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tiBRARV 



PAPERS AND PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL 
MEETING 



OFiTHE 



/3> 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 



HELD AT 



KAATERSKILL, N. Y.- 



JUNE 23-28, 1913 



AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

78 E. WASHINGTON STREET 
CHICAGO, ILL. 
1913 3 



CONTENTS 



General sessions: PAGE 

President's address: The world of books and the 

world's work Henry E. Legler 73 

"As others see us" 83 

Secretary's report George B. Utley 99 

Treasurer's report C. B. Roden 103 

Reports of boards and committees: 

Finance cortuhittee C. W. Andrews 104 

A. I<. A. Publishing Board Henry E. Legler 105 

Ca'inegie'^and endowment fund W. W. Appleton Ill 

Bookbinding A. L. Bailey 113 

Bookbuying W. L. Brown 114 

j3o-operation with the N. E. A . . M. E. Ahern 125 

\Federal and state relations B. C. Steiner 126 

Library administration A. E. Bostwick 126 

Yjbrary training A. S. Root 134 

Library work with the blind Emma N. Delfino 136 

Library work in Great Britain L. S. Jast 139 

The immigrant in the library Mary Antin 1 45 

Immigrants as contributors to library progress Adelaide B. Maltby 150 

The man in the yards Charles E. Rush 154 

What of the black and yellow races? W. F. Yust : 159 

The working library for the artisan and the craftsman . E. F. Stevens 170 

The woman on the farm Lutie E. Stearns 173 

Book influences for defectives and dependents ...Julia A. Robinson 177 

Changing conditions of child life Faith E. Smith 184 

How the library is meeting the changing conditions. . Gertrude E. Andrus 188 

Normal schools and their relation to librarianship. . . . W. H. Kerr 193 

The present status of legislative reference work C. B. Lester 199 

State wide influence of the state library D. C. Brown 202 

The law that stands the test M. S. Dudgeon 206 

Making a library useful to business men S. H. Ranck 210 

Libraries in business organizations Louise B. Krause 215 

The municipal reference library as an aid in city ad- 
ministration George McAneny 219 

The friendly book G. M. Walton 224 

How to discourage reading E. L. Pearson 230 

Report of tellers of election 236 

Executive board 237 

Council ". 242 

Sections: PAGE Affiliated organizations: PAGE 

Agriculaural libraries 258 American association of law libraries 362 

Catalog 259 League of library commissions 364 

Work with children 275 Special libraries association 382 

College and reference 300 Post-conference trip 386 

Professional training 343 Attendance summaries 392 

Public documents round table 352 .Attendance register 393 

Index . 409 



VA 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 

JUNE 23-28, W3 



FIRST GENERAL SESSION 
(Monday evening, June 23) 

The PRESIDENT: The Thirty-fifth An- 
nual Conference of the American Library 
Association begins this evening. Custom 
has decreed that the presiding officer shall 
deliver a message, and the present presid- 
ing officer has not sufficient independence 
of mind to depart from that long-estab- 
lished custom. 

PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS 
The World of Print and the World's Work 



Turning for a text to Victor Hugo's stir- 
ring epic of Paris, these words may be 
found in the section for May, and in the 
third chapter thereof: 

A Library implies an act of faith 
Which generations still in darkness hid 
Sign in their night, in witness of the dawn. 

When Johann Gutenberg in Ms secret 
workshop poured the molterr-metal into 
'the rough matrices he had cut for separate 
types, the instrument for the spread of 
Democracy was created. When early Cav- 
aliers and Puritans planted the crude be- 
ginnings of free public schools, the forces 
of Democracy were multiplied. When half 
a century ago the first meager beginnings 
of the public library movement were 
evolved, Democracy was for all time as- 
sured. Thus have three great stages, sep- 
arated each by a span of two hundred 
years from that preceding, marked that 
world development whose ultimate mean- 
ing is not equality of station or possession, 
but equality of opportunity. 

Not without stress and strife have these 
yet fragmentary results been achieved. 
Not without travail and difficulties will 
universal acceptance be accorded in the 






days to come. But no one may doubt the 
final outcome which shall crown the strug- 
gle of the centuries. The world was old 
when typography was invented. Less than 
five centuries have passed since then, and 
in this interval but a brief period^ in the 
long history of human endeavor there has 
been more enlargement of opportunity for 
the average man and woman than in all 
the time that went before. Without the 
instrumentality of the printed page, with- 
out the reproductive processes that give to 
all the world in myriad tongues the 
thought of all the centuries, slavery, serf- 
dom and feudalism would still shackle the 
millions not so fortunate as to be born to 
purple and ermine, and fine linen. 

II 

The evolution of the book is therefore 
the history of the unfoldment of human 
rights. The chained tome in its medieval 
prison cell has been supplanted by the 
handy volume freely sent from the hospit- 
able publkT library to the homes of the 
common people. The humblest citizen, to- 
day, has at his command books in number 
and in kind which royal treasuries could 
not have purchased five hundred years 
ago. In the sixteenth century, it took a 
flock of sheep to furnish the vellum for one 
edition of a book, and the product was for 
the very few; in the twentieth, a forest 
is felled to supply the paper for an edi- 
tion, and the output goes to many hundred 
thousand readers. As books have multi- 
plied, learning has been more widely dis- 
seminated. As more people have become 
educated, the demand for books has in- 
creased enormously. The multiplication of 
books has stimulated the writing of them, 
and the inevitable result has been a de- 
terioration of quality proportioned to the 
increase in quantity. In the English lan- 
guage alone, since 1880, 206,905 titles of 



74 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 






books printed in the United States, have 
been listed, and 226,365 in Great Britain 
since 1882. Of these 433,270 titles, 84,722 
represent novels 36,607 issued in the 
United States and 48,115 in Great Britain. 
Despite the inclusion of the trivial and the 
unsound in, this vast mass of printed stuff, 
no one can doubt the magnitude of the 
service performed in the advancement of 
human kind. The universities have felt 
the touch of popular demand, and in this 
country at least some of them "have at- 
tempted to respond. Through correspond- 
ence courses, short courses, university 
week conferences, summer schools, local 
forums, traveling instructors, and other 
media of extension, many institutions of 
higher learning have given recognition to 
the appeal of the masses. Logically with 
this enlargement of educational opportun- 
ity, the amplification of library facilities 
has kept pace. The libraries have become 
in a real sense the laboratory of learning. 
Intended primarily as great storehouses 
for the accumulation and preservation 
rather than the use of manuscripts and 
books, their doors have been opened wide 
to all farers in search of truth or mental 
stimulus. 

In a report to the English King, Sir Wil- 
liam Berkeley wrote as governor of Vir- 
ginia in 1642: "I thank God there are no 
free schools nor printing, and I hope we 
shall not have them these hundred years; 
for learning has brought disobedience into 
the world, and printing has divulged them, 
and libels against the best government. 
God keep us from both." 

Governor Berkeley's sentiments, ex- 
pressed by him in turgid rhetoric, were 
held in his day by most men in authority, 
but that did not prevent the planting of 
little schoolhouses here and there, and 
men of much vision and little property be- 
queathed their possessions for maintaining 
them. Many a school had its origin in a 
bequest comprising a few milch kine, a 
horse or two, or a crop of tobacco; in some 
instances, slaves. From such beginnings, 
with such endowments, was evolved three 
hundred years ago the public system of 



education which today prodigally prom- 
ises, though it but niggardly realizes, six- 
teen years of schooling for every boy and 
girl in the land. 

If the span of years needed for the de- 
velopment of the free library system has 
been much shorter, the hostile attitude of 
influential men and the privations that at- 
tended pioneer efforts were no less 
marked. As recently as 1889 the writer of 
an article in the North American Review 
labeled his attack: "Are public libraries 
public blessings?" and answered his own 
question in no uncertain negative. "Not 
only have the public libraries, as a whole, 
failed to reach their proper aim of giving 
the means of education to the people," he 
protested, "but they have gone aside from 
their true path to furnish amusement and 
that in part of a pernicious character, 
chiefly to the young." And he added: "I 
might have mentioned other possible dan- 
gers, such as the power of the directors 
of any library to make it a propaganda of 
any delusive ism or doctrine subversive of 
morality, society or government; but I pre- 
fer to rest my case here." 

And it was somewhat later than this 
that the pages of the Century gave space 
to correspondence in opposition to the 
establishment of a public library system 
for the city of New York. 

These were but echoes of earlier antag- 
onisms. 

Ill 

For the documentary material dealing 
with the beginnings of the public library 
movement, the searcher must delve within 
the thousand pages of a portly folio volume 
issued by the British government sixty 
years ago. It one possesses patience suf- 
ficient to read the immense mass of dry 
evidence compiled by a parliamentary 
commission and "presented to both houses 
of parliament by command of Her Maj- 
esty," some interesting facts in library his- 
tory will be found. A young man of twen- 
ty-three, then an underling in the service 
of the British Museum, afterwards an emi- 
nent librarian, was one of the principal 
witnesses. Edward Edwards had the gift 



LEGLER 



75 



of vision. Half a century before public li- 
braries became the people's universities, 
as they are today, his prophetic tongue 
gave utterance to what has since become 
the keynote of library aims and policies. 
Badgered by hostile inquisitors, ridiculed 
by press and politicians, he undeviatingly 
clung to his views, and he lived to see his 
prophecy realized. 

Great libraries there had been before his 
day; remarkable as a storehouse of knowl- 
edge in printed form was, and is in our 
own day, the institution with which he was 
associated. But in these rich reference 
collections intended for the student of re- 
search, the element of popular use was 
lacking. To have suggested the loan of a 
single book for use outside the four walls 
of the library would have startled and be- 
numbed everyone in authority and with- 
out authority from the members of the 
governing board to librarian, sub-librari- 
ans, and messenger boys. This stripling 
faced the members of parliament, and 
without hesitation proclaimed his thesis. 

"It is not merely to open the library to 
persons who, from the engrossing nature 
of their engagements of business, are at 
present utterly excluded from it, but it is^ 
also that the library may be made a direct 
agent in some degree in the work of na- 
tional education. Let not anyone be 
alarmed lest something very theoretical or 
very revolutionary should be proposed. I 
merely suggest that the library should be 
cpeued to a class of men quite shut out 
from it by its present regulations." 

Then he added: "In such a country as 
this there should be one great national 
storehouse. But in addition to this, there 
should be libraries in different quarters on 
a humbler scale, very freely accessible." 

One of the ablest members of parlia- 
ment, William Ewart, of Liverpool, be- 
came intensely interested in the views ex- 
pressed by young Edwards, and from that 
day was counted the consistent champion 
of library privileges for the common peo- 
ple. Largely through his instrumentality, 
aided by such men as Richard Cobden, 
John Bright and Joseph Brotherton, parlia- 



ment passed an act "for the encourage- 
ment of museums." Out of this measure 
grew the later public libraries' act. This 
notable step was not accomplished with- 
out bitter opposition. 

"The next thing we will be asked to do," 
said one indignant member on the floor of 
the House, "is to furnish people with 
quoits and peg-tops and footballs at the ex- 
pense of taxpayers. Soon we will be think- 
ing of introducing the performances of 
Punch for the amusement of the people." 

Events in England influenced similar 
movements in the United States. In a let- 
ter to Edward Everett, in 1851, Mr. George 
Ticknor gave the first impetus to the es- 
tablishment of a free public library in Bos- 
ton the first in the new world to be main- 
tained permanently by the people for the 
people. 

"I would establish a library which differs 
from all free libraries yet attempted," he 
wrote. "I mean one in which any popular 
books, tending to moral and intellectual 
improvement, shall be furnished in such 
numbers of copies that many persons can 
be reading the same book at the same 
time; in short, that not only the best books 
of all sorts, but the pleasant literature of 
the day, shall be made accessible to the 
whole people when they most care for it; 
that is, when it is new and fresh." 

Sixty years after the date of Mr. Tick- 
nor's letter, and chiefly within the last two 
decades of the period, the public library 
movement has assumed a place in public 
education, which, relatively, the public 
school movement attained only after three 
hundred years of effort. When Thomas 
Bodley died, in 1613, in all Europe there 
were but three libraries accessible to the 
public the Bodleian, the Angelo Rocca at 
Rome and the Ambrosian at Milan. In 
1841 the Penny Cyclopedia devoted about 
four inches of a narrow column to the sub- 
ject of libraries, ancient and modern, and 
limited its reference to American libraries 
to one sentence, obtained at second hand 
from an older contemporary: 

"In the United States of America, ac- 
cording to the Encyclopedia Americana, 



76 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



the principal libraries are, or were in 1831, 
that of Harvard College, containing 36,000 
volumes; the Philadelphia Library, con- 
taining 27,000; that of the Boston Athe- 
naeum, containing 26,000; that of Con- 
gress, containing 16,000, and that of 
Charleston, containing 13,000." 

It is only since 1867 that the federal gov- 
ernment has deemed it worth while to 
compile library statistics, and the first 
comprehensive figures were gathered in 
1875. It is worth noting that then they 
embraced all libraries comprising 300 vol- 
umes, and that in 1893 no mention is made 
of collections containing less than a thou- 
sand volumes, while the most recent of- 
ficial enumeration makes 5,000 volumes the 
unit of consideration. From these official 
figures may be gleaned something of the 
extraordinary growth of libraries, both nu- 
merically and in size. In 1875, including 
school libraries there were 2,039 contain- 
ing a thousand volumes, ten years later 
there were 4,026, ten years after that 8,000, 
and at this date there are in this class not 
less than 12,000, while the recorded num- 
ber comprising three hundred volumes or 
more reaches the substantial total of 15,- 
634, and 2,298 of these catalog in excess of 
5,000 volumes each. 

IV 

These figures show phenomenal growth, 
but even more impressive are the facts 
that give their full meaning in detail. 
From a striking compilation issued in Ger- 
many by Die Briicke a few weeks ago, to- 
gether with figures extracted by means of 
a questionnaire, supplemented by statisti- 
cal material gathered by the Bureau of 
Education, the facts which follow have 
been deduced: Counting the great libra- 
ries of the world, the six continents abut- 
ting the seven seas possess 324 libraries 
whose book collections number in excess 
of 100,000 volumes each, and of these 79 
or approximately one-fourth are located 
in the Americas. Of the 79 American li- 
braries 72 are in the United States, includ- 
ing university, public, governmental and 
miscellaneous institutions, with a com- 



bined collection of 19,295,000 volumes. If 
this statistical inquiry is pursued further, 
a reason becomes apparent why millions 
are starved for want of books while other 
millions seemingly have a surfeit of them. 
The rural regions, save in a handful of 
ccmmonwealths whose library commis- 
sions or state libraries actively administer 
traveling libraries, the book supply is prac- 
tically negligible. Even the hundreds of 
itinerating libraries but meagerly meet the 
want. All the traveling libraries in all the 
United States have a total issue annually 
less than that of any one of twenty mu- 
nicipal systems that can be named. The 
public library facilities in at least six thou- 
sand of the smaller towns are pitifully in- 
sufficient and in hundreds of them wholly 
absent. The movement to supply bookg 
to 'the people was first launched In the 
rural regions seventy years ago. Indeed 
the movement for popular education 
known as the American Lyceum, which 
forecast the activities of the modern pub- 
lic library just as the mechanics' institutes 
of Great Britain prepared the soil for them 
in that country, flourished chiefly in the 
less thickly settled centers of population. 
The early district school libraries melted 
away in New York state and Wisconsin 
and other states, and the devastated 
shelves have never been amply renewed. 
The library commissions are valiantly and 
energetically endeavoring to supply the 
want, but their efforts are all too feebly 
supported by their respective states. In 
this particular, the policy is that which 
unfortunately obtains as to all educational 
effort. More than 55 per cent of the young 
people from 6 to 20 years old about 17,- 
000,000 of them live in the country or in 
(owns of less than two thousand inhab- 
itants. According to an official report from 
which this statement is extracted, there 
are 5,000 country schools still taught in 
primitive log houses, uncomfortable, unsuit- 
able, unventilated, unsanitary, illy equipped, 
poorly lighted, imperfectly heated boys 
and girls in all stages of advance- 
ment receiving instruction from one teach- 
er of very low grade. It is plain why, in 



LEGLER 



77 



the summing up of this report, "illiteracy 
in rural territory is twice as great as in 
urban territory, notwithstanding that thou- 
sands of illiterate immigrants are crowded 
in the great manufacturing and industrial 
centers. The illiteracy among nativeborn 
children of native parentage is more than 
three times as great as among native chil- 
dren of foreign parentage, largely on ac- 
count of the lack of opportunities for edu- 
cation in rural America." In Indian legend 
Nokomis, the earth, symbolizes the 
strength of motherhood; it may yet chance 
that the classic myth of the hero who 
gained his strength because he kissed the 
earth may be fully understood in America 
only when the people learn that they will 
remain strong, as Mr. Miinsterberg has 
put it, "only by returning with every gen- 
eration to the soil." 

If the states have proved recreant to 
duty in this particular, the municipalities 
have shown an increasing conception of 
educational values. The figures make an 
imposing statistical array. In the United 
States there are 1,222 incorporated places 
of 5,000 or more inhabitants, and their li- 
braries house 90,000,000 volumes, with a to- 
tal yearly use aggregating 110,000,000 is- 1 
sues. Four million volumes a year are 
added to their shelves, and collectively 
they derive an income of $20,000,000. Their 
permanent endowments, which it must be 
regretfully said but 600 of them share, now 
aggregate $40,000,0.00. Nearly all of these 
libraries occupy buildings of their own, 
Mr. Andrew Carnegie having supplied ap- 
proximately $42,226,338 for the purpose in 
the United States, and the balance of the 
$100,000,000 represented in buildings hav- 
ing been donated by local benefactors or 
raised by taxation. 

The population of these 1,222 places is 
38,758,584, considerably less than half that 
of the entire United States. Their book 
possessions, on the other hand, are nine 
times as great as those in the rest of the 
country; the circulation of the books near- 
ly twelve times in volume. Closer analy- 
sis of these figures enforces still more 
strongly the actual concentration of the 



available book supply. The hundred larg- 
est cities of the United States, varying in 
size from a minimum of 53,684 to a maxi- 
mum of 4,766,883, possess in the aggregate 
more books than all the rest of the coun- 
try together, and represent the bulk of the 
trained professional service rendered. The 
great majority of the 3,000 graduates 
whom the library schools have sent into 
service since the first class was organized 
in 1887, are in these libraries and in the 
university libraries. Forty per cent of the 
books circulated are issued to the dwellers 
in these one hundred cities, and in fifteen 
of them the stupendous total of 30,000,834 
issues for home reading was recorded last 
year. Without such analysis as this, the 
statistical totals would be misleading. The 
concentration of resources and of trained 
service in large centers of population, com- 
paratively few in number, makes evident 
the underlying cause for the modern trend 
of library development. A further study of 
conditions in these human hives justifies 
the specialized forms of. service which 
have become a marked factor in library 
extension within a decade. With increased 
resources, with vastly improved internal 
machinery, with enlarged conception of op- 
portunity for useful service, have come 
greater liberality of rules and ever widen- 
ing circles of activity, until today no indi- 
vidual and no group of individuals, remains 
outside the radius of library influence. If 
this awakened zeal has spurred to efforts 
that seem outside the legitimate sphere of 
library work, no undue concern need be 
felt. Neither the genius or enthusiasm of 
the individual nor the enterprise of a 
group of individuals will ever be permitted 
to go too rapidly or too far: the world's 
natural conservatism and inherited unbe- 
lief stand ever ready to retard or prevent. 



Specialization has been incorporated 
into library administration chiefly to give 
expeditious and thorough aid to seekers of 
Information touching a wide variety of In- 
terests business men, legislators, crafts- 
men, special investigators and students of 



78 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



every sort. This added duty has not di- 
minished its initial function to make avail- 
able the literature of all time, nor to sat- 
isfy those who go to books for the pure 
joy of reading. The recreative service of 
the library is as important as the educa- 
tive, or the informative. For the great 
mass of people, the problem has been the 
problem of toil long and uninterrupted. 
The successful struggle of the unions to 
restrict the hours of labor has developed 
another problem almost as serious the 
problem of leisure. Interwoven with this 
acute problem is another which subdivi- 
sion of labor has introduced into modern 
industrial occupations the terrible fatigue 
which results from a monotonous repeti- 
tion of the same process hour after hour, 
day after day, week after week. Such 
blind concentration in the making of but 
one piece of a machine, or a garment, or 
a watch, or any other article of merchan- 
dise, without knowledge of its relationship 
to the rest, soon wears the human worker 
out. There must be an outlet of play, of 
fun, or recreation. The librarian need not 
feel apologetic to the public because per- 
chance his circulation statistics show that 
70 per cent of it is classed as fiction. If 
he wishes to reduce this percentage to 69 
or 68 or 61, let him do it not by discourag- 
ing the reading of novels, but by stimulat- 
ing the use of books in other classes of 
literature. But well does he merit his own 
sense of humiliation and the condemnation 
of the critics if he needs must feel 
ashamed of the kind of novels that he puts 
upon his shelves. To quote a fellow li- 
brarian who expresses admirably the value 
of such literature, "A good story has cre- 
ated many an oasis in many an otherwise 
arid life. Many-sidedness of interest 
makes for good morals, and millions of our 
fellows step through the pages of a story 
book into a broader world than their na- 
ture and their circumstances ever permit 
them to visit. If anything is to stay the 
narrowing and hardening process which 
specialization of learning, specialization of 
inquiry and of industry and swift accumu- 
lation of wealth are setting up among us, 



it is a return to romance, poetry, imagina- 
tion, fancy, and the general culture we are 
now taught to despise. Of all these the 
novel is a part; rather, in the novel are all 
of these. But a race may surely find 
springing up in itself a fresh love of ro- 
mance, in the high sense of that word, 
which can keep it active, hopeful, ardent, 
progressive. Perhaps the novel is to be, 
in the next decades, part of the outward 
manifestation of a new birth of this love 
of breadth and happiness." 

VI 

Many of the factory workers are young 
men and young women, whose starved 
imaginations seek an outlet that will not 
be denied. In lieu of wholesome recreation 
and material, they will find "clues to life's 
perplexities" in salacious plays, in cheap 
vaudeville performances, in the suggestive 
pages of railway literature, in other ways 
that make for a lowering of moral tone. 
The reaction that craves amusement of 
any sort is manifest in the nightly crowded 
stalls of the cheap theaters. Eight million 
spectators view every moving picture film 
that is manufactured. It is estimated that 
one-sixth of the entire population of New 
York City and of Chicago attends the the- 
aters on any Sunday of the year. One 
Sunday evening, at the instance of Miss 
Jane Addams, an investigation was made 
of 466 theaters in the latter city, and it 
was discovered that in the majority of 
them the leading theme was revenge; the 
lover following his rival ; the outraged hus- 
band seeking his wife's betrayer; or the 
wiping out by death of a blot on a hither- 
to unstained honor. And of course these 
influences extend to the children who are 
always the most ardent and responsive of 
audiences. There is grave danger that the 
race will develop a ragtime disposition, a 
moving picture habit and a comic supple- 
ment mind. 

VII 

It is perhaps too early to point to the 
specialized attention which libraries have 
given to the needs of young people as 



LEGLER 



79 



a distinct contribution to society. Another 
generation must come before material evi- 
dence for good or ill becomes apparent. 
That the work is well worth the thought be- 
stowed, whether present methods survive 
or are modified, may not be gainsaid. The 
derelicts of humanity are the wrecks who 
knew no guiding light, The reformatories 
and the workhouses, the penal institutions 
generally and the charitable ones princi- 
pally, are not merely a burden upon soci- 
ety, but a reproach for duty unperformed. 
Society is at last beginning to realize that 
it is better to perfect machinery of pro- 
duction than to mend the imperfect prod- 
uct; that to dispense charity may amelio- 
rate individual suffering, but does not pre- 
vent recurrence. And so more attention is 
being given prevention than cure. 

I gave a beggar from my little store 

Of well-earned gold. He spent the shining 

ore 

And came again, and yet again, still cold 
And hungry as before. 

I gave a thought, and through that thought 

of mine, 

He found himself a man, supreme, divine, 
Bold, clothed, and crowned with blessings 

manifold, 

And now he begs no more. 

VIII 

If numbers and social and industrial im- 
portance warrant special library facilities 
for children, certainly the same reasons 
underlie the special library work with for- 
eigners which has within recent years 
been carried on extensively in the larger 
cities. Last month the census bureau is- 
sued an abstract of startling import to 
those who view in the coming of vast num- 
bers from across the waters a menace to 
the institutions of this democracy. Ac- 
cording to this official enumeration, in but 
fourteen of fifty cities having over 100,000 
inhabitants in 1910 did native whites of 
native parentage contribute as much as 
one-half the total population. The propor- 
tion exceeded three-fifths in only four cit- 
ies. On the other hand, in twenty-two 
cities of this class, of which fifteen are in 
New England and the Middle Atlantic di- 



visions, less than one-third of the popula- 
tion were native whites of native parent- 
age, over two-thirds in all but one of these 
cities consisting of foreign-born whites 
and their children. 

In his Ode delivered at Harvard, Low- 
ell eloquently referred to 

"The pith and marrow of a Nation 
Drawing force from all her men, 
Highest, humblest, weakest, all, 
For her time of need, and then 
Pulsing it again through them, 
She that lifts up the manhood of the poor, 
She of the open soul and open door, 
With room about her hearth for all man- 
kind!" 

This was written in 1865. Since then the 
rim of the Mediterranean has sent its enor- 
mous contribution of unskilled and unlet- 
tered human beings to the New World. 
There have been three great tides of mi- 
gration from overseas. The first came to 
secure liberty of conscience; the second 
sought liberty of political thought and ac- 
tion; the third came in quest of bread. 
And of the three, incomparably the greater 
problem of assimilation is that presented 
_Jby the last comers. Inextricably interwov- 
en are all the complexities which face the 
great and growing municipalities, political- 
ly and industrially and socially. These are 
the awful problems of congestion and fes- 
tering slums, of corruption in public life, 
of the exploitation of womanhood, of terri- 
ble struggle with wretchedness and pov- 
erty. Rightly directed, the native qualities 
and strength of these peoples will bring a 
splendid contribution in the making of a 
virile citizenship. Wrongly shaped, their 
course in the life of the city may readily 
become of sinister import. Frequently they 
are misunderstood, and they easily mis- 
understand. The problem is one of edu- 
cation, but it is that most difficult prob- 
lem, of education for grown-ups. Here 
perhaps the library may render the most 
distinct service, in that it can bring to 
them in their own tongues the ideals and 
the underlying principles of life and cus- 
tom in their adopted country; and through 
their children, as they swarm into the 
children's rooms, is established a point of 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



contact which no other agency could so 
effectually provide. 

Under the repressive measures of old 
world governments, the racial culture and 
national spirit of Poles, Lithuanians, 
Finns, Balkan Slavs, and Russian Jews 
have been stunted. Here both are wanned 
into life and renewed vigor, and in gen- 
erous measure are given back to the land 
of their adoption. Such racial contribution 
must prove of enormous value, whether, 
as many sociologists believe, this country 
is to prove a great melting pot for the fus 
ing of many races, or whether as Dr. Zhit- 
lowsky contends, there is to be one coun- 
try, one set of laws, one speech, but a vast 
variety of national cultures, contributing 
each its due share to the enrichment of the 
common stock. 

IX 

Great changes have come about in the 
methods that obtain for the exercise of 
popular government. In a Democracy 
whose chief strength is derived from an 
intelligent public opinion, the sharpening 
of such intelligence and enlargement of 
general knowledge concerning affairs of 
common concern are of paramount impor- 
tance. Statute books are heavily cum- 
bered with laws that are unenforced be- 
cause public opinion goes counter to them. 
Nonenforcement breeds disrespect for law, 
and unscientific making of laws leads to 
their disregard. So the earliest attempts 
to find a remedy contemplated merely the 
legislator and the official, bringing togeth- 
er for their use through the combined serv- 
ices of trained economists and of .expert 
reference librarians the principles and 
foundation for contemplated legislation 
and the data as to similar attempts else- 
where. Fruitful as this service has proved 
within the limitation of state and munici- 
pal officialdom, a broadened conception of 
possibilities now enlarges the scope of the 
work to include citizen organizations in- 
terested in the study of public questions, 
students of sociology, economics and poli- 
tical science, business men keenly alive 
to the intimate association in a legiti- 
mate sense of business and politics, and 



that new and powerful element in pub- 
lic affairs which has added three million 
voters to the poll lists in ten states, and 
will soon add eleven million voters more 
in the remaining thirty-eight. The new 
library service centering in state and mu- 
nicipal legislative reference libraries, and 
in Civics departments of large public li- 
biaries, forecasts the era, now rapidly ap- 
proaching, when aldermen and state rep- 
resentatives will still enact laws and state 
and city officials will enforce them, but 
their making will be determined strictly by 
public opinion. The local government of 
the future will be by quasi-public citizen 
organizations directing aldermen and state 
legislators accurately to register their will. 
When representative government becomes 
misrepresentative, in the words of a mod- 
ern humorist, Democracy will ask the Pow- 
ers that Be whether they are the Powers 
that Ought to Be. To intelligently deter- 
mine the answer, public opinion must not 
ignorantly ask. 

X 

This has been called the age of utili- 
tarianism. Such it unquestionably is, but 
its practicality is not disassociated from 
idealism. The resources of numberless 
commercial enterprises are each in this 
day reckoned in millions, and their prod- 
ucts are figured in terms of many millions 
more, as once thousands represented the 
spread of even the greatest of industries. 
But more and more, business men are com- 
ing to realize that business organization 
as it affects for weal or woe thousands who 
contribute to their success, must be con- 
ducted as a trust for the common good, 
and not merely for selfish exploitation, or 
for oppression. As the trade guilds of old 
wielded their vast power for common ends, 
so all the workers gave the best at their 
command to make their articles of mer- 
chandise the most perfect that human skill 
and care could produce. Men of business 
whose executive skill determines the des- 
tiny of thousands in their employ, ar 
growing more and more to an appreciation 
of the trusteeship that is theirs. A hu- 
mane spirit is entering the relationship 



LBQLBR 



81 



between employer and employed. Great 
commercial organizations are conducting 
elaborate investigations into conditions of 
housing, sanitation, prolongation of school 
life, social insurance and similar subjects 
of betterment for the toilers; but a brief 
span ago they were concerned chiefly with 
trade extension and lowering of wages, all 
unconcerned about the living conditions of 
their dependents. They too are now ex- 
emplifying the possession of that construc- 
tive imagination which builds large and 
beyond the present. For results that grow 
out of experience and of experiment they 
also are in part dependent upon the sifted 
facts that are found in print. The busi- 
ness house library is a recent development, 
and in ministering In different ways to 
both employer and employed, gives prom- 
ise of widespread usefulness. 

XI 

With the tremendous recent growth of 
industrialism and the rapid multiplication 
of invention, the manifest need for making 
available the vast sum of gathered knowl- 
edge concerning the discoveries of modern 
science has evolved the great special li- 
braries devoted to the varied subdivision! 
of the subject. Munificently endowed as 
many of them are, highly organized for 
ready access to material, administered to 
encourage use and to give expert aid as 
well, their great importance cannot be ov- 
erestimated. What they accomplish is not 
wholly reducible to statistics, nor can their 
influence be readily traced, perhaps, to the 
great undertakings of today which over- 
shadow the seven wonders of antiquity. 
But there can be no question that with- 
out the opportunities that here lie for study 
and research, and no less important 
without the skilled assistance freely ren- 
dered by librarian and bibliographer, spe- 
cial talent would often remain dormant 
and its possessor unsatisfied. Greater 
here would be the loss to society than to 
the individual. 

XII 

Thus the libraries are endeavoring to 
make themselves useful in every field of 



human enterprise or interest; with book* 
of facts for the information they possess; 
with books of inspiration for the stimulus 
they give and the power they generate. 
Conjointly these yield the equipment 
which develops the constructive imagina- 
tion, without which the world would seem 
but a sorry and a shriveled spot to dwell 
upon. The poet and the dreamer conceive 
the great things which are wrought; the 
scientist and the craftsman achieve them; 
the scholar and the artist interpret them. 
Thus associated, they make their finest 
contribution to the common life. The 
builders construct the great monuments 
of iron and of concrete which are the ex- 
pression of this age, as the great cathe- 
drals and abbeys were of generations that 
have passed. Adapted as they are to the 
needs of this day, our artists and our writ- 
ers have shown us the beauty and the art 
which the modern handiwork of man pos- 
sesses. With etcher's tool one man of keen 
insight has shown us the art that inheres 
in the lofty structures which line the great 
thoroughfares of our chief cities, the beau- 
ty of the skylines they trace with roof and 
pediment. With burning words another has 
given voice to machinery and to the vehi- 
cles of modern industry, and we thrill to 
the eloquence and glow of his poetic 
fervor. 

"Great works of art are useful works 
greatly done," declares Dr. T. J. Cobden- 
Sanderson, and rightly viewed the most 
prosaic achievements of this age, wheth- 
er they be great canals or clusters of 
workmen's homes worthily built, or may- 
be more humble projects, have a greatness 
of meaning that carries with it the sense 
of beauty and of art. 

In medieval days, the heralds of civiliza- 
tion were the warrior, the missionary, the 
explorer and the troubadour; in modern 
times, civilization is carried forward by 
the chemist, the engineer, the captain of 
industry, and the interpreter of life 
whether the medium utilized be pen or 
brush or voice. Without vision, civiliza- 
, tion would wither and perish, and so it 
may well be that the printed page shall 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



serve as symbol of its supreme vision. 
Within the compass of the book sincerely 
written, rightly chosen, and well used are 
contained the three chief elements which 
justify the library of the people informa- 
tion, education, recreation. 

The urge of the world makes these de- 
mands; ours is the high privilege to re- 
spond. 

The PRESIDENT: We have a very in- 
teresting ending to tonight's program in 
that we have secured from eminent men 
and women in the United States and Great 
Britain brief expressions touching our own 
work. A circular letter was sent to a num- 
ber of these eminent ladies and gentlemen 
represented in professional and business 
life, to the following effect: 

"Librarians realize that they can profit 
from seeing themselves 'as others see 
them.' At the coming annual conference 
of the American Library Association to be 
held in Kaaterskill, N. Y., it is planned to 
present to the assembled librarians of the 
United States and Canada brief messages 
from leading thinkers and recognized au- 
thorities in the arts, sciences and letters, 
and in public life, commenting upon such 
library activities as are related particu- 
larly with their own special interests. Each 
message may take the form either of criti- 
cism or suggestion. We shall esteem it a 
privilege if you will consent to contribute 
to this symposium. While we shall be glad 
to hear from you on any phase of library 
work which most appeals to you, we ven- 
ture to suggest the following topic for 
your comment: (Here was inserted a spe- 
cific topic suggested for individual discus- 
sion.) 

Sincerely yours, 

HENRY E. LEGLER, 

President." 

Most of these questions will be appar- 
ent as the answers are read. We have 
distributed these responses among a few 
of our own members who will serve as 
proxies for the most distinguished contrib- 
utors to a program which the American 
Library Association, I believe, has ever 
had. 

Selections from these letters were then 
read by Dr. Reuben G. Thwaites, Mr. C. B. 



Roden, Miss Mary Eileen Ahern and Mr. 
W. P. Cutter. 

(The following is a list of the questions 
which were asked in these letters and the 
replies received follow.) 

Are our public libraries succeeding in 
their effort to bring to men and women the 
"life more abundant?" 

What can the library do to encourage 
the study of American history? 

Should our public expect the library to 
supply all the "best sellers" hot from the 
press? 

Are our public libraries making returns 
in service adequate to funds appropriated? 

How could our tax supported public li- 
braries be of greater usefulness to business 
men? 

Is the negro being helped by our public 
libraries? 

Does the public library do as much as 
it might to encourage the reading of the 
classics? 

Is the public library helping to improve 
dramatic taste? 

Is co-operation between the public school 
and the public library developing in the 
right direction t 

Is the fiction circulated by our public li- 
braries helping to enlighten the people on 
social and economic problems? 

Is the public library a factor in the re- 
cent development of a public conscience? 

Should the public library exercise cen- 
sorship over the books it circulates? 

What is a dead book? 

What rank should the library have in the 
scale of the community's social assets? 

What is your conception of the ideal li- 
brarian? 

Is it wicked for our libraries to amuse 
people? 

Are the art departments of our public li- 
braries quickening the love for the beau- 
tiful? 

Are our libraries helping to make better 
citizens of those from over-seas? 

Is the modern city library engaging in 
activities outside its proper sphere, e. g., 
lectures, story-telling, art exhibits, victrola 
concerts, loan of pianola rolls, etc.? 



"AS OTHERS SEE US" 



83 



Is the library doing as much as It might 
to be a true university to the people? 

What do you consider the most valuable 
accomplishment of the public library move- 
ment in the past decade? 

Need librarians apologize for circulating 
a large percentage of contemporary fic- 
tion? 



New York, April 7, 1913. 
Dear Mr. President: 

You ask "what do you consider the most 
valuable accomplishment of the public li- 
brary movement in the past decade?" 

Answer 

The spread of the truth that the public 
library, free to all the people, gives noth- 
ing for nothing; that the reader must him- 
self climb the ladder and in climbing gain 
knowledge how to live this life well. 

ANDREW CARNEGIE. 



Cornwall-on-Hudson, N. Y., 

April 11, 1913. 

My father* has asked me to write to you 
in reply to your letter concerning the con- 
ference of the American Library Associa- 
tion to be held in Kaaterskill, N. Y. Nei- 
ther my father nor I have any chance to 
see in any detail what our public libraries 
are doing to make like more abundant. One 
little incident, however, has come within 
my experience. The New York Public Li- 
brary sends its discarded books to various 
hospitals and camps instead of destroying 
them. I have been able to get some of 
these discarded books for use in a Boys' 
Club here in Cornwall. They were well 
chosen for what I wanted and the boys 
have been responsive and interested in tak- 
ing them out. This is simply one of the 
things that the public libraries are do;ng 
with the books they are through with and 
can use no more. 

Yours very truly, 
BEATRICE VAIL ABBOTT. 



London, England, 

April 15, 1913. 

In reply to your letter of April 1st, writ- 
ten on behalf of the American Library As- 
sociation, I do consider that to a certain 
extent the fiction circulated in the public 
libraries of the United States does help to 
enlighten the people on social and eco- 
nomic problems. But I am bound to say 
that I think that we novelists might do a 
very great deal more in this direction if 



we would avoid sentimentalizing the truth 
in order to make it seem more palatable, 
and also if we would adopt the habit of de- 
scribing more completely the general so- 
cial background against which our leading 
figures live and move. 

Believe me, 
Yours faithfully, 

ARNOLD BENNETT. 



*Lyman Abbott. 



Drama League of America, 
Chicago, 111. 

In the last three years the American peo- 
ple as a whole have begun to awaken to a 
realization of the vast importance of our 
amusements in the nation's life. We are 
realizing that we are far behind the other 
civilized countries in the development of 
our dramatic taste, and we are beginning 
to be uneasy over the danger of being too 
careless in regard to our recreation. The 
people at large are commencing to take a 
genuine interest in the problems presented 
by our theater, and the character of the 
plays they give. 

We have arrived at a period of pros- 
perity when we have time, at last, to pay 
attention to the arts, and especially the 
last to be developed, the dramatic art. We 
are uneasy over the conditions in our the- 
aters today. 

Vaguely the people as a whole are feel- 
ing around for one means or another to 
correct these conditions, to create a great 
national art and to restore drama to her 
proper place among the arts. One move- 
ment after another has aimed to meet 
these conditions new theaters municipal 
theaters, censorship laws, every sort of 
reform. It has remained for the Drama 
League of America to place its finger 
upon the really vital issue. For the actual 
fault of the present situation lies with the 
easy going American public. You cannot 
create a New Theater without a public 
to support it; you cannot force art on an 
unwilling public no matter how large an A 
you use in spelling it. In fact, your re- 
forms must begin the other side of the foot- 
lights; and if we are to have better plays 
upon our stage, if we are to do away with 
the meretricious plays now too frequently 
there, we must work with this great pleas- 
ure-loving good-natured public, and culti- 
vate in it a taste for better drama. 

We must create a demand for good 
drama and the supply will follow the dra- 
matist, actor and manager are only too 
willing to fall into line, if the public can be 
induced to refuse the worthless play and 
support better drama. The really vital 
and necessary thing is to secure a public 
which will enjoy and support good plays. 



84 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



Hence, it has become an important and 
basic matter to improve the dramatic 
tastes of the country. In fact, in the opin- 
ion of many, this is one of the great prob- 
lems we have before us as a nation today. 

Organized with this very object, the 
Drama League of America has worked for 
three years on the problem. In those three 
years it has discovered many things. One 
of these is, that there is a real and genu- 
ine response to the appeal of the written 
drama; that the message of the play need 
not be restricted to the city with a theater, 
but that through the printed play every 
community may be reached. Another point 
worked out by the league is the absolute 
assurance that the best and in fact the 
only way to improve the dramatic taste 
of the country is to inculcate a thorough 
knowledge of good drama an intimate ac- 
quaintance with the best plays written. 
As many of these plays are rarely acted 
now, or if acted are confined to the big 
cities, the third point easily follows, that 
by means of the printed play we can grad- 
ually so inoculate the entire nation with a 
knowledge of good drama and what it 
really is that it will turn instinctively from 
the cheap and worthless play and demand 
better things. Consequently the first and 
most important matter is to make good 
drama accessible to every one. By spread- 
ing knowledge of the best plays of the past 
and present, all over the country, we are 
improving the dramatic taste of the n'ation 
and paving the way for better .conditions 
in the theaters. 

In this effort to increase the reading of 
plays the Drama League not unnaturally 
turned early, in its career to the libraries, 
feeling itself largely dependent upon them 
for the full development of its work. The 
keenest response has come in return. Over 
73 libraries are represented in our mem- 
bership and keep on file the league litera- 
ture. The testimony from these libraries 
is most encouraging. On every side we find 
the libraries eager to help in this develop- 
ment of public dramatic taste: 

Since the only way to improve dramatic 
taste is by acquiring a thorough knowl- 
edge of plays^ it is palpably apparent that 
the libraries can be the greatest possible 
help in this new movement. To illustrate 
concretely The Drama League enters a 
medium sized town with one public library, 
inducing the two or three women's clubs 
to take up each a course in modern drama, 
interesting the teachers in the high school 
in the league's high school course, even 
persuading the grade school to do drama 
work with the younger pupils. Usually 
there are formed also several little read- 
ing circles. Of course, the first demand is 



for the published plays. The students flock 
to the libraries to get the desired dramas. 

In Chicago the testimony has come many 
times that since the organization of The 
Drama League public interest has been so 
keen that the demand for dramas has been 
phenomenal. Is the library content merely 
to recognize this condition? By no means. 
The Drama Department has had to quad- 
ruple its supply, and even then is fre- 
quently obliged to hold the books in for 
reference only in order to meet the de- 
mand. But see what this has meant to the 
league to have that quadruple supply of 
the dramas demanded by its members. 
From Washington comes the testimony 
that the organization of the league has in- 
creased the demand for drama books; from 
Los Angeles came a large order for spe- 
cial dramas and reference books needed by 
our members. The Massachusetts State 
Library has offered to meet any demands 
made upon it. Librarians in various com- 
munities are officers and directors in this 
new movement. 

May I suggest a few ways in which the 
libraries can help us? In the first place, 
it will be a real benefit to any community 
if its library will become a member of The 
Drama League and keep its literature on 
file. In this way the community is kept 
informed through the Drama League bulle- 
tins of the best current plays by its critical 
analysis; it has access also to the study 
courses and bibliographies on drama pre- 
pared by the league's experts. Secondly, 
it would be an inestimable help in this task 
of improving dramatic taste of the com- 
munity if the library would be sure to 
have on hand all the dramas listed in our 
study and reading courses. Thirdly, if the 
libraries would arrange a handy shelf of 
worthy drama where "he who runs may 
read," where the passerby would be at- 
tracted by a drama and pick it up to 
read it, it might induce a taste for better 
plays, a knowledge of good drama in a 
previously heedless theater goer. In Evan- 
ston, Illinois, for three years this shelf has 
been maintained in the library by the 
Drama Club. Every few weeks a new 
selection of dramas is placed on this little 
book rack which stands near the main 
call desk. It is much used and very popu- 
lar. 

The library could also helpfully publish 
i separate list of its books on drama and 
dramas, or better yet arrange them in a 
separate section. Such a list is published 
yearly by the Evanston Library and sev- 
eral other libraries have recently adopted 
this plan notably the Newberry Library, 
Chicago, and the Kansas City Library. 

Another way in which the libraries can 



"AS OTHERS SEE US" 



85 



co-operate in raising dramatic taste, is 
by making it easy for the playgoer to 
read the dramas which have been pub- 
lished and are to be presented in his city. 
By co-operation with the Drama League 
the library might receive word in advance 
when a published worthy play is to be 
given in town. It could then see to it 
either that its copy of that play is with- 
drawn from circulation and held for refer- 
ence only, or it could secure extra copies 
of the play to meet the extra demand. 
If it could be thoroughly understood that 
the library was doing this, interest in read- 
ing the play could be stimulated. For in- 
stance, the library could post a notice 
stating the coming of the play to town, 
side by side with the league bulletin or 
criticism of the play, and the announce- 
ment that it could be secured at the book 
shelf. With this active help of the li- 
braries we might go far toward securing 
a trained dramatic taste on the part of 
our theater goers. There are several 
magazines of special value to the student 
of drama. It would be a very great help 
if the libraries made a special point of 
including these among their subscriptions 
and of listing them under the Drama De- 
partment as for instance, the Drama 
Quarterly, and Poet Lore print in each 
issue a play which has never been printed 
in translation before, and which cannot be 
secured elsewhere. These are extremely 
valuable to the drama student. The Drama 
Quarterly, moreover, is especially adapted 
to the needs of the student of drama, and 
should be accessible to him. It aims to 
criticise the various books on drama a'!d 
dramas of special excellence, also publish- 
ing notices of the most recent drama move- 
ments in this country and abroad. It is 
nrt used for league propaganda, but was 
taken over by The Drama League merely 
because it was in danger of being aban- 
doned. Moreover, in Current Opinion and 
Hearst's Magazine are frequently printed 
very valuable portions of unpublished new 
plays. With every issue of L'lllustration 
is published a new French drama in 
French. It would be an excellent thing 
if the larger or better equipped libraries 
coald excerpt the plays from these maga- 
zines and have them sewed up simply, each 
complete by itself, and kept with the other 
dramas. In this way the library could 
make an excellent modern drama depart- 
ment readily accessible to the league mem- 
bers, obtainable in no other way, and at 
very slight cost to the library. 

A very important way in which the 
Library Association might help is one 
which may not be practical, but which 
your convention might be able to work 



out for us. It is in the nature of loan 
libraries. As we introduce our study 
courses into the small towns we frequently 
find no library facilities along our lines. 
One of our workers made an investigation 
of the Drama Department in libraries in 
small towns of five to ten thousand inhabi- 
tants in the Middle West, and found that 
without exception all of those she visited, 
had only Shakespeare and Faust, with oc- 
casionally a volume of L'Aiglon. It is easy 
to see how difficult it will be for clubs and 
individuals to take up a study of drama 
under such conditions. Is there any way 
in which the large state libraries can pre- 
pare a loan library at very slight cost, 
made up of books desired for this special 
work, which could be borrowed by the 
local library for the use of its clubs? Of 
course, in some states, as in Wisconsin and 
New York, and probably many others, this 
is covered by the traveling libraries; but 
there are very many where this is not so. 
Cannot the libraries go even farther in 
their effort to improve dramatic taste and 
meet the demand for dramas and books on 
dramas, a demand which the Drama 
League is attempting to create? 

Several libraries in various cities, as not- 
ably Chicago and Washington, have opened 
their rooms for Drama League meetings. 
Cannot this be done in other cities? Surely 
any way in which you, as public institu- 
tions, can increase the interest in good 
drama, is a part of your proper function. 
The league work must go hand in hand 
with the libraries. Without you and your 
resources, your wisdom and your co-opera- 
tion, we would be mucn crippled and 
sadly curtailed in our possibilities of 
achievements. On the other hand, now that 
the development of a national taste for 
better drama is becoming recognized as a 
necessity in order to effect any improve- 
ment in the conditions of our stage today, 
now that we fully recognize that the best 
way to create a better dramatic taste is 
by familiarity with the best in drama, nov 
that we are working to make the reading 
of plays popular and wide spread, does 
it not become a very important branch 
of the library's activity to take every step 
possible to increase the reading of plays 
and the thorough knowledge of dramatic 
literature on the part of young and old? 

The real opportunity is with the children. 
Here we can create a fine dramatic taste 
for the future, and here, too, the library 
can help. In your junior corner, can you 
not have the plays recommended on our 
junior list, as suitable for children in order 
that they may have them for their play 
acting? Can you not start a Junior League 
Drama Circle to read and act little chil- 



86 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



dren's plays, just as you have your story 
hour? In this way the library is help- 
ing us prepare the audiences of the fu- 
ture which shall not only support better 
drama, but being thoroughly inoculated 
with an instinctive dramatic taste, will 
positively demand worthy drama. So will 
the libraries and The Drama League, rep- 
resenting the universities, schools, clubs 
and individuals in general have aroused 
the public conscience to a realization of 
its responsibilities for the amusements of 
the people. 

MARJORIE A. BEST (MRS. A. 

STARR BEST) 
President, Drama League of America. 



tion of each somewhat after the manner 
of publishers' alluring (or would-be allur- 
ing) notices of new books? 
Yours sincerely, 

W. C. BRONSON. 



The Macmillan Company, New York, N. Y., 

May 5, 1913. 

In reply to your esteemed letter of May 
2nd I may say that the matter which seems 
to me to be of the greatest interest to 
publishers, and possibly also to librarians, 
at the present time is the dissemination 
among the public at large of that correct 
information in regard to the ever increas- 
ing tide of new books which will enable 
the public to learn of really meritorious 
works which are published, and avoid the 
trash which is now being so freely dis- 
tributed. 

Almost the only way at the present time 
of reaching large numbers of book readers 
is through the libraries, and this seems 
sufficient excuse for bringing this, which 
seems to me to be the most important mat- 
ter, to your notice and of begging that it 
may be given publicity among your fel- 
low librarians in order that we may have 
suggestions for the solution of the diffi- 
culty. 

Yours very truly, 

GEORGE P. BRETT, 

President. 



Brown University, Providence, R. I., 

April 29, 1913. 

In reply to your letter of April 21 I 
can only say that I am not familiar enough 
with the conduct of American libraries 
to make any new suggestions on the ques- 
tion you propose. I think the plan fol- 
lowed by the Providence Public Library is 
the best one to encourage the reading of 
the standard works of literature. It has, 
as you of course know, a pleasant room, 
easily accessible, in which attractive edi- 
tions of the best authors can be read. 
Would it be feasible to supplement this 
plan by publishing, from time to time, in- 
teresting, short descriptions of standard 
books, giving prospective readers some no- 
tion of the subject and peculiar attrac- 



Northampton, Mass., 
May 16, 1913. 

Your letter of the fourteenth, inviting 
me to contribute to a symposium of thought 
concerning library work in America and 
suggesting the topic, "What is your con- 
ception of the ideal librarian," does me 
great honor. But it brings to my mind 
very clearly my inability to offer a defini- 
tion which I could possibly hope would 
be enlightening or stimulating to a con- 
vention of librarians. 

The library work of our present day 
has expanded into such liberal bounds 
and taken on such a missionary, and at 
the same time scientific, spirit that one 
who is merely its beneficiary cannot give 
himself the hardihood to offer words of 
criticism or of counsel. I know no work 
which shows such splendid contrasts to 
what it was when I began life as does 
the profession of the public librarian and 
the professional conception of the library's 
mission to the world. 

It has been my great joy and honor to 
bring up a large family whose members 
are now separated and busy in the world's 
work and it gives me great pleasure to 
say of them, as of myself, that the modern 
management of public libraries has made 
life worth incalculably more than it could 
have been under the limitations of forty 
years ago. 

With every good wish I beg to re- 
main ever 

Yours truly, 

GEORGE W. CABLE. 



Santa Barbara, Cal., 

May 5, 1913. 

It gives me great pleasure to attempt 
a brief answer to the question you sug- 
gest "Is the fiction circulated by our 
public libraries helping to enlighten the 
people on social and economic problems?" 
I should be inclined to answer the ques- 
tion decidedly in the affirmative. In addi- 
tion to the letters I receive from persons 
whose only access to modern fiction . is 
through the public library, concerning my 
own work, I have, in the course of political 
campaigns, and in places in various parts 
of the country where I have made another 
sort of address, held many conversations 
with men and women in the audiences. 
These have interested me greatly. My 
own experience corroborates a fact to 
which I have heard several librarians at- 



'AS OTHERS SEE US" 



87 



test (and it is to me the most hopeful 
phenomenon in our American life), that 
the American public mainly through the 
libraries is reading more widely and more 
intelligently than those who do not come 
into direct contact with a large portion of 
it guess. Four or five months ago I re- 
ceived a letter from a poor woman who 
lives on a farm near one of the larger 
towns of Massachusetts giving me a list 
of the books she had got from the library 
during the past year. She had read them 
all; and they included, in addition to two 
good biographies and Royce's "Loyalty," 
several of the best recent novels, both 
English and American, dealing seriously 
with the problems of modern life. And 
finally, the other day when I was in San 
Francisco, I had a long conversation with 
an ex-burglar who had served a term in 
the penitentiary, .and who has reformed 
and has been for the last eight years mak- 
ing an honest living, on the subject of 
such novels as you mention. His com- 
ments on them were not only interesting 
but often valuable. His source was, of 
course, the public library. Hence, I am 
giad of this opportunity to pay my tribute 
to the librarian, and to express, as an 
American citizen, my appreciation of the 
work he is doing. 

Sincerely yours, 

WINSTON CHURCHILL. 



Bureau of Education, 
Washington, D. C. 

April 29, 1913. 

The public libraries have no better op- 
portunity for effective service than that 
offered through generous and intelligent 
co-operation with the public schools and 
especially with the high schools and the 
highest grades of the grammar schools. 
Ideas and ideals gained through reading 
in childhood and youth effect the character 
more fundamentally and more permanently, 
and determine moral conduct for a longer 
time than ideas and ideals gained later. 
It should also be remembered that chil- 
dren have more time to read than men and 
women immersed in the strong current of 
adult life. 

The public library in every city and 
town should be open on the freest terms 
to all school children and they should 
feel that they have the heartiest welcome 
to it. Not only should the teacher en- 
courage children to use the library; li- 
brarians should invite them to do so and 
make all possible preparations to serve 
them. There should be in the libraries 
a sufficient number of reading rooms to 
accommodate children of different grades. 
In these should he assistant librarians 



who know the very best in literature for 
children and youth and who know also 
how to deal with children and how to make 
the rooms attractive. It is all important 
that the reading rooms and those in charge 
be attractive, respected, liked, and loved. 
It is especially important that children 
be led to read those things that have 
permanent and eternal value. No one 
should be permitted to direct the reading 
of children who thinks it necessary to 
have books written down to them or who 
does not know that the greatest books 
are the simplest and the most wholesome. 
The children's librarians should also be 
whole minded and whole hearted people 
with a broad and interesting knowledge 
of the world and life. It will be fatal 
if they are narrow, prejudiced, sectarian, 
or over-provincial. 

The public library should have the ser- 
vices of one or more good story tellers 
who know the best stories of the world 
and can tell them in an interesting way. 
As often as once a week at least there 
should be a separate hour for all the 
children. The children should, of course, 
come in sections primary, grammar 
grades, and high school. 

In addition to the services rendered as 
here suggested at the library, all the 
children in school or out should have li- 
brary cards and for the convenience of 
the children every school building should 
be made a branch library for the use of 
children at least. I see no reason why it 
should not also serve as a branch library 
for the older people. It would not cost 
much to have some one or more teachers 
at each school serve as librarians under 
the direction of the librarian of the central 
library. Through the branch library at 
the school many parents and other older 
members of the family could be reached 
who never can be reached through the 
ordinary central and branch library build- 
ings. Attractive statements about books, 
especially new books should be sent to 
the parents by the children and books 
might be ordered and returned through 
the children. It would not be difficult to 
induce pupils and teachers to arrange read- 
ing circles and clubs among the adult 
members of families living near the school, 
the books used by the reading circles to 
be ordered from and returned to the school 
branch library. Teachers and principals 
would also be willing to arrange for weekly 
meetings for the members of these read- 
ing circles and clubs, the meetings to 
be held at the school. Certificates and 
diplomas might be given for the reading 
of certain groups of books. 

The library should own in sets books 



88 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



helpful to teachers and children in their 
studies and should, at the request of super- 
intendents and principals, place sets of 
these in the several schools for use in 
school, but not to be taken out except over 
night or over Saturdays and Sundays and 
holidays. 

Libraries should also own large collec- 
tions of illustrative pictures and lantern 
slides. These should be cataloged as books 
are and lists of them should be in the 
hands of school superintendents, super- 
visors, principals, and teachers. The pic- 
tures and slides should be loaned the 
schools freely upon their request. School 
officers and teachers should be asked to 
assist in selecting these and all other col- 
lections for the use of children. 

The library should serve in this way not 
only the schools of the city, but also the 
country and village schools in the counties 
in which they are located. Through the 
country schools more good can be accom- 
plished, frequently, than through the city 
schools. Country boys and girls are more 
eager to read than city boys and girls. 
They have more time for it and will read 
better books. The library should have 
a direct relation with every school and 
every teacher in the county. Of course, 
the county should pay for this service, 
but it should have it whether it .pays for 
it or not. The city cannot afford to with- 
hold it. The city depends on the country 
for its prosperity and life. The children 
now in the country will make up a large 
part of the population of the city twenty 
or twenty-five years from now. 

In many places the public libraries are 
doing all these things to some extent; in 
no place to as great an extent as is pos- 
sible. By using to the best advantage 
the opportunities here suggested, public 
libraries may double their usefulness. 
Yours sincerely, 

P. P. CLAXTON, 
Commissioner. 



New York City, 

April 4, 1913. 

The Negro American is being helped 
greatly by public libraries wherever he is 
given reasonable encouragement to enter 
them. Often in the North, he is not made 
to feel welcome in these libraries and in 
most of the public and private libraries 
of the South, he is rigorously excluded. It 
would seem that a statement from the 
American Library Association to the effect 
that the color line in literature is silly, ia 
much needed at present. 

Very sincerely yours, 

W. E. B. DUBOIS. 



Mayor's Office, 
Boston, Mass. 

Of course, the financial return for money 
expended to maintain a public library can- 
not be definitely stated, as may be done 
in connection with municipal activities 
which deal solely with material things. 

It is impossible to trace along commer- 
cial lines the influence upon the community 
of an institution whose prime purpose is 
not profit, is not even a product that can 
be expressed in terms of dollars, but is 
the enlargement of the individual life, and 
the promotion of higher standards of citi- 
zenship. 

On the lowest and most sordid plane 
however, an institution like the Boston 
public library is worth many times its cost 
to the city merely on account of the num- 
ber of persons from abroad who are at- 
tracted to the building as an example of 
monumental architecture, or because it con- 
tains exceptional works of art in its mural 
decorations, or who visit it as a museum 
of rare and interesting books. These visi- 
tors number thousands yearly; many of 
them stay in the city for several days, 
and their entertainment and their expendi- 
ture of money while they remain, add to 
the commercial prosperity of the city. 

In somewhat the same way, but on a 
much higher plane, directly within the 
scope of the library function, numbers of 
students are yearly drawn to the city by 
the advantages the library offers for in- 
tellectual research. And the library en- 
hances the importance and value of the 
various schools and colleges within our 
borders, by enlarging their intellectual re- 
sources. 

In other directions the value of the li- 
brary to the community is evident. The 
fact that it is here adds something to 
the value of every estate in the city. Per- 
sons seeking a desirable place of residence 
prefer a city or town which has good 
schools and a well-equipped and adequately 
supported library to a place without these 
institutions, even if no direct use is made 
by such persons of either. The influence 
of a good library on the general condi- 
tions in a community is therefore a profit- 
able asset. 

In assimilating the different elements of 
a mixed and rapidly growing population, 
the work of the library is obvious, and 
its results far outweigh their cost. And 
the increased efficiency of individuals, 
which the library promotes, has its effect 
in inestimable public benefits. For ex- 
ample, to take a single possible case 
out of many, here is a young man with- 
out money or influence but who has talent 
which, if properly fostered may become 



"AS OTHERS SEE US" 



$9 



the source of power. Through the oppor- 
tunities for study given by the public li- 
brary he perfects an invention, or writes 
a poem, or enters a useful profession by 
means of which he ministers to the com- 
iort and enjoyment of his fellow-men and 
confers honor upon this city. How can 
one over-estimate the social value of such 
lives, or the part which the library has 
played in their development? Such in- 
stances are by no means few, and un- 
questionably they supply an affirmative an- 
swer to the question as to whether or 
not the library is making an adequate re- 
turn for its cost. 

JOHN F. FITZGERALD. 



Chicago, Illinois, 
May 10, 1913. 

Your question, "Is the fiction circulated 
by our public library helping to enlighten 
people on social and economic problems?" 
is one which I can answer promptly and 
affirmatively. Looking at fiction in the 
mass, it is without doubt an enormous 
educational influence. Leaving out of view 
for the moment the historical novel, or 
the sociologic novel, and taking merely the 
local novel, the novel which vividly por- 
trays the life of a special village, or coun- 
try, or nation, we find it of the greatest 
service in teaching the people of one coun- 
try, or class, how the people of other coun- 
tries and other classes live. Such books 
bring the ends of the earth together. They 
unite the north and the south, the east and 
the west, in common sympathy and under- 
standing. They contribute very largely to 
the higher patriotism, as well as to the 
profounder social brotherhood. 

It would be easy to criticise fiction for 
other and less valuable content, but speak- 
ing generally, I believe it to be second only 
to the stage in its power to affect the 
young student of life and manners. 
Very sincerely yours, 

HAMLIN GARLAND. 



Ithaca, N. Y., 
May 16, 1913. 

You ask for comment as "related par- 
ticularly with their own special interests" 
and at the risk of being charged with 
"talking shop," I have -been brutally frank. 
Yet I hope it will cheer these splendid 
workers for civilization. 

The library is not "doing as much as 
it might to be a true University to the 
People." Books alone will not attract the 
insensitive or indifferent, nor will hand- 
some buildings. Equal to other necessity 
of the library to be "a true university to 
the people," is that of arousing interest, 
awakening curiosity and alluring into path- 



ways that lead to books and reading. I 
know of nothing better than to have cheap, 
popular, illustrated lecture courses that 
constantly refer to books and the special 
theme. 

Does the local librarian or do active 
directors, attempt seriously to tap the 
knowledge of the local specialist, profes- 
sional man, or public spirited speaker? 
Do the library people emphasize the neces- 
sity of close, personal contact, as far as 
possible, with the individuals and with 
the people? Libraries must be more 
human. No machinery, or salaried per- 
sonnel, however costly or efficient, within 
chosen lines of activity, can do without 
that same human sympathy, which in other 
professions, is known to outweigh in value, 
all edifices, or the paid professional corps; 
yes, even in religion or philanthropy. Not 
all, but most libraries and I have looked 
in, and at, and around many are too self- 
centered. 

Yet with this criticism, honestly called 
for and as honestly given, none can appre- 
ciate the librarian more than I. To guide 
youthful reading, warning as well as ad- 
vising and alluring them to high flights, 
is to make the librarian's calling second 
to none in our complex civilization. 

With all good wishes to the librarians of 
the United States and Canada. 
Sincerely yours, 
WILLIAM ELIOT GRIFFIS. 

P. S. Every library should have a lec- 
ture hall and not be afraid even of the 
"fit audience though few." 



Clark University, 
Worcester, Mass., 

May 17, 1913. 

My experience is a long one with uni- 
versity libraries, but I have had far less 
to do with public libraries. 

The greatest need of the specialist and 
expert is help in finding all, and especially 
the latest, often very scattered, literature 
on the special point on which he is con- 
ducting his research, and I believe that in 
the future every academic library will have 
a few specialists with a good knowledge 
of languages, of Ph. D. rank, who can 
do just this. We have one such here, 
to whom my work owes more than to any- 
body else. If I ask her to find me, e. g., 
all the recent references on a topic, be it 
ever so special, including perhaps a score 
of archives and special journals, back for 
three or five years as I may specify, up to 
the latest arrival, I get this list, which 
always includes many things our library 
does not have, then take it to the librarian, 
who can generally get about everything 



90 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



by borrowing far and near. These, to- 
gether with the resources here, are placed 
upon a table in an alcove where I can work 
or take the books home. This makes a 
perfectly ideal condition, and it is at the 
same time indispensable for advanced spe- 
cial work, and everything in a university 
library should be plastic to this end. 

A public librarian, it seems to me, should 
study all the changing interests in a com- 
munity or in special parts of it, and be able 
to print in the daily press whenever any 
topic is prominent a little article telling 
in a few lines the point of a few books 
or articles; e. g. a manual training high 
school is opened. The daily paper should 
state that the library has a good collection 
of literature up to date on that subject 
(if it has), and give a few points from 
a few of the best books, naming them. A 
few titles are not enough. 

Another point that interests me greatly 
is the library story telling. I think more 
should be done, not less, in this line for 
children, and that books illustrating topics 
in geography, history, etc., should be not 
only laid before teachers but that the 
classes should meet there and have the 
things shown to them. Why does not the 
public library go into some of the won- 
derful illustrative material in the above 
and other topics, which is so characteristic 
of German schools, and of which American 
schools know almost nothing? Our educa- 
tional Museum here has lately spent thou- 
sands of dollars and collected thousands of 
these illustrations all the way from wall 
pictures to bound pictures, illustrating ma- 
terial from primary grades up into college, 
which we loan as we do books to teachers, 
parents and others. There is a very great 
new departure possible here. Why does 
not your Association look into this? It 
has been a great find for us. And about 
everything in our large collection and its 
use, to my mind, might be done by public 
libraries although none* of them that I 
v now of has done much of anything along 
that line. I am 

Very truly yours, 

G. STANLEY HALL. 



The University of Chicago, 

Chicago, May 16, 1913. 
While I am not at all a specialist in li- 
brary science and art, I am daily a debtor 
tc your profession. In answer to the ques- 
tion "What rank shoitld the library have 
in the scale of the community's social as- 
sets?" I should indicate the following 
hints of an argument: The income of every 
family is increased by the possession and 
use of a public library. This item is never 
found set down in the accounts of a family 



as a part of their income, and the students 
of budgets are too apt to overlook it; but 
all communal property, as lake fronts, 
parks, playgrounds, public schools, public 
free libraries and reading rooms, are so 
much addition to the enjoyments of all 
who have the taste and inclination to use 
them. As the library contains the very 
best thoughts of the greatest men and 
women of all time, I should say that the 
public free library is among the very high- 
est possessions of the people. 

When we consider the dangers of idle- 
ness or of a depraved use of leisure, and 
when we consider the splendid opportunity 
of spiritual growth which comes from in- 
telligent and systematic daily use of the 
library, we must place this institution 
among the highest agencies of social ame- 
lioration and progress. Every year sees 
improvement in the administration of this 
noble trust by the professional custodians 
and administrators. There is manifest 
everywhere a spirit of courtesy, patience 
and enterprise, which does honor to this 
branch of the profession of educators. The 
librarian and his assistants are colleagues 
of instructors in all institutions of every 
grade, and those of us who are teaching 
f eel ourselves to be under profound obliga- 
tions to our companions in service. 
Sincerely yours, 

CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON. 



Chicago, April 7, 1913. 

I have your letter of April 2nd in which 
you are good enough to ask me to write a 
few lines on the topic: "Should the public 
library exercise censorship over the books 
it circulates?" 

I suppose there is no question that the 
good public library should have somewnere 
in its shelves all books of serious intent, 
and should circulate in a restricted and 
properly guarded way any book no matter 
what its subject matter. So the question 
comes down to the propriety of circulating 
generally without restriction all sorts of 
books. I should hesitate to say that a pub- 
lic library should exercise no supervision 
over its circulation, although I myself have 
suffered from what I consider unjust and 
unmerited notoriety due to the prescient 
sensibilities of certain librarians, as you 
know. But when you will admit the prin- 
ciple of censorship, the matter is a deli- 
cate one, of course. It would seem to me, 
for example, unwise to circulate freely 
books of medicine. As to fiction or what 
publishers call "the general list" of books, 
I think an intelligent librarian should hesi- 
tate a long time before putting on his or 
her index expurgatorius any publications 
vouched for by the imprint of a reputable 



"AS OTHERS SEE US' 



91 



publishing firm. For such books have ac- 
tually passed a severe censorship before 
being put out. I realize it is all a personal 
matter, for what to me is good red meat 
may be poison to my brother. I think, 
for instance, that such a novel as The 
Rosary is infinitely more pernicious than 
the Kreutzer Sonata, La Terre, or Germ- 
inal, but the average librarian wouldn't. 
So I am afraid the matter will have to 
stand just where it is today a book will 
be censored as unfit or unclean according 
to the whim of the individual librarian. 
Presumably the public librarian is at least 
abreast of, if not superior in culture and 
idealism to his community, and as our com- 
munities improve our librarians will be- 
come persons of wider intelligence and cul- 
ture than they are now in some cases and 
exercise their censorial powers with more 
real discrimination. 

Apropos of this matter you may be in- 
terested to know that a few months ago 
the New York Post in an editorial pro- 
test against certain young American real- 
ists and their treatment of sex instanced 
Mr. Howells and myself as examples of 
"clean American reticent realism!" This, 
after all the roar over "Together" is an 
amusing illustration of growth in critical 
opinion. Mr. Howells sent me the editorial 
but I haven't it with me. 

Truthfully, 
ROBERT HERRICK. 

P. S. My own views on the proper treat- 
ment of sex in fiction will be briefly 
touched upon in an article on American 
fiction to be printed in the Yale Review 
before long. 



Chicago, May 17, 1913. 

You ask me "is the fiction circulated by 
our public libraries helping to enlighten 
the people on social and economic prob- 
lems?" That is a question which a li- 
brarian can answer better than any author. 
In general, it seems to me, magazine fic- 
tion is doing more in that line than book 
fiction. Some of the greatest circulations 
ever attained by periodicals have been 
built upon a shrewd knowledge of the 
American materialism. One editor voices 
it: "Americans are interested about two- 
thirds in business, and one-third in love." 
That editorial policy has won in this coun- 
try. 

As to social and economic problems, 
more properly considered, I don't think 
fiction is doing much for the people. This 
really is the fault of the people, or of 
human nature, or rather of American hu- 
man nature. I think we are one of the 
most neurotic and hysterical people in the 



world, which means that presently we shall 
be one of the most swiftly decadent people 
in the world. For this reason, we have 
sudden fashions in fiction. Just now we 
like to read about "action" of heroic 
sort precisely as we pay to see baseball 
games instead of playing baseball our- 
selves. Also, we are for the time given 
over to a wave of erotic fiction, just this 
side of indecent. At one time we were 
crazy over historical fiction, before that, 
over dialect fiction, before that over analy- 
tical fiction. Therefore, I should say that 
our book fiction does not and cannot do 
much in the way of handling social and 
economic problems at the present day. 
Once in a while, we have a political novel, 
machine-made, and like all other political 
novels. Sometimes, we get a business 
novel, in turn like all other business novels. 
We don't have really very many thoughtful 
novels good enough to be called big. I 
fancy it would not pay authors to write 
them, or public libraries to buy them. 
We are having a period of business and 
political sack cloth and ashes, but, drunk 
or sober, broke or prosperous, the Ameri- 
can character seems to me annually to 
grow more hectic and hysterical, and less 
inclined to care for big things and good 
stuff. Part of this is the fault of our 
newspapers, but most of it is our own fault. 
We care for making money and for little 
else, and we spend money whether we have 
it or not. The public libraries would be 
the natural agency for correcting some of 
these things, but frankly I don't know how 
they could do it. 

Yours very truly, 

EMERSON HOUGH. 



New York City. 

Why should not the libraries amplify the 
work they are already doing by the pro- 
motion of the public schools as well as 
libraries as social and civic centers? 
Schoolhouses should be constructed with 
all equipments for branch libraries, just 
as they are now equipped with gymnasiums 
and baths. The library should not be an 
accident in the public school; it should be 
an integral part of it. The schoolhouse 
is the natural place for the library. To 
it the children come daily little messen- 
gers who would secure books from printed 
slips for their parents, too tired or too 
distant from the library to serve them- 
selves. The library should be the school 
rest and reading room. It would relieve 
the tedium of regular school work. It 
would lend variety to education; it would 
>nrich it and beautify it. 

In addition, great economy would be ef- 
fected by converting the school into a li- 



92 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



brary; there would be a saving in construe 
tion, in maintenance, in operation. The 
fine social sense of the modern librarian 
would have a reaction on education ' and 
.vould lead to other activities being in- 
troduced into the schools. 

The American library is the model of 
the world in many ways. It has led the 
movement for the widening of public serv- 
ices to old and young. It is one of the 
most inspirational achievements of the 
American city, and it could do a substantial 
service by promoting the social center idea, 
which is so actively engaging the minds 
of people all over the country. 

(Signed) FREDERIC C. HOWE. 



New York, N. Y. 

April 30, 1913. 

In response to your kind invitation to 
send a brief message on the subject "Can 
public libraries legitimately attempt amuse- 
ment as well as instruction of the people?" 
I would reply to the affirmative. If litera- 
ture is an art, and if libraries are to be 
as they should be reservoirs of literature 
they surely cannot be complete without 
giving an important place to arts' most 
human appeal, amusement. The novel, in- 
vented to amuse, stands today as the vital 
force in literature. Of course, by "amuse- 
ment" I do not mean a vaudeville. Shake- 
speare wrote to amuse; and if he does not 
offer a popular line today it is because 
modern writers are better chosen to amuse 
our century. Indeed, if you remove the 
fiction department the amusement section 
from your library you reduce it to the 
plans of a machine an admirable machine, 
perhaps but without a human soul to 
drive it. 

Sincerely yours, 

WALLACE IRWIN. 



Carnegie Institution of Washington, 
Washington, D. C., 
June 5, 1913. 

The specific question which you pro- 
pound, "What can the library do to en- 
courage the study of American history?" 
is one which I suppose must have very 
different answers for different sorts of li- 
braries. In the case of libraries of moder- 
ate size in small cities, it has sometimes 
appeared to me that the money used in the 
purchase of books on American history was 
too exclusively used in buying the less 
pxpensive sort of books, those in one or 
two or three volumes, of which it is per- 
fectly easy to get a considerable number 
out of each year's appropriations; while on 
the other hand, the purchase of certain 
books of value in expensive sets was never 



made, because it could not easily be made 
in any one given year. If the purchasing 
policy were given a somewhat longer 
range, extending over several years, one 
might plan to redress this inequality. To 
avoid speaking as if I were recommending 
any one long set of Americana for pur- 
chase, let me adduce as an instance a 
iibrary of forty or fifty thousand volumes 
with which I am familiar which has in the 
past twenty years bought a great many 
books of English history, without ever yet 
having afforded the purchase of the Dic- 
tionary of National Biography, obviously 
because it was too large a morsel for any 
one year's budget. 

If I were to proceed to make any sug- 
gestion for the larger horaries, I might 
select for comment the relative lack of 
co-operation among such libraries in re- 
spect to the pursuit of the more expensive 
specialties. It is plain that the interest of 
students are, in respect to restricted spe- 
cialties of this class better served on the 
whole by their being able to find relatively 
complete collections in one place, rather 
than scattered fragments of such collec- 
tions in various places. The ambition of 
libraries for possession might well be tem- 
pered by some closer approach to system- 
atic organization of these things, whereby 

rtain ones should be recognized as be- 
longing plainly in the field of a certain 
library without competition on the part 
of the others. I am speaking, of course, 
of things which only a few students are 
seeking, and which they must expect to 
seek by travel, and not of those things 
for which there is a separate effective 
demand in every large city. 

May I also suggest the question whether 
it is not a legitimate use of the funds 
of a public library to pay recognized ex- 
perts, resident in its city or summoned 
from elsewhere, to go over the shelves 
relating to a particular suoject and care- 
fully signalize those gaps which are al- 
most certain to occur; to name, in other 
words, any important books which have 
been omitted but which are necessary 
to make the collection a well-rounded one 
for the needs of the particular locality as 
the librarian sees them. I think also that 
university and college libraries are par- 
ticularly in need of such periodical re- 
dress, because professors are so prone 
to request books needed for the immediate 
purposes of their classes, and to exhaust 
their appropriations by such requests, for- 
getting the need of building up rounded 
collections for general purposes; and the 
librarian, on his part, feels a certain deli- 
cacy about suggesting books for which the 
professor has evinced no desire, though 



"AS OTHERS SEE US" 



often he will agree they were desirable, if 
their absence were called to his attention. 
Believe me 

Very truly yours, 

J. P. JAMESON. 



Hadley, Mass., 
May 20, 1913. 

I have your recent letter asking for 
some brief comment on such phase of li- 
brary work as most appeals to me. 

At present, in accord with the trend 
of current thought in other matters, I am 
inclined to lay stress on efficiency; and 
under that head I would urge that libra- 
rians, especially in the smaller places, do 
much strenuous and persistent weeding 
among the books that find their way to the 
shelves. Feed the furnace with the books 
that are no longer useful in your particular 
library, or in some other way absolutely 
dispose of them. 

Much of the fiction, both for grown-ups 
and young people, should go, after the first 
interest in it has waned. Many also of the 
information books decline in value with 
the passing years and should aot remain 
a permanent incubus. Very few of the 
government publications are of practical 
use in the average library. 

We have altogether too much venera- 
tion for printed matter. Library house- 
cleanings to discard the literary rubbish 
and misfits are a real need. Quality is 
decidedly more important than quantity, 
if you would have charm and the widest 
usefulness. 

Yours very truly, 
CLIFTON JOHNSON. 



Stanford University, Gal., 

April 11, 1913. 

In response to your kind letter of April 
5th, and after refreshing my mind by con- 
sultation with librarian friends, with 
your kind permission I may say a word 
on the theme, "That librarians should 
sometimes take account of stock," that 
they should consider the reasons for their 
existence and find out how nearly their 
present day activities coincide with the 
purposes for which they are established. 

With one or two notable exceptions pub- 
lic libraries in the United States are a de- 
velopment of the last quarter of the 19th 
Century. Until about 1895, or possibly 
1900 the efforts of librarians were direct- 
ed toward perfecting methods of admin- 
istration, cataloging, etc. Then having 
arrived at mutual agreement as to forms of 
procedure they devoted themselves more 
and more to library extension. They real- 
ized that only fractions of their respective 
communities were in touch with the li- 



braries. In a city of 400,000 inhabitants 
perhaps 40,000 or 10 per cent would make 
use of library privileges, and the circu- 
lation of a million volumes per year meant 
the use of only 2y 2 books per year for 
each inhabitant. Then commenced the era 
of branch libraries, deposit stations, li- 
braries in schools, libraries in factories, 
in fire-houses; a resort to every possible 
means to extend usefulness of the library 
throughout the whole community. Not sat- 
isfied with these expedients other forms 
of extension are being adopted. I am told 
that "one library publishes a weekly paper 
heralding the advantages of its city. It 
has established a business man's informa- 
tion branch, compiled an index to the 
products manufactured within the city, 
and holds itself ready to give information 
as to where the best tennis balls, suit 
cases and everything else can be pur- 
chased." Undoubtedly this is a public 
convenience, but it seems to be getting a 
little away from original library purposes. 
There is a tendency for libraries to so 
scatter their energies that they lose sight 
of the main objects of their being. They 
exhibit the same tendency which can be 
seen in the curricula of many colleges 
which offer courses upon every conceivable 
subject, the lasting value of which to those 
who pursue them is certainly questionable. 
Libraries are not exempt from the pre- 
valent tendency of municipal, state and 
federal agencies to extend their activities 
and increase the burden of taxes. It is 
safe to say that in many public libraries 
the budgets have been more than doubled 
in the last 15 years. It is a question 
whether the real service to the commun- 
ity has gained in proportion. It is not 
necessary to make hourly deliveries to 
downtown delivery stations of the latest 
thing in fiction, but it is essential that 
the libraries should do their utmost to 
maintain ideals. The library which has 
set apart in a separate room a collection 
of standard literature has performed a 
notable service for its community and fur- 
nished an example worthy of imitation. It 
is a part of the best work of the library 
to assist in perpetuating only that which 
is worthy of survival. 

Very truly yours, 
DAVID STARR JORDAN. 



The French Embassy, 

Washington, D. C., 

May 8, 1913. 

On the question you put me: "Are our 

libraries helping to make better citizens 

of those from over-seas?" I must decline 

to give an answer. It would be somewhat 

old on the part of one who Is not him- 



94 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



self a citizen of this country and whose 
opportunities have been scant, for study- 
ing such a problem, to express an opinion. 

Concerning librarians, as such, I may 
say that my experience with them, under 
many climes and skies, has ever been of 
the pleasantest. Their keeping company 
with the thinkers and writers of all-times, 
spending their days in those temples 
where the wisdom, the folly, the dreams, 
the beauty of ages is stored for the contem- 
plation or warning of succeeding genera- 
tions, gives them, of whatever nationality 
they be, a philosophical turn of mind, a 
benevolent desire to help, a friendliness 
to the untutored who want to know more. 
For me they are the typical men of good 
will for whom there will be peace. 

Believe me, 

Very truly yours, 

JUSSERAND. 



Chicago, May 5. 

"Can public libraries legitimately at- 
tempt amusement as well as instruction of 
the people?" Since you ask me the ques- 
tion, I feel obliged to answer it in all seri- 
ousness. In my opinion the public library 
ought not to be turned into a place of 
amusement. Let us have this one insti- 
tution left as a refuge from amusement. 
The general desire of the public to be 
amused has caused it to become almost 
impossible for one to go anywhere or see 
anything without becoming conscious of 
the fact that the first and generally the 
sole purpose of everything is to amuse. 
The preachers make their sermons amus- 
ing, the poets make their poems amusing, 
the artists make their pictures amusing, 
the merchants make their shops amusing; 
one cannot eat in a public place without 
being amused. Steamships and railway 
trains are operated for the amusement of 
passengers; every vacant storeroom will 
by tomorrow have become a place of 
amusement and plans are already being 
made to convert funerals into amusing 
affairs. Spare to us the one place in 
which we may hope to escape from amuse- 
ment. Let the public library remain 
grand, gloomy and peculiar. 

Sincerely yours, 
S. E. RISER. 



Chicago, April 9, 1913. 
In reply to your letter of April 6, 1913, 
would say The modern city library is 
covering a most desirable field in meeting 
the needs of a large element of the pub- 
lic, which looks to it almost exclusively 
for information along library and allied 
lines. A popular library should be able 
to supply information on all subjects of 



a general character and should not pro- 
ceed along lines of reference facilities ex- 
cept in a general way. This ground is 
covered by private gifts and educational 
institutions. The city library should, it 
seems to me, be constituted along liberal 
lines, adapted to entertain as well as in- 
struct. Any means adapted to stimulate 
the public desire for the use of its priv- 
ileges properly guarded, cannot fail to be 
of general benefit. Thus lectures, story 
telling, art exhibits, and even victrola 
concerts, loan of pianola rolls, etc., may 
serve to induct the mind into the wealth 
of knowledge embraced within its won- 
derful collection of books. The portals 
of the city library should be made insidi- 
ously alluring, with the expectation that 
once within them, the reader will go 
farther. 

Very truly yours, 

C. C. KOHLSAAT. 



Northampton, Mass., 

June 12, 1913. 

To My Fellow Workers in Libraries, 
Greetings: 

I always feel a little bashful when I go 
into a strange library as I sometimes do 
and happen on a -librarian who confronts 
me with things I say about librarians in 
the "Lost Art of Reading." Usually I 
speak up quite quickly and say to a libra- 
rian, "Oh, but you know I do not mean 
YOU!" 

But in speaking as I am now to all the 
librarians there are in the United States 
and Canada this seems to be inconvenient. 

I am afraid that if there were any nice 
thoughtful benignant way of taking each 
librarian in this great mass meeting, of all 
the librarians there are, one side and 
whispering to him quietly, "Oh, but you 
know I do not mean YOU," I would prob- 
ably do it! 

But being driven to it and being faced 
out this way as I am today, two or three 
tiousand to one, there seems to be noth- 
ing for it but to face the music and to 
look you in the eye a minute and say once 
for all, "I DO mean you, I mean each of 
you and all of you," and I accuse you of not 
taking immediate, powerful and conclusive 
steps to convince donors of libraries and 
the public of the rights of librarians, of 
your right to perform your duties under 
decent, spiritual conditions as members 
of a high and spirited calling, as profes- 
sional men and women, as artists and as 
fellow human beings and not as over- 
worked, under-assisted, weary servants of 
books. 

The charges against the library donors 
and managers that I brought out in my 



"AS OTHERS SEE US" 



95 



new book "Crowds," more particularly the 
chapters, "Mr. Carnegie speaks up," and 
"Mr. Carnegie tries to make people read," 
are charges that are going to be answered 
most successfully by people who admit that 
they are largely true and who will then 
proceed tomorrow, before everybody, to 
turn them into lies. The sooner the li- 
brarians and trustees and public men of 
this country proceed to make what I am 
saying today about public libraries hope- 
lessly ridiculous and out-of-date, the sooner 
I will be happy. 

If I were to move into a strange com- 
munity and wanted to be a valuable citi- 
zen in it, the first thing I would do would 
be to go to the public library and ask 
the librarians and their assistants this 
question, "Who are the interesting boys 
in this town?" 

If the librarians could tell me I would 
linger around, and in one way or another, 
get acquainted with those boys, follow 
them up and see what I could do to con- 
nect them with the men with the books, 
and ideas and ambitions and opportunities 
that belong to them. 

If the librarians could not give me a list 
of such boys I would ask them why. 

If they told me that they had not time 
to attend to such things I would ask the 
trustees why. 

If the trustees had not selected libra- 
rians naturally interested in boys and 
books and had not provided such librarians 
with the necessary assistants so they 
would have time and spirit to do such 
things I would turn to the people and 
I would challenge the people to elect trus- 
tees for their library who knew what a li- 
brary was for. 

I sometimes think of the librarian in a 
town as the Mayor Of What People Think, 
and if he does not have time to read books 
and to love ideas and inventions in him- 
eelf and in other people and does not take 
t.me to like boys and get the ideas and 
boys together, he cannot be in a town 
where he lives, a good Mayor Of What 
People Think. 

We shall never have great libraries in 
the United States until the typical libra- 
rian exalts his calling and takes his place 
in our modern life seriously as the ruler 
of our civilization, the creator of the en- 
vironment of a nation and as the dictator 
of the motives and ideals of cities, the dis- 
coverer of great men and the champion 
of the souls of the people. 

I candidly ask you all: What is there 
that can be done in America in the way 
of letting librarians keep on being folks? 

One almost wishes that all the members 
of the library association of America would 



write to Andrew Carnegie, snow him un- 
der with letters from the nation, asking 
him to try the experiment of having at 
least one of his libraries in the United 
States fitted up as elaborately and as ele- 
gantly with librarians as it is with dumb 
waiters, marble pillars, book racks and 
umbrella stands. 

When we go into a library some of us 
we want to feel our minds being gently 
exposed to cross-fertilization. We may not 
want librarians to throw themselves at 
us come down plump into our minds the 
minute we enter whether or no, but we do 
want when we come into a library to be 
able to find (if we steal around a little), 
eager, contagious, alluring librarians who 
can make people read books and from 
whom people cannot get away without 
reading books. Every library ought to be 
supplied with at least one librarian in 
each department, stuck all over with 
books, like burrs, so that nobody can touch 
him or be near him without carrying away 
book on him that he's got to read and 
that he will long to read and will read 
until somebody drives him to bed! 

Faithfully yours, 
GERALD STANLEY LEE. 



Northampton, Mass. 

Greetings and good wishes to the men 
and women who hold the keys: 

I saw in England, last year, a very old 
library where the books are chained to 
the shelves. They have always been 
chained there; at first because they were 
valuable and human nature was weak, and 
now to preserve the tradition. But in gen- 
eral, either because the value of books is 
less or because human nature is less weak, 
we trust our public with its books un- 
chained. The shelves of most libraries, I 
understand, are open freely and the loss 
of books is small small enough to be dis- 
regarded, you tell me, in relation to the 
general good. 

And not only is the public freely admit- 
ted. In Northampton I have seen, many 
times, the books put on wheels and travel- 
Ing out to the public; they are in a kind 
of clothes-basket set on a truck with tiny 
wheels; and the janitor trundles the truck 
to the trolley, and the trolley carries the 
books to Leeds or Florence or Williams- 
burg, it may be I do not know their des- 
tination. I only see them traveling away 
on wheels. This is only A-B-C to all of you. 
Most of you could tell me much more 
interesting things that libraries are do- 
ing. Some of you have already seen that 
it is not enough to put the books on wheels 
and trundle them out to the public, but 
that the public itself must be followed and 



96 



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captured. You tell me that in the future 
the library that would be really up-to-date 
must catch its readers where it can and 
chain books to them. 

Presently we shall need wings to follow 
life and bring it back to its books. For 
life moves swiftly; and you who hold the 
keys and who are putting books on wheels 
and sending them out will not stop till the 
life in books and the life of the world are 
come together again. Presently we shall 
all work for this. You have freed the 
books, you have sent them out, you have 
reached out to give them to us freely. 
Presently you will unlock the books them- 
selves and open the pages; and the time 
when a child studied only a few books 
will belong to the past; the living use of 
books will be a part of the life of every 
child that is born into the world. Present- 
ly we shall all work together for this 
with you who hold the keys. 

JENNETTE LEE. 



New York, N. Y., 

April 3rd, 1913. 

I'd like to do as you request but I 
have no facts to contribute. I feel sure 
that the public library is doing much to 
improve dramatic taste but I can't adduce 
any evidence. 

Yours truly, 
BRANDER MATTHEWS. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 

The librarian's constant difficulty is now, 
what shall a library try to collect, what 
shall it keep? This has become a grave 
question. Being myself book greedy, a 
gourmand of print, I am a poor judge of 
what to reject. 

Soon or late the average man, who is pre- 
sumed to represent common sense, will ask, 
"What is the use of these accumulations of 
books?" This average man can never con- 
sider a library with comment of imagina- 
tion. A book is for him a book, whereas 
for you or me a book is a saint, a hero, 
a martyr, a fool, a seraph of light bearing 
science. Let us drop him with a word of 
scorn. We shall not ever understand one 
another. Nor would he have the faith in 
books of that Samonicus who, for the cure 
of a tertian fever in the Emperor Gor- 
dian, ordered the fourth book of the Iliad 
to be applied to the head of the patient. 
That has long puzzled me why the 
fourth? But Mr. Average awaits a quo- 
tation. A voice out of the splendid day 
of Elizabeth shall say it: "Sir, he hath 
not fed of the dainties that are bred of a 
book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; 
be hath not drunk ink." 

S. WEIR MITCHELL. 



The Nation, 
New York City, 

May 5th, 1913. 

I fear you must be charging me with 
discourtesy for delaying so long my reply 
to your letter of April 19th. I have in fact 
had the intention of writing to you rather 
fully on the subject of public libraries and 
best sellers, for use in your conference in 
Kaaterskill. One obligation after anoth- 
er, however, has kept me from doing this 
and now I can only express to you briefly 
my conviction that the public library ought 
by no means to undertake "to supply all 
the best sellers hot from the press." It 
has always seemed to me that the office of 
any institution such as the library is as 
much to direct and restrain public taste 
as it is to supply what is demanded. 

With regret that I cannot reply at great- 
er length to your flattering request for my 
opinion, I am 

Very truly yours, 
PAUL E. MORE, Editor. 



Washington, D. C., 
May 17, 1913. 

When your letter came I was, I believe, 
away from home. At least I never had an 
opportunity to answer it until just now, 
having been absent a good deal since its 
date. Although you do not set the time 
of the coming conference, I assume that it 
is not too late to answer your question and 
I am writing now simply to acknowledge 
receipt of your letter. I will, however, 
say that I believe that the circulation of 
fiction by our public libraries does help to 
enlighten the people on all problems what- 
soever, for, in the first place, fiction con- 
tains many of the standard novels which 
certainly have a tendency for good; and 
secondly, however trashy novels are, in 
the main they have an educating effect. 

Yours very truly, 
THOMAS NELSON PAGE. 



4 Newbury Street, Boston, Mass., 

April 29, 1913. 

I cannot better comply with your re- 
quest (made on behalf of the American 
Library Association) than by giving you a 
leaf from my own experience of twenty- 
five years, as President or managing di- 
rector of a rural library, which serves the 
public in a mountain town where I chiefly 
reside, and yet is a private institution, re- 
ceiving no aid whatever from town or 
state. And my message is to libraries of 
small means and resources, so situated 
that trained librarians or assistants are 
not to be had. 

We have by this time about 5,000 vol- 
umes, all obtained through gift or pur- 



"AS OTHERS SEE US" 



9T 



chase, of which less than half are works of 
fiction; and the list, on the whole, includes 
most standard works. From one benefac- 
tor we have a good stone building, erected 
last year upon a lot of our own; and by 
the time the testamentary provision of 
another benefactor takes effect hereafter 
we shall have an endowment fund ample 
enough to place our institution upon a 
permanent footing of liberal expenditure. 
Hitherto our annual income has been 
small and met by life memberships, spe- 
cial entertainments and personal gifts, in 
which summer visitors and the townspeo- 
ple combine. 

In order that our books should be classi- 
fied but without too much effort I intro- 
duced, some years ago, the following 
scheme: A, denotes works of fiction; B, 
biography, history, travels, etc.; C, poetry, 
essays and miscellaneous; P, periodicals 
and pamphlets (by bound volumes or in 
cases) ; R, books of reference. Juvenile 
books under these respective heads are 
marked by an added J. 

We have no card catalog and 4ind our 
patrons served more to their liking, and 
perhaps more economically, by issuing 
printed lists, frequently, which give the 
author and the title simply; the number, 
and letter, as printed, indicating the sub- 
ject. About 1905 a pamphlet catalog was 
brought out which gave our list complete 
to that date. Since that time, supplement 
lists have been printed at convenience; 
while the latest books are always posted 
in the library on written sheets. When 
the supplements become sufficiently num- 
erous we expect to issue a second full 
pamphlet catalog; and so on. We cannot 
pay for expert assistance to keep up a 
card catalog properly, with our present 
means; and what our patrons most want 
is to have individual printed lists that 
they can readily consult. 

About 90 per cent of our circulation 
consists of A or AJ books, but we try to 
increase the demand for the B and C 
books. So, too, the books most eagerly 
sought are those last added, but we en- 
courage the reading of standard authors 
wherever we may. 

Yours very truly, 

JAMES SCHOULER. 



Indianapolis, Ind.. 
April 24, 1913. 

"Is the fiction circulated by our public 
libraries helping to enlighten the people 
on social and economic problems?" 

George Meredith, in a letter written In 
1884, said: 

"I think that all right use of life, and 
the one secret of life, is to pave ways for 



the firmer footing of those who succeed 
us. ... Close knowledge of our fel- 
lows, discernment of the laws of existence, 
these lead to great civilization. I have 
supposed that the novel, exposing and il- 
lustrating the natural history of man, may 
help us to such sustaining roadside gifts." 

Merely "entertaining" fiction is compar- 
able to vaudeville or to tight-rope walking; 
its use may be to amuse the tired laborer 
of all sorts; its overuse, however, tends to 
become a habit and produce flaccid minds. 
Save for this, all fiction which depends on 
"plot" always a hash of used meats 
or on farcical or melodramatic "situation," 
is almost negligible. But on the whole, 
and because -of this flaccidity, I believe, it 
would be a good thing if all merely "en- 
tertaining" fiction could be destroyed. 

A very small portion of that fiction 
which is produced by artists seeking to 
know and reveal life, deals with economic 
problems. Except for the work of a few 
writers (Mr. H. G. Wells, for instance, 
he includes economic discussions) it con- 
cerns itself with social relations and "the 
natural history of man." Its circulation 
must certainly help to enlighten people 
upon social problems. Here I must fail 
you, for I do not know what type of fiction 
has the circulation you mean; the most 
general circulation, I take it. A novel is 
helpful as it is a revelation of truth; it 
is always harmful when it is written from 
a false or assumed point-of-view ; it is 
very likely to be harmful when it is found- 
ed upon shallow observation or a cock- 
sure philosophy. Most of the fiction pro- 
duced in our country today is founded up- 
on nothing except the desire to circulate; 
therefore it shouldn't! 

Very sincerely yours, 

BOOTH TARKINGTON. 



Elizabeth, N. J., 
May 16, 1913. 

The question you ask is not debatable. 
The public library is among the foremost 
aids the American boy has today. As 
great a help as the library is the librarian. 
Much depends upon his personal interest, 
enthusiasm, judgment, appreciation of the 
book and the boy. "The man behind the 
book," provides the power. 

Librarians undoubtedly are a help not 
only to the boy, but to the writer of boy's 
books. But like all other classes there are 
librarians and librarians. Some are effi- 
cient, some too theoretical, some visionary, 
some without the capacity to understand 
the normal boy, and a few are deficient. 
As far as I have observed, the limitations 
of the librarians are not so much in their 
knowledge of books as in their understand- 



98 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



ing of boys. Every profession has its 
special peril. The minister may become 
dogmatic, the judge autocratic. The -peril 
of the purely bookish man is that of be- 
coming a prig. The pre-conceived opinion 
of what a boy ought to be sometimes pre- 
vents the discovery of what he really is. 
Among some there is a tendency to mag- 
nify the unusual boy at the expense of the 
normal boy. Such librarians would con- 
fer a benefit if they would discover what 
has become of the prodigies of our boy- 
hood. 

It is sometimes forgotten that boys must 
be led into better reading, not forcibly 
transplanted. There are steps and stages 
in this journey as in every other. A taste 
for good reading is something to be culti- 
vated, not forced. A healthy boy has about 
the same appetite for observing the ready- 
made opinions of his superiors that he 
has for donning the made-over garments 
of his ancestors. Many librarians under- 
stand the boy as well as the book. The 
combination is fruitful, and divorce here 
has its own penalty as well as elsewhere. 
If the American boy (as in many places he 
is) can be made to feel that the librarian 
as well as the library are for his benefit, 
a double good will result. 

Cordially, 
EVERETT T. TOMLINSON. 



Arlington, Mass., 

May 29, 1913. 

In reply to the question proposed to me 
by your Association, "Is the public library 
helping the boy to become a useful man?" 
I reply emphatically in the affirmative. Of 
course, the degree of helpfulness must 
depend largely upon the library, and still 
more upon the character of the boy. To 
one of low tastes, with no ambition be- 
yond the hour's indulgence, the finest li- 
brary will have little meaning; but to one 
having a thirst for knowledge, and aspira- 
tions for self-improvement, access to any 
fairly well chosen collection of books can- 
not but prove of inestimable service in 
stimulating and developing his nobler qual- 
ities. My own early experience convinces 
me of this. In my recollections of a back- 
woods boyhood ("My Own Story," pages 
44-46) I have told something of my indebt- 
edness of a small subscription library, in 
which were found the works of a few great 
writers, among those Byron, Shakespeare, 
Plutarch, Cooper, and Scott, and a His- 
tory of England, which was the first book 
I turned to after reading "Ivanhoe." The 
world was transformed for me by the poets 
and romancers that smiled on me from 
those obscure shelves. I repeat here what 



I once wrote of that golden opportunity of 
my boyhood. The town has a vastly more 
attractive and comprehensive library to- 
day; but the value of such an institution 
depends, after all, upon what we ourselves 
bring to it. The few books that nourish 
vitally the eager mind are better than 
richly furnished alcoves amid which we 
browse languidly and loiter with indiffer- 
ence. This is true alike of the boy and 
the man. 

JOHN TOWNSEND TROWBRIDGE. 



Toledo, Ohio, 
May 14, 1913. 

You ask, "Is the public library a factor 
in the recent development of a public con- 
science?" 

I suppose that by the term public con- 
science you mean that undoubted quicken- 
ing of the public sense, shall we say public 
decency? which America has felt in the 
last ten years, though as yet it has under- 
taken no fundamental reforms, and is too 
apt to degenerate into a mere hue and cry 
after some individual whom it would make 
a scape-goat for the sins of the people. 

Now, in the development of this feeling, 
or of this public conscience, it is doubt- 
ful whether the public library has been 
much of a factor. It depends altogether 
upon the librarian. There are a few in- 
stances, no doubt, in which the public li- 
brary has had this effect, and there are 
many librarians in the country who, as 
wise and intelligent men like yourself, are 
interested in vital subjects, and therefore 
able to interest others in them. By a judi- 
cious exposure of books these subjects are 
made so inviting and so attractive that 
the patrons of the library are led on and 
on in an ever widening exploration of the 
subject. The library does offer to any one 
who wishes to make inquiry the opportun- 
ity of gratifying his desires, and in this 
way it no doubt exercises a considerable 
influence. There is a profound and tre- 
mendous influence, silent and indirect, 
from its mere existence, its mere presence, 
which must do good in a city, just as in 
a home in which there are many books, 
even though they were never read, there 
is the atmosphere of culture. The libra- 
rian, however, should be a sort of teacher, 
helping the public mind, assisting in the 
development of the public conscience, for 
I fear that the public, if left to themselves, 
would rather read the six best sellers, and 
in the realm of general ideas engage, to 
recall a phrase of Henry James "in the 
exercise of skipping." 

Yours sincerely, 

BRAND WHITLOCK. 



SECRETARY'S REPORT 



99 



SECOND GENERAL SESSION 
(Tuesday morning, June 24, 1913) 

The PRESIDENT: We are to start this 
morning with the committee reports. Un- 
less, however, undue objections are made 
we shall read these by title and, like 
the members of Congress, ask leave to 
print. A number of them indeed are in 
printed form and have been distributed 
and you have doubtless found them on the 
chairs as you entered the hall. I may say 
that some of these reports are unusually 
strong in that they represent the work of a 
year of very careful thought and investiga- 
tion by their members. If you will take 
the time, either at this conference or after 
you get home, to read these reports, you 
will greatly profit from the labors of these 
respective committees. The printed re- 
ports comprise those of the secretary, the 
treasurer, the trustees of the endowment 
fund, the publishing board, the committee 
on bookbinding, the committee on book- 
buying, the committee on federal and state 
relations; and reports have also been 
received in manuscript, by the secre- 
tary, from the committees on co-operation 
with the National Education Association, 
library administration, library training and 
work with the blind. Unless it is requested 
that any particular one of these reports 
be read at this time we shall pass them 
over and commit them to the secretary 
for inclusion in the printed conference pro- 
ceedings. 

The above mentioned reports are here 
printed in full. 

SECRETARY'S REPORT 

The third report of the present secre- 
tary and the fourth since the establish- 
ment of a headquarters office is here sub- 
mitted to the association. The material 
conditions of headquarters are practically 
identical with those reported a year ago; 
we are still the recipients of the gener- 
osity of the board of directors of the Chi- 
cago public library, the large room fur- 
nished free by them being more and more 
appreciated as we compare our commodi- 
ous quarters with those greatly inferior 



where a rent is charged which would be 
prohibitive to the funds of the A. L. A. 
For the continued courtesy and unfail- 
ing kindness of the librarian of the Chi- 
cago public library and his able staff I 
cannot find adequate words. It is unques- 
tionably a decided advantage for the exec- 
utive office of the A. L. A. to be in close 
proximity to a large reference collection 
and to a competent corps of library ex- 
perts. In these respects we are fortunate 
not only in the Chicago public library, but 
also in the John Crerar and Newberry 
libraries which so admirably supplement 
each other in forming reference facilities 
of a high order. 

The routine work of the year has much 
ot it so closely resembled in kind that of 
last year that the secretary feels it un- 
necessary to rehearse it again in detail, 
but respectfully refers inquiry on this 
point to his report at the Ottawa confer- 
ence. In quantity it is rapidly increasing; 
there are more letters to write; there is 
more proof to read; more personal calls 
from librarians and others as the estab- 
lishment of the office becomes known; 
there are more arrangements to be made 
for the many-sided interests of the Asso- 
ciation. The Publishing Board's work is 
likewise increasing, and with the removal 
of the Booklist office from Madison to 
Chicago headquarters, which will be made 
in the near future, additional duties will 
devolve on the general office, even though 
that periodical has its own special staff. 
These things, however, are as we desire 
they should be and we are pleased to see 
indications that the funds of the Associa- 
tion are going to permit the enlargement 
of the work as this is found advisable. 

The Office as an Information Bureau 
In no way is this growth quite so notice- 
able as in the increased correspondence 
through which the executive office is used 
as an information bureau on library econ- 
omy. For a time after the establishment 
of the office this correspondence was 
naturally almost entirely with librarians. 
The letters of the past year, however, have 
shown that our existence is becoming 



100 



known to others. We are being told the 
problems of the library committees of 
women's clubs; of manufacturers who 
wish to get their workmen interested in a 
business library; of business men who are 
thinking of establishing such a library; of 
young men and women who are consider- 
ing librarianship as a vocation and do 
not know the proper steps to take to get 
the necessary training and experience; 
and of publishers and of book-sellers who 
are referring various matters to our office. 
These things in addition to the steady 
daily stream of correspondence with li- 
brarians in every state of the union. Last 
year we recorded that our actual corres- 
pondence averaged 67 letters a day for a 
period covering several months. It has 
been considerably greater the past year. 
This includes, of course, all correspond- 
ence relative to publications, membership 
matters, and business routine. Several 
months ago the secretary printed 10,000 
little leaflets mentioning some of the ways 
in which the A. L. A. can assist in library 
informational lines. About half of these 
have been distributed, mainly in channels 
outside of regular library work and among 
those who perhaps had not previously 
learned of headquarters and of our pub- 
lications. 

Membership Last year it was the privi- 
lege of the secretary to report that the 
membership was larger than ever before 
in the history of the Association. We are 
now glad to be able to say that there is 
a substantial increase in membership over 
last year. In January, the secretary 
mailed with the annual membership bills 
an appeal to members to help again this 
year as they did last in securing new 
members. This appeal has been very ef- 
fectual; many have been instrumental in 
securing one or more new members and 
the secretary desires here to thank all 
those who have so kindly assisted in this 
campaign. During the late winter and 
early spring many personal letters were 
written to librarians and library boards 
asking them to have their libraries be- 
come institutional members of the A. L. 



A., and many have responded favorably. 
Several hundred personal letters were also 
addressed to those who had recently, ac- 
cording to the news columns in the li- 
brary periodicals, changed their positions, 
presumably for the better financially. 

When the last handbook was printed, in 
October, 1912, there were 2,365 members 
of the A. L. A. Since then to June 1st, 
1913, 192 new individual members and 
40 new institutional members have joined, 
a total of 232. On the other hand, the 
association has lost 11 members by death, 
35 have resigned, and judging by the ex- 
perience of previous years about 160 mem- 
bers will probably fail this year to renew 
their membership and will consequently 
be dropped from the rolls. It is likely that 
enough new members will join at the 
Kaaterskill Conference to offset in num- 
bers those whose membership lapses and 
that the net membership in the 1913 
handbook will probably be about 2,550 or a 
gain of about 185 over 1912. 

The income from membership dues is 
in consequence steadily increasing. For 
the calendar year 1911 the total amount 
from this source was $5,325.46 (including 
exchange on checks); in 1912, $6,236.18; 
and for 1913 we hope the total amount will 
not be far short of $7,000. 

Publicity The usual methods to secure 
as much publicity as possible have been 
followed. The library periodicals have, of 
course, been kept informed of what the 
office was doing that would interest the 
library public. We have sent news notes 
from time to time to the Dial, Nation, New 
York Times Review of Books, Bookman, 
Education Review, American City, and 
other magazines, and to about 180 of the 
prominent newspapers of the country. 
Several articles regarding the conference 
were given to the Associated Press, and 
to news syndicates. Before the Ottawa 
Conference, the Associated Press sent to 
all their subscribers a multigraphed por- 
tion of the president's address. The 
Association needs more money for this 
publicity work and more time should be 
spent on it than the secretary has been 



SECRETARY'S REPORT 



101 



able to spend. Its results at present are 
far from satisfactory and we hope that 
with growth of income a more systematic 
publicity department can be organized, 
perhaps modelled somewhat after the ex- 
cellent methods employed by Prof. J. W. 
Searson, who conducts the publicity work 
of the National Education Association. 

