamps, which are the 
share of the A. L. A., it was 

Voted, That the chairman of the War 
Service Committee of the American Li- 
brary Association be authorized to obtain 
and receipt for certain Liberty bonds, war 
savings stamps and thrift stamps, amount- 
ing to $190,803.75, mentioned in letter 
from C. H. Murphey, assistant treasurer, 
United War Work Campaign, to Frank P. 
Hill, chairman A. L. A. War Finance Com- 
mittee, dated April 1, 1919, and to deposit 
them with the American Security and 
Trust Company, Washington, D. C., to the 
account of the War Service Committee of 
the American Library Association. 

The following is a description of the 
liberty bonds, war savings stamps and 
thrift stamps as set forth in the above- 
mentioned letter: 

$ 1,050.00 First U. S. Liberty Loan, 3%'s, 

1932-47. 
5,800.00 Second U. S. Liberty Loan, 4's, 

1927-42. 
75,600.00 Third U. S. Liberty Loan, 4%'s, 

1928. 
5,650.00 Fourth U. S. Liberty Loan, 

4^4's, 1933-38. 

500.00 U. S. Liberty Loan 1st, con- 
verted 4's, 1932-47. 

3,850.00 U. S. Liberty Loan 1st, con- 
verted 4%'s, 1932-47. 
36,150.00 U. S. Liberty Loan 2d, con- 
verted 4^4's, 1927-42. 
28.75 U. S. Thrift Stamps (par $0.25). 
2,175.00 U. S. War Savings Stamps 
(par $5.00). 

$190,803.75 

Communication from Mr. C. H. Dodge 
Mr. Anderson brought before the commit- 
tee a communication from Mr. Cleveland 
H. Dodge, accompanied by a communica- 
tion to him from Professor Watson, of 
Robert College, Constantinople, asking 
whether some books now in service in 
France might not be available for Robert 
College after their need by the soldiers is 
past. The application was referred to 
the Subcommittee on Disposition of Books, 
Building and Equipment. 

Adjourned. 

Attest: 

GEORGE B. UTLET, 
Executive Secretary. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



255 



APPENDIX A, April 5, 1919 

BUDGET, December 1, 19'18-December 31, 1919 

I. Work in the United States 



1. Building program $ 203,250 

New construction and remodeling $106,000 

Operation and maintenance expense 88,250 

Equipment 9,000 

New construction consists of three camp and station buildings at 
$12,000 each; ten buildings at reconstruction hospitals or small camps 
at $6,000; repairing 25 buildings at $400 each. 

2. Personnel expenses 663,100 

Workers (not including headquarters staff) including salaries, trav- 
eling expenses, unarms and other outfitting equipment. 

3. Activities or service program expense 610,640 

Library service: 
Books: 

25 large camps, 13 mos., @ $2,500 $ 62,500 

20 large camps, 6 mos., @ $1,500 30,000 

300 small camps, 13 mos., @ $300 90,000 

152 small camps, 6 mos., @ $100 15,200 

70 hospitals, @ $1,500 105,000 

140 hospitals, @ $500 70,000 

Naval vessels 30,000 

Periodicals: 

25 large camps, 13 mos., @ $1,500 37,500 

20 large camps, 6 mos., @ $600 12,000 

300 small camps, forts and stations, 13 mos., @ $40 12,000 

152 small camps, 6 mos., @ $20 3,040 

70 hospitals, @ $500 35,000 

140 hospitals, @ $60 8,400 

4. Motor transport service 14,000 

Cost of equipment, etc. 

5. Expenses paid at headquarters 289,200 

(a) Salaries and traveling expenses of headquarters staff. .. .$140,000 

(b) Publicity, advertising and speakers 60,000 

(c) Freight, insurance 30,000 

(d) Rents, office supplies and expenses 59,200 



$1,680,190 

This item, while appearing under United States, covers the greater part of the over- 
head and administrative expenses for all overseas work as well. The administrative 
conduct of the work of the American Library Association is largely office rather than 
field work, and, for both America and overseas, is centered at Washington, and must 
therefore appear in a single item. 

JI. A. E. F. in France, Russia and Siberia 

1. Buildings erected or leased, alterations and repairs, equipment for use 

in buildings, etc $ 73,400 

Ten regional buildings, @ $4,000 each $ 40,000 

Six dispatch offices, @ $1,400 each 8,400 

Office and library equipment , 25,000 

2. Operation and maintenance of buildings 74,000 

Expense of operating and maintaining service buildings. 

3. Personnel 636,000 

Living allowances and traveling expenses, replacement of uniforms 
and personal equipment for 210 workers. 



256 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



4. Activities 2,013,000 

Library service: 

Books: 

Army educational libraries $850,000 

Army of occupation, Coblenz 200,000' 

Transport libraries 100,000 

A. E. F., France 540,000 

A. E. F., Russia 3,000 

A. E. F., Siberia 5,000 

Periodicals: 

A. E. F 100,000 

Transports 90,000 

Shipping cases 75,000 

Freight 50,000 

5. Motor transport 15,000 

Purchase of fifteen automobiles. 

5. Expenses paid from headquarters, or administrative expenses 42,000 

Paris headquarters administrative expenses. 

$2,753,400 

III. Contingent Fund 
Two per cent of $4,210,500 $ 84,210 

Total overseas $2,837,610 

Total United States 1,680,190 



A. 



Grand total $4,517,800 

APPENDIX B, April 5, 1919 
WORKING BUDGET, December 1, 1918-December 31, 1919 

I. America 

Building and equipment: 

Three camp or station, buildings, at $12,000 (including furni- 
ture) $ 36,000 

Five buildings, reconstruction hospitals or small camps, at 

$6,000 (including furniture) 30,000 

Repairs 25 buildings, at $400 10,000 

Ten automobiles, at $700 7,000 

Current equipment, 45 camps, at $200 9,000 

Uniforms 16,900 



B. 



Personnel Salaries, subsistence, travel, uniforms: 

Headquarters staff and field representatives, 70, at average 

$1,750 $122,500 

(General director serves without pay.) 

25 large camps, 13 mos., at $5,720 143,000 

20 large camps, 5 mos., at $3,300 66,000 

Supervision small camps, forts, stations, 30 people, at $1,950. . . 58,500 

40 hospitals, 13 mos., at $3,000 120,000 

30 hospitals, 6 mos., at $1,410 42,300 

Five hospital supervisors, at $1,950 9,750 

Travel 50,000 



$ 108,900 



C. 



Books, magazines, newspapers: 
Books: 

25 large camps, 13 mos., at $2,000 $ 50,000 

20 large camps, 6 mos., at $1,000 20,000 

300 small camps, 13 mos., at $300 90,000 

152 small camps, 6 mos., at $100 15,200 

70 hospitals, at $1,500 105,000 

140 hospitals, at $500 70,000 

Naval vessels 30,000 



612,050 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 



257 



Periodicals: 

25 large camps, 13 mos., at $1,500 37,500 

20 large camps, 5 mos., at $400 8,000 

300 small camps, forts and stations, 13 mos., at $40 12,000 

152 small camps, 6 mos., at $20 3,040 

70 hospitals, at $500 35,000 

140 hospitals, at $60 8,400 

484,140 

D. Administrative expenses Rent, supplies, printing, etc.: 

Rent six distributing centers, at $600 $ 3,600 

(Headquarters offices provided without cost by Library of 
Congress.) 

Freight 30,000 

Printing and publicity 60,000 

Heat, light, postage, miscellaneous supplies, headquarters 52,000 

25 large camps, at $1,950 48,750 

20 large camps, at $900 18,000 

300 small forts and stations, at $25 7,500 

70 hospitals, at $200 14,000 

233,850 

$1,438,940 
II. Overseas 

A. Building and equipment: 

Office and library equipment $ 20,000 

Automobiles, 15, at $1,000 15,000 

Shipping cases 35,000 

Uniforms and equipment 8,000 

$ 78,000 

B. Personnel Salaries, subsistence, travel, uniforms: 

Overseas dispatch offices, 30 people, at $1,300 $ 39,000 

France, 40 persons, 13 mos., at $1,800 72,000 

France, 30 persons, 9 mos., at $1,350 40,500 

Fifteen transport librarians, at $1,200 18,000 

Siberia (Vladivostok) 5,000 

Travel 40,000 

214,500 

C. Books, magazines, newspapers: 

Books: 

Army educational libraries $500,000 

Army of occupation, Coblenz 200,000 

Transport libraries 100,000 

A. E. F., France 205,000 

A. E. F., Russia 3,000 

A. E. F., Siberia (Vladivostok) 5,000 

Periodicals: 

A. E. F 50,000 

Transports 60,000 

1,123,000 

D Administrative expenses Rent, supplies, printing, etc.: 

Rent: 

Paris headquarters $ 6',000 

Regional buildings, 5, at $4,000 20,000 

Overseas dispatch offices, 6, at $1,400 8,400 

Freight, heat, light, postage, printing and miscellaneous sup- 
plies: 

Paris headquarters 36,000 

Regional libraries, 15, at $1,000 15,000 

Branch libraries, 500, at $50 25,000 

145,400 

$1,560,900 



258 ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 

SlJMMABT 

For America 11,438,940 

For overseas 1,660,900 



$2,999,840 
APPENDIX C, April 5, 1919 

This appendix, referred to in the preceding minutes on page 67, is the Report of the 
Library War Finance Committee, 1918-19, on the Second Financial Campaign of the 
A. L. A., and will be found on page . 

APPENDIX D, April 5, 1919 

Appendix D, referred to in the preceding minutes on page , is the Report of the 
Auditors, and will be found on page . 

APPENDIX E, April 5, 1919 

ALBANY, N. Y. 

26 March, 1919. 
To the War Service Committee: 

The following is submitted as the report of the Subcommittee on Disposition of 
Books, Buildings and Equipment: 

1. It is recommended that any or all books and library equipment remaining after 
the A. L. A. has finished its service to the soldiers and sailors of the world war be first 
offered to the War and Navy Departments in furtherance of any plan acceptable to the 
War Service Committee for a continuing library service to the American military and 
naval peace establishments; that upon approval by the War Service Committee the 
general director is authorized to arrange for transfer of such books and equipment as 
may be desired by the Government. 

2. Material, if any, remaining after the performance of number 1 to be disposed of 
as follows: 

a. Books. To one agency in each state to be designated by the War Service Com- 

mittee (or the present subcommittee) preferably in the following order: 

(1) Library commission. 

(2) Leading library (state library, if possible). 

(3) Governor. 

(4) State Federation of Women's Clubs. 

(5) State Department of Education. 

And to be given by these designated institutions in their discretion to 

(1) Federal institutions prisons, coast guards, lighthouses, etc. 

(2) Libraries. 

(3) Schools and colleges. 

(4) State charitable and penal institutions. 

(5) Traveling library systems. 
All gifts to be conditioned as follows: 

(1) To be gifts, not sales. 

(2) Some return to be required. 

(a) In responsibility, assumed or agreed to. 

(b) In prospect of permanence. 

(c) In adequate provision for care and use. 

(d) In maintenance of satisfactory library standards. 

(e) In the establishment of a new library or library system. 

b. Buildings. The general director is authorized and empowered to dispose of 

library buildings, 

(1) By gift to appropriate and responsible auspices for library purposes only, 

expense of removal to be borne by recipient. 

(2) By private sale. As a commentary on probable value the subcommittee 

notes that the War Department has indicated $500 as a fair salvage 
value for our $10,000 buildings. 

(3) By salvage: 

(a) On our own initiative and action. 

(b) In joint salvage with some or all of the seven organizations or ai 

part of a Government salvage plan. 



WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 259 

All of the above plans to be subject to rulings by the War Department as to legal 
title to buildings. 
c. Equipment. The general director is authorized and empowered to dispose of 

equipment according to the above plan for disposition of books and buildings 

and in the following order: 

(1) To War and Navy Departments and needed for permanent library service 

(free). 

(2) To those libraries to which buildings are given (free). 

(3) To other libraries as designated by state agencies named under a (l)-(5) 

(free). 

(4) By sale, where none of the preceding opportunities are immediately avail- 

able. 

This report is meant to refer to books, buildings and equipment in the United States 
only. The disposition of overseas property will await later reports from the general 
director. Sincerely yours, 

J. I. WYEH, JB. 

GBATIA A. COUNTBYMAJ, 

C. F. D. BELDEN. 



APPENDIX B 

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION WAR SERVICE COMMITTEE 

Total Receipts and Disbursements, Library War Service Funds, 
May 31, 1918-May 31, 1919 

FIRST LIBRARY WAR SERVICE FUND 
May 31, 1918-May 31, 1919 

ASSETS 

Cash balance in American Security & Trust Company, 81 May, 1918 $ 282,341.24 

Bonds of the second liberty loan to par value of 300.00 

$500,000 4 per cent U. S. Treasury certificates at par and accrued interest, 
to 4 January, 1918 500,109.59 

RECEIPTS 

Interest on $500,000 Treasury certificates paid 25 June, 1918 9,424.66 

Interest on bank balances to 31 December, 1918 6,779.50 

Liberty bond received on subscription 50.00 

Interest on liberty bonds 13.62 

Library War Finance Committee (refund of appropriation for expenses), 

second money campaigns 45,936.21 

Cash subscriptions 13,914.47 



$ 857,869.29 

DlSBUBSEMENTS 

Transfers to account Herbert Putnam, general director $ 675,000.00 

Transfers to Empire Trust Company, New York City, for use of Library 
War Finance Committee (expenses second money campaign) 125,000.00 

Transfers to G. B. Utley, executive secretary (expenses of General Com- 
mittee) 4,000.00 

Transfers to C. B. Roden, treasurer A. L. A. Pub. Board (for use of J. L. 
Wheeler in preparing After-war reading lists) 1,500.00 

Check H. H. Vaughn, Birmingham Trust & Savings Company, returned 
marked "Balance out" 1.00 

ASSETS 

Liberty bonds held by American Security & Trust Company 350.00 

Cash balance in American Security & Trust Company, 31 May, 1919 52,018.29 



$ 857,869.29 



260 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



SECOND LIBRARY WAR SERVICE FUND 
Total Receipts and Disbursements, December 5, 1918-May 31, 1919 

RECEIPTS 

Received from United War Work, Inc., cash $2,609,196.25 

Received from United War Work, Inc., securities 190,803.75 

Interest on bank balance to 31 December, 1918 20.00 

Interest on liberty bonds 884.43 

Received from Library War Finance Committee (subscriptions to first war 

service fund received after it was closed on September 1, 1918) 14,411.03 

$2,815,315.46 
DISBURSEMENTS 

Transfers to account Herbert Putnam, general director 2,286,000.00 

ASSETS 

Bonds of the first, second, third liberty loans 188,600.00 

Thrift stamps (par 25 cents) 28.75 

War savings stamps (par $5) 2,175.00 

Cash balance in American Security & Trust Company, May 31, 1919 338,511.71 

$2,815,315.46 

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY'S CONTINGENT FUND 
May 31, 1918-May 31, 1919 

Balance 31 May, 1918 (War Service Committee Report, 1918, p. 58) $ 699.39 

RECEIPTS 

Credit voted by War Service Committee, 3 July, 1918 2,000.00 

Credit voted by War Service Committee, 30 November, 1918 2,000.00 

Interest on bank balances 24.48 

$ 4,723.87 

DlSBUBSEMENTS 

War Service Committee: 

Printing $ 758.33 

Travel 1,155.81 

Telegrams and postage 71.88 

Personal service 66.23 

War Finance Committee: 

Printing "Story of Million-dollar campaign" 87.50 

Travel, C. B. Roden, A. L. Bailey 99.83 

Auditing accounts: 

Marwick, Mitchell, Peat & Co 453.75 

Legal services: 

Campbell, Ledyard & Bulkley 300.00 

Balance 31, May, 1919 1,730.54 

$ 4,723.87 



PUTNAM 



261 



STATEMENT OP THE GENERAL DIRECTOR, A. L. A. WAR SERVICE 
HERBERT PUTNAM, Librarian of Congress 



If it shall seem odd to you that I should 
be addressing you from a foreign capital 
instead of directly from a rostrum, at As- 
bury Park, it seems, I assure you, no less 
odd to me. But it is your business that 
keeps me in Paris, and I could not well 
neglect it even for the opportunity to 
which President Bishop invited me, of pre- 
senting to you in person a general survey 
of our operations. Such a survey was due 
to you as a recognition not merely of your 
interest in the work, but of your responsi- 
bility for it as an organization, and of your 
authority over it. He added that it was 
also due to myself. He had in mind, I 
suppose, the satisfaction that an executive 
feels in reporting things accomplished. 

Where, however, as in this case, the 
things accomplished are the result not of 
an individual but of a united effort, the 
complacencies of the chief executive must 
be frugal. While he was carrying the 
title, the general direction, the overhead 
responsibility, there will have been others 
who have borne the brunt of the actual 
labor. One such Carl Milam has not 
merely done this, but, as acting general 
director, has shared the overhead responsi- 
bility itself for a long period; another 
Burton Stevenson has had to carry al- 
most independently the direct responsibil- 
ities of the overseas service. And the di- 
rect administration has had back of it 
the War Service Committee, abreast of it 
the Finance Committee, and at its right 
hand in the president of the Association 
a representative of the general interest 
who has linked his office and his personal 
devotion to the work in a measure quite 
unprecedented. To the president of the 
Association, to the chairmen of the two 
committees, to the acting general direc- 
tor, and to the European representative, 
you will, I am sure, accord the gratitude 
which is their due. The French way 
would be to pass a resolution declaring 
that they have "Men me"rite"." You will 



not do so, for the time is not yet ripe for 
resolutions of that sort. And I doubt if, 
as concerns your war service, it ever will 
be ripe: for any resolution which specifies 
a few individuals would be unjust to a 
body of others so numerous as to be quite 
out of proportion. This results from a 
fact which has distinguished your war 
service from that of any of the other six 
welfare organizations; the fact that yours 
has been a distinctly professional work, 
for which you have drawn almost wholly 
on your own ranks as a professional or- 
ganization. The significance of this came 
to me when, the other day, a welfare officer 
(an Army officer) down at Le Mans, re- 
marked to me that our people were the 
"only ones" who "hadn't made mistakes": 
they seemed to "know their job." 

We have made mistakes, many of them; 
mistakes of fact and of calculation, inev- 
itable, perhaps, from the novelty, the sur- 
prise, and the rapid shift of conditions. But 
the sort of mistake that he had in mind 
was the sort due to ignorance, to indiffer- 
ence, to lack of method (or unwisdom in 
method), or to personal unfamiliarity with 
the business. Mistakes of that sort 
common phenomena in organizations 
which have had hastily to draft untrained 
personnel our service has, I think, been 
remarkably free from; and in that sense 
I willingly accepted the encomium as due 
to you. 

In that sense also the letter of acknowl- 
edgement from the Commander-in-chief of 
the Expeditionary Forces has a special 
significance in which you can take satis- 
faction. It is in the phrase that what the 
Association has accomplished for the A. 
E. F. was accomplished "with the min- 
imum of friction and waste." That is 
praise of method; and there is no praise 
which a professional organization should 
more gladly welcome. 



262 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



the war effort of the United States was at 
its height, and the problem for us was 
still the problem of continuing and enlarg- 
ing the established work in the camps at 
home, and of developing a service of sup- 
ply adequate to the needs overseas. 

Within six months came the armistice. 
The technical effect of this was merely 
to suspend hostilities. But it was taken 
as a conclusion of them. "The war was 
over." And the War Department an- 
nounced that our troops would be brought 
home at once. Ignoring calculations as to 
transport, the imagination both of the sol- 
diers and of the American public leaped 
to the expectation that they would be eat- 
ing their Christmas dinner by their own 
firesides. Instead of this, five months 
later saw the majority of them still held 
abroad. For the bulk of them disap- 
pointment and months of tedious waiting; 
months during which, lacking the excite- 
ment of battle, the absorption and prepara- 
tion for it, all the stimulus of a forward 
effort, they slackened into a single nega- 
tive desire to be "out of it." In a strange 
land, with little definite military duty save 
a couple of hours' drill each day, without 
useful occupation save in the service of 
supply, and subject to all the depression 
of homesickness, and the temptations of 
idleness under conditions not favorable to 
self-restraint, their morale was in peril 
to a degree which thoroughly alarmed the 
military authorities. 

The effort of the welfare organizations, 
ours included, intensified to sustain it; 
and ours had not merely to intensify but 
greatly to enlarge. We had given the men 
books to bring over, we had supplied them 
with books overseas, and we had shipped 
thousands of books to follow them in their 
foreign camps. But, for the service of 
those books to them, we had relied upon 
other organizations. (We were indeed con- 
strained to do so by the military author- 
ities themselves.) This service had proved 
at many points, and in every respect, im- 
perfect. We had evidently to create, at 
certain centers besides Paris, establish- 
ments of our own, administered by repre- 



sentatives of our own, with professional 
training, and a direct responsibility. The 
military authorities gradually consented, 
and we did so. And the last few months 
have seen a direct service of our own, op- 
erating in every important post of the 
A. E. F. 

This is not to imply that we discon- 
tinued or relaxed the service through the 
other welfare organizations; on the con- 
trary, the effect was to enlarge and di- 
versify this, and to give it added efficiency. 
Quantitatively the service through them 
has been the major part of the service 
abroad, though we have added to it a 
service direct to various military units. 
Nor must we omit to recognize the willing- 
ness and promptness with which the or- 
ganizations lent to us their equipment, 
their facilities, and their personnel, in 
order to carry forward our operations. 
Particularly, of course, was this true of 
the Y. M. C. A. And in view of it we can 
the less complain, though from certain as- 
pects of policy we must regret, that the 
credit for the service rendered through 
them has gone to them rather than to us. 



A summary of these overseas operations 
(to March 31) was embodied in a report 
by Mr. Stevenson to accompany General 
Pershing's own report as Commander-in- 
chief; and has been communicated to you, 
or will be, in connection with the report 
of the acting general director and of the 
War Service Committee. In scale, the op- 
erations themselves fall far short of those 
at home, but in critical importance they 
have not done so; and the importance of 
them but increased, when the office of our 
books was no longer to prepare men to 
fight but to solace and occupy them in tem- 
porary inaction, and to aid in returning 
them better fitted for their jobs at home. 

The opportunity and the duty in these 
respects had not been unforeseen. I in- 
dicated it at Saratoga in remarking that 
before long the "center of gravity" of our 
operations might shift overseas. I did 
not then suspect that the remark would 
ccme to have a personal application. But 



MILAM 



263 



by December it became clear that the 
problems abroad, which In every other 
welfare organization seemed to require the 
personal presence of its head, were for ours 
also such that I should aid to deal with 
them on the spot. 

Accordingly I came. And I am still 
here; for the problems proved not definite 
and temporary but varied and cumulating 
and with new ones ever developing to 
take the place of those already solved. 
Even as I write only a month before your 
Conference there are still three-quarters 
of a million men over here. And with the 
reduction of the forces, and the abandon- 
ment of areas, there is a new crop of de- 
cisions involved in the curtailment of op- 
erations, the salvage of material, and the 
settlement of contracts. Such decisions 
must be summary, and such as require 
ratification must be ratified promptly. So 
for a time I remain. 

But the intensification of the work over- 
seas has not meant a cessation of the 
work at home, for this had to be main- 
tained in practically its original dimen- 
sion throughout nearly the entire year. 
And it also involved certain new problems 
in connection with reconstruction, the 
preparation for home service and es- 
pecially for the duties of citizenship. All 
this will appear in the reports of the act- 
ing director and of the War Service Com- 
mittee. 



I am sure also that the history of the 
year as a whole will be presented to you 
both broadly and in detail by my asso- 
ciates at Washington, and in the report 
of the War Service Committee, and that 
the philosophy of it will also be suggested 
by the latter. Any larger inductions from 
such an experience come more appro- 
priately from those who, like the chair- 
man of the committee, informed as to the 
operations, have not been enmeshed in 
the routine of them. From the two years 
together one induction will surely be ob- 
vious: That for the first time in its his- 
tory the American Library Association has 
emerged from an organization with aims 
supposedly purely professional, into a pub- 
lic service corporation. And though the 
service has in terms been for an emerg- 
ency, its influence will be permanent; it 
will have left a definite impress upon the 
Government in the Departments of the 
Army and the Navy; it will have left a 
continuing benefit upon many individuals 
widely diffused throughout the country. 
It will have notified to the public the spirit 
and the efficiency of an organization whose 
availability for a general public service 
had not been realized, and it will have af- 
fected the Association itself with a lasting 
faith in its own abilities. 

HERBERT PUTNAM, 
General Director A. L. A. War Service. 



STATEMENT OF THE ACTING GENERAL DIRECTOR, A. L. A. WAR SERVICE 
CARL H. MILAM, Director, Public Library, Birmingham, Ala. 



It is unnecessary for the acting general 
director, after presenting a printed re- 
port of twenty-six or twenty-seven pages, 
to make any considerable additional state- 
ment. Perhaps it would be well, however, 
without attempting to summarize the re- 
port that we have made, to point out the 
thread you will see running through it. 
Since the signing of the armistice, parti- 
cularly, there have been only two things 
in mind. The first has been to serve the 
men the duration-of-the-war men in 



such a way that we might claim to have 
contributed something to their general 
welfare, and to the placing of them back 
in their normal positions in civilian life. 
We have done that through the camp li- 
braries, to some extent, and through the 
hospital libraries, and we have tried to 
cooperate with you in your public, college 
and special libraries in accomplishing that 
end. The other thing has been to leave 
behind something definitely accomplished. 
When the war was over, the American 



264 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Library Association had no desire to go 
on and do a piece of work which I think 
all of us felt should be done by the Gov- 
ernment. But we wanted to handle our 
affairs in such a way that it would be 
easy for the Army and the Navy to take 
over that work. There are a few specific 
examples where the work has already been 
taken over by the Army and Navy offi- 
cials. There came a request from a naval 
air station to purchase our library to 
purchase it because they could not accept 
a gift. And so we sold our library at Pen- 
sacola not the buildings, for we had none, 
but the books and our miscellaneous equip- 
ment to this naval air station for one dol- 
lar. Although the commanding officer had 
a letter from a very high official of the 
Navy Department, saying that >he was au- 
thorized not only to purchase the library, 
but to employ a civilian, librarian, we 
learned a few days after the transaction 
had been completed that in spite of what 
that very high official in the Navy had 
said, some one had informed the command- 
ing officer that no funds were available for 
employing a librarian, and he asked us 
urgently, in a telegram, to leave our man 
there for an indefinite period. So the li- 
brary is now owned and operated by the 
Navy, with a man whose salary is paid by 
the American Library Association. 

An opportunity came for a somewhat 
similar transfer of the work in Siberia. 
By the way, I should like to take issue 
with Mr. Wyer when he said that Mr. 
Clemens continued in service in Siberia 
throughout the entire emergency. I won- 
der if Dr. Keppel, now that he is about 
to leave the War Department, thinks he 
is leaving after the emergency in Siberia 
Is over. Some of the mothers and fathers 
of this country think not. But the work 
is being continued there, and our repre- 
sentative is a chaplain, a man appointed 
to that work at the request of the War 
Department in Washington. The man 
who took over all of Mr. Clemens' activi- 
ties is a regular War Department official. 
Some of you may wonder why he is not a 
librarian. It is quite possible that among. 



the few thousand men in Siberia there 
are no librarians. I don't know as a mat- 
ter of fact whether in the regular Army 
there are any librarians who would be 
available. We are still providing reading 
matter, but it is a Government affair in 
every other respect. 

I think I might say just a word, too, 
though I have said it in the report, in ex- 
planation of the fact that the war did not 
stop for the American Library Associa- 
tion when the armistice was signed. I 
need say nothing more on that point than 
simply that the peak of our work was 
reached, not in October or November, or 
even in December or January, but in May. 
We were just beginning to drop off toward 
the end of May, and now we are on the 
down grade so far as expenditures and 
work are concerned, but until the 1st of 
May we were constantly climbing, in spite 
of the fact that in the minds of many peo- 
ple the war was over. 

One final word. There have been so 
many things said about the American Li- 
brary Association that are complimentary 
that I feel that somebody must raise a 
voice in protest. Secretary Daniels the 
other day this may be getting a bit ahead 
of the game, and stealing some of the 
president's thunder Secretary Daniels in 
a telegram to the man who is to take his 
place on this program (he sent me a copy 
of the telegram), said: "I hope you will 
accept the invitation of the American Li- 
brary Association, which wants you to 
speak on the wonderful work of the Amer- 
ican Library Association during the war." 
I think some of you may decide that we 
asked Dr. Keppel to come and speak on 
that subject. As the one who had the 
privilege of tendering the invitation for 
President Bishop, however, I wish to put 
in a word to the effect that I protested to 
him on that day that we were not asking 
him to come and praise the American Li- 
brary Association; but as an educator, 
who had been connected with the war, to 
come to us and bring a message that 
might be of practical value hi helping us 
to solve the difficulties which might come 



JOY 



265 



in the future, calling to our attention, per- 
haps, mistakes which some of us had not 
seen, mistakes which nobody could see ex- 
cept a man in his position. He has been 
kind enough not to call our attention to 
our mistakes. But I wish to voice, on be- 
half of the American Library Association, 
the statement that the American Library 
Association sees many things which it did 
imperfectly. It is now doing things which 



it should have done two years ago. We 
have made mistakes, some of which seem 
inexcusable, now that we look back upon 
them; but because of those mistakes 
which we see, the opportunities which 
we missed, the many things which we 
ought to have done which we did not do, 
we are more than grateful for the praise 
that comes from those who have watched 
our work from the outside. 



SALVAGING WAR LIBRARY SERVICE FOR PEACE TIMES 

By MAJOR JASON S. JOY, Director, Commission on Training Camp Activities, War Depart- 
ment, U. 8. A. 



Before I came into the Army, I lived in 
northern New York, up where the French- 
Canadians grow. I am reminded of a 
story told of two of my friends who were 
fishing on Lake Champlain. A storm 
came up, and it looked as if the small 
boat in which they were fishing would 
'be swamped. Baptiste, who was sitting 
in the front part of the boat, yelled to 
Joe, "Joe, throw over the anchor." Joe 
replied, "But there is no rope on the an- 
chor." "Never mind, throw it over any- 
how ! " 

I am supposed to suggest how the work 
started by the American Library Associa- 
tion with the Army shall be anchored for 
the future, but I am unable to locate a 
rope. I don't know how we are going to 
salvage the work we have been doing. It 
may be done in one of two ways, and I 
am going to tell you both of them. Last 
night one of the "highbrows" of your or- 
ganization asked me what I was doing 
here. He didn't understand that a mere 
Major knew anything about books at all, 
and I assured him that his guess was 
about right; that it was the privilege and 
the duty of the American Library Asso- 
ciation to tell the Army and to show the 
Army how the thing should be done. He 
also reminded me I did not come to praise, 
but to bury you. He said you have been 
praised enough already. However, I 
want to say this: I came into this work 
after the armistice had been signed, know- 



ing very little of what the affiliated or- 
ganizations had been doing, and I found 
that the American Library Association was 
ready to do whatever we asked them to 
do, and do it cheerfully. When we asked 
you to put men on transports you did so; 
when we asked you to take them off you 
complied; when we asked you to put libra- 
ries on boats and in various hospitals, 
etc., you came running to do it. I am 
mightily pleased with the spirit of co- 
operation and the unselfish spirit that has 
permeated your entire organization and 
has been manifested in every action you 
have taken. That is as much praise as I 
am allowed to give. I love you all. 

There were two jobs handed to me 
when I became director of the Commission 
on Training Activities; one was to carry 
on the work that had 'been started under 
Mr. Fosdick, until the last man shall have 
been demobilized the last National Army 
man shall have been demobilized from the 
emergency army and the other to assist in 
developing a scheme of carrying this work 
on through the peace time regular Army 
organization. The first job is going very 
nicely, with the hearty cooperation of ev- 
eryone. It is a hard job now; I realize 
that the camp librarians are having diffi- 
culty in reaching the few men that are 
scattered all over the cantonments. It is 
a discouraging proposition, it makes a 
fellow almost homesick, when he goes 
into a camp and finds there are just a few 



269 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



fellows there, hiding behind the trees, 
and yet they are carrying on the work 
just as efficiently as they did in the days 
of mobilization. That work must continue 
until the last man has been sent home. 
I know you are going to do it. 

Now, as to the work of the future. It 
has been thought by the members of the 
General Staff of the War Department, who 
have this problem on their hearts, and 
those of your own organization with whom 
I have talked, that it is the duty of the 
regular Army to carry on all recreational 
and welfare and educational work under 
its own auspices; that it should cease to 
ask the civilians to come in as organiza- 
tions to do the work they should do 
themselves. This is the result of your 
example to the regular Army. The ci- 
vilian organizations, the seven affiliated 
organizations have come into the Army 
and have demonstrated the need and the 
value of this sort of service, and it is a 
compliment to the affiliated organizations 
that the Army has seen the demonstra- 
tion, has noted the value of it, and has 
decided that if possible it will carry this 
thing on forever. It is rather difficult to 
decide just how it should be done. No or- 
ganization has yet been set up to do it, 
but on the spur of the moment, just about 
half an hour before the Military Affairs 
Committee of the House of Representa- 
tives was to assemble, an officer was sent 
to appear before the committee and ask 
for an appropriation of several million 
dollars to carry on this work. We asked 
for a maximum of $23,000,000 and a mini- 
mum of $8,000,000 to carry on the recre- 
ational welfare and educational system in 
the peace time regular Army establish- 
ment. The Secretary of War and his 
Third Assistant, whom you know Secre- 
tary Keppel and General March, ap- 
peared before the Military Affairs Com- 
mittee of the Senate a week ago, and I 
have just been officially informed that 
the Senate Military Affairs Committee 
has reported out a bill authorizing the 
expenditure of $6,350,000 for this sort of 
work during the coming fiscal year. This 



is not very much, considering the need 
and the things that are to be done, 
but inasmuch as demobilization will not 
be complete for some months yet, and the 
men for the regular Army military estab- 
lishment will not be coming into the army 
in any great numbers until the fiscal year 
is fairly started, it seems to me that an 
experiment or demonstration can be made 
on that amount of money. We probably 
won't get as much as that, but the regular 
Army will get enough to start this thing 
and demonstrate its sufficiency or insufti- 
ciency. 

You want to know what you are to do? 
I have already asked you to continue your 
work until demobilization is over; that 
will carry us on for some months. I don't 
believe the Army for some time to come 
will be able to develop the personnel to 
guide the library assistants. You know 
the problem; it is your business; you are 
trained for it, so whatever organization is 
developed to carry on this work in the 
regular Army, will need the guidance and 
assistance, the result of your experience 
and the daily presence of a good many of 
your workers. Mr. Keppel told me yes- 
terday afternoon that I might say this: 
Undoubtedly an organization will be de- 
veloped in Washington which will have 
as its duties the development and direc- 
tion of the morale, recreational, welfare, 
educational and religious program of the 
man's life. 

Now, that organization will need trained 
librarians. I have asked some of your 
"highbrows" if you know of any men in 
the regular Army or any temporary offi- 
cers that are properly equipped to handle 
this. We may have a few; I don't know. 
But in the interim between now and the 
final culmination of this plan the Ameri- 
can Library Association will have to lend 
to the Army a sufficient trained per- 
sonnel to establish thoroughly this work 
so that we may not lose time during 
the turnover. I know when we come to 
you and ask you for this, you will step 
forward with the same spirit of self-sacri- 
fice that you did in the early days of the 



MAYO 



267 



war, and that we may count on the Amer- 
ican Library Association's support in put- 
ting this thing into the regular Army, 
where it will stay forever. 

It is just as essential to train the soldier 
to be a well-educated, well-rounded citi- 
zen as it is to train the civilian. I don't 
mean that he is not a citizen while in the 
Army, but he takes eventually his other 
niche in the civilian population. And the 
soldier has just as much a right to the 
privileges which the American Library As- 
sociation throughout the country offers to 
his less or more fortunate brother, as the 
man in long trousers has and his sis- 
ters. 

Then you folks must assist the Army 
in establishing, developing and carry- 
ing on schools to which may be sent cer- 
tain selected non-commissioned officers 
and enlisted men, who should be trained 
to act as post librarians under the leader- 
ship of carefully selected officers. We 
want whatever people are now in camp 
work to remain as long as the emergency 
lasts, which will be four months after the 
declaration of peace, providing there are 
any men in those camps whom they 
should serve. 

The salvaging of your equipment, prop- 
erty, etc.: You are just about (if you 
haven't started already) to bring back the 
books from the other side. I understand 



they are to be assembled in New York, 
renovated and placed in shape for dis- 
tribution wherever they are needed. It 
seems to me, and I admit I have not 
thought it out very carefully, and you 
folks will tell me rather than having me 
tell you, but it seems to me that when 
this work is started in the regular Army 
there will be one central office and one de- 
pot in each military department, so that 
each department may be almost independ- 
ent within itself, and will distribute and ex- 
change books sent from the department 
headquarters as often as is necessary. 
There is one if IF we get the money. If we 
don't, then it will be up to you folks 
again. This thing has got to go on in the 
regular Army. It is the duty of the coun- 
try, it is the duty of every one of us, to 
see that the boys in the regular Army 
have this privilege. If the War Depart- 
ment does not get the money to carry 
this thing on, then the American Library 
Association, as the agent of the American 
people, must do it. I don't know how you 
are going to do it; I don't know where 
you are going to get the money or the 
personnel, 'but that is the other horn of 
the dilemma, and I as confidently expect 
the American Library Association to solve 
it as I know they have solved every other 
problem that the War Department has 
ever put up to them. 



LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE PERMANENT NAVAL ESTABLISHMENT* 
BY COMMANDER C. B. MAYO, Navy Department, U. 8. A. 



Although I hesitate to start out with an 
apology, I must remind you that a sailor 
man is not much of a speaker, and I never 
in my life thought I would be in Asbury 
Park making a speech. The only time we 
have seen Asbury Park is from a destroyer 
out on the sea, and you know it is shal- 
low water near the shore, and we keep 
away from it. 

There has recently been organized in 
the Navy Department a new division. Its 
mission is "to aid constituted authority to 



Extemporaneous address. 



maintain a high morale." The wording 
of the appropriation from which it draws 
its fund is "for the health, comfort, con- 
tentment, and recreation of enlisted men 
of the Navy and Marine Corps." It has 
been my privilege to have been in at the 
establishment of this division. Our or- 
ganization differs in some respects from 
that of the Army, which has as a division 
of the general staff, the Commission on 
Training Camp Activities, and the Chap- 
lain's Corps. When we started this little 



268 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



division in the Navy, we thought we would 
get all of these people together and put 
them under one head, and I am only tem- 
porary head of this division. The per- 
manent head will be a much older and 
wiser man, who will come in later on. I 
was advisory member of the commission 
during the war, in addition to my other 
duties. We have representatives of the 
Navy who go down to the sea in ships, 
chaplains, line officers, paymasters, ma- 
rine officers all come there, and we have 
selected the very best line officers in the 
Navy, and the best staff officers. I know 
them, because I have been detailing them 
all during the war; I know their records, 
and the best we can get we are sending 
around to the different cities, and in the 
different districts, as morale officers, and 
aids for morale. Their duties are what 
the name implies, "to aid constituted au- 
thority to maintain a high morale." The 
commanding officer of a station, or cap- 
tain of a ship, is morale officer of that 
ship. His is the responsibility, and there 
is nothing we can do that will relieve him 
of that terrible responsibility, but we can 
help him. This has never been system- 
atized in the Navy. We have had ath- 
letics, for instance, 'but we have had them 
in a sporadic kind of way. We have had 
teams, and if a man can win a place on 
a team, it will develop him, but if he can't 
do that, it will not help him. We are try- 
ing to surround the men of the Navy with 
a circle of good influences, and to make 
the uplifting influences just as powerful 
and just as attractive as the evil influ- 
ences. We must not try to make his 
choice for him; Americans won't stand 
for that. But we can at least make the 
good as attractive as the evil, and the 
evil heretofore has been more attractive. 
I suppose every speaker from the Army 
and the Navy has lauded the work of the 
American Library Association in the 
camps, on the ships, and overseas during 
the great war so happily ended. I say 
this, for I know that appreciation of your 
work is universal, unanimous, throughout 
the service. It is true, you have had 



tangible and concrete problems to solve, 
and it has been for that reason easier, but 
your success should make you very proud 
and very happy. New problems are now 
arising. You know a great many people 
fear the results of prohibition, but if we 
can give the sailor man books, we need 
have no cause to fear. I think it is Ba- 
con who says, "Reading maketh a man 
full"; or is it "a full man"? 

This new division, this sixth morale 
division of which I spoke, has many prob- 
lems for solution by the American Li- 
brary Association, and it is to present 
them to you and to pray your assistance 
that I am here. I might say we are asking 
for a million-dollar appropriation for this 
work from the House Committee, an in- 
crease from $150,000 to $1,000,000. That 
is at the rate of one cent per man per day. 
For one cent per man per day you could 
give them all the athletics, all the motion 
pictures, all the amateur dramatics, in- 
struction in social hygiene, books and 
magazines, take care of his home service 
get his home people in closer touch with 
him and do it all for one cent per man 
per day. It seems to be a very little, when 
it costs forty cents a day to feed him. 
The estimate was cut to $400,000 in the 
House, and the Senate, I believe, is going 
to raise that to $700,000. So we can get 
along. Of course, we cannot do all those 
things which are necessary, and which I 
believe in five years would make a new 
and better Navy, if gone about in a busi- 
nesslike manner. 

This movement is not confined to the 
Navy. Every large industrial organiza- 
tion, every business organization, is spend- 
ing money and appropriating heavy sums 
for this purpose. America has at last 
awakened to the fact that workmen or 
enlisted men are not mere cogs; they are 
persons, and have personalities, and in 
order to get the best results from them, we 
have got to pay attention to their person- 
ality, and to develop it. I have been as- 
sociated a great deal with naval chap- 
lains, of late, and so you must pardon me 
if I resort to firstlies and secondlies. 



MAYO 



First, the cordial cooperation which ex- 
ists between the American Library Asso- 
ciation and the Sixth Morale Division must 
continue always eternally. You must 
forgive our mistakes and be forbearing; 
we are bound to make them. 

Second, we ask you to salvage every 
book you can from those now in service, 
for the Navy and Marine Corps. You have 
done a great work, but there is still need 
for books and we will take anything you 
can give us. 

Third, we ask you to advise us as to 
the procuring of books with Navy funds, 
how to get them and from whom to get 
them. We buy in large quantities, and 
your expert advice is essential. We have 
at present libraries of 1,100 volumes on 
the big ships, down to 50 or 100 volumes 
on the small ships, the destroyers. The 
libraries on the ships and in stations are 
now in charge of chaplains, and a chaplain 
also acts as librarian in this Sixth Divi- 
sion. I am sorry I could not bring him 
with me, but he is so busy he could not 
get off. 

Fourth, we ask you to help us in this 
selection, and to continue your study of 
books for the Navy in the light of your 
experience of the last two years. 

Fifth, we ask you to help us in stand- 
ardizing the practice of the libraries in the 
ships and stations in matters of classifi- 
cation, arrangement, circulation, and so 
forth. 

Sixth, we ask you to appoint at least one 
or two men to be in Washington whose 
sole duty it will be to advise and assist 
us in making the library a very live and 
vital force in the morale of the Navy. 

We are changing the system of educa- 
tion in the Navy. In future it will be 
based on four principles: 

First, it will be non-compulsory. If they 



don't want education, don't give it to 
them. That's American stuff. > . 

Second, it will be outside of the work- 
ing hours. We work awfully hard in the 
Navy; some people don't believe it, be- 
cause they only see us when we are in 
port and when we are playing. The Navy 
man's hours are from 5 o'clock in the 
morning until 5 o'clock the next morning. 
But if he is ambitious, he can find time 
outside of regular working hours, and we 
only want to give education to ambitious 
men; don't throw pearls before swine. 

Third, it should be largely self-help, a 
system of education where the man must 
dig it out for himself, and that is directly 
along tihe lines in which education Is 
given to us at the Naval Academy at An- 
napolis. We have very few instructors 
at Annapolis; we simply hear the mid- 
shipmen recite; I know, because I was 
there as an instructor for some time. The 
man has got to stand on his own legs, 
and must dig it out for himself. 

Fourth, it will be along lines which are 
directly beneficial to the men in the serv- 
ice, to make them better sailor-men, and 
anything that will make men better sailor- 
men will make them better citizens, when 
they go back to civil life. 

You have done a great work, but your 
work is not done. You have not completed 
your task until you have done all these 
things we beg of you. The war has made 
us all better men and better women. The 
country has awakened to a new citizen- 
ship. A primary duty of that citizenship 
is to care for its men in uniform in time 
of peace as well as in time of war. Don't 
let it be Jackie this and Jackie that, now 
that the guns have ceased to thunder. 
Help us to make the United States Navy 
a living force for good, an example of 
clean manhood to our country's hope, the 
youth of this generation. 



270 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



BY ANDREW KEOGH, Librarian, Yale University Library 



President Bishop has asked me to give 
some account of the library side of the 
government office named the Inquiry, be- 
cause he thinks it a matter of professional 
interest. 

I shall say little of the personnel of the 
Inquiry, since there are two histories of 
the organization in preparation one for 
the American Geographical Society, under 
the supervision of its director, Dr. Bow- 
man, and the other for the War Depart- 
ment, by the history board of the War 
Plans Division of the general staff. It is 
only necessary now to say that in Septem- 
ber, 1917, Colonel House was authorized 
'by President Wilson to collect and organ- 
ize data that might be useful at the even- 
tual peace confr ance; that he promptly 
established in New York an office which 
was later called the Inquiry, under the di- 
rectorship of President Mezes; that by the 
time the armistice was signed more than 
150 American scholars had contributed 
reports on matters in which they were 
specialists; that representatives of the na- 
tions affected had come for conference 
with the officers and specialists of the 
bureau; that there was frequent exchange 
of material and of views between the In- 
quiry and similar bureaus abroad, espe- 
cially those of France and England; that 
the Department of State, the Military In- 
telligence Division of the general staff, the 
National Research Council, the National 
Board for Historical Service, the Depart- 
ment of Commerce, the Tariff Commission, 
the War Colleges, and many other official 
and unofficial organizations, American and 
foreign, cooperated in the work; that after 
thirteen months the material gathered, 
amounting to several tons in weight, was 
placed on board the George Washington to 
travel overseas with the President on De- 
cember 4, 1918; and that all the informa- 
tipn gathered had been so carefully clas- 



sified and indexed that it was instantly 
available. 

The location of the office of the organ- 
ization was a difficult problem, but it was 
finally solved by accepting the offer of the 
American Geographical Society to place 
its building and most of its staff at the 
disposal of the Inquiry. The society's 
building is convenient of access and yet 
not too public; it houses a library and an 
organization intended for research work- 
ers; and it provided a place where confi- 
dential documents and maps were safe. 
From November 10, 1917, the work of the 
Inquiry was carried on at Broadway and 
156th street under guard night and day.* 

At first the scope of the Inquiry was 
very wide, but with the establishment or 
development of other government bureaus 
to look after certain topics, such as strat- 
egy or international law, the work of the 
Inquiry became more intensive, until at 
last it was centered on territorial and 
economic matters. The main areas in 
which research was conducted were of 
course determined 'by the war itself, but 
special studies were made of disputed 
areas, or of local conditions that were the 
sources of political antagonisms. A typ- 
ical study of a country included its poli- 
tical and diplomatic history, its economics, 
its geography, and its education. The his- 
torian reported on historic rights, includ- 
ing suffrage laws; on religious develop- 
ments and customs; on subordinate nation- 
alities; on the rights of minority peoples 
in composite populations; on recent poli- 
tical history as related to diplomacy and 
treaties; and on public law and constitu- 
tional reforms. The economist reported 
on international matters, such as raw ma- 
terials, coaling stations, cable stations, 
tariffs and customs unions, free ports, open 



For further details see an article in Geo~ 
graphical Review, January, 1919, 



KEOGH 



271 



ports; and on. regional matters, such as In- 
dustrial development, self-sufficiency, and 
traffic routes in relation to boundaries and 
material resources. The geographer re- 
ported on strategic frontiers and topo- 
graphic barriers, and on economic factors 
such as irrigation, not only in their present 
development but as to their possibilities 
in a general reconstruction. The cartog- 
rapher made maps and diagrams to vis- 
ualize every kind of distribution, such as 
racial, linguistic, and religious boundaries; 
minerals, fuel, water power, railways and 
trade routes, crops and live stock. 

The study of a question consisted pri- 
marily in the collecting of the essential 
facts; and secondarily in the sifting and 
collating of these facts so as to show their 
bearing upon any solution of a problem 
that might be proposed. The work had no 
political bias, the instructions given to the 
experts being to exercise fairness and to 
consider the interests of the peoples in the 
territories affected. This complete liberty 
of action gave unbiased results, and it Is 
gratifying to know that the work of the 
American experts won high commendation 
from the various foreign delegations. 

For its collaborators the Inquiry turned 
to the universities of the country, since it 
is the function of the universities not only 
to train experts, but to maintain high 
ideals of thoroughness and scholarly im- 
partiality. The Inquiry did not confine it- 
self to university faculties, however, but 
obtained the assistance of competent men 
without regard to university affiliations. 
Sometimes reports were requested from 
several different authorities, because on 
many questions there are not only two 
sides, but half a dozen. 

The collaborators were not always at 
large universities, nor residents of large 
cities, and many of them could not leave 
their occupations to carry on research else- 
where. The Inquiry could not purchase 
the books they needed, partly because it 
lacked the money, but chiefly because of 
the impossibility of obtaining and storing 
so much material. The problem was com- 
plicated by the fact that the work had to 



be done with as much secrecy as possible. 
It became necessary, therefore, to organize 
at headquarters a bibliographical service 
which should do for these scattered schol- 
ars what a regular library does for its own 
clients. To this end great assistance was 
given by the American Geographical So- 
ciety, which placed its whole library and 
its library staff at the service of the In- 
quiry. Not only did it do this to the full- 
est extent, but it bought large numbers of 
books and maps for the use of the Inquiry, 
and it began and carried on a map-making 
program without precedent in this country. 
The American Geographical Society is, 
however, limited in scope and in funds, 
and a call upon other libraries for help 
soon became necessary. Of the outside 
libraries those upon which the greatest de- 
mands were made were the library of Co- 
lumbia University and the New York Li- 
brary. I put them alphabetically because 
it is impossible to say which rendered the 
greater service. Each purchased books 
that were needed, each provided special 
rooms for the research workers, and each 
gave reference service beyond measura 
Columbia lent Miss Florence Wilson to be- 
come the assistant librarian of the In- 
quiry, and the American Library Associa- 
tion sent her to Paris to continue her work 
on the files she had cared for so well in 
New York. The cordial and unstinted as- 
sistance given by Dean Carpenter, Mr. 
Hicks, and Miss Mudge was only equaled 
by that so cheerfully given by Dr. Ander- 
son, Mr. Lydenberg, and others of the New 
York Library staff. Outside of New York 
the greatest help was received from the 
Library of Congress. Dr. Putnam made 
more than one visit to the Inquiry, gave 
every facility for the use of the Library 
of Congress and procured and made avail- 
able many books that could not otherwise 
be had. Princeton contributed Dr. Rich- 
ardson himself, who not only made inves- 
tigations in the Library of Congress and 
elsewhere, but prepared for the Inquiry 
many bibliographies that were of the ut- 
most service. The list of cooperating li- 
braries is a long one, and it is a great 



272 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



pleasure to state that the librarians called 
upon went to extraordinary lengths in ren- 
dering service, giving their time and 
thought and energy, waiving rules when- 
ever that was possible, and assenting will- 
ingly to the Government's requisitioning 
of books where the rules of their libraries 
made no provision for loans. I am par- 
ticularly glad of the opportunity of stat- 
ing that of the many hundreds of books 
from American libraries now in Paris for 
the use of the Peace Conference a large 
number bear the Harvard bookplate. 

My paper has to deal, however, not only 
with the service rendered to the Govern- 
ment by the scholarly libraries of the 
country, but with the service they did not 
render. Research librarians are expected 
to provide the materials for literary edi- 
fices, but even with the best of good will 
they cannot make bricks without straw. 
It does not detract from the value of the 
service rendered by American libraries to 
say that in our national emergency our li- 
braries were not equal to the demands 
made upon them, individually and collec- 
tively. 

Consider some of the details of one or 
two- of the topics I have named above, and 
picture the amount of help that would be 
given to an investigator of one of these 
topics in your own library or in any li- 
brary known to you. Suppose that an 
inquirer were to ask for material on the 
Trentino, for the purpose of making a gen- 
eral ethnic, strategic, and economic study 
of the area from the Italian frontier of 
1914 to the highest peaks in the north, and 
a detailed study of the disputed triangle 
at the conclusion of the Italian-Austrian 
negotiations of 1915, with special atten- 
tion to the ethnic composition of the Bozen 
Valley, the position of the ridge crests, 
and the economic draining of the area? 
Suppose another were to ask for informa- 
tion on the ethnic composition, the eco- 
nomic affiliations, and the political rela- 
tionships of Bosnia, with particular refer- 
ence to the tongue of land from Ragusa 
to Volavitza? Suppose one were study- 
ing any of the disputed areas of the Bal- 



kans Epirus, Macedonia, Thrace, The 
Dobrudja, Pirot, Thasos, The Banat, the 
Maritza Valley? Suppose he were trying 
to draw topographical outlines of a possi- 
ble internationalized area to include Con- 
stantinople and the Straits, and wanted 
the most recent and most accurate infor- 
mation about the administrative, military, 
and economic questions involved in its in- 
ternationalization, including terminal and 
port facilities, police, sanitation, municipal 
administration, the ownership of the Bag- 
dad Railway; and the relation of such an 
internationalized area to the Ottoman pub- 
lic debt? Each of the territorial questions 
had to be studied in just such detail, and 
in many cases the answers were not to be 
found in this country, and owing to war 
conditions could not be obtained. The 
best ethnographic study of Serbia, e. g., is 
by Dr. Jovan Cvijic, a member of the Serb- 
ian Academy of Science, and was pub- 
lished by the Belgrade Academy in three 
parts. The first of these was translated 
into German and published as a supple- 
ment to Petermanns Mitteilungen. The 
second and third parts have never been 
done from the Serbian, and no copy of 
these two parts is in this country. Neither 
is any recent issue of the Turkish official 
year-book called Salnameh, unless indeed 
it be in the Turkish Embassy. The larg- 
est scale map of Persia is not here, and, 
worse still, its existence was unknown. 
The census returns of some of the bellig- 
erent countries are nowhere to be found; 
while the sets for other countries usually 
lack the latest volumes. If one wishes to 
check disputed national figures by the 
local church or school census returns, to 
see whether the national figures are falsi- 
fied, the local returns are not available. 
This regrettable condition of our schol- 
arly libraries is well known to university 
librarians and to the librarians of other 
great research libraries, but the public is 
not aware of it, and there are many mem- 
bers of the American Library Association 
who do not realize it. The public library 
and the library of the small college pro- 
vide books in the familiar lines of study, 



WALTER 



273 



and this work is done well; but when a 
reader wants to go beyond the ordinary 
books on a subject, or to make research in 
some unusual field, his progress at once 
becomes difficult and sometimes impossi- 
ble. To arrive at a sound conclusion in 
any of the instances I have named, one 
must have the local histories and geogra- 
phies, the local statistical and commer- 
cial handbooks, the more important local 
newspapers and magazines, the publica- 
tions of the local scientific societies. We 
have not spent money and time on such 
local matters because we thought them 
merely local, and of no interest to us. We 
did not care whether certain districts in 
East Prussia were German or Polish; did 
not know what is involved in the owner- 
ship of the Briey district; did not under- 
stand the meaning of the Pan-Turanian 
movement. Yet these questions, and a 
hundred like them, are the questions that 
disturb the peace of the world. Even in 
our own hemisphere there are many dan- 
ger-spots that may affect our national life. 
We cannot rid ourselves of these dangers 
by ignoring them. There are probably 
people in this audience who do not know 
where Tacna and Arica are, yet the ques- 
tion of their boundaries may at any time 
bring on a war in which the United States 
may have to share. I venture to say that 
there is no library in this country that 



has the necessary material for determin- 
ing the policy of the United States in re- 
gard. to this and similar questions. 

The truth is that the war found us as 
unprepared for making peace as for mak- 
ing war, and we were much worse off in 
mobilizing for peace, because many of our 
necessary materials were thousands of 
miles away, with little or no possibility of 
getting them. The formation of an en- 
lightened American point of view on dis- 
puted questions was made difficult because 
we had not been foresighted. We have 
muddled through. But now that we are 
to take our full share of the burden of civ- 
ilization, and help to mould the lives of 
millions of people with whom we have not 
hitherto been directly concerned, we must 
educate ourselves for our new du- 
ties. -Our research libraries must pro- 
vide the means of education on a scale 
much larger than has hitherto been 
thought necessary. They must also or- 
ganize their material and their effort so 
that unnecessary duplication may be 
avoided, that what is lacking may be 
known and provided, and that the literary 
resources of the nation may be made 
available easily and quickly. Our national 
counsel to be of value, must be informed; 
and our national decisions, to be just, 
must be based upon knowledge. 



TRAINING FOR THE LIBRARIAN OF A BUSINESS LIBRARY OR A BUSINESS 

BRANCH 

BY FRANK K. WALTER, Vice-Director, New York State Library School, Albany, N. Y. 



The business librarian is both the em- 
bodied recognition of the practical value 
of libraries and of the expanding ideals of 
business. He is an indication that present 
day business is beginning to recognize that 
personal profit and public service are very 
closely connected. The competent busi- 
ness librarian need not renounce his claim 
to a business man's salary. This would 
probably make his employer think him 
lacking in ambition. He must, however, 
earn his salary by anticipating business 



ideals as well as market conditions and he 
cannot do his work really well unless he 
believes in business as a conserving force 
in society. 

The first step in suitable training is the 
selection of candidates with suitable per- 
sonality. Many of the traits desirable for 
the business librarian are those desirable 
for any librarian or, indeed, for any so- 
cially minded citizen. He must have fore- 
sight and vision; he must know his field 
and be able to organize the material he 



274 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



collects; he must be accurate so that his 
firm will not suffer through misinforma- 
tion or be led to inaccurate conclusions 
through insufficient data. He must be 
quick as well as accurate so that the data 
needed will be available when needed and 
not the day after. He must have business 
sense to enable him to get the viewpoint 
of those for whom he works. 

As the scope of business widens the 
need of more education on the part of the 
business librarian increases. Except in 
individual cases he cannot afford to spe- 
cialize too much, but he must be well 
grounded in the principles of the social 
and physical sciences. The theory of a 
few years since has now become estab- 
lished business practice. Economics ("the 
dreary science"), sociology and psychol- 
ogy have emerged from the classroom and 
the college laboratory and are now doing 
yeoman service in executive office, in shop 
and in salesroom. The field of business 
has become international and essential in- 
formation is no longer confined to the Eng- 
lish language. The business librarian 
cannot afford to start his work without 
the training which this implies. If his in- 
clination leads him to the field of technol- 
ogy he must perforce know something of 
the physics and chemistry on which most 
industrial operations are based. There is 
so much specific information he must get 
after he becomes a business librarian that 
he must start with the smallest possible 
handicap of ignorance. 

The training should be definite but not 
too specific. Intelligent knowledge of 
principles and not microscopic special in- 
formation is the desired end unless the ex- 
pert knowledge is itself built on a broad 
base. The specialist usually serves one 
department. The librarian must serve all 
the specialists as well as the business as 
a whole. 

It is not easy, perhaps it is not possi- 
ble to distinguish with much definiteness 
between the work of the business libra- 
rian, so called, and the librarian of a bus- 
iness branch of a public library. In most 
cases the latter will serve more types of 



business and will, consequently, need to 
have at hand material on more subjects. 
His training must therefore be wider than 
that of his colleague whose work is con- 
fined to a more limited field. The distinc- 
tion will be less when the "business libra- 
rian" is in the service of a large corpora- 
tion with varied interests. The business 
librarian may often need knowledge of 
recreational literature to use in the wel- 
fare projects of his firm. The librarian 
of a business branch on the other hand can 
usually delegate this work to his col- 
leagues in the main library. 

Essential as this general education is, 
it is not all-sufficient. The bearings of any 
machine, though made of the finest steel, 
must be polished before it will do its work 
well. A successful librarian must know 
how to run a library. Consciously or un- 
consciously, he must use library technique. 
In an article in Special Libraries, (Jan.- 
Feb., 1919) I have briefly stated my rea- 
sons for believing that the special libra- 
rian of the future will be trained through 
regularly conducted courses rather than 
through apprentice experience in business 
libraries, or through experience after ap- 
pointment. 

In general, the training of the business 
librarian may be largely concerned with 
the subjects of importance to all libraries. 
It is beginning to be recognized that edu- 
cation in other directions has specialized 
too much. Educators are realizing that 
there is no real agricultural chemistry, but 
simply the general principles of chemistry 
applied to agriculture; no business arithme- 
tic, but arithmetic applied to business con- 
ditions; no business English that is not 
merely good English adapted to a special 
audience a principle which good writers 
and speakers have always recognized. 
Similarly, in library circles, there has 
often been too much insistence on the de- 
tail to the neglect of the principle. Bus- 
iness library practice differs from public 
library practice in specific application, not 
in essential. Both would be benefited by a 
return to the general principles which 



WALTER 



275 



could be adapted to meet the specific 
needs of either. 

There is little really fundamental which 
the business librarian will find unnec- 
essary. Elimination of the unnecessary 
implies rather accurate knowledge of what 
is necessary. Simplification which is 
merely omission is not necessarily effi- 
ciency. Even Henry Ford cannot afford 
to simplify by leaving off the nuts at the 
ends of the axles. It is a mistake to think 
that small special collections and simple 
records necessarily go together. 

The fundamental processes of classifi- 
cation, cataloging and assigning subject 
headings; the use of reference material; 
knowledge of trade and subject bibliog- 
raphy and the sources of supply of printed 
material are perhaps even more important 
in business than in public libraries. In the 
public library much can be standardized. 
The librarian of the specialized library 
must, in almost every case, modify stand- 
ard methods to fit special conditions. He 
must adapt his classification to the char- 
acter of his material. He must, therefore, 
know the principles as well as the devices 
of classification. He must determine what 
details of cataloging will be needed by his 
limited public in the future as well as in 
the present. He must, therefore, know the 
reasons underlying the catalog. The fact 
that his reference collection is probably 
small makes it necessary for him to know 
reference resources outside. The informa- 
tion bulletin, the periodical checked for 
items of interest to the specialists of his 
firm, the reference list for special per- 
sons or occasions and the absolute neces- 
sity of getting needed material in time, 
require a knowledge of bibliography con- 
siderably in excess of that required by 
the average public library assistant. It is 
seldom that his administrative duties are 
so extensive as to permit him to escape 
this direct routine work. He must know 
his material first-hand as the librarian of 
the public library seldom does. He can- 
not depend on the public library to get his 
material for him, for it often does not 
have it, nor can he confidently expect the 



public library to do hie research work, for 
it often will not do it. 

The business librarian as a part of the 
community has a right to ask from the 
community-supported public library any 
reasonable service it can give. Knowledge 
of the resources and necessary limitations 
of the public library will not only prevent 
him from asking for what he cannot get 
but will enable him to insist on and to ob- 
tain his rightful share of service. An out- 
standing feature of the present industrial 
situation is the professed desire of pro- 
gressive capitalists and intelligent work- 
ing men for a mutual solution of their 
problems through better understanding of 
each other. Similar action between busi- 
ness librarians is highly desirable. It is 
at this point that the librarian of the bus- 
iness branch can often be of service. His 
collection is open to all. His connection 
with the public library is so close that 
he can demand, for public service, the 
things he really needs. 

In more specific directions, the training 
course for business librarians could very 
profitably receive more emphasis. The 
vertical file in its varied applications is of 
great value in any library. In the business 
library or 'business branch, with its rela- 
tively large proportion of pamphlets, clip- 
pings and the like, it is essential. More 
study of its varied uses and some practice 
in them should be included in any such 
course. Technical, scientific and economic 
bibliography should receive more attention. 
It would obviously be impossible to exam- 
ine in detail even the important books in 
all lines included in business libraries but 
a comparative study of varied types in 
more varied lines is desirable. Much ap- 
plied business bibliography is available in 
scattered lists and articles. These could 
easily be used as the foundation for por- 
related courses. The necessity of time- 
saving devices such as information lists 
and bulletins and the checking of period- 
icals have already been mentioned. This 
at once suggests more attention to anno- 
tating and digesting scientific and indus- 
trial literature. The present emphasis in 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



most library training agencies is on lit- 
erary comment and evaluation. The sci- 
entific note deserves special attention as it 
involves certain characteristics not neces- 
sarily inherent in the literary note. 

Classification is the anatomical 'basis of 
all organization, the skeleton on which the 
business organism depends. As stated be- 
fore, the business librarian is usually 
forced into some independent work. Too 
often the result is "based on little compara- 
tive knowledge of the history and gen- 
eral theory of classification and the new 
scheme adopted is likely to be little im- 
provement over the one discarded. The 
growing dissatisfaction with older classif- 
ications which is evident at present indi- 
cates the need of more comparative study 
of classification, especially of material 
dealing with subjects whose character and 
relations are constantly changing. 

The intimate relation of the business li- 
brary to every part of its firm suggests 
a study of business organization and busi- 
ness details. The effective delivery of 
material requires more than a brief study 
of the organization chart. It involves a 
knowledge of the interrelations of depart- 
ments not directly connected on the chart. 
Detailed knowledge must wait on personal 
connection with the firm in question, but 
at least the outlines of approved organiza- 
tion should be learned in advance. 

Any course such as suggested here will 
require either a very sketchy treatment 
of all the subjects indicated or a longer 
period of preparation than Is usually con- 
templated by those preparing for business 
library work. The immediate tendency of 
the times, doubtless aggravated by the 



short intensive training courses of the 
Army and Navy, seems to be toward tabloid 
courses superimposed on as little previous 
training as the candidate can offer with 
impunity. This tendency is almost certain 
to defeat itself. The short, intensive train- 
ing course was successful only in propor- 
tion as it was applied to those with pre- 
vious training or exceptional ability. The 
real period of preparation was only ap- 
parently shortened. Moreover, we are too 
near the event to be sure whether the 
success was in all cases as great as the 
newspapers and the officially inspired 
news note indicated. 

Unless history stops repeating itself, 
preparation for the future will be more 
thorough than ever. As the conception of 
business broadens and the human relation 
as well as the balance sheet is recognized, 
the business librarian will become increas- 
ingly important. He will use his books 
as the shop superintendent uses his ma- 
terial as a means to convert past experi- 
ence and broaden with his work. In the 
business branch, open to all on equal 
terms, an even wider field will develop, 
which will require much better prepara- 
tion. There will be little difficulty about 
maintaining a professional standard. The 
business library will have a definite prob- 
lem whose solution will result in definite 
contributions to the economic welfare of 
both employer and employee. The busi- 
ness librarian who cannot produce results 
will share the fate of other ineffective fac- 
tors in business. He must become a pro- 
ducer and a definite asset or he will be 
removed as a liability. 



BOGLE 



277 



TRAINING FOR HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARIANSHIP 
BY SARAH C. N. BOGLE, Principal, Carnegie Library School, Pittsburgh, Pa. 



There was recently presented to the 
faculty of the graduate school of one of 
our large universities, in partial fulfill- 
ment of the requirements for the degree 
of master of arts, a thesis on the "Place of 
the library in high schools of the first 
class in the vicinity of a designated city." 
The thesis was received as the most able 
which had ever been presented to this 
particular faculty. 

It was based upon a survey of forty-two 
high school libraries. The facts consid- 
ered were 

1. School enrollment 

2. Size of the library 

a. dimensions 

b. seating capacity 

c. number of volumes 

3. General usefulness of the library 

4. Number of hours the library is open 

5. Reading of pupils and their instruc- 
tion in the use of books in the library 

6. Use of current magazines 

7. Financial support 

8. Comments concerning the problem 
of each library 

9. Who has charge of the library? 

and 

10. Has she had special training for li- 
brarianship 

Of the forty-two people in charge of li- 
braries eleven had some library training 
or experience, while but two were grad- 
uates of accredited library schools and 
fully qualified as high school librarians. 
The effectiveness of the libraries shows 
plainly in the summing up: Where the 
librarian is trained "the library is attri- 
buted to be the common center of school 
interest"; where an already overworked 
teacher does her 'best to care for the libra- 
ry, even the need for a library and its 
place in the school activity fail to be rec- 
ognized. 

The district superintendent of high 
schools in our largest American city tells 
us: "It may be confidently asserted that 
the most potent single agency in the mod- 
ern cosmopolitan high school is the libra- 
ry." And one of the men foremost in vo- 



cational guidance in our public schools 
says, "I believe I am safe in saying that 
the school library will be the proof of the 
educational value of the new curriculum. 
When our schools have outgrown their 
cloister days and are aiming to prepare 
our boys and girls for the life they must 
live in a workaday world, the library will 
be the door of the opportunity of the 
present." 

We hear much, and rightly so, as to the 
present opportunity in library work, both 
for the individual and for general educa- 
tional development of each and every 
group. No greater opportunity offers to 
the well-trained and well-equipped indi- 
vidual for general educational develop- 
ment of particular groups than does that 
of high school library work. This 'being 
the case how thorough and broad must be 
the training of the librarian who can 
fully utilize such an opportunity! 

Preparation must be under way long be- 
fore the library school begins its miracle- 
expected year or two years of intensive 
training. A generation or two is not too 
long for the growth of those admirable 
qualities which for want of a better no- 
menclature are termed culture, tact, and 
appreciation of literature. Granted such 
preparation, then should follow the years 
of school life running the course of grade 
and high, and normal school succession 
and on through the college course. This 
latter should include in its required work 
literature, language, history, sociology, 
psychology of the saner sort, and logic, 
rather than the course leading to a de- 
gree in science and from which has been 
carefully deleted all literature and most 
languages! 

It is unwise for one not possessing a 
college degree to contemplate high school 
library work. As a member of faculty the 
librarian should meet all general require- 
ments made of heads of other depart- 
ments. 



278 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



As for the present the trend in educa- 
tional affairs is far from clear-cut and 
definite, so the course in high school li- 
brarianship must be experimental and suf- 
ficiently flexible to adapt itself to chang- 
ing conditions and new needs. 

Certain fundamentals do, however, ex- 
ist and are basic to all courses in library 
work. However grouped, these fall very 
naturally under the four headings: Tech- 
nical; bibliographic; administrative; and 
(for want of a better term) contributory 
subjects. 

With these we are all familiar. It is 
upon the well-laid foundation of careful 
instruction in the general subjects that 
the special study of school library work 
should be built. In the technical groups 
the general principles of cataloging should 
be adapted to the special needs of school 
library work, so also with classification. 
Filing and indexing should be studied with 
high school demands in view. 

In the bibliographic subjects, a general 
course in book selection must be supple- 
mented by instruction and practice, in the 
selection of books particularly valuable in 
a high school library, and emphasis must 
further be laid upon children's books as 
well. Government publications must 'be 
studied with curricula needs in mind, 
rather than those of the general public. 

Not only must public library adminis- 
tration be understood and its routine com- 



prehended, but the instruction in the ad- 
ministration of school libraries must be 
given with the principal's, faculty's and 
pupil's interests well considered. Corela- 
tion between libraries and schools, in- 
struction in use of libraries, brief history 
of education and the organization of high 
schools and the modern high school cur- 
riculum must all find a place in the pro- 
gram of studies which fits the high school 
librarian for her profession. Nor should 
practice work in a well-organized, well- 
equipped high school library be omitted or 
assigned to lower than second place in the 
scheme of things. 

To the training period should be con- 
fined those experiments which are solely 
for the individual's development, so that 
sure knowledge may direct those later ex- 
periments which are for the best develop- 
ment of the work undertaken. 

In an able paper presented by Mr. 
Frank K. Walter before another body of 
librarians he summed up briefly in this 
manner: 

"A library school course in school li- 
brary work to be satisfactory must 
provide facilities for first-hand observa- 
tion and practice in school library work, 
must require special interest and fitness 
from those specializing in school library 
work, and must have instructors with an 
intimate knowledge of school conditions." 

Courses will necessarily differ, but this 
statement remains substantially true to- 
day. 



ROBBINS 



270 



TRAINING TEACHER-LIBRARIANS IN NORMAL SCHOOLS 

BY MABY E. ROBBINS, Instructor in Library Science, Rhode Island State Normal School, 

Providence, R. I. 



Cooperation between libraries and 
schools in this country has practically gone 
through three phases of development: The 
installing of books in the schools; the 
bringing of the children to the libraries; 
and the placing of librarians in the school 
libraries. 

There is no better way to follow this 
evolution than through the volumes of the 
Library Journal, of Public Libraries, and 
of the Proceedings of the N. E. A. The in- 
creasing number of pages given to the sub- 
ject from, year to year is in itself an indi- 
cation of the growth of interest; while the 
recurrence annually of the names of cer- 
tain men and women shows the patient 
persistence which aroused and fanned that 
interest. 

Mr. Certain's report last year has prob- 
ably done more than any one thing to 
bring to most librarians and schoolmen a 
realization of actual accomplishment and 
conditions in high school libraries. And 
in all these matters relating to school libra- 
ries, be they normal school, high school or 
rural school, we librarians must remember 
that school principals, superintendents, 
and boards of education are working with 
us to settle the problems which are of com- 
mon interest. 

When we read in the Certain report of 
the legal requirements which will become 
effective four years from now in eighteen 
of our states we are delighted. But do we 
even then fully understand what the de- 
mand is to be numerically? Do we real- 
ize just how many high school libraries 
there will be in even one of these eighteen 
states? That number must then be multi- 
plied by eighteen. 

Nor can we stop even there. Can we 
imagine that at the end of four years no 
other state will follow the eighteen? Do 
not our states copy progressive laws from 
one another? 

Has there ever been a time when we 



could so hopefully expect legal advance 
in education as at present, when so many 
of our men our lawmakers and our bud- 
get makers are returning from overseas 
with a new personal appreciation of the 
value of books and learning, and when the 
power to accomplish is about to be given 
to so many women who have always had 
the will? 

Words and phrases inserted into some 
of the school and library laws this past 
year indicate that by 1923 probably more 
states will be added to Mr. Certain's orig- 
inal eighteen. We must think in terms of 
hundreds and of thousands when planning 
for the high school and other school libra- 
ries of the near future. 10,000 libraries! 
and 10,000 librarians! 10,000 trained libra- 
rians! Where are we to find them? Some 
of you have tried to hire trained librarians 
during the past two years, and you have 
found it no easy job. 

At present the demand for librarians ex- 
ceeds the supply, and the reinforcements 
sent out from the regular training schools 
are not encouraging from the standpoint of 
numbers. In reply to a questionnaire sent 
to twelve of our best known schools, I find 
that between 175 and 220 are to be grad- 
uated this spring. Even considering war 
conditions as a reason, this supply is very 
inadequate to fill the numlber of vacancies. 

We must remember, also, that in sup- 
plying these school libraries one must con- 
sider not any trained librarian, but a 
trained librarian fitted to do school library 
work. One trained librarian differeth 
from another trained librarian in type of 
ability, even granting that each is a star. 

But trained librarians our schools must 
have according to the law. If they cannot 
be found in sufficient numbers among those 
now in the profession, nor among those 
the training schools are now graduating, 
by some means more people must be found 
to go into the work, and, having been 



280 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



found, must be given opportunity for train- 
ing. 

We turn to the catalog of the library 
schools, and read something like this, "The 
number admitted is limited" or "The size 
of the class is subject to the instructor's 
decision." With these printed statements 
before us, and with the memory of the 
physical conditions of the schools as so 
many of us know them, we are obliged to 
admit that the schools as they are now 
have no room for many added students. 
More students mean larger quarters, larger 
equipment, and more instructors. And all 
this means larger funds, and in the case 
of more instructors another hunt for men 
and women. All of which shows that to 
supply the present and apparent future 
need sonne means must 'be found to train 
more librarians, and more candidates must 
be found to train. We must either enlarge 
our existing schools, or add new schools 
or utilize other agencies. 

The announcement of the new academic 
library course given under the auspices of 
the Carnegie Institute of Technology and 
the Carnegie Library School of Pittsburgh 
is one of the most welcome steps in 
progress. 

Since this large demand for school li- 
brarians comes from school conditions, it 
seems very natural to turn to the school 
authorities to supply it. To find what nor- 
mal schools and teachers' colleges are do- 
ing in library training, I sent out a ques- 
tionnaire to many schools, east and west, 
north and south. One hundred and twenty- 
five busy people were kind enough to an- 
swer me. There proves to be a great lack 
of uniformity in usage even among the 
several normal schools of the same state. 

Forty reported that they did nothing 
in the line of library training. Of these 
three wrote that they intended to do some- 
thing in the future. 

The library instruction in the other 
schools reporting was of three kinds: 

1. Incidental instruction given in con- 
nection with other subjects, usually Eng- 
lish and history, on the use of books on 
those subjects and on material to be found 
in the collection of that special school. 



2. Definite training on the use of the 
school library and a few reference books 
and tools, to help the student personally. 
The time assigned to this type of training 
varies greatly, from one hour given to each 
entering class to a systematic credit course 
of some twenty lessons, with practical 
problems, assigned hours for the use of the 
library, and suggestions for making the 
course of use later on by the student in her 
own work with classes in the grades or in 
rural schools. 

3. A few colleges and normal schools 
have definitely arranged courses for train- 
ing teacher-librarians, which rank as the 
kindergarten or similar courses of the in- 
stitution, carrying credit and receiving of- 
ficial recognition at the end. 

These schools assign from 70 to 100 
school periods to technical lectures, with 
from one to two periods for required prepa- 
ration or laboratory work for each lecture 
period. 

The programs in general include the fol- 
lowing subjects cataloging; classification; 
library economy; book selection and eval- 
uation; use of reference books, indexes and 
library helps; mending, binding and care 
of books; lending of books; the equipment 
and administration of a school library; 
and how to teach pupils to make use of 
the library for study and pleasure. In 
some cases variations and additions are 
made for rural school libraries or for grade 
school libraries. 

Besides these so-called technical sub- 
jects, each course includes many of the 
subjects carried by the other students in 
the regular course of the normal school. 
Emphasis is laid upon English and history, 
since in the smaller schools the librarian 
often gives part time to teaching one of 
these subjects. 

In Wisconsin, always in the front rank 
in library affairs, the legal requirement for 
school librarians becomes effective this 
September. The Department of Public In- 
struction lists five colleges, beside the 
University of Wisconsin, and four normal 
schools, as giving library training courses. 
A statement of minimum requirements is 
issued, summer school courses are offered 
and a correspondence course is suggested. 
Other excellent courses are those given at 



ROBBINS 



281 



the State Normal School, Geneseo, New 
York, and at the State Normal School, 
Bridgewater, Massachusetts. 

Many of the advantages of establishing 
a course for training librarians at a nor- 
mal school are the same as those gained 
in the cooperation of any two similar 
kinds of work, e. g., lessening of expense 
because of the common use of one plant; 
possible broadening of the program by in- 
terdepartmental exchange of instructors; 
more academic and social life for the indi- 
vidual student. 

In the case of the normal school there is 
also the lessening of expense to the stu- 
dent, since in most normal schools there 
is no tuition charged to students from the 
state and living expenses are not great. 
Moreover it is of great value to a teacher- 
librarian to understand the educational 
system of the state, and no place can be 
better than the normal school for such in- 
formation. In addition the observation 
school furnishes abundant material for 
many kinds of laboratory practice. 

Among the disadvantages of any union 
with another institution are the necessity 
of conforming to certain requirements of 
admission, length and sequence of class 
periods, value of courses, type of official 
recognition, etc. 

It is sometimes argued that normal 
school courses must give so much time to 
the method of teaching the subject, that 
their value as cultural courses is lessened. 
With a teacher-librarian there is need of 
some training in method for her own class- 



room use and to intelligently help the 
other teachers. 

Outlining the program for a library 
school or class is a matter of elimination 
rather than of inclusion, since every sub- 
ject may be needed at some time. Each 
normal school must outline its own pro- 
gram because of local conditions. Wiscon- 
sin's minimum requirement at least should 
be met, with as much English and history 
as possible. 

The question of salary will, I trust, be 
discussed at another session. New York's 
new law, and the conditions reported from 
Detroit, are steps in the right direction. 

We all want the best and broadest cul- 
ture and training for our librarians, what- 
ever position they may fill. But are we 
not sometimes confused? While certain 
fundamentals are necessary always, the 
same training does not invariably mean 
the best training for every person, and 
under every condition. 

There is a place for the graduate school, 
a place still unfilled there is a place for 
the four-years course; for the two-years 
course; for the one-year course; for the 
summer course; and we are watching hope- 
fully the Wisconsin correspondence course. 

When librarians become certified, and 
training and experience can be expressed 
in terms we are all accustomed to use in 
measuring other professions; when school 
librarians are ranked and paid on the 
same scale as the teachers, we shall our- 
selves have a clearer understanding of the 
gradations in library requirements. And 
so will the world outside. 



282 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



BY FRANKLIN S. HOYT, Editor, Educational Department, Houghton Mifllin Company 



There never was a time when it was BO 
essential that our children should acquire 
a love for reading and a habit of reading 
the best books. To say nothing of the 
perennial source of enjoyment that read- 
ing affords, equaled by no other resource 
in life, it is necessary that children should 
acquire the reading habit to keep pace 
with the demands upon them. Our lives 
today touch the farthest corners of the 
civilized world. We must know the his- 
tory, resources, and social problems of our 
American, European and Asiatic neigh- 
bors. With the rapid opening up of the 
fields of science and the crowding in of 
social and industrial problems in this 
country, one whose perspective is limited 
to one's own narrow environment, not en- 
larged by broad reading and study, will be 
hopelessly handicapped in development 
and progress. It requires no argument to 
demonstrate the need of establishing the 
reading habit in our children if they are 
to live worthily their part in the tremen- 
dously interesting and difficult world that 
they will face when they reach the years 
of maturity. 

As librarians, publishers, and parents we 
are thus facing the urgent need of foster- 
ing a love of reading and a habit of read- 
ing with the current of a child's life set- 
ting against us. The librarian is con- 
cerned in this fundamental problem be- 
cause its solution determines his success 
in the future, and the publisher is inter- 
ested in it because its successful solution 
will lead to the continued expansion of the 
list of juveniles and the assurance that the 
coming generation will develop into a na- 
tion of book lovers. 

Is not the time ripe for a concerted 
movement on the part of our public libra- 
ries, schools, newspapers, and magazines, 1 
to impress upon parents and teachers the 
need of reserving time for quiet reacting 
in the busy life of our children, and awak- 



ening in them from their youngest years 
a love of good reading? First we must 
reach the parents by such books as Miss 
Clara Hunt's "What shall we read to the 
children?" and by talks to parents on how 
to stimulate and guide the reading of chil- 
dren. Then cannot we enlist the newspa- 
pers and magazines to cooperate in this 
movement by editorials and by establish- 
ing columns devoted to boys' and girls' 
reading clubs, in which selected descrip- 
tions of favorite books read by children 
shall be printed, perhaps with prizes for 
the best descriptions? It should be recog- 
nized in this campaign that one of the 
most effective ways of interesting children 
ic good books is reading aloud by parents 
in the family circle, and by librarians in 
reading clubs that might be organized 
among the children. If these reading 
clubs could meet at the libraries at stated 
times, and if librarians would read aloud 
to the members especially interesting 
parts of the best juveniles, experience has 
shown that a large number of the children 
would themselves go on with the reading 
of these books in which they thus become 
interested. We must recognize that the 
distractions of the day, especially the auto- 
mobile, the movies, and the home garden 
movement, have practically eliminated the 
family reading circle around the library 
lamp which was a source of keen enjoy- 
ment and the inspiration for the love of 
reading with so many of us. We can only 
restore this favorable condition by start- 
ing these reading clubs under the skilled 
guidance of librarians and teachers. 
These are only a few suggestions of the 
means and methods of stimulating a love 
of reading and furnishing guidance for 
reading. If a general agitation for such 
a concerted movement should be con- 
ducted by librarians throughout the coun- 
try, we could create the demand for good 
books which would enable you librarians 



HOYT 



283 



to exercise the wide influence that you 
ought to have, and would enable us pub- 
lishers to continue to publish an adequate 
list of juvenile books covering the increas- 
ing range of subjects that the modern 
child should have. 

