THE UNIVERSITY v^^Ti^^^^/^^ >" $ * * j58&:<'\ j*H?VyKs __ k " * \5S TV y| " * - " '''^"^TTv^?- < ir *?^ : " -' >>.* i yissfe: * ?x' y ' ^^.v^Sk**** ^^*:^i^fe^S^ ^^ '4 /AviP -'<' f &jf&!k. i' : '$ic < ' : t&%^ ^^XM^^^^M SK%^OT !?*\ ;: ^'t*_ -*WX . ;>*>X., *"~ v^5*{ '* { ^^^r^ ' \' ^.' : ^^^ \ $l$$'i %' ^ x wj w^^^^^^-^:^^ ' * ' '&j* b- ''*%.%iv* * ^^ '*' " 4JV* t v ^-v%N.* * "'N ^33^^^ ^#y&l>5^ca ; - ^' &S /y''-*-8\ IT- w^.*" ^ W.\ v*.', v-5 '"': ' C^i->\ / .VJ5v<&> ^3CM$ i-'^^ll'^^ tPw%^ ff %^*MP ^JCt ^ffe^OSf^^ ^I^W'fM^^P in^lwf'^w^? r v ^*^^s^ ss^^^ jfe N ^^n wl^^^ ^ k ^t% 4 < r - iijt >!M>V " ~-^ \^s,^^ ^^^ ../--'Wk. ^fr~*. ^-**?^ oWf-^/.rif 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 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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. 162 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- 192 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 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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, 252 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- COUNCIL 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 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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 312 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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 326 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 328 KAATERSKILL CONFERENCE 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