Registration for library position The 
executive office has from its inception 
been something of a free employment 
bureau for librarians and library as- 
sistants, who for proper and sufficient rea- 
sons desire to change their positions. 
This year the work has been somewhat 
more systematized by the use of a printed 
registration blank, which is sent on re- 
quest to any member of the association. 
The questions asked on this blank are as 
follows: 

Date of this registration. 

Name in full. 

Address (permanent). 

Address (temporary, or until ). 

State fully all schools (above grammar 
grade) and colleges or universities you 
have attended, with period of attendance 
at each. 

Degrees, when and where obtained. 

Have you traveled abroad? When? 
Where? How long? 

Languages you read easily. 

Languages you read with assistance of 
a dictionary. 

Library training and experience. 

Positions held, with approximate dates: 
and salary received. 

Nature of appointment desired. 

Salary expected. 

Part of country preferred. 

Physical condition. 

References. 

Forty-two librarians have thus far regis- 
tered on these blanks and five or six of 
these have been helped to new positions. 
The secretary has helped in the filling of 
some fifteen library positions aside from 
those using the registration blank. 

If, however, the service to those seek- 
ing positions, and to those seeking capa- 
ble librarians and assistants is to be as 
important and far-reaching as we wish 
to make it, the office must have knowledge 
of vacancies as well as of persons wanting 
positions. Library boards and librarians 



are cordially invited to correspond with 
the secretary when in need of library 
workers. 

Library Plans During the year a num- 
ber of valuable additions have been made 
to our collection of architects' plans of 
library buildings. We want more, particu- 
larly good plans of buildings costing from 
$25,000 to $75,000, as these are most in 
demand. Will librarians and boards who 
have recently acquired new buildings bear 
our needs in mind? These plans have 
from the beginning proved useful, and if 
a fair number of the latest type of plans 
could be added the collection would be 
increasingly useful and used. 

Library Pension Systems During the 
year the year the secretary has been 
making efforts to collect information 
about pension systems in operation in li- 
braries or plans being made for pensions. 
No great progress has been made, due 
perhaps to the fact that not many libraries 
are as yet contemplating a pension sys- 
tem. The secretary will be glad to receive 
information from any librarian or board 
who has not yet written him on this 
subject. 

A. L. A. Representatives at State Meet- 
ings President Legler was the official 
representative at the Ohio meeting, 
Newark, October 21-24; at the Illinois- 
Missouri joint meeting, St. Louis, October 
24-26; and South Dakota conference, 
Mitchell, November 25-27. He also ad- 
dressed the Long Island Library Club on 
the work of the A. L. A. on October 17th. 

Mr. T. W. Koch, member of the Execu- 
tive Board, was the official representative 
to the Indiana state meeting, Terre Haute, 
October 17-19. 

Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick, ex-president of 
the A. L. A., represented the Association 
at the North Dakota conference, Mayville, 
October 1-2; Minnesota meeting, Fari- 
bault, October 2-4; and Iowa meeting at 
Nevada, October 8-10. 

Secretary Utley represented the A. L. 
A. at the Illinois-Missouri meeting, St. 
Louis, October 24-26; Oklahoma meeting, 
Muskogee, May 14-15; and was present un- 



102 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



officially at Niagara Falls, "New York li- 
brary week," September 23-28. The secre- 
tary has also lectured before the New 
York state library school, the Training 
school for children's librarians of the 
Pittsburgh Carnegie library, and the Uni- 
versity of Illinois library school. 

Necrology. The Association has lost by 
death eleven members since the confer- 
ence of a year ago. The list includes an 
ex-president of the A. L. A., and one of 
the most prominent librarians of the 
country; a business man who had for 
years taken a deep interest in library 
progress; an eminent churchman who has 
for many years maintained his connection 
with the national association; the librar- 
ian of a large university; the librarian 
of a well known public library; and 
several others who at their several posts 
have faithfully performed their duties and 
rendered their contributions to the work 
in which they were engaged. 

The list follows: 

Clarence W. Ayer, librarian of the Cam- 
bridge (Mass.) public library, died April 
12, 1913. He was previously connected 
with Western Reserve University, but had 
been engaged in library work in Massa- 
chusetts for a number of years. He had 
been a member of the A. L. A. since 1900 
(No. 1984) and had attended four confer- 
ences. 

Dr. John Shaw Billings, director of the 
New York public library, died March 11, 
1913. Successful as an army surgeon dur- 
ing the war between the states, he later 
assumed charge of the Surgeon-General's 
library and brought it to recognition as 
one of the most celebrated medical li- 
braries in the world, and compiled an 
index catalog that has taken a place 
among the permanent monuments of bibli- 
ography. Coming to New York in 1895, he 
began the stupendous work of bringing 
the various libraries of that city under 
one great system, releasing funds tied by 
legal complications, and superintending 
the erection of a central building costing 
nearly ten millions of dollars. These ' 
tasks he lived to accomplish and they re- 



main as his lasting monument. He was 
president of the A. L. A. for the year 
1901-02, and presided at its Magnolia con- 
ference. He joined the association in 
1881 (No. 404) and attended six of its 
conferences. See Public Libraries, 18: 
148-9; Library Journal, 38, 212-14. 

Bertha Coit, assistant in the New York 
public library, died July 22, 1912. She 
joined the Association in 1904 (No. 3167), 
and attended the conferences of 1904 and 
1907. 

Right Rev. William Croswell Doane, 
Bishop of Albany, and for many years 
vice-chancellor of the University of the 
State of New York, died May 16, 1913. He 
joined the A. L. A. in 1893 (No. 1125) and 
although he attended none of the confer- 
ences had steadily maintained his interest 
in library work and retained his member- 
ship in the Association. 

Jennie S. Irwin, first assistant in the 
Mt. Vernon (N. Y.) public library, died 
Nov. 8, 1912. She joined the Association in 
1902 (No. 2437) and attended the confer- 
ences of 1906 and 1908. 

Walter Kendall Jewett, librarian of the 
University of Nebraska, since 1906, died 
March 3, 1913. He was previously librar- 
ian of the medical department of the John 
Crerar library, and had been notably suc- 
cessful in his library work. He joined the 
Association in 1904 (No. 3109) and at- 
tended four conferences. 

Charles A. Larson, editor of publications 
of the Chicago public library, died August 
19, 1912. He had been connected with the 
Chicago library for many years and was 
highly valued. His able work in the ref- 
erence department will be long remem- 
bered. He joined the Association in 1901 
(No. 2373) and after lapsing membership 
rejoined in 1910. He attended the Mack- 
inac conference. 

Rev. William Ladd Ropes, librarian- 
emeritus of the Andover Theological Sem- 
inary, at Andover, Massachusetts, died 
December 24, 1912. He was well known 
to the librarians of an earlier generation. 
He joined the A. L. A. in 1877 (No. 106) 
and attended three A. L. A. conferences, 



TREASURER'S REPORT 103 

and the London international conference interested layman. See Library Journal, 

of 1877. 38:89; Public Libraries, 18:57. 

Charles Carroll Soule, of Boston, long Nelson Taylor, bookseller of New York, 
identified with the book publishing busi- of the firm of Baker & Taylor, died June 
ness and interested in library work, died 26, 1912. He had been a member of the 
Jan. 7, 1913. He was trustee of the Brook- A. L. A. since 1906 (No. 3531). 
line (Mass.) public library from 1889-1899, Bertha S. Wildman, secretary to the 
member of the A. L. A. Publishing Board librarian of the Carnegie library of Pitts- 
from 1890-1908, second vice-president of burgh and a member of the faculty of the 
the A. L. A. in 1890; and a member of the Training school for children's librarians, 
Council 1893-96 and 1900-05. Mr. Soule was died February 19, 1913. She was a gradu- 
an expert on library planning, having writ- ate of Pratt Institute library school and 
ten a book, and numerous articles on this previous to her connection with the Pitts- 
subject. A pamphlet on "Library rooms burgh library had been the organizer and 
and buildings" was issued by the A. L. A. first librarian of the Madison (N. J.) pub- 
Publishing Board as one of its tracts. He lie library. She joined the A. L. A. in 1900 
joined the A. L. A. in 1879 (No. 216) and (No. 1945) and attended four conferences, 
had attended 18 conferences. No librarian GEORGE B. UTLEY, 
was better known to librarians than this Secretary. 

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 

Report of the Treasurer, January 1 May 31, 1913 
Receipts 

Balance, Union Trust Company, Chicago, Jan. 1, 1913 $3,395.29 

G. B. Utley, Secretary, Headquarters collections. . . 4,555.41 

Trustees Endowment Fund, interest 350.00 

Trustees Carnegie Fund, interest 2,509.90 

A. L. A. Publishing Board, Installment on Hdqrs. expense 1,000.00 

Estate of J. L. Whitney 104.34 

Interest, January May, 1913 28.92 $11,943.86 



Expenditures 

Checks No. 40-44 (Vouchers No. 615-690 incl.) $3,379.74 

Distributed as follows: 

Bulletin $ 246.06 

Conference 20.70 

Committees 23.50 

Headquarters: 

Salaries 2,125.00 

Additional services 213.30 

Supplies 177.91 

Miscellaneous 155.45 

Postage 78.48 

Travel 85.00 

Trustees Endowment Fund (Life Mem.) 150.00 

C. B. Roden, Treas. (J. L. Whitney Fund) 104.34 

A. L. A. Publishing Board, Carnegie Fund interest 2,509.90 5,889.64 



Balance Union Trust Co $6,054.22 

G. B. Utley, Balance, National Bank of Republic 250.00 



$6,304.22 
James L. Whitney Fund 

Feb. 4, 1913, Principal (Union Trust Co. of Chicago, savings acct.) $104.34 

Respectfully submitted, 

C. B. RODEN, Treasurer. 
Chicago, June 1, 1913. 



104 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



REPORT OF THE FINANCE COMMIT- 
TEE 

To the American Library Association: 
Ladies and Gentlemen: 

In accordance with the provisions of the 
constitution, the Finance Committee sub- 
mit the following report: 

They have duly considered the probable 
income of the Association for the current 
year and have estimated it at $21,915.00, 
and have approved appropriations made by 
the Executive Board to that amount. The 
details of the estimated income and of 
the appropriations are given in the Janu- 
ary number of the Bulletin. The commit- 
tee have also approved the appropriation 
to the use of the Publishing Board of any 
excess of sales over the amount estimated. 

On behalf of the committee, the chair- 
man has audited the accounts of the treas- 
urer and of the secretary as assistant 
treasurer. He has found that the receipts 
as stated by the treasurer agree with the 



transfer checks from the assistant treas- 
urer, and with the cash accounts of the lat- 
ter. The expenditures as stated are ac- 
counted for by properly approved vouch- 
ers. The bank balance and petty cash, as 
stated, agree with the bank books and pet- 
ty cash balances. The accounts of the as- 
sistant treasurer have been found correct 
as cash accounts. 

On behalf of the committee, Mr. E. H. 
Anderson has checked the securities now 
in the custody of the trustees, and certi- 
fies that their figures in regard to the se- 
curities on hand are correct. He finds that 
at par value the bonds and other securities 
amount to $102,500.00 for the Carnegie 
fund, and $7,000.00 for the principal ac- 
count. He certifies that to the best of his 
knowledge and belief the accounts submit- 
ted are correct. 

All of which is respectively submitted 
for the committee. 

CLEMENT W. ANDREWS, 
Chairman. 



A. L, A. PUBLISHING BOARD 



With the completion of the ninth vol- 
ume of the A. L. A. Booklist Miss Elva 
L. Bascom severs her connection as editor 
and as head of the editorial department of 
the Publishing Board. For five years Miss 
Bascom has carried on this work with sig- 
nal ability and with devoted industry, and 
it is with sincere regret that the members 
of the Board have accepted her resigna- 
tion. During this period of editorial activ- 
ity Miss Bascom has maintained the excel- 
lent standards established by her prede- 
cessors, Miss Caroline Garland and Mrs. 
Katharine MacDonald Jones, and has 
given to the publication a standard of 
judgment in selection and critical appre- 
ciation that has made the A. L. A. Book- 
list invaluable to thousands of librarians 
and as many library trustees in the selec- 
tion of current books for their respective 
institutions. The A. L. A. Booklist is 
everywhere recognized as a publication 
wholly untrammeled by commercial con- 
sideration in the listing of books and the 
recommendation which these are given. 

Miss May Massee has been elected as 
Miss Bascom's successor and will enter 
upon the work early in August. Her ex- 
perience as a member of the staff of the 
Buffalo public library and her training 
prior thereto commends her for the posi- 
tion. 

Concerning the A. L. A. Booklist there 
are no new facts to report, comments 
noted in previous reports being applicable 
as well at this time. While renewed rep- 
resentations have come to the members 
of the Board, suggesting a change of size, 
form, and character, and the arguments in 
behalf thereof have been given due 
weight, it has not seemed wise to alter the 
policy which has been continued for a 
period of nine years. 

With the beginning of the new volume 
the place of publication and therewith the 
editorial headquarters will be transferred 
from Madison, Wis., to Chicago. By con- 



solidating the editorial headquarters of 
the Publishing Board with the headquar- 
ters of the American Library Association 
both will be materially strengthened and 
some financial economies can be affected. 

Periodical Cards The Board received 
word last fall from the Library Bureau 
that they would have to advance prices 
for the printing of the analytical periodi- 
cal cards. The matter was placed in the 
hands of a committee, and after some ne- 
gotiation, unexpectedly prolonged by the 
illness of the representative of the Li- 
brary Bureau, a rearrangement of the 
work was made which will enable the 
Board to continue the service to the pres- 
ent subscribers without change in prices. 
This has been accomplished by giving an 
order for sixty-five copies of all titles and 
thirty-five additional titles of the periodi- 
cals most in demand. Hereafter, subscrip- 
tions must be made either to the full set 
of approximately 2500 titles, or to the lim- 
ited set of 200. A revision of the list is 
now in progress. 

Concerning the periodicals issued dur- 
ing the past year Mr. William Stetson Mer- 
rill has submitted the following report as 
editor: 

The sixteen shipments of A. L. A. peri- 
odical cards prepared and sent out dur- 
ing the year ending May 31, 1913 have 
comprised those numbered 284 to 299, 
which were received by subscribers June 
18, 1912 to May 14, 1913. These ship- 
ments have included 3459 new titles and 
136 reprints, making a total of 3595 titles. 
The time of preparation has been reduced 
from thirteen to ten and a half weeks.* 

In February of the present year the ed- 
itor took occasion to check up the work 
currently done, with the titles of periodi- 
cals given in the printed list as indexed 
by the Publishing Board. It was then dis- 

*By "time of preparation" it here meant the in- 
terval between the receipt of copy, and receipt of 
cards by the subscribers. 



106 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



covered that in the case of thirty-five peri- 
odicals no titles had been indexed during 
intervals ranging from two to five years 
to date. These facts were brought to the 
attention of the collaborating libraries, 
which later reported upon these arrears as 
follows: Periodicals for which no issues 
later than those indexed had been re- 
ceived by the library, 12; discontinued, 3; 
now indexed by the Library of Congress, 
2; overlooked or indexing postponed by 
the library, 10; dropped, 2; record card 
wrong, 1; no indexer, 5. The collabo- 
rating libraries at once took up the work 
of bringing their indexing up to date and 
at the time of writing only three current 
periodicals are not indexed to date, with 
the exception of those for which there is 
at present no indexer. 

The preparation of the distribution and 
charges sheets has been in the hands of 
Mrs. S. L. Hitz and Miss Jane Burt under 
the supervision of the editor, who has also 
attended to all the correspondence con- 
nected with the card work. 

New Publications New publications 
since the last report was submitted in- 
clude the following: 

Aids in library work with foreigners, 
compiled by Marguerite Reid and John 
G. Moulton. (2000 copies). 

How to choose editions, by William E. 
Foster. (Handbook 8) (2500 copies). 

Buying list of books for small li- 
braries, compiled by Zaidee Brown, 
new edition revised by Caroline Web- 
ster. (1000 copies). 

List of economical editions, by Le Roy 
Jeffers. (2nd edition). Revised. (1000 
copies). 

Periodicals for the small library, by 
Frank K. Walter. (3000 copies). 

A. L. A. Manual of library economy, 5 
new chapters. 

Chap. V. Proprietary and subscrip- 
tion libraries, by Charles Knowles 

Bolton. (1000 copies). 
Chap. X. The library building, by 

W. R. Eastman. (2000 copies). 
Chap. XIII. Training for librarian- 



ship, by Mary W. Plummer. (2000 

copies). 

Chap. XXVII. Commissions, state 

aid and state agencies, by Asa Wyn- 

koop. (In press). 

Chap. XXXII. Library printing, by 

Frank K. Walter. (1500 copies). 

A normal library budget and its items 
of expense, by O. R. Howard Thomson. 
(Handbook 8.) (1500 copies). 

Index to library reports, by Katharine 
T. Moody. (1000 copies). 

List of Polish books, compiled by Mrs. 
Jozefa Kudlicka. (Foreign Booklist 6). 
(1000 copies). 

Forthcoming Publications How to 
start a public library, by G. E. Wire, M. 
D. Second and revised edition. (Tract 
2). 

Graded list of stories for reading 
aloud, by Harriot E. Hassler; revised by 
Carrie E. Scott. 

Reprints During the past year the fol- 
lowing publications have been reprinted: 
Guide to reference books, by Alice B. 
Kroeger. (1000 copies). 

Cutter's Notes from the art section of 
a library. (Tract 5). (1000 copies). 

Catalog rules, compiled by commit- 
tees of the American Library Associa- 
tion and the Library Association (of the 
United Kingdom). 1908 edition (1000 
copies). 

Essentials in library administration, 
compiled by Miss L. E. Stearns. (2nd 
edition). (Handbook 1). (2000 copies). 
Revised. 

Mending and repair of books, by Mar- 
garet W. Brown. (Handbook 6). 1000 
copies). 

U. S. Government documents in small 
libraries, by J. I. Wyer, Jr. (3rd edi- 
tion). (Handbook 7). (1000 copies). 
A. L. A. Catalog The success of the A. 
L. A. Catalog, 1904-11, has been greater 
in point of sales than the most sanguine 
of us had expected, 3471 copies having 
been sold since its publication a year ago. 
There is still a reasonably steady demand, 
321 copies having been sold during the 



A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD 



107 



first five months of 1913. The book has 
been more extensively advertised than any 
of the Board's other recent publications, 
special efforts having been made to make 
it known to high schools, college profes- 
sors and book lovers generally, but the 
sales have, nevertheless, been largely con- 
fined to libraries, library commissions and 
library schools. 

Manual of Library Economy Fourteen 
chapters of the Manual have thus far been 
printed, each as a separate pamphlet, and 
one is now in press. The list is as fol- 
lows: 

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

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

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

5. Proprietary and subscription li- 
braries, by C. K. Bolton. 

9. Library legislation, by W. F. Yust. 

10. The library building, by W. R. 
Eastman. 

12. Administration of a public library, 
by A. E. Bostwick. 

13. Training for librarianship, by Mary 
W. Plummer. 

15. Branch libraries and other distrib- 
uting agencies, by Linda A. Eastman. 

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

20. Shelf department, by Josephine A. 
Rathbone. 

22. Reference department, by E. C. 
Richardson. 

26. Bookbinding, by A. L. Bailey. 

27. Commissions, state aid and state 
agencies, by Asa Wynkoop. In press. 

32. Library printing, by F. K. Walter. 

The chairman of the Committee on man- 
ual, J. I. Wyer, Jr., reports that seven 
other chapters are known to be in an ad- 
vanced state and may be expected soon. 

Advertising The Board's publications 
have as usual been advertised in Library 
Journal and Public Libraries and in one 
or two special numbers of the Dial. Re- 
view copies of publications are sent to li- 



brary periodicals and a number of other 
papers and magazines, such as the Book- 
man, American City, Nation, Dial, New 
York Times Review, Chicago Post (Friday 
review), Springfield Republican, Boston 
Transcript, etc. Our best returns, how- 
ever, continue to come from direct circu- 
larization of libraries, library commissions 
and library schools, about 11,000 pieces of 
mail advertising our publications having 
been sent out since the last conference. 

No new large publication has appeared 
since the A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11, was 
published a year ago. Although thirteen 
new publications have been printed and 
two more are forthcoming they are all, 
with one exception, small in size and with 
price ranging from ten to twenty-five cents 
a copy. Consequently the amounts from 
sales are but small in the aggregate. 
Would it not be well for the Board to en- 
deavor to put forth at least one publica- 
tion each year which shall be of sufficient 
size, usefulness and importance to make 
it rank as the "opus major" of the year? 
There are surely subjects enough within 
our scope that can be handled to the ad- 
vantage of the libraries and the profit of 
the Board. ,ti 

Foreign lists The Board has not felt 
greatly encouraged to undertake the pub- 
lication of lists of foreign books because 
of the unfortunate financial experience 
with those already issued, only one 
of the five having paid for itself. This 
spring, however, when the manuscript of 
the long-expected Polish list was received 
a new policy was adopted. The secretary 
circularized those libraries whom he 
thought would be interested in this list, 
stating that the publication of the list 
depended upon the receipt of a sufficient 
number of subscriptions, requesting those 
libraries who were able and disposed to do 
so, to subscribe for at least four copies at 
25 cents each. By this means enough sub- 
scriptions were readily secured and the 
Polish list has been printed. If libraries 
are willing to subsidize the publication of 
these lists, or putting it another way, to 



101 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



pay for several copies more than they per- 
haps need, other lists can be undertaken, 
and the Board will welcome suggestions 
as to what languages should be taken up. 



It has been suggested that a Yiddish list 
would be useful, also Italian, Lithuanian, 
Finnish and Spanish lists. 

HENRY E. LEGLER, Chairman. 



FINANCIAL REPORT 
Cash Receipts June 1, 1912, to May 31, 1913. 

Balance, June 1, 1912 $ 1,168.46 

Interest on Carnegie Fund 6,084.90 

Receipts from publications: 

Cash sales $3,354.68 

Payments on account 9,936.85 13,291.53 

Interest on bank deposits 17.36 

Sundries 1.56 $20,563.81 

Payments, June 1, 1912, to May 31, 1913. 
Cost of publications: 

A. L. A. Booklist $1,671.40 

A. L. A. Bulletin reprints 52.57 

A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11 3,613.43 

Aids in library work with foreigners 38.50 

Buying list of books for a small library 40.00 

Catalog rules 193.19 

Essentials in library administration 242.99 

Government documents In small libraries 25.50 

How to choose editions ._. . . 70.00 

List of economical editions 111.80 

Manual of library economy, Chaps. 5, 10, 13 148.60 

Mending and repair of books 22.50 

N. E. A. Reprint (Bostwick's article) 14.50 

Periodicals for the small library 93.80 

Periodical cards 2,038.44 $ 8,377.22 

Addressograph supplies 21.47 

Typewriter 37.50 

Advertising 177.40 

Postage and express 1,089.01 

Rent, Madison office 300.00 

Travel 189.72 

Salaries 2,658.77 

Elva L. Bascom, editing A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11 300.00 

Katharine T. Moody, editing Index to Library reports 300.00 

Expense, headquarters (1912 $2,000; 1913 a/c $1,000). 3,000.00 

Supplies and Incidentals 1,009.61 

Printing 15.25 

Royalty on Guide to reference books 279.78 

Contingencies 40.81 

Balance on hand, May 31, 1913 2,767.27 $20,563.81 



A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD 



109 



SALES OF A. L. A. PUBLISHING BOARD PUBLICATIONS. 
April 1, 1912, to March 31, 1913. 

A. L. A. Booklist, regular subscriptions 1385 $1,385.00 

Additional subs, at reduced rate of 50c 187 93.50 

Bulk subscriptions 853.20 

Extra copies 1110 159.10 $2,490.80 

Handbook 1, Essentials in library administration. 617 124.47 

Handbook 2, Cataloging for small libraries 602 105.04 

Handbook 3, Management of traveling libraries 42 6.13 

Handbook 4, Aids in book selection (out of print) 

Handbook 5, Binding for small libraries 279 39.40 

Handbook 6, Mending and repair of books 395 61.02 

Handbook 7, Government documents in small libraries 528 72.35 

Handbook 8, How to choose editions. 1561 97.39 505.80 

Tract 2, How to start a library 38 1.90 

Tract 3, Traveling libraries (out of print) 

Tract 5, Notes from the art section of a library 359 17.93 

Tract 8, A village library 89 4.42 

Tract 9, Library school training 87 4.32 

Tract 10, Why do we need a public library 245 10.71 39.28 

Foreign Lists, French :, 54 13.32 

Foreign Lists, French fiction 38 1.90 

Foreign Lists, German 45 22.00 

Foreign Lists, Hungarian 17 2.48 

Foreign Lists, Norwegian and Danish 29 7.11 

Foreign Lists, Swedish . 35 8.61 55.42 

Reprints, Arbor day list 24 1.20 

Reprints, Bird books 10 .99 

Reprints, Bostwick, Public library and public school 20 1.00 

Reprints, Cataloging in legislative reference work 54 2.89 

Reprints, Christmas Bulletin 14 .70 

Reprints, Efficiency of L. Staff and scientific management. . . 127 1.80 

Reprints, National library problem of today 13 .65 

Reprints, Rational library work with children 73 3.60 

Reprints, Relation of P. L. to municipality 1183 25.90 

Reprints, Traveling libraries as a first step 26 1.30 40.03 

Periodical cards, Subscriptions 1,868.63 

Periodical cards, Old South Leaflets v. 14 6.30 

Periodical cards, Reed's Modern Eloquence sets 5 12.50 1,887.48 

League Publications: 

Aids in library work with foreigners 630 44.73 

Directions for librarian of a small library 712 22.05 

Graded list of stories for reading aloud 87 8.42 

Library and social movement 172 6.59 

Buying list of books for small library 385 28.47 110.26 

A. L. A. Manual of library economy: 

Chap. I. American library history 228 16.16 

Chap. II. Library of Congress 162 12.59 

Chap. IV. College and university library 178 14.19 

Chap. V. Proprietary and subscription libraries 264 23.62 

Chap. IX. Library legislation 198 15.86 

Chap.. X. The library building 381 31.02 

Chap. XII. Administration of a public library 202 16.34 

Chap. XIII, Training for librarianship 246 23.85 



no 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



Chap. XV. Branch libraries 


. . $225 


$15.82 




Chap. XVII. Order and accession department 


346 


27.84 




Chap. XX. Shelf department 


285 


21.70 




Chap. XXII. Reference department 


. . 229 


19.23 




Chap. XXVI. Bookbinding 


342 


27.36 


$265.58 


A. L. A. Catalog, 1904-11 


. . 3471 


4,107.25 




A. L. A. Index to general literature 


25 


143.40 




Catalog rules 


547 


298.32 




Girls and women and their clubs 


34 


2.65 




Guide to reference books 


565 


774.83 




Guide to reference books, Supplement 


.. 528 


124.63 




Hints to small libraries 


130 


84.95 




Index to library reports (advance orders) 


41 


38.70 




Library buildings 


172 


16.57 




List of editions selected for economy in bookbuying 


94 


22.43 




List of economical editions, (2nd edition) 


164 


38.41 




List of music and books about music 


50 


12.24 




List of subject headings, (3rd edition) 


.. 819 


1,902.55 




List of 550 children's books 


.. 199 


29.44 




Literature of American history 


25 


135.00 




Literature of American history, Supplements 


71 


39.69 




Periodicals for the small library 


98 


9.40 




Plans for small library buildings 


97 


116.72 




Reading for the young 


11 


8.11 




Reading for the young. Supplement 


15 


3.71 




Subject Index to A. L. A. Booklist 


162 


23.01 




Subject Index to A. L. A. Booklist, Supplement 


224 


12.40 




A. L. A. Bulletin 


271 


84.00 




Library statistics Bulletin reprint 


25 


1.18 


8,029.59 


Total sale of publications 






$13,424.19 



REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES OF THE CARNEGIE AND 
ENDOWMENT FUNDS 



To the President and Members of the 
American Library Association: 

The Trustees of the Endowment Fund 
of the American Library Association beg 
leave to submit the following statement 
oi the accounts of their trust the Carne- 
gie and General Funds for the fiscal year 
ending January 15, 1913. 

There has been no change in the invest- 
ments, and all interest has been promptly 
paid. The Trustees are pleased to call 
attention to the credit to the General En- 
dowment Fund of nine life memberships, 
and would recommend that more of such 
memberships be taken as they are about 
the only source of addition to that Fund. 

On January 31, 1913, the usual audit of 
the investments and accounts of the trust 
was made by Mr. E. H. Anderson, of the 
New York public library at the request of 
the chairman of the Finance committee of 
the Association. As evidence of the audit, 
Mr. Anderson furnished the Trustees with 
the following copy of his report made to 
the Finance committee: 

Feb. 1, 1913. 
My dear Mr. Andrews: 

Yesterday, January 31st, I went to the 
vaults of the Union Trust Company at 
Fifth avenue and Thirty-eighth street, this 
' ity, and with Mr. Appleton and Mr. Kim- 
ball, trustees of the endowment fund of 
the American Library Association, checked 
up the bonds now in their custody. I en- 
close herewith their typewritten state- 



ment concerning the funds in their hands, 
and I certify to the correctness of the 
figures as to the bonds on hand. These 1 
have checked in black ink after a personal 
count of them at the vaults aforesaid. At 
their par value they amount to $102,500 for 
the Carnegie Fund, and $7,000 for the gen- 
eral endowment fund. 

I have not examined the bank book of 
the trustees nor the vouchers for the 
amounts transmitted to Mr. Roden, the 
treasurer. Mr. Roden's records should 
verify the amounts transmitted to the 
treasurer. If you think it worth while I 
can examine the bank book of the 
trustees, but personally I do not think it 
necessary. If you feel that it should be 
done, however, return the enclosed type- 
written statement for comparison with the 
bank book. Mr. Roden will also be able 
to check the receipts for life members. I 
think Mr. Appleton said that two more 
had been received since January 15th. 

I hereby certify that to the best of my 
knowledge and belief all of the accounts 
on the typewritten sheets enclosed here- 
with are correct. 

Very sincerely yours, 

(Signed) E. H. ANDERSON. 
Respectfully submitted, 

W. W. APPLETON, 
W. C. KIMBALL, 
W. T. PORTER, 

Trustees Endowment Fund A. L. A. 
May 1, 1913. 



112 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



96% 



CARNEGIE FUND, PRINCIPAL ACCOUNT 

Cash donated by Mr. Andrew Carnegie $100,000.00 

Invested as follows: 

June 1, 1908 5,000 4% Amer. Tel. & Tel. Bonds 

June 1, 1908 10,000 4% Amer. Tel. & Tel. Bonds 

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

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

June 1, 1908 15,000 5% Western Un. Tel 108% 

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

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

May 3, 1909 15,000 6% U. S. Steel 104 

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

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



f 4,825.00 

9,437.50 

15,000.00 

9,550.00 

15,000.00 

13,500.00 

15,000.00 

15,000.00 

1,500.00 

1,000.00 



102,500 
Jan. 15, 1913 Union Trust Co. on deposit. 



99,812.50 
187.50 



$100,000.00 

In addition to the above we have on hand at the Union Trust Company $150 profit 

on the sale of the Missouri Pacific Bonds, which we have carried to a special surplus 
account. 

CARNEGIE FUND, INCOME ACCOUNT 

1912 

January 15, Balance $1,524.33 

February 6, Int. N. Y. Central 262.50 

May 1, Int. U. S. Steel 437.50 

May 10, Int. Cleveland Terminal 300.00 

May 31, Int. Mo. Pacific 375.00 

May 31, Int. Seaboard Air Line 200.00 

July 2, Int. Amer. Tel. & Tel 300.00 

July 2, Int. Western Un. Tel 375.00 

August 8, Int. N. Y. Central 262.50 

September 3, Int. Seaboard Air Line 200.00 

September 3, Int. Mo. Pacific 375.00 

November 1, Int. U. S. Steel 437.50 

November 1, Int. Cleveland Terminal ~ 300.00 

December 31, Int. Union Trust 39.90 

1913 

January 2, Int. Western Un. Tel 375.00 

January 15.. 1913 Cash on hand 934.90 $6,064.23 

Disbursements: 
1912 

January 24, Carl B. Roden, Treas $1,524.33 

June 4, Carl B. Roden, Treas 1,575.00 

September 18, Carl B. Roden, Treas 500.00 

October 28, Rent Safe Deposit Co 30.00 

November 18, Carl B. Roden, Treas 1,500.00 

January 15, 1913, Cash on hand 934.90 $6,064.23 

ENDOWMENT FUND, PRINCIPAL ACCOUNT 
1912 

January 15, On hand, Bonds and Cash $7,286.84 

February 28, Life membership, C. N. Baxter 25.00 

March 28, Life membership, L. A. McNeil 25.00 

March 28, Life membership, A. B. Smith 25.00 

May 4, Life membership, H. L. Leupp 25.00 

May 28, Life membership, W. M. Smith 25.00 

May 28, Life membership, L. E. Taylor 25.00 

July 2, Life membership, E. P. Sohier 25.00 

September 18, Life membership, M. R. Cochran 25.00 

November 1, Life membership, S. C. Fairchild 25.00 

$7,511.84 



BOOKBINDING COMMITTED 



118 



Invested as follows: 

1908 

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

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

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

1910 

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

January 15, 1913 Cash on hand, Union Trust Co 541.84 $7,511.84 



ENDOWMENT FUND, INCOME ACCOUNT 



1912 



January 15, Cash on hand $175.00 

May 1, Int. U. S. Steel 175.00 

November 1, Int. U. S. Steel 175.00 

Disbursements: 
1912 

January 24, Carl B. Roden, Treas $175.00 

June 4, Carl B. Roden, Treas 175.00 

January 15, 1913 Cash on hand 175.00 



$525.00 



$525.00 



BOOKBINDING COMMITTEE 

In last year's report it was stated 
that a special collection, showing the kind 
of work done by library binders, had been 
started by this committee. During the 
past year this collection has been materi- 
ally increased by samples submitted by 
different binders; it now includes work 
from 34 binders covering the entire coun- 
try from the Atlantic ocean to the Pa- 
cific. The collection was formed so that 
when librarians write to ask about the 
work of specific binders, the work itself 
can be examined and intelligent answers 
given. 

Notices of the collection were printed 
in the various library periodicals and a 
certain numbers of requests for informa- 
tion have been received; a smaller number 
than the committee hoped for, but suffi- 
cient to warrant keeping the collection 
up-to-date. 

In view of certain criticisms of this col- 
lection, it may be well to state that it is 
not the purpose to print criticisms of the 
work of different binders, or to grade 
them in any way. When asked for in- 
formation the committee will not com- 
pare the work of one binder with another, 
neither will librarians be advised to desert 



one binder and employ another. All that 
will be done will be to send suggestions 
as to ways in which the work of the bind- 
er in question can be improved. In order 
to do this the work of the binder must be 
available for examination. The commit- 
tee fails to see how any binder can take 
offense at this method, or claim that other 
binders are being officially recognized by 
the A. L. A. 

The announcement of the publishers of 
the Encyclopaedia Britannica that they 
were about to issue a Yearbook which 
would be printed only on India paper 
called forth a protest from this committee 
against the use of thin paper a protest 
which had no effect whatever until letters 
protesting against its use had been sent 
to the publishers by 50 librarians of the 
larger libraries. Even then the sole con- 
cession that the publishers made was to 
agree to bind 750 copies on ordinary pa- 
per, provided that we could guarantee a 
sale of that number. For this reason the 
committee asks that those who wish to 
purchase a thick paper edition of the Year- 
book register their orders with the com- 
mittee. If the total number by July 1st 
amounts to 750 copies, the publishers will 
be notified to that effect. Many librarians 
have refused to buy the India paper edi- 



114 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



tion, and it is evident that if all librarians 
would refuse to get it, the publishers would 
realize that the demands of librarians in 
this respect should be heeded. 

There have been comparatively few 
reference books published or announced 
during the year which the committee felt 
would need to be bound especially for li- 
brary use. It was thought advisable, how- 
ever, to submit our specifications for bind- 
ing the new editions of the Standard Dic- 
tionary and Appleton's Cyclopaedia of 
American Biography. The publishers of 
the Standard Dictionary adopted practical- 
ly all of the specifications and the publish- 
ers of the Cyclopaedia of American Bio- 
graphy now have them under considera- 
tion. 

In this connection it is worthy of notice 
that the publishers of reference books are 
not only giving studied attention to bind- 
ing processes, but they also realize more 
fully than they did a few years ago the 
necessity of using leather which is free- 
from-acid. Until within the last two or 
three years it has been difficult to get 
leathers tanned according to the specifica- 
tions of the Society of Arts. Recently, 
however, several firms in this country 
have begun to specialize in leathers free- 
from-acid; and in addition to this, the 
Government Printing Office insists on hav- 
ing a certain amount of such leather and 
calls for it in its proposals for bids. These 
are encouraging signs that in the future 
we may hope to get leather which will 
not disintegrate so rapidly as that which 
we have been obliged to use for many 
years past. 

With assured standards of book cloths 
and leathers, whch manufacturers, pub- 
lishers, binders and librarians each year 
are recognizing more and more as vital to 
the proper construction of a serviceable 
book, there remains only paper to be care- 
fully standardized. Some efforts are being 
made by private companies and by the 
government to discover which papers are 
best for certain uses, but at present the li- 



brarian at least knows little of the sub- 
ject and is practically at the mercy of the 
publisher. 

ARTHUR L. BAILEY, 

ROSE G. MURRAY, 

J. RITCHIE PATTERSON. 

COMMITTEE ON BOOKBUYING 

At the Ottawa meeting of the American 
Library Association this committee re- 
ported simply progress, without giving de- 
tails of its work during the past year, but 
it. had submitted the following report to 
the Executive Board, which we now sub- 
mit to the Association at large, and fol- 
low it up with a further report of the 
action of your committee during the past 
year. 

To the Executive Board of the American 
Library Association. 

The A. L. A. Committee on bookbuying 
met with a committee from the American 
Booksellers' Association in Cleveland on 
May 13, 1912 for the purpose of discussing 
book prices and discounts to libraries. As 
it was found impossible to come to any 
satisfactory understanding before the an- 
nual meeting of the associations, it was 
decided to make only a report of progress. 
It was, however, further agreed that a 
more detailed 'report should be made to 
the Executive Boards of the associations 
to ascertain if the Executive Boards 
deemed it wise that the discussion should 
be continued. 

The Booksellers' Association at its an- 
nual convention held in New York in May 
has accepted the report of progress, and 
has reappointed its committee. 

During the year 1910-11 your committee 
had much correspondence with the offi- 
cers of the American Booksellers' Associa- 
tion, with the librarians and with the 
booksellers throughout the country on 
questions of the upward tendency of book 
prices and the efforts which were being 
made to decrease the discounts to librar- 
ies. 

At a meeting of the American Book- 
sellers' Association held in May, 1911, a 



BOOKBUYING COMMITTEE 



115 



committee on "Relations with libraries" 
was appointed to take up the matter with 
the committee of the A. L. A. Shortly 
after this committee was appointed, your 
committee asked that a time be set for 
a meeting. As the chairman of the Book- 
sellers' committee was abroad, the mat- 
ter was postponed until September. In 
September the A. L. A. committee was 
asked to prepare a statement and sub- 
mit it to the committee of the American 
Booksellers' Association, to which they 
agreed to make a reply, the two papers 
to form the basis for a discussion at a 
meeting to be held as soon as the Book- 
sellers' reply had been prepared. We 
submitted the statement requested in 
October, 1911. Although repeated requests 
for a reply were made, we did not suc- 
ceed in getting a copy until March, 1912, 
and notwithstanding repeated requests for 
a meeting to discuss the matter, none was 
held until May 13, 1912, on the eve of 
the annual conference of the American 
Booksellers' Association. 

We attach a copy of the statement made 
by your committee and the reply by the 
ccmmittee of the American Booksellers' 
Association. The attitude of the mem- 
bers of the committee of the Booksellers' 
Association at the meeting referred to did 
not differ from that taken in the reply 
excepting that they were willing to modify 
the expressions in the reply to a consider- 
able degree. It urged that special atten- 
tion should be given to the tables of busi- 
ness loss and profit, which had been pre- 
pared in the book store of Brentano's. In 
connection with these figures the net 
books should be most considered so far as 
the new books are concerned. At the 
present rate of increase of books so is- 
sued it will be but a short time before all 
books are so published. 

Your committee was asked to admit that 
it was morally wrong to demand that the 
booksellers should do business at any such 
profits, or loss, shown by these figures. 
Your committee did not feel that it was 
justified in taking that position, nor 



would it be even if. it were more certain 
of the accuracy and fairness of the figures. 

Without doubt there is much that is 
wrongfully asked or required of the book- 
sellers by some of the library people, 
which must of necessity add materially to 
the cost of doing business, but this, we 
believe, should be paid for by those ask- 
ing the special favors, and should not be 
covered by a regular charge upon all li- 
brary business. There was much to be 
said in favor of the booksellers' increase 
of prices if it needs to cover such ex- 
penses. 

On the other hand, it is thought that 
the bookseller is not justified in all of the 
increases which have been made in the 
prices of books to libraries; as, for ex- 
ample, the discounts now allowed to li- 
braries from prices of the net fiction and 
net juveniles. 

It is believed that, with the right spirit 
of cooperation, there are certain changes 
that might be made which would help the 
bookseller, as well as the librarian. If 
what we understand to be the present at- 
titude of the booksellers remains un- 
changed, if they are unable to give as well 
as to* take, your committee feels as though 
the discussion might as well come to an 
end. We believe that there exists consid- 
erable difference of opinion among book- 
sellers as to the justice of the terms now- 
being offered to libraries as large buyers 
of books. 

It will be a matter of great regret if 
there cannot be established most cordial 
relations between the libraries and the 
Booksellers' Association. At the same time, 
we do not think that the A. L. A. should 
establish such relations upon terms made 
wholly for the benefit of the booksellers. 

We think that the Executive Board 
should know the present condition of the 
negotiations, so that it might, .if it sees 
fit, instruct its future committee. 
(Signed) WALTER L. BROWN, 

CARL B. RODEN, 
CHARLES H. BROWN. 
Committee on Bookbuying. 



116 



KAATBRSKILL CONFERENCE 



Statement Made by the Committee on 
Bookbuying of the American Library 
Association to the Committee on 
Relations with Libraries of 
the American Booksell- 
ers' Association. 

October, 1911. 

To the Committee on Relations with Li- 
braries, American Booksellers' Asso- 
ciation. 
Gentlemen: 

We send you herewith a brief state- 
ment of the position of the Book Buying 
Committee of the American Library Asso- 
ciation in relation to the subject which 
we hope to discuss with you. 

The relations between libraries and the 
book trade should be placed upon a busi- 
ness basis, and the discussion of them up- 
on any other ground is not asked for by 
the libraries. 

There is no question as to the desira- 
bility and the necessity of improving the 
conditions of the book trade, and we are 
in sympathy with the apparently success- 
ful efforts now being made toward that 
end. 

The libraries ask that at this time of 
reorganization and radical changes a care- 
ful and just consideration should be given 
to their claims as large buyers of a special 
character. This has always been recog- 
nized in the past, and is the reason for 
the special discounts allowed them by the 
booksellers. 

The library trade as a factor in the 
book business is of increasing importance. 
While it may not be considered as "Whole- 
sale business" if, as it is claimed, that 
term implies the purchase in quantities 
of single titles and involves a business 
risk in such purchases, yet it differs so 
much more from the character of the re- 
tail trade that in the new adjustment of 
discounts there would seem to be little 
justice in charging against it the expenses 
of retail trade. 

We believe that the amount of library 
trade, and its peculiar character warrant 



your association in having appointed a 
committee to consider its claims. 

In dealing with libraries many of the 
largest items of the expense involved in 
the conduct of the retail business are 
wholly unnecessary. It can be conducted 
as well by dealers on back streets or in 
lofts as it can be by those who have the 
most luxurious and expensive stores to 
attract the retail trade, it does not call 
for the advertising of their wares by the 
dealers; all skill of salesmanship is elim- 
inated, and no accounts have to be 
charged off because of failure. 

It is claimed that there are other ex- 
penses as great, perhaps, as those men- 
tioned, which are peculiar to the library 
trade, but in reality are not called for in 
the business of many libraries, and while, 
perhaps, they are customary, they are 
really necessary in but few cases, if any. 
These expenses would seem to be rather 
the result of bookselling methods than 
because of any peculiar demands of the 
business. These "bad features," as they 
were called in your recent convention, 
were pointed out as being 

(a) Very slow pay, 

(b) Its approval feature, 

(c) The practice of asking for competi- 
tive bids with the lack of ability to judge 
squarely of such bids. 

We cannot- see that any of these fea- 
tures are of vital importance to the library. 
To many libraries, as we have said, they 
do not apply at all, and probably others 
would be better off if they were not al- 
lowed by the trade. 

The "approval feature" which was made 
much of by one of your officers, is, we 
believe, quite as much the fault of the 
dealers who wish to urge the sale of their 
stock as it is the fault of libraries who 
wish to examine the books before purchas- 
ing. Many books are sent out to libraries 
on approval which have already been 
passed upon, or are entirely outside the 
range of their purchase, and involve an 
expense of time to the library, which is 
forced upon it by the bookseller. 



117 



We agree that no library should ask 
for competitive bids on itemized lists, for 
the gain to the libraries who do this is 
much smaller than the expense involved. 
It is probable that such lists would show 
a lack of bibliographical detail and would 
require much time in wasted effort on the 
part of the bookseller. Library authorities 
purchasing books in this manner might, 
perhaps, be expected to show a "lack of 
ability to judge squarely of such bids." 
We believe that the bibliographical work 
of the bookseller in searching for the best 
(or more often the cheapest) edition to 
quote on such a list is the most expensive 
work the bookseller would have in this 
trade. Such work is wholly unnecessary, as 
the selected lists of recommended books 
published by the American Library Associ- 
ation, as well as those published by the 
state and local associations and the large 
libraries, are in the habit of stating the 
edition, the publisher's name and the 
price. It is safe to say that all libraries 
are supplied with such bibliographical aid 
to the extent of their needs and pur- 
chases. 

This question, however, has little to 
do with the trade of the libraries con- 
ducted according to modern methods. The 
best libraries do not send out for competi- 
tive bids on itemized orders, and they do 
place the necessary bibliographical detail 
on their orders, and we might add that 
their officers are fully capable of judging 
squarely the editions supplied and the 
price quoted. 

We should like to see the book trade 
classify the library business as peculiar to 
itself. Taking the best library trade as a 
standard, it might suggest some require- 
ments which should be asked for in re- 
turn for obtaining the library discount. 
If the business is free from these faults 
with which it is more or less justly 
charged, it should be profitable to the 
bookseller. 

We believe that libraries have a right 
to protest against the increasing charges 
made to them for the passing of the books 



of the publishers through the hands of 
the booksellers, and that some concessions 
should be made in the discounts now 
granted. We believe that there is ample 
room for increasing the booksellers' profits 
by the reformation of its methods, or per- 
haps we should say the library methods, 
which are now accepted by them. The 
general increase and the tendency toward 
further increases in the charges for the 
handling of books for libraries by the rules 
of your association we believe to be un- 
just, and that we are fully justified in 
asking that a careful consideration be giv- 
en to this question with a view toward 
making more liberal discounts to this 
trade. 

We do not believe that the last move 
of your association in making the same 
discount on net fiction as upon other net 
books is warranted, for we think it would 
be only fair to grant the libraries a pro- 
portion of the larger profit which the book- 
seller receives by reason of the extra dis- 
count allowed by the publishers on net 
fiction. If no other concession is made, 
we believe that a better price should be 
offered to libraries on their purchases of 
net fiction. 

We should regret to have the booksel- 
lers take action which would give the li- 
braries the impression that their trade 
was a burden to the booksellers; that the 
members of your association required a 
larger profit from them than what is 
amply satisfactory to the jobbing trade 
and many dealers. 

It is to the interests of the library to 
foster friendly relations with the local 
booksellers. We believe that together 
they can be of more service than when 
working against each other; it is good 
for the community; we believe that it is 
also to the interests of the booksellers to 
keep the library trade, not only because of 
sentimental reasons, but because it pays. 
Not only are the library accounts practic- 
ally guaranteed and the requirements of 
display, advertising and salesmanship min- 
imized, as we have already stated, but the 



118 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



library is often the only buyer of many 
books which are received by the book- 
sellers. No other one customer keeps the 
stock moving to such an extent as the li- 
brary. None other wears out books and 
calls for so many duplications after the 
period of popular demand, taking from 
the bookseller's shelves books which he 
need not re-stock. Much of this kind of 
trade prevents actual loss which the book- 
seller would have without the library cus- 
tomer. 

We are not at all convinced that the 
booksellers are losers in the library trade, 
nor do we wish to be placed in the posi- 
tion of receiving special favors. The li- 
braries like to feel that the booksellers 
are giving them fair prices so they will 
not be constantly shown by out-of-town 
dealers how much cheaper they might 
have bought their new books by waiting a 
brief time after publication. 

Wide margins of profit always lead to 
the cutting of prices unless the trade is 
absolutely controlled, which is not the 
condition in the book trade at this time. 

We wish to be in a position to urge all 
libraries to buy of the regular dealers in 
their localities, and trust that your com- 
mittee may be able to see some way of 
recommending further concessions to the 
library trade. 

Answer to the Foregoing Statement 

Answer to the library Committee on Re- 
lation with Booksellers, as proposed by 
Charles E. Butler, Brentano's, New York. 

1. We agree that the relations between 
librarians and booksellers should be on a 
business basis, and that there is no ques- 
tion as to the desirability of improving the 
condition of the book trade. 

2. We are in hearty sympathy with the 
desire of the libraries, that a careful and 
just consideration should be given to their 
claims for better discount as large buyers 
collectively of a special character. 

3. It is the most earnest desire of the 
book trade to be absolutely fair and just 
toward the libraries. We fully and most 



sincerely believe that the libraries would 
not for a moment desire or expect that 
their purchases should be made at the 
sacrifice of a trade, whose very existence 
depends on what reasonable profit can be 
made by them in their business transac- 
tions. 

4. The libraries believe that the book- 
sellers can make better discounts than 
they do now, if they carry on their busi- 
ness along the lines indicated by them, 
while the booksellers claim that the pres- 
ent condition of buying and selling pro- 
hibits them from making a profit, but is 
actually productive of loss, and that the 
method proposed by the libraries is not 
possible. 

5. The booksellers are of necessity the 
agent of the publisher. If his business is 
not self-bjstaining, he must fail. The re- 
duction of real booksellers, by a most liber- 
al construction of what constitutes a book- 
seller, from about 3,t)00 when our popu- 
lation was 40 millions to about 2,000 with 
our population at 90 millions, is evidence 
of the truth of this assertion. The book- 
sellers are entitled to sell to everyone who 
buys books, libraries or others. 

6. The libraries are not booksellers, 
therefore they are not entitled to book- 
sellers' discounts, which they are now get- 
ting from certain sources. Thus, book- 
sellers are deprived of the library busi 
ness. 

7. The bookseller is an important fac- 
tor in any community in which he is 
placed. He is taxed by city and state. 
His educational influence cannot be es- 
timated. His capital, his brains and phys- 
ical effort are all invested in making his 
business a success. To do so, he needs 
reasonable profits, and it is business folly 
to do any part of his business that results 
in a loss. 

8. A great majority of the libraries are 
created and supported by direct taxation, 
by charitable contribution, endowment, 
legacies and the like. It is true, the li- 
braries have to be conducted in a careful, 
businesslike way simply keeping within 



BOOKBUYING COMMITTEE 



119 



their means. Doing this, they are free 
from the booksellers' anxieties and diffi- 
culties as a merchant. 

9. The unique position enjoyed by li- 
braries in the community as to their capi- 
tal and freedom from commercial risk, and 
exemption from taxation, and rent, has 
raised the question: "Why should they re- 
ceive discounts on books?" Do they, as 
libraries, get special discounts on their 
building, their shelving, light, heat, elec- 
tricity and supplies, etc., etc.? 

10. The libraries state that in book- 
sellers dealing with libraries many of the 
largest items of the expense involved in 
the conduct of the retail business are 
wholly unnecessary. 

"It can be conducted as well by dealers 
on back streets or in lofts as it can be 
done by those who have the most luxuri- 
ous stores to attract the retail trade; it 
does not call for the advertising of their 
wares by the dealer; all skill of salesman- 
ship is eliminated and no accounts have to 
be charged off because of failure." 

11. The bookseller establishes himself 
in every community, in such locations as 
will attract trade generally the best 
limited only by his capacity to pay rent 
and expenses. This is vital to his suc- 
cess. A bookseller locating himself on a 
back street for the purpose of doing busi- 
ness to enable him to give the library a 
large portion of his small earnings would 
speedily end his career. He could not get 
enough library business to exist on and his 
chances of doing a general retail business, 
on a back street, would be very small in- 
deed. He would become solely a 25 per 
cent or 30 per cent buyer, 10 per cent 
which he gives to the libraries, with a pos- 
sible 28, 25 or 20 per cent expense account. 
We do not believe that the libraries would 
knowingly ask anyone to do business un- 
der such circumstances for their, benefit. 
Will the libraries figure this out? 

12. Presuming, for the sake of argu- 
ment, a bookseller does locate himself on 
a back street for the purpose of doing li- 
brary business: He must be a bookseller 



to get a wholesale rate. A mere agent 
not carrying stock, but simply buying on 
orders, would not be supported or supplied 
by the publishers, as he does not carry 
stock or assume the risk of the business. 

13. He would therefore have to carry a 
reasonable amount of stock to be consid- 
ered a bookseller. The libraries may not 
know that the discount given the book- 
seller is qualified by the quantity pur- 
chased of each item. Thus, the average 
trade discount now prevailing on net 
books and net fiction is 30 per cent in 
small quantities. If he purchases 10 to 25 
copies of a title, he gets an extra 5 per 
cent. If he purchases 50 to 250 of a title 
(according to the publisher and the book 
offered) he gets an extra 10 per cent. The 
libraries familiar with this discount, and 
being misguided as to the results, argue 
that a better discount than they now get 
should be given them by the bookseller. 
We have not included here the great num- 
ber of books published at such discounts 
as 25 per cent, 20 per cent, 15 per cent, 
and even 10 per cent, to which must be 
added transportation and other charges. 
More of such books are bought by li- 
braries than by the retail buyer, such as 
educational books, scientific books, medi- 
cal books, law books, subscription books, 
etc. 

14. Now this is what really happens to 
the man on the back street, as well as to 
the bookseller on the principal thorough- 
fare. It is safe to say that out of the pur- 
chase of 100 new books of any one house, 
say for a period of a year, about 90 per 
cent would have to be bought in small 
quantities at a discount of 30 per cent, 
about 5 per cent at the extra 5 per cent 
discounts, and 5 per cent at the extra 10 
per cent discounts. Thus, buying 90 per 
cent of his stock at 30 per cent and selling 
to libraries at a discount of 10 per cent 
leaves 20 per cent to do business, with 
an average expense cost to-the bookseller 
of 28 per cent on every dollar of sale. The 
10 per cent at better rate would improve 
matters very little, as can readily be seen. 



120 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



It. does not seem as if the bookseller could 
make better discount than he does to the 
libraries and it really is a question 
whether he is Justified in giving as much 
as he does now, if able to give any at all, 
except at a loss to him. 

15. The theory has been advanced by 
the libraries that all their business should 
be considered by booksellers as an inde- 
pendent element in the business and not 
chargeable with the 28 per cent cost per 
dollar of sale, but that the library busi- 
ness should be charged with a much less 
ratio of expense, thus enabling the book- 
seller to gratify the desire of the libraries 
for a further discount. They base this 
proposition on the following claims: 

1. It does not call for the advertis- 
ing of their wares by the dealer. 

2. All skill of salesmanship is elimi- 
nated. 

3. No accounts have to be charged 
off because of failure. 

The facts are that the smaller libraries, 
and to some extent the larger libraries, 
are constantly supplied by publisher and 
bookseller with circular matter regarding 
new and forthcoming publications, letters 
and personal visits as to special publica- 
tions, as well as sending the new books, 
as issued, on approval, at considerable 
cost and trouble, and some loss of sale, 
because books are not available for dis- 
play to possible buyers who visit the deal- 
er's place of business. The proper han- 
dling of library orders to any reasonable 
extent requires skilled clerks with good 
knowledge of books, the use of catalogs 
and the ability to work out titles correctly 
that are incorrectly given, and which is so 
often done. It is true that no accounts 
have to be charged off, but library ac- 
counts require much care and trouble in 
making duplicate and triplicate vouchers, 
many have to be sworn to before notaries, 
in some cases depositing money as secur- 
ity that goods will be supplied at prices 
quoted, and generally a long wait before 
the bills are paid, and many minor trou- 
bles annoying to both libraries and deal- 
ers. 



10. As a business proposition, the mak- 
ing of a library department a separate one 
from the business, and determining its ex- 
act cost of maintenance, and basing the li- 
brary discount thereon is not feasible, for 
the reason that the bulk of its operations 
are so interwoven with the business, re- 
quiring the assistance of the entire force 
at many stages that it would be impossible 
to pick out and determine what each oper- 
ation costs. Again, the profits and loss of 
a business can only be finally determined 
at the end of the fiscal year, when the 
stock is taken, and the books closed a 
very anxious moment indeed for the book- 
seller. He then knows, to his joy or sor- 
row, how much it has cost him to make 
one dollar of sale, and what profit or loss 
he has made on each dollar of sale, on 
every class of merchandise he has sold, 
the library trade included. This percent- 
age of sale is his guide for the following 
year, and as a good business man, he must 
eliminate every class of merchandise he 
sells that does not produce some profit. 
No business can work successfully other- 
wise. 

17. The following table will show the 
various ramifications of a special library 
department in the business, if carried out 
as proposed. What suggestions would the 
libraries make in a case like this? 

Work of the library clerk. 



Clerks. 

Writing to libraries 
for trade. 

Sending circulars 
and book informa- 
tion to libraries. 

Certain reference 
catalogs. 

Receiving order for 
estimate and 



price. 

Looking up same 
and selecting edi- 
tions and pricing. 

Writing to publish- 
ers about special 
books to be 
priced. 

Correcting libra- 
rian's errors. 



Store Assistance. 



Correspondence in 
general. 

Typewr i t e r s, ma- 
chine, paper, etc. 

Advertising for out- 
of-print books and 
general advertis- 
ing. 



Assistance of other 
clerks. 

Order department 
and laying out or- 
der and getting 
shorts. 

Receiving depart- 
ment. 



BOOKBUYING COMMITTEE 



121 



Bookkeeping depart- 
ment. 

Packing and ship- 
ping department. 

Catalog reference. 

Freight and express 
on goods bought. 

Returns and credits. 

Postage. 

Loss on bad ac- 
counts. 

Theft. 

Depreciation 
of stock. 

Rent. 



Heat. 

Light. 

Care and keep of 
store. 

Salaries and wages. 

Interest. 

Store supplies. 

Insurance and taxes. 

Auditing. 

Cost of books on ap- 
proval going and 
coming. 

Good will and repu- 
tation. 



18. The libraries state that 

They have a right to protest against the 
increasing charges made to them for pass- 
ing of the books of the publishers through 
the hands of the booksellers, and that 
some concession should be made in the 
discounts now granted. 

19. In this, the libraries should con- 
sider they are not a trade organization, 
who, like the booksellers, depend on their 
trade for a living. Publisher and book- 
seller are one in interest producer and 
Distributor, and it is economically proper 
that the publisher's product should pass 
through the hands of the bookseller, and 
to whom? to their clientele, the public. 
What relation does the library have to the 
bookseller, other than as a buyer, the 
same as the rest of the community? It is 
claimed that libraries are large buyers col- 
lectively, but the general public are larger 
buyers collectively, by many millions of 
dollars. If the library theory holds good, 
would not the same theory hold good if 
the citizens of each community were to 
combine in their purchasing and demand 
discounts accordingly? Would this not re- 
sult in the booksellers' sudden and com- 
plete annihilation, instead of a gradual 
one, as it has been? 

20. As to the "increasing charges," 
there is no more increase to the libraries 
than to the general public. What brought 
about these "increasing charges?" The 
necessity of self-preservation of both pub- 
lisher and bookseller. Till the beginning 
of the net system and for some years 
thereafter books were published at the tra- 



ditional prices of more than fifty years 
ago (and later a period of ruinous compe- 
tition to the bookseller) the discounts to 
the trade remaining about the same, and 
this in spite of the fact that the cost of 
everything pertaining to book-making and 
its selling had greatly increased, and had 
not advanced in price, while almost every 
other article of merchandise, labor, mate- 
rial and the necessities of life, has greatly 
increased in cost, and increased in selling 
price. 

21. The libraries state: 

We should regret to have the booksell- 
ers take action which would give the li- 
braries the impression that their trade 
was a burden to the bookseller, that your 
members required a larger profit from 
them than what is amply satisfactory to 
the jobbing trade and many dealers. 

22. The booksellers do not feel that the 
libraries are a burden to them. They are 
anxious to have trading relations with 
them, but on a mutually satisfactory ba- 
sis. The library does not need profit for 
its existence, supported as it is, but the 
bookseller needs it for his very existence. 
Were the libraries aware of the actual 
facts of the case, they would undoubtedly 
learn to their surprise that the trade done 
by "the jobbing trade and many dealers" 
was anything but satisfactory, and were 
their dealings with the libraries closely 
analyzed they would find they had made 
small profit, if not loss, on the total of the 
books sold to them. The dealers have only 
shown existing conditions, and have asked 
for relief. 

23. The libraries are not sole buyers 
of net books. A very large proportion of 
their purchases are of non-net books, 
which are sold to them at little or no mar- 
gin of profit, and at the same discount as. 
the booksellers get. This is ruinous com- 
petition. 

24. Why then do the trade desire li- 
brary business under existing conditions? 
They do not seek this business for its prof- 
it-making on general publications, regular 
and net, for that is almost nil, but for 



122 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



such stock as can be bought at much bet- 
ter discount than the regular trade rates, 
such as jobs and the like, that they can 
sell the libraries, and also for the real 
value of the libraries to the bookseller 
that their orders often enable him to dis- 
pose of certain stock even at cost which 
might take a long time to dispose of. 
Finally, there is a certain amount of pride 
surprising as it may _ seem that the 
bookseller has. He wants to sell the li- 
brary in his own community, he wants to 
do all the business of his community, and 
he feels it keenly that his library is the 
only one with whom he cannot do busi- 
ness, except at a very small profit or loss; 
and which trade goes to some other town 
or state. 

25. We trust we have made clear to the 
libraries the exact business situation as it 
relates to the bookseller, jobber, and the 
like. To some extent, what is stated here 
is no new story. The general assertion 
has been made by the bookseller that the 
library business is unprofitable, while the 
libraries state they believe otherwise is or 
should be the case, and suggest their 
ideas as to a remedy. 

26. It can be proved, we think, to the 
entire satisfaction of the libraries, that in 
spite of the net system and corresponding 
maintenance of price, the bookseller, job- 
ber and the like, will be happy indeed if 
he can show the smallest margin of net 
profit as a result of a year's work in sell- 
ing regular and net books to the libraries 
and the public as well. 

27. The booksellers, jobbers and the 
like desire the library business. They be- 
lieve that it rightly belongs to them in 
their own locality, 'and to no one else, be 
they large or small. 

28. They believe the discount given to 
libraries by booksellers, jobbers and the 
like, should be uniform the country over, 
and leave a small margin of profit to the 
seller. 

29. They believe that competitive bid- 
ding by the libraries has been detrimental 



to booksellers, jobbers and the like, as 
well as to the libraries in many ways, di- 
rect and indirect. 

30. They believe that the libraries de- 
sire to be fair in this matter and not ask 
for unreasonable terms, and that a knowl- 
edge of the real facts of the case of the 
condition of the booksellers, jobbers and 
the like, will convince them that the book- 
sellers, jobbers and others are doing all, 
if not more than they can, in giving the 
libraries a discount of 33 1-3 per cent on 
regular books, and 10 per cent on net 
books, as at present. 

31. Booksellers, jobbers and the like 
fully believe that they can be of great as- 
sistance to the libraries and the libraries 
to them, and it is their earnest hope that 
close and harmonious relations may be 
brought about, and that they will do all in 
their power towards it. The booksellers 
most heartily endorse the great and good 
work the libraries perform to the com- 
munity, and from a selfish point of view, 
the bookseller freely admits the great as- 
sistance derived by them from the influ- 
ence of the libraries in creating a desire 
for reading and the possession of books, 
and the general educating and elevating 
of the community, and the bookseller also 
feels that his presence in any community 
is likewise educating and elevating and 
that his interests should be reasonably 
conserved. 

32. The booksellers complain that 
when libraries become publishers, as 
many of them do, they make their prices 
net but give the trade little or no discount 
therefrom. Such books sold by the book- 
seller, cost him considerable in addition 
to the published price. 

33. They cordially invite the librarians 
to go into any facts and figures they may 
desire to be informed about, as to the cost 
of booksellers doing business and as to 
the conditions affecting the relationship of 
both, with a view that all difficulties may 
be removed, to our mutual satisfaction. 



BOOKBUYING COMMITTEE 



123 



34. We are pleased to learn that the li- 
braries believe 

1. The approval feature can be 
dropped. 

2. That no library should ask for 
competitive bids on itemized lists. 

3. The bibliographical work is en- 
tirely unnecessary by the bookseller 
and can be dispensed with. 



4. That the relations between li- 
braries and the book trade should be 
placed upon a business basis. 

5. That there is no question as to the 
desirability and the necessity of improv- 
ing the condition of the book trade, and 
that they are in sympathy with the ap- 
parently successful efforts now being 
made toward that end. 



BOOKSELLERS SELLING TO LIBRARIES AND THE RESULT, IN PROFIT AND 

LOSS TO THE BOOKSELLER. 

The following tabulation is compiled, from actual purchases made from four promi- 
nent publishers, by a large bookseller, during a period of one year. These purchase's 
included books in all classes of literature, fiction, biography, science, travel, etc., etc., 
which would fairly represent the book purchases of a number of libraries for the period 
of one. year. These books were bought at varying discounts, viz.: 2/5, 2/5-5, 2/5-10, 
1/4, 1/4-5, I/ 4 ' 10 ' 3 / 10 > 3/10-5, 3/10-10, 1/3, 1/3-5, 1/3-10. Every advantage was taken 
where possible, to obtain by quantity buying, the extra 5 and 10 per cent, given by the 
publishers. The amount bought of these four publishers at published price was 
about $37,035.87, which cost the bookseller about $24,000.00, and included both regular, 
net and special books. 

Let us assume that this bookseller sold these books from his stock to the libraries, 
at a discount from the published prices, on regular books, of 1/3 and a discount of 10% 
f rom the published prices of net books. 

It is here shown, what the result of the operation would be to the bookseller, as 
to profit or loss. The cost point of doing business by booksellers the country over, 
has been fairly well determined to be on the same average, 28% per dollar of sale. 
This may fluctuate according to circumstances and location, between 30% and 25%. 
In order, however, to clearly and fully cover all possibilities in the matter, the expense 
per dollar of sale has been calculated at 28%, 20%, 15%, 10% and 5% per dollar of sale. 

In all these calculations per dollar of sale, no allowance is made for depreciation 
of stock, fixtures, bad accounts, etc., etc. 

It is hoped that a careful analysis of this table will help solve the library problem. 

TABLE NO. 1. 



Published 
Price 


Discount 
Libraries 


Sold to 
Libraries 


Non 


Net 
Net 


15,935.85 
21,099.98 


1/3 
1/10 


10,623.! 
18,989.! 


Non 


Net 

Net 


15,935. 
21,099. 


S5 
98 


1/3 
1/10 


10,623.! 
18,989.! 


Non 


Net 
Net 


15,935. 
21,099. 


85 
98 


1/3 
1/10 


10,623.! 
18,989.! 


Non 


Net 
Net 


15,935. 
21,099 


85 
,98 


1/3 
1/10 


10,623.! 
18,989. 


Non 


Net 
Net 


15,935.85 
21,099.98 


1/3 
1/10 


10,623.! 
18,989.1 






o o 

H J 

Cost per Dollar of Sale 28%. 
93 9,145.56 2,974.70 12,120.26 1,496.33 
99 14,854.44 5,317.19 20,171.63 1,181.64 
Cost per Dollar of Sale 20%. 
93 9,145.56 2,124.78 11,270.04 646.11 
99 14,854.44 3,797.99 18,652.43 

Cost per Dollar of Sale 15%. 
93 9,145.56 1,593.59 10,739.15 115.22 
99 14..854.44 2,848.49 17,702.93 
Cost per Dollar of Sale 10%. 
93 9,145.56 1,062.39 10,207.95 
.99 14,854.44 1,898.99 16,753.43 

Cost per Dollar of Sale 5%. 
93 9,145.56 531.19 9,676.75 
99 14,854.44 949.49 15,803.93 



337.56 



1,287.06 

415.98 
2,236.56 

947.18 
3,186.06 



2,677.97 
308.55 



1,171.84 



2,652.54 



4,133.24 



124 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



TABLE NO. 2. 

The following tabulation is compiled on the same basis as Table No. 1, but showing 
the result to the bookseller, as to profit and loss, if the bookseller increased the dis- 
count to the libraries, on regular books, from 1/3 to 2/6, and on net books from 1/10 
to 1/5. 



Published 
Price 


Discount to 
Libraries 


03 W 

8 . * 
2 fc o 

l s | *s 

2te So S= 

o o o o o cd 

02^ U OPCB 


+j 


o 
U 

3 

o 
EH 


* 
o ci 

J C5 


w C 
"5 

J 

"3 j3 

o "o 
H H 










Cost per Dollar of 


Sale 28%. 






Non 


Net 


15,935.85 


2/5 


9,561.53 9,145.56 2,677.22 


11,822.78 2, 


261.25 






Net 


21,099.98 


1/6 


16,879.99 14,854.44 4,726.39 


19,580.53 2, 


700.54 


4,961.79 










Cost per Dollar of 


Sale 15%. 






Non 


Net 


15,935.85 


2/5 


9,561.53 9,145.56 1,434.22 


10,579.78 1, 


018.25 






Net 


21,099.98 


1/5 


16,879.99 14,854.44 2,531.99 


17,386.13 


506.14 


1,524.39 










Cost per Dollar of 


Sale 10%. 






Non 


Net 


15,935.85 


2/5 


9,561.53 9,145.56 956.15 


10,101.71 


540.18 






Net 


21,099.98 


1/5 


16,879.99 14,854.44 1,687.99 


16,542.43 


337.56 


202.62 










Cost per Dollar of 


Sale 5%. 






Non 


Net 


15,935.85 


2/5 


9,561.53 9,145.56 478.07 


9,623.62 


62.10 






Net 


21,099.98 


1/5 


16,879.99 14,854.44 843.99 


15,698.43 


1,181.56 





June, 1913 

Report of the Bookbuying Committee of 
the American Library Associa- 
tion, 1912-13 

In November, 1912, your committee was 
notified by the secretary that the execu- 
tive board asked it to continue its negotia- 
tions with the committee on libraries of 
the American Booksellers' Convention. 

A meeting with the latter committee 
was immediately arranged for, and such 
meeting was held in New York City on No- 
vember 25th, which was attended by two 
representatives of the Booksellers' Associ- 
ation and by two members of the commit- 
tee on Book Buying of the A, L. A. A dis- 
cussion lasting over three hours, when all 
the details and conditions were gone over, 
resulted in a definite agreement, the rati- 
fication of which the committee of the 
American Booksellers' Association prom- 
ised to recommend to that Association. 

This agreement was in the nature of a 
small concession on the part of the Book- 
sellers' Committee. While the concession 
was small, it was accepted as at least 
showing a disposition on the part of the 
Booksellers to cooperate with the libraries 
in the promotion of a better feeling be- 
tween them. The Booksellers' Committee 



agreed to allow the libraries a discount of 
15% from the net price on new fiction, in- 
stead of 10%, which is now allowed. The 
15% discount was to be given during the 
calendar year in which the novel was pub- 
lished, as given on the title page. 

A few days after this agreement was 
made, the acting chairman of the Ameri- 
can Booksellers' Association committee 
announced that he could not carry it out, 
because of his finding that the booksellers 
could not afford to do what he had prom- 
ised to recommend, and at that time sub- 
mitted figures which he thought proved his 
contention. These figures differed in no 
particular from those which were formerly 
submitted, and which are a part of this 
report, and which, we believe are on a 
false basis of an exaggerated cost of do- 
ing library business, and of misleading 
statements as to discounts allowed by the 
publishers to booksellers on new fiction. 

At the annual meeting of the American 
Booksellers' Association, which was held 
in May of this year, a statement was made 
by its committee on Relations with li- 
braries, but this statement does not form 
a part of the published report of the pro- 
ceedings of the convention, and your com- 
mittee has not been able to obtain a copy 
of the stenographer's notes. The acting 



BOOKBUYING COMMITTEE 



126 



chairman of the Booksellers' Committee 
informs us that he made no report, but 
that he submitted and supplemented the 
foregoing statements of the committees, 
with quotations from the correspondence 
ot the two committees. It, therefore, prob- 
ably differed but little from the original 
statements made by the two committees. 

We would, therefore, call your attention 
to the reasons given in the Booksellers' 
"Statement" for holding the uniform high- 
er prices which the libraries are paying 
for books because of the short discounts 
allowed by the Booksellers' Association. 
As the position taken by the Booksellers' 
Association is not agreed to by all of the 
individual booksellers, such action may or 
may not be looked upon as a "restraint of 
trade." 

The estimate of the cost of doing busi- 
ness by retail booksellers is 28%, and the 
contention is that no profit is made from 
any item which does not net them a sum 
greater than 28% above cost. This would 
mean that they wish to force the libraries 
into becoming retail customers because li- 
brary business as a wholesale trade is re- 
garded by the retail booksellers as too 
costly, and the Booksellers' Committee be- 
lieves that it should not be welcomed by 
them. All booksellers do not take this 
view any more than they would wish to 
endorse that expressed in paragraph 8 of 
the "answer" of their committee, which 
reads as follows: "A great majority of the 
libraries are created and supported by di- 
rect taxation, by charitable contributions, 
endowments, legacies and the like. It is 
true that libraries have to be conducted in 
a careful, businesslike way, simply keep- 
ing within their means. Doing this, they 
are free from the booksellers' anxieties 
and difficulties as a merchant." 

Your committee believes that there is 
no question as to the desire of all libraries 
to encourage good feeling between the 
booksellers and themselves, nor is there 
any question as to the desirability of hav- 
ing a bookstore in every community. 

We believe that the local booksellers 



should be encouraged, but not at the ex- 
pense of the taxpayers through the li- 
brary. 

The libraries, as wholesale buyers, 
should, we believe, be allowed greater dis- 
counts on the net books. As the retail 
booksellers seem not included to make 
any compromise, we believe that your 
committee on Book Buying might, in the 
immediate future, be of service to the li- 
braries by calling their attention to the 
advantages of buying many replace books 
from booksellers who are desirous of ob- 
taining and keeping the library business 
and to those who deal in remainders and 
second-hand books, both here and abroad. 
Inasmuch as the Booksellers' Committee 
on Relations with libraries did not keep 
its verbal promise, and has reassumed its 
former position which allows no conces- 
sion whatsoever, although asking and ex- 
pecting co-operation from the libraries, we 
believe that there is nothing to be gained 
by further negotiations with the Booksell- 
ers' Association Committee on Relations 
with Libraries as it is now constituted. 
Respectfully submitted, 

WALTER L. BROWN, 
CARL B. RODEN, 
CHARLES H. BROWN, 
Committee on Bookbuying. 

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

The committee of the American Library 
Association on co-operation with the Na- 
tional Education Association, while having 
no special accomplishment to present, still 
seems justified in reporting the year as be- 
ing one decidedly of progress. Never be- 
fore in the experience of the committee has 
there been a more friendly expression of 
a desire to co-operate on the part of the 
N. E. A. than has been the case this year. 

President Fairchild sent an invitation 
unsolicited for a representative of the 
American Library Association to take a 
place on the general program of the meet- 
ings of the National Education Association 



126 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



in Salt Lake City. The committee has not 
been able to find a proper representative 
to accept the invitation, owing to the great 
distance from library centers of the place 
of meeting. 

There has been an increased amount of 
discussion by correspondence of the mem- 
bers of the committee as to the work that 
could be done more thoroughly to create 
a sympathetic attitude toward the work 
of the public library as an integral part of 
public education. 

An increasing number of schools are 
turning to the libraries for help, and one 
association of college librarians has strong- 
ly emphasized the need of instruction in 
library methods for the students of high 
schools. 

The committee has been active in its ef- 
forts to co-operate with the library depart- 
ment of the N. E. A., and has received a 
written expression of thanks for its work 
this year from the officers of the depart- 
ment. 

M. E. AHERN, 

Chairman. 

COMMITTEE ON FEDERAL AND STATE 
RELATIONS 

The committee reports that its chief 
activity throughout the year, has been the 
endeavor to secure a cheaper postal rate 
upon books, in which effort it has been un- 
successful. Attempts were made to have 
books included in the parcel post bill of 
1912, and also to have the rate on books 
made the same as the second class rate 
on magazines when sent by individuals. 
At the regular and extra sessions of Con- 
gress, the Chairman of the Committees of 
Congress on Post Offices and Post Roads, 
were interviewed, and the Postmaster- 
General was urged to give the favorable 
influence of his department toward the 
end desired. There seems to be no prob- 
ability of an immediate alteration in the 
rate upon books, unless a complete revi- 
sion of the parcel post section of the 
postal laws be made, and there is some 
question as to whether it is desirable for 
books to be included in the parcel post, 



with the present zone system, inasmuch 
as under it, the postage upon books within 
certain zones would be actually greater 
than under the existing law. The activity 
of those desiring a one cent postage upon 
letters, also causes members of Congress 
to hesitate in making any reduction such 
as we desire. 

When the new tariff bill was introduced 
ir. the House of Representatives, the Com- 
mittee addressed a communication to the 
Committee on Ways and Means, so as to 
secure the retention of the privilege of 
free entry for books imported by public 
libraries. The Treasury Department on 
April 19 decided "that small importations 
through the mails for colleges or other in- 
stitutions entitled to import books free of 
duty under Par. 519 of the Tariff Act will 
be passed without requiring an affidavit in 
each instance, provided such institutions 
will file with the Collector of Customs a 
copy of its charter or article of association 
showing it to be entitled to pass such im- 
portations free of duty." Libraries desir- 
ing to avail themselves of this privilege 
should forward this information promptly 
to the Collector of Customs at the port 
where they receive books. 

BERNARD C. STEINER, Chairman. 

COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY ADMINIS- 
TRATION 

Part of your Committee's report is sim- 
ply supplementary to that of last year, 
constituting with it a survey of methods 
used in certain libraries in carrying out 
two common operations accessioning and 
the charging of issue. Last year the se- 
lected libraries were asked simply to de- 
scribe these operations closely, being 
urged to leave out no detail, no matter 
how trivial and unimportant. It was 
thought that no set of questions, however 
minute, would provide for all such details, 
and that a questionnaire might result in 
many omissions and make the operations, 
as performed by the contributing libraries, 
appear to be more uniform than is really 
the case. The event proved, however, the 
necessity of some sort of a questionnaire, 



LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION 



127 



and after a study of last year's results the 
following was prepared by Mr. George F. 
Bowerman, of this committee, and sent 
out by the chairman both to the libraries 
named in the last report and to certain 
others. Data have been received from the 
following institutions: 

Public or Circulating Libraries 

Butte, Montana Los Angeles 

Atlanta New York 

Pittsburgh Pratt Institute 

East Orange St. Louis 

Forbes Library Salt Lake City 
Jacksonville, Florida Seattle 

Lincoln Library, Washington 
Springfield 

College or University 

Wesleyan University, Harvard 

Middletown, Conn. Kansas 
Westminster College, Syracuse 

Fulton, Mo. Tulane 



State Libraries 



Indiana 
Iowa 



New York 
Virginia 

Special Library 
John Crerar, Chicago 

Society Libraries 

Medical Society of the County of Kings 

New York Society 

New York Bar Association (accession 

only) 

We give below the questions sent out 
with a summary of the various answers by 
numbers. The original blanks are on file 
at A. L. A. headquarters, showing answers 
In greater detail, together with the names 
of the answering libraries. 

Summary of Reports on Accession Routine 

[Harvard University library did not an- 
swer each question in detail, as it keeps no 
accession record in the usual sense. A 
record is kept each day of the number of 
volumes and pamphlets received by gift 
and by purchase, from which statistics are 
made up at the end of the year. A file of 
continuation cards for annual reports and 



similar continued publications and a rec- 
ord of gifts from individuals are useful sup- 
plements to the daily record. Bills for 
books are filed alphabetically under deal- 
er's name each year, and order slips, giving 
agent, date of order and date of receipt, 
are preserved.] 

(1) When do you accession, before or 

after cataloging? Before catalog- 
Ing 14. 

(2) Are all books that are cataloged ac- 

cessioned? Affirmative, 24 (excep- 
tion, 11). 

(3) What method of keeping your acces- 

sion record do you use? 

All use accession book except Los 
Angeles and Forbes Library, 
which use bill method, and 
Washington, D. C., which uses 
order cards as accession record. 

East Orange does not believe ac- 
cession book essential. 

Pittsburgh, which accessions only 
adult books, is inclined to be- 
lieve book unnecessary. Their 
method of treating juveniles is 
especially interesting. 

Seattle notes that their book has 
fewer items than the A. L. A., 
and says the use of order cards 
as accession record is an excel- 
lent method. 

(4) Which of the following items do you 

enter in your accession record? 

The number following the item in- 
dicates the number of libraries 
reporting its use: Author, 19; 
title, 18; publisher, 17; place of 
publication, 13; date of publica- 
tion, 18; size, 10; edition, 13; 
number of volumes, 23; binding, 
11; publisher's price, 8; cost, 
18; source, 20; date of bill, 
10; date of entry, 14. 

(5) Do you enter facts about re-binding 

in the accession record? 
Affirmative, 3; negative, 20. 

(6) a. Do you use your accession record 

to obtain statistics of additions? 
Affirmative, 19; negative, 5. 



128 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



b. What Items do you Include? 

Some of these questions were not 
answered, so it is inferred that 
the statistics obtained are for 
total additions only. Following 
items were reported on: Class, 
7; source, 8; branch, 2; lan- 
guage, 2; circulating or refer- 
ence, 2; adult and juvenile, 2. 

(7) Do you maintain a numerical record 

of accessions according to classi- 
fication? Department or branches? 
Does it cover expenditures for 
each main class? Department or 
branches? 

Negative, 14; record according to 
classification, 6; branch or de- 
partment, 3; separate record of 
expenditures, 4. 

(8) Where do you place accession num- 

ber? Page after title page, 6; 
title page, 3; title page and first 
page, 1; title page and page 101, 
1; book plate and page after title 
page, 1. 

(9) Do you write price and date of bill 

as well as accession number in the 

book. Do you write cost of a set 

in the first volume? 

Affirmative, 6; negative, 13 (both 
questions) ; cost, 1 ; date, affirma- 
tive, 3; negative, 1; cost in vol- 
ume 1 of set, 6. 

(10) How do you indicate the branch or 

department to which a book is as- 
signed? 

Not indicated, or there is no 
branch, 14; stamped or indicat- 
ed in accession book, 5; books 
stamped or marked, 5; separate 
accession book for each branch, 
3; order card and book stamped, 
2. 

(11) In case of replacements do you keep 

a record of the accession number 
which has been replaced or do you 
regard replacement as if it were 
an added entry or duplicate, dis- 
regarding old number entirely? 



Replacement is regarded as an 
added entry or duplicate, and no 
record kept of the old number, 
16; New number given to re- 
placement but make note of the 
number replaced, 6; Old number 
used, 3. 

Butte, Mont., reports: 
"We enter each new copy in the 
shelf list as copy 2-3, etc., keep- 
ing a record of each book." 

New York City Bar Association re- 
ports: 

"Do not use numbers, but dates. 
A book added to replace is Hot 
counted for the annual statis- 
tics." 

(12) Do you note in the accession record 
when a book is withdrawn, or do 
you keep a withdrawal book? 
Note in accession record, 9; note 
on shelf list, 4; note in acces- 
sion book and keep withdrawal 
book, 3; have withdrawal book, 
2; have no withdrawals, 2; files 
book cards, 1; keeps record on 
cards, 1; keeps cards withdrawn 
from public catalog, 1; not 
noted at all, 2. 

New York City Bar Association re- 
ports: 

"We keep all books except in 
very rare cases. The only notes 
made are in catalogs and in sta- 
tistical record." 

Summary of Reports on Charging Systems 

1. What charging system do you use? 

Newark system, 12; Brown systeifij 
2; Borrower's record, 2; Single file 
Book file under date or class, 4; 
Double file Borrower's file and 
book file, 6. 

2. The process of charging. 

a.l. Do you issue books on borrowers' 

cards? 18. 
a.2. Do you charge by means of call 

slips? 4. 
a.3. Permanent or temporary book 

cards? 6. 



LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION 



b. How many cards are issued to on* 

borrower? 

One card, 10; two cards, 4; three 
cards, 1; temporary borrower's 
cards, 2; temporary book cards 
and no borrower's cards, 9; bor- 
rower's pocket Instead of bor- 
rower's card, 1. 

c. If a borrower presents his own 

cards and those of others also, do 
you issue books on all cards pre- 
sented? 

Affirmative, 13; negative, 1 (cards, 
slips or pocket held at the li- 
brary, 12). 

d. Do you issue privilege or teachers' 

cards? 

Affirmative, 9; negative, 7. 

e. How many 2-week books of fiction 

are charged on one card? 
e.l. One book of fiction on a card 
for 2 weeks 10. 
Two books of fiction on a card 
for 2 weeks 2. 

Three books of fiction on a card 
for 2 weeks 1. 

Tulane University Faculty can 
withdraw any number at one 
time; students, only 3. 

No discrimination between fic- 
tion and nonfiction 3. 

No limit Virginia State. 

No exact time limit 2. 
e.2. One 7-day book on one card, 11; 
three 7-day books on one card, 
2; unlimited (East Orange), 
1; no 7-day books, 2. 
e.3. One 4-week book of fiction on 
one card, 5; two 4-week books 
of fiction on one card, 2; three 
4-week books of fiction on 
one card, 2; unlimited (East 
Orange), 1; none issued for 4 
weeks, 6. 

f. How many pay duplicate books may 

one borrower draw at a time? 

Number unlimited, 8; three at one 
time, 1; five at one time, 1; as 
many as cards presented, 1. (Li- 
braries having no pay collection, 
16.) 



g. Do you Issue books and magazine* 
on the same card? 
Affirmative, 14; negative, 4; no 

circulation of magazines, 4. 
h. How many books are issued on 
privilege or teachers' cards? 
Unlimited, except for fiction, 5; 
12 books, 1; 10 books, 2; 5 
books, 3; no special cards is- 
sued, 16. 

i. Are books stamped on the date of 
issue 8. 
Are books stamped on the date of 

return 10. 

j. Do you use different colored pads 
for charging and discharging? 
Affirmative, 5; negative, 18. 
k. Do you use different colored pencils 
for different dates? 
Affimative, 5; negative, 19. 
1. Do you use different sized type for 
different dates? 
Affirmative, 1; negative, 24. 
m. Is the assistant at the charging 
desk required to use a mark or 
initial of identification on the book 
card? 

Affirmative, 11; negative, lb. 
n. n.l. Do you stamp fiction and non- 
fiction on the same card? 
Affirmative, 12; negative, 5; 

no distinction made, 1. 
n.2. Do- you stamp fiction and non- 
fiction on different parts of 
the same card? 
Affirmative, 5. 
n.3. In combination? 3. 
n.4. Do you use the same colored 
ink for fiction and nonfiction? 
Affirmative, 9; negative, 2. 
o. Are the class numbers of nonflc- 
tion written on a teacher's or priv- 
ilege card? 

Affirmative, 5; negative, 4. 
p. How many places do you stamp 
Book card? Borrower's card? 
Date flap? Book entry? Call slip? 
3 stampings, book card, borrower's 

card, date flap 12. 
2 stampings, book card, borrower's 
card 2. 



130 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



2 stampings, book card, date flap 

3. 

2 stampings, call slip, date flap 
3. 
1 stamping, call slip 4. 

1 stamping, temporary book card 
j 

1 stamping, borrower's pocket 1. 
q. Do you renew books more than 

once? 

Affirmative, 11; negative, 14. 
r. Do you renew books issued for 7 

days? 

Affirmative, 3; negative, 15. 
s. Do you renew books issued for two 

weeks? 

Affirmative, 19; negative, 2. 
t. Do you renew books issued for four 

weeks? 

Affirmative, 12; negative, 3. 
u. Is the process of renewal like orig- 
inal charge? 

Affirmative, 19; negative, 2. 
3 Counting of Circulation. 

a. Do you verify your count by having 

it checked by a second person? 
Affirmative, 3; negative, 21; no 
count kept, 2. 

b. Do you verify your filing in the 

same way? 

Affirmative, 4; negative, 20. 

c. Are records kept in different de- 

partments combined daily in a sin- 
gle statistics record? 
Affirmative, 10; negative, 7; daily 
and monthly, 4; yearly count, 1. 

d. Do you send collections of books 

for home circulation to places out- 
side the library? 
Affirmative, 16; negative, 11. 

e.l. Do the custodians of these places 
furnish circulation figures? 
Affirmative, 14; negative, 3. 

e.2. How often? Monthly, 6; bi-month- 
ly, 1; yearly, 3; weekly, 1. 

f. Is any record kept of the reading 

(not home circulation) of these 

collections? 

Affirmative, 2; negative, 14. 

g. If no circulation figures are obtain- 



able, do you count the original col- 
lections sent as books issued? 
Affirmative, 13; negative, 4. 
h. is omitted. 

i. For what periods are such collec- 
tions sent on deposit? Varied, 16; 
two months, 2; two weeks, 1. 
4. Filing of cards. 

a.l. Are fiction and nonfiction cards 
separated under the day's issue? 
Affirmative, 12. 

a.2. Or are all cards filed in alphabet- 
ical order according to author or 
otherwise. 

Accession number, 1; author, 2; 
author and accession number, 1; 
borrower's name, 2; call num- 
ber on slips, 2; class number, 6; 
title, 1. 

b. Do you use different colored book 

cards? 

Affirmative, 13; negative, 14. 

c. Do you have separate files for 7-day 

cards, or do you file them daily 

with 2-week books issued one 

week previously also 4-week 

books issued 3 weeks previously? 

Separate files, 4; no separate files, 

5; filed daily with 2-week books 

issued one week previously, 8. 

d. Do you have separate files for cards 

issued to teachers? For renewed 

books? Foreign books? 

Teachers Affirmative, 6; nega- 
tive, 17; renewed books Affirm- 
ative, 1; negative, 22; foreign 
books None. 

e. Do you use guide cards to separate 

the classes of non-fiction or do dif- 
ferent classes have different book 
cards? 

Guide cards, 2; guide cards and 
colored book-cards, 1; colored 
book cards, 4; neither, 15. 

f. Have you separate files for books 

loaned to staff members, trustees, 

etc.? 

Affirmative, 8; negative, 19. 

g. Are special records kept of books 

in quarantined houses? 
Affirmative, 14; negative, 12. 



LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION 



131 



h. Do you keep your file of collections 
loaned as deposits separate from 
ordinary circulation? 
Affirmative, 18; negative, 4. 
5. Discharging of books. 

a. Do you stamp on borrower's card 

or slip the date book is returned? 
Affirmative, 15; negative, 2. 

b. Do you keep on file at the library 

all cards of borrowers when in 
use? 

Affirmative, 14; negative, 13. 
When not in use? 
Affirmative, 16; negative, 5. 

c. Do you retain at the library a bor- 

rower's card on which there is a 

fine? 

Affirmative, 16; negative, 1. 

d. Do you issue receipts for books 

without cards? 
Affirmative, 5; negative, 17. 

e. Do you give the receipt to the bor- 

rower to be returned with card for 

cancellation of date or do you 

keep file of such receipts at the 

library? 

Receipt file ke^pt at library, 4. 

f. Do you discharge books before 

stamping off borrowers' cards? 

Affirmative, 5; negative, 10. Dis- 
charging and stamping off done 
at the same time, 9. 

g. If not do you look up book cards 

overdue before you stamp off bor- 
rower's card? 
Affirmative, 8; negative, 3. 

h. Do you inspect book while borrower 
waits? Affirmative, 15; negative, 
11. 

i. Are books discharged near your re- 
turn desk or away from it? 
Near or at desk, 28. 

j. Do you inspect carefully all books 
returned? 
Affirmative, 18; negative, 8. 

k. Is this inspection made when books 
are discharged or when shelved? 
When discharged, 8; before 
shelved, 8; at both times, 3. 



The most interesting thing brought out 
by this investigation is the fact that it has 



taken your committee two years to ascer- 
tain and tabulate the simple facts regard- 
ing methods of procedure, in a very limited 
number of institutions, in the performance 
of only two of the many operations that go 
to make up their current work. From this 
it may be imagined how long and difficult 
a task it would be to carry out a really 
comprehensive survey of all the work of all 
kinds of libraries as currently performed. 
And yet such a survey would appear to be 
a necessary preliminary to a study of the 
subject whose aims should be definite sug- 
gestions toward the improvement of this 
work in the direction of greater efficiency. 
It would seem, at present, a task beyond 
this committee's powers, although we may 
be prepared to take general advisory 
charge of such a work if others can be in- 
duced to undertake the details. Possibly 
some of the library schools may regard 
this as profitable employment for their stu- 
dents. 

In the next place we are struck with the 
complete negative that our results place 
upon the general impression that the vari- 
ous details of modern library work are be- 
coming possibly even have already be- 
come thoroughly standardized. No one 
thinks, of course, that everyone does every- 
thing alike; but we are apt to believe that 
there are now a few generally approved 
ways of doing each thing, and that each li- 
brary selects from these the one that suits 
its own conditions and limitations. On the 
contrary, we seem to be in an era of free 
experiment. Nothing in the two sets of op- 
erations that we have studied not even 
the existence and value of the operations 
themselves would appear to be regarded 
as sacred. Everyone has his own methods 
and is apparently satisfied, either with 
them, or with his own ways of departing 
from them and groping after something 
better. 

We cannot regard this as altogether de- 
sirable. Doubtless no one most efficient 
way of doing any of these things can be 
settled upon, so long as conditions differ, 
but we cannot believe that differences so 
fundamental and complexities so varied as 



182 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



those revealed in this report are due mere- 
ly to differing conditions, and that each is 
the best in the place where it is practised. 
We -must conclude, therefore, that many 
of our libraries are doing these particular 
things, and by inference others also, in 
wasteful, inefficient ways. 

Having made a survey of the facts, the 
next step would be to inquire concerning 
all variations from a method selected as 
the simplest in each case possibly acces- 
sioning as practised at Pratt Institute Free 
Library or the Public Library of the Dis- 
trict of Columbia and the charging system 
at Pittsburgh or at East Orange, New Jer- 
sey. The cost of these variations in time 
and money and the skill necessary in car- 
rying them out, should be ascertained and 
the practical value of each, if it has any, 
should be found. It may then be possible 
to select, for a library of a given type, a 
standard method of procedure, which will 
be, all things considered, the most efficient 
for it. 

In regard to cost, the report of the sec- 
tional committee on the cost of cataloging, 
to be made at this conference, will doubt- 
less throw some interesting light on the 
problem. 

Questionnaires 

The use of the questionnaire by this 
committee may require some justification 
in the light of the growing feeling among 
librarians that the multiplicity of such de- 
mands upon their time is becoming a nui- 
sance; and possibly some general recom- 
mendations on the use of library question- 
naires may be in order. 

We feel that the value of the question- 
naire, and the way in which it should be 
received, regarded and disposed of, depend 
primarily on the purpose for which it is 
intended and also largely on the skill and 
tact of the questioner. We distinguish 
three main classes of library question- 
naires: (1) Those intended to gather data 
for the information of librarians in gen- 
eral; (2) those intended for the use of sin- 
gle libraries; (3) those Intended for the 
information of individuals. Those of the 



first class, it seems to us, it is the duty of 
all librarians to answer, as far as possible. 
They include questions sent out by A. L. A. 
or state association committees and those 
put by individual libraries or librarians 
with a promise to publish the results or 
to put them into shape that will make 
them available to the public, provided, of 
course, the information sought appears 
likely to be of value when tabulated. 

Questionnaires of the second class will 
generally be answered, not so much as a 
matter of public duty as of personal cour- 
tesy. They include requests from one li- 
brarian to another about details of admin- 
istration for guidance in making improve- 
ments or alterations in method. A libra- 
rian feels usually that it is good policy, if 
nothing more, to comply with such re- 
quests so far as his rules permit, for he 
may at any time desire to make a similar 
request on his own part. It is suggested, 
however, that whenever possible such data 
as these should be asked in a way, and 
from a sufficient number of libraries, to 
warrant throwing the results into a form 
that will make them generally available. 

The third category includes most of the 
questionnaires that excite the ire of libra- 
rians and cause a feeling that questions of 
all kinds are nuisances demanding abate- 
ment. They come from students writing 
theses, from assistants preparing papers 
for local clubs, from individuals obsessed 
with curiosity, from reporters, from per- 
sons of various degrees of irresponsibility. 
There is no reason why any attention at 
all should be paid to these and we recom- 
mend librarians to return to them merely 
a stereotyped form of polite acknowledge- 
ment and refusal. 

It is hoped that the Headquarters of the 
Association may become more and more 
the clearing house for systematized infor- 
mation of this kind, saving thereby much 
wasteful duplication of material and effort. 
We recommend that the originators of le- 
gitimate questionnaires send to Headquar- 
ters before making up their list of ques- 
tions, to see how many can be answered 
in this way. 



LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION 



Much of the feeling against question- 
naires is due to lack of good judgment on 
the part of the framers. It is obviously 
unfair to ask another librarian to answer 
questions that could be answered from the 
resources of the questioning library, even 
if the latter would require a little more 
time and trouble. A large proportion of 
the items in questionnaires of all three 
grades specified above are of this charac- 
ter. If it is desired that all the answers 
shall appear in the same form on one 
sheet, answers obtainable in the question- 
ing library may be written in before send- 
ing out the list, and the attention of the 
c >rrespondent may be called to this fact. 
In any case a statement should accom- 
pany the questionnaire that the informa- 
tion asked cannot be obtained by any 
other means at the asker's disposal. 

In some cases questions are asked that 
require the collection of unusual data re- 
garding the current work of the library. 
The answers to such questions can evi- 
dently not be given, even if the library is 
willing and anxious to undertake at once 
the additional work of collection, until the 
expiration of the period for which the fig- 
ures are asked generally one year. The 
usual method seems to be to send out 
such questions to a large number of li- 
braries in the hope that a few will be able 
to answer them at once. A better way 
would be to send out to a large number of 
libraries a statement of the desired data, 
asking those willing to undertake their col- 
lection to notify the asker. At the ex- 
piration of the period of collection the 
sender of the questions would then have 
accurate data and he would not expect 
them before the end of this period 
whether one year or less. 

It would seem to be unnecessary to re- 
mind those who receive and answer ques- 
tionnaires that returned blanks should 
bear the name of the library to which they 
refer,' were it not for the fact that this is 
so often omitted. In one recent case the 
name was given simply as "Carnegie li- 
brary," with no address. 

Briefly set forth, the recommendations 



of this committee, regarding the use of li- 
brary questionnaires, are, then, as follows: 

(1) That questionnaires should always 
be for the information of librarians in gen- 
eral, or for improving the service of one 
library in particular, preferably the for- 
mer. 

(2) That no questions should be included 
that can be answered in the questioning 
library or at A. L. A. Headquarters. 

(3) That questions requiring the collec- 
tion of current data over a specified period 
of time be asked proportionately in ad- 
vance of the report desired, in cases where 
the data are not such as are usually re- 
corded. 

(4) That those who answer question- 
naires be careful to include the name and 
address of their library. 

Labor Saving Devices 

It is a commonplace of library history 
that librarianship has contributed the card 
catalog idea to commercial life. The library 
in turn is indebted to commercial life for 
many labor-saving devices. Very likely a 
few of the largest libraries utilize all avail- 
able labor-saving devices to the utmost. 
Your committee is, however, of the opinion 
that the medium size and smaller libraries 
might reduce the cost of administration 
through the more general use of mechan- 
ical appliances. We recommend that at a 
coming meeting of the Association there 
be held an exhibition of all available com- 
peting labor-saving devices adapted to li- 
brary use. The assembled demonstration 
of such devices should prove most instruc- 
tive to the members of the association 
^ would itself be a time-saving device. 
Such an exhibition could probably not be 
advantageously assembled except in a 
large city. Your committee therefore rec- 
ommends that either it or a special com- 
mittee be authorized to arrange for such 
11 exhibition and demonstration. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 

ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, Chairman. 

GEORGE F. BOWERMAN, 

JOHN S. CLEAVINGER, 

Committee on Administration. 



134 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



COMMITTEE ON LIBRARY TRAINING 

At the beginning of the year the com- 
mittee began the consideration of an out- 
line, prepared by the chairman, of possible 
points considered in the proposed examina- 
tion of library schools. This outline was 
submitted to the members of the commit- 
tee individually and valuable suggestions 
obtained and was afterwards discussed by 
such members of the committee as were 
present at the January meetings in Chi- 
cago. 

This outline which is appended to the 
present report is not to be considered as 
necessarily final, for the committee invites 
criticisms and suggestions from other 
members of the profession. What the com- 
mittee desires if library schools are to be 
examined, is that the schools should be ex- 
amined from the point of view of the 
needs of the profession, not simply from 
the point of view of the interests of the 
library schools. The real vital questions ly- 
ing at the foundation of the examination 
of library schools are these: Does this 
method of obtaining recruits for the pro- 
fession give the best results which can be 
secured by such a method? Do the library 
school trained workers prove in actual ex- 
perience that their training has been of the 
right sort? These questions cannot be an- 
swered from an examination of the records 
of any one or even any half dozen library 
school graduates, but only from the exam- 
ination of many such records. 

As was before said, criticisms on the out- 
line are invited from members of the pro- 
fession and from any of the library schools, 
as the desire of the committee is to make 
an absolutely thorough, and impartial 
study of the whole library school problem. 

At the January meeting in Chicago the 
members of the committee were rejoiced 
to learn that the executive board had re- 
appropriated the appropriation for 1912 
with a like amount for the work of 1913. 

With these financial limitations in mind 
the committee considered the question of 
an examiner, and one having been agreed 
upon, made the proposition with great con- 



fidence, only after considerable delay to 
have it declined. Further search through 
the field discovered another person who 
seemed equally suitable and she was ap- 
proached only to decline. 

The real difficulty evidently lies in the 
fact that we are asking the examiner to 
undertake a large piece of professional 
work and practically offering only ex- 
penses and the cost of a substitute for 
the regular work during such times as ? 
is necessary to leave it. Naturally enough, 
it is not easy to find anyone willing to take 
this additional burden. 

The committee now have in considera- 
tion other names and hope, if re-appointed, 
to be able to announce an examiner before 
the beginning of the next library school 
year to such schools as indicate their read- 
iness to receive an examination. 

For the Committee. 
AZARIAH S. ROOT, Chairman. 

Appendix 

Scheme of Efficiency Tests for a Library 
School 

(Note. In its general outline this 
scheme is indebted to the admirable Test 
of College Efficiency prepared by Dean 
Charles N. Cole of Oberlin College.) 

I. THE PROCESS OF EDUCATION 

A. Government and control of the school: 

1. Trustees: 

(a) How chosen. Fitness to di- 

rect library training; 

(b) Tenure of office; 

(c) Meetings, how often; 

(d) Ad interim power vested 

where; 

(e) Determination of policy: 

does it lie with trustees, 
president, director or fac- 
ulty. 

B. Equipment of the school: 

1. Connection with other educational 

work: 

(a) With college or university; 

(b) With other institutions; 

2. Connection with a library: 

(a) Of what type; 



LIBRARY TRAINING 



135 



(b) What constituency and to 

what extent used; 

(c) How far equipped with mod- 

ern library methods; 

(d) Actual practice work in li- 

brary by students; 

3. Bibliographical apparatus: 

(a) General reference books; 

(b) Trade Bibliographies; 

(c) Special Bibliographies; 

(d) Library economy; 

(e) Samples of library blanks 

and supplies; 

4. Housing: 

(a) Recitation rooms; 

(b) Study or work rooms; 

(c) Rest and social rooms; 

(d) Library facilities. 

C. Administration of the school: 

1. Officers: 

(a) How many; 

(b) How obtained; 

(c) Qualifications; 

(d) Tenure of office; 

(e) Estimate of work; 

(f) Compensation; 

(g) Vacation; 
2. Faculty: 

(a) Do new teachers have a 

voice in determination of 
educational questions; 

(b) Faculty meetings, how 

often ; 

(c) C o m m i 1 1 e es, how many ; 

what duties. 

D. Instruction in the school: 

1. Faculty: 

(a) How obtained; 

(b) Qualifications; 

(c) Tenure of office; 

(d) Estimate and adjustment of 

work; 

(e) Requirements of teachers; 

(f) Number of hours of instruc- 

tion given by each teacher 
in a school year; 

(g) Compensation; 
(h) Vacation; 

(i) What supervision of teach- 
ers' work; 

2. Students: 



(a) How admitted, examination, 

certificates, etc.; 

(b) How far does actual prac- 

tice differ from catalog 
statements; 

(c) Requirements for admis- 

sion; 

(d) Requirements for admission 

of students to advanced 
standing (in two year 
courses) ; 

3. Supervision of student work: 

(a) Regulation of amount of 

work; 

(b) Guidance in choice of 

studies ; 

(c) Requirements for passing 

grade; 

(d) What is done about condi- 

tions and failures; 

(e) What methods for enforc- 

ing the regularity of 
work; 

(f) What provision for the indi- 

vidual help of weak stu- 
dents; 

(g) Graduation; 

(h) Records, how kept, etc.; 

4. Curriculum: 

(a) Arrangement and order of 

studies; 

(b) Length of time devoted to 

each subject; 

(c) System of required studies; 

(d) System of electives; 

(e) What training for special 

fields of library work, e. 
g., children's librarians, 
legislative reference libra- 
rians, etc. 

5. Class Room Work: 

(a) Size of classes; 

(b) What part of the course is 

class room work; 

(c) Method of conducting class 

room work; 

6. Practice Work: 

(a) What part of course is prac- 

tice work; 

(b) How revised and super- 

vised; 



136 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



(c) What is the purpose in prac- 

tice work; 

(d) Is this purpose realized; 
7. Informal Instruction: 

(a) Lectures, etc.; 

(b) Opportunities to see work of 

libraries; 

(c) Actual experience in libra- 

ries other than that con- 
nected with the school. 
E. Student Life and Work: 

1. Number of students: 

2. Work of students: 

(a) What seem to be the schol- 

astic ideals of the stu- 
dents; 

(b) To what extent do the stu- 

dents seem to have pro- 
fessional enthusiasm; 

(c) What studies do they elect 

when there is an option; 

(d) Outside activities of stu- 

dents; 

(e) Social life and cultural de- 

velopment of students; 

(f) Environment p a r t i c ularly 

with reference to breadth 
of culture; 

(g) Room and board; are stu- 

dents housed under sani- 
tary and elevating condi- 
tions; 

(h) Health; 

(i) Social conditions and stand- 
ing of students; 

(j) Previous educational advan- 
tages; 

(k) Literary, musical and artis- 
tic opportunities during li- 
brary school course; 

(1) Opportunities to form per- 
sonal relationships with 
members of the faculty. 

II. THE TESTING OP SCHOOL WORK 
IN PRACTICAL ACTIVITY 

1. What has been the professional 

success of the graduates: 

(a) To what extent have they 

taken prominent places in 

the library world; 



(b) Omitting as far as possible 

personal qualities, is there 
any general characteristic 
stamping the students of 
the school; 

(c) Do the interests of the 

graduates seem to be 
broadly professional, or 
narrowly confined to a 
particular type of work 
which they have entered; 
2. What has been the general intel- 
lectual standing of the 
graduates: 

(a) Have they shown them- 

selves equal to cope with 
their opportunities; 

(b) Have they shown a range 

of interest which has ena- 
bled them to connect their 
work with that of philan- 
thropic, charitable, socio- 
logical ; 

(c) Have they taken influential 

places in the towns in 
which they work. 

COMMITTEE ON WORK WITH THE 
BLIND 

The libraries which circulate embossed 
books have continued their services 
throughout the year with ever increasing 
results, the largest circulation having been 
attained by the New York public library, 
which circulated 21,938 books and pamph- 
lets. The Free library of Philadelphia sent 
out 17,706 volumes; the Carnegie library 
of Pittsburgh, 3,218; the Perkins Institu- 
tion, 6,000; Wilmington, Delaware, 567. 