Let us now consider briefly the types of 
books that our boys and girls of today 
should have at their command, assuming 
that through these efforts to create a con- 
tinued demand for good books, we can 
keep in print the best of the books that 
are already available. The rapidly in- 
creasing costs in the manufacture and 
selling of books make it necessary to se- 
lect with care the books that publishers 
should continue to manufacture. We wel- 
come the effort that you have just made 
in the special report of your committee 
on standard books that should be kept in 
print, and we believe that much good will 
come of it. If through some concerted 
action the librarians of the county could 
agree upon say a thousand juvenile books 
that should be in the children's depart- 
ment of every public library, the demand 
for these books would undoubtedly be 
such as to insure their continuance, and 
the demand would probably be sufficient- 
ly large so that their prices could be re- 
duced to a considerably lower figure than 
at present. In this connection we must 
recognize the fact that most children, be- 
cause of the highly stimulating environ- 
ment in which they live, have become ac- 
customed to the sensational, rather highly 
seasoned, unreflective type of reading pre- 
sented in juvenile magazines, and repre- 
sented by the movie plot. The older type 
of classic literature, therefore, has lost 
much of its former appeal, and the author 
and the publisher who wish to provide 
children with books which are both whole- 
some and attractive have a difficult under- 
taking. The fairy tale is discounted by 
the miraculous occurrences in the world in 
which we live, and the stories spread out 
before us in the morning newspaper make 
the book of fiction seem tame and unat- 
tractive to many children. 
Even those children, however, who will 



not read the classics will read eagerly the 
kind of literature which opens up to them 
the wonders of the world in which they 
are living. The kind of reading which the 
French call "actualities" is the salvation 
for many a highly energized boy or girl 
who cannot settle down to the quiet read- 
ing of the more standard literature. An 
increasing number of children, fortunate- 
ly, are becoming interested in birds and 
other forms of nature study. Such chil- 
dren easily can be introduced to the writ- 
ings of John Burroughs, Dallas Lore 
Sharp, Ernest Thompson Seton, and other 
nature writers. Nearly every boy at some 
time, usually in the early teens, becomes 
profoundly interested in electricity and 
the wonders of science. Give these boys 
an abundance of books in these fields to 
read at this time even at the sacrifice of 
the reading of the classics, and their 
love of reading will be maintained and 
strengthened. The Boy Scouts and Camp- 
fire Girl movements and the summer 
camps offer wonderful opportunities for 
the development of the taste for reading 
wholesome, out-of-door books which will 
give a lifelong source of enjoyment. 

Then again, the American people have 
tended to become a provincial people be- 
cause we have learned little about other 
countries. Through the reading of fairy 
and folk tales from various countries in 
the early years and the introduction to 
the history of these countries through 
books of biography and travel, the wide- 
awake boy and girl will enter this endless 
field of enjoyment. Hereafter no well-in- 
formed man can exclude from his range of 
reading, books that will open up the coun- 
tries that share with us the American con- 
tinent and the heretofore largely unknown 
countries of Europe and Asia with whom 
we have been thrown into intimate touch 
by the recent war. Our librarians and 
publishers must, of course, take cogni- 
zance of these largely unexplored fields of 
juvenile books and seek to supply these 
needs. 

We are all interested also in the effect 
that the largely increased costs of book 



284 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



manufacture and selling is bound to have 
upon the supply of books, for this is a 
situation which concerns both you as li- 
brarians and us as publishers. It is ob- 
vious that this rise in costs will tend to 
the publication of fewer books unless off- 
set by an increase in readers and ability 
to pay higher prices due to general pros- 
perity. A few years ago a publisher was 
justified in bringing out a book of the 
standard 12mo juvenile type, which prom- 
ised a sale of 2,000 copies the first year 
and a continued sale thereafter of 100 or 
200 copies. Under present economic con- 
ditions, however, we find it poor business 
policy to publish a book which will sell 
less than 5,000 copies the first year and 
500 annually thereafter. By the same 
token, books heretofore published can 
only be continued in print when they sell 
to the extent of several hundred copies a 
year. Of course, publishers will not fol- 
low any such rule inexorably, for there 
are some books that a publisher feels 
justified in presenting to the public or 
continuing on his list even with a much 
smaller sale than we have indicated, but 
it will be quite manifest that if the pres- 
ent tendency continues to allow other acti- 
vities and forms of recreation to crowd 
out reading from our lives, with the rap- 
idly increasing cost of book publication, 
economic laws will enforce the reduction 
in the number of titles. Again, it is ob- 
vious that with the very great increase in 
the artist's charges for illustrations and 
the present prohibitive cost of color re- 
production, the old type of elaborately il- 
lustrated colored juveniles sold at a price 
within the reach of the average parent 
will tend to disappear. It is hoped, how- 
ever, that the result will be a greater con- 
centration upon the juvenile depending for 
its success more on the merit of its text 
and the excellence of its black and white 
illustrations, and less on its elaborate 
scheme of illustrations. Even with all 
these and other economies that the pub- 
lisher must now practice, the prices of 
'books must be considerably higher than 
heretofore. Library books that formerly 



ranged in price from 75 cents to $1.25 now 
list for $1.00 and $1.50, and further in- 
creases must be expected if costs con- 
tinue to rise as they have done during 
the past two years. Because of the great 
investment represented in manufactured 
books, the publisher's stock of books must 
more nearly match the immediate de- 
mand. Grades and colors of cloth also 
will be more restricted. However, with all 
of these changes publishers will continue 
to insist upon good taste, strength and 
durability of books with maximum legibil- 
ity of type pages, especially in the case 
of library books. We heartily welcome 
the effort you are making to standardize 
the specifications of books so as to guide 
the publisher in his new publications. 

We should probably all agree, however, 
that it would not be well to carry this 
standardization so far as to interfere with 
individuality in book making. Just as we 
should resent having all the pictures on 
our walls of exactly the same size and the 
frames of uniform appearance, so it would 
be depressing if all juveniles should have 
the same type page with the same size of 
type, the same amount of leading, and 
should be uniform in outward appearance. 
We need to consider not only the mechan- 
ical, utilitarian features in book making, 
but also the artistic appeal of each book. 
Every book lends itself to a certain kind 
of treatment which seems more appro- 
priate than any other dress that it could 
be given. It is a part of a publisher's 
province to develop the aesthetic aspects 
of book publishing in order to have books 
attract readers. The specialists who plan 
the format of books come to have an in- 
stinctive feeling for harmonious combina- 
tion of type page, illustrations, external 
appearance and size of book, so that the 
volume may offer an appropriate setting 
for its message. The publisher, however, 
in his plans for new juveniles will utilize 
any suggestions for standardization to pro- 
mote legibility and convenience that may 
be worked out and agreed upon by libra- 
rians, at the same time preserving the in- 



HOYT 



285 



dlviduality of treatment that makes the 
strong appeal to children. 

The last problem that I shall discuss is 
that of cooperation in securing the widest 
distribution of books. The primary func- 
tion of the librarian is to have as large a 
circulation of the books in his library as 
possible. The aim of the publisher is to 
secure as large a sale of his books as 
feasible. Happily these two apparently 
somewhat different points of view coincide, 
for the more that individuals purchase 
books of their own for their home libra- 
ries, the greater will be the spread of the 
reading habit and the more largely will 
libraries be called upon for the use of their 
volumes. Especially in the case of chil- 
dren does the value of stimulating indi- 
vidual ownership of books loom large as 
an important factor in establishing the 
reading habit. Children of parents who 
read at home will naturally acquire a love 
of reading, and reading by children in the 
home stimulates the parents to read also. 
As has been pointed out, those children 
who early learn to love books and reading 
will certainly have books about them as 
they grow up, for the whole tendency of 
the times is to stimulate intelligent men 
and women to read much more widely and 
deeply than they have ever done before. 
Librarians and teachers should encourage 
the natural tendency of children to start 
their own libraries with their own book- 
plates in them. 

Then I believe that there is a large 
field for the extension of the movement 
for cooperation between the library and 
the bookstore, and between the library and 
the school. There is an unfortunate ten- 
dency on the part of dealers, especially in 
smaller cities and towns, to feature ju- 
venile books only just before the Christ- 
mas season, whereas the energetic and 
skillful librarian can arouse such an in- 
terest in juvenile reading in the commu- 



nity that the book dealers will find it to 
their advantage to display prominently 
their juveniles throughout the year. In 
some cities librarians have performed a 
real service in advising parents in regard 
to the purchase of books for their chil- 
dren for Christmas and birthdays. Espe- 
cially should those in charge of Sunday 
school libraries have advice in regard to 
the books that should be purchased for the 
Sunday school library, where often a very 
inferior kind of juvenile literature is 
found. There are cases where librarians 
have performed a notable service both in 
influencing the choice of books purchased 
for Sunday school libraries and in stimu- 
lating a marked extension of the reading 
habit among children by the use of these 
libraries. In these busy days Sunday is a 
particularly favorable time to use for read- 
ing. It offers, in the case of many fam- 
ilies, the only chance for reading in the 
family circle, and through the winter 
months especially there is no more appro- 
priate way of using Sunday afternoons and 
evenings to promote family solidarity and 
fellowship. 

I believe that we have an unusually fa- 
vorable opportunity at the present time to 
influence the reading of children so that 
ii will become a most important factor in 
their lives. If by concerted action and 
hearty cooperation by all those interested 
in the production and use of books we use 
the present opportunity to the best auvan- 
tage, we shall have the satisfaction of see- 
ing our country, with its increasing leisure 
for the working classes and the growing 
intelligence of the people, become a na- 
tion of book lovers. We publishers will 
welcome every assistance in the way of 
advice and recommendation that you li- 
brarians can give us in order to enable us 
to cooperate most largely in extending the 
usefulness of your important work. 



286 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



WHAT CAN THE LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS DO FOR ITS MEMBERS? 
AN EVALUATION OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS AND THEIR LEAGUE 

BY MINNIE CLARKE BUDLONG, Secretary, North Dakota Library Commission 



Not so very long ago a brave man stood 
before an audience representing library 
commissions and assailed the traveling li- 
brary system. A friend came to his de- 
fense by intimating he "had been put up 
to it." As no friend is likely to come to 
my rescue when the storm breaks, I take 
the precaution to state in advance that I 
too "have been put up to it" by a mandate 
I cannot ignore. The initiative has come 
from a superior officer. The statements 
that follow are not my statements; they 
are taken verbatim from the very interest- 
ing and candid replies to a recent ques- 
tionnaire on the needs, accomplishments 
and aims of library commissions and the 
value of a League of such commissions. 

The needs we can pass over lightly: 
They are and will continue to be (a) 
more ample equipment; (b) better service 
(which includes more trained librarians 
and librarians more trained); (c) more 
money which would soon secure the other 
two; (d) popular understanding and co- 
operation, which would follow trained 
service; (e) power to demand more effi- 
cient service in small towns; (f) a vision 
of the goal toward which we press. 

The accomplishments of library commis- 
sions, taken from their reports, range all 
the way from conducting library schools 
and legislative reference bureaus to mail- 
ing clippings and teaching English. A 
few taken at random from their replies 
are as follows: Cooperation with U. S. 
Food Administration, U. S. Working Re- 
serve, Children's Bureau, A. L. A. and 
camp service campaigns, also thrift stamp 
and liberty loan campaigns; visiting libra- 
ries, organizing public and high school li- 
braries; conducting legislative reference 
bureaus, summer schools and night schools; 
making surveys of library conditions; ad- 
vising on library and war memorial build- 
ings; conducting state and district libra- 
ry meetings, institutes and exhibits; cir- 



cularizing libraries, issuing bulletins, be- 
ing a bureau of information and advice 
for state, community and individuals; do- 
ing publicity work for the commission by 
talks at clubs and educational gatherings 
on library matters. All this is in addition 
to the basic work of furnishing books 
through loans at desk, by mail, by book 
wagon and also by freight in the form of 
traveling libraries. To each of you will 
occur many activities not mentioned above, 
such as picture collections, Americaniza- 
tion work with foreigners, and certification 
of librarians, but enough has been men- 
tioned to show a fairly diverse program, 
which indicates that library commissions 
are not lacking in ambition and versatil- 
ity. 

The aims of library commissions and the 
value of the work of the League are the 
real subjects under discussion today. Ac- 
cording to the secretary of the League 
thirty-seven states have library commis- 
sions and twenty-eight are members of the 
League. Five of the nine not having com- 
missions sent replies as follows: 

Montana: "There is no library commis- 
sion in this state owing to the difficulty in 
getting appropriations for the same." 

New Mexico: "No library commission or 
state library work except the library sec- 
tion of the state educational association." 

Virginia: "I regret to say that we do 
not have a library commission." 

West Virginia: "Enclosed is a copy of a 
library commission bill which was intro- 
duced by Mr. Johnson, January 17, 1917, 
in our state legislature, and since that time 
efforts have been made to have the same 
passed by our lawmakers, but said bill 
has met with defeat at all times." 

Wyoming: "We live in hopes of a com- 
mission some day." 

Among the thirty-seven so-called library 
commissions are several which as yet have 
only the name. Replies from states hav- 
ing no funds or very inadequate funds are 
as follows: 

Alabama; "Our legislature of 1919 has 



BUDLONG 



287 



made no appropriation for the support of 
our library extension work. However, the 
legislature is now in recess; when it re- 
convenes in July, it is not unlikely that 
some additional help will be voted." 

Arkansas: "Our library commission has 
no appropriation and no funds, and has 
not been able to do anything." 

Colorado: "There is no appropriation 
available for commission work in this 
state. An appropriation is made, but it 
comes so far down on the classed list that 
all moneys have been expended before we 
have been reached." 

Georgia: "We still are without an ap- 
priation and as a consequence can do lit- 
tle more than advisory work. Each year 
the possibilities and needs of the work 
grow so that official recognition and ade- 
quate support must continue to be our 
first interest." 

Maryland: "We have made repeated ef- 
forts to secure an appropriation commen- 
surate with our needs." 

New Hampshire: "We have just suc- 
ceeded in extracting an appropriation of 
$2,000 a year from a reluctant legislature." 

Undoubtedly some of the criticism of 
library commissions are based on condi- 
tions in these states where results are not 
yet apparent or possible. If one were to 
pick out six to a dozen states in the sec- 
tion where library work is as yet only 
nominal and use them as a sample of the 
whole, the assertion attributed to one of 
our most successful librarians that she 
"considers state commissions weaker than 
they used to be," might be justified. This 
criticism is echoed in the statement of an- 
other prominent worker (notice the past 
tense) : 

"I used to be very much interested in 
the League and I think they accomplished 
a great many things, but I have not been 
sufficiently familiar with the work of late 
years to know what it has accomplished." 

These are mild compared with the fol- 
lowing: 

"As to the League, I must confess that 
I have not great confidence in its ability 
to accomplish very much for the library 
cause. It is a body without much coher- 
ence, which does not enlist the earnest 
interest of many states and which is with- 
out adequate income to undertake and 
carry out important work. It does not 
seem to me to be a body of much force or 
influence or with a very clearly defined 
field." 



This from a man high in power who 
has used the commissions freely to fur- 
ther war work for which A. L. A. has much 
credit. Do you wonder I felt the need 
of raising an unbrella before I read you 
that? It would seem that we need first 
of all to assert what the League has done 
and is doing in war and reconstruction. 
It is the system perfected by library com- 
missions that makes possible the quick 
dissemination of information throughout 
a state and the immediate response to ap- 
peals from A. L. A. and Government 
agencies. A Government worker writes: 

"I have never realized before as I do now 
how much a good commission can mean 
to the libraries in a state and how much 
every additional commission helps the pro- 
fession as a whole. ... I am carrying on 
my campaign directly with the libraries 
where there is no commission or so small 
a one that it cannot act as an agent, but 
I do not have to tell you how much more 
could be accomplished both in this cam- 
paign and in the others that are on hand 
if there was a commission worker inter- 
ested and especially visitors who could 
help the libraries with this work." 

A few states, notably Montana and Wy- 
oming, are starting with county libraries, 
thinking the smaller unit easier to attain 
through local interest and intending to 
work up to a library commission, just as 
some cities have started their branch li- 
braries before they built a central one. 

California: "We have in California, I 
think, built up a library system which 
for economy, directness and its powers to 
reach the citizenship of the state is one 
of the most effective organizations in the 
country." 

Indiana: "Five of our ninety-two coun- 
ties have county service and an adequate 
fixed tax." 

Montana: "There is a county library 
law, which allows counties to organize 
their own libraries." 

South Dakota: "At the 1919 session of 
the legislature, a county library law was 
passed." 

Wyoming: "The law provides for a coun- 
ty library in each county of the state." 

A number of states are working toward 
county libraries, but in most of them it is 
a library commission which is conducting 
the campaign: 

Alabama: "Among other things which 



we hope to secure from the legislature is 
a county library law, and probably fur- 
ther enlargement of library opportunity 
by municipal support." 

Illinois: "Our greatest need is more peo- 
ple on our staff. The next is a county 
library law to enable us to establish libra- 
ries on a larger scale. We have such a 
bill before the present general assembly. . . 
My vision for Illinois is centered around 
a county library law. Give us that and 
we will show what we can do." 

Georgia: "The definite work we had in 
mind during the last year has been to 
learn as accurately as possible the condi- 
tion of our rural communities in respect 
to books and to urge the establishment of 
county-serving libraries." 

Nevada: "At the recent session of our 
state legislature, I expected to have a 
library bill presented, but the senator to 
whom I had entrusted it was sent on a 
mission in connection with the highway 
commission, with the result that my bill 
was not presented. It was modeled after 
the California county library law." 

There are a few appreciations: 

From Illinois comes the message: "There 
has been a general awakening to the fact 
that the public library has a more com- 
plete contact with the public than any 
other institution. Massachusetts says: 
"We can sum up the place of the com- 
missions in war work as having been in- 
dispensable in organizing and pushing 
A. L. A. drives for money and books." 

Missouri says: "We should consider that 
the machinery so effectively used by the 
A. L. A. in spreading its network for col- 
lection of books, money, etc., for camp 
service was chiefly that already created 
and strengthened by the work of the 
League of Library Commissions." 

New Jersey calls attention to the fact 
that there were already 22,000 books in 
the camps in that state before A. L. A. 
War Service was established. This has 
been continued throughout the entire time. 
There are more words of appreciation for 
the League, but as they are chiefly in the 
same line of thought we will pass on to the 
replies as to the effect of war on the work 
of the League. 

California: "The war had little effect 
upon our libraries in so far as a develop- 
ment of a new policy is concerned. It was 
found, however, that librarians were the 
persons who were the most capable in 
many instances in serving on commissions 
and boards having war work in hand." 

Kansas: "I cannot say that the war has 
affected our commission or its work in 
any greater degree than it has affected the 



people of our nation. They are much the 
same people as before and seem to have 
had time throughout the war to read a 
great many purely recreative books. We 
wish that they were all honest, sincere, 
industrious, conscientious and God-loving 
and hope that more of them are than be- 
fore the war, but only time will tell." 

Massachusetts: "Because of knowledge 
of libraries men gained at camp, commis- 
sions can make a more individual appeal 
to voters in small towns for interest in 
local library. Drives have taught staff 
workers boldness in setting forth needs." 

New York: "The war has taken one of 
our organizers to Washington for eighteen 
months and has reduced our field work. 
It has probably aroused some libraries to 
a sense of greater responsibility and to an 
appreciation of their power and impor- 
tance. I cannot say, however, that the 
war has made any material changes in our 
aims or methods." 

Minnesota: "I do not think that any par- 
ticular change in our aims was brought 
about by the war, but the numerous na- 
tion-wide appeals I think brought about a 
closer connection with some of the libra- 
ries and I believe also gave the smaller 
library a keener sense of its opportunities 
and responsibilities." 

Missouri: "The war resulted in reduced 
circulation of the traveling libraries and 
an increased demand for specialized books. 
Libraries all over the state felt the same 
slacking in work and would have been 
much discouraged but for the war work 
which replaced the public interest in books 
as such. This is one of the definite ways 
in which the library commission has 
changed in its attitude toward the public 
library and the public: We now advocate 
the library as a distributing agency for 
all Government information. In practice 
this will mean that the library shall serve 
as the local agent of the Government and 
be kept supplied with information of the 
important work planned or undertaken by 
the Government departments. You will 
see here the state commissions may de- 
velop a very effective branch of their work. 
Small libraries need even more than large 
ones the information and free material 
sent out by the Government. For every 
small library to correspond with every 
Government department and ask for every 
publication individually, would be a her- 
culean task on both sides. If the state 
commission can preserve its office of in- 
termediary, the Government departments 
will have only the individual states at most 
to keep up with. Undoubtedly, all the infor- 
mation of Government activities is valu- 



BUDLONG 



289 



able; each locality, however, will develop 
some special line of interest and to re- 
ceive the whole mass of Government pub- 
lications would be confusing. The state 
library commission will be able to assist 
the Government in thus placing the right 
material. The state commission should 
also serve as a bureau of selective coope- 
ration. By this I mean that it should be 
a clearing-house for the numeroue requests 
for library cooperation which are now 
coming as a result of the successful work 
done by the A. L. A. and the Food Con- 
servation. Libraries cannot afford to be 
made the avenue of distribution for prop- 
aganda as such. They should gain an 
added force in each community by coopera- 
tion with various societies and associa- 
tions." 

Texas: "Changes in aims and methods 
resulting from the war are not easily spe- 
cified. All I can say is that we have en- 
deavored in every way to emphasize the 
war message so far as we were able to do 
it, and that we have endeavored to sim- 
plify methods wherever it was possible 
and to conserve material." 

Wisconsin: "To my mind one of the 
strong effects of the war upon library 
commissions is going to be in the demand 
for the extension of traveling libraries 
and parcel post book service. The gen- 
eral awakening of the demand for reading 
matter which has been aroused by camp 
library people is not a demand which will 
be felt in the cities only it will extend 
wherever the returned soldiers may be 
found. In the rural districts this means, 
therefore, added use for traveling libraries 
and for individual books which can be 
sent through the parcel post system." 

Wyoming: "The library war service has 
done much toward establishing library co- 
operation." 

The inquiry, "How is your library com- 
mission influencing your citizens?" is well 
summed up in the reply from Massachu- 
setts: 

"By paying expenses of librarians in 
small and remote towns at the commis- 
sion's summer institute in Boston we are 
bringing a new point of view for many 
librarians. We are urging librarians to 
meet the new ideas brought to small 
towns by returning soldiers and sailors. 
We are giving instruction in use of the 
library in schools frequently to pupils who 
never use the library and are trying to 
create and develop a library or at least a 
book-reading habit. We give annual talks 
in all normal schools through which fu- 
ture teachers realize the opportunities the 



libraries offer them in their school work, 
thus influencing lives of the children." 

There is some truth in the criticism that 
the League lacks coherence. It is pos- 
sible that we have become so immersed in 
the details of our many-sided mission that 
we have lost sight of a definite goal. What 
the public expect of us has been stated 
in a number of replies: 

Massachusetts: "Our ideal is a League 
with funds and power enough to go- into 
any state and assist in the establishment 
of a commission wherever needed. It 
might even assist with legislation to es- 
tablish and assist commissions, bracing up 
weak ones and strengthening those which 
are active. A good deal of commission 
service propaganda could be used in some 
places by the League. Possibly a survey 
to show needs and opportunities for the 
League and ways of meeting them would 
be worth while undertaking. 

Missouri: "The A. L. A. could hardly 
have accomplished its organization with- 
out the use of the state library depart- 
ments, and these in turn would not have 
had so close a unity in a national work 
but for their League associations. The 
A. L. A. as such does not appreciate the 
organization value of the state department 
even yet, and it seems to me that the work 
of the League in the future should tend to 
develop national unity in the state de- 
partments more fully." 

New York: "In my opinion we should 
have a national bureau at Washington de- 
voted to the library interests of the whole 
country. Such a bureau should, of course, 
be manned by persons of library experi- 
ence and of vision. Libraries are not yet 
regarded by the general public as vital 
educational institutions, they are looked 
upon largely as agencies for recreational 
reading and as having no very vital place 
in the life of a community. A national 
bureau should be a source of continuous 
library propaganda aside from any other 
service it might render, for the public 
must be taught that the library is an es- 
sential part of modern educational life and 
not mere luxury. The League has never 
been in a position to render very effective 
service to states without commissions, but 
a national bureau should be able to do 
that very thing, and to raise library stand- 
ards. It could do everything that the 
League is doing and a great deal more, if 
given a reasonable appropriation. I be- 
lieve there is a very distinct field for such 
a bureau and I should be glad to see the 
library profession unite in an effort to 



290 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



secure the necessary legislation to estab- 
lish it." 

Oregon: "I know that somebody ought 
to accomplish a great many things that are 
not being done, especially my pet hobby of 
a bulletin on subscription books some- 
thing to stop the investment of hundreds 
of dollars every year in those ridiculous 
publications. It seems to me the League 
has not been using its force lately for the 
things which libraries need. Years ago 
we got the Booklist and, in fact, the 
League took everything we were doing in 
Wisconsin at that time, but lately we have 
had nothing of any value from the League, 
except the same old Booklist. It does seem 
as if there were still something for an or- 
ganization to do for libraries. Of course, 
the state library association will never 
be interested in doing it, and if the League 
would be interested and really would press 
the work, I should be very glad to join 
again." 

Texas: "For the League as a whole, my 
hope is that before long we can put ade- 
quate free library service within the reach 
of every citizen in the United States. Our 
library service part of it will be to put 
adequate free library service within the 
reach of every citizen in Texas. In addi- 
tion to that, I hope that we may be able 
not only to put the water within the reach 
of the horse, but to make the horse thirsty 
for it. For the attainment of these aims, 
it seems to me we all need to push for 
some provision for federal aid to the libra- 
ry movement, such as vocational educa- 
tion, home economics, agriculture, and 
good roads are receiving. I have just writ- 
ten to one of our progressive senators, ask- 
ing him to take this question up. It seems 
to me that an immense good would be 
done if the Federal Government would fix 
a certain standard to which the states 
must come up before this aid could be 
granted. That would really do more good 
than the aid itself, though, of course, the 
latter would render possible an enormous 
expansion." 

What is our program for ourselves 
that vision without which we perish? 

Illinois: "My vision for Illinois is cen- 
tered around a county library law. Give 
us that and we will show what we can 
do." 

Georgia: "The definite work we had in 
mind during the last year has been to 
learn as accurately as possible the condi- 
tion of our rural communities in respect 
to books and to urge the establishment of 
county-serving libraries. . . . One plan of 
the commission growing directly out the 
war is the encouragement of the establish- 



ing of county-serving libraries as a very 
suitable and appropriate memorial for the 
men from these counties who lost their 
lives in the great war." 

Indiana: "Organization and equipping 
of adequate library service in all the com- 
munities of the state." 

Iowa: "Our function in the public libra- 
ry work is still that of direction and su- 
pervision, though the various channels of 
war work, of course, changed the subjects 
on which suggestions and direction was 
given." 

Maryland: "We are trying to inculcate 
and to stimulate a knowledge of books 
and a desire to read them. Our vision and 
ambitions embrace a scheme that shall pro- 
vide a library in every town and in every 
school." 

Massachusetts: "We want to see realized 
in our state a recognition of the library 
profession on a plane of importance com- 
parable to the schools. We must give 
actual service and create a demand for it 
when it does not exist. Our ideal is a 
more intelligent reading public. Although 
we cannot pose as reformers we may di- 
rect. A board of trustees with a knowl- 
edge of what a real library is must be 
created in every individual instance. Trus- 
tees need as much instruction as the li- 
brarian." 

Minnesota: "We have endeavored to do 
our part and to encourage the local libra- 
ries to do their part in every kind of 
movement for the higher development of 
our state. War work has strengthened 
their position in the community life." 

Nebraska: "The building up of strong 
local public libraries to supply adequately 
the community's library needs is the most 
far-reaching work of the library commis- 
sion." 

New York: "Under our system of state 
aid we have fairly good control of the kind 
of books placed in small libraries but very 
slight control over the service, which after 
all is the major consideration, as service 
constitutes three-fourths of the efficiency 
of a library. It is for this reason that we 
are endeavoring to evolve some system of 
certification which shall be just and prac- 
tical, and which can be extended and elab- 
orated as library conditions warrant. . . . 
Our hope and aim for this division is to 
stimulate library interest throughout the 
state, to secure such legislation as seems 
likely to prove beneficial to libraries, to 
encourage the establishment of new libra- 
ries where conditions are favorable, to 
hold libraries to the standards already es- 
tablished and to raise standards as may 
seem practicable, to serve as an agency 



LOWE 



291 



for assistance and advice to all libraries 
of the state and to direct public attention 
to the importance of libraries as civic and 
educational institutions." 

North Dakota: "A central library in ev- 
ery county. Simplified methods that can 
be used without confusion by teachers and 
others not trained in library science. Uni- 
formity in methods which will enable, 
teacher, pupil and citizen changing from 
one school or city to another to lay hands 
at once on their customary tools in new 
environment. Understanding of Dewey 
system, which will give children a famili- 
formity in methods which will enable 
them as they grow older and move about 
the world to feel at home in any library 
large or small, and which will unconscious- 
ly make of them citizens in the wide realm 
of books." 

Pennsylvania: "I regard as the most 
valuable work of the commission that per- 



formed by personal service in the sparsely 
settled regions, and the development of 
the idea leading to the foundation of a lo- 
cal library no matter how small." 

Texas: "We are trying to influence the 
lives of the citizens of the state as a whole 
much in the same way that a public libra- 
ry influences the lives of the local com- 
munity. That is our vision for our com- 
mission. Specifically, we desire in the 
next few years to put adequate library 
service into every county in the state." 

After hearing these expressions of aim 
and earnest purpose from the various 
commissions can there be any question of 
lack of definite aim or high endeavor on 
the part of individual commissions? It 
remains for the League to select some im- 
mediate line of work on which all can con- 
centrate in united action. 



WHAT CAN THE LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS DO FOR ITS MEMBERS? 

PUBLICATIONS 

BY JOHN A. LOWE, Agent, Massachusetts Free Public Library Commission 



From all the activities of the war time 
organizations probably the public library 
is as anxious to learn whatever lessons 
there are for us as any other up-to-date in- 
stitution. One of the problems has been 
w.hat to do with the pamphlets and printed 
matter of the different organizations with 
which the libraries have been deluged. It 
has been suggested that the state library 
commissions each in its own common- 
wealth should receive this material direct 
from the organizations, and distribute it 
to the libraries in its charge. The idea is 
undoubtedly that the commission knows 
the community and the needs of each li- 
brary better than any other one central- 
ized organization. And similarly it has 
been suggested that the League might 
gather and digest all this public material 
and issue to each commission through 
lists information of what is appearing, 
which the commission should in turn re- 
quisition from the publishers and distrib- 
ute to the libraries in its state. This 
again seems unpractical, for the League 
has neither funds nor any officer who is 
in a position to give all his time to this 



particular work. Moreover, the National 
Library Service plans to undertake just 
this sort of thing. 

Of a similar nature, it has been sug- 
gested that the League can assist its mem- 
bers by becoming a central organization 
for the preparation and distribution of 
library advertising material. This is 
worked out well in the Pacific northwest. 

Of the possibility of the publication of 
pamphlets which the League might con- 
sider, several suggest themselves which 
would be used in extensive distribution, 
perhaps being sent to every library under 
the care of a commission. Some of these 
are: A buying list for small libraries; an 
annual best books list; a pamphlet setting 
forth aims and result of commission work; 
how to catalog a library; propaganda 
against subscription books; a circular to 
arouse library interest in rural commu- 
nities. 

Of the above it should be mentioned 
that the New York State Department of 
Education is planning to issue a new edi- 
tion of Miss Zaidee Brown's "Buying list 
for small libraries." I understand also that 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



"Essentials in library administration" is 
also being brought up to date. 

Probably the most eagerly sought pam- 
phlet for the use of the executive staff of 
commissions is an illustrated handbook of 
library buildings, showing plans and ex- 
teriors and interiors, together with a criti- 
cism of the results of the building, how it 
has worked out, etc. Such a publication 
would be expensive, for the reproductions 
of floor plans require special plates, and 
half-tones for pictures are expensive. 

Another recommendation which has re- 
ceived a wide interest is a digest of the 
county library laws existing, with criti- 
cism and suggestions. 

Another book which would be worth 



while is one for a public library, similar 
to Miss Martha Wilson's "School library 
management," or Mr. Certain's "Standard 
library organization ... for secondary 
schools." 

For the use of the commission work- 
ers, and one which the League might le- 
gitimately undertake for its members is 
"An efficiency test" to be used in making 
surveys. 

New York State cautions, "Save the 
funds for a year or so until a better price 
of printing can be obtained," and along this 
line I suggest that while material for a 
book on buildings be collected, we should 
not attempt to publish any of the material 
at present. 



WHAT THE LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS CAN DO 
FOR STATES WITHOUT ORGANIZED COMMISSIONS 

BY MABT ELIZABETH DOWNEY, Library Secretary and Organizer, Department of Public 

Instruction, Utah 



My informal talk will consider three 
points: First, as to the League removing 
several motes from itself before it will be 
able to give help to states without library 
commissions; second, as to a survey of 
states already having commissions; and 
third, suggestions from my own experi- 
ences and those of present and ex-commis- 
sion workers as to help which has been 
given to states without library commis- 
sions. 

From my viewpoint, supported by inter- 
views with many present and past League 
members, it would seem to be the con- 
sensus of opinion that the League itself 
will have to be resurrected, or revivified, 
if it ever had life, before it has anything 
to offer to states now without commis- 
sions. 

It is plain to be seen, for instance, that 
the League of Library Commissions has 
no part in shaping the policies of the 
A. L. A. Again, there seems to be no distinc- 
tion between work of the A. L. A., and that 
directly of the League. Take the Library 
Survey Committee, which is concerned 
directly with the work of library commis- 



sions. You have heard, in group discus- 
sions of members of the League, of the 
questionnaires being sent from survey 
committees to the individual libraries 
throughout a state. Should this be done 
with no relation to the League or at least 
the individual members representing such 
a state, who should be the persons most 
vitally interested in that survey? 

In looking back through the years to the 
beginning of the League, one remembers 
with what awe a new commission worker 
approached its meetings and now wonders 
whether the life then manifest was real or 
mere camouflage. Possibly the lack of 
growth in members and influence comes 
from too many people coming into state 
commissions with this work not para- 
mount but to be used merely as a step- 
ping-stone to another position carrying 
with it a larger salary, on obtaining which 
all interest in the League is lost. 

Our constitution and by-laws are at 
some fault in this, as there is no provi- 
sion for holding or continuing the mem- 
bership of individuals formerly but no 
longer in active commission work. The 



DOWNEY 



293 



League not only should become strong 
enough to hold its active state members, 
but also should provide for the individual 
membership of those who have been com- 
mission workers, and also active members 
of states whose officials see no benefit re- 
sulting from such membership. The mem- 
bership thus would become cumulative. 

It may be asked further, why have dues 
at all if the money is merely to accumu- 
late as is the case at present? If the dues 
are to be of no service, except for postage, 
not even to provide the free distribution 
of the "Handbook" to its members, why 
have dues? 

Referring again to salaries, one does not 
like to mention them, but salary carries a 
certain dignity and so affects the League. 
While commission work is likely the great- 
est in the library field it has not anywhere 
carried a salary commensurate with its 
influence, and sufficient to hold those 
whose work must have money considera- 
tion. 

Second, in regard to a survey of exist- 
ing library commissions, there are today 
three classes of library commissions: A 
comparatively few states with active, 
forceful, effective commissions; states 
with "worn-out" commissions; and states 
having nominal library commissions, but 
doing little, or no work whatever. 

After the League has taken an inventory 
of itself and taken on active life, it should 
make a complete survey of the states that 
the "is-ers" and "have^beens" in commis- 
sion work, and will then be ready to do 
something for the "going-to-bes," but not 
before it has done these things. Investi- 
gators should be willing to be investi- 
gated. This suggestion has met a hearty 
reception when talked over with my col- 
leagues and it would seem that nothing 
could be more helpful than a survey of 
each commission's work by at least two 
other active commissions working in har- 
mony with the commission surveyed. 



This plan also might arouse states with 
"worn-out" conditions, for one cannot help 
observing that we may have "worn-out" 
commission workers, as well as "worn- 
out" librarians and library boards. Some 
of these in attendance at A. L. A. meet- 
ings seem to have lost sufficient interest 
even to attend League sessions. Such sur- 
veys, no doubt, at least mean a revival of 
interest. 

The survey should be made with due 
respect to local conditions and not accord- 
ing to a pattern into which every state 
must fit, thus depriving it of all initiative. 

A summary of such surveys would offer 
much to states with commissions in name 
only and to those yet without commis- 
sions. 

From my own experience, and from in- 
terviews with commission workers as to 
what stepmotherly assistance they have 
rendered states without commissions, the 
following items may be given: 

Answering letters of inquiry; sending 
library laws, publications, plans for build- 
ings and bibliographies; interviewing vis- 
itors from such states; attending state fed- 
eration of women's clubs and library asso- 
ciation meetings, and addressing them on 
commission subjects, assisting through 
the meetings in discussions and round 
tables, and stimulating their librarians; 
granting requests for the reprint of arti- 
cles from Library Journal, Public Libra- 
ries and other publications in their state 
and local papers; writing articles to be 
used in their newspapers through their 
campaigns for a commission; assisting in- 
dividual libraries of such states to obtain 
organizers and librarians; recommending 
commission secretaries and organizers to 
new commission states; visiting towns of 
states without commissions, near the bor- 
der of their own state; rendering summer 
school service; visiting towns, on request, 
to aid in starting libraries; making a city 
library survey on request of library board 
or city council; visiting towns having li- 
braries when one is traveling across such 
states; inspiring librarians of these states 
to start state library associations; helping 
them write library bills and aiding to get 
them through the legislature; giving opin- 
ion as to policies in commission work. 



294 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



RECENT TENDENCIES IN STATE PUBLICATIONS 
BY DENA M. KINGSLEY, Division of Documents, Library of Congress 



There is an enormous amount of energy 
expended in turning the legislative wheels 
which keep the governmental machinery 
of these United States running smoothly. 
In a country as big as ours, all manner of 
problems arise all sorts of laws must be 
framed and administered regulations are 
constantly being formulated and amended 
to meet changing conditions plans are 
continually being tried out for the social 
and economic betterment of the citizen. 
The official chronicles of the countless ac- 
tivities of this nation form a valuable fund 
of information at the disposal of libraries. 
A glance through the Monthly catalogue of 
U. 8. public documents gives ample proof 
of the lively interest which the executive 
departments of the federal government 
take in the life of the country. This in- 
terest would seem to extend to every phase 
of human endeavor, but being in the na- 
ture of a parental one, the federal docu- 
ments reflect that character to a great ex- 
tent. Uncle Sam is a very indulgent par- 
ent, and seems ever ready to assist his 
large family with good counsel, hearty en- 
couragement, and financial aid. But aside 
from this protection, assistance and guid- 
ance of the central government, which we 
do not underestimate, each state must 
work out its own salvation. This is a 
law of nature guaranteeing progress, and a 
state is no exception to the rule. Because 
of this fact, state documents as a whole 
differ in their perspective from federal 
documents. Federal documents may offer 
fundamental working plans, theories, es- 
sential principles, innovations, etc., but 
state documents invariably record the ap- 
plication of these plans and innovations 
to their own immediate needs. The prac- 
tical individual lays great stress on the 
value of experimental knowledge, and con- 
sequently will value the records of experi- 
mental knowledge as contained in state 
documents. 

The history of the development of a state 



is to be found in its documents, and it is 
certainly good business policy to make use 
of the resources at hand. A library need 
reach out no farther than the boundaries 
of its own state to find official literature 
with many possibilities of usefulness, for 
public interest in any subject is rarely 
confined to one locality. Rather will it 
be conceded that public interest spreads 
rapidly, and that welfare movements in- 
augurated in one section of the country 
act as a stimulus to the surrounding ter- 
ritory. 

The interests of the community should 
govern the librarian in his selection of 
documents. They should be considered 
from the standpoint of useful tools. The 
up-to-date librarian will have a working 
knowledge of the kind of information like- 
ly to be found in each class of documents 
represented in his own file. This is not 
difficult to acquire, and is very helpful in 
aiding inquirers to locate information. The 
majority of inquirers are not thoroughly 
familiar with documents, and for that rea- 
son need more help in using them. Docu- 
ments should be classified before placing 
them on the shelves so that they will be 
grouped with private publications dealing 
with like subjects. No pains should be 
spared to make them easily available to the 
public. 

Second only to a good choice of docu- 
ments is a good file of them, and a good 
file is a complete one brought up to date. 
Practically all executive departments, 
boards and commissions, and state insti- 
tutions are required by law to give an ac- 
counting to their state legislatures, either 
annually or biennially. In addition to 
this, many of these offices issue serial 
publications in the form of numbered bul- 
letins or circulars. The plan of issuing 
serial publications seems to be growing in 
favor. Fully two-thirds of the state docu- 
ments appearing in this country today are 
issued in that form. In a few states, 



KINGSLEY 



295 



notably Indiana and Ohio, it has been 
thought best to cut down the printing of 
reports to a minimum. These states now 
issue a yearly publication containing con- 
densed reports of state officials to take the 
place of the separate reports formerly is- 
sued from the state departments. Indiana 
claims to have saved more than $20,000 
per year to the state by publishing a year- 
book instead of separate reports. In the 
Library of Congress, where over a thou- 
sand state documents are received each 
month, what is known as a "continuation 
record," is kept of all annual and biennial 
reports and serial documents received. 
These records show the approximate date 
of issue, and are checked up each month 
in order to give assurance that the files 
are complete, and that publications are 
being received at the earliest date of is- 
sue. 

There is a tendency on the part of many 
states to establish what is known as cen- 
tral distributing agencies for state docu- 
ments. This plan has many advantages. 
It eliminates much duplication of work, 
centralizes responsibility, reduces expense, 
and is systematic. In the carrying out 
of this plan, however, one disadvantage is 
apt to arise. Usually the state distributor 
follows the method of making only an- 
nual or semiannual shipments of docu- 
ments to libraries. On this account many 
documents are delayed considerably in 
reaching the public, and their scope of use- 
fulness thereby materially impaired. The 
demand for reference material is always 
greatest at the time a scheme is being de- 
veloped. It is one of life's little tragedies 
that many excellent government publica- 
tions never reach the hands of those indi- 
viduals who would receive the most bene- 
fit from them, or else reach them too late 
to be of any great practical value. 

A number of states issue official check 
lists of their own state documents. Cali- 
fornia, Ohio and Wisconsin issue them in 
monthly form; Illinois and Arizona pub- 
lish annual lists. In 1918 the Philippine 
Library and Museum published a very 
comprehensive list of Philippine documents 



for the period of 1900 to 1917 inclusive. 
The work in all cases has been thoroughly 
done and is indeed praiseworthy. The 
monthly check lists are especially helpful. 
The Division of Documents of the Library 
of Congress, as you doubtless know, is- 
sues a Monthly list of state publications. 
Great pains is taken by the editor to make 
it as complete a list as possible. The work, 
however, is done on such a large scale 
that there is always some anxiety felt for 
fear that a valuable state document may 
be overlooked for the moment, or fail to 
be listed as soon as it makes its appear- 
ance. In the case of those states issuing 
their own check lists, this anxiety is en- 
tirely removed. 

Even before the war, which brought in 
its wake conditions calling for strict econ- 
omy and efficiency, this country had 
learned the value of good business man- 
agement. We took great pride in our big 
private business enterprises. We had made 
a success of them. We had brought them 
to a high point of efficiency. What more 
natural than that we should turn our at- 
tention next to our legislative and execu- 
tive departments to see whether they too 
were functioning properly, and to extend 
to them the benefits of scientific manage- 
ment which we had learned to appreciate 
in private business. State expenditures 
were increasing, state institutions multi- 
plying, state departments each year call- 
ing for more and more appropriations. 
Last but not least, our tax bills were 
mounting up steadily, and a high tax bill 
is warranted to arouse a good bit of in- 
terest. Practically all state governments 
have felt this effect. The universal cure 
applied has been the creation of temporary 
commissions composed of public spirited 
business or professional men, usually serv- 
ing without compensation. These commis- 
sions are generally empowered by law to 
make investigations or surveys of condi- 
tions, which are in turn reported back to 
the legislature. After which, with the 
facts in hand, remedies suggested by the 
commission are usually applied to put the 
organization on a sound basis. The ten- 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



dency to create such commissions to cope 
with special problems is steadily growing. 
When as a result of the studies of these 
commissions on administrative efficiency 
the official organs of the state government 
are rearranged, the difficulties of the libra- 
rian are increased as a consequence. In Il- 
linois for instance, the rearrangement of 
the state bureaus requires a new appara- 
tus of cataloging cards. Aside from the 
work involved in recataloging these docu- 
ments, there certainly will be a great ad- 
vantage in having material on related sub- 
jects appear in one set of publications. 

It is desired to take advantage of this 
opportunity to lay before you one of the 
difficulties met with in the preparation 
of the Monthly list of state publications. 
In making catalog entries for this list we 
use a very brief imprint, merely place and 
date. It is assumed that a state document 
is necessarily published by the state. There 
is, however, a twofold purpose in giving 
the place of publication. First, to identify 
the book, and second, to show where to 
apply in case the reader wishes to secure 
copies of the publication. Most states 
make provision for housing their execu- 
tive departments at the state capital, but 
the executive departments contribute only 
a portion of state literature. Many state 
boards, institutions and commissions are 
located outside of the state capitals. So 
we cannot assume that all state docu- 
ments are published at state capitals un- 
less authorized to do so by written state- 
ment. It so happens that many states let 
their printing contracts to firms located 
outside the state capital. These firms put 
their names, place of printing, and date on 
documents and do not mention place of 
publication or publisher. Now comes an 
old, well-established cataloging rule to stir 
up strife, viz., that in cases where the 
place of publication and publisher are not 
mentioned specifically on a book, the print- 
er's name and place should be substituted. 



Hence confusion in our imprint line. In 
living up to this rule this is what often 
happens: The publisher is assumed and 
the place of publication is concealed, for 
the printer is the only person who has sup- 
plied the cataloger with a written state- 
ment in the book as to location. The 
printer whose name and place of business 
appear on the title page has nothing to 
do with the sale or distribution of the docu- 
ment he has printed. The state of Con- 
necticut furnishes such a happy example 
of a model title page for state documents 
that I wish to call attention to it. The 
imprint on the front of the title page reads 
as follows: Hartford. Published by the 
State. Date. On the reverse of the title 
page is found the name and location of the 
printing firm. This is certainly a simple 
arrangement. It adds greatly to the dig- 
nity of a document if it is made clear that 
it is an official publication with all the 
authority of the Commonwealth. 

A number of states have adopted similar 
plans and if they could all be uniformly 
induced to do so, it would simplify greatly 
the work of catalogers who have the han- 
dling of these publications and who wrestle 
with such technicalities. It would add 
dignity to the appearance of documents, 
and weight to their statistical value, and 
would be in line with other movements for 
the good of the cause. 

To return to the subject of this paper 
and to sum up the recent developments in 
connection with state documents, these 
are: First, a great increase in the output 
of periodical publications; second, a ten- 
dency to diminish the number and size of 
the annual and biennial state reports 
(which comes as a result of earnest effort 
directed towards simplification of state ad- 
ministration) ; third, the correlation of 
publications on related subject matter, due 
to the consolidation of the publishing of- 
fices and bureaus. 



RANCK 



297 



A LIBRARIAN'S JOB IN BASE SECTION NO. 1, FRANCE* 
BY SAMUEL H. RANCK, Librarian, Public Library, Grand Rapids, Mich. 



The work of the A. L. A. representative 
in Base Section No. 1, France, is so unlike 
that of a camp library in th States or 
work in a public library that it must be 
seen to be fully appreciated. The same 
books satisfying the same human needs 
are used, but the conditions surrounding 
the work conditions that are essentially 
a part of it the daily rains, the mud, 
strange customs, a foreign language, and 
homesick men, make it altogether differ- 
ent. 

Let me try to give you some idea of the 
area of the base: It includes five depart- 
ments of France: Loire-Inferieure, Mori- 
bihan, Maine et Loire, Vendee, and Deux- 
Sevres much of it a part of ancient Brit- 
tany. This territory (with New York City 
as St. Nazaire) would include approx- 
imately the cities of Providence, Worces- 
ter, Springfield, Albany, Scranton, Read- 
ing, Lancaster, Wilmington, and all that 
intervenes. 

On January 5, when I came to St. Na- 
zaire, there were in operation in the base 
fifty Army and Navy Camps in twenty-five 
different places or centers. The camps 
themselves are largely special camps, in- 
cident to the fact that St. Nazaire is the 
great supply base for the A. E. F., com- 
posed of men engaged in a more or less 
special line of work, and all a part of the 
S. O. S. The combined American Army 
and Navy population of the camps, etc., 
in this base since I have been here has at 
no time been less than 100,000 and some- 
times has been nearer 200,000. A feature 
of this base is the large number of col- 
ored men in it at one time about 30,000. 
At the present time six large Y. M. C. A. 
huts are exclusively for colored men, or 
nearly so, five of them in charge of col- 
ored workers. There are also many small 
huts for colored men. 

The work of the A. L. A. representative 
in Base Section No. 1 is of five different 



Abstract of paper. 



classes: First, that of getting books off 
the docks when they are unloaded from 
the ships, and moved to the A. L. A. ware- 
house in Paris; second, supplying books 
and getting book service to all the camps 
and men in the base; third, work through 
the school officers for the service of the 
instructors and students in the post, area, 
and divisional schools; fourth, getting 
book service to the men on the ships that 
do not get back to the U. S. for long 
periods of time freighters, submarine 
chasers, etc.; fifth, salvaging books from 
military outfits about to return to the 
States, from camps greatly reduced in size 
or closed altogether, and from the sal- 
vage officer who gets books along with 
other salvaged material from every con- 
ceivable place. 

Getting books off the docks and shipped 
to Paris was the first thing I was intro- 
duced to when I landed in St. Nazaire, for 
the books for the Army education work 
began to come in at once. At St. Nazaire 
the United States had eighteen docks in 
the basin (some have now been returned 
to the French). Only four of the eighteen 
docks have covered warehouses or sheds 
on them. Most of the time books were un- 
loaded at these four docks, but when they 
were unloaded at any of the others, as oc- 
casionally happened, they were exposed 
to the weather, except for such shelter as 
they could get from tarpaulin, until they 
were loaded into box cars. 

On the docks when books were being 
leaded on cars I usually tried to be pres- 
ent to see that all educational books were 
sure to be put on, if the car would not take 
the whole lot; that all broken boxes were 
coopered, nailed up properly, etc.; in 
short, that the books went forward as 
promptly and in as good condition as pos- 
sible. This meant sometimes being at the 
docks a good part of the night on one oc- 
casion all night, until the night gang went 
home from work at 4 a. m. The dock of- 



298 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



fleers and men generally have uniformly 
been most obliging and helpful in all this 
work. 

The work of these dock men was of 
fundamental importance in the winning 
of the war. It was carried on under most 
trying conditions. Many of these men for 
months never knew what it was to have 
dry feet with their shoes on. They knew 
no holidays or Sundays, and until a few 
weeks ago two shifts worked twenty-four 
hours a day with only enough time off for 
meals. Sometimes a single gang either 
the day shift or the night shift would put 
a thousand tons of freight on cars or 
trucks at one dock as their day's work. 

The people in the United States do not 
yet understand the splendid service per- 
formed by these men, and especially the 
hard physical work of the colored steve- 
dores, many of whom are college trained 
men. The percentage of illiterates among 
them as a whole, however, is high. 

Looking after the libraries in the camps 
has always been secondary to the work of 
getting books shipped out for the rest of 
France. But nevertheless the camp work 
has always been very important. At the 
present time (May 1), A. L. A. books are 
being circulated from no less than 200 
places in this Base Section. Since Janu- 
ary 1 about 100 places have been closed 
and the books salvaged, so that the total 
number of places from which books have 
been issued since I came here Is 300. Of 
these sixty-five are in and around St. Na- 
zaire, including Montoir in Camp 1, St. 
Nazaire, there being fifteen places. And 
new places are still opening a large Sal- 
vation Army hut and a large colored hut 
at Montoir being scheduled to open soon 
after May 1, besides smaller places, all to 
be supplied with books. It is impossible 
of course for one person along with all the 
other work to care for all these places as 
he would like to do it. 

My first problem on this phase of my 
work was to place books where there were 
none or very few, and the next to get such 
help locally (that is, from the camps or 
from the hut personnel), that the books 



would give the maximum of service with 
the minimum of loss or wastage of books. 
In this work I have had the best possible 
cooperation from the Army and from the 
chief officials of the other welfare organ- 
izations, though not always from the per- 
sonnel directly on the job. Considering 
that nearly all these people were un- 
trained, I feel on the whole that one 
should be surprised at the results accom- 
plished rather than dwell on the short- 
comings of the service. 

First of all there has been a book hunger 
the like of which I did not believe possi- 
ble before coming to France. Every one 
who has been in contact with our boys has 
realized this and felt it most keenly, with 
the result that to nearly all of us our work 
has seemed more like feeding starving 
men than like that of librarians. When I 
came to the casual officers' camp at An- 
gers in January there were no books on 
the shelves and men were standing in line 
for hours at the librarian's desk waiting 
for someone to return a book, so that they 
might have the first or an early chance 
to get it. The time allowed the men 
for leave from the camp was limited 
to four hours per week, the usual 
leave allowed in the base. Shortly be- 
fore I came there had been a period 
when the camp was closed entirely, no 
men getting out on passes, except In line 
of their duty, and that took very few. 
These were men of active minds, which 
simply had to be employed to prevent their 
being lost. The problem here was not 
a library problem at all it was an in- 
tense human problem to get something 
for these men to read if for no other pur- 
pose than to save their minds. After I 
saw that problem they had books within 
twenty-four hours, and in a few days more, 
books in abundance ever afterwards until 
the casuals were gone. 

In the face of situations like this (and I 
have seen such scores of times) I believe 
the American Library Association and the 
American people who provided the means 
for us to do this work are not going to 
concern themselves greatly with the ques- 



RANCK 



299 



tion of how many books were lost in 
France or how many or how big libraries 
we established or what fine library build- 
ings we built, but rather with the ques- 
tion: When the boys were hungry for 
books to read did they get them? Let's 
forget about the loss and the wear and 
tear of books. Under climatic and mil- 
itary conditions these are bound to be 
great. These losses are a part of the 
price that had to be paid for the service. 

My general plan as likely as not it 
could not be followed was first to visit 
a library hut or a library to get some idea 
of the situation, then to deliver the books, 
with printed and oral directions as to 
their use, and finally wherever possible 
to visit the library and the librarian for a 
longer period a few days or a week after 
the books were delivered. If I had the 
books I never had any trouble to get 
transportation for their delivery. The wel- 
fare organizations and the Army always 
furnished it whenever I asked for it. And 
sometimes this involved a man and an au- 
tomobile truck for three days on one trip, 
with a drive of nearly 300 miles. 

In one of the colored huts at Montoir 
I saw one day a most interesting class of 
twenty-five colored men taking a French 
lesson. Some of these men since coming 
to France have not only learned to read 
and speak the language with ease and flu- 
ency, but to write letters in it. The col- 
ored men so far as I am able to judge 
read poetry and books of a literary char- 
acter to a much larger extent than the 
white men. The latter read much less 
.poetry than they did in the camp libra- 
ries in the States. Outside of fiction and 
western fiction especially they are most 
Interested in books on business and trades 
vocational books the things they ex- 
pect to do when they are back in civil life. 
For the call of the job is heard very 
loudly in France to-day. Referring again 
to the colored men, I am sure that no class 
or group of readers appreciate the work 
of the A. L. A. more than they do. The 
Y M. C. A. has been especially fortunate 
in the high type of colored men and 



women it has secured for librarians in its 
colored huts. 

The library work in hospitals will doubt- 
less be presented in a separate paper, but I 
can not refrain from referring to my first 
visit to Savenay Hospital center about 
15 miles from St. Nazaire. There are 
eight Red Cross recreation huts in this 
center, every one of which was supposed 
to have books. On the shelves of some 
of these where I found from 100 to 150 
men in the hut there was not a single 
book, another hut had four books, and the 
largest hut, with seats in the library for 
nearly a hundred readers had less than 
fifty books. 

Nothing I have done in the placing of 
books has made so deep an impression on 
me or gave me more personal satisfac- 
tion than when I first took books to the boys 
in Venereal Stockade. The number of 
boys in that barbed wire and guarded en- 
closure equaled the total attendance at 
an annual meeting of the A. L. A., except 
a few of the largest conferences. The au- 
thorities told me that any books placed 
there we could never get again, for from 
time to time they would be burned for 
fear of spreading disease. So I collected 
books more or less worn from some of the 
larger camp libraries and took them out. 
My arrival with the books was greeted 
with a shout a despairing, tragic shout 
that still rings in my ears. It was this: 
"Fellows, something to read." They had 
had nothing. Any time, work or money 
you may have put into this A. L. A. work 
you would regard as more than amply 
justified if you could hear as I heard them 
that afternoon, only the words: "Fellows, 
something to read." 

The army educational program has oc- 
cupied a large place in the minds of all 
interested in educational work overseas. 
Up to this time the books supplied by the 
A. L. A. have been the backbone of the 
work In this base. There are divisional, 
area and post schools. Most of the work 
in the latter is elementary and is des- 
tined especially for illiterates; in these 
days the man who can't read and write 



300 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



makes a poor soldier. There is advanced 
work in some of the post schools, but it 
holds a secondary place in them. In this 
base all these schools are under the direc- 
tion of the Base Section School Officer. 
This officer arranged for the men going to 
French and British universities and those 
going to the Army University at Beaune. 
With these two groups of students my 
work does not connect. With the schools 
in the base however, it is quite different. 
There are fourteen active school centers 
in the base, together with the divisional 
school in St. Nazaire. The latter started 
with eighty instructors and 500 students, 
but has less now because of men return- 
ing home. Up to May 10, all the books 
used by both instructors and students in 
this school and for the advanced work in 
the post schools were supplied by the A. 
L. A. It was only on April 25, that a ship- 
ment of elementary books for post school 
work was received books purchased by 
the Y. M. C. A. and taken over by the 
Army, and this for only a part of their 
needs. The work of the A. L. A. in mak- 
ing this work possible at all up to this 
date has brought for our organization the 
lasting appreciation from every man in 
the Army who had anything to do with 
this educational work. Imagine the feel- 
ings of those responsible for this work 
when the advanced students appeared 
April 1, and the expected source of book 
supply failed. That we could meet this 
emergency in part at least is due to the 
energetic work of the Paris headquarters. 
The part of my work that takes least 
time, but which in proportion to the time 
taken has more human interest in it than 
any other, is getting books and reading 
matter to the men on the freighters that 
rarely get back to the States the men on 
the ships bringing potatoes from Ireland, 
coal from England and Wales, Belgian re- 
lief, German relief, Polish relief, subma- 
rine chasers, etc. Some of these ships 
have not been to the States for nineteen 
months, and the officers and crew alike 
are most hungry for something to read. 
Then too there are the slow going vessels 



on which the men have read every book, 
or the ships that are held in port for re- 
pairs. They come to trade in what they 
have, and they usually turn in a lot of 
books that are not A. L. A. books that 
some of them bought in some port or 
traded from another ship. 

One evening when I came in from an 
afternoon out delivering books by motor 
truck I found a note saying that some 
boys had been to see me from a freighter 
that was going out on the tide that night, 
and that they wanted books. I walked a 
mile and a half through the mud to the 
dock where they were. The boys were 
delighted to see me. They wanted to trade 
in for a new lot the books they had all 
read. The only ones I had were just off a 
ship on a dock three-quarters of a mile 
away. Would they be willing to walk 
through the mud to get them? "Sure," 
came the response from eight or ten who 
jumped up to go at once. We took a 
ship's stretcher into which the books they 
had read were placed and four of the boys 
carried them while I led the way. One 
of the boys also had a screw driver. Most 
of them were California boys and their 
ship was California built. They brought on 
their first trip a cargo of eight or ten 
thousand tons of niter from Chile, had a. 
brush with a German submarine that tried 
to get them, and were bubbling over with 
stories of their adventures. One of the 
boys was especially interested in the work 
of the A. L. A. His wife was a librarian, 
had taken a course in the library school 
at Riverside and worked in a county 
library in California, but was now taking 
care of their baby that he had never 
seen. And how anxious he was to get 
back to California to see that baby! Only 
the man who has children of his own 
could know how that boy felt. And I 
knew. 

On the dock we soon had a box of fiction 
open, and by authors the boys delighted 
in. Clean, fresh, new books. The sight of 
those boys there in the dock warehouse, 
lighted by a few electric lamps high over- 
head, with busy stevedores and their noisy 



RANCK 



301 



trucks all around them, exclaiming and 
commenting on the books and authors, 
with books tucked under their arms and 
between their legs while they were exam- 
ining still others held in their hands, was 
a picture long to be remembered. The 
old books were put into the box, the new 
ones placed in the stretcher and the boys 
started for the ship with their treasures. 

The salvaging of books thus far has 
been mostly incidental but from now on it 
will be of increasing importance. In look- 
ing over the books salvaged from huts 
and barracks, I am impressed with the fact 
that a very large proportion of them are 
worn out and I am also impressed with 
the fact that among them are many books 
that the A. L. A. did not supply originally. 
These are books that the boys in the camp 
turned in to the hut library. They were 
either books they bought or books sent 
to them by their friends, and some of 
them are very valuable books. The same 
is true of books exchanged by the boys 
on the ships many valuable books turned 
in that never belonged to the A. L. A. In 
all such books I place our label. Many 
"Y" secretaries had already done this, if 
not the label, a pocket and our book card. 
In some boxes of salvaged books from 
twenty to twenty-five per cent of the books 
have been turned in in this way. I am 
convinced if my experience in this resipect 
is general that what the A. L. A. will gain 
through books turned into the libraries 
over here will more than offset the losses 
due to carelessness, neglect or appropriat- 
ing. They will not of course offset the 
losses due to legitimate wear and tear. 

The time is at hand to consider what to 
do with these salvaged books after the 
boys are out of France. I assume that a 
good many of them will go back to Amer- 
ica, though a very large number of them 
are not worth sending back as books. If 
such can be sold as waste paper here It 
would save much work to dispose of them 
in that way. Of course we could doubtless 
send them back on troop ships towards 
the end of the troop movements for the 
use of the men on the voyage across and 



then take off all but a few for the use of 
the officer and crew back to France. The 
Army and Navy of the United States in 
the course of a few years will absorb most 
of the books that are left. Judging from 
experience with salvaged books stored for 
only a short time in Y. M. C. A. or other 
warehouses I doubt the advisability of 
storing these books packed in boxes. A 
good many of them moulded and a num- 
ber of the others were damaged by rats 
or mice eating the backs off them to get 
the paste. 

Most of my friends in the States think I 
am over here on a big junket. Forget it. 
I never worked so hard or read so little 
in my life. But there are experiences un- 
usual, pleasant, and memorable. Can I 
ever forget my first trip to Nantes and 
Angers? It was in January on a five ton 
motor truck with a driver who was the 
night man for a big truck concern in Chi- 
cago, his duty being to get broken-down 
trucks off the down town streets in the 
quickest possible time, so as not to block 
the traffic. We started from Nantes In a 
wet snow in the morning, passing the 
famous chateau and the cathedral that was 
old when Columbus discovered America. 
I shall never forget the thrill on coming 
unexpectedly on that beautiful tower of 
the Ninth century at Oudon, now one of 
the national art monuments of France, 
then the ruins at Champtoce and the thrill 
that came when I bought a post card at a 
near-by shop to find that it was the ruined 
castle of Bluebeard, and finally the third 
thrill in approaching and driving by the 
great and beautiful old Chateau at Angers 
with its intimate associations for a thous- 
and years with the history of France and 
England. What though I was stiff and 
chilled to the bone, so that I could hardly 
climb down from the truck; it was a great 
and memorable day. 

I could easily use hours in relating inci- 
dents and experiences that have come my 
way, some directly connected with the A. 
L. A. and its work and others only inci- 
dentally so. But time and your powers 
of endurance forbid. I should like to en- 



302 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



large on an automobile trip to Trignac 
pumping station, where some forty men 
are quartered (isolated and surrounded by 
buvettes or worse, to quote an army offi- 
cer), to furnish water to the camps at 
St. Nazaire and Montoir, operate the 
pumps, patrol the pipe lines; how we lost 
our way in the big marsh, driving for 
miles on narrow dyke roads, partly cov- 
ered with water, and where it would have 
been impossible to have passed another 
vehicle; of how I was brought from Camp 
Gron to St. Nazaire on a railroad hand 
car by two soldier boys; of a walk out 
and back on the mile long trestle to the 
men isolated on Montoir dock, stepping 
ties much of the way and holding on to 
myself to keep from being blown into the 
river; of the interesting Breton people 
and their customs in the towns along the 
coast; of an annual fte we ran into at 
Muzillac; of the most fascinating steel 
spider bridge at La Roche Bernard; of a 
night ride into Vannes and our troubles 
to find our way through the narrow wind- 
ing streets to our hotel; all these and a 
host of others must be passed by. 

The automobile and truck drivers have 
interested me very much. I have had 
scores of them drive for me, and never once 
a poor army driver. The more I see of 
them the more I am impressed with what 
the camp psychologist told me at Camp 
Custer, where he was testing all the men 
to find out what each man was best fitted 
for. He said that for the qualities of a 
commanding officer which require quick- 
ness and sureness of decision, alertness, 
and the ability to size up a situation cor- 
rectly, the truck and automobile drivers 
ranked higher than any other class of 
men. Lawyers stood second in the list. 

I wish I had time to tell you of the 
many interesting people splendid people 
one meets In the most unexpected ways 
and places; of Captain Hickey of the Sal- 
vation Army (who will have been In 



France over two years by the time of the 
A. L. A. Conference) and how he came 
over here alone the first Salvation Army 
worker in France to start their work "on 
$25,000 borrowed money and nerve, mostly 
nerve," to use his words; of the men with 
whom I work daily in the school office 
the Base Section school officer, born in 
England, educated at the University of 
Aberdeen, at one time a resident of South 
Africa, associated with Dr. Jacks (in 
whose family he lived) in the editorship 
of the Hibbert Journal, a preacher in 
British Columbia and at Berkeley, Cali- 
fornia; of his assistant from West Virgi- 
nia and of the University of Wisconsin; 
of the divisional school officer from Lou- 
isiana, graduate of the state university 
with postgraduate work at the University 
of Virginia and before entering the Army 
the representative of a great international 
publishing house in the southwest; of the 
other boys in that office, the typewriter 
boy from the University of Missouri Col- 
lege of Mines at Rolla a second lieuten- 
ant; the University of Minnesota boy who 
spends most of his time helping me, catal^ 
oging books, packing books, pasting la 
bels, hustling boxes, etc., and the sergeant 
who runs the routine of the office and who 
could probably buy out all the rest of us 
together a diamond merchant of New 
York but a native of Denmark. 

The work has been hard, desperately 
hard at times but a Joyous work, be- 
cause one felt it so worth while. Most 
of the time It seemed as if one were 
playing a big football game with all the 
uncertainties, all the lightning-like changes 
in plans, and all the excitement of such 
a tense struggle. It was not library work 
of the institutional kind one left behind, 
but it has been doubly rich in personal 
satisfaction in the doing, for one has been 
in daily, vital contact with every phase 
of life that greatest adventure of every 
human soul. 



DAVIS 



303 



EXPERIENCES OVERSEAS 
By OiU-ANDO C. DAVIS, Librarian, Public Library, Waltham, Mass. 



Mud; every address which pretends to 
give a correct impression of welfare work 
in France during the past winter should 
begin and end with this word. The French 
people asked us not to judge French 
weather by the continuous rains we were 
experiencing this winter, but I have a 
never-to-be-forgotten impression of why the 
boys in khaki called the Frenchmen 
"frogs," because they would have drowned 
years ago if they had not been ranae. 

St. Aignan, or rather its sister town 
Noyers, was my first post of duty. It was 
to the big classification camp at Noyers 
that most of the casual soldiers and offi- 
cers came to have their records straight- 
ened out and to be formed into new com- 
panies and sent home. Most of these men 
were from hospitals. 

Both Noyers and St. Aignan were 
crowded to overflowing. Barracks in France 
usually had no floors, and very often tents 
had to be used instead of barracks. There 
were no lights available except candles, 
and often not even those. Such was the 
general condition of this camp last Janu- 
ary. 

After supper the first night, I went over 
to a big Y. M. C. A. hut in the classifica- 
tion camp, where we had a collection of 
books which the "Y" was assisting us to 
distribute to the men. In the rain and 
mud outside the building were 240 men 
waiting for a chance to go into the "Y" 
to sleep on the floor. The hut was crowd- 
ed with men anxious to see a show then 
going on, and desirous also of being in a 
dry place, but the entertainment was cut 
short to provide dormitory space for these 
men who had suddenly appeared on the 
night train. At 8.30 p. m., we went to an- 
other "Y" hut, and found 480 men just 
preparing to sleep on the floor there. 

Can you imagine doing much library 
work in these buildings? We had collec- 
tions of books at all the Y. M. C. A. and 
K. of C. huts, but reading spaces were 



nearly out of the question in view of the 
need of every dry spot for purely ele- 
mental needs. We had a good collection 
at the "Y" central hut, but this room was 
also the headquarters of the house mother, 
who always had a group of men waiting 
to have buttons sewed on. This was also 
the only place for the checker games as 
well as the only place for the French 
class; but the books were very popular and 
the circulations were splendid. 

In order to provide a place where books 
should be something more, however, than 
a side line, and to provide a headquarters 
for our work in a region about twenty- 
five miles square and including several 
towns, and to make one more place where 
men could be dry and warm, we arranged 
with the engineers for the erection of an 
A. L. A. building in the classification 
camp. The building was about completed 
when I left St. Aignan. I should also say 
here that St. Aignan now has miles of 
board walk and good sleeping accommoda- 
tions for troops, but I have told you some 
of the disagreeable conditions for the pur- 
pose of emphasizing the value of the wel- 
fare work in the camps in midwinter. 

After I had been in St. Aignan two 
weeks, Mr. Stevenson sent me to Le Mans, 
the headquarters of the American Embar- 
kation Center, a region where conditions 
were similar to those in the St. Aignan 
region, but on a larger scale. The Amer- 
ican Embarkation Center was nearly 100 
miles square, in the west of France, and 
most of our troops passed through it on 
their way to the States, except the casuals 
who went direct to the ports from St. 
Aignan. 

In the A. E. C., as the area was com- 
monly known, the final records of the 
Divisions were made up, men were de- 
loused, and all was put in readiness to go 
en to the ports when the boats were ready. 
Sometimes the men stayed there two 
weeks, sometimes six weeks, depending 



304 



upon the number of boats available. The 
troops had been sent into this center so 
fast that all welfare organizations were 
taken by surprise and, owing to the very 
serious shortage of transportation in the 
area, the problem of getting supplies dis- 
tributed was a difficult one. The region 
had a capacity for holding nine divisions 
at a time, together with the permanent 
troops, and 200,000 men were at hand 
most of the time. 

During the first six weeks of my stay at 
Le Mans, every welfare organization either 
doubled or trebled its huts, plans and 
workers. When I arrived, I found the 
American Library Association's central li- 
brary was being run by the Y. M. C. A. in 
a little room, 15x20 feet, admitting of 
twelve men seated. It was in the "Y" 
central hut, on the second floor, and was 
the most cheerful place in the building, in 
spite of the poor invitation offered by an 
overcrowded room. A man would stick his 
head in the doorway, and ask, "May I come 
in?" questioning whether he could get 
in, even if allowed. The reply of the 
Y. M. C. A. librarian was always a hearty 
"Come right in! But we won't ask you to 
stay too long tonight after you find your 
books." 

Obviously, larger quarters were neces- 
sary for a central library. At first, I tried 
to rent parts of buildings in the center of 
the city, but the 70,000 addition to Le 
Man's normal population, caused by the ar- 
rival during the war of Belgian and 
French refugees, made the search a fruit- 
less one and compelled us to plan for the 
erection of a building of our own. 

Books did not come through in suffi- 
cient quantity in February, but the first 
installment of our educational sets, each 
containing about 850 splendid new titles, 
arrived at Le Mans in that month, and a 
happier lot of men you never saw than 
some of those who used these fresh, up- 
to-date books. And there were classes in 
the Army School which began work only 
after the A. L. A. books arrived, because 
the Army textbooks had not come. In 
fact, many classes would never have start- 



ed had it not been for the A. L. A. books. 

The office work of the A. L. A. at Le 
Mans was well cared for by Miss Huxley, 
of the Library Journal, whom we got trans- 
ferred into the A. L. A. from the Red 
Cross. She acted as secretary, and made 
necessary arrangements for A. L. A. serv- 
ice with visiting officers while I was over- 
seeing the erection of buildings or deliv- 
ering books to men in the field. Her at- 
tempts to get printing done during a print- 
ers' strike, to telephone over a hopelessly 
busy telephone wire, to entertain French 
people who were so pleased to find an 
American in the office who could talk 
French, to type 150 words a minute, to 
send daily telegrams to Paris for books 
and more books, and similar instances, 
would easily fill a number of the Library 
Journal and perhaps some day a book. 

The Le Mans central library, which we 
finally got erected, was 17 x 90 feet, not 
large, for we had a storehouse to serve 
as storage for cases, and we had many 
collections of considerable size not far 
away; but it was the most cheerful build- 
ing imaginable, and, like all the libraries, 
very much used. I have heard men step 
inside the door and, after the first shock 
of surprise, use some such phrase as, "I 
haven't seen anything as fine as this in 
France." Many French civilians visited 
the library with much interest, because 
public library service on the modern plan 
is unknown in France, and nothing of the 
sort was being done for the French sol- 
dier. 

Quite naturally, in this Army library 
work many books did not come back to us, 
because of the rapid movement of the 
troops, but the books then went into the 
A. L. A. service in some other region. I 
think I received as many books from other 
regions as I missed in the tray, but no 
rigid system of accountability is possible 
in an army, because of the rapid change, 
both in the personnel of troops and of 
welfare organizations. Response to over- 
due cards was good, however, and the as- 
sistance of the officers of moving troops 



DAVIS 



305 



in collecting books from barracks and bil- 
lets was splendid. 

Let me now speak of the A. L. A. libra- 
ry at the largest cantonment near Le 
Mans, known as the Forwarding Camp. 
This building was completed March 3 for 
the A. L. A. by the Army Engineers, at no 
expense to the Association. It was built 
next door to the Army School, where 1,200 
men were in attendance, who used the li- 
brary as a study room. The combined use 
of the library by students and novel read- 
ers also proved too much for its capacity, 
and the building was doubled, giving us 
a reading room 105 x 40 feet. 

Everyone was interested to get the 
A. L. A. service installed, from the Gen- 
eral down. The draftsman could hardly 
get the plans drawn soon enough, because 
he was so anxious to get a book on me- 
chanical drawing. It was the chief of the 
construction engineers who tried to find a 
study book for himself one day from a 
lower shelf by aid of a match and so de- 
cided that there was really needed the 
amount of electric light we had asked for. 

It is significant that the side of the 
room where were located the study books 
was always more crowded than the fiction 
side. The reference questions were al- 
ways most interesting. One man wanted 
to bind the banks of a hill so that the 
soil would not wash into the hollow, and 
another wanted to know where he could 
buy the best lace to take home. Perhaps 
even Congress would be glad to get the 
viewpoint of the American soldier as ex- 
pressed in the debates for which special 
material was selected. The last debate 
reported was on universal military train- 
ing. 

I got to the Forwarding Camp library 
one day before Miss Ferguson had opened 
the door and found a line of forty-five men 
waiting to get in. The line was as long 
as an ordinary canteen line, though men- 
tal food is not usually considered as pop- 
ular among young men as the kind that 
goes into the stomach. Several books in 
this camp library are known to have been 
circulated three times in one day, and 



many times it has happened that a man 
would bring his friend when he brought 
his book, because the chance to get a 
good book in the English language was 
too precious for his friend to lose. I have 
delivered boxes of books which had been 
telephoned for, and found twenty-five men 
waiting for their arrival. 

The two A. L. A. buildings which I have 
described were carried on similarly to the 
camp libraries in the United States, ex- 
cept that we were obliged to use even 
more short cuts than the libraries in the 
cantonments at home. 

The A. L. A. also had many smaller col- 
lections which were being cared for by the 
other welfare organizations, by school offi- 
cers, or by commanding officers, and it 
was to a company of engineers working on 
a road, or a company of doughboys bil- 
leted in a little village miles from normal 
life, with no "Y," or "K. of C.," no "Red 
Cross," and no railroad or electric car con- 
nections, that one's sympathies as a libra- 
rian were drawn. After a long day's work, 
there was no "movie" for them, and no 
educational lecture usually, scj^as oue man 
put it, "A box of books was enough to set 
you up in business." 

There were eight hospitals in the region 
outside the city, all of them equipped with 
A. L. A. collections, manned by the per- 
sonnel of the Red Cross. Boys who had 
been gassed, boys who had been torn by 
shrapnel, and others, who were just play- 
ing sick, could read, and often could study. 
A Red Cross worker wrote me, "It is won- 
derful what a difference a book makes in 
the mental attitude of these boys." 

Also, outside of Le Mans proper, about 
eight miles from the city, we had what 
was known as the Belgian camip, where 
were 20,000 American troops. These boys 
were far enough from Le Mans to be un- 
able to get the advantages of living near 
a city, and every welfare society was do- 
ing its best to make life more worth liv- 
ing there. 

Long barracks buildings, with one win- 
dow on each side, and a lawn of black mud 
a foot deep are my own chief impressions 



306 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of that camp. Here we placed our collec- 
tions of books in welfare buildings, and 
also a remarkably good school library col- 
lection in a building especially erected 
for this purpose by the school department 
and placed under the continuous supervi- 
sion of an assistant school officer with two 
enlisted men. 

You have doubtless noticed that the 
United States Army in France was willing 
to go to any amount of preparation to get 
the A. L. A. books to the men. At the 
Spur camp, which held 7,000 quartermas- 
ter troops, supplying the whole region 
with building material, fuel and food, the 
A. L. A. had books at the J. W. B. hut, 
at the K. of C. hut, at the recreation build- 
ing of the Military Police, and at the 
school building. The fitat camp, holding 
1,500 United States railroad men, had a 
fine library of both fiction and non-fiction, 
in the care of the school officer. 

There were thousands of men who had 
no regular book service in France. The 
lack of books and the shortage of trans- 
porta "ilities were the chief causes 

iiluces as were experienced, and 
in order 10 haVi "d transported enough 
books for France should have been 

obliged to start s>. Us to large quanti- 

ties many months earlier than we did. 
Thousands of books were bought in Paris 
and London by our Paris boa.;, utters 
office to help make up the fiction shortage, 
but there were never enough. 

However, I assure you that we we're 
really getting those books which you so 
faithfully collected in your libraries for 
our boys. I saw books stamped or plated 
showing that they came from New York, 
Boston, St. Louis, Cleveland, Newton (Mas- 



sachusetts) Keene (New Hampshire) and 
other cities, and I even had the thrill of 
seeing some of my own library books. 

The 75,000 books in the American Em- 
barkation Center were at work, as I have 
described to you, in over 200 collections. 
You will get a little idea of the problem 
with large divisions if I tell you that one 
division (the Thirtieth) had an A. L. A. 
collection in each of thirty-two towns. 
Your Association's work has made book 
readers of some men who usually read 
nothing more than the newspaper. Men 
have told me this themselves, or I would 
hesitate to say so. Other men have 
learned what modern public library serv- 
ice is who had not lived near a public li- 
brary before. The money which you and 
your friends gave has helped many a man 
to continue an education or to get ready 
for the job at home. The A. L. A. books 
and the cheerful library quarters were also 
providing a wholesome substitute for 
cognac and its attendant vices. An officer 
told me he did not know to what limits 
of violence his men would go if he did 
not give them books and other recreation. 
Men grow stale so easily with nothing but 
troubles to think about. An enlisted man, 
bored and homesick, came in for books one 
day, and said the only thing he had to do 
was to act as a guard one day out of ev- 
ery fifteen. His chief duty the other four- 
teen was trying to keep out of mischief. 

The boys, in spite of a late start, did 
well "over there" under trying conditions, 
and the A. L. A., in spite of its late start, 
did well under trying conditions. 

But the boys are now here. Let us 
"carry on" here also. 



JENNINGS 



807 



WITH THE A. L. A. SERVICE OVERSEAS 
BY JUDSON T. JENNINGS, Librarian, Public Library, Seattle, Wash. 



When I finished two months' work at 
the library in Camp Lewis, in 1917, I 
thought that my war experience was over, 
but about a year later a telegram from 
the library headquarters in Washington 
requested my board of trustees to release 
me for six months' service in Washington 
and New York, and possibly overseas. I 
left Seattle November 19, 1918. I left 
New York on board the Mauretania, De- 
cember 6, for England. When we landed 
at Plymouth, I went immediately up to 
London, where I spent four days getting 
information for the library headquarters 
in Washington regarding the library work 
in Great Britain. The A. L. A. at that 
time had no person there devoting full 
time to A. L. A. service, that work being 
in charge of the Y. M. C. A. and the Red 
Cross, but excellent work was done in 
seeing that the American Library Associa- 
tion books reached the American Army 
and Navy men in the British Isles. 

From London I went by night boat 
across the Channel to Havre. At Havre 
again I got further information regarding 
library work among the surrounding 
camps, and in importation of books 
that had come into France from America, 
through Havre. Then we took the train 
from Havre to Paris. 

As soon as I reached Paris, my first 
task was to find a bed. This is not as 
easy as you might think. The best I 
could do was to rent half a bed, the other 
half being occupied by a Hearst news- 
paper man from Boston. The next morn- 
ing I reported to Mr. Stevenson at the 
A. L. A. headquarters, a very busy place. 
Mr. Stevenson spent about fifteen min- 
utes, I think, with me, telling me exactly 
what he wanted me to do. There was no 
hesitation I never saw any hesitation on 
the part of Mr. Stevenson In anything he 
had to do his decisions were quick and 
always to the point. As soon as he saw 
me he said, "I am going to send you to 



Coblenz, to organize library service for 
the Third Army. They have been in Ger- 
many two or three weeks and they have 
no books." He told me to get what in- 
formation I could as to the way things 
were done at headquarters, see how the 
books were handled, and how shipments 
were made from the warehouse and "when 
you are ready, Go!" He further said, 
"I think you will need an automobile in 
Coblenz in order to get around over the 
territory, and the only way to get it there 
will be to drive it there. You go out, buy 
a car, and get ready." 

Well, the next morning I started out to 
buy an automobile. After visiting one or 
two secondhand shops without success I 
heard that the Y. M. C. A. had some extra 
Fords, and I finally succeeded in buying a 
Ford from the Y. That was the begin- 
ning of my troubles. I had operated an 
automobile, but I had never driven a Ford. 
I had to learn to drive it in the main 
streets of Paris, and I had to learn to 
drive it largely from a book. They say 
there are some things you can't learn 
from books. 

After two days' practice, I started for 
Coblenz alone, on the last day of Decem- 
ber. The trip was very much easier than 
I expected. Mrs. Stevenson had proph- 
esied that I would never get there, but It 
really was a very interesting and enjoy- 
able trip with good roads and fair weather. 
Stopping the first night at Chalons-sur- 
Marne, the second at Verdun, the third 
at Treves, I reached Coblenz the fourth 
night, January 3, 1919. The most interest- 
ing part of the trip, of course, was Ver- 
dun. I spent an hour or two of daylight 
there, going through the ruins, the cathe- 
dral, and especially the underground 
city, where the French troops that pro- 
tected Verdun were quartered. Finding 
that the American troops near Verdun 
had no books, we sent a request to Paris 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



asking that books be sent to the Y. M. C. A. 
secretary. 

Coblenz, as you know, is the headquar- 
ters for the Third American Army, the 
army of occupation. It is located on the 
Rhine, at the point where the Moselle 
River joins the Rhine, the name Coblenz 
meaning "confluence." The city is on the 
west bank of the Rhine. Directly oppo- 
site, on the east bank, is a high promontory, 
surmounted by one of the celebrated Ger- 
man, fortresses, Ehrenbreitstein. The 
Third Army at that time included three 
corps, the third corps, which was on the 
east bank of the Rhine, the fourth corps, 
on the west bank, and farther back, 
around Treves, the seventh corps. This 
army comprised about 250,000 men, and 
they had been up there for about three 
weeks without any books. You have all 
heard how, after the armistice, the de- 
mand for books in France was greatly 
augmented because the men had more 
time for reading. Our headquarters in 
Paris at that time could not keep up with 
the demand for books. The same thing 
was true in Germany, and true in a greater 
degree; in no greater degree perhaps be- 
cause of the armistice, but because of 
other conditions in Germany. In Germany 
the men were forbidden to fraternize with 
the German people; they were scattered 
over territory about a hundred miles 
square, billeted in over 300 villages, and 
they had very little opportunity for mov- 
ing about, from one village to another; 
so they were especially dependent on 
their own efforts for amusement and en- 
tertainment, and on the efforts of the 
welfare organizations. This seemed to 
us to increase the need for books. 

When I reached there on January 3, 
there were no books. A carload had been 
shipped from Paris before I left that city, 
but they didn't arrive until the middle of 
January, so you see the Ford "went to 
beat the cars." As soon as the books 
came, the first thing we did was to dis- 
tribute a generous supply through the 
Y. M. C. A., the Red Cross, and the 
Knights of Columbus. The officers of the 



Third Army had asked us, as they had 
asked Dr. Raney in the beginning of over- 
seas work, to work largely through these 
other organizations, so we sent out to 
each division Y secretary twenty cases of 
books, to the Red Cross, thirty-six cases 
for the hospitals, and to the Knights of 
Columbus, forty cases for the K. C. huts. 
In that way a quick distribution was made 
of the books as fast as we could get them 
from Paris. 

As soon as that work was under way 
we started the central library in Coblenz, 
intended to serve the five or six thou- 
sand men stationed in and around head- 
quarters. For that we secured a wing of 
the Festhalle, the largest building in Co- 
blenz, which had been taken over by the 
Y. M. C. A. for entertainment work. Our 
portion of this building was a room forty 
feet square, with an outside entrance, and 
also an inside entrance from the Y. M. C. A. 
part of the building. That gave us good 
quarters, not quite large enough, but a 
place where the men came in crowds. 
The use of it was tremendous. We had 
at that time only one assistant in ' Co- 
blenz, Miss East, who had been detailed 
from the Y. M. C. A. headquarters in 
Paris. She was an enthusiastic, wide- 
awake young woman. She had never done 
library work, but she took hold with a 
vim almost too much vim, at first. I 
sent forty cases to the central library one 
afternoon, asking her to get some soldiers 
to unpack the books. We had installed 
shelving while waiting for the books to 
come. That night Miss East opened the 
library; we were not prepared with the 
necessary paraphernalia for charging the 
books; some had cards and some didn't, 
but we made the best of it, and although 
it took two or three weeks to get things 
straightened out, the books did circulate. 
That first night she opened the library 
about 5 o'clock, and four hundred books 
went out. They were going from then on 
at the rate of from two to four hundred 
volumes a day. 

'Later Miss East was succeeded by Miss 
Mary Booth. In addition to those two 



AHERN 



SOS 



assistants we had Edward E. Ruby, 
who took over the work when I left; and 
Mrs. Briggs, who took charge of our mail 
order collection and also spent part of 
her time visiting hospitals around Coblenz. 
We found at Third Army headquarters 
a graduate of the Pratt Institute Li- 
brary School, Kenneth C. Walker, and 
succeeded in getting him detailed to the 
library. Later came Miss Plagg, Mr. 
Hyde, and Miss Rose. 

The kinds of books called for were 
largely the same as in the camps in this 
country: O. Henry, Mark Twain, Zane 
Grey, and Porter. One captain asked for 
"Alice in Wonderland," but we found 
"Alice in the Looking Glass," which he 
took and read, and loaned to several other 
officers. There was a tremendous demand 



for books on the Rhine and books about 
that region. We could supply only a 
small part of the demand in that subject, 
for our stock was limited, and although 
we had twenty Baedekers, we could have 
used two or three hundred. Many of the 
books that came to us were gathered from 
the camps in France and sent on without 
repacking. We sent these cases out, 
thinking they were A. L. A. books. This 
letter is from a chaplain of the engineers, 
who received one of these cases. Please 
note that he is a chaplain. He says, "We 
are returning the two boxes of books that 
came from you Monday. They are Bibles. 
We would like very much to have you 
send us two boxes of reading, or library 
books." 



A. L. A. NEWS FROM OVERSEAS 
BY MABY EILEEN AHERN, Editor, Public Libraries 



I have been asked to tell you some of the 
things that came under my observation 
while it was my very great privilege to 
be overseas these past few months. I come 
before you with some trepidation, because 
both you and I remember well the very 
polished, graceful and finished address 
which came from overseas last year. 

When I received my appointment to go 
abroad, I was told to report to Mr. Ste- 
venson in Paris. When I reached there, 
after a very stormy voyage and a most 
inhospitable welcome from the elements 
of France, Mr. Stevenson asked me what 
I expected to do. I said, "I will do any- 
thing you want me to do, if I can, and I am 
just Irish enough to think I can do any- 
thing." He said, "I am some Irish my- 
self. I shall expect you to let the people 
at home know what we are doing here. I 
shall want you to talk library war service 
with all the American people you meet in 
France. Then Dr. Putnam has an idea that 
you can talk to the French people about 
public libraries." I said, "All right; I 
know all about Public Libraries; I brought 
it up, but I can't talk French." He re- 



plied, "I think I will trust you." Now, 
when a man looks straight at you, in that 
calm, calculating way Mr. Stevenson has, 
and says, "I will trust you," you know 
you are on your mettle. I was, at least, 
and I think if he had asked me to inter- 
view M. Cle"menceau I should not have 
hesitated to walk up to him and ask 
him what he thought about the American 
Library Association. I know I talked to 
some people of whom I was more afraid 
than I should have been of M. Cle"menceau. 
It seemed to me the first thing to do if 
I were going to reach the people at home, 
and let them know what the American 
Library Association was doing, was to 
get in touch with the streams that were 
flowing back toward America, carrying a 
word of what was going on "over there." 
But the many things that were occupying 
the attention of the world at that time, 
all of which came through one particular 
channel, made my efforts somewhat dis- 
appointing, when trying to reach that 
particular channel, the Associated Press. 
I felt bad about it for several weeks, 
until the Associated Press brought word 



310 



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to Europe that the camps in America were 
closing, and that therefore from them the 
American Library Association would have 
three and a half million books to give 
away; and I thought, if that's the way 
they report things from America, what 
might they not have reported to America 
if I had talked with them. And I was 
glad I had not been able to make connec- 
tions. I then turned to local sources. 

The Associated Press, as you know, is 
something of an eastern proposition; and 
as my office abroad was to go to the cen- 
ter of things, I got in touch with the Chi- 
cago Daily News. Now, some of you may 
think there is a better newspaper in the 
United States than the Chicago Daily 
News; I don't. I make no apology for my 
prejudice. I do this the more truly be- 
cause during my stay in Paris I received 
the most cordial cooperation, the most 
helpful suggestion, from the Chicago Daily 
News, and moreover, on more than one oc- 
casion they allowed me to get through 
their cabled news, word of what we were 
doing in France. 

I also called on the Chicago Tribune. 
I received cordial support from the Trib- 
une, and was told they had a line of pa- 
pers from Boston to San Francisco, and 
that if I talked to the point, and stopped 
when I reached it, they would print what 
I gave them and see that it was sent out. 
I know it appeared in the Chicago Trib- 
une at home, but whether it got into the 
other seven papers, I can't say. 

You heard what splendid plans have 
been made for distributing the periodicals 
and newspapers in France, and without 
making any comments, or placing the 
blame on anybody, I must say that if there 
is anything that works more slowly or 
incomprehensibly than the mails which 
carry magazines back and forth to France, 
and to other European countries, I don't 
know anything about it, but I do know 
when you put a magazine in the mail on 
the other side, and sometimes when you 
dropped them in on this side, they went 
nobody knows where. 

I shall not go much into details, but I 



want to tell you of the splendid coopera- 
tion that was given by a number of Amer- 
ican newspapers and magazines, for in- 
stance The Outlook. Mr. Ernst Abbott rep- 
resented his paper at the Peace confer- 
ence. I called to see him by appointment 
and was most cordially received. He was 
most appreciative in his remarks about 
what the American Library Association 
was doing, and as you know, gave us a 
splendid feature story in The Outlook. The 
Christian Science Monitor gave us a col- 
umn on more than one occasion referring 
most highly to the work we were doing. 

(Miss Ahern told in humorous fashion 
of her effort at publicity, especially about 
her call on Mr. Ray Stannard Baker, who 
was the head of the Peace conference press 
in Paris; of her astonishment to find such 
a mild-mannered man as one of the strong 
participators in the remarkable muck-rak- 
ing of twenty years ago. Miss Ahern said 
she thought Mr. Baker in his demeanor, 
courtesy and kindness more nearly an em- 
bodiment of David Grayson.) 

The work that I did in Paris was found- 
ed on the thought that I was to get news 
across to the American people of what the 
A. L. A. was doing with the money and 
books that had been given for the use of 
soldiers. That was the main thought in 
the letters which I sent to America. Then 
I tried to make widely known, among the 
soldiers and those who were directing 
A. E. F. forces in France, the readiness of 
the A. L. A. to do what it could to make 
the watching, waiting time of the boys 
pass as normally and as sanely as might 
be. 

Mr. Stevenson told me one day he 
would like to have me make a round of 
the library centers. "You will get the 
personal touch there better than you will 
get it from the letters which we have 
here," he said. My idea of the literary 
man in business has been changed since 
my association with Mr. Stevenson as the 
overseas representative of the American 
Library Association. We hear sometimes 
that literary men are not good business 
men. Well, the keen insight, the untiring 



AHERN 



311 



effort, the able handling of the great vol- 
ume of business shown in the work of 
Mr. Stevenson furnishes a notable ex- 
ception. Everyone was pleased with the 
rapidity and effectiveness of the work that 
was turned out in getting books to the 
men from Paris headquarters. The per- 
sonal testimony every day came in, not 
only in the letters from thousands of men 
in all stations of life, but on every occa- 
sion that offered discussion of the A. L. A. 
a continued expression in one key of the 
splendid service and the great help that 
the books were to the men when they 
came to the American Library Association. 

The experiences at the various camps 
visited ranged from grave to gay, but con- 
ditions there will be described by other 
speakers. 

The second part of my work was to 
bring to the people of France, as op- 
portunity offered, some notion of what 
the public library in America does, and 
the possibilities of its extension in France. 
They have what are called public libra- 
ries in France, but they are nothing like 
what we have here. There are some 
people, however, who understand what we 
are trying to do, and are anxious to start 
that sort of movement in France. I was 
invited to attend a meeting of a commit- 
tee appointed by the Government to con- 
sider the question of rebuilding some of 
the destroyed cities in France. They had 
previously discussed a great many things 
heating, lighting, waterways, schools, 
and what not, and finally they discussed 
the library. Before I reached Paris, Mr. 
Kerr had arranged a meeting at which 
to tell them of the American public li- 
brary. This he did very adequately, toy 
describing a public library such as he had 
known in his own town. I supplemented 
his talk and answered many questions. 
Professor Ford, of Harvard, was interpreter, 
and I am quite sure that what Mr. Kerr 
and I had to say lost nothing in the trans- 
lation. 

The Paris library of the A. L. A. was 
an exceedingly useful and popular place. 
It was conducted on the most approved 



ideas prevailing in American public libra- 
ries. I invited the committee of investi- 
gation to visit this library to see Ameri- 
can methods of administration at work. 
They came and several of us took great 
care to explain just what everything was, 
how and why everything was used. The 
quality of the books on the shelves were 
of a much higher order than the visitors 
anticipated. 

Those who have attended a foreign 
meeting of librarians will understand 
what I mean when I say that after it was 
explained that these books were arranged 
on the decimal classification, everything 
else we said to them went through that 
focus, and our elaborate explanations, 
given through the interpreter at head- 
quarters, always were answered by some 
member of the party in a remark about 
this classification not being quite scienti- 
fic. Finally I said, "Please tell them we 
are not concerned in America so much 
with the question whether our classifica- 
tion is scientific, but whether it gets the 
books arranged on the shelves so we 
can get them out quickly to those who 
want them!" . . . 

I was personally Invited by Madame 
Hollenberque, whose articles in Public Li- 
braries you have read, and who was inter- 
ested in trying to start libraries for chil- 
dren, to meet a group of teachers and dis- 
cuss the question of books for children. 
I had a very interesting time. The same 
conclusion, however, that was reached by 
the former committee was reached by this 
body of teachers that France is too poor 
to add another tax for another institution, 
and some other way must be found to 
make the opening wedge; perhaps by 
presenting a fully equipped children's li- 
brary, so they may have the example be- 
fore them as to what can be done. 

I had the opportunity also, through va- 
rious means, of bringing to the attention 
of a number of the finest of the French 
women this thing that might take up the 
leisure time they are afraid they are go- 
ing to have on their hands after the treaty 
of peace is signed, and showing them what 



312 



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a splendid opening there is for educated 
young women in the extension of library 
service in France. 

I wanted to tell you some of the things 
of human interest I met, but I have time 
only to say that the work is going on. 
One young man told me face to face that 
these books were the only things, many 
times, that kept him from going insane. 
Another man stopped me on the street 
and said, "You people don't understand 
what these books have been to us in these 
devastated regions: we don't know the 
language, there is no shop where we can 
buy books, and the spirit which you show 
in giving us the books, and your own 
personal service, is something that we 
shall not forget when we go back home." 
I want to plead with the librarians to 
make conditions in their libraries such 
that when these young men come back, 
they may retain these exalted ideas of 
what libraries mean. 



I hope I shall be excused if I say the 
service of the women librarians was more 
often mentioned than that of the men. 
Perhaps it was so because I was a woman, 
and it was loyalty to an ideal. But over 
and over again they said, "When I go 
back home I want to tell you that our 
public library is going to have one 'push- 
er,' one 'booster' " one anything, accord- 
ing to the degree of enthusiasm and the 
vocabulary. Still another man said, "I 
feel like taking off my hat to you women 
librarians; here you are over here, on 
jour own initiative, while I would go 
home on a raft today if I could, and take 
my chances on getting there; but here you 
are, staying and working as I have seen 
you work in this building. I don't under- 
stand it." And he took off his trench cap 
and said, "Here's to the women of the 
American Library Association!" I re- 
cho his words. 



SIX MONTHS AT HEADQUARTERS AND IN THE FIELD 

BY THERESA HITCHLER, Superintendent, Catalog Department, Public Library, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



My little talk this evening is to be just 
an informal ramble. I feel that I have 
been privileged and very fortunate in- 
deed to have camped on both sides of the 
fence in the enclosure and out in the 
field. No one who has not done that really 
understands what the library war service 
has meant. 

When I first considered the offer that 
was made to me and came down to Wash- 
ington and saw Mr. Milam, one of the 
first questions I asked him was whether I 
would have a chance to do work in the 
field. This was his reply: "Miss Hitchler, 
that depends entirely on you. You may 
go out in the field just as often as you 
consider it necessary and feel that you 
can leave your work at the office. You 
don't even have to ask me. All I ask is 
that you leave word where you are going, 
so we may communicate with you." 

That sounded lovely, and when I went to 



Washington on December first I had vi- 
sions of going right out in the field. When 
I tell you it never occurred to me that I 
could leave my desk during the first ten 
weeks, it will give you some idea of how 
foxy he was. The very first day I ar- 
rived I had two shocks; one came before 
Mr. Milam arrived. I was standing in 
that tremendous map room where most of 
the service was conducted, when a door 
behind me opened and an elderly gentle- 
man looked in. I was directly in the line 
of his vision, and he appeared to be look- 
ing at me when he said, "I don't know 
why you don't all go home; the war is 
over!" That was my greeting. He was 
the legitimate tenant of that room and 
anxious to have us get out. 

The second shock came when Mr. Milam 
turned over the five hundred and fifty- 
odd camps throughout the country to me 
and said, "Go to it." I didn't even know 



HITCHLER 



313 



where some of these places were; I wasn't 
familiar with the names of many of the 
camps, I am ashamed to say, and their 
places on the map just represented dots 
to me. I have learned a great deal since. 

The personnel at headquarters is some- 
thing that has become very precious and 
very dear to me. I would like to tell you 
not so much what we did, what we at 
headquarters did, what the library war 
service did, as what it did for us. I 
don't feel that in comparison with what 
I got I gave anything at all. The men 
and women with whom I was permitted 
to cast my lot for those six months had 
the finest, most wonderful, most united 
spirit ror service that I have ever known. 
There was never, so far as I could tell, 
one thought of self; never one thought 
except what we could do to help and 
serve. We felt not that we were doing 
it, but that the American people had en- 
trusted the American Library Association 
with this work to do for those boys over- 
seas and on this side, and all that we at- 
tempted to do was to carry out that work 
to the best of our ability. I can liken 
headquarters, I think, to nothing better 
than a huge mainspring, a huge dynamo, 
which was kept ever busy, ever whirling, 
keeping other machines in motion, send- 
ing out its work in various avenues of 
service to all parts of the country, to all 
sorts of people, the avenues growing 
wider and wider as the vast possibilities 
of our work were impressed upon us. 

Of course, there were some imperfect 
tools and some imperfect mechanism. We 
know that as well as anybody can tell it 
to us, and if we had another war, why, 
we would do ever so much better, but, of 
course, we don't want another war. Look- 
ing back over those six months there are 
many things, in the light of my later 
knowledge, that I feel I could have done 
better, but at the time I simply did what 
I could. 

The acting general director was also an 
acting generous director, because he left 
the heads with full authority and full re- 
sponsibility, so that we had the incentive 



always to do the very best we could. Our 
records records of work, records of books 
sent out and placed in camps and vessels, 
and in individual hands are large, but 
still far from complete. They do not 
nearly tell the story, because librarians 
out in the camps were far too busy actual- 
ly serving these books, to keep an exact 
record of the number handled. Many of 
our workers were not on the headquarters' 
pay roll; they were workers who were de- 
voting as much time as they could spare 
from their legitimate work; many of the 
workers probably you have never heard of 
certainly I never heard of them until I 
began visiting in the field; men and wom- 
en who were simply content to do the 
work, unnoticed, with no thought except 
the thought of work well accomplished. 

My first ten weeks were rather hectic 
ones, because I had to get acquainted not 
only with the camps and with their per- 
sonnel, but with everything that pertained 
to the machinery at headquarters. For 
ten weeks I stuck to it, even though I 
had an Invitation from the acting director 
to make a visit to the field. I think he 
knew when he asked me that I could not 
possibly conscientiously go. At the end 
of ten weeks I made my first trip, a 
lengthy one at that, a trip of two weeks 
to the southern part of the country. This 
first trip was down on the border, to San 
Antonio; I thought at the time of going 
to El Paso, also. I said, "I may as well go 
to El Paso; it is just a step across from 
San Antonio to El Paso!" I found it 
wasn't so! I met Miss Stockett, who has 
done splendid work down there; but I 
am not going to tell about her work, for 
she herself Is going to tell it at one of 
the camp librarians' meetings. 

When I got to San Antonio, we held a 
meeting of camp and hospital librarians 
and some officers from the neighborhood. 
Major Stark, who had been sent from 
headquarters to look after the military 
work on the Mexican border, was pres- 
ent at the time, and spoke. On my way I 
stopped at New Orleans and visited the 
various camps, Navy and Army, in and 



314 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



near the city. The librarian who was 
supervisor down there told me about the 
boys, who were farmers in that district, 
on wide stretches of land between cities, 
where they did not know anything about 
libraries, where they never had had books, 
where the boys had never known that 
there were books on farming and agricul- 
ture, and he just begged for such books. 
He said the boys were so eager to perfect 
themselves, to read up a little on their 
chosen work, that he Just begged that 
when this war service was over, if we 
could not start libraries in those neigh- 
borhoods, on those flats, so to speak, at 
any rate we would send all the books on 
farming and agriculture to the homes of 
these individual boys, so that they could 
go on. One boy was reading his twen- 
tieth book on farming, so you can imagine 
what it meant to them. 

On my way on this trip I met many fine 
women in the profession. My mind was 
carried back to what I had heard at Sara- 
toga, and, of course, when I went to 
headquarters I was on the lookout for 
them. I was very pleasurably surprised 
and pleased to find that women in some 
instances really received first choice. I 
know that time and time again I made a 
recommendation, and passed the name to 
the acting director general, when he him- 
self, on getting the name of a man, said, 
"Why not a woman?" In the beginning I 
didn't always make an attempt to try to 
find a woman to fit the position, but took 
the names handed to me; later we sought 
women all over the country, and wherever 
we had an available one we kept track of 
her and kept her on our list until such 
time as we could place her. This was 
part of my own work, and I would like 
the Association to know, that during the 
six months for which I can vouch, there 
was never a time when women were not 
pushed forward, and not always by a 
woman. 

To go back to headquarters for a min- 
ute, one of the privileges (and this ap- 
plies to the field work also) that all of us 
who worked there enjoyed so much, was 



that we rubbed shoulders and wits with 
so many big people who were not in our 
own profession, and you don't know how 
stimulating that was to further effort and 
to future ambitions. Of course, as I told 
you, we at headquarters ourselves could 
pick flaws in the work that we have done, 
and I know that when we get together 
like this, as a family, we do that very 
often; but do let us be a little careful 
how we pick flaws, because, after all, what 
we are doing is maligning a member of 
our own family. 

I have not yet finished my first trip, 
because on the way back I stopped at 
Charleston; I was put off the train at five 
o'clock in the morning, and at 7 o'clock 
I was met by a man and a flivver. The 
supervisor at Charleston was Miss Tit- 
comb. I will use the expression that ev- 
erybody did who came in contact with 
her she is one of the "live wires" in the 
profession. I asked the privilege of be- 
ing present when she did her transport 
work, but the representative from Wash- 
ington who went down there gave me a 
very vivid word picture of what she had 
done. Just fancy her starting out at 
dawn at 5 o'clock in the morning, and 
riding over nine miles of the most awful 
road to the Navy yard, and scaling a rope 
ladder to the ship, in order to see whether 
the books were there for the men coming 
back on the transport. She did not tell 
these stories herself, but the boys said, 
"We should have had some like you on 
the other side." 

I want to tell you what I told a 
Y. M. C. A. representative, a Y general 
director, when he said something to me 
about our modesty and our perfect will- 
ingness to do all the work and take none 
of the credit. That was a wrong way to 
approach me, because I do not believe in 
it. He said it in the belief that he was 
paying me and the Association a high 
compliment. I said to him, "You have the 
wrong idea; I don't care, and no individual 
who is engaged in this American Library 
Association war work, cares a whoop 
whether he or she gets any personal 



HITCHLER 



315 



credit, but I want you to know right now 
that the American Library Association 
does want credit for all it does, wants 
to be known to have done it; it is the 
only way to justify itself. It is nonsense 
to say, 'I will hide myself under a bushel, 
and let someone else take the credit,' 
and let the American people remain in 
ignorance of the fact that the money 
which they gave us to spend for this 
work was being spent by us in doing effi- 
cient work." If I had time I would like 
to dwell on the many wonderful things 
that have come to my knowledge of the 
work of the Y. M. C. A. officers and oth- 
ers, and it is not from any feeling of self- 
glorification that I speak as I do, because 
I really don't care in the least personally, 
and I know that none of the men and 
women who worked with me at headquar- 
ters felt differently; but I do think that 
the American Library Association ought 
to have all the credit, all the glory for 
what it has done. I would rather it came 
from outside. I don't believe it is well for 
us to keep saying it, but I think our serv- 
ice, our work, has echoed to every corner 
of the United States, and to other parts 
of the world, and I think what we want 
to do now, is to see that that echo never 
dies away, and if we can keep it up only 
by shouting, let's shout. 

This great enterprise which the Amer- 
ican people entrusted to the American 
Library Association, and operated through 
its library war service, with all its lim- 
itations and defects, is really a wonderful 
piece of work, wonderfully carried out. 

When I visited the New Hampshire and 
Maine district, on the second trip, I spent 
a day at the Naval prison in Portsmouth. 
There I had a very interesting talk with 
the Commander, and then he turned me 
over to an ensign who had charge of the 
educational department. He took me to 
the library and showed me what books 
they had and what kind they needed. 

An amusing thing happened while I was 
there. There were three boys standing In 



the library; he told me many of these 
were college boys, of course, Imprisoned 
for military misdemeanors, not criminal 
offenses. He said, "I want to see the li- 
brarian; where is he?" "He isn't here, 
sir," was the reply. "Well, go find him," 
he said. I thought the boy looked at me 
In a peculiar way, and then at the officer, 
and went out. He came back in two or 
three minutes and said, "He cannot be 
found, sir." In a very serious voice the 
officer said, "He must be found! Trail 
him; hunt him up!" And the boy looked 
at me and then edged up to the officer and 
saluted again and whispered something 
out of the corner of his mouth, and at the 
same time glanced over at the corner of 
the room. Of course, my eyes turned in 
the same direction. The ensign said to 
me, "Would you mind stepping out of the 
room for a moment?" With a serious 
face I said, "Not at all," but I had seen 
the bunk in the corner of the room, and 
I knew that the librarian had not been 
up and dressed when we pntered and had 
immediately ducked, and they did not 
quite know how to get out of it. 

My time Is up and I must close. Let 
me do so by telling you a final story. The 
insignia of our Association A. L. A. 
has been interpreted variously by various 
laymen, but the most unusual meaning was 
ascribed to it by a barber in the cosmo- 
politan city of New York. One of our 
transport librarians was being adminis- 
tered to In one of the large "tonsorial 
parlors" in the liveliest and most cen- 
tral part of the city, by a foreigner of 
oriental aspect. Suddenly the latter's eye 
was arrested by the A. L. A. pin on the 
librarian's coat. "Ah, you are a Turk, 
yes?" exclaimed the barber, with an air 
of wonderment and increased respect. 
"Why no, what makes you think that?" 
responded the astonished librarian. Point- 
ing to the pin and breathing the letters 
according to his view, the barber replied 
In a hushed tone, "Allah"! 



316 



EXCERPTS FROM REPORTS OP A. L. A. WORKERS OVERSEAS 



THE HEADQUARTERS LIBRARY 

The work of the headquarters library in 
France can hardly be measured by library 
standards in the United States because 
its organization and purpose are unique. 
It sprang into existence to meet a certain 
need and has molded its life towards this 
end. Its purpose has been to provide a 
comfortable place where the American sol- 
dier can enjoy the help and inspiration of 
books, and to send him home with a wider 
knowledge of European conditions and 
better equipped for his business or profes- 
sion than when he left the United States. 
Conditions in a foreign city are so differ- 
ent from those in America and the prob- 
lems encountered so varied that the struc- 
ture of library science has often had to 
be bent and twisted to meet the special 
needs. 

The home of the headquarters library is 
at 10, Rue de I'lys6e, Paris, in the palace 
of the former papal legate. The broad 
hallway of this building gives an excellent 
place for the charging desk, and the big 
reception rooms opening from each side 
have been converted into reference and 
reading rooms. In spite of the walls fres- 
coed with cupids and the big mirrors, the 
place quickly assumed an American ap- 
pearance, as was evidenced by the boy 
from a Missouri farm who paused at the 
door with a beaming face, exclaiming, 
"Gee, this looks just like home." 

A "real bit of America" in France, 
others called it and it was indeed our aim 
to have the American spirit so strong 
that it would catch and hold our soldiers. 

The headquarters library opened on Au- 
gust 29 after one hectic month in which 
seven thousand books were classified, 
listed and prepared for circulation by less 
than half a dozen people. One Decimal 
classification was our sole library guide 
and when that was requisitioned a little 
later by the Army headquarters, we had 
only our memories to depend on. 

The building itself was a constant sur- 
prise to us. It was like living in an en- 
chanted palace. Every few days some un- 
expected new phase would open up. The 
papal legate's oven formed an excellent 
place for filing newspapers, his big iron 
stoves were converted into tables for sort- 
ing books, and just when we did not know 
which way to turn to find a place to store 
our surplus stocks until we could get into 
shape for circulation, we would stumble 
upon some secret passage or concealed 
stairway leading into a spacious wine 



closet which could easily be converted 
into a storeroom. 

It was astonishing how quickly the sol- 
diers discovered that there was an Amer- 
ican Library in Paris. Word was passed 
from one to another that there was a place 
where American books and magazines 
could be had for the asking, and often at 
night we marveled at the well-filled read- 
ing rooms when we realized that not even 
a line of light marked the existence of 
the library building and that the streets 
leading to it were sc black that one could 
only feel his way along. Once we tried 
to place a guiding star over the door in 
the shape of an electric bulb covered with 
many coats of dark paint. But the next 
morning one of the police officers visited 
the library and ordered it to be in- 
stantly removed. "You are endangering 
the whole city," he told us. "The enemy 
airplanes might see your light and would 
know that Paris lay below." So we put 
aside our electric globe and hung heavy 
curtains over our windows that we might 
in no way be to blame for the bombs that 
almost nightly dropped on Paris. 

At this time when the American Army 
was pounding on the western front and 
every nerve was strained toward the win- 
ning of the war, the chief interest of the 
soldiers in books lay along technical lines. 
Daily the shelves were stripped of books 
on mechanical engineering, and daily new 
copies were added. Books dealing with 
airplanes, automobiles, telegraphy, and 
road construction were consumed with re- 
markable rapidity and supplemented by 
mathematics varying from simple ques- 
tions in arithmetic to the more intricate 
problems of calculus. 

Then came the signing of the armistice 
and in a day the demand for technical 
subjects stopped and that for fiction 
trebled. "Something light and foolish" was 
the constant demand. The tension had 
been loosened and the library was the first 
to feel it. 

"It is just the reaction," we told our- 
selves. "The men will soon turn again 
to serious reading;" but the days passed 
and our books on art, history, travel and 
poetry stood unused upon our shelves, 
while the demand for worthless fiction 
continually increased. Moreover the qual- 
ity of the reading was reflected in the 
faces of the men. They were unhappy, 
discontented and restless. The war was 
over and they wanted to go home. They 
could see no beauty in Paris and they 



REPORTS 



317 



were losing the great historical signifi- 
cance of the place. 

This was the library's opportunity, and 
it was quickly seized. Our staff was small; 
we were working nights, Sundays and hol- 
idays; but it was our privilege to have a 
big share in strengthening the morale of 
our soldiers. It would be months before 
our army could be sent across the ocean 
and it was for us to make the soldiers 
realize that this was not lost time but a 
glorious opportunity and a rare chance 
for preparation for the future. Gay, mod- 
ern Paris had failed to satisfy them and 
it was our duty to interest them in its 
historical background and its architectural 
beauty; to send them home with a knowl- 
edge of the real spirit of France and to 
awaken a deeper interest in civic im- 
provement as reflected in art and archi- 
tecture of Paris. 

It was not an easy problem to catch and 
hold the interest of these restless, home- 
sick men, but we strained every effort 
tactfully to turn the current of public 
reading. We filled a table near the en- 
trance with alluring books dealing with 
France its history, travel and biography. 
We filled a bulletin board in the hall on 
which we posted notices of interesting 
lectures and the times of the opening 
of museums and art galleries. We dis- 
tributed printed lists of interesting books 
on France, Paris and French art. 

Gradually the morale stiffened. Soldiers 
who had walked through the streets of 
Paris with unseeing eyes awakened to the 
knowledge that there was something more 
than cafe's and vaudeville. Books on 
France were swept from the shelves, over 
a hundred guides to Paris by Baedeker 
were in constant circulation and fifty 
copies of Victor Hugo's "Les Mise"rables" 
did not begin to fill the demand. Three 
hundred copies of French history were 
added to the collection and still the 
shelves were empty. The requests for 
books on art and architecture increased 
and the most encouraging part of the 
work was that the demand came from 
the masses. 

"The simplest books you have on 
French architecture," demanded one man. 
"I'm a contractor; my buildings are strong 
but they are ugly. These Parisians have 
something that we haven't and I am going 
to find out what it is. When I go back to 
America, I want to put up good-looking 
buildings as well as strong ones." 

Gradually the discontented faces grew 
less frequent; the restlessness was less 
apparent and it became evident that the 



time required for waiting for passage 
home was not to be lost. 

Thus there have been three stages of 
reading in the headquarters library: First 
the technical, then the fiction and now we 
are passing through the educational. 

In February the great influx of Ameri- 
can students began at the Sorbonne. Two 
thousand were admitted to this university 
and during the first week practically all 
found their way to the headquarters li- 
brary. 

"I haven't seen an English book for a 
year," one soldier confessed. "So I think 
I'll have to begin on something light and 
take the heavy stuff when my mind be- 
comes used to the strain." 

While the Sorbonne students were re- 
questing books on literature and art, there 
came an overwhelming demand for inter- 
national law, economic geography and Eu- 
ropean history. Our shelves were 
stripped and every available copy brought 
in from the warehouse. Soldiers were 
waiting on the steps before the doors were 
opened in the morning and so absorbed 
were they in their work that they did 
not even move when the clock struck ten 
at night. Diplomatic examinations were 
being held in Paris and the headquarters 
library was doing its best to meet the un- 
usual demand for material on interna- 
tional relations. 

One of the best things done by the 
headquarters library is a phase of work 
it has done through other organizations. 
Thousands of soldiers are pouring into 
Paris for a few days' leave who know 
nothing about the city and have no time 
to visit the library. These soldiers are 
conducted about Paris by Red Cross and 
Y. M. C. A. guides but back of this work 
stands the American Library Association. 
There is scarcely an Army lecturer in 
Paris that has not obtained his material 
from the headquarters library and com- 
piled his notes on the tables of its ref- 
erence rooms. Day and night the rooms 
of the library are filled with these war 
workers and its shelves ransacked for ma- 
terial that can be put into a condensed 
form for soldiers staying in Paris for a 
limited time. 

The reflection of our work has also 
been seen in the newspapers and maga- 
zines of America, for it is to the head- 
quarters library that a large number of 
American writers in Paris have come for 
the historical background of their work. 

Among the French librarians the head- 
quarters library has stood for more than 
an Army organization. To them it has 
represented the library system of Amer- 
ica. On Thanksgiving Day a meeting of 



318 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



the French librarians was held at head- 
quarters and since then many have re- 
turned to study the decimal classification 
and the system of cataloging, and to mar- 
vel at the free access to the shelves and 
the simple method of charging books. 

The work is coming to an end. The 
soldiers are leaving France and when they 
are all out of Paris the work of the head- 
quarters library will be finished. It has 
been unique in its service and, at times, 
unique in its methods. No fines have been 
asked for overdue books and no charge 
made for lost ones. The "honor system" 
has been used and it has worked well. 
Since the library opened last August its 
doors have never been closed for a whole 
day, except on that memorable first of 
May when all Paris was called to a halt 
and transportation ceased. 

The American soldier considers the 
books lining the walls of the headquarters 
library as among his best friends in Paris 
and they have indeed proved to him an 
inspiration and help. 

ELIZABETH GRAY POTTEB. 



THIRD ARMY HEADQUARTERS 

The Army of Occupation moved to the 
Coblenz bridgehead in November and De- 
cember, 1918. As originally constituted, 
the occupying force consisted of about 
Army about 125,000 men, and when move- 
250,000 men. There are now in the Third 
ments now ordered are effected this num- 
ber will be reduced to slightly over 100,- 
000. 

The area of Germany occupied by the 
Third Army is said to be one of the most 
densely populated sections of Europe. The 
rule against fraternizing has been ob- 
served rigidly; this is from the stand 
served rigidly; this is from the stand- 
of the occupation; it prevents all social 
contact and reduces intercourse to the 
strict requirements of business. Gen- 
erally, for example, German hotels and 
restaurants are closed against the men, 
and, with few exceptions, all forms of 
amusement. 

It will be apparent that the need and 
the opportunity for library service is 
unique. Here are detachments of Amer- 
icans isolated in small villages, cut off 
from normal association with people, very 
light duties and many hours of leisure 
every day and very little to employ that 
leisure. They are thrown entirely upon 
their own resources for recreation, or upon 
those of such organizations as ours. None 
of us has ever seen anything like the 
clamor for reading and study that has 



been about us here. Men who have never 
read before have literally begged for 
books. 

For the distribution of books we have 
cooperated with all the accredited welfare 
organizations, as well as with the army 
units themselves. Considerably more than 
half of our books have been distributed 
through the Y. M. C. A., K. C., and the 
Red Cross. The advantage of distribu- 
tions through these agencies, particularly 
in the earlier days of the work, was that 
they afforded a personnel, largely women, 
who could be depended upon to be inter- 
ested in book distribution, particularly of 
books of a recreational type. As a rule, 
however, there was the disadvantage that 
the libraries were located in canteens or 
huts where it was exceedingly difficult to 
safeguard the books, so that large per- 
centages have been lost. 

In our experience, the best library serv- 
ice is secured in those cases where mil- 
itary units ask directly for it. An appro- 
priate room is almost invariably provided 
and competent men are detailed to admin- 
ister the library. We have found serv- 
ice in such cases very satisfactory indeed; 
there is apt to be a large circulation, and 
the matter of returning books is largely a 
matter of military discipline. 

Book distribution has been terribly 
hampered by the constant movement of 
troops. Not only have the divisions 
largely changed locations, but units within 
divisions are constantly shifting. It has 
been very hard in such cases to fix re- 
sponsibility. One important town, which 
accommodates a regiment of troops, has 
had within the last three months no less 
than four different outfits. As these 
moved out some took their books with 
them; some left them, but before we had 
received notice of a change, the books 
were snapped up by another organization. 
We have outfitted this town three times, 
and at the present moment it is without 
a_ library. 

~It was felt from the first that there 
should be maintained at certain points li- 
braries of sufficient size and diversity to 
accommodate men of widely varied tastes 
and education. This is hardly possible 
when the number of books is limited to a 
few cases sent to smaller units of sol- 
diers, or to a hut or canteen. 

The Coblenz library was the first im- 
portant enterprise undertaken by the A. 
L. A. in the Third Army. It is located 
in the municipal festhalle, which was 
requisitioned by the Y. M. C. A. for the 
benefit of the whole Third Army, but es- 
pecially the leave men. The library is 



REPORTS 



319 



located in a large and attractive room on 
the main floor occupying one whole wing 
of the large building. It was redecorated 
for us, and good shelving was installed to 
accommodate about 6,000 volumes. It has 
been a great success from the beginning; 
the circulation has frequently run to 400 
a day, and there are usually about 4,000 
books in circulation. Since the beginning, 
between 8,000 and 10,000 volumes have 
been placed on the shelves. Much atten- 
tion has been given to supplying the men 
with reference material, and we have co- 
operated with and supplemented the work 
of the several army schools operating in 
the area; but the chief value of the library 
has been as a circulation center. 

Later, libraries were operated at Treves, 
Neuenahr, Neuwied, Andernach and 
Montabaur. 

Early in March we opened at Coblenz 
a mail order section which follows closely 
the lines laid out by that at the Paris 
headquarters. No part of our work has 
been more successful than this. It has 
been of especial value in supplementing 
the scanty supply of books in the outlying 
field, and until the recent large with- 
drawals of troops was growing rapidly. 
Recently the work of this department has 
been greatly increased by supplying books 
requested by men in conferences with the 
lecturers of the Army Educational Corps. 

We have been fortunate in maintaining 
the closest and most harmonious relations 
with the educational corps, both before it 
was incorporated into the army and since. 
In placing the educational reference libra- 
ries we have deferred to the wishes of the 
educational director; in consequence we 
have articulated perfectly with the edu- 
cational scheme. 

With the approval of the welfare officer 
for the Third Army we undertook the or- 
ganization under military control of li- 
brary systems in the several divisions. If, 
in the judgment of the division welfare of- 
ficer, the service could best be rendered 
by one of the welfare organizations, that 
organization was to be recognized as the 
official library for that unit. 

We have begun the distribution of mag- 
azines in accordance with the newly as- 
sumed duty of the A. L. A. In the pres- 
ent state of uncertainty, magazine service 
is on the whole the most effective serv- 
ice we are able to render and it is highly 
important that it be kept to a high stand- 
ard of efficiency. 

It has been a large responsibility to ad 
lainister the library work in the Army 
of Occupation, but also an opportunity 
that any man would cherish. 

EDWABD E. RUBY. 



BREST 

The "standing room only" sign is up to- 
night at Pontanezen Library, 3 miles out 
of Brest. Two hundred and three men, 
including about a dozen officers and four 
chaplains, are in the building at 8 P. M. 
Quiet reigns except for the shuffling of 
feet of those in transit. A pin dropping 
upon the rough floor would easily be 
heard. The fireplace has its triple row of 
chairs in addition to the settles, and each 
of the four stoves has its circle of friends. 
The men smoke, as do the stoves, and 
they wear their overseas caps, for the 
buildings here are drafty. The building 
is typical of libraries constructed in the 
camps in the States, except its walls and 
roofs are of corrugated iron, its windows 
of oiled cloth, its window frames and 
beams of unfinished lumber, its chairs 
made to order, its floors not fit for 
dancing as the cracks are many and wide 
and the boards of varying- thicknesses, 
and its electric lighting poor, though said 
to be the best lighted place in camp. Some 
of the filing trays are made out of tin 
taken from the inside of tobacco cases, 
while the settles and the charging desk 
are constructed from the wood of the 
longer boxes of the A. L. A., those coming 
from Newport News. For a carpet within 
the desk there are two double blankets 
which are already showing the wear from 
constant use. The map of the battle front 
attracts men as molasses does flies and 
at times their arguments wax too warm, 
while many are grouped around a chart 
showing the colored symbols of the A. 
E. F. 

The library has been in operation now a 
little over a month. Men were ready to 
enter before the carpenters were out, and 
there has been little or no need to adver- 
tise its existence. The use, except at 
meal hours, is a thriller to those not ac- 
customed to crowds at home. The circu- 
lation in April, its first full month, totaled 
19,189 volumes. When one appreciates 
that an inexperienced detail of seven men 
must handle the most of the routine work, 
one realizes that the system within must 
be simple, and it is. 

The many camps around Brest have 
their libraries also, some in the Y. M. C. 
A. buildings, others in Red Cross huts, 
while in a number of cases the command- 
ing officers give space and detail men 
to have charge. 

At times transport librarians drop in, 
while otners reach these shores and de- 
-part without our knowledge. Brest is a 
most interesting place, especially so from 
the many regiments which depart from 
the camp here. Many ships are in its 



320 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



magnificent harbor at all times. There 
are war vessels from many countries, 
transports in the stream unloading U. S. 
troops from a lighter, German boats con- 
verted for the transport service, fishing 
smacks the masters of which are most 
picturesque. All these and the natural 
beauty of this quaint walled city give zest 
to the service. HAKOLD DOUGHERTY. 



GIEVRES 

Gi&vres is known to the A. E. F. as the 
G. I. S. D. of the S. O. S. Written out in 
full this spells "Warehouses," and indi- 
cates army supplies of all kinds in enor- 
mous quantities, handled by twenty thou- 
sand men in a camp large enough to in- 
clude a hundred and fifty miles of Ameri- 
can railway. To the A. L. A. also Gievres 
meant a warehouse, but its early history 
as a distributing point belongs to the 
chronicles of the A. L. A. Headquar- 
ters. When my connection with it began 
late in February nearly all the books were 
out of the warehouse and some twenty 
thousand had been distributed through the 
area in the Y's, barracks, chaplains' read- 
ing-rooms and hospitals. 

The particular need for more library 
service was due to the opening of the 
Army post schools. In answer to an 
urgent appeal from the post school offi- 
cers at Gi&vres and Pruniers fourteen sets 
of educational books and a librarian were 
delivered hastily in Gievres. It was de- 
cided to establish a central library for the 
whole area, including the air service with 
its ten thousand additional men at Pru- 
niers. The Army provided a building of 
the hospital barracks type, with living 
quarters in one end for the librarian and 
an assistant. While this building was 
being put up a sort of traveling service 
was maintained, the traveling being done 
by the books and the librarian in any sort 
of conveyance available at the moment, 
and headquarters were wherever books 
could be sorted or mail delivered. 

The camp covered so large an area that 
no one building could ever serve the whole 
project, so the plan of sending out small 
sets of books was continued. Some went 
to companies doing guard duty or out in 
road gangs and remote from any kind of 
recreation, and others to places thad had 
books but wished a new supply. 

This camp is really a great business 
proposition and the men work in offices 
and warehouses all day and use the li- 
brary much as they would at home, in the 
evening and Saturday afternoon and Sun- 
day. It is not at all like the situation in 



casual camps where the men have nothing 
more than a little drilling to take up their 
time. It is an advantage in giving us a 
more permanent set of readers but they 
are naturally fewer in numbers, and have 
much less time and inclination for reading 
or study. The greatest interest has been 
shown in reading that has some immediate 
bearing on business life. With the baseball 
season already open and so many rumors 
afloat about a speedy breaking up, very 
few can settle down to any line of cultural 
reading. Many boys have been in this one 
spot for twelve or fifteen months and as 
they take out one light story after another, 
they say quite frankly that all they want 
is something to help pass the time away. 
LOUISE PBOUTY. 



ST. AIGNAN 

At St. Aignan there is a constant 
changing of men, who may be here for a 
few days only, or held for several weeks. 
The district covers an area twenty or 
twenty-five miles square, with as many 
different groups or smaller camps as there 
are branches in the service. Sometimes 
there have been 80,000 men in the dis- 
trict, and at times 20,000. 

At first transportation was the most 
serious handicap, not only in getting books 
to the camp but also in getting them dis- 
tributed throughout the district. There 
are no trolley lines and a motor was al- 
most impossible to get. After the sign- 
ing of the armistice this was gradually 
changed and by the middle of March the 
Army could give all the transportation 
needed. The second handicap was the 
fact that men were casuals with none of 
the control and esprit de corps which goes 
with regular units. This was felt espe- 
cially in the difficulty in getting the books 
returned there was no officer who knew 
his men or had influence with them to 
help us out. 

No camp needed library service more 
than St. Aignan. The very fact that the 
men were casuals and away from their 
units tended to make them discontented. 
The camp was horribly overcrowded with 
tired, uncomfortable, distressed men who 
had nothing to do but wait what seemed to 
them an interminable time for their start 
home. It was cold, wet, muddy, no heat in 
barracks and tents, little light at night. So 
the A. L. A. came into camp at a psycho- 
logical moment, considering both the 
needs of the men and the help the Army 
could give, when Orlando C. Davis, 
the A. L. A. representative, arrived on 
January 10. He found the educational 
director of the Y. M. C. A. had already 



REPORTS 



321 



placed some 14,900 volumes in forty-one 
places in the district. Some of these 
libraries had practically disappeared; all 
were much depleted. Mr. Davis got the 
Army to give and build a barrack build- 
ing for a central library in the classifica- 
tion camp, the largest one in the district. 

The building 'became so overcrowded 
the Army gave us a second barrack build- 
ing within a month of the completion of 
the first, and this in spite of the fact that 
there were very heavy building demands 
made just at that time. This second 
building was joined to the first in such a 
way as to give us a room 40x100 feet. 
Within a week there was no seating space. 
At first an attempt was made to count the 
number of men using the library, but it 
was given up as hopeless. However on 
one especially busy day the men in the 
building were counted. There were 324 
at the morning counting, 517 in the after- 
noon and 446 in the evening, making a 
total of 1,305 men in the building in one 
day as the minimum. There were not 
many days quite so busy" but it was an 
ordinary occurrence to have every seat 
taken and for the men to stand and read. 

There is absolutely no way of estimat- 
ing the number of books read in the room, 
or the real circulation. Such is the effect 
of example, that even books seemed to 
go A. W. O. L., for clean-up days in the 
barracks brought many in with cards in 
them. Also many impromptu barracks li- 
braries seem to have sprung up as the 
file of overdues grew at the desk. One 
report came in of nine books under one 
bed tick. But from the opening of the 
library on February 10 until April 30, the 
total recorded circulation was 25,821, of 
which 6,189 were classed books, and we 
had very few classed books worth any- 
thing until the educational sets came 
about the middle of March. 

The demand for magazines was the 
hardest to meet. The Red Cross and the 
Y. M. C. A. both came to our rescue by 
giving us a number. At first we tried to 
keep them in the room but soon gave it 
up in disgust for they just melted away; 
so we substituted the plan of nailing down 
to the table one copy of each magazine 
and allowing the rest to circulate. The 
Red Cross also made the library a dis- 
tributing station for the Paris edition of 
the New York Herald, Chicago Tribune 
and Daily Mail. 

By April 1 our book supply largely 
brought down from Paris by Army trucks 
was adequate, and by May first eight 
sets of the educational books were in use 
in four places in the camp. Because of 
the nature of the camp almost no post 



schools could be started excepting for il- 
literates. So the library has tried to fill 
the gap by giving the men a chance to 
read and study for themselves. The expe- 
rience of one man may be interesting, es- 
pecially as it shows the effort the men 
made to get back into harness again. He 
was delighted when he discovered law 
books and started to read. The third day 
he brought his book back discouraged, say- 
ing he simply could not keep his mind on 
it, so he stopped reading in "gobs," but 
took a hike first then read an hour, grad- 
ually increasing the time, until he could 
read a half day with ease. 

To secure the return of the books has 
been a hard problem. The books seldom 
got out of the camp, as the Army saw 
that none went out as baggage; but with 
no reader's card there is no check on the 
reader, and a popular book goes around 
the barracks usually before it is returned. 
By that time there is no one responsible 
for its return and there it lies. Again the 
fact that we were casuals had to be con- 
sidered. The books already placed in the 
camp had just disappeared in several 
places, and all libraries were having trou- 
ble. So it was decided not only to ask 
help of the Army but to appeal to the men 
individually. This was done by posters, 
by short talks at various recreational cen- 
ters before large crowds and by appeals 
to the men themselves at the desk. A 
book slot was cut near the entrance, this 
making the return easy at any time of the 
day or night, and also often gave an ex- 
cuse for making this appeal. In this way 
we gained the cooperation of many, who 
would voluntarily gather up the books ly- 
ing around a barrack and bring them in. 
Also about once a month the Army would 
gather in all books. 

The work of the central library was 
only a part of the service given. Books 
have been placed in Y. M. C. A., K. of C., 
prison and medical labor camps or any 
isolated companies or smaller groups. 
These groups have changed so constantly 
it is impossible to give the number served 
or what the circulation of these books 
has been. But a real traveling library 
system has been carried out. At first the 
old question of transportation made the 
work very difficult, but early in March 
the Army was able to give a Ford or truck 
as was needed, and at least two days per 
week was given to visiting these stations, 
taking out new books, collecting the used 
ones and delivering the books specially 
requested. 

Another interesting and successful ex- 
periment was the placing of one of the 
Y Hut libraries and reading rooms in a 



322 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



tent, thus separating it from the noise and 
confusion of the recreational center. The 
tent had windows which could be opened, 
double walls, a floor and was lighted by 
electricity. A well organized library of 
some 2,000 volumes and plenty of maga- 
zines, with reading tables, was opened on 
April 1. The room was a haven of quiet 
and peace, made most attractive with 
flowers and decorations that could be used 
in a tent. 

The human side has been as interesting 
as the book side of the work, if there were 
only time to tell of it. But the A. L. A. 
may feel sure they have had the heartiest, 
fullest backing from the Army at this 
camp. Everything has been done to help 
on the work that it was possible to do, and 
the appreciation by the Army of the A. L. 
A. work is most encouraging. Also the 
hearty, helpful backing of the Y. M. C. A. 
has smoothed many hard places for the 
librarians, and contributed much to the 
success. 

ANNA MACDONALD. 



SAVENAY 

Savenay is a quaint little village in 
Brittany a village so small and unim- 
portant that most people in France do not 
know that it exists. But there are thou- 
sands of returned soldiers in America to- 
day who can testify that there is such a 
town and that there is a big American 
hospital center there. 

Just outside of the village is a large nor- 
mal school built of stone and quite preten- 
tious in its way. Before the coming of 
the Americans, all else was open country. 
The school was taken over by the medi- 
cal department and turned into a hos- 
pital, which in the course of time became 
the central hospital of a group of eight 
scattered over the surrounding area. At 
present (May 1) there are in the entire 
center about 6,000 patients, 430 officers, 
460 nurses and 3,250 enlisted personnel. 
Besides these there are perhaps 125 civil- 
ian employees. 

Most of the patients are brief visitors, 
discharged from other hospitals and on 
their way to the port of embarkation. And 
the vast majority of them are well men 
whose one hope and ambition in life is to 
be called on the next convoy going to 
Brest or Saint Nazaire. 

Up to the 1st of April all the books in 
the center were fiction, but with the open- 
ing of the educational department for the 
men of the medical detachment, a set of 
educational books was sent Obviously 
the thing to do was to find a house for 



them. Upon investigation, an empty 
ward which was being kept for a gymna- 
sium was found; its location made it ac- 
cessible to all hospitals. Upon request it 
was given to the American Library Asso- 
ciation and upon further request it was 
furnished with tables, oenches, shelves 
and a magazine rack by the engineers. 
As a very special concession it was all 
stained brown; and when some wicker 
chairs and yellow curtains and lamp 
shades were added, it was proclaimed 
by all, from the recreational colonel to 
the bucks en masse, to be the most 
attractive place in the center. Over 
here one misses the beautiful Red Cross 
houses and the attractive buildings of the 
other organizations. Everything is very 
rude and crude and in consequence any 
little attempt at decoration is quickly 
noticed and thoroughly appreciated. 

The men are simply ravenous for books, 
the sick as well as the well ones. If the 
shelves were filled up every morning, each 
night would find them empty. The litter 
cases in the wards are visited in turn 
each day and an armful of books disap- 
pears almost as soon as it enters. When 
a sick man knows that he can get some- 
thing besides fiction, his delight knows 
no bounds. It's the same old story of the 
camp hospitals in the States only more so, 
for when it's a question of getting some- 
thing for a man who has lost an arm or 
a leg or an eye one would move heaven 
and earth to do it. 

The officers have been as enthusiastic 
as the enlisted men about the kind of 
books they are getting. "After having 
been thoroughly fed up on sweets, it's 
good to be able to get this good bread and 
butter," one of them remarked. The 
nurses, too, drop in to read and take books 
but not as much as the officers. 

Though these books are playing such a 
great part in the lives of these men in 
hospital, we must be glad that the days 
ol the A. L. A. at Savenay are numbered. 
The center is to be evacuated by the mid- 
dle of July and most of its patients will 
be where they long to be safe once more 
on American soil. 

ANNE M. MULHEEON. 



THE BEAUNE UNIVERSITY A. L. A. 
LIBRARY 

From the hour that the library opened 
a rush started. Instructors who were 
without books of any sort were looking 
for the A. L. A. representative for help 
in preparing the first lectures. Students 
wanted books, books, books, either to get 



REPORTS 



323 



an advance start in their studies or for 
general reading. So the first ten thou- 
sand books were rushed through the mill 
on a day and night shift, with the least 
possible delay, and put in circulation. The 
stream of readers became unbelievably 
great and greater. The reading room had 
a normal seating capacity of four hun- 
dred; but with the moving in of extra 
chairs this was increased to seven hun- 
dred, and then men packed in till there 
was not even standing room. In fact, it 
was utterly impossible to get to the 
shelves any time during the day or until 
the closing hour at ten o'clock. 

From the first, two great problems pre- 
sented themselves, books and room. The 
first was disposed of by the receipt of 
twenty sets of such educational titles as 
had arrived from the States, supplemented 
by several thousand miscellaneous books 
supplied from Paris stock, and by pur- 
chase in London. Mr. Kerr's trip to Lon- 
don resulted in the very prompt delivery 
of many books of the greatest possible 
value, and they were received at a time 
when most needed. The question of room 
was settled splendidly by the addition of 
two buildings to the main library. 

There was a general demand, of course, 
for "departmental libraries." I am sure 
that at one time we had no less than 
twenty-five such requests. Since, how- 
ever, most buildings were poorly lighted 
and heated, since they leaked, and office 
space was limited, and the library was 
almost unique in having both heat and 
light until late at night, most instructors 
were sufficiently reconciled to having books 
specially needed set aside in an "instruct- 
ors' alcove." After the first week or two, 
with the immense popularity of the libra- 
ry in evidence, we asked if it would not 
be more advisable to provide special al- 
coves and reserves for the different col- 
leges than to undertake to provide build- 
ings, books and supervisors in several 
parts of the camp. The generous and 
quick response of the president in having 
erected quickly buildings which seated 
1,500 readers brought about a happy solu- 
tion, for it was soon evident that service 
could be given at these large buildings 
centrally located and under one adminis- 
tration. 

Of the 30,000 volumes in the library, 
2,600 are fiction; this number is adequate. 
The value of the collection lies in its 
splendid selection and in the fact that all 
the books are new and of the latest revi- 
sions. Readers generally, and especially 
army men, have been unsparing in their 
praise of the type of books unexpectedly 
found here. 



I regard the extent and character of the 
reading done here as the happiest incident 
of my rather varied experiences in War 
Work. If it were not for actual records 
and observations it would be difficult for 
me to conceive of the amount of reading 
done. 

There are, I suppose, about ten thou- 
sand men in this camp, possibly twelve 
thousand. At one time between nine and 
ten thousand books were in circulation, 
or approximately a book per man. At the 
very same time we were seating nine hun- 
dred readers in the library nearly every 
hour of the day, from 8 o'clock in the 
morning until 9:30 in the evening, mess 
hours alone excepted. At the present time 
we are seating from fourteen to fifteen 
hundred at a time. It is my observation 
that books drawn from the library are not 
ordinarily read in the library, except for 
the very frequent starting to read a book 
which is later taken out. Reading in the 
library is mainly of books men pick out 
while browsing about, and of course, in 
the two special reserve rooms. But to 
get a proper idea of the extent of read- 
ing, one must realize that practically ev- 
ery man has a book in his billet and that 
the majority of men in the camp read 
other books in the library every day. 

Fiction is, very strange to say, the 
"slowest" book we have, and that in spite 
of the fact that it is all absolutely new, 
that it is a combination of the popular 
and standard titles such as have been 
popular in camps. It is popular, and has 
what would normally be regarded as an 
excellent circulation, but it falls down as 
compared with classed books. It ranks in 
circulation just about one to six. 

Now, in my judgment, there are impor- 
tant reasons for this latter condition, and 
the main one is that the library is well 
stocked with brand new books of the type 
that men like, on open shelves where 
readers can handle them. I am not mak- 
ing an argument for open shelves that 
matter is admittedly one of administra- 
tion. The appeal of shelves of new books 
is very strong to men who have been 
roughing it for one or two years; these 
new books include practically every sub- 
ject men might be interested in all the 
businesses, professions, vocations, sports, 
history, politics, travel, fine literature, etc. 
Books on France were consistently popu- 
lar; but drama, poetry, essays, with a sur- 
prisingly large call for appreciations of 
art and literature are well in the fore- 
ground. We must consider too the type 
of men here; there are eight or nine hun- 
dred officers, of course, men of education; 
and the average enlisted man here I sup- 



324 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



pose has had some little college educa- 
tion, but if he has not, he is ambitious 
and a man of ideals. But this, which is 
the last observation, may be as accurate 
as the first, and it is based on personal 
contact with men at the desk, at mess, on 
the street, and in a thousand and one 
other places. When men arrived at the 
University, they felt they were getting 
back more nearly to old peace time con- 
ditions; military restrictions were far less 
than at any time in a year or so, and they 
had a certain mental "spring" which ac- 
companies a feeling of freedom. Very 
many men have talked of wanting to 
"read up" on the most general subjects, 
and time without number grab books 
which we commonly associate with "high- 
brows." But one after another, too, they 
wanted, along with these, books on busi- 
ness theory and practice in order "to 
save time." I have been particularly 
struck with their responsiveness to what 
they read. 

It is very difficult for me to give you a 
fitting appreciation of the courtesies ex- 
tended by the military authorities. I can 
think of nothing that staff officers might 
have done for the library or librarians 
that has not been done; on the contrary, 
they have anticipated our needs in many 
instances. They have been so generous in 
the little acts of assistance and courtesy 
which so frequently are forgotten in civil 
life, that we are embarrassed by our in- 
ability to reciprocate. 

L. L. DICKEBSON. 



AMERICAN PEACE COMMISSION 
LIBRARY 

In order to understand the work that 
the American Library Association War 
Service has done for the American Com- 
mission to Negotiate Peace, it is necessary 
to sketch the library activities of the 
American Peace Commission. The Re- 
search section of the Peace Commission 
existed under the name of the "Inquiry" 
for over a year before the Peace Commis- 
sion proper was organized. As the aim of 
the Research section was to make an ex- 
haustive study of all "problem areas" in 
connection with the war from a geo- 
graphic, historic, ethnographic, economic 
and political point of view, it was neces- 
sary that the research workers have ac- 
cess to a large number of books. As it 
was impossible to actually assemble in one 
place all books necessary for this work, 
the library was made up of a small work- 
ing collection, and the workers depended 
on the various big libraries for their re- 
search material. A selected bibliography 



was made on all subjects of research and 
the location of the books in different li- 
braries was indicated. These books were 
borrowed when needed and later this list 
was used as a basis for selection. When 
the Peace Commission was organized these 
books were borrowed from various libra- 
ries to form the library to be used in 
Paris. 

Most of the recent books and many of 
the older books published in European 
countries were not accessible in the 
United States, and it was the work of the 
book order department of the American 
Commission to Negotiate Peace, as or- 
ganized by the American Library Associa- 
tion in Paris, to round out this collection 
on "International relations" from the book 
market of Europe. 

It was agreed between the Library of 
Congress, the A. L. A. and the Peace Com- 
mission that: 

1. The Library of Congress should buy 
through the American Library Association 
in Paris all books needed by the Peace 
Commission. These books to be consid- 
ered as a loan from the Library of Con- 
gress. 

2. To send over for this work one per- 
son who was familiar with the procedure 
of the Peace Commission (the State De- 
partment had ruled that no woman should 
be on the staff of the Peace Commission, 
therefore, when the "Inquiry" was merged 
with the State Department the library 
staff, composed entirely of women, did not 
go with the library). 

3. To locate in European libraries books 
not on the market. 

The American Peace Commission asked 
that the A. L. A. take complete charge of 
their book order and accessions depart- 
ment, the work of the department falling 
into the following groups: Book ordering 
and accessioning, book selection, and lo- 
cating books in libraries. 



THE EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 

The work of the educational department 
has included various divisions, which are 
represented seriatim: 

Educational libraries. Usually an "A. 
L. A. educational library" was the nucleus 
for the work of a post or division school. 
Many of these schools did not begin their 
work until the arrival of the A. L. A. books 
enabled the instructors to make lesson out- 
lines, the supply of army textbooks being 
very tardy and incomplete. Three hun- 
dred and forty-one sets, each of about 400 
volumes of educational books, have been 
placed in approximately 200 points. 

The selection of titles in the educational 



REPORTS 



325 



libraries has elicited many expressions of 
praise from army men and officers and in- 
structors. The most apparent oversights 
or underestimates of material needed were 
in the fields of public health, applied biol- 
ogy (including medicine), law, drama, 
philosophy and ethics, and some of the 
trades. Most of these were remedied by 
special purchases. 

The distribution of the educational libra- 
ries would have been hastened and the 
field more completely covered by assem- 
bling them in New York. Moreover, it is 
now the opinion of this department that 
no orders should have been allowed to be 
placed in England, except for instant de- 
livery, as the delays in reprinting and 
binding have resulted in delivery of many 
titles too late for use. Further, the re- 
sult would have been more satisfactory if 
there had been no "limited" titles; uni- 
form sets of perhaps 500 volumes would 
have answered the requirements. A few 
special titles could have been supplied to 
the A. L. A. central libraries. These opin- 
ions are set down in no sense as criticism 
or as apology; only as a guide to possible 
future efforts of this sort. 

The educational libraries were used 
rather generally as circulating sets, but 
sometimes as reference collections. The 
more satisfactory plan seems to have been 
a combination of reference and circula- 
tion, books in use for special class work 
being reserved, the others circulating. 
Some of the divisional school officers, and 
occasionally our own representatives, split 
up the sets according to varying interests 
of poet schools and billeting centers. There 
is general testimony that the presence of 
the educational libraries, in whole or in 
part, had an appreciable educational and 
cultural effect, independent of any instruc- 
tion. In fact, at Le Mans the interest 
aroused by the educational sets is said to 
have impelled the enrollment of many 
men in the educational classes. 

Special educational collections. Such 
collections to the number of 265 were as- 
sembled and dispatched each to fill specific 
needs. Many of these were made up to 
meet the pressing textbook needs of school 
officers and instructors. 

The A. E. F. University library. This 
library at Beaune is a distinct achievement 
for the A. L. A. War Service and the staff 
at Beaune. The educational department 
cooperated only to the extent of selecting 
and purchasing in the London book mar- 
ket some five thousand volumes, plus con- 
fident backing of the recommendations of 
the staff. 

It seems appropriate in this report to 
remark that it is shown to be possible to 



conserve the study and cultural and recre- 
ational interests of students and at tha 
same time to cooperate satisfactorily with 
the specialized departmental and research 
demands of the teaching personnel. De- 
partmental decentralization of the library 
was avoided at Beaune by providing ade- 
quate service at the main library; while 
the book selection, administrative meth- 
ods, and the general live atmosphere of 
this main library rounded out its effective- 
ness. 

The A. E. F. school detachments. Four- 
teen French and British universities were 
furnished the regular educational libra- 
ries, supplemented by special collections of 
medical and law books. 

The architectural library for the A. E. F. 
art instruction center at Bellevue, near 
Paris. This project was taken over by the 
Library War Service after the selection of 
material had been nearly completed by 
the Army Education Commission of the 
Y. M. C. A., the order being assumed by the 
A. L. A. and general material being added. 
This collection of valuable architectural 
plates has served about 200 men, admin- 
istered by an officer detailed as librarian. 

Cooperation with the hospital section of 
the Army Education Commission, fine arts 
department. This has involved the fur- 
nishing of 401 volumes on art and handi- 
work subjects, suitable for use by con- 
valescent hospital patients in reading or 
art work. This work has been carried on 
with great effectiveness in thirteen hospi- 
tals by the staff of the fine arts depart- 
ment. The chief of the hospital section 
has expressed his appreciation of the 
prompt and effective A. L. A. service, with- 
out red tape and exceeding his expectations 
in range and value of material furnished. 

Cooperation with the A. E. F. debating 
league. This league was organized by the 
lecture department of the Y. M. C. A. The 
representatives of the A. E. F. school de- 
tachments in some eight of the French 
universities conducted a series of debates. 
Material was dispatched to each team. 

Order department. The selection, order- 
ing, and distribution of additional book 
material for the mall department and the 
central libraries, the receiving and check- 
ing and distribution of new material re- 
ceived by post from United States and 
England, and the attempt to find quickly 
hundreds of special items needed for the 
demands of the A. E. F., has required a 
good portion of the time of this depart- 
ment. 

This department ventures to record Its 
high appreciation of the prompt and accu- 
rate service of the order department at 
Washington, of the American dispatch of- 



326 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



fices, and particularly of the untiring and 
painstaking efficiency of the Paris ware- 
house department. 

The work has furnished frequent occa- 
sions for advice to soldiers, officers, wel- 
fare workers, civilians, and other organ- 
izations regarding the purchase of books 



and maps and the use of libraries at home. 
This department has a distinct convic- 
tion that in the future much more than 
in the past the average man will call upon 
organized libraries for book advice and 
book service, and that the scholar and reg- 
ular reader will more than ever recognize 
the practical efficiency of libraries. 



REPORTS OF COMMITTEES* 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE OF FIVE ON 
LIBRARY SERVICE 

The first thing to do when one is about 
to undertake anything, is to ascertain as 
many as possible of the facts bearing on 
the undertaking. This would seem ax- 
iomatic; yet it is remarkable how little 
attention has been paid to it until very 
recently. We may recall the classic story 
of the Royal Society and King Charles II, 
who is said to have propounded the ques- 
tion: "Why is it, when a fish is placed in 
a pail of water, that the weight is not in- 
creased?" Various learned replies were 
given, until one academician, more curi- 
ous than the rest, tried the experiment 
and found that the weight was increased 
by the exact weight of the fish. Anyone 
who should nowadays prepare to grapple 
with any scientific, industrial or military 
problem without being certain of his facts, 
would be condemned at the outset. 

Yet librarians have not at their disposal 
complete facts regarding their own work, 
its methods, its administration and its re- 
sults. We have a great body of statistics, 
yet despite our A. L. A. rules they are not 
yet accurately comparable, nor are they 
always selected intelligently and with 
some definite purpose in view; and the 
great body of data relating to our work is 
not capable of being thrown into statisti- 
cal form. Anyone therefore who now 
talks about library work as a nation-wide, 
inter-connected body of effort, who tries 
to evaluate it and to make recommenda- 
tions for its extension and improvement, 
ia doing so without knowing his facts, for 
they have not been completely ascer- 
tained, classified, and arranged. 



*For other committee reports see Bulletin, 
May, 1919. 



It is this fundamental work, as your 
committee understands it, that it has been 
constituted to do. The present is a par- 
ticularly good time to do it. American li- 
braries have united during the war as 
never before in doing something worth 
while. Over and above the products and 
results of this united effort, of which we 
are properly proud, are the outstanding 
facts of the union and of the effort them- 
selves; of the spirit that gave rise to 
them and that, in turn, they have fos- 
tered; of the peculiar abilities, methods 
and ways of regarding things that have 
inevitably attached themselves to the 
work and to those who have been doing 
it, whether individuals or organizations. 
The material results of the work may 
vanish with the demobilization, but these 
other things will not, if we have the de- 
sire to keep them alive. 

The general feeling that there is to be 
a new order of things as the result of the 
war seems based largely on a vague idea 
that no great cataclysm can fail to leave 
its impress on the world. The form that 
such impress may take, however, is doubt- 
less dependent upon our own reaction to 
the forces that have been let loose and 
to the movements set up by them. The 
American public library will be a new and 
a more vital thing only if we are prepared 
to make it so. There is a to-and-fro 
swing all about us; if we can only run in 
and push when the oscillation is with 
us, we may do wonders; delay may mean 
that the movement may return upon us 
and overthrow us. 

This preliminary report must necessar- 
ily be confined to a statement of organ- 
ization and the general layout of the work. 

In reporting on thia we have proceeded 



REPORTS 



327 



on the assumption that the survey must 
be made by volunteers. It cannot, how- 
ever, be so made and yet be as complete 
and adequate as we should like it to be. 
The number of volunteer workers must 
be large, for an active librarian can give 
more than a small fraction of his time to 
such a task. This being the case, the 
labor of coordinating and assimilating the 
mass of material thus gathered by differ- 
ent workers will also be larger than a 
volunteer office staff should undertake. 
We estimate the cost of a paid staff, with 
its expenses of travel, clerical assistance 
and final publication to be in the neigh- 
borhood of $88,000. 

For the moment, however, we have di- 
vided the field to be surveyed into four 
general parts and have assigned one to 
each of four of our members, the chair- 
man being given the work of general su- 
perintendence and coordination. 

The first division, to be undertaken by 
Prof. A. S. Root, concerns the acquisition 
of books and everything done to them or 
about them previous to their actual use. 
The second, in charge of Miss Linda A. 
Eastman, has to do with the use and dis- 
tribution of books. The third, assigned 
tc Mr. Carl H. Milam, will have to do with 
all public relations of the library other 
than the direct use of books, and the 
fourth and last, under Dr. C. C. William- 
son, will deal with the library staff. 

It will be observed that of the various 
bases of classification that might have 
been chosen, book service has been se- 
lected as most appropriate. We might, 
for instance, have made the division in 
accordance with the character of the in- 
stitution operating the library and the 
status of its users, as has been done by 
the committee on salaries. The basis of 
division, however, is relatively unimpor- 
tant, so long as the whole field is included 
and its parts are not too unequal. 

Taking up the selected parts a little 
more in detail, it may be noted that the 
first section will include not only the se- 
lection and purchase of books, but their 
storage and care, including the construc- 



tion and equipment of library buildings, 
bookbinding and repair, cataloging and 
classification. 

The second division, relating to the dis- 
tribution and use of books, will include, 
of course, their circulation, their use in 
buildings for reference or other purposes, 
special and departmental libraries and 
collections, branches and stations, county, 
township and traveling libraries, work 
with children, schools, institutions and the 
foreign born. 

The analysis of this division has been 
carried somewhat further than that of the 
others and it may give some idea of its 
extent to say that the circulation of books 
for home use alone has already been sub- 
divided into five headings with twenty- 
two subheadings, reference work into six 
headings with twenty-five subheadings, 
work with children into twenty-one head- 
ings with fifty subheads, and other sub- 
divisions in proportion. 

The third division, embracing activities 
unconnected directly with books, will em- 
brace the relations of libraries with the 
Federal Government; the work of state as- 
sociations, local clubs and library com- 
missions; legislation, finances and board 
organization; publications, social work, 
meetings, lectures, classes, Americaniza- 
tion work and publicity, together with 
such museum work as libraries may prop- 
erly engage in. 

The fourth division, embracing the for- 
mation, training, control and welfare of 
the library staff, will include education 
and training; employment problems, such 
as selection, civil service control, effi- 
ciency ratings, promotion and discipline; 
salaries, grades and certification; welfare 
problems, working conditions, hours, vaca- 
tions, pensions, staff associations and 
unions; and problems of status, especially 
those affecting the academic rank of li- 
brarians in educational institutions and 
the rating of the library as compared with 
other departments of a school or college. 

It is probable that the total of subheads 
to be considered in the survey will be 
numbered by hundreds, and each must be 



328 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



considered carefully by a librarian who 
has expert knowledge of the subject mat- 
ter. 

One of the first considerations to be 
taken up by the committee is that of du- 
plication in this work, not only among the 
subdivisions but among the workers as- 
signed to these. It is possible that some 
duplication in the latter regard may be 
allowable, but in general it is intended 
by the committee that each person shall 
have one and only one subject to investi- 
gate. 

Duplication and omission are the two 
faults likely to mar any encyclopedic work 
like that of a survey. Both may be avoid- 
ed by preliminary planning, such as that 
on which the committee is now engaged. 
Duplication may be ascertained by the 
comparison and checking of lists, which is 
now in progress. The avoidance of omis- 
sion is a much more difficult matter. We 
have endeavored so to divide the field of 
survey that no part of it shall remain out- 
side the boundaries of some one of the 
divisions. This does not insure, however, 
the inclusion of some definite topic that 
may have escaped notice. 

The committee will be grateful there- 
fore if anyone who thinks of a minor 
topic as likely to be overlooked will send 
in a memorandum to that effect. If the 
topic has already been noted, no harm 
will be done, while if not, a great service 
will have been rendered to the complete- 
ness of the survey. 

The method of collecting and assem- 
bling data has not yet been completely 
worked out. It is probable, however, that 
preliminary information will be obtained 
by questionnaire, supplemented later by 
personal query and investigation. Those 
who fear a shower of questionnaires from 
a cloud of subcommittees, however, may 
be reassured. It is the intention of the 
committee to send out but one, although 
that will necessarily be comprehensive. 

Your committee is mindful of the fact 
that the work that it is called upon to do 
is not an end in itself. It is an indis- 
pensable preliminary, but even if we are 



able to carry it out in the most complete 
fashion desirable, it must remain a pre- 
liminary. It must inevitably lead to a 
realization that we are spending time and 
labor on some things that are out of date 
or not worth while, while we are neglect- 
ing vast fields that should be cultivated. 
The war work of our Association has 
quickened our intelligence in both re- 
gards, and it should not be our fault if 
we do not see our way both to a sloughing 
off of the outworn and unnecessary and 
an assumption of new tasks made easier 
and more comprehensive by the Invention 
and adoption of new and improved library 
machinery and methods. 

Respectfully submitted, 

AETHUK E. BOSTWICK, Chairman, 

LINDA A. EASTMAN, 

CARL H. MILAM, 

A. S. ROOT, 

C.. C. WILLIAMSON. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON CIVIL 
SERVICE RELATIONS* 

In the short time available it has not 
been possible to get together sufficient 
data to make a detailed report at this 
Conference. 

A preliminary examination develops the 
urgent necessity for a broad study of the 
entire question covering national, state 
and local civil service, as applied to li- 
brary administration. The study should 
be made in cooperation with the Civil 
Service Reform League, the National As- 
sembly of Civil Service Examiners, and 
any other organizations directly interest- 
ed in the subject. 

The extreme urgency of the question 
resulted in more attention being given to 
national civil service, and the following 
recommendations are made: 

First: That the eligibles who have 
passed library examinations be certified in 
accordance with their rating, without re- 
gard to the geographical distribution of 

*This report, prepared for the Asbury 
Park Conference, was received too late for 
presentation there. It is printed here as in- 
formation to the members of the Associa- 
tion, although no action has been taken 
upon it. EDITOR. 



REPORTS 



329 



appointments, at least as far as those who 
stand highest are concerned. 

Second: That the law making it neces- 
sary for an applicant to take an examin- 
ation in the state where he is a legal resi- 
dent and where he has been actually 
domiciled for at least one year previous 
to the examination, be repealed. 

Third: That the rating on education and 
experience be done by or with the advice 
of a librarian familiar with libraries In 
general as well as library schools. 

Fourth: That examinations for different 
grades of work be given and that examin- 
ations for the higher grades of work be 
similar in character to those given for 
scientific and technical workers and in- 
vestigators. 

It is scarcely necessary to present ar- 
guments for the recommendation that the 
eligibles who have passed library examin- 
ations should be certified in the order of 
their rating, at least as far as the higher 
positions are concerned. The reasons for 
this are obvious. The present require- 
ment which makes it necessary to certify 
those from the states having the lowest 
percentage of appointments is destructive 
of the best interests of the Government 
service and results in the frequent ap- 
pointment of poorly qualified assistants 
and inability to get the best assistants. 
On account of the comparatively limited 
number of library appointments and the 
limited number of persons who are quali- 
fied for this line of work, it would seem 
reasonable to ask, in the interest of good 
administration, that library positions be 
exempt from this requirement. I regret 
that I do not feel able to make sugges- 
tions as to the best ways of bringing 
pressure to bear on having this require- 
ment amended. 

The law making it necessary for an 
applicant to take an examination in the 
state where he is a legal resident and 
where he has been actually domiciled for 
at least one year previous to the examina- 
tion has been a most serious handicap in 
getting library assistants. It cuts out 
many library school students from tak- 
ing the examinations while they are at 
the schools, as many of them are not resi- 
dents of the state in which the particular 



library school they are attending Is lo- 
cated. It has also prevented assistants 
In the Library of Congress from taking the 
examinations for other Government libra- 
ry positions, which is most unfortunate, 
since experience in the Library of Con- 
gress is particularly desirable for work 
in other Government libraries. This law 
was repealed for the duration of the war 
and should be repealed indefinitely. 

A further recommendation Is that a 
study be made of the relations between 
the apprentice class and the civil service 
administration in libraries which are un- 
der civil service commissions. 

It will take some time to make a thor- 
ough examination of the subject, begin- 
ning with a questionnaire In which are de- 
veloped the varying conditions and extent 
to which civil service rules are applied to 
administration. The experience of libra- 
rians working under such systems should 
be brought out In detail, both as regards 
salary and the efficiency of the service. 
To this end a printing and postage allow- 
ance by the Executive Board is recom- 
mended. 

Respectfully, 

PUED B. WRIGHT, 
For the Committee. 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON DETERI- 
ORATION OF NEWSPRINT PAPER 

Your Committee on the Deterioration 
of Newsprint Paper, in submitting the fol- 
lowing report upon newspaper preserva- 
tion, has nothing of real Importance to 
state. The influence of the war still pre- 
vents any extensive experimenting, and 
unless an appropriation for extensive ex- 
periments covering numerous materials 
and an extended period can be provided, 
little progress can be expected. So far 
as we know the only experiments that 
have been conducted during the past year 
are those in the New York Public Library, 
In which institution a sample volume of 
the World newspaper has been treated 
with gummite made by Mr. H. Klotz, and 
another IB in process of treatment with 



330 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Barco book varnish. Present prices of the 
latter substance are prohibitive for ex- 
tended use. If the price of linseed oil 
and similar products ever returns to pre- 
war levels, it may be said of the Barco 
book varnish that it offers interesting pos- 
sibilities. 

Mr. E. D. Greenman of Arthur D. Little, 
Inc., of Cambridge, has suggested the use 
of cellulose acetate, and has secured a thin 
film of this substance which is certainly 
transparent, tough, and flexible, and con- 
tains promising possibilities. Its use, 
however, has not passed beyond the experi- 
mental stage. 

H. M. LYDENBEBG, 
Chairman. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON 
IMPORTATIONS 

At last year's conference, the Commit- 
tee on Importations recorded the history 
of the first orders made under the Enemy 
Trading License granted the Association 
by the War Trade Board reporting ship- 
ments as on the water. Since then con- 
signments have arrived steadily, at inter- 
vals of about three weeks, from both our 
agents, Martinus Nijhoff and Librairie 
Scientifique Kiindig. 

Not one untoward incident has marred 
our relations with the Government, as 
seen from the following unsolicited letter 
from Mr. Harry P. Fairbanks, assistant 
director, Bureau of Enemy Trade, War 
Trade Board, under date of April 12, 1919, 
"which I fully endorse," writes the chair- 
man of the Censorship Board: 

"We are very glad to be able to record 
our satisfaction of the manner in which 
our Enemy Trading License 1727 to the 
American Library Association has been 
handled by you. We have felt great con- 
fidence in being able to refer to you re- 
quests for relief from various libraries 
and public institutions and we believe by 
your careful supervision the interests of 
both the Censorship Board and the War 
Trade Board have been protected, and the 
requirements of the libraries and public 
institutions reasonably satisfied. 

"In connection with your trip abroad, 



we are inclined to think that the public 
interests demand a liberal interpretation 
of the terms of our license, and as far as 
a consistent examination of any material 
now impounded may satisfy you, the ship- 
ments should be allowed to go forward 
liberally. We beg to express our confi- 
dence in your judgment in any shipments 
to which you may give your approval." 

In that same Saratoga Springs report, 
the committee announced also the en- 
larged privileges accorded institutions by 
the Government as a result of the secre- 
tary's investigation abroad of British and 
French practice. Numerous libraries re- 
sponded with additional orders to com- 
plete their accustomed files of periodicals 
and secure certain imperatively needed 
books; 157 institutions have enjoyed the 
benefits of our license. 

Difficulties, however, arose in the ac- 
counts of Mr. Nijhoff, whose charges 
seemed immoderately high and duplica- 
tions frequent; so that subscribers were 
advised not to make payments pending 
adjudication of the difference. This be- 
ing only partially attained in the slow ex- 
change of communications, a compromise 
schedule of settlement was put into ef- 
fect, while it became clear that a personal 
conference would be necessary to bring 
satisfaction to all concerned. 

Moreover, though the Department of 
State had sought to secure the dispatch 
of material impounded abroad, it had not 
come. Here was additional reason for 
action on the spot, while tonnage was still 
available. 

Finally, with peace in the offing, it was 
important to have accurate information 
about orders outstanding under the li- 
cense, so that the passage to normal con- 
ditions might be made with certitude. 

Accordingly, at the instance of the ex- 
ecutive board, the secretary of the cdm- 
mittee undertook in April a second jour- 
ney to Europe, being absent two months 
and visiting France, Switzerland, England 
and Holland, in the order named. 

On all scores the trip, though hurried, 
was successful and the wisdom of those 



REPORTS 



331 



who urged It was demonstrated. The re- 
sults may be set forth as follows: 

I. Financial settlement 

Mr. Nijhoff accepts as just in its total 
effect, and therefore final and binding, the 
advice given by the secretary in various 
bulletins to subscribers; viz. 

1. Bills from April to August, 1918, in- 
clusive, to be settled with .45 as the con- 
version factor of marks to gulden, and the 
so-called "5% Avar tax" to be canceled. 

2. Charges for transportation and in- 
surance in the above five months to be 
settled as presented, except for cancella- 
tion of the "5% war tax," where added. 

3. Bills from September, 1918, to 
March, 1919, inclusive, whether for sub- 
scription or transportation and insurance, 
to be settled as presented, including the 
"5% war tax," where added. 

4. Publications to be supplied from 
April, 1919, to the end of the subscrip- 
tion year 1919 free New York with but 
one charge, and that to be the publish- 
ers list price with marks converted to 
gulden at three-fourths the rate current 
at time of settlement with publishers, 
plus 20 points. 

The transportation and insurance 
charges should be handled as above ad- 
vised, despite the misleading method of 
stating them, because the amounts given 
represent the actual outlays claimed to 
have been made for such purpose. 

Librairie Kiindig grants a reduction of 
15% in all bills dated from the first of 
January to the middle of May, 1919 
credit invoices to follow and agrees to 
deliver publications thereafter to the end 
of the subscription year 1919, free New 
York, with but one charge, and that to be 
publisher's price, marks converted to 
Swiss francs at three-fourths the rate cur- 
rent at time of settlement with publish- 
ers, plus ZlVz points. 

In justice to both agents and to make 
clear the significance of these terms, some 
comment is necessary: 

1. The allegation that Mr. Nijhoff em- 
ployed a higher conversion rate against us 
than against the Stationery Office is en- 
tirely unfounded. The two have been ex- 
actly the same. The information to the 
contrary, twice communicated officially 
to us, proved erroneous upon personal 
examination of accounts in London and 



at The Hague. The 5% extra charge was 
also found common to the two. 

2. The Stationery Office, as a regis- 
tered retailer, was entitled and indeed re- 
quired to receive trade discounts not al- 
lowable to our libraries, or their commit- 
tee, which latter disclaimed financial re- 
sponsibility, and acted merely as the mail- 
ing intermediary between them and the 
Government on the one hand, between 
them and the agents on the other. 

3. It is true that between the date of 
Mr. Nijhoff's bulletin of October, 1917, 
and the receipt of our order at the end 
of February, 1918, the mark had advanced 
32% in anticipation of the spring drive. 
This was found in an examination of daily 
banking reports in Geneva and The Hague 
from September, 1916, to date. 

4. The bulletin of October, 1917, is not 
strictly applicable to our case, except in 
so far as it indicates what would be just. 

5. The value of the guilder in Ameri- 
can money has not the slightest bearing 
on the case. That profit is not the agent's 
but the nation's. That factor is taken 
care of in the conversion of mark to 
guilder. It cannot be done a second time. 
If the guilder had been normal when the 
first bills arrived, the periodicals would 
have cost no more than at the peace time 
rate 24 cents to the mark, free New 
York. 

6. In view of rising expenses it would 
not only be impossible to convert for us 
at the cours du jour, but the additional 
percentage necessary when the mark is 
relatively high is insufficient when the 
mark lowers, since if, for example, the 
mark drops 50%, the discount allowed by 
the publisher to the agent is worth just 
half as much in gulden (or francs) as be- 
fore. The sliding scales above recognize 
this fact and assure the agents their fixed 
profits. 

7. The agents that charged us 1917 pe- 
riodicals at 24 cents to the mark extracted 
a greater profit from us than Mr. Nijhoff 
would have received if his bills for 1918 
periodicals had been settled as presented. 
Institutions will read that with surprise. 

And yet despite these qualifications, 
which manifestly mitigate the charge of 
exorbitance, the bills were too high too 
high at the outset, too high throughout. 
The fact of the matter seems to be that 
both at The Hague and in Geneva no real 
analysis of the situation had been made 
before our conferences, but the result 
reached by rule of thumb. 