Library of Congress. The most impor- 
tant event in the history of the Reading 
Room for -the Blind during the year was 
the appointment of Mrs. Gertrude T. Rider 
as Assistant in charge. 

Perkins Institution. The school is now in 
its new home where the library is housed in 
commodious quarters, and is in charge of 
a trained librarian from Albany, Miss 
Laura M. Sawyer, and a trained assistant 
from Simmons, Miss Louise P. Hunt, who 
devote their time to the care of the valu- 



WORK WITH THE BLIND 



137 



able special collection in ink print about 
the blind as well as to the circulation of 
embossed books. 

New York State Library. Eight new 
titles in New York point were embossed 
for the New York state library in 1912 
and an additional list of well chosen titles 
is now in press for 1913. 

Saginaw, W. S., Michigan. The Free lend- 
ing library for the blind has asked the 
legislature for $2,000 to replenish the col- 
lection with new books. Of 202 borrowers 
the librarian reports that 117 persons have 
drawn no reading matter during the lat- 
ter half of the year. 

California State Library. Mr. Charles S. 
Greene, of the committee, sends the fol- 
lowing report of the work of the State li- 
brary and the San Francisco reading 
room: 

The California state library for the blind 
wishes to report progress during the last 
year. Although we have had very little 
money to buy books, accessions have in- 
creased from 2,309, April 1, 1912, to 2,659 
April 1, 1913, mainly through gifts and the 
regular receipt of magazines. Borrowers 
have increased from 475 to 550. The most 
satisfactory advance, however, has been 
in the increased use the blind borrowers 
are making of the library in borrowing all 
kinds of writing appliances and games to 
try before buying and in asking informa- 
tion on all subjects of interest to them. 
Such questions as what occupations are 
followed by the blind, and where different 
articles for their use can be purchased, are 
constantly being asked. With an increase 
in the State library fund, which the pres- 
ent legislature will probably grant, it is 
hoped to buy all the new publications as 
fast as possible, as well as to complete our 
collection of appliances for the blind. 

The San Francisco reading room and 
library for the blind has about 400 vol- 
umes. It conducts an emporium for the 
sale of articles made by the blind and 
teaches Braille reading and writing, Braille 
stenography, weaving, basketry and broom 
making. 



Pennsylvania. All borrowers residing in 
the western part of the state are now sup- 
plied with books from the Carnegie libra- 
ry of Pittsburgh; those residing in the 
eastern part of the state have the use of 
books deposited with the Free library of 
Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania home 
teaching society. 

Cincinnati, Ohio. Miss Smith, of the 
committee, sends the following report: 
"There seems to be nothing new hjere in 
the library work for the blind. The Clov- 
ernook Home, which is to be opened May 
30, has absorbed the attention largely of 
Miss Trader and her sister and this spring 
the flood interfered somewhat with the 
meetings at the library." 

Minnesota. Miss Carey, of the commit- 
tee, writes as follows of the work in Min- 
nesota: "As far as I know the entire work 
of providing books for the blind in this 
state is done through the School for the 
Blind at Faribault. The library there is 
in excellent condition, being on a wholly 
modern basis as to classification and de- 
tails of management. It is open through- 
out the year and circulates to outside 
readers on an average 25 books a month. 
There are 80 regular readers outside the 
institution and about 90 in residence this 
year. As the school is small this is a large 
number. The librarian in charge is one of 
the teachers and for years in this school 
it has been considered something of an 
honor to hold this position, although it ie 
by no means a sinecure. . . . The li- 
brary work is always stimulated by the an- 
nual summer school for adult blind which 
brings in new readers each year. At the 
close of the session the pupils, many of 
them, become patrons of the library 'for 
good.' " 

New Publications. Since the first em- 
bossed book was issued in Philadelphia in 
1833, the publishing of literature in raised 
print has been increased until there are 
now 16 presses in active use in this coun- 
try. The record of new publications for 
1912 is as follows: 

American Braille, 56 titles in English; 2 
titles in German. 



138 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



New York point, 14 titles, of which 8 
were embossed by the New York state li- 
brary. 

In European Braille new titles have been 
issued in England and Scotland; in Moon 
type 11 titles have been added and 10 
other titles are in press. 

The Catholic Review, monthly, published 
by the Xavier free publication society for 
the blind, 824 Oakdale Avenue, Chicago, 
111., in American Braille. 

The Illuminator, a quarterly Braille mag- 
azine, published by the Holmes-Schenley 
literary society of the Western Pennsyl- 
vania Institution for the Blind, Pittsburgh, 
Pa, 

Society for the Promotion of Church 
Work Among the Blind. Volumes 3 and 4 
of the music of the Hutchins' Hymnal have 
been finished and copies distributed to a 
number of the leading circulating libraries 
where the volumes will be available to 
those who may not wish to purchase them. 

Bible Training School, South Lancaster, 
Mass. "Some friends of the blind, in look- 
ing over the catalogs of books in different 
libraries for the blind, were impressed 
with the small amount of Christian litera- 
ture that had been placed in the embossed 
type, especially in New York point and 
American Braille, so the plan was con- 
ceived of creating a fund and printing one 
book after another as the funds would ac- 
cumulate, placing them in the circulating 
libraries throughout the United States." 
To obtain the volumes in New York point 
and American Braille, free of charge, ad- 
dress Mrs. S. N. Haskell, South Lancaster, 
Mass. 

Gould Free Library for the Blind, 556 
East 6th Street, South Boston, Mass. "The 
library is working under the auspices of 
the International Bible Students' Associa- 
tion headquarters, Brooklyn, N. Y., which 
supplies financial aid in the main, while 
donations have been accepted from out- 
siders. Our books are all Bible studies, 
very helpful and appreciated by the blind. 
We circulated 3,474 books and pamphlets 
last year in the three point systems and a 
few books in Line type and Moon type." 



Free Theosophical Circulating Library 
for the Blind, 32 Waverly Street, Everett, 
Mass., has issued three titles in American 
Braille; also a monthly paper of 7 or 8 
pages. 

New postal law. Under an act of Con- 
gress of August 24, 1912, "magazines, peri- 
odicals and other regularly issued publi- 
cations in raised letters for the blind, 
which contain no advertisements and for 
which no subscription fee is charged, shall 
be transmitted in the U. S. mails free of 
postage and under such regulations as the 
Postmaster General may prescribe." 

The Twelfth Convention of Workers for 
the Blind will be held in Jacksonville, Illi- 
nois, June 24-27, 1913, and among those 
who will attend the conference are sev- 
eral representatives from public librariei 
interested in the circulation of embossed 
literature. Miss L. A. Goldthwaite, of the 
New York public library, has been asked 
to conduct a round table. In the general 
discussion of the subject of catalogs for 
the blind it is hoped to obtain the best 
opinion of those in attendance upon the 
most convenient form for such catalogs or 
finding lists for use by those who read by 
touch. The Library of Congress, the New 
York public library, the Brooklyn public 
library, the New York state library, the 
Free library of Philadelphia, as well as 
institutions for the blind, will be repre- 
sented by the assistants in charge of the 
circulation of embossed books. 

At this conference there will be given 
the report of the "Uniform Type Commit- 
tee" appointed at the Overbrook confer- 
ence in 1911. The two agents of that com- 
mittee, who made an extended tour of this 
country from May, 1912, until February, 
1913, visited many schools and other in- 
stitutions for the blind and tested over 900 
readers in one or more of the three sys- 
tems New York point, American Braille 
and British Braille. Scientific tests to de- 
termine the best size of type, spacing, etc., 
have been made to establish a standard 
or uniform system of writing and printing. 
The recommendations of the committee 
have been reserved until the meeting of 



JAST 



139 



the American Association of Workers for 
the Blind at Jacksonville; they are await- 
ed with interest by all. 

EMMA R. N. DELFINO, 

Chairman. 

The PRESIDENT: As you will see from 
your printed programs we are privileged 
this morning to receive an accredited dele- 
gate from the Library Association of the 
United Kingdom, and it is our especial 
P easure to greet as this accredited dele- 
gate an old friend of American librarians. 
He was with us at the Conference of 1904, 
and we have since that time watched with 
a great deal of interest the strong, splendid 
work which is manifest in the library over 
which he presides. I have the honor of 
introducing to you this morning the Hon- 
orary Secretary of the Library Association 
of the United Kingdom and the accredited 
delegate from that organization, Mr. L. 
STANLEY JAST, chief librarian of the 
Croydon Public Libraries. 

Mr. BOWKER: And, Mr. President, I 
move that we receive our welcome guest 
from the L. A. U. K. by a rising vote of 
welcome. 

Mr. Jast spoke as follows: 

PRESENT CONDITIONS AND TEN- 
DENCIES OF LIBRARY WORK IN 
GREAT BRITAIN 

Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen: I 
should like first of all to express the 
peculiar personal pleasure I feel at be- 
ing privileged for the second time to 
attend a conference of the American Li- 
brary Association. As you have said, sir, it 
was my pleasure in 1904 to attend a meet- 
ing of your body, then as now the accred- 
ited delegate of my Association, but that 
meeting of 1904 was, as you know, an inter- 
national meeting, and an international 
meeting anywhere is apt to take on general 
rather than special characteristics, and I 
have long wished to be present at an or- 
dinary meeting of the American Library 
Association, so that I might see for myself 
how you conduct your work and hear you 
discussing your own problems in your own 



way. So that I trust, Mr. President and 
ladies and gentlemen, that you will kindly 
forget that 

"A chiel's amang ye takin' notes." 

I am authorized by the Council of the Li- 
brary Association to extend to you, sir, and 
the members present their very heartiest 
greetings and to express on their behalf 
their high appreciation not only of the spe- 
cial invitation which you sent to them to 
send a delegate but for the extremely gen- 
erous offer of hospitality which was at- 
tached thereto. My Council felt that to 
such an invitation only one response is 
possible and that was to accept. 

We were in hope that Mr. Henry R. Ted- 
der, who is the chairman of the Council of 
the Library Association and its honorary 
treasurer and an ex-president, and other- 
wise the secretary of the Athenaeum Club, 
would have come as our delegate, be- 
cause Mr. Tedder's importance is intrinsic 
and not like mine purely adventitious and 
depending wholly upon the office which I at 
the moment have the privilege to hold; but 
it was impossible for Mr. Tedder to come 
on this occasion and, ladies and gentlemen, 
I am the best that we can do for you at 
this time. 

But I am happy to say that it is the gen- 
eral feeling of the Council that in future 
we should not let many meetings of the 
A. L. A. at all events in the eastern 
states go by without sending one or more 
members of our Association to be present 
at them. I do not think that there is any- 
thing from which our Association is likely 
to get a more valuable return than by the 
visits of some of its more prominent mem- 
bers to America in order that they may 
see for themselves and not merely read 
about what you are doing, and how you are 
doing it and get some knowledge of the 
conditions under which you are working, 
of your achievements and of your difficul- 
ties, and so bring to library work in Great 
Britain that added power which must inev- 
itably come from a wider knowledge. So 
that I trust that the imperfections of the 
present delegate will be overlooked, in the 



140 



hope not only of more but of better to 
come. 

I am also requested by my Council to ex- 
tend a very hearty invitation to the mem- 
bers of the American Library Association 
to attend the annual meeting of the Li- 
brary Association to be held in 1914. That 
meeting will almost certainly be held at 
Oxford, by invitation of the University and 
of the city. I need not of course point out 
the extreme suitability of the city of Ox- 
ford for a meeting of librarians, nor the- 
attractions which Oxford must possess for 
everyone who likes an atmosphere of an- 
cient learning and who revels in the archi- 
tectural glories of a bygone day. So we 
hope that as many of you as possible will 
come over there for that meeting in order 
that we may make of it a sort of Americo- 
Anglican conference. Observe the order, 
please, in which I mention those words. I 
draw special attention to that because I 
believe I have somewhat of a reputation 
for an absence of tact on these occasions- 
at any rate among our own members. 

When I informed Mr. Utley that I was 
coming he was good enough to write me a 
letter, which I received just before I sailed, 
and he asked not knowing me very well 
of course, or he might not have been so 
liberal in his invitation that I should talk 
to you on any subject I liked. I thought 
that it would be best perhaps if I should 
say something about the present conditions 
of library work in Great Britain. Of course 
it is impossible, in an address lasting only 
a few minutes, to cover anything like the 
whole field, and if I did attempt it I should 
only bore you. But you may be interested 
in one or two of the outstanding features 
of our recent work, because they throw 
light upon conditions which are in many 
respects very different from yours. First 
of all, there are two features in what I may 
perhaps call the domestic situation, which 
to us are of considerable significance. The 
most important step which the Library As- 
sociation as an assocation has ever taken 
has been the recent reorganization of its 
membership along the lines of the profes- 



sional qualifications of the members. In 
our old grouping we took no account what- 
ever of whether a member of the Associa- 
tion was a professional librarian or merely 
a member of a library committee or just a 
person interested in library work. The 
honorary fellows of the Association and 
the fellows were any persons, whether li- 
brarians or not, whose names would add 
dignity and importance to the Association, 
or who had distinguished themselves by 
some special service rendered to the As- 
sociation or the movement as a whole. 
Then in addition Mr. Tedder himself had a 
small group of what he called -very hon- 
orary fellows who were the honorary fel- 
lows who insisted on paying their annual 
dues. That was an entirely private group 
of Mr. Tedder's. Now we have changed all 
that. Fellows and members of the Asso- 
ciation are now professional librarians 
only, and non-professional librarians are 
known as associate members. The priv- 
ileges of membership including the power 
to vote and to serve -on the Council are 
shared equally by all members of the As- 
sociation. The fellows consist in the main 
of librarians only, but there is a small 
sprinkling of deputy and sub-librarians. 
The by-law referring to fellows who do not 
hold chief positions states that "they must 
be librarians of approved status," but we 
interpret that phrase "approved status" in 
the widest possible way. The members 
consist of assistant librarians all those 
assistant librarians who are not in the 
small group of fellows; they must be twen- 
ty-five years of age and have had six years' 
experience. That is so at the moment. But 
after the 31st day of December, 1914, only 
librarians who possess the diploma of the 
Association will be entitled to fellowship, 
and in order to receive the diploma you 
must have taken in addition to possessing 
practical experience in an approved li- 
brary, the six examinations held by the As- 
sociation, have obtained the six certifi- 
cates, have gone through if necessary a 
vive voce examination and have submitted 



JAST 



141 



a thesis. Then professional librarians who 
possess four out of the six certificates will 
be entitled to membership. A good deal 
of criticism has been leveled at the scheme 
owing to the fact that the librarian of some 
pettifogging little library, with perhaps a 
total rate income of a couple of hundred a 
year or even less, because he is a chief in 
a small way, is entitled to fellowship, while 
an assistant in a big library system, who 
may have infinitely more responsibility, is 
only entitled to membership. But we had 
to begin somewhere and we had to draw 
the line somewhere and we drew the line 
at the sub-librarian, because when we got 
below the sub-librarian we should not know 
where on earth we were, because there is 
no accepted nomenclature of library posi- 
tions in our country. I do not know 
whether there is in yours. "Sub-librarian" 
does not always mean the same thing. The 
term "chief assistant" is used in a very 
different way in different libraries. More- 
over, the Privy Council would not have 
approved these by-laws unless we had 
opened the door as widely as possible to 
the holders of all existing chief positions. 

There is one weak point so far which we 
have discovered in our scheme. We have 
no provision for non-professional members 
corresponding to professional fellowship 
among the professional members, but we 
have a new by-law now before the Privy 
Council creating a group of associate 
fellows and the associate fellowship will 
be conferred upon chairmen of library 
committees and upon non-professional 
members of the Association who have 
served the Association in some definite ca- 
pacity as members of the Council or in 
some other way. 

That, I think, then is the most important 
domestic thing that we have ever done be- 
cause we have now made the beginnings 
at all events of a definite organization of 
the profession. 

The other important thing will not have 
the same interest for you, but I mention it 
because it throws light upon our own con- 
ditions. We have settled, by a new by-law, 
the relations of branch associations to 



the parent body. Until recently we had a 
by-law which merely provided that 
branches in any particular district may be 
formed but it did not state what the pow- 
ers of the branches were, and owing to 
that absence of definition we have suffered 
for a great many years past from a consid- 
erable amount of trouble. One or two of 
the branches grew considerably in recent 
years, in numbers and in importance; and 
they began to resent the fact, the inevit- 
able fact of course, that for the most part 
the actual work of running the Association 
fell upon the members of the Council who 
were resident in London or near it. It may 
seem absurd to you to speak of the dis- 
tance of London from the great provincial 
centers in Great Britain, but it is not ab- 
surd, because every country measures dis- 
tance on its own scale, and to all intents 
and purposes Manchester is just as far 
from London as Chicago is from New 
York because we think it is. As Hamlet 
says, you will remember anticipating 
Mrs. Eddy by several centuries 

"There is nothing either good or bad, but 
thinking makes it so." 
And as an illustration of the result of this 
friction I may mention that in London, at 
the library school which is hardly a li- 
brary school because it has not the organi- 
zation that your schools have, so ought 
not to use that term really, but a depart- 
ment of library lectures at the London 
School of Economics and Political Science, 
which is a department of the University of 
London; at these lectures all persons are 
admissible whether they are librarians or 
not, but at similar lectures in the provinces 
everybody was excluded who was not al- 
ready engaged in library work. So that 
you had the absurd situation that while 
the parent body was running one policy at 
headquarters you had branch associations 
running an entirely different policy in their 
own centers. The question of the "open 
door," as it was termed, was a very hotly 
debated one at one time in our Association. 
Well, the general effect of the stress be- 
tween the branches and the Council was 
of course bad, each branch being a more 



142 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



or less permanent storm center. While no 
absolute harm was done perhaps, and while 
the fireworks let off at the annual meetings 
were of a more or less harmless character, 
at the same time we had a general condi- 
tion of irritation which affected injuriously 
the work of the Association as a whole. 
Now we have done away with that, very 
largely at all events, at least, we hope, by 
a new by-law, the main points of which are 
these: First of all, membership of a 
branch association includes membership of 
the parent body; the parent body receiving 
the subscription to the branch association 
returns to the branch association a re- 
bate of so much a head for the expenses of 
the branch and, most important of all, thp 
constitution and by-laws of a branch must 
be approved by the headquarters council 
and must in no case conflict with the by- 
laws and constitution of the parent body. 

The Council meets monthly, I may say, 
and one of the quarterly meetings is held 
on the occasion of the annual meeting. So 
that means that the expenses of the pro- 
vincial members are paid to three of the 
quarterly meetings held during the year; 
and all the important business especially 
contentious business is relegated to those 
quarterly meetings. 

Leaving the domestic question and com- 
ing to the library situation as a whole in 
Great Britain, I think that the phrase 
"marking time" fairly describes it. The 
public libraries in the United Kingdom 
have accomplished, I think, great things 
with extremely limited means. But though 
the first library act was passed in 1850, 
though the libraries have since then justi- 
fied themselves many times over, though 
the demands made upon the libraries have 
gone on increasing time after time, yet the 
libraries are still strangled by the statu- 
tory limitation of one-penny-in-the-pound 
on the tax leviable for library purposes 
which was imposed not by the Ewart Act 
of 1850, which limited the rate to a half- 
penny, but by the amending act of 1855. 
It is quite true that about forty of the 
large towns of the country have promoted 
special parliamentary bills giving them 



power to levy a rate of two-pence or even 
more in the pound, but in very few cases is 
two-pence actually levied, and of course 
it is the smaller towns, which can not face 
the expense of promoting special legisla- 
tion, which really need greater rating pow- 
ers even more than the larger boroughs. 

As the incidence of a library tax in Great 
Britain is quite different from yours I may 
perhaps give you some general idea of what 
it means by taking the case of my own 
town, simply because I happen to remem- 
ber the facts more clearly. Croydon is a 
town in the outer London ring, with a pop- 
ulation of 174,257 people. Its income from 
the penny rate is a little over 4,000 ster- 
ling. It circulates about 555,000 volumes 
per annum and its fiction percentage is 
about fifty. Whether that is something to 
be apologized for or not I am not quite 
clear, after the president's address of last 
evening. Then one has to remember that 
the ratable value of a place like Croydon 
is a good deal higher than the ratable value 
of most of the provincial towns. But those 
figures will give you a general idea of the 
yield of the penny-in-the-pound rate. A 
rate of that kind results, you will easily 
see, in the case of the smaller towns, in a 
condition of genteel poverty, and in the 
case of many small towns of absolute hope- 
less starvation. And this unfortunate po- 
sition has been accentuated by the tremen- 
dous growth of branches in recent years. 
Of the three b's which constitute a library 
building, brains and books, the ordinary 
British rate-payer thinks mainly of build- 
ings. The building usually does not cost 
him anything, because he gets it from Mr. 
Carnegie, and it is something to look at 
and something "we've got for our ward, 
don't you know," books will drop from the 
sky, and "anyhow you don't require brains 
to hand books over a counter." Hence, 
from this you have a town, which will per- 
haps support, in passable efficiency, one 
central building and two branches, endeav- 
oring to support one central building per- 
haps and six branches, and so on. Hence 
the limited book funds which we have in 



JAST 



143 



our libraries and hence on the whole the 
poorly remunerated library staffs. 

And that brings me to a point which it 
was suggested to me by one of your mem- 
bers I should say something about, and 
that is the position of women in English 
public libraries. I am not going to ex- 
press any opinion on the subject of women 
in libraries. After all, as George Bernard 
Shaw says somewhere, opinions are real' 
onl/ serious when you act on them, and 
my capacity for courage has never been 
equal to the task of acting upon many of 
my opinions. But as things are at present, 
a number of libraries employ women assist- 
ants. There are very few places where 
women are chief librarians; there are a 
few in the quite small towns. There are 
very few libraries which have women sub- 
librarians or deputy-librarians. These are 
almost invariably men. But the number 
of women employed in secondary and ter- 
tiary positions in English publio. libraries 
is considerable and is very definitely in- 
creasing. And whether that be a good 
thing or a bad thing, I am quite clear about 
this, that it is increasing for the wrong 
reason. Women are employed in English 
public libraries not because they are bet- 
ter, but because they are cheaper with 
the unfortunate result that the increase of 
women in the library staffs tends neces- 
sarily to lower the already low average of 
salaries paid. 

The Library Association have long rec- 
ognized of course that the root of all our 
present difficulties lies in the limitation 
on the library income, and in order to do 
away with that they have been promoting 
for the last three or four years or more a 
library bill, the main clause of which per- 
mits a town to levy a rate, not exceeding 
two-pence-in-the-pound, that is exactly dou- 
ble the present amount. When we origi- 
nally drafted the bill we did away with 
the limitation altogether, but we have now 
put a limitation in order to placate possible 
opposition. That bill has been already 
read once before the present parliament 
but the first reading of course is a purely 
formal matter; it is the second reading 



which is the crucial one; and owing to the 
exasperating nature of the orders of the 
House of Commons any one member has 
only to rise in his seat and say, "I object," 
to a private member's bill for that bill to 
be labeled "contentious business" and for 
its second reading to be deferred to the 
Greek kalends, owing of course to the enor- 
mous number of private members' bills and 
to the growing inefficiency of the House 
of Commons as a legislating machine. It 
is choked with bills and it can not ade- 
quately attend to the thousand-and-one 
matters which call for its attention. The 
best chance for the bill would be for the 
government to grant facilities for it. If 
they would do that I have not the slight- 
est doubt that the bill would pass because 
so far as we can see there is little or no 
serious opposition to it; but we can not get 
it discussed. The unfortunate fact seems 
to be that the government will not worry 
about anything which does not sway votes. 
Nobody is going to get excited about a li- 
brary bill. If it is true that there is no 
particular opposition to it, it is also true 
that there is no crowd of electors passion- 
ately demanding it. 

Then we suffer to a considerable extent 
in Great Britain from the attitude of the 
superior people to the public library. In 
America all the superior people are sympa- 
thetic with the public library apparently 
so anyhow. In England usually they sneer 
at it. Why, Heaven knows! Only the 
other day a cabinet minister who was con- 
sidered to be a friend of ours, whose name 
before he reached cabinet rank was actu- 
ally a backer to a bill on similar lines to 
the present one, in a meeting which he ad- 
dressed referred to the country as being 
"drenched" with public libraries. I 
think his point was the far greater im- 
portance of public wash-houses or 
something of that sort. And, as I say, 
he used the extremely unpleasant, and 
peculiarly unappropriate adjective "drench- 
ed." Now of course no one objects to a 
cabinet minister talking nonsense. After 
all, what else can you talk to a popular au- 
dience in politics but nonsense? But this 



144 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



particular variety is pernicious nonsense. 
The press, of course, with their usual avid- 
ity for seizing on anything silly, print that 
sort of thing ad nauseam and a good deal 
of real harm is done and difficulty cre- 
ated. I think the minister in question has 
stated somewhere that he owes a great 
part of his own education to the public li- 
brary. Mr. Carnegie has said the same 
thing. Behold how differently men requite 
the benefits they have received! 

Well, Mr. President and ladies and gen- 
tlemen, I have perhaps given you the idea 
that I take a rather pessimistic view of li- 
brary conditions at the present moment in 
Great Britain, but that is not so at all 
most emphatically not so. I am absolutely 
convinced that the future of the public li- 
brary in Great Britain is as certain as it is 
with you, and though the next step forward 
may be delayed, the longer it is delayed 
the bigger that step will be when it is 
taken. 

The PRESIDENT: Mr. Honorary Sec- 
retary and our Guest: I would that the gift 
of speech had been given me that I might 
adequately express to you the sense of ap- 
preciation that we all feel for your coming, 
for your gracious words of greeting in be- 
half of your Association and for the view 
that you have given us of not only the con- 
ditions that obtain in Great Britain but al- 
so what the future holds forth for the li- 
braries of your country. In our American 
assemblages it is customary, when some 
procedure is taken that no one is particu- 
larly interested in, to pass it by; but when 
something transpires that requires further 
and more careful thought it is our parlia- 
mentary custom to refer this to a commit- 
tee. In this particular case I am sure that 
I am meeting the wish of the Association 
as well as my own personal desire when 
I refer your splendid message to a com- 
mittee of the whole, consisting of all the 
librarians present, all the members who 
have unavoidably been kept at home and 
that other, smaller group who come within 
the classification of Mr. Dewey's "private 
collections." What you have said to us, 



sir, has emphasized to us particularly that 
not only is there in the relationship be- 
tween your libraries in Great Britain and 
ours in this country a kinship of interest, 
brought about through identical language, 
and a kinship of literature, but also there 
are common aims and aspirations. Just 
as the language is subject to local varia- 
tions, due to the customs of geographical 
centers, so there are differences in method 
perhaps. But, after all, we are each, in 
our own way, attempting to do the same 
things and to achieve a common purpose. 
I trust, sir, that you will convey to your 
associates in Great Britain our gratitude 
for the kindly expressions which you have 
brought to us from them, and we venture 
the hope that we shall be enabled to carry 
forward the splendid precedent which has 
been set in your coming. 

As you glance at the names of those who 
are to participate at this session, you will 
note that this is practically New York 
Day; the one, sole participant who is cred- 
ited to another part of the country is after 
all perhaps merely loaned to Missouri, be- 
cause he is a graduate of the New York 
library school. I shall ask the First Vice- 
President, Mr. Anderson, to preside over 
the rest of this meeting. 

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: Ladies 
and gentlemen, I can take that kind of 
punishment with great composure. The 
subject for the regular program this morn- 
ing, as you all know, is work with for- 
eigners and with the colored races. I have 
the honor to be a neighbor of the first 
speaker and I may say to you confiden- 
tially that she has recently moved a mile 
or two farther away from me without ade- 
quate explanation. The author of "The 
Promised Land" needs no introduction to 
this audience. All of you have read with 
enthusiasm and appreciation the chapter 
of her book in which she testifies to the 
value of the service of the Boston public 
library to her. It gives me very great 
pleasure to introduce to you MARY 
ANTIN, who will talk to you on 



ANTIN 



145 



THE IMMIGRANT IN THE LIBRARY 

It is very difficult to be interesting or 
impressive while telling people things that 
they already know. I won't try to do that. 
Any one of you sitting in this audience 
could tell me a great deal more about the 
immigrant in the library than I can possi- 
bly tell you. What I am going to do is to 
atik you to have in mind what you know 
about the immigrant, to call up the figure 
of the immigrant in your libraries as you 
have seen him daily, and test by your 
knowledge what I have to say. 

You know better than I do in what 
numbers the immigrants come to your li- 
braries, how much of their time they spend 
there, what books they seek there. What 
I want to ask you is to share your knowl- 
edge of these things with as many people 
as possible; tell your neighbors every time 
you have a chance what the immigrant 
does in the library. Every little while we 
begin anew the discussion of the immi- 
grant to let him in, or not to let him in 
and all sorts of arguments are presented 
on both sides. Representatives of various 
organizations capitalistic, unionistic or 
what-not' hurry their advocates to Con- 
gress to speak for or against, on this side 
and on that side. I want to ask you to 
see to it that the knowledge that you have 
of the immigrant is also widely spread on 
such occasions. The caricaturist is always 
ready with his pencil to give us pictures of 
the immigrant in various amusing poses 
more or less true, more or less false; the 
interesting author of the comic paragraph 
is always there; the artist of the vaudeville 
stage, and enthusiasts of one sort and an- 
other enemies or friends of the immi- 
grant are ready to speak up whenever the 
question comes up. You have a fund of 
knowledge on the subject which is very 
special, very different. Bring it out on 
every occasion! When the gentlemen in 
Congress want to pass a law to hold up 
.the immigrant at the gate because he can- 
not read fifty lines of our Constitution, say 
to them, "Hold! Wait and see what the 
immigrant's boys and girls will read when 



they are let loose in a public library." Re- 
mind them that the ability to read is not 
in itself a test of intellectuality. You know 
scores, hundreds of boys and girls of edu- 
cated, cultured American families who do 
not take such an interest in your libraries 
as the boys and girls of these illiterate 
immigrants. You know what you know. 
Please tell it so loudly that every one 
may hear. Talk about the "five-foot shelf 
of classics"! Is it not true that the boys 
and girls of the immigrants swallow it 
whole and make no boast about it? Why, 
they are saturated with the classics the 
minute they get a chance. The mere abil- 
ity to read what does that amount to? 
You know what book the immigrant calls 
for. Every little while I read a short 
paragraph in the New York papers telling 
that the East Side branches of the public 
library have the greatest circulation of the 
classics. I would like to see those little 
paragraphs enlarged, printed big and 
spread where everybody can see them. We 
need to know these things. 

Please let me speak today as an Ameri- 
can, and not as an immigrant. I wish I 
could efface from your memory this once 
the knowledge of my origin. Don't make 
allowances for what I say because of what 
I was. I am not speaking as an immigrant 
making an appeal for the immigrants. I am 
speaking to you as an American. My cre- 
dentials are these: I have been with you 
nearly twenty years. My father was an 
Americanized citizen before I got here and 
I married a native American. Please ac- 
cept me as an American today. Let me 
speak as one of yourselves. 

We are so ready to classify people by 
externals by their habits, their customs, 
by the way they dress, by their gestures. 
Why, a better test of a man than the way 
in which he makes a living is the way in 
which he spends his leisure; and to that 
you can testify in the case of the immi- 
grant. To gain our bread and butter we 
are forced to do this, that, and the other 
thing. But nobody drives us into the pub- 
lic library if the saloon is across the way. 
Speak up and tell to which door the im- 



146 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



migrant turns in his leisure hours. Peo- 
ple of dainty habits are disgusted with the 
personal habits of the poor foreigners. 
They have noticed a smell of herring and 
onions in the East Side of New York. 
The smell of onions, my friends, can be 
driven out, but a mean habit of mind is 
harder to eradicate. Many gentlemen who 
feast daintily on caviar content themselves 
with the sensational newspaper or the 
trashy novel. Are they superior to the 
hired laborers who feast on boiled pota- 
toes and herring and onions and have a 
volume of the classics propped up before 
them while they eat? There are people 
who object to the uncouth manners of the 
alien. It would do us good to make a 
study of the natural history of the per- 
sonal habits of the immigrants. There is 
a reason for the shrug of the shoulders, for 
the gestures that are so easily caricatured. 
They have a history, way back, that it 
would do us good to realize. 

You workers in the libraries, you see the 
immigrant in hundreds, you see him off 
guard; for a man in his hours of relaxa- 
tion is not posing; you see the alien as 
he is at -least on one side of his nature. 
Let your neighbors know what you know 
about the immigrant. Whenever testimony 
is being taken on the subject, let your 
voice be as loud as any. Almost every day 
you will read in your favorite paper letters 
to the editor, about "the immigrant peril"; 
how the foreigners lower our standard of 
life, demoralize our habits, spoil the man- 
ners of our children in the public schools. 
Some of these things are true, to a cer- 
tain extent. But you, under whose obser- 
vation the immigrant comes, and the im- 
migrant's children, ought to be ready with 
an explanation of many of these things, 
and you ought to be ready to suggest a 
remedy. You know what kind of homes 
these immigrant children come from, and 
that explains a great deal. You sit there 
and agree with me, I can see by your faces. 
You nod and you smile and you turn to one 
another, as much as to say, "That is so." 
Don't tell it to me! I know it! ! Tell it to 
those who do not know it. 



A few days ago I received a delegation 
of boys and girls from the nearest village 
high school. They represented the debat- 
ing clubs of their school. They were pre- 
paring a debate on the subject of immigra- 
tion, and who could help them except I? 
We talked very earnestly for about an hour 
at my fireside about this perennial ques- 
tion, and these young people took me at my 
word and were very much in earnest about 
what I had to say and in the way in which 
they received what I had to say. That is 
all right. As a subject for discussion in 
the high schools that question may be made 
immortal, but as a subject for national agi- 
tation it ought to be laid at rest. Why is 
it that certain questions have been settled 
once and for all and others are always be- 
ing reopened? Those questions are settled 
finally which are considered in relation to 
their underlying principles. Let us not 
confine ourselves to the superficial aspect 
of the immigration question. 

Every once in a while, when we come to 
moralize about these immigrants there 
are too many of them, they come from the 
wrong quarters of the globe, and what not 
let us ask ourselves, Is that the real 
thing that concerns us, or is there some- 
thing at the bottom of this agitation that 
ought to receive attention first? Are we 
really afraid that the immigrant is going 
to take the bread from our mouths? If 
so, let us stop and think about it. It is the 
law of nature that the best man shall come 
out ahead. Are we going to stop the immi- 
grant by temporarily locking the door, 
while we have possession of the key? It 
will not be for long. Right to the end it is 
going to be a struggle between the better 
and the worse, and the better will get 
ahead. We need not be afraid that the 
immigrants will take the bread from our 
mouths if we see to it that we are equally 
able or better able than they to earn our 
bread. It is said they are taking the earth 
from under our feet. Not if we are strong 
enough to stand and hold our ground. If 
they are getting the better of us, it is be- 
cause they are better than we, or else, if 
that is not so, then they can not be getting 



ANTIN 



147 



the better of us, and we need not be afraid 
of them. 

We will never settle this question until 
we are willing to consider it along funda- 
mental lines. Did our forefathers, when 
they launched the declaration that all 
men were created free and equal, refer to 
the few hundreds or few thousands of peo- 
ple who were then in this country? Why, 
in that case, many of you are here only 
as guests! Was there any thought in 
their minds that of all the people in 
the world, those who happened to get in 
here before they set to work to compose 
the Declaration of Independence were the 
ones who were born free and equal, and 
with equal opportunities, and all the rest 
of mankind with limitations? You heartily 
approve the sentiments expressed in our 
Constitution and our Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. How then can you limit the ap- 
plication of their principles? When did 
the day dawn when it was time to shut the 
gate? When did the hour arrive when we 
could say that all those of free and equal 
origin were already here and the rest could 
stay outside? I don't know at what mo- 
ment immigrants begin to be immigrants 
and not pilgrims and voyagers for spiritual 
freedom. 

People were surprised at a phrase I 
used not long ago, and quoted it right and 
left, as if I had made a great discovery, 
when I said that every ship that brings 
over the immigrants is another Mayflower. 
Why, I can not think of it in any other 
terms. Ships are now made to run with 
steam instead of with sails, and our fore- 
fathers did not come in the steerage be- 
cause the Mayflower wasn't built that way. 

You see I am not sticking to my text 
a proof of an inexperienced speaker. But 
I am not a speaker. I am a witness on 
the witness stand. I have been called 
from the ranks to testify. Now each of 
you is In the same position. It would have 
been an impertinence on my part to get up 
before a body of scholars without a fin- 
ished address, if I had any Idea that I was 
going to make an intellectual contribution. 
I simply answer to my name as a witness, 



and each of you can do no less: testify to 
what you know. Now remember I am not 
asking this for the sake of the immigrant. 
If this were the proper time and place I 
would tell you just how, in what order, 
my interest in the immigrant on the one 
hand and in America on the other devel- 
oped. With me it was America first, and 
it still is so. I was not conscious of the 
immigrant as a special class of our citizen- 
ship until I became conscious of certain 
American problems. It is with me the 
immigrant for the sake of America, not 
America for the sake of the immigrant, 
and I beg you to believe me. And why 
do I insist that all the truth you know 
about the immigrant shall be brought out? 
I am not speaking I can not repeat it 
emphatically enough because I am an im- 
migrant, not even because I represent that 
specially large group of immigrants, the 
Jews. If America should go back on its 
ancient traditions and close its hospitable 
doors, the Jews would suffer bitterly. But 
what is one more disappointment in the 
history of the Jews? They have known 
how to lift up their hearts and thank God 
for disappointments before. They would 
simply adopt another dream. It is not for 
them that I speak. Nor is it because I 
am a great lover of justice. I want to see 
that justice is done to the stranger, to be 
sure; let us know all sides of the immi- 
grant that no injustice may be done. But 
the thing that makes me speak to you 
more than any other is my love for Amer- 
ica, for the ideals that I was taught to 
cherish in the public school. I took every- 
thing in my school books literally; when 
I read that this is the land of freedom; 
that the door is open to all worthy men 
and women, and that all shall have an 
equal opportunity. I want to hold you to 
that, to a literal interpretation of those 
terms. 

I went back to Russia two years ago, to 
Polotzk on the Dvina, the city In the Pale 
where I was born, and again I felt as I 
felt in the beginning, when I first came 
here, after seeing how those people over 
there regard us. They still take us at 



148 



our word. When we turn them away at 
the gate, for this and that petty excuse 
at the bottom of which is some selfish mo- 
tive that we do not dare to acknowledge, 
they are bitterly disappointed. And yet 
they are not the worst sufferers. It is we 
who suffer, we as Americans, for in turn- 
ing them away we abandon our ideals, and 
lose the consciousness that we are still 
conserving the ideals of our forefathers. 
It always seems to me that in our attitude 
towards the immigrant, more than in any 
other branch of our national policy, we 
make manifest our true ideals. In our 
formal dealings with foreign governments 
we may make blunders, we may betray 
weaknesses, but on the whole these mat- 
ters remain a secret with the foreign am- 
bassador. The people at large do not follow 
very closely these dignified negotiations 
about treaties and tariff and what-not; but 
as we meet these individual men and 
women at the gate, here we give ourselves 
away. There, at the gate of entrance, we, 
the people of America, deal directly with 
the people of the world. The immigrant 
with his million eyes is looking at us, 
and he will tell whether or not we still 
believe in the things for which we honor 
our forefathers on all our patriotic anni- 
versaries. 

There was a young Jewish girl working 
in my household as a cook, who had been 
through very unhappy experiences in this 
country, experiences which, unfortunately, 
have been multiplied in the lives of many 
other girls who come here unprotected. 
She told me her story once, and I saw that 
what hurt her more than her own misfor- 
tunes, more than the agony she had been 
through, more than the disgrace she had 
suffered, was her disappointment in Amer- 
ica. She found that in America, in this 
instance that she knew of in her own life, 
a man may do a gross wrong and there 
is no way to get hold of him and punish 
him. She had" times of discouragement 
when she would talk to me and complain 
of that thing. Oh, it shook me to find that 
in the mind of this ignorant, illiterate 
child of peventeen, we, the American peo- 



ple, had lost something of our prestige. 
I talked to her perhaps the need inspired 
me and explained to her that our laws, 
like the laws of civilization at large, are 
not yet perfect; that law and civilization 
are things of gradual growth; and showed 
her that although we are still to blame 
for many things that here exist, we have 
done far better than other people in some 
respects. I made it my business to try to 
prove to this ignorant Russian girl, my 
cook, who waited on me every day, that 
America was still America, despite some 
mistakes and some failings, and that, on 
the whole, we have gone further in the 
quest of justice than other nations. It 
mattered to me that this one girl should 
think we were still Americans, and sure- 
ly it matters to you just as much. 

Do not let these millions that come to 
our gates get the wrong impression of 
us. Do not let people with selfish inter- 
ests to serve, who send representatives to 
Congress, speak louder than you do when 
this question comes to be discussed. Let 
the truth out every time. For the sake 
of our country I am asking it, not for the 
sake of the unfortunate foreigners. We 
owe them something, as a people of char- 
itable heart, to be sure, but we owe more 
to ourselves and to our traditions. 

This same girl of whom I speak also af- 
forded an illustration of some of the nobler 
traits of many of our immigrants that you 
are aware of, and that you ought to testify 
to. I mean the reverence for learning that 
is found among the ignorant, the illiterate, 
of many of our immigrants. This girl who 
could not read or write a word in any 
language until she came to me (when 
gradually, by means of the cook-book, she 
made some progress), had a genuine rev- 
erence for learning, which is in itself 
half of the material for making a scholar. 
I kept her pretty busy In my household, 
as I usually do keep our maids, and some- 
times, when there would be a rush of more 
work than I could do, I would put her to 
extra trouble, to bring my luncheon up- 
stairs, perhaps, when I could not stop for 
meals. "Oh, Miss Antin," she used to say, 



ANTIN 



149 



"it is wonderful that I can wait on some- 
body who can write books!" A respect 
for letters such as this is not one of our 
prominent characteristics as Americans. 
I ought to have the courage of our foreign 
visitor, who told the truth about his peo- 
pie. I can do no less. We can not boast 
of too much reverence for learning. Is it 
not a great asset these foreigners bring 
with them, this reverence for learning? 
The man behind the pushcart can't read 
fifty lines of the Constitution, but his heart 
bows in reverence before the man who can, 
and that is worth more than the ability 
to read the Constitution and forget it. 

There are so many ways of classifying 
the immigrants as laborers, as a peril, as 
a help, according to one's point of view. 
But I always think of them as a cloud of 
witnesses in the tribunal of the nations. 
They go back and forth, in person or 
through letters; their experience is re- 
ported all over the world, and they tell 
the truth about us. The immigrant is the 
only visitor, you know, who comes to stay 
and finds us out. The tourists, the critics, 
the honorable guests of various honorable 
institutions, who are taken around in car- 
riages and shown our best front, what do 
they know about us? The letters home 
that go out from the East Side, shiploads of 
letters, some of them written at dictation, 
sent by persons who cannot write them- 
selves (I used to write letters for my 
cook; I have never forgotten some of 
them) those are the documents that go all 
over the world. They are forming their 
opinion of us in the far corners of the 
earth. What shall they say of us? 

If you see that justice is done in the case 
of the immigrant, they will have no evil to 
say of us. Our traditions of liberty, of hos- 
pitality to the oppressed, will be realized 
in the eyes of the world. 

Now it does not matter that the immi- 
grants today may not be running away 
from religious oppression, or may not be 
victims of political martyrdom. Martyr- 
dom of the worst kind is martyrdom of 
the spirit, and immigrants who have suf- 
fered such martyrdom are still coming to 



us by the shipload. It is accurate to say, 
in a certain way, that the immigrants in 
the beginning came in search of liberty, 
and today they come in search of bread. 
That may all be, but with most of our 
present-day immigrants, if you give them 
bread and nothing else, they are not satis- 
fied. You know it. And I know what the 
people said in Polotzk only two years ago. 
If any of you thought, from reading my 
story, that I had put down the reminiscences 
of my early childhood, with the haze of 
the past over all, that I had idealized every- 
thing in my enthusiasm, I can assure you 
that while my story was in manuscript I 
went back to Polotzk, to find out if I had 
told the truth, and I found that I had. I 
found there my old rabbi, my teacher who 
taught me my Hebrew letters. I talked 
with various of the old scholars, who were 
very old when I got back after seventeen 
years' absence these old men who spend 
their time over the Talmud in the corri- 
dors of the synagogues and I found 
among them just that attitude toward 
America which I remembered to have ex- 
isted when I came away nearly twenty 
years ago. They look on us today as on 
the upholders of justice and true liberty. 
They still believe in us. 

Do not let them lose that faith! It is 
more to us than it is to them that they 
shall be satisfied in their high longings. 
That is all I ask of you. You know the 
immigrant as he is in the library; you have 
a view of him that most people have not. 
You send your little paragraphs to the New 
York papers. They are not printed big 
enough. Nobody sees them. Speak up 
and tell what you know about the immi- 
grant, that justice may be done, that we 
may remain sound-headed and true-hearted 
in our national life, true to our traditions; 
and the immigrant will hear with a mil- 
lion ears and see with a million eyes and 
run with a million feet to the far corners 
of the earth, to cry that America is still 
America. 

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: I shall 
ask you to rise as an expression of thanks 
and appreciation of Miss Antin's address. 



150 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



(The audience remained standing for a 
moment.) 

The next speaker will discuss the sub- 
ject of immigrants as contributors to libra- 
ry progress. It gives me very great pleas- 
ure to introduce to you Mrs. ADELAIDE 
B. MALTBY, who is in charge of the 
Tompkins Square branch, on the lower 
East Side, of the New York public library. 

IMMIGRANTS AS CONTRIBUTORS TO 
LIBRARY PROGRESS 

I should prefer to let Miss Antin's per- 
sonality and accomplishments bear homo 
to you the point I had hoped to make; and 
silently let what she has said to us pos- 
sess our imaginations to the end that our 
interest and will-to-do will be vigorously 
stirred. Fortunately, this will happen in 
spite of my words. 

A little girl with a fairy book in her 
hand gleefully remarked: "I can tell what 
kind of stories are in the book by the con- 
tinents." Would that we could so tell the 
stories of our peoples! Yet the story of 
immigrants in this country is not unlike 
that of the "Ugly Duckling;" and Miss 
Antin is living proof of the swan-like 
qualities. We, as a nation, have persisted 
in hatching the odd egg; have been appar- 
ently proud of the duckling's ability to 
swim untaught, like other ducks; and were 
duly troubled, when because of his unlike- 
ness, he was not acceptable to closer ac- 
quaintance with cock and gander in the 
barn-yard. We have witnessed, with but 
feeble protest, his struggle to feel at home, 
his association with wild ducks and all it 
entailed. It seems as if the winter of his 
agony is enduring. He's had a stirring 
within as of something better to come! 
The question is will we make greater ef- 
fort to recognize the swan-like qualities 
and to give freedom for their develop- 
ment? In this direction lies progress. 

As contributors, I shall not single out 
great personalities from among our for- 
eigners. They will belong to history. Nor 
do I mean only the well educated groups. 
They are generally accorded recognition, 



But I do name the masses who earn Just 
consideration slowly. 

First of all, immigrants have kept us 
alive in every generation. Shall we say 
on the "qui vive" in some localities? All 
agree that living is no minor art, so to 
stimulate life is a contribution. Frank 
Warne in his book, the "Immigrant Inva- 
sion," tells how the distribution of immi- 
grants previous to our civil war practically 
determined the outcome of that struggle, 
by giving to the North balance of power 
in Congress because of larger population, 
which was made up of able-bodied men 
who replaced Federal soldiers and kept 
shops and farms going to furnish supplies 
to the army. It is interesting to note that 
Mr. Warne ascribes the trend of immigra- 
tion to the north and west very largely to 
what was read in the old countries about 
life in different parts of America, men- 
tioning "Uncle Tom's Cabin" as the one 
product of literature most influencing dis- 
tribution. 

Cold statistics tell us that New York, 
Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
Illinois and California have the greatest 
number of foreign born. With this as a 
basic fact we naturally suppose that in 
these states, at least, public libraries will 
be found catering to and helping to Amer- 
icanize and to educate these citizens-to-be; 
because, if for no other reason, we proudly 
call ourselves the "university of the peo- 
ple." If the truth were told through ques- 
tionnaire, or otherwise, about twenty-five 
out of one hundred libraries throughout 
New York state are sufficiently alive to the 
problem to supply books to attract and in- 
terest foreigners. Yet for twenty years, 
at least, the task of assimilating the al- 
most overwhelming influx of immigrants 
has been- acute in the states named and in 
many localities elsewhere. A gentleman 
working for the education of foreigners in 
American ways has said that he thought 
libraries seemed most indifferent to their 
opportunities. While another, a foreigner, 
devoting himself and two fortunes to bet- 
tering conditions for immigrants, thinks 
that public libraries, when they do work 



MALTBY 



151 



sympathetically I mean that In the broad- 
est sense with the foreign born are the 
only organizations which accomplish with 
real altruism the implanting of American 
ideals and the developing of better citi- 
zens. This, he believes, is done when we 
appreciate and build on the natural en- 
dowment of the individual or race. 

Since the national government has been 
facing this stupendous problem, commis- 
sions and organizations galore, official and 
philanthropic, have sprung into existence 
as aids. So many are there in New York 
City alone, a possible list would bewilder 
one! Yet in how many reports of such 
work when educational assets of communi- 
ties are being cited, is there mention made 
of libraries as a force in educating the im- 
migrant? Through libraries, however, 
more than through most educational 
agencies may self-expression and develop- 
ment of natural gifts be realized by indi- 
viduals of all ages and nationalities. Where 
does the trouble lie? Have we been open- 
minded or eager enough to discover the ex- 
cellent contributions foreigners bring to 
the end that we respond to live issues, thus 
building progressively? 

Old habits can be changed to new com- 
punctions. There is no standardized meth- 
od of discovering or of spiritualizing men, 
of holding intercourse with aliens or of 
receiving what they bring; but we can 
develop sympathy and understanding, by 
knowing the people as individuals, their 
countries, literatures, languages, arts, 
great national characters in a word, their 
histories, even to economic conditions. 
Thereby do we come to an understanding 
of reasons for immigration of the present 
day and of aspirations for life here. Thus 
equipped mentally for further sympathetic 
appreciation, first hand observation of con- 
ditions will help; or if that is not possible, 
an imaginative putting ourselves in the im- 
migrants' places from the time they leave 
their old world homes with' all their world- 
ly goods in their hands and, in spite of 
homesickness and fears, with courage and 
hope in their hearts with them as they 
exist in their steerage quarters and with 



them when they pass through the portals 
and mazes of Ellis Island, in the main un- 
comprehendingly but always trustfully. 1 
can not attempt here to draw the detailed 
picture; but if you cannot see it for your- 
self, Mr. Edward Steiner gives it graphical- 
ly and faithfully in his "On the Trail of 
the Immigrant." At last, the Federal gov- 
ernment accessions the immigrant. He is 
passed on, properly numbered, to be shelf- 
listed by states, cities and towns, coming 
finally to libraries and other institutions 
to be cataloged. It remains to us then to 
decide for our own work whether there 
shall be one entry under the word "alien" 
or whether his various assets shall be 
made available by analytical entries. 

Somewhat of all this we must know to 
appreciate what the immigrant can con- 
tribute to life here, and to library progress, 
if we are wise enough to call it forth or 
make opportunitiy for its expression. It is 
vain to hope for the assimilation of the 
alien as a result of conscious benevolent 
effort. We too often forget that each of 
the hundreds of thousands is a human be- 
ing! With a sense of the finest they can 
bring with them, we should have an in- 
creasing knowledge of how they live here, 
what they think and how these elements 
can be influenced by books and personal 
contact. The pressure of a congested neigh- 
borhood goads to thoughtful search for 
remedies. 

No one will go far along these paths 
without realizing how avid libraries must 
be to reap the benefits of such diverse 
gifts, rather than to suffer from the dregs. 
We must correlate books and people as 
never before to attain progress. 

"If we once admit the human, dynamic 
character of progress, then it is easy to 
understand why the crowded city quarters 
become focal points of that progress." As 
an earnest of what is being done in many 
libraries elsewhere, may I tell of our work 
in New York, of that only because I know 
it best. What has been done in one place 
and more, can be done in another through 
interest, desire and adaptation. 

The necessity of having the library ner 



152 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



the people for whom its use is intended is, 
of course, recognized. This is more es- 
pecially true when the people are foreign- 
ers. The New York public library has 
forty-one branches and all that are located 
in districts where foreigners live have, be- 
side English books, collections of books 
in languages native to the residents. By 
so doing we believe that we convince of 
our friendship those adults who do not 
and even those who may never read Eng- 
lish. This is a fundamental necessity, op- 
ening up various possibilities for impart- 
ing American ideas and ideals. The less 
English the grown people read the more 
they need knowledge of true American 
ideas to help keep them in touch with 
their children, who rapidly take on ways 
and manners strange to their parents, 
many of whom are uncomprehending, re- 
ticent and often sad. We go still further. 
We have assistants of the nationalities 
represented in the neighborhood, whose 
special duty it is to make known to their 
peoples the library privileges, also to 
know their people individually as far as 
possible and, of course, the books. Right 
here may I say that a foreign born assist- 
ant imbued with respect for her own coun- 
trymen and with true American ideals can 
in her enthusiasm do more to make real 
citizens than many Americans. This can- 
not be accomplished if, as happens with 
so many young foreigners, their own peo- 
ple as we see them in this country, are 
held in contempt. It were pity to scorn 
the strong qualities they possess, these 
"Greenies," as they call themselves. They 
live daily too close to the vital facts of 
existence .to develop self-consciousness or 
artificialities to any great extent. We talk 
of simplicity. They have it. Courage, sin- 
gleness of purpose, happiness in modest 
circumstances and astonishing capacity for 
work are elements of everyday life uncon- 
sciously developed. Their wealth of imag- 
ination, fostered by their own folk-lore 
and early traditions, could not be more 
wonderfully illustrated than it has been 
just recently- in New York. The majority 
of us think of New York and other large 



cities as vast factories with the machine- 
like and vicious qualities of human nature 
uppermost, so it is most refreshing to con- 
template "Old Home Week in Greenwich 
Village" and the "Henry Street Pageant." 

"Old Home Week" successfully recalled 
Greenwich Village history in a dramatic 
way to its residents American, Irish and 
Italian and aroused a new sense of fel- 
lowship in sharing the district's activities. 

To celebrate the twentieth anniversary 
of the Henry Street Settlement, a pictorial 
representation of the history of the neigh- 
borhood from the days of the Indians to the 
present time was given by its residents 
men, women and children before an as- 
semblage of spectators from all parts of 
the city and representative of all its activi- 
ties civic and social. The last living pic- 
ture, or episode, was of all the nationali- 
ties that have lived in the last fifty years 
in Henry Street, once the center of Man- 
hattan's fashionable life. The Irish, the 
Scotch, the Germans, the Italians and the 
Russians appeared. They sang the songs 
and danced the dances that contribute so 
much poetry to the life of the city, while 
onlookers marveled at the temperamental 
qualities which made it possible for for- 
eigners to reproduce with unconscious 
realism historical scenes of a city and a 
country not their own! 

Such neighborhood pageants as this and 
the celebration in Greenwich Village, ex- 
ert a wholesome and a permanent influ- 
ence in our municipal life. In both these 
events the libraries of the neighborhoods 
took part. The library aimed to show that 
folk-songs and folk-dances are kept alive 
by folk-stories. The contrast between old 
New York and the present time was shown 
by the use of historical scenes lantern 
slides and a story; in the one case re- 
miniscent of early Dutch settlers and in 
the other a poetic interpreting of the spirit 
of service in municipal life. Those plan- 
ning the pageant felt that this was a di- 
rect help in making atmosphere or in in- 
ducing an interpretive mood in partici- 
pants. Festival occasions like these bind 
together by national ties the people and 



MALTBY 



153 



institutions of a neighborhood and are rich 
with possibilities for the library. To a de- 
lightful degree they broaden our under- 
standing of the folk-spirit. 

So it seems natural to have stories in the 
library told by foreigners in their native 
tongues. From time to time we have 
groups of Bohemians, Germans, Hunga- 
rians, Italians listening to old world tra- 
ditions and tales. Knowing the original 
and the translation enhances the value of 
the story in English for narrator and list- 
eners. Through these story hours we are 
reminding the foreigner of his unique con- 
tribution to life here, and are showing 
our respect for his best. For a simple 
example, our picture books and book illus- 
tration in general do not express life as 
vividly or realistically as Russian, Bohe- 
mian or Swedish artists do. Having some 
of these in our juvenile collections has 
been a distinct contribution to establish- 
ing sympathetic relations with foreigners. 

Yes, it is true that the Italian laborer 
loves Dante and Italian classics. It is 
relatively true of other nationalities. If 
we take for granted that we should know 
and libraries should have, French and Ger- 
man standard writers and this largely 
because their literature is older, more 
translated or their languages better known 
may we not also take for granted that 
literary history is still in the making? 
Should we not bestir ourselves to know 
latter-day masterpieces, if such there be, 
and the older literature which has helped 
mculd or inspire writers of them, in Swed- 
ish, Finnish, Bohemian, Polish, Hungarian 
or any other language spoken by the peo- 
ple surrounding us? Perhaps the need of 
realizing what these literary contributions 
may mean can be emphasized by the fact 
that in one week, June 2 to June 9, 1913, 
thirty thousand souls, nearly five thousand 
daily, passed the man at the Eastern gate- 
way. Eighty per cent or thereabouts are 
going beyond New York City these days. 

Is the Hungarian's enjoyment of Jokai 
or their patriot poets for Hungarians 
alone? One can better appreciate how to 
sustain effort and enthusiasm in a person 



or a group of this nationality if one knows 
that much of their best poetry came almost 
from the cannon's mouth on the field of 
battle; and if one has seen the glistening 
eyes and heard the voices of kerchief- 
capped girls and boys in trousers to shoe 
tops as they sang in ringing tones "Esktis- 
ziink!" and then heard their national song 
in English for the first time. At home 
they may not celebrate their Independence 
Day, March 15; but when they are invited 
to, here, in the library, they do it with 
much genuine feeling and true sentiment, 
which I believe leads them to appreciate 
and adopt as their own our Independence 
Day. Through such as they, perhaps, pat- 
riotic sentiment and feeling may once 
more be evident in our Fourth of July cele- 
brations. 

If we try to think of a library without 
the contributions of writers of other na- 
tionalties, we must face almost empty 
shelves in some classes of knowledge. This 
makes us realize more clearly that immi- 
grants have rich possessions by right of in- 
heritance while these are ours only by 
adoption. Some of the newcomers to our 
shores may have lost their heritage tem- 
porarily; but they will warmly cherish as 
a friend the library that restores to them 
this valuable possession and for us that 
friendship is preeminently a contribution. 

There are other special ways in which 
the Horary seems happily successful in 
forming such friendships. With adults it 
comes through our co-operation with neigh- 
borhood associations, or organizations 
working for the benefit of foreigners, such 
as the Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A. who 
conduct in our lecture rooms classes to 
teach English to foreigners. In these in- 
stances it is our pleasure to supplement 
with books the copies treated. The book 
work is, perhaps, most marked in connec- 
tion with the English classes where we 
have opportunity to watch progress and 
needs of the individual more carefully 
from the time when an eager pupil may 
ask, as one did, for a book called a "Wom- 
an's Tongue" wanting Arnold's "Mother 
Tongue" to his reading of Hale's "Man 



154 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



without a country," perhaps, or Andrews' 
"The perfect tribute." There are also many 
semi-social, semi-educational clubs, or as- 
sociations, which hold their meetings in 
the libraries. The Slavia is a Bohemian 
club, which has as its only meeting place 
the Bohemian department of one of our 
branches. Its members have done much to 
help form a splendid Bohemian library. 
Several Hungarian associations work in 
co-operation with three branches, where 
are collections of Hungarian books. A 
large Polish society gives its educational 
lectures twice a month in one branch and 
its advice in the selection of books; but 
perhaps the "German Association for Cul- 
ture" best illustrates my point. They 
state: "We are working for culture, and 
we aim to give the Germans in America 
and the Americans a better understanding 
of our contemporary German literature 
and art. We are bending our efforts more 
particularly for our members who as art- 
ists, poets, writers, etc., are producing val- 
uable works. And we want to help as 
much as possible those talented artists, 
poets, etc., who are not yet known." Their 
distinction is that they succeed! Even in 
the et ceteras! 

As concrete instances of other possible 
contributions by foreigners to library prog- 
ress, I want to tell of the discussion of 
one City History Club chapter and the ac- 
tion of a settlement organization. The 
membership in both is composed of for- 
eign-born young men from sixteen to twen- 
ty years of age, and both groups interest 
themselves in present day civic welfare. 
The Settlement Club wrote to the mayor, 
comptroller, library trustees and several 
daily papers a dignified plea for increase 
in library appropration and in salaries. 
The year's closing meeting of a certain 
City History Club was a discussion of the 
city budget, the club members represent- 
ing New York's mayor, aldermen and 
comptroller. The main contention of the 
majority was that cutting the appropria- 
tion of the public library meant seriously 
handicapping one of the city's most effi- 
cient servants and they ended with a warm 



appreciation of service rendered by library 
assistants and a vigorous plea for better 
salaries. This was later reproduced for 
an audience of representative citizens by 
the City History Club as a token typical 
of their work. Both these happenings came 
as complete surprises to librarians. It 
seems as if In their eagerness to "get on" 
young foreigners, especially, seek and use 
every possible public means for advance- 
ment. They soon appreciate what good 
service means and how to get it. They 
make us feel toward what ends they are 
tending and suggest definitely our part in 
the building for civic betterment. 

To sum up, immigrants do bring very 
rich contributions in arts and literature. 
They bring many capabilities, that of ac- 
quiring intellectual cultivation being not 
the least among them. I am not blind to 
the seriousness of the problems they cre- 
ate, having worked among them about ten 
years; but the conviction strengthens that 
knowing and understanding their racial 
and social inheritance and first hand con- 
tact with groups of individuals stimulate 
to broader thought and living. It is not 
an argument! It is a suggestive state- 
ment! Immigrants can contribute to libra- 
ry progress. 

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: We will 
now have a paper from Mr. CHARLES 
E. RUSH, the librarian of the St. Joseph 
public library, on 

THE MAN IN THE YARDS 

This great country of ours has become 
within the last century a huge "melting 
pot" for all the nations of the world. For- 
eign and English speaking tongues from 
the four corners of the earth have sought 

ir shores as a haven of relief and oppor- 
tunity. No other nation has experienced 
a like growth and none other has ever 
gained the changing cosmopolitan charac- 
teristics which have come to us from such 
widely differing component parts. Those 
of us who call ourselves Americans owe 
our life, liberty and happiness to the con- 
ditions which brought about this great 
growth and upon us devolves the great 



HUSH 



155 



burden of relieving many of the unfortu- 
iate conditions which naturally result 
from the continued and increasing wave of 
humanity still seeking better things in our 
so-called land of freedom and equality. 

During the past ninety years nearly thirty 
millions of people have entered our immi- 
gration gates, adding to our numbers more 
inhabitants than the total population of the 
United States three score years ago, and 
almost one-third of our present total fig- 
ure. At the close of the year of 1912 the 
total and combined population of five 
states of the Union did not equal the num- 
ber of immigrants admitted during the pre- 
ceding twelve months. Eighty per cent of 
these thirty millions arrived during the 
last fifty years. Eighty-seven per cent of 
them were more than fourteen years of 
age, while only thirteen per cent were un- 
der fourteen. These figures easily demon- 
strate that the problem is a growing one 
and that the large proportion of new ar- 
rivals are destined to become citizens and 
parents of future citizens in a short time. 
Our past policy of devoting our greatest ef- 
forts to the thirteen per cent while largely 
neglecting the eighty-seven per cent seems 
very similar to the losing method of mend- 
ing a leaking boat by removing the water 
with a sponge rather than by repairing the 
hole. 

Economists tell us- that the "rise and fall 
of the immigration waves are very closely 
connected with the phenomenon of pros- 
perity in this country," and that the gen- 
eral causes of westward expansion lie in 
the presence of foreign political and re- 
ligious persecutions, low wages, bad eco- 
nomic conditions, ease of transportation, 
inflated rumors of great opportunities in 
America, and the appeal of separated 
.-iends and relatives. 

The early immigrants, being largely of 
Teutonic and Keltic origin, were thrifty 
and self-reliant by nature and entered our 
American life as skilled workmen in agri- 
culture and in the trades. In the last quar- 
ter of a century the source of the tide has 
changed from the northern to the south- 
ern countries, resulting in a far different 



"pe of foreigner who is generally un- 
skilled, lacking independence and initia- 
tive, and blindly submissive to authority. 
Many come from nations with a per cent of 
illiteracy rising as high as seventy, and 
notwithstanding the fifty per cent decrease 
in the total percentage of illiteracy in this 
country during the past thirty years we 
must face the fact that some twenty-eight 
cut of every one hundred of the new ar- 
rivals over fourteen years of age are an- 
nually classed as illiterates. In the future 
we may expect to receive an increasing 
flood of immigration from China, Japan 
and India, with problems and conditions 
even more perplexing. 

Some say that the incoming foreigner 
directly affects the entire laboring class 
native to America in that he adds materi- 
ally to the supply of wage earners, lowers 
the scale of wages due to lower standards 
of living, changes working conditions 
through the subdivision of labor, modifies 
labor organizations, influences local and 
national politics and increases social diffi- 
culties. It has been said that "low stand- 
ards of living on the part of unskilled 
workers menace the higher standards of 
the skilled workers. The man of skill is 
recognizing this fact and he is frequently 
found joining hands with the unskilled to 
right the grievances of the latter. In the 
cotton mills, in the meat packing industry, 
in the coal mines, in the clothing industry 
and elsewhere, one nationality has been 
displaced by another satisfied with a lower 
standard of living. In turn the second has 
been displaced by a third, and so on. Wave 
after wave of immigrants may be traced 
in the history of one of these industries. 
As rapidly as a race rises in the scale of 
living, and through organization begins to 
demand higher wages and to resist the 
pressure of long hours and over-exertion, 
the employers substitute another race and 
the process is repeated. Each race comes 
from a country lower in the scale than 
that of the preceding until finally the ends 
of the earth have been ransacked in the 
search for low standards of living com- 



156 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



bined with patient industriousness." (Carl- 
ton). 

Our civilization cannot remain unaf- 
fected by these changing characteristics 
and the threatening, industrial conditions 
confronting us. With the army of the un- 
employed rapidly growing larger and larg- 
er, it behooves the American nation to 
encourage immediate consideration of 
ways and means to prevent unfortunate re- 
sults in our industrial, political and social 
life. 

The national government, being con- 
cerned chiefly with the admission or re- 
jection of the immigrant, quickly places 
him under the care of state and local gov- 
ernments, who are duty-bound to assume 
the entire responsibility of developing him 
into an efficient worker and a good citizen. 
The regulation of private employment 
agencies, protection of the foreigner in 
transit, adoption of standard employment 
laws, creation of municipal unemployment 
commissions, etc., indicate that state and 
city governments are beginning to respond 
to this duty of offering more sympathetic 
understanding, more adequate care and 
better protection to the newly arrived, con- 
fused, unemployed and homeless immi- 
grant. These governments are slowly real- 
izing that their obligations have been sore- 
ly neglected in the past when such prob- 
lems were wholly consigned to the well 
meaning but quite inadequate field of pri- 
vate philanthropy. Public libraries, as de- 
partments of city governments, concerned 
with the dissemination of knowledge of the 
masses, must soon realize their large re- 
sponsibility in the naturalization, educa- 
tion and socialization of our foreign born 
population. It is very gratifying to an- 
nounce that the state of Massachusetts has 
very recently taken the lead in this partic- 
ular field of service by the passage of an 
act authorizing the appointment by the 
Board of library commissioners of a field 
worker to direct the educational work of 
libraries among the aliens of the state. 

Libraries, like human beings, can reach 
a high point of efficiency and service in 
a particular line only when that line is 



encouraged and promoted. The develop- 
ment of libraries favoring certain classes 
of citizens has been quite general and ex- 
tremely successful. Much has been said but 
comparatively little has been done for the 
foreigner among our laboring men. The 
"man in the yards," the unskilled foreign 
wage-earner, being taxed, while needing 
more and receiving less from society than 
others, "has done much of the rough and 
hard work of recent decades. He has built 
the roadbeds of our railways, mined our 
coal and iron, unloaded our vessels, and 
cleaned our streets. The recent immigrant 
has performed the crude manual labor nec- 
essary for the upbuilding of big. industrial 
plants and huge transportation systems. 
His services in developing the resources of 
the nation have been extremely important. 
Many industries would be almost depleted 
if divested of all wage-earners of foreign 
birth and those born on American soil but 
of foreign born parents. If the foreign 
born and the native born of foreign par- 
ents were removed from our large cities, 
the latter would shrink to approximately 
one-third of their recent size." (Carlton.) 

This "man in the yards" with whom "in- 
timate contact removes prejudice, inspires 
appreciation and kindles self-respect," dis- 
plays an astounding amount of seriousness 
and earnestness in his desire to learn and 
to improve himself when once informed of 
the possibilities in our libraries. Very often 
he finds his chief delight in the best of 
books, like a child calling for good instead 
of new books, and many times he is not as 
dull and as ignorant as generally supposed, 
being more appreciative of better things 
than our average native laboring man. 
The opportunity is a great one to be of 
practical and inspirational help to an eager 
reader seeking to increase his earning 
power and joy in life, and to learn of the 
higher ideals of citizenship and the com- 
ing brotherhood of all. 

In order to devise worth-while methods 
of approaching him and securing his in- 
terest, place yourself in imagination in 
similar surroundings and conditions on a 
foreign shore. Only through direct appeals 



RUSH 



157 



touching your personal needs, pleasure and 
occupation would you be attracted in like 
circumstances by strangers. The same is 
true with our new Americans. 

Foreigners who speak the same lan- 
guage largely settle in the same locality 
and move from place to place in groups. 
A thorough educational survey of these 
groups in the community tributary to the 
library or branch is of first importance to 
determine the characteristics, conditions 
and needs of each group. Whenever it is 
possible an experienced library and social 
worker should be employed. The advice 
and assistance of factory managers, labor 
leaders and social workers cannot be val- 
ued too highly. Following these steps 
branch and deposit stations administered 
by local assistants may well be located in 
favorable shops, yards, factories, settle- 
ments, centers, and labor headquarters, 
without arousing undue suspicion among 
the men, even more extensively than in 
many of our progressive library systems 
today. 

The formation of the recently named 
"Creative" or "Extension" departments 
and the appointment of one or more 
trained assistants to create interest and 
regularly visit and supervise the library 
work in each district, group and institution 
will soon become a customary feature in 
the large cities. I firmly believe that it 
will not be many years until our large 
manufacturing institutions employing 
much labor will construct recreational cen- 
ters in their plants equipped with social, 
reading and gymnastic departments suf- 
ficient to meet the needs of their employ- 
ees. Furthermore, I see little to discour- 
age the establishment of traveling library 
collections on wheels, visiting certain dis- 
tricts on scheduled time, after the manner 
of the now famous Maryland wagon and 
automobile. In libraries near foreign cen- 
ters special departments are needed to 
supply practical and simple information 
in different languages on requirements for 
naturalization, instruction, employment, 
investments, American customs, travel and 
history, demands of law and order, Ameri- 



can money and banks, and friendly ad- 
vice on many things of fifty-seven or more 
varieties. 

The development of our present line of 
tactics, including the presentation of lec- 
tures emphasizing the possibility of in- 
creased wages through practical reading, 
the formation of classes in the study of 
English, the promotion of special foreign 
entertainment programs and exhibitions, 
the extension of the library habit to adults 
through publicity directed to their chil- 
dren, the publication of daily news for 
workers by means of special library pa- 
pers and the general press, the creation of 
more effectively printed library advertis- 
ing done in many languages, the co-opera- 
tion with individuals and societies promot- 
ing educational, social and recreation cen- 
ters, etc., will open a new era in library 
service for foreign laboring men. 

A great number of specialized and tech- 
nical industrial books may not often be 
found necessary in library collections, since 
the great need among this class of read- 
ers is a large supply of trade journals and 
more elementary mechanical books for the 
unskilled workman, the student mechanic 
and the future tradesman. 

On the other hand life as well as liveli- 
hood must be considered and met. All 
men must live while they are earning a 
living and in these days they must be 
trained for vacation as well as vocation. 
The tendency today is to place too much 
emphasis on the daily struggle for liveli- 
hood and to neglect the hours of life dur- 
ing leisure time. In defense of the "jnan 
in the yards" the crying answer returns, 
"but what of the man whose soul-deaden- 
ing toil leaves little or no time for leisure 
or whose daily labor kills all mental and 
physical desire for leisure, rest and im- 
provement." This cry will return again and 
again until all labor shall be so equalized 
that all men will have more of what life 
offers and less of what it demands. Those 
who work on specialized labor done under 
intense strain and through long hours are 
destined to become weakened, brutalized 
and almost incapable of showing intelli- 



158 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



gent interest in social-betterment. Even 
"family life," the first school of morals, is 
a closed book against the man who comes 
home dead-tired late at night. 

Consider some of the perils through 
which the working boy must pass from 
year to year, such as economic waste in un- 
educational trades, stinted physical devel- 
opment, early maturity, suppression of the 
spirit of boyhood, indifference towards 
knowledge and efficiency, personal weak- 
ness, and delinquency. The dire results 
due to these perils are well illustrated by 
the folowing replies made by a number 
of Chicago factory children when asked 
why they quit school: 

"Because it's easier to work in a factory 
than it is to learn at school." 

"You never understand what they tell 
you in school and you can learn right off 
to do things in a factory." 
"They don't call you a Dago." 
"You can buy shoes for the baby." 
"Our boss he never went to school." 
"School ain't no good. The Holy Father 
he can send ye to hell, and the boss he 
can take yer job away er raise yer pay. 
But the teacher, she can't do nothing." 

Is it not true that greed, selfishness, 
privilege, injustice and neglect are five of 
the great sins of civilization? These ob- 
structions to progress are largely due to 
ignorance and indifference, two causes 
which are in themselves as great evils 
as their results. In order to attain the 
best of social conditions, positive cures 
must be found for these devastating 
evils cures that will replace greed 
by liberality, selfishness by the broth- 
erhood of man, privilege by equal- 
ity, injustice by justice and neglect by 
service cures that will transform ignor- 
ance and indifference into clear-eyed 
knowledge and active responsibility. Laws 
and revolutions have failed more miserably 
than we enjoy admitting and only through 
the far reaching, beneficent influences of 
education and religion may we expect to 
touch the roots of these great evils. 
Is it possible that many of our public li- 



braries, who reach the individual and his 
family long before and for many years fol- 
lowing the efforts of our public schools, 
can consider themselves excused from a 
large part of their responsibility in the ed- 
ucational movements now striving to im- 
prove the physical, mental and moral con- 
ditions of these men who suffer for want 
of better things? How can it be that some 
librarians stand by indifferently and heed 
not the cry of need from these weaker 
members of society, who, with their dis- 
tinctive and curable social difficulties, have 
been left alone to carve their own desti- 
nies, unappreciated and unaided? The 
time is near at hand when everyone shall 
recognize that it is the "common right of 
all men to share in the culture, prosperity 
and progress" of society, and that the con- 
servation of life by raising it to its highest 
value is to be the cry of our new era of 
heightened individuality. 

In his inaugural address President Wil- 
son uttered these accusing heart searching 
words: "We have been proud of our in- 
dustrial achievements, but we have not 
hitherto stopped thoughtfully enough to 
count the human cost, the cost of lives 
snuffed out, of energies overtaxed and 
broken, the fearful physical and spiritual 
cost to the men and women and children 
upon whom the dead weight and burden of 
it all has fallen without mercy the years 
through. The groans and agony of it 
all, the solemn moving undertone of our 
life, coming up out of the mines and fac- 
tories and out of every home where the 
struggle has had its intimate and familiar 
seat, have not yet reached our ears." 

The "vision of the open gates of ap- 
portunity for all" must first be seen by 
those who lead before they who follow can 
dream dreams and go forth to realize 
them. 

The FIRST VICE-PRESIDENT: The 
next speaker, who is now the librarian of 
the Rochester public library, was for many 
years librarian of one of the most impor- 
tant libraries south of what Mr. O. Henry 
was accustomed to call "Mason & Ham- 



YUST 



169 



lin's Line." I have the pleasure of Intro- 
ducing Mr. WILLIAM F. YUST, who will 
speak to us on 

WHAT OF THE BLACK AND YELLOW 
RACES? 

The form in which this subject is ex- 
pressed is first a question asking for in- 
formation which has never before been 
collected. Possibly there is in it also a 
mild challenge to library authorities call- 
ing for a declaration of purpose and pol- 
icy. 

So far there is no indication of a yellow 
race problem in public libraries. When 
foreigners enter a field which is already oc- 
cupied they do not produce a real race 
problem so long as they are so few in num- 
ber that they are chiefly objects of curi- 
osity. 

It is difficult to understand how the Jap- 
anese can be a serious race problem in 
California where they constitute only two 
and one-half per cent of the population and 
own and lease only twelve one-hundredths 
of one per cent of the land. And yet it 
sounds as if there is trouble there. What- 
ever may be its nature and its causes, the 
difficulty has not extended to public li- 
braries. The Chinese on the Pacific coast, 
as elsewhere, are seldom seen in a library. 
They live in their own quarter and hardly 
ever penetrate other sections of the city 
except for purposes of trade. 

The Japanese who frequent the libraries 
are not numerous. They belong almost 
entirely to the student class and the books 
they take are used in connection with their 
school work. In some places they "appear 
to be more resourceful, more polite and 
more intelligent than the average high 
school student" with whom the libraries 
come in contact. As a class of patrons 
they are not only inoffensive but desirable. 

While the yellow man is clearly not a 
problem in libraries, it is equally certain 
that the black man is a problem. This is 
especially true in the South. In northern 
libraries it is the rule to admit him with- 
out distinction. Throughout the South, 
with very few exceptions, the segregation 



maintained in all social, educational and 
religious institutions is enforced in li- 
braries. 

This paper will deal primarily with the 
public library question. But account 
should also be taken of the institutional 
libraries to which negroes have access. 

Institutional Libraries 

The report of the TJ. S. Commissioner of 
Education for 1910 contains a list of 189 
secondary and higher schools for the col- 
ored race in 16 states and the District of 
Columbia. Of these 160 report libraries ag- 
gregating 368,684 volumes with an esti- 
mated value of $295,788. Following is a 
summary of the institutions and their li- 
braries arranged by states. Of these li- 
braries 84 have less than 1,000 volumes; 56 
have 1,000 to 5,000 volumes; 11 have be- 
tween 5,000 and 10,000 volumes; 6 have be- 
tween 10,000 and 20,000. Two have 26,607 
and 27,000 respectively. 

Schools 

Report- 
ing. 

Alabama 14 

Arkansas 6 

Delaware 2 

District of Columbia 2 

Florida 7 

Georgia 14 

Kentucky 6 

Louisiana 10 

Maryland 5 

Mississippi 11 

Missouri 3 

New Jersey 1 

North Carolina 20 

Ohio 1 

Oklahoma 1 

Pennsylvania 2 

South Carolina 16 

Tennessee 11 

Texas 8 

Virginia 18 

West Virginia 2 

Total 160 368,684 $295,788 



Vol- 


Esti- 


umes in 


mated 


Library. 


Value. 


49,522 


$26,525 


9,450 


5,150 


1,900 


800 


27,253 


43,569 


8,267 


7,120 


49,025 


32,181 


3,950 


2,350 


14,353 


16,051 


7,250 


5,735 


18,432 


14,920 


4,950 


5,500 


35 


25 


16,560 


13,097 


6,500 


2,500 


9,75 


1,450 


19,500 


20,500 


27,600 


21,000 


30,025 


17,935 


13,550 


17,830 


52,030 


35,950 


7,557 


5,600 



160 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



Many of these collections except in the 
larger institutions, have been characterized 
as "so unsuitable as to be almost worth- 
less . . . the discarded refuse of gar- 
rets and overcrowded store rooms, which 
should have gone to the paper mill, but was 
sent to these poor children through mis- 
taken kindness." 

These libraries are primarily for the use 
of the students, but they are usually open 
to the townspeople for reading and refer- 
ence. While the people thus have access 
to a collection of books for consultation, 
it can not be said that they have the equiv- 
alent of a public library, even where the 
selection is good. It is a common occur- 
rence, however, throughout the country for 
institutional libraries to operate against 
the establishment of a public library with- 
out acting as a satisfactory substitute. 

General Attitude 

The prevailing attitude toward libraries 
for negroes is one of indifference among 
the masses of both races. But the same 
conditions existed for many years and still 
exist in other parts of the country. The 
library must follow the school, it can not 
precede it. When it is remembered that 
the educational awakening of the South is 
of comparatively recent date and that any- 
thing like general education of the negro 
is still more recent, the small number of 
public libraries for negroes will not appear 
so strange. In a few places a vigorous de- 
mand has arisen. In a few places the au- 
thorities have not only supplied the de- 
mand but have endeavored to stimulate 
and enlarge it. 

It may be said, however, that there are 
still people who think that the negro is 
incapable of education and that it actually 
unfits hiin for usefulness. Uncle Remus 
has a saying, "When you put a book into 
a negro's hand you spoil a good plow 
hand." This notion still lurks in the 
minds of a surprisingly large number of 
people, who cite the wretched condition 
and dense ignorance of millions of negroes 



after fifty years of freedom. In 1910 thirty 
per cent of them were still illiterate. Li- 
braries can not flourish in illiteracy as 
trees can not grow in a desert. 

There are, however, oases in the desert, 
bright and shining examples of individuals, 
schools and whole communities, which 
have demonstrated the negro's capacity for 
the highest education and development. 
There is a growing disposition to afford 
him full opportunity for making the most 
of himself. 

While some librarians are urging action, 
others shrink from it as from a disagree- 
able task. One is endeavoring to look at 
the subject of a negro library from the mis- 
sionary standpoint and is trying to con- 
vince the trustees that such an innovation 
would be desirable, but finds it very hard 
to arouse any interest and enthusiasm. An- 
other proposes to let the question alone till 
forced to take action. Another reports 
that the city is on the verge of the ques- 
tion. Another is having difficulty to find a 
central location for a colored library where 
white people do not object. One city with 
a branch library in a negro high school 
considers it an easy way out of a difficult 
situation. The authorities realize that the 
time is coming when these facilities will no 
longer be adequate. At present their 
funds are needed so much in other direc- 
tions that they hope to be able to postpone 
this added expense for some time to come. 
One library having a special room for 
negroes never pushes this part of its work, 
but does only what it is compelled to do by 
city ordinance. Another where there is no 
race distinction tells how the library is 
overrun at times with negroes and what a 
drawback this is to the work. 

Some lend books to negroes but do not 
allow them to sit in the reading room. This 
practice is not established by rule and 
regulation but rests on the disposition of 
the librarians to be helpful to all. Public 
sentiment will tolerate it in this form while 
it would rebel at an attempt to guarantee 
the same service in formal rules. 



YUST 



Table of Leading Cities 



161 



Following is a table of some of the chief southern cities showing their status with 
respect to negro libraries. The letter x denotes a negro educational institution hav- 
ing a library of 1,000 volumes or more. 



City 



Negro 

Population 1910 Public 
Total Negro Lib. 



Remarks 



Alabama 



Birmingham 132,685 52,305 No 

Mobile 51,521 22,763 No 

Montgomery 38,136 19,322 No 

Delaware 

Wilmington 87,411 9,081 Yes Admitted to Wilmington Inst. Lib. without 

distinction. 
District of Columbia 

Washington . ..331,069 94,446 Yes Admitted to Pub. Lib. without distinction. 

2 x. 
Florida 
Jacksonville 81,640 40,020 Yes Sep. room & sep. books in Carnegie lib. 

Georgia 

Atlanta.. 154,839 51,902 No 4 x. 

Macon 40,665 18,150 No 

Savannah 65,064 33,246 Yes Small sep. lib. of little consequence. 

Kentucky 

Covington 53,270 2,899 No 

Lexington 35,099 11,011 Yes Draw bks. at same desk with whites; sep 

reading room; little used. 
Louisville 223,928 40,522 Yes $30,000 Carnegie branch of pub. lib.; 2nd 

branch $22,500 being built. 
Louisiana 

New Orleans 339,075 89,262 No $25,000 Carnegie branch to be built. 4 x. 

Maryland 

Baltimore 558,485 84,749 Yes Pratt free lib. admits without distinction. 

2 x. 
Missouri 

Kansas City 248,381 23,566 Yes Pub. lib. admits without distinction. 

St. Louis 687,029 43,960 Yes Pub. lib. admits without distinction. 

St. Joseph 77,403 4,249 Yes Pub. lib. admits without distinction. 

North Carolina 
Raleigh 19,218 Yes Sep. bldg. erected by city. Poorly supported. 

Oklahoma 
Oklahoma City 64,205 6,546 Yes Pub. lib. admits without distinction. 

Tennessee 

Chattanooga 44,604 17,942 314 vols. placed in col. high schools as a 

beginning. 

Memphis 131,105 52,431 Yes Cossitt Lib. supplies books thru LeMoyne 

Inst. 1 x. 



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KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



Nashville 110,364 36,523 No 

Texas 

Dallas 92,104 18,024 No 

Galveston 36,981 8,036 Yes 

Houston 78,800 23,924 Yes 

San Antonio 96,614 10,716 ? 

Virginia 

Norfolk 67,452 25,039 No 

Richmond 127,618 46,733 No 



$25,000 Carnegie Branch to be built. 2 x. 



Branch of Rosenberg lib. in col. high sch'l. 
$15,000 Carnegie bldg. under negro board. 



This city has no pub. library. 



Cities Having Colored Libraries 

Charlotte, N. C., is the first and only city 
to build a library for negroes with its own 
funds. After erecting a $25,000 Carnegie 
building it spent $5,000 on a site and a sep- 
arate building for negroes which was 
opened in 1906. But its only income for 
maintenance is $400 a year from the city. 
Most of the books have been donated. In 
1911 the librarian of the white library 
enlisted the interest of a Pittsburgh 
woman who collected about 600 volumes 
for it in the North. The librarian at Wilkes- 
Barr6, Pa., sends it the best of her dis- 
carded books. From these facts one may 
infer what kind of standard is maintained. 

The white library was incorporated by 
the legislature in a special act, which at 
the same time created a separate negro 
board. Several ineffectual efforts have 
been made to have the act changed to 
place the colored library under control of 
the white board and the supervision of the 
white librarian. This would undoubtedly 
result in greater efficiency, as now every- 
body including the colored board seems to 
be inactive and indifferent toward it. Its 
failure however can hardly be ascribed to 
the negro board alone because it is mani- 
festly impossible with such resources 
under such conditions to conduct a library 
which would command the respect and the 
interest of either race. 

Savannah, Ga., also has a small library 
for negroes. It was organized in 1907 
and is housed in rented quarters, but very 
few persons seem to know of its existence. 
The city appropriates $360 a year for it. 
In 1911 it had 2,611 volumes and 1,244 



were drawn for home use. Its total receipts 
were $375.77. At the end of the year $35 
was due the librarian for salary and there 
was a deficit of $33.93. In 1910 Mr. Carne- 
gie offered $12,000 for a colored branch 
building and the city has promised an 
increased appropriation on the completion 
of the building. For a time the negroes 
tried to raise the money for a site by sub- 
scription, but so far they have not suc- 
ceeded. 

Jacksonville, Fla., has in its Carnegie 
building a separate room and books in 
charge of a colored attendant. Of its 
81,000 population half are colored, but the 
negro registration is only five per cent and 
the circulation six per cent of the whole. 
No effort is being made to extend it. The 
opinion prevails that the arrangement is 
a mistake and that a branch library in the 
negro quarter would bring out a much 
larger use. 

Galveston, Texas, has had a branch of 
the Rosenberg library in the colored high 
school since 1904. It contains 2,745 
volumes. With a colored population less 
than one-fifth as large as Jacksonville it 
has twice as many borrowers but circulates 
only one-fourth as many books, 2,433 last 
year. This seems a very small number and 
does not bear out the theory that a sep- 
arate branch enlarges its use. 

In Memphis, Tenn., the Cossitt library 
in 1903 entered into an agreement with 
the LeMoyne Institute, a colored normal 
school, which furnishes the room, and the 
Cossitt library furnishes the librarian and 
the books, which number about four thou- 
sand added to a like number belonging to 



YUST 



163 



the school. While these are used mainly 
by pupils and teachers of the school, it 
serves as the book supply for all interested 
negroes in the city and surrounding dis- 
trict. 

The facilities thus furnished seem to 
meet the present demands pretty fully. 
Much depends on the librarian's attitude, 
which is helpful and encouraging. The cir- 
culation last year was 13,947 vols. The 
institute is erecting a new school building, 
which will provide better library accommo- 
dations. 

Louisville, Ky., was the first to establish 
a full-fledged branch on a broad basis and 
to erect a separate branch library building 
for negroes. The original plan for ten 
Carnegie branch libraries, of which seven 
have been built, included two for negroes. 
The first of these was opened in rented 
quarters the same year as the main library 
in 1905. Three years later it was moved 
into the new $30,000 building. 

In its administration the colored branch 
is a part of the general library system and 
is under the supervision of the main 
library. The branch librarian, who is a 
graduate of Hampton Institute, and the two 
assistants are colored. 

The branch serves as the reference 
library for the colored high schools and 
other educational institutions. It is in 
close co-operation with the grade schools 
through the collections of books which it 
sends to the class-rooms to be drawn by 
the pupils for home use. 

It has an assembly room which is used 
for lectures, entertainments and numerous 
other public meetings, and two class-rooms 
for smaller gatherings. There is a story 
hour for children and several reading and 
debating clubs for boys and girls and 
adults. Through its various activities the 
library not only circulates books and fur- 
nishes facts but it is an educational and 
social center from which radiate many in- 
fluences for general betterment. 

Fine work is being done with children, 
who draw 68 per cent of the books circu- 
lated. An interesting account of it is 
given in the Library Journal for April, 1910, 



25:160-61, by Mrs. Rachel D. Harris, a 
former teacher in the colored schools, who 
is in charge of this department. 

When the branch was started eight years 
ago it was somewhat of an experiment and 
there was doubt and apprehensiveness all 
around with regard to the outcome of the 
undertaking. But it has been a pronounced 
success from the beginning. It has grown 
steadily until last ^year 73,462 vols. were 
drawn from it for home use. It has be- 
come so popular that the second branch 
is now under construction in the eastern 
colored section of the city. 

The colored people are proud of this 
library and its achievements. Its opening 
marked an epoch in the development of 
the race which is second in importance 
only to the opening of the first colored free 
schools there in 1870 t 

Houston, Texas, also has a separate 
branch building opened last April. For the 
past four years it was maintained in a 
small way in the colored high school. The 
new building is distinctively a product of 
negro enterprise. Booker T. Washington's 
secretary called on Andrew Carnegie per- 
sonally and secured the promise of $15,000 
on condition that the city of Houston 
would agree to provide not less than $1,500 
annually for its maintenance. The $1,500 
for the site was raised by colored citizens 
entirely among their own people. The 
plans for the building were drawn by a 
colored architect and its erection super- 
vised by a committee of a separate board 
of trustees, which consisted of nine col- 
ored men. The librarian is a colored girl 
who is responsible only to the colored 
trustees. Although she and the trustees 
consult freely with the librarian and trus- 
tees of the public library, the latter act 
only in an advisory capacity to them. They 
are therefore justly proud of the library 
as their own achievement. It contains 
5,000 volumes. From a colored population 
of 30,000 the registered borrowers were 
only 1,261 last year and the books drawn 
5,117. These numbers seem very small, 
but no doubt there will be a large increase 
in the new building. 



164 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



While the Houston method of manage- 
ment may contribute to the negro's self- 
respect and minister somewhat to Uie 
pride and independence of a few of their 
number, the wisdom of the plan may well 
be questioned. The results are bound to 
be inferior unless experience counts for 
nothing. It is unfortunate that so many 
cities in their first venture proceed with 
such disregard of the experience of other 
places. But the limit is reached when the 
same city repeats the process with a 
second board after one board has learned 
its lesson. This applies not only to the 
details of planning, erecting and furnishing 
a building but equally if not more to its 
operation, the selection, purchase and cata- 
loging of books, the appointment of assist- 
ants and the transacting of its daily busi- 
ness. 

The white public library boards of Nash- 
ville and New Orleans both have plans 
under way for the erection of Carnegie 
colored branch buildings, each to cost 
$25,000. In Nashville the negroes are 
raising $1,000 and the city is paying $5,000 
toward the site. In New Orleans the city 
will purchase the site. In neither of these 
places is there any public provision at 
present for supplying books to negroes. 

In Atlanta, Ga., the leading educational 
center of the South for negroes, they are 
still without public library facilities, 
although agitation on the subject began 
over ten years ago. On the day of the 
opening of the beautiful $125,000 Carnegie 
building a committee of colored men called 
on the library board. Prof. W. E. B. Du- 
Bois of Atlanta University acting as 
spokesman said: 

"Gentlemen, we are a committee come 
to ask you to do justice to the black peo- 
ple of Atlanta by giving them the same 
free library privileges that you propose 
giving to whites. Every argument which 
can be adduced to show the need of libra- 
ries for whites applies with redoubled 
force to the negroes. More than any other 
part of our population they need instruc- 
tion, inspiration and proper diversion; they 
need to be lured from temptation of the 



streets and saved from evil influences, and 
they need a growing acquaintance with 
what the best of the world's souls have 
thought and done and said. It seems 
hardly necessary in the twentieth century 
to argue before men like you the necessity 
and propriety of placing the best means 
of human uplifting into the hands of the 
poorest and lowest and blackest. 

"The spirit of this great gift to the city 
has not the spirit of caste or exclusion but 
rather the catholic spirit which recognizes 
no artificial differences of rank or birth or 
race, but seeks to give all men equal oppor- 
tunity to make the most of themselves. It 
is our sincere hope that this city will prove 
itself broad enough and just enough to 
administer this trust in the true spirit in 
which it was given." 

The chairman asked, "Do you not think 
that allowing whites and negroes to use 
this library would be fatal to its useful- 
ness?" Another member of the committee 
replied that they did not ask to use this 
library nor even ask equal privileges but 
only some privileges somewhere. 

The chairman then made these points 
clear: (1) That negroes would not be 
permitted to us.e the Carnegie Library in 
Atlanta; (2) That some library facilities 
would be provided for them in the future; 
(3) That the city council would be asked 
to appropriate a sum proportionate to the 
amount of taxes paid by negroes of the 
city; (4) That efforts would be made to 
induce northern philanthropists to aid such 
a library. 

Later Mr. Carnegie offered to give the 
money necessary for the erection of a 
branch library for negroes. When the 
details of its administration came up for 
consideration the negroes demanded rep- 
resentation on the library board. This was 
positively refused and the proceedings 
were so completely blocked that the 
negroes of Atlanta are still without any 
public library advantages. 

Methods of Management 

From the cases cited it appears that 
there are four distinct methods of dealing 



YUST 



165 



with this question in the South: (1) To 
admit the negro to the same building on 
equal terms with others as is done in 
Baltimore, Wilmington, Washington and 
some of the Missouri libraries. This 
method is not satisfactory to the whites. 
As one report says, "There are white peo- 
ple who are deterred from using the library 
because in so doing they must touch 
elbows with colored folks. . . . We 
could do better service to both races if 
there could be a separation, for we must 
take the people with their prejudices, 
especially in the use of the library, which 
is a purely voluntary matter." (2) To 
admit him to the same building but to a 
separate room, which is not satisfactory to 
the negro. One library which has this plan 
reports, "Many of the educated and cul- 
tured negroes (for there are some even in 
the South) will not come unless they can 
do so on the same social equality and use 
the same apartments as the white 
patrons." (3) To have a separate library 
under control of members of their own 
race. This is almost certain to produce 
inferior results on account of their inex- 
perience and lack of knowledge regarding 
every phase of the work. (4) To have a 
separate^ branch in charge of colored assist- 
ants who are under the direction and sup- 
ervision of one board and one librarian, 
who have control over the entire library 
including all branches and other agencies. 
This plan assures the greatest economy 
and efficiency and will probably be adopted 
by all the libraries whose funds will permit 
it. A separate colored board is as unneces- 
sary and unbusinesslike as would be a 
separate board for each white branch. 

On the advantages of a separate branch 
library one colored man writes: "In the 
South the separation is not only necessary 
for the peace and cordial relations desir- 
able to be maintained but the colored 
branches are desirable because the colored 
people would use them so a hundred times 
more than they would otherwise. The feel- 
ing of perfect welcome, ownership and un- 
qualified privilege are all necessary to 
patrons who are to get the best possible 



from libraries among them. These things 
in the South can only be had in separate 
branches as much as it is regrettable that 
there should be a mind and spirit demand- 
ing separate libraries." 

Traveling Libraries 

Delaware and Kentucky are the only 
state library commissions reporting spe- 
cial traveling libraries for negroes. Last 
year "seven traveling libraries of 30 to 50 
volumes each were arranged for the use 
of the colored schools in Delaware, and 
the entire charge and care of these libra- 
ries was given over to the State College for 
Colored Students near Dover." The Ken- 
tucky commission has two libraries of 50 
volumes each in circulation and is planning 
to send more. Hampton Institute also 
sends out traveling collections of books. 

Another system of traveling libraries is 
that established in 1910 by James H. 
Gregory of Marblehead, Mass., for dis- 
tribution through Atlanta University 
among the negroes of the South. There 
are about 60 libraries of 48 volumes each. 
They are sent to any community, school, 
church or other organization for one year 
and then exchanged for a different set. 
Two interesting articles on these libraries 
and their founder were published by G. 
S. Dickerman in the Southern Workman 
August and September, 1910. 

What the Negro Reads 

What the negro reads is in itself a large 
and interesting subject. A brief article 
on it dealing equally with what the negro 
does not read, appeared in the Critic, July 
1906, from Mr. George B. Utley, then 
librarian of the Jacksonville public library. 
The first book drawn from the Louisville 
library was Washington's "Up from slav- 
ery." The most striking feature of the 
circulation in general is the comparatively 
small percentage of fiction read. Of the 
258,438 volumes drawn from the Louis- 
ville library during its first six years only 
46 per cent was fiction. 

This may be due to the fact that the 
so-called leisure class,. who are supposed to 



166 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



read most of the fiction, is smaller among 
the colored people; or that the novel does 
not appeal so strongly to the negro mind; 
or that the library is used more largely 
by pupils, teachers, ministers and other 
professional people, who come to it for 
more serious purposes. 

A book entitled "Tuskegee and its peo- 
ple," edited by Booker T. Washington, con- 
tains biographical sketches of many 
negroes who have gone out from that 
school to work for the elevation of their 
race. These sketches give a remarkable 
picture of the "conditions that environ the 
masses of the negro people," as well as 
their struggles for improvement. 

One of them describing the country 
school which he attended writes, "When 
I reached the point where the teacher 
ordered me to get a United States history, 
the book store did not have one, but sold 
me a biography of Martin Luther instead, 
which I studied for some time thinking 
that I was learning something about the 
II. S." 

Years later "I betook me to the woods, 
where I read everything I could get. It 
was during this time that accidentally, I 
may say providentially, I got hold of a 
book containing the life of Ignacius San- 
cho; and I have never read anything that 
has given me more inspiration. I wish 
every negro boy in the land might read 
it." 

Another Tuskegee graduate, a woman 
whose mother as a slave had been taught 
to read by her master's daughter, writes: 
"Sundays, with my sisters gathered about 
her knees, we would sit for hours listening 
as mother would read church hymns for 
us." 

The articles by Mr. Dickerman above 
referred to give the results of some investi- 
gations on their choice of books. He 
received answers from 35 leading negro 
schools in response to a request for a list 
of such "books as had been found in the 
experience of their schools to be the most 
popular and the best and which they would 
recommend." The "Life of Lincoln" appear- 
ed on 15 of these lists; "Little women" 15; 



"Robinson Crusoe" 14; "Paul Dunbar" 11; 
"Uncle Tom's cabin" 10; "Ivanhoe" 9; 
"Souls of black folk" 9; "Ramona" 8; "Life 
of Douglass" 8; "Uncle Remus" 7. Six 
lists included "Alice in wonderland," 
Grimm's "Fairy tales," "John Halifax," 
"Last days of Pompeii," and "Swiss family 
' Robinson." 

These lists all came from schools and 
therefore bear the earmarks of the school- 
master. But the largest part of the read- 
ing by negroes is done by the pupils and 
teachers in connection with their school 
work. This would account for the pre- 
ponderance of the literature and history 
classes. Miss Sarah B. Askew observes 
that among the general readers in a pub- 
lic library "the colored people's tastes are 
for quick action, strong emotion, vivid 
coloring, and simplicity of narration." 
Books by and about their own people are 
in constant demand. The colored maga- 
zines, those devoted especially to their 
interests and those published by colored 
men are always popular. 

There is also a growing demand for 
books useful to the mechanic in his daily 
work. Chauffeurs "avail themselves of 
technical books on automobiles." An early 
experience in the Louisville library was 
with a woman who made a business of 
raising chickens. She called at the library 
for medical help because many of them 
were dying. Strangely enough this sub- 
ject had been overlooked in selecting the 
books and the librarian was unable to pre- 
scribe for sick chickens. But a book on 
poultry was ordered for her immediately. 

Conclusions 

Following are some conclusions regard- 
ing libraries for negroes: 

(1) That books and reading are of the 
utmost value in the education, development 
and progress of the race. 

(2) That in northern public libraries 
they are admitted to all privileges with- 
out distinction. 

(3) That in southern libraries the 
segregation of the races prevails, as it 



YUST 



167 



does, in all educational, religious and other 
social institutions. 

(4) That in many places institutional 
libraries are supplying the book wants of 
the few negroes who really have need of 
libraries. 

(5) That among the masses of the col- 
ored race there is as yet very little de- 
mand for libraries. 

(6) That where a genuine demand has 
manifested itself and up-to-date facilities 
have been provided negroes have been 
quick to use them and have made com- 
mendable progress. 

(7) That in some ol' the large cities 
containing a great many negroes who are 
intelligent and who pay taxes the pro- 
vision made for them is sadly inadequate 
or is entirely lacking. 

V 

(8) That southern librarians generally 
are kindly and helpfully disposed toward 
them and that the majority of the white 
people favor a fair deal for them, includ- 
ing the best training and the fullest en- 
lightenment. 

(9) That in the South any arrangement 
which aims to serve the two races in the 
same room or in the same building is detri- 
mental to the greatest good of both. Com- 
plete segregation is essential to the best 
work for all. 

(10) That many libraries are not finan- 
cially able to conduct separate depart- 
ments and so the negro loses out. 

(11) That a few cities have splendid 
facilities for them, a few others are now 
establishing branches, a considerable num- 
ber are discussing the question seriously 
and another considerable number which 
should be at work are doing nothing. 

(12) That the best solution of the prob- 
lem is the separate branch in charge of 

i colored assistants under the supervision 
and control of the white authorities. 

(13) That even in northern cities which 
have large segregated colored districts 
such separate branches would result in 
reaching a larger number of negroes and 
doing better work for both races. 

(14) That the South is entitled to the 
sympathy and help of the North on this 



question, which is only a part of the larger 
question of negro education. That sym- 
pathy will come with fuller information 
and will increase as the size and serious- 
ness of the problem is more fully under- 
stood. 
Adjourned. 

THIRD GENERAL SESSION 
(Wednesday morning, June 25, 1913) 

The PRESIDENT: There is a matter of 
business to come up this morning. At the 
last conference the Association adopted an 
amendment to the Constitution which, to 
become effective, must be ratified at this 
meeting. It may be added that the requi- 
site notice required by the Constitution, of 
thirty days, has been given by the Secre- 
tary, through publication in the Bulletin, 
where you have doubtless seen the pro- 
posed amendment together with the by- 
law which is dependent, of course, upon 
the adoption of the amendment itself. The 
Secretary will please read the proposed 
amendment as adopted at the Ottawa con- 
ference. 

The SECRETARY: I will also read that 
portion of Section 14 of the Constitution 
to which the amendment would apply: 

"Council. Membership. The Council 
shall consist of the executive board, all 
ex-presidents of the Association who con- 
tinue as members thereof, all presidents 
of affiliated societies who are members of 
the Association, twenty-five members elect- 
ed by the Association at- large, and twen- 
ty-five elected by the Council itself," 

And the proposed amendment consists of 
the following words to be inserted at that 
place: 

"and one member from each state, pro- 
vincial and territorial library association 
or any association covering two or more 
such geographical divisions which com- 
plies with the conditions for such repre- 
sentation set' forth in the by-laws." 

The PRESIDENT: The amendment is 
before you for consideration. What is your 
pleasure? Are you ready for the question? 

(The question being called for and put, 
the amendment was adopted.) 

The PRESIDENT: Dependent upon the 
adoption of the amendment to the Consti- 



168 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



tution there is now before you for consid- 
eration a proposed amendment to the by- 
laws. The Secretary will please read the 
suggested amendment which carries into 
effect now the Constitutional amendment 
which you have just adopted and which 
becomes effective, in that it has now been 
adopted by two successive conferences. 

(The Secretary then read the proposed 
amendment Section 3a, which is as fol- 
lows: 

"Sec. 3a. Each state, territorial and pro- 
vincial library association (or any associa- 
tion covering two or more such geo- 
graphical divisions) having a membership 
of not less than fifteen members, may be 
represented in the Council by the presi- 
dent of such association, or by an alternate 
elected at the annual meeting of the as- 
sociation. The annual dues shall be $5.00 
for each association having a membership 
of fifty or less, and ten cents per additional 
capita where membership is above that 
number. The privileges and advantages 
of the A. L. A. conferences shall be avail- 
able only to those holding personal mem- 
bership or representing institutional mem- 
bership in the Association." 

The President then put the question and 
the above amendment to the by-laws was 
duly adopted. 

Dr. ANDREWS: I move the addition of 
the words "or to members of other affili- 
ated societies," in order not to bar these 
members from attendance at our meetings. 

The PRESIDENT: Dr. Andrews' amend- 
ment is to include the words "or to mem- 
bers of other affiliated societies." 

Mr. RANCK: I think, as a member of 
the Committee that had something to do 
with the drafting of the proposed by-law, 
that I can say that the purpose of that 
provision was that there should be some 
advantage to persons holding membership 
in these organizations, to get the railroad 
rates, hotel rates, etc.; in other words, to 
have some pecuniary advantage in their 
becoming members and not to be able to 
come and get those advantages without 
holding any kind of a membership. 

If I may be permitted, Mr. President, I 
should like to give a few figures with ref- 
erence to the distribution of the members 



of the Council as it now exists, as given 
in the last handbook. There were 72 mem- 
bers of the Council, counting the one or 
two who have died, representing 48 states, 
the District of Columbia and Canada. How- 
ever, in the Council only 20 States in the 
Union have representation. In other words, 
there are 28 states in the Union that are 
not represented in the Council. The popu- 
lation of these 28 states is nearly thirty- 
three millions and their area is nearly 
two million square miles, whereas the area 
of the states that are represented is a lit- 
tle over a million square miles. The point 
is, Mr. President, the purpose of the 
amendment to the Constitution and these 
amendments is to give a wider geographi- 
cal distribution of representation in the 
Council; in other words, that more than 
half of the area of the United States may 
be brought in, on account of this geographi- 
cal representation, and that the thirty- 
three millions of people who live in those 
states may be able to get a representation 
which it seems at the present time they do 
not have. 

The PRESIDENT: The question before 
the conference is on the proposed amend- 
ment of the by-law as offered by Dr. An- 
drews. 

(The President put the question and the 
amendment was duly adopted.) 

The PRESIDENT: The question now is 
upon the amendment to the by-laws as 
amended. 

(The President put the question and the 
amendment to the by-laws was duly adopt- 
ed.) 

The PRESIDENT: The Association dur- 
ing the past year suffered grievous loss 
m the passing of two of its notable mem- 
bers, members who had long been identi- 
fied with the Association and its work, 
and I may add the loss of a friend of li- 
brarians everywhere, that splendid gentle- 
man, Mr. Francis Fisher Browne, of The 
Dial, a man gentle of soul, keen of intel- 
lect and fine of fiber. While perhaps we 
are not called upon to take official notice 
of his passing it seems to me very well 
that we should group him with those 



MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS 



whose loss we mourn at this time. By re- 
quest of the Executive Board and of the 
Council a committee consisting of Dr. Put- 
nam, Mr. Bowker and Mr. Wellman have 
been asked to draft memorial resolutions 
on the passing of Dr. Billings and Mr. 
Soule and I would ask Dr. Putnam to re- 
port at this time. 

Dr. PUTNAM: With your permission I 
will ask Mr. Wellman to read the sug- 
gested minute with reference to Mr. Soule. 
And the Committee would suggest that if 
the expression in these minutes appears to 
you just, that they be adopted by a rising 
vote. 

Mr. Wellman then read the following 
resolution which was unanimously adopted 
by a rising vote. 

CHARLES CARROLL SOULE 

With profound sorrow, we record the 
death of Charles C. Soule, whose services 
and relation to the American Library As- 
sociation were in many ways unique. 
Though himself not a librarian, yet in the 
early days of the public library he was 
one of those who foresaw the great fore* 
which it might be made to exert in our 
democratic civilization; and to promote 
the wise realization of this vision, he la- 
bored unceasingly as a member of this As- 
sociation for more than thirty years and 
was a constant attendant at the meetings. 
He served as vice-president in 1890, as 
member of the Institute for six years, as 
member of the Council for eight years, as 
trustee of the endowment fund for twelve 
years, and as a member of the Publishing 
Board for eighteen years. But his distinc- 
tive contribution was in efforts towards 
the improvement of library architecture; 
and here by his study and writings, as 
well as by creating the office of advisory 
expert in building, he did more than any 
other man to further the planning of li- 
brary buildings for library work. 

In reciting the tale of his accomplish- 
ment, it is impossible to forget the man. 
Unselfish and high-minded, a good counsel- 
lor and a consistent friend, he ever showed 
eager and affectionate -interest in the work 



of his fellow members, and especially in 
the success of those beginning their ca- 
reers. Above all, he possessed a generous 
faith in his associates and an unfailing 
good will. These were but a few of the 
qualities which enabled him to achieve so 
much for the public library, and which en- 
deared him to hosts of librarians through- 
out the land. 

Dr. PUTNAM: Mr. President, this is pro- 
posed as a minute for the records of the 
Association. It is therefore headed "John 
Shaw Billings." 

The resolution was unanimously adopt- 
ed by a rising vote. 

JOHN SHAW BILLINGS 

April 12, 1838 March 18, 1913 
A member of the American Library Asso- 
ciation 1881-1913 Its President, 1901-02 

It is seldom that the death of an indi- 
vidual removes from two professions a 
unit of singular power in each. But such 
was the loss in the recent death of John 
Shaw Billings; a scientist in a department 
of science intensive and exacting, a libra- 
rian rigorously scientific in a profession 
broadly humane. To the former he made 
original contributions which constituted 
him an authority within special fields; but 
also in his great Index-Catalog of Medi- 
cal Literature, one which assured certain- 
ty and promoted advance in every field 
and left the entire medical profession his 
debtor. As a librarian, having first 
brought to preeminence the professional 
library entrusted to him, he was called to 
the organization into a single system of 
isolated funds and institutions, achieved 
that organization, and lived to see it, under 
his charge develop into the largest gen- 
eral library system in the world, with a 
possible influence upon our greatest me- 
tropolis of incalculable importance to it, 
and through it, to the welfare of our entire 
country. 

The qualities which enabled him to ac- 
complish all this included not merely cer- 
tain native abilities among them, penetra- 
tion, concentration, vigor, tenacity of pur- 
pose and directness of method, but others 



170 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



developed by self-denial, self-discipline, 
and a complete dedication to the work in 
hand. It was through these that he earned 
his education and his scientific training; 
and they hardened into habits which at- 
tended him to the end of his days, when he 
concluded in toil that shirked no detail a 
life begun in toil and devoted to detail. 

Such habits, a keen faculty of analysis, 
and a scientific training kept him aloof 
alike from hasty generalizations and from 
the impulses of mere emotion; while his 
military training induced in him three 
characteristics which marked alike his 
treatment of measures and his dealings 
with men; incisiveness, a distaste for the 
superfluous and the redundant, and an in- 
sistence upon the suitable subordination of 
the part to the whole. In this combination, 
and in the knowledge of, and power over, 
men which accompanied it, he was unique 
among librarians; in his complete lack of 
ostentation he was unusual among men. 
His mind was ever on the substance, in- 
different to the form. A power in two pro- 
fessions, to have termed him the "orna- 
ment" of either would have affronted him; 
for he was consistently impatient of the 
merely ornamental. Any personal ostenta- 
tion was actually repugnant to him; and he 
avoided it as completely in what he suf- 
fered as in what he achieved; bearing, 
with a reticence that asked no allowances, 
physical anguish in which most men would 
have found ample excuse from every care. 

If such a combination of traits assured 
his remarkable efficiency, it might not have 
seemed calculated to promote warm per- 
sonal or social attachments. Yet there was 
in him also a singular capacity for friend- 
ship; not indeed for impulsive and indis- 
criminate intimacies, but for those selective, 
deep, steady and lasting friendships which 
are proof of the fundamental natures of 
men. And however terse, austere, and 
even abrupt, his manner in casual rela- 
tions, where a really human interest was at 
stake he might be relied upon for sympa- 
thies both warm and considerate, and the 
more effective because consistently just 
and inevitably sincere. 



The testimonies to these qualities in his 
character, to these powers, and to his va- 
ried achievements, have already been many 
and impressive. The American Library 
Association wishes to add its own, with 
a special recognition not merely of the 
value to the community of the things 
which he accomplished, but of the value to 
individuals in the example of a character 
and abilities so resolutely developed and 
so resolutely applied to the service of sci- 
ence and the service of men. 

The PRESIDENT: To offer a telegram 
as a substitute for a long and pleasurably 
anticipated paper is cause for regret, but 
such must be the case this morning as 
Miss Arnold finds it impossible to be with 
us. The telegram reads as follows: 

"Emergency meeting of Simmons Col- 
lege Corporation has been appointed for 
Wednesday and prevents me from attend- 
ing library meeting. Extreme regrets." 
SARAH LOUISE ARNOLD." 

The general theme of this morning's 
session is "Library influence in the home, 
in the shop, on the farm, and among de- 
fectives and dependents." We shall begin 
the morning's program with a paper on 
"The working library for the artisan and 
the craftsman," by EDWARD F. STEV- 
ENS, librarian Pratt Institute free library, 
and director of the school of library sci- 
ence, Brooklyn. 



It is not my privilege to speak to you 
at this time of the professional, technical, 
or practical aspects of that recent phase 
of library work wherein is attempted the 
reconciliation of shopmen with bookmen. 
In the very few moments placed at my 
disposal I may mention only that human 
relationship which enters so largely into a 
librarian's dealings with men who are con- 
cerned with and about their work. 

The straightforward, sympathetic inter- 
course of man with man may adorn to 
the point of making almost beautiful a de- 
partment of librarianship which is ex- 
tremely matter-of-fact in its essential char- 



STEVENS 



171 



acter and might easily become common- 
place in its practicality. The business of a 
technology department in a public library 
may best be expressed in terms of the 
statement of the policy of the Franklin 
Union established in recent years in Phila- 
delphia "the further education of men al- 
ready employed." Such a working library 
is strictly a library of work. It is almost 
oppressively utilitarian. Yet to a librarian 
who has had the privilege of making books 
known to artisans and craftsmen, and who 
is now denied that privilege, the sense of 
the loss of the fellowships, not to say 
friendships, that formerly were a part of 
his daily occupation proves that the sym- 
pathetic was after all the potential ele- 
ment in his experience. 

I may say with Lowell, "I like folks who 
like an honest piece of steel. . . . There 
is always more than the average human 
nature in a man who has a hearty sym- 
pathy with irpn." 

Theodore Roosevelt has given us a max- 
im that deserves to be written as a rule 
of life "That which one does which all 
can do but won't do is the greatest of 
greatness." 

Therein is the greatness of work with 
practical men the discernment of the 
simplest facts of life, the performance of 
the simplest acts of life in working out the 
complex things of life, recognizing, to be- 
gin with, that a man's difficulty Is at once 
less a difficulty when it becomes the 
friendly concern of a fellow-man. My own 
first experience as a seeker after help in 
a public library in matters technical that 
were then of great importance to me, met 
the rebuff and disappointment that have 
given me a point of view which amounts to 
a conviction. 

In the present day, the library assumes 
considerable confidence in inviting the 
workingman into its constituency, and the 
workingman must come to it with no less 
confidence if the library expects its justi- 
fication. The mechanic, as formerly the 
scholar, must approach the library with a 
calculated expectation. The librarian 
must understand him, believe in him, and 



in turn make himself understood by him. 

In a recent issue of the American Ma- 
chinist, a writer deplores the general lack 
of sympathy and interest in the affairs of 
the "unheralded mechanic." That the life 
he lives has no place in men's thoughts 
nor in literature. This is the closing state- 
ment: "As it is, if left to themselves, me- 
chanics will by their silence continue to 
let those outside the shop think of them as 
nothing but men tied to a whistle." 

Leigh Hunt (himself very much an out- 
sider) in a familiar essay makes this 
friendly observation: "A business of 
screws and iron wheels is, or appears to 
be, a very commonplace matter; but not 
so the will of the hand that sets them in 
motion; not so the operations of the mind 
that directs them what to utter." 

But this mechanic that now nears the 
public library is coming neither as a pa- 
thetic figure in distress, nor as a myste- 
rious or heroic figure beyond our compre- 
hension. He comes as an unpretending 
man dignified by earnestness of purpose 
not to discredit an honorable vocation. 

The best of mutual understanding and 
feeling, however, will not secure the chief 
ends of librarianship except so far as they 
splendidly prepare the way. The recog- 
nition of books as tools comes only as the 
books stand the same practical test that 
the workman applies to his instruments. 

The librarian must furnish books shaped 
to the man's hand, books that he can use 
to perform work, that he can depend upon 
as true, accurate, precise, simple, efficient, 
economical, reliable in the same sense that 
his tools must be all these. And so, the 
selection of books for a working library 
of technology becomes not unlike the test- 
ing of instruments of precision. Care in 
selection is of supreme importance in fit- 
ting up a toolshop of books. 

Wisdom in application is scarcely sec- 
ond to intelligence in choice. A practical 
man does not often come to a library for 
this or that particular book, for the work 
of a specified author, or for a title that he 
has in mind. If he does, he cannot always 
be depended upon to know his own wishes 



172 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



in the matter. What this man wants Is 
information about a topic that concerns 
him. He leaves It to the library to tell him 
in what printed form that information can 
be had and it's risky, for the library, to 
trifle with him or to play him false. Hesi- 
tation, indecision, irresolution are fatal. If 
the library exhibits lack of faith in itself, 
who, indeed, shall have faith in it? The 
workingman will be sure to entertain the 
same contempt for the librarian's doubtful 
application of even the best books as he 
himself would of the misuse of good tools 
in his own trade. 

This necessity for books that will an- 
swer to needs is the incentive in the erec- 
tion of a working library to which men 
may resort. 

At home we have a permanent and con- 
stantly revised selection of the most useful 
technical books registered on cards of 
varying colors showing the differing char- 
acteristics of the books included. This is 
our Works Library. And within it, on 
blue cards, are listed the simplest and 
most direct texts for the man with the 
least preparation for books. This is our 
Dinner-Pail Library. And starting with 
these, we may go on with a degree of con- 
fidence in teaching men the use of tools 
the handling of which we ourselves under- 
stand. 

Preparedness in attitude, preparedness 
in equipment, await the arrival of the 
man the most skeptical of the library's 
guests. Does he come and go away again 
confirmed in his skepticism? If he does, 
it's the library's fault, not his. Does he 
come, and remain, to come again? Then 
he is ready to pay the tribute of his al- 
legiance that becomes the librarian's great 
reward. 

We have heard the American Machinist 
complain that the mechanic found no voice 
to sing his praises. Not less is the genus 
librarian unwept, unhonored, and unsung. 
He expects praise as little as he desires 
it, and, perhaps, I may say, deserves it. 
But the ready word of appreciation, the 
acknowledgment of the library's help in 
overcoming difficulties that drove a man 



there as a last resort, the confession of 
awakening to the new knowledge of the 
library's wider purpose and "power, is ex- 
pressed often with a frankness and fervor 
that surprise and gratify the fortunate 
librarian who has been instrumental in 
bringing things to pass. 

I recall how men of few words and lit- 
tle sentiment have spontaneously related 
to me their experiences of misfortune, per- 
plexity, disappointment, or other embar- 
rassment that caused them to turn to the 
public library for a possible helping hand, 
and then, how the library did not fail them 
in their extremity. At such times, I knew 
that the free library was doing what it un- 
dertook to do. 

Of this sort are the few, the impressive 
instances that illustrate how, on occasions, 
a working library can meet very excep- 
tional requirements. There are also the 
very many the students, apprentices, 
shopmen, machinists, inventors, chemists, 
engineers, manufacturers all artisans and 
craftsmen in their various ways, who are 
coming to learn that in their usual daily 
processes they may expect from the pub- 
lic library the ordinary, indispensable serv- 
ice that the library has always performed 
for those who know the value of books. 

It is this complete idea of a library that 
still fails of development in the minds 
of these men, an idea that the library is a 
live thing, a public utility of which they 
will naturally and inevitably avail them- 
selves as they do of the street-cars to 
take them both to and away from their 
work. Nothing is needed to convince men 
that a utility is a utility save the satisfying 
use of it. When they have found that the 
library speeds them on in the direction of 
the day's occupation, then it becomes easy 
enough for them to learn that the libra- 
ry can also get them far removed from it. 
And when the workingman fully compre- 
hends the working library, and by means 
of it is introduced to the diverting library, 
he becomes a man with the greatest ca- 
pacity for usefulness, and the library's 
conquest of the community is finished and 
triumphant. 



STEARNS 



173 



The PRESIDENT: Mr. Stevens has very 
forcefully brought out the factor that a 
book may be in bringing into life dor- 
mant faculties that might otherwise go to 
waste and recalls to us the remark of 
Prof. Dewey, that the loss of the unearned 
increment is as nothing compared with 
the loss of the undiscovered resource. 

Of course you know as well as the mem- 
bers of the program committee that they 
had nothing to do with the selection of the 
next speaker; the topic chose her. How 
could anyone else be asked to present the 
subject of "The woman on the farm," than 
Miss LUTIE E. STEARNS, of the Wiscon- 
sin free library commission? 

THE WOMAN ON THE FARM 

Modern programs of library extension 
through public libraries as distinguished 
from traveling library systems are prac- 
tically confined to an arbitrary line drawn 
tightly around the city's limits. Charters, 
laws, or ordinances under which many li- 
braries operate are usually interpreted to 
restrict the use of such institutions to a 
narrow area and no great attempt has been 
made through legislation, save in Califor- 
nia and a few isolated examples elsewhere, 
to extend library privileges to adjacent 
communities. It is a happy omen for the 
future that the president of the American 
Library Association, the custodian of a li- 
brary catering to two-million city dwell- 
ers with a circulation second in rank to 
Greater New York, should have seen fit 
on his own initiative to place among the 
topics of this meeting the needs of the 
woman on the farm, the real founder of 
the city's citizenship. 

"Who's the greatest woman in history?" 
was the query debated by Kansas school 
teachers recently. They considered Joan 
of Arc, Queen Elizabeth, Semiramis, Cleo- 
patra, Cornelia, Catherine of Russia, Maria 
Theresa, Grace Darling, Florence Night- 
ingale, Susan B. Anthony, and half a hun- 
dred others. When they came to deciding, 
all the names known to fame were ruled 
out. And to whom do you suppose the 



Judges awarded the palm? Here is the an- 
swer: "The wife of the farmer of moder- 
ate means who does her own cooking, 
washing, ironing and sewing, brings up a 
family of boys and girls to be useful mem- 
bers of society and finds time for intellec- 
tual improvement." 

These teachers knew that woman, they 
knew the drudgery she faced at four or 
five o'clock every morning the year 'round. 
There are twenty millions of her in this 
country of ours, she makes up nearly one- 
fourth of the population of the country, 
and while we are dealing with these most 
"vital statistics," we may include th 
tragic fact that sixty-six per cent of those 
committed to insane hospitals are from 
rural districts, the farm women constitut- 
ing the great majority thereof. 

And yet the needs of this great, deserv- 
ing class of "humans" with minds and 
hearts even more receptive to ideas than 
are city women the needs of such as 
these are as yet almost wholly unrealized 
by librarians aside from Commission work- 
ers. No committee of the American Li- 
brary Association has ever had the joy of 
working out a program of library extension 
from the great city systems to rural read- 
ers. The question put by the then Presi- 
dent Roosevelt to his Country Life Com- 
mission, "How can the life of the farm 
family be made less solitary, fuller of op- 
portunity, freer from drudgery, more com- 
fortable, happier, and more attractive?" 
still awaits solution from the library stand 
point. 

Though agriculture is our oldest and by 
far our largest and most important indus- 
try, it has only recently occurred to us 
in the United States that we had a rural 
problem. It Is only within the last de- 
cade or so that we have awakened to the 
fact that there is a rural as well as an ur- 
ban problem, and the library world is too 
prone to keep from recognizing it. We 
are not concerned in this connection with 
the problem of the retired farmer who 
moves into a town to spend his last days 
which are, seemingly, all he is willing to 
spend; nor shall we discuss those restless 



174 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



flat dwellers in our cities who, tempted 
by such alluring and wholly immoral titles 
as "The Fat of the Land," "The Earth 
Bountiful," "A Self-Supporting Home," 
"Three Acres and a Cow," or "Three Acres 
and Liberty" "for those to whom the idea 
of liberty is more inspiring than that of 
the cow" attempt to start ginseng, guinea 
pig, pheasant, and peacock farms, and who 
return to the city as shorn of guineas as 
the pigs they leave behind them. 

In the serious solution of this problem, 
we may, in truth, differ as to the sort of 
farmers we would benefit. As Sir Horace 
Plunkett has said in his "Rural problem 
in America," "The New York City idea 
is probably that of a Long Island home 
where one might see on Sunday, weather 
permitting, the horny-handed son of week- 
day toil in Wall Street, rustically attired, 
inspecting his Jersey cows and aristocratic 
fowls. These supply a select circle in New 
York City with butter and eggs at a price 
which leaves nothing to be desired unless 
it be some information as to cost of pro- 
duction. Full justice is done to the new 
country life when the Farmers' Club of 
New York fulfills its chief function the 
annual dinner at Delmonico's. Then Agri- 
culture is extolled in fine Virgilian style, 
the Hudson villa and the Newport cottage 
being permitted to divide the honors of the 
rural revival with the Long Island home. 
"But to my bucolic intelligence," concludes 
Sir Horace, "it would seem that against 
the back-to-the-land movement of Satur- 
day afternoon, the captious critic might set 
the rural exodus of Monday morning." 

To the New England librarian there 
probably comes the picture of rugged, bean- 
clad hills with "electrics" in every valley 
eager to take the intellectual rustics to 
the Lowell lectures or the Boston Sym- 
phony Orchestra. That books are appre- 
ciated in the rural districts even in a state 
that boasts a library in every town is 
shown by a letter from one who had re- 
ceived the volumes sent out by the "Mass- 
achusetts Society to Encourage Studies at 
Home." "I do not know where I should 
stop if I tried to tell how much these li- 



brary books have helped me in my isolated 
life I have craved so much and there 
seemed no access possible to anything I 
wanted. I have lived always with a long- 
ing for something different; life was a bur- 
den to be carried cheerfuly, yet I never 
quite conquered the feeling that the bur- 
den was heavy. Books have taken away 
that feeling and before 1 was aware, the 
load war. gone. I have written thus of 
myself, not because my individual experi- 
ence is of importance enough to interest 
anyone, but because I believe the world 
is full of people with the same wants that 
I have and it may be some satisfaction to 
know how fully you are supplying them." 

To the librarian of New Jersey, the iso- 
lated dwellers of the salt marshes would 
come to mind. Maryland suggests to 
some librarian epicures the oyster farm, 
with its succulent product, but to others 
comes the vision of the "real thing" sup- 
plied as in Washington County with the 
ideal arrangement of central library, 
branches, deposit stations, traveling libra- 
ries, and automobile delivery to the very 
doors of the Maryland farm homes the 
most ideal arrangement of rural extension 
that exists in America today. 

To the Georgian, the "cracker" presents 
itself with its "Uneeda" book appeal. The 
"mountain-white" of Kentucky, who comes 
to Berea in his seventeenth year to learn 
his letters, would surely appreciate an op- 
portunity to go on with them when he gets 
"back home." In the north middle west, 
where farms are still surrounded by a 
fringe of pine and an "infinite destiny," a 
farmer's wife writes as follows: "For 
many years I have lived on a farm on the 
cleared land of Northern Wisconsin, and I 
have made an earnest study of the condi- 
tions that surround the lives of the aver- 
age isolated farmer and his family. I hav 
seen all of the loneliness and desolation of 
their lives, I have witnessed all the dreari- 
ness and poverty of their homes. I hav 
been with them when our nearest railroad 
station meant a twenty-eight mile trip 
through bottomless mud or over shaking 
corduroy; where our nearest post-office 



STEARNS 



175 



was eighteen miles away, over the same 
impassable roads and where we were often 
without mail for weeks at a time; when 
the nearest public library was sixty miles 
away; when the only element of culture or 
progress we possessed was the little back- 
woods school, housed in a tumble-down 
log shack and presided over by careless 
or incompetent teachers. I have watched 
civilization come to us step by step, the 
railroad, the rural mail delivery, the coun- 
try telephone, and other modern rural con- 
veniences. But, before any of these, right 
into the midst of our lonely backwoods 
life, came the traveling library, for it is 
characteristic of the traveling library that 
it is not dependent on modern con- 
veniences for its appearance. I can recall 
the thrill of joy with which we received 
our first case of books. I read their titles 
over and over, handled and caressed them 
in a perfectly absurd manner. Almost all 
of the books were old- friends of mine; but, 
to our little neighborhood of foreigners, 
they were "brand new" and the enthusi- 
asm over that library knew no bounds. 

"We had a regular literary revival that 
winter. We talked books in season and 
out of season; and from talking about the 
books in the little library we fell to talking 
of other books; of books we had read in 
our younger, happier days. It mattered 
little if in the course of these conversa- 
tions books and authors were hopelessly 
mixed. 

"I cannot say that we derived any great 
amount of knowledge from our first libra- 
ry, but I do know that it brought into our 
little backwoods settlement, that which we 
needed much more hope and courage and 
an interest in life. That was my first in- 
troduction to the traveling library, but 
during the years that have gone since 
then, I have seen much of the work of 
these little cases of books. While it is 
true that the traveling library does not 
always meet with as enthusiastic a recep- 
tion as our little settlement gave it that 
winter, yet it always comes to our rural 
communities as a help and inspiration. My 



appreciation of the worth of the traveling 
library has grown with the years." 

"Once a library meant nothing but rows 
of books and its influence was confined 
to narrow limits. However with the estab- 
lishment of the traveling library, these 
books have become veritable missionaries 
penetrating to all sorts of dreary, isolated 
places, carrying with them a culture and 
a pleasure that will aid in illuminating 
the long, dreary path of existence with 
the color of happiness." 

As one farmer's wife has it in another 
locality, "Good books drive away neighbor- 
hood discussion of the four deadly D's 
Diseases, Dress, Descendants and Domes- 
tics." 

Olive Schreiner in her wonderful and 
heart searching study of "Woman and La- 
bor," has pointed out that at first woman 
hunted with the man, and later when the 
race settled in one spot, the woman was 
the tiller of the soil and the man the hunt- 
er and warrior. Then when man no long- 
er needed to hunt or fight, the woman 
moved within the house and the man tilled 
the fields. The woman became the isolat- 
ed one. Isolation is the menace of farm 
life just as congestion is of city life. This 
isolation has a depressing effect upon the 
intellectual life of those who require the 
stimulus of contact with others to keep 
their minds active. The woman on the 
farm, as Mr. Bailey has pointed out, is 
apt to become a fatalist. Floods, drought, 
storms, tornadoes, untimely frosts, back- 
ward seasons, blight, predatory beasts, ani- 
mal and plant diseases render a season's 
great labor of no avail, or destroy the 
fruits of it within the hour. Along with 
these perennial discouragements comes the 
interminable round of getting up before 
sunrise and cooking, baking, dishwashing, 
sewing, mending, washing and ironing 
clothes from day to day, week to week, 
month to month, and year to year, with 
additional work peculiar to the seasons, 
such as at planting times, threshing and 
harvesting, fruit gathering and preserving, 
etc., etc., etc. The work of the farm is 
carried on in direct connection with the 



176 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



home, thus differing from nearly all the 
large industries, such as manufacturing 
and the like. The fact that agriculture is 
still a family industry where the work and 
home life are not separated, differentiates 
it from life in the city with its lack of a 
common business interest among all the 
members of the family. This condition 
tends to make rural life stable. The whole 
family stay at home evenings and one 
book is read aloud to the entire family 
circle. We still find the big family in the 
country where bridge whist and race-suicide 
cause and effect are as yet unknown. 
But the big family puts cares and respon- 
sibilities upon the mother on the farm and 
when one sees the "bent form, the tired 
carriage, the warped fingers and the thin, 
wrinkled features" of so many farmer's 
wives, one does not at first see anything 
but cruelty to animals in urging recrea- 
tion and reading upon such over-burdened 
women. But a brighter, industrial day is 
at hand. From perpetual motion to hours 
of reasonable industrial requirements the 
daily working period of the farmer is com- 
ing to be reduced by labor saving machin- 
ery. The modern gasoline engine, to my 
mind the most important contribution to 
civilization and culture in recent times, 
now pumps the water, saws and cuts the 
wood, runs the lighting plant, the washing 
machine, the milking machine, the cream 
separator, the churn, the sewing machine, 
the bread-mixer, the vacuum cleaner, the 
lawn mower, the coffee grinder, the ice 
cream freezer and even the egg-beater. 
These, with the fireless cooker, have re- 
lieved the housewife and made time for 
reading and other recreation. Good roads, 
rural free delivery, the interurban trol- 
ley car, the automobile and the rural tele- 
phone are removing the old-time isolation 
and are making possible enjoyment and 
a culture and refinement equal to that ot 
the business and professional classes of 
the cities. One thing only is still withheld 
from distinctly rural communities the op- 
portunity to get good books. 

It has been said so often it has become 
a truism that the rural districts are the 



seed bed from which the cities are stocked 
with people. Upon the character of this 
stock more than upon anything else does 
the greatness of a nation and the quality 
of its civilization ultimately depend. The 
importance of doing something with and 
for these people is paramount for the 
farms furnish the cities not alone with ma- 
terial products but with men and women. 
Census returns indicate that cities are 
gaining on the country all the time. We 
who wish to stop the rural exodus must 
co-operate with other agencies to make 
farm life more attractive and this we can 
do by opening our doors to farmers and 
their wives, the makers of men. It is our 
city's self-protection that there should 
come from the farms strong, well-educated 
minds, and we each should contribute our 
share to this end. A Chinese philosopher 
has said, "The well-being of a people is 
like a tree; agriculture is its root, man- 
ufacturing and commerce are its branches 
and its life; if the root is injured, the 
leaves fall, the branches break away and 
the tree dies." State universities and oth- 
er free educational agencies are recogniz- 
ing the fact that not the few but all, farm 
and city-bred alike, must be educated for 
life and through life. Commencement day 
is no longer the educational day of judg- 
ment for the individual. Rural consolidat- 
ed high schools are being built to supple- 
ment the little red school-house. Libraries, 
through extension of their service, must 
aid in the great agrarian movement of the 
day. We cannot all, perhaps, have the 
ideal arrangement as worked out in Mary- 
land by Miss Titcomb. It may not be pos- 
sible to cover other states with book wag- 
ons as Delaware proposes to do. We may 
not accomplish the California ideal of the 
county as the unit. We may not be able 
to send traveling libraries on their bene- 
ficent mission, but we each may try to let 
down the bars at our own reservoirs so 
that whosoever is athirst may come and 
drink of the waters of life freely. 

The PRESIDENT: Whenever I become 
rash enough to venture a comment upon 
any paper of Miss Stearns I always take 



ROBINSON 



177 



the precaution to do It before she pre- 
sents it; afterwards it is entirely superflu- 
ous. Yet I venture to express a thought 
which I am sure has occurred to you like- 
wise; that there is a very strong relation- 
ship between the two papers which have 
been presented this morning; that there 
is cause and coming effect in that the one 
activity of the library, as represented by 
the first paper, is making possible the mul- 
tiplication of these various devices which 
shall make for the woman on the farm the 
new day of which Miss Stearns has pro- 
phesied. 

During the last few years the library 
has entered another new field, an unsus- 
pected field. Those of us who have had 
an opportunity to go about to the various 
institutions where the defectives and the 
dependents and other unfortunates are in- 
carcerated have marvelled at the shall 
we say ignorance, which has been at the 
bottom of the book work with these peo- 
ple. But scientific methods have been in- 
troduced and during the last few confer- 
ences we have had something of the prom- 
ise which has now grown into fuller real- 
ization. I shall ask Miss JULIA A. ROB- 
INSON, who has done strong, splendid 
work in Iowa in this connection, to present 
the next paper, on 

BOOK INFLUENCES FOR DEFECTIVES 

AND DEPENDENTS: HELPING 

THOSE WHO CANNOT HELP 

THEMSELVES 

Needy humanity divides itself into three 
classes, those whom it is said the Lord 
helps, those who will not and those who 
cannot help themselves. In no form of 
need, however, are we interested today 
save that of the book, nor with the willful- 
ly book needy. 

For are not they served by the public 
libraries which go even into the highways 
and byways and wellnigh compel the un- 
interested to come to the feast freely of- 
fered to them? And though there are still 
rural districts not yet supplied with public 
or traveling libraries, many of them have 



the ability to provide themselves with 
books had they the desire. 

But there are those, not always removed 
by space but far removed by condition 
from such privileges, because crime, weak- 
ness or misfortune has deprived them of 
their freedom and for the safety of society, 
their own restoration to health or their 
care and education they are detained be- 
hind closed doors. These are the morally, 
mentally and physically defective and the 
dependent upon the bounty of the state. 
With this class of helpless are we concern- 
ed, with their needs and with what is being 
done to bring to them the influence of 
books. Of their needs let me speak briefly 
while I define and locate the different 
classes, giving a few figures which perhaps 
may not be amiss in helping us to realize 
their numbers. 

Of the moral defectives 113,579 have 
heard the grated doors of prison, peniten- 
tiary or reformatory close behind them, 
for some never to open. For others in a 
few years perhaps these doors will swing 
outward to freedom. Shall it be to useful 
citizenship, or to become a greater men- 
ace to society and again to be put behind 
the bars? Most of these are men who are 
employed during long working hours. 
There is much time for idle thoughts dur- 
ing those hours, in addition to evenings and 
Sundays spent alone in locked cells. Large 
is the opportunity here for the book in its 
threefold mission of recreation, instruc- 
tion and inspiration to lives barren of 
pleasure and interest. 

But these are not all. We must add 22,- 
900 juvenile delinquents found in the state 
industrial and training schools of the Unit- 
ed States, boys and girls whose steps have 
early found the downward path, in most 
cases, I believe, because of the influences 
into which life ushered them. But many 
of these are yet within the years of sus- 
ceptibility and to the other upward influ- 
ences with which it is now sought to sur- 
round them should be added the society of 
books which will bring wholesome pleasure 
while they present high standards and 
make right living attractive. 



178 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



These numbers are exceeded by the 
mentally defective of whom 187,454, dis- 
turbed or confused, dazed or depressed, 
look through grated windows or sit in 
shadowed corners of the insane hospitals. 
To take their thoughts from themselves 
and direct them into healthful channels 
may mean a step toward mental healing 
and adjustment. This books will often 
do and to fail to furnish them may mean 
to omit a remedial influence in their treat- 
ment. Of the feebleminded, there are 20,- 
199 in the institutions for that class of de- 
fectives. With them the task is not so 
encouraging, but a right to the pleasure of 
books is theirs and should not be with- 
held. 

There are 61,423 to whom the printed 
page must speak for they hear no other 
voice, and 44,310 to whose touch the raised 
letters bring their message. Shut out 
from so much which others enjoy shall 
these be denied this means of recreation 
and instruction? 

The charitable institutions shelter 268,- 
656 dependents which include the old, the 
sick and the children in the state public 
schools, orphanages and homes. The for- 
mer need books to cheer them in their 
fight for health and strength, or to while 
away the hours of waiting for their final 
summons. The children need them not 
only for the enjoyment which comes from 
childhood reading, but as a means of de- 
velopment of mind and character. I would 
lay especial emphasis on the importance 
of libraries in these and in the industrial 
and training schools. Useful as books are 
in the other institutions, there the help 
which they bring is but to the readers 
themselves. Here we have citizens in the 
making and the state has not only the op- 
portunity of laying the foundations of 
character, but by laying them deep and 
broad and strong of receiving returns for 
their efforts in intelligent and useful citi- 
zens. To librarians I need not speak of 
the value of books in giving the educa- 
tion which makes for intelligence and the 
ideals which make for usefulness. 

To meet these needs what do the insti- 



tutional libraries offer? I shall not give 
you figures which at best would be inac- 
curate and incomplete, but such informa- 
tion as could be obtained showing the ef- 
forts which are being made to provide 
books and reading for defectives and de- 
pendents, the adequacy and suitability 
of the libraries and their use of modern 
library methods. 

The list of states is incomplete, some 
failing to respond, others giving vague in- 
formation, and an omission may not mean 
that nothing is being done along this line. 
What is given will serve to show the gen- 
eral trend of interest in the work. 

California plans to serve the institu- 
tions through the county system of li- 
braries, but just how this is to be done or 
whether any institutions have libraries or 
have received assistance was not stated. 

Colorado reports libraries in all the state 
institutions, the best being that at the 
state penitentiary where the visitors' fees 
yield a considerable income which is used 
for books. In Georgia two institutions 
only have libraries, which are reported to 
be neither well selected, kept up to date 
nor administered according to modern 
methods. 

The only information received from 
Idaho was that traveling libraries are sent 
to the industrial school. 

In Illinois libraries are reported in the 
eighteen charitable and three penal insti- 
tutions of the state, though not all are 
adequate or suitable in selection. 

In Indiana several institutions receive 
annual library appropriations ranging 
from $1,000 down to $200. No institution 
is without a library though not all are or- 
ganized or well selected or large enough 
for the needs of the institution. The li- 
brary commission lends an organizer to 
assist in this work and in some cases the 
book selection and the affairs of the li- 
brary are put into the hands of the com- 
mission. The librarian from the School 
for Feeble Minded Youth will attend the 
summer school. 

In Iowa libraries exist in all of the four- 
teen state institutions; all are classified, 



ROBINSON 



179 



organized and administered according to 
approved library methods. All except the 
penitentiaries have appropriations of $300 
to $500 each for the purchase of books. In 
the penitentiaries the fund received from 
visitors' fees is used for this purpose. Re- 
ports are made each month to the Board 
of Control showing the reading done by 
classes in each institution. A trained li- 
brarian appointed by the Board of Control 
gives all her time to the institutional li- 
braries, superintending the work, doing 
the book selection, supplying the techni- 
cal knowledge, instructing the librarians 
and stimulating the reading. 

In Kentucky the prisons and hospitals 
are under separate boards, neither of 
which has done much for the libraries in 
the institutions under their charge, but 
both have the matter under consideration 
and better things are looked for 'in the fu- 
ture. The prison libraries are represented 
as inadequate and unsuitable. One only 
has a fund for the purchase of books and 
that only $50. The only books in the 
Houses of Reform are the traveling librar- 
ies loaned by the library commission. Two 
state hospitals have very small libraries 
and no fund. One has about 800 volumes 
and an annual fund of $250. 

The chairman of the Board of Control 
of State Institutions in Kansas writes that 
considerable interest is taken in providing 
suitable reading for the dependents and 
defectives of that state and that; the in- 
stitutions are urged to systematic work, 
but does not state whether all have li- 
braries. 

The Maine Insane Hospital has an en- 
dowment which yields an income of about 
$600 annually which is expended for books 
for the general library, periodicals and 
medical books. According to the chaplain 
of the Maine state prison "additions are 
made to that library from three sources, a 
few volumes by purchase, some by gifts 
from individuals, but mostly by gifts from 
the state library of books no longer useful 
in the traveling libraries." 

The Massachusetts prison commission 



reports libraries in substantially all the 
prisons. The larger ones are classified. 

Michigan has a state appropriation for 
books. All the institutions have librar- 
ies of some kind, but none are classified or 
organized according to modern methods. 
The selections are made by the state li- 
brarian. 

Minnesota has also an appropriation for 
books in the state institutions. The pub- 
lic library organizer from the Library 
Commission pays regular visits to the in- 
stitutions, selects the books and supervises 
the work. Not all are classified and several 
need new books. The two asylums for in- 
curable insane and the hospital for in- 
ebriates have only traveling libraries. 

In Missouri five institutions have no li- 
braries. Traveling libraries are sent to 
the insane hospitals. In the boys' train- 
ing school the library is managed without 
system. If a boy wants a book the su- 
perintendent takes what may be at hand 
and gives it to him. 

Nebraska has a state appropriation of 
$2,000 made directly to the Library Com- 
mission to be expended by them for the 
thirteen institutional libraries. This is 
used for books, supplies and periodicals ex- 
cept in two institutions which supply their 
own magazines. The institutions are asked 
to furnish cases only and some one to loan 
the books. Books are selected by the com- 
mission and prepared for circulation in 
the commission office. 

In New Hampshire the legislature makes 
an appropriation for the libraries in the 
state prisons and state hospitals. 

The February number of New York 
Libraries was made an institutional num- 
ber and among other things contained 
reports from the institutional libraries 
of the state showing libraries in all 
but two or three institutions which are 
supplied by traveling libraries. The fol- 
lowing editorial comment is made on these 
libraries: "Of the thirty-six institutions 
from whose libraries detailed reports are 
herewith presented, there are not more 
than two or three whose library condi- 
tions would be regarded as up to the 



180 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



standard commonly expected and de- 
manded for public libraries. For not one 
of them does the state provide a sufficient 
appropriation for the attainment of such a 
standard." The committee appointed by 
the State Library Association on libraries 
in the penal institutions in the state of 
Ne\v York in making their report recom- 
mend a change of title for the committee 
to include the charitable as well as the 
penal and reformatory institutions and a 
request that the legislature pass an act au- 
thorizing the appointment of a supervising 
librarian for the state institutions. 

The libraries in many of the state insti- 
tutions of North Carolina are reported so 
small and poorly cared for that they are 
practically useless. The School for the 
Blind has a separate library building called 
the Laura Bridgman Library and there is 
a good library in the School for the Deaf 
classified by the teachers. The value of 
this work is appreciated by the Board of 
Charities but there is a lack of funds. 

The North Dakota Library Commission 
has recently been asked to assist in select- 
ing books and organizing a library for the 
state penitentiary where a thousand dol- 
lars is to be expended. No libraries exist 
in the other state institutions. 

The Oregon Library Commission reports 
libraries in all the state institutions except 
one just opened. All the institutions are 
located at Salem and receive direct assist- 
ance from the commission in organization 
and book selection and management of 
their libraries. Purchases are made from 
a general fund. All are reported adequate 
except one to be made so. Three are class- 
ified and the rest are to be. 

Pennsylvania has libraries in all the 
state institutions but none are organized, 
classified or administered according to ac- 
cepted library methods. The Library Com- 
mission takes the position (wisely it seems 
to me) that their part lies in stirring up 
the boards in charge of the institutions to 
active interest in these libraries, rather 
than themselves mixing in the affairs of 
another organization, though as yet little 
has been accomplished in that direction. 



Tennessee has a library in the School for 
the Blind, the School for the Deaf and the 
state prison, but none in the insane hos- 
pitals. These are organized and classified 
to a limited extent only. 

From the biennial report of the Texas 
Library Commission I quote the following: 
"Only a few of the institutions have li- 
braries and as a rule these are small and 
without reference to the purpose they are 
to serve. Some have nominal librarians, 
but none trained and a library without a 
trained librarian is like a piano without 
a pianist, valuable, even expensive, but of 
little use or pleasure." 

In Vermont an appropriation of $500 was 
made in 1910 and $200 is now appropriated 
annually. This is divided between the li 
braries in the State Prison, House of Cor- 
rection, State Industrial School and Insane 
Hospital and is under the control of the 
Free Public Library Commission which 
purchases the books and oversees the cat- 
aloging. A card catalog of each institution 
is kept at the commission office. The State 
Prison also has a printed catalog. 

Washington has a library of some kind 
in all its institutions, but in none is it a 
real factor. None are classified. 

In Wisconsin no institution is wholly 
without a library. They are organized and 
classified in a limited way only. The com- 
mission assists to some extent in book se- 
lection. 

From these reports we may draw the fol- 
lowing conclusions: (i) Libraries of some 
kind exist in many state institutions. (2) 
Probably most of these libraries are only 
partially adequate, if not wholly inade- 
quate and unsuitable. (3) Few are organ- 
ized or administered according to the best 
methods, have proper rooms or a librarian 
in charge to render even their present 
collection useful. (4) In a few states only 
is there trained supervision or systematic 
library work undertaken in the institu- 
tions. (5) Where appropriations are made 
they are seldom sufficient to properly 
maintain the libraries. 

The responsibility for this work lies (1) 
with the governing bodies, the Boards of 



ROBINSON 



181 



Control and other boards to whom is com- 
mitted the care and welfare of the defec- 
tives and dependents of the state and the 
superintendents of the various institutions 
who are directly responsible for this care, 
and (2) with the librarians entrusted with 
library extension and the carrying of 
books to those who would otherwise be 
bookless, the state library commissions. 

That the superintendents partially ap- 
preciate the value of the book is evidenced 
by library beginnings in many institutions 
and their readiness to co-operate in move- 
ments toward the improvement and in- 
creased usefulness of the libraries. But 
they are busy men with many depart- 
ments on heart and mind and the boards 
are charged with many interests. 

It is not surprising, therefore, that it is 
the librarians who have recognized the im- 
portance of these libraries and the fact that 
if they are to become a real force in the 
institutions the work must be given to 
some one whose business it shall be, who 
is trained for it, and who has the time to 
give it proper attention. 

As few institutions are yet in a position 
to individually employ a trained librarian, 
the solution of the problem has seemed to 
be a joint or supervising librarian for all 
the institutions of a state or of a kind in 
a state. 

Iowa through the influence of Miss Tyler 
and Mr. Brigham was the first to under- 
take this work and is still the only state 
in which institutional library work is done 
by a librarian working under the Board of 
Control and giving all her time to the in- 
stitutions. The other states having institu- 
tional supervision are Indiana, Minnesota, 
where an officer from the commission 
gives part and Nebraska the whole of her 
time to the institutional libraries, and Ore- 
gon, Michigan and Vermont where the 
work seems to be done directly by the sec- 
retary. 

If the Board of Control and the institu- 
tional heads are not affected by party 
changes the advantage, it seems to me, lies 
with the librarian employed by them, who 



goes into the institutions with authority 
from the board to do what needs to be 
done and not as a guest, who is sometimes 
unwelcome. The book selection can thus 
be better guarded and I believe books pur- 
chased with institution funds will be bet- 
ter cared for by both officers and inmates 
than those received by donation. Appro- 
priations are also likely to be larger if 
made directly to each institution than if 
made in a lump sum to the commission. 

The initiative, however, will undoubtedly 
lie with the library commission and the 
importance of institutional library work is 
such that should the boards fail to use 
their opportunity it may become the part 
of the library commission to at least in- 
augurate the work, which having begun 
they will probably be allowed to continue. 

Before closing may I emphasize very 
briefly three important points in connec- 
tion with institutional library work. I wish 
I might elaborate both these and the other 
points which I have touched so hurriedly, 
but time forbids. 

1. If the libraries are to become a real 
factor for good in institutional work, the 
book selection must be differentiated to 
meet the needs of the different classes of 
readers, and great care used to exclude the 
harmful and include helpful books only. 
2. To make these libraries most useful 
there should be suitable rooms, not only 
for the proper shelving of the books, but 
for use as reading rooms where the atmos- 
phere of book lined walls may yield its 
helpful influence and prepare the way for 
public library use by the boys and girls 
at least when the opportunity shall come 
to them. 3. Though there may be a su- 
pervising librarian in the field, there 
should be a competent institutional libra- 
rian who shall not only do the routine 
work, but have sufficient knowledge of 
books and readers to be able to fit them 
together and sufficient time to do the work 
properly. 

Thus shall these libraries, not only bring 
brightness and cheer to lives otherwise 
dull and colorless, for 



182 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



"This books can do; nor this alone; they 

give 
New views to life, and teach us how to 

live; 
They sooth the grieved, the stubborn they 

chastise, 
Fools they admonish, and confirm the 

wise; 
Their aid they yield to all: They never 

shun 

The man of sorrows, nor the wretch un- 
done; 

Unlike the hard, the selfish and the proud, 
They fly not sullen from the suppliant 

crowd ; 

Nor tell to various people various things. 
But show to subjects what they show to 

kings." 

The PRESIDENT: I am very glad to be 
able to announce that Miss Rathbone has 
kindly consented to exhibit some extreme- 
ly interesting charts which have been pre- 
pared and exhibited in connection with the 
work of the library school at Pratt and I 
am sure that all of you will miss something 
if you do not avail yourselves of the oppor- 
tunity which is here presented to see them 
and to hear the explanation concerning 
them. 

Miss RATHBONE: I am very glad in- 
deed to tell you a little about our exhibi- 
tion because we found it an interesting 
thing to do and the people who saw it were 
interested in it. The genesis of the mat- 
ter was this: When Miss Alice Tyler was 
at the school this spring we were speaking 
about budget and other exhibitions and she 
said, "I do wish librarians could find some 
way of graphically presenting library work 
so that people could understand it as the 
child welfare work has been presented." 
That remark of hers, coupled with the fact 
the library school has never taken part 
in the exhibition that Pratt Institute has 
held for a great many years, at the end of 
the third term, suggested to me the idea 
of putting the problem to the class of de- 
vising an exhibition that should be a visual 
presentation of the school course and also 
of library work in general in a form that 
would be interesting and intelligible to the 
general public. After a visit to the Bureau 
of Municipal Research, where Dr. Allen 
gave them a talk on the value of graphic 



presentation of facts, I told the students 
that they were to have the entire respon- 
sibility of the planning and execution of 
this exhibition as a problem in the library 
administration seminar. It was, of course, 
an experiment but I was sufficiently con- 
vinced of its success after the class made 
their first and only report of progress, to 
invite the staffs of the neighboring 
public libraries to the exhibition. When 
the material was assembled and installed 
it created a good deal of interest both in 
the Institute among the librarians who 
saw it, and, best of all, on the part of the 
public at large. We had about five hun- 
dred visitors in the four days it was open 
and it seemed to awaken in the minds of 
the people who saw it some conception of 
what library work means. We heard many 
comments of this kind, "Well, now that I 
understand the work the library does, I 
am going to use it more intelligently." One 
high school boy said, "Gee! I've had an 
awful time trying to use this library be- 
fore, but I think I know what it is about 
now." That sort of a thing made me real- 
ize that the exhibition might be of value 
to some of you as showing one way by 
which people could be interested in the 
actual work done in a library, so I wrote to 
see if space could be had to install it 
here. It was too late, however, so I sim- 
ply brought up a few of the charts as ex- 
amples. 

The exhibition began with the technical 
work of the library the progress of a 
book through the various steps was illus- 
trated by a ladder the rungs of which were 
labeled, Book Selection, Ordering, Receiv- 
ing, Accessfoning, Classification, etc. Books 
were shown running toward this "Library 
Ladder," nimbly climbing the rungs, while 
at the top they acquire wings and fly "off 
to the public." This chart hung over a 
table on which the successive operations 
were shown in detail the same book be- 
ing used as an illustration throughout. 
The successive steps were numbered to 
correspond to the rungs of the ladder. For 
example, Book Selection was shown by a 
group including the A. L. A. Booklist, the 



RATHBONE 



183 



Book Review Digest and two or three of 
the reviews. The descriptive card read 
"No. 1. These are a few of the aids in 
book selection." 

Following that was a chart (exhibiting 
it) to illustrate the utility of classification, 
on which was presented a group of ten 
scientific books unclassified, followed by 
the same ten in D. C. order, with the ques- 
tion, "In which group would it be easier 
to find the books on insects." That was 
followed by another exhibit to prove the 
utility of subject cataloging. Two copies 
of the same book were obtained, one new 
and the other quite worn, the book being 
Gleason White's "Practical designing," 
which is made up of a number of papers 
on minor arts, by different authorities. 
The new book with a single author card 
lay on the table surrounded by radiating 
interrogation points, questions unanswered, 
and over the book hung this inscription: 
"This book looks new. Why? Because no- 
body knows what is in it. It is poorly cat- 
aloged." The worn copy lay on the next 
table and radiating from that were a num- 
ber of questions with the catalog cards 
that answer them attached. Over that 
was the screed: "This book shows wear. 
Why? Because it can be reached from 
twenty-four sources. It is well cataloged." 
People who had not known before what a 
catalog meant studied that thing out and 
the change of expression which came to 
their faces when they saw the new book 
and the worn book side by side and under- 
stood what it signified was delightful. It 
struck home. 

The work of the reference department 
was tellingly illustrated by an arch in 
which the reference library was the key- 
stone, all intellectual activities depending 
on it. 

(Miss Rathbone then exhibited various 
other charts and described them in detail.) 

In addition to this, children's work, the 
field work, the courses in binding and 
printing, the making of reading lists, the 
course in fiction were represented. 

Altogether we felt that graphic illustra- 
tion of library work was not only possi- 



ble but distinctly worth while and that 
the exhibition had done a good work in 
educating the library's public, as well as 
the class, and we expect to make it a per- 
manent feature of the year's work. 
Adjourned. 

FOURTH GENERAL SESSION 
(Thursday morning, June 26, 1913) 

The PRESIDENT: We begin this morn- 
ing the fourth session of this Thirty-fifth 
Annual Conference and I shall ask the 
chairman of the Committee on Library 
Administration to submit at this time his 
report. 

(Dr. Bostwick here read the report.) 

The PRESIDENT: You have heard the 
report of the Committee on Administra- 
tion. This report embodies some recom- 
mendations which it seems to the Chair 
should be acted upon. Therefore the 
recommendation which suggests the ap- 
pointment of a committee to undertake cer- 
tain work will be referred to the Execu- 
tive Board for their attention, as, in ac- 
cordance with the terms of the Consti- 
tution, it devolves upon the Executive 
Board to name the committees. The re- 
port will be printed in the proceedings. 

(This report is printed with other com- 
mittee reports. See page 126.) 

Mr. RANCK: Mr. President, there is 
just one item, about questionnaires, if I 
may have a moment to state it, that I 
think the committee has not referred to. 
It is a matter of some importance to us 
at our library. I think we answer, in the 
form of questions of one kind or other, 
not all from libraries however, about a 
thousand a year. I should like to insist 
on the importance, when a blank is sent 
out on which spaces are left for writing 
in the answers, that a duplicate be sent so 
that a library can keep a copy of the an- 
swers sent. Again and again we have to 
copy them because we feel it very impor- 
tant that we should know just exactly what 
we are sending out in that way. And if 
possible, in the printing of that report 
I should like to see the committee include 



184 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



that, if they are willing to accept the sug- 
gestion. 

The PRESIDENT: The suggestion is a 
very good one. 

The PRESIDENT: I feel like congratu- 
lating you this morning upon the program 
for this fourth session, the general theme 
being: "Children and young people; their 
conditions at home, in the school and in 
the library." No matter how splendid a 
structure may be reared nor how beauti- 
ful it may be, without an adequate founda-. 
tion it is most insecure. We have learned 
to realize in library work that we must 
begin at the beginning if our work is to 
have any perpetuity or any permanent 
result. We feel that, splendid and admir- 
able in every way as the work with the 
adults is, that that alone is not enough. 
That work invites, as it deserves, our re- 
spect and admiration, but in the work with 
children is centered our affection. And 
when I say this I do not mean to inti- 
mate for one moment that that work is 
enveloped in sentiment. I believe most 
firmly that the work with children is con- 
structive work of the very highest order. 
If there are any in this audience who 
doubt that I am sure that after we shall 
have heard the papers of this morning 
the doubts will be dispelled. We shall 
have this work in three volumes this 
morning, the first volume comprising two 
chapters. The title of the first volume is 
The Education of Children and the Con- 
servation of their Interests, and Chapter 
One will be contributed by Miss FAITH E. 
SMITH, of the Chicago public library, on 

I. CHANGING CONDITIONS OF CHILD 
LIFE 

It is now twenty-eight years since some 
one first recognized the fact that children 
needed to have special libraries or special 
collections of books in libraries, and there- 
upon opened a children's reading room in 
New York City. 

Some of the conditions affecting child 
life today existed then, but we know more 
about them now than we did then. We 



have many specialists in sociological fields 
who are making investigations, compiling 
statistics, drawing conclusions, and telling 
other people how to make the world a bet- 
ter place. Our rapid industrial develop- 
ment is producing many problems concern- 
ing child welfare, some of which are of 
vital interest to us as library workers; 
others we may well leave to playground 
associations, juvenile courts, health bu- 
reaus, social settlements, child labor com- 
mittees, schools and churches. It is not 
ours to change housing conditions or to do 
away with child labor, but it is ours to 
meet these conditions, to be god-parents 
to those whose natural parents are not in- 
clined or not able to guide their reading, 
to present to the children's minds other 
worlds than the tenement or street, and 
to give to children worn with daily labor 
such books as will be within their grasp, 
and will help them to permanent happi- 
ness. 

In 1885 when a children's library was 
opened by Miss Hanaway in New York 
City, there were fewer means of recreation 
than there are now. There were no motion- 
picture shows, no children's theaters, no 
municipal recreation parks with free gym- 
nasiums, swimming pools and baths. Child 
labor had only begun to be exploited by 
large manufacturing establishments (1879). 
Then there were more homes, permanent 
abiding places, where there was room for 
children both to work and to play. There 
was more family life, where father and 
mother and children gathered about the 
evening lamp, and father read aloud while 
mother sewed and the children listened, or 
where each member of the family had his 
own book in which to lose himself. There 
were daily duties for each of the children, 
the performance of which gave them train- 
ing in habits of responsibility. 

Today such conditions may be found 
only rarely, except in small cities and vil- 
lages. 

Congestion in large cities has led even 
well-to-do families to live in apartment 
houses. In Chicago this sort of life began 
only thirty-four years ago, and today one- 



SMITH 



185 



third of all that city live in residences 
having six families per main entrance. 
(Chicago City Club-Housing exhibit.) This 
tendency to apartment life means the loss 
of the joy of ownership, the feeling of not- 
at-homeness and consequent restlessness, 
due to frequent change of environment. 

Book agents say that they cannot sell 
books to families in apartment houses, be- 
cause they have no room for books. Scott 
Nearing in his "Woman and social prog- 
ress" regrets "the woeful lack of provision 
for the needs of the child in the construc- 
tion of the modern city home. Huge real 
estate signs advertise the bathroom, bed- 
rooms, the dining room and kitchen, the 
library, and reception hall. But where is 
the children's room? Owners do not care 
to rent houses to people having children. 
Many of the apartment houses exclude 
children as they exclude dogs or other ob- 
jectionable animals." Yet we say, and 
rightly, that this is the century of the child. 

The complexity of modern life, the ten- 
dency to materialism, the multiplicity of in- 
terests, have deterred many parents from 
being actively concerned in the growth of 
the minds and the souls of their children. 
This part of their development is being 
left to teachers, church workers, leaders 
of boys' and girls' clubs, etc. There is 
not time for reading aloud to children at 
home, and little concern is manifested by 
many intelligent parents, regarding their 
children's choice of books. The "poor, 
neglected children of the rich" are not al- 
lowed to use the public library books, be- 
cause there may be germs hidden among 
the leaves. They may have their own 
books, but they are denied the joy of read- 
ing a book that some other boy or girl has 
read and pronounced "swell". 

Because of this lack of concern on the 
part of parents in children's reading, are 
we not justified in our hitherto condemned 
paternalism? 

Home life among the very poor in the 
congested districts of our large cities is 
often such as is not worth the name. The 
practice of taking lodgers which prevails 
among some foreign elements of the popu- 



lation, means the undermining of family 
life, and often the breaking down of do- 
mestic standards. (Veiler, "Housing re- 
form," p. 33.) "Thousands of children in 
Chicago alone are being exposed to the de- 
moralizing influences of overcrowded 
rooms, of inadequate sanitary provisions, 
and of unavoidable contact with immoral 
persons." 

"Bad housing is associated with the 
worst conditions in politics, poverty, popu- 
lation density, tuberculosis, and retarda- 
tion in the schools. It is directly related 
to many cases of delinquency of boys and 
girls, who have been brought before the 
juvenile court." (Breckenridge and Abbott, 
"The delinquent child and the home.") 

Furthermore wrong home conditions re- 
sult in driving children to the street. The 
child who finds no room at home to do the 
things that he wishes to do, not even room 
to study his school lessons, is inevitably 
forced into the street, "not only in the 
day time, but as common observation 
shows, until late at night, not only in good 
weather but in foiil." Here he grows up, 
and is educated "with fatal precision." The 
saloon and its victims, the hoboes and 
their stories, criminals dodging the police, 
lurid signboards, a world of money-getting, 
all become only too familiar to him. Sin 
loses its sinfulness, and gains in interest 
and excitement. 

Are we placing our attractive children's 
rooms, clean and orderly, adorned with 
flowers and fine pictures, where they may 
be readily seen from the street, where pic- 
ture books placed in the windows may vie 
in alluring powers with the nickel-novel 
window displays? 

The boy of the street may be a member 
of a boys' gang, and if so, this becomes 
one of the great influences acting upon his 
life, either for good or for ill. Mr. Puffer 
makes the statement that three-fourths of 
all boys are members of gangs. (Puffer, 
"The boy and his gang," p. 9.) 

Those boys are fortunate whose gang is 
an organized body efficiently directed, such 
as the Boys' Scout Patrol. This, Mr. Puffer 
says, "is simply a boys' gang, systematized, 



186 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



overseen, affiliated with other like bodies, 
made efficient and interesting, as boys 
alone could never make it, and yet every- 
where, from top to bottom a gang." Here 
lies an opportunity for co-operation on the 
part of the library, and many are the inter- 
ests awakened by the Boy Scout movement 
which may be encouraged by the library. 

Another influence constantly appealing to 
children of the street as well as to others, 
is the glaring advertisement of the moving- 
picture show. Moving pictures are now 
the most important form of cheap amuse- 
ment in this country; they reach the 
young, immigrants, family groups, the 
formative and impressionable section of 
our cities, as no other form of amusement, 
and can not but be vital influences for good 
or ill. In 1910 it was estimated that more 
than half a million children attended mo- 
tion pictures daily. (Juvenile Protective 
Assn. of Chicago, "Five and ten-cent the- 
aters" pamphlet.) 

Is it not possible- for the library to make 
permanent whatever good, though fleeting, 
impression may be made by educational 
pictures or pictures from great books, by 
co-operating with the picture shows, and 
being ready to supply to the children 
copies of the stories, nature books, or his- 
tories to which the chidlren may have been 
attracted by the motion pictures? 

During the meetings this week our inter- 
est in the adult immigrants and their re- 
lation to the library has been aroused and 
augmented, and it has been proven con- 
clusively that the solution of the immi- 
grant problem must of necessity rest with 
the children. The change in the type of 
immigration in recent years from a large 
percentage of English-speaking and Scan- 
dinavian races having a low percentage of 
illiteracy, to a leadership among races of 
eastern and southern Europe, with a very 
high percentage of illiteracy, has had a de- 
cided influence on standards of living. 

These people of other lands do not adapt 

themselves to American ways as readily 

. as their children. Many do not know the 

English language, they do not stir far from 

home or from work, and have few new ex- 



periences. "Many things which are famil- 
iar to the child in the facts of daily inter- 
course, in the street or in the school, re- 
main unintelligible to the father and 
mother. It has become a commonplace 
that this cheap wisdom on the part of the 
boy or girl leads to a reversal of the rela- 
tionship between parent and child. The 
child who knows English is the interpreter 
who makes the necessary explanations for 
the mother to the landlord, the grocer, the 
sanitary inspector, the charity visitor, and 
the teacher or truant officer. It is the child 
again who often interviews the boss, finds 
the father a job, and sees 'him through the 
onerous task of 'joining the union.' The 
father and mother grow accustomed to 
trusting to the child's version of what 
'they all do in America,' and gradually 
find themselves at a disadvantage in try- 
ing to maintain parental control. The 
child develops a sense of supe/riority 
towards the parent and a resulting disre- 
gard of those parental warnings which, al- 
though they are. not based on American 
experience, rest on common notions of 
right and wrong, and would, if heeded, 
guard the child." (Breckenridge and Ab- 
bott, "The delinquent child and the home.") 

Can books not teach children to honor 
their father and mother, and "that the head 
and the hoof of the Law, and the haunch 
and the hump is obey"? 

We are told that one of the causes of 
crime among the children of foreigners is 
transmitted ambition. "The father left the 
homeland because he was not satisfied. 
... He worked hard and saved money, 
that the dream of better things might be 
realized. . . . The son manifests this in- 
nate tendency by a desire to excell, by the 
longings to rise and be masterful, the am- 
bition to beat the other fellow these are 
the motives which impell him to an inten- 
sive life that carries him to excess and 
transgression." (Roberts, "The new immi- 
gration," p. 325.) 

It is for us to interest this ambition and 
turn it into right channels. We may also 
discover what special interests are upper- 
most in the minds of those of different 



SMITH 



187 



nationalities, things they wish their 
children to love, traditions they have 
cherished, and which we may help the 
children to cherish. 

Driven by necessity or by the spirit 
of the age, the immigrant quickly devel- 
ops a strong ambition for acquiring 
money, supposing that he landed on our 
shores without that impelling force. 
One of the consequences is that he 
withdraws his children from school as 
soon as they are old enough to secure 
their working papers. "To the Italian 
peasant, who, as a gloriously street la- 
borer begins to cherish a vision of pros- 
perity, it matters little whether his girls 
go to school or not. It is, on the con- 
trary, of great importance that a proper- 
dower be accumulated to get them good 
husbands; and to take them from school 
to put them to work is, therefore, only 
an attempt to help them accomplish this 
desirable end." (Breckenridge and Abbott.) 

In 1911 the National Child Labor Com- 
mittee conducted an investigation of tene- 
ment house work in New York City. 
Among 163 families visited having 213 
children, 196 children ranging in ages from 
3% to 14 years were working on nuts, 
brushes, dolls' clothes, or flowers. These 
are truly not the good old-fashioned domes- 
tic industries in which children received 
a good part of their education. Those 
working in factories and tenement sweat 
shops, where labor is specialized and sub- 
divided into innumerable operations, do not 
get the variety of employment that culti- 
vates resourcefulness, alertness,. endurance 
and skill. (Child labor bulletin, Nov., 
1912.) 

We cannot expect these children, with 
bodies retarded in development by over- 
work, and without proper nourishment, to 
be able to take the same mental food that 
is pleasing to other children of the same 
age, who have had all necessary physical 
care. 

The hours when working children, those 
engaged in gainful occupations, and those 
who are helping in the homes, are free for 
recreation, are in the evening and on Sun- 



day. Are we placing our most skilled 
workers on duty at these times, and are 
we opening our story hours and reading 
clubs on Sunday afternoons, when the 
minds of these children are most receptive 
of good things, when the children are 
dressed in their good clothes, their self- 
respect is high, and they are free from re- 
sponsibility? 

It is a well-known fact that the need of 
money is not the only cause of the exodus 
from school that occurs in the grades. An 
investigation made by the Commissioner of 
Labor in 1910 (Condition of woman and 
child wage-earners in the U. S., vol. 7), ex- 
amining the conditions of white children 
under 16, in five representative cities, 
showed that of those children interviewed, 
169 left school because earnings were nec- 
essary, and 165 because dissatisfied with 
school. The Chicago Tribune (Nov. 11, 
1912) stated that in 1912 there were in Chi- 
cago over 23,000 children between 14 and 
16 years of age, who were not in school. 
Over half of these were unemployed, and 
the remainder had employment half the 
time at ill-paid jobs, teaching little and 
leading nowhere. In 1912 there were 
34,000 children of Philadelphia not in 
school, and only 13,000 were employed. 
(Philadelphia City Club Bulletin, Dec. 27, 
1912.) 

The curriculum of our public schools is 
in a transitional stage. The complaint of 
parents who take their children from 
school before they have completed the 
high school course, is that it does not teach 
them to earn a living. The desire of com- 
mercial men is to have such courses intro- 
duced as will lessen the need of apprentice 
training in their establishments. These 
changes may help boys and girls to earn a 
living, but those courses which teach them 
how to live may be sacrificed. Man does 
not live by bread alone. Mrs. Ella Flagg 
Young says, "The training must also im- 
plant in the mind a desire to become some- 
thing I mean by that an ideal. ... It 
must make the boys and girls able to know 
that they have possibilities of greater de- 
velopment along many lines." This sort 



188 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



of training is within the sphere of the li- 
brary as well as within that of the schools. 

The children in the rural districts (which 
the 1910 census interprets as meaning peo- 
ple of towns of less than 2,500 inhabitants, 
and people of the country) are the library's 
great opportunity. In these districts may 
be found the old-fashioned home life, where 
parents are glad to be aided in the direc- 
tion of their children's reading. There are 
fewer distractions in the way of amuse- 
ments. Books are not seen by the thou- 
sands, until they have become so confusing 
that one knows not what to read or where 
to begin. Homes are owned, instead of 
rented, and a library worker is not liable to 
lose her group of children each first of 
May. 

The pleasures of city life have been 
made easily accessible to children and 
grown people by means of trolley lines, 
good roads, telephones, etc., and the music 
of grand opera has been carried to the 
country homes by means of talking 
machines. Still the distractions of modern 
life have not absorbed a large part of the 
everyday life of the children, so that their 
minds may be appealed to along the line 
of their natural interests. As Miss Stearns 
told us yesterday, there is less of drudgery 
in farm life today than there was thirty 
years ago, and children have more time 
for study and reading; but they need di- 
rection and assistance. 

The consensus of opinion among writers 
on rural sociology is that the great need 
of the people of the country is more educa- 
tion; education that will make farming 
more scientific and efficient, and less fa- 
tiguing, education that will help boys and 
girls to find amusement in the life about 
them; education that will guide that pas- 
sion for nature which every normal child 
possesses. 

* * * 

Because children today have many more 
opportunities for recreation than they had 
thirty years ago; because many leave 
school long before they have acquired the 
education that will teach them how to live, 
as well as how to earn a living; because 



in many homes mothers and fathers can- 
not train their children in American ideals 
of citizenship, which they themselves do 
not understand; because in other homes 
the physical needs of children are held to 
be of most importance, while mental and 
moral needs are left to the care of teachers 
and social workers, the time seems ripe for 
the library to place emphasis upon the 
educational side of its work, rather than 
upon the recreative. Let the recreative be 
truly re-creative, giving relaxation, new 
visions, higher standards of living, and 
increased belief in one's self, but let the 
educational work meet the children's needs, 
increase their efficiency, teach them how 
to live, and to be of service in the world's 
work. 

Mr. Bostwick, in the Children's section, 
mentioned three eras in library work with 
children; first, the era of children's books 
in libraries; second,, era of children's 
room; third, era of children's department. 
These concerned books and organization, 
the machinery of getting the books to the 
children. We think we have learned some- 
thing about children's books, and we know 
approved methods of administration. Pos- 
sibly we are now on the verge of the fourth 
era, when we shall know children. Not 
the child with a capital C, a laboratory 
specimen, but living children, with hearts 
and souls. Do we know the conditions 
under which the children of our own neigh- 
borhood live? Do we understand their in- 
terests, and are we sanely sympathetic? 

The PRESIDENT: We are glad to get 
Chapter Two: How the Library is Meet- 
ing these Conditions, by Miss GERTRUDE 
E. ANDRUS, of the Seattle public library. 

II HOW THE LIBRARY IS MEETING 

THE CHANGING CONDITIONS OF 

CHILD LIFE 

Every month, if the mails are regular, 
we receive assurance that the public li- 
brary is an integral part of public educa- 
tion, and the complacence with which we 
accept this assurance gives ample oppor- 
tunity to our critics for those slings and 
arrows with which they are so ready. Ideas 



ANDRU3 



189 



and ideals of education are rapidly chang- 
ing and it behooves the librarian, and more 
particularly the children's librarian, to see 
that she keeps pace with the forward 
movement and that the ridicule of her 
censors is really undeserved. 

The old idea of education was to abol- 
ish illiteracy, "to develop the ability, im- 
prove the habits, form the character of 
the individual, so that he might prosper 
in his life's activities and conform to cer- 
tain social standards of conduct." 

The new idea of education is that of 
social service, to train children to be not 
mere recipients, but distributors, not mere- 
ly to increase their ability to care for 
themselves, but also their ability to care 
for others and for the state. 

This perhaps sounds a note of the mil- 
lennium, but we have been told to hitch 
our wagon to a star and although the star 
proves a restive steed and often lands 
us in the ditch, we travel further while 
the connection holds than we should in 
a long, continuous journey harnessed to a 
dependable but slow-going snail. 

It may seem a far cry from these com- 
ments on education to the topic of my pa- 
per: How the library meets the changing 
conditions of child-life, but in reality it is 
only a step, for just as in philanthropy the 
emphasis is placed more and more upon 
prevention rather than remedy, so in edu- 
cation the task is coming to be the train- 
ing of the good citizen rather than the 
correction of the bad citizen. And if the li- 
brary is, as we are anxious to claim, an in- 
tegral part of public education, it must 
have a share, however small, in the preven- 
tive policy of modern educators, which will 
in time effect a change in present social 
evils. Unless the library, as it meets these 
constantly changing conditions, can do 
something to improve them and to make 
the improvement stable, it has small claim 
to be included in the educational scheme 
of things. 

In the conditions of child life which 
Miss Smith has outlined, the breaking up 
of the home is the most serious handicap 
which the children have to face. It is on 



this account that all social agencies work- 
ing with children endeavor, so far as each 
is able, to supply an "illusory home" and 
to give, each in its own capacity, the train- 
ing in various lines which ought in a nor- 
mal home to come under the direction of 
the mother and father. 

There is a spreading belief in the value 
of reading but there is a woeful lack of 
knowledge as to what should be read, and 
the children's library therefore fills a dou- 
ble r61e; it provides books which it would 
be impossible for many of the children to 
get otherwise, and it selects these books 
with thoughtful care of the special place 
each one has to fill, so that it becomes a 
counselor, not only to the children but to 
those parents who are anxious to assume 
their just responsibility in the guidance of 
their children's reading, and yet feel their 
inability to breast unaided the yearly tor- 
rent of children's books. The stimulation 
of this feeling of responsibility on the part 
of parents is one of the most effective 
means at the library's disposal of striking 
a blow at the root of the whole matter, for 
it is on the indifference of the parents that 
the blame for many juvenile transgres- 
sions should rest, which is now piled high 
upon the shoulders of the children. 

In this connection mention should be 
made of the home library, the most social 
of all the library's activities. This small 
case of books, located in a home in the 
poorer quarters of a city and placed in 
charge of a paid or volunteer library assist- 
ant has been proved to be a potent force in 
the life of the neighborhood, for the 
"friendly visitor," if she be of the proper 
stuff, is not merely a circulator of books, 
she is an all-round good neighbor to whom 
come both children and mothers for help 
in their big and little problems, so that 
the results have proved to be "better fam- 
ily standards, greater individual intelli- 
gence, and more satisfactory neighbor- 
hood conditions." 

But even granting that the mothers and 
fathers show a deep concern in what their 
children read, the connection between 
books and children is often left of neces- 



190 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



sity to the children's librarian who is se- 
lected with special reference to her adapta- 
bility to this particular kind of work. Now, 
no matter how strong a personality this 
young woman may possess, no matter how 
high her literary standards, nor how far- 
reaching her moral influence, it is obvi- 
ously impossible for her to come in con- 
tact with more than a few of the children 
in her community. And in order to provide 
that intimacy with books from which we 
wish no child to be debarred, she must 
depend not alone upon her children's room, 
beautiful and homelike though that may 
be, but she must place her resources at the 
disposal of other educational agencies, all 
of which are working toward a common 
end. Of these the most powerful is the 
school, and through the lessons in the use 
of the public library, through the collec- 
tions of books placed in the school-rooms, 
and most of all through the influence of 
the teacher, the public library will touch 
the lives of thousands of children who 
might otherwise be in ignorance of its re- 
sources, and who through this contact will 
receive a vivid impression of their share as 
citizens in a great public institution. In . 
this correlation of school and library care 
must be taken to place an equal emphasis 
upon the library as a place for recreation 
as well as a place for study. 

Contrary to the teachings of our Puritan 
forefathers, we are growing more keenly 
alive to the imperative need of healthful 
recreation as a means of combating exist- 
ing social coijditions, and our great cities 
and our little villages are gradually mak- 
ing provision for the gratification of the 
desire of the people to play. Nowhere does 
the library find an alliance more satisfac- 
tory than with these playcenters, for it is 
in the union of the physical and mental de- 
velopment that education conies to its full- 
est fruition and the striving to instill 
"imagination in recreation" can find no 
better field than in these places where 
not only muscles but minds may be exer- 
cised. 

These are the well-worn channels 
through which the children's library pours 



its stream of books into a thirsty land, 
channels into which run the tributary 
streams of deposit stations, churches, set- 
tlements, telegraph offices, newsboys' 
homes, and all the rest which it would only 
weary you to repeat. 

We are constantly engaged in deepen- 
ing and broadening these channels because 
we believe in the power of books to de- 
velop character and to broaden the vision 
of that "inward eye which is the bliss of 
solitude." Now the book that does this 
mo^t effectively is the book behind which 
lies some personality. We all know the 
popularity of "the book Teacher says is 
good." But the problem of the children's 
librarian is not limited as is the teacher's 
to two or three dozen children. She must 
lay her plans to reach hundreds of chil- 
dren and she can do this only by deal- 
ing with the children in groups: in other 
words, in clubs, reading circles, and story- 
tellings. 

The natural group of child life is the 
boys' gang or the girls' clique which offer 
unlimited opportunities for good or ill. The 
tendency of a neglected group is to develop 
strongly a regard for the interests of the 
individual group and make it antagonistic, 
if not actually dangerous, to the larger 
group of society. 

The possibility of touching children's in- 
terests, enlarging their horizon, and influ- 
encing their ideals through these groups 
has been utilized in the club work of many 
libraries. Although all library clubs lead 
eventually to books, the way may be a 
circuitous one and baseball, basketry, and 
dramatics may be met on the way. But 
aside from the book interest, without 
which no library club can be considered 
legitimate, there is the opportunity of 
guiding the activities of the group by 
means of debate work or similar interests 
so that their attention may be directed out- 
side of their immediate environment and 
made to include the greater possibilities of 
the larger social group. 

Very often in girls' clubs the charitable 
impulse is strong and may be so led as 



ANDRUS 



191 



to instill a very thoughtful sympathy for 
others. 

It is for the things we know best that we 
have the most sympathy and the truest 
devotion, and we may expect real patriot- 
ism and an active civic conscience only 
when we have taught the children to know 
thoroughly their country and the city in 
which they live. This is some of the most 
valuable work that is being done by libra- 
ries, and it may be well passed on, as 
has been done in Newark, to become a part 
of the school curriculum. Indifference to 
the fatherland is not the best foundation 
on which to build the superstructure of 
American patriotism, and the confused and 
homesick foreigner welcomes with grati- 
tude the books in his own tongue provided 
by the library, the opportunity to use the 
library's auditorium for the meetings of 
his clubs with unpronounceable names, the 
respect with which his especial predilec- 
tions and prejudices are considered by 
the library in his immediate neighbor- 
hood, the display of his national flag and 
the special stories told the children on the 
fete day of his country. A people with- 
out traditions is not a people, and if we 
expect these strangers to respect our in- 
stitutions, we must show them an equal 
courtesy. 

This regard shown by the library and 
other institutions for the national char- 
acteristics of the parents reacts upon the 
children and they grow to understand that 
though their elders may have been out- 
stripped in the effort to become American- 
ized they have behind them an historical 
background which is respected by the 
very Americans whose customs the chil- 
dren ape so carefully. 

The reading circle and the story hour 
are similar in their purpose for they are 
both intended to call the attention of the 
children to special books and to open 
up the delights of a new world to imag- 
inations 'often starved in squalor and pov- 
erty. Both the reading aloud and the story- 
telling have their rightful place in the 
home and are merely grafted on the li- 
brary in its attempt to supply its share 



of the "illusory home" for which we are 
striving. 

If the Sunday story-tellings and clubs 
meet the neighborhood needs more effi- 
ciently as Miss Smith has suggested, "the 
library schedule should be so arranged as 
to accommodate them. 

The time of childhood is a time of un- 
bounded curiosities. Everything is new 
and wonderful and open to investigation, 
and that library may count itself blessed 
of the gods which can command the co- 
operation of a good museum. Given an 
exhibit case containing a few interesting 
specimens, a placard bearing a brief de- 
scription of the specimens, and the titles 
of a few books on the subject obtainable 
"at the library, and we can all of us pic- 
ture a rosy dream of budding scientists, 
nature-lovers, and historians. 

This child-like interest is the secret of 
the popularity of the moving-picture show. 
Here we see unfolded the processes of 
nature, the opening of a flower, the life 
of a bee, we ride in a runaway train and 
in an aeroplane, and we see enacted the 
daily human drama of love and hate. Here 
is an opportunity which many libraries 
have grasped, and slides are furnished the 
picture theaters announcing the location 
of the library and bearing some such leg- 
end as this: "Your Free Public Library 
has arranged with this management to 
select interesting books and magazine arti- 
cles upon the historical, literary, and in- 
dustrial subjects treated in these pictures. 
It is a bright idea to see something good 
and then learn more about it." Mr. Percy 
Mackaye in his recent book on the Civic 
Theater, comments on this as follows: 
"A brighter idea may we not add? if the 
founders ef the library had recognized 
the dynamic appeal of a moving-picture 
house, and endowed it to the higher uses of 
civic art! Truly, a spectacle, humorous 
but pathetic: Philanthropy in raiment of 
marble, humbly beseeching patronage from 
the tattered Muse of the people!" 

So far as the writer knows, but one li- 
brary has as yet made moving pictures 
a permanent addition to its activities, al- 



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KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



though a small town In Washington State 
has intimated that it would do so, pro- 
vided the Carnegie Trust Fund would 
give it money. It is a sign, of the times, 
and one of which note must be taken, for 
it gives the library a chance to deepen 
the benefit of such good pictures as there 
are and to raise the standard of the oth- 
ers. 

Unfortunately the interest of many boys 
and girls is forced prematurely to the sub- 
ject of how they may aid in the family 
support. They leave school untrained and 
unfitted for the life they have to live, and 
go into shops, factories, department stores, 
and other service. Whether they leave 
because of economic pressure or because 
of a lack of interest in their school work 
the fact remains that 32 per cent of the 
children entering school drop out before 
they reach the sixth grade, and only 8 per 
cent finish the fourth year of high school. 
Manual training and vocational guidance 
are taking a hand in the matter and the 
part of the library is evident, not only in 
its supply of books on these topics but in 
the personal interest of the library assist- 
ants and in their suggestions and advice to 
the young folks who are struggling to find 
themselves. This is of course but a drop 
in the bucket but it is an effort in the right 
direction. 

So many of these young people leaving 
school prematurely are shut up at the 
crucial age of adolescence in huge facto- 
ries and stores, creeping home at night too 
tired to move unnecessarily, or letting 
the individuality which has been so stern- 
ly repressed all day burst forth in excesses 
and indiscretions. Only a few will come 
to the library, so to make sure the library 
must go to them. 

One of the most notable examples of this 
kind of work is in the main plant of Sears, 
Roebuck & Co. in Chicago. The com- 
pany furnishes room, heat, light, and li- 
brarian's salary and the public library 
provides the books. This type of library 
may combine the intimate personal rela- 
tionships of the small branch, the club, the 
story hour, and the vocational bureau. It 



may, as the Sears, Roebuck library has 
done, publish lists of books covering cer- 
tain grades of a school course in gram- 
mar, rhetoric, history of literature, and 
study of the classics, and through the 
personal influence of the librarian it may 
make these courses really used, for always 
in work of this kind it is the personal 
equation that counts. 

Some commercial houses have independ- 
ent libraries of their own, sometimes in 
connection with their service department, 
as does the Joseph & Feiss Co. of Cleve- 
land, in which case the direction of the 
library comes under the charge of a per- 
son whose duty it is to use every means 
to deepen, strengthen, and broaden the 
capacity of every employe so that he may 
remain an individual and not become a ma- 
chine. This is an age of industrialism 
which has early placed upon the boys and 
girls the responsibilities of life, and the 
love of books is one of the most important 
of the influences which will keep the pen- 
dulum from swinging too far upon the side 
of materialism and purely commercial am- 
bition. 

These are some of the ways in which the 
library is trying to meet the changing 
conditions of child life in the city through 
the children's rooms, the homes, the 
schools, the playgrounds, the factories, and 
other institutions which have to do with 
the employment, amusement, or education 
of children. 

From many of these problems the life 
of the country child is mercifully free, 
but in place of them there is the isolation 
of farm life and the idleness on the part 
of the children so often found in country 
villages. As more than half of our popu- 
lation is in the country, it is but logical 
that libraries should long ago have made 
some attempt to reach a class of readers 
who, as Mr. Dewey says, "have a larger 
margin of leisure, fewer distractions, and 
fewer opportunities to get the best read- 
ing. They read more slowly and care- 
fully and get more good from books than 
their high-pressure city cousins whose 



KERR 



193 



crowded lives leave little time for Intel- 
lectual digestion." 

Long before the formation of the Coun- 
try Life Commission, librarians were send- 
ing traveling libraries to farm-houses and 
rural communities, and library commis- 
sions are now scattering broadcast the 
opportunities for reading which will do 
so much to "effectualize rural society." 
When we think of books and the coun- 
try, we think also of Hagerstown and the 
book wagon, an institution which in its 
influence on country life may well be add- 
ed to the famous trilogy of "rural free de- 
livery, rural telephones, and Butterick pat- 
terns." Greater attention x is being paid 
in these days to conditions of country life, 
both on farms and in villages, and the 
work of the country librarian is as broad 
and as interesting as that of her city co- 
worker. 

But whether the work is done in the city 
or the country, in a crowded tenement dis- 
trict or on a thousand-acre ranch, it has 
as its foundation the same underlying 
principle: that of co-operation with all oth- 
er available agencies to the end that the 
boys and girls may have a fuller oppor- 
tunity to become good citizens. We can- 
not be progressive if we are not plastic, 
and in the adaptation of our work to the 
changing conditions of child life lies the 
secret of the value of the children's library. 

The PRESIDENT: We give a sigh of 
satisfaction and one of regret: satisfaction 
over the pleasure we have had in listening 
to these fine, moving chapters; regret that 
they have been so brief. We are recon- 
ciled only by the fact that there are two 
fine companion volumes still to come. Mr. 
WILLIS H. KERR, of the Kansas State 
Normal School, will give us the first one, 
the subject being: 

NORMAL SCHOOLS AND THEIR RELA- 
TION TO LIBRARIANSHIP 

That there is a close relation betweem 
librarianship and the forces of education 
is implied both in the special topic of this 
paper and in the general theme of the 



morning: "Children and young people; 
their conditions at home, in the school, 
and in the library." Indeed librarian and 
teacher have more in common than VTQ 
yet think. For real library work is teach- 
ing, and real teaching is guidance in liv- 
ing, and to live well for thy neighbor and 
thyself is real library work. 

The burden of this discussion will be, 
not whether the library is an integral part 
of education, but rather what modern edu- 
cation, as an art, science, and practice, has 
to say about the attitude and method and 
practice of library work. With open mind 
and modest, may we attempt a statement 
of "library pedagogy" to parallel current 
educational practice? How may we li- 
brarians knit our work more effectively 
into the educational fabric? How best cor- 
relate people and books? 

If such a statement of library pedagogy 
is possible, even though tentative, it is 
worth our while. From college days there 
rings in my ears the topic of an address 
by Dr. Samuel B. McCormick, now Presi- 
dent of the University of Pittsburgh: "We 
can achieve that which we can intelli- 
gently conceive and adequately express." 
We must see our whole job through and 
through if we are to cope with our friends 
who do not yet see what we are at. The 
good brother, a Ph. D. of one of our best 
universities, a successful city school su- 
perintendent, now a fellow professor, who 
said, "I can see how instruction of our nor- 
mal school students in library methods 
will help them in their work here, but how 
will it help them as teachers? Anyone 
can find a book in a school library." The 
superintendent who complained that all 
his pupils got at the public library was 
sore eyes and ruined minds from reading 
trashy fiction; the library trustee who 
likened library work and salary to dry- 
goods counter service and wage; the type- 
writer salesman who objected to open 
shelves and book wagons and story hours, 
because they cost I won't say how much 
he said; what infinite patience, what skill- 
ful teaching power must we librarians 
have, to turn this tide and use it? 



194 



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Lest we paint the picture too darkly, let 
it be said with all thankfulness and cheer 
that multitudes of teachers, superintend- 
ents, boys, girls, men and women, do un- 
derstand. There Is Superintendent Con- 
don, formerly of Providence, now of Cin- 
cinnati, of whom Mr. Foster says in the 
last (1912) Providence report: "Mr. Con- 
don's co-operation with the library was 
constant, intelligent, and effective." There 
is Mary Antin and her brothers and sisters, 
Americans all, to whom one of the richest 
gifts of the "Promised Land" is the public 
library. There is State Superintendent Al- 
derman, of Oregon, and Mrs. Alderman. 
There is the United States Commissioner 
of Education, Mr. Claxton, and Mrs. Clax- 
ton. In every state are men like a western 
Kansas superintendent (way out next to 
Colorado, on the prairies), who found his 
community destitute of books; even school 
books and tablets had to be ordered by the 
drug store from a distant city; no com- 
munity interest, no debating societies, no 
class plays, no school athletic teams. He 
made school vital to the boys and girls. 
Then because to his thinking education 
does not end with school days, and because 
he had the library vision, before he was 
there a year he passed the subscription 
paper, organized the library association, 
got the books and magazines, and opened 
the public library. He gave that town 
something to live for. And every state has 
librarians like the little Kansas lady in a 
country community who does reference 
work and draws patrons from sixteen sur- 
rounding school districts by the use of the 
rural telephone. 

What have the normal schools to do 
.vith all this? Before answering this ques- 
tion, it may be well to note that the term 
"normal school" has not always the same 
significance. In the United States there 
are 194 public normal schools. Scholastic 
standards are of three general types: 
First, the old-time normal school, whose 
graduates have little more than completed 
a high school course including some re- 
quired pedagogy. Second, the largest di- 
vision, the two-year normal school, which 



requires two years of college cultural and 
professional work, high school graduation 
being required for entrance. Third, the 
normal college or state teachers' college, 
which grants the bachelor's degree for the 
completion of four years of college cul- 
tural and professional work. As a rule the 
graduates of the high school normal course 
go into the rural or the small-town 
schools; the graduates of the two-year col- 
lege course, into elementary schools and 
special subjects; and the graduates of the 
four-year college course, into high school 
subjects, principalships, and superintend- 
encies. The four-year state teachers' col- 
leges of the United States can be counted 
on the ten fingers, and their ultimate 
sphere of influence is being debated. It 
would seem, however, that the adequate 
teacher-training institution must be as 
broad in its facilities and standards as are 
the conditions of modern life with which 
teachers must cope. 

In the normal schools of these three 
types, student attendance varies from 100 
to nearly 3,000, the average being about 
600. Faculties vary from 8 or 10 members 
to 125. Equipment varies correspondingly, 
the better schools having very complete 
facilities. For example, the Eastern Illi- 
nois State Normal School, at Charleston, 
which is said to have a faculty ranking in 
scholarship with the universities, has 1,200 
students, 31 members of faculty, offers two 
college years of teacher-training, has three 
buildings, a library of 16,000 volumes, and 
like many other normal schools of its type 
has an assured future and a fine field of 
influence. You will pardon another exam- 
ple, I hope, cited because I can be still 
more definite in describing it: The Kan- 
sas State Normal School, at Emporia, is 
a type of the four-year normal college. It 
was established in 1865. Last year it had 
2,750 students, 350 in the training school 
(comprising kindergarten and grades one 
to eight), 1,100 in the normal high school, 
and 1,300 in the college. It had a faculty 
of 100, nearly half of these being men, 
many of the best universities being repre- 
sented. It has 11 buildings, including an 



KBRR 



195 



enormous gymnasium, a library, a hospital, 
a training school, science building, etc. It 
has a department of library science, in 
charge of a professor giving full time to 
that department, and on the same plane as 
other departments of instruction. Of this 
same general type, in equipment, numbers, 
and standards, are the schools at Ypsilanti, 
Michigan; Cedar Falls, Iowa; Kirksville, 
Missouri; Greeley, Colorado; Terre Haute, 
Indiana; I do not mean to slight other 
worthy examples. 

Aside from these three types of public 
normal schools, another important type of 
teacher-training organization is the depart- 
ment of education and psychology in our 
best colleges and universities, exemplified 
notably by the School of Education of the J 
University of Chicago, and Teachers' Col- 
lege of Columbia University, the last- 
named being perhaps the most efficient 
teachers' college in the world. I hasten 
to add mention of the conspicuously help- 
ful work in educational psychology, pure 
and applied, which is being done at Clark 
University, Massachusetts, under the in- 
spiring leadership of Dr. G. Stanley Hall. 

Now, using the term "normal schools" 
to include all of these types of institutions 
and as representing their practices and 
ideals, may we ask the question we left 
a moment ago, "What have the normal 
schools to do with librarianship?" This: 
The normal schools have now consciously 
taken up the task of preparing teachers 
who understand the life that now is and 
can teach boys and girls to live that life 
and to be useful members of society here 
and hereafter. These organized institu- 
tions of teacher-training take themselvea 
seriously, they accept the responsibility of 
their task, and they are measureably suc- 
ceeding; despite the declarations of popu- 
lar magazines and investigating commit- 
tees that our schools are a colossal failure. 
Which they are not,. for didn't they train 
Mary Antin, and Miss Stearns, and you 
and me? If librarianship is educational 
work, and it is, the normal schools may 
therefore have some suggestion of educa- 
tional practice worthy the consideration 
of librarians. 



What is the educational world thinking 
and doing? Examine the program of the 
National Education Association, to meet 
week after next at Salt Lake City. I group 
some of the topics from the general ses- 
sions: First, What is education?; Educa- 
tion for freedom; The personal element in 
our educational problems; Teaching, and 
testing the teaching of essentials; Meas- 
uring results. Second, What shall we do 
with the single-room school?; The rural 
school; Fundamental reorganizations de- 
manded by the rural life problem; Rural 
betterments; The schoolhouse evening 
center. Third, moral values in pupil self- 
government, The high school period as a 
testing time, Public schools and public 
health. 

Relate these groups of topics with this 
definition of education from the late An- 
drew S. Draper, of honored memory: 

"Education that has life and enters into 
life; education that makes a living and 
makes life worth living; education that 
can use English to express itself; educa- 
tion that does not assume that a doctor 
must be an educated man and that a me- 
chanic or a farmer cannot be; education 
that appeals to the masses, that makes bet- 
ter citizens and a greater state; educa- 
tion that supports the imperial position of 
the State and inspires education in all of 
the States that is the education that con- 
cerns New York." 

Mingle with educational men and wom- 
en, search the educational periodicals and 
programs, scan the educational books, vis- 
it the normal colleges; and I think you will 
discover that something like this is hap- 
pening in the educational world: The con- 
tent of education is being adapted to meet 
the needs of all the classes and the masses. 
The method of education is being adapted 
to the individual. The result is that edu- 
cation is being universalized, socialized, 
democratized. 

In this adaptation of educational mate- 
rial and method, all eyes are upon the indi- 
vidual child. We are studying this child, 
working for him. We are playing for the 
batter, tackling the man with the ball. W 
believe it is more important to develop 



196 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



the undiscovered resource than to run all 
boys and ail girls through the same hop- 
per. A phrase used in the School Arts 
Magazine for May, 1913, in describing a 
notable Boston exhibit of art illustration, 
breathes this spirit: "Instruction in illus- 
tration, should be creative and individual 
from the outset. Models are posed to 
help in expressing more truthfully the con- 
ception of the illustrator rather than as a 
discipline in abstract drawing." 

The true teacher never gives up a boy or 
a girl. But mind you, we are saving the 
individual, making a man out of him, not 
that he may be a self-centered unsocial 
phenomenon, but that he may be a fellow 
among men, a useful social unit. We want 
strong individuality willing and able to 
live in society. 

Perhaps the biggest word in current ed- 
ucation is motivation. That word mo- 
tivation covers a multitude of sins and a 
multitude of virtues. Motivation does not 
mean coddling. It does not mean allow- 
ing the child to do as he pleases. On the 
other hand, motivation does not mean 
forcing an unnatural process or situation 
upon a helpless child or a helpless public. 
It does not mean that we are to give some- 
thing to the child. Motivation is not 
didactic in attitude. 

The spring of action in all of us is im- 
pulse. There is no time here to go into 
the psychology of instinct, impulse, emo- 
tion, motive, action, and all that. Suffics 
it for example that through the play in- 
stinct and impulse the wise teacher leads 
the child to a respect for fair-play, order, 
law, justice. The child never knows 
where he got it, but he has what he need- 
ed, and he has it indelibly. This process 
assumes a God-given wisdom on the part 
of the teacher: to know how that little 
mind is working, what it needs, how it 
may be brought to feel the need, and then 
to lead, draw out, educate that mind 
O, miracle of miracles! 

A step further in the consideration 
of the educational process: Perhaps 
there have been committed more atroci- 
ties, more crimes in_ the name of 



education, in the high school than in any 
other period of school life. More fairly 
stated, the crimes have been in the upper 
six years of the usual twelve, in that pe- 
riod which is called adolescence. Why 
do so many boys and girls drop out of the 
upper grades? Why do so many youths 
never complete high school? The voca- 
tional training people have one answer, 
and it consists in letting the boy work at 
something of which he feels the need. 
They motivate his work. The boy from 
the farm can't read Tennyson's "Prin- 
cess;" set him at the Breeder's Gazette 
or the testing of seed-corn; you can teach 
him English as readily through one task 
as the other. Only that boy never would 
learn English from "The Princess," and 
I love Tennyson. 

As an example of skillful motivation in 
teaching may I describe a case which is 
also an object-lesson to librarians in cor- 
relating people and books? It is a third- 
year high school class in argumentation. 
After some preliminary study, one day 
the teacher remarks rather inconsequen- 
tially, "Do you know I believe the 'Boston 
tea party' was an unjustifiable destruc- 
tion of property, and that unprejudiced his- 
torians now admit it?" Now that won't 
"go" in Kansas any easier than it will 
in Massachusetts. Teacher is immediate- 
ly challenged, and she replies, "Well, I'll 
debate it with you; and I'll be fair and 
square with you and tell you of some ma- 
terial on your side. But there is one man 
whose authority I would not want to dis- 
pute; you'll surely treat me fairly, won't 
you?" A young lady member of the class 
at once puts a motion to the class that 
it will not be considered fair to use the 
writings of Edmund Burke against teach- 
er. Does that class depend upon bluffing 
its way through that debate with teacher? 
No, it keeps us busy at the library to get 
material out fast enough, even though we 
had been previously informed by the teach- 
er that the material would be wanted. 
Even Dr. Johnson's "Taxation no tyranny" 
is read with eagerness. Teacher finally 
agrees to debate even against Burke. Is 



KERR 



197 



Burke a bore to that class? Why, the li- 
brary has to buy additional copies. Of 
course, the end desired by the teacher all 
the time was Burke. 

More and more, in the instruction of 
adolescent and adult, the teacher's effort 
is being directed toward arousing a prob- 
lem to be solved. Whether by a class lec- 
ture, by a class discussion, or by a per- 
sonal conference, the pupil is brought to 
feel that it is important for him to find the 
answer. Is it not important, then, forjthe 
librarian to be skilled in drawing out a 
statement of the problem, or, changing the 
figure, to recognize accurately the symp- 
toms and to prescribe unerringly? I think 
librarians having to do with high school 7 
and college students should rather fre- 
quently visit classes and attend lectures. 
If this were done, the pupil would less of- 
ten be ground between upper and nether 
millstone, and the millstones would think 
more of each other. 

Thus far, educational ideals and prac- 
tices. Now will they help us any in at- 
tempting to formulate a library pedagogy? 
I believe they will. I believe that the 
teaching attitude, the study of the indi- 
vidual, the putting of the individual's 
needs far and away before the observance 
of inflexible rule and practice, and the de- 
termination to correlate people and books 
and life to the very ends of the earth, 
these four stones at least will be in the 
foundation of library pedagogy. 

I am not sure that all educational peo- 
ple will agree entirely with the foregoing 
statement of educational principles and 
methods. I am quite sure that I may as 
well gracefully hand my head now to some 
of you because of the following library cor- 
relaries of the preceding educational doc- 
trines. Some of these are my own beliefs, 
some are beliefs of educational men re- 
garding libraries: 

In the training of librarians, would it 
be more in accord with modern pedagogy 
to have less lecturing, less practice work 
done in the this-is-the-only-way-to-do-it at- 
titude, and to have more of the come-on- 



and-let's-find-out, the learn-by-doing labora- 
tory spirit? 

Educational administration is being re- 
modeled, centralized. If library work is to 
be more and more educational, school men 
have said to me, why not make the public 
library an integral part of the city school 
system, and the state library and state li- 
brary commission an arm of the state de- 
partment of education? It is a terrible 
thought, but it will not down by denying 
it. 

When library work becomes educational 
through and through, and all library as- 
sistants are experts in psychology and hu- 
man nature, the fines system will be a 
thing of the past. 

Conservation of the individual means 
that it is better to have a book in use than 
to have it lying peacefully on the shelf 
entirely surrounded by unbroken rules. 

Conservation of society means that it 
is better to have the library open on holi- 
days and Sundays, when the working man 
isn't "dead tired," than to report an in- 
creased circulation of fiction. 

The PRESIDENT: For an object lesson 
as to the strenuous life we go to Oyster 
Bay. For library buildings we go to East 
Ninety-first street, New York, or when he 
is in Europe we go to Skibo Castle. For 
information as to the latest inventions we 
go to the laboratory of Mr. Edison. For 
full information as to the best in high 
school work we go to the Girls' High 
School in Brooklyn. Miss MARY E. HALL. 

Miss Hall spoke extemporaneously upon 
the enlarging scope of library work in 
high schools. Some of the points discussed 
were treated by her in a paper before the 
section on Library Work with Children at 
the Ottawa conference, 1912. See Ottawa 
Proceedings in Bulletin of the American 
Library Association, v. 6, p. 260-68. 

The PRESIDENT: As my eye roves over 
this audience I see it is thickly sprinkled 
with punctuation marks. It has been sug- 
gested that some of our papers ought to 
be discussed from the floor. We shall be 
glad to hear from any librarians who are 



198 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



in this audience, either in the form of ex- 
periences or comment. 

Mr. OLIN S. DAVIS: While I approve 
fully all that the last speaker has said, I 
feel very strongly that the college or high 
school library should not be too complete 
and that the student should be encouraged 
to use the public library. Work should be 
given to the students in high schools and 
girls' schools that would require their com- 
ing to the public library, because if the 
children in the grades and high schools do 
not learn to use the public library in those 
years they will not be apt to use the 
library in later years when they have left 
school. 

Miss HALL: I would like to say that 
the first thing we do with pupils is to take 
a census of the entering class to find out 
how many do not have cards in the public 
library; interview them to see why they 
have not; even to write letters to the pa- 
rents and urge them to allow their chil- 
dren to have cards; and to see before the 
end of the first term that every student in 
the entering class has a card in the public 
library, has a note of introduction from 
the school librarian to the branch librarian 
of the public library, and to see that the 
branch librarian of our big cities and the 
high school librarian work together four 
years with that student. We have the 
very closest co-operation. 

Miss AHERN: Most of you reading 
library literature lately have seen consid- 
erable criticism of the fact that when stu- 
dents go out from college they do not 
know how to use the library. That is 
sometimes the student's fault, but most 
often it is the fault of the college curricu- 
lum. That is a topic we need not discuss 
here. But I believe librarians will do a 
great service to those who are going into 
college activities if they emphasize and 
elaborate that idea of putting into the re- 
quirements for college entrance, a knowl- 
edge of how to use library machinery. 

There are a good many things that are 
necessary for students to know before they 
are able to take up the work in colleges, 
particularly in literature and language. I 



am not saying that these should be any 
less. But here is something that I won- 
der no one has ever thought of before. 
It means a good deal more to a student to 
know how to use the various reference 
books -in the college library on, say, the 
works of John Milton, than to have read 
some of the things which are included in 
the entrance examination. I think the idea 
of requiring a knowledge of how to use 
the library for college entrance is the best 
thing I have heard at a library meeting for 
a long time, and I hope the librarians who 
are present will impress that idea on their 
superintendents of schools, on their high 
school principals, and on the college au- 
thorities, as far as they can. It is a good 
thing. If we should not get anything else 
out of this 1913 meeting but to impress on 
the school people that a knowledge of how 
to use the library is a necessary require- 
ment for a college course, we shall have 
gained a great point. 

Mr. RANCK: I should like to ask Miss 
Hall about her experience with reference 
to the use of the library on the teaching 
of English and literature in the high 
school. 

Miss HALL: I have been very much in- 
terested in this. Our school has been so 
large it has been very difficult to do all we 
would like to do. We have not been able 
to do what has been done in the Detroit or 
Grand Rapids high school in the way of in- 
struction. But I have been interested in 
seeing what it has done for the English 
and the history departments. In the first 
place, our teachers are coming with their 
classes for instruction and the teachers 
are learning a great many things which 
they are putting in practice. For the last 
year we have done more with the Reader's 
Guide in history than ever before. Teach- 
ers are assigned to help me in my work. 
After they heard the talk on the Reader's 
Guide they said, "We can do this: we will 
go through the Reader's Guide and we will 
bring out everything that is really inter- 
esting on the history of France, Germany, 
China, Russia and the Balkan War; we will 
look over those articles and make a card 



LESTER 



199 



of the best things." They are using the 
Reader's Guide in English more than ever 
before; they are using reference books 
more. After the talk on the Statesmen's 
Yearbook and on the almanacs and some 
of the yearbooks, such as the New Inter- 
national Yearbook, they are using them 
almost as textbooks. The Statesmen's 
Yearbook is in use nearly all the time, as 
is the New International Yearbook, since 
that talk. They are using the Reader's 
Guide for new material essays that they 
want on special subjects, and are using it 
for debate work, informal debates on all 
sorts of interesting current problems for 
English work, training the students to do 
oral debating without any notes, and talks 
on the topics of the day. They are using 
encyclopedias more wisely than they used 
/ to. Teachers used to send scholars to en- 
cyclopedias for everything. And when we 
talked about the real use of encyclopedias 
and bibliographies, how the encyclopedia 
simply gave you a certain amount of 
definite information and often led to more 
important things, they began using those 
bibliographies. 

Miss HOBART: I do not know that any 
librarian has been trying to work out the 
problem which I have of reaching the pub- 
lic school pupils and teachers. Some of 
the best things that I have found in that 
way are these: I made myself familiar, as 
early in the term as possible, with the 
teachers and the conditions of their home 
life. I found that some had very poor 
places to room, as they are apt to have in 
small communities, and to those I offered 
the use of the library rooms for evening 
use and for time out of school when they 
wished to correct papers. Our library is 
warm and light in the winter and cool and 
light in the summer. And the teachers 
were extremely glad to have a place where 
they could come and be quiet and com- 
fortable and do their own work. I think 
that last year the teachers in our small vil- 
lage practically lived in the library. Even 
those who had homes there used to make 
it their abiding place most of their waking 
hours. For the high school pupils, at the 



time of their graduating essays, we laid 
books aside in different places in the 
library. Many of those children had no 
proper places at home where they could 
write. They came to the library and did 
their work; almost all the work on their 
graduating essays was done evenings. For 
six weeks we gave the use of our catalog 
rooms to two girls who had their books 
sent there. There were several out-of-town 
children; to those we gave a room in the 
basement. They came from school as 
quickly as possible at noon, ate their 
luncheon in a very short time and spent 
the rest of the intermission in the library 
doing reference work. The expressions of 
appreciation we have received and the con- 
sciousness of the help given to those chil- 
dren in the use of the library has been a 
great source of satisfaction. 
Adjourned. 

FIFTH GENERAL SESSION 

(Friday morning, June 27, 1913.) 

The PRESIDENT: We begin this morn- 
ing the fifth session of this conference and 
the theme covering the papers is, "The 
library's service to business and legisla- 
tion." Ten years ago it would not have 
occurred to anyone perhaps that it would 
be possible to have a series of papers upon 
this subject, and the surprising expansion 
of the service in these directions is evi- 
denced by the fact that we have, in order at 
all to attempt to cover this subject ade- 
quately, a larger number of papers on this 
morning's program than we have on the 
program for any other of the subjects 
which have been scheduled. I will ask Mr. 
C. B. LESTER to start the program with 
his paper upon 

THE PRESENT STATUS OF LEGISLA- 
TIVE REFERENCE WORK 

It is now more than twenty years since 
the need of specialization in the library's 
work on subjects of legislation was rec- 
ognized in New York in the creation of a 
special staff for such work, and it is just 
about ten years since the successful com- 
bination in Wisconsin of such special ref- 



200 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



erence work with the formulation of bills 
aroused most of the states to the possibili- 
ties of usefulness in this field. It would 
therefore seem worth while to examine 
the work so far done to discover if pos- 
sible such principles and tendencies as 
may be subject to generalization. 

It is at once obvious that any such gen- 
eralization in a broad sense must be diffi- 
cult, for this present year shows in legisla- 
tion both east and west that we have not 
yet come to rest on such fundamental prin- 
ciples as to method even though there may 
be substantial unanimity as to policy. The 
new laws in Vermont (and I think in New 
Hampshire) in the east in Ohio, Indiana, 
and Illinois in the middle west and in 
California on the Pacific coast show such 
differences that it is evident that local con- 
ditions must still be very largely controll- 
ing. And to go back a full year or more 
would bring to notice the new work organ- 
ized in several states through university 
bureaus but without special legislation, 
and the proposals before the Congress. 

Comparatively little examination shows 
that the conception of the work to be done 
differs widely. Mr. Kaiser of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois, who is preparing a detailed 
study of the subject, writes me: "I find 
that in practically thirty-two states it is 
attempted in some form or other the 
state library as a whole, a division of the 
state library created within the library, a 
division created by law, a separate bureau, 
library commission bureaus, state univer- 
sity bureaus, etc." Obviously this must in- 
clude practically all states where the state 
library is other than a law library only or 
a historical collection only, and must cred- 
it with doing legislative reference work 
those states where general reference work 
is done on subjects of legislation. But 
there is a more exact use of the term 
which takes account of the fundamental 
principle well suggested in the statement 
of the Librarian of Congress in his com- 
munication to Congress in 1911. "A legis- 
lative reference bureau goes further [than 
the Division of Bibliography], It under- 
takes not merely to classify and to catalog. 



but to draw off from a general collection 
the literature, that is the data, bearing 
upon a particular legislative project. It 
indexes, extracts, compiles." It breaks up 
existing forms in which information is con- 
tained and classifies the resulting parts, 
and often "adds to printed literature writ- 
ten memoranda as to facts and even opin- 
ions as to merit." 

Such work as the legislative reference 
staff should be qualified to do is distinctly 
informational rather than educational in 
its reference to the patron. It does the 
work of research, of gathering, sorting and 
uniting the scattered fact material wanted 
and presents the results ready for use. And 
to be fully effective this work must in 
some way be co-ordinated with the formu- 
lation of legislation, so that the product of- 
fered by the legislator may be both firmly 
founded and properly constructed. This 
work is so evidently necessary that it will 
be done in an increasing number of states 
whether the state library . or some other 
agency undertakes it ac^ protects its effi- 
ciency by the impartial, non-political and 
permanent organization of it which can be 
there best provided. 

Practically all legislation specifically 
providing for such work has been passed 
in the years beginning 1907 and it is sig- 
nificant that most of this emphasizes re- 
search and drafting. The laws specially 
providing for such work are as follows: 

Alabama, 1907, no. 255. 

California, 1913. 