8. The settlement made therefore ef- 



332 



fects a reduction of about 12% in the to- 
tal accounts for 1918, and 13% in the ca- 
bled offer for 1919, though the precise 
method chosen for applying these conces- 
sions is the one thought to involve the 
least disturbance of the numerous settle- 
ments already made. 

With Kiindig the case was different 
The offer to supply at list price and con- 
vert at the cours du jour was hasty and 
ought never to have been made. It is re- 
grettable that we did not know it. But 
on the other hand, the unannounced re- 
traction made by advance from 70 to 90 
in November and December, while proper 
then (that is, according to ante bellum 
standards) was excessive in January and 
later, when the bulk of our orders ar- 
rived, because exchange had dropped and 
kept dropping. Hence the 15% reduction 
above reported. It was the maximum sug- 
gested to the firm after close examination 
of accounts, and was cheerfully and im- 
mediately made when the facts were pre- 
sented. Hence also the sliding scale. 

It may be that a more pitiless analysis 
would have extracted greater concessions 
from both firms, but it is to be hoped and 
expected that subscribers will be content 
with a settlement that satisfies the pres- 
ent agents while at the same time secur- 
ing material at a rate which our 1917 
agents exceeded by 20% and the British 
institutions have throughout the war ex- 
ceeded by 32%. 

Finally, it is a great pleasure to report 
that these two agents have met the ex- 
penses of the secretary's second European 
journey, contributing sums roughly in the 
ratio of orders received. They intended 
thus to recognize the committee's part in 
the transaction. 

II. Duplications 

The orders originally given covered the 
year 1918 only; yet subscribers have not 
infrequently discovered in their bills vol- 
umes for which their previous agent had 
been paid. The main cause is, of course, 
the irregularity of wartime publication. 
A volume scheduled for 1917 would ap- 
pear wholly or mostly in 1918. In such 
cases the first agent's prophecy was not 



fulfilled; the second agent's action was 
then justified. Adjustment should be 
made with the former (as indeed offered 
by the chief of them) except in the few 
cases where error has been found com- 
mitted. Before this report is finished, 
subscribers will discover themselves to be 
fortunate in such possessions. 

Another cause was found to lie in a dif- 
ference of American custom from the 
Dutch and Swiss. We prepay periodical 
subscriptions; their libraries do not. Our 
agents naturally assumed, therefore, that, 
since we entered the war in April, 1917, 
our previous agents had not billed us for 
1917 periodicals begun after that date; so 
that they were doing us a favor by supply- 
ing the journals begun in the later half 
of 1917 and continued the next year or 
later. 

Finally, the publisher, anxious to sell, 
was inclined to interpret the order to his 
own advantage, and might even refuse to 
take the volume back. The agent might 
then conceivably in rare cases forward a 
volume against his own better judgment. 

III. Unlocking foreign stores 
(A) In Holland 

In detention at Rotterdam and The 
Hague, were found 4 cases consigned to 
Lemcke & Buechner for many institu- 
tions, 10 from Martinus Nijhoff for the 
Library of Congress, 17 from the same 
firm for 38 other libraries, and 78 cases 
plus 14 bales for those served by - G. E. 
Stechert & Co. All of these were cleared, 
and got into the hands of the Holland- 
American Line for shipment. The four for 
Lemcke & Buechner reached New York a 
fortnight ago unaided. All of the rest 
were congenial fellow-voyagers on the 
Nieuwe Amsterdam with the secretary. 

Parenthetically, it may be said that 
from early March to mid-May the regular 
service out of Rotterdam was interrupted 
by a strike in Leipzig and the temporary 
refusal of the Holland-America Line to 
accept our material. That is mostly past 
history now; so that the Nieuwe Amster- 
dam, for instance, carried for our libra- 



REPORTS 



333 



Ties not only the cases and bales above 
mentioned but 10 others as well, with 43 
more accepted. 

Similarly at Geneva, there had been a 
tie-up. A car lost for two months between 
Leipzig and Zurich turned up during our 
conferences. Mail pouches had run out, 
and while the parcels mounted to the 
ceiling, none had left for three weeks. 
But a limited supply was borrowed from 
Paris, Washington had been cabled for 
500, and an interview at Berne elicited the 
promise to get the accumulations off the 
next week, saving time by sealing at Lau- 
sanne and sending by courier to Bordeaux 
via Paris. 

It is but fair to add that the arrival of 
the Stechert material is due as much to 
good luck as good management, because, 
in marked contrast with Messrs. Lemcke 
& Buechner, for example, this firm flatly 
refused to cooperate as requested, not by 
the committee merely, but also by the 
president of the Association, and by the 
War Trade Board. Though a way out was 
found in this instance, their attitude did, 
however, prove fatal to the interest of the 
libraries in one important situation, as 
seen below. 

Incidentally, it will gratify the libraries 
to learn that the American Relief Com- 
mission, in Rotterdam, before whom, at 
the suggestion of the Minister, the case 
was laid, very generously consented to 
get the material over for us, if other 
means failed. Another score for Mr. 
Hoover (alias Brown). 
(B) In England 

On October 19, 1918, the American Con- 
sul-General in London cabled the State 
department as follows: 

"Department's June 24th regarding de- 
tention books and publications of enemy 
origin. Release of such parcels as are 
non-propaganda will be proceeded with. 
Lists are being prepared and will be sup- 
plied to me by Procurator General show- 
ing lists which may be forwarded to des- 
tination." 

This action (not, however, reported to 
the committee till Dec. 28) was the result 
of fresh representations made by the de- 



partment upon the basis of a conference 
held by the secretary of the committee, at 
the Procurator General's office in May. The 
first instalment of the promised lists of 
parcels released was transmitted January 
2, 1919, with assurance of more to follow 
as fast as examinations could proceed. 
"The mills of the gods," etc. 
(C) In Germany 

In Switzerland and Holland, communi- 
cation by telegraph and letter was at once 
established with the houses chiefly patron- 
ized by Americans. Word came from the 
following: Baer, Brockhaus, Fock, Fried- 
lander, Gottschalk, Harrassowitz, Her- 
mann, Hiersemann, K8hler, Liebisch, 
Lorentz, Mayer & Mtiller, and Volckmar; 
while a vain effort was made to connect 
with Otto Lange of Bale, Switzerland. 
With assurance of shipment of appropri- 
ate material, they were invited to submit 
lists of their holdings for American libra- 
ries, and to send a joint representative 
for conference at Berne or The Hague. 
As far as the limited time and difficulties 
of communication would permit, both re- 
quests were complied with, and Mr. Hans 
Harrassowitz spent three days at The 
Hague. More information is to follow by 
mail. 

The outstanding announcement, which 
requires of libraries quick and decisive 
action, is that some months ago fire de- 
stroyed a big stock of material in Leipzig 
consigned to G. E. Stechert & Co. From 
the telegrams and letters of F. Volckmar, 
the Leipzig spediteur of this firm (and in- 
cidentally of Nijhoff also) it is learned 
that the fire occurred at an early morning 
hour and, in the lack of timely aid, de- 
stroyed six buildings, among them the 
warehouse where our material was stored 
on the ground floor. The loss was com- 
plete. It consisted of 54 boxes of books 
worth fr. 250,327 and 87 bales of periodi- 
cals worth fr. 340,667, upon which there 
was insurance of M. 100,496.75, carried 
with the Aachen-Miinchener Versicherung 
a pitifully inadequate covering, kept 
small because of the supposed ease with 



334 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



which goods so placed could be rescued. 
Forty boxes and 26 bales, according to 
Volckmar's report at the time, were all 
that was left in Leipzig and this because 
stored in another depot. "Die Journale," 
so he writes, "stammen zum Teil aus 
1916-18;" and he telegraphs, "Neubeschaf- 
fung der Buecher und Zeitschriften konnte 
noch nicht erfolgen." 

And there the curtain drops, for to a 
long letter and long telegrams asking 
specifications of loss, of present stock, of 
future plans, is snapped back the answer: 
"Beantwortung Ihres Briefes ist erst 
moeglich wenn sie Herrn Harrassowitz 
mich voll befriedigende Vollmachten des 
Herrn Hafner vorgelegt haben." But, as 
already seen, such "Vollmachten" were de- 
nied us, though asked for. So, though the 
information needed in this emergency was 
within their grasp, the libraries must see 
it dashed from their hands and find their 
way out the best they can. 

Two more facts, dismissed in as many 
sentences: 1. It was Nijhoff that shipped 
the Stechert material to America before 
our entry into the war. 2. Nijhoff, an- 
swering frankly Volckmar's inquiry as to 
the identity of his new clientele, twice of- 
fered to buy Volckmar's stock of periodi- 
cals to save him from loss, but the offer 
was refused November 12, 1918, without 
explanation. Perhaps it was the fire. And 
perhaps it wasn't. 

With patrons of Lemcke & Buechner 
the case is quite different. The secretary 
was given power of attorney to act for 
this firm, and in turn Bernhard Hermann 
(their Leipzig spediteur, and incidentally 
Kiindig's also) gave Mr. Harrassowitz the 
same authority. The four cases above re- 
ferred to as already arrived contain books 
for which British permit had been issued. 
There remain still on hand in Leipzig for 
Lemcke & Buechner 70,000 marks' worth 
of books and periodicals, packed ready for 
shipment in 40 cases, measuring each 
about a cubic meter, and weighing each 
about 500 pounds. Far the larger part 
of this material is said to consist of 
"Biicher wissenschaftlichen Inhalts," the 



smaller half of similar periodicals and a 
little war literature. "Bei den Zeit- 
schriften," and thie is the meat of the co- 
coanut for us, "handelt es sich in der 
Hauptsache um Restjournale aus dem 
Jahre 1916. Pro 1917 und Folge sind we- 
der Fortsetzungen noch Journale und Zeit- 
schriften bezogen worden." That clears the 
air for everybody. What is on hand is 
almost exclusively for North American 
universities, with a considerable quantity 
also for the John Crerar Library. 

In similar fashion there are about 35,- 
000 marks' worth for Steiger & Co. 

The reports from other dealers (except 
Harrassowitz, who will be drawn upon 
more extensively for the survey of general 
trade conditions) can be more summarily 
dealt with, since, where valuable at all, 
the word is of concern to some single in- 
stitution or so to which it may be com- 
municated privately: 

Baer's lists mailed exprds failed to ar- 
rive in time, but will be forwarded. 

BrocJchaus thinks to forge his own con- 
nection without our aid. 

Fock replied that the time was too 
short to ascertain whether or not he had 
in specific cases laid aside continuations, 
and his reputed representative at Amster- 
dam failed to put in an appearance, when 
invited, but he (or she) wrote evasively. 

With Friedlander it was moving day, 
and, while a report would be sent in a few 
days, he could only say at the moment 
that he was keeping up continuations es- 
pecially of books, very carefully, and hold- 
ing them subject to orders. There was 
probably only one box full on hand. He un- 
derscored, in view of the peace terms, the 
necessity of assured payment, since other- 
wise the German government might pre- 
vent shipment in order to avoid increasing 
their "Aussenstande" in America before 
the treaty is signed. Dealers generally, 
we are to understand, lay a deal of stress 
upon this point. 

Paul Gottschdlk's comprehensive report, 
though mailed exprds, failed to arrive in 
time. It will be forwarded. As he dealt 
but little in new books, his continuations 
were of little consequence, but such as 
they were they had been ordered, except 
war serials, since he had interrupted the as- 
sembling of all war literature for Amer- 
ican libraries, after America's entry a 



REPORTS 



335 



general practice, according to Mr. Harras- 
sowitz, who, however, had kept up one or 
two complete sets for the first bidders. 
Gottschalk thought he might have some 
20 boxes of 500 to 700 pounds each. 

K. W. Hiersemann, president of a re- 
cently formed, very exclusive, and highly 
ambitious Verein der deutschen Anti- 
quariats- und Export-Buchhandler, en- 
trusted Harrassowitz with the message 
that of Americans he would in future 
exact advance payment for his goods. 
Special discounts to American agents are 
marked for slaughter. 

K. F. Koehler offered no report because 
he had connected with his American trade 
ignorant of the fact that we were the 
link. He is now in partnership with F. 
Volckmar. 

Bernhard Liebisch had disposed of most 
of his holdings for American libraries 
when they could not be shipped in season, 
but this was mainly a question of new 
books. The few continuations (period- 
icals and some volumes of Luther's works) 
still on hand were not worth bothering 
about now. He would in time communi- 
cate directly with the libraries. 

Alfred Lorentz' reply concerned only 
two universities, for which continuations 
were being held. 

Mayer & Muller (now said to be owned 
by Gustav Fock) made detailed reports for 
the three institutions requesting it, and 
the material listed was approved for ship- 
ment under our license. The continua- 
tions break off with 1916, though they add, 
"we shall now immediately order the 
periodicals of 1917 and ff" cautious pro- 
cedure seemingly general. 

Mr. Hans Harrassowitz, through whom, 
as requested, the reports above abstracted 
were for the most part assembled, submits 
an elaborate record in behalf of his own 
firm, Otto Harrassowitz. During sus- 
pended relations the interests of our libra- 
ries have been kept in mind, and the as- 
sumption held that trade would be resumed, 
though acceptance of his goods, except 
where specifically ordered, is, of course, 
recognized as not binding. 

Detailed statement of account against 
44 libraries is submitted with request that 
it be checked with a view to establishing 
its correctness or replacing lost material. 
These statements cover past shipments, 
during the war. 

Then bills are presented against 16 in- 
stitutions for material now on hand ready 
for shipment 26 cases and 3 parcels, with 
9 more boxes ready in the near future. 
Authority for shipment under our license 
was granted, except for war material in 
two consignments, though the advice was 



given and accepted that in three instances 
specific authorization for shipment be 
awaited from the ultimate consignee. 

IV. General conditions 

1. The fear of governmental confisca- 
tion of publications destined for American 
institutions may be banished completely 
from mind. There was never such a dan- 
ger; it is more than ever remote now. 
The establishment of a prohibited list by 
the Imperial Government carried no such 
threat. It merely postponed delivery. 
This prohibition, theoretically still In 
force under the present government, is in 
practical abeyance everywhere, so that 
trade with Italy, for example, is relieved 
of all restrictions now, and our stragglers 
are coming in. 

2. Dealers, eager for resumption of 
direct relations, though slightly dubious of 
American temper after the war, have very 
generally taken the necessary precautions 
against any irremediable damage to their 
former patrons' interests, laying by, es- 
pecially where editions were limited. Li- 
braries need not feel driven to a policy of 
hurried replacement elsewhere, if their 
relations have heretofore been direct with 
the publisher or foreign dealer. 

3. Their fear of confiscatory action by 
the American Government despite our 
license, as expressed by Friedlander, felt 
by many others and seemingly fostered by 
the Leipzig Chamber of Commerce, is a 
real factor which may deter shipment for 
the time even where our authorization has 
been granted. But this passes with the 
establishment of peace, being based upon 
a clause in the treaty alleged to carry 
such a threat against the day of signa- 
ture. 

4. The day of the bona fide discount is 
past or at least in eclipse, because, aside 
from the increased expense, the Borsen- 
verein der deutschen Buchhandler in the 
latter half of 1918 laid upon retailers (in- 
cluding the publisher if selling direct to 
the public) the requirement to add 10% 
to the publisher's price. This is quite ir- 
respective of the advances made by the 
publisher himself in his prices. Mr. Har- 



336 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



rassowitz's compliance takes the form of 
charging at list price without discount. 

5. The advance in publishers' prices is, 
of course, general and often enormous. 
The percentage is usually 25 to 50, though 
not infrequently more, so that no bibli- 
ography is up to date. Harrassowitz in- 
creases 25%, Teubner 40%. One period- 
ical has actually jumped from M. 37.50 to 
M. 240 per year. 

In the Borsenblatt for March 29, 1919, 
several firms join in an advertisement de- 
fensive of their 30% advance in prices, 
giving the following table of advance in 
cost of production, under chief headings: 
1915 1916 1917 1918 1919 
% % % % % 

Printing 10 15 40 80-140 180 

Binding 40-60 80-120 150-180 200-250 
Paper 20 100-300 500 500 

6. Discriminatory action against foreign 
countries, whether enemy or neutral, is be- 
coming widespread. The Verlegerverein 
is trying to make this compulsory, though 
the Borsenverein has not consented. The 
object is to checkmate the depreciation of 
the mark, which has at present about one- 
third its normal exchange value. This ad- 
vance runs from 50 to 100%. Such pub- 
lishers will charge the foreign importer 
this heightened price less usual discount, 
and expect the German exporter to do the 
same, though as yet he has no decree for 
forcing this action. He hopes, however, 
to accomplish it by indirection, as seen 
in the notice inserted less than a month 
ago by Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht in the 
Borsenblatt, from which the following 
quotation is taken: 

"Von heute ab liefern wir unsern ge- 
samten Verlag einschliesslich Zeitschriften 
an alle auslandischen Pirmen, ausgenom- 
men die der deutsch-6sterreichisch-un- 
garischen Gebiete, mit einem Teuerungs- 
zuschlage von 50% auf den Nettopreis. 
Inlandsfirmen, welche in das Ausland un- 
sern Verlag ohne einen Zuschlag von 50% 
zum Nettopreise an Buchhandlungen, oder 
ohne den gleichen Zuschlag zum Laden- 
preise an Private verkaufen, erhalten ihren 
gesamten Bedarf nur noche mit 50% 
Zuschlag zum Nettopreise." 

7. As for bindings, libraries must be 



warned against those of publishers. Orig- 
inal materials are practically non-existent, 
and trick substitutes, mostly paper, are 
the rule. If real morocco and sound cloth 
are available the prices are more than 
trebled. Harrassowitz claims to have se- 
cured early in the war and held for his 
American trade enough first class mate- 
rial for at least 10,000 half morocco and 
50,000 half cloth and buckram bindings, 
but the former once charged at M. 3.50 
will now cost M. 11.50, that formerly cost- 
ing M. 4.50 now advances to M. 15. while 
the half cloth binding delivered in the 
past for M. 2. must now be charged at 
M. 6, and Mr. Nijhoff, who examined this 
schedule, called it moderate. The library, 
however, will remember the value of the 
mark. 

8. Stocks in Germany, both new and 
old, are low. Not much publication has 
been done and the editions have not been 
large. Most books are out of print, and 
because of scarcity of paper and cost of 
production, will not soon be reprinted. 
Second-hand material, especially bound 
sets, has advanced in price, and the state 
libraries have made deep inroads upon it, 
because compelled to spend their funds in 
that way. 

From this narrative libraries will in- 
stinctively draw two conclusions: (1) 
That it is best to avoid publishers and 
their bindings; (2) patronize only tested 
agents, and do their shopping early. 

The Committee on Importations is on 
its last legs. A few announcements, fol- 
lowing conferences with all the authori- 
ties concerned, and the curtain may be 
rung down on this wartime supernumer- 
ary. 

1. Till the peace treaty becomes effect- 
ive, that is, till its ratification, it will re- 
main unlawful for the libraries without a 
license to communicate or trade with the 
enemy directly or indirectly. For the 
present, therefore, such dealings of theirs 
should continue to be effected through 
the A. L. A. Committee on Importations. 

2. The withdrawal of censorship on 
both sides of the Atlantic does not change 



REPORTS 



337 



this situation a whit. As long as there is 
an enemy, commerce with him is prohib- 
ited. 

3. Under date of June 13, 1919, the War 
Trade Board issued a ruling (No. 779) that 
they would consider applications for 
"licenses to import into the United States 
from Germany or elsewhere scientific 
books and journals which were printed in 
Germany," provided the importer depos- 
ited the price with the American Relief 
Commission for the purchase of foodstuffs 
for Germany, and thus ultimately for 
transmittance to those entitled thereto. 
The method, however, is cumbrous and 
belated since, without further legislation 
by Congress, the Board passes out of ex- 
istence June 30, 1919, though doubtless 
the Allied Economic Council in Paris will 
function during the interim. 

4. The committee have received per- 
mission to transport to America under the 
A. L. A. license, without preliminary sub- 
mission of lists, material now lying in 
Germany on order of the proper bene- 
ficiaries of this license, including that in 
the hands of B. Hermann (upon which the 
committee have received a report), ad- 
dressed to Messrs. Lemcke & Buechner 
for American libraries subject of course 
to such control as the Government at time 
of arrival sees fit to exercise. Such ad- 
vice has been cabled abroad. This serves 
to secure possible shipment in advance of 
the fierce competition for bottom space 
after the blockade is lifted. 

5. The committee stand ready to trans- 
mit to our two agents during this period 
orders for publications imperatively 
needed. These should be addressed, as 
usual, to the secretary, who will also be 
glad to purchase exchange for institutions 
which cannot, and to transmit all remit- 
tances. It will no longer be necessary to 
inclose envelope addressed to the State 
Department, since mailing will be direct 
hereafter, but subscribers are requested 
to send sufficient foreign postage instead. 

Those libraries which have lost import- 
ant material in the Leipzig fire and wish it 
replaced as soon as possible should avail 



themselves of this offer, and in any case 
should consider it seriously unless their 
agent will assume responsibility for its 
replacement, as no steps to that end have 
been taken in Leipzig. 

In this connection it may now be di- 
vulged that Mr. Nijhoff is willing to serve 
American libraries from a stock which he 
collected for Russia and deems insecure. 
This is a case for cables. 

6. The secretary's notes on outstand- 
ing orders are too voluminous for publica- 
tion, but they will be communicated to in- 
dividual subscribers as fast as they can 
be transcribed. In general, however, it 
may be said that, except in a very few 
cases when the agent so reports, failure 
to receive a number does not mean it is 
out of print, but that it has either not 
been published, or was detained for a 
time (though no longer now) by the Ger- 
man censor, or, as is more usually the 
case, the incompetent German clerks 
made an error, which has not yet been 
rectified. Specifically, Mr. Nijhoff has 
thrown together in his current shipment a 
lot of such odd issues, which he wishes his 
patrons assured he is taking all necessary 
steps to complete. 

When items have been reported out of 
print, the subscriber should give imme- 
diate Instruction whether or not to at- 
tempt acquisition by advertisement or an- 
tiquarian search. Kxindig has been ad- 
vised to insert desiderata in the Borsen- 
blatt. Nijhoff awaits advice. 

7. Subscribers for 1918 periodicals who 
did not renew for 1919 should advise the 
agent at once just what they expect of 
him. If (properly) nothing, specifically 
say so. 

So, subscribers for 1919 should make up 
a careful and specific instruction as to 
just the terms upon which they desire the 
relation to terminate. 

Take nothing in either case for granted. 

8. Reports and statements from vari- 
ous German agents will shortly be trans- 
mitted to many libraries. Will they note 
that a copy of every such bill 4s to be re- 
turned to the secretary for his files in 



338 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



dealing with Washington, and they will, 
of course, bear in mind that their replies 
must be transmitted through his office 
(remember foreign postage). 

It should be borne in mind that the 
British examination of impounded parcels 
is not complete, so that libraries should 
be warned against hasty conclusions and 
actions on such reports. In this connec- 
tion the State Department has accepted 
the committee's suggestion that in view of 
the imminent reopening of the German 
market to the world the British authori- 
ties be requested to dispatch the remain- 
ing material at once. Address inquiries 
on this subject to the American Consul- 
General in London. 

In case an institution decides against 
receipt of such material either absolutely 
or temporarily, the secretary should be 
asked to cable such an advice, at its ex- 
pense. 

Care should be taken to give specific 
commands as to binding. 

9. Kiindig's credit invoices above re- 
ferred to will be dispatched as soon as re- 
ceived. Subscribers are requested to ex- 
amine their Nijhoff accounts afresh in the 
light of the terms now accepted and make 
the necessary adjustments. The secre- 
tary will himself review each one as rap- 
idly as may be. 

10. Librarians would do well to buy up 
some marks as soon as possible in order 
to take advantage of the present low rate 
of exchange. Such deposits should be es- 
tablished in Holland, for example. 

11. With the ratification of the treaty, 
librarians will assume direct relations 
with Nijhoff and Kiindig, though the com- 
mittee will be glad still to give such ad- 
vice as it may be thought competent to 
give. Arrangements have been made with 
Messrs. Tice & Lynch to continue as re- 
ceiving agent in New York, and both 
agents have been instructed to maintain 
as regular a weekly service as they can, 
though the period of readjustment will 
doubtless bring its exasperations. 

12. Subscribers will please note that 
the secretary's address during the coming 



July and August will be South Fairlee, 
Vermont; thereafter, The Johns Hopkins 
University, Baltimore, Md. 

As already reported, the cost of the sec- 
retary's two trips to Europe in the inter- 
est of importations has been covered. But 
for two and a half years he has been sub- 
ject to a steady drain of expenditure, 
which the small appropriations asked of 
the Association have not begun to meet. 
This has included postage and cable- 
grams, traveling expenses to Washington 
and New York, printing and secretarial 
aid amounting to several hundred dol- 
lars. In addition to giving freely an his 
time during this period, the University 
which he represents wishes to contribute 
half this amount. If the other institutions 
served will add one-half of one per cent, 
of their Nijhoff and Kiindig bills to the 
end of June, 1919, the rest will be about 
covered. The secretary only regrets his 
inability to shoulder the entire cost. 
For the Committee, 

M. L. RANEY, Secretary. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON PERMA- 

NENT ENDOWMENT FOR PEACE 

TIME WORK 

The committee has taken the position 
that the emphasis of the question is upon 
peace time work of the A. L. A., and upon 
providing means for its extension, rather 
than upon the matter of a permanent en- 
dowment. 

For many years the American Library 
Association has been the center on this 
continent of all library interests and of 
all library cooperation for the exchange 
of ideas on library methods, and for the 
extension of library service. We owe to 
the Association and to the inspiration 
coming from its conferences, the building 
up of library science and much of the 
success of the American library, which for 
service to society has not been equaled 
elsewhere. 

The Association has always been a pro- 
fessional body, with purposes and meth- 



REPORTS 



339 



ods very little known beyond professional 
circles. 

In 1917, when the nation was called to 
arms and all patriotic bodies came eager- 
ly forward to offer their services, it was 
the extreme good fortune of the American 
Library Association to be called upon to 
take over a very large and most important 
work in the interest of the training of 
the national army and the more impor- 
tant work of helping to keep up the morale 
of the troops. When the opportunity 
came the first the Association had ever 
had to come out of its seclusion and to 
do a great constructive work, the Associa- 
tion responded quickly and accepted very 
large responsibilities, notwithstanding 
many doubts expressed by its own mem- 
bers of its being equal to the task assigned 
to it. 

The call made upon the Association to 
raise the huge sum of a million dollars 
in a popular campaign seemed impossible 
to accomplish, yet so general was the re- 
sponse of library workers, many volun- 
teering for service in war work at the 
cost of much personal sacrifice, and so 
generous were the people in showing faith 
in the Association, that the desired amount 
was secured and nearly doubled. Then 
came the even greater tasks of sound or- 
ganization, of wise spending so that both 
Army and Navy might realize full value. 

It is not necessary to rehearse the de- 
tails here, nor more than to mention the 
second greater and equally successful 
campaign called the United War Work 
Campaign, but we should pause to pay 
tribute of appreciation and honor to the 
leaders of our financial campaigns and of 
the A. L. A. War Service, as well as to the 
army of library workers, for the fine re- 
sults which made so wonderful a reputa- 
tion for the American Library Association. 

The Association has practically finished 
its tremendous task without a hint of 
scandal, and with only praise from the 
leaders of the Army and Navy and from 
all its associates in welfare work. The 
general appreciation of the war work of 
the American Library Association is 



summed up in the fine letter which has 
come, without solicitation, from the Com- 
mander-in-Chief, General Pershing: 

"I want to express to the American Li- 
brary Association my sincere appreciation 
and that of the officers and men under my 
command, for the valuable service which 
it. has rendered to the American Expedi- 
tionary Forces. 

"In February, 1918, your Association 
submitted to these headquarters your 
well-conceived plan for furnishing books to 
the American soldiers in Europe, and 
asked to be permitted to assume entire 
responsibility for this important service. 
The confidence which the Army reposed 
in you has been amply justified by the re- 
sults achieved. Restricting your person- 
nel and establishment to a minimum, you 
have taken advantage of the medium of 
transportation offered by the Red Cross, 
the Y. M. C. A. and other welfare agencies, 
and have supplemented these channels by 
furnishing book collections to detached 
military units and special books through 
the mails to individual soldiers. Thus, 
without friction or waste, the American 
Library Association has substantially ac- 
complished its purpose of placing good 
reading matter at the disposal of every 
individual in the force. 

"In addition to this, it has rendered a 
signal service to the Army educational 
program by providing reference libraries 
for the American Expeditionary Forces 
Universities at Beaune and at a large 
number of Army schools." 

Letters such as this in praise of the 
work have been received by the Associa- 
tion from many sources, commenting upon 
its work in the Army camps and hospitals 
in this country, in the hospitals and with 
the Army overseas, and in the Navy. 

This is a great accomplishment, for the 
work is practically finished so far as the 
Army forces are concerned. 

The great war is closing in social un- 
rest such as the world has never experi- 
enced. There is a conflict to conserve all 
that has been achieved toward the ad- 
vancement of the higher ideals of our civ- 



340 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



illzatiop with the forces which stand for 
revolution and destruction. 

Each individual library certainly feels 
the added responsibility which this condi- 
tion has brought, but has the American 
Library Association no responsibility in 
the social work in which there is more 
at stake than in the war fought by our 
young men overseas? We firmly believe 
that the American Library Association 
could, if properly financed, be able to do 
for popular education and social welfare 
work which would be second to the work 
of no other force in the country. 

The war has forced on our attention 
many serious conditions which have never 
been fully realized before. We have 
learned the power of propaganda of all 
things evil and harmful to our social life. 
We have realized, as never before, the 
large proportions of illiteracy in many 
parts of America, while at the same time, 
we have found need for greater resources 
and much more work in the interests of 
research and bibliographical information 
properly to aid the advance of scholarship 
and of technical science. 

Many suggestions have come to the com- 
mittee of the work which the American 
Library Association might undertake dur- 
ing the next few years. As a tentative 
program, let us mention a few of the op- 
portunities which lie before the Associa- 
tion at this time, in the hope that the dis- 
cussion may result in a determination to 
undertake some part of it, at least. 

We wish to state at the outset that the 
committee fully realizes the difficulties in 
making an appeal at this time for money 
for any educational work to be undertaken 
by the American Library Association. 
While the record made in war work will 
not count for much in an appeal for funds 
to be used in peace times, it has very 
definite value as a proof of the ability of 
the A. L. A. to unite in constructive work 
and to carry it to a successful conclusion. 

We know that we have no very dramatic 
appeal, we realize as well that while there 
was little hesitation, during the war pe- 
riod, by the boards of control of Ameri- 



can libraries to release members of their 
staffs for outside war work, a request for 
service for Association work in peace 
times could not as easily be granted. 

The committee is of the opinion, however, 
that the momentum gained in united work 
should not be lightly surrendered. We 
have not to decide the question of whether 
we shall return to old conditions that is 
quite impossible after this experience 
but we should consider what further work 
we can undertake. 

The great obstruction which faces us at 
the very outset of any campaign is the 
lack of understanding by the general pub- 
lic of the real place of library work in our 
social life, the lack of an appreciation of 
it as in itself a great educational force, 
not a mere helping service offered to 
schools and to various social activities. 

In order to achieve any possible success 
in an appeal, at this time, for financial 
support, we must have publicity and yet 
more publicity, of the right kind. We 
must place reading matter, interesting, 
readable and enlightening, in the very 
best mediums which will place the library 
in its rightful position, which will bring 
home to the American public what we 
library people know of the great possibili- 
ties of the mission of the book in the 
propaganda of good, which show clearly 
the educational possibilities it offers to 
every individual, not only during the brief 
period of school, but throughout all the 
years of life. Before making any financial 
appeal, we consider a strong publicity 
campaign as absolutely essential. 

For purposes of discussion, your com- 
mittee calls attention to a program tor 
intensifying certain A. L. A. activities, a 
few of many suggested as needing more 
liberal support. Some of them have al- 
ready been worked out in considerable de- 
tail by other committees of the Associa- 
tion, and are to be placed before you dur- 
ing this Conference. 

First: It should be possible for the As- 
sociation to enlarge greatly most of its 
present activities, to be in a position to 
further by encouragement, advice, or di- 



REPORTS 



341 



rect personal work, every possible oppor- 
tunity for the creation of new library cen- 
ters; to encourage the appointment of 
more state library commissions and to 
strengthen existing commissions, with the 
aim of reaching all rural communities in 
the country; to influence legislation in the 
interest of libraries toward the end of 
providing reading matter not only to the 
general public, but to hospitals, to prisons 
and to other institutions under city, coun- 
ty or state control. 

Second: The Association should be able 
to urge the Government of the United 
States to establish libraries not only for 
the use of the forces of the regular Army 
and the Navy in posts, hospitals and war 
vessels, but also for the men of the coast 
guard, lighthouse service, and the forestry 
and agricultural services. 

Third: The Association should be able to 
obtain, if not actually to purchase, books 
for men who are not "without a country," 
yet have no definite habitation, such as 
those employed in the merchant marine, 
for whom no one is now responsible. 

Fourth: The Association should assist 
in the campaign toward building up citi- 
zenship by an active propaganda inculcat- 
ing American ideas and reaching many 
thousands not now in touch with library 
service. No other social activity is so 
well fitted for this task as that represented 
by the American Library Association. A 
direct effort on our part to oppose the 
propaganda against the Government and 
all it stands for is in itself a call to serv- 
ice a strong, clear call to the spare cap- 
ital and the cooperation of all loyal citi- 
zens. 

Your committee would recommend that 
a campaign be organized for the purpose 
of raising $1,000,000 for carrying out for a 
period of five years a program based upon 
these suggestions. 

Such undertakings as the library sur- 
vey and the work of library publicity, both 
of which are already ably planned by 
A. L. A. committees, are most necessary 
to the general advancement of library 
work, and are perhaps rather in the na- 



ture of a preparation of the ground for 
new and more extensive work of the As- 
sociation than plans for extending the 
work itself. They are really preliminary. 
The extension of our work would also nec- 
essarily mean the enlargement and reor- 
ganization of the headquarters staff. 

The committee further recommends that 
whether we do or do not undertake a cam- 
paign for funds to meet expenses of inten- 
sifying our work for a definite period of 
time, that we should undertake at once to 
enlarge our endowment fund and to spread 
broadcast at all times the need of such a 
fund for the work of the American Li- 
brary Association. The income from such 
an endowment we would suggest might go 
toward (1) the work of a library survey, 
already mentioned; (2) for the publica- 
tion of literature of the library profes- 
sion; (3) for aid in providing books for 
the blind; and, possibly, (4) the publica- 
tion of translations of books which might 
carry the message of American life and 
American ideals to the thousands of our 
people, in their native tongues, who can- 
not yet be reached through the English 
language. 

Possibly even more important than many 
of these suggestions might be (5) the 
compilation of joint lists of unusual or 
rare books for the benefit of research 
work; (6) the preparation of better pe- 
riodical and analytical indexes and other 
bibliographical help for the benefit of the 
few who are doing most important -work. 

The committee is of the opinion that 
our appeal is not one which could be suc- 
cessfully made in a campaign such as the 
popular "drives" we have been accus- 
tomed to during the period of actual fight- 
ing. It must be of a quite different char- 
acter, yet it recommends the adoption of 
some such program and a campaign of 
some kind for the funds necessary to carry 
it out. 

It recommends a preliminary campaign 
of wide publicity for a period of six 
months, followed by a direct appeal for 
subscriptions from a very large yet select- 
ed list of names gathered from every part 



342 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of the country, aiming to have the pro- 
gram placed personally before as many as 
possible of those who are known to be 
interested in the welfare of the country. 

It recommends that the goal should be 
one million dollars for the work of the 
next five years, with a strong effort, at 
the same time, to build up the endowment) 
fund of the Association. 

It recommends that a sum of $50,000, to 
be used in meeting the expenses of the 
campaign, shall be underwritten, with the 
understanding that this amount shall be 
paid from the total subscriptions. It is 
the opinion that the effort to secure this 
smaller amount will fully test the Associa- 
tion's ability to collect the larger amount 
necessary for the whole plan. 

Respectfully submitted, 
WALTEB L. BROWN, 
For the Committee. 

Louis J. BAILEY, 

CHARLES F. D. BELDEN, 

SARAH C. N. BOGLE, 

W. C. CARSON, 

GENEVIEVE M. WALTON, 

CAROLINE WEBSTER. 



REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON WORK 
WITH THE FOREIGN BORN 

The Committee on Work with the For- 
eign Born has been acting since its organ- 
ization, according to its original plan, as 
a medium of exchange, between libraries, 
of information as to desirable methods of 
assisting in the education of our immi- 
grant population in American ideals and 
customs and in the English language. It 
has also until now proved practical to ex- 
tend the committee's activities, following 
frequent requests, by supplying informa- 
tion covering a much wider field relating 
to library work with our recent immi- 
grants. 

In describing work accomplished, for 
matter of first interest: Inquiries, to a 
surprising extent, have been concerned 



Report received too late for presentation 
at Asbury Park Conference. Printed as in- 
formation, although no action has been taken 
upon it. 



with questions of approach to the differ- 
ent nationalities and with the most ap- 
pealing methods of naturalization. Greatly 
marked is the anxiety on the part of li- 
brarians to secure information that will 
help them to understand, practically and 
sympathetically, the complicated human 
problems involved, so that American 
ideals and customs may be most helpfully 
interpreted to the newcomer. We believe 
that substantial help has been given in 
every instance of this sort in which it has 
been asked. Through the committee, li- 
brarians have been exchanging the results 
of their experience on questions of an al- 
most unimaginable variety, ranging from 
methods of naturalization, to the display of 
books in English in foreign departments, 
lists of books suitable for military hos- 
pitals, the practicability of a story hour 
for adults, and desirable and effective 
ways of preventing the disappearance of 
foreign books. Librarians applied to for 
such information have been cordial and 
helpful in assisting, but this field of work 
is so new that it has frequently been found 
necessary to seek the advice and help of 
specialists and societies in similar fields, 
and to obtain the desired information from 
dependable authorities, wherever they 
might be found. On questions of this sort, 
also, it has been your committee's pleas- 
ure to help. 

Not so successful has been the attempt 
to meet the demand for adequate and an- 
notated lists of books in several foreign 
languages, greatly needed by many libra- 
ries. Nor has it been possible to supply 
adequate lists of appealing and practical 
books in simple English suitable for adult 
beginners, for those who are illiterate in 
their own language, and for those who 
are highly educated. 

The development of the work of the 
committee has been greatly hampered by 
the fact that every member of it has been 
engaged, sometimes for prolonged periods, 
in war work ; also a loss was suffered in the 
lamented death of Mrs. A. B. Maltby, whose 
long practical experience with the foreign 
born, whose sympathy, knowledge, and good 



REPORTS 



343 



will were ever at our service. A further 
handicap has been the lack of funds to meet 
expenses of postage, stationery, clerical 
work and other charges necessary for ex- 
tending its activities along lines revealed 
by the expressed needs of librarians. To 
make the committee an efficient bureau of 
exchange of information along lines of 
proper interest, such extension is of first 
importance, particularly in undertaking 
the careful listing of libraries active in 
work with the foreign born, with a tabu- 
lation of their interests and of the direc- 
tions in which they would be willing to 
assist others. We believe that there are 
fully eight hundred American public libra- 
ries situated in communities where library 
service to the foreign born is a civic and 
educational necessity. Some three or four 
hundred are known to be active in this 
field. All of them are presumably inter- 
ested in helping the immigrant adapt him- 
self to the conditions of life in his own 
country, and in helping prepare him for 
intelligent and patriotic citizenship. This 
interest is all the keener because the ex- 
perience of many librarians now proves 
that this work with the foreign born can 
be very successfully carried on without 
unduly socializing the library, and with- 
out formulating a program too ambitious 
for the library's present functions and re- 
sources. 

JOHN FOSTER GARB, 
Chairman. 



REPORT OF FINANCE COMMITTEE 

To the American Library Association: 

In accordance with the provisions of 
Section 12 of the Constitution, your 
Finance Committee submits the following 
report: 

In January the probable income of the 
Association for 1919 was estimated as 
$24,630, and the Executive Board was au- 
thorized to make appropriations to this 
amount. The details of the estimated in- 
come were published in the Bulletin for 
March, 1919, together with the budget 



adopted by the Executive Board, and are 
for this reason not given here. 

In May from the war service fund was 
paid to the secretary one-half of his salary 
for the periods from September 1, 1917, to 
December 31, 1918, during which .he served 
as executive secretary of the library war 
service, the amount being $1,512.50. Since 
he had already been paid in full by the As- 
sociation, this sum was paid by him, to the 
treasurer of the Association. The Finance 
Committee, therefore, has approved a sup- 
plementary budget of $1,512.50. 

Dr. C. W. Andrews has audited for the 
committee the accounts of the treasurer 
and of the secretary as assistant treasurer. 
He found that the receipts as stated by the 
treasurer agree with the transfers of the 
assistant treasurer, with the cash accounts 
of the latter, and with the statements of 
transfers in the accounts of the trustees. 
The expenditures as stated are accounted 
for by properly approved vouchers, and the 
balance shown as that in the Union Trust 
Company of Chicago agrees with the bank 
statement of December 31, 1918. The 
bank balances and petty cash of the as- 
sistant treasurer agree with the bank books 
and petty cash balances. The accounts of 
the assistant treasurer are correct as cash 
accounts. 

The securities now in the custody of the 
trustees have been checked for the com- 
mittee by Mr. Harrison W. Graver, who 
certifies that their figures are correct. He 
found that the bonds and other securities 
amount, at par value, to $102,000 for the 
Carnegie fund, and to $8,611.84 for the en- 
dowment fund. 

The accounts of the James L. Whitney 
fund, which are in the hands of the treas- 
urer, have been examined and found to be 
as stated by him in his annual report. 

The accounts of the second war service 
fund were audited by Marwick, Mitchell, 
Peat and Company for the four months 
ending March 31, 1919. The report of the 
auditors found the accounts correct and all 
expenditures properly vouched for. 

The committee has examined the report 
of the audit of the War Finance Commit- 



344 ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 

tee to February 15, 1919, made by Marwick, subject to checks drawn jointly by the 
Mitchell, Peat and Company, also the ac- chairman of the War Service Committee 
counts of the War Finance Committee from and the chairman of the War Finance Corn- 
February 16 to April 25, 1919, and finds mittee. 

them correct; leaving as stated no balance Respectfully submitted, 

In the Empire Trust Company, and a bal- ABTHUB L. BAILEY, 

ance of $14,332.28 with interest in the Peo- HARRISON W. CRAVEB, 

pies Trust Company of Brooklyn con- C. W. ANDREWS, 

tributed to the second war service fund Finance Committee. 



PROCEEDINGS 

PROCEEDINGS 

June 23-27, W9 



345 



FIRST GENERAL SESSION 
(Monday evening, June 23) 

The FORTY-FIRST Annual Meeting of the 
American Library Association was called 
to order by the president, WILLIAM WABN- 
ER BISHOP, librarian of the University of 
Michigan, in the Auditorium, Asbury Park, 
New Jersey, at 8 p. m., June 23, 1919. 

Mr. MOSES TAYLOR PYNE, of Princeton, 
chairman of the New Jersey Public Library 
Commission, extended to the Association 
greeting in behalf of the New Jersey Li- 
brary Association, in the following words 
of welcome: 

Ladies and gentlemen: I feel it a great 
honor and a great pleasure to be 
asked by the New Jersey librarians to 
greet the librarians of the United States 
assembled here in convention. In books 
and what they contain and what they be- 
stow at all times, and especially in times 
of turmoil and strife, we find new strength 
and needed consolation. Therefore we 
greet you, who are the guardians of these 
our best friends, and we bid you a very 
hearty welcome to our state. 

We are fully sensible of the honor you 
have done us in so soon returning to this 
seaside resort. We hope that you will be 
refreshed by our ocear. breezes, and that 
when the business of the convention is 
completed you will return to your homes 
with renewed vigor and with pleasant 
memories of us. We regret that no ex- 
cursions have been arranged for this year, 
but on the part of the librarians of the 
state I have great pleasure in saying that 
we hope no one of you who finds it possi- 
ble to stop and visit any of the New Jersey 
libraries before returning, or on his re- 
turn, will fail to do so, and I can assure 
you of a very hearty welcome. 

President BISHOP, in stating that M. 
Jusserand, Ambassador of France, had 
been detained in Paris on account of the 
duration of the sessions concerned with the 
peace treaty, presented the following letter 
evidencing the good will of the Ambas- 
sador and his intention to address the 



American Library Association if circum- 
stances had rendered it possible for him 
to be in America at the time of the A. L. A. 
Conference: 

28 AVENUE DU PRESIDENT WILSON, 

MAY 1, 1919. 

Dear Sir: I could not answer at once 
your kind letter, because I wanted to know 
first where I would be in June. 

I continue not to know, but I am loath 
to delay longer. The probabilities are 
however, that I shall be in America at the 
date you mention, in which case and in 
the hope that no impediment over which I 
would have no command may interfere, I 
accept with great pleasure your invitation 
to address your Association. 

It must, however, be understood that I 
cannot promise a set speech or a regular 
lecture. I hope you will allow me to de- 
liver a very brief and informal address. 
Lack of time will certainly prevent my 
better deserving the honor of your invita- 
tion. 

With beet thanks and all good wishes 
from one who is just back from a part of 
France which Americans have made 
French again, viz., St. Mihiel, I am, 
Sincerely yours, 

JUSSEBAND. 

President BISHOP then introduced Dr 
CHALMERS HADLEY, librarian of the Denver 
Public Library, who addressed the Asso- 
ciation on 

THE LIBRARY WAR SERVICE AND SOME THINGS 
IT HAS TAUGHT 

(See p. 106) 

The reading of the president's address 
followed, President BISHOP choosing as his 
subject 

THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION AT THE 
CROSSROADS 

(See p. 99) 

After the delivery of the foregoing ad- 
dress the session was adjourned. 

SECOND GENERAL SFSSION 

(Tuesday morning, June 24) 
President BISHOP presided. 
The PBESIDENT called attention to the re- 



346 



ports of officers and committees which had 
been printed in the Bulletin of the Associa- 
tion for May, 1919 (see pp. 47-91) . These re- 
ports included those of the secretary, 
treasurer, trustees of endowment funds, 
the A. L. A. Publishing Board, the Com- 
mittee on Bookbinding, the Committee on 
Coordination, the Committee on Federal 
and State Relations, and the Committee on 
Work with the Blind, all of which were ac- 
cepted. 

At the request of President BISHOP, the 
secretary read the report of the Finance 
Committee, which was adopted and or- 
dered printed as a part of the Conference 
Proceedings (see p. 343). 

The report of the Committee on De- 
terioration of Newsprint Paper, next read 
by the secretary, was duly accepted as a 
report of progress and ordered printed as 
a part of the Conference Proceedings (see 
p. 329). 

President BISHOP then stated that in de- 
parture from the usual custom of receiving 
reports formally at a general session, cer- 
tain reports would be read and discussed 
this year in general or section meetings, 
as being of interest to certain groups of 
the membership. 

The PRESIDENT mentioned as examples 
of such reports, that of the Committee on 
Library Administration (Bulletin, p. 63), to 
be presented before the Catalog Section; 
the report of the Special Committee to In- 
vestigate Salaries (Bulletin, p. 71), to 
come before the Fifth General Session; 
and the report of the secretary of the 
Committee on Importations (see p. 330), 
to be brought before the College and Ref- 
erence Section. 

President BISHOP next called attention 
to the matter of an amendment to the Con- 
stitution. 

Secretary UTLEY therefore read the fol- 
lowing former paragraph of Section 12 of 
the Constitution: 

The Finance Committee shall audit the 
accounts of the secretary, treasurer, and 
trustees of the endowment fund, and re- 
port to the Association at the annual meet- 
ing. 

Secretary IhxEY explained that in order 



to render more adequate the auditing pow- 
ers of the Finance Committee, the Execu- 
tive Board had recommended the substi- 
tution of the following paragraph for the 
one just read, such substitution having 
been voted on affirmatively by the Asso- 
ciation at the Saratoga Springs Confer- 
ence and requiring affirmative vote at the 
subsequent Conference to become effect- 
ive: 

The Finance Committee shall audit the 
accounts of the secretary, treasurer, trus- 
tees of the endowment fund, treasurer of 
the Publishing Board, and all other ac- 
counts, and report to the Association at 
the annual meeting. 

Upon motion the amendment was duly 
adopted. 

President BISHOP introduced Dr. FRED- 
ERICK P. KEPPEL, Third Assistant Secretary 
of War, who addressed the Association on 

HOW THE ARMY LIBRARIES HAVE HELPED 
OUR FIGHTING MEN 

(See p. 152) 

At the close of Dr. Keppel's address, Mr. 
BOWKER spoke as follows: 

Those of us who have been members of 
the War Service Committee know tenfold 
how great has been the opportunity and 
service of Dean Keppel in making the 
work of this Association and its six big- 
ger sisters possible and practicable. There 
is a lubricant known as "Three in One": 
Dean Keppel has been a Seven in One lu- 
bricant in this great work. He has done, 
I think, more than any one person (quite 
to change the metaphor ) to drive the seven 
horses or since they are sisters I should 
say mares in harness. He has told you 
that you would receive 1,200 to 1,500 let- 
ters in acknowledgment of your deserts. 
I rise to move, sir, that this Association 
express its thanks and its cordial appre- 
ciation of the work done for the American 
Army and the American people by Assist- 
ant Secretary Keppel in making the work 
of the American Library Association so 
effective. My motion is that, without the 
intervention even of Mr. Burleson's one- 
cent stamp, we by a rising vote send Assist- 
ant Secretary Keppel a 1,200 or 1,500 man 
and woman-power letter of appreciation. 

Concurred in by a rising vote. 

President BISHOP mentioned that the re- 
port of the War Service Committee to June 
30, 1919 (see p. 190), had been printed and 



PROCEEDINGS 



347 



distributed to members of the Association, 
and called upon Mr. J. I. WYEB, JB., chair- 
man of the War Service Committee, to 
speak upon the report. 

Mr. WYEB accordingly responded with a 

STATEMENT OF THE CHAIBMAN, WAB SEBVICE 
COMMITTEE 

(See p. 188) 

Dr. HEBBEBT PUTNAM, general director of 
the A. L. A. War Service, being absent in 
France on account of duties connected with 
this service, the secretary read Dr. PUT- 
NAM'S 

STATEMENT OF THE GENEBAL DIBECTOB, 
A. L. A. WAB SEBVICE 

(See p. 261) 

President BISHOP then called upon Mr. 
CABL H. MILAM, acting general director, 
who presented a 

STATEMENT OF THE ACTING GENEBAL DIBECTOB, 
A. L. A. WAB SEBVICE 

(See p. 263) 

Mr. BELDEN: Mr. President, the hour is 
not inappropriate, I believe, to call to the 
attention of the members of the Associa- 
tion the fact that at our annual meeting 
at Saratoga Springs no action was taken 
in reference to the report submitted by the 
War Service Committee. As a member not 
only of the War Service Committee, but 
of the Executive Board, I desire to offer 
the following resolution: 

RESOLVED, That the American Library 
Association receives and adopts the re- 
ports submitted in print by its War Serv- 
ice Committee covering all the transac- 
tions and operations of the said commit- 
tee from its organization in June, 1917, up 
to this date. 

I make this resolution, Mr. President, 
in order that the printed reports of the 
War Service Committee may be made a 
part of the formal records of the Associa- 
tion. 

President BISHOP: Is there discussion 

upon this motion to receive and adopt the 
reports submitted to us in print? 

Dr. HILL: Would it not be wise to post- 
pone action until a final vote can be taken 



upon the final report of the War Service 
Committee? 

Mr. BELDEN: The motion reads "up to 
this date." That does not, of course, In 
the least preclude the adoption of a final 
report. 

The motion was thereupon duly seconded 
and carried. 

President BISHOP: The secretary has an 
announcement to make. 

Secretary UTLEY: At the convention of 
the American Booksellers Association, 
which recently met in Boston, a resolution 
was passed which I think we librarians 
will appreciate, and I am going to read it 
here so that we can incorporate it in our 
own minutes. 

Whereas, The American Library Associa- 
tion has done and is doing such notable 
work in supplying the book needs of the 
men in the American service; and 

Whereas, We recognize most fully what 
this has meant to the men, and what it is 
to mean to this country in forming habits 
of reading and love of books among the 
tens of thousands who will now be resident 
in all parts of this country; 

RESOLVED, That this convention of 
the book trade hereby registers its pro- 
found appreciation of their work and urges 
all booksellers to continue actively to co- 
operate with the librarians in the various 
communities and to extend any help possi- 
ble in a national way. 

This resolution was signed by the secre- 
tary of the American Booksellers Associa- 
tion, who is also one of our own members 
Frederic G. Melcher. 

Dr. HILL: Mr. President, if this is the 
proper time I would like to move that the 
thanks of the American Library Associa- 
tion be extended to those publishers and 
booksellers who gave such a large discount 
to the War Service Committee in the pur- 
chase of books. Whether this should be 
reported to the Committee on Resolutions 
I am not quite sure, but it seems to me 
that as an Association we ought to take 
some appropriate action. 

President BISHOP: The chair sees no im- 
propriety in considering the matter at the 
present time, and would like to hear a 
second to Dr. Hill's motion. 



34S 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



The motion was seconded by Mr. BAILEY, 
of the New York dispatch office, and con- 
curred In.* 

The session was then adjourned. 

THIRD GENERAL SESSION 
(Tuesday evening, June 24) 
At the request of President Bishop, Mr. 
CARL H. MILAM presided. 

The first speaker on the program was 
Miss THEBESA HITCHLEE, of the Brooklyn 
Public Library, who gave some of her im- 
pressions of A. L. A. War Service in an 
address entitled 

SIX MONTHS AT HEADQUARTERS AND IN THE 
FIELD 

(See p. 312) 

Chairman MILAM expressed regret that 
Miss Mary F. Isom was not present to talk 
upon her work in French hospitals, and 
also that Mr. Burton E. Stevenson, Euro- 
pean representative of the A. L. A. War 
Service, could not deliver a message in 
person; but stated that Mr. JOY E. MORGAN 
would read portions of a report received 
from Mr. Stevenson (see Report of War 
Service Committee, p. 218). 

Miss MARY EILEEN AHERN, editor of 
Public Libraries, next addressed the meet- 
ing, taking as her topic 

A. L. A. NEWS FROM OVERSEAS 

(See p. 309) 

Mr. JUDSON T. JENNINGS, librarian of the 
Seattle Public Library, followed with a 
description of his experiences 

WITH THE A. L. A. OVERSEAS 

(See p. 307) 

In the absence of Mr. SAMUEL H. RANCK, 
librarian of the Public Library of Grand 
Rapids, Michigan, Mr. CLARENCE E. SHER- 
MAN read portions of Mr. Ranck's inter- 
esting account of 
A LIBRARIAN'S JOB IN BASE SECTION NO. 1, 

FRANCE 
(See p. 297) 

Mr. ORLANDO C. DAVIS, librarian of the 
Public Library, Waltham, Massachusetts, 
next presented a paper giving his 

EXPERIENCES OVERSEAS 

(See p. 303) 

See also resolution presented by the Com- 
mittee on Resolutions and adopted at the 
last General Session. 



Mr. ASA DON DICKINSON followed, with 
a paper entitled 

BY FLANDERS BRIDGE 

(See p. 157) 

On account of the lateness of the hour 
it was impossible to present even in part 
statements of various other A. L. A. work- 
ers serving overseas, excerpts from whose 
reports are given on pages 316-326. 

The evening session closed with a brief 
exhibition of motion pictures showing 
A. L. A. War Service. 

FOURTH GENERAL SESSION 
(Wednesday morning, June 25) 

The meeting was called to order by Pres- 
ident BISHOP, who then opened the ses- 
sion with the following remarks: 

May I take this occasion to say a word 
of greeting to the members of the societies 
affiliated with the American Library As- 
sociation and others who are not formally 
affiliated but who are nevertheless meet- 
ing from time to time with us. It is the 
presence, indeed, of these numerous per- 
sons interested in library work of a spe- 
cial nature, and in their peculiar problems, 
that lends so largely to the number of 
those present at these meetings. It would 
ill become the general American Library 
Association to fail to recognize the 
strength and the tone and the vigor which 
the presence of these people interested in 
special problems, such as the National As- 
sociation of State Libraries, the American 
Association of Law Libraries, the League 
of Library Commissions, the Special 
Libraries Association, the Bibliographical 
Society of America, and others, give to 
our gatherings; and I wish, therefore, to 
say a special word of greeting to them in 
behalf of the American Library Associa- 
tion. We are glad you are here; we wel- 
come you not only to our own meetings, 
but we welcome you personally and are 
glad to know you. 

May I also take this occasion to express 
the thanks of the Association to Mr. 
Josselyn and his earnest co-workers and to 
the Publicity Committee in getting out the 
daily paper, The Use of Print, which has 
been such a feature of this Conference. I 
know that you all agree with me that it 
has been a remarkable thing and a very 
useful thing; I think it has shown us very 
graphically what we are doing, and we 
have every reason to be grateful. I have 
not personally seen Mr. Josselyn since he 
came; he has spent most of his time In 



PROCEEDINGS 



349 



the newspaper office. I understand he and 
Mr. Wright and one or two other veterans 
of the newspaper business have been get- 
ting about three hours sleep a night; they 
have been sitting up with the Asbury Park 
Press people, who never had to run these 
words which we speak so glibly, and who 
don't know how to read the handwriting 
of some of our folk. We have great reason, 
therefore, to be thankful, and to express 
our appreciation. 

The PRESIDENT then called upon Col. E. 
L. MUNSON, chief of the Morale Branch of 
the Army, who addressed the assembly on 

LIBRARIES AND READING AS AN AID TO MORALE 

(See p. 184) 

MaJ. JASON S. JOY, director of the Com- 
mission on Training Camp Activities, War 
Department, followed with a talk upon 

SALVAGING WAR LIBRARY SERVICE FOR PEACE 
TIMES 

(See p. 265) 

President BISHOP, at the close of Major 
Joy's address, called attention to the ap- 
propriation bill mentioned by the speaker 
and soon to be reported upon by a com- 
mittee of the United States Senate, and 
urged that members of the American Li- 
brary Association endeavor to secure the 
Influence of Senators and Congressmen to 
make adequate provision for continuance 
of library service for the Army and Navy 
in peace times.* 

The PRESIDENT then announced that the 
Honorable Josephus Daniels, Secretary of 
the Navy, could not be present to address 
the assembly as had been planned, and 
read the following letter received from 
him by the Secretary: 

I am in receipt of your esteemed favor 
and I write with regret to say that I shall 
have to deny myself the pleasure of being 
with you in your meeting at Asbury Park, 
much as I would like to do so. The Navy 
bill will be under consideration in Con- 
gress at that time and I find that I have 
already definitely committed myself to an- 
other engagement which cannot be de- 
ferred, and that, together with the duties 
requiring me to be here, makes it impos- 
sible for me to come to Asbury Park on 
the occasion of your meeting. 

I am greatly interested in the work of 
the American Library Association and its 



See also resolution adopted at last Gen- 
Aral Session. 



service to the men in the Navy during the 
war and since cannot be praised too highly. 
Will you be good enough to express my 
thanks and appreciation and my deep re- 
gret at my enforced absence from the 
meeting? 

Sincerely yours, 

JOSEPHUS DANIELS. 

President BISHOP further stated that 
upon learning that Secretary Daniels could 
not be present, at his suggestion the As- 
sociation had endeavored to secure the 
presence at the Conference of Admiral 
William S. Sims, who, however, had sent 
notification of his inability to attend, in 
the following telegram: 

I sincerely regret my inability to ac- 
cept your courteous invitation to address 
the American Library Association at As- 
bury Park on June 25. I have already 
pledged myself to many highly important 
engagements for the latter part of the 
month, which will engage all the time I 
can possibly spare from my duties as pres- 
ident of the Navy War College. Had I re- 
ceived your invitation earlier I would have 
arranged my program accordingly, but 
under the circumstances I do not feel justi- 
fied in canceling these important engage- 
ments which I have made. I fully realize 
the importance of the work done by the 
American Library Association, and sin- 
cerely hope it may continue its effective 
cooperation with the Navy. 

W. S. SIMS. 

Commander C. B. MAYO, of the Navy, 
was then introduced, and delivered an ad- 
dress on 

LIBRARY SERVICE FOR THE PERMANENT NAVAL 
ESTABLISHMENT 

(See p. 267) 

The final address of the session was 
given by Vice-Admiral ALBERT CLEAVES, on 

BOOKS AND READING FOR THE NAVY AND 
WHAT THEY HAVE MEANT IN THE WAB 

(See p. 155) 

At the conclusion of this address the au- 
dience rose to show their appreciation. 

President BISHOP: A rising vote of 
thanks, which I was about to suggest, has 
been given spontaneously. May I however, 
in behalf of the artist of the poster alluded 
to, suggest that he was a clever man? He 
painted a marine, who as we all have 
learned, is soldier and sailor too. 



350 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



I wish to thank these gentlemen who 
have so kindly abandoned their many du- 
ties to come here and say to us these kind 
words about our work, and to give us the 
benefit of their suggestions as to the fu- 
ture conduct of work for both branches of 
the military service. I had begun to sup- 
pose our War Service Committee could 
see the end of its labors; and I see a dis- 
appointed and horribly dejected look upon 
Mr. Wyer's face. Perhaps the War Serv- 
ice Committee may be discharged in the 
course of some months, but I do not be- 
lieve that from now on this Association can 
be without a committee on service to the 
soldiers and sailors of the United States. 

The fourth session was then adjourned. 

FIFTH GENERAL SESSION 

(Thursday morning, June 26) 
Vice-President BELDEN presided. 
The following memorial minute, drawn 
by a specially appointed committee, was 
read by Mr. ROBEBT K. SHAW and adopted 
by a rising vote: 

SAMUEL SWETT GREEN 

LIFE FELLOW OF THE AMERICAN LIBBABY AS- 
SOCIATION. ITS PBESIDENT 1891. 

The members of the American Library 
Association desire to put on record their 
deep appreciation of the character and 
services of their late associate, Samuel 
Swett Green, who died in Worcester, Mas- 
sachusetts, December 8, 1918, in the eighty- 
second year of his age, after serving as 
librarian of the Worcester Free Public Li- 
brary from 1871 to 1909, and since then 
as librarian emeritus. 

In two directions Mr. Green did valuable 
pioneer work. The first of these instances 
was the linking of the work of the library 
with that of the schools, with which his 
name will always be associated. The sec- 
ond was the close connection of the libra- 
ry with the local industries. Mr. Green's 
volume, "Libraries and schools," published 
in 1883, and his paper, read before this 
Association in 1889, on the industrial con- 
nections of library work, were influential 
far beyond the limits of his own city. 
Some of the other fields in which Mr. 
Green was a pioneer include the develop- 
ment of interlibrary loans, the formation 
of picture collections, and Sunday opening, 
which, in Worcester, dated from 1872. 

Mr. Green was an original member of 



the American Library Association, taking 
part in its organization at Philadelphia in 
1876, and serving as president at the San 
Francisco meeting in 1891. He was an 
original member of the American Library 
Institute, in 1905. His suggestive report 
on "Library aids," issued by the United 
States Bureau of Education in 1881, was 
exceptionally serviceable. He served as a 
member of the Massachusetts State Li- 
brary Commission, from its beginning in 
1890; and he was reappointed in 1894, 
1899 and 1904. His volume on "The pub- 
lic library movement in the -United States, 
1853-1893," published in 1913, is of wide 
popular interest. He was a graduate from 
Harvard College in 1858, and was all his 
life a keen student and investigator. 

Mr. Green's characteristic graciousness 
and cordiality were closely connected with 
his deep-rooted desire to be helpful. One 
who had known him long and intimately 
wrote of him, after his death, as follows: 
"I think that his most impressive char- 
acteristic was his desire to be of service 
to others;" and it is this innate quality 
of Mr. Green which will cause his memory 
to be cherished, in coming years, by his 
fellow-members of the American Library 
Association. 

WILLIAM E. FOSTEB, 
ROBERT K. SHAW, 
^^^^^^^^ Committee. 

Vice-President BELDEN: We now come to 
the program of the fifth general session, a 
session devoted to a survey of actual con- 
ditions in American libraries. The war 
and its alarms, our mistakes and our vic- 
tories, have been given consideration, and 
today we turn to the future, with its vi- 
sions of enlarged service through organ- 
ized effort. We are ready to start to clear 
the decks, to take stock of our assets, and 
in so doing, I know that you all agree 
with me that we can look forward hope- 
fully and with cheerful assurance. The 
librarian of Yale University, Mr. ANDREW 
KEOGH, will speak to us on 

OUB LIBRARY RESOURCES AS SHOWN BY SOME 
GOVERNMENT NEEDS IN THE WAR 

(See p. 270) 

At the conclusion of Mr. Keogh's paper 
Miss AHERN requested the privilege of say- 
ing a few words, and spoke as follows: 

Before Mr. Keogh's voice dies away, I 
would like to add a little to the glory 
which I think belongs to the splendid 



PROCEEDINGS 



351 



work which the Inquiry Bureau did be- 
fore the peace and since the peace. One 
day while in Paris headquarters library 
a very distinguished gentleman came in 
and seemed hardly to know what he 
wanted to do next, so I stepped around in 
front of him and discovered by my knowl- 
edge of newspaper pictures that I was 
talking to the Honorable Mr. Strauss. I 
spoke to him and asked him if I might 
have the privilege of showing him around 
the library, which I did, and when he was 
leaving he complimented the library, and 
then added: 'Those of us who are inter- 
ested in the peace conference are also un- 
der great obligations to the American Li- 
brary Association for the very splendid 
collection of references which have been 
put at our convenience and use." 

I intended to cable Mr. Keogh then, but 
something else intervened. I take pleas- 
ure in presenting this at this time so that 
Mr. Keogh may know that the splendid 
work which he and his confreres did in 
that matter received the appreciation due 
it from those interested in the peace 
treaty. 

The next speaker on the program was 
Dr. C. C. WILLIAMSON, of the New York 
Public Library, who prefaced the delivery 
of his paper with the following remarks: 

President Bishop had invited me to dis- 
cuss this topic and I had promised to do 
so before I had the slightest idea that I 
might have some responsibility for the 
professional training division of the in- 
vestigation that is to be conducted by the 
Committee of Five, particularly if we get 
the $88,000. I have not consulted my col- 
leagues on that committee on what I am 
about to say, which means that the pro- 
posal which I shall make in this paper is 
personal, not in any sense a committee af- 
fair at the present time. I feel that it is 
incumbent upon me to make this state- 
ment, lest I may seem in what I have to 
say to have committed myself and to some 
extent the committee itself in advance of 
the investigation. I shall therefore state 
my personal views as clearly and as posi- 
tively as I can, but I hope not dogmati- 
cally, and certainly only in general outline. 
If the plan I am about to propose were 
actually to be adopted, of course, extended 
investigation would be necessary before 
the details could possibly be worked out. 
But even the main features of the plan I 
would gladly abandon in favor of any- 
thing else that seems to the profession as 
a whole more likely to accomplish the de- 
sired objects. In order to bring my pa- 
per within the prescribed time limits, if 



possible, I propose to narrow the subjects 
from the plural to the singular and pre- 
sent only one aspect of the training prob- 
lem, but one which, it seems to me, is of 
very far-reaching importance. 
Dr. WILLIAMSON then read his paper on 

SOME PBESENT DAY ASPECTS OF LIBBABY 
TBAINING 

(See p. 129) 

In the subsequent discussion, Mr. Bow- 
KEB made the following remarks: 

I rise to link up this paper with the dis- 
cussion of last night, and to say that as a 
thorough believer in trade unions and pro- 
fessional associations of the right sort, I 
believe this paper points a way to the rem- 
edy of many of the evils existing today in 
such associations. A trade union or a 
professional association should give such 
a stamp to its members that they will 
have superior opportunities in their trade 
or profession, and the suggestion that Dr. 
Williamson so carefully embodied, avoids 
not only the understood evils from which 
we sometimes suffer, but leaves a place 
for the lay members of the profession, so 
to speak, leaves entrance into the profes- 
sion for unskilled people, because in this 
particular calling of librarianship we must 
often draw upon a wider constituency than 
even the library schools can give us. 

This idea of graded certificates from the 
American Library Association puts aside 
state lines, puts aside governmental red 
tape, puts aside any question that the out- 
sider is not given a fair show, but does put 
the stamp of the Association the national 
association, the professional association 
upon fitness, and fitness in the several 
grades. I suppose some of you ride in 
automobiles, at least occasionally; some 
of us own Fords; and what a fine thing it 
would be if instead of numerous state cer- 
tificates and licenses to travel, the Amer- 
ican Automobile Association were a na- 
tional agency for certifying to the capa- 
bilities of chauffeurs or ourselves, and giv- 
ing a license which might, under proper, 
systematic arrangements, enable us to 
travel from state to state for a longer 
period than ten days, without the red tape 
which in Europe is avoided by a somewhat 
similar association organized on the part 
of France. 

I want to say "amen" to everything that 
Dr. Williamson has said. 

Miss FOOTE emphasized the point that if 
the A. L. A. will establish a minimum 
standard for trained library service, the 
diflaculty will be solved of drawing a line 



352 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



between professional and clerical service. 
She further suggested that candidates de- 
siring correspondence courses be required 
to pass a personality test before three li- 
brarians, two of whom should be mem- 
bers of the training board or their rep- 
resentatives. 

Mr. BISHOP suggested the advisability 
of referring to the Executive Board for 
early consideration the question raised by 
Dr. Williamson's paper. 

Miss OBEBLY urged prompt cooperation 
with the Joint Congressional Committee on 
Reclassification. 

Continuing the program of the session, 
Mr. ADAM STBOHM, as a member of the 
Committee on Investigation of Salaries, 
discussed the report of that committee 
(see p. 71-ff of May Bulletin), elaborating 
certain points, emphasizing important fea- 
tures, and closing his remarks with a plea 
for adequate salaries in these words: 

I assume that we must have in the li- 
brary profession men who can mix with 
men, who are men among men, who can- 
not only get out printed recipes on how to 
make success, but can themselves make 
the appearance of really having a right 
in the open, among their fellow beings. 
We must have girls and women who are 
happy, who impress the graces of life upon 
those with whom they come in contact, 
who themselves are gracious, who seem 
full of zest and faith in their own exist- 
ence. 

Library trustees, chief librarians and 
members of the A. L. A., I think we all 
realize it and should act upon it, that the 
life that is worth living, the life that cor- 
responds to the culture and civilization 
which we try to stimulate, that life can- 
not be lived on the paltry average income 
of $57 a month. 

Mr. ROOT, being called upon as a mem- 
ber of the Salaries Committee, summar- 
ized salary conditions in college libraries, 
as had been dealt with in the committee 
report; and brought out the point that a 
decreasing percentage of college bred as- 
sistants was being attracted to library 
work in educational institutions, for the 
reason that such employment represent- 
ing a culmination of achievement in li- 
brary work commands remuneration be- 
low the initial compensation for instruc- 



tors, and amounting to little more than 
the institutional rates for room and board. 

Dr. BOWEBMAN said that the work of 
the Joint Commission on Reclassification, 
intended to standardize salaries and grades 
for libraries in the District of Columbia, 
will have tremendous significance in set- 
ting standards for the country at large, 
and that the cooperation of the A. L. A. 
is desired in getting good salary standards 
fixed in the report of this commission. 

Mr. BOWKEB suggested that a subject 
akin to salaries was that of pensions, and 
put forth the idea of having a report on 
pensions at the next Conference. 

At this point Mr. PBEDEBICK C. HICKS 
spoke as follows: 

I have been a member of the A. L. A. 
so long that Mrs. Carr threatens to 
make me a pioneer; I don't know just 
how soon that will come. I say this so 
that you may understand I am a friend 
of the A. L. A.; but at this moment I rep- 
resent a small group of librarians here at 
Asbury Park known as the law librarians. 
We are, I presume, among those covered in 
this report as "miscellaneous." I have 
examined the report with care, and find no 
reference to the 760 law libraries in the 
United States and Canada, and very few 
of the state libraries or special libraries 
are represented. Many of these associa- 
tions and groups of libraries are not rep- 
resented upon the committees of the 
A. L. A., nor do they have an opportunity 
of presenting the facts as to their library 
work on the programs of the A. L. A. Per- 
haps that is difficult; but we come here 
each year in the hope that the essential 
unity of library work among special libra- 
ries, general libraries, college libraries, 
may be understood, and we wish to do our 
part in emphasizing that unity. Now the 
law librarians speaking of them for a 
moment are interested in salaries; they 
are interested in cataloging, in classifica- 
tion, in library administration, in book- 
binding, in book selection, in making their 
books useful not only to lawyers, but to 
the world in general, and we wish to be 
included in the surveys that are made of 
library conditions. We wish when a com- 
mittee is appointed to serve the United 
States from the library point of view, to 
have law librarians on that committee, or 
someone who knows the law library situa- 
tion. We wish all of the special libraries 
to be so represented, and it may be that 
a comparison of the salaries of special 



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353 



librarians, including law librarians and 
assistants, with those paid in public and 
college libraries, would materially assist 
in preparing an argument for increasing 
the salaries of public library assistants. 

Now, we wish (and I say this not be- 
cause I have been delegated to speak so 
this is my personal point of view) when 
we come to an A. L. A. meeting we wish 
to have our large group of interests rep- 
resented in the general surveys that are 
made, because we do belong to the library 
profession. 

Mr. MONTGOMERY called attention to the 
lack of reports from some of the larger 
state libraries in Mrs. Sawyer's portion of 
the report, saying this detracted very se- 
riously from its value. 

Upon request of Vice-President BELDEN, 
Dr. BOSTWICK presented the report of the 
Committee of Five on Library Service 
(see p. 326). 

Dr. Bostwick was asked whether, if the 
committee does not receive the $88,000 
asked for, they propose to apply to some 
foundation which may feel it possible to 
appropriate the money. He replied that 
the committee had not formulated any 
such plan, but that if the amount is not se- 
cured as asked for the committee will try 
to get the money from some other source, 
and will leave no stone unturned to get it. 

The fifth session was then adjourned. 

SIXTH GENERAL SESSION 
(Friday morning, June 27) 

President BISHOP presided. 

At the suggestion of the President, it 
was voted that the Association cable greet- 
ings to Dr. Herbert Putnam, general di- 
rector of the A. L. A. War Service, and to 
Mr. Burton E. Stevenson, European rep- 
resentative of the A. L. A., as some ex- 
pression of appreciation of the services of 
these absent members. 

President BISHOP, in introducing the 
first speaker of the program, made the 
following remarks: 

We have endeavored, as I said in my 
opening address, to make this a forward- 
looking program. Despite our efforts, 
much of the program has looked back- 
ward to the war work. The four military 
gentlemen who addressed us the other 
morning were to have talked, we hoped, 



about books and reading in the Army and 
the Navy in peace times in the future; 
Instead, their hearts were so full of what 
was done during the war that they talked 
a great deal of our past work. Yesterday 
we devoted ourselves to a statement of 
some few of the actual conditions in our 
libraries. We took up certain very serious 
defects which the war had revealed in our 
resources, defects which we may well 
pause to consider very carefully, and to- 
ward the meeting of which every organ- 
ized effort may be properly directed. We 
also took up two burning questions, those 
of training and salaries; and finally we 
listened to the plans for a survey of the 
conditions in American libraries today. 

This morning we attempt the interest- 
ing task of looking into the future. We do 
not so much attempt to forecast it as to 
forecast plans on which we may ourselves 
work. We are not prophets, nor crystal 
gazers, nor seers, but we are folk who 
have to think as to how our work is go- 
ing to develop. We have very pressing 
problems of the immediate future. Should 
we neglect them, or fail to meet them as 
they come, we certainly shall be false to 
the high standards of our calling. Hence 
the program is devoted not to just one 
or two subjects of library economy, but to 
the future of library work in America. I 
take great pleasure in introducing Mr. 
PAUL M. PAINE, librarian of the Public 
Library of Syracuse, New York, who will 
speak to us on 

THE LIBBABY'S TASK IN BECONSTBUCTION 
(See p. 117) 

Mr. JESSE B. DAVIS, principal of the 
Central High School, Grand Rapids, Michi- 
gan, followed with a paper entitled 

THE HIGH SCHOOL LIBBABY OF THE NEXT 
DECADE 

(See p. 126) 
The final subject of the morning was 

BEACHING ALL CLASSES OF THE COMMUNITY 

(See p. Ill) 

Dr. JOHN H. LEETE, director of the Car- 
negie Library of Pittsburgh, who present- 
ed this closing address, spoke as follows 
in introducing his topic: 

Before beginning the discussion of this 
topic I feel that a few words of personal 
explanation may be necessary. Two years 
ago I was brought, somewhat against my 
will, from a position in college adminis- 
tration, to library work. I resented it at 
the time, because it seemed to transfer 
me from a position, a bigger position, a 



354 



more difficult job, to one that was smaller 
and less promising. Two years of educa- 
tion under a most competent, able, ener- 
getic and what might be called educative 
staff, have persuaded me how very mis- 
taken I was! To-day I am convinced that 
no professional field offers greater possi- 
bilities than library work. I am afraid, 
however, that I shall not readily acquire 
the professional attitude. My viewpoint is 
still largely that of the outside public, 
and it is from that viewpoint that I shall 
speak to you this morning. My only ex- 
cuse for presenting such a topic, which is 
in a way a technical subject, in the pres- 
ence particularly of those who are so much 
more competent than I to present it, is 
that this is the greatest question, at least 
greatest in my estimation, before the li- 
brary of to-day. 

I wish to add also that what I shall 
say is not intended in any way to oppose 
the side of our work that was presented 
so happily this morning by the first speak- 
er on the program, but is intended to sup- 
plement it. 

At the conclusion of the foregoing pa- 
per there were read, and adopted by a 
rising vote, memorial resolutions on the 
death of William H. Brett, librarian of the 
Cleveland Public Library, and Raymond 
C. Davis, librarian emeritus of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan. 

The text of the resolutions follow: 



WILLIAM HOWARD BRETT 

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIA- 
TION, 1885-1918. ITS PRESIDENT 1896-97. 

The untimely death of Mr. Brett term- 
nated not only a life pulsating with con- 
structive vitality and matured plans to 
serve his country in its mighty under- 
takings overseas, but it left all those fa- 
miliar with his career and associated with 
him in a common task bereft of that stim- 
ulus and steadfastness we all receive from 
the example of noble endeavors. 

He was a public servant of rare ability 
and extraordinary accomplishments. The 
span of his professional career reaches 
back to the year 1884, when he assumed 
the leadership in the Institution whose 
distinction is preeminent in the library 
history of the nation. In addition to de- 
veloping the Cleveland Public Library to 
the highest degree of liberal usefulness, 
he gave unstintedly of his experience and 
enthusiasm to the welfare of the profes- 
sion at large and was duly honored. 

His services as president of the Ameri- 



can Library Association, the organization 
of the Ohio Library Association, his ap- 
pointment as dean of Western Reserve 
University Library School and his mem- 
bership of the A. L. A. War Service Com- 
mittee are some of the important mile- 
stones of his career. 

His prodigious, noiseless energy and un- 
flagging interest allowed him to serve on 
various important committees and af- 
forded him time to give counsel and en- 
couragement to others incidents little 
recorded, forgotten by himself but for- 
ever treasured by the recipients of his 
good will and kindliness. 

Untiring worker, careful observer, far- 
seeing pathfinder, he was nevertheless 
modest, tolerant, ever ready to learn, to 
serve; never opinionated. 

Whatsoever was clean and beautiful ap- 
pealed to him. Any idea that would add 
something to life, that would make the 
high destiny of the individual and society 
reach a noble fulfillment, he would em- 
brace with happy, contagious warmth, free 
from any thought of self-enhancement. 

His courage was equal to his kindness. 
Magnanimous at heart, he would instinc- 
tively enlist and stand firm in any cause 
where self-respect and high principles 
were at stake. His the impulse to defend 
and protect the sweetness and high pur- 
pose of life against brutal egotism. 

In the happy days of his patriotic serv- 
ice as camp librarian he heard the tramp, 
tramp of young America embarking on the 
transports to prove its manhood overseas, 
and the day was prescient with his antici- 
pated duties "Over there," where he was 
to be at the service of the boys and share 
with them the light of a new dawn. 

His memory will be as abiding as his 
message, "As we live, we teach." 

ADAM STROHM, 
R. R. BOWKER, 
FRANK P. HILL, 
Committee. 

RAYMOND CA2ALLIS DAVIS 

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSO- 
CIATION, 1878-1919 

Raymond Cazallis Davis, a member of 
this body, died at his home in Ann Ar- 
bor, Michigan, on June 10, 1919, at the 
age of almost eighty-three years. Since 
1878 he had been actively associated with 
the A. L. A. He was born in Gushing, 
Maine, in 1836, and passed his early life 
in that state and on the ocean, sailing in 
his father's ship. He was a student in the 
University of Michigan before the civil 
war, and became assistant librarian in 



PROCEEDINGS 



355 



1868, librarian in 1877, and librarian emer- 
itus in 1905. He was one of the very 
first in our universities to give instruc- 
tion in bibliographies, and continued his 
courses until a very few years since. 

Gentle and kind in soul, moderate in 
nature, but with all friendly, and helpful 
to generations of students. Loving books 
with the rare knowledge of a true schol- 
ar, he served his university and his li- 
brary with single-hearted devotion. The 
Association puts upon its minutes its 
genuine regret at his passing, and its high 
sense of the value of his professional serv- 
ices and of his sweet and kindly charac- 
ter. 

HENRY J. CAKR, 
WM. W. BISHOP, 

Committee. 

Upon request of the President, Mr. H. H. 
B. Meyer, chairman of the Committee on 
Resolutions, presented the following report 
of that committee, and it was duly adopted: 

REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON RESOLU- 
TIONS 

Whereas, The booksellers and publish- 
ers of the United States, recognizing, in 
the calls for books made on them by the 
library war service of the American Li- 
brary Association, an opportunity for pa- 
triotic service, responded thereto with 
prompt and hearty cooperation, 

First, in granting discounts which 
amounted to an elimination of all profits; 

Second, in giving precedence to A. L. A. 
orders over the orders received from all 
other sources; 

Third, in accepting and filling small or- 
ders with the same promptness and dis- 
patch with which they handled large or- 
ders; and 

Fourth, in submitting, almost without 
murmur, to some unusual delays in the 
settlement of accounts, recognizing that 
an office staff hastily organized, constantly 
changing in its personnel, and extending 
its ramifications to all parts of the coun- 
try, was entitled to some such considera- 
tion; therefore be it 

RESOLVED, That the American Libra- 
ry Association in convention assembled at 
Asbury Park, New Jersey, hereby expresses 
its highest appreciation of the unfailing 
cooperation of the booksellers and pub- 
lishers of the United States in carrying 
on its library war service, and that a large 
measure of the success attained would 
have been impossible without such coop- 
eration, and be it further 

RESOLVED, That a copy of this reso- 



lution to sent to the American Booksellers 
Association, to the American Publishers 
Copyright League, and further, that it be 
printed in the Publishers' Weekly. 



Whereas, The American Library Asso- 
ciation after two years of experience 
through its library war service is in a po- 
sition to know, without a question of 
doubt, how great an influence for good 
among the enlisted men has been the di- 
rect contact with books, and how valuable 
expert guidance in their use has proven in 
connection with other welfare work; and 

Whereas, There are before the Congress 
of the United States two bills making ap- 
propriations for the continuance of wel- 
fare work in the Army and Navy of the 
United States; therefore be it 

RESOLVED, That the American Library 
Association in convention assembled at 
Asbury Park, New Jersey, hereby ex- 
presses its approval of these two bills and 
respectfully urges their passage at the 
earliest possible date, in order that there 
may be no chance for a lowering of the 
high morale which the military and naval 
forces of the United States have achieved; 
and be it further 

RESOLVED, That copies of this resolu- 
tion be sent to the chairman of the Sen- 
ate Committee on Appropriations, to the 
chairman of the House Committee on Ap- 
propriations, to Major Jason S. Joy, di- 
rector, Commission on Training Camp Ac- 
tivities, War Department, and to Com- 
mander C. B. Mayo, Bureau of Navigation, 
Navy Department. 

Whereas, Investigations made by some 
of the most prominent members of the 
American Library Association have shown 
that salaries paid to library workers in 
the United States are inadequate to meet 
living expenses, and to compensate for the 
value of the services rendered; and 

Whereas, The only way to meet the nat- 
ural demand under present conditions for 
higher salaries for library workers, is to 
secure increased appropriations; therefore 
be it 

RESOLVED, That the American Library 
Association strongly urge all governing or 
legislative bodies, federal, state, county, 
city, town or village to increase the ap- 
propriations for library salaries, in order 
to retain in the library service library 
workers who are forced by sheer necessity 
into other fields where the compensation 
constitutes a just return for scholarship 
and professional training; and further be 
it 

RESOLVED, That the American Library 



356 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Association take every available means to 
give this resolution the widest publicity, 
especially among those controlling appro- 
priations for library salaries. 

RESOLVED, That at the close of the 
Forty-first Annual Conference, the Ameri- 
can Library Association in order to show 
its high appreciation of the efforts put 
forth, hereby expresses its profound grati- 
tude to all those who have contributed to 
making the Conference a success. 