Illinois, 1913. 

Indiana, 1913, ch. 255 (1907, ch. 147). 

Michigan, 1907, ch. 306 (1913, ch. 144). 

Missouri, Stat, 1909, Sec. 8177. 

Montana, 1909, ch. 65. 

Nebraska, 1911, ch. 72. 

North Dakota, 1909, ch. 157 (1907, ch. 
243). 

Ohio, 1913 (1910, no. 384). 

Pennsylvania, 1909, no. 143 (1913). 

Rhode Island, 1907, ch. 1471. 

South Dakota, 1907, ch. 185. 

Texas, 1909, ch. 70. 

Vermont, 1912, ch. 14 (1910, ch. 9). 

Wisconsin, Stat. Sec. 373 f. 



LESTER 



201 



An analysis of the work done, whether 
provided for by legislation or by admin- 
istrative practice, shows certain other 
facts. The number of the staff in any state 
is often variable, temporary or part time 
assistance is often used, and this is true 
where this work is not a part of the work 
of a state library or other wider organiza- 
tion. Furthermore, the cost in money is 
almost impossible to estimate accurately 
in many places, because of this co-opera- 
tion with other work. In starting a new 
work this difficulty in answering the ques- 
tion of what it costs elsewhere must be 
faced. The best way to meet it seems to 
be to make the comparison on the basis 
of the work wanted, definitely planning 
what is to be done, and asking for a lump 
sum to cover its estimated cost. 

The drafting proposition is a most im- 
portant element. Some three or four states 
already have official bill-drafting agencies, 
other than legislative reference depart- 
ments, and a number of others definitely 
depend upon the attorney-general's office 
for this work. In some states there is op- 
position to putting this in the hands of a 
non-legislative agency, and in others the 
libraries, while ready to handle a special- 
ized reference work, are not ready to un- 
dertake drafting. Obviously this work re- 
quires highly specialized training, and 
equally, I believe, it will be agreed that 
this service should be rendered and that 
it must be in the closest co-operation with 
the reference work. There is no doubt in 
my own mind that the best condition is 
that of a single agency to perform this 
dual work, where the establishment of 
such is possible, and the usual organization 
seems to include both the expert drafts- 
men and the special clerical and steno- 
graphic assistance. 

This service in the primary formulation 
of bills must inevitably lead to a similar 
assistance as bills progress toward final 
enactment. This care as to form through 
the processes of amendment and revision 
will ultimately be complete if the enacted 
statute law is what it should be "to stand 
the test." 



This leads me to certain suggestions of 
other fields of service in the legislative 
process which should all tend to better the 
whole legislative product. Of course, in 
much of this service the emphasis is 
placed upon form and make-up of the final 
product, the discretion as to subject mat- 
ter resting elsewhere, but that discretion- 
ary judgment is to be based upon the most 
complete information it is possible to fur- 
nish. Most of these services are now per- 
formed by the libraries or other non-leg- 
islative agencies in some states, but of 
course not all, or indeed many, in any one 
state. They include editing, foot-noting, 
side-noting, indexing of session laws, and 
the preparation of tables of amendments, 
repeals and similar matter; the proper fil- 
ing and care of original bills, journals, 
committee records, and similar matter, 
after the work of the session is com- 
pleted; the editing and indexing of the 
printed journal; editorial work of various 
forms upon the legislative documents. 
These are all services Tieeded . by our 
states, useful to the legislative bodies, and 
only properly handled through some per- 
manent agency. Is the state library that 
agency? I leave the question for your con- 
sideration, and suggest that some uncer- 
tainty at present as to just what may be 
most desirable is evident particularly in 
the new legislation in Vermont, Ohio, In- 
diana and California. It has already been 
brought out in prepared paper and in dis- 
cussion at this conference that the state 
library should not be a central public li- 
brary in its content or its method. It is 
rather possible to express the field of its 
activities as that of a collection of special 
libraries. Into that field would come quite 
naturally the varied services to the legisla- 
tive branch of the government which have 
been suggested. As already stated some 
of them are now supplied in some states. 
What we shall ultimately work toward in 
our states is a complete organization of 
these allied branches of work, all of which 
focus about the work of the legislature. 
Some of these services are at once recog- 
nized as within the field of the library 



202 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



about others there is a decided difference 
of opinion. But they all have many com- 
mon elements, many points of contact. 
They are most effectively to be handled 
as a group. The tendency will surely be 
toward a concentration rather than a scat- 
tering of these parts of one general work. 
Plans for such a concentration, adapted to 
a particular set of conditions, to be sure, 
have already been put into concrete bill 
form in New York and the bill was before 
the legislature this year. The question 
presents many new features, but is not 
something to be answered perhaps in the 
distant future; it is rather, I believe, 
worthy of a very real consideration in the 
present. 

The PRESIDENT: The second paper 
this morning, which follows very logically 
after the one which we have just heard, 
will be by Mr. DEMARCHUS C. BROWN, 
state librarian of Indiana, on 

STATE-WIDE INFLUENCE OF THE 
STATE LIBRARY 

The writer of this paper would be more 
than Protsean if he could say anything new 
on this topic. All our associations, at least 
the half dozen I belong to, meet so often 
that repetition is forced upon us. In the 
interim very few experiences or ideas 
worth recording come to us. Biennial or 
triennial sessions would lead to better 
results and save money. 

The personality and attainments of the 
librarian (and his staff) are of prime im- 
portance in making the state library a 
dominating influence in the common- 
wealth. He is the man behind the gun. 
I put him first. From the negative side, 
his position should not be subject to par- 
tisan or personal influence. That is a 
blight to start with and will ruin any 
institution. We are still afflicted with that 
curse in places, not only in the state li- 
braries but in official positions generally. 

Affirmatively, the head of the state li- 
brary ought to be a person of scholarly 
acquirements or at least in deep and ap- 
preciative sympathy with scholarship and 
knowledge. If he is a scholar in a limit- 



ed field he should be in accord with all 
who are trained in other departments. 
He should be able to represent the state 
in its educational and scientific undertak- 
ings, by papers and addresses, whenever 
called upon. It goes without saying that 
he should be a trained man in educational 
or library or literary work and of course 
an executive officer. His library is a lab- 
oratory of all for all in the state and he 
must be in touch with the work of that 
laboratory. His library is the distributer 
of blessings to a great commonwealth, and 
according to the motto of the "Library 
Company" of Philadelphia, that is divine 
(Communiter bona profundere deum est). 
I'll not quote the Latin it would be class- 
ic, and to be classic is against the regula- 
tions of the Zeitgeist. I want him to be an 
inspirer for all to love art and poetry, and 
study and history and politics (real) ; and 
not merely skilled in the knowledge of 
card indexes and catalog rules. A certain 
famous general in the Confederate Army 
spent so much of his time on details of 
drill and quartermaster's regulations that 
he forgot how to fight his army. 

I have put the librarian first in this 
broadening influence of the state library. 
All the volumes and equipment and staff 
will be comparatively a failure without 
this scholarly, well-trained, wide-awake 
executive officer. 

As to the various ways in which the 
state library, can extend its influence and 
make itself useful, permit me to suggest a 
few. This institution can well be the bib- 
liographical center of the state. Every 
club, school, library, society, and all citi- 
zens can be made to know that here in- 
formation can be obtained about books. 

Our own demand is quite large and 
ought to be larger. There are libraries 
with meagre equipment, schools with 
none, people with none, colleges with lit- 
tle all these may be taught to turn to the 
central institution for bibliographical in- 
formation. I consider this a source of 
wide-spreading influence, valuable and 
helpful to the whole state. I have placed 
it second more because I deem it impor- 



BROWN 



203 



tant, not because I think all of these 
points can be listed accurately as to their 
relative positions. 

Our states heretofore have been very 
slow in preserving their history, both of 
the commonwealth and municipalities. 
This has led, perchance, to the unspeak- 
able commercial county histories with 
their unspeakable portraits and unspeak- 
able cost, which we are compelled to pur- 
chase in order to have something. 

The state library's influence should ex- 
tend over the entire state in an attempt 
to teach the preservation of history. The 
library is the natural place for the co> 
lection and organization of the history of 
the state. The archives may well be kept 
here for reference and use, though some 
states have a separate archives and his- 
tory department. 

I wish we knew how to preserve history. 
We don't keep or build memorials, we tear 
down and throw away. What we want is 
the new, the fresh, the raw. The old, the 
seasoned, the ripe, we think is effete (how 
we like that word in referring to the old 
advanced civilization of Europe). The state 
library has a great, unploughed field to 
cultivate. Personally, I find people ready 
to burn up newspapers or manuscrips, or 
sell volumes for junk rather than give them 
to an institution where they may be pre- 
served. I am trying to teach them other- 
wise, but succeeding very slowly indeed. 
I trust some of you are doing better. 

The women's clubs are a source of help 
in extending the influence of the library. 
They are asking for information of all 
kinds at all times. We laugh at them, I 
know. They have papers on Shakespeare, 
Goethe or Homer at one sitting and dis- 
pose of them all. But what shall we do? 
They are the conservers of culture and 
reading. Men don't want them, i. e. cul- 
ture and reading. They are bourgeois, 
"practical," (a bas with that word and up 
with refinement and culture which is just 
as meaningful in books as in a field where 
we know culture is everything). I know 
many prosperous country towns without a 
men's reading organization or club in 



them, but many women's. If the state li- 
brary in its state-wide influence, could con- 
vert men to reading, it would do a great 
work. Send your bulletin to the clubs, sug- 
gest topics for discussion, and thus dis- 
tribute the leaven. 

So much of our reading and study is 
done through periodicals of every descrip- 
tion that it is made necessary for one cen- 
tral institution to be well supplied with 
these publications. The periodicals not 
taken in the average library, college or 
club, the foreign, like Revue de Deux 
Mondes, and Dublin Review, for example, 
and particularly the learned periodicals 
used only occasionally, should be found in 
the state library. 

The state library can become a source 
of information, widespread over the state, 
by this process. Demands come sometimes 
from remote corners, from a teacher or 
some ambitious student, and he should 
never be neglected. This department, I 
fear, has been in a measure overlooked. 
We have about a hundred from foreign 
countries secured through exchange for 
the Indiana Academy of Science. They 
are not commonly called for but they form 
a tie between the library and the scientific 
men and students over the state. 

By no means limit this list to scientific 
periodicals. Make the selection as broad 
as human interest, if funds and space per- 
mit. 

It is commonplace to say that the state 
library is the document depository of the 
commonwealth. You know that now. 
Many people do not realize it, however. 
Every official publication of the state, 
counties and municipalities, if preserved 
here, will be a source for historical re- 
search in the future. Nothing of the kind 
should be thrown away. Many state li- 
braries were founded with this particular 
purpose in view. The state library is the 
logical place for the preservation of all 
documents of the state. From it the mu- 
nicipal authorities, students of state his- 
tory and political science, teachers, legis- 
lators and citizens gather the information 



204 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



needed on the documentary history of the 
state. 

All the states have institutions of vari- 
ous kinds colleges, hospitals for insane, 
the epileptic, the tubercular, reformatories, 
etc., etc. Why should the state library 
not at least supplement the small or large 
collections in these institutions? Their 
purpose is not to purchase books, though 
some are needed. The state library's in- 
fluence and assistance should enter here, 
also. Much can be done to enlarge the 
views and inform the heads of these insti- 
tutions and to make happy many of the 
inmates. No demand by a superintendent 
of a state institution for books to be pur- 
chased for and referred to by him would 
be overlooked in the Indiana state libra- 
ry. The institutions are scattered over 
the state and the library's influence would 
be spread in gathering material for the 
people connected with these institutions. 
The libraries of the state universities can 
be supplemented to great advantage, as 
has been done at least in our own state 
and in yours, I have no doubt. 

The newspapers of the state are not kept 
with any regularity in the different locali- 
ties. They are a valuable fund of informa- 
tion for the historian, who must sift rig- 
idly of course. Our attempt is to preserve 
the papers from each county. We have 
many instances already of the value of 
our collection. We believe that a state- 
wide service is done in this way. I know 
the newspaper is not what we think it ' 
ought to be, but certain conditions of poli- 
tics, business and social customs are pic- 
tures which will otherwise be lost. The 
librarian in the state library has imposed 
upon him here an important duty to the 
commonwealth, and the possibility of ren- 
dering great service. 

The high schools are fond of debating. 
The boys are more easily aroused to read- 
ing by the discussion of a public or social 
problem. The local library is usually mea- 
gre. If the school principal is kept in 
close touch with the central library he 
will know where to send for material. A 
bulletin on "Debates" with bibliographical 



lists is of great service to the school men. 
The state library extends its work to edu- 
cational centers by this method. The In- 
diana state library for several years has 
followed this system and as a result has 
almost been swamped with requests for 
debate material. As many as forty high 
schools in one week tried to overwhelm us, 
but our staff stood the test womanfully 
and won. 

There are state-wide associations of all 
kinds in every state. Many of them pub- 
lish reports or proceedings. The state li- 
brarian may well keep his institution in 
touch with all of these. The library may 
even be a member of some of them, espe- 
cially educational, social, literary or ar- 
tistic. The presence of a member of its 
staff at their meetings or correspondence 
may lead to the use of the library by these 
organizations in a way that will show that 
the library is the thing to be used a tool 
for every man. 

Common as it may be to say it, the as- 
sistance to the blind of the state by the 
central library must not be passed by. It 
is a great joy for any one to note the 
pleasure these unfortunate people obtain 
from the collections from which they draw 
daily. Very few, if any, are able to pur- 
chase their own books. The number as- 
sisted is small, but the benefit and happi- 
ness are great and lasting. 

As the state library is the document and 
the political science center, it follows that 
legislative and official information are to 
be secured here. The officials and mem- 
bers of the Assembly ought to be made 
to know that the state library is, as it 
were, the fountain head from which to 
draw. If the library is worth anything or 
its head and staff worth anything, they 
should be consulted frequently by these 
persons in their work of lawmaking. The 
library has gathered and organized the 
material and by means of its use by the 
legislator, the library exerts a state-wide 
service. 

It is the province of the traveling libra- 
ries department to lend collections of 
books to groups of citizens in localities 



BROWN 



205 



apart from libraries. This does not hinder 
the state library from doing much for the 
farmer individually and in farmers' in- 
stitutes. Addresses may be delivered, bib- 
liographical lists on agricultural subjects 
sent and books loaned if the law permits 
it, and I think it should. 

In our own library we have letters and 
requests from farmers; we preserve the 
records of their institutes and granges. 
One who had only half an hour a day to 
read asked for a volume of Jefferson, 
Shakespeare, or a good book on chiggers. 
If he could find out how to get rid of the 
chiggers, I would prefer that book to Jef- 
ferson, whose apotheosis is sadly over- 
worked. That farmer's request was not 
so fascinating as that of a teacher who 
wanted a book on "the history of the hu- 
man people." This is a sample of Indi- 
ana readers. Indiana, the home of au- 
thors! (I want to express my opinion in 
parenthesis here, that this Indiana litera- 
ture talk is also sadly overworked.) 

All this concerns special classes of peo- 
ple and books. But ^he general reader 
must be looked after. If democratization 
of books and reading is our keynote, and 
I think it is, then the citizen who wants 
to read on history, poetry, art, sociology, 
religion, must not be neglected. State- 
wide means much. It means an open mind 
for all the demos. 

Our central library shall not be a trade 
shop, not for the bourgeoisie, but a men- 
tor, a guide, a place of refinement and cul- 
ture. Not for the practical man only he 
usually does not know anything and does 
not want to; he has no breadth of view. 
Looking up a trade item or a report or 
some figures is good and useful; so is lov- 
ing a poet because it is at the foundation 
of character and education. 

We have recently been informed no, 
we have been told that to talk about 
reading, culture, the love of knowledge, is 
"flapdoodle." A citizen may be benefit- 
ed by knowing how many miles of rail- 
road are in his county, or what amount 
of money his city spends, but he will be 
just as much benefited by reading a lofty 



poem of Andre" Chenier, Le Jeu de Paume 
for example, or a stanza of William 
Dwight Moody's, not that he will make 
money, but something far better. 

What I want to say is that the state 
library shall extend the love of learning, 
of literature, or art and all their kin to the 
furthest boundaries of the state in order 
that all may know that here is a fountain 
whence all may receive instruction and 
refreshment. Why should the business 
man not read something besides the news- 
paper, the statements of which are denied 
the next day? Yet most men read nothing 
else. If his own town library is small 
let him call upon the state library and let 
. the state library be ready to help. I be- 
lieve that lending books must still be 
granted to the state library. We have 
calls from lovers of reading from every 
corner of Indiana, from men who love cul- 
ture, knowledge and literature. These we 
propose to accommodate as long as the 
law permits. This observation is made 
because it has been said repeatedly that 
the state library shall deal in documents, 
reports and reference books. 

We have many foreigners in Indiana. 
When these cannot secure what is wanted 
at their local library I want them to come 
to us, as recently happened when the Rou- 
manians wanted the text of their native 
poets and something about their provin- 
cial capital Nagygebin. 

I trust that we may all have one great 
library for reference with a minimum of 
popular fiction a library that is a guide 
to scholarship and knowledge, a library 
where every man who loves to read may 
turn himself out to grass and browse, 
browse deeply. Herein will we have state- 
wide influence. 

May I group these influences as a sum- 
mary: the personality, fitness and schol- 
arship of the State Librarian; the bibli- 
ographical center may well be the state 
library; the legislative reference for the 
Assembly and officials; the gathering and 
preserving of the history and archives of 
the state along with the encouragement 
among the people to preserve local his- 



206 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



torical material; the collecting of news- 
papers representing the entire common- 
wealth; the creation of a periodical center 
in the state library; close connection with 
schools, colleges and all kinds of organ- 
izations, social, literary, commercial, etc.; 
assistance for all the state institutions, 
educational, charitable, and correctional; 
close relation with the women's clubs; as- 
sistance to the farmer and the foreigner 
in isolated localities; the center for gen- 
eral culture and love of knowledge where 
every citizen may continue to go to school. 
The PRESIDENT: Mr. Lester in his 
paper referred to the bill-drafting depart- 
ment of a legislative reference bureau and 
Mr. Brown has just referred to the man be- 
hind the counter. We may perhaps feel 
that modern conditions require two men 
behind the counter in government: the one 
who prepares the ammunition and the one 
who fires it; and perhaps the more im- 
portant is the one who prepares the am- 
munition; the one who draws up the law, 
leaving to the legislature the more per- 
functory service of applying the match. 
Mr. MATTHEW S. DUDGEON has served 
in the capacity of director of the bill draft- 
ing department of the Wisconsin legisla- 
tive bureau and I believe that since he has 
assumed the duties of the executive officer 
of the Wisconsin Library Commission he 
has continued to perform that service. We 
shall be glad to hear from him this morn- 
ing as to 

THE LAW THAT STANDS THE TEST 

In an address before the New York Bar 
Association the Honorable Joseph E. 
Choate says that we in America are suffer- 
ing seriously from plethora of legislation. 
He suggests that this whole "mass of legis- 
lation pabulum that is made up and offered 
to the people from year to year, ought to 
be more thoroughly 'Fletcherized,' more 
completely masticated, before it is poured 
into the body politic for digestion. "If that 
were done, I am sure," he says, "that we 
could get along with half the quantity and 
it would do us just as much good." The 
volume of legislation now being considered 



is, in fact, appalling. The legislature of 
one Eastern state had before it at its last 
biennial session four thousand and eighty- 
one distinct bills. A Western state this 
year has asked its legislature to consider 
three thousand, seven hundred and thirty- 
eight measures. A Southern state actually 
passed at its latest session one thousand, 
four hundred and sixty different enact- 
ments. 

Unlike the hookworm, however, this dis- 
ease is neither new nor newly discovered, 
nor is it like the chills and fever, indige- 
nous to our newly settled American conti- 
nent. Over three hundred years ago Mon- 
taigne discovered a superabundance of leg- 
islation in France. "We have more laws 
in France," he says, "than in all the rest 
of the world." And going back still further 
to the first century A. D. we find Tacitus 
complaining that there are too many laws 
in Rome. "So that as formerly we suffered 
from wickedness," he says in his Annals, 
"so now we suffer from too many laws." 

We may safely conclude then that the 
enactment of many laws which are not so 
fully "Fletcherized" as they should be, is a 
complaint which long ago became chronic 
among bodies politic generally and that 
it is high time that some cure be found 
for the ailment. How can the quantity of 
laws be diminished and the quality im- 
proved? How can our legislative acts be 
masticated so that one-half as many may 
do us as much good? 

The problem of thus improving legisla- 
tion and producing "the law that stands 
the test" is indeed a most serious one. 

Requirements. Let us suggest the propo- 
sition that a law that stands the test must 
first be one which violates no provision 
of the constitution; second, it must be 
founded upon a sound economic basis; 
third, it should be capable of efficient ad- 
ministration: that is, it should be a practi- 
cal, workable, usable thing; fourth, it 
must fit into its surroundings both legal 
and social. It must, as Blackstone has sug- 
gested, fit the situation as a suit of clothes 
fits the man. Some laws which are per- 
fectly sound in good old occidental Eng- 



DUDGEON 



207 



land have been found to be entirely im- 
possible in oriental India.. A measure 
which suits the Anglo-Saxon Yankee in 
Connecticut may be entirely out of place 
among the mixed peoples of the Philip- 
pines. 

The law that stands the test must have 
all these qualities and this is the law 
which all the American states are striving 
to produce. Such a law may, of course, 
possess these characteristics and yet not 
be in every sense satisfactory. It may not 
accomplish all that was hoped for it; it 
may contain errors; it may need amend- 
ments, and still it may be a law which) in 
a proper sense, stands the test. To give 
a method by which a law may be created 
which will stand the test will not there- 
fore be to suggest that a method has been 
discovered which will produce perfect leg- 
islation. 

Nature of subjects considered. It should 
be remembered also that the difficulties of 
legislation arise not only from the multi- 
tude of subjects presented, but because 
many of the subjects are in themselves 
most difficult of comprehension. The 
Right Honorable James Bryce has said 
that the task of legislation becomes more 
and more difficult and that many of the 
problems which legislators now face are 
too hard not only for the ordinary mem- 
bers but even for the abler members of 
legislative bodies because they cannot be 
understood and mastered without special 
knowledge. 

To illustrate: The legislature of a mid- 
dle western state has had before it at a 
single session laws upon the following sub- 
jects: A comprehensive code of court pro- 
cedure, initiative and referendum, recall of 
all officers except judges, home rule in 
cities, excess, condemnation, woman's suf- 
frage, workmen's compensation, regula- 
tion of industrial accidents by commission, 
income tax, state aid to public highways, 
conservation and control of water power, 
forest reserve, system of industrial educa- 
tion, system of state life insurance, the 
formation of farmers' co-operative associa- 
tions, limitation of the hours of labor for 



women, child labor, public school build- 
ings as civic centers, and teachers' pen- 
sion. 

There does not exist in any learned fao- 
ciety nor in any university in the land a 
single man who can do more than con- 
verse intelligently upon all of these sub- 
jects; yet this state expected its absolutely 
untrained legislators to understand these 
matters thoroughly, to express a wise judg- 
ment upon them, and to record their judg- 
ment in such form as to force it upon an 
entire state. 

Lack of training on the part of the legis- 
lators. Of the one hundred members of 
the lower house of the legislature which 
voted upon all these measures sixty-five 
had never had any previous legislative ex- 
perience. Only thirty had had the advan- 
tage of any college education. While nine- 
teen of the one hundred were lawyers, they 
were for the most part young, inexperi- 
enced men, whose contact with public 
questions had been limited. Thirty of the 
one hundred were farmers, thirty-one were 
in business, six were doctors or dentists, 
eight were mechanics, three were school 
teachers. Yet these men, without experi- 
ence, or training, or special fitness were 
forced to vote upon all these difficult eco- 
nomic and industrial problems, and also 
upon about two thousand other more or 
less important measures. 

Necessity for unbiased information. It 
is of course evident that what the legisla- 
tor must have is a source from which he 
can obtain complete information upon all 
sides of a controverted question. A court 
which purports to administer justice after 
hearing the contention of only one party 
to a transaction would open itself to ridi- 
cule. Yet this is precisely the method pur- 
sued in legislation. The legislator begins 
without any independent knowledge of the 
subject. Such knowledge as he obtains 
is brought to him ordinarily by a lobbyist. 
He receives many private suggestions 
whose source he hardly knows. He at- 
tends a committee hearing on a bill seek- 
ing to increase the taxes levied upon rail- 
road property, for example. Here the best 



208 



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data and legal arguments that money can 
buy is ably and forcibly presented by the 
railroad attorneys. They give figures to 
show that the railroads are already taxed 
more than other forms of property. They 
quote economists to the effect that the 
proposed taxation is unsound and unscien- 
tific. They cite court decisions demon- 
strating to a certainty that the proposed 
measure is unconstitutional. They argue, 
wheedle, misstate, and finally convince 
the legislator that the measure is absurd. 
No similarly exhaustive arguments in be- 
half of the bill can be presented, for no 
talent comparable to that of the railroad 
attorneys, and in fact no talent at all is 
retained by the people in behalf of public 
interests. 

This is the legislative librarian's oppor- 
tunity. As the Right Honorable James 
Bryce has said: "No country has ever been 
able to fill its legislatures with its wisest 
men; but every country may at least en- 
able them to apply the best methods and 
provide them with the amplest material." 

Legislation elsewhere, it is to be re- 
marked that the legislative questions be- 
fore all civilized communities are essen- 
tially similar. Everywhere are problems 
growing out of crime and pauperism; prob- 
lems relating to hours of labor, child labor, 
and wages; employer's liability; compul- 
sory insurance; workman's compensation; 
problems arising out of inheritance, in- 
come taxation, and the regulation of pub- 
lic service corporations. Nothing is so 
new, however, but that some other legisla- 
ture has worked upon the problem or is 
working upon it. Take, for example, such 
a question as employer's liability or work- 
man's compensation. Fifty legislative 
bodies are working upon or have worked 
upon this single question. In at least three 
foreign countries and in one American 
state it has been adequately solved. The 
other forty-six have failed in part or alto- 
gether, either because of uneconomic and 
unscientific approach or because of consti- 
tutional limitations. Formerly and up to 
within the last ten years no effort had 
been made to profit by the experience of 



these fifty other legislative bodies. The 
typical American way is to let the legisla- 
tors stumble along, ignorant of the results 
of similar experimentations elsewhere, try- 
ing out expensive, independent experi- 
ments, which inevitably end in ineffectual 
enactments. 

What the legislator most needs to know, 
then, is what efforts other communities are 
making to solve the problem before him 
and how they are succeeding, to the end 
that good measures which have succeeded 
elsewhere may be adopted and their fail- 
ures not repeated. Where successful leg- 
islative work is done the first effort is al- 
ways to get copies of every law on every 
subject which is likely to be legislated 
upon at the current session. All data bear- 
ing upon the success or failure of this leg- 
islation in other states and countries must 
be collected, digested, tabulated and placed 
in such form as to be readily available to 
the legislator. If a measure has failed or 
been repealed the reasons for the failure 
or repeal are sought. If it has been suc- 
cessful its provisions are carefully studied 
and analyzed with a view to adaptability 
to local needs. Experience shows that in 
some cases it is necessary to prepare a 
translation of good foreign legislation 
which has never before, been translated 
into English. 

But no law from another jurisdiction can 
be safely transplanted without careful con- 
sideration. The local constitution must be 
studied. In such a case as the workman's 
compensation act referred to, it was neces- 
sary for a commission to make a close, sci- 
entific study of the causes and character of 
the industrial accidents within the state, to 
investigate the rates of the casualty insur- 
ance companies in the different industries, 
to discover what co-operation for the pre- 
vention of accidents could be secured from 
employers and employees. Hearings were 
held at various industrial centers within 
and without the state; scores of witnesses 
were examined; manufacturers, labor 
unions, engineering experts and econo- 
mists were called upon. In short, the prob- 
lem was treated in a thoroughly scientific 



DUDGEON 



209 



manner. Contrary to the usual practice, 
the case was prepared and presented to 
the legislature with the same thoroughness 
and care as is usual when an important 
case is prepared and presented to the 
court. As a result the law, although not 
perfect, stands the test. 

Drafting. When the legislature has dis- 
covered what measures have proved suc- 
cessful elsewhere and what local condi- 
tions demand, it is still helpless because 
the members know nothing of legislative 
forms and cannot use with sufficient ac- 
curacy the language expressive of its con- 
clusion. Assistance in bill drafting is nec- 
essary. Experience has shown that the 
man who does this must be either a 
trained lawyer who is also a practical po- 
litical scientist or a practical political scien- 
tist who is something of a lawyer. It is 
often found too that in its original form a 
measure is unconstitutional and a lawyer's 
knowledge is necessary in order to devise 
some means of whipping the constitutional 
devil around the judicial stump. For ex- 
ample, the workman's compensation law of 
England, enacted too literally in its origi- 
nal form, is clearly unconstitutional in 
America and has been so declared by the 
courts of our state. In another state, how- 
ever, the legislative lawyers who were en- 
gaged in drafting the bill, seeing clearly 
the judicial stump and the constitutional 
devil, by a simple but clever device passed 
what was in effect the English law, but in 
such form that when it came before the 
Supreme Court it was not only declared 
constitutional but was commended. 

Fault not with legislators but with the 
system. If legislation be bad the fault is, 
then, not with the legislator. The average 
legislator is a keen, bright, honest man, 
who has been successful in at least a small 
way in his business or profession. He is 
ignorant of legislative subjects not because 
he is an ignorant man, but because his 
knowledge is of other things. The fault is 
not with him. It is inherent in our un- 
scientific system of legislating. 

We put a group of farmers, grocers, and 
mechanics at work upon some great socio- 



logical problem. They can have no ade- 
quate knowledge of the subject. We do 
not give them compensation enough to pay 
their living expenses while they work. 
We allot them only a few hours to consider 
a given question. We provide for them 
no information. We furnish them with no 
legal counsel. Assuming, however, as is 
often true, that these men are men of in- 
tegrity and humanity and common sense 
and that their ideas are sound, they enact 
a good law that forbids, for example, the 
employment of children in hazardous and 
immoral surroundings. In this they have 
accomplished an important and intelligent 
constructive work. 

Then we hire the best trained minds in 
the state and put them in our courts. We 
pay them higher salaries than any other 
public servants. We give them large li- 
braries in which is found the accumulated 
legal lore of the past. We grant them, for 
the questions before them, all the time 
they can use, weeks, months, often liter- 
ally years. These talented, high-minded 
gentlemen, by dint of industrious delving 
and assisted by highly paid and highly 
trained attorneys, discover at last in the 
depths of their moth-eaten law books some 
mummified eighteenth century idea which 
has become petrified into a constitutional 
provision. They shake their heads and de- 
cide that the splendid, humane, up-to-date, 
common sense legislation is unconstitu- 
tional and void because of some minor con- 
stitutional objection. They cannot be, and 
should not be, criticised, for they are clear- 
ly performing a duty. Neither can these 
judges substitute anything in place of the 
law which they destroy, for the work for 
which we pay them so well in money and 
honor and position is only critical, and 
their function is in this case destructive. 

The law making function as important 
as the judicial. Now, creative work the 
world over has always been recognized as 
requiring greater intelligence, better train- 
ing, keener initiative than the purely crit- 
ical. Yet, in legal matters this principle 
has been entirely ignored. In every way 
we exalt the interpretive, critical, even 



210 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



destructive, judicial process. We neglect 
and belittle the constructive creative proc- 
ess of law making. 

The conclusion of the whole matter is 
that the making of the law is in principle 
as important, in fact, more important, 
than the interpretation of it. 

The legislative function must be as care- 
fully performed as is the judicial. Men 
should be prepared for law making as are 
men for the judicial bench. They must be 
men of the same calibre, of good ability, of 
high intelligence, of absolute integrity, of 
broad sympathies, and of big vision. Not 
until we have an agency of this type assist- 
ing in law making, not until the making of 
laws is recognized as a distinct and im- 
portant governmental function, co-ordinate 
with, if not superior to the judicial func- 
tion, not until each state has a bureau 
which will, as the Honorable James Bryce 
says, supply the legislators with the am- 
plest material and enable them to apply 
the best methods, can we hope to have 
laws which in the highest sense "stand 
the test." 

The PRESIDENT: We go now from the 
legislature to the business man, the man 
who makes the wheels turn around. Those 
of you who had the opportunity to hear the 
striking address, at a meeting of the 
Special Libraries Association the other 
day, from a business man of Boston need 
not be reminded of the tremendous pos- 
sibilities that lie in this extension of the 
library service. Mr. S. H. RANCK, of the 
Grand Rapids public library, will discuss 

MAKING A LIBRARY USEFUL TO BUSI- 
NESS MEN 

On first giving consideration to this pa- 
per I was inclined to believe that the story 
of the personal use of the library (the 
public library) by business men would be 
almost as brief as the traditional story of 
snakes in Ireland. Pew librarians have the 
means of knowing how many business men 
use their institutions, but where statis- 
tics of registration indicate the occupation 
of card holders it would appear that the 



library gets almost as many bartenders as 
bankers. 

To get some definite data on this sub- 
ject I had the library records investigated 
of the 198 officers and committees of the 
Grand Rapids Association of Commerce, 
the leading business organization of our 
city, with a membership of 1,300. These 
198 men (and a few women) represent our 
most active business concerns, as well as 
a few professions. Of this number only 53, 
or 27 per cent, have live library cards. In 
looking over the names I recognized 38 of 
those without cards as persons who either 
individually or through their employees in 
the interest of the house, have used the li- 
brary more or less for reference purposes. 
There are of course others who use the li- 
brary in this way without my knowledge. 

These figures indicate that the library 
is serving directly only about 50 per cent 
of the livest business men of the town. 
The specific questions I propose to discuss 
are, Why do business men use the library 
relatively little? What can the library do 
to get business men to use it more? 

Progressive business men use the library 
because they recognize the enormous 
value of new ideas and of new knowledge 
to their business, no matter where they 
get them. The trouble is that public li- 
braries can't always furnish them the 
knowledge they need. And furthermore 
not all business men are progressive. 
There are standpatters in the business, as 
well as in the political world. However, 
there is no class of men who have a better 
idea of the potential power of print, rightly 
used, than the business men who adver- 
tise. Such men are always ready to meet 
the library more than half way. 

In discussing this question I should have 
preferred to use the term "business men" 
in a liberal sense. We are all more or less 
"business" people at times, but for this oc- 
casion I am directed by our president to 
limit it to that one of its 24 different mean- 
ings which applies to employer rather than 
employee in "the occupations of conduct- 
ing trade or monetary transactions" and 



RANCK 



211 



in "employments requiring knowledge of 
accounts and financial methods." 

Before proceeding further permit me to 
state my conviction that the greatest serv- 
ice the library is doing for business men 
is not to business men personally, but 
rather for them through their employees, 
in supplying knowledge and in promoting 
the general intelligence and the social wel- 
fare of the community. These things are 
of the greatest importance to every em- 
ployer, for they are the foundations on 
which all efficiency is built. The social 
welfare work of the Panama Canal, much 
of it the kind libraries are doing, is x a con- 
spicuous example of the immense financial 
value of such work. 

The male portion of adult society we 
may roughly divide, so far as occupations 
are concerned, into manual workers (la- 
borers and mechanics), professional men, 
business men, and drones (the idle class) 
who, like the lilies of the field, neither toil 
nor spin, but who frequently outshine Sol- 
omon in the gorgeousness and variety of 
their array. They live a parasitic life on 
the productive labor of their fellow men, 
giving no adequate return. In the admin- 
istration of our public libraries most con- 
sideration has been given to the idle class 
and to the professional classes. Real serv- 
ice for the manual workers and business 
men has been largely neglected until with- 
in recent years. 

There are several reasons for this ne- 
glect. Among these may be mentioned 
the following: Working men and business 
men are expressing themselves in deeds 
and in things rather than in words and 
books; and therefore until recently there 
has been relatively little worth-while ma- 
terial available for the libraries to put on 
their shelves for the men directly engaged 
in industrial or commercial pursuits. Fur- 
thermore there has been a long standing 
prejudice on the part of these men (those 
who are rule-of-thumb men) against the re- 
liability and the utility of things in print 
for their everyday work. And in certain 
quarters this prejudice still exists to a very 
considerable extent. They are inclined to 



look upon the writers and users of books 
as theoretical and impractical. 

A further handicap in the use of li- 
braries by business men, is the fact that 
so few of us in library work know the con- 
tents of books and things in print that 
might be useful to them in their daily 
work; and oftener we know still less of the 
problems business men must deal with. 
Therefore we cannot relate the inside of 
books with their work. 

Much of the work of the public library is 
a kind of salesmanship, even though there 
is no direct exchange of the coin of the 
country. Salesmanship in its best sense 
is service, and service is what a city is 
buying for all its people when it puts into 
its annual budget a more or less (usually 
less) adequate sum of money for its li- 
brary. As things -are today I fear that in 
too many cases the public instead of draw- 
ing a plum from the library pie is not in- 
frequently handed a lemon. 

Recently I had the pleasure of dining 
with the vice-president of a department 
store that employs over 2,500 people to sell 
nothing but clothes wearing apparel. He 
told me that the great secret of the success 
of his institution, through whose doors 
there enter from 30,000 to 40,000 people 
every day (and remember that nearly all 
these people enter with the expectation of 
parting with some of their good money), 
is the fact that every employee has in- 
stilled into him or her the fact that the 
salesmanship that brings success is servr 
ice and that it is founded on knowledge; 
for, said he, "No one can sell goods satis- 
factorily unless he knows all about them," 
where they are made, how they are made, 
what they are, their history, etc. And 
these things everyone in this store is sys- 
tematically taught. Incidentally, I may 
add that this department store starts its 
people at a minimum wage higher than the 
minimum in many libraries, and the maxi- 
mum for women in this store is double the 
maximum of the highest paid women in li- 
brary work in this country. This store 
uses the public library of its city and has 
a library of its own whose librarian is at 



212 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



this convention at the expense of the store. 
When a department store finds such a pol- 
icy a wise one the business men respon- 
sible for its management will be the first 
in the community to support a policy of li- 
brary service based on knowledge. But 
business men must be shown that the li- 
brary is delivering the goods. 

The business man places his establish- 
ment so far as possible where it will best 
serve the purposes of his business, and he 
spends loads of good money in the first 
place, and annually in the form of taxation, 
to get his building at the right place. Be- 
sides getting his establishment at the right 
place he also spends more loads of good 
money to arrange it for the economic and 
expeditious handling of his affairs in it. 
So far as libraries relate to serving the 
business man, as well as nine-tenths of the 
other people in the community, I am con- 
vinced that 95 per cent of the library build- 
ings of the country are badly located, and 
furthermore that the large proportion of 
these buildings are badly arranged for the 
work they have, or ought, to do. 

The place to serve the people is where 
the people daily congregate and pass by ir. 
the largest numbers. This is never on a 
side street or in the "best" residence sec- 
tion of the city. Your average "best" citi- 
zen today gets more satisfaction out of his 
public library in showing his visitor from 
out of town the Greek temple set back in 
a beautiful grove or garden as he whirls by 
in his six cylinder, 60 horse-power, seven- 
passenger touring car than in using the 
books and periodicals inside. Such a build- 
ing in such a setting has a value as a 
work of art, but not as a library for serv- 
ice. Incidentally, it is only fair to say that 
business men in most of our cities are 
largely responsible that we have library 
buildings for show rather than for use. 

Every block that separates the library 
from the principal lines of the movement 
of the people, every foot that people must 
walk from the sidewalk to the entrance of 
the building and then to its books, every 
step that must be climbed above the level 
of the sidewalk to reach the first floor, are 



all so many hurdles, barriers, which the 
people are obliged to overcome before they 
can get to their own books, whether it be 
:o use them for business or pleasure, for 
education or recreation. The bad loca- 
tion and arrangement of library buildings 
n the United States are keeping hundreds 
of thousands of potential users and sup- 
porters of libraries away from them and 
out of them every day of the year. And 
there is no class of persons in the com- 
munity more affected by such things than 
business men, for they recognize (con- 
sciously or unconsciously) better than any 
other class the commercial value of time 
and convenience. ' 

Let me put this a little more concretely. 
The library building in which I work is 
better located and arranged than the aver- 
age library building of the country. And 
yet the total distance walked to and from 
the sidewalk by all those who enter that 
building daily is nearly 35 miles to the 
point where the library begins to serve 
them. Furthermore each one of the thou- 
sand and more persons who daily enter 
this building, in addition to the energy he 
uses in walking 180 feet to and from the 
sidewalk must lift his own weight and the 
weight of the books he carries seven feet 
above the level of the sidewalk. In other 
words the location and arrangement 'of 
this building with reference to the side- 
walk requires the people who use it daily 
to take an extra walk of almost the dis- 
tance from Baltimore to Washington and 
at the same time carry a weight equal to 
that of a ton of coal 350 feet to the top of 
a skyscraper and down again. And all this 
is in addition to the walk of 450 feet from 
the nearest car line, which few people use, 
800 feet from the car lines which are gen- 
erally used, and over 400 feet from the 
nearest thoroughfare. The library to be a 
friend to man, and to serve him, must 
"live in a house by the side of the road 
where the race of men go by." 

The business man who studies usually 
buys his own printed matter that deals 
directly with his work, and in this respect 
he is usually far ahead of the library both 



RANCK 



213 



in knowledge and in material at hand; and 
the bigger his business the more is this 
likely to be the case. The librarian will 
almost invariably find such a man a most 
helpful person in the selection of things 
to be purchased and in the relative value 
of both authors and books. It should be 
the business of every librarian to know 
intimately, as far as possible, all such men 
in the community. 

Our public libraries must largely in- 
crease on their shelves the number of 
things in print that are of real service to 
the business man in his work. First of all 
we must know what these things are, and 
next we need to have the nerve to spend 
money for them much more freely than we 
have ever done before. This is expensive 
and most such expenditures will not show 
in the statistics of circulation. As an il- 
lustration of this let me refer again to the 
institution I have the honor to serve. For 
a number of years we have been spending 
$400 a year for books in only one line of 
business. Besides the books, we take some 
two dozen current periodicals on the same 
subject. All are used to a considerable ex- 
tent and the use made of them by only a 
dozen men is of the greatest commercial 
and financial importance to our city. And 
yet so far as the figures of circulation are 
concerned the expenditure of $450 of our 
annual book fund for this one business is 
practically nothing. 

We must get away from the idea of 
measuring the usefulness or the efficiency 
of the library by the number of books is- 
sued for home use. So long as this idea 
dominates our public library work we can 
never do our best for the community, and 
especially the business part of it. 

We need of course many books for the 
business man in our circulating depart 
ments, but these by no means meet the 
need. Many of these books are out of date 
in a few years at the best. To keep up to 
date there is necessary a liberal purchase 
of year-books, transactions and publica- 
tions of industrial, technical and commer- 
cial associations which bring down to date 
annually, and in convenient form, the lat- 



est knowledge in their respective fields. 
For progressive business men such works 
are vastly more important than encyclo- 
pedias, important as encyclopedias of all 
kinds are. 

Then too we must pay greater respect 
to the material published in pamphlet 
form. On a multitude of subjects some of 
the latest and best things have appeared 
in this form. Most of us do not handle 
this material properly, if at all. In many 
libraries pamphlets are regarded and cared 
for with about the same degree of disre- 
spect as were public documents in most 
libraries twenty years ago, and I regret to 
say, in many libraries today. And as for 
the public use made of pamphlets, it is 
practically nothing. 

But more important for the wide-awake 
business man than books, documents and 
pamphlets, is a large collection of current 
periodicals relating to every kind of busi- 
ness activity in your city, with clipping 
files on many subjects, for it is only 
through these that it is possible to keep 
up with the latest information or for the 
library to supply the thing that is most 
needed at the minute. As an illustration 
of such use I recall several recent in- 
stances of business men getting up briefs 
in connection with the proposed Under- 
wood tariff bill. The latest information, 
even when compiled sometimes by gov- 
ernment authorities, was secured from 
technical or trade journals before it could 
be received from the Government Print- 
ing Office. 

In short the best work the library can do 
for the business men personally is in the 
building itself, supplemented by extensive 
use of the telephone and the mails (refer- 
ence or information work if you please), 
and not by issuing to them for home use 
books whose information at the best is 
rarely less than a year old, but in reality 
is more likely to be five, ten, or even 
twenty years old. The circulating book 
has a most important place and I would 
not for one moment take from it the im- 
portance that is its due. My plea is that 
we recognize more fully for our business 



214 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



man, and especially the so-called small 
business man the man of small business, 
or the young man who hopes to establish 
a business of his own, the great impor- 
tance of library assistants who know he 
contents and the relative value of books, 
pamphlets and periodicals, and who under- 
stand the art of library salesmanship 
whereby the business man gets the things 
he really needs. 

And then when we have done all this 
have librarians who know, and the things 
in print the business man needs, this one 
thing more we must do, we must let the 
business man know what we have for his 
particular problem and how we can serve 
him. The library must advertise the util- 
ity of ideas and of knowledge in the every 
day work of the world as well as advertise 
its resources and its service. 

The best advertising is that which comes 
from a well served patron. But our li- 
braries have thrown away one of the best 
means of publicity by locating their build- 
ings where people must go out of their way 
to find them and by so arranging them 
that the passerby sees nothing but stone, 
brick and glass things that suggest noth- 
ing of the joy and usefulness of books. 
Seeing great crowds enjoying and using 
books, as well as seeing attractive things 
in print through properly arranged show 
windows, would appeal to the average li- 
brary user in a way that would simply 
compel his interest and attention in the 
things we have for him. 

The architecture of the average library 
building suggests a tomb a place for dead 
ones rather than a place chock-full of the 
things that appeal with tremendous force 
to the soul that is alive with the throb- 
bing impulses of this wonderful time in 
which we live. 

Since our buildings deny us this great 
means of publicity which the show window 
enables every merchant to use to such 
great advantage, we must use as best we 
may such means as we find available. In 
a general way I may state my conviction 
that we should make a much larger use 
of the specific personal appeal as over 



against general publicity, though the latter 
is also necessary. When a man has a defi- 
nite task assigned him put the resources 
and service of your library directly up to 
him for his particular problem, especially 
if the problem is one a little outside the 
circle of his regular business. It will come 
to him at the psychological moment and 
he is most likely to act on your sugges- 
tion; whereas had it come to him as a gen- 
eral statement before he was personally 
interested most likely it would have been 
promptly forgotten. As a part of our regu- 
lar routine letters from the library go to 
all such persons, as we see their names 
in the newspapers, on programs, etc. 

At the meeting of the Associated Adver- 
tising Clubs of America early this month 
in Baltimore I had the pleasure of "get- 
ting next" to some of the livest business 
men in the country. The thing that im- 
pressed me most was not the interesting 
exhibitions there shown or the various 
"stunts" that were pulled off, but the new 
note that some of the men were striking. 
It was this: "Business and business effi- 
ciency for service rather than for profit." 
This is a high ideal, worthy of any profes- 
sion, and I venture the prediction that it 
will be men of this type who will more and 
more dominate the business world of the 
future. Such men will appreciate and sup- 
port the public library more than business 
men have ever done before; but they will 
also require more. To get their support 
we as librarians must think less of meas- 
uring our efficiency in terms of circulation 
statistics, a kind of impersonal, bookkeep- 
ing standard, but more of measuring it in 
terms of human service- human service 
not only for the business man, but for 
every man, every woman and every child 
in all this vast continent of America. 

The PRESIDENT: Great as is the op- 
portunity of the public library to serve the 
business man, it can't do it all, for so 
highly specialized are some of the depart- 
ments of interest of the various business 
houses that no public library without a 
treasury like that of our millionaire con- 
cerns could hope to undertake a work of 



KRAUSE 



215 



that character. Therefore, each large 
business concern necessarily must supple- 
ment the resources of the public library by 
means of library facilities of its own. We 
shall hear something of this form of work 
this morning in the paper which is to be 
presented by one of the most successful of 
the libraries of this type, that of H. M. 
Byllesby & Co. of Chicago, whose librarian, 
Miss LOUISE B. KRAUSE, will give us 
the paper. 

LIBRARIES IN BUSINESS ORGANIZA- 
TIONS: THEIR EXPANDING 
FUNCTION 

The 'service which books render man- 
kind may in general be designated as fall- 
ing into two classes; namely, books for in- 
spiration and books for information. Dis- 
missing the use of books as a means of in- 
spiration, because the subject does not fall 
within the scope of this paper, let us con- 
sider the most important use to which 
printed information can be put, in the serv- 
ice of mankind. At first thought it might 
seem that the use of the printed page for 
purposes of information reached its high- 
est service in the function of education, 
but granted that it does not play an impor- 
tant part in education, we know educa- 
tion to be something vastly larger than a 
mere knowledge of facts, and we also 
know that many men and women who are 
repositories of information derived from 
the printed page do not always put it into 
operation for the best welfare of their fel- 
lows; for, as James Russell Lowell has 
said, "There is nothing less profitable than 
scholarship for the mere sake of scholar- , 
ship;" and truly scholarship without the 
ultimate purpose of practical service is one 
of the most selfish possessions in the 
world. 

Let us therefore exclude the use of 
printed information in the service of edu- 
cation as its highest form of usefulness 
and consider the following statement. The 
use of print in furnishing information per- 
forms its most important service in the 
function which it exercises in modern busi- 
ness, because it is business which lays 



hold of abstract science and knowledge 
and puts them into practical operation for 
the greatest benefit to mankind; for the 
commercial age in which we live is not a 
sordid age, but an age which is distinctly 
marked by the development and conserva- 
tion of resources for the supplying of 
man's needs, by means of the extension of 
applied science into the field of business. 
Now lest this statement should be too ab- 
stract, and the speaker be accused in the 
words of Leonard Merrick of "voicing the 
sentiments of the unthinking in stately lan- 
guage," let us consider this proposition for 
a moment in the concrete. It is business 
enterprise that has brought about, through 
the perfection of the steam engine, the 
swiftness and convenience which we enjoy 
in twentieth century travel by railroad. It 
is business that has brought the service 
of the telephone -and telegraph to their 
highest perfection. It is business that has 
developed artificial lighting by gas and 
electricity and emancipated us from can- 
dles ,and kerosene lamps. It is business 
that is transforming raw and waste mate- 
rials by the application of pure science, 
into products of service and value for the 
needs of innumerable homes, in addition 
to perfecting agricultural machinery, and 
producing fertilizers to enrich the land, 
thereby making possible the production of 
better crops. Thus we might continue to 
multiply illustrations of how business en- 
terprise has equipped us with the means of 
meeting great needs which at various 
times have seriously threatened the wel- 
fare of human life. This fact of the appli- 
cation of abstract science to the world's 
practical needs, through the medium of 
business enterprise, has become perma 
nently recognized by institutions of learn- 
ing, as seen in the establishment of tech- 
nical schools, schools of commerce and 
finance, and instruction in business ad- 
ministration, for, as a recent writer in the 
Journal of Political Economy has said, 
"The methods of American industry are 
rapidly being intellectualized." 

A variety of professional work of which 
engineering and chemistry are noteworthy 



216 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



examples are also carried on by large busi- 
ness organizations, and we find profes- 
sional men of the highest rank as prime 
movers in "large commercial enterprises. 
(In this connection it might not be amiss 
to state that out of an experience as uni- 
versity librarian and business librarian the 
speaker is inclined to think that the pro- 
fessional business man keeps more ade- 
quately informed and up to date on his 
specialties than does the average univer- 
sity professor.) 

An additional fact which bears directly 
on the general subject under discussion is, 
that the age in which we live is not only 
a business age, but that it is an ago 
marked by the magnitude of its business 
organizations; an age of "big business," as 
some one has called it; and because of the 
economic conditions of our advancing civ- 
ilization, business will undoubtedly con- 
tinue to be "big business" even though 
subjected to federal and state regulation. 
Now correlating these two facts, namely, 
that modern business is conducted by 
means of large organizations and that its 
success is based upon the intelligent appli- 
cation of scientific knowledge to practical 
needs, we have cleared the way for an ap- 
preciation of the function of printed in- 
formation as embodied in the work of libra- 
ries in business organizations. 

The business organization builds up its 
own library, first, on account of the con- 
venience of having close at hand the in- 
formation constantly needed by its work- 
ers, and subject to no borrowing restric- 
tions, which would be inevitable even if 
the facilities of outside libraries were 
available; and second, on account of the 
necessity for careful selection of material 
particularly adapted to its individual 
needs. Business organizations have for 
many years collected information in a des- 
ultory manner, but it has been only in the 
last few years that some of them have 
awakened to the fact that more was 
needed than mere collection of printed in- 
formation, and for the same reason that 
they were availing themselves of all mod- 
ern devices for the quick and adequate 



handling of their various products and 
were systematizing their methods to ob- 
tain more efficient results, so they must 
lay hold of modern library methods under 
experienced supervision if they were to 
keep up with the steadily growing and im- 
portant mass of printed information. 
Therefore we find business organizations 
securing the services of professional li- 
brary workers, trained to use books in the 
broadest and most practical manner. Some 
hesitation was at first expressed in vari- 
ous quarters as to whether so-called pro- 
fessional library methods used in public 
and university libraries were suited to 
business library needs, and as to whether 
library workers educated for general li- 
brary work would adequately meet the 
business library situation. In fact it was 
intimated that the business librarian was 
a worker of a different brand than the or- 
dinary librarian and therefore he had both 
knowledge and needs which set him apart 
from his library fellows, in a special class 
by himself. Out of four years' experience 
as a business librarian the speaker takes 
pleasure in stating that practical experi- 
ence has proved the fallacy of both of 
these conceptions. It is true that busi- 
ness librarians are called upon to exercise 
certain functions which the librarians of 
public and university libraries are not, but 
which any efficient head of a public or uni- 
versity library would be quite capable of 
exercising if the occasion demanded it. In 
fact the recent rise of library interest in 
business men and their needs can be di- 
rectly traced to the heads of some of our 
public libraries and the work they have in- 
augurated in making their libraries as 
helpful as possible to all classes of citi- 
zens. 

The characterization of the function of 
libraries in business organizations by the 
word "expanding" in the title assigned to 
this paper by the President of the Ameri- 
can Library Association, is most apt, and 
indicative of the real status of the case. 
The business library is in a process of 
evolution, and just what the final result 



KRAUSE 



217 



will be, it is a little too early in its de- 
velopment to state. 

The elemental idea of the function of a 
business library that was held by the offi- 
cers of the business organization with 
which the speaker is most familiar, was 
to have the books and data which were 
the property of the company, classified 
and cataloged so that material could be 
found quickly, and a librarian was em- 
ployed solely on the basis of this need. 

With the acquisition of a librarian the 
library situation soon changed from the 
inquiry for certain definite books and peri- 
odicals, to the inquiry as to whether the 
company had any specific information on 
a given subject, and if not as to whether 
printed information on the subject was 
available elsewhere and how quickly it 
could be obtained. 

The evolution in the function of a li- 
brary from that of furnishing a definite 
book asked for, to furnishing all the in- 
formation obtainable on a given subject as 
quickly as possible is decidedly expensive, 
and the what, how and where of the case 
would furnish ample material for a sep- 
arate paper. 

The evolution in the function of the li- 
brary did not stop at this point; for it 
was soon expected that the librarian would 
understand the specific interests of the 
members of the organization, and to a cer- 
tain degree think for them in keeping up 
with the field of print and in bringing to 
their attention, without a request on their 
part, certain facts of which they would 
like to be cognizant. To this duty was 
added the forecasting of possible future 
needs, and the collection of information in 
advance of rush demands. 

The magnitude of the work of modern 
business organizations requires the divi- 
sion of labor into a number of depart- 
ments, and the workers in any one depart- 
ment may not always be acquainted with 
the information which may be available in 
another department. The library, by keep- 
ing in touch with individuals in all depart- 
ments, becomes a central bureau of infor- 
mation in being able to refer the members 



of one department to those in another who 
possess the particular information desired. 

The business library also assembles and 
files the manuscript data of original re- 
search conducted by members of the or- 
ganization, materials which constitute one 
of its valuable assets. Research data in 
the possession of business corporations is 
often a worthy contribution to scholarship. 
An illustration of this fact was recently 
brought to the attention of the speaker, 
by the statement of a university student, 
who said that in making a study of the 
drinking waters of a certain state the only 
analyses of waters on record were those 
which a railroad had made primarily for 
the purpose of ascertaining the suitability 
of the waters for boiler use on locomo- 
tives. 

In addition to these briefly outlined func- 
tions, which are more or less technical, at- 
tention should be directed to several oth- 
ers, lest a mistaken impression be given 
that business library work is entirely tech- 
nical in its nature. 

Business men are often called upon to 
serve the public as good citizens in vari- 
ous capacities, and also to serve as offi- 
cers or on committees of national business 
organizations, and thus have interests out- 
side of their regular company work. Their 
librarian is expected to assist in any need 
which arises by reason of these outside in- 
terests, and not only may be called upon 
to furnish information but also to do edi- 
torial work in preparing material for pub- 
lication. 

The welfare and education of employees 
has also become a prominent feature in 
the work of many large business corpora- 
tions, and the library is expected to be a 
prominent factor in this work, as it is the 
logical educational center of the organi- 
zation. Some of our business libraries 
have recently been drawn rather deeply 
into welfare work with the result that cer- 
tain phases of practical library service are 
being neglected. It does not seem advis- 
able, however, that the business librarian 
should annex any line of welfare work 
which does not legitimately center in the 



218 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



library; for the librarian is best fitted to 
serve the interests of the organization by 
maintaining high standards of efficient li- 
brary service rather than by annexing 
other kinds of work belonging solely to 
the sphere of a social worker. This is par- 
ticularly important at the present stage of 
business library development, as the' busi- 
ness world in many sections has not yet 
learned what professional library service 
really Is, and how to utilize it most effec- 
tively. - 

In view of the fact that the business 
world except for comparatively few organi- 
zations is not utilizing the undoubtedly ral- 
uable service which professional librarians 
are able to render, and that the American 
Library Association has always endeav- 
ored to extend the use of books and their 
widest application, it might not be amiss 
to suggest that it would be legitimate work 
for the American Library Association with 
its library prestige and well known mo- 
tives of personal disinterestedness, to un- 
dertake a campaign of education to bring 
before business men the subject of what 
library work really is, and the character of 
service it is prepared to render; for In 
these days of the over-emphasized and 
often superficial cry for more efficiency, 
there is no line of work that is more gen- 
uinely efficient than that of the trained 
librarian. The information, to be put be- 
fore business men, should be free from li- 
brary technicalities and details, and its 
arguments should be framed, not to en- 
lighten librarians, but to convince busy 
men of affairs possessed of shrewd judg- 
ment and large foresight, as to the prac- 
tical worth of the matter as a business 
proposition. For library work in business 
organizations is no longer a theory or a 
tentative experiment, but has proved itself 
in the firms adopting it to be an integral 
part of the successful work of the corpora- 
tion. This fact is well illustrated by a 
bulletin recently issued by a large busi- 
ness firm, in which it endeavored to put 
before the public, in a pamphlet entitled 
"Why it is qualified" the value of the con- 
sulting services of one of its departments, 



and among the prominent reasons given 
under "Why it is qualified" is the fact of 
the commercial library maintained by the 
company, with the library's particular re- 
sources under competent supervision. 

Because printed information has proved 
to be an integral factor in the successful 
prosecution of business and because it can 
be most effectively utilized by means of 
professional library methods, therefore, 
the business library hopes to take its place 
in the ranks of the American Library As- 
sociation as one in purpose with all li- 
braries in the realization of a common 
ideal, namely, the largest possible use of 
books in the practical service of mankind. 

The PRESIDENT: I have just received 
a message that Mr. McAneny will be here 
in a very short time. In the few moments 
intervening it might be well perhaps to 
discuss some of the trenchant papers 
which we have had this morning. 

Miss AHERN: Mr. President, I would 
like to take exception to one thing Mr. 
Ranck said in his paper. I do not believe 
that the idea that the contents of books 
are useful to men in the business world is 
of recent date. I think, perhaps, the sec- 
ond statement that these things have only 
come recently into the arrangement of re- 
sources of the library is the truer one. We 
certainly have had knowledge of chemistry 
and of geology and technical knowledge in 
manufacture for many, many years, only 
many librarians have been more interested 
in the purely educational or inspirational 
part of the library and have neglected that 
large field of usefulness and that large 
compaay of people who contribute to the 
welfare of work and of the world, as Miss 
Krause has pointed out. The best chemists 
in the country are being sought by the 
business houses; the best knowledge of 
soils, of minerals, of woods, of lumber, of 
stone has long been sought by the men 
who are making a commercial use of these 
things'. And their information is not held 
in reserve; it is all in printed form and 
only the scope of the librarian's knowledge 
of where things may be obtained in the 
world of print places the limit on this ma- 



McANENY 



219 



terial for the library shelves. And so I 
hope that librarians will not say that books 
on these subjects, that material on these 
subjects is a recent product. It is our 
knowledge of them, a knowledge that this 
is a part of the province of library work, 
that makes for recent activity. 

The PRESIDENT: Mr. Ranck is here to 
answer for himself. The statement has 
been challenged and he can answer it. 

Mr. RANCK: I think there is not so 
much difference between the view I take 
and the view taken by Miss/Ahern. I do 
not know that I followed my manuscript 
very closely at that point, but what I had 
in mind was the business man rather than 
the professional, technical man. I fully 
grant what Miss Ahern says with reference 
to technical subjects, scientific subjects, 
and so on. As I said, I think there is no 
radical disagreement between Miss 
Ahern's and my position. There may be a 
misunderstanding. 

Miss AHERN: I was not questioning 
what Mr. Ranck had said, but, rather, re- 
moving any excuse that the library folk 
may put to themselves for a lack of inter- 
est or a lack of activity along this line by 
saying that the material was scant or hard 
to command. 

Dr. ANDREWS: There is the other side, 
that Miss Krause's paper emphasized and 
which Miss Ahern seems to neglect. Miss 
Krause's paper states that American in- 
dustry is becoming intellectualized, and 
that this is a great factor in the develop- 
ment of business life. It ought also to be 
an extra incentive to the public library to 
meet the demands. I think that much of 
this development in the technical side of 
library work has come from the increasing 
study by business men of their own world 
and that we ought to remember that while 
the public libraries have neglected in the 
past to furnish business men with what 
they wanted, yet the latter did not want it 
then as much as they do now. 

The PRESIDENT: Those of us and I 
assume that that means every librarian 
who read the June number of the World's 



Work were impressed by one strong article 
therein concerning the growing magnitude 
of municipal administration and the great 
problems that confront those who are 
charged with such administration. With- 
out repeating to you the very striking com- 
parisons which the author made with some 
of the governmental functions of states 
and even some of the kingdoms of Europe, 
showing the tremendous problems con- 
fronting the municipal officials, problems 
of tremendous budgets, of great public 
works, and so on, it will be sufficient for 
me to say that it is a happy omen that we 
are now getting into the public service 
men of high civic ideals and constructive 
ability and who are replacing men whose 
self-seeking interests or vanity led them to 
seek the votes of their fellow citizens. I 
am glad that we have with us today a man 
of this high type. I need not say further 
concerning him because we took advan- 
tage of his absence to get from Mr. 
Bowker a pretty good who's-who bearing 
upon himself, and I shall simply introduce 
to you at this time to speak to us upon 
the subject of "The municipal reference 
library as an aid in city administration," 
the Honorable GEORGE McANENY, presi- 
dent of the borough of Manhattan, New 
York. 

THE MUNICIPAL REFERENCE LIBRARY 
AS AN AID IN CITY ADMIN- 
ISTRATION 

It is a very real pleasure to meet with 
the American Library Association, and to 
convey in behalf of my colleagues in the 
administration of the City of New York, 
and in behalf of other colleagues in public 
business throughout the country, our hearty 
congratulations and possibly a friendly 
warning and a word of appeal. 

Congratulations are due you for having 
established on so high a plane and in so 
short a time the profession of librarian. 
Especially are you to be congratulated for 
having welcomed the new profession of 
municipal reference librarian; for your 
adaptability in the constant extension of 
the reference work, and for the resiliency 



220 



which is showing again in another field 
that real Father Williams never grow old. 
Could Benjamin Franklin look upon this 
gathering, and hear your reports of social 
service, through circulating, home, refer- 
ence and municipal reference libraries, I 
am sure that no fruit of his patriotism 
would seem to him more promising than 
the recent application of the circulating 
library idea to government affairs. 

My friendly warning has to do with your 
requests to fiscal bodies for appropriations. 
In many parts of the country, there is 
the feeling that the less the library has 
to do with public officials the better it is 
for the library, consequently, as a short 
cut, we find compulsory minimum appro- 
priations so many mills or so many parts 
of mills for library development. We also 
find that too many towns are satisfied with 
this compulsory minimum tax, and that 
the only time their fiscal representatives 
hear about libraries is just before the bud- 
get appropriations are voted. You must 
be indulgent with those who vote the 
money, if the outcome of this habit sug- 
gests the man who was exasperated by his 
wife, who he said "just nagged and nagged 
him for money, when he came, when he 
left, on Sunday, always." Finally, when a 
neighbor summoned the courage to ask, 
"What in the world does she do with all 
the money?" he, perforce, must answer; 
"Well, I don't know; you see I haven't 
given her any yet." Councils and Mayors 
will understand your library problem best 
if you will help them understand at those 
quieter seasons of the year when they are 
not harassed, as they are at budget time, 
by appeals from every other city depart- 
ment and for every other thing. 

When presenting your budget, give the 
fiscal officer credit for wanting to know 
the whole truth, and for wanting reasons 
for giving you the money you request. 
Seldom will it help to ask for a great deal 
more than you need. Always, it will help 
not to present in a single total items that 
do not belong together. Classify your bud- 
get. State your program clearly. If all 
the money you want is not voted this year, 



stick clearly to the plan that has been 
voted, and show both the fiscal authorities 
and the town where your service has been 
crippled, if at all, for want of funds. It 
will be well to begin your budget campaign 
so that the first idea which the public 
and the fiscal officers get is that of the 
service you wish to render, rather than 
the money you wish to get. Most library 
budgets, like most other budgets of the 
United States, are apt to be put in with- 
out the explanatory matter which alone 
will make the dollar-and-cent facts show 
social reasons for library support. 

Now for my appeal. In asking you to 
consider certain needs of public business, 
I want to speak quite frankly, as a city 
official who, like thousands of other city 
and county officials, must step into other 
people's business, with no time for get- 
ting acquainted with detail, and with a 
public to deal with that not only expects 
us on the first day we take office to use 
all the machinery of our predecessor and 
to get better results, but also really ex- 
pects us to fail. We inherit a stack of 
mail. We are flooded with suggestions 
and complaints; many of them in confi- 
dence and most of them confusing. We are 
urged to attend club and church meetings, 
and dinners, and graduating exercises. We 
are expected, without any change in sub- 
ordinate personnel, while giving our atten- 
tion to large community problems and to 
the political aspects of public works, to 
get an efficient product out of our em- 
ployees, no matter who they are or what 
they have been. In most places, we find 
no disinterested adviser, either on the in- 
side or on the outside. 

Such a situation would not necessarily 
be serious if we stepped into a thoroughly 
efficient organization where every employee 
and supervisor had his place, and where 
the institution as such had its "continuing 
memory." When Mr. Rea succeeded Mr. 
McCrea as president of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, he inherited a splendid organiza- 
tion, every part related to another part; 
a system under which experts had tabu- 
lated within a moment's reach the sue- 



McANENY 



221 



cesses and the failures of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, and the costs of its various con- 
tracts, the difference between estimates 
and final costs, and an efficiency ranking 
both of its various employees and its sta- 
tions. When the present administration 
in New York City stepped into office, we 
inherited an aggregation of departments 
and divisions then spending if we count 
in installments and interest paid on the 
city debt more than $160,000,000 for the 
expenses of a single year. There were 
ninety thousand employees. Side by side 
with one another were clerks paid one $600 
and another $1,800 for the same % kind of 
work; in another grade were clerks paid. 
$1,600 and others paid $2,400 for the same 
kind of work. When salaries had been 
increased, and why, was not a matter of 
record. Supplies were contracted for by 
no standard form. Specifications, either 
for supplies or for construction work, were 
worded differently at different times, ac- 
cording to the individual wish or whim of 
the department officer preparing them. The 
public was but poorly protected at any 
point. Plans were made for new buildings, 
for new roads, and for other vast improve- 
ments, often without estimates of cost; 
often with assurances of only slight cost, 
where, too frequently, cost had been esti- 
mated as an entering wedge only. Thus 
a great city would stumble into an experi- 
ment or public improvement demanding 
millions of dollars, without ever reckon- 
ing the ultimate amount of its obligation. 
For example it may be fair in this pres- 
ence to recall that the first bill for the New 
York public library carried with it an 
appropriation of $2,500,000. The city de- 
cided to spend this $2,500,000 and actually 
it spent $10,000,000. The New York public 
library is worth every dollar it cost, ten 
times over; I am merely emphasizing that 
the public should have had its eyes open 
and, in this case as in every other, should 
have known what it was doing. Although 
this same gap occurred over and over again 
between estimate and actual cost no 
steps were taken to recall the fact when 



each new amount was under considera- 
tion. 

Ignorant as we have been of our own 
experience, still less informed have we 
been regarding the experience of neighbor 
cities. Some years ago, Denver, in operat- 
ing its street railway, found it expedient 
to substitute electric motor power for the 
old cables. After Denver had discarded 
these cables, Baltimore adopted the cable. 
Rochester has recently adopted a device 
to attach drinking fountains to its ordinary 
fire hydrants. The idea is a new one, and 
may prove valuable. I say it merely by 
way of instance; but if it is a good idea, 
New York City and your city should adopt 
it. Each successive experiment of the sort 
should, at least, be brought promptly to 
the attention of public officials. 

Again, New York City has worked out 
an improved system of accounting and 
budget making. The village of Dobb's 
Ferry, the cities of Duluth and Cincinnati 
have used an improvement upon New 
York's budget exhibits recently called a 
new kind of "confidence game" that is, 
taking the public into official confidence 
about the public's own business. Instead 
of waiting a generation for cities to adopt 
these new methods, their officials should 
promptly be given the facts they need. 

Is it not criminal waste and error for 
one city to introduce a system of sewer 
disposal, or of milk regulation, which an- 
other city has found endangering the lives 
of its citizens? If a measure has proved 
bad and dangerous for one city, modern 
science in the hands of a librarian should 
make it unnecessary for every other city 
to go through the same experience. 

To help us in ending all this waste, and 
to help us, in short, in putting city govern- 
ment upon a thorough scientific and effi- 
cient basis, the municipal reference library 
is beginning to take its highly important 
place. Without a municipal reference li- 
brary, it will in future be difficult for any 
administrative officer to do his best. I will 
not attempt to review the laborious steps 
of my colleagues in the present board of 
estimate and apportionment our govern- 



222 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



ing municipal body to incorporate into 
standard specifications, standard salaries 
and standard contracts the memory of our 
past failures, so that we may hold the 
gains that we have made and avoid the 
weaknesses and the errors of our experi- 
ence. But I venture some suggestions as 
to a reference library that, although gen- 
eral in their application, will indicate our 
reasons for establishing such a library in 
New York. 

Our reasons for placing the library in our 
new Municipal Building as we propose 
to do apply everywhere. It must be made 
easy for officials to get information, and 
for the librarian to get the information 
promptly and directly to the officials. It is 
not enough to know that it may be had. 
To have important information an hour 
away from the office is almost as bad as 
to have it a thousand miles away. It must 
be easier for the busy official to get the 
information he wants than to endure the 
thought of going without it. In putting the 
library where the users are, instead of 
where they are not, we are following the 
simple rule of trade that meters city prop- 
erty by the foot instead of by the acre. 

The municipal library is a place not for 
everything, but for particular needed 
things. If it were true that Mark Hopkins 
on one end of a log and a student on the 
other constituted a college, it is even 
more true that a librarian in a bare room, 
anxious to serve the public via the public 
official and knowing where the material is, 
constitutes an infinitely better municipal 
reference library than a place perfectly 
equipped which suggests erudition rather 
than immediate help. There is great dan- 
ger that our municipal reference libraries 
will become junk shops, as interesting and 
as helpful, as out of date or as unrelated 
to today's problems as an encyclopedia or a 
"compendium of useful knowledge." A mu- 
nicipal reference library should suggest an- 
swers to today's questions; not answers 
either to yesterday's questions or to next 
year's. Will you, the librarians, consider 
the importance and the advisability of 
keeping these libraries workshops, as they 



ought to be, and of using your general ref- 
erence libraries as the place for the stor- 
age of materials. 

The ordinary city official hasn't the time 
to plough through a mass of pamphlets 
looking for what he wants. He wants the 
facts collated and marshalled, ready for 
use and "he wants what he wants when 
he wants it." Some time ago I was in- 
terested in drawing an ordinance to license 
all vehicles using the New York streets, 
and to regulate the weight, the width and 
size of tires, etc., of our great trucks that 
have been tearing up our pavements. I 
wanted to know about the policy of other 
cities in this matter, and to devise, if pos- 
sible, a way of making those vehicles that 
destroy the streets help pay for their main- 
tenance. Similarly, today, as Chairman of 
the committee on the height, size and 
arrangement of buildings within the city 
limits, I am interested in the adoption of 
some reasonable basis for regulating our 
modern skyscraper in order to keep the 
city, literally, from choking itself to death. 

Again, we have had to restore to the 
public many miles of city sidewalks that 
had been preempted by stoops, and other 
encroachments. We have wanted to plan 
our public buildings and related matters 
with a view to the future, and to the 
grouping of building sites in a "Civic Cen- 
ter." So, in dealing with our transit prob- 
lem; in investigating the health depart- 
ment, and in improving the type and qual- 
ity of street pavements, I haVe wanted not 
all the information there was to be had 
not books or formal reports but concrete 
answers to immediately pressing questions. 
I wanted to be referred to the latest article 
or report which would make it unnecessary 
to go through twenty or a hundred other 
articles, books or reports. It is enough 
to know that in a great central library 
are all the working materials for scientific 
research. Frankly, I feel that the actual 
use that will be made of the municipal 
reference library will be in inverse ratio 
to the number of books that are in evi- 
dence, and that require the time of the li- 
brarian. 



McANENY 



223 



I would go so far as to say that any- 
thing that a public official has not just 
called for, or that the librarian is not about 
to call to the attention of a public official 
for departmental study or report, or for 
the drawing of ordinances, should be kept 
in the general library, and out of the 
municipal reference library. 

Comptroller Prendergast and Librarian 
Anderson are even planning to have 
New York's official correspondence "clear" 
through the municipal reference library 
so far as the writing and answering of let- 
ters calling for special information goes. 
I am told that when Portland recently 
started its municipal reference library the 
mayor promptly availed himself of its 
facilities for answering innumerable sets 
of questions and special questions that 
came from outside the city, and advised 
his heads of departments to follow his 
example. I wish the Carnegie Institution 
for Scientific Research or some other great 
foundation interested in the conservation 
of national resources and human energy 
would investigate what it is now costing 
this country to fill out the innumerable 
blanks from college boys wishing help on 
their commission government debate; col- 
lege students writing theses; national or- 
ganizations compiling reports, etc. Niag- 
ara unharnessed was wasting much less 
power than are we officials, school super- 
intendents, mayors, and engineers who are 
answering such questionnaires. It would 
be lamentable enough if we always an- 
swered right; but most of us answer 
quite inadequately, and many of us an- 
swer wrong. Last year, a certain national 
society wrote me, asking certain questions 
about civil service reform. I had had 
more or less to do for some years with that 
line of public service. My instinct was to 
take time from pressing duties to answer 
these questions; but a neighbor who had 
received a similar set of questions was 
thoughtful enough to write to this nation- 
al body and suggest that before he an- 
swered he would like to know how many 
other New York officials and private agen- 



cies had received the same set of ques- 
tions. It appeared then that twenty dif- 
ferent people, including a dozen officials, 
had been asked to fill out that blank. 
Whereupon it was suggested that instead 
of drawing upon twenty people who did 
not possess the facts, the investigator 
might turn directly to the Civil Service 
Commission that did possess the facts, 
and there, no doubt, he readily found what 
he wanted. 

Now, if a municipal reference library 
could have served as a clearing house, it 
would have been brought to light at once 
that one answer would have served the 
purpose of twenty, or that one answer, at 
least, would have served the purpose of 
the dozen official answers. Moreover, just 
as the official reports give fresher ma- 
terial than published books, such corre- 
spondence, manuscript reports of investi- 
gating committees, etc., give fresher ma- 
terial than published reports. 

Such data should be kept properly classi- 
fied, available upon call or when the li- 
brarian sees its time for usefulness. 

Another practical suggestion I make 
from my experience as an official. While 
it seems to apply especially to adminis- 
trative departments or to private agencies 
specializing in certain fields, I really do 
not see much prospect of getting it unless 
from a municipal reference library or from 
the municipal reference activity of a gen- 
eral library. I refer to an up-to-date 
"Poole's" or cumulative index of the pass- 
ing subject matter of city government. You 
get, the library gets, once a month a list 
of all the articles in the principal books. 
Why should we not have a list of the ad- 
vance steps taken in public affairs? Just 
as soon as a few librarians call for such 
information, it will become commercially 
possible to reduce it. The individual libra- 
ry can then add to the material the particu- 
lar points that are of interest to its own 
community. 

Similarly, it would be of the greatest 
assistance to every city official if the mat- 



224 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



ters under his jurisdiction were listed and 
material grouped under proper heads. For 
example, the president of the Borough of 
Manhattan has jurisdiction over the streets 
and sidewalks; encroachments and en- 
cumbrances; street vaults and street 
signs; the sewer system; the public build- 
ings; the baths and markets; and the con- 
trol of private buildings through the en- 
forcement of the buildings laws. If infor- 
mation in regard to what other cities were 
doing in all these matters were listed, plus 
suggestions and advance steps taken in 
these same matters at home, the reference 
librarian would be of incalculable help to 
that office. 

Finally, just a word about the expense 
of the municipal reference library. The 
amount which it is justified in demand- 
ing will depend naturally upon the serv- 
ice it renders. The merit of our new seg- 
regated and classified budget is that it 
calls for the work needing to be done, 
as well as the cost of not having the work 
done, and that it shifts attention from the 
personality that requests the budget allow- 
ance. A circumscribed program means 
circumscribed budget. Frankly, I believe 
that extension of program should and must 
precede extension of budget. But this 
new kind of social work which serves a 
community at those points where it is 
now least equipped to serve itself, will not 
want for financial support when it talks 
about the work that should be done and 
not about itself. 

No municipal activity will, in my judg- 
ment, find it easier in the next twenty- 
five years to secure adequate financial sup- 
port than the municipal reference library 
which is not a compendium of knowledge 
but a forecaster of service needed and an 
ever-present help in time of trouble. 

The PRESIDENT: May I express to you, 
Mr. McAneny, the thanks of the American 
Library Association for your coming and 
the assurance that we have profited 
greatly from it. 

Adjourned. 



SIXTH GENERAL SESSION 
(Saturday morning, June 28, 1913.) 

THE PRESIDENT: During the other 
sessions of the Conference we have been 
considering people and books. At this 
concluding session the topics on the pro- 
gram have special reference to books 
and people. The first paper invites our 
interest by its suggestion of the flavor 
which old books bring. Miss G. M. WAL- 
TON, of the Michigan State Normal Col- 
lege, will present this paper. 

THE FRIENDLY BOOK 

It was Mr. Lowell who reminded me 
the other day, by quoting Ecclesiasticus 
in one of his essays, that we owe the ideal 
of the man of leisure to a book of the 
Apocrypha wherein we read, "The wisdom 
of a learned man cometh by opportunity 
of leisure." 

Our profession standing as a guarantor 
of our wisdom and our learning, I am here 
today to bespeak a portion of our large 
opportunity of leisure for The Friendly 
Book. 

There is small fear that we librarians 
forget the books of power and the books of 
knowledge which DeQuincey (the ofttimes 
quoted) presses upon all men. And most 
of us undoubtedly possess that ardent 
zeal for knowledge which filled the soul 
of the literal-minded librarian who read 
quite seriously (and found therein a work- 
ing category for her own improvement) 
Lamb's letter to an old gentleman whose 
early education had been neglected, where, 
among the qualifications of a preceptor, 
the following will serve to refresh your 
memories: "He must be a thorough mas- 
ter of vernacular orthography, with an 
insight into the accentualities and punctu- 
alities of modern Saxon. He must be com- 
petently instructed in the tetralogy, or 
first four rules. He must have a genius 
capable in some degree of soaring to the 
upper element, to deduce from thence the 
not much dissimilar computation of the 
cardinal points. He must instruct you in 



225 



numeric and harmonious responses, and he 
must be capable of embracing all history, 
so as from the countless myriads of in 
dividual men, who have peopled this globe 
of earth for it is a globe by comparison 
of their respective births, lives, deaths, 
fortunes, conduct, prowess, etc., to pro- 
nounce, and teach you to pronounce, dog- 
matically and catechetically, who was the 
richest, who was the strongest, who was 
the wisest, who was the meekest man that 
ever lived; to the facilitation of which so- 
lution, you will readily conceive, a smatter- 
ing of biography would In no inconsider- 
able degree conduce." 

I sometimes question if professions are 
not tinged with the culture epoch epidemic. 
It is not so very long since we were half 
hesitatingly taking a place among the 
other learned professions, almost with the 
apolegetic air of the young boy making 
his first appearance in long trousers, and 
wondering if his fellow-men appreciate his 
coming into their midst but the youth 
soon assumes the aggressive attitude 
which compels attention and one symp- 
tom of this attitude which I feel among 
ourselves is the large and learned talk 
about new books the self-satisfied air and 
monumental confidence in our sometimes 
sophomoric knowledge and understanding 
of all things "in the heavens above, the 
earth beneath, and the waters under the 
earth," until I wonder if the pleasant coun- 
sel about reading "books at least a year 
old, that we like, and that are great 
books" must be relegated with the rest of 
our Emersonian philosophy to the lumber 
room of our many youthful joys and 
dreamings. 

I believe we all love best to mark the 
passing years by the friends they bring us, 
and it were a barren year that brings not 
one more friend, and so with our friendly 
books, which like all friendships fill our 
lives with genial warmth and gratitude. 
Neither is really a matter of choice, for a 
book like a person yields its intimate 
charm only to the sympathizing heart. 
We have no care to answer why, other 
than, "because" "We love them because 



we must love them." A new book friend 
comes to us now and then, and we cling to 
the old ones. Sometimes we lose the per- 
sonal touch, but we see their kindly faces 
and after a separation from them we ar- 
range them on the shelves, and we rear- 
range them, and, as Mr. Arnold Bennett 
says, "The way we walk up and down in 
front of those volumes, whose faces we 
have half forgotten, is perfectly infantile." 

I remember once in Rome a friend, se- 
lecting photographs, said, "I must take a 
good Cicero to my son Frank, who used 
to say he felt as well acquainted with Cic- 
ero as he did with Bishop Huntington," 
and dear old Dean Hook, when a lad at Ox- 
ford expresses this same intimate feeling 
in one of his lively inimitable letters, "I 
have got into a very dissolute set of men, 
but they are so pleasant that they make 
me very often idle. It consists of one 
Tuft, H. R. H., Henry Prince of Wales, 
and a gentleman Commoner named Sir 
John Palstaff, and several others. I break- 
fast with them, drink tea, and sometimes 
wine with them," and, again, on hearing 
the good news of the recovery of his 
grandfather, he writes, "The minute I 
opened the letter and saw the news, I 
pulled down my Shakespeare and had a very 
merry hour with Sir John Falstaff. I was 
determined to laugh heartily all that day. 
I asked Sir John to wine with me. I de- 
canted a bottle of my beloved grandfa- 
ther's best port and Sir John and I drank 
his health right merrily. Perhaps you 
will want to know how my old friend Sir 
John drank my grandfather's health. Why 
I took care to find out the place where he 
drank Justice Shallow's health. And so 
when I said, 'Here's to Sir Walter,' I 
looked on the book and the Knight said, 
'Health and long life to him.' " 

Among the oldest and dearest of my 
friendly books is the "Life and Letters of 
Lord Macaulay," of which I became the 
happy owner, when it was fresh off the 
press, during a sojourn in the west, far 
away from my home library. The dates along 
the margins (one of Macaulay's habits 
which I adopted as I read) bring pleasant 



226 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



thoughts of a journey from Colorado to 
the western coast, and long before I knew 
Dean Hook (whom I first met here as the 
Vicar of Leeds) I was pulling Macaulay 
down from the shelf, not indeed to drink 
with Sir John, but to refer to some particu- 
lar talk of men or of books always to 
read on and on with equal delight whether 
he were breakfasting with a party of old 
Trinity College friends, reading in his 
study, or acting as a guide and escort on 
a half holiday of sight-seeing with his 
nieces and nephews, with whom he was 
always the prince of playfellows. It was 
on one of these excursions to the zoologi- 
cal gardens that Thackeray overheard some- 
one say, "Never mind the hippopotamus! 
Never mind the hippopotamus! There's 
Mr. Macaulay!" When absent he ex- 
changed long and frequent letters with 
the children, sealing those to his nephew 
at Harrow with an amorphous mass of red 
wax, which, in defiance of all postal regu- 
lations, usually covered a piece of gold. 

A scrap from one of his letters to a lit- 
tle niece will serve also as an example of 
the poetry, which he usually attributed to 
the Judicious poet, for whose collected 
works the children vainly searched the 
library. 

"Michaelmas will, I hope, find us all at 
Clapham over a noble goose. Do you re- 
member the beautiful Puseyette hymn on 
Michaelmas day? It is a great favorite 
with all the Tractarians. You and Alice 
should learn it. It begins: 

'Though Quakers scowl and Baptists howl, 
Though Plymouth Brethren rage, 

We churchmen gay will wallow today 
In apple sauce, onions and sage. 

Ply knife and fork, and draw the cork, 

And have the bottle handy; 
For each slice of goose we'll introduce 

A thimbleful of brandy.' , 

Is it not good? I wonder who the author 
can be? Not Newman, I think. It is above 
him. Perhaps it is Bishop Wilberforce." 
The Macaulays and the Wilberforces liv- 
ing at Clapham Common are very real 
people to me, and my firm allegiance to 
Trinity College, Cambridge, has never 



wavered since Macaulay's undergraduate 
days, not even when Samuel Wilberforce, 
the future bishop, went up to Oriel Col- 
lege, Oxford. 

And how doubly precious is a book- 
friendship, whose introduction claims a 
personal touch; as when, with the same 
friend who bought the photograph in 
Rome, I afterwards visited Winchester 
Cathedral and standing beside the chant- 
ry tomb of Bishop Wilberforce she said, 
"When you go home, read his life. He 
was a great and good man," and I have 
continued reading it for nearly thirty 
years. Wilberforce was undoubtedly for 
twenty-five years the greatest figure in the 
English Church. His great sorrows made 
him tender and tolerant, and many who 
saw only the brilliant man little dreamed 
of the causes and depth of his power. He 
was made Bishop of Oxford in the trou- 
blous times of the Tractarian Movement, 
and so great was the work he accom- 
plished and so devoted to him were his 
clergy that when translated to Winches- 
ter, Bishop Stubbs, who succeeded him, 
coming from quiet Chester, where his his- 
tory was his chief occupation, ruefully 
asked, "Why am I like the Witch of En- 
dor? Because I am tormented by the 
spirit of Samuel." His quickness and hu- 
mor flashed an unexpected light on many 
a question, as when asked why he was 
called Soapy Sam he answered it was 
probably because he was always in hot 
water and always came out with hands 
clean. And his whimsical reply to "Who 
are the greatest preachers in England?" 
is one of those comical self-evaluations 
which it is generally most hard to give 
"I must refer you to an article on a lady's 
dress Hook and I." His absolute free- 
dom from personal animosity shows itself 
in the story I like best of all. During 
a stormy committee meeting in which he 
and the Bishop of London were violently 
opposed to each other, he threw a note 
across the table. Supposing it to be some 
point on the business in hand, the Bishop 
of London read, "My dear Bishop: You 
really should not wear such boots. Your 



WALTON 



227 



life is too precious and valuable to us all 
to allow such carelessness." 

Nothing could more touchingly express 
the devoted and loving esteem in which 
he was held than these words written at 
the time of his death: "With others who 
loved him, kneeling reverently beside the 
body, was Mr. Gladstone, whose sobs at- 
tested how deeply his feelings were moved 
by the sudden loss of his long-tried friend." 

The last time I was in England I made a 
Sussex pilgrimage to his old home at Lav- 
ington. It was in Juiiq, and my companion 
smiled as I exclaimed with enthusiasm, 
"St. Barnabas day, the eleventh of June 
the Bishop's wedding day!" We saw 
the trees he had planted and loved, the 
spot whence he would turn for a last 
homeward look, saying he was as proud 
of being a Sussex squire as a bishop; and 
best of all the great clumps of rhododen- 
dron which he planted with his own hands. 

Since so many librarians are gardening 
as a favorite recreation, why not have a 
friendly corner in the garden, where we 
may "Consider the lilies of the field," as 
we are bidden in that dearest of all books, 
and where each mood, whether gay or 
somber, would find echo from the "eternal 
passion" of the poets "Rosemary for re- 
membrance, or pray you love, remember 
there's pansies, they're for thoughts." 
Growing next to these in my own garden is 
the fragrant Carolina allspice, becatise it 
was the best loved of flowers by Henry 
Bradshaw. 

I sometimes question if a book is truly 
a friendly book unless I possess it, and yet 
this in a way would cut off both Thack- 
eray and the friend whom he loved best 
of all, "dear old Fitz," for I gave away my 
"Fitzgerald's Letters" to a friend with 
whom I exchange many friendly books. A 
man of leisure and literary tastes, and in 
easy circumstances, Fitzgerald avoided 
fame as earnestly as most men seek it. 
Living in a country cottage with a garden, 
books, pictures and music, he cherished his 
many lifelong friendships, which he says 
were more like loves, by writing letters 
which have a touch of gentle humor and of 



tender and unaffected charm, as in a letter 
to Frederick Tennyson: "I have been 
through three influenzas; but this is no 
wonder, for I live in a hut with walls as 
thin as a sixpence, windows that don't 
shut, a clay soil safe beneath my feet and a 
thatch perforated by lascivious sparrows 
over my head. Here I sit, read, smoke and 
become wise, and am already quite beyond 
earthly things. I must say to you as Basil 
Montague once said in perfect charity to 
his friends: 'You see my dear fellows, I like 
you very much, but I continue to advance, 
and you remain where you are, you see, 
and so I am obliged to leave you behind. 
It is no fault of mine.' You must begin 
to read Seneca, whose letters I have been 
reading, else you will be no companion to 
a man who despises wealth, death, etc. 
I wish you were here to smoke a pipe with 
me. I play of evenings some of Handel's 
grand choruses which are the bravest mu- 
sic after all." 

And again, to William Bodham Donne, 
when puzzled over his Agamemnon and 
the line of signal fires from Troy to My- 
cenas, he writes, "I am ignorant of geog- 
raphy, modern and ancient, and do not 
know the points of the Beacons, and Lem- 
priere, the only classic at hand, doesn't 
help me. Pray turn to the passage and 
tell me (quotes three lines of Greek) 
what, where and why. The rest I know 
or can find in dictionary or map, but for 
these: 

Lempriere 
Is no-where: 
Liddell and Scott 
Don't help me a jot, 
When I'm off, Donnegan 
Don't help me on again. 

So I'm obliged to resort to old Donne 
again." 

A postscript in a letter to Charles Eliot 
Norton reads "Only a word, to add that 
yesterday came Squire Carlyle from you, 
and a kind long letter from Mr. Lowell; 
and the first nightingale, who sang in my 
garden the same song as in Shakespeare's 
days." 

And finally, to Lawrence the portrait 



228 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



painter: "Have we exchanged a word 
about Thackeray since his death? I am 
quite surprised to see how I sit moping 
about him, so little have I seen him the last 
ten years, and not once for the last five. 
To be sure I keep reading his 'Newcomes' 
of nights and now I have got hold of 'Pen- 
dennis.' I keep hearing him say so much 
of it; I really think I shall hear his step 
coming up the stairs to this lodging, and 
about to come (singing) into my room as 
in old Charlotte Street thirty years ago." 
And ten years later he writes, "A night 
or two ago I was reading old Thackeray's 
'Roundabouts,' and (a sign of a good 
book) heard him talking to me." 

I am sorry that so many people know 
Fitzgerald only because of the "Rubaiyat." 
I confess myself to be rather like-minded 
with 

"That certain old person of Ham, 
Who grew weary of Omar Khayyam, 
Fitzgerald, said he, 
Is as right as can be, 
But this cult, and these versions, 
O, Damn!" 

And Thackeray, there is no one book 
which stands for him, save, perhaps, the 
dear little old brown volume of letters to 
the Brookfields. It is here that we learn 
much of "Pendennis." In one letter he 
writes, "I am going to kill Mrs. Pendennis 
presently, and have her ill in this number. 
Minnie says, 'O Papa, do make her well 
again! She can have a regular doctor and 
be almost dead, and there will come a nice 
homeopathic physician who will make her 
well again.' " We who truly know and 
love him find him ever in his own pages as 
he smiles kindly at us through his specta- 
cles, or we feel the difficulty with which 
he is keeping his spectacles dry, and we 
too say, "Dear old Thackeray," as in the 
lines at the end of the White Squall, where 
with pages of nonsense, he writes how the 
Captain 

"Beat the storm to laughter 
For well he knew his vessel 
With that wind would wrestle; 
And when a wreck we thought her, 
And doomed ourselves to slaughter, 



How gaily he fought her, 

And through the hubbub brought her, 

And when the tempest caught her, 

Cried, George some brandy and water. 

And when its force expended, 

The harmless storm was ended, 

And as the sunrise splendid 

Came blushing o'er the sea, 

I thought, as day was breaking, 

My little girls were waking, 

And smiling and making 

A prayer at home for me." 

One of these little girls, Minnie Thack- 
eray, became the wife of Leslie Stephen, 
of whom Mr. Lowell speaks as "that most 
lovable of men," whose Life and Letters, 
so full of rich and wondrous friendships, 
and of deep and subtle charm, is always 
a midnight companion if taken up in the 
evening. While our serious-minded libra- 
rian may find its chief value in the chap- 
ter on "The Struggle with the Dictionary," 
where as editor, I presume many of us 
first met with Stephen, (and which would 
prove invaluable to Lamb's old gentleman) 
she will find there only a small part of the 
Real Leslie Stephen, who wrote one day 
to Edmund Gosse, "No, R. L. S. is not the 
Real Leslie Stephen, but a young Scotch- 
man whom Colvin has found Robert 
Louis Stevenson." 

It is a temptation to linger over Ste- 
phen's letters to John Morley and Charles 
Eliot Norton (perhaps his closest lifelong 
friends), and to the rich list of literary 
men whom he knew so well through his 
long years of literary and editorial work. 
Like those of Lowell and Stevenson, his 
letters lead one constantly to the read- 
ing of his books, wherein again one al- 
ways finds himself. It were difficult to 
imagine more felicitous titles of self-rev- 
elation than "Hours in a library," "The 
amateur emigrant," and "My study win- 
dow." I cannot leave Stephen without a 
word from the "Letters to John Richard 
Green" (little Johnny Green) which he 
edited. As Macaulay used to love to 
prove the goods he praised by samples of 
quotation, I will content myself with 
Green's questioning Freeman, in a long let- 
ter full of Early English history: "By the 



WALTON 



i 229 



way, have you seen Stubb's Hymn on 
Froude and Kingsley? 

'Froude informs the Scottish youth 
That parsons do not care for truth. 
The Reverend Canon Kingsley cries: 
History is a pack of lies. 
What cause for judgments so malign? 
A brief reflection solves the mystery, 
Froude believes Kingsley's a divine," 
And Kingsley goes to Froude for his- 
tory.' " 

Long years ago my eye caught the title, 
"From Shakespeare to Pope," Gosse, and as 
I took down the book,\I asked, "Well, what 
was there from Shakespeare to Pope?"- 
a question which the book answered so 
delightfully that I read it straight through 
twice, while the Critical Kit Kats is my 
particular joy in introducing to friendly 
books my young student readers, whom 
I send off armed with it, together with a 
volume of Fitzgerald, or Stevenson, or 
the Browning sonnets. Mr. Gosse has 
such a comfortable and intimate way of 
saying things that makes one feel it is 
one's own expression of one's own 
thoughts. I suppose most of us own to 
a pocket copy of Shakespeare's sonnets, 
wherein we have marked many a line, and 
then Mr. Gosse writes for us, as he sends 
the sonnets to a friend: 

"This is the holy missal Shakespeare 

wrote, 
Then, on sad evenings when you think of 

me, 
Or when the morn seems blyth, yet I not 

near, 

Open this book, and read, and I shall be 
The meter murmuring at your bended ear; 
I cannot write my love with Shakespeare's 

art, 
But the same burden weighs upon my 

heart." 

Do your friendly books ever find each 
other out upon the shelves? After read- 
ing in Mary Cowden Clarke's "My long 
life," of her childish, reverent awe towards 
Keats and Shelley, who were often guests 
in her father's house, the book found its 
place next to those poets, and was it Keats 
who was sitting on the sofa when the same 
little girl crept up behind and kissed his 
hand just because she had heard he was 



a poet? Gilbert White's "Natural history 
of Selborne," much in the same way stands 
beside -Lowell, in whose "Garden acquaint- 
ance," I first learned its "delightful charm 
of absolute leisure," and here too, when 
it leaves my study table, stands that dear 
big book which still claims my leisure 
hours, "Charles Eliot, landscape architect," 
one of those rare books with a subtle and 
unconscious autobiographic touch, when 
one chances upon the fact that the writer 
was Harvard's president, telling the story 
as the brief fore-note says, 

"For the dear son, 
Who died in the bright prime 
From the father." 

But this is all very personal and my only 
hope is that while I am reading, you are 
following the example of my sometime 
youthful nephew, who, on being asked 
about the sermon one Sunday after church, 
answered, "Why really, Mamma, I don't 
know what it was about. I got tired 
listening, and withdrew my attention and 
went fishing." 

Finally, although we are admonished not 
to put new wine into old bottles, there 
fortunately is no admonition against old 
wine in new bottles, and friendliness is 
certainly the richest of wine both in men 
and in books. Nor am I at all certain that 
in the last analysis it is not the supreme 
grace which makes possible that joy in 
life, without which we are of necessity cast 
into a limbo of outer darkness, and so I 
commend to you the best of old wine which 
ever lingers in The Friendly Book. 

THE PRESIDENT: Our good old friend, 
Dr. Canfield, once told a story about a 
critic who after a life devoted to the gentle 
art of making enemies was gathered to his 
fathers. Those who had known him, and 
who had for the most part been recipients 
of his buffetings gathered about his bier, 
and compared notes and estimates of the 
special qualities which the late departed 
had possessed. Yes, said one, "he loved 
us so well that he chastised us frequently." 
True, said another, "he could never catch 
sight of one of us without administering 



230 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



a vigorous kick." At this the eyelids of 
the deceased were seen to flutter a bit, 
and he sat bolt upright and his sepulchral 
voice made this response: "Yes, but I 
always kicked towards the goal." 

Now perhaps this introduction may not 
seem to be a very happy preliminary to the 
paper about to be announced, and in some 
respects its application may not be evident, 
for certainly the speaker who is about 
to talk to us, on "How to discourage read- 
ing" is by no means a dead one. He has, 
however, been somewhat active in the kick- 
ing process though always towards the 
goal. I present to you Mr. EDMUND L. 
PEARSON, of the Boston Transcript. 

Mr. PEARSON: The president has very 
kindly referred to the fact that while I 
do not practice the profession of librarian 
I tell other people how they ought to do 
it. He might have made use of a quo- 
tation or a sentence or two at the be- 
ginning of Mark Twain's "Puddin'head Wil- 
son," only I fear that Mr. Legler was too 
courteous to use it. I have no hesitation 
in speaking of it myself. Mark Twain 
says of the Puddin'head Wilson maxims: 
"These maxims are for the instruction and 
moral elevation of youth. To be good is 
noble, but to tell others how to be good is 
nobler and much less trouble." 

Mr. Pearson read the following paper: 

HOW TO DISCOURAGE READING 

When the "Five Foot Shelf" of books 
were published, three of my friends bought 
the set. One of them did so without any 
pretence that he was going to read them. 
He is a somewhat naive young man, able 
to indulge his whims, and he said he 
thought that buying the books "woufd help 
out President Eliot." That is a very meri- 
torious sentiment to hold toward the com- 
pilers or authors of books I wish that 
there were more persons who felt that way. 
I have no fault to find with him, at all. 

Nor have I any complaint to make 
against the other two men. Blame is not 
what they deserve, but commiseration. 
Like the girl in the song, they are "more 
to be pitied than censured." The price 



was a consideration with them, and they 
gave up their money for the sake of being 
forever cut off from all those tremendous 
"classics." For that is what it amounted 
to. One of these men has a very pretty 
office, with some nice bookshelves, painted 
white. He added to the books of his pro- 
fession and some other works of general 
literature, this "Five Foot Shelf" which 
occupies, I believe, about eighteen feet 
of shelf room. He tried to read one of 
the books I know he did that, because 
he admitted it and he confided to me 
that he thought it was silly. 

The third man bought the "Five Foot 
Shelf," and announced his determination 
"to read the whole thing right through." 
He did this with set teeth, as if he might 
have said: "I'll read 'em if they kill me!" 
Well, he started one of them. He read a 
little in Franklin's "Autobiography." I 
know he did, because he told me about it. 
He and I belong to that irritating class of 
persons who get up early and take long 
walks before breakfast, and then take care 
to mention it later in the day, as if to 
cast discredit on other people. We have 
to go early, too, because we intersperse 
the walks with runs, and he has dignity to 
maintain, and it wouldn't do for him to 
dash about the streets after other people 
are up. While we walked, or dog-trotted, 
about the country roads he told me about 
the "Autobiography." But I have noticed 
that he has left the "Five Foot Shelf." I 
doubt if he even finished that first one 
of its volumes which he attempted. When 
he talks about books now, it is about the 
"History of the American people." He 
is a Democrat, and like many Democrats 
he has discovered that our history has 
been truly written only according to Mr. 
Woodrow Wilson. 

Will any one of those three men ever 
read two whole volumes from that set? 
It is doubtful very doubtful. And their 
cases are, I believe, typical of thousands 
of others. And what is true of the "Five 
Foot Shelf" is true of a score of other 
collections the Hundred Best Books, the 
Greatest Books of the Universe, the Most 



PEARSON 



231 



Ponderous Volumes of the Ages, the Se- 
lected and Highly Recommended Classics 
of All Nations. There are dozens of them 
you all know them these "standard" 
sets and collections, in which learned and 
well-intentioned men have innocently con- 
spired with publishers to discourage read- 
ing. 

The "Five Foot Shelf" is not picked out 
for especial disapprobation. As a matter 
of fact, I suppose it is far better, far more 
human in its selections, far more readable 
in some of its titles than most of these 
sets of "great" books. But there is some- 
thing about every one of these collections 
of classics that acts like a palsy upon the 
reading faculty. It is a little mysterious, 
rather hard to define, but that it exists 
I have no manner of doubt. It would be 
impossible to doubt, after seeing it demon- 
strated so many times. 

Take, at random, the titles of five famous 
books books which are apt to turn up 
in these sets or collections. Plato's "Re- 
public," the "Odyssey," the "Morte D'Ar- 
thur," the "Anatomy of melancholy," and 
"Don Quixote." Take the average man, the 
man usually known as the "business" man. 
Suppose that he has not read any of these 
books in his school days that he has 
reached the age of forty without reading 
them. Now, the chances are at least a 
hundred to one that he never reads them. 
But let him buy one of the sets of thirty 
or forty volumes, in which these five books 
are included, and the chances against his 
reading any one of the five, instead of 
being diminished, are enormously in- 
creased. It is now certainly three hundred 
to one that he never reads any of the five 
books. There is something benumbing, 
something deadening, something stupefy- 
ing, to the average man to take into his 
house six yards of solid "culture." And 
this I believe to be true as a general state- 
ment, in spite of instances which may be 
adduced here and there. 

But, mind you, if this same man hap- 
pens to have his attention called to one 
of the books especially to either of the 
last two, as they are a little nearer the 



temper of our time and if he gets one 
of them, by itself, there is now a fair 
probability that he may read at least part 
of it. He may even finish it. 

If he really wishes to read the so-called 
great books let him forever beware of 
acquiring one of those overwhelming lumps 
of literature the publisher's delight and 
the book-agent's darling known by some 
such name as the Colossal Classics of the 
World. They breed hypocrites and foster 
humbugs. He buys them and thinks he 
is going to read them. They look ponder- 
ous and weighty and erudite upon his 



shelves to the innocent. People exclaim 









"My! What fine books you have!" He 

/ ( 's 

tries to smile a wise smile to give the 
impression that they are the companions 
of his'solitude, the consolation of his wake- 
ful hours. He knows that these people 
won't ask if he has ever read any of them. 
They are afraid he might come back at 
them with: "Oh, yes, of course. Now, how 
do you like Milton's 'Areopagitica'?" After 
a time he begins to think he has read them 

because he has looked at the backs, and 
started to cut one or two of them. Then 
it is all up with him. He never even 
tries to read them again. They just stand 
there and occasionally make him a little 
uncomfortable. 

Making friends with books, and espe- 
cially with those famous books which re- 
quire some concentration, is like making 
friends with people. You can not do it in 
a wholesale, yardstick manner. If they 
come into our lives at all, they come 
subtly, slowly, one at a time. If a man 
should walk into this room saying: "All 
my life I have been without friends, I have 
decided that I wish to have friends I am 
going to adopt all of you, every one of 
you, as a friend, here and now!" you 
know how an experiment like that would 
succeed. It is the same with books. 

In the competition for the best method 
to discourage reading, the second prize 
should be awarded to that pestilential in- 
vention the Complete Works of an au- 
thor. There was a publisher he still lives 

who told one of his agents: "Books are 



232 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



, not made to read; they are made to sell." 
He was probably the inventor of that dis- 
courager of reading, the Complete Works. 

If one of you wishes to keep a friend in 
total ignorance of any writer, there is an 
almost certain method give him one of 
?he sets of the Complete Works of that 
writer. It is a sure method to kill in- 
terest. 

As in the case of the collections of clas- 
sics, there is something wholesale and 
overpowering about such a set. It is thrown 
at your head, so to speak, in a chunk, and 
you never get over the blow. Imagine the 
case of a man who had never read Dickens. 
If he is wise, he goes at him one book 
at a time, he tests and he tries, and at 
the end of a few years he owns eight or 
ten books well-thumbed books, that have 
been read, and that represent pleasure. 
But if he listens to the book-agent he con- 
tracts for a yard and a half of Dickens, and 
when it comes he gazes in despair at that 
rigid row of books as unassailable as a 
regiment of Prussian grenadiers. That is 
the end of all intercourse between him and 
Charles Dickens. 

"Oh, you might as well have them all," 
says the agent, "you needn't read the ones 
you don't like." That is what the waiter 
told the man when he brought him a 
breakfast-cup full of coffee, after dinner, 
instead of a demi-tasse: "You ain't got to 
drink all of it." 

Miles upon miles of these sets of Com- 
plete Works are sold every year, and from 
one end of the land to the other, heads of 
families are sinking back comfortably up- 
on their Morris chairs, and gazing in fatu- 
ous self-satisfaction at their bookcases, 
which they have just filled, at one swoop, 
with nine yards of the Complete Works of 
Scott, Cooper, Dumas, Dickens, and Thack- 
eray. 

"Look, Mother, we've got the bookcase 
filled up at last!" "Well, I am glad to 
see it! It was distressin' to see all those 
shelves so empty like." 

Will they ever look at them? Never a 
look! It is even odds they do not cut 
the pages. Now that the noble art of 



pressing autumn leaves has gone out you 
know how it was done, with wax and a 
hot flatiron, and then you put them be- 
tween the pages of a book now that pas- 
time is forgotten, there isn't one remaining 
cause why those pages should ever be 
opened. The insides of those books will 
be the most secret place in that house 
henceforth. Talk about sliding panels and 
secret drawers in old writing-desks they 
are open and conspicuous in comparison. 
They will be great for hiding places I 
think I will write a melodrama and have 
the missing will turn up in the fifth act, 
sixty years later, hidden between page 1 
and page 2 of one of the volumes in some- 
body's Complete Works. 

For the third place in the list of best 
methods to discourage reading there are 
two competitors. They are so nearly tied 
that it is hard to choose between them. 
I am inclined to think that the honor 
should be awarded to the custom of set- 
ting up counsels of perfection in the mat- 
ter of recommending the so-called "clas- 
sics" to possible readers, of saying by word 
of mouth, or by printed page: "These 
are the great classics, the great books of 
the world" and adding, by implication, "If 
you don't like them, after making heroic 
attempts, then you have been weighed in 
the balance and found wanting." 

This word "classics" covers a multitude 
of nuisances and perplexities. The "clas- 
sics" include books which are still alive 
with humanity, which are delightful today 
to any person who is at all bookish, and 
they include books which are so utterly 
alien, so far removed from our time, place 
and habit of mind, that it is absolutely 
absurd to pretend that anyone in this 
year and land, except a few, a very few, 
specialists, can read them with any pleas- 
ure, or can read them at all, in fact, except 
under compulsion. 

These lists of the great classics are too 
frequently compiled with a cowardly obe- 
dience to tradition. It matters a little what 
some great person of a hundred or a thou- 
sand years ago thought about a book 
but it does not matter much. Recently, I 



PEARSON 



233 



saw in a book a list of great persons who 
had been influenced by this or that book. 
Some book or other influenced Madame 
de Maintenon what of it? Doubtless other 
books, far less desirable, influenced her, 
too, so what does it prove? The value 
of books, as a recent writer has pointed 
out, shifts and changes with the changing 
years. What may have been truly a great 
book a thousand years ago is not neces- 
sarily great tod^y no matter how many 
famous personages have embalmed it in 
their praise, and no matter how many 
other personages have praised it, not be- 
cause they enjoyed it themselves, but be- 
cause the earlier ones did. Such a book 
is interesting to specialists as a mile- 
stone in the history of literature, but it is 
not to be forced, however gently, upon the 
general reader as a book he "ought" to 
read. 

Museums of art, like the Louvre, contain 
paintings which ignoramuses like myself 
look upon with astonishment. Mediaeval 
pictures of the most hideous description 
how came they in the same building with 
these other beautiful works of art? Is it 
possible that anyone is so silly as to pre- 
tend to admire them? And then the ex- 
planation dawns upon the ignoramus: they 
are here to illustrate the development of the 
art of painting. This is a museum, as well 
as a collection of beautiful things. No 
one who is honest pretends to enjoy their 
beauty. It is thus with books. A great 
collection of books may well contain those 
writings which seemed full of meaning to 
people two thousand years ago, but they 
are not to be held up not all of them, at 
any rate as books which anybody "ought" 
to read today. The significance of any 
work of literature, however noble, is a 
thing to ebb and flow, and finally to vanish 
altogether. Professor Barrett Wendell re- 
minded me once that Shakespeare's plays 
and my daily themes would alike, one day, 
be dust and atoms in the void of the cen- 
turies but I do not think that he meant 
unduly to compliment Shakespeare by this 
association. 

Since it is always better to come down 



to tacks in speaking of books, I will men- 
tion some of the classics which have little 
significance today. It is always dangerous 
to do this somebody is sure to hold up his 
hand and exclaim: "Why, I like them, very 
much," or "I know an old gentleman who 
reads that, every night before going to 
bed." But I will take the risk, and say 
that the Greek and French dramas of the 
classic periods are works of literature al- 
most certain to appear on most of these 
lists of Best Books, and that it is almost 
sheer humbug to put them there. So few 
people can read them, there is so little 
reason especially in the case of the French 
plays why anyone should read them, to- 
day, that their inclusion is a pitiful ex- 
ample of lack of courage. In the matter 
of the French drama I speak especially of 
Racine and Corneille names almost cer- 
tain to appear on these lists of the clas- 
sics. Someone will relate the story about 
Napoleon saying that if Racine (or was it 
Corneille?) had lived in his time, he would 
have made him a marshal. Then some of 
his plays are smugly entered upon the 
list. With their stiff, set speeches, their 
ridiculous unbosomings of the leading char- 
acters of their "confidantes," they are as 
out of place in our life as were their 
Caesars, Alexanders, and Pompeys, teeter- 
ing about the stage in high-heeled shoes, 
ruffles, wigs, and all the rest of the cos- 
tume of Louis XIV. 

It is good to recommend the classics, but 
it must not be forgotten that there are 
classics, and classics. There should be 
independence, and an ability to look things 
in the face, to realize that a change has 
come, when it is already here. Why should 
the people who deal with books let the 
politicians get ahead of them? There is 
a bright, clean air blowing through the 
.nation, and those who worship fusty prec- 
edent are correspondingly unhappy. We 
have a president who cares not a rap for 
mouldy and senseless traditions he has 
learned well the lesson taught him by one 
of his predecessors. If President Wilson 
has the courage to point out that the 
final authority on matters of factory legis- 



234 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



lation and mine inspection in the year 1913 
is not necessarily Thomas Jefferson, is it 
not possible for the critics and choosers 
of books to understand that Dr. Johnson 
and Madame de Maintenon have not ut- 
tered the last word about literature? There 
might and should be a "new freedom" of 
literary criticism not yesterday, nor to- 
day, nor tomorrow, but all the time. 

Here is another way to discourage read- 
ing. You can do it by giving a man one 
of these over-annotated editions of a book. 
I mean a book which has so many foot- 
notes that the text is crowded right out 
of bed; a book in which the editor is so 
pleased with himself for discovering that 
the father of Lady Hester Somebody (who 
is mentioned in the text) was born in 
1718 and died in 1789 that he simply has 
not the decent manners to keep his useless 
knowledge to himself. No; he must tell it 
to you, even though he elbows the author 
a better man than himself out of the 
way to do it. 

One of the best books of its kind I 
speak under correction is George Birk- 
beck Hill's edition of Boswell's "Johnson." 
It is, I believe, correct, and scholarly; it 
certainly represents a vast amount of labor, 
and it is "very valuable for reference." 
Also it is admirably arranged for driving 
a reader away from Boswell forever. It 
is positively exasperating to see page after 
page on which Boswell occupies two lines 
at the top, and Dr. Hill takes up all the 
rest of the room. Sometimes he takes up 
the whole page! Yet that edition is rec- 
ommended to readers by persons who 
ought to know better. 

Other excellent examples I am speak- 
ing only of much-praised books are found 
in the Purness Variorum editions of Shake- 
speare. When one of these volumes ap- 
pears it is usually greeted by a chorus of 
"Oh's!" and "Ah's!" as when a particularly 
gorgeous skyrocket goes up on Fourth of 
July night. Such scholarship! Such a 
boon to earnest Shakespeareans! Such 
labor! Such erudition! Well, a great deal 
of that praise is deserved each volume 
is certainly a tour de force. But I wish 



to read you from a review of the latest of 
them a review written for the Boston 
Herald, by Mr. John Macy, the author 
of that vigorous and sensible book, "The 
spirit of American literature." It deals 
with "The tragedie of Julius Caesar" edit- 
ed by Horace Howard Furness, Jr. "This," 
writes Mr. Macy, "is the latest volume 
in 'A New Variorum Edition of Shake- 
speare,' and is the first under the sole 
editorship of the late Dr. Furness' son. 
From an enormous mass of commentary, 
criticism, word-worrying, text-marring and 
learned guesswork, Mr. Furness has chosen 
what seem to him the best notes. The 
sanity of his introduction and the good 
sense of some of his own notes lead one 
to suppose that he has selected with dis- 
crimination from the notes of others. His 
work is a model of patience, industry and 
judgment. He plays well in this game of 
scholarship. But what is the game worth? 
What is the result? 

"Here is a volume of nearly 500 large 
pages. The text is a literal reprint of the 
folio. The clear stream of poetry runs 
along the tops of the pages. Under that 
is a deposit of textual emendations full 
of clam-shells and lost anchors and tin 
cans. Under that is a mud bottom two 
centuries deep. It consists of (a) what 
scholars said Shakespeare said; (b) what 
scholars said Shakespeare meant; (c) what 
scholars said about what other scholars 
said; (d) what scholars said about the 
morality and character of the personages, 
as (1) they are in Shakespeare's play, and 
as (2) they are in other historical and fic- 
titious writings; (e) what scholars said 
about how other people used the words 
that Shakespeare used; (f) what scholars 
said could be done to Shakespeare's text 
to make him a better poet. I have not 
read all those notes and I never shall read 
them. Life is too short and too interesting. 
All the time that I was trying to read the 
notes, so that I could know enough about 
them to write this article, my mind kept 
swimming up out of the mud into that clear 
river of text. It is a perfectly clear river. 
Some of the obscurities that scholars say 



PEARSON 



235 



are there are simply not obscure, except 
as poetry ought to have a kind of obscur- 
ity in some turbulent passages. Some of 
the obscurities the scholars put there in 
their innocence and stupidity, and those 
obscurities you can eliminate by blandly 
ignoring them." 

These learned and over-annotated edi- 
tions they are not intended, you say, for 
the casual reader. Yet they get into his 
hand they are, sometimes recommended 
to him. And, as Mr. Macy asks, are they 
worth the labor they have cost are they 
worth it to anybody? Looking at them 
reminds me of the ideal ascetic of the 
Middle Ages, St. Simeon Stylites. St. Sim- 
eon was considered the most religious man 
of his time because for twenty years he 
lived upon a pillar that "numbered forty 
cubits from the soil," and because he 
would 

" 'Tween the spring and downfall of the 
light, 

Bow down one thousand and two hun- 
dred times, 

To Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the 
Saints." 

In spite of that, St. Simeon is not the 
ideal religious man today. Will these fact- 
collectors be the ideal scholars a century 
hence? 

Are we sometimes acclaiming as great 
scholars men who are really doing nothing 
but a tremendous amount of grubbing? Are 
some of the so-called scholarly editions 
really scholarly, or are they simply gigan- 
tic "stunts?" Whatever may be their value 
for reference and that is vastly over-rated, 
they discourage reading. 

It is also possible to drive people away 
from books, or make it difficult for them 
to get near books, by printing confusing 
things about them. It is possible to cata- 
log a book according to the best rules 
in such a fashion as to make it an exceed- 
ingly unattractive, not to say repellant ob- 
ject. This is bad enough when it is done 
in the formal catalog, but when it is done 
in little leaflets, and book-liststhings 
which ought to be informal and inviting 
the case is very sad. The other day I 



saw an entry in a book-list which read like 
this: "Dickens. Whipple, E. P. Charles 
Dickens." The expert is in no doubt; the 
uninitiated may well be confused to know 
which is the author and which the subject. 
When someone defends such practices by 
saying: "But the rules!" someone else, 
whose voice is a voice of authority ought 
to say: "Fudge! And also Fiddle-de-dee!" 
The general subject today is "the World 
of Books." It is a delightful world one 
so different from that into which we 
emerge every morning that it seems hard, 
sometimes, to realize that the one exists in- 
side the other. It is a place of entertain- 
ment within the reach of any of us. There 
are a few obstructions around the entrance 
some of which I have tried to describe. 
People have built up walls of impossible 
"classics"; publishers have tried to string 
a barbed-wire fence of Complete Works 
around it. Pedants stand outside, calling 
upon you to swallow a couple of gallons 
of facts before you go into the great tent. 
You can walk by them all. Inside, every- 
thing is pleasant. Over in one corner are 
the folk who like to play with first editions, 
unique copies, unopened copies, and all the 
rest of those expensive toys. Some of 
these gentlemen have about as much to 
do with the world of books as have the 
collectors of four-post beds and old blue 
china, but many of them are very good 
fellows. Most of them do not belong in 
here at all, but, like boys who have crawled 
in under the tent, now they are inside 
they think they have as much right as 
anybody. Some of them, indeed, are quite 
uppish and superior, and inclined to look 
down on the rest of us who have a vulgar 
notion that books are made to read. 

Here is all you require a comfortable 
chair, and a pipe. And the company! Well, 
look around: 

Dear Lamb and excellent Montaigne, 
Sterne and the credible Defoe, 
Borrow, DeQuincey, the great Dean, 
The sturdy leisurist Thoreau; 

The furtive soul whose dark romance, 
By ghostly door and haunted stair, 
Explored the dusty human heart, 
And the forgotten garrets there; 



236 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



The moralist it could not spoil, 
To hold an empire in his hands; 
Sir Walter, and the brood who sprang, 
From Homer through a hundred lands, 

Singers of songs on all men's lips, 
Tellers of tales in all men's ears, 
Movers of hearts that still must beat, 
To sorrows feigned and fabled tears. 

At the conclusion of Mr. Pearson's paper 
a book symposium was conducted in which 
the following members of the Association 
briefly discussed the respective books here 
indicated: 

Hine. Modern organization. Reviewed by 

Paul Blackwelder. 
Crispi's Memoirs and the recent literature 

of the Risorgimento. Reviewed by Ber- 
nard C. Steiner. 
Goldmark. Fatigue and efficiency. Reviewed 

by Katherine T. Wootten. 
Tarbell. The business of being a woman. 

Reviewed by Pearl I. Field. 
Antin. The promised land. Reviewed by 

Althea H. Warren. 
Brieux. La femme seule. Reviewed by Co- 

rinne Bacon. 
The great analysis. Reviewed by Josephine 

A. Rathbone. 
Weyl. The great democracy. Reviewed by 

Frank K. Walter. 

The PRESIDENT: Before inducting in- 
to office the president-elect I shall ask the 
secretary whether there are any announce- 
ments to be made or if any new business 
is to come up at this time? Is there any 
business for the Council to consider? 

Dr. ANDREWS: There are some reso- 
lutions from the Documents Round Table 
to come before the Council and perhaps 
ether routine work. 

The PRESIDENT: They will be re- 
ferred to the Council. We will receive the 
report of the tellers concerning the elec- 
tion. 

The SECRETARY: The report of the 
tellers states that you have elected as 
your officers for the coming year the fol- 
lowing persons: 



REPORT OF THE TELLERS OF 
ELECTION 

No. of Votes 
President 

E. H. Anderson, Director New York 
Public Library 144 

First Vice-President 
H. C. Wellman, Librarian City Library, 
Springfield, Mass 141 

Second Vice-President 
Gratia A. Countryman, Librarian Min- 
neapolis Public Library 144 

Members of Executive Board (for 3 years) 
Herbert Putnam, Librarian of Con- 
gress, Washington 146 

Harrison W. Graver, Librarian Carne- 
gie Library, Pittsburgh 137 

Members of Council (for 5 years) 
Mary Eileen Ahern, Editor "Public Li- 
braries," Chicago 140 

Cornelia Marvin, Librarian Oregon 

State Library 145 

Alice S. Tyler, Director Western Re- 
serve Library School 146 

R. R. Bowker, Editor "Library Jour- 
nal," New York 144 

A. L. Bailey, Librarian Wilmington 

(Del.) Institute Free Library 142 

Trustee of Endowment Fund (for 3 years) 
E. W. Sheldon, President 1 U. S. Trust 

Co., New York 143 

FORREST B. SPAULDING, 
JOHN F. PHELAN, 

Tellers of Election. 

The PRESIDENT: You have heard the 
result of the election. I shall ask Mr. 
Gardner M. Jones and Mr. Harrison W. 
Graver to show the president-elect the way 
to the platform. 

(The committee escorted Mr. Anderson 
to the platform.) 

Mr. President-elect, it is with special per- 
sonal satisfaction that I have announced 
to you the result unanimously made by 
this conference in choosing you to the 
honorable position of president. I am per- 
sonally gratified in that you represent, I 
think, so splendidly many of the elements 



237 



which have been talked about during this 
meeting. You are yourself a graduate of 
a library school, yet you have sympathy 
with those who have not attained to that 
distinction. You have been associated with 
a great scientific library, you have been 
in charge of a medium-sized library and are 
now at the head of the largest public li- 
brary in the ^svorld; and yet many of us 
have had evidences that you have the 
deepest and warmest sympathy for the 
small and struggling library, no matter 
where it may be. 

Mr. President-elect, the retiring board of 
officers received this gavel not as an em- 
blem of authority, but as a symbol of serv- 
ice. As such we commit it to your care 
for the next year. 

For the retiring board of officers 'I may 
say, in the words of Wynken DeWorde in 
one of his colophons, "And now we make 
an end. If we have done well, we have 
done that which we would have desired; 
and if but meanly and slenderly, we yet 
have done that which we could attain un- 
to." 

The wish goes from the ex-president to 
the president that the most successful ad- 
ministration in the history of the Associa- 
tion may be the~ one which is about to 
begin. 

(Mr. Legler then handed the gavel to 
Mr. Anderson and retired from the plat- 
form.) 

PRESIDENT ANDERSON: Ladies and 
gentlemen, fellow members of the Associa- 
tion: In the first place, I want to express 
my heartfelt thanks for the gracious things 



the retiring president has just been pleased 
to say concerning my humble self. Fur- 
thermore, I have to thank him for giving 
me an opportunity to correct a mistake 
which has been current in this Associa- 
tion for some twenty years, namely, that 
I am the graduate of a library school. I 
was at the Albany library school more 
years ago than I care to tell between 
seven and eight months. My money ran 
out and I had to get a job. I did not even 
complete the first year. That is a reflec- 
tion on me, not upon the library school. 

The exigencies of trains and luncheons 
would make it unfair if not cruel for me 
to detain you here this morning with a 
speech and I shall make none. But I want 
to beg you on this occasion to forget and 
forgive the disagreeable things said or 
done by the officers-elect in the heat of 
a bitter partisan campaign. (Laughter 
There was no opposition ticket.) 

Seriously, I want to express to you all, 
not merely for myself but for every mem- 
ber of the incoming executive board and 
the incoming members of the Council, our 
appreciation of the honor you have con- 
ferred upon us and of the responsibilities 
you have placed upon our shoulders. We 
can only hope to maintain and it will 
require a struggle and great and arduous 
work on our part to maintain the high 
standard set by our predecessors. I thank 
you. 

If there is nothing further to come be- 
fore us the Conference will stand ad- 
journed. 

ADJOURNED SINE DIE. 



EXECUTIVE BOARD 



Meeting of June 23, 1913 

Meeting called to order by President 
Legler. Other members present were 
Miss Eastman, Messrs. Anderson, An- 
drews, Putnam and Wellman. 

Several matters of routine business were 
transacted, including the reception and 
adoption of the report of the Committee 
on Nominations. 



Upon motion of Mr. Anderson, seconded 

by Dr. Putnam, Mrs. H. L. Elmendorf was 

elected member of the Publishing Board 

1 to succeed herself for a term of three 

years. 

In behalf of the Committee on Interna- 
tional Relations, Dr. Putnam reported that 
with such information as it had been able 
to gather the committee felt unable to 



238 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



make any affirmative recommendation as 
to participation by the American Library 
Association in the proposed Exposition of 
the Book and Graphic Arts at Leipzig in 
1914. 
Adjourned. 

Meeting of June 28th 

Present: President Anderson, Miss 
Eastman, Messrs. Andrews, Wellman and 
Graver. 

Mr. Wellman presented his resignation 
as non-official member in view of his elec- 
tion to the office of first vice-president, 
which, upon motion of Dr. Andrews, was 
accepted. 

Upon motion of Mr. Graver, it was unani- 
mously voted that W. N. C. Carlton be 
elected to the Executive Board to fill the 
unexpired term of Mr. Wellman. Mr. Carl- 
ton was called to the meeting and took his 
place as a member of the Board. 

A meeting place for 1914 was next con- 
sidered. Miss Edith A. Phelps, librarian 
of the Carnegie library of Oklahoma City, 
appeared before the board and invited the 
Association to meet in Oklahoma City, her 
invitation being seconded by the Okla- 
homa Library Association and other or- 
ganizations of the State. Invitations were 
received also by letter from the convention 
bureaus of New Orleans, Nashville, Wil- 
mington, Del., Milwaukee, and other 
places. After informal discussion it was 
voted that the Secretary be instructed to 
investigate facilities for holding the con- 
ference at Madison, Wis., and if, in the 
opinion of the president and secretary, 
conditions at Madison are not favorable 
for a meeting, that Mackinac and Ottawa 
Beach be investigated in the order here 
named. 

Invitations from the authorities of the 
Panama-Pacific Exposition to hold the con- 
ference at San Francisco in 1915 were read 
and from the California - Library Associ- 
ation to the same effect, Mr. Everett R. 
Perry, of Los Angeles, bearing the invita- 
tion from the latter association. Invita- 
tions were also received from the library 
authorities of Seattle, seconded by the 
business organizations of that city and by 



the convention bureaus of other cities of 
the Pacific Northwest. It was voted to re 
fer this information to the next Executive 
Board. 

Mr. William Stetson Merrill presented 
the following report in behalf of the Com- 
mittee on code for classifiers, which, upon 
motion, was accepted as a report of prog- 
ress, and the request for an appropriation 
of $20 referred to the meeting of the Ex- 
ecutive Board in January. 

The Committee on code for classifiers 
begs to present a report of progress. 

During the past year no general meet 
ing of the Committee has been held, but 
the chairman has been in correspondence 
with several members of the Committee 
and considerable data have been collected 
for the proposed Manual for classifiers. 
Messrs. Bay and Merrill are more imme- 
diately concerned with this section of the 
work and over three hundred points have 
been assembled for future consideration. 

An appropriation of twenty dollars 
($20.00) to cover typewriting, postage and 
stationery is requested. 

Respectfully submitted, 
(Signed) 

WM. STETSON MERRILL, Chairman. 

At the request of the secretary a trans- 
fer of funds was authorized as follows: 
From the contingency fund to conference 
fund, $75, and to miscellaneous fund $75, 
leaving a balance in the contingency fund 
of $95. 

Upon motion of Dr. Andrews, it was 
voted that members joining the Associ- 
ation after the annual conference shall 
only be required to pay one-half year's 
dues together with the usual initiation fee 
of $1. 

Consideration of the question of issuing 
the annual hand-book in biographical sec- 
tion form was postponed until the next 
meeting of the Executive Board. 

A letter was read from Dr. Frank P. 
Hill, suggesting that a special committee 
be appointed to consider the matter of par- 
ticipating in the proposed Leipzig Exposi- 
tion and to ascertain the cost of such par- 
ticipation as well as the possibility of se- 
curing a creditable exhibit from American 
libraries. It was voted that a special com- 
mittee of three on this subject be ap- 



EXECUTIVE BOARD 



239 



pointed by the president, which committee 
shall make the report to the Committee on 
international relations. The president ap- 
pointed as this committee Dr. Hill with 
power to add the other two members. 

It was unanimously voted that an appro- 
priation of $30 from the contingency fund 
be made to each of the three members of 
the Travel Committee as partial compen- 
sation for expenses incurred in the per- 
formance of "association duties, and that 
the thanks of the Executive Board be ex- 
pressed with regret that the finances of 
the Association did not permit a complete 
reimbursement of expenses. 

A report was submitted from the Com- 
mittee on cost and method of cataloging, 
but owing to the lack of time for proper 
consideration the secretary was instructed 
to have the report typewritten and copies 
sent to the respective members of the Ex- 
ecutive Board. At the request of the Com- 
mittee that two other members be added 
to the Committee, one of them to be lo- 
cated in Chicago, the other to be the head 
cataloger of one of the public libraries tak- 
ing part in the investigation, the president 
appointed the following persons: J. C. M. 
Hanson and Margaret Mann. 

The request of the Committee for an 
appropriation of not to exceed $50 was re- 
ferred to the January meeting of the Ex- 
ecutive Board. 

The report is as follows: 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON 

COST AND METHOD OF 

CATALOGING 

The present report is preliminary only. 
Before a final report can be made a more 
detailed inquiry must be undertaken of 
the way in which the work is handled in 
libraries of various types. The methods 
used in the libraries that have taken part 
in the present investigation vary to a con- 
siderable degree, and do not always seem 
to lend themselves to an accurate classifi- 
cation by character or size of library; in 
some cases this is possible, for instance 
when we find that the receipt of much 
duplicate material in the large public li- 
braries having extensive systems of branch 



libraries has developed a method of hand- 
ling these that is almost uniform for all. 
One element which disturbs the cataloging 
work in these libraries is that the with- 
drawal and cancellation of the records of 
lost and worn-out books is done by the 
cataloging departments. Five of the twen- 
ty libraries do not at present readily lend 
themselves to comparison in all respects 
with the others, the Library of Congress 
and the New York public library on ac- 
count of their size and complicated organ- 
ization, the libraries of Harvard Univer- 
sity and the University of Chicago because 
of the disturbances caused by present work 
of reorganization and recataloging, and 
the New York state library on account 
of its rapid growth since the fire two years 
ago. In other libraries recataloging goes 
on simultaneously with the current work, 
but it does not cause the same disturb- 
ances as in the cases mentioned. 

While most libraries count classification 
and shelf-listing as parts of the cataloging, 
only four include accessioning, and three 
do not include either of the four proc- 
esses mentioned under point 2 in the 
questionnaire sent out by the committee. 
Three libraries state expressly that the as- 
signment of subject headings is done by 
the cataloging force, but this is probably 
also the case with some who do not men- 
tion the fact. In one case the reference 
and cataloging work are combined in one 
department; in general, reference work 
seems to be the catalogers' favorite side 
line. 

In some libraries the de'termination of 
headings and the form of entry is deter- 
mined by the heads of the department, in 
others all the original work is done by the 
assistants and afterwards revised, while 
in at least one case such work as classifi- 
cation and the assignment of subject head- 
ings is done by specialists, each handling 
his particular subject. Two or three libra- 
ries employ a special assistant for the 
cataloging of serial publications. Two li- 
braries have all statistical recording done 
by a special assistant or clerk. 
Whether a library prints its cards or has 



240 



them written or typewritten in several 
copies, does not seem to influence the 
method of work except at the final point, 
but the growing use of cards printed by 
some other library has introduced an ele- 
ment that did not exist when any of the 
libraries taking part in the investigation 
were organized. 

The cost of cataloging can not be deter- 
mined until a definite unit has been agreed 
upon. The way to reach such agreement 
might be in line with the method employed 
by the Boston public library, where a con- 
siderable number of volumes were set 
aside for this investigation and the time 
and money spent on each work carefully 
computed. By employing a similar way 
of investigating not only the cost, but also 
the routine gone through with a book in 
a number of libraries on its way from the 
unpacking room to the shelves, some defi- 
nite unit might be found. 

The work of the committee has only 
begun; it should be planned to go much 
more into details than the present ques- 
tionnaire indicates. The purpose of the 
committee should be twofold; to find out 
whether a method of handling the routine 
with a minimum expenditure of time could 
be worked out that could be recommended 
as standard, and to study how the work 
might be so arranged as to be made in 
some degree less mechanical to those who 
are capable of more or less independent 
handling of literary material for the pur- 
pose of preparing it for use by readers in 
libraries. 

AKSEL G. S. JOSEPHSON, 

EMMA V. BALDWIN, 

AGNES VAN VALKENBURGH. 

Questionnaire 

1. Give a short sketch of your catalog de- 

partment indicating the processes in- 
to which the work is divided. 

2. How many of the following items do 

you include as part of cataloging?: 

(a) Accessioning. 

(b) Classification. 

(c) Shelf-listing. 

(d) Preparation for the shelves. 



3. Of how many persons does your catalog- 

ing force consist and how is it grad- 
ed? 

4. What are the minimum and maximum 

salaries in each grade and division of 
your cataloging force? 

5. What was the total amount expended 

for salaries for the catalog depart- 
ment in 1912? 

6. a. How many of the assistants in the 

catalog department spend full 
time on the cataloging work? 
b. What other work are these engaged 
in in other departments of the li- 
brary? 

7. a. How many volumes did you add to 

your library during 1912? 

b. How many of these were added as 

new titles to your catalog? 

c. How many of these were on printed 

cards from the Library of Con- 
gress or from other libraries? 

8. What do you estimate that it cost your 

library in 1912 to catalog a book, in- 
cluding accessioning, classification, 
shelf-listing and preparation for the 
shelves? 

9. Give any special information about your 

library that will enable the commit- 
tee to understand particular phases 
of your cataloging work. 
Libraries Included in the Investigation 

University and Reference Libraries 
Columbia University Library. 
Harvard University Library. 
Princeton University Library. 
University of Chicago Library. 
Yale University Library. 



John Crerar Library. 
Library of Congress. 
New York Public Library, Reference De- 
partment. 

NBW York State Library. 
Newberry Library. 

Public Libraries 
Boston Public Library. 
Brooklyn Public Library. 
Buffalo Public Library. 
Carnegie Library, Pittsburgh. 



EXECUTIVE BOARD 



241 



Chicago Public Library. 

Cincinnati Public Library. 

Cleveland Public Library. 

Philadelphia Free Library. 

St. Louis Public Library. 

Toronto Public Library. 

A request was read from the catalog sec- 
tion, first, that the Executive Board be 
asked to appoint a permanent cataloging 
committee to which the questions in cata- 
loging may be referred for recommenda- 
tions; second, that the Executive Board be 
asked to send a request to the Librarian 
of Congress for the publication of the code 
of alphabeting used in the Library of Con- 
gress. 

Voted, on motion by Dr. Andrews that 
the president and secretary be instructed 
to appoint a committee for this year to 
whom questions of cataloging may be re- 
ferred, and that the chairman of the cata- 
log section be consulted as to the proper 
form of a by-law providing for a perma- 
nent committee. 

Upon motion by Dr. Andrews, voted that 
the secretary be instructed to ask the 
opinion of the Committee on code for 
classifiers as to the desirability of a per- 
manent committee to consider specific 
questions of classification and as to the 
proper form of a by-law to provide for 
such committee. 

The appointment of members to the vari- 
ous standing committees was next consid- 
ered, and as a result of consideration at 
this meeting and of later correspondence 
between the members of the Executive 
Board and consultation with the chairmen 
of the various committees, the standing 
committees for the year 1913-14 are an- 
nounced as follows: 

COMMITTEES, 1913-14 
Finance 

C. W. Andrews, The John Crerar Li- 
brary, Chicago. 

F. F. Dawley, Cedar Rapids, la. 

F. O. Poole, New York City. 

Public Documents . 

G. S. Godard, State Library, Hartford, 
Conn. 



A. J. Small, State Library, Des Moines, 
la. 

Ernest Bruncken, Library of Congress, 
Washington, D. C. 

John A. Lapp, State Library, Indianapo- 
lis, Ind. 

M. S. Dudgeon, Wisconsin Free Library 
Commission, Madison, Wis. 

T. M. Owen, Department of Archives and 
History, Montgomery, Ala. 

S. H. Ranck, Public Library, Grand Rap- 
ids, Mich. 

Adelaide R. Hasse, Public Library, New 
York. 

C. F. D. Belden, State Library, Boston, 
Mass. 

Co-operation with the N. E. A. 

Mary Eileen Ahern, "Public Libraries," 
Chicago. 

Mary A. Newberry, Public Library, New 
York City. 

Irene Warren, School of Education, Chi- 
cago. 

George H. Locke, Public Library, To- 
ronto, Canada. 

Harriet A. Wood, Library Association, 
Portland, Ore. 

Library Administration 

A. E. Bostwick, Public Library, St. Louis, 
Mo. 

George F. Bowerman, Public Library, 
Washington, D. C. 

John S. Cleavinger, Public Library, Jack- 
son, Mich. 

Library Training 

A. S. Root, Oberlin College Library, 
Oberlin, O. 

Faith E. Smith, Public Library, Chicago. 

Alice S. Tyler, Western Reserve Univer- 
sity Library School, Cleveland. 

Adam Strohm, Public Library, Detroit, 
Mich. 

A. L. Bailey, Wilmington Institute Free 
Library, Wilmington, Del. 

Chalmers Hadley, Public Library, Den- 
ver. 

Cornelia Marvin, Oregon State Library, 
Salem, Ore. 

George O. Carpenter, trustee, Public Li- 
brary, St. Louis, Mo. 



242 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



International Relations 

Herbert Putnam, Library of Congress, 
Washington. 

E. C. Richardson, Princeton University 
Library, Princeton, N. J. 

Frank P. Hill, Public Library, Brooklyn, 
N. Y. 

W. C. Lane, Harvard University Library, 
Cambridge, Mass. 

R. R. Bowker, "Library Journal," New 
York City. 

Bookbuying 

The committee has not yet been ap- 
pointed. 

Bookbinding 

A. L. Bailey, Wilmington Institute Free 
Library, Wilmington, Del. 

Rose G. Murray, Public Library, New 
York. 
J. R. Patterson, Public Library, Chicago. 

Federal and State Relations 

B. C. Steiner, Enoch Pratt Free Library, 
Baltimore. 

T. L. Montgomery, State Library, Harris- 
burg, Pa. 

Demarchus C. Brown, State Library, In- 
dianapolis, Ind. 

Paul Blackwelder, Public Library, St. 
Louis, Mo. 

C. F. Belden, State Library, Boston, 
Mass. 

Thomas M. Owen, Department of Arch- 
ives and History, Montgomery, Ala. 

W. P. Cutter, Library of Engineering So- 
cieties, New York City. 

Travel 

F. W. Faxon, Boston Book Co., Boston, 
Mass. 



C. H. Brown, Public Library, Brooklyn. 
J. F. Phelan, Public library, Chicago. 

Co-ordination 

C. H. Gould, McGill University Library, 
Montreal. 

J. L. Gillis, State Library, Sacramento, 
Cal. 

N. D. C. Hodges, Public Library, Cincin- 
nati, O. 

W. C. Lane, Harvard University Library, 
Cambridge, Mass. 

Herbert Putnam, Library of Congress, 
Washington. 

T. W. Koch, University of Michigan Li- 
brary, Ann Arbor. 

J. C. Schwab, Yale University Library, 
New Haven, Conn. 

Work with the Blind 

Laura M. Sawyer, Perkins Institution, 
Watertown, Mass. 

Lucile Goldthwaite, New York Public Li- 
brary. 

Mrs. Emma N. Delflno, Free Library, 
Philadelphia. 

Mrs. Gertrude T. Rider, Library of Con- 
gress, Washington. 

Julia A. Robinson, Secretary Iowa Li- 
brary Commission, Des Moines. 

Miriam E. Carey, Supervisor of Institu- 
tion Libraries of Board of Control, St. 
Paul. 

Program 

E. H. Anderson, Public Library, New 
York. 

H. C. Wellman, City Library, Springfield, 
Mass. 

George B. Utley, A. L. A. Executive Of- 
fice, Chicago, 111. 



Meeting of June 24th 

The meeting was called to order by 
President Legler with 45 members pres- 
ent. 

The Chair announced the death since 
the last meeting of the Council of Dr. John 



Shaw Billings and Mr. Charles Carroll 
Soule, and by unanimous vote of the Coun- 
cil the Chair appointed Dr. Herbert Put- 
nam, R. R. Bowker and H. C. Wellman a 
committee to draft resolutions to be pre 
sented to the Association at large. 



COUNCIL 



243 



Dr. Bostwick as chairman presented the 
following: 

REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON RE- 
LATIONS BETWEEN THE LIBRARY 
AND THE MUNICIPALITY 

In presenting this final report, your Com- 
mittee finds it necessary to consider and 
to give expression to two points of view, 
both of which are represented in its mem- 
bership and neither of which can be neg- 
lected one that believes that, owing to 
diversity of local conditions and of con- 
stitutional and other requirements in dif- 
ferent parts of the Union, it is impossible 
to frame definitely a model library law 
or a model library section of a city char- 
ter, and the other, that without some such 
expression as can be given only in the 
form of a definite body of law of this kind, 
the recommendations of the Committee 
will necessarily be vague and will largely 
fail of effect. 

Your committee has therefore thought 
it best in the first place to make a state- 
ment of the things that a library law or 
charter section should, in its opinion, aim 
to do, giving reasons where necessary; 
and in the second place to present a defi- 
nite example of the way in which these 
things may be done, accompanied by a 
warning that before adopting it as a mod- 
el in any specific instance, it should be 
carefully studied by some competent per- 
son and modified to suit the necessities of 
the case. Your committee realizes also 
that every state library law should con- 
tain provisions, such as those regulating 
the State Library and Library Commission, 
which do not fall within the duties as- 
signed to this committee and hence are 
not touched upon in this report. 

And first, regarding the aims of a li- 
brary law: 

(a) We reiterate our statement of last 
year that the library is an educational 
institution and that education is a matter 
of state rather than of local concern. If 
a state already has a good library lav/ 
which has worked and is working well and 
satisfactorily to all concerned, local li- 
braries should be left in operation under 



the provisions of the law, precisely as the 
schools should be and generally are left, 
no matter what changes in the form of 
municipal government are contemplated 
or have been carried into effect. If the 
state law is not entirely satisfactory, it is 
better to amend it than to try to better 
matters through the local charter. The 
charter may well contain, to avoid the pos- 
sibility of conflict, some such special dis- 
claimer as the following: "Nothing in this 
charter shall be so construed as to inter- 
fere with the operation of the public li- 
brary under the library laws of the state." 
If the library law contains provisions seem- 
ingly in conflict with new charter provi- 
sions, some additional definition may be 
necessary. 

(b) Possibly we are not yet ready for 
compulsory library establishment through- 
out a state, but at all events it should be 
made simple and easy for any public tax- 
ing or governing body to establish a free 
public library and to tax itself for the 
support of that library, accepting gifts 
where necessary and obligating itself to 
fulfill the conditions under which these 
gifts are made. This would include mu- 
nicipalities, counties, townships, school dis< 
tricts, boards of education, etc. 

The library should be assured of reason- 
able and sufficient financial support, either 
through the operation of a special-tax pro- 
vision or by the requirement of a minimum 
appropriation by the authorities. In no 
case should the existence or value of the 
library be placed in jeopardy by making 
possible a capricious withdrawal or less- 
ening of support by the local authorities. 

(c) The library should be administered 
by an independent board of trustees, not 
by a single commissioner, and, in particu- 
lar, not by a commissioner who has other 
matters on his hands. In case such group- 
ing appears necessary, the library should 
be placed with other educational agen- 
cies and in no case treated as a group of 
buildings or a mere agency of recreation. 
The board should be a body corporate, dis- 
tinct from other municipal organizations 
and departments, with powers of succes- 
sion, power to sue and be sued, to acquire 



244 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



and hold property, etc. The terms of its 
members should not expire all at once, so 
that reasonable continuity in policy will be 
insured. It should have power to take 
over and manage other city libraries, 
school libraries and, by contract, libraries 
in other municipalities or communities. 

(d) The funds of the library, including 
those derived from taxation, bequest, gift, 
and library fines and desk receipts, should 
be at the board's free disposal for library 
purposes, including the purchase of land 
and the erection of buildings. They should 
be received and held by the municipal au- 
thorities, and disbursed on voucher, with 
the same safeguards and under the same 
auspices as those required for other pub- 
lic funds. 

(e) The library should be operated on 
the merit system, in the same way that 
the schools are so operated not by plac- 
ing the selection and promotion of library 
employees in the hands of the same board 
that selects clerks and mechanics for the 
city departments, but by requiring that 
the library board establish and carry out 
an efficient system of service satisfactory 
to the proper authorities. 

The board should have entire control of 
its own working force and should initiate 
its own policies, including selection of 
sites and planning of buildings, its libra- 
rian being regarded both as its executive 
officer and as its expert adviser, to whom 
the choice of methods and the manage- 
ment of details are naturally left. He 
should be present at meetings of the board 
and may serve as its secretary. 

We regard as satisfactory any body of 
law that will accomplish the results aimed 
at in the following sections, which your 
committee does not regard as couched in 
legal phraseology. Before being used in 
any state its provisions should be word- 
ed by a competent person experienced in 
drafting bills for the legislature of that 
state. 

Section 1 

Any taxing body shall have authority to 
levy a tax, not less than - mills on 
the dollar, for the support of a free public 



library within its jurisdiction, and such 
tax shall be levied if so ordered by a ma- 
jority vote of all voters at a general elec- 
tion, on petition signed by voters. 
Any governing or taxing body shall have 
power to provide, by annual appropriation, 
for the support of a free public library, 
whether or not a tax is levied as above 
provided, or to enter into a contract for 
library service with another governing or 
taxing body or with a private corporation 
already maintaining such a library. 

. Section 2 

Any library supported as specified in 
Section 1 shall be governed by a board of 
not less than five or more than nine trust- 
ees (appointed as the legislature may pro- 
vide), which board shall have the powers 
of a public corporation and shall perform 
all acts necessary and convenient for the 
maintenance and operation of the library. 

The board may receive gifts and be- 
quests, acquire and transfer property, real 
and personal, sue and be sued. It shall 
manage all libraries owned by the city 
and may contract with other public bodies 
within and without the city, to render li- 
brary service, adding to its number, if 
mutually so agreed, one or more repre- 
sentatives of such public body. The terms 
of the members shall not expire coinci- 
dently. Any member may be removed by 
the appointing or elective power for stated 
cause. 

Section 3 

All moneys collected for the use of the 
library, whether by taxation or otherwise, 
shall be in custody of the city treasurer 
and shall be paid out by him on vouchers 
duly attested by the board and audited 
by the proper city authority. 

Section 4 

All employees of the library shall be 
appointed and promoted for merit only, 
and the board shall adopt such measures 
as will in its judgment conduce to this 
end. 

Section 5 

If a gift is offered to the library on con- 
ditions involving the performance of cer- 



COUNCIL 



245 



tain acts annually, the municipality may 
obligate itself to perform such acts, by 
ordinance which shall not be repealed. 

Section 6 

The Board, shall submit an annual report 
of its work in detail, with its receipts and 
expenditures, to the tax-levying body. 

Upon motion by Mr. Wellman it was vot- 
ed that the above report be printed as a 
tentative report in the Bulletin. 

Upon motion of Dr. Bostwick it was 
unanimously voted that the session of the 
Council on Thursday evening, June 26th, 
at which the topic, "The Quality of Fic- 
tion" is to be discussed, be thrown open 
to the members of the Association, at large. 

The Chairman called attention to the 
vote of the Council which was passed at 
the Asheville meeting in 1907, providing 
that privilege be given to members of the 
Council to reserve hotel rooms at the an- 
nual conferences in advance of the mem- 
bership at large and stated that a number 
of members of the Association considered 
this action as undemocratic and as unde- 
sirable for the Council to continue. 

Upon the motion of Mr. Thomson it 
was unanimously voted that this ruling 
be rescinded. 

The following persons were appointed 
by the Chair as a Committee on nomina- 
tions to nominate five members for the 
Council to be elected by the Council for a 
term of five years each: H. G. Wadlin, 
Josephine A. Rathbone, M. S. Dudgeon, 
Edith Tobitt, W. O. Carson. 

Mr. Ranck presented a report of prog- 
ress in behalf of the Committee on ventila- 
tion and lighting of library buildings and 
recommended that the Committee be con- 
tinued, which recommendation, upon mo- 
tion of Dr. Putnam, was adopted. 

The report here follows: 

Report of Committee on Ventilation and 
Lighting 

June, 1913. 

To the Council of the A. L. A.: 
Your special committee on ventilation 



and lighting can submit at this time only 
another report of progress. 

After the meeting at Ottawa the matter 
of having laboratory and other tests made 
in connection with the technical and scien- 
tific problems was taken up with certain 
industrial organizations with a view to the 
possibility of having them, in the interest 
of scientific knowledge, make the neces- 
sary tests for us, at no expense to the As- 
sociation. Objection developed against 
this line of procedure, inasmuch as it was 
feared that less confidence could be placed 
in such tests when the organization mak- 
ing them (or if the persons making them 
were in the service of such an organiza- 
tion) had a commercial interest in the re- 
sults of the tests. 

Accordingly the effort was made to have 
the tests made by the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington, and also by the Russell 
Sage Foundation, both of which efforts 
failed. The matter was then taken up with 
the Department of Commerce, and we are 
hopeful that we may be successful in get- 
ting the national government to make 
these tests for us through the Bureau of 
Standards. 

In the meantime the committee is con- 
tinuing its investigations and experiments 
so far as the limited resources at its com- 
mand will permit. In this further study 
the committee is strengthened in its belief 
reported a year ago to the effect that most 
of the ventilating apparatus now in use 
will have to be discarded as junk and that 
the whole art and practice of artificial ven- 
tilation will have to be entirely remodeled 
on a correct physiological basis, inasmuch 
as the present basis appears to be entirely 
incorrect. 

We therefore recommend that the com- 
mittee be continued for another year. If 
deemed advisable the committee could pre- 
pare a preliminary report of its findings 
for publication in the Bulletin of the As- 
sociation. Such a report might be of im- 
mediate service to librarians. 

As an indication of the committee's dif- 
ficulties in this matter we may cite the ex- 
perience of Prof, Brooks of the University 



246 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



of Illinois who, after years of study and 
experience in illumination, feels less will- 
ing today to prescribe a lighting scheme 
than a few years ago. 

Respectfully submitted, 

SAMUEL H. RANCK, 
C. W. ANDREWS, 
W. H. BRETT, 
E. H. ANDERSON, 
ERNEST D. BURTON, 
Committee. 

Mr. Ranck made an informal statement 
regarding the irregular and unsatisfactory 
fire insurance rates which he had found 
many libraries of the United States were 
securing and recommended that this sub- 
ject be investigated by the Council. 

It was voted upon motion by Mr. Thom- 
son that a committee of three be appointed 
by the chair to investigate the subject of 
fire insurance for libraries. The chair ap- 
pointed as this committee M. S. Dudgeon, 
Chalmers Hadley and S. H. Ranck. 

There being no further business the 
Council adjourned. 

Meeting of June 26th 

This session of the Council was conduct- 
ed as an open meeting and was attended 
by many of the members of the Associa- 
tion at large. The president presided. 

The nominating committee presented the 
names of Willis H. Kerr, Mary W. Plum- 
mer, Mary E. Robbins, John Thomson and 
Samuel H. Ranck for members of the 
Council for a term of five years each. Up- 
on motion by Dr. Bostwick it was voted 
that the secretary cast a ballot for the 
election of these members, which was 
accordingly done. 

The remainder of the session was de- 
voted to a discussion of "The Quality of 
fiction," discussion being led by Dr. Hor- 
ace G. Wadlin and Dr. Arthur E. Bostwick. 

Dr. Wadlin spoke as follows: 

The Quality of Fiction I. 

The question set for our discussion is 
not new. It seems to be always with us. 
By itself, I do not think it of much impor- 
tance. It only becomes so as related to 



the much larger question of the general 
purpose of the public library what it is 
supposed to stand for in the community. 
All details of library policy revert to that, 
and the fiction question is, after all, a de- 
tail. 

"The quality of fiction" if I may para- 
phrase the words of a celebrated writer 
of it whose works still compete with the 
latest "best seller" 

"The quality of fiction is not strained. 
It droppeth like the gentle rain from 

Heaven. 

It is, perhaps, thrice blessed; 
It blesseth him that writes, and him that 

prints and sometimes him that reads. 
'Tis mightiest in the mighty and" 

But I refrain from going farther. Be- 
yond that point we reach debatable ground 
and I shall add nothing to the sum of hu- 
man knowledge in that direction. 

When your President asked me to open 
this discussion, he was kind enough to im- 
ply that the time had arrived when repre- 
sentatives of the larger libraries, at least, 
might speak with conviction on this ques- 
tion. And I suppose I was selected for the 
reason that the library for which I am 
responsible has, through circumstances not 
entirely within its control, acquired a repu- 
tation for ultra-conservatism in respect to 
purchases of fiction; a reputation for 
which it is entitled to little praise, if the 
result be thought meritorious and for 
which it should not be blamed if the re- 
sults are condemned. 

For it is well, always, to choose the 
good rather than evil in any line of action; 
to choose it, that is, because you love it. 
But, if you don't love it, it is fortunate that 
in the general plan of nature the good so 
surrounds us and hems us in, to say noth- 
ing of the consequences which follow the 
choice of evil, that, in any case, we can 
scarcely escape the choice of good. 

With us in Boston, and I take it the con- 
ditions are not dissimilar elsewhere, the 
practical considerations of providing shelf- 
room for new accessions, of keeping the 
catalog within reasonable limits, the ade- 
quate provision for new books in other de- 
partments of literature, the constant in- 



COUNCIL 



247 



crease in our fixed charges due to the ex- 
pansion of our work these enforce the 
restriction of purchases of fiction within 
limits that may be deemed conservative, 
whether /wre particularly favor conserva- 
tism or not. 

Therefore I speak with no pride of opin- 
ion based upon the policy of my own li- 
brary, nor in criticism of the policy of oth- 
ers, nor with any hope of establishing a 
hard and fast rule. Criticism is frequently 
caustic and bitter. I would fain be persua- 
sive and kindly. It is indeed my convic- 
tion that no invariable rule is possible on 
this matter or on other points of library 
policy. Certain principles hold, but the 
application of them must vary in different 
libraries, and must proceed in harmony 
with local environment. Any other course 
would result in a system, hard and mechan- 
ical, where it ought to be flexible, sympa- 
thetic and humane. 

It is said that in some places it is neces- 
sary to placate public opinion by liberal 
purchases of light and harmless trifles, 
"bright and snappy" stories, "big heart- 
gripping" tales of the moment in order 
that the fountain whereon the library de- 
pends for its continued life may not run 
dry. If that be so, who am I that I should 
sit in the seat of the scornful, or pronounce 
judgment on my neighbor? Any librarian 
whose hand is thus forced has trouble 
enough without my adding to it with wild 
and whirling words. After all, such action is 
not without precedent nay, we may go 
farther and say not without justification. 
Old Isaac Walton was not the first who 
angled successfully with a concealed hook, 
and he has his disciples in other than 
green pastures or beside still waters. But, 
speaking seriously, such bids for the pop- 
ular approval that may result in enlarged 
appropriations have nothing to do with 
the quality of fiction, and carry no. lesson 
for those in more fortunate circumstances, 
who are able to exercise a sane and un- 
trammelled judgment. 

Let us admit freely, that fiction as a 
branch of literature, is today important, 
not merely as a means of relaxation and 



amusement but of inspiration and instruc- 
tion. Whether or not that admission im- 
plies that a public library ought to pro- 
vide an undue quantity of it is a question 
of logic, and to be logical when sentiment 
will more effectively carry your point is 
today fatal in the discussion of more 
weighty matters than the one we are now 
considering. There is, indeed, a form of 
printed matter even more frequently used 
than the novel for relaxation and amuse- 
ment. I allude to that required in the 
great game of Auction Bridge, and one 
may gain instruction, perhaps inspiration 
from that, but public libraries so far ig- 
nore it. Although it has been suggested 
that a moving-picture annex, freely used 
by some millions to the same ends, might 
be profitably taken on, and unquestionably 
the suggestion has much to recommend it. 
At all events, that time may not be wast- 
ed in profitless controversy, I grant, at the 
outset, all that the most ardent advocates 
of fiction claim in its behalf. 

And since it is asserted that many per- 
sons will read nothing but fiction, and that 
such reading is especially adapted to put 
new life into the tired shop-girl, to illu- 
minate the social gloom that shrouds the 
proletariat, by taking him into worlds as 
unlike his real world as it is possible to 
make them, and to put a little more vital- 
ity into the merchant overwrought by too 
strenuous pursuit of the elusive dollar, why 
question its importance as at once a tonic 
and a sedative, a general promoter of 
bright days and peaceful dreams? 

Of course, though many think otherwise, 
it is not undeniably the business of a pub- 
lic library to act as a pharmaceutical dis- 
pensatory and to make persons read who 
might much better get a required physical 
stimulus in some other way. Mr. Dana 
some months ago put the reading of the 
classics into the limbo of out-worn tradi- 
tion put them perpetually "on the blink," 
if I may use language similar to that em- 
ployed in fiction by Sewall Ford's popu- 
lar hero and Miss Corinne Bacon, in a 
brilliant paper which, if you have not read 
it, I commend to your attention, keenly 



248 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



reminds Mr. Dana that it is not really nec- 
essary for any of us to read at all. 

If, however, we dispute the unquali- 
fied benefits of fiction reading, it is the 
works of the masters which are used to 
overwhelm us the recognized standard 
novels, quite modern some of them, for 
the production of good fiction did not stop 
with the death of Scott or Thackeray or 
Dickens as if anybody questioned their 
influence or their power! 
, If I wished, on the other hand, to as- 
sume the role of Mrs. Partington, and seek 
to beat back the on-rushing tide of print- 
ed matter, all of which claims to be imag- 
inative and romantic, I should need no 
better broom with which to attempt that 
forlorn and hopeless task than one made 
from the strands which Mr. Booth Tark- 
ington, and others actively engaged in the 
production of fiction, supplied in the letters 
read from this platform Monday evening. 

There is a trinity of things, frequently 
asserted, which I do not believe, that is, I 
do not believe them in my present state of 
mental development, though I trust I am 
still open to conviction. 

First, I do not believe that everybody is 
entitled to receive at our hands the books 
they want, when they want them! I hear 
it put this way: The State or the munici- 
pality ought to provide any citizen who 
wants a book with the book he wants 
when he wants it. A moment's candid ex- 
amination will, I think, show that this is 
impossible, and it being impossible, we 
need not spend time in disputing the 
, theory. 

Second, I do not believe that we should 
buy the book of the day, and all the books 
of the day, irrespective of merit; or, as a 
critical journal once put it, "Buy the books 
the world is talking about merit or de- 
merit cast entirely aside." 

The talk of the people, about the books 
of the day is, 99 per cent of it, if we may 
apply a quantitive measure to that which 
is immeasurable, pure gossip, fostered by 
more or less interested, or paid notices 
in the newspapers, and the reading of 
books which for the moment are made the 



subjects of such gossip is of about as much 
real value to the average man or woman 
as was Mrs. A's inquiry after the health 
of Mrs. B's old man. Not that she cared 
anything about his health but the inquiry 
helped conversation. And when the book 
of the day rises above the plane of mere 
gossip its interest or value is frequently 
momentary. Two years ago, the cheerful 
idlers on summer hotel verandas were 
lightening the burden of persistent appli- 
cation to what, for want of a better term, 
is called "fancy work" by reading "The 
rosary." Last year, their affections were' 
centered on "The harvester." This year 
well, I refrain from advertising what is 
likely to be found there. 

But surely most public libraries in these 
days of expanding opportunity, find it dif- 
ficult enough to supply things which have 
higher civic promise in them, even in fic- 
tion, without stocking up extensively with 
that which is as evanescent as the foam 
on the wave. 

Third, I do not believe as some do that 
the indiscriminate reading of fiction, even 
poor fiction, leads finally to the selection 
of better books. Once I thought so, and I 
know that my distinguished predecessor, 
Dr. Winsor, held that opinion. But, after 
sonre thirty years' intimate knowledge of 
a library (outside of Boston), not too large 
to permit the study of the peculiarities of 
individual readers, this seems to me de- 
lusive. If I wanted to promote good read- 
ing, I would not treat it as a pill to be 
sugar-coated. Good wine needs no bush. 

Passing from the triad of things I do not 
believe I make one positive affirmation. 
Every public library should establish a 
standard. As a matter of fact, this is done 
now. For example, the works of Mr. 
Charles Garvice are seldom found on our 
catalogs nor those of Rev. Silas K. Hock- 
ing. These two among the most popular 
English novelists of our day, may be found 
on the shelves of the circulating libraries, 
and with several others almost equally 
well-known, appear among the miscella- 
neous attractions of the railway news coun- 
ters; but not with us. Why? They are 



COUNCIL 



249 



clean, highly moral, in the accepted use 
of that word, and not without a certain 
literary merit. The answer to my query 
implies^ selection, in accordance with a 
standard. 

I said some years ago on this subject, 
and have seen no reason to change my 
opinion, that while there are those who 
resent what they call "censorship" on the, 
part of public libraries, nevertheless, sim- 
ply because we are public institutions, we 
have responsibilities to the public, toward 
children, at least, and toward those of 
unformed literary taste. 

Personally, I am not much afraid of the 
baleful effect of certain books usually con- 
demned by moralists. Not every one who 
reads "The pirate's own book" will take 
to piracy on the high seas; and a quiet 
elderly lady of my acquaintance who reads 
rather more erotic French fiction than 
some would approve, still preserves, so far 
as I can see, modesty of demeanor, and, 
unless skilfully dissembled, an exemplary 
private life. I was myself, in my young 
days a persistent reader of Beadle's dime 
novels, which were of size to be readily 
concealed between Euclid and Andrews 
and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, well out 
of view of the censor. Oliver Optic was 
permitted to corrupt my young mind, and 
since I had an eclectic taste, I absorbed 
liberal doses of Sylvanus Cobb, Jr., Emer- 
son Bennett, and Mrs. Southworth, writers 
almost unknown to the present generation. 
So far, I have escaped the penitentiary 
and the home for feeble-minded. But that 
does not justify the exposure of Burton's 
"Arabian nights" on open shelves, for 
which lapse of judgment we were once crit- 
icised by a reputable Boston paper, or 
prove that since life is short and art is long 
and one can not read everything, and some 
books are, from any point of view, better 
than others, judicious selection may not 
prevent lamentable waste of time. 

Before selection is attempted, the 
amount available for expenditure should be 
fixed, and this should be determined by 
the income of the library and the proper 
relation which, within that income, pur- 



chases of fiction should bear to other nec- 
essary expenses. The percentage will 
vary, I should suppose, with different libra- 
ries. Speaking for my own, it has by ex- 
perience been determined at from 20 to 
25 per cent of all expenditures for books. 
In a recent lean year, it dropped as low 
as 12 per cent, but in the last four years 
has ranged from 23 in 1912 to 25 in 1909. I 
include expenditures for replacements as 
well as for new fiction. 

All theory apart, no more could have 
been spent without impairing the up-keep 
of other departments. As I have inti- 
mated, we are always confronted, to use 
Mr. Cleveland's phrase, *by conditions 
rather than theories. I need not enlarge 
upon the character of those other depart- 
ments. They are not for the use of the 
dilettante or the connoisseur. Contrary to 
an opinion that seems to prevail in certain 
quarters, we do not buy extensively, as one 
critical commentator put it, either "musty 
parchments or rare first editions in which 
not one person in 50 has the slightest in- 
terest or concern." 

No. These departments provide for the 
scholarly use of a library which is at the 
center of a group of educational institu- 
tions accommodating probably 10,000 stu- 
dents. It is unthinkable to suppose that 
this work of education, of so much impor- 
tance to our city, could go on without the 
aid derived from the library. And I need 
only mention the various special collec- 
tions which have grown up from the begin- 
ning, which are drawn upon each year by 
students who come to us from abroad, and 
from which, on the inter-library loan plan, 
we lend annually to other libraries in the 
proportion of 1,200 to the 50 which we re- 
ceive from them in return. 

These phases of our work must be taken 
into account, just as similar considerations 
must be influential in any library, if a 
proper balance is to be kept of expendi- 
tures for fiction. And bear in mind that 
every dollar spent for fiction beyond the 
proper limit as set by a candid considera- 
tion of conditions and resources, no matter 
how insistent the demand and it is well 



250 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



known that the demand may be so insist- 
ent as to require, without satisfying it, all 
the money at your command every dol- 
lar beyond this limit is a dollar drawn 
from students, from readers in courses, 
from work with the immigrant, if you have 
that problem, from work with children, 
from the artisan or mechanic who comes 
to you for the books that will add to his 
industrial efficiency, from your business 
men's branch, if one exists. The libra- 
ry cannot be made a mere depository for 
fiction. This should go without saying. 
It does not propose to include all good 
fiction in its purchases. The sum set 
apart can not all be used for new fiction, 
but must cover replacements. The library 
must also buy fiction in other languages 
than English. 

As to the work of selection, I pass in 
rapid review our own methods, concerning 
which much nonsense has been written. 
We examine with care substantially every 
book in English that conies from the press, 
which any public library is likely to buy. 
Last year, which is perhaps typical, 890 
different books in fiction were considered, 
including fiction for yoTHg readers. And 
every book was not merely examined by 
title, but was read and commented upon 
in our interest by at least 3 persons on the 
average. 

Of course, no such thorough examina- 
tion could be made by the library staff 
alone, and we have the services of a vol- 
unteer committee of readers not officially 
connected with the library. The commit- 
tee does not supersede the critical opin- 
ion of the librarian or his selected staff 
officers. It does not even control. It 
merely aids by an analysis of the books 
and by such opinions, expressed on blank 
forms provided for the purpose, as show 
an outline of plot and treatment, and mer- 
its or defects as they appear, not to trained 
literary critics, but to average readers of 
some cultivation in different walks of life 
or on different social planes. 

This committee was one of the excel- 
lent inventions of my predecessor, Dr. Put- 
nam, and, shortly after its establishment, 



it received wide attention from the press, 
for the most part based on complete mis- 
conception of its purpose and character. 
This resulted in creating an impression 
as different as possible from the actual, 
but which still persists, as the mother-in- 
law joke persists, or the young lady who 
plays the piano in the parlor while mother 
washes in the kitchen, or the stage 
Irishman and Yankee stock material of 
the pseudo-humorists. 

The genial "Librarian" of the Boston 
Transcript, who on Saturday is to tell you 
how to discourage reading, still has peri- 
odic visions of the "Censors of the Boston 
public library," just as more timid souls 
have created bogies out of Col. Roosevelt 
or other historic characters. But the 
committee has no power to "censor" any- 
thing, and the Boston public library has 
no "black list" nor has it in my time ever 
had to become a censor. It has to choose, 
and so far as possible within the exercise 
of fallible human judgment to choose 
wisely. It finds itself unable to buy some 
hundreds of as good books, perhaps better 
books, than it buys, but it censors nothing, 
being fortunately relieved of a duty from 
which I would myself not shrink in exi- 
gency, by the limitations surrounding its 
choice. 

It is one of the curiosities of journalism, 
this rise of the legend of the Boston fic- 
tion committee. It started from a half 
jocose article wholly inconsequential, one 
would have thought, in a western paper 
from the pen of a little-known Boston 
space writer. Numerous excellent books 
not purchased were said to have been 
"tabooed," and the list went over the coun- 
try like wild fire. None of them had been 
"tabooed," unless inability to buy is a 
taboo. Big head lines with Swinburnian 
fervor spoke of the "books banned in Bos- 
ton." From the little daily papers, the mat- 
ter spread to the big ones. The Times 
Saturday Review pointed out, after scan- 
ning some of the titles, that "in some 
New England minds exquisite pleasure was 
akin to wickedness," because or the sup- 
posed censorship of books not bought. The 



COUNCIL 



251 



committee was irreverently alluded to as 
the "body of spinster censors who since 
they were themselves virtuous had deter- 
mined there should be no more cakes and 
ale." A critical literary journal feared 
that the committee desired "to form Bos- 
ton's literary taste on too precious a 
model," and that since the majority of 
the readers were women, "the sense of 
power may have led them into arbitrary 
decisions." A New York paper, not un- 
willing to have a shy at Boston, said: "The 
committee takes an attitude untenable, 
Pharasaic, and what the enemies of Boston 
call Bostonese." 

Harper's Weekly, a journal of civiliza- 
tion, expressed curiosity about the com- 
mittee: 'That the majority of them are 
young, we know, because they are not mar- 
ried. But are they red, white, or blue 
stockings? Do they approve of straight 
fronts? Do hoops still gallop in the East 
wind?" Drastic comments were received 
and appeared in print from other libra- 
rians. Mr. Legler's predecessor, entirely 
in good faith, fell with the rest. He said 
he had been told that in Boston they sent 
new novels to club women and received 
their opinions on slips of paper. He imag- 
ined that a good dinner would have some- 
thing to do with such reports. 

The St. Louis Globe Democrat had 
a word of commendation, although equally 
misled as to the grounds of praise. It 
said: "The literary lines are drawn as 
sharply and perhaps as arbitrarily as the 
social ones. Yet this New England trait 
of severe selection is a blessing to the 
country, and has leavened its crudeness 
from ocean to ocean. Puritanism has been 
more or less a critic of the rest of us, but 
the criticism has done good. * * * There 
is doubtless good reason for the rejections 
made." But the New York Sun which still 
shines for all, said: "The city was so ter- 
ribly agitated over the wicked censorship 
of fiction at the library that the reading 
committee is doomed to become an extinct 
institution." 

All of this is ancient history, and I only 
recall it as showing, in little, the growth 



of a popular myth. The committee as an 
institution still lives. It has always been 
representative. As the Bookman once said 
of its lists of best sellers, so, in dealing 
with the reports, we are not under the 
impression that we are pointing solemnly 
to stupendous critical opinions. We do 
not even claim that every individual re- 
port is actually accurate and unbiased. 
But we do believe that collected and 
weighed, they are unbiased and accurate 
in the bulk. The committee in its mem- 
bership is subject to frequent changes. It 
is, as I have said, free from library influ- 
ence. Its members are appointed by the 
committee itself and we neither approve 
nor cancel appointments. At present there 
are 27 members, men and women, married 
and unmarried, (10 unmarried ladies com- 
prise the spinster element), Protestants 
and Catholics, French, German, Spanish, 
as well as those to whom English is the 
mother tongue. 

They are all fairly intelligent, not il- 
literate of course, but not offensively schol- 
arly. They include artists and teachers, 
several literary persons, at least two au- 
thors of repute, a business man or two, 
two physicians, and so on. This analysis 
shows the representative character of the 
committee; that it is made up with 
breadth of selection. Its verdict is not 
conclusive, and aims to reflect only the 
opinion which readers of intelligence 
would form after careful reading. Oth- 
er factors are always taken into account 
in determining whether or not a book 
shall be bought. Necessarily, many cur- 
rent novels approved by the committee 
are not bought. Frequently novels are 
bought which the committee did not ap- 
prove. But the experience of several years 
has shown that nearly all which for vari- 
ous reasons we have found it impossible 
to buy have failed to demonstrate their 
right to live for even a few brief months. 
The demand for some of them was insist- 
ent for a short time. Now, their very 
names are forgotten. If we had purchased 
a considerable number of them, the money, 
so far as. present demand is concerned, 



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KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



would have been wasted. It may be fair- 
ly said, however, that we have bought 
meantime, so far as our resources permit- 
ted, a fair representation of the best fic- 
tion, that which is likely to remain in con- 
stant request. Our supply of standard Eng- 
lish fiction is large, perhaps 50,000 vol- 
umes, and is constantly replaced as the 
books wear out. We are liberal in provid- 
ing good fiction for the young. Were 
our funds enlarged, we could undoubtedly 
use a larger number of copies, especially 
in branch and deposit work, but, as I have 
made clear, we cannot expend a larger 
amount of our money in this way without 
impairing the growth of the library in 
other important directions. Whether or not 
you approve the method that we find help- 
ful, some plan of selection must be adopted 
since choice is imperative. 

Of course, it would be possible to buy 
two copies of 500 different books, or, as 
at present, perhaps 10 copies of 100 books; 
the expense would be the same in either 
case. But in the first instance the chances 
of a borrower getting a copy of any book 
selected would be much reduced in com- 
parison with his chance of getting one 
under the more limited range of titles. Of 
course, also, under the first plan, the li- 
brary would be free from the impression 
that many novels had been "banned," but 
the public advantage is greater under the 
present system. 

I have already taken too long. If you 
find anything in our plan helpful, I shall 
be glad. At any rate, I hope I have done 
something to lay the ghost of unreasonable 
censorship which some of you may imagine 
hovers over the Boston public library. We 
have our faults in Boston, but not that. 

Let me take a moment in summing up. 
Every librarian must determine for him- 
self how much money he ought to spend 
for fiction, under his own local conditions, 
within his own resources. He should try 
to keep a proper proportion in this expen- 
diture, not as measured in Boston or else- 
where but in that little corner of the earth 
where his own library is placed. This is 



a personal matter, not one of invariable 
mathematical relations. 

Having done that, he should establish 
a standard and select with reference to it. 
Not my standard it may not fit the case 
but his own. And this too, like most li- 
brary functions, is a personal matter. It 
will depend largely on what the librarian 
is trying to do with his library. For a li- 
brary should not be a dead thing. It 
should have a vital relation to the particu- 
lar community in which it is placed, and 
fit it as the glove fits the hand. Through 
the books we circulate we are directly in- 
fluencing the men and women we reach; 
not for their personal benefit or enjoyment 
only, or to satisfy only their individual 
tastes or desires; but that they may be- 
come better fitted for their civic duties, 
may become happier, more intelligent, 
more hopeful in their human relationships. 

It is not the book that you give John 
Smith for the benefit of John Smith only, 
that counts, but the book that makes John 
Smith of greater benefit to the community. 
That sentence, which I quote in spirit if 
not in exact words from our colleague, 
Dr. Richardson, expresses the reason for 
being of the public library, the only justi- 
fication for the maintenance of such libra- 
ries by general taxation. Whatever books 
contribute to that end are the books that 
should be bought. 

There is nothing in the book itself as 
it lies on the shelf. It is neither moral 
nor immoral nor of any other intrinsic 
merit or demerit. "Three weeks," 12 cop- 
ies of which a commercial circulating li- 
brary in a small city near my home kept 
in constant circulation for a year, is as 
good as another in that inert position. But 
books in contact with the soul of humanity 
are no longer dead things. They have 
something of that vital quality which gave 
them birth, as Milton long ago said. 

It is sometimes as much our duty to 
restrain readers as to stimulate them, and 
a large circulation per capita without re- 
gard to the character of the books cir- 
culated, is as apt to be a sign of the inef- 



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253 



ficiency _pf a library, as it is a thing to 
be emulated. 

This is not a recital of platitudes nor 
does the subject call for beautiful phrases 
about the ideals of the librarian's profes- 
sion. On the contrary, it concerns prac- 
tical results in return for the tax-payers' 
money, which comes hard enough at best. 
It is no heart-breaking matter whether you 
buy and circulate 50, 60 or 70 per cent o 
fiction. If you bring your percentage down 
from 70 to 50, that of itself may not mean 
improvement. But it is heart-breaking if 
you fail to get the books best adapted to 
secure the results I assume you are trying 
to obtain and which you ought to obtain 
in your own community. 

It may be that what Mr. Dana once face- 
tiously called the "latest tale of broken 
hearthstones" is just the thing to give a 
fillip to the dormant sensibilities of your 
patrons to make them sit up and take 
notice lest cracked hearthstones become 
fashionable in your vicinity. I do not know. 
But this I know. You should settle that 
point with your own conscience, and when 
you have settled it, go on, and do not apolo- 
gize. In the long run your sins whether 
of omission or commission, will find you 
out. On the other hand, believe me, virtue 
in this field as in others, will bring its own 
reward, and the reward of virtue is about 
the only one any librarian can reasonably 
expect. 

Dr. Bostwick was called upon to con- 
tinue the discussion and spoke as follows: 

The Quality of Fiction II. 

The two things that it is necessary to 
take into account in selecting literature 
are its form and its content. The former 
largely determines the literary value of a 
composition; the latter its practical useful- 
ness. Poetry and prose are the two great 
basic forms into which all literature is di- 
vided. Narrative may be cast in either 
form and when that narrative is untrue we 
call it fiction. In the usage of most of us 
the word is restricted to prose. Fiction, 
therefore, is not so much a matter of form 
as of content, or rather of the quality of 



content. Of two books telling of the lives 
of the same kind of persons in the same 
way the mere fact that one is true and the 
other not would class one as biography and 
the other as fiction. 

Of what importance is the fact that of 
two bits of narrative, one is true and the 
other is untrue? That depends on the pur- 
pose for which the narrative is to be used. 
If we desire an accurate and orderly state- 
ment of facts, the true narrative is the 
only one of value. On the other hand, the 
facts, not of the narrative but incidental to 
it, may be true in the fiction and false in 
the biography. From the standpoint of the 
seeker of recreation, the fiction is gener- 
ally, although not always, more interesting. 
The writer has the advantage of being able 
to create the elements of his tale and con- 
trol their grouping, as well as regulate 
their form; and in addition he knows that 
he must be interesting to secure readers. 
Unfortunately, historians, biographers and 
travellers have generally too high an opin- 
ion of their functions as purveyors of truth 
to stoop to make it interesting. 

As regards literary value, of course the 
mere truth or falsity of the narrative can 
have little to do with this; yet I believe, as 
a matter of fact, that fictitious narrative 
has literary value oftener than true narra- 
tive; for the reason offered above, that 
writers of truth consider it beneath their 
dignity to garnish it, like those fatuous di- 
eticians who believe that so long as we 
take so much proteid and so much carbo- 
hydrate we need not worry over forms and 
flavors. Now I am supposed to be telling 
you about fiction and about the propriety 
or impropriety of including much of it in 
libraries, but I think you see that I am sid- 
ling toward the statement that I think we 
need not consider fiction at all, as fiction, 
in this connection. The reasons for reject- 
ing fiction, when they exist, have nothing 
whatever to do with its being fiction, and 
would apply to non-fiction as well. If a bi- 
ography purporting to relate the events in 
the life of Oliver Cromwell is full of errors, 
that is a reason why it should not stand 
on your library shelves. If a novel, pur- 



254 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



porting to give a correct idea of life in 
Chicago, succeeds only in leaving the im- 
pression that the city is peopled with silly 
and immoral persons, that is equally a rea- 
son for rejection. If a history of the Ital- 
ian Renaissance is filled with unsavory de- 
tails, these might exclude it, just as they 
might exclude a novel whose scene was 
laid in the same period. The story of a 
criminal's life, if so written as to make 
wrong appear right, might be rejected for 
this reason whether the criminal really ex- 
isted or not. A poor, trashy book of travel 
should no more be placed on the shelves 
than a novel of the same grade. And if our 
book funds are limited we can no more buy 
all the -biography or travel or books on 
chemistry or philosophy than we can buy 
all the novels that fall from the press. I 
do not deny, of course, that any or all the 
reasons for rejection that have been ad- 
duced might be overbalanced by others in 
favor of purchase, and they might be so 
overbalanced in the case of fiction as well 
as in that of non-fiction. 

In other words I should not buy a book 
because it is fiction, or turn it down for 
the same reason, any more than I would 
buy or fail to buy a book because it is bi- 
ography or travel. I say I should not do 
this any more in one case than in another; 
I might want to do it occasionally in both. 
But I believe that the more we forget the 
mere issue of fiction versus non-fiction and 
try instead to draw the line between use- 
ful books and harmful ones, wise books 
and silly ones, books that help and books 
that hinder, books that exalt and those 
that depress, books that excite high emo- 
tions and books that stir up low ones 
the sooner we shall be good librarians. 

Following Dr. Bostwick's remarks the 
subject was thrown open to discussion by 
members at large. 

The chairman said that at his request 
some very interesting facts had been ex- 
tracted from the annual published state- 
ments in Publishers' Weekly, respecting 
so-called best books of the year. These 
statements showed that many of the books 
which were leading books of particular 



years, ten, fifteen and eighteen years ago, 
had absolutely disappeared from the list 
of books which are now in current favor. 
Some of these books were found to be un- 
known to those who are now engaged in 
book selection. 

Replying to the question as to the per- 
centage of fiction of books bought by pub- 
lic libraries in Canada, Mr. W. O. Carson 
of London, Ont., stated that in his library 
the percentage of fiction ran from twenty 
to twenty-five per cent and he thought 
that was a fair average for other Canadian 
libraries. Mr. Carson said that the Ontario 
government bases the government grant 
on the amount of money expended on 
books and they give no grant on fiction if 
it exceed more than forty-five per cent of 
the amount expended on other books, so 
in the majority of the small libraries, they 
do not expend more than thirty per cent on 
fiction for fear of losing a government 
grant on anything that exceeds that 
amount. Replacements are included in this 
percentage. 

Dr. Steiner said that a number of years 
ago Mr. Ranck and he prepared a paper on 
replacements and their attention was 
called to the very large proportion of ex- 
penditure for replacements which had to 
be used for fiction and that this was par- 
ticularly noticeable in a library of some 
age, as in the case of the Enoch Pratt Free 
library of Baltimore. The speaker thought 
it should be borne in mind in connection 
with the purchase, whether the amount 
expended was mostly for current fiction, 
mostly for replacements, whether a new 
branch was being stocked or whether a 
library was being stocked which had not 
been sufficiently provided previously with 
standard works. The exact proportion of 
fiction in any one year should be governed 
by these three factors, if not by others. Dr. 
Steiner said that their library last year 
wore out in round numbers about 7,000 
books, of which at a rough guess at least 
six-sevenths were fiction. They replaced 
about 5,000 books including most of the 
non-fiction books, leaving from 1,500 to 
2,000 volumes in fiction which were al- 



COUNCIL 



255 



lowed to expire by limitation. In every 
case where a book wears out, the circula- 
tion department reports whether that book 
is regarded by them as being worthy of re- 
placement and if the book be not a dupli- 
cate but is an original copy the recom- 
mendation is always brought to the libra- 
rian, who occasionally overrules the deci- 
sion of the circulation department in the 
case of original copies, but so far as dupli- 
cates are concerned, the opinion of the cir- 
culation department is absolutely accepted. 

Dr. Andrews said he had found it very 
useful in the work of selection to discrimi- 
nate between those books the library does 
not intend to buy at present and those 
which it will not accept even as a gift, and 
that in fiction it might be especially valu- 
able to have some line of exclusion. He 
asked whether the chairman or Miss Bas- 
com could recall what is the proportion 
of comparison between the recommenda- 
tion of the Boston book committee as read 
by Mr. Wadlin and that of the A. L. A. 
Booklist. 

Miss Bascom replied that as she recalled 
it for 1912 of about 1,000 novels published 
about 140 were included in the Booklist, 
adding that she supposed that the greater 
number of the entire output were read. 

The chairman said that from figures 
which he had caused to be compiled, it 
was found that in this country and Great 
Britain something like 80,000 titles belong- 
ing to the classification of fiction had been 
printed since 1882 in this country and 1880 
in Great Britain. Mr. Wadlin said that the 
A. L. A. Booklist contained titles of fiction 
which the Boston public library had not 
bought simply because they could not, hav- 
ing bought other things instead. Local 
conditions govern their book selection to a 
considerable extent. 

The question being raised whether libra- 
rians experienced any considerable press- 
ure brought to bear upon them to purchase 
certain books, the opinion was expressed 
by Mr. Ranck, Mr. Wadlin and others that 
this pressure was not nearly so great as 
one might think would be the case, that 
those demanding the purchase of a certain 



book were reminded that the library had a 
limited income and that the question of se- 
lection always had to be very carefully con- 
sidered and that books not purchased were 
not necessarily excluded for any other rea- 
son than lack of funds. 

Representatives of the library schools 
being asked to what extent the lectures 
given in library schools were intended to 
exert an influence either for or against 
the wide purchase of fiction, Miss Hazel- 
tine of the University of Wisconsin library 
school, said it was their effort to teach the 
students to buy the best books with the 
money at their disposal those of the best 
literary value and to buy many duplicates 
of the best fiction. 

Dr. Bostwick said that those libraries 
that have pay collections of duplicates 
ought to state whether their reports in- 
clude the pay collections of duplicates or 
not and what relation this collection bears 
to the original copies. In St. Louis it is 
the tendency to buy rather a small number 
of copies of each work of fiction for regu- 
lar use and put these books as far as pos- 
sible into duplicate collections. The pay 
collection of duplicates in St. Louis varies 
very much. In three of the branches it has 
not even been begun, the librarians of 
these branches reporting that there is no 
demand for it. In two branches it is very 
popular and in the central library fairly so. 

Dr. Hill thought it was not wise to give 
a smaller number of copies to the public 
for free use than to the department where 
pay is requested. It seemed to him that 
the public should have just as many copies 
of a book as those who can afford to pay 
one or two cents a day. In Brooklyn they 
give the same number of copies to the free 
circulating department as to the duplicate 
pay department. Dr. Hill said the Brook- 
lyn public library last year spent for re- 
placement, juvenile and adult, $50,000 out 
of the $80,000 which was spent for books, 
or something like 60 per cent for fiction 
both new and replacements. 

The chairman said he was much inter- 
ested in a statement printed in Collier's 
about two or three years ago in which was 



256 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



enumerated the result of the publishing ac- 
tivities of the father of the present pub- 
lisher, who started the line of inexpensive 
editions of Dickens, Scott and others of a 
similar character. It was noted in that 
summary that the firm had sold in this 
country seven million copies of the works 
of Charles Dickens and four or five million 
copies of Scott's works, not individual ti- 
tles, but the complete works of those au- 
thors. This means of course that a sur- 
prisingly large number of the best novels 
by these writers must be in the homes of 
the people who use the public libraries 
and that these people use the libraries 
to supplement their own private collec- 
tions. Consequently, no particular conclu- 
sions can be drawn as to the actual char- 
acter of the reading done by these people 
from the fact that books they get from the 
public libraries are mostly the quality of 
fiction which is put out at the present time. 

Mrs. Sneed said there was one rule for 
the selection of fiction which she generally 
gave to her library school class every year. 
This was the rule of Henry van Dyke: A 
book of fiction is really worthy to be 
bought if it has not given an untrue picture 
of life, if it has not made vice attractive 
or separated an act from its consequences. 
The speaker thought that if this rule was 
applied in reading one would not go so very 
far astray. 

Mr. Bishop said he had been greatly in- 
terested in the last five years in the selec- 
tions made by the public itself. The Li- 
brary of Congress receives, of course, all 
the copyrighted fiction and places one copy 
at least of practically every book of per- 
manent value upon its shelves. After the 
temporary agitation of the immediate ad- 
vertising is over the public itself goes back 
to lines that are surprisingly good in every 
way. 

Mr. GoUld said that Mr. Dutton, the pub- 
lisher of Everyman's Library, recently told 
him that he had now sold over one and a 
half million copies of the books in Every- 
man's Library, which was a good indica- 
tion of the market found for standard 
works. 



Mr. Jast, the English delegate, being 
called upon by the chair, contributed also 
to the general discussion, after which the 
session adjourned. 

Meeting of June 28th 
A meeting of the Council was called to 
order by President Anderson immediately 
after adjournment of the conference. 

The following resolutions were received 
from the Government Documents Round 
Table and were read and adopted by unani- 
mous vote. 

The following resolutions were passed 
unanimously at the adjourned meeting of 
the Documents Round Table, Friday, 12:15 
p. m., when the Special Committee on Res- 
olutions, consisting of Miss E. E. Clarke 
of Syracuse University, Mr. H. J. Carr of 
Scranton, and Mr. H. O. Brigham of Rhode 
Island, appointed at the regular meeting 
on Thursday, reported as follows: 

WHEREAS, The American Library Asso- 
ciation desires to express the appreciation 
of its members respecting the efficient 
work that has been and is being done for 
libraries by the office of the Superintend- 
ent of Documents, nevertheless it recog- 
nizes the many hampering features' that 
still control the issue and distribution of 
public documents. Believing that these 
features can be materially lessened, there- 
fore 

BE IT RESOLVED, That this Association 
approve and urge the early enactment of 
Senate Bill 825 entitled, "An Act to amend, 
revise, and codify the laws relating to the 
public printing and binding and distribu- 
tion of Government Publications," now 
pending before the Sixty-third Congress; 
strongly recommending, however, that the 
parenthetical exception now included in 
the first proviso of Section 45 of said bill 
be stricken out so that the annual reports 
of departments shall not be treated as 
Congressional Documents. 

BE IT ALSO RESOLVED, That this As- 
sociation repeat its former recommenda- 
tion urging that the text of all public bills 
upon which committee reports are made, 
shall be printed with the report thereon. 

GEO. S. GODARD, 
Chairman Documents Committee. 

The following report was made to the 
Council by Dr. Andrews in -behalf of the 
Committee on affiliation with other than 
local, state and provincial library associa- 
tions. 



COUNCIL 



257 



Your Committee on affiliated societies 
respectfully report that they have pro- 
ceeded in the way proposed and approved 
by the Council at its meeting in January. 
They regret that circumstances have pre- 
vented them from presenting a final re- 
port but they believe that substantial prog- 
ress has been made. 

In May the Committee sent to the presi- 
dents of the four affiliated societies the fol- 
lowing letter: 

"The Council of the A. L. A. has ap- 
pointed a committee to formulate the re- 
lations which should exist between the As- 
sociation and affiliated associations other 
than state, provincial, etc., in return for 
the privileges accorded them. The com- 
mittee understand that this action was 
taken largely because one or two of the 
societies had expressed a desire to con- 
tribute toward the expenses of the Asso- 
ciation. This desire was duly appreciated 
by the council, who felt that it would be 
well to take definite and formal action. 
The committee propose that hereafter 
these privileges shall not be extended to 
other than affiliated societies without for- 
mal vote of the council, except that the 
program committee will be authorized to 
do so for the first meeting of any newly- 
formed society. They propose to recom- 
mend, also, that the present provision shall 
be continued, namely, that each affiliated 
society shall meet with the Association at 
least once every three years. They also 
expect to recommend that some contribu- 
tion towards expenses be required, but 
wish that the manner and the amount of 
the assessment be determined after con- 
sultation with the societies, and have 
asked that I secure an expression of your 
opinion on these points. They would con- 
sider the amount suggested by one of the 
societies, namely $25.00, as a maximum. 
The grounds for such a contribution are 
evident, but it may be well to state them 
as follows: 

"1. Participation in the special railway 
accommodations. 

"2. Provision for rooms and meals at 
reduced rates. 

"3. Provision of rooms and time for 
meetings. 

"4. Participation in the activities of the 
meeting. 

"5. Printing programs, announcements 
in the Bulletin, and assignment of 15 pages 
in the Proceedings. 

"The cost of preparing for and holding 
a convention is about $500.00, that of the 



Bulletin and Proceedings, including editing 
and distributing, about $1,500.00. Provi- 
sion of hotel rooms and travel facilities 
is not a matter of money, but frequently 
involves disappointment to individual mem- 
bers who apply too late. 

"As stated already, the committee have 
not agreed on any amount or method. They 
have considered a flat amount of $15.00 to 
$25.00, one dependent on the number of 
members in the society, who are not mem- 
bers of the Association, and one dependent 
on the number of such members who at- 
tend. 

"Personally, I think the logical method 
would be a combination of the first and 
third, and suggest that there be an initial 
amount of $10.00 or $15.00 and an addi- 
tional charge of 50 cents or 25 cents for 
each member attending who is not a mem- 
ber of the Association. Of course, this ad- 
ditional charge will not be asked for offi- 
cial delegates of libraries who are mem- 
bers. 

"Kindly let me have an expression of 
your opinion on this subject at your earli- 
est convenience and oblige 
"Yours truly, 
"(Signed) C. W. ANDREWS." 

They have just now received replies 
from all and formal action has been taken 
by two. All, though perhaps with varying 
degrees of cordiality and readiness, rec- 
ognize the justice of the proposed arrange- 

<^nt. There is quite naturally some vari- 
ance in their suggestions as to the proper 
amount of the contribution to be made and 
'be method by which it is to be computed. 
The committee desire to consider care- 
fully thsee suggestions and to reconcile 
their variations as nearly as possible. 
They would like to discuss them in a per- 
sonal meeting of the whole committee, as 
well as by correspondence, and hope that 
the winter meeting of the council will af- 
ford them an opportunity to do so, and to 
formulate a by-law for the consideration 
f council. 

They therefore submit the foregoing as 
a report of progress. 

For the Committee, 
C. W. ANDREWS. 

It was voted that this report be received 
as a report of progress and further consid- 
eration be referred to the mid-winter meet- 
ing in January, 1914. 

Adjourned. 






258 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



AGRICULTURAL LIBRARIES SECTION 



(Round Table, June 27, 1913, 2:30 p. m.) 

Mr. Charles R. Green, librarian of the 
Massachusetts Agricultural College, was 
acting chairman of the meeting, which was 
an informal one without a regular pro- 
gram. Miss Emma B. Hawks, of the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture library, acted 
as secretary. The subjects for discussion 
were (1) Catalog cards for agricultural ex- 
periment station publications and (2) The 
indexing of agricultural periodicals. 

Mr. C. H. Hastings first spoke briefly in 
regard to the printing of cards by the Li- 
brary of Congress for the publications of 
the state agricultural experiment stations. 
Cards have already been issued for the 
Illinois and Indiana station bulletins, the 
copy being supplied by the university libra- 
ries. Before going on with the work for the 
other stations, he thought it desirable to 
consult with the Office of Experiment Sta- 
tions in regard to a plan of co-operation by 
which the same card might be used both 
for the Library of Congress cards and for 
the "Card index to experiment station liter- 
ature" issued by the office. It would be 
much more economical to have only the 
one card printed, if possible. Miss E. B. 
Hawks expressed doubt as to whether 
such an arrangement could be made, inas- 
much as the form and purpose of the Of- 
fice of Experiment Stations card index dif- 
fer so widely from those of a dictionary 
catalog. Mr. Hastings thought that it 
would do no harm to make the attempt and 
said that he would consult with the libra- 
rian of the Department of Agriculture and 
the director of the Office of Experiment 
Stations in regard to it. If such an ar- 
rangement can not be made he thought 
the Library of Congress would be willing 
to print separate cards, having the copy 
supplied by the station or college libraries, 
if they are willing and able to do the cata- 
loging. 

Mr. H. W. Wilson then spoke in regard 
to the publication of an index to agricul- 



tural periodicals. He stated that he has 
had a good many demands for such an in- 
dex and has delayed adding any agricul- 
tural titles to the Industrial Arts Index, be- 
cause it may be better to have a separate 
one. Those who have written to him about 
it have almost always expressed a prefer- 
ence for a separate index. Miss Hawks 
asked whether some titles might not be in- 
cluded in the Industrial- Arts Index now, 
and then removed if a separate agricul- 
tural one were begun. Mr. Wilson replied 
that there was some likelihood of the Ag- 
ricultural Index being begun next year, in 
which case it would hardly pay to do any- 
thing with the agricultural literature be- 
fore this. There was some discussion as 
to the scope of the index. Mr. Wilson said 
they would wish to include only journals 
of national standing. Mr. C. R. Green 
thought that there were not more than 
about six of these. Mr. H. O. Severance 
thought there would be many more than 
this, including papers devoted to special 
phases, as poultry, bee keeping and stock 
raising. Dr. C. W. Andrews doubted 
whether the farm papers were worth in- 
dexing. He thought that the matter was 
rarely original, but that the articles of 
value are worked up from Station and De- 
partment of Agriculture publications. Mr. 
Wilson said he had had more demands for 
an Agricultural Index lately than for an 
index of any other subject. 

Inquiry was made as to how many sub- 
scriptions would be needed to justify the 
starting of a separate index. Mr. Wilson 
could not say definitely. There might be 
two plans one, the division of subscrip- 
tions among subscribers. The basis for the 
Industrial Arts Index was 20 cents a title 
40 cents for a weekly. The other plan 
is a sliding scale of charges by which a li- 
brary having a great many of the period- 
icals indexed pays a higher price, thus en- 
abling the smaller ones to pay something 
but not a higher price than they can afford 



CATALOG SECTION 



259 



for the service rendered. Mr. Wilson stated 
that he was willing to go to the expense 
of a referendum to find out the wishes of 
libraries on this subject, with a view either 
to the starting of a separate index or the 
incorporation of some agricultural jour- 
nals in the Industrial Arts Index. If the 
idea of a separate index is abandoned, he 
would almost certainly add some titles to 



the Industrial Arts Index. Mr. Green 
thought that he might count on active sup- 
port of the Department of Agriculture li- 
brary and all the agricultural experiment 
stations. He was not sure what further 
support there would be. Mr. Wilson 
thought the demand would probably be an 
increasing one. 
Meeting adjourned. 



CATALOG SECTION 



FIRST SESSION 

The first session of the Catalog Section 
was held Wednesday afternoon, June 25th, 
the chairman, Miss Harriet B. Gooch, of 
the Pratt Institute school of library sci- 
ence, presiding. As the minutes of the 
last meeting had been published, their 
reading was omitted, 

The report of the committee on the 
cost and method of cataloging was called 
for, in response to which Mr. A. G. S. 
Josephson, Chairman of the committee, 
stated the present report was but a pre- 
liminary one, to be followed by a final re- 
port next year. The Catalog Section took 
no action on the report since the commit- 
tee was appointed by the Executive Board 
of the Association, not by the section.* 

Miss Gooch then stated that the discus- 
sion for the afternoon was the administra- 
tion of the catalog department considered 
first in its relation to the other depart- 
ments of the library, and second as to its 
management of its own affairs looking 
toward simple, inexpensive and rapid meth- 
ods of work. She explained that the dis- 
cussion was concerned with library sys- 
tems consisting of a central library with 
a number of branch libraries, and was to 
be treated both from the librarian's and 
from the cataloger's point of view. 

The discussion was opened by Mr. F. 
P. HOPPER, of the Tacoma public library. 



*The report and questionnaire is printed in 
connection with the minutes of the Execu- 
tive Board. 



ADMINISTRATION OF THE CATALOG 

DEPARTMENT FROM A LIBRARIAN'S 

POINT OF VIEW 

In the reorganization of our libraries, in 
the adoption of modern progressive and 
simplified methods, in the effort to develop 
and improve service to the public, the 
catalog department has tended to be drawn 
out of relation to the other departments, to 
become in a way isolated, and as a result 
its efficiency has been impaired. The at- 
tention of librarians has been given to 
other phases of library activities and 
therefore they know less about the catalog 
department than any other. Undoubtedly 
the technicalities of the cataloging process 
make it most difficult for librarians to 
grapple with, but all the more carefully 
should we consider ways and means of in- 
creasing the efficiency of the process, re- 
lating the work more closely to changes 
in other departments, and studying meth- 
ods of possible simplification of the routine 
mechanical work that seems to have large- 
ly increased of late. 

In one of Mr. Carlton's reports to his 
board of trustees, he uses these words: "It 
has often seemed to me that in library 
administration the catalog department was 
much like the police department in munici- 
pal administration. It is frequently under 
investigation; it is constantly being re- 
formed; its defects are felt in many other 
departments; and its heads are always 
changing as one after another breaks down 
or fails to achieve impossible results." 

Surely such an unsatisfactory and un- 

\ 



260 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



wholesome condition is not without rem- 
edy. 

If I can not presume to submit a definite 
plan of reformation, perhaps I may at 
least attempt to suggest possible lines of 
investigation for each librarian to pursue. 

1. The catalog room. 

In the modern organization of work, the 
first care is to provide work-rooms in which 
the highest efficiency may be maintained. 
Scientific investigation shows the extrava- 
gance of conditions which retard speed and 
multiply unnecessary motions, which do 
not provide adequate light and air and 
proper colors to conserve strength, arrest 
fatigue and support the energies. In plan- 
ning buildings we properly endeavor to 
bring the catalog department into the clos- 
est possible relation with the order depart- 
ment, the book stack and the reference de- 
partment, to save steps which mean time 
and money. My observation is that fre- 
quently there is not the same care exer- 
cised in planning the room itself as there 
is in locating it. Often it is too small, so 
that work clogs up, books must be shifted 
too often (an expensive process), too 
many corners must be turned in getting 
about the room and the assistants impede 
one another's progress. On the other .hand, 
a room may be so large that time is wasted 
in getting about it. To be sure this is a 
rare fault. I have seen cataloging rooms 
admirably placed for convenience of ac- 
cess to stack, reference room and order 
department, and really adequate in size, 
but so devoid of light and air that even a 
hardened devotee of our reading rooms 
would fear to enter such a place. Plenty of 
windows, if possible on two sides of a 
room, and ample indirect artificial lighting 
are just as important for the efficiency of 
the catalog department as like facilities for 
the public reading rooms. 

2. Relation of catalog department to 
other departments. 

When friction develops between two de- 
partments (of course it never does; this 
is merely a hypothetical case), my observa- 
tion is that the catalog department is 
pretty likely to be a party to the affair. 



Why? Simply because as organization 
within libraries has developed, the cata- 
log department has been left more and 
more to its own devices. In the depart- 
ments working with the public, the ten- 
dency has been to complexity of organiza- 
tion, perhaps, but still to elimination of 
detail, simplification of method, the sacri- 
fice of theory to practicality that the pub- 
lic may have the feeling of freedom and 
ease and be given the quickest and best 
service with the least red tape. During 
this process the catalog department has 
continued to develop theory unchecked by 
daily strenuous contact with the busy bor- 
rower, to increase routine and mechanical 
work, still opaque to the searchlight of 
scientific investigation from outside the 
department. You need publicity, but all 
you ever get is pages and pages of blasts 
against the poor old battle-scarred, but 
more-or-less-still-in-the-ring accession book, 
which in nine cases out of ten belongs to 
another department anyway. The illumi- 
nating power of publicity for the devious 
ways of cataloging and the development of 
a better spirit of co-operation, are to be 
obtained perhaps best of all by the estab- 
lishment of entirely feasible definite rela- 
tions between the departments. As Miss 
Winser will develop this topic, I will leave 
it here, simply remarking that in my ex- 
perience the opinions of one department 
about the organization and detail of an- 
other department are frequently of the ut- 
most value, but rarely the opinions of 
other departments about the catalog de- 
partment, whose problems are not under- 
stood. 

3. Organization of the department. 

(1) General type of organization. 

The development of the modern elabo- 
rate systems of scientific management in 
the various forms of industry has for tho 
most part superseded the best type of or- 
dinary management known as the "initia- 
tive and incentive system." Under the old 
system success depends almost entirely 
upon the initiative of the workmen, where- 
as, under scientific management, or task 
management, a complete science for all the 



CATALOG SECTION 



261 



operations is developed, and the managers 
assume new burdens, new duties and re- 
sponsibilities. Having developed the sci- 
ence, they scientifically select and then 
train, teach and develop the workmen. 
The managers co-operate with the men to 
insure all the work being done in accord- 
ance with the principles of the science 
which has been developed. The work and 
responsibility are almost equally divided 
between the management and the work- 
men. The combination of the initiative 
of the workmen and the new types of work 
done by the management makes scientific 
management so much more efficient than 
the old way. 

"All the planning which under the old 
system was done by the workman, as a 
result of his personal experience, must of 
necessity under the new system be done 
by the management in accordance with the 
laws of the science."* One type of man is 
needed to plan ahead and an entirely dif- 
ferent type to execute the work. Perhaps 
the most prominent single element in mod- 
ern scientific management is the task idea. 
The work of each workman is fully planned 
in advance by the management and the 
man receives complete written instructions, 
describing in detail the task he is to ac- 
complish, as well as the means to be used 
in doing the work. And the work planned 
in advance in this way constitutes a task 
which is to be solved by the joint effort of 
the workman and the management. This 
task specifies not only what is to be done, 
but how it is to be done and the exact 
time allowed for doing it. 

It is said that "the most important object 
of both the workmen and the management 
should be the training and development of 
each individual in the establishment, so 
that he can do (at his fastest pace and 
with the maximum of efficiency) the high- 
est class of work for which his natural 
abilities fit him," but it is nevertheless 
true that to some extent scientific man- 
agement contemplates the selection of the 
workman best fitted for one particular 



*F. W. Taylor, "Principles of scientific 
management." 



task and keeping him at that task because 
he can do that better than any other. 
Within the narrow domain of his special 
work, he is given every encouragement to 
suggest improvements both in methods and 
in implements. In the past the man has 
been first; under modern methods the 
system is first. 

I have attempted to summarize some of 
the principles of so-called scientific man- 
agement, because in the organization of 
our cataloging work definite principles of 
any kind of management have rarely been 
evident throughout, and if we are to ob- 
serve accurately the system of this depart- 
ment, and study it with a view to possible 
improvement, we must test its work by 
some existing scientific standards. 

The science of cataloging has been pretty 
fully developed, and at least its technique 
is taught in our professional schools. There- 
fore it may be assumed that we are now 
reasonably conforming to the first ideals 
of scientific management when we select 
with due care for the headship of our cata- 
log departments and for the more impor- 
tant positions, those trained in the princi- 
ples of the science. I personally believe 
that the principles of scientific manage- 
ment should be actively employed by the 
head cataloger in the definite planning of 
the work of the individual, in the testing 
of the speed and accuracy of the individual 
for a special task, and in the insistence 
that speed for each task shall definitely 
conform to careful but easily made tests 
of the amount of time that should be con- 
sumed in performing the task. There are 
plenty of results of experiments in other 
lines of work which show that the out- 
put is increased, the cost lessened, by the 
constant planning and supervision and 
co-operation of the head of the department, 
and consequent abandonment by him of a 
corresponding amount of special detail 
work of his own that he heretofore may 
have done. 

But now I must register an emphatic ex- 
ception to the application of the exact 
principles of scientific management to a 
catalog department. 



262 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



I believe the principles of scientific man- 
agement as developed for the organiza- 
tion of industry and business, should un- 
dergo a distinct change or be abandoned 
entirely in their application to one most 
important phase of the organization of a 
catalog department. Scientific management 
does consider the health and comfort and 
freedom from fatigue and efficiency of the 
individual, but always with a view to the 
effect upon a particular task and upon in- 
creased output at reduced cost. In other 
words the emphasis is placed on the task, 
not at all on the broad development of the 
individual. In library work, human sym- 
pathy, a broad point of view, the fullest 
possible development of personality are of 
the utmost importance; esprit de corps, 
the spirit of loyalty and co-operation are 
of more importance than a particular task. 
I assume that needs no argument. Scien- 
tific management, fully applied, would, it 
seems to me, defeat this vital purpose of 
library organization, and would more effec- 
tually differentiate and isolate the catalog 
department than is already the case in 
many libraries. 

This leads to some illustrations of my 
meaning by 

(2) Some practical considerations of the 
organization. 

I do entirely believe in a distinct and 
complete organization of a catalog depart- 
ment, not in the system some libraries use 
in having a department head, but without 
assistants definitely and wholly assigned 
to the one department. It is my observa- 
tion that to insure quick, accurate, con- 
secutive and thoroughly efficient work, 
not only must the department head devote 
practically her whole time to the one job, 
but at least enough assistants also, to in- 
sure continuity of work. I am not in favor 
of the head of the department being part 
of the time assistant in the children's 
room or even in the reference room. Such 
a plan is altogether too extravagant. The 
manager of a department needs to give 
undivided attention to the supervision of 
the work of the department. The head of 
the department is constantly brought di- 



rectly in touch with the general adminis- 
tration of the library and with other de- 
partment heads, and a possible tendency to 
narrowed point of view is thus checked 
to some extent. There are also some as- 
sistants who are naturally fitted to the 
work of the catalog department and not at 
all to meeting the public. If we secure 
an assistant evidently suited for catalog 
work, but for no other, we should bend 
all our energies to making her the most 
efficient possible cataloger, and not deprive 
the catalog department of her constant 
services in order to make a vain attempt 
to develop other sides of her personality 
and give the public poor service in the 
process. In my judgment, in a library 
cataloging from 25,000 to 35,000 volumes a 
year, a head cataloger, a first assistant, 
and probably at least two other assistants 
should give their whole time to the depart- 
ment and so form the backbone of the or- 
ganization. To this part of it the princi- 
ples of scientific management may be 
thoroughly applied. 

My idea of the necessity for divergence 
from those principles comes when we con- 
sider the need for the development of some 
members of the cataloging staff by other 
sides of library experience, and also when 
we consider the importance of mutual un- 
derstanding and co-operation between the 
departments. All librarians experience 
difficulty in obtaining assistant catalogers 
because a candidate is very often reluctant 
to devote herself wholly to the routine op- 
erations of the catalog department. In 
many such cases, it would be possible 
to secure an excellent part-time assistant 
for the catalog department, if we would 
offer work for part of the day in a depart- 
ment dealing with the public. In this way 
we would achieve a double purpose. The 
experience of all librarians, I am confident, 
will indicate the inestimable advantage to 
the point of view of the catalog department 
and to the catalog itself if some one of con- 
siderable importance in the department 
gives a part of each day to reference 
work, and another assistant a part of each 
day to the loan department. I think it is 



CATALOG SECTION 



263 



not so important that a cataloger devote 
some time to work with children, and it 
is also true that such an arrangement is 
rarely of value to the children's depart- 
ment, where special qualities and training 
are all-important. On the other hand, it 
is desirable that someone with the training 
and experience of a children's librarian, 
give to the catalog department time for 
the assignment of subject headings for the 
children's catalog. The work of the cata- 
log and order departments is most close- 
ly related and yet it is my experience that 
misunderstanding between those depart- 
ments is not infrequent. An assistant 
whose time is divided between the two 
should and does work to the advantage 
of both departments. With the exception 
of the one representative from the chil- 
dren's department, I do not believe that the 
possible advantage gained by having as- 
sistants from the departments which deal 
with the public give part time to catalog- 
ing, by any means equals the loss of effi- 
ciency attending the change from one man- 
ager to another or the loss in the work 
itself, for it is unusual that one assistant 
should do equally high-class work in two 
such distinct fields. I know that some say 
that the majority of really good desk as- 
sistants possess the education, the clear 
and discriminating mind, the accuracy and 
resourcefulness of the good cataloger and 
are of value in the catalog department. 
Also it is true that the suitability of each 
assistant for each department would of 
course be considered when interchanges 
are arranged. Nevertheless it is my ob- 
servation that excellent desk assistants 
ordinarily can do well only the merest 
clerical work in a catalog department, and 
usually they do not appreciate the accuracy 
and minute care required in cataloging 
work. Certainly it is extravagant to use a 
part of the time of a presumably fairly- 
well-paid, good desk or reference assistant 
for merely mechanical work in the catalog 
department, which otherwise would be 
done by a cheaper grade of service than 
the better grade of catalog assistants. Also 
the specia? care and extra time wasted by 



head catalogers in revising the work of 
such assistants is an expense worth con- 
sideration. 

4. Cost of cataloging. 

Many complaints are heard from librari- 
ans of the seemingly excessive cost of cata- 
loging. Pew practical suggestions seem to 
have been made for reducing costs, except 
in the elimination of some details, such as 
accession books. Since I understand a 
committee is investigating this whole ques- 
tion, I have not attempted to obtain any 
statistical information. In the few fairly 
large libraries whose estimates of the cost 
of the process have come to my attention, 
the estimated cost of purchasing, acces- 
sioning, and cataloging a book, including 
labelling, gilding, card filing, and every- 
thing necessary to secure a book and pre- 
pare it for use, ranges from 30 cents to 
about 65 cents. These cost estimates vary, 
not only because of differences in the elab- 
oration or simplicity of the processes, but 
also because of the difference in the char- 
acter of the books added, large numbers 
of duplicates for schools, branches, etc., 
being more easily and cheaply handled 
than separate new titles. 

There can be 'little question that scien- 
tific management, properly used, will re- 
duce the costs of cataloging work. Ade- 
quate planning and supervision of all pro- 
cesses by the head cataloger, the classifier 
and others in charge of divisions of the 
work, can make for speed. I am con- 
vinced that we do not really know the 
maximum length of time which an as- 
sistant should be allowed to keep at one 
certain task. An assistant typewriting 
shelf-list cards should do rapid work for 
perhaps three hours. After that a measure 
of fatigue makes change of occupation ad- 
visable for the individual, and economical 
for the department. Slight fatigue from 
typewriting will not, however, impair effi- 
ciency in a different sort of work. A 
point worth considering here is, that the 
change in the occupation of a higher-grade 
assistant in order not to impair efficiency, 
should not mean time given to a lower or 
more mechanical grade of wprk. That is 



264 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



extravagance. Impending mental fatigue 
does not mean that mental processes are 
to be abandoned. Just as much rest is ob- 
tained, and efficiency Is really increased, 
by simple change of the mental groove. 
Here the advocate of the general exchange 
of assistants between departments might 
say that the advisable thing to do is to 
send the assistant to another department. 
In most cases I believe that such a change 
is a mistake, because a change from one 
department to another means too great a 
break in the continuity of management in 
two departments. One manager can plan 
more effectively for the entire working 
time of an individual than two managers 
can plan for the two halves. 

The development of library schemes of 
service, branches, stations, children's 
rooms, work with schools, has all added 
enormously to the routine and mechanical 
processes of cataloging. More shelf-lists, 
more catalogs, and all sorts of differentia- 
tion in the processes suitable to the special 
need have multiplied details faster than 
most librarians realize. It is this tremen- 
dous complexity which has worn out head 
catalogers, increased costs, and made ad- 
ministrators clamor for the elimination of 
unnecessary detail, without having a real 
understanding of what the detail is and 
is for. 

Deterioration in the cataloging process 
will injure other departments, but un- 
doubtedly most libraries have superfluous 
refinements that could well be omitted 
with economy in cataloging, and no loss to 
the chief end of all our work". 

It is a temptation to consider carefully 
the methods which might save expenses 
in the cataloging process, but I can take 
time only to make brief reference to some 
of them, most of these having been fre- 
quently discussed at length before. 

(a) Careful planning of catalog room 
for convenience, to save all unnecessary 
motions. 

(b) Scientific supervision of tasks to pro- 
duce greatest speed without undue fatigue. 

(c) Stopping the publication of many 
monthly bulletins. Some bulletins of the 



larger and certain particular libraries are 
of inestimable value to other libraries. 
Most of these bulletins are printed from 
the linotype slugs used in printing their 
own catalog cards, and consequently the 
labor is minimized. The bulletins of most 
libraries, I firmly believe, are Of no pos- 
sible use to other libraries, and the ma- 
terial in them would be much more read 
by the public if published in the news- 
papers, as it should be in any case, and if 
the special lists, which are the most use- 
ful part of many bulletins, were printed on 
a multigraph, instead of being buried in 
forbidding bulletins that no able-bodied or- 
dinary man in his senses could be driven 
to read. 