To those not members of the Associa- 
tion and especially to the Hon. Frederick 
P. Keppel, Third Assistant Secretary of 
War, to Admiral Albert Gleaves, to 
Colonel E. L. Munson, to Commander C. 
B. Mayo, to Major Jason S. Joy, and to 
Mr. Jesse B. Davis, who have come from 
a distance to address us, we tender our 
heartfelt thanks and assure them of our 
keenest appreciation. 

To the state and local authorities and 
especially the librarians and to the local 
committee we express our gratitude for 
the many courtesies received. 

On Mr. Lloyd W. Josselyn, editor-in-chief 
and managing editor of The Use of Print, 
and his colleagues, we bestow our appre- 
ciative thanks for the keen pleasure and 
the wealth of information the successive 
members have given us; and further be it 

RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolu- 
tion be sent to each of the gentlemen men- 
tioned above. 

H. H. B. MEYEB, 
CHALMERS HADLEY, 
SARAH C. N. BOGLE, 
Committee on Resolutions. 

At the request of the President, the fol- 
lowing resolution which had been passed 
by the Council on June 26, was read by 
the secretary: 

Whereas, There has been established and 
Is in active operation in the Bureau of 
Education a National Library Service, 
which has furnished the libraries of the 
United States with valuable information 
concerning Government publications and 
affairs; be it therefore 

RESOLVED, That the American Library 
Association endorses the work of the Na- 
tional Library Service and respectfully re- 
quests its continuance in the Bureau of 
Education; further be it 

RESOLVED, That a copy of this reso- 
lution be sent to the Secretary of the In- 
terior and to the Commissioner of Educa- 
tion. 

Miss MAUDE MALONE, a representative of 
the New York Library Employees Union, 
being given the floor by courtesy, although 



not a member of the A. L. A., inquired 
whether a resolution submitted by that 
union to the Committee on Resolutions of 
the American Library Association had 
failed to receive the approval of the com- 
mittee. 

At the request of President BISHOP, Mr. 
MEYER, chairman of the Committee on Res- 
olutions, stated that in view of the fact 
that a union in Washington, representing 
Federal employees, would take up a va- 
riety of points relative to employment, the 
Committee on Resolutions had restricted 
its consideration to the question of sal- 
aries for library workers, as set forth in 
the resolution which had just been pre- 
sented. 

Miss MALONE then expressed a feeling 
that the resolution of the Library Em- 
ployees Union should have received defi- 
nite action in favor or disfavor. 

Mr. MEYER than stated that the Commit- 
tee on Resolutions had at the present time 
decided adversely upon the resolution of 
the Library Employees Union; but with 
the idea that some expression should be 
obtained from another source rather than 
that the resolution should necessarily be 
killed, had concluded to allow the Wash- 
ington Union opportunity to consider the 
same. 

A member of the A. L. A. here made the 
suggestion, as coming also from a member 
of the Library Employees Union, that the 
resolution of the L. E. U. be returned to 
that body. 

The following resolutions, which had 
been passed by the Council on June 26, 
were at this time put to vote and endorsed 
by the Association: 

The Council of the American Library As- 
sociation endorses the Educational Bill 
(H. R. 7) introduced into the House of 
Representatives by the Hon. Horace M. 
Towner, arA urges upon the Congress of 
the United States the early consideration 
and adoption of this measure. 

RESOLVED, That the Council of the 
A. L. A., recognizing the urgent need for 
an International Bibliography of Human- 
istic Literature, cordially endorses the 
plan as outlined by Mr. F. J. Teggart;* 
and further, 



See Council, Second Session. 



PROCEEDINGS 



357 



RESOLVED, That there be appointed an 
advisory committee of four to cooperate 
with the American Association of Univer- 
sity Professors in supervising the prep- 
aration and publication of the bibliog- 
raphy. 

The secretary read the report of the 
tellers of election, showing that the fol- 
lowing officers had been elected: 

REPORT OF THE TELLERS 

OF ELECTION 
Total number of votes cast, 131. 

President 

Chalmers Hadley, librarian Public Li- 
brary, Denver, Colorado. 131 votes. 

First Vice-President 

George H. Locke, librarian, Public Li- 
brary, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 129 
votes. 

Second Vice-President 
Cornelia Marvin, librarian Oregon State 
Library, Salem, Oregon. 128 votes. 
Members of Executive Board 

(For three years) 

Carl H. Milam, director, Public Library, 
Birmingham, Alabama. 124 votes. 

Edith Tobitt, librarian, Public Library, 
Omaha, Nebraska. 124 votes. 
Members of Council 

(For five years) 

Miriam E. Carey, field representative, 
A. L. A. War Service. 128 votes. 

Bessie Sargeant Smith, supervisor small- 
er branches, Public Library, Cleveland, 
Ohio. 127 votes. 

Phineas L. Windsor, librarian, Univer- 
sity of Illinois Library, Urbana, Illinois. 
127 votes. 

Lloyd W. Josselyn, librarian, Public Li- 
brary, Jacksonville, Florida. 128 votes. 

C. C. Williamson, chief, division of eco- 
nomics, Public Library, New York City. 
126 votes. 

Trustee of Endowment Fund 
E. W. Sheldon, trustee, Public Library, 
New York City. 127 votes. 

President BISHOP: A matter which has 
been agitated in the library press, and 
which has received very considerable at- 
tention in the hands of various members 
of the Association, will be presented for 
a minute for possible consideration, by 



Mr. WHEELER, of Youngstown the ques- 
tion of cooperative book buying. 

Mr. WHEELER accordingly spoke as fol- 
lows: 

I did not realize that I was to be called 
upon to present to you this matter, which 
has been termed the question of central- 
ized book buying, but which to my mind 
is far broader than that, and which I 
should like t ophrase as centralized se- 
lection of books, centralized purchasing of 
books, centralized binding and rebinding 
of books in such shape that they will car- 
ry to the end of the life of the books with- 
out another rebinding; centralized public- 
ity to get the books used, and in connec- 
tion with that the cooperation or possible 
absorption of the staff of the A. L. A. 
Booklist; and in general, the centralized 
doing of all the preparatory processes of 
getting books ready for the public to use. 

It may be that this plan has so many 
practical difficulties that it could not be 
carried out. However, it does seem to me 
to be so vital that we should at least in- 
vestigate it, that I venture to propose to 
you a motion that the Executive Board of 
the Association appoint a committee of 
five members to consider the possibilities 
and the practical difficulties of carrying 
out this proposal. 

The motion was duly concurred in. 
"President-elect Hadley was escorted to 
the platform by Mr. Belden and Mr. Fer- 
guson. 

President BISHOP: Mr. Hadley, on behalf 
of the Association I tender you, sir, this 
gavel, as indicating the authority of your 
new office, with the best wishes from all 
of us for your great success in carrying 
us through the next year. 

Mr. HADLEY: Mr. President and fellow 
members of the Association: When the 
Nominating Committee proposed my name 
for this office I replied that it was an honor 
that should never be sought and a responsi- 
bility which I felt should not be shirked. 
I thoroughly appreciate this honor, and I 
wish to thank you by promising to give 
to the A. L. A. during the coming year the 
very best service of which I am capable. 
The questions before us which have been 
brought up at this one session are of suffi- 
cient importance to occupy us for several 
months. We can only arrive at a success- 
ful conclusion if we have the cooperation 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



of every member of the Association, which 
I ask of you on behalf of the new officers 
of this Association. 

On motion of Mr. DANA, it was voted 
that the Executive Board be instructed to 
present at the next A. L. A. Conference a 
form of constitution, with by-laws, con- 
formable at least in a measure to the 
suggestions contained in the address of 
President Bishop. 

At this point Mr. BISHOP stated that, to 
avoid any misapprehension, Mr. Meyer de- 
sired a further word to foe said relative to 
the matter of the resolution of the Library 
Employees Union, and summed up the 
manner in which the resolution had been 
received by the Committee on Resolutions 
of the American Library Association, 
which committee had decided to allow the 
Washington Union opportunity to consider 
the matter in question. 

Mr. WHEELER moved that the resolution 
of the New York Union be voted upon by 
the Association. 

Miss KELSO having then risen to a point 
of order sustained by President Hadley, 
Mr. BOWKEB requested that the resolution 
be read, even though no definite action be 
taken upon it. 

It was indicated that no copy was imme- 
diately at hand. 

Miss KELSO emphasized that insufficient 
attention was being given by A. L. A. mem- 
bers to the 'fact that a Joint Commission 
was settling salary standards which would 
affect librarians throughout the entire 
United States, and suggested that a just 
conception of librarianship might not be 
within the realization of this commission. 

Dr. BOWERMAN, in order to make clear 
the topic under discussion, then briefly ex- 
plained that Congress had created a Joint 
Commission on Reclassification of Salaries, 
to classify the salaries of all Government 
employees in Washington, Federal and 
municipal (numbering 105,000) ; the Joint 
Commission being composed of three Sen- 
ators and three ex-Representatives, who 
had engaged a considerable staff of ex- 
perts, including persons representing li- 
brary interests. 



Dr. BOWEBMAN further stated that it had 
seemed desirable that the A. L. A. should 
by resolution assign to some committee 
the duty of presenting to the Joint Com- 
mission on Reclassification a definite con- 
ception of the place and importance of the 
work of librarianship and the need of its 
proper recognition upon salary rolls, and 
that the resolution presented relative to 
salaries (intended to cover this matter) 
might be made more specific, if thought in- 
adequate for a hearing before the Joint 
Commission. 

He then moved that the Committee of 
Five on Library Service be instructed to 
present to the Joint Commission on Re- 
classification its ideas of librarianship and 
requisite compensation for library services, 
especially since the effect of the work of 
the Reclassification Commission will doubt- 
less have wider bearing than will pertain 
merely to library interests at Washington. 

A member here stated that there was 
scheduled to come 'before the Executive 
Board of the A. L. A. the matter of having 
a special committee to look after the Res- 
olution on Salaries, and to put the resolu- 
tion into the hands of governing bodies 
making appropriations for library pur- 
poses. 

Mr. MEYER, as chairman of the Commit- 
tee on Resolutions, at this juncture ex- 
plained that his committee had endeavored 
to reduce the various resolutions ,in its 
hands to as brief compass as possible; and 
he further said that, after pointing out 
that library salaries are low, and going on 
record as urging appropriating bodies to 
increase such salaries, he would consider 
additional recommendations as perhaps 
encroaching upon local details. 

Mr. BOWKER moved, as amendment of 
Dr. Bowprman's motion, that the Execu- 
tive Board be requested to appoint a com- 
mittee which shall present to the Joint 
Commission on Reclassification the Salary 
Resolution already passed. 

The motion of Mr. Bowker was con- 
curred in, Dr. Bowerman accepting such 
amendment to the original motion, with 
the suggestion that the Committee of Five 



EXECUTIVE BOARD 



359 



on Library Service be called into coopera- 
tion with the prospective committee. 

The resolution of the New York Library 
Employees Union, the reading of which 
had been previously requested, was then 
read by the secretary, as follows: 

Whereas, The present low and inade- 
quate salaries paid to librarians in the 
public libraries are due solely to the fact 
that all of the rank and file in the work 
are women; and 

Whereas, All the highest salaried po- 
sitions are given to men iy the board of 
trustees; and 

Whereas, The present policy of li- 
brary boards is to remove women from all 
positions of responsibility and largest 
financial returns, and replace them with 
men only, and 

Whereas, This discrimination is based 
on sex, and not on any superiority of in- 
telligence, ability, or knowledge on the part 
of the men appointed; therefore, 

BE IT RESOLVED, That we are against 
this system of removing women without 
reason, and are in favor of throwing open 
all positions in library work, from Libra- 
rian of Congress down to that of page, 
to men and women equally, and for equal 
pay. 

President HADLEY announced that upon 
examination of the by-laws it appeared 
that, under a three-fourths vote of those 
present at any meeting of the American 
Library Association, the Association could 
decide to consider and report upon a ques- 



tion without previous reference to the 
Council for report and recommendation. 

Mr. WHEELER urged that the Association 
record action upon the L. E. U. resolution 
in order to disarm the possible criticism 
that a small number of persons renders 
decision upon A. L. A. matters. 

Miss TYLEB at this point spoke upon the 
substance of the L. E. U. resolution, and 
declared that American women librarians 
are carrying their fair share of responsi- 
bility, and they desire the men members of 
the Association to realize that the women 
understand the men have no thought of 
crowding women out of the profession. 

Mr. BOWKEB followed with an especial 
protest against the preamble of the resolu- 
tion, which states that women are discrim- 
inated against by boards of trustees. 

It was then moved and seconded that the 
rules of the Association be suspended and 
that a vote be taken upon the adoption of 
the resolution of the New York Library 
Employees Union. 

The rules were so suspended. 

The question of the adoption of the res- 
olution of the New York Library Em- 
ployees Union being duly presented, the 
Association rejected the resolution by a 
vote of 121 members against one. 

There being no further business to come 
before the Association, the Conference 
was adjqurned sine die. 



EXECUTIVE BOARD 



A meeting of the Executive Board of the 
American Library Association was held in 
the New Monterey Hotel, Asbury Park, N. 
J., Friday afternoon, June 27, 1919. 

Present: President Hadley, Misses 
Doren, Eastman and Tobitt, and Messrs. 
Hill and Milam; also Secretary Utley. 
Program for Enlarged Service 

The following resolution, drawn by a 
member of the board, was read and unani- 
mously adopted: 

Resolved, (1) That the Executive Board 
recognizes the responsibility of the Amer- 
ican Library Association to encourage and 
promote the development of library serv* 
ice for every man, woman and child in 
America. 



(2) That a committee be appointed to 
consider the various reports and sugges- 
tions concerning the future work of the 
Association; to prepare an enlarged pro- 
gram of American library service; and to 
make a report as soon as possible with rec- 
ommendations these recommendations to 
indicate which features of the program are 
of immediate importance and to be accom- 
panied by definite plans for the inaugura- 
tion and financing of the work. 

(3) That this committee consist of two 
members of the Executive Board, who 
shall have power to increase their num- 
bers to five and to appoint advisory sub- 
committees. 

(4) That the committee be known as the 
Committee on an Enlarged Program for 
American Library Service. 



360 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Committee Appointments 

On motion of Dr. Hill it was 

Voted, That the president be empowered 
to appoint the various committees for the 
ensuing year. 

Committee on Importations 

Dr. Hill having presented, in writing, his 
resignation as chairman of the Committee 
on Importations, it was, on motion by Mr. 
Mllam, 

Voted, That the resignation of Dr. Hill 
as chairman of the Committee on Impor- 
tations be accepted and that the appoint- 
ment of hie successor be left to the presi- 
dent. 

Midwinter Meetings 

The question whether or not to hold the 
customary midwinter meetings (which 
have been omitted the past two years be- 
cause of the war) being under considera- 
tion, it was, on motion of Mr. Milam, 

Voted, That the midwinter meetings be 
held this coming winter in Chicago. 
Meeting Place for 1920 

The subject of meeting place for 1920 
was informally discussed. The secretary 
stated that he had received invitations 
from the Chambers of Commerce in the 
following cities: Chicago, Cincinnati, De- 
troit, Kansas City, New York and St. 
Joseph. It was the sense of the board that 
no place east of the Allegheny mountains 
should be considered. Formal action was 
postponed until a later meeting. 

Plans for Library Training 

The Association, having referred to the 
Executive Board for further consideration 
the plans for a board on library training, 
as outlined by Dr. C. C. Williamson in his 
paper read before the Association (see 
p. 120, the Executive Board took the mat- 
ter under consideration, Dr. Williamson 
sitting by invitation with the board to par- 
ticipate in the discussion. 

It was, on motion by Mr. Milam, 

Voted, That the plan of Dr. C. C. Wil- 
liamson, set forth in his paper on "Some 
present-day aspects of library training," 
be approved in general and referred to 
the Committee on an Enlarged Program 
for American Library Service for early 
consideration and report. 



Plans for an International Bibliography 
of Humanistic Literature 

The Council at its meeting on June 26 
having voted, after hearing Professor F. J. 
Teggart's plans for an international biblio- 
graphy of humanistic literature, that an 
advisory committee of four be appointed 
to cooperate with the American Associa- 
tion of University Professors in supervis- 
ing the preparation and publication of the 
bibliography, the Executive Board ex- 
pressed its approval of this action and 

Voted, That the subject be referred to 
the president for action. 

Rate for Rural Delivery of Books 

A communication having been received 
from Mr. A. L. Spencer, Greenwood, N. Y., 
requesting the Executive Board to endorse 
for the third time a plan for a cheaper 
local rate over rural delivery lines for pub- 
lic library books, it was 

Voted, That the Executive Board of the 
American Library Association for the third 
time endorses the plan of a local flat rate 
over the rural delivery lines for public 
library books, the present parcels post rate 
in the local zone, while most favorable for 
commercial parcels, having been found in- 
applicable for this great educational use; 
and that it strongly recommends that this 
plan be fully considered by the postal au- 
thorities at Washington at the earliest 
convenient time. 

Supplementary Budget 

The Secretary presented a supplement- 
ary budget in the sum of $1,383.65, which 
had been approved by the Finance Com- 
mittee, and upon his recommendation it 
was voted that the funds be applied to the 
following appropriation heads: 

Bulletin $ 300.00 

Conference 60.00 

Additional services 250.00 

Supplies 250.00 

Postage, telephone, etc 250.00 

Miscellaneous 50.00 

Contingencies 83.65 

Travel 150.00 

Total $1,383.65 

On motion of Mr. Milam, it was 
Voted, That the secretary be authorized 
to transfer money from one appropriation 
head to another in the budget at his own 
discretion. 



COUNCIL 



361 



Cooperative Bookbuying 
The Association having requested the 
Executive Board to appoint a committee of 
five to consider the subject of cooperative 
bookbuying and to report to the Associa- 
tion, it was, on motion of Mr. Milam, 

Voted, That the president of the Associa- 
tion be empowered to appoint a committee 
of five to consider the subject of coopera- 
tive bookbuying, and that this committee 
be instructed to make at least a prelim- 
inary report as promptly as possible in 
order that it may be considered by the 
Committee on an Enlarged Program for 
American Library Service. 

Revision of Constitution 
The Association having voted that the 
Executive Board be instructed to bring in 
a form of constitution to the Association 
a year hence, it was, on motion of Mr. 
Milam, 

Voted, That the president, secretary, and 
retiring president of the Association be 
appointed a committee of three to make 
recommendations concerning a revised con- 
stitution for the American Library Asso- 
ciation, and that this committee make a 
preliminary draft in time to present it to 



the Executive Board at its midwinter 
meeting. 

Definition of Librarianship and Statement 
as to Appropriate Salaries 

The Association having recommended 
that the Committee of Five on Library 
Service and a special committee to be ap- 
pointed by the Executive Board present to 
the Joint Commission on Reclassification 
their views on the work of librarians and 
on the salaries appropriate to the various 
library positions in the Federal and Dis- 
trict of Columbia Governments, It was 

Voted, That the Committee of Five on 
Library Service be instructed to cooperate 
with the Committee of the District of 
Columbia Library Association in present- 
ing to the Joint Commission of Congress 
on Reclassification a statement as to the 
work of librarianship and as to the salaries 
which are appropriate for various library 
positions in the Federal and District of 
Columlbia Governments. 

Next Meeting of Board 

Voted, That when the Executive Board 
shall adjourn it adjourn to meet not later 
than the September next meeting of the 
New York Library Association. 

There being no further business, the 
Board adjourned. 



COUNCIL 

FIRST SESSION 



The Council met on Tuesday afternoon, 
June 24. 

The meeting was called to order by Pres- 
ident Bishop, who announced as the sub- 
ject for discussion, "Shall a permanent 
endowment be undertaken for peace time 
work of the A. L. A.?" The president 
stated that three five-minute talks would 
first be heard, upon "The need for taking 
advantage of our war time opportunities," 
and called upon Mr. J. I. Wyer, Jr., direc- 
tor of the New York State Library, who 
spoke as follows: 

I will tell you in advance, that you may 
be assured of the impartial character of 
my five-minute contribution, that no ques- 
tions have been asked of me as to which 
side I would be on, and I don't know 
whether the other five-minute speakers are 



affirmative or negative; nothing has been 
said. I have been spending a good deal of 
time, listening right and left, and asking 
questions, to discover whether there were 
objections to or approvals of this endow- 
ment plan, and I have heard a good many 
things, and have made up my mind; my 
mind is this, that I am in favor of it first, 
last, and all the time. I have seen in 
the report of the committee of which Mr. 
Brown is chairman, and in the program, 
and other places, lists of activities that 
the Association might well engage in if 
it had the funds. I may not approve of 
all of those items there set down, and I 
may feel that some are far more important 
than others. That is my opinion. But 
there can be a program, necessary, wise, 
imperative, almost, if the American Li- 
brary Association is to fill its proper niche 
hi the development of the spiritual things 
of this country; there can be such a pro- 
gram that will, I am sure, be approved by 



362 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



all members of this Association. The sin- 
gle Item of publicity alone, in its various 
ramifications, would be a sufficient pro- 
gram for this Association, if there were 
no other. 

I have listened to some objections, too, 
as to this, and none of them seems to me 
convincing. They chiefly harp upon the 
difficulty of carrying through an enterprise 
like this without the spur which the war 
and the patriotic motives back of the war 
provided in our campaigns for funds for 
war service. It seems to me that that 
very campaign for war service the money 
that was raised the work that has been 
done and the way it has been done in the 
last two years furnish sufficient answer 
to those who object on account of condi- 
tions not being favorable for this work. 

Here is the last contribution to my five- 
minute address. Of course I am sure it 
will be evident that it is not mine, when 
I read it, but in all fairness I want to say 
it has been "cribbed." It is, "It can be 
done." 

Mr. Wyer was followed by Miss Theresa 
Hitchler, of the Brooklyn Public Library: 

Mr. Wyer's talk has made it unnecessary 
for me to talk my full five minutes; I can 
reduce it to almost one. I can repeat in 
part what he has said, except that I have 
not heard what I should call actual ob- 
jections. I heard discussed perhaps the 
inadvisability of starting this fund right 
now, or the advisability of going about it 
in a different way, perhaps, but I have 
not heard any objections, and I feel in a 
sense I have been honored by having peo- 
ple come to me and very frankly stating 
what they thought might be done or what 
they thought would be a difficulty in the 
way. I think if all of you had had the 
privilege I have had of standing on both 
sides of the fence, so to speak in the en- 
closure and out you would not hesitate 
for one moment to say most emphatically 
that certainly there ought to be a fund of 
some kind. I am not a sufficiently good 
business woman to say whether we ought 
to have an endowment fund. I would be 
perfectly satisfied, for example, if the Gov- 
ernment, or some other well-meaning per- 
son, would give us an annual income of 
$100,000 to $500,000 for a stated number of 
years, but I do think that if the A. L. A. 
is not going to sink back and become a 
reactionary institution it ought to go right 
on and continue where it left off with the 
library war service. If you had read but 
a small number of the letters I have re- 
ceived from all parts of the United States, 
from little bits of towns that never before, 
I believe, knew there were such things 



in existence as books and libraries, and 
heard the pleas that they made, or read 
the pleas that they made in these letters, 
to "please continue this work after the 
war," or "please send them books now for 
a regular library, because their soldiers 
had almost all been discharged and they 
could not possibly continue to disappoint 
them," you would feel that having given 
them an appetite for books, we must sat- 
isfy that appetite, and you would not hesi- 
tate to say, "We must have a fund of some 
kind to carry on this work!" It is not 
fair to the many that we have served, and 
in whom we have aroused an appetite for 
books, to snatch this mental food from 
them, at this particular time. 

I am going to conclude 'by just quoting 
something that a professor wrote to me in 
a letter on this particular subject. "Hith- 
erto as an organization," he said, "our de- 
velopment has been mainly intensive, and 
directed toward itself and the libraries it 
has cherished. Now splendid new fields 
are calling for our immediate attention." 
I do not pretend to say just what these 
new fields should be, because I think that 
needs a great deal of thought and a great 
deal of consideration, but I do think that 
a great many of the objectors conscien- 
tious objectors in the Association will be 
perfectly satisfied if we can present to 
them a very clearly outlined and detailed 
plan of what we mean to do, how we mean 
to get the money, and how we mean to 
spend it after we have it. I don't think 
really there will be one member of the 
Association who at the end will object to 
the fund, or what we mean to do with it. 

The third speaker of the preliminary 
part of the program, Mr. Hadley, librarian 
of the Denver Public Library, then said: 

Mr. President, I too am in favor of a 
campaign which we hope will result in a 
fund to carry on the work which has al- 
ready been started. Most of you, I sup- 
pose, have reafl the preliminary report 
which is in print, from the special com- 
mittee which met in Buffalo. I find my- 
self agreeing in most particulars with this 
preliminary report. In the first place I 
think in case the campaign is conducted, 
it should not be a popular campaign such 
as we have had during the war, but it 
would have to be a campaign in an attempt 
to reach the people we think ought to be 
interested. 

I find myself differing in judgment from 
the committee's report in which it favors 
a campaign for a fund to last five years, 
with the suggestion from the committee 
that we will then have something to show 



COUNCIL 



363 



in a future campaign for a permanent A. 
L. A. fund. 

Personally, I think it will be just as easy 
to secure a permanent fund now as it will 
five years hence and in many ways, I think 
it will be easier. For instance, if we have 
a fund for five years and do a certain 
amount of work and then go before our 
monied friends and try to tell them what 
we have done, we will be at a disadvantage 
because what the A. L. A. does, is not the 
kind of work that can be well shown by 
statistics, since this is an educational 
work. If this Association cannot make 
a sufficient showing through what it has 
done in the way of war work, I do not 
think that five years' work will help us 
out to any great extent. 

There are so many things to be worked 
out, I can't go into detail at this time; but 
the question whether there is to be a fund 
or campaign within one month, six months, 
a year we have to decide now. I person- 
ally am for the fund; I think we will get 
the fund, and I think our past experience 
has shown that we can do it. 

President Bishop: These considerations 
are general. We come now to particulars, 
to a selection from among the many items 
which have been proposed, and showing 
the things for which the American Library 
Association needs money. I may say that 
this selection is a very severe one. There 
were presented to the program committee 
some twenty-five or thirty different heads 
from which we have selected five for con- 
sideration, in order not to overburden the 
program. One or two things have been 
left off which may be even more important 
or fully as important as those which re- 
main. This must not be considered an in- 
vidious or deliberate omission. The first 
of these items to be considered is "Greater 
publicity cooperative publicity employ- 
ment of a publicity expert," and I shall call 
upon the chairman of the Publicity Com- 
mittee of the American Library Associa- 
tion, Mr. Rush, librarian of the Indianapo- 
lis Public Library. 

Mr. Rush accordingly read the following 
paper: 

To be, or not to be, is no longer a de- 
batable question in library propaganda. 
We have had library publicity thrust upon 
us! A great war attended to that (and 
thereby saved us twenty years of ordinary 
effort in acquiring a desire for it, or even 



a vision of its possibilities). Suddenly it 
was spread out before our dumfounded, 
unbelieving eyes, and, almost before we 
realized causes or events, we were plunged 
with a hopeless do-it-or-die feeling into 
two great financial and several book cam- 
paigns based on publicity, and came up 
again on the right side of the ledger quite 
surprised to find that our local institutions, 
and our national organization as well, had 
become interesting in a nation-wide way. 

This publicity, like unto a great torch, 
was signaling to the world the need of 
greater knowledge and wisdom among men. 
Perhaps it was flaming brightly before 
most of us realized the national and local 
need of its light. Nevertheless, no longer 
are our cause, our aims, our hopes, our 
ambitions entirely unknown. He who has 
run has read somewhat of the American 
Library Association and its library war 
service and of special library service ren- 
dered by libraries throughout the country 
in. the field of practical vocational litera- 
ture. 

This great torch has become a power- 
ful instrument in our hands. We are face 
to face with its future use. We are con- 
scious of its wide-reaching benefit and in- 
fluence, but we are wondering just what 
we shall do with it now that the war is 
over and whether it will fit peace times! 
(Or is it that we are not wondering suf- 
ficiently or efficiently enough about it?) 
Shall we hold it aloft in greater brilliancy, 
or indifferently lower it in the confusion of 
the reconstruction period and allow it 
sadly to flicker out? Are we content to 
rest on the temporary laurels of honor and 
dividends thrust upon us, or shall we 
"carry on" towards a far greater dissem- 
ination of the knowledge for which we are 
held responsible? 

The war has taught us that a great ed- 
ucational program of publicity is now 
recognized as a feasible and proved method 
of extending library service; that people 
do read and obey posters, placards, leaflets, 
newspaper and magazine stories on educa- 
tional topics; that advertising was neces- 
sary as a great step in the war period to 
obtain notice and that it will take a sec- 
ond great step in the peace period to hold 
the interest thus aroused; that a greater 
demand for further knowledge has been 
created and that advertising will be neces- 
sary to direct the demand to the sources 
of supply; that advertising creates good 
will, good will engenders confidence, con- 
fidence invites a larger volume of business, 
greater business insures larger appropria- 
tions and larger appropriations guarantee 
better results; and lastly the great war 



364 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



taught us that library publicity is easier 
to gain than ever before and that we were 
blind to our opportunities in not striving 
after it extensively long ago. 

Efficient library service is the efficiency 
of books raised to the Nth power. Books 
contain the untold power of worldwide 
ideas. Ideas hidden within a twenty-five 
per cent efficient library exert pitifully 
slight power a power which, through 
publicity, may be multiplied a hundred 
fold. Publicity is the power which multi- 
plies the power of ideas, of books, of li- 
braries and of library service. Any libra- 
rian who will have none of it, who is in- 
different towards it, or who is ignorant of 
it, is no longer a mere "keeper" of books 
containing ideas he is a suppressor of 
ideas. 

The great need of greater publicity, co- 
operative publicity and a publicity service 
bureau at headquarters is so evident that 
the citation of proof becomes almost 
ridiculous. If library service is to get in 
step with the educational progress which 
is now making such rapid strides forward, 
and if the library is an integral part of 
public education as we have been told suf- 
ficient times that it is, then it behooves 
us to develop our publicity program in a 
businesslike way. Seven thousand libra- 
ries, sixteen thousand librarians and forty 
thousand library trustees are engaged in 
library work in the United States, all 
working independently at decidedly sim- 
ilar work without the aid or benefit of a 
directing agency for their duplicated pub- 
licity. How pitifully amusing it would be 
to observe the struggle of the branch 
houses of a great typewriter company 
whose headquarters failed to furnish pub- 
licity suggestions and material to its local 
units! A library publicity service bureau 
is the logical way and the economical way 
to meet the situation confronting us. Li- 
brary war service has demonstrated that 
librarians can cooperate on a businesslike 
basis. A central publicity bureau will 
furnish librarians the best possible op- 
portunity for practical cooperation. 

What service can such a publicity bu- 
reau render, under the direction of a libra- 
rian having adequate publicity knowledge 
and experience, assisted by an advertising 
expert skilled in the technical side of the 
work? Here are a few of the most im- 
portant inter-related items: 

1 Prepare practical, cost-saving, co- 
operative publicity material of all kinds 
suitable for libraries regardless of locali- 
ties. 

2 Edit cooperative lists in attractive 
and effective form. 

3 Give advice and suggestions to libra- 



ries facing publicity problems peculiar to 
different communities. 

4 Prepare library service articles for 
any number of newspapers and magazines 
which would apply to practically any com- 
munity. 

5 Obtain a surprising amount of na- 
tional publicity for libraries through mag- 
azines and metropolitan newspapers. 

6 Maintain a clearing-house for library 
publicity, investigating current library 
publicity methods worth adopting. 

7 Devote special publicity attention to 
the need for more adequate financial sup- 
port for libraries, thus answering the back- 
ward looking librarian who says his li- 
brary does noi need publicity since it can- 
not meet the present demands. 

8 Prepare and arrange for exhibits of 
library activities. 

9 Establish relations with national as- 
sociations and business organizations for 
the benefit of local libraries and library 
service in general. (For instance, recently 
Mr. Mathew Wold, president of the Labor 
Press of America and assistant to Mr. 
Gompers of the Council of National De- 
fense, has been informed of the service 
which libraries can render to industry and 
the various trades through technical 
books for working men. Consequently, he 
is sending a letter over his own signature 
to all secretaries of the American Federa- 
tion of Labor and an article under his own 
name to all the labor press of the country. 
Both letter and article were based on a 
letter and article written especially for his 
use by the special publicity representative 
of the publicity committee at library war 
service headquarters.) 

10 Maintain an information bureau 
service to individuals and organizations 
throughout the country seeking special in- 
formation on library service. 

11 Institute occasional intensive cam- 
paigns for greater A. L. A. membership. 

12 Develop the plans of the A. L. A. 
Publicity Committee and arouse among 
librarians increased interest in library 
publicity and its extension. 

Through such means we can maintain 
and croate still greater public apprecia- 
tion of library service. Public interest in 
and endorsement of an educational enter- 
prise is an asset of inestimable value. Not 
only the results but the institutional char- 
acter, personality and purpose of our work 
must be emphasized. We must create 
prestige and build good will for the entire 
organization, arouse public confidence in 
the library as an educational enterprise, 
interpret the service of libraries to the pub- 
lic and furnish humanized, dramatized re- 
views of library activities. A publicity 



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365 



service bureau designed to inaugurate a 
nationwide educational program is the sim- 
plest, easiest, most practical and advan- 
tageous method to accomplish such results. 
We have long felt the great need of its 
service; thought, talked, dreamed and 
worked for its realization. It is now 
within reach. All conditions, except finan- 
cial support, are favorable to the extent of 
being ideal. Its old and new opportuni- 
ties are urgent and far-reaching in effect, 
its possibilities are almost unlimited and 
its power cannot be measured. 

The past few months have seen great 
mantles of opportunity fall on our shoul- 
ders. What shall our future be? What 
problems have we to meet? What high 
mutual resolve and purpose have we be- 
fore us? 

Having eyes which have seen these great 
visions, our responsibilities spur us on to 
their realization. Individually and col- 
lectively to play a far greater part in the 
world's affairs than we ever before 
dreamed is our privilege and duty. Have 
we the courage and humbleness to meet 
them without side-stepping in cool indif- 
ference? 

We need $75,000 to begin this program 
of education. 

The audience is waiting! We are on the 
program. The American public has heard 
and read something about us, but with a 
short memory it easily becomes interested 
in other things. Are we going to stand up 
and play our part, or remain in the back- 
ground? 

We have passed through the fiery test of 
war. We are now entering the greater 
test of peace, bearing a torch which has 
been seen afar off. Shall it, or shall it not, 
flame even more brightly in peace times? 

President Bishop then called upon Mr. 
Carl H. Milam, librarian of the Birming- 
ham (Ala.) Public Library, to whom had 
been assigned the topic "Libraries for in- 
dustrial plants, prisons, hospitals, mer- 
chant marine, coast guards, etc.," and he 
accordingly addressed the assembly: 

Mr. Chairman, I will not have time to 
read the list of things I am supposed to 
talk about, but I am going to say a word 
about each. It seems to me that the Amer- 
ican Library Association, whatever it plans 
to do, or however it plans to do it, should 
assume the responsibility of making Itself 
the one big national organization which 
holds itself responsible for the develop- 
ment of library service, and for the provi- 
sion of library service to all who may need 
it. That's a big responsibility, but who is 
going to assume it if we don't, and should 



it not be assumed by somebody? It may 
involve lots of money, lots of time, and lots 
of work, but it seems to me we should as- 
sume it, under the circumstances. In no 
other way can we feel ourselves really do- 
ing our job. 

I have been asked to speak especially 
about industrial plants, and I believe that 
the American Library Association might 
assume the same attitude toward indus- 
trial plants that is assumed by the Y. M. 
C. A. Why should not the American Li- 
brary Association go down to some little 
industrial town in Virginia, for example, 
where they have no libraries, but should 
have, and offer to establish libraries if 
they will buy the books; the Y. M. C. A. 
gets away with it; why shouldn't we? 

The same with hospitals. Some of you 
know that the Public Health Service is 
taking over certain hospitals and will 
maintain them indefinitely at Government 
expense for soldiers, sailors, and marines, 
and for men of the merchant marine, as 
well as employees of the Public Health 
Service. I have a telegram here urging 
me to bring to the attention of the Asso- 
ciation the needs of a hospital, begging us 
to take over the work for a few months, 
and guaranteeing that such work will be 
carried on as a Government proposition 
after that time has elapsed. Should the 
Association not be in position to meet such 
needs when they are demonstrated? 

The merchant marine they are indus- 
trial men, in a way, but they are in a pe- 
culiar situation. They start from Phila- 
delphia or New York today and they may 
get back in six months, or they may not 
get back until they are discharged, after 
five years. Have they claims on Philadel- 
phia; have they claims on Pennsylvania? 
Where can they get their reading matter if 
we don't furnish it? I am urged to bring 
before the Association the needs of these 
men for reading matter, and to see that 
they get it in some way. It makes no dif- 
ference how; they ought to have it, we 
recognize that they are begging for it. 
Shall we turn them down, or allow the re- 
sponsibility to be taken by someone else? 

The coast guard in war times this divi- 
sion comes under the Navy, and so is re- 
ceiving library war service, but in peace 
times that will not be continued. I wish 
I had time to read letters from men who 
visited coast guard stations, one from an 
officer who has seen something of our 
service in the camps, telling of a station 
where they had not had such service for 
twenty-five years. 

At lighthouses we found they had old 
books bought many years ago and never 
changed. Many of them were "over the 



366 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



heads" of the men for whom they were 
purchased, and were never used. The men 
would appreciate a library of carefully 
selected books. 

These are some of the things I was 
asked to bring to your attention as possi- 
bilities for the American Library Associa- 
tion. 

President Bishop having called upon the 
secretary for a statement, Mr. Utley spoke 
of the present difficulty of offering aid 
from A. L. A. headquarters to localities 
where no state library commission exists, 
and mentioned as one need the re-publica- 
tion of certain useful pamphlets now out 
of print, and the provision of printed mat- 
ter to supplement correspondence dealing 
with requests from points remote from 
other assistance. 

He also touched upon the possibilities 
of reenforcing the work of library commis- 
sions in states where the commission finds 
It impossible to meet requests made upon 
It; and alluded to the needs of certain 
classes of individuals, among them the 
workers in logging camps, and groups es- 
pecially requiring technical literature but 
distant from a center supplying it. 

President Bishop announced as the sub- 
ject of the next address, "An adequate li- 
brary survey; what it would accomplish 
what it involves what it will cost," by Dr. 
Arthur E. Bostwick, librarian of the St. 
Louis Public Library, and chairman of the 
Committee of Five on Library Service, and 
Dr. Bostwick thereupon spoke as follows: 
Promptness and energy are excellent 
qualities. We can't do much without 
them. But if a man were told that it was 
his duty to start tomorrow for Timbuctu, 
and with the requisite promptness and en- 
ergy, started off at once, without knowing 
where Timbuctu was, without knowing the 
direction in which it lay, without knowing 
how to get there, and without knowing 
how much it would cost, he would not get 
far. His promptness and energy would 
not avail him. It strikes me that this is 
the description of a good deal of the work 
that we librarians have been trying to do 
in the last 50 years. We have had the 
requisite promptness and energy, but we 
have not had the facts before us. There 
never has been, and there is not now, a 
body of definitely ascertained facts with 
regard to the work that American libra- 
rians are doing. If we are to start off and 



do anything whatever, and do it well, it 
seems to me that the first thing that we 
ought to do as a preliminary is to find what 
we are doing, and how we are doing it; 
and then we can give a little advice as to 
the importance and extension of the work. 
Now, this work is going to be done 
somehow or other, because the president of 
the A. L. A. has appointed a committee 
for that purpose, and the committee has 
accepted the burden that has been laid 
upon them, and is going ahead; but it is 
the opinion of that committee that it is 
impossible for this work to be done ade- 
quately and completely without money. 
Exactly how we shall get this money, or 
whether we can get it at all, we don't 
know, but if it is decided to raise an en- 
dowment fund for the American Library 
Association, we are counting on receiving 
a small share of that to do this valuable 
and necessary preliminary work. Let 
there be no mistake; we shall go ahead 
with this work whether we have any 
money or not, but if we have to do it with 
volunteers, with the few hours or few min- 
utes that hundreds of busy librarians can 
spare for it, it will not be done with the 
completeness and adequacy with which it 
ought to be done. 

I want to give you an idea of the amount 
of money which the committee, after care- 
ful consideration, think will probably be 
necessary. We believe that the work of 
ascertaining everything that librarians are 
now doing over the United States will re- 
quire at least two years of continuous in- 
vestigation, and here is a budget for two 
years' expenditures, amounting to over 
$44,000 a year, or a total of over $88,000. 
We believe we should have, first of all, a 
competent director, a man who cannot be 
obtained for less than $10,000 for the two 
years, or $5,000 a year. He should have 
an assistant at $3,000 a year, or $6,000 for 
the two years. Clerical service, by which 
is meant chiefly typewriting and stenog- 
raphy, would cost $7,500. Traveling ex- 
penses, the little traveling which the com- 
mittee would do could be done for $500 
a year. We should have about six chief 
inspectors, one for each body of data that 
it is proposed to find out. That would 
cost about $20,000. We have allowed $5,000 
for assistance, $12,000 for the traveling ex- 
penses of the director and the assistants, 
$10,000 for supplies and office expenses, 
$2,000 for rent and $15,000 for printing and 
publishing, a total for the two years of 
$88,000. 

If this should seem to you to be a large 
sum, we can only say that the committee 
started on a basis of $50,000 and gradually 



COUNCIL 



367 



worked up to the present budget, It being 
thought that anything adequate and com- 
plete cannot be done under that figure. So 
there is the cost. We shall do it for noth- 
ing if we have to, but it cannot be done 
adequately and completely for less than 
that sum. A good many years ago the 
Rev. Dr. Slicer, one of the most clever and 
astute men that I ever had the pleasure of 
knowing, a minister in New York, told me 
a story. He said a woman who had lately 
lost her husband came to him in tears and 
said, "Dr. Slicer, my husband is gone. 
They tell me he is in heaven. Dr. Slicer, 
where is heaven?" He said he had never 
been so stumped as a clergyman in his life, 
but he quickly made the following reply: 
"Madam, I can best answer the question 
by giving you the experience of a friend 
of mine. He was in the Alps, and wanted 
to find a certain town. He met a herds- 
man on top of one of the hills and said, 'I 
want to go to such and such a town. Where 
is it?' The herdsman said, 'I don't know; 
I have never been there, and I cannot point 
It out, but if you will take this trail, I can 
assure you you will get there.' Now, I 
cannot tell you where heaven is, but I 
can tell you -how to get there." 

Now, friends of the American Library 
Association, I cannot, perhaps, tell you 
exactly the goal at which the committee 
is aiming, but I can tell you how to get 
there: GIVE US $88,000! 

President Bishop next called upon Mrs. 
Elizabeth Claypool Earl, of the Indiana 
Library Commission, whose topic was "Ex- 
tending library privileges to rural com- 
munities," and Mrs. Earl responded with 
the following remarks: 

Of course I feel that this effort should 
be concentrated through the organizations 
of the state, and that we should concen- 
trate the effort of the League of Library 
Commissions and the American Library 
Association on the growth and strengthen- 
ing of commissions or other institutions 
circulating books in the states. The 
American Library Association should, in 
our opinion, have a department of library 
extension, with strong staff workers, and a 
commission on library commissions. Their 
duties should be to visit and study existing 
commissions, state libraries, traveling li- 
brary systems, and states that need com- 
missions. 

Second, the Association should pass on 
to commission staffs, commissioners them- 
selves,, officials, legislators, and newspa- 
pers of the state in question any suggested 
changes in method, basic lines of organiza- 
tion, aim, personnel, or financial support. 



Third, the A. L. A. should have informa- 
tion available for commissions on (1) mat- 
ters of publicity throughout the state; (2) 
responsibility for professional training and 
standards; (3) needed legislation to 
strengthen the libraries of the state. 

Fourth, the Association should act as a 
clearing-house for ideas on library work 
in rural communities public libraries 
(county systems, township systems, sta- 
tions versus wagon delivery; district su- 
pervision and book reservoirs) ; school li- 
braries, taking in rural schools, high 
schools, and cooperation with town's pub- 
lic library, supervision of educational au- 
thorities or commission. 

The primary aim of the Indiana Commis- 
sion and the Indiana State Library is not 
to reach out and serve all the communi- 
ties of the state, but to encourage the 
growth of local libraries which ultimately 
will serve every town and country district 
in the state. We have counties where we 
cannot "grow" a public library sentiment. 
We have library boards which sleep on, re- 
senting any commission effort to arouse 
them to a feeling of responsibility for live 
library service in their own towns, to say 
nothing of surrounding districts. Commis- 
sion workers on the staff of the A. L. A. 
would find some states similarly hard to 
work, perhaps, commissions that would 
not cooperate, but in the large, the results 
would be splendid. Strong commissions 
would not need help, but the weak, ill-sup- 
ported commission would find it a constant 
source of assistance and suggestion. The 
states without commissions would be the 
particular charge of such a department and 
by working with the libraries of such 
states individually and through their 
state associations a local feeling of state 
responsibility could be developed which 
would get results. 

Give the American Library Association 
funds for such a campaign of strengthen- 
ing state organizations and work through 
these. There will be a development very 
similar to that which followed the intro- 
duction of the public library commis- 
sion into the individual states. Not 
only will the number of bodies in charge 
of the state library work grow, but there 
will be a constant development of those al- 
ready in existence which will correspond 
to the increase in strength and in area 
served, of the individual library when 
Commission organization, advice and 
standardization were made available. This 
method will strengthen library work in the 
rural districts of the country far more 
quickly and permanently than any attempt 
on the part of the A. L. A. to reach into 
the individual localities. 



368 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



At the request of President Bishop the 
secretary read a report prepared by a 
special committee appointed to recommend 
to the Council some definite plan of pro- 
cedure in the matter of expansion of 
A. L. A. work (see p. 338). 

In the subsequent discussion Dr. Hill 
expressed a view that while the Associa- 
tion needed an endowment of a million 
dollars, this amount could be raised only 
by a general campaign, to inaugurate 
which would require $50,000 or more; and 
that to start such a campaign, holding in 
mind a financial result appreciably less, 
would be a method injurious to the Asso- 
ciation; that for the present the public has 
had enough of money campaigns, and li- 
brary trustees are reluctant to allow fur- 
ther time just now, on the part of their 
staffs, for other than local library work. 

In fairness to the proposition, however, 
Dr. Hill agreed with the suggestion of 
Mr. Walter L. Brown, chairman of the 
special committee having the matter un- 
der advisement, that a committee should 
be appointed to consider further and re- 
port upon plans for securing endowment; 
and the speaker thought if necessary a 
year's time should be given before a plan 
should be presented for operation. 

Mr. Dana then spoke upon the question 
as follows: 

I hesitate to express the thoughts that 
came to me as I listened to the papers 
and discussion this afternoon; for my 
mind runs in rather critical channels and 
when I have occasion to express myself I 
seem to be often misunderstood. Perhaps 
that is one of the penalties for possessing 
a rather critical type of mind? But I will 
venture nevertheless to speak my mind on 
a few points, all of which do not bear di- 
rectly on the question of endowment. 
They all do, however, have reference to re- 
marks made this afternoon. 

It is commonly assumed that ours is a 
very important organization in the work 
of distributing and guiding reading. We 
have about 4,000 members. Perhaps 17,000 
would cover all library workers of every 
kind and grade. There is in this country 
a public school system, which, outside of 
colleges, universities and special and pro- 
fessional schools, actively employs about 
500,000 persons in teaching people how to 



read and what to read. I call your atten- 
tion to this contrast in numbers, with ac- 
companying contrast in work done, be- 
cause it is important that our organization 
orient itself, that is, note where it is in the 
world, before it undertakes a large new en- 
terprise; and especially before it asks the 
public for a large sum that it may dis- 
cover to itself its own greatness. 

Our work is probably good; but to as- 
sume that it is relatively of great im- 
portance in the reading and teaching world 
is to assume too much. 

I recently examined the last edition of 
a copy of Ayer's "Newspaper annual." If 
any of you feel that as librarians you are 
doing and have done a great work in the 
promotion of reading and in the guidance 
of reading, I suggest that you spend ten 
minutes in looking over this annual. You 
will find that the productive and directive 
power of the 17,000 persons in libraries is 
as nothing when compared with the like 
power of hundreds of thousands engaged in 
producing journals. 

In the development of society this often 
happens: A certain organ is developed 
for a certain specified purpose, and fulfills 
that purpose. As society develops and 
changes that organ is less and less needed 
and less and less used. It ceases to do 
that which it formerly did. It is modi- 
fied, or atrophied, or absorbed into the gen- 
eral system; and, as an active and working 
organ, finally disappears. Now, the library 
began many years ago as a collection of 
books, a collection first of a few written 
and then of a few printed things. Manu- 
scripts and books were rare, and they were 
used by few; yet it was of the utmost im- 
portance that they be saved. The library 
was approved as a social organ to save the 
few books for the use of the few who used 
them. As time has gone on the function 
of the library as the preserver of manu- 
scripts and books has become relatively of 
less and less importance. Printing is no 
longer confined to books. Things to read 
are countless in number, and some of them 
that are most ephemeral are in fact the 
most valuable. We have a thousand 
readers to-day for every score of readers 
of a few generations ago. The books of 
use to-day are chiefly the ones published 
yesterday. And they scarcely reach the 
library shelves before the ones published 
to-day are ready to take their places. 
Briefly, the whole system of informing the 
world through print has changed since li- 
braries began. Indeed the whole system 
has changed so greatly since 1876 as to 
cause the library, as a conservator of books 
and a guide to their use, to occupy a very 



COUNCIL 



369 



minor place in society. Its old function of 
book preservation it retains; its later 
function of making all good print accessi- 
ble to all seekers therefor is in large part 
usurped by scores of other agencies. 

Look at Ayer's "Annual" for a moment 
and recall the activities in print distribu- 
tion of the thousands of journals it notes 
and names; consider our school system and 
its work in teaching and guiding reading; 
then compare the work of our special so- 
cial organ the library with that of 
these two (and I could mention others 
which are also great print-using guides 
and promoters) and I believe you will 
agree that what we now need is not an 
elaborate survey of our work, that we may 
do that work better by the light of that 
survey; but a study of the place of the li- 
brary in present day society. Our special 
organ is not lees active than it was; but 
its activities, no matter how effective in 
themselves, are relatively of far less im- 
portance than they were a few years ago. 
Probably we can do better work than we 
have ever done. It is quite possible that 
in the era of universal print-using that is 
coming upon us, the library can be of great 
value; but it is quite obvious that if it 
continues along present lines, it will, as a 
social organ, render each year a relatively 
smaller service to the whole social organ- 
ism, and will sink in due course to the 
level of the outer ear and the caudal ap- 
pendix in the human body. 

We do not need a survey of library activ- 
ities; we do need a study of the place of 
the library phenomenon in a print-using 
society. 



An important change now taking place 
is closely connected with the subject of 
libraries in industrial plants which has 
been spoken of to-day. This change, 
which has been quite rapid in the past 
twenty years, has affected the men and 
the women of whom we generally speak as 
"working with their hands." These hand 
workers are coming into their own. They 
are, for the most part, gaining their new 
position in the utmost peace, soberly, and 
under the guidance of wise leaders. 

My suggestion in regard to these people 
is, that if it is desirable that they have 
ready access to books, those books should 
come from themselves, being bought with 
their own earnings and made accessible on 
their own motion. By virtue of an effi- 
cient school system they should have 
within them a desire for the pleasure and 
profit books and journals can give; and, by 
virtue of an ample wage, they should be 
able to purchase them. Books should not 



be put into their hands as a charity from 
any outside body. They should not come 
from employers, as a charity or even as 
something which justice demands. The 
men who work in industrial plants should 
see to it that they get a sufficient wage to 
enable them to secure for themselves all 
the reading they need in the guidance of 
their work, in the improvement of their 
own several capacities and in the happy 
spending of their hours of rest. I say 
"should see to it" only as meaning that the 
world would be better off if they did see 
to it. It is a great mistake for an outside 
organization to go to the managers of an 
industrial plant and ask them to give to 
their employees a few books and journals 
with which to improve or refresh them- 
selves. Such a proceeding tends to keep 
men in that position ot quasi-dependence 
where they have been too long, and where, 
if the signs do not mislead us, they will 
not long remain. 

The change in the social order already 
mentioned seems to ask of us to ask of 
such of us, at least, as are public servants 
in tax-supported institutions that we go 
direct to the workers themselves and say, 
in effect, "These book and journal collec- 
tions of which we have charge are for 
everyone, and therefore for you. We can 
help you to their wiser use and can help 
you also to select wisely such books and 
journals as you and your associates may 
care to gather for private use or for a spe- 
cial collection adapted to the needs of all 
who work with you in your special plant." 
We can safely assume that the coming 
workmau will ask books of his public li- 
brary or buy his own. 



We have had talk here of a survey, to 
cost $80,000, of conditions in libraries in 
the United States. 

If we are to have a survey, it should be, 
first of all, of our own headquarters. Not 
of the persons there engaged in doing our 
bidding; but of headquarters as the center 
of our activities. We are talking to-day of 
asking for a large endowment to extend 
our work and to advertise our excellence 
and our power. We have had an endow- 
ment for some seventeen years, and have 
received from it and expended on publish- 
ing in those seventeen years, nearly 
$100,000. It would be difficult for you to 
show that in the seventeen years in which 
we have spent $5,000 a year on our publica- 
tions, over and above receipts from sales, 
we have extended knowledge of ourselves 
to an extent worth mentioning. 

We have published with the proceeds of 
our endowment a monthly list of the best 



370 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



new books, with notes as to character and 
value. . These notes were written with no 
reference to the demands of a business of- 
fice and with no thought of advertisers. 
No better descriptive notes of like range 
and purpose have ever appeared in this 
country. But we have acquired no merit 
in the world of readers and buyers through 
their publication. We compiled and 
printed them at an annual cost of nearly 
$6,000 over and above the income from 
sales, and then we insisted on concealing 
them from the general public. We con- 
cealed them by their form, and their title, 
and by declining to advertise them. And 
now, having thus used for years an en- 
dowment of $100,000, we talk of asking for 
more! 



The thing that stands in the way of ef- 
ficient work by the American Library As- 
sociation is primarily lack of brains on 
the part of its members: there is no use 
blinking that fact. If we are not doing 
good work as an Association, we cannot lay 
the blame for our failure upon individuals, 
save as just suggested, or upon our form 
of organization. But, it is very probable 
that if we were to change the form of our 
constitution, as your president suggested 
this morning, and put into the hands of 
four or five persons, or even as few as 
three, authority to conduct our affairs, 
and left them almost undisturbed in that 
conduct, we would get more good work 
done than we do now. We adopted our 
present constitution, if I am not mistaken, 
in 1902 seventeen years ago. The asso- 
ciation was much smaller then than it is 
now. It was burdened with traditions of 
method and concerning the place of libra- 
ries in the world. The constitution we 
adopted was an outgrowth of previous 
ones, and carried over much of the old 
machinery. Obstacles to active and effi- 
cient work in the form of special commit- 
tees and boards, and of limitations of pow- 
ers, that had crept into the old form, were 
included in and made a part of the new 
one. 

About ten years ago, I offered to the As- 
sociation a form of constitution covering 
one typewritten page. I had had it passed 
upon by men of affairs, who said that if 
they were concerned with the organization 
and management of a body like ours, that 
was the kind of constitution that they 
would like to have. It was published in 
Public Libraries and presented to the As- 
sociation; but received little or no con- 
sideration. In view of what I have said 
to-day, more especially in view of the ad- 
mirable remarks made by your president 
yesterday evening on the need of a change 



in our fundamental law, I shall, if I can, 
cause this to be printed in our newspaper, 
The Use of Print, tomorrow or next day, 
and, if an opportunity comes, present it to 
the Association for consideration. A rad- 
ical change in our constitution is the first 
step toward surveying ourselves, toward 
getting publicity that is worth while, and 
toward becoming a more efficient organ- 
ization. 

Mr. Tripp spoke in favor of a library 
survey as a part of the A. L. A. program 
of future expansion, and called attention 
to the present failure of both the libra- 
ries and schools of the nation to elevate 
the literary taste of the people above the 
mental food contained in the average Sun- 
day newspaper. 

Mr. Henderson suggested as the first 
step toward A. L. A. expansion a survey 
of library conditions throughout the coun- 
try, to formulate definitely information 
upon which to base a campaign for money ; 
and stated that, because philanthropy had 
provided generously for library establish- 
ment, the idea should not be allowed to 
gain that libraries are luxuries to be es- 
tablished from the beneficence of million- 
aires; rather should the library movement 
become a part of the education system a 
matter to be dealt with through public leg- 
islation for the entire people, instead of 
for the benefit of private groups. 

Mr. Bliss urged the county library sys- 
tem as the most satisfactory solution of 
conducting successful library work, rather 
than methods of working at longer range 
through traveling libraries and from 
state capitals as centers; and he voiced 
concurrence in the idea that the A. L. A. 
should not attempt to provide for individ- 
uals or for certain classes of people 
whether segregated in an industrial plant 
or as soldiers or sailors but should ex- 
tend its work in strengthening libraries 
and library work in general throughout its 
field. 

Miss Hitchler defended the establish- 
ment by the A. L. A. of libraries in certain 
industrial plants, with the argument that 
it does not always seem best to suggest 
to the starving that future legislation in- 
tends to serve them. 



COUNCIL 



371 



Mr. Brigham returned to the point of 
securing endowment, and claimed that 
publicity would obtain this; that by plac- 
ing library service strongly in the public 
mind, a powerful campaign for funds 
would become possible. 

Mr. Bowker closed the discussion with 
some general observations, concluding in 
these words: 

The field of library extension is wide, 
and the only great national agency to push 
forward this work is the A. L. A. The 
great "Battle hymn of the Republic" ends 
with the stirring words "His soul is 
marching on." The A. L. A. has found its 
soul in time of war; in the greater times 
of peace its soul should still be march- 
ing on. 

Mr. Walter L. Brown then moved that 
the Council recommend to the Executive 
Board the appointment of a committee of 
not less than five to consider the question 
of an endowment for peace time work and 
to report within a year. 

The motion, which was seconded by Dr. 
Hill, was concurred in. 

The session was then adjourned. 

SECOND SESSION 

The second session of the Council, held 
on Thursday afternoon, June 26, was an 
open meeting, attended by about 300, in 
addition to a quorum of the Council. 

The following five persons were elected 
to the Council by the Council for a term 
of five years each: Clara F. Baldwin, 
June R. Donnelly, Everett R. Perry, Alice 
S. Tyler and Purd B. Wright. 

The secretary read a petition signed by 
members of the Lending Department 
Round Table, requesting that this body be 
made a section of the Association. 

Voted, That a committee be appointed 
to consider the petition and report to the 
Council with recommendation, in accord- 
ance with the constitution. 

Prof. F. J. Teggart, of the University of 
California, secretary of the International 
Bibliographical Congress, was introduced 
by the president, and addressed the as- 
sembly upon "Plans for an international 



bibliography of humanistic studies," speak- 
ing substantially as follows: 

Humanistic literature embraces the 
studies centering around man. There is 
no index to this literature. The material 
is not available. It is on the shelves of li- 
braries and is not being used for lack of a 
direct, immediate key to the material. We 
cannot understand the world outside if we 
think that all the knowledge in Europe and 
Asia is already to be found in the English 
language. We must pass on from "Poole's 
Index" to realize the extent of the litera- 
ture available in all the languages of Eu- 
rope, in relation to mankind not only in 
Europe but in all parts of the globe. We 
want to make the knowledge of man com- 
pletely available for American Institu- 
tions. 

There are at least 2,000 periodicals not 
indexed in the Reader's Guide or in 
"Poole's Index" which would come within 
the scope of this humanistic index. There 
are 600 in French which would come 
within it. All this material should be in- 
dexed to be at the service of the American 
people in the great developments that are 
ahead of us. In 1914 there were being 
published in Germany over seventy-five 
indexes that came within the scope of such 
an index. 

Lists have been unsatisfactory; (1) by 
the type of their arrangement it was hard 
to find things; (2) the divisions of the 
field represented by these different indexes 
have been such that it is hard for anyone 
using them to tell what he would find in 
them; there has also been a tremendous 
amount of overlapping; (3) many Impor- 
tant subjects have been entirely ignored; 
(4) none of these indexes has been up to 
date. 

The British Academy took up the mat- 
ter of getting up a catalog of humanistic 
literature. The American Association of 
University Professors took up the question 
in 1917 and appointed a committee which 
did not come into active existence until 
the end of 1918, when the Association 
asked to take charge of the work and also 
to see if it could not be put into execution. 
The American Association of University 
Professors has in view our taking the 
leadership in the scholarship of the world. 

The success of this problem turns en- 
tirely upon the cooperation of the libra- 
ries. We propose to prepare an interna- 
tional bibliography of humanistic litera- 
ture in the sense that I have given to that 
term, but we propose that it should be 
through the joint offices of the American 
Library Association and the American As- 



372 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



sociation of University Professors. My 
idea is that the A. L. A. should appoint a 
committee to cooperate with the commit- 
tee of the American Association of Uni- 
versity Professors in the preparation and 
publication of the bibliography. 

The next proceeding is the vital step in 
the whole matter, and that is the question 
of finance. To get the index going in any- 
thing approaching a satisfactory form 
would take at least $25,000 a year. We 
propose that a maximum of any subscrip- 
tion to this index should be $500 a year. 
The real problem then comes up, what li- 
braries are to subscribe to it. 

Professor Teggart then explained that if 
more than twenty-five libraries should sub- 
scribe, the cost would be proportionately 
reduced. He also expressed the hope that 
subscriptions might be obtained from mu- 
seums and other educational and histori- 
cal associations, and that private subscrip- 
tions might be secured. 

In conclusion he said: 

The whole problem of getting this bib- 
liographical enterprise on its feet rests 
upon the libraries. The professors of the 
country could help in the work but they 
could not directly help in raising or get- 
ting subscriptions to the work and this is 
a matter that the libraries should take up. 

Mr. Keogh presented the following reso- 
lution, which was unanimously adopted, 
Mr. Carlton, Mr. Wyer and Mr Bishop 
speaking in its endorsement: 

RESOLVED, That the Council of the 
American Library Association, recogniz- 
ing the .urgent need for an international 
bibliography of humanistic literature, cor- 
dially endorses the plan as outlined by Mr. 
F. J. Teggart; and further be it 

RESOLVED, That there be appointed an 
advisory committee of four to coSperate 
with the American Association of Uni- 
versity Professors in supervising the prep- 
aration and publication of the bibliog- 
raphy. 

On motion of Mr. Wyer, Mr. Frank A. 
Vanderlip was made an honorary member 
of the American Library Association, in 
recognition of his valued services to the 
Association as chairman of its Library 
War Council and as its representative on 
the Committee of Eleven. 

Miss Alice S. Tyler, director of Western 
Reaarre University Library School, being 



called upon by the chairman, spoke on a 
bill now before Congress for the creation 
of a department of education with a Sec- 
retary of Education in the President's cab- 
inet. 

Having explained that the bill was in- 
troduced into the last Congress and is 
known as the Smith-Towner bill, Miss 
Tyler read portions of it, calling attention 
to Section 3, referring to the transfer to 
the department of education of certain of- 
fices, divisions or branches of the Govern- 
ment. 

The speaker further said: 

Our interest in this bill of course is our 
interest in the large field of education, of 
which the library is a part. The time has 
come when librarians should become artic- 
ulate on this question of education. We 
have depended on the schools to define the 
word education and then we complain that 
the definition is too limited. It seems to 
me that now is the time for librarians to 
attempt to express in some measure our 
understanding of that great word, educa- 
tion. There is a unique educational func- 
tion for the American library with its 
unequaled field which a democracy pro- 
vides. 

Having brought to notice Section 10, re- 
ferring to the appropriation of five-tenths 
of the amount involved for the use of pub- 
lic, elementary and secondary schools for 
the partial payment of teachers' salaries 
and particularly for the extension and 
adoption of public libraries for educational 
purposes, Miss Tyler concluded by saying: 

It seems to me that what the American 
Library Association at this time naturally 
wants to do is to stand back of this bill. 
The bill was introduced at the request of 
the National Education Association, which 
is standing solidly back of it, as is also the 
American Federation of Labor. The Fed- 
eration of Women's Clubs actively sup- 
ports it. I feel that we will do ourselves 
credit and encourage those who have 
charge of the bill, and especially those who 
are interested in having libraries included 
therein, if this organization shall through 
the Council approve of the passage of the 
bill. It is hoped there will be a bureau of 
libraries if the department of education is 
created. I wish therefore that we may 
have a resolution that will put this Asso- 
ciation on record as approving of this bill. 

Mr. Hadley also spoke in favor of the 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES SECTION 



373 



bill, after which the following resolution 
was unanimously adopted: 

RESOLVED, That the Council of the 
American Library Association endorses the 
educational bill (H. R. 7) introduced into 
the House of Representatives by the Hon. 
Horace M. Towner, and urges upon the 
Congress of the United States the early 
consideration and adoption of this meas- 
ure. 

Miss Edith Guerrier then being called 
upon by the chairman, spoke in regard to 
the National Library Service, briefly sum- 
marizing the work that is being accom- 
plished in the furnishing to librarians of 
information relative to the assistance 
available to libraries in the publications of 
the various departments and bureaus of 
the Federal Government. 

Referring to a bill now before Congress 
providing for the continuation and exten- 
sion of this service, Miss Guerrier stated 
that she would keep the Association in- 



formed of the progress of this bill in order 
that librarians may secure for it all possi- 
ble support. 

At the close of Miss Guerrier's remarks 
the following resolution was unanimously 
adopted: 

Whereas, There has been established, 
and is in active operation in the Bureau 
of Education, a National Library Service, 
which has furnished the libraries of the 
United States with valuable information 
concerning Government publications and 
affairs; be it therefore 

RESOLVED, That the American Library 
Association endorses the work of the Na- 
tional Library Service and respectfully re- 
quests its continuance in the Bureau of 
Education; further be it 

RESOLVED, That a copy of this resolu- 
tion be sent to the Secretary of the In- 
terior and to the Commissioner of Educa- 
tion. 

The session was thereupon duly ad- 
journed. 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES SECTION 



A meeting of the Agricultural Libraries 
Section of the American Library Associa- 
tion was held in the ball room of the New 
Monterey Hotel at 3:00 p. m., June 26, 
1919. About forty persons were present, 
including representatives from the agri- 
cultural college libraries of Indiana, Iowa, 
Kansas, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, 
New Jersey, North Dakota, Vermont, and 
West Virginia, and thirteen from the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture. Miss Vera M. 
Dixon, assistant librarian, Iowa State Col- 
lege, Ames, Iowa, presided as chairman. 
In the absence of Miss Lucy E. Fay, the 
secretary of the section, the chairman re- 
quested Miss E. R. Oberly, librarian of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, to act as secretary 
for the meeting. 

The program comprised a paper on prac- 
tical library service, containing helpful 
suggestions for those interested in library 
extension, a stimulating paper t>n bibli- 
ography, and the discussion of a practical 
plan for a cooperative piece of work of 
wide usefulness. 

Miss Dixon sketched the accomplish- 
ments of the Agricultural Libraries Sec- 
tion since its first meeting at Mackinac in 



1910, among the most notable of which was 
the bringing about of the publication of the 
Agricultural Index by the H. W. Wilson 
Company. 

Mr. Milton J. Ferguson, librarian of the 
California State Library, presented a paper 
entitled 

GETTING BOOKS TO THE FABMEK IN 
CALIFORNIA 

(See p. 137) 

Mr. Ferguson described the county li- 
brary system, the latest development in 
the state system, which includes all 
library activities, municipal, state and 
others, and which shows the energy, fore- 
sight and cooperative spirit, which the 
State of California exhibits in so many 
fields. 

Miss Marjorie F. Warner, bibliographi- 
cal assistant, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. 
S. Department of Agriculture, suggested 
for consideration 

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL OPPORTUNITIES IN 
HORTICULTURE 

(See p. 178) 

This scholarly paper not only showed a 
thorough knowledge of the literature of 
horticulture, but also contained many in- 
teresting and stimulating suggestions con- 



374 



cerning methods in bibliographical re- 
search. 

On conclusion of the paper a gentleman 
proving to be Dr. J. W. Harshberger of 
the University of Pennsylvania, introduced 
himself as a stranger attracted to the 
meeting by its program. He congratulated 
Miss Warner on her paper, and supple- 
mented it by a brief account of interesting 
discoveries he had recently made by 
roundabout methods in seeking informa- 
tion requested by Dr. Sargent of the 
Arnold Arboretum, in regard to the Pierce 
brothers and their nurseries near Kennett 
Square, Pennsylvania, and also alluded to 
similar methods pursued in regard to Wil- 
liam Young, Jr., whose rare "Catalogue des 
arbres . . . d' Ame"rique" (Paris, 1783), 
has recently been reproduced in facsimile 
by Rhoads. 

Mr. Charles R. Green, librarian, Massa- 
chusetts Agricultural College, presented 
for discussion the subject of "A union 
check list of agricultural periodicals." 

He dwelt on the desirability of a list 
which should make more readily available 
the present periodical resources of the ag- 
ricultural libraries of the country, encour- 
aging interlibrary loans and lessening the 
unnecessary purchase of little used mate- 
rial, and suggested the possible scope of 
the list, warning against yielding to the 
temptation to plan an over large project 
which it would not be possible to carry 
out. Should such a list include only 
periodicals on agriculture and its practi- 
cally related subjects, such as horticulture 
and animal husbandry, or should it in- 
clude also those on the related sciences, 
such as bacteriology, chemistry, botany, 
entomology, etc.? Or would it be best to 
issue no nation-wide check list, but for 
agricultural librarians to make an effort 
to have material of interest to them in- 
cluded in the various regional periodical 
union check lists which are in preparation 
or contemplation? 

Miss L. K. Wilkins, chief of the periodi- 
cal division, U. S. Department of Agricul- 
ture Library, led the discussion by describ- 
ing the list of agricultural periodicals of 



the U. S. and Canada, compiled as a per- 
sonal undertaking by Mr. S. C. Stuntz, for- 
merly of the Library of Congress, later of 
the office of foreign seed and plant intro- 
duction of the Bureau of Plant Industry. 
The list, which is very comprehensive and 
in manuscript form, was purchased by the 
library of the U. S. Department- of Agri- 
culture after Mr. Stuntz's death in 1918. 
Miss Wilkins suggested that this list be 
used as a basis for the proposed union 
check list of agricultural periodicals, omit- 
ting the historical notes, and biographical 
sketches of editors. 

Mr. H. O. Severance, librarian of the 
University of Missouri, said he would like 
to have the list cover periodicals on all 
sciences allied to agriculture, but the gen- 
eral opinion seemed to be that it should 
cover only those on agriculture and the 
branches of agriculture such as animal 
husbandry, dairying and horticulture, not 
those of sciences of interest to agriculture. 

Mr. H. W. Wilson, president of the H. 
W. Wilson Company, described the meth- 
ods being employed in making up the 
union check list of periodicals of the cen- 
tral states, and Dr. C. W. Andrews, libra- 
rian of the John Crerar Library, stated 
that they would waive exclusive use of 
the slugs and woulu gladly give those for 
agricultural periodicals to this section, if 
an agricultural check list were undertaken. 

After further discussion, a motion was 
made to ascertain whether the section 
thought it desirable to undertake the prep- 
aration of such a list, on the cooperative 
plan. The motion was carried unani- 
mously. Mr. Severance then moved that 
the chair appoint a committee of three 
with power to act, and to decide upon 
methods of compiling and publishing a 
union check list of agricultural periodi- 
cals in libraries in the United States. It 
was understood that the committee was to 
make the final decision as to its scope. 
The following committee was appointed by 
the chair: Charles R. Green, chairman, 
H. O. Severance and Lydia K. Wilkins. 

In accordance with the report of the 
Nominating Committee the following 



CATALOG SECTION TRUSTEES SECTION 



375 



officers of the section were elected for the tural and Mechanic Arts, University of 
coming year: Chairman, Grace E. Derhy, Montana, Bozeman. 
assistant librarian Kansas State Agricul- 
tural College, Manhattan; secretary, Eliz- 



abeth Forrest, librarian College of Agricul- 

CATALOG SECTION 

The Catalog Section and Trustees Sec- 
tion met in joint session on Wednesday 
evening, June 25, Mr. Washington T. Por- 
ter, chairman of the Trustees Section, pre- 
siding. 

The chairman and secretary of the 
Catalog Section being absent, Dr. George 
F. Bowerman and Miss Mary E. Baker rep- 
resented that section in their stead. 

The following communication from Wil- 
liam Stetson Merrill, of the Newberry Li- 
brary, was read: 
To the Catalog Section of the American 

Library Association, 
Asbury Park Conference: 

When the plan was proposed of trans- 
ferring to the H. W. Wilson Company the 
work of printing entries for serials for- 
merly indexed on cards by the A. L. A. 
Publishing Board, some subscribers raised 
the point that users of the library expect 
to find everything brought out in the card 
catalog, and to divert any of these entries 
to a printed index would cause many users 
of the catalog to miss them altogether. 

The obvious suggestion to meet this dif- 
ficulty would seem to be, instead of spend- 
ing money and labor in attempting to 
bring out all the literature in the library 
in one place, namely, the card catalog, to 
insert a printed notice in each tray of the 
catalog calling attention to the fact that 
much literature written by or about dif- 
ferent authors, and valuable material upon 
nearly every subject, is to be found only 
by consulting printed indexes to periodi- 
cals. 

I would like to ask for a show of hands 
upon the following two questions and to 
have the result recorded: 

1. How many libraries represented here 
have such a notice inserted in or near the 
card catalog? 

2. How many librarians and library 
workers here present believe it more prac- 
ticable to insert cards in the catalog, even 
at a considerable expense and labor, than 
to attempt to guide users to other sources 
of information? 

Respectfully scubmitted, 

WM. STETSON MEBBILL, 
Editor Indexing of A. L. A. Serials. 
To the first query of the foregoing com- 



The meeting adjourned at 5:30 p.m. 
EUNICE R. OBEELY, 
Secretary. 



TRUSTEES SECTION 

munication one affirmative response was 
received; and to the second, nine re- 
sponded affirmatively. 

The following officers of the Catalog 
Section were elected for the coming year: 
Chairman, Charles A. Flagg, librarian Pub- 
lic Library, Bangor, Maine; secretary, 
Mary E. Hyde, instructor Library School 
of the New York Public Library. 

Chairman Porter stated that considera- 
tion would be given to the report of the 
Committee on Administration (see p. 63 of 
Bulletin) as being of interest to both sec- 
tions, and on request Dr. George F. Bower- 
man, chairman, read portions of the re- 
port of his committee. 

Chairman Porter announced that the 
program of the evening would consider 
two general subjects, namely, the future 
attitude of libraries regarding literature 
designated during the war period as Ger- 
man propaganda; and the matter of union 
membership among library employees. 

In the absence of Mr. Clinton Rogers 
Woodruff, the first speaker on the regular 
program, the chairman called upon Mr. 
Thomas L. Montgomery, librarian of the 
Pennsylvania State Library, and a trustee 
of the Philadelphia Free Library. 

Mr. Montgomery spoke as follows: 

There is something refreshingly demo- 
cratic about an association such as the 
Trustees Section of the A. L. A. Its mem- 
bership consists of two people, Mr. Porter 
and myself, and the membership list seems 
to have closed, although in addition we 
have as a runner-up Dr. Bostwick, of St. 
Louis, who is always willing to say what 
he thinks about trustees. When other 
trustees are asked to come together and 
discuss matters in which they should be 
interested, the lack of response seems al- 
most unanimous. 

I think it would be well to explain the 
mode of procedure of this section. About 
the 1st of March Mr. Porter gets busy and 
writes a letter in which he says, "Dr. 
Montgomery, do not forget that there is to 
be a meeting of the Trustees Section at 



376 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



the annual Conference of the A. L. A.; 
see to it that you get a number of im- 
portant trustees together to make ad- 
dresses at that time." I write, at his di- 
rection, to a number of leading librarians, 
requesting them to see members of their 
boards, and with the exception of Mr. 
Bowker, no one ever turns up. The point 
is that the librarians feel that it is not 
worth while for the trustees to come to 
this meeting. No doubt that is true, for 
unless trustees come, ae Mr. Bowker does, 
every year, and learn what there is in li- 
brarianship, it is not worth while. I have 
known a trustee to come to a meeting and 
learn something as to the proper running 
of a college library, and then worry the 
librarian of the free library for three years 
by what he has learned! 

Trustees are of three classes, good, bad, 
and indifferent; but so far as I am con- 
cerned they could all be cut out. I have 
been a trustee for thirty years, and I know 
whereof I speak when I say that the 
average trustee is a pretty useless official. 
It seems to me when you find a person 
that is worth while as a trustee, he not 
only gets to A. L. A. meetings and frater- 
nizes with the librarians in his own par- 
ticular library, but goes still further, and 
makes it the object of his life not to em- 
barrass, in any way, the person who has 
charge of the collection of which he is a 
trustee; but he must study to lift the va- 
rious little annoyances that come to that 
man. 

Now, in this connection, I do not want 
to speak about myself, but I think the 
members of this section are models in the 
fact that they stand back of the librarian 
in the midst of his troubles. There are 
things that occur in every library through- 
out the year that are annoyances, by rea- 
son of the fact that if the librarian han- 
dles them in a direct fashion he may incur 
the opposition of the people with whom 
he is associated. Those annoyances can 
be shifted to a good trustee, especially if 
he happens to be president of the board of 
trustees. A librarian is to be congratu- 
lated "when the president of his board is a 
man like Mr. Bowker. For thirty years 
I have been doing such work, without sal- 
ary, and have been practically assistant to 
the librarian in the city of Philadelphia. 

I wish Mr. Woodruff were here. He 
has asked me to represent his views, but 
I can't do that, because I oppose every- 
thing that Mr. Woodruff ever thought of. 
He and I are antitheses on every subject. 
He is a model trustee, just the same. 
With Mr. Woodruff as the head of the 
finance committee, nobody pays any atten- 



tion to accounts. Mr. Woodruff is one of 
the men who have to be active in that 
way. I wish the librarian to be active, 
and I like to back him up. I don't want 
to go into his business in any way; I just 
wish to assist him and encourage him; 
that is the sort of trustee I am. 

When it comes to the question as to 
whether there should be trustees I have 
come here from Harrisburg, where they 
dispensed with the whole board of trus- 
tees, and I think it is an excellent thing. 
When the law was presented to the gov- 
ernor, he said, "This is extraordinary and 
interesting." The only reason it was done 
was because the trustees were not neces- 
sary. It is not that boards of trustees are not 
good things under some circumstances; 
there are a great many cases where a great 
deal of money is in trust, and there are busi- 
ness affairs with which possibly the li- 
brarian is not very conversant; but when 
you have an ex officio board, you might 
just as well dispense with it. We had 
three members. Up to this last year I 
never saw any of them at a meeting ex- 
cept when they wanted information which 
could not be obtained in any other way. 

There is another thing the question of 
salaries. When they thought of doing 
away with the board of trustees in Harris- 
burg it seemed to be a good opportunity 
to take up this question. Perhaps I might 
say we have been injured, as all of you 
have been, by the withdrawal of a good 
many who went into the service. I am 
glad that with the advanced pay given to 
assistants generally, only two of our people 
left the force to accept higher salaries, 
although in some cases the offers amounted 
to three times what they were receiving; 
and one of those who left came back al- 
most immediately. This loyalty should be 
rewarded, and that is a case where trustees 
can be of service. I am glad to say that 
the bill proposing to change other things, 
increases the salary of every employee, 
from lowest to highest in the institution, 
one-third over the salary paid last year. 

I am not interested particularly in what 
is to be done with the German books. It 
seems to me the matter should be left to 
an appointed committee, to look over those 
books and decide what should be with- 
drawn and what might be put back safely 
at the present time. But in regard to that 
whole subject, I think it was splendid that 
the librarians responded as they did; they 
took no chances, but withdrew everything 
in their collections that had the breath of 
scandal upon it. 

In regard to the last question, it seems 
to me that we need no union. If there 
is a federation of labor to join, It is the 



CATALOG SECTION TRUSTEES SECTION 



377 



A. L. A. I think on the whole the atti- 
tude of people with regard to librarians 
and the assistants has been such that 
they need no federation to protect them. 
The warm, personal interest on the part 
of everybody who has to do with these 
questions is such that the matter may be 
much more safely left in their hands than 
in the hands of a union. If there are 
wrongs, they should be fairly brought out 
and discussed. 

The next speaker, Dr. Arthur E. Bost- 
wick, librarian of the St. Louis Public 
Library, then addressed the meeting as 
follows: 

I have no startling news for you to- 
night. I have not abolished my board of 
trustees, and I regret to say the salaries 
of my staff have not been raised 33% per 
cent. I am told by the chairman that I 
am expected to address myself particu- 
larly to this question of library unions, 
and I want to say that so far as one may 
qualify by ignorance and inexperience to 
address himself to a subject, I am emi- 
nently so qualified. There is no union in 
my library. What I know about unions 
I know chiefly from reading certain arti- 
cles in print and some in multigraph. I 
wish to say simply that this question 
seems to me to reduce itself to this: How 
far is it desirable for the members of a 
staff to take a more or less active part in 
the management of an institution? I 
think it is desirable that they should take 
a part. So far as I know, they are taking 
a more or less active part in almost every 
library. 

The question is whether the lines along 
which this change has gradually been 
made during the past twenty years should 
be rudely broken in upon, and altered. I 
may say now, I am opposed to revolutions; 
I think that no revolution ever occurred 
that did not on the whole do harm. The 
only question is whether more harm would 
not be done by allowing things to run on 
as they are. Those revolutions that have 
been desirable have been a choice of evils. 
A revolution is desirable as a means of 
changing things where a minority, 
strongly entrenched, tyrannizes over the 
majority. It is then quite proper for the 
majority, by force of arms, to put itself 
into its proper place; but where there are 
proper means for a majority to assert it- 
self, there is no reason for anybody to as- 
sert himself by force of arms. Whatever 
change is to take place in the method by 
which the members of a library staff have 
a voice in the management of their insti- 
tution, that change should certainly not 



take place in any violent manner, or by 
force from the outside, or from above, or 
from below, or in any other manner. 

I may not be understood, perhaps, when 
I say that there is a plan that has for 
some time been growing, a method by 
which the members of a library staff have 
something to say about the management 
of their institution. It seems to me that 
the members of our library staff, as I 
think of what they do, have probably quite 
as much to say about the management of 
their institution as the workers, we will 
say, in a Russian factory, under the soviet 
form of government, have to say about the 
management of that factory. I am in- 
clined to think that the members of our 
staff have more than the workmen in that 
factory to say about the management. 
There is never anything done in our li- 
brary of any consequence, of any vital con- 
sequence to the management of the in- 
stitution, unless it is carefully considered 
by the members of the staff that have 
most to do with it. Almost everything 
that we do is entrusted first to a staff com- 
mittee for careful investigation and re- 
port. It is ventilated thoroughly before 
anything is done. I believe that this gen- 
eral procedure is now followed largely in 
libraries in the United States, perhaps not 
in quite the same way in all libraries, but 
in a general way in all. In other words, 
we are following the lines of well-defined 
evolution, by placing in the hands of the 
members of our library staffs a very consid 
erable portion of the say in the manage- 
ment of the policies of the library. As I 
said, I do not believe in revolutions; I be- 
lieve thoroughly in evolution, and it is a 
very interesting evolution that we see pro- 
ceeding among us. 

I am opposed, therefore, to stepping in 
at this time from the outside with a more 
or less violent attempt to overthrow this 
line of evolution, and to substitute some- 
thing else for it. What we are to sub- 
stitute for it we have seen very clearly ex- 
emplified in other branches of industry. 
Although there is much that is good in 
what has been done elsewhere, I cannot 
say that I am sufficiently enamored of it 
to desire to see it introduced into the body 
of our library workers. Of course, if our 
library workers wish to do it, I know of 
no law, human or divine, which can pre- 
vent their doing it; I simply trust they 
will not. That is the way I feel about it, 
and as I have said, ignorance and inex- 
perience qualify me, perhaps, to express 
an opinion. So far as I have one, it is be- 
fore you. 

The chairman next called upon Dr. 



378 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



George F. Bowerman, librarian of the Pub- 
lic Library of the District of Columbia, 
who thus addressed the assembly: 

This statement is intended to describe 
the facts of the Washington Public Li- 
brary situation; it is not intended as an 
argument. I do not intend to make an 
argument for general unionism now, but 
to think out loud the things my experience 
with unionism in my own library have 
led me to think. Not yet decided as to 
the best policy, I do not want the A. L. A. 
to make the mistake of condemning un- 
ionism. 

To give a few considerations on union- 
ism as applied to the library, unionism is 
not a sinister force, but a conserving, pro- 
gressive force, making for solidarity and 
progress of society a movement for hu- 
man brotherhood. It is not a disruptive 
force, leading to bolshevism, but a con- 
servative force too conservative, some 
labor people think. 