(d) Use of Library of Congress cards. 
Some people say they do not save time. 
I recommend those people to recatalog a 
library without them, also to attempt to 
get along without them for a while for 
current additions. To the best of my 

. knowledge they do save money, and I 
know they save wear and tear on type- 
writer machines and ribbons, and they 
save temper, which is nervous energy and 
worth while saving. If you don't believe 
that last read Goldmark on "Fatigue and 
efficiency" and then you will. Besides, Li- 
brary of Congress cards look better than 
typewritten cards and have more dura- 
bility, since typewritten cards rub and 
fade and have to be rewritten too fre- 
quently. 

(e) What real objection can there be 
to simplifying the cards you write your- 
selves? It does not matter if they are not 
consistent with Library of Congress cards. 
No living borrower would know whether 
they were consistent or not, and no dead 
one would matter. Besides if variety is 
the spice of life, consistency is the vice of 
it. Nobody but a librarian ever worried 
about being consistent. I regret I can't 
even except the clergy. 

(f) Omitting book numbers for fiction 
saves a vast amount of time and sacrifices 
little. They do not add beauty, and they 
cause endless trouble and expense without 
due compensation. 



CATALOG SECTION 



265 



(g) As to the accession book: I men- 
tion this because everyone does, and 
therefore, lack the courage to pass it with- 
out remark. Some library reports say 
that they save the time of one assistant 
by doing away with it. The fact that 
practically all of them say it, no matter 
what size the library in question is, makes 
one suspicious. I think they are just copy- 
ing each other's reports, which is not fair. 
If, however, the accession book is aban- 
doned, and the bill-date, source and cost 
for each copy of a book are added to a 
shelf-list card which contains author, title, 
publisher and perhaps date of publication, 
much writing is saved and all necessary in- 
formation is preserved. In the Minneapo- 
lis public library, which makes the clos- 
est estimate I have seen, four hours per 
150 books are said to be saved by such a 
method. No small matter! It is my per- 
sonal opinion that the accession book is 
superfluous in a library which is complete- 
ly cataloged and shelf-listed. 

(h) An interesting change due to the 
study of motions is recommended in the 
procedure for shelf-listing by the Minne- 
apolis public library: "Formerly one per- 
son marked the call number on the back 
of the title page, and assigned the copy 
letter, then the book was taken by an- 
other assistant who marked the book slip, 
the pocket and the label. This meant two 
people handling the book, the second doing 
only the mechanical work of copying; 
hence the work must be revised by some- 
one else, or many mistakes occurred in 
the work of even our best markers. Now, 
the shelf-lister, who knows the meaning 
of the number and has it already in her 
mind, marks all books as she lists them, 
and the work goes through faster and 
more accurately." 

(i) Trying to save money by emitting 
the yearly inventory, particularly for open 
shelves, is a mistake, I believe. One does 
not save money by gaining discredit for 
failing to keep track of his wares. 

(j) It is doubtless superfluous to rec- 
ommend throwing away antiques, like with- 
drawal books. 



(k) The use of the multigraph for writ- 
ing catalog and shelf-list cards is cer- 
tainly economy if the number of catalogs 
is large enough to require pretty large 
duplication. The shifting of much mechan- 
ical work to a less highly-paid class of 
assistant and the saving in revision of all 
but the first copy of a card, are distinct 
gains. 

(1) There are doubtless many mechani- 
cal devices which will be adopted to ad- 
vantage in cataloging in the next few years. 
Many machines of different sorts have 
greatly changed bookkeeping methods, 
making the bookkeeper an initiative force 
in administration of business houses, and 
certainly similar economy systems will 
be developed for the cataloger. 

5. Efficiency of the individual in the de- 
partment. 

The routine work of cataloging brings 
fatigue sooner than an occupation involv- 
ing more variety, although the effects of 
this form of fatigue may not cumulate so 
rapidly. It is consequently of special im- 
portance that the executive pay particular 
attention to the application of the princi- 
ples of scientific management to the effi- 
ciency of the individual. The utmost care 
must be taken that energy shall be care- 
fully directed and not be over-expended. 
Unduly prolonged attention to a particu- 
lar kind of work resulting in the long run 
in nervous exhaustion is a familiar phe- 
nomenon of cataloging. Dr. Richardson 
says that for correction and verification 
work, two hours a day is the maximum 
for highest efficiency. My observation is 
that continuous work at the typewriter 
should not exceed three hours. Although 
filing is largely mechanical work, it is also 
very wearying because of the decided 
monotony of it, and there is a marked 
tendency to tire quickly. Since errors 
rapidly increase with fatigue, the service is 
directly injured, as well as indirectly 
through the ultimate effect on the health 
of the individual. 

In general the carefully trained assist- 
ant not only knows ho\<{ to go about his 
work with more dispatch, with less need 



266 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



for supervision, with more real efficiency, 
but also with less wear and tear on his 
nervous energy. An added argument for 
the economy of paying higher salaries to 
obtain adequately trained assistants! I 
have had excellent opportunity to observe 
the effect of the graded salary on the ef- 
ficiency of a cataloging staff. The in- 
creased interest, the new energy, and the 
altered spirit are marked when a graded 
service is installed, particularly when it is 
realized that efficiency, as well as length 
of service, is considered. 

It is not necessary to discuss recreation 
in the library, as the subject relates to 
the catalog department no differently than 
it does to the others. The same may be 
said about vacations, but in passing I 
should like to say that I agree entirely 
with Dr. Bostwick's idea of them as as- 
signments to special work. It seems to me 
that assistants should be required to obtain 
the approval of the executive to the plans 
for their variations. I have taken vacations 
myself which were certain to do me no 
good, and consequently do my work harm, 
and it does seem that I ought not to ex- 
pect pay for such a misuse of the library's 
time. The change in the hours of service 
in the circulation department of the New 
York public library trom 42^ hours a week 
to 40 hours has caused widespread ap- 
proval. I wonder if anyone has called at- 
tention to the fact that slight changes 
in climate affect the ability of the individ- 
ual to work a certain number of hours. 
For instance, I know from experience that 
it is possible to work longer without dis- 
comfort in an even climate, not subject to 
extremes of either heat or cold, than it is 
in the climate of New York. There are 
certain parts of the country where it takes 
less energy to work 42 hours per week 
throughout the year than it does to work 
40 hours correspondingly in New York. 

With more attention to light, air, attract- 
ive appearance and convenient arrange- 
ment of room, avoidance of fatigue in 
spite of rapid work or monotony, sensible 
hours, some degree of variety in work, 
sane vacations, some outdoor exercise dur- 



ing each day, decent pay on a graded basis, 
the efficiency record of the cataloging staff 
in many a library should be raised, their 
organization held intact, and their humor 
and good-humor have some chance to ap- 
pear. 

The subject was continued by Dr. AR- 
THUR E. BOSTWICK, of the St. Louis 
public library, who spoke as follows: 

From the administrative standpoint the 
library life of a book is divided very dis- 
tinctly into two periods, that before it 
is placed on the shelves and that after it 
is so placed. The first period, embracing 
selection, order, receipt, classification, cat- 
aloging and mechanical preparation, is 
strictly preliminary to the second and 
would have no reason for being except 
for the second. The public recognizes the 
second chiefly and knows of the first 
vaguely and inadequately. To the library, 
and especially to that part of the staff 
engaged in the operations proper to it, it 
bulks large. 

The librarian of a large library often 
finds himself obliged to act, in a measure, 
as the public's representative, taking the 
point of view of the thousands of readers, 
rather than of those who operate the 
machinery directly under his own control. 
To one who is actually handling the levers 
and pulleys, the machine often seems to be 
the thing. The general administrator, 
somewhat removed from this direct con- 
tact, is better able to see it as it is a 
means to an end. 

Hence to the chief librarian, this period 
of preparation must always be a cause 
of anxiety. Its cost and its duration es- 
pecially worry him. While his training 
and experience do not permit him to mini- 
mize its importance, he would like to make 
it as cheap and as short as possible. The 
reader wants his book, and he wants it 
now as soon as he sees the notice of it 
in the paper. The departments of the li- 
brary that have to do with its preparation 
are anxious only that this preparation 
shall be thorough, realizing that on it 
depends the usefulness of the book in the 
second, or public, period of its life. The 



CATALOG SECTION 



267 



impatient reader sees no reason for any 
delay. The co-operating departments see 
every reason. The librarian sees the rea- 
sons, too, but it is his business, to a certain 
extent, to take the reader's part, and in- 
sist that the book's preparation shall not 
be so thorough that by the time of its 
completion two-thirds of the 'necessity for 
any preparation at all shall have passed, 
never to return. 

It therefore becomes an important part 
of his duty to hurry up the work of prep- 
aration, and it is my experience that this 
duty becomes difficult of performance, 
well-nigh impossible, when the work and 
responsibility of preparation devolves upon 
two or more departments. It has some- 
times seemed to me that a majority of my 
working hours were occupied in settling 
disputes between the order and catalog 
departments, in futile endeavors to fit the 
responsibility for delays upon one or the 
other and to decide which of them, and 
when, was telling the truth about the 
other. It was thus with a feeling of relief, 
although somewhat of surprise, that I 
found myself four years ago at the head 
of a library where the preparatory stage 
of the book's life is entirely in charge of 
one department, a plan involving of course 
the consolidation of the order and catalog 
work. 

My four years' experience has convinced 
me that in many cases this plan may be 
the solution of some of the librarian's 
problems. It does not do away with delay : 
it does not make the library staff assume 
the reader's point of view, or even the 
librarian's; but it does reduce the number 
of department heads with whom the li- 
brarian has to deal in his "hurry-up" cam- 
paign, and it does unify a responsibility 
whose division continually causes him 
trouble and vexation. That we so seldom 
see the combination of this work arises 
from the fact that the various stages of 
the book's preparation are rarely looked 
upon as parts of a whole. The ordering of 
books is regarded as a business in itself, 
requiring its own kind of expert knowledge 
and completed when the book has been de- 



livered and the bills checked off. The 
cataloger, again, is proud of the degree of 
technical perfection to which he has 
brought the multiplicity of detail in his 
work. He has a high sense of its necessity 
in the library's scheme. Few see that both 
these processes, together with mechanical 
operations of pasting, labelling and letter- 
ing on which everyone looks down, are 
simply stages in the work of preparation, 
through which a book must pass before it 
becomes an integral part of a modern li- 
brary. These are not separate depart- 
ments of work, one completed before the 
next is begun; they are interwoven and 
interdependent in all sorts of ways. Books 
can not be ordered properly without a cat- 
alog. Books can not be cataloged prop- 
erly without information necessary in the 
operation of ordering. It becomes a ques- 
tion of library policy, then, whether these 
operations may not be combined, and the 
considerations adduced above form at least 
a strong argument for such combination. 

I have purposely dwelt on this matter 
from the standpoint of a general adminis- 
trator and have therefore not gone into 
details, which it will be easy for you to 
obtain if you desire them. 

In closing, let me say that I believe 
catalogers to have in a high degree that 
devotion to their task and that skill and 
interest in working out its details, that 
have made the American public library 
what it is. What they need to guard 
against is the aloofness arising from the 
separate and technical character of that 
work. Many of them realize, and all of 
them should do so, the fact that the cata- 
log is made for the reader; not the reader 
for the catalog. We may try to train our 
readers to use our catalogs, but to the end 
of time we shall still have to deal with the 
unintelligent, the careless and the cap- 
tious, and we must try to adapt our cata- 
logs more or less to them. The cataloger 
may have to break cherished rules, to 
throw tradition overboard, to act in many 
ways that will scandalize his profession. 
Contact with as pz.any other departments of 
the library as possible realization of his 



268 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



position as a cog wheel in contact with 
other cogs, will help on the good work. 

The following paper written by Miss 
BEATRICE WINSER, of the Newark free 
public library, was read in her absence by 
Miss Agnes Van Valkenburgh, of the li- 
brary school of the New York public li- 
brary: 

THE RELATION OF THE CATALOG DE- 
PARTMENT TO OTHER DEPART- 
MENTS IN THE LIBRARY 

The subject assigned to me is the rela- 
tion of the catalog department to other de- 
partments in a library. There is a feeling 
abroad that it is the tendency of librarians 
to consider their catalog departments as 
things apart, the details of whose manage- 
ment, long ago settled by experts, should 
be modified only as those experts may sug- 
gest. 

Probably chief librarians do not have 
the habit of refraining from giving fre- 
quent and careful examinations in the cat- 
alog departments, or have less interest in 
the improvement of those departments 
than in others; but, because it has been 
possible for experts to formulate rules, as 
it has not been possible for anyone to do 
for other branches of the work, the chief 
librarians have quite naturally allowed 
themselves to pay less and less attention 
to the details of these departments, which 
have thus lost the stimulus which the chief 
librarians give to the departments with 
which they largely concern themselves. 

This, naturally, as I have already said, 
tends to make of the cataloging depart- 
ment a thing apart and much efficiency is 
lost to the library as a whole because 
of it. 

For the purposes of this paper I pro- 
pose to include in the scope of the cata- 
loging department much of the work on 
books from their selection to their placing 
on the shelf. 

It must be borne in mind that I am 
speaking of public libraries and not of col- 
lege, historical, scientific or special li- 
braries of any kind, and that I am mak- 
ing suggestions only. 



Book Selection 

The selection of books instead of being 
a difficult and complicated matter calling 
for hours of study and conference, is really 
quite simple. Every librarian should ex- 
pect his more intelligent assistants to 
make suggestions and help to keep his or 
her own collection up to date, but final de- 
cisions as to purchase should rest in the 
hands of two- or three only. An attempt 
to let a dozen or more people discuss at 
meetings the value of any book or books 
and the propriety of adding this or that to 
the library costs enormously in time and 
money, and serves no useful purpose. 

It improves the quality of the books se- 
lected but little, it tends to develop undue 
caution and to make the choice too literary 
and, if it helps to educate the assistants, 
it does so at too great a cost. The desire 
is often expressed that a library should 
contain "a well-rounded, well-balanced 
collection of books." This phrase sounds 
well and perhaps impresses the trustees 
or the town, but what does it really mean? 
Were we to follow it to its logical conclu- 
sion we would all buy in certain fixed pro- 
portions, all kinds of books and while we 
might then lay claim that we had a well- 
balanced collection, we ^rould be far from 
filling well the special needs of any special 
community in which we might be placed. 
In point of fact every library buys what it 
thinks it needs most, in most cases it will 
be found that the books selected are the 
best books for that library. Most books 
buy themselves, others cry out to be se- 
lected. The clientele is waiting for them. 
The small remnant of specially chosen 
books call for no elaborate conferences. 
Why have any system of recording the fact 
that you did not buy certain books at this 
time, since next month or next year the 
book not bought has been displaced by 
another? Besides, you can always discover 
from your bibliographical aids the books 
you have been compelled to miss, so why 
duplicate the work already done for you? 

Now let us look at the purely clerical 
side of book ordering. Do we fill out an 
elaborate order slip with all sorts of bibli- 



CATALOG SECTION 



269 



ographical data needed for comparatively 
few books only? All that is really needed 
by bookseller and library is the author, 
title and publisher of a book, -and the lat- 
ter even could be omitted in most cases. 

Do we economize time and labor - by 
writing our orders so that with the aid 
of carbon paper, we have an order slip to 
file, one to send to the bookdealer and 
another to the Library of Congress for the 
purchase of cards? 

When a consignment of books arrives 
do we have some elaborate system of 
checking it off the bill? Do we use cabalis- 
tic signs in our books so that the public 
may not by any chance discover the price 
of them? Or do we simply write in plain 
sight the price, source and date of the 
bill in each book, check the book on the 
bill and pass it on? 

Have we ever tried the experiment with 
say the Fiction Class of not giving either 
price, source and date of bill in the books? 

Suppose we buy all our novels from one 
bookseller, as most libraries do, and an- 
nounce to the staff generally and also drop 
a card into the official catalog and the 
shelf-list to the effect, that after such or 
such a date, neither the source nor price 
will be found in any novel, as everyone 
knows that all novels are bought from John 
Smith and cost $1.00. Think of the time 
saved! I am willing to wager that no 
library could report any ill effects from 
this change. 

As to the few novels which sell at net 
prices, the money lost in charging the 
usual rate of $1.00 is negligible compared 
with the time saved in making these un- 
necessary entries. To comfort the super- 
conscientious librarian the loss would ac- 
tually be covered in many cases, because 
the reprints of novels often cost less than 
$1.00. 

Accession Record 

Now let us go on to the accession book 
and ask how many use the regular or the 
condensed book and why? 

Do you cling to the theory that it is 
the one complete record of every book in 
your library and would be most useful in 



case of adjustment of fire losses? I can't 
deny that it is a complete record of every 
book, but of what use is that to the li- 
brary? 

As to the adjustment of fire losses, are 
the books in your library arranged in ac- 
cession order so that in case of fire you 
could show the insurance adjusters which 
books were burned by referring to your 
accession books? 

Do you claim that the accession number 
is still necessary so that you may know 
the number of books added and to help dis- 
tinguish one copy of a book from an- 
other? Why not use the Bates numbering 
stamp as an automatically accurate re- 
cording device, and save time and money? 
Do you use the accession book for securing 
each month the number of books added in 
any one class, which of course the Bates 
numbering stamp can not give? 

To get this one record we employ the 
time of a person in making other useless 
records, when all we need is a blank book 
in which we enter in a few minutes all 
bcoks under date and class number. In 
the same book we enter in another place 
the books subdivided under heads of pur- 
chase, -binding, periodicals and gifts. Thus 
at tremendous saving we can answer at 
once the question of how many books 
are added during any month and in what 
class. 

Do you perhaps keep an accession book, 
so that you may secure the price and 
source of a book reported lost by a bor- 
rower? How much lost motion, to say 
nothing of time and money, is expended 
annually in libraries where assistants turn 
from their shelf-list to their accession book 
for these facts which should be given on 
the shelf-list card! 

Classification 

Have you ever thought how much it 
costs your library to have it classified by 
a college and library school bred person? 
I am using these terms as synonymous 
with an educated person. Have you ever 
noticed how much time she spends in get- 
ting a book into What to her is the exact 
class and place? 



270 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



Now I am not arguing for less educated 
people in our public libraries, far from 
it, but I wish to call your attention to 
the amount of time and money expended 
by you in too minute and particular classi- 
fication. Have you ever thought that quite 
a coarse classification is just as good for 
your library as the rather particular one 
which causes your head cataloger to spend 
half an hour over a book which might 
just as well be made ready in five min- 
utes? 

Often, after much time has been spent in 
debating this point or that, about some 
special feature of a book, and it has at 
last been placed in a certain division, it 
will be found more useful with its fel- 
lows in a coarser or broader division. 

I am only suggesting that time could be 
saved here without impairing the useful- 
ness of the library. 

Cataloging 

This is that division of library work 
which one must approach as the holy of 
holies, leaving one's shoes on the mat out- 
side. 

Please do not assume that I do not ap- 
preciate what it has meant to the public 
library to have experts formulate a set of 
rules which any library can use. I am 
not objecting to the rules, but to the ap- 
plication of the rules. We spend hours, 
days, months, and years in giving pag- 
ing, illustrations, size, publishers and place 
of publication on our catalog cards and all 
for what purpose pray? 

What does the average user of a public 
library want to know? He wants to know 
whether you have a book by a certain 
author, by a certain title or on a certain 
subject. Ninety-five per cent of the bor- 
rowers of books want nothing more than 
that, and I am excluding fiction entirely. 
Consequently for the possible five per cent, 
and that is a high percentage, you spend 
much time in giving gratuitous informa- 
tion. The man who knows his subject 
goes to the bibliographies of the subject 
and does not depend upon your card cata- 
log for bibliographical information. Let 
us look into these valuable items, aside 



from the very necessary author and title, 
supplied on catalog cards. 

Paging. Did your reference people ever 
report any need of it in serving the -pub- 
lie? I never heard of such need. 

Place of publication and publisher. Both 
these items are occasionally asked for, but 
why spend time in putting them on all your 
cards for the sake of the few who wish 
to know, since you can immediately refer 
to Books in Print for current books and 
for all others to the many aids published 
for the librarian. 

The date. Well, I might grant that It 
serves a better purpose than the other 
items, but I doubt its great usefulness. 

Do you in addition to the very necessary 
shelf-list for all the books in the library, 
have a special shelf-list for Branches? 
Have you ever thought of the time given 
to keep the record of all the books at 
your Branches? 

What purpose does it serve, since your 
Branches have their own record of the 
books they have? 

I know of one library which kept such 
a record and finally decided to give it up, 
since it cost a great deal of money, and 
seemed after careful consideration to be 
of little value. Not the least harm has re- 
sulted from the change and the cataloging 
department has almost forgotten that it 
was ever done. 

Does the head cataloger work at least 
one day a week in the lending or ref- 
erence department for the sake of getting 
away from her own point of view and to 
imbibe something of the real needs of 
public and assistants? Try it, even if you 
think you can't afford it and I venture tc 
prognosticate that your cataloging depart- 
ment from being the seat of the learned 
and superior will become a really valu- 
able aid to all the other departments. 

Within the limits of my paper I have 
been able to cite only a few examples of 
the changes which might be made in the 
method of putting books on the shelf in 
most of our public libraries, but I hope 
that the very obvious things I have said 
may serve to help in simplifying the work 



CATALOG SECTION 



271 



of a profession already much overbur- 
dened with technique. 

The fourth paper in the discussion by 
Miss LAURA SMITH, of the Cincinnati 
public library, was entitled: 

ADMINISTRATION OF A CATALOG DE- 
PARTMENT FROM A CATALOG- 
ER'S POINT OF VIEW 

The ideal of the modern library is serv- 
ice to the community, but the tendency has 
been to estimate this service by statistics 
as printed in library reports. Columns of 
figures, showing the number of books cata- 
loged and the cards made, represent but 
a small part of what can be done and 
should not be taken as a measure of value 
of the cataloging department to the library 
patrons. The old idea of the library was 
the omniscient librarian who served all 
the readers from his store of knowledge, 
but the development of the modern li- 
brary movement, bringing an increased 
patronage, made it necessary to delegate 
some of this work, and libraries were 
set off into departments. Gradually me- 
chanical appliances were introduced and 
personal aid was limited to the favored 
few while the average reader was helpless 
in the face of machinery whose workings 
were a mystery to him. It reminds one of 
the story of the fine hospital donated by 
a philanthropic citizen to a thriving town 
of the middle west. The building was a 
model of hospital architecture, the furnish- 
ings were the most modern obtainable 
and the institution was ideal in every re- 
spect, adjudged by experts the latest thing 
in hospitals. A poor citizen, foreign by 
birth, took his wife to this hospital for 
treatment. The next day he went to 
inquire for her and was told that she was 
too ill to see him, but the attendant of- 
fered to take him through the building 
and show him all the modern improve- 
ments. The man was interested and fol- 
lowed his guide through the various 
wards, listening attentively to his lecture 
on the advantages of the latest improve- 
ments in hospital service. The second 
day he returned to learn the progress of 



his wife's case, but she was still too ill 
to see him, so the attendant showed him 
some more improvements, which he had 
not seen the day before. The man was 
greatly impressed. The third day he re- 
turned and was told that his wife had died. 
When asked by a friend what disease had 
ended her life, he replied, "I don't know, 
unless it was the improvements." So the 
library has adopted progressive methods 
and among other improvements it has 
walled a room with the latest model of 
catalog trays filled with cards as silent 
guides to the collection of books. Printed 
signs, which no one reads, give intricate 
directions as to the use of this monster; 
a human assistant is rarely in sight. Has 
the library the right to expect the public to 
know how to use a catalog? A trained 
assistant should be stationed here, and 
who are better qualified for this service 
than the members of the cataloging staff? 
At this point is one of the opportunities 
for the cataloger's most efficient service to 
the community. 

The chief requisite of a well-organized 
catalog department is a corps of intelligent, 
educated, trained assistants who have had 
several years' experience. The raw re- 
cruit from the library school is an expense 
to the service because library school gradu- 
ates find difficulty in adapting themselves 
to the existing methods of most libraries. 
This fault is sometimes individual but more 
often it is due to the different methods 
of cataloging taught in the various schools. 
There should be uniformity of method on 
this point, full cataloging should be taught 
in all the schools because it is far easier 
for the cataloger to learn omissions than 
to acquire a knowledge of full cataloging 
when the short form only has been taught 
in the school. Subject-heading work can 
be taught only in a general way. Years 
of experience are needed before an assis- 
tant is competent to assign subject head- 
ings, therefore a constantly changing staff 
is an item of expense worthy of serious con- 
sideration. Subject headings might be in 
the hands of a few assistants but there is 
advantage in having the views of many 



272 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



minds under the supervision of one re- 
viser. 

An understanding of the community and 
of existing conditions within the library, 
added to a thoroughly assimilated knowl- 
edge of cataloging methods, increases the 
value of an assistant. Changes are usually 
due to small salaries, and to better finan- 
cial conditions elsewhere, but adding a rea- 
sonable amount to the salary of a compe- 
tent assistant is a good investment. To 
be sure, it foots up on the pay roll as a 
larger outlay than the substitution of a less 
experienced assistant at the same or a 
smaller salary. What the pay roll tells, 
however, is not borne out by the facts be- 
cause on it there is no financial account- 
ing for the time of the administrator of 
the department which is consumed in 
breaking in a new cataloger while the 
more important things wait, or go by de- 
fault. Positions in the cataloging depart- 
ment should yield a financial return suffi- 
cient to make their incumbency more or 
less permanent for it is possible to accom- 
plish more with a smaller staff of experi- 
enced assistants than with a larger num- 
ber of those new to the business. 

When the library has gathered together 
the best staff of catalogers it can afford 
it should not put them, like a collection 
of expensive bric-a-brac, behind closed 
doors with only the regulation catalogers' 
tools as guides, and expect them to yield 
the best return on the investment. The 
best cataloger needs the stimulus of per- 
sonal contact with the public as an aid to 
the most intelligent work. When the cata- 
loging department has a sufficient number 
of well-trained, experienced assistants, a 
schedule of work which permits direct con- 
tact with the public for at least one-third 
of the time and a system of co-operation 
between departments with freedom from 
unnecessary interruptions to the routine as 
planned, the catalog is a labor saving tool 
reducing the net cost of production by the 
time saved to the circulating and refer- 
ence departments. 

The cataloging for a large library sys- 
tem should be done at the central library 



for several reasons. The main cataloging 
offices are there with the collection of 
reference books and the official files show- 
ing what headings and entries have been 
used. The expert catalogers and revisers 
are better fitted for the responsibility of 
the cataloging than the assistants at the 
branches, distracted by other work. The 
enormous number of cards necessary for 
the various catalogs are more economically 
duplicated by writer press, or multlgraph, 
than by hand or typewriter because time is 
saved in this way in the actual making of 
the cards, in numbering and putting titles 
on printed cards and in proof reading, or 
revising, for in revising typewritten cards, 
each card must be carefully scrutinized, 
while from the writer press only the first 
copy needs, revision. When copies of the 
same title are to be purchased for several 
branches, the cost of cataloging is greatly 
reduced if all the copies reach the cata- 
loging department together as time is thus 
saved in ail the processes of preparing 
the books for circulation, from the acces- 
sioning to the pasting of the labels. In 
the case of fiction this is always possible 
but with other classes, while it is not al- 
ways expedient to purchase for the main 
library and the branches simultaneously, 
the branch librarians and order depart- 
ment can simplify the process by prompt 
decision as to the number of branches to 
which titles are to be added, so that all 
cards may be ordered or made at the 
same time. By this means one order for 
printed cards and one setting up of copy 
for writer press or multigraph is sufficient. 
When books come to the catalog depart- 
ment singly and at odd times the labor 
of verifying author entries and subject 
headings is the same as for new titles, and 
the making of cards becomes a mechanical 
process only when they are to be made 
in large quantities. Every branch added to 
the library system increases the work of 
the cataloging department, a fact often lost 
sight of by the chief administrators of a 
library. There seems to be a popular de- 
lusion that each new addition to the li- 
brary family means only a duplication of 



CATALOG SECTION 



273 



cards while the fact remains that most of 
the processes in the routine practically 
consume as much time and thought as if 
the title in hand were new in the library. 
In the case of shelf-listing it is obviously 
easier and takes less time to make a brand 
new shelf-list card for a book than it does 
to withdraw the card from the shelf-list, 
make an addition to it and refile the card. 

If the main building is so arranged that 
one card catalog can be used conveniently 
by all departments much expense will be 
saved. But if there must be department 
catalogs, author and subject entries should 
be uniform so that the individual catalogs 
may be simply duplicates of certain divi- 
sions of the general catalog. Subject head- 
ings in the public library should be simple 
enough to be within the comprehension 
of the average reader. To simplify head- 
ings for children is a useless expense and 
an insult to the child who is often more 
intelligent than many adult readers. The 
public library being "an integral part of 
public education" should not be guilty of 
senseless simplification even though the 
kindergartners may accuse us of "taking 
away the joy of childhood." If the so- 
called simplified headings are used they 
can not be filed with other headings, there- 
fore two separate catalogs in each branch 
must be maintained at extra expense. 

All non-essentials should be eliminated 
from the mechanical processes of prepar- 
ing books for the shelves. The time of 
high-priced service should be used for the 
scholarly work, duplication of cards and 
routine clerical work do not require a col- 
lege education nor library school training. 
Printed cards should be purchased when- 
ever possible. It is not necessary to be- 
come hysterical over the superfluity of in- 
formation on some of the Library of Con- 
gress cards because the average user of 
a catalog in a public library does not read 
beyond the first line of the title, and there- 
fore is not confused by bibliographical de- 
tails. On the other hand, this same de- 
tail is valuable to the few readers who 
need it. Another groundless objection to 
the use of these cards is the statement 



that books must be held until the cards 
are received. If there is co-operation be- 
tween the order and the cataloging depart- 
ments, books and cards may be ordered 
and will come to the cataloger about the 
same time. When they do not the books 
should be sent through on temporary slips. 
This adds slightly to the cost of handling, 
but saves the reputation of the library in 
the circulating department. The printed 
card should be accepted when it agrees 
with the title page, but when the card re- 
quires changes which mar its appearance it 
should be rejected. When the cards must 
be made by the individual library the extra 
bibliographical detail should be omitted for 
purposes of economy, and the catalogs 
would still be uniform and accurate in 
essentials. Entries must be accurate, uni- 
form and as consistent as possible that the 
catalog may save the time of the refer- 
ence librarians, since effective reference 
work can be done only when the library 
is well classified and cataloged and quick 
service is possible only under these con- 
ditions. 

The plan to combine the catalog and 
reference departments, the assistants work- 
ing one-third of their time in reference 
work, brings excellent results. In the first 
place the assistants come in direct contact 
with the public for part of every day. 
The knowledge of books gained by exam- 
ination for full cataloging can be made 
directly useful to the public. On the other 
hand, the demands of the reader, his pe- 
culiarities of expression and his general 
attitude toward the library give inspira- 
tion to the work in the cataloging depart- 
ment as to subject headings and analyti- 
cals to be made. The change of work is 
restful and enables the assistants to ac- 
complish much in a day without becoming 
weary of either line of work. The effi- 
ciency of the assistants depends upon their 
ability to bring the book and the reader 
together and as the cataloger has the ad- 
vantage of studying the books she should 
therefore bring this knowledge to the pub- 
lic through personal contact. 

Emphasis is put on the increased useful- 



274 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



ness of the staff by reason of the ability 
to appreciate the relation between the li- 
brary and the public and to bring into the 
daily life of the community the increased 
knowledge of books. 

What has been said is not intended as a 
criticism of any method of administering 
a cataloging department, but is an effort 
rather to present a plan which from practi- 
cal experience has proved successful. 

The discussion was then thrown open 
to the floor, with the suggestion from 
the chairman that it take the following 
lines: 

1. Is the catalog department too con- 
fined in its organization and too distinctly 
separated from other departments? 

2. How much mechanical work should 
be done by expert catalogers? Who should 
do the mechanical work and where should 
it be done? 

3. What should be the relations be- 
tween the catalog and the shipping de- 
partments? 

Mr. Hodges, of the Cincinnati public li- 
brary, said that each library had to use 
a system suited to its individual needs, 
that in Cincinnati there was no head 
of the order department, that he con- 
sidered the use of catalogers in the refer- 
ence department during rush hours a good 
plan as they were usually well fitted for 
the work, that in his library there was 
a single head of the catalog and refer- 
ence departments. 

Miss Hitchler, superintendent of catalog- 
ing of the Brooklyn public library, said 
that co-operation could be effected between 
departments without interchange of assis- 
tants. 

Mr. Hopper said that the obstacle to 
combining the heads of the catalog and 
order departments in one person was that 
a knowledge of cataloging and a knowledge 
of the book trade were seldom combined 
in one person. 

During the discussion of the second point 
that of scientific management within the 
department Miss Van Valkenburgh raised 
a laugh by inquiring where we are to draw 
the line in keeping track of our efficiency. 



Mr. Martel, of the Library of Congress, 
in answer to the charge made against cata- 
logers of over-elaboration, as for example 
in the matter of periodical records, said 
that under-elaboration often proved quite 
as expensive as over-elaboration. 

SECOND SESSION 
Friday, June 29. 

The second session of the Catalog Sec- 
tion was held on Friday afternoon, June 
29, Miss Gooch presiding. 

Miss Van Valkenburgh, Miss Hiss, and 
Miss Dame, were appointed as nominating 
committee by the Chairman. 

The session took the form of an informal 
discussion on simplified forms of typewrit- 
ten catalog cards, and was held at the 
desire of the committee of the Professional 
Training Section on uniformity of forms 
of catalog cards. This committee was ap- 
pointed in January, 1912, and consists of 
Helen Turvill, Chairman, Agnes Van Valk- 
enburgh, Harriet B. Gooch. 

The Chairman directed the discussion 
by taking up point by point the form of 
card recommended by the committee for 
the practice work of the library schools. 
Typewritten cards for a public library of 
^bout 50,000 volumes, to be filed with L. 
C. cards, were taken as a basis of dis- 
cussion. 

Among the details considered were the 
following, with the decisions which seemed 
most generally favored by those present: 

Brackets. Omit brackets for material in- 
serted in heading but use in title and im- 
print. 

Initial article. Use initial article, unless 
including it would entail repeating author's 
name in the title. 

Initial possessive. Omit author's name 
in the possessive case at the beginning 
of a title, and cancel it when used on L. 
C. cards. 

Editor, etc. In the title use the name 
of the editor, translator, etc, in the form 
given on the title page. 

Imprint. Include place, publisher and 
date of publication together with inclusive 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



275 



copyright dates if they differ from the 
date of publication. 

Collation. Give main paging, illus., 
ports., maps. Give size only if unusual. 

Position of items. Begin collation on a 
new line and indent. 

Secondary cards. Give author and title 
only on secondary cards. (Main subject 
cards are not considered secondary cards.) 

Other details discussed were use of 
points of omission, form of series note, 
tracing cards, headings in joint-author en- 
tries, the place for paging in an analytical 
note, entry under pseudonym versus real 
name, entry for adapter. 

At the close of the foregoing discussion, 
the matter of having a permanent A. L. A. 
committee on cataloging was brought for- 
ward, and upon Miss Van Valkenburgh's 
motion, it was determined to request the 
Executive Board of the A. L. A. to appoint 
a permanent catalog committee to which 
questions in cataloging may be referred 
for recommendation. 



Miss Sutliff then suggested that an A. 
L. A. code of alphabetizing would also 
be welcome. Mr. Martel, in response to a 
question by the Chairman, said that the 
Library of Congress followed the Cutter 
Rules, but had working notes that might 
be helpful. 

A motion put by Mr. Keogh was -then 
passed that the Executive Board of the 
A. L. A. be asked to send a request to the 
Librarian of Congress to furnish the code 
of alphabeting used in the Library of Con- 
gress for publication. 

An amendment to the foregoing to in- 
c^ude the words "with changes for small 
libraries" failed of passage. 

The nominating committee then submit- 
ted its ticket: Chairman, Charles Martel, 
Chief of the Catalog Division, Library of 
Congress; Secretary, Edith P. Bucknam, 
Chief of the Cataloging Department, 
Queens Borough public library. 

After the election, the meeting ad- 
journed. 



SECTION ON LIBRARY WORK WITH CHILDREN 



FIRST SESSION 

The first session of the Section on Libra- 
ry Work with Children was held in the 
ballroom of the Hotel Kaaterskill, at 2:30 
p. m., June 24th, with the Chairman, Miss 
Power, in the chair. In the absence of Miss 
Lawrence, Miss Ida Duff acted as secre- 
tary. 

Two papers on the subject of "Values in 
library work with children" were read; the 
first by Miss CLARA W. HUNT, superin- 
tendent of the children's department, 
Brooklyn public library. 

VALUES IN LIBRARY WORK WITH 
CHILDREN I 

You are probably familiar with the story 
of the man who, being asked by his host 
which part of the chicken he liked best re- 
plied that "he'd never had a chance to 
find out; that when he was a boy it was 



the fashion to give the grown people first 
choice, and by the time he'd grown up the 
children had the pick, so he'd never tasted 
anything but the drumstick." 

It.will doubtless be looked upon as heresy 
for a children's librarian to own that she 
has a deal of sympathy for the down-trod- 
den adult of the present; that there have 
been moments when she has even gone so 
far as to say an "amen" under her breath 
to the librarian who, after a day of vex- 
ations at the hands of the exasperating 
young person represented in our current 
social writings as a much-sinned-against 
innocent, wrathfully exploded, "Children 
ought to be put in a barrel and fed through 
the bung till th^y are twenty-one years 
old!" 

During the scant quarter century which 
has seen the birth and marvelous growth 
of modern library work with children, the 
"new education" has been putting its 



276 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



stamp upon the youth of America and up- 
on the ideas of their parents regarding 
the upbringing of children. And it has 
come to pass that one must be very bold 
to, venture to brush off the dust of disuse 
from certain old saws and educational tru- 
isms, such as "All play and no work make 
Jack a mere toy," "No gains without 
pains," "We learn to do by doing," "Train 
up a child in the way he should go," and 
so on. 

Our kindergartens, our playground agi- 
tators, our juvenile courts, our child wel- 
fare exhibits are so persistently and 
rightly showing the wrongdoing child as 
the helpless victim of heredity and en- 
vironment that hasty thinkers are jumping 
to the conclusion that, since a child is not 
to blame for his thieving tendencies, it 
is our duty, rather than punish, to let him 
go on stealing; since it is a natural instinct 
for a boy to like the sound of crashing 
glass and the exercise of skill needed to 
hit a mark, we must not reprove him for 
throwing stones at windows; because a 
child does not like to work, we should let 
him play play all the time. 

The painless methods of the new educa- 
tion, which tend to make life too soft for 
children, and to lead parents to believe 
that everything a child craves he must 
have, these tendencies have had their 
effect upon the production and distribution 
of juvenile books, and have added to the 
librarian's task the necessity not only of 
fighting against the worst reading, but 
against the third rate lest it crowd out 
the best. 

It is the importance of this latter war- 
fare which I wish mainly to discuss. 

We children's librarians, in the past fif- 
teen or twenty years, have had to take a 
good many knocks, more or less facetious, 
from spectators of the sterner sex who 
are worried about the "feminization of 
the library," and who declare that no 
woman, certainly no spinster, can possibly 
understand the nature of the boy. Perhaps 
sometimes we are inclined to droop apolo- 
Ketic heads, because we know that some 
women are sentimental, ttat they don't 



all "look at things in the large," as men 
invariably do. In view, however, of the 
record of this youthful movement of ours, 
we have a right rather to swagger than 
to apologize. 

The influence of the children's libraries 
upon the ideals, the tastes, the occupa- 
tions, the amusements,, the language, the 
manners, the home standards, the choice of 
careers, upon the whole life, in fact, of 
thousands upon thousands of boys and girls 
has been beyond all count as a civic force 
in America. 

And yet, while teachers tell us that the 
opening of every new library witnesses a 
substitution of wholesome books for "yel- 
low" novels in pupils' hands; while men 
in their prime remark their infrequent 
sight of the sensational periodicals left 
on every doorstep twenty years ago; while 
publishers of children's books are trying 
to give us a clean, safe juvenile literature, 
and while some nickel novel publishers 
are even admitting a decline in the sale 
of their wares; in spite of these evidences 
of success, a warfare is still on, though its 
character is changing. 

Every librarian who has examined chil- 
dren's books for a few years back knows 
exactly what to expect when she tackles 
the "juveniles" of 1913. 

There will be a generous number of 
bocks so fine in point of matter and make- 
up that we shall lament having been born 
too late to read these in our childhood. 
The information and the taste acquired by 
children who have read the best juvenile 
publications of the past ten years is per- 
fectly amazing, and those extremists who 
decry the buying of any books especially 
written for children are nearly as non- 
sensical as the ones who would buy every- 
thing the child wishes. 

But when one has selected with satis- 
faction perhaps a hundred and fifty titles, 
cne begins to get into the potboiler class 
the written-to-order information book 
which may be guaranteed to kill all future 
interest in a subject treated in style so 
wooden and lifeless; the retold classic in 
which every semblance to the spirit of the 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



277 



original is lost, and the reading of which 
will give to the child that familiarity which 
will breed contempt for the work itself; 
the atrocious picture book modeled after 
the comic supplement and telling in hide- 
ous daubs of color and caricature of line 
the tale of the practical joker who tor- 
ments animals, mocks at physical deformi- 
ties, plays tricks on parents, teases the 
newly-wed, ridicules good manners, whose 
whole aim, in short, is to provoke guffaws 
of laughter at the expense of someone's 
hurt body or spirit. There will be collec- 
tions of folk and fairy tales, raked together 
without discrimination from the literature 
of people among whom trickery and cun- 
ning are the most admired qualities; there- 
will be school stories in which the masters 
and studious boys grovel at the feet of the 
football hero; in greater number than the 
above will be the stories written in series 
on thoroughly up-to-date subjects. 

I shall be much surprised if we do not 
learn this fall that the world has been 
deceived in supposing that to Amundsen 
and Scott belong the honor of finding the 
South Pole, or to Gen. Goethals the credit 
of engineering the Panama Canal. If we 
do not discover that some young Frank 
or Jack or Bill was the brains behind these 
achievements, I shall wonder what has 
become of the ingenuity of the plotter of 
the series stories the "plotter" I say ad- 
visedly, for it is a known fact that many 
of these stories are first outlined by a 
writer whose name makes books sell, the 
outlines then being filled in by a company 
cf underlings who literally write to order. 
When we learn, also, that an author who 
writes admirable stories, in which special 
emphasis is laid upon fair play and a sense 
of honor, is at the same time writing under 
another name books he is ashamed to ac- 
knowledge, we are not surprised at the low 
grade of the resulting stories. 

With the above extremes of good and 
poor there will be quantities on the border 
line, books not distinctly harmful from one 
standpoint in fact, they will busily preach 
honesty and pluck and refinement, etc., 
but they will be so lacking in imagination 



and power, in the positive qualities that go 
to make a fine book, that they cannot be 
called wholly harmless, since that which 
crowds out a better thing is harmful, at 
least to the extent that it usurps the room 
of the good. 

These books we will be urged to buy in 
large duplicate, and when we, holding to 
the ideal of the library as an educational 
force, refuse to supply this intellectual 
pap, well-to-do parents may be counted 
upon to present the same in quantities 
sufficient to weaken the mental digestion 
of their offspring beyond cure by teachers 
the most gifted. 

There are two principal arguments so- 
called hurled at every librarian who tries 
to maintain a high standard of book selec- 
tion. One is the "I read them when I was 
a child and they did me no harm" claim; 
the other, based upon the doggedly clung- 
co notion that our ideal of manhood is a 
grown-up Fauntleroy, infers that every 
book rejected was offensive to the chil- 
dren's librarian because of qualities dan- 
gerously likely to encourage the boy in a 
taste for bloodshed and dirty hands. 

Now, in this day when parents are fran- 
tically protecting their children from the 
deadly house fly, the mosquito, the com- 
mon drinking cup and towel; -when milk 
must be sterilized and water boiled and 
adenoids removed; when the young father 
solemnly bows to the dictum that he 
mustn't rock nor trot his own baby isn't it 
really matter for the joke column to hear 
the "did me no harm" idea advanced as an 
argument? And yet it is so offered by the 
same individual who, though he has sur- 
vived a boyhood of mosquito bites and 
school drinking cups, refuses to allow his 
child to risk what he now knows to be a 
possible carrier of disease. 

The "what was good enough for me is 
good enough for . my children" idea, if 
soberly treated as an argument in other 
matters of life, would mean death to all 
progress, and it is no more to be treated 
seriously as a reason for buying poor juve- 
nile books than a contention for the fetich 
doctor versus the modern surgeon, or for 



278 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



the return to the foot messenger in place 
of electrical communication. 

It would be tactless, if not positively dan- 
gerous, if we children's librarians openly 
expressed our views when certain people 
point boastfully to themselves as shining 
products of mediocre story book child- 
hoods. So I would hastily suppress this 
thought, and instead remind these people 
that, as a vigorous child is immune from 
disease germs which attack a delicate one, 
so unquestionably have thousands of men- 
tal and moral weaklings been retarded 
from their best development by books that 
left no mark on healthy children. In spite 
of the probability that there are to-day 
alive many able-bodied men who cut their 
first teeth on pickles and pork chops, we 
do not question society's duty to dissemi- 
nate proper ideas on the care and feeding 
of children. 

Isn't it about time that we nailed down 
the lid of the coffin on the "did me no 
harm" argument and buried the same in 
the depths of the sea? 

Another notion that dies hard is one 
assuming that, since the children's libra- 
rian is a woman, prone to turn white about 
the gills at the sight of blood or a mouse 
she can not possibly enter into the feel- 
ings of the ancestral barbarian surviving 
in the young human breast, but must try 
to hasten the child's development to twen- 
tieth century civilization by eliminating 
the elemental and savage from his story 
books. 

If those who grow hoarse shouting the 
above would take the trouble to examine 
the lists of an up-to-date library they 
might blush for their shallowness, that 
they have been basing their opinions on 
their memory of library lists at least twen- 
ty-five years old. 

We do not believe that womanly women 
and manly men are most successfully made 
by way of silly, shoddy, sorry-for-them- 
selves girlhoods, or lying, swaggering, loaf- 
ing boyhoods; and it is the empty, the vul- 
gar, the cheap, smart, trust-to-luck story, 
rather than the gory one, that we dislike. 

I am coming to the statement of what 



I believe to be the problem most demand- 
ing our study today. It is, briefly, the prob- 
lem of the mediocre book, its enormous 
and ever-increasing volume. More fully 
stated it is the problem of the negatively 
as the enemy of the positively good; of the 
cultivation of brain laziness by "thoughts- 
made-easy" reading. It is a republic's, a 
public school problem, viz.: How is it pos- 
sible to raise to a higher average the low- 
est, without reducing to a dead level of 
mediocrity the citizens of superior possi- 
bilities? Our relation to publisher and 
parent, to the library's adult open shelves 
of current fiction enter into the problem. 
The children's over-reading, and their re- 
luctance to "graduate" from juvenile books, 
these and many other perplexing questions 
grow out of the main one. 

I said awhile ago that the new educa- 
tion has had a tendency to make life too 
soft for children, and to give to their par- 
ents the belief that natural instincts alone 
are safe guides to follow in rearing a child. 
I hope I shall not seem to be a good old 
times croaker, sighing for the days when 
school gardens and folk dancing and glee 
clubs and dramatization of lessons and 
beautiful text-books and fascinating handi- 
craft and a hundred other delightful things 
were undreamed-of ways of making pleas- 
ant the paths of learning. Heaven forbid 
that I should join the ranks of those who 
carp at a body of citizens who, at an aver- 
age wage in America less than that of the 
coal miner and the factory worker, have 
produced in their schools results little 
short of the miraculous. To visit, as I 
have, classrooms of children born in slums 
across the sea, transplanted to tenements 
in New York, and to see what our public 
school teachers are making of these chil- 
dren the backward, the underfed, the "in- 
corrigible," the blind, the anaemic well, all 
I can say is, I do not recommend these 
visits to Americans of the stripe of that 
boastful citizen who, being shown the 
crater of Vesuvius with a "There, you 
haven't anything like that in America!" 
disdainfully replied, "Naw, but we've got 
Niagara, and that'd put the whole blame 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



279 



thing out!" For myself I never feel quite 
so disposed to brag of my Americanism as 
when I visit some of our New York schools. 

And yet, watching the bored shrug of 
the bright, well-born high school child 
when one suggests that "The prince and 
the pauper" is quite as interesting a story 
as the seventh volume of her latest series, 
a librarian has some feelings about the 
lines-of-least-resistance method of edu- 
cating our youth, which she is glad to find 
voiced by some of our ablest thinkers. 

Here is what J. P. Munroe says: "Many 
of the new methods . . . methods of gen- 
tle cooing toward the child's inclinations, 
of timidly placing a chair for him before 
a disordered banquet of heterogeneous 
studies, may produce ladylike persons, but 
they will not produce men. And when 
these modern methods go as far as to com- 
pel the teacher to divide this intellectual 
cake and pudding into convenient morsels 
and to spoon-feed them to the child, partly 
in obedience to his schoolboy cravings, 
partly in conformity to a pedagogical psy- 
chology, then the result is sure to be men- 
tal and moral dyspepsia in a race of milk- 
sops." How aptly "spoon-fed pudding" 
characterizes whole cartloads of our cur- 
rent "juveniles"! 

Listen to President Wilson's opinion: 
"To be carried along by somebody's sug- 
gestions from the time you begin until 
the time when you are thrust groping and 
helpless into the world, is the very nega- 
tion of education. By the nursing process, 
by the coddling process you are sapping a 
race; and only loss can possibly result 
except upon the part of individuals here 
and there who are so intrinsically strong 
that you cannot spoil them." 

Hugo Munsterberg is a keen observer of 
the product of American schools, and con- 
trasting their methods with those of his 
boyhood he says: "My school work was 
not adjusted to botany at nine years be- 
cause I played with an herbarium, and at 
twelve to physics because I indulged in 
noises with home-made electric bells, and 
at fifteen to Arabic, an elective which I 
miss still in several high schools, even in 



Brookline and Roxbury. The more my 
friends and I wandered afield with our lit- 
tle superficial interests and talents and 
passions, the more was the straight- 
forward earnestness of the school our 
blessing; and all that beautified and 
enriched our youth, and gave to it fresh- 
ness and liveliness, would have turned out 
to be our ruin, if our elders had taken fl 
seriously, and had formed a life's pro- 
gram out of petty caprices and boyish 
inclinations." 

And Prof. Munsterberg thrusts his fin- 
ger into what I believe to be the weakest 
joint in our educational armor when he 
says: "... as there is indeed a differ- 
ence whether I ask what may best suit 
the taste and liking of Peter, the darling, 
or whether I ask what Peter, the man, will 
need for the battle of life in which nobody 
asks what he likes, but where the question 
is how he is liked, and how he suits the 
taste of his neighbors." 

What would become of our civilization 
if we were to follow merely the instincts 
and natural desires? Yet is there not in 
America a tremendous tendency to the no- 
tion, that except in matters of physical 
welfare, the child's lead is to be followed 
to extreme limits? Don't we librarians 
feel it in the pressure brought to bear 
upon us by those who fail to find certain 
stories, wanted by the children, on our 
shelves? "Why, that's a good book," the 
parent will say, "The hero is honest and 
kind, the book won't hurt him any in fact 
it will give the child some good ideas." 

"Ideas." Yes, perhaps. There is an- 
other educator I should like to quote, J. H. 
Baker in his "Education and life": "What- 
ever- you would wish the child to do and 
become, that let him practice. We learn 
to do, not by knowing, but by knowing and 
then doing. Ethical teaching, tales of he- 
roic deeds, soul^?tirring fiction that awak- 
ens sympathetic emotions may accomplish 
but little unless in the child's early life 
. . . the ideas and feelings find expres- 
sion in action and so become a part of the 
child's power and tendency. . . " 

Now we believe with G. Stanley Hall 



280 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



that, "The chief enemy of active virtue in 
the world is not vice but laziness, languor 
and apathy of will;" that "mind work is in- 
finitely harder than physical toil;" thai, 
(as another says) "all that does not rouse, 
does not set him to work, rusts and taints 
him . . . the disease of laziness . . . 
destroys the whole man." 

And when children of good heritage, 
good homes, sound bodjes, bright minds, 
spend hours every week curled up among 
cushions, allowing a stream of cambric- 
tea literature gently to trickle over their 
brain surfaces, we know that though the 
heroes and heroines of these stories be rep- 
resented as prodigies of industry and vigor, 
our young swallowers of the same are be- 
ing reduced to a pulp of brain and will lazi- 
ness that will not only make them inca- 
pable of struggling with a page of Quen- 
tin Durward, for example, but will affect 
their moral stamina, since fighting fiber is 
the price of virtue. 

Ours is, as I have said, a public educa- 
tion, a republic's problem. To quote Presi- 
dent Wilson again: "Our present plans for 
teaching everybody involve certain un- 
pleasant things quite inevitably. It is ob- 
vious that you cannot have universal edu- 
cation without restricting your teaching to 
such things as can be universally under- 
stood. It is plain that you cannot impart 
'university methods' to thousands, or cre- 
ate 'investigators' by the score, unless you 
confine your university education to mat- 
ters which dull men can investigate, your 
laboratory training to tasks which mere 
plodding diligence and submissive patience 
can compass. Yet, if you do so limit and 
constrain what you teach, you thrust taste 
and insight and delicacy of perception out 
of the schools, exalt the obvious and mere- 
ly useful things above the things which 
are only imaginatively or spiritually con- 
ceived, make education an affair of tasting 
and handling and smelling, and so create 
Philistia. that country in which they speak 
of 'mere literature.' " 

In our zeal to serve the little alien, de- 
scendant of generations of poverty and ig- 
norance, let us not lose sight of the im- 



portance to our country of the child more 
fortunate in birth and brains. So strong 
is my feeling on the value of leaders that 
I hold we should give at least as much 
study to the training of the accelerate 
child as we give to that of the defective. 
Though I boast the land of Abraham Lin- 
coln and Booker Washington I do not give 
up one iota of my belief that the child 
who is born into a happy environment, of 
parents strong in body and mind, holds the 
best possibilities of making a valuable citi- 
zen; and so I am concerned that this child 
be not spoiled in the making by a training 
or lack of training that fails to recognize 
his possibilities. 

It is encouraging to find growing atten- 
tion in the "Proceedings" of the N. E. A. 
and other educational bodies to the prob- 
lem of the bright child who has suffiered 
by the lock-step system which has molded 
all into conformity with the capabilities 
of the average child. 

The librarian's difficulty is perhaps 
greater than that of the teacher, because 
open shelves and freedom of choice are so 
essential a part of our program. We must 
provide easy reading for thousands of 
children. Milk and water stories may have 
an actual value to children whose unfa- 
vorable heritage and environment have re- 
tarded their mental development. But the 
deplorable thing is to see young people, 
mercifully saved from the above handi- 
caps, making a bee line for the current 
diluted literature for grown-ups, (as ac- 
cessible as Scott on our open shelves) and 
to realize that this taste, which is getting 
a life set, is the inevitable outcome of the 
habit of reading mediocre juveniles. 

We must not rail at publishers for trying 
to meet the demands of purchasers. Our 
job is to influence that demand far more 
than we have done as yet. Large book 
jobbers tell us that millions and millions 
of poor juveniles are sold in America to 
thousands of the sort we librarians recom- 
mend. I have seen purchase lists of boys' 
club directors and Sunday School library 
committees calling for just the weak and 
empty stuff we would destroy. I have un- 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



281 



wittingly been an eavesdropper at Christ- 
mas book counters and have heard the or- 
ders given by parents and the suggestions 
made by clerks. And I feel that the public 
library has but skirmished along the out- 
posts while the great field of influencing 
the reading of American children remains 
unconquered. Until we affect production 
to the extent that the book stores circu- 
late as good books as the best libraries 
we cannot be too complacent about our 
position as a force in citizen making. 

An "impossible" ideal, of course, but far 
from intimidating, the largeness of the 
task makes us all the more determined. 

This paper attempts no suggestion of 
new methods of attacking the problem. 
It is rather a restatement of an old per- 
plexity. I harp once more on a worn 
theme because I think that unless we fre- 
quently lift our eyes from the day's ab- 
sorbing duties for a look over the whole 
field, and unless we once and again make 
searching inventory of our convictions, our 
purposes, our methods, our attainments, 
we are in danger of letting ourselves slip 
along the groove of the taken-for-granted 
and our work loses in power as we allow 
ourselves to become leaners instead of 
leaders. May we not, as if it were a new 
idea, rouse to the seriousness of the medi- 
ocre habit indulged in by young people 
capable of better things? Should not our 
work with children reach out more to 
work with adults, to those who buy and 
sell and make books for the young? Is it 
not time for the successful teller of stories 
to children to use her gifts in audiences 
of grown people, persuading these molders 
of the children's future of the reasonable- 
ness of our objection to the third rate 
since it is the enemy of the best? May 
it not be politic, at least, for the librarian 
to descend from her disdainful height and 
make friends with "the trade," with book- 
seller and publisher who, after all, have 
as good a right to their bread and butter 
as the librarian paid out of the city's 
taxes? 

And then is it not possible that we 
might be better librarians if we refused 



to be librarians every hour in the day 
and half the night as well? What if we 
were to have the courage to refuse to 
indulge in nervous breakdowns, because 
we deliberately plan to play, and to eat, 
and to sleep, to keep serene and sane 
and human, believing that God in His 
Heaven gives His children a world of 
beauty to enjoy as well as a work to do 
with zeal. If we lived a little longer and 
riot quite so wide, the gain to our chosen 
work in calm nerves and breadth of in- 
terest and sympathy would even up for 
dropping work on schedule time for a 
symphony concert or a country walk or 
a visit with a friend might even justify 
saving the cost of several A. L. A. con- 
ferences toward a trip to Italy! 

This hurling at librarians advice to play 
more and work less reminds me of a story 
told by a southern friend. Years ago, in 
a sleepy little Virginia village, there lived 
two characters familiar to the townspeo- 
ple, whose greatest daily excitement was 
a stroll down to the railroad station to 
watch the noon express rush through to 
distant southern cities. One of these per- 
sonages was the station keeper, of dry 
humor and sententious habit, whom wo 
will call Hen Waters; the other was the 
station goat, named, of course, Billy. Year 
after year had Billy peacefully cropped 
the grass along the railroad tracks, turn- 
ing an indifferent ear to the roar of the 
daily express, when suddenly one day the 
notion seemed to strike his goatish mind 
that this racket had been quietly endured 
long enough. With the warning whistle 
of the approaching engine, Billy, lowering 
his head, darted furiously up the track, 
intending to butt the offending thunderer 
into Kingdom Come. When, a few seconds 
later, the amazed spectators were gazing 
after the diminishing train, Hen Waters, 
addressing the spot where the redoubtable 
goat had last been seen, drawled out: 
"Billy, I admire your pluck but darn your 
discretion!" 

The parallel between the ambitions and 
the futility of the goat, and the present 
speaker's late advice is so obvious that 



282 



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only the illogicalness of woman can ac- 
count for my cherishing a hope that I may 
be spared the fate of the indiscreet Billy. 
Miss CAROLINE BURNITE, director of 
children's work, Cleveland public library, 
delivered the second paper on this sub- 
ject, presenting the topic from another 
viewpoint. 

VALUES IN LIBRARY WORK WITH 
CHILDREN II 

To elucidate principles of value, I shall 
use, by way of illustration, the experience 
and structure of a certain children's de- 
partment where the problem of children's 
reading and the means of bringing books 
to them has been more intensively studied 
in the last nine years than was possible 
there before that time. At the time we 
took our last survey of the department 
it was found that probably about six out 
of ten of the children of the city read 
library books in their homes during the 
calendar year, and that each child had 
read about twenty books on the average. 
Four of the six procured library books 
from a library center; two of the six pro- 
cured them from collections, either in their 
schoolrooms or in homes in their neigh- 
borhood. In all, fifty-four thousand chil- 
dren read a million books, which reached 
them through forty-three librarians as- 
signed for special work with these chil- 
dren, through three hundred teachers and 
about one hundred volunteers. Now, we 
know that six out of ten children is not 
an ideal proportion and that fifty-four 
thousand may endanger the quality of 
book influence for each child, but both of 
these statements indicate conditions to 
be adjusted so that the experience of each 
reading child may contribute to the whole 
and experience with numbers may benefit 
the individual. To accomplish this end, 
work with the children was given depart- 
mental organization. My concern in this 
paper is with departmental organization as 
it benefits the reading child, and with the 
principles and policies which have been 
developed through departmental unity. 



We think ordinarily that one who loves 
books has three general hallmarks his 
reading is fairly continuous, there is per- 
manency of book interest, and this interest 
maintained on a plane of merit. These 
three results always justify the reader and 
those who have influenced him, and if the 
consequent book interests of the library 
child were entirely such, they would prove 
to all laymen, without argument, that the 
principles are basic. But in the child's 
contact with the library there are many 
evidences of modifications of normal book 
interests; for, instead of continuity of 
reading, the children's rooms are over- 
crowded in winter and have comparatively 
small book use in summer; instead of per- 
manency of book interests extending over 
the difficult intermediate period, we know 
that large numbers of those children who 
leave school before they reach high school 
have little or no library contact during 
their first working years and we sometimes 
feel that the interesting experiences with 
reading working children, which librarians 
are prone to emphasize, give us an impres- 
sion of a larger number than careful in- 
vestigation would show. As for quality 
of reading of the individual working child 
we cannot maintain that it is always on a 
high plane. 

All these conditions we know to be 
largely the result of environmental influ- 
ences. Deprived for twelve hours a day, 
twelve months in a year, of opportunity for 
normal youthful activities, the child's en- 
lire physical and mental schedule is 
thrown out of balance and his tendency 
is to turn to reading, a recreation possible 
at any time, only when there is no oppor- 
tunity to follow other avenues of interest. 
The strain upon the ear and eye, and back 
and brain, is even greater in the shop than 
in the school, and in the consequent in- 
tense physical fatigue the tendency is to- 
ward recreations in which the book may 
have no place. The power of the nickel 
library over the child can be broken by 
the presence of the public library, but no 
intermediate gets away from the sugges- 
tion, by voice and print, of the modern 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



283 



novel, with its present-day social interests. 
Consequently the whole judgment of the 
results of library work with children can 
not rest upon these general tests of nor- 
mal book interests. Rather such varia- 
tions from the normal are themselves con- 
ditions which influence the structure of 
the work and especially the principles of 
book presentation. If children are living 
in an environment which is not the best 
one for them, all the forces with which 
they come in contact should tend to cor- 
rect the abnormal and give them the 
things their moral nature craves freer 
and fuller thoughts, better and freer living, 
truth of expression, beauty of feeling. We 
must recognize that books also must be 
a force in reconstructing or normalizing 
the influences of their environment. Chil- 
dren with social needs must have books 
with social values to meet those needs 
right social contacts, true social perspec- 
tive, traditions of family and race, loveli- 
ness of nature, companionship of living 
things, right group association and group 
interests. 

But while the pedagogical and moral 
values of books, that is the benefits of right 
reading for children of normal life, were 
fully analyzed, the children's department 
of which I speak had almost no written 
principle to aid in the enormous task of 
determining the influence of books on chil- 
dren with social needs. Appreciations of 
the social relationships and the interde- 
pendence of characters in books which 
have proven themselves moving forces in 
the lives of children, gained through the 
testimony of men and women who know 
their indebtedness to them such books as 
"Little women," "Tom Brown," "Heidi," "Ot- 
to of the silver hand" gave a fundamental 
principle upon which to work. Books should 
construct a larger social ideal for the read- 
er instead of confirming his present one. 
Then arose this question: Should we 
have books with weak social values in 
the library as a concession to certain chil- 
dren, or by having them do we harm 
most those very children to whom we 
have conceded them? The gradual solu- 



tion of this problem seems to me to be 
one of the greatest services which a library 
can render its children. So long as this 
question is in process of solution we may 
accept the following as a tentative reply: 
No books weak in social ideals should be 
furnished, provided we do not lose reading 
children by their elimination. If such 
books are the best a child will read 
and we take them away, causing loss of 
library reading interest, we permit him 
to sink further into his environment. 
With the last principle as a basis, the 
evaluation of books was accomplished in 
the evolution of the department. The 
cumulative experience of librarians work- 
ing with children showed that many books 
which lead only to others of their kind 
were weak in social viewpoint, and that 
such books were the ones read largely by 
those children most occasional and spas- 
modic in their reading. Here was a 
determining point in the establishment 
of standards of reading, for it brought 
us face to face with the question, Shall 
we consider this situation our fault since 
we supply such books to children who need 
something better vastly more than do 
others, or shall we merely justify our 
selection by maintaining that those chil- 
dren will under no circumstances read a 
higher grade of books? However, it was 
proven at the same time that other books 
were read also by children with social 
limitations, which, although apparently no 
better on first evaluation, lead to a better 
type of reading and this gave us a fresh 
impulse to consider the evaluation of books 
as a constantly moving process, and 
prompted the policy of the removal of 
those types of books which were least in- 
fluential in developing a good reading 
taste. This was done, however, with the 
definite intention that an increasingly bet- 
ter standard of reading must mean that no 
reading children be sacrificed, an end only 
possible by a fuller knowledge of the value 
of the individual book to the individual 
child. 

Now let us see what changes have been 
evolved in the book collections in the de- 



254 



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partment under consideration in the past 
seven or eight years. 

In the first study of the collection and 
before any final study of books from the 
social viewpoint had been reached, the 
proportion of books of the doubtful class 
to those which were standard was consid- 
ered, and it was seen that this proportion 
should be decreased in order that a child's 
chances for eventually reading the best 
might be improved. It was obvious that 
the reading of the young children should 
be most carefully safeguarded, and this 
was the first point of attack. As a result, 
these two types of books were eliminated: 

1. All series for young children, such as 
the Dotty Dimples and the Little 
Colonels. 

2. Books for young children dealing 
with animal life which have neither 
humane nor scientific value, such as 
the Pierson and Wesselhoeft. 

At about the same time stories of child 
life for young children were restricted to 
those which were most natural and pos- 
sible, and stories read by older girls in 
which adults were made the beneficiaries 
of a surprisingly wise child hero, such 
as the Plympton books, were eliminated. 

The successful elimination of these 
books, together with the study of the 
children's reading as a whole, suggested 
within the next two or three years that 
other books could be eliminated or re- 
stricted without shock to the readers; On 
the pedagogical basis, certain types of 
books for young children were judged; on 
the social basis, certain types of books 
for older children, with results as follows: 

1. The elimination of word books for 
little children, and the basing of their 
reading upon their inherent love for 
folk lore and verse. 

2. The elimination of interpreted folk 
lore, sueh as many of the modern 
kindergarten versions. 

3. The elimination of the modern fairy- 
tale, except as- it has vitality and 
individual charm, as have those of 
George MacDonald. 



4. The elimination of travel trivial in 
treatment and in series form, such as 
the Little Cousins. 

5. The restriction of an old and recog- 
nized series to its original number 
of, titles, such as the Pepper series. 
The disapproval of all new books 
obviously the first in a series. 

6. Lessening the number of titles by 
authors who are unduly popular, such 
as restricting the use of Tomlinson 
to one series only. 

7. The elimination of those stories in 
which the child character is not 
within a normal sphere; for instance, 
the child novel, such as Mrs. Jami- 
son's stories. 

8. The restriction of the story of the 
successful poor boy to those within 
the range of possibility, as are the 
Otis books, largely. 

Without analyzing the weaknesses of all 
these types, I wish to say a word about 
the series form for story and classed 
books. The series must be judged not 
only by content, but it must be recognized 
that by the admission of such a form of 
literature the tendency of the child to- 
ward independence of book judgment and 
book selection is lessened and the way 
paved for the weakest form of adult liter- 
ature. 

The last policies regarding book selec- 
tion developed on the same principles 
within the past three years have been 
these: 

1. The elimination of periodical litera- 
ture for young children, such as the 
Children's Magazine and Little Polks, 
since their reading can be varied 
more wholesomely without it. 

2. The elimination, or use in small num- 
bers, of a type of history and biog- 
raphy which lacks scholarly, or even 
serious treatment, such as the Pratt 
histories. 

3. Lessening the number of titles of 
miscellaneous collections of folk lore 
in which there are objectionable in- 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



285 



dividual tales; as, for instance, buy- 
ing only the Blue, Red, Green and 
Yellow fairy books. 

4. Recognizing "blind alleys" in chil- 
dren's fiction, such as the boarding 
school story and the covert love story, 
and buying no new titles of those 
types. 

Reports of reading sequences from each 
children's room have furnished the basis 
for further study of children's reading for 
the past seven months. These have been 
discussed and compared by the workers, 
and are now in shape for a working out- 
line of reading sequences to be made and 
reported back to each room, to be used, 
amplified and reported on again in the 
spring. 

While those books which are no longer 
used may have been at one time necessary 
to hold a child from reading something 
poorer, we did not lose children through 
raising the standard, and the duplication 
of doubtful books in the children's room 
is less heavy now than it was a few years 
ago. Also there are more than twice as 
many children who are reading, and almost 
three times as many books being read 
as there were nine years ago, while the 
number of children of the city has in- 
creased but 72 per cent. Furthermore, the 
proportion of children of environmental 
limitations has by no means diminished, 
and the foreign population is much the 
same more than 75 per cent. Of course, 
the elimination of some books was accom- 
plished because there were better books on 
these subjects, but the general result was 
largely brought about because in the es- 
tablishment of these higher standards we 
did not exceed the standards of those who 
were working with the children. The stand- 
ards which they brought to the work, and 
which they deduced themselves from their 
experience, were strengthened through 
Round Table discussion, where each 
worker measured her results by those of 
the others and thereby recognized the need 
of constant, but careful experimentation. 
A children's department can not reach 
standards of reading which in the judg- 



ment of the librarians working with the 
children are beyond the possibility of at- 
tainment, for with them rests entirely the 
delicate task of the adjustment of the book 
to the child. A staff of children's librarians 
of good academic education, the best li- 
brary training, a true vision of the social 
principles, a broad knowledge of children's 
literature, is the greatest asset for any 
library maintaining children's work. 

But it is true inversely that in raising 
the standards of the children the standards 
of the workers were raised. By this, I 
mean that there were methods of book 
presentation in use whereby the worker 
saw farther and deeper into the mentality 
of the child and understood his social in- 
stincts better. This has been evidenced 
in the larger duplication of the better 
books. The methods are those which rec- 
ognize group interest and group associa- 
tion as a social need of childhood. Through 
unifying and intensifying the thoughts and 
sympathies of the children by giving them, 
when in association with their own play- 
mates, a common experience of living in 
great and universal thought in the story 
hour, the mediocre was bridged and both 
the child and the worker reached a higher 
plane of experience. By giving children a 
chance for group expression of something 
which has fundamental group interest, not 
only the children recognized that books 
may be cornerstones for social intercourse 
and that there is connection between social 
conduct as expressed in books and social 
obligation, but, what is also vastly impor- 
tant, the worker learned that when chil- 
dren are at the age of group activity and 
expression they can often be more per- 
manently influenced through their group 
relations than as individuals. 

Through the recognition of the principle 
that there are standards of book use with 
individual children ,and other standards 
of book appeal for groups of children, it 
was shown that the organization of the 
work as a whole must be such that all 
avenues of presentation of literature could 
be fully developed. It was seen that far 
less than with the individual child could 



286 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



we afford to give a group of children a 
false experience or impotent interest, and 
that material for group presentation, 
methods of group presentation and the 
social elements which are evinced in 
groups of children should receive an 
amount of attention and study which would 
lead to the surest and soundest results. 
This could be fully accomplished only by 
recognizing such methods as distinct func- 
tions of the department, to be maintained 
on sound pedagogical and social bases. 
In other words, that there should not only 
be divisions of work wi.th children accord- 
ing to problems of book distribution, such 
as by schools and home libraries, but 
there must be of necessity divisions by 
problems of reading. Whereas, in a smaller 
department all divisions would center in 
the head, the volume of work in the library 
above alluded to rendered necessary the 
appointment of an instructor in story- 
telling and a supervisor of reading 
clubs, which has resulted in a higher spe- 
cialization and a greater impetus for these 
phases of work than one person could have 
accomplished. Here we have an instance 
of the benefit that a large volume of work 
may confer upon the individual child. 

With the attainment of better reading 
results and higher standards for the work- 
ers, it was obvious that the reading ex- 
periences of the children and the standards 
of the workers must be conserved, that 
the organization should protect the chil- 
dren, as far as possible, from the shock 
of change of workers in individual centers. 
Within the past two years considerable 
study has been given to this, and yearly 
written reports on the reading of children 
in each children's room are made,' in 
which variations of the children's reading 
in that library from accepted standards, 
with individual instances, are usually 
discussed. However, the children's libra- 
rian is entirely free to report the subject 
from whatever angle it has impressed 
her most. Also a written report is made 
of the story hour, the program, general 
and special reading results, and inten- 
sity of group interest in certain types of 



stories. This report is supplementary to 
a weekly report in a prescribed form of 
the stories told, sources used and results. 
All programs used with clubs are reported 
and a semi-annual report made of the club 
work as a whole. A yearly tabulation is 
made of registration from public and paro- 
chial schools, giving registration in all 
libraries, class rooms and home libraries. 
By discussion and reports back to indi- 
vidual centers, these become bases for a 
wider vision of work and a wiser direction 
of energy with less experimentation. 

The connection between work with chil- 
dren and the problem of the reading of 
intermediates, referred to in the beginning, 
should not be dismissed in a paragraph. 
However, it is only possible to give a short 
statement of it. Recognizing that the read- 
ing of adult books should begin in the chil- 
dren's room, a serious study of adult books 
possible for children's reading was made 
by the children's librarians for two sum- 
mers, the reports discussed and books 
added to the department as the result. A 
second report of adult titles which chil- 
dren and intermediates might and do read 
was called for recently and from that a 
tentative list has been furnished both adult 
and children's workers for further study. 
The increasing number of workers in the 
children's department who have had gen- 
eral training, and in the adult work who 
have had special training for work with 
children will make such reports of much 
value. It may be interesting to know 
that fifteen of the children's librarians 
have had general training and six adult 
workers in important positions have had 
special training for children's work. Four 
years ago there were only three in chil- 
dren's work who had had general training 
and none in adult work with the special 
training. In order to follow the standards 
of children's work, there is one principle 
which is obvious, namely, a book disap- 
proved as below grade for juvenile should 
not be accepted for general intermediate 
work. This is especially true of books of 
adventure which a boy of any age between 
12 and 18 would read. It has been possible 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



287 



to raise the standard of books for adults 
in the school libraries above that of the 
larger libraries. This will furnish eventu- 
ally another angle for the study of the 
problem of intermediate reading. 

In conclusion, the chief influences in the 
establishment of right reading for children 
are an intensive study of the reading of 
children in relation to its social, moral and 
pedagogical worth to them, the right basis 
of education and training for such study 
on the part of the workers, the direction 
of such study in a way that brings about a 
higher and more practical standard on the 
part of the worker, and the conservation of 
her experience. These are the great serv- 
ices which the library should render chil- 
dren, and they can be most fully accom- 
plished through departmental organization. 

These papers were followed by a discus- 
sion, led by Miss Stearns and Mr. Rush, in 
which advice was given to those selecting 
children's books to eliminate, in buying 
new books, those which would be elimi- 
nated later, and the suggestion was made 
that children's librarians should enter the 
field of writing children's books. Dr. 
Bostwick of St. Louis then gave a report 
on 

VOLUME OF CHILDREN'S WORK IN 
THE UNITED STATES 

We may divide the history of work with 
children into three epochs. During the 
first, our libraries were realizing with in- 
creasing clearness the necessity of doing 
something for children that they were not 
doing for adults. During the second this 
conviction had taken the practical form of 
segregation, physical and mental, and its 
details were worked out with definiteness. 
In the third, in which we still are, the 
whole administrative work of the library 
for children is being systematized and co- 
ordinated. These three stages may be 
roughly styled the era of work with chil- 
dren, the era of the children's room and 
the era of the children's department. The 
first began, in any particular library, when 
that library began to do anything whatever 
for children that it was not doing for 



adults; the second, when it opened its 
first children's room; the third, when it 
co-ordinated all its children's work under 
one administrative head. In most libraries 
the first period was relatively short; the 
second relatively long. Some libraries 
began their work by establishing children's 
rooms, reducing the first period to zero. 
Some large libraries are still in the second 
period, never having co-ordinated their 
children's work. Here are the approxi- 
mate dates for a few libraries: 

123 

Cleveland 1894 1898 1903 

New York 1895 1898 1902 

Pittsburgh 1898 1898 1898 

St. Louis 1893 1897 1909 

Milwaukee 1896 1898 .... 

Chicago 1904 1904 

Brooklyn 1899 1899 1901 

Boston 1895 1895 

I lay no stress on the accuracy of these 
dates, particularly in the first column, 
where in some cases they are matters of 
opinion. Pittsburgh appears as a unique 
example of a library that stepped full- 
fledged into all three stages at once, start- 
ing off, as soon as it began to do children's 
work at all, not only with a children's 
room, but with a definitely organized de- 
partment to conduct the work. 

With the idea of presenting compre- 
hensively some idea of the volume and im- 
portance of children's work in the United 
States at the present time, a questionnaire 
was sent out to libraries (78 in all) whose 
total home use was 100,000 volumes or 
more. Of these 51 responded. These have 
been divided into five groups, five "very 
large" libraries, circulating more than 2,- 
000,000; eight "large" ones, between one 
and two million; seven "medium," between 
half a million and a million; thirteen 
"small," between quarter and half a mil- 
lion, and eighteen "very small," from 100,- 
000 to 250,000. The results for each of 
these groups have been stated separately 
averaged where possible. 

First, regarding the total volume of 
work. The answers to the questions show 



288 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



that in 51 of the 78 largest public libra- 
ries in the country, graded by circula- 
tion libraries containing altogether near- 
ly 9,000,000 books and circulating a total 
of over 30 millions there are now 1,147,- 
000 volumes intended especially for chil- 
dren. Children drew out during the last 
year 11,200,000 volumes for home use. Vol- 
umes for children added during the year 
numbered 280,000. These libraries have 
231 rooms devoted entirely to children 
and 180 used by them in part, with a com- 
bined seating capacity of 15,900. Class- 
room libraries are furnished for the chil- 
dren in the schools, by 31 libraries re- 
porting, to the number of 5,000. 

Children in 46 libraries reporting hold 
altogether 413,000 library cards. There 
are 42 supervisors of children's work, with 
numerous clerical assistants and staffs of 
473 persons, of whom at least 177 are quali- 
fied children's librarians, 108 are graduates 
of library schools, and 54 have had partial 
courses. 

The general conclusion deducible from 
the statistics gathered sems to be that in 
some ways library work with children has 
become standardized while in others it 
has not. Standards, whether permanent 
or not, we can not tell, have been reached 
or approximated in the number of books 
devoted to children's use and, in general, 
in the proportion of the library's resources, 
time and energy that is given to this 
branch of the work. But when we come 
to the specific number of assistants as- 
signed to it, their supervision, their pay 
and the grade of experience and training 
required of them, then we all part com- 
pany. Not only is there no general agree- 
ment here, but some of the discrepancies 
are so large that we can ascribe them only 
to the fact that we are still in the experi- 
mental stage. 

For instance, to take first the fairly uni- 
form or standardized conditions, the frac- 
tion of the stock of books allotted to chil- 
dren is about one-fifth in the larger li- 
braries and decreases slightly in the small- 
er; in the very small it is about one-eighth. 
The proportion of juvenile books added 



yearly is much larger; it varies from near- 
ly one-half in the very large libraries down 
to one-fourth in the very small. This 
would seem to be a result of the increas- 
ing stress laid on children's work. If this 
proportion is maintained in the annual 
purchases, that in the total stock may ap- 
proximate to it in time, although we can 
not be sure of this without knowing the 
ratio of the life of a children's book to 
that of an adult book. The children's 
books are doubtless shorter-lived, and this 
would tend to keep the proportion down 
in the permanent stock. The circulation is 
still more nearly uniform, being about one- 
third to children in all the classes of libra- 
ries. The proportion of money spent for 
children is also uniform, being about one- 
fourth in libraries of all sizes. The same 
is true of the number of children's rooms, 
which throughout all classes of libraries, 
both large and small, are in the propor- 
tion of one to every 60,000 to 70,000 of cir- 
culation, and of their seating capacity, 
which is 60 to 70 per room. 

Looking on the other side of the shield 
we find the greatest variation in the pro- 
portion of children's cards in use, which 
runs from less than one-half up to nearly 
all. From one to five supervisors are em- 
ployed in each library but some of the very 
large libraries use only one and some of 
the small ones as many as three. The 
same is true of clerical assistants, of which 
some of the very small libraries report as 
many as three, while some of the very 
large get along with as few as two. 

Salaries are fairly uniform, although 
apparently smaller than the work would 
warrant. Whereas the children's circula- 
tion is about one-third the total, the sal- 
aries in the juvenile department are from 
one-seventh to one-eighth the total 
throughout. In the "small" libraries they 
are only one-eleventh of the total. 

The distribution of library-school grad- 
uates is very irregular. Some libraries in 
all classes have none at all. In the three 
lower classes no library has a larger num- 
ber than three. In some of the larger li- 
braries there may be as many as 20 or 30. 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



289 



I am aware that some of this irregular- 
ity, which I have called a lack of stand- 
ardization, may be due to differences in 
nomenclature. Assistants, for instance, 
having precisely the same duties may be 
described as supervisors in one library and 
not in another. This will not explain ev- 
erything, however, and the conclusion is 
inevitable that in the respects just noted 
no uniformity has yet been reached by li- 
braries. It seems to me that this lack 
of standardization has made its appear- 
ance in precisely the place where it might 
have been expected namely in the third 
of the three periods already mentioned, 
that of co-ordination and systematization. 
This is the latest period; some libraries 
have not yet entered upon it and most of 
them are young in it. In other words, 
ckildren's work is much older than the 
systematic administration of a children's 
department, or a system of children's 
rooms. Hence, children's work in general 
the selection and purchase of books for 
children, the planning of children's rooms 
and their administration as units has ex- 
isted long enough to become standardized. 
We know what we want, having passed 
through the stage of experimentation. 

This is not true of the administration of 
a children's department the grading of 
assistants, the organization of a compact 
body of workers with its expert supervi- 
sion, the settling of questions of disputed 
jurisdiction that necessarily arise in cases 
of this kind. It is on this part of their 
work that children's librarians need to 
focus their attention for the next few 
years. It is time, not perhaps to withdraw 
our eyes from the older questions but to 
transfer our gaze in part to the newer. 
We need to talk less about the size of our 
juvenile collection, methods of selection of 
children's books, the salaries of our assist- 
ants, ways of increasing our circulation, 
sizes and plans of children's rooms, and so 
on, and more about the organization and 
administration of the children's depart- 
ment as a whole the duties of the super- 
visor and her assistants; her relations 
with the heads of other departments and 



with branch librarians, the measure of 
control shared by her with heads of 
branches in case of children's librarians of 
branches, the existence of separate 
grades, corresponding to separate duties 
or variation of qualifications, among the 
children's librarians; insistence on train- 
ing adapted to these different grades. Time 
forbids me to go into details, and I can 
but suggest these points for your consid- 
eration. Into one point, however, I feel 
like going a little more fully: 

We need more special training for chil- 
dren's work. It is the one kind of special- 
ization that we have attempted in our 
schools, and we must have more of it and 
more kinds of it. This of course is but a 
single case in the more varied program 
of special training that I am convinced 
we shall have to take up before long. In 
the course of an interesting debate on this 
subject in the A. L. A. Council last January 
it developed that most of the librarians 
present looked upon specialization as im- 
practical. In particular they believed it 
impossible for a student to look forward 
so definitely to special work that he could 
decide on the special courses that would 
benefit him. The man that had taken the 
college-library course might become a 
superintendent of branches; the qualified 
municipal reference librarian would go, 
perhaps, into an applied science room. 
This may be so now but it cannot long 
remain the case. Even now we can not 
carry this line of argument much further 
without making of it a reductio ad ab- 
surdum. Why go to a library school at all 
when, after all, you may accept the head- 
ship of a grammar-school on graduation, 
or even decide to travel for a hardware 
house? Why should we attempt to train 
one man for a lawyer and another for a 
physician when both may prefer farming? 
We are getting away fast from the old 
idea, born of pioneer conditions, that any- 
body can do anything if he tries. We shall 
have to travel further enough from it to 
satisfy ourselves that an expert university 
librarian will have to be trained for his 
post and not for that of head of the supply 



290 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



department in a public library. We have 
learned that a children's librarian does her 
work better for special training; may it 
not be that we shall have to make some 
difference in the future between training, 
let us say, for supervisory work, for the 
charge of a branch children's room, and 
for the duties of an assistant of lower 
grade? 

In closing, let me say again that we need 
to focus our attention at present on the 
organization and administration of a chil- 
dren's department, especially on the places 
where it interlocks with that of other de- 
partments. The study of this matter 



should not be entrusted to children's libra- 
ries alone, for the standardization of work 
involving more than one department 
should not be ex parte. The matter should 
be in charge of a committee including in 
its membership both chief librarians and 
the heads of children's departments pos- 
sibly also the children's librarian of a large 
branch library and a branch librarian. 

The volume of the work is now remark- 
able; its organization has gone beyond 
that of some other departments in atten- 
tion to detail; the question of its co-ordi- 
nation and of interdepartmental relations 
should now be taken up systematically. 






B 



E 



Av. number volumes in library... 5 
Av. juvenile volumes in library... 3 

Avl cost of juvenile volumes 

Av. volumes added during year... 5 
Av. cost of volumes added during 

year 5 

Av. juvenile volumes added during 

year 4 

Av. cost of juvenile volumes added 3 

Av. circulation for year 5 

Av. juvenile circulation for year. . 5 
Av. number children's rooms in 

system 5 

Av. number rooms used in part by 

children 5 

Av. seating capacity of children's 

rooms 5 

Av. classroom libraries 2 

Av. home libraries for children... 1 
Av. deposit or delivery stations not 

included in above 4 

Av. volumes on shelves open to 

children 3 

A v. juvenile cardholders 2 

Av. age limit of juvenile cardhold- 
ers 2 

Av. estimate of juvenile cards in 

use 2 

Av. supervisors of children's work 4 

Av. salary paid supervisors 1 

Av. clerical assistants in children's 

work 1 

Av. salary paid clerical assistants. 1 

Av. children's librarians 4 

Av. salary paid children's libra- 
rians 4 

Av. additional assistants giving full 

time to children's work 3 

Av. salary of such assistants 3 

Av. assistants giving part time to 

children's work 1 

Av. salary paid such assistants... 1 
Number library school graduates. 4 
Number assistants having had par- 
tial library school courses 4 



O J 

658,416 8 

136,080 7 

Not given 



73,098 8 



286,643 
57,348 

$22,000 
30,172 



150,200 
26,750 

$21,316 
15,654 



13 92,236 

12 16,244 
2 $9,750 

13 8,898 



D 

58,355 

7,496 

$ 3,843.49 

4,405 



$70,976.88 7 $27,244.25 7 $15,001.75 10 $ 8,851.81 17 $ 4,467.22 



32,100 

$18,928.92 

3,973,150 

1,451,569 



129,413 
34,942 



$705 
20 



23 8 

7 7 

1,502 8 

314 7 

56 3 

52 7 



15 7 

"46,332 5 

1 to 5 7 

$2,000 6 



2 5 



$786.82 7 

4 to 83 4 

$560.33 4 

2 2 

$576 2 

1 to 21 8 

3 to 11 5 



12,383 

$ 7,801.86 

1,214,068 

501,389 

6 
7 

467 

301 

26 



6 5,875 

6 $ 4,428.10 

7 714,784 
7 227,697 



22 7 

52,0<57 6 

28,501 4 

15 3 

20,845 4 

OtoS 5 

$1,174 5 

2 4 

$524 4 

3 to 11 5 



2 to 27 2 
$714 2 

10 .. 

$654 .. 
to 29 7 

to 8 6 



233 

201 

25 

12 

40,326 
14,470 



2 
$690 



13 
3 

13 

13 


2,661 
$ 2,876.00 
339,059 
122,739 


13 


2 


9 


4 


11 

s 
3 


150 
83 
3 


9 


12 


10 
11 


13,721 
7,056 



14 8 



9,436 

1 to 2 

$1,070 

1 to 3 

$600 
1 to 9 



7 
7 
7 

5 

5 

12 



$896 5 $648.50 12 



2 

2 

Oto2 11 

OtoS 11 



17 

9 

18 

17 

18 
13 

17 
7 
1 

12 

13 

14 



15 14 



6,172 
1 to 3 
$760 

1 to 3 

$516 
1 to 3 



1 to 3 

$524 



$829.16 17 



1 4 

38 4 

Oto3 16 

Otol 13 



1,247 

$ 1,207.01 
175,928 
56,475 

1 



79 

31 

6 



5,504 
5,230 

14 

2,704 

1 

$846.66 

1 to 3 

$420 

1 

$801 

1 to 4 
$512.22 

$600 

2 to 7 
$591 

Oto 3 

to 2 



291 



4 to 56 
3 to 10 



Oto IS 
Oto 1 



Oto 11 6 



1 to 8 7 



Number trained in local library... 4 

Number trained in other libraries.. 4 

Pages giving full time to chil- 
dren's work 3 

Av. yearly salaries for entire staff 

(not including janitors) 4 $170,453.82 8 

Av. yearly salaries children's de- 
partment 2 $20,080.00 8 $11,032.33 



$74,50-3.90 



*Not the same libraries as are represented two lines above. 
tMaximum. 
JFor first year. 



1 to 9 
Oto 1 



6 $30,844.90 
6 $4,144.75 



JO 

9 



to 2 12 



to 3 
to 2 



Oto 2 15 



$19,984.81 
$1,726.33 14 



Oto 4 
Oto } 



to 2 



17 $10,159.22 
$1,306.01 



SECOND SESSION 

The second session of the section was 
held June 27th, at 2:30 p. m., in the ball- 
room. Miss MARTHA WILSON, super- 
visor of school libraries, state department 
of education, St. Paul, Minnesota, read a 
paper entitled 

POSSIBILITIES OF THE RURAL 
SCHOOL LIBRARY 

On the outermost fringe of library in- 
fluence they wait the country children. 

To fulfill to them the mission of the li- 
brary, to make books necessary and ac- 
cessible, we must take account of the 
agency which touches the life of even 
the most remote group the country 
school. 

Relationships between libraries and 
schools have long afforded discussion and 
the librarian is rare who does not feel a 
sense of her share in the educational work 
of the town and her responsibility in mak- 
ing her library serve as an adjunct to 
the school, supplementing or supplanting 
its library resources. 

The country school and its library has 
in the main been outside this friendly con- 
cern or ministration on the part of the 
town library and but little account taken 
of it as a part of the library resources or 
possibilities of a county or state. 

The present revival of rural interest has 
quickened every phase of country life, so- 
cial, economic and educational. 

The country school has shared in the 
enlargement of interest and is undergoing 
many radical changes in its spirit, its 
teaching, its relationships to the neigh- 
borhood and the world outside. 

While in former times the country child 



went to school only when not needed at 
home and received through the year an 
intermittent schooling, amounting in all 
to but few weeks a year, compulsory edu- 
cation laws in the majority of states have 
prolonged the period which he now actu- 
ally spends in school, and subsidies in 
state aid for longer terms have lengthened 
the season through which the school is 
in operation. 

The new emphasis on country life is 
a transforming effect on the country 
school, "the ragged beggar sunning" is 
being replaced by a modern building 
planned according to state regulations, 
with regard to comfort and convenience, 
seats and lighting are seriously consid- 
ered and the individual drinking cup adds 
the last touch of modernity. 

It is changing its teaching as carefully. 
The leaders in country school work are 
striving to give a standing to country serv- 
ice, to reshape it to new country condi- 
tions and connect its work very definitely 
with the neighborhood in which it is 
placed. 

In Minnesota there are three types of 
rural schools. The first of these is the 
one-room, one-teacher school in an iso- 
lated community where every grade is rep- 
resented and all subjects taught. The sec- 
ond type is the associated school where 
several districts have connected them- 
selves with a town school, where the pupils 
of high school age are received on the 
same term as their town cousins, and the 
one-room schools continue the work with 
the lower grades ir the country but under 
the supervision of tne central school. The 
third is the consolidated school where a 
number of districts have combined and 



292 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



established in a town, village or open coun- 
try a modern school for the grades and 
high school, transporting to it all the 
children within the radius of five miles. 

In all of these schools, the old course 
of study is adapted to include health in- 
struction, nature study or agriculture, some 
manual training, sewing and cooking. The 
high school training departments and the 
normal schools are making all haste to pre- 
pare teachers to fulfill the new require- 
ments while the teachers already at work 
must bring themselves up to grade at the 
summer schools. The practical subjects 
make a strong appeal. A country teacher 
at the summer school was heard to re- 
mark that "the rope-tying lessons were aw- 
fully interesting and the course in agricul- 
ture was just grand." 

As a help in the new order of things a 
strong school library is needed more than 
ever. Even in the smallest school there is 
indeed a collection of books known as the 
school library, the heritage of the years. 
These show no design in selection further 
than meeting the state aid requirement of 
the expenditure of a certain amount of 
money every year for library books. The 
trail of the book agent is over them all: 
witness the sets; Motley "History of the 
United Netherlands," Grote "History of 
Greece," Gibbon "Rome," and such sub- 
scription books as "Lights and shadows of 
a missionary's life" and "The Johnstown 
flood." 

The erstwhile teachers and their inter- 
ests have left an impress; the correspond- 
ence courses which they pursued while 
teaching are reflected in such books as 
Hamerton "Intellectual life"; "The litera- 
ture of the age of Elizabeth"; and all the 
Epochs, and Eras and Periods in which 
they delved for credits; their faith bears 
witness in the "Life of Luther" found in 
every school library in one western coun- 
ty and their hopes in "How to be happy 
tho' married," common in another. 

The average number of volumes in each 
school is impressive in reports, but inspec- 
tion of the libraries too often shows that 
the majority of the books are entirely use- 



less in connection with the school work 
and quite beyond the grasp and interest of 
the pupils who may be typified by little 
moon-faced Celestia who trudges two miles 
through the pine forest to the little log 
schoolhouse and to whom an illustrated 
book is a revelation of worlds unknown; 
Anna, eleven years old, who at the time of 
our visit was doing the work of the house- 
hold and caring for her mother and the 
new baby brother before she came to 
school, for in this county the size of the 
state of Connecticut there are but five doc- 
tors and fewer nurses; Mary, aged 13, who 
keeps house for an older brother and his 
logging "crew" of four grown men; and lit- 
tle Irven, 7 years old, who reads so fast 
the words can hardly come and who is 
willing and eager to aver in round childish 
scribble that his favorite books are "Seven 
little sisters," Eskimo stories and Fairy, 
stories and fables. 

However hard to realize, the needs are 
simple to state; better books and direction 
in their use. 

In many of the newer libraries there 
are many good and suitable books and the 
more progressive county superintendents 
are paying more attention to their libra- 
ries, making use of the suggestive lists 
furnished them and selecting all the books 
for the schools in their counties. One 
proudly reports the purchase in his coun- 
ty in the last year of 2144 real children's 
books. The standardization of the state 
school list has helped in later years, and 
as they are obliged to buy from this list 
there is a pleasing lack of "Motor boys" 
and "Aeroplane girls." 

Some few of the teachers have the no- 
tion of the purpose of the school library 
and are eager to extend its influence. One 
teacher, combining school work with 
homesteading, asked for help in getting il- 
lustrated books and pictures, explaining 
that he found it difficult to give images 
to the words in their texts as the children 
in his school had never seen a locomo- 
tive, a train of cars, a bridge, a tower, 
a brick or stone building, and the nearest 
approach to the palace of which they read 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



in their stories was the two-story square 
frame building in the adjoining settlement. 
The teacher of Anna and Mary realizing 
that they would not be allowed to stay in 
school longer than the law required, hav- 
ing now had more schooling than their 
father or mother, was trying to give them 
some simple instruction in household 
work and was glad to know of "When 
Mother lets us cook" and the simple books 
of sewing; and the town girl teaching her 
first term in the country school tells of 
her experience in using books of drawing 
to tame the young "Jack-pine savage" 
who had been the bully of the school. 

The country teacher, as a type, is hard- 
ly more than a child herself, born, or 
transplanted at an early age, into pioneer 
conditions of work and living with the 
energies and thought of the family con- 
centrated on getting a start in life in the 
new land. 

In these homes books have not been 
plentiful, in some the catalog of the mail 
order house is often the only printed mat- 
ter in evidence, having apparently dis- 
placed the family Bible from its time-hon- 
ored place on the center table. 

In the early schooling and life of the 
country teacher only the text-books have 
left an impress and when she is asked at 
a country teachers' meeting or in the be- 
ginning of her normal school course to 
name favorite children's books, she puts 
down the texts she studied in the country 
schools, the Baldwins, the Carpenters, the 
Wheelers and the rest. 

The stage of poverty and extreme hard- 
ship is fast passing. With increased pros- 
perity comes the opportunity for better 
things, usually desired by the children, not 
always by the parents. 

The school inspector was urging a new 
schoolhouse. The farmer thought this one 
good enough. After dinner they went out 
to see the fine stock and seeing the splen- 
did barns for the stock the inspector said: 
"You provide such good buildings for your 
stock you ought to be willing to do some- 
thing for your children." The farmer still 
demurred and the inspector pressed the 



matter. "Do you care more for your stock 
than for your children?" The farmer be- 
came indignant and said: "I want you to 
know that stock is thoroughbred." If the 
parents have lost or never had the power 
to enjoy books, the school and the library 
must see to it that this asset is given the 
child in the country, who tomorrow must 
deal with the problems of the new country 
life more complex than his fathers have 
known; the farmer's wife to become eman- 
cipated must learn to use the books which 
will help her, and there must be founda- 
tions for the larger citizenship for in spite 
of all efforts to keep the boy on the faru. 
he will continue to join the ranks of the 
financiers, the doctors, the judges, the gov- 
ernors and the like. 

The newer idea of the use of books and 
reading in the country schools is taking 
hold if sometimes vaguely. "I tell them to 
read library books," she said when asked 
what use she made of the school library. 
"Oh no, I have never read any of them my- 
self," and "Little women" and "Captains 
courageous" and many other live children's 
books stood in perfect condition on the 
shelf, though there were a number of chil- 
dren in the school old enough to enjoy 
them, and only such books had been used 
as the more adventurous spirits in the 
school had tasted, found good and passed 
on to their fellows. 

Few children have books of their own 
one-third one-fourth one in ten being the 
answer which comes from the teachers to 
this query. Generally speaking, they read 
the books in the school library or none at 
all unless there is a traveling library at 
hand. 

Teachers' training departments in the 
high schools are doing much to help the 
country school. In the year's work the 
students get much of the spirit as well as 
methods of country school teaching for the 
training teacher is usually eager to give 
them all she has of enthusiasm and effi- 
ciency and reaches out for all help in her 
work. 

In one teacher's outlines, familiar look- 
ing notes on book selection and lists of 



294 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



children's books were discovered. She had 
patiently copied them from the summer 
school notes of the librarian in her home 
town and was using them with her stu- 
dents. In addition to her regular work she 
looks after the school library which is 
open to the public and also gives help to 
schools in the country in the arrangement 
of their school libraries. In most of these 
departments some work is attempted on 
the rural school library with required read- 
ing of children's books. 

The town librarians find these classes 
an opportunity to extend their influence 
by talks in the schools and showing the 
resources and use of the library. Acquaint- 
ance and work with country teachers 
helped one librarian to put through a long- 
cherished, long-fought scheme of county 
extension. As the teachers understand 
more fully the help they can get from the 
library the more eagerly they consult the 
librarian about their work. 

The inclusion of talks on children's 
books, reading and school libraries on the 
programs of the county teachers' and 
school officers' meetings, talks and exhibits 
at district and state educational gather- 
ings and the University weeks have helped 
to give school libraries new importance in 
the estimation of the teachers. 

The country school library to become 
useful must be reduced to a collection of 
books suited to the ages of the pupils as 
well as to the work in the school. As 
elsewhere, the best way to get the country 
child to read the best books is to have no 
other kind. 

Recent library legislation makes it pos- 
sible for any country or town school li- 
brary in Minnesota to combine with a pub- 
lic library for service. They may turn 
over their books not needed in the school 
and what is more valuable to the library, 
the fund which they are annually required 
to spend for library books. In return the 
library must furnish the school with trav- 
eling libraries of books selected from the 
state school list, suited to the pupils in the 
school, and the school .may also be a dis- 



tributing point for books for the neighbor- 
hood, a real branch. 

In some of the associated school districts 
the central library sends to the associated 
schools traveling libraries purchased by 
the district or borrowed from the library 
commission. In others, the country pupils 
act as a circulating medium for the cen- 
tral school library. In one town the school 
and town jointly maintain a good library 
with a competent librarian in the school- 
house and it successfully serves the town, 
the pupils for their reference work and the 
country 'round about through the country 
boys and girls who come in every day to 
school. 

The village or open country consolidated 
school presents yet another opportunity. 
These schools are the direct outgrowth of 
the new spirit of country life and are 
planned to minister to the social as well as 
the educational needs of the combined dis- 
tricts; and serve as a social center. The 
library is an important part of the equip- 
ment for this work. 

State plans for these buildings include 
a good-sized assembly room, and a room 
for a library is required. The principal 
of the school must be shown how the li- 
brary may help him in his work and he 
must be assisted in the selection of books 
not only for the school work but also for 
the boys' and girls' club, the potato and 
corn growing contests, the farmers' club, the 
women's club, the debating societies, lit- 
erary evenings, and social gatherings 
which he plans to make features of his 
school. 

Such are some of the possibilities. To 
make them realities, the teachers must be 
trained in an understanding of the pur- 
pose of a library and a knowledge of chil- 
dren's books, and every library agency in 
every county and state must be quickened 
toward, the most remote of "all of the chil- 
dren of all of the people." 

In the discussion by Mr. Kerr, Miss Bur- 
nite, Miss Brown, Miss Allin, Miss Zachert 
and Miss Hobart, which followed, the fol- 
lowing points were made: That the time 
to accomplish the work in question is 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



295 



when the teachers are in the normal 
schools, that such work should be based 
upon the teachers' intensive knowledge of 
children's books, and that influence may 
be gained by approaching the superintend- 
ents and by using as advertising mediums 
the school papers to which the teachers 
subscribe. 

Miss Power then gave the chair to Miss 
Mary E. Hall, librarian Girls' high school, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. Miss Hall introduced Miss 
MAUDE McCLELLAND, who told of her 
work in charge of the library in a high 
school in Passaic, N. J., pronounced by 
Miss Hall to be a model of its kind. Miss 
McClelland made a very happy comparison 
of the old time school boy and the school 
boy of today and discussed modern high 
school methods of helping children to meet 
actual problems in life. 

Miss McClelland said in part: 

THE WORK OF A HIGH SCHOOL 
BRANCH 

In the preface to a volume of essays en- 
titled "Literature and life," William Dean 
Howells defends the doctrine that the tree 
of knowledge, so familiar to all of us, is in 
reality but a branch of the tree of life. Lit- 
erature, instead of having a separate exist- 
ence of its own, is, as a matter of fact, 
but a part of life, and all that is necessary 
to make it a vital force in the lives of hu- 
man beings is to establish its identity with 
life. 

Now the emphasizing of this unity of lit- 
erature and life has become the self-ap- 
pointed task of the modern public library 
a task which it is approaching from a 
number of different angles, such as work 
with children, work with clubs, work with 
foreigners, and work with schools. Some- 
thing of what the library is doing along 
one of these lines that of work with 
schools may be learned by studying the 
methods in use in the high school branch 
of a public library. 

Perhaps these methods may best be il- 
lustrated by contrasting the school days 
of two brothers, Adam and Theodore. Now 
Adam went to school in the good old days 



when there were no high school libraries, 
and indeed very few libraries of any kind. 
At 9 o'clock every morning the active in- 
terests of life ceased for him. He then 
entered the schoolhouse and began the 
study of a set of lessons, which far re- 
moved from real life in themselves, could 
not be made intensely vital even by the 
best of teachers, because there was no li- 
brary in the building upon which the 
teachers could draw for books and other 
materials to illustrate the connection be- 
tween the classics and real life. 

The first subject upon his program was 
ancient history. This he learned with the 
aid of a text-book, condensed in form, and 
attenuated in spirit. To him the book was 
a collection of disagreeable facts to be 
learned by heart and then forgotten as 
quickly as possible after examinations 
were over. 

Now, when Adam's brother Theodore en- 
tered the school, matters had changed. A 
branch of the public library had been in- 
stalled, and the history teacher was no 
longer handicapped in her work. The mem- 
bers of Theodore's class had all been given 
special topics for investigation, so when 
the class in ancient history was called, one 
pupil drew upon the board the plan of a 
Greek house, which he had copied from 
Harper's classical dictionary, while an- 
other pupil, who had been to the library 
and interviewed Gulick's "Life of the an- 
cient Greeks," described the furniture and 
cooking utensils of the Greeks, and told 
about the kind of things they had to eat. 
And Theodore began to realize that after 
all, those ancient Greeks were real people, 
just like other real people. So from that 
history lesson he carried away inspiration 
from the life of the past toward the living 
of his own life of the present and future. 

The next lesson on the schedule for the 
day was English. Now, when Adam went 
to school, he had been rather fond of read- 
ing but that there could be any connec- 
tion between reading and the English work 
given him at school never entered his head 
for a moment. True, they did some read- 
ing in the English class, but it was read- 



296 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



ing in which he wasn't very much inter- 
ested, though he supposed that in some 
vague way it probably did him a great deal 
of good. The real reading, which he did 
surreptitiously at home was of an entirely 
different kind. Far from imagining that 
he derived any benefit from it, he at times 
even feared that he was endangering his 
immortal soul. But he felt that the pleas- 
ure was worth it. The two kinds of read- 
ing, if tabulated, would be about as fol- 
lows, the comparative amount done be- 
ing in about the ratio of 16 to 1 in favor 
of the kind he liked if he had luck in bor- 
rowing books from the boys: 



School Reading 

Rhetoric and compo- 
sition. 

Evangeline. 

Pilgrim's progress. 

Selections from Mil- 
ton. 

Lady of the lake. 



Home Reading 

The downward path 
or A debt of venge- 
ance. 

Helping himself. 

A leap in the dark. 

Trapped in his own 
net. 



The school reading was unexceptionable 
as to literary character, but, at least for 
the growing boy of average intelligence, 
it seemed to lack attractiveness. 

When Theodore entered the English 
class in high school, times had changed. 
The first thing the teacher did was to give 
him a list of books for home reading. At 
the top of the list was written, "These 
books may be borrowed either from the 
high school branch or from any other 
branch of the public library." On the list 
were such books as "Huckleberry Finn," 
"Tom Sawyer," "The jungle books," "Story 
of a bad boy," "The wonder book and tan- 
glewood tales," "Treasure island" and "The 
man without a country." 

Now, these books have literary charac- 
ter; they are attractive; furthermore, they 
were written by authors who at all times 
observe with proper respect and deference 
the laws of the English language. 

So, once more, through the aid of the li- 
brary, we find the connection between lit- 
erature and the joy of life established. 

In the old days, not much had been said 
about vocations, or working for a living. 
Indeed, the only ambition considered really 



worth while was that of going to college 
and becoming educated. To leave school 
before graduation was rather a disgrace, 
and if any boy was, like Lady Macbeth's 
guests, by force of circumstances, com- 
pelled to "go, and stay not upon the order 
of his going," his method of departure can 
best be described by the expression, "slink- 
ing out." But now, Theodore found the 
school ready and willing to help all those 
who had to leave school to go to work; 
and again, the connection between real life 
and 'school was established. 

And if Theodore found that the library 
was not lacking in books that would help 
in the practical issues of life, neither did 
he find a dearth of the books that are 
needed for companionship the books that 
we are inclined to group under the head- 
ing "Cultural reading." Oliver Wendell 
Holmes, in one of his essays, says, speak- 
ing of libraries, that he has the same easy 
feeling when among books that a stable- 
boy has among horses. And it is perhaps 
along this line that of inculcating a real 
love for books that the greatest work of 
the high school library lies. 

In an article on "Children's reading" in 
Harper's Weekly for May 31 there are 
some valuable suggestions for the libra- 
rian, not least among them that contained 
in the last paragraph, which I shall quote: 

"An excellent suggestion is that in all 
public schools there should be, as well as 
the supervisor of drawing, and the super- 
visor of music, and the supervisor of man- 
ual training, a supervisor of the art of 
reading. For is not reading, after all, an 
art, and an uplifting, consoling and edu- 
cative art?" 

Mr. SAMUEL H. RANCK, librarian of 
the Grand Rapids public library, read a full 
and interesting paper on 

THE LIBRARY'S OPPORTUNITIES IN 
VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE 

In October, 1911, the Grand Rapids pub- 
lic library published in its monthly bulle- 
tin an outline of the Central high school 
course in vocational guidance, with a se- 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



297 



lected list of the library's books on this 
subject for teachers and pupils. Five thou- 
sand copies were printed, and no number 
of the bulletin we have ever published has 
received so much attention. Requests for 
it have come from all over the world, and 
a number of institutions have purchased 
as many as 50 copies. This bulletin is now 
out of print. In the near future, on the ba- 
sis of our experience of the last few years, 
we expect to publish a revised edition of 
the vocational guidance list, which will in- 
clude much new material purchased on 
this subject in the last two years. 

Although this list has received so much 
attention outside of the city its greatest 
success has been in the city itself. It has 
brought to the library a great number of 
young people for the books for circulation 
and to the reference department for the 
preparation of all sorts of themes on voca- 
tional subjects as a part of their high 
school work in English. It is not an un- 
common thing to find from 20 to 50 high 
school students at one time working on 
this subject in our reference department. 
Incidentally this work at the library has 
been a splendid training for the boys and 
girls in the use of the reference books, 
and regardless of any direct effect it might 
have on their choice of a career it is cer- 
tain that the consideration of a number of 
subjects in connection with the possibility 
of their being followed as a vocation tends 
to broaden the life of any young person. 

At first this work was regarded some- 
what as a joke by some of the pupils but 
there has been less and less of this as time 
goes on. No work that the library has 
ever done in the way of making certain 
classes of books known to its readers has 
met with anything like the response as has 
this work of co-operation with the Central 
high school. 

All through this work the thought of 
the library has been that it is a co-oper- 
ating agent rather than an institution 
working independently, and it seems to me 
that in all work of this kind the teacher 
and the school through their intimate per- 
sonal knowledge of the child are in a much 



better position to guide the boys and girls 
than is the library. The library's place is 
simply that of being fully alive and sym- 
pathetic with the whole situation, and in 
putting forth every effort to gather all 
available data and to supply the needs of 
those who can use printed material on this 
subject. It does not of course neglect op- 
portunities for personal influence, but it 
seems to me that the library can not take 
the initiative in the same way nor on the 
same scale as does the school. Through 
the reading rooms the library has special 
opportunities to direct the "misfit" who 
comes to the library for a clue to a better 
occupation. 

Along with the list in our bulletin of 
October, 1911, which by the way includes 
only things in the circulating department 
of the library, we published an outline of 
work in vocational guidance in the Central 
high school by Principal Davis. The fol- 
lowing is his statement and the outline, as 
then in use, since modified somewhat on 
the basis of practical experience. 

Outline of Work in Vocational Guidance 
in the Central High School 

By Jesse B. Davis, Principal 

"Vocational guidance aims to direct the 
thought and growth of the pupil through- 
out the high school course along the 1 line 
of preparation for life's work. The plan it 
intended to give the pupil an opportunity 
to study the elements of character thaf 
give success in life, and by a careful sell 
analysis to compare his own abilities and 
opportunities with successful men and 
women of the past. By broadening his 
vision of the world's work, and applying 
his own aptitudes and tastes to the field 
of endeavor that he may best be able to 
serve, it is attempted to stir the student's 
ambition and to give a purpose to all his 
future efforts. Having chosen even a ten- 
tative goal his progress has direction. In 
the later study of moral and social ethics 
he has a viewpoint that makes the result 
both practical and effective. 

"In order to reach all the pupils in the 



298 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



high school this work is carried on through 
the department of English, which subject 
all pupils must take. Brief themes and 
discussions form the basis of the work. 
Pupils are directed in their reading along 
vocational and ethical lines and are ad- 
vised by teachers who have made a special 
study of vocational guidance. The follow- 
ing outline is but suggestive of the types 
of themes and discussions to be used. Each 
teacher is given opportunity to use her 
own individuality in working out the de- 
tails of the scheme. 

"Outline 

First Year 
1st Semester Elements of success in life. 

1. Every day problems. 

(a) The school, (b) The home, (c) 
The athletic field, (d) The 
social group. 

2. Elements of character. 

(a) Purpose of life, (b) Habit, (c) 
Happiness, (d) Self-control, 
(e) Work, (f) Health. 
2nd Semester Biography of successful 
men and women. 

1. Character sketches. 

2. Comparison of opportunities of 

with self. 

3. Comparison of qualities of with 

self. 

Second Year 
1st Semester The world's work. 

1. Vocations: Professions, occupations. 

2. Vocations of men. 

3. Vocations of women. 

2nd Semester Choosing a vocation. 

1. Making use of my ability. 

2. Making use of my opportunity. 

3. Why I should like to be 

4. The law of service. 

Third Year 
1st Semester Preparation for life's work. 

1. Should I go to college? 

2. How shall I prepare for my vocation? 

3. Vocational schools. 

4. How shall I get into business? 



2nd Semester Business ethics. 

1. Business courtesy. 

2. Morals in modern business methods. 

3. Employer and employee. 

4. Integrity an asset in business. 

Fourth Year 

1st Semester Social ethics: The individ- 
ual and society from the point of view 
of my vocation. 

1. Why should I be interested in 

(a) Public schools? (b) The slums? 
(c) Social settlements? (d) 
Public charities? (e) The 
church? (f) Social service? 

2. The Social relation of the business 

man. 

2nd Semester Social ethics: The individ- 
ual and the state from the point of 
view of my vocation. 

1. The rights of the individual. 

2. Protection of the individual from the 

state. 

3. The obligations of citizenship. 

4. The rights of property. 

5. The responsibility of power." 



The books in the bulletin were arranged 
in accordance with the foregoing outline, 
which takes the pupil through the whole 
four years of high school work. Princi- 
pal Davis' statement of the aims and meth- 
ods of vocational guidance as it is being 
carried on in Grand Rapids is sufficiently 
clear I think, and does not require any ad- 
ditional explanation. It should be clearly 
understood, however, that vocational guid- 
ance is altogether different from vocational 
education and from industrial education, 
subjects with which it is sometimes con- 
fused. 

To meet the many demands which come 
to Mr. Davis for information regarding vo- 
cational guidance he is now at work on a 
book which will discuss the whole matter 
fully. This book will probably be ready 
in the fall. It will contain a revised list 
of our books on this subject. 

At a recent meeting of the Board of 
Education this work was organized and 
systematized for the whole city, for all the 



WORK WITH CHILDREN 



299 



pupils in the seventh grade and upwards, 
with Principal Davis as director of the 
work. 

In the light of our experience we believe 
that the library, in addition to printing a 
list of books such as given in accordance 
with this outline, needs a supplementary 
list arranged according to vocations. On 
account of the growing interest in voca- 
tional education and industrial education 
there have been many useful books pub- 
lished within the last few years. When 
this work was first begun there was a 
dearth of suitable material on a good many 
subjects, and it was necessary for the li- 
brary to depend largely on magazine arti- 
cles, pamphlets, etc., in the reference de- 
partment, the best of which we have in- 
dexed according to subject, along with our 
indexing of other material such as college 
catalogs, to show the institutions where 
courses are given on particular subjects, 
etc. 

The following are a few of the subjects 
called for recently, as they were noted in 
the reference department: Nursing, Teach- 
ing, Drafting, Social settlement work, 
Dressmaking, Library work, Dentistry, Mu- 
sic, Mining engineering, Electrical engi- 
neering, Farming, Physical training, Agri- 
culture, Education of defectives, Forestry, 
Playground work, Stenography, Art, Me- 
chanics, Magazine illustrating, Domestic 
science, Landscape gardening, Designing 
dresses, Housekeeping, Social secretary 
work, Private secretary work, Decorative 
painting, Base-ball managership, Survey- 
ing, Civil service, Kindergarten work, Sci- 
entific farming, Physical culture. 

The purpose in all this work is to en- 
deavor to aid boys and girls to find a work 
in life that will command their best ener- 
gies, their intelligent interest, and is 
adapted to their capacities, thus avoiding 
so far as possible the bane of young peo- 
ple drifting into the first thing that comes 
along, whether they are fitted for it or not. 
This work puts before them the widest 
possible range of choice of vocation, en- 
larges their horizon, and then endeavors 
to ground them in those fundamental 



moral qualities which are the basis of 
every successful life. 

By putting the right sort of books into 
their hands in this way the library has a 
tremendous opportunity for influencing 
their lives at the most formative period, 
and at the same time developing in them a 
more or less serious attitude toward life 
and its work. The study of the lives of 
successful men and women and the study 
of the work and requirements of different 
vocations can not help but impress upon 
boys and girls the importance of prepara- 
tion and conscientious effort as prime req- 
uisites for success in any line of work. 

We of the library in Grand Rapids are 
of the opinion that the library alone in 
such work could do very little. As already 
stated we believe that the initiative should 
come from the school. On the other hand, 
we are firmly convinced that the school 
alone without the co-operation of the li- 
brary would be very seriously handi- 
capped. In the first place the school would 
be required to duplicate unnecessarily a 
large number of the books which are in 
our public libraries, and this of course 
would be an economic waste. In the sec- 
ond place the school would be denying the 
children one of the best opportunities to 
come in contact with an institution which 
aids them in the continuation of their ed- 
ucation all through life after they leave 
school. It is of immense value to the 
child to get training in the use of the li- 
brary in connection with the thinking he 
is giving to his work in after life. A bet- 
ter introduction of the child to the value 
of books and a public library, the library it- 
self could hardly ask. 

But the library's greatest opportunity in 
vocational guidance is in the fact that all 
this work is really constructive manhood 
and womanhood, or if you please,' construc- 
tive citizenship. And this is not only the 
greatest work the library can do, but the 
greatest work any institution can do. 

This subject proved a timely one and 
aroused considerable discussion. Many 
questions were asked concerning the co-op- 
eration of the public library in Grand Rap- 



300 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



ids with this department of work in the 
high school. Mr. Ranck announced that 
Mr. Davis, principal of the Central high 
school, expects to bring out a book in the 
fall which shall include outlines and the 
list of books which has been in such great 
demand and which is now out of print. 

The discussion seemed to show that "vo- 
cational guidance" is a legitimate field not 
adequately' covered by libraries. Miss 
Power now took the chair. 

Miss Burnite made a motion to adopt 
the following resolution: 

Whereas, the members of the American 
Library Association who are engaged in 
work with children feel the great bond of 
affection for all those who have rendered 
that service to child life which the achieve- 
ment of efficient library service for chil- 
dren signifies; 

And whereas, the Dayton public library 
has suffered the destruction of its chil- 
dren's department and thereby the chil- 
dren of the city are without the influence 
of good books at the time they need them 
most; 

Be it resolved: that we express to the 
Board of Trustees, the librarian, Miss Clat- 
worthy, the head of the children's depart- 
ment, Miss Ely, our deep sympathy and the 
hope that their work may be rehabilitated 
upon a greater plane of service. 

Be it resolved also, that these resolu- 
tions be spread upon the minutes of this 
meeting and the secretary be empowered 
to forward them to the library officials 



mentioned with the request that the res- 
olutions be forwarded to the Women's 
Clubs of the city and especially to the 
Mothers' Clubs as an expression of sym- 
pathy for them also, in the loss of the de- 
partment of the library which has fur- 
thered their own efforts in bettering child 
life. 

The motion was carried and the session 
adjourned. 

BUSINESS MEETINGS 

At the business meetings of the section 
held June 25th at 2:30 p. m. and after 
the session, Friday, June 27th, the chair- 
man appointed three new members of the 
advisory board, as follows: For one year, 
Mr. Henry E. Legler, and, for three years, 
Miss Linda Eastman and Miss Lutie E. 
Stearns. Miss Annie C. Moore, Miss Clara 
W. Hunt and Miss Caroline Burnite were 
appointed members of the nominating com- 
mittee, and upon their recommendation the 
following officers for the ensuing year were 
unanimously elected: Miss Agnes Cowing, 
chairman; Miss Mary Ely, vice chairman; 
Miss Ethel Underbill, secretary. Miss 
Adah Whitcomb and Miss Faith Smith 
were appointed by the chair to investigate 
the subject of simplified headings in sev- 
eral different libraries, to confer with the 
Catalog Section and A. L. A. Publishing 
Board, and to report to the Section. 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



MAIN SESSION 

The main session of the College and 
Reference Section was held on Tuesday 
afternoon, June 24th, at the Hotel Kaaters- 
kill. Mr. Andrew Keogh, reference li- 
brarian of Yale University, presided; Miss 
Amy L. Reed, librarian of Vassar College, 
acted as secretary. 

The chairman asked for a motion to fill 
the vacancy on the committee of arrange- 
ments which would be caused by his own 
retirement. It was voted that the Chair 
appoint a nominating committee; Mr. L. L. 
Dickerson, librarian of Grinnell College, 
and Miss Laura Gibbs, cataloger of Brown 



University, were asked to serve as such a 
committee. 

The session then proceeded to the pro- 
gram for the day, which was the work of 
Miss Sarah B. Askew, New Jersey public 
library commission, and of Mr. N. L. Good- 
rich, librarian of Dartmouth College. In 
order to secure pointed discussion Mr. 
Goodrich had caused brief summaries of 
the papers to be printed and distributed to 
members of the section two weeks before 
the meeting. 

Miss LUCY M. SALMON, professor of 
history at Vassar College, read the first pa- 
per, entitled 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



301 



INSTRUCTION IN THE USE OF A COL- 
LEGE LIBRARY 

Students who enter college are in an al- 
together hopeless state, if we are to be- 
lieve the lamentations poured out in edu- 
cational reviews and in library journals. 
In familiar phrase, "they have left undone 
those things which they ought to have 
done, and they have done those things 
which they ought not to have done, and 
there is no health in them." But it is not 
given either a college librarian or a .col- 
lege instructor to remain long hopeless, 
either for himself or for others, the very 
nature of his calling demands that some- 
body do something. Discouragement over 
ignorant and untrained freshmen dissolves 
into the bewildering questions of who is to 
do what, and when, and where, and how, 
And so the college year begins. 

It is undoubtedly true that a very large 
majority of college freshmen are not fa- 
miliar with a Jarge library such as they 
meet in college, that they have never used 
a card catalog, and that they would not 
even recognize it if they saw one. 

But is it reasonable to expect such 
knowledge? The majority come from 
small places where such opportunities are 
not found, the work of the secondary 
schools does not demand extensive use 
of a library, and the mental immaturity 
of pupils of the secondary school age does 
not augur well either for an understand- 
ing of the intricacies of the card catalog, 
or for any special interest in the catalog- 
ing of books, or in general library history 
and administration. If the entering stu- 
dent had a knowledge of these things, one 
reason for going to college would be lack- 
ing, he goes to college to learn what he 
cannot reasonably be expected to know 
before that time. 

Cheerfully accepting then this condition 
of ignorance of all library procedure on 
the part of the rank and file of college 
freshmen everywhere, and unanimously 
agreeing that the college student must in 
some way learn how to use a library, di- 
versity of opinion is found in regard to 
these two questions: Is this instruction 



given better as an independent course to 
the entering students, or is it better to 
give it in connection with regular college 
work? Should the instruction be given 
by members of the library staff, or by 
college instructors? 

The very fact that this question has 
been broached is helpful, since it is sig- 
nificant of the great changes that are 
coming both in library administration and 
in educational theory and practice. It sug- 
gests the increasing specialization in li- 
brary work, the growing co-operation be- 
tween the library force and those engaged 
in the more technical side of education, 
newer and, we believe, higher ideals of the 
object and therefore of the process of 
education, and the reflection of these 
changes in the development in the student 
body of independence, self-reliance, and 
the desire to do creative work. 

Assuming therefore that we are all in- 
terested in securing for the college stu- 
dent fullness of knowledge at the earliest 
hour possible, I venture personally to dif- 
fer somewhat from the report of the ma- 
jority of the committee of the New Eng- 
land college librarians and to say that 
from the angle of the college instructor, 
it seems clear to me that the knowledge 
is better acquired in connection with reg- 
ular college courses and that it can best 
be given by college instructors. It is with 
most of us a favorite occupation to see 
how many birds we can bring down with 
one stone, and this desire is in a sense 
gratified if we can incorporate knowledge 
of how to use a library with the subject 
matter included in a particular course, it 
seems a saving of time for student, in- 
structor and librarian. Everything is clear 
gain that can be picked up by the way. 

But quite apart from this general desire 
to telescope several subjects, there are 
specific advantages gained by the student 
when the instruction is given by the in- 
structor of a regular college class. The 
knowledge acquired falls naturally Into 
its place in connection with definite, con- 
crete work. Abstract theory has little 
place in the mental equipment of the fresh 



302 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



man, he seeks out relationships, adds new 
knowledge to what he already has, and 
quite reasonably is impatient, even intoler- 
ant in spirit when new ideas and facts are 
presented to him that he cannot imme- 
diately assimilate. To use a homely il- 
lustration, an article of food, like butter, 
that is essential for our physical diet 
serves its purpose much better when dis- 
tributed through other articles of food 
than if taken independently and by itself. 
All new ideas in regard to library organiza- 
tion, cataloging, bibliography, searching 
for material, the handling of books, if 
gained through the usual channels of col- 
lege wdrk, are quickly and easily' assimi- 
lated by the college student. If, however, 
these same ideas are presented to him 
unrelated to other work they are in danger 
of remaining unassimilated and of becom- 
ing a hindrance rather than a help. 

On the other hand, the advantages in 
having the instruction given by a regular 
college instructor are that he deals with 
small sections of students, not with "num- 
bers which are appallingly large;" that 
he knows the individual student; that he 
is able to relate the bibliographical work 
with the individual student on the one 
hand, and on the other hand with the spe- 
cial subject with which the student is 
working. 

Personally, I can but feel that the as- 
sumption made by the committee of the 
New England college librarians, by the li- 
brarian of the Newark public library, by 
the dean of the collegiate department of 
the University of Illinois, and by others in 
the library field that college instructors 
are not interested in this matter and would 
oppose instruction in it is not really war- 
ranted by the condition that exists. 

May I venture to describe somewhat in 
detail what is done in one college in show- 
ing students how to use books, how to be- 
come acquainted with the opportunities of 
a large library, and how to avail them- 
selves of these opportunities in a direct 
personal way. In giving this account of 
what is done in Vassar College, may I em- 
phasize the statement that the work done 



is by no means peculiar to one college, 
other institutions all over the country are 
doing much that in principle is precisely 
the same, although the details may vary. 

The first aid in knowledge of the library 
building, of its equipment, and of how to 
use its collections is given the Vassar Col- 
lege student literally during her first hours 
on the college campus. She is met by a 
member of the senior or the junior class 
and taken about the campus, and it is the 
duty of these student guides to give every 
entering student a copy of the Students' 
Handbook. In this she is urged to "be- 
come acquainted with the library as soon 
as possible." "The reference librarian," 
the Handbook tells her, "expects every 
new student to come to the reference desk 
to be shown about the arrangement of the 
library and the use of the catalog and to 
receive a copy of the library Handbook." 

The guides point out the library and 
they are instructed to urge the new stu- 
dents to seek out the reference librarian 
at once and to make the library trip im- 
mediately. The new student goes to the 
residence hall where she is to live and she 
finds on the bulletin board in this hall an 
invitation to take the library trip. The 
records kept by the reference librarian 
show that a very large percentage of the 
entering students almost immediately 
avail themselves of this invitation extend- 
ed by guides and reiterated by Handbook 
and by bulletin boards. 

When the new student first enters the 
library she is given a plan of the building 
showing the arrangement of the different 
sections and a handbook explaining in 
full the library privileges. Armed with 
this, she is met by the reference librarian 
and then joining a group of three others 
she is taken through the library where she 
makes connections between the plan in 
her hand, the books on the shelves, "the 
inanimate reference librarian the card 
catalog " and the animate reference li- 
brarian in whom she finds a guide, coun- 
selor and friend. 

This library trip can be, and is intended 
to be only general in character. The stu- 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



303 



dent gains from it first of all the conscious- 
ness of having found in the reference libra- 
rian a friend to whom she can always go 
for help and advice; second, her interest 
is aroused to become better acquainted 
with the card catalog and with the general 
facilities for work afforded by the library; 
and third she gains a determination to fol- 
low the injunction of the Students' Hand- 
book, "do your part to make the library 
an ideal place in which to work." 

It is at this stage, after this general in- 
struction given by the reference librarian, 
that the majority of the entering students 
meet the officers of the department of 
history. We give them collectively during 
the first week, usually the second day, an 
illustrated lecture on the library. This 
includes slides showing the catalog cards 
of a few of the books they will use most 
in their history work, the cards of the 
most important reference works, periodi- 
cals, and atlases, slides showing the dif- 
ference between a "see" card and a "see 
also" card, slides that explain incomplete 
series, continuation cards, and every vari- 
ation that concerns their immediate work. 
Every slide concerns a work on history 
that is to be used almost immediately, and 
the form used in cataloging, the notation 
and the annotation, the hieroglyphics of 
the printed card, and the bibliographical 
features of the card are fully explained 
from the screen. 

The students then meet their individual 
instructors, each one having previously 
provided herself with a pamphlet called 
"Suggestions for the Year's Study, His- 
tory I." This pamphlet, besides giving de- 
tailed instructions for the preparation of 
the work, includes a plan of the library; 
suggestions in regard to its history, as al- 
so the description and the meaning of its 
exterior and interior; a facsimile and ex- 
planation of the catalog card of the text 
book used in the course; hints concern- 
ing the general card catalog; an analysis 
of the general form and different parts of 
a book; special directions for preparing 
the bibliographical slips or cards that 
must accompany every topic presented, to- 



gether with an illustration of a model 
card; a full classification, with illustra- 
tions under each, of all the works of ref- 
erences the class will presumably use, in- 
cluding general works of reference, dic- 
tionaries, encyclopaedias, periodicals, year 
books, atlases, autobiographical material, 
including the various forms of Who's 
Who? together with biographical, ecclesi- 
astical and various miscellaneous diction- 
aries and encyclopaedias; an elaborate 
chart devised to show the authoritative- 
ness as history of the text book used in 
the course, accompanied by a full ex- 
planation of it; suggestions in regard to 
the purchase of histories for a personal 
library; and finally, a recommendation to 
make use of another pamphlet called Sug- 
gestive Lists for Reading in History. The 
main points in the pamphlet Suggestions 
for the Year's Study are talked over be- 
tween instructor and students, and con- 
stant reference is made to it throughout 
the year. 

The next step in the history work is to 
assign each student one or more questions 
written on a slip and drawn by lot. These 
questions are intended to test her assimi- 
lation of the bibliographical help already 
given, and her ability to apply to a con- 
crete case what she has gained. As soon 
and as often as possible the students in 
the different sections of this class in his- 
tory go to the library with the instructor 
for such additional and special help as 
they mry need. 

From time to time the students in His- 
tory I prepare special topics on limited 
questions. A bibliography must always 
preface these topics and if it is in any way 
at fault, either as regards form or ma- 
terial, it must be presented a second time 
or as many times as is necessary to cor- 
rect the defects. 

This course in History I is required of 
every student in college. Those students 
who elect other courses based on this be- 
come acquainted with still other features 
of the library and acquire added facility 
in bibliographical work. Every student, 
for example, who elects the course in 



304 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



American history has a pamphlet called 
Suggestions for the Year's Study, His- 
tory A, AA. This pamphlet includes a 
chart that shows the location in the li- 
brary of all the sections of. American his- 
tory, each accompanied by the Dewey 
notation for each section, and also the 
notation for the sections in political sci- 
ence, law and government, American lit- 
erature, English literature, and English 
history. It also considers at length the 
place in the course of the textbook, sec- 
ondary works, collections of sources, al- 
manacs, works on government, guides to 
literature, state histories, biographies, 
travels, and illustrative material. For the 
latter the students are again referred to 
Suggestive Lists for Reading in History. 

Another section of the pamphlet con- 
siders specific classes of books which the 
student uses. It calls attention to the va- 
rious kinds of bibliographies, as complete, 
selected, classified, and annotated; to li- 
brary catalogs arranged on the dictionary, 
author, subject, and title plan, as also to 
trade catalogs; to documents classified by 
form and by contents; to official publi- 
cations, and the publications of historical 
societies; to every form of personal rec- 
ord; to descriptions by travelers; and to 
general and special histories. It also takes 
up periodicals; manuscripts; special fac- 
similes, like the B. F. Stevens; geograph- 
ical material; monumental records; in- 
scriptions, and pictorial material. 

Elaborate directions are given for pre- 
paring exhaustive bibliographies of the 
material in the college library on special 
subjects and suggestions for expanding 
these in the future as other opportunities 
for further library work are presented. In 
addition, tin trays of cards are provided 
in the American history sections. These 
are bibliographical cards that supplement 
but do not duplicate the catalog cards of 
the general library catalog. 

During the year about twenty special 
topics are prepared by this class, each pre- 
faced by a bibliography of the subject. At 
the end of the year, one special biblio- 
graphical topic is presented. This repre- 



sents what each student can do in the time 
given to three classroom hours. 

At the end of the first semester of this 
course the examination given is not a test 
of what the students have remembered but 
rather a test of what they are able to do 
under definite conditions. The class is sent 
to the library, each member of it usually 
receives by lot an individual question, and 
she then shows what facility she has 
gained in the use of books by answering 
the question with full range of the library. 

Other pamphlets of Suggestions have oc- 
casionally been prepared for the most ad- 
vanced courses. At the end of the senior 
year the students in my own courses are 
frequently given an examination that calls 
.~i the freest use of the library in the 
planning of history outlines for club work, 
in arranging for a public library selected 
lists of histories suitable for "all sorts and 
conditions of men," and similar tests that 
show how far they are able to apply pres- 
ent bibliographical knowledge to probable 
future experiences. 

All this instruction and opportunity for 
practice in bibliography is not left to "the 
chance instruction of enthusiastic instruc- 
tors" or to "the insistence of department 
heads" to quote Mr. Kendric C. Babcock.i 
It is definitely planned, it is systematically 
carried out, there is definite progression 
from year to year in the kind of biblio- 
graphical work required, and it is directly 
related to the specific and individual work 
of every student. From time to time con- 
ferences are held by the members of the 
library staff and the instructors in history 
and these conferences enable each depart- 
ment to supplement and complement the 
work of the other and thus avoid repe- 
tition and duplication. 

This division of labor enables the ref- 
erence librarian to play the part of hos- 
tess, to make the students feel at home, 
to secure their good will and co-operation, 
to develop a sense of personal responsi- 
bility towards the library and its treas- 
ures. Her work as regards the library is 



1. Library Journal, March, 1913, p. 135. 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



305 



largely general and descriptive; as regards 
the students it is that of a friend and coun- 
selor; as regards the other officers of the 
college it is that of an ally and co-opera- 
tor. 

It is necessary to emphasize at this 
point the wide divergence between the 
work of the reference librarian in the col- 
lege or the university and that of the ref- 
erence librarian in the public library how- 
ever large or small it may be. 

In the public library the demand made 
upon the reference librarian is for defi- 
nite information for immediate use; the 
library patron wishes, not training in ac- 
quiring information by and for himself, 
but the information itself; no substitu- 
tion of deferred dividends will satisfy his 
insistent demand for immediate cash pay- 
ment; he cares not at all for method but 
he cares very particularly for instant re- 
sults. Moreover, no one intervenes be- 
tween the reference librarian and the li- 
brary patron, he alone is responsible for 
giving the information desired. And again, 
the reference librarian has to deal with 
an irregular, constantly fluctuating clien- 
tele. The man who wants to know who 
first thought the world was round and 
whether he was a vegetarian or perchance 
a cannibal may never visit the library 
again, but the effort must be made to sat- 
isfy his curiosity. The reference librarian 
of the public library must always be more 
or less of a purveyor of miscellaneous in- 
formation to an irregular fluctuating pub- 
lic. 

But the functions of the college refer- 
ence librarian are altogether different. It 
is often his duty not to give, but tem- 
porarily to withhold information; not to 
answer but to ask questions; to answer 
one question by asking another; to help a 
student answer his own question for him- 
self, work out his own problems, and find 
a way out of his difficulties; to show him 
how to find for himself the material de- 
sired; to give training rather than spe- 
cific information; to be himself a teacher 
and to co-operate with other instructors in 
training the students who seek his help. 



All this is possible for him for he deals 
with a regular constituency and he can 
build up each year on the foundations of 
the previous year. But while progression 
comes for the students, there is alwaya 
the solid permanency of subject with 
which the reference librarian deals. With 
the regularity of the passing calendar 
there come the questions of the feudal sys- 
tem and of the frontier, of the renaissance 
and of how to follow a bill through con- 
gress. The personnel of the student body 
changes, but there is always an unchang- 
ing residium of subject matter. On the 
side of the regular college work there la 
therefore practically no demand whatever 
made on the college reference librarian for 
the miscellaneous information demanded 
of the public reference librarian, he is 
not the one who writes for the daily pa- 
pers the description in verse of the daily 
life of the reference librarian, i Just what 
his work is in the college, from the stu- 
dents' point of view is indicated by a re- 
cent experience. 

A class of seventy in American history 
was recently asked to what extent the 
members of it had availed themselves of 
the services of the reference librarian in 
that particular course and the replies seem 
to show that their inquiries had chiefly 
related to the use of government publi- 
cations, early periodical literature, mate- 
rial not suggested by the titles of books, 
out-of-the-way material, source material, 
and current newspaper material not avail- 
able through indexes. The many tributes 
to the help received from the Vassar Col- 
lege reference librarian are perhaps best 
gummed up, so it seems to the teacher, in 
the statement of one student "she shows 
you how to go about finding a book bet- 
ter the next time." 

If then it must be evident that the work 
of the college reference librarian differs 
widely from that of the public reference 
librarian, it remains to consider specific- 
ally what division of the field should be 
made between the college reference li- 



1. Library Journal, Oct., 1912. Public li- 
braries, June, 1913. 



306 



KAATBRSKILL CONFERENCE 



brarian and the college instructor. Here 
a clear line of demarcation seems evi- 
dent. The college instructor must know 
the student personally and intellectually, 
as he must know the conditions from 
which he has come and the conditions to 
which he presumably is to go. He must 
help the student relate all the various 
parts of his college work and help him 
relate h-is college work "to the general 
conditions in which he is placed. Hence 
he cannot separate for the student the 
bibliography of a subject from the subject 
itself. Nor can he turn over to the li- 
brarian the instruction in bibliographical 
work. The reference librarian is the only 
member of the library staff who in the 
capacity of a teacher come^ into direct 
personal relationship with the student, but 
his work, as has been seen, is entirely 
different. 

In this division of the field that leaves 
to the college instructor the actual in- 
struction of students in the use of books, 
a large unoccupied territory is claimed by 
the reference librarian as peculiarly his 
own. This concerns the "extra-collegiate 
activities" and includes help on material 
needed in inter-class debates, dramatics, 
pageants, college publications, Bible 
classes, mission classes, commencement 
essays, and all the miscellaneous activities 
in which the student, not the instructor, 
takes the initiative. This work corre- 
sponds somewhat closely to that of the 
general reference librarian in a public li- 
brary and it demands about one-half of the 
time of the librarian. 

Instruction in the use of the library is 
facilitated by unrestricted access to the 
shelves and here the students are able to 
put their knowledge to the test and to 
work out their own independent methods. 

What are the advantages and the disad- 
vantages of unrestricted access to the li- 
brary shelves? The question was recently 
asked a class of seventy students and their 
replies show an almost unanimous -opinion 
that the advantages are overwhelmingly in 
favor of the open shelves. 

Among the educational advantages enu- 



merated are that this fosters independence 
and self-reliance, through encouraging per- 
sonal investigation; that it enables stu- 
dents to see books in relation to other 
books, to make comparisons, and therefore 
to select those that are the best to use; 
that it shows the library resources and, to 
a certain extent, the breadth of the inves- 
tigation that has been done in specific 
lines. "The open shelf is an instructor, a 
great indispensable helper, an education in 
itself," writes one student, while another 
states, "It gives an opportunity to form 
a closer acquaintance with books already 
known by name, and for casual acquaint- 
ance with books one has not time to draw 
cut and read at length." 

On the more personal side the students 
have found the advantages to be the pleas- 
ure found in handling books; the appeal 
made by titles and bindings; the inspira- 
tion that comes from the feeling of kin- 
ship with books; the opportunity given for 
wide acquaintance with books and au- 
thors; more extensive reading; the saving 
of time; the satisfaction of being able to 
find what is wanted, freedom from the lim- 
itations of specific references. "We be- 
come interested in subjects and in books 
we should not otherwise have known at 
all," writes one, while another asked a 
friend who replied, "Well, I don't know 
exactly what it means, but I guess it 
means that I for one use books I never 
otherwise would have used." 

On the side of the library as a whole, 
many have found advantages in the oppor- 
tunity it gives of doing general and spe- 
cial bibliographical work and in the knowl- 
edge afforded of the general plan of ar- 
rangement, classification, and cataloging. 
"If we had to stay in a reading room, how 
much idea of library organization should 
we have?" is the clinching question of one 
enthusiastic student. 

The moral advantages are found to be 
the feeling of responsibility towards books 
and the training given in not abusing the 
privilege. 

But it is in the failure of some persons 
to avail themselves of these opportunities 



307 



for moral training that students find the 
disadvantages of the open shelf. There are 
the periodic complaints that books are lost, 
misplaced, hidden, and monopolized; that 
the privilege is abused; and that the social 
conscience is lacking. "The open shelf is 
the ideal system but it is designed for an 
ideal society," feelingly writes one, while 
another, more philosophical, finds that the 
open shelf has its annoyances, but no dis- 
advantages, and that these are probably 
to be charged up to human nature, not to 
the system. 

Only an occasional one sees any other 
disadvantages. One student finds herself 
bewildered and lost in irrelevant material, 
while another brought up in the atmos- 
phere of Harvard, thinks that the closed 
stack encourages greater precision and 
carefulness, "for if you have to put in a 
slip and wait for a book you are more care- 
ful about your choice than you are when 
you can easily drop one found tc be un- 
satisfactory and lay your hands immedi- 
ately upon another one." "It may be," 
adds a third, "that we do not get all we 
might from a book when it is so easy to 
get others. I find myself often putting 
aside a book when I do not immediately 
find what I want." 

With an occasional plaint about the in- 
creased noise and that the open shelf real- 
ly takes more time since it is easier to ask 
for an authority on a specified subject than 
It is to look it up for one's self, the case 
for and against the open shelf, from the 
side of the student, seems closed, with the 
verdict overwhelmingly in favor of unre- 
stricted access to the library shelves. 

I cannot forbear suggesting two direc- 
tions in which it seems to me the library 
&ork could be extended to the advantage 
of both library and academic force. 

The first is the desirability of having 
connected with every college library an in- 
structor in the department of history who 
gives instruction in one or more courses in 
history and who is at the same time defi- 
nitely responsible for the development of 
the bibliographical side of the history 
work. 



The work of the history librarian on the 
library side would be to serve as a consult- 
ing expert on all questions that arise in 
cataloging books that are on the border 
lines between history and other subjects. 
Such perplexing questions are constantly 
arising and valuable aid might be given in 
such cases by an expert in history. 

Another part of the work of the history 
librarian from the side of the library 
would be to keep the librarian and the h' 
tory department constantly informed of op- 
portunities to purchase at advantage 
works on history that are available only 
through the second-hand dealers. It now 
usually devolves on some member of the 
library staff to study the catalogs of sec- 
ond-hand books and report "finds" to some 
officer of the history department. Could 
facilities be provided for making it pos- 
sible to have the initiative come from the 
history side it would seem a distinct gain. 

The work of the history librarian would 
also include the responsibility for the clas- 
sification, arrangement and care of the 
mass of apparently miscellaneous material 
that accumulates in every library but does 
not slip naturally into a predestined place. 
All is grist that comes to the history mill, 
yet it is difficult to know how it can best 
be cared for. Miss Hasse in her well- 
remembered article On the Classification 
of Numismatics 1 has shown that the utmost 
diversity has prevailed in regard to the 
classification of coins and the literary ma- 
terial dealing with them. This is but one 
illustration of the uncertainty, confusion, 
and diversity that prevails in classifying 
much of the material that seems miscella- 
neous in character, and that yet should be 
classified as historical material. 

The work of the history librarian on the 
side of the students would be concerned 
during th first semester particularly with 
the freshmen and the sophomores. The 
bibliographical and reference work now 
done could be greatly enlarged and ex- 
tended. It would be possible to explain 
still more fully the possibilities of assist- 
ance from the card catalog; to help stu- 



1. Library Journal, September, 1904. 



308 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



dents locate the more special histories 
that might seem to be luxuries rather than 
the necessities of their work; to make 
them acquainted with histories as his- 
tories, rather than with histories as fur- 
nishing specific material; to develop their 
critical appreciation of books and their 
Judgment in regard to the varying degrees 
of authoritativeness of well known old and 
recent histories. Encouragement would be 
given the students to begin historical li- 
braries for themselves, advice could be 
given in making reasonable selections of 
books, and help in starting a catalog. In- 
terest in suitable book-plates for historical 
collections might be roused as well as in- 
terest in suitable bindings, and thus 
through these luxurious accessories the 
student be led on to friendship with the 
books themselves and with their author. 

During the second semester the work of 
the history librarian would be largely with 
the seniors and would be more construc- 
tive in its nature. The seniors are looking 
forward to taking an active part in the 
life of their home communities and they 
will be interested in the public schools, in 
the public library, in social work, in 
church work, in history and literary clubs, 
in historical pageants, fetes and excur- 
sions, in historical museums, in the cele- 
bration of historic days, and in innumer- 
able other civic activities, many of which 
are intimately connected with the subject 
of history. The history librarian would 
be able to give invaluable aid to the sen- 
iors in preparing lists of histories suitable 
for public libraries in communities where 
suggestions may prove welcome; in sug- 
gesting histories adapted to all these de- 
mands made by personal, co-operative, and 
civic activities. This constructive work of 
the history librarian would be capable of 
infinite extension and variation and its 
good results would be far-reaching and of 
growing momentum. 

May I suggest one further possib 1 ^ direc- 
tion in which the activities of the library 
staff would lend interest to the general 
work of the college. Every institution 
needs luxuries and the members of the li- 



brary staff have it in their power to offer 
courses of lectures open to all members of 
the college and also to citizens of the com- 
munity who are interested in educational 
questions. Such courses would include lec- 
tures on the history of libraries; on the 
great libraries of Europe and America; on 
the great libraries of the world; on great 
editors like Benjamin P. Stevens; on rare 
books; on books famous for the number of 
copies sold, of editions, of translations, of 
migrations through auction rooms; on the 
famous manuscripts of the world. The pos- 
sibilities of such courses are limitless. 

There are also the courses of lectures 
that we are all eager to hear on the plain 
necessities that are of even greater inter- 
est than are those that deal with the lux- 
uries. The college wants to hear about the 
administration of a library and its general 
problems; about the special questions of 
cataloging, interlibrary loans, the special 
collections of the library as well as its 
general resources. From the standpoint of 
special departments, lectures might be giv- 
en by representatives of these departments 
on the treasures of the library as they con- 
cern their special fields. 

Joint department meetings of the mem- 
bers of the library staff and the officers of 
the departments of English and of history 
for the discussion of questions of mutual 
interest have at Vassar College proved 
stimulating and contributed much to a mu- 
tual understanding of each other's ideals 
and to a sympathetic appreciation of the 
difficulties attending their realization. 

"Why cannot all this work with and 
about books be explained by the libra- 
rians, " college authorities sometimes 
ask. "That is their business; it is the 
business of the teacher to teach." 

The answer is simple. The good teacher 
must individualize the student, the good 
librarian must individualize the book; and 
both teacher and librarian must co-operate 
in helping the college student get the ut- 
most possible from his college course in 
order that in his turn he may help the com- 
munity in which he lives in its efforts to 
realize its ideals. The endless chain ex- 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



309 



tends to the farthermost confines of 
heaven! 

Discussion of the paper was led by Mr. 
J. T. Gerould, librarian of the University 
of Minnesota. He believed that most col- 
lege teachers had neither the knowledge 
nor the enthusiasm necessary to give sys- 
tematic bibliographic instruction. Train- 
ing in the use of the library should, he 
thought be given by a member of the li- 
brary staff, from a general point of view, 
introducing the student to reference books 
not simply in one field, but in all. The 
time had come for the university libraries 
to define their position as a distinct edu- 
cational integer, not a mere adjunct to the 
academic departments. Of course, to take 
such a position, the library staff must be 
thoroughly equipped, and must include 
trained bibliographers in adequate number. 

Dr. E. C. Richardson, librarian of Prince- 
ton University, called attention to the fact 
that the principle of unrestricted access to 
the shelves required hearty cooperation 
between the college public and the library 
staff. It should be recognized that the li- 
brarian is not responsible for the correct 
placing of every book on an "open shelf." 

Mr. John D. Wolcott, librarian of the Bu- 
reau of Education, Washington, D. C., 
spcke of the questionnaire on the subject 
under discussion sent out in October, 1912, 
by the A. L. A. to two hundred colleges and 
universities. A summary of the results 
were included in the chapter entitled "Re- 
cent aspects of library development" by 
John D. Wolcott, which forms a part of the 
Report of the IT. S. Commissioner of Edu- 
cation for the year ended June 30, 1912. 
Reprints may be obtained from the Com- 
missioner. 

Mr. H. C. Prince, librarian of the Maine 
state library, called attention to the 
courses in legal bibliography which were 
being given at various law schools. Those 
at the University of Chicago, though with- 
out credit, were eagerly attended by law 
students. 

Mr. Goodrich reiterated his belief that 
the libraries should take a definite stand 
in insisting that college students must be 



taught how to use library resources to the 
full. They must learn the many "tricks 
of the trade," which in his opinion, were 
better known at present to the librarian 
than to the teacher. Miss Salmon replied 
that she thought it less a question of learn- 
ing the "tricks of the trade" than of adapt- 
ing the desired knowledge to the individual 
need and capacity of the student; hence 
her belief in the teacher as the proper me- 
dium of instruction. The discussion could 
not be pursued for lack of time. 

Mr. H. E. BLISS, librarian of the College 
of the City of New York, read a paper on 

SOME PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS 

REGARDING CLASSIFICATION 

FOR LIBRARIES 

I 

The letter inviting me to take part in 
this conference echoes to me now across 
the busy field of the past month with notes 
something like this: "Come, if you will, 
and talk to us and with us, but please be 
practical." Perhaps I have elsewhere in- 
adroitly given the impression that I believe 
classification for libraries should be a mat- 
ter of science or of philosophy. I did in- 
deed say in print, some months ago, that 
"To be practical today and tomorrow, man 
must be scientific." Upon science, that is 
verified and organized knowledge, prac- 
tical common sense is becoming more and 
more dependent. To be practical without 
knowledge is in most matters to be inef- 
fectively practical. How practical should 
we be in classification for libraries, and 
how should we be practical effectually? 

Those who have had to do with classi- 
fication only in small collections of books 
for popular use may regard it as a com- 
paratively simple and unimportant thing. 
They do not see why there should be so 
much trouble and fuss about it. This we 
may term the nai've view, to borrow a 
phrase from recent philosophical litera- 
ture. But some of those who have under- 
taken to maintain a classification for a 
large university or reference library know 
that it is one of the most difficult and com- 



310 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



plicated of our problems. They apprehend 
furthermore that it has not yet been solved 
satisfactorily. This may be termed the 
critical view. It may vary from modera- 
tion to extremes optimistic or pessimistic. 
Not a toy librarians want but a tool, as 
we say. The mechanism of a library, how- 
ever, is not operated by merely mechanical 
hands. There should be somewhat in li- 
brary service beyond mere statistical and 
technical economies. Our arrangement of 
books should not be inconsistent with the 
organization of knowledge, lest we fail in 
an inestimable service to the seekers and 
disseminators of knowledge. 

II 

Is it feasible economically to adapt this 
instrument, classification, to that higher 
service? There are three answers to this 
question. There is the pessimistic nega- 
tive. Books are wanted in all possible and 
impossible arrangements. You cannot 
make a classification that, even with the 
customary transfers of charging-systems, 
will serve all these ever-varying needs. 
This argument leads to the virtual nega- 
tion of the very principle of classification. 
If this were wholly true, it were futile to 
provide a place for bacteriology^ for the 
books would be wanted now under botany, 
now under pathology, or sanitation, and 
again perhaps under agricultural science. 

Shall we separate such branches or not? 
The pessimist says: "Whichever you do, 
classification fails." The optimist an- 
swers: "Good classification serves the av- 
erage or prevailing demand." To more spe- 
cial subjects the pessimist then turns, such 
as crystallography, eugenics, child-psychol- 
ogy. These he says are claimed in their 
entirety by two or three different sciences. 
These arguments, launched against so- 
called "scientific classifications," are no 
less hostile to the worthy undertaking of a 
practical system in such conformity to the 
consensus of modern science as the condi- 
tions permit. But most librarians have not 
accepted this pessimistic negative. They 
continue to classify books for average de- 



mands, and the interest in the problem 
increases. 

Contrasted is the more prevalent opti- 
mistic view. We have good classification. 
The Decimal Classification is an admirable, 
successful, at least serviceable system; it 
is the established, the familiar, the most 
practical. With all its faults, we love It 
still. Is not that naTve? Then, a consis- 
tent, scientific system is an impossibility. 
The relations and interests in science are 
ever changing, always complex. The thing 
would not continue for a decade to be sat- 
isfactory. 

Another outcome of the naive optimistic 
view, as realizing the complexity of scien- 
tific specialization, is the doctrine that a 
simple, practical system may be kept 
abreast of scientific progress by the addi- 
tion of new details. This elaboration of 
schedules is compatible with what we term 
"expansion." Expansibility is essential to 
the very life of a notation, but it may be 
overworked. Certain systems have, I fear, 
expanded beyond the capacity of their 
safety valves to save them from explosion. 
Thousands of the details of those inflated 
schedules are practically useless even in 
the largest library. Such abnormal disten- 
sion of the bibliographical body, or hyper- 
trophy of its special parts, is not now for 
the first time called a disease of the bibli- 
othecal system. That the subjects and 
topics are innumerable and of intricate 
complexity has led to the misconception 
that a classification for libraries should 
embody an infinity of captions in infinite 
complication. An alphabetical subject-in- 
dex is believed to be all that is requisite 
to operate this maze of entangled details. 
This view may be termed the subject-index 
illusion. 

Classification for libraries is to be dis- 
tinguished on the one hand from notation 
and on the other hand from an arrange- 
ment of bibliographical subjects indexed. 
Notation and in^ex are but correlative to 
classification, and, however requisite to a 
practical system, are in truth of minor im- 
portance. They are the fingers and the 
feet of the body and brain that organize 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



311 



the materials of knowledge. Yet it is these 
fingers and feet that have chiefly occu- 
pied the attention of most classifiers. 

In the theory of classification subjects 
are to be distinguished from classes as con- 
tents from containers. The subject is that 
which is denoted by its definition; the 
class is the aggregate of particular things 
books, or other things that are comprised 
by the definition. A class may be com- 
prehensive of many subjects or aspects of 
subjects. Such need not appear in the 
schedules of the classification, but they 
should be in its subject-index. Thus, Bot- 
any is a subject, to which Botanical Books 
is the corresponding class; Plant Physi- 
ology, a less general subject, has a less 
comprehensive class of books. Geotropism 
is a specific subject in the physiology of 
plants. The question arises, is there a 
class of books and pamphlets treating espe- 
cially of this subject, the tendency of 
plants to respond to gravitation, as a stim- 
ulus? "Have you in your library," I might 
ask individually of the majority, "have you 
an aggregation of books on this subject?" 
The A. L. A. List comes nearest in the 
sub-headings under Plants, where with 
Movements appears Heliotropism, a kin- 
dred subject. This caption Movements is 
for a veritable class of subjects, and it 
might indeed comprise Geotropism. That 
is just what the Library of Congress sched- 
ule does, subordinating under QK 771 
"Movements, Irritability in plants, (gen- 
eral)", the caption of 776, "Miscellaneous in- 
duced movements: Geotropism Heliotrop- 
Jsm, etc." In my own classification, the 
mark GCM goes with the caption, "Move- 
ments, Heliotropism, Geotropism, etc." It 
seems well thus to provide for a future 
group of monographs. If I criticise the Li- 
brary of Congress classification today, or 
elsewhere, be it remembered that I recog- 
nize its correct treatment of this and thou- 
sands of other subjects. But is the E. C. 
justified in reaching into the dim future 
for subdivisions of specialization such as 
its NESGD, Diatropism, and NESGL, "Lat- 
eral Geotropism?" That is where we must 
open the safety valve or burst. 



The body of the D. C. is congested with 
thousands of names of persons, places, and 
events which may be subjects, but hardly 
for classes of books. Systematic sched- 
ules might provide for most of these, re- 
duce the bulk of the system, and make 
for economy and convenience. The L. C. 
schedules suffer from similar but more 
astounding expansion. Class H, Sociology 
and Economics, is needlessly immense, 
having 551 p., of which but 51 are index. 
According to the principle laid down a 
moment ago, the number of subjects in the 
index should by much exceed those in the 
schedules. a.^a 

The "Expansive" Seventh expansion ex- 
panded so much with its own specialistic 
tissue that it could afford to omit such bulk 
of proper and place names. For instance 
Aves (Birds), covers 8 pages of fine print; 
there are all the taxonomic terms, for ex- 
ample, PGSLPI is for Phalacrocoracidse, 
some family related to the pelicans; but 
there appears besides only the single sub- 
ject Oology (eggs), at the end as PGZ. 
No place under Birds for their structure, 
their habits, for the popular bird-books, 
and for such interesting subjects as their 
migration, flight, etc., about which there 
are books! However much there is to 
interest, to commend, and to admire in this 
great undertaking, it must be admitted 
that this is not practical classification for 
libraries. It is the province of the sub- 
ject-catalog to bring together topics and 
titles which are too special for classifica- 
tion to bring into collocation. 

But let us return to the main question 
of the feasibility of better classification. 
There are three answers, I said. Two we 
have considered, the naive, and the pessi- 
mistic, also their offspring, the subject- 
index illusion, but we have not yet com- 
pletely answered the pessimistic. This 
we may now proceed to do in connection 
with the third answer, which is optimistic 
and constructive, while at the same time 
critical. This affirms that better classi- 
fication is feasible, that it may be suffi- 
ciently flexible and durable, that changes 
and adjustments may be provided for in 



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alternative and reserved locations, that 
the notation may be quite simple, and that 
the index may be as full and specific as 
comports with convenience. 

The purpose of library classification is 
to group books and to collocate groups for 
the convenience of readers and students 
in their average wants. It is not so much 
for those who want a book, whose author 
and subject are known, or any good book 
on a particular subject; for such, the au- 
thor and subject-catalogs may suffice. But 
classification is for those who want books, 
in the plural, directly, without preliminary 
handling of cards. Three types of such 
wants are to be distinguished. 

(1) To all libraries come (the preva- 
lent type) those who wish a few good books 
on the subject, or a few facts to be found 
in the standard books. They do not care 
to fuss over the card-catalog. The ref- 
erence librarian, the selective lists, may 
serve such*wants, but close classification 
usually does so most economically and 
most satisfactorily. For very specific sub- 
jects, however, the subject-catalog in the 
large library may often best serve this 
type and may make it less dependent upon 
free access and close classification. 

(2) The second type wants all the good 
books treating of the subject especially. 
From these the user himself is to make 
selection according to his purpose or point 
of view. Free access and classification 
are here requisite. A bibliography, if 
there be one, would be most likely an em- 
barras de richesse. 

(3) The third type is that of exhaustive 
research: all the available literature is 
wanted, not only the books and pamphlets 
treating especially of the subject, but also 
those on related subjects and those of 
broader scope. Subject-catalogs and bib- 
liographies are needed preliminaries, but 
access, continued access to the books, is 
the desideratum. It is for this type that 
the most carefully guarded libraries give 
access to their precious collections. Classi- 
fication, not merely any old kind of sub- 
ject, or close classification, but good, sci- 
entific, close classification, based upon 



good, consistent, broad classification, is 
here of paramount importance. The test 
comes when the student turns from the 
special to the more general and the related 
subjects, which are mostly -in related 
branches of science. The tendency to or- 
ganization in science is rapidly and surely 
growing. The more consistent with the 
consensus, to which studies on the average 
are adapted, however original and diver- 
gent their aim, the more convenient will be 
the classification. It is in subordination 
of the specific to the broader subject or 
class and in collocation of related sub- 
jects and subdivisions of classes that most 
systems fail; and here that most classi- 
fiers fail to understand either the fault or 
the remedy. 

The difficulties emphasized by the pessi- 
mist, the overlapping of studies and the 
rival claims, arise chiefly from improper 
subordination. The material is common 
to the several sciences because these are 
portions differentiated from larger fields. 
Child-psychology is part of Psychology. 
The science and art of education are main- 
ly concerned with the mental. They are 
related to Physiology and to Sociology as 
Psychology is related. But to place Edu- 
cation under Sociology, as is done by the 
D. C. and the E. C. is to answer the rela- 
tion of second, not of first dependence, and 
is as false as it were to put psychology un- 
der sociology, to put the cart before the 
horse. Education and Psychology are work- 
ing together, and their books should be 
contiguous. How shall we arrange these 
practically? Well, scientifically, in the or- 
der of generality, thus: 

I Anthropology. 

ID to IG Human physiology. 
J Psychology. 

JN Social psychology. 

JO Child-psychology. 

JP Education. 

JQ Educational psychology. 
K Sociology and Ethnology. 

KA Sociology. 

KE Ethnology. 
L History. 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



313 



The principles of consistent subordina- 
tion and practical collocation should guide 
the maker of a system, and his notes 
should guide the classifier of books. Here 
indeed should be a "code for classifiers" 
more intimately articulated than in a sepa- 
rate book. But herein lies the practical 
art of classification, so to dispose classes, 
divisions, and subdivisions, that they shall 
produce a relative minimum of incon- 
venience under the average conditions of 
demand and a relative maximum of collo- 
cation not only of special classes but of 
general, as well as a degree of consistency 
as high as practical conditions permit, and 
ultimately, as an ideal, a consistency not 
only with the pedagogic but with the philo- 
sophic organization of knowledge. This 
ideal, I believe, is not beyond approximate 
realization. 

This critical but optimistic view as- 
cribes the failure of library classifications 
to the dispersion of related material under 
subject, or close classification, without 
proper subordination and collocation. The 
subject-index, however useful to classifi- 
ers, is of little value to students. I ap- 
prove close classification, but find it the 
more unsatisfactory and baffling as it is 
the less consistently adapted to good broad 
classification, with good articulation of re- 
lated subjects according to predominating 
interests, and with alternative locations 
for flexibility to changes and for durabili- 
ty in the progress of science. 

Ill 

Having answered the main question of 
feasibility, we may now take up some min- 
or practical questions, first Notation. It 
is not likely that reason shall soon remove 
all traces of prejudice and controversy in 
this matter. A few propositions, however, 
are so reasonable that I think they will 
be accepted. Notation should be brief 
and simple. Its simplicity depends upon 
its brevity, though also upon the familiar- 
ity and homogeniety of its elements. Let- 
ters give brevity. The capacity of three- 
letter notation, allowing for omission of 
all objectionable combinations, is about 



15,000. Using letters and figures together 
increases this capacity to about 25,000, 
omitting confusing mixtures such as K7G 
and 8B4. Since somewhat more than 10,- 
000 subdivisions seem requisite, the ques- 
tion reduces to this form: "Which is 
simpler, notation of three letters, or of 
five figures?" But figures, it is argued, are 
more familiar. They may be so to book- 
keepers, but to the keepers of books! 
Familiar here means familiar with the 
numbers of the D. C. Then, are unmean- 
ing combinations like DAL or GWK really 
more meaningless than numbers like 
13859? On the other hand, isn't RAG easier 
to see and to remember? But the argu- 
ment, so far as it is not merely prejudiced, 
is childish. Such combinations as Al, 3B, 
C42, and CFG, are hardly objectionable, and 
may prove convenient and economical in 
class-notation as they do in the author 
numbers, with which librarians are so 
friendly. Since they are come to stay, what 
is the use of arguing for homogeneous 
notation? 

Notation is the more systematic and 
economical where it reduces in part to 
schedules applicable to the subdivision of 
many classes or divisions. This feature 
appeared to a minor extent in the "form 
signs" of the D. C., but was carried out 
extensively and complexly in the E. C. It 
is apparent also in the L. C., but there is 
more conspicuous by its absence through 
hundreds of pages of names of countries, 
places, and persons. Time does not permit 
me to describe here the six schedules that 
economize the system I have worked out: 
Schedule 1, Mnemonic numerals, constant 
throughout; Schedule 2, for subdivision by 
countries, applicable under subjects, where- 
over desired; Schedule 3, for subdivisions 
under countries and localities; Schedule 4, 
for subjects under any language, except 
the chief literary languages; Schedule 5, 
for the chief literary languages; and 
Schedule 6, for arranging the material un- 
der any prominent author. 

Some who admit the feasibility of bet- 
ter classification object that a classifica- 
tion modern for the present will be out of 



314 



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date in a generation. This in new guise 
is the familiar argument that it is useless 
to clean the house today, for it will need 
again to be cleaned next week which all 
good housewives say is an unreasonable 
argument. It would be a pity to have fair 
librarianship called a slouch. 

Is it conceivable that your books shall 
remain forever classified as they are at 
present? Are there to be no changes, 
merely additions of new captions? Con- 
servatism is not strange, considering the 
cost of changing notation; but that cost 
is small compared with the cost of new 
building or new collections, and is justified 
by the service to be rendered. The longer 
postponed, the larger the cost, the larger 
(be burden. Some libraries are changing 
now to what? That change may indeed 
have to be changed again in a decade or 
two. But how long, then, should a classi- 
fication endure or rather, be endurable? 
One who would not prophesy may never- 
theless give an opinion. I believe that a 
good classification should last a century 
with some minor alterations. I believe 
that a good library should be willing to re- 
classify, if necessary, at least some of its 
collections two or three times in a cen- 
tury. I think that library economy should 
have been developed with better regard 
to this problem. It is not practical to ar- 
range books inconsistently with the sci- 
entific and pedagogic organization of 
knowledge. Organization based on con- 
sensus is one of the marked tendencies of 
modern thought and purpose, and is not 
likely to be overcome by dissenting or dis- 
integrating philosophical counter-tend- 
encies. This organization is more stable 
than the theories on which it rests, and 
these are more stable than the popular 
press would lead us to suppose. New 
theories, new statements, are assimilated 
to the established body of knowledge with- 
out much dislocation of members. Dura- 
bility in a system would depend not only 
upon present consistency with the organ- 
ization of knowledge, but upon flexibility 
through reserved and alternative locations, 
judiciously chosen with regard to tenden- 



cies in science. There might be flaws and 
errors, but all practice, in whatever pro- 
fession is thus imperfect and tentative. 

That the D. C. is antiquated is not be- 
cause of any change in science, but be- 
cause it did not conform to the science of 
its generation. The welcome accorded to 
it in the pioneer days was in keeping with 
the earlier view that classification is a 
simple thing, as it indeed was for the small 
popular libraries. That acceptance has 
mellowed now into an affectionate com- 
panionship with a familiar and comfortable 
conveyance that has proved serviceable so 
far. Now the thing is said to need repair. 
But that it cannot economically be recon- 
structed has been recently demonstrated. 
It evidently must go on till its thousand 
pieces fall in a heap together, like the 
"wonderful one-hoss shay." Loading it 
with more and more scientific luggage may 
for a time increase its service, but the 
rattling of its parts grows all the more 
distressing to those who ride. 

I reserve my opinion of the Expansive 
Classification and of that of the Library 
of Congress. It is to the point to say, 
however, that they are as unsatisfactory 
in the major principles of practical and 
scientific classification for libraries as they 
are valuable and admirable in the details 
which they have elaborated. They should 
help to solve the ultimate problem; but. 
if consistency with science and economy 
with convenience are feasible and requi- 
site, neither of these systems is fit, nor is 
either, I think, likely to endure in general 
use in the future. 

The simpler, the more systematic, and 
the more consistent with the organization 
of knowledge a classification and notation 
is, the more economical and the less vexa- 
tious will be the operation of classifying 
books. The subject, scope, treatment, pur- 
pose of the book if that could be stated 
beforehand and why not? by author and 
publisher, and confirmed by the copyright 
office or the national library, then the 
class-notation could in most cases be 
quickly found through subject-index. That 
information might be printed in the book 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



315 



and more readily found there than through 
centralized cataloging and service of 
cards. Centralized or co-operative classify- 
ing however, or assigning of subjects and 
of the class-marks of an elaborately classi- 
fied central or national library, would be 
a service of high value and of very con- 
siderable economy. But it should be dis- 
tinguished from standardized classifica- 
tion. As libraries differ and differentiate, 
so should their classifications. At best a 
system may serve for libraries of a type, 
but not for all types. A university need 
not adopt an unfit classification as more 
than one has done of recent years. It may 
translate the centrally assigned subjects 
and class-marks into its own system, 
through its own index.. Some general con- 
formity, or conformity in special parts, 
may indeed prove economical and conven- 
ient, but standardization of an elaborate 
system is progress in the wrong direction. 

This outline of a large, complex, and 
unsolved problem of paramount impor- 
tance is very inadequate. I would pro- 
pose that a committee be constituted, to 
articulate with the present committee on 
a code for classifying, to set to work upon 
a fuller investigation of this great question 
of the feasibility of better and more eco- 
nomical classification and notation. If 
librarians do not provide better classifi- 
cation for libraries, then the users of li- 
braries will very likely in the not remote 
future provide for better librarians. 

In the subsequent discussion, opened by 
Dr. Richardson and by a paper written by 
Mr. W. S. Merrill, chief classifier of the 
Newberry library, Chicago, exception was 
taken to many of Mr. Bliss' criticisms of 
present classifications. It was pointed out 
that the D. C., with all its faults, was yet 
eminently practical, as evidenced by its 
widespread use. Mr. Cutter stated that 
the E. C. classification for zoology, which 
Mr. Bliss had specially criticised, had been 
made in just the way Mr. Bliss himself re- 
garded as the soundest, i. e., it had been 
condensed from material furnished by an 
eminent scientist; as to its being over mi- 
nute, it was expanded only half as much 



as the scientist had proposed. Mr. Charles 
Martel, chief of the catalog division in the 
Library of Congress, Dr. Andrews, libra- 
rian of the John Crerar library, Chicago, 
and others also expressed their belief in 
close classification as a safeguard against 
confusion and unscientific grouping. 

Only a few minutes remained for a paper 
on "Art in the college library," by Mr. 
FRANK WEITENKAMPF, chief of the art 
department, New York public library. 

ART IN THE COLLEGE LIBRARY 

The problem of art in schools has been 
frequently discussed. The matter of art 
in colleges, apparently, has not been so 
much considered. The cases, however, 
seem to be dissimilar only in degree, not 
in kind. In fact, not a little of the material 
that has been suggested for schoolroom 
decoration would be equally in place in 
the college. For instance, names such as 
those of Gozzoli or Luca della Robbia, on 
the Craftsman's list for schools could just 
as well be suggested for the college. Also, 
the average student is probably first to be 
reached best by recognition of the fact that 
there are other interests beside the pure- 
ly aesthetic. In other words, good use can 
be made of the subject picture, the best 
possible being chosen. Dr. W. D. John- 
ston, librarian of Columbia University, 
where exhibitions "have always been an 
important auxiliary of lectures" and have 
included exhibitions of graphic arts, states 
that these last "are selected and displayed 
less with a view to artistic than pictorial 
value." But he adds that more and more 
attention is given to artistic value, and 
that in his belief the most valuable ex- 
hibits of an artistic nature are those "dis- 
played permanently on the walls of halls, 
seminar rooms and lecture rooms. On the 
other hand, those which are exhibited tem- 
porarily should, if well selected, and well 
announced, do much to broaden taste." 

The permanent display of pictures which 
illustrate with distinction certain broad 
principles of taste, is of undoubted neces- 
sity. But the use of the temporary show 
must not be lost sight of. The oft seen 



316 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



easily becomes the oft unheeded; familiar- 
ity breeds contempt. Periodical changes 
therefore seem advisable, as evidence that 
there is "something doing." Loans of 
good prints from private sources, if ad- 
visable, might be utilized to excellent ef- 
fect. For instance, if the library happens 
to own, or can borrow, a copy of such a 
publication of color reproductions as the 
Medici prints, or "Meister der Farbe" or 
"Alte Meister" (the latter two issued by 
Seemann of Leipzig), a number of plates 
from the same might be placed on exhi- 
bition for, say, three months. This might 
be followed by a six-weeks' black-and- 
white show of good etchings from a private 
collection, or from the stock of the near- 
est museum or print dealer. After that, 
perhaps, a show of Greek art. The guiding 
principles should be: Keep the exhibit 
within reasonable bounds as to numbers, 
make selection with as much discrimina- 
tion as circumstances will permit, and see 
that what you offer is made palatable. Dr. 
E. C. Richardson of the Princeton Univer- 
sity library tells me that there a large 
collection of art photographs is drawn up- 
on for permanent exhibition, the latter re- 
arranged "every now and then" in order to 
exhibit fresh material, and that there have 
been a number of special exhibitions. (In- 
cidentally, this university has a great va- 
riety of undergraduate courses in art.) 

The matter of proper presentation is 
important. Not what is seen, but what is 
digested, counts. Good labels are a ne- 
cessity; summary, with sis little dryness as 
possible, informative, so that the student 
may see at a glance why a given picture 
was shown, and what are its good points. 
If relation to studies can be brought out in 
these exhibits, all the better. That natur- 
ally suggests the possibility of an occa- 
sional display of pictures illustrating a giv- 
en period or personality in a given coun- 
try. In the recently-printed little volume, 
"Art museums and schools," containing 
four lectures by Stockton Oxson, Kenyon 
Cox, Stanley Hall and Oliver S. Tonks, the 
significance of the museum to teachers of 
English, art, history and the classics is 



considered, and the documentary value of 
art is properly emphasized. "In order to 
teach the classics," says Prof. Tonks, "you 
must know more of ancient life than is 
to be gleaned from the literature by itself." 
Viewed in this light, the old Greek vases 
and other art objects take on a new sig- 
nificance. But the ultimate object of all 
this must not be lost to sight, the cultural 
influence sought, the promotion of inter- 
est in art as a matter not apart from, but 
a part of, our daily life, a contribution to 
general culture. It is well to make it clear 
that a certain amount of appreciation of 
art can become as much a matter of course 
as certain elementary rules of good breed- 
ing. "Art," says Croly, in his "Promise 
of American life," "art cannot become a 
power in a community unless many of its 
members are possessed of a native and 
innocent love of beautiful things." These 
considerations, again, suggest the occa- 
sional exhibiting of plates illustrating dec- 
orative and applied art, say color plates 
such as those in Wenzel's "Modern decora- 
tive art," or "Dekorative Vorbilder," or 
similar books, if procurable, or black-and- 
white plates from books or art magazines. 
A judicious use of the library's books is 
advisable, not through lengthy lists in 
which the bibliographical instincts of the 
librarian might find vent. Reference to 
two or three books on a subject whet- 
ting the appetite by displaying them at the 
same time as the plates exhibited may 
lead to an occasional reading at spare 
moments. It may help also to show the 
fallacy of the "I don't know anything of 
art, but I know just what I like" attitude. 
You can not understand anything worth un- 
derstanding without some trouble, any 
more than you can play football or bridge 
without some practice. 

The matter of hanging must depend, 
naturally, on local conditions: amount and 
distribution and shape and location of 
available wall space or other space, finan- 
cial resources, character of student body, 
etc. The simplest method is, of course, to 
suspend the pictures by clips from hori- 
zontal wires, but it is not under all cir- 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



317 



cumstances the safest. Pictures may be 
fastened to a wooden background (usual- 
ly covered with burlap or other textile) 
on the wall. In that case, care must of 
course be taken that thumb-tacks do not 
pass through the print. The shank of 
the tack passes close to the picture upon 
the outermost margin of which its head 
will then press. Mr. E. R. Smith of the 
Avery library at Columbia University, lays 
strips of bristol board over the spaces be- 
tween the pictures, and overlapping the 
margins of the same; the tacks pass 
through these strips. Pictures fastened 
to the wall may be covered by sheets of 
glass held in place by strong tacks, or per- 
haps the brassheaded upholsterers' nails. 
Where prints are shown unprotected it 
may prove well to mount them, unless they 
are printed on thick and strong paper. (At 
the Newark library they use mounting 
board bound at the edge with buckram 
and further strengthened by pigskin cor- 
ners; this is for prints which circulate 
among teachers.) Where frames are used 
with the intention of periodical or occa- 
sional change of exhibits, the back can be 
held by the familiar "button" device which 
can be easily swung aside so as to admit 
of changing the picture without extract- 
ing pails. Mr. Paul Brockett of the 
Smithsonian Institution, tells me that there 
the glass doors of bookcases have been 
used for exhibiting pictures. At the same 
place, wing frames that space-saving de- 
vice of a dozen frames with glass cen- 
tered on a standard, and having a certain 
swing in either direction have been used. 
Moreover, these frames were units which 
could be hung on the standard or placed 
against the wall. In some of the New York 
public library's branches, such frames 
radiate directly from the wall, to save 
space. A similar device is seen in a cer- 
tain type of display fixtures, in which the 
swinging frames reach to the floor, and 
which may be seen in operation in the 
lithographic exhibition of Fuchs & Lang, 
Warren St., New York City. There is 
no protecting glass here, however, and I 
presume that the use of this contrivance 



would be safe only in exceptional cases. 
Hints to exhibitors may be found in arti- 
cles such as the one on "Mounting, framing 
and hanging pictures," by Miss Mabel J. 
Chase, assistant supervisor of drawing, 
Newark, N. J., in the School Arts Maga- 
zine for December, 1912, or in one on 
"Planning and mounting an exhibit" in 
Ihe number for March, 1913, by George W. 
Eggers, who lays stress on the fact that 
"Every exhibit should definitely tell some- 
thing." Still continuing the examination 
of this magazine, one notes in the issue 
of April, 1913, an article on the "Decora- 
tion of an assembly hall in R. C. Ingra- 
ham Grammar school, New Bedford, 
Mass." That relates to a permanent ex- 
hibit, and describes the distribution of 
pictures and other objects in such a man- 
ner as to make a harmonious arrangement 
of the whole room. But there are other 
periodicals, and there are readers' guides 
and other indexes and bibliographical 
aids, and this is not the place for lists. 

Now, as to the material to be used for 
the exhibition. Outside of the resources 
offered by the library's own collection and 
the loan possibilities indicated, there are 
various dealers and other agencies to be 
taken into account. In the state of New 
York for instance, the .division of Visual 
Instruction of the Education department 
has a circulating collection of pictures 
furnishing ample material for educational 
extension lectures and for study clubs. 
This consists of "Braun, Elson, Hanfstan- 
gel and Hegger carbons, Copley prints 
and bromides and Berlin photogravures." 
These wall-pictures are lent to schools and 
libraries, framed without glass, for a fee 
of 50 cents each per year. In other states, 
I presume state library commissions could 
give advice. There are the artistic litho- 
graphic drawings in color issued by B. G. 
Teubner of Leipzig at five and six marks 
apiece, the plates of Seemann's "Meister 
der Farbe" can be purchased separately, 
and dealers such as the Berlin Photo- 
graphic Co., George Busse, the Detroit Pub- 
lishing Co., Braun Clement & Co. and oth- 
ers could no doubt give lists and advice. 



311 



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Importing book-dealers, French and Ger- 
man, must be considered. Not all of the 
material furnished by .these concerns is 
equally cheap, but a certain amount of the 
higher-priced sort will serve for perma- 
nent exhibit. 

Part 6, devoted to the art department, 
in John Cotton Dana's "Modern American 
library economy," is a very useful guide, 
not only in its record of accomplishment 
at Newark, but also in its hints as to 
sources, its list of addresses. Miss Ethel- 
red Abbot's "List of photograph dealers" 
(Massachusetts Library Club, 1907) is 
properly emphasized for its usefulness, as 
is also the "Bibliotheca psedagogica." 

For permanent exhibits the reproduc- 
tions of certain examples in architecture, 
painting and sculpture which have become 
classical, are of obvious value. And here, 
too, the reason for inclusion may well be 
emphasized to the student, not only by 
proper labels but also by reference at the 
proper time in the class-room and lecture 
hall. Such classics in art will not infre- 
quently be found reproduced better in 
black-and-white than in color. Should the 
library decide to procure color work by 
modern artists, such as the Teubner prints 
referred to, or the similar ones issued by 
Voigtlander or by the Kiinstlerbund of 
Karlsruhe, care must be taken to select 
such as are of general, and not merely 
local, interest. Say for example, the well 
known "Field of grain" by Volkmann. Such 
modern work also has the advantage of 
emphasizing the fact that there is work 
worth while being done today. It like- 
wise shows the healthy tendency to en- 
large acquaintance with home production, 
home scenery, home customs. We find 
that, for instance, in Germany, in Sweden, 
to a certain extent in England, and else- 
where. Much of the foreign endeavor in 
this direction has found its use in schools, 
but it involves some big principles in point 
of view which make a certain amount of 
its results of use in the college as well. 
But we should similarly pay attention to 
the best American work. Noteworthy at- 
tempts by American artists to interpret 



American life and the beauties of our scen- 
ery deserve support. One notes with in- 
terest the attempt made by the American 
Federation of Arts' Committee on Art in 
the Public Schools to call attention to 
American examples in the fine arts by 
calling for an expression of opinion as to 
the best works produced by our artists. 
T. W. Stevens reported that the Chicago 
Institution, furthering the utilization of 
students' work in the decoration of pub- 
lic school walls, "encouraged the adoption 
of subject pictures for decoration; espe- 
cially subjects in American history." 

The help of the art department, where 
the college has one, may well be enlisted. 
(Parenthetically let me state that E. Bald- 
win Smith in his recent report on "The 
study of the history of art in the colleges 
and universities of the United States," 
Princeton, 1911, summarizes his statis- 
tics in the statement that of 1,000,000 stu- 
dents, 163,000 have any art courses at all 
offered them.) Not only have we such 
rich collections as those of the Avery Arch- 
itectural library at Columbia, the Fogg 
Museum at Harvard, or Yale University, 
but collections of casts, photographs and 
books will be found at the disposal of the 
art departments of a number of other col- 
leges. Such resources might be drawn up- 
on so that some modicum, at least, of art 
influence may be extended to the rest of 
the institution. If the direct co-operation 
of the art department is secured it must 
necessarily be adapted to the needs of the 
case with a clear understanding of the 
fact that general students, and not art stu- 
dents, are to be served. The statement of 
Dr. Leigh H. Hunt, associate professor of 
art at the College of the City of New York 
is of interest here. His 6,000 boys, says 
he, would like to begin with the human 
face. They do not necessarily lean to the 
saccharine, but perceive human interest 
shown without the aid of the direct anec- 
dote. They stand Memling and Ghirlan- 
dajo. "The boys love color," he continues, 
"and are easily led to love refined color. 
They admire the early English water col- 
orists, Cox, DeWint; also, Japanese 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



319 



prints." After becoming interested in 
such refined color, they get a liking for 
monochromes delft blue landscapes, san- 
guines and sepia drawings. 

Efforts such as those I have indicated 
seem particularly called for where the col- 
lege is away from art influences. But they 
should not be put aside even where the col- 
lege is located in a larger center with an 
art life. Rather should the resources near 
at hand be turned to advantage. I have 
seen the statement that over 30 per cent 
of our museums are connected with educa- 
tional institutions. Also, in a large city, 
there are numerous art exhibitions, most 
varied in character. But the very extent 
of all these opportunities may serve to 
keep away the student who has so many 
other duties and attractions. And, as Prof. 
Hunt points out, boys living at one end of 
a large city not only whirl past all such 
possibilities on their way to college, but 
in New York, using the subway, they pass 
under it and not through it. What is 
wanted is the direct, unavoidable presen- 
tation of art to those who are not yet 
sufficiently interested to seek art for them- 
selves. 

In the whole matter the ever-necessary 
exercise of common sense is commendable. 
Enthusiasm for the cause must be moderat- 
ed and adapted to the point of view of the 
student. The didactic element should be 
unobtrusive. The student should be inter- 
ested rather than admonished. Above all 
he should be led to see that a certain love 
and appreciation of art is not a "highbrow" 
affair but a proper, necessary and pleas- 
ure-giving part of the equipment of the 
cultured man. As proper and a matter of 
course as the avoidance of a necktie of 
shrieking colors, or as the use of the ta- 
ble knife for cutting only. Farther discus- 
sion of this subject, as well as decision as 
to the practicability of the ideas advanced, 
must be left to those who have a more in- 
timate acquaintance with the problems, 
conditions and difficulties involved than 
can be had by one who has to deal with 
the readers in a large public library. 



Mr. Goodrich called attention to the li- 
brary of the University of Michigan as one 
place where ideas like those of the paper 
had been carried out, made a plea for 
color prints as against the everlasting 
black and brown, and suggested the possi- 
bilities of pottery and textiles in the way 
of giving life and cheer to the delivery 
hall. He referred by way of example to 
the beautiful drapery curtains in the John 
Hay library reading room a vast relief 
from the ordinary roller shade and just as 
effectual. 

At the end of the session, the nominat- 
ing committee brought in the name of Mr. 
W. N. C. Carlton, librarian of the New- 
berry library, to succeed Mr. Keogh on the 
committee on arrangements; Mr. Carlton 
was unanimously elected. His term will 
be three years; the other members of the 
committee, Miss Askew and Mr. Goodrich, 
remain the same as this year. The session 
then adjourned until Friday night. 

COLLEGE LIBRARIANS' 
ROUND TABLE 

The round table for college librarians 
was held on Friday evening, June 27th. 
F. C. Hicks, of Columbia university, pre- 
siding. 

Miss JOSEPHINE A. RATHBONE, of 
the Pratt Institute school of library science 
gave a talk on 

WHAT COLLEGE LIBRARIANS CAN DO 
FOR LIBRARY SCHOOLS 

In a recent lecture on administrative 
problems of the college library given to the 
students of the Pratt Institute library 
school the lecturer pictured the ideal col- 
lege library of the future, with a staff con- 
sisting of specialists, each with a knowl- 
edge of his subject equal to that of in- 
structors or professors plus a library school 
training, whose recompense should be on 
the same scale as that for the teaching of 
those subjects. I remarked afterward that 
before that vision could come to pass thf 
college librarians should have to act as 
feeders for the library schools, turning 



320 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



toward librarianship promising material 
from which the library schools could make 
the college library specialist of tomorrow. 
Hence this paper. 

There has been a good deal of discussion 
in the Professional Training section about 
specialization in library schools the desir- 
ability of having special courses to prepare 
librarians for technical libraries, for pro- 
fessional libraries, for legislative reference 
libraries, etc., etc., but I am convinced 
and my conviction deepens with my in- 
creasing experience that the time for spe- 
cialization is before the library school 
course and not during it. Theoretically it 
does not seem possible that the same 
library course should be able to fit students 
for such different lines as children's work, 
municipal reference work, cataloging, 
branch library work, the scientific depart- 
ment of a university library, a botanical 
garden library, and the librarianship of a 
town library, but actually that is just what 
happens; recent graduates of our school 
are filling just such positions and each one 
found that her library training plus her 
previous education, experience and temper- 
ament enabled her to fill the special posi- 
tion satisfactorily. 

Now what the college librarian can do 
for the library school and hence for the 
library profession, is, it seems to me, to 
make it known among college students that 
there are opportunities for the specialist 
in library work to disabuse the mind 
of the man or woman who wants to pursue 
economics or sociology or some branch of 
science of the idea almost a fixed idea it 
would seem that a specialist in order 
to continue in his specialty must neces- 
sarily teach it, that teaching offers the 
only pied a terre, the only means of sup- 
port for the student. Students of sociology 
and government are beginning to find their 
way into organized welfare work, it is 
true, but library work should be presented 
to them as a means of social service, of 
at least equal importance with settlement 
work or organized charity. That it could 
be so presented I am confident, and by 



whom if not by or through the agency of 
the college librarian? 

Schools and colleges are devoting an in- 
creasing amount of attention to vocational 
guidance. Will not college librarians make 
a point of seeing that the possibilities and 
diversified opportunities of librarianship 
are presented to the students each year? 
If they do not care to do this themselves, 
librarians or members of library school 
faculties might be found in the vicinity 
who would be glad to do it. 

Once the subject of librarianship is pre- 
sented to the student and the desirabil- 
ity of entering upon the work through the 
gateway of library school training is 
pointed out (I assume that no time need 
be spent arguing this point but if I am 
wrong I shall be glad to discuss the mat- 
ter with any dissenters later), the college 
librarian can further the cause by being 
prepared to advise students as to their 
choice of a library school. The college 
librarian should supply himself with the 
circulars of the several schools and should 
inform himself concerning the reputation, 
advantages, requirements, and specialties 
of the different schools. We all agree that 
there is no one best library school (except 
our own), but that each of them offer 
special opportunities that make them 
adapted to the particular needs of different 
students. To direct the inquirer to that 
school that will best fit him for the particu- 
lar kind of work he inclines toward would 
be to serve the profession, the schools, the 
colleges, and the individual student. Will 
not the college librarian take this func- 
tion upon himself and enrich the profes- 
sion not only with the quiet bookish stu- 
dent who will develop into the old-fash- 
ioned librarian for whom there is still 
room, but with the specialist, the execu- 
tive, the vigorous and enthusiastic altruist 
who wants to serve the world by positive, 
constructive, social work? 

The following paper, prepared by Mr. 
ROBERT S. FLETCHER, librarian of Am- 
herst College, was read by Mr. N. L. Good- 
rich, of Dartmouth: 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



321 



THE COLLEGE LIBRARY AND 
RESEARCH WORK 

There was published in 1912 a "Union 
List of Collections on European History 
in American Libraries, compiled for the 
Committee on Bibliography of the Ameri- 
can Historical Association by E. C. Rich- 
ardson, Chairman." 

In the preface to this exceedingly- valu- 
able work occurs the following extract 
from the Report of the Committee, Decem- 
ber, 1911: 

"It is clear from this situation that no 
library is self-sufficient even Harvard 
lacking 930 sets, and all but 12 lacking on 
the average of 2,153 out of 2,197 works. 
Even as good colleges as Amherst and Wil- 
liams, having but 26 and 17 respectively, 
lack 2,171 and 2,180 respectively out of 
2,197, while probably 700 of the 786 insti- 
tutions doing work of college grade in the 
United States are worse off than these." 

I need hardly say that this is merely a 
statement of fact and in no sense a criti- 
cism or arraignment of any library men- 
tioned or implied. Furthermore, it is un- 
doubtedly true that analysis and reflection 
will render this statement much less start- 
ling than it appears at first glance. 
Whether we can explain and account for 
it to our entire satisfaction is a question 
which seems to me rather doubtful. Let 
me quote a little more from this same 
source : 

"The most significant fact of the sta- 
tistics of last year remains, however, sub- 
stantially unchanged the fact that only 
ten or a dozen libraries have as many as 
10 per cent of the collections, and that out 
of 786 institutions which profess to do 
work of college grade, only about fifty li- 
braries have as much as 1 per cent. The 
actual situation is even much worse than 
appears from the figures, since two or 
three inexpensive volumes of illustrative 
source books for class,-room use are in the 
list through inadvertence, and undoubted- 
ly swell the record of the minor institu- 
tions. It is safe to say that a majority 
even of the institutions included in the 



Babcock list have less than one-tenth of 
1 per cent of these sets, and yet these are 
titles which have been gathered from ac- 
tual references and are the books which 
are liable to meet any men engaged in his- 
torical research at every turn." 

If we assume that research work belongs 
only to the university that it has no place 
in the college we may dismiss these fig- 
ures as possessing no significance for us, 
save as they throw some light on the in- 
ferior quality of the collections built 
up by most of our American libraries. If 
on the other hand we believe that the 
smaller institution should encourage its 
teachers to do research work, and should, 
so far as its resources allow, provide the 
facilities for such work, then I believe that 
a study of the conditions responsible for 
the situation set forth in the Committee's 
report cannot fail to be of some value. And 
while I hold no brief for the research 
worker I am strongly of the opinion that 
the college which does encourage original 
research can not but gain a higher quality 
of teaching, and at the same time acquire 
a collection of books which, if not notable, 
shall be at least thoroughly good. 

It may be claimed, and in that case 
must be granted, that such a question as 
this is practically an academic one, and so 
pretty largely outside of the librarian's 
province. That is true, however, only so 
long as you leave the question unanswered 
or answer it in the negative. An affirma- 
tive answer would bring the matter home 
directly to every college librarian in the 
country. The college which believes in 
research and encourages its faculty to do 
it, must have a librarian not only in sym- 
pathy with the movement, but one skillful 
in finding ways and means to make it a 
success, since in most cases the funds at 
our disposal for the. purchase of books 
would seem to preclude the possibility of 
such a thing. 

Before going further into the discussion 
of this phase of the question, let me re- 
turn for a moment to the report from 
which I quoted. One or two conclusions 
may justly be drawn from the figures 



322 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



therein presented. In the first place I 
think we may safely infer that the situa- 
tion as regards History, so strikingly set 
forth, is repeated, and probably in an even 
worse form, in all the other departments of 
knowledge. Certainly we should not ex- 
pect a library which was so weak in the 
research material of History, to be any 
stronger in Philology or the Sciences, or 
in Philosophy and Economics. 

The second conclusion follows naturally 
from this, that the average college library 
for it is with the college library that this 
paper concerns itself has built up its col- 
lection with practically no emphasis on 
the acquisition of such material. 

To say that this general condition exists 
solely because of the lack of funds is to 
my mind neither a real explanation, nor 
a real excuse. It exists primarily because 
there has never been any pressure from 
members of the faculty to bring about a 
different condition. 

If we seek a reason for it we shall find 
it in the fact that research work has by 
tacit consent been left almost entirely to 
the university. Its place there its vital 
importance in the university scheme of 
work has never been questioned. Mak- 
ing all allowance for the difference in con- 
ditions I still cannot see why a thing that 
is confessedly of so much benefit to the 
university should not also be of help to 
the college. At the risk of getting a little 
off the track, and for the sake of making 
what I mean as plain as possible, it seems 
necessary to devote some space to a defini- 
tion of the term research work. I am 
writing, of course, from the standpoint of 
an outsider, who expresses a purely per- 
sonal opinion on a subject which interests 
him. There can be no hard and fast 
definition of such a term as this at least 
not from a librarian. 

I shall suppose then, that research work 
is of two kinds, both important, but one 
of them much more important than the 
other. The first and most common kind is 
that ordinarily done by the graduate stu- 
dent in the university. It is the gathering 
of material the collection of information 



on some particular phase of some particu- 
lar subject and is not only of value in 
itself, but when taken together with the 
work done by other students along related 
lines becomes part of the structure on 
which scholarship is built. We may call 
it analytical research work. The other 
kind is that done by the man of clear 
vision and wide outlook, mature enough to 
see that the analytical work is merely 
material for a bigger thing call it what 
you will the man who can take the in- 
formation others have collected and impart 
it in the form of culture. This is synthetic 
research work. Now the university has 
much of the former, some of the latter. The 
college has need only of the synthetic. If 
its place in the educational world is to be 
permanent, its contribution to education 
must be cultural. The type of teacher it 
needs, and I believe must have, is the man 
who has done, or is capable of doing, syn- 
thetic research work. In his hands teaching 
takes on a vitality, a spontaneity, a genu- 
ineness that no one else can give it. That 
the book collection of the average college 
would be sufficient for the needs of men 
like this is out of the question. There 
would inevitably arise a demand for the 
purchase of works of an entirely different 
kind a demand that would have to be at 
least partially met. This demand would 
be for research material, by which I mean 
the results of research work, and the prob- 
lem of such a college library would become 
a problem in discrimination the decision 
as to what of this material it should try 
to obtain. 

It ought not to be difficult to draw a 
clear distinction between analytical and 
synthetic research material. Illustrations 
of the first will readily occur to you, one 
as good as any being the usual thesis sub- 
mitted for the doctor's degree. All "source" 
material is necessarily analytical is the 
result of a careful, painstaking, often labo- 
rious search for information: information 
that may illuminate some dark corner of 
the field of knowledge. But it is never 
itself illumined by the spark of genius, 
nor wrought by the loving hand of the 






COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



323 



artist. It is merely the wood and the stone 
out of which a complete structure may 
some day arise. 

Now how does the synthetic conception 
of research apply to History? A modern 
German writer has compressed the whole 
significance of it into a sentence: "The 
writing of History," he says, "is just as 
truly a will toward a picture as it is a 
knowledge of sources." In other words 
synthesis of the kind referred to is always 
the work of the artist, and in the nature of 
things becomes thereby a contribution to 
culture. Gibbon's "Decline and fall of the 
Roman empire," Lamprecht's "History of 
Germany," Rhodes' "History of the United 
States" these are all synthetic: each one 
existed first as a picture in the mind of the 
artist, not merely as an array of sources 
from which the facts of history might be 
drawn. 

"But," you say, "all libraries buy these 
books and others like them as a matter of 
course." Yes, we do, but I think the trou- 
ble is that we do not make books of this 
sort our standard, if indeed we have any 
standard beyond a favorable review or a 
request from a patron. It is no more true 
that the result of all synthetic research is 
cultural than that the result of all artistic 
endeavor is beautiful. Results here are 
just as uneven as anywhere else, with 
much that is good and perhaps even more 
that is bad, and it is when we come to 
discriminate that we are apt to go astray. 
Now a teacher such as I have in mind 
would keep abreast through the better 
periodicals of all that was being done in 
his particular line, and if facilities were 
furnished, would buy. what he knew he 
needed monographs, bibliographies, biog- 
raphies, and some larger works things 
that would not only give his teaching a 
vitality and freshness otherwise lacking, 
but would help to hasten the day when his 
own contribution to the world's culture 
should see the light, 

Assuming, then, that a college accepts 
this view, and proposes to encourage its 
faculty to do research work, what are the 
practical ways in which the library can not 



only co-operate, but further such an under- 
taking? For I believe there are several. 
A preliminary statement as to the func- 
tions of the college library would seem to 
be essential. These have often been set 
forth for us in detail, and I shall only 
enumerate them here. The first and most 
important function is, of course, to meet 
the needs of the students and teachers 
as they arise in the regular college work. 
Along with this is the supplying of books 
for general reading, outside of the curricu- 
lum. Most of these books are bought for 
members of the faculty, who are thereby 
enabled to keep in touch with the latest 
developments in their own and other 
fields, and to avoid the possibility of men- 
tal stagnation from too close association 
with a particular subject. I believe much 
more might and should be done in the 
way of developing a taste for general read- 
ing on the part of the students, but that 
is another story. 

Apart from these what are the functions 
of the college library? To be, so far as it 
can the centre of culture for the com- 
munity in which it is located: to aid the 
local public library in its work with wo- 
man's clubs, and high school pupils: to 
lend books freely to other libraries. And 
in our own case there is the added oppor- 
tunity of being of some assistance to an- 
other institution in the same town. 

Now these things are all important, and 
the librarian who does not realize it, who 
fails to utilize to the utmost the possibili- 
ties they contain for intellectual and social 
betterment, is not worthy of his hire. But 
the point of view I take in this article com- 
pels me to consider them as secondary. 
The college library exists first of all to 
supply the book needs of its own students 
and faculty, and for nothing else. The ex- 
penditure of its funds, always insufficient, 
must be limited to this chief function. It 
is probable that all these other things I 
have enumerated can be done without any 
financial loss to the library, but where 
any of them means a diversion of library 
funds it becomes unjustifiable. 

I said above that there are several prac- 



KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 



1 ways in which a library more prop- 
, perhaps, a librarian can not only co- 
rate, but further a movement to en- 
rage research work on the part of mem- 
3 of the faculty. My remarks are of 
essity limited to my observation of 
iitions in the institution with which I 
connected, and are not to be considered 
eral in their application. At the same 
3, I am inclined to think that these 
iitions are reproduced, at least to a 
ain extent, in most college libraries, 
he assistance which the library can 
ier must, of course, be very largely 
ncial. Only by releasing funds from 
sent uses, or by increasing these funds, 
we hope to buy material of the kind 
irred to. 

am convinced, in the first place, that 
can save money in the purchase of 
ks, and this not through better dis- 
nts, or any choice of agents, but 
mgh more care in the selection of the 
ks themselves. In other words, sub- 
all lists of proposed purchases to a 
e rigid scrutiny. Make all titles an- 
:r such questions as "Is this book going 
be of real value to this library?" "Is 
usefulness to be more or less perma- 
t, or merely temporary?" "Could not 
need for it be met by borrowing from 
ther library?" 

i our own case, at least, I fear a num- 
of books are recommended by pro- 
>ors or others, and bought by the li- 
ry, which could not survive any such 
.. This naturally applies not so much 
lepartment books as to those of a gen- 
l nature, for in the last analysis the 
3her must be the judge of what he 
ds to help him in his work, 
econdly, we ought to save money I 
ik a considerable sum on our periodi- 
3. And here the saving effected by 
pping some from the list is a double 
; not only the subscription price, but 
cost of binding. I realize. that I am 
iding on dangerous ground in this mat- 
and that most professors would say to 
p all the books if necessary, but none 
the periodicals. And I could wish for 



enough space to elaborate my side of the 
question at some length, instead of touch- 
ing on it only briefly. For I believe it to 
be of real importance a thing that every 
college library must face and decide at 
some time or other. Here at Amherst we 
spent last year over 40 per cent of the in- 
come from our book funds on periodicals 
and their binding a proportion which I 
cannot believe to be justified. Is there 
not such a thing as a "periodical" habit, 
into which all of us, librarians and pro- 
fessors alike, are apt to fall? We keep 
periodicals on our lists because they have 
always been there were there before we 
came although on reflection we are sure 
that no one ever v uses them not even the 
professor at whose instance they were 
ordered. In the first place, of course, he 
expects to use them, sometime if not now. 
Or he is sure that he ought to that they 
would give him just the impetus he needs 
in his work. Or perhaps (and I should 
whisper this) he likes to have it known 
that the department is taking these things 
"couldn't get along without them." Now 
the periodical that cannot prove its right 
in terms of usefulness to be on the 
shelves of a college library has no place 
there. And the significance of this for us 
is the fact that in being there it is keep- 
ing something else out! What we spend 
for It, and for others like it, would en- 
able us to make at least a beginning on 
the acquisition of our synthetic research 
material. 

These are two of the ways in which it 
seems to me a librarian in sympathy with 
this movement could further it. Another, 
possibly worth mentioning, is to refrain 
from binding miscellaneous pamphlets and 
other unbound material, mostly presented 
to the library, and which we are apt to 
think may some day serve a purpose. Part 
of it may most of it can well be thrown 
away and the binding money saved. 

"But," you say, "even in the aggregate 
these things do not mean very much; per- 
haps one or two hundred dollars at the 
outside one or two or three research col- 
lections a year for your library." No, 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



they do not mean very much, by them- 
selves, or in the purchasing power of 
money they are instrumental in saving. 
But they stand for something definite and 
logical; they are indicative of a deter- 
mination on the part of an institution to 
get men of a certain type for its faculty, 
and to provide them with facilities for do- 
ing the broadest and biggest work possi- 
ble. I may be mistaken, but I am inclined 
to think such an institution could find 
more money as it needed more. And the 
librarian skillful in discovering ways and 
means would not be contented with his 
yearly appropriations, but would succeed 
in interesting trustees and friends of the 
college to a point where interest would be 
translated into deeds. 

Now there is, of course, another side to 
all this, and we should be short-sighted 
indeed not to recognize it. The college 
library which spent any considerable share 
of its funds for research material which 
really belongs only in the university li- 
brary would he. . - no means whatever of 
justifying itself .vould be worse off than 
an institution which had no research ma- 
terial whatever. How may we guard 
against this danger? I must take it for 
granted that the sort of teacher I have 
been considering would choose his re- 
search material wisely and with the right 
perspective. In case he failed to do this 
I should expect the librarian to tell him 
so. And back of the librarian should be 
a real library committee; so constituted 
as to represent the different departments 
as fairly as possible; having charge of 
the allotment of book funds; advising and 
helping the librarian in the shaping of 
the library's policy; the court of last re- 
sort when an expensive and somewhat 
doubtful set was being considered I can 
conceive of such a committee as being one 
of the greatest factors in the success of 
this whole undertaking. Let at least two 
types of teachers be selected for it. The 
one a man whose chief interest centers 
in the personal and human side of his 
students; who puts them first to the ex- 
tent that his work is with them rather than 



with books or scholarly endeavor. 1 
other the man I have defined as the s 
thetic research worker, broad in his sj 
pathies toward his students, but a n 
who realizes both the need of the age 
culture, and his own ability to contrib 
to it something worth while. By a fus 
of such types as these the rights of 
would be conserved the needs of all i 
so far as possible. 

Just a word more by way of summ; 
and I shall be through. 

I believe the book collection of the SL\ 
age college library is much below what 
might be in point of quality. A po 
ble way of changing this situation for 
better is to encourage members of 
faculty to do research work. This wo 
also result in a higher standard of tea 
ing or so at least all the teachers w 
whom I have talked assure me. It is : 
necessary to assume that research is 
sential to scholarship, but merely that 
adds something to a man's efficiency i 
power that can be gotten in no other w 
The college librarian, if he cares to, < 
play an important part in bringing th 
things about. 

You will doubtless find this schem 
represented here only in outline rat! 
idealistic, but so, I take it, are all e 
cational schemes. I can only hope t 
you will find also some soundness in 
theory some small addition to the c 
structive criticism of a condition whicl 
believe to be fundamentally wrong. 

Miss MINNIE E. SEARS, head catal 
er of the University of Minnesota libra 
presented a paper on 

CATALOGING FOR DEPARTMENT 
LIBRARIES 

Before beginning the discussion of < 
aloging for department libraries, let 
say that as it is a subject which is s 
in the experimental stage and not yet 
pable of generalization, the stateme: 
made in this paper are based, partly up 
information collected from certain univ 
sity libraries in which this problem is n 
being worked out, and partly on my o 



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KAATERSK1LL CONFERENCE 



experience in organizing the department 
catalogs of the University of Minnesota. 
The other libraries quoted are those of 
the University of Chicago, Columbia, Illi- 
nois, Johns Hopkins, Michigan, Missouri 
and Wisconsin. 

In considering the problem of cataloging 
for department libraries, we may start 
with a definition and an assumption. For 
the purpose of this discussion it may be 
said that a department library is not a 
mere handful of reference books on a sub- 
ject, but a more or less comprehensive col- 
lection of books on the subject shelved 
and used separately from the collections of 
the main library; and it may be assumed 
that the necessity for a separate catalog 
of such a collection is admitted by all. 

Assuming this, the first question that" 
presents itself is that of the form of the 
department catalog. Shall it be an author, 
a classed or a dictionary catalog, or, since 
in most cases the department library is 
a small open-shelf collection, will it suf- 
fice to have a shelf-list only, serving also 
as a classed catalog? The shelf-list would 
offer the simplest and cheapest solution 
of the difficulty, but the day when it was 
accepted as a solution of the entire prob- 
lem has passed. Not one of the libraries 
consulted suggests the shelf-list alone as 
a possible arrangement. An author cata- 
log, at least, is needed in addition, and the 
majority of these libraries report diction- 
ary catalogs in some of the department li- 
braries, if not in all. Chicago University 
is to provide for the department libraries 
outside of Harper building an author cat- 
alog and a shelf-list, where printed cards 
are available, and an author catalog only 
for the department libraries within Har- 
per building. Columbia, Michigan, Illinois 
and Minnesota have dictionary catalogs 
for all department libraries. Missouri has 
dictionary catalogs in 3, and Wisconsin in 
2 department libraries, while Johns Hop- 
kins is to have dictionary catalogs in all 
department libraries which are outside Its 
main building. 

A more difficult question is that of the 
scope of the catalog. How exhaustive is 



it possible, or even desirable, to make it? 
It must, of course, include all books in the 
department library itself, but shall it also 
record all books dealing with the same 
subject to be found elsewhere in the uni- 
versity? Such completeness of record 
would be the ideal arrangement, and 
would, undoubtedly, meet with the hearty 
approval of the university departments. 
But will not the cost be prohibitive to 
many libraries, even in this day of print- 
ed cards and multigraph? To be of val- 
ue, such elaborate cataloging should be 
done thoroughly and systematically and 
above all, once undertaken, should never 
be allowed to lapse, or confusion will be 
the result. The fuller information about 
related materials in other parts of the li- 
brary can always be obtained from the 
main library catalog, if that record is a 
union catalog of department libraries as 
well; and if the department librarian is 
in telephone communication with the ref- 
erence librarian at the main library, the in- 
formation can be obtained almost as quick- 
ly as if it were included in the department 
catalog. We may, therefore, conclude that 
the department catalog complete for its 
own library but not including related ma- 
terial in other libraries, is the most prac- 
ticable form under present conditions, al- 
though the ideal form is the more com- 
plete catalog which expense at present 
generally prohibits. 

The third point which our problem raises 
is that of variations in cataloging from 
the rules followed in the general library 
catalog. The first important variation 
which suggests itself as possible is in the 
treatment of analytics. Shall analytics be 
included in the department catalog, and 
if so, shall they be the same as those in 
the general catalog? On this point the 
practice of our eight libraries varies some- 
what. Chicago University is not planning 
to include any analytics in its department 
catalogs, and Johns Hopkins includes "only 
a few. Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota, 
in the main, duplicate for their department 
catalogs the analytics made for their main 
catalogs and, as a rule, include no addi- 



COLLEGE AND REFERENCE SECTION 



327 



tional analytics. The Columbia practice 
is more ambitious, as that library includes 
in its department catalog analytics (main- 
ly articles in periodicals) which are not 
included in its general catalog. An arti- 
cle in the Columbia University Quarterly 
for March, 1911, states that the depart- 
ment catalogs have analytics for all im- 
portant serials that bear upon the work 
of the departments whether shelved there 
or in the general library, that is, the de- 
partment library catalog attempts to serve 
both as catalog and index. These cards 
are intended for temporary use only, to 
be removed when the demand for them 
ceases. 

In most university libraries it would be 
impossible to keep up systematically such 
elaborate catalogs, and it is not clear that 
such indexing for it is indexing rather 
than cataloging would be desirable in all 
places. A catalog can never be made to 
take the place of a reference librarian, or 
of an intelligent use of the important an- 
nual and other subject indexes to the lit- 
erature of a subject, such as Psychological 
Index, the various Jahresberichte, etc. 
Moreover, every reference or department 
librarian naturally does more or less in the 
way of keeping up card indexes or bibli- 
ographies, which are frequently revised 
and the old material discarded as new 
and better material takes its place. Such 
reference indexes are simpler and more 
practical than serial analytics in a depart- 
ment catalog, since they do not call for 
expert revision and absolute uniformity of 
subject headings. On the whole, the tend- 
ency of present opinion and practice 
seems to be that important analytics which 
are useful in the general catalog are use- 
ful in the department catalog also, but that 
beyond that it is better to encourage the 
use of the printed indexes and the keeping 
of an informal reference index for material 
not yet included in the printed aids. 

A more important possibility of varia- 
tion, where the department catalog is dic- 
tionary in form, is found in subject head- 
ings. Will the same headings that are 
found satisfactory in the main library 



catalog serve equally well in the depart- 
ment catalog as used by specialists? Too 
much emphasis can not be laid upon the 
fact that any variation of this kind great- 
ly increases the cost of the cataloging, as 
the assigning and revision of two sets of 
subject headings, one for the general and 
one for the department catalog, will mean 
that that part of the work is greatly in- 
creased, though not doubled. The correct 
assignment of subject headings presents 
enough difficulties under any circum- 
stances, and the catalog supervisor should 
hesitate to multiply these unless there is 
strong reason for doing so. In libraries 
which have adopted the Library of Con- 
gress subject headings, those headings, 
with minor variations, will, for most sub- 
jects, be found satisfactory in the depart- 
ment as well as in the general catalog. Law 
will at once occur to all as a subject for 
which it may be desirable to run two sets 
of headings. We have done this at the 
University of Minnesota, using the spe- 
cial Library of Congress law headings in 
the department catalog, and the regular 
Library of Congress headings in the gen- 
eral catalog. A point to be carefully con- 
sidered in adopting more than one set of 
subject headings, moreover, is the possible 
confusion of mind that may be produced 
in the student, the exigencies of whose 
work require him to use more than one of 
the library catalogs. Such records are 
certainly much easier to use when there 
is uniformity of subject entries, and the 
adoption of several different sets of sub- 
ject headings will certainly cause confu- 
sion, even to members of the library staff, 
much more to students. 

After the questions of form, scope, and 
contents of the department catalog, comes 
the practical question of how best to get 
the work done. It can be done in either of 
two ways, by the regular cataloging force 
of the university or by the department li- 
brarians. In most university libraries the 
cataloging staff is small in comparison 
with the amount always to be done, and 
the work of keeping the general catalog 
up to date taxes all its powers, and leaves 



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no time for extra records such as de- 
partment catalogs. On the other hand, 
does not the department librarian have 
more or less time which, when properly 
arranged, could be given to cataloging un- 
der the direction of the head cataloger? 
We have found this to be the case at the 
University of Minnesota. Until three years 
ago our department libraries were all un- 
der the supervision of the various depart- 
ments, and hence in a more or less chaotic 
state. Some of these have not yet 
emerged from chaos. In these three years, 
however, we have evolved a system by 
which this work is done by the department 
librarians, or, in one case, by an assistant 
in the department library. It has so far 
proved a perfectly workable system for 
our given conditions. All the department 
librarians so far appointed have been either 
library school graduates or people with 
equivalent library training, and in addition 
to that, in some cases, with special knowl- 
edge of the subjects of the departments. 
One of the first duties of the department 
librarian, on taking charge of his library, 
has been to organize it, classifying and 
cataloging it under the supervision of the 
head of the catalog department, but doing 
the work in the department library. The 
question has been raised as to how the de- 
partment librarian could do the reference 
work and other work of his library, and at 
the same time catalog the department 
books for both the department and general 
catalog. Of course the cataloging will 
be intermittent and more or less inter- 
rupted, as our rule is that the work for 
the public must be done first. Until, how- 
ever, the books of a department library 
are in order and properly listed, no satis- 
factory reference work can be done with 
them. Our own experience has certainly 
been that the reference work of our de- 
partment librarians has been strengthened 
by their work of cataloging. The general 
library gains also from this work of the 
department librarian, as the latter does 
the cataloging of his books for the general 
catalog at the same time as that for the 
department catalog, and so the growth of 
\ 



the general library catalog is greatly pro- 
moted, without a corresponding tax upon 
the resources of the catalog department. In 
as far as possible the work is revised by 
the head cataloger or a reviser, in the de- 
partment library, but in some cases of 
difficult revision it has been found nec- 
essary to transfer the books to the catalog 
department for revision there. At pres- 
ent, whenever printed cards can not be 
obtained, all cards are actually made by 
the department librarian, but as soon as 
we are able to adopt the multigraph, rough 
copy only will be supplied by that assist- 
ant. 

After the department library has been 
thoroughly organized and cataloged, the 
department librarian goes on with the 
lighter task of cataloging the current 
accessions of his library for both the de- 
partment and the general catalog. 

Some of the advantages of thus having 
the work done by the trained department 
librarians are: 

1. It adds several workers to the cata- 
loging force of the library, and thus makes 
it possible to do much more in the way 
of providing needed departmental catalogs. 
This fact has been of great importance 
with us at the University of Minnesota, 
where, with the present cataloging force 
alone, it would have been impossible to 
provide these catalogs. Besides, there is 
the advantage to the general library of 
getting the cataloging of these same books 
done for the general catalog. 

2. The department librarian should 
have, and generally does have, special 
knowledge of his subject, which is of as- 
sistance in cataloging, especially in classi- 
fication and the assignment of subject 
headings. 

3. As the work is done in the depart- 
ment it is easy for the department libra- 
rian to consult the professors whenever 
necessary or desirable. 

4. There is a real advantage to the de- 
partment librarian in the added familiarity 
with the department books