Librarians have not been in touch with 
labor organizations and therefore have not 
been in sympathy with them. But our 
work is increasing through our industrial 
departments with and for the very classes 
of society that make up the bulk of union 
labor. The effort of union labor is toward 
better pay, better labor conditions, and 
shorter hours. Why? To have more 
time in which to live, more time for rec- 
reation and education, more time in which 
to read and use our libraries. Union labor 
wants better schools, better libraries, 
elimination of child labor so as to send 
children to schools and libraries. The 
American Federation of Labor at its At- 
lantic City meeting passed a strong res- 
olution supporting scientific research. The 
American Federation of Labor is reaching 
out to get teachers of grammar schools, 
high schools and colleges, to get scientific 
workers of the Government (as well as 
other Government employees), to get li- 
brarians to form unions. Why? Through 
a partly selfish motive, perhaps, to help 
to make them more generally known and 
better considered; but also because they 
realize that they can help all these groups 
(all of which need help) and because by so 
doing they can best advance society, make 
the schools better, make the libraries bet- 
ter and make government more sound be- 
cause based on sound research, and so 
make for the general well-being in which 
they also hope to share. 

Is there anything wrong or sinister 
about this? Anything that we as libra- 
rians should fight? Is it not rather some- 
thing in which we should join and partici- 
pate? 



I am not myself a member of the union. 
Frankly, of late I have not been able to 
give myself any very good reason why I 
am not, except that I am conservative and 
perhaps deterred by the old anti-union 
fetlchism, a result of old class-conscious 
prejudice which my reason tells me has 
no validity. (Also I have never been 
asked to join.) 

The point of my whole Library Journal 
article describing Washington conditions 
(which article originated this discussion) 
is that our union originated from the top 
or close to the top. It was not an out- 
growth of the activities of malcontents 
and soreheads. It did not start with mem- 
bers of the building force, or poorly trained 
assistants who had not been promoted be- 
cause of poor work, but with the best ed- 
ucated and beet trained members of the 
staff. It was not an anti-administration 
movement, but was started with the 
knowledge and consent of the librarian. 

My present thinking is that in many li- 
braries a union is not necessary, but that 
nowhere ought the library board and li- 
brarian to assume an attitude of hostility 
to unions. In most cases the library, if it 
really wants to advance through the means 
of having larger appropriations, especially 
for better salaries, might well promote the 
formation of unions, thereby getting union 
labor as a whole lined up to help the li- 
brary in its efforts to give good service 
efforts which are now so often thwarted 
by inadequate salaries. 

Will this make for efficiency? Ameri- 
can labor is not bolshevistic; it does not 
strive to level down to the lowest. It 
wants the best, to give the best and to get 
the best in return, for itself and for so- 
ciety at large. 

Nearly all of the eight or ten members 
of my staff in attendance at this Confer- 
ence belong to the union. I believe they 
are all good representatives of the best in 
public librarianship. Especially I am glad 
to announce that there is in attendance as 
Exhibit A, the president of our union, Miss 
Louise Endicott, a library school gradu- 
ate, not at all the type usually thought of 
as a union officer. 

Mr. Bowker, editor of the Library Jour- 
nal, being called upon, then said: 

President Bishop expressed regret, this 
afternoon, that certain handbills which 
have been distributed outside were not 
brought to the officials of the Association, 
in order that they might be distributed in- 
side, because certainly there is every dis- 
position on the part of this Association to 
obtain all the evidence there may be, pro 
and con, on any subject, particularly on a 



CATALOG SECTION TRUSTEES SECTION 



379 



subject of so much present interest. As I 
am on the program to speak, I want to 
ask that we shall first have that side of 
the discussion represented by "Exhibit A," 
from Washington, and also by a represent- 
ative of the New York union, which I be- 
lieve is responsible for what was dis- 
tributed from the outside. I think we want 
very much to hear that side, and partic- 
ularly I should be glad if whoever was 
responsible for what we had in this dis- 
tribution would particularly explain what 
was meant in the resolution of the Federa- 
tion of Labor by the "intolerable working 
conditions in American libraries." 

In accordance with the foregoing sug- 
gestion, Miss Louise Endicott, of the Pub- 
lic Library of the District of Columbia, and 
president of the Washington Union of li- 
brary employees, then made the follow- 
ing statement: 

The association of which we are a 
branch is the National Association of Fed- 
eral Employees, the latter organization be- 
ing affiliated with the American Federation 
of Labor. In Washington we have about 
30,000 members, T believe; they are scien- 
tific men, people who work in the libra- 
ries, and in all of the Government depart- 
ments the Departments of Agriculture, 
Interior, Treasury, Navy, Labor, War, 
Commerce, Post Office and State and Jus- 
tice as well as in the independent offices 
and establishments, such as the libraries 
in the District of Columbia. This organ- 
ization was started only a few years ago, 
and I am quite sure that no one in Wash- 
ington none of the officials of the Gov- 
ernment feels that it was formed for any 
purpose except the good of the service. 
We have the interests of the library en- 
tirely at heart. Ol course, we are libra- 
rians. I think that is all I should like to 
say. 

Miss Maude Malone, although not a 
member of the American Library Associa- 
tion, was invited to speak in regard to the 
Library Employees Union of New York, 
and made the following remarks: 

In answer to this invitation that the 
New York local should speak and explain 
the literature which we distributed here, 
I would say that we haven't any excuses 
to offer for what we print or how we print 
it. We are just beginners in the work of 
printing and we mimeographed our leaf- 
lets. With a little experience we hope to 
be quite good at that trade, so that we will 
have two trades we will be librarians and 
we will be printers. 



One of our most powerful motives for 
unionizing, and it is one of the most pow- 
erful motives, I suppose, in human life, 
is the question of subsistence, the question 
of salaries. Every librarian knows that 
our salaries are very bad. At first we 
were not so much concerned about where 
to put the blame for that, whether we 
should put it on our trustees, or the city, 
which appropriates the money to run the 
libraries. The question we were anxious 
to discuss was that our salaries were very 
bad. You see any other question, a'bout 
whether George did it, or anyone, would 
take us from the main question of sal- 
aries and intolerable working conditions, 
which are interchangeable. In the eco- 
nomic meaning of the terms they are in- 
terchangeable. If one is bad the other is 
bad and you cannot have good working 
conditions with the workers sweated, and 
that is what librarians are, sweated labor. 
When the girls working at trades in New 
York City ask us what our salary is we 
tell them we get $50. They say, "A 
week?" and we say "No, a month." They 
just laugh at us. That is sweated labor 
in its worst form. 

When the war came along our salaries, 
which had been poor, doubled in poverty. 
So we said to ourselves (I have been a 
worker in the library world for about nine 
or ten years and the other assistants 
equally as long) "we have worked under 
boards of trustees for all these years. 
They are away from direct contact with 
us, and they have not improved our con- 
ditions or salaries up to now. The direc- 
tor is not always responsible; we know 
that he is bound by a good many things; 
he may be good hearted, undoubtedly he 
is good hearted in a good many cases, but 
still our conditions have not changed. It 
is up to ourselves to band together and 
make this fight. Nobody else can do it." 

So we thought about the form our organ- 
ization should take. Now we might have 
formed a staff association, but it would 
have had no force in it at all. Nothing 
special would happen. 

We said to ourselves, "Just how do we 
connect up with any of the modern move- 
ments of the day? We bslieved that the 
labor movement was the nearest and most 
related body with which we could affil- 
iate; so we became a trade union. The 
New York local was organized upon our 
request, by the American Federation of 
Labor. The Federation did not seek us 
out; we sought it out first. The first li- 
brary union went to the Federation of 
Labor and asked their support, for two 
reasons: First, because we knew they 



380 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



were a powerful body that would be the 
material side of it; and the other side is 
that we believe that as librarians we are 
connected intimately with the labor move- 
ment because the workers furnish the 
greater proportion of our reading public 
and also because after all the talk about 
"professionals" you know librarians are 
workers. There are three ways of mak- 
ing your living, so I was taught when I 
was a child: Working, begging and steal- 
ing. I leave It to you which you would 
rather believe you are doing. We believe 
we are workers. 

This idea that librarians are "profes- 
sionals" as apart from other workers has 
been growing in the American public li- 
brary group. This is, if you analyze it, a 
very undemocratic idea. I have never 
found a librarian who could tell me what 
she understands by being a "professional." 
In the old church times they put a halo 
round the heads of some people to dis- 
tinguish them from others who were un- 
doubtedly just as good as they were, so 
some librarians say we are "professionals" 
to distinguish themselves and set them- 
selves apart from the great body of Amer- 
icans. 

We are now Americanizing the for- 
eigner, we are using a great deal of time 
and energy doing so and teaching them 
American ideals, and yet the old American 
ideal, which is still alive, is that one per- 
son is as good as another. Yet these same 
librarians who are so busy with the for- 
eigner come to these meetings and sit 
apart in little groups and say, "We are 
professionals, we will educate the great 
outside body of people who are not as good 
as we are." 

This was one of the fundamental rea- 
sons why our local started, aside from 
the material advantage which would come 
from our fight. We aimed to leaven the 
whole mass of the library movement, to 
try to bring it more in contact with the 
great modern movements; for until our 
public libraries become more democratic 
they will not do much good. 

Now there was another reason. We all 
know the large proportion of library work- 
ers are women. We all know that the 
women make up 90 per cent of the work 
ing force; that all the large, more impor- 
tant positions in the library world have 
been cornered by men. It is true. The 
union is going to change that. 

Women enter always through the lower 
grades. The men never enter the service 
through that grade. Women may get as 
far as branch librarianships. Beyond that 
I am speaking of New York, but it is much 
the same throughout the country they 



cannot go. With one exception, and that 
an unimportant department, all the heads 
of departments in the New York Public 
Library are men, the director is a man, 
all the members of the boards of trustees 
are men. Selection of these upper offi- 
cers is not made on the basis of superior- 
ity of intelligence or ability; it is simply 
made on the basis of sex. That distinc- 
tion is gone from the political world, and 
it will go from the economic world. 

When we first formed our union in New 
York City we were the first library local 
not only in the United States, but in the 
world. Boston came in as a close sec- 
ond, then Washington. Now we have an- 
other local in Philadelphia. 

Dr. Bowerman said that he didn't think 
every library system needed a union. He 
seemed to think that only the cities where 
the financial aid came from the city offi- 
cials needed a union; that when a library 
was strictly under private control of a 
board of trustees a union was not needed. 
But if you need a union in one library 
you need it in all. The money side is not 
the most important side. We also stand 
for union ideals. The workers need a 
union to prevent their exploitation. 

Our New York Union was not started, 
as in Washington, from the top. We 
would say that this was a wrong way to 
start a working union for workers. Ours 
was started from the two lower grades, 
where the intolerable working conditions 
were felt very strongly, more strongly of 
course, than in the upper grades. We 
not only started from the two lower grades, 
but we made it a rule at that time that 
only those two lower grades were eligi- 
ble for membership. We made this rule 
so we should be free to criticize our em- 
ployers and administrators when we found 
it necessary to do so. 

In some unions they allow the foremen 
to be members, but we did not do that at 
first. Later we amended our constitu- 
tion, so that now a branch librarian or as- 
sistant branch librarian may, if she can 
get a unanimous vote of the local, be- 
come a member. We did this one year 
after we were organized. No one has 
ever been unanimously elected to mem- 
bership. 

Even the trustees, I think, should have 
a union. I understand there is more 
power going to be taken from the trustees. 
They need a union to protect them from 
the directors of the libraries. I don't 
know but that the trustees might come to 
us for membership. 

I have here the annual report of our 
union, from which I will read to you: 



CATALOG SECTION TRUSTEES SECTION 



381 



"The Library Employees Union was or- 
ganized in May, 1917, to unite all workers 
in the libraries of Greater New York, in 
an endeavor to remedy the particularly 
bad working conditions and wages of li- 
braries, especially in the public libraries 
of the city. 

"The union stood for the world ideal 
of the workers that only through the sol- 
idarity of labor could unjust working con- 
ditions be changed. 

"The union has consistently and fear- 
lessly fought the un-American spirit of 
caste among librarians. It is against 
the claim advanced by some people that 
librarians are "professionals." 

"It declares that librarians are indus- 
trial workers in as high a degree as mem- 
bers of any of our allied trades. 

"The Library Employees Union blazed 
the way, and at first was composed solely 
of workers in the two lower grades of 
library service in the public libraries of 
Greater New York. 

"The union has declared for civil serv- 
ice for librarians. It did so because it 
believes that public libraries are public 
utilities and should be administered by the 
people through their elected officials. 

"At present, our libraries are run by 
private corporations on public money, over 
which the city, state or federal officers 
have no control. This is an undemocratic 
form of government. 

"The union has worked with both the 
Republican and Democratic administrations 
of New York City and has asked that the 
city take over the libraries and place them 
under civil service rules and regulations. 

"All of the union locals in the five bor- 
oughs of New York City have been vis- 
ited and the conditions of the library serv- 
ice have been explained to our fellow 
workers." 

Two things we aim to accomplish in 
the library field: First, to have our union 
articles printed in Public Libraries and 
Library Journal. We hope to be given a 
place on the program of the next A. L. A. 
Conference. 

And now about this "professional" idea 
versus the industrial or workers' idea. 
The union is not opposed to the profes- 
sional idea, but we say that in such work 
as ours, where the greater proportion of 
the workers have been practically trained 
in the work, we say that these practically 
trained librarians should be for all exam- 
inations, promotions and appointments, 
from the lowest grade up to the Librarian 
of Congress, on the same footing as the 
professionally trained workers, then let 
the better one win. 



At this point Mr. Montgomery inquired 
what proportion of the people in the New 
York Public Library were union members, 
and in reply Miss Malone continued: 

One of the first rules of a union, an al- 
most fundamental union rule, is that in- 
formation as to the membership list is 
for union members only. When a union 
comes into a new industry like ours, when 
the idea is new in that industry, the pio- 
neers are the ones who bear the brunt of 
it. Our union has protected its members 
as they come in. 

You take the garment workers' strike 
in New York City last winter; do you 
think those girls that came out and stood 
in the front row of the battle could have 
gotten any position in their trade if they 
had lost their strike? Those girls could 
not have worked at their trade in New 
York City; in fact they would have been 
blacklisted all over the country. In this 
connection you must remember that li- 
brary work is a highly centralized work 
and that all appointments and dismissals 
are in the hands of a few men. 

In a library system not far from here 
a union was nearly formed by the work- 
ers, who also had intolerable working con- 
ditions, when someone subwayed the news 
to the director. He therefore said he was 
a worker and wanted to join the union. 
He was getting a high salary and they 
were getting $50 a month. They didn't 
see it his way, but he insisted, and so he 
finally succeeded in breaking up that 
union. 

Miss Eunice R. Oberly, librarian of the 
Bureau of Plant Industry, Washington, 
D. C., here made the statement that 
the members of the Federal Employees 
Union in Washington, instead of main- 
taining secrecy regarding union member- 
ship, wore badges in indication of it. 

Miss Oberly having further advanced a 
brief argument for the admission to unions 
of administrative officers, the discussion 
touched upon the discrimination against 
women in library work, claimed by the 
New York Union to be a prevalent in- 
justice. 

Chairman Porter then read the follow- 
ing resolution which had been passed by 
the American Federation of Labor at the 
suggestion of the Library Employes Union 
of New York: 

Whereas, We believe that public 11- 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



owned, controlled and administered di- 
rectly by the state or city financing such 
library; and 

Whereas, We believe the present low 
and inadequate salaries and intolerable 
working conditions in our public libraries 
are due to the fact that most of the libra- 
ries are under the control of private cor- 
porations who are not responsible to the 
community at large although they are 
spending the public's money; and 

Whereas, Since the right of workers 
to organize in trade unions and to bargain 
collectively is recognized and affirmed by 
the United States government, that this 
right shall not be denied, abridged or in- 
terfered with by the employers of the li- 
brary. Therefore be it 

RESOLVED, by the American Federa- 
tion of Labor in convention assembled at 
Atlantic City on June 9, 1919, That in the 
interests of the people and in order to 
secure good conditions for the workers, 
we declare ourselves in favor of civil serv- 
ice for librarians; and be it further 

RESOLVED, That a member of a library 
union, to be elected by the union, be placed 
upon all committees having in charge li- 
brary activities, in which union labor is 
asked to cooperate, such as the War Serv- 
ice Committee of the American Library As- 
sociation; and be it further 

RESOLVED, That a member of union 
labor be represented on all boards of trus- 
tees for libraries; and be it finally 

RESOLVED, That we earnestly urge all 
locals to give all assistance possible towards 
braries are public utilities and should be 
the organization of these workers. 

Mr. Bowker here requested that a rep- 
resentative of the Staff Association of the 
New York Public Library be heard from, 
and Miss Mary Frank therefore responded 
as follows: 

Miss Malone has spoken of the Library 
Employees Union as "we of New York." 
You have been told that the number of 
members of that union is not available. 
About the same time that the union was 
formed, the members of the staff of the 
New York Public Library formed an or- 
ganization called the "Staff Association." 
The purpose of the formation of that or- 
ganization was to further the professional, 
economic, social and cultural interests of 
the staff. We realized keenly that the eco- 
nomic issue is the big issue that is very 
close before us. The Staff Association 
feels that there must be an organization in 
a great library system of workers to voice 
the sentiments of the staff. That organ- 
ization was welcomed by the administra- 



tion. Officers of the administration may 
join the organization. There is no dis- 
crimination against any member of the 
professional staff of the New York Public 
Library. You may be interested to know 
that there are 579 members of that associa- 
tion. That represents five-sevenths of its 
possible membership. The bulk of mem- 
bership comes from the lower grades in 
the service. I haven't the figures here at 
hand; I did not expect to speak, and I can- 
not give you any more definite figures than 
those, that the Staff Association represents 
five-sevenths of the staff, and that anyone 
may join; also that the people in the lower 
grades constitute the bulk of the member- 
ship. 

Now, it has been said that the Staff As- 
sociation may be the organ of the adminis- 
tration. Let it be known that we take a 
perfectly independent stand. We believe 
in working with the administration in 
every way, and we have done so. We be- 
lieve in working constructively, not de- 
structively. We believe we can influence 
public sentiment to a large degree in a way 
that the administration cannot. For in- 
stance, two years ago, at the budget hear- 
ing in the city hall, we, as members of the 
Association, got our public to go down to 
the city hall and speak for us on the ques- 
tion of salaries, and our public filled that 
chamber. There were so many there to 
speak that they could not all be heard. 
They came because we asked them, from 
all branches of the city, and what in- 
creases in salary have come, have come 
through the constructive efforts of the 
Staff Association. 

Undoubtedly there must be an organiza- 
tion where there is a large body of work- 
ers, and the purpose of that organization 
must be cooperation, not "fight." You have 
heard that word "fight" "fight for your 
rights." We think we can work together, 
and that spirit is the dominating spirit of 
our Staff Association. We don't feel at 
present a need for federating with labor, 
so long as we can further the objects 
within our own organization. 

Mr. Bowker then addressed the assembly 
as follows: 

Mr. Chairman, I think we are all thor- 
oughly glad that we have had this discus- 
sion, and it seems to me so serious a dis- 
cussion that I shall put aside any pleas- 
antries (although I hope what I say will 
not be unpleasant) and reverse the order 
of what I had in mind to say, because the 
perspective of the evening has changed, I 
think, with the recent words that Miss Ma- 
lone and others have given. 

I very sincerely tried to say something 



CATALOG SECTION TRUSTEES SECTION 



383 



to the credit of Miss Malone, and I am 
sorry she misunderstood. I believe thor- 
oughly that labor, whether spelled with a 
large L or a small one, is as honorable,' 
and entitled to all other good adjectives, 
as a profession. The difficulty that I see' 
to-day is that the spirit of antagonism 
comes forward in most of the discussion 
such as we have heard just now. 

I was to speak of library service, and I 
want to emphasize that library service 
means working with the hand, and with 
the head, and with the heart in a common 
purpose, and that with the most demo- 
cratic ideals before us, for the benefit of 
every man and every woman who works 
with his hands, or with his brain, or, as 
most of us Americans do, with both to- 
gether. What I should not like to see in 
our library organization is a sub-organiza- 
tion within the ranks of our workers which 
felt that all those who did not come into 
the organization were "scabs"; and that 
is the great danger, I think, to speak 
frankly, in the program which Miss Ma- 
lone has outlined for us to-day. That les- 
son I learned more than twenty years ago, 
from no less a person than Mr. Gompers 
himself. At that time I was the executive 
head of a considerable industrial organiza- 
tion in New York, the Edison Company, 
and one of the first things that I did, hav- 
ing written a little book called "Economics 
for the people," was to put into practice 
what I had said in that book. I had not 
only a staff council but a labor council and 
promptly established an eight hour day. 
We had also a direct sharing of profits, 
so that the yearly wages of a man counted 
15ke the investment of the stockholder in 
the stock through a yearly dividend; and 
especially I gave the right of access to my 
office to any worker for any grievance that 
he could bring forward. That was all done 
with the most honest purpose, and I held 
also to this, that any American citizen had 
the right to earn his bread and butter 
whether or not he chose to belong to a 
labor organization. 

Now, in our libraries, none of us trus- 
tees or administrators of any sort have a 
right to say that an employee shall or shall 
not belong to a union, or a staff associa- 
tion which is not a union. That is a mat- 
ter for the private concern of the person; 
that is his individual and democratic 
right; I believe that that is the general 
sentiment within the library profession. I 
use the word "profession" advisedly. As 
I understand it, a profession is a calling 
which has standards of educated training 
which fit for that calling. In the callings 
of lawyers and doctors, the state inter- 



venes in examinations, which test the fit- 
ness of members of those professions. 
We are urging that standards be set for 
our own profession, and a difficulty with 
the thought which Miss Malone has ex- 
pressed is that the trained person, the li- 
brary school graduate, is not to have an 
advantage above the person who has not 
had the special training. 

But I was beginning to tell you what 
Mr. Gompers had taught me twenty years 
ago. There were threats of a strike in 
that industry. It was not a strike within 
our company, but our men, some of them 
union, and some not, were to be called out, 
because some other companies had done 
the wrong thing. I had a very friendly 
conversation with Mr. Gompers in which 
I said to him, "We have done the best as 
employers that we could see could be done 
for our workers, from the top to the bot- 
tom, from the bottom to the top; and why 
should we be harmed because other people 
have done wrong?" And a summary of 
what Mr. Gompers said was this: "There 
are two armies, one of employees and one 
of employers; this condition is a con- 
dition of war, and when a battle is 
on, anybody in the middle is apt to 
get hit. If the other companies were in 
the position in which you have put your 
company, there would be no question of 
industrial war, but as you are employers, 
you have to take your chances with the 
other employers." Now, to my mind, that 
was a spirit of antagonism entirely op- 
posed to the true American spirit. I doubt 
if Mr. Gompers would say quite that to-day. 
I believe that in the American Federation 
of Labor there have been high ideals, high 
purposes; not only the desire to place op- 
probrium on economic war, but a desire to 
go beyond that, and establish new rela- 
tions between the public and the American 
Federation of Labor. 

I think the mistake of our friends of the 
union in New York has not been the mis- 
take of understatement. Miss Malone 
said when she told the shop girls in New 
York that library girls in New York were 
getting $50 or $60, they held up their 
hands in horror. I think Miss Malone 
stated that the average salary in the New 
York Public Library, in the graded sys- 
tem, or at least among the library work- 
ers, was $600, and in this handbill which 
was given to us yesterday you will notice 
a comparison made between the starting 
salaries in the Chicago public library and 
the salaries in New York. Unfortunately, 
the ladies of the New York Union who pre- 
pared that circular had not taken the trou- 
ble to ask themselves and their associates 



384 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



what their salaries were, because I think 
with the exception of apprentices and 
pages, below the graded system, there is 
no one in the New York public library 
getting less than the starting salary of 
$660, and the average, instead of being 
$600 a year, is $933. In Brooklyn it is 
$S64. 

I am speaking now in a very ragged 
way in the talk of the moment, and let me 
say right here, as to salaries, that I have 
not been able to see that there is any foun- 
dation for the claim that the salaries in New 
York have been influenced by the union. 
Those of us who are trustees have had 
as our chief problem for the past two 
years or more this question of salaries. We 
feel most strongly that the librarians of 
the country are an underpaid class. They 
should be paid at least as highly as teach- 
ers, and they are not paid with this class. 
I can say, I think, for every trustee, 
he is as anxious as the worker 01 the low- 
est salary to have all library salaries put 
where they should be. I gathered from 
Mr. Bowerman's paper that a service of 
the Library Union. in Washington had been 
to put a certain compulsion upon Congress, 
in connection with other Federal em- 
ployees, to increase salaries. Now, that 
may not be criticized, but I think that 
should not be the main or single purpose 
of a staff association. They should take 
the broader ground, and Miss Malone has 
told- you that after fighting the economic 
questions, the union proposes to go to other 
questions as well. 

It is too late in the evening for me to 
go into discussion of the salary question 
in detail. Happily, in Chicago decided 
advances have been made, because, if I un- 
derstand rightly, the authorities were en- 
abled more than a year ago to add $120 to 
the salary of each worker in the library. 
That is certainly not too much. We are 
in a very curious position, economically. 
When the Civil war ended, we had a certain 
thermometric measure of value in the fact 
that we had paper currency, a very bad 
and dangerous thing at the time, which 
was at a discount of about sixty per cent, 
gold being 250 or more. Now we have not 
that disturbing element, and it is a great 
blessing to the country that we have had 
a method of banking which has prevented 
the disaster that might otherwise have 
come; but it looks as though prices and 
wages have both got on stilts. As a rule 
prices advance more rapidly than salaries, 
and the people who have most suffered 
under those conditions are the people in 
small and fixed salaries, like librarians; so 
much so that too much emphasis cannot be 



laid by chief librarians, by library work- 
ers, and by trustees, on the injustice to 
librarians of the present range of salaries. 
Reference has been made to a third 
topic, which would properly have come 
into my address had I made a more for- 
mal one. That is the relation of library, 
employees to the civil service. One of the 
statements of the New York Union was 
that the New York Public Library has no 
graded service, no proper efficiency ratings, 
no eligible lists open to inspection, and no 
this and no that, and no pensions. Now, 
it is true there are no pensions, but Chi- 
cago has been developing a pension system 
for librarians as city employees which is 
certainly a precedent for which we are 
thoroughly glad; but I want to say for the 
library systems of which I know most, the 
Brooklyn system and the New York sys- 
tem, that the merit system, which is the 
foundation of civil service reform, has 
been and is carried to greater perfection 
In those systems than by any federal, state 
or municipal civil service commission of 
which I know. I am myself a civil serv- 
ice reformer of the stoutest sort, and have 
been for I don't know how many years, 
even before I wrote with my colleagues on 
the committee the civil service ^>lank in 
the Garfield convention of 1880, almost as 
long ago as the foundation of this Asso- 
ciation. I believe thoroughly in civil serv- 
ice reform, and that means to me the merit 
system. Civil service reform was insti- 
tuted to fight the politicians and the politi- 
cal methods of that day, when Jackson's 
theory, that to the victor belong the spoils, 
was rampant throughout the whole offi- 
cial system. That abuse has, as far as I 
know, entered not at all, or in the least 
possible degree, into our library system. I 
don't know of any organization, or series 
of organizations, which have been more 
free from politics, as a rule, and politics 
have been most dangerous, so it happens, 
where there has been an endeavor, as per- 
haps in St. Paul, to utilize a civil service 
commission to bring about the resulte 
which civil service reform was intended to 
avoid. 

One thing more the reference to women 
in libraries. I supposed that there was 
no profession in which women were more 
honored, or had a larger place, had more 
democratic control of their professional or- 
ganization, than the American Library 
Association. I didn't know, for instance, 
that Miss Eastman was a down-trodden 
worker, under intolerable, working condi- 
tions. There are a good many other ladies 
who I thought were in control of im- 
portant public libraries. I am a member 



CATALOG SECTION TRUSTEES SECTION 



385 



of one board of library trustees in which 
half the members are women. I think it 
would be eminently proper if in our boards 
of trustees women were brought to the 
fore, as they certainly should be, and in 
the ideals which Miss Malone has put be- 
fore us we can all heartily join. We all, 
trustees, librarians, and all library work- 
ers, are concerned in working together, 
with hand, and head, and heart, for the 
public service of every man and every 
woman. In our Association, in our pro- 
fession, a6 I see it, woman is making her 
way up without compulsion, and the one 
exception I have to make to "the spirit or 
the practice which Miss Malone has so 
eloquently, and with a touch of pathos, 
represented to us tonight, is that it de- 
velops a spirit of antagonism, whereas as 
I know it, the spirit of the library profes- 
sion is one of abounding desire that we 
should all work together, inside and out- 
side of libraries, in the ranks alike of 
labor and of professional men, every man 
and every woman, to bring about that 
highest ideal of the thorough unity, Amer- 
icanization, and uplift of the American 
people. 

Miss Kelso here spoke briefly of the need 
on the part of librarians of a clear realiza- 
tion of the place and importance of libra- 
rianship in the world's work. 

Dr. Bowerman at this time was asked 
to reply to three questions: (1) What 
would happen in a library, within the dis- 
trict of the Washington Union, in the case 
of a sympathetic strike? (2) How would 
you get in an experienced worker from 
some other library or library school who 
was not a member of the union? (3) 
Could you have your own merit system, or 
state, or federal, or municipal civil serv- 
ice? 

Dr. Bowerman accordingly responded as 
follows: 

A sympathetic strike is unthinkable, in 
our kind of union. In the first place, 
strikes against the Government are for- 
bidden by law; in the second place, it is 
one of the articles of the constitution of 
the National Association of Federal Em- 
ployees, who are employees either of the 
Federal Government or of the District of 
Columbia Government, that they are 
pledged not to strike. 

The second question is answered in this 
way: Of our professional staff, seventy- 
five per cent are members of the union; 
twenty-five per cent are not. There is no 



compulsion on the part of the librarian 
or on the part of the members of the staff. 
We have our staff committees. The other 
day we made up a committee to draft a 
statement for presenting before the Senate 
Appropriation Committee. Two members 
01 that committee were members of the 
union; one was not a member. There is 
no discrimination. 

In reply to the third question: The pub- 
lic library of the District of Columbia is 
not under the United States Civil Service 
Commission. There is a bill pending which 
I am afraid is going to pass, to put the li- 
brary under civil service. We have a 
merit system inside of the library which I 
believe is more effective than the civil 
service system will be if it is introduced. 

I hope that this body will not put itself 
definitely on record against unions. I be- 
lieve that they are coming in some form, 
and I hope the kind of union we have will 
be the form these unions will take. There 
is absolutely no anti-administration spirit 
in our union. It might have taken the 
form of a staff association, to bring pres- 
sure to bear upon Congress to accomplish 
the purpose which the trustees of the li- 
brary, and the librarian, were trying to 
accomplish. But the members of the staff 
lelt that their union would be immensely 
strengthened if they became a branch of 
the National Association of Federal Em- 
ployees, and have the 30,000 members of 
that body back them up, and also the 
whole body of the American Federation 
of Labor. 

Miss Ahern, editor of Public Libraries, 
being given the floor, then spoke as fol- 
lows : 

Mr. Chairman, I have labored for library 
ideals in Chicago for twenty-three years I 
have been just as close to the civil service 
in the State of Illinois and the City of Chi- 
cago as anybody else who has not been on 
some of the civil service boards. I am not 
going to say here that it is a mistake for 
librarians to join a labor union; but one 
of the things which has put me out of sym- 
pathy with the methods in New York City 
is that they are clamoring for municipal 
civil service there and are constantly point- 
ing out the Chicago Public Library system 
as a shining example of what can be ac- 
complished through municipal civil serv- 
ice control. 

I have wanted to say publicly for years, 
that from my intimate knowledge of the 
situation in Chicago, I don't believe there 
is so great a detriment anywhere to real 
library service and library promotion and 
library salaries, as the state and municipal 
civil service as it touches the libraries of 



386 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Illinois. In so far as you may point out 
anything which has been done by the 
municipal civil service board for the Chi- 
cago Public Library you can only make a 
partial statement. The real facts are not 
generally known. 

As to the increases in salaries In the 
state, as to the increases in appropria- 
tions for the Chicago Public Library which 
have come in the last few years, municipal 
civil service, or the civil service of the 
state, had as little to do with these as the 
person who had the least to do with it in 
this audience. The increased appropria- 
tions in the City of Chicago and for the 
libraries of Illinois were the work of the 
Illinois Library Association, backed by 
such friends as the members of the Illinois 
Library Association could bring to their 
help. 

Further, I have intimate and correct 
knowledge of things that have been done 
in the name of civil service and by civil 
service reformers that are just as bad as 
anything that any politician ever did. I 
have worked with politicians and I know 
the civil service reformers. I don't mean 
that all civil service commissioners are 
under condemnation, but I do know that 
many of those who stand in the front 
ranks have violated in fact and principle 
the very things for which they talk so 
loudly and long in public. 

I am tired of hearing persons in Boston, 
who are trying to put the Boston Public 
Library under municipal civil service, and 
I am tired of hearing those in the New 
York Public Library system who are in 
favor of municipal civil service for that 
system, point to Chicago as a shining ex- 
ample of what can be done by municipal 
civil service. It has nothing whatever to 
do with it. Whatever influences have come 
toward bettering conditions of service and 
salaries in the Chicago Public Library had 
inception and nurture and the work in 
carrying it forward from altogether dif- 
ferent persons than those who are inter- 
ested in municipal civil service. 

Now, perhaps you know that the libra- 
rian of the Chicago Public Library is sit- 
ting here, and I ask him to say something 
on this subject without having any idea 



as to what he will say. Lest any harm 
come to him because of. what I have said, 
I exonerate him from having any intima- 
tion of what I was going to say relative to 
conditions in Chicago. 

Mr. Carl B. Roden, librarian of the Chi- 
cago Public Library, then said: 

Miss Ahern, after fruitlessly trying to 
induce me to inject the question of the 
Chicago civil service into this discussion, 
made a statement that was so absolutely 
within the narrowest construction of the 
facts that I can very frankly concur in 
everything she said. I only wish to add 
that nothing that the Chicago Public Li- 
brary has done in the way of increasing 
salaries is in any way due to the Chicago 
civil service commission, because that com- 
mission has not the least control over the 
disposition of the funds of the board of 
trustees of the Chicago Public Library. 
That is an independent taxing body, which 
secures an annual revenue through a state 
law, and which has absolute control over 
the disposition of the funds so obtained. 
The Civil Service Commission merely re- 
cords the will of the board of directors in 
deciding that salaries shall be thus and 
so for the year, and cannot call that deci- 
sion into question. 

Incidentally, along this line, I should 
correct another statement with reference 
to the pension fund of the Chicago Public 
Library, which also has not the least 
shadow of relation to the civil service, nor 
its administration, being entirely organ- 
ized 011 the initiative of the board of di- 
rectors, and being so far responsive to 
them and supported by them as to receive 
annually from them the donation of the 
entire amount of fines collected in the li- 
brary for the support of the pension fund 
for employees. 

On account of the lateness of the hour, 
Mr. Edwin H. Anderson requested that his 
discussion of the future attitude of libra- 
rians toward literature classed as German 
propaganda be omitted from the program. 

On motion, the meeting was duly ad- 
journed. 



CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS SECTION 



387 



CHILDREN'S LIBRARIANS SECTION 



FIRST SESSION 

The first meeting of the Children's Li- 
brarians Section was held on Thursday 
evening, Miss Caroline Burnite, the chair- 
man, presiding. 

"The immigrant's contribution to Amer- 
ican culture" was the subject of an ad- 
dress given by Mrs. Anna Vostrovsky Ca- 
pek, in which she traced briefly the origin 
and development of the Czecho-Slovaks, 
their -long, w'eary struggle for religious and 
political independence, and the influence 
of Huss, Comenius and other great na- 
tional figures toward the assertion of 
Czech nationality and the development of 
Czech literature. Mrs. Capek spoke of the 
effect of the war in increasing America's 
interest and knowledge of Czech history 
and culture, and urged that this acquaint- 
ance be still further increased, that we 
may realize more fully what the immigrant 
has to give and America to gain through 
his invasion. 

Following Mrs. Capek's address, Mr. Her- 
bert A. Miller of Oberlin College, read a 
paper on 

THE TRUE AMERICANIZATION OF THE FOREIGX 
CHILD 

(See p. 130) 

A business meeting of the section was 
held on Friday morning. Excerpts from 
the report of the Committee on the Pro- 
duction of Children's Books were read by 
Miss Burnite. Three subjects had been 
studied by the committee during the year 
books which do not wear well, desirable 
books now out of print and books unsat- 
isfactory in typography. Owing to the 
present high cost of book production and 
inferior quality of paper, labor, etc., the 
committee had no definite recommenda- 
tions to offer in regard to the list which 
they had prepared of books of poor wear- 
ing qualities. A second list of books now 
out of print had been made, and the va- 
rious publishers consulted as to the pos- 
sibility of reprinting tJ.e listed titles. 
Briefly summarized, the consensus of opin- 



ion seemed to be that a demand from the 
retail trade throughout the country is nec- 
essary before a publisher can afford to 
republish an out of print title. Hearty 
appreciation of the usefulness of library 
cooperation, especially of such organized 
cooperation as that of the committee, was 
expressed by nearly all the firms consulted. 
The subject of typography of children's 
books had been considered by Miss Bertha 
Hatch, of the Cleveland Public Library, 
and parts of her special report were read. 
Letters on this subject had been sent to 
twenty-four publishers, twelve of whom 
had responded. From their answers the 
following conclusions had been arrived at: 
That publishers are giving thought to this 
important subject; that the books now be- 
ing published are in the main satisfactory 
in typography, twelve point type being 
used quite generally; that some of the 
older standard juveniles are being reset in 
better type, when the demand justifies the 
expense of reprinting; that the present 
very high cost of publishing stands in the 
way of reprinting the less popular stand- 
ard books for children; that the exchange 
of suggestions and information between 
publishers and librarians is the only effec- 
tive way of making our collections of ju- 
venile books conform to the best known 
principles of typography. 

A vote of thanks was extended to Miss 
Hatch for her work in the preparation of 
this report. 

Dr. Zelenko, of Moscow University, told 
something of the work being done for chil- 
dren in the libraries of Moscow. He sug- 
gested that a list of the best American 
children's books be compiled by American 
librarians for translation and publication 
in Russia. He felt that this would be a 
great aid toward better sympathy and un- 
derstanding between the two countries. 

Miss Hunt next introduced the question 
of the great need for children's workers 
in our libraries to-day. This opened up 
an interesting discussion as to ways and 



388 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



means of meeting the situation. Among 
various suggestions offered were the pos- 
sibility of publicity through general maga- 
zine articles, and consultation with the 
Professional Training Section of the 
A. L. A. in the hope of securing a larger 
place for the study of children's work in 
the curriculums of the various general 
library schools. It was decided that a 
committee, with Miss Clara Herbert as 
chairman, be appointed for further con- 
sideration of the problem. 

A nominating committee consisting of 
Miss Jones, Miss Hunt and Miss Power 
were appointed to name incoming officers. 

The meeting was then adjourned. 

SECOND SESSION 

The second session of the section was 
held in the Auditorium on Friday eve- 
ning, when Mr. Franklin S. Hoyt, editorial 
supervisor of Houghton Mifflin Company, 
read a paper on 

PROBLEMS IN THE PRODUCTION OF BOOKS FOB 

CHILDBEN, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE 

TO SOME WIDER NEEDS 

(See p. 282) 

In the discussion following, much enthu- 
siasm was expressed for Mr. Hoyt's sug- 
gestion of an advisory committee to pub- 
lishers, and the sentiment of the meeting 
was that the Committee on the Produc- 
tion of Children's Books act in this capac- 
ity. Mr. Bowker recommended that the 
committee allow its name to be used by 
a publisher in instances wh^^e the com- 
mittee had urged the publication or re- 
publication of a book. 



The discussion then turned upon the 
present lack of good children's books deal- 
ing with life and customs in foreign lands, 
particularly those countries which have 
figured so prominently in the recent war. 
Dr. Zelenko offered his help in the selec- 
tion of Russian children's books suitable 
for translation. 

The following resolution was adopted at 
this meeting: 

Whereas, There has been undertaken 
for the fall of 1919, by the American Book- 
sellers Association, a plan for a Children's 
Week, when a joint effort will be made to 
bring more and better books for boys and 
girls into American homes; 

RESOLVED, That this Association ex- 
presses its sympathy in such effort, and 
suggests that local librarians offer hearty 
cooperation where the local bookseller is 
putting forward the right class of books. 

Mr. Tony Sarg, owner and producer of 
the Tony Sarg Marionettes, then spoke 
about his work, describing the construc- 
tion of the marionettes, and his selection 
of plays for them. 

The final meeting of the section was held 
on Saturday morning. Miss Julia A. Hop- 
kins and Miss Caroline Burnite were ap- 
pointed to serve with Miss Herbert on her 
committee. Officers elected for the coming 
year were as follows: Chairman, Miss 
Elizabeth Knapp, Detroit Public Library. 
Vice-chairman, Miss Alice I. Hazeltine, St. 
Louis Public Library; secretary, Miss 
Adah F. Whitcomb, Chicago Public Li- 
brary. The meeting was then adjourned. 
EMILY B. MEIGS, 
Secretary pro tern. 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



The College and Reference Section met 
on Thursday evening in the ball room of 
the New Monterey hotel, with a large and 
interested audience, Mr. M. G. Wyer, of 
the University of Nebraska, presiding. 

The opening paper was by Mr. William 
Teal, of the John Crerar Library, on 

THE ARRANGEMENT AND BINDING OF BRITISH 
BLUE BOOKS 

(See p. 177) 

The general discussion of the war col- 
lections of different libraries, including the 



preservation of war materials, was opened 
by Mr. H. H. B. Meyer of the Library of 
Congress, who spoke as follows: 

When the various collections acquired 
by Dr. Putnam during his stay in Europe 
are received at the Library of Congress, 
there will be in its possession upwards of 
50,000 volumes and pamphlets relating to 
the European war. 

The collection is particularly rich in 
documentary or source material. The ex- 
ceptional position of the Library of Con- 
gress as the National Library in the clos- 
est direct relationship with the publishing 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



offices of all governments throughout the 
world, and enjoying exchange relationships 
with learned institutions equally widely 
diffused, makes the acquisition of such 
material relatively easy, although the Li- 
brary of Congress like other institutions 
has suffered grievously through the break- 
down of transportation facilities during 
the war. 

It is fair to say that the Library of Con- 
gress is aiming at practical completeness 
in its collection of printed matter relating 
to the war. American publications are ac- 
quired as a matter of course through the 
operation of the copyright law; other pub- 
lications are acquired by gift or purchase. 
All the more important catalogs and bibli- 
ographies are being checked and items not 
in the Library of Congress are being ac- 
quired as rapidly as possible. 

It is difficult at this time, while the col- 
lection is in process of formation, to make 
exact statements concerning any particular 
class of material. For example, the col- 
lection of camp and trench papers is 
widely representative of soldier author- 
ship and editorship in practically all the 
belligerent countries, and presents a body 
of material illustrating as nothing else can 
the mental attitude of men of all races 
and nations at war under modern condi- 
tions. Those who have handled such ma- 
terial know how unsafe it is to say that 
the file of any newspaper is complete, but 
from actual examination of files received 
we know that there are many extensive 
runs if not complete files. 

The collection of prints, including post- 
ers, is very extensive, our prints division 
giving special attention to the acquisition 
of this material. As a matter of course the 
collection is rich in the issues of our own 
Government, and hardly less complete are 
the French, English, Italian, Dutch, and 
Belgian; with promise of large German 
collections which are on the way. 

The extent of the music collection is 
well-nigh overwhelming. Only about half 
the titles acquired could be printed in the 
check list issued a year ago. 

In the treatment of this sudden and 
enormous influx of material the Library of 
Congress scheme of classification was 
found easily expansible. Those who are 
familiar with its use of letters and num- 
bers combined know that current history 
takes the last numbers under each let- 
tered section with nothing beyond to 
block the way. That part of the scheme as 
worked out for the history of the Euro- 
pean war, extending from D 501 to D 659, 
has been mimeographed and is available 
for distribution. 



It should be said at the outset that the 
collection is not being kept together as a 
collection on the history of the European 
or world war. The books and pamphlets 
therefore classed in D 501 to D 659 repre- 
sent only a part of the collection, only the 
most strictly historical literature. Docu- 
ments, for instance, which continue pre- 
viously existing series are not separated 
from the earlier issues, even though they 
relate wholly to the war. Classes repre- 
senting subjects especially of a social, eco- 
nomic, or political character take war lit- 
erature when the subject interest is para- 
mount, in preference to D 501 to D 659. 
Dependence is placed on the subject head- 
ings and cross references to point out all 
the material on any particular aspect of 
the great struggle. As was naturally to be 
expected the subject headings for such a 
mass of new material presented new prob- 
lems. These as far as they have been 
worked out are printed in the "European 
war. Preliminary list of subject head- 
ings" and are available for distribution to 
a limited extent. 

What is being done to make this mate- 
rial available? Old methods of bibliograph- 
ical treatment are found inadequate. Dr. 
Richardson of Princeton has experimented 
with photostatic reproduction of collec- 
tions of cards and other entries with star- 
tling results. Whatever may be said of his 
method as applied to books, pamphlets, or 
periodical literature, it certainly offers an 
ideal method of cataloging collections of 
stamps, paper money, tokens, medals and 
similar material difficult to describe in the 
ordinary terms of cataloging. 

In the division of bibliography we have 
made a special effort to collect all bibliog- 
raphies and reading lists on the war and 
have noted 416. These constitute an ex- 
tensive bibliography of bibliographies of 
the war and have been mimeographed 
under the title "List of bibliographies re- 
lating to the European war," and are avail- 
able for distribution. 

A "Check list of the literature and other 
material in the Library of Congress on the 
European war" was published in the sum- 
mer of 1918, and sufficient titles have been 
accumulated for a supplement as large as 
the first list, which contained about 20,000 
entries. It is hoped ultimately to throw 
these title-a-line entries into a classified 
list. 

In closing it may not be amiss to direct 
attention again to the Library of Congress 
system of interlibrary loans whereby this 
material is made available to scholars all 
over the country through the agency of 
local libraries. 



390 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Mr. H. M. Lydenberg, of the New York 
Public Library, described what that li- 
brary had accomplished regarding collec- 
tion of war material, in the following re- 
marks : 

In collecting books on the European war, 
our object in the reference department of 
the New York Public Library has been to 
secure what past experience has shown 
will be the kind of material present and 
future scholars and investigators may 
reasonably expect to find in a library such 
as ours. We have not aimed at complete- 
ness primarily because our funds forbade. 
We wanted to get source material for the 
student of the cause of this eruption, of 
the conditions that prevailed before its 
outbreak or during the storm, of how the 
events as they unrolled from day to day 
impressed the spectator. We have left to 
our English friends the production of such 
bibliographies on the great war as Messrs. 
Lange and Berry have given us, and to 
France the making of "complete" collec- 
tions of all printed matter relating to the 
conflict, such as are now growing in Lyons 
and Paris. We have, to be sure, printed 
in each issue of our monthly Bulletin since 
1914 a list of our recent accessions in this 
field, but these lists have pretended to be 
nothing more than "contributions to a 
bibliography." 

Expressed in figures it is safe to say we 
now have something over 16,000 titles, 
exclusive of our official documents 
(of which, of course, the greater part 
issued since 1914 relate to this topic 
in some degree) or serials. There are 
about 4,900 pamphlets bound in pamphlet 
volumes and about 4,300 separate volumes 
classified under "European war, 1914-1918" 
as a subdivision of European history. 
Under such headings as "naval history," 
"aeroplanes," "diplomatic history," "in- 
ternational law," etc., we have about 6,800 
additional titles. 

In our public catalog under "European 
war" the cards number 16,840, and under 
related headings we have about 1,500 ad- 
ditional titles. 

Our Slavonic division includes some 486 
volumes and pamphlets in Slavonic lan- 
guages on the war, and the catalog of this 
division contains 1,240 titles that touch 
the topic. In our Jewish division we have 
40 volumes with 100 entries in the cat- 
alog relating specifically to the war. 
This material is supplemented by the Jew- 
ish press of the war period, represented by 
some 350 volumes, most of them published 
in this country. About half of this num- 
ber are in Yiddish, including 100 volumes 



of daily papers. The rest consists largely 
of weeklies published in English, besides 
a few periodicals in French, Hebrew, Hun- 
garian, Italian, and Russian. For our 
Oriental division we have been unable to 
secure, despite repeated efforts, anything 
printed in the vernacular of Arabia, Tur- 
key, Persia, or other countries of the East. 

In our map room we have about 190 
maps, 2 atlases, and a collection of 41 large 
base maps, published by the American Geo- 
graphical Society in connection with the 
House Enquiry. 

Our art division has about 100 reproduc- 
tions of posters mounted in a scrapbook of 
sample posters, several hundred newspa- 
per and periodical clippings classified 
under "Uniforms," 300 to 400 clippings on 
other phases of the war, and 1,500 photo- 
graphs issued by the Committee on Public 
Information in Washington. Our posters 
number 3,500, 2,500 American and 1,000 
foreign. 

In our divisions of economics, technol- 
ogy, science, we have collections of clip- 
pings, and, of course, in each of these 
groups there are few clippings of recent 
date that do not more or less remotely re- 
late to the war. Economics has in its file 
about 15,000 clippings and 1,000 pamphlets, 
exclusive of those entered under such re- 
lated headings as reconstruction (600), 
government control (900), food conserva- 
tion (900), etc. Technology and science 
have each several hundred. 

The war has undoubtedly affected the 
national music of all the belligerents. We 
have, however, not succeeded in securing 
any marked expression of its effect on the 
music of the European participants. Our 
music division includes several British 
song books of soldiers songs, etc., and a 
few French, and German. For its effect 
on our own country we have nothing more 
to show than some 250 "patriotic" songs 
published mainly in New York City. 

It is not our practice in ordinary cases 
to bind and preserve more than one or 
two typical newspapers from foreign coun- 
tries. Since the outbreak of the war, how- 
ever, we have set aside all our foreign 
newspapers as a contribution to history, 
and these papers amount to some 180 
titles or 20,000 separate numbers. 

Coincident with the commencement of 
hostilities there came, of course, a flood 
of periodicals on the subject, some pic- 
torial, some an expression of current opin- 
ion in caricature, others a more or less 
serious attempt to study conditions from 
the point of view of history, economics, 
sociology, or some other form of human 
thought. We have made a collection of a 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



391 



few of the more important or more strik- 
ing titles of this kind and have some 48 
titles or 1,730 separate numbers. 

When it comes to the classification of 
material of this kind our experience indi- 
cates that the present day is not the time 
for minute classification. Under "Euro- 
pean war, 1914-1918," as a division of 
European history, we have but 13 subdivi- 
sions, namely, 

History and description 

Bibliography 

Essays, addresses, sermons 

Poetry and drama 

Fiction 

Posters, proclamations 

Economic aspects 

Peace terms 

American participation 

Influence and results 

Medical affairs; Red Cross 

Aerial operations 

Trench and camp activities. 
Though we classify our books broadly as 
they stand on the shelves we classify the 
subject cards in our public catalog very 
minutely, there being some 116 separate 
subject divisions under the heading of 
"European war, 191.4-1918." 

Our experience with pamphlets points 
most eloquently to the inadvisability of let- 
ting any pamphlet reach the shelves until 
it has been bound, preferably in a volume 
with other pamphlets sufficient in number 
to bring it up to a thickness of one or two 
inches. 

Our posters have all been mounted on 
muslin, an expensive process to be sure, 
but one that is absolutely necessary if 
posters are to be kept or used. We have 
not yet reached what we feel is an ideal or 
final system of classification for posters. 
It is, of course, obvious that the first 
classification is one by nationality, and, 
under the nation issuing the poster, a 
broad grouping by subject or object. It 
is obvious also that Red Cross posters, 
recruiting posters, finance posters, etc., be 
kept together, but after any such grouping 
there remains a large number of miscel- 
laneous posters that refuse to' be classi- 
fied in any satisfactory way. We have 
simply accepted this fact and deferred the 
solution of the problem. 

Mr. Barr of Yale said that the history 
faculty of that university had initiated 
the efforts toward a collection, and early 
in the war a blanket order was given 
which later had to be canceled. Since 
1916 the material purchased was limited 
to source material for future historians. 



As in other universities, Yale has received 
considerable from its alumni. Among the 
posters are a notable number of Russian 
and Polish. 

Professor J. D. Ibbotson, of Hamilton 
College, spoke of what a small college 
could do. It purchased source books of 
permanent value, current histories in dif- 
ferent countries, and the more valuable 
personal narratives .especially for stu- 
dents. Everything that came in as gift 
was kept as illustrating for future years 
national psychologies and different types 
o? propaganda. Mr. Ibbotson suggested 
that the most important books are yet to 
be published. 

Mr. A. J. Wall, of the New York Histor- 
ical Society, then spoke as follows: 

The most striking feature to me of the 
collection and preservation of war litera- 
ture was the quick impulse of the libra- 
rians all over the country to note the 
necessity and desirability to preserve at 
once every scrap of data relating to the 
great war. During the time of our neu- 
trality, little was heard of such collecting, 
but no sooner had the United States taken 
part in the conflict when questions as to 
collecting and preserving war literature 
began arriving in our daily mail. This 
widespread interest shaped the activities 
of local historical societies, confining them 
to gathering mostly local data and in the 
case of New York, the task was an ex- 
tremely large one. I know of no histori- 
cal society in the east that has been able 
to do more than collect such posters, cir- 
culars and leaflets as appeared in their 
locality. The many-sided interests which 
were occasioned by the United States en- 
tering the war made an enormous amount 
of published material necessary of which 
the New York Historical Society has col- 
lected a representative assortment of the 
whole. We made no effjrt to collect for- 
eign posters. Through my local draft 
board I was able to secure specimens of 
all circulars, cards, rules and regulations 
used by the board in enforcing the select- 
ive service draft law, together with the 
posters in many languages calling atten- 
tion to the draft law. The operation of 
that law will be of special interest to fu- 
ture historians. Newspapers published by 
the various Army divisions were difficult 
to get and required constant attention in 
keeping their sequence. 

Now as to making this war literature 
available, I have made four divisions, post- 



392 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



ers, circulars and leaflets, pamphlets, and 
books. We adhere strictly to books which 
deal with America's participation in the 
war and consider every title desirable, but 
at present choose only the works of au- 
thors with actual war service, personal 
narratives, and administration of affairs. 
In determining a practical classification 
and available arrangement, I have consid- 
ered only the matter of how this material 
is likely to be called for by the student 
and author. It is probable that a few 
may attempt a general history of the war, 
but the majority of authors will write up 
certain phases such as Submarine warfare, 
The cause of the war, German atrocities, 
aviation, the different battles, liberty 
loans, war work service, prisoners of war, 
censorship, economics, the parts played by 
the different nations engaged, the peace 
and League of Nations. It seems to me 
therefore, that under these headings the 
pamphlets might be expeaitiously ar- 
ranged and temporarily at least placed in 
pamphlet boxes and marked in group head- 
ings. 

The posters must be mounted if they 
are to be of use and their classification, 
as far as American posters are concerned, 
suggests their own sequence: Recruiting, 
liberty loans, war drives, war reliefs. 

The circulars and leaflets I have placed 
in large manila envelopes and follow the 
same classification with these as with 
posters, adding perhaps a few group head- 
ings such as educational war activities, 
books and lectures, commercial interests, 
war gardens, and food conservation. 

As to other war collections, I consider 
some of the smaller objects, such as the 
sleeve band with the letters "N. A." (Na- 
tional Army) worn by the men going to 
camp as interesting mementoes, as well as 
the sleeve bands of the liberty loan work- 
ers. Items such as these often escape at- 
tention and are lost to posterity, numer- 
ous as they were. 

Considering other small objects brings 
in the matter of buttons. Well, the New 
York Historical Sdfciety has some buttons 
and we are collecting more. That is, the 
military buttons of the present war worn 
by the different war organizations, both of- 
ficers and enlisted men, as well as those 
of the war workers, Y. M. C. A., K. C., 
American Red Cross, Salvation Army, etc. 
This subject may upon first thought seem 
a rather trivial matter, but upon reflection 
we find that it holds considerable signifi- 
cance, especially when contrasted to the 
military buttons of the revolutionary war. 
We have at the New York Historical So- 
ciety a small group of men two of whom 



in particular have devoted thirty-five years 
of their life in spare time to excavating 
historical camp sites of the revolutionary 
war and war of 1812. A little metallic 
disk which claims no better name or re- 
spect than that of a button, is the last 
tangible reminder of the armies of men 
who fought for freedom and changed the 
destiny of nations. And if the military 
buttons of the revolution hold a charm on 
account of their associations with the 
lives of men who did great "things, surely 
those of the Army of to-day will hold a 
place in our museums for the part played 
by the men who changed the destiny of 
the world. 

Closely associated with the buttons are 
the metal insignia worn on the collars of 
the uniforms, the various hat cords and 
campaign ribbons. The New York His- 
torical Society is interested in making a 
collection of these items in order to pre- 
serve the smaller details of the uniforms of 
the Army and Navy. It is a strange but 
true fact that the various uniforms worn 
in the revolution by the American, Brit- 
ish, French and Hessian have not been 
correctly depicted by the artists of the 
past. Each state raised regiments which 
were equipped with uniforms entirely dis- 
tinct from the other and they were 
changed to meet conditions they encoun- 
tered. These facts have come to light only 
after years of patient research and infi- 
nite detail study upon the examination of 
the records not only in this country but 
in England, France, and Germany as well, 
and I know of only one man, Mr. Charles 
M. Lefferts of New York, who can cor- 
rectly paint the revolutionary soldiers in 
every detail. I have recently arranged to 
have Mr. Lefferts make a series of these 
pictures for the New York Historical So- 
ciety as far as his researches have taken 
him. This also affects the statuary erect- 
ed everywhere representing revolutionary 
events. The sculptor was unable to model 
in all its details the dress of the men of 
the revolutionary war, unless he had made 
the study I have just mentioned. 

You may see therefore why the interest 
in collecting these smaller objects has ap- 
pealed to me so mucl\ in the present war. 

The speakers were followed by several 
who discussed the question from the floor, 
especially Dr. Andrews, of the John Crerar 
Library, Mr. Bishop of the University of 
Michigan, and Mr. Van Hoesen, of Prince- 
ton University. 

In the matter of preservation of war 
material, Mr. T. F. Currier, of Harvard 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



393 



College Library, presented the following 
statement of information assembled as the 
result of a questionnaire sent out by a 
committee of the American Library In- 
stitute: 

To a poster questionnaire of February 
14, 1919, the A. L. I. Committee received 
approximately sixty-five responses. Eleven 
reported collections of from 1,000 to 3,500 
posters, sixteen reported from 500 to 1,000, 
and seventeen from 250 to 500. 

Because of the great expense of mount- 
ing and storing it does not seem wise for 
libraries to plunge rashly into attempts 
to make complete collections. At the At- 
lantic City meeting of the Institute it was 
suggested that from two to four complete 
collections would be sufficient for this 
country. Certainly in the interest of econ- 
omy neighboring libraries should not rival 
each other in this undertaking. There is 
however considerable interest in a mod- 
erate sized^ and carefully selected collec- 
tion, first because of its historic value and 
second because of the artistic importance 
of the war poster. 

A highly valuable and interesting con- 
tribution to the study and technical treat- 
ment of the poster has been made through 
the energy of Dr. .Richardson of Princeton 
University. He has produced a series of 
photostatic reproductions (black and 
white) of the Princeton collection. They 
have been made in two sizes, the first re- 
duced to about l^xl^ inches- and issued 
on 11^x15 sheets, each sheet containing 
thirty-two reproductions. These sheets 
can be folded once and bound into a con- 
venient volume. The volume and a first 
supplement, containing some 2,300 repro- 
ductions, with cumulated printed index, 
may be purchased bound, though I under- 
stand the number is limited. The second 
size of photostatic reproduction offered 
by Princeton is that of the standard cat- 
alog card. It should be made clear that 
Princeton is not undertaking this service 
as a commercial proposition but it is in- 
tended for libraries who are in the habit 
of cooperating in cataloging matters and 
as a matter of cooperative cataloging serv- 
ice. Select reproductions are also fur- 
nished in sets of eight at a slight advance 
of price. 

A carefully worked out classification 
scheme for posters has been made by Dr. 
Wilson of Clark University, and I under- 
stand that arrangements are under way to 
add the Wilson number to the Princeton 
photostatic reproductions. This should be 
immensely helpful in handling such of the 



large collections as have not yet been 
classified. 

There is a general unanimity in advising 
immediate mounting if the collection is to 
be considered permanent. The costs re- 
ported run from fifty cents to one dollar 
a sheet. Folding and dissecting should 
be resorted to only as extreme measures. 
If collections must be stored previous to 
mounting, they should be laid out flat. 

Manila folders form the most usual 
method of storing, and these in turn are 
frequently kept in portfolios, shallow 
drawers, or cabinets with sliding shelves. 
Dr. Wilson has used inexpensive shallow 
boxes. They are made of a combination 
of pasteboard and wood and are very dur- 
able. One correspondent has tabulated 
the useful sizes as 15x20; 22x32; 31x43; 
42x62 with an extra size 32x48 for certain 
French posters. 

Much data was gathered as to the ex- 
istence of duplicate collections and 
sources of supply. The author of the 
present report will be glad to correspond 
with those desiring this information unless 
indeed the College and Reference Section 
desires to include it in the printed pro- 
ceedings. 

Mr. Meyer in his talk aroused much in- 
terest by the following remarks regarding 
a universal catalog: 

The idea of a universal catalog a cat- 
alog which shall record all books and 
pamphlets ever printed has appeared, 
like an ignis fatuus, to the minds of li- 
brarians and bibliographers of imagina- 
tion, ever since the invention of printing. 
At first a possibility, each year has added 
its output to the mass of material to be 
handled, until now its bulk is so great, 
as to stagger the minds of the directors of 
any institution, even though endowed with 
wealth "beyond the dreams of avarice." 
Merely to suggest such an undertaking is 
to invite an inquiry concerning the sanity 
of the proposer. And yet perhaps, an in- 
quiry may be permitted to determine 
whether the universal catalog does not, 
like other creations of mankind, possess 
features, which are unessential as well as 
essential, useless as well as useful, and to 
what extent the unessential and useless 
can be eliminated, and still preserve the 
essential and useful. 

But, it will be said, as soon as you begin 
to eliminate you destroy the universality 
of the catalog, and your proposition comes 
to nothing. True, in a way, but the In- 
sistence upon this feature of universality 
is a kind of bugbear which at the outset 
stands in the way of the whole undertak- 



394 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



iiig. The greater part of a universal cat- 
alog would be a record of material unes- 
sential, useless, and not worth recording. 
The practical man of affairs, who in the 
ultimate analysis would have to foot the 
bill for any undertaking of this kind, as 
soon as he discovered the worthless char- 
acter of the greater part of the material 
being recorded, would take steps to stop it, 
and properly so. 

If, on the other hand, the record was 
confined to the essential and important 
publications, it would immediately attain 
the maximum of usefulness possible to its 
extent, and each addition to the record or 
catalog would increase that usefulness. 
But what constitutes an important publi- 
cation, who is to decide? The question 
admits of a very simple answer: a book or 
pamphlet is important as soon as it is 
asked for or inquired about. University 
and large public libraries constantly, and 
other libraries on occasion, are making 
inquiries concerning the whereabouts of 
publications needed by their readers and 
investigators. No one will question that 
these have attained importance. Much 
correspondence is indulged in, and much 
information secured, which is used for the 
immediate occasion, and then lost sight of. 
If this information could be accumulated 
at some central point, like the Library of 
Congress, it would soon constitute a rec- 
ord such as is referred to above, with the 
additional most valuable feature of being 
a union catalog as well. 

If we had at the present moment a cat- 
alog of all the important books in the 
United States, showing what libraries pos- 
sessed copies, it would be of incalculable 
value to American scholars, at a time 
when they are being called upon as never 
before to carry on the world's investiga- 
tions. 

Such a catalog at present is only a tan- 
talizing dream, but perhaps it need not 
remain so. We have the nucleus of such a 
catalog in the Library of Congress in the 
"Union catalog" located in the corridor ad- 
joining the division of bibliography. It 
consists of cards sent to us by the New 
York Public Library, John Crerar, Har- 
vard University, Boston Public Library 
and a few others, arranged in an author al- 
phabet. Much familiarity with its con- 
tents leads to the conclusion that the 
selection of cards has been somewhat hap- 
hazard. Also that it records such facts 
as, that all these great libraries possess 
copies of McMaster's History of the people 
of the United States, a matter of such com- 
mon knowledge that it needs no recording. 
Again there are frequently five or six 



cards for the same book, each represent- 
ing a copy in a distinct library. By elim- 
inating all but one card for each book, and 
indicating on that card the names of li- 
braries which possess copies, and by 
throwing out all unnecessary cards, room 
can be made for cards representing im- 
portant books in other libraries. 

To a limited extent the Library of Con- 
gress can already answer the question, 
"Where can a certain book be found," and 
it can do so without the necessity for a 
voluminous and intricate correspondence. 
The response to an inquiry concerning the 
whereabouts of a certain book would be 
the return to the inquirer of a copy of the 
card in the "universal catalog." This 
would show him what libraries possessed 
copies and it would rest with him to nego- 
tiate with the library nearest to him for 
the use of the book. 

If the method outlined above for making 
additions to the "universal catalog" were 
systematically pursued and the catalog 
were thus thrown open to the*cards of all 
libraries, it would not be long before it 
would become in fact, as well as in name, 
a universal catalog. The success of such 
an undertaking is largely dependent upon 
the extent to which other libraries are 
willing to cooperate in sending their cards 
to the Library of Congress. To a certain 
extent this cooperation is insured by the 
use which other libraries would make of 
the universal catalog. 

This brings us naturally to the question: 
What will happen if the book in question 
is not in the Library of Congress catalog 
or in the universal catalog? Is the inquiry 
to end, so far as the Library of Congress 
is concerned, with the statement that it 
does not know where a copy is to be. 
found? It is not impossible that the Li- 
brary of Congress attempt to pursue the 
inquiry beyond this point, and undertake 
to locate a copy. This could probably be 
done if such inquiries were limited to the 
actual needs of scholars, and trifling in- 
quiries of liitle significance to anyone 
were excluded. 

We have already accumulated at the 
Library of Congress a considerable store 
of information concerning the special col- 
lections to be found in American libra- 
ries, and perhaps there is no point from 
which an inquiry of this kind could be 
sent out with so little waste of effort and 
loss of time. Further, this part of the in- 
quiry could also be pursued without a 
voluminous and intricate correspondence. 
Author, title and imprint of the work in 
question could be placed upon a card bear- 
ing the printed request: "If you know 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SECTION 



395 



where a copy of the above is to be found, 
please write the name of the library on 
this card and return it to the division of 
bibliography, Library of Congress, Wash- 
ington, D. C." 

This, if sent to the most likely libraries, 
would secure the information in imme- 
diately usable form, and result in furnish- 
ing to the inquirer a card bearing the 
names of libraries having copies. 

The advantage of centering these in- 
quiries in one place is obvious. The in- 
formation gained is not for a single 
inquirer, to be used once, and then lost 
sight of, 'as has been the case heretofore. 
It becomes part of a general reservoir of 
such knowledge, to be drawn upon by all 
scholars who may be interested. 

We know from actual experience the 
value of the results to be obtained from 
such inquiry systematically carried out. 
As an instance, we were asked by the Car- 
negie Peace Foundation for information 
concerning certain rare editions of Grotius 
not in their collection, and not in the Li- 
brary of Congress.By pursuing a method 
of procedure pracWally like that outlined 
above, we secured complete bibliographi- 
cal descriptions of these editions, and lo- 
cated copies in a number of American li- 
braries. 

The plan here outlined for securing in- 
formation to be added to the common 
store of the universal catalog, and of dissem- 



inating this information, is so simple that 
it will at once become part of the common 
knowledge of all working libraries, and 
will be pursued by them as a matter of 
pure routine, with the feeling that one of 
their burdens has been materially light- 
ened, and a service commensurate with 
the needs of American scholarship is 
being rendered. 

Dr. M. L. Raney, librarian of the Johns 
Hopkins University, as chairman of the 
Committee on Importations, closed the 
evening's session with an account of his 
negotiations and the results up to date 
of his trip to Europe to interview book 
agents. The audience had been in ex- 
pectation of this report of the Committee 
on Importations (see p. 330) and were not 
disappointed either in results or in Dr. 
Raney's descriptions. 

The section voted its appreciation of the 
work of the Committee on Importations in 
general and of the zealous interest and 
public service of Dr. Raney in furthering 
the interest of American libraries. 

Mr. Charles J. Barr of Yale was elected 
to serve with Mr. G. P. Winship and Dr. 
A. H. Shearer as a committee for the sec- 
tion for next year. 



PROFESSIONAL TRAINING SECTION 



The tenth annual meeting of the Pro- 
fessional Training Section met on Wednes- 
day afternoon, with Mrs. Harriet P. Saw- 
yer presiding, the theme of the meeting 
being library training along new lines and 
specialized library training. 

Mr. Andrew Keogh, librarian of Yale 
University, opened the meeting with .a 
paper on 

ADVANCED LIBRARY TRAINING FOR RESEARCH 
WORKERS 

(See p. 165) 

Mr. Keogh's paper was discussed by Mr. 
Walter, Mr. Reece, Dr. Johnston, Mr. 
George and Miss Donnelly. Mr. Walter 
thought that the university was better 
able to give the advanced work and biblio- 
graphic instruction than the library 
schools. Mr. Reece said that the "open 
courses" offered in New York did not cover 



this need but were designed to permit 
those engaged in library work to refresh 
themselves with further instruction. Some 
of the conclusions based on a question- 
naire sent to college libraries to find out 
how much demand there would be for this 
advanced training were given by Miss 
Donnelly, who said that these conclusions 
vould be published in full in the near fu- 
ture. 

Miss Julia A. Hopkins, principal of the 
training class, Brooklyn Public Library, 
described a plan for training assistants as 
worked out in that library, the title of 
Miss Hopkins' paper being 

A NEW PLAN FOR TRAINING LIBRARY 

ASSISTANTS 

(See p. 167) 

Miss Morgan outlined the methods of 
training that had been adopted to meet 



396 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



war time conditions in the Detroit Public 
Library and stated that their beginning 
salary upon appointment v-as $990. 

Miss Sarah C. N. Bogle, principal of the 
Carnegie Library School, Pittsburgh, Penn- 
sylvania, presented a paper entitled 

TRAINING FOB HIGH SCHOOL LIBRARIANSHIP 

(See p. 277) 

Miss Horton stated that the require- 
ments for high school librarianehip in 
California are college education, a year at 
a library school, and a year in library 
work or teaching. In the course offered 
at Los Angeles the students' initiative in 
adapting the library to the need of differ- 
ent types of high school work is carefully 
developed. 

TRAINING FOR THE LIBRARIAN OF A BUSINESS 
LIBRARY OR A BUSINESS BRANCH 

(See p. 273) 

was the subject of a paper by Mr. Frank 
K. Walter, vice-director, New York State 
Library School, Albany, New York. 

In the discussion which followed, Miss 
Krause spoke briefly as follows: 

Training for business library work 
should be considered an integral part of 
library training in general, because mod- 
ern library service includes service to 
business men on business problems quite 
as much as it includes service to educa- 
tional institutions. The modern library 
school program therefore should include 
all the forms of service which the public 
library is called upon to give. The library 
school student, no matter into what kind 
of a library he goes, will meet subjects 
dealing with current business problems 
and the work of modern industries. 

Subjects taught in the library school 
should include the application of those 
subjects to the business library as well as 
to any other type of library. For exam- 
ple, in the study of classification, atten- 
tion should be given particularly to mate- 
rial classified under the D. C. 300's and 
600's. In cataloging, instruction in sub- 
ject headings covering business material 
should be given. In the study of govern- 
ment documents, special emphasis should 
be placed on groups of documents which 
are of special interest to business organ- 
izations and practical business questions 
should be given to the students to answer 
from governmental material. 



It is not advisable to eliminate much, if 
anything, in present library school courses 
in order to give training for business li- 
brary positions, for the business librarian 
must have just as much breadth in library 
technique as any other type of librarian. 

Miss Krause then suggested two defi- 
nite courses of instruction as aids in prep- 
aration for business library work, to be 
given in the senior year of library schools: 

1. A course in business reference work 
which should include a study of business 
reference books by groups or industries, 
including a study of the trade periodicals 
of each group, and the information issued 
by the national associations of various 
industries. Digesting and report making 
should also be included in this course, and 
instruction in the method of making a sur- 
vey of the source material of any indus- 
try. Training in the use of a good daily 
newspaper, how to analyze its contents 
and how to relate it to the everyday in- 
terests of business men. 

2. A course in busiores library admin- 
istration covering organization and serv- 
ice; survey of the individual house, the 
relation of the library to the departments 
to be served within the house, library ex- 
tension and publicity within the business 
organization, the psychology of the busi- 
ness man and the business man's point of 
view. Also the emphasis of necessary per- 
sonal qualifications to be successful in a 
business library position. 

In order to make a success of this sec- 
ond course it should be given by trained 
librarians filling business library posi- 
tions, who know the subject from the in- 
side and who can give the business libra- 
ry atmosphere and vitalize the whole sub- 
ject. The course on business reference 
should cover at least twenty class periods 
and that on business library administra- 
tion should cover at least ten class pe- 
riods. 

Miss Reese thought it desirable that 
there should be a clearing-house for the 
subject headings for business literature, 
and it was suggested that the matter 
should be referred to Dr. Bostwick or to 
Mr. Wyer. 

In the absence of Miss Bertha R. Bar- 
den, supervisor of the apprentice class, 
Cleveland Public Library, Miss Bessie Sar- 
geant Smith read Miss Barden's paper on 

A CLERICAL COURSE FOR LIBRARY ASSISTANTS 

(See p. 171) 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES SECTION 



397 



Prof. Root queried whether it were 
worth while even in the present emergency 
to bring into the library service persons 
not qualified to advance or, if qualified, 
who will shortly leave the library. Miss 
Eastman said that the plan had been an 
emergency one, but had enabled the Cleve- 
land Library "to carry on" and that it, in 
many cases, served as a stepping stone to 
further training. 

The final paper was by Miss Mary E. 
Robbins, of the Rhode Island Normal 
School, on 



TRAINING TEACHEE-LIBBABIANS IN NORMAL 
SCHOOLS 

(See p. 279) 

The length of the meeting prevented 
discussion of Miss Robbins' paper. 

The nominating committee, consisting of 
Miss Turvill, Miss Morgan and Miss Bar- 
ker reported the following officers, who 
were duly elected: Chairman, Miss Fran- 
ces Simpson, of the Illinois Library 
School; vice-chairman, Miss June R. Don- 
nelly, of the Simmons Library School; 
secretary, Miss Rena Reese, of the Denver 
Public Library. 

CLARA W. HERBERT, 
Secretary. 



SCHOOL LIBRARIES SECTION 



The School Libraries Section held its 
regular session on the afternoon of June 
24 and a round table of high school libra- 
rians was held on Thursday afternoon. 
Miss Helen S. Babcock, the chairman, pre- 
sided at both sessions. 

At the regular section meeting the gen- 
eral topic was "The high school library 
and tomorrow's needs: Book selection." 
Mr. Earl R. Glenn, teacher of chemistry 
and general science at the Lincoln School 
of Teachers College, spoke on "The 
standardization of book selection in high 
school libraries." Mis^s Edith Erskine, li- 
brarian of the Carter Harrison High 
School Branch, Chicago Public Library, 
spoke of the cooperation between the li- 
brary and the science departments in the 
Carter Harrison High School. Miss Edith 
Cook, librarian of the East Technical High 
School Branch, Cleveland Public Library, 
spoke of "Books useful in industrial arts 
classes and methods of cooperation with 
teachers." Miss Evelyn Steel, of the Tech- 
nical High School Library, Oakland, Cal- 
ifornia, spoke of various forms of coopera- 
tion between the other departments and 
the library. 

An abstract of Mr. Glenn's paper fol- 
lows: 

These remarks on the "Standardization 
of book selection in the high school li- 
brary" briefly review the work that has 
been done to provide adequate library fa- 



cilities for the secondary school. 

The results of this labor, which has been 
in progress for several years, are em- 
bodied in a report 1 , which has been issued 
recently by the Committee on Library Or- 
ganization and Equipment. This report of 
thirty pages, which is signed by more than 
a score of educationl leaders, should be 
studied carefully by teachers and execu- 
tives. There is some question whether 
the report is receiving the attention that 
it deserves. 

One brief quotation from the report just 
referred to is studied in detail by graphi- 
cal methods in this article. The statistics 
from approximately 1,000 high schools are 
exhibited in order to determine what might 
be considered a well-balanced library with 
ample references in all subjects for 
schools of different sizes. Eighteen charts 
have been prepared to illustrate the facts. 

Among other points discussed the fol- 
lowing may be mentioned: 

(a) A school wishing to build up a first 
class collection of books of a greater num- 
ber (about 2,500 to 3,000) than that sug- 
gested in the standard high school library 
book lists has no guide to assist teachers 
and librarian. 

(b) The aggressive interest of some de- 
partments and the indifference of others 
results in an unbalanced collection of ref- 
erences. 

(c) The reports from approximately 
1,000 high schools in fifteen north central 
states in 1913-1914 show that the great 
majority (over seventy per cent in the 

1 Certain, C. C. Standard library organiza- 
tion and equipment for secondary schools of 
different sizes. N. E. A. Report, 1918. [Also 
reprinted by American Library Association.] 



398 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



medium library) of references in the li- 
brary are listed under English and history. 

(d) Neither the size of the school, the 
community, the type of school, the num- 
ber of units of work offered, nor any other 
important factor seems to have influenced 
the distribution of references by subjects 
in any of the fifteen states. 

(e) Unless some comprehensive plan of 
book selection for all subjects can be put 
into operation the five-year plan proposed 
by the Library Committee in the report 
mentioned above will not greatly benefit 
the subjects most in need of reference ma- 
terial. 

(f) The actual number of science refer- 
ences for the 1,000 different schools may 
be listed as follows: 



w 

1-100 
201-300 
501-1,000 
101-200 
301-500 
1,000 and above 



52 
71 

128 
68 
82 

219 



100 
300 
600 
200 
400 
1,000 



(g) These facts and others suggest the 
great need for a very careful survey of 
four or five hundred school libraries which 
are supervised by trained librarians first, 
in order to disclose the actual practice in 
book selections; and second, to determine 
what constitutes a well-balanced modern 
library that will represent adequately all 
branches of knowledge. 

This investigation is still in progress. 
At a later date all of the information ob- 
tained will be put into permanent form for 
the use of any who may be interested. 

Miss Erskine said in part: 

In order to cooperate with the science 
teachers the librarian should not only pro- 
vide books in the library but should read 
the periodicals which the teachers read 
and for which they write. 

As an adequate course in general 
science has not yet been worked out the 
library can be of especial help by coop- 
erating with the general science teachers. 
At the Carter Harrison High School the 
following scheme was tried: A list of 
one hundred books selected by one of the 
general science teachers was posted and 
the books placed on special shelves for a 
week, during which time each pupil .was 
supposed to look over several of them' and 
decide on one to read. These books were 
by no means strictly scientific books but 



any interesting non-fiction which adapted 
itself to the work as, lives of Edison and 
other famous inventors, books about the 
movies, aviation, etc. 

Books which might at first thought seem 
too advanced are valuable because they 
familiarize the pipil with the real litera- 
ture of the subject and he returns to these 
books afterward when he is doing ad- 
vanced reference work. They should be 
supplemented by plenty of popular books, 
such as Martin's "Triumphs and wonders 
of modern chemistry"; Sadtler's "Chem- 
istry of familiar things," etc. At the same 
time care should be taken to avoid the 
juvenile. 

In addition to using books the pupils 
should become acquainted with scientific 
magazines and should know that other 
magazines have good scientific articles. In 
agriculture much use can be made of 
pamphlets, if properly arranged and classi- 
fied. 

Miss Cook told of some of the books 
which have been used extensively at the 
East Technical High School in Cleveland 
for the metal trades, woodworking, do- 
mestic science, and arts and crafts. She 
told of an interesting school exhibit re- 
cently held and explained some of the 
methods used to cooperate with the teach- 
ers in the selection and ordering of books 
and in reserving material for classes. 

The High School Librarians Round 
Table was attended by nearly a hundred 
people. Instruction of High School stu- 
dents in the use of tiooks and the library 
was discussed by Miss Hardy, Miss Day- 
ton, Miss Steel, Miss Cook, Miss Horton, 
Miss Greene and others. Miss Williams, 
in charge of work with schools, New York 
Public Library, urged the importance of 
close cooperation between the public li- 
brary and the school library, and empha- 
sized the value to the students which 
comes from a knowledge of how to use the 
resources of the public library. 

Reading clubs for boys and girls con- 
ducted under the guidance of the library- 
were also discussed. 

Mr. George A. Deveneau, of the Federal 
Board for Vocational Education, spoke on 
literature of "vocational advisement," tell- 
ing of the vocational courses and the "Op- 
portunity monographs" published by the 
board. These, he said, would be sent to 



CAMP LIBRARIANS HOSPITAL LIBRARIANS 



399 



any school library ou request. Several of 
the librarians present spoke of the great 
use made of these pamphlets in their li- 
braries. 

Dr. Salenzko of Russia spoke of the 
need for a greater understanding between 
countries which would come through a 
v.'ider knowledge of the culture and litera- 
ture of other countries. He said that he 
hoped the librarians would help in bring- 
ing it about that American children, in- 
stead of thinking of Russia only as the 
home of violence and bolshevism, might 
come to know something of its civilization 
and constructive work. 

Miss Zachert proposed the following 



resolution, which was unanimously 
adopted: 

Resolved: That the high school libra- 
rians in conference assembled, recognizing 
the invaluable service which Miss Mary 
Hall of Brooklyn has so unselfishly given 
for several years past to the high schools 
of the country, do hereby extend to her 
our heartfelt thanks and appreciation. 

The following officers were elected for 
the coming year: 

Chairman: Martha C. Pritchard, librarian 
State Normal School, Bridgewater, Massa- 
chusetts; vice-chairman: Evelyn A. Steel, 
librarian Oakland Technical High School, 
Oakland, California; secretary: Mary H. 
Pooley, librarian Hughes High School, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. 



CAMP LIBRARIANS ROUND TABLE 



Three sessions were held of the Camp 
Librarians Round Table. At the first ses- 
sion Mr. Henry 0. Severance presided, and 
those taking part in the discussions of 
camp library problems were Mr. Malcolm 
G. Wyer, Miss lone Armstrong, Mr. George 
B. Manhart, Miss Ellyn C. Broomell and 
Mr. Harold F. Brigham. 



At the second and third sessions, pre- 
sided over by Miss Theresa Hitchler, the fol- 
lowing persons discussed matters of inter- 
est to the camp library service: 

Mr. Carl H. Milam, Mr. Charles H. 
Brown, Mr. George T. Settle, Mr. Frederick 
Goodell, Miss Sarah B. Askew, Miss Julia 
C. Stockett, Mr. Edward H. Virgin, Mr. 
Edwin Wiley and Mr. Marcus Skarstedt. 



HOSPITAL LIBRARIANS ROUND TABLE 



Three sessions were held of the Hospital 
Librarians Round Table, the program in- 
cluding the following papers and ad- 
dresses: "In hospital with sailors and 
marines," by Miss E. Kathleen Jones, field 
representative, A. L. A. hospital service; 
"Changing demands of a hospital library," 
by Miss Harriet E. Leitch, librarian U. S. 
General Hospital No. 43, Hampton, Vir- 
ginia; "Community interests in hospital 
library work," by Miss Florence King, li- 
brarian Greenhut Hospital, New York 
City; "Certain aspects of field work," by 



Miss Ola M. Wyeth, field representative, 
A. L. A. hospital service; "Cooperation 
with the public health service," by Miss 
Miriam E. Carey, field representative, 
A. L. A. hospital service; and "Public 
health service hospitals," by Dr. George B. 
Young, medical officer in charge of U. S. 
Marine Hospital, Stapleton, Long Island, 
New York. 

The absence of Miss Mary Frances Isom 
left the overseas work unrepresented, but 
an interesting letter was read from Miss 
Anne M. Mulheron. 



400 



LENDING DEPARTMENT ROUND TABLE 



A petition for the formation of a sec- 
tion on lending work, signed by repre- 
sentatives of twenty-four libraries, has 
been presented to the Council of the 
A. L. A., who have referred it to a special 
committee for investigation and report as 
to its desirability. 

Upon motion it was decided that the 
section should be called the Lending De- 
partment Section. 

The first paper on the program was that 
of Miss Josephine A. Rathbone, vice-direc- 
tor of the School of Library Science, Pratt 
Institute, the subject being 

THE TRAINING OF ASSISTANTS FOB LENDING 
DEPARTMENT WORK 

(See p. 173) 

In discussing Miss Rathbone's paper, 
Miss Bessie Sargeant Smith urged the need 
of preparatory practice work before enter- 
ing a library school, in addition to that re- 
quired while studying, as bringing about 
an esprit de corps and developing the li- 
brary sense of life through a better under- 
standing of library work. Miss Rathbone 
stated that the Pratt school does not re- 
quire previous library experience because 
nine-tenths of the students do come from 
libraries and because the school can not 
require this preparation from other li- 
braries. Mr. Walter described the course 
at the New York State Library School, 
which consists of the usual theoretical 
work, some fifty hours of practice work 
each year in the various departments of 
the state and other local libraries, and 150 
hours each March in some assigned li- 
brary. Previous library work is urged but 
not required, for the same reasons as those 
stated by Miss Rathbone. The New York 
State Library School hopes to make ar- 
rangements with the local libraries for 
more practice work and may make actual 



library work between the junior and 
senior years obligatory for students who 
have not had library experience. 

In the absence of Mrs. Jessie S. Mc- 
Niece, of the St. Louis Public Library, Dr. 
Bostwick read her paper on 

LABOR SAVING IN THE LENDING DEPARTMENT 

(See p. 175) 

Miss Marion M. Root, of the New York 
Public Library, mentioned the arrange- 
ment of their circulation in one alphabet 
as a great labor saver in slipping. The 
book slips are arranged by classes and 
counted, then rearranged alphabetically 
by author and title, irrespective of whether 
fiction or non-fiction. 

Miss Ada J. McCarthy, of the Democrat 
Printing Company, being in a position 
where various samples of forms meet her 
eye daily, spoke practically on "Forms for 
the small library," laying particular em- 
phasis on uniformity, simplicity and com- 
mon sense in the use of terms "free," 
"public" and "free, public," the form and 
printing of the application blank, the state- 
ment of rules, etc., on the book pocket and 
borrower's cards, the abolition of the 
borrower's card in small libraries, etc. She 
concluded with a definite plea to library 
schools and commissions to attempt to 
standardize all forms, adjusting them to 
the needs of various types of libraries, 
and making more efficient the loan system 
by saving the time and energy of the staff 
and public. 

Miss Florence Overton, of the New York 
Public Library, was chosen chairman for 
the next meeting and Miss Cora Hendee. 
of the Council Bluffs Public Library, sec- 
retary. If the petition for the formation 
of a section should be granted, these of- 
ficers will become the officers of the sec- 
tion for the year 1920. 



NORMAL SCHOOL LIBRARIANS PUBLIC DOCUMENTS 



401 



NORMAL SCHOOL LIBRARIANS ROUND TABLE 



The Normal School Librarians Round 
Table was held on Wednesday afternoon, 
June 25, Miss Mary C. Richardson, libra- 
rian of the Normal School Library, Gen- 
eseo, New York, presiding. 

A very full program left no time for 
discussion of the papers read, which were 
as follows: "Teaching the use of the li- 
brary in the grades," by Mrs. Elizabeth 
Hardman Furst, school librarian, North 
Adams, Massachusetts; "Teaching normal 
school students children's literature," by 



Miss Adeline B. Zachert, supervisor of ex- 
tension work, Public Library, Rochester, 
New York; "A course in library tech- 
nique for all; what we have been doing 
what we would like to do," by Miss Mil- 
dred R. Forward, librarian City Normal 
School, Rochester, New York; "The li- 
brary hour," by Bessie L. Eldridge, assist- 
ant librarian, State Normal School, Gen- 
eseo, New York; "The vision of Anton, the 
librarian," by Miss Harriet King Avery, 
Keystone State Normal School, Kutztown, 
Pennsylvania. 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS ROUND TABLE 



The Public Documents Round Table was 
held on Friday afternoon, June 27, the 
chairman, Mr. George S. Godard, state 
librarian of Connecticut, presiding. 

Mr. H. H. B. Meyer, chief bibliographer 
of the Library of Congress, was introduced 
as the first speaker, and made a brief and 
informal statement regarding tentative 
plans now under consideration by the 
Joint Committee on Printing, of Congress, 
looking toward a reduction of the number 
of Government publications by the elimi- 
nation of any found to be unnecessary. - 

Mr. Meyer further explained that in the 
case of publications of which both Con- 
gressional and Departmental issues have 
been published in the past, the duplication 
would probably be discontinued; that 
some plan would be adopted whereby 
selective distribution would be better se- 
cured, libraries thus to receive only the 
publications they especially require; and 
that in these efforts toward economy it is 
the wish of the Joint Committee on Print- 
ing to meet the desires of the librarians 
of the country as far as practicable, and 
to invite expression of opinion from libra- 
rians, through a committee representing 
them. 



Chairman Godard next called upon Miss 
Edith Guerrier, who addressed the as- 
sembly upon the work of the National Li- 
brary Service, using as illustration of her 
remarks a large collection of exhibits. 

Having stated that in demonstrating the 
value of public documents many charts 
are obtainable showing the organization of 
the Government, Miss Guerrier indicated 
a desirable arrangement of material, gen- 
eral departmental reports, general histor- 
ical data and lists of departmental publi- 
cations to be followed by bureaus, alpha- 
betically arranged; and the speaker con- 
tinued by explaining some of the meth- 
ods of the National Library Service as 
follows: 

The Superintendent of Documents and 
the people in his office have cooperated 
well with us. They telephone me every 
month when their list is ready to send 
over to the Library of Congress, and I go 
down and select the publications of gen- 
eral interest under the different depart- 
ments, beginning with the Department of 
Agriculture and going down the alphabet. 
Thus I get a list of the publications 
which librarians ought to know about and 
obtain before Congressmen have dis- 
tributed them all. This is a short list, and 
I have been arranging so that the libra- 
rians could write to the National Library 



402 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Service for the publications they want. 
This is not a plan to take away business 
from the departments, but a reciprocal 
arrangement; it will help them sell their 
goods to those who want them. Under 
this plan, librarians will write to us and 
send a lisj, of what they want, and once a 
week we will sort out the things belong- 
ing to the Department of Commerce, the 
Department of Agriculture, etc., and ask 
those departments to send you those 
things. They are much more apt to do it 
when they get a request in that form, and 
they are cooperating with us. If the li- 
brarians don't get what they want, they 
can write to me, and I will call the de- 
partment on the telephone to expedite the 
mailing of the publications. 

This is the best centralized distribution 
we can get under existing circumstances, 
and the thing is, not to .wait until Congress 
in its wisdom has seen fit to devise some 
method for us, but to get the things to 
the librarians when you need them. I 
don't say it is the best system, but is the 
best I have been able to devise. 

The idea later on will be for the libra- 
rians if this thing works to write their 
requests on cards, in duplicate, so that 
the National Library Service will keep 
one card and send the other on. If we 
hear from a librarian who has not re- 
ceived the material asked for, we just call 
up the department and request them to 
look out for it. 

I will call your attention to one other 
class of material from the Government 
which I think is not used as much as it 
might be periodical publications, known 
as house organs. The Alaska Railroad Rec- 
ord, the Reclamation Record, School Life, 
the Journal of the Patent Office, and the 
Monthly Record of Publications, are all in- 
teresting, and none of them costs over fifty 
cents a year. School Life, which every li- 
brary can have, is free, and is an impor- 
tant and interesting publication. The pe- 
riodical publications are sometimes over- 
looked. 

The pictures the photographs which are 
put out by the various bureaus I find 
have not been brought to the attention of 
librarians as much as they should have 
been. I had a great deal of trouble in my 
little branch library in Boston, in getting 
pictures which illustrated mining. The 
Bureau of Mines has a wonderful collec- 
tion of pictures, and the librarian of that 
bureau, who is here, will be able to tell 
you a great deal more about it than I can. 
The pictures can be bought at cost, and 
most of the bureaus have lists of pictures 
which they put out. The Forestry Serv- 
ice, of the Department of Agriculture, has 



one of the finest collections in this coun- 
try, and in the National Library Service 
bulletin you will find the names of bureaus 
which will furnish flms or slides, to libra- 
ries which have stereopticons or moving 
picture machines. 

Another thing I want to call your atten- 
tion to is a new.s digest of releases, which 
I hope to issue. I have coming into the 
office releases perhaps 250 a week from 
the different bureaus of the Departments 
of Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, Interior, 
and War. I make a digest of the mate- 
rial, and get it into about half a page of 
typewriting, selecting what seems to be 
the most interesting. Large libraries 
could use this on their bulletin board, or 
in their monthly or quarterly bulletin on 
agriculture, commerce, labor, and so on. 
This digest of press releases could be sent 
to editors of library bulletins, or to any 
librarians who had special need for it. 
This would be a mimeographed affair. It 
seems to me every library in agricultural 
districts would be glad to know of a little 
play that the Farm Bureau has been giv- 
ing successfully, and librarians are look- 
ing for plays in the children's department. 

I make further use of these releases. I 
don't like to throw these printed docu- 
ments away, so after clipping what I want, 
I send them to another place. There are 
sixty sent out for bulletin board material 
to librarians I believe want them. 

It seems to me in this way we can get 
to the people throughout the country a 
personal message from the Government. 
Having been in Washington now for eight- 
een months, and having started on this 
business of helping to present my Govern- 
ment to the people, I am enthusiastic 
about my Government. 

Having gone through two or three hun- 
dred bureaus, and met the people who are 
doing the work, I wish our people through- 
out the United States could become aware 
of the real things that the Government is 
doing, and could do their little bit to help 
to make those real things still more real. 
The thing I would like to see our public 
libraries do is to take every opportunity 
of presenting our American Government, 
through the words of the people who are 
carrying on that Government, to the peo- 
ple who use our libraries, in order that all 
may know that ours is a Government of 
and ~by, as well as for the people. 

Mr. Bowker: I move that the Public 
Documents Round Table thoroughly ap- 
proves the work of the National Informa- 
tion Service and believes that it results 
both in a saving to the Government in pub- 



LIBRARIES OF RELIGION AND THEOLOGY 



403 



lication, and in a vast increase of the 
usefulness of Government publications 
through the libraries of the country. 

Carried unanimously. 

Miss Dena M. Kingsley, the next 
speaker on the program, presented a paper 
on 

KKCK.NT TKXDKXC1ES IX STATE PUBLICATIONS 

(See p. 294) 
Discussion followed, in which Mr. 



Bowker, Mr. Redstone, Mr. Brigham, and 
others took part. 

Miss Taylor having called attention to 
an index of labor literature contemplated 
by the Commissioner of Labor, it was 
voted that a committee of five, with Chair- 
man Godard as a member, be appointed to 
take up this matter as well as the plans 
of the Joint Committee on Printing, spoken 
of earlier in the meeting by Mr. Meyer. 

The meeting was then adjourned. 



ROUND TABLE OF THE LIBRARIES OF RELIGION 
AND THEOLOGY 



The fourth annual meeting of the Round 
Table of 'the Libraries of Religion and 
Theology was held on the afternoon of 
June 28, the chairman, Mr. Azariah S. 
Root, presiding. 

The first paper, by George D. Brown, of 
the General Theological Seminary of New 
York City, was bibliographical in nature: 
an 'annotated list of some important works 
relating to the Protestant Episcopal 
church in the United States. Each mem- 
ber of the Round Table had before him a 
mimeographed copy of Dr. Brown's list, 
and was thus able to follow closely the 
speaker's concise and pointed annotations. 
The list thus forms a valuable bibliography 
for anyone dealing with the Protestant 
Episcopal church. 

A special type of religious library was 
then presented by Miss Maud I. Stull, of 
the World Outlook, who read a paper on 
the library of a missionary periodical. She 
pictured the conditions obtaining in such 
a library, where every effort is bent on se- 
curing facts accurately and promptly, and 
where physical conditions, if nothing more, 
discourage browsing. Her paper was en- 
livened by examples of some of the im- 
possible questions asked, and she empha- 
sized the fact that the library must be 
kept right up to the minute. Most of the 
books of such a library are gifts in return 
for reviews or advertisements. 

A survey of the relative strength of mis- 
sionary collections in various institutions 
was given by Mr. Frank G. Lewis, Crozer 



Theological Seminary. He had compiled 
this survey as a result of a questionnaire 
sent to twenty-two libraries, seventeen of 
which answered. He found that with the 
exception of the Foreign Missions Library 
and the Missionary Research Library there 
are no important separate missionary col- 
lections (the Day Missions Library being 
really a part of the Yale libraries). Nev- 
ertheless, various of the theological and 
seminary libraries possess important mis- 
sionary material in limited fields. Thus 
the biggest collection of Baptist material 
is probably to be found at Chester. He 
spoke of the lack of a recognized standard 
for determining what constitutes a "mis- 
sionary" work, and noted the unexpectedly 
large amount of literature published in 
this field. As an illustration of this he 
quoted the report of one library as receiv- 
ing some 246 periodicals currently. Some 
discussion followed, in which Dr. Thayer, 
of Hartford, pointed out that while a ques- 
tionnaire is the only available means of 
surveying such a field, it is frequently im- 
possible to answer it fairly to the institu- 
tion concerned. There seemed to be a 
general feeling that for any future survey- 
there should be a more uniform basis of 
reporting, in accordance with generally ac- 
cepted definitions of terms. 

The last paper of the meeting was read 
by Mr. Glenn B. Ewell, of Rochester Theo- 
logical Seminary, and discussed some ad- 
ministrative problems incident to the han- 
dling of funds in a theological library. 



404 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



These were considered wholly in connec- 
tion with the purchase of books: (1) Vest- 
ing the final authority in the librarian, a 
committee, or the faculty; (2) depart- 
mental apportionment; (3) relative ad- 
vantages in ordering through local dealers, 
jobbers, or publishers. In regard to the 
last question, Mr. Ewell himself seemed 
inclined to use the local dealers, but lively 
discussion indicated that the feeling of the 



meeting favored buying through the job- 
bers. 

The chairman then presented to the 
meeting the nominations for officers for 
the next year: Chairman, C. S. Thayer, of 
Hartford Theological Seminary; secretary, 
Clara Clark, of Bible Teachers' Training 
School, New York. These officers being 
unanimously elected, the meeting was ad- 
journed. 



TRAINING CLASS TEACHERS' ROUND TABLE 



The Training Class Teachers Round 
Table met at 2:30 p.m., on Thursday, June 
26, Miss Lucy L. Morgan, chairman, pre- 
siding. 



The time was occupied with an informal 
exchange of ideas regarding matters of in- 
terest to those concerned in training class 
work. 



LEAGUE OF LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



FIRST SESSION 

. The League of Library Commissions 
was called to order at 2:30 p.m., June 25, 
by the president, Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool 
Earl, who presented briefly and clearly the 
place of the League and the state library 
commission in that library development 
throughout the country which is antici- 
pated by all. The president regretted the 
necessary omission of the midwinter meet- 
ings during her term of office, as well as 
the lack of development of any new plans 
of League work. This had been due to 
the extreme pressure under which all com- 
missions and commission workers had been 
laboring during the war period. Every- 
one was doing his utmost to meet the 
demands for service in the various cam- 
paigns. The" work involved in various 
drives of the library war service, iood 
conservation, liberty loans, and others had 
left no time for cogitation as to what else 
might be done. Regrets as to the past, 
however, were not so important as plans 
for the future. The theme of the first ses- 
sion was announced as "The relation of the 
commission to the individual library," and 
Mrs. Earl presented as the first speaker, 



Dr. C. C. Williamson, of the New York Li- 
brary, whose paper was entitled. 

A LOOK AHEAD FOK THE SMALL LIBBABY 

(See p. 141) 

Dr. Williamson's paper was followed by 
a warm discussion. Mr. Wellman, of 
Springfield, stated that while central ma- 
chinery is necessary if the small libraries 
of the state are to function well, the plan 
o? having district superintendence has not 
always worked satisfactorily in Massa- 
chusetts. He agreed with Mr. William- 
son's suggestion that an organized backing 
by influential men of the community, 
whether library trustees or not, was 
needed to make possible the right sort of 
legislation and administration. He felt 
that the big question in small towns was to 
get the communities to read good books, 
and questioned whether the approximate 
failure of the library movement there was 
not due to the tastes of the populace rather 
than to lack of the best machinery. 

Mr. Bliss, of Pennsylvania, stated that 
before he could endorse Dr. Williamson's 
conclusions a more definite description of 
what was meant by the small library was 
needed. He did not desire to get rid of 






LEAGUE OP LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



405 



the efficient small library. He did not be- 
lieve in any scheme of certification which 
had been proposed yet and thought tht 
library associations should look first at 
the efficiency of the service which a library 
was giving, not at its size. 

Miss Downey, of Utah, held that an 
undue contrast had been made between the 
relative efficiency of the small and large 
library. The rural circulation per capita 
is stronger in rural communities than in 
cities, and, in general, rural library work 
has kept up with city work. Her belief 
was that we need help and standardiza- 
tion from top to toe of the profession, in 
commissions and libraries of all sizes. 

Miss Tyler, of the Western Reserve Li- 
brary School, approved highly of Dr. Wil- 
liamson's paper, as she thought that the 
League and the commissions needed out- 
side viewpoints. She thought that stand- 
ardization of commissions was needed 
even before that of individual libraries, 
and she hoped that the A. L. A. Survey 
Committee would help here. She felt that 
a county unit was needed for efficiency of 
libraries in small communities; also that 
spreading the influence of the summer li- 
brary school was the best way of develop- 
ing the proper personnel. She did not feel 
that it would be possible to develop an or- 
ganization of laymen who were con- 
versant with library needs and conditions 
outside of the body of library trustees in 
any state. 

Miss Crumley, of Georgia, stated that 
Georgia has no paid commission workers 
and badly needs such for pushing library 
work throughout the state. 

Mr. Lowe, of Massachusetts, approved 
Mr. Williamson's proposal of a league of 
laymen to back library movements, and 
cited Mr. Vanderlip's splendid work in the 
library war service. He thought that com- 
missions needed a better knowledge of gen- 
eral rural conditions, such as the loss of 
the village young folk to the larger cities. 
He felt that a survey was needed imme- 
diately and that the A. L. A. committee 
would get better results from the smaller 
libraries by applying to the various com- 



missions and reaching the small libraries 
through these organizations. 

The secretary then read a paper written 
by Miss Margaret A. Wade, of the Indiana 
Commission, on 

HOW THE COMMISSION WOBKS WITH THE 
SMALL PUBLIC LIBRARY 

(See p. 146) 

The discussion to follow Miss Wade's pa- 
per was cut short by the lateness of the 
hour. Miss Price, of Illinois, stated that 
Illinois was urging the establishment of 
the small library on the largest area and 
income basis possible. She felt that the 
League in an effort to help the small li- 
brary would do well to publish a fine basic 
purchase list for the new library, one 
similar to the Wisconsin list. 

Mr. Ferguson, of California, thought the 
emphasis of small versus large library 
was unimportant, and agreed with Mr. 
Bliss that the real question should be 
strength of service. This would be gained 
if sufficient funds were available, therefore 
the area served by a library should he 
large enough to make possible adequate 
financial support. He felt that certifica- 
tion of librarians was necessary if the best 
personnel is to be obtained. On another 
point he emphasized the fact that a strong 
county library is necessary if all the resi- 
dents of a county are to be served. 

Miss Guerrier, of the National Library 
Service, was called on for an impromptu 
talk, and spoke briefly of the work of the 
service, which now has a good grip on the 
sources of information concerning all fed- 
eral government activities. Besides being 
available to answer any questions; they 
expect to continue the bulletin, and it was 
announced that a digest of press releases 
from all federal departments would be sent 
to any library on request. 

The paper of Miss Elizabeth B. Wales, 
of the Missouri Commission, was read by 
the secretary, the subject being 

LIBRARY COMMISSIONS AND THE HIGH SCHOOL 
OR RURAL SCHOOL LIBRARY 

(See p. 149) 
Miss Baldwin, of Minnesota, in discuss- 



406 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



ing Mies Wales' paper, said that there was 
a great ned of a standardization of school 
libraries, whether the work was conducted 
by the commission or the bureau of edu- 
cation. The former is usually without au- 
thority to enforce recommendations. The 
work of the Minnesota Commission in the 
school library field convinced the superin- 
tendent of education of the need of super- 
vision. He thereupon started a school li- 
brary department in his own office and 
annexed Miss Wilson from the commis- 
sion staff. The two departments cooperated 
cordially and often exchanged visits in dif- 
ferent communities. The whole Minnesota 
Commission by the act of the last legisla- 
ture has been placed under the Depart- 
ment of Education with a larger appropri- 
ation and a better standing than before. 
The session then adjourned. 

SECOND SESSION 

The president called the second session 
to order at 2:30 p. m., June 27, and an- 
nounced as the theme of the session 
"League policies necessary for meeting 
new problems." This session was devoted 
to the discussion of the work of the League 
as an organization. The first paper read 
by the secretary was written by Mrs. Min- 
nie Clarke Budlong, of the North Dakota 
Commission, one of the vice-presidents of 
the League, Mrs. Budlong's subject being 

WHAT CAN THE LEAGUE DO FOB ITS MEMBERS? 
AN EVALUATION OF LIBRARY COM- 
MISSIONS AND THEIR LEAGUE 

(See p. 286) 

It was desired to postpone the discus- 
sion until all the papers on various phases 
of the same subject had been presented, 
and the president called on Mr. John A. 
Lowe, of the Massachusetts Commission, 
who presented the topic 

\VIIAT CAN THE LEAGUE DO FOR ITS MEMBERS? 
PUBLICATIONS 

(See p. 291) 

Miss Mary E. Downey, library organizer 
under the Utah Department of Public In- 
struction, spoke on 

WHAT THE LEAGUE CAN DO FOR STATES WITH- 
OUT ORGANIZED COMMISSIONS 

(See p. 292) 



Miss Downey's paper was followed by 
an exceedingly lively and interesting dis- 
cussion. This was opened by Miss Elva L. 
Bascom, formerly of the Wisconsin Com- 
mission and now with the Children's Bu- 
reau, Washington, D. C. .She suggested 
that the topic was "How the League of Li- 
brary Commissions might gain strength," 
and thought that the question of the indi- 
vidual commission was not germane at 
this time. She recommended that a res- 
olution be adopted asking the A. L. A. Sur- 
vey Committee to survey the League. She 
said that the $600 in the League treasury 
would not permit any great activity on our 
own part, though it should . be used for 
some useful purpose. She approved of 
Miss Downey's suggestion of individual 
memberships. 

Miss Bascom went on to state that the 
worst situation is in states with paper 
leagues which have no appropriations and 
hence can do no work. These are always 
in the ultra-conservative states. The 
members are almost always political ap- 
pointees who lack the punch as well as 
the necessary appropriations to accomplish 
things. The League needs to make a study 
of the commission work being done in 
various states, and there is need of litera- 
ture on commission work and standards 
something that would give in tabulated 
form a statement of budgets, helpers, sal- 
aries, and work accomplished of the vari- 
ous sorts. 

Miss Rawson, of Kentucky, expressed 
herself as feeling that the League is alto- 
gether too self-depreciative. We forget 
our constant response to requests for help. 
She paid a tribute to the assistance ren- 
dered by the League when commission 
work was being started in Kentucky. She 
has found the League meetings and inter- 
course invaluable in her own work. Many 
states do not desire outside help and we 
cannot force it on them, but this does not 
prevent our being ready and willing to 
help when it is desired. 

Miss Downey asked how far the League 
could go in these backward states without 
being officious. Could we ask Miss Bas- 



LEAGUE OP LIBRARY COMMISSIONS 



407 



com, for instance, to meet with the new 
Oklahoma commissioners and help them 
lay out a program? 

The president said that there was no 
doubt of our willingness to help either in- 
dividually or together, but that the League 
should not stop there. We should angle 
for invitations to help. 

Mies Jones, of the Massachusetts Com- 
mission, stated that Wyoming had re- 
cently asked for help, feeling the need of 
an organized, commission. She suggested 
that a list of possible commission workers 
was needed and that all library schools be 
asked for names of such graduates as 
would fit into this sort of work. 

Miss Robinson, of Iowa, thought that 
one reason the value of the League is ques- 
tioned is because the individual commis- 
sions are growing up and no longer need 
the League as much as when all commis- 
sion work was new. For several years we 
have had no midwinter meetings, and 
these meetings in the middle west have al- 
ways been more helpful to commission 
workers than the summer meetings. The 
League work is hard to measure, no figures 
can be of value in so general a work, but 
the League has always been a clearing- 
house of commission ideas and informa- 
tion and as such is still of the utmost 
value to the individual members. 

Mrs. Anne E. Congdon, of Rhode Island, 
felt that section meetings by geographical 
units would be a very great help, since 
conditions under which middle west com- 
missions work differ radically from those 
by which the eastern commissions are af- 
fected. 

Miss Baldwin, of Minnesota, spoke of 
the earlier history and intent of the 
League. Originally it was merely a sec- 
tion of the American Library Association, 
but a stronger separate organization 
seemed advisable. The first work was the 
issue of certain handbooks. Now, jhow- 
ever, the publications feature is not so im- 
portant since the A. L. A. Publishing 
Board exists. Miss Baldwin suggested 
the appointment of a League Traveling 
Committee whose duties should be to isit 



the various commissions. The country 
n?ight be divided into sections, and a sec- 
tion assigned to each member of the com- 
mittee for inspection and advice. 

Mrs. Belle H. Johnson, of Connecticut, 
said that her state had not had much help 
from the League because they were unable 
to attend any but eastern meetings. She 
suggested a prompt informal meeting soon 
after arrival at conference so that new 
commission workers might get better ac- 
quainted with other workers in the same 
field. 

The president recommended that the of- 
ficers in charge of the next meeting ar- 
range for a registration table where all 
commission workers can be registered. 
Such a table might serve as headquarters 
where these workers could find one an- 
other and discuss problems between ses- 
sions. She suggested also that a badge 
with some distinguishing feature be used 
to mark the commission worker. These 
suggestions were approved by Mrs. John- 
son. 

Mr. Flagg, of the Bangor, Maine, Public 
Library, expressed his appreciation of the 
helpfulness of the meetings, though like 
Connecticut and Rhode Island, Maine was 
obliged to miss meetings held at a dis- 
tance. 

Miss Mabel Winchell, of Manchester, 
New Hampshire, seconded Mr. Flagg's 
statement. 

The discussion being ended, the presi- 
dent entertained a motion which was put 
and carried, that a committee be ap- 
pointed by the chair to draw up an 
amendment for presentation at the next 
League meeting which would embody Miss 
Downey's suggestion of individual mem- 
berships in the League in addition to or- 
ganization memberships. The secretary 
was appointed chairman of this commit- 
tee, together with Mr. Lowe and Miss 
Price. 

A paper was then presented by Miss 
Elva L. Bascom, in charge of library coop- 
eration, Children's Bureau, Washington, 
D. C., her topic being 



40S 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



THE PLACE OF THE COMMISSION IN CHILD 
WELFARE WOEK 

(See p. 133) 

The financial report of the secretary- 
treasurer was read, showing the following 
receipts, disbursements and balance. Four 
commission memberships are precarious 
because of non-payment of dues. In one 
case the commission is a branch of the 
state department of education and the de- 
partment refuses to permit the payment. 

Treasurer's Report 

(For year ending June, 1919) 

Receipts 
Balance as audited July 4, 

1918 $531.02 

1918 dues paid by 4 states, 

Aug.-Dec., 1918 20.00 

1918 & 1919 dues paid by 23 

states, Jan.-May, 1919 120.00 

April 17, interest on Liberty 

Loans 5.05 

$676.07 

Disbursements 
Oct. 15, Registered bonds of 

fourth liberty loan $250.00 

Dec. 2, Sationery, W. B. 

Burford 7.50 

Apr. 3, Stationery, W. B. 

Burford 3.40 

$260.90 

Cash balance $415.17 

Bonds 250.00 

Total $665.17 

After an explanation of the tangle in 
the expiration of office terms, which had 
resulted from the lack of midwinter meet- 
ings, the executive committee recom- 
mended fixing the specific *ates for the 



expiration of the terms of those officers 
about to be elected, this definite under- 
standing being necessary to get all terms 
back to a basis in accord with the provi- 
sions of the League constitution. Confer- 
ence with the commission workers pres- 
ent had shown a large majority in favor 
of the immediate resumption of the mid- 
winter annual meeting, although a num- 
ber of eastern members did not agree in 
this sentiment. 

The nominating committee, Miss Raw- 
son, chairman, Miss Baldwin and Mr. 
Bliss, then brought in the following rec- 
ommendations: 

For president, for two years term, ex- 
piring January, 1921: John A. Lowe, 
Massachusetts Free Library Commission. 

For vice-presidents, for one year term, 
expiring January, 1920, 

1. Julia A. Robinson, Iowa Library 
Commission. 

2. Anna A. MacDonald, Pennsylvania 
Free Library Commission. 

For additional members of the Execu- 
tive Board, for three years 

Matthew S. Dudgeon, Wisconsin Free Li- 
brary Commission. Term expires Janu- 
ary, 1921 (replacing William R. Watson, 
whose term expired January, 1918). 

Elizabeth B. Wales, Missouri Public Li- 
brary Commission. Term expires Janu- 
ary, 1922 (replacing Anna M. Price, whose 
term expired January, 1919). 

Mrs. Minnie L. Blanton of the Executive 
Board and the secretary hold office until 
the next annual meeting. 

The report of the nominating committee 
was accepted and approved, and after vot- 
ing to instruct the secretary to cast the 
ballot electing the nominees, the session 
and conference adjourned. 



SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION 



409 



SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION 



FIRST SESSION 

The first session of the convention of the 
Special Libraries Association was called to 
order by the president, Mr. Guy E. Marion, 
Tuesday afternoon, June 24, in the Lounge 
of the New Monterey, Asbury Park, New 
Jersey, with approximately one hundred 
persons present. This was the tenth an- 
nual convention, and as Mr. Marion was 
one of the charter members of the Associa- 
tion, the opening of his presidential talk 
was retrospective. He compared the Asso- 
ciation to an invention which passes 
through the states of ridicule, experimenta- 
tion, and acceptance and mentioned many 
definite contributions which have been 
made to the library movement in recent 
years. In Mr. Marion's words, "The forma- 
tion of the special library was a direct re- 
sult of the demand for ready reference ma- 
terial furnished with expedition, coupled 
with its presentation in organized and di- 
gested form. This function with due jus- 
tice to its numerous readers the public li- 
brary could hardly be expected to perform. 
Hence the creation of the special libraries." 

Mr. Marion extended thanks to the mem- 
bers of his executive board who have faith- 
fully supported him during the year. The 
work of Miss Williams, secretary-treasurer, 
and Mr. Friedel, editor of Special Libra- 
ries, received particular comment. Miss 
Williams has placed the association on a 
firm financial basis due to her untiring 
efforts throughout the year. 

Special Libraries speaks for Mr. Frie- 
del's efforts. Its increasing quality and 
merit show the result of his untiring work. 
One of the most important accomplish- 
ments of the year is the formation of the 
definition for special libraries. This is the 
result of many conferences with Mr. Jacob, 
librarian of the General Electric Company, 
and reads as follows: 

"A Special Library consists of a good 
working collection of information either 
upon a specific subject or field of activity; 
it may consist of general or even limited 
material, serving the interests of a special 



clientele, and preferably in charge of a 
specialist, trained in the use and applica- 
tion of the particular material." 

With this definition as a guide, Mr. Jacob, 
chairman of the Survey Committee, will 
proceed in the work of collecting data 
about special libraries throughout the 
United States and in other countries. 

Mr. Marion lay great stress on the desira- 
bility of all library systems working in 
harmony. Again to quote from his talk: 

"These special libraries should be built 
up rapidly and effectively under the help 
and stimulus of the local public librarian. 
If encouraged and helped thus to get onto 
their feet, every one of these special libra- 
ries will naturally become a prop to the 
public library itself in its time of need. 
No public library in a large community of 
diversified industries can ever hope to com- 
pete with its public funds as backing 
against the special library when well de- 
veloped in any one industry and backed 
by its unlimited resources; but on the 
other hand the public library should en- 
courage the coming and growth of these 
special libraries to strengthen its own re- 
sources. In such a community I picture a 
progressive public library doing everything 
to lead its local industries to establish spe- 
cial libraries of their own by loaning 
books and other data pertaining to their 
work and thus sowing the seed, so that in 
time the public library may be able to 
command through its contact with these 
highly developed special libraries informa- 
tion which otherwise would never have 
been found available. In this way we have 
a complete and entire library system for 
the whole nation. It centers in the Li- 
brary of Congress at Washington, from 
there it radiates to every state in the 
union to the several state libraries, thence 
to the local public libraries within each 
state and these in turn will be surrounded 
by a group of financial, commercial, indus- 
trial, medical, technical and other special 
libraries. We thus disarm all opposition 
and construct a whole organism. . . . 
No one element alone is complete without 
the others. All are stronger with the 
others' help." 

The secretary-treasurer's report was 
then given. Owing to Miss Williams' re- 
cent illness, Miss Phail was acting secre- 
tary for the duration of the convention. 
The most striking statement was that the 



410 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



secretary-treasurer received a balance of 
$10 in 1918 and turns over a balance of 
$273.25 to the Incoming secretary-treasurer. 
The effort Miss Williams has made this 
year speaks for itself. 

The report of the editor of Special Libra- 
ries, Mr. J. H. Friedel, was presented, Mr. 
Friedel giving a history of the revivification 
of Special Libraries. At the beginning of 
the year, the magazine had a mailing list 
of 325 subscribers and 150 exchanges. The 
end of the year shows a mailing list of 430 
subscribers and practically no exchanges. 
The editor was given a rising vote of 
thanks for his faithful services of the past. 

The program shows, as Mr. Marion very 
aptly states, that "men with breadth of 
address, vision and executive qualities 
have identified themselves with the Special 
Libraries Association and are willing to 
bring their rich business experience to our 
meetings." 

As the papers will appear in Special Li- 
braries during the coming year they will 
only be mentioned here. The first paper 
was "Documentation in the field of reha- 
bilitation of the disabled," given by Mr. 
Douglas McMurtrie, director of the Red 
Cross Institute for Cripples, New York 
City. This most interesting paper was fol- 
lowed by a moving picture called "The 
cheer-up film," the story of a m<an who had 
lost both arms, yet was cheerful and 
capably earning his own living. 

Mr. F. M. Feiker, editorial director of 
the McGraw Hill Company, Inc., New York 
City, gave a short talk on "How the special 
library can help build industry." The pa- 
per brought forth much discussion. A 
motion was made by Mr. Friedel and sec- 
onded by Miss Carabin that a committee 
of five or more be appointed 'by the chair- 
man to consider with Mr. Feiker the prob- 
lems of the coming year. The following 
committee was appointed: 

G. W. Lee, Stone & Webster, Boston, 
Mass., Chairman; Ida B. Campbell, Good- 
rich Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio; Elsie L. 
Baechtold, College of Engineering, Urbana, 
111.; Louise B. Krause, H. M. Byllesby & 
Co., Chicago; Ethelwyn Gaston, Western 
Electric Co., New York City; Edith Phail, 



Scovill Mfg. Co., Waterbury, Conn.; W. F. 
Jacob, General Electric Company, Schenec- 
tady, N. Y. 

Mr. George A. Deveneau, representative 
from the Federal Board of Vocational Edu- 
cation, 200 New Jersey Avenue, N. W., 
Washington, D. C., gave a ten-minute talk 
on the work the federal board is doing 
with the returned disabled soldiers. Mono- 
graphs covering 104 occupations for dis- 
abled persons can be obtained upon re- 
quest. 

Mr. F. S. Crum, assistant statistician of 
the Prudential Insurance Company, New- 
ark, New Jersey, gave an excellent address 
on the "Library and statistical work with 
the Prudential." 

A motion was made by Mr. Lee and sec- 
onded by Mr. Johnston that a nominating 
committee be appointed by the chair to 
report at the next session. The following 
were appointed on the Nominating Com- 
mittee: Mr. D. N. Handy, Chairman; 
Miss Mary B. Day; Mr. Herbert O. Brig- 
ham. 

The first session adjourned at 6:30 p. m. 

SECOND SESSION 

The second session of the Special Libra- 
ries Association was called to order at 3:00 
p. m. by the president, Mr. Guy E. Marion, 
with approximately two hundred and fifty 
people present. 

Mr. E. D. Tweedell, assistant librarian, 
John Crerar Library, Chicago, read his 
paper on "Special libraries and the large 
reference libraries." 

Mr. D. Ashley Hooker, technology libra- 
rian, Public Library, Detroit, Michigan, 
read a paper on "A technology department 
as a business investment." 

Mr. R. S. Rife, of the bond statistical divi- 
sion of the Guaranty Trust Company, New 
York City, gave a very enlightening and in- 
teresting discourse on "Investment of cap- 
ital in foreign countries America's oppor- 
tunity and responsibility." 

Mr. F. S. Faurole, manager of depart- 
ment of education and sales promotion of 
the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Corpora- 
tion, New York City, gave an illustrated 
talk on "Aviation as applied to the index- 



SPECIAL LIBRARIES ASSOCIATION 



411 



ing of aeronautical literature." He made 
a special appeal to the members of the as- 
sociation for suggestions for a classifica- 
tion applicable to his work. 

Mr. Leon I. Thomas, editor of Factory, 
Chicago, gave some sage advice in "Some 
whys and hows of our library and a few 
don'ts." 

Miss Edith Phail, librarian of the Sco- 
vill Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, 
Conn., gave some interesting suggestions 
in "Aids to magazine routing systems." 

A short business meeting was held, but 
due to the lateness of the hour the meeting 
adjourned to an extra business session to 
be held at 9:30 a. m., June 26, 1919. 

EXTRA BUSINESS SESSION 

The extra business session was called to 
order at. 9:30 a. m. in the Lounge by the 
president, Mr. Guy E. Marion, with about 
seventy-five present. 

The report of the Nominating Commit- 
tee was read and accepted. 

It was moved and seconded that the sec- 
retary be instructeu to cast -one ballot for 
the nominees as proposed by the commit- 
tee. The officers for the coming year are 
as follows: 

President, Maud E. Carabin, librarian 
Detroit-Edison Company, Detroit, Mich.; 
vice-president, E. H. Redstone, librarian 
Massachusetts State Library, Boston, 
Mass.; secretary-treasurer, Estelle L. Lieb- 
mann, librarian National Workmen's Com- 
pensation Bureau, N. Y.; executive com- 
mittee. E. H. McClelland, Carnegie Library, 
Pittsburgh, Pa., for two years. (J. H. 
Friedel, National Industrial Conference 
Board, Boston, Mass., has another year to 
serve on the Executive Board.) 

Another progressive step made at the 
Special Libraries Association meeting was 
the division of the association memibers 
into groups of allied interest. 

A motion was made and seconded that 
the formation of an advisory council to 
the executive board be chosen to represent 
the various groups in the Special Libraries 
Association, each group to elect two mem- 
bers. The groups were formed by these 
present and the following elected as the 
advisory council: 

Commercial group: Rose Cameron, 



Laura R. Gibbs. Financial group: Joseph- 
ine M. Hefron, Alice Rose. Insurance 
group: Daniel N. Handy, Estelle L. Lieb- 
mann. Legislative reference group: Clar- 
ence B. Lester, Dorsey W. Hyde, Jr. Tech- 
nical and engineering group: Louis B. 
Krause, Anne E. Draper. Industrial group: 
William P. Jacob, Edith Phail. Welfare 
group: P. W. Jenkins, Orrena L. Evans. 

Meeting adjourned at 12:30 p. m. to 
another short business session to be held 
at 5:00 p. m. 

EXTRA BUSINESS SESSION 
The extra business session was called to 
order by the president, Mr. Guy E. Marion, 
at 5:00 p. m., in the Lounge, with about 
fifty people present. 

The report of Mr. Jacob, chairman of 
the Survey Committee, was heard and ac- 
cepted. A motion was made and sec- 
onded that the committee be continued for 
the coming term. 

The report of a number of other com- 
mittees closed the business session at 6:00 
p. m. 

THIRD SESSION 

The third session of the Special Libra- 
ries Association was called at 8:00 p. m., 
Thursday, June 26, by the president, Mr. 
Guy E. Marion, with about two hundred 
and fifty persons present, Miss Estelle L. 
Liebmann acting as secretary. 

The first paper on the program was, "In- 
dustrial accidents and the library's share 
in their reduction," by Miss Estelle L. 
Liebmann, National Workmen's Compensa- 
tion Bureau. 

Mr. Dorsey W. Hyde, Jr., librarian of the 
New York Municipal Reference Library, 
gave a very interesting paper on "Good 
government and better citizenship via the 
civic library." 

Miss G. B. Easley, director of the wel- 
fare department of the National Civic Fed- 
eration, New York City, in "Humanitarian- 
ism in industry," gave an illustrated lec- 
ture on the welfare work in industry. 

Miss Klager, of the U. S. Department of 
Labor, spoke of Bulletin 250, issued by the 
Bureau of Labor Statistics, which de- 
scribes welfare work in all its phases in 
the U. S. 



412 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



The qualifications of a librarian for a 
library of a league of municipalities is 
very aptly put in the paper "The library 
and the league of municipalities" by Mr. 
Homer Talbot, executive secretary of the 
New Jersey State League of Municipal- 
ities. 

Mr. Leslie Willis Sprague, of the Com- 
munity Motion Picture Bureau, New York 



City, gave an illustrated talk on "Ameri- 
canization by indirection." 

The last session adjourned at 11:15 p. m. 

The convention was most satisfying as a 
whole. New members were received daily 
at the registration desk, and also many 
subscriptions. The association can look 
forward to a bright future. 



AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES 



Thirty-five members were present at the 
meeting of the American Association of 
Law Libraries, June 24-26. Four sessions 
were held, including one joint session with 
the National Association of State Libra- 
ries. The following papers were read, all 
of which will be printed in full in the Law 
Library Journal: 

"Pennsylvania side reports," Luther E. 
Hewitt, librarian, Law Association of 
Philadelphia; "Law library binding in war 
time," Dr. G. E. Wire, deputy librarian, 
Worcester County Law Library, Worces- 
ter, Mass.; "Shelf classification of foreign 
law books," W. H. Alexander, assistant 
librarian, Library of the Association of 
the Bar, New York, and Elsie L. Basset, 
Columbia University Law Library; "Revi- 
sions and compilations of the laws of New 



York," John T. Fitzpatrick, law librarian, 
New York State Library. 

There were round table discussions on 
the following subjects: Shelf arrangement 
of law reports, interlibrary loans between 
law libraries, guide cards for law library 
catalogs, indexes to legal periodicals. 

The following officers were elected for 
the year 1919-1920: President, Frederick 
C. Hicks, law librarian, Columbia Univer- 
sity; first vice-president, Sumner Y. Whee- 
ler, librarian, Essex Bar Association Li- 
brary, Salem, Mass.; second vice-president, 
Mary K. Ray, deputy librarian, Nebraska 
State Library; secretary, Agnes Wright, 
librarian, Wyoming State Library; treas- 
urer, Anna M. Ryan, assistant librarian, 
Supreme Court Library, Buffalo, N. Y.; 
executive committee, Edward H. Redstone, 
John T. Fitzpatrick, George S. Godard. 



ATTENDANCE SUMMARIES 



413 



ATTENDANCE SUMMARIES 



By Position and Sex 




Maryland 13 Pennsylvania. . . 


67 


Men Women Total 


Massachusetts.. 63 Rhode Island. .. 


15 


Trustees 7 1 


8 


Michigan 52" South Carolina. 


3 


Library Commissions.... 4 20 


24 


Minnesota 14 Tennessee 


10 


Chief Librarians 143 231 


374 


Mississippi 2 Texas 


13 


Heads of Dept's and 




Missouri 23 Utah 


4 


Branch Librarians 40 137 


177 


Montana 2 Vermont 


8 


Assistants 33 353 


386 


Nebraska 5 Virginia 


8 


Library School Instructors 2 19 


21 


New Hampshire 3 Washington . . . 


5 


Library School Students. 2 3 


5 


New Jersey 135 West Virginia.. 


5 


Editors 4 12 


16 


New York 389 Wisconsin 


9 


Commercial Agents 34 3 


37 


North Carolina. 5 Wyoming 


1 


Others 32 88 


120 


North Dakota. . . 2 Canada 


3 








Ohio 52 China 


1 


301 867 


1168 


Oklahoma 4 









Oregon 1 Total 


11fi8 


By Geographical Sections 








6 of the 6 New England States 


128 


By Libraries 




5 " 5 North Atlantic States and 


Libraries having five or more representa- 


District of Columbia... 


684 


tives 




6 " 6 South Atlantic States 


33 


New York Public Library 


112 


8 " 8 North Central States 
6 " 6 South Central States 


242 

28 


Brooklyn Public Library 
Detroit Public Library. 


41 

29 


10 " 14 Western States 


39 


Cleveland Public Library 


17 


3 " 3 Pacific States 


10 


Newark Free Public Library 


16 


Canada 


3 


Public Library of District of Columbia 


12 


China 


1 


Chicago Public Library 


11 






St. Louis Public Library 


9 


Total 


1168 


U. S. Department of Agriculture Li- 




By States 




brary 


9 


Alabama 2 Florida 


3 


Pittsburgh Carnegie Library 


8 


Arizona 1 Georgia 


9 


Louisville Free Public Library 


7 


Arkansas 2 Illinois 


60 


New York State Library 


7 


California 4 Indiana 


20 


Library of Congress 


7 


Colorado 6 Iowa 


1?, 


New York State Library School 


6 


Connecticut ... 36 Kansas 


?, 


Boston Public Library 


5 


Delaware 14 Kentucky 


11 


Pratt Institute Free Library 


5 


District of Co- Louisiana 


1 


Providence Public Library 


5 


lumbia 65 Maine 


3 


Queens Borough Public Library 


5 



414 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



Abbreviations: P., Free; P., Public; L., Library; ref., Reference; catlgr., Cataloger; In. 
Librarian; asst., Assistant; br.. Branch; sch.. School. 



Ackley, Gabriella, In. Yorkville Br. P. L.. 

N. Y. City. 
Adams, Leta E., head L. Supplies Dept., 

Gaylord Bros., Syracuse, N. Y. 
Adams, Florence A., acting child. In. River- 
side Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 
Adams, Inez, asst. Carnegie F. L., Ogden, 

Utah. 
Ahern, Mary Eileen, ed. Public Libraries, 

Chicago. 
Alexander, Laura, In. Dallas High Sch. L., 

Dallas, Tex. 
Alexander, Mary Louise, In. J. Walter 

Thompson Co., N. Y. City. 
Alexander, W. H., Ass'n of the Bar of the 

City of New York, 42 West 44th St., N. Y. 

City. 
Allaire, Marguerite, asst. In. F. P. L., Bay- 

onne, N. J. 

Alleman, Helen G., child. In. P. L., Harris- 
burg, Pa. 
Allen, Edith E., asst. F. P. L., Englewood, 

N. J. 
Allen, Harriet Luella, In. P. L., Houghton, 

Mich. 
Allen, Mary S., In. Provident Life & Trust 

Co. L., 4th & Chestnut St., Philadelphia, 

Pa. 
Allen, Mary T., asst. In. P. L., Asbury Park, 

N. J. 
Amundsen, Margit S., stud. N. Y. State L. 

Sch., Albany, N. Y. 
Anderson, Edwin Hatfield, director P. L., N. 

Y City. 
Anderson, John R., bookseller, 31 West 15th 

St., N. Y. City. 
Andrews, Clement W T alker, In. The John Cre- 

rar L.. Chicago. 
Ansteinsson, John, stud. N. Y. State L. Sch., 

Albany, N. Y. 
Armstrong, lone, In. F. P. L., Council Bluffs, 

Iowa. 
Ashley, Grace, sec'y to In. F. P. L., Newark, 

N. J. 

Ashley, May, ln ; P. L., Greenfield, Mass. 
Ashman, Katharine C., asst. In. N. J. Zinc 

Co. of Pa. L., Palmerton, Pa. 
Askew, Sarah B., organizer N. J. P. L. Com- 
mission, Trenton, N. J. 

Atwood, Alice C., bibliographical asst. Bu- 
reau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of 

Agriculture, Washington D. C. 
Avery, Harriet K., In. Keystone State Nor- 
mal Sch., Kutztown, Pa. 

Avey, E. Gertrude, chief child. In. P. L., Cin- 
cinnati, O. 
Ayres. Mary A., child. In. 115th St. Br. P. L., 

N. Y. City. 
Azzara, Vincent, In. Morris County Law L., 

Morristown, N. J. 

Azzara. Mrs. Vincent, Morristown, N. J. 
Babcock, Helen S., In. Austin High Sch. Br. 

P. L., Chicago. 
Haechtold. Elsie L., In. Engineering Coll. 

Univ. of 111., Urbana, 111. 
Bailey. Arthur Low, In. Wilmington Inst. F. 

L., Wilmington, Del. 
Bailey, Louis J., In. P. L., Gary, Ind. 
Bailey, Thomas D., Library Bureau, N. Y. 

City. 

Baillet, May E., In. F. P. L., Irvington, N. J. 
Baird, Mabel E., asst. In. Tech. L., E. I. du 

Pont de Nemours and Co., Wilmington, 

Del. 
Baker, Charles Melville, In. Camp L., Camp 

Meade, Md. 
Baker. Laura M., asst. Book Order Office P. 

L., N. Y. City. 
Baker, M. Lillian, sr. asst. Yorkville Br. P. 

L., N. Y. City. 



Baker, Mary Ellen, head catlgr. Mo. Univ. 
L., Columbia, Mo. 

Baker, Mary Neikirk, asst. Br. Dept. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Baldwin, Clara F., director Minn. P. L. Com- 
mission, St. Paul, Minn. 

Baldwin, Emma V., sec'y to In. P. L., Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. 

Ball, Fanny D., In. Central High Sch. L., 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Bamford, William B., pres. Board of Trus- 
tees F. P. L., Belmar, N. J. 

Bargar, Frances A., asst. P. L., Columbus, O. 

Barickman, Mrs. Rena M., In. P. L., Joliet, 
111. 

Barker, Tommie Dora, In. Carnegie L. and 
director L. Sch., Atlanta, Ga. 

Barnes, Cornelia S., Bureau of Markets, U. 
S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Barnes, Elizabeth, sr. asst. P. L., Chicago. 

Barnes, Grace, catlgr. and ref. In. Univ. of 
Okla. L., Norman, Okla. 

Barnett, Claribel Ruth, In. U. S. Dept. of 
Agriculture L., Washington, D. C. 

Barnett, Helen, asst. Woodstock Br. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Barr, Mrs. A. E., Washington, D. C. 

Barr, Charles J, asst. In. Yale Univ. L., New 
Haven, Conn. 

Barr, M. Kathryn, asst. Class. Div. L. of 
Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Barrette, Lydia M., In. P. L., Jacksonville, 
111. 

Bartholomew, P. A., N. J. Zinc Co. of Pa., 
Palmerton, Pa. 

Bartlett, Sarah R., acting In. F. P. L., Con- 
cord, Mass. 

Bascom, Elva L.. in charge L. Co-operation, 
Children's Bureau, Washington, D. C. 

Bates, Anna L., In. High Sch. L., Quincy, 
Mass. 

Bauman, Miss I. G.. Bond L. Dept. Guaranty 
Trust Co., N. Y. City. 

Baumler, Jane I., sch. lef. In. P. L., Utica, 
N. Y. 

Beale, Helen M., asst. In. Adelbert Coll. L., 
Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, O. 

Beall, Mrs. Rachel H., asst. In. St. Agnes Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Beck, Caroline S., catlgr. P. L., New Ro- 
chelle, N. Y. 

Bedinger, Margery, asst. Technology Div. P. 
L., N. Y. City. 

Beer, William, In. Howard Mem. L., New Or- 
leans, La. 

Belden, Charles F. D., In. P. L., Boston, Mass. 

Bell, Grace W., Grosvenor L., Buffalo, N. Y. 

Bement, Constance, asst. Ref. Dept. P. L.. 
Detroit, Mich. 

Bendikson, Lodewyk, bibliographer Henry E. 
Huntington L., N. Y., City. 

Bendikson. Mrs. Lodewyk, 565 West 190th 
St., N. Y. City. 

Berkey, L. Helen, In. Cambria F. L., Johns- 
town, Pa. 

Bickel, Klara K., asst. De Kalb Br. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Billingsley, Mary P., chief of Documents 
Div. P. L., Kansas City, Mo. 

Bircholdt, Harriet N., chief Bureau of P. 
Discussion Extension Div. Univ. of Ind., 
Bloomington, Ind. 

Birdsall, Jean, 498 Clinton Ave., Albany, 
N. Y. 

Bischoff. Louise W., asst. F. P. L., Ruther- 
ford. N. J. 

Bishop, William Warner, In. Univ. of Mich. 
General L., Ann Arbor Mich. 

Bishop, Mrs. William Warner, Ann Arbor, 
Mich. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



415 



Betts, Gladys J., L. Assn., Portland, Ore, 

Bixby, Alice P., Army War Coll. L., Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Blair, Mellicent L., In. Y. W. C. A. L., 610 
Lexington Ave., N. Y. City. 

Blair, Rosannah G., In. Salem Coll. L., Wins- 
ton-Salem. N. C. 

Bleecker, Louisa O., catlgr. F. P. L., Eliza- 
beth, N. J. 

Bliss, Henry E., deputy In. Coll. of City of 
New York. N. Y. City. 

Bliss, Robert P., asst. sec'y F. L. Commis- 
sion, Harrisburg, Pa. 

Blumberg, Nadine, asst. In. Woodstock Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Boardman, Clark, 33 Park Place, N. Y. City. 

Boerlage. Louise M., asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Kogle, Sarah C. N., principal Carnegie L. 
Sch., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Borden, Fanny, ref. In. Vassar Coll. L., 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

Borden, William A., Morris Cove, Conn. 

Bostwick, Arthur Elmore, In. P. L., St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Bostwick, Mrs. Arthur Elmore, St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Boswell, Jessie Partridge, Administration 
Div. Ref. L. Br. U. S. Army Ordnance, 
Washington, D. C. 

Bowerman, George F., In. P. L. of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, Washington. D C. 

Bowerman, Mrs. George F., Washington, 
D. C. 

Bowker, Richard Rogers, ed. Library Jour- 
nal, 62 W. 45th St., N. Y. City. 

Bowker, Mrs. Richard Rogers, 33 W. 12th 
St., N. Y. City. t 

Bowman, Florence M., In. P. L., Plainfield, 
N. J. 

Bowman, Frances E., child. In. P. L., St. 
Louis Mo. 

Bowman, Nancy F., In. F. P. L., Cliffside, 
N. J. 

Brackbill, Anna Lucile, catlgr. Union Theo- 
logical Seminary L., N. Y. City. 

Brackett, Marian W., In. Brighton Br. P. L., 
Boston, Mass. 

Bradish, Amy E., A. L. A. L. War Service, 
Washington, D. C. 

Bradish, Martha, Washington, D. C. 

Bradley, Florence, In. Tompkins Sq. Br. P. 
L., N. Y. City. 

Brainerd, Marion, asst. In. Maine State L., 
Augusta, Me. 

Brigham, Gwendolyn, asst. American Li- 
brary Association Headquarters, Chicago. 

Brigham, Harold F., In. Camp L., Camp Mer- 
ritt, N. J. 

Brigham, Hattie I., In. Liberty Square Br. 
F. P. L., Elizabeth, N. J. 

Brigham, Herbert Olin, In. R. I. State L., 
Providence, R. I. 

Brook, Eva, Princeton Sch. L., Princeton, 
N. J. 

Brooker, Rosalie A., asst. Circ. Dept. P. L., 
N. Y. City 

Brooks, Maud D, In. P. L., Olean, N. Y. 

Broomell, Ellyn Chapin, In. Camp L., Camp 
Grant, 111. 

Brower, Kate W., F. L., Orange, N. J. 

Brown, Charles Harvey, asst. In. P L 
Brooklyn. N. Y. 

Brown, Delia E., In. P. L., Salina, Kan. 

Brown, Demarchus C., In. Indiana State L., 
Indianapolis, Ind. 

Brown, Gwendolen, In. Bushwick Br. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Brown. Jane H., 1st asst. and dir. Child. 
Work P. L., Lakewood, Ohio. 

Brown, Josephine A., In. P. L., Keyport, N. J. 

Brown, Mabel W., In. Nat'l Com. Mental 
Hygiene L., N. Y. City. 

Brown, Margaret W., A. L. A. L. War Serv- 
ice, Washington, D. C. 

Brown, Ruth L., sec'y Vt. F. L. Commission, 
Montpelier. Vt. 

Brown, Walter L., In. P. L. Buffalo, N. Y. 

Brown, Mrs. Walter L., Buffalo, N. Y. 



Brown, William L., disbursing officer A. L. 
A. Library War Service, Washington, D. C. 

Browne, D. R., bookseller, 471 Fifth Ave., 
N. Y. City. 

Brush. Ella M., In. The Greenwich L., Green- 
wich. Conn. 

Bucher, Mrs. Paul, Information Div. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Bucknam, Edith P., chief Catalog Dept. 
Queens Borough P. L., Jamaica. N. Y. 

Buker, Lucy M., 1st asst. Hampton Inst. L., 
Hampton, Va. 

Bull, Mrs. Louise P., sr. asst. P. L., N. Y. 
City. 

Bulmer, Jeanie M., asst. In. Guaranty Trust 
Co. L., N. Y. City. 

Bunting, Alice, In. U. S. Debarkation Hos- 
pital No. 5, N. Y. City. 

Burnet, Duncan, In. Univ. of' Georgia L., 
Athens, Ga. 

Burnet, Martha Alice, In. F. P. L., Dover, 
N. J. 

Burnite, Caroline, director Child. Work P. L., 
Cleveland, O. 

Burns, Ida A., asst. Child. Dept. P. L., Provi- 
dence, R. I. 

Burrows, Dorothy E., In. F. P. L, Ruther- 
ford, N. J. 

Butler, Harold L., In. The American Law L., 
N. Y. City. 

Butler, Mrs. Harold L., N. Y. City. 

Bynum, Pamela, In. Carnegie P. L., Winston- 
Salem, N. C. 

Byrne, Paul R., In. Nat'l Bank of Commerce, 
N. Y. City. 

Cahill, Mrs. Cora M., head Circ. Dept. P. L., 
Syracuse, N. Y. 

Calfee, Margaret E., In. Northeast High Sch. 
Br. P. L., Kansas City, Mo. 

Califano, Augustave E., P. L., Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

Calkins, Ruth Helen, 1st asst. Bushwick Br. 
P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Callahan, Lilian, In. Levi Heywood Mem. L., 
Gardner, Mass. 

Cameron, Rose, In. International -Buyers 
Club, Bush Terminal Co., 130 W. 42d St., 
N. Y. City. 

Campbell, Clara Evelyn, child. In. P. L., St. 
Joseph, Mo. 

Campbell, Ida B., In. General L. B. F. Good- 
rich Co., Akron, O. 

Capek, Mrs. Anna V., N. Y. City. 

Carabin, Maud A., In. Detroit Edison Co. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Carey, Miriam E., A. L. A. Hospital Field 
Service, 25 Porter Place, Atlanta, Ga. 

Carlson, Corinne J., P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Carlton, W. N. C., In. Newberry L., Chicago. 

Carpenter, Sara E., In. Base Hospital L., 
Camp Jackson, S. C. 

Carr, Henry J., In. P. L., Scranton, Pa. 

Carr, Mrs. Henry J., 919 Vine St., Scranton, 
Pa. 

Carstensen, Grace, In. National Aniline and 
Chemical Co. L., N. Y. City. 

Casamajor, Mary, In. Bedford Br. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Casey, Nelka V., In. St. Louis Medical L., 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Cavanaugii, Eleanor S., In. Standard Sta- 
tistics Co. L., N. Y. City. 

Cawley, Reba S., dept. In. Dept. of Natural 
Scienc?s Princeton Univ. L., Princeton, 
N. J. 

Center, Sarah E., asst. In. Biddle Law L., 
Univ. of Pa., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Chandler, J. Elmore, ref. asst. 115th St. Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Chapin, Ernest W., 82 Monroe St., Somer- 
ville, Mass. 

Chapin, Esther S., catlgr. Ohio State Univ. 
L., Columbus, O. 

Charles, Adrienne B., In. Nat'l Catholic War 
Council L., Washington, D. C. 

Chase, George E., supervisor of Washing- 
ton Camps A. L. A. L. War Service, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 



Cheney, Lucy D., In. F. L., Rutland, Vt. 

Cheney, Nellie Mae, In. F. P. L., Ilion, N. Y. 

Chipman, Frank E., pres. Boston Book Co., 
83 Francis St., Boston, Mass. 

Chivers, Cedric, pres. and treas. Chivers 
Book Binding Co., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Christie, John W., official stenographer, 311 
V St. N. E., Washington, D. C. 

Christopher Katharine M., In. Nat'l Bd. Y. 
W. C. A., 600 Lexington Ave., N. Y. City. 

Cliflin, Alta B., In. Federal Reserve Bank L., 
Cleveland, O. 

Clapp, Clifford Blake, catlgr. Henry E. Hunt- 
ington L. f N. Y. City. 

Clark, Clara M., In. Bible Teachers' Train- 
ing Sch. L., N. Y. City. 

Clark, Gertrude E., asst. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Clark, Hazel C., asst. Loan Dept. P. L., De- 
troit, Mich. 

Clark, Mabelle L., In. Belmar L., Belmar, 
N. J. 

Clarke, Frances, asst. In. Central Child. Room 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Clement, Ina, catlgr. Municipal Ref. L., N. 
Y. City. 

Clinton, Mabel, gen. asst. P. L., Detroit, 
Mich. 

Clizbee, Azalea, editor Readers' Guide, Sup- 
plement, H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. City. 

Cobb, Mrs. Charles N., 26 N. Pine Ave., Al- 
bany, N. Y. 

Cobb, Mary Elizabeth, In. N. Y. State Coll. 
for Teachers L., Albany, N. T. 

Cobb, Mrs. Maud Barker, In. State L., At- 
lanta, Ga. 

Coffey, Maude M., asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Coffin, Helen, legislative ref. In. Conn. State 
L., Hartford, Conn. 

Colcord, Mabel, In. Bureau of Entomology, 
Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Cole, George Watson, In. Henry E Hunting- 
ton L., N. Y. City. 

Colegrove, Mrs. Mabel E., acting chief Lend- 
ing Dept. F. P. L., Newark, N. J. 

Colgrove, Vivian G., A. L. A. L. War Service, 
Washington, D. C. 

Collier, Mary E., head Bindery Cossitt L., 
Memphis, Tenn. 

Colt, Alice M., The Ferguson L., Stamford. 
Conn. 

Colwell, Luella, In. Lawrenceville Sch. L., 
Lawrenceville, N. J. 

Conard, Jane, In. De Kalb Br. P. L., Brook- 
lyn N. Y. 

Conat, Mabel L., iFt asst. Ref. Dept. P. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Congdon, Mrs. William M., 1. visitor and 
director of Traveling L's. for R. I. State 
Board of Education, Providence, R. I. 

Connell, Grace, asst. P. L., Scranton, Pa. 

Connoll, M. H., F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Cook, Dorothy E., asst. to Field Dir. of Hos- 
pital L's. A. L. A. Dispatch Office, 31 W. 
15th St., N. Y. City. 

Cook, Edith L., In. East Technical High Sch. 
Br. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Cook, Ella B., asst. to organizer N. J. P. L. 
Commission, Trenton, N. J. 

Cook, Grace L., catalog. In Engineering L., 
Columbia Univ., N. Y. City. 

Cook, Ruth V., P. L., Boston, Mass. 

Cooper, Isabella Mitchell, In. in charge Cen- 
tral Circ. Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Coplin, Martha Lee, chief Pub. Doc. Dept. 
F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Corliss, Mary, asst. Adriance Mem. L., 

Pough keeps ie, N. Y. 

Couillard. Ada S., catlgr. Columbia Univ. 
L.. N. Y. City. 

Countryman, Gratia A., In. P. L., Minneapo- 
lis, Minn. 

Cowing, Agnes, child. In. Pratt Inst. F. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Cox, Fannie, asst. Ref. Dept. P. L., Detroit, 

Mich. 

Crandle. Inez. In. Dimmick Memorial L., 
Mauch Chunk, Pa. 



Graver, Harrison W., director L. of the 
United Engineering Societies, 29 W. 39th 
St., N. Y. City. 

Craver, Mrs. Harrison W., N. Y. City. 

Crone, Albert, Library Journal, 62 W. 45th 
St., N. Y. City. 

Crow, Martha Foote, 16 Morningside Ave., 
N. Y. City. 

Cruice, Mary Z., 1932 Spruce St., Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Crumley, Susie Lee, asst. In. Carnegie L., 
chief instructor L. Training Sch., and or- 
ganizer Georgia L. Commission, Atlanta, 
Ga. 

Crunden, Mrs. F. M., 628 N. Spring Ave., St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Cuffe, Agnes M., child. In. Tompkins Square 
Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Cummings, T. Harrison, In. P. L., Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

Cunningham, Jesse, In. P. L., St. Joseph, Mo. 

Curtice, Helen B., child. In. Brownsville 
Child. Br. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Curtiss, Clara Louise, child. In. Brownsville 
Children's Br. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Cushman, Esther C., P. L., Providence, R. I. 

Cutler, Marian, in charge Child. Dept. and 
Work with Schools, P. L., Bridgeport, 
Conn. 

Dana, John Cotton, In. F. P. L., Newark, 
N. J. 

Darby, M. Claire, asst. Tech. Div. P. L., 
Cleveland, O. 

Darling, Frances C., 121 Suffolk Road, Chest- 
nut Hill. Mass. 

Datz, Harry R., Library Bureau, 316 Broad- 
way, N. Y. City. 

Davidson, Adeline T., sec'y and asst. t<~> In. 
F. P. L., East Orange, N. J. 

Davidson, Isabel, asst. In. Federal Reserve 
Bank. N. Y. City. 

Davis, Dorothy B., child. In. P. L., New Ro- 
chelle, N. Y. 

Davis, Georgia Sylvia, statistician P. L., 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Davis, Jennie Louise, asst. In. Cossitt L., 
Memphis, Tenn. 

Davis, Letty Lucile, In. Red Cross Inst. for 
Crippled and Disabled Men, 311 Fourth 
Ave., N. Y. City. 

Davis, Mary G., child. In. 58th St. Br. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Davis, Mary H., high sch. In. P. L., Brook- 
line, Mass. 

Davis, Mildred E., child. In. P. L., Utica, 
N. Y. 

Davis, Orlando C., In. P. L^ Waltham, Mass. 

Davis, Reba, In. Iowa State Traveling L., 
Des Moines. Iowa. 

Day, Mary Bostwick, In. National Safety 
Council L., Chicago. 

Dayton, H. Irene, In. High Sch. Br. P. L., 
Passaic, N. J. 

De Angelis, Annina, P. L., Utica, N. Y. 
de Gogorza, Flora, IQ. Brownsville Child. Br. 
P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

De Leeuw, Adeie L., child. In. P. L., Plain- 
field, N. J. 

De Moss, Rose E., br. In. P. L., Cleveland. O. 

Deaderick, Mrs. Inez, asst. Lawson McGhee 
L.. Knoxville, Tenn. 

Decker, Cora M.. asst. In. P. L., Scranton, Pa. 

Delfino, Mrs. Liborio, Traveling L's. F. L., 
Philadelphia. Pa. 

Derby, Grace E., asst. In. Kan. State Agric. 
Coll. L., Manhattan, Kan. 

Derman, Mrs. Henriette, asst. in charge 
Yudin Collection L. of Congress, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Devine, Kate F., In. Carnegie L., San An- 
tonio, Tex. 

Deveneau, George A., Federal Board for Vo- 
cational Education, Washington. D. C. 

Dunham, Franklin G., Educational Staff Vic- 
tor Talking Machine Co., Camden, N. J. 

Dickey, Philena A., In. U. S. Food Adminis- 
tration, Washington, D. C. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



417 



Dickinson, Asa Don, Hempstead, N. Y. 
Dickinson, Mrs. Asa Don. Hempstead, N. Y. 
Dinwiddie. Edna J., stud. Pratt Inst. L. Sen., 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Dixon. Edna A., asst. In. Harlem Br. P. L., 

N. Y. City. 
Dixon, Vera M., asst. In. in charge Iowa 

State Coll. L., Ames, Iowa. 
Dodd, Mary L., In. Davenport L., Bath, N. Y. 
Dodgen, Lily M., director Training Class 

P. L., Savannah, Ga. 
Doncourt, Amy E., child. In.. Flushing Br. 

Queens Borough P. L., Flushing, L. I., 

N. Y. 

Donnelly, June Richardson, prof of L. Sci- 
ence, dir. of Simmons Coll. L. Sch., and 

In. of Simmons Coll., Boston, Mass. 
Doren, Electra C., In. P. L., Dayton, O. 
Dorrance, Frances, chief Circ. Dept. F. P. L., 

Trenton, N. J. 
Doster, J. B., sec'y H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. 

City. 
Doster, Mary C., A. L. A. Dispatch Office, 

N. Y. City. 
Doty, Marion F., asst. Tech. Dept. P. L... 

N. Y. City. 
Dongan, Alice M., head catlgr. Purdue Univ. 

L., Lafayette. Ind. 

Downey, Mary Elizabeth I., sec'y and organ- 
izer Dept. of P. Instruction, Salt Lake 

City. Utah. 

Drake, Ruth B., In. Cincinnati Hospital Med- 
ical L., Cincinnati, O. 
Draper, Anne E., In. Bureau of Chemistry 

L., Washington, D. C. 
Draper, Miriam S., In. Children's Museum 

L., Brooklyn Inst., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Drummond, Louise, asst. F. P. L., Summit, 

N. J. 
Du Bois, Isabel, child. In. Yorkville Br. P. L., 

N. Y. City. 
Duffield, G. Vinton, suot. Photostat Dept. 

Princeton Univ. L., Princeton, N. J. 
Dulin, Robert, asst. ref. In. Univ. of Texas 

L.. Austin, Tex. v 

Dullard, John P., Trenton, N. J. 
Duncan, Barbara, custodian Music Dept. P. 

L., Boston, Mass. 

Duncan, Eleanor ffolliott, managing ed. Li- 
brary Journal. N. Y. City. 
Duncan, Margaret Lilian, P. L., Jacksonville, 

Fla. 
Dunlap, Alice M., asst. In. P. L., Duluth, 

Minn. 

Dunmore, Delia, asst. P. L., Newark, N. J. 
Bales, Laura A., asst. In. P. L., Bridgeport, 

Conn. 
Eardenson, Esther V., sr. asst. Epiphany Br. 

P. L., N. Y. City. 

Earhart, Frances E., In. P. L., Duluth, Minn. 
Earl, Mrs. Elizabeth Claypool, pres. Ind. P. 

L. Commission, Indianapolis, Ind. 
Early, Mary W., br. In. Queens Borough P. 

L., Jamaica, N. Y. 
Eastman, Jessie M., sub. asst. Loan Desk 

Girls' High Sch. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Eastman, Linda A., In. P. L., Cleveland, O. 
Eastman, Mary H., ref. In. Wilmington Inst. 

F. L., Wilmington, Del. 
Easton, Valerra, hospital In. Red Cross 

House, Base Hospital, Fort McHenry, 

Miss. 
Eastwood, Ruth, asst. In. Flatbush Br. P. 

L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Eaton. Alice Rhea, In. P. L.. Harrisbure. Pa. 
Eaton, Annie T., In. Lincoln Sch. Teachers' 

Coll., L., 646 Park Ave., N. Y. City. 
Eddy, C. Vernon, In. Handley L., Winches- 
ter, Va. 
Edmonds, C. K., asst. Henry E. Huntington 

L., 4 K. 57th St., N. Y. City. 
Edwards, Josephine H., P. L., New Rochelle, 

Eggers, Edward E., In. Allegheny Carnegie 

F. L., Pittsburgh, N. S., Pa. 
Eggert, Elisabeth M., Editorial Section H. 

W. Wilson Co.. N. Y. City. 



Ehle, Mary E., In. East Utica Br. P. L., 

Utica, N. Y. 
Eldridge, Bessie L., asst. In. State Normal 

ben. L,., Geneseo, N. Y. 
Eldridge, Mildred, Lending Dept. P. L.. 

Bayonne, N. J. 

Elias, Harriet, In. Norwalk Tire and Rub- 
ber Co. L., Norwalk, Conn. 
Emmons. Alice M., 215 Orchard St., Cran- 

ford, N. J. 
Emsley, Marion J., In. Sprague House Br. 

P. L., Providence, R. I. 

Endicott, Grace, In. East Liberty Br. Car- 
negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
Endicott. Louise, P. L., Washington, D. C. 
England, Grace A., chief of Civics Div. P. 

L., Detroit, Mich. 
Engle, Emma R., supervisor of Child. Work 

F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Engle, Erna. asst. 116th St. Br. P. L., N. 

Y. City. 

Eppley, Grace, Asbury Park, N. J. 
Erb, Frederick W., asst. In. and supervisor 

Loan Div. Columbia Univ. L., N. Y. City. 
Erskine, Edith, In. Harrison Tech. High 

Sch. Br. f. L.. Chicago. 
Estabrook, Lillian O., In. F. L., Newburgh, 

N. Y. 
Estey, Helen G., In. Bureau of Statistics L., 

Boston, Mass. 
Evans, Mrs. Alice G., In. F. P. L., Decatur, 

111. 

Evans, Charlotte E., catlgr. P. L., Erie, Pa. 
Evans, George H., In. P. L., Somerville, 

Mass. 
Evans, Orrena Louise, research In. Ref. L. 

U. S. Army Ordnance, Washington, D. C. 
Everett, Raymond, asst. prot. Drawing & 

Painting Univ. of Texas, Austin, Texas. 
Ewell, Rev. Glenn B., In. Rochester Theol. 

Sem. L., Rochester, N. Y. 
Fairbanks, Frances, desk asst. Wilmington 

Inst. F. L., Wilmington, Del. 
Faurote, F. L., Curtiss Aeroplane & Motor 

Corporation L., Garden City, N. Y. 
Faxon, Frederick Winthrop, proprietor F. 

W. Faxon Co., 83 Francis St., Boston, 

Mass. 
Faxon, Mrs. F. W., 41 Lorraine St., Roslin- 

dale, Mass. 

Feazel, E. A., In. Cleveland Law L., Cleve- 
land, O. 
Feddersen, Pearl E., Bessemer Park Br. P. 

L., Chicago. 
Fehrenkamp, Winifred, In. Ricker L. of 

Architecture Univ. of 111., Urbana, 111. 
Feldkamp, Cora L., In. Office of Farm Man- 
agement U. S. Dept. of Agriculture, 

Washington, D. C. 
Fell, Emily J., catlgr. Metropolitan Life 

Insurance Co. L., N. Y. City. 
Fellows. Jennie Dorcas, sub. In. Classifica- 
tion, N. Y. State L., Albany, N. Y. 
Felsenthal, Emma, asst. in Book Dept. A. 

L. A. L. War Service, Washington, D. C. 
Ferguson, Milton James, In. California 

State L., Sacramento, Calif. 
Fetter, Frank A., representing War Camp 

Community Service, Princeton Univ., 

Princeton, N. J. 
Fiery, Marion H., child. In. Mott Haven Br. 

P. L., N. Y. City. 
Findling, Clara H., asst. 96th Street Br. P. 

L.. N. Y. Citv. 
Fisher, Marie E., asst. in L. of Office of 

Farm Management of Dept. of Agricul- 
ture, Washington, D. C. 

Fisk, Mary V., In. Toledo Law Assoc., To- 
ledo, Ohio. 
Fitzpatrick, John T., law In. N. Y. State L., 

Albany, N. Y. 

Fitzpatrick, Mrs. John T., Albany, N. Y. 
Flagg, Charles Alcott, In. P. L., Bangor, Me. 
Fletcher, Sheldon, head Child. Room F. P. 

L., Newark, N. J. 
Flickinger, Mrs. Caroline R., In. F. P. L., 

Dalton, Mass. 

Fontaine, Everett O., In. U. S. Naval Air 
Station L., Pensacola, Fla. 



418 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Foote, Elizabeth L., In. Aguilar Br. P. L.. 
N. Y. City. 

Ford, Eva M., asst. secy. A. L. A., Chicago. 

Forgeus, Elizabeth, asst. In. Yale Law Sch. 
Li., New Haven, Conn. 

Foringer, Edith E., Cliffside, N. J. 

Forrest, Elizabeth, In. Coll. of Agric. and 
Mechanic. Arts Li. Univ of Montana, 
Bozeman, Mont. 

Forward, Midred R., In. City Normal Sch. 
L., Rochester, N. Y. 

Fowler, Mrs. Eva M., acting In. 111. State 
L., Springfield, 111. 

Frank, Mary, supt. Extension Div. P. L., N. 
Y. City. 

Freeman, Marilla Waite, In. Goodwyn Inst. 
L., Memphis, Tenn. 

Freidus, Abraham S., chief Jewish Div. P. 
L., X. Y. City. 

Friedel, J. H., In. Nat'l Indus. Conference 
Board, Boston, Mass. 

Fuller, George W., In. P. L., Spokane, Wash. 

Fullerton, Caroline Q., ref. In. F. P. L., 
Louisville, Ky. 

Furst, Mrs. Elizabeth H., asst. employment 
mgr. Arnold Print Works, North Adams, 
Mass. 

Gallup, Frederick L., E. I. du Pont de Ne- 
mours and Co., Wilmington, Del. 

Garland, Caroline H., In. P. L. Dover, N. H. 

Garton, May W., In. in charge F. P, L., 
West New York, N. J. 

Gaskin, Elsie, In. P. L., Derry, N. H. 

Gaston, Ethelwyn, In. Engineering Dept. L. 
Western Electric Co., 463 West St., N. Y. 
City. 

Gates, Alice J., asst. In. Bankers' Tru.st 
Co. L., 16 Wall St., N. Y. City. 

Gates, Edith M., circ. In. F. P. L., Worces- 
ter, Mass. 

Gates, Frances E., ref. asst. Woodstock Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Gates, Marguerite L,, asst. F. P. L., New- 
ark, N. .1. 

Gay, Frank B., In. Watkinson L., Hartford, 
Conn. 

Gaylord, H. J., Gaylord Bros., L. Supplies, 
Syracuse, N. Y. 

George, C. A., In. F. P. L., Elizabeth, N. J. 

Gerould, James T., In. Univ. of Minnesota 
L., Minneapolis, Minn. 

Gerould, Mrs. James T., Minneapolis, Minn. 

Gerow, Irma, asst. United Engineering So- 
cieties L., 29 W. 39th St., N. Y. City, 

Gibbs, Laura R., American Red Cross, N. 
Y. City. 

Gilpin, Margaret, In. P. L., Nashwauk, Minn. 

Ginsburg, Sophie M., foreign asst. Seward 
Park Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Glasier, Gilson G., In. Wis. State L., Mad- 
ison, Wis. 

Gleaves, Admiral Albert, U. S. Navy, 
Washington, D. C. 

Glenn, Earl R., The Lincoln Sch. of Teach- 
ers Coll. Columbia Univ., N. Y. City. 

Godard, George S., In. Conn. State L., Hart- 
ford, Conn. 

Goddard, William D., In. Deborah Cook 
Sayles P. L., Pawtucket, R. I. 

Goeppinger, Eva C., 1st asst. and catlgr. 
P. L., South Norwalk, Conn. 

Gold, Louise E., sec'y to chairman of L. 
Com. of Navy Commission on Training 
Camp Activities, N. Y. City. 

Goodell, Frederick, agent A. L. A. Dispatch 
Office, Newport News, Va. 

Goodell, Mrs. Frederick, Detroit, Mich. 

Goodison, Alice D., 1st asst. East Branch P. 
L., Camden, N. J. 

Goodrich, Dorothy Allen, sec'y to chief of 
Circ. Dept. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Goodson, Mary Allen, asst. F. P. L., Louis- 
ville, Ky. 

Goodwin, John Edward, In. Univ. of Texas 
L., Austin, Tex. 

Moulding, Philip S., catlgr. Henry E. Hunt- 
ington L., 4 E. 57th St., N. Y. City. 



Goulding, Mrs. Philip S., N. Y. City. 

Grace, Louise C., In. in charge Magnus But- 
zel Br. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Grady, Emma A., ref. asst. F. P. L., New- 
ark, N. J. 

Graffen, Jean E., chief Periodical Dept. F. 
L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Graham, Audiene, In. Price, Waterhousr 
and Co. L., 54 William St., N. Y. City. 

Grannis, Helen AT., In. F. P. L.. Perth Am- 
boy, N. J. 

Granniss, Ruth S., In. Grolier Club, N. Y. 
City. 

Gray, Elizabeth P., supt. of Binding P. L., 
Washington, D. C. 

Green, Charles R., In. Mass. Agricultural 
Coll. L.. Amherst, Mass. 

Green, Edna Sue, In. John S. Gray Br. P. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Green, Ethel Averil, In. W. Va. Dept. of 
Archives and History L., Charleston, W. 
Va. 

Green, Henry S., In. Camp L., Camp Lee, 
Va. 

Greene, Helen Holcombe, In. High Sch. L., 
Stamford, Conn. 

Greene, Lenore, asst. 96th St. Br. P. L., N. 
Y. City. 

Greene, Sara E., asst. in Lending Div., Car- 
negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Greenman, E. May, asst. Visual Instruc- 
tion Div. State Education Dept., Albany, 
N. Y. 

Greenman, Mrs. E. M., 40 South Manning 
Blvd., Albany, N. Y. 

Griffin, Glenn F., In. Camp L., Camp Shelby, 
Miss. 

Griffin, Jeanne, P. L., Kalamazoo, Mich. 

Griffith, Florence I., asst. In. Red Cross 
Inst. L., N. Y. City. 

Griffith, Olive, sr. asst. P. L., Chicago. 

Griffith, Sutherland, Y. W. C. A., 600 Lex- 
ington Ave., N. Y. City. 

Griggs, Lillian L asst. A. L. A. Dispatch 
Office, Newport News, Va. 

Grimm, Eleanor J., Finance Dept. P. L., N. 
Y. City. 

Grimm, Minerva E., In. Morrisania Br. P. 
L., N. Y. City. 

Grove, Alice L., asst. Princeton Univ. L., 
Princeton, N. J. 

Guerrier, Edith, chief of Nat'l L. Service 
U. S. Bureau of Education, Washington 
D. C. 

Gugel, Katherine L., asst. In. P. L., Colum- 
bus. O. 

Guntermann, Bertha, head Order Dept. F. 
P. L., Louisville, Ky. 

Hackett, Irene A., In. F. P. L., Englewood. 
N. J. 

Hadley, Chalmers, In. P. L., Denver, Colo. 

Hadley, Mrs. Chalmers, Denver, Colo. 

Hagan, Florence, asst. Washington Heights 
Br. P .L., N. Y. City. 

Hagy, Kathrine B., in charge of Bldg. Univ. 
of Pa. L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Hall, Agnes S., head catlgr. P. L., Denver, 
Colo. 

Hall, Mrs. Marion A., asst. Cossitt L., Mem- 
phis, Tenn. 

Halliday, Sara L., In. P. Health Div. Mu- 
nicipal Ref. L., N. Y. City. 

Hamilton, William J., sec'y and state or- 
ganizer Ind. P. L. Commission, Indian- 
apolis, Ind. 

Hammell, Olive E., A. L. A. L. War Service. 
Washington, D. C. 

Hance, Emma, chief of Order and Acces- 
sions Div. P. L. of District of Columbia, 
Washington, D. C. 

Handerson, Juliet A., asst. P. L., Cleveland, 
O. 

Handy, D. N., In. and sec'y The Insurance 
L. Assn. of Boston, Boston, Mass. 

Hannum, Frances A., In. P. L., Racine, Wis. 

Harden, Walter L., Houghton Mifflin & Co., 
N. Y. City. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



419 



Harder, Elfrida, In. McGraw-Hill Co., Inc., 

N. Y. City. 
Hardy, A. Marie, In. Hieh Sch., East 

Orange, N. J. 
Harris, Grace W., In. Carnegie F. L. Ogden, 

Utah. 
Harris, Harry Wilde, mgr. Books and 

Book World, The Sun, N. Y. City. 
Harris, Helen Margaret, asst. in charge 

Traveling L. Dept. Mo. L. Commission, 
Jefferson, Mo. 

Harrison, Joseph L., In. Forbes L., North- 
ampton, Mass. 
Harshberger, John W., Botanical Dept. 

Univ. of Pa., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Hartmann, Charlotte E., In. John Marshall 

High Sch. Br. P. L,., Chicago. 
Hassler, Harriot E., chief Child. Dept. 

Queens Borough P. L., Jamaica, N. Y. 
Hastings, C. H., chief Card Section, L. of 

Congress, Washington, D. C. 
Hatch, W. L., 546 E. 14th St., Brooklyn, N. 

Y. 

Hauenstein, Eva J., asst. F. P. L., Eliza- 
beth, N. J. 
Haught, Myrtle A., In. Wilson & Co. L., 

Chicago. 
Hawkins, Dorothy L., asst. Wilmington 

Inst. F. L., Wilmington, Del. 
Hawkins, Eleanor E., organizer Catalog 

Dept. P. L., Bridgeport, Conn. 
Hawkins, Enid May, In. Stevens Inst. of 

Technology, Hoboken, N. J. 
Hawley, Helen F., In. East Bridgeport Br. 

P. L., Bridgeport, Conn. 
Hayes, Mary, 1st asst. National City Bank 

L,., N. Y. City. 
Healy, Patrick, D. Van Nostrand Co., N. Y. 

City. 

Healy. Mrs. W. C., 20 Summit Road, Eliza- 
beth, N. J. 
Heezen, Helen M., head catlgr. Enoch Pratt 

F. L., Baltimore, Md. 

Hefron, Josephine M., ref. In. Ref. L. Guar- 
anty Trust Co., N. Y. City. 
Heilman, Lura F., In. U. S. General Hos- 
pital No. 11 L., Cape May, N. J. 
Heimbecker, Beatrice W., asst. In. York- 

ville Br. P. L,., N. Y. City. 
Heins, Elsie M., asst. Webster Br. P. L., 

N. Y. City. 
Hemphill, Helen E., asst. In. Engineering 

L. Western Electric Co., N. Y. C. 
Hendee, Cora, acting In., F. P. L., Council 

Bluffs, Iowa. 
Henderson, Lucien G., Ronald Press Co., 20 

Vesey St., N. Y. City. 
Henderson, Mary, jr. asst. P. L., Brooklyn, 

N. Y. 
Henderson, Robert W., asst. Information 

Div. Ref. Dept. P. L,., N. Y. City. 
Hendry, Donald, head of Applied Science 

Dept. Pratt Inst. F. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Henry, Jane Ackley, In. Eastern Laboratory 

L. E. I. du Pont de Nemours Co., Ches- 
ter, Pa. 
Herbert, Clara W., dir. Work with Child. 

and dir. Training Class P. L.. of District 

of Columbia, Washington, D. C. 
Hering, Hollis W., In. Missionary Research 

L., N. Y. City. 
Hewitt, Luther E., In. Law Assn. of Phila., 

Room 600, City Hall, Philadelphia, Pa. 
Hewitt, Mrs. Luther E., Philadelphia, Pa. 
Hicks, Frederick C., law In. Columbia Univ. 

L., N. Y. City. 
Hicks, Mrs. Frederick C., 530 W. 123rd St., 

N. Y. City. 
Hile, Edith E., asst. Seward Park Br. P. L., 

N. Y. City. 

Hill, Emilie, In. F. L., Summit, N. J. 
Hill, Frank Pierce, In. P. L., Brooklyn, N. 

Y. 
Hill, Galen W., In. Millicent L., Fairhaven, 

Mass. 
Hill, Gertrude P., in charge of periodicals 

Order Div. P. L., N. Y. City. 



Hill, Grace, head Catalog Dept. P. L., Kan- 
sas City, Mo. 

Hillebrand, Ruth C., asst. P. L., Detroit, 
Mich. 

Hillegas, Irene D., head catlgr. Wilmington 
Inst. F. L., Wilmington, Del. 

Hinckley, George Lyman, In. Redwood L. v 
Newport, R. I. 

Hinsdale, Louise G., In. F. P. L., East Or- 
ange, N. J. 

Hirth, Mrs. Madeline, asst. Circ. Dept. P. 
L., Detroit, Mich. 

Hiss, Sophie K., catlgr. P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Hitchcock, Ella S.. Dept. of Legislative 
Ref., City Hall, Baltimore, Md. 

Hitchler, Theresa, supt. of Catalog Dept. 
P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hobart, Frances, Cambridge, Vt. 

Hobbs, Frank H., 211 Washington Place, 
Hasbrouck Heights, N. J. 

Hobbs, Mrs. Frank H., Hasbrouck Heights 
Has'brouck Heights, N. J. 

Hodges, N. D. C., In. P. L., Cincinnati, O. 

Holding, Anna L., 63 N. Maple Ave., East 
Orange, N. J. 

Holmes, Mildred, In. Horace Mann Sch. for 
Boys, N. Y. City. 

Holton, Mary W., ref. In. Research Labora- 
tory L. Aluminum Co. of America, New 
Kensington, Pa. 

Hood, Walter D., principal The Gilbert 
School, Winsted, Conn. 

Hoofnagle, A. Raye, asst. P. L., Harris- 
burg, Pa. 

Hooker, D. Ashley, technology In. P. L., 
Detroit, Mich. 

Hoopes, Mildred S., In. of Engineering L. 
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., Wil- 
mington, Del. 

Hoover, Mary E., In. Alliance Br. P. L., 
Cleveland, O. 

Hopkins, Jessica, 1st asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Hopkins, Julia Anna, prin. Training Class 
P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hopper, Clara F., In. P. L., White Plains, 
N. Y. 

Hopper, Franklin F., chief of Order Div. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Horak, Irma H., In. St. Gabriel's Park Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Home, Lulu, In. Lincoln City L., Lincoln, 
Neb. 

Horton, Mabel T., catlgr. P. L., Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

Horton, Marion L., acting principal L. Sch. 
P. L., Los Angeles, Calif. 

Horwitz, Frances M., 2320 Superior Ave., 
Cleveland, O. 

Hotchkiss, Muriel C., child. In. P. L., 
Bridgeport, Conn. 

Houghton, Cecile F., In. High Sch. L., Al- 
bany, N. Y. 

Howell, Isabel McD., chief Order Dept. F. 
P. L., Newark, N. J. 

Hoyt, F. C., Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston, 
Mass. 

Hubbard, Anna G.. order In. P. L. Cleve- 
land, O. 

Hubbert, Frances, Pratt Inst. F. L., Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. 

Hughes, Howard L., In. F. P. L., Trenton, 
N. J. 

Hughes, Ruth, indexer and catalog clerk 
Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of Foreign 
and Domestic Com., Washington, D. C. 

Hulings, Florence, In. Brumback L., Van 
Wert, O. 

Humble, Marion, chief of Publicity Div. P. 
L., Detroit, Mich. 

Hume, Jessie Fremont, Jamaica, N. Y. 

Hunt, Clara W., supt. Child. Dept. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y., 

Hunt, M. Louise, head of Lending Dept. F. 
P. L., Newark, N. J. 

Huntington, Mary E., In. P. L., New 
Rochelle, N. Y. 



420 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Huntting, Henry R., bookseller, Springfield, 
Mass. 

Hurlbutt, Isabelle B., in charge of Child. 
Room, P. L., N. Y. City. 

Husted, Harriet F., head catlgr. Pratt Inst., 
F. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hutchinson, Mrs. Crete P., special writer 
Publicity Dept. A. L. A. L. War Service, 
Washington, D. C. 

Hutchinson, Mary D. f In. and instructor 
Cleveland Normal Training Sch. L., 
Cleveland, O. 

Hutchinson, Susan A., In. and curator of 
prints Brooklyn Inst. of Arts and Sci- 
ences Museum L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Hutton, Natalie, In. Hosmer Br. P. L., De- 
troit, Mich. 

Hyde, Dorsey W., In. Municipal Ref. L., 512 
Municipal Bldg., K. Y. City. 

Hyde, Mary E., instructor L. Sch. of the 
New York P. L., N. Y. City. 

Ibbotson, Joseph D., In. Hamilton Coll. L., 
Clinton, N. Y. 

Ingersoll, Alma H., In. in charge Edwin F. 
Conely Br. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Ingham, Roena A., In. P. L., Lakewood, O. 

Jackson, Margaret, supervisor of advanced 
courses L. Sch. of New York P. L., N. Y. 
City. 

Jacob, William F., In. Main L. General 
Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. 

Jaeger, Emily, asst. Bushwick Br. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Jeffers, Le Roy, mgr. Book Order Office P. 
L., N. Y. City. 

Jenkins, Emma M., child. In. P. L., West- 
mount, P. Q., Canada. 

Jenkins, Frederick W., In. Russell Sage 
Foundation L., N. Y. City. 

Jennings, Judson T., In. P. L., Seattle, 
Wash. 

Johnes, Dorothy, asst. P. L.., Asbury, Park, 
N. J. 

Johnson, Mrs. Belle H., 1. inspector Conn 
P. L. Committee, Hartford, Conn. 

Johnson, Elsie E., asst. In. Dept. of Ter- 
restial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution 
of Washington, Washington, D. C. 

Johnson, Ernest L., asst. Camp L., Camp 
Merritt, N. J. 

Johnson, Mildred Noe, asst. to chief of the 
Div. of Information and Statistics of the 
Americanization Study, 576 Fifth Ave 
N. Y. City. 

Johnston, Charles D., In. Cossitt L. f Mem- 
phis, Tenn. 

Johnston, Mrs. Charles D., Memphis, Tenn. 

Johnston Richard H., In. Bureau of Rail- 
way Economics L., Washington, D. C. 

Johnston, W. Dawson, In. P. L., St. Paul, 
Minn. 

Jonas, Frieda, child. In. 67th St. Br. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Jones, Caroline L., In. Hazelwood Br. Car- 
negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Jones, Cora L., asst. F. P. L., Elizabeth, 
N. J. 

Jones, E. Kathleen, In. McLean Hospital L., 
Waverley, Mass. 

Jones, Eleanor Louise, general sec'y Mass. 
F. P. L. Com., Boston, Mass. 

Jones, Miss Linn, 1st asst. and child. In. P. 
L., Oak Park, 111. 

Josselyn, Lloyd W.. In. F. P. L., Jackson- 
ville, Fla. 

Joy, Major Jason S., Commission on Train- 
ing Camp Activities, War Dept., Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Judd, Lewis S., asst. Information Desk P. 
L., N. Y. City. 

Juergens, Hubert F., publisher, 1140 Broad- 
way, N. Y. City. 

Kaiser, Boynton Swift, Tacoma, Wash. 

Kaiser, John B., In. P. L., Tacoma, Wash. 

Kaiser, Mrs. John B., Tacoma, Wash. 

Karlson, Judith E., asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 



Keefer, Jessie G.. asst. In. P. L., Scranton, 
Pa. 

Keller, R. Louise, In. Independence Bureau 
L., 137 S. 5th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Kelly, Karl D., Camp L., Camp Taylor, Ky. 

Kelso, Tessa L., In. Baker and Taylor Co., 
N. Y. City. 

Kemmerer, Leila, asst. U. S. Dept. of Agric. 
L., Washington, D. C. 

Kemp, Frances E., In. P. L., Lake Forest, 
111. 

Kennedy, Francis M., trus. F. P. L., New 
Bedford, Mass. 

Kennedy, Robert M., In. S. C. Univ. L., 
Columbia, S. C. 

Kenney, Josephine E., In. Uphams Cornel 
Br. P. L., Boston, Mass. 

Keogh, Andrew, In. Yale Univ. L., New 
Haven, Conn. 

Keppel, Frederick P., Third Asst. Secretary 
of War, Washington, D. C. 

Kersten, Maude M. E., Gift Dept. John 
Crerar L., Chicago, 111. 

Kerswill, Mrs. Harriet D., In. General En- 
gineers L., Washington, D. C. 

King, Florence, In. U. S. Debarkation Hos- 
pital No. 3 L., N. Y. City. 

Kingsley, Dena M., asst. Div. of Docu- 
ments L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Kirkland, Marian P., In. Gary Memorial L., 
Lexington, Mass. 

Klager, Karoline, asst. U. S. Bureau of La- 
bor Statistics, Washington, D. C. 

Klingelsmith, Mrs. M. C., In. Biddle Law 
L. Univ. of Pa., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Klinghoffer, Pauline, jr. asst. Bushwick Br. 
P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Knowles, Leah M., sec'y to In. F. P. L., 
Trenton, N. J. 

Koch, Theodore W., chief Order Div. L. of 
Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Koch, Mrs. Theodore W., Washington, D. C. 

Kohler, Minnie M., In. P. L., Moline, 111. 

Korner, Kathleen, 215 Cherry St., Asbury 
Park, N. J. 

Krause, Louise B., In. H. M. Byllesby and 
Co., Engineers, Chicago. 

Kraybill, Mrs. Amos E., 1113 Third Ave., As- 
bury Park, N. J. 

Krug, Julia, chief of Traveling L. Dept. P. 
L., St. Louis, Mo. 

Krum, Gracie B., In. Burton Historical Col- 
lection, P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Kruse, Elisabeth D., asst. Experimental Sta- 
tion L., E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Co., 
Wilmington, Del. 

Lamb, George H., In. Carnegie F. L., Brad- 
dock, Pa. 

Lammers, Sophia J., ref. In. Univ. of Neb. L., 
Lincoln, Neb. 

Lancefield, Hilda M., asst. br. In. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Landon, Fred, In. P. L., London, Ont., Can- 
ada. 

Lane, Harriet, In. P. L., Freeport, 111. 

Lang, Nan H., asst. child. In. Wilmington 
Inst. F. L., Wilmington, Del. 

Langdon, Amelia E., catlgr. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Langdon, William E., In. Camp L., Camp 
Humphreys, Va. 

Lawrence, Juliet, P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Laws, Mrs. Charles W., In. P. L., Park Ridge, 
N. J. 

Lease, Evelyn S., In. Kellogg-Kubbard L., 
Montpelier, Vt. 

Leatherman, Marian, department In. Histor- 
ical and Political Science, Univ. of 111., 
Urbana, 111. 

Leavitt, Maria V., in charge Gifts P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Lee, George Winthrop, In. Stone and Web- 
ster, Boston. Mass. 

Leete, John H., director Carnegie L., Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. 

Le Fevre, Helena S., In. Spies P. L., Me- 
nominee, Mich. 

Lehmann, Elsie M., sr. asst. Morrisania Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



421 



Leitch, Harriet E., In. Debarkation Hospital 

No. 51 L., Hampton, Va. 
Lemcke, Ernst, importer and bookseller, 

Lemcke and Buechner, 30-32 W. 27th St., 

N. Y. City. 
Lemcke, Hildegarde, asst. In. F. L., Orange, 

N. J. 
Lester, Clarence B., chief Dept. of Leg. Ref. 

Instruction Wis. F. L. Com., Madison, Wis. 
Letson, Helen F., In. Bloomingdale Hospital 

L., White Plains, N. Y. 
Lewis, Frank G., In. Bucknell L. Crozer 

Theol. Sem. and American Baptist Hist. 

Soc., Chester, Pa. 
Lewis, Willard P., In. Baylor Univ. L., Waco, 

Texas. 
Liebergeld, Emily Z., In. N. Y. State Normal 

Sch. L., New Paltz, N. Y. 
Liebmann, Estelle L., In. Nat'l Workmen's 

Compensation Service Bureau L., N. Y. 

City. 

Lien, Elias J., In. State L., St. Paul, Minn. 
Lilly, Elizabeth, child. In. F. P. L., Bur- 
lington, Iowa. 
Lindberg, Thure H., Snead and Co. Iron 

Works, Jersey City, N. J. 
Lingenfelter, Mary R., In. F. L., Ardmore, 

Pa. 
Linton, Gussie A., asst. Cambria F. L., 

Johnstown. Pa. 
Littlefield, Elveretta, child. In. Carnegie F. 

L., Ogden, Utah. 
Lloyd, Florence M., ref. asst. Wilmington 

Inst. F. L., Wilmington, Del. 
Lovell, Mildred Gould, child. In. Pratt Inst. 

F. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Lowe, John Adams, agent Mass. F. P. L. 

Commission, Boston, Mass. 
Ludey, Mrs. Metta R., In. Jarvie Mem. L., 

Bloomfleld. N. J. 
Lupton, Miss A. W., In. F. P. L., Rahway, 

N. J. 
Lydenberg, Harry M., chief ref. In. P. L., 

N. Y. City. 
Lynch, Mae E., asst. Princeton Univ. L., 

Princeton, N. J. 

McArthur, Muriel A., A. L. A. Dispatch Of- 
fice, N. Y. City. 
McCarnes, Mabel F., In. Longstreet L. of 

Peddie Inst., Hightstown, N. J. 
McCarthy, Ada J., In. L. Supplies Dept. Dem- 
ocrat Printing Co., Madison, Wis. 
McChesney, Rosalie, asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 
McClelland, Ellwood H., technology In. Car- 
negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. 
McCloy, Elizabeth J., asst. Oberlln Coll. L.., 

Oberlin, O. 
McCollough, Ethel F., In. P. L., Evansville, 

Ind. 
McCombs, Charles F., 1st asst. Readers' Div. 

P. L.. N. Y. City. 
McCombs, Nelson W., ref. asst. Information 

Div. P. L., N. Y. City. 
McDonald. Jeannette, head Dept. of English 

High Sch. of Commerce, Omaha, Neb. 
McDowell, Ella R., asst. Camp L, Camp 

Devens, Mass. 

MacDowell, Ethel, In. P. L., Ashtabula, O. 
McDowell, Grace E., In. Eastern Parkway 

Br. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Mace, Nettie V., In. Maryland State L., An- 
napolis, Md. 

McGlenn, Alma Reid, In. P. L., Tulsa, Okla. 
McGovern. Frances, In. Tech. L., B. F. Good- 
rich Co., Akron, O. 
Mackay, Dorothy M. E., child. In. P. L., 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 
McKay, Mary Nell, ref. In. Mich. State L., 

Lansing, Mich. 
McKinstry, Ruth E., In. World's Student 

Christian Federation L., N. Y. City. 
McLean, Ruth B., catlgr. Conn. State L., 

Hartford, Conn. 
McMahon, Lillian J., In. Schermerhorn Br. 

P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

McManis, Rumana K., asst. Fort Washing- 
ton Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 



McMillen, James A., In. Washington Uni- 
versity L., St. Louis, Mo. 

McMurtrie, Douglas C., director Red Cross 
Inst. for Crippled and Disabled Men, N. 
Y. City. 

McNaier, Emilie, In. U. S. Debarkation Hos- 
pital No. 1 L., Ellis Island, N. Y. 

McNamara, H. Katherine, asst. to In. Sch. 
of Landscape Architecture L. Harvard 
Univ., Cambridge, Mass. 

McNiece, Mrs. Jessie S., P. L., St. Louis, Mo. 

MacPherson, Harriet D., catlgr. Columbia 
Univ. L., N. Y. City. 

McVeety, Mrs. Ethel. In. N. D. Agric. Coll. 
L., Fargo, N. D. 

Madden, Eulalia M., In. The American Brass 
Co. L., Waterbury, Conn. 

Magill, H. N. W., A. L. A. Dispatch Office, 
31 W. 15th St., N. Y. City. 

Maiden, Grace, In. North End Br. P. L., 
Bridgeport, Conn. 

Major, Antoinette V., 2nd asst. Lending 
Dept. P. L., New Rochelle, N. Y. 

Makepeace, Mary E., In. R. I. State Normal 
Sch. L., Providence, R. I. 

Malone, Marcella, br. In. Queens Borough 
P. L., Jamaica, N. Y. 

Malone, Maud, sr. asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Manhart, George B., In. Camp L, Camp Pike, 
Ark. 

Manley, Marian C., asst. F. P. L., Newark, 
N. J. 

Mann, Margaret, head catlgr. United Engi- 
neering Societies L., N. Y. City. 

Marion, Guy E., Community Motion Picture 
Bureau, 46 W. 24th St., N. Y. City. 

Marion, Mrs. Guy E,, N. Y. City. 

Markowitz, Augusta, In. Woodstock Br. P. 
L., N. Y. City. 

Marks, Mary E., ref. In. State Traveling L., 
Des Moines, Iowa. 

Marquand, Fanny E., reviser Ref. Catalog 
Dept. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Marron, Joseph F., In. Camp L. Camp Travis, 
Texas. 

Martel, Charles, chief of Catalog Div. L. of 
Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Martin, Helen, child. In. P. L., East Cleve- 
land, O. 

Martin, Marjorie H., In. U. S. General Hos- 
pital No. 3 L., Rahway, N. J. 

Martin, Phyllis McF., reviser Ref. Catalog 
Dept. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Marvin, Katherine G., catlgr. Columbia 
Univ. L., N. Y. Ci'y. 

Marx, Henry F., In. P. L., Easton, Pa. 

Mason, Alfred D., sec'y Board of Directors 
Cossitt L., Memphis, Tenn. 

Massee, May, editor The Booklist, Chicago. 

Masters, Lydia W., In. P. L., Watertown, 
Mass. 

Masterson, F. Adele, child. In. Prospect Br. 
P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Mathews, Mary E., In. Macon Br. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Mathiews, Franklin K., chief scout In. Boy 
Scouts of America, N. Y. City. 

Matthews, Evelyn L., In. State Normal Sch. 
L., Indiana. Pa. 

Mawson, C. O. S., in charge A. L. A. Over- 
seas Dispatch Office Harvard Coll. L., Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 

May, Anna, In. U. S. General Hospital No. 
41 L., Fox Hills, S. I., N. Y. 

Mayorga, Margaret G., In. Chemical National 
Bank, N. Y. City. 

Mead, Elizabeth L.. catlgr. High Sch. L., 
Greenwich, Conn. 

Meehan, Lina, asst. A. L. A. Dispatch Of- 
fice, Newport News, Va. 

Meigs, Emily B., 1st asst. Brownsville Child. 
Br. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Meisel, Max, In. Camp L., Camp Knox, Ky. 

Melcher, Frederick G., vice president R. R. 
Bowker Co., N. Y. City. 

Melick, Alice P., child. In. F. P. L., Bay- 
onne, N. J. 

Melvain, Janet F., In. American Social Hy- 



422 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



giene Assn., N. Y. City. 

Mensel, Mary, child. In. P. L., Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

Merry, Mrs. Mildred M., child. In. Hamil- 
ton Fish Park Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Merville, Florence E., catlgr. and asst. F. 
P. L., llion, N. Y. 

Metcalf, Keyes D., asst. in charge of Stacks 
P. L,., N. Y. City. 

Mettee, Andrew H., In. L. Company of Balti- 
more Bar, Baltimore, Md. 

Meyer, Herman H. B., chief bibliographer 
L. of Congress, Washington, D. C. 

Meyer, Milton W., in charge of Publicity 
A. L. A. L. War Service, Washington, D. C. 

Middleton, Jean Y., Ripon, Wis. 

Milam, Carl H., dir. P. L., Birmingham, Ala. 

Miller, Agnes, In. F. P. L., Princeton, N. J. 

Miller, Clara, In. McCiymonds P. L., Mas- 
sillon, O. 

Miller, Edmund W., In. F. P. L., Jersey City, 
N. J. 

Miller, Herbert A., Oberlin, Ohio. 

Miller, Mrs. Herbert A., Oberlin, O. 

Miller, Jeannette, asst. P. L., Asbury Park, 
N. J. 

Miller, Mrs. Minnie Bearing, In. Jefferson 
Br. F. P. L., Louisville, Ky. 

Miller, Wharton, asst. In. P. L., Syracuse, 
N. Y. 

Miller, Zana K., acting ed. Public Libraries, 
Chicago. 

Mills, M. Eleanor, 1st asst. Travel. L's. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Miltimore, Louise, In. American Inst. of Ac- 
countants L., N. Y. City. 

Mitchell, Alma C., In. N. J. P. Service Cor- 
poration L., Newark, N. J. 

Mitchell, Lucy A., In. P. L., Palacias, Texas. 

Mitchell, Mrs. S. P. Snowden, 2205 Walnut 
st., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Molleson, Susan M., sr. asst. P. L., N. Y. 
City. 

Molnar, Ida B. L., In. Melrose Br. P. L., N. 
Y. City. 

Montfort, Marjorie S., asst. F. P. L., Eliza- 
beth, N. J. 

Montgomery, Ruth, 1st asst. Leg. Ref. Sec. 
N. Y. State L., Albany, N. Y. 

Montgomery, Thomas L., In. State L., Har- 
risburg, Pa, 

Moore, Annie Carroll, supervisor of Work 
with Child. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Moore, Miss M. E., 418 Fifth Ave., Belmar, 
N. J. 

Morgan, Joy E., In. Camp L, Camp MacAr- 
thur, Texas. 

Morgan, Lucy L., instructor apprentices P. 
L., Detroit. Mich. 

Morley, Linda H., In. Business Br. F. P. L., 
Newark, N. J. 

Morrell. Edith W., Hollister Mills, 2 W. 13th 
St., N. Y. City. 

Morris, Deborah, architectural In. Univ. of 
Pa. L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Mortimer, Emma T., asst. F. P. L., Vineland, 
N. J. 

Mosher, Marion Dix, In. Genesee Br. P. L., 
Rochester, N. Y. 

Moth. Axel, chief Ref. Catalog Div. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Mueser, Emilie. 1. organizer Lucas County 
L., Maumee, O. 

Mumford, E. W., care Penn Pub. Co., Phil- 
adelphia, Pa. 

Munson, Brig. General E. L., chief Morale 
Branch, General Staff, War Dept, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Muech, Philura E., P. L., N. Y. City. 

Muse, Benonine, stud. N. Y. State L. Sch., 
Albany, N. Y. 

Muss-Arnolt, William, Boston, Mass. 

Nelms, Marie, asst. P. L., Dallas, Texas. 

Nelson, Martha F., In. N. J. State Normal 
Sch. L., Trenton, N. J. 



Nelson, Peter, archivist N. Y. State L., Al- 
bany, N. Y. 

Newberry, Marie A., instructor L. Sch. of 
N. Y. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Newhard, Mabel, In. Armour and Co. L., Chi- 
cago. 

Newkirk, Bessie H., 1st asst. F. P. L., Cam- 
den, N. J. 

Newtn, Clara M., 1st asst. Catalog Dept. P. 
L., Detroit, Mich. 

Norris, Helen, In. Commonwealth Edison Co. 
L., Chicago. 

Nott, May E., In. Delaware, Hudson Rail- 
way Co., 32 Nassau St., N. Y. City. 

Oberly, Eunice R., In. Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry, Dept. of Agric., Washington, D. C. 

Odeh, Nasra, F. P. L., Newark, N. J. 

Olcott, Emma M., In. Prospect Br. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Oliver, Edith Broome, Collingswood, N. J. 

Oliver, Mrs. E. E., asst. F. P. L., Collings- 
wood, N. J. 

Olney, Eleanor, In. U. S. General Hospital 
No. 30 L., Plattsburg, Barracks, N. Y. 

Olschewsky, Johanna L., asst. In. Red Cross 
Inst. for Crippled and Disabled Men L., 
N. Y. City. 

O'Neill, Irene G., asst. Supply Depf. P. L., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Olson, Nelle A., In. N. D. State Normal Sch. 
L., Mayville, N. D. 

Osborn, George A., In. Rutgers Coll. L., New 
Brunswick, N. J. 

Osborne, Frances S., ref. In. P. L., Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Osborne, Lucy E., head catlgr. Williams Coll. 
L., Williamstown, Mass. 

Osgood, Mary A., In. Westport Br. P. L., 
Kansas City, Mo. 

O'Sullivan, Mary I., Bryn Mawr Coll. L., 
Bryn Mawr, Pa. 

Otis, Mabel L., supervisor of Branches 
Queens Borough P. L., Jamaica, N. Y. 

Overton, Florence, supervisor of Branches 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Overton, Jacqueline M., In. U. S. General 
Hospital No. 9 L., Lakewood, N. J. 

Owen, Adelaide, asst. Henry M. Utley Br. 
P. L., Detroit, Mich. 

Owens, Alpha L., sr. asst. John Crerar L., 
Chicago. 

Pafort, Emma L., ref. asst. Financial L. of 
the National City Co., N. Y. City. 

Page, Mildred A., child. In. Takoma Park 
Br. P. L. of D. C., Washington, D. C. 

Paine, Fantine, asst. child, dept. P. L., Provi- 
dence, R. I. 

Paine, Paul M., In. P. L., Syracuse, N. Y. 

Painter, Stella E., H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. 
City. 

Parham, Nellie E., In. Withers P. L., Bloom- 
ington, 111. 

Parker, Anna J., br. In. Enoch Pratt F. L., 
Baltimore, Md. 

Parker, Glen, Baker and Taylor Co., N. Y. 
City. 

Parker, Mrs. Glen, 29 Prospect St., White 
Plains, N. Y. 

Parker, John. In. Peabody Inst. L., Balti- 
more, Md. 

Parkinson, Herman O., F. P. L., Newark, 
N. J. 

Parsons, Harrison M., head of Buildings and 
Equipment Dept. Queens Borough P. L., 
Jamaica, N. Y. 

Parsons, Mary P., In. Morristown L., Mor- 
ristown, N. J. 

Partch, Isa L., In. Osius Br. P. L., Detroit, 
Mich. 

Patterson, Edith, In. P. P. L., Pottsville, Pa. 

Pauli, Adolph F., asst. Camp L, Camp Sher- 
man, O. 

Pearson, Netina, Tulsa, Okla. 

Peck, Eunice E., In. Winchester Repeating 
Arms Co. L., New Haven, Conn. 

Peck, Eva R., Business & Municipal Dept. 
P. L., Fort Wayne, Ind. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



423 



Peck, George M., ref. In. Princeton Univ. 
L., Princeton, N. J. 

Penniman, Jennie C., In. P. L.. Windsor, Vt. 

Penrose, Kate A., 1st asst. Epiphany Br. P. 
L., N. Y. City. 

Peters, Orpha Maud, asst. In. P. L., Gary, 
Ind. 

Pettee, Julia, head catlgr. Union Theologi- 
cal Sem. L,., N. Y. City. 

Petty, Annie F., In. State Normal Coll. Lt., 
Greensboro, N. C. 

Phail, Edith, In. Scovill Mfg. Co. L., Water- 
bury, Conn. 

Phelan, John F., chief of Branches P. L., 
Chicago. 

Phelps, Edith Allen, In. P. L., Tyler, Tex. 

Phelps, Edith M., editor and correspond- 
ent H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. City. 

Phillips, Phyllis, 408 W. 20th St., N. Y. 
City. 

Phipps, Alice R., catlgr. P. L., Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

Pidgeon, Marie K., asst. Bureau of Plant 
Industry L., U. S. Dept. of Agric., Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

Pierce, Anne, In. Carnegie L., Charlotte, 
N. C. 

Pillsbury, Mrs. J. W., Providence, R. I. 

Pillsbury, Mary B., catlgr. Vassar Coll. L., 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

Pillsbury, Mary M., In. General Theologi- 
cal L., Boston, Mass. 

Pillsbury, Olive ' E., In. Blackstone Br. P. 
L., Chicago. 

Pinneo, Dorothy A., asst. In. F. P. L., Eliz- 
abeth, N. J. 

Pinneo, Dotha Stone, In. P. L., Norwalk, 
Conn. 

Pollard, Annie A., 2nd asst. In. P. L., 
Grand Rapids, Mich. 

Poole, Franklin O., In. Assoc. of the Bar L., 
N. Y. City. 

Porter, Josephine W., In. P. L., Asbury 
Park, N. J. 

Porter, Washington T., trus. P. L., Cincin- 
nati, O. 

Porter, William K., In. Camp L., Camp 
Doniphan, Okla. 

Potter, Mildred B., 1st asst. Duffleld Br. P. 
L., Detroit, Mich. 

Potts, Edith W., ref. In. Academy, of the 
New Church L., Bryn Athyn, Pa. 

Power, Erne L., head of Child. Dept. Car- 
negie L., Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Prall, Beatrice, In. P. L., Little Rock, Ark. 

Pratt, Adelene J., asst. In. Jackson Sq. Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Pratt, Edna B., In. P. L., Passaic, N. J. 

Prentiss, Charlotte R., chief of Circ. Dept. 
F. P. L., Elizabeth, N. J. 

Prescott, Harriet B... supervisor Catalog 
and Class. Dept. Columbia Univ. L., N. Y. 
City. 

Prevost, Marie Louise, head catlgr. F. P. L., 
Newark, N. J. 

Price, Anna M., sec'y 111. L. Extension Com., 
Springfield, 111. 

Price, Christine, In. in charge Williams 
Coll. L., Williamstown, Mass. 

Price, Franklin H., Binding and Exchanges 
F. L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Pritchett, Betty H., catlgr. Iowa State Coll. 
L., Ames, Iowa. 

Prouty, Edythe A., supervisor L. Stations 
P. L., Cleveland, O. 

Pyne, M. Taylor, chairman N. J. P. L. Com- 
mission, Princeton, N. J. 

Quaife, M. M., supt. Wis. State Historical 
Society, M'adison, Wis. 

Quaife, Mrs. M. M., Madison, Wis. 

Quinby, M. Gladys, child. In. F. L., Orange 
N. J. 

Randall, Louise, In. P. L., Whiting, Ind. 

Raney, M. L., In. Johns Hopkins Univ. L., 
Baltimore, Md. 

Rankin, Rebecca B., asst. In. Municipal Ref. 
L., N. Y. City. 



Rathbone, Josephine A., vice-director Sch. 
of L. Science Pratt Inst., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Rawlins, Mary Starr, 1st asst. Riverside Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Rawson, Fannie C., sec'y Ky. L. Commis- 
sion, Frankfort, Ky. 

Redstone, Edward H., In. State L., Boston, 
Mass. 

Reece, Ernest J., principal L. Sch. of the 
New York P. L., N. Y. City. 

Reed, Lois A., In. Bryn Mawr Coll. L., Bryn 
Mawr, Pa. 

Reed, Susan H., asst. Seward Park Br. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Reese, Rena, asst. In. P. L., Denver, Colo. 

Reider, Joseph, asst. In. Dropsie Coll. L., 
Philadelphia, Pa. 

Reinecke, Clara M., sr. asst. P. L., Brook- 
lyn, N. Y. 

Remann, Henry C., In. Lincoln L., Spring- 
field, 111. 

Rey, Florence M., child. In. P. L., Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

Reynolds, Marion J., In. Swift and Co. L., 
Chicago. 

Rice, Paul North, ref. asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Rich, Pauline H., H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. 
City. 

Richardson, Ernest C, In. Princeton Univ. 
L., Princeton, N. J. 

Richardson, Mary C., In. Normal Sch. L., 
Geneseo, N. Y. 

Ridlon, Margaret, In. P. L., Highland Park, 
111. 

Rines, George E., Albany, N. Y. 

Rines. Mrs. George E., Albany, N. Y. 

Ritter, Clement V., bookseller, 830-835 Old 
Colony Bldg., Chicago. 

Robbins, Mary Esther, principal L. Instruc- 
tion R. I. State Normal Sch. L., Provi- 
dence, R. I. 

Roberts, Alma R., chief catlgr. F. P. L., 
Bayonne, N. J. 

Roberts, Blanche C., vice and child. In. P. L., 
Columbus, O. 

Roberts, Etta M., In. P. L., Wheeling, W. Va. 

Roberts, Flora B;, In. P. L., Kalamazoo, 
Mich. 

Robinson, Julia A., sec'y Iowa L. Commis- 
sion, Des Moines, Iowa. 

Robinson, Sylvia H., P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Rodemeyer, Gesine M., Delta Laboratory, E. 
I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., Arlington, 
N. J. 

Roden, Carl B., In. P. L., Chicago. 

Roden, Mrs. Carl B., Chicago. 

Roe, Harriet W., 9 Chestnut St., Albany, 
N. Y. 

Roder, Alice E., In. P. L., Wyomissing, Pa. 

Rogers, Katharine B., ref. In. N. J. State L., 
Trenton. N. J. 

Rogers, Mary E., child. In. Aguilar Br. P. L., 
N. Y. City. 

Roghe, Hedwig, br. In. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Rolfsen, Ellen, P. L., N. Y. City. 

Roosa, Howard, pres. L. Board, Evansville, 
Ind. 

Root, Azariah S., In. Oberlin Coll. L., Otoer- 
lin, O. 

Root, Marion M., asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Rose, Alice L., In. Financial L. of the Na- 
tional City Bank, N. Y. City. 

Ross, Cecil A., acting In. Camp L., Camp 
Gordon, Ga. 

Ross, Mrs. Cecil A., Otsego, Mich. 

Rossell, Mary E., child. In. St. George Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Rothrock, Mary U., In. Lawson McGhee L., 
Knoxville, Tenn. 

Rowe. Miltanna, head In. Md. State Coll. L., 
College Park, Md. 

Rush, Charles E., In. P. L., Indianapolis, 
Ind. 

Ryan, Anna M., asst. In. Supreme Court 
Law L., Buffalo, N. Y. 

Sabin, Lilian, asst. In. Tempe Normal Sch., 
L., Tempe, Ariz. 



424 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Sampson, E. Elizabeth, asst. in L. Science 

Simmons Coll., Boston, Mass. 
Santoorn, Henry N., In. P. L., Bridgeport, 

Conn. 
Sanborn, William F., In. P. L., Cadillac, 

Mich. 

Sanborn, Mrs. William F., Cadillac, Mich. 
Sanderson, Edna M., registrar N. T. State 

L. Sch., Albany, N. Y. 
Sanville, Frances, H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. 

City. 
Sartorius, Joseph J., asst. Ref. Desk Gros- 

venor L., Buffalo, N. Y. 
Sattinger, Fanny Ruth, In. Brightwood Br. 

P. L., Indianapolis, Ind. 
Sawyer, Mrs. Harriet P., principal L. Sch. 

P. L,., St. Louis, Mo. 
Saxe, Mary S., In. P. L., Westmount, P. Q., 

Canada. 
Saxton, Ruth, asst. ref. In. 96th St. Br. P. 

L., N. Y. City. 
Schantz, Carolyn R., asst. Tech. L., E. I. du 

Pont de Nemours & Co., Wilmington, Del. 
Schilling, Julia Anita, asst. In. P. L., Savan- 
nah. Ga. 

Schmidt, Dorothea C., in charge Sch. of Com- 
merce and Administration L., Univ. of 

Chicago, Chicago. 

Schott, Chara M., P. L., Washington, D. C. 
Schriever, Emma M., br. In. F. P. L., Bay- 

onne, N. J. 
Schulte, Theodore E., bookseller, 80-82 

Fourth Ave., N. Y. City. 
Schulte, Mrs. Theodore E., 101 Stockton 

Ave., Ocean Grove, N. J. 
Schultze, Agnes W., P. L., N. Y. City. 
Scott, Margaret K., tor. In. F. P. L., Bayonne, 

N. J. 
Sears, Rose Roberts, asst. A. L. A. Library 

War Service, Washington, D. C. 
Settle, George T., In. F. P. L., Louisville, Ky. 
Settle, Mrs. George T., Louisville, Ky. 
Severance, Henry O., In. Univ. of Mo. L., 

Columbia, Mo. 

Sewall, Willis F., 1st Lieut. U. S. A., Hobo- 
ken. N. J. 
Sewall, Mrs. Willis F., 60 Harrison St., East 

Orange, N. J. 
Sexauer, Emilie, asst. Hosmer Br. P. L., 

Detroit. Mich. 
Sexton, Eunice R., child. In. P. L., N. Y. 

City. 
Sharp, Kathryn, asst. A. L. A. Dispatch 

Office, 31 W. 15th St., N. Y. City. 
Shattuck, Helen B., In. Vermont Univ. L., 

Burlington, Vt. 
Shaw. Robert K., In. F. P. L., Worcester, 

Mass. 

Shearer, Augustus H., In. Grosvenor L., Buf- 
falo, N. Y. 
Sheldon, Fanny A., br. In. P. L., Brooklyn, 

Shelly, Adah, In. Carnegie P. L., Sault Ste. 
Marie, Mich. 

Sherman, Clarence E., In. P. L., Lynn, Mass. 

Sherrard, Mary C., executive asst. P. L., 
Utica, N. Y. 

Sherwood, Elizabeth J., editor Readers' 
Guide, H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. City. 

Shields, Ethel A., 1st asst. Tech. Dept. P. L., 
Bridgeport, Conn. 

Shivers, Marion B., In. Woman's Coll. of Ala. 
L., Montgomery, Ala. 

Shulze, Margaret M., 1st asst. Child. Dept. 
P. L.. Fort Wayne, Ind. 

Silvester, Effiie E., Princeton Univ. L., 
Princeton, N. J. 

Simpson, Ida D., In. 96th St. Br. P. L., N. Y. 
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Simpson. Miss Ray. In. Brooklyn Botanic 
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Sims, Frances H., In. Embarkation Hospital 
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Skarstedt, Marcus, In. P. L., Evanston, 111. 

Skinner, Margaret E., asst. P. L., Washing- 
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Slobod, Ansel, In. Curtiss Engineering Cor- 
poration, Garden City, L. I., N. Y. 



Small, A. J., law and legislative ref. In. 
I9wa State L., Des Moines, Iowa. 

Smith. Barbara H., ref. In. Silas Bronson 
L., Wateroury, Conn. 

Smith, Bessie Sargeant, supervisor Smaller 
Branches and High Sens. P. L., Cleveland, 
O. 

Smith, C. Henry, In. Buckingham L. Univ. 
of Colo., Boulder, Colo. 

Smith, Mrs. C. Henry, trus. P. L., Boulder, 
Colo. 

Smith, Charles W., assoc. In. Univ. of Wash- 
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Smith, Edith L., chief Child. Dept. F. P. L., 
Trei.ton, N. J. 

Smith, George Dana, In. Fletcher F. L., Bur- 
lington, Vt. 

Smith, Jessie G., head of Lending Dept. F. P. 
L., East Orange, N. J. 

Smith, Julian F., In. Research L. National 
Aniline and Chemical Co., Buffalo, N. Y. 

Smith, Mellie Morris, In. Toledo Univ. L., 
Toledo, O. 

Smith, Susan T., ref. In. State L., Sacra- 
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Smith, Mrs. Walter P., chairman Vt. F. L. 
Commission, 20 Summer St., St. Johns- 
bury, Vt. 

Snow, Beatrice, 1st asst. Parmly Billings 
Mem. L., Billings, Mont. 

Sornborger, Harriet B., In. Bancroft Memo- 
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Spaulding, Forrest B., In. P. L., Des Moines, 
Iowa. 

Spaulding, Mrs. Forrest B., Des Moines, 
Iowa. 

Speck, Mrs. Laura, general asst. P. L., St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Spiers, Charles E., D. Van Nostrand Co., 25 
Park Place, N. Y. City. 

Sperry, Helen, In. Silas Bronson L., Water- 
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Spettigue, Everett V., Honesdale, Pa. 

Spofford, Mrs. Edith F., In. Bureau of Mines 
L., Washington, D. C. 

Spofford, Mrs. Lucinda F., In. P. L., Attle- 
boro. Mass. 

Spofford, Walter R., In. University Club L., 
Chicago. 

Sprague, Leslie W., director Industrial Serv- 
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W. 24th St., N. Y. City. 

Squires, Tilloah, special research In., N. Y. 
City. 

Stagg, Mary L., chief of Circ. F. P. L., Pat- 
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Stanger, Marion E., chief class. Univ. of Pa. 
L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Starrett, Mildred, asst. Avery Architectural 
L., Columbia Univ., N. Y. City. 

Stebbins, Howard L., In. Social Law L., Bos- 
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Stechert, Mrs. Emma, 62 Pisrrepont St., 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Stechert, F. C., pres. F. C. Stechert Cc., 
N. Y. City. 

Stechert, H. A., F. C. Stechert Co., N. Y. 
City. 

Steele, Elizabeth K., In. F. P. L., Lorain, O. 

Steere, Elizabeth B., asst. In. Law L. Univ. 
of Mich., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Steiner, Bernard C., In. Enoch Pratt F. L., 
Baltimore. Md. 

Stetson, Willis K., In. F. P. L., New Haven, 
Conn. 

Stevens, Edward F., In. Pratt Inst. F. I,, 
and director Sch. of L. Science, Brooklvn, 
N. Y. 

Stewart, Irene, ref. In. Carnegie L., Pitts- 
burgh, Pa. 

Stewart, Mrs. M. E., 45 Woodruff Place, 
Perth Amboy, N. J. 

Stewart. Martha A., Dept. of Agric. L., 
Charleston. W. Va. 

Stockett, Julia C., In. A. L. A. Border Travel. 
L. Service, El Paso Texas. 

Stone. William C., Periodical Dept. City L.. 
Springfield, Mass. 



ATTENDANCE REGISTER 



425 



Stout, Marion, asst. Catalog Dept. Princeton 

Univ. L., Princeton, N. J. 
Strohm, Adam, In. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 
Strong, George F., In. Adelbert Coll. L., 

Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, O. 
Stuart, Mrs. Charles B., Lafayette, Ind. 
Stuart, Theresa C., 1. organizer Maine L. 

Commission, Augusta, Me. 
Stull, Maud I.. In. World Outlook Publish- 
ing Co., N. Y. City. 
Sturgis, Sarah Louise, 1st asst. and ref. In. 

P. L., Fort Wayne, Ind. 
Subers, Helen D., 1. organizer, Ashbourne, 

Pa. 
Sullivan, Cathryn H., jr. asst. Tremont Br. 

P. L., N. Y. City. 
Sullivan, Clara G., In. J. Sterling Morton 

High Sch. L., Cicero, 111. 
Sutliff, Mary Louisa, instructor L. Sch. of 

New York P. L., N. Y. City. 
Button, Elisabeth, chief catlgr. F. P. L., 

Paterson, N. J. 
Swain, Allene R., asst. Municipal Ref. L., 

N. Y. City. 

Switzer, Grace E., asst. P. L., Cleveland, O. 
Tafel, Lenora A., New Jersey Zinc Co. L., 

N. Y. City. 
Taggart, Anne Van Cleve, supt. Branches 

P. L., Grand Rapids, Mich. 
Tai, Tse-chien, stud. N. Y. State L. Sch., 

Albany, N. Y. 
Tappert, Katherine, vice-In. Washington 

County F. L., Hagerstown, Md. 
Tate, Blanche M., In. Gray Br. P. L., De- 
troit, Mich. 
Taylor, Mrs. Mary P., 161 Princeton Ave., 

Providence, R. I. 
Taylor, Wm. B. A., chief Ref. Accessions 

Div. P. L., N. Y. City. 
Teal, William, supt. of Delivery John 

Crerar L., Chicago. 
Tefft, Bessie, head of Br. and Sch. Dept. 

Cossitt L., Memphis, Tenn. 
Teggart, Frederick J., 419 West 117th St., 

N. Y. City. 
Teich, Emma L., ed. of Cumulative Book 

Index, H. W. Wilson Co., N. Y. City. 
Teich, Louise, ed. Industrial Arts, H. W. 

Wilson Co., N. Y. City. 
Temple, Truman R., In. Thomas Crane P. 

L., Quincy, Mass. 
Thayer, Charles S., In. Case Memorial L., 

Hartford, Conn. 
Thayer, Edna, In. North End Br. P. L., 

Providence, R. I. 

Thomas, Leon I., ed. of Factory, Chicago. 
Thomas, Mrs. Mary R., Safety Inst. of 

America, N. Y. City. 
Thompson, Arthur J., in charge Dept. of 

Archives and History, Charleston, W. Va. 
Thompson, C. Seymour, In. P. L., Savannah, 

Ga. 
Thompson, Dorothy H., asst. P. L., Grand 

Rapids, Mich. 
Thompson, Golda M., general asst. P. L,., 

Detroit, Mich. 
Thorne, Elizabeth G., instructor Syracuse 

Univ. L. Sch., Syracuse, N. Y. 
Thorne, Nora R., In. Joseph Bancroft and 

Sons Co., Wilmington, Del. 
Throop, George R., asst. In. P. L., St. Louis, 

Mo. 

Tichenor, Barcus, asst. Catalog Dept Pur- 
due Univ. L., Lafayette, Ind. 
Tilton, Edward L., architect, 52 Vanderbilt 

Ave., N. Y. City. 
Tilton, Mrs. Edward L., 126 Archer Ave., 

Mt. Vernon, N. Y. 
Timmerman, Hazel B., child. In. Yorkville 

Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 
Timmins, George, trus. P. L., Syracuse, 

Tingley, Pauline E., asst. In. National 
Workmen's Compensation Service Bu- 
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Titcomb, Mary L., In. Washington County 
F. L., Hagerstown, Md. 



Tobias, Ella F., 1st asst. Catalog Dept. P. 
L., Cleveland, O. 

Tobitt, Edith, In. P. L., Omaha, Neb. 

Torrence, Mrs. Crown, asst. Child. Room 
58th St. Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Towns, Alexander, Library Bureau, Boston, 
Mass. 

Townsend, S. D., Educational Dept. Victor 
Talking Machine Co., Camden, N. J. 

Traver, Louis B., agent A. L. A. Dispatch 
Office, 119 Hudson St., Hoboken, N. J. 

Traver, Mrs. Louis B., Trenton, N. J. 

Trimble, Katherine M., asst. Drexel Inst. 
L., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Tripp, George H., In. F. P. L., New Bed- 
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True, Ellen I., 20 Highland St., Hammond, 
Ind. 

True, Mabel C., supervisor Child. Work 
P. L., Kansas City, Mo. 

Turner, Isabel McC., In. F. L., Allentown, 
Pa. 

Turvill, Helen, instructor Univ. of Wis. L. 
Sch., Madison, Wis. 

Tweedell, Edward D., asst. In. John Crerar 
L., Chicago. 

Tweedell, Mrs. Edward D., Chicago. 

Tyler, Alice S., director Western Reserve 
Univ. L. Sch., Cleveland, O. 

Ulrich, Carolyn F., head of Circ. Dept. and 
Branches P. L., Bridgeport, Conn. 

Underbill, Adelaide, assoc. In. Vassar Coll. 
L., Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 

Underhill, Caroline M., In. P. L., Utica, 
N. Y. 

Unterkircher, Blanch L., In. P. L., Superior, 
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Utley, George B., sec'y American Library 
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Utley, Mrs. George B., 1306 E. 54th St., 
Chicago. 

Utterwick, Katharine, asst. 115th St. Br. 
P. L., New York, N. Y. 

Vail, R. W. G., ref. asst. Information Div. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Vail, Mrs. R. W. G., auditor A. L. A. Dis- 
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Valentine, Amy, 1st asst. George Bruce Br. 
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Van Cleave, Jessie G., child. In. Wilming- 
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Van Hoesen, Henry B., asst. In. Princeton 
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Van Keuren, Mary K., In. Thrall L., Mid- 
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van Zandt, F. B., chief Flower Mem. L. 
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Ver Nooy, Winifred, asst. ^Readers' Dept. 
Univ. of Chicago L., Chicago. 

Virgin, Edward H., A. L. A. representative 
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Jamaica Plain, Mass. 

Vitz, Carl P. P., 2nd vice-In. P. L., Cleve- 
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Voight, Clara Louise, asst. In. Winthrop 
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von Schlechtendal, Mrs. B., In. P. L., Char- 
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Wade, Elizabeth W., asst. Seward Park Br. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Wade, Margaret A., In. P. L., Anderson, Ind. 

Wadlin, Horace G., In. emeritus P. L., Bos- 
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Wagner, Florence, In. Manufacturers Air- 
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Wait, Marie F., catlgr. Princeton Univ. L., 
Princeton, N. J. 

Waite, Frank A., chief Information Div. 
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Walborn, Rhoda, asst. In. F. P. L., Bay- 
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Wall, A. J., asst. In. N. Y. Historical So- 
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Wallace, Ruth, chief catlgr. P. L., Evans- 
ville, Ind. 



426 



ASBURY PARK CONFERENCE 



Wallbridge, John B., trus. P. L., Hoopeston, 

111. 

Wallbridge, Mrs. John B., Hoopeston, 111. 
Walker, Olga, Kewanee, 111. 
Wallis, Mary V., catlgr. P. L., Brooklyn, 

Walter,' Frank K., vice-director N. Y. State 
L. Sch., Albany, N. Y. 

Ward, Aline, asst. P. L., Washington, D. C. 

Ward, Harriet B., 2315 Rose Terrace, Ber- 
keley, Calif. 

Ward, Helen M., chief of Circ. P. L., De- 
troit, Mich. 

Ward, Jessamine, In. Plumb, Memorial L., 
Shelton, Conn. 

Warner, Marjorie F., bibliographical asst. 
Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. Dept. of 
Agric., Washington, D. C. 

Warren, Katherine, asst. Harvard Coll. L., 
Cambridge, Mass. 

Waterfield, Sabina, asst. P. L,., N. Y. City. 

Watson, Marion P., asst Extension Div. 
P. L., N. Y. City. 

Wead, Eunice, asst. curator of Rare Books 
Univ. of Mich. L., Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Wead, Katherine H., asst. Bureau of Plant 
Industry, Dept. of Agriculture, Wash- 
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Weber, Mrs. Jessie Palmer, In. 111. State 
Hist. Soc., Springfield, 111. 

Webster, Caroline F., 1. organizer N. Y. 
State L., Albany, N. Y. 

Webster, Mary F., Embarkation Hospital 
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Wellman, Hiller C., In. City L. Assoc., 
Springfield, Mass. 

Wellman, Ruth, acting br. In. Seward Park 
Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Wells, Margaret C., In. American City Cor- 
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Wells, Norma, In. Bellevue Ave. Br. P. L., 
Upper Montclair, N. J. 

Wennerstrum, Winnifred, ref. In. F. P. L., 
Trenton, N. J. 

Wesson, Elizabeth H., In. F. L., Orange, 
N. J. 

West, Mary E., 1st asst. Columbus Br. P. 
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Weston, Bertine E., jr. asst. Williamsburgh 
Br. P. L., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Westover, Frances L,., In. in charge Tot- 
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Whaley, Mrs. R. N., 5205 Webster St., 
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Wharton, Miriam B., In. F. P. 1 , Burling- 
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Wheeler, Joseph L., In. P. L., Youngstown, 

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Dept. P. L., St. Louis, Mo. 
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White, Grace M., 1st asst. Henry M. Utley 

Br. P. L., Detroit, Mich. 
White, Josephine, child. In. Jackson Square 

Br. P. L., N. Y. City. 
Whiteley, Hazel, head of Lending Dept. P. 

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Whitmore, Frank H., In. P. L., Brockton, 

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Wiggin, Mary P., In. Danbury L., Danbury, 

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Wigginton, Louise, 2216 Confederate Place, 

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Wigginton, May W., head Catalog Dept. F. 

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Wightman, Dorothy, In. Yardley L., Yard- 
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Wigley, Laura M., br. In. Queens Borough 

P. L., Jamaica, N. Y. 
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Providence, R. I. 
Wilbur, Mary L., asst. Sociology Div. P. L., 

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P. L., N. Y. City. 



Wilde, Alice, chief of Br. and Stations 
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Wilder, Edna H., In. Russell L., Middle- 
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Wiley, Edwin, In. U. S. Naval War Coll. L., 
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Wilkes, Marjorie, In. Base Hospital L., 
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Wilkey, Dorothy C., child. In. P. L., Brook- 
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Wilkin, Ralph H., In. Supreme Court L., 
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Wilkins, Lydia K., asst. U. S. Dept. of 
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Wilkinson, Emma L., asst. F. P. L., Eliza- 
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Willard, Ruth M., instructor Western Re- 
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Williams, Caroline E., In. E. I. du Pont de 
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Williams, Mabel, asst. supervisor Work 
with Child, and in charge Work with 
Schools P. L., N. Y. City. 

Williamson, C. C., chief of Div. of Eco- 
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Wilson, Eunice C., In. 58th St. Br. P. L., 
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N. Y. City. 

Wilson, Josie, jr. asst. Brownsville Br. P. 
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Wilson, Lilly M., order clerk Carnegie L., 
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Wilson, Ralph, bookseller, 30 Church St., 
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Winans, Frances M., In. P. L., Avon-by-the- 
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Winchell, F. Mabel, In. City L., Manches- 
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Wing, Jessie E., asst. P. L., N. Y. City. 

Winser, Beatrice, asst. In. F. P. L., New- 
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Winshlp, George P., In. Wldener Mem. L. 
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Wire, G. E., deputy In. Worcester Co. Law 
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Wire, Mrs. G. E., 46 William St., Worces- 
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Wolpaw, Eda L., asst. Temple Br. P. L., 
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Wood, Florence M., in charge Order Dept. 
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Wood, Mary E., In. Boone Univ. L., Wu- 
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Wooster, Harold A., A. L. A. L. War Serv- 
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Wright, Agnes R., In. Wyo. State L., Chey- 
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Wright, Margaret E., grade sch. In. Rice 
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Wright, Purd B., In. P. L., Kansas City, 
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Wright, Ruth F., asst. Catalog Dept. 
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Wyer, James I., Jr., director N. Y. State 
L. and N. Y. State L. Sch., Albany, N. Y. 

Wyer, Malcolm G., In. Neb. Univ. L., Lin- 
coln, Neb. 

Wyeth, Ola M., organizer Reconstruction 
Hospitals A. L. A. L. War Service, Wash- 
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Youse, Elizabeth, asst. In. F. P. L., New 
Brunswick, N. J. 

Yust, William F., In. P. L., Rochester, N. Y. 

Zachert, Adeline B., supt. of L. Extension 
P. L., Rochester, N. Y. 

Zelenko, Alexander, 136 Liberty St., N. Y. 
City. 



INDEX 



"Adequate library survey," (Bost- 
wick), 366-367. 

"Advanced library training for 
research workers," (Keogh), 
165-167. 

Agricultural libraries section, pro- 
ceedings, 373-375. 

Agricultural periodicals, union 
list, 374. 

Ahern, M. E. "A. L. A. news 
from overseas," 309-312, 348; 
discussion, 385ff. 

Alexander, W. H., 412. 

American association of law libra- 
ries, proceedings, 412. 

American Federation of Labor, 
resolutions, 381-382. 

A. L. A., committee of five on 
lib. service, 361. 

constitution, revision of, 361. 

council, 357, 361-373. 

election of officers, 357. 

enlarged program, 361-371; com- 
mittee, 359. 

executive board, 357, 359-361. 

general sessions, 345, 348, 350, 
353. 

proceedings, 345ff. 

publicity expert, 363ff. 

representative in Europe, state- 
ment, (Stevenson), 218-221. 

representative in Siberia, state- 
ment, (demons), 221-223. 

war service, acting general 
director, statement, (Milam), 
263-265. 

bibliography, 234-235. 

budget, 249-250. 

general director, statement 

(Putnam), 261-263. 

"Historical sketch of library 

war service," (Shearer), 224- 
234. 

statement of operations, 

(Milam), 201-214. 

books and magazines, 205- 

206. 

books on citizenship, 206. 

books on vocations, 206. 

compilation of lists, 206- 

207. 

conferences, 213-214. 

co-operation of the govern- 
ment departments and other 
welfare < organizations, 214. 

diminishing service at 

camps, 205. 

dispatch offices, 208. 

educational purchases, 206. 

general statistics, 218. 

gift books and magazines, 

207-208. 

hospital libraries, 204. 

industrial war work com- 
munity libraries, 209. 

organization, 212. 

personnel, 213. 

publicity, 209-211. 

service overseas, 213. 

service to the fleet, 204. 

service to the N. O. T. S. 

and U. S. S. B. vessels, 204- 
205. 

war service committee, chairman, 
statement, 188-189. 

meetings, minutes, 236-260. 

rpt, (Wyer, chrm.), 190-193. 

accepted, 347. 



war finance com., auditors 

rpt, 199-200. 
rpt. of chrm., (Hill), 194- 

195. 
rpt. of secy., (Baldwin), 

195-198. 
A. L. A. war service fund, first, 

215, 259; second, 216-218, 260. 
"American library association at 

the crossroads, (Bishop), 99- 

105. 
"A. L. A. news from overseas," 

(Ahern), 309-312. 
"American peace commission 

library," 324. 
Americanization. See, "T rue 

Americanization of the foreign 

child," 130-132. 

Anderson, E. H., mem. com., 193. 
Andrews, C. W., mem. com., 200, 

344, 374. 
Army and Navy welfare work, 

resolutions, 355. 
"Arrangement and binding of 

British Blue Books," (Teal), 

177-178. 

Attendance summaries, 413. 
Attendance register, 414. 
Avery, H. K., 401. 



Babcock, H. S., presides at school 
lib. sect., 397ft. 

Bailey, A. L., mem. com., 200. 

Bailey* L. J. mem. com., 342. 

Baker, M. E., 375. 

Baldwin, C. F., elected mem.- 
council, 371, 405ff. 

Baldwin, E. A., sec'y war finance 
com., 198. 

Barden, B. R., "A clerical course 
for library assistants," 171-173, 
396. 

Barr, C. J., discussion, 391; elect- 
ed chrm. college, reference sect., 
395. 

Bascom, E. L., discussion, 406, 
407. "Place of the commission 
in child welfare work," 133-137. 

Basset, E. L., 412. 

"Beaune University A. L. A. 
library," (Dickerson), 322-324. 

Belden, C. F. D., mem. com., 193, 
342; presides. 350. 

"Bibliographical opportunities in 
horticulture," (Warner), 178- 
184. 

Bibliography. A. L. A. war serv- 
ice, 234-235. 

Binding. See "Arrangement and 
binding of British Blue Books," 
177-178. 

Bishop, Wm. W., mem. com., 355; 
president's address, "American 
Library association at the cross- 
roads," 99-105; presides at coun- 
cil, 361ff; presides at general 
session A. L. A., 345ff. 

Blanton, M. L., mem. ex. bd. L. 
L. C. 408. 

Bliss, R. P., discussion, 370, 404. 

Bogle, S. C. N., mem. com., 342, 
356; "Training for high school 
librarianship, 277-278, 396. 

Book buying, co-operative, 357, 
361. 

Book selection, 397ff. 

Books and reading for the navy, 



and what they have meant in 
the war," (Cleaves), 155-157. 

Booksellers association, Am., reso- 
lution, 347, 355. 

Bostwick, A. E., "An adequate 
library survey," 366-367; chrm. 
com., 328, 353; discussion, 366- 
367, 377. 

Bowerman, G. F., discussion, 352, 
358, 375, 378, 385. 

Bowker, R. R., discussion, 351, 
352,. 359, 382-385; makes mo- 
tion, 346, 358, 402; mem. com., 
195, 354, 388. 

"Brest," (Dougherty), 319-320. 

Brett, William Howard, memorial 
minute, 237-238; memorial 
resolution, 354. 

Brigham, H. O., discussion, 371. 

British Blue Books. See, "Ar- 
rangement and binding of Bri- 
tish Blue Books." 177-178. 

Brown, G. D., 403. 

Brown, W. L., chrm com, 342, 
368; financial rpt., 215-216; 
makes motion, 371. 
'Budlong, M. C., "What can the 
league of library commissions 
do for its members? Evalua- 
tion," 286-291; 406. 

Burnite, C., chrm., presides at 
children's lib. sect, 387-388; 
mem. com., 388. 

"By Flanders bridge: the adven- 
tures of an A. L. A. man over- 
seas," (Dickinson), 157-165. 



California rural library service, 
137-140. 

Camp librarians round table, pro- 
ceedings, 399. 

Capek, A. V., "Immigrants con- 
tribution to American culture," 
387. 

Carabin, Maul E., elected pres. 
S. L. A., 411. 

Carey, M. E., elected mem. coun- 
cil, 357. 

Carr, H. T., mem. com., 355. 

Carr, J. F., chrm. com., 343. 

Carson, W. C., mem. com., 342. 

Catalog and trustees section, pro- 
ceedings, 375-386. 

Catalog, universal, 393-395. 

Child welfare work. See, "Place 
of the commission in child wel- 
fare work," 133-137. 

Children's books. See "Problems 
in the production of books for 
children," 282-285. 

Children's librarians section, pro- 
ceedings, 387-388. 

Children^ week, resolutions, 388. 

Civil Service relations, rpt. of 
com., (Wright, chrm.), 328-329v 

Clark, C., elected sec'y round tab. 
lib. of religion and theology, 404. 

demons, H., statement of A. L. 
A. representative in Siberia,. 
221-223. 

"Clerical course for library assist- 
ants," (Barden), 171-173. 

College and reference section, 388- 
395. 

Committee of five on library serv- 
ice, (Botswick, chrm.), 353, 358. 



428 



INDEX 



Community service. See, "Reach- 
ing all classes of the com- 
munity," 111-117. 

Congdon, A. E., 407. 

Constitution amended, 346. 

Cook, E., 398. 

"Cooperative book buying," 
(Wheeler), 357. 

Countryman, G.. mem. com., 193. 

Graver, H. W., mem. com., 200, 
344. 

Crum, F. S., 410. 

Currier, T. F., discussion, 392ff. 

Dana, J. C., discussion, A. L. A. 

enlarged program, 368-370; 

makes motion, 358. 
Daniels, J., letter from, 349. 
Davis, J. B., "The high school 

library of the next decade," 

126-130, 353. 

Davis, O. C., "Experience over- 
seas," 303-306, 348. 
Davis, Raymond, Cazallis, memo- 
rial resolution, 354-355. 
Derby, G. E., elected chrm. agric. 

lib. sect., 375. 
Deterioration of newsprint paper, 

rpt. of com., (Lydenberg, 

chrm.), 329-330. 
Deveneau, G. A., 410. 
Dickerson, L. L., "Beaune Uni-' 

versity A. L. A. library," 322- 

324. 
Dickinson, A. D., "By Flanders 

bridge: the adventures of an A. 

L. A. man overseas," 157-165, 

348. 
Dixon, V. M., presides agr. lib. 

sect, 373ff. 
Donnelly, J. R., elected mem. 

council, 371, 395; elected vice- 

chrm. professional tr. sect., 397. 
Doren, E. C., ex. bd., 359ff; mem. 

com., 193. 

Dougherty, H'., "Brest," 319-320. 
Downey, M. E. "What the league 

of library commissions can do 

for states without organized 

commissions," 292-293, 405, 406. 
Dudgeon, M. S., elected mem. ex. 

bd. L. L. C., 408. 

Earl, E. C., discussion, 367; pre- 
sides at L. L. C., 404-408. 

Easley, G. B., 411. 

Eastman, L. A., ex. bd., 359ff; 
mem. com., 328, 397. 

Education dept., secretary in Presi- 
dent's cabinet, 372-373. 

"Educational department," 324- 
326. 

Eldridge, B. L., 401. 

Endicott, L., discussion, 379. 

Endowment fund, trustee, 357. 

Erskine, E., 398. 

Ewell, G. B., 403. 

"Experience overseas," (Davis), 
303-306. 

Faurole, F. S., 410. 

Feiker, F. M., 410. 

Ferguson, M. J., "Getting books 
to farmers in California," 137- 
140, 373, 405. 

Finance. See, A. L. A. war serv- 
ice com., war finance com., rpt. 
194-200, 215-218. 

Finance, rpt, of com., (Bailey, 
chrm.), 343-344. 

Fitzpatrick, J. T., elected mem. 
ex. com. A. A. L. L., 412. 

Flagg, C. A., elected chrm. cata- 
log sect., 375. 



Foreign born. See, "Rpt. of com. 

on work with foreign born," 

342-343. 
Forrest, E., elected sec'y agric. 

lib. sect., 375. 
Forward, M. R., 401. 
Foster, W. E., mem. com., 350. 
Frank, M., discussion, 382. 
Friedel, J. H., 499ff. 
Furst, E. H., 401. 

"Getting books to farmers in 
California," (Ferguson), 137- 
140. 

"Gievres," (Prouty), 320. 

Cleaves, A., "Books and reading 
for the navy and what they have 
meant in the war," 155-157, 349. 

Glenn, E. R., "Book selection," 
397-398. 

Godard, G. S., chrm. com., 403; 
elected mem. ex. bd. A. A. L. 
L., 412; presides at pub. doc. 
round table, 401 ff. 

"Great Britain, govt. pub. See 
"Arrangement and binding of 
British Blue Books, 177-178. 

Green, C. R., discussion; chrm. 
com., 374. 

Green, Samuel, Swett, memorial 
minute, 350. 

Greetings, to Putnam; to Steven- 
son, 353. 

Guerrier, E., discussion, 373, 401, 
405. 



Hadley, C., discussion, A.*L. A. 
enlarged program, 362-363 ; 
elected pres. A. L. A., 357; 
"Library war service and some 
things it has taught," 106-111, 
345; mem. com., 356; presides, 
357ff; presides at ex. bd., 359ff. 

Harshberger, H. W., discussion, 
374. 

Hatch, B., 387. 

Hazeltine, A. I., elected vice-chrm. 
children's librarians sect., 388. 

"Headquarters library," (Potter), 
316-318. 

Hendee, C., elected sec'y, lending 
dept. round table, 400. 

Henderson, R. W., discussion, 370. 

'Herbert, C., mem. corn^,, 388; 
sec'y professional tr. sect., 397. 

Hewitt, L. E., 412. 

Hicks, F. C., elected pres. A. A. 
L. L., 412, 352. 

High school librarianship. See, 
"Training for high school 
librarianship," 277-278. 

"High school library of the next 
decade," (Davis), 126-130. 

High school. See, "Library com- 
missions and the :high school or 
rural school library," 149-152. 

Hill, F. P., chrm. com., 195; dis- 
cussion A. L. A. enlarged pro- 
gram, 368; ex. bd., 359ff; mem. 
com., 193, 354; makes motion, 
347, 371. 

"Historical sketch of the library 
war service," (Shearer), 224- 
234. 

Hitchler, T., discussion, A. L. A. 
enlarged program, 362, 348; dis- 
cussion, 370; presides at camp 
lib. round table, 399; "Six 
months at headquarters and in 
the field," 312-315. 

Hooker, D. A., 410. 



Hopkins, J. A., "A new plan for 
training library assistants," 167- 
171; mem. com., 388, 395. 

Horticulture. See, "Bibliographi- 
cal opportunities in horticul- 
ture," 178-184. 

Hospital librarians round table, 
proceedings, 399. 

Hospital libraries. See A. L. A. 
war service. 

"How the army libraries have 
helped our fighting men." (Kep- 
pel), 152-155. 

"How the public library commis- 
sion of Indiana works with the 
small public libraries of the 
state," (Wade), 146-149. 

Hoyt, F. S., "Problems in the 
production of books for chil- 
dren," 282-285, 388. 

Humanistic literature. See "In- 
ternational bibliography of hu- 
manistic literature, 371-372, 
360. 

Hunt, C. W., 387-388. 

Hyde, D. W., 411. 

Hyde, M. E., elected sec'y catalog 
sect., 375. 

Ibbotson, J. D., discussion, 391. 
"I m m i g r a n t s' contribution to 

American culture," (Capek), 

387. 
Importations, rpt. of com. (Raney, 

chrm.), 330-338. 
Indiana library commission and 

the small libraries, 146-149. 
Industrial plants, libraries, 365- 

366. 
Inquiry bureau. See "American 

peace commission library," 324. 
see, "Our library resources as 

shown by some government 

needs in the war," 270-273, 350- 

351. 

"International bibliography of hu- 
manistic literature," (Teggart), 

371-372. 



Jennings, J. T., "With the A. L. 

A. service overseas," 307-309, 

348. 

Jones, L. E., mem. com., 388, 407. 
Josselyn, L. W., elected mem. 

council, 357, 348. 
Joy, J. S., "Salvaging war library 

service for peace times," 265- 

267, 349. 
Jusserand, M., letter from, 345. 

Kelso, T. L., discussion, 358, 385. 

Keogh, A., "Advanced library 
training for research workers," 
165-167; "Our library resources 
as shown by some government 
needs in the war," 270-273, 350; 
presents resolution, 372, 395. 

Keppel, F. P., "How the army 
libraries have helped our fight- 
ing men," 152-155, 346. 

Kingsley, D. M. "Recent tenden- 
cies in state publications," 294- 
296, 403. 

Klager, C., 411. 

Knapp, E., elected chrm. chil- 
drens' librarians sect., 388. 

Krause, L. A., discussion, 396. 

"Labor saving in the lending de- 
partment," (McNiece), 175 : 176. 

League of library commissions, 

proceedings, 404-408. 
treasurer's rpt., 408. 



INDEX 



429 



See, "Place of the commission 

in child welfare work," 133-137. 
See, "What can the league of 

library commissions do lor its 

members? 286-292. 
See, ''What the league of library 

commissions can do for states 

without organized commissions," 

292-293. 
Leete, J. H., "Reaching all classes 

of the community," 111-117, 353. 
Lending department. See, "Labor 

saving in the lending depart- 
ment," 175-176. 
See, Training of assistants for 

lending department work," 173- 

175. 
Lending department round table, 

proceedings, 400. 
Lewis, F. G., 403. 
"Librarian's job in Base Section 

No. 1, France," (Ranck), 297- 

302. 

"Libraries and reading as an aid 

to morale," (Munson), 184-187. 
"Libraries for industrial plants, 

prisons, hospitals, etc.," 

(Milam), 365-366. 
"Library commissions and the high 

school or rural school library," 

(Wales), 149-152. 
Library extension, 367. 
See, A. L. A. enlarged pro- 
gram, 361-371, 366. 
Library service. "Committee of 

five," 361. 
"Library service for the permanent 

naval establishment," (Mayo), 

267-269. 

Library training, 360. 
See, "Advanced library train- 
ing for research workers," 165- 

167. 
ISee, "A clerical course >for 

library assistants," 171-173. 
See, "A new plan for training 

library assistants," 167-171. 
See, "Some present-day aspects 

of library training," 120-126. 
See, "Training for high school 

librarianship," 277-278. 
See, "Training for librarian of 

business library or business 

branch." 273-276.. 
See, "Training of assistants for 

lending department work," 173- 

175. 
See, "Training teacher-librarians 

in normal schools," 279-281. 
"Library war service and some 

things it has taught," (H'adley), 

106-111. 
Library war service. See, War 

service. 
"Library's task in reconstruction," 

(Paine), 117-120. 
Liebman, E. L., elected sec'y-treas. 

S. L. A., 411. 
Locke, G. H., elected vice-pres. 

A. L. A., 357. 
"Look ahead for the small library," 

(Williamson), 141-146. 
Lowe, J. A., 4O5, 406; elected 

pres. L. L. C., 408; "What can 

the league of library commis- 
sions do for its members? 

Publications." 291-292. 
Lydenberg, H. M., chrm. com., 

330; discussion, 390. 



McCarthy, A. J., 400. 
McClelland, E. H., elected mem. 



ex. com., S. L. A., 411. 

MacDonald, A. A., elected 2nd 
vice-pres. L. L. C., 408; "St. 
Aignan," 320-322. 

McMurtrie, Douglas, 410. 

McNiece, J. S., "Labor saving in 
the lending department," 175- 
176, 400. 

Malone, M., 356; discussion, 379- 
381. 

Marion, G. E., presides at S. L. 
A., 409ff. 

Marvin, C., elected second vice- 
pres. A. L. A., 357. 

Mayo, C. B. "Library service for 
the permanent naval establish- 
ment," 267-269,349. 

Meigs, E. B., sec'y pro tern., 388. 

Memorial resolutions, 237, 350, 
354. 

Merrill, Wm. S., letter from, 375. 

Meyer, H. H. B., chrm. com., 
discussion, 356, 358, 388ff; 393ff, 
401. 

Midwinter meeting, 360. 

Milam, C. H., 347; elected mem. 
ex. bd., 357; ex. bd., 359ff; 
"Libraries for industrial plants, 
prisons hospitals, etc., 365-366; 
mem. com., 328; presides at 3rd 
gen. session, 348; statement of 
acting general director A. L. A. 
war service, 263-265; statement 
of operations, A. L. A. war 
service, 201-214. 

Miller, H. A., "The true Amer- 
icanization of the foreign child," 
130-132, 387. 

Montgomery, T. L., discussion, 
375-377. 

Morgan, J. E., 348. 

Morgan, L. L., presides at train- 
ing class teachers round table, 
404, 395. 

Mulheron, A. M., "Savenay," 322. 

Munson, E. L., "Libraries and 
reading as an aid to morale," 
184-187, 349. 

National association of federal em- 
ployes, 379. 

National library service, resolu- 
tions, 356, 373, 401ff. 

Navy department. See "Library 
service for the permanent naval 
establishment," 267-269. 

"Need for taking advantage of 
our war time opportunities," 
361-365. 

"New Plan for training library 
assistants," (Hopkins), 167-171. 

New York pub. lib. staff associa- 
tion, 382. 

Newsprint paper. See, "Report of 
com. on deterioration of news- 
print paper," 329-330. 

Normal school librarians round 
table, proceedings, 401. 

Oberly, E. R., acting sec'y agr. lib. 

sec., 373ff; discussion, 381. 
"Our library resources as shown 

by some government needs in 

the war," (Keogh), 270-273. _ 
Overton, F., elected chrm. lending 

dept. round table, 400. 

Paine, P. M., "Library's task in 
reconstruction," 117-120, 353. 

Peace time work, rpt, of com. on 
permanent endowment for, 
(Brown, chrm.), 338-342. 



Perry, E. R., elected mem. council. 
371. 

Phail, E., acting sec'y S. L. A., 
409. 

"Place of the commission in child 
welfare work," (Bascom), 133- 
137. 

Pooley, M. H., elected sec'y, sch. 
lib. sect., 399. 

Porter, W. T., presides at catalog 
and trustees sect., 375ff. 

Poster questionnaire, 393. 

Potter, E. G., "Headquarters lib- 
rary," 316-318. 

Power, L., mem. com., 388. 

Price, A. M., 405. 

Prison libraries, 365-366. 

Pritchard, M. C., elected chrm. 
sch. lib. sect., 399. 

"Problems in the production of 
books for children," (Hoyt), 
282-285. 

Professional training section, pro- 
ceedings, 395-397. 

Prouty, L., "Gievres," 320. 

Public documents round table, pro- 
ceedings, 401-403. 

Public documents. See, "Recent 
tendencies in state publications," 
294-296. 

Publicity, 363ff. 

Publishers copyright league, Am., 
resolutions, 355. 

Putnam, H., greetings to, 353; 
statement of general director A. 
L. A. war service," 261-263, 347. 

Pyne, M. T. extends greeting to 
A. L. A., 345. 

Ranck, S. H., "A librarian's job 
in base section No. 1, France," 
297-302, 348. 

Raney, 'M. L., secy, com., 338, 
395. 

Rathbone, J. A., "The training of 
assistants for lending department 
work," 173-175, 400. 

Rawson, R. C, 406. 

Ray, M. K., elected 2nd vice- 
pres. A. A. L. L., 412 

"Reaching all classes of the com- 
munity," (Leete), 111-117. 

"Recent tendencies in state pub- 
lications," (Kingsley), 294-296. 

Reconstruction. See "the library's 
task in reconstruction," 117-120. 

Redstone, E. H., elected mem. ex. 
com., A. A. L. L., 412; elected 
vice-pres. S. L. A., 411. 

Reece, E. J., 395. 

Reese, R., elected secy., profes- 
sional tr. sect., 397. 

Religion and theology, round 
table of libraries, proceedings, 
403-404. 

Reports of committees, (Bostwick, 
chrm.), 326-328. 

Resolutions, memorial, 354. 

Resolutions, rpt. of com., 355-357. 

Richardson, M. C., presides at 
normal sch. lib. round table, 401. 

Rife, R. S., 410. 

Robbins, M. E., "Training teacher- 
librarians in normal schools, 
279-281, 397. 

Robinson, J. A., 407; elected 1st 
vice-pres. L. L. C., 408. 

Roden, C. B., discussion, 386. 

Root, A. S., discussion, 352; mem. 
com., 328; presides round table 
libraries of religion and the- 
ology, 



430 



INDEX 



Ruby, E. E., "Third army head- 
quarters," 318-319. 

Rural delivery, rates for library 
books, 360. 

Rural library service, 367. 

See, "Getting books to farmers 
in California," 137-140. 

Rural schools. See, "Library com- 
missions and the high school 
or rural school library," 149- 
152. 

Rush, C. E., chrm. publicity com.; 
discussion, A. L. A. enlarged 
program, 363-365. 

Ryan, A. M., elected treas., A. A. 
L. L. 

"St. Aignan," (MacDonald), 320- 
322. 

Salaries; discussion, 352. 

resolutions, 355-356. 

"Salvaging war library service for 
peace times," (Joy), 265-267. 

"Savenay," (Mulheron), 322. 

Sawyer, H. P., presides at pro- 
fessional training sect., 395ff. 

School libraries section, proceed- 
ings, 397-399. 

Severance, H. O., discussion; mem. 
com., 374; presides at camp lib- 
raries round table, 399. 

Shaw, R. K., mem. com., 350. 

Shearer, A. H., "Historical sketch 
of the library war service," 224- 
234, 395. 

Sheldon, E. W., elected trustee 
endowment fund, 357. 

Sherman, C. E., 348. 

Siberia. See A. L, A. in Siberia, 
221-223. 

Simpson, F., elected chirm, profes- 
sional tr. sect., 397. 

Sims, W. S., telegram from, 349. 

"Six months at headquarters and 
in the field," (Hitchler), 312- 
315. 

Small libraries, 146-149. 

Small library. See "A look ahead 
for the small library," 141-146. 

Smith, B. S., elected mem. council, 
357, 396. 

Smith-Towner education bill, 372. 

"Some present-day aspects of 
library training," (Williamson), 
120-126. 

Special libraries association, pro- 
ceedings, 409-411. 

Spencer, A. L., 360. 

Sprague, L. W., 412. 

Staff association, N. Y. pub. lib., 
382. 

"Statement of the chairman, war 
service com.," (Wyer), 188-189. 

Statistics. See, A. L. A. war 
service com. rpts., 215-218. 

Steel, E. A., elected vice chrm. 
sch. lib. sect., 399. 

Stevenson, B. E., statement of 
European representative A. L. 
A. war service com., 218-221. 

greetings to, 353, 348. 

Strohm, A., discussion, 352; mem. 

com., 354 
Stull, M. L, 403. 
Survey. See, "An adequate 
library survey," 366ff. 

Talbot, H., 412. 

Teal, W., "Arrangement and bind- 
ing of British Blue Books," 
177-178, 388. 

Teggart, F. J., "International 
bibliography humanistic litera- 
ture," 360, 371-372. 



Thayer, C. S., elected chrm. 

round tab. lib. of religion and 

theology, 404. 
"Third army headquarters," 

(Ruby), 318-319. 
Thomas, L. I., 411. 
Tobitt, E., elected mem. ex. bd., 

357; ex. bd., 359ff. 
Training class teachers' round 

table, proceedings, 404. 
"Training for high school librarian- 
ship," (Bogle), 277-278. 
"Training for the librarian of a 

business library or a business 

branch," (Walter), 273-276. 
"Training of assistants for lending 

department work," (Rathbone), 

173-175. 

Training. See, Library training. 
"Training teacher-librarians in nor- 
mal schools," (Robbins), 279- 

281. 

Tripp, G. H'., discussion, 370. 
"True Americanization of the 

foreign child," (Miller), 130- 

132. 
Trustees section. See, Catalog and 

trustees section, 375-386. 
Tweedell, E. D., 410. 
Tyler, A. W., discussion, 359, 372; 

elected mem. council, 371, 405. 

Union, library employees, 356, 
358-359, 379ff. 

Union list of agricultural periodi- 
cals, 374. 

"Use of Print," 348. 

Utley, G. B., discussion, library 
extension, 366; ex. secy., pas- 
sim.; secy. ex. bd., 359ff. 

Vanderlip, F. A., honorary mem- 
ber A. L. A., 372. 

Wade, M. A., "How the public 
library commission of Indiana 
works with the small public 
libraries of the state," 146-149, 
405. 

Wales, E. B., elected mem. ex. bd. 
L. L. C., 408; "Library com- 
missions and the high school or 
rural school library," 149-152, 
405. 

Wall, A. J., discussion, 391. 

Walter, F. K., "Training for the 
librarian of a business library 
or a business 'branch," 273-276, 
395, 396. 

Walton, G. M., mem. com., 342. 

War material, collections of; dis- 
cussion, 388-392. 

War service. See, "A. L. A. news 
from overseas," 309-312. 

See, "American peace commis- 
sion library," 324. 

See, "Beaune University A. L. 
A. library," 322-324. 

See, "Books and reading for 
the navy," 155-157. 

See, "Brest," 319-320. 

See, "By Flanders bridge," 157- 
165. 

See, "Educational department, 
324-326. 

See, "Experiences overseas," 
303-306. 

See "Gievres," 320. 
See, "Headquarters library," 
316-318. 



See, "How the army libraries 
have helped our fighting men," 
152-155. 

See, "A librarian's job in base 

section No. 1, France," 297-302. 

See, "Libraries and reading as 

an aid to morale," 184-187. 
See, "Library war service and 
some things it has taught," 106- 
111. 

See, "Our library resources as 
shown by some government 
needs in the war," 270-273. 
See, "St. Aignan," 320-322. 
See, "Salvaging war library serv- 
ice for peace times," 265-267. 
See "Savenay," 322. 
See, "Six months "at head- 
quarters and in the field," 312- 
315. 

See, "Third army headquar- 
ters," 318-319. 

See, "With the A. L. A. serv- 
ice overseas," 307-309. 
War service committee. See, A. 

L. A. war service com. 
Warner, M. F., "Bibliographical 
opportunities in horticulture," 
178-184, 373. 

Webster, C., mem. com., 342. 
Wellman, W. C., 404. 
"What can the league of library 
commissions do for its members? 
Evaluation," (Budlong), 286- 
291. 

"What can the league of library 
commissions do for its members? 
Publications," (Lowe), 291- 
292. 

"What the league of library com- 
missions can do for states with- 
out organized commissions," 
(Downey), 292-293. 
Wheeler, J. L., "Co-operative book 
buying," 357; discussion, 359; 
makes motion, 358. 
Wheeler, S. Y., elected 1st vice- 

pres. A. A. L. L., 412. 
Whitcomb, A. F., elected sec'y 
children's librarians sect., 388. 
Wilkins, L. K., discussion, mem. 

com., 374. 

Williams, C. E., 409ff. 
Williamson, C. C., "A look ahead 
for the small library," 141-146; 
elected mem. council, 357; mem. 
com., 328; "Some present-day 
aspects of library training," 120- 
126, 351, 404. 

Wilson, H. W., discussion, 374. 
Windsor, P. L., elected 'mem. 

council, 357. 

Winship, G. P., mem. com., 395. 
Wire, G. E., 412. 
"With the A. L. A. service over- 
seas," (Jennings), 307-309. 
Work with the foreign 'born, rpt. 
of com., (Carr, chrm.), 342- 
343. 
Wright, A., elected sec'y A. A. 

L. L., 412. 

Wright, P. B., chrm. com., 329, 
349; elected mem. council, 371. 
Wyer, J. L, chrm, com., 193, 347; 
discussion A. L. A. enlarged 
program, 361-362; statement 
chairman war service com., 188- 
189, 372. 

Wyer, M. G., presides at college 
and reference sect., 388-395. 

Zachert, A. B., proposes resolu- 
tion, 399, 401. 
Zelenko, Dr., 387ff. 